#snowing where she is too . she said look into the sky my eye - line will reflect yours . she has a sword at the back of her leg. her lips

[ohniki]

𝜗𝜚 Beginning of Us || s.jy

~ Sypnosis: It’s only when you leave that you begin to realize you need them

~ Genre: strangers to friends to lovers, college au, fluff, angst, smut

~ Warnings: Smut!! oral (f. receiving), missionary, doggy, fingering, bathtub sex, breast fondling, tummy bulge, unprotected sex, soft sex, rough sex, slight sub jake, trust issues, they are very toxic for each other mentions of infidelity, Jake being a dumbass bf 😒, alcohol consumption, aussie line (skz) cameo, oc is soooo delulu, she doesn’t know better 🤦🏻‍♀️, bestie sunoo n heeseung 🥹, heartbreak (on many different occasions) 😞, oc js wants to be loved 💔 major angst THEY ARE TOXIC FOR EACH OTHER

• currently playing: if it’s not you by PRYVT

~ wc: 21.7k

It is the start of exam season; the snow is starting to fall from the sky, and it’s become cloudy most days. The walk from your dorm to your class was so cold that you had double-layered for today’s weather. On your way to class, you get pushed back by someone. Before you could turn around to scold whoever it was, he bolted.

“Fucking bitch” you muttered under your breath. You only got a glimpse of his brunette hair and red jacket. He was tall and had a lean figure, he’s not someone you’ve seen around campus. Picking your things up you make your way over to class. Days like these make you regret not taking online courses.

After class, you texted your best friend Sunoo to meet you for lunch. The café you entered was warm; unlike outside, you ordered yourself a hot chocolate to warm your body up. After you pick up your order you bump into someone for the second time today, Looking up you see it's the same man who bumped into you earlier. The burning sensation of the hot chocolate hits your skin through your jacket. “Fuck,” you whisper under your breath “Watch where you’re going, asshole!” The man turns to your standing frame and frantically grabs napkins from the counter. “Oh god, I’m so sorry.” His eyes go wide as he pushes the napkins into your hand “Please let me buy you another one, I’ll even buy you a new jacket”. The voice that comes from his lips takes you by surprise.

He has an Australian accent; It’s an accent you haven’t heard from around here before. The unfamiliar voice sends shivers down your spine. Raising your head from your jacket to the man standing in front of you, you find dark brown eyes looking into yours; ‘he’s so pretty’ you think. You have to pause for a moment to search your mind for something to say back to him.

“Please, buying me new clothes is unnecessary, but I would appreciate it if you bought me another drink. Just watch where you’re going next time,” you tell him

“Yeah, of course. What did you order? I’ll pay for it,” He begins to pull his wallet out to get ready to pay for his and your order.

“A hot chocolate” He walks over to the barista and orders.

After paying for the food he turns to you again and bows his head down, a look of shame spread across his handsome face. “Look I’m sorry again”

“It’s okay really. Stop with the apologies, buying my drink is enough”

“Order for Jake!” the barista calls out.

After getting your drink from the boy, Jake, speaks up again.

“Can I take you out to lunch? For one last apology?”

Before you can answer him your phone rings. The name read ‘Sunoo’.

“Maybe another time, Jake” You smile at him and answer your phone.

Catching sight of Sunoo as you walk into the restaurant, Sunoo looks up from his phone and waves you down.

“Hey! Why are you so late I thought we said 12:30,” he says in a sassy tone.

“Something happened at the café I was at. Some guy bumped into me, and I spilled my drink all over myself. He ended up paying for it, but he asked me to lunch. I kinda told him no because I was already on my way to see your ass and I already had plans.” You explained the whole ordeal that had gone down.

“Was he cute?” he asked

“He was” You smile down at your fidgeting hands.

“He had an accent too; I don’t think he’s from around here,” you think out loud.

Sunoo looks at you with a dumbfounded face “Yeah, no shit Sherlock, of course, he’s not from around here. Who else have you met with an Australian accent around here” he rolls his eyes playfully.

You laugh at him. He begins to talk about how his day had gone so far. “Oh my god, Heeseung is driving me insane.” He talks about his roommate. “He’s been blasting his speaker so loud with his goddamn guitar while I’m studying for my thousands of upcoming tests.” He speaks with a sarcastic tone. “Sometimes I wish I said no to being roommates with him” Sunoo and Heeseung were the first friends you made at the new high school you went to during your senior year.

Being friends with them for a handful of time was like having a party every day. They’d drag you out of your house to get you away from studying and keep your mind off school for a while.

“Why don’t you tell him to shut up? It works when I do it” you shrug at him.

He tilts his head up and sighs. “It only works because it’s you, he always listens to you but not me” he gives a side-eye.

“Then I can’t help you there buddy” You ruffle his hair. 

Thankfully, today your schedule was free. Your shift at the library didn’t start until one o’clock this afternoon so you were stuck studying for the rest of your tests you had coming up. It was only ten, and you called up Sunoo and Heeseung and asked if you could stay at their place until you had to go to work. Of course, they agreed and you made your way over.

The frost in the air hits your skin as you walk out of your apartment. The sky was gloomy, but the sun peeked through just a bit. Gloomy days always make you feel cozy. They made you want to stay inside and curl up in your blanket. But today you needed to be productive; you had shit to get done.

Walking up the stairs to their dorm you already had a spare key they gave you “in case of an emergency” as they said. You unlock the door and hear the obnoxious noise Sunoo was talking about, Heeseung’s electric guitar. When you walk in Sunoo is sitting on the floor working on top of the coffee table in front of the T.V. He was wearing a thick hoodie due to the cold air blowing through their room.

“Hey,” you shouted over the loudspeaker.

“Finally! Can you please tell him to turn off the speaker and shut the fuck up? I can’t fail this semester, or it’ll be the end of me.” Nodding your head at him you stomp your way to Heeseung’s room.

“HEESEUNG” you yell as loud as you can. He hears nothing. Too focused on his guitar you walk up to the plug of his speaker and unplug it.

“Hey!” before realizing that it’s you his expression changes.

“Oh, hi ___” he smiles at you.

Sunoo walks in behind you next to the door.

“Oh so, you listen to her and not me? You’re such a little shit.” He whips his head and walks back to the living room.

You snicker at him.

“We are trying to study. And you should be too, don’t you have exams coming up next week?” you ask.

“Yeah, but I wanted to practice playing a little before I started.”

You walk up to him and drag him by his arm to where Sunoo is waiting for you.

“Well practice is over, hurry and get your things. I’ll help you.” He sits down beside you and pouts as he takes his books from under the coffee table.

It’s been about two hours since you started your study session. It was almost time for you to leave for work.

“Okay, now that you know the formula for this make it into a simplified equation”

Heeseung looks at you with confusion written all over his face.

“Are you kidding me right now, Hee, we’ve been over this for the past hour how do you still not get it.” you deadpan.

“Because he doesn’t have a brain” Sunoo butts in.

You sigh heavily as you start to collect your things. Sunoo looks up at you and begs “No! Don’t leave me here with him. If you do, I’ll fail my exams because I’ve lost brain cells listening to him talk about nonsense.” You look down at where he’s sitting, and you laugh at him

“You’ll be fine, if anything come by the library and study there. I’ll be in until six. And you too.” you point a finger at Heeseung.

“We have books in there that will help with your exam,” you tell him.

“Alright, fine if you’re working tomorrow, we’ll swing by,” Heeseung says.

“Good. I’ll see you guys tomorrow then!”

You put your shoes on and your coat closing the door behind you. You make your way to the library.

“I hate you” Sunoo stares at Heeseung.

It’s getting closer to the time you’re supposed to clock in. Making it just a few minutes early you go through the door, and you’re hit with a gust of warm air. The library was packed with students. Now that it was getting closer to exam time, this was the busiest time in the library.

As you make your way behind the desk you meet with someone already sitting in your seat.  It’s the same head of brunette hair you bumped into a few days ago. Walking towards him, he catches you from the corner of his eye and smiles at you. 

“Hey” you smile at him

“Oh, hey. Sorry, I didn’t mean to stay this long for overtime” he apologizes.

“It seems every time we meet you’re always apologizing for something.” you chuckle

“Yeah, sorry about that” you laugh at him this time.

“No, it’s okay. It’s cute” At that he smiles. His cheeks are rosy from the blush.

 “So, when did you start working here?” you ask him to make conversation.

“I started working here a few days ago actually” You get distracted by his accent. There was something about you and your accents. You had always found them attractive. And his face? God, he was so pretty; you couldn’t take your eyes off him. Shaking out of your daydreams you snap back to reality.

“Oh, so that’s why I haven’t seen you around here,” you say curiously

“Yeah, I just transferred here from Australia. I had better opportunities here.”

“Ah, I see. How do you like it so far over here?” you ask him. You had never met a foreigner before; he seemed like an interesting person to you and you wanted to know more about him.

“Did you move here with your family or are you on your own?” you look at him. He speaks to you while holding eye contact.

“No, I’m not alone actually. Her name is Layla. I brought her with me, so I wasn’t by myself.” Your heart sinks a little. You expected him to be single since he offered to take you out for lunch.

Curiously you ask, “How long have you been with her?”

“Ever since she was born,” he says

What? Is he? No.

“I’m sorry what?” caught off guard you ask him “What do you mean since birth”

He looks at you and laughs “She’s my dog. I’ve had her since she was a puppy”

Your eyes widen. How embarrassing, of course, he has a dog named Layla. You laugh loudly at your mistake

“Oh my god, I thought... ugh this is so embarrassing.”

“Nothing to be embarrassed about” he shakes his head slightly and reassures you

“What about you? Do you have any pets?”

“No, I don’t” you chuckle

“I do have two best friends though, Sunoo and Heeseung”

“They’re guys?” he gives you a look that makes you feel slightly off, but you shake it off.

“Yep! I take care of them, make sure they’re doing well.” You say sarcastically. “They’re my best friends. They’re like my older brothers, they look out for me, you know?”

The conversation flows as you continue to talk to him. You don’t notice the time flying by when you look out the window near the front desk. Your eyes graze over to the clock and it’s already past the time you were supposed to clock out.

Hastily collecting your things and pushing the chairs in as you stand up and walk over to the lights. “Sorry, I spent so much time talking about myself I didn’t even notice the time passed by” you chuckle nervously.

“No, don’t apologize. I enjoyed spending my time with you. Plus, barely anyone walked through the door today. Helped pass the time”

When you smile up at him your cheeks flush with red. Eyes rising to look at him up close made you realize how handsome he was. You notice his prominent cheekbones when he smiles. And the glow in his eyes in the light of the lamp next to the desk.

Checking back into reality, you both make sure everything is shut off before leaving.

“I think we should head out now, it’s getting pretty late, and I have an early class tomorrow.”

“Yeah, me too,” he says softly. He bends down to pick up his bag from the floor. Jake throws it over his shoulders and turns the last light out on the desk.

As you make your way through the door you’re hit with the cool breeze of December air. You turn to Jake and look up into his eyes. The moonlight hits him just right. Highlighting his prominent cheekbones and his bright brown eyes. It’s quiet for a moment. You don’t realize how close you have gotten to him. Breaths inches apart. Your eyes glide down to his lips for a second before you catch his eyes again. 

“So, I’ll see you on Wednesday then?” a smile slowly appearing across his face.

“Yeah, I’ll see you”

You nod your head and head back to your dorm. He regrets not asking for your number that night.

Your morning was off to a horrendous start; you had woken up late and ended up being late to class for about thirty minutes. The lecture was an hour long, so you still had time to get some information out of it. You had been so tired the night before you had overslept and missed your alarm.

Rushing out of your door, you had forgotten to prepare your breakfast the night before. There was no time to stop now. When you walk through the door of the auditorium the door slams shut behind you and all eyes are on you. Embarrassingly walking over to your seat the professor calls for your name, “Please if you’re going to be late, try to do it quietly. I don’t need you distracting my students” Bowing your head slightly your ears turn red out of embarrassment. 

You silently walk past a few students with your head down. Jake discreetly looks at you from one of the seats closer to the top. He smiles at the way you cover your face as you look for a seat. Finally, you sit down and listen to what's left of the lesson.

Walking out of class, you hear heavy footsteps from behind you. Your name comes out of someone’s mouth and you look over your shoulder to find the culprit.

“Hey,” Jake puts his arm around your shoulder.

Looking up at him, he has a smile on his face as he looks down at you.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you if you wanted to hang out, you know, outside of work?”

Your face lights up at the suggestion. He takes notice of the bright glimmer in your eyes. Moving your head down you laugh lightly and tuck your hair behind your ear

“Yeah, sure. I’d like that” turning your head up to look at him. 

“Okay great, are you free this afternoon? For lunch?” he asks

You pause to think about the mental calendar you have set in your head. 

“Uhm, let me check”

Not recalling any texts or calls from Sunoo you smile up at him 

“Yes, I can do this afternoon,” you say to him.

He smiles to himself; he can hear his heart beating in his head. The adrenaline pumps through his veins as he thinks about things he can do to spend his time with you. 

“Okay, cool. I’ll see you around twelve?”

“Yeah”

“Meet me at the coffee shop near the science building,” he finally decides as he slowly moves his arm from your shoulder. You nod your head and make your way to your next class as you part ways. When you stop in your step you realize you don’t have his number. Before you could call out for his name he had already disappeared to class. You’ll just have to wait for him to show up.

It was nearing lunchtime; some students had already left campus. After walking out of class your feet guide you to the coffee shop Jake had told you to meet him at. Today’s weather was nicer than most days. It was sunny outside but still somewhat cold. Turning the corner of the building you see the coffee shop, but no sign of Jake.

When you stand outside many people walk past you. It was now 12:20. You turn around from where you’re standing and that’s when you see Jake running around the corner. Slowing down his pace you realize he is out of breath from running. 

“I’m sorry I’m late,” he says catching his breath. You stare at him as you wait for him to explain.

“Professor had me stay in to help him sort out some documents and I didn’t pay attention to the time, and I didn’t have your number to text you”

Deciding to let him off the hook you chuckle lightly and place a hand over his shoulder to reassure him.

“It’s okay, I was planning on asking for your number when you asked me out today, but you were gone before I could even ask you,” you tell him softly.

“Sorry about that too, I was going to ask you that day at the library, but I chickened out,” he admits

“Well give me your phone, so we have some sort of communication when we're not together” You hold your hand out for him. He pulls his phone out and hands it to you.

When you hand it back to him, he reads your name with a butterfly emoji. Smiling down at his phone he hears your phone ding with an unknown number. You save it as Jake’s number.

“There, now if we need something we can call or text each other!” you say with enthusiasm

He shakes his head at you and guides you into the café. You walk in and find a seat to sit at, Jake ends up pulling your chair out at the table near the window. Thanking him you place your jacket on the back of your seat and he takes his seat, and you spark up the conversation.

“How are your classes so far? Have the professors given you a hard time?” you ask him. He waits to respond, thinking about his answer.

“They’ve been a bit stressful; I just think it’s because I’ve transferred so late into the year. And the professors? They’re just like every other professor, assign way too many assignments and look like they don’t want to be there.”

You laugh at that.

“What about you? Are you from around this area?” He asks you the question this time.

“I’m originally from Cali, I applied for college over here because I’ve always wanted to explore Korea,” you tell him.

“One of my friends had told me about his trip here and it sounded like he had so much fun,”

“Ah, well both of my parents are from here.” He explains. “I wanted to get to know more of where I come from. They moved us over to Australia when I was about five years old” Thinking about his hometown, he begins to miss his mom’s homemade food and his old hometown friends.

“I’ve wanted to travel to a bunch of places. I just never found the time.”

He begins to go on about the exciting places he wishes to adventure. You spend most of your afternoon with him. You’re starting to enjoy spending your time with him and you end up asking him to hang out again the next day.

As you walk out of the café the cold air hits you once again.

“I have to get going for my next class. But if you’re free, do you maybe, wanna hang out again tomorrow?”

“Yeah, yeah I’d like that.” he smiles at you

“Okay great! I’ll see you around the same time as today, then?”

“Yes, and I’ll make sure to make it on time” Laughing at him you nod your head.

“Bye, Jake”

You walk away and make your way over to class.

Exams were getting closer, but on the brighter side winter break was just around the corner. You and Jake had been hanging out a lot more since that day he asked you out to lunch. Your shift at the library started and you had Sunoo and Heeseung stick around to study one last time. Heeseung agreed–against his will, to tag along but he’d much rather practice his guitar skills than be at the stupid library studying for exams.

Jake told you he wouldn’t be in today because he had to sort some things out in one of his professors’ classes. You agreed to take on double the time in his place.

Sunoo and Heeseung sat at the table near the front desk where you were sitting. You were talking about classes when Sunoo suddenly brought up Jake’s name.

“What’s going on between you two?” he asked

“Nothing, we're just friends,” you say nonchalantly 

“Ah I see, and paying for everything and asking you out every single day is being ‘just friends’, sure”

“Sunoo, you’re being delusional. He’s just being a nice person”

“Whatever you say” he raises his eyebrows and shrugs his shoulders.

“I mean he’s cute, but I don’t think we’d become a thing; I met him not even a month ago,” you say as you add the last things to your notes.

It’s been hours since any of you spoke; focusing hard on your studies. The door opens as a gust of cold air is pushed your way. You look up to see who it is. Jake stood there, wearing his puffer; and his messy brunette hair sticking out in places due to the wind.

He walks over to your seat and greets you. He puts a hand on your back and sits down in the chair next to you. Sunoo and Heeseung watch the whole interaction.

“Hey,” he smiles. Taking you by surprise, he brought you dinner. “What’s this?” he places the brown bag down next to you on the desk, placing his arm around the back of your chair.  You look up at Sunoo as he’s eyeing you, waiting for you to introduce them. Giving you a look that says, ‘Just friends?’. You shake your head and focus your attention on them.

“Jake this is Sunoo and Heeseung. The best friends I told you about.” you move your hand gesturing to them.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you guys. I’m Jake.” he holds his hand out for them to shake.

“I know who you are.” Sunoo smiles at him and puts his hand under his chin.

Jake slowly pulls his hand back and laughs under his breath

“I’ve heard quite a lot about you actually” he looks over at you and grins. You roll your eyes at your best friend.

“I’m Heeseung. It’s nice to meet you too” he says politely smiling at him; unlike Sunoo 

Bringing your attention down to your phone next to you you realize the time. It’s starting to get late, and you want to be in your bed and snuggle into your blanket considering the cold weather. Gathering your stuff, you excuse yourself.

“Wow, look at the time. It’s getting late. You guys should get going too, don’t you have early classes Hee?” you ask

Heeseung nods his head at you and picks up his books. Then, he stuffs them in his backpack.

“And thank you for the dinner, Jake. It was sweet of you.” When you smile at him you notice a subtle blush growing on his cheeks. He rubs the back of his head and smiles back at you.

“It was no big deal. But why don’t I walk you home? I don’t want you out this late at night alone.”

Agreeing to his proposal you pick your things up and bid farewell to your friends.

Just as you’re about to turn around you see a shit-eating grin on Sunoo’s face, you turn to flip him off and make your way out of the door. Jake holds it open for you and a few other people behind you leaving the library. With the final person out, you make your way over to your dorm.

The walk is silent for a while. Jake takes in a deep breath, takes the wheel, and guides the flow of a conversation “Your friends seem nice. I like Heeseung. I mean we barely said a sentence to each other, but he seems nice.” he says. And then he brings up the blabbermouth.

“And Sunoo? Was it? He said he’s heard a lot about me?” he says with a smirk on his lips.

“Do you talk about me?” He brings it up again. You start to feel the embarrassment creep up from your chest to your face. You can feel your ears start to warm up as they go unnoticeably red. Your hands go up to cover them, Jake stares at you for a moment as you walk.

“Hmm?” you pretend to think

“I don’t think I talk about you THAT often” you laugh it off

“But you do happen to come up in a sum of conversations”

“Sure” he leaves it at that. Nearing the building of your dorm, Jake stops as you get closer to the entrance.

“Well this is my stop” You tilt your head to look at his features smiling at him

“And, thank you for walking me home; and for the dinner” You lift the bag.

“I told you it’s no big deal. I enjoyed my time walking with you. To be completely honest I enjoyed every time I’ve spent with you.” he pauses to think about what to say to you next.

“I’m less alone than I thought I’d be since I met you”

This makes you blush; hard. The feeling in your stomach is making feel things. Like butterflies erupted in your tummy. You felt a sense of pride after hearing him say that about you. Your heart, rapidly thumping in your chest.

“I’m glad I was the person you bumped into that day or else I would’ve been stuck with Sunoo and Heeseung” You roll your eyes playfully.

“Oh c’mon, they can’t be that bad”

“Please, try being with them 24/7 for four years. It’s like I’m babysitting two toddlers”

He laughs at that. He starts to feel the same way you do after he sees your smile. It's not your normal smile. It’s that big bright smile you show when you’re belly laughing. He finds it so adorable he could just kiss you. And he might just do that. Because you see him lean in after you’ve calmed down from your high of laughter. Looking up at him you finally realize what he’s doing.

And you do nothing to stop it, you’re already leaning into him too. When you close your eyes, you feel his soft lips against yours. The kiss is soft and gentle. He feels your smile against him, teeth clashing, and it causes him to do the same as well. Jake’s hand is placed in your hair and the other is placed on your neck. The butterflies have made their way to your chest.

This feeling ignites something new in you. A feeling you haven’t felt in a while. Finally, pulling apart, he leans his forehead against yours and stays there for a minute before he says something.

He chuckles under his breath and says “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that” You giggle into his chest and place a small peck on his lips. When opens his eyes he feels you pull back from him. “Thank you again for tonight. Text me when you get home, safely” you tell him as you walk backward to the door.

“Goodnight Jake”

He stands there still in shock about what had just occurred. Not believing he had just had his first kiss with you. After registering what you had said, he nods his head and turns around.

“Goodnight,” he says under his breath.

Today is full of exams, right after today is the start of your freedom. You called Sunoo and Heeseung over to help them study for one last and final time. When you hear Sunoo’s knock on the door you walk over to your door and open it for them.

“Did you guys fuck?” is the first thing he says to you. Unbelievable.  You shake your head at him and push him into your room.

“Jeez Sunoo, let the girl breathe. You were just ambushing her with questions about him yesterday. When is it enough?!” he exclaimed.

Sunoo and you pause for a minute and look at each other. Then, you both burst into laughter at your friend’s outburst. Heeseung gives you both an annoyed look as they both walk into the living room. Sunoo waits patiently for you to spill your guts on what happened between you and the boy. As per his request, you explain and finally spew what had happened.

“We kissed”

“I knew something happened between you two!” He starts jumping around the room, his hands balled into a fist out of excitement

“Okay calm down, you’re acting like they’re getting married,” Heeseung says.

You go to sit next to Heeseung pull your laptop out of its bag and begin studying. Sunoo finally calmed down, he walked into the kitchen to get snacks for the time being

It’s been over an hour since the boys came over. Your phone suddenly rings and when you turn it over to see who was calling; Jake’s name appears on the screen. 

“Hey, are you doing anything right now?”

You look back at your friends, they seem to be occupied with their work. You stand up from your seat and walk to the kitchen. Making sure Sunoo wouldn’t eavesdrop on your conversation

“No, I’m not doing anything, why?” you ask curiously

“Great, do you wanna hang out?”

A smile starts to spread across your face when you feel that same feeling you felt the other night erupt in your stomach.

“Yeah, just give me a few minutes and text me when you’re here”

By the time you're finished getting ready, Sunoo looks up at you with a confused look.

“And where are you going?”

“Out”

“Out where?” he raises one of his eyebrows

“With Jake?”

You stay quiet, and you start to feel a smile creep on your face.

When your phone dings with a notification, your heartbeat picks up. The text read ‘I’m here’.

“Bye, guys!” 

“Wait-” Before you could let him continue his sentence you close the door and walk down the stairs to Jake.

When you walk out the door you can see Jake standing next to the bench near the door, on his phone, patiently waiting for you to emerge from your dorm. Your last exam started around late afternoon; you had the time to spend with Jake. Neither of you had discussed what happened between the two of you the night before.

When you open the door Jake can feel his heartbeat speed up at the thought of you. Turning, he’s face to face with you now before he can stop himself, he has his arms wrapped around your waist. He barely pulls away and your faces are so close your lips are touching. You lean in, peck his lips in a quick action, and smile.

“Hi,” you say quietly

You look so adorable. Your cheeks have gotten red due to the cold outside. He smiles at you pulls away and grabs your hand walking beside you.

“So where are we going?” you ask curiously looking up at him

Without answering he smiles and takes the lead.

“It’s a surprise,” he says with a smirk on his face

“What do you mean surprise?” you ask. An unsure smile appears on your lips

“Trust me, hmm?” Taking a deep breath and taking a leap of faith in trusting him. Walking over to his car he opens the door for you. Thanking him he closes the door and walks over to the driver's seat.

It’s been about an hour since Jake picked you up from your dorm, and you end up in the middle of a gorgeous cherry magnolia tree. The white petals slowly fall from the branch. There’s a bridge leading up to a forest of them you gasp out loud bringing your hands up to your mouth and letting go of his. Walking across the bridge you take in the sight of the white flowers growing on the branches. This has to be the most beautiful thing you’ve ever come across. Turning back to Jake, you ask him “How do you know about this place? It’s so pretty, I didn’t even know this was here”

He looks around at the trees and makes you wait for a response

“I don’t know, had a couple of friends help me pick out a place you’d like. Plus I did do a little bit of digging. And by digging I mean I asked Sunoo what your favorite flower was”

At the mention of his friends, you think back and rack your brain, trying to remember if Jake ever mentioned any of his friends. Now realizing you’ve never met any of them. Remembering Sunoo mentioning this place, he wanted to visit sometime over winter break. You smile at the thought of Jake going to your friend for advice.

Caught up in your thoughts you don’t notice when Jake walks up behind you. A shiver runs up your spine when you feel his warm hands run along your waist, softly digging his face into the crook of your neck. Taking in the scent of strawberries, and looking around at the trees; you can’t get enough of how pretty the trees are during this time.

