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meltwonu · 3 years

Text

| 🍒 CH-CH-CHERRY BOMB! 🍒 | [CHAPTER 20] FINAL

pairing; dom!seungcheol x camgirl!reader

this chapter’s notes; camshow, sex toys, shibari, dom!seungcheol, dirty talk, overstimulation/forced orgasms, squirting, degradation, name calling, daddy!kink, gags! 😍💕 ✨HAPPY NEW YEAR!!✨ Here’s to more fun fics in 2021! I can’t believe this is our last chapter though omg 😭 It’s been suuuuch a journey and a privilege to write this little series out! I’ve honestly thought about a camgirl/boy series for like, over a year now, and I’m glad I finally did it! I completed one of my goals! 🥺💕 2020 was definitely a wild one, but I want to thank you all so fuckin’ much for supporting me and stickin’ it out with me all year! Here’s to more in the coming year!💕 Also I was proofreading this at the dining table last night thinking my roommate wouldn’t come out of their room but they did(while I was making dinner and my hands were dirty so I couldnt close my laptop ☠️) and they walked past my laptop and now I’m convinced they saw my fucking smut fic right in the open so yes my little mini-break next week is MUCH needed cause I am ✨embarrassed✨ 🤣 I’ll still do my inbox roundup tomorrow and probably answer a bunch of small thirst posts ‘n stuff throughout the week but there won’t be any drabbles! For now, enjoy chapter 20 🥺, have a safe weekend, and remember that I love you~ ❤️🍒💕

chapters; 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 COMPLETE

Seungcheol wakes up much earlier than you do the next morning; pressing a kiss to your forehead as you groan and snuggle deeper into your pillow.

“Baby, I need to go run some errands for a little bit, okay? Just keep sleeping, you don’t need to get up yet. But, I made breakfast and put it in the microwave for you when you decide to get up later.”

His voice is muffled and you can barely understand what he’s saying but you nod; a soft sigh on your lips when you drift back into dreamland. He takes his time getting ready, checking his phone notifications as he gets dressed and places a note on the nightstand knowing that you didn’t catch a single word he said.

‘Hey, did you get everything I asked for?’

Jimin🧍🏻: of course, who do you think I am? Jeongguk?

Jimin🧍🏻: and btw, i’m just giving you a crash course okay? We don’t really have a ton of time

Jimin🧍🏻: did you watch those tutorial videos I sent you?

‘Yeah, I did some practice on my breaks, but I guess you can tell me if I’m doing anything wrong.’

Jimin🧍🏻: okee, i’ll be waiting. Don’t get here too late!

‘I’ll be otw soon. Thanks again, Jimin.’

“Ow--damn, okay, you don’t need to tug on it so much!”

“Sorry, I’ll be careful! And why are we practicing on you anyway?! Couldn’t you just have shown me pictures or something?”

“How else will you learn if not on an actual body? It doesn’t work the same way, Seungcheol.” Jimin pauses, checking himself in the mirror. “Also, keep in mind she does have boobs so just… go slow, okay? It’s not gonna sit like this on her.”

Seungcheol blushes a crimson red; biting the inside of his cheek at how amateur he was at this.

“Okay…”

Seungcheol is gone for a lot longer than you anticipate and although he replies quickly to your texts, you can’t help but be curious about where he’d gone and what he was doing.

Especially knowing that the two of you had to film tonight and knowing that everything was up to Seungcheol.

A shiver rolls down your body at the thought and you quickly try to shake off the nerves that seem to slowly invade your body when your mind starts to wander.

“It’ll be fine, I’m sure…”

“I’m home!”

“Where have you--oh, that’s… a b-big box? Um, should I be concerned...”

Seungcheol grins, shrugging as he sets it onto the kitchen counter. “Just some supplies for tonight. I had to go pick them up from a friend but I had to make sure everything was right.” He notices the way you can’t seem to take your eyes off of the box; eyes twinkling when he makes his way towards you.

He tilts your head up to meet his in a searing kiss, lips easing into a smile when you wrap your arms around his neck and melt under his touch. You moan against his lips just before he pulls away; staring dreamily at him while his hands start to roam over your clothed body.

“We have a long night ahead of us, sweetheart. Let’s pamper you a little before then, hmm?”

j__min: ??? where’s the loverboy

j__min has donated $200

angelhan has donated $75

therealchan99 has donated $50

xcaliburDK has donated $75

xcaliburDK: is that the sybian? Haven’t seen that in a looong while

You bite your lip and nod, somewhat shy as you sit alone in front of the camera. “Seungcheol’s still… setting up but he told me to start! I’m a little nervous, to be honest…” Your eyes flit to Seungcheol who rummages through the box in the kitchen and from the angle you’re sat in, you can’t see a single thing he takes out.

Earlier, he’d cooked you your favorite meal and even took the time to give you a full body massage before the two of you cuddled on the sofa and watched a movie. To you, it seemed a little too suspiciously tame and you only found yourself more nervous when he made you drink two glasses of water and ever so quietly announced it was time to start getting ready for the camshow.

“He’s being so suspicious! He was even gone for a few hours earlier today…” You mumble; brows furrowed at the camera before checking the comments.

It still amazed you every time with how much money you and Seungcheol made from the camshows and videos and it made you feel even better knowing that everyone loved the chemistry the two of you had together. There were a lot of video requests and ideas mixed in with the comments at any given time and you were definitely ready to pitch some to Seungcheol now that you’d rebranded your channel to be a couple’s channel instead.

“Almost done, sweetheart!”

gc__koo: he told me to watch cuz he was being suspicious with me too

gc__koo has donated $50

alphagyu97: what is he even plotting

alphagyu97: i am excited to see the sybian again tho ngl

artist8hao: pretty baby gonna squirt for us again?

universe_WZ: hell fuckin yea let us see how fuckin wrecked you get on that machine

You feel your pussy clench around emptiness at their comments; already feeling yourself getting wetter and wetter with the anticipation.

Movement out of the corner of your eye catches your attention and Seungcheol walks towards the bed with a wide smile and the same box in hand. “Ready?” You can only nod back slowly, watching as he dumps the contents of the box right next to your body.

gc__koo: oy

chwenon: oh shit

sleepy_wonu: oh baby, you’re in for it now

sleepy_wonu has donated $100

Your entire body fills with warmth as you look over the various objects; unsure of where to really look first. “I, um--”

A stack of red ropes sits next to a small bullet vibrator that sits next to a ball gag that sits next to a pair of EMT shears and your eyes immediately flit up to Seungcheol who only smirks back at your shocked expression. “I had some other toys I wanted to use but I figured I should go easy on you, y’know? Since you showed me some mercy last night.”

Nodding, you reach out towards the ropes, touching them shyly. “Why red?”

“Thought they’d be on theme for you, babygirl.”

Seungcheol takes his time; remembering Jimin’s words when he tugs the ropes around your wrists.

“Colour, babygirl?”

“G-green… daddy…”

He nods, sitting up on his knees behind you as you sit on the sybian and face the camera. You bite your lip, somewhat embarrassed that you were already soaking the toy underneath you as Seungcheol worked to bind your arms behind you.

“D--daddy, where did you l-learn this?” You whisper, somewhat curious if this had anything to do with why he was gone for so long earlier in the day.

“Mm, daddy’s friend Jimin was kind enough to help me get the tools and teach me a few tricks to make sure I kept my babygirl safe. Wasn’t that kind of him?” You nod gently, gulping when you shift atop the machine slightly in hopes of relieving some of the growing sexual tension in your body. “Why don’t you thank him properly, sweetheart?”

Your hazy eyes make eye contact with the camera, head tilted slightly. “T-thank you, J-Jimin… for--for helping daddy…”

j__min: omg a shoutout ive made it

kitty_junjun: we never thought we’d see the day

tangerine_kwan: and here we all thought you were gonna be the bad guy huh

hoshi_tiger_xx: like when u only see previews of the book online but the rest of it is different ykwim

Seungcheol makes sure your arms are bound snug enough but not too tight; leaning away slightly to admire his rope work. “Feeling okay so far, babygirl?”

Nodding, you whine back slightly. “Y-yes, daddy… But… my--my pussy wants s-something…” He laughs in return, readjusting so that he’s sitting on your side this time to give himself easier access to start the rest of the bindings.

“Is that so? You’re gonna have to be a little more patient this time ‘cause daddy’s not done yet.” He starts working on the rest of the harness; going slow and checking in with you often to make sure none of the ropes were digging into your skin or making you uncomfortable. “You’ll have to forgive me a little though, I’m admittedly a ‘lil inexperienced so our pretty babygirl is only going to be tied up in this pretty harness for tonight.”

gentleman_josh95: the fact u even took the time to learn just for her

gentleman_josh95 has donated $100

artist8hao: seriously, the dedication

kitty_junjun: we stan a man who knows safety and etiquette

Comments of reassurance and donations flood in at Seungcheol’s small apology and although the two of you are in your own world; you can tell from just the amount of pings coming from your laptop that they all seemed to be encouraging him.

The two of you fall into a comfortable silence as Seungcheol continues to move around you on the bed to finish the harness and a smile graces his lips when he starts to secure the last knots in the back. He can’t help but mentally pat himself on the back at how neatly he’d done it for his first time.

“There. All done, baby.”

Your eyes flit to the laptop’s screen to see yourself; cheeks hot when you see how fucked out you already look and he hadn’t even touched you properly or turned on the machine.

The star harness Seungcheol had tied looks pretty with red ropes and you can’t hide your smile at how good it looks on you too either. “Ah, daddy made it really p-pretty… Thank you.”

This time, Seungcheol nods, letting you admire yourself as he silently reaches for the small remote for the sybian, switching it on.

Your entire body lurches forward as soon as the vibrations attack your clit and you immediately find yourself moaning and grinding down onto the machine as he gives you some relief.

“You’re welcome, babygirl. Now let’s really have some fun, huh?”

You need to cum.

Badly.

“Awww, is my pretty baby drooling? Does it feel that good on your sensitive ‘lil clit?” He teases, smoothing down your hair as you cry around the ball gag in your mouth; drool seeping out from the side of your lips when he raises the vibrations a setting higher.

You don’t know how many times he’d played with the settings and edged you by now, but all you do know is that the urge to cum only grows stronger as you grind against the machine, soaking it with your wetness as you chase the pleasure building up in your body again.

Surely cumming was okay, right? He never said you couldn’t.

You whimper around the ball gag, eyes fluttering shut when the tension in your body snaps in the blink of an eye and your thighs clamp down onto the sides of the machine. Throwing your head back, you moan against the gag and ride out your high as Seungcheol watches you from the side.

“Mm, bet that felt good, huh? But I know you want something in that greedy ‘lil cunt of yours, don’t you? You want daddy’s cock slamming into your tight ‘lil hole ‘til it’s full of my cum, right, sweetheart?” He licks his lips, turning off the sybian as you slump forward.

universe_WZ: shit shes so sensitive

chwenon: especially with her arms bound like that i bet she’s on cloud nine rn

gentleman_josh95: her cute lil head is probably all fuzzy already from all the sensations

therealchan99 has donated $100

gc__koo has donated $75

j__min has donated $150

All you can do is whimper and nod; teary eyes blinking back at Seungcheol as he smirks and leans in towards you.

“Mmm, you’ll get what you want eventually. But for now, you’re gonna cum again.”

He turns the sybian back on, licking his lips when he sees your body tensing again. It was always easier to get you to cum a second time and his point is proven when you mewl around the ball gag a few minutes later; chest heaving in stuttered breaths as you try to shy away from the toy still vibrating against your overly sensitive clit when you’re quickly thrown into another orgasm.

“You always cum for daddy so easily, don’t you, babygirl?”

Your head feels fuzzy after already cumming twice in such a short span of time but you nod, head lolling to the side as Seungcheol finally turns the sybian off for good.

Seungcheol gives you a second to catch your breath before he’s scooting in and fiddling with the clasps at the back of your head to take the ball gag off.

A thread of saliva connects your lips to the gag and you whimper at how good it feels to be able to actually speak again. “D-daddy…” Drool drips from your mouth as your lead lolls forward and Seungcheol is quick to bring a hand up to keep your head up as he looks into your lust filled eyes.

“Colour, sweetheart?”

“Still g-green…” He nods back, checking to make sure none of the ropes had shifted. “Would you like some water before we continue, baby?”

“Yes, daddy…”

He fetches you a glass of water, tilting it against your lips as you down the entire glass and you find yourself a little surprised at how needed it was. “Thank you, d-daddy…”

“You’re welcome, babygirl. Ready to keep going?”

You nod, a little bit more energized. “I hope everyone, mmh, l-likes the show so f-far~” Your teary vision prevents you from reading the comments and before you can even make an effort to, Seungcheol is already helping you off of the machine and helping you sit on the bed across from him.

alphagyu97: ugh she looks so fucking good in that harness

angelhan: right? That shade of red looks so good against her skin too

angelhan: so fuckin pretty

tangerine_kwan: pics for the private room later? Plz i beg

Seungcheol takes this time to take off his boxer briefs, cock curving up against his abdomen when he’s fully naked across from you. He wraps a hand around his cock, moaning and spreading the precum down his shaft as you watch. “D’you want this, baby?”

Your lips fall open in a silent moan as you watch Seungcheol jerk himself off and you can’t help but squirm. “Y-yes…”

“Tell me exactly what you want then. Let them hear what a filthy little slut you are for me.” You can’t help but feel miserably empty watching him and despite having already cum twice, you want his cock fucking you open and making you cum again.

“I--I--”

“Yes, babygirl?”

“I, ngh, I want d-daddy’s cock… Please? Ah, I--I wanna feel you fucking my--my pussy into the, mmh, s-shape of your c-cock… And I w-want you to c-cum inside my--my slutty little h-hole…”

Seungcheol scoffs, hips shallowly thrusting up into his enclosed fist. “That’s right. You’re just my slutty ‘lil babygirl that lets me use all her tight holes how I please, right? You like it when I cum down your throat and in your pretty ‘lil ass. But we all know you like it best when I cum in your hot ‘lil cunt. Makes you feel all warm and full, doesn’t it? You like it when my cum is dripping out of your spent cunt and sliding down your shaky thighs.” This time you nod furiously as you whine back in response.

“P-please… Can’t wait any--anymore!”

This time, the impatience takes over as you slightly tug on the ropes; whining when they don’t give. “Daddy!”

And this time, he gives in quicker than he anticipates, growling as he reaches for the EMT shears to cut you from the harness. “Don’t let your arms down, no matter how much you want to. You’re going to strain your arms if you move too fast so let me handle it, okay, sweetheart?”

The sudden gentleness in his voice has a giddy warmth pouring over you as you nod and sit still while he cuts at various points of the harness to make the ropes fall loose around your arms and chest. You keep your arms in the same position like he requested and you soon feel his hands roaming your skin and massaging your arms to get the blood flowing again.

“You’re so good for me, baby.” He whispers against your hair, leaning down to kiss your shoulder before he slowly easing your arms down from being folded behind your back.

He continues to massage your arms for a few more minutes before it’s you that’s getting impatient. “Daddy… Can you fuck me now?” Whispering, you slightly turn your body to the side to meet his gentle stare.

Seungcheol laughs under his breath, nodding. “Lay on your back for me, legs spread.”

You follow his orders as you quickly scramble to get into position; legs spread wide for him to situate himself between.

“Mm, your pussy is still so fuckin’ wet. I wanna taste you on my tongue, baby.” Whines spill from your lips as you shake your head ‘no.’

“No! My p-pussy feels empty, I need y-your cock, daddy… ‘n I’m so wet, you can probably, ah, just s-slide your cock in…”

He wraps a hand around his cock just as you wrap your legs around his waist and he guides himself until the head of his cock is right at your entrance.

Neither of you say a word as he slowly starts to sink his cock in; guttural moans on his lips when he meets no resistance and bottoms out in a singular thrust. “Holy fuck, your cunt is so fuckin’ wet. Shit, and so t-tight!” You clench around him, already feeling good with his cock inside of you as you beg him to fuck you hard and fast.

“Ngh, p-please fuck me like--like I’m your, hah, c-cocksleeve… I want it f-fast, daddy!”

He grits his teeth at your words; drawing his hips back before snapping them into you just how you wanted. “Fast, hmm? All you think about in that pretty head of yours is my cock pounding you open, huh? Slamming into you so fuckin’ good, it makes your toes curl when you cum.”

Seungcheol starts a quick pace, already feeling the pleasure building up for himself when you’re reduced to garbled noises and broken cries of his name. The heels of your feet dig into the small of his back as you try to press him in closer and he’s quick to reach for the small bullet vibrator left on the bed next to your body.

“Your body is so fuckin’ sensitive, I can already feel how tight you’re getting around me. So fuckin’ greedy to cum too. Already came twice and you still want more. You’re not satisfied until your whole body is shaking underneath me, huh, sweetheart?” He turns the small toy on, pressing it to your clit as you yelp and let out choked sobs.

“Ah, ngh, d-daddy, my--my clit’s t-too sen--sensitive! I--I can’t--!” Squirming, you feel the pressure building up obscenely quick; bottom lip quivering when he takes one of your free hands and makes you hold the toy to your swollen clit.

“Just a little more, sweetheart. Don’t you wanna cum?”

He angles his thrusts to graze against your g-spot and loud cries of his name leave your lips in a hurried, jumbled mess when he only doubles his pace.

The sound of donations and comments pour in like water and get lost within the ringing in your ears; unable to even warn Seungcheol that you’re about to cum when you feel your entire body starting to lock up underneath him.

Your lips part in a silent scream and your back bows off of the bed, thighs shaking uncontrollably as you cum for the third time. Seungcheol growls, fucking you through it as you squirt all over his lower half. He finds it harder and harder to thrust into you as you cum, but he feels himself quickly following suit with your warm walls fluttering around his cock.

“Fuck, baby, that’s right. Squirt for me, get me fuckin’ soaked while you cum.” He uses a free hand to make sure you keep the toy pressed to your clit, growling when he starts to unload his cum inside of you. “Mmh, gonna fill your cunt up with what you want, baby.”

A shaky moan leaves your lips as you feel him throbbing inside your pussy; walls clamped down onto him in a vice grip as you ride out the remnants of your orgasm.

“Ah, d-daddy’s cumming suh--so much inside of my p-pussy…”

Whining, you feel Seungcheol’s grip on your hand give way as he rides out his pleasure and you take the opportunity to turn off the small bullet vibrator while he doesn’t notice.

You watch his face contort in pleasure, hips still shallowly thrusting into you as his entire body shivers above you.

“D-daddy’s so h-handsome...” You mumble, cheeks hot when he cracks a smile through the pleasure wracking his body and chuckles under his breath.

“Thank you, babygirl.”

After you end the show, Seungcheol makes sure to cuddle with you on the bed for a little while longer.

“One more glass of water, baby.” You whine in response, pouting up at him before he gets up from the soaked sheets.

“But I already had a glass! If you have a piss kink just say so, ‘Cheol!”

He lets out a boisterous laugh at your comment, trudging back to the bed from the kitchen with another glass of water for you. “You need to be hydrated, sweetheart. You came three times and we played a little more rough today. I just wanna make sure you’re okay.”

“Fine, but you didn’t deny my comment.” You snarkily reply, taking the glass from him as you down the water.

“Don’t make me have to punish you again! I’ll have you know I still need to get you all washed up and change the bed--”

A faint pinging has the two of you turning to the laptop; still on your camming homepage from where you’d checked the revenues from tonight’s show.

A small [1] sits above your inbox and Seungcheol is quick to turn to you with an eyebrow raised. “I thought you turned off the messaging system on your profile?”

You tilt your head in confusion, handing him the emptied glass. “I did. The only messages I should get are from, like, the actual system admins or other creator accounts which, I haven’t received any ‘til... now, I guess?”

Seungcheol sets the glass down onto the nightstand before he takes a seat next to you, dragging the laptop closer as you go to check the notification.

“’Love&Letter Films’? Aren’t they one of the biggest adult film companies?” Mumbling, you click on the message, giving yourself and Seungcheol a second to process the message that stares back at you; a shocked smile on your lips.

‘Hello!

I hope this message finds Cherry and Seungcheol well.

We, at ‘Love&Letter Films’, have really enjoyed the shows and videos from your channel throughout the years and we really have enjoyed watching the growth of your channel and the addition of Seungcheol to it. The dynamics between the two of you are rare in this industry and we’ve yet to see anyone like the two of you in this market.

The shows from the last two nights have proven that the two of you have the right kind of chemistry to film together for bigger productions and we would love to hire you for a few film productions we have planned in the upcoming weeks as a feeler. Of course, all expenses paid by us if you would kindly take our offer.

We love the various scenes and roles that the two of you take on with ease and we would love to help propel your careers forward, should you pursue a career in the adult entertainment industry.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me as I’ve listed my contact information below. I’m excited to hear from the two of you and hope to work with you in the future on many projects.

Respectfully,

Kwon Soonyoung, L&L FILMS CEO’

#cherrybomb!cheol #seungcheol smut #scoups smut #seventeen smut #svt smut #scoups scenarios #scoups imagines #seungcheol imagines #seungcheol scenarios #svt scenarios #svt imagines #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios #scoups fic #seungcheol fic #scoups #seungcheol #svt fic #seventeen fic

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rosequartzwriting · 3 years

Text

Goodnight and Good Morning

Pairing: Doctor Strange X Fem!Reader

Description: Stephen admires you while you’re sleeping, cuddles while sleeping, and all around a fluffy night and morning.

Warnings: NON! JUST FLUFF!

Word Count: 1.7k

A/N: Originally posted on Quotev

Masterlist | Fic Reading Recs | Ao3 | Quotev | Coffee

The light that came from the lamp on the bedside table was dimmer than he would have wished, but Stephen could still use it to see in the dark room. It was way past sunset, midnight even, but he was wide awake and reading a book with his back propped up against the headboard of the bed. He found himself lost in a fiction book tonight. Since constantly being buried up in sorcery books for his studies, he has not had time to read for pleasure. But you had recommended him a book that he was hooked on and was reading before going to sleep. 'One more chapter,' he had said to himself. But then it was another, and another, he had gotten a little dedicated to it.

While he read, turning the pages with a softly shaking finger, a little noise was heard from beside him. He perked up at this and tore his eyes from the written words to look over to the other side of the bed. Coming from your sleeping form was a light snoring, the little huffs in a soft pattern. Stephen let out an amused chuckle. You rarely snored. He could only recall hearing it a few times. Only when you were exhausted.

And you had been that day. You came back to the New York Sanctum all stressed and body aching from your training at Kamar Taj. You told him the long story of what happened, not only did you push yourself while doing physical training, but your study session in the library was long and infuriating. There were a few times where you struggled to understand the material and you ended up frustrated. You came home with a whirlwind of thoughts, screaming muscles, and your body just ready to collapse.

And so you did. You had not woken up since.

He wanted to help. To help you understand the lesson you were having trouble with. To listen to you if you needed to rant about your stress. Maybe even massage out the visible tension he could see on your shoulders. But all he could do at the moment was let you rest. He would watch over you through the night though. And be there for you in the morning.

Wanting to go back to his book, he turned his attention away from you back to the pages. But your snoring continued. For some reason it distracted him. He was never easily distracted. But he was not currently distracted in a negative way. He was more amused than anything.

Instead, he put his book down for a second and looked at you.

Your face was partly buried in the pillow but the snoring was still audible. Steady relaxed breaths followed in consistency. Your hair was tossed to one side in a messy mass. The covers were pulled up just below your shoulders, and Stephen held back the urge to pull them up further, in fear of disturbing you.

You looked peaceful, the tenseness in your shoulders at bay and a relaxed look across your brow. He cannot remember the last time he really studied your features or little details. When he did, it was like he could appreciate the little things that made him love you as a whole. Even if you were a stressed mess and snoring in your sleep, you looked adorable. He studied you for a little while longer, just watching over you.

Finally, Stephen decided that it was probably time for himself to get some sleep. He was now growing a little tired, so he put his bookmark in the right place and put the book down on the nightstand. Reading could wait. After turning off the lamp, he pulled the covers over his body and rested his head on the pillow.

He shifted a little closer to you, carefully as to not disrupt your sleep. The strong urge to gently grab you and pull you into his chest was hard to push away. But again, you had a very long day so he left you where you were. He let himself relax, eyes threatening to close just only after a few seconds. Maybe he was more tired than he thought. He had no idea what time it was but that did not bother him.

You stirred in your sleep, head rolling and legs stretching out before relaxing once again. The snoring continued however. This made Stephen smirk a little. Again, it was amusing to him. And he found himself falling asleep to the soft rhythm of your breathing and his own heartbeat as it started to calm. He was half asleep when he mumbled a little "Goodnight, (Y/N)" that he himself did not hear.

