#we did unfortunately stay up really late watching the olympics

[millenialfanfictionaddiction]

🏅Being Team Japan's Manager 🏅

💔Relationship Troubles with Bokuto 💗

Bokuto Kōtarō featuring Team Japan x Female Manager

Warnings: Swearing, Bokuto being a complete jerk, petname, angst to fluff, suggestive at the end 🙃

AN: Its a very Bokuto centered day 🥰This is an Anon request! I may have gotten a tiny bit carried away with this one. I also cried alot 🥲 I'm emotional when it comes to our boys 🥺 I'm really proud of this one ❤

🌠 Please Like, Reblog and/or Share to help support my writing 🌠

Oof this one is going to make me cry 😢

I already know it

And the fact that it's with our resident himbo 🥺

But it must be done and who else to deliver but yours truly 🤗

Your relationship with Bokuto has been going on for about 6 months now

You started out of friends when you joined Team Japan as their resident hotty 🔥 and manager 💅🏼

Honestly, Team Japan adores you YN

You lucky bitch 😒

But there was always something special about Bokuto

Pls he's such a bubbly Boi I just can't even 😫

Bokuto took an instant liking to you and you to him

Did he annoy you? Absolutely 💯

Did you find him attractive as all hell? Abso-FREAKING-lutely 🙌🏻

Bokuto is like what? 6'3" timeskip 👀

Lawd girl of you don't I will

N E WAYS, you two grew extremely close

Daily practices and nightly walks home

Consistent "HEY HEY HEY YN WATCH THIS!"

Giant Bear hugs and headpats

You would grab coffee or ever dinner sometimes

Of course, the other three idiots guys would accompany you occasionally as well

When Bokuto finally asked you out, it was very Bokuto-style

Super spontaneous and loud

Lile he literally walked you to your apartment door, was about to leave, turned around and shouted

"YN WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?"- Bokuto, zero chill

"Ko- we just went out..."- You, extremely confused

"No I mean, like a date"- Bokuto 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

YN of you take longer than a single second to answer this imma come there and smack you 🤚🏻

Someone summon Iwaizumi for me- 🏐

"Of course I will Kotaro"- You 🥺🤗

Good girl Yn ☺️

Please Bokuto is so excited he will pick you up and spin you around 🥰

God I love that for you 😐

Me, a jealous bish

Thus begins the ship know as BokuYN

The next few months go by quickly

Your relationship is tugging along and everything is going well

Unfortunately, the storm clouds are moving in YN 😔⛈️

And all good things can't last

It starts out small, everyone is so stressed with the Olympics coming up

Bokuto especially

Imagine all the pressure to be perfect and score points 😪 that has got to be so rough

Bokuto starts staying late for practice and heading home with you less frequently

You start eating dinner alone and he starts coming home later and later ☹️

One morning, you wake up and Bokuto isn't next to you

You try calling him but nothing

You show up to the gym and find him there with Kageyama, Atsumu and Hinata

You are confused as to what is going on 🤨

Like rightfully so

I mean what did they just sleep on the bleachers the night before?

I wouldn't put it past them honestly 😒

You approach them and ask what's going on

Atsumu is setting for Bokuto and he narrowly misses a line shot

"God dammit! Send up another one"- Bokuto, furious and sweating 😓

"Hey guys- have you been practicing all night?"- you, curious

"Nah we quit at 9 last night"- Kageyama getting a drink of water

Ok now your really confused 🤚🏻

You look at Bokuto who is setting up for another spike

"Ko you didn't come home last night"- you

He ignores you, spiking the ball

Ok then- 😐

Let's try this again shall we 🙃

"Kotaro did you hear me?"- you, now standing with your hands on your hips

Ope- someone's in trouble 😶

Atsumu, Hinata and Kags are now looking from you to Bokuto 👀

"I stayed with Hinata last night"- Bokuto, walking away from you, going to his phone and scrolling

Clearly his phone is working 😑

That's suspicious 🤨 that's weird

"And why would you do that?"- you, obviously upset

"Because I felt like it"- Bokuto

Not to be toxic here but that's not an answer dude 😒

"Ok but why- I texted you and you never got back to me. And it's clear your phone is fine since your looking at it right now"- YN, hands now in the air, just ready to go

"Maybe I just needed some fucking space YN"- Bokuto

Please now Aran, Yaku, Komori, Sakusa, Habuka,Ushijima,Hyakuzawa, amd Iwaizumi are all on the gym 🤚🏻

Silently observing 👀

"Are you serious right now? What did I do Ko?"- you, walking towards him

"YN I just need some fucking space! You're around me constantly and I can't fucking concentrate on these damn Olympics with you breathing down my neck all the time! Like all you ever do is talk talk talk and I'm so fucking sick of it! Just fucking leave me alone! If you did anything for this team besides stand around, maybe you'd understand my stress! But you always have to come first YN and Im fucking DONE!"- Bokuto, finally snapping

Oh he's pissed

Like fuming at you 😡😤

It's honestly so embarrassing he would say such things in front of everyone

You face heats and your fists tighten-

You don't even know what to do, so-

You just look up at him, tears filling your eyes

Ok everyone just breath ok

I mean, I'm crying 🥺

You know that feeling when your stomach just drops and you feel almost sick

That's what's happening now

The tears are welling up and it's about to happen

There is no stopping that crying YN and you shouldn't!

Bokuto essentially took your heart, threw it on the ground and stomped all over it

Nah he rolled over it with a steam roller and fed it through a wood chipper 😬

He broke you 😔

No matter how you try, a brave face isn't coming

So you do what you must

"Fine Bokuto. You don't want me bothering you anymore. Than consider me gone"- You, turning to walk out of the gym, tears flowing, past the other members of the team

Everyone is stunned 😲 and honestly same

Nobody expected this of Bokuto, like he's literally the last one I'd expect to do this

But the pressure was mounting and unfortunately YN, you were the catalyst

The gym is silent as Bokuto sets his water down, turning to face Atsumu

"Toss another one"- Bokuto, getting into place

Please these guys are PISSED and so confused 😕

"What the fuck was that-" Atsumu, the first to speak

As much as I bully this man, istg he's loyal as fuck

And while he loves Bokuto like a brother, he also loves you

"Bokuto that was so harsh man"- Habuka

"It needed to be said. She's been so clingy and needy. The Olympics are coming up and I need to practice"- Bokuto, starting to realize that he's the total ass in this situation but still holding face

He's a man 🙄😒

"You're an dumbass Bokuto"- Iwaizumi, turning to go and find you

"Bokuto sit down. You're done for today"- Aran

"The fuck I am-"

"The fuck you are because I said so"- Aran

Please Aran can be so fucking scary 😨

Bokuto will get right in his face

"Hey cool it you two!"- Hyakuzawa

"Bokuto- chill man"- Kageyama pulling him back

Hoshiumi finally comes in the gym

"Hey what's wrong with YN. I saw her leaving and she was crying"- Hoshiumi

It's all starting to sink in now-

"FUCK-" Bokuto, throwing his waterbottle against the wall and storming out

Everyone is just exhausted and it's showing

"Should we go after him?"- Hyakuzawa, the mediator of the group

"I think we should call Akaashi- this is over our heads"- Aran, leaving to get his phone and make the call

Meanwhile, you are now sitting on a bench, full on ugly crying

Snot down the face, tears everywhere, can't catch your breath BAWLING

🤚🏻 say less YN your heartbroken and its ok to cry 💔

Please I'm crying writing this and it's fiction 😭

"Hey YN- are you ok?"- Iwaizumi, coming to sit next to you

"No- no Hajime I'm not ok"- you, sucking in breath and trying to calm down

Spoiler alert: it's not working

"I think I need to go home Haji"- you

"You do that YN. And hey, it will be ok... I promise. I'll talk to him"- Iwaizumi

"Hajime, you heard him. He doesn't want me so give me one good reason why I should stay?"- you, hugging yourself and crying

"YN he's under a lot of stress. He shouldn't have said those things. You know he cares about you"- Iwaizumi, trying to save this

"YN please just listen-" I was our freaking savior

"Hajime, if he cared he wouldn't have said those things. If he cared, he would have avoided my texts and calls. He embarrassed me in there. You don't do that to someone you care about"- you, making an excellent point

"I'll see you later Haji. Thanks for being here"

You try and force a smile as tears stream down your face

Upon arriving at your apartment, you do nothing but mope

You say nothing more as you turn and walk away

You cry the entire way home, trying to hide your face from those around you

Honestly YN as you should 💅🏼

I'm like so mad at Bokuto right now you have no idea 🤬 you crawl into bed, covering yourself up and cry like there's no tomorrow

Back at the gym, Bokuto is sitting in the locker room with a towel hanging over his head

That bitchy voice inside your head telling you that everything was a lie and you were never good enough for Bokuto

You eventually manage to cry yourself to sleep 😔

He knows he fucked up... like MAJORLY fucked up

The stress of the Olympics had been weighing on our poor owl bby and the fact that he just can't hit his line shots

Iwaizumi comes in and sits next to him

"I fucked up bad"- Bokuto

"Yeah you fucking did asshole"- Iwaizumi not even beating around the bush

"Shit"- Bokuto, throwing his towel against the locker

"You need to chill out Bokuto. Your stress isn't helping anything right now. You said some pretty mean stuff to YN and she's really hurt"- Iwaizumi

"Did she leave?"- Bokuto

"Yeah- she went home"- Iwaizumi

"Fuck I have to talk to her-" Bokuto standing, fists clenched

"Hold up there cowboy. Give her some space man. You broke her heart dude. It's not going to be an easy fix. Wait a day, let it rest"- Iwaizumi

As much as he hated to do it, Bokuto let it rest

He went to his apartment, one he spent very little time in nowadays and tried to relax 😔

The next day, he arrived early to try and catch you

Only, you weren't there 😞

"Where's YN?"- Bokuto to Hoshiumi

"She didn't come in today. She called and told Aran she's taking personal time"

"God dammit!"- Bokuto, just about to punch the wall

Thankfully Sakusa is there to stop him

"Bo a broken hand isn't going to help man. You need to chill"- Sakusa

"Come on man, let's practice and then we can talk"- Hinata

"How can I practice without YN? Knowing I fucked up the best thing I ever had"- Bokuto, now a deflated Owl

"Well it's good to finally see you admit how much you care for YN"- Akaashi, with Kuroo at his side

"What are you doing here?"- Bokuto, genuinely confused 🤨

"Aran called me and well Kuroo heard through the grapevine"- Akaashi

Please Kuroo knows all the gossip

These boys talk more than old ladies in church

"Dude what is wrong with you? This isn't like you"- Kuroo

"I've been so stressed and I can't hit my line shots. I've been practicing day and night and nothing feels right"- Bokuto, now hunched over on the bleachers, surrounded by the peanut gallery

"Have you thought thay maybe your practicing too much Bo?"- Kageyama

Seriously he's one to talk 🙄

"I mean, what has YN said about you staying late for practice?"- Akaashi

"I haven't been around much- I've just been so stressed. And I just dont know"- Bokuto

"Well Bokuto, you have to decide what you want to do. If you want to break up with YN, I think you owe her an explanation. She at least deserves that. But if you want to make up with her-" Akaashi

"I DO! I really do! I thought alot last night and YN's been the one consistent good thing in my life. I- I think I love her"- Bokuto

Pls bby you were a jerk but you are breaking my heart 💔😫

"Well then you need to talk to her"- Kuroo

Bokuto knew this and he was so ready

Unfortunately you weren't 🙁

A knock sounded as you drag yourself to the door

The peep hole reveals Bokuto, standing there, hair deflated

You open the door and cross your arms

That's right YN! We are a powerful women and we will show it ✊🏻

"Hey YN, can we talk?"- Bokuto

"That's what we are doing-"

"YN please I'm so sorry- I was a complete asshole and jerk! I know I royally fucked up and god, YN I'm so sorry"- Bokuto

Tears are forming in this man's eyes

But also in yours 😟

"Bokuto-" you

"Ko, you call me Ko"- Bokuto

"Listen, I need time. What you said really hurt me and I'm not ready talk to you let alone see you. I just don't know if I can do this-" please the tears are rolling down your face but you're voice remains strong

"YN- please, just please"- Bokuto, full on crying

"Good night Bokuto"- You, shutting the door and breaking down

Please Bokuto hears you and it KILLS him 😭

He did that to you and he hates himself

The next few days drag

You return to your manager job but you try and steer clear of Bokuto

Unfortunately the team doesn't get that memo 😒

Please they are trying everything possible to get you to back together

You are miserable, Bokuto is EXTRA miserable

"YN can you wrap Bokuto's fingers? I have to do Komori's and Yaku's"- Iwaizumi

"I can do it Iwa" - Kageyama

Please that went right over his head

Iwaizumi is just staring at him like 👁➖️👁

You don't even say anything, just grab the tape and walk to Bokuto

The man towers over you so he is looking down at you while you wrap his fingers

"How are you?"- Bokuto, genuinely concerned

"Fine"- you, trying to just hold it together long enough to wrap those long fingers 👀

"You've lost some weight-" Bokuto

"Yeah I haven't been hungry"- You, unfortunately your voice cracks and you have to bite your lip to keep it from quivering

"YN, baby-" Bokuto, lifting your face up by your chin and looking into your watering eyes

He hates seeing you like this and knowing he caused it 🤧

"Done"- you, looking up and smiling a little, tears filling your eyes before you turn and walk out of the gym

Bokuto watches you go

And so do the others 👀

Nosey bitches 🙄💅🏼

Also side note: screw Iwa for throwing you under the bus like that 🖕🏻 imma Iwa cannon a volleyball at Iwa 😤

It's safe to say practice has been a little... well tense to say the least

Bokuto is getting blocked, missing cross court shots and liners left and right

It hurts you even more to see the man you love hurting

Wait 🤚🏻 love?

Oh hell yeah you love him YN

Just admit it 🙃

But no matter how much you love him, it doesn't take away how he treated you the past few weeks

And how much his words that day hurt

You're at a crossroads Yn and it's not an easy choice

Luckily for you, you have supportive friends

Wait, did I say supportive? I mean Atsumu and Hinata 🤣

But also Aran, Ushijima and Iwaizumi

Ok ok ill stop 😅

They stop by your place unexpectedly with food

"You need to eat"- Atsumu, pushing past you

"Don't think we haven't noticed YN"- Iwaizumi, coming in behind Atsumu

"Wow it's nice to see you too"- you 😐

"Hi YN, how are you doing?"- Aran, giving you a big hug

Please he gives amazing hugs 🥺

"Could be better"- you, now hugging Ushijima and Hinata

"YN how long are you going to do this?"- Atsumu

Aran and Iwaizumi 👉🏻🤦‍♂️🤦

"I hate to admit it YN but Atsumu is right. It's obvious you two love each other"- Ushijima

"Yeah"- you, sinking into the couch

"YN we know what he said hurt and we aren't telling you to just forget about it"- Aran

"But Bokuto is miserable YN. He's not eating, he's spending all his days at the gym and I know he's not sleeping"- Iwaizumi

"YN we know you're just as miserable so why don't you stop this"- Ushijima

"Just talk to him YN"- Hinata

Maybe, just maybe they have a point

You sigh and resign yourself to the fact that as much as Bokuto's words hurt you

You know that the stress of the Olympics and his hard training have worn on him

The next morning, you arrive at 6 am to start work

You hear the sound of balls being spiked against the floor of the gym

You know that sound, the exact sound of a Bokuto serve

You approach the door and peer in, seeing Bokuto tossing up another serve

The ball slams over, hitting right on the end line

"That was a nice shot"- you, walking into the gym

Bokuto stops and looks straight at you, mouth agape

You're talking to him- like actually conversing with him

And you PRAISED HIM 😭😭😭

"Thanks, what are you doing here?"- Bokuto

You giggle a little

Bokuto's heart swells

"Did you forget I come in early to set up?"- you

"Haha yeah I guess- I've just been doing it since- well-" - Bokuto rubbing the back of his neck

"Want me to set for you?"- You, taking a chance

Bokuto's head shots up 😳

"Really?" Please YN he's so happy he's smiling 🙂

"Yeah"- you taking position as Bokuto tosses to you and you set

Perfect cross court shot 😚🤌🏻

"Nice kill Ko!!"- you smiling and looking back at him

Please he's melting YN 😭

"First one I've gotten in all week"- Bokuto, his head down, rubbing his arms

What 😳

"Ko..."

"I'm miserable YN. I'm so fucking miserable. I can't sleep, I can't eat. Every single practice, I miss tosses, get blocked or the ball is out. I- I can't do this"- Bokuto, looking at you as tears roll down his face

"Ko come here"- you, reaching out for him as he comes to your arms for a hug 🫂

Please that man will hug you and never want to let you go

You pull back as he rests his forehead against yours

🥺 please I'm such a sap God WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME

"YN I know I don't deserve you but I need you to know that you are the best thing to ever happen to me. I know I fucked up and God I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry baby. I love you so much and I can't do this without you"- Bokuto, tears flowing

"I love you too Ko"- You, smiling with tears in your eyes

"You- you do?"- Bokuto, now smiling like a freaking idiot 😃

"Yeah I really do"- You

Please 🤚🏻 say less

This man is picking you up and swinging you in the air

"Ko, Jesus Ko calm down"- you, laughing and smiling

"I can't! The most amazing, beautiful women in the world loves me"- Bokuto, finally setting you down

"Yeah I do my ace"- You

Please his lips are on yours before you can finish that sentence 🤚🏻 💋

"Jesus christ get a room will ya"- Atsumu, walking in as you and Bokuto turn around to see the entire team watching you 😳

"Oh my god that was so sweet 🥺"- Yaku about to cry

"Well I'm finally glad to see you guys have worked it out"- Iwaizumi

"Jesus YN way to bring it down to the wire, the Olympics is a month way"- Kageyama, ever the inspiration 🙄

"Aran are you crying?"- Hinata

"No- I just got some dust in my eyes from these volleyballs"- Aran, wiping his eyes and walking away

Sure 😏 "dust from the volleyballs"

"Ok enough of this, let's get to practice"- Aran

"Ummm actually- I uh, I need YN to help me with something"- Bokuto being suspicious 🤔 and dragging you to the door

"Ko, can't it wait until after practice!"- you, being dragged

"Absolutely not"- Bokuto

Please he's on a mission 😏

Iwaizumi just rolls his eyes 🙄

"Jesus christ just be safe ok? We don't need any little Bokuto babies running around"- Iwaizumi

"I make no promises"- Bokuto, pulling you out as you laugh and wave to the team

"Jesus that's got to be some record Emo mode"- Komori

"It lasted 8 days and Bokuto missed 436 spikes"- Atsumu, nonchalantly rattling of statistics

Komori, Yaku and Aran 👉🏻👁👄👁

"You kept track of that?"- Hakuba, honestly impressed

"I'm the setter, it's my job to make sure the players are ok"- Atsumu, shrugging

"Hey now- you aren't the official setter just yet 😑"- Kageyama

"It's only a matter of time"- Atsumu 😏

"😐 the fuck it is- " Kageyama following Atsumu and yelling

"God I wish YN was here"- Aran

"She's probably getting her back blown out as we speak"- Habuka

"Jesus christ 🤦‍♂️ alright get to work"- Iwaizumi, smiling

Side note: you were in fact, getting your back completely blown to pieces 😏

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[hot-hellboy]

Slow Dancing - A Percico Fanfic

Summary:

"You know I can't dance."

Nico frowned as Percy turned the music up slightly before his hands returned back to Nico's waist.

"It's never too late to learn."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3rd Person POV

Quests were dangerous. Both Nico and Percy knew that, but somehow this quest was different. Maybe it was because it was their first adventure together as boyfriends, or maybe it was because the quest itself was far less stressful than the second giant war that had occurred only two months ago. Now, they were staying in a woodland cabin with a beautiful view near the Olympic mountains in Washington for the time being during their quest. The cabin was cozy, and really cute. It had a big fireplace with several rooms, comfy big leather couches and furniture, a long dining table, giant windows with a perfect view of the mountains, and other rustic decor. 

  "We picked a good spot, huh?"

  Percy said and Nico nodded distractedly as he stared out the large window, watching the sun set and the snow fall. 

  "Yeah, we did."

  He murmured, and then smiled when he felt Percy's arms wrap around him and Nico turned his head to kiss his boyfriend's lips. Nico was too distracted by the fluffy flakes of snow to really notice when Percy had switched the radio on and an unfamiliar song began to play. It was slow and sweet, but the melody was pretty and Nico blushed when Percy took his hand with their faces so close together.

  "You know I can't dance."

  Nico frowned as Percy turned the music up slightly before his hands returned back to Nico's waist.

  "It's never too late to learn." 

  Nico stumbled around awkwardly as they began to sway, Percy was doing most of the work and giving them the rhythm. He felt a little embarrassed when he accidentally kept stepping on his boyfriend's toes but Percy didn't seem to mind as he happily gazed down at Nico.

  "This doesn't feel very romantic."

  He said, his eyes fixed on Percy's chest so he wouldn't get completely lost in those pretty eyes.

  "I suppose it's not like in the movies, but I'm just happy to be here with you."

  That comment made Nico feel really warm inside, no better quest could have gone like this one. He'd been wishing and hoping for a chance to be alone with Percy for so long, and now that they were dating, it almost felt too good to be real, like a fairytale. After a while, Nico eventually got the hang of "dancing" (if rocking back and forth was considered dancing, but whatever) and his arms wrapped around Percy's torso with his head resting on his chest where he could hear the older boy's heartbeat.

 "I could use some hot chocolate."

  Nico muttered and Percy turned off the radio.

  "With marshmallows?"

  "Please."

  Percy kissed his cheek and left his side to make the hot beverages.

  "Thank you."

  Nico said as he walked over and curled up on the leather couch. If it weren't for their time limit, he would have wanted to stay in the mountain resort forever with Percy. There was something so calming and vacant about the vast mountain landscape, and the scenery was downright beautiful. Unfortunately, they had a camp to get back to eventually, but Nico decided he would try to enjoy the moments while they lasted. 

  Percy came back with two mugs of steaming hot cocoa with little marshmallows floating on the foamy surface. He handed one of them to Nico and carefully sat down beside him on the sofa. They drank the hot chocolate in comfortable silence as they stared out at the open scenery. Percy finished his drink first and he put his cup down before scooting closer to Nico as he gently pulled him onto his lap. They stayed like that for awhile, content in each other's arms before Nico tilted his head up to kiss his boyfriend. Percy happily kissed back and tucked a couple strands of hair behind Nico's ear as he pressed his lips to the younger boy's. The kiss was sweet while it lasted, but Nico had other motives in mind as he shyly placed his hands on Percy's broad shoulders and slowly circled his hips on his lap. 

 "Do you want to?"

 Percy said as he quickly picked up on Nico's hints. The smaller demigod was never big on initiating sex, but he found other ways to get what he wanted without necessarily saying it. 

 "Yes,"

 Nico breathed and gasped a little as Percy picked him up. Nico expected him to carry him to the bedroom, but instead Percy walked over and placed him down on the obnoxiously large fluffy white rug in front of the burning fireplace. Nico made a sound of pleasure in the back of his throat as his back hit the rug, its fuzzy surface warmed significantly by the fire. Percy climbed on top of him and quickly started stripping him down until Nico was left in his boxers which Percy promptly tugged off with his teeth. 

 "Always the first one naked."

 Nico muttered jokingly but watched with hungry eyes as Percy began removing his own clothes as well. 

 "Only because you're just so gorgeous."

 The shadows from the flames only accentuated his blush as Percy leaned in and slowly planted kisses along his jaw and further down his neck. he stopped at Nico's prominent collarbones and sucked a couple hickeys on them, earning little whines from the son of Hades. Nico parted his legs some more to give Percy room to gently caress his hips and thighs. Nico squirmed in anticipation as he waited for Percy to take him, but he knew all too well that his boyfriend liked to work slow and steady most of the time when they were really getting into it. So, he decided it was better to be patient and wait as he watched Percy get up to look for the lube they packed for the quest in circumstances like this. While Nico was waiting for him to get back, he slowly started stroking his cock until Percy came back into the main room.

 "No touching yourself, love. That's my job."

 Nico yelped as Percy quickly grabbed his wrists and pulled them away from himself. He heard the sound of the lube bottle snap open and he shivered once he felt Percy lubricated finger rub at his entrance. He moaned softly as Percy carefully pressed two fingers inside him and quickly found his prostate. He touched his sweet spot mercilessly and and quickly captured Nico's lips in a desperate kiss. He threw his arms around Percy's neck while he continued to finger him, though he had some trouble with fitting a third finger inside of his tight hole, he did manage.

 "Oh, oh Percy." 

 He whimpered as he opened him up more. Seeing that Nico was about to come, Percy removed his fingers from him and replaced them with his cock aimed at his pink hole. 

 "Ready?"

 He asked, his voice rough and deep with arousal. 

 "No, well, yeah, but...I want to ride you."

 He said, a little embarrassed but excited knowing how ready Percy was to started fucking him. He looked up at Percy who smirked down at him seductively.

 "Yeah? You want to ride me?"

 Nico barely had any time to blink before he realized Percy had flipped their positions so that he was straddling his hips with his hands resting on his chest. Getting his bearings together, Nico grasped the older boy's cock and lubed it up before slowly easing himself down on it. Percy groaned and soothingly rubbed Nico's inner thighs as he waited for him to get adjusted. 

 "You okay?"

 "Y-Yeah."

 He stuttered as he lifted himself up and sank back down. Nico shifted his weight a little so that Percy's cock pressed directly on his sweet spot and he couldn't contain the moans that escaped him as Nico took his cock deeper. Percy let him ride him for awhile before he got impatient and roughly grabbed Nico's hips and started pounding him from below. This totally caught him off guard and his eyes flew open as he fell forward onto Percy's chest as he fucked him harder. 

 "Oh my gods!"

 Nico screamed in pleasure as Percy thrusted his hips up and bit his neck before changing up their position again so that Nico was under him. Percy continued shoving his cock into Nico's tight passage without missing a beat once he got Nico under him again. Nico shuddered violently as his cum spilled onto his stomach, but he couldn't catch a break as Percy continued fucking him through his orgasm. He found it unexplainably hot when Percy completely disregarded his oversensitivity and proceeded to wreck his body until he too was close to coming.

 "Babe I'm close."

 He moaned in his ear until his cum was filling up Nico's hole. They cuddled there for some time before Nico commented that the fire was too hot. Percy couldn't agree more, especially knowing they were covered in sweat and the heat was getting to be a little too much. Nico winced as Percy eased out of him but he was quickly comforted by the gentle kiss that his boyfriend pressed to his cheek. 

 "I love you, Percy."

 He said quietly.

 "I love you too, Neeks."

#percy x nico #cross posted on ao3 #cross posted on wattpad #just reposting really old fics #smut #hellboy

[donutloverxo]

A Royal Scandal 3

Modern Royal King!Steve au

(Image from Pinterest)

cowritten with @lizzygal​

Note - There will be no taglists for this. You can subscribe to the  ao3 story to receive updates!

Please note that my stories are not to be stolen or reposted on any other site. Reblogs are welcome. This blog and this story is 18+. Do not read, follow or interact if you are not 18+.

Summary - Modern ruler, His Majesty King Steven G Rogers, is on a quest to make his long term secret relationship the real thing. He is a man in love and wants his lover and partner to be his queen.

Warnings - Smut (m/f), dub con/non con, sex tape, scandals, mentions of past domestic abuse, soft dark Steve, possessive Steve, spanking, power imbalance, mentions of previous domestic abuse, somnophilia.

Pairing - King!Steve x reader

Word count - 7k

Story masterlist

Sometimes Steven forgot that you weren’t that much younger than him. He forgot about a lot of things when it was only the two of you. You did that to him. You made him forget things that everyone else reminded him of constantly, intentional and not.

Early that morning was no different.

Long before his alarm went off, Steve found himself on his side watching you sleep. Feeling in every way equal to you, like there was not this huge ocean of things that he did not have in common with you, opposed to what the two of you shared.

Obviously, he was the son of kings and tyrants while you were the daughter of immigrants and a blue-collar family. You’d grown up in a house full of love and kindness and acceptance, he had not. You’d ended your teenage years going to college and then travelling and ending up here, where you chose to stay and work and travel and live a life that Steve could only dream of, his own had never been his own and never would be.

