#that going forward I will be able to do better and more interesting sets

[beauty-brains-braun]

Blackout

18+ Minors DNI

A power outage leaves you alone with your best friend's roommate. You don't mean to use it as an opportunity to ask Megumi Fushiguru why he hates you, it just slips out. You really don't expect his answer.

warnings/tags:  Smut, PWP, a little bit of praise-kink, aged-up characters, penis in vagina sex

Reader has a vagina, otherwise is non-descript

You and Megumi were alone when the power went out. You'd been in his and Yuji's shared apartment, waiting for the other man to bring you the house keys you definitely sort-of needed to get into your own apartment. You'd made it all of the way home when you realized he'd snatched the wrong set off the table when you were all having drinks earlier. Only when the key wouldn’t fit in your lock did you realize the almost matching keychains you and Yuji had gotten hadn't been the best idea. 

Of course you then walked all of the way here only to find out Yuji had been called to exorcize a curse. You'd barely been here a minute when the outage happened. Now you were in the dark with a man who didn't seem to be able to stand you. This was not your night.

"Perfect" you muttered.

"What?" Megumi asked.

"Nothing." You told him. You took a couple of steps forward and ran right into him. "Shit, sorry!" You felt his hands on your arms as he reached out to steady you on instinct. 

He didn't say anything, just sort of grunted and moved around you. His phone flashlight turned on a few seconds later in the kitchen area and you used the light to navigate to the couch. If you were sitting, you figured you wouldn't be able to run into anything. 

He lit a candle and brought it over to the coffee table. “My phone’s almost dead, better conserve the battery.”

Yours was dead. That’s why you had made it all of the way here before you found out Yuji wasn’t even at home. You fought back a groan, letting your head drop back onto the couch behind you. You heard a clunk and looked up to find Megumi setting a bottle of wine and two glasses in front of you. Yes please.

You accepted a glass with gratitude as Megumi sat on the couch next to you and an awkward silence immediately enveloped you both.

It had been like this with you and Megumi for as long as you could remember. You’d tried befriending him the way you had Yuji and Nobara when you first transferred to Jujutsu High School but he would never stay in the same room with you long enough, always suddenly finding somewhere else he needed to be. On the occasions you were stuck together, you’d tried getting to know him but he would only give one worded answers and refuse to look at you. It quickly became more frustrating than it was worth and you gave up. All of this was made worse by how insanely attractive you found him, even now. Your skin felt like it was on fire from where he’d grabbed you when you bumped into him earlier but you were doing your best to ignore that. 

Yuji had been bugging you lately to try again. Said that this was just how Megumi was, and to an extent you knew that was true, the man was pretty quiet. But he wasn’t quite like this with anyone else and you didn’t have the patience you used to have to just keep trying and trying. 

“How did that Special Grade mission go last weekend?”

You almost dropped your wine glass, had he just asked you a question? You stared at him for a second too long before answering. “Uhm, it was good.” You drained the rest of the wine in your glass. “Pretty tough but not the worst one I’ve fault.”

He nodded and leaned forwards to refill your glass. You could see his eyelashes even in this dim lighting and had to make yourself look away. “What about you? Anything interesting lately?”

“Same old, same old. It's good that it’s been quiet, I guess. It’s just sort of..” Megumi trailed off.  

“Boring.” You finished his thought.

“I feel awful saying that, but yeah.”

The awkward silence was back almost immediately. You racked your  brain desperately for something to talk about. For anything to say other than “Why don’t you like me?”

“What?”

Holy shit you did not say it out loud. You looked over to see Megumi staring, sitting so still he could have been frozen. You had said out loud. What was wrong with you? You felt your skin heating from embarrassment but fuck it. It was out there, might as well commit.

“You’ve always avoided me, Fushiguru. Tonight is probably the most you’ve ever said to me in all of the years we’ve known each other. So yeah, you obviously don’t like me, I just have never known why.” Your heart was pounding in your chest as you watched Megumi drain his glass of wine and put the empty glass on the coffee table before answering. 

“You think I don’t like you?” he clarified.

“Obviously.”

“You’re wrong.”

“What?” You hadn’t expected him to deny it. He wasn’t really the type of guy who would lie to spare anyone’s feelings.

“You’re wrong.” He said again, firmly.

“You can barely stand to be in the same room with me.” You pointed out incredulously. 

Megumi sighed but didn’t deny it. Instead he shifted closer to you. “It’s not because I don’t like you, though.”

You blinked at him, confused. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It wouldn’t to you I guess.” He sighed again and moved closer to you again, raising himself so one knee dug into the couch and he towered over you a little. “You and Yuju got close fast. Instantly almost. It seemed pretty obvious to me that you would be end-game. That it was only a matter of time for you to get together and live out your happily ever afters in each other’s arms.”

You blink again at the bitterness in his voice, not understanding what one thing had to do with the other. “Yuji’s my best friend, I’ve never wanted anything more and neither has he.”

“Well, five years later, it’s definitely started to seem that that’s the case, but I’ve always waited for the other shoe to drop. Afraid if I was too close to you, I would break.”

He was even closer now, leaning down into your space, his gorgeous eyes reflecting the light from the candle. You swallowed hard. “Break?” you asked.

“Break.” He confirmed. And he did.

Megumi’s mouth met your own, gently at first until he felt you kiss him back. Until he felt you melt into him. Then he deepened the kiss, his hands cradling the back of your head. 

You felt his tongue touch your lips and you opened for him, mind reeling in shock. Megumi Fushiguru didn’t hate you. He more than didn’t hate you, he was kissing you! He pressed against you until you lay back on the couch and followed you down, mouth moving down to your neck. 

Everywhere his mouth touched felt like it was on fire and you felt an ache deep in your core. You shifted, raising a knee so he fit against you perfectly. His cock was pressed against you and another ache coursed through you when you realized how hard he was for you. 

He pulled away from you suddenly and you let out a whine of protest. 

“Tell me to stop” he said, searching your face for any hint that that was what you wanted. 

“Don't you dare” you said breathlessly, pulling him back down to kiss you again. You felt him smile against your mouth and then his fingers were against your skin, pulling your shirt over your head and unclasping your bra. You heard each one hit the floor somewhere across the room but forgot about them the moment Megumi’s mouth was on one nipple, his fingers tugging at the other until you were a dripping, quivering mess. 

“Please” left your mouth before you even realized you said it and his eyes met your own in question. “Please fuck me” you begged, watching his gaze darken.

“Fuck, I’ve dreamed of tasting you but I’m not going to make it if you beg.”

“Later. Tomorrow, I don’t care, I need you inside me.” And you did. You’d never needed anything more, you’d never felt more empty. It felt like there was a drum beating deep inside you. You struggled to remove his pants and he moved to help you. Your hand curled around his cock when it sprang free and he let loose a his of pleasure. Moving just enough to remove your own pants while you pumped him in your hand. 

He pushed one of his long fingers inside you and you gasped at the feeling. You had always been a little too interested in Megum’s hands and as he added a second finger, you realized it was for good reason. You were seeing stars from this alone.  Tender kisses trailed your collarbone and you whined when he pulled his fingers from you. 

“Shhhh” He soothed you and seconds later you felt his tip against you, gathering your wetness, before he slowly, too slowly maybe, started to push into you.

“Fuck” you breathed as he bottomed out inside you. The stretch of him almost burned but it still felt good. Felt right. He’d stopped, giving you time to adjust to his size and you groaned.

“Megumi, please. Please move.” You begged, not even feeling embarrassed at the smirk that pulled at his mouth. 

“You beg so nicely”. He pulled out and thrust back in suddenly. 

You tightened your legs around him as if you could keep him inside you forever. He pulled almost all of the way back out and thrust back in again, his mouth meeting yours when you moaned. He set a steady rhythm fucking into you and out of you, drinking in the sounds of praise falling from your lips. You felt something coiling tight in your lower stomach, so tight you knew it would snap soon.

“You feel so good. I couldn’t have imagined you’d feel this perfect” Megumi said in your ear. He changed the angle of his hips causing his cock to hit that one spot deep inside that made you see stars. He thrust in again and you were lost. That something deep inside you that had been winding up snapped and you came, crying out his name.

Megumi’s fingers dug harder into your thighs but he didn’t stop. He kept fucking you through your orgasm even as you tightened around him and he had to fight not to follow you just yet. 

He leaned in to kiss you and muttered “good girl” against your lips, making your pussy clench and heart flutter. He pulled out and flipped you over quickly before thrusting back in.

A cry of pleasure left you as the new position allowed him to fuck you even deeper than before. You lost yourself in him, in the feeling of him thrusting in and out of you, in the small sounds of pleasure leaving his mouth, in the feeling of his skin on yours. 

He pulled you up so your back was flush against his chest and he could kiss your neck. You could feel his thrusts becoming more erratic and knew he must be close. He wasn’t the only one. 

Megumi’s fingers found your clit and rubbed circles until you were coming again, thankful Megumi’s other arm was still keeping you upright because you never would have managed it on your own. You hear him curse and suddenly he’s pulling out of you and you feel his release splatter across your ass and thighs.

The room is so silent without the constant hum of electricity that usually surrounds you so the sounds of you trying to catch your breath seem so much louder than normal.

“You okay?” Megumi’s voice was so quiet you looked over at him, the dim light of the candle reflecting off his eyes. “Was that too much?”

A huff of surprised amusement left you. He was nervous. He fucked you like thatt and now he was nervous. “Too much?” You asked. “That was amazing.” His mouth curved up in a small smile and he leaned in to kiss you, the movement so tentative compared to his actions from earlier. You leaned into him, kissing him back encouragingly. 

A sound from outside the door made you both tense and he jerked away, blowing the candle out seconds before the door opened. You both sat frozen as Yuji entered the apartment, dropping something to the floor and calling your name on his way in. 

You moved slowly, reaching for your clothes in the dark. Your fingers closed around the fabric you recognized as your shirt and you feel relief course through you as you pull it closer. Naturally that was the moment the power kicked back on. Light flooded the apartment suddenly, almost blinding you. A screech left Yuji’s mouth and you winced, rushing to pull your shirt on.

“Oh my god!” He yelled, hands flying up to cover his eyes. “Oh. My. God. Finally! But I mean, on the couch?!” 

“Stop yelling.” Megumi groaned, pulling up his pants, his cheeks flushed red with embarrassment in a way you couldn’t help but find adorable even as you prayed for the ground to open up and swallow you.

“You’re buying us a new couch, Fushiguru!” Yuji shouted, pointing accusingly in the other man’s direction, with his eyes still squeezed shut.

“Stop yelling!”

“Just wait until I tell Kugasaki! She’d almost given up. I am serious about the couch by the-” a pillow from the couch hit him hard in the face, cutting him off and knocking him on his ass.  

Megumi looked over at you in surprise and you smiled at him and shrugged. “He’ll go all night if someone doesn’t shut him up.”

He smiled back at you and stepped closer, leaning in to kiss you again.

“Wait, was that one of your sex pillows? Gross!”

#jjk smut #megumi x reader #megumi smut #jjk fushiguro #fushiguro x reader #megumi #megumi fushiguro #megumi x you #megumi fushiguro x reader

[beautysamour]

Your beauty never ever scared me

Pairing: Nikolai Lantsov x reader

Summary: figuring out you were a descendant of the darkling messed up everything. with all the backlash you received because of this, your self esteem takes a blow. the company of a certain prince causes you to realize that you aren’t the monster you began to think you were.

warnings: some angst but this has a happy ending

a/n: the nikolai brain rot is real 😔🫶 enjoy! Also this is set before it’s revealed that mal is the third amplifier.

No. No, Baghra was wrong. You knew who you were and who your family was, she was wrong.

You’ve been going over the pieces of dialogue you had with Baghra ever since the sun set in your bed- well one of the palace’ bed. You couldn’t wrap your head around the idea of being related to him, to sharing his blood, his power.

To having any connection with the darkling.

You were never discovered by the grisha as a kid. Whenever the testers came by, your parents would give you a small cut somewhere on your body that could easily be hidden and at the time you didn’t think much of it- because you could barely remember them doing that.

You never had a good relationship with your parents so you didn’t think anything of it when they’d hurt you. It was just normal.

You never necessarily feared grisha, but you always feared the Fold and by extension, the power of the darkling. To think that all it would take for the Fold to get worse was to piss him off.

And piss him off you did.

During his little demonstration with Alina in the Fold, he tried to get you to join him thinking that you knew. That interaction finally made sense to you.

Feeling your head start to hurt and feeling even worse after realizing what’s in your blood, you turn off the lights in your room and go to bed.

—

“I hope I’m not ruining your day too much, sweetheart.”

Nikolai woke you up early this morning and asked for you to accompany him on a horse ride, “just for fun.” he said.

You knew better though, Nikolai never batted an eye at you since you boarded his- sturmhond-, ship. Alina was always more interesting. You knew that you were respected once you got the palace though, Tolya continuously singed out praises of your name to the army.

You knew that people in the palace had no problem with your presence, until now. Until people learned that you were grisha. Not everyone knows you’re related to the Darkling however, only a few people know.

Including Nikolai.

So you knew better. You knew that the only reason why you were with him right now is because he was told to keep an eye on you, to supervise you. You were now considered to be scum, as you were grisha.

“Wasn’t planning on doing much today, so I’m fine.”

You heard a soft snicker come from Nikolai’ direction but chose to keep your eyes forward and focused on the path in front of you two.

“Right,” he says with a slight grin on his face, “I’m glad, I’d never want to ruin a pretty girls’ mood.” From your peripheral you could see Nikolai observing you, looking for a reaction. He’s use to the normal flush of the cheeks and a stutter through a sentence, but you had no reaction to hearing him call you pretty. He had a rather flirty personality so his words meant nothing to you.

You remained silent hoping he would drop the conversation. You didn’t have anything against Nikolai, you actually really liked him. You could tell that he was going to be the king that Ravka needs.

But there was too much on your mind for you to be able to have small talk.

Nikolai suddenly let out a distressed sigh, “I have a meeting to get to sweetheart, if Vasily wasn’t getting on my back every hour of the day I would’ve stayed all day out here with you,” he pulls the reigns on his horse and turns towards the palaces’ direction, “let’s go back?” He gives you a small guilty smile and tilts his head resembling a puppy begging for a treat.

You nod feeing glad that you’ll be able to fully indulge in your thoughts and pull the reigns on your horse, riding back to the palace.

—

“She’s a monster!”

Nikolai was tempted to raise his voice, he and Vasily have been at it for the past hour. Yesterday, news got out that you were grisha- the soldiers gossip- and Vasily immediately told Nikolai that he should make you leave. Nikolai fought back against that idea and to get Vasily to shut up for at least a day about you, he agreed to “spy” on you.

“Nothing has changed, she’s still the same person Tolya constantly praised, and that you wanted as your bride.”

Nikolai did not want to have this conversation again. You were still the same girl he met on the ship, the two of you may have not interacted as much but he still saw you.

You were nothing like the Darkling and he had no problem reminding his brother of how infatuated he was with you.

“That was before I realized she was his kin, a monster just like him!” Nikolai clenched his jaw, finding it harder to control his raising temper. Vasily paced around his room, repeatedly mumbling out curses in the remembrance of previously touching you.

He was disgusted and he, like many other people in the palace, wanted you gone. He stopped pacing when Nikolai straightened his back before getting up from his chair and walking to the door of the room, indicating that this little meeting was over. “Nikolai,” Vasily called out in a strained voice, “Think about the people.”

Nikolai felt his body freeze. Think about the people. Oh, he was thinking about the people. You were no threat, maybe to your enemies but not his people. Not wanting to lash out at his brother, Nikolai took a sharp breath and rolled his shoulders back. “Good night, brother,” he decides to say. He faces his body towards him and while still trying to keep his composure, he sends his brother a sharp glare with eyes filled with pure irritation, “I will not change my mind.”

—

You pressed your head further into your pillow trying to block out the obnoxious knocks that were coming from your door. Who could possibly already be in need of your presence?

After a few more seconds of the continuous knocks getting more aggressive and louder, you gave in to the persistent demands for you to open the door and got up.

“It’s really quite early,” you said through loose lips. You abruptly finished your sentence, a slight feeling of panic rushing into your body. Nikolai Lantsov. He was here again, the people must be getting more weary of you if he felt the need to visit you again.

You didn’t bother fixing up your hair or straightening out your evening wear before opening the door and you greatly regretted not doing so at the moment, you dropped your shoulders feeling embarrassed that he saw you in an unprofessional state.

He put on a slight smile in attempt to charm you, which he succeeded at, you internally pushed away that feeling of giddiness and straightened your posture waiting for him to speak.

“Yes it is quite early, that’s why I came here,” his eyes trail down your body and back up to your eyes before outstretching an arm, “breakfast?”

“Uh,” you stutter out, “sure, just let me…clean myself up.” You awkwardly moved your gaze from him trying to avoid how awkward this situation was as you closed your door- his was mid sentence in saying of course he’ll wait- but your door closed before he was able to finish.

You sat down in the chair that was in front of a middle sized mirror just above the table. You stared at your reflection for a few seconds before bringing your hands up to cover your face and curling your body into yourself. You much prefer not having the Prince’ attention.

—

It’s been a little over three months since Nikolai invited you for breakfast and you’ve begun to question his actual intentions.

He comes to your room each morning and invites you for breakfast and shares most of his hours with you, but all of these hangouts tend to follow your own terms.

If you wanted to go back to your room, Nikolai would simply walk you to your room, kiss the back of your hand, and continue his day without you. Usually you’d be the one to reach out to him during these days if you decided you wanted to be outside your room again.

You almost forgot that he had a duty as being a prince and that you were related to their current number one enemy. And you almost forgot that people still feared grisha. Almost.