When Stephen woke up hours later, you were still asleep. You were not snoring anymore but you were still knocked out cold. The sunlight coming in from in between the curtains told him it was already morning, and a glance at the clock on the wall gave him a time. 8:09am. He did not know how much sleep he had gotten, and the slight dizziness in the back of his head let him know that it was not enough.

But he found himself with his arms wrapped around your sleeping form with you cuddling him right back. He must have held you in his sleep, and he hoped he had not woken you up while doing it. From the deep sleep you were currently in, he doubted it. The unconscious impulse to hold each other while asleep was warming to think about.

The sleepiness he felt was slowly fading as he lay there. The warmth underneath the blankets was a little overwhelming, the heat from both your bodies making the bed a bit hot. He knew he had to get up eventually, let go of you and step into the cool air to start the day. But he did not want to move. This was a nice moment. Sometimes he did not take in how nice things like this felt. Falling asleep and waking up next to you every day, being there for you when you fell asleep and woke up. He loved it. Stephen smiled to himself sleepily and held you just a little tighter.

He then decided he was going to make you breakfast. Stephen was good at a lot of things, but cooking was a hit or miss. He was going to try anyways. Thoughts ran though his head of what he could make for you. Coffee first, obviously. And maybe eggs and toast and fruits. Or maybe risk burning down the kitchen with pancakes or waffles. He would figure out what to make, eventually. It was something he could do for you to help with your stress. But first he needed to get out of bed without waking you.