You had dreams and hopes, little things like aspirations. He didn’t.

Steve’s life was dictated by things like duty and obligations, expectations. Yours was not.

Maybe that was why he’d been so drawn to you?

Compared to all the royals around Europe and titled individuals, politicians, even old families, none of them interested him even a fraction of the amount that you interested him. To Steve you were exotic. You were a fascinating creature who might as well have come from Mars.

He couldn’t even say what it was or why.

For so long it had felt right to be alone. Considering the blood of monsters ran through his veins, Steve had been uninterested in any sort of companionship more than a brief encounter at a private location.

For Christ’s sake, he refused to sleep in the bedroom that his father had slept in.

Upon assuming the throne, he’d selected to take up older quarters in an unused part of the palace living complex. As if to ensure he was as far away from the rooms that his father and grandfather and great-grandfather had slept. Choosing to sleep in a bed untainted by any of those men, stored from when his land was ruled by an emperor. Hoping with the hopes of a young king that it would save him from their madness.

Beside him, you slept so peacefully, trustingly.

Steve had never brought anyone into his private apartment. Nor had his bed seen any carnal action since it’d gone into storage. Until you. He’d simply never been so inclined.

A rough sound from the growth on his cheek rubbing against his pillow. A pleasant reminder of that night that felt so long ago, yet also like only yesterday.

He’d had a beard back then he remembered.

A full bushy one.

One that had made you laugh softly at, roll your eyes and still manage to pull off an acceptable bow when you greeted him that late night.

“They beat Canada then Your Majesty?” You had inquired with good nature, setting down a whole stack of papers and folders onto the very modern conference table in a big room that could fit two dozen, more if the people were standing.

He’d beamed.

Steve remembered he’d been in a particularly good mood that night. Even if he was working late on the education push into the outer regions of his kingdom. A good amount was still very rural, many simple villages that lived as they had fifty or more years ago. Many parts of his kingdom were still deeply rooted in the past.

“Indeed. Eleven to four.”

He was beaming. Beaming! You were pretty sure you could see molars. It made you shake your head and begin to sort out all your work into piles to go over. Not that you’d ever admit to secretly being caught up in the hype of the team being so close to gold at the Winter Olympics. “So then the beard stays?”

“You of all people,” he admonished, coming over to help you. Picking up the well-marked up maps you’d spent hours annotating.

Making you roll your eyes.

On he went though, obviously needing to drive home the seriousness of this matter. “The beard stays until we win gold. Next we play Norway. I don’t think it needs to be said that we cannot risk it.”

He was serious. Really serious. If that full glorious beard was any indication.

More focused on the organizing task yourself.

Sorting your work by region, pile by pile, each had taken much work and effort and negotiation, endless phone calls and trips and emails to each area to get them to work not only with you, but one another. It was like herding cats. It had taken you months to get this all sorted out for Steve to see. His ideas weren’t even ready to be implemented. This was just the pre-gaming, the leadup, the work in preparation. You weren’t even on Step One. You were on Step Zero.

“Now that I know, I’ll be sure to grow a beard next Winter Olympics.”

And then you were rewarded with a rich hearty laugh from your king.

Well not your king, as you weren’t a citizen of this country. But you still liked to think of him as your king.

Watching you sleep was something he’d never tire of. Never get enough of. It was a luxury that he didn’t realize he wanted day in out.

The ability to wake up with you tangled up in blankets. Curled back against his front. Hogging pillows as you did. Allowing Steve to run his fingers up and down your bare thigh, along the curves of your body. Letting him lean forward to press his lips to your shoulder and see the peaceful rest of your face in his slowly lightening bedroom. Every last inch of you here for him.

Hungry.

That was what it was, he was hungry for you. Like a big bear that woke from hibernation after a long winter. At times he felt such a way. Never having felt this way about anyone prior.

In his own time, he slipped his fingers down along the round of your ass underneath the flesh of your hip. Warm. Soft. Smooth. Neither of you had left the bed since the late night bath in his tub.

Further down Steve allowed his fingers to trail.

Memorizing every last second to get him through his day. From how you felt pressed against the front of him, how your back moved against his chest with every steady breath you took. The way your legs tangled in his buttery sheets with his own, how the soft cheeks of your bottom pressed against his alert groin.

Most definitely though, how your skin tasted and felt beneath his mouth. Smelling like yourself from all your favorite bath products kept in his bathroom.

You’d smelled so good that night too.

You always smelled good.

It was something that he had noticed but hadn’t given any real thought to.

It seemed to be a mix of perfume and body lotion or cream. Cause Steve found the flowery smell would linger after you walked by in the way that perfume did, infusing the air and making his brain scream out that you were near. But also, when you shook his hand, it always had that sweet fresh clean smell afterwards.

Now, whenever Steve smelled it, all he could think about was you.

Those smells danced around him. Making the late hour bearable. Making the fact that the offices were empty but for the two of you, when you both should have been home in bed, not matter.

“Ok…” you were talking to him, pointing out places on the massive map that was his nation. Arms crossed. Legs spread. Standing beside you as you informed him with tones that indicated your happiness, your displeasure as well as your utter irritation. “…so I managed to get in touch with every Education Department in all nine of your territories.”

Though you were not looking at him, Steve nodded, laser focused on this project he’d tasked you with months ago.

“All of the department heads are on board with your desired overhaul to completely modernize the entire system. Unfortunately, they told me that I had to call all the district heads for all forty-six provinces to get their agreed participation too.”

Your tone went from pleased with yourself then skeptical and then annoyed.

You turned your head to look at him. “Which is what I spent the last three months doing. It was something of a thing.”

Steve could only imagine.

He was quiet though so you could go on. More than pleased with how well you worked in this position. He’d originally been skeptical with your being a foreigner. How dedicated would you be to a job in a country that was not your own? One hundred percent as it turned out.

Your hands flattened out dramatically on the table. Outrage surged from you. “I’m still waiting on two appointees because their predecessors apparently died during harvest season and no one could be bothered to replace the position. I literally had to fly out to the outer reaches of civilization to find this out. Cause all the government offices are closed during harvest season, fyi. But they’re literally filling the positions now.”

Such was the challenge of having a large kingdom with one foot in the future and one in the past. Such things led to the difficultly of keeping a Chief of Staff.

Steve’s previous Chief of Staff had come highly recommended and lasted a little over a month.

Whether it was from a lack of dedication, the obvious frustrations of the job or maybe he simply had not wanted to jump on a plane and fly six hours then ride by car five hours to remote areas in order to complete his work. Steve could not be sure. All he knew for sure was he’d keep you as long as humanly possible.

In his eyes, you were a saint.

“What’s with the question mark?”

Making you look to see which question mark you’d marked on the map full of stickers and marks and tabs. Hours had been spent working on the damn thing.

Seeing which question mark in question made your nose scrunch. “Oh…them, they refuse to even answer my calls until they are allowed to take their traditional name for their province. Which is way above my pay grade. Someone else is going to have to deal with them. I tried.”

Ah, Steve nodded, that was far from surprising. The far outer regions were notoriously independent or rebellious, depending on your stance.

He would deal with them accordingly. Not how his father did, but in his own way.

Steve’s attention was drawn to two nearby provinces. Each had a frowny face sticker. Without asking, he merely pointed.

A noise of pure disgusted frustration came from deep in your throat. Making you stand and look to him, brandishing your hands in all directions. “I tried my best with them. I really did. Both of those provinces absolutely refuse to take part in anything if the other is involved. Apparently, they’re still salty at one another over something that happened in fourteen-seventy-three and refer to me as the foreign she-devil. So…good luck with them Your Majesty.”

Soundly you slept.

Comfortable. Safe. At peace.

Making him feel like a true man. A provider able to care for you, protect you, satisfy you. As if he were stripped down to what nature intended. Instead of what society had dictated for you both.

Reaching down to that heavenly place between the V in your thighs, Steve pushed his fingers further to find your softness slippery, your skin slick with viscous arousal. In pushing his finger up further, running it around the edge of your slit to where the gateway to your body was hidden, he found you heavily aroused. Coating his fingers with a thick fluid that promised you would be able to take him now. Oozing into the cervices between his fingers and smearing thickly down his palm and over the back of his hand.

Unable to help himself, he brought his hand out from between your legs in order to look at your arousal. Merely the sight made his balls clench in eager anticipation. Tasting the bodily excretions had his hips moving against yours on their own.

A noise came from you. Though you were far from waking. Always one to enjoy your sleep.

On his tongue you were heady, ripe. Tasting like sin. Steve licked his fingers. Eyes closed so he could savor the taste, how you clung to his tongue and were thick, like a burst of brandy swirling with his saliva.

Awakened now from his deep sleep. Ravenous like a beast of the forest. He pressed a lingering kiss to your shoulder. Making you mumble. Making you wiggle in your sleep, causing you to reach your arm out for a pillow to pull close. Hooking your leg up higher too. Becoming more comfortable in the bed in addition to opening yourself up more to your king. As if your body had connected to his on a level your mind was unaware and encouraged him to take you.

Down he peered. Strands of hair fell across his forehead at the harsh angle. A soft lightening of the sun through drapes he never closed last night allowed the sight of moisture. Folds of bare skin sheened up at him. Tempting him with that webbing of goo that promised him you were ready.

Taking himself in hand, he caught sight of your name curled over his side. Reminding him of your absolute possession over him. Sending his hand low to pull his foreskin back in order to feed this hunger of you that consumed him.

Your signature was all swoops and swirls.

Recognizable above anyone else’s writing he came across on a daily basis.

All over paper and on the maps. In little corners. Highlighted. In different color pens. On stickie notes. Written on napkins or on the back of random pieces of paper.

At the time, he’d had no idea how far gone he really was.

Not even when he watched you take note after note with a purple inked pen, your hand flowing across paper like a swimmer cutting through the water. Taking down his every word, every command.

A incredibly distinctive feeling of being full woke you up from your glorious sleep, in a very singular sort of way that could be from only one thing. Only one thing on earth felt like that when waking you up.

Pulling you out of a warm blissful sleep only to wake you with the exquisite feeling of being stretched open, pushed into, filled up. Making your fingers clench bedding or pillows or whatever they could grab.

A low breathy moan came from you in the time between you were woken and awake, your face burrowing in a pillow was followed by a soft profanity. Weight slowly covered you. Weight pinned you down to the bed a little at a time. Skin and sheets and soft dustings of hair rubbed against you.

Only when you had fully woken did you feel pubes brush against your cheeks. A light tap of scrotum bumped you too.

Long arms wrapped around you. Wet lips mouthed along the curve of your neck.

This was a far superior way to wake up. Compared to your apartment, in bed alone, to your neighbors loud shrilling alarm clock through your paper-thin wall.

Groaning out at the feel of His Majesty’s cock stuffed safely up in your secret garden. You found yourself whining at Steve at whatever time it was in the early morning. “…fuuuuck…what’d I say about doing that…” A swivel, nay, a swivel with a pop of his pelvis followed, making you see stars, gasp deeply as if you’d been stabbed in the lungs and then add on for God and Country. “…My King…shit, My King…oh shit, My King.”

Though it may have been said in jest, his tone was hot enough to scald. “If memory serves me correctly…” another deep push of thick hips shoved you forward into the pillows. “…you say, not in my ass unless I’m awake.”

Stars.

So many bright and colorful stars.

Mmm.

Yes, that was something you had told him on many occasions and it still held very true. If Steve was going to put anything in your ass, forget that thing he claimed was a dick, you needed to be fully awake so you could both physically and emotionally prepare yourself.

Nothing at all could have prepared you for the drastic turn your life was about to take that night.

Nothing.

Everything had been so normal. It was so regular. Like many a long night working late hours at the palace before. Hours had been spent going over all your hard work contacting each and every head in each education department per province, as well as per territory. In addition to the national department of education, preparing to prep them for what the king wanted.

Like any other late night, Steve helped you put all of your paperwork back in the correct order you had it in. Like every other time, he requested a palace car take you to your apartment. Granted the apartment you shared with your best friend was walking distance away. It was late and simply not safe and you found were touched that Steve would think about your well-being.

For a king, he wasn’t that bad. When it was the two of you anyway.

Looks aside, which he had in spades, he could be very funny in a sarcastic sort of way. He was very well read and intelligent, quick on his feet. Although people seemed to think of him a certain type of way based on his father and his own kingship at a young age, when he really was his own person.

You’d noticed he had a definite interest in the classical masters and had on rare occasion seen him sketch out something on a flight or during a less than stimulating event. He had an artistic ability that would never come to anything due to his role.

His strong sense of duty paired with a disgusting moral obligation pretty much guaranteed his life would be spent in service to his country. Period.

You could see why people thought he was hot. The man had been blessed by the genetic gods. Plus he was a king. Who didn’t grow up dreaming about being a princess? Or think about a literal Prince Charming from fairy tales?

Having now had the benefit of working in a real life palace. You knew the realities of that fantasy.

You had two pages of notes that could attest to the reality of your childhood Disney Princess movies.

Reality was always so different.

Not for the first time, you found yourself repeating yourself. “…and let me say one more time. Thank you so much for talking with my parents. I know it was only ten minutes, but, I know how busy you are and it just completely topped off their visit. My mother has been telling everyone about how she met the king. You even have my father cheering for the hockey team.”

A smile came over Steve’s face that was real.

It wasn’t one of his practiced smiles. It was an actual smile. You could tell because it reached his eyes.

“Well,” Steve answered you with a shrug, sounding genuinely pleased even if he also sounded tired and like he wanted nothing more than to go off to his living quarters in the palace and crash into bed, before he had to get up to start a new day. Helping you stack the last of your papers up. “Anything to convert a soul to hockey. Technically, it is his team too.” And because he could not help himself, Steve added on, “Even if his grandparents fled from here for a cushy life in the west.”

Up your hand flew to your chest.

Your jaw dropped in mock pain. “Ouch, Sir! That one was painful.”

His smile grew at your over-the-top reaction.

Still though, he dipped his head and you noticed there was a little blush on his cheeks above where that magnificent beard grew. Chagrined, he quickly followed up with, “I apologize. That was a cheap shot.”

In a physical sort of way that his people were known to interact, personal space be damned, Steve reached over to touch your arm apologetically. Not something he did frequently. Although he had done it a handful of times. The press of his mouth to your cheek was new. The little kiss was brand new. Steve’s lips were gentle on your skin. His beard tickled your face.

Never in your life had your heart pounded as violently in your chest as it did at that gesture. Quickly, your head turned. Though you did not move back or say anything. Instead, you found yourself staring at Steve. Looking into those pools of blue that were looking at you with the same amount of surprise that you felt. His lips were right there, right there.

Blood roared in your ears, your heart pounded faster and faster and faster.

He kissed you.

Did he really though?

Was it a kiss or was it a kiss?

For a moment in time, you leaned in. Leaned closer. Leaned till you almost touched him because that was what your body wanted to do. Until you remembered that Steve was a king. A KING. Remembering that made your head command your body to lean backwards a bit. Allowing you to see that he had leant in to meet you.

He’d leaned closer to kiss you.

What were you doing? What in the hell were you doing? You had no business doing this, no business at all messing around with Steve.

Fingers moved along your arm, tracing up the back of it softly. That simple touch made goosebumps break out over your skin. It made your breath hitch. Your hands began to shake so you grabbed the fabric of your skirt.

However, you made no move to step away from Steve. Nor did he make any sort of move to step away from you.

Another attempt at a kiss was not made.

Fingers touched your face instead. Steve was close enough to you that you felt his legs brush yours. You felt his breath against your face. Fingertips ran across the swell of your cheekbone, down over your lips, tracing the bridge of your nose in what felt like a desire to memorize your face.

Steve was gentle. His fingertips felt like feathers on your skin. He made you shake like a leaf in terror because you wanted him to touch you more. You wanted to be touched. You wanted to feel his hands on you and the soft glide of his thumb along the line of your jaw was painfully insufficient.

Without thinking, you reached up with your hands until you remembered that he was the king.

Were you allowed to touch the king? You weren’t sure. He was touching you and it was fabulous but were you allowed to do the same? You wanted to. You so deeply wanted to. You just were not sure what was allowed in this situation. It had not exactly been covered in the Royal Protocol Guidebook you had.

Then came Steve’s voice. Harsh. Gravelly. Desperate.

“Touch me. It’s ok. I want you to.”

For only a heartbeat or two you remained still, observing him, making sure. Only after that did you reach up with your hands to cover his wrists. Rub along the fabric of his button-up shirt. In doing so, you not only felt the strength in his well-muscled wrists, or how warm the silky fabric was, but, you could feel him tremble. He was shaking about as much as you were.

A rush of air surged from his lungs as if you had burnt him.

Curious, you turned your head so you could place a single kiss on the inside of his hand touching your face, right at the base of his thumb. In doing so, you ripped a noise from deep within him. A noise that was both pained while also infused with wanting.

“This is ok?”

“Yes,” he croaked out, as if he were terrified you would stop.

Never would you have ever imagined he would be so responsive. Almost touch starved it felt.

Sometimes, Steve still felt as if he were a little touch starved to you. Sometimes it felt like he’d gone his entire life without having that physical connection between two people. As complicated of a man as he was with as complicated of a life as he had, you at times forgot that he was still a human being with human being needs that were essential to thriving.

And it wasn’t like you were complaining.

Far from it.

Not after the orgasm you just had, not from on top of him either. Lounged across the front of him. Loose limbed. Languid down to your marrow. Peppering the damp skin of his neck with slow wet kisses and scrapes of teeth. Long drags of your tongue collected drops of salt that tasted of him. Lazily. Heart to heart. Stomach to stomach.

There really were worse ways to wake up.

Like, for instance, in your apartment taking cold showers cause the building’s water heater was ancient. That wasn’t fun at all and usually had you shivering and hurrying through an icy shower. Straight up not a good time.

This? This was soooo much better.

Feeling Steve’s long legs wrapped up in your own, paired with his softening member filling you by virtue of sheer size not letting himself just pop out…this was a much better way to wake up. Far superior in every way.

Not that you were willing to waste precious time like this luxuriating in post-coital bliss. No, no. A burning question was hot on your mind that kept popping up after last night. After all, you were a modern woman and this was a serious relationship. You had every right to ask this question at any time you wanted. Even now. As your boyfriend, the king, fondled your breasts in his hands with such intensity that you would have thought he’d just broken out of Alcatraz after a decade of no nookie. Not that you were in the least bit complaining. Not one bit.

“Am I going to have to quit my job?”

It was something of a concern.

You loved your job. You loved working with Steve. You loved your life as it was and a big part of you suspected becoming queen would mean big changes.

Not that you lifted your head from his neck, or ceased your trek down towards his collarbone. Trail of your kisses never slowing or stopping. No hint of any sort of disruption came. Not for a moment or two. Not till your ravenous boyfriend squeezed your breasts possessively. Thumbed your nipples and finally opened his eyes, as if it were the biggest chore on earth.

His voice was rough. His tone felt like hot gooey honey that just got everywhere. “No…not yet…”

Leading you to make a noise. A pop followed when your mouth left the dark spot you’d been sucking on nearly at his collarbone. What with your name already etched on him. What else could you leave in a display of ownership over him? “Nothing else to add My King?” For added emphasis, perhaps you gave you vaginal muscles a clench knowing what that did to him.

A grunt came from beneath you.

Wrapped up in yours, Steve’s legs clenched in response to what you did. White teeth sank into his upper lip and you absolutely thrived at the sight and feel of him arching up against you, shifting around beneath you at the way your body squeezed him.

Those hands left your breasts only to reach down, run over your waist as they had so many times before, leading you to grab them. Snatch then right up. Press them down into the mattress over Steve’s head. Since the man was far larger than you, this sent you leaning downwards and ever closer to his face. “Steve? I asked you a question.”

How easy it would have been for him to get free. Yet, he seemed content where he found himself. Still wedged within you. Warm in bed. Body a sea of a complex cocktail of chemicals after physically releasing into you. A far better way to wake up than alone in a massive bed. Or worse, to his mother jabbing at him to urgently tell him something that was not urgent at all.

Feeling your breasts press against his chest. Lightly brushing over his skin, your nipples little points that sparked a definite interest in his dick.

God did he want you to be his queen.

“Not yet,” Steve ground out, nearly close to being overwhelmed by you. Each and every word was enunciated to utter perfection, as if it took all of his concentration and effort to get them out. “I’ll have the palace leave your name out of the official statement today. We can go slow. Ease you into things…ease you out of your job…” and to reward him for such a thoughtful statement, you clenched around him once more.

However, it seemed, there was more and even though his eyes rolled up into his head at the feel of your core squeezing his not entirely soft organ, he pushed on with the determination of his ancestors. Grunting. Arching back into the bed as the pillows had all wound up on the floor. Perfect teeth clenched together. “M-my people…will…love you…too.”

So, it was entirely possible, that you were feeling all kinds of powerful watching him writhe beneath you. Knowing exactly what sort of repercussions this could have to your morning. Which was still progressing on time. It was entirely possible that you may have intentionally pushed your own pelvis against his to reseat yourself.

“Oh yeah? How can you be so sure? You saw what happened with those two over in England. And that prince isn’t even next in line to the throne.”

Perhaps it was the seriousness of the direction in which your conversation had taken, Steve remained beneath you. Taking no action, even though you could quite literally feel his dick grow more interested in what your hips were doing.

A panted out, “…fuck…” escaped from him, before he opened his eyes to look at you seriously, if not also a little heatedly. “Quit obsessing over them. The King of Jordan married for love. Queen Rania was a commoner. If you must, focus on them.”

Sudden movement found you falling off Steve and onto the bed, shoved onto your back and in a flash, he was on top of you again. Over you. Hovering. Though he’d escaped out of your body, you could feel the king’s most delicious semi, slick from your previous copulation, squish between you both.

Admitting on an exhale, “Forgot about them.”

“Everyone does.” He agreed, surveying down, taking in the sight of you. “My country appreciates you. They’re fond of you. You’re in all the papers and they’ve given you a nickname.”

And that. That. Nearly killed the mood.

It sent your eyebrows together dubiously so.

Everytime you were in the press it was when your skirt had been blown up on a windy day, or if you’d accidentally gotten food on your shirt. Or that time a baby goat pooped on your shoes. Or when you’d tripped and fallen off a dock into a lake. Who could forget that time you’d accidentally called the Prime Minister of Canada a ‘moose fucking cannibal’ when you’d still been getting the hang of the language, your first year on the job?

You’d been affectionately dubbed, ‘the King’s Foreign Devil’ and it had stuck.

Hell, you still got asked about your thoughts on the Canadian Prime Minister whenever a member of the press was around.

“Most the time, you have a higher approval rating than I do,” he added. Much to the consternation of Maria Hill in PR. “Trust me. There is nothing my country loves more than a hard-working loyal servant of the people who talks shit about western leaders.”

Mood totally killed, you seethed and not for the first time, “That was an accident! I was trying to call him Canada’s Disney Prince.”

***

The note had been hand delivered to the palace and was now crumbled into a ball in the Queen Mother’s bedroom as she stormed off, once more, that early morning in a fury of rose satin and silk. Her perfume clouded around her, drifting behind her, much like the wake of a boat cutting through the water.

Thick carpets silenced her heels. Doors opened for her as she neared them, allowing her to not need to slow her step even for a second. Not a single moment wasted as she made her way through the private living quarters of the palace.

Down hallways and around corners, over to the rooms that her grown son had selected as his own.

It would have been so much easier if he would have just taken the rooms that his father had lived in.

Although, with the horrific memories attached to those rooms, how could she blame him when he elected not to? She had her own private rooms. The dead kings rooms were locked up tight and still not used. Abandoned like so much he’d done, started and accomplished in his life.

Upon coming to her only child’s rooms, those doors were held open for her and on she pressed on. Sailing through his rooms, one after another, until she got closer to his bedroom and could hear his shower which was the direction she headed.

A brief glance was made at the mess that was his bed.

A roll of her eyes was followed by a shake of her head.

Some things males never grew out of it seemed.

“Steven!” She called out in warning, should he be in the bathroom about to come out in the nude. Which was the last thing she wanted to see.

Not only was his bed a mess but his clothes from yesterday were all over the floor.

She had every intention of telling him that he needed to straighten up this mess before the cleaning staff came in his room. The last thing she wanted was for them to think he was messy and then tell their families and friends when they went home that the king had a messy bedroom and word would get out that her son was a slob. Ugh. No. She’d make sure that he straightened up.

Speaking of the devil.

As his shower ran, Steve peered out of the bathroom with a wet head. A midnight blue towel was wrapped around his waist. A toothbrush was in his hand. To Sarah, it was very clear that her grown son had not shaved yet either.

Seeing him in such a state that morning along with his messy room and the fact the shower was going wasting water. It did not make her mood any more agreeable.

Though her son was taller than her and considerably more muscular, she never feared him.

She knew he would never hurt her like his father had so many times. Towards the end, Steve had even defended her from his father’s physical attacks. Those days. They had been dark. Horrible. Terrible. When she noticed that her husband had begun to carry a knife to protect himself from his son. Well. What was she supposed to do?

Attacking her was one thing. Being violent towards her was one thing. There were some things that she learned to tolerate. It was unescapable. Their son though. To take a knife to their son? Her son? Sarah would never allow such a thing.

She was queen at the time.

It was not so difficult to get the drug that she put in her husband’s evening nightcap. She’d used all of it. Thrown the vial away the next day when she went to rouse the king as she did every morning, only to find him dead in his chair. Fireplace having long gone out. Slumped down. Cold. The coroner had said it was a heart attack. Exactly as she’d been told the drug would work. He’d been buried with no one the wiser. Not even Steve.

“Yes mother?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “You are not growing another beard. Last time you looked like some man that lives up in the mountains in a tiny shack.”

Just as her own father once did, Steve’s eyebrows rose in surprise and question.

No. That was not why she was here.

Sarah had a higher calling that morning and straightening her slim shoulders, she so informed him. “Hope and Janet are here in the city. They’ve come for a surprise visit and will arrive at the palace within the hour.”

Steve’s eyes narrowed at her in response to her information.

It was horrifying. It was outrageous. It was not what he wanted to hear that morning one bit. Not at all. Not one single bit.

Hope and Janet?

Those were two names he never wanted to hear with the additional words being, ‘on their way’. No. Just no.

All he could say that was remotely civil, after what the then Princess Hope van Dyne had done, came out in something of a tone. “I don’t want to see either of them. If you want to see them, that’s your choice. Keep them away from me.”

Considering what the now Duchess Hope had spewed to every reporter, journalist and whomever with a platform…Sarah was a little surprised that Steve was being so kind.

She’d expected a bit more of a reaction from her son.

Could she be holding a bigger grudge against her one-time closest friend’s daughter? After what had happened, Queen Janet van Dyne had become somewhat distant. Which was not surprising. Hope had not broken the engagement gracefully. Nor had she been anything less than opinionated afterwards.

“I suspect she is in trouble,” Sarah confessed. “Why else would they come here? Considering everything that Hope has said over the years.”

Steam continued to seep through the cracked door.

Sarah was about to say something about the shower. Steve was wasting a considerable amount of hot water. She herself was leading the Go Green Initiative in the country and as she stated constantly, it all began at home.

“Mother, don’t take this the wrong way, but, I wouldn’t shit in Hope’s mouth if she was starving.”

Ah.

Perhaps she’d been too quick to judge Steve’s current opinion on the wayward duchess?

Pondering his statement, Sarah found herself looking for any way to come back with a counter when she noticed that the shower turned off. Which was odd. Shower’s didn’t turn themselves off.

What was even more peculiar, Steve reached back behind himself to shut his bathroom door.

It clicked.

Like a light going off.

How could she not have noticed? How could it not have been obvious?

Blue eyes that were a little softer than her son’s narrowed. “You aren’t alone.”

Silence.

Quiet.

Her pink lips opened in surprised. A question hovered on her tongue.

“No mother.”

“But…”

“Mother,” he implored as only a son could. “Not now. She would not want the first time she officially meets you to be when you’re dressed for the day and she is not.”