They must be even prettier during the springtime, you think. Fallen magnolia flowers pile near a bench, you walk over and take a seat pulling Jake by his hand to follow you. He pulled out his phone opened the camera app and snuck a few snaps of you. You looked so beautiful to him that he couldn’t resist, he set a reminder in his head to add it to your contact. Watching you made him feel so many things; things he’s never felt before for someone.

When you look back at him you pause for a moment, the look on his face makes you blush. Unconsciously he slowly leans into you faces close so close you can feel his cold breath against his, foreheads touching, finally lips touching. The taste of your sweet lips on his makes him burst with warmth.

The feeling of his soft lip against yours makes your tummy do summersaults, and your body feels immune to the cold as the warmth radiating from his body makes you feel like you are sitting next to a fire. Slowly, pulling away his big brown eyes look into yours. Crinkled at the corners as you smile at him. Breathing in you begin to question what your situation is now

Do you put a label on it? Are you guys boyfriend and girlfriend? Does he think this is just you ‘fooling around’? All those questions disappear when you speak up

“So what does this mean for us?” you ask

“Will you be mine?”

Finally, after waiting for so long. Nodding your head in response a big smile forms on your precious lips and you throw your arms around him. Feeling nothing but joy and happiness at this moment you get to share with your boyfriend

With finals out of the way and winter break starting Jake was over at your place for hours on end. Intimacy has been out of the picture for quite some time now. You wanted to see where this would go first. He took you out on dates around the city and he would even drive you out of town to show you some places he had seen while mindlessly scrolling on Tiktok and wanted to take you there.

Sitting on the couch with your boyfriend you both agreed to stay in today and put on traditional Christmas movies. Your head lay on his chest while his hands settled on your lower back. His hoodie was covering his long brunette hair, and his glasses over his features. In the small silence of the room with the movie quietly playing in the back, Jake starts to move his hands lower. Your hands end up moving up to his neck as you look up at him and scoot closer, you're face to face with him. Faces inches apart you slowly move your way closer to him. Your lips land on his and you move into a slow kiss. His soft lips melt into yours.

Moving his tongue between your lips for access; you grant him what he needs. The room is filled with the smacking of your lips. Sitting up Jake pulls you over his hips and he places his hands on your ass and squeezes.  You let out a small whine when his cold hands make their way under the thin sweater you wore and make contact with your warm skin.

As he moves his hands upwards, the sweater starts to ride up your stomach making its way over your head the sweater is left on the floor now. Letting out a small gasp as your perked nipples come in contact with the cold air. Jake leans down and places his lips over your chest, the sensation makes you wet. You grind your hips over his hard-on; his loud groan filling the room.

Moaning into your chest, he kisses his way up over your neck. He stays there for a while, sucking and licking. You can feel your panties getting wetter from his actions he flips you over throws his glasses off onto the table, and lifts his hoodie off over his head. The sight of his abs makes you rub your thighs together to relieve the ache between them. Jake hooks his fingers on the waistband of your pants and pulls them down. Not before he asks, “You sure you want this?”

“Please, Jake. I need you so bad”

This turns him into a madman. He tears your pants off along with your soiled panties. He makes fast movements, bringing his fingers down to your heat and glides them through your folds.

“All this for me baby? Did I do this to you? So fucking needy you have your panties drenched for me? Huh, darling?”

“Only for you” you moan as his thumb comes in contact with your clit. Whimpering lowly, Jake makes his way down kissing your stomach, he stops at your pelvis. He looks up at you with his lower lip hanging low, jawline so fine he can through the tension between the two of you. He takes in the sight of your fucked out expression and moves his head under the blanket you shared.

He kisses your thighs and hooks his arms around them his lips hovered over yours, gripping his hair, needy for him. Finally, he digs his face into your sopping cunt, his tongue finds your clit and slowly he draws slow circles, teasing you.

“Jake, please”

“Be patient, baby. I swear I’ll make you feel so good”

Trusting his word, you let him do his thing. His tongue glides through your pussy making you quiver. Pulling your hips closer to his face, making sure you don’t move. Eating you out like it’s his last meal he rapidly flicks his tongue over your clit, your thighs shaking beside him from the pleasure. The sloppy sound of your pussy is the only sound in the room, the sound of the TV blocked out by the pleasure. Moving your hand up to your soft tit, you roll your nipple between your fingers moaning his name, not giving a care if you are too loud or not.

“Ugh, Jake you make me feel so good”

Gripping his hair hard you start to feel the burning sensation in your lower stomach. Chasing after your orgasm you start to blank, forgetting your own name his digits find your entrance. Dwelling in the feeling of your wet cunt against his lips he slowly enters you. Whines spew from your throat as you arch your back, looking down at him. Taking in the sight of his tongue repeatedly lap your cunt.  You bite your lip so hard you think you're bleeding. Letting out a loud gasp you pull him up by his hair and bring him back to you; kissing his lips, you can taste yourself on his tongue.

“I need your cock, so bad” you say softly

Pulling away from you he pulls his sweats down along with his boxers. Impatient, he pulls his throbbing cock out teasing it against your entrance. Swollen, dripping, red tip, needy for your cunt.

“Do you have a condom?”

“I’m on the pill, it’s okay.”

Leaning in and giving you a sweet peck against your lips he sinks in slowly. His pace is slow at first, letting you adjust to him. You can feel every inch of him sinking in, getting deeper with his slow motions. His hands are on either side of your head holding himself steady. Finally, he bottoms out. Slowly but surely picking up his pace, you can feel every vein rub against your aching walls. Slamming his hips into yours, your back arches into him, head tilted back as you moan his name out, forgetting everything in your mind as you solely focus your attention on the pleasure. As he's moving in and out, he kisses you roughly. Teeth clashing against each other; the rough sounds of his hips pushing into yours make you feel that same sensation you had felt minutes ago.

Jake lays his face in the crook of your neck and kisses your collarbone. “Who’s making you feel so good, huh? Say my name, baby c’mon” he whispers into your ear. The feeling of you wrapped around him makes him pick up his pace at an animalistic speed. Never wanting to stop, he brings his thumb down and rubs against your clit, and for the second time tonight, you reach your high. You go lightheaded, seeing stars once again, and you whine as you reach your climax.

Three final thrusts, he pulls out and finishes on your stomach. Looking down you swipe your finger against his come and bring it up to your mouth. Sucking on your finger he pulls it away and kisses you.

You wake up the next day and lay in your bed. You had a t-shirt thrown over you with a fresh set of panties. You turn to your side to find your boyfriend peacefully sleeping. Moving your arm over his shoulder he places a hand on your wrist and kisses it. Sleepy eyes looking at you; he rolls you over and places his face on your neck.

“Good morning,” he says with a sleepy voice

“Hi, baby,” you say back to him.

Looking at the clock it read 10:00 am. You both had  nowhere to be so you decide to stay in bed for a little while longer.

“How’d you sleep last night? I hope my bed was comfortable enough” you say

“It was plenty” he smiles with his eyes closed

Humming you go to walk over to the bathroom but you feel a tug on your arm. You land on his chest and he wraps his arm around you.

“Stay in bed for just a little while longer, love”

Now, finally out of bed. You and Jake made breakfast together but he soon had to go. He made plans with a friend he made while at the library. “My friend’s planning on throwing a Christmas party to celebrate the end of exams and the beginning of winter break,” his mouth still full of pancake. “You wanna come with me? You can even bring Heeseung and Sunoo along, too” Only thinking about it, Heeseung isn’t big on partying. Maybe you should ask Sunoo if he wants to go, you’re sure he doesn't have any plans. Swallowing what's left of your breakfast you perk up in your chair and give him your final decision. 

“Yeah, I’ll text Sunoo and ask if he wants to go” he picks up his and your plate and walks it over to the sink to wash them. “Okay, great! The party starts at 8, I’ll pick you up around 7:30” he explains as he puts away the now-washed plate next to the drying rack by the sink. Walking over to pick up his jacket hanging from the back of his chair he leans down and pecks you on your forehead. You rise from your seat and walk him out to the front door. When he’s done putting on his shoes you place a hand on his shoulder and rise on your tiptoes to place a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. But he moves in for a proper kiss. “I’ll see you later” Waving your hand goodbye, you watch him disappear around the corner.

With your dorm void of your boyfriend, you decide to call up Sunoo to come over. Heeseung was out of town visiting his family for the holidays so it was just him in the dorm. The phone rings three times before he picks up.

“Hello?”

“Sunoo, are you doing anything right now?” you play with your hair as you talk to him

“Nothing. Why?”

“You wanna hang out today at my place? I’m bored. It takes him a few seconds until he responds.

“Okay I’ll be over in a few”

Sitting in silence with a movie playing in the background you suddenly say “We fucked”

Sunoo is left speechless, which confuses you because ever since you have mentioned Jake all he can talk about is if you’ve gotten dicked down yet. His mouth is hung open as he tries to process what you just said. After a few minutes of silence from him, he finally yells into the air and jumps around the room like a bunny rabbit. “Oh my God! All of a sudden?! Tell me everything!” you begin to explain the whole story to him. From your date to the magnolia trees to him asking you to be his girlfriend. Talking about makes you feel all giddy all over again. Sunoo, being your best friend and all, was so unbelievably happy for you.

You would need to tell Heeseung when he got back, but knowing Sunoo he would probably tell him right when he returned to their dorm. Thinking back on everything that’s happened to you in the past months has you feeling blessed. Jake has made you feel things you haven’t felt in a long time. But, sometimes you’d like to think everything is going so well. But what do they always say? There’s always a calm before the storm, is it?

“Hey, honey” your mother called you over the phone

“Hi what’s up?” placing your phone on your vanity as you touched up your makeup

Today was the party that Jake had told you about a few days ago. From what you heard from Jake, the party wasn’t supposed to be big. Just close friends of his and maybe a few other guests. You asked Sunoo if he wanted to come but long story short he had already made plans the day of but he also didn’t feel like third wheeling. He would be at his parent’s house anyway for the holidays.

“Are you coming over for Christmas? We miss you over here” From the tone of her voice you can imagine a pout forming on her lips

“Yes, Mom I already told Dad that I’d drive down to the airport and take the first flight out” You had missed your parents dearly, when you told them you wanted to go to school down in Seoul they supported you 100%. The flight from Korea to your hometown was a long way away. You were a bit disappointed that Jake wouldn’t be joining you, but understandingly he had told you that he already made plans to fly out to see his parents in Australia. 

Guessing you would just have to wait you’d till you were both back to exchange gifts. 

“Okay, Niyah misses you too she won’t stop asking for her Cuddle” ‘Cuddle’ was a name your niece gave you because she wasn’t able to say your name. Cuddle just stuck and she’s been calling you that ever since. “Tell her I’ll be back soon and that I miss her too” Smiling at the thought of your baby niece. 

“I need to go Mom. I’ll call you when I board the plane, I love you” 

“Okay be safe, I love you too” 

Your phone beeps indicating of the voice call ending. Music starts to vibrate through your room again after your abrupt phone call from your mother as you stand from your desk and walk over to your closet. Before you can look through your closet for something to wear for the party a knock is heard from the front door. Jake stands on the other side of the door with his hands behind his back waiting for you patiently to let him. 

A small “Hi, baby” comes from your mouth as you softly lean yourself against him. He places a hand behind your head and leans down, pecking your lips. “Hi, my love”

Stepping to the side you walk back to your room as he follows you. He walks over to your bed and lays down. Placing his hands behind his head as if he were relaxing in paradise. 

“Jake” you call out for his attention. Standing in front of your closet once again you pull out two dresses. A red satin dress and a simple black one

“Hm?” he says with raised eyebrows.

“Which one looks better? The black one or the red one? I can’t decide” you ask him. He looks back and forth between you and the dresses. Turning to the mirror you put both of the dresses up to your body. The ruffling of sheets can be heard behind you. You can see Jake push himself off the bed and walk towards you

Jake sneaks his hands on your waist and looks at you in the mirror. “You look good in anything, baby. But maybe the black one. I think it suits you better than the red one.” he tells you. You turn in his arms raising your arms to wrap around his neck. His sleeves are rolled up to his elbows and he squeezes around your waist. Tilting your head back you look at him his smiling face looks down at you, his eyes searching over your soft features. 

He leans in to kiss your forehead, then down your nose, and then your lips. “Okay” Detaching your body from his, you walk to your closet to put the red dress away and put on the black one Jake had chosen.

 Jake is waiting outside in your living room as you finish up the last of your makeup and making sure you look presentable; this is your first time meeting his friends. When you walk out of your room, he looks up to the sound of your door closing and watches you in awe. You look stunning, stopping his heart for a second with the way you look tonight. A radiating smile glows on his face as he can’t seem to take his eyes off you.

He walks closer to you and stands there admiring your form. Completely breathtaking. Inching closer to you he can’t hold himself back from touching you. Slowly wrapping your arms around his waist as his hands come up to cup your cheeks.

“What?” you laugh

He softly pulls you in for a soft kiss. It’s slow and comforting, never failing to make your heart stop at every little touch. He pulls away and breathes in your scent. “You look so beautiful, darling.” Maybe you shouldn’t have added blush while you were doing your makeup. Your face was completely flush by the warmth of your dorm and the warmth he brings you every time he compliments you.

“Let’s get going now” he holds your hand and leads you to the front door. But not before you pick up your bag and you coat.

When you pull up to the party, there are a lot more people than you were told. It was more like a house party. Walking through the door, loud music was bumping through the air,  sweaty bodies were being pushed up against one another.

Jake’s holding onto your hand making sure he doesn’t lose you in the crowd of people. “Let’s go to the kitchen, you want something to drink?” he yells over the music. Barely making out what he had said you nod your head at him and let him take the lead.

You don’t see many familiar faces around. Maybe some of the students you see at your lectures but that’s it. When you walk into the kitchen, Jake makes out a few familiar faces and walks over to them. He greets the many friends that he made over the past few weeks. “Hey, man,” his friend said leaning in for a hug. His eyes make their way over to you and scans you up and down. He points at you and says “Who’s this” with a smile on his face.

“Ah, guys. This is my girlfriend” he tells them your name and introduces you. “This is Chan, Jay, and Felix” He points to the one who couldn’t take his eyes away from you, Jay, and you nod your head at them as a greeting.

“It’s nice to meet you all,” you say

Jay speaks up and looks at you as if he knows you. “We have the same afternoon class, right? You always sit in that same seat up in the front,” he says with a smirk. “Yeah, I think we do. But I don’t think I have ever seen you” He makes a face as if you’ve shot him the heart “Oof, well to be fair I do keep to myself a lot” 

“I’m always sat in the back. We should sit together, it’s nice to know I’ll have someone in that class that I know” Jake watches the whole interaction. He clenches his jaw as he sees the way Jay keeps looking at you up and down. You haven’t noticed it as you continue to laugh at what he says.

“Yeah, we should. I don’t know a lot of people in that class so it’s nice to know that I know at least one person”

You feel Jake’s hand pull you closer to him by your waist. You look up at him to see his irritated expression. You place a hand on his cheek and turn his head to you. “What’s the matter, baby?” His jaw is locked as he has an iron grip on you “Let’s go to the living room”

He guides you to one of the couches with heavy music blaring in your ears. He takes his seat and places you on his lap. Wrapping your arm around his neck he digs his face into the crook of your neck. You can feel his lips skin over your skin, and you feel goosebumps all over. “Are you okay” you whisper into his ear for only him to hear.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Looking into your eyes they scan over your face and land on your soft lips. He turns his head to deepen the kiss and he slips his tongue through your lips. Breathing in your flowery scent his hands glide down to your ass, pushing lightly on his chest so he could let you go. You realize you’re in public with other people around. Looking at your surroundings your eyes randomly fall in line with Jay. His eyes were already on you, Jake follows your line of sight and catches Jay looking at the both of you. He pushes you off him softly and excuses himself. “I need a drink,” he says in an almost growl. Chasing after him you place a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Wait, are you mad at me?” you say in a small voice. He only shakes his head and cups your cheeks. “No, I’m not mad at you baby. I’m just a little tired. You know I’ve been a bit stressed, having to pack and plan out all my stuff to visit my family tomorrow.” You know when he’s lying, but not wanting to fight any further, you listen to him. “Why don’t we go home then huh? We can go back to my place?”

Nodding his head at your suggestion he places his hand on your lower back to guide you to the exit. Before you can make it past the door, Jay stops you and wraps his arm around Jake’s shoulder. “Leaving already,” he says “The party just started” Jake shoves his arm off and rolls his shoulder. “Look, man, I’m not in the mood right now, so why don’t you just fuck off and leave us alone” Irritation can be heard in his tone, his brows furrowed, jaw clenched. This is the angriest he’s been around you.

Thinking back to his tone, you begin to realize how rude he was. When you walk out the door you walk a few steps behind your boyfriend as you try to keep up with him you run up to him and clasp your hand with his, but he immediately pulls back. What the fuck was with him? Did you do something to upset him? You couldn’t have, he told you nothing was wrong He looks down at you with an angry look on his face. “I’m not in the mood right now. Can we just go to your apartment?”

Nodding your head lowly you begin to walk in silence

When you walk through the door to your dorm Jake walks in behind you. It’s silent on his end, not a word coming from his mouth. He places his coat on your desk chair and sits on your bed on his phone. The vibe is off in the room that you can feel the tension seep in between the two of you. You don’t like it; you despise sitting in silence not knowing how to bring up what happened at the party. Taking a seat in front of him where your desk chair is you look at him until he looks up from his phone and at you.

Your arms are folded over each other on the back of the chair as you lay your chin over them. “Baby,” you say in a small pout. He hums in response his attention focused on his phone. This action only infuriates you. You tug on his arm and he looks up at you with an irritated expression his eyebrows furrowed.

“Hey, what’s the matter with you why are you so mad?”

“I’m not mad, what are you talking about”

You stand and you can feel your blood start to boil. The atmosphere of the room makes you feel unsettled.

“What am I talking about? What the fuck are you talking about Jake? I’m not the one that has a problem here”

“Neither do I!” he shouts back at you. Now he’s starting to irritate you.

“You do, what the hell is bothering you so much that you’re yelling at me?!” The room starts to feel hot, and the feeling in your stomach makes you want to hurl. You don’t like fighting with Jake. You hate this feeling rising in your chest. You have never fought with Jake before. It would only be about small things like who left the sink on or who didn’t close the refrigerator door. 

“At the party,” finally you get an answer out of him. “Are you s out of this world to see that Jay was eyeing you all night and he was clearly flirting with you” What? What is he talking about? Yes, you saw him glance over to you for a second but you completely ignored him. It’s the first time fighting with him and it’s over something completely stupid. Was he jealous?

“No, I did not see him looking at me because I was solely focused on you the whole night. I’ve had my attention on you because why would I even bat an eye at him when I’m with you?! That doesn’t make any sense to me Jake” It takes you a while to figure out what was going on. Jake couldn’t let go of the fact that Jay was looking at you the whole night.

“Are you seriously jealous right now? I was trying to get along with your friends. Nothing even went on but a small conversation between two people and you’re seriously jealous,” The tone in your voice is raised and you can feel your blood boil up your skin. Jake turns and picks his jacket off your chair walking away from the conversation. You can practically see steam coming out from his ears.

“Look, I can’t do this right now. I need to get my stuff together before tomorrow.” he says

“Oh! So you’re walking out is what you’re doing. You’re not even willing to talk this out?” 

“Yes, I am. I cannot argue with you, my head is pounding and I just can’t deal with this. I need to leave” he says sternly

“Merry Christmas” he walks out the door leaving nothing behind. You can hear your heart shatter in your ears. The door slamming behind you, Jake walks out the door along with your heart.

“Merry Christmas to you too,” you say softly under your breath

When you see your family again you feel everything disappear from the night before for a moment. You haven’t spoke to Jake since he walked out on you last night. Not a single phone call or text from him. The feeling of no contact from him sets an uneasy feeling in your stomach.

The day after Christmas your sister, Mia, walks into your old room and takes a seat at the foot of your bed.

“What’s wrong?” you look up at her. Her face has a look of sorrow. You hadn’t been that obvious, had you? That fight shouldn’t have affected you as much as it did. You’ve only been going out for a little less than a month. So why do you feel so distraught?

“Nothing, why?” you respond to her.

“Well, you’ve been a little quiet since you came home a few days ago and you’ve been kind of down. Did something happen?”

It takes you a moment to collect your thoughts. Thinking back to the argument you and Jake had, you about the things that he said and you realize how stupid this whole argument is. Another thing you realize is that your family does not know that you have a boyfriend.

“Um, I haven’t told anyone yet because I know if I did Mom would freak the fuck out and make a whole scene about it and I’m trying to get away from drama at the moment.”

Mia furrows her brows in confusion and thinks about the things you’ve talked about since you got back.

“What did you not tell us?”

You’re laid on your side on your bed facing away from your sister you reply softly in a small voice “I have a boyfriend”. You say it in an almost whisper she almost doesn’t catch it the first time. “You have a what!”

Sitting up from your bed frantically you put a hand over her mouth and shush her. “Be quiet! I told you mom doesn’t know yet and I don’t wanna tell her until later”

A smile creeps up on her lips and she starts to scream. She quickly lowers her tone when she realizes just how loud she’s being. “Oh my God, what’s his name? How did you guys meet? How long have you been together? OH! Did you guys do it yet?”

Her constant questions get you to burst out laughing. You miss when you were able to tell her everything that goes on in your life. But that changed when you went off to college and she started working and started a family.

“Oh god, Mia, calm down please. I’ll tell you everything later. But right now I’m kinda in a rough situation.” You continue to explain the whole argument to your sister and she sits and listens to you.

“Is he a fucking idiot? Does he not trust you enough to know that you only have eyes for him? Look, if he doesn’t come up to you and try to resolve the issue between you two is he worth pining for? Is he worth your tears and your energy?” Before you can respond to her she cuts you off before you can get your first word out

“No, I didn’t think so. Think about it babe you’ve only been dating this guy for how long and he’s already messed up because of something stupid,” 

“I know, but what I feel for him is real. It’s so real to me that it scares me how much I care about him” You can feel tears well up behind your eyes. Thinking this deeply about your feelings toward Jake makes you realize how much of a constant he has become in your life. You don’t remember living life before you met him. And that scares you.

“I want this to work out for us. I’ve never felt this way for someone before. He makes me feel so happy,” This comes out in a small voice. You have never been this genuinely happy with someone before

A beat of silence passes as Mia tries to accumulate her words. She sighs and places a hand on your shoulder. “Babe, I just want what’s best for you, you know that. If you think waiting for him is the right thing to do, then wait. If he ever hurts you and makes you unhappy I swear to God call me and I’m bringing my ass down there to kick his” Laughing with tears in your eyes you pull her in for a tight hug.

“I will, I love you”

“I love you too, sis”

The drive back from the airport to your dorm was awful. Cars piling on the road from coming home from holiday ended in unbearable traffic. You had caught a cold from your niece and the weather didn’t help with your symptoms either. Sunoo offered to pick you up, but you declined his offer because Jake had said that he would be picking you up from the airport. Now you are starting to regret your decisions. You hadn’t heard from him in a while. Before the argument he had told you he was coming back the day before you. So, you had some hopes of meeting him when you first arrived home. But to your dismay, you were met with an empty drop-off area and baggage claim. You had to lug around your suitcases until you finally found an Uber driver.

When you reach your dorm, you’re met with a bouquet of magnolias lying next to your door. Dropping your bags on the floor you pick up the flowers in search of a note. It looks like it’s been here for a while. Some of the pedals are a bit wilted but still pretty, nonetheless. A small white piece of paper is found in the middle of the beautiful flowers. Putting your hand in to fetch it out you unravel it and read what was displayed.

My baby, I’m sorry for what happened before we parted. I was being immature, and I wasn’t thinking straight. I’m sorry for ruining your Christmas and not checking up on you. Just know that I was thinking about you during the time we couldn’t spend together I just felt so guilty for the way I acted I felt I didn’t deserve to talk to you yet. I’m ready to talk whenever you want to

Please call or text me when you get these. I’m sorry.

-       Jake

The words written on the piece of paper pull on your heartstrings. You truly did miss him. He went through the trouble of buying you flowers and writing a note? Opening the front door to your dorm you pull your things in along with the flowers inside. Your heart nearly jumps from your chest when you hear rustling come from your desk. The body perks up and turns to face you. Jake had been sitting there since the day he came back from his hometown, waiting for you to come back home to him. He stands there taking in your presence. He had missed you, so much. Slowly walking over to you, not sure whether he’s allowed to touch you.

The tension between you seems to have dissipated from the time you’ve been apart. It’s quiet. Waiting for him to speak up. Waiting for him to apologize for what he’s done. Waiting for him. Dreading the days to see him again and reconcile your damaged feelings.  Finally, after what felt like hours but in reality were only a few seconds. Jake finally pulls you in bear hugging you tightly as if he hasn’t seen you in years. He buries his face into the crook of your neck and inhales your scent. Oh, how he’s missed you. His arms tighten around your waist when you slowly bring your hands up to his shoulders.

“I missed you, love” he whispers into your cold skin. You sniffle due to your cold but also due to the tears you feel once again. The touch of his breath against your skin makes chills run up and down your body. You had been pining for him for days now. Finally, in the arms of your lover, you begin to feel a bit at ease. But you still felt uneasy not talking about the issue that has occurred between the two of you.

“I’ve missed you too,” you say in barely a whisper. He pulls away and he stays close to you. His hands are on your elbows, and he looks down at you. His brows slightly fall when he hears your nazely voice. He places his warm hand over your burning skin. “Did you catch a cold?” he says in a worried voice. Moving your hands, wrapping them around his wrist you calm down his worries. “Yes, but I’m fine. Nothing but hot soup will cure me” you say with a small smile on your face. 

After, getting changed into more comfortable and clean clothes Jake wraps you in your blanket on your bed and sits by your side as he nurses you back to health. 

