#I unfortunately would love to make a directory of my own aus but I have such little energy to do so

[disruptivevoib]

as someone new to the cccc fandom i keep seeing all of these AUs of HMS with different names and I want to look into them more but it seems like theres a lot. got any sort of starting guide or direction if ur willing to share it?

OH god. no I do not unfortunately. I can't say there is any big directory. I know CJFS has AU threads, CJFS being the fan discord server.

As for my aus, I do try to use tags of names of each of my aus! Like sun down or eleutheromania or lacuna or swap! But for others. I can't say whether or not its the case?

If I had a bit more time tonight I'd go through and find all the big long rambly posts I've made but there are quite a few!

I know ones under the cjverse or cjverse chatroom tag are also from an rp I'm in which may have stuff from other people too.

Sorry to not be of much help here anon

#voidthoughts #I unfortunately would love to make a directory of my own aus but I have such little energy to do so #and so much anxiety over talking too much and rambling on so long no one gets what I mean #sorry anon! #I will say #lacuna au #sun down au #eleutheromania #or #eleuthermania au #are good! #swap au #too should work? if you look at em on my blog? Sorry! #asks #I am also kind of in my own bubble of the fandom. Im not big into other peoples aus besides those in cjverse very often which is prolly eve #more unhelpful lol

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

"get me a damned matcha" | Chapter 11: April I

{{ Chapter 10: March I | Chapter 12: May I }} Chapter Directory

noooow y'all can understand why i had to rename the ex-boyfriend to zack instead of having him be porco because i made him too much of a dick skdjfksd

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✧ pairing ➼ levi ackerman x fem!reader, college x coffee shop x roommates!au ✧ summary ➼ After you find yourself plagued with misfortune due to struggles in your personal and family life, you find yourself needing to move last minute. As a junior in undergrad with little money and little social support, you considered yourself lucky when you found a sublease that was close to campus and was relatively cheap. Unfortunately, it seemed that your roommate did not seem to be so excited regarding your presence. ✧ content/warnings ➼ fluff, slowburn, mutual pining, idiots in love, the ex boyfriend that used to be porco that i renamed to zack, emotionally abusive behavior, negative self-talk, levi being kinda mean again, levi being bad at feelings ✧ word count ➼ ~7.2k

It was finally spring break. After the events of last month, you were more than ready to leave town and get a much needed vacation. Luckily, Hizuru wasn't far and was just across the bay, so you got a nice cruise ride in addition to your time spent at the resort. You decided to keep this trip just between you and Petra, spending the week with just the two of you to recharge and be ready to take on the rest of the semester once you came back.

Levi couldn't be more thrilled. The past few months have all involved something related to you that ended up distracting him from reading or writing. Having you gone for a week means he can finally catch up on work without being distracted by your shenanigans every other week. 

However, he currently found himself standing at the doorway of the apartment, glancing into the living room. He was thrilled for sure, but despite that, he seemed to have a heavy heart when he entered his empty apartment. It didn't make any sense to him. Why would he feel remorseful that you're gone when all you've ever done is be a pain in the ass to him?

He couldn't deny it. He missed you. Levi felt a confusing mix of emotions and he couldn't keep his mind off you all week. Given your habits with partying, he wondered how you were doing on your own in a foreign town. Sure, Petra was with you, but she could hardly count as a sober contact. If she was drinking with you, you'd have to rely on yourself to get home, which was unsettling to him.

He found himself both looking forward to and dreading you getting back home. It got to the point that when you did find yourself back home, Levi did everything in his power to ignore your presence. He was too confused and lost in his thoughts to want to be around you. He would have a mix of happy thoughts and distressing ones of confusion and anxiety while you were around. Thus, he barely said a word to you once you got home.

"Nice to see you too, I guess," you mumbled, a little taken aback by your roommate's increased level of aloofness. 

Ever since November and especially since January, the two of you had started to bond. Levi wasn't always referring to you as an annoying undergrad and you no longer saw him as just your "grumpy roommate". You understood each other more and there was some foundation of basic respect there, but none of that was to be seen at the moment. 

You awkwardly shifted around the house as you unpacked your suitcase from the trip.

"Hey, have you seen my phone charger?" you asked Levi, who was standing in the kitchen, brewing his late afternoon tea. 

"No," he said, glancing at you. "Why would I have?"

"You're the one that's been here all week," you said with a shrug.

"Yeah," Levi scoffed, "actually doing work, unlike whatever the fuck you were doing across the bay."

You frowned at him, slightly offended by his comment.

"Hey, I was doing work!" you said with a pout. "Whatever. Can I borrow your charger then? My phone's almost dead."

"What else is new?" Levi said dryly.

You were on your way to grabbing his phone charger when you heard him make that comment and you immediately halted, scowling while looking back at him.

"Okay, what the hell is up with you?" you said sternly as you walked back towards him. "You've barely said a word to me ever since I got home. Did I say something? Do something? Did I not clean something the way you wanted it?"

Levi responded with an overly exasperated groan.

"God, it's such a pain in the ass to have you back again."