And though her son’s words were true. They were right. They were exactly what she would have wanted him to say and because she had raised him well, she was even proud that he had made such a quick decision. It wasn’t fair.

Sarah wanted to find out who you were. She wanted to meet the woman that her son was involved with. Was that so wrong? Sarah wanted to meet the woman that her son was considering marrying. There was so much she wanted to say to you, so much to teach you, so much she wanted to learn about you. Perhaps her desperation showed because her son reached out to place a hand on her elbow.

“If you can chase Hope and Janet away, we could have lunch together. The three of us. If not, dinner? Or even tomorrow. I’m not doing anything with Hope under this roof. Not after she referred to our country as a third world plus hellhole full of war criminals and superstitious backwoods heathens.”

Ah, so he did remember.

Those words had been seared into her memory as well. Sometimes Sarah wondered, as Steve had never really given much indication that he cared one way or the other what Hope had said. It was only after she began to speak unflatteringly about their people that he grew irritated, much like herself.

Although, what irritated Sarah more, was the quiet that came from the royal house of van Dyne and Pym a few countries over. Never once had Janet spoke up. Never had Janet said anything about her daughters outrageous remarks or behavior. Nor had she apologized.

Knowing her son, Sarah knew that he would never court anyone who was not kind or compassionate. Steve would never pick a Hope as his queen.

Up came a hand that bore a lovely ring decorated with fresh water pearls from their own waters. “I’ll have them gone before lunch and then we will all sit down together so I can finally meet her.”

#steve rogers x reader #chris evans x reader #steve x reader #captain america x reader #steve rogers x you #marvel x reader #avengers x reader #chris evans x you #chris evans x y/n

[undoundue]

i don’t know anything except how stories go

i don’t know anything except how stories go

the music isn't as good as i thought it would be

i'm not sure if i've taken enough drugs or too much

when i take too much, i get grandiose: big ideas. little follow-through.

when i take not enough, i also get grandiose, but i know it,

and i sound like a graveyard glass harmonica when

the wind passes through. when i take the right amount, i do not ask

whether i've taken enough drugs or too much.

instead i hallucinate that i'm a cicada, an elegant disgusting jewel

smithed by mommy nature to reproduce a tinny song,

and i'm grateful to my parents

and the 17 years i spent gestating

and this morbid cherry tree

because nobody buckles their tymbals like i. also, cicadas lack

the relevant receptors altogether,

so the dosing question doesn't apply.

(beat) say,

have you noticed that zoomers are really into columbo?

(you nod)

i've seen him on twitter twice lately, asking "just one more

question—which would you prefer as an afternoon snack?"

and there's a poll, cheez-its

or little debbie snack cakes.

the appeal, i think, is to a generational forgetfulness, to

a generation most in need of alarm clocks and aricept,

to the desire to see forgetfulness as a superpower, as an

equivalent to innocence, to be so impervious to

reality's demands. but haven't we been here

before? didn't milennials all die for the sin of inventing "retro

gaming"? and by the way,

did you hear the one about the guy who gave himself three-hundred

and ninety-one concussions, each time suffering retrograde amnesia

which knocked out his memory of his last pokemon red playthrough?

ah. ah yes. it is not a tale the jedi would tell you.

when i take too much, i get despondent. when i take not enough, i

get grandiose. but the line breaks are for the poet's benefit anyway.

besides, there are kids smoking brick weed in lebanon, we should be

thankful for what we have.

and hex maniac is pretty cute. her pupils spiral

counterclockwise,

going from out to in; in some of the fan art they go the other way but

you can tell those guys don't "get it"; the allure of a counterclockwise

spin on how you are perceived, to have your silhouette distorted

and your details properly misunderstood, to lose at games you've

never heard of it, to eat with chopsticks incorrectly,

to trip and fall and look at the sidewalk and say "thank you.

yes. i had grown complacent in my patterns, my

nucleus accumbens

was running on fumes; and i certainly wasn't expecting that!" and

mean it. i did this once. i was in a state of rare tranquility after

masturbating for sixteen consecutive hours (essentially a

performance enhancing drug for meditation—which is why,

in the tibetan olympics, strict no-fap is required for a week

before competition—and they take semen samples to be sure!)

so (you nod), when the buddha saw me

so grateful for life's misfortunes, he made a "look

at this fucking guy" gesture to ganesh and then said "look at this

fucking guy" as if the gesture wasn't enough. naturally,

i was offended, and besides i recalled the old koan "If you meet the

Buddha on the road, kill him," which i had read in a collection

of koans for children titled "If you meet the Buddha..." which

my Mom had purchased for me in the novelty gift section

of an urban outfitters in santa barbara ("Mom, why are you shopping

at urban outftters?" "son, yr mama just tryin' ta stay cool. say, you

heard of this MF DOOM cat?" "ugh! Mom!") and which had

such thought-provoking aphorisms as:

"If you meet the Buddha in an airport, buy him a cheeseburger."

"If you meet the Buddha at a dive bar, play him some new wave—the

Buddha is big into that shit." the idea being, you're prepared for any

circumstance, which is what buddhism is all about. so i did a

bunch of fast attacks; the buddha blocked; i said "shouldn't

it be all the same to you if i kill you?" the buddha said "it would,

except i want to get home and watch columbo, and i don't

want to wait to respawn." i said, "jesus. just—jesus." then the buddha

kicked me through a brick wall. everyone in the WeWork

screamed and fled, leaving their kombucha behind, and

for some reason the sprinklers went off. then, after the initial

impact, a lone brick fell (because of torque—force times the length of

the lever, remember) and hit me comically on the head, causing a

concussion. i said "guh."

yup, (you nod sympathetically),

i was feeling mighty grim. then it occurred to me: why don't i

play pokémon red? unfortunately, on my cellphone i only had

the romhack version, you know, where all the pokémon are allegories

for depression. so you got your depressionmander, depressioneleon,

depressionizard, and for pokémon where that doesn't work

they use it as a suffix, e.g. bulbadepression, ivydepression,

venudepression. also you can't leave the starting room and

your character moves really slowly. the indie gaming press

loves it. one of the features that reviewers single out is

that, instead of a lone Stand By Me reference, the TV in your room

goes line by line through Aguirre, the Wrath of God, except the

murders are replaced with pokémon battles and at the end

aguirre tries to command a horde of mankeys ("depressionkeys"),

which is a metaphor. dark stuff. it makes me think back on my youth:

lying on my child-king sized bed, masturbating to polyhedral

stellations, suffering from severe geometric dysmorphia as i

compared myself to the grandeur of those idealized forms—god, i

used to hate myself for those wasted hours. i mean, i still do, but i

used to, too. only after years of therapy have i developed a mantra

that eases the pain:

"i am mostly a cylinder.

i am mostly a cylinder." presto. you can get off to anything, even

loomis.

(you nod, hesitantly.) on saturday night,

i throw open the window and scream at the children: "you'll get old

too! an abstractome of brittle opinions even as your bumbling

homunculus drops the data you once used to back them up!"

the children reply "not necessarily, given the rate of advances in

biotech. also, no one cares, grandpa." they play soccer. my

mad pilgrim hair blows in the wind. i scream: "suffer! suffer! i am

omniscience!" they say: "oh yeah? how many fingers am i

holding up?" "four! five! four!" "it was five, you old fart." "the thumb

doesn't count as a finger! you should have a specified!" "OK, new

game: what sort of person am i?" "you are—you are—!" and so

i peer into their souls and know the answer, but i can't

find the words. the words do not come. i have forgotten them.

silently i draw away from the window. the children smirk, but only for

a moment. for they know i am right.

ah, to reveal the soul's heist, to be seen through by the omniscient

and powerless, what a delight! who among us would not cheerfully

kill the buddha when he's comin' through the rye? who among us

has not been blessed by the kind words of a stranger? and yet, we

shouldn't incentivize people to be strangers. society would collapse.

besides, we are no longer strangers to ourselves, you and i.

(you nod.) we will have much to discuss about that.

#thanks for reading #let me know if i gotta put a *keep reading* in these posts

[kiribaku-queen]

Let’s gooo! How about Oikawa x reader, but it’s a secret relationship (married) because she’s a trainer alongside Iwa, but she starts getting shipped with Iwa and pictures of them hugging show up... Basically Oikawa isn’t stupid, he KNOWS they aren’t doing anything behind his back but he does get jealous. So roll around to the Olympics and Iwa and reader are being asked about their relationship and bam Oikawas had enough so he comes over, kisses her and is like this is MY wife so fuck off and stop shipping her with my BESTFRIEND HAHAH

She’s Mine

Pairing: Oikawa x reader

Fluff

Word count: 2.6K

A/N: Thank you for being the first requester ever! I hope this is to your liking. I was actually worried that it wouldn’t be long enough but it actually turned out longer than I was expecting! I tried to make it funny and add Oikawa’s personality to give it that flavour. I’d love to know what you think about it anon! Thank you for your support! <3

“One touch!”

“Chance ball!”

“Get it over!”

The gym was loud with calls from their teammates, every player wanting to play their best even if it was just a practice game. You watched from the bleaches, eyes shining with admiration when you watch a certain brown haired boy spike, earning his team a point.

“Yes!” he cheered for himself and then turned to face you. “(y/n) did you see that?! That was for you baby!” he shouted, making the rest of his teammates laugh and you all red and embarrassed. You just signaled a thumbs up and let them continue with their practice game. You didn’t want to interfere, no matter how much your husband was already interfering.

“Oi, Oikawa! Focus on the game, not your wife! You can do that after!” Iwaizumi scolded him. Oikawa waved him off, his attention back on the game.

“This guy…” Iwa said under his breath. You giggled to yourself and looked at the clipboard in front of you. You were still learning how to effectively position people so that they can play their best against their opponent. And Iwa was there to help you. You guess who could say you were his assistant coach. But it was hard trying to stay professional while your husband is on the team you are coaching.

It was no surprise to the team that you guys were married. Your wedding pictures with them in the background drunk was proof enough. But you had to keep your marriage secret from the rest of the world. And this was purely based on your decision. Oikawa has always been popular, ever since high school. When he became pro, he gained even more followers. You saw it first hand. Some fans could be really obsessive and scary. Though, you knew that most fans would be supportive of you two, but you really didn’t want to risk it. You weren’t scared that they were going to come after you. Actually, you have been preparing for it ever since you got together in case you got exposed early on in your relationship. You didn’t want his fans to freak out and then he would lose his popularity over it. You were so scared that it would permanently damage his career. So you both kept it a secret. For now, at least.

“Good work today!” Iwa shouted. The boys immediately fell to the floor, exhausted. But your hubby didn’t do that. Instead, he ran up to you as soon as he finished practice to embrace you in the tightest hug.

“Babe!” you laughed and tried pushing him away. You pushing away only made him hug you tighter. And since you were trying to run away from him, he added in a few smooches just for fun.

“Okay, okay,” Iwa tugged on Oikawa’s collar to pull him away from you. “You can hug your wife later. Go clean up.” He ordered. With a pout, he left but never failed to look back at you and give you kissy faces. You were also cleaning up, putting the volleyballs away and packing up your things in your duffle bag.

“(y/n),” Iwa called to you and to ran up to him immediately. “What do you think about this line up for the game this weekend?” he asked you. You got close to look at the plan he laid out. As you and Iwa were discussing, a photographer snuck into the private gym and hid in the stands.

“Shit, looks like practice is over,” he cursed to himself. How was he going to get a good scoop now? He looked around the gym. None of the players were around. Just the coaches and maybe a few other irrelevant people. He wanted an exclusive showing how practice was going for the big team, but now he never going to get a good picture in if no one was here. The photographer was about to leave, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw you standing next to the team’s coach. You were wearing the team’s colors and outfit. So you had to be a coach if you were standing close to coach Iwaizumi. You were standing a little too close. And you two were laughing. And play fighting? And flirting? The photographer smirked.

“Now this could be a story,” he said as he snapped a few shots of you and Iwa together. Then he made his way out of the gym, looking at the freshly took pictures for his story.

“Honey!” Oikawa came running with his bag hanging loosely over his shoulder. You ran towards him, meeting halfway and you jumped into his arms. “Ready to go home?”

“Mhm!” you hummed, placing a kiss on his lips. He kissed with equal force, if not harder, and gently set you back down on the ground.

“Still up for lunch tomorrow?” Oikawa turned to his best friend.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll meet you guys there,” he said. Oikawa then wrapped his arm around your waist and held you close.

“Let’s go,” he told you. You looked back at Iwa as you left the gym.

“See you later, Iwa-chan!” you waved at him.

“Mhm, good work today!” he yelled back. He wouldn’t have to yell if Oikawa hadn’t kept you from continuously walking away, further and further from him. But Oikawa was always one to be touchy and protective so it was nothing new. And he was trying to be as lovey-dovey as he could because once they were out in public, absolutely no touching.

The next day, lunch rolls around and Iwaizumi is already waiting for you two at the restaurant you picked out.

“You’re late,” Iwa stated. You sat down, apologizing profusely while your husband just laughs it off.

“Sorry! Someone was in the bathroom too long,” you glared at the man beside you. He scoffed and pointed an accusing finger at you.

“I was ready before you! I was waiting so long, by the time you got out of the bathroom, I had to take a shit,” Oikawa explained himself.

“Well you should have just held it in!”

“I can’t hold my shits in!”

“Well I can!”

“That is so unhealthy,” Iwa chimed in, shaking his head in disappointment. “Why are we even having this conversation?”

“She started it,” Oikawa breathed but oh, you could hear it. And you were about to retort back if it wasn’t for Iwa to stop another oncoming argument.

“Okay, okay. Let’s just order. I’m starving,” Iwa stated, looking over the menu. It took the guys a few minutes to figure out what they wanted but you were stuck on two options. Glancing around the room, you saw another table that had the same order you wanted and boy did it look delicious. The only problem? The portion was gigantic. There was no way you were going to finish all that. So you did what any girlfriend would do.

“Babe, can you share with me?” you asked Oikawa, giving him a pouty face.

“Mm, but I’ll still be hungry later,” he said, giving you an apologetic look.

“But it’s too much food!” you stated, trying to reason with him. If they had a half portion, you would definitely take that. But unfortunately, there was no such thing.

“I’ll eat your leftovers, how about that?” he compromised, making you equally as happy.

“Tank you,” you said in the cutest baby voice that you know he loves. He gushes at how cute you are.

“Anything for you, my love,” he says back in an equally cute tone and touched noses with you. Iwaizumi is just watching this all unfold in front of him. And to think they were just arguing a second ago. He pretends to have a disgusted look on his face but on the inside, he’s happy that you two found each other. Of course, he’s never going to admit that and never will he ever mention it…. EVER.

Time flies when you’re with your two best friends. You guys could talk about everything and anything, arguing back and forth, making fun of each other, having deep talks, you do it all. Sometimes its hard to believe that you guys work together and it makes you cringe how professional you have to be with each other because you’re not used to it at all. You’re already finished with your food because you couldn’t even stomach all that. Now, you were just waiting on the boys to finish up. Especially, Oikawa since he also had to each your leftovers.

“I’ll be back. I’m gonna wash my hands real quick,” Oikawa announces and heads for the men’s room. You and Iwa were left at the table together. You lean your elbows on the table and rest your chin in your hands.

“You think we’re gonna win tomorrow?” you asked Iwa. He’s much more knowledgeable that you were after all.

“Even if we don’t, it’s no big deal. But I want you to take charge tomorrow so you can get the feel and practice,” he explained. You internally, and maybe externally, groaned. You didn’t feel like you were ready and now all the pressure was going to get to your head. “So if we lose tomorrow, it’s all your fault.”

“Iwa!” you smacked his hand across the table. He kept poking fun and laughing at you, loving the reactions you were giving him. If no one knew you guys, they’d think you were dating. And that’s exactly what Mr. Photographer was thinking.

He had just arrived at the restaurant you guys were eating at, watching from behind a few trees with a big camera in hand. You were laughing at something Iwaizumi had said, earning him a few, nice shots. The photographer made sure to get the food presented on the table, as well as a few cute snaps of you two play fighting, laughing and smiling with each other. He was going to wait around longer, in case you two kissed, but he was too eager to write this new news story that he left when he got enough pictures of you two. When the photographer left, Oikawa came back to pay the check and you were on your way out.

 It’s the morning of the game and you were fixing up some coffee while Oikawa sat at the dining table, eating the breakfast that you prepared for him. Both of you were minding your own business; you jamming out and singing to your music and your husband reading the news on his phone. Everything was in the ordinary until Oikawa spotted an article that made him do a double take.

[BREAKING] Coach Iwaizumi and Assistant (y/n) Dating!!!

“Honey?” he calls out for you in a questioning tone, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing you. You go over to him, coffee in hand and hug him from behind with your chin resting on his shoulder.

“What is it, love?” you ask and take a sip of your coffee.

“Look at this,” he says and brings his phone up so you can see it as clear as day. “You and Iwa? Dating?! And look at these pictures. What are these?!” You take a closer look and its definitely you and Iwaizumi. But the first picture was from the other day when you were going over positioning. And then the other picture was from yesterday at lunch. Out of context, you guys did look close and lovey-dovey… but it was all false. The more Oikawa looked at these pictures, the more irritated and jealous he got. For heavens sake, he was there both times! And that dumb paparazzi couldn’t see that you and him were together?

“Babe, looks like I’m dating your best friend now,” you laugh but Oikawa didn’t find it funny. He had a big, old pout sitting on his lips and seeing that? You knew it was going to be drama, drama, drama all day.

“Baby, don’t pout. It’s all just rumors. I love you and only you,” you try to cheer him up by giving him as many cheek kisses as you could. Your husband loved that but it didn’t make him feel any better. He should be the one in that article title not Iwa-chan.  “It is kind of funny though, I’ll have to let Iwa know later.” You laugh it off and go back to the kitchen. Oikawa laughs too but it was fake and forceful. The moment you went back to the kitchen, his smile drops and a frown is immediately replaced.

It was right before the game and the boys were warming up on the court. The whole ride there, Oikawa was silent. He was acting like a child but you were used to it already that you paid him no mind. You knew he was just going to let it all out during the game. You were standing next to Iwaizumi, watching them practice their spikes. But let’s be honest, you were looking at your dashing husband the whole time. When you got to the venue, you immediately told Iwa the news but he wasn’t surprised because he had already seen it. You both had a good laugh over it and dismissed it. Because what was there to discuss? The whole news was just ridiculous with no proof as backup.

“(y/n),” Iwa came up to you with a clipboard in hand. “Did you-” but before he could finish that sentence, you were both rudely interrupted by a lady shoving a microphone and camera in your face.

“Iwaizumi, (y/n), do you have time for a quick interview?” she asks you. You look up at Iwa because you weren’t used to the sudden aggression. He felt how awkward you were and was the one to speak for the both of you.

“What is it about?”

“You guys look really good together. Is it true that you are both dating?” she asks and shoves the big microphone right in your face.

“No,” Iwa butts in, giving the interviewer and the camera an unamused face.

While Oikawa was focusing on his spikes, he panned over to you just so he could see you. But what he was left a bad taste in his mouth. Interviewers were all in your face. You had a painstakingly uncomfortable expression on your face and he was so tempted to just storm over there and take you away. But professionalism. Remember that. He’s trying so hard to focus back on the warmups but his ears are listening in on your interview.

His ears perk up when he hears that you and his best friend look good together. He looks back in your direction and you were being peer pressured into telling the truth and just being bombarded with unnecessary questions. That’s it. He’s had it. You were his and no one else’s.

“Come on, (y/n). Give us a statement,” the interviewer was coming into you.

“Uhm,” you felt yourself literally backing up. The answer was said to them multiple times but they kept pushing and pushing. It started to get suffocating. And no matter how many times Iwa tried to calm down the situation, it felt like it was just getting worse. All that seemed to disappear when a hand grabs your waist from behind, spins you around and a pair of lips gently cover yours. Your eyes widen in surprise as you see Oikawa passionately kissing you. In public. And on the big screen. A wave of gasps spread throughout the venue and even the interviewer was in shock. When he lets go, you are just all around flustered and Iwa is standing on the side rolling his eyes.

“Please stop pressuring MY WIFE. And please stop shipping her with my dear friend because she’s mine,” Oikawa said to the lady and straight at the camera with a polite smile but threatening eyes.

“And you!” Oikawa dramatically points at his friend and sticks up both middle fingers. “She’s mine so you can fuck off!”

“I don’t even want her, dumbass,” Iwa informs him of the obvious. Oikawa walks off with your hand in his, proud to finally let the world know that you were his and his alone.

#oikawa x reader #oikawa fluff #haikyuu oikawa #oikawa fic #oikawa torū #oikawa oneshot #haikyuu imagine #oikawa imagine #haikyuu oneshot #haikyuu fluff #anon request

[old-childhood-drama]

Taylor Swift and Joe Jonas Masterpost (Toe/Jaylor)

Before dating (May 2008)

We start with the Taylor lookalike

In May 2008 the Jonas Brothers are filming their music video for Burnin’ Up [x]. Joe’s love interest in it is played by a blonde girl who looks quite a bit (and she’s also styled) like Taylor Swift, for reference, this is the music video that has Selena Gomez as Nick Jonas’ love interest.

As far as we know they hadn’t even met so we don’t know exactly what this was supposed to mean, maybe Joe had a crush on Taylor or maybe it’s a coincidence.

We do know that Nick and Selena were dating when this was filmed and that by the time the MV was released (July 4th, 2008) Joe and Taylor were officially dating.

Toe is alive! (July 2008 – September 2008)

On Tour

Fans claim to have seen Taylor around the tour in early July, which matches with Taylor’s lyrics in "Last Kiss".

Last Kiss. Taylor Swift.

I do recall now the smell of the rain

Fresh on the pavement, I ran off the plane

That July 9th, the beat of your heart

It jumps through your shirt

On July 14th, Taylor and The Jonas Brothers perform “Should’ve Said No”[x] from her debut album, and this performance now forever exists in their 3D movie (a classic), a cute fact is that some fans have said that Taylor tripped when she first came out, so they had to repeat it for the movie.

On July 20th Joe flies to Wyoming to watch Taylor opening up for Rascal Flatts, and they flew back and she was spotted at the Omaha show.

She’s seen in a couple shows more and she joins the stage again for their Madison Square Garden shows in August [x]. They sing “Even now just looking at you feels wrong”.

They’re together but they’re not together.

For more context, we must remember that Taylor was a very new artist from a small label and The Jonas were pretty much at their peak and Disney’s biggest act, and they were managed like crazy and could never even think about being seen with someone in a romantic way. Any rumors were denied so fast, and Disney did the absolute most to keep it secret. So according to everyone they were just good friends, at the time both Taylor and Selena were annoyed by all the secrecy.

Now back to the timeline:

Taylor is backstage of the tour A LOT for the next couple of weeks right next to the other not-girlfriends Selena and Danielle.

She films a cameo for the “Love Is on Its Way” [x] video for the concert in New York. She was said to be only interested in hanging out with Joe and they were seen hugging *gasp* I know it doesn’t seem like much now but back then this was the hottest gossip and again the Jonas were not supposed to breathe near any human of the opposite gender.

Taylor and the Jonas were staying at the same hotel a bunch of rumors ensued, but I will not talk about the whole Olympics and Toe locking themselves in a room at midnight thing. If it’s real, we really needed to touch some grass and stop staying outside of people's rooms all night.

On August 17th Joe goes to Ryan Seacrest's show and denied that Taylor is his girlfriend in the best way a corporation like Disney can train you to deny something that’s true. Saying Taylor is “a great girl and I think anybody would be lucky to date her. I think anybody would love to go on a date with her.”

And Taylor tells People Magazine “He’s an amazing guy and anybody would be lucky to be dating him” Cinematic parallels.

Taylor is spotted in the back (in a mirror) of one of the Jonas youtube videos [x]. Basically, we all knew they were together.

The Central Park date (August 28th)

Now if you were a fan of either the Jonas Brothers, Selena, or Taylor you know this next part and it the iconic triple date of Central Park.

Again, this is kind of famous at this point and Selena has been quoted saying how awful it was because the boys were not allowed to be seen with them so they all went to Central Park (Selena’s first time in Central Park) and Taylor and Selena walked about 20 feet of distance from the guys so nobody would think they were together but we all already knew because it wasn’t like they were that good at hiding it and there are pictures of them together that night (the clownery of it all).

These backstage tour adventures are the reason Taylor and Selena are friends today and in Selena’s own words the best thing to come out of those relationships.

VMAs (September 2008)

With how many pictures of them together that night [x] [x] [x] exist you would think they had gone together as a couple but no just two besties! The 2008 VMAs are so the show where Russell Brand mocks the Jonas Brothers and their purity rings and Taylor publicly defends them.

Toe seems happy for the rest of September but as we know now the end is near.

The Break-Up (October 2008)

Social Media was different back then and Taylor did what every teen girl with a broken heart did in 2008 and she went to myspace with an edited post to make a statement about the Toe current situation.

Post-Breakup

The 27 seconds Joe Jonas will regret for the rest of his life.

Taylor went on Ellen and I don’t even think I need to say much this interview is THAT iconic she sat on that couch and told the world exactly how Joe had broken her heart in the following two quotes:

“There’s one that’s about that guy, but…that guy’s not in my life anymore unfortunately. That guy…that’s an ouch.”

“I’m not even gonna be able to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18…it was like 27 seconds, that’s got to be a record.” [x]

She also went on Ryan Seacrest’s and when asked about the perfect guy she saw an opportunity and took it, saying “I used to always say sense of humor, but I think that it’s important to have the same kind of sense of humor. I have a really dry, sarcastic sense of humor and if somebody doesn’t think that my sense of humor is funny, then that’s not something that is good. Um, so sometimes you know, that can be a wrong match. If they’re not allowed to go in public with me, that’s sort of an issue too.” [x]

Bonus the amazing youtube video Taylor posted with Joe’s Camp Rock doll and how he comes with his own phone to break up with other dolls [x]. Taylor eventually went full out and cited Camilla Belle (then girlfriend of Joe) as the reason for the breakup. And you know someone at Disney’s PR office wanted to die when this was going down.

So finally, Joe was forced to acknowledge the whole situation with a Myspace post:

"I never cheated on a girlfriend. It might make someone feel better to assume or imply I have been unfaithful, but it is simply not true. Maybe there were reasons for a breakup. Maybe the heart moved on. Perhaps feelings changed. I am truly saddened that anything would potentially cause you to think less of me. For those who have expressed concern over the "27 second” phone call. I called to discuss feelings with the other person. Those feelings were obviously not well received. I did not end the conversation. Someone else did. Phone calls can only last as long as the person on the other end of the line is willing to talk. “

Forever & Always

Now this song is known as THE Toe song and it was born out of the end of the relationship when she felt Joe was getting distant, but she couldn’t do anything to help it, it was made really late into the production of Fearless so she had to rush to finish it in time (so no other breakup songs are about Joe in the original album).

Forever & Always Was I out of line? Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide Like a scared little boy I looked into your eyes Thought I knew you for a minute, now I’m not so sure

In the 2009 Grammy's Taylor and Miley (insert The Ex-Girlfriends Club Theory here) performed Fifteen (obviously not about Joe) and the Jonas were in the audience. I believe this is probably around the time Taylor writes Mr. Perfectly Fine and You All Over Me, which we know get to have thanks to Fearless (Taylor’s Version) 13 years later.

You All Over Me

The best and worst day of June

Was the one that I met you

With your hands in your pockets

And your 'don't you wish you had me' grin

But I did, so I smiled, and I melted like a child

Now every breath of air I breathe reminds me of then

Mr. Perfectly Fine

'Cause I hear he's got his arm 'round a brand-new girl

I've been pickin' up my heart, he's been pickin' up her

And I never got past what you put me through

But it's wonderful to see that it never phased you

In November of 2009, she also goes to SNL and mocks Joe in her monologue. "You might think I'd bring up Joe That guy who broke up with me on the phone But I'm not gonna mention him *rolls eyes* In my monologue [Spoken:]Hey Joe, I'm doing real well, tonight I'm hosting SNL [Sings:]But I'm not gonna brag about that In my monologue [x]"

To make things even more dramatic and very awkward The Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, and Taylor Swift spent NYE together watching the ball drop on TV and this was probably not how they wanted to start their years. [x] [x] [x] and a video [x]

Now let’s discussed some of the songs that came out at the time. The Jonas response to Forever & Always was Much Better. Nick described it as a song that was very personal to Joe and Joe went on to say that it was based on his very interesting year. They also at some point wanted to pretend the song was about their love for their fans but come on. Joe also changed the lyrics from ‘superstar’ to ‘country star’ and later changed it to ‘movie stars’ when he broke up with Camilla who is the ‘Much Better’ girl from the song.