“Did you see my note?” His head down in shame as he waits for your answer. You only nod your head in response. He’s playing with the sleeve of your sweater and looks back up at you again. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry I acted the way I did. I was being stupid, and I had alcohol in my system and I was thinking straight.’ It’s silent before you say anything. Thinking about what to say to his apology you look up at him and try to read his expression.

You could see the sorrow in his eyes; those cute puppy dog eyes that you’re so used to seeing everyday. He had a look of defeat on his features. You’ve never seen this side of him, this vulnerable side of him. Speaking up you say, “Jake that doesn’t give you the right to assume things about me. Do you not trust me?” he interrupts you in the middle of your speech. “I do trust you, my love. I just don’t trust him.”

“Baby, the only person you should be trusting is me, okay? I’m your girlfriend. I’m the one you should be trusting, not him. For us to work there needs to be trust between the both of us. If you can’t do that then there is no us.”

This makes his heartbeat pick up. Of course, he trusts you. But the way that Jay had kept his eyes on you the whole night just made him so angry that he started to blame you for reasons that he didn’t quite understand. He wants so badly for this to work out between you two. You’re impossibly the best thing that’s happened to him since he moved here.

Frantically, his grip on your sleeve becomes a bit tighter. Like he’s scared if he doesn’t hold on tight enough you’ll dissipate into thin air “I do trust you, baby, believe me I do. Okay. Can we please just forget this whole thing? Will you accept my apology? I miss you.” he moves his hands up from your wrist gently grazing your neck until they land on your cheeks. The look in his eye is now desperate. He needs you in his life, just like you he can’t recall living his life before he met you. He can’t screw up now. Finally, nodding your head he smiles that big smile that he always sports and pulls you in for a kiss.

Finally, things are back to the way they were for now.

Classes have started up again but thankfully your professors have taken it easy on you. The downside of this new schedule is that you haven’t gotten to spend as much time with Jake as you had before. With his schedule being completely different from yours you always manage to find time for him. He told you he was going to start being a better boyfriend for you ever since that fight. Often you would come home to takeout on your front door handle with a little note that he would write for you.

It was nice coming home to little things from him. The only times you got to spend time together was when he would come over when the both of you had a clear schedule. That time spent with him was your favorite.

Sitting at your desk, you hear keys jingle at your door. You gave Jake a spare key to your room whenever he felt like coming over, to save you the trouble of having to get up from your desk and answering the door yourself. At this point, he was living with you. He spent most of his time at your dorm while you were at classes and barely any time was spent at his. He had made your home his home. You would sometimes come home to him snuggled in your blanket asleep. Of course, Layla was cuddle next to him

You can hear his footsteps from behind you as you work on your laptop. Feeling his hands wrap around your shoulders and his face leaning into the side of yours, you can feel your heart rate pick up. Everything has gone so well between the two of you. It almost seems unreal.

He pecks you on your cheek and snuggles himself into your side.

“What are you doing, love”, turning your head to face him, you smile deeply at him and peck his lips. Moving your attention back to your laptop you reply back to him “Working on this midterm paper. Classes have been so hectic I barely have time to take a break.” Upon hearing this Jake reaches his hand over to the screen of your laptop and shuts it closed, you turn to him with a look of confusion.

“What are you doing?”

“Giving you a break” A small grin placed on his face, and he brings his face closer to yours. He places his soft lips against yours and moves in slowly. His hand is under your jaw caressing softly. He pulls away and looks into your wide eyes. “I’m gonna draw you a bath relax a bit baby you’ve been working hard for the past few weeks I haven’t seen you step away from your work once. How does that sound?” he tells you softly. “ You’re right, hmm. That sounds amazing thank you, baby”

He turns and makes his way to your bathroom. You hear the faucet of the bathtub begin to run. Jake’s phone was left next to where you were sitting and it’s only then that you hear it buzzing with a notification and your heart sinks for a moment. The name read ‘Amelia’ honestly, the only friends you have on campus are your best friends and Jake. You have never heard of this name before. Even in your lecture halls you have never once heard of this person. The name doesn’t ring a bell. But in order to also make a relationship work you need privacy, so that’s what you do. You ignore the constant buzzing of his phone and walk over to the bathroom where Jake is waiting for you

The sound of the water sloshing and the steaming bathroom make you feel warm inside. Jake’s sitting at the edge of the tub waiting for you to finish up in the other room. Your hand falls to the hem of your shirt and you slowly glide the fabric up your torso. Next, your sweats fall along with your panties. Jake sits as he watches you undress yourself. He can feel himself grow hard and his pants become unbearably tight. He suddenly stands up and takes long strides walking over to you. His hands land on your naked waist and you look up at him and bring your hands to the clasp of your bra. Finally undoing it Jake’s eyes fall to your soft breast. Nipples perking as your chest is hit with the slightly cold air in the room. You can see the drool fall from his lips.

“Why don’t you join me?” you raise a brow at him; teasing him. Immediately he tears his shirt and pants off as he guides you to the tub. Lifting his leg to get in first, he takes your hand softly and guides you on top of his lap. You can feel his hard cock against your thigh. His arms wrap around your middle, and you can feel his lift place soft kisses on your shoulder. His right arm manages to take hold of your tit and the other slowly glides down to where you need him the most.

His hand grazes your thigh and you shiver at the touch. The kiss on your neck makes you sigh out in lust. You have never needed him so badly; completely forgetting everything that’s happened in the last twenty minutes. Finally, his finger makes contact with your clit rubbing figure eights. Whimpering his name in a low breath makes him even more wired.

“Yeah, baby? You like that? Huh?” He says into your ear. Licking up to your jawline his plants kisses just beneath your ear and back down to your neck. The wet muscle circles as he sucks and bites with his teeth. Placing a love bite on your skin leaving a mark. His finger enters you slowly; you let out a low moan out of pleasure. His speed begins to pick up as he adds in another. Pleasure building in the pit of your stomach. His right arm moves across your chest, so your tits are pushed up against it.

 “Oh my god, Jake. You make me feel so fucking good” You moan into his ear. With that, he turns you so you’re facing him now. “Fuck I can’t. I need to be inside of you” His hand wraps around his cock. The tip is red and throbbing you can see his veins. Stroking it once, twice, he teases at your entrance. The sloshing of the water is the only sound heard in the bathroom from your squirming. Sliding his cock between your folds; you look down at where you connect and moan his name. “Please, I need you in me. Need you to cum in me, Jake, please” you beg for him.

At this, manhandling you so your turned to him. Chest against his and he finally enters you. The stretch of his cock has you whining from how good he feels. The feeling of him inside of you has you starstruck. You’ll never get used to the way it makes you feel. His hand finds the bottom of your ass and he moves you up slowly. Your hands wrap around his shoulders as you dig your face into his neck. “Move. Please” you plead into his burning skin

“If you say so,” he says in a teasing voice. He bounces you on his cock and he meets you halfway. You bite onto his shoulder to muffle your sounds. You get enough noise complaints from the students in the building, you don’t need another one. The pace is fast, and animalistic, you can feel him prod deeply into you. He can feel himself in your stomach. He brings your hand to where he can feel himself inside of you.

“You feel that baby? So fucking deep in you I can feel myself” Moaning louder you can feel the burn build up in your tummy. Your thighs begin to burn and your hold on his shoulders become tighter. You feel yourself cum all over his cock. And with three last thrusts, he paints your walls in white as he finishes inside of you.

Sitting in silence, catching your breaths and coming down from your highs his hold on your waist tightens as he lifts you from the tub and grabs a towel to clean you off. His cock softens inside of you; you moan at the loss of being connected to him. Jake walks you to the bed and lays you down. He places a small kiss on your neck and tells you, “I’ll be right back” You smile at him and watch him walk away. But you see him grab his phone and look at it.

The unfamiliar name drags you back to that feeling from earlier.

Heeseung was back from his trip, and he invited you over to catch up on recent events of each others lives. Being apart from your best friends made you realize how much you’ve missed them. You sat on the couch as he was getting something ready in the kitchen. “Hey, how was the trip?” you ask him. He walks back with a tray in his hand and places it in front of you. It was an assortment of snacks he had brought back from his hometown.

“It was good, Lina’s doing good. I haven’t seen her in so long I missed her so much.” Lina, Heeseung’s girlfriend of almost a year, they met through you. She had asked about your friend and wanted to know if he was single. You put them on a date and, bam, they’re in a long serious relationship! Simple as that. It’s good to hear that she’s doing good. You hadn’t seen her in so long.

“Ahh, I miss her too. I haven’t talked to her since the last time I saw her. That was probably before summer break this year.”

Heeseung changes the subject to you now. “So, what’s up with you? How’s your family? I know you haven’t seen them in a while either.”

“They’re great. I got to see baby Aria again. She’s grown so much and she's walking now” You smile thinking about your niece.

Your phone suddenly buzzes with a notification from Sunoo.

Sunoo: Hey, wya rn?

Me: At ur place why? Did something happen?

Sunoo: Meet me at the café in 5 min

The serious texts makes your heart beat pick up. What happened? Did something happen to him?  You look up to Heeseung and his focus is on the TV now. “Hee, I gotta go. Sunoo said he needs me for something” you tell him.

“Oh okay, what happened” He watches as you rise from your seat and collect you things to leave. 

“I don’t know he won’t tell me. I’ll talk to you later” bending down to peck his cheek you place your bag over your shoulder and leave through the door. Hoping nothing bad has happened to your friend

After almost crashing a dozen times you make your way to the entrance of the café. Sunoo is sitting at one of the tables in the back waiting for you. He has a drink next to him and your usual next to the seat that’s supposed to be yours.

“Hey,” you greet him. He looks up at you with a look you can’t explain.

“So are you gonna explain to me what’s going on or what, your text earlier scared the shit out of me and I’m still a little on edge so can you please hurry and explain what the hell is going on” you say with a faux small on your face

“Hey, I’m sorry if I freaked you out but I need to tell you something.” He pulls his phone out from his back pocket and shows you a picture. You can feel your heart stop to your stomach. The color completely drains from your face as your shaky hands reach out to take ahold of his phone.

Displayed on the screen is a picture of Jake, with his hand on a girl’s waist, and they seem close to each other. You scroll, and there’s yet another picture of them. He’s smiling at her, and his face is close to hers nearly lips touching. The tears that swell in your eyes threaten to spill out. You can barely make out words to say. Completely in shock of what you see. It’s your boyfriend and a girl that isn’t you in his arms. You want to scream at the world for being so blind to this. You want so badly to hit something. You need to get out of here

There’s no way. He said that he was going to be better, and he said that he wanted to make this work. How could he betray you like this?

You stand from your seat abruptly making the chair squeak against the floor. Eyes fall on you as you quickly grab your things.

“Sunoo, I need to go,” you say in a small voice. He nods in understanding, and you rush towards your car. You look down at your phone and see his name pop up on your screen. ‘Hey baby wya? I miss you.’ the text reads. This only makes you angrier. You need to calm down before you crash and get into an accident.

The next thing you know your at his apartment complex. You walk up the stairs and storm into his living space. Jake jolts in surprise and looks at you. Fiery in your eyes you make your way to him and push at his shoulders, hard. “How could you? You said you were going to be better. You said that you wanted this to work” You pushed him again. “Why would you do this to me?” your lungs begin to burn from the constant yelling. Pushing him after each word your tears falling from your eyes. The pounding of your heart is heard in your ears. You’re screaming at the top of his lungs waiting for him to explain.

“Baby, what are you talking about?” He takes hold of your wrist trying to calm you down. Again, pushing him away you retaliate and keep your distance from him. His act only pushes you to the edge “I saw the pictures, Jake. I’m not fucking stupid” He can feel his heart drop when he finally realizes what you’re talking about. “I can explain”

“No, what is there to explain? I could see how close you were to her and the way you held her. You’re supposed to hold me like that. Not anyone else!” you yell at him. Hurt and anger are laced in your voice. “I need to get out of here,” you say in a quiet tone. Digging your hands in your hair, frustrated with yourself, with Jake. He tries to reach out to you, but you only push him away.

“Don’t touch me,” Pushing him back harder he stumbles back. You make your way to the door and walk back to your car. It’s silent. Unleashing the pent-up emotions inside of you; you sob into your hands. Your head begins to ache because of how much you cry. Your head hits against the wheel as you begin to shake from anger. You’ve never hurt this much. All your love was wasted into something, someone that wasn’t willing to give you that same love back.

The feeling of your phone buzzing in your pocket grabs your attention. Lifting your head you pat your pockets searching for the device you turn the screen over to read the name of the incoming voice call. “__?” 

“Sunoo” you sob his name out 

“Can I come over?”

It’s been a few weeks since you last spoke to Jake. Your phone has been blowing up with texts and calls from him. Telling you how sorry he is; that he  needs to talk to you and that he messed up. You can’t bear the thought of talking to him face to face. Thinking about him hearts you as much as he already has. Sunoo and Heeseung drop in every other day, taking turns to make sure you were okay and you were eating properly. It hasn’t gotten easier, but you still managed to get out of bed and get to class.

As usual, you almost end up falling asleep in class from the sleepless nights. It’s not until you feel a tap on your shoulder that you perk up. Turning around you met face-to-face with a familiar face. Jay? Was that his name? You can’t be bothr to remember the face of the one person that started the argument between you and your ex-boyfriend. His chin is lying on his arms resting on the back of your chair. “Hey,” he says in a whisper, trying to keep his voice low. Rolling your eyes you look away and try to focus your attention back on the lesson. Without realizing the time class was over. 

Heavy footsteps could be heard from behind you. Jay appears on your side and he places a hand on your shoulder. “What’s wrong? Did something happen between you and your boyfriend” Looking at his face makes you feel disgusted. Only reminding you of one of the worse times in your relationship. 

“Hey, hey, hey” placing his hands in front of you to stop you in your tracks. From the corner of his eye, he can see Jake, throwing daggers at him. Jay looks down at you and pulls you in. His lips barely touch you before you shove him away. “What the fuck, Jay?!” Before Jay could look back to see Jake, he had already fled. “What? It’s not bad to switch it up sometimes. Plus I heard that you’re not with Jake anymore. You know, moving on is a natural thing to do after you break up with someone” he says with a smug look on his face. “Fuck off asshole” 

Shoving his shoulder as you walk past him. Tears start to stream down your eyes as you pick up your steps through the halls to make it to the library. You had a shift today after school. When you walk through the door you half expect Jake to be there. Seeing his usual seat empty your hopes are crushed. You forget why you’re even in the situation that you are in with him for a moment. Everything begins to come rushing back. The girl texting him things a girl shouldn’t be texting a guy in a relationship. You can’t even begin to see him the same way you used to see him. 

Pushing everything to the back of your head you sit down and wait for people to come up to the desk and help them out. Hours after your shift started Jake walks through the doors, with a neutral look on his face. Not with that usual happy look on his face radiating joy. You haven’t communicated in any way for weeks. He walks over to his usual spot. He only looks at you for a split second before he looks over to the manager, fixing the used books on a cart. 

“Hey, um, Jungha, can I talk to you for a second?” With a shake of his head, he motions his head to follow him to the door behind the desk. Following him with your eyes, you begin to wonder when your shift ends. Being stuck here with him for the next two hours is going to be hell. You called in sick for about two weeks. Jungha was nice enough about it and let you off and give yourself some time to heal. About 15 minutes later, Jake walks out of the room but he doesn’t stop at his usual chair next to you, no, he walks to the door and leaves. What? Did he take the day off or something? You shouldn’t care about what he’s doing with his life, but you do. How can you not? You were in love with him. You still are. Holding back your tears you turn your attention back to your work. Your phone vibrates next to you, Sunoo texts you asking if you want to come over. You look over at the clock and realize just how much time has passed. Your shift was ending in a few minutes. Texting Sunoo back, you collect your things and shut down a bit earlier today. You walk out the door and call Sunoo to tell him you’re on your way.

Jake hadn’t come into work for the last couple of days. You had secretly been waiting for him to walk through the door but his cute puppy dog-like eyes haven’t made their appearance yet. Lazing around at your desk with your head held in your head and making little doodles on the piece of paper in front of you. Jungha catches sight of your dull expression and he places a gentle hand on your shoulder. 

“I need to tell you something.” This gets you to perk up. Did something happen to him? “Uh, I know that you guys were together and he told me not to say anything to you but you were going to eventually figure out eventually why he isn’t here anymore.” he pauses. 

“The reason why he wanted to talk the other day was because,” he takes the seat next to you and looks down at his hands. “He said that he wanted to quit. He couldn’t sit here for hours knowing that you guys wouldn’t talk. And just to let you know these are his words not mine. He also said he couldn’t stand the fact that he wouldn’t enjoy being here knowing that you were angry with him.” All this new information brings new emotions. Did he quit because of you? If anything it should have been you who should have quit. 

“Oh” is all you say. What else are you supposed to say? You don’t want to seem pathetic for crying over your ex-boyfriend in front of your manager, that would be too embarrassing for your own good. You shake your head and get back to drawing your little doodles. Trying to distract yourself the best you could. You couldn't handle the thought of not seeing Jake anymore at work. Not seeing him at all.

At the end of your shift, you make your way to Sunoo and Heeseung’s place. You can’t bear the thought of being alone for the night; you need the comfort of your best friends. You open the door with one of the spare keys they had given you when they first bought the place. To Heeseung’s surprise, you make your way over to him on the couch and plop yourself down face-first on the other couch. “Hey,” he says with his furrowed brows. Placing a gentle hand to the back of your head.

“You okay?” Sitting up properly you shake your head. After hearing all the noise from the living room Sunoo emerges from his room and finds you sitting on his couch. “I don’t remember inviting you over” He says in a joking manner. You look over to the voice of your best friend. “Stop acting like you don’t love having me over” He rolls his eyes and walks to the kitchen to grab a snack. 

“How do you feel today? You look even more down than you do most days. Did something happen?” He speaks from behind the fridge. You wait for him to turn the corner so you don’t have to yell. You don’t want them to get a noise complaint because of the shouting. “Jake quit at the library because of me,” you say blankly. Some silence passes and Sunoo shoots from his seat on the couch. “Is he out of his goddamn mind? Why did he quit? It should have been you who should have quit not the other way around. What the hell? He wants to die because I swear to God the last thing he’ll see is my fist in his face” 

Looking at him with your jaw slack after the long rant you just witnessed. “What the hell are you looking at? I’m being so real right now. What makes him think he needs the time away from you after what he did to you,” The room goes silent. The only sound reverberating through the room is the TV playing the back. Heeseung sits watching the scene, completely in awe of the way that Sunoo is acting. And then out of the silence, Heeseung bursts out laughing. Then you’re in tears of laughter. Sunoo looks at the two of you like you’re the ones that are crazy. “Look I’m just stating facts if he wants to be a little pussy then he can be one but I won’t have my best friend looking dumb because of some guy that she met not that long ago.” This catches you off guard. Sure Sunoo never genuinely liked Jake.

But he tried his best for you. Because he wanted what was best for you. But this was drawing the line. “What are you talking about Sunoo? Do you have any idea how happy I was when I was with him?” you begin to argue. The laughter has far died down. “Yes, I understand that but look at the condition he left you in,” he exclaims. “For fucks sake you had to take two weeks off of work because of that asshole. You weren’t eating properly, fuck you weren’t even taking proper care of youself” You’re left speechless. You want to believe that there is still something there. Even after everything that’s happened, you still have hope. “Maybe I should just talk to him about it because he never even gave me an explanation because I walked away” Raising from your seat you walk towards the door.

“I just want what’s best for you” Sunoo speaks from behind you. “I need you to completely understand what you’re getting yourself into. I don’t want you to walk into a toxic factory and get yourself stuck in something you can’t get yourself out of” This tugs at your heart. You know that Sunoo talks from his heart, he’s only looking out for you. 

“I love you so much Sunoo, but I know if I don’t do this and get the closure I need I’ll eventually lose my mind” The only thing he can do now is shake his head. “Okay, if anything happens call me” His steps are slow and he takes you in his arms for a tight hug. You shake your head and agree to call him. You wave at Heeseung and make your way out of their dorm. 

Your next destination is your ex-boyfriend. 

Jake was lying on his bed scrolling through new job listings. He needs to somehow find a way to provide for himself. A soft knock is heard from the front door. It was nearing almost midnight, he furrows his brows and pushes himself off his bed. Who could be knocking at his door at this hour? There, you stand with a confident look on your face, hair wet from the pouring rain. “__?” You can see his tired eyes his phone clutched in his hand. “What the hell are you doing here” the anger in his voice brews confusion in your head. 

“I need talk to you” you say in a stern voice 

“There’s nothing to talk about. I need you to leave” He slowly begins to close the door in your face but you refuse. Moving your hand forward you place in front of the door. Your legs have a mind of it’s own as you push past him into his apartment.

“What are you doing? There’s nothing to talk about” 

“There’s everything to talk about Jake,” you exclaim. How can he say this? Your phone has non-stop buzzing with notifications from him for the past few weeks and now that you are here there’s absolutely nothing you can talk about? Now you’re confused. 

“I came here to talk to you about that fucking girl in your phone. Who the fuck is that, Jake?” He runs his hands through his messy hair and begins pacing around the small living room. You can start to feel that sharp feeling in your chest. You start to stress over the fact that he hasn’t begun to explain himself at all. 

“Fucking answer me Jake, who is that” Tears begin to form in your eyes again. 

“You’ve been begging me to call and text you back. Now that I’m here, standing in front of you, ready to talk, you’re silent now. Now answer me who is that girl?” The built up tears are now streaming down your face. You begin to feel frustrated with him. With yourself for not being able to communicate how you felt all those weeks ago 

This gets him to start talking. His eyes widen at the thought of never being in contact with you. He cannot begin to think about life without you. 

“Okay! Okay, she’s this girl that I met over break while I was away in Australia. We were broken up–” 

“We were not broken up Jake, we were in the middle of an argument and we were heated. We never broke up or even said the words ‘break up’. Just because we were in an argument means that we’ve broken up? That’s not how relationships work. Not with me” 

He stands there, only staring at you, trying to process the words that slipped from your lips. Angry tears slide down your cheeks.

“Okay,” he says in a low voice. This somehow fuels the anger you already feel. The single word only infuriating you further

“That’s all you have to say? ‘Okay’?” Your voice begins to raise. “You are so pathetic” you say in a low voice. Turning in your spot you make your way over to the door to leave. Before you could reach the handle his hand grips your wrist and pulls you towards him. His soft hand lays on your cheek, his lips land on yours. Then, you feel something wet on your cheek. He’s… crying? Your lips move softly against his. All of these strong emotions make you sob against him. 

He pulls away and rubs his thumb over your cheekbone. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m tired of fighting with you. I swear I didn’t do anything with her. We just talked and that’s it. I would never hurt you in any way.” 

You fail to believe a word he says. “You wouldn’t have hurt me if you’d have understood our situation during that argument. You wouldn’t have hurt me if you just kept to yourself and hadn’t talked to her,” you say against his lips softly. You pause before you begin again. 

“You wouldn’t have hurt me if you would have just trusted me, Jake.” 

He leans in a kisses you again. He makes his way down to your neck and sobs. “I’m sorry, honey. Please, please, please forgive me. I’ll never hurt you I promise. I can’t live without you. I need you” His words are intoxicating. Something about him always seems to pull you in. And you can never escape him. His hands find their way under your shirt and land on your waist. He pushes you against the wall and he lifts your shirt from your body. 

Then your bra is off. The cold air that hits your perked nipples makes you whine. You wrap your hands around his neck. Your fingers find home in his messy hair and you tug as he sucks on your bottom lip. He lifts you off the ground and carries you to his bedroom. Slowly, he lays you down on his soft bed. From the hem of his shirt, he lifts it over his head. His abs are out on display. He finally leans down and takes your nipple into his mouth. Gasping from the pleasure. His hands fall to the waistband of your jeans. 

He pulls them down along with your panties. His fingers find purchase on your clit. Moving in small circles. You moan into his mouth and this turns him on even more. “Let me make you feel good. You deserve the most out of everyone. Let me show how sorry I am, baby” 

Kissing down your stomach he places small kisses over your pelvis. His lips hover over your clit. His breath hits your cunt. Whimpers fill the quiet room. The first touch of his tongue sliding through your folds. “Agh, Jake” He wraps his arms around your thigh pulling you closer to him. Your right hand digs into his hair, tugging. 

The vibrations of his moan send shivers throughout your body. Your other hand tugs at your nipples. Pushing yourself up from the bed and looking down at him. The sloppy sounds reverberate in the small room. You can feel your juices slipping down from your pussy. His thumb presses harsh circles over your clit. “Yes, yes, yes!!” 

His sweats begin to feel uncomfortably tight. Moving against the bed to relieve himself. Palming himself through his pants. He moves to plant wet kisses against your thighs, making his way up. Face to face with him now, he rubs his nose softly against yours. Smiling against your cheek, he moves his finger to your red and swollen cunt sliding through your folds. His finger finds your entrance, slowly sliding in. 

You gasp against his mouth. Pulling him in to taste yourself on his tongue. “Yeah? You like that? Am I making you feel good, love?” 

“Mmmh, yeah, you always make me feel good” wrapping your arm around him and playing with the soft hair at the nape of his neck. He leans down to capture your lips, teeth clashing together, his tongue tasting you. His pace begins to pick up. You start to feel that burning sensation in your lower belly again. He knows when you’re about to finish. “Gonna cum on my fingers? Go on, show me how good I make you feel” he says in a low voice. The rapid rolling of his thumb on your clit tips you over the edge. 

Jake pulls his fingers to his lips, wrapping them around his digits. “You taste so good. Just as sweet as I remember” Looking up at him, you desire something more from him. “Fuck me” This gets him wild. Standing to quickly pull his pants along with his boxer off. His hard cock hits his lower abdomen. You drool at the sight. Reaching out to take him into your grip. “Wanna suck my cock? Hmm?” 

Looking up at him with a sultry look in your eyes “I want you to fuck me, Jake” you say in a soft voice. Smiling down at you he pushes you on your back, his bog body hovering over you. “I’ll do whatever you ask me to,” Taking his hard-on in his hand, giving himself a few strokes before rubbing himself against your spent cunt. “Fuck, oh my God” your eyes roll to the back of your head when he slowly lowers himself to you. Connecting your lips. 