You fell quiet at his comment. The fact that this was all he said in response to your questions over what you did wrong indicated to you that it was just your presence that he was pissed about. You weren't sure why his comment stung you as harshly as it did. He essentially thought the same thing when you first moved in and you didn't give a single shit—but now the idea of him hating you made you want to shut down and hide.

"Well," you spoke quietly, "I'm sorry being around me is so bothersome for you."

Levi didn't respond, which only confirmed your suspicions. 

You clenched your fists as you felt your emotions beginning to rise up and threaten to boil over.

He was an asshole. That's all he was and that never changed and you were a fool to think otherwise. He probably hated you for all the times he had to come rescue you from some dumb situation that you found yourself in.

"Whatever," you whispered as you walked past him and grabbed your phone and keys.

"Where are you going?" Levi said with a sigh as you opened the door.

"Getting some air, I guess," you grumbled before glancing back at him without fully making eye contact. "I thought we were over this."

~~~~~

You had stormed out in such a hurry that you didn't even bother to change into outdoor clothes. You were currently swinging alone at an empty playground that had been long abandoned for the day due to the incoming storm. The wind blew through your hair, which had come undone from its ponytail and you lacked the motivation to put it back up. You were wearing a loose t-shirt with a pair of sweatpants on. 

Normally, you'd feel a sense of shame for being out in public like this—but right now, you couldn't give less of a shit. You needed to get away from Levi.

Things had begun to improve ever since November when he took you on that drive after your aunt had decided to tear your entire life apart through a single phone call. You had reached some point of mutual respect. He wasn't the aloof asshole you thought he was, and you weren't the naïve undergrad that he thought you were. After January, it even seem like he cared for your well-being. He went out in the middle of the night searching for you and even went out of his way to care for you when you were sick. 

Yet, he seemed to have completely regressed after you came back from spring break. What if you were misreading him? What if his opinion about you never actually changed and you were just deluding yourself? 

Maybe I should find another apartment after all.

Levi's lack of a response earlier when you were trying to figure out what was wrong only confirmed your suspicion that he thought you were a nuisance. You had asked him what you did wrong so you can do better, and all he responded with was that he was sick of having you around. If it was a few months ago, you'd be more than happy to continue being a nuisance to him. With how grumpy he always was, it felt like a comedic job to you. 

However, after you had opened up to him about your dynamic with your aunt and even slightly alluded to your situation with Zack, you had hoped that dynamic would have changed or at least improved. The fact that it didn't seem to wear away at you. 

His comment had hurt you.

You gripped at the chain holding the swing onto the bar above it as thoughts of your inability to hold any type of long-term friendship began to swirl around in your mind. Oluo and Gunther were surface-level at best. You called Petra your 'best friend', but even that relationship felt shallow, as if she was just tolerating you. You were always the one reaching out. 

Being tolerated was a feeling you were used to. After all, that basically summed up your relationship with Zack. You had started off as high school sweethearts, but over the course of the three years that was your stormy relationship with him, you knew that he only tolerated your presence, which is why he was more than ready to kick you out in June.

As if he was listening in on your thoughts, you felt your phone buzz and frowned when you saw that you had received a text from your ex-boyfriend.

> [zack (3:45pm)]: we need to talk. i'll pick you up at the bar we used to go to. > [you (3:46pm)]: why > [zack (3:51pm)]: wtf do you mean why? plus some of your shit is still at my place > [you (3:53pm)]: wonder who's fault that was > [zack (3:54pm)]: the hell is up with this attitude? just get to the bar, i'll be there in 20.

~~~~~

Levi's day had been going terribly. Without even considering your little tantrum, he was already stressed about a research update he had to do in two weeks that he hadn't had the time to work on. 

The forefront of his mind blamed it on you. You came home and immediately began disrupting his life and bringing chaos home again—but he knew that wasn't true. It wasn't your fault. You were gone for an entire week throughout spring break and he still wasn't able to get anything done. His inability to work had nothing to do with you. 

Upon realizing that fact, he scrunched his eyebrows together, wondering if he had actually been a bit too cold with you once you got home. He had caught himself getting much softer with you throughout the last month, even allowing you to sleep in the same bed with him because you had a nightmare. That, itself, was already unheard of for Levi Ackerman. 

He brought out his phone. The time was a bit past 6:30pm. He had around two hours before he had to get to the café to pick up a closing shift from Onyankopon. He opened up his text message thread with you and frowned, wondering if he should shoot you an apology message.

Eventually, he decided against it. After all, why should he apologize to you when you were the one being a little shit? 

Still, you were gone for a while. It was around 2:00pm when you stormed out of the apartment, and it was starting to get late.

He placed his phone in his pocket, annoyed for even getting remotely concerned about your well-being for something as simple as you stepping out of the house for the day. He could feel himself getting attached, despite all of his efforts to get himself not to. The feelings that you elicited out of him were miserable to deal with and he knew the best way to get rid of them was to put a stop to any feelings of this newfound attachment. Why he was even getting attached to you in the first place was astonishing. It pissed him off.

