congratulations 2K followers may I request Victor from ikevil?Theme 17.number the stars.Thank you,have a nice day💕
number the stars
victor; 1,347 words; fluff, mostly -- kinda weird but victor is also kinda weird so i hope you don't mind nonny -- and thanks so much for sending something in!!!
“count the stars with me,” he says one night, his hair dark as the shade of a broken promise, his smile just as sweet. you purse your lips, looking up from the typewriter at your desk.
“i’m… sorry?” you ask, quirking your head as you lean back in your chair, wondering if you’d heard correctly.
victor’s smile is moon-sliver and cyanide, and you find yourself drawn inexplicably to it, like a comet towards the sun.
“come,” he says, offering you a hand, standing by your door, looking for all the world as if he were inviting you for tea. but you know better than that now — don’t you? you wonder.
you get up anyway, telling yourself that you’d been wanting to stretch your legs anyways and the gardens should be beautiful at this hour.
“it’s — it’s a full moon tonight,” you say, tilting your head back to admire the scattered light of the milky way, streaked across the sky. beside you, victor hums in agreement. you feel his eyes on you before you see him, the dull simmer and heat of his gaze as it grazes over your skin, soft as fingertips, strong as sin.
“how many do you think there are?” he asks, casually, turning when you catch him staring, unabashed even as your own cheeks flush with heat.
“what, the stars?” you ask, casting your eyes back up.
“yes.”
you purse your lips, unable to keep your curiosity from bubbling over.
“why?”
victor’s body shakes with his blue-bell laughter, “why not wonder such things?”
you resist the urge to roll your eyes. but of course — has victor ever really needed a reason? or a rhyme, for that matter?
“i don’t know… billions… more than billions, probably,” you say, thinking back to the various headlines you’d seen splashed across the front pages of the papers — scientific discovery this, neighboring galaxies that. you let out a soft sigh as victor turns his head back towards you.
“mm… strange, isn’t it? that we’re all so terribly insignificant and yet… here we are… struggling against our own insignificance every hour of every day…” he flicks a silken strand of hair from his shoulders, leading you towards the tiny pagoda where you’d all shared afternoon tea.
“strange? i… i don’t think so,” you sit down next to him, pressing your palms to the cool of the bench beneath you, “i mean… all the stars up there…” you wave your hand at the vast expanse of night sky, “they’re all just… burning themselves up, aren’t they? isn’t that… a struggle against insignificance too? isn’t that… it’s own kind of curse?”
victor opens his mouth, and then he blinks, pauses. no sound comes from him for a solid ten seconds before his entire body spills into a fit of near-silent laughter. you watch him, caught between confusion and bewilderment, wondering if you’d said something truly strange before he shakes his head and presses a large, warm palm to the top of your head.
“yes — yes that they are… just burning themselves up… all for us to call them beautiful — terrible, isn’t it? i can’t think of anything worse in the world than being a star…” he’s still chuckling when he finishes, pulling his hand away from your head to smile at you, a darkness twinkling behind his eyes that you’ve never quite had the courage to question.
“you’re making fun of me,” you say, narrowing your eyes and making to pull away, but victor shakes his head and pulls you back, humming happily as you topple easily into his chest.
“not in the slightest! i just… i just love the way you think, that’s all.”
you can’t help the shiver that chases its way down your spine at the softness of his words, at the closeness of his voice, brushing by your ear like a summer breeze. you swallow hard as his arm comes almost naturally to rest around your waist, and when you look up, it’s once again to find him watching you. you press your lips into a line and try not to stare at the beauty mark on his bottom lip but —
“ah… if you keep looking at me like that…” victor grins as he leans down, a finger tipping your chin up towards him, his voice thick with honey, warm as poison, “i can’t promise… i’ll be able to keep being such a gentleman…”
you lick your lips, watch as his eyes flicker down to track the movement. your breath flutters in your chest, hummingbird quick.
“i — i thought you asked me out here to c-count the stars…”
victor grins, “certainly i did… and i am… see? they’re right here…” he leans in, so close you’re almost nose to nose, so close you almost go cross-eyed to keep him in focus.
“right here… i think i can see the entire sky in your eyes…”
a tiny whine works it’s way out of your throat and victor tuts, shaking his head.