Entering you, taking his time with you. Sliding his hand into yours, grasping yours pushing it to the side of your head. His pace starts slow, and passionate, he’s sticking to his word about taking his time with you. “Faster” you whisper in his ear. His soft lips grazed your cheek, his breath hitting your ear. He places his hands on your waist and turns you onto your stomach. 

Wrapping his arms around your front to hold you up. Quickly stroking himself, then entering you again. “C’mon baby, come for me. I know you can” The pleasure becoming too much with his pace. He’s fucking you hard, sloppy, messy, just like you asked. It all becomes overwhelming and you finally come all over his cock. Heavy breathing and panting fill the room once again. 

After some seconds of catching your breath, you lie on your back, and Jake finds comfort on your chest. Staring at the ceiling everything starts to come back to you. The fight that lead you to this point. You realize that you didn’t do what you came here to do. Softly stroking his hair you speak up in the silence that you're left in. “Jake” you call out for his name. He moves his head to look up at you, humming in response. “What’s going on between us?” You’re left unanswered for a while. To be honest, you aren’t sure what you’re doing here, lying in his bed. Inhaling deeply he rises from your body and walks over to his bathroom. 

He comes back with a wet towel in his hand and walks back to your lying figure on his bed. Gently parting your legs he wipes down your swollen cunt, being careful. You twitch slightly from the sensitivity. “I want us to be okay” he finally says. “I don’t like fighting with you. It breaks my heart knowing that I put you through hell and I’m not there to help fix it” throwing the towel into the basket next to his desk. 

“If you want this to work,” you look at him. He stares at you waiting to hear the key to win your heart over again. “I want you to trust me. And you need to prove to me that I can trust you” you say sitting up and pulling his shirt over your head to cover yourself. Nodding immediately he pulls you into his chest, wrapping his arms around you, tightly. “Okay, I promise. I promise I’ll never put you through that again. I promise I’ll do everything I can to prove to you that I care for you, so much.” Only looking at him as he speaks. 

“Baby” Jake has been spending most of his time at your place. Barely spending any time in his own home. You don’t see it as a burden, but you do feel like he’s only doing it to make up for his past actions. “Let me take you out,” He says as he lays on your chest, pulling your hands to run through his soft hair. “Okay, what do you want to do” looking down softly at his face. His hands hug tightly around your waist as he digs his face into your soft stomach.

“There’s a carnival downtown. We can go there, if you want” He waits patiently for your answer looking up at your face, glowing in the sunlight peeking through the blinds. “Yeah, we can go there” you agree. Jake excitedly pushes off the bed and walks over to the drawer where he has kept some of his clothes. 

After the both of you finish getting ready you walk out of your dorm and walk down the steps. Hand in hand you begin your journey into town. Everything in your town is within walking distance, something you loved about it when you moved here. It was midday and shops were busy, everyone hustling to get everything they needed for the upcoming holiday. Being even more busy with the carnival in town. 

A flower shop catches your eye, letting go of Jake’s hand you’re drawn to the pretty flowers of spring. When you walk into the shop you are instantly hit with the smell of flowers. Racks are filled with lively green plants, some tilting over their pots from being overgrown. This is one thing you will forever cherish in life. The life of growing plants. How they always manage to come back to life even after not being properly taken care of. The strength they have to keep going

While you were away admiring the beauty of the flowers you’re surrounded by, Jake walks up behind you. Placing a hand on the small of your back, he pulls from behind his back a small bouquet of magnolias. He must have bought them while you were distracted. Turning in his arms you wrap yours around his neck pulling him in closer to you. “Thank you, they’re beautiful” He places a small peck on the juncture of your neck. “Of course, baby. They’re beautiful, aren’t they? They always remind me of you” 

Your lips form a small pout. Standing on your tip toes to place a delicate kiss on his lips. Sometimes his compliments only causes your heart to stop beating for a moment. Walking out of the flower shop you notice the sun beginning to set behind the busy town. “The carnival should be starting soon, we should get there now before it starts to get crowded.” He tightens his grip on your hand, making sure you don’t get lost in the crowd of people and guides you to the noisiest part of town. 

The lights of the lively carnival glow brightly in your eyes. Hand clutching Jake’s in excitement, he looks down and smiles brightly back at you as you walk ahead of him. Impatiently running towards the game booths you pull him by your side, a way of telling him to hurry his slow pace. “Hello! Come on up and win a prize. Two balloons will get you this teddy bear,” The booth worker pulls out a small teddy plush from behind the counter, “Or~ Pop six balloons to win this plush!” he says with much enthusiasm. The man points to a bunny plush hung above the other small prizes. Jake steps before you and pulls out a ticket he had stored in his wallet. “How much?” Digging through the pockets he takes a few out to hand to the man. You watch as they exchange items, Jake holds ten darts in his hand and watches his aim. Throwing one of them, the loud pop of the balloon makes you jump slightly. 

He goes on to throw another and another, until he gets down to his last dart. He misses, but he still manages to pop five balloons. “Congratulations! You’ve won yourself one of our small prizes, if you’d like to give it another go please come forward” Jake reaches his hand out for the small teddy bear and politely declines the man’s offer. He turns around to you, pushing the small plush into your arms. Looking down at the plush and up to him, he watches as a small smile grows on your lips. He wishes he could capture this moment and paste it into his head for the rest of eternity. Your illuminated features make him go crazy, making him experience feelings he’s never felt before. 

Before he could say anything to you, you pushed off your heels to kiss his soft lips lovingly. “Thank you, baby” Grabbing his hand again you proceed to look around at the carnival. Lights are strung along different booths, the sound of children laughing can be heard all around, and the warmth in your chest begins to bloom. Feeling that warmth radiate off of you, dispersing among the many young souls surrounding you. Tugging Jake closer to you, once again pulling him with you, you point at the ferris wheel gesturing to the ride.

He agrees and lets you drag him towards the spinning wheel. The operator opens the door for you when the wheel comes to a stop. Jake steps in first and grabs your head to help you in. The ride begins to move again, the cold wind blowing through your flowing hair brings chills up your arms. Goosebumps appear up and down your arms. “Are you cold? Here,” he moves forward to take his jacket off and places it around your shoulders. The fabric engulfs you from how big it is compared to when it was wrapped around Jake’s body. “Thank you” tugging it closer to you. 

The wheel stops at the very top; the view is breathtaking. But something else catches Jake’s attention, the way you look out over the town. The lights of the buildings of the town make it seem more alive. Something about that makes you feel content with where you are now in life. Moving forward for once instead of back. Turning your head to look at Jake again you find him already staring at you; admiring you. Your face falls into the palms of your hands as your cheeks turn red from embarrassment. “What?” he laughs. Moving his hands to pry your hands away from your face. 

Peeking through your fingers you see his radiating smile. A soft giggle makes its way out of your mouth as you look at the adorable sparkle in his eyes. “Nothing, I just got shy” This gets him to laugh, pulling your cold hands into his warm ones on his lap. “There is nothing to be shy about, baby. It’s just me” Looking into his deep brown eyes, butterflies erupt in your belly. “That’s why,” you say. He looks at you with confusion written on his face. Your hands hold on to him just a little bit tighter. “Because it’s you Jake. You make me feel so many different things at once sometimes I refuse to believe that you’re real to me” laughing slightly. Jake still has no idea where this is coming from. 

“I love you, Jake,” you say under your breath. The look in your eyes is close to pleading. Waiting for him to say it back. He only looks into your eyes until the ride comes back to life the grip you have on his jacket only becomes tighter than before. Your knuckles are white and crescent moons are indented into your skin by your nails. The ride stops at the bottom and the worker opens the door for you once again. You stay there for a moment until you realize that you are holding up the line. Thankfully, the worker was patient and still waited for you to exit the cart. 

You can hear your heart pumping at a rapid speed in your ears. Throwing the jacket off of your shoulder you flee from the cart. Leaving Jake, by himself in utter silence. He feels frozen in his spot, not able to move. “Sir? We have other people waiting” Snapping out of his daze he collects his things and leaves, completely left in distraught.

Running, you can barely see. Your eyes clouded with tears, streaming down your face. You needed to get out of there. Tripping over a small rock you hiss out in pain. Looking down at your scraped knee you you cradle it in hopes of making it feel better. But you know it will do nothing. Nothing hurts more than how you feel right now. 

He didn’t say it back. 

He didn’t say it back 

He didn’t say it back 

Like a broken record, it repeats in your head. Jake doesn’t love you back. And there’s completely nothing that you could do about it. 

It’s been weeks since the carnival, and you haven’t heard anything from Jake since then. Not a text, not a phone call, not even a note. It’s like a never-ending cycle, just like Sunoo said. You can’t seem to find a way to escape it. Just like the last time you hide yourself away from the world. But only this time it’s worse. Your phone has been buzzing with notifications but from the person you’ve been pining for the most. Sunoo can’t help but be worried about you. 

He’s been calling every day but he can’t get a hold of you. Avoiding your phone is the best option for now. Distancing yourself from anyone who has a connection with Jake is in your best interest. You can’t risk bumping into him, just the thought of his face further hurts your aching heart. Standing up from your bed you walk over to the kitchen to eat a somewhat decent meal. You’ve been rotting away in your bed for days now, being productive for just one day would be a step forward in healing. 

“I don’t know what to do” The small cafe is close to empty, with only a few people sitting at tables scattered across the area, it’s well early into the morning for anyone to be out and about. Jake’s hands are connected to the top of the small table. One of his many friends, Sunghoon, is sitting across from him. Receiving a call from Jake he woke up bright and early to help his friend deal with what he considered ‘a major crisis’. “Well, do you love her?” The question is simple. But Jake can’t help but dwell on it for a minute too long. “I don’t know” Staring into the table as if his answer would show if he looked just a bit harder. Sunghoon sighs out of frustration, Jake has been a complete mess ever since you told him you loved him. Stuck in his own head, guilty, frustrated, regret spiraling through his body. You don’t deserve any of this. You deserve much more than what he has to offer. Malicious thoughts consumed his head. 

“I think you should talk to her, man” Sunghoon finally speaks up in the quiet space. “She deserves closure, at the very least tell her how you feel for her. You can’t leave her hanging like that, I know that it’s crushing you from the inside that you can’t talk to her,” He’s right. He knows that he’s right. He hasn’t even tried to reach out to you in the weeks passing. “I know, I just can’t bring myself to face her knowing how much I’ve hurt her” 

“Take a chance, talk to her.” After a few minutes of thinking, Jake nods his head. “I’ll see you later Hoon,” Before he could turn to leave he looks back to Sunghoon. “And thank you” Giving a tight lipped smile and a slight nod of his head he says “Anytime” The jingle of the bell on top of the door rings. Jake determined to talk to you and fix whatever he caused. 

Loud banging resounds through your dorm as you were about to curl up in your blanket. “Go away Sunoo,” you yell in hopes of ridding him from your door. “Let me in” Your heart drops when you hear that familiar accent you were used to hearing all those weeks ago. Immediately shooting from your bed you grab your sweater and slowly walk over to the door. Watching your hand reach for the doorknob as if you were put into slow motion. Turning the handle, you look through the small crack of the door. Sad eyes meet yours. 

The door now fully opened, Jake’s tall figure towers over yours. Eyes pleading you to let him in. “Hi,” comes from his mouth, the same coming from yours. “Can I please come in?” Your eyebrows furrow in confusion and slight anger. “Why? There’s no reason for us to be together, not anymore” You begin to close the door but he arm comes out to stop you. 

“Please, __. I need to talk to you” The tone in his voice is desperate. Reluctantly you agree, stepping to the side you watch him walk past you into your living room closing the door and following behind him. It’s silent for sometime, arms crossing over your chest you grow impatient. “You said you wanted to talk, so talk. If not I’d really like for you to leave-”

“I’m sorry” Finally, after what felt like an eternity he speaks up. “I’m sorry that I’ve hurt you. I am so sorry I’ve hurt you in so many ways you and I’ve been nothing but shit to you” his voice breaks. A burning sensation builds up behind your eyes. Swallowing thickly he continues “You deserve nothing but love in this world and I can’t give you that. I’m messed up,” roughly pointing to his head. Tears streaming down his face. “I want to give you all the things that you deserve but I can’t do that because I don’t know how,” You flinch at his rising tone. You stand still, all you can do is listen to him. 

“I want so much for us to work, baby but I-” He holds his hands out. Pleading for you to reach out to him. Quickly, taking a step forward you pull him into your arms. Your tears fall over him as he tightens his grip on you. “Shh, it’s okay. I can help you, but I need you to let me help you” you say calmly into his ears. Your shirt dampens as he sobs. His hands clutching onto you as if you’d disappear. 

“Let me help you”

Separating from your body he looks at you. Sadness seeps from his eyes, and sniffles are the only thing heard in the small living room. “Let me love you, and when you’re ready you can do the same” Searching for anything, you hold his face and bring him down to your lips. Kissing his lips softly you pull away and lean your forehead against his. Sending him a loving look you look into his eyes, “Will you let me?” Nodding against you, you pull him in and he stuffs his face into the crook of your neck, softly kissing the skin there. 

The sun is shining out in the warm summer air. Jake wanted to take you out once more before he had to head back to Brisbane. He had been planning to spend a few weeks there during the summer. Talking about those plans bring you back when you and him were in bed, hot skin against each other. Relishing in one another “I promise I’ll take you there, one day. You can meet everyone. My parents have been dying to meet you, you know,” Smiling at him his eyes seemed to be focused on your hands playing with his. “I’d like that” you say with a small giggle. 

You wish for that day to come soon, but you will just have to wait. Right now, you want to focus on the last remaining time you have left with your boyfriend before he’s off boarding a plane and wishing him a safe flight. That’s something for you to think about in the future. But this is now, he’s brought you back to the very first date he took you on. The magnolia forest, it looks much different than how it did in the winter. They look much more lively, swaying the slight breeze mother nature is kind enough to give them. 

You both stop at the bench that brings you bittersweet memories. Sitting down, taking in the fresh air of summer, Jake watches you as if you’re some goddess sent down from heaven. Feeling his stare on you, you turn your head to catch him in the act. “What?” a smile appearing on your beautiful face. “What? I can’t stare at my girlfriend that I won’t be able to see in a few weeks? I need to take in how beautiful you are in person. I mean, I’ll only be able to see this pretty face over a screen,” he glides his hand down your cheek resting it on the nape of your neck. 

“Ugh, don’t even remind me. I’m gonna miss you so much” pouting at him. He laughs at your adorable face and leans in to place a peck on your pouting lips. “I’m gonna miss you too, baby. More than anything” You can see a sparkle glow in his eyes as he scans over you face. Leaning in once again to kiss him. But this time, the kiss is full of passion, love. Pulling back your faces inches apart, you sigh as you open your eyes again to face your lover. 

“I love you” Your breath hitches in your throat. The biggest smile grows over your features. The foreign words escape his mouth, smiling proud of himself to express his unconditional love for you. “What did you say?” you sit up from your slouched position on the bench and turn your body to completely face. “I said I love you __, so much”  Throwing your body as him you smash your lips against his. He can feel a smile grown against his lips. 

Finally, words are written on paper. This is your beginning

#sim jaeyun #jake sim #enhypen jake #enhypen fic #enhypen angst #enhypen smut #enhypen fluff #enhypen #jake fic #jaeyun fluff #enhypen jaeyun #jaeyun smut #jaeyun angst #jaeyun imagines

[quillthrillswriting]

i'm coming out of my writing slump to drop some lines from a very fun concept to write in!!! atla au!!! and kataang content!!!! (to nobody's surprise)

i feel like a lot of people have wondered how different atla as a whole would be if aang had been older, so in this au, now zuko and aang are the same age! naturally, i just had to flip aang being after katara from day one to katara now having a crush on aang from the very beginning.

essentially, to recap. ATLA aang aged up AU fic. kataang. where she falls first, and he falls harder.

also, cmon. i just had to write a new version of the scene where zuko and aang meet.

zuko: you? you’re just a teenager!

aang: s-…so are you…?

---

Shining blue eyes. Bright robes made up of strips of fabric coloured in shades of sunset they almost never saw down in the Southern tribes. Katara wasn’t quite sure what to make of the boy sprawled across the ice in front of her. One minute, she’d been getting upset with Sokka over how rude he was being about her water-bending, and the next, she had split a massive iceberg clean in half and released some glowing beam, a blue-arrow-tattooed teenage boy, and his hulking fluffy monster-dog-bear-thing. 

The boy would later tell her that it was called a “sky bison”, and that it flew. Sokka had refused to believe this. Katara had rushed over the hill towards the bluish glow, tumbling through the snow and ice until she had seen him. 

Shining blue eyes. Bright robes made up of strips of fabric coloured in shades of sunset they almost never saw down in the Southern tribes. 

The most beautiful boy she’d ever seen.

She couldn’t help her lips parting slightly, jaw hanging slack before she remembered herself. The boy sat up, and Katara tried her best to focus, to gather a cohesive thought.

“W-What is it?” She breathed, whispering for some reason as if the boy would spook and disappear if she was too loud. 

“W-Will-” he struggled, the words so hoarse that it was as though he hadn’t used his voice in decades. He cleared his throat, eyes sparkling distractingly, grinning roguishly. “Will you go penguin sledding with me?”

Katara blanched, momentarily caught off guard. She looked back over at Sokka, who had been watching the exchange with narrowed eyes and a suspicious expression as he recrossed his arms over one another. 

“I- um-... yes?” she answered, hesitantly, just as Sokka’s voice overlapped hers, yelping the words “She absolutely will not!” Katara shot Sokka a scathing glare as the mysterious boy rose to his feet, shaking the snow off of his cloak like a polar-bear dog. 

Sokka continued, his voice both indignant and commanding. “We don’t even know your name, Mr. Walking Ice Cube! What were you doing in there? Were you trying to mimic a snow-man and got too carried away?” 

“And you aren’t exactly dressed for the weather here,” Katara added appraisingly, giving him a once-over. “You look-”

“Dashingly handsome?” The boy smoothly interjected, accompanied by a grin that felt like it was just for her.

“...Cold.”  she said flatly, hoping she wasn’t furiously blushing as she shot him with what she hoped came across as a scathing glare.

---

♥ if you want to stick around while i continue this fic, my ao3 (with lots of other kataang and atla works) can be found here!! the first chapter is up now->

#atla au #aged up but nothing sexual!! #aged up aang AU #katara likes aang #i love kataang #and i STAND by that they have such a sweet relationship #makes me so sad that people have to go against his character entirely in order to make him and katara a bad match #atla kataang #kataang #atla fanfic #atla fandom #ao3 #avatar the last airbender #writing #ao3 recs #ao3 works #ao3 link #ao3 writer #confessions #oneshot #fluff #eventual romance #atla sokka #katara #aang #kataang fanfic #trope flipping #trope bending #quillthrillsatlafic

[jackoshadows]

There's this nice little parallel between Arya and Jon doing the right thing under incredibly dangerous and complicated scenarios and then being saved by the direwolves.

When Jon Snow is asked to kill the old man at the Queenscrown, he knows that his life would be forfeit if he refuses. And yet, he can't bring himself to do it.

“Why do you hesitate?” Styr said. “Kill him, and be done.” He is an old man, Jon told himself. Fifty, maybe even sixty. He lived a longer life than most. The Thenns will kill him anyway, nothing I can say or do will save him. Longclaw seemed heavier than lead in his hand, too heavy to lift. The man kept staring at him, with eyes as big and black as wells. I will fall into those eyes and drown. The Magnar was looking at him too, and he could almost taste the mistrust. The man is dead. What matter if it is my hand that slays him? One cut would do it, quick and clean. Longclaw was forged of Valyrian steel. Like Ice. Jon remembered another killing; the deserter on his knees, his head rolling, the brightness of blood on snow . . . his father’s sword, his father’s words, his father’s face . . . “Do it, Jon Snow,” Ygritte urged. “You must. T’ prove you are no crow, but one o’ the free folk.” He turned his back on the man. “No.” - Jon, AGoT

And then we have little 9 year old, skinny little Arya confronting Joffrey's sadistic torture of Mycah. Joffrey is taller and bigger than even Jon and Robb and he's armed with a sword. Arya is armed with a stick. Joffrey has been trained in the sword and Arya has not. The odds are against her. And yet she steps up to defend Mycah because it's the right thing to do.

“And you’re only a butcher’s boy, and no knight.” Joffrey lifted Lion’s Tooth and laid its point on Mycah’s cheek below the eye, as the butcher’s boy stood trembling. “That was my lady’s sister you were hitting, do you know that?” A bright bud of blood blossomed where his sword pressed into Mycah’s flesh, and a slow red line trickled down the boy’s cheek. “Stop it!” Arya screamed. She grabbed up her fallen stick. “I won’t hurt him … much,” Prince Joffrey told Arya, never taking his eyes off the butcher’s boy. Arya went for him. - Sansa, AGoT

And when both Arya and Jon are under attack because of doing the right thing, the direwolves - gifts from the Old Gods - step in to help save them.

The Magnar said something in the Old Tongue. He might have been telling the Thenns to kill Jon where he stood, but he would never know the truth of that. Lightning crashed down from the sky, a searing blue-white bolt that touched the top of the tower in the lake. They could smell the fury of it, and when the thunder came it seemed to shake the night. And death leapt down amongst them. The lightning flash left Jon night-blind, but he glimpsed the hurtling shadow half a heartbeat before he heard the shriek. - Jon, ASoS

Joffrey slashed at Arya with his sword, screaming obscenities, terrible words, filthy words. Arya darted back, frightened now, but Joffrey followed, hounding her toward the woods, backing her up against a tree. Then a grey blur flashed past her, and suddenly Nymeria was there, leaping, jaws closing around Joffrey’s sword arm. The steel fell from his fingers as the wolf knocked him off his feet, and they rolled in the grass, the wolf snarling and ripping at him, the prince shrieking in pain. - Sansa, AGot

What also stands out is 9 year old Arya's presence of mind. She steps in to call Nymeria off else the damage done to Joffrey would be far worse. Just look at what Summer does to the Thenns.

The lightning flash left Jon night-blind, but he glimpsed the hurtling shadow half a heartbeat before he heard the shriek. The first Thenn died as the old man had, blood gushing from his torn throat. Then the light was gone and the shape was spinning away, snarling, and another man went down in the dark. There were curses, shouts, howls of pain. Jon saw Big Boil stumble backward and knock down three men behind him. Ghost, he thought for one mad instant. Ghost leapt the Wall. Then the lightning turned the night to day, and he saw the wolf standing on Del’s chest, blood running black from his jaws. Grey. He’s grey. - Jon, ASoS

“Get it off,” he screamed. “Get it off!” Arya’s voice cracked like a whip. “Nymeria!” The direwolf let go of Joffrey and moved to Arya’s side. The prince lay in the grass, whimpering, cradling his mangled arm. His shirt was soaked in blood. Arya said, “She didn’t hurt you … much.” - Sansa, AGoT

As Arya points out rather accurately, Nymeria did not hurt Joffrey...much, considering what a direwolf is capable of. Nymeria steps in to save Arya and that's it. Arya could have done more damage to Joffrey if she wanted to - but she recognizes and understands the situation and calls Nymeria off.

Anyways I thought this was a cool, thematic parallel of not only Arya and Jon having the instinct to do the right thing, no matter the circumstances, but also of the direwolves - in this case Nymeria and Summer - helping them overcome the danger of those circumstances.

#Arya Stark #Jon Snow #asoiaf #parallels

[nightghoul381]

Dead or Love ~ Ellis Twilight

This a fan translation so it is definitely not 100% accurate. I do not own anything related to Ikemen Villains. Support Cybird by buying their amazing stories!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Bitter End | Premium End | Epilogue

When we step into the church, we found--.

Ellis: “Ah…”

Orphanage staff: “Everyone, please take turns to receive a present from Santa Claus.”

The Kids: “Yes!”

Santa Claus: “A gift for a good child. Here you are.”

A person who appeared to be one of the orphanage staff wearing red clothes was handing out presents to the children.

Ellis: “You’ve met the real Santa Claus.”

Kate: “…fufu, right.”

Sitting on a bench with Kate, I watched the scene.

(Kate…before, you held back everything you wanted to say.)

In truth, you must be wondering why I kept quiet about the bomb.

But at that moment, I swallowed my words.

I’m sure Kate realized I was keeping quiet to make her happy.

When I met Kate, I learned that there was such a thing as kindness with wanting nothing in return.

I want to know, I want to understand, I want to see.

Put a lid on those desires, and prioritize the other person’s heart.

Even if I know this in my head, I don’t think I can do it easily.

(That’s why…)

(Maybe I should be especially kind to Kate.)

Kate: “Ellis, you said you wanted to be my Santa Claus, but…”

Kate: “For me, you’re like Santa Claus every day.”

Ellis: “That’s…Why?”

Kate: “You make me so happy, but you don’t ask for anything in return, do you?”

(Don’t ask for anything in return, huh?)

As Kate says, if I’m really Santa Claus, I wouldn’t ask for anything in return.

Just give and give for the other person’s happiness…and that’s it.

However, the desire that I have buried deep inside my heart is making loud accusations.

--Are you really not looking for anything in return?

--With Kate, “what do you want” really?

(Kate, I’m…not really Santa Claus.)

(I’m)

(I just want to be Santa Claus.)

(If I can’t, my love will…)

“…in the end, your own desires are the most important thing.”

(It will turn into something horrible.)

Before I could answer anything, I heard Kate’s soft voice from beside me.

Kate: “I think that sort of kindness and love is very wonderful and precious.”

Kate: “I’ve been spoiled a lot because of that, and…”

It’s a little funny, Kate’s the one who’s kind.

Ellis: “I wish you were more selfish.”

Kate: “See, spoiled again.”

Ellis: “Fufu…”

After a moment, Kate murmured like a drop of rain falling from the sky.

Kate: “That’s why…”

Kate: “I still wish I could see you differently.”

Ellis: “So, not me?”