People talk and rumors spread fast, you and Nikolai weren’t invisible whenever you two walked around the palace grounds. Inevitably people began to gossip.

Nikolai was always with you, he spoke of finding a bride openly around you which has caused some people to theorize about your relationship with him. The most common theory was that you were using him, that you used your grisha powers as a threat against him, that you would hurt the people if he did not enter a romantic relationship with you.

You tried to block them out. Nikolai never brought those rumors up so you assumed he just never heard them, well you weren’t going to be the one to tell him about it. What if he hears them then realizes that they might be right, that he was an idiot for ever letting his guard down around you.

As much as you tried to ignore it, you couldn’t deny the way your heart would race every morning, every time he knocked on your door and offered his arm. Every time he’d invite you into his personal quarters and give you that stupid smile paired with a tilt of his head that made you want to do anything he’d ask of you.

He made you feel like you weren’t a monster, that you weren’t a threat. You didn’t want to loose his trust, and you didn’t want to loose him. The amount of trust he has put in you threw you in for a loop, you’ve been constantly arguing with yourself over whether or not he’s being genuine or is still keeping an eye on you.

You couldn’t fault him if he was just doing this to keep an eye on you still, the Darkling has been visiting you, just like he was been with Alina.

“Sweetheart?”

You immediately tore your eyes away from the food in front of you after hearing his voice. In front of you; Nikolai was leaning slightly forward his eyebrows furrowed giving his face a worried expression.

“Yes?” You replied. You don’t know how long it’s been since you zoned out, but when you pick up your silver ware to put some of the food in your mouth it was cold.

Nikolai let out a breath that you didn’t realize he was holding, “Did you hear what I said?”

Shit.

You opened your mouth to say a lie, yes, but you knew that he’d immediately call your bluff. He was observant, too observant sometimes. He had a talent for reading people.

“No,” you decided to say, “sorry, I zoned out.”

He leaned back in his chair and relaxed his eyebrows, sighing while running a hand through his hair. “I’ve been telling you about my day and you zone out? Do I really not matter to you?” He whines.

Nikolai had a thing for theatrics, especially when it was to tease someone. Seeing that you had no regret in your gaze towards him, he lets out another breath and gives in to the smile he was holding back.

“That’s alright, this means that I can spend more time with you.” His wholesome smile now turning into a flirtatious grin, he puts his forearms on the table and leans closer to your face, “I do quite enjoy your company anyways.” His smile slightly drops as his eyes also fall to your lips then back to your eyes.

Lately you two have been having more moments like this, where the two of you fall into moments like these where Nikolai’ flirting feels more genuine.

The one thing that hasn’t changed throughout these few months of you two hanging out was that you knew better. Flirting was a regular thing for Nikolai, and because of that you let out a laugh causing Nikolai to lean back; seeming to now be avoiding your gaze.

“Nikolai, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for me? The big bad grisha,” you tease. You felt a little disappointed at seeing that he was avoiding your gaze, Nikolai wasn’t the type to back away from flirting. You lean forward on the table, “Saints Nikolai, if you’re going to flirt then at least commit to it.”

Taking your teasing tone as a dare, he returned his gaze to you and leaned forward on the table coming dangerously close to your face. This time you were taken aback, and ever the observer, he saw. He accompanied his smug expression with a smirk, “Is that what you want? For me to commit? To you.” His voice turned into a whisper as he finished his sentence.

He waited for you to do something. He wanted to see how long you’d last, for what exactly, well only Nikolai really knows that.

You counted your heartbeats, and three heartbeats later Nikolai dropped his gaze and turned his head as he let out a snicker, “Just messing around princess,” he straightened his back and got out of his seat, “we leave before sundown.”

You watched as he left the dining area, a little confused at what he meant about leaving before sundown but then you remembered; the mission.

“Shit.”

—

“Nikolai,” you called out to him as you walked into his tent, “why is my tent all the way on the other side of camp?”

This mission really wasn’t that dangerous compared to everything else that was going on but you didn’t want to gamble Nikolai’ life, since he was a prince.

“Good evening to you to sweetheart,” he said in a lighthearted tone before putting down the letter in his hand, “can’t keep your mind off of me?”

He was right, you couldn’t.

You let out a scoff slightly annoyed, “What if you get attacked? And I’m all the way on the other side of camp- I wouldn’t be able to help!”

Mirroring his actions earlier in the day, his refused to meet your gaze as he leaned back in his chair. “If I were to get attacked, you’d be safe. I have people with me- fighters who’ll be able to protect me if I somehow am not able to protect myself. You don’t need to worry.”

You exhaled as you felt yourself deflate. You wanted to say more but you knew that it wouldn’t matter once the conversation ended. All you would’ve succeeded at was creating some unnecessary tension between the two of you, with you being annoyed, which Nikolai thought was already out of character with you getting upset about something so small, and Nikolai being busy.

You glanced back at him before turning around to leave his tent, resembling a toddler who got upset after hearing they couldn’t get a toy they wanted.

Hearing your footsteps get further away, Nikolai lifted his head and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion before shaking his head and picking up the letter again.

—

Nikolai lifted his head from his desk as soon as he heard a deafening scream, immediately on high alert and running out of his tent. The first thing that greeted Nikolai were soldiers running. Tents were on fire and the once peaceful camp was now overwhelmed with chaos.

Instead of his first thought being to get his people out of this ambushed camp, which was his second, he wanted to get to you. Now he regretted putting your tent on the other side of camp, now he had no idea where you were or if you were ok.

He started running to your side of the camp before getting blocked by a drüskelle-

“Desjenet!” yelled out the drüskelle. Nikolai began to reach out for his sword but made no action to take it out yet. “I’m not grisha-“

“But you protect them,” seethed out the drüskelle, “you are an enemy if you protect them.”

Not leaving anytime for Nikolai to respond, the drüskelle lunged forward but was never able to make contact with Nikolai. The man began to sway before falling apart. His head, upper body, and lower body all disconnect from each other as he falls to the ground, a dark wisp of smoke fading into the air as he does.

Nikolai didn’t take much time looking at the corpse in front of him when he heard another scream, forcing him to look up and see who was responsible for the death.

You. There you are standing in front of him, seemingly frozen in place and regret immediately floods into your veins. You just killed some using his power. You looked up at Nikolai and suddenly felt the need to throw up. So much to not wanting him to see you as a monster.

Nikolai, remembering that someone screamed, moved his gaze to the soldier a few feet away from you who had seemed to have seen you kill a man using the Darkling’ power. “Monster…” the soldier whimpered out before running away.

Nikolai had the urge to curse out his soldier but swallowed that urge down, the camp was still on fire and the two of you needed to get out. He ran over to you and grabbed you by the arm. “Are you alright,” he asks. You avoid his gaze. When you don’t answer he begins to start running, with his hand still on your arm dragging you through the camp, trying to find a horse.

He felt you stiffen and he felt you resist your urge to pull away from him. He wanted to look back at you, to talk to you face to face and assure himself that you’re alright but he decides against it. You guys will talk once you get back to the little palace.

—

You’ve been in Nikolai’ personal quarters before but you’ve never been on his bed. You’re sure your thoughts would’ve been completely incoherent if you weren’t so caught up about using the cut.

Saints, you were truly a monster.

Nikolai entered the room, he was checking up with his soldiers and making sure everyone or at least most of the people who were at the camp came back here. If there were any that didn’t, a rescue squad was already sent out.

You didn’t bother to look at Nikolai as he sat down on the edge of his bed next to you. You couldn’t look at him, you didn’t even want him to speak. You couldn’t bare to hear him call you a monster-

“Are you alright,” he says instead.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

He chuckles. You thought you’d never hear that again, you never he thought he’d bring you back to the palace.

“I’m alright. Now, are you going to give me an answer?”

You don’t give him an answer for a few seconds. Then suddenly the confusion become to hard to contain, “Why did you bring me back here?”

He turns his head to you and tilts it, now being the confused one, “You’re one of my soldiers, why would I not?”

“Because I’m a monster!” You blurt out. You don’t get why he cared, and now you’re really questioning if he was just spying on you the entire time or not, it seems like he was not.

“I’m not just a grisha Nikolai, I’m related to the enemy, I used to his power to kill someone right in front of you! Now everyone in the palace knows I’m related to him, all the soldiers are weary of me and it makes it even worse that I’m close to you. You’re reputation is getting corrupted because you’ve been seen with me.”

He doesn’t answer, he just keeps his eyes on you and lets you continue.

“The people think I’m- that I’m using my power to manipulate you and seeing how you had no reaction to me using the cut, they might come to some stupid conclusion that you’re actually conspiring with the enemy-“

“Y/N.” He finally interrupts, “Is that what’s been on your mind for these past few months?”

The last time he called you by your name was when he was Sturmhond. Hearing him call you by your name succeeded at making your heart ache even more.

“Yes,” you say, “so I don’t understand why I’m still here.”

You turn your head to meet his eyes and regret it immediately. The amount of intensity in his eyes is enough to make you choke on your saliva.

“Do you want to take a shower?” He asks. You can’t figure out if he’s trying to change the topic or maybe you just smell that bad. Maybe changing the topic is what you needed before you end up having a full on mental break down in front of him.

“Ok,” you whisper. Nikolai gets up and walks to his bathroom, soon you hear the sound of water entering his bathtub. Noticing that you didn’t follow him, Nikolai sticks his head out of his bathroom and gestures you to come into his bathroom.

Even though the atmosphere was rather uncomfortable, you still…liked him. So being invited into such a personal space still managed to make you shy.

Nikolai is leaning against his bathtub when you enter his bathroom. Hearing you enter, Nikolai lifts his head up to look at you then glances at your face, your hair, and your body before getting up to give you some alone time.

Getting a random surge of boldness you grab his hand and keep him in place. He turns his head to look at you and tilts his head in confusion, once again resembling a puppy.

“Can you…stay,” you cringe internally after hearing those words come out and avoid his gaze as you feel your cheeks flush. You hear a cough, as if someone was trying to stifle a laugh.

“Ok.”

You’re thankful that he doesn’t tease you for asking him to stay, the atmosphere is still rather uncomfortable for that.

He keeps his back turned to give you some privacy as you undress. Once you finish undressing, you fold your clothes and tuck them into a corner that you were sure wouldn’t get wet.

You cleared your throat once you fully got into the tub, “You can turn around now.”

From your peripheral, you see Nikolai sit down on a stool that was right next to his bathtub. “Do you need help cleaning yourself?” He asks.

You should’ve shaken your head because you’re fully capable of cleaning yourself, but you couldn’t fight back the giddiness in you that manifested at the thought of a physically intimate moment with Nikolai. So you nod.

Nikolai picks up a small towel and rubs it on a bar of soap before putting it on your body. You hoped he wasn’t able to see your red face as you flushed even more when he started moving the towel.

“You aren’t a monster.” He says instead once again, “You haven’t changed at all,” you turned your head to look at him but he didn’t meet your eyes, his eyes focused on your body as he cleaned it. “You’re still the same girl that boarded Sturmhond’ ship. You’re still caring, and thoughtful. You still overthink and stress too much on what other people think of you, but you’re also confident at the same time. You know your worth and you simply want to make sure other people do to.” He moves you hair out of the way as he moves the towel to the back of your neck.

“Actually maybe you aren’t the same girl I met. But you’re not to blame for that.” You didn’t think it was possible but your heartbeat began to thump even harder at feeling his hand, even though it was separated by a towel, on your neck. Oh, and also by his words. You didn’t think he noticed you that much when he was Sturmhond.

Suddenly he looked up and you looked away.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuc-

“You aren’t the Darkling. You saved me. Well I mean, drüskelle are strong, I admit, but they wouldn’t have been able to kill me.”

You could hear the grin on his face, it was attempt to lighten the mood, to see if you felt better.

“You’re power doesn’t determine what you are, Y/N, how you use it determines that. And as far as I’m concerned, you haven’t used it unjustly.” He curled his index finger under your chin and put his thumb on your chin to turn your head, so you’d finally be looking at him. “Don’t let your fear of your power determine your worth.”

Your breath hitched in your throat as you got lost in his eyes. Yes, you were listening to him and it made your heart ache in a good way at hearing his words, but feeling his touch made it difficult to concentrate.

“Ok,” you whispered. You looked down, fully processing his words. You weren’t a monster. You weren’t a monster.

You weren’t a monster.

Noticing the sides of your lips slowly lift, Nikolai felt a small smile form on his face and lets go of your face. He failed to see how the sides of your lips slightly went down.

Feeling that the atmosphere felt more light, you attempted to make a joke, “Well, are you just going to sit there?”

“Hm?” Nikolai raises an eyebrow at your question. Did you want him out…?

“You’re not going to join me?”

Without missing a beat, Nikolai speaks up, “Do you want me to?” It wasn’t meant to be teasing, but it easily came off as such.

Fully expecting Nikolai to say something a little more…bold, his nonchalant yet teasing question caused you to look away from him, again, feeling embarrassed at your bold “joke.”

Nikolai lets out a laugh that makes you swoon. Saints, the affect this man had on you was embarrassing.

“Saints Y/N, if you’re going to flirt then at least commit to it.” He says, mirroring your previous conversation.

You turn your head back at him and take a moment to figure out what you want to say in return, you decide to say something you’ve heard before. Leaning slightly towards him but still managing to cover your cleavage, you say, “Is that what you want? For me to commit? To you.”

Nikolai freezes completely, not sure how to react to that. Yes, he wants you to commit, he wants you, but do you want him? He’s sure that he’s been interpreting your feelings as romantic correct, but he still had that thought of just maybe, maybe he was wrong.

Nikolai was never one to back off from a challenge however, so he leans forward and rests his forearms of his knees; leaning in closer to your face, “Yes,” he says, “I do.”

He brings one his hands up to the side of your face and cups it, leaning in closer but leaving enough room to still be able to back away if he was reading this all wrong. He looks into your eyes and practically pleads for your approval, for you to let him kiss you.

When all you do is lean closer, Nikolai fully closes the distance and connects his lips with yours.

As one could expect from a kiss with Nikolai, it was passionate and loving and deep. You could feel how deep his feelings for you ran and you could feel all of his feelings. Growing impatient, for some reason, Nikolai grabbed the back of you neck to deepen the kiss. He brought his other hand up to your bottom lip and brushed it down. Realizing what he wanted, you opened your mouth and to your surprise; Nikolai whined into the kiss.

Finding it funny that Nikolai was a whiner, you began to laugh. It started with small giggles but then turned into actual laughs causing Nikolai to pull away and slightly deadpan at you.

When you didn’t stop laughing, Nikolai leaned back and let out a sigh, opting to just let you finish laughing.

“Sorry, sorry, just didn’t take you as a whiner,” you say before you burst out laughing again.

Nikolai continued to watch you laugh with a slightly annoyed, but adoring, expression before brushing your hair out of your face. “You know, you never answered my question.”

You wipe fake tears out of your eyes as you try to calm down, “huh?”

“When I asked if you wanted me to commit to you, you never gave me an answer.”

“I think my answer is quite obvious now.” You let out a soft laugh before Nikolai spoke again.

“Yes well, I want to hear it.” Nikolai leans forwards again but not as close as before, just close enough to where he could you whisper yell, “I want to hear that you want me.” He finishes with a slight smirk.

You look away from him, getting flustered again. He really wanted to hear you profess your feelings for him, huh.

As you were getting flustered you remembered that Nikolai was a whiner. As much as you wanted Nikolai, he was arguably more desperate for you. So why not tease him a little more?

You leaned forward again, not bothering to cover your cleavage anymore, and pressed your lips onto his, but not necessarily kissing him. “Alright my prince,” you whisper out. The smirk on his lips immediately drop as he tries to kiss you again but then you pull away, and before he could whine again, you leaned forward again. “I want you to commit to me. I want you.” Nikolai could barely focus at feeling your lips brush onto his, feeling as if he didn’t kiss you right here right now, he’d go crazy.

Feeling smug, you pull away from him to which he immediately follows. He puts his hand on the back of your neck once again and pulls you forward, connecting your lips again.

He groaned this time at the feeling of your lips on his.

#nikolai lantsov x reader #nikolai lantsov #nikolai lantsov fanfic #shadow and bone #shadow and bone fanfic #nikolai x reader #siege and storm #nikolai lantsov imagines #nikolai lantsov imagine #nikolai lantsov x you #grishaverse #shadow and bone x reader

[satoru-is-the-way]

HELLO. i see you're one of the only people who writes for jinshi on this site :') could i request a jinshi x fem or gn reader who is like his personal handmaiden, but also close friends with him ?? just an idea 🤡

Anime Master List

Information Page

A/N: OMG YESS JINSHI!! I love this man!! Your wish is my command !! Always request this man lmao. I am willing to do anything haha.

Pairing: Jinshi x gn reader

Prompt: Could I request a jinshi x fem or gn reader who is like his personal handmaiden, but also close friends with him ?? just an idea 🤡. 

Warning: None

You have been friends with Jinish for a few years now. Despite his over-flirtatious behavior, you managed to push it aside not falling for his seductive technique. Perhaps that is a reason why he took an interest in you. Men and Women both would fawn over Jinshi's every word and are easily seduced by his beauty. There is no denying just how perfect Jinshin is, with exotic eyes, hair, and tongue like silver able to seduce just about anyone

He took a liking to you because you denied any advances. The behavior was intriguing so he had to find out more about you. Once the young male set his eyes on you it was not long before you were promoted to his personal maid. What other young men and women would do to have such a job. You did simple tasks for Jinish, cooking, cleaning, preparing his list of duties, and dressed him accordingly. At times the job was difficult with his endless flirtation, but deep inside, you could catch a glimpse of the act Jinish played. All the drunk nights he would embrace you and cry. This friendship was like none other you have ever experienced. He was not the only one to show a soft side. Jinshi became the man you depended on.