He let out an exasperated sigh as he shut his laptop and got up from his desk, walking out of his bedroom. He grabbed his jacket off of the coat hanger as well as his car keys, deciding on going for a drive in an attempt to clear his mind from any remaining thoughts of you.

~~~~~

After an exceedingly awkward dinner and car ride with your ex-boyfriend, you finally arrived back at Zack's apartment. You felt an uncomfortable, dull feeling appear in your chest as you walked into the apartment that you had lived in for the first two years of your undergrad. It could hardly be even called an apartment. It appeared more like a loft that had multiple bedrooms and bathrooms and nearly triple the amount of the living space that you currently had in your apartment with Levi. It was obnoxiously luxurious and it ironically made you appreciate your humble lifestyle with Levi now.

You shuffled awkwardly as you followed Zack towards the dining room area. The t-shirt and sweatpants that you wore felt out of place and inappropriate. He rarely saw you like this, if ever. Even when you were home for the entire day, you were constantly wearing outdoor clothes, like a blouse and jeans, around him. That's just how you were. Appearing the way you did now around him felt wrong, although you couldn't quite explain why. It wasn't that you were uncomfortable with dressing more casually—you did that at home now all the time, but the minute that you stepped out the door of your home and into Zack's, you began to feel your anxiety rise up.

"Well, you certainly look like a slob," Zack mumbled, glancing at your outfit.

"Well, I didn't have time to dress up for you, Your Majesty," you retorted, frowning at him, "since you decided to text me last minute."

Zack was not used to this outspoken nature of your personality. When you were with him, you were much more pleasurable to be around—at least according to Zack. He did not appreciate this new facet of your personality that has suddenly arisen within the past few months.

He made a head nod towards a box of some of your stuff that was casually thrown into a corner of the living room. You looked over before taking a seat at the dining table.

"What did you want to talk about?" 

He sat down across from you.

"Listen," he began, and you immediately clenched your jaw, having a basic idea of where this was going. "I know I overreacted when we left off. I shouldn't have exploded at you like that. I shouldn't have kicked you out."

Your mind went back to the fateful interaction with Zack that led to you being forced to find an apartment last minute. No matter how you tried to rationalize it, you knew that Zack was controlling and prone to getting extremely angry whenever you resisted his wishes. Small grievances with him had built up to a penultimate point in which you confronted him and he reacted poorly.

If this was any other day, you'd likely immediately tell him to fuck off—but the events of the day that had happened earlier with Levi left you much more emotionally vulnerable than usual. You'd be lying if the idea of falling into someone's arms didn't bring even the slightest amount of comfort to your mind—even if that someone was Zack. 

However, as Zack continued to monologue about the potential of you moving back in with him, you began to pull up the reality of your relationship with him. You were definitely more unhappy than you were willing to admit to anyone and you knew it had something to do with his controlling nature. He had kept you pretty isolated from any potential friends—and now that you think about it, that could be why you struggled with making and keeping deep friendships now. 

No matter how desperate you were right now for some form of intimacy to make up for the turmoil swirling within you throughout the latter half of the day, the last thing you wanted to do was get back together with someone that felt the need to dictate your every move and action. 

"You're the one that kicked me out, Zack," you said once he finally gave you a chance to speak.

"Well, now I'm inviting you back in."

"What if I don't want to?" you responded, feeling your anxiety kicking in. Zack hadn't even done anything yet, but your instincts immediately dumped all of the reactions that constituted being anxious onto you.

"What the fuck do you mean you 'don't want to'?" Zack asked, scowling at you, the anger beginning to creep into his voice.

You took a deep breath, clenching your fist that was resting on your lap to maintain your resolve.

"I said what I said. You kicked me out and I'm over it."

At this point, Zack had fully realized that he can't control you anymore, which further irritated him.

"Whatever," he said, waving you off. "Just take your shit and leave."

"Gladly," you responded coldly as you began to get up. 

"I'm not driving you."

You stopped and looked back at him. You weren't that surprised by his comment, but you still felt a little off-put by his lack of remorse to just leave you stranded again.

"The buses around here aren't running this late."

"Sounds like a you problem."

You remembered this. If Zack got pissed at you and didn't get what he wanted from you, then no one was getting anything at all. 

"You really expect me to walk?" 

He shrugged.

"Or sleep on the streets until the buses are up. I don't really give a shit."

You felt your anxiety quickly turn into anger and frustration as you felt the corners of your eyes heat up. The last thing you wanted to do was cry in front of the person responsible for all of your recent misfortunes, but what was currently happening was representative of all the bullshit that you had to deal with for three years.

"Fine," you said quietly as you headed for the door, not even bothering to grab your stuff from him. "You're a dick."

As you walked out the door, you felt your breathing quickly destabilizing.

Recently, the only person you had been regularly referring to as a dick was your grumpy roommate. However, after having this interaction with Zack, you realized that Zack was actually a dick and that Levi was nowhere close to it. It brought up a slight sense of guilt regarding your hostility towards your roommate. You would choose living with Levi over moving back in with Zack any day.

Reminiscing about your attitude towards your roommate immediately reminded you of him, and although you were still mad at him for his behavior earlier, you knew that you could at least trust him to not leave you stranded. 

As a result, you immediately pulled out your phone and shot him a quick text, asking if he could pick you up as you continued to navigate your way out of Zack's apartment complex.