“i’ve been waiting to use that line for quite some time but…” he makes to pull away, only for you to pull him back with your fingers fisting in the thick silk and velvet of his clothes.
your throat feels dry, but you swallow passed the desert blooming at the base of your tongue as your search his face for a sign — any sign —
“h-how many are there?” you ask, your voice softer than you remember.
victor’s eyebrows twitch, “how many… what?” but the curve of his lips tells you another story.
“how many stars did you count?”
fire licks its way up your stomach into your chest as you feel his fingers tighten around your waist.
“i… i’ll admit that i’ve lost count — i’ve been distracted, you see —” victor’s grin tilts like a planet on it’s axis, and you feel your world shift along with it, degree by degree. like this, you can almost taste the weight of his words, the sound of his breathing, the liquid of his smile — like this, you want to sink your fingers into the fine gossamer of his hair and tug —
he is kissing you before you realize, severing your thoughts with the silver scissor precision of his mouth and you’re left untethered, clutching at him with the tips of your fingers, feeling him pulling you close, close, closer — a thick moan winds its way from his throat and you lean in further, push your mouth to his to take it in, to take it all in —
“please…”
his voice is shaking when he pulls away, his lips the perfect shade of treason.
you don’t feel your own trembling until he pulls you closer, buries his face in the crook of your neck and breathes.
“gods…” he says, wrapping both arms around you, his voice a wreck of barely contained emotions, of barely restrained desires, “by all the stars…”
you find yourself smiling as you let yourself be held, let yourself sink into the tremor and shake of this thing — held between the negative space of your bodies — whatever it is, at least you know it’s precious. at least you know it’s the most sacred kind of burning.
“all of them?” you ask, in what you hope is a light, playful kind of voice, even as victor lets you pull away, to reach up to brush a few fallen strands of hair from his face with your fingers, “we don’t even know how many there are.”
victor’s smile is indulgent and full of surrender.
“no… we don’t,” he reaches up to trail his fingers through your hair, thumbing at the ends as he shakes his head, “but… i think with you… i’d like to try.”
“try… what?”
“why… counting all the stars of the sky, of course.”
requests are open! <3
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United Center, Chicago 8/27/23 Recap
excuse my rambling, this is mostly for my own sake five years from now when i can't remember any details 😅
they started handing out numbered wristbands at 9am and @arcticmonkeysaf and i got in line around 9:40 and were #873 and #874 😳 we found out later that the first person was actually like #550, so there were actually about 320 people ahead of us
amazingly we still ended up pretty close? i think we were around row 13ish! straight across from nick! 😍
fontaines dc were awesome and i had a lot of fun even tho no one else in our area seemed to know them 😅
sculptures as the opener was so incredible 😭 also alex pretended to play violin during it lol
brianstorm, teddy picker, the view, and dancefloor go so hard!! they're sooo fun!!
they played fireside 😭😭😭 freaked out when i saw alex pick up the acoustic haha
alex played the high piano interlude but didn't make up any words to it this time
during high alex held up 🤘 for a long time
he introduced arabella as "a song about a girl that i made up ages ago outta nowhere"
"four stars out of five, any which way you like, any which way you like, four stars out of five, even on a sunday night...so close!" (this was making jamie smile!)
POTION APPROACHING!!!!! our jaws literally dropped
fluorescent adolescent following potion??? insane
and then one point perspective!!! the solo 😩
mirrorball is so beautiful live!!! i was pleasantly surprised at how many people were singing along!! everyone was waving their phone flashlights and it was so pretty!!!
the mirrorball itself is indescribably beautiful!!! photos and videos don't do it justice AT ALL. the whole stage setup is sooo cool
BODY PAINT. GOD. so good. i think i smiled through the entire song 😂
alex pretended to shoot a basketball at the end of dancefloor
after r u mine they put down their instruments and acted like they were walking off stage, so i thought they weren't gonna do the last reprise, and then they came back and did it!! such teases.
the majority of the crowd in front of us was pretty dead :/ they didn’t sing or move much. i think we were having more fun than most of them combined lol. it was energetic in our row and behind us tho!
apparently fights were breaking out in the front on the other side and people were getting pulled from the crowd??
alex seemed a little tired, maybe bc it was their third show in a row. it didn’t detract from the show tho
only three songs from the car and zero from sias is a crime. happy with the setlist additions we did get tho!! overall it was so much fun!!!!
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