Right now you and Jinshi were in the carriage heading back to his estate in the Outer Court. You both attended the garden party and spoke to many officials. It became apparent that Jinshi was frustrated. His purple eyes narrow at you, his right leg bouncing, as his other hand taps his leg. He then glanced away pouting heavily. A profound sigh left your lips knowing by his complexion Jinshi yearned for you to ask why he was bitter at you.

"Master Jinshi, have I done something to upset you?" You asked rather curiously. He shot you a look those violet eyes shimmering with...jealousy?

"As if you do not know the severity of your betrayal." Jinshi put a hand on his forehead dramatically. This only made you furious. He was your best friend yet Jinshi accused you of betrayal?!

"What are you talking about?! I have done nothing that would have been deemed as betraying you!" You meet his voice with equal if not more aggravation.

"Then why do you have Lihaku's hairpin? I bestowed you mine!" Jinshi reached forward and snatched the hairpin of another mans. You sat there starting at your friend who is like a child over a hairpin. "Do you know what this means?!" He asked and snarled at the hairpin. "Do you think him better than I?"

You chuckled which only riled Jinshi up more. "Why on earth- Look I was not going to deny him. I got more than just his. I know what it means. I am not that stupid Jinshi! So before you get jealous and accuse me of stuff, reevaluate our situation. I have been loyal to you since I became your personal maid. You are my best friend. Why would I ever ruin that?"

Jinshi looked at your eyes shimmer which threaten tears. "(Y/n), I am sorry I-" However the young male couldn't get another word out as the carriage came to a stop and you got up leaving. "(Y/n) Stop! Please! Stop walking." Jinshi pleaded following you desperately no matter his begging you would not stop. Jinshi had to restore to desperate measures. "I order you to stop!" He yelled breathing heavily. That's when you stopped being unable to disobey a direct order.

"I did not mean... please forgive me. I just had the idea of losing my best friend. I couldn't bear to think... You with another man...being so close to another man...You are everything to me." Jinshi turns you around. That look he gave you could make anyone fall to their knees. For the first time you couldn't think. Jinshi blush a rose tent. Those beautiful plump lips quiver begging you not to leave. God he knew how to beg. "Forgive me." He whispers.

"You should know my loyalty is with you. No matter the hairpins I collect or who is calling for me. Master Jinshi I am with you. My one and only friend. I couldn't throw away that" You assured him. The next response you did not expect. Jinshi leaned down and pressed his lips to yours. That's when you knew this friendship was so much more.

"I love you." Jinshi whispers.

#jinshi x reader #the apothecary diaries #jinshi x you #jinshi x y/n #jinshi the apothecary diaries #The apothecary diaries x reader #anime x reader #Jinshi image

[dragonsholygrail]

Little Lamb

Astarion Ancunin x f!reader x Halsin Silverbough

a/n: This is also a repost from last week as I tried a new format and hated it. So going back to this loveliness!

Summary: When you offer Astarion a treat after a long day, he more than takes you up on the offer, he suggests a treat for you both. Upon their demise, handlers will ensure their animals are pleased. Astarion thinks the same can be said for your blood. But he needs Halsin's help in order to prove it. To please you and upon your release he will feed and taste it in your blood. You're more than up for trying.

Warnings: MDNI 18+, threesome? Kinda, cunnilingus, breast fondling, blood, biting, aftercare

Word count: 2.9K

The fire crackles lively as you take a damp cloth to Astarion’s face. Washing off the blood from the previous battle. You could tell he was tired, or drained being more accurate of a term. Especially given as he only attempted to wave you off a couple of times, claiming he could clean himself, before giving in and letting you care for him.

In fact, by the look of pure content and adoration plastered across his features, you’d claim him to be downright exhausted. He’d never allow himself to show this side to you otherwise. You try not to show your shock as when moving away curl off his forehead, he hums lowly, leaning into your touch.

You set down the cloth once all the blood is off of his face and he almost stumbles leaning in closer to you. Eyes fluttering open he looks around, coming back to his senses. That mask you know so well falls right over his perfectly clean face.

“Darling, if you wanted an excuse to touch me, you know you didn’t need to wait so long,” Astarion drawls, looking down at his hand to make sure no blood got beneath his fingernails. You raise a brow, the corner of lip twitching up in amusement. Seeing past the persona he hides behind was something that took you longer to do than you’re willing to admit. To know what he was truly asking for between the lines of his snark. But now it almost seems to be second nature to you.

“If you want more of my attention Astarion, you only have to ask,” you reply calmly, though by the look of incredulity he sends you, you know he can hear the humor in your tone. He scoffs loudly, pretending as if he despises every syllable of that sentence. Despite the way he leans into you, his shoulder brushing yours, and the way he pointedly avoids your gaze.

“Needing attention? What am I, a dog?” He sputters, shaking his head for good measure. Even as his shoulder is now completely resting into your chest. You bite your lip in order to suppress the size of your grin. Resting your elbow on your knee, you use it to prop your chin in your hand in order to get a better look at him.

“Not at all. But that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a treat,” a deep fondness seeps into your tone without your control. You had never been able to hide your feelings for Astarion that well. Not when you first met, when he was manipulating things, and especially not since he’s confessed his own feelings for you. But by now there were things he couldn’t hide from you either.

“A treat you say?” Astarion asks with a pause, going still. He quirks his head, looking at you without really turning toward you. You bite down harder on your lip, desperate not to laugh. You were sure you had him in the palm of your hand by now.

“Hungry?” You offer, pressing into him more fully and angling your neck for him. It had been a few days since Astarion last fed. You knew he was in need, especially after the events of today. He always looked forward to it whenever you walked up to his camp offering yourself up on a silver platter. As you ask, you see a glimmer of interest pass over Astarion’s eyes and before you can blink, he’s sitting up straighter and looking right at you.

“Oh? Why, I have a treat in mind for both of us if you’re willing to indulge yourself with me,” Astarion says, voice turning teasingly sultry for effect and sounding much more invested than he did a moment prior. He takes your hand gently, bringing it to his lips and pressing soft kisses into your warm flesh. Though his eyes remain on you and his lips curl into a grin.

“What did you have in mind?” Your question comes out without hesitance and you’re instead surprised to find… intrigue. Astarion must be able to sense it too as just as the last word leaves your lips, he’s lifting you both up from your spots in front of the fireplace. He turns your bodies, directing them to wherever he plans on taking you two. His arm curls around your waist, pulling you tight against him, causing your hip to caress his with every step.

“You know the way poor helpless animals are led to the slaughter every day, yes? How their handlers aim to please them so their precious meat tastes better,” he explains as you slowly walk throughout the camp, your eyes more on each other than where you’re walking. You don’t know where this, or where you are, going but you know you trust Astarion with your life and everything beyond it. But his choice of wording does raise some questions.

“And what exactly do you mean by ‘please them’ in this context?” You wonder, your heart picking up speed as you seem to have some idea of where this is going. Since Astarion’s confession, you two have taken things as slow as he’s needed. He’s experimented here and there, testing his limits. You’ve stopped whenever and wherever he draws that line and you’ve been happy to do so for him. Just when you think it’ll be another one of those nights, you and Astarion round the corner and you see your other partner, Halsin, standing there waiting. You feel your face drop comically as what Astarion’s asking for settles in. “Oh no.”

The area around them was a bit ways outside of camp. You could no longer see the fire or hear any voices. There was complete privacy… for the moment anyway. The only thing around you all was the greenery of the forest, tall and wide trees for as far as the eye could see. Standing amidst them all was your other partner. Smiling at you softly as you both make your way toward him.

“Now, darling, make sure not to tell the big oaf— sorry, oak— what inspired this little idea of mine. Not sure he’d do it if he knew,” Astarion mocks as he leans down to your ear, whispering to you. Though you know he’s teasing and even being aware of Astarion’s true feelings surrounding Halsin, you can't help but send your partner a small glare at his words. To which he only grins cheekily in response.

As you both finally reach Halsin, you slip out of Astarion’s arms. His arm falls easily from around your waist and his feet stop in their tracks as yours continue. You take a few steps forward and before you know it, Halsin’s big arms are wrapping themselves around your waist, pulling you flush against his chest. Resting your hands on his hips, you look up at him with slight concern. But his smile remains just as soft.

“Halsin, are you sure of this?” You ask him quietly, hoping he felt no pressure to do this. You were happy to see him, of course. But the idea of any of you being uncomfortable from this situation made your chest ache from simply the thought. The beginnings of that ache are immediately soothed as Halsin’s expression somehow becomes even more tender.

“I trust you, little lamb, and you can provide much more consent for this than the animals he’d take from can,” Halsin explains and his words instantly ring true for you. It’s also true that you honestly prefer Astarion taking from you instead of an animal. Though Halsin doesn’t need to know all the details surrounding that. “It’s an honorable sacrifice, what you’re doing.”

“Oh, yes, a real sacrifice it is indeed.” Astarion snorts loudly, standing about a foot away with his arms crossed. Letting you and Halsin talk without allowing his presence to be forgotten. Not that it ever could. Your cheeks flush at his words and in your fluster you step away from Halsin who lets you go without a beat before you start heading back over to Astarion. He gives a resounding clap of his hands that make your eyes and smile widen in amusement. “Now then! Shall we go ahead and start? Today has caused me to become absolutely famished.”

As you reach Astarion you take his hands in yours, separating them with humor dancing in your eyes. Astarion is mirroring the look when you make eye contact with him. Slowly, you start walking backwards, keeping his hands in yours as you guide him closer to Halsin. When you can feel the heat of his body behind you, you stop, never looking away from Astarion.

“You’re lucky I adore you,” you say, lightly teasing him. One hand drops his to reach up and gently cup his cheek in your hand. Astarion’s eyes flutter, flickering over your palm and what he can see of your hand and the simple gesture of soft affection. All signs of humor and laughter leave his face and the rare signs of vulnerability and affection shine through as he looks back into your eyes.

“I know that,” he rasps quietly, three words that shoot straight into your heart and make it soar. In his gaze and in this moment you know you have his complete trust and nothing has ever felt better. With a subtle tug on his face, Astarion catches the hint and leans down, his eyes sparking with tension as they look at your lips. You both share a kiss that was short and sweet and completely perfect. After, you let go of him with a loving smile and face Halsin once more.

“You’re sure this is ok, my love?” You ask, reaching out a hand to gently rest it on his forearm. Astarion and Halsin were both very different people. Though you hold much love for them both, you had never attempted to bring you all together before. So something like this being the first occurrence of it was making you more than nervous.

“It is more than. You know how I have long since imagined a night where Astarion and I may partake in sharing the pleasures of your body,” Halsin’s smile is wide as he confesses this all to you and Astarion. His free hand moves to rest over yours on his arm. Looking deep into your eyes, you know he wishes for you to fully digest his next few words. “Though I had imagined them under better circumstances, I am truly blessed to have you both here with me tonight. Let me prove this to you. Lay down.”

Your breath stutters in your chest, eyes widening as you fully come to the realization of what’s about to happen. Butterflies flutter rapidly in your stomach as you watch Astarion sit with his back resting against a nearby tree. When his legs widen in invitation, you swallow thickly before moving to rest between them. As soon as you settle, both men are surrounding you and making quick work of removing your clothes.

Astarion’s hands move up and down along your sides, his eyes watchful of your every expression. You look upon Halsin, eyes wide as he settles back onto his knees once you’re fully bared to them. Suddenly feeling Astarion’s lips graze your ear, you jump slightly, angling your head more towards him.

“Are you sure you’re up for this, darling? One word, at any time, and it will be just you and I once more,” Astarion murmurs, nose instinctively nuzzling behind your ear. A spot where your scent is most prominent. Your heart melts and while you didn’t hold many reservations about this to start, you certainly didn’t now.

“I’ll keep that in mind. But I’m alright, I swear,” you respond, turning your head further and allowing Astarion to look into your eyes as you say this. To let him know you truly mean it. A flash of adoration passes over his face but it’s gone in a blink and in its place is his usual grin.

“I didn’t think you’d protest. But, you know, just to make sure,” he explains smoothly, though you can pick up on his subtle notes of concern. A smile graces your lips, settling back into his chest as you turn back toward the ever patient Halsin who sits there watching you two with an adoring smile of his own.

“Shall I proceed?” He asks, also checking in. Your heart beats so loudly you know for a fact they can hear it. Warmth spreads through your chest as you nod at him, your legs hooking around Astarion’s as you spread yourself wide for Halsin. A soft rumble escapes from Halsin’s chest as he crawls in between your legs. His hands slide up the length of your limbs, stopping along the inside of your thighs. Your breath hitches and you rest your head on Astarion’s shoulder as you look down at Halsin.

Halsin leans down, slowly kissing up your sensitive inner thighs. Reaching closer and closer to the place where you need him most. You try to ignore your embarrassment at him seeing how turned on you are. How wet the idea of doing this had made you. But as Halsin reaches your core, your toes curl as his breath fans against your wet lips, and all embarrassment is wiped away. Goosebumps form across your arms and you shiver in Astarion’s hold.

His thick fingers part your folds and you have to physically force yourself not to clench, whimpering as tingles light up your core. You watch his eyes flicker up to meet your gaze just as the flat of his tongue laps slowly up your slip. You cry out, arching your chest back into Astarion’s chest and his arms immediately wrap around you, holding you firmly and massaging your breasts.

Halsin groans at the taste of you, his eyes fluttering closed. It’s like something is unleashed within him as your essence hits his tongue. Moving in closer to your cunt, Halsin ravages you like a man starved, his tongue moving at short and quick strokes. You cry out, hips jerking up into his face and his hands on your thighs hold you down, keeping you wide open for him.

Pleasure swirls in your gut, the pressure building with every thrust of his tongue that delves inside you and every flick of your clit. The battling sensations have you moaning and squirming against Astarion who watches you hungrily, a wide smirk on his face. Halsin growls, latching onto your clit and sucking harshly.

Lighting shocks its way through your system as your nerves ignite from his skilled mouth. Your face twists in pleasure as his tongue swirls around your clit before sliding down your folds into the cavern of your core. Your body starts to shake as that pressure grows heavier and heavier. You feel as though you’re on fire as Halsin fucks you with his tongue.

His pace remains steady and it has you writhing and whining in pleasure, desperate for release, your stomach clenching as your thighs shake from the pressure. Halsin’s jaw unhinges as far as he can, doubling in his efforts to eat you out. His tongue consumes you, eagerly devouring everything you’re giving him. His teeth nip at your clit and the coil in your stomach snaps.

You cry out loudly as your orgasm hits you. All you hear is a low chuckle before Astarion swoops in, fangs easily sinking into your flesh. Letting out a short scream, your body jolts as the pleasure of Astarion’s bite combines with the movements of Halsin’s tongue in a perfect symphony of ecstasy.

Astarion drinks from you heavily and you moan, your body rocking both into his mouth and into Halsin’s tongue as he doesn’t stop riding you through your high. Your entire body buzzes and shakes, feeling light as air as your climax moves through and out of you. Right into Halsin’s patient tongue.

You sigh, sagging into Astarion’s body as your orgasm slowly fades. Halsin continues to lap at your core though much slower, considering and being careful of any overstimulation. A rumble sounds out from his chest as he cleans up your release, causing your hips to lightly twitch.

Waiting as patiently as Halsin, you let Astarion get his fill of you. A small smile rests on your face from the overwhelming but pleasing experience they put you through. A grunt leaves your lips once Astarion pulls his fangs out but that sting is quickly forgotten as he nuzzles into your neck afterward. The feeling has you giggling quietly.

Halsin pushes up from between your thighs once the mess is licked clean and moves further up your body. Leaning in he kisses you softly and you hum contently as you kiss him back, enjoying the sight of your wetness coating his lips and chin. When he pulls back he lays down on you two gently, resting his head on your chest and wrapping his arms around both of you. You all quickly settle into the comfort of everyone’s embrace.

“I’d say this went well, don’t you think?” Astarion asks lightly, effectively breaking the peaceful silence. The question has you all laughing as ‘well’ is not strong enough of a word to describe the feeling of what just happened between you three. You know you certainly wouldn’t be against this happening again and you feel as though neither of them would surely mind either.

#bg3 #halstarion #halstarion smut #halsin smut #astarion smut #halsin x reader x astarion #astarion x reader x halsin #baldur’s gate 3 #baldur’s gate 3 smut #baldur’s gate 3 x reader #baldur’s gate 3 x reader smut #bg3 smut #bg3 astarion #bg3 halsin #halsin x reader #halsin x tav #baldur’s gate 3 halsin #halsin #halsin silverbough #halsin x reader smut #astarion x reader #astarion x tav #baldur’s gate 3 astarion #astarion #astarion ancunin #astarion x reader smut #astarion x reader x halsin smut #halsin x reader x astarion smut #halsin x astarion

[theoneeyedprince]

A Refined Taste

Part 2: Sunset and Vine

Previous Part ◇ Next Part ◇ Series Masterlist ◇ Main Masterlist

Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x Reader

Summary: Wine tasting at the family's vineyard is something you looked forward to since the day you arrived at the Targaryens' and the day leaves you with a lasting aftertaste.

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Language, alcohol consumption, sensual themes, reader being a bit horny, mensions of (oral) sex.

Word count: 4.1k

From the author: Thank you so much for the response to the first part! It really makes it more fun to write it when, as a writer, you see people's reactions <3 It's kind of a slow burn but I promise the wait will be worth it (well, at least I hope so) 😉 I went to a wine tasting once in my life but it happened such a long time ago I had to do some research to get the details (somewhat) right.

