#I can't help but find him funny in this story

[theodorenmyth]

OKAY! Another random funny fluff idea if you aren’t busy with requests 😭. I just seen a funny insta reel where a dude turns around quick because his friend says “don’t make it obvious, but look behind you..” and THIS DUDE SNAPS HIS HEAD SO FAST SAYING “I don’t give a fuck” and I can see that being Mattheo literally not caring for what reader says all because another student keeps staring them down trying to scare them but mattheo is like "take a picture, maybe it’ll last longer” LIKE MATTHEO GIVES THEM THE STINKEST EYE LIKE THE PICTURE BELOW 😭😭 it ends up with Mattheo protectively always be in front of the reader.

LMGFAOAO OFC yall btw im so FUCKING happy istg THATDAMNCHICKENNUGGET REPOSTED ONE OF MY BLAISE FICS AND IM TWEAKING HARD

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Don’t Make It Obvious

Pairings : Mattheo Riddle x M! Reader Summary : When another student starts glaring at you in an attempt to intimidate, Mattheo Riddle is quick to jump to your defense. In his typical brash style, he makes it clear that no one messes with you on his watch. What starts as a protective stance turns into a demonstration of just how much Mattheo cares, even if he won’t admit it outright. A/n : Enjoy (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠) Warnings) : Nothing! Word count : 900+

The Great Hall buzzes with the usual lunchtime chatter, a symphony of voices mixing with the clinking of cutlery. You sit across from Mattheo, lost in a story about your recent Potions mishap. His dark eyes are fixed on you, a small smirk playing on his lips as he listens. It's moments like these that you cherish, where the rest of the world fades away, leaving just the two of you.

"Don't make it obvious, but look behind you," you whisper, trying to keep your voice steady. Your eyes dart to the side, hoping Mattheo catches the hint without causing a scene.

Mattheo’s smirk widens into a full grin. "I don’t give a fuck," he declares, turning his head so fast it’s a wonder he doesn’t get whiplash. You barely have time to register his response before he’s staring down the student behind you with an intensity that sends shivers down your spine.

You can’t help but laugh, a mix of nerves and amusement bubbling up. "Mattheo, you can't just—"

"Take a picture, maybe it’ll last longer," Mattheo snaps, cutting you off. His voice is loud enough to draw the attention of several nearby students, and you can see the offender’s face flush with embarrassment.

The student, a Slytherin whose name you can’t quite place, quickly looks away, mumbling something under his breath. Mattheo turns back to you, his expression softening as he meets your eyes.

"Seriously, what's his problem?" you ask, more curious than concerned.

Mattheo shrugs, leaning back in his seat. "Probably thinks he can scare you or something. Idiot doesn’t know who he’s dealing with."

You shake your head, a smile tugging at your lips. "You’re something else, you know that?"

"Damn right," he replies, a cocky grin in place. But there’s a warmth in his eyes that tells you he’s pleased with your reaction.

The rest of lunch passes without incident, though you can’t shake the feeling of being watched. Every time you glance up, Mattheo is already looking, his gaze scanning the room for any potential threats. It’s both comforting and a little unnerving, knowing he’s so protective.

As you gather your things to head to your next class, Mattheo falls into step beside you. His presence is a solid reassurance, a silent promise that he won’t let anything happen to you.

In Charms, he takes the seat directly in front of you, his broad shoulders blocking your view of the rest of the room. It’s a bit over the top, but you can’t deny that it makes you feel safer.

Halfway through the lesson, a crumpled piece of parchment lands on your desk. You unfold it to find a hastily scrawled note in Mattheo’s handwriting: You okay?

You glance up to find him looking over his shoulder at you. You nod, giving him a small smile. He nods back, turning his attention to the front, but not before shooting a glare at the student who dared to look your way.

The rest of the day follows a similar pattern. Wherever you go, Mattheo is there, always positioning himself between you and anyone who seems to have a problem. It’s both endearing and a little exasperating, but you can’t bring yourself to tell him to stop.

By the time you reach the common room that evening, you’re exhausted. You collapse onto one of the couches, closing your eyes for a moment. When you open them, Mattheo is standing in front of you, a concerned look on his face.

"Rough day?" he asks, sitting down beside you.

You nod, letting out a sigh. "You didn’t have to do all that, you know. I can handle myself."

"I know you can," he replies, surprising you with the seriousness in his tone. "But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let anyone mess with you."

You look at him, really look at him, and see the determination in his eyes. It’s not just about protecting you; it’s about making sure you know that he cares.

"Thank you, Mattheo," you say softly, reaching out to squeeze his hand.

He squeezes back, a rare, genuine smile breaking through his usual bravado. "Anytime."

You sit there for a while, just enjoying the quiet and each other’s company. For all his rough edges and bravado, Mattheo has a way of making you feel safe and valued. And in this moment, that’s all you need.

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As the weeks go by, Mattheo’s protective stance becomes a familiar part of your routine. He walks you to classes, ensures you’re never alone in vulnerable moments, and always positions himself between you and any perceived threat. His fierce loyalty is both endearing and reassuring, a constant reminder of how much he cares.

One day, as you’re leaving the library, you encounter the Slytherin student again. This time, he doesn’t even look at you. Mattheo notices and chuckles. "Looks like he finally got the message."

You nod, grateful. "Thanks to you."

Mattheo’s expression softens. "I’ll always have your back, you know that, right?"

"I do," you reply, meaning every word.

He grins, wrapping an arm around your shoulders as you walk back to the common room. "Good. Because I’m not going anywhere."

With Mattheo by your side, you know you can face anything. His protectiveness is more than just a physical barrier—it’s a shield of trust and friendship that makes you feel truly safe. And as long as he’s around, you know you’ll never have to face your fears alone.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA my last fic of the day, i currently have like.. 20 requests in my inbox rn and in my drafts. Ill be posting 10 tomorrow and im still taking more. SO request anything

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#slytherin boys #slytherin x reader #slytherin boys x reader #slytherin boys imagine #slytherin boys react #slytherin #theodorenmyth #harry potter x you #harry potter x male reader #harry potter #harry potter x reader #harry potter fandom #harry potter universe #hp fic #hp x male reader #mattheo riddle x you #mattheo riddle #mattheo riddle fluff #mattheo riddle imagine #mattheo riddle x male reader #mattheo riddle x reader #mattheo x you #mattheoxreader #mattheo x y/n #overprotective #harry potter fanfiction #hp fandom #hp fanfic #hp fanfiction #hp

[alltimefail]

Okay I'm on my 5th rewatch of Dead Boy Detectives and I have to know if anyone else finds it funny (and a little bit maddening) that in episode 6 when Monty needs help finding his fake ghost friend Gladys it's CHARLES who dismisses him immediately?

Like... they go so far as to make a point of showing us multiple reactions to his dismissal. First Crystal, who has no reason to believe the boys will turn down Monty's case due to Edwin's assumed crush and Charles' people-pleasing nature. She agrees to the case quickly because it's the perfect distraction for the boys and will buy her time to get her powers back... but then, to her shock, Charles turns down the case!! Charles who is all about gentleness and "Bedside manner," who cares deeply about being a "Good guy" and about being liked, the guy plagued with worry about how he is perceived by others and who never wants to disappoint anyone, the guy who is suuuuuper sentimental, protective, has a strong sense of justice, and is notably dedicated to protecting his friends and helping the people he cares about at quite literally any cost.

Even Monty is surprised, too!! It's clear that Monty anticipates Edwin's lingering guilt and old-fashioned sensibilities regarding decorum and conflict avoidance to be enough motivation for him to take on the case, that Edwin would agree just to avoid adding any more animosity or awkward tension to an already delicate situation. Monty had to know, going in, that he really only had to get through to Charles (who he admittedly had neglected in the past and been cold to in previous interactions due to his crush on Edwin). Considering Charles' easy-going nature, this should have been quite easy as Edwin is a much harder person to win over, whereas Charles is quick to see the good in others!! That's why he compliments Charles (despite the sentiment being disingenuous) and contrives a story that, knowing what we all know about the boys by this point, should have struck an emotional chord for Charles especially... BUT IT DOESN'T which is like... very weird!!! It's normal for Edwin to act logically, to put facts over feelings, to "play hardball" as Charles puts it in episode 1. But Charles is emotional, he's compassionate, he's impulsive more times than not, so this is notably weird behavior for Charles!!

BUT THEN it gets even better because Charles is immediately like, "Edwin, you know what I'm saying, right?" He throws the ball to Edwin, expecting Edwin to agree with him - a reasonable expectation as, again, Edwin is the logical one - but then Edwin doesn't agree, he sides with the girls instead and takes on the case for, what we can only assume is an unknown/indiscernible reason to Charles. (Remember, Charles has no clue that Edwin already turned Monty down, and we know he thinks that Edwin has a little crush on Monty at this point as well!!) Charles doesn't push the issue, but it's clear he's not particularly happy... it's hard to nail down what exactly he's feeling (we can't read his mind) but he's clearly feeling some type of way. You can tell by his silence, by the tense, tight-jaw frown and his eyes wandering to the floor that he must have been expecting a different outcome. It felt like he asked Edwin in a way that felt more like he was testing something, like he was hoping for a certain outcome...but WHY???

Well, let's acknowledge the context in which this strange interaction happens. In the same episode we see Charles:

Note how weird/off everyone is behaving specifically after Edwin is awkward with Monty on the roof.

Checking Edwin out, up and down, after Niko tells him he looks good (This is an irrefutable conclusion as he openly comments on Edwin's change of clothes later, so like... he noticed lmao)

Acting colder than he previously has to Monty by the time they get to the tall forest, despite the possibility that Monty may have lost his friend who comforted him after his own near-death experience. (This happens after Edwin agrees to take on the case, btw. Even when Crystal points out that there's an issue between Monty and Edwin, Charles makes no move to inquire, to "fix" it, or to be especially gentle as he normally might.)

Boldly and instinctively reach for Edwin's hand while making pointed, emotional eye contact as a "last act" during their near "death" experience.

And that's not even everything!!! So like... yeah, sure, it could be nothing. It could mean nothing. Allll of this could just be coincidental. Maybe Charles was being logical and responsible for once, maybe he really did just feel like they were already too busy to take on an extra case.

OR, more likely in my personal opinion, HE WAS JEALOUS AS FUCK!!! We know, based on their interaction at the end of the episode, that Charles has always had at least some idea that Edwin is not straight. We know that everyone is convinced Edwin has a crush on Monty. We know that Charles, after meeting Monty for the first time, has an expression of disdain on his face while watching Monty and Edwin interact (when Monty is showing Edwin his astrology chart). We even know that, following this interaction, Charles is frazzled/irritated when he fails to get Edwin's attention away from Monty's astrology book (clearly upset that Edwin's attention is occupied elsewhere and suddenly eager to remind Edwin that the goal is to leave Port Townsend with haste). Monty aside, we're not even getting into the protective and emotional response Charles has at the mere mention of the damn Cat King...

SOOOO TLDR; I've watched this show every day, and the more I watch it the less I can be convinced that Charles is not jealous AF and stupidly, deeply in love with Edwin...even if he isn't aware of it yet. I have no idea why so many people think Charles has 0 romantic interest in Edwin and that he "turned Edwin down completely" on the stairs to hell... because that's simply just not what happened lmao. Seeing the word "queerbait" being attached to these two is giving me whiplash... like that's just not what's happening here. That's not the proper interpretation of the nature of their relationship. I don't think there is any possibility, not a chance in hell, that Charles will not reciprocate Edwin's romantic feelings because he quite literally already does and just doesn't know it yet. There's no other way to interpret the acting choices made (which are brilliant) and the writing choices (which are also brilliant).

Anyway, hopefully that made sense. I just needed to share because I am gnawing at the bars of my enclosure going absolutely batshit over this show! 😇

#dead boy detectives #edwin payne #charles rowland #payneland #dbda #the dead boy detectives #I need this show renewed yesterday I am losing my shit lmao #crystal palace #niko sasaki #monty the crow #monty finch

[tossawary]

Ooohh do you have any thoughts on Orochimaru specifically? Would love to hear them, I find his whole deal fascinating.

At the moment, not really? I mean, I just finished the last 100 chapters of the "Naruto" manga and I best remember the Chuunin Exams arc besides that, so while I have a general idea of Orochimaru's deal and backstory, I do not remember the small and specific canonical details that generally make characters super interesting.

One thing that I thought was super funny was that Hashirama, Tobirama, and Minato (and Sarutobi Hiruzen, I guess? He was there doing... something) are carrying a significant percentage of this super long final battle, fighting against Obito and Madara, saving lives and dealing out damage. And they're only there as super powerful undead warriors because Orochimaru resurrected them with his improved Edo Tensai technique. So I think it's fair to say that a SIGNIFICANT part of the final battle is being carried by OROCHIMARU, who might as well be sitting on the sidelines for most of it with a cocktail and a beach chair.

I don't remember the exact details of the human experimentation, at least part of which I'm sure is unforgivably evil even if Orochimaru was doing them on behalf of his village at some point. (Doing that shit on someone else's order is still not good even if all of these traumatized characters were raised to be obedient soldiers since early childhood.) But besides the mad science, Orochimaru generally doesn't really stand out to me as being any more evil than a lot of kage and other senior shinobi.

Like, they are in the business of making child soldiers and killing people for money; that is the general deal of ninja here. Inherently corrupt and violent systems and all that jazz. So, personally, I don't really care all that much that Orochimaru defected and started his own business, because I don't think that most of these characters owe any real loyalty to this broken military state that keeps fucking them and their loved ones over to hold onto its power. I like the fact that he's fun-looking and dramatic and a lot about him as a villain / antagonist calls out everyone else around him as hypocrites.

I don't remember enough about him to fully understand his motivations and be persuaded that his actions make any kind of sense by the story, but a lot of character motivations and their choices to achieve their goals in "Naruto" barely make sense to me. (Note to everyone: this is not an invitation to explain Orochimaru's everything to me. I'll read all of canon properly at some point.) I like the fact that he decided to help against Madara and Obito at the end of the story, because he was like, "Of course I want to save the world? I live here???"

I thought the end of "Naruto" was super abrupt and I can't remember if there was much of Orochimaru in those final chapters. I know he fucked off again and had a kid later, which I find funny. (Half of the time Orochimaru was on screen, I was distracted by Uzumaki Karin, because I wanted to like her as a female character with some cool attributes, I wanted to be in her corner, but every time she appeared, she did something that made me want to strangle the author with my bare hands. I feel entitled to financial compensation.)

#arencezeon #ask tossawary #tossawary naruto #orochimaru #spoilers

[flippinfamarchive]

I'm really curious about the DND episode! It sounds amazing, could you tell me a bit more about it?

Howdy!! And I'd be happy to partner!

So, essentially the episode starts with the kid (Flippa) askin' her dad Charlie if she can join in on one of their campaigns, wantin' to LARP and swing a sword around, like how she saw him do it. Charlie is over the moon with this request, but the other dad (Mariana) is very against this since the last time Charlie and his friends LARPED/ played DND at the house, they set the lawn on fire. (Which we see in a very funny flashback, hopefully we can find the episode down the road that focuses on that!)

Reachin' a compromise with Mariana, Charlie decides to run a simple DND session for Flippa, which she's still just as excited fer! He sits down with her, and helps her make her character sheet, a level 1 dragonborn wizard. He then sets up the session and invites his dnd group over. Its then that we meet the gang, who consists of Bizly (who constantly wears shades and a blue hoodie, a bit mysterious, we don't rightly know what his deal is), Condi (A guy with a very 80's puffy vest, We think he's a worker at an arcade? they mention it in the ep but we don't know for sure if he does), and Grizly (a very eccentric kinda guy, when he walks in frame he starts talkin' about an anime called Akira? I have no goddamn clue what that is) They all sit down and start playin' the game, which starts off pretty good, everyone's makin' jokes, Flippa has some cool wizardin' moments, it's goin' good!!

But then the party faces off against a pretty mean Baslisk which messes them up real good. Flippa gets pretty overwhelmed and upset, because she ain't doin' much and not gettin' a hang of the system, and runs off. The group pauses the session and goes off to find her. She's upset cause she really wants to help in the fight but can't even remember what dice to use and she's lettin' the party down. After a moment of silence, the others start talkin' about their first time playin' dnd, with each story being more deranged and funny than the last. Bizly was responsible for a total party kill or a tpk by tryin' to offer the BBEG some "stuff" (very much implied to be weed), Condi's character had to become a mindflayer cause they all forgot an important item, and Grizly's character got swept down a river and nearly almost died at the end. This gets Flippa to laugh and feel much better, ready to take on and finish this Baslisk!!

And after some effort and a lot of healin', the party is successful!! The whole party celebrates by picking Flippa up and parading her around the backyard! The episode ends with Mariana watching the group run around, with a coffee mug before sayin' "Good Grief" with a smile on his face.

And that's the episode! Sorry fer the ramble lol, if y'all couldn't tell I very much like this episode. All in all it's a fairly cute and movin' one! I mean hell, I remember when I started playin' DND, and needless to say I very much related to Flippa's experience fer sure.

If y'all have anymore questions let us know!! I heard wind that there's another episode out there that focuses on the LARPERS so hopefully I'll have more info on them soon!!

'Till next time!

-📺

#flippin fam archive #flippin family archive #flippin family au #ask blog #jrwi

[seyaryminamoto]

The Shadows in her Reflection: Sokkla Saturdays 2023

Chapter 2: Spring

Rated M

On FF.net//On AO3

She was restrained, trapped in a dark web of tendrils that weaved through her arms, and legs, and…

She cried. Tears spilled down her cheeks.

Smoke and darkness swallowed her, and the pale glow she released dimmed, and dimmed, and…

Yue's desperate eyes locked onto hers, wordlessly pleading to be saved.

Azula gasped and sat up, chest heaving: again, one of those nightmares. Again, Yue haunted her in dreams in a way she couldn't understand.

"You okay?"

Over the past months, no one had been around to ask that question to her. Truth be told, no one had dared ask it for much longer than that. Her allies, the false Kemurikage, had never bothered asking that question… perhaps because none of them were okay. It might have been redundant to ask at all.

But it wasn't something redundant for him, her sudden, new companion who piloted the hot-air balloon in her stead. He was helpful, at least, in providing her time to rest better than she had in a long time… but she wasn't sure she felt all that comfortable near him, anyways.

"I'm fine. Just… a dream," Azula said, shaking her head. Sokka nodded.

"Well, now that you're up, we can have breakfast," he said. Azula grimaced.

"I'm not going to cook for you," she said. "And you'd better be grateful that I won't. I'd likely make us both sick."

"In all these years, you haven't learned how to cook?" Sokka asked, with a slight smirk. Azula scoffed.

"I may have lost my titles and my position in society, but deep inside, I will always be a Princess," Azula said, stubbornly.

"Which means you've been stuck eating whatever scraps you could find, steal, maybe buy on occasion if you had any money on you?" Sokka concluded. Azula shrugged.

"You know, people happen to drop money in the weirdest of places. Did you know commoners enjoy tossing coins into fountains?"

"You… you fished out coins from fountains and used them for…?" Sokka blinked blankly. Azula smirked.

"It was quite helpful. I for one welcome their generosity. It was like collecting a tax, only, everyone paid it willingly. Strange, wouldn't you say?"

"People usually do that because they're making wishes and they think they'll come true," Sokka said. Azula snorted and laughed.

"Fools that they are. Did they expect spirits to fulfill wishes by paying them actual money? Spirits are a lot more irksome than that. They don't fulfill wishes, they demand that you fulfill theirs, going by my experience... though it's worth noting, too, that Yue actually assisted me at collecting the coins ever since she took to invading my head."

"She assisted you?" Sokka asked, perplex.

"Indeed. She was reflected off every one of those coins, so she took to calling me, guiding me to the next one, and the next… and the next thing I knew, I was eating the best bowl of spicy ramen I'd had in years," Azula snickered. "I suppose that was a rare case where she was surprisingly helpful… even if she kept showing up in the bowl's broth later, too."

"It has to be so surreal… seeing someone that way," Sokka said, frowning. Azula shrugged.

"It's unnerving and stressful. But it makes no matter, my entire life has been exactly that for the past years and I'm still alive and kicking," she said, with a dry grin. "At any rate, enough about my strange experiences. What's this breakfast you're setting up, exactly?"