Kate: “Yes… and no, Ellis, please.”

(That’s not me.)

(Ah,…I see.)

I realized what Kate was trying to tell me.

I remember words Kate had said to me.

“Let’s be happy together.”

“I want you to be happy too, Ellis.”

Kate is aware that I’m keeping a lid on ‘something’.

And she might ask me to open it and show it to her if possible.

(But, I’m sorry. Kate.)

(That doesn’t seem possible.)

(My love, my desire, it’s not in a friendly form for you.)

So, I had to draw the line.

Ellis: “You…”

Ellis: “Would you be happier if I were selfish?”

It’s my usual way of hiding my true feelings, saying it’s ‘for you’.

The hurt in Kate’s eyes is surely not just my imagination.

However, the kind Kate,

Kate: “Yes…”

She smiled and nodded.

It’s like she’s taking her time and waiting for the day when I’ll reveal everything.

Jude: “Why aren’t you dead yet.”

Kate: “Jude!”

Ellis: “Oh, Jude.”

Kate: “So, did you find out how to defuse the bomb?

Jude: “You’re so loud. If it doesn’t explode on its own, your voice will set it off.”

Jude looks annoyed and flutters a piece of paper.

(He figured out how to defuse the bomb, as expected of Jude.)

The bomb that was attached to my leg was defused.

As I stepped outside the church, the cold air caressed my cheeks—

Kate / Ellis : “Ah…”

(…It’s snowing.)

Ellis: “It’s like an overdone scenario that it’s snowing at a time like this.”

Kate: “…isn’t it?”

Ellis: “Um, where are you going Jude?”

Jude: “You know it’s work. I can’t believe how much time I wasted just wiping your ass.”

Ellis: “Yeah, sorry.”

Ellis: “Also, thank you for helping me, Jude.”

Jude: “Ha. I forgot how thick you are. I don’t need your gratitude.”

Jude: “You’d better keep your promise instead of paying for it.”

Kate: “Promise…?”

Ellis: “I made a deal. In exchange for Jude helping me, I’d pay him back with my body.”

Kate: “B-body!?”

I don’t know what Kate is imagining, but it’s kind of cute that she’s flustered.

Ellis: “Yeah, I’ve lost my vacation time for a while.”

Kate: “Oh, that… you mean labor…”

Jude: “Give me your organs, what a pitiful thing to think.”

(Ah, I see, she thought Jude was asking me to donate my organs.”

(As always, Kate is adorable.)

Ellis: “It’s more profitable to have healthy people working.”

Jude: “If you understand, then hurry up and get to work.”

Kate sneaks a glare at Jude, so I sneak a laugh too

I returned to the castle and immediately sorted out the estimates and invoices that Jude had handed over.

(Was it a very special, very happy Christmas for you, Kate?)

(The way it turned out… maybe it wasn’t enough.)

I feel a little depressed.

(I want to work harder next year and give Kate the best Christmas ever.)

Thinking about that, I suddenly tilted my head.

(…that’s?)

As if natural, I was thinking about next year with Kate.

Kate: “Ellis, there you are.”

(Ah…)

Ellis: “Kate.”

I was a little surprised because I was just thinking about Kate.

Kate: “You were working, right? Are you okay now?”

Ellis: “Yeah, don’t worry about it…What’s wrong?”

Kate: “Ellis, I know you said I wasn’t allowed to give you anything in return, but I really wanted to do something.”

(You didn’t even have to mention me. That’s very typical of the disciplined Kate.)

Kate: “Could you take this, please?”

When I opened the box that Kate gave to me, there was…

Ellis: “Shoes…?”

Kate: “Yes, I was thinking…”

Kate: “I remembered a saying that ‘When you wear new shoes, they’ll take you wonderful places.’”

(…I’m so happy.) 

The gift is so full of Kate’s kindness and consideration, and it makes my heart flutter.

(Kate, I want to be your Santa Claus always.)

(I just want to be kind, and make you happy.)

(…But.)

The desires that I buried deep inside my heart and kept a lid on were writhing.

(Kate.)

(You, only you, make me… just a little crazy.)

Ellis: “…I don’t want Christmas to end just yet.”

Kate: “Eh?”

I pull Kate’s arm closer and looked into her eyes.

Ellis: “Kate, will you be my Santa Claus this time?”

Ellis: “You can listen to my selfishness.”

Part 1 | Part 2 | Bitter End | Premium End | Epilogue

#ikemen villains #ikevil #ikemen villains translation #ikevil translation #ellis twilight #ikevil ellis #ikevil ellis twilight #ikemen villains ellis #ikemen villains ellis twilight

[frannyzooey]

Huge thank you to @pedrostories for hosting this incredible event — I can’t imagine the work and organization that went into it, and I am so thankful for you all!

This is a @pedrostories Secret Santa gift for the wonderfully kind @meandorla ❤️

I hope you don’t mind that I went through your blog and borrowed some of your beautiful photographs for this banner and for the story. I tried to match the aesthetics of your blog to the story and your prompt, and I hope you like it!

Din Djarin x f!reader

Rating: Mature, soft af

He moved in on a spring day — buds of new beginnings on the trees, the grass barely peeking green on the sloped hills. The air was crisp, refreshing against your cheeks when you walked over to greet him.

“Din,” he replied when you offered your name and then your hand, and when he shook it, you made a mental note about the ease in which he transferred the box he was holding from two hands to one.

His curls were wayward, unlike his gaze, which rested squarely on you. His dark brown strands ruffled gently in the breeze, the chestnut highlights picked up by the sun matching the ones in his eyes and when you smiled, he answered with a smaller one of his own.

Had you known that your words of welcome would be the few that you would say to him for months, you would have chosen them more carefully.

Close mouthed, Din wasn’t quite silent but not talkative either. The little interaction you had with him showed him careful with his words, as if speaking too many of them revealed too much and given that your schedules didn’t line up either, you found it hard to get to know him. Eventually, your self doubt assumed his lack of attempts to engage you in conversation were a sign that he didn’t like you. When it carried on that way for months, you took that to mean he actively disliked you.

You caught glimpses of him around: at the small shop in town, when he left in the morning for work, in the fields behind his house as he worked the soil — a weight of disappointment settled heavy in your chest every time you saw him after that, your imagined assumptions taking root.

The heat of that summer was just as stifling as your ache for him; your fingers longed to touch those silky curls.

“Just go talk to him,” your friend urged you for the millionth time over the phone as you sat curled on your couch; the crackling fire in the hearth warming the room and your feet. The first frost had appeared overnight, the sky descending in darkness earlier and earlier.

“I don’t know.” You looked outside into the night, towards his house. A square of light shone across the street, the glow a pictured frame surrounded by the dark and you willed him to walk past it, just to get a glimpse of him.

He didn’t, and you sighed.

“You’ll never know if you don’t try,” she said. “He could be over there, thinking about you for all you know.”

“Doubt it,” you replied.

Still, your heart leapt at the thought.

–

A sickness was what brought you together. A simple cold, one that lingered for days and he ended up knocking on your door to make sure everything was alright. He had noticed that you had a couple of packages outside your stoop; a white dusting of powdered snow covering them. It was unlike you not to shovel.

When you answered, he frowned at your appearance.

“Are you okay?” he asked in his concerned, direct way.

When you cinched your robe at the waist before reaching for the boxes, he offered to bring them inside for you. Once placed on your table, he turned and asked where your shovel was. Peering from the window, you watched him clear the path in brisk, efficient scoops and an hour later, he knocked on your door again. His curls damp with flakes of snow, his cheeks flushed with the cold under his sparse beard and in his hands, a pot.

Just like that, he was saying more than he ever had in words.

“I thought this might help?”

Letting him in and watching him get the soup settled on your stove, you asked him to stay and join you, preparing yourself for a no.

He flashed a dimple that you didn’t know he had; a new secret of his revealed.

“Sure. I’ll grab another bowl.”

–

One night turned into two, turned into four and pretty soon that close mouthed man was talking to you more than you had ever hoped.

Still, more often in actions than words, but when he did speak, you found him to have a quick humor, a dry down to the bone sort of sarcasm that you loved. He was an intent listener, his eyes tracing your every feature as you spoke as if they held the secret meaning to your words.

His face, in turn, was an open book when he really let you look at him and you loved the different shades of his eyes: warm in the sunlight of the afternoon, dark in the dim light of the evening, pitch black in the darkness of your living room just before he leaned in for a kiss.

A testing press of his mouth against yours, firmer when his hand cupped the nape of your neck to pull you closer and that same gray couch where he had first sat amongst your piles of crumpled tissues and a nest of blankets was where he laid you back into the cushions, settling himself solid and reassuring over you as he made space for himself between your thighs.

The want you had been feeling for months came back tenfold, thrumming through your veins and pouring out in the eagerness of your touch; your fingers finally pushing through those dark curls. You opened your mouth to let the slide of his tongue in, your thighs pressing tight around his torso and when he pulled back with a groan to peel your clothing off one piece at a time, you never felt as beautiful as you did then, bare on that couch.

He knelt on the floor between your thighs, his mouth just as worshipful as his hands, and you had arched into the slick, skillful warmth of it, crying out his name when he brought you to your peak. You had led him to your room after that, wanting nothing more than to map the planes of his body with your hands.

You did, taking your time touching what you had only dreamed of for months and he made sure you knew how beautiful he thought you were too by the end of the night, not stopping until you both fell asleep from sated relief.

–

Morning came; a soft shaft of light illuminating your thin curtains. A cold blanket of white outside; a soft comforter of heat in. He held you to his chest as he watched you sleep, and traced the line of your eyebrow delicately with the side of his thumb, quietly reveling in your softness:

Your hair, your skin, your scent, the cloud of your bed.

Your thighs, your sighs, your plush lips when they brushed against his.

Your steady, slow breathing.

Your smile, when you woke.

–

Thinking back to your first few months, you thought it was funny now to think you ever thought he was indifferent when every one of his actions had always said the opposite. You see now that he loves you with a fierceness that’s transparent in all he does. If you’re watching closely, his displays of devotion are endless:

His hold; reassuring and solid.

Making you dinner; his low laugh, the dark curls at the nape of his neck; his broad back facing you..

Shoveling your walk; the efficient push of his shovel, his coat dusted with snow, the white puffs of his breath.

Caring for you, in whatever way you need him to; his careful listening, his validating words, his husky, low reassuring praise.

In the bed you share; his hands guiding you, worshiping you, the delicate, warm heat of his mouth on your skin as he fills you until you break.

His always direct words, when he cups your face and looks you straight in the eye.

“You are so beautiful.”

He says the statement constantly, as if it’s a fact of life that he knows and you don’t, but eventually he says it enough that you start to believe it. You had always felt like a burden to the ones that came before, but not with him. Never with him.

He came that night and stayed — something you didn’t think he would ever do, and it’s like your friend had been right all along. Like he had been waiting for you just like you had been waiting for him; your living room window a beacon of light in the darkness as he sat, just waiting for you to pass by.

gif by @anakin-skywalker ❤️

Merry Christmas my lovely! ❤️

#pedrostories #pedrostoriesgift22 #din djarin #din djarin x you #din djarin x reader #din djarin/you #din djarin/reader #the mandalorian #the mandalorian x you #the mandalorian x reader #pedro pascal

[shivunin]

Like Constellations

Happy OC Kiss Week! Kicking off with my dear @star--nymph's Eurydice and my Emmaera. Thank you for letting me borrow her, friend!

(721 Words | No Warnings)

The rain had left the ramparts of Skyhold slick and glistening. Here, near the lights of the Great Hall, they shimmered like tiny stars caught inexplicably in stone. It was a mirror to the stars the two elves discussed now, perhaps, but these were more touchable by far than the ones cast away in the sky.

“It shouldn’t be possible,” Emmaera murmured thoughtfully, looking behind them at the tiny lights. “The rain, I mean. By all rights, we should have snow on this side of the wall, too. This place and its seasons…it’s never made sense to me.” 

“Stop moving,” Eurydice said behind her. “I’m not finished.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

The clouds above parted, slowly revealing a narrow slice of the heavens above. Early evening stars peered through the break in clouds.

“Falon’Din walked,” Eurydice prompted behind her. 

Emmaera had no idea what her dear friend was doing behind her, but she wasn’t especially concerned. They’d grown used to spending time tucked between crenellations, Eury’s fingers quick and clever in Emma’s long hair while Emmaera told stories. What a relief it was to sit here just like this, where she need think of nothing more than whatever tale she’d been telling. 

“Falon’Din walked the woods,” Emma went on, “but most of the time he flew. He wore the shape of a great owl, its feathers cast with dark spots. An owl has fine eyes for little things, hidden things, and one by one he found all of the lost souls wandering alone there.”

The soft smell of lavender began to eclipse the scent of falling rain. Emma smiled and tilted her head back when Eurydice adjusted her grip. 

“He tucked each of them safely amongst the feathers of his wings, for the journey to the Beyond is a long and dangerous one. It would have been very easy indeed to lose some of them along the way. After all, it is not so simple a thing for a mortal creature to leave behind everything it knows.” 

She paused, trying to remember what came next. Eurydice’s hands gave one last, decisive tug on her hair. Stretching slightly, for she’d been sitting very still for quite some time, Emma turned and let her feet dangle over the long drop to the valley below. She began to reach for her hair, but her friend caught her hand before she could feel what had been done to it. 

“Keep going,” Eurydice said. 

Obligingly, Emmaera went on talking, unspooling a story beat by beat: a soul lost to the woods, a daring rescue, a home among the stars. It was one she had told before, and one she never minded telling again. It was difficult to mind when she had such a a captivated audience. Still speaking, Emmaera watched as her hand was turned upright. Eurydice's cool, green-stained fingertips traced the lines there with care. 

“Falon'Din is gone now, as are all the gods,” she said at last. “Even so, perhaps his dark wings stretch across the sky even now, the way to the Beyond lit like a beacon between his feathers. Even on this very night, we can use them to show us where we are and where we ought to go. The Chantry calls them by another name, but elves know his stars nonetheless.”

“Hmm,” Eurydice said. Her eyes had drifted closed during the telling of the story, but her pale lashes fluttered open again when Emma stopped speaking. Emma turned her hand over and lifted Eury's to her mouth. She kissed each knuckle very carefully, neither too firm nor too soft. Eury allowed this, though not without a faint quiver at her ears. 

“Thank you,” Emmaera said when she’d finished. “Can you remind me where it is? I'm still turned around now that we've finally found this place, and the clouds…”

“There,” Eurydice said, pointing with her free hand. As if by magic, the clouds drifted apart in the direction she pointed and a familiar cluster of stars was revealed. 

Emmaera scooted closer and leaned her shoulder against Eurydice’s. As one, their palms pressed together, the two of them watched the stars. They thought of words long since past, words yet to come, and tried valiantly not to think at all about the faint green tint the sky had given to the distant stars.

#ockiss24 #oc kiss week #eurydice lavellan #emmaera lavellan #dai #shivunin scrivening #is it platonic? idk. Is it romantic? eh. They can hang out somewhere in the middle #ty kat c: #does emma forget what she was talking about occasionally because some fine point of how something works has occurred to her? #of course yes

[lovingastory]

Sakura collaboration story

Back in 2020, Kadokawa published a volume titled Sakura collaboration, which included a number of short stories (more like drabbles, really) related to several light novel series, including The Slayers. "Cherry blossoms" (sakura) was the common theme.

I recently got my hands on one copy of the volume, and the story Hajime Kanzaka wrote for The Slayers (set sometime after novel 17 and paired with a lovely illustration by Araizumi of Lina and Gourry under a cherry tree, which has been circulating on its own for a while) is so cute and quietly poetic that I thought it was a shame not to share it with everyone. So under the cut you can find my tentative translation.

It looked like falling snow.

It filled up the sky, filled up our field of vision – swaying, drifting white, white, white.

Except, it wasn’t cold. If anything, it reminded of warmth, perhaps simply because it was warm, or perhaps because there was also some red among all the dancing, falling white.

The open blossoms fell among the lined trees, splendid, and ephemeral at the same time.  

“Wow,” I couldn’t help but say in admiration, unconsciously stopping as soon as I fixed my eyes on that spectacle.  

“Amazing,” commented Gourry, my travel companion. He stopped too, enthralled by the dancing blossoms. “Say, Lina, what kind of flowers are those?”

“Dunno. I’ve never seen them back where we come from,” I replied.

A little while before, for a number of reasons, Gourry and I had been sent away to an unknown, faraway land. We’d found ourselves under this sky as we were trying and get back where we came from, on a clueless and unsuccessful journey.

I’d travelled here and there in the land I used to live in before, but I’d never seen those flowers. Meaning they probably only blossomed here.

“Cherry blossoms!” The girl called Ran, who’d become our travel companion ever since we got here, suddenly blurted out, in a strange voice.

She often used weird expressions, which, according to her, were in her hometown’s dialect.

“Huh? What, now?”

“The name of the flowers – cherry blossoms.”

“Ah. They are called ‘cherry blossoms’.” I looked at them again.

The mountains stretching out in front of us were green. However, at their foot, the colors of what appeared to be ‘cherry blossoms’ trees lining along the highway formed a long streak of white, continuing as far as we could see.

The fact that they were only along the highway and not on the mountains made me think that they hadn’t grown naturally, and had been planted. But why on earth were hundreds – heck, thousands of trees planted like that?

“To have grown so many trees… must have been some sophisticated and eccentric king or lord!”

“Wrong!”

“What’s wrong?”

“It wasn’t a king who grew them, just one common person.”

“Huh?!” As the meaning of her words struck me, I couldn’t help but raise my voice. “Wait, wait, wait! A single person, growing these many trees on their own? That shouldn’t be possible!”

“They were not on their own.”

“Didn’t you just say it was just one person?”

“After they’d started working hard to grow them, the people around here came to help too.”

“… Right.” Her way of expressing things was always a bit confusing.   

“Still, why did those people feel the need to grow that many trees? Are their fruits edible, by any chance?”

It wasn’t elegant of Gourry to ask, but truth is, it did happen sometimes that trees that bore edible fruits were planted along highways, in order to lower the chance of travelers collapsing from hunger or thirst.

When asked that, Ran furrowed her brow. “Mmm… they do bear fruits and those fruits are edible, but… they are not that good?”

Judging by her words, she had tried them before. Perhaps, they were extremely bitter or sour.

Gourry, probably anticipating that he, too, wouldn’t enjoy the taste, wore a dejected expression. “Not good? Why, getting plenty of delicious fruit like that would have been perfect…”

“What are you talking about?” I said, still enthralled by the white. “This scene itself is perfect, isn’t it?” A particularly strong gust of wind made the petals dance.

“Perhaps, the person who started to plant the trees did it because he wanted to see something like this, too.”

That one scope. Perhaps, he’d kept on with that one scope in mind. Perhaps, that person had seen something like this in his past, and burned with desire for seeing it again.

Perhaps, the people around that person had been moved by that love and enthusiasm, and decided to lend a hand.

The earth-moving passion and effort of one person, stirring up other people… that wasn’t common, but it did happen, sometimes. And as a result…

… as a result, now, we were in that place, surrounded by blooming white.

Perhaps, one day, Gourry and I would be back where we came from, far away from there. And still, we wouldn’t forget the scene we’d seen that day.

The three of us stopped there for a while yet, surrounded by dancing flowers.

#slayers #the slayers #lina inverse #gourry gabriev #ran #slayers novels #lina x gourry #gourry x lina

[trulybetty]

dec' 06 - snowflakes

Prompt: snowflakes Pairing: joel miller x ofc!charlotte Word Count: 702 Warnings: just a little bit of angst Summary: playing fast and loose with the timeline of Gold Rush and events that I haven't even written about yet. But here are my OG's Joel & Charlotte adapting to life back in one another's lives in Jackson. AO3: Linked

x. masterlist

The snow had been coming down heavily the past few days. Silent sheets, blanketing the town in a hush that seemed to quiet everyone as they braced for a rough winter. Jackson, a place usually buzzing with the sounds of life, now lay under a serene white cover, transforming it into a landscape of muted colours and softened edges.

Charlotte trudged through the newly fallen snow, her boots sinking with each step. She pulled her coat tighter around her, trying to ward off the chill that seemed to seep into her bones. It would be the last winter this coat could serve any purpose, she wasn’t sure where she’d find a replacement, but that was the least of her problems for now. She sighed, her breath formed small clouds of mist in the cold air, disappearing as quickly as they appeared.

Her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of that evening's council meeting. The heavy snowfall had brought with it a slew of problems – from the need for increased patrols to the disruption of their supply lines. Charlotte knew that the meeting would be long and tedious, filled with discussions and debates fuelled by a justified fear.

Lost in thought, she didn’t notice the figure coming her way until it was too late. Joel, equally distracted with his head bowed to keep the snow from his eyes, collided with her, sending her tumbling into the thankfully soft snowdrift below her.

“Shit, Charlie, I’m sorry!” Joel exclaimed, quickly extending a hand to help her up.

Charlotte accepted his hand, brushing the snow off her coat as she stood. “It’s okay, Joel,” she said, forcing a smile. The awkwardness between them was tangible, an unmistakable reminder of the distance that had grown between them, one that pre-dated her departure from the Boston QZ.

They stood there for a moment, neither of them quite sure what to say. 

Joel broke the silence first. “You heading to the meeting?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

“Yeah,” she replied with a raised brow at the question, “Kinda a requirement for me.”

“Yeah,” he rubbed his hands together and let out an awkward laugh, “I guess so, being a part of the council and all.”

Charlotte nodded, “You?” she asked, only to keep the civilness between them and a lack of anything better to say.

He shrugged. “Figured I might as well.”

They started walking together, their steps crunching in the snow. The rhythm of their walk off, a physical manifestation of their disjointed relationship.

“So, how have you been?” Joel ventured, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

Charlotte considered the question. How had she been? The truth was, she wasn’t sure. “I’ve been okay,” she finally said. “Keeping busy with council work. You?”

“Same,” Joel replied. “Helping where I can. Keeping Ellie out of trouble mostly.”

Charlotte smiled at the mention of Ellie. Despite everything, she couldn’t help but feel a fondness for her. “She’s a good kid,” she said.

“Yeah, she is,” Joel agreed, his voice softening.

They walked in silence for a while, the only sound was their footsteps and the soft patter of snowflakes against their coats.

Charlotte looked up at the sky, watching the snowflakes fall. Each one was unique, a tiny work of art. It would be a beautiful sight if it weren’t for the circumstances that had brought her and the rest of the commune to Wyoming, yet it filled her with a sense of melancholy. 

The rest of the walk passed in a comfortable silence, a truce of sorts between them. They reached the town hall, where the meeting would take place, and paused outside the door.

“Well, I guess this is it,” Joel said, his hand on the door handle.

“Yeah,” Charlotte replied, not quite ready to step inside.

Joel looked at her, his eyes searching her face for something – what, she wasn’t sure. “Charlotte, I–”

But whatever he was going to say was lost as the door opened, and they were swept into the warmth and noise of the meeting. 

Joel could only watch on as Charlotte was ushered to the front of the hall, the rest of the council members sat waiting for her attendance. 

#december x 500 #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller fanfic #joel miller x oc #joel miller x ofc #joel miller x original character #joel miller x original female character #joel x charlotte

[impala-dreamer]

All Along The White Line

An SPN Story

~Take a drive to nowhere with your favorite Winchester...~

Dean Winchester x F!Reader

2,009 Words

A/N: NSFW. Poetical Smuts and a Dreamy Drive

Impala-Dreamer’s Masterlist  ~  Patreon  ~ Published Works  ~  Buy Me A Coffee  ~  Feedback is Gold

America is full of highways. Long stretches of road that endlessly and seamlessly weave through the country, leading you into the sunset or pulling you away from the twilight. The white line ‘bends and curls around mountains and forests, deserts and snow drifts; observing the climate’s change, but never changing itself. It’s one steady hand in the morphing landscape, one constant on your journey.

It can be invisible, hiding on the very edge of your vision, or it can hold you captive, trancing you like a pocket watch dangling before your eyes.

Dean likes to ride the white line, driving for hours with it in the corner of his eye. Illusion said the tire was right on top of it, but he was steady in the center of the lane, carefully gliding over the blacktop in his precious baby, with the most precious cargo by his side.

Y/N likes to sit with her back to the passenger side door. ‘All the better to see you with, my dear,’ she’d tease him, but it was true. She liked to watch him drive, to count the sunlit freckles on his cheek, to stare as his big hands lovingly turned the wheel. He was one with the leather. Years of driving had ridden a groove where his hands liked to stay. Ten and two, six and twelve. The wheel is an extension of his left hand, connected on a cellular level. It knows how to turn before Dean even thinks it, feels the intent before it’s expressed.

He smells like the car too, or does the car smell like him? Y/N can never tell them apart. Leather defines them both, that soft, worn smell and feel. His skin is like velvet, the seats like lambskin. Weathered by the miles, they both share that comforting attribute. They’re one. Y/N’s just visiting.

But Dean never makes her feel like that. When they’re alone together, driving the highways and back country rodes, he’s right there with her. His right hand lingering on the seat between them, inching closer to her until she gives in and hooks her fingers around his. It’s always the same: a sweet smile, the swift lift of her fingers to his lips. He takes his eyes off the road just long enough to look her over, to take in the beauty of her messy hair haloed by the afternoon light.

“Glad you came along,” he says, giving her hand a tug until she slides across the bench to sit by his side. He drapes his arm across her shoulders and Y/N relaxes into him, her head resting on his arm, their knees touching, her hand on his thigh.

They watch the milemarkers fly by, laughing at the town names as they pass. ‘Imalaystown’ makes Dean laugh for way too long and Y/N can’t help but roll her eyes.

They’re headed east but to nowhere in particular. There are no monsters after them, no case to be solved. It’s just the three of them. Dean, Y/N, and the white line on the side of the road. Nowhere really to go, no place they’re needed. It’s simple and beautiful and Dean wouldn’t give it up for anything.

He leans to place a kiss atop her head and Y/N sighs happily, her eyes blinking in the strobe light of the setting sun as it passes through the trees.