If anyone's interested, this is the dress the reader's wearing in this part.

Do you want to feel the atmosphere and envision the aesthetics of this story? Listen to Lana del Rey's Honeymoon album 😙👌🏻

Enjoy 🍷

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Comments and reblogs are highly appreciated!

A week went by, mostly spent exploring the mansion, reading by the pool and touring the surrounding areas.

During that time you got to know Aegon a little bit better, although he spent most of his days out with his university friends, Arryk and Erryk, Daeron prived you the secrets of the workings of private schools, you talked with Mrs Targaryen about your plans for after finishing your Masters next year and even shared more than polite greetings with Mr Cole. 

What excites you the most, however, is a plan created by Helaena to drive for a couple of days to Duskendale—a port town with the Darklyn Country Club that offers rich people to deck their big yachts, host boat parties and regatta competitions. The idea of visiting a country club and dining out on a boat makes you giddy, impatience eating you alive. 

So, as far as reacquainting with the Targaryens, excluding the patriarch, who’s currently in the capitol, things have been going surprisingly smoothly and you don’t remember why you were nervous to begin with. 

Well, there is one thing that still keeps you on your toes. Someone to be particular. 

Aemond has been scarcely seen in this last week. You’ve seen him sometimes in the library windows—not that you looked for him there—or during meals but that’s been  basically it. 

And, as you knew that he occupied that space all the time, you weren’t able to come in there to check out the books that caught your attention the first and last time you set eyes on them. 

It was a bit irrational, you thought, to avoid a place simply because someone was there. But the scarcity of your conversations with him, if greetings and sharing barely three sentences a day could be called conversations, made you feel like an intruder whenever both of you were in the same space. It was better to stay away.

So, as the big library has been out of your reach, whenever you had time to sit down and read, you took out the only book you brought with you on this vacation—Pride and Prejudice. Your reasoning was that bringing a classic with you would fit a family such as the one that invited you. And it being one of your favourites didn’t hurt to do another reread. 

Today, however, is a day that forces you to put the novel into your small backpack and leisure in a more active way. 

The heatwave accompanying your first week of stay finally let the area out of its clutches, which prompted your hosts to take you to a private wine tasting at their vineyard. Something you and Argella looked forward to with little to no patience. 

Mrs Targaryen left this outing in Helaena’s hands as she was called to King’s Landing to help her husband deal with some important family business matters. Helaena told you that in circumstances like this one the house is under the head housekeeper’s, Talya’s, eye. She joked that nothing goes unnoticed by that woman but since she stumbled upon Aegon getting head in his favourite billiard room, the housekeeper stopped being nosey.  

You look at Aegon’s back as you all walk down the hill and pretend not to think about that very specific scenario but your mind drifts to the only sibling in the party that’s missing and a picture of Aemond getting sucked off in ‘his’ library pops up in your mind. 

You horny lonely bitch, you chastise yourself in your head and decide to count the cobblestones of the pavement under your feet in an odd way to rid yourself of such thoughts.

The path is covered by the trees from both sides, which gives you a momentary relief from the sun. You move your gaze to the trees, observing the gentle rusting of their green leaves, and inhale the soothing smell of a summer afternoon. 

It’s not unbearably hot anymore but you’re glad you’re wearing a midi white dress. It's a delicately embroidered and buttoned down piece, made out of a thin but not see-through material, which makes it appropriate for the place you’re heading to. 

It’s also your favourite dress you’ve ever bought, so you hope no drop of wine finds itself on it. 

You’re in your head—sans the dirty thoughts to your relief—until everyone suddenly stops and you almost hit Aegon’s back.

He turns around and sends you an impish smile. You return it with an apologetic one. 

Helaena walks up to a small gate, which has to be the entrance to the vineyard, and turns to all of you as it opens. 

“Oh, you’ll absolutely love it!” 

She claps her hands and beckons you to follow her with a wave of her hand. 

Your friend was right.

You’re surrounded by rows and rows of grapevines stretching out almost to the coastline down below the hill. 

The view shouldn’t be as breathtaking as it is—it’s just basically a grape plantation—but for some reason you can’t take your eyes away from it.

You hear your sister call to you and you force yourself to look away only to be met with another stunning view—a winery built of white stone with dark-wooden roof. The building is surrounded by thin pillars from which hang yellow fairy lights and you know it must look absolutely gorgeous after the darkness settles. There’s a space for guests and customers to sit down outside as well as inside, where you’re about to come in.

What surprises you is that Aemond is already there. 

Your eyes meet for a brief moment but he quickly turns his attention back to the man and woman he’s talking to.

“Mrs Redwyne?” Helaena’s visible astonishment makes the elderly woman smile warmly. They kiss each other on the cheek and she repeats the greeting with the man standing next to Aemond. 

“Why do we owe this pleasure?” Aegon asks and then greets the golden-haired man with a nod and simple “Jason”. 

Jason nods in response but says nothing else until he notices you and your sister. Suddenly his mouth shifts in form to a smug smile. 

“Just the usual, my boy. Your mother wanted to speak with her favourite business partners but as she had to leave so abruptly we were directed towards Aemond.”

“Ah, right.” He answers and stands beside his brother. You wonder if it’s a way to show his support. The Targaryens run a family business after all. Then, he continues, holding out a hand in your and Argella’s direction.

“Let us introduce our honourable guests visiting us this summer.” 

You’re taken aback by the description and you feel a shade of pink covering your cheeks. 

“This is Argella, Helaena’s partner and this is her sister.” He gives your name and as soon as he does it Jason comes up to you and in one swift motion he takes your hand in his.

You’re startled by the physical contact and feel even more embarrassed as he lowers his head and kisses the palm of your hand. 

“Pleasure.” He adds and sends you a smile that, if not for the scene that just played out, you would find charming. 

“It’s nice to meet you, too.” You reply unsurely and when Jason drops your hand you look at Argella, whose attempt to bite her lips in order to prevent a laugh from coming out, almost makes you laugh yourself. 

Almost, because when you catch Aemond’s gaze, the smile forming on your lips dies immediately. 

He looks as if he ate something bitter and his eyes, so different in colour, are both filled with stern displeasure. 

You feel judged and resented for something you aren’t aware of doing. The same thought that came to your mind the first day you met Aemond again rings in your head now—if you only knew what irritated him so much about you, you might’ve been able to confront him about it. 

You choose to ignore it. 

For now.

You came here to spend a lovely time, not to let your confusion, and boiling anger at the guy’s attitude, stand in your way in your enjoyment.

“Do you have a tour guide?” The elderly woman asks, looking around. 

Helaena opens her mouth but Aegon, with his satisfied smile, interrupts her before she can say anything. 

“That’d be me, ma’am.”

Helaena’s eyes narrow and she exhales quietly. Her bee-ornamented earrings swing gently when she tilts her head slightly. 

You hear Mrs Redwyne laugh.

“I see. Well,” She turns to Aegon and puts her hand on the crook of his elbow. “I would stay to be your co-guide but unfortunately time is money and we need to go. Or, at least, I do.” She turns to Jason. 

“Me too. But I hope to see your lovely guests some time soon.”

He says that only looking at you and the lack of respect towards your sister makes you not want to have anything to do with that man. 

You force out the fakest smile you’ve ever had to force yourself to give.

“It was truly nice to meet you, Mrs Redwyne.” You tell the woman as soon as you turn your eyes from Jason and you can see the change in his expression before his face disappears from your line of sight.

He grunts his goodbyes to the rest of the group and leaves the place with a loud thumping sound of his high-designed shoes.

Aegon’s laugh fills your ears and you take it as a mark of pride directed at your person.

A pleased smile tugs at the corner of your mouth but you don’t let it show.

It’d definitely trigger something in Aemond and, as you can feel his eyes burning holes in your head, you keep your facial expression fairly neutral. 

Mrs Redwyne hums and looks at you with shining eyes before speaking to Aemond. She touches him the same way she did Aegon but Aemond looks as if he wanted to flinch away from the woman’s grasp. 

You wonder if anyone gathered here noticed that. 

“It was very nice talking to you. Your mother knows who to count on when time requires it.”

Aemond puts his hands behind his back and Mrs Redwyne’s wrinkled but well-manicured hand falls to her side. 

“Thank you, ma’am. I’m sure our mother will give you her answer as soon as she’s able.”

She nods, says her final farewells and leaves for the gate.

When there’s no one else at the property grounds but your group, not including the staff working here, Aegon pats Aemond on his back and together with Helaena they take you to the underground basement stocked up with barrels and bottles of wine you’ve never seen the labels of.

It turns out that Aegon isn’t your tour-guide after all. The guy was thoroughly disappointed when you met Mr Beesbury as you came up from the basement and Aegon had to abandon the two wine bottles he already nursed in his arms. 

“I swear, if you weren’t my brother and we were the guests, I’d be burying myself under the ground from embarrassment.” 

Helaena murmurs in his ear as you follow Mr Beesbury to the seemingly endless rows of grapevines you stared at earlier. 

Aegon doesn’t seem to be hurt by his sister’s remark. He stops and waits for Aemond, who walks behind everyone keeping his distance, and resumes walking when his younger brother is beside him. 

You find their bickering entertaining. The siblings’ relationship is so different to your own but you can see that it doesn’t lack love, even if their conversations might point at the opposite sometimes. 

You muse to yourself as you steal a glance at the brothers, who weren’t that nice to each other the day you arrived but now they’re talking—mostly Aegon but Aemond’s wordless replies seem to be enough for the older brother—as if mean words were never exchanged between them. 

Aemond catches you at the not so subtle staring and you turn your head quickly, your cheeks warming a bit, and you try to focus on the guide’s words. 

The old man explains to you the winery’s wine-making process, for which he’s partially responsible, starting with explaining harvest, grape selection, fermentation, ageing and bottling. 

You find out that the Targaryen’s specialise in fruity and spicy wines and that’s the reason why the Redwynes and the Lannisters are the family’s business partners—experts in these tastes and aromas respectively.

You drink up every information that comes out of Mr Beesbury’s mouth and although the manner of his speaking is slow and monotonous at times, the passion for his work overshadows it almost entirely. 

Before you know it you stop at one of the higher knolls on which a tall olive tree stands and the view, once again, takes your breath away. 

The grapevine rows go down and down the hill and they look as if they wanted to touch the shore below. The sea is calm today and it seems to sparkle in the sunlight. You know that if you stood at the opposite side of the view now the Targaryen vineyard hill would look like one of the ones you might only see in movies, in pictures of a rich Instagram influencer or on Pinterest. 

“Are you ready for wine tasting?” Mr Beesbury asks and you and your sister shake your heads enthusiastically. 

As you walk back to the winery a young girl runs in your direction, her dark curly hair flowing behind her, as she tries to catch up with the cutest Golden Retriever you’ve ever seen. 

Aegon’s face lights up even more than when the wine tasting was mentioned.

“I’m so sorry, sir.” She pants out as she tries to stop the dog from jumping out of its harness. “You told me to let you know once he’s home but you haven’t been picking up your phone, so I came here as instructed.”

“That’s totally okay, Nettles.” He stretches his arms and pulls the dog into a messy hug. “Sunfyre, you little rascal!” 

You smile at the interaction and one by one everyone greets the overly enthusiastic dog, giving him pats and scratches. 

“Hello, boy. Vhagar missed you.” You hear Aemond’s low murmur as he pats Sunfyre on the side of his belly. 

This particular tone of his voice makes you feel warm inside and the endearing sight tugs at your heart. Aemond’s human interactions in comparison with the one you’re currently witnessing is striking enough that your mind makes more space for him to nestle in it. This time, however, for a more pleasant reason. 

But you feel like he occupies your mind too much already. No matter the reasons. 

“Who’s Vhagar?” You hear yourself ask before you can bite your tongue. 

Aemond looks at you from his crouch and, to your surprise, a delicate smile forms on his lips.

“She’s my dog.”

Your eyes widen at that as up till Sunfyre showed up, you haven’t seen any dog walk around the house or around the property. 

“The gentlest yet most stubborn Tibetan Mastiff alive.” Helaena adds and Aemond nods in confirmation.

Everyone resumes their walk to the winery and, to Nettles horror, Aegon takes the leash from her to immediately let his dog roam free, which makes Sunfyre more than happy.

You slow your pace and walk up to Aemond’s right side. 

As he doesn’t say anything about leaving him alone, you tilt your head up and let your thoughts spill from your tongue. 

“Where is Vhagar? I don’t think we’ve seen her around.” 

You see a muscle in his jaw tighten, which shouldn’t make you feel the way it does, so you ignore the annoyingly pleasant feeling.

“She spends most of her time… resting nowadays.”

You definitely hear something hiding behind the word “resting” but you don’t want to push him to explain what he means by that. You’re not entirely sure if maybe you’re not pushing yourself onto him at this moment, so you only say “okay” in a soft manner and spend the rest of the walk in silence. 

And, as much as the lack of conversation and his quiet and stoic demeanour could make one uncomfortable, you feel the exact opposite. 

Sometimes less is more.

And in his case you definitely prefer his silence over hearing any condescending remark coming from his pouty—you don’t want to admit to noticing this detail—mouth. 

The weather’s too beautiful not to take up the opportunity and sit outside, so that is what all of you do. 

You’re seated by one of the wide tables you saw after entering the winery. It’s surrounded by four tall pillars that support a beam-made roof covered in ivy. 

The place looks so unreal to you that you fight the urge to pinch yourself. 

You take one of the seats and after an hour of walking around the vineyard, the feeling of a soft cushion under your bum fills you with delightful contentment.

“The thing about wine tasting is that you can try as many bottles as you want.”

Aegon says, rubbing his palms together and sits on a chair opposite you. 

Aemond walks up to the edge of the table and rolls his eyes at his older brother and you notice that the left eye, that you were certain to be somewhat motionless, moves almost identically as his right one. You try to remember if you missed it last time you found yourself this close to his face. You assumed it was a prosthetic, from the deep scar running in the middle of the eye and the blue shade of the iris, but never pondered upon the way it works and you mentally push away a question about it, assuming it would be too direct and personal, perhaps a touch rude, as you don’t know each other well. 

He rests his hands on the table and you let your eyes roam over his lean forearms as he stretches his back lazily, leaning his upper body down, staying like that for a moment, and you bite the inside of your cheek when you see his muscles move.

His black short-sleeved polo shirt only punctuates what is hidden underneath it and the fact that the only three buttons this shirt has are unbuttoned doesn't help to stop the warmth pooling in the apex of your thighs.

Annoying, you think, that hot rich people can really be rude assholes.

You must’ve looked at him for a moment too long because he catches your gaze with a cocky smirk already on his lips.

Oh, he definitely knew you were looking.

For fuck's sake.

The look in his eyes sends a shiver down your spine. 

It’s nothing like the one you saw earlier when Jason Lannister failed to be a chivalrous prince charming. This time it’s challenging, you deduce, but you aren’t sure what he could challenge you for.

You look away, half-pretending that the view behind Aegon and Helaena captured your attention, and try to steady your nervous heart beating by breathing through your nose.

With Helaena and Argella doing the same and sitting in front of each other, it leaves Aemond with the empty place on your left side. 

He doesn’t show whether it bothers him or if he’s fine with it and sits down on the cushion, placing his right ankle on the knee of the other leg. In consequence, his bare right knee is dangerously close to the arm of your chair and your resting forearm. 

It’s the closest you’ve been in his presence since that encounter in the library. 

You grab the corners of the arms of the chair a bit tighter, impatiently waiting for Mr Beesbury to come back with the wine and make you focus on something else. 

When the elderly man comes back, two waiters accompany him. One puts down two beautifully stacked up cheese desks at the centre of the table and the other pours water in the already-set glasses and leaves two filled up glass jugs for later use. 

The wine tasting turns out to be more fun than you anticipated. 

You get six bottles of wine waiting for you—three for fruity taste and three for spicy. 

“We’ll start with a delicate cherry.” 

Mr Beesbury shows the black bottle to everyone and with that the tasting begins. 

Your wine glass is filled to not even one third of the glass and as Mr Beesbury pours the wine, he explains the aroma and bouquet of this particular vintage. 

“You need to hold your glass correctly.” Helaena shows Argella the proper way to place her hand on the glass and you mimic her movements. “Hold your glass by the stem, like during dinners.”

“Don’t forget to swirl and smell it before you drink.” Aegon adds and you observe him intently. 

After following the siblings’ instructions, you finally take a sip of the red. 

The presentation is repeated again with the second bottle and you and Argella start asking questions as you never took part in such tasting before.

You hum in appreciation of the strawberry taste and hear a similar but low hum next to you but when you turn to look at Aemond, with a glass still in your hand, you see that his is empty. 

“You’re not drinking?” You raise an eyebrow at him, swirling the rest of the wine before emptying the glass—all while forcing yourself not to break eye contact. 

He drums his fingers on the bent knee and you swear you can feel their falling and rising movements above your wrist, where his knee hangs. As if the vibrations dropped from his hand to yours.  

“Not if I can help it.” 

His heterochromic eyes pierce into yours, more than probably waiting for you to comment on his words. 

You don’t give him the satisfaction and only nod, putting the wine glass on the table, waiting for the third wine to be presented. 

“Our brother doesn’t approve of indulgence of that kind.” 

Aegon puts his hands behind his head and leans on the back of the chair, letting the sun warm his face. 

“I’m not a drinker myself, so I can understand that.” You answer but raise your glass once Mr Beesbury holds up a bottle of, this time, fig wine. 

Aemond is the one who raises an eyebrow at you and you feel the corners of your lips lift up slightly.

“But exceptions can be made for a day like this.”

You send him a playful smirk and shrug your shoulders in a nonchalant manner as you tell him that. 