Azula was surprised to find Sokka had actually packed some food from the Northern Water Tribe upon his venture into the Palace to gather his things. She hummed appreciatively as he offered her what he described as mooncakes, and he handed her a cup of water to down the food, too…

Azula glanced into it with a pang of nervousness: never before had the dreams meant anything deeper. Every time she glanced into her reflection, Yue was there. She always felt the uncertainty of whether she would be or not when she had those unsettling dreams, where Yue appeared to be suffering terrible hardships…

But just as ever, Yue smiled and waved at her when Azula glanced into the water's reflection.

"I didn't poison it, you don't have to look at it like… oh. Oh, wait. Yue?"

Azula raised an eyebrow skeptically at Sokka, as though it was a given that she'd see the Northern Water Tribe Princess in the liquid. It had become such a natural matter to her that she could barely fathom Sokka forgetting about it. He seemed nervous now, swallowing hard and running a hand over his hair.

"You don't need to be so self-aware. She can't see you from that angle," Azula said, with a dry grin. Sokka scoffed.

"You try feeling less self-aware when the person you loved and lost is… potentially looking at you?" he said. "Also, when they're attached to someone who had nothing to do with them, instead of you…"

"I'd hand her over to you in a heartbeat if I knew how," Azula said. Sokka grimaced.

"I know, I know. But spirit mumbo-jumbo makes no sense," he sighed. Azula nodded.

"Truer words," she said, before downing half her drink.

"Oh, uh… good morning, Azula."

"Oops. Nearly swallowed you there, now, did I?" Azula said, pulling the drink back with a mocking grin. "Did you sleep well too? Any happier now that you're traveling with someone you actually like, for whatever reason you do?"

"Heeeey…"

"Well, I was doing that already. It's… well, interesting traveling with you, Azula."

"Interesting. That's a fine choice of words, Princess Yue," Azula sneered. "Admit it, my lifestyle is utterly nerve-wracking for you. I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat constantly, wondering if I'm going to get myself killed one way or another, sooner than later…"

"If she does worry about that, she shouldn't be that scared. Nobody's ever going to catch you, now, are they?" Sokka cut in. Azula smirked at him.

"And if they do, I'll make them regret it," she said. "You're only allowed to exist around us because… well, I'm sure Yue would throw a tantrum perpetually if I dared hurt you. It would be terribly irritating not being able to drink anything or look at myself in any manner of reflective surface without hearing her whine about whatever I did to you… sometimes I'm not even looking and she still so very kindly starts rambling to me anyhow."

"You know, as much as I'd love talking to her… I can't deny it would be a little distressing to see someone everywhere with water or reflective surfaces," Sokka said, with an awkward grin. "Can't imagine how it must be to take a leak and, uh… uh. Ew."

"You really have a worrisome imagination," Azula blinked blankly. "I, uh… shall endeavor to never look at any reflective surfaces whenever I need a bathroom."

"… Well, I don't talk whenever you're in the bathroom because I know you…"

Azula most certainly didn't need to hear whatever Yue would say next: she swallowed her drink fully, and with that, Yue's voice was extinguished. Despite himself, Sokka snorted and raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"Was she revealing something, uh…?"

"Something I most likely didn't want to hear? Yes," Azula said, with a dry grin. Sokka chortled. "She is shockingly naïve in some ways. I suspect she merely wants to be friendly and doesn't understand that doesn't work with someone like me."

"Or maybe that's just the way she is," Sokka said. Azula crooked an eyebrow. "What?"

"You actually think she's not covering up that she hates being stuck with me?" she asked. Sokka frowned. "Don't look at me like that. You're no happier about it than she must be…"

"Wait," Sokka said, raising an eyebrow. "You think Yue… doesn't want to be with you?"

"Why would she be, if she could be with someone she actually cherishes? Like you?" Azula said, simply. Sokka scratched the back of his neck. "I'm under no delusions that anyone would choose to be stuck with me. As far as I know, Zirin couldn't wait to see the back of me by the time she did her mutiny."

"I'm not going to pretend you're talking out of your ass because I know people have been hounding you and chasing you and you haven't had the nicest life…" Sokka said, crooking an eyebrow. "But do you really think nobody would ever willingly choose to be near you?"

"You're not exactly an example to the opposite, are you?" Azula asked, skeptical. "You're here because of her. If Yue weren't around, you'd only want to be near me to shackle me yourself. Much like Zuko would love to."

"I…" Sokka said, frowning.

She wasn't entirely wrong: he had never given a second thought to Azula on a level that didn't relate to how dangerous she was. His first impression of her, back in Omashu, was nothing but confusion over facing a group of girls around their age, in charge of such a delicate operation like trading a child for a king. Then, she had broken out the blue firebending and from that point onwards, she was someone to fear, avoid, or fight should there be no other option. She always seemed wary of him in battlefields, no doubt aware of how dangerous his weapons could be… but ever since the war ended, she had fallen from grace and lost her way. No one had ever regarded her or treated her as anything but a problem to be dealt with since then… and it was clear now that such behavior had taken a real toll on the firebending prodigy.

"Lie to me about this and I will throw you overboard," Azula said, curtly. Sokka sighed, raising his hands.

"I won't lie. I wasn't exactly going to the North Pole with the idea of sitting down for tea and cookies with you," Sokka said. Azula smiled dryly.

"That's progress. A little honesty goes a long way," she said. Sokka snorted.

"Zuko says you always lie, though. Honesty is what you want now?"

"Zuko liked to say that whenever I was telling him truths he didn't want to hear, is more like it," Azula said, giving Sokka pause. "Such as when I told him our father was going to kill him under our grandfather's orders. Funnily enough, now he knows for certain that it was true and he still goes around telling his friends that I always lie. How about that?"

"Well… Zuko's not the sharpest tool in the shed, I'll admit that much," Sokka said. Azula smirked.

"If you're not just saying that to amuse me…"

"I'm not! I've always bickered with him over weird choices he makes, believe it or not," Sokka said. "It's honestly not that hard to see that he could've approached you the wrong way. But you also have to admit, you don't exactly make it easy for people to see who you really are, do you?"

"Why am I expected to do that?" Azula asked, amused. "You're always acting like a fool to mislead other fools into underestimating you. How is it fine when you do that, but when I…?"

"When you act like you would kill people willy-nilly, like you don't care about anything but a throne, when you manipulate your brother into making unhinged decisions with no regard for how that might just bite you in the ass later?" Sokka asked. Azula frowned. "I… I don't want him to reach a point where he stupidly chooses to do something he regrets to you, Azula."

"Why?" Azula asked. "What is it to you if he, I don't know, chooses to execute me alongside my group? Would make your life easier… ah, but I wouldn't be able to communicate with Yue for you. That's right."

"Not like you're doing much of that so far," Sokka said, raising an eyebrow. "You never tell me what she's saying, and when you do, it sounds like you're…"

"Lying? Only once in a while," Azula smirked. Sokka scowled.

"She didn't think I'm not as handsome anymore. You can't convince me of that," he pouted. Azula snickered deviously. "See? You were pulling my hair! Anyone can tell I've actually gotten better with age, Azula! I'm buffer, I've got some facial hair…!"

"What makes you think women like facial hair? Or teenage girls, in her case?" Azula asked. Sokka winced. "Also, heavily muscular men. If Princess Yue liked you lanky and beardless, why would you be any more appealing to her now?"

"You… stop making me second-guess myself!" Sokka squeaked. Azula couldn't hold back another cackle of devious laughter. "Seriously, you…"

She laughed in a rather wicked way… but somehow, it brought a smile to his face too. It was contagious, slightly amusing. She had a mean sense of humor… but even if she was mocking him, Sokka couldn't help but find it slightly funny, too.

"Anyway," he said, trying to stifle his smile. "If you give me reasons beyond Yue to think you're not a hazard to the world…"

"I am one, though. Proudly."

"Then… give me reasons to want to keep you safe so you can continue tormenting your brother?" Sokka asked, with a dry grin. Azula raised an eyebrow.

"Why… why would you want me to do that, exactly?" she asked.

"Because I want to prove a point here," Sokka said. Azula scoffed.

"Well, then… I ought to continue tormenting him because it's funny. That's the main reason for it," she said. "Someone with the temper and lack of restraint of my brother simply cannot have an easygoing, calm and quiet life. It would be terribly unfulfilling. He would always know he's lacking something… and that something is being teased mercilessly by his sibling. Simple as that."

"Okay… let me translate that," Sokka said, blinking blankly before rubbing his forehead with his fingertips. Azula eyed him skeptically as he seemed to work harder and harder on processing her words… until he finally delivered his grand epiphany: "Zuko is too much of a stubborn idiot and he's set in his ways, stuck on reading and interpreting you in one set way, and the only way you can be part of his life is to continue acting exactly as he expects you to. Thus, you continue to torment him as you have because you can take advantage of such situations to give him trouble that deters other people from stirring trouble too… you're protecting him in a rather twisted way. With you as the bad guy, the rebel against his righteousness, the Fire Nation indeed grows stronger because they're banding against you, rallied by Zuko. On a more basic level… you're just the annoying little sister because you don't know what else to be. But ultimately… you care about him, don't you?"

"How dare you…?!" Azula gasped, her face a mask of utter affront and outrage…

Her cheeks flushed slightly. Sokka smirked.

"You…! Shut up!" Azula snapped, the weakest possible comeback she could have offered him. Sokka's smile couldn't have been wider. "That's not what…! Ugh, you're impossible! Your mad interpretations about me are entirely out of place! I have a purpose! I have a right to do everything I have! It has nothing to do with Zuko being my brother or…! Just shut up!"

Sokka shrugged, saying nothing else indeed. Azula glared at him until she couldn't look at him anymore…

Five minutes later, she exploded, and Sokka had to hide his amusement behind a hand.

"Whatever mad fantasies older brothers may have, the truth is you're all pains that we have to bear with! You're our burdens, not the other way around!" she lashed out. Sokka shrugged.

"Maybe so."

"Don't just condescendingly say I'm right! Prove me wrong, damn you!"

"Right, right. That's what you do with Zuko, right? Say things to piss him off and…"

"Quit analyzing me! What do you think you are, damn you?!" Azula scoffed.

"Sometimes I'm, uh, Wang Fire, actually. I helped Aang talk through his problems once!" Sokka declared, proudly, though the grin waned before long. "Or, uh, I thought I had. Maybe I'm doing a better job with you, though!"

"A better job at pissing me off. Unreal. You have no business peering into my business," Azula snapped. "Whatever I do, however I handle Zuko, is not your problem. Or anyone else's."

"Thing is… he has the power to fuck up your life if he ever catches up to you. And he got kind of close this time," Sokka said.

"And I ask again: why would that be of any concern to you? Just because of Yue?" Azula asked, arms folded over her chest.

"Well…" Sokka frowned. "Maybe it really isn't just about her after all."

"Right. It's because you're worried about Zuzu…"

"Azula… this is the first time I've actually talked to you."

Azula frowned, glancing at him in confusion. There was no sign of mirth in his face anymore.

"You mean… the first time you've talked to me with no overt aggressiveness on either side?" Azula asked. "We've exchanged plenty of barbs and jabs at each other. I mocked you over your girlfriend in the underground tunnels, remember? What a fun day that was…"

"It sure was," Sokka said, eyebrow twitching… but he was quick to recognize her intent just as she smirked slightly. "You're trying to take back control. Trying to trigger an emotional reaction out of me. If I recognize it, then…"

"Could you stop?! What's the matter with you?" Azula lashed out. Sokka laughed, hands behind his head.

"This… this is actually way more fun than it has any right to be," he said. Azula snarled. "You're a challenge."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Azula said.

"I mean… it's like we're dueling when we talk. You know?" Sokka smiled eagerly. "Like everything you do or say could be a fake-out, and then you'll attack me through another front once I leave an opening for you to exploit. If I recognize the bluff, you back down and look for another angle. It's… interesting."

"Interesting?" Azula said: her heart felt slightly strange upon hearing that word again, this time from Sokka rather than Yue.

"You have to take some pity on me here, can you?" Sokka sighed, looking at her helplessly. "Do you think I ever have complex conversations with Zuko? Conversations with multiple layers that actually challenge me on an intellectual level?"

"Well… no," Azula admitted, with a cruel smirk. Sokka shrugged.

"The best I can get is Toph, basically, because she's always ready to give as good as she gets and she's got a damn good mind for insults. So at least that's kind of funny. But any bigger ideas, anything less material and corporeal and I lose her just as well, she tells me to shove it, and so on. My sister? Well, there's not much point in trying to get any productive results there because no matter if I'm right, in the end I'm somehow wrong, she wins and I lose. Simple as that."

"And your girlfriend?" Azula asked. Sokka froze. "What, no fun banter there for you either?"

"Heh. Not really," Sokka said. Azula frowned.

"That's an opening, you know? And you're doing nothing to cover it up. I'm being nice right now and giving you a chance to cover it up indeed… do it or I'm going for the kill, Sokka," she said, with a dry grin now. Sokka sighed.

"She gets mad at me, is all," he said. Azula's smile waned. "If I push any banter further, she doesn't know how to respond and… just gets mad at me. Conversation sputters and dies just like that."

"Huh," Azula raised an eyebrow. "Sounds… boring."

That Sokka smiled at her remark should have been an alarming sign, but Azula didn't read it as such right away. He shook his head though, looking at her eagerly.

"You, though… I have the feeling you could go for hours. And somehow, that sounds like fun to me," he said.

"You won't say the same things if I indeed go out of my way to bicker you for hours and you end up losing," Azula said.

"Might be worth it even if I do," Sokka smiled, leaning back on his seat and sighing.

"I suppose you didn't bring up the Avatar because arguing with him is akin to kicking a puppy…" Azula said. Sokka chortled and shrugged.

"That's probably a good way to put it. Though, make no mistake, he has a temper of his own. But he's very much an emotional, spiritual guy. He listens to anything I question and gets filled with wonderment over it but that's about it. Can't get much out of it either."

"Sad. You must be terribly lonely," Azula said. Sokka's smile waned.

"Guess… a bit."

She frowned, glancing at him in confusion. His eyes flickered towards hers too, a smidge of guilt in his eyes… did he feel bad for saying that, when she had been acquainted with far worse loneliness for far longer? Or…?

It struck Azula suddenly that he was choosing to travel with her, someone who wasn't a total stranger simply because they had been enemies for too long for that to be the case. As much as he might pry into her business, he had done very little of opening up, himself. Why hadn't his girlfriend joined him on this journey? Why wasn't she part of his investigations? Why hadn't he tried to argue with his friends, reason with them, so that they could be part of this confusing journey over Yue, too?

Was he as lonely as she was?

"Anyway, uh… sorry if I'm too annoying," Sokka said, with a tight-lipped smile. "I'm not trying to piss you off, believe it or not, I just… was having fun. At your expenses, yes."

"Which would certainly justify me pushing you off the balloon if I cared to," Azula said. Sokka chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, it'd be fair. But anyway, uh… we're in this balloon indeed."

"Yes."

"Where are we going?"

Azula frowned: they were evidently floating south, but they hadn't chosen any destinations just yet. She frowned as she raised the cup she had emptied earlier, urging Sokka wordlessly to fill it again: she needed to talk to Yue.

The Moon Spirit was quick to smile brightly once she realized Azula had as good as summoned her anew. The utterly ridiculous situation didn't go lost on Azula, even now. She most likely would never grow used to this, truth be told…

"Where are we going?" Azula asked, bluntly. Yue's smile froze on her face. "You said you want to see the world? Well, tell me what you want to see and we'll figure out how to make it happen. But without any directions we're just going to float aimlessly and burn through our fuel, so… care to make matters clear now, Yue?"

"Right, right. I'm sorry. I didn't really tell you what my idea was, and you're on your way nowhere because of that…"

"I don't need rambling apologies, I just need an answer: where are we going? What exactly do you want to see?"

"Oh. Well. I actually… I've thought about it a little bit, while you weren't around, and I realized there's two things I'd like to do. First… well, I want to see a lot of the world, the cities and nations I never could visit while I was alive. But more than that… I want to see the other seasons. Spring, summer, fall… I've only ever known winter. So… that. That's what I want."

"You want to see… the spring," Azula recited, blinking blankly and glancing at Sokka, who frowned at the words. "That's the directive. What do you think we should do to fulfill it? It's not going to be spring up here for another six months…"

"Not in the northern hemisphere… but it is spring in the southern one right now," Sokka said. Azula raised her eyebrows.

"Huh. That's true," she said. "Then… somewhere in the southern hemisphere, but not your home. That's basically winter too, isn't it?"

"Yeah, the Southern Water Tribe isn't exactly what she'll want to see," Sokka said, with a weak grin. "A place with more… flowers, I guess. That's probably the main thing she'd like, right?"

"Is it?" Azula said, glancing at the cup. Yue smiled and shrugged.

"In the south… that would be, well, anywhere below Omashu? I remember the maps, I saw many growing up…"

"Good to know you remember your geography. But yes, that's basically it," said Azula. Yue bit her lip.

"Say… there's one person I don't know much about, but I'd like to. And maybe a good place to start would be by seeing her hometown."

"Uh… who are we talking about, exactly? And where is that hometown?" Azula asked, crooking an eyebrow.

"I mean… Suki. Sokka's girlfriend."

"Huh?!" Azula winced. "Are you… are you a masochist? Yue, why would you…?"

"If she's someone Sokka loves, then… I would like to get to know what kind of person she is. He's going to spend his life with her, isn't he? I… I want to be sure she's a good person. Someone kind, someone good, someone worthy of him…"

"I'm not entirely sure he needs or deserves any of that… but I can assure you that, in all my cruelty, I would never inflict that kind of punishment on him," Azula said, with a grimace.

"What's going on now? I can't hear any of it, Azula," Sokka pouted. Azula grimaced, glancing at him with uncertainty. "Why is she a masochist? What is she asking for?"

"She…" Azula said, breathing deeply and shaking her head. "Well, she wants to meet your girlfriend, apparently."

Sokka's wide eyes spoke for themselves. Azula shrugged, gesturing at the cup in her hand.

"I'm simply saying it's absurd, right? She's your ex, that one's your new girlfriend, why would you want to bring them together at all…?"

"W-well, it's not like you'd scream to Suki that Yue is in a mirror or a water pool or…" Sokka said, running a hand over his hair nervously. "But… wait, she really did say that? You're not just pulling my hair and saying something just to find a weakness to exploit, are you?"

"Oh. So that's what you think I'm doing?" Azula asked, with a sardonic grin. Sokka huffed.

"Well, it's not like you haven't lied about whatever she was saying before, or were you always completely truthful?"

"He's right, you did lie about how I thought he was more handsome before…"

"You… quiet down," Azula snapped at Yue, who huffed and pouted. "Whether I lied before or not, I am telling the truth now and you don't believe me. Who does that remind me of…? Right, that person you called an idiot just a while ago! What does that make you, I wonder?"

Sokka winced: indeed, every conversation with Azula was as good as a minefield… and he refused to step on mines. Even if he set them off, he wouldn't lose his way. He breathed deeply and nodded.

"I… guess I did say that. And it's still true. But come on, cut me some slack here," Sokka said, looking at Azula helplessly. "Why would she ever want to meet Suki, of all people? She can't even meet her properly, to begin with…"

"She said something about getting to know the person you're going to spend your life with," Azula said. Sokka's eyes widened. "And frankly, while I can understand not wanting to take me to Kyoshi Island out of fear that they'll come chasing after us and try to kill me, it's rather odd that you would be so apprehensive about visiting your girlfriend, isn't it?"

"It's… w-well… it's just not the best time, I guess," Sokka said. Azula hummed.

"If this isn't the best time, then when will it be better?" she asked. "Yue wants to see the spring, and she wants to see it in Kyoshi Island. Not doing it now means delaying it a whole year, doesn't it? And who knows if you'll have sorted out your problems by then."

"Yeah, I… yeah," Sokka admitted, grimacing.

"So?" Azula said, raising her eyebrows.

"Wait… problems? What does that mean? Azula… is Sokka okay?"

"I have no idea. He's trying to be mysterious, is my guess," Azula answered Yue, who gazed through the water in anguish.

"Is she worried about me?" Sokka asked. Azula shrugged.

"I suppose she is, but she's been worried about you for years as it is, as far as I understand. Nothing new under the sun."

Her words gave Sokka pause. Azula frowned upon acknowledging as much, reading in his expression that he was distressed over potentially causing Yue's distress, too…

"I'm sorry. There's no real problem, I just… I wasn't expecting this, Yue," he said, with a weak grin. "We can go. I'm sure… I'm sure Suki will understand. I'll make her understand."