After slowly waking up a little more, he did not know how long he just laid there, he finally forced himself to rise. He slowly moved his arms off of you, fearing any sudden motions would disturb you. When you remained in the same position, he moved away and sat up from the bed. Leaving the comfort of the blankets, Stephen stretched out his limbs and stood to walk out of the bedroom. As soon as he was done preparing food, he would come right back to finally wake you. With breakfast in bed to say good morning.

~~~

You had been woken by the smell of coffee. It was a slow process but you gradually woke up. As your eyes fluttered open, slightly eager for the taste and buzz of what you could already smell, you were greeted with Stephen's warms smile.

"Good morning." He said, already sipping from a mug. He was sitting on his side of the bed above the covers. It looked like he was waiting for you to wake up.

"Morning~"

You stretched out your limbs. When you rubbed away the sleepiness from your eyes and you could see more clearly, you noticed two plates of food on the nightstand beside him along with another mug of coffee. Then you could smell your favorite breakfast food which made you sit up. You would always get up for coffee and food.

"I decided to make you breakfast in bed, I know you were stressed out yesterday."

Your heart melted. "You didn't have to."

He shrugged, "Well I already made it so I can't take it back."

You laughed. You would totally kiss him right now but you were self conscious of having morning breath. This reminded you to run a hand through your hair to smooth it down, you assumed you looked like a complete mess. Yesterday was long and stressful and you knew what that did to you.

Stephen handed you your coffee and food, making your mood a complete change from the day before. It was a sunny morning, you had your breakfast, cozy in bed, and you had your man. This was a good morning indeed.

"What's on the to do list today?" You asked in between bites and sips.

"Why is that the first thing on your mind?" He replied, a hint of a scoff in his voice "Take a second to relax. You're too stressed."

You could not argue with that. Regardless, Stephen told you about his tasks for the day; meeting with the other sanctum masters later before teaching a class. This only reminded you of the material you needed to work on, which Stephen reminded you to forget about for now. You forced yourself to clear your head of any troubling thoughts and just live in the moment.

After finishing your breakfast, you both had time before you needed to get to work for the day. Stephen insisted on staying in bed. You did not protest to the idea. So you cuddled the morning away, wrapped in his arms and all stress forgotten about. You could stay like that forever. Under the covers, the sun coming in through the window and birds singing outside. Your head laying on his chest and hearing his strong and steady heartbeat. The comfortable quiet between you both. His hand stroking your arm for comfort. Just being present in the moment and appreciating it. You loved waking up like this.

#doctor strange #doctor strange x reader #doctor strange x you #marvel #stephen strange #stephen strange x reader #sorcerer supreme #mcu #marvel fanfiction #doctor strange fanfiction #reader #reader insert

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baepsaesbae · 4 years

Text

Personal Galaxy

Pairing— Jungkook x female reader

Genre— SMUT, Fluff, Established relationship au

Warnings— Explicit unprotected sex, slight exhibitionism (they’re outside), oral (m receiving), mild swearing, fluffy boyfriend vibes that will make you love Jungkook even more

Word count— ~4.1k

About— You and your boyfriend, Jungkook, decide to go stargazing as a special treat for your anniversary.

A/N— Happy Birthday Jungkook! This was a collab with @goldenclosetnetwork for their Golden Closet Net Jungkook Birthday Project. I hope you guys like it, please let me know what ya think! (also this beautiful banner was whipped up in record time by the marvelous @kimtaehyunq)

After college starts, summer is no longer a relaxing season dedicated to lounging around and goofing off with friends. Unfortunately, now summers were filled with internships or temporary summer jobs. You got the short end of the stick though, as your summer was going to be filled with summer classes. Along with taking summer classes, you had to deal with the grueling heat. Walking back and forth from your classes to your dorm was quite an ordeal, as the sun drained you of all your energy.

Your only solace of not going home was that you were close to your boyfriend, Jungkook. You guys started dating towards the end of the spring semester, so the relationship was somewhat new. He was nothing but incredibly sweet to you, and you honestly could not believe you were dating him. From what you observed, he was basically perfect.

At first you thought he was a little shy, but when you got to know him, you soon realized he’s just a huge lovable dork. He loved gaming, and bragged about what his rank in League of Legends used to be (platinum, he was in the top 8% of all people who played). You tried to take him seriously, but you couldn’t help but laugh. You didn’t laugh because you were making fun of him, you laughed because he was just too cute. You adored the way his eyes twinkled when he talked about what he was passionate about. He would get lost in his own world and ramble on before he realized you were still there. At that point he would reach out and pull you into a hug and ask about your day.

After a long day of listening to a boring chemistry lecture, you finally got back to your dorm. You freshened up with a quick shower and collapsed into your bed. You were about to drift off when your phone starts to buzz. It was a video call from Jungkook.

“Hey baby what’s up?” Jungkook beamed on the other end. It looked like he just got out of the shower too.

“Hey Kookie. I’m done with class for the day. Have I told you how much I hate chemistry?” you groaned in response.

“Plenty of times. In fact, multiple times a day. Can’t blame you though. You can relax when I come see you this weekend,” Jungkook tried to cheer you up.

Jungkook lived about an hour away from campus, so he stayed in a dorm during the school year. However, he went home during the summer break. With that being said, he insisted on coming down to see you every weekend. At first you protested, arguing that gas was too expensive and the commute would take too much time. But he simply said, “I just want to see my girl. What’s so wrong with that? It’s no one’s decision but mine.” You couldn’t argue with him after that.

“Why don’t we do something different this weekend?” you asked. This weekend would mark your 3 month anniversary.

“Yeah? Like in the bedroom?” he was intrigued.

“No! I mean...sure? Wait no that’s not what I’m talking about right now, you dingus. Why don’t we get away or something? There’s a park about an hour away that is known for stargazing! They have their own observatory and all that. Would you wanna--”

“Yes. Let’s do it.” Jungkook didn’t even let you finish. You knew he’d be excited. Along with videogames, anything pertaining to outer space had his heart. He loved reading about various stars, and was always hypothesizing how space travel would work.

The weekend couldn’t come fast enough. You spaced out in lecture often, but now you definitely couldn’t focus. The thought of being hand in hand with Jungkook while traversing the trails together was enough to make your heart flutter. That, coupled with the fact that you two would be under the stars without any air pollution, really had you on Cloud 9.

You gleefully hopped into Jungkook’s car in the late afternoon. Jungkook was wearing his favorite bucket hat with his usual casual clothes.

“Hello beautiful,” Jungkook leaned over to kiss you, “Let’s go get our dinner. How do ready made sandwiches sound?”

“Sounds perfect! Why don’t we get some fruit too?” you sat back in your seat.

“Ohhh healthy. Yes ma’am we can do that.” he drove to the closest supermarket.

“Hey babe, let’s get this bread,” Jungkook joked as he picked up a sandwich. You couldn’t help but laugh at his little one-liner. You both love that meme. You guys strolled over to the fruits section. Of course, there had to be a debate over which fruits to get.

“It’s hot outside so why don’t we get watermelon?” you suggested.

“Mm that’s a good point. But watermelons are basically just water. Why don’t we get pineapples instead? We can see if that myth really is true?” Jungkook wiggled his eyebrows at you.

“You dog!” you playfully slap his arm, “Let’s get both then. The more the merrier.”

“Okiedokie. Don’t act like you don’t wanna try the pineapple trick though,” he teased.

“Maybe I do. What of it?” you retorted.

“Nothing. That’s perfect for me,” he winked as you guys went to checkout.

The drive to the park was relaxing. Jungkook played his music and sang along to all the songs. You occasionally chimed in whenever you knew the lyrics, but you preferred to listen to him instead. Even when he was messing around, his angelic voice was still euphoric. You were pleasantly surprised when he first sang in front of you. You didn’t think it was possible to hear an angel up close.

Getting away from the city was something you needed. As the tall buildings faded in the background, a more sparse landscape came into view. You loved the open road. Sure, the neverending grass and scattered trees weren’t the most breathtaking view, but it was pleasant nonetheless. You saw the occasional cow or horse, and never failed to point them out to Jungkook. He would always respond with a “wow!” or a “so cute!” and chuckle at you. Everything you did was so adorable to him, though he wasn’t the most vocal about all that mushy stuff. He was sure he had already fallen in love with you, but he wasn’t sure if you felt the same yet. He’d keep that to himself for a little bit longer.

The park itself was nothing grand. It being closer to the coast meant that it was a little on the swampy side. After several attempts to make sense of the provided park map, Jungkook finally found a parking lot.

“Okay according to the map, this is the closest parking lot to the observatory. I think there’s a trail nearby too,” you say as you hand him the map.

“Let’s go!” Jungkook leapt out of the car before he could even see you trying to give him the map.

Jungkook grabbed the food from the backseat as you got out of the car. Sadly, neither of you had a stereotypical picnic wicker basket, so everything was just in the plastic shopping bag from the store. That didn’t make it any less charming when Jungkook started swinging the bag back and forth in one hand while doing the same thing to your hand on his other side.

The sun was beginning to set, but you could still feel its warmth in the breaks between the shady parts of the trail Jungkook led you on. The trail itself was basically a small gravel path that led from the parking lot to a picnic site overlooking a swampy lake. The trees that grew in the open grove by the picnic tables were extremely old, as they loomed high overhead.

Neither of you had spoken since you left the car. You were both enjoying the fresh air and new sights. The candid sounds of nature filled the air. From the buzzing of the cicadas, to the occasional whooping of unseen birds, the authenticity of it all had you in a trance. Jungkook squeezed your hand and you snapped back to reality. Your eyes wandered back to him to see a soft smile on his face.

“Is this table okay, baby?” he looked at you with his doe eyes.

“Yeah it’s good. Do you like this place so far?” you asked as you started to get the food out.

“I do. It’s beautiful. Everything is just so...natural. Obviously,” he chuckled, “The scenery is the second most beautiful thing here.”

“Mm okay I’ll bite. What’s the first most beautiful thing here?” you cocked your head in amusement.

“Me, of course! Why would you even ask that when you already know the answer?” he laughed.

“Oh you’re so right. How silly of me. I have your food here, you dork. Do you wanna start with the pineapples or watermelons first?”

“Let’s open the watermelons since it’s still kinda hot out,” he plopped down beside you.

You foolishly skipped lunch, so your stomach was killing you. Jungkook joked that it sounded like a dying cat during the car ride. Sometimes it got so loud that he could hear it over his music. He wanted you to eat while he drove, but you refused because you wanted to eat together. Thinking back, you realized you could have fed him while he was driving. It’s not an issue anymore though, not when you’re both wolfing down your sandwiches. The watermelon was definitely a good choice, as it was a perfect weapon to combat the heat.

There was a gazebo next to the water that allowed visitors to get a better view of the swampy environment. You led Jungkook over to it after packing up the leftovers (only a few pineapples were left). The water was murky, most of the vegetation that surfaced looked dead, and everything put together made the place seem perfect for filming a swamp horror film. Despite all of that, you couldn’t help but think it was still beautiful. Upon a closer look, you spotted some small turtles on the closest log by the gazebo. Of course you excitedly pointed them out to Jungkook, who cooed at how cute they were. Jungkook brought you closer to him so he could hug you from behind and rested his chin atop your head. He loved the height difference between you two, it always made him feel like that much more of YOUR man. He also mercilessly teased you for being short, but that was just an added bonus.

“Do you feel relaxed?” he whispered in your ear before nibbling it.

“I feel so relaxed, darling,” you say, leaning into him, “The sunset is gorgeous out here. Even if it feels like we’re about to get attacked by a swamp creature at any second.”

“Yeah, instead we’re being attacked by a billion fucking mosquitoes. Babe, I don’t think your bug spray is working,” Jungkook swatted away the hovering pests.

“But my mom got it for me! It’s supposed to be a more organic and natural spray,” you pout.

“Well, I’m sorry but your mom’s organic bug spray isn’t doing shit. In fact, I feel like it’s attracting them,” his swatting became more forceful.

“Oh, you’re not even getting bit. They’re all over ME,” you say as you started to feel insanely itchy all over your arms and legs, “Let’s go to the observatory, the sun has already begun to set. Also there are probably more mosquitoes here by the water, so let’s get the hell away from that.”

“There’s still about half an hour of sunlight left,” Jungkook observed after checking his phone, “We have some time to kill. Wanna check out more of this trail?”

“Sure. As long as it leads away from the water,” you shrugged as you followed Jungkook into the forested area.

Golden hour shone down through the trees. The rays made Jungkook glow and look even more ethereal. He rubbed his thumb over your hand as he led you down the trail. You absentmindedly brought his hand up to your mouth to plant a soft kiss on the back of it.

“I haven’t seen anyone on this trail the entire time we’ve been here,” Jungkook observed.

“It’s nice. It’s like our own little sanctuary,” you agreed.

“And you look so cute in that outfit of yours,” Jungkook’s voice lowered.

“What are you suggesting, Jungkook?” you played along, caressing his bicep.

Jungkook abruptly led you off the beaten path, into a more heavily wooded area. He spun you around into a deep kiss, backing you up against a tree. You palmed him through his pants, finding him already half hard.

“What if we get caught?” you huffed into his mouth.

“Doesn’t that make it more exciting?” he said as he nipped at your neck while fondling your breasts.

“I’m gonna have bug bites on my ass,” you laughed.

“I’ll bite your ass when we get back to even it out,” he chuckled into another kiss.

You forcefully switched positions with Jungkook as you tugged off his pants. You kissed along his jawline and down his neck before sinking to your knees in front of him. His erection bulged in his underwear, begging to be set free.

You teasingly licked him over his underwear, making him groan. As much as you wanted to continue teasing him, you didn’t want to get caught before he actually had the chance to fuck you.

You pulled off his underwear, leaving him fully exposed. You delicately kissed the tip of his penis like it was some sort of polite greeting. Then, you lewdly flattened your tongue on the base of his cock and licked a long stripe upwards and finished at the top with a swirl. You hollowed out your cheeks as you sucked him off at a repetitive pace.

“Do you want me to fuck you here, baby?” Jungkook huffed above you.

You looked up at him with innocent eyes as you deepthroated him. Saliva dripped off his cock and down your chin, a sight that would make any man sweat. You nodded and released him with a satisfying *pop*.

“You’re so fucking sexy. Switch places with me and face the tree,” he commanded.

You did as he said, bending over at the waist. He tugged off your bottoms, revealing your dripping core. He tantalizingly ran his tip along your folds.

“Hurry up! I don’t wanna get caught,” you complained as you wiggled your butt at him.

“So impatient,” Jungkook admonished as he slapped your ass.

You didn’t have time to complain because he jammed his dick into you immediately after his slap. You instinctively covered your mouth to suppress your moans. Your free hand toyed with your clit, rubbing it intensely. The thought of being caught at any second had you even more wet than usual. Jungkook noticed.

“You’re so wet. I’m gonna cum in no time,” Jungkook groaned as he thrust deeper into you.

Jungkook released his load into you. You moaned as you felt his hot juices fill you up, mixing with your own mess as it dribbled down your legs. Jungkook gave your ass one last slap before rummaging for a spare napkin in the picnic bag. He cleaned you up as best as he could, but you desperately needed a shower. That’ll have to wait.

Retracing your steps, you both wound up back at the parking lot, which was perfect because the trail to the observatory was just on the other side. The once empty parking lot was now nearly full as the new arrivals made their way towards the observatory. The sun was almost fully set at this point, so it was getting a little hard to see.

“Babe look!” Jungkook shouted as he pointed to a little creature that scurried in front of you. You jump back from his sudden yell, and then lock eyes with the possum that stood in your path.

“I don’t know whether to be scared or to call it cute,” you say, clinging tightly onto Jungkook’s arm as the possum lost interest in your staring contest and continued on its journey.

“I would say it’s cute. As long as it doesn’t attack you. Oh holy SHIT babe don’t look up!” Jungkook found himself frozen in place.

“Huh why-- OH MY FUCKIN GOD!” you neglected to heed his warning. Looming about two feet above Jungkook’s head was a gigantic spider. The web it was dangling from was enormous. You hate all kinds of insects (yes a spider isn’t an insect, but it falls under the creepy crawly category so you hate it too) but spiders are by far the scariest to you. After you screamed you clutched Jungkook’s arm tighter, probably cutting off his circulation.

“Okay okay just close your eyes and keep close to me. It seems like those guys are strung along the entire path,” Jungkook kept you by his side as you guys progressed past the trees. You helplessly kept your eyes closed and completely relied on Jungkook to guide you. Thankfully, it only took about three minutes to get past all the trees; the observatory was in an open clearing. Jungkook gave you the ok to open your eyes again.

“Thank you Kookie, you’re so sweet to me,” you kissed Jungkook softly on the cheek.

“Usually I’d make fun of you, but those things kinda freaked me out. So I could only imagine how scared you’d be of them. Don’t worry baby, I’ll protect you,” Jungkook returned your affection with a kiss on the forehead.

The line for the main telescope was already long, so you guys ventured off to one of the smaller ones instead. There were three big telescopes in the overall observatory. Amateur stargazers were scattered around the deck with their personal telescopes. You saw them letting other people see through them, so you made a mental note to check them out after the main telescopes. The sun had finally set, and now the dark sky was illuminated with shining stars.

As you waited in line, you looked back at Jungkook, who hadn’t let go of your hand this entire time. His eyes were glued to the wonders above him. His doe eyes were wide and twinkled more than you’ve ever seen before. His mouth was agape and you were amused by how captivated he was; everything about this boy was so pure. It was in that moment that you realized you had fallen head over heels for him. You wanted to tell him you loved him right then and there, but you held your tongue. You were worried that he didn’t feel the same way. Hopefully one day he could return the sentiment, but for now you will keep those three words to yourself.

“You lot are pretty lucky! It had been cloudy for the past week. Tonight’s the first night that the sky’s been clear. It’s also the perfect night to view Saturn!” the telescope’s attendant informed the people in line.

You and Jungkook were the next people to go. You were amazed at how big the telescope was, and this wasn’t even the big main one yet. You went first. You climbed up a small step stool to get to the eye piece. You peered into it and was amazed by what you saw. The image was not the clearest, but it was pretty evident that you were looking at Saturn because of the iconic rings. Of course you could look up better pictures of Saturn online, but seeing it for yourself made it more special. Experiencing it all with Jungkook was something you would not trade for the world. You waited for Jungkook outside after you finished.

“Wasn’t that incredible ___?! We actually saw all the rings! And it’s a pretty color! I mean it’s like a reddish brown. We can call it a rusty color because that sounds cooler...ah I can’t wait to go to the main telescope,” Jungkook grabbed your hand and bounded to the next line. Watching him get so excited was enough to make getting eaten alive by mosquitoes worth it (yeah, they never ceased their attack on you).

“Is this the best date you’ve ever been on then?” you squeezed his hand as he continued to bounce up and down. His abundant energy always amazed you, and certainly came in handy in certain situations *wink wink*.

“Oh is this a date? What? Do you like me or something, ___?” he teased, looking down at you, “Yes, this is hands down the best date I have ever been on. Thank you for suggesting this babe,” he grabbed your other hand and pulled you in for a kiss. You weren’t fond of PDA, but you’re willing to make an exception for Jungkook.

The wait in line lasted for about half an hour, and you wondered which celestial being this telescope was being focused on. Everything around the observing deck was kept dark to make it easier to see through the telescopes. It was also advised to not look at any phone screens because your eyes would have to readjust to the darkness afterward. You and Jungkook complied with the tip for the optimal viewing experience. Jungkook was rambling about UFO conspiracy theories when you interrupted him by pointing out the fireflies behind him. They danced in the darkness of the open air, and it was your turn to be captivated. Yes, you hated insects, but fireflies had a special place in your heart. You thought they were fairies when you were younger, and you would spend hours playing with them. Your parents would even help you catch them. The nostalgia that hit automatically put a smile on your face.

“You’re adorable, you know that ___?” Jungkook smiled as he wrapped his arms around you, “I wish you’d look at me that way,” he pouted.

“Oh shut up Kookie. I do look at you that way, but you never notice,” you stuck your tongue at him. Jungkook laughed in response. His laughter stopped and his eyes widened when he realized you guys were next in line.

“What is this one looking at?” Jungkook asked the telescope attendant.

“Oh, all three of these are pointed at Saturn,” he replied.

“Oh no, we waited in line for so long just to look at the same thing,” you said, shoulders sagging.

“Awesome! Since this one is the biggest, does that mean that we’ll get a better view than the other two telescopes?” Jungkook asked, his eyes twinkling once again.

“Uh, technically yes. But only slightly better, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” the attendant replied as he let Jungkook enter.

From the way he asked, it probably didn’t bother Jungkook that he’d be seeing the same thing again. Once it was your turn, you realized the attendant was right. There wasn’t much of a difference in the quality of the image you were seeing, but it didn’t make personally seeing Saturn any less magical.

“Seeing it a second time was super cool. Can you believe it? People a hundred years ago would have never thought they’d see Saturn with their own eyes!” Jungkook greeted you when you came out.

“Yeah that’s all pretty dope, but I kinda wanted to see something else. Maybe some of the people who brought their own telescopes are looking at other things,” you took Jungkook’s hand and made a beeline to the amateur stargazers.

There was an interesting assortment of telescopes there. Some were big and bulky, some were sleek and aesthetically pleasing, and some just straight up looked like weapons. Multiple people were willing to let you both look through their telescopes. You both saw an additional two stars whose names you will never remember, along with seeing Saturn one last time.

You and Jungkook stood in the middle of the deck, gazing upwards to soak in the clarity of the stars before your departure. As if the night couldn’t get any more magical, a shooting star streaked across the sky. Oohs and aahs were heard from people in the general vicinity when they saw it too. Jungkook pulled you close to him, his face inches from yours.

“You know, maybe we were lovers in a past life, because I feel like I’ve known you forever. I think you’re the most special thing in this universe. Thank you for today,” Jungkook said tenderly.

“You’re welcome, darling. I would give you the whole world if I could,” you smiled, slowly leaning closer to him.

“For you, my dear, I’ll give you your own personal galaxy,” Jungkook practically whispered as he cupped your face and brought you in for a kiss. The kiss was the epitome of sweet, as his soft lips brushed against yours without much force. You swear you’ve never been happier in your life. Thank the stars for Jeon Jungkook.

#bts smut #jungkook smut #gcn23 #bangtanarmynet #btswritingcafe #ksmutclub #bayanihanboost #bts fluff #jungkook fluff #jungkook x reader #bts fanfic #kpop fanfic

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coveredinsweetpea · 4 years

Note

HI!!! How are you? I was wondering I could request sweet pea being out late with job for Serpents & comes back to see you asleep in his trailer & he just ends up cuddling you🥺🥺🥺

HIII!!! I’m fineee, things at home have been shitty but writing this blurb made me feel better and helped me escape a bit! I really hope you like it!

He's rushing down the street. It's way past midnight, but he's afraid to check the time. Two busy weeks have passed, where the Serpents did everything in their power to stop the Ghoulies from terrorizing the north side, but still, they were nowhere near finished. Danger was looming at every corner, and there was no point in hiding just how annoyed Sweet Pas has gotten during this time.

After spending 17 years of his life thinking he'd forever be alone, he finally found you. All this time, you've been right under his nose, but somehow, you didn’t see each other. Now that things were finally in place, and your relationship was the definition of a fairytale, he had to work late. Day after day and night after night. And it wasn't just the lack of time you two spent together that was bothering him, it was also the unshakeable fear that you'd get sick of all the waiting, and all the terror, all the bruises and fights. It is safe to say this is probably one of the worst times of his life. If until now he didn't mind not having anyone because he had no idea how good that could feel, the thought of losing you terrorized him beyond words.

He curses himself as he passes yet another red light, knowing just how worried you'd get if you knew. But he can't help it. He was supposed to meet you at 8, and now the watch on his wrist is ticking away seconds past the 2nd hour of the next day. He hates himself for it.

As soon as he turns onto his street, he already allows his bike to slow down. He doesn't care anymore, as when he reaches his trailer, he just hops off and heads straight inside. Even though he's sure you're not there anymore, he's determined to get a couple of hours of sleep, and wake up to surprise you in the morning with a coffee before school.

He's so caught up in his own head, drowning in guilt that's not even his, that he doesn't realise the door of his trailer was locked three times, not two like he usually does. He just walks inside, throws the keys off to the side, kicks his shoes in the corner of the small hallway and heads into the bathroom. For a second, he stares at his reflection. One bruised eye and a deep cut under his jaw. He was ready to let his mind wonder, but something catches his attention.

Moisturizing cream.

"What the-" Sweet Pea mutters under his breath, picking up the nearly empty container. It takes him a few more seconds, but then he starts to notice. Your tooth brush is placed neatly against his. A few hair bands are on the edge of the sink, he sees your panda towel drying up on the hanger beside the tub, and the shower curtain is still yet. And it hits him like a ton of bricks, so there's no point in wasting any more time. He sprints out of the bathroom, only to come to a full stop by his bedroom door. Sweet Pea slowly pokes his head inside, and then he sees you.

His eyes land on your sleeping frame, and it hurts him deep inside his chest. He can't see much, as your laying on your side with your back facing the door. But he's in awe with the way your chest slowly rises and falls, with the way you hogged the blankets and stuffed them between your legs. You're hugging something to your chest, and when he notices his pillow is not in its usual spot, he can't help but smile.

It takes everything inside of him not to jump in the bed with you. He can't do that, he has dirt all over his clothes, smells like cigarettes and gasoline, and not to mention the blood on his neck from the scratch he'd gotten earlier.

So he hurries back into the bathroom, throws all his clothes onto the floor and jumps in the tub. The water that drips off his body is literally grey, and for a second he's disgusted with himself, but there's no time for that. He reaches for your apricot shower gel, but stops again. All those times you used his shower gel instead of your own come back to him, and he remembers just how annoying it is for him to bury his head into your neck and feel his own scent. So, despite being a bad ass biker full of cuts and bruises, Sweet Pea pushes away his love for soft skin, and uses his own gel.

About 10 minutes later, he walks back into his room, butt naked. It takes him less than 30 seconds to put on a fresh pair of underwear, but now his pyjamas are nowhere to be seen. It comes as a soft tickle to his heart to see you wearing his shirt, so he just throws on a rugged pair of sweats and finally gets into bed.

His arms instantly find you, pulling you so hard against his chest, that if he wasn't missing you so badly, he would've been worried he's crushing you. But that's all in his head, because you feel him and it's the best feeling in the world. This wasn't enough to disrupt your sleep, but when sinks his head into the crook of your neck, kissing all the exposed skin he can reach, you start to awake.

"Pea..." you mumble, half asleep.

"Sleep, baby, I'm sorry I woke you up" he coos, moving to stroke your cheek with his thumb.

"Is everyone ok?" you question, turning around in his hold.

"Yes, angel, everyone is fine"

"And no one hurt you today, right?"

"I'm perfect, Y/n" Sweet Pea confesses, kissing your forehead as you settle against his chest.

"Good, good" you whisper, pressing your cheek into his shoulder, as sleep is already enveloping you again.

Silence settles. But it's only for a short while as guilt eats away at his heart. Sweet Pea decides to speak again, content with the fact that you might already be asleep. He just wants to try.

"I'm sorry for today, angel"

You just nod your head no, too lazy and comfortable to open your mouth.

"No what?" he asks, rubbing your back as curiosity starts to get to him.

"You know you don't have to apologise to me for something like this" you say, not bothering to move a muscle. Your bodies are perfectly tangled together and you don't want that to change. "That club is your family, I wouldn't love you as much if you weren't so loyal and selfless. I love how dedicated you are, I adore that about you"

Sweet Pea kisses the top of your head as he puts his words together. "And what about you? I'm not here as much as I should be, I can't help but feel like a piece of shit"

"Reverse" you sigh.

"Reverse what?" he asks confused.

"The situation. Had I been in trouble. And the Serpents were fine, every one of them safe. Wouldn't you miss out on your daily White Wyrm gatherings so you could help me out?"

"Of course I would!" Sweet Pea scoffs.

"See?" you roll your eyes, pushing him so he falls onto his back. You hear a soft chuckle escape his lips as you nonchalantly climb on top of him. "You're a fucking good man. My good man"

"I love you, baby girl"

"And I love you"

In this moment, you can feel his heartbeat against your cheek and with his arms safely secured around your middle, you couldn't feel safer.

"I'll take you out for coffee tomorrow before school" he adds out of nowhere.

"I'm not going to school"

"Why?"

"I'm sick"

"What do you mean you're sick!?" he asks, nearly jumping with concern.

"Calm down" you laugh, "It's just what I told my doctor so I could get a couple of days off. You're only home until noon, so I thought it would be perfect"

"You're perfect" Sweet Pea says, kissing the top of your head again.

"I know..."

"And modest too" he jokes.

"I know right!? I'm the whole package!"

"I'm so fucking in love with you it's scary" Sweet Pea admits, gesturing for you to look up at him. When you do, he captures your lips into a kiss, loving and needy. Your teeth clink together and you elbow him in the side, but he doesn't mind. You're all he could've ever asked for. Everything he never knew he needed. And the kiss lasts just a tad bit longer, as it started out lazy, and ended by you pulling away just enough so you could rest your head back against his chest before sleep would come around again, this time enveloping the both of you.