Your words are met with another hum and a barely audible laugh, and even though this guy has been nothing but a judgemental prick since your arrival, eliciting a laugh from him makes you feel like you scored a point in a non-existing competition between you two.  

The rest of the tasting looks the same but the more all of you drink, the more lively your conversation gets. 

And, contrary to his statement, Aemond makes an exception for only one wine in the taste and smell of plum, licorice, black tea, olive and pepper, which you find utterly intoxicating.

Another detail about him you absentmindedly pin to the back of your head. 

After the final bottle, which holds inside a very bitter-sweet taste of cloves and a cinnamon spice of some kind Mr Beesbury pointed at, you cleanse your palate with a sip of water as you’ve done five times before, and feel your head get a bit dizzy. But fortunately not to the point of being drunk, thanks to the food. 

As you reach for a freshly baked slice of bread you almost knock over the water-filled glass with the palm of your hand. 

Aemond's warm fingers cover yours in an instant.  

Your breath catches in your throat as your hands touch but you blame the reaction on the alcohol. 

“Careful.” 

He murmurs and only then you realise that his whole body leans so terribly close to yours that you can feel his breath on your cheek and his knee—not bent at the ankle anymore—presses into yours. 

You’re thankful your dress falls down to your ankles because you’re not sure if you could take more of his touch on your exposed skin. It’s enough you’re burning from the currently prolonged contact.   

“Y-yeah…” It’s the only thing you manage to say, or rather stutter out, before swallowing slowly. 

Your gaze is firmly set on your joined hands until Aemond takes his away, the warmth of his breath leaving your face too, but the goosebumps that appeared on your skin stay for a long while after the contact.  

The bread is forgotten and you don’t eat anything even after you leave the winery. 

You couldn’t force anything into your stomach, except of a yoghurt Helaena put into your hand, eating one herself.

The lump in your throat like a dam protecting your ragged heart from jumping out of it.

The only thing you could think about for the rest of the day and after waking up the next morning is the feeling of Aemond’s touch and breath on your skin. 

The Tag List

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Feel free to let me know if you’d like to be included in this specific series tag or a general Aemond tag ♡

#my fics #aemond targaryen fanfiction #aemond targaryen fanfic #aemond targaryen fic #aemond fanfiction #aemond fanfic #aemond fic #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x you #aemond x reader #modern!aemond #modern!aemond targaryen #modern!aemond x reader #modern!aemond x you #modern!aemond targaryen x reader #modern!aemond targaryen x you #modern aemond #modern aemond targaryen #aemond fluff #aemond smut #aemond targaryen smut #aemond targaryen fluff #modern aemond x you #modern aemond x reader #modern aemond targaryen x you #modern aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen imagine #aemond imagine #fic: a refined taste

[matan4il]

Buddie 614 meta

What I find to be the loudest about Eddie’s arc here is that the whole ep is meant to show us everything that can go wrong when people try to live up to others’ expectations, and how much better it is when people are looking in and figuring out what’s right for them, which means they’re performing for and as themselves. That’s the context for Eddie’s date and story. He needs to figure out how to want a romantic relationship again without feeling like it’s a task he’s performing just to please others. That’s the place he gets to at the end of the ep, which is a good place for him to be. ~~

And this is essential to Eddie. Based on how little people talk about it, maybe many in fandom aren’t aware of how 911 implied back in 217 that he only married Shannon because she got pregnant. Eddie said explicitly he didn’t think he was ready to get married at the time, and he brought this up in the context of Shannon and him having Christopher. So I think it’s very meaningful that here, when his aunt wants to set him up, he jumps straight to the (wrong) conclusion that he’s expected to marry Vanessa. He was under this pressure to perform for others before, he knows how disastrous it can turn out, and you know what? Trauma totally triggers this kind of reaction. It tells us where he’s at emotionally, that there are still things he has to deal with. ~~

Speaking of trauma, another symptom of it can be denial, and we do see a bit of it from Eddie during this ep. Remember how he claimed he doesn’t panic back in 501? Right to a doctor’s face while she’s diagnosing him with panic attacks? He did it again in this ep. The thing is that healing isn’t linear. He was advancing with some things, but in 614, faced with his aunt’s ambush, he feels cornered back into a place he’s been in before, a place that left its scars on him, and Eddie regresses. Which is okay! But that’s one step back in order to take two steps forward. Before the ep ends, he will figure out that it’s better not closing himself off completely to the idea of getting into another relationship, even if Tia Pepa’s surprise blind dates are not the way to go about it. ~~

As a side note, I loved Bobby basically trying to trick his subordinates into giving him a review, and poor Buck stepping right into that one. I saw it coming and I almost choked laughing. This show is damn brilliant with comedy, too. We don’t give it enough credit for that! But it's also a moment when I was really proud of Buck. If Eddie's panic caused him to take a step back, we got to see his husband, who grew up so unloved that he needs every bit of approval he can get, being mature and able to point it out when Bobby was over-praising him in his evaluation. And you know what's more? Bobby knew it would go like this. He has seen Buck's growth and he knew his surrogate son would do the right thing and correct this. Bobby's set up wouldn't have worked otherwise. Excuse me while I get emotional over this. ~~

Fitting for an ep where 911 flexed its comical muscles, it was embarrassing how hard I laughed at Buck’s reaction to Eddie’s romantic woes. Remember when Buck heavily implied how hurtful it was to be ghosted by Abby, saying in 502 that he had been in Ana’s position, of being unwanted and led on instead of getting a clean break up? Well, look at how quick Buck was to suggest ghosting as a viable option for Eddie this time! It’s almost like Buck doesn’t even notice that he will offer whatever it takes to keep his husband away from these potential Love Interests, even if it contradicts stuff he has said in the past himself. The way Buck could be so calm making this suggestion, and take the “threat” in stride, because duh, he knows his husband wouldn’t want these LIs intruding on their marriage and family either, and it’s absolutely legit to just ghost this girl if she doesn’t get the memo, was hilarious. And honestly, who can blame Buck? He’s defending his hot man. ;p ~~

Which brings me to my weekly gif set, that I dedicated this time to Buck pointing out on Eddie’s failure to let Ana down easy. I mean, it already IS canon that these two talk about everything, it IS canon that Buck is someone who gets to hear all about Eddie’s romantic woes. But this proves that Eddie doesn’t just fill him in using broad strokes, stuff like just letting Buck know that he indeed broke up with Ana. No, they get down to the finer resolution as well, and Buck gets to hear every detail about how Eddie did it with the delicacy of a bull in a china shop. And clearly, Buck wasn’t about respecting either Ana or Eddie’s pain during that break up, at least not enough to stop Buck from teasing his husband about it. XD It’s so funny how naturally Buck’s staking his claim on his husband even while they’re discussing going on dates. I see you, Buck, and am totally with you! ~~

One last “made me laugh” point. I’m tempted to snicker about Pepa telling Eddie he should be shopping for antiques. I’m queer, so please excuse my dumb queer humor, but ummm. That’s not a very straight suggestion for your nephew, Tia. Or maybe that’s deliberate, maybe it’s implied she is trying to set up Eddie with anyone, girls or guys? After all, she did use gender neutral language during this ep... So we can’t know for sure, but something tells me Pepa just wants Eddie to officially have someone, and if she learns that Buck actually IS her nephew’s other half? (I can’t call either of these morons ‘better half’, sorry) Then she’d be the first one to throw them a party! And I love that, and I love her. Because after all, she’s not just a sassy queen, she’s not just incredibly loving and caring with her nephew, she was also willing to sacrifice her own image in his eyes, she was willing to be seen as herself, and not as what he expects, in order to help remind him that even if his first marriage failed miserably, he can find the courage, move on and re-commit himself to someone else. And soon maybe Eddie will realize and Pepa will find out who is that someone else that Eddie can have a beautiful committed r/s with...

~~ (my weekly meta posts) (my Buddie gifs) (all of my content)

~~ My tag list will follow in the reblog, please let me know  if you wanna be added/removed here.

~~ Thank you so much for reading and for any reblog, like, comment or supportive tag! I really couldn't keep doing these without knowing people want to see them. Also, my eternal gratitude as always to @whosoldherout​. I'm always in awe of your giffing!

#buddie #911meta #buddie meta #911 meta #9-1-1 #evan buckley #eddie diaz #eddiediazedit #evanbuckleyedit #buddieedit #911gif #911edit #wm #buddie gifs #911 spoilers #911 #911onabc #911 on abc #911abc #911 abc

[runnning-outof-time]

Hi K! Congrats on the milestone! I would love to see what you do with this:

"Please stop talking." with Tommy.

Can't wait to read it!

Hi Karissa! Thanks so much for sending this in! I hope you like what I’ve done here! Sorry it took a bit for me to write. I’m not sure if anyone’s even interested in these blurbs anymore, but I’m going to write them because people requested them. Enjoy! :)

I’D LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK - COMMENTS & REBLOGS HELP ME WRITE!

Part of my 3.5k Celebration — find more stories here!

Some of Us Aren’t

Tommy Shelby x Reader

Warnings: language, smoking

Word Count: 843

Summary: Tommy and (Y/N) clash over Tommy’s most recent business decision.

“So you went and did it, huh?” (Y/N) didn’t even bother knocking on the door of her husband’s office before she opened it, storming into the room with an intensity that she only reserved for serious situations.

Tommy didn’t look up at first. Instead he went about capping his pen and tossing it to the side, his eyebrows raised as he tried to curb his annoyance. This was not what he needed at the moment. But he knew that he wouldn’t be going back to work any time soon.

“Did what?” he asked cooly as he finally looked up to see her standing in front of his desk with a pointed look on her face and her hands on her hips.

“You fucking know what, Thomas,” she sneered at him. He looked at her expectantly, his eyebrows raised as to say “I’m waiting” as he rested his elbows on the desk and clasped his hands together. (Y/N) wanted to slap the look off of his face. “You went ahead and agreed to work with the Russians,” she spelled it out for him.

“I did,” he stayed curt, not denying her accusation.

“Polly told you not to,” she shot back.

“I chose not to listen to Polly,” he was still level with her.

“I told you not to. And you better not say that you chose not to listen to me,” (Y/N) raised her eyebrows, getting that second sentence in before he was able to give her another one of his blunt comebacks.

Tommy paused for a moment, eyeing his wife up and down. The frustration was practically radiating off of her at this point. He needed to pick his battle here. He took a deep breath and slowly brought his eyes back up to match hers. “This move will be good for the business,” he then told her, an air of absoluteness present in his words. This matter was not up for discussion.

But (Y/N) was never one to stop herself from voicing her disagreement with Tommy’s ideas. “Like hell it won’t!” she exclaimed. “You’ve decided to go and make this move without consulting any of the other people invested in the business. What happened to having a meeting and talking things through? Huh?!”

“Please stop talking,” he interjected, keeping his voice level in hopes that his head would stay with it.

“Oh but you knew that it’d get shot down, didn’t you?” (Y/N) just kept on going, narrowing her eyes at him, “you knew that everyone else would see the situation for what it is, so that’s why you decided to steamroll it forward.”

Tommy took another deep breath and let it out in a huff. He grabbed his tin of cigarettes and pulled one out, rolling it between his lips before he lit it and took a deep drag. “Arthur’s on board with it,” he then commented nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders.

(Y/N) couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh at the statement. “Arthur will always go along with you. He’s practically your ‘yes man’, Tommy,” she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest as a way to say ‘you’ve got to do better than that’.

He made sure to set his glasses down on the desk before he stood from the chair, pinching the bridge of his nose as he stood before placing his palms flat on the desk. They stared at each other for a moment before he spoke. “Have you got a better idea?” he countered, his brows raising as he looked her with wide eyes, “eh?”

(Y/N) bit on her lip as she held her husband’s stare. Her mind was full of the things she wanted to say to him about this terrible move that he’d made, but there was nothing that she could offer up as an option to be done instead.

Tommy noticed this almost instantly. “There’s a reason why I have the final say over what this company does; over who it works with, love,” he began, speaking slowly so that she would hear him clearly. “I consider every fucking option and avenue to take before choosing one. What they’re offering is something we’ve never come close to before. I have a plan.”

“I fear that one day your plan will not go as you hope it does…and then this business, and your life, will be destroyed, and it will all be because you decided to make a move without consulting the others in making that plan,” (Y/N) laid out her worries, not quite ready to accept the fact that this matter was not at all up for discussion. But no matter what she said, Tommy wasn’t going to be changing his mind…that was written all over his face.

“I’m prepared for it if that day were to come,” he kept his response brief.

“Yeah? Well, some of us aren’t,” she responded in a bitter tone, glaring at him and his stubbornness before she sharply turned to exit his office.

Tagged: @mystcldydrms @the-anxious-youth @cloudofdisney @look-at-the-soul @elenavampire21 @mrsalwayswrite @julkaamazing @evita-shelby @lilyrachelcassidy @notyour-valentine @shelbydelrey @theshelbyslimited @peakyswritings @just-a-blackhole @watercolorskyy @strayrockette @peakyduchesss @alexxavicry @captivatedbycillianmurphy @yummycastiel @dark-academia-slut @tommystargirl @emotionalcadaver @stevie75 @lyarr24 @signorellisantichrist @zablife @anotherblinder @cillmequick @dandelionprints @letal-y-poetica @gypsy-girl-08 @insanitybyanothername @depxiety @raincoffeeandfandoms @dragons-are-my-favorite @acewritesfics @forgottenpeakywriter @cljordan-imperium @brummiereader @areyenotfondofmelobster @everythingelseisextra @little-diable @thomashelbyswife @shaddixlife

MASTERLIST

#tommy shelby #tommy shelby x reader #tommy shelby x y/n #tommy shelby blurb #tommy shelby fanfic #tommy shelby fanfiction #peaky blinders #peaky blinders x reader #peaky blinders x y/n #peaky blinders blurb #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #k’s 3.5k celebration

[suuuupernovaaa]

kurkung

kurkung [ˈkuɾ.kuŋ] n. asshole (vulgar)

Request from @darrarii: Could I request a Neteyam x reader where the reader's blunt and kind ofbitchy. The Sullys are arriving and meeting Aonung's best friend (the reader) and he hears her say some randomly blunt and out of pocket stuff under her breath. I live for kind and loving readers but imagine neteyam and reader just side eyeing people together.

Aonung nudges me, removing my focus from the task at hand, and I turn to admonish him. I have been working on this net all day, and I am nearly done. I have also asked him nearly ten times to quit bothering me while I work, but Aonung never listens to anyone who isn't Aonung.

"Look!" he says, and points. Above us fly five beasts, ikran, and it's a sight to behold. My anger melts away and I stand with Aonung and Roxto, who is never far off, our mouths agape. "Visitors."

Aonung charges forward, and Roxto scrambles to follow. I carefully set aside the net I've been working on, and have to jog to catch up.

The riders are dismounting as our clan gathers on the beach, gawking and whispering. They are strange people, a deeper blue than us, and I think they must be from the forest. Ikrans, dark blue, and as I get closer, I see their thin arms and tails.

What business do they have here, in the ocean?

They're a family, clearly. A mother, a father, and four children. The eldest look to be around our age, maybe 18 or 19, and the youngest cannot yet be ten. I must admit, she is very cute, but the features on the older boys make them look weak. They won't be able to swim, or hold their breath - but maybe they're just passing through.

Aonung and Roxto approach, and Aonung points out one of their tails.

"Is that supposed to be a tail?" Aonung asks, and Roxto laughs.

"It would be better to have no tail at all, than that useless little thing," I say to Aonung, who smiles at me. One of the boys turns his eyes to me, glaring, and I shrug.

I'm sure his tail is fine where he's from. Here, it will be little more than a nuisance to him.

Tsireya approaches, and slaps Roxto as he laughs, admonishing him and her brother, Aonung. She gives me a sideways glance, but again, I shrug.

"They do look strange, Tsireya," I say.

"As strange as we look to them," she replies. Where Aonung and I are harsh, Tsireya is soft and caring. I admire those characteristics about her, but don't see a use for them myself.

When I turn my attention back to the newcomers, the mother is telling our chief, Aonung's father, how her husband was Toruk Makto.

That grabs my attention - everyone knows the legend of Toruk Makto. I just imagined him to be... something different. I guess I pictured one of us, even though I knew he was a forest person.

"Toruk Makto is a Great War leader," Tonowari says, and I lean over to Aonung.

"I don't want a war here," I say to him, and he glances down at me, and nods once.

Again, one of the older boys looks to me, but he doesn't look annoyed this time - he looks sad.

"Toruk Makto and his family will stay with us," Tonowari says when I turn my attention back to him. Just a moment later, he's promising that Aonung and Tisreya will teach their children our ways.

I know what this means - I'll be roped into it too, as will Roxto. The three of us have always been somewhat of a package deal.

At least, I tell myself, this could be interesting.

--

I sigh and grab Neteyam's hands. "Bah, Neteyam!" I exclaim. "Are you watching me?"

He rolls hie eyes for the 100th time that day. "I am! You're going too fast. Slow down."

I have done the phrase what I think is slowly a dozen times, but he is still not picking it up. I am starting to think that these forest people are going to be hopelessly useless here, and I worry about them, just a little.

"Once more," I say, and move so slowly that it feels as if I am hardly moving at all. "Where... are... we.... going..."

Finally, when he repeats the gesture to me, it is correct.

"Yes!" I exclaim. "That's right, Neteyam!"

He smiles and laughs, and the sight of it... does something to me. I have seen Aonung smile a million times. He laughs with me every day. But never before has it made me feel this way.

There's a strange feeling, almost a fluttering in my stomach, and I snap my eyes away, trying to focus, but it isn't easy, not when he's still smiling.