The way he spoke carried over none of the confidence his words would have warranted. Yue, however, didn't seem to pick up on that: she smiled brightly, giddily, at a skeptical Azula. The Fire Nation Princess raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing Sokka, wordlessly asking if he truly was fine with this course of action. A new, pained smile suggested he had already made up his mind… and so, the firebender sighed and shrugged.

"Very well, then. We shall set our course for Kyoshi Island."

...

"I don't understand. She should be here by now! We've been in the city for almost a month already!"

"Zuko, maybe they deceived you. Those girls could have done that…" Katara said, with a grimace. Zuko scoffed.

"You're not about to say I should've brought Toph along to interrogate them, are you?"

"Wouldn't have hurt," Katara said, with a shrug.

"She's busy recruiting metalbenders all across the Earth Kingdom, isn't she?"

"Well, I think she's in Ba Sing Se right now? Last thing I knew, at least," Katara said.

"And she was only just returning from Omashu when I told you guys about Azula. And for that matter, you're all busy too! I can't just… pluck you out of your lives for months to no avail, can I?" Zuko groaned, burying his face in his hands.

He sat with Katara, Aang and Bumi in a room within the Northern Water Tribe's Palace. The Avatar played happily with his son, and he shrugged at Zuko's mournful groans.

"I'm having a good time. So is Bumi," Aang grinned.

"Sokka had to go, sure, but he left without a hitch," Katara said, with a sigh. "And with just that weird letter. And he hasn't answered the one I set to him in Republic City yet…"

"See? This is not sustainable! What if Azula is gearing up to attack the Fire Nation while I'm gone?!" Zuko exclaimed.

"You don't have to raise your voice just because you're worried, Zuko," Aang pouted. "Calm down. Katara… do you want to go find Sokka? Would that make you feel better?"

"Would make me feel better to find my sister, too," Zuko growled at him.

"You're not my wife, I'm more worried about her, sorry to say," Aang said, grinning at Zuko. He rolled his eyes, shaking his head and dropping it on his hand as Katara smiled warmly, if with a hint of mischief, at the Avatar.

"I don't know. We could try to go and come back, though? I feel like we can't leave Zuko alone or he's going to lose whatever sanity he's holding onto," Katara pointed out.

"Am I holding onto any?" Zuko asked, shaking his head. "Here I thought it was all gone."

"Huh. That would explain staying here forever, on a single lead with no evidence, across a full month, wouldn't it?" Katara said. "Guess you really did lose your marbles."

"If he did, I could lend him these…" Aang grinned, raising his trick marbles: Bumi squealed happily at the sight of them.

"Da! I want! Da!"

"Here we go! Marble trick, just for you, Bumi!"

Zuko groaned, watching them play, careless about Aang and Katara's playfulness with the child. He couldn't stop thinking about his terrible decision-making… about how Azula never failed to teach him the wrong lessons. He fell into every trap, every pitfall, every…

"Fire Lord Zuko, sir? Fire Lord Zuko!"

Zuko jumped up from the cushion he had been sitting on, as though something had bitten him in the ass. The Fire Nation soldier that barged into the room, pushing past the curtain that hung on its threshold, looked considerably upset about whatever he had to inform him of.

"Did you find something? Did you find her?!"

"My Lord… there are tracks. We just found them, they're most definitely old, but… a hot-air balloon was left outside the city, in a cavern, and then it seems to have been taken away again. It looks like…!"

"Like the one she stole?" Zuko gasped. "The proportions of the tracks you found, they match…?"

"They do, sir. We believe it was her."

"She… she did come here. She came here…!" Zuko exclaimed – Aang and Katara were no longer quite as calm and easygoing as before, rising to their feet too. "And she left again. She… b-but why? What did she…?"

"Wait," Katara frowned. "Wait, Zuko…"

"What is it?" Aang asked her, as the Fire Lord turned towards the waterbender. Katara's eyes shifted from side to side, a hand slipping through her hair.

"A month ago… Sokka left us almost as soon as we arrived, right? And he… he took a bunch of things with him. His luggage, it looked like, but also food, from what the kitchens reported?"

"You think he's chasing after her?" Aang asked.

"Well, it's either that, which I doubt, considering he just wanted to find out what's up with the moon, or…" Katara said. Zuko's eyes widened.

"She… she did not. She could not! She wouldn't…!" Zuko gasped, shivering. The possibility only struck Aang moments later.

"You think… Azula kidnapped Sokka?" Aang gasped.

"She wouldn't have. She couldn't have, though, right?!" Katara asked, with a nervous laugh. "I mean, he picked up his stuff, so… so he had to be leaving deliberately."

"He did leave deliberately, but maybe she intercepted him halfway there," Aang reasoned, frowning. "Which means that Sokka isn't answering your letters because… he's not home. Wherever he is…"

"He's… where she is," Katara said, staring at Aang in horror. "Aang… my brother is Azula's captive? My brother is…!"

"That's… that's it. That's enough!" Zuko snarled, rage swirling inside him. "If this is truly what she's done, she's gone so far out of line that there's no line to speak of anymore! Forget it! We're going to find her, track her down now!"

"Y-yes, Fire Lord! We'll send word…!"

"To every corner of this planet. Every single nation!" Zuko bellowed. "Tell them she's a wanted criminal! Tell them she's traveling with the Avatar's brother-in-law! Send descriptions of them both… and tell them the Fire Nation will pay a massive reward to anyone who retrieves her, dead or alive!"

"D-dead?! Zuko…!" Aang gasped.

"I said… I've had it," Zuko snarled, shaking his head. "I'm done playing her games! I set the rules now! I'm Fire Lord, and she's not getting away with this for another second!"

Katara grimaced – she understood Zuko's anguish and fury… she couldn't, however, imagine ever giving out an order of the sort if her brother went off the rails somehow.

Which he might just have. It looked likely that Sokka's sudden vanishment might be connected to Azula's quick visit to the Northern Water Tribe, somehow… but a wretched, unwanted, guilty thought crossed her mind, and as much as she wanted to swat it away, it didn't go anywhere: what if he hadn't left in duress? What if her reckless, crazy brother had chosen to, somehow, hitch a ride with the Fire Nation Princess…?

There was no way he'd done that. He was busy investigating the moon. He couldn't have been so foolish, no matter if he was angry over how nobody took his problems seriously. He couldn't have joined up with Azula somehow just to get back at everyone for disregarding his concerns over Yue… or could he?

...

A journey on a hot-air balloon sounded far easier said than done. While the vessel was not exactly slow, it wasn't all that fast, either. They ran out of coal eventually, and they spent a fair few days looking for more supplies in the Earth Kingdom – Sokka knew a guy, it seemed he had friends everywhere, even earthbending friends in coal mines in the Earth Kingdom – before setting out anew, aiming to reach Kyoshi Island just as the springtime blossoms bloomed.

Sokka seemed to grow more nervous as they approached, but he held his own as they finally landed by the shore, in a grand cove where, as he explained, they might just witness some gruesome spectacles if the unagi decided to eat an elephant koi or two.

"Fascinating. The fishy princess shall be in the water to witness the carnage, too. Just the way she likes it," Azula mocked Yue as she stepped closer to the shore. Yue pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Maybe the fishy princess can communicate with the fish and tell them not to eat each other," she suggested. Azula snorted.

"Go on, then. I'd like to see how that goes," she said.

"What was that…?" Sokka asked.

"She's biting back when I'm an asshole. Nothing much other than that," Azula said. Sokka chuckled.

"You know, it's weird but the two of you kind of make a fun team," he said. Azula scoffed.

"You take that back."

"I will not," Sokka declared, proudly. "You have about the most pointless things in common and you're completely opposites in just about everything else…"

"Wait. But I'm smart, aren't I? Are you saying Yue is stupid?" Azula smirked: in the water, Yue gasped, and Azula actually cackled at her reaction. Sokka scoffed, bumping her hip with his.

"Jerk. I didn't say that!" he said. "But the obvious points in common between you two is that you're both princesses and…! Uh, that's about it."

"Exactly, and if we're opposites in just about everything else…"

"She's smart too! Just, not in the way you are!" Sokka exclaimed, flustered, as he stalked out of the balloon's basket and approached the shore. "She's kind, and pure, and sweet, and you're mean, rude and… and…!"

"Spicy," Azula decided, smirking. Sokka's cheeks flushed. "What? It's the opposite to sweet, or isn't it? Maybe you wanted to call me salty instead? Acid?"

"You're impossible," Sokka groaned.

"Ah! That means you're possible, Yue! Congratulations!"

To Azula's utter confusion and surprise, though… Yue covered her mouth with a hand and laughed. Azula raised an eyebrow, not suspecting the girl would be amused by her bad joke.

"Well, I… I'm glad that amused you," Azula said. Sokka raised his head, glancing at her in surprise.

"You made her laugh?" he asked. Azula shrugged.

"She has a terrible sense of humor. Like mine, I guess. Or maybe ours. Yours is worse than mine, as far as I understand…" Azula said. Sokka smiled a little, glancing at the water again.

"Well, I'm glad she's happy to be possible. Guess we could go on playing that game later, but… for now, Yue, this is Kyoshi Island. As you can see, there are lots of trees with cherry blossoms this time of the year…"

Azula turned around to look too, just as Sokka was explaining. Yue seemed to struggle to see, but she smiled at every glimpse she got of the flourishing trees at either side of the shore they stood at right now. As much as Azula had expected Kyoshi Island to be nothing noteworthy – and the infrastructure of the towns she had seen as they flew over, towards the southern shore of the island, certainly wasn't –, the natural beauty of the place could not be denied.

"The first time I came here, it was, uh, fall? Maybe late fall," Sokka reasoned, brushing his stubble with a thumb. "And you really couldn't see how pretty it could be just yet. There was a fair bit of snow all over the place too, but most of the trees were pretty dry. I only got to see it like this when I visited later."

"Can you ask him… if he lives here?"

"Yue wants to know if you live in this place," Azula said. Sokka raised his eyebrows.

"Uh, no. I'm living in Republic City right now. Suki… well, she is here, or is supposed to be," Sokka said.

"Won't we go say hi?"

"Oh, this is burdensome," Azula rolled her eyes. "She asks if we won't say hi."

"Well, I thought… maybe later?" Sokka grinned awkwardly. "I figured we'd stay out here for a little longer and enjoy the view! I bet the unagi will show up soon and Yue can show you just how strong her control over fish is by then, right?"

"Right…" Azula said, glancing at the water again: Yue grimaced, and Azula smirked. "Or maybe she was just bluffing."

"I'm not! I… I was completely honest. I can… try?"

"Go on ahead, then, I dare you to…"

Azula couldn't finish the sentence when she heard a whistling sound in the distance.

Before she knew it, though, before she could so much as react, Sokka had tackled her to the ground.

She would have raged at him for it – she fell over a few rocks, and her knee had crashed against a particularly sharp one that had ripped her outfit, perhaps even drawn blood… but a glance to her left revealed around eight arrows, firmly sunken on the ground. They would have pierced their bodies if Sokka hadn't jumped when he did.

"What the…?!" Azula gasped: Sokka, atop her, pushed himself away from her while retaining a protective stance before her…

Turning to face a group of armed women in face paint, bearing dark armor upon their green uniforms.

Sokka snarled as Azula pushed herself up awkwardly: Yue, in the water, appeared to panic over the sudden attack, too.

"Are you okay? Azula…!"

"I'm fine. I'm fine…" Azula as good as mouthed at her, disregarding the pain of her knee.

"Brave of you to show your face around here," one of the Kyoshi Warriors said, startling both Azula and Yue: was she talking about her? Did Kyoshi Island issue a warrant for her arrest too? Or was she talking about…?

Sokka sighed, raising his arms defensively: the Kyoshi Warriors didn't lower their weapons.

"Where's Suki?" he asked. Azula raised an eyebrow: she recalled all too well when he had asked the same question to her, years ago… now, though, the tone with which he spoke couldn't have been more distant from what it had been on that day.

The apparent leader of this group of Kyoshi Warriors lowered her bow, though her hostile demeanor didn't shift yet. The others followed her example.

"She sent us to find out what kind of brigand had snuck into the island on a hot-air balloon. Guess we know now," the warrior said.

"Am I actually a criminal around these parts now?" Sokka asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Maybe you should be," the warrior growled.

"What the hell is going on?" Azula asked, pushing herself up. Sokka gritted his teeth, glancing back at her.

"Don't… just keep your head down. If they notice who you are…"

"Why does it look like they're ready to kill us, even though they haven't?" Azula growled.

"Well…" Sokka said, grimacing…

The answer to that question would be granted sooner than later, Azula supposed.

"Keep your hands up. You too," the warrior said. Azula scoffed.

"Please, do it," Sokka said. Azula rolled her eyes.

"I could set the whole lot of them on fire, just saying. I nearly did once."

"You don't need to do it again. Trust me."

"That's a tall order. I have no idea what's happening here, and I'm not sure I even want to know anymore."

Sokka sighed as the Kyoshi Warriors approached them: without further fanfare, they pushed Sokka and Azula to walk into a small road that eventually led to a humble fishing village, as far as Azula could tell… was that truly the backwater, rundown place Suki had been born to? Kyoshi's great home? It was laughable. Clearly, the Earth Kingdom had no idea how to properly honor its heroes…

They were embarrassingly paraded across the town, and as much as Azula did as Sokka had told her by keeping her head down, the unfortunate truth was that more than one person seemed to grow to suspect her identity rather quickly. None would do so faster than Suki herself, though…

Though the same was true, of course, to someone standing right inside the dojo she and Sokka were dragged to, where the older warriors had been instructing a new group of recruits.

"What…? No!" Ty Lee gasped at the sight of her, losing track of her mission at once. Azula cursed inwardly, rolling her eyes.

"Yue's already dead, but I think I'm going to kill her all over again for putting me through this…" Azula hissed. Sokka growled threateningly at her, and she responded by stomping on his foot.

"Ow! I…! Ugh, behave yourself! And… hey, Ty Lee! Nice seeing you again," Sokka said, with an awkward grimace as he inched away from Azula.

"What are you…?" Ty Lee gasped, hands over her hair. "Sokka, what are you doing here? And with Azula? That's even more messed up than just…! Goodness, we have to send word to Zuko at once, we…!"

"No!" both Sokka and Azula shouted at unison, startling the Fire Nation-born warrior.

"Look, I get how this looks, but this really isn't the time to overreact, Ty Lee," Sokka grimaced. "I know you don't understand what's going on, and I could explain if you let me, but…"

He trailed off when a dojo door, probably the one that led to the leader's office, swung open violently. Both Sokka and Azula watched with apprehension… as a shocked, confused, and ultimately furious Suki stepped into view.

"Sokka," she said. He swallowed hard.

"Hey," was his eloquent response.

"You… you showed up with…?" Suki said, glancing at Azula next. Her face shifted from confusion to disdain and disgust. Azula glared at her with no shortage of both things, too. "Well, isn't that rich."

"You certainly aren't, true," Azula said, with a dry grin. "This place could use a makeover or two. Might want to make a better first impression to first-time visitors such as myself…"

"Azula, stop being rude!" Ty Lee said, frowning. Azula responded with an eyeroll, making an ungodly effort not to raise her middle finger in the woman's direction.

"Don't worry… we sure will be rich, after Zuko pays us for capturing you," Suki said.

"Don't," Sokka said: to Azula's surprise, he stepped in front of her, and he breathed heavily as he gazed at Suki pleadingly.

He was… protecting her. Or rather, he was protecting Yue. Yes, that made far more sense… but he was still standing between her and a hostile party. That, in itself, was odd. A rather unusual experience Azula couldn't quite remember having lived through before. Usually, she was the threat others were protecting their allies from…

"Look… I know this is messy and I know you don't like it, but we need to talk. This is a lot more complicated than it sounds like, Suki," Sokka said. Suki offered him an unamused smile.

"I bet it is. As usual," she said, rolling her eyes.

"What would you rather do?" Ty Lee asked her, worriedly.

"I'll hear him out. Why not?" Suki said, with a dismissive smirk. "Might even help me be sure I've made the right choice all along and everything."

"Make any wrong moves and we will have no mercy," the warrior who caught them by the shore said. Azula scoffed, smirking at her.

"I'm all too aware of what Kyoshi Warrior mercilessness looks like… I can't say I'm scared," she smirked.

"You should be," the girl growled, her bravado failing to find its mark.

Sokka grimaced as he entered Suki's office: as much as they had been together for a long time, he hadn't actually visited this place all that often. Suki had been living in the Fire Nation, on the most part… then, she went to Republic City with him. A little over a year ago, she had returned home, permanently. He had merely visited her once since then… and it hadn't turned out quite as well as he would have liked.

So now, he marched into the room feeling the weight of a lost decade dragging him down to take his seat before Suki's desk. The Kyoshi Warrior Azula seemed to defy so much pushed her to take her seat by Sokka's side, and she didn't bother leaving afterwards, either. Azula scowled, glancing back at the door to find it closed… but there were at least seven Kyoshi Warriors inside the office. Most of them were looking at her, no doubt expecting they would need to subdue her… she wondered if Sokka would even try to help her, if it came to that. He might just back off and roll over, trying to make up for whatever he'd done to piss off Suki so much…

But that, in itself, was a whole other matter. Azula had sensed he wasn't being truthful about everything whenever the subject of Suki came up, but she hadn't anticipated anything quite like this. Had he cheated on her? Not that she'd blame him much, if he had. As averse as she was to betrayals, she had no love for the Kyoshi Warrior. Someone who treated her own boyfriend as a criminal probably didn't deserve much pity, anyway.

"Explain yourself," Suki growled, standing on the other side of the desk, refusing to take her seat. Moreover, one of her hands rested on her sword's hilt. Sokka gritted his teeth. "The last I knew, you were her prisoner. A campaign to hunt her down is underway, did you know that?"

"You… what? I was her prisoner?" Sokka frowned, glancing at Azula in confusion. She hummed, reclining carelessly on her chair.

"Let me guess… my dear brother picked up on the fact that I was, indeed, in the Northern Water Tribe. Your departure, by just leaving a suspicious letter, brought him and his friends to assume that I took you against your will," Azula said, with a wild grin. "Funny that he'd be so shortsighted. If I had wanted to take you that way, there would have been no letter to begin with."

"The wanted poster reached us barely yesterday," Suki said, spreading it before their eyes: Azula scowled at the sight of the unpleasant depiction of her facial features, which appeared to emphasize her mental instability with marks under her eyes and disorderly hair.

"Could've given me a smidge of dignity, the bastard," she hissed.

"I'm not entirely sure you deserve any, but frankly? You're not much of my concern right now," Suki said, surprising Azula. "You didn't take him against his will?"

"Nope," Azula said. Suki smiled unpleasantly… and then turned her attention to Sokka.

"Then I have no real qualms with her. If anything, maybe I should thank her," Suki said, dropping the poster and glaring at Sokka intently. "Otherwise, I guess I might have seen you again in, what, a decade? How long before you finally wrapped your head around the embarrassment you left in your wake, Sokka?"

"I…!" Sokka grimaced, covering his face with his hands. "Look, Suki, I'm sorry! I've told you so in every letter I sent you, but…!"

"You could have said it to my face. You should have said it to my face. And yet… even that isn't something you deigned to give me, is it?" Suki said: her voice gave away just how badly hurt she was. Azula blinked blankly, folding her arms over her chest and eyeing her uncomfortable traveling companion.

In doing so, her eyesight traveled a little further: a small mirror hung by the wall, an ornament, perhaps connected to superstition of some sort. Naturally, Yue's face peeked out of it, and she looked as confused and troubled by this sudden upset as Azula was. Sokka breathed out slowly and gazed at Suki with remorse.

"You're right. I fucked up, and I've been doing exactly that, constantly, for months," he said.

"For years, I'd rather say," Suki said. Sokka nodded.

"True. More accurate that way," he said. "But if you want to talk about this, don't you think maybe we ought to…?"

"Sokka, if I'm alone with you I might just end up beating you to a pulp. So no, I don't think so."

"Suki…"

"Let's go back in time for a minute and think about what brought us here, can we?" Suki said, arms folded over her chest. "You urged me to leave my job as Zuko's bodyguard so that I could move with you and live in Republic City. After many years of insisting on it, and by insisting, I mean basically every conversation we had, which weren't actually that many, suggested that we were only growing so distant because we weren't around each other constantly…!"

"Well, that's what I thought then! But…!"

"But what? By the time you finally had me to yourself, you realized you didn't actually want me at all?" Suki asked. Sokka grimaced.

"I got busy! A lot! It's not like being a council member in growing a city is easy, and honestly, I thought you'd want to involve yourself in…!"