When the sky turns dark with streaks of pink clouds on the horizon, they start reading signs, looking for a place to stop for the night. Y/N wouldn’t mind if they drove all night, but she can hear Dean’s stomach rumbling. He’s starving, it’s true, but not just for food. The last dozen miles he’s had a craving for something more. He licks his lips and looks over at her with hungry green eyes. Her back is crammed into the corner of the door and seat, legs stretched out across the bench. She tips her head when she catches him staring, raises a brow in question.

“Whatcha thinking about?” she asks, teeth digging into the corner of her lip to stop the blushing smile.

Dean presses his tongue against his top teeth and grins. “Oh, nothing.”

Y/N laughs and gives him a nudge in the leg with her bare feet. “Come on, now you have to tell me.”

He grabs her toes, lifts her feet up onto his lap. His warm hand curls around her ankle and sends goosebumps up her leg. “Just thinking about you.”

“Anything in particular?” Stretching further, Y/N dips her toes between his legs, gently rubbing her toes along the bulge in his jeans.

A quiet moan forms in the back of his throat and Dean clicks his tongue, still teasing, still toying with her. “A few things…”

She pushes down a bit harder, runs her foot back and forth until she can feel him stir.

Dean swallows hard. “Fuck…”

Y/N bites her lip. “Yeah?”

He looks over with lust-flooded eyes and pushes her foot away. He grips the wheel, fingers falling into place at ten and two as he sits up in his seat, squints at the next roadsign. “Uh… yeah.”

He’s like a demon; eyes wild, heart racing as he tries to find a place to pull over. The turn off is dark, no street lights guide their way, no buildings as far as he can see. They’re in the middle of nowhere, lost among the fields.

His annoyance is lit only by the dash and Y/N laughs to herself, loving how enthused he is, crazed by how much he wants her. She wiggles in her seat, digs her toes beneath his leg. Absently, his hand moves to her naked calf; calloused fingers gliding upwards higher and higher. She gasps when he sneaks a finger beneath the hem of her denim shorts and teases along the crease of her thigh.

“Fuck. We need to pull over now,” she groans, spreading her knees a bit wider.

“I’m looking,” he grits, but there’s nowhere in sight.

Her slender fingers wrap around his wrist and she tugs at him, forcing his fingertips to graze over the dampness of her panties. He growls deep in the back of his throat as her hips pop up, rolling against his hand.

“Jesus Christ…”

Y/N hums desperately and it takes a mountain of concentration for Dean to keep the Impala on the road. He eyes the white line carefully and they makes a decision, turning off the road into an empty field.

The weeds are high and snap back into place behind the car, hiding the shining black monster from any passersby. But the road is quiet, not a headlight in sight as Dean parks beneath the stars and cuts the engine.

Y/N peeks up through the window and laughs. “Really?”

He’s already advancing, crawling onto his knees behind the wheel and grabbing at her ankles. “You wanna drive around for an hour looking for a room?” he sasses, lips already damp with spit, eyes sparkling with the radio’s light.

“Hell no.”

Dean slides between her legs, dropping down to distract her with a kiss as his fingers pop the button on her jeans. He licks into her mouth as the zipper falls, and Y/N gasps into his mouth at the roughness of his hands as he tears at her panties.

She lifts her hips for him, goes limp as he maneuvers the fabric, tugging it down off of her feet. She kicks her left foot up high and slings her knee over the back of the front seat, spreading herself wide for him. She grins as he takes her in, green eyes soaking up every inch of her beautiful body.

“You’re so fucking hot,” he breathes, struggling to rip his flannel away in the tight space.

Y/N paws at her tits through her shirt and winks. “I’m so fucking wet, too…”

Dean’s mouth floods with desire and he tosses his overshirt into the backseat. “Yeah? Nice and wet already?”

Her teeth dig into her lip. “Why don’t you find out?”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

With one hand, he tugs the black tee from his head and flings it away. The soft glow from the dash lights the soft curve of his belly, the muscular lines of his arms and collarbones. Y/N sighs and reaches for him, wanting the heft of his body over hers.

Dean falls down easily, catching himself with one hand while the other fits between them. He snakes a finger through her pussy lips, humming happily at the wetness that greets him. He shoves his tongue against hers and dips his middle finger into her, breathing heavy and deep.

Y/N pants against his plump lips, eyes falling closed as he works her open. She clings to his neck, short nails digging into the tender flesh at the base of his skull, leaving tiny cresents behind. “Want you so bad,” she groans, heart racing as he grinds the heel of his palm up against her clit.

“I sure hope so,” he chuckles; gorgeous smile falling against her cheek. He lays a kiss on her jaw before disappearing, leaving her grip to slip down her body. He scrunches himself up between her legs, drags her hips upwards with a tug of his strong hands; lands another kiss between her thighs.

Y/N’s head slams back against the cool window as Dean laps at her cunt, slowly turning up the heat inside and catching every drop with his thick fingers. “Fuck, Dean…”

His lips vibrate with a hum against her clit and the tension in her belly reaches its breaking point. She snaps, cumming quick and hard on his hand, near to screaming as he quickens his pace, fucks her through it.

“Fuck yeah… that’s it…” His eyes are wide in the dark, watching her body spasm on his fingers. “Love watching you cum, baby girl…”

Dizzy, she sits up, grabs at his shoulders, silently begging for more. She scratches down his back as he crawls to his knees; bites at his biceps as he struggles with his belt.

“There’s no… fucking room… in this damned car…”

She laughs at the frustration in his voice and sits up, licking into his mouth as she helps him out of his jeans.

“There’s enough,” she assures him, laying fully down on the bench and setting her heel on the back of the seat again. Her right foot smashes onto the dashboard and Dean shoots a wary eye at it.

“Don’t break anything,” he warns, voice deep and wet.

Y/N juts her hips up high, crushing into his. “I think that’s your job.”

He leans back on his heels and gives his cock a few hard strokes. “Oh, I’m not gonna break ya… Not tonight, anyway…” He sinks in deep, moaning as her body tightens around him. He sets his hands by her head and gazes down with dark green eyes and a smile that drives her wild.

Outside, the stars shine down on the hood; a puddle of deep blank amidst the wheat and weeds. There’s not a sound for miles, just the faint push of Y/N’s voice as Dean rides her deep into the creaky seat. The springs are worn and the leather is soft, but there’s still a bounce there, and Dean’s thrusts rock the car slightly up and down.

They use his tee shirt to clean up; wrap themselves in the old wool blanket found tucked under the backseat. The radio plays something soft and familiar, and Y/N fits perfectly under his big arm. They catch their breath, slow their hearts until they can’t feel the beating from outside anymore.

Dean sighs, contented, and drops a kiss to the top of her head. “I really am,” he whispers. “Glad you came, I mean…”

Y/N breathes him in and buries her face in the crook of his neck, holding him tight. “Me too.”

2023 Forever Tags (Always Open! Send an Ask!)

@aditimukul @agirlwithdemonblood @amanda-teaches @akshi8278 @alwayskeepfightingsweetheart @b3autyfuldisast3r @babysimpala @beardburnsupersoldiers @because-imma-lady-assface @bloodline1632 @charred-angelwings @chenshemesh1 @cosicas-cuquis @covered-byroses @djs8891 @deanwinchesterswitch @deansyahtzee @feelmyroarrrr @foxyjwls007 @hobby27 @idreamofdeanie @ilsawasanacrobat @impalaspixie @jawritter @justcallmeasmodeus @kazsrm67 @kittenofdoomage @leigh70 @lovealways-j @lyarr24 @mariekoukie6661 @maggiegirl17 @mistressofallthingsgeeky @pandaxo79 @peachy-vans @rachiem4-blog @roseblue373 @sacriceria @samwellwinchesterthebrave @sexyvixen7 @spideysimpossiblegirl @spnexploration @the-wounded-healer05 @thoughts-and-funnies @vulgar-library 

#spn fanfic #dean winchester x reader #dean x reader #one shot

[the-lonelybarricade]

We Bleed the Same - (3/?)

Summary: The forest was a labyrinth of snow and ice... The beginning to a story we know, unfolded a little bit differently.

AO3 saw it first because I was too sleepy to post to tumblr last night. A gift for my darling @belabellissima💝

Read on AO3 ・Series Masterlist ・Previous Chapter

-

Passing out from blood loss was not so dissimilar from drowning.

Feyre had nearly experienced the latter on the day she’d taught herself to swim. A grove of birch trees lined the shore of a local pond in her village, and Feyre had found one in particular that leaned at just the right angle that she could hook her elbow around its trunk and stretch herself over the pond. She was fascinated by the way the water rippled when she skimmed her fingertips along the surface, distorting the image of the summer sky above into smears of blue—lighter on the peaks of the rings, where the light bounced, and darker in between.

Other children were splashing in the water further off-shore, and Feyre intended to study their movements so she might learn to do the same, until a boy thought it would be amusing to sneak up and shove her shoulders. Feyre lost her grip on the trunk, and the bark scratched the entire length of her arm as she tumbled forward. She remembered opening her mouth to scream, only to swallow a mouthful of stagnant water.

Light might have danced playfully above the water’s surface, but below it was dark.

Dark, like the fog that curled around her now, so thick it felt as though she were treading through the water of that pond once again. Just like before, she panicked as her awareness first trickled in—kicking blindly, uncertain which direction was up or down. But then… a calmness settled over her. A latent instinct that had always found a home in the dark, that told her it was okay to take a moment to stop. To think. To trust herself. Trust that she would float to the surface and the sun would warm her face again.

Though, it was frost that welcomed her to the waking world.

Contained within a pair of narrowed eyes so icy in color and countenance that everything in their path froze. Including Feyre, who had least expected to find Nesta occupying the chair at her bedside.

They were in what looked to be an infirmary—four beds aligned neatly in a row, each framed by a large drape that could be pulled for privacy. The two on either side of her bed were tied. There was no need to use them when the sheets of the other beds were all immaculately pressed, and it was clear that she was the sole patient.

“How are you feeling?” Nesta asked.

The memories came back in a rush: the shattered door and leeching cold, the snarling beast and her strange, unlikely escape. She’d been partly hoping it had been a dream, but the dull pain blooming in her shoulder, faintly throbbing like a second heartbeat, said it was anything but.

Feyre searched Nesta’s face, anticipating anger or blame, but her sister’s question seemed oddly genuine. Which caused Feyre to wonder—how was she feeling? Nesta wouldn’t have asked, wouldn’t have cared, unless Feyre’s health had been in a dire state.

She sat up slowly, finding that every muscle rioted against the simple movement. She hissed as she stiffly turned her neck to take stock of her injuries. Her tunic—or, what was left of it—had been hastily ripped and was now hanging in pathetic ribbons from her body. Thick bandages wound from her elbow all the way up to her shoulder, fresh as if they’d been recently changed, and with an expertise that suggested it hadn’t been Nesta.

A small work table sported the more grisly evidence of her night: a metal pan full of surgical tools still in need of cleaning, alongside a pile of bloodied, discarded bandages.

She grimaced. “The beast’s claws were larger than I thought.”

Nesta’s voice was strained. “When the mercenary brought you in—”

“Where is he?”

Her sister straightened. “That man is dangerous.”

“He saved my life,” Feyre whispered, still not quite believing it. “All of our lives.”

Nesta shook her head, fixing her steel gaze on the opposite window. Condensation fogged the bottom half of the glass, but there were hints of a clear sky above it. “Men don’t risk their lives like that for nothing in return, Feyre. None of it bodes well.”

Behind clenched teeth, Feyre resisted the urge to snap that of course none of it boded well. A faerie—a High Lord—had broken into their house and demanded Feyre’s life as payment. She couldn’t blame Rhysand for any of this. Feyre was the one who killed the faerie, and now she was the one who had avoided paying that debt to Prythian.

What would be the consequences of that choice? If the High Lord wasn’t dead, which she was almost certain he wasn’t, that meant she had made an enemy out of the most powerful creature in existence. Perhaps even the one responsible for sundering the villages that bordered the Wall, until they were little more than smoke and ash.

The Nolan estate looked well fortified from the small, disoriented glimpses she’d gotten while Rhys had been carrying her. But she doubted the iron walls, no matter how thick and tall, would be able to keep out a High Lord. And that was only assuming he focused his wrath on Feyre and her sisters, when he could just as easily decimate their village.

She needed to see Rhys. Needed to know if that faerie was dead, or if he’d be coming back for Feyre and her sisters. Maybe she could convince Rhys to escort her family to the southern coast, until they could hire a ship and be free of these lands for good.

“Where is he?” Feyre said again.

Nesta’s fine features twisted in reproval. She raised from her chair, considering the visit no longer worth her time if Feyre wasn’t willing to listen.

“Outside,” she said, not trying to hide her sneer. “He’s been guarding the infirmary like a panting dog.”

A panting dog, or a mercenary who knew exactly what the fae were after. As Nesta said, men didn’t risk their lives for nothing in return. Certainly not a hired sword, subscribed to the creed that coin and self-preservation should take precedence above all else. Rhys wouldn’t be protecting her if he didn’t have something to gain from it. She was a stranger to him, but the High Lord was… the High Lord was someone he knew.

Feyre had the foreboding sense that she’d stumbled into the middle of something much larger than a felled wolf and a mortal life debt. But whatever Rhysand’s game, she was grateful to be alive.

“Will you ask him to come in?”

Nesta eyed the ripped tunic hanging from Feyre’s body. She glanced down at herself, noting what Nesta undoubtedly saw—the exposed plain garments beneath her slightly loosened stays, altogether revealing far more skin than a lady ought to in a gentleman’s lone company. Except Feyre was no lady, and Rhysand was certainly not a gentleman. She snorted, but drew the sheets over herself nonetheless.

With a huff—so that there was no mistaking her disapproval on the matter—Nesta stormed to the doorway and threw it open. She didn’t say a word to the man waiting on the other side, who turned at the sudden outburst, not even bothering with an excuse me as she shouldered past Rhysand, nearly trampling him in her warpath.

He caught the door before it shut, though he didn’t step past the threshold.

Not until Feyre looked at him and said, “You can come in.”

The door clicked, quiet as a whisper. He didn’t move any further, and though she tried to meet his eyes so that she could thank him for what he’d done for her and her sisters, he was doing an excellent job of studying everything in the room with the exception of Feyre. Perhaps he was more of a gentleman than she’d given him credit.

“Your sister’s a delight, by the way,” he said, picking up an iron chamberstick and holding it to the light as though he were assessing its make.

“So you’ve met Elain.”

“Elain is lovely, too,” he conceded, though a tad absent-mindedly.

She didn’t know why, but she said, “Elain’s the loveliest of us. Gentle in all the ways that Nesta and I are sharp. She’d make a good wife.”

That drew his attention. He laughed, shaking his head as he set the candle back down.

Feyre narrowed her eyes. “Did I say something funny?”

Now, he looked at her. And she really wished he hadn’t. It was like tumbling face-first into that pond all over again, feeling the world tip and rush past, and then she was blinking into a pool of piercing violet, uncomfortably aware of herself and uncertain what to do about it.

Rhys looked to be warring between incredulity and amusement. “Are you trying to encourage me to pursue your sister?”

“I…” She supposed she had. A force of habit, talking up her sisters to any suitor who would listen, perpetually scraping to find them an avenue out of starvation and poverty.

He smirked. “Not interested in having me for yourself? Or is this a selfless act of sisterly love?”

His smug expression jabbed into her as solidly as a finger, and he stepped towards her like a prodding child, trying to get under her skin. Feyre clenched her teeth, loathing that it worked.

“Neither,” she sniped. “Elain will undoubtedly marry for love, and I…”

Those violet eyes became a hot, coiling iron. Her cheeks seared beneath their heat, and she tore her attention towards the window, willing the frost to drift closer. How had they ended up on this subject to begin with? There were a million things she needed to discuss with him, least of all her marriage prospects.

Feyre shrugged, as if oblivious to his rapt attention and her own unfurling mortification. “I was content with becoming a spinster one day.”

Feyre hadn’t anticipated that it would be so difficult to admit that ambition out loud. It never sounded as absurd in her head. But then again, she had all the details that he didn’t—the endless list of reasons that she would make an unsatisfactory wife. She was a half-wild beast, never quite warm enough, or gentle enough, and certainly not docile enough. Never mind the gouges in her arm that now marked her life debt to the fae.

“Pity,” Rhys said, clicking his tongue. She wasn’t certain which prospect he was commenting on, and she wasn’t brave enough to ask. “I suppose we have that in common, though.”

“What do you mean?”

The words slipped out before she could leash them.

Wood groaned beneath Rhysand’s weight as he stepped further into the room. “A life with me means always being isolated from the rest of the world. Feared, because of what I do for a living. My wife or children would always be targeted—hunted—because of me. As such, I’d resigned myself to bachelorhood.”

A warning, and one that she knew wasn’t quite for Elain.

Feyre didn’t know why he bothered, why he thought marrying him was something that had even crossed her mind. “So you plan on never taking a wife?”

The question seemed to sober some of that amusement glinting in his eyes. “I wouldn’t say that.” He studied her face. “I just assume there aren’t many people who would be interested in sharing such a life with me.”

Except that he was undeniably beautiful. Feyre imagined he must have at least had lovers—handfuls of them, if she had to guess. Though, sharing someone’s body, but never quite their heart… It sounded an awful lot like what she had with Isaac. A way to stave off a darkness that always found its way back.

It sounded lonely, though she didn’t dare share that with him.

He added, as if in afterthought, “You are wrong about one thing, though.”

“What’s that?”

Rhys held her eyes. “Elain isn’t the loveliest. Not even close.”

She knew without demanding clarification that he wasn’t talking about Nesta. And Feyre didn’t know how to react, so unpracticed with flattery, especially coming from a stranger. A stranger who had saved her life. She’d met him hardly twenty-four hours ago, and in that time he’d conveniently managed to appear precisely where she needed him, exactly when she needed him, and now he was here staring at her with so much… wanting.

It ought to be gratitude thickening her tongue, but all she found herself swallowing was mouthfuls of distrust. Bitter, coppery. He was keeping vital information from her and, meanwhile, had managed to derail their conversation away from anything important.

“How’s your arm?” Rhys asked. He reached her bedside and propped himself casually on the adjacent bed, paying no mind to the neatly pressed sheets.

The question brought Feyre’s awareness back into her body, towards the injury that didn’t hurt nearly as much as the pile of bloody bandages would indicate. She prodded the edge of the bandage at her shoulder, curious to see the wound beneath.

“I haven’t looked at it, yet,” she admitted. “The pain is mild. I don’t think it’s bleeding.”

She would feel bad unravelling the healer’s work when it was clear the bandages were newly changed, but she was tempted to gauge how badly the injury would scar. Claws slashed through her memory, the size of her thumb and sharp as the sword at Rhysand’s back. She flinched, recalling how much blood there’d been in the aftermath, how she’d been mauled from shoulder to elbow. The fact that she felt no pain was remarkable.

“The healer gave you something for the pain,” Rhys said, nodding towards a corked vial of dark liquid on the worktable between their beds. He snagged it between two fingers, holding it up so she could see. Small, silver granules swirled as the vial sloshed back and forth beneath his examination. “Must have done its job. You didn’t wake up once during the stitching.”

She blinked. “You were there?”

“Of course I was.”

It was said with so much earnesty that Feyre faltered. She expected he would have just dumped her with a healer and left once she was no longer his bleeding problem to deal with.

“Nesta said you’ve been waiting outside all morning,” she said, raking her eyes down his figure.

He wore the same fine leathers she’d seen him in before, though the fur-lined cloak and crossbow were gone. A wisp of an image tickled her memory, of being wrapped in that cloak, cradled in warmth and whispered soothing words. The moment she tried to close a fist around the memory, to catch and examine it, she felt it fade and drift away like smoke.

Blinking, stumbling to re-orient herself, she asked, “Have you been here this whole time? Did you even sleep?”

Rhys shrugged. “I wanted to make sure you survived through the night.”

The way he said it so offhandedly… less like he was concerned, and more like it would have been a dreadful inconvenience. Scowling, Feyre demanded, “Would it have ruined your plans if I died?”

“Truthfully, it would have,” Rhys said, setting down the vial. “That beast isn’t dead, and neither are you, which means it will inevitably return.” So… his plan was to use her as bait? Her face twisted with disgust, and Rhys laughed before leaning forward and catching her chin. “Oh, don’t act so offended, Feyre. That’s not the only reason I wanted you to live. I would have missed this pretty face.”

“But would you have saved me, if you didn’t have anything to gain from it?”

He pitched his voice low. “The only reason I’ve survived as long as I have is because I don’t involve myself in situations that won’t sway in my favor. I saved you because I had something to gain from it. And I also saved you because I like you and it was the right thing to do. Both of those things can be true.”

“But if one of them wasn’t—if you had nothing to gain, you would have let that beast kill me. Or at the very least, abduct me.”

Rhysand’s expression hardened. “I would have thought, as a huntress, you would understand better than anyone that survival and selflessness are often opposed. It’s a luxury I’m afforded sparingly, so let’s not waste time on moral quandary. Last night our best interests were aligned, which was a very fortunate thing for both of us.”

She needed to swallow to work her next breath down her throat. Rhys noticed, judging by the way his gaze flickered to her neck, eyelids lowering enough that she could count his eyelashes, thick and dark against his bronze cheeks.

“And what happens when our best interests are no longer aligned?”

Her voice was no more than a whisper. Rhys’s lips quirked into a sideways smile.

He said, “Then I’ll forgive you, for whatever you’ll need to do to survive.”

Just like that, Feyre found herself in the winter woods, crouched atop a thick branch while the numb crept slowly through her body. Facing Rhysand, she tried, she truly did, to summon remorse for all the dead things that had once been breathing creatures before they had the misfortune of crossing her path.

With an unbearable heaviness, she understood what Rhys was saying, in a way she wished she’d never needed to. Because if it had been Rhys, defenseless beneath the claws of that beast, Feyre couldn’t say for certain that she would have gone to help. Not if it meant luring the beast back to the cabin, to her family. And from the grim understanding in his eyes, she knew he wished he didn’t need to make those kinds of decisions, either. There was a difference between ruthlessness and survival, but sometimes that line became blurred, practically indiscernible in a winter forest.

She couldn’t blame him, not when she operated the same way. But she also couldn’t offer him open forgiveness, either. So she settled with, “Thank you. For saving me yesterday.”

That seemed a satisfactory response, for the grin it pulled out of him. “So she has manners after all,” he crooned, releasing her chin. “Good. You’re going to need them while you’re here.”

Here.

Lord Nolan’s estate. The conversation they’d had last night felt like it had happened in a dream, but she could recall his explanation that the local Lord offered her family sanctuary from the fae on his estate. Their family had likely once run in similar social circles to Lord Nolan, from years ago when her father’s trading business was so renowned that he’d garnered the title Prince of Merchants. None of their aristocratic friends from that time had bothered to extend any help when Feyre’s father lost his fortune. When they’d been on the verge of starvation.

Feyre saw no reason why Lord Nolan would help now. The Archeron name had been tarnished after their father could not pay his debts. Everyone in high society had turned their backs. She doubted it was being done out of the kindness of his heart.

“This… sanctuary,” she said carefully. He raised a perfectly groomed brow. “What are its terms?”

She assumed it would involve some sort of work to pay their dues. Feyre thought she could handle the manual labor of being a scullery maid, but she shuddered to imagine Nesta waiting on Lord. Or Elain, scrubbing floors. Maybe they could put her to use in the kitchen—

“You’re to remain here as guests,” Rhys said, smoothly cutting into her unravelling anxieties.

“Guests?” Feyre stared at him. Waiting for further explanation, because certainly that couldn’t be the whole of their agreement.

“Does the word guest elude you?”

He twisted his mouth like he was trying not to laugh. Feyre dropped her eyes toward the pillow propped beneath her back, debating if it would pull her stitches to launch it at his head. “Yes,” she said through her teeth. “It does, actually. The Lord is to put us up, and we’re to do nothing in exchange?”

“Precisely.”

There had to be some sort of catch. Something she was missing. “And how long are we going to be guests?”

Rhysand began picking at a fleck of dust on his tunic. “For the duration of my contract.”

“Which is how long, Rhysand?”

His head snapped up at the use of that name. Those violet eyes narrowed into crescents, and she recalled in the marketplace that he had said his name was simply Rhys. Interesting.

“Could be a year,” he said with a shrug. “Could be several.” She thought he was being purposefully vague now, trying to wind her up. But then his amusement sobered a bit, and he added, “Before it ends, I’ll make sure that beast can never harm you or your family again.”

The vow sounded sincere enough to curb the sharpest edges of her anger. She sighed. “How did you get Lord Nolan to agree to this?”

“Lord Nolan and his family are notorious for their hatred of the fae. More and more have been crossing through the wall in recent years, and he’s employed my services to ensure the estate’s protection.” In a fluid motion, Rhys rose to his feet and crossed the distance toward the large window between their beds. Bright winter light fell across his face as he peered through the fogged glass, like he could see through to the borders of that great, legendary Wall. “When I told Lord Nolan that a family in the village was being hunted by the fae, he was willing to lend the necessary men to eradicate the threat. He was wary, however, about what a human girl could have done to warrant such attention.”

A knot coiled in her stomach. She would have thought that Lord Nolan, renowned for hating the fae, would respect that she’d killed the wolf in the woods. But from the wicked smile that curled over Rhysand’s mouth, she expected that wasn’t the story he recounted to the Lord.

Rhys glanced over his shoulder at Feyre, tilting his head in a way that caused a lock of hair to fall over his face. He slid a hand into his pocket, retrieving an object he promptly tossed in her direction. Still recovering from her injury, Feyre wasn’t quick enough to respond before the object thunked against her thigh and landed on the bed.

“What’s this?” She asked, cautiously lifting the black velvet box.

He jutted his chin, wordlessly urging her, open it.

The hinges swung open with little resistance, revealing a ring of twisted strands of gold, flecked with pearl, and set with a round diamond. Feyre angled the box back and forth, admiring the myriad of colors that refracted off its surface. It was beautiful, and she hadn’t the slightest idea why she was holding it.