~~~~~

The rain had already started pouring. There wasn't too much wind, but the rainfall was heavy, which would have made it even more impossible to walk home if you were forced into that decision. Instead, you were waiting for Levi to arrive, seeking shelter under the canopy of Zack's apartment building to stay dry.

You glanced up as you heard the front door open and saw that Zack came downstairs with the box of your belongings with the intention of tossing it all into the dumpster. You watched as all of your former stuff disappeared into the green container of garbage. 

When Zack saw you on his way back, he scowled at you.

"When I said sleep on the streets, I didn't mean here. Fuck off."

"You fuck off," you replied, matching his scowl. 

The two of you held a staring contest for a few minutes until you heard a car drive up out of the corner of your eye. A feeling of relief washed over you once you saw that it was Levi's. You could finally go home and forget this nightmare.

He had arrived faster than expected, and part of you knew that this was likely due to a combination of the situation that had occurred in January and how far out you currently were. Plus, at this point, he was probably more than ready to expect texts from you to ask him to pick you up. It had become a pattern, although you weren't entirely sure how you felt about that fact.

You did not include in your text message the reasoning as to why you were trapped at an apartment that was a 20-minute drive from campus, so you weren't too surprised when you saw a look of concern on Levi's face as he saw you scowling at who he was able to deduce as your ex-boyfriend.

"You'd really call anyone to pick you up, huh?" Zack said to you as you began to walk off. "You're fucking pathetic."

If you were the same person that you were when you were with him, then his insult might have had some merit. If this was a year ago, you really wouldn't have had anyone to call. You didn't have any reliable friends back then, and that's likely what Zack still believed to be the case now.

"He's my roommate, you asshole," you said as you grit your teeth, "and a much better one than you ever were."

Your last comment must have made something snap within Zack's psyche, as he immediately grabbed onto your wrist before you were able to walk further towards Levi's car. 

In the split second before you were forced to turn around to face Zack, you were able to see Levi's face transition from one of confusion to one of immediate concern as he began to move out of the car to see what was going on.

"What, I leave you for less than a year and you're already hoeing around with other men?" Zack scolded. "Why the fuck would you get a male roommate? Did you do this shit-"

"Just leave me alone, Zack!" you yelled back at him as you yanked your wrist back from him.

"You're fucking pathetic, _____. I'm giving you maybe another two weeks before you come crawling-"

"Do you ever shut up?" a third voice said.

You looked up and saw that Levi had walked over from the car after seeing the commotion. He held an irritated look on his face that was directed towards your ex-boyfriend, able to fully deduce the context of what was going on.

Zack was caught off-guard by your roommate coming out of the car to come to your defense. He was almost half a foot taller than Levi, but Levi's commanding presence took up all the space between them, making it so that it took Zack a few seconds longer than usual to come up with a retort.

Levi rolled his eyes at him as he turned to follow you after you began to storm towards the car, not paying particular attention to Zack, who had begun to open his mouth to speak again. 

Any word that came out of his mouth was unheard, although you couldn't tell if that was due to your own thoughts overwhelming you or if it was because of the rain and wind that was rapidly picking up into a full-fledged storm. 