"In the political side of things? Why, I didn't. I was ready to retire as a Kyoshi Warrior and start a life with you… and you weren't ready to do the same."

"Well, come on, now! How do you expect we would've gotten by if I had done the same thing? I would've had no job, no income, no way to buy a house or afford basic food…!"

"As if you couldn't have gotten a less demanding job: you don't even like politics!" Suki exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "You were miserable, grumpy, constantly in the shittiest mood and I got sick of it! More so once you started rambling about how the moon was acting up! Oh, the moon, everything's about the moon, we sure have time for the moon but not for the girl you actually were with…!"

"Suki, don't…" Sokka snarled: Azula glanced at Yue, who covered her face in apparent horror.

"And when I left because I was sick of it… you come to Kyoshi Island!" Suki smiled. "Just as I'm getting my life together, you decide you have to try to win me back somehow… and you sure tried, for two weeks you were the best you ever had been with me! You pushed yourself, you forced yourself to be the perfect boyfriend, of course you did! And then… and then, after the biggest festival, in which you even involved yourself, you organized a bunch of things, you helped make it the liveliest the island ever saw, you went down on one knee…!"

Azula's jaw dropped, glancing at Sokka in confusion: he was engaged? He had proposed to Suki? Why had he never…

"And said nothing."

Oh. Then he hadn't proposed after all.

"Suki, I'm…! You have no idea how bad I feel about it, you really don't, but…!"

"Don't give me your bullshit now," Suki said, shaking her head. "It was your chance to prove you wanted to be with me. That the moon wasn't the core and center of your entire existence, that you could love me for who I was and not just use me as some sort of rebound…!"

"How could you be a rebound after ten years of relationship? Suki, I loved you!"

"You did, now, did you? So why didn't you ask me to marry you? Why, Sokka, did you stop short of doing exactly that when you had the chance?"

Azula grimaced: it was hard to believe that Sokka had a problem of this magnitude… and that Suki apparently was completely correct to say that she had nothing to do with it. If the situation had any less importance, she might have joked around and asked for snacks with which to enjoy the argument… but even Azula knew better than to do that right now. Yue's anguish in the mirror actually moved a fiber in Azula's heart… the girl was anguished. She was terrified. When she had lost her way over that comet's appearance, when she had connected with Azula as she had… Sokka had seemingly lost his willingness to spend his life with Suki. Her problems, whatever they were, had caused his…

"Suki… no answer I give you will help," he said. Suki gasped, looking at him in disbelief. "I thought I was ready. I chickened out. And you know why I ran away?"

"Why, probably because the entire island would have hunted you down otherwise?"

"Because I would have done it again!"

Suki froze. Azula grimaced as Sokka rose to his feet, gritting his teeth, fists tight.

"I wasn't ready. I might never be ready. I wanted to be the man you deserved, I tried! But I failed. No man would chicken out at that stage when he's sure of what he wants in life. And I thought I was sure… but I wasn't. I hesitated. You don't deserve to be with someone who hesitates. Someone who doubts they're making the right choice when it should be the best choice they ever made."

"You… you were questioning that you wanted to marry me, then, right as you were on your knees?" Suki asked, with a dry grin. "Well, why didn't you think about that before going down on one knee indeed? Why couldn't you spare me the humiliation, the fury, and just say to my face that you were done with me?!"

"I… I was stupid," Sokka said.

"Understatement of the century," Suki growled.

"I never wanted to break your heart," he said. "But I… I didn't know I could walk away until I did it. I didn't think you'd want me in your life again after that."

"No kidding, I don't. I frankly don't," Suki said. Sokka gritted his teeth. "And you're here now with… the most absurd kind of company, hoping that I'll forgive you, maybe? Whatever you came here to do…"

"That's not why I'm here."

Azula winced: she glanced at him almost pleadingly, trying to get through to him. Sokka ignored her, and Azula shook her head: if he was hellbent on digging deeper once he was in a hole, she sure wasn't going to stop him…

"I… may have learned something about what was going on," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "With… with the moon."

"Ha! Fascinating. And you thought I'd want to know that?" Suki smirked, derisively. "How very nice of you to drop by in person to do that. You could've written a letter to say whatever you found out instead…"

"This is… difficult to explain," Sokka said, gritting his teeth.

"No doubt. Because I can't see how it involves Azula in the least," Suki said, harshly.

"Would you feel better if I explained that part myself…?" Azula offered. Sokka shook his head.

"Thanks, but no thanks," he said.

Azula shrugged: that was about all the generosity she would offer him… no doubt, he expected her to tell the story in such a way as to make matters look worse than they were. She might have done that out of sheer amusement over chaos… but she wasn't quite sure she wanted to stir the pot of Sokka's estranged relationship with Suki any further. Her personal inexperience with relationships made these waters particularly awkward to navigate…

"Something's actually happened to the Moon Spirit. We don't know what," Sokka said, firmly. "But Azula… somehow has become the host of Yue's spirit? To a fault?"

"She… what?" Suki said, glancing down at Azula in confusion. Azula blinked blankly, offering her a dry grin and a small wave.

"That doesn't make any sense," Ty Lee said, stepping closer and staring at Azula intently. Her intervention soured Azula's smile all over again. "That can't be true, Sokka, she only has her usual awful aura, no one else's…!"

"Maybe Yue's aura is as awful as mine and that's why you can't see it," Azula said, with a dry grin.

"Is it, really?"

The reflection of Yue in the mirror might have spoken… but Azula saw her silhouette awkwardly reflected on Ty Lee's dark breastplate, instead. She huffed, shaking her head – of course Ty Lee would decide everything was a lie. Someone as dishonest as her, judging others over dishonesty, was certainly a dark joke...

"It's not as simple as what you think. I don't mean that Yue is like… inside Azula as literally as that," Sokka said. "She sees her in mirrors or reflective surfaces. Like metal, or water, or…"

"She's in your armor right now, actually," Azula said, grinning in a most unpleasant way at Ty Lee, who winced and looked down at her breastplate. Yue swallowed hard and waved, even, but nobody could see it besides Azula, as always.

"You… you're joking," Suki said, looking at Sokka skeptically. "You're not seriously trying to tell me you believe that…!"

"Azula knows things she can't possibly know otherwise," Sokka said, looking at Suki helplessly. "Things I… never told anyone."

"Ah. Of course," Suki said, with a dry grin. "I bet it's got to be real fun, sharing stories about your first love with Azula. No doubt she's very understanding and empathetic and… and everything I never was, apparently, huh?"

"Suki, you didn't exactly make it easy for me to open up to you either, so as much as I'll own up to my shit, please own up to yours," Sokka snapped. Suki scoffed. "I can't get over what happened with Yue just because it'd be more convenient if I did. It's something I'm bound to feel guilty over until the day I die…!"

"Then tell Azula to convey all those concerns to Yue, why don't you?" Suki said, sarcastically. "I'm sure Yue will tell you it's all fine, she forgives you! She has no trouble accepting you again after you spent ten years with me, surely! But me, I'm the jealous fiend who can't even fathom her boyfriend having a first love that wasn't her… because, you know what, maybe that really is what I am! Because you were mine! Because I met you first, and somehow you latched onto her in a way that you never did over me!"

"Suki, if I'd just broken things off with Yue, this wouldn't be the mess it is," Sokka said, fiercely. "I didn't just end a relationship: she died in my arms! How do you expect me to just get over something like that?!"

"I don't know, but clearly, I'm out of line. And I'd like to extend that to being out of your life, next," Suki said. Sokka closed his eyes, shaking his head too. "It's a damn formality to say it at this point… but it's over. I'm done with this. I'm done with you. I'm sick and I'm tired of this nonsense… and I can't stand another second of being second place to a goddamn orb in the sky. I'm done."

"Fine," Sokka said. Suki scowled at him. "It's over. Find someone who can give you everything you want, Suki. You deserve that much."

"I'd say so do you… but you don't know what you want to begin with. You're bound to just take Azula on some ridiculous journey that will break her so she'll end up fully possessed by Yue and then… then you'll get to be with her again! Is that what your plan was, by any chance? Because considering how obsessed you are with her…!"

"Could you stop talking about her, about me, that way?!" Sokka exclaimed. "I'm not a monster, Suki!"

"Hard to tell lately," Suki snapped. Azula winced upon hearing those words. "You've done enough breaking my heart as it is. Might be it was about time I did it right back. Honestly, I'm glad you came. I'm glad I could say all of this to your face. Goodbye, and good riddance."

"That's… that's it?" Sokka asked, with a dry grin. "You're letting us leave, just like that?"

"Ah, right. She's a wanted criminal. I'll let Zuko know she was here, if that's what you…"

"No! That's exactly the opposite of what I… Suki!"

"Why shouldn't I tell him? In fact, why shouldn't I restrain her so Zuko can collect her, and then I could feed you to the unagi? That might actually make me feel better," Suki said, with a dry grin.

"Well, goodness… someone's trying to give me a run for my money," Azula said, staring at Suki with wide eyes. Her words actually gave her pause. "Feeding your boyfriend to the unagi? Or ex-boyfriend, as the case might be… that's something else entirely."

"I'm sure you'd relate if you'd ever had a relationship like this. But that would require finding someone who could stand to be in close proximity to you for longer than five minutes," Suki said. Azula smirked.

"Well, Sokka and I have been on this journey for well over a month now. Sounds like I've had more intimacy with him than you in recent times, huh?"

Suki's glare was fierce… but this time, Sokka didn't step in to stop Azula from saying outrageous things. Instead, he stood in place, brow furrowed, clearly displeased and disappointed.

"We're not here because we want to mock you or ridicule you. In fact, now I realize why it looked like Sokka never wanted to come here in the first place," Azula said, with a dry grin. "We came here… because Yue wanted to see the spring. To see the world she never had a chance to when she was alive. And she can't just pass over from me to someone else, because trust me, I've tried to make it happen and it hasn't. So, if Sokka wants to fulfill Yue's last will, he has to do it with me, like it or not."

"If any of this is true, and I sincerely struggle to believe it could be…" Suki said, glaring at Azula. "Why here? It's spring in a lot of other places in the world. You didn't have to bring her here, if she's even there at all and you're not just conning Sokka somehow…"

"Frankly, if I wanted to con someone, I'd pick someone a lot easier to deceive than this annoyance," Azula said. Sokka grimaced: was that a compliment or an insult? Was it both? "It'd be too much work, don't you think? But at any rate… we're not here because Sokka missed Kyoshi Island's spring: it's because Yue wanted to know what this place was like. She wanted to know… what Sokka's girlfriend was like."

Suki froze in place: she didn't believe any of it… but Azula's words gave her pause, even so.

"One hell of a first impression you've made, I dare say," Azula smirked. "Guess she'll be happy to know there's no more competition over Sokka's heart anymore, if nothing else. And of course, having the unagi eat him means she'll meet him in the Spirit World that much sooner and they'll get away with being together forever while you're…"

"Shut up!" Suki snapped.

"Azula…" Sokka said, eyeing her pleadingly now. She shrugged, raising her hands innocently.

"I'm just saying…"

"What is any of this to you, though?" Ty Lee asked: Azula's mood darkened again as she glared at Ty Lee.

"I could very well ask you the same thing. Doesn't even make sense to me that you're here at all, in Kyoshi Island, but it's even less logical that you'd be in this room right now… nobody called you in, so you can very well leave so neither of us has to bear with being in each other's presence for longer than necessary. That's about as civilized as I'll be with you."

Ty Lee gritted her teeth, tearing her gaze away from Azula. The fallen Princess scowled before turning her attention to the irate Suki again.

The leader of the Kyoshi Warriors let out a cry of frustration, kicking at her desk in irritation as she covered her face in her hands: she had too much information to process, too much anguish to work through. Clearly, she didn't want to do it right now, in front of them.

"I… I'll let you go. Both of you," she said. Sokka's eyes widened. "I don't… don't care how true your damn stories about Yue may be. I don't. I'm done with this, done with you, and you're going to get lost and not return until I finally feel like I can exist anywhere near you again, Sokka. And I will tell Zuko…"

"Suki, please don't. I beg you, as much as you may hate me…!"

"You have one day before I send word," Suki said. Sokka froze. "Nobody… nobody will bother you until then. Get out of this island, go wherever you care to, and stay away from me. That's all you need to do. Am I clear?"

"You… yeah. Loud and clear," Sokka said, frowning: it hardly felt like generosity… but that certainly was as good as he'd ever get from Suki by now. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry it came to this."

"No, you're not."

Azula's chest tightened: she'd heard those same words once before, just after she offered an apology of that nature. It had been false, when she spoke it… it wasn't, in Sokka's case. In neither case, however, it changed that the person they spoke to had refused to believe them by principle alone.

"Get out. And for your sake, leave before I regain my senses and have you chained and locked down for Zuko to take you to face his justice," Suki said, glaring at Azula.

"Very well," Azula said, raising her hands defensively and standing next to Sokka. "Let's walk back-to-back, shall we? I'm not sure I trust them not to try to stuff us full of arrows again. Though, do tell, what exactly would you have told Zuko if your troops had killed me by accident?"

"What makes you think that would have been a problem?" Suki said, raising an eyebrow. "I suppose I'd have to answer to Katara if I killed her brother, but you?"

She handed Azula the wanted poster. Azula's heart pounded with anxiety as she pulled it open, not focusing on the picture this time…

Wanted: dead or alive.

Her eyes widened. A burst of fear, one she had experienced sparsely, bloomed a lot more powerfully than before. Sokka clasped the poster, gasping upon reading its contents.

"Feel free to take it," Suki said, dismissively. "I don't particularly care to collect paintings of Azula. Just get out now, I… I can't look at either of your faces anymore."

Sokka gritted his teeth. He urged Azula to get going, placing a hand on her shoulder and guiding her away. He reached the doorway, knowing all the Kyoshi Warriors were watching him, and he cast a final glance at Suki.

She held his gaze for one moment. Regrets, pain, confusion poured between them… things had soured beyond belief, beyond repair. One day, perhaps, they might be friends again. One day, perhaps, they might build bridges, if just small ones. But as far as their relationship was concerned, there would never be another chance for them. Unlike Zuko and Mai, and their countless breakups and returns to each other, this was it for Suki and Sokka.

"Goodbye," Sokka said, finally.

Suki might have expected something else. Something more vindictive, something more cruel… but that was cruel enough to make her snarl, covering her face with her hands as she wept at the loss of the one man she had truly loved. He walked away without offering her any comfort. Not that she would have taken it, if he had offered any at all. He had a destiny that didn't involve her, Suki had suspected and feared as much for a long time… but now she was entirely certain of it. Their relationship would never recover from a blow as harsh as this one had been… and that would be for the best. She had already known they were over… it was as good as a formality to confirm as much.

But to think he had been with Azula for over a month… to think he could stand to be with someone as dangerous, as unhinged, as wild as her, but not Suki? When he finally had tried, he had wound up running away. Why? What had she done wrong? Why had she lost him? Why…?

She glanced at the mirror Azula had constantly glanced at. Fear reared its head again… as she wondered if, perhaps, Yue had wanted to find out whether Sokka's girlfriend was worthy of him or not. If their twisted story was true at all… then she would likely conclude the opposite, instead. Suki had envied Sokka's bond with Yue, resented it… she had never been able to understand or accept it. She had wanted to be his first love… she had wanted to be his only love. Her failure to accept Yue, to show Sokka that he could trust her, that he could talk to her about the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe, that he could open up to her and she'd embrace it… was that why they had failed? Was that why their love had crumbled? Was it her fault? Or was it his?

Was it simply that they just weren't meant to be?

The town wasn't much to look at, Azula thought so again as they marched through it and out into the wilderness anew. It was already growing darker by the time they returned to the same shore where they had nearly been shot full of arrows: Kyoshi Warriors watched them from afar, as though to ensure they would indeed leave, as they were supposed to. Azula glared at them before focusing on Sokka again. He sighed, approaching the water anew… and dropping on his knees in the sand. A heavy frown decorated his face as Azula sat beside him, legs crossed.

"I… didn't quite expect that to turn out so poorly," Azula said. "But I did read from your behavior all along that you didn't really want to come here."

"I didn't. I also didn't think failing to propose to your girlfriend was a capital offense in this island, but what do I know?" Sokka said, dropping heavily on the sand, falling on his back. "I didn't tell you because… well, who wants to admit something that embarrassing in the first place? But I honestly didn't know for sure that it was over, simply because we never made it official that it was…"

"Running away from your lover for about a year sounds a little official to me," Azula said. Sokka sighed.

"It's complicated, okay?" he said. "There's… a lot more baggage here than you think. For one thing, well… the truth is I wasn't ready for a relationship when I got together with Suki. Yes, it started as a rebound, without a doubt, and I thought it'd be good for me. But then you captured her and I kind of took for granted that you'd have killed her, so…"

"You did?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is that why you started crying when I told you she wasn't dead?"

"Well… it meant I had failed her. I hadn't tried to save her, had I?" Sokka sighed. "I never even thought about doing it. And then? After Zuko joined us, I… I asked him where important prisoners would be taken. Which is how I wound up at the Boiling Rock."

"Ah, yes. Fun times," Azula said, bitterly.

"I know that place has to be a nightmare to think about, for you," Sokka said. "But on my end, the truth is that I… I didn't go to the Boiling Rock to find Suki, Azula. I was looking for my dad."

Azula froze. She blinked blankly, glancing at Sokka in confusion. He covered his face with his hands, groaning in irritation.

"I wanted… to find him and make up for how I'd failed him. He got captured in the invasion, and I felt so guilty and… and when we got there? I didn't find him, but I found Suki, at first. I rolled with the punches, you know, but… a part of me always wondered if she'd have wanted me back at all, if I ever told her the truth."

"Did you never tell her…?" Azula asked. Sokka shook his head. "Huh. My, my…"

"It sounded like a bad idea at every point in time. Things were never going as well between us as they might have looked like," Sokka said. "At first, because I basically never really needed to be with her, and it was just fun to come across her whenever our paths converged, you know? Like… like your picking coins out of fountains, maybe."

"Pfft. So Suki was a lucky coin lying on the pool before you?" Azula asked, amused. Sokka groaned.

"Sounds like an awful metaphor but most of all because it still… feels true," he sighed, pushing himself back up to a sitting position. "I decided we could do better than that eventually, right? That's why I spent so long trying to convince her to come join me in Republic City. But… things weren't exactly great after she moved in, you know? She had her way of doing things, and I had mine. And the conflicts we got into weren't exactly fun. She always had her way in the end, but always got so upset when we clashed to begin with and… it felt awful. Like I couldn't do anything right. And maybe I couldn't, but maybe I just stopped trying… because I was sick of working for something that never made sense. I constantly found myself thinking… is this what I was looking for? Is this what love is supposed to be like? And… and I guess after she got sick of it and left, I convinced myself that it had to be. That I had to prove I would be there for her. So, I came here, and I tried my damn best. I did everything her way. I never questioned anything again. I agreed with everything she said, and I…"

"You were killing your own spirit just to ensure hers would thrive?" Azula concluded. Sokka gritted his teeth, closing his eyes tightly too.

"And when it came down to it… marrying her meant doing that for the rest of my life," Sokka said, glaring at the horizon. "I thought… it wasn't fair, was it? And on top of that, the moon had started acting up. The real reason why she left Republic City exactly when she did? It's because I was worried about it. Instead of offering to help somehow, or providing comfort, or… anything? She just… got jealous, I guess. I don't know why she never could wrap her head around my relationship with Yue. It might be my fault because I never opened up about it in the first place… but she didn't exactly make it easy either."

"Why?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The first time I nearly kissed her, well… I had told her I lost someone I loved. I meant Yue," Sokka said. "She said she could relate because she liked someone who 'went away'. She was obviously flirting and talking about me and… and it felt like all she wanted was to be with me, which, you know, that's flattering! But she never really stopped to understand why I wasn't ready. It… it didn't seem to matter much that I wasn't. And I forced myself to go for it because… I thought it'd help. I thought that I might learn how to move on if I was with someone else. But I didn't."

"You've been with her for all this time while feeling… like you can't truly be yourself with her, then?" Azula asked, folding her arms over her chest. "Well, that almost makes it sound like I'm far better off staying single as I have been all this time. Beats having to deal with that kind of nonsense. I have enough problems in my life as it is."

"I'd tell you you're missing out, but unless you actually can bond with someone who's ready to go the distance for you, and for whom you'd do the same? Yeah, maybe it's not," Sokka sighed.