#sweet pea #sweet pea imagine #sweet pea fluff #riverdale #riverdale imagines #sweet pea fic #sweet pea writing #sweet pea one shot #sweet pea blurb #riverdale fanfic #riverdale fic #sweet pea fanfic #sweet pea fanfiction

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jared-19-cant-reid · 3 years

Text

A Study In Behavior: Chapter 1

A Study In Behavior (Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader)

Chapter 1: Obsession

Rating: G

Word Count: 1.8K

Series Summary: When you signed up for Professor Reid’s class, you were expecting a low effort but interesting class to fill your psychology elective credit. Instead, your fascination with the professor leaves you spending more time than you’d expected in office hours.

Chapter Summary: A strange dream and an unusual professor make today’s lecture much more interesting than you thought it would be.

Warnings: teacher/student relationship, cursing, mentions of anxiety, suggestive language, implied age gap.

A/N: I’m planning on making this an eventual smut slow burn, since this is one of my favorite tropes and I want to make it a Realistic daydream lmao. This chapter is focused on introducing you to the world, reader, and this version of Spencer. Lots of potential here, I already have a million different ideas of how this should go... as always dms and asks are open!

The pattering of rain on the tin roof seemed to crescendo, a million drummers tapping out a perpetual drumroll on steel drums above your head. You’d always complained you couldn’t hear yourself think with all that noise, but you missed it despite yourself when you left Seattle for college. You were pulled away from that brief moment of self awareness by the touch of a cold hand, clutching yours as if you might be snatched away at any moment if the grip were to loosen.

You opened your eyes, finding yourself in a bed you knew all too well. A bed you’d spent too many hours in, slept too many nights in, and yet was not your own. Turning your head to the right, you took in the sight of your sleeping mother, her expression of serenity contradicted by the deep creases in her face, betraying the frown that she wore most of her waking life. Your gaze trailed down to your hand in hers; her knuckles were turning white from her tight grip, but you didn’t feel any pain.

Laying next to her, you watched her face for what felt like hours as her chest rose and fell in the lazy patterns of slumber, too afraid of waking her with your movement to breathe. She almost looked happy like this. Suddenly, your thoughts were interrupted by a loud beeping sound. You looked around for the offending fire alarm, but as you scanned the ceiling it began to dissolve before your eyes, the grip on your hand loosening until you broke free from the scene fully.

You opened your eyes with a start as you sat up quickly, feeling out of place in your own room. You were a painting placed in the wrong section of a museum, an unintentional imposter. Nails digging into your comforter, you tried in vain to slow your shallow breaths as you looked around wildly for something to remind you of where you were, of who you were.

Your eyes skipped from your stack of records from your childhood leaning casually against the wall beside the record player on your desk, to the stacks of books watching over you from the top of your bookshelf, unable to fit on the shelves but too close to your heart to part with. Your gaze finally settled on the floor, taking in the mess you’d been meaning to clean up for days now.

As you returned to your body, you could no longer ignore the blaring of your alarm, groaning as you reached for your phone on the nightstand. A glance at the screen had you shooting out of bed. Shit, I have to be at class in 20 minutes. You got up, muttering to yourself about how 8 A.M. classes should be considered cruel and unusual punishment, and maneuvered around your clothes strewn across the floor.

As you raced to your closet, your eyes scanned the clothes you owned, speeding through mental images of a million combinations before giving up and reaching for your comfort clothes. You pulled on the green high waisted cargo pants that you’d owned since high school. Nobody to impress in this class anyway, you reasoned, grabbing the fitted white crop top that your friend had embroidered your name on.

You tore through the apartment in the most violent and rushed performance of a morning routine the world had ever seen, only half trying to keep quiet for the sake of your neighbors. Hair tangled between your fingers and makeup was swiped on haphazardly as you struggled to make yourself presentable, cursing at the time and throwing random belongings in your bag.

Calling out a goodbye to your roommate only to be met with silence, you realized that in your frenzy you had forgotten that no sane college student would willingly be up at this hour. Shaking your head as you rushed out of your building, you mused that you’d just gotten all your stupid mistakes for today over with quite efficiently.

Three years of mediocre dorm experiences had left you desperate for a change, and luckily your now-roommate Jordan volunteered to split the rent for the 2 bedroom you now called home. You’d both agreed to ignore whatever ghost stories scared off previous residents and earned you a fair price for a decent place close to campus; ghosts would just add a little intrigue to your domestic life, you’d joked.

Checking the time once more, you cursed under your breath and broke out into a run. God, I should work out more, you thought as your lungs began to burn, I wouldn’t stand a chance in a zombie apocalypse. Racing through campus, you finally reached the doors of the lecture hall that held your class… which had started three minutes prior. You tried to catch your breath before opening the door, cringing as you heard the professor pause mid-lecture.

You tried not to meet anyone’s gaze as you quickly made your way to a seat. The first one you could find was in the third row-- close enough to the front to make out the facial expressions of your professor, who had continued his train of thought after you entered, choosing to ignore you in favor of finishing his idea.

As you got settled and tuned into the lecture, you realized the professor was still reviewing the syllabus. Pulling it up on your laptop, you looked at the top to remind yourself of his name: Dr. Spencer Reid. Finally looking up, your mind went blank. Oh. Not only was your professor way younger than you’d expected, he was... well, attractive. Thats’s a reasonable objective assessment, right? You knew he was just as knowledgeable as older professors-- you’d chosen this course for its fantastic reviews from previous students-- but his youth was a welcome change from the dinosaurs you were so used to in the neuroscience department.

As you studied him, you only became more sure in your original assessment; he was tall, with tousled brunet hair and a face that was… well, unfair. You weren’t surprised to catch a few other girls unabashedly staring at him, clearly drooling over the man as he spoke animatedly about his favorite parts of the course.

You shook yourself-- this man was your professor. You shouldn’t think about how attractive he is, it’s unprofessional. You also shouldn’t look at his hands the way you are right now, following them as he gestured along with his words you still weren’t paying attention to. You definitely shouldn’t think about what those hands could do.

Oh my god, snap out of it, you reprimanded yourself, you can’t afford to spend the semester fantasizing about your professor, focus on the class! You finally tuned in to the lecture, catching the end of what sounded like a tangent about the difference between triggers and stressors. For the rest of the class, you listened intently, drawn in by Professor Reid’s clear excitement about the topic.

Your efforts to ignore your professor’s appearance were somewhat successful, but as you listened to him speak passionately about the value of profiling as a tool for certain types of criminal investigations, you knew you were done for. His excitement about sharing his knowledge left you fighting back a smile, watching intently as he gestured wildly. You’d always liked listening to fellow nerds, eagerly basking in the pure delight beaming from their faces as they ranted about their subject of interest.

You sighed internally, preparing yourself for a semester of unreasonable dedication to this class, which was meant to be your chill psych elective to leave you more time to spend in the lab. It’s not like this topic wasn’t interesting to you, it was just that you weren’t expecting to be obsessed with it-- or more accurately, the man teaching it.

Before you knew it, the class was over. Professor Reid told everyone to finish the assigned reading by next class in preparation for a discussion, dismissing the class and walking over to his desk. You gathered up your belongings and the remnants of your dignity before slowly making your way to the exit, lost in thought about the overlap between your field and his.

Your feet changed course before you could stop to think about what you were doing. When you tuned back in, you were horrified to find that you were walking towards Professor Reid. Right when you were about to turn around and try to escape without further embarrassment, you were stopped by his curious but friendly gaze. Ignoring your inner voice’s screams of horror, you composed yourself and made your way over to his desk.

He spoke before you could, greeting you with a small smile and a polite “how can I help you?”

“Hi! Um, I just wanted to come apologize for being late today. I promise, it’s really unlike me, and I just don’t want you to think that I don’t care about your class or anything, because it seems really cool so far and I’m so interested in seeing how this could apply to my research and I was only really late because of this dream I had-”

You stopped before going into detail, saving yourself from your nervous rambling, and he spoke your name hesitantly. Your confusion must have been apparent on your face, because he looked at your chest, clearly having made the connection from the word embroidered on it. The devil on your shoulder whispered that his eyes had lingered there longer than they needed to, but you dismissed that thought quickly.

“There’s no need to apologize, as long as you don’t make a habit of it we should be fine,” he reassured you, “and judging from how well you paid attention today, I have no doubt you’ll more than make up for it next class in the discussion.”

You bit back a smile at his praise, shocked he’d noticed you at all. You thanked your lucky stars he’d interpreted your staring as interest in the class, rather than the glaring sign of attraction that it would easily be identified as in any other setting. You quickly nodded, thanking him for his understanding and promising it wouldn’t happen again before exchanging goodbyes as you turned and walked out of the room.

Bursting out of the lecture hall, you finally filled your lungs with air fully, trying to regain some sense of control over your feelings. As you walked to the library to study, your mind wandered back to Professor Reid. It’s not like he’d ever feel the same way, what’s the harm in a little daydreaming? You decided you could live with a harmless crush. Keeps things interesting, you thought. Stepping into your castle of books, you pushed the events of the morning to the back of your mind, but one thought lingered: This is going to be one hell of a semester.

#spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid #spencer reid smut #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds

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vintagedolan · 4 years

Text

mixtape: the b-sides

welcome to mixtape, the b-sides! these are little blurbs/bonus content related to mixtape, which you can read here. these little snippets are just for fun, and you don’t have to read them to follow the story! but, if you want to see all of them in one place, check them out here

track: wildfire by ben rector

Author’s Note: this is gray and indy’s first morning in jersey :’) andddd it’s dedicated to the wonderful mar, aka @sunshineforgray because her sweet words actually broke me out of my writers block hope you enjoy!!

Indiana hadn’t slept in many beds with many boys. It wasn’t that she was opposed to it - the opportunity just hadn’t really risen. She was usually ‘married to her books’ as her dad always said, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a few high school flings that fizzled out. But not before she managed to sneak them into her house at least once for some nerve-ridden nights under the sheets.

But damn if she didn’t know that she was ruined for any boy that dared come after Grayson Bailey Dolan as soon as she woke up. It took her a minute to orient to where she was as she looked around - unfamiliar walls, a tan dresser, a shirt. Grayson’s. She was in Jersey.

It clicked then, and she remembered the night before, coming inside from their sweet moment on the swing to a quiet house, her shower, climbing into bed with him.

They’d made it under the covers at some point and fallen asleep - her hoodie had ridden up around her chest, Grayson’s warm arm wrapped around her entirely, holding it in place. His hand was tucked under her ribs to hold her against him, which made it difficult, but not impossible to twist around to face him.

He grumbled at her movements, brows knitting together as he shifted, arm tightening against her back and pinning her to him. She brought her hands to his chest, tracing her fingertips over his warm skin. There were a few spots, little white flecks across his skin that seemed to be fading away. She found a few scars in her search, little tribulations to moments passed. Her favorite discovery was the slightly coarse, short regrowth of his chest hair - had he shaved it? She wondered why, but only for a moment, because then he was really moving, his other arm coming up to stretch out as he buried his face in his elbow.

His eyes were puffy when he finally opened them, and he blinked hard a few times - she could practically see the wheels turning in his head as the night before came back to him. And then he was smiling his sleepy smile, the one that only had the energy to lift the corners of his lips up a tiny bit and squint his eyes shut. She wiggled up, only managing to get where she wanted to be when he caught on and flexed his arm, pulling her up onto his chest as he rolled onto his back. She licked her dry lips before she pressed them against his, soft and welcoming as the song of the birds that were starting to rouse outside.

“Good morning,” he hummed, chest rumbling a bit with the bass of it. “What time is it?”

She reached for his arm, turning his wrist and reading his watch.

“8:34,” she mumbled, relaxing down against him, cheek on his chest as he breathed.

“So we’re both early risers. Good to know. Couple goals.”

She scoffed against him, but it was for show. It was nice to have a subtle confirmation that she hadn’t dreamed up everything from the evening before. They basked in the silence for a moment and Indy found herself tracing letters again, feather light touch over his ribs. I-N-D-Y. And then D-E-E.

“Dee.”

“Hmm?”

“That’s what you wrote, right? D-E-E.”

She nodded against him with a smile.

“Write something, I’ll try to guess,” she said. She went to roll her sleeve up, but he had other plans. His hand moved to her back, up under her hoodie to land on soft skin. She focused in on the feeling, tried to visualize what he was drawing.

W-A-R-M.

“I’m warm huh? That’s a first. It’s only cause you’re a space heater though.”

“Your turn.”

She wrote a bit faster against his chest.

C-O-F-F

“Hey, take it easy, I’m dyslexic. Gotta give me a chance,” he frowned, making her press a kiss to his shoulder quickly to muffle her laugh. She started over, slower this time.

C-O-F-F-E-E.

“That can be arranged,” Grayson smiled. “You need it now? Or can we stay in bed a little longer.”

“I could probably be persuaded,” she mused, scrunching her nose at him before both his arms snaked around her shoulders, trapping her there. He craned his neck forward to kiss her a few times before he thought of a better option, rolling her over so she was underneath him. She was pretty sure it was the best view that anyone could ever have - her shirtless boyfriend above her, chain hanging down, chilly against her neck when he leaned down and peppered kisses across her face. She eventually caught his lips and convinced him to stay there for a moment, long enough for her to get her hand into his hair, making him hum against her.

“We’re having sleepovers every night. No exceptions,” he breathed.

“My bed’s comfier,” she giggled, chasing after his lips as his hands roamed, so big that she felt like they could wrap around her.

Indy didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but eventually she was on her side facing him and his hand traced down to her hip. His eyes shone hazel in the light that peeked in through the window, showing off flecks of gold and green.

“What do you have on the agenda today?”

“Gotta study for my medical terminology quiz, read for bio, and study for my anatomy exam. And then Bekah later.”

“Shit. So I need to get you back to your place then.”

Her knee jerk reaction was to say yes, but there was a disappointed understanding in his voice that had her resolve wavering. Sure, she’d have to grind to get it all done but…

“I can stay for breakfast. If you’re cooking.”

“Really?” His eyes lit up, a wide smile stretching across his face.

“Depends on what you’re making.”

“I’ll make whatever you want, as long as it’s vegan.”

“I’m not much of a breakfast person actually, so I’m down for anything.”

He mocked offense, bringing his hand to his chest dramatically.

“Oh you will be after my vegan french toast.”

“That a promise?”

“Fuck yeah it is,” he laughed, burying his face in her neck one last time before he rolled off, standing up and stretching out. She knew she was staring, but she didn’t care. The way his muscles moved under his skin was mesmerizing - she could have watched it for another hour, but he reached out for her hand and coaxed her out of bed. She headed down the hallway behind him, down the stairs and into the kitchen.

There was a morning chill over the house that she tried to fight off by sticking close to Grayson until he started to move around the kitchen, gathering a bowl, a pan, bread, some vegan egg replacement from the fridge.

“Is that oat milk?” It caught her eye in the fridge door.

“Yeah, that’s the good shit.”

“You want coffee?”

He nodded, smiling as she snuck behind him and grabbed the bottle from the fridge.

Indy had always imagined this - an early morning with a boy, the whole throwing-flour-at-each other and over the top flirting trope sticking in her head from cheesy pinterest pictures and unrealistic movies. Still, she wanted it. But that morning, it wasn’t like the pictures, or the movies. She went around the corner and made the lattes, spending extra time on Grayson’s to make sure it was perfect. And he put a little extra cinnamon on her french toast, made sure it was prepped just the right way.

And somehow, it was better.

Probably because when she came around the corner with the mugs and climbed up onto the counter, Grayson took his spare hand and rested it on her thigh, rubbing soft circles with his thumb. The conversation moved easily after that, only broken up by pauses for sips of coffee and toast transfers.

Gray suggested breakfast on the porch, but not until he’d found an old blanket in the chest in the living room for Indy to put over her shorts-clad legs. They ended up sharing it, throwing it over their laps as they sat shoulder to shoulder on the bench with their plates balanced carefully. Grayson watched her take her first bite, a prideful smile spreading across his face when she groaned.

“Holy shit that’s good. Is that your recipe?”

He nodded, ignoring the nagging thought in his head that Ethan had definitely been a part of that development.

“Told you so.” He nudged her shoulder.

Grayson finished his toast before Indy had even moved on to her second piece, but he didn’t mind. He just sat there with her, leaned against her, laughed quietly to himself when she wiggled a bit as she ate - he’d heard that girls did that, but he’d never actually seen it.

Eventually the plates were moved to the side and the mugs emptied, and they found themselves in each other’s arms again, watching the rest of the woods wake up.

“Do you like being out here? In Jersey?”

She nodded against his shoulder. “It’s a good break, from the city.”

“Good, cause I like having you out here. It’ll be even better when I have my own place instead of being at mom’s,” he mused. Indy perked up at that with a frown.

“I like your mom.”

“I know, it’s nothing against her. I just like having you all to myself.”

Her cheeks were warm again.

“Well, you have me all to yourself right now,” she teased, quirking an eyebrow at him. He gave her a devious grin, hand moving down her thigh so he could pull her over practically into his lap.

“I could get used to that.”

#mixtape #bsides #im actually excited for this hehe

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let-it-raines · 4 years

Text

your wonder under summer skies (11/?)

Summer in Storybrooke, Maine means one thing for its residents: tourist season. This year, for Emma Swan and Killian Jones, it means relationships ending and friendships changing all the while they attempt to figure out just what their relationship is. It’s somewhere straddling the line between friends and lovers, and there’s no guarantee of a soft landing if they fall into new territory.

rating: mature

ao3: beginning | current

tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |

-/-

“What do you think about – ”

Killian’s fingers flutter across her hip, nails curving into her, and Emma shifts on the mattress, angling her hips closer to him and sticking her left leg between his. The hair on his legs brushes across her skin, and she loops an arm around his stomach, tugging on his chest hair with her fingers as she props her head up with her free hand. Killian tugs her closer, and she grumbles as his hand settles more firmly on her ass.

“What do I think about what, love?”

“Well, maybe if you’d let me finish instead of feeling me up, you wouldn’t have to ask.”

His hand squeezes her again, and Emma would squirm out of his grasp. She really would. She simply can’t find the motivation.

He flashes her a smile, the small light breaking through her closed blinds making his teeth shine almost blindingly white, and she can still see the sleep in his eyes, the blue as bright as usual but somehow the slightest bit duller than usual, an impossibility that is somehow possible.

Damn charming idiot.

“Me? Let you keep talking? I’d never do that.”

Emma tugs on his hair. “Shut up.”

“I think we just established that’s the opposite of what I want.”

Emma rolls her eyes and shifts a little closer to Killian so that she can lean down and brush her lips over his collarbone before moving back until her lips touch the ink on his back.

“I was thinking,” Emma repeats against his skin, “that it’s a Monday, you and I both have the day off, all of the fourth of July tourists are gone, and that we should get some takeout and borrow one of the boats you guys have stored in the marina.”

His fingers move over her ass again, sinking down just far enough that Emma gasps as he ghosts over warm flesh in a teasing touch that might promise so much more if she plays her cards right.

Or wrong.

Or not at all.

All she has to do is ask. Killian isn’t really one to say no.

He hums as his fingers keep moving and as his lips brush against her forehead, light, fleeting, almost invisible. “Liam would love that.”

“Please. Liam has done it before. Elsa talks about all the times they’ve gone out. Hell, we go out with everybody all the time.”

“Ah, yes, but that is Liam, and the rules are a little different for him.” Heat burns low in her belly as he keeps teasing her, and she feels it simmer across her skin. The room is suddenly warmer than it was, her air conditioning and ceiling fan not doing the work they’re supposed to be doing. “However, I’ve never been one for following the rules when I know how to bend them.”

“Scoundrel.”

“Or dashing rapscallion.”

“Same thing.”

He winks and she laughs. His fingers keep moving, and Emma shifts over him, settling herself on top of Killian so that his hand slips away but she can feel the delicious friction of Killian brushing up against her. God, this is not helping how hot she is. Leaning back, she purposely rolls her hips and listens to Killian groan. It’s deep and guttural, and the sound reverberates around the room and settles heavily in her throat so that she has to swallow it down. His jawline is sharpened by his scruff that he shaved yesterday, and he tilts back into the pillow as his eyes shut.

“So, what do you say, KJ?” she whispers. “You want to run away from the world and take me out on some rich person’s boat?”

“For you, sweetheart, I think we can do that.” His hands grab onto her hips and suddenly he’s lifting her off of him until she’s on her side on the mattress and Killian’s back is brushing up against her as his lips run hotly across her neck and his hand grabs onto her breast, fingers moving over her peak and driving her higher and higher far quicker than he has any right to. “But it’s still early, and I’ve had other plans in mind since before you started your hour-long saga about Ruby’s date with Mulan last week.”

“It wasn’t an hour.”

“It certainly felt like one.”

“It was not.” She tries to lean away from him to grapple for her phone, but he tugs her back until she can feel all of him brushing up against him. His breath is warm against her neck, and suddenly, she’s not so bothered by the heat anymore. “You’re not going to let me check my phone to prove a point?”

“Swan, can you be quiet for just one minute?”

“One minute? If that’s all it’s going to take, I’m not sure I want you to be my fuck buddy anymore.”

His hand and his lips still, but it’s only for a second. She wouldn’t have even noticed if she weren’t so damn turned on right now and if there wasn’t a distinct lack of coffee running through her system, but she quickly forgets any qualms when Killian lifts her leg over his hip and he’s brushing against her right where she wants him.

Fuck.

“You’re usually not so talkative in the mornings,” Killian whispers into her ear before she turns her head so that his lips brush over. It’s soft, gentle even, and she keeps waiting for Killian to hurry, but he doesn’t. “Are you still tired? You called pretty late last night.”

“Killian?”

“Hmm?”

“I think it’s your turn to shut up.”

He laughs into the kiss, and she does the same. But then he’s sliding into her, slowly, slowly, slowly, and she loses all of her breath at the feeling of him inside of him, warm and thick and full. He retreats for a moment, but then he’s rocking back into her, slow and steady and so damn delicious that she has to dig her nails into the sheets to keep herself from writhing.

Killian likes when she does that, though, likes a lot of things about how she is behind closed doors and underneath the sheets, and her cheeks flush at the thought. He’s usually one for her being on top or him taking her fully from behind so he can bury himself inside her, but this, she likes this, too.

“Hmm, you feel good,” she mumbles against his mouth as he keeps kissing her, the movement as slow as the thrust of his hips. She tangles her other hand in his hair and pulls him closer as her nose presses into his cheek.

“Now, I’ve certainly heard that one before.”

She pushes her hips back in response, and Killian bites down on her bottom lip as his hips begin a steadier, smoother rhythm that has her gasping for air and wondering why the hell they haven’t been doing this for longer.

Warmth continues to spread over her, and while there’s sweat pooling at her lower back and across her forehead, there’s a warmth that she can’t quite explain, one that she doesn’t necessarily want to.

It’s easier not to.

Killian’s hand palms her breasts once more while his other hand trails down her stomach, scratching across the smooth planes of her stomach before going just low enough that she definitely can’t breathe anymore as her body keeps reaching for that high.

It’s not long before she finds it, and Killian swallows her cry with his kiss, his tongue soothing it away as that warmth spreads even further and his hips keep slowly snapping to work her through it and have him find his own high.

God, it’s so good that it would be totally unfair for him not to feel this way too.

When it’s over and Emma is still boneless, she flops onto her stomach and buries her face in her pillow as her heartbeat still tries to calm. She can feel Killian’s lips on her back, and he moves down, tracing her skin with his mouth before he buries his face just above her ass while his arm loops over her.

She doesn’t want to move for the rest of the day.

This. This is all she wants.

“Can you carry me to the bathroom to clean up?”

Killian huffs against her. “Give me five minutes, and then I can.”

“For someone who has a pretty fast recovery time, that’s a little slow on you getting the strength in your legs back.”

“I ran on the beach last night. I’m still sore.”

She reaches back and pats his head. “Poor baby. How ever will you survive?”

His teeth bite into her skin, and Emma squirms away, moving out of his hold and nearly falling to the floor. She catches herself at the last minute, but only by sticking her leg down to the ground.

“You were saying, Swan?”

“Ass.” She finishes rolling off the bed and stands up. She might as well. “Do you want to shower before we go steal a boat?”

“Borrow. We’re borrowing one. I have to pay a fee.”

“You have to pay a fee to your own business.”

“Aye. That’s how it works.”

“Huh. Okay, well, get some cash out of my jar on the bookshelf, and I’ll pay for half of it.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“It was my idea. Technically, I should be paying for all of it. But half is good.”

He nods and rolls back. The light is now hitting the ink on his hip as well as the ones on his arms, and really, she should dedicate more time to tracing that damn compass. “And I won’t shower here. I’ll rinse off at the docks.”

Emma raises her hand and salutes. “Aye, aye, Captain. I’m going to shower, so you can do whatever you want. I think I might possibly have cereal.”

“I would be surprised if you did. You need to go to the market.”

Emma shrugs. “I get fed at work or by you. I really don’t think I do.”

Emma leaves Killian in her bed to walk to the bathroom and shower. She takes the time to shave since she’s going to be in a bikini all day. Halfway through she wonders if it’s really worth it since she’s it’ll only be Killian around. She’s nearly there, though, so she finishes before turning the water off and running a towel up and down her body. She doesn’t bother wrapping herself in it when she walks back to the bedroom and digs out a white bikini from the back. She really needs some new ones, but this is an old favorite. After she puts it on and ties it, she finds a pair of jean shorts and a button-down before walking down the hallway to her kitchen.

Killian’s standing at the counter, spoon hanging out of his mouth, and she’s genuinely impressed by the fact that she actually had both cereal and milk.

It’s pretty much a miracle.

“I’m ready to go when you are. Where do you want to get takeout from?”

“Granny’s?”

“A man after my own heart.”

The spoon falls from his mouth, metal clanging against her countertops, and she swears that Killian’s body stiffens before he shakes himself out of it and reaches over for the spoon.

What the hell was that?

“Clumsy, much?” she teases.

“Don’t make fun of me, love. I will be the one driving us today, and if memory recalls, you have no clue how to drive out on the waters.”

“Yeah, well, maybe you’ll have to teach me.”

By the time they’re down at the marina, it’s past noon. Emma has a bag full of towels, sunscreen, and drinks, as well as their takeout from Granny’s, and Killian’s got Skipper on his leash. The dog keeps trying to jump into the water, and Emma has no idea how he’s going to deal when they’re actually out in the middle of the ocean.

Seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

Killian steps onto a small, clean boat. It’s only got a seat for a driver behind the steering wheel and then a small, built-in section of cushions at the back, and after taking his hand to get on, Emma settles down there with Skipper, who is more focused on trying to get their food than anything else. Killian slowly drives them out away from the docks. He waves to several people on the way out, ones they’ve both worked with enough to recognize them as they lounge on their boats, and then they’re breaking away from everything and to the calm of a still ocean and the sun shining down on her skin.

This is exactly what she’s needed.

This summer is non-stop. She has barely had any kind of break where she could have a full day to herself. Hell, she hasn’t really wanted that. A day to herself means a day to overthink everything that’s currently happening, and she doesn’t need that.

What she needs is to stretch out on a towel and let the sun bake into her skin while the boat gently rocks beneath her and salt water splashes over her skin to keep her from getting too hot.

If only she could be a tourist in this town and have this be her everyday reality.

“Swan, if you leave your food sitting out, Skip is definitely going to eat it all.”

Emma rolls over on her side and opens her eyes to squint at Killian. “Is that your way of saying you’re going to eat my food?”

“Never. Mine is better anyway.”

Her eyes roll, and she sits up on the towel before standing and walking over to sit on the cushions next to Killian and Skipper. She grabs her food out of the bag, as well as a bottle of water, and opens the container to grab an onion ring. Skipper is definitely eyeing her onion ring, but that’s not happening.

These are too precious for that.

“Oh my God, did I tell you who I saw at Granny’s?”

Killian shakes his head and adjusts the aviators on his face before stretching his arms above his head, his muscles pulling at the movement.

That isn’t distracting at all.

“Who?”

“Have you met the new sheriff? Graham something? I think it starts with an H. Um – ”

“Humbert, I believe.”

“That’s it! Anyway, so he was at the counter getting food for him and David, and he introduced himself. Like, he knew who I was and everything, and I’m 100% sure Marg didn’t listen to me when I told her I didn’t want to be set up with him.”

Killian’s arms fall down to his lap. “Pardon?”

“Oh, did I not tell you? Mary Margaret was really into setting me up with him a few weeks ago. I think it was on the fourth, but I told her I wasn’t interested in it. She has obviously put the wheels in motion, though. Or David is super weird and has a picture of me on his desk or something.”

“I feel like one of those is more likely than the other.”

Emma shrugs and bites into an onion ring. “Maybe. It was so weird, though, because I could tell he was trying to flirt, but it’s like I had no idea how to respond.”