Much Better - Jonas Brothers

I get a rep for breakin’ hearts

Now I’m done with superstars

And all the tears on her guitar

I’m not bitter

But now I see

Everything I’d ever need

Is the girl in front of me

She’s much better

Taylor’s iconic response in Better Than Revenge seems to be more of an attack on Camilla. She’s spoken about her regret for this song since then and hasn’t played it in years and Camilla seems to be ok we never forgiving her for it [x] [x]. Regardless this song remains a staple of the genre ‘Feminism OFF, Bops ON’.

“I was 18 when I wrote [“Better Than Revenge.”] That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realize no one can take someone from you if they don’t want to leave”. - Taylor 2014.

Better Than Revenge - Taylor Swift

Let's hear the applause (Come on, come on)

Come on, show me how much better you are

(So much better, yeah?)

See you deserve some applause

'Cause you're so much better

She also released "Last Kiss" about the nicer part of their relationship, and some believe other songs such as If This Was a Movie, Haunted (Speak Now) and Jump Then Fall (Fearless) are about Joe. From the Jonas, the other song believed to be about Taylor is Paranoid (Lines, Vines and Trying Times).

Jump Then Fall

Well, I like the way your hair falls in your face

You got the keys to me

I love each freckle on your face, oh

I've never been so wrapped up, honey

Probably a song was written about and in the early days of their romance and the long hair freckles [x] thing definitely fits 2008 Joe.

If This Was a Movie

Baby, what about the ending?

Oh, I thought you'd be here by now

Thought you'd be here by now

According to some this song is a sister song to "Last Kiss" in the same album and that is confirmed to be about Joe.

Haunted

Come on, come on, don't leave me like this

I thought I had you figured out

Something's gone terribly wrong

Won't finish what you started

This song would be a sister to Forever & Always since Taylor described both to be about a relationship that was fading in the end and that she was confused as to how they got there in the first place.

"‘Haunted’ is about the moment that you realize the person you’re in love with is drifting and fading fast. And you don’t know what to do, but in that period of time, in that phase of love, where it’s fading out, time moves so slowly. Everything hinges on what that last text message said, and you’re realizing that he’s kind of falling out of love. That’s a really heartbreaking and tragic thing to go through because the whole time you’re trying to tell yourself it’s not happening. I went through this, and I ended up waking up in the middle of the night writing this song about it.” Taylor

Friendlier days are coming (2010- )

I guess time can heal a lot of wounds and Toe is seen hugging and on friendly terms at the Clive Davis party on January 31st of 2010 [x].

The world was so shocked when we realized that Joe went to see her perform in a couple of her shows in September 2011 [x] [x], and in here Holy Ground is born about her new evaluation of their former relationship rather than the bitterness of the breakup. The lyrics' secret message is “when you came to the show in SD” and the potential parallel to "Last Kiss".

Holy Ground - Taylor Swift

We blocked the noise with the sound of ‘I need you’

And for the first time I had something to lose

And I guess we fell apart in the usual way

And the story’s got dust on every page

But sometimes I wonder how you think about it now

And I see your face in every crowd…

… Tonight, I'm gonna dance

For all that we've been through

But I don't wanna dance

If I'm not dancing with you

Last Kiss - Taylor Swift

I do remember the swing of your step

The life of the party, you’re showing off again

And I roll my eyes and then

You pull me in

I’m not much for dancing

But for you I did

They're seen talking in the MTV's EMA's 2012 [x].

From here they seem to be friendly and in May of 2015 after the Billboards. They even go on a double date later that year with Gigi Hadid, Calvin Harris, and Karlie Kloss (this picture feels so cursed). Nick and Joe get invited to Taylor’s 4th of July party and they seem somewhat distant after his split from Gigi.

Present (2020- )

In 2020, we got the amazing surprise of folklore with the song ‘Invisible String’ that makes a reference to Taylor’s past songs about exes being harsh and how she sent Joe and his wife Sophie Turner a present for their baby girl’s birth. In 2021, she has now released the re-recordings of Fearless and we are all reliving the drama and enjoying the chaos of Taylor’s and Sophie’s friendship not letting Joe know peace for those 27 seconds over a decade ago.

Invisible String

Cold was the steel of my axe to grind

For the boys who broke my heart

Now I send their babies presents

#Taylor Swift #fearless #fearless (taylor's version) #forever & always #mr perfectly fine #you all over me #last kiss #toe #jaylor #joe jonas #jonas brothers #folklore #invisible string #paranoid #much better #lines #vines and trying times #better than revenge

[sideb00000b]

zuko x fem!reader

a/n: hi! i’ve never written smut before, so I apologize in advance. i tried my best to do my main man Zuko justice :) it gets a bit bumpy and also a bit steamy, so uhhhh enjoy!

word count: 3.9k (it’s a long one folks)

context: After the war had ended, you had returned to the fire nation and served as a loyal general to the newly crowned firelord. Naturally, the new position required that you spent a lot of time around Zuko, even more so than when you had both traveled the world with the gaang. The two of you became extremely close, best friends, confidants. The sexual and romantic tension was very obvious to everyone... except the two of you, you were both oblivious. However, your love for eachother reached a pivotal point, two days ago when you shared a romantic smooch under the stars. Each of you had avoided the other since then, scared that a romance would get in the way of civil responsibilities or obligations toward the fire nation citizens. Now, both of you were attending a fire nation royal ball, in celebration of something neither of you knew or cared about. The longer you spent apart, denying the tension, the more it grew.

(firebender!fem!reader pov)

 I didn't even know why I was here. The dancing lights, crowds of people, I could leave right now, firebend a hole in the wall and escape, and nobody would notice. On second thought, someone would notice. Zuko would. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of me the entire night, not once. I looked across the room, and there he was, in all of his glory, staring me down. I looked away quickly, hoping he hadn’t noticed. I suddenly became very aware of how tight my red dress was and how I was standing. I adjusted my stance, attempting to blend in with the group of people chatting beside me. He was no longer in my range of view, but I didn’t need to see him to know that those golden eyes of his were fixed on me.

 I tried desperately to distract myself by diving into conversation with some of the strangers around me. Their voices bored me, their topics bland. There was only one voice I wanted to hear, one person that I cared to discuss. That person was across the room. That person also happened to be the firelord, my boss and my best friend. I laughed at myself, who was I to have fallen head over heels for the most important person in the entire nation?

 Sure, the whole world now knew my name thanks to my adventures with the gaang, but I could never escape the fact that only months ago I had been a lowly fire nation deserter hiding in Ba Sing Se. I cringed at the memory. To this day, I still found it hard to believe that I had once been a fire nation soldier. I had run away because I was scared, because I knew what I was fighting for was wrong. After I deserted the rest of my troop, as well as my uniform, I had fled to Ba Sing Se, where I later met Zuko (although, I then knew him by the name Lee) in his uncles tea shop. We were fast friends from the very beginning, sharing late night talks by the water fountain and glances over the rims of tea cups. He had been the very first person I shared my true identity with, and he entrusted his true name to me as well. However, after the fight in the crystal caves below the city, I chose to leave with Aang, Katara, Toph and Sokka. I knew that my destiny was to help the avatar, to help defeat the Sozin,unfortunately that meant leaving the troubled Zuko behind.

 I fit in with the gaang perfectly, exchanging jokes with Sokka, wrestling with Toph, secretly treating Appa every chance I got. Often times, flying through the air on Appa, I found myself thinking of the mysterious Zuko I had met in Ba Sing Se, I missed him. I had briefly attempted to teach Aang firebending, however, it became painfully clear I was not a great teacher. Later, when Zuko showed up at the eastern air temple, I did not hesitate to run into his arms. From that point on, Zuko and I had been inseparable.

 As I finished reminiscing, I realized that the party-goers around me had been asking me questions, silently waiting for a reply. I ushered a quick apology and excused myself. I didn’t belong with them, it was clear to me now who I really belonged with. It had always been Zuko. From when I first saw him, I knew that my heart was already his. I can’t believe it had taken me this long to realize that he was the one. The one that would truly be there for me, the one that would hold me in is arms at the end of the day, the one that would love me for lifetimes.

 I stumbled through the crowds, shoving through the seemingly endless waves of people, ignoring the rude glances I was given. They didn’t matter, nothing did anymore, except for Zuko. I shoved through a particularly dense wall of people and found myself in a clearing. I desperately scanned the crowds for him, face to face, person to person. My eyes landed on a tall figure scrambling through the crowd. It was Zuko! We had apparently had the same idea, his golden eyes scanning the crowd, and I knew it was my face he was looking for. I watched him, transfixed on his every movement. After some struggle, he finally made his way into the clearing.

 He was positively stunning. He wore flattering red robes, traditional firelord attire, that hugged his figure in all of the right places. His hair was up, although he knew I always preferred it down. I scanned his body, my eyes connecting with his. He had been observing, memorizing every inch of me as well. I wanted to say so many things to him, to do so many things to him. I couldn’t stand another moment being apart, and I found myself running forward. I had no plan, I was just desperate for any part of him. He did the same, the two of us rushing toward eachother at an alarming speed. I knew people were staring, I didn’t care. The universe existed just for us. 

 We collided, our lips crashing into eachother. I wrapped my hands around his neck, his hands finding their way to my hips. Lights from the party danced on my eyelids, electricity flowed through my veins. Life should always be like this. What had taken us so long? Zuko’s tongue ran across my bottom lip, asking for entrance. I happily obliged. He began to explore every inch of my mouth and I pulled him closer. The taste of him was addictive, and I found myself never wanting this moment to end, but desperately needing air. I reluctantly pulled away from the kiss, the both of us gasping for breath. I glanced around us, the whole room was staring. I blushed profusely, what would they think of us? What would they think of the firelord dating a deserter-turned-general? I felt a hand grab ahold of my chin, my attention returning to the man standing in front of me. He turned my head so I was staring directly into his eyes. In those endless golden orbs, I could see sadness, guilt and other emotions from his complicated past. I also saw love. I knew it was for me. 

 His eyes left mine to slowly observe my body, staring at my lips for a particularly long time. I let out a giggle, this man had no shame. I also became very aware of the feeling growing between my legs... we needed to get out of here. I grabbed his wrist tightly. “Follow me”. I instructed as I began weaving through the crowd. The longer it took to leave the party, the more impatient I grew. If I didn’t get my hands on Zuko soon, I was going to explode. Zuko’s front stayed pressed to my back as I guided us through the groups of people. My brain became dysfunctional, blurred with arousal. There were so many things I wanted to do to him, I wondered briefly if Zuko was thinking the same thing. After what seemed like forever, the two of us broke through the last of the crowd, finding ourselves in an empty hallway. I had no idea where I was or where to go, so I decided to just pick a door. The first door I opened revealed an empty bedroom with a large bed. I silently gave myself a pat on the back.

I had barely made my way through the door before Zuko had me pressed against the nearest wall. He reached behind my back, smoothly locking the door. I was so turned on, I couldn’t think straight. I grabbed the front of Zuko’s robe, bringing his closer, our noses barely touching. I stared up at him, the firelord looking down at me, as if seeing eachother for the first time. With another tug to his robe, our lips met for the second time that night. This time, the kiss started slow, passionate. I relished every second, but I was becoming impatient. I deepened the kiss, Zuko matching my eager energy. Our teeth clattered, tongues danced. Continuing to press me against the wall, Zuko took off my dress while I kicked off my shoes. I then made a feeble attempt at taking off his robe, failing miserably. He broke our kiss, flung his robe to the floor and returned to my lips hungrily.

  Zuko began vigorously kissing my neck, no doubt leaving bruises. I needed more, rubbing my thighs together to get some relief. Zuko noticed my desperate actions, moving his hands towards my underwear. He roughly slid the palm of his hand along the thin fabric, flawlessly hitting my clit. I whimpered, temporarily collapsing into Zukos chest as my knees threatened to give out. I blushed, it was a little embarrassing knowing the effect this man had on me with a small movement of his hand. I looked up at Zuko, who was smirking at me like he had just won the Olympics. I wanted payback, I wanted to make him scream my name. I composed myself, using what strength I could to push myself off the wall, trading places with the firelord. I pinned his wrists above his head, moving my lips to the edge of his ear. “Hello, Zuko here”, I whispered, mocking the first words he had said to the gaang when he showed up at the air temple. I laughed at my own joke, leaving a bite to his earlobe as I returned to my place in front of him. Zuko began to protest against my teasing, put I firmly wrapped a hand around his throat, silencing him.

 Zuko looked at me, eyes wide and ablaze, trying to anticipate what my next move would be. My hand still around his neck, I took a moment to appreciate the sight in front of me. A thin layer of sweat covered his body, making his abs shine. His hands had found their way to my hips, his arm muscles on display. With each breath, the muscles in his torso moved, somehow making him impossibly more sexy. I was practically drooling. I tightened my grip around his neck, eliciting a whimper. I released his wrists from above his head, using my free hand to touch every piece of skin I had access to. I pressed a quick kiss to Zuko’s lips, biting his bottom lip. I removed my hand from his neck, now using both hands to feel my way down his torso, pressing kisses along the way, as I dropped to my knees. Zuko didn’t take his eyes off me once, and judging by the look in his eyes and the bulge in his underwear, he was enjoying this just as much as I was.

 I wasted no time in ripping off his underwear, releasing his huge dick. Honestly, did I really expect it to be anything big? I wondered briefly if I could even fit my mouth around him. Only one way to find out. I wrapped my lips around him, making my way to the base. Zuko let out an unholy moan steadying himself on my shoulders before entangling his fingers in my hair. His moans turned me on even more and I made it my mission to hear as many as I could. He pulled on my hair and I hummed around his dick in response. “Fuck”, Zuko groaned between gritted teeth. I pulled back, swirling my tongue around the tip and moving a hand to massage his balls. I pulled off completely, looking up at Zuko. He was a mess, eyes closed, cheeks bright red, breathing erotic. The most powerful man in the entire nation was putty in my hands. 

 He looked down at me desperately, no doubt wondering why I stopped. I looked at him through my eyelashes, nodding. I wanted him to face fuck me. Zuko understood, excitedly tightening his grip on my hair. I took him back in my mouth, Zuko beginning to guide my head, starting slow. I removed my hand from his balls, steadying myself with his thighs. His hips picked up speed, becoming more erratic. Tears threatened to roll down my cheeks, loud strings of moans coming from Zukos mouth. My mind blurred, reveling in the glory of being face fucked by the firelord. His thrusts became messy, my name and a multitude of different curses flowing from his lips like a mantra. I opened my throat, eager to swallow. Instead of cumming in my mouth, Zuko pulled my hair roughly, forcing me to my feet. 

 His eyes were dark, clouded with lust. My eyes widened, the confidence from earlier quickly disappearing. His hair had fallen out of his bun, now hanging around his face. I could see tear streaks down his cheeks, his chest heaving. I was breathless, nearing an orgasm at the mere sight of him. He wrapped his hand around my throat, like I had done to him earlier. His hands were by far my new favorite necklace, I made a mental note to tell him that later. He leaned in, lips touching mine, yet not kissing me. “Prepare for the fuck of your life, Y/N” he growled. Any thought I had of questioning his authority over me, fled my mind. I bit my lip, if he wasn’t inside me soon, I was going to throw a fit. Zuko seemed to sense my frustrations and removed his hand from my neck, it felt empty. His hands traveled down my back and to my thighs, preparing to lift me up. All too happily, I jumped into his arms, wrapping my arms around his neck. He walked the two of us over to the bed, never breaking eye contact once.

 He threw me onto the soft mattress, staring down at me hungrily. I became very aware of my body, but instead of shying away from the intimidating man in front of me, I let him look, I trusted him. The wild, erotic Zuko vanished for a few moments, a floppy grin lighting up his face. He grabbed my hips, pulling me to the edge of the bed. Zuko ripped my underwear, burning them to a crisp as he threw them to the floor. I bit my lip once again, he really was going to give me the fuck of my life. He pressed a few kisses to my inner thighs before disappearing between my legs. Before I could even process what I was in for, I felt two fingers inside me and a mouth sucking on my clit. I screamed. “HOLY SHIT, ZUKO!” I arched my back off the bed, pleasure taking over my senses. Zuko continued his movements, pumping his fingers in and out of me, swirling his tongue around my clit. My mind failed to function, Zuko’s name the only thing on my tongue. I tugged on his hair, desperate. He moaned around me in response, sending me into a frenzy. “Zuko! I’m gonna-” He hummed a second time and I cut myself off, moaning erotically.

 The knot in my stomach grew, my orgasm closing in. I tightened my grip on his hair, hanging on for dear life. Zuko curled his fingers, a whole new sensation taking me over the edge. I screamed his name as I came, my back arching impossibly further off the bed. My chest heaving, seeing stars, I realized that Zuko had not stopped, and showed no signs of slowing. His mouth continued to suck on my clit, his curled fingers pounding into me. Tears flowed down my cheeks, the pleasure overwhelming. “Zuko.... I can’t” I whimpered between moans. Zuko ceased his actions, looking up at me from between my legs. His lips were swollen, some of his hair matted to his face. “You want me to stop?” he asked innocently. I looked down at him desperately. He knew full well I didn’t actually want him too. He grinned at me, diving back in. He resumed his actions from before, only his curled fingers pounding into me harder, swirling his tongue around my clit faster. I screamed his name, my second orgasm fast approaching. Zuko’s free hand traveled up to my mouth, tapping on my lips, asking me to suck on two of his fingers. I happily obliged, my throat sore. I tried my best to concentrate on swirling my tongue between his digits, but the pleasure was too much, I couldn’t think. I wrapped my legs around Zuko’s head as my second orgasm hit me like a train. I bit down on his fingers, Zuko’s resulting moan sending vibrations to my core. My legs shook uncontrollably, trying to regain my breath.

 Zuko emerged from between my legs, removing his fingers from my mouth and wiping his lips with the back of his hand as he crawled up my torso. Even though my clit throbbed, I was still incredibly tuned on and I wanted more. I giggled breathlessly as Zuko loomed over me. This man really would be the death of me. I grabbed the back of his neck, quickly pulling him in for a passionate kiss. I could taste myself on his lips, the insatiable need for him growing. He broke from the kiss, cupping my face in his hands as he sat back on his heels. The heated moment morphed into a sweet delicate one as Zuko stared into my eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked softly. My brain, in its current state of messy arousal, struggled to comprehend his words. I finally realized that he was asking for consent...of course he was. I couldn’t control the huge smile that spread across my face, how did I get so lucky?

 I propped myself onto my elbows so I could look into Zuko’s eyes properly. “Im sure”, I replied.”Now, I need you to fuck me, firelord Zuko.” He chuckled lightly, his eyes getting darker. His hands skillfully undid my bra, tossing it to the ground. I had forgotten about the piece of clothing, happy to be rid of it. Zuko attacked my lips once again, groaning slightly as my bare breasts touched his chest. I rolled my hips upwards, Zuko’s cock sliding through my slick folds. I threw my head back, Zuko sitting upright. He looked into my eyes one last time, looking for any signs of hesitation. Zuko growled, low and sexy. “Prepare for the fuck of your life, Y/N”. With that, he started pounding into me, each thrust deep and quick. Any coherent thoughts fled my mind, my back arching off the bed. I screamed his name, struggling to keep my eyes open. I moved my arms to Zuko’s shoulders, electricity shooting through my fingers. I dragged my hands down his back , no doubt leaving scratch marks. Zuko tossed his head back, moaning loudly, thrusting into me harder. At this point, if he became any more sexy, it would be a crime.

 Tears flowed down my cheeks again, my makeup from the party before no doubt a mess. In between my moans and screams, a part of me decided it was my turn to be in control again. I put my hands on his chest, pushing him off of me and to the side. He looked suprsied, while I rushed to crawl on top of him. Somehow, he was still inside of me, and I gave myself a second pat on the back. I smirked down at a wide eyed Zuko, happy with myself. I breifly thought of what it would be like to peg him, before reminding myself of the task at hand. I squeezed my walls around him, Zuko growling in return, his hands flying to my hips. I pulled out slowly, slamming back down. Zuko watched me intently, struggling to keep his eyes open. I realized my chest was fully exposed, no doubt giving him a show as I bounced up at down. I threw my head back in pure ecstasy, bringing my hand behind me to support myself on his knees. Zuko moaned my name, breathing hard. My thighs began to burn, and I questioned how long I could keep this up for. Zuko glanced at me quickly, feeling my pace falter. 

 He sat up, catching me in a heated kiss. I bit his lip, hard. “Hands and knees, now”, He ordered. I did as told, whimpering at Zukos authoritative, rough tone. I felt his hands dig into my hips, probably leaving bruises. I loved it. My breath quickened, waiting for Zuko to fuck me senseless again. I felt him enter me, however, his pace was agonizingly slow. Disappointed, I wiggled my hips, letting him know I wanted him to pick up the pace. Zuko ignored me, relishing in my suffering. He was teasing me. I huffed, about to voice my frustrations. Before I could get the words out, Zuko’s hand covered my mouth, silencing me. At the same time, he slammed into me, pounding into me faster than I could have ever hoped. My eyes rolled back, moaning into Zuko’s hand. My arms, which had been holding me up, gave out and my face was buried into the blankets. My new position deepened Zuko’s thrusts. I cried out, sobbing into his hand and the sheets. He removed his hand from my mouth, instead bringing it down to my clit, furiously rubbing circles. “FUCK, ZUKO!” I screamed. The pleasure was becoming too much, I knew I wouldn't last much longer. Zuko’s moans became louder, his thrusts sloppier. 

 He slammed into me impossibly faster, calling my name. I grabbed the sheets, hanging on for dear life. Pleasure took over every part of my body, all of my senses. I screamed his name one last time, seeing stars as I climaxed, moaning uncontrollably. Zuko came a few seconds afterwards, his cum filling me to the brim. He pulled out, crashing down next to me as I flipped onto my back. Our heavy breathing filled the room, my legs shaking uncontrollably. His hand moved down to rest on my thigh, bringing me back down to earth. We turned our heads to face eachother, breathless. I smiled. “Did we really just do that?” I asked, attempting to process the events that had taken place throughout the night. Zuko was silent beside me, watching me. 

 “I love you.” He told me. He said the phrase so simply, so honestly, I knew I wanted to marry him. I giggled, climbing on to his lap. “I love you too.” I replied breathlessly. I meant it with every part of my being. Love for him filled me up, making me forget about everything else besides the two of us. Whatever shit I had gone through, whatever shit the future was going to throw at me, I knew I would always find my way back to him. My Zuko. I leaned down to kiss him, knowing he understood. He pulled me closer, kissing me passionately. I suddenly pulled back, sitting up. I covered my mouth, realizing something. “What is it?” Zuko asked, concerned. My eyes widened. “I just fucked the firelord and made him my boyfriend”. I confessed to him in a playful tone. He laughed, glowing. Holy shit. This boy was going to be the death of me.

#prince zuko #atla zuko #zuko fanfic #zuko smut #zuko x reader #zuko x reader smut #avatar fanfiction #atla #atla fanfic

[my-major-is-k-howard]

Invisible String

Happy holidays, everyone!! It’s been a while but I thought I would post this as a gift to everyone! I hope you all are staying safe and finding ways to stay positive. You all always brighten my day and I hope this little drabble manages to brighten yours a little more. I hope you all enjoy! 💙💚

Word Count: 4574

———————————————————————

Anne sat on her bed gazing out her window, lost in her thoughts. Her eyes were fixed on the full moon that was rising in the sky, watching it curiously as her mind ran through different scenarios in her head of the moment she would meet her soulmate.

Anne was acutely aware that staying up late and thinking about her soulmate would not make their first meeting come any quicker but it still became a nightly tradition for Anne to stare at the moon and wonder if her soulmate was doing the same thing. 

For a brief moment, Anne broke her staring contest with the moon to look down at her hands. She noticed that she was twirling the red string that was tied to her right pinky around her left index finger, a habit that Anne had formed over the years when she was thinking deeply about something.

Anne tilted her head to the side and smiled happily as she wrapped her physical connection to her soulmate around her finger once more. She thought about the person that was tied to the other end, the only other person that could see the invisible thread besides Anne. Who were they? What hobbies did they have? When was their birthday? Where did they live? Did they think about Anne late at night too?

Anne sighed to herself before checking her clock for the time. Noticing how late it had gotten, Anne reluctantly pulled her blanket over her and laid her head down on her pillow. Unfortunately, she had to be up early the next morning for work which meant she had to grind her daydreaming to halt and catch some sleep. Those thoughts of her soulmate would have to wait until the morning.

~~~

Anne groaned as she rolled over in her bed and tried to muffle the sound of her alarm with her pillow. It worked temporarily until the blaring from her phone grew too loud to ignore. Angrily, Anne threw the covers off of her and reached out to turn off her alarm. 

From there, she slowly got ready for the day, putting a simple outfit together and applying some makeup before getting ready to head to the library. Anne loved working at the library, much to the dismay of her friends who never thought she would enjoy a second of quiet given her generally loud nature. Cleves often joked about how Anne would one day get fired for upsetting her boss by disrupting the peaceful atmosphere with her chaotic tendencies. Anne was determined to prove Cleves wrong. 

Anne actually found the quietness of the library relaxing, especially when taking in the wealth of knowledge lining the shelves. The only downside to working at the library was her grumpy boss that always seemed to be looking for a reason to punish Anne and assign her menial tasks. The last time she had upset her boss, she had been assigned to customer service for the week to deal with the many complaints that were brought to her.  

Anne shook her head and stared at her reflection in her bathroom mirror, appraising her appearance before grabbing her phone and keys. She looked to her clock and silently cursed when she saw that she was roughly ten minutes behind schedule. Not wanting to be late, Anne rushed out of her apartment and onto the street.

As Anne sped walked to the library, she couldn’t help but smile when she noticed her red string leading in the same direction that she was walking. She followed the thread’s path, thinking to herself about how amazing it would be if she finally met the person on the other end of the string. Anne contemplated briefly just following the string until she found her soulmate but quickly shook that thought out of her mind. Her boss would not only fire her if she did that but also probably hire a hitman to take her out silently.

Anne shuddered at the thought as she rounded the corner, finally seeing the entrance to the library loom before her. When she got closer, Anne did a double take as she peered more intently at the doors, not believing her eyes when she noticed a little red string leading into the library.

Anne let out a shocked gasp when she realized her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her and were actually seeing her soulmate thread leading up the steps to the library. Anne all but stumbled up the stairs in excitement, unable to control herself at the thought of finally meeting her soulmate. 

She burst through the doors and smiled widely when she saw the invisible string trail over to the classics section of the library. Anne was about to follow her thread of fate when she regrettably heard her name get called by her extra grumpy-looking boss.

“Anne Boleyn!” her boss shouted, disrupting the peaceful quiet of the library. “Come here now!”

“This could not be worse timing,” Anne spat under her breath as she approached her boss, glancingly longingly to the classics where her red string led.

“Do you want to explain why you are fifteen minutes late?” her boss questioned accusingly while crossing his arms.

“Listen, I’m sorry. I was running behind schedule and didn’t have the chance to catch a cab,” Anne reasoned shooting a glance back at the direction of the classics.

“That’s no excuse,” her boss deadpanned. “You’re lucky I haven’t fired you yet for being such a pathetic excuse of an employee. You’ve earned yourself cataloguing duties today for your unexcused tardiness.”

“Yes, sir,” Anne managed to mumble out through gritted teeth. Her eyes dropped to the red string tied to her pinky. Maybe she could just take a few minutes and find her soulmate without her boss noticing.

“Now, Boleyn. The cataloguing is not going to do itself.” Her boss shut down those hopes in an instant. Anne knew that his focus would be solely on her for the rest of her shift, waiting for her to mess up so he would finally have a reason to fire her.

“Yes, sir,” Anne mumbled and walked in the direction of the cataloguing equipment. Of all the passive-aggressive punishments Anne received, cataloguing was by far her least favorite. On top of being boring, she was secluded from the rest of the library and confined to a small desk in one of the out-of-the-way corners. At least with customer service, Anne had people to interact with, even if they were usually angry moms. Cataloguing was just downright depressing.

As she walked towards the cataloguing desk, Anne shot one last glance towards the classics section. When she realized that the string was no longer leading that way, she stopped and looked around for where her soulmate had gone. Her heart dropped when she saw the string leading out the entrance of the library. Anne had come so close to meeting her soulmate only for her dreams to be crushed in a swift turn of events.

For the rest of her shift, Anne sulked in her desk chair, thinking of what might have been if she had just arrived to work fifteen minutes earlier. Anne didn’t twirl her red thread of fate and think about her soulmate like she usually did during her shifts. Instead she cursed herself for an endless list of reasons that had prevented her from finding her soulmate, possibly forever.