"Is… is that what you and Yue were like, then?" Azula asked. She glanced at the water, and she saw Yue's refracted reflection in it. It was hard to judge her reactions from this angle, so close to the water…

"Honestly? I don't know," Sokka admitted, with a sad smile. Azula raised an eyebrow. "I know I was ready to do anything for Yue, far faster than I was for Suki. I didn't need to talk myself into doing it, it came out naturally. But… I don't know if she felt the same way. I don't know if she ever really loved me to the point where she'd do anything for me. Maybe… maybe I wouldn't have loved her as much, if she had."

"Wait, what?" Azula blinked blankly.

"She loved her people, Azula. She loved her city, her hometown, her family… I wasn't the only one who lost Yue when she became the Moon Spirit," Sokka said, gazing at the darkened moon again: it hovered before them, in the twilight sky. "And if she had not made that sacrifice just because she wanted to be with me, well… the world as we know it would have been ravaged by the Ocean Spirit and we'd all be dead, likely. So… she made the right choice. I wasn't the right choice for her… just as I'm not for Suki. I probably never was. She's better off without me."

"Well… I'd rather say you're better off without her," Azula told him. Sokka smiled a little, looking at her in disbelief. "Truly, though… someone who stifles you to that extent should not be your partner. I would never stand for it."

"You're too headstrong for that. I ought to learn a thing or two from you," Sokka chuckled.

"Finally, someone realizes that. You're certainly smarter than most, Sokka. Congratulations," Azula smirked, and he laughed even louder.

That he could laugh at all after a break-up was quite surprising. Perhaps ending that relationship was more akin to loosening a heavy weight upon his shoulders… Azula bit her lip, nudging him lightly with her foot by swaying it to the side, bumping it into his boot.

"Are you alright with this?" she asked. "All of it? It almost feels like… you were ready for the break-up to happen by now. But if you're not feeling up for this weird journey of ours anymore…"

"I thought you'd be more upset to know we're being hunted now. Especially on those terms," Sokka said, glancing at her with unease. Azula scoffed.

"Well, Zuzu has decided to come out and play, I suppose," she said. "Not that I'm all that worried or scared. He's about as threatening as a tadpole. At worst he'll spread some disgusting disease on me, but…"

"You're sure you want to underestimate him to that extent?" Sokka asked. Azula scoffed.

"Underestimate?" she said.

"He has the power of his entire nation behind him," Sokka said. "And he's in good terms with the other nations' leadership too. He has a terrible temper. And I don't know if his patience has really run its course by now."

Azula frowned. She glanced at the wanted poster she was still holding: the art was outrageous, the threat of death was preposterous… but was it that genuine? Did Zuko truly not care whether she was alive or dead anymore?

"Do you really think he… he's reached that point now?" Azula asked. Sokka gritted his teeth upon hearing genuine fear in her voice. "I mean… I could fight him. I know I could. I'm stronger than him, always have been, but… I suppose, if he catches me off guard? Or, of course, if he reaches out to you in secret and convinces you to turn on me…"

"He would fail," Sokka said, simply. Azula huffed.

"So confident and certain, are you?" she said. "Why should I trust that you'll never turn against me?"

"Well… for starters, I don't want to," Sokka said. Azula raised her eyebrows. "Like I said, our conversations are about the best ones I've had in… well, maybe ever. Might be the only thing that rivals this is when me and my dad discuss anything we're both really interested in, but that's different anyway…"

"So, I have to live on for you to talk to me. I could do that from the inside of a jail cell, now, couldn't I?" Azula said, skeptically. Sokka smiled.

"You could. But then you wouldn't be able to take Yue on this crazy trip and we'd all be poorer for it," he said. Azula huffed.

"Of course. Well, I suppose I owe you something after all, fishy princess," Azula said: Yue grinned from the water, as good as clapping enthusiastically, and Azula smiled before shaking her head. "Be as cheerful as you want to be… the truth is you're sorry for how things turned out here, aren't you?"

Yue's enthusiasm reeled back, and she sighed.

"I… I didn't know Sokka was going through something so difficult. I guess neither did you, so… we had no warning. We really didn't. Say… you should scold him for me."

"Scold him?" Azula repeated. Sokka raised his eyebrows as Yue pouted.

"We deserve his honesty. We're all in this together, aren't we? If… if he's troubled, or in pain, or anguished, he should tell us about it. It's only right. If we can help him sort it out, we will. If we can't, well… we'll just sit in silence with him and let him know he's not alone."

"Huh," Azula said. "Well, Sokka, it appears you pissed her off."

"I… what?" Sokka said. Azula chuckled as Yue scrambled to contradict her.

"Fine, it's not quite as bad as that… but she says you need to come clean about complicated, difficult, troubling things," Azula said. Sokka gazed at her in confusion. "She says we'll help you sort it out. Now, I don't know who exactly told her she could make that kind of decision for me, but she appears to be making it anyway…"

"Oh, please! You're sitting with him by the beach, talking out his problems, talking about yours! Even if I hadn't said anything about helping Sokka from now on, you'd already have done it without my prompting you!"

Azula had no answer for that. Yue didn't often lash out, but it was even rarer when she could leave her speechless too. Sokka blinked blankly, recognizing Azula was reacting to something… not realizing what it was, however.

"What happened now?" he asked. Azula grimaced.

"She's, uh, accusing me of being dishonest about that last thing, I suppose," Azula said. "Didn't really notice I was being quite so nice to you. No worries, Sokka, it won't happen again…"

"I wouldn't mind if it did."

"Hence why it won't."

Sokka chuckled, shaking his head and relaxing on his forearms again. Azula glanced at him wistfully, somehow uncertain about their silence now, even if it shouldn't have bothered her.

"I… never realized things between you and Suki weren't all perfection, even though it makes enough sense that they weren't," Azula said. Sokka shrugged.

"Eh… happens at times. Not everyone can be like my sister and Aang, clearly," he said. Azula sighed.

"Clearly," she repeated. "You've had worse luck with these things than I have, feels like."

"Why? Never had a boyfriend who turned into the moon? Or one you dated liberally and weirdly for ten years only to realize you actually made no sense together, leading you to run away right before a marriage proposal?" Sokka asked, with a bright, sarcastic grin. Azula snorted.

"Never had a boyfriend at all, rather," she said. Sokka's eyebrows rose. "I've never really… had anything of the sort. So it's difficult to fathom your point of view, I'd say. It doesn't make a lot of sense for you to be this devoted to Yue after she died, as far as I can tell. You get nothing out of it. You cut things off with Suki and you seem to think it'll be for the best for her, too… I would dare say she's not entirely certain of that, considering her last-minute leniency. Apparently, you're a better catch than you appear to be."

"Why, thank you. That's about the nicest thing you've ever said about me," Sokka said, with a dry grin. Azula bowed her head towards him.

"I do try," she said, mockingly. He laughed, shaking his head. "My point is, though… judging by what you've been through, it feels like it's not worth it. You're putting in efforts that will yield no results… Yue can't come back, can she? Even if you help her experience and see everything she couldn't… there's no true reward for what you're doing, is there?"

"Love isn't about rewards," Sokka said. Azula frowned. "At least, not for me. When I love someone, I want what's best for them. I want them safe, happy, healthy… at peace. If Yue has been anguished over my life, over how I've handled my romantic partners, over how I've been suffering over what's going on with the moon? I'd definitely like to appease her and help cheer her up. I don't know if I can get my life together… but if it'll help her find peace of her own, I'd love to do it."

"You want a decent life… for other people's sake, rather than your own?" Azula asked, skeptical. Sokka smiled awkwardly.

"Guess you're about to call me an idiot for that, are you?"

Azula grimaced, though she didn't say anything this time. Sokka raised an eyebrow. Her gaze drifted towards the water… then she shook her head abruptly.

"I was told… that what you've described is not love. So perhaps you've deceived yourself all along… or those who said that to me were mistaken, but that seems unlikely."

"What?" Sokka said, pushing himself up fully. "What does that mean?"

"It means… that kind of devotion is something I'm familiar with," Azula said, with a shrug. "You give and you give, you do everything for the other person with absolutely no concern as to whether your efforts are reciprocated or not. And if it kills you, if it destroys you? That's the least of your concerns. It's worth it, you think… and then some smug know-it-all pretending to be a medical expert shows up to tell you that all those things are terribly unhealthy and that that's not love at all, that you are not loved, that you were never loved, and that what you were doing wasn't love either. So… I'm sorry to say that you might be as lost in life as I am. A sad place to be in, isn't it?"

Sokka frowned, sitting upright properly again. He seemed to mull her words over for a moment, and Azula eyed him skeptically as he did.

"You're talking about your father, aren't you?" he asked. Azula winced, tearing her eyes from him again.

"It's not just him," she said. "My… my nation, altogether. I… I did everything I could to fulfill my duty. None of it went against our code, our belief system. But in comes Zuzu, breaking every precept, every doctrine, allied with our long-time enemies, pretending to be the answer, the beacon that the nation should follow… and they do exactly that, without questioning it just because he has a crown on his head. No one… no one fought for me. No one protested my treatment. No one demanded that I, the truly loyal child of the Fire Lord, was given any dignity. I was stuck in a damnable straight jacket, fated to rot in that damn place until Zuko… until he needed me for his own ends. And to hell with what I wanted, what was good for me, what I deserved, what I was owed…! None of it mattered. None if it has ever mattered. I'm just… the annoyance to be rid of. The pest that assails and burdens the poor innocent people with her antics and her madness. Why… why did I do any of what I did during the war? Why did I follow my father's beliefs and constantly fulfilled his expectations when he discarded me just as well? He must be brimming with pride over Zuko right now… the son he made stronger by treating him like a pebble in his shoe, a problem to be rid of. And Zuko came back, over and over again, to prove him wrong. Which is exactly what he wanted, worth noting… he just expected Zuko wouldn't go as far as to betray him, but even so, he must be thrilled that his firstborn would claw for power by any means necessary. Just as he did."

"Any means necessary?" Sokka asked.

"He didn't win our Agni Kai," Azula said, with a dry grin. "He would have, make no mistake… but he became Fire Lord because I got locked up in an asylum, not because he defeated me lawfully. The one time he had a chance to do it, I… I attacked your sister, as I'm sure you know. I knew I was losing, I shouldn't have been. Sozin's Comet was powering me, so… it was infuriating that Zuko would have control while I was losing mine. So, I tried to reclaim control. When your sister, for whatever reason, walked into the battlefield… I knew I could throw him off by attacking her instead. So I did that. He got burned when he jumped between my attack and your sister. The Agni Kai's winner is the one who burns the opponent. That's the basic rule. That's why my father defeated him, and he didn't even fight back that time. And… I burned him too, with lightning. And then your sister defeated me. And even then…"

"By that logic, Katara should be Fire Lord," Sokka concluded. Azula scoffed.

"What?"

"Well, you burned Zuko, she beat you, she wins the Agni Kai in the end. How about that, I'm the brother of the real Fire Lord," Sokka said. Azula's lips curled into a disbelieving smile.

"That's not what I… what?" she said. Sokka snickered.

"We should definitely bring it up to Katara. She'd demand her dues, you know she would. Fire Lord Katara, married to Avatar Aang… and Zuko deposed. Does it sound funny, at least?"

"Funny… and entirely unreasonable," Azula admitted, with a chuckle. Sokka smiled sadly at her.

"I'm sorry," he said, startling her. "No one… no one ever really bothered hearing your side, did they?"

"Well… why would anyone?" Azula asked. "I'm just… a nutcase who needs to be diagnosed, tossed into a cage and left to rot there. I'm a threat, a menace, a problem to be rid of. If given so much as a foothold of power, I will evidently use it to take revenge on everyone who ever wronged me, see? So… you should stop being so nice to me. It'll only backfire on you. You'll wind up regretting it…"

She said the last words with a mocking, sing-song voice that did nothing to hide the gravity of what she was talking about. Sokka grimaced, gazing at her with remorse.

"Guess… guess I'll try to brace myself for it, in case you do decide to do that," he said. Azula frowned, eyeing him skeptically. "But considering you haven't thrown me overboard off the balloon so far, and we've been traveling together for quite a while now…"

"Your terrible cooking sometimes tempts me to do it, just so you know," Azula pointed out. Sokka scoffed.

"Like yours is much better," he said. "Maybe, out of the three of us, Yue is the one who would have cooking skills, wouldn't you say?"

"Her?" Azula smirked, glancing at the water. Yue grimaced, flustered and uncertain. "She begs to differ, looks like. Besides, she and I are royal. You're the commoner. You're the one who should know how to…"

"Look, I can roast whatever I hunt or fish, but that's as far as my culinary talents extend," Sokka said, though a spark of an idea came to mind over Azula's previous words. "Though… just so you know? Back home, I'm kind of like a prince, myself."

Azula scoffed: in the water, Yue's eyes brightened upon hearing words she had first heard from him, so long ago. The Fire Nation Princess glanced at the Water Tribe one, finding her giggling sweetly over what Sokka had said. Azula blinked blankly before turning towards the smug non-bender…

"You're not," she said, curtly. Sokka scoffed.

"Am too! I'm the Chief's son, I'm privileged over everyone else, and that means I didn't need to cook to save my life because someone else was doing it for me for most of my childhood," Sokka grinned, proudly. Azula's jaw dropped. "So, see? For all that matters, I'm as royal as either one of you."

"Fancy that: we're the royal losers," Azula said: Sokka yelped, and Yue gasped. "No, but, really! I'm an actual Princess, and I lost my title, the throne that was granted to me, my nation, and I'm now a hunted criminal, aren't I? You… you're not really a prince and you're pretending to be one over weird motives, but even if you were somehow, you're on the run with me now and you most likely have nowhere better to go or nothing better to do if you're here… and Yue is seemingly a stowaway in my head, stuck in every reflective surface I ever see. Instead of living it up in golden palaces and gilded cages… we're on the weirdest trip I've ever been on, instead, and living like anything but royalty."

"The Royal Exiles…" Sokka said, with a slow smirk. Azula's eyes widened. "I like the sound of that!"

"You don't have to give us a name! Besides, I'm the only exile. You're just… weird. And Yue is, uh, gone," Azula said. "Figure out a better one that properly represents all our experiences or don't do it at all."

"Ugh, I'll have to think it over, but this is tricky, damn! You help me!" Sokka said, poking her ribs with a finger: Azula winced, hands instinctively in a defensive kata, and Sokka only smirked at her reaction. "Oooh… someone's ticklish."

"And someone's got a death wish. Don't you dare do that again, or you're going to pay for it," Azula said: as usual, the infuriating man with her only seemed to take her threats as challenges, going by the proud smile on his face.

"We'll see about that," he smirked, teasingly. Azula huffed.

"The Forsaken Royals," she growled. Sokka raised his eyebrows. "Why not?"

"That sounds very depressing," he said. "I want something more uplifting than that! Exiles at least sounds like we're on our way to have adventures and…"

"Misadventures, rather. The Royal Misadventurers?" Azula smirked. Sokka scoffed.

"I think we're a work-in-progress. Maybe that's what we ought to call ourselves," he said, with a slight smile. "I don't really know if there's something that binds us all together… but I guess it would be Yue, huh? She's the one who got attached to you, for whatever reason, and I joined this ride because of that."

"And for some reason you still haven't decided you've had enough of me and my malice… you're certainly an odd one, Sokka," Azula decided. "The Odd Royals…"

"Huh. That's a valid name, because we'd need one more member to be the Even Royals, after all…"

"You…!"

She snorted and burst out laughing. Sokka smirked proudly at the sound, watching as she rolled to the side, trying to keep him from seeing how embarrassingly she was laughing at his simple, foolish joke…

"T-that was… not funny. Not at all…" she said, returning to herself, a hand still over her mouth. Sokka smirked, nudging her foot with his this time.

"I think that is one thing we have in common, actually," he said. "All three of us. We laugh at bad jokes, even when we don't want to. Well, you don't want to, I don't mind laughing no matter who made the joke…"

"Because you're unrefined. I have some dignity to preserve," Azula said, smirking.

"Do you, now?" Sokka smirked.

"Well… maybe I'm not doing a great job of it right now, but I do," Azula said, her smile waning as she glanced at him. "You… are feeling better now?"

"Oh…" Sokka blinked blankly, frowning upon hearing the question. "Weirdly enough, yeah. I… heh. It felt pretty awful when it happened, and don't worry, I'm scared enough of Suki's wrath to know we'd better get going soon. But… maybe I should've just called it quits forever ago instead of letting it drag out. Strange, though, that just sitting here with you for a little while was… well, that helpful. Thank you."

"I… well, I won't make a habit of talking you out of your bad funks. So don't expect it to happen again," Azula said. Sokka smiled.

"That you did it now was enough, I think. You don't owe me anything," Sokka said. "If anything, I'm the one indebted to you. All the unresolved feelings and conflicts I had over Yue… you're helping me sort through them even if just by telling me about how she's doing. And you ended up helping me with Suki too, even if you didn't deserve getting dragged into it. I'm sorry that you did."

"Well, I'm not sorry to see the last of her, if I just did," Azula said, with a dry grin. "She'll always hold a grudge on me for defeating her back during the war. Which, yes, I'm sure you resent me for because we were enemies back then, but…"

"You know what?" Sokka said, with a slight smirk. "Since we're sharing terrible truths about how awful we are…"

"You… huh?" Azula blinked blankly. "You're not about to say you're glad I…"

"No, but I will say… one time she made fun of me and the others for losing fights as many times as we did, and I may or may not have shut her down by bringing up that she lost against you," Sokka said, with a guilty grin. Azula gasped, covering her mouth with a hand. "Yeeeeah… not my finest moment, true. Maybe that's when our problems really started, huh? Well, no, never mind, that was after the Boiling Rock after all…"

"You… used me to win an argument against your girlfriend?" Azula asked, with a devious smirk. "Careful, now. You're going to start growing on me, Sokka, and I don't think either of us wants that…"

"Azula, we've been stuck with each other for the better part of a month: we've grown on each other like weeds by now. Too late to worry about that at this point," he said, with a careless shrug.

"And you… don't mind that?" Azula asked. "Do I need to remind you of who I am? The scary criminal Princess who would set the world on fire if her mental state allowed her to…?"

"Honestly?" Sokka said, looking at her earnestly. "I get the feeling I'm only just getting to know who you really are."

Azula frowned. There was no hint of mirth in his voice, or his countenance…

"Those things you said… they're elements of you, but not the full picture," Sokka said, with a shrug. "And I barely even know how genuine any of it is anymore. For someone who apparently is a terribly dangerous criminal with no restraint, you sure have showed plenty for all this time."

"Just because Yue would be all too upset if I did anything that might hurt you," Azula said, rolling her eyes. Sokka smiled.

"Then may she protect me long enough to grow even more on you, to the point where you won't want to hurt me anymore by your own volition," Sokka grinned. Azula winced.

Did he understand what those words meant? She doubted it. He was a normal person, ultimately, regardless of his attempts to establish that he was like her, like Yue…

Azula sighed, shrugging in defeat. Sokka chuckled, reaching out to clap her shoulder gently.

"Come on, then. Let's get out of here before Suki changes her mind and starts hunting us right now," he said. Azula huffed.

"It sure is terribly inconvenient, traveling with a wanted criminal. Wanted for crimes of heartbreak and emotional distress on a Kyoshi Warrior… and somehow that makes you a far more serious menace than someone who's kidnapped children, stolen over half the assets in the Palace's safe chambers, torn the hulls of battleships just before they set out on important missions, among many other ordeals that cost the Fire Nation far more money and expenses than anyone ever could quantify…"

"What can I say? I'm truly that dangerous," Sokka said, lowering his voice menacingly, teasingly. Azula laughed, despite herself, shaking her head.

"What a pair we make. Uh, trio, rather," she said, glancing at the water. Yue, of course, giggled at Sokka's teasing words.

Azula couldn't quite help but smile, even if she feared she shouldn't have reasons to do so. There were more than enough reasons why Yue should have attached herself to anyone but her… but maybe after this conversation, after picking up on the main thing Sokka didn't have in common with them, Azula had started to suspect just why the Princess had chosen her, if she had chosen her at all.

Azula's people, her nation, had forsaken her. In their own way, Yue's had done the same thing. Whether they loved them or hated them, ultimately, they were Princesses who had given their everything to a cause that had destroyed them. They had become sacrifices, pawns in someone else's game, ready to die if that was what it took to keep their campaigns alive, strong, thriving. If Azula's father had asked her to sacrifice herself fully for him, she would have hated herself for hesitating. She would have hated herself for thinking it wasn't fair. She would have forced herself to go through with it… no matter the cost to her person.