He crosses his arms over his chest and props his foot up on the small table. “You mean, you didn’t flirt back?”

“Why would I flirt back?”

“Because you’re a single woman and an attractive man was into you. Flirting seems like the right thing to be doing.”

Emma swallows and puts her container of food down. She closes it so Skipper can’t get into it and then crosses her legs underneath her. “How do you know he was attractive?”

“I’ve seen him around. He looks like your type.”

“My type?”

“I know you’re partial to men in leather jackets with facial hair.”

She scoffs and crosses her arms, onion ring dangling from her finger. “Are you jealous?”

She can’t see his eyes from underneath his sunglasses, but his forehead wrinkles and his brows peak up enough for her to know they’re rising. She probably shouldn’t have asked that question. She was kidding, but Killian does not seem amused.

“Why the hell would I be jealous?”

“It was a joke, KJ. You don’t need to get all defensive about it. I know you’re not jealous because we’re not – you know…whatever.”

“No, no, we’re not, so I’m not bloody jealous. If you want to go on a date with the Sheriff, you should go.”

“I don’t want to go.”

“Fine.”

“Fine?”

“Yeah, fine.” Killian rises from the seat and walks back toward wheel on the boat. “What kind of music do you want to listen to?”

Holy whiplash Batman.

Where did that conversation even come from?

And how the hell did it end?

“Whatever you want. You know I always trust what you pick.”

He nods and thumbs through his phone until she hears the familiar sounds of John Mellencamp playing through the portable speaker Killian always brings out.

“So old school today?”

“Mhm.” He steps down the small step and reaches for Emma’s hand that is now onion-ring free. When she doesn’t take it, he flexes his fingers. “C’mon.”

“What are you trying to do, exactly?”

“I’m asking you to dance.”

“Why the hell would you ask me to dance? You’ve seen me dance. You know I’m bad.”

“That’s because you’ve never had a partner who knows what he’s doing.”

“Oh, and that’s you.”

“That is definitely me.”

She shakes her head as Skipper tries to get into her lap. “I’m not dancing with you.”

“Swan.”

His lips curl into a smile, soft and pressed together before he’s showing all of his teeth. His tongue flickers behind his teeth, and she just knows how his eyes look even without being able to see them.

Charmer.

“You were being a bit of a dick a minute ago.”

“Was I?”

“Definitely.”

He reaches forward and grabs onto her wrist, gently tugging her up until her legs are unfolding and she’s standing next to him, the boat warm against her bare feet. Killian intertwines are fingers with hers and pulls her flush to his chest as his left hand settles on her waist, inching closer and closer to her ass.

“If this was an excuse to touch my ass, you could have just done it.”

“Please,” he groans, “I’m more of a gentleman than that.”

“You keep saying that, but I know for a fact you’ve been staring at my boobs all day.”

Killian tilts his head back with his laughter and quickly spins her around before she settles back in her position from before. “You’re wearing a thin white bikini. It hides exactly nothing. What did you expect me to do?”

She tugs on the hair at the nape of his neck. It’s long enough to be able to flip and flow now, and she kind of likes it. It makes him look handsome in a boyish kind of way, and really, she’d be okay if he didn’t cut it for awhile.

As if that’s any of her business anyway.

“I expected you to do exactly that.”

He chuckles and keeps swaying with her as Jack and Diane still plays and the water shifts underneath them. “You’re something else. You know that?”

“I am aware of my greatness.”

“Do you remember,” he chuckles, “about three years ago, when we all took a boat off the water, and David and Liam thought it would be hysterical to push everyone off and into the water when they were least expecting it?”

“Yeah, but after two people, we were all definitely expecting it.”

“True, but it didn’t keep you from getting tossed in.”

She gently slaps the back of his neck. “Hey, if I remember correctly, that was your fault.”

“Only partially?”

“That’s how I remember it.”

“Partially my ass,” she laughs, tilting her head up to look at Killian. “You were in on it with them. You called me over to get me to help putting sunscreen on your back, and I was doing it, David picked me up and threw me in.”

“What makes you think I was doing anything other than protecting my skin from the sun?”

“Because you had just put some on. I remember.”

“No, no. I don’t think that’s what happened.”

“That’s exactly what happened!”

Killian hums and spins her around again. She nearly trips over Skipper, but he dodges her before coming back to lick her leg.

“I don’t recall that happening that way, so that must mean I’m right.”

“You’re not, and I’ll forever hold that grudge against you.”

“Add it to the list, darling. Add it to the list.”

The song starts dying out, and another one starts. She doesn’t recognize it, but its tempo is slower and softer. It’s peaceful, and if she hadn’t moved from her towel, she could easily be falling asleep right now.

“I miss when Liam was like that,” she whispers. “He used to be so carefree.”

“Liam has never been carefree. He’s worn the weight of the world on his shoulders for his entire life, and it’s rare that he doesn’t feel that or that he doesn’t have a stick up his ass. I love him, but he can be a righteous ass.”

“Hey, I feel the same way about you.”

Killian’s hand tightens in hers, but then it loosens, the iron grip gone.

“Hey, Swan?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you help me put some sunscreen on my back?”

“Yeah, sure, I – oh my God.”

In the blink of an eye, she’s being lifted off her feet and over Killian’s shoulder so that the only thing she has a view of is his ass and Skipper panting.

She is going to murder him.

“Well, I’d wait until you got in close with the Sheriff before you committed a crime like that.”

“Did I say that out loud?”

“You did indeed, love.” He pats her ass and then starts walking toward the other end of the boat. She could get down if she wanted to. She knows that she’s strong enough and that Killian would let her, but she’s honestly kind of curious to see if he actually has the balls to do it. “I bet the water feels great.”

“Why don’t you dive in and see for yourself?”

“I think I’m going to let you go first.”

And then the bastard tosses her in the ocean.

So he does have the balls to do it.

The water’s cold when she lands in it, and salt water ends up her nose. But she doesn’t stay under for long. She’s not necessarily scared of the animals that live in the ocean, but she’s not fond of the idea of getting eaten by a shark or stung by a jellyfish either. So she quickly swims back to the boat and climbs up the later until her likelihood of dying is at a minimum. That’s always something she’s aiming for.

As soon as she can see clearly again, she scans around to try to find Killian. He’s not anywhere on the boat, and Skipper is standing at the edge loudly barking. Emma turns her attention that way, and finally, she sees a mop of black hair emerge.

Huh, he really did jump in after he tossed her.

“How’s that water feel, Jones?”

“Refreshing. You didn’t want to stay in?”

“Not really a fan of getting eaten by a shark.”

“You do look like shark bait.” He pulls himself back up and sits beside her, nudging his shoulder into hers. “Did you really not see that I was going to throw you in the ocean the moment I brought up that story?”

“Oh, no, I did. You’re not sly.”

“So you think, love. So you think. What do you say we finish our lunch now?”

“I’ve been thinking about that ever since you interrupted me. I’m surprised there’s even any left with Skipper on board.”

“He’s like his owner. He has better taste than onion rings.”

“He’s also like his owner in that he smells like a wet dog.”

Killian chuckles and wraps his arm around Emma’s shoulder, pulling her in to kiss her cheek. “It’s best you get used to it since you’re stuck with us for the rest of the day.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

-/-

The sun sets while they’re still out on the water. The vibrant blue sky fades into the most brilliant shades of orange and pink that mix together like only an expert painter could do. Emma see sunsets all the time. She works during them, and she’s got a perfect view of the ocean from her office and from all of the dining halls, but she never sits and watches. It’s the same sight almost every night, the same mechanisms happening in the sky, but there’s always the slightest difference depending on how many clouds are scattered in the sky or the upcoming weather.

Tonight, it’s perfect, and Emma can’t help but stare as she sips on a bottle of water and perches herself on the bow with Killian. His skin is already darker than it was when they set sail this morning, a tan now totally covering him and sharpening all of his features. Meanwhile, her freckles are all more prominent, but overall, she’s the same color except for the red on her cheeks. It’s been a good day, she thinks, even if there have been a few times where Killian has gotten a little short with her or zoned in and out of conversations. Maybe he’s got something on his mind that’s bothering him, but he would tell her. That’s what they do.

Rule number one and all that.

“I much prefer the sunrise to a sunset,” he suddenly says.

“Aren’t they pretty much the same?”

He drags his foot in front of him before pulling his knee to his chest. “The colors are different, just barely, but if you look at it enough, you can tell. Milah was a painter, and she would always talk about the subtle differences. I never noticed until her.”

Emma’s breathing stutters, but it quickly returns to normal. The only time Killian has ever mentioned Milah by name was the night of the fourth because she was having an absolute meltdown over seeing Neal. She knows he only did it to help, to share something to show that he understood, but really, it made her feel so damn guilty.

His girlfriend died, and then he found out she had this entire other life.

Emma can’t…she can’t imagine how he dealt with that, but then again, he and Liam picked up their lives and moved to another country after it, so maybe he didn’t deal with it too well. And yet, here he is still talking about something she loved to do because he still loves her. He didn’t say that, but Emma knows. She gets it.

So maybe his point did work. They do understand each other.

“I also am partial to how quiet it is in the mornings,” Killian continues. “I’ll be on a run or have Skipper in the sand, and the only thing I can hear is the chirping of the birds of the crash of the waves. It’s peaceful. You don’t get that a lot of times when the sun is setting.”

“What about right now?”

“Now,” he sighs, “is pretty perfect, too. You ready to go back home soon?”

“In a little while. I think maybe I need to appreciate the peace while I can.”

It’s midnight by the time Emma sets foot on solid land again. She’s exhausted, but it’s the good kind where she can feel it in her bones and in her smile. Skipper runs ahead of the two of them to the car, jumping in as soon as Emma opens the door, and Killian settles into the passenger’s seat as Emma turns the key in the ignition and starts driving back to her place.

“Where are you going?”

“My place.”

“Oh.”

Emma turns to look at him and watches him twist in his seat. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing. Can you drop me and Skip off at home? I’ve got an early day tomorrow, and I’d really like to get as much sleep as possible in.”

“Um, yeah, I can do that if that’s what you want.”

They drive in silence for the few minutes that it takes to get to Killian’s place, and when she puts her car in park, ready to turn it off completely, Killian leans over and presses his lips against her cheek. “Goodnight, Swan. I’ll see you later.”

-/-

tag list: @qualitycoffeethings @mrtinski @klynn-stormz @scarletslippers @jonirobinson64 @snowbellewells @therealstartraveller776 @thejollyroger-writer @sherifemma @galaxyzxstark @galadriel26 @idristardis @karenfrommisthaven @teamhook @spartanguard @searchingwardrobes @jamif @shireness-says @ultimiflos @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrookee @onepunintendid @bluewildcatfanatic @superchocovian @killianswannn @carpedzem @captainkillianswanjones @mayquita @mariakov81 @jennjenn615 @onceuponaprincessworld @a-faekindagirl @scientificapricot @xellewoods @ultraluckycatnd @stahlop @kmomof4 @tiganasummertree @singersdd @tornadoamy @cluttermind @lfh1226-linda @andiirivera @elizabeethan @captain-emmajones @csalltheway @itsfabianadocarmo

#your wonder under summer skies #cs fic #cs ff #cs fanfic #captain swan fic #captain swan ff #captain swan fanfic #captain swan #queue poetic noble land mermaid

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centeris2 · 3 years

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Shillings and Halloween

(repost so it shows up in the tags) Thanks to Jade @pandoriasbox for documenting dailys in detail and helping with numbers, and thanks to Abbie Starwatcher for the Starstable Database.

Disclaimer: this is not about star coins or star coin only items like the horse, this is solely about shilling costs of event items available in the shop. When I say ‘event items’ I am referring to new items that can be purchased with shillings.

TL;DR - This year’s Halloween was great, but the shillings cost for the outfits was too much and should match up better to what can realistically be earned during an event’s duration.

So the Positive Things: Halloween was excellent this year, chef kisses all around. I would have liked a slightly higher spawn rate for the falling items and Galloper Thompson, but overall? The event was wonderful, I hope it comes back next year so I can see what I missed. I could have a whole post about the things I liked about it, but that’s not what this is.

And now to the title and point: The Shillings.

Events are designed to get people online every day. This is achieved by giving people attainable rewards to work for. You don’t have to spend hours grinding golden pumpkins and waiting for soul shard tornados; if you get on for a bit every day and do the 5 quick golden pumpkins and the soul shard races, you will be able to get the trade in items within the event time. But the new sets in the shop this Halloween were well outside the realm of “realistically attainable”. It was not possible to earn enough shillings by doing the event activities, races, chores, and dailys every day, something that takes 4 or more hours. Doing every daily for a week will net you 27,904 shillings, meaning you can earn 55,808 shillings during the two week event, but the items in the shop were 147,000 shillings. You need over 5 weeks of getting on for 3 - 5 hours every day to get enough shillings to buy the sets. If a game is going to add new event items for sale with the in-game currency, it needs to be something a player could feasibly get in that event time frame. That just makes sense to me, I don’t know how else to say that other than look at the numbers. If it takes you 5 and a half weeks of constant work to get the items in an event that only lasts two weeks then it should be changed. Here are a few options:

The event lasts longer (still expects a player to dedicate possibly hundreds of hours on an event for a month or more, not realistic, especially for kids in school and people with jobs)

Lower item prices

Release fewer items, limit it to only one set instead of two

Make shillings easier to reliably obtain (no chance or luck involved)

Make it easier to save up money so you can save up for events, most likely by removing or increasing the shilling cap. (Nothing killed me more than getting that “you’ve hit shilling limit!” and losing shillings to the void for no good reason, and planning out my dailys to make sure I hit the 10k cap exactly so I wouldn’t waste a single shilling trying to get those 10k items.)

I’m not saying I want it to be easy or asking for free stuff, I want it to be possible without driving yourself crazy. People will work for things unless it’s something practically impossible to earn, you just have to give them the opportunity.

[Main point over, beyond this is personal experience, numbers, and comparing to past events, so you can stop here if you don’t care about the details! I’ll be sending this to SSO, but if you agree or have your own thoughts, be sure to send them to SSO! The more feedback they get, the more likely they are to change things.]

I say “practically” because I actually did it. I sold saved up items (dig rewards, items from previous events, etc), woke up at 5:30am for the first champ and stayed online until the last champ at 11pm, and did everything I could to get shillings. If I hadn’t been as lucky in champs or with high score rewards I would not have been able to do it. You shouldn’t have to spend 10 - 18 hours a day for almost two weeks getting lucky in order to get enough in-game currency to buy the event items. What I did was an outlier and not something SSO should expect players to do. I spent easily over 150 hours in game over the span of two weeks, took part in over 120 champs, got lucky with 8 - 12 daily high scores a day, and was graced by the universe with some weekly high scores and a monthly high score. I am not a good example of what the average sso player is like.

Now for Numbers! Weekly shilling earnings from dailys = 27,904 (average 3,986 a day)

Halloween: 147,000 shillings total for the new sets 1 new clothing set = 44,000 shillings 1 new tack set without accessories = 26,000 shillings 1 new tack set with leg wraps and saddlebag = 29,500 1 full matching clothing and tack set = 73,500

Additional ways of earning (and ‘storing’) shillings: - Championships can earn you 0 to 8,500 shillings in a day (0 if you don’t enter or fail every champ you enter, 8,500 if you win first in all 17 champs and sell the ribbons). That’s 0 to 59,500 shillings a week. Not viable for busy servers or lower level players. - Daily high scores pay 100 shillings per race, weekly high scores 500, and monthly 1500. I’m not about to count how many high score races there are but it can make a lot. Not reliable for lower level players or busy servers. - Archaeology will get you shillings so long as you dig something, but that can be as little as 2 shillings (1 for the dig, 1 selling the item). In Epona you can find 4 gold digs a day. The trade in value has a huge range, between like 355 and 2,000 shillings. You can dig in Epona and Dino all day, but after the first or second pass the dig spawns drop in value and unless you are trying to get that last couple hundred shillings it probably won’t be worth your time (especially if you’ve already spent hours doing dailys). Not an option for people who haven’t finished archaeology (Epona is far superior to Dino), but very handy you have it.

How does Halloween compare to other events? Things have gradually been getting more expensive, but usually there is one set, or a month or more to get it (Winter Village), or it returns without new items (Cloud Kingdom. Came twice in two months as well). What makes this Halloween different is the sheer amount vs the time frame. For more math, the entire Caramel and Cream set, including the accessory leg wraps and saddle bags, is 91,777 shillings. It’s a lot, but you can make that much in a little over 3 weeks, well within the time frame of the event. Personally I think it should be a little lower, the saddle bag being 9,999 shillings seems like way too much for a statless item (and not even a new model).

For those curious - Star Coins The Halloween event had plenty of star coin only items that people could buy, and there are always people who will spend the star coins for the new outfit rather than work for it. SSO provided plenty of opportunities for people to spend star coins. They didn’t need to include the clothes and tack in the shop in the “for whales only” category. New Horse - 950 star coins New Pet - 350 star coins Each new tack set was 260 star coins (295 including matching leg wraps and saddle bag) Will-o’-whiskers clothes: 440 Crimson Count clothes: 520 Full Will-o’-whiskers clothes+tack: 735 star coins Full Crimson Count clothes+tack: 815 New Masks were 25 star coins per mask And then all the previous items, like the previous horses, pets, outfits, and powders.

If you read all the way wow. I’m impressed. I wish I had something to give you but I am VERY tired. I don’t really have a good way to wrap this up in a beautiful Conclusion, since I made my point way earlier, so celebrate getting here with this:

#sso #star stable #starstable #star stable online #starstableonline #tumblr plz just post this in the tags

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stilestilikeslydia · 3 years

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Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy: Part Two

so I’m almost never on tumblr anymore, but in case any of you remember my old fics, I wanted to come back to let you know that I FINALLY finished the second part to this fic that I wrote for the Stydia Big Bang almost four years ago haha

there’s also some excellent art for it that @wellsjahasghost and @sydrianssage made for it way back in 2017 that you can check out here and here if you would like :)

enjoy!

(Rated M)

“I can't believe I've been a ghost for ten years, and nobody thought to tell me about the new Star Wars trilogy until today. ”

“Stiles, nobody even knew you existed until last month.”

Kira slapped Malia’s knee—lightly, because Kira was still incapable of giving an actual reprimand. “Well, we’ve told you about it now,” she said, offering him her brightest smile. “What did you think?”

“I think… I miss my blissful ignorance from eight hours ago, when I didn’t know that George Lucas greenlit this absolute garbage fire,” Stiles whined. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, The Force Awakens started out with a lot of potential, and the cast is full of extremely hot and talented people, but what the fuck?! My only regret is that my death tree wasn’t transformed into a desk in the writers’ room for these movies, or I could have haunted those dipshits until they figured out how to write a plot that actually made sense.”

“Your only regret, huh?” Lydia asked, keeping her tone dry and incredulous.

“No, you're right,” Stiles said, his expression instantly transforming into the biggest shit-eating grin Lydia had seen since before he'd died. “I also regret not inventing ectoplasmic grocery stores before my death. It’s unfair that I cook for all of you and don't get to eat any of it.”

“Not our fault you actually enjoy cooking,” Malia pointed out. “And depleting Lydia's bank account.”

“I am going to strangle you,” Lydia said. “Werecoyote strength or not.”

“But then who’s going to sit next to you in bars and make fun of everybody we see?”

“Yeah, you need her for that,” Kira added. “I’m terrible at judging people, and so is Scott.”

Scott toasted her with a grin, looking relaxed and comfortable against the armrest of the oversized couch he was currently sharing with a ghost and a realtor. Stiles took one look at him and snorted.

“Scott’s a terrible judge of many things,” he agreed. “People… the distance between a car bumper and the curb… movies…”

“Movies?”

“Yes, Scott!” Stiles crowed, now fully recovered from his initial disappointment. “This trilogy may have been a mess, but in order to watch it, you must have seen the other two trilogies too, and that means you have to know how great they are! Admit it, Star Wars is amazing, you were wrong, and I was right! Not watching it with me earlier was the biggest mistake of your life!”

“Maybe not the biggest,” Scott said, the grin on his face slipping a little. Lydia’s fingers tightened around the stem of her wine glass. “Anyway, I already knew the Star Wars movies were good. I watched them junior year.”

“Junior year?! ” Stiles squawked, so surprised that he started sinking into the couch. “And you never told me?! What the hell, man, all those times you pretended not to get my references and you—”

“Of college,” Scott clarified, and the room went silent.

Lydia set her wine glass down on the coffee table with trembling fingers. The tapping of glass on wood sounded like a gunshot, a bullet to the lungs. There was a crescent moon outside. For one heart-shattering moment, Lydia swore she could smell wolfsbane.

“I’m going to go get a glass of water,” she said, voice too harsh to her own ears, bouncing off the walls and clanging in her skull. Another bullet to the lungs.

The next thing she became aware of was the press of a cabinet knob against her back, the solidity of a hardwood floor underneath her body. She was leaning against the kitchen island, eyes level with the cabinet that Stiles had poked open over and over again to entertain Brooke all those weeks ago. Tonight, though, when she opened it herself, there was nothing inside.

Lydia clung to the knob anyway and tried not to cry.

It wasn’t Stiles who came to check on her after a few minutes, or Scott, or even Kira. Instead, Malia was the one who tugged the cabinet door out of Lydia’s hand and dropped to the floor, flinging her legs out to one side and meeting Lydia’s eyes without flinching.

“Kira started talking about BB-8 again,” she said. “Scott looked like he wanted to change the subject.”

Lydia pressed her lips together, looked away, and settled her hands on her knees with careful precision. “That was nice of her. I’m sure he did.”

“He told me, you know,” Malia continued without missing a beat. “About what you told him. About Stiles wanting you to sell the house.”

Lydia’s fingers clenched around the hem of her dress. “Yes.”

Malia narrowed her eyes. “Are you going to?”

“I have to,” Lydia said, “or Yvenne will just find another realtor.”

“Okay, maybe,” Malia said. “But who are you going to sell it to ?”

Lydia froze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, come on,” she said. “I know you’ve been considering it. You’ve been eyeing the curtains in the living room like you can’t wait to change them all night.”

“Maybe I just can’t believe Yvenne expects me to find a buyer for this house when it’s been decorated so poorly.”

Malia rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to lie to me. I’m more observant than you think, and I’m not Scott or Stiles. I’m not going to try and stop you.”

Slowly, precisely, Lydia tilted her head and met Malia’s piercing gaze. “You know what you’re saying, right? Scott and Stiles would try to stop me.”

“Yeah,” Malia said. “And that matters, because Lydia Martin always does what people tell her to do. And I had a normal childhood. And math was my favorite subject in high school.”

After a long moment, Lydia stood. Malia mimicked the movement. “I just think we’ve already lost enough people,” Lydia admitted. “I don’t want to lose him twice.”

“Like I said. I’m not going to try and stop you.”

For a while, Lydia told herself that she hadn’t made up her mind. She let Stiles cook her every meal and listened to him relive memories from high school and the two years of college he’d gotten to enjoy, doing his best to help her appreciate the times they’d shared together without losing herself in them. She fell asleep on the couch with him while they watched movies together and pretended that she didn’t know he’d been playing with her hair when she woke up. She allowed him to teach her how to cook and change the oil in her car, life skills that she’d always expected him to handle in their relationship, life skills he wanted her to master before he moved onto wherever he expected to go once he stopped being a ghost, but—

But then, on a Thursday afternoon a week before Yvenne’s deadline, Lydia’s phone rang.

They were in the middle of making stir fry, but Stiles nudged her with the spatula he was using—one loophole he’d found for their inability to make physical contact—and told her to answer it “just in case.” “It could be important, Lyds.”

That was precisely why she didn’t want to answer it, but with a long-suffering sigh and a pointed glare, Lydia wiped her hands off on a paper towel and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, Lydia Martin? This is Shea O’Malley.”

Predictably and irksomely, Lydia’s heart rate increased. “What can I do for you, Shea?” she asked, smoothing on her realtor’s smile even though Shea couldn’t see. Between the way Stiles’s eyebrows were raised and the way his head was tilted so he could hear Shea’s half of the conversation, Lydia needed the extra armor.

“Well, Ben and Piper and I have been shopping around the neighborhoods near that lovely red house you showed us, but we simply haven’t found a place that compares. After a long discussion, Ben and I have decided that there’s no use searching any longer. We would like to place an offer on that red house.”

Lydia’s head was all white noise and bloodstains and terror. She tried to picture saying goodbye to Stiles and watching him dissolve into whatever dimension the rest of their dead loved ones had ended up in. She tried to imagine handing the keys over to the O’Malleys and leaving the red house for good. She tried to convince herself that it was possible for her to move on.

But like the O’Malleys, Lydia discovered that it was no use.

Once upon a time, it might have been possible for her to move on. But now Lydia’s heart was inextricably entwined with this red house.

The only difference was that Lydia had the ability to hold onto it.

“I’m sorry,” she said, the white noise fading to a treacherous whisper. (So, basically nothing. Treacherous whispers were old friends in Lydia’s mind.) “You’re too late. The red house has already been sold.”

Stiles froze. Lydia froze, judging his reaction. Over the phone line, Lydia heard Shea’s breath catch, and then she sighed. “Are you certain there’s no chance of the buyer changing their mind? I mean, if we could place a counteroffer—”

“I’m afraid that there’s no amount of money you could offer that this particular buyer wouldn’t match,” Lydia said with as much gentleness as she could muster. The O’Malleys really were a nice family. “They’re quite dedicated, have a substantial savings account, and are at least as attached to the house as you are.”

Shea’s second sigh was only slightly less audible than the first. “Well, that’s it, then,” she said tiredly. “Thank you for all of your help, Lydia. We all thoroughly enjoyed meeting you the other day.”

“If you still haven’t found a different house in the next few weeks, let me know and I’ll help you keep looking. Free of charge,” Lydia blurted, because she was going to keep the house and Stiles and therefore she could afford to offer a little kindness to the family whose dream home she had just poached.

“Why, that’s very kind of you,” Shea said, oblivious to Lydia’s silent betrayal. “We may just take you up on that offer. Thank you again.”

And after the exchange of a few more pleasantries, she hung up.

“What the fuck?” Stiles said into the resulting silence. “A buyer made an offer on this house, and you didn’t tell me about it?”

Lydia set her phone on the counter. “You don’t really want me to leave.”

Stiles dropped his spatula. “What?”

“Come on, Stiles,” Lydia said. “Who do you think you’re talking to? If you really wanted me to move on, you never would have opened your mouth. I would have walked into this house on that first day, sold it, and walked right back out without ever knowing that you were here.”

“I—” Stiles spluttered. “I was surprised, and I just—”

“Maybe,” Lydia replied. “But that could have been it. I told you not to make it difficult for me to sell this house, and instead you scared off buyer after buyer until I figured out who you were. You say you want me to move on, but you’re here, Stiles. You’re standing right in front of me, and I’m never going to move on when I could have this instead!”

“What do you want me to say?” Stiles demanded. “Do you want an apology? Because I know you deserve one. I—I—I’m sorry for talking to you, I’m sorry for cooking you dinner, I’m sorry for being here! I didn’t mean to make this harder for you, and I’m sorry that I did! Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“NO!”

It wasn’t a banshee scream, but it left Lydia hoarse and aching all the same.

“I don’t want you to be sorry,” she whispered. “I just want you to want me to stay.”

“Well, I am sorry, Lyds. And I can’t give that to you.”

“Stiles—”

“Pick up the phone, Lydia. Call the O’Malleys. Tell them the buyer changed their mind.”

Lydia took a deep breath and looked at the man who was the love of both her life and whatever came after that. “No.”

“Lydia.”

“No, Stiles! I’m not going to do that! These last few weeks have been the happiest weeks of the past ten years. You can’t honestly stand there and expect me to give that up.”

“That’s the thing, though,” he said. “I’m not actually standing here.”

“That doesn’t matter to me.”

“But it should.” Stiles reached out, brushed his fingers through a loose strand of her hair, and then stepped away. “I might not be able to stop you from buying this house, but that doesn’t mean I have to give you a reason to live here.”

There was a whoosh, as if he was opening up that interdimensional doorway again, and then he disappeared.

On the stove, the stir fry began to burn.

(read the rest on ao3)

#stydia #stydia fics #teen wolf #teen wolf fic #stydia fanfiction #stydia fic #tw #martinski #i wrote this #the taco fic #will anyone read this after all this time? that is the question lol #are any of you still on tumblr? that is also the question

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christmasgeek2010 · 3 years

Text

My Girl; Bang Chan One-Shot

Genre: Angst

Synopsis: You start to drown in your college work, and as a result, question your credibility and worth. Luckily, your boyfriend comes home just in time to catch you as you fall and remind you of who you are and what you’re worth.

Warnings: Self deprecating thoughts, mentions of nudity, established relationship.

A/N: Hello! This is my first work published here, and I’ve debated posting this for a few months, but figured if it gets no traction at least I had the balls to post it. If you have any feedback or want me to write something for you, don’t hesitate to send in an ask, or comment, or even DM me! I hope you enjoy!

You had always loved your balcony. Your french door balcony was your release. It was your relief from the world’s problems and your escape from any stress or tension you ever had. You had come onto this balcony when you had fights with your parents or friends, when you needed relaxation when doing homework, when you had a bad day at college or work, or when you found yourself longing for your boyfriend, Chan.