~~~

“Anne, you’ll find your soulmate again!” Kat encouraged Anne from her spot next to her on the couch. “If they checked out a book, they’ll have to return it eventually.”

“But it probably won’t be during my shift,” Anne complained, slumping further into the cushions as she grabbed another cookie from the table in front of her. “And even if it was, my boss will find another way to ruin my life. Again.” Anne took a bite of the cookie angrily.

“Have you tried bringing your boss coffee in the mornings?” Kat asked with a hopeful look on her face. “That sometimes works! In movies, at least.” Kat mumbled the last part under her breath before flashing Anne one of her signature smiles.

“Kitty, I love you for trying to fix my relationship with my evil boss but I could literally fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool with coffee for him and he would still hate me with every fiber of his body,” Anne lamented dramatically.

“Why don’t you just quit if you hate him so much?” Kat asked, clearly confused by Anne’s stubbornness in continuing to work at the library if she was so miserable.

Anne sighed. “Because I really like working at the library. Sure, my boss sucks and makes me do the worst jobs but being surrounded by books from so many perspectives and eras is inspiring. On the same book shelf, there can be a novel written in 1899 by a white woman empowering the independence of women from men and an autobiography by a Muslim woman recounting her activism for female education under the Pakistani Taliban. That’s incredible! And every time I check out a book that someone is reading, I have hope that the knowledge hidden within those pages will be passed on from author to reader.” Anne finished her speech with a huff. As much as she loved working at the library, it still didn’t change the fact that she had missed her only chance at meeting her soulmate.

“Well, I’m sure your soulmate would agree with that. You said they were looking in the classics section, right? That means they’re probably super smart,” Kat said in a light tone, hoping to finally break Anne out of her spell of sadness.

“And I’ll probably never see them again,” Anne replied despondently before looking to Kat with a small smile. “At least I have you. We can just move in together and forget about finding soulmates. Who needs them anyway?”

Kat smiled nervously. “Actually… about that…”

“Don’t tell me that you found your soulmate,” Anne whined and threw her head back in despair. “I’m destined to be alone forever!” 

“No, you’ll find your soulmate eventually!” Kat exclaimed, preventing Anne from getting lost in her depressing thoughts. “I’m sure they’ll show up when you’re not even looking.”

Anne smiled weakly. “Thanks, Kat. I don’t believe you but your faith in me is comforting.”

“Anytime, Anne,” Kat responded, thankful for any victory in cheering Anne up no matter how small. “How about we watch a movie together! I’ll make us some popcorn!”

Anne smiled as she watched Kat run off to put a bag of popcorn in the microwave. She was thankful to have such a kind-hearted person as her cousin. Kat was always there for her when she needed her and comforted her when she was feeling down. Who needed a soulmate when there was someone like Kat in the world?

Kat stayed with Anne for the rest of the day, making sure that she was alright before Anne finally convinced her to go home. After Kat left, Anne started to get ready for bed, determined to get a full night of rest so she didn’t arrive late to work again. She changed into her pajamas and flopped onto her bed, pulling her covers over her. 

Though before Anne closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, she looked out of her window to the moon that was casting its soft light into her room. Anne wondered for a moment how different her life would’ve turned out if she had met her soulmate that morning in the library. She heaved a sigh at the thought and looked down to her red string, twirling it once around her finger before letting it drop. Maybe Kat was right. Maybe her soulmate would show up when she least expected it.