--

Often, I find myself making excuses to be around Neteyam. I tell myself he must need help riding his ilu, learning how to slow his heart and hold his breath, or adding more finger speak to his lexicon.

Even as it becomes increasingly clear that he really doesn't need anyone's help anymore, I still find myself there, always there, offering a hand or a correction.

He never turns me away.

"Will the Sullys be stealing all of our women?" Aonung asks me as we ride our ilus together, the first time we have been alone since our arrival.

A pit settles in my stomach. I knew that Lo'ak and Tisreya had eyes on each other, but I hadn't known Neteyam had shown interested in anyone. I wonder who it could possibly be, and how have I not noticed?

Just the thought of him showing interest in another woman makes me sick, and I have to finally admit to myself that I care about the forest boy. Since the moment I saw him smile, he's nearly all that I think about. When we aren't together, I wonder what he's doing, wonder how he's adjusting to life here. I find excuses every day to talk to him, and I would even call us friends.

I'm hurt that he has found a woman, and I was unaware.

"What do you mean?" I ask, trying to keep the emotions off of my face and failing.

"First my sister, now my best friend," Aonung says, shaking his head.

"Me? And Neteyam? Bah, Aonung, no."

He rolls his eyes. "Don't treat me like I'm stupid. You like each other. I never thought you would stoop so low."

"Aonung!" I exclaim. "You are too harsh. They have been through a lot, and even you can't deny, they've adapted well here."

He rolls his eyes once more, and dives under and darts away from me. I want to be mad at him, but I'm too busy wondering if he's right - does Neteyam like me?

I have never been one to dance around what I want or how I'm feeling. Sometimes, I have been told, this comes off as being too harsh, a jerk, unfeeling and mean. I try to deliver the truth kindly, and only deliver it if it needs to be said, but I don't always know where the line is.

I don't worry about all of that now. When I return to shore, I head to where I know Neteyam and his family are staying, and hover in the doorway only a moment.

His mother and sisters are there, but not him.

"Do you know where Neteyam is?" I ask, and his mother's eyes snap up to mine.

"Fishing," the youngest replies. "Just left."

I nod and smile. "Thank you, Tuk."

--

It takes me a while to find Neteyam, who has swam far and found a little-used beach where the good fish rarely come. He couldn't have known that, so I hold my tongue on chiding him.

"Neteyam!" I yell as I step up onto the beach.

He turns, a spare in his hand, ready to launch, and smiles. "Y/N! How did you find me?"

"Well, I've been looking a long time. There aren't really good fish here, Neteyam. I can show you better spots."

He sighs and lowers his spear. "Damn. Okay."

"I want to ask you something," I say as I reach him, shaking the water from my hair. "Do you like me?"

He looks a little taken aback, with eyes wide, his tail swishing from side to side. "Like you? Yeah, I like you. You've been a good friend."

"No, no," I reply, stepping forward, shortening the gap between us. "Romantically, I mean. Aonung said he thought you did. And I like you. Romantically. So, I am asking."

When the confusion fades from his face, it is replaced with soft eyes and a wide, beautiful smile. "You are very straight-forward."

"I know. Most people don't like it, or like me. That's why I'm asking. I thought Aonung could be wrong."

"He's not," Neteyam replies. "I do like you. The first day on the beach, I did not," he tells me with a chuckle, "but I just thought you were... an asshole. I don't think so anymore. I think you just say what you are thinking, and it's kind of nice. I never have to wonder how you feel about something. And you've always been patient and kind to me, even when you didn't have to be."

Though Neteyam is right and I usually do speak my mind, my mind currently is a garbled up mess of joy and a little bit of fear. What will it mean, to fall in love with this forest boy? What will be permitted? Do we have a future together?

I'm not sure it makes sense to worry about that now. What I know is, nothing has ever made me as happy as Neteyam has. I wake up every morning, wondering what part of the day I will get to spend with him. To be assured that, going forward, I get to spend every single day with him... it is the greatest happiness I have ever known.

I am speechless. I wrap my arms around his waist and place my head on his chest, listening to his strong, loud heartbeat as he wraps his arms around my shoulders. I feel his chin resting on my head, and I take deep, slow breaths, enjoying this moment.

"I'm sorry I didn't make a good first impression. I'm glad you were able to look past it."

He reaches under my chin, tilting my head up to him, and places a soft, quick kiss on my lips.

Too soft. Too quick.

"You are lucky you are so beautiful, or I may not have given you another chance," he says with a wink and a teasing smile.

I want to shove him away for the comment, but I can't bear to tear myself away from him. Plus, he certainly owes me one.

I'll get him back tomorrow.

#neteyam #neteyam x reader #neteyam fic #avatar twow #avatar 2

[day-drawn-blog]

Part VII: I went away cause I missed you or maybe You are not mine and am I truly yours? - The Power

Pairing: Astarion x Reader -- This is set in Act I

Tags: angst, fluff, sadness, angst, fluff, then maybe eventually smut because I do love that

Part I. Crowned light moon of mine - I found you too soon

Part II : Lace your heart with mine Let your sleeping soul take flight

Part III : maybe tonight I'll rest in peace

Part IV : There is more to do and I still want to live

Part V : our futures bound, our bodies known

Part VI: These ain't my sins. I broke my chains.

Part VIII: Your blood like wine, invites me in.

Part IX: I'll welcome my sentence and give you my penance

Part X : I can't go yet...don't let me die

You all stayed at camp as two of your party members recovered their physical and psychic damage. Not much happened. The second night, Astarion was able to step out, and sit next to the campfire with everyone. Everyone had spent time on their own way - resting. Wyll seemed to have refined a dance. He wanted to share with everyone, and asked for a partner, just as you walked in with a bunch of firewood. Everyone looked at you and Wyll found his volunteer. You indulged him.

It turned out more fun than you had thought.

You enjoyed dancing in a previous life. A life which you cannot remember much of, anymore. Everyone was being merry. Astarion seemed to be recovering because he made some snarky comment at Wyll's dancing skills. Said he always dreamt of marrying a handsome prince charming like Wyll as a kid - making everyone burst out in laughter. Wyll offered to dance with him in return and Astarion turned him down saying he was afraid of being stepped on. After which a funny banter followed.

All was not as bad as it could be. 

"You seem to be all better, Astarion. Good to see, soldier. It's all thanks to Halsin's medicine that our dear captain so diligently put on you all night" Karlach beamed, gesturing to you. You felt like a deer in the spotlight. "Ah no no no, I hardly -- " "Of course you did, you followed my instructions perfectly" chimed in Halsin, unhelpfully. 

You looked down to the ground blushing. You didn't want to look at Astarion. At this point you may as well hold a sign saying you love him, you thought. "Thank you. Captain." Astarion returned, in a solemn and deep voice. "I owe you my life". "Again." You were sure he said that last word, or did he. It was said very softly, almost to himself.

Everyone was able to march forwards again.

In the underdark the next day, Shadowheart and Karlach were chatting. You wondered if Shadowheart and Astarion had found their way to each other again. You hoped they did. You did not want to come in between real love. "You know, I have a spent time in a crypt. But the underdark, still unsettles me". What? 

Astarion had caught up with you. 

He was trying to make conversation! You were surprised. "Are you still feeling unwell? Maybe you thought I was someone else?". You blurted out unwittingly. Half joking, but also, not. "Why would you say that? I was perfectly aware who I was walking upto to have an idle chatter with. If you are not interested... however" He feigned being hurt. "You never talk to me, Astarion. This feels very, not normal. Why now?". You were genuinely curious. 

"Do I not?" He seemed hurt. 

"We haven't spoken a word except last night in the past week". You reminded him, pettily. " I had, a few things to sort through, in my head." He said, a bit distant. "But I feel much better today. Both in body and in mind". "That is very good to hear. We were all worried that night. You were close to falling in the water". 

You two then talked a fair bit. 

About the incident, about his time as a magistrate in Baldurs gate. A few things about Cazador. You felt there was more to the Cazador story than he let on. But that would have to wait. You were in combat again. 

You started with your back to his back. 

You had never fought this way before. You felt safer. You cancelled someone trying to cast a spell on the party. Then at one point, while you were momentarily distracted, you saw two hands on either side of you, cast 'ignis' from behind you, as hot flames burst forth. It was so warm for a moment. Not just from the spell but his breathy voice right behind you as he took down your enemy for you. 

His face was so close to you. 

"Look out!" You were so distracted by his face, you didn't see the arrows coming. Astarion turned you around while shielding you with his back that took the arrows. His armor was enough to save him but that was dangerous. "What are you doing?!," You demanded, slightly frowning since that was reckless. "Saving your distracted self. You're welcome" he snarked back. 

And whose fault is that, again. You sighed.

Fighting side by side had it's charms. It gave him advantage on his sneak attacks while you took out any enemies in range. But at one point, towards the end of the battle, you were both near a ledge, when someone set off an explosive and you both fell off. Down into the abyss. You cast feather fall to save your lives and braced for impact. 

It didn't hurt as much but you both fell in a pool of rubble dirt and dust that clouded everything. Coughing, you couldn't see in the smoke cloud and dust. The area looked precarious. As if a false step or loud sound would make you go crashing further. Astarion was a few feet away. Coughing.

He crawled towards you. "Are you okay"? 

A wooden beam seemed to fall towards you as you looked up. Your mind went blank. You Eldritch blasted it and realized it splattered into a hundred splinters that were now raining down on you. In an instant, Astarion was on you. Fully armored. And he shielded you from the worst of them. You on your back, him on all fours, protecting you.

"What are you doing?" 

You were genuinely angry. Why does he keep putting himself in danger for you! Those splinters were not enough to hurt you badly, and you did not need saving from something so trivial. What has gotten into him today. Being the Hero. Didn't he find the idea repulsive? You couldn't understand this man. He definitely disapproved of a lot of your more benevolent choices in the past. And now look at who is being the Hero.

Hypocrite.

You expected him to say he was saving you, and you had your reply ready in your head. That you would have survived just fine. You just needed to remember the right spell. 

"I'm being ... grateful". 

Is what he said. What? You looked into his eyes. Once again, his face, was very close to yours. "You are a handful. You know that"? He quipped. You were offended. "Excuse me - I cast feath -- " His lips were on yours. He sucked and pulled on your lower lip before parting. 

"I -- wa --- " 

"Shut up" and he kissed you again. Several times. Quick, rash and hurried. His tongue found yours. You had no time to breathe. Your mind was going blank again. Why does this man do this to you every time. You put your arms around him without thinking when a voice rang out. "You guys ok down there? " Karlach's voice ran out from above. 

He tore away instantly.

"Yes! " He promptly got away and waved "we are here!!" "I saved her but now we need help getting out". "You didn't save ---" " Shut up or I will kiss you again". It wasn't the warning that shut you up. But the shock at what was happening... You just stared at him wide eyed. "If you don't believe me, why don't you test me" he smirked. He helped you up. The party had thrown a rope ladder down to you two. 

After you. He said.

You held the rope. No, after you. "I'm afraid, my love, that can't be helped" he stood behind you and tugged at the rope to check its strength, he was so close again. "I need to keep my eyes on you darling. " He smirked again as he leaned in and kissed you again. This one was longer and more tender. "For the journey back up, my dear. Who knows when I can tear you away again".

His hand was on your stomach. Tantalizingly close to your breasts. "I would like to savor you more ....later" He said in a very low voice, next to your ears, almost in a whisper. Your head tilted back, he planted one more kiss on your lips and let you go. You gripped the rope hard. Your heard pounding from the kisses he lavished on you. 

You tried to focus on the task at hand, and made your way up, slowly. Looking back down every now and again as he smiled up at you.

You resolved to end this turmoil soon.

Back up reunited, you decided to stay with the others the rest of the day. That didn't prevent him from catching your eye and flashing his smile at you every chance he got. You turned away, cheeks flushed and confused, every time.

Back at camp that night, you tore away from everyone, to sort your thoughts through before confronting him. You found a secluded pool, so you stripped to your inners and went in the cool water. You were still uncomfortable being completely naked in the wilderness. Made you feel, vulnerable. Besides - who knew if someone was lurking. These woods were filled with thieves, bandits...vampires.

"There you are, darling. "

Shocked, you turned to see him. "How did you -". He smirked. "Why, I can smell your sweet blood miles away. Did you forget, I'm a... vampire" he winked. You were infuriated - not a moment's peace with this man around. You should have washed your wounds faster. Years of being a predator has given him perfect stalking skills it seemed. Fine. Might as well get it done with. You braced yourself.

Astarion stripped down and got into the water.

Part VIII : Your blood like wine, invites me in.

#astarion romance #astarion x reader #astarion x tav #astarion bg3 #astarion angst #fluff #fanfic #vampire #astarion fanfic #baldurs gate 3

[octuscle]

I went to the Nations of the World party and I drew the UAE. Could you help me get into that culture and be big and sexy for the party?

Everything Arabic is currently incredibly in demand… I don't have much choice anymore… But I think I have just the thing here. Just activate. Activation takes three days, transformation will end automatically on 03 November at 08:00. You should still be able to have some fun after the party.

Monday night… A bit early to activate the costume… The party is more than two weeks away… But you can't wait. Every nine hours now, one of your ancestors from your great-grandparents' generation will become of Arab descent. At first you don't feel anything… You spend the evening as usual in front of the television. Everything is normal… You go to bed earlier than usual. At 22:00 sharp. And at 05:00 the alarm clock rings. Your new routine. Breakfast, jogging to the gym, an hour at the weights, jogging home and then second breakfast, shower and off to the office. You're at your desk even earlier than usual. And fit as seldom. You get plenty of compliments. Colleagues ask you if you were on vacation. Fuck, the costume seems to pay off. At lunchtime you go out for falafel. Your mother grew up bilingual. What the fellows behind the counter speak is everything, but not customer-friendly. You've already learned that much Arabic from your mother… You say goodbye with "'ayuha al'iikhwatu, lays hunak nasihat lihadha alealaji." The two fellows stare at you with open eyes. That was better than tipping them.

In the evening you cook your dinner, prepare your breakfast, eat, read a little bit and go to bed at 22:00. You dream wildly and wake up at 5:00 a.m. drenched in sweat. Hair grows on your chest. On a well-built chest. When you finish your training, you are the son of a Syrian mother and an American father. You grew up bilingual. Fluent in Arabic. And still a Christian. Your father prevailed. Sure, your mother told you a lot about the Koran, but religion doesn't interest you much anyway. Your church is the gym, your communion is the protein shake. In the office, all your colleagues ask you about the situation in the Middle East. How you see it. You were once on vacation in Tunisia. These are your experiences with the Middle East. What do you know about that?

At the end of work at 5:00 p.m. your genetics change. You have more Arabic than European roots. You can see it in your body hair. In your eyes. You notice it because you want to smoke a shisha at the end of the day. Everyone knows you in the café. You all speak Arabic to each other. You are still the infidel Christian. But all those who have not yet sucked your uncut dick don't know that. Ahmad, whom you just fucked in the toilet, for example, knows.

Wednesday morning. Prayer times are always good in the winter. You're done with your workout before you go to sunrise prayer. Training and prayer set the rhythm of your day. It is good that you are your own boss. Importing and exporting various things. Exporting cars to the Middle East. Importing… Well, whatever comes along… All kinds of things… By noon prayer, you've lost your American passport. You are a proud citizen of the UAE. There was once a Swedish great-grandmother. But it doesn't show on your face. And you don't notice it yourself.

After the sunset prayer, the transformation is complete. Purebred Arabian. A true Arabian hot-blooded stallion. You have been in the States for five years now. A good and permissive life here. Your mother should not know about this. But this is sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. You're looking forward to the Halloween party in two weeks. Costume? You don't need a costume. You just show up…

Inspiration found @fitbearcatcher

#male tf #muscle tf #reality change #chronivac #male transformation #muscle transformation #race change #halloween tf

[youlikefanficdontyousquidward]

Colonel's orders!

Summary: Lyle doesn't show up for your date, Quaritch rectifies the situation.

Human!Miles x gn!reader, Human!Lyle x gn!reader

It was an odd situation you had to admit. Lyle and you? No one would have seen it coming, well no one except your roommate.

"He's a dog y/n! You're a fine piece of ass and he's sniffin!" She called to you as you got ready by the mirror. Her head didn't even pop up from her data pad as she chewed on her pen.

"What the hell does that even mean Kim?" You didn't have time for her nonsense warnings. Your own shift had run late and if you didn't leave now he'd be waiting. You just wished your hair knew that.

"Means what it means." She said crossing her arms. "You shouldn't go. AND if you do I'm not clearing out so there'll be no hanky panky" You rolled your eyes. Cheep as RDA was you were lucky in your station to only have one room mate to deal with. She could be a pain in the ass but at least she kept her side tidy.

"I have no idea what your saying half the time." You grumbled mainly to yourself, having a last once over in the mirror before heading out.

"If your not back by 0900 I'm inviting Prager over!" You wished the sliding mechanical doors were capable of slamming as you left.

She was one to talk about your taste seeing as she'd been making her way through the military types. Still in some ways she was right. You'd never seen them as your type before but Lyle had been a special case.

You were a jack of all trades, often flitting from task to task in where ever they felt you were needed. Your primary work load was in mechanics, which was where you met him. Lyle clearly wished to jump the queue and reckoned it was a 50/50 he'd get to the top of the order or blacklisted. His cheesy pickup lines and obvious eyeballing would have normally pissed you off but for some reason you'd found it charming.

Maybe it was his sincerity? He certainly seemed to find you genuinely attractive and was not shy about expressing it. Maybe it was the lack self seriousness he displayed? Or maybe it was simply that no one else had shown this much blatant interest in you in a while.