“Lord Nolan is a shrewd businessman, and he’d ordinarily never be so generous,” Rhys explained. “But when I told him that you were being hunted, and that I would be unable to fulfill the contract if I needed to worry about protecting you in the cottage, he reconsidered.”

Rhys turned from the window, offering her a devilish smirk as the pieces started to click into place.

“After all,” he crooned, “It would be cruel to keep a man separated from his wife.”

#We Bleed the Same #Feysand #Feysand fic #Feysand fanfic #Feysand fanfiction #Feyre x Rhys #Rhys x Feyre #Feyre x Rhysand #Rhysand x Feyre

[giggles-and-freckles]

how about meeting at a party whilst drunk au with anakin and obiwan?? not ship tho please

from this prompt list

It’s so hot.

Which, given the amount he’s had to drink this evening, is no surprise. It’s a common joke between Obi-Wan’s friends that his complaining about the warm temperature of a room is the tell-tale signal that he’s crossed the threshold into drunkenness. 

He doesn’t feel drunk, though. Not entirely anyway.

Some fresh air is all he needs. 

It’s been several years now since those extended weekends here throughout his time at university. He’s passed out on just about every flat surface in the house. Everyone always coveted an invite to Padmé’s family's vacation home on Lake Naboo. Most uni students barely had a proper flat to call their own, while Padmé had a summer house. It was impossible to hold Padmé’s wealth against her, though. Not when she made everyone she met feel as if they were part of her own family.

Obi-Wan slips through the doors onto the large balcony that overlooks the lake.

“Oh,” he says, seeing he’s not alone. “I’m sorry. I —”

“S’fine,” the man says, waving him off. He’s holding a half-full flute of champagne and it sloshes to the rim as he gestures. “I’m…I’m just taking a break.”

Obi-Wan nods, and leans against the railing, placing a comfortable distance between himself and the stranger.

“I needed some fresh air,” he says.

The lake is frozen over, as it always is this time of year. Faint lines from morning skaters can be seen criss-crossing over the thick ice. Obi-Wan isn’t sure he even remembers how to skate anymore.

“I’m Anakin, by the way.”

Obi-Wan almost chokes. “You’re…”

The man gives a sideways grin. “Welcome to my lovely home.” The smallest of hiccups punctuates his quip.

“I…I shouldn’t be wandering around —”

Anakin waves him off again. “Please. I know you. You’re Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

“I am,” he stammers. “I don’t think we’ve met…”

“Nope. But Padmé talks about you all the time.”

Guilt overwhelms Obi-Wan. “I was sorry to...to miss the wedding.”

Anakin shrugs, then takes a sip of his drink. “Padmé was pretty pissed.”

“Yes. I know.”

“Got married right here,” Anakin says, swinging his arms around to showcase the veranda. This time, his champagne does slosh over the rim of his glass.

“I saw pictures. It looked like a lovely ceremony.”

“Do you smoke?”

“Pardon?”

Anakin hiccups. “Neither do I.”

Obi-Wan must be drunker than he thought, because suddenly Anakin is the funniest person he’s ever met. He snorts in laughter, then uses the sleeve of his jumper to wipe at his nose.

“Y’know,” Anakin says, “Padmé always said we’d be good friends.” He looks over at Obi-Wan and cocks his head. “What d’you think?”

“I’ve been told I’m agreeable enough.”

It’s Anakin’s turn to laugh. He doesn’t hold back in the same way Obi-Wan does, instead throwing his head back and practically cackling to the sky. “I’m pretty sure I’m the most disagreeable person ever.”

“That can’t be true.”

“Sure it can.”

“Well—”

“See?” Anakin grins. 

“How did you and Padmé meet? I’m afraid I…” Obi-Wan clears his throat. “I’m afraid I lost touch for a bit.”

Anakin rolls his eyes and downs the rest of his champagne. “Yeah. I heard.” He shrugs his shoulders. “What can I say? Padmé likes younger men.”

Obi-Wan chuckles. “How lucky for you.”

“Damn right.” He looks around and frowns. “Do you mind if I sit down?”

“There’s a bench just — oh.” Anakin has plopped down into the settled snow. “Alright.” He finds himself sitting down on the ground, too. His trousers are sure to be drenched after this, but he’s too intoxicated to care.

“So why’d you come?”

“What?” Obi-Wan questions.

“Tonight. Padmé’s been trying to see you for years.”

“Oh. Well…” Where to even begin. It was never Padmé’s fault. What happened to Qui-Gon, it…it was complicated. And, now, looking back, he wishes he had done so many things differently. He’d been hurt and angry and confused and — it had been easy to shut everyone out and disappear.

“It was time,” Obi-Wan says simply.

“One AM, I think.”

“What?”

“Did you ask —” Anakin stops, then throws his head back in laughter again, this time slamming the back of his head against the railing. “Never mind,” he manages through his laughter.

Obi-Wan begins to laugh, too. “So why are you out here? Instead…of —”

“I hate people.”

Obi-Wan lifts his eyebrows in surprise. “All people?”

“Most of them. Except for Padmé. You seem okay, but I think you’d be more boring if you were less drunk.”

“If I was less drunk?” Obi-Wan cries in outrage. “I beg your pardon, but —”

“Hey look.” A smile splits across Anakin’s face. “It’s snowing.”

#writing prompts #obi & ani #The Team #this is loosely inspired by that scene in little women where jo and laurie meet at the party as they hide from all the annoying people

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ADWD: Jon XIII (Chapter 69)

"Let them die," said Queen Selyse.

It was the answer that Jon Snow had expected. This queen never fails to disappoint. Somehow that did not soften the blow. "Your Grace," he persisted stubbornly, "they are starving at Hardhome by the thousands. Many are women—"

"—and children, yes. Very sad." The queen pulled her daughter closer to her and kissed her cheek. The cheek unmarred by greyscale, Jon did not fail to note. "We are sorry for the little ones, of course, but we must be sensible. We have no food for them, and they are too young to help the king my husband in his wars. Better that they be reborn into the light."

Discussion about dying children being reborn into the light interrupted by Shireen kisses.

+.+.+

Melisandre of Asshai stood closer to the fire, the ruby at her throat pulsing with every breath she took. The red woman too had her attendants—the squire Devan Seaworth and two of the guardsmen the king had left her.

I continue to find it extremely suspect that so much attention is being paid to Devan's proximity to Melisandre, while the author also constantly underscores how vulnerable she is.

Remember, it's Devan who is close to Shireen, not Davos. It's Devan who was saved from certain death. Why? Where are we going with that?

+.+.+

Up spoke Ser Malegorn. "Lord Snow, who will lead this ranging?"

"Are you offering yourself, ser?"

"Do I look so foolish?"

Patchface jumped up. "I will lead it!" His bells rang merrily. "We will march into the sea and out again. Under the waves we will ride seahorses, and mermaids will blow seashells to announce our coming, oh, oh, oh."

We will march into the sea and out again.

Death, and restoration to life. I think?

Under the waves we will ride seahorses, and mermaids will blow seashells to announce our coming, oh, oh, oh.

Remember the Merling King?

The Braavosi trading galley hired by Petyr Baelish, that carries him and Sansa to the Vale?

The eastern sky was vague with the first hint of dawn when Sansa finally saw a ghostly shape in the darkness ahead; a trading galley, her sails furled, moving slowly on a single bank of oars. As they drew closer, she saw the ship's figurehead, a merman with a golden crown blowing on a great seashell horn. - Sansa V, ASOS

If it is the Merling King, that would not be the first time Sansa got the mermaid treatment.

Patchface rang his bells. "It is always summer under the sea," he intoned. "The merwives wear nennymoans in their hair and weave gowns of silver seaweed. I know, I know, oh, oh, oh." - Prologue, ACOK

+.+.+

Jon was less amused. "I will not ask my men to do what I would not do myself. I mean to lead the ranging."

This is honourable, but I'm going to say it's the wrong decision. You can't leave Castle Black days after thousands of wildlings crossed the Wall, and the tension is threatening to boil over.

+.+.+

"How bold of you," said the queen. "We approve. Afterward some bard will make a stirring song about you, no doubt, and we shall have a more prudent lord commander."

I went straight to asearchoficeandfire and investigated whether Jorah has ever been called prudent.

Nothing.

+.+.+

Ser Axell went through a door and returned a moment later with Gerrick Kingsblood. "Gerrick of House Redbeard," he announced, "King of the Wildlings."

Gerrick Kingsblood was a tall man, long of leg and broad of shoulder. The queen had dressed him in some of the king's old clothes, it appeared. Scrubbed and groomed, clad in green velvets and an ermine half-cape, with his long red hair freshly washed and his fiery beard shaped and trimmed, the wildling looked every inch a southron lord. He could walk into the throne room at King's Landing, and no one would blink an eye, Jon thought.

"Gerrick is the true and rightful king of the wildlings," the queen said, "descended in an unbroken male line from their great king Raymun Redbeard, whereas the usurper Mance Rayder was born of some common woman and fathered by one of your black brothers."

No, Jon might have said, Gerrick is descended from a younger brother of Raymun Redbeard. To the free folk that counted about as much as being descended from Raymun Redbeard's horse. They know nothing, Ygritte. And worse, they will not learn.

Hold up. Wait a second.

Did Val just lose her fancy title and crown? Is she no longer a princess?

Damn, Selyse stripped her of her entire identity.

+.+.+

"Gerrick has graciously agreed to give the hand of his eldest daughter to my beloved Axell, to be united by the Lord of Light in holy wedlock," Queen Selyse said. "His other girls shall wed at the same time—the second daughter with Ser Brus Buckler and the youngest with Ser Malegorn of Redpool."

"Sers." Jon inclined his head to the knights in question. "May you find happiness with your betrothed."

"Under the sea, men marry fishes." Patchface did a little dance step, jingling his bells. "They do, they do, they do."

+.+.+

Queen Selyse sniffed again. "Four marriages can be made as simply as three. It is past time that this woman Val was settled, Lord Snow. I have decided that she shall wed my good and leal knight, Ser Patrek of King's Mountain."

"Has Val been told, Your Grace?" asked Jon. "Amongst the free folk, when a man desires a woman, he steals her, and thus proves his strength, his cunning, and his courage. The suitor risks a savage beating if he is caught by the woman's kin, and worse than that if she herself finds him unworthy."

I so desperately want this to be about Petyr Bael-ish. Could be, when is anything about Val ever actually about Val?

Everyone thank Jon for putting a bad idea in Ser Patrek's head.

+.+.+

Jon wondered if the queen would be so eager to see Val married to one of her own knights if she knew Val's feelings about Princess Shireen. 

Aww, is he saying that's disqualifying? Lol.

Big surprise Jon would never forget a conversation like that.

+.+.+

She [Melisandre] made her way down, the hem of her scarlet skirts swishing over the steps. It almost seemed as if she floated. "Where is your direwolf?"

"Asleep in my chambers. Her Grace does not allow Ghost in her presence. She claims he scares the princess. And so long as Borroq and his boar are about, I dare not let him loose." 

+.+.+

"Selyse has the right of this, Lord Snow. Let them die. You cannot save them. Your ships are lost—"

"Six remain. More than half the fleet."

"Your ships are lost. All of them. Not a man shall return. I have seen that in my fires."

Melisandre is always kinda right / kinda wrong, so we'll have to wait and see how this plays out.

+.+.+

"I have made mistakes, I have admitted as much, but—"

"A grey girl on a dying horse. Daggers in the dark. A promised prince, born in smoke and salt. It seems to me that you make nothing but mistakes, my lady. Where is Stannis? What of Rattleshirt and his spearwives? Where is my sister?"

See? There is a sister in grey, there are daggers in the dark, and there is a promised princess born amidst salt and smoke. Kinda right / kinda wrong.

All we needed was Moqorro.

+.+.+

"All your questions shall be answered. Look to the skies, Lord Snow. And when you have your answers, send to me. Winter is almost upon us now. I am your only hope."

She botched this so badly, a raven will come, and he won't send for her. I cry.

+.+.+

"There is still much to decide. Spread the word. I want all the leading men in the Shieldhall when the evening watch begins. Tormund should be back by then. Where can I find Toregg?"

"With the little monster, like as not. He's taken a liking to one o' them milkmaids, I hear."

He has taken a liking to Val. Her sister was a queen, why not her? Tormund had once thought to make himself the King-Beyond-the-Wall, before Mance had bested him. Toregg the Tall might well be dreaming the same dream.

I don't want to rain all over the Val x Jon shipper parade (bwaha lies), but I have to point out that's the second time we've randomly paired Toregg and Val.

"Har!" laughed Tormund Giantsbane. "Don't bandy words with this one, Lord Snow, she's too clever for the likes o' you and me. Best steal her quick, before Toregg wakes up and takes her first."

[...]

But that bridge had been burned a long time ago, and Jon himself had thrown the torch. "Toregg is welcome to her," he announced. "I took a vow." - Jon XI, ADWD

Notice how much Jon doesn't care?

Remember how much Jon hated Joffrey before there was a reason to hate Joffrey? Yeah.

+.+.+

Outside the armory, Mully and the Flea stood shivering at guard. "Shouldn't you be inside, out of this wind?" Jon asked.

"That'd be sweet, m'lord," said Fulk the Flea, "but your wolf's in no mood for company today."

Mully agreed. "He tried to take a bite o' me, he did."

"Ghost?" Jon was shocked.

"Unless your lordship has some other white wolf, aye. I never seen him like this, m'lord. All wild-like, I mean."

He was not wrong, as Jon discovered for himself when he slipped inside the doors. The big white direwolf would not lie still. He paced from one end of the armory to the other, past the cold forge and back again. "Easy, Ghost," Jon called. "Down. Sit, Ghost. Down." Yet when he made to touch him, the wolf bristled and bared his teeth. It's that bloody boar. Even in here, Ghost can smell his stink.

+.+.+

But no sooner had Jon finished than the Lord Steward said, "Her Grace is wise. Let them die."

Jon sat back. "Is that the only counsel you can offer, my lord? Tormund is bringing eighty men. How many should we send? Shall we call upon the giants? The spearwives at Long Barrow? If we have women with us, it may put Mother Mole's people at ease."

"Send women, then. Send giants. Send suckling babes. Is that what my lord wishes to hear?" Bowen Marsh rubbed at the scar he had won at the Bridge of Skulls. "Send them all. The more we lose, the fewer mouths we'll have to feed."

I'm begging you to tell this man about the loan. He's beyond terrified over the lack of food, he won't shut up about it, please tell the man there's money to buy food. Historically people do violent things when there's no food, Jon.

+.+.+

Satin helped them back into their cloaks. As they walked through the armory, Ghost sniffed at them, his tail upraised and bristling. My brothers. 

Jon, your wolf is talking.

+.+.+

"How many men do we have in ice cells?" he asked Bowen Marsh.

"Four living men. Two dead ones."

The corpses. Jon had almost forgotten them. He had hoped to learn something from the bodies they'd brought back from the weirwood grove, but the dead men had stubbornly remained dead. "We need to dig those cells out."

[...]

"What would the lord commander like us to do with his corpses?" asked Marsh when the living men had been moved.

"Leave them." If the storm entombed them, well and good. He would need to burn them eventually, no doubt, but for the nonce they were bound with iron chains inside their cells. That, and being dead, should suffice to hold them harmless.

Oh right, the dead corpses. Can't forget about the dead corpses. For some reason they seem important.

I hope this doesn't mean I won't get to read about Gendry running a sub-5 minute marathon in a blizzard.

+.+.+

Someone had already told the Thunderfist about Gerrick Kingsblood and his new style. "King o' the Wildlings?" Tormund roared. "Har! King o' My Hairy Butt Crack, more like."

"He has a regal look to him," Jon said.

"He has a little red cock to go with all that red hair, that's what he has. Raymund Redbeard and his sons died at Long Lake, thanks to your bloody Starks and the Drunken Giant. Not the little brother. Ever wonder why they called him the Red Raven?" Tormund's mouth split in a gap-toothed grin. "First to fly the battle, he was. 'Twas a song about it, after. The singer had to find a rhyme for craven, so …" He wiped his nose. "If your queen's knights want those girls o' his, they're welcome to them."

Is this hinting at someone else? I can't think of anyone other than the Hound.

+.+.+

Mully had not been wrong; the old steward was trembling, his face as pale as the snows outside. "I am being foolish, Lord Commander, but … this letter frightens me. See here?"

Bastard, was the only word written outside the scroll. No Lord Snow or Jon Snow or Lord Commander. Simply Bastard. And the letter was sealed with a smear of hard pink wax. "You were right to come at once," Jon said. You were right to be afraid. He cracked the seal, flattened the parchment, and read.

Welcome to Your Theory is Bad, and Here's Why.

Clydas thrust the parchment forward. It was tightly rolled and sealed, with a button of hard pink wax. Only the Dreadfort uses pink sealing wax. - Jon VI, ADWD

Only the Dreadfort uses pink wax. It is extremely unlikely Clydas wrote this letter and sealed it with pink wax he didn't have on hand.

+.+.+

Your false king is dead, bastard. He and all his host were smashed in seven days of battle. I have his magic sword. Tell his red whore.

Your false king's friends are dead. Their heads upon the walls of Winterfell. Come see them, bastard. Your false king lied, and so did you. You told the world you burned the King-Beyond-the-Wall. Instead you sent him to Winterfell to steal my bride from me.

I will have my bride back. If you want Mance Rayder back, come and get him. I have him in a cage for all the north to see, proof of your lies. The cage is cold, but I have made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell.

I want my bride back. I want the false king's queen. I want his daughter and his red witch. I want his wildling princess. I want his little prince, the wildling babe. And I want my Reek. Send them to me, bastard, and I will not trouble you or your black crows. Keep them from me, and I will cut out your bastard's heart and eat it.

It was signed,

Ramsay Bolton,

Trueborn Lord of Winterfell.

I see lies. If Ramsay had defeated Stannis (or Mors Umber), he'd know Jon doesn't have Theon.

Despite Ramsay having a notable hang-up about being called a bastard,

The dogs swarmed around them, snapping and snarling at the strangers. The Bastard's girls, Reek thought, before he remembered that one must never, never, never use that word in Ramsay's presence. - Reek II, ADWD

and signing this letter with Trueborn Lord of Winterfell, people still believe it's Mance who would excessively call Jon a bastard.

Your theory is bad.

Mance was left behind when Jeyne and Theon escaped (a castle that had no other exits), and was obviously apprehended given everything Ramsay knows. How would Mance be writing letters to Jon Snow? It will be a miracle if Mance has half his fingers left.

Your theory is bad.

Side note, kind of strange Rattleshirt-Mance was last seen in a cage without a cloak.

+.+.+

He handed Tormund Giantsbane the letter. "Here, see for yourself."

The wildling gave the letter a dubious look and handed it right back. "Feels nasty … but Tormund Thunderfist had better things to do than learn to make papers talk at him. They never have any good to say, now do they?"

Lots is made about the fact that Jon never mentions Ramsay's infamous spiky writing.

Ramsay Bolton, Lord of the Hornwood, it read, in a huge, spiky hand. The brown ink came away in flakes when Jon brushed it with his thumb. - Jon VI, ADWD

Hello? It's implied. Tormund can't read, why would he think the letter feels nasty?

Jon knows Ramsay's handwriting, you don't think he's going to immediately question the handwriting if it doesn't match what he's seen before?

Your theory is bad.

+.+.+

Dark wings, dark words. Perhaps there was more truth to those wise old sayings than he'd known. "It was sent by Ramsay Snow. I'll read you what he wrote."

Jon started off this book referring to him as Ramsay Bolton.

"That will bring you to the Dreadfort," said Jon, "but unless your host can outmarch a raven or a line of beacon fires, the castle will know of your approach. It will be an easy thing for Ramsay Bolton to cut off your retreat and leave you far from the Wall, without food or refuge, surrounded by your foes." - Jon IV, ADWD

Now he exclusively uses Ramsay Snow.

+.+.+

When he was done, Tormund whistled. "Har. That's buggered, and no mistake. What was that about Mance? Has him in a cage, does he? How, when hundreds saw your red witch burn the man?"

That was Rattleshirt, Jon almost said. That was sorcery. A glamor, she called it. "Melisandre … look to the skies, she said." He set the letter down. "A raven in a storm. She saw this coming." When you have your answers, send to me.

He doesn't send for her. She would know if Stannis was dead. Ho hum.

+.+.+

Jon flexed the fingers of his sword hand. The Night's Watch takes no part. He closed his fist and opened it again. What you propose is nothing less than treason. He thought of Robb, with snowflakes melting in his hair. Kill the boy and let the man be born. He thought of Bran, clambering up a tower wall, agile as a monkey. Of Rickon's breathless laughter. Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird's nest. I made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell … I want my bride back … I want my bride back … I want my bride back …

How dare he call Bran a monkey.

What can I say about this that hasn't already been said? Should I point out the peculiar things Jon liked most about Ygritte?

And maybe her eyes were too far apart, but they were a pretty blue-grey color, and lively as any eyes he knew. Sometimes she sang in a low husky voice that stirred him. And sometimes by the cookfire when she sat hugging her knees with the flames waking echoes in her red hair, and looked at him, just smiling . . . well, that stirred some things as well. - Jon II, ASOS

Should I mention Jon invented a version of Ygritte that never existed?

He could tell she did not believe him. If I could show her Winterfell . . . give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us. - Jon V, ASOS

x

"Then I'd push him in a stream or throw a bucket o' water on him. Anyhow, men shouldn't smell sweet like flowers."

"What's wrong with flowers?"

"Nothing, for a bee. For bed I want one o' these." Ygritte made to grab the front of his breeches. - Jon V, ASOS

x

"Who is Ygritte?" Donal Noye asked pointedly.

"A woman of the free folk." How could he explain Ygritte to them? She's warm and smart and funny and she can kiss a man or slit his throat. - Jon VI, ASOS

x

When his eyelids fluttered open, he was wrapped in thick wool and floating. He could not seem to move, but that did not matter. For a time he dreamed that Ygritte was with him, tending him with gentle hands. Finally he closed his eyes and slept. - Jon VI, ASOS

Should we simply laugh at all the other oddities?

Ygritte punched his arm. "You know nothing, Jon Snow. I'm half a fish, I'll have you know." - Jon V, ASOS

x

She punched him. "That's vile. Would you bed your sister?" - Jon III, ASOS

x

"She even claimed we were kin. She told me a story . . ." - Jon VII, ACOK

Or maybe I'll make the argument that Ygritte is no winter rose, and Jon had no desire to steal her.

Jon sat up. "Ygritte, I never stole you."

"Aye, you did. You jumped down the mountain and killed Orell, and afore I could get my axe you had a knife at my throat. I thought you'd have me then, or kill me, or maybe both, but you never did. And when I told you the tale o' Bael the Bard and how he plucked the rose o' Winterfell, I thought you'd know to pluck me then for certain, but you didn't. You know nothing, Jon Snow." - Jon III, ASOS

We're still waiting on that.

+.+.+

"I think we had best change the plan," Jon Snow said.

They talked for the best part of two hours.

Horse and Rory had replaced Fulk and Mully at the armory door with the change of watch. "With me," Jon told them, when the time came. Ghost would have followed as well, but as the wolf came padding after them, Jon grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and wrestled him back inside. Borroq might be amongst those gathering at the Shieldhall. The last thing he needed just now was his wolf savaging the skinchanger's boar.

+.+.+

When Jon and Tormund entered, a sound went through the hall, like wasps stirring in a nest. The wildlings outnumbered the crows by five to one, judging by how little black he saw. 

This is only inside the Shieldhall, but it's worth mentioning that when Jon is stabbed the wildlings badly outnumber the watchmen at Castle Black. Not clear whether Bowen Marsh has a plan for that.

+.+.+

"I summoned you to make plans for the relief of Hardhome," Jon Snow began. "Thousands of the free folk are gathered there, trapped and starving, and we have had reports of dead things in the wood." To his left he saw Marsh and Yarwyck. Othell was surrounded by his builders, whilst Bowen had Wick Whittlestick, Left Hand Lew, and Alf of Runnymudd beside him. 

We have confirmation on Bowen and Wick, I'm guessing Lew and Runnymudd are the other mutineers.

+.+.+

Borroq leaned against a wall in a dark corner. Mercifully, his boar was nowhere in evidence.

Then why is Ghost agitated? Jon?

+.+.+

Two of Queen Selyse's knights had come as well, Jon saw. Ser Narbert and Ser Benethon stood near the door at the foot of the hall. But the rest of the queen's men were conspicuous in their absence.

They're off stealing The Wildling Formerly Known as Princess.

+.+.+

A flash of red in the back of the hall caught Jon's eye. Lady Melisandre had arrived. 

Almost like she was expecting that raven.

+.+.+

"But now I find I cannot go to Hardhome. The ranging will be led by Tormund Giantsbane, known to you all. I have promised him as many men as he requires."

"And where will you be, crow?" Borroq thundered. "Hiding here in Castle Black with your white dog?"

"No. I ride south." Then Jon read them the letter Ramsay Snow had written.

The Shieldhall went mad.

Jon will be murdered before Tormund can leave, so if Melisandre is correct and everyone at Hardhome is doomed, it shouldn't include the Horn-blower.

+.+.+

"The Night's Watch takes no part in the wars of the Seven Kingdoms," Jon reminded them when some semblance of quiet had returned. "It is not for us to oppose the Bastard of Bolton, to avenge Stannis Baratheon, to defend his widow and his daughter. This creature who makes cloaks from the skins of women has sworn to cut my heart out, and I mean to make him answer for those words … but I will not ask my brothers to forswear their vows.

"The Night's Watch will make for Hardhome. I ride to Winterfell alone, unless …" Jon paused. "… is there any man here who will come stand with me?"

The roar was all he could have hoped for, the tumult so loud that the two old shields tumbled from the walls. Soren Shieldbreaker was on his feet, the Wanderer as well. Toregg the Tall, Brogg, Harle the Huntsman and Harle the Handsome both, Ygon Oldfather, Blind Doss, even the Great Walrus. I have my swords, thought Jon Snow, and we are coming for you, Bastard.