Once you finally got into the car and shut the door, you buried your face in your hands as the tears finally flowed out from your eyes and down your cheeks, eventually collecting in the palms of your hands, only adding onto the chaotic whirl of thoughts that were running rampant in your head.

~~~~~

Levi remained silent as you continued to sob quietly in the passenger's seat, giving you time and space to process whatever the hell just happened.

You peeked through your fingers as you felt your phone vibrate in your pocket. With how frequently it was vibrating, you were already able to tell that it was Zack spamming you with text messages.

You glanced at your phone, opening the texts, although you were barely able to see with your tears clouding your vision. You vaguely saw a string of text messages of Zack calling you pathetic, a burden, a waste of three years of his life, and everything in-between. You clenched at your phone as you felt more tears gathering up in your eyes and you shakily navigated to his contact information to block him before tossing your phone into the back seat of the car.

After a few more minutes, you felt your breathing stabilize and you rubbed at your now-swollen eyes.

"I assume that's your shitty ex?" Levi finally spoke, breaking the silence between the two of you.

"Wonder how you figured that out," you grumbled with a sniffle.

"Tch," Levi said as he clenched his jaw, more than a little annoyed with the attitude that was attached to that response. "Why'd you have to choose the one night that I have to work an extra shift to pull this shit? How the fuck does you 'getting some air' translate into this?"

While Levi's grumpy attitude and snarky remarks were something you were usually used to and barely fazed by, given the fact that you were already really emotional and vulnerable from what had just happened with Zack made Levi berating you hurt much more than usual.

"I'm sorry, okay?!" you yelled out. "I didn't know who else to call. You could've said no."

Levi glanced at you for a moment. He found himself getting increasingly annoyed.

That wasn't the point. He wasn't annoyed because he had to come out to get you. That was the least of his concerns. What had concerned him more was what could have happened if he didn't come to get you. What annoyed him the most was how reckless you were and how you were never able to see that.

"Why did you even go to see him anyway? You said he's your ex? The one that was dragging you around all over the place and-"

"I don't know, okay?!" you yelled out again, feeling increasingly frustrated with every word that was coming out of Levi's mouth. "He just texted me and said we needed to talk and as usual I was dumb enough to listen to him. I don't even know what the hell I was looking for. The minute I got into his car, I was able to tell that he wanted to do something along the lines of getting back together and I was enough of an idiot to believe even for a second that it was genuine—and then I saw how pissed he got when I said no and he kicked me out all over again and I'm always, always, always making these stupid decisions and it's probably just a burden on everyone around me: Zack, you, my aunt—hell, probably even Petra and Oluo and-"

"Cut that out," Levi said in an attempt to cut off your rambling.

"-and my aunt was probably right in that I'm literally wasting my life getting a degree in something that might not even get me a guaranteed job. Literally every single decision I have ever made in my entire life has been a fucking disaster and I bet you can't fucking wait to get rid of me once summer arrives, because I'd be wanting to get rid of me, too! And-"

"God dammit, cut that shit out, _____!" 

The storm was pouring down on you full-force at this rate, almost as if it was mirroring how volatile your emotions were.

As soon as Levi snapped at you, you clenched your fists, nearly trembling with rage.

After a few seconds of saying nothing, you decided you had enough. You immediately went to undo your seatbelt, fumbling around a bit more than usual due to the shaking that you couldn't seem to control.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Levi asked as he noticed your movements. 

His eyes widened and he had to slam down on the brake pedal as he noticed you open the door to the car as he was still driving. 

Luckily, he wasn't going very fast in the first place due to the storm, but you still ended up stumbling out of the car, nearly falling straight down onto the soaked concrete.

He slowly came to a stop right next to you, leaning towards the passenger seat as the door still hung open.

You shot him a glare before turning around and beginning to walk away.

"Where the hell are you going in the middle of this storm?"

You stopped walking and clenched your fists as you faced him again. 

"Anywhere but here!" you shouted. "I'm sorry I made you come out all this way. I'll find a cheap motel to stay at or something if I'm really that much of a bother to you right now."

You turned towards no direction in particular and began walking again.

"_____, come back."

You glared at him again.

"So you can just berate me again? Fuck off."

You continued walking.

"You're such a dumbass."

You halted in your footsteps as he blatantly insulted you again.

"Excuse me?"

"I said what I said," he said, frowning at you. "Did you really think I'd come out all this way if I didn't want to?"

You matched his frown.

"Well, it sure sounds like it with how pissed you sound."

"Because you piss me off."

You threw your hands up in frustration.

"Then why the fuck are you still here?!"

Levi let out an exasperated sigh.

"Yeah, I'm pissed beyond belief and I'm still here. Now get the fuck back in the car before you get all soaked and make a mess all over the seat."

You glared at him for a few more seconds before mumbling a "fine" and reluctantly getting back into the car.

He drove in silence for a bit, bewildered at the fact that you almost ran off into the middle of nowhere during a raging storm without your phone. If that wasn't the definition of reckless, then he didn't know what was.

"You didn't have to come out just to pick me up," you mumbled again. "I know I texted you, but that doesn't mean shit."

"Tch, did you not hear me?" he said, slightly shaking his head at your repeated commentary. "I came because I wanted to."

He glanced at you before speaking up again.

"Get over yourself, you didn't force me to do shit."

His grip on the wheel tightened as he looked back towards the road.

"You're not special."

He heard your breath hitch at that last comment and his finger tapped on the wheel gently as he felt a very subtle hint of guilt creeping up in the back of his mind. 

You're not special.

That thought kept running through your mind. You knew that you weren't special. The chaos that was your life was pretty indicative of that. Yet, why did it hurt so much when it was him that said it?

You finally opened your mouth to speak again. Your voice was quiet, as if you had given up on fighting against that comment. You'd accepted it, whether you wanted to or not.

"Then why the fuck are you so pissed off?"

It took Levi a moment to figure out the best way to respond as he continued to glare at the road.

"I'm pissed because you're always putting yourself in these situations without thinking for yourself. You're always going alone to get shit-faced at a party or staying out late enough that you're forced to walk home, or getting into shitty situations with shitty people."

You didn't respond, trying to figure out how to interpret his words.

"I'm pissed because you keep putting yourself in danger."

Ah, you thought as you came to a conclusion over what he was trying to say. He was saying that you were too dumb or naïve to take care of yourself.

Whether that was actually true or not didn't matter to you—that's what was going through your head. No matter what Levi was actually trying to say, you had now settled on the idea that you were nothing more than a nuisance to him and that he felt some weird sense of responsibility for you. Similar to everyone else in your life, you were nothing but a burden to him.

"I'm sorry," you whispered, your voice barely audible. 

Levi slightly looked over at you, noting that you were getting caught up in your head from the events of today. He knew that he was at least partially responsible, yet he still never imagined that he'd find himself in this type of situation again. He was used to picking you up from random places at this point. He was fine with that. However, picking you up from your ex-boyfriend's in the middle of what could be interpreted as a violent confrontation was not something that he was expecting to have to deal with.

By the time you got home, you were shivering from standing out in the rain. Levi had given you his jacket to wear and it hung off of your shoulders as you got up out of the car. It had provided you some warmth, but your shivering wasn't going to resolve itself if you didn't change into some dry clothes. 

As you walked from the parking lot into the lobby of your apartment, you saw Levi pass you your phone, having completely forgotten that you tossed it to the backseat of the car after blocking Zack. You mumbled a quiet thanks as you put it into your pocket.

The two of you walked into your apartment and you noticed that literally nothing had been moved since earlier in the afternoon. All the stuff you were unpacking was left in place, despite the fact that the mess was likely driving Levi through the roof. You gripped on his jacket, an uncomfortable bubbling feeling rising up within you. It was just another inconvenience that you unintentionally threw onto him.

He flipped on the light switch, allowing you to properly see the mess that you had made. However, within the next 30 seconds, a crash of lightning lit up the room before all of the lights fell dark.

The power went out.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Levi groaned as he tossed his keys onto the table. 

The night couldn't get much worse.