There were no games with him. He was clear in his intentions from the beginning. Before you'd even finished fixing his gun mount on the craft, he'd set up a date. You appreciated the straight forwardness greatly. You often found people difficult to read and wished more would be as blunt at times.

So here you were, outside the hanger leaning against the wall in your nicest causal clothes. It was a miracle you'd made it on time, better than that you were a couple of minutes early! You used the time to catch your breath, peering at your reflection in the glass.

You looked nice. It was hard to look special with what little you'd brought with you but still the effort was clear. Anyways he'd still be in his camo so he'd be a hypocrite to think you'd not bothered to dress up.

Not that dressing up was necessary, you were only going to an observation deck. It was technically out of bounds for yourself but with him as escort it would be allowed. As he told it, that catwalk had the best views of the night sky. You quite looked forward to seeing it, would be a change from the lower levels you tended to work in.

Minutes ticked by slowly. Muscular men and women in military gear filed past, looking at you with confusion as you waited. You kept your eyes down, hoping not to draw too much attention. Wouldn't want to get kicked out before Lyle even got here.

Your feet started to ache. Looking down at your watch again you noted how late he was. 15 minutes wasn't so bad, maybe he'd needed a shower first and had just forgot to message you. You rocked back and forth on your heels, staring out at the moving crane in the hanger.

30 minutes was understandable. Something must have come up and made him late. If it was work then of course he wouldn't have been able to message you and let you know. The timer lights had gone out leaving the hall dim. You slumped down now, sitting on the floor. Might as well rest a little while you waited right?

45 minutes. The cranes had stopped now, the large hanger bay stilled. Whatever workers left must have gone off to their own beds through other exits. You hadn't seen another soul in the last half an hour. Was he just not coming?

55 minutes was your limit. You could feel the frustration rising in your throat. It constricted as your chest spasmed, threatening to start you sobbing. You held the flood gates, your eyes only glassy, you wouldn't cry here.

You felt stupid for falling for what ever trick he was playing. A prank amongst his friends maybe? All watching on CCTV at the poor sod he'd tricked into thinking he liked them. Fuck them, they wouldn't see you cry. You were gonna walk back to your room like nothing was wrong and let your roommates vicious tongue say it for you.

You stood, stretching out your aching muscles, your back giving a satisfying pop. You moaned a little in the empty space as you reached high in your stretch. Then you heard someone clear their throat.

You glanced over to see the Colonel himself eyeing you. You yanked your arms down fast, adjusting your clothing that had crept up.

"Sir!" You straightened, mind racing. What could you say to excuse your being here? Did he know his own men well enough to mark you as an outsider here?

"Shouldn't you be..." He began.

"Yes! sorry sir! I was waiting for someone and..." You cut him off, trailing off with a half hearted laugh at the end there. You weren't hiding you emotion well, you could hear a manic edge to your tone. Well fuck it, your evening couldn't get worse right?

"I think I've been stood up, sir." You met his eye when you said this tears threatening to spill. This was the first time since the mandatory safety briefing you'd seen him this close. You'd done well the last few years, making yourself indispensable on base, never needing to leave its safe walls. Nor having to be in the presence of the Colonel who you'd found so frightening before.

He didn't seem so scary now. Emotions quickly passing across his admittedly handsome face. Though it was marked heavily by deep scarring he was very agreeable up close. He seemed to soften a moment, an easy smile gracing his lips.

"By one of mine? Now that won't do darlin" You blushed at the pet name, eyeing him nervously as he reached a hand out to you. You took it gingerly, staring down at his rough hand clasping your own. Then your eyes drifted to his biceps, wow he was huge.

"Colonel Miles Quaritch." He drawled out, laughing a little. Your eyes shot back up to his, busted.

"Uh, y/n, sir!" You squeaked out. You tensed as he pulled your arm in, hooking it through his own. You followed his movements, allowing him to walk you through the doors off limits to yourself.

"Gave you my name for a reason there darlin'. Just Miles will be fine." You just nodded to him, the whole situation rapidly getting away from you.

"Now what had my no good dog promised you huh?" he turned his head to you, flashing a brilliant smile. You settled against him, content he wasn't going to yell at you and happy to be closer to his muscles.

"The stars." You spoke, more steadily this time, a dreamy hint touching your voice. You'd never seen them so clear as the first night you arrived on Pandora and had been squirreled away ever since. "We were going to go look at them."

Miles hummed to himself, leading you to an elevator on the far wall. An assistant had made to approach with paper work, he shot him a look you couldn't see. The man almost jumped, fumbling with the papers before scampering off. Maybe a little apprehension on your part was warranted.

He seemed a little lost in thought as you entered the lift together. Maybe mulling over who's place he'd taken tonight. Part of you wanted to keep it a secret, after all he did seem annoyed you'd been left waiting. Maybe Lyle deserved what ever his Colonel would do however. Likely be better than your plan of never helping him again.

The lifts sliding doors brought him back. Charming smile slipping back into place as he stepped out with you.

"You'll be wanting a mask for this spot." He removed himself from your side, stepping ahead to the evopacks hanging on the wall. He took one down turning to you.

"After you." He placed the mask over your head, drawing you in close as he adjusted the straps. He tucked hair off your face, hands tracing down to tilt your chin up with his finger. Your breath caught in your throat, he was close now, his eyes darting to your lips. If it wasn't for the glass between you, you'd have felt his breath. He smirked down at you before pressing the seal, it hissed startling you back to reality. Where it didn't seem like your Colonel wanted to kiss you.

You hadn't realized quite how hot you'd become until the door hissed open and the cool night air hit you. It was refreshing, not so cold as to be uncomfortable.

"Up here." Miles lead the way climbing the ladder first and taking your hand when you reached the top yourself. He pulled you up sharply making you bump against his broad chest. He held you there a moment, hands on your elbows, before stepping back.

"Well, there's your stars." He smiled and you raised your head up.

No earthly sky could compare, not even the old photos of desert skies. Millions of pin prick lights, splashes of blue and purple nebula, another moon and the huge expanse of Polyphemus.

The night here glowed brilliantly. You couldn't help the glee that bubbled through you. You jumped a little, waving your hands trying to disperse the feeling. It was so beautiful, beyond anything you'd expected from your brief glimpse.

You twisted back to Quaritch, suddenly bashful from your display. He was simply smiling back at you from where he'd decided to sit. You joined him, flopping onto your back to better take in the view.

"As promised?" You turned your head to his, stars sparkling in his icy blue eyes. You grinned at him.

"Better!" You shuffled closer pressing your head to his shoulder. You wondered briefly if that'd be okay but he didn't move. You stayed like that for a time, letting him speak. He'd apparently learnt a bit from navigation, important out in the field so he said. He pointed to clusters, constellations changed quickly on a moon planet but certain groups could be spotted and used to navigate.

You told him about your fear of the forest. That you'd known a friend who died their first day out there. That you'd found every excuse to stay inside since. He listened, nodding to himself. You supposed he understood, he'd seen first hand what was out there, though he'd chosen to fight it.

When you began to yawn he suggested you go back. Ever the gentleman it would seem, he took your hand. Helping you up then escorting you back. You protested lightly, that you could return yourself but he wouldn't have it. Taking you right to your room door.

"Well y/n, it's been a pleasure." He raised your knuckles to his lips, leaving a soft kiss. You giggled a little, debating a curtsy when you noticed the time. 1100 and as expected your darling roommate had left the customary warning of her sock on the floor.

Miles caught your sudden change of expression, quirking a brow at the sock you glared at.

"Sorry...uh my roommate... she has company." You fumbled. It wasn't against any rules or anything but it felt like grassing her up to the big boss. He paused a moment before he caught your meaning, barking a laugh at the situation.

"Now wouldn't it be funny if I just..." He trailed off before quickly opening the door. You barely had time to react before you saw a half dressed Prager flail and fall onto the floor. Your roommate was no where in site, likely in the bathroom.

"Private!" Miles half yelled, causing him to scramble to his feet and salute. You couldn't help but laugh at him standing there in his underwear, beet red.

"You have a field mission at 0600, best get some shut eye soldier." Miles voice was light hearted, filled with humor at the situation. Regardless Prager scooped up the rest of his clothes before running off down the hall, babbling out 'yes sirs' and 'sorry sirs'.

You turned to look up at Miles, still giggling. He smiled back down at you before his face relaxed a little. He looked at you more seriously then, before his hand raised to cup your cheek. He was close again, this time you could feel the heat radiating off his skin. He stooped a little, leaning closer to you. You felt his lips brush against yours before...

"Colonel, sir?!" Miles leaned away, hand leaving your cheek, he turned to who ever called. You didn't even need to peak around him to tell, Lyle. What was he doing here now? You were still upset about him leaving you waiting like that, but he'd come to you?

"Ahh, this the date then?" He turned back to you, face tight in a forced smile. You felt your face flush, mind still reeling from the almost kiss.

"uh yeah... Lyle." He jogged into view around Miles now, red faced and out of breath. You looked at the floor, not wanting to meet his eyes incase it got you tearing up again.

"Aww y/n I..." He started, struggling to speak through his panting.

"This is my bad." You turned to Miles as he interrupted. His face and voice giving a casual impression that didn't reach his body language. His muscles were tensed. You could see his fists balled, white knuckled.

"I'm afraid my Corporal here was pretty behind on paper work and I'd insisted it be done by tomorrow. Fair to say I ruined your evening, you have my apologies." He tipped his head before marching off.

You felt you should say something but what? What do you say to your higher up who almost kissed you in front of your date. You turned to Lyle, his breathing more steady now.

"How about a rain check? Happy to show you that spot another night." He smiled sweetly, dimples forming. You remembered why you'd been so taken by him before, he really was a good looking guy.

"Yeah, rain check" You returned his smile, watching as his eyes lit up at the chance for a do over. "but your boss beat you to that date." You added laughing at his shocked expression as you entered your room.

"Wait he what?!" He shouted as you closed the door. Kim had reappeared and was grinning from ear to ear.

"Details. Now." You rolled your eyes playfully as she dragged you to sit on her bed.

..............................................................................................................................

The next morning you worked bellow an engine block. Trudy had complained about something leaking and was unwilling to let anyone but you touch her baby.

Your mind was still racing. You wanted to see Miles again but at the same time you still had a date promised to Lyle. It wasn't cheating right? You weren't 'dating' dating? He was just gonna take you out, no reason you couldn't think about someone else. Chances were he was playing the field too, no harm right?

"Knock knock" You heard someone tapping the metal and slid out from under it. Lyle stood above you offering a hand to help you up. He pulled you up and into a quick hug, before pulling back to grin at you.

"What?" you asked, the cheeky look still spread across his face.

"Someone cleared both our schedules for the rest of the day." He somehow smiled wider before scooping you up and spinning with you in the air. You shrieked, laughing as you balanced yourself holding his firm shoulders. He placed you gently back down, giddy smiles shared between you both.

"Must have made a very good impression on the boss. Maybe need to have him run into you more often." He winked slinging an arm over your shoulders. You blushed, he'd really gone and given you both a full day off? Lyle tugged you closer, kissing your temple and leading you out the hanger.

"We're gonna have so much fun!" He beamed. You smiled back, enjoying the feeling of being smushed up against his broad chest.

Unbeknownst to you Miles watched seething from the catwalk above.

#human miles quaritch #miles quaritch #quaritch x you #quaritch x reader #colonel quaritch #lyle wainfleet x reader #lyle wainfleet #avatar #avatar imagine #my fics #colonels orders

[mssonepiece]

🩷High School Sweetheart🩷

🩷Chapter 1🩷

The Text?

Megumi Fushiguro x fem!Reader; Modern AU, no curses, cursed spirits or possession of cursed techniques; Reader and other characters are in college.

1.3k+ Words

Next Chapter

Dear Megumi, we've been friends since middle school and I've been thinking maybe it'd be nice to know if you feel the same way that I do about you.. I hope I don't regret this... I feel more close to you than any of our other friends and lately I can't stop myself from wanting to be around you all the time, it's okay if you don't feel the same. I love being your friend and I'm so scared to lose that because of this.

Looking at the message you typed out on your phone five minutes before you think of how this is the corniest text you've ever written up in your life. It would be utterly embarrassing to send this message just to be left on read or be told that your feelings are not reciprocated, making things awkward between the two of you. But you've felt as though you've had this crush on Megumi for so long that it's either shoot your shot and try to be something more or force yourself to stop hanging out with him in hopes to lose all romantic feelings toward him. Will that ever happen though? Would you be able to lose feelings even if you did ignore him? The more you think about the situation the more you feel like the text is a bad idea. Is it a good idea to ruin this friendship for the chance of something... more. Ding

~After The FaceTime With Maki~

You and Maki talked on the phone for a good hour and a half before you had to end it short for a bit of grocery shopping. You should have done it much earlier in the week, then you could have stayed on the phone longer. If you don't go today though then you will have nothing to eat tonight. On the way there you think back about what Maki told you over the phone. She of course had more to say about Mai, they've been living together for a year now in an apartment their parents pay for but Maki is the only one doing the daily chores around their house. You think that if you were her, you would have made Mai do more or move out way sooner. Maki of all people is surprisingly patient with her though.. at times.. It seems like she's also having the usual problems with her father too. They always seem to have some sort of dispute going on but today was particularly bad. He doesn't accept what college she has chosen to go to and is trying to have her drop out and transfer to the same college that Mai attends. Mai goes to a more high-league school but Maki has no interest in going to a school that is only to help her family's public image... It's that bad. Well her father called again pestering her this morning and when she declined for the hundredth time, he called the college board saying that Maki was very interested in transferring soon, even asking for her transcript. He's taking things too far, you can't help but feel bad for her. Wishing you could have talked to her more on the phone and carried on walking the short way to your local market.

The sun is setting, casting a beautiful blend of colors across the cloudless sky. On the side of the sky where the sun has already subsided, stars are starting to appear. Your feet slowly stop moving forward as you crane your neck up, getting a better view of the whole night sky. You could look at it forever but the awkward feeling of standing in the middle of a sidewalk was creeping up on you, making you take slow steps towards the market again. It's a silent walk other than the cars and people passing by. It's peaceful. Well until the sudden thought of wanting to share this moment with Megumi. Leading to a slideshow of thoughts. Your head felt like it was spinning and full of so much information that it just wanted to drop on the hard concrete ground.

The market doors seem to appear in front of you out of nowhere, arms instinctively reaching out to pull the handles. Maybe you've been a little in your head lately because of this whole Megumi thing but none of the choices of action are appealing. If you were to end up ruining your friendship with Megumi over some high school crush then you’re sure you could never forgive yourself. He’s always been there, mentally and physically. Ever since you first became close in middle school he has been the first friend you would choose to hang out with, even though he can be a bit of a bore sometimes he is good company. You could be sitting in silence together for hours, him reading a book and you playing a video game, watching a show, or sometimes reading along with him and neither of you would have anything to complain about. But if you carry on feeling like this without ever telling him then it would soon be too hard to even be around him anyway. It’s slowly becoming a comfort to have him just hanging around whenever you have something you need to do. You would have even asked him to come along shopping with you if you had not felt embarrassed by the whole text you wrote up earlier, and didn’t even send. The urge to text him now is strong but what to say isn’t coming to mind. You’re better off getting what you need from the market and going back home. Maybe then you'll be able to think of something to send him.

Setting the few bags of grocery’s down on your dining room table you finally take a deep breath for the first time in what seems like hours. Reaching back for your phone from the back pocket of your jeans, you open the messages app. 

After updating Kirara and texting Maki again about your crush situation, you decide it’s best to put your phone away for a bit while you make dinner. Choosing to ignore the fact that you told both of your friends you were going to text Megumi. But also sending a text to Nobara that will catch her attention, riling up her pho mo.

Your kitchen isn't very big, only having a small one bedroom apartment often doesn't come with much foot space. You still try to make it look nice with decor and furniture. Plants really have helped with brightening up your home, bringing different greens and yellows throughout your house. It makes you feel like your apartment is 'homey' and more livable. Everywhere you've lived before here never really felt like your own. Going from your family home, to a year long roommate situation, and finally now you rent your own apartment off-campus. It's such a different feeling knowing that you have the place to yourself and of course the responsibility of the bills will definitely make you feel that difference too. It's close to campus, just a short five minute walk. You're even able to stop by Starbucks everyday, you don't.. but you could. You basically live in the center of town so you can walk to most places with ease, making rent much more tolerable too when not having to pay for a car. You'll have to deal with your college loans later in life, but that's the least of your current worries.

Dinner is as boring as usual, chicken and rice. Anything that is quick and easy to make so that you can relax sooner. It doesn't take long to make the rice and start on the chicken. You start to feel like it would have been better to order food but it's all worth it when you get to sit on the couch with a steaming bowl of chicken and rice. Situating a pillow in your lap, then the bowl of food on top. You use your right hand to hold the bowl in place on your lap and the other to reach for the tv remote now that you're comfortable, turning on the television to Netflix most recent watches. Episode 13 of "Orange is The New Black" brightens the display from the dark loading screen previously there. You raise your hand to the spoon sitting in the white glass bowl and take a bite from it as the show starts. You hear a faint ringing of an iPhone from the kitchen but choose to ignore it til the end of the episode.

Masterlist

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Tag List~ @m00nglad3-mp3 @we-loveebony

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #fushiguro megumi #megumi fushiguro #megumi x reader #fushiguro megumi x reader #megumi fushiguro x reader #jjk smau #jujutsu kaisen smau #jujutsu kaisen x you #jjk x you #megumi x you #megumi x y/n #maki zenin #kirara hoshi

[chronicbeans]

Let's Make a Deal! (Yandere Queerplatonic Alastor x Fallen Angel Reader)

Part 3: Deal, dear?