Yue had made the sacrifice by herself, for no one else could do it in her place. Just so, the world had moved on without her, just as it had without Azula. Sokka was the strange, single person who hadn't given up on either of them. Maybe he hadn't cared one bit about Azula until this ordeal had begun… but now, there was a sincerity in his words, his attempts to understand her, that Azula simply couldn't overlook.

But could she be right to suspect the true source of that connection between herself and Yue? Could she be right to believe that Sokka should not look to bond any further with her… for neither she nor Yue were fated for anything but loneliness?

Maybe that was why they were stuck with each other. Maybe they were walking in each other's shoes, in a twisted way. Maybe their only chance at humanity, at reclaiming the possibility of a mundane, simple life, was the tall, kind, humorous and thoughtful man who opened the balloon's basket door for her to step on it, first. Azula nodded in acknowledgement, and he followed her aboard before beginning the work to take to the skies anew.

She might never find peace. Yue most likely wouldn't, either, regardless of her attempts to do so through this strange journey. But if this was the closest either of them would ever get to friendship, companionship, to staving away loneliness and experiencing so many of the blissful things they had been deprived from? Azula intended to take it. She wasn't a good enough person to spare Sokka from the anguish and suffering that would most likely follow after trying to help someone like her, to no avail. She would cling to him, make the most of him… and once she was ready, she'd simply have teach herself how to let go, just like everyone had let go of her, so long ago. Just like everyone but Sokka had let go of Yue.

#sokkla saturdays 2023 #sokklasaturdays #sokkla #sokka #azula #I had never quite written a breakup as messy as the one taking place in this chapter I think #at least not for fics? as far as I recall? #I usually go much more subtly with these things #:'D #but the situation required it (?) #Sokka really needed the moral support going into that mess even if he didn't realize it #even if it's moral support from someone(s) who had zero clue of what was going on #also while I'm absolutely writing Zuko being an ass #I can't help but find him funny in this story #it's just weird how I hardly ever can take him seriously even when he's pulling out death threats and such #I dunno maybe it's just me (?)

[arklay]

DIANA x ALBERT WESKER / template.

#mine. #pair: ewskers #oc: diana #click for better quality ♡ #posting this before i start changing more things lmao but yes i went nuts and made my own psd from scratch... don't look at me #changed ages to birth years cause of how much time passes in the story!! and also gives cheeky fc for you hehe runs away #the checkboxes make me scream like he almost had a clean sweep it's so funny. and he could've had one more i'm not even joking. cause their #first kiss was technically both of them... like idk how to explain this but they were already standing close then diana moved even closer #and was tracing his jaw and such and they were just lingering while holding eye contact but he was the one who actually closed the distance #so i mean... yeah. she was just about to and he beat her to it!! but diana made the move to get them into that position in the first place #is what i mean. i just couldn't give him more it was already too hilarious lmao #can't tell if i like the lil icons but i can't doodle so peace and love on planet earth but yes i'm happy with how this came out hehe #clueless levels are cause they are clowns <3 i have a lot of thoughts about all that but yes they both take hints in some aspects but i #think they both have trouble telling if they are genuine or not or if they are misreading the situation or whether something is romantic or #not (unless ofc it's over the top and ridiculous. ahem. excella. cough. explodes her with my mind) but yeah hit him with the tism so he's #learnt how to read people very well as he's gotten older but i think when it comes to actual just genuine like wanting to get to know #someone and not just someone wanting to get in his pants he seconds guesses it a lot. and diana's all stems from being rattled by her past #experiences oughguhh and i mean her not actually having experienced proper feelings for someone until him lmao but she's got trust issues #also there were so many tropes i could use (thank you to bestie elliot for helping me finds names of things) but i had to do i got you a #drawer specifically because that moment has such a special place in my heart!! like i need to finish the wip where i talk about that cause #it makes me so silly i'm not even joking #anyway omg i hope the mentions work because doing this on the legacy editor after copying the html for beta one because the image just #didn't want to work in the beta image for some reason rip

[shidoukanae]

Did a study of a panel i like for a manga with absolutely my favorite female character i've seen yet and thought i'd post it here too in the hopes of eventually finding fans of this series when they inevitably, like me, look for more content of this story :'D

I could gush about this funny, lovestarved, absolutely downright sympathetic and villainous lady who absolutely deserves to be family with the protag for so many hours if you let me she is literally so perfect and everything I have ever wanted from female characters before.

I've gone from going "ooooo she's such a cool antagonist who is such a funny little mystery i LOVE her" to "yeah she's kind of on the insane spectrum but tbf who wouldn't be fucked up in her situation TwT" to "i WILL cry over her and she is completely in the right for doing what she's doing and i can't believe i ever believed she wasn't the heroine she's supposed to be :'D"

#the mighty extra: one girl changes the world #helene de belliana #my love #i found the raws but haven't found if there's a fandom for this manga #if it exists it's probs overseas but idk how to find said fandom then bc searching by title is useless fghjgfhj #the manga itself isn't perfect but my god does it have a lot of heart put into it #i can tell the creator adores Helene because there's no fucking way they don't at this point #just woke up to read chapter 72 and i am #melting #for baby Helene and hopefully getting to know more about her relationship with the original Lyla #because that last panel of her looking uncertain is so adorbs #but also im not used to seeing Helene with long hair and for once i prefer short hair to long hair #literally Helene is such a cool character how do i write a character as cool as her #and the fact that she has a love interest (debatably) who is is on manipulative terms with atm is so interesting #esp because he's the only one she's showing her true nature to atm and im !!! at the implications of that #her being mischievous towards Paris (even if she's meanly funny about it) and the fact she used to be mischievous as a kid... #waaah i wanna see her and Paris develop a relationship together beyond their current sarcastic partnership #especially because there's something so neat about the funny self-interested dragon man obeying her without reason to #at least the narrative hasn't addressed why he would bother??? bc she's neither offered him the fragment nor is he completely amiable to he #but also i can't help but think there was some omitting going on after their second to last scene together... #damn this manga gives so much food for thought and for that alone this story is instantly in my top 10 rankings #For Helene alone it's probably close to my number 2 spot lmao #anyways yes i stan Helene and at this point i think im her number 1 fan and defender until (hopefully) proven otherwise~ #bc god do i need more content for her waaaah

[cakemoney]

thinking about the whole robpat!batman movie’s thesis being “shit. fuck. turns out this whole time the legacy of my rage and vengeance-fueled vigilante justice has been enabling domestic terrorism by entitled white men. all along what this city needed and what i needed was healing and extending our hands to our neighbors instead of continuing the cycle of trauma and violence” like the movie put their whole chest into that. it looked at their audience and said to their face “you guys never actually understood what batman is about. you saw the dark brooding aesthetic and the toxic masculinity and the individualistic lonewolfism and you see that as something to aspire to, when the point of batman was always Corruption And Evil Exists Within Those With Power And Money Not In Mental Illness, and by missing that and making it all about yourself you became the villain of this story.” in theaters right in front of batman stans. no wonder robpat was cast for this like i’ve never seen someone pull off self-loathing white man so naturally

#laughs awkwardly #sorry i watched black adam recently (long story) and like. i can't help but feel like the subversive parts of it #just weren't as strong as how it felt to watch a batman movie where batman had to beat the crap of his own fans #like [SPOILERS] black adam wanted to be self-aware about superhero films and wanted to point out the american propaganda #inherent to the concept of 'international justice' but because it was primarily pulled off through funny quips it felt like it didn't COMMIT #(felt very marvel in that respect actually) #like yes your main character told off the western superheroes for the hypocrisy of their 'peace' efforts but then... what? #in the end the westerners were still the genuine and helpful people they claimed they were. the main characters had to trust them to survive #in the end the self-actualization of an oppressed people felt hollow because we barely spent any time with them during the story #in the end the people's chosen hero turned out to be not who they thought he was and his character turning point to become a hero was... #he magically knew to break out of an underwater prison? honestly that part was a little confusing to me but extremely horrifying #like this guy basically explicitly said 'you should kill me. that's what i want' AND THEY JUST DID NOT DO THAT #like obviously i know he needed to come back since the movie was about him but like. damn. way to not at all respect his autonomy #he said 'i should die' and they went 'haha but instead we're gonna put you in storage forever so you never reunite with your family in death #HORROR. THE MOST DYSTOPIAN SHIT I'VE EVER SEEN. YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR OWN IN CASE WE FIND IT USEFUL LATER #WE'RE SO PEACEFUL THAT WE CAN NEVER ACCEPT [GASP] MURDER BUT ANY OTHER VIOLATION OF YOUR CONSENT IS FINE #HOW WAS THIS BRUSHED OVER SO CASUALLY #WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT BEFORE #yeah you know what i don't really know where i was going with this either. i just had Thoughts #like did i think the rob!patman the movie took itself so seriously it was accidentally kind of comedic? yeah for sure #but because they took it seriously it felt like the element of metacommentary was sincere. like i can also take it seriously #i keep thinking about that scene where rpatz was interrogating the riddler and the horror that dawns on him #because he's looking at this man who idolizes batman but despises bruce wayne and realizes Oh God That's Me. This Is What I Created #like shit dude i don't think superhero films necessarily should or must be Deep in an Artistic way but i can give them props for trying?

[the-cat-at-the-theatre-door]

I like to think that Alonzo isn't the best storyteller (he's a little too literal minded for it), and most of his "stories" are highly edited things that he's experienced, but he will occasionally interject some flights of fancy here and there (he greatly admires the storytelling abilities of Munkustrap and Jellylorum and Gus but has nowhere near their ability for turn of phrase; sometimes he picks things up), either to disguise a gruesome detail or to sarcastically punctuate something (while forgetting that this often will go right over kittens' heads and they'll take him literally).

Once, he sarcastically told them that he once stood watch for a "King" (see: Macavity), which may have been a mistake because he was met with a chorus of eager questions, asking if the King had a castle (sure...you could say that, yeah), and if that means he was a knight (absolutely not, just a hired hand - that's like a knight though! Did you have a horse??) and if the King was a good King (he was not - he was wicked - :O), etc. and he just finds himself tangled up in this thinly veiled IRL story using metaphors that ends up building this whole lore and he's got no one to blame but himself.

#golden alonzo my beloved #on one of these king tirades one of the kittens asked - very eagerly - if he had rescued a princess #and alonzo thought about it seriously and ended up saying 'no. but a princess saved me' #he looks up at munk and mouths a frantic 'help me' but munk finds it so endearing and funny that he can't bring himself to stop it #Alonzo #my headcanons #i just love the idea that alonzo has this kinda...kitten like wonder when it comes to stories #because he didnt get any of that when he was a kid - he didnt get fairytales and fables #so to him all these stories are new and exciting #and its so sweet to see his face soften and open to this kittenish wonder

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

i haven’t even finished my current run of radiant dawn and my brain is like PLAY POR AGAIN

gonna have to send my brain a c&d bc jesus man tellius brain just wants to rule over them all

#DCB Comments #if you haven't played the tellius games please play the tellius games #if you can't play them please watch them online for the story #do it for the kitty man- hey wait do you think #ppl with cat allergies would be allergic to ranulf #oh god that would be the worst i hope not praying 4 ppl with cat allergies to not be allergic to kitty man!!! #PLAY TELLIUS FOR KITTY MAN I /PROMISE/ HE'S WORTH THE WHOLE SET OF GAMES #MOST PPL WILL TELL YOU IKE IS GOOD ENOUGH AND OKAY SURE BUT #RANULF IS GOOD ENOUGH TOO HE'S A GOOD ENOUGH STANDALONE REASON TO PLAY THE GAMES #LISTEN I LOVE HIM HE'S SO FUNNY BUT ALSO SO EMOTIONAL AND SINCERE #WHEN HE FINDS OUT REALLY BAD THINGS ARE HAPPENING TO HIS FELLOW LAGUZ HE GETS SO UPSET #LIKE HE'S AFFECTED THE WORST OUT OF EVERYONE AND IT'S LIKE #HE'S THE SILLY CUTE GUY BUT ALSO THE MOST EMOTIONAL AND PRECIOUS AND HELPFUL AND LOVING #HELL WHEN IKE FIRST MET RANULF HE GOOFED AND CALLED HIM A SUB-HUMAN BC HE WAS BIG DUMB #AND HE WAS LIKE LOLZ I LEARNED HOW TO SPEAK FROM SHINON LIKE YEAH GOOD JOB IKE #AND RANULF GOT OFFENDED BUT THEN IKE WAS LIKE SORRY I DID A DUMB I DID NOT KNOW BETTER #AND RANULF FORGAVE HIM ON THE SPOT AND WAS LIKE O OK I LIKE U #no stop me i could tell u about ranulf forever and why he's worth the games' entire existence #we will never get a character like him again bc he's just that unique #I PROOOOMISE RANULF IS WORTH PLAYING/WATCHING IT FOR!!! #is there actually anyone ever who actually hates ranulf bc i'll be the jojo meme walking up to fight if there is

[osaemu]

GOJO SATORU: ❛❛ I WANNA SHOW YOU OFF ❜❜

.ೃ࿐ streamer!au: some other streamer's been buying you gifts, but satoru knows he can spoil you better.

contents: fem!reader. kinda sorta clingy!gojo. more toji slander hehe. inumaki and megumi gang up on gojo. like always. oh also you guys kiss on camera! tagging @sutorus and @yunymphs ꨄ︎

author's note: ughhh he's such a pretty pathetic loser i wanna shake him silly :(

"oh, satoru, someone sent me another gift!" you say with a smile, beckoning him over to look. satoru hops off his chair and looks over at your computer screen, resting his chin on the top of your head. "look, it's the skin i said i wanted! i wonder who sent it to me, huh..."

satoru shrugs and dips his head to kiss the side of your face. "coulda just asked me for it, y'know," he mutters, eyeing the username that had apparently sent you the gift.

you ignore him and gesture at the time on the top-right corner of your screen. "isn't your stream starting in a couple minutes?" you ask, tilting your head. satoru nods and pulls away, shaking his white hair out of his eyes before walking back over to his monitor. and just a minute or two later, he's live and chatting with his early viewers.

"hey, suguru," he says with a grin, waving at the screen when his close friend joins. "you wanna join my team for today? the match's gonna start in a couple minutes."

suguru-geto: yea sure one sec

satoru spins around in his chair a couple times, and he blows a kiss at you every time his chair faces your direction. and every time, you humor him and catch his kisses. eventually, he stops spinning around in circles and starts actually interacting with his viewers.

inumaki: i hate gojo's streams

inumaki: you just stare at your gf for half of them

inumaki has been kicked from the stream by satoru-gojo.

"anyways. suguru, you ready yet?" satoru says with a grin. suguru replies with a thumbs-down in the chat, and satoru groans impatiently. "what are you even doing that's takin' you so long?"

suguru-geto: taking care of something

"whatever," satoru grumbles, slouching down in his chair and spinning around one more time. "hey, chat, y'wanna know a funny story? i could use your help on it too."

the comments explode with various forms of affirmation, and satoru turns his head and winks at you. "so, lately, some random account's been sending my girlfriend everythin' she could ever want. skins, coins, you name it. what does that mean?"

he ruffles his hair with one hand and drums his fingertips on his desk with the other, surveying the replies from underneath his long, white eyelashes.

sho-ko: some guy wants her sooo bad

yuuji-itadori: maybe the person's just being nice! :)

satoru makes a face at shoko's comments and scowls, sitting up and leaning closer to the screen. "i dunno if the guy who's sending my girlfriend gifts is here right now, but if you are, you better not think that you have a chance with her. 'cause you don't!"

you can't stifle the smile that spreads across your face at satoru's indignant words, and when he turns to you, you just can't help but laugh. he's so sweet, even and especially when he does his best to gatekeep you. but ever since he brought you onto his stream for the first time, you've been an instant fan-favorite, so he can only hide you for so long.

satoru scrunches up his face at you childishly, and you draw a heart in the air right back at him. it makes him smile ruefully, and his eyes light up when you blow a kiss at him. he turns back to his screen determinedly and raises an eyebrow at the latest comment.

sho-ko: do u have the guy's username? cus you can find out who it is that way

"oh, it's... hard to say. rio-zuku?" satoru tries, squinting his eyes. "i don't know, whatever. you guys know him?"

megumi-fushiguro: dyou mean ryosuku? i hate him

yuuji-itadori: oh i don't like him either :( hes mean

satoru scoffs and puts his feet up on his desk, rolling his cerulean eyes. "he can't be more famous than me, so whatever."

megumi-fushiguro: he gets 100k views per stream

"well, he can't be a better gamer than me," satoru replies dismissively, waving his hand.

kugi-saki: didn't he win the val championship last year?

"but i bet i'm hotter!"

toji-fushiguro: you wish

"fuck you, toji," satoru huffs indignantly. "well, how haven't i heard of this guy? if he's so famous and so hot, huh?" ignoring your snickers, satoru switches to another tab and types in the username. but when he clicks on the first link, nothing shows up. it's a blank profile, and satoru's jaw dropped.

"how the fuck am i blocked?!" he whines, flopping his head back on the headrest of his seat and pretending to faint. the chat floods with a thousand expressions of laughter, and you hop off your seat to go sit on the desk of satoru's desk, taking care to stay out of sight of his camera.

satoru opens one eye and squints it at you, lips forming a childish pout. he reaches out and twines his fingers with yours, completely ignoring his exploding comment section. you squeeze his hand gently and reach over his keyboard, hitting a key to mute his microphone.

"i can block him if you want," you offer, wrapping your other hand around satoru's. "and, for what it's worth, i think you're prettier than him."

satoru grins smugly at that, eyes softening more and more the longer they focus on you. "m'kay, thanks... wait, how do you know what he looks like?" he asks suspiciously, narrowing his eyes playfully.

"'cause i looked him up this morning."

your boyfriend sighs dramatically and pretends to faint again. when he reopens his eyes, there's a slightly new look in his eyes as he mumbles, "i wish people would stop hitting on you."

you reach out and touch his chin, forgetting that people on his stream could probably see your hand even if you two were on mute. "oh, i get that a lot," you tease, pinching his cheek affectionately. "but, honestly, you're the only one i wanna be with. even if that other guy buys me everything i could ever want, he's still not you."

satoru kisses the inside of your hand, eyes still fixed on you. "you do know that i'd buy you all of that and more if you asked, right?"

"i know. and i'd love you even if you were as broke as toji."

your side comment makes satoru throw his head back in laughter, and he shakes his head as a wide smile grows across his face. he pushes his chair closer to the desk and tilts his head up, minty taste fresh on his mouth as he smiles against your lips.

a bashful giggle slips past your lips as satoru kisses you again and again. from the corner of your eye, you can see that the two of you are just barely off-camera—in fact, anyone who's watching the stream can tell that the two of you are kissing, but you're still just out of sight.

"d'you want the new battle pass?" satoru mumbles against your lips, caressing the side of your face. you nod and grin, kissing the corner of his mouth.

"only you would talk about a battle pass while you're kissi—" satoru cuts you off with another kiss, stopping you from finishing your sentence.