~~~~~

You let out an exhausted sigh as you slid down the wall across the hall from Levi. The two of you gathered next to the balcony doors for what little light peaked in through the blinds. It seemed that the power only went out for your apartment building and the street lights were still functional. There was a small candle lit in between the two of you. 

You had stumbled into your room and changed into a hoodie and a pair of loose pajama shorts. You had your hands tucked into your hoodie pocket as you looked over towards Levi with a blank expression, unsure of how to process the events of the day.

He was sitting with his back leaning against the wall with his legs out in front of him as he matched your expression. The two of you were quiet for a bit, simply listening to the rain. 

The entire room lit up as another flash of lightning cracked through the sky. 

You felt yourself flinch and tense up at the sudden sound. You weren't particularly afraid of storms, but you were significantly on edge due to the events of the day. Every sudden movement or sound made your heart skip a beat. Your mind was on overdrive.

"How was your break?" Levi asked. He had noticed your reactions to the storm. Initiating conversation, no matter how frustrated he was at you currently, would at least provide you with a distraction.

You gave him a weird look before freezing up again due to another lightning crash. You rapidly shook your head to try to shake off the tension.

"It was okay," you finally replied. "Traveling was more annoying than the trip was enjoyable—honestly kinda wish I just stayed here."

Levi grunted at that last comment without acknowledging or dismissing it, which made you frown.

"Which I guess would've ruined your break. I assume you just spent the entire break reading and writing?"

"Something like that," he mumbled. 

In all honesty, he probably would have also preferred it if you had stayed for break.

You pulled your knees up to your chest and hugged them, resting your chin on them. No matter how much you tried, you couldn't get the events of the day out of your head.

"Lev', can I ask you something?"

"What?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"If you really didn't mind coming out, then why were you so pissed off?"

He blinked at you, not really expecting the question to be brought up again.

"I already told you."

"I don't believe you," you said with a frown. There had to be more. What he said and what he did was too contradictory for you to just accept without getting more information.

Levi gave you an annoyed scowl and clenched his jaw. After a moment, he parted his lips to speak again.

"Why did you go back to him?"

"What?" you asked, not expecting him to deflect your question with another question.

Levi looked you straight in the eye. He couldn't wrap his head around why you would've ever been involved with someone like Zack. A few months ago, he wouldn't give a single shit, but now that he's had a few months of knowing you, he legitimately could not understand why.

"Answer the question."

"Answer mine first," you immediately responded.

He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Because you're always putting yourself in these shitty situations, _____," he said in an exasperated tone. "First, there was the thing with Floche, and now this. I can't even count the amount of times I've had to pick you up from somewhere and that's not even counting when I had to drive around the fucking city looking for you when you went out."

You fell silent, hugging your knees a bit tighter.

"I'm sorry I'm such a shitshow, Levi," you mumbled. "That shouldn't have to fall on you."

"Tch," Levi's eyebrows scrunched together into a frown. "Didn't I tell you to cut that shit out?"

"Cut what out?"

"Quit pitying yourself," he said as he leaned forward and gently flicked your forehead. "That's not what made me mad."

A pout appeared on your face as you rubbed at your forehead, although you finally began to understand what it was that he was trying to say. He was pissed that you kept finding yourself in these situations, but he never thought it was because you couldn't take care of yourself. You were more than capable of it, which is why he's pissed that you still found yourself in those situations.

"Your turn," he said, pulling you out of your thoughts.

"What?"

"I answered your question," he nodded towards you, placing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Now you answer mine. Why did you go back to him?"

You looked down, away from him as you contemplated what it was that you wanted to say in response.

Levi could tell that the topic was another sore spot. You had reacted similarly during Halloween when Hange brought up the topic of your parents.

"He..." you started speaking before trailing off.

"He what?"

You buried your face in your knees, clenching your fists as you pulled up those turbulent memories. You were more emotionally vulnerable than ever.

"He made me feel good about myself when nothing else would," you said, your voice muffled. "My parents had just died, my friendships at school were falling apart because I couldn't keep my shit together, and he just gave me whatever I wanted as long as..."

You trailed off again before lifting yourself back up and looking towards Levi, without really making eye contact.