Anne finally let her head drop onto her pillow and closed her eyes, waiting for her dreams to take over. She hoped that they would be pleasant dreams of unicorns and rainbows rather than nightmares of losing her soulmate before she had even found them.

~~~

Anne awoke to the sound of her alarm and immediately threw her covers off of her and slid out of bed. She swiftly turned off her alarm and got ready for the day. After adding a few final touches to her makeup, Anne deemed herself ready to leave with a final glance in the mirror. 

Without missing a beat, Anne scooped up her keys and phone and left her apartment. She was greeted by the warm sunshine as she stepped outside, which brought a small smile to her face. The morning sun always made her walk to the library much more pleasant, putting her in a good mood as she ascended the stairs to the library’s entrance.

However, her good mood immediately evaporated when she saw her boss lingering by the entrance, a scowl appearing on his face as he noticed Anne approaching him.

“Boleyn, you’re early today,” her boss commented as he placed the books he was holding in the return bin next to him.

“Yes, sir. I learned my lesson yesterday,” Anne responded, forcing a smile onto her lips albeit painfully.

“Wonderful,” her boss muttered sarcastically. “You’re shelving books today. And just because you came in early doesn’t mean you get to slack off. You’d better start shelving right away.”

“Yes, sir,” Anne replied, holding back a sigh of relief that she was shelving books instead of cataloguing. Shelving books was actually one of her favorite jobs to do, since she got to see what books had been checked out recently. It was interesting to find out which books were more popular than others and which were diamonds in the rough. Anne had actually found a few lesser known books she had thoroughly enjoyed through this task.

After a few trips around the library placing books back on shelves, Anne came across her first book that belonged in the classics section. It was a compilation of Emily Dickinson poems, a book that Anne was immediately interested in. Anne had always been a huge poetry nerd, loving the aspects of both reading and writing such eloquent poems.

Anne shook her head to clear her thoughts and looked up from the book, searching the bin for a few more books belonging to the classics section of the library before making her way to return them to their spots on the shelves.

As she walked down the aisle to the classics, Anne felt her heart sag in her chest as she remembered how her red string had trailed to this area of the library the day before. Her soulmate had been standing just a few paces away from where Anne was walking now. Anne longed to turn back time to the day before and make this same trip, following her thread of fate to finally see her soulmate for the first time. But instead, Anne was doomed to the reality that she had blown her chance and her wishful thinking changed nothing about how the events had actually unfolded.

Anne sighed to herself, shoulders slumping down as she entered the first aisle to deposit a few books in their place. As Anne bounced bath and forth putting away the classics she was holding, she noticed one person arrive and begin looking around at the selection on the shelves. Anne watched the woman momentarily before sliding another book onto the shelf in front of her.

She was absolutely breathtaking, with her curly brown hair framing the sides of her face and those intelligent-looking eyes intently reading over the titles of the books in front of her. Her lips were pursed tightly together, clearly focused on finding a specific book from the shelf. Her fingers trailed along the spines of the books as she read their names, gingerly touching each one before passing onto the next.

Anne stared at the woman in awe, completely captivated by her every movement. Not only was she jaw-droppingly gorgeous, she was also in the poetry classics section which was a huge win in Anne’s book. After a few moments of admiring her, Anne’s gaze dropped to the final book in her hands, scared that the girl would catch her staring and think she was some creep.

Anne smiled when she noticed that the last book was the collection of Emily Dickinson. She also realized that the location of the book was right around where the pretty woman was scouring the shelves. Anne shot a shy glance in the girl’s direction and noticed something she hadn’t seen the first time she looked at her.

Anne did a quick doubletake and did her best to restrain a loud gasp when she finally realized that the red string tied to the woman’s hand was not a figment of her imagination but actually quite real. And Anne could see it! Anne’s soulmate was standing right in front of her. Anne’s soulmate came back.

Without a second to lose, Anne crossed the distance between them, lingering a couple steps away before clearing her throat. “Excuse me,” Anne whispered out shyly, suddenly becoming very nervous to introduce herself to her soulmate.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” the girl apologized without looking at Anne, shuffling to the side so that Anne could get a better view of the shelf.

“Um, I was actually wanting to… talk to you,” Anne answered as she looked down and shuffled with the book in her hands.

The woman finally looked away from the shelf and turned to Anne with a curious expression on her face. However, the curiosity melted away and was replaced with a look of recognition as the woman’s jaw dropped in shock. “It’s you.”

“It’s… me?” Anne tilted her head in confusion. Anne was certain this was the first time they had met. But then, why did her soulmate recognize her.

“You’re my soulmate,” the girl whispered softly. She lightly twirled the red string that tied them together around her finger and slowly trailed it toward Anne���s end. She stopped about halfway between them before dropping the string and looking back to Anne with a small smile.

“Yeah,” Anne breathed out as she slowly looked up from their red thread of fate. “But, what? How…?” Anne was at a loss for words.

“I saw you yesterday,” her soulmate admitted. “You were talking with your boss. I wanted to say something but I was too nervous to talk to you. And plus your boss didn’t seem that… friendly.”

Anne chuckled. “Yeah, he’s not my biggest fan. I’m just lucky he’s having me shelve books today instead of cataloguing for the rest of eternity.” Anne held up the sole book in her hands so that her soulmate could see it.

The girl laughed as her eyes trailed to the book Anne was holding. Her eyes lit up when she saw the cover. “Hey! That’s the book I was looking for!” She reached out to take the book from Anne and she obliged with a smile. “It wasn’t here yesterday but I wanted to check again today.”

“I’m hoping that wasn’t the only reason you came back,” Anne said with a shy smile, hope glistening in her eyes.

Anne’s soulmate returned her smile with one of her own. “Well, there’s also this really cute librarian that works here. She has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen in my life and a gorgeous smile that lights up the room. She’s been on my mind since I saw her yesterday, getting yelled at by her boss. Maybe you know her?”

Anne blushed profusely at her soulmate’s words but managed to recover just in time to reply with a quip of her own. “I know her quite well actually. Her name’s Anne Boleyn and she loves reading all sorts of books, which is why she decided to work at a library. I also know that she’s been waiting her entire life to meet her soulmate and she’s happier than she’s ever been in her life right now.”

It was her soulmate’s turn to blush this time. “That’s really sweet, Anne.”

Anne smiled victoriously as she saw her soulmate’s cheeks heat up. “So, can I get your name, love?”

The girl’s eyes widened as her blush deepened, realizing she hadn’t introduced herself yet. “Yes! Sorry! I’m Catherine Parr, but most people call me Cathy.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cathy,” Anne said, savoring the feeling of her soulmate’s name rolling off her tongue. She could definitely get used to saying it.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too-” Cathy began but was cut off by another voice.

“Anne Boleyn! Stop slacking off and get back shelving books! You’ll be lucky if I don’t fire you after this shift for your misbehavior.” Anne’s boss suddenly appeared in the aisle behind Anne, who turned to see the man standing with his arms crossed and a condescending look on her face.

Before she could apologize, Cathy cut in with her own response. “Oh, I’m sorry, sir! She was just helping me find a book. I didn’t mean to distract her from her job.” Cathy turned her attention back to Anne. “What was that book you were telling me about?”

Anne’s eyes flashed with relief before replying, “It’s a collection of poems from the Harlem Renaissance. It’s one of my favorites.” Anne turned to her boss and ducked her head in apology. “I’ll get right back to shelving books after I find this woman the book I was recommending, sir.”

Her boss grumbled to himself before nodding curtly and walking away. Anne let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding until he left. She looked back to Cathy with a huge smile. “Thank you for that. You probably saved me from a month’s worth of customer service duty.”

Cathy giggled at Anne’s way of thanking her. “You’re welcome! Now, do you want to show me that book on the Harlem Renaissance?”

Anne nodded and quickly led Cathy to the right aisle and pulled out the book. She handed it to Cathy with a grin. “My shift ends in an hour and a half if you want to go somewhere after.” Anne bit her lip nervously, hoping that Cathy wouldn’t reject her.

Much to her relief, Cathy smiled warmly and nodded. “I would love to.”

“Awesome! That’s great!” Anne replied excitedly, staring back at Cathy for a few seconds as they both took in the other as their moment of silence stretched longer.

“You should probably get back to shelving books before your boss yells at you again,” Cathy remarked, breaking the comfortable silence. “I’ll be in the reading section when your shift is over.”

“Yeah! Okay!” Anne stuttered out. “I’ll see you later.” Before Anne could think about what she was doing, she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Cathy’s cheek, leaving both girls blushing as Anne pulled away. “Bye!”

Cathy bit her lip before breathing out a small “bye” as she watched Anne walk off to continue shelving books.

Anne spent the rest of her shift running back and forth, depositing books back in their places on the shelves. Though, a few times Anne took the long way to her destination just so she could walk by the reading section and take a few moments to watch Cathy read. Anne’s heart fluttered when she noticed that Cathy was now wearing reading glasses. She didn’t know it was even possible but Cathy’s frames made her even cuter to Anne as she read one of Langston Hughes’ poems from the book Anne had picked out for her. 

The final 90 minutes of Anne’s shift passed incredibly slowly, which only made Anne even more excited when it finally ended. She signed out of her shift mere seconds after it ended and sped directly to the table where Cathy was intently reading another poem from the Harlem Renaissance collection. In fact, she was so focused on the page in front of her that she didn’t even notice Anne slide into the seat in front of her.

Anne picked up on this and took a few moments to admire her soulmate. Her heart started beating a little quicker and she felt butterflies erupt in her stomach when it finally sunk in that Cathy was really her soulmate. Anne silently declared herself the luckiest person in the world to have someone like Cathy as a soulmate.

“You are so much more beautiful than I ever could’ve imagined,” Anne blurted out before her eyes widened as she realized she had said that thought out loud. 

Cathy looked up from her book with a little smile. “I could say the same thing.”

Anne ducked her head to hide the color creeping into her cheeks and cleared her throat. “Um, do you like the book so far?” Anne gestured to the poem collection in Cathy’s hands.

“Yeah! It’s amazing!” Cathy responded ecstatically. “You have really good taste in poetry.”

“So do you!” Anne pointed out and glanced at the Emily Dickinson collection lying on the table. “I love Emily Dickinson!”

An annoyed shush caused the couple to jump in their seats. They ducked their heads sheepishly when they realized how loud and disruptive they were being.

“Maybe we should get going now,” Anne suggested.

“Maybe we should,” Cathy agreed.

The two queens got up from the table and made their way hand-in-hand out of the library. Anne shot a quick glance at their intertwined fingers and smiled when she saw the red string hanging below their hands, swinging back and forth as they walked. Anne had spent so many years twirling that red thread by herself, longing to do what Anne was doing in that moment. Longing to hold hands with her soulmate. Longing to smile and laugh with her soulmate. Longing to kiss her soulmate. Longing to build a future with her soulmate.

A rush of emotions overtook Anne for a moment as all of her midnight daydreams came back to mind, suddenly much more vivid and only an arms-reach away. She stopped walking and squeezed Cathy’s hand to get her attention. Cathy turned back to her with concern in her eyes, noticing the near-desperate look on Anne’s face.

“Is everything okay-” Cathy was cut off by a pair of lips being pressed desperately to hers. Cathy smiled into the kiss before melting into the slow rhythm and movement of their lips. Anne tenderly brought her free hand to Cathy’s cheek, slowly caressing it as she pulled away.

“Sorry, I just-” Anne started but was cut off by Cathy.

“Don’t apologize!” Cathy pressed her forehead to Anne’s gently. “I’ve been waiting my whole life to do that.”

Anne blinked slowly as she took a second to treasure the special moment that she had just shared with Cathy. They had just shared their first kiss, the first of many Anne hoped. 

Anne sighed happily and pulled away from Cathy, bringing their intertwined hands up to her lips and pressing a light kiss to the back of Cathy’s. Anne’s eyes darted momentarily to their red thread of fate which was no longer red anymore. A glistening gold had mysteriously replaced the crimson red it was before. 

Anne’s eyes trailed up from the string to meet Cathy’s soft gaze. They both let a grin take over their features before Anne finally broke the silence between them.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for you.”   

#parrlyn #parrelyn #parrlyn fanfic #six the musical #six the musical fanfic #anne boleyn #catherine parr #anne boleyn x catherine parr

[greekbros]

"greek-Bros: The Return of an Old Enemy"

Chapter 9: The 'War' Room

It was approximately high noon, the Dionysian Games were at their peak, all was well for the residents of Delphi except for one. Dionysus was in his competitors tent near the game field, explaining to Hermes the whole situation. Dionysus had agreed to a challenge that had now put Delphi and Ariadne in a compromising situation, if Ares won the joust he would take everything from the land to sleeping with his beloved wife.

Dionysus was laying on a pile of pillows, deeply remorseful of his string of terrible decisions. "I can't believe I would put Ariadne in this situation I really am like dad!", he sobbed, "WHY the fuck did I even agree to this?!", he continued while crying into his pillow. Hermes sat next to him, patting his back trying to comfort him. He couldn't care too much about how it all happened but he had an idea on how he was going to help.

Hermes laid down on the pillows and let out a relaxed sigh, he already had the plan all mapped out. "Dionysus, you know very well even if Ares does win...I'm not letting him screw you and Ariadne. By the way....is he using his OWN horses for this?", he asked. Ares's chariot was pulled by a trio of horses that would be best described as literal Night Mares, these mystical fire breathing war horses are fast, aggressive and can pull a lot more than Ares's weight.

Dionysus turned, sniffling, "....I'm not sure why?", now he was curious as to what Hermes was planning, "why? What are you going to do?". He was desperate to find some way of winning. It would be devastating if Ariadne found out she was going to be a prize for Ares and lose her kingdom let alone have her husband lose a challenge he decided to enter.

Hermes gave a smirk, inspite of current events he always knew how to make time for anything. "Well, I remember correctly....his horses are pretty tough....if he is using his horses, I could let them out....replace them with some of the horses from here.....I mean...how does wine effect horses.... especially ones that....breath fire?", he asked with a sly grin. He leaped up, pacing back and forth. "We could.....get him drunk, throw him off his game...or...we can go a little more further.", he turned to Dionysus for some approval.

Dionysus was catching on with Hermes's plan. He stood up, "...yeah.....I see where you're going with this....yeah.....but how are we going to get the horses to drink the wine? I mean....you can't just lead a horse to water....also....what if an animal that BREATHES fire....wine is flammable you know...". The two were brainstorming, thinking of ways Ares could be sabotaged. Their brain power would get a boost in the form of someone outside. The two heard the familiar but eloquently frustrated voice of Apollo, demanding to see Dionysus. Dionysus rushes to the tent entrance and opens to see Apollo, talking to one of the satyrs guarding the tent. "Hey man how's it hanging?", Dionysus chimed.

Apollo turned around and the look on his face spoke a thousands that all could translate to "What the HELL did I tell you?!". He marched towards Dionysus, pushes him gently back into the tent to yell at him. "WHY IS THERE AN EVENT GOING ON?!?", he shouted, "I thought I told you to hold off on any parties or anything to make sure the people are safe from what's been going on!". He almost couldn't believe that Dionysus would go the point of risking the Delphians for the sake of having fun.

Dionysus slunked into himself like a turtle going into his shell. "W-well Apollo ol'pal...ugh....wow you are NOT going to believe what else....ugh...Ares is here too....aaaaaand I'm in trouble.....more specifically.... Ariadne is in trouble.", he tried to soften the news but even he knew it wasn't going to quell Apollo's mild fury.

Hermes stepped into help in his own way, "Yeah Dionysus bet his wife, Delphi itself and his patronship of Delphi to Ares if he lost.", successfully making the situation far worse. Apollo's usually fare glowingly pale face was slowly glowing a burning fiery orange with anger, it became hotter in the tent, melting any wax candles and drying any leaves from fruits inside. "Come on Apollo, are you really going to get mad inside of this highly flammable tent with your two favorite brothers in mine?", Hermes charmed Apollo. The hot glow dimmed back into the cooler pale tone he usually had, he knew no matter how angry he got it would be pointless to lose his temper.

Apollo took a deep sigh, sat down to further collect himself. ".....ok...now...what do you plan on doing then?", he asked. He could see both Dionysus and Hermes had a plan, and he knew he wasn't going to like it. "Oh good....it seems you both have something cooked up.", he begrudgingly assumed.

The two stood there looking at Apollo, Hermes walked to a table that had a bottle of wine. "Let's just say, Ares isn't going to drive his chariot straight if his HORSES have been drinking....oh..ugh....DID you see his horses?", he asked. Apollo nodded 'yes', so unfortunately, the plan of forcing Ares's horses to drink the wine would pose a challenge. "Ok, so....we will have to feed the horses something else....spiked fruit?", he suggested. The two looked at Hermes, both couldn't argue against the idea yet they found it to be a usable one.

Dionysus chimed in, "yeah I think I have some marinated apples somewhere. We could feed it to his horses if they don't drink the wine.", he left the tent to look for some at a food tent nearby, leaving the two brothers alone.

Apollo knew that Hermes wasn't here just to enjoy watching Dionysus's fake Olympic games, he had been watching what had been going on in Greece. "Hermes, now that we're alone. What have you seen as of late? Is what I've heard from Artemis true?", Apollo was referring to the wolf man that Hermes and Artemis had encountered. He had recently come in contact with Artemis, whom had come to him to ask about Zeus's whereabouts.

His mischievous demeanor calmed into a somber awareness. Hermes took a deep sigh, he got distracted with Dionysus's issue. He turned to Apollo, "yeah, it was pretty freaky...the thing didn't die on the first shot either. I haven't seen them appear during the day though. I think these creatures only come out of night.", he took off hat hat and scratched his head. "Dionysus was getting a lot of complaints....guess people here can't stand still for long....I can see why he caved in, he doesn't want to disappoint anyone....I can relate, buuuuut honestly the whole situation feels weird.". Hermes felt mildly uncomfortable about his encounter, he had been so use to seeing things die and stay dead, that it had never occurred to him that something could reanimate.

Apollo's stern face loosened up, "Well.....he always seems to listen to his mortal citizens more than me so I'm not sure why I always act surprised.", he relaxed a little but noticed Hermes a little bit worried, "Are you ok? Artemis did mention you didn't take too well to the.... creature.". He could see Hermes look like a someone who saw something he shouldn't.

"it's ok", Hermes replied, "....I just prefer dead things to be dead....that's all.". He turned to the shuffling tent wall and sees Dionysus come in with a jar of fruit pickled in wine. "Ah perfect Dio, I'll take the fruit and wine. Wait here and I'll handle the rest.", Hermes took the jar and an amphora of wine and jetted off, leaving Dionysus and Apollo in the tent.

Dionysus turned to Apollo, "sooooo........ugh....hehe, have you seen the games? Man the folks out there are having fun.", he tried to make it as if he wasn't caring about his dilemma but there was no point, "man I fucked up big time..... fucking Ares, the asshole.... should have asked for someone who wouldn't want to fuck Ariadne.....man I'm a terrible husband.", he slumped on to a pile of pillows. He was still worried about the joust, he was worried about losing Ariadne's trust in him, and above all he was worried if he resembled Zeus in the worst way possible. Dionysus let out a deep sigh, "guess I really am my dad's kid..."

Apollo could hear the hurt in Dionysus's voice, he got closer to him and placed his hand on his back. "Look, you messed up even for your standards.....but you're not a terrible husband, you two are young newlyweds, you've been married for a short amount time and mistakes happen.... don't be THAT hard on yourself. There's still time to fix things....does she know about the bet?", asked Apollo.

"No...she doesn't....and I don't want her to know about ANY of it. If I lose, I lose everything that's important to me....if I win...well...I have yet to see Ares be a good sport about losing....for all I know he'll tell her out of spite", Dionysus replied.

"Oh come now, Ares is a difficult person for sure and he's unbarable at times....but I doubt he will be that level of cruelty. Maybe he was just exaggerating...after all the man is the father of Fear and Terror himself, he would know a thing or two about making people fear him." Apollo reassured him. "Plus, I have no doubt Ariadne would forgive you. You've done quite a lot for her if you remember, she knows you love her and you'd end the world for her.", Apollo hoped his words would at least inspire Dionysus not to consider himself a failure of a husband. After all, he along with Hades, have seemed to have rather successful marriages and to compare one's marriage to Zeus's marriage is surly a blow to one's heart and soul let alone their ego.

Dionysus looked at Apollo and smiled, "....thanks....but I just don't want to mess up anyway.", he got up and took a quick peek outside to see how far into the games the people had gotten through. Unfortunately time wouldn't be on their side, it had seems the Delphians had gone through the whole games and have already started giving out makeshift medals. "GAH! THE GAMES ARE ALMOST DONE!", he loudly panicked, he ran towards the set of armor that he set aside so he can put on for the joust, "OH GODS IM FUCKED! Hermes better be done with what he was doing!", he quickly put on his armor.

"I'll go and distract Ares then, see if I can change his mind about the bet, good luck out there Dionysus.", Apollo quickly left Dionysus in the tent.

"Bye see you later.", Dionysus responded.

Elsewhere, Hermes was at a temporary stable where the horses for the joust. Hermes snuck into the stables in hopes no one noticed him. He looked around and could see Ares's three huge, scary looking chariot horses, he slowly tiptoed to them. The horses noticed his presence, these weren't friendly horses, these horses might as well have been the horses of straight from King Augeas's stable. Hermes took a bowl and pored the wine into it, he raised it to the opening of the stable up to the three horses. In a whispered voice, "...hey there buddies, you want something to take the edge off? Come on, it should smell irresistible.", Hermes was hoping the sweet smelling wine would attract their attention, one of the horses did I fact take a sip from the bowl. It drank the whole thing in a few sips, letting out a loud delighted whinny.

"Hehe, perfect.", Hermes poured another bowl to see if he could give more wine, the same horse drank the wine while the second horse became curious and took a few sips as well. Now all was left was to get the third horse hooked on the wine, but the third horse was different, this one was a stubborn mare that lead the trio while they pull the chariot. She wasn't going to fall for the wine as easily. Hermes took a quick peak at the mare, "c'moooooon, what gives?", he could see she was all the way in the corner, glaring at him while her brothers fought to take the last few sips. As Hermes poured the last of wine into the bowl, he went to take out a wine soaked pealed apple from the jar. He gently tossed to the mare, the other two horses could smell the wine on the apple and tried to go right for it, but the mare reared her head, snorting aggressively. The two other horses stopped, the mare sniffed the apple and took a small nibble.

It took a few seconds for the mare to understand why this apple was spicy, however, she seemed to have liked the spiked fruit and ate it in one bite. She clopped towards Hermes, intimidating him for more apples, he quickly obliged and held the jar to the mare. She shoved her muzzle into the jar, eating a few more bits of alcoholic fruit. Hermes wasn't satisfied yet, he left the jar with the mare and he quickly ran to get two more amphoras of wine. He quickly began to pore more wine for all three horses, the more the three sipped, the relaxed and tipsy they acted. The three swayed back and forth, bumping into each other, loudly snorting and whinnying.

Plan A, was a success. Hermes patted the three horses snouts, knowing damn well he would never have a chance to do this with Ares's horses ever again. "Ok, bye bye.", he darted off to see what Ares was doing, unfortunately, he was more focused than ever, he was now for some reason practicing using his sword on an innocent tree as if he was going to fight Dionysus to the death. "What the fuck is he doing, he isn't going to kill dionysus is he?", Hermes questioned to himself. He suddenly saw Apollo call out to Ares, wanting to have a conversation with him. "Ah oh, this is going to be good....or really bad.", Hermes hoped Apollo was going to help.

End of chpr 9

#greek bros #greek-Bros #greek mythology #dionysus #ares #apollo #hermes #short story #greek bros: the return of an old enemy #hellenistic #blood of zeus #hades supergiant

[sasuhinasno1fan]

The cursed statue- Luktober Day 2

I know the stories are supposed Luka centered and I hope this is centered around him but I’m a little worried it’s not. Let me know. This prompt came from @write-it-motherfuckers, whoes prompts I’ve been using for a few ML stories I’ve written. I can’t help it, they’re good. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.” Curse

It wasn’t often that Adrien got drunk, but it had been quite some time since he and his friends managed to get some time together like this. The group of them had gotten rather pleasantly tipsy when they came down to see him and were now enjoying dancing around and giggling hysterically in the rain, most of the dreary little town, already shut for the day. He would probably wouldn’t be hearing the end of it when it came to him and his friends loud obnoxious singing, not for some time at least. There weren’t many people under fifty in this town and complaining was practically an Olympic sport around here.

As Adrien passed through the old park, one of them noticed the large old statue, partially hidden, just a little way off the beaten track. No one in town quite knew its origin, but it had been there as long as the town had been, and it was doing no harm where it was. Most chose to ignore the bizarre nameless statue.

One of his friends whistled appreciatively at the figure and they all laughed, dancing and stumbling their way into the tiny clearing. Adrien’s friends started joking around, eventually convincing him to climb up onto the statues base and give it a kiss. Drunk and enjoying being silly and carefree for once, he gave a dramatic bow and clumsily climbed up the slippery base, his friends hooting and whistling at him the whole way. 

Reaching the statue, his friends cheered and teased him over their height differences, laughing as he only flipped them off. Wrapping his arms around the statue’s neck, he paused briefly, finally noticing how sad the statue looked up close, its face partially concealed from any other position. Something about it made his heart twinge painfully. Shaking the surprisingly sober thought off, he used his grip around its neck to stand on the tips of his toes, kissing the slightly bent over figure directly on their cold unyielding lips.

Instantaneously, lighting struck somewhere else in the park, disturbingly close by, the following boom of thunder loud enough to make his ears hurt. His friends shouted and screeched in alarm, before running back onto the path, laughing loudly, headed the short distance back to his place. Unfortunately, they were all too drunk and giggly to notice that he hadn’t followed.

Having been startled by the thunder as well, he lost his footing on the slippery base of the statue. He barely managed to fall an inch before a powerful arm was locking around him, lifting him just enough to keep his feet off of the slick ground. 

Wide eyed, he snapped his gaze back up, shocked to find himself meeting the wonder filled aqua blue gaze of what had previously been a statue. Now they were flesh and bone, their skin and hair soft against his hold, his arms still locked around their neck. They seemed in awe of him, and in full honesty, the feeling went both ways. There was no question that their beauty was beyond human, their now living form radiating with power and grace and their eyes tugging at something deep inside him.

“Thank you.” a calming voice said, escaping the person in front of him. The rain was starting to weigh down his dark hair, the blue tones in it shining in the moonlight. He gently pulled one hand away from his neck, his warm lips pressing a kiss onto Adrien’s hand. Adrien’s eyes just caught a snake tattoo wrapped around his wrist, the head just resting on the bottom of his hand.

Adrien was sure he had a million questions, but the alcohol in his brain and the sudden appearance of the man, cause that what he was, had made his brain mush. He then heard voices, familiar ones. It sounded like his friends finally noticed he wasn’t with them and he had the only key to his apartment.

He felt his other hand being taken off of the guy in front of him and was gently pushed back. Not to knock him off, but to encourage him to step down safely. He did so, his eyes not really leaving the aqua blue eyes that had his locked. He watched the guy come down as well, his white shirt flat against his body mildly distracting him.

“Goodbye.” He said before he turned and walked away.

Adrien stood there staring at the figure as it disappeared in the rain when he felt a firm hand on his back.

“Woah, dude. Did the lightening fry the statue?” Nino asked, dazedly looking at where the statue had once stood.

“No. I’m cold, let’s go.”

                                              _______________

Adrien was right about the town’s residents not letting the singing at early hours ago. He’d taken his friends to eat at his favourite café, one that wasn’t hounded by those living there and he happened the bump into one of the more influential members. If it wasn’t for his life with his father before he moved here, he wouldn’t have found a way to end the conversation quickly and move on.

“My head is pounding.” Marinette groaned, as she tried to become one with the table top. Kagami didn’t look any better, a change in her usual quiet and calm demeanour. Nino was surprisingly ok, but Adrien played that off to his usual late nights as a DJ.

“Tell me they have coffee.” Alya begged, flipping through the menu.

“It’s before 12 pm, so it’s bottomless.” Adrien said, watching them perk up. He’d be happy too, but his mind was still on what happened last night. He kissed that statue and then it came to life. Had he just imagined it? It would be his luck that a guy who looked as perfect as that guy did, enchanting blue eyes, dark hair and a practically perfect face, would be a figment of his imagination.

“M. Agreste?” Adrien looked to see another influential member of the community standing next to his chair, practically glaring at the whole table. “When you came to this town, we welcomed you after hearing about your life with your father. You told us you wouldn’t cause any trouble. The minute your friends arrived, we have loud, raucous laughter and singing at early hours of the morning and now a beloved statue is missing. M. Agreste, I truly hope you have nothing to do with that.”

Missing statue? “The one off the hidden path?”

“Yes.”

Had he not been dreaming? “I don’t think even drunk me has the power to pull an old statue. Neither could my friends.”

The woman narrowed her eyes before letting out a huff. “I had better not hear anything about you getting into trouble.”

“Rude.” Alya said, watching the woman walk away. “What statue is she talking about?”

“The one you guys drunkenly dared me to kiss last night? I didn’t say anything cause I was pretty sure I was so far gone it couldn’t be real, but I think it had to be now.” His friends all leaned in to listen to what he had to say. “Remember when I kissed it and that lightning and thunder suddenly flashed?”

“We kinda turned tail and headed back to your place.” Nino said.

“I know.  When you guys did, I almost fell but I didn’t cause something grabbed me. That statue, I think it came to life. Like actual flesh and bone. He thanked me, helped me down and then left.”

They all looked disbelieving – understandable – but Nino remembered what he said.

“I asked if the lighting had messed it up.”

“It was kinda like in a movie, when something magical happens and thunder and lightning crash?”

“So, what do you know about the statue?” Kagami asked.

“That’s the thing. I don’t know anything about it. I was just told it’s been there as long as the town’s been standing and this is one of the older towns in France.”

“Could we look it up? Is there anyone who might know anything?” Alya asked, getting ready to pull her trusty phone out.

“Actually…there might be someone.”

He felt a bit bad making them all take their coffees to go, but he wanted to get to the massage shop before it got to full. He easily found Master Fu, as everyone called him, behind the front desk, his eyes trained on a paper map. Adrien noticed where the statue once stood was marked, lines leading to a few different places within the town.

“Master Fu?”

“Very busy, we’ll be open soon.” He said, not looking up.

“It’s about the statue.”

That got his attention. “Ah, Adrien. The statue? I hear you and your friends were very loud last night.”

“Ok, I get it. I was really loud and drunk. Which is why I thought that when I kissed that statue and it actually stopped me from falling, I was losing it. But that isn’t what happened, was it?”

“My dear,” Master Fu asked Marinette, “Would you flip the open sign for me?” once it was marked as close, Fu pulled a book out from under the desk and opened it, pushing it forward. “Our town was known for magic once. We used it for good and were a safe haven for those running from the witch trails. One of our well-known ones was him.”

In the book was a drawing of a man playing a lyre. It was the tattoo on his wrist that made him realise who it was.

“His name was Luka. Could understand the truest feelings of a person. He found the truest feelings of the wrong person. A girl who lied her way out of the trails and away from any danger. She warned him to keep out of her attempts to gain power. He wouldn’t listen, not wanting anyone to suffer under her. She saw his truest feelings, letting the things he loved slip away just to keep a person happy, including a person he loved. Right when he got her to reveal her true colours, she cursed him into stone, becoming a statue that was overlooked, to stay that way until someone with a similar heart could break his curse.”

“Letting things go to make someone else happy. That sounds familiar.” Nino said, looking at Adrien.

“Nino. Where would he go? He just left after, well, when it broke.”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. All the places he’d know would be gone; he has no relations in this time. His sister had married a woman and they never had children.”

Adrien looked at the picture. It seemed so detailed, like the person who made it truly took the time to really look at him.

“Where was this picture drawn in?” his favourite picture of himself was him at the grand that was at his childhood home. He might not like the home, but people knew they could find him at the piano if he was ever stuck at home.

“Well, it used to be the land behind his home. Now though,” Fu consulted his map before pointing to a place. “Here. It’s now the library.”

“Which has a garden. Thanks.” Adrien said, ready to head out the door.

“Adrien? The fact that you managed to break his curse means you two understand each other. I’d keep an eye on him. That girl, she wasn’t known for not tying up loose ends.”

                                                 ______________

Everything he knew was gone. It was clear much time had passed. What was once open areas was now paved roads and tight corners. It still felt the same, felt like home, but it sounded different, down to its main core. He couldn’t hear the ever-present sounds of his family. They were also gone. How long had he been stuck in stone, the cruel words of that, for lack of better words, witch had been shouting reverberating in his head.

‘You’ll never be free, until someone with the same heart as yours breaks you out!’

But who would have his heart, would give up all they wanted to make another happy? He knew it would never be possible, that he couldn’t protect the people he cared about, felt it in his heart as he became stiff and unable to move. Then he felt lips press against his and it was like everything shifted back into place. He felt him stumble and grabbed onto his waist as quickly as possible. He stared down at slightly glazed green eyes, framed with wet blonde hair and the sweetest song he’d ever heard. He wished he could have stayed but he had to go. Now, he sat in a place that held the faint song of his home, wishing he’d stayed.

Feeling someone staring at him, he looked over. Standing, with this scarily familiar smirk, was a girl. Her auburn hair flowed down her back, waving in the non-existent wind. She lifted a hand to cover her mouth and he saw the faint marking of a tattoo, a fox with its fangs showing. The tattoos marked a person who used magic, their familiars. He’d only ever seen 2 people with a fox familiar. The last one was the one who scared him the most.

“Luka!” a voice he didn’t know called. He looked to see the person, the one who broke his curse running towards him. How could someone with such a kind song have a heart like his, be willing to make himself unhappy to help others? He looked at the girl to see him glaring and for a moment, he felt the urge to use his magic to protect the blonde one, the one who set him free of the horrible words and feeling of stone. But she turned away and left, disappearing into the building. His attention was drawn back to the one who called his name.

“I don’t believe I introduced myself.”

“No. you didn’t, but you disappearing cause a bit of a stir. I heard from someone what happened to you.”

“And you broke my curse. How?”

The blonde man sat down next to him, fiddling with the ring on his finger. “My life before I came here wasn’t the happiest. I had my friends but life at home was…hard. It was just easier to make everyone else happy. It’s only been recently that I’ve started to do things for myself. Last night, I decided I wanted to get drunk and I did. We were on the way back to my house when we found you and they dared me to kiss you. I remember thinking you looked so sad and it hurt me. Then you saved me from hurting myself and you were so, I don’t know, normal, I thought I just imagined it all. When I found out, you were kinda like me, how you risked everything to make sure people knew who that person was, I wanted to help.”

He meant every word. Luka didn’t have to hear the sound of his heart to know that was true.

“What is your name?”

“Adrien. Adrien Agreste. It’s nice to meet you.”

“My name is Luka. I’m in your care.” Over Adrien’s shoulder, he saw a fox with the same fur as was that girl’s hair. It seemed Adrien was more in his, if that omen meant anything.

#lcamluktober #luktobercurse #luktober

[kristallioness]

2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

*arrives a month late*... Happy 2021 to all of you, my dear followers! *raises a glass* It seems that my tendency to finish my artwork or personal posts on time has only gotten worse over time (I blame work *lol*). Oh well, better late than never, since there are things I would still like to take with me from this extraordinary year of 2020.

It is cringeworthy that I have two huge red X-s this year. But after I'd put these puzzle pieces together, I remembered far too well what was going on in my (work) life at the time, so it's completely understandable why I didn't have the time nor the energy to draw at all during those two months.

What were those typical statistics that I wrote about again to compare the years? *goes to read last year's post*.. Oh, right! In 2020, I managed to finish 3 full digital drawings (from the months of April, July and December) as well as work on several sketches. I wrote 28,154 words worth of fanfiction (oohh, that's a lot better than previous year), plus 3,126 words in English (I dare say I wrote an equal amount in Estonian) for the prompts I got during UYLD (making the total 31,280 words, which is quite impressive!).

I finished reading the 1st Kyoshi novel in the evening of the 20th and slightly past midnight on the 21st December (barely before the holidays, but I set this goal for myself and I did it!). Am already looking forward to starting with the 2nd part some time this year. Besides that, I ordered and received all the other new Avatar books that came out (3rd part of "Ruins of the Empire", "Katara and the Pirate's Silver", "Legacy of the Fire Nation") as well as BOTH Avatar series DVD sets (I still can't believe I found these on sale on some random online store in Estonia, but these are now among my most prized possessions!).