"uh uh, shut up and let me kiss you. you're the prettiest girl i've ever seen n' i wanna enjoy you," satoru says plainly, gripping your chin in between his thumb and index finger. he tugs your lips on his again, and when he finally pulls away, he turns back to his screen and sticks out his tongue.

satoru unmutes himself and smiles smugly at the camera, face flushed pink from the way you had kissed him back. "well, at least that asshole doesn't have my pretty girlfriend, and he never fuckin' will."

yuuji-itadori: aw you two are so cute :)

megumi-fushiguro: i miss the single gojo

inumaki: im back whatd i miss???

inumaki: oh nvm im leaving again

#osaemu #streamer!gojo #gojo x reader #satoru gojo x reader #jjk x reader #gojo x you #gojo x y/n #satoru gojo x you #satoru gojo x y/n #jjk x you #jjk x y/n #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen x you #jujutsu kaisen x y/n #gojo satoru x reader #gojo satoru x you #gojo satoru x y/n #gojo fluff #jjk fluff #satoru gojo fluff #gojo satoru fluff #jujutsu kaisen fluff #gojo drabbles #jjk drabbles

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

so like. fnaf movie. after night five, all outside observers know is "this 30yo guy with severe anger issues + his 10yo mentally ill sister just walked out of his collapsing workplace with an unconscious, stabbed police officer, saying that someone inside the building tried to kill them but we can't get into the building to check. we went to their house and the aunt who was fighting for custody of the child is dead on the floor. the guy's career counselor is missing, as is his babysitter and her family and apparently they're all dead in the building we can't get into." and like. that all looks suspicious as FUCK however we know that in the few-weeks timeskip both mike and abby seem happy and fine so it's not like mike was arrested or anything. he seems to be more adjusted and is happily talking with her teacher so i doubt he's under stress of interrogation or anything

there's a lot of implications there that mike mighta pulled something but it's all circumstantial evidence at best. i'm sure in jane's autopsy and crime scene evidence they couldn't find any evidence of mike being the one to attack her, esp since it was probably just golden freddy bopping her in the head so they dont even have the weapon, and if she was strangled they'd be able to tell it wasn't by bare hands and they couldnt get prints or anyth. especially if golden freddy is a FULL ghost and thus left no trail.

mike would be smart enough to only tell the cops what they need to know without mentioning ghosts to sound crazy. abby might be more honest with the cops just bc of #autism but they'd be more likely to consider her talking about ghosts and imaginary friends as a child's way of coping, and they cant get anything out of her that would incriminate mike. ADD TO THAT that mike has wounds that are clearly defensive and is SUPER banged up and his wounds would likely match his story way better than evidence of him attacking anyone, AND that there's likely footage and witnesses of him being in the pharmacy and then driving to work (and thus not in the area to attack jane), AND if/when nessie wakes up she'll probably vouch for mike as well, and the cops dont have anything on him

though i DO wonder if they would have records of vanessa patching him up in the police outpost. if they do, that would also back up mike's story as it's 1) far away from the aunt jane crime scene, 2) confirms that he and vanessa were working together, so either she's complicit in Crime™ or his story is accurate and she was helping him save his sister. him going to defend her instead of calling backup is also consistent with his personality of getting triggered and jumping into action around child abduction, esp w/ his sibling in danger

considering what abby would probably say, AND the history of freddy's, it's likely that they would come to the conclusion of is "someone [likely the og kidnapper from the 80s] found out that the guy working at freddy's had a sister, kidnapped abby from her house while her aunt was babysitting and tried to recreate the crimes, his story of him and vanessa defending her and escaping vaguely checks out." whether or not mike would incriminate vanessa by mentioning her dad was the killer is up in the air, and there's obviously some huge holes that are left from nobody believing that there are ghosts in the building but that would probably be the eventual conclusion

but throwing that all away, it would be really, REALLY funny if the rest of the town, being really fuckin nosy and getting into the juiciest gossip they've had in decades, took one look at michael "big teddy bear falling asleep on himself" schmidt and said "there's no way. there's no way this guy murdered his aunt, stabbed an officer and then destroyed his own workplace, especially when he really needed that job and was on sleeping medication," and then turned around to look at abby "neurodivergent in the early 2000s (ableist af time period)" "vocally hates her aunt" "doesn't talk to anyone and claims that she can see ghosts" "vaguely possessive of her brother" "claims that she found the guy who hurt her friends and got him jumped by a cupcake(?)" schmidt and said "oh my god. it was her."

and nobody's gonna directly say anything but they've got cautious eyes on the situation and someone quietly slips mike a copy of the bad seed to see if he has a realization but instead he's just like "hey this book kinda reminds of that golden freddy kid lmao. wonder how he's doin" and then we smashcut to golden freddy kid poking springtrap with a stick

#fnaf #fnaf movie #five nights at freddy's #fnaf spoilers #mike schmidt #abby schmidt #mine

[meow-meowo]

Yandere Online Friend Headcannons

Y! Online Friend who's always updated on your posts! Isn't he so sweet to like your pictures even when it's from years ago? ^^

Y! Online Friend who's always available for late-night chats with you! Sure, they have work and assignments the next day but his beloved is more important than that! Don't mind the occasional groan he lets out whenever you guys call each other<3

Y! Online Friend who's that one friend that will flirt with you every chance he gets. He would say the most down bad, diabolical, horny, unacceptable, horrendous, and disturbing flirtatious comments towards you and quickly brushes them off as jokes to avoid making things awkward^^

Y! Online Friend who has an impressive memory when it comes to remembering details about your life! He'd even bring up some shows you've been interested in just so you could rant them about this and that<3 He loves to jerk off to your voice

Y! Online Friend who's always there to offer his support and encouragement whenever you're feeling down or stressed! <3 he would stay up late to chat with you and send some funny cat memes or videos to cheer you up!

Y! Online Friend who gets jealous when you talk to other people in groupchats. W̶h̶y̶ d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ y̶o̶u̶ p̶a̶y̶ a̶t̶t̶e̶n̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ t̶o̶ h̶i̶m̶ i̶n̶s̶t̶e̶a̶d̶ o̶f̶ t̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ l̶e̶e̶c̶h̶e̶s̶?̶

Y! Online Friend who wishes he could spend time with you in person! Don't get him wrong- he enjoys your online interactions but he wants to see your beautiful face and hear your angelic voice in person too!

Y! Online Friend who writes unsent messages or love letters to you! <3 He pours out his feelings and desires onto every word and yet it remains hidden and forgotten:(

Y! Online Friend who overanalyze every messages you send him<3 He searches for hidden meanings and signs that you might feel the same way about him! He'd dissect your words, emojis and kamojis, hoping to find evidence that his feelings have a chance of being reciprocated<3 He's the type to watch those type of videos on tiktok that goes "5 signs your crush likes you back"

"And so obviously I was mad at her because of- Are you even listening Rein?"

Your eyebrows raised at him. You were in a call with your online friend Rein and telling him about this girl you hate, however your dearest friend had been awfully quiet... Aside from the occasional groans though! But you just took it as him agreeing

Suddenly, you heard some shuffling and finally his voice can be heard

"Wh- what?? Oh yeah..!! I was just uh- Doing something..." He let out a nervous cough before continuing "Please do continue" His voice was hoarse and you could hear his fast paced breath

You were a bit suspicious but still continued to the story, oblivious to the fact that the other was slowly slipping his hand back into his boxer<3

To him your voice was angelic. A symphony where he can find comfort, warmth and satisfaction.

In fact he hated talking to others until you came. Oh how he loved how you vent to him about your problems<3 he loves your voice so much that it got him to the situation he's currently in right now.

Small groans and whimpers can be heard from the room. His palm teasing the evident bulge from his boxers as you continued your rant.

His mind was going wild as of the moment—he was humiliated at himself for getting off from your voice that wasn't even hinting anything particularly sexual.

Still, He can't help but entertain his fantasy about you finding out how perverted he actually is and degrading him for it—fuck, he can't take it anymore.

He's getting really impatient...be careful<3 ^^

It's been so long since I posted anything but uhh... :3

I tried to make a full blown scene of him getting at it but I couldn't do it🤡

#꧁meow𓃠꧂ #tw yandere #yandere imagines #yandere scenarios #yandere oc #yandere imagine #soft yandere #boy yandere #online friends #headcannons #yandere male #male yandere x reader #yandere x darling #yandere x reader #yandere x you #male yandere #yandere boy #yandere concept #yandere drabble #yandere fanfiction #yandere headcanons #yandere oneshot #yandere oc x you #yandere smut #Yandere Online Friend #yandere #headcanon #scenarios

[emotionaldamages]

heartbeat- oscar piastri

summary- oscar is dating a actor, who happens to be sebastian's daughter

pairings- oscar piastri x actor!reader

authors note- hi guysss, so sorry for the lag I’ve been a little bit busy, hope you enjoy😊

y/nvettel

liked by mclaren, charles_leclerc, and 5, 232,873

y/nvettel supporting the children I guess

view all comments

username why is charles giggle like that

username how cute

username I need a supportive partner

landonorris the photo was unnecessary

charles_leclerc you looked funny

username I wanna go to an f1 race so bad

username oh to have money

username I can't wait to meet her!

username I need some more behind the scenes content

username a red carpet look now.

username I need money for this

username devoured

oscarpiastri ❤

y/nvettel has posted a story!

replies

landonorris that’s so fake

oscarpiastri babee what the heck

georgerussell55 good choice 👍

y/nvettel

liked by lilyhme, oscarpiastri, and 7, 837,626

y/nvettel winter break🫶🏼☃️ my heart beats for yall

tagged oscarpiastri , landonorris, alex_albon, lilyhme

view comments

username how cuteee

username I want what they have

username we need a lily and y/n adventure

y/nvettel soon🫡

landonorris I hate couples.

lilyhme we already said we would help you find a gf🙄

oscarpiastri the entire trip was lily stealing you from me

lilyhme deal with it

alex_albon story of our life’s man

username I need friends

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y/nvettel

liked by landonorris, alex_albon, and 6, 837,9364

y/nvettel we outside☃️

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lilyhme where was my invite😔

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y/nvettel

liked by jonathandavis, lilyhme, and 5,897,759

y/nvettel just trying to sleep but this makes my heartbeat with excitement

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username I’m so ready for season four to be filmed

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y/nvettel

liked by sebastianvettel, oscarpiastri, and 8,836,827

y/nvettel awards in awards

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oscarpiastri love of my life

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username where’s oscar when you need him

oscarpiastri

oscarpiastri we sleep and celebrate together. I make her heartbeat😉

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landonorris you tell him oscar

username lando is me asf

username ate that up oscar

username he said been there done that

username we love it

mclaren he doesn’t stand a chance

username now why is mclaren involved

y/nvettel 🥰

username ate him up

username cutest couple

username mother and father

#oscar piastri x reader #oscar piastri #formula one social media au #sebastian vettel #lando norris #alex albon #charles leclerc #f1 social media au #f1 one shot #formula one imagine #oscar piastri x you #oscar piastri social media au #oscar piastri x y/n #lewis hamilton #landonorris #george russell

[writingouthere]

friendswithbenefits!Sukuna x reader

You go on a date with Yuuji's colleague from work and he's nice but you can't stop thinking of Sukuna, your 'friend' with benefits who has made it clear to you that the two of you are not in a relationship.

cw: possessive behavior, smut

"So then the kid and his friends tried to say that there must just be a fire somewhere."

You snort. "And what the fire just happened to smell like weed?"

You both laugh and you take another sip of your drink. It's a little milder than you usually like, but it's growing on you, kind of like your date.

His name is Yuuta and he's a teacher at the same school as Yuuji. He's cute, not much older than you and he's been polite to every member of staff you've encountered at this restaurant tonight. He teaches history to some of the older grades and it's clear he's passionate about what he does. He's spent the past half hour telling you funny stories about the kids he teaches and stories about his co-workers that have you almost choking on your drink. You've heard about a lot of the same staff members from Yuuji so they feel familiar, like you know them, even the ones you haven't actually met yet.

"Sorry, I think I've been going on for a while. I tend to ramble when I get nervous." He scratches the back of his head, the gesture self deprecating, but so charming, and you hate the guilt you feel at being charmed by it.

"I like your rambling, it's cute," you tell him and you find yourself fond of the way he blushes in response.

It's been a long time since you went on on a real date and you've missed the ritual of it. The typical questions and nerves are as banal as ever, but there were the good parts too.

The excitement of getting to know a new person, the way that over the course of the night you imagine how your life may fit with theirs. Which friends could you see them getting along with? Did he keep his apartment clean? How would he kiss you at the end of the night.

A look at his mouth had you thinking he had to be a great kisser.

"What about you? Any crazy co-workers?"

The rest of the night goes smoothly. The food is good, the drinks were lovely, he cuts himself off after his second.

Responsible. Kind. Funny.

He was everything you were looking for and yet.

And yet.

Sometimes when he laughs, you think about another man's laugh. One that's less kind, louder, and so expressive it takes over his whole face when he lets it out.

When Yuuta helps you with your coat, you can't help but imagine his face twisting up in derision at the sight.

What? Forget how to use your arms, princess?

Yuuta and you are talking about a movie you'd both seen recently and liked, and he's so perfect. But he's not yours.

"I had a great time, tonight." You both are taking the same subway home, but your stop comes up first. Your train car is empty and when Yuuta leans in to kiss you, you let him.

It's chaste, sweet and not what you're looking for tonight. The knowing smile he wears when he pulls away tells you he knows it too.

"I had a great time too, text me when you get home?" Your rejection, even an unsaid one, does nothing to change his temper towards you. It's almost a shame, you'd kind of like to see what he could be like with a little more of a spark to him.

"I will!"

You wave and step off the platform and walk home to your apartment. He'd sent you a text checking in earlier but you hadn't answered yet He hadn't sent a follow up, probably distracted. He'd gone out with Megumi and some guys from gym he trained at. He was probably well on his way to being throroughly trashed.

You turn your key in the lock and open the door to your apartment. It's dark and cold. You don't really want to spend the rest of your night alone with your thoughts. You shut the door, lock it and take out your phone. You think about sending a text to Yuuji to see where he is but then change your mind. You don't necessarily feel like sitting a sports bar on a Friday night listening to a bunch of gymbros talk about macros or their upper body circuit.

You could try texting one of your girlfriends, but then you'd have to actually have a meaningful conversation and your brain was one sharp tug away from unraveling.

You bite your lip. There was someone you'd like to see.

"This is a bad idea." You look down at your shoes. "Such a bad idea."

You find yourself outside of bad idea's apartment and your hand is knocking before you can second guess yourself.

The door swings open with your fist still poised to knock again.

"So the date didn't go too well then?"

You bring your arm down, fist still clenched. You had to at least give it to Sukuna, he was fucking consistent. He leaned against the doorway, looking comfortable with how the position allowed him to leer over you and with his choice of casual attire.

He was wearing an old tank top and sweats that looked like they were one wash away from just disintegrating. They did nothing to hide anything and you hated how you couldn't stop your gaze from going down.

"It was a nice date, actually." He hummed and looked over his nails, as if checking his cuticles.

"There's that word again." Sukuna still wasn't looking at you but his smugness filled the air like a pipe had burst that housed particularly toxic fumes. "If he was so nice," the sound came out like a hiss, "then why are you here?"

You didn't answer and when it was clear you weren't going to, Sukuna finally looked up at you.

"I'll tell you why you're here, you know, if you're curious." He stood up to his full height and grabbed your arm, pulling you close to him. When you were right next to each other, he grabbed your chin, pulling you up as he bent down so you were face to face.

His breath smelled like the ginger tea he always had before bed. It was spicy, familiar, it made your hands clench with the urge to hold him.

"You're here because that nice boy wasn't going to fuck you right and that's what you want isn't it," his hand cupped your face, his breath warm on your cheek as he cursed in your ear, "to get fucked?"

You couldn't help yourself from shivering and you nodded as he began to press kisses down your neck. Pulling down the neckline of your dress, probably stretching it, ruining it, and you don't even care, you just want his hands on you.

"Use your words, baby. Tell me is that why you came here? You needed to get fucked right and you knew that I was the only one who could do that for you, isn't that right?" He ends his words with a bite to your collarbone that stops your legs from working right.

You wrap your arms around his neck, your hands going into his soft hair that you know he uses conditioner on and you hate how just the smell of him sends a pulse to your core. That the familiarness of him is just as sexy as his words.

Something about the feel of him in your hands, his words in your ears, his teeth against your neck, it's the same dance you two have done dozens of times and it just keeps getting better. How are you supposed to be satisfied with someone else and when no one else has ever touched you like this, like they know every place that makes you weak, like they were put on this earth just to unmake you?

"Tell me," his words are more urgent now but he doesn't wait for you to answer, pulling you into his apartment and pushing you up against the door after he slams it so hard you're worried the hinges may have snapped. "Tell me, tell me princess. Tell me I'm the only one who can get you like this, the only one who can see you like this."

It's too possessive, too overwhelming. If your mind was still in working order, you may point out these are claims too heavy for a casual hookup. That he was not your boyfriend, or your husband, or anything to you and yet you found yourself nodding anyway.

"Just you, just you Sukuna." For a second he almost seems to freeze and you worry that you said something wrong despite him starting this. That worry is ripped from you when he smashes his mouth to yours, the force of it almost painful. It's an abrupt departure from the other kiss you'd gotten tonight and you wonder if the taste of another man on you fuels him as he starts to pull at your clothes.

You're both barely undressed, only removing what needs to be removed to get him inside you, when he presses his cock against your cunt. It's so hot and you'll never get over how good he fills you, how right it feels when he's inside you and Sukuna finally lets go of your mouth when you let out a moan you're sure they can hear in the hallway. You can feel his grin against your throat and you don't even mind as he settles in you, making you almost uncomfortably full.

"S-Sukuna!"

"Yeah, does that feel good? Like how my cock feels in you?" You don't answer him, not really capable of speech. He hums and pulls out of you just enough for you to feel it when he thrusts back in. You've fucked countless times, it's not even your first time fucking against the front door, which should embarrass you a little more, but something feels different.

Something feels different as Sukuna proceeds to fuck you hard, but somehow gentle, the beat between each thrust calculated for you to get overwhelmed by the feel of him to the point of it being too much just for him to pull away from you, but never fully leave you.

The kisses you exchange are sloppy, more a pressing of mouths together than real kissing and yet it's perfect and he's perfect and you could have tried this with the nice young man you'd gone on a date with tonight, who you're currently forgetting the name of, but what was the point? How could you try and find anyone to take Sukuna's place when he had carved it out himself inside you.

After you've both cum and you feel too tired to even attempt to collect your clothing or your dignity so you can leave, Sukuna lifts you up and carries you to his bedroom. The routine the two of you had previously established was off and you weren't sure what to do about it. You tried not to think about it as he carried you to the bathroom and cleaned you off or as he pulled an old t-shirt over your head. You tried not to think about it even more when he tucked you into bed.

He slid into the bed behind you and pulled you into his arms and you weren't sure how much more you could take before you could ignore it anymore.

He pressed his lips against the back of your neck, his arms tight around you. "Don't do that again."

"Dm mat?" Your words are muddled by sleepiness and the comforter that smells like him that you've pressed to your face.

"Don't go on dates with other guys."

It's not fair, he couldn't ask that of you and you shouldn't let him.

You grab his hands in yours and thread your fingers through them.

"In the morning."

You'll talk about this in the morning, about how you need boundaries and space and maybe this arrangement needs to end. Sukuna hums and presses closer to you, you can feel his lips in your hair.

The both of you can get on the same page in the morning.

Just a little something. Maybe this is a series now? Does the tense change partway through, yes. Does it change in fact multiple times, yes. Idk.

#jjk sukuna #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen sukuna #ryomen sukuna #sukuna ryomen #sukuna x reader #sukuna x y/n #sukuna x you #jujutsu kaisen #friendswithbenefits!Sukuna x reader

[yanderambling]

omg i’m thrilled that y’all like him so much!!! and these ideas were soso tasty ugh your minds~ i had a lot of fun with this, maybe too much if you look at the wc lol, so i hope y’all enjoy <3 ALSO continuity note: since Adrian is so popular, i won't carry major events through different stories unless requested, that way everyone can have their own version of his story! but i'll be keeping general facts about Adrian the same unless otherwise specified, like his parents being rich because i find it funny~ thank you and goodnight <3 (and yes i switched this gif with the last part shhhh it’s okay)

pairing: Masochist Puppyboy!Yandere(m) x Bully!Reader(gn)

words: ~ 4.6k

you can read the previous part here!

CW: 18+, NSFW, yandere behavior, stalking, bullying, physical/verbal abuse, BDSM themes, poor BDSM etiquette but neither party minds

Adrian nearly choked when he heard his name read next to yours for the school project.

It took you a second to recognize his; you mostly just call him mutt. Once you realized, you loudly groaned at the prospect of spending the week with that pest.

Adrian couldn’t hear it over his racing heart.

As soon as class lets out, he's right at your side, yammering on about project materials and meeting arrangements and times and "we should really meet at one of our houses so we don't have to worry about distractions, I'm fine with coming to yours! It's closer to school anyway, right? It'll be more private- I just think it makes sense-"

You finally shut him up by making the executive decision that you’ll work at his house (you don’t need him shedding on your furniture, or potentially getting any personal ammunition against you; he is way too interested in being inside your home, and how does he know it’s closer to school?).

Adrian was crestfallen that he wouldn’t get to go in your house (and smell the pure you imbued in your furniture, and pretend he’s really your dog while you sit together- maybe in your bedroom!-, and snoop through your underwear drawer when you go to the bathroom, and snoop through your bathroom when he goes in right after you...), but he was still over the moon at the idea of having you in his space.

(He’ll just visit your window later tonight like usual, anyway- he'll still get high off that closeness alone. Win/win!)

Adrian doesn't think about anything else for the rest of the day, zoning through his classes and plastered to your side whenever he gets the chance, just alight with energy and anticipation and not shutting up about it- he's lucky there's too many witnesses for you to knock him quiet (oh, but he would feel so much luckier if you did).

You would totally bail on this project if you weren’t already failing this class, which is mostly on account of you bailing. You’re wondering if all those cut classes were worth having to work with this, but you’re not feeling hopeful.