"...as long as I gave him what he wanted, too. As long as I just shut up and listened to him, as long as I wore the clothes he wanted me to wear and presented myself the way he wanted me to present."

You recalled that Zack didn't even really let you hang out with anyone outside of school when you were dating, which heavily contributed to why you were so confused about navigating everything on your own now. 

Upon noticing Levi's lack of a response, you buried your face in your knees again as you felt the corners of your eyes heat up again from the tears building up.

"You probably think I'm pathetic, don't you?" you mumbled as your voice began to break up. The last thing you wanted to do was to start crying again, but the events of the day only added to any pre-existing thoughts of self-doubt and shame.

"Stupid? Yes," Levi began to speak. "Reckless? Yes. But pathetic?"

He paused as you looked up at him again.

"No, I don't."

You gave him a slight nod as you used the sleeve of your hoodie to wipe away any stray tears that were threatening to fall.

"You don't need that douchebag's approval—or anyone's approval, actually—to be worthy of love and respect, _____."

You felt your cheeks immediately begin to flush up at his statement. You were also able to see out of the corner of your eye that Levi began to awkwardly shuffle in place, as if he just realized what he had said. 

"So quit pitying yourself like that. You're valued more than you think you are."

You pressed your chin into your knees and wrapped your arms around your knees in a way that hid your cheeks that were rapidly heating up. You've felt nothing but guilt and turmoil the entire night, but his comment made something else pop up deep within you. You didn't know how to describe it. You didn't know if it felt good or bad, but there was something there.

Levi watched as you struggled to navigate your own reaction to his comment. He tapped his finger against his leg as he held his hands in his pockets. He'd be lying if he said that there weren't also confusing feelings that were arising within him as well. He remembered pulling up to Zack's apartment and feeling slightly distressed upon seeing you with Zack—maybe even a little jealous, although he would never readily admit to that—before feeling incredibly panicked as soon as he saw Zack grab you. 

He could no longer deny that you were not the shallow undergrad that he thought you were when he first met you in June. You weren't just a student dredging their way through college. Life had thrown misfortunes at you left and right and you were forced to try to navigate through that on your own. There was more to you than you had ever let on.

"Just promise me something," he finally said, waiting for you to look up at him. "Just, try not to get yourself into those situations again."

You looked down again, wondering if his intention was to tell you that he didn't have time to help you anymore when the time came to it. However, he didn't give you much of a chance to dwell on that thought.

"It'd be a shame for me to see something happen to you."

You immediately felt your cheeks flare up again. It was clear that he cared at least to some extent and that itself was enough to get you to question everything around you, including the nature of your relationship with him.

"Storm's over," Levi mumbled as he began to stand up. As he was pushing himself up off the ground, the lights flickered back on.

He held his hand out towards you and helped you get up off the ground.

"Go take a shower and get warm since you decided to casually run off into the rain earlier," he said, motioning towards the bathroom, letting go of your hand. "You were a pain in the ass the last time you got sick."

#: @levisbrat25 @gothgril69 @sckerman @berrijam @notgoodforlife @meowjaa @averysmolbear @roseofdarknessblog @bejewelledd @hhighkey @ayame236 @sad-darksoul @velouria17 @kamyru @l1zk4 @layenacreates @lamees004 @whoami-72 @highgoon69 @chaotic-on-main @levishotgf @nube55 @chosos-mascara @heichoucleanfreak @svftackerman @alexkibutsuji

#levi x reader #levi ackerman x reader #levi heichou x reader #captain levi x reader #levi #levi ackerman #levi heichou #captain levi #modern!au levi #coffeeshop!au levi #college!au levi #attack on titan #aot #shingeki no kyojin #shingeki no kyoujin #snk #levi fanfiction #fics: matcha

[byeol-ssi]

BYEOL BYEOL BYEOL !!!!!!!! CONGRATS ON THE MILESTONE AAAAAA ik I already sent in my greetings but HERE IT IS AGAIN HAHA.

here is my request format (haha idk if i did it right help):

hiya byeol!!! my name is annie, and the pronouns are she/her (I was sorely tempted to put she but not her bc I could never be her), and I'd like to make a request for date #11 with childe!!! take your time and THANK YOU VERY MUCH AAAAAAA ONCE AGAIN CONGRATS ヾ(｡>﹏<｡)ﾉﾞ✧*。

✦ SAVE THE DATE ♡ for @tellerluna-stories

✦ childe / tartaglia | genshin impact

✦ tags: modern!au, arcade date, established relationship, reader is annie

you squint against the neon lights, stepping forward trepidatiously as CHILDE slips another coin into the gaming machine's slot. 

"childe, the arcade closes at 9," you say, raising your voice to be heard over the loud blasts of gunfire, basketballs colliding with metal hoops, revving engines, and chiming bells. 

your boyfriend shrugs, unperturbed by the urgency in your tone, poking the side of his cheek with his tongue. "i know. i still have plenty of time."

you tug on his sleeve, but his eyes are lasered in on the glowing screen as he jabs his fingers on the buttons. he barely even budges even as you pull — almost desperately — on his clothes. 

most of the time, childe reminded you of water. fluid. free. and always going with the flow. 

but it appeared that today, he was as immovable as a rock. just as stubborn and hard-headed too.