I finally started my Avatar rewatch last January, but merely got to the Ba Sing Se episodes in Book 2 (I need to continue with "The Earth King") and now it's been 5 YEARS since I last saw Korra. Reading through my journal personal posts from last year, I know far too well that it's not about rushing through it as fast as possible. Instead, I should enjoy the ride and continue watching the episodes when I'm well rested and in the right mood. That way I'll end up feeling much more at peace.

As for the entire year as a whole? I don't think anyone in this world of ours was prepared for the way this decade would begin - with an uncontrollable pandemic, the virus of which is randomly attacking and threatening to wipe out the weakest amongst us. If any of you (or even if you know someone who) have lost a loved one to this plague, there is not much else I can offer but my sincerest condolences! Me, my family, friends and colleagues seem to have managed to avoid catching it so far. *spits 3 x over her shoulder*

I had such high hopes for this year in so many ways. Event-wise I was looking forward to watching the Eurovision Song Contest in May (where Uku Suviste was supposed to represent Estonia for the 1st time ever after so many unfortunate failures to get selected as the winner of our local competition), the European Football Championships in June (asking my colleagues which countries they support, perhaps make fun bets / guesses with them to see whose team would win the matches), the Tokyo Olympic Games in July-August, the President of Estonia (Mrs. Kersti Kaljulaid) coming to visit my hometown to celebrate our Victory Day by taking part in the parade together with the Defence Forces (after 15 years *sigh*)...

I will always remember my last big event, which took place when life used to be "normal", so to say. It was the 102nd anniversary of Estonia on the 24th of February, when I took part of all the most important celebrations in Tallinn on our Independence Day, FULL-TIME (whenever I scroll through my Facebook timeline, I see the photos I uploaded of that day, my heart melts and I smile fondly). But the day after that.. utter hell broke loose. We had our first infected person in the country.

I will also remember the last day I went to work in "normal" conditions. Friday, the 13th of March (typically my lucky day-number combination): I missed the tram I wanted to get on in the morning, at work my team received great news that one of our colleague's family had grown bigger by a new tiny member the day before, we had our last team lunch together, we discussed the safety measures that we should take and joked about what might happen next week, I took the bus home instead of the tram (as the tram's route came from the airport and that place was considered to be more dangerous and with a higher risk of catching this virus).. It was another 2.5 weeks later by then (since the 25th of February) - Estonia (along with the rest of Europe) went into full lockdown.

The beginning was frightening and people were on edge, nobody really knew what to do nor what was gonna happen next. But in time, things began to shake into place and everybody developed a comfortable routine for remote work, including figuring out how to get everyday things done (such as grocery shopping). I found solace in taking photographs of various beautiful bird species, who began to fly around and serenaded me during spring, visiting the trees around my "nest" i.e. rented apartment (with a pair of them ACTUALLY building a nest in the chestnut tree right beside my window, thus turning me into a protective godmother of their chicks).

To be honest, I was awestruck by the positive / surprising aftermath of this lockdown: how the world / environment began to heal itself from the pollution that was normally caused by humans. I was taken aback by how dead silent our usually loud capital became in my neighbourhood (I could only hear trams passing by my house according to their schedules, practically no cars whatsoever, streets were empty of people.. absolute silence).

By May-June, things started to look up in Estonia (as well as the rest of Europe) and people were allowed to start travelling / moving around more freely. During my vacation in July, I managed to go to my last (open air) event (for the rest of the year) under these new "corona" conditions and ended up having a blast at the Open Farm Days in my home county for the first time.

Our country's shining moment came during the first week of September, when we hosted the first ever Rally Estonia of the World Rally Championship (WRC), where our very own Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja won. The event was so well organized and successful that nobody caught the virus nor did the spectators / participants spread it to others, which surely must've helped in ensuring us a spot in the WRC calendar for 2021 as well.

The remainder of the year was rather dull, with the exception of the US Presidential elections in November, when we were all holding our breaths that Joe Biden would win (congratulations, my American friends!). This eventually led to the painful downfall of THE WORST government the Republic of Estonia has ever had, and to the rise of our first female Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas (both happening in January 2021, I couldn't believe it all spiralled so soon, ha-ha!).

Anyways, during the last 4 months, work was very stressful and driving me nuts, so badly that when I eventually went on vacation before Christmas, I had a slight anxiety disorder that wouldn't let me relax for several days (luckily it went away just as quickly once I began to take it easy and managed to get some proper rest / sleep).

In hindsight, I kind of get this weird feeling as if I saw this whole thing coming, given how actively I was living my life throughout 2019. My final year of the 2010's was so full of important events and personal achievements. It's almost as if something mysterious inside was driving me, telling me to visit all the places and do all the things I wanted to do, cause I wouldn't have this sort of a chance again for a very long time.

This must be the main reason why I am thankful for 2020 for going the way it did. Sure, I'm disappointed that a lot of events were cancelled, that so many people have had to leave this world so soon due to this unpredictable disease.. But I think there are so many lessons to take from what came out of all of this. I believe the world needed some sort of a restart or break, given in what direction we were headed (politically, economically, environmentally, socially etc.). I'm just sorry it's had to come with such a high price of innocent lives.

I have even higher hopes for 2021, given how amazingly January has already passed for me and my country, and what is to come in my hometown in February. Let's take the lessons learned from 2020 with us and keep on heading back towards the "normal" lifestyle we used to know. Except this time, let's improve our ways, put all the hatred behind us, be more considerate, keep a distance, stay safe, but still try to make the world a better place for everyone. Thank you so much for reading, for remaining by my side, and for your support and love throughout the years, my friends! I hope to see you all alive and healthy at the end of the white metal ox year of 2021! *virtual hugs*

#personal #shards of Kristal

[big-girl-toaster]

Emily Sonnett - player analysis

A compilation of Sonnett‘s strengths, weaknesses (cause everyone has them) and general observations from Portland and USWNT games (mostly from 2018 and 2019) ft. my irrelevant opinion.

Enjoy!

Before I’ll start a few notes:

I’m obviously not a professional soccer analyst person or whatever, so please don’t come for my ass. These are just patterns or reoccurring things in Sonnett’s game I observed while rewatching tons of PTFC and USWNT games. 

I will focus on a few key points, that doesn’t mean that she has deficiencies in other aspects, sometimes it’s just hard to show them and I tried to avoid stating arguments without giving visual evidence. (All the links and credits are below the gifs)

I would love it if you gave additions, feedback or criticism to this post but all in all I just hope that you enjoy reading a bit about Sonnett’s more professional side and soccer tactics in general.

Please let me know if the format is weird, I’m still figuring out how to make big posts.

I sincerely apologize for the low quality of gifs, as I said, I’m figuring things out and I wasn’t able to upload proper clips.

And lastly, Sonnett is a precious little bean and I enjoyed making this more than I should have. Also, did I use this as an excuse to spend days on end rewatching old games? Yes I did.

I will start with three main strengths I think she brings to the pitch:

Communication / Leading the back line                                               (this is in regards to her position with the Thorns, I will talk about the differences between PTFC/USWNT later on)

As a center back you naturally have a more responsible role in terms of shifting players that are in front of you and communicating things to them they can’t necessarily see. Sonnett embraces that role completely and at 25 years old she is at the level of world class CBs in that regard. A lot of players take on that role much later in their career. Her college coach Steve Swanson for the University of Virginia said about her:

"There is a standard of focus and intensity that Emily demands of the players that play around her. She’s not afraid to hold her teammates accountable in that regard. That was one of the unique aspects of our team dynamic this year, is that Emily's style of leadership is different than the team was used to. I think the team has recognized that the qualities Emily has, we need.“

http://www.espn.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/14100802/virginia-emily-sonnett

This clip I wanted to show you is from a situation that is very common for a defensive line but overlooked bc we as viewers naturally tend to look at the movement of the ball. It’s the intentional shifting of the back line in the exact right moment to let an opposing attacker run into offside. In the original video you can hear Sonnett shout “DROP THE LINE“ and Menges and Kling follow her movement which results in Alex being successfully caught offside at the side line. 

((Tumblr won’t let me upload video clips, so here’s a crappy gif (look at Sonny and Menges), click the link to get to youtube, it’s at 21:30))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JGM6Nju0b4

A simple moment but a very crucial part of back line coordination.

      2.    Box positioning

A.k.a. one of the most important parts of good defending. Sonnett covers runs from attackers almost always with textbook precision. She anticipates passes and is able intercept balls which makes her a proactive rather than a reactive player. When she does have to go for a tackle she brings a feistiness that she probably learnt from a certain Kelley O’Hara I can imagine. She usually opts for slide tackles and that decision could be debatable if you’re the coach but it’s just so good to look at tbh

(credit to @geekmythologys for the last gif)

But anyway, her box positioning. Having watched a lot of games with my eyes glued to number 16, I can of course safely say that Sonnett knows what she’s doing. But I’ve been thinking more and more that she often has a sort of intuitive approach when it comes to box positioning in particular. For this next clip I’m gonna need your opinion. Normally I wouldn’t tell Sonnett to abandon her player in that moment, especially bc it creates a 3v2 situation on the attackers left side and also considering the angle in which Dunn is facing the goal. However, she steps in and is able to block the ball.

to see it properly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ev3SFCmbqQ  at 15:40

What do you think?

Oh and this is just excellent clearance work. AD was certainly hyped about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvcOuadyFu4

    3.   Offensive effort

Sonnett is one of the highest scoring CBs of the league but her offensive efforts aren’t measurable in just goals. For corner kicks she likes to do the near-post run Julie Ertz style and has been successful in the past, most notably the 2-0 in the semifinal 2017 against Orlando (which resulted in this gem of a gif):

She likes to stay up top for a bit when her position is covered by someone else and tbh I’m living for these moments.

Here she encourages quick playing and would have gotten through with it if the nwsl had good refs. She didn’t even touch her. (get it? haha) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOIDLJ4ZL1A

Here she drives the ball after winning it, even if her teammates are pushing up late and then she stays up front to participate in the counter attack. Unfortunately nothing evolves out of this situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ev3SFCmbqQ

Right. Those were the strengths, in terms of weaknesses, I don’t wanna pick apart the smallest things but this is what I found:

Misjudged midfield positioning

We’ve talked about her excellent positioning in the box, however, a huge part of modern soccer is having the Center Backs pushed up to the half-line (as well as inverted outside backs but that’s another point). And what I’ve noticed is that sometimes during turnovers Sonnett goes in to put pressure on the player and with that an even wider space opens up behind her that the opposing team could exploit. Like in this picture.

Blue is the ball movement, red (Sonnett) goes in when in my opinion green (Lindsey) should have been the one putting pressure on the ball bc now Daly can run into that open space. 

Luckily Sonnett’s speed prevents Houston from getting anything out of it but Daly tried it several times during the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOIDLJ4ZL1A

My second example is that iconic tactical foul against ARod that we all remember.

Her positioning isn’t optimal, Klings pass isn’t the best, ARod gets her off of the wrong foot, she can’t turn around fast enough and has to stop her with a professional foul which is (I’ll say it again) demanded by coaches in situations like that. But anyway, tumblr has talked enough about this game rip

      2. Determining the biggest threat

This is a minor one, because Sonnett is usually really good at reading the game and making the right decisions. However in this game against Australia, she tries to cover the space behind Dahl which is technically reasonable but considering how wide open the Australian is, she should have closed her in earlier. That little hop inside the center of the field made the difference and the opposing player was able to score. 

I think it’s safe to say that stuff like this comes with age and experience. And again, Sonnett is only 25!

(The whole game against Australia is awesome for spotting strengths and weaknesses, plus we get tons of Sonny close-ups thus I can recommend rewatching it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBNvE3owllY

Two more things I wanted to include are two risks that could be relevant in the future.

From time to time she doesn’t control her arm movement in the box.

This is obviously the natural thing you do when you make a move like that but with the new rules by Fifa, defenders are more and more limited and this would have been a penalty if it had hit her arm. Idk it could bite her in the ass at some point.

      2. Intuitive positioning 

We’ve talked about this and people might have different opinions on it. I personally think though that this might make the difference between a great and a world class defender. So I say go for it Sonny.

Phew, I’m almost done guys, congrats for getting this far, I hope it’s interesting at all.

The last thing I wanna mention is this: The difference between Portland Sonnett and National Team Sonnett, a.k.a. CB Sonnett and RB Sonnett.

Even though as a right back your role is more offensive, I feel like Sonnett has to be pushed to go for it. She rarely does those runs in behind the winger and towards the end line. When she does it it’s great but compared to Kelley she simply isn’t there yet. It also seems to me like for Portland she takes more liberties in pushing forward which maybe is a confidence thing as well. She is a given for the Thorns but had to fight to regain that roster spot for the NT in 2017 after not being called up for several months. Maybe the fear of making mistakes bc of being out of position hinders her a bit? (I’m saying this while being aware that I of course don’t know what the coaches want her to do and what the different game plans require of her.) Anyway, I love her 1v1 defending as RB. I think she is underrated and absolutely deserves a spot on the Olympic roster next year. 

One last low quality gif because we gotta stay on brand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBNvE3owllY

Well that’s it, I hope you enjoyed it. Again, I’d be grateful for additions, opinions, feedback, whatever. 

Thanks for reading :)

#uswnt #woso #Emily Sonnett #player analysis #soccer #god this took a long time #did I do this instead of doing things I actually have to do? #yes I did #but im quite happy with it #not a shitpost but don't you worry #they will return #im not trying to be a know it all #but I've played for 9 years and I think I have an alright sense about football #BUT I WASNT A DEFENDER #but I read about center backs #I did research ok #sorry for any grammar mistakes #English is not my first language #anyway peace out #nwsl #portland thorns

[wheresmyletterhogwarts]

Ron Weasley-Yule Ball Part 1

Lol this is probably really bad but here we are! 

It’d been towards the end of third year. It seemed the friend group was falling apart around you, Ron blaming Hermione for Scabber’s disappearance, Harry upset Hermione had the Firebolt confiscated, and Hermione a bundle of stress every minute of the day. The tension had driven a wedge between almost all of you. But you and Ron stayed just the same. You even got closer, you thought. And that night, Ron had been hopelessly searching for Scabbers in the hallway when you stumbled upon him. His red hair was mussed all about his head and he wore an old sweater Molly had made him. Your heart nearly tugged out of your chest as he softly clicked his tongue, calling for the rat.  

“Find anything yet?” You asked.  

Ron nearly jumped from the floor, swearing, before looking up at you. It took a moment before he responded and he stood. “No.” He swiped the dust off his sleep pants. “I shouldn’t bother anymore, right?” He paused. You didn’t know if he wanted you to answer. You took a step forward. “Harry says I shouldn’t. It was just a dumb rat, after all.”

“He,” you emphasized as you walked closer to Ron, “was your only friend and you know it.” You smirked up at him—it was crazy how tall he’d gotten over the summer holidays—and he scoffed, a concealed smile barely visible in the dark. “You’ll find him, Ron.”

“Not if Hermione’s demon cat ate him.” You stiffened at that comment. Though Hermione had been almost avoiding the group completely, you weren’t exactly eager to jump into her fight with Ron.  

“Let’s keep looking,” you said. “We’ll look as long as we have to. Dumb pest has to be around here somewhere.” Ron chuckled a little and again, your heart performed some Olympic level flips in your chest. You scolded yourself, and dropped lower to the ground, calling for Scabbers. Ron would never admit it, he’d much sooner damn the rat to the deepest pits of hell, in fact, but he was rather attached to Scabbers. You’d seen him plenty of times sneaking him into class in one of his robe pockets, passing him bits of cheese and dried fruit he’d kept from meals. It must have been killing him to not know where the rat was, let alone if it was still alive.  

You both searched in silence for well over an hour. It was rather boring, but every time you almost went to leave your eyes found the red-headed boy crouched beside you. Through the darkness you could see the furrowed brows, lip trapped between his teeth, and anxious eyes. Even if you didn’t have the stubborn affection for the boy, you couldn’t have left him like that. Eventually though, Ron stopped. The two of you had shuffled through dozens of hallways, far from the Gryffindor dormitories, and if Filch and that cat found you, you’d have detention for the next month at least.  

Ron turned to you, rocking from his shins to sit back against the wall. You maneuvered next to him. Your shoulders pressed together and you could hear his uneven breathing.  

“We should go back.” He turned his head to face you and it suddenly hit you how close you two were.  

“You sure?” You asked. Just a moment before you’d cursed your lack of self-control for keeping you out this late, crawling around looking for a mangy rat. Now though, you couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness this time with Ron would end.  

He nodded. “We can look tomorrow.” He smiled a little, and though you knew he wasn’t at all happy you two hadn’t found the rat, your heart beat a little faster at the promise of more time searching with him.  

“Sounds great,” you smiled back at him.

The walk back to the dormitories was silent, not because you two had nothing to talk about, but because you knew that if Filch found you there would be no late-night rat hunts for a very long time. You wouldn’t give up the chance to do this again for the world. Finally, you’d reach the common room, and as you began to walk up the stairs to your room Ron called your name.  

You turned with your hand still on the railing, “yeah?”

“Uh, thank you.” He stood behind a couch, his hands fidgeting on the back of it. “Thanks for the help. It was um,” he paused and you could feel your heart beating fast against your ribs, “less worse with you there.”

“No problem.” You smiled at him and continued up the stairs.  

Less worse? That was neither grammatically correct or anything close to what you’d been secretly hoping to hear. A seed of disappointment had blossomed in you, but it was hardly enough to overcome the whole evening. Even if Ron only thought of you as a friend, which had already been clear and was reinforced by the goodbye, tonight was enough. It was enough. You kept repeating that as you walked up the stairs and it almost completely appeased the ache in your chest.  

Hermione had been awake when you reached the room, waiting for you, and with the glow of the evening mixed with the pang of “less worse” hanging around you, you poured out all the feelings you’d been subject to since meeting the ginger on the first day of school.  

That had been a little less than a year ago. And Ron had only gotten more attractive, more all-consuming, and more unattainable. You never got to search with Ron again, as he found Scabbers just the next day, and neither of you had ever brought the night up again. If Hermione hadn’t been awake that night, you were sure you would’ve been convinced it was all a dream by now.  

Hermione sat beside you, bent over a book as she murmured the words aloud to herself. She still hadn’t touched her plate and already you, Harry, and Ron had finished your last helpings. This wasn’t altogether unusual, however. You smiled as you watched Ron eye the roast beef dish in front of him. He was sure to go back for more.

“’Mione,” Harry stretched back in his chair, “eat something or your stomach will be growling all through potions.” The brunette tossed him a look and set back into her book. He turned to Ron and grumbled something about Snape docking Gryffindor if her stomach does growl in class. You chuckled to yourself and started stacking your dishes, a habit Hermione had tried to instill in basically the entire student body, to make the house elves’ jobs easier during cleanup. It’d only really stuck with you.  

Ron frowned at his plate. “I asked a Hufflepuff to the Yule Ball today.” Crap. Hermione tensed next to you, turning from her book for the smallest split second to gauge your reaction.  

“What does she look like?” Harry asked, sipping from his glass of pumpkin juice. Harry didn’t know about your very unfortunate liking for Ron. It was better that way, sometimes you even wished Hermione didn’t know. It’d be much easier to forget if she wasn’t always checking in about it.  

Ron shrugged. “Blonde, short. I don’t know, she was the first girl I saw in the hallway.” Charming.  

“So,” you swallowed the unreasonable amount of dread in your throat, “did she say yes?” You shouldn’t be this worked up about this. He asked a girl he probably doesn’t even know the name of. Somehow, though, that makes the pressure in your chest twist tighter. He’d ask a stranger and not you.

“No, she has a date already. Going with some other Hufflepuff, had a stupid name.”  

You absolutely hated the way relief flooded through you. You despised it. Here was your best friend, upset, albeit ridiculously, that he couldn’t find a date, and you were happy he’d been turned down. It was awful. But you still couldn’t find it in you to feel badly about it.  

It was later that night, sitting on Hermione’s bed and talking with her as she proof-read her essay for the fourth time, you voiced a thought you’d buried deep inside of your mind.  

“Everyone’s in such a fuss about the ball,” Hermione dashed her quill through an offending phrase. “About a dozen girls asked me if I had a date.” She huffed a little, rolling her eyes. “As if that’s any of their business.”

You weren’t really that upset about all the attention the ball was getting. You might even have been one of the girls Hermione was complaining about if you would be going with Ron.  

“Jokes on them,” you said to her. “They’ll be stuck slow-dancing with some guy while you and I raid the desert table.” You winked at her. It’d been a long-standing joke and plan, partly to distract yourself from who you really wanted to go with, and mostly because Hermione was your absolute best friend, that the two of you would go to the ball together and only eat food, avoiding boys and dancing altogether. So, you were surprised at the way her neck and cheeks flushed.

“Unfortunately, I think we might have to factor at least one dance with a boy into those plans,” Hermione said. It took you a moment, but when you understand what she meant you almost screamed.  

“Hermione! You have a date?”  

“Yes, I do,” she smiled slightly. It was just like Hermione, to be calm, cool, and collected in every situation. But the teenage girl in her showed through as she set her quill down and smiled softly at you, a blush warming her face. “Victor Krum asked me this morning.”  

You couldn’t contain your grin as you tackled Hermione in a hug. You didn’t think she’d be necessarily happy at that response, but you could hear her laugh as you pulled away. She was really happy. “Hermione that’s great.”

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised!” She was smirking. “You’ve no faith in my feminine abilities.”  

You laughed. “I must say, I’ll miss you at the desert table, but I think being able to live vicariously through you as you dance with your Durmstrang will make up for it.” You’d meant it as a joke, but Hermione’s smile wavered.  

“Have you been asked yet?”

You laughed a little. “Ron hasn’t exactly mentioned anything, no.”  

“Y/N, I mean by someone else.”  

“Well, Nick Raywood did. But I said no.”  

“Oh, Y/N, why?”

You paused. You knew why not, you’d run it over in your head a million times before, but you also knew Hermione wouldn’t understand. She was your best friend though, and she was waiting for an answer. “Well, Ron doesn’t have a date yet.” Hermione frowned. She knew where this was going. “And, maybe if he can’t find one, he’ll finally ask me.” She opened her mouth, about to cut in. “And I know, ‘Mione, I know that it wouldn’t be a date. We’d go as friends and just hang out with you and Harry and everyone else but I’m okay with that. It’s enough.” You paused, repeating it in your head before repeating it again, aloud. “It’s honestly enough for me.”

“That’s not enough and you know it,” she said. “Y/N, you deserve better than a guy who only thinks of you as a friend. You deserve love.”  

You can feel your stomach turn and you paste a smile to your face, a joking tone to your voice. “Hermione, we’re still in school it’s really not that serious.”  

“You know what I mean.” And you did. As usual, she had a point and that point was absolutely right. “Wouldn’t you rather go to the ball with a guy like Nick who actually wants to go with you?”

“Maybe,” I said.  

Hermione looked down at her deserted essay. “I think we’re going to have to talk about something a little less dramatic if I’m ever going to turn this in.” You both chuckled a little, neither one completely past the conversation yet, but by the end of the night you’d fallen asleep with a smile on your face.  

The next day Harry and Ron were still searching for dates. Naturally, that meant Ron still hadn’t asked you. Nick Raywood was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, laughing with some friends thoughout dinner and you couldn’t help but glance over at him a few times. Nick was attractive and nice. The type of guy that was always uplifting the people around him. When he’d asked you earlier that week, he’d smiled and complimented your hair. He was nice, he was cute, he was interested.

And Hermione had never been wrong before, had she?

Your mind was made up just as the boys and Hermione stood to leave.  

“You coming, Y/N?” Ron asked, looking down at you. Hermione quickly scolded him and stacked his dishes up.  

“Um,” you watched Nick’s friends begin to leave. Nick was still sitting, finishing his dinner. If you stayed, maybe you could catch him alone on his way out. Save yourself any embarrassment of being turned down in front of people. “No, I have to uh,” your eyes searched the room, looking for some sort of excuse. Your eyes landed on the twins. “I have to talk to Fred about something.” Harry and Ron lifted their eyebrows, but didn’t say much. It wasn’t at all unusual for you to talk to one or both of the twins, but it was strange for you to actually have a reason to talk to them. If Hermione knew why you were actually staying she didn’t say, but she quickly ushered the boys to the common room and you were thankful for that.  

You felt vaguely stalkerish waiting for Nick to finish eating. You tried not to completely stare at him, but as you were no longer hungry and almost all of the Gryffindors around you had left, you were left with little else to do.  

It felt like forever before you saw Nick begin to gather himself up. You almost laughed when he stacked his dishes—Hermione must have gotten to him too. Quickly, you began leaving too and were glad when the few friends Nick was leaving with turned to opposite way in the hallway.  

You moved up so that you were walking next to him. “Hi, Nick.” You smiled up at him. He was taller than Ron. A little too tall, if you were being honest.  

“Y/N!” He grinned back at you.

“Uh, where are you headed?”

“Ravenclaw common room.” He high-fived an older Ravenclaw in the hallway before turning back to you. It was slightly unnerving how he walked, facing you, and didn’t run into anyone.  

“Oh, me too,” you said.

“You’re going to the Ravenclaw common room?” He looked genuinely confused.  

“Crap, uh, no. I mean mine. Gryffindor.” He let out a solid laugh and you chuckled a little. Crap, this was awkward. But Hermione was right. You had to do this.

“Uh, Nick, I have a kind of weird question.”  

“Ask away.”

“Do you have a date yet to the Yule Ball?”

He slowed to a halt. “Well, no.” He chuckled almost silently.  

You shouldn’t have been so disappointed. That was stupid, you thought. “Oh, um, well would you still like to go with me?”

For the first time in all your years at Hogwarts you say Nick Raywood frown. It was a very strange sight. “I asked you earlier this week if you wanted to go with me. Why didn’t you say yes then?”

You didn’t like lying. It wasn’t something you ever were okay with doing and your head had already begun to ache from lying to Ron earlier. But you couldn’t exactly tell Nick that you wanted to go with him to get over the guy that would never ask you to the ball. So, you lie. “I just, I was really nervous. I, um, never expected you’d want to go with me.” He still didn’t look sold. “I thought it was a joke, to be honest.”  

His eyes softened and he turned to face you completely. “I’m really sorry you would think I would do that. But I’d love to go with you, Y/N.” The two of you sorted out details of when and where to meet before going to the ball, and when you parted, he left a kiss on your cheek that made your skin crawl with guilt.  

When you returned to the common room, you found Harry and Ron upset, and a missing Hermione.  

“What happened to you two?” You ask, dropping into the seat across from them.

Harry’s arms were crossed. “How am I supposed to lead in the first dance with no date?”  

“Maybe you shouldn’t have turned all those girls down,” you said. He shot you a look. Beside him, Ron is frowning at you. “Ron?”

He didn’t respond at first, just uncrossed his arms and tucked his hands beneath his legs. “Will you go to the ball with me, Y/N?”  

You’d pictured him saying those words a hundred times in the past week. You’d even expected those words a few times. “What?”

You hated how collected he was. How put together and at ease. Nothing about this was scary to him but he’d been shaking asking other girls. “Go to the ball with me. You don’t have a date, I don’t have a date. Just as friends.” A part of you had almost said yes. Screw Nick, screw Hermione’s advice! Because Ron finally asked you to the ball. But those last three words crushed you. And though you’d been reminding yourself all night that you didn’t want to go with a guy who didn’t feel the same way, you finally understood why you couldn’t go with Ron.  

You’re not sure how you do it because it takes every last ounce of strength and will power in you, but you shake your head. “No, Ron. I have a date.”  

You don’t remember what he says or what you say as you trail up the stairs. You also don’t remember if the cries you heard as you fell asleep were Hermione’s or yours. Maybe it was both.  

#ronweasley #ron weasley x reader #hermionegranger #harrypotter #harrypotterimagine #ronweasleyimagine #yuleballimagine #jealousronweasley

[illfoandillfie]

Seaside Rendezvous - Part 1

Request:  Can you please write a hc for going on a island vaca at a resort with your family after college finals and you meet joe (also a college student) and you two see each other a ton but you are always with your family so not much happens but flirty small talk and you both end up having a lot of sexual tension and go into one of your rooms when you’re family is out and just some smut happens?

Pairing: Joe Mazzello x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of sex but generally pretty innocent

Words: 4606

A/N: So this was meant to be just a small blurb/hc thing but it turned into a full 2 chapters lmao what can I say, the idea spoke to me 🤷‍♀️. It’s also the first full Joe fic I’ve done! Set in like the 2000s I guess because I don’t know a single goddamn thing about current celebrities (not that it really matters too much)

Taglist:  @idontbelievethiss @somekindof-cheese @dtfrogertaylor   @ezmina98  @vee-ndetta @atomic-watermelon @kellypenac @labessieisallama @deakyclicks @jennyggggrrr

In the days before you went on vacation your friends had made a lot of jokes about potential holiday romances. Everything from unsubtle innuendos to fantasies about running into pop stars who would, naturally, sweep you off your feet. You laughed at it all, rolling your eyes at the more far-fetched ideas – as if Justin Timberlake would want you. But, if you were being honest, the idea had crossed your mind the minute your Mom called to tell you she’d booked a family vacation to Hawaii. Not the Timberlake stuff, the real stuff – the potential to have a fling with a cute almost stranger, a couple of weeks spent relaxing on the beach and indulging in meaningless sex. After all, it had been a few months since you broke things off with Eddie and, while you weren’t necessarily ready to rush into anything as serious as a proper relationship, a brief holiday romance sounded almost ideal. Provided you could find anyone attractive enough. And get away from your family for long enough.  

Almost as soon as finals were done you were at the airport, boarding your flight to Hawaii where your parents and little sister had already been for a day. With thoughts of warm sand and soft kisses swirling though your head as you shuffled onto the plane, it was almost inevitable that you’d ended up fantasising about one of your fellow passengers. He’d seen you struggling to get your carryon luggage into the overhead compartment and had come to your aid, lifting the heavy suitcase with ease and offering you a sweet smile and a joke about travelling with rocks. You giggled, less because the joke was funny than that you didn’t know how else to deal with those gorgeous hazel eyes looking at you. Unfortunately, you couldn’t say much more than a brief thank you, the crowd jostling around you pushing you towards your seat, a few rows behind him. You spent the rest of the flight trying to subtly watch him, glancing at him from over the top of your magazine. It wasn’t like you had anything better to do for the duration of the flight – the magazine you’d picked up seemed painfully boring now and after finals your brain didn’t feel up to reading a whole lot anyway. Thankfully you had an aisle seat, something that had bummed you out at first but now seemed like a lucky break since he did too. He looked to be around your age, alone, reading. You took in everything of his appearance you could, the slope of his nose, the slight scruff covering his jaw, as you let yourself drift into fantasy. His hands pulling you into the airplane bathroom. His lips trailing down your throat. His fingers slipping into your shorts. He was definitely cute with a capital c, and it was nice to have someone to think about, even if this small infatuation or whatever it was wouldn’t last much longer than the flight. After all, he probably wouldn’t be staying at the same resort your family was, right? Because that would be the sort of thing you’d find in a romance novel or a cheesy movie, not real life. Real life never lined up so perfectly.

At the end of the flight you watched him get up, pull down his own luggage, and leave without so much as a backwards glance. And then he was lost in the crowd as you collected your things and followed everyone towards the arrivals lounge. The sight of your parents and younger sister, Erin, drove the cute passenger from your mind, the infatuation slipping away (as you’d known it would) as soon as you saw Erin waving at you, a big grin plastered to her face. Your mother pulled you into a tight embrace as soon as you were within reach, already asking you a hundred questions – how was school? Did the finals go okay? Whatever happened to that Eddie boy you’d brought home for Thanksgiving? Your Dad pried her off you, reminding her you needed air like everyone else, and began to lead you all out towards the car. On the drive to the resort you filled each other in on what had been happening, catching up on the months you’d missed since you last visited home.

By the time you arrived at the resort, the guy from the plane was so far from your thoughts you wouldn’t have been able to recall the colour of his eyes if you’d tried. Which is why you almost dropped your luggage when you saw him leaning against the reception desk. You mumbled something about tripping when your Mom turned to see what had happened, trying not to let your eyes flick towards him again. Your parents already had the key to their room but you’d booked one in your name as well – twin beds so your sister could join you.   “I’ll get someone to take your luggage up while you sort out your key and then we can all head down to the pool before dinner, sound like a plan?”   “Sounds great Dad, I’ll meet you guys upstairs” you nodded, willing them to leave before Airplane Boy did. If things went your way you could find out how he compared to your airborne fantasies by the end of the night.

Whatever being was watching over you must have been in a benevolent mood because twenty seconds later your family was in the elevator and your fantasy man was turning around, room key in hand, eyes going wide when he saw you. “Well isn’t this a small world,” his eyes, hazel, flicked over you as he spoke, taking in every inch of your appearance and suddenly you wished didn’t look like you’d just got off a plane. “Yeah, who’d have thought we’d both end up at one of the most popular resorts on Hawaii?” “Would have been just my luck if we hadn’t, did you manage to get that bag of rocks back down or is that why you’ve got no luggage?” “I got it down. I had to get help from someone in the cabin crew, but I got it down.” “Well I’m glad someone was there to rescue you. I’m Joe by the way.” He held out his hand. “Y/N,” you said, shaking it, setting the butterflies in your stomach fluttering. “Nice to meet you properly, Y/N.” “Likewise.” You smiled at him, batting your lashes ever so slightly. “Well, if you need any more help with your bags, I’m happy to lend a hand. Make up for not getting them back down for you.” “That’s a very sweet offer Joe, though I don’t think I properly thanked you for the help in the first place,” Oh christ did that sound too much like a line from a porno? Joe's laugh was that of someone a little flustered, cheeks turning pink. “S-sorry, I, uh, I should let you go check in now,” “Probably should do that should’t I? Maybe, I’ll see you round though?” “Yeah, I hope so. I mean, probably, right? A place like this – not many spots you could hide in,” he laughed. “Who said I’d be hiding?” You trailed your fingers over his arm as you walked past him, “See you later Joe,” He cleared his throat, “Yeah, bye Y/N.” You managed to resist the urge to turn around and see if he was watching you walk away as you headed to get your key, kind of wishing you had let your Mom talk you into getting a twin room. Erin was great, and you’d missed her, but nothing said you're not having sex like sharing a room with a twelve-year-old. It didn’t hit you until you were in the elevator that you should have found out his room number.  

“Sorry I’m late, the guy in front of me had some sort of problem. Took ages to sort out.” Definitely wasn’t flirting with anyone.   “Well you’re here now. Still got time to hit the pool so best get a wriggle on.” You and Erin exchanged rolled eyes as you opened your room. It was clean and simple, the two beds taking up most of the space. Splashes of bright green, like the cushions that sat on each bed, and the vase of flowers that stood on the side table against the far wall, were in stark contrast to the crisp white walls and sheets. A balcony gave you a picturesque view of the ocean, and ocean themed artwork hung above the TV and on half the blank walls. You ducked into the bathroom to get changed, finding more artwork on the walls and some decorative shells by the sink. It took you all of five minutes to change into your bathers and grab your sunnies. Normally you wouldn’t have bothered with the bikini for anything less than the beach, especially so late in the afternoon, but there was the chance you could run into Joe again and you wanted him to see you in something better than the old shorts and too big shirt you’d flown in. You gave your lips a swipe of gloss, blowing a kiss to your reflection before hurrying out to join your family, towel tucked under your arm.