Chan. Christopher Bang. God, you loved Chan. He had asked you out in sophomore year of high school after you two met in middle school, and you two had been a team ever since. You two had the same friend group, watching as people came and went and cried and laughed together for almost ten years now. You two had gone to great lengths for each other, never giving up on each other or your relationship. You never knew how you got lucky to be able to know the man for almost a decade, let alone call him yours for a little over half that time. And he felt the exact same way about you. You were his world, his light, his muse. He admired how you carried yourself, always holding your head high and looking for the positives in any given situation. You always found something good to say, about anyone or anything. Even the most despised teachers on your college campus had been spoken about in a light manner from you. It was incredible how you could do something so easily that not many people can do with ease like you do. Yet, he didn’t see you breaking.

You hid your bad days from Chan. You trusted him with everything you had in you, but he was the leader of an 8 man group that was currently on a steady incline in fame. His group, Stray Kids, was constantly releasing content, let alone music, and he had a hand in producing almost all of it. Plus, you can’t forget about all the variety shows the group does, the interviews, the music show performances, and not to mention his weekly Vlive show “Chan’s Room” he does on Sundays for Stays that last almost 2 hours sometimes. You went with them every chance you got, as you two were public for a while. JYP himself had come to accept the relationship. Mainly because he saw how much talent and potential Chan had, but he refused to break up with you for his career. You three compromised, and every day after college you go to JYP entertainment and help around as much as possible as your end of the deal. JYP told you a few years ago it was no longer necessary, but you insisted. You knew how much of a risk he took letting Chan date you through his trainee days into debut, and you felt like you owed the man a lot, even if he overworked your boyfriend and his group. You also went in because you got to see the boys often. You had grown a huge soft spot for them all, especially Jisung and Jeongin.

Your dedication to your end of the deal, however, is the reason you’re on your balcony at 1:48am in the freezing rain. JYP told you to take a few weeks off to focus on your studies as he was sure you were falling behind, and falling behind you were. You had a massive stack of work that was overdue, and another of stuff that’s due soon. You had always been good at your studies and well advanced in education, but even this was overwhelming for you. It’s not like it was hard, it was all rather easily. However, even looking at the stack of work piling into both your laptop and at your desk made you uneasy and lightheaded. You had already eliminated half of the stack within the last 3 days, but it was so much. You wanted to hide from the world and shut it all out, run away from it all. The demons in your head constantly were at war. Convincing you that you weren’t worth Chan or your scholarships, that you weren’t worth the risk taken on you by JYP, that you weren’t worth being so close to such kind and selfless souls as Stray Kids. That you were a failure. That you should’ve been kicked to the curb by your lover long ago and he should be with someone far more better than you. It didn’t help that your boyfriend hadn’t been around for a day or two, having to spend more time than usual on producing for the group and making sure choreography was being made for the comeback that would be announced in a few months.

You leaned against your balcony’s railing, your hair sticking to your face as the flannel, Chan’s flannel, was sticking to your small frame along with the rest of your clothes. You didn’t hear the front door to your apartment open, didn’t hear the footsteps coming down the hallway, didn’t hear the voice calling out for you, didn’t hear the bedroom door open, didn’t realize you had tears cascading down your face until you felt a warm and slightly calloused hand brush against your cheek, wiping away one of many droplets, rain or tear, before two arms wrapped around your body, immediately filling you with a sense of safety, warmth, and peace of mind.

“Why are you out here in the pouring rain, baby, and how long have you even been out here? Your clothes are completely soaked through. Talk to me, my girl.” The second name made you crack a small hint of a smile. You always loved when Chan called you his girl, it reminded you that he was your home, and that you were the luckiest woman in the world. You sniffled, only realizing you had been crying for a while when your nose was stuffed from crying, placing one of your hands gently on Chan’s arms and rubbing soft circles on the skin with your thumb.

“College has just been rough, Channie. That’s all it is. I have it handled.”

“You clearly don’t if you're in the freezing rain unconsciously crying, my love.” Chan tugged you inside, ever so grateful that your bedroom was carpeted as you two walked in soaked. He asked you to go into the bathroom and get undressed for a warm shower, grabbing a pair of panties and one of his shirts for you since he knew how much you loved wearing his clothes when you were upset. You did as he asked, knowing he was tired from work. He walked in and undressed with you, turning on the shower and getting the water to a desirable heat before helping you in, getting in behind you as he grabbed the shampoo and started scrubbing your hair gently.

“Seriously, Y/N, what’s wrong? You know I won’t judge you, whatever it is.” You sighed and rubbed your arms, still warming up from the cold outside.

“I’m overwhelmed with college. I’m way more behind in work than I realized, and even though I got through so much work while you were gone, it’s still so much, and that’s without what’s not past due. Looking at all of it makes me feel uneasy, like I’m a failure for having that much backwork. I don’t feel like I deserve you because of it. You work so incredibly hard, for the boys and for us, and here I am struggling to get my shit together like a responsible adult before graduating college this year.” Chan couldn’t help but frown as you told him your honest feelings. He was grateful that you didn’t hide stuff from him often, especially when it got really bad, but he also felt his heart ache at your pain. You were his best friend, his girlfriend, his partner in crime, and dare he say his soulmate, and he had seen you basically grow up. You were his other half. You both had similar work ethics and similar viewpoints in life, which meant you both tore yourselves down when you didn’t succeed how you wanted, and sometimes you both forgot that the other would never love you any less for not jumping over a hurdle with ease.

“My girl, your struggles will never make me love you any less. You’ve always been my number one supporter, and I will always be yours. Your struggles are what make you human, and what make you who you are. And I love who you are. I still can’t fathom how I’m able to call someone who’s as understanding and patient as you. Anyone else would’ve left as soon as I started working the way I do, but you stayed. You stayed because you know that this is my dream, and you’re willing to live my dream with me. I couldn’t be more proud of how hard you work. You’re a full time college student, work part time at the company doing basically everything, you help me care for the boys, and tend to me when I’ve had a bad day at work or get stressed from being unable to finish songs. You’re truly amazing, and I couldn’t ask for a better person to call mine than you. The boys love you, and I love you a million times over. I could never be ashamed of you, or disappointed in a little bump in the road. You’ll always be my everything, understand?” Chan rinses your hair before turning you around. Hot tears start streaming down your face again, this time mixing with the warm shower instead of the rain. You gently wrap your arms around your sweet boyfriend, squeezing his torso as he can’t help but smile and hold you against him. His fingers comb through your hair gently, knowing that’s your best relaxing tactic. Your breath is shaky as you look up at him, nothing but appreciation and love in your eyes.

“I love you, Chan. I’m so lucky that you’re a part of my life. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put into words how much you mean to me and how much you’ve influenced me over the years.” Chan’s smile only grows at your words, knowing that you’re going to be okay. Chan’s been your rock for what feels like a lifetime. He’s not perfect, and neither are you. Neither of you expect the other to be perfect. The two of you have always only asked for the other to try, and try you do. You both steady each other, make each other whole. Any one else would see your position, bare bodies embracing the other as a promiscuous moment, but to you two, it’s another moment in your relationship that makes you realize how much you love the other. There will be more, much more for you two to face, but that’s for another day. A day that will end with the both of you hand in hand ready to face whatever the world throws at you once more. A day that will only make Chan more certain that he wants to marry you, have kids with you, and grow old with you. That he wants you by his side when his group makes it even bigger worldwide, when they eventually disband, when he retires from the entertainment industry, when he only writes songs for you as gifts. When he releases his first love song inspired solely by you, when his best friends get married, when his parents are no longer a part of this world. He wants you, only you, forever you.

“I love you too, my girl. I’ll always be the luckiest man in the world, as long as I have you by my side.”

#stray kids #skz #stray kids oneshot #bang chan #christopher bang #stray kids chan

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eleanor-devil · 3 years

Text

Boruto: Sacrifices [Remade] | Chap.10 - Hardest Battle

Written by: Eleanor-Devil & @mirage-05

Checking on her daughter to make sure she was tucked in safely, Hinata’s eyes drifted back to the clock on the wall. Naruto was running late… Of course, that wouldn’t be the first time. The woman had adjusted to the life as the Hokage’s wife smoothly and without a complaint, she knew Naruto’s dedication to his duties and that was one of the many qualities she admired in the man she loved. And with the village still on high alert after the recent attack, she knew it was Naruto’s top priority to see the village to safety and peace once again before being able to rest properly. But it wasn’t very usual for him to call Boruto to his office at such a late hour. It was already past midnight… and something nagging at the back of her mind gave the woman a chilled feeling. She sighed and leaned down to gently caress Hima’s hair as the little girl mumbled and shivered in her sleep. And just then, there was a soft knock on the door. As quietly but quickly as she could, Hinata went down the stairs. She opened the door and came face to face with her husband. Or well… a clone of his. For her Byakugan induced eyesight, even when the dojutsu wasn’t activated, it was a very clear distinction. “Naruto…” she whispered, concern and apprehension in her voice, especially because she noticed the grave look on his face. “Hinata-san…” Ironically, the clones would always address her with honorifics, although it was a little awkward for the young woman. “Naruto-san will not be able to come home tonight. There has been another attack.”

The woman’s heart skipped a beat. “Is it… bad…?” she managed to ask, her mind immediately snapping to her son. “No, it has already been thwarted, but…” Naruto’s voice faded away as he had to look away for a minute. “But… something unfortunate has happened.” “Naruto…” Hinata was almost hesitant to ask. “Boruto’s friend, Mitsuki… he was attacked by the assailants. He was taken to the hospital, and both Naruto-san and Boruto are with him now.” The woman’s hands flew to her mouth, her eyes widening. Shock was still the dominant expression on her features when she was eventually able to lower her hands a minute later. “A-and how is Mitsuki-kun…?” Naruto sighed. “We don’t know all the details yet but… I’m afraid it doesn’t look very good. We will keep you updated.” Not able to say anything more, Hinata just nodded, and had to lean against the door sill as the clone disappeared in a puff. … The first thing Shikadai noticed as he was heading to the border for his patrol duty was that there was an abnormal activity in the village for this late hour. The jounins were rushing everywhere, apparently in a big hurry, and whispers… there was a great deal of whispering going around. And although he didn’t stop to listen to most of them because duty was awaiting, the young Nara caught some words… “new attack”... “genin”... Just what was going on…? Well… surely he would find out when he reached his post. He had always viewed these late-night patrols as a kind of a drag, but now he was feeling anxious, restless… At first, it didn’t seem like anyone was going to pay attention to him when he arrived at the border. It had been almost a solid minute before he finally came across a familiar face. “Mirai!” The young woman strode over to him, looking a bit distraught and… very confused. “Shikadai… what are you doing here?” “Uuugh… I have the next shift...” “Oh…” This fact, for some reason, seemed to be an inconvenience to the Sarutobi. “Look… the circumstances have changed. You are no longer on patrol duty.” “What? But…” Now he was more alert and anxious than ever. “Mirai, just… what’s going on? I heard something about a new attack…” A pensive look settled in Mirai’s red eyes. “Yes… there has been an attack not even an hour ago. It was thwarted, but…” She didn’t continue for a moment. Shikadai’s eyes widened. “The genin…” The woman sighed. “I don’t know all the details… Only that… apparently Konohamaru-nii-san’s team got involved and now they’re in the hospital. I don’t know which one of them got hurt.” She might not, but with a sinking feeling in his stomach, Shikadai realized he probably had a good idea who. After all, there was only one known hot-head in the team. Mirai clamped a hand on his shoulder, giving him a small but gentle smile. “There’s nothing for you to do here now. Just go home and rest.” As she turned and walked away from him, the Nara muttered to himself. “Sure… I’ll do just that.” ... He had a bad feeling about this. He had just barely seen Kurama bringing in two men before a call came from the hospital, stating that 0 blood type was needed immediately. So, curious as he was, and being also someone that happened to have that blood type, he had rushed to the hospital. To put it mildly, there was total chaos going on. It took Kakashi a while to finally stop a nurse. "I came for the blood donation..." "Oh, Lord Sixth," a relieved look came over the nurse's face. "You are type O, right? Please, follow me." She brought him to a small room. Kakashi was too wired up to sit still. "What is the situation?" he asked as the needle pierced his skin. "The Hokage will come here to inform you in a second." the nurse said simply. Indeed, as soon as the nurse finished and rushed out with the blood bag, Naruto walked in. "I'm so glad you could come, Kakashi-sensei..." "What's going on, Naruto? I came as quickly as I can..." "Just in time, too. The surgery has only begun a few minutes ago, we needed immediate-" Before Naruto could finish, there was a ruckus outside. “Yamanaka Inojin, I thought we taught you better manners than to come barging in a hospital!” “But we came for the blood donation too!” “You don’t have the correct blood type, young man.” “These are our friends we are talking about!” Perplexed, the Hokage turned to the door of the room as six agitated-looking genins indeed pretty much barged in, followed closely by a strict and exasperated looking Ino. “Lord Seventh, forgive me, I did try to stop them.” Naruto nodded wordlessly to her. The kids, on the other hand, seemed to have totally forgotten about hospital rules in their panic, they all started talking at once. “Lord Seventh - I heard it on the news-” “And I spoke to the border guards-” “Where are Boruto, Sarada and Mitsuki?” “Are they okay?” As they paused for a minute to catch their breath, Kakashi leveled a gaze to his old student. “I’d say you owe an explanation to all of us.” Naruto sighed before conceding with a nod. “I will. Let’s just move out of here.” … “Boruto…” the young Uzumaki heard Sarada’s voice all of a sudden, which was the only thing that made him turn away from the doors that directed to the surgery room. He didn’t even have time to blink as two blurred green and purple shapes moved forward, and a second later he was being hugged tightly by Metal and Sumire. “You- you guys…” he managed to stammer as he felt a pang in his heart. “We heard about the attack…” Metal said sadly as they pulled back. “But I didn’t imagine it would be… damn…” Shikadai shook his head as he took in his best friend’s appearance, mainly… his blood-soaked shirt, that was something hard to miss… especially when said shirt used to be white and it was now massively tinted in dark red. “Lord Seventh told us what he could…” “Is Mitsuki-kun gonna be okay…?” Sumire asked in a tiny voice. “We… we don’t know…” Sarada stammered in a shaky voice, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. “Well, we didn’t come too long ago… All we know is… he left us a letter telling us he was leaving Konoha and-” “What?!” was the collective response they received from their friends, which resulted in a passing nurse shooting a disapproving look at the group and then hushing them. “What do you mean, leaving Konoha?” Inojin said at last, flabbergasted. “Yeah… that’s one thing he’s gonna have to answer to us for when he gets better…” Boruto’s voice faltered as he looked at the doors again, and his next word was almost inaudible. “If…” “Hey hey, what’s with the pessimistic attitude?” Chocho said, rubbing her best friend’s arm. “Mitsuki is strong, right?” “One of the best in our class,” Metal added with a kind smile. “There’s no way he will just give up like that, I won’t believe it!” Iwabe supported them firmly. They were finally able to bring a thin smile to the faces of the remaining members of Team Konohamaru. “Thanks guys…” Just then, Ino approached them. “I appreciate your concerns about your friends but you really can’t all stay in here, and there’s no point, we don’t know how long the surgery will take.” The kids definitely looked reluctant to leave, but there was nothing to it. One by one, they bid goodbye and started to leave but Shikadai didn’t move. “I will stay with you guys.” he said determinedly. ”I won’t be able to rest properly if I don’t know Mitsuki is okay.” … There was no news. Simple as that. It had been hours now and there was still nothing about Mitsuki's state and how the surgery was going. There had already been an exchange between the medics and they all looked exhausted, it was clear to the adults that the situation wasn't good... Naruto was trying to control himself from pacing around the halls, it would only put the kids nervous, and right now they were calm, smiling softly at something they were watching on Boruto's phone, they did not need to have a nervous crisis because of him. So instead of pacing, he sighed... again. He looked sideways at Orochimaru, who... hadn't changed his position much or at all since his son had been taken down the hall, standing at the very same spot, not having even moved an inch. His arms were crossed, his fingers tight. His eyes, hard and cold as steel, were glued to the surgery hall's doors. Minutes ticked away, slowly, agonizingly turning into another half an hour... 'Please...' Naruto thought, closing his eyes for a minute. 'Please help him... Please let this turn out alright...' The doors of the hall opened and everyone's eyes turned to it but no sight of Mitsuki in his bed. Instead who came out was one of the medics. He didn't look exhausted but he seemed close to it, so Naruto guessed it was yet another shift. But instead, the medic stopped close to him before bowing. "Lord Hokage..." he started. His heart skipped a beat and he tried his hardest to not think of every single thing that could have gone wrong inside that surgery room. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Ino and Kiba moving a little closer to the kids, while Sasuke, Konohamaru and Kakashi moved closer to him and the medic. The Hokage gulped once, and although keeping the calm tone to it, his whisper came out a little strained. "How is he holding up?" The medic sighed through the mask. "He lost a lot of blood but thanks to the donation he is stable. The surgery is still going but it's very complicated. His heart was damaged by the lightning, I'm afraid that will leave a scar but..." He stopped for a moment before he continued. "...but that will be the least of his problems if he... if he survives..." 'If...?' The hollow word echoed in the man's mind, leaving behind horror and a terrible sadness... He slowly raised his hand to grab the front of his cloak, where his heart is. It felt like he couldn't hold it in place... "What... what do you mean, the least of his problems...?" The medic sighed again before looking back at the Hokage. "Lord Seventh... if the boy survives this... it will be a miracle if he doesn't get a heart condition after that lightning trauma he suffered to his chest... all in all I’m afraid to say that his heart might become very weak." The silence the medic's words left behind was... deafening. A lump had formed in his throat, and trying to gulp it down, Naruto felt a lone tear making its way down his cheek. "Excuse me... I need to go back." "Thank you..." he managed to whisper. Please... please bring the child back to us, safe and sound, he wanted to add... But words simply didn't form… “I just don’t get it…” Konohamaru muttered, his hands pushing hair out of his eyes, although the motion looked more like he was pulling his hair out. “Mitsuki wouldn’t just barge in battle without fully assessing his enemy, he knows better… And lightning is his second main chakra nature, he never once lost a battle that way…” "You said that he sent a distress message to you?" Kakashi intervened. "Yes..." Something then clicked on the Hokage's mind, and he turned to look at his former sensei. "You think he heard something he shouldn't and had to defend himself when he was attacked?" "Well, that would be my best guess. Or he tried to turn back and warn the guards, and that was when those ninjas found him." The older man's tone was disgusted. "It's something we will know once the interrogations are over." "Heartless cowards," Konohamaru growled, so mad that he was shaking. "So they thought it was easier to go all out against a child... Didn't even have the courage to face stronger ninjas..." Silence once again reigned over them as they returned to their torturous wait. Sasuke glanced over his friend for a brief second, then walked over to him. "Naruto..." he said silently, apparently only for him to hear. "Maybe it's not the time for this but... We should also consider the possibility that the boy could have some connection with those ninjas." The Hokage's head immediately snapped to him, a confused look on his expression. "What is that even supposed to mean?" "You know what I mean. Maybe this was not a coincidental attack." Naruto's eyes hardened, so much so that they looked like two dark storm clouds. "You are right. This is not the time, nor the place." "We can't just disregard this. For just one time, use your head. With Orochimaru here-" "That's enough." the blond cut in, and his tone was so sharp and unrelenting that Sasuke had to close his mouth, only with a slight frown on his face. "There is a child in there, the same age as our children, fighting for his life. Put your heart in it for once, and just pray." They didn't say anything more to each other after that. Naruto glanced once again at the Sannin, who had not moved, at all. Realizing that he had to tell him about what they had learned, the Hokage took a deep breath, gathering his courage, and approached the older man, Sasuke right behind him. "Do not waste your breath." the man practically spat out of his teeth. "I heard all of it." "Orochimaru..." Naruto tried to start, but he was cut into yet again. "So you all think that my son is somehow related to those ninjas?" the man continued, and the blond had to gulp, not knowing what to say. "Be glad... be glad that my son tried to protect your worthless lives even when he was barely clinging to life, because if I had not promised him... We would not be having this conversation right now." The Hokage closed his mouth in a tight line when those words left the Sannin's mouth. He didn't know what promise Orochimaru had made to his son but he was clearly holding on to it... "What... promise?" he dared to ask. "A promise to not crush this village. He seemed to think this was not your fault... Although I fail to see why." The Sannin's voice was almost emotionless until this point, but the hint of a dangerous threat etched its way to his tone as he spoke next. "Just know this... My promise is only ever valid if Mitsuki makes it out of there... So you better start praying that he keeps holding on." he finished in a low, venomous hiss, his eyes moving to Sasuke for a fraction of a second. Naruto felt another lump in his throat but didn't look away... Instead he looked into the Sannin's cold golden eyes. "That is not the only reason why I am praying." The Sannin just kept glaring at him with those icy eyes, unimpressed. After a moment of assessing the Hokage, he finally spoke again. "Tell me one thing. Why... did Mitsuki decide to leave Konoha in the first place?" Naruto didn't know what to say... the situation was already bad enough as it was, with Orochimaru threatening to end Konoha if Mitsuki didn't survive... What would he do when he found out about the harassments...? But... he couldn't hide it either... better tell the truth now. Sighing, he looked down. "Three days ago... there was an attack in Konoha's orphanage. Everything pointed that it had been you behind the attack and... Mitsuki suffered the consequences of that. Because he is your child..." And just like that, Orochimaru felt his careful control slipping, albeit only a little, and managed to control the shaking of his hands, of anger. "So that was your idea of peace...? I thought Konoha had become a better place... Yet my son had to suffer the aftermath of an attack - which I have not even heard of, mind you." He was silent for a moment, and then squinted. "What kind of consequences?" he demanded, a dangerous tone audible in his whisper. This caught Naruto's attention. He knew that the Sannin, from years of experience, would praise an attack if he had been the one behind it but... that wasn't the case now. "You mean you weren't behind the attack...?" "I guarantee you, if it was indeed me behind the attack, I would not go into hiding like some coward," he hissed through his teeth. "I always play my cards on the table, if you did not notice that just a moment ago. What motive would I have to attack your village?" A venomous glint came into his eyes as he asked once again. "What kind of consequences?" Naruto gulped... No... he couldn't just go and say that the clans were the ones behind the harassments against Mitsuki, not when he was dealing with Orochimaru. "Children... that's all... they played some... pranks against Mitsuki." "Do you think... even for a minute... that I believe my son was driven out of the village because of some childish pranks...?" His anger and hatred were brewing deeper down. He hated being lied to - especially when he was doing the exact opposite. "Tell me the truth." What could he do…? Orochimaru was clearly losing his patience. But he was the Hokage and although the clans were at fault, he couldn't expose them like that "I..." he started. "The clans did it. They ordered harassments to be held against your son." A new voice joined the conversation and although Orochimaru just moved his eyes, Naruto turned his head completely in Sasuke's direction. "And they were done, by children." "Sasuke...!" Naruto hissed, low. The Uchiha eyed his friend with his usual calm look. "Those people are grown-ups, Naruto. They knew clearly what they were doing. If they had courage to do that then they also should have the guts to deal with the consequences." He eyed his former sensei once again. "Children, however, can be very easily manipulated into the best soldiers, they don't question, they don't think if it's right and they don't think of consequences." "Oh, there will be consequences, you can be sure of that. If Mitsuki doesn't survive... the clans won't survive to see another day. I guarantee you will suffer for all eternity." He silently added, 'Like I am now...' in his head, his mouth a thin, straight line. "The matter is already being taken care of..." said Naruto. "The clans are not going unpunished for what they did, I assure you of that." The Hokage then sighed, the matter from before suddenly returned to his mind. "I still don't understand...why they would attack him... Kakashi-sensei theorizes that he might've heard something..." "He would not let rogue ninjas discover him...!" He had taught the child better than that... "But in any case, he should not have been there alone." His gaze once again drifted to the doors of the surgery hall. "Especially not tonight..." The last part did catch both Naruto's and Sasuke's attention. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes as he eyed the Sannin carefully. "What do you mean by 'especially not tonight'...?" "Ever since he was little... I noticed the moon has a powerful effect on Mitsuki." the older man began. "At nights with the full moon, he would always be full of energy, there were nights he would just stay up, training or doing other things that would normally wear people down. On new moons though... he would become so weak, sometimes even to the point of falling sick." He jerked his head to the window that was not too far from them. "What moon do you think tonight is?" Naruto's eyes widened as he recalled that in that night, before Mitsuki had come to say goodbye, he had casually looked up at the night sky and noticed there was no moon. "Crap..." he murmured. Sasuke was surprised for a moment but was quick to recover. "I see... does that influence his chances of survival as well...?" At Sasuke's question, the Sannin didn't bother to say anything, his only answer was the closing of his eyes and his fists tightening a little more. As the two stayed silent, it was clear that their talk was over. He had nothing more to say, anyway. He was already going through a plan to crush all those meddling clans... The deep silence was killing Naruto, pretty much all that could be heard in that hall right now was the sound coming from the video that Boruto and Sarada were watching on the cellphone. Sighing, the blond looked at Orochimaru before asking. "How...far does the moon affect Mitsuki...?" The Sannin sighed, nearly regretting having let this information at their disposal. "The child is affected by the full cycle of the moon, as per say. As I have said, when it is nearing the full moon, he is energetic, lively, he would be hard to handle. The waning moon has the opposite effect. He would mostly spend all the night in his room, sometimes not even coming out of the bed. I remember during one cycle he got really ill, Karin had to stay up all night..." Not a random choice for name at all, he thought, his mind was far away... If what Orochimaru was saying was the full truth then Mitsuki was extremely vulnerable and weak when the ninjas attacked... had he known that it was new moon night? Had he known he would be weak at that very moment? Naruto wanted answers... badly... "I have never heard of such a thing before... I wonder why it affects him." A humorless, cold smile came to his face. He glanced for a short while to the window again, before turning his gaze back to the door of the hall. "You are aware Mitsuki is not an ordinary human, are you not?" he said simply. Orochimaru was and always will be a full mystery that Naruto would never understand... even his current words had left him more confused than ever but... he did not dare to ask for the meaning of it because he was sure... that if Orochimaru wanted them to know, he would have let them know. … Shikadai looked up at the adults with a worried look on his face, he had caught up to a couple of words from the conversation, not the full length, but it was enough for him to get the scope of it… This was serious, Mitsuki’s condition was very serious… Thankfully, though, Boruto and Sarada didn’t seem to have heard it, they were focused on the videos and photos including Mitsuki on the blond’s phone, and Ino-san had been careful about diverting their attention too. Determined to keep things that way (because heaven only knew that they couldn’t handle a breakdown from the two right now), the Nara tried to force an uplifting tone in his voice. “Hey, Boruto, why don’t you show us the next photo?” Boruto smiled a bit at his friend before turning back to face his phone, he slid his finger across the screen to the next picture but actually found a video. At the beginning he couldn't remember well what that video was about but as the scenes started going, his smile widened, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Aren't there safer ways to go on ice?" came a voice, and by the closeness of it, it was clear that the speaking person was the one who was holding the camera. The voice was easily recognizable as Mitsuki's. "Oh come on, are you telling me that you're chickening out?" a figure suddenly skated into the frame, and they were all looking into the widely-grinning face of Boruto. "If you consider making sure I don't break a leg, an arm or even lose my teeth, chickening out then so be it." replied the voice to which the Boruto in the video rolled his eyes before moving a bit away from the camera. "Aw fine. At least make sure you get everything on record, because I'm planning to use my amazing skating skills to-" WHAM! Not exactly looking at where he was going while boosting, Boruto had skated, turned around in what was supposed to be a graceful twist... and had slammed right into a huge trunk of a tree. Needless to say, Mitsuki's chuckles soon echoed through the whole video sound and it was clear that he was trying to calm himself down as the camera moved closer to Boruto and he tried to speak in between laughs. "Are you okay?" "It's not funny," the pout Boruto pulled off was so... cute and funny that in a moment, more laughter could be heard, while those who were watching the video just smiled brokenly. "Delete this, will you?" "Oooh no," Mitsuki said with a chuckle. "This, I'm definitely keeping." "No, come on man!" All that the camera was filming right now was the greyish winter sky, meaning that Mitsuki must have raised it really high so Boruto couldn't reach it. "Give it back, Mitsuki! That's so uncool!" "Nuh-uh," that was all that he got for an answer. As the only sounds after that were heard, which were the two boys horsing around and finally falling back on the ice, the video came to an end. Boruto was now gazing at the screen with slightly teary eyes, a small, fond smile on his face. "I never thought I would be glad he kept this..." he mused, then gulped. He had forgotten about the video altogether... Ino didn’t know what