The day seems to drag on forever for both of you, for vastly different reasons. By the time school lets out, Adrian is buzzing out of his skin and you're seconds away from ripping it off him.

As you two start the trek to his place, Adrian can't get over how surreal it feels to walk beside you. It's like you two are a couple, and you're walking him home for an after school study date!

He gets lost in the daydream easily, giving you a brief reprieve from his energy, and allowing you to absently notice his rapidly wagging tail almost propelling him down the sidewalk. You can't help but smirk a little at the image that conjures in your mind.

He's truly ridiculous, you can't really believe him sometimes. Doesn't that thing ever get tired? What does he think is gonna happen that's got him so damn excited? That he's gonna get in good with you somehow (hopefully) and you'll leave him alone? (never in his wildest dreams.)

Yeah, fat chance.

When Adrian stops at his house, you think he's joking. But then he walks right up the driveway of this random McMansion, motioning you along eagerly, and enters a security code before holding the door open for you with a clearly anticipatory smile.

...The fuck.

You did not count on Adrian’s family being loaded. He certainly doesn't dress or groom like it.

You consider berating him for not mentioning it, but decide against it for the risk of seeming stupid- to Adrian of all people. You do make a mental note for your future errand requests, though.

Adrian’s parents aren’t home, he tells you his mom is always traveling and his dad basically lives at his office. You’re relieved that you won’t have to put on a nice face for the folks, but there’s apparently still a live-in housekeeper that floats around (are you fucking kidding?) so you stay diligent.

Adrian suggests you two work in his room; you figure the further from watchful eyes, the better.

Despite it being his idea, Adrian can't help his giddy nervousness as you enter his room (he’d texted the housekeeper to make sure it was clean as soon as you decided to come over, lucky he keeps his souvenirs hidden away whenever he’s not admiring them).

The room is frankly ridiculous, easily twice the size of yours, a king bed in the corner, a desk and coffee table and two dressers, and yet adorned with piles of clothes and clutter and more genres of nerdy shit than you even knew existed.

"Yeah, okay, parts of this make sense."

Adrian cocks his head, opening his mouth to ask what you mean, when he suddenly chokes on air.

You've made a bee-line right to his desk, covered in books and papers for hobbies and school alike, but also holding a locked drawer at the very bottom in which he keeps his "school collection" (just discarded pencils with bitten erasers, torn up notebook paper he can still smell your hands on, old gym shorts you were probably gonna replace soon anyway, a bandaid here, a plastic fork there; nothing crazy).

He watches with bated breath as you sift through the contents of his desk, occasionally scoffing or chuckling at what you find. He lets out a sigh when you seem to grow bored, just for you to move on to his dresser and have his stomach doing somersaults all over again.

Maybe he should've asked the housekeeper to hide his stuff better and just braved the questions later...

You move throughout the room like you own it (you do, as far as the both of you are concerned), making little jabs at his various posters and figurines which make his whole body flush hot with pleasure because you're noticing things about him, but every other move you make sends his heart jumping into his throat in a completely different way.

It only takes a minute or two for the stress to get to him.

“Ah- hey! Uh, maybe we should- maybe we should start on the project, right?”

You bark a laugh and spin on your heel to face him, an incredulous half-grin pulling your lips and revealing a gut-twisting flash of teeth.

"We?"

Oh, yeah, he much prefers those intense eyes boring into him.

He starts spluttering placations immediately. "No! Well, uhm, I didn't mean- you, you don't- have to- obviously, I mean, I don't- I wouldn't-"

You roll your eyes and shove past him, effectively cutting him off as you flop down onto his abominably soft mattress. "Right, yeah, whatever. Let's get one thing straight here, okay?"

Adrian nods, his whole being drawn to focus at your entrancingly commanding tone. Although, it's incredibly hard to focus on anything with the sight of you on his bed right in front of him; he's already planning how to avoid that area so it'll retain your scent longer, he wonders if he could cut that part of the duvet out and keep it in an airtight container, maybe the sheets under it too just to be safe...

"This is not a "we" situation, got it? I'm not lifting a damn finger for this bullshit, that's what you're there for." Adrian has a purpose to you! "I am only here to make sure you're actually doing it, which shouldn't be a problem because if we get anything less than an A, it's gonna be your ass."

As tempting as it is to see what punishment you would inflict upon him, Adrian really really really wants to please you- and he's pretty good at this subject anyway!

You then cross your arms and lean back just enough to look down your nose at him. "Got it?"

Adrian can't answer fast enough.

"Yes! Yes, that's perfect! Awesome, good- great!"

But then he doesn’t make a move. Ha.

He looks a little lost, standing in the middle of his own room, barely biting down a grin and wringing his hands as he seems to wait for another command.

Apparently, you’ve trained him well.

You scoff and let yourself fall onto your back as you pull out your phone (Adrian's gonna need a bigger airtight container).

"Well, go on then, we don't have all day."

Adrian scrambles to get to work. He quickly positions himself on the floor by the foot of the bed and pulls the coffee table closer, emptying his school bag carelessly onto the carpet.

You huff a laugh at the sight, all this money and the kid's parents couldn't buy him any class. Maybe sloppiness is an inherent trait, like his apparent passion for service- nobody with this much money should be such a pushover. And yet...

Adrian couldn’t be happier, sitting on the floor while you lounge across his bed and periodically weigh in with (mostly incorrect) corrections or snide remarks, an almost alarmingly wide grin settled on his face as his tail taps a steady rhythm against his carpet.

It’s not an unpleasant picture, you muse absently as you look up from your phone, it’s almost comforting to have your little puppy on the floor, cheerily working away for you while you laze about. It certainly beats doing the work yourself, or having to threaten a student with an actual spine to do it for you.

Still, it doesn't take long for you to get bored. Bored enough to notice your empty stomach, at least.

"I'm hungry."

Adrian's head shoots up from the book he was hunched over, ears raised at attention and eyes glittering with something you're not sure you care to identify.

He's on his feet in the next second, knocking his knees on the way up loud enough to startle you yet showing no signs of even noticing.

"I-I'll ask Len to make something!"

He darts out of the room before you can tell him what you want, but you trust he knows your moods and tastes well enough by this point to predict. (Oh, he does, and Len's not going to be making anything- they don't know all the special ingredients!)

The second he leaves, you decide to really cure your boredom by snooping around in earnest. Certainly this creep has something actually weird hidden in here, you just have to look in the right places.

You waste no time in sifting through his bookshelf (nerd shit), closet (nerd clothes, some dirty), a dresser (nerd clothes, mostly clean), under his bed (dirty clothes, nerd shit in boxes)- the door opens behind you.

“Wha-? Oh! Ah- Wh-what- what are you doing?”

You don’t even bother moving from your crouch, most of your upper body shoved under the bedstand while the rest of you... is not.

Adrian’s mouth is completely dry for several reasons.

“What’re you, blind? I’m snooping.”

Adrian slowly comes further into the room, hesitantly setting the serving tray on the low table. He can’t stop his voice from cracking as he stutters out,

“Uh- yeah, okay, yeah, but- um, would you maybe mind- um, not?”

You snicker, at least he has some manners. “Yeah, I do mind, actually. What’s the matter, mutt? Got something to hide?”

“N-no!”

The answer is so immediate, so fervent, that it has you pulling up just to give him an unimpressed look. He stares back at you, eyes wide and frenzied.

“Jesus you’re a bad liar.”

Looking at him now, you can see sweat glistening on his face and his hands clenching by his side. His eyes dart toward the dresser you haven't checked yet.

Bingo.

You jump up from your position and stride across the room with purpose. You only make it a few steps before Adrian seems to materialize in front of you, making you stop short and almost yelp from shock.

“S-sorry! I’m sorry, I just-" he's waving his hands wildly, head ducked as his gaze rapidly flicks between your face and the floor, "You-you can’t- please, please don’t-”

“Okay, creep, I get the gist.”

You shove past him, and he wishes he could relish the firm pressure of your hands on him.

He whirls around and watches in horror as you approach the dresser. He needs to do something, he needs to stop you, but what can he do? You’ve clearly made up your mind, it’s not like it's his place to try and change it...

All he can do is watch, a high ringing in his ears and his body filling with static, while you meticulously sift through every drawer until his clothes are strewn about the floor and you're panting with frustration.

He's about to let himself take a breath when you suddenly squat down and stick your arm into the shallow space underneath. He nearly swallows his tongue when you let out a disbelieving huff and awkwardly slide out a long lockbox.

You look up at him triumphantly, eyes sparkling with glee, and he almost mirrors your smile just for how captivating it is.

"Open it."

"N-no-"

You lean up toward him and cock your head, he has to stop himself from being drawn in by the magnetism of your narrowed eyes. “The fuck did you just say to me?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't- just, I can't-"

"Oh, I think you can. Or you're not gonna like what happens next."

That's where you're wrong, and it only really strengthens Adrian's extremely shaky resolve. He tries to keep the grin off his face as he habitually starts to picture the punishment you might give him; a cuff on the ears, a knee to the stomach, a punch in the face-

But you just roll your eyes and groan, no longer in the mood now that something more interesting has presented itself.

Instead, your gaze floats down to the flimsy looking combination lock on the box, then it fixes on some heavy-standed figurine you'd knocked off his bookshelf earlier.

Yeah, good enough.

Adrian barely has time to flinch before you're snatching it up and breaking the lock with a sound crack.

Then you're lifting the lid.

"No!"

He starts to lunge forward, but your sharply raised hand halts him dead in his tracks.

Fuck.

It's too late anyway, judging by your wide eyes and slightly slack jaw (god how he wishes he could focus on the glorious curve of your open lips, or the way your perfect teeth peek over them, or how it might feel to have those teeth sunk into his skin-)

"What. The. Fuck."

"I-I can explain- It's not-!"

"I literally do not believe that you can."

Adrian's throat goes dry, he feels tears welling in his eyes. "I'm sorry- I'm sorry! I never meant- it's not like-"

You tune Adrian out as you focus on the stacks and stacks of photos arranged in the box before you. There even seem to be books underneath those, thick ones despite the shallowness of the container. You’d say there’s easily hundreds of pictures in here.

But, more concerning than the amount of photos… is their content.

They’re all you.

Undeniable, from every angle and range and setting you could imagine, it’s all you. There’s you at your spot with your friends, sitting in class, in the cafeteria, running errands in town, sneaking off to that private spot nobody else is supposed to know about, asleep in your bed- in dozens and dozens of iterations, like you could probably make a flip book of every scene.

It’s offensively redundant, honestly, a gross waste of paper. Maybe equally as concerning.

(Adrian needs to keep physical copies, and hard drives, and backup hard drives, and another box further under the dresser... What if something happens to his phone? What if he lost all his treasured photos forever? He doesn’t know what he’d do.)

"You're a bigger creep than I gave you credit for." You murmur, mostly to yourself.

Adrian never thought he'd feel anything but sheer joy from hearing that word leave your mouth. "N-no! It's not- it's not like that! I'm not- I don't-"

While Adrian's still blustering and working himself into a tizzy, you're just... processing.

It's oddly unsurprising, once you consider all the other factors together. Looking at it now, of course Adrian had more perverted reasons for complying to your cruelty, what else could he have been getting out of it? You guess you kinda always knew, on some level, but you never thought it would be like this.

But, since it is, you can't help but wonder just how far this perversion has gone, how far it will go...

This night has been boring enough that you're entitled to a little fun, right?

And besides, looking at him now- all wide eyed and droopy eared, his tail pulled between his legs and clutched in his trembling hands- Adrian actually looks a little bit... cute? In a pathetic, dirty stray caught in the rain type of way, of course.

The only real difference is that you'd be much kinder to the stray.

"Alright, shut it, stalker."

Adrian's mouth snaps closed, his tail trying to tuck further at your dangerously low voice.

"Obviously, this severe-" you flap a stack of photos at him, causing him to duck his head and whimper, "-invasion of my privacy can't go unpunished."

Adrian's eyes become impossibly bigger as they flash up to watch you stand. His ears suddenly perk, his tail tugs against his grip as it tries to hesitantly wag.

Jesus, he's shameless.

This is gonna be fun.

But first, a plan. You don't want Adrian getting too bold, so what better way to keep him in his place than by tying him there? Looking around his room, you don't have much to work with, but you're resourceful; a lace from his sneakers should do just fine (who keeps shoes in their room? what a creep).

"Alright. Sit."

Adrian is falling to his knees before his brain can process the words. When it does, he isn't quick enough to bite down on the high keen that builds in his throat.

You scoff, mentally scorning yourself for ignoring his shit for so long, then go to pull a lace. Adrian watches in rapt attention as you test its strength, your hands flexing so tantalizingly as you pull the string harshly several times over.

He holds his breath on instinct when your scrutinizing glare scans the room again.

"Okay, bed. Back to the headboard. Now."

Adrian scrambles up immediately, pulling some of the sheets off in his hurry, eager to obey before you change your mind.

You follow right after, kneeling up and leaning over him to tie his hands to the headboard above him. His dry throat click as he gulps.

You're so close, your heavenly scent filling his lungs like a sweet paralyzing vapor, he can feel the heat radiating from your skin despite the clothes between you, he could probably taste you if he just stuck out his tongue...

He whines as you yank the shoelace tight with a grunt before tying it off. You tug on his hands once more, forcing the string deeper into his skin, and your hum of satisfaction is drowned out by Adrian's low groan.

What a wonderful feeling, the sharp sting of the lace grounding him down like he needs to be; he can't help twisting and pulling until the burn intensifies, imagining it's your firm hands holding him so tightly...

"Jesus, freak, you're already getting into it?"

Adrian just whimpers, barely registering the question past your condescending tone as he continues to squirm.

You suddenly grab the front of his shirt and pull him forward until he's partially hovering off the mattress, the combined pressure of your knuckles under his chin and the shoestring grating his tender wrists pulls a breathy moan along with.

You lean in close, practically growling as you say, "Don't do my job for me, mutt."

You press a relatively fresh bruise on his arm just to see him twitch and bite his lip (it’s actually from a week ago, that’s how good he is at maintaining your marks for you!). It is pretty gratifying.

Almost as gratifying as the bulge you spot between his wantonly spread legs.

A breathless laugh punches out of you. It's oddly jarring to see, and you would later deny that it's slightly impressive, but it's not an entirely unpleasant sight.

"God, you're fucking pathetic. But you know that, don't you, you little creep?"

If your words weren't enough to have Adrian shaking out of his skin, you lean closer and nip his ear; he jerks back instinctively at the pain, which only makes its sting so much sweeter when you sink your teeth in and pull back.

He doesn’t bother trying to keep himself quiet.

“This isn’t even a punishment for you, is it? Is it, you fucking perv?”

Adrian is so far beyond saving face, he’s mostly beyond communication of any kind, so he just shakes his head fervently and grunts and hopes it’s good enough.

“Use your words, mutt.”

He gasps as you yank his throbbing ear, pulling his face closer to yours- oh dear god he can feel your hot breath against his cheeks, every detail of your perfect face so confident and dangerous and ethereal, your sparkling eyes look positively deadly and Adrian is ready to submit himself to their perils-

“Answer me," your sharp words make his lashes flutter, but he keeps his eyes wide open to stare at your taunting smile hanging just inches from his face, "are you getting off on this?”

He nods, he’s starting to get dizzy with all this nodding but he doesn't feel capable of much else, then you tug his hair back with the most glorious burn-

“Ah-Yes! Yes, I love- I love it, please- give me- more- please, I need- I need-“

He cuts off with a choked sound as your fingers slide up his throat and tighten, all too happy to oblige.

"That what you want? You happy now?" You taunt, your breath against the shell of his ear raising goosebumps all over his body.

He tries to nod against your grip, causing you to smirk and push further.

Oh god yes please-

Garbled moans fight their way from his throat as his eyes roll back in ecstasy, his straddled legs pressing tightly together as he thrashes desperately against the headboard, his whole body trembling and pushing up and up in search of contact- but you keep pulling away, putting more pressure on his neck to support yourself, bringing out the most pitiful little whimpers.

"Use your words, puppy."

Puppy.

Adrian chokes for reasons entirely unrelated to your hand on his neck. His tail, which had been beating a rapid tempo since you sat him down, starts flailing into overdrive.

It takes considerably more effort, but Adrian needs to please you- maybe you’ll even reward him!- so he coughs and gasps until he can force out,

"Y-Yes,” a strained cough, “Tha-agh-thank- you-"

A smile curls your lips unbidden. Such initiative! You let your fingers stroke over his throat as your hand presses in harder.

"There, that's a good boy."

Adrian's vision whites out.

He’s not even aware of the stream of whines and moans that force their way from beneath your fingers, he doesn't notice how his body squirms against the pressure of you on top of him, he couldn't tell the frantic thumping of his tail from that of his heart- all he can focus on is the red hot ecstasy filling every inch of him to bursting, the transcendent bliss of being so thoroughly claimed, so completely controlled, so wholly owned by you.

He's still hiccupping moans and thumping his tail when you withdraw your hand for fear of suffocating him, these needy little noises escaping his already bruising throat.

His head lolls back and his mouth falls open as you remain suspended above him, taking in your handiwork.

He’s so vulnerable, his entire body open and happily exposed to you, every muscle trembling in the aftershocks. His chest heaves as sweat and tears drip down onto his shirt, but he seems to pay no mind as his vacant eyes flutter up at you. He struggles to keep them open as a dopey grin spreads across his bitten lips, and you have to bite your own to stop from returning it.

Then, your eyes travel down to the steadily shrinking tent of his pants, now adorned with a dark wet stain- just like you expected.

Hot.

"Pathetic."

You sit back on you heels, seemingly alerting Adrian to your absence as his hand flies up to grab his throat with a high whine- but you cut that shit off right away.

"Yeah, no, I'm not trying to catch a murder charge tonight, thanks. Besides," your eyes pointedly flick down between his spread legs, causing his face to heat up though he makes no move to close them, "it looks like you got more than your share- frankly, you should be grateful for anything I'm willing to give you."

Adrian's voice is hoarse when he tries to insist, "I am! I-" he cuts off with a heavy cough, which only has you wincing with guilt a little. "I'm- I'm grateful. I am!"

You don't doubt it, especially looking into those watery, red-rimmed puppydog eyes of his. However, you do like to be cruel, and you did just get a bunch of texts from some of your friends about this 'super crazy thing you don't wanna miss and you gotta get down here right now!', (and you're maybe feeling a little uncharacteristically giddy as you fully process your situation) so...

"Doesn't matter, I can't reward this insolence."

You untie the shoelace with a deft tug and slide off the bed without another word.

Adrian just barely stops himself from whining again, the sudden loss of the pressure around his wrists leaving him feeling untethered. He has to dig his nails into his hands as he watches you collect your things (the covered platter lay forgotten on the table, insult to injury), just to keep from reaching out for you.

He wants desperately to follow you, but he can't make his body move for how relaxed and heavy it feels, and he knows it would probably just upset you more anyway- and not in the good way.

“Oh, and Adrian?” You slap the doorframe as you hang off of it, and your use of his name has Adrian's groggy head springing up to face you instantly, ears high and eyes hopeful.

“Next time you want a picture of me, just ask. That way I can knock some sense into you right away.” You tap the frame again, a crooked grin fixing your lips before you push off.

“See ya tomorrow!”

Still too fuzzy to move, and in fresh shock from that almost-genuine smile, he can only listen forlornly as your steps grow fainter and fainter until the door shuts downstairs. Then, he's helpless to do anything beyond replay the events of the past ten minutes in obsessive detail in attempts to permanently document every single sensation you gave to him.

He only manages to move about a half hour later, when his phone buzzes with a text.

He slowly leans over the bed and lifts his phone from the floor, blinking blearily as he reads... your name. Attached to a ludicrously extravagant lunch order for tomorrow.

The phone drops from his fingers like lead.

How?

His heart starts racing as he wracks his brain to recall when you put his number in your phone- then, his tail starts up again as he wonders if he'll be punished for already having yours in his (not for anything weird! he just likes to type out walls of text complimenting every part of you and telling you exactly the ways he wants you to destroy him and then deleting them- but maybe he'll send the next one).

It must mean something good if you want to keep in close contact with him, right? That must mean you aren't really mad at him, right? That must mean you like him, right? You still think he’s a good boy, right?

Another text lights up his phone. He scrambles to grab it back, hands shaking as he holds the screen close to his face.

[ur gnna b my bitch 4evr now]

A shaky giggle escapes him.

Those are easily the most beautiful words he’s ever read.

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