This is a hard one, because on one hand we love Jon the character for his big heart, love of family, and constant resistance to injustice, but on the other hand I don't think he should be doing this right now.

I don't view this in the same way I view Ned rebelling against a tyrannical monarchy, or refusing to serve Robert when he wants to commit cruel acts. This is personal vendetta.

Yes, there's the obvious parallel with Brandon Stark attempting to save and avenge Lyanna, but Ramsay has told Jon that Arya has escaped, and Jon is not remotely focused on that. There's no plan whatsoever with regards to finding Arya. Like, come on.

+.+.+

Yarwyck and Marsh were slipping out, he saw, and all their men behind them. It made no matter. He did not need them now. He did not want them. No man can ever say I made my brothers break their vows. If this is oathbreaking, the crime is mine and mine alone.

What's the punishment for oathbreaking, Jon?

+.+.+

Melisandre was gone, he realized, and so were the queen's knights. I should have gone to Selyse first. She has the right to know her lord is dead.

Honestly? Inexcusable. Imagine Catelyn and one of her children finding out Ned died because a bunch of soldiers were screaming about it in a dining hall somewhere.

Jon's a little too consumed with how this letter affects Jon, and what kills me is that if he went to Selyse first, Melisandre would have told him Stannis is not dead.

+.+.+

Horse and Rory fell in beside Jon as he left the Shieldhall. I should talk with Melisandre after I see the queen, he thought. If she could see a raven in a storm, she can find Ramsay Snow for me. 

Again.

It's a battle of the bastards!

+.+.+

Then he heard the shouting … and a roar so loud it seemed to shake the Wall. "That come from Hardin's Tower, m'lord," Horse reported. He might have said more, but the scream cut him off.

Val, was Jon's first thought. But that was no woman's scream. That is a man in mortal agony. He broke into a run. Horse and Rory raced after him. "Is it wights?" asked Rory. Jon wondered. Could his corpses have escaped their chains?

You mustn't forget the corpses, everyone.

+.+.+

The screaming had stopped by the time they came to Hardin's Tower, but Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun was still roaring. The giant was dangling a bloody corpse by one leg, the same way Arya used to dangle her doll when she was small, swinging it like a morningstar when menaced by vegetables. Arya never tore her dolls to pieces, though. The dead man's sword arm was yards away, the snow beneath it turning red.

Wait until you meet the new Arya.

"Just leave me be." She wouldn't, though, so finally Arya took the doll away from her, ripped it open, and pulled the rag stuffing out of its belly with a finger. "Now he really looks like a soldier!" she said, before she threw the doll in a brook. - Arya XII, ASOS

+.+.+

He swung the dead knight against the grey stone of the tower, again and again and again, until the man's head was red and pulpy as a summer melon. The knight's cloak flapped in the cold air. Of white wool it had been, bordered in cloth-of-silver and patterned with blue stars. Blood and bone were flying everywhere.

Men poured from the surrounding keeps and towers. Northmen, free folk, queen's men … "Form a line," Jon Snow commanded them. "Keep them back. Everyone, but especially the queen's men." The dead man was Ser Patrek of King's Mountain; his head was largely gone, but his heraldry was as distinctive as his face. 

Rest in peace, Ser Patrek of Dallas Cowboy Mountain. Too bad that wildling wasn't worth it.

By the way, Preston Jacobs doesn't believe this guy is dead either. I'm not joking.

+.+.+

Oh no.

+.+.+

A horn, I need a horn. He saw the glint of steel, turned toward it. "No blades!" he screamed. "Wick, put that knife …"

… away, he meant to say. When Wick Whittlestick slashed at his throat, the word turned into a grunt. Jon twisted from the knife, just enough so it barely grazed his skin. He cut me. When he put his hand to the side of his neck, blood welled between his fingers. "Why?"

"For the Watch." Wick slashed at him again. This time Jon caught his wrist and bent his arm back until he dropped the dagger. The gangling steward backed away, his hands upraised as if to say, Not me, it was not me. 

+.+.+

Jon reached for Longclaw, but his fingers had grown stiff and clumsy. Somehow he could not seem to get the sword free of its scabbard.

He began to flex his hand, opening and closing the fingers. If he let his sword hand stiffen and grow clumsy, it well might be the end of him, he knew. - Jon II, ACOK

+.+.+

Then Bowen Marsh stood there before him, tears running down his cheeks. "For the Watch." He punched Jon in the belly. When he pulled his hand away, the dagger stayed where he had buried it.

+.+.+

Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger's hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. "Ghost," he whispered.

The fighting will be done and someone will tell me whether I'm to live or die. "Lady," she whimpered softly, wondering if she would meet her wolf again when she was dead. - Sansa VII, ACOK

x

"Jeyne?" Robb grabbed the edge of the table and forced himself to stand. "Mother," he said, "Grey Wind . . ." - Catelyn VII, ASOS

+.+.+

Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold …

<- The Dragontamer

When he raised his whip, he saw that the lash was burning. His hand as well. All of him, all of him was burning.

Final thoughts:

Beware the Ides of March!

If there's a silver lining, while Jon is being stabbed to death with daggers in the dark, he recalls Arya's pointy end.

AGOT: Jon II -> Daenerys II

"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end." 

Arya gave him a whap on the arm with the flat of her blade. The blow stung, but Jon found himself grinning like an idiot. "I know which end to use," Arya said. - Jon II, AGOT

AGOT: Arya II -> Daenerys III

"Arya, what did you think to do with this … Needle? Who did you hope to skewer? Your sister? Septa Mordane? Do you know the first thing about sword fighting?"

All she could think of was the lesson Jon had given her. "Stick them with the pointy end," she blurted out. - Arya II, AGOT

Yeah Arya, who? Who did you hope to skewer?

Anyway, that sucked. Would not recommend. Bye Jon.

-> return to menu <-

#operation stumpy re-read #adwd #jon xiii

[quillthrillswriting]

i love writing sokka, so i've thrown some of my favourite lines of his from my fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" together, so that they can be properly appreciated <3 >:)

---

Sokka continued, his voice both indignant and commanding.“We don’t even know your name, Mr. Walking Ice Cube! What were you doing in there? Were you trying to mimic a snow-man and you got too carried away?” 

---

“So, you’ve brought a monster to invade the village, then? You’re some incognito Fire Nation soldier sent in as an undercover scout? Well, I’ll have you know that I’m the village’s strongest warrior, a-”

“The only warrior,” Katara chimed in, lightly elbowing Sokka’s side, earning herself a responding glare. 

“The strongest warrior.” Sokka reiterated. “And I don’t much like firebenders.” He added the words pointedly.

“Ah.” Aang titled his head. “That’s a shame. Some of my closest friends are Fire Nation.”

“Of course they are,” Sokka glared, hunching over into a defensive position and adjusting his fishing spear until it pointed directly at Aang.

---

“Appa can give us a lift?” Sokka said incredulously. He gestured at the sky bison, sprawled across the ice and looking as though he could sleep for weeks longer. “If anything, he looks like he needs us to lift him up off the ground.”

---

Naturally, Sokka was still a skeptic. “A pulley system! Hot air from a hidden firebender! Secret underwater sea-vents! Or maybe we all ate something funny and all of this is all in our heads… ” He finished off his sentence by wiggling his fingers as if he was ready to cast a spell.

---

Sokka nodded sharply. “He’s our responsibility, no matter how much I berated him when we met earlier. We need to find that sky monster of his, it’s the only way we’ll be able to catch up with the ship.”

“Aang called it a sky bison.”

“He also didn’t tell us that he was the Avatar, so I’m not sure if we can take everything he says at face value,” Sokka pointed out as Katara rolled her eyes. He cocked a grin. “C’mon, let's go get the little guy.”

“Aang’s taller than you!” Katara called after him, rushing to keep up with Sokka’s longer strides.

“Sure, in his dreams !” The decidedly-shorter-than-Aang boy called back. 

---

“Here’s the deal, bucko.” Sokka said matter of factly, accompanying his words with sharp gestures and exaggerated syllables, as if Appa was deaf. “Your friend needs your help, and WE need YOUR help to get to him. You get the picture?” Without waiting for any kind of affirmation, Sokka nodded briskly then scrambled up to Appa’s back, settling into what appeared to be the driver's seat. 

Appa did not move, didn’t even blink.

Sokka blinked, utterly bewildered. “How do we get him to, y’know, go ?”

---

“He’s not gonna-” Sokka started, but as Katara slid onto Appa’s back, they felt him begin to levitate. Sokka huffed, crossing his arms dramatically. “Spirits, I hate when you’re right and I’m wrong.” Too concerned to snap a retort back at Sokka, Katara just settled down into her seat, anxiously picking at the leather of her coat. 

---

Katara awoke to the loud shout of her brother. 

“Wakey wakey, lovebirds!” he yelped, chucking a rock-hard stick of seal jerky at both of them. 

“Ouch, Sokka!” Katara snapped at him, rubbing her head at the spot where she had been hit, before realising that she was leaning against Aang and immediately jumping away, blushing furiously. 

---

he's so sassy and funny i love sokka so much

♥ find the rest of the fic here!! ->

#sokka #sokka avatar the last airbender #funny sokka moments #atla kataang #kataang #atla fanfic #no hate to zutara #just not my cup of tea #aang is a GOOD PARTNER #and i STAND by that they have such a sweet relationship #makes me so sad that people have to go against his character entirely in order to make him and katara a bad match #atla fandom #ao3 #avatar the last airbender #writing #ao3 recs #ao3 works #ao3 link #ao3 writer #confessions #fluff #eventual romance #atla sokka #katara #aang #kataang fanfic #trope flipping #quillthrillsatlafic

[jupiter-iz-cool]

♡ Restless Nights ♡ (Levi x Reader)

No one asked for this but I changed some things around to make it a (Y/N) instead of an OC of mine, I like writing for him, it's easier to input (Y/N) in there since the terms were gender neutral for my OC to begin with. It's….endearing but I wouldn't call it fluffy, I might write more of it and make little stories that follow a timeline if that's what anyone is interested in reading.

Word count: 1.2k

The soft sounds of Cadets snoring could be heard throughout the halls; rest seemed so easy for them, trapped within the confinements of the walls where safety is secured within the capital of Trost, it would be a lie if I said all of them were asleep, the real restless people tend to be the squad leaders, and (Y/N) seemed to be no different, tossing and turning in their sheets as they were unable to find a position best suited for their comfort, but it seemed hopeless, it was well past midnight at this point before they decided to get up from their bed, a sigh leaving past their lips as their feet touched the cold wooden floor. Their face contorted to one of discomfort at the cold chill the room seemed to have.

They stood and stretched out their limbs hearing the popping sound release some of the stiffness within their joints as they grunted out a noise before they stopped digging around in their dresser for something more comfortable to wear, it was winter time yet no snow fell onto the ground, it was just so….fucking cold. Once they found more suitable clothing to leave their quarters in the barracks they changed into them before slipping on their boots and leaving their room, the halls were illuminated with the candle lights, a deep frown was etched onto their face as the soft pitter-pattering of their boots hitting the wooden floors was all that seemed to be present, the guards….well they were in their stationed but snoring away causing them to roll their eyes, but they didn’t do anything about it.

They continued to walk down the halls, with no destination in mind, they didn’t expect anyone to be awake this late into the night, oh how mistaken they were. As they reached the end of the hall where a balcony was overhead they noticed a particularly short captain, he wasn’t in his uniform but he did seem to be stuck in thought, his lips pursed into a thin line, but they were unable to see his face with his back turned towards them. Biting the inside of their lip, they sighed before stepping towards the balcony where Captain Levi was seated, he seemed to like looking up at the moon and stars from her understanding, from their observations that is. They noticed when she had to work late that he was here almost every single time.

They never approached him during those times however….far too introverted for their good, he intimidated them, and his harshness towards the younger soldiers, although they noticed how his attitude wasn’t as bad when they had their very brief interactions, they noticed that he would stare a little longer than was needed when they were speaking to someone, they just never broached the topic, not being sociable themselves they found the situation nerve-racking. So when they approached him they leaned against the edge of the stone balcony, although regretted their decision quickly with how cold it felt under their fingertips. (Y/N) and Levi sat in comfortable silence for a moment before his eyes that stared up at the sky looked over towards them before he raised a brow.

“The hell are you doing up so late?” He asked, his voice holding its normal edge to it, although his comment was lighthearted in nature, their eyes drifted to him. “Couldn’t sleep…” they said softly, sleep was hard for them after all, night terrors often waking them up at night if they were in a deep enough sleep. “I see…” he hummed before glancing back up at the stars and the moon that was now suddenly covered by the clouds in the sky before frowning again before he turned his attention back to (Y/N) who looked over at him. “Tch, well you should go back to bed, we have an explanation in the morning.” He said, his signature scowl on his face, (Y/N) chuckled at this. “Well, I could say the same for you Captain.” They mused softly causing him to huff.

“Don’t worry about me, I'll be fine. And don’t call me Captain, it’s annoying. I never refer to you as ‘Captain (Y/N)’ , the title is fucking ridiculous.” He waved them off, their heart seemed to skip a beat at his harsh words, he seemed so detached, that it caused them to smile. “Alright, then Levi….I couldn’t help but notice how often you’re up here is all, I likely won’t be able to sleep for the rest of the night.” Levi scoffed, his attention shifted away from them as he stepped away from the balcony brick. “When was the last time you slept?” His voice got low as he shifted closer to them his fingers barely brushed under their eyelids as the dark circles were prominent but nothing extreme. “Yesterday…?” Their tone came off as more of a question, Levi was quick to retract his hand away from them, a look of disbelief written on his face. “That explains why you look like shit. Can’t even remember the last time you slept.” His tone was low, almost a whisper as he spoke before he ran a hand through his hair.

“I don’t understand why you care so much about my sleep…” they said as they felt blood rush to their face as they looked away, a light pink tint dusted their cheeks as they looked away from him trying to calm down their racing heart. He didn’t respond for a moment until they looked back at him, he seemed to be lost in his thoughts again. “It’s my job to care idiot, otherwise you might slip up and a Titan might eat your entire team. Don’t screw it up.” He definitely didn’t need to care for their well-being, he could care less about everyone else it seemed, although they knew he cared and hid his feelings from everyone to make it look like he was a hard ass. “Why the fuck are you smiling it’s creeping me out.” He spoke before his hands reached up and squished their cheeks together to get them to stop that nonsense. “Stop that.”

Levi chastised softly before his thumb gently brushed up against the warm plumpness of their lower lip. It was smooth against his coarse fingertips After a few moments he let go of them, and realizing the gravity of his actions he quickly deflected it. Sucking in a deep breath of air he muttered something quietly to himself. “Whatever, get lost, go back to bed, I’m sure Hange will be around to wake you up whenever they get up in the morning.” So he did pay attention….(Y/N) was normally around Hange, but it wasn’t as noticeable to most. “Huh…how the bell do you know that-“ Levi was quick to cut them off with a wave of his hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter brat. Okay, goodbye, goodnight.” He urged her to go back to their dorms. “Okay…goodnight Levi.” They bid their goodbyes to the man who held his face in his hands, he normally never ever slips up like he did just now.

Maybe he was just tired…yeah that’s it. That’s all it is, he’s just tired. As they parted ways, (Y/N) couldn’t help but smile a little, they made their way back to their dorm removing their boots, and climbed back into bed finally finding a spot that was comfortable enough for them to doze off in. The pleasant thoughts on what the future had in store for the scouts and the possibility of getting closer to Levi, although it was a slim chance he would even entertain the idea. But anyone can dream.

#levi ackerman #captain levi #levi #levi heichou #levi x reader #levi aot #levi attack on titan #levi x you #attack on titan #attack on titan levi #humanities strongest #drabble #short story #fanfic

[yansurnummu]

Little Fox

(ft. @tilliphont's boy, Bjalin. thank you for letting me borrow him <3 )

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Of course, many Reach clans had stories of creatures of the night. Cunning things, with pale skin and blood-red eyes, like a person but inhuman all at once. Some would say they feared the sun, dwelling in castles in the grand caverns below empty Dwemer halls. Some would say they inhabited the cracks and crevices of the mountains, and with bat-like features they would hibernate, hanging from the ceilings.

You mustn't play near the Karth, little ones, the clan-witch would say, for the life-stealers hide ‘neath the ice, and they'll steal you too, should you stray!

Donobhan had never been one to listen to the Elders. He strayed and wandered, often forgetting to watch his step. 

Why would you do that? His father would scold with barely-concealed frustration. 

Donobhan couldn't come up with an answer. It didn't seem like a big deal. No one got hurt. He and Daighre were just having fun, exploring and looking at insects and critters in the woods. I don't know, he replied, not understanding the anger directed at him that then followed.

There is something wicked about that boy, Daighre’s mother lamented from inside the yurt. 

The cold air stung his eyes as he ran from the camp. He threw himself in the snow on the banks of the Karth, part of him fearing that the tears might freeze onto his face. He sat there, sobbing for what felt like hours, not noticing the crunching of snow behind him until arms curled tightly around him.

I'm sorry, Daighre said, her voice shaking. It's not fair. They're not fair to you.

Why am I like this? Why do I make a mess of everything? he cried. I don’t want to! I want to be good, but no matter how I try, it’s never enough!

He knew she didn't have an answer for him; but her being there was enough. He didn’t feel as alone, crying into her soft furred collar, her arms squeezing around him tightly.

The whistling of the kettle finally became loud enough to pull him from his memories back into the present. Donobhan grimaced, quickly jumping to his feet and pulling the bubbling-over kettle off the flame.

“Ah, shit…” he cursed to himself, rubbing his eyes. Some days were harder than others.

Where had his line of thought begun? He sighed, leaving the kettle to cool and stepping through the curtain of the yurt, feeling like he needed to get some air.

Outside, he stared up at the afternoon sky. It was moderately cloudy, though not terribly cold, most of the snow having melted now in the early Spring months. He breathed in, feeling his anxiety simmering down now that he was no longer trapped inside.

Beside him, he heard Calahan push through the curtain to join him outside. Donobhan watched him curiously as he bounded off, barking happily at something, until he caught a shape approaching off in the distance.

Grinning, he rushed back inside, finishing the task of making canis root tea, this time with one additional cup.

“Hello there!” Donobhan called once the figure was close enough, setting two cups of tea down on the bench beside the doused campfire. In reply, he received a wave and a warm smile as Bjalin approached. Calahan trotted happily beside him, rushing back to Donobhan, wagging his tail like he’d found a treasure out in the melting snow.

Getting a hug from Bjalin was like having every joint along his spine corrected in ways he didn’t know he needed. He was a big man, even by Nord standards, and Donobhan had to reach to wrap his arms around his neck, burying his nose in a cloak that smelled of oiled leather and pine. But he was so kind and gentle, unlike other Nords who had only met him with scorn. He laughed, his heart fluttering, as Bjalin pressed a kiss to his temple, his soft beard tickling his face.

“It’s so good to see you, my friend,” Donobhan grinned, pulling away from the hug but keeping his hands at his shoulders.

“You as well,” he gestured with his hands, slowly, knowing that Donobhan was still learning. “I brought you a few things from town.”

“Oh, you are like a Vateshran’s hero,” he smiled, leaning up to press his lips to the corner of Bjalin’s mouth. “Come on, then, you must be tired, and cold. I just made some tea.”

Bjalin smiled and nodded, leaving a hand at the small of Donobhan’s back as he led him towards the bench.

He conversed with Bjalin for a number of hours. It had been a while since he had seen the man, the tundra too dangerous to traverse at such a length in the dead of winter. He was grateful for the company, and the distraction.

As night began to fall, Bjalin accompanied him as he walked the perimeter, tending to the magical wards keeping the spirits peaceful. The chill of the night brought him back to his earlier thread of thought, and he wondered…

“Have you ever met a vampire?” Donobhan asked, glancing at Bjalin at his side, who gave him a puzzled look.

“No,” he tapped two fingers to his thumb, slowly, even though it was a sign that Donobhan knew well enough. He then gave a curious smile, raising his hand near his head for the next sign. “Why?”

“Uh,” Donobhan chewed his lip, regretting opening his mouth on the topic. “I don't know. I was just curious if you knew anything about them.” 

Bjalin sighed through his nose, looking elsewhere, seemingly thinking.

“I couldn't tell you much,” he gestured as they walked. “You hear stories, in town. But from what I understand, it's a disease like any other.”

“Sorry, a what?” Donobhan frowned, a little embarrassed.

“Disease,” he moved both hands in circular motions that Donobhan had a hard time tracking, before spelling it out, letter by letter.

“Ah,” his gaze fell to the ground ahead of him, a little dejected. Thinking of it as a disease didn't make it sound very pleasant at all. 

Bjalin tapped the back of his hand against Donobhan's shoulder, signaling he had more to say. His eyes were soft when Donobhan looked back at him.

“You can talk to me. There's something on your mind, I know it.”

Donobhan sighed, knowing that the anxiety was just in his head. Bjalin was a kind man with an open mind, and he should feel safe telling him things.

“I think I may have… befriended a vampire,” Donobhan said, grimacing now that it had finally been said aloud.

Bjalin raised his brow, looking taken aback, but not horrified, like Donobhan had feared. 

“And?” he pinched his fingertips together, moving them to the side of his chest with a curious cock of his head. “I'm just glad you've made a friend. It's not good to be all alone out here.”

A smile crept onto Donobhan’s lips then, the rest of the tension draining from his body.

“Aye, you're right, aren't you?” he chuckled, relieved. “I don't know. I think I felt… intimidated, when I learned what they are. Not afraid, really, they're very sweet and I like them a lot, but just… well, that's a really powerful creature, and here they are, sitting at my little campfire and listening to my little stories! Felt a tad surreal, I suppose,” he pouted.

Bjalin huffed a silent laugh.

“Can I meet them?” he gestured with a grin.

“Well, I'll ask them, but I wouldn't get your hopes up,” he frowned, patting Bjalin’s shoulder. “They're very shy. It was like trying to earn the trust of a fox. I thought I was seeing a ghost for months.”

Bjalin gave him an amused look, that if Donobhan didn't know better, he might describe as smug.

“What?” he asked, cautious.

“My little fox,” he gestured, bringing his thumb and forefinger to form a circle, a nose, the rest of his fingers spread out like whiskers. Donobhan could feel his face turn as red as his hair.

“Oh, stop it, you,” he chuckled, batting playfully at Bjalin's hand. Bjalin grinned, throwing his arm around Donobhan's shoulder as they continued their walk.

Pet name aside, he caught the underlying meaning. All of them had been through their own lives of being burned at every turn. Donobhan had been slow to trust Bjalin, years ago. Bjalin, himself, was functionally an outcast of his village.

Donobhan realized then, that learning to reach out, even if it hurt, felt more brave than just giving up because it might end poorly.

He wondered if Asha-ammu felt similarly.

#yans writes #donobhan ravenfriend #reachfolk #i'm so glad I got to fit bjalin into this i love their dynamic SO MUCH #but yeah don has adhd #i wanted the first part to feel kind of like how our thoughts bounce around and latch onto tangents #if that makes sense #also i dont think don & bjalin are exactly... romantically involved? i think its complicated but casual

[bakerstreethound]

🎻Send me a song 🎻 I’ll analyze it and tell you what fictional it reminds me of and the scenario that comes to my mind.  Ivy by Taylor Swift!

When I looked at the lyrics for this song, I immediately thought of Emily the Corpse Bride. There's a haunting quality to it that fits her well, I think.

Tangled in Ivy

Is it too early for spooky season? I say no! I adore this movie so much and I hope you like this little scenario. I let my imagination take hold, so I went more from the feeling the lyrics gave me instead of their actual interpreted meaning. With that said, this is only my interpretation of a TSwift song.

How's one to know? I'd meet you where the spirit meets the bones, in a faith-forgotten land. In from the snow, your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished, but so grand. 

At first these lines remind me so much of before Victor unknowingly places his ring on Emily’s finger, but also adds to the mystery and intrigue of her tale. SHe sees his glowing humaness as something she finds to crave, wanting him and loving him since her life was stolen from her much too soon. 

And the old widow goes to the stone every day, but I don't, I just sit here and wait, grieving for the living. Oh, goddamn, my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand. Taking mine but it's been promised to another. Oh, I can't. Stop you putting roots in my dreamland. My house of stone, your ivy grows, and now I'm covered in you

For a little while, Emily finds herself wandering the land of the living but knows she doesn’t belong and if her heart were still in the empty cavern of her chest, she’d feel it breaking and shattering all over again. Seeing Victor with Victoria makes her relize all she could have had and lost, but she feels an odd sort of peace stemming from it. In the end, it’s not to decide who should love you or not, she loved him, but he was not hers.  

How's one to know? I'd live and die for moments that we stole on begged and borrowed time. So tell me to run or dare to sit and watch what we'll become, and drink my husband's wine

Then, there’s Victor years later finding himself thinking of the lonely corpse whom he mistakingly married and almost died for. He dreams of another ourcome time and time again and all that blurs his visions are red, blood falling from the sky cursing him for making a decision he didn’t want to do. Sometimes fate had a cruel sense of humor. But in the end, his beloved Victoria saw him through life, yet sometimes in the horizon he’ll see a ghost, a shadow beckoning him to the woods, a whisper of a time long forgotten and it sets his mind alight with intrigue. 

So yeah, it's a fire. It's a goddamn blaze in the dark and you started it, you started it. So yeah, it's a war. It's the goddamn fight of my life, and you started it. You started it. now I'm covered in you

Then, when he’s in bed in the safety of Victoria’s embrace, he finds his eyes wandering still to the woods beyond, faint echoes following the wake of floorboards creaking. If he looked hard enough, outside among the eves of the trees, frosty blue butterflies, incandescent flutter in the horizon, beckoning, whispering him to come home at last. 

******

#corpse bride fanfiction #corpse bride #emily corpse bride #victor van dort #victoria everglot #ace's 5yr anniversarry #celebration #fanfiction #tim burton #my writing #my alleyway