Part 1, Part 2

Tag List: @repostingmyfavs

TW: Invasions of Personal Space, Shady Deals

As much as you hoped having that conversation would stop Alastor from staring at you, it only seemed to make things worse. Now that he knows you are open to talking to him, he's gotten into the habit of walking over to you, asking you invasive questions, then walking away. Usually something along the lines of "Do you miss your family? Did you have any family in Heaven? Have you had a relationship before? If not, why not?" Then, he'd end the conversation with something more lightheaded, such as "What's your favorite color? Do you prefer coffee, or tea?". After that, he'd just leave. You feel way too unnerved and uncomfortable to say no to answering, most of the time...

A lot of his questioning seems to revolve around family, for some reason. You've also noticed Alastor becoming much more touchy with you. Not necessarily in an inappropriate manner, though. More like a sudden arm around your shoulder that lasts much longer than before, a hug, or him suddenly holding your hand. You don't really mind. It's definitely a lot better than you expected from somebody in Hell, but it's still noticable.

Today is one of those days, as you're sitting on the couch in the main lobby, watching some television, when you suddenly feel Alastor sling an arm around your shoulder. "Dear, what are you doing, looking at that picture box? I'm sure that there couldn't possibly be anything of interest on it."

You look up to him, raising an eyebrow. "Well, there's a nice show on. So I want to watch it-" You're cut off by him shutting off the television. "Well, I must speak with you about something. I want to make a deal with you, dear. Deals are much more important than a dumb little picture box." He then stands up, pointing to you. "You fell out of Heaven due to someone convincing them that you deserved such damnation, correct?"

You stare up at him, surprised by how forward he is being. You raise an eyebrow at him, crossing your arms. "Yes... but what-" "I want you to convince them to drop someone else from Heaven's grace, down here, into Hell." "What?!"

You then stand up, confused and dismayed. "You must be joking, Alastor- this joke isn't funny! Why would you possibly believe I'd be willing to do such a thing? Nobody deserves to be cast out due to an over exaggeration or lie!" You glare up at him, only to be surprised once you notice his ever present grin looking extremely strained.

His voice fills with static as he points to you, his eyes seeming to glow with either irritation, or desperation. "Dear, you're my friend. I promise you, whatever you want in return for this favor, I'll give it to you." You instantly lean away, continuing to glare. "I never agreed to be your friend." "That doesn't matter. You're my friend whether you like it or not. Please. At least consider it. Consider all of the things you could get out of this deal!"

You think, genuinely... At first, you are going to say no, but... what if he can get you to Heaven? Or, at least, find a way to increase your chances of getting to Heaven? "... Fine, but you have to try to find a way to get me into Heaven... Not just so I can get whoever you want to damn down here, but also so that I can return there. For good." Alastor pauses, before nodding, though you can tell he is upset. "Fine, dear. I suppose that is fair."

He then walks over to him, smiling. "The person I want you to get damned, is... actually, come over here. I don't want anyone else to hear." You nod, walking over to him. He quietly whispers a name into your ear, alongside a few of their negative traits, before pulling away. "I'm sure Lucifer may be able to help you set up an appointment with Heaven... it might just take some convincing on my end to get him to agree..."

"Well, why do you want this person damned, Alastor...?" You stare up at him, flinching as his smile turns cold, for a brief moment. He then looks away from you, before his eyes snap back towards you.

"You'll understand once they get here, my dearest friend. Now, shake my hand, and the deal is sealed. I'll get this person into Hell, and you'll get your precious home in Heaven back."

Without hesitation, you grab his hand and shake on it. Alastor's grin widens as you do so, but you barely even notice it. Your thoughts are trained on getting the poor sap he mentioned into Hell, even if you'll feel guilty in the end... you don't know how much longer you can stand being in Hell with him constantly looking over you.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin alastor #alastor hazbin hotel #alastor hazbin #alastor the radio demon #alastor #hazbin hotel yandere #alastor x reader #queerplatonic #yandere alastor

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #6 – Exordia by Seth Dickinson

This is a book I have been looking forward to for quite literally years, from someone who is easily one of my favourite working authors. I also read the short story the book was expanded out from before I even knew it was going to be a book, and so went in spoiled on the broad strokes of what turned out to be the climax of the whole thing. All to say my opinion on this is unlikely to match that of the typical reader, I guess.

Anyway, Exordia is a glorious spectacular mess that has no right to cohere anywhere near as well as it does. It’s target audience is small, but I’m certainly somewhere in it. Please ignore all the marketing it’s so bad you have to wonder if someone at Tor just has it out for the author.

Exordia is a, well, a profoundly difficult book to give any sort of plot summary for. The first act involves Anna, a 30-something survivor of the Anfal Genocide now living a rather unimpressive life in New York City, until one day in the early 2010s she sees an alien eating the turtles in Central Park. Then there’s a cat-and-mouse hunt between terrifying alien snake-centaurs for the future of free will in the galaxy, and the plot jumping to kurdistan, and six more POV characters from as many different nations, and nuclear weapons, and oh so many people dying messily. The first act is an oddly domestic and endearing piece of table setting, the second is (to borrow the idiom of the book’s own marketing) Tom Clancy meets Jeff Vandermeer or Roadside Picnic, and the third is basically impossible to describe without a multipage synopsis, but mostly concerned with ethical dilemmas and moral injuries. It’s to the book’s credit that it never bats an eye at shifting focus and scale, but it does make coming to grips with it difficult.

This is, as they say, a thematically dense book, but it’s especially interested in the fallout of imperialism. The Obama-era ‘don’t do stupid shit’ precise and sterile form of it in particular – the book’s a period piece for a reason, after all. The ethics of complicity – of being offered the choice of murdering and betraying those around you or having an alien power with vastly superior destructive powers inflict an order of magnitude more misery to you, them, and everyone in the same general vicinity to punish you for the inconvenience – is one that gets a lot of wordcount. It is not an accident that the man most willing and able to collaborate with the overwhelming powerful alien empire in hopes of bargaining some future for humanity is the National Security Council ghoul who came out of organizing surveillance information for the drone wars. It’s also not a coincidence that the main (if only by a hair) protagonist is someone with a lot of bitter memories over how the US encouraged Iraq’s kurdish population to rebel in the ‘90s and then just washed their hands and let them be massacred (the book couldn’t actually ship with a historical primer on modern kurdish history, so it’s woven into the story in chunks with varying amount of grace. But it is in fact pretty thematically key here).

Speaking of complicity, the book’s other overriding preoccupation in (in the broadest sense) Trolley Problems. Is it better to directly kill a small number of people or, through your inaction, allow a larger number to die? Does it matter is the small number is your countrymen and the larger foreigners, or vice versa? What about humans and aliens? Does it matter whether the choice is submitting to subjugation or killing innocents as a means to resist it? What about letting people around you die to learn the fundamental truth of the cosmos? Does the calculus change when you learn that immortal souls (and hell) are real? This is the bone the story is really built around chewing on.

All that probably makes the text seem incredibly didactic, or at least like a philosophical dialogue disguised as a novel. Which really isn’t the case! The book definitely has opinions, but none of the characters are clear author-avatars, and all perspectives are given enough time and weight to come across as seriously considered and not just as cardboard cutouts to jeer at. Okay, with the exception of one of the two aliens who you get the very strong sense is hamming it up as a cartoon villain just for the of it (he spends much of the book speaking entirely in all caps). There definitely are a couple points where it feels like the books turning and lecturing directly at the reader, but they’re both few and fairly short.

The characters themselves are interesting. They’re all very flawed, but more than that they’re all very...embodied, I guess? Distracted with how hot someone is, concerned with what they ate that morning or the smell of something disgusting, still not over an ex from years ago. Several of them are also sincerely religious in a way that’s very true to life to actual people but you rarely see in books. The result is that basically comes as being far more like actual humans than I’m at all used to in most fiction (of course, a lot of those very human qualities get annoying or eye-roll inducing fairly quickly. But hey, that’s life). Though that’s all mostly the case at the start of the book – the fact that the main cast are slowly turning into caricatures of themselves as they’re exposed to the alien soul manipulation technology is actually a major plot point, which I’m like fifty/fifty on being commentary on what happens to the image and legacy of people as they’re caught up in grand narratives versus just being extended setup for a joke about male leads in technothrillers being fanfic shipbait.

Part of the characters seeming very human is that some (though by no means all) of the POVs are just incredibly funny, in that objectively fucked up and tasteless way that people get when coping with overwhelming shock or trauma. It’s specifically because the jokes are so in-your-face awful that they fit, I think? It manages to avoid the usual bathetic trap a lot of works mixing in humour with drama fall into, anyway.

Speaking of alien soul manipulation technology – okay, you know how above I said that the points where the book directly lectured the reader were few and far between. This is true for lectures about politics or morality. All the freed up space in this 530 page tome is instead used for technobabble about theoretical math. Also cellular biology, cryptography, entropics, the organization of the American security state, how black holes work, and a few dozen other things. This book was edited for accuracy by either a doctoral student from every physical science and an award winning mathematician, or else just by one spectacularly confident bullshitter with several hundred hours on wikipedia. Probably both, really. I did very much enjoy this book, but that is absolutely predicated on the fact that when I knew when to let my eyes glaze over and start skimming past the proper nouns.

The book has a fairly complete narrative arc in its own right, but the ending also screams out for a sequel, and quite a lot of the weight and meaning of the book’s climax does depend on followthrough and resolution in some future sequel. Problematically, the end of the book also includes a massive increase in scale, and any sequel would require a whole new setting and most of a new cast of characters, so I’m mildly worried how long it will be before we get it (if ever).

The book is also just very...I’m not sure flabby is the right word, but it is doing many many different things, and I found some of them far more interesting than others. I’m not sure whether Dickinson just isn’t great at extended action scenes or if I am just universally bored by drawn out Tom Clancy fantasies, but either way there were several dozen pages too many of them. The extended cultural digressions about the upbringing and backstories of each of the seven POVs were meanwhile very interesting! (Mostly, I got bored of the whole Erik-Clayton-Rosamaria love triangle Madonna complex thing about a tenth of the way into the book but it just kept going.) It did however leave the book very full of extended tangents and digressions, even beyond what the technobabble did. Anna herself, ostensibly the main protagonist, is both utterly thematically loadbearing but very often feels entirely vestigial to the actual, like, plot, brought along for the ride because she’s an alien terrorist’s favourite of our whole species of incest-monkeys. The end result is, if not necessarily unfocused, then at least incredibly messy, flitting back and forth across a dozen topics that on occasion mostly just seem unified by having caught the author’s interest as they wrote.

It’s interesting to compare the book to Anna Saves It All, the short story it was based on – quite a lot changed! But that’s beyond the scope of this already overlong review. So I guess I’ll just say make sure to read the book first, if you’re going to.

#book review #exordia #seth dickinson #lesbian space atrocities #sff

[pop-punklouis]

I feel it's not fair at all, poppunk is not my type, On the other hand, I love Louis's voice in 1d songs, and back to you , and couple songs from walls album. And that's it, I don't have anything new to listen to from him. I know this is my problem and my musical taste and it's not Louis's fault. But come on do something like back to you that more people loved it, what's wrong with that? If we want to be logical pop punk has its own fans but they are in the minority.

I know his prejudice fans always says, that's fine, he'll be fine, don't worry about him, let Louis be for us, we don't want to share him, becoming number one is not his goal, but isn't it? Wasn't he happy when he was number one in the UK? I know the fans made it , but it's not like Louis said I'd be upset if I became number one and I don't want it and I refuse to accept it.

He says he doesn't care about commercial success, but who wouldn't want that. When you have the ability and talent, what's wrong with using it and singing a song that will bring everyone's attention to you? I really don't understand why Louis doesn't want to sing something that is popular with the majority of society?

1) this is such a weirdly self-serving ask of an artist like: “create music i want to listen to. if not, i cant listen to it and you’re not going to be successful.” perhaps, louis isn’t making music for you but for himself and if that isn’t for you, that’s fine. but that doesn’t mean he isn’t successful…..?

2) louis made mainstream pop music with one direction for five years. and tried his own hand at it for the first half of his solo career. he’d been in that world for a decade. and for his solo career, it wasn’t really that successful. and most importantly he wasn’t happy??

3) louis has made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want to make pop music. that his heart belonged in the indie rock/pop-punk scene. and always has. there’s been remnants of that in his style, his interests, and some of his music for years. he’s given countless interviews and talked himself about the pressure that was put on him to dress up as someone he wasn’t with these major record labels. to hide his accent. to create radio friendly music. to be a puppet on a string for them. he wasted years of his career dealing with that pressure and those contracts.

4) FITF, an album that was created as the most authentic body of work he’s released yet, is what got him the number one. it wasn’t walls. it wasn’t any of the strictly EDM work he released. it was FITF. it was an album that featured the sound that he loves and wants to strive towards going forward. it was louis clear vision babe.

5) louis has seen a growth in his career and his venue sizes that is exponential in just one year. and this isn’t because he’s releasing mainstream pop music. it’s because he’s being authentically him. his music is better. his tour is bigger. his presence is brighter. it’s gravitating so much good his way because of the content he’s creating and how it’s translating to his crowds and him as an artist. he’s a much more confident person than he was just a couple years ago. he’s a much more self-assured person.

6) FITF is part of the reason he’s being booked for these festivals now. it allowed him the growth in his fanbase and live shows to attract fests. if he was still creating music like Walls, i’m not sure if it would be shaking out the same way. and with how his music sounds now, it is open to attracting new fans especially in these big festival settings. most of the songs from walls don’t have the capacity to do that. and that’s just the reality.

7) there isnt just one metric of success. success has many different forms. numbers and charts aren’t the only way to succeed. and louis has lived in that world of success. he’s done all of those things. he’s hit those milestones. they feel good, but they aren’t a driving force behind why he does what he does. he does what he’s doing now because he’s finally being able to show who he is sonically. who he is as a lyricist. who he wants to continue growing into going forward in his career. he’s succeeding through his own journey in the industry. and he’s doing a damn good job controlling that for himself.

8) there’s nothing wrong with pop music. i love pop music. there’s a reason why pop music is popular. but asking your favorite artist to reshape who they’ve steadily been building themselves to be all because you don’t like the sound and you think they need to follow a one-dimensional version of success is….. sad lmao he has worked so hard to be where he is. to feel authentic in the music he’s putting out. and for someone to be like “um anyways i don’t like this. go back to what you were trying so hard to not be. i liked your music better that way” is just ????

9) indie-rock isn’t unsuccessful. it isn’t dead. it’s very alive and successful. genres don’t have to be pop or mainstream to be successful. give music much more credit than that, please.

#grey #i had time today i guess djdkdk #but this ask just. frustrated me

[hongcherry]

pretty please (stay with me) || c.sc [SERIES TEASER]

"After being assigned a fashion show for your big senior project, you set off to find volunteers to make it successful. However, when you meet Choi Seungcheol and his unfriendly clique through your volunteers, you realize they’re an unwanted package deal you can’t escape from. Can you handle Seungcheol's obnoxious friends, and can he handle your brash behavior?"

🍒 Pairing: businessMajor!Seungcheol x fashionMajor!Reader (afab)

🍒 Rating/Genres/AUs: M(18+); Slice of life (!!!), slow burn, drama, fluff, angst, smut; Unrequited enemies to lovers (lol), strangers to lovers, college au

🍒 Warnings: [teaser] bantering, a mention of murder in a joking way

🍒 Word Count: [teaser] 417 | [full] well over 30k, chaptered

🍒 Release Date: August 2023

🍒 Author's Note: Eeep~ very nervous and excited to fully release this series! If you're interested in this story, please consider joining my taglist! ♥️ More info/tws/etc will be with the full fic.

Disclaimer: Text was slightly edited from the full story.

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When Seungcheol answers another question with a vague response, you can’t stop the groan from escaping your mouth.

“Are we playing twenty questions?” you exasperate, rolling your eyes. 

“We can,” Seungcheol says with a shrug. “You asked three already—more if you start from the time I sat down.”

Exhaling a deep breath, you put your forehead on the hand that’s propped on the table. The conversation is slowly draining your energy.

“Seungcheol,” you warn. You are not about to play a guessing game with this man. “Please.”

“Oh, so that word is in your vocabulary.”

“Yes. Would you like me to use it in a sentence?” you question, pitch raised as if you’re talking to a toddler. You lift your head to glare at him.

“Sure,” he smirks and leans forward. He still holds his hair back and this time, you can really see the way he is goading you.

“Please fuck off,” you grin widely. Your head tilts to the side as you push your arms together to act overly cute.

“Please make me,” he counters. The smirk he wears is still plastered on his lips.

“If we weren’t in public, I would,” you say, voice going back to normal as you relax your body—the cute act over.

“Oh? How?” he chuckles. From how he looks at you, you know his mind has gone elsewhere.

You push at the arm that is stretched across the table. “Because I would rather not get caught for murder, you pervert.”

Seungcheol laughs and sits back, letting his hair fall back into his eyes. It’s the first time you notice he has dimples. Your first impression is that they’re cute, but you quickly recall who they belonged to and shove that thought from your mind.

“Seokmin wanted to let you know he lost your card,” he finally discloses. “Asked if you could give him another.”

“If he lost a simple card, is he really reliable?” you sigh as you grab another from your purse.

“The good news is those stage lights are so big, he won’t be able to lose those,” he says, taking the card from your hand.

“Thankfully,” you mutter. “I hope you’re better than Seokmin at not losing things.”

“I’ll get this to him, don’t worry,” he replies and puts the card in his suit jacket before standing up. 

“Thanks for the talk,” he says as if you had a choice. “I’ll see you around.”

You would have doubted that, but you know that won’t be true.

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