more comforting words to offer, it didn’t seem like anything she could say reached these two right now, so… out of her motherly instinct, she just reached out and held the blond in her arms. ... It had felt like ages... When he finally heard the doors of the surgery hall open and a general shuffling as everyone gathered, Boruto practically jumped to his feet, and the phone slid from his fingers, hitting the ground with a thud. Slowly, the stretcher on which his best friend was lying was pushed out, followed by the nurses and medics and finally Sakura and Tsunade, all of them looked very tired. It wasn't like the blond could notice anyone but his best friend right then, though. Mitsuki looked... almost peaceful, his chest rising and falling rhythmically. He could've easily been just sleeping, if not for the fact that his skin was even paler than usual, and he was covered in bandages, everywhere... His friend never seemed younger to him then he did right now. "Please, give us some space." one of the nurses urged, and Boruto noticed pretty much everyone had gathered around the stretcher. The adults drew back slightly, but Boruto, Sarada and Shikadai remained by Mitsuki's side as he was brought to his room. The Nara, for once in his life, seemed to be at a loss of words. They watched in silence as the staff connected their friend to some machines, including an oxygen supply and the heart monitor, filling the room with steady rhythms in a second. Sarada brought her hands to her mouth, trying to hold back her sobs. As Sakura and Tsunade came out after the nurses, the three approached them. "Mama, can we... go inside?" Sarada asked in a tiny voice. Sakura sighed and thought about it. "Only for a little while," she said finally. "He needs his rest." The children quickly nodded as they immediately walked inside the room. In less than a second, they were by Mitsuki's side. Boruto and Sarada grabbed his hands and squeezed them a little, not too tight of course... “Dammit, Mitsuki…” Shikadai mumbled with a catch in his voice. “How did you even get into this…?” "He’s an idiot, that’s how..." Boruto said in a whisper as he looked at his friend, biting his lip. "...do you have any idea of how much you scared us...?" Sarada sighed, Boruto was right, but if Mitsuki was hearing them, as some people claimed that while sleeping people could still hear the others on the outside… that sure wouldn't cheer him up. "He is right but… don't listen to him now..." She smiled softly. "You're going to be okay now and that's what matters..." The adults had gathered in front of the room, silently gazing inside, relieved that the kid had made it through the surgery even with such serious injuries. Konohamaru felt pride filling his heart, trying to drown the sorrow inside, as he looked at his students. "He is going to be alright..." he mumbled, more to himself than anyone really. "He sure is..." said Naruto softly. It was apparent in his features... he was grateful to God for having listened to their prayers. The Sannin was trying his hardest to keep his emotions at bay as he watched his son fighting for his life. He had always been the fighter, the strongest... His warrior spirit had not failed this time, either. He realized that he was proud... and glad - really glad that the child still carried that stubbornness... It seemed like they had been there forever, with the adults carefully watching over them, and medics dropping in every now and then to check. The three kids remained at the boy's side, talking to him... in hopes that he would soon wake up and... do something to cheer them all up. After what felt like an eternity, Boruto noticed a movement out of the corner of his eyes. "Mitsuki...?" he whispered unbelievably, as the blue-haired boy's fingers twitched once again. Sarada raised her head and looked at Mitsuki in amazement as his eyelashes fluttered slowly, his eyes opening a crack. Both of the kids gasped then, and a tearful smile made its way on the girl's face. "Mitsuki..." she whispered happily. It took a while for the blue haired boy to understand his surroundings. Where was he...? What had happened? Why did his body feel so... weak and numb...? But slowly the images of what had happened flashed in his head... the attack, the rogue ninjas... his father's arms... Mitsuki closed his eyes back for a moment before opening them again. "Bo... ruto...?" he whispered. "Sar... Sarada...?" He still couldn't make out the figures in front of him, but the blonde and black hairs seemed unmistakable… and another one… was that Shikadai…? His throat suddenly feeling parched, Mitsuki tried to gulp, but everything seemed to hurt now... Boruto was so relieved that he actually laughed - it was a broken laugh if anything, but a laugh nonetheless. "That's right, we're right here," he said, hastily wiping at his eyes to prevent the few tears from falling. "You are where you truly belong," Sarada mused in a broken voice, giving a gentle squeeze to Mitsuki's hand. Mitsuki couldn't help but return the smile with an equally broken, weak one. “Just take it easy, you’re going to be alright…” It wasn’t usual to see the always well-composed Shikadai like this, but now he looked quite shaken indeed. Mitsuki moved his golden eyes slowly to where Boruto was but looked past him, to the people outside of the room staring at him. "He is awake," he heard one of them say, though he couldn't make out who. Konohamaru had moved closer to the glass panel, a huge weight lifted from his heart as he saw his youngest student's eyes turning towards them, and couldn't help but smile himself as the general mood around him lightened with the child's awakening. "Well done kiddo... I knew you would make it..." he whispered. The boy felt his eyes burn slightly. He felt content... everyone in here was safe and sound. He had done it right... He tried to say something but no words came out. He felt his heart tug. Something... didn't feel right about this. He felt his body growing numb and cold with each passing second, so much that he had begun shaking a little. His heart was thumping loudly in his chest, he could feel each pound... but they were getting slower... 'Was this how it was supposed to be...?' he wondered. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, this time slower. Somehow... he felt this was just right, and that he... was actually ready. He gently pulled his hand out of Boruto's, reaching for something that was covering his mouth and nose. He didn't know how much strength he had left... He needed his friends to hear him... Boruto panicked a bit when he saw his friend reach for the oxygen mask. He couldn't take it off yet! He still needed it! The blond was quick to put his hand over Mitsuki's again. "Hey, easy there man. You can't take it off yet..." Sarada felt something was off, the look in Mitsuki's pale golden eyes was strange... Something wasn't right, they were so... empty, nothing like the gaze she was used to from him. Mitsuki felt a tremor shaking his body as his heart tried to do its job against all odds, even if for a few prolonged seconds. He slowly tried to raise his other hand but pain shot through it immediately. Seeing that he crumpled his face because of it, Sarada held on to his hand more tightly. With the last bit of his strength, Mitsuki gave his friends' hands a weak squeeze. "Thank you..." he whispered, and his eyes moved to Shikadai as he heard something in that steady noise change. "...for being my friends..." "What... nonsense are you talking about?" said Boruto, a worried frown crossing his features. "Why are you thanking us?" Shikadai felt his heart starting to race as his eyes widened, something was definitely wrong about this! He had been to hospitals before, he was sure he never heard the machines going haywire like this! “I-I’m going to call the medics!” he stammered to no one in particular, his friends’ attention wasn't on him. "Mi... Mitsuki..." Sarada whispered, a mix of emotions replacing her relieved one slowly as she got up from where she sat, watching the boy's chest moving slower - this was definitely not right! Her head whipped to the heart monitor as the pace picked up. Boruto didn't really know what these all meant, but their reaction gave him chills. "Mitsuki!" he shouted, holding on to his friend's hand, but the blue haired boy had lost his grip. "No, no... stay with us!!" This was more like a scream, and the blond felt himself losing his grip. "Fight it, stay with us!!!" "Boruto..." Even through all the sounds of the machines and the ringing in his ear as a reminiscent of his yelling, Boruto heard his friend's voice, and his own heart skipped a beat. "I'm sorry..." Mitsuki's hand slipped from his grasp and fell onto the mattress, just as the blond watched in horror his chest stopped moving altogether. An ear-piercing cry filled the room, breaking harshly into the deafening silence. … Shikadai froze, face-to-face with the adults as he heard the sound, their expressions a reflection of what he was suddenly feeling inside - a large, terrifying hollow, as if his stomach had dropped a couple of feet, leaving his body behind. Without even realizing what he was doing, the boy turned behind, his horrified gaze landing upon two of his best friends… trying to reach Mitsuki… He… was supposed to do something, he went out of this room for a reason, he was sure of it… but suddenly… he couldn’t remember what that was at all… ... Naruto had realized something was wrong the moment he had seen the kids start to panic, so he was ready to go get Sakura and Tsunade when Shikadai opened the door and came face-to-face with them. What he wasn’t at all prepared for was, though… His blood froze in his veins as his head quickly turned towards the boy in his bed, watching both his son and Sarada screaming for their friend. 'No, no, no...! You have to fight it!' This and many other frantic thoughts raced through the Hokage's mind as he stared in disbelief at what was happening... "Naruto!" Kakashi’s sharp voice woke him from his shock as he remembered what he had to do. He ran as fast as he could towards Sakura's office. He didn't even knock, he just abruptly pushed the door open. "Sakura-chan, Granny Tsunade! You have to come now!" Just the way he entered the room and the pure horror on Naruto's face left no need for further explanation as Sakura and Tsunade both practically ran out of the room, a few of the nurses also on their heels. Tsunade reached for her com to announce code blue and the room number, and Sakura, hearing the shrill cry of the heart machine, upped her pace. ... The little, blue-haired child was completely alone in the darkness... Well, that wasn't really accurate. There were people around. People he... remembered somehow. All with their backs to him. And he was scared... For some reason, he was scared beyond belief. He opened his mouth to call for them, tried to reach forward... But it seemed like they were too far away... 'You are no longer wanted here...' a voice came, and following that, one of the people surrounding him started walking away. There were many words, many hurtful phrases ringing around the darkness, and one by one people left, as the child only watched in fear and helplessness... Getting smaller and smaller with each step taken away from him... 'Why won't anyone come to your help...?' A tall brunette with a blue scarf walked away, and tears now started to fall from the child's eyes. 'Outsider!' rang a chorus of voices, as a blond and black haired duo walked away laughing, hand in hand, not taking a glance back. Broken, Mitsuki tried to run after them... but fell. He turned to the last person... A tall, black haired man. 'Dad...?' came a very feeble, childish voice. 'Why don't you hurry up and die already...?' with that, the man was gone, too. Now but a toddler, Mitsuki pulled his knees to him, hugging them with his small arms, and cried, cried... After what felt like an eternity, a shadow fell over him. The toddler raised his head, wondering, hoping if anyone had come back for him... His eyes widened in fear as he saw a gruff man with spiky blond hair looming over, looking down at him with a merciless leer. Without a heed to the child's crying and whimpering, the man grabbed a fistful of Mitsuki's hair and raised him in the air, laughing loud and cold... ... The girl, Sasuke's daughter, got up on the bed, trying to revive his boy, the Sannin could see how endless tears rolled down her cheeks one by one, unstoppable, as her whole frame shook. The boy had completely frozen... 'Mommy...?' a young voice inside his head asked, an almost hysteric tone to it, and for the briefest of seconds the room disappeared as the man saw two familiar bodies in front of him... A black haired man and a brown haired woman... Lying side by side, apparently dead... Then a small figure with long, black hair approached them. 'Daddy...?' ... Boruto had completely frozen in time the moment his friend's hand slipped out of his own and fell with a silent thud against the mattress. Blue eyes widened in horror, mouth hung open, he even found it difficult to breathe. Sarada was in shock too, but she was quick to snap out of it. She had to do something! Anything! Practically climbing on the bed, the Uchiha put both her hands, one on the top of the other, against Mitsuki's chest and pumped it. "No, no, no, you're not gonna die on us, you idiot!" Tears were starting to fall from her ebony eyes but the girl just kept on pushing the chest. But Mitsuki's eyes remained closed and the machine kept its chilled sound around the room... it wasn't working! "Mitsuki, come on!" Sarada cried out, and even more tears rolled down her cheeks. She wasn’t going to give up on her friend, she couldn't! "Get your heart beating!" She tried to hold back her sobs, but it was no use. "Please don't leave us!..." Her frame shook with the harsh sobs that were almost tearing her lungs apart, but she kept on pumping. "Please..." she begged, trying to tune out that awful sound. ...At that moment, her mother and Tsunade came in running. "Get them out of here!" yelled Tsunade as she reached the bed and pushed Boruto out of the way as gently as she could. Sakura took her daughter in her arms and quickly set her back on the floor. The pink haired woman then moved swiftly to the dying boy and returned to do what her daughter had been doing all along. "Start keeping track of the time!" Boruto only came to his senses as he felt strong arms grabbing him. "No! NO!" he screamed, his eyes still on his friend. "LET ME GO, I NEED TO BE WITH HIM!!" he continued screaming, and actually tried to kick whoever was holding him as he was being taken out of the room. "MITSUKI!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, and started sobbing harshly. Then that someone scooped him up and he suddenly found himself snuggled into his father's chest. "Don't look..." Naruto whispered, his voice strained and grave. Boruto held onto his father's clothes as he started crying his heart out. He never realized Naruto was taking him out until he felt a cool wind ruffling his hair. Sarada tried to return to her friend's side but as soon as she did, a strong arm grabbed and scooped her up as well. She only realized she was being taken when she saw Mitsuki and her mother getting further and further away... But she didn't have any strength left... not even to scream the way Boruto had... … “Move away, boy,” Shikadai heard Lady Fifth’s urgent voice and felt her hands firmly moving him aside. Maybe he shouldn’t… but he just couldn’t help it as he immediately drifted back to the window of the room, watching the chaos inside, his friends getting forcefully taken away… He couldn’t move… All his muscles were locked in place as he looked on, shell-shocked… He had forgotten that they weren’t at all alone, at least not until he felt a familiar touch, a motherly but firm one… “Please don’t take me out too,” he whispered, his tone so listless that he wasn’t sure Ino heard him. Gently, Ino turned him away from the window and held him tightly to herself. “Don’t watch then…” “This… this can’t possibly be happening…” the boy kept murmuring numbly, not even realizing he was shaking like a leaf. “We… we are still children… there has to be some sort of rule setting kids apart from these situations, right…?” Ino didn’t say anything more, just held him closer. They would have to bring him back… right…? ... Not... all was lost, no he wouldn't believe that. Truthfully, he should have taken this in his own hands from the beginning instead of trusting Konoha. There was still Juugo... And even if that plan fails, he could always deliver his son's soul to another, healthy body, maybe even one of those children's bodies if it came to that point... 'I just want my parents back...!' the voice, his seven-year-old voice screamed in his head, tears in his voice... He was... crying...? 'Why did it have to be them?! Why do I have to be alone?! That's not fair!' ... "How many seconds?" Sakura asked, sweat dropping by the side of her cheek. "Fifteen," a nurse answered, quickly looking at her watch. 'Good Lord,’ Sakura thought, forcing her mind to stay clear. "Move your hands." she heard Tsunade call, and she used the time to focus her chakra in her hands. She watched as her mentor injected a small portion of adrenaline directly to the boy's heart. "Hekirekite no Jutsu!" She brought her hands back down on Mitsuki's chest, and the boy's body lifted slightly from the bed. ... The boy was crying, the pain was too much to bear... Why... why did he have to suffer so...? Shouldn't it be quicker if he just let go, and never looked back...? Suddenly, the man's cruel laughter stopped, and his hand released the toddler's hair. Before he could fall, though, he was caught, held gently and lovingly in a pair of warm arms. He dared to raise his head and look... The angel's light was pushing away all the darkness, all the hateful voices, trying to heal his heart... The pink haired angel smiled fondly at him, her arms tightening around him a little more, her expression so merciful and loving... 'It's okay, baby, it's going to be alright...' she mused, almost cooing. 'Don't be afraid... I'm here...' ... Sakura mentally cursed as the machine's sound didn't change. Seeing no changes with the first charge, Tsunade repeated the same move... She had to be careful, the boy’s heart was already so weak due to the burns... but they had to bring him back. "Come on..." Sakura whispered, not taking her eyes from the boy's face, counting as she continued with the compressions. "You can do it, Mitsuki, come on..." she let her chakra flow to his body once again, but the results were the same... ... Don’t be afraid...? How was he supposed to do that...? The little toddler could feel nothing but fear, even with the angel here... None of those people who he cared about was here... They... didn't... care about him... 'Why do you fight...?' a sinister voice rang in his ears, blocking the angel's. Squeezing his eyes shut, the toddler pushed away from her. He scrambled to his feet quickly and started running, deeper and deeper into the darkness... Then he stumbled onto something and fell forward, landing hard on the ground. Cruel laughter echoed all around the black void, and the toddler curled in on himself, sobbing. 'Outsider! Outsider! Outsider!' the chants echoed repeatedly while the boy kept crying, wishing this to all end... ... The minutes passed, excruciatingly slow but also painfully quick... and nothing. "...Sh... Shall I announce the time...?" The nurse couldn't finish the sentence, a sad look visible in her eyes. Sakura was distinctly aware that there was some sort of chaos going on inside or outside of the room, but her mind had automatically tuned out any sound other than the machine. "Wait... wait just a second..." she mumbled in response to the nurse. She still had her hands on the kid's chest, she couldn't give up... She had to act careful, but she knew just the tiniest amount of shock that might do the difference, and she would never forgive herself if she didn't give it all her best. "Sakura-san... It might be too much already..." The nurse warned her. "Let's just leave the child in peace..." another nurse said, her voice shaky. Tsunade snapped back to herself and hastily hushed the nurse, staring at Sakura. Sakura remained in silence as she kept looking at the heart machine, her chakra still flowing through Mitsuki's chest... 'Please… please come back...' Sakura thought... ... The toddler wasn't sure how long he stayed there, curled up in the fetus position, crying, hurting... He felt a warm presence approaching... felt someone putting their arms around him yet again, but he lacked the energy, the will to look up... He didn't know anymore... ... Outside, a leaf from a nearby tree fell from its place as the clouds dropped their first tears and wetted the ground, little by little...

#boruto:sacrifices #boruto #mitsuki #sarada #boruto fanfiction #naruto fanfiction

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heli0s-writes · 5 years

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I. Soulmate Series and Peculiar Pairs

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes Summary: An introduction to the mystery of soulmates and love. You’re just another person lost in the world, trying to find yours.. until you give up. You meet some Avengers on the way. A/N: Part 1 of Mystery of Love.

The world had a very singular definition of soulmates: Two people, entwined by fate, perfectly right for each other, destined to meet and exist as one. The cosmos willed this. God willed it. The universe willed it. Whatever anyone’s religious or personal beliefs may be- there was a reply.

Children were told stories of their parents’ meeting and The Words they said to each other that sealed their future. These prophesized utterances would form onto their skin and scratch itself onto a special place in a script unique to that person’s handwriting. The lore of The Words were in every fairy tale and film. No wonder it had always been your dream to meet yours.

Your own parents met in Kindergarten, when your mother moved from Jersey to Manhattan because her father had been transferred to a higher position. He was hesitant at first, to leave their small city and large family behind, but changed his mind in early spring. The first day she set foot in her classroom, as she’d tell you over and over again, she was seated next to a chubby, freckled boy who shook her hand. With a firm grip, he yelled “Hello, beautiful!” and before she could respond, she had doubled over to scream.

When the teacher rushed over and your mother finally stopped crying, she’d lifted her paisley cotton shirt to see the askew “hEllo BEaUtiFul” letters circling her belly button. She pointed a finger to your father, blubbering uncontrollably, and yelled, “It’s you! You’re my soulmate!” and then it became his turn to double over.

The teacher called both their mothers and their mothers had taken them out of school for the rest of the day. They spent it in each other’s company, learning each other’s names, playing, eating ice-cream, and then took a nap, pinkies touching. They were inseparable ever since.

At age 4, it was your favorite story, and you wanted to hear it every night before bed. Your parents were the essence of perfection: your mother’s hair was always impeccable, your father’s shirt was always pressed, and they always kissed at the door when he’d leave for work.

At age 6, you began to wonder about your own soulmate. “Does it hurt very bad, mama?” “Why haven’t I met him yet?” “What if he’s mean to me?” “What if he moves away, mama?”

Your mother always assured you that it was meant to be. You were designed to be loved. The universe would never, ever, leave anyone out. Soulmates were destiny, and destiny was final. You were pleased with the answers she provided, and happy to hear them every time she reminded you.

At age 8, you’d forgotten all about soulmates. Boys were meant to be chased away on the playground, wrestled with in the grass, beaten in a game of soccer. Girls were your confidants, your sisters, who’d braid your hair and dance with you through the living room. Soulmates were for adults, and more than that, you were afraid of the pain of someone’s Words carving into your skin. There were rumors of 5th graders who found their soulmate in the fall, but they were big kids and you put off thinking about it for many years and stopped asking questions.

At age 14, it was no longer something you could ignore. Many girls were going through changes, some had looked like they were already finished, while you had barely started. Boys changed too. Everyone began to notice each other. And you began to notice yourself in this extant space. High school was extremely daunting, and on your first day, you promised yourself that you’d find your soulmate in this large campus.

Some juniors who had soulmates were already married with their parents’ eager approval. There was a club dedicated to meeting as many students in the school as possible to find your soulmate. On Thursday mornings they held “speed-meeting” sessions where one side held a notecard that said, “You are mine” and the other side, “I am yours” there were many variations that were available such as, “You are the light of my life” or “I’ll love you forever”.

You tried many times, afraid that if your soulmate was a senior and they graduated this year, you’d have to wait forever to meet them. After December, it was taking a toll on your heart. All of those sessions of sitting down and staring into the eyes of new started out exciting, but slowly turned banal and drove you into melancholy. Being bound to one person was supposed to be magical, but the recurring meetings felt disingenuous. You didn’t want to meet your soulmate in a sterilized setting, reading a notecard of words that were not from your heart.

Around winter vacation, you were so despondent and anxious that it began to manifest in severe and constant stomach pains. Your parents began to discuss the possibility of counseling. You refused them, afraid that you’d be labelled as a lovelorn freak for the rest of your life. They did relent, and instead gave you a very nice digital camera for Christmas, hoping it could be a hobby to distract you from your worries. Your very first picture was of your parents under the Christmas tree. Your second picture was of their Words, side by side. It took five months for your spasms to ease.

In your later teens, you began to branch out in earnest to find that person. You had worked as a hostess during senior year to maximize your chance of meeting someone, and even landed a barista job at one of the busiest cafés in Manhattan your freshman year of college at a small conservative university. You joined a sorority and lost count of all the events you’d attend and all the fraternity boys you’d met during that year. It was too much, in the end, you were focused on your studies and couldn’t stand another year in that tiny white picket-fence house always reeking of hairspray and Victoria Secret body mist.

You continued taking photographs and enrolled in art classes the following year. You had won a small scholarship and the funds went into a new professional camera. Mid-sophomore year, you quit your job at the café and began to take pictures for the University’s paper, penning food and entertainment columns here and there, primarily about your local college town. You submitted in group exhibitions and struggled to balance classes, a job, and your own inquiries of love. Most of your friends had met their soulmates, and when your roommate came home breathless, freshly inked in beautiful cursive script, and screamed, “It’s a girl!!”, you broke down.

You had never thought of the possibility of being with a woman. But what if the universe decided that it was? Could you love a woman, like that? You spent the rest of the weekend curled up in bed, ill with stomachaches, questioning everything you knew about yourself and your capacity to love.

You called home to ask your mother, “What if my soulmate is a woman?” and the audible gasp on the other line confirmed the feeling in your gut. You weren’t done yet. “What if my soulmate is a hundred and ten on his deathbed? What if he’s a murderer? What if… god forbid, a child?” the tears wouldn’t stop. You were hysterical. You no longer searched for “the one”.

Junior year, you spent a brief fall session abroad in Italy. It was a small group of 5 with one of your favorite professors and you were free to explore your own body of work in your specialty. This was the perfect opportunity to build your portfolio with historic sites and modern culture. Italy was beautiful, romantic, and being there felt like a dream. One of your cohort members met her soulmate while asking him for permission to sketch his picture. He was a green-eyed man with dark, curly hair swept in a low ponytail. Her Words appeared on his arm, “Excuse me! Do you mind?”

And his Words, “Non parlo inglese” Meaning, “I do not speak English”

After their shock subsided, they shared a laugh and you took their picture together, matching tender forearms side-by-side.

As intended, you didn’t find your soulmate in Italy, either. But you did find a spark. The whole soulmate business was breeding so many questions that were turning into criticisms inside you. The picture of your friend in Italy started churning the gears of your body of work. You began to seek out silly or strange First Words to photograph, and at the end of your spring semester, you held a solo exhibition back home. It was a smash and featured in the local paper on page 5. Soon after, it became viral on the internet.

Reviews raved about the humor of your photographs (one set of First Words read, “You think I’m cute, huh” and “You’re a fucking nightmare-boy”. Another, “Bless you” and “That wasn’t a sneeze” your personal favorite, "Give me your wallet" and "Oh hell no").

People were alarmed at some of the less traditional pairs you found: differing intense religious beliefs (Roman Catholic, and Satanist), age-disparity (15 year gap between them), familial relations (they were first-cousins), those encumbered by illness (one had been in a coma for 5 years), and something that was so rare you’d only read about it happening twice, ever: multiple soulmates.

In that particular case, you had put an advertisement online and received an e-mail that night from someone who wanted to refer you to their uncle and his family. You went the next morning to Prospect Park and met John and his soulmates Francis and Marilynn. You spent three hours with them that day. The photos you took were beyond lovely.

In senior year, you had a portfolio that was known world-wide. You were receiving so many e-mails a day about photo opportunities that your business address bounced back at least twice a week for 24 hours. Most of them were very desperate calls for attention, struggles for their 15 seconds of fame, you rarely had the time (or patience) to give an e-mail a second look. You put that body of work on hold, but still opened an online store to sell prints and gave the occasional phone interview. Between that and the various photography jobs you received elsewhere, you were self-sufficient and hardly struggled. You lived in a one-bedroom apartment and looked forward to travelling in the U.S. after college.

It was winter of senior year when you received a message in your personal e-mail that caught you by surprise. It was from Pepper Potts. The Pepper Potts. You were holed up cozily during a blizzard and almost spilled your tea in your lap. It was an invitation for you to visit Stark Tower headquarters, take a few pictures, and go home. The way she worded it was extremely delicate, making sure to flatter your work but also very strictly state the terms of agreement. She made sure to mention that you would be paid generously, of course.

When the snow melted, you made your journey, camera bag across your chest.

At age 20, you met Iron Man, Tony Stark, self-proclaimed billionaire, philanthropist, playboy, genius. You also met Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow.

Ms. Potts had met you at the door, opening it and extending her hand. She immediately thanked you for coming in the cold and praised your photographs. It surprised you when she admitted that as famous as your Soulmate Series was, she was more intrigued by the tenderness of the candid shots you routinely represented in your work, not your actual choice of subject. She had also done some research and found various college articles where you took pictures of local businesses and restaurants. “The intimacy that you captured of the most mundane of places… they were beautiful. I knew you were the person I wanted.” You laughed about your naiveite in those days, being only a newbie at photography, but Ms. Potts shushed you.

She led you to a conference room and slid a contract in front of you, asking for your patience and understanding at the long document. After the end of nearly an hour and a half of reviewing, questioning, and a sneaky interview process, you were ready to begin. A lanyard was placed in your hand with your picture and a keycode, giving you access to certain floors of the building.

The contract was complicated, but it boiled down to this: You were hired by Stark Industries to photograph their employees (and future employees) as well as any floor you had access to. It was your job to deliver simple and tasteful photos to represent the Stark image. You understood it to mean that your job was to create a cult of personality for Stark Industries somewhere in the realm of capable, trustworthy, and familiar- as if these people could be your close friends. The contract spanned a 30-day period where you were able to enter the tower at your leisure and convenience, wander as you wished, ask any questions you may have, and ultimately submit a binder of no less than 50 pictures with your detailed notes (including personal opinion on each photo).

Ms. Potts strongly suggested that if this assignment went well, she had high hopes for your future at Stark Industries. She kept her promise and continued to reach out to you about assignments.

At 21, almost immediately after your graduation, you met Thor, Hawkeye, and Dr. Banner- you prayed you would never meet his other half. That same year, you also met him.

Captain America. Every child in America knew about Steve Rogers. When news leaked that his body had been found frozen and that he was living in New York, it stunned you. He was a (newly) living (dead?!) legend; the idea of him was too much. When it dawned on you that you would be photographing him, you immediately threw up.

You would never forget that day. Your stomach hurt all night. It hadn’t done that since you were a child.

When you entered Stark Tower- you were too nervous to even notice that it had been transformed to the newly dubbed Avengers Tower. You rode the elevator up to the conference room where you scheduled to meet Ms. Potts, but Mr. Stark was there instead. Next to him, was the unmistakable physique of Captain Rogers. Your stomach twisted itself into a pretzel and you had to suck in a deep breath to continue walking upright.