The pool was not the single Olympic length one you’d been imagining but rather a series of oddly shaped lagoons of crystal-clear water interspersed with greenery that made everything feel full of life and offered protection from the sun when it was at its highest. It was busy but large enough and spread out enough that it wasn’t noticeable. There were people gathered around the bar, ordering bright drinks topped off with umbrellas and fresh fruit, and relaxing on the many lounge chairs, empty glasses and plates lining the tables. Your father led the way through the hoard of screaming children in the kiddie pool and their parents lazily watching them from the sides, towards a lagoon further back, finding a clear spot at the water’s edge. You’d barely sat down, dipping your toes into the cool water when Erin ran past you to cannonball into the pool, the large splash she made flying towards you. When she surfaced, she laughed at the now wet hair you’d had to push backwards out of your eyes. “Careful sweetie,” your Mom warned, already lying back on a lounge chair with her eyes closed. You kicked some water back at Erin, only half paying attention as you let your eyes wander over the people. No sign of Joe. You sighed, leaning back on your hands and closing your eyes as you tilted your head back, letting the low sun warm you while it still could. It felt nice to relax, even if there wasn’t a cute boy drooling over you. You hadn’t properly relaxed in too long to count.  

“Bikini’s a good look,” Slowly you brought your head back up, turning towards your right where Joe was suddenly sitting. “Suit’s you.” “Thanks,” you gave Joe a once over, pushing your sunglasses down your nose a little so you could take in the boardshorts and bare chest look he’d gone for, before tilting your head back to the sky again, “Could say the same for you.” “Don’t think I’d look half as good in a bikini as you do.” You could hear his stupid grin through every word and couldn’t help the laugh it inspired. “So what brings you to the pool?” he asked, shifting so he was facing you and leaning in. “Eyes forward, can’t look like we’re talking.” “Oh-kay.” He did as you asked, dropping his feet into the water and looking out to the other end of the pool, “Can I ask why we’re being so,” he stretched the word out, waving his hand in circles as he searched for the right word, “clandestine?” “Family. Mom’s over there on the lounge chair, Dad’s gone to the bar I think. And technically I’m watching my little sister swimming. Not meant to be talking to cute boys.” “Well I'm flattered you’d break whatever rules you’re breaking for me, but I don’t want to get you in trouble.” “I like the trouble. Besides it’s less rules and more that this is the first time I’ve seen my family in months. If they caught wind I wanted to ditch them for a guy I barely know...let’s just say they’d make a fuss.” “So we’re not dealing with like, an overprotective father then?” “Mum’s more of the worry, she’d get like super nosey. But Dad’d be too awkward to be mad.” “Thank God,” Joe mimed wiping sweat from his forehead. When he put his hand back down it was closer to yours, pinkie fingers brushing slightly. You could feel him chancing a glance at you but focused your gaze on Erin, watching as she tread water while talking to another girl around her age, trying to slow your heart beat before it thumped right out of your chest.   He flicked his head forward again, a shy smile still in place as his eyes came to rest on the same spot as yours, “Your sister seems sweet,” “Erin? She can be, but she also inherited Mom’s love of gossip.”   “So gotta be careful around her then,” “Definitely,” You turned your head towards him, finding it difficult to drag your eyes away from his lips once they’d settled there, your own parting slightly in anticipation of a kiss that wasn’t coming. “Sneaking around is kinda more fun though. Think you can get away tonight? Just long enough to have a drink with me?” You hadn’t expected him to be so bold as to ask you out this early on but it wasn’t an unwelcome surprise. Even so, you pretended to think it over, taking extra time as if you were running through a list of things in your mind, “Yeah, think so. Just depends how fast Erin drops off.” He threw you a questioning look. “We’re roommates.” “So I guess you’ll be wanting my room number then, since yours is off limits. It’s 308.” “Huh, I’m in 315.” “Well Miss Y/N from room 315, Hope I see you soon.” He pushed himself to his feet and walked away, leaving you with a racing heart, sweaty palms, and a pinkie finger that just wouldn’t stop tingling.  

After dinner you returned to your room, exhausted from the long day and needing to unpack properly. Erin collapsed onto her bed, flicking the TV on and settled in to watch reruns of The Simpsons while you hauled your suitcases over to the cupboard and began to put things away. The two of you talked intermittently, mostly during commercials, about what you were hoping to do on this holiday and how much fun it was going to be. She didn’t mention seeing you talk to Joe which relieved you no end, especially after you’d run into him at the restaurant where you’d had dinner. Just a brief, “Sorry, excuse me,” from him as he squeezed behind you while you waited for a table. His hand had lingered a fraction longer than necessary on your lower back, and it had taken all your willpower not to grab it and place it on your ass. And then he was gone again, lost in the crowd, while you tried to maintain a regular conversation with your parents.  

You’d just changed into your pyjama shorts and a singlet and were about to hop into bed yourself, when you heard a loud giggle from the next room over where your parents were. It was followed by your father’s voice making shushing noises through his own laughter and then, “don’t want the kids to hear us. So glad we’ve got the room to ourselves now.” You and Erin exchanged horrified looks and then you were both moving, slipping shoes on and grabbing the room key, all tiredness forgotten as you just about ran out the door. You only paused when you reached the elevator, realising you had no idea where you were going.   “Is there like a rec room or something we could go to?” You asked, scanning the list of floor numbers for any sign of a pool table or video game console. “How should I know?” “You’ve been here a whole 24 hours more than me,” “I just went where Mom and Dad went!” “Alright, Christ, no need to yell. Well, I know the bar is on flo-” “Typical,” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “All you grown ups care about is the stupid bar,” “Yeah cause you brats drive us to drink,” “You brats drive us to drink,” she imitated in a high pitched annoying whine that made you roll your eyes. “Fine, you’re gonna be a baby I’ll see if there’s a fucking nursery to drop you in. You clearly need to go beddy-byes.” Your bickering was interrupted by footsteps coming up behind you and a familiar voice calling your name. Fuck.

“Didn’t take you for one to argue in the hallways,” “Clearly you don’t have a younger sister then, Joe,” “No, but I do have an older one. She could be real bossy,” he winked at Erin who giggled. You rolled your eyes again.   “Do you know if there’s a rec room or something round here?” “At this time? What’s wrong with your room?” “Mum and Dad are fucking,” Erin chimed in before you could come up with an excuse, looking far too innocent to understand what that meant and for a moment you wondered what else she’d learnt while you were away at college, “I saw you talking to Y/N this afternoon at the pool. Are you two fucking?” “Jesus Erin, language. And stop being so fucking nosey,” “You swear all the time,” “I’m an adult, I’ve earned the right to swear,” “Why don’t we settle this argument back at my room? There’s a Simpson’s marathon on which I’m sure... Sorry didn’t catch this little angel’s name,” Smooth. “Erin,” the so-called angel piped up, sticking out her hand and grinning.   “Which I’m sure Erin would enjoy,” Joe finished as he bent down and shook her hand, “Nice to meet you.” Your eye muscles sure were getting a workout tonight. But Erin seemed pleased with the turn of events so you accepted. Better than getting lost on the way to a rec room that may not even exist. Plus it helped that as Joe stood up he subtly mentioned the bottle of vodka he had stashed in his suitcase.

Joe’s room looked much the same as yours, though he had different art and instead of twin beds, one king sized. “Alright, there you go Missy,” he said to Erin as he handed her the remote control to the TV, “Knock yourself out,” “Please,” you mumbled as Erin raced into the room, kicking her shoes off as she went and then bounced into the middle of the bed. Joe caught you rolling your eyes again. “You do that a lot y’know,” “Only when I’m babysitting. I love her to death but Christ,” If badmouthing your sister was going to earn you another laugh from Joe you could have gone all night. Instead you reigned yourself in, leaning against the doorframe as you watched him dig through his luggage. Finally he pulled out the bottle he’d been searching for, holding it up triumphantly. “D’you wanna sit on the balcony?” “Sounds great,” you followed him out, dodging Erin’s annoyed grunts as you moved in front of the TV. “Not gonna get too cold out here in those adorable PJs? Very short,” Joe said as he gently shut the door behind you. “I think I’ll be fine. But I’ll let you know if I need warming up.” He laughed as he slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor, patting the spot beside him. You glanced at the unused chairs but joined him anyway, stretching your legs out in front of you as he opened the bottle of vodka.   “I don’t have any glasses so I hope you don’t mind sharing the bottle,” “Who brings a full bottle of vodka and no cups?” “A college student?” “Fair enough,” “Ladies first,” He passed the bottle over and you took a large swig, hissing a little as the alcohol burned your throat. “You were good with her, before,” you passed the bottle back to Joe, tilting your head to indicate Erin. “Yeah well, don’t just have an older sister, got a younger brother too. Not quite the age gap though.” “She was a bit of...a surprise. But your family isn’t here too?” “Nah, came on my own. Reward for getting through another fuckin year.” “Cheers to that,” you peaked over your shoulder but Erin was completely entranced by the TV. “So you’re parents really just went for it?” “Urgh, god don’t remind me. That’s what the alcohol’s for. Completely unfair that they get to haunt us with nightmares for the rest of our lives and I can’t get a second away from my baby sister.” “You could always sneak away.” “What like, fake being sick?” “God no, too risky. Have you never watched a movie before? Ferris Bueller ringin’ any bells?” “Alright, calm down,” you laughed, “it was just a suggestion,” “Fake being sick,” he scoffed, taking another sip of vodka, “To make it believable you’d have to start exhibiting signs the night before. Then day of you have to give yourself a temperature and make yourself sneeze or cough or throw up a lot. And then what about Erin? She’s not gonna catch whatever mysterious illness you get that clears up in 24 hours. And you can only use it once.” “Jesus Christ. You really have thought about this.” “I got a lot of practice as a kid,” he said with a shrug, “If one of us was off from school sick, all of us were off from school sick.” “Okay smartguy, what do you suggest I do instead?” “Easy. Go with them on whatever they’re doing. Relaxing on the beach, golf course, whatever. Then a few hours in say you need to stretch your legs or claim to have an appointment with the masseuse or something but say you’ll meet up with them for lunch or dinner even. And then you come back here.” “You’re very confident that I’d visit you in my family free hours,” “You called me cute, think I can afford to be confident.” “Touché.”  

It was another few hours before you stood to leave, Joe having stashed the bottle of vodka away long ago, before you had the chance to get completely wasted. He’d told you that you’d thank him tomorrow when you didn’t wake up with a hangover but the part of your brain that remembered why you’d wanted a drink so bad didn’t fully believe him. You’d let him take the bottle with a promise that you could help finish it another night. As the hours ticked by he’d slowly inched closer to you, eventually wrapping his arm around you as you looked up at the partially obscured stars. You encouraged him by claiming you were getting chilly. Erin had dropped off within the first hour, though you were still cautious in case she woke up. Still you were happy to wedge yourself into his side, dropping your head onto his shoulder as you talked about whatever crossed your minds. You’d been even happier to let him kiss you, softly, breaking apart much too soon as Erin snorted in her sleep. That had been your cue to leave, even though your lips still buzzed with the desire for more.   “Sorry,” you said quietly, not quite pulling away from him. “No it’s fine, I don’t wanna get caught out by her either. She’s a feisty little thing,” “The word you’re looking for is nosey but yeah,” “Wouldn’t want her announcing anything to the whole resort,” “Not when sneaking around is kinda more fun,” You both chuckled, trying to keep your voices low as you re-entered Joe’s room. “D’you want me to carry her back to your room?” He offered with all the kindness you’d come to expect from him. “Sure your skinny little twig arms can handle it?” “I lifted your suitcase of paperweights didn’t I. Plus, it’s just up the hall.” “Thought it was a suitcase of rocks.” “Tomato, tomatoe. Do you want the help or not?” “Thanks,” He grunted slightly as he lifted her, one arm under her knees and the other under her back, pretending to drop her a little which had you stifling laughter and shaking your head as you lead the way out of his room.  

The walk back to your room was much too short, though Joe probably would have said different under the weight of your dead-to-the-world sister. You put your finger to your lips as you opened the door and held it. He deposited your sister on her bed as gently as possible, going the extra mile to tuck her in under the blankets she’d so hastily thrown to the side earlier. All was quiet in the room next door and you breathed a sigh of relief as Joe came back out into the hallway. He stood close, the extra inches he had on you much more noticeable now than when you’d been sitting on his balcony. “So, you’ll try to get away then?” Joe bit his lip nervously which only served to make him look even cuter, making you want him more. “Yeah, soon as I can.” “Tomorrow maybe?” “Coming across a little desperate Joey,” you teased, poking him in the chest, “Besides think Mom mentioned something about doing a tour of the island tomorrow, not sure I could get away. But soon, promise.” “I’m gonna hold you to that, Y/N,” “Of course,” There was a brief pause, Joe rubbing the palm of one hand with the other’s thumb as his eyes darted over your head to your sleeping sister and then to the door of your parent’s room. “Fuck it,” he said and then he was leaning in to kiss you again. It started as light and soft as the first attempt back at his room had, almost chaste, but when no third-wheeling sibling or grumpy parent interrupted it changed. His hands moved further around your back, pulling you as close to him as he could. You wobbled slightly as your balance shifted but he held you steady while you wrapped your arms around his neck, tongues meeting with the urgency only an imminent interruption could bring. You lost track of how long you were intertwined, all other thoughts driven from your mind until he pulled back. “Been thinking about that since you helped me on the plane,” you muttered softly, trailing your hand down over his cheek, not wanting to lose contact yet. “How did I do?” His hands hadn't left you either.   “Oh, uh r-really good,” you nodded rapidly. Joe laughed again, “Don’t think I’ve seen you this lost for words before,” You wanted to say something witty in response, but your mind was still whirling with the kiss so all you could manage was a, “spose not,” and a small giggle. Slowly you came back to your senses, realising where you were. “I should -,” you pointed at your room with your thumb, though it was half hearted. “Yeah,” He caught your lips with his once more, briefly, before bidding you goodnight and disappearing down the hall leaving you, once again, wishing you had a room to yourself so you could at least masturbate in peace.

#my writing #joe mazzello x reader #joe mazzello imagine #i hope you like it! #part 2 will be up asap #(this was one of those fics where like #everytime i read over it i wanted to add to it lmao #i eventually just had to force myself to stop #but god im so excited to write p2 #i have it all planned out and theres gonna be some Good Stuff)

[imajoonations]

Mechanism

Masterlist

Namjoon x Reader

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Word Count: 2917

Warnings: None

The unseen consequences of murdering another to absorb their magic wasn't revealed until the next generation was born. Children only possessed bloodline magic, causing some abilities to vanish from the world entirely.

This led to another unfortunate discovery, killing one's own parents would allow us to consume what they themselves had stolen.

When I was 7 years old, my father demanded I kill my mother. Of course I refused, but this only prompted her to attack me. I had never been in a fight before and I definitely was no match for my mother. While she unleashed powerful attacks, her goal was never to hit me.

Magic takes life force which can replenish over time. However, if too much magic is used at once, it can have a devastating effect on the caster.

I didn't attack my mother, the toll the spells took on her body were what killed her. That is how my powers were inherited.

That day, I decided to only use my bloodline magic, creation, and aligned with those who did the same. The only way to avoid fighting is to hide. That's how Eva and I came to be.

I created a manor from a mountain. It took less effort to twist my surroundings into something new than to materialize it from thin air. To outsiders, Eva has disguised it to appear as if it's still just a mountain. This allowed us to survive, but not to live. That's why I created a new world, one without magic. I needed something to focus my energy on in order to stay sane. However, I can't perfect this world and it's slowly driving me mad.

"Desi~" Eva said. Her voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Hmm?"

She wrapped her arms around me with her head rested on my shoulders. "You've been locked in this study for days, staring at that world of yours. Can't you focus on me for a bit, love?"

I wrapped my hand around one of her arms, as I pulled her into my lap. I gestured to the billions of tiny cogs inside a glass orb, "What do you see?"

Her brows furrowed in confusion as she looked into my eyes, her beauty never ceases to amaze me. I've looked at her face every day for thousands of years, but I still don't think I've taken in all her features yet. She leaned forward watching for a bit. "Your favorite creation working as intended. Self sustaining.", Eva said as she glanced back at me.

I let out a sigh and tangled my arms around her slim waist. "It's missing something, don't you think?"

She chuckled and turned her body so she could wrap her arms around my neck. "What do you see when you look at it Desi?"

I sucked in my cheeks as I thought of an answer. "Failure," I pressed my forehead into the crook of her neck, her Auburn hair tickled my cheek. "Something that falls short of perfection.", I said.

She pressed her lips to my temple and whispered, "Nothing is perfect dear."

My grip tightened around her waist and I tilted my head as her smile pressed her gentle, green eyes into crescents. "You are Eva.", I mumbled into her skin.

Her smile widened and those green orbs disappeared behind her eyelids. "You flatter me, but my beauty is just an illusion, love. Everyone sees what they want to see when they look at me.”, Eva said.

I laughed and her face twisted in annoyance, demanding an explanation from me. "I sometimes forget that you are a mirror of one's desires."

Her face softened with my words as she pushed my bangs away from my face. "Well what do you desire in this world of yours?"

"I want those in it to break my expectations. However, they never seem to be capable of that no matter how I change the design."

My eyes followed her as she got up from my lap to pace around the dimly lit room. I could almost see her brain working it's hardest to find my answer. Even if it's not an easy task, she had always tried to ease my burdens.

She turned around and ran to me and grabbed my hands, "I know!" She grinned from ear to ear as her excitement grew.

"Know what?" She scowled at me like I should already know what she was thinking. "I can't read your mind.", I said.

She rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath, "Have you ever been to this world? I honestly don't know how you expect something to be perfect when you've distanced yourself from it." Bringing her gaze to be level with mine, "Do you trust me?"

I looked at her bewildered, "Of course."

She smirked as her eyes began to glow, "Good," I gazed into them and felt my surroundings fade as the world I created materialized around me, "If you need me, talk into anything with a reflection. I'll be waiting."

I chuckled as I looked into the window of a nearby store, "At least she made sure to hide my true appearance and with quite a handsome face too."

I turned to face the crowd of people on their morning commute and let out a sigh at my creations. It's as if they are a herd of mindless sheep, so disappointing. There has to be at least one person here that is extraordinary and I will wander as a silent observer until I find you.

Meanwhile...

"Alright I'm heading out!!", I yelled to no one. Sounds a bit stupid, but it makes my home feel less empty. I've only lived in Seoul for about two months now and honestly it's not living up to the hype I had built in my own head before coming. Sure. South Korea was great and living in another country has been my dream since I was little. It's just very humbling to realize I don't matter at all.

It hadn't been long enough since the big move for me to make any close friends, just a few coworkers and classmates I talked to in passing. I have people who loved and cared about me, but they were on the other side of the world. Add that to time zones differences and life got pretty lonely. Well there is one person I enjoy, but we only met shortly after I moved here. "Maybe I should get a cat..."

As I started my walk to school, it was as normal as always. The kind, old man greeted me as I passed by his store. He bowed to everyone though, so it's not like he is truly saw me. He just hoped I would divert my course and buy something, I guess. A few people tried to hand me flyers or told me about some cool new item that I couldn't live without. I didn't even own a proper bed frame yet.

I've been way too busy just trying to keep my grades up to buy one. It's not that I am stupid, just that all my classes proved to be a major pain when everything is in Korean. Guess I didn't realize real life didn't come with subtitles.

"Excuse me miss?"

I looked behind me to see a guy. Fairly average looking. 5'10. Dark hair. Brown eyes. Looked like everyone else you'd imagine seeing here. "Yes?"

The man rubbed the back of his neck while smiling sheepishly at me, "You wouldn't happen to have any money, so I can catch the bus would you?"

Seriously...?

"It seems I forgot my wallet at home by mistake."

I tried to hold back my sigh since his bunny teeth and sparkly eyes were so endearing. "Uhm...let me look in my wallet."

I shuffled through the random crap I had in my bag, searching for coins. There might be some lost in the bottom...maybe? Kind of embarrassing to admit, but I definitely didn't have any money in my wallet. Just my I.D. and a gift card for a pizza joint back home that probably had $1 on it...at most.

After I dug around in the warzone that is the bottom of my bag and managed to stick my fingers in every gross thing there is, I found some change. "Is this enough? I'm not sure how much it costs."

The guy inspected my change as if it is some lost treasure, "Yes. Thanks so much."

I watched as the guy sprinted off towards the bus, barely having gotten on it in time. I guess he didn't realize there will be another bus in 5 minutes and that he didn't need to run around like a chicken with his head cut off.

I continued on my path to school, I shoved my earbuds in hopes to drown out the overwhelming sounds of the city. It's a short walk to school. I was very fortunate to have found an apartment so close, but I would take the long way if it meant I got to avoid the crowded morning commute. Unfortunately for me, there is no way that was less crowded. I didn't hate people, just the lack of space they gave me. I'm not really sure why, but I panic when I feel surrounded by so many people. Nothing ever happened to me and I'm not shy, just claustrophobic I guess.

I turned the corner to see my school in the distance. I sighed in annoyance as I got ready to brace myself for the unrelenting amount of stress as I tried to keep up with my professor’s lectures. An arm wrapped around my shoulders and slowed my fast set pace. I pulled my earbuds out and turned to the only person who would have felt they were close enough to intentionally invade my personal space like that. "Morning Namjoon."

His cute dimples already appeared on his stupidly handsome face. "Morning. You didn't text me last night."

I did my best to roll my eyes and hide my joy inside, "Yea because you weren't worth my time."

He chuckled, bumping into me gently, "Try all you want y/n. I know you liiiike me."

Cocky little shit...but true. "Go flirt with someone else. I'm going to be late for class." I quickened my pace to avoid being around him anymore. I seriously had no control over my heart when he was around.

After hours of painful mind Olympics trying to translate as fast as my professors could speak, I was happy to be walking towards the glorious gates of the campus.

"Wait up," I turned to see Namjoon as he ran with an adorable bounce towards me, "Let me walk you home."

I tried my best to not squeal out loud, only in my head. "Would love to, but I have work."

"Then I'll just walk you there."

Eeek!!! Prince charming lives in Korea and he's talking to me!

"Duh~"

Stop ruining it, you turd monkey!!

He mostly talked and I listened as we walked together. "Why are you always so quiet?"

Crap. "Uhm...it's stupid." He walked ahead of me and smiled. Ugh! That perfect smile will be the death of me!!

"So? Do I make you uncomfortable or something?"

My eyes shot wide with panic, "Nonono!! Nothing like that. It's just...I don't know...I guess I like listening to you more than I like talking." Sort of... "It's lame, but you're the only person I know who likes talking in English. It's like...a slice of home hearing my native tongue in a place so alien to me." I chewed on my cheek as he stopped in front of me. "What Namjoon?"

He leaned down to be level with my height, "You're so lame, it's adorable."

I slapped his shoulder as he stuck out his tongue and turned to keep walking. So annoying!! But so cute too...

I stared at his back, he looked so confident when he walked. It was enchanting to watch.

"Stop staring at my ass."

"What ass?" He glared at me and sucked on his teeth in annoyance. I tried my best not to burst out in a fit of laughter, but I failed miserably.

"Don't act like you don't want this!" He wiggled his hips in front of me as he patted his butt.

"You look like a circus monkey and that old lady is staring at you like you have mental problems." His cheeks reddened and I fought the urge to awww~ in his face.

"Shut up..."

Aww~ flustered Joon is cutest Joon!!!

We stood in front of the library I worked at. "Well, I guess I'll see you later?" I played with my fingers, as I looked up at him.

"Actually, I'm having a get together with some friends at my place later. Do you want to come?"

My heart stuttered a little when I met his eyes, "I'd like that."

His showed that perfect smile that made my heart panic more, "What time are you off work? I'll meet you here so I can walk you back to my place."

I rolled my eyes, "I can walk there myself, you know?"

"No way. It's already getting dark outside. What kind of friend would I be?"

Friend... "Ha. Yea you're right...I'm off at 8" He opened his arms for a hug and I willingly got into them.

"I'll be waiting." He winked and I felt his eyes on me as I walked into work.

I turned around and waved at him. He just smiled and nodded his head as he turned to walk away. Friend...ugh!!!

Sweet time transitions

"Ok. I'm going to finish up here and clock out." My coworker smiled at me and wished me goodnight. I headed to the employee break room to grab my belongings as I rubbed my eyelids. It's been an exhausting day.

"Y/n!", my manager appeared like the Satan he is.

"Yea?" Please don't ask me to stay late!

"There is a new hire coming in tomorrow. I want you to train them. Alright?"

A new hire...isn't there already enough people working here? It's one mediocre library. "Yes, sir. How will I know which person is the new hire?"

My manager looked at me dumbfounded, "it'll be the employee you don't know."

...idiot... "Right....well I'll see you tomorrow then Mr. Kim." He just nodded and walked off while I mentally face palmed. My brain must be seriously fried after today...

I walked out of the library and looked around for Joon. Huh...he's not here. I took my phone out of my purse and checked to see if I had  any messages.

Joon💜

Running a bit late! Sry.

My friend wanted to come too 🙄

Hope you don't mind...

I sighed as I wrapped my coat around my myself as tight as I could. It's only August, but it's already started to get pretty cold at night. Please hurry~

I decided it was best to not stand in front of work, I wandered towards a nearby streetlight. It should be close enough that Joon could find me. There was no one around anyways. He'd be an idiot if he couldn't find me.

My eyes scanned the nearby woods...well sort of woods. It's just a few trees that the city had put in to make the area more pleasant to look at. Before it was just a dirt field. As I watched the trees I noticed movement. The frick... "Hello? Is someone out there." Please be a no. Please be a no. I scanned the trees for any signs of life. Ok frick this!!

I started to make my way back to the front of the library where creepy things definitely did not lurk in the shadows. However, I still felt like I was being watched. My heart started to speed up, as did my legs. I swore I heard footsteps behind me, but I was too afraid to look back. Someone's hand grabbed onto my arm and turned me to face them as I yelped in fear.

"Woah! Sorry y/n...I didn't mean to scare you.", Namjoon said.

Heat rose to my cheeks quickly, but they were probably already red from standing in the cold. "Namjoon...Were you in the trees over there, just now?"

He looked over at the trees and back at me with furrowed brows. "No. Why?"

I stood closer to him to feel a bit safer, "I thought I saw someone...or something there."

He just chuckled and laid his arm over my shoulder. "Relax. It was probably just your imagination. Let's go, it's really cold already." He grabbed my hand and started walking me towards his home.

"Where's your friend?"

"Oh! He said he needed to run back to his place real quick."

"Ahh~ ok then." We continued our walk in silence, but I still felt a sense of unease. I swore if felt like there was someone watching me. I took one last glance at the treeline to see if I could make out a figure, but there was nothing. Huh...I'd much rather focus on Joon than my overactive imagination anyways.

Unbeknownst to her, a figure emerged from behind a tree, watching the two from the shadows.

"That was close." coming to stand on the sidewalk as they brushed off the dirt from the trees, "I think I'll stick around here for a while. Maybe something interesting will happen."

A/N: Guys OMG I’ve been locked out of this account forever!!!! I missed writing for you guys so much, but I didn’t want to start all over on a new account. I’m so SORRY, I’ve been MIA for about 2 years now!!!! This story has 3 parts written so far and I have zero ideas on how long it will be, but I love it so far! I’ve also been writing stuff for my own amusement that I can upload over time for you guys! AAAGHGHGHSH, I’m just so happy I was finally able to get back into this account!!!!

#namjoon #namjoon scenario #namjoon imagine #bts #bts reaction #bts scenario #bts writing #bts scenarios #bts suga #bts taehyung #bts imagines #jimin #yoongi #taehyung #hobi #hoseok #jhope #rm #jungkook #seokjin #jin #bangtanboys #kpop imagines #kpop scenarios

[chrysaliseuro2019]

A Marathon Effort

Off to Olympia today. Early start for us with breakfast at nine followed by an hour and a half drive through the mountains. Breakfast was as ever more than we could handle. Omelette + toasted cheese and ham foccacias + cake desert plus a whole host of other stuff if you wanted it such as toast and jam. It certainly set us up for the day. We headed off for the big drive which was through the mountains. There are endless peaks, endless olive trees and endless hairpin bends as you either go up or come down the mountains. Certainly we were pretty high at times with 1500+ metres not unusual in these parts. Views spectacular. After close to 2 hours we arrived at Olympia home of the Olympic Games. It was now around mid-day and the weather was stinking hot. You first enter the modern village of Olympia with flags of many nations flying along the street and with the bustle of a small tourist town. 500 metres on is the site of not only the original games but of ancient Olympia. The ancient Olympic Games took place here every 4 years for at least 1000 years up to 393 AD when a Roman emperor banned them and also destroyed a fair bit of the surrounding old city. Earthquakes did the rest of the damage so nothing much of the temples and athletic facilities remains intact but you really do get a feel for how it might have originally looked with some partial reconstructions and also representations of what the buildings might have looked like on explanatory signage outside the site of each ruin. One thing that strikes you pretty quickly is the size of Olympia. It's quite a large area compared say to the Acropolis. Let's say 300 metres by 300 metres excluding the stadium and perhaps larger compared to say 150 by 150 for the Acropolis. You walk past the gymnasium, the wrestling school where columns had been erected to give an indication of the size (extensive) and appearance. Also the workshop where the ivory and gold statue of Zeus was sculpted one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Unfortunately the statue was destroyed by fire in AD 475. Pressing on we head for what would have been the most striking building in Olympia the Temple of Zeus which housed the statue of Zeus. One column has been erected to indicate what size it would have been and wouldn't you give anything for it to be intact. It would have been quite stunning. On to the building where the athletes swore their oaths to abide by the rules and not to commit foul play. The temple of Hera (the most intact on site) and also to the spot where the Olympic flame is lit every 4 years for transporting around the world to the host city. The were also a number of other interesting sites of buildings now largely destroyed but nevertheless which were brought to life by the signage and representations of them and basic foundations with a column her or there. An audio guide would have been fantastic though the Greeks largely don't seem to have cottoned on to them at least in this part of the country. Finally in one corner the archway which leads to the stadium itself. The stadium held 45000 spectators though women and slaves had to watch from the surrounding hills. It's rectangular not circular and when we were there there were very few people so you could get a peaceful sense of it. The start and finish line (rows of large stones) of the 120metre race are still there with a judge's seat to one side. It was pretty special if you like the Olympic Games which we both do to stand there and try and cast your mind back 2000 years and imagine what the atmosphere would have been like. Full house 45000 yelling plus those in the hills. I of course completed a 20 metre dash in double quick time. Usain would have been envious. Also a loud group of Americans rolled up and ran the full 120 metres with much whooping and hollering and wildly differing speeds from hare to tortoise (the tortoise finished last on this occasion). Mind you no shade and the temperature would have been mid to late 30s in the sun so good effort and very amusing. We stayed in the stadium perhaps half an hour just looking at it from different angles and enjoying the serenity (prior to the American dash event). We both really liked Olympia. It's one of those intangible things. Were the ruins the best preserved - No. Was the guide or audio guide good - No. It was just well set out and signposted and you had to use your imagination to visualise how things might have been. The devotion to Zeus was very manifest. It also of course has the very tangible link to today. Fabulous. We were probably on site for more than 2.5 hours and it was time for lunch which was a shared roll, iced coffee and soft drink. Batteries recharged we headed for the museum. The museum is excellent with a range of ancient and well preserved artefacts. The highlights for me included a large statue of Hermes and in the main hall the statues/carvings which were high up at either end of the Temple of Zeus. One end depicting a chariot race and the other a fight between centaurs and mythical humans. The centaurs turned up at a wedding feast got drunk and tried to abduct the women. A bunch of charmers they must have been. Never trust one. Also in the museum and from the Temple are depictions of the 12 labours of Heracles (Hercules) and I never realised previously that each labour is linked to a sign of the zodiac. We meandered around for perhaps an hour and a half enjoying the museum and then it was time to head home which would be another 1 hour 45 minute drive through the hills. We took a slightly different route back which took us along some back tracks over and around the mountains and through some small villages. Leaving at 4.30 it was amazing that over the 70 kms we saw 3 cars only (that were moving). Virtually no human beings. Of course we saved the best to last. Within cooee of Dimitsana, in fact we could see it nearby, Narelle the trusty voice of Apple Maps together with the in car navigator decided we should head up a very steep, narrow and rubbly track. Steep like 1:8. Despite misgivings we loyal adherents to Narelle put our better judgement to one side and headed up thinking this must be a back entrance to town. We had also seen another car go up there (must be alright then). After a couple of hundred metres a hairpin saw the road quality decrease (which was remarkable in itself). Rubble was now replaced by ruts and larger rocks with everything uneven. We also saw the car that had preceded us but they were getting out of it and had obviously arrived at their destination. Foolhardedly we pressed on. The road (ha! Track) swung sharp right and moved to 1:6. The little Micra was getting more unhappy and wheels were spinning. Ahead of us 2.5 metres wide moved to what looked like progressively 1.6 or so. We stopped and of course the odd stall occurred (tricky gearboxes these Micras) during which we started to slide backwards. This was shall we say - unnerving. A very calm in car discussion followed. Something along the lines of what the **** **** **** **** ****. That's the abbreviated version and that was just the navigator. Anyway, a somewhat ill fated decision was taken to progress further up the hill as reversing did not seem a good option. Neither was progressing but, it was, on the face of it, the lesser of the two evils. All sorts of thoughts were going through my head. Such as how did we get into this situation? There must have been a better route. Where can I find another navigator. They were the nicer ones. Steeling ourselves I hit the gas and the little car with spinning wheels took off up the hill. As with all these narrow passages there comes the narrowest point and we reached it with the car swerving marginally from side to side. Squeals from the navigator or was it me, curses, but somehow we were thru with inches to spare either side. Heaven knows how. Great - relief but no, now we face the reverse a steep incline going down into a housed area. At least it was paved but where did it lead to? Were we heading to a dead end with half an hour of back tracking (in reverse - up and downhill and round corners with unforgiving stone walls - arguably impossible, at least with my reversing skills) to get out. Liz could not open her car door so close were we to the wall. I had a bit more room so parked up and walked down to check things out. At that point I did let out a squeal as not 5 metres from our car curled up in the street, of all things, was a dead snake. How it died who knows as it seemed intact. Certainly did not expect to see that on the stone surface on the outskirts of town. Skirting it as widely as possible as it might still have been alive I pressed on down the hill swung round a corner and there to my relief was a small square with two cars parked in it. So there was a way out. However the little pathways off the square which led down to the town looked like they wouldn't accommodate a car. At that point a lady came out of her house and I asked if we could get down from there and she said yes. I quickly realised that she meant I could walk down not drive down. However the route out of this pickle was now clear. Returning to the car I moved fwd, let Liz out for guidance purposes advising her to avoid the snake (snakes being one of her prime dislikes). From then it was not hard though quite steep to swing down into the little square drop a Uey and head back the way we came. A bit of care through the narrow section and more care down the slippery slope. Liz who was in front providing guidance reckoned my eyes were wide as saucers and she saw terror on my face. Certainly the steering wheel was being clenched. I maintain this was my look of concentration and focus. Anyway, one more close encounter, in this case with the local police car on the hairpin bend going down as it came up the other way and we were down. Liz took a minute or two to join me as she walked down. She had waved me on initially but it seemed a good idea not to stop for her as the track down only accommodated one car and I didn't want to meet one coming up (and who knows who would give way to who) so I got out of there and waited at the bottom. Probably we both needed a minute or two to ourselves to collect our thoughts. Of course we pressed on on the road we had originally been on once down and within a couple of hundred metres of the death track was the main road into town which took about 2 minutes more to reach. This 30 minutes out of our lives which seemed like 30 hours was totally unnecessary. We had a good laugh about it later and in fact Liz was very happy to tell me she cackled her way down the track to rejoin me. This was mainly due to my terrified (highly focussed) visage which for some reason she found very amusing. Weird sense of humour that girl. Showers were (very) necessary and we reprised the night before a little with a visit to the little bar. Priest was in there. Then headed to a different place for dinner with lamb for me and Moussaka for Liz. Lamb OK, moussaka just. Wine ordinary. Service just but view good. We didn't really care. We laughed about the escapade up the hill and relived the enjoyment of Olympia. It had been a full day! Let's hope tomorrow is more exciting!