You were so nervous that when Stark asked you for the umpteenth time to please call him Tony, you nearly twisted your ankle by mis-stepping. Sadly for him, you wouldn’t utter his first name for another few years. Captain Rogers had narrowed his eyes at you and the camera bag hanging limply on your hip. You could not stop trembling under his scrutiny. Even Tony offered you a drink to take the edge off.

Finally, he spoke.

“Good morning,” he said quietly, giving you a gentle nod.

You didn’t stop to look as you bolted out of the conference room and down the hall. As soon as you reached the toilet, you threw up.

The bile and acid that burned a path up your throat lingered all day and flared constantly in Captain Rogers’ presence. Your chest burned like a blaze. He in turn, gave you inspecting, worried glances and never tried to come any closer than 10 feet. You thanked him silently from across rooms and hallways. Mr. Stark joked that the best candid moments with Captain Rogers were in the showers, but if you kept getting sick like that, you’ll never get a chance. Your stomach did not appreciate the insinuation whatsoever.

Ms. Potts was infinitely more helpful. She sent you down to the infirmary but they could find nothing wrong with you. The nurse helping you, however, did notice that you had suddenly formed a bright pink rash right in the middle of your chest after watching you nervously rub your torso.

You thought nothing more of it, and by the time you got home, it had vanished.

The contract Ms. Potts emailed you that night detailed the next assignment, and upon completion, you would be paid 20 thousand dollars, more than double the amounts you’d previously received. Her postscript thanked you for your hard work with the Avengers, specifically, your patience with Tony and his constant quips, but that she wanted you to take some time to yourself and explore the world. Twenty-one, she said, was a tremendously important year for young women, and that she hoped to see more of your photography that was special to you, rather than necessary to her.

That night, you broke your apartment lease and made plans to travel at the end of the month. For the next 30 days, you took some of the best photos you had ever taken of the Avengers. However, you deeply regretted every photo you took of Captain Rogers. They were never as detailed or intimate as any of the rest. He was always either in a group setting, or far off, jogging, training, perhaps reading a book… across the kitchen, on the other side of a window.

You were afraid of him. Or rather, you were afraid of how your body reacted to him. From time to time, you’d see him look at you apologetically, which made it a million times worse.

After your assignment was finished and the rest of the payment was deposited in your account, you sold your furniture and packed two bags. For the two years, you spent time in Thailand, Russia, Italy, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and even a few icy weeks visiting the Arctic.

Once again, you picked up your Soulmates Series. This time you solely focused on what you lovingly called peculiar pairs.

In Thailand, you found a pair of non-gender conforming soulmates who lived in a large community of entirely non gender conforming people. Most of the country itself was extremely accepting and kindhearted, something that pained you to think about in regard to your own home. You learned so much about sexuality and identity in your time with them, and at the end of your trip, you felt entirely changed about your perspective on what it was to be male and female- and whether or not it actually mattered!

In Russia, you met two people who identified as asexual- one being intersex. On the day you met, he identified as male and wore trousers and ordered the strongest coffee you had ever tasted. The next day, you hardly recognized him in a lavender gown, and were surprised and happily obliged when he asked you to use feminine pronouns. Upon your departure, he was back again in trousers and let you use masculine pronouns in your writing. It broke your heart to learn about their struggle in a country that shunned and viewed them with contempt.

Your travels brought you to many identities and many facets of love. There were couples who never engaged in romantic activity, but cherished each other more than you’d ever felt from another soul. There were others still who’s lives were kept secret from their families and their society, at large. There was a household in Italy with a husband and wife, not soulmates, living with another man, whose soulmate had been the husband. They met by chance on the train. The wife was 7 months along, and there was incredible tension under their roof. Most days, they made it fine, some days, she expressed to you, she couldn’t help but fall asleep crying.

Sometimes, you would meet soulmates that made you truly question the work. These pairs haunted you.

In New Zealand, a man was 65 when he met his soulmate; he had waited all his life. She was a young volunteer at the day care center where he worked. He thought she would reject him because of their age difference, but she loved him. They spent one blissful day together. The next day, she was involved in a fatal accident on her way to work. You sat in silence in his living room as he held onto a picture of her and sobbed.

At the end of your travels, departing from Saudi Arabia, your heart was full of grief about soulmates. The last pair you visited was in a dimly lit home, where the husband smoked profusely, and you could not see his wife until the very end. When she came into the light, her eyes were both blackened, and she could not speak due to the stitches in her mouth.

Returning to Manhattan, at age 23, you had given up on not only your own soulmate, but all soulmate indoctrination. Your heart was hardened by the knowledge that predestiny could usher in such suffering, and that love could be so terrible. You began to resist.

Next Chapter

#steve rogers #bucky barnes #stucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader #reader insert #mcu x reader #Mystery of Love heli0s #soulmate au

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thedeaditeslayer · 4 years

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Tom Sullivan - Evil Dead (Retrospective Interview)

Below is a short interview with Tom Sullivan that covers working on The Evil Dead making props, stop motion effects and special make-up effects.

Much has been said about The Evil Dead over the years. An abundance of articles and books have covered the arduous low-budget shoot, and the creativity that came out of long cold nights in the wilderness of Tennessee. The dedicated cast and crew went to extreme lengths whilst making the classic film; including memorable instances like Ellen Sandweiss running through the woods until her feet were in pieces, Campbell having his soon to be famous chin scarred when a deadite hand grabbed him through the floor, and long nights in the cabin with no running water leaving crew to wash blood off their hands in scolding hot coffee. But just as impressive as the aggressive perseverance needed to finish the 16mm low budget opus were the imaginative and gory effects that have been etched into fans retinas for nearly forty years! The blood spewing, head-severing effects were created by Tom Sullivan, who had provided makeup for Raimi’s fund-raising short film Within The Woods. Sullivan signed up for The Evil Dead and created the numerous prosthetics and blood gags essential to dismembering a cabin of teenagers, helping bring to the screen a bloodbath of carnage that Stephen King famously called “The most ferociously original horror film of 1982.”

With only three weeks to break down Raimi’s script and create the necessary effects needed - and a further three months to create and film the stop motion blood and pus filled “Deadite Meltdown” at the end of the movie - Sullivan built a legion of makeup appliances, severed limbs, and some of the most iconic props in horror movie history. Sullivan, who tours with his Evil Dead Museum showcasing of many of the props, makeups and ghastly creations used in the Evil Dead movies, spoke with Project Louder about what went into creating such iconic pieces for 1982’s The Evil Dead.

Project Louder: Let’s start with the most famous of all Evil Dead props, The Book of the Dead. In the script it was described as being made from an animal skin. How did you design the book and what was your process of putting it together?

Tom Sullivan: My book is different than the one Sam Raimi described in his script, “Book of the Dead”. His book had some kind of animal skin with a couple of letters from an ancient alphabet on the cover. As an illustrator that didn’t read like an evil book to me. So, I proposed a book covered in human skin and a human face would make it more obvious it was human skin as opposed to just leather. I had made face molds of all the actors but Bruce Campbell. So, I coated Hal Delrich’s mold about 8 or 9 layers of mold rubber, let it dry, yanked it of the mold and glued it to a piece of corrugated cardboard. The pages were a stiff card stock that I bound together with grocery bag paper. The Illustrations were not to be seen in the original script but as an artist I had to draw on everything, so I based the drawings on DaVinci’s notebooks on anatomy. The text is all made up on the spot. I call it Bullscript.

Project Louder: What was the process for makeup design, prep and application in regard to Theresa, Betsy and Ellen?

Tom Sullivan: Sam gave me the script three weeks before shooting began. As the make up and special effects artist all I could think was, “shoot me now”. I had time to breakdown the script, figure out what effects and make up designs I needed, how I might do them and what supplies I would need. The original demon concepts were based on the Sumerian background. Not that I knew anything about Sumerians, but I had seen The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, so I just figured maybe the Sumerians were proto ancient Egyptians. I was hoping movie audiences were as ignorant as I was, and I was correct. So, I sculpted some designs for the deadites based on a hawk, a snake, and a dog. Sam thought it was starting to look like Planet of the Apes and I agreed. So instead of stealing from John Chambers let’s steal from Dick Smith. Ellen’s, Cheryl Deadite make up was inspired by Smith’s Exorcist make up of the demon. Betsy’s make up was the first make up I did for the film. It was black veins radiating out of her darkened eyes. That design became Shelly’s make up. Don’t waste good ideas. All of the ladies’ make ups were done in 4 to 6 hours sessions. They were built up from scratch. Only Scotty’s dog make up was a latex appliance. That was left over from the Sumerian Dog design. Don’t waste anything.

Sam’s concept became the idea that the demons were mocking and revealing their victims. After discovering about the “latex point” during the making of Within the Woods, I was hesitant to use spirit gum on the actors. It tends to harm skin when actors have to wear glued on masks for long days upon days. So, I used latex rubber like contact cement. I’d put a thin layer on the contact surface of the mask and a thin layer on the contact surface of the actor. When the layers were drying but still tacky I would press them together. It’s important to clean the actor’s skin with alcohol to remove oils on their skin for longer adhesion.

Project Louder: The Kandarian dagger is another iconic design. What was the concept and build process?

Tom Sullivan: The dagger was just a dagger in the script. I wanted to make it more memorable and read as a bizarre and disturbing weapon. I loved Ridley Scott’s Alien so I took a 1 ½” piece of aluminum stock, ground it down with a sharp point, took a couple of handfuls of a ground paper mache called Celluclay added water, mashed it into a clay like substance and shaped it over the hilt of the dagger in the rough shape of the “chestburster” from Alien. I took the parts of a 12” skeleton model kit and stuck those into the Celluclay. When I ran out of kit parts, I bought a chicken, cooked it, ate it, boiled and dried the bones and stuck those into the hilt and instant horror movie prop. I got the idea for the dagger’s skull puking blood the night before we shot the Shelly Deadite death scene. I figured I could drill a hole from the skull’s mouth to the back of the dagger, stick a small, tube into the hole and have a production assistant blow blood through it for the take. I suggested the close up shot for the film when I showed up at the set. And Sam used it. He has excellent taste.

Project Louder: The Evil Dead never skimped on the blood. Would you care to share the Tom Sullivan blood recipe?

Tom Sullivan: It’s Sam Raimi’s blood recipe. He taught it to me during Within the Woods. It is one bottle of Corn Syrup, 2 to 3oz of Red Food Coloring. 1 Cup Instant Coffee mixed with water into a paste. Mix well. It stains everything but is safe and non-toxic for your actors. However, I drank so much of this coffee syrup I haven’t had a cup in coffee ever since filming Evil Dead. So be warned!!

Project Louder: The climactic stop motion sequence is masterful in is gore and execution. How did you approach such a complicated and time-consuming sequence?

Tom Sullivan: I love stop motion animation, so I was looking for an opportunity to use it in Sam’s film. Sam’s idea for the finale was for me to make some balloon versions of the Scotty and Cheryl Deadites and have them deflate while smoking. As I had been creating lots of gory effects for the film that seemed a bit lame for finale. I thought it needed an explosion of gore and as the special effects artist I wanted to throw guts into the audience’s lap. I did some storyboards of my concept for the meltdown and using George Pal’s great film, The Time Machine stop motion sequence of the Morlock decomposing via clay animation in that films finale, I sold Sam on the idea. He knew Bart Pierce, a filmmaker and stop motion animator and we met and designed the full sequence and started filming in his basement. I made the almost full-size clay models of the deadites over wooden ball and socket armatures made with large wooden beads. I made heads out of blood red dyed modeling clay sculpted into the muscles and then pressed into a mold of the deadite’s sculpture that had a more flesh colored clay. That was then removed from the mold, painted, wigged and ready to animate. To match the cabin set we used wood from the location and found out Bart’s garage’s ceiling matched the ceiling of the cabin. So, we used it. I am very proud of my work with Bart and I consider it my best artistic collaboration.

#Tom Sullivan #The Evil Dead

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gaelstudies-blog · 5 years

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1. Don’t beat yourself up about how fast you read or how you focus

I have a bad habit of thinking back to my childhood and remembering how quickly I could get through books. I could get through 2 or 3 in a day with little difficulty. And now I’m lucky if I can get through a book in a week. But remember that what you’re reading and how you read changes all the time. It’s likely you’ve progressed into more challenging and longer works, and it’s also likely that your brain is wanting to understand it deeper than you did as a child. Sometimes life gets in the way and we lose the ability to focus on specific things for long periods - and that’s okay! And sometimes, depending on our mental health or disabilities, we might not have that ability - and that’s okay too. But that doesn’t mean you’ll never find a method of making it work. It’s accepting and understanding your limitations and seeing what you can progress at. Accepting these things can help remove some of the stress that we build up and associate with reading. Stress can be a big factor in how we can focus.

2. Structure time into your day or week to read

You don’t need a completely structured timetable for each and every day (or you can if you want!), but giving yourself a minimum amount of time to read each day or week can be a great way to get yourself on track. If you’re struggling to hit a specific time each day, don’t be afraid of lowering it. Or breaking it up. You can set 30 minutes to read each day but that doesn’t mean you have to do it all in one go. You could break it into five or ten minute chunks here and there. You could also consider giving yourself a weekly goal instead. An hour or two of reading each week might not feel like progress, but being dedicated to returning to reading can help your mind focus on it and it’s likely you’ll end up progressing past it.

3. You don’t have to finish books

If you’re not enjoying reading something, unless you absolutely need to read it for an assignment, don’t force yourself to read it. Instead take a step back and find another book to work on instead. It doesn’t count as a failure to not enjoy something and want to read something else. It might suck if it’s a book you were looking forward to, cost a lot, or you want to work on reading goals but it’s okay, I promise you. And if you’re having to read it for an assignment break it up with reading something you enjoy also. Try and remove the association of reading with stress and unpleasant reading material.

4. Set reasonable goals

I see people on Twitter being like “I want to get back into reading so I’m setting a reading challenge of 100 books for the year”. Whilst yes, some people do occasionally manage it or manage close to it a lot of them don’t. A lot of them get stressed about the challenge ahead and give up or feel like a failure. Be realistic, and set a low number at first. You can always go past it! But don’t just set yourself the challenge of ‘read more’ because that doesn’t mean anything. Give yourself a numbered goal that’s also timed. E.g. a book a month or twenty books in a year. This way you can feel motivated when you’re managing to progress the goal and accomplished when you succeed.

5. Use Youtube, Goodreads and Tumblr as motivational tools

There are lots of Youtube channels dedicated to talking about books, some of them can offer great advice and recommendations. I find that when I watch these videos I get really motivated to read and often pause their video to focus on something I’ve been meaning to read. Tumblr blogs also can post cosy aesthetic pictures of books, libraries, and reading spots that can put you in the mood. And there’s plenty of people happy to give book recommendations. Using this can help you find something you would be really interested in reading and you can join the community and get support and more. Goodreads also recommends a lot of good book suggestions, and you can read reviews - remember that reading reviews (and this post!) counts as reading. Get involved in different reading communities where you can support one another, chat about books and more. You’ll find that you’re likely to return to reading more frequently when you’re associating it with fun and friendships. Make your own videos and posts, you don’t have to share them but it can be a great way to think about what you’re reading and put yourself in the ‘I want to read’ mindset.

6. Struggling with focusing on fiction? Try non-fiction

If you’re struggling to find good non-fiction books to read, and find that these aren’t keeping your interest - that’s okay! Think about your interests and see what non-fiction books are out there about your topic. These might take longer to read because of how packed with information they are, but you might find that you’ll be so interested in a topic that you can focus on it a lot better. And you might get more motivation from being aware that you’re learning something.

7. Be aware of your surroundings

Is it really noisy around you? Is your TV, laptop, phone etc in your view? Try changing up your environment. Put electronics away, find a quieter place to study or alternatively try some music on in the background, you might have to experiment with what music you put on but this helps me focus with my reading and writing. And I know others who say the same, but likewise what works for some people (or a lot of people!) might not work for you. Try experimenting with your ideal environment and you’ll find that you can focus a lot better.

8. Don’t read books just so you’re not missing out

It can be easy to want to read something because lots of people are talking about it and you want to join in. But if it’s not something that you’re actually interested in, it might be worth giving it a miss and focusing on things that you’re actually more interested in. Although in saying that, sometimes it can be a good idea to push ourselves to try something out of our comfort zone and you might be pleasantly surprised! Just remember point 3.

9. People have different capabilities

This might seem like an obvious one, and it’s one that we definitely all know, but we can still find ourselves comparing anyway. Some people can get through books quickly and have multiple books on the go at once. Others get in the habit of starting a new book every day. Whatever your style, it’s progress. With your eyes reading even just a page a day (or less) you are progressing. You are doing great! Some people have to use different methods if they want to engage with reading: audiobooks, Ebooks, etc and these definitely count. Take pride in your reading even if you’d rather be at a different level. Things take time to learn and you might find there’s people that look to your posts about reading (which you should make as a motivational tool!) with envy.

10. It doesn’t have to be a book for it to count

I sometimes beat myself up because I haven’t read a lot of books in the past year. But then I remember reading 100 or so articles for university assignments and classroom lectures, I remember books I’ve flicked through to find important chapters to read. Those count! These count towards progress and are definitely beneficial. This post counts as reading! So don’t be afraid to put newspapers, homework reading materials, and longform blog posts into your reading count. Words on a page are words on a page regardless of what format it’s in.

You’re doing great, no matter how much or little progress you’re making, have faith in yourself.

Photo credit: XPLAI studio (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

#studyblr #bookblr #studyspo #study motivation #reading

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nerdy-as-heck · 5 years

Text

Bitterly By Your Side

A/N: Me? Posting a fic for the first time in 8 months? I'm just as surprised as you are. Ao3 Link

Summary: Logan is a world-renowned author, but not for his scientific journals. For a romance novel he never intended to publish, and an upcoming movie that would finally get the two it was inspired by together.

Ships: Pre-Prinxiety, background Logicality

Warnings: None

There were a lot of things in this world that didn’t make much sense to Logan. What made someone hate a specific group of people for an unchangeable part of their identity? Why would some people continue to believe a falsehood even after being shown irrefutable evidence? Why the fuck is college so expensive? But this. This went beyond every question that Logan could ask himself. Any amount of logic he tried to apply would shatter into a thousand pieces.

For years, Logan had been a distinguished author. Dozens of academic papers, journals, books, and articles were published under his name, making more breakthroughs in science than one could have ever imagined possible. Some were small advancements, granted, but none were insignificant. But that’s not why the general public knows Logan’s name.

Ten years getting a PhD in Astrophysics and one Nobel prize later, Logan Berry’s name is on the Best-Selling Romance Novel section in every bookstore across the country. And Logan will continue to blame his husband for it every time someone asks.

Not that it was really /entirely/ Patton’s fault. Both of them had been sick of Roman and Virgil’s pining that had been going on since freshman year of college. At least Logan’s infatuation had only lasted a month or so before bluntly asking Patton if he finds him physically attractive; that story always gets a laugh every time they tell it. The four of them had been suitemates during their first year, with Logan and Roman sharing their room while Patton and Virgil had the adjoining one. That was nearly twelve years ago, and yet the two of them still seemed to be clueless as to the other’s emotions, even with all four of them once again living in the same apartment.

All Patton had said was he wished there was a way to see them get together, like a movie or something. Now, Logan couldn't direct or act, but he could write. So, naturally, he did the only thing a sane person would do; he stayed up for three days straight writing a 300 page chaotic mess of the two falling in love. Perhaps it was a bit dramatic, and it definitely ended up being far longer than he had intended. But Logan’s train of thought never seemed to stay quite on track when it came to making his soulmate happy.

Of course, Logan had no interest in simply reading it over and over again himself; he printed out the pages and presented it to Patton as an early birthday present. Logan was under the impression that Patton knew it was a simple gift for his eyes only, nothing more. But Patton hadn’t quite gotten that impression.

Logan hadn’t necessarily made it a ‘fanfiction’. Yes, it was about two hopelessly oblivious in love college roommates that got together in the end. The thing that kept it unique was neither character revealing their actual name until the very ending, instead choosing to use a nom de plume. In this particular case, Roman had called himself “Merlin” and Virgil went by “Storm”. Neither the reader nor the characters within the story would learn their true names until the last chapter.

Apparently Patton did not read to the last chapter. Instead, about halfway through, he had believed it was a good idea to take it straight to a publisher; he couldn’t believe Logan had trusted him with the draft of his first novel!

It wasn’t until Logan got a copy of the book in the mail, fully printed and with his name on the cover, did he realize why Patton hadn’t commented on it after finishing. “Bitterly By Your Side” was already in every store in town and quickly spreading. Logan quickly pulled Patton into their shared room to discuss this with him and show the last page; needless to say, Patton was humiliated that he had done such a thing. It took hours to calm him down. Logan simply believed the book would not be popular and it would be taken down from the shelves in a matter of a few weeks.

He could not have been more wrong.

People slowly began to recognize Logan on the streets, asking for photos or to sign their copy of the book. Stores would reach out to him and schedule book signings, which Logan reluctantly went to as a chance to promote some of his other works. No one was buying any of that.

This was about two years ago. Logan had always scolded Roman and Virgil for not reading as often as they should, but it was unexplainable how grateful he was that they never listened. Not once in those years did the two step foot in a bookstore, see Logan scatter away for a photo when he was found in public, or questions the ‘meeting’ Logan seemed to be going to every other week.

By this point, Logan had gotten used to how things were. It was bringing in money to support the entire group, and no one was hurting for it. Though it still confused him why this was the case, he had accepted it as an unexplainable cosmic phenomenon. Logan didn’t even think twice when allowing a company that approached him to make a movie adaptation, with the promise that Logan could supervise on site, of course.

Months later, and somehow the two’s obliviousness had only gotten worse. It was a true miracle that they never noticed Logan being gone all the time or that Roman didn't pick up on the potential movie acting gig. Though the last wasn’t much of a coincidence; Logan always checked their mail and tossed out any advertisements for it.

Logan had only looked over one important detail; the company picking up the story was Disney. And regardless if they had heard about it before, Virgil and Roman both had a dedication to watching it together day it shows up on Netflix. Patton would always tease Virgil about it being their little “date night”, which would be received by a shove and Virgil’s hood coming up to hide his face.

On the night that this happened, Logan was out late at a midnight book signing, and Patton had agreed to go with to drive him home in case Logan was too exhausted. So for the first time in quite a while, Roman and Virgil had the whole apartment to themselves for movie night. As tradition, Virgil grabbed popcorn, snacks, and drinks, running back to the couch just before Roman clicked play.

“Are you ready for what is sure to be the GREATEST FILM of ALL TIME?”

“You say that every time, Princey. Bitterly By Your Side may be Disney, but its a dumb romance too. It can’t be that good.”

Of course Roman scoffed at that, but before he could continue the argument, Virgil just threw a handful of popcorn at his face and hit play. Storm happened to be the first character that came on screen, and the second Roman saw the actor’s face he gasped and leaned forward.

“That man… Is the love of my life.” Virgil couldn’t help but to laugh at the dramatics of such an early declaration, and for a short time Roman stared at Virgil rather than at the movie.

“You think that guy is good looking? Don’t be ridiculous, he looks like a ten year old that got into his mom’s makeup.” Roman could only glare at Virgil for a few minutes before Merlin came on screen. And then it was Roman’s turn to laugh as Virgil’s jaw literally dropped.

“You can’t be serious! Storm is far more attractive than /that/ over dramatic piece of work!” Virgil didn’t even have the words to argue at the moment, simply shoving a hand over Roman’s mouth as Merlin already had a shirtless scene. It wasn’t more than five seconds later, though, that Virgil realized what he had done and practically shrieked, crawling to the other side of the couch. “S-Sorry… But if that doesn’t prove Merlin is the best, then nothing will.” A simple joke had now turned into a full out war between the two, pointing out each small quality in the other character that made them far superior.

“Look at Storm’s purple eyes! And that long hair, I just want to run my hand through it and kiss that man.”

“They’re probably contacts anyway! Merlin has the swoop in his hair that at least doesn’t block his /actual/ green emerald eyes!”

“But that’s the thing, Storm is so shy yet abrasive at the same time! His hiding just makes his natural beauty all the better!”

“Sorry, what did you say? I couldn’t hear you over Merlin’s fifth shirtless scene.”

Of course, it was all joking banter. Despite the insults thrown from time to time, this was a typical thing for the two of them, and tonight wasn’t any different. It only finally died down at a point where the movie was getting ready to end. For some reason, Roman was a moron. Well. Virgil knew that already. A cute moron, but still a moron, one that had decided to run to the bathroom right after the climax of the movie and refused to let Virgil pause it. In the short time, Roman was gone, that was all the movie needed to make Virgil’s fight or flight response kick in.

“Now that we’re dating, shouldn’t I at least get to know your name, angel?”

“...Its Virgil.”

“Roman. A pleasure to finally meet the real you.”

That was. A weird coincidence. But with anxiety, nothing ever felt like things could be so coincidental. So once Roman came back, Virgil was on his phone, googling the book, and every word he read just made his face burn even more.

Bitterly By Your Side is a romance novel by Logan Berry, published in 2017. In recent interviews, he has confessed to it being inspired by real life events and people he knows, though for now he wishes the details to remain private.

...Oh Logan is so dead when he gets back.

“H e y!” Virgil was next to be assaulted with popcorn as he pulled his hood up to avoid Roman seeing his face right now. “Get off your phone and watch the eye candy! Storm is back on screen!”

...Storm. The character inspired by Virgil. That Roman had been calling hot all night long. And Virgil had done the same to Merlin. Virgil didn’t focus much on the rest of the movie, far too busy trying to hide his ever reddening face and cursing the entire world. Once the movie finally ended, Roman stood up to give the TV a round of applause. But before the credits, there was one more thing…

And now, an interview with the author of the original book: Logan Berry!

Roman was understandably shocked and sat back down, confused as to when Logan had written a book without telling them. With every word spoken on the show, Virgil’s heart sunk deeper and he made another promise to kill Logan tomorrow.

Yes, it is true that this novel was inspired on true events. I have two friends that have been obliviously in love with each other for nearly twelve years now, despite mine and my husband’s encouragement for them to confess. Storm and Mer- Well, I suppose I can use their real names now, it's no spoiler since this is shown after the movie. I don't blame either Virgil or Roman for their hopeless pining, it's just something my husband tired of and wished to see come to life in case it never did in person.

After that sentence, Roman was quick to turn off the TV. At least now it made sense why Virgil had curled up into a ball on the couch during the interview. Silence. Silence that lasted far too long for either of them to stand, yet neither had the will to break it.

Surprisingly, Virgil was the one to swallow his pride first. “...so. Eye candy, huh?”

Not even a second later, Virgil felt a pillow hit his head. “Oh shut up! You’re one to talk! Drooling in every shirtless scene in the whole movie!”

There wasn’t a coherent comeback in Virgil’s mind, so instead he just flipped Roman off from his hoodie protection. Roman, being the prick he was, couldn’t let it go so easily though, grabbing Virgil’s hand and ignoring his own pounding heart as he pulled the two closer together. Safe to say, Virgil felt like he was going to explode. “You know the real thing is always better than fiction.”

And then for some unknown reason, one that he would claim to this day as temporary insanity, Virgil’s mind had decided it was time for him to be the moron today. The only thing he could think to do was kiss Roman, so he did. Both were surprised and afraid, but neither pulled away. Not in the first few minutes, not even in the first hour. It was a scene that easily could have rivaled the masterpiece of a movie in itself. By the end of it, they were both out of breath and exhausted, choosing to simply sleep together on the couch.

“...goodnight, Storm…” “Night, Merlin.”

Still. They were going to kill Logan in the morning. But for now, it was just them, and that was enough.

#sanders sides #prinxiety #logicality #roman sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #au #author!logan #mutual pining #pining #domestic logicality #first kiss #crush #bitterly by your side

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