"childe," you plead again, worrying your bottom lip. "it's really okay." 

this time, he faces you, propping the rifle controller above his shoulder. he stares at you for a moment, eyes gleaming in the low light, completely unreadable.

then he releases a soft sigh. "i know how much you hate telling people what you want, but i want to win this for you because you've been eyeing that plushie the moment we came in. and i also know you'd rather fling yourself off a building than ask for it." 

you balk, opening your mouth to object, but he easily silences you with a tender kiss on your forehead. 

"and as much as you get uncomfortable from people doing stuff for you, i'm not people. so, let me do this, okay?" 

he doesn't wait for your answer, effectively deeming it the end of the conversation when he aims at the targets now popping up on the screen. 

he's been at it for two hours now, racking up points and making the machine spew tickets at an alarming rate.

another good portion of his time had been trying to persuade and buy off the fellow in charge of the exchange counter.

a plan which ultimately failed. unfortunate, since it would have saved you both a lot of time and you wouldn't be here now, fretting over childe's fingers that you were certain were numb and aching already. 

stepping up on your tiptoes, you press your own lips to his cheek. your own, silent way of saying thank you.

his entire face lights up almost instantly, and you swear he somehow manages to pierce through the targets faster. 

and by 8:58, you both walked out of the establishment, hand in hand, with a huge, blue narwhal plushie under your arm.

✦ byeol’s notes: to my beloved moon, thank you for being my number one. you know just how much i love you and i'll never, ever, get tired of reminding you should you forget it! ♡

✦ link to the event directory!

#✦ 700 milestone event. #♡ — save the date. #genshin impact #genshin drabbles #genshin impact childe #childe x reader #childe x you #tartaglia x you #tartaglia x reader #genshin x reader #genshin x you #genshin fluff #genshin imagines #✦ commissions.

[tennessoui]

if you wrote obikin for #4 with anakin as a single parent and obi-wan as luke and leia's teacher i would simply die happy!!

here it is!!! thank you so much!

4. Teacher/Single Parent AU (modern!AU)(DinLuke shows up as little kids)(2.4k)(whoops)

Anakin stares across the table at Luke, who gnaws on a slice of grilled cheese, carefully leaving the crusts behind. Oh god, he’d forgotten to cut them off of Luke’s sandwich, had cut them off of Leia’s instead, even though she didn’t mind them. And of course they hadn’t told him either. He can’t tell if he’s been forgiven for his error or if it will come back to haunt him later tonight when he tries to put the twins to bed at eight.

“Luke,” he says carefully. “I think I’m just a little confused.”

Leia looks up. She loves when her father is a little confused because it means Luke is probably a bit in trouble and she gets to be the one to set the record straight for him.

Which isn’t to say Leia is a tattle-tale. Anakin’s seen her watch Luke hit another child upside the head with a toy train and then say absolutely nothing when questioned by the daycare instructor.

Daddy’s interrogations are just a special case where she can become a guilt-free turncoat.

“How did you get a Unicorn sticker in art class?” he asks.

The Unicorn stickers, of course, mean unsatisfactory.

He pays extra money for his children to be coddled and kept away from words like Fail and Unsatisfactory, even though that’s what all the parents know the stickers mean. As long as the children don't yet.

“And I don’t understand the rainbow sticker at all,” he continues helplessly, regarding the piece of artwork in front of him, where a handful of dried macaroni noodles are lacklusterly glued to the page.

“The Unicorn sticker means it was bad, but the rainbow sticker means that Mr. Kenobi forgives him,” Leia pipes up, leaning across the table to take the icky crusts from her brother’s plate and dipping them into her tomato soup.

“But it was dry macaroni,” Anakin says incredulously. Luke’s eyes start getting misty as he stares resolutely down at his plate. That’s the last thing Anakin wants. But he just doesn’t understand. Luke’s the most creative of both of his children, has seemed to take after Anakin in that way. Last Christmas, Anakin had given him a model train set that he’d put together inside of a week. If he can do that, he can do a self-portrait in dry macaroni.

“He gave Din all of his noodles,” Leia reports.

“Didn’t Din have any?” Anakin asks, feeling completely out of his element and also sort of like a detective trying to solve a cold case.

“He wanted to save them for his puppy,” Luke mumbles. “They just got him and they can’t figure out what he eats, so Din thought he could try macaroni because I told him I like macaroni and cheese a lot.”

Anakin is on the cliff of despair, but he can’t exactly ask whether or not this Din knows there’s a difference between the dried macaroni from art class and boxed macaroni and cheese from Kraft. He’s not sure he even wants to know the answer.

“And then Luke didn’t have a lot left for his picture,” Leia finishes the story and her soup in one fell swoop.

“Couldn’t you have asked Mr. Kenobi for more?” Anakin asks Luke who shakes his head but doesn’t seem to want to elaborate. Anakin turns only slightly pleading eyes to Leia, who is the expert on anything her brother doesn’t want to say.

“Mr. Kenobi sits at the front, and Luke sat at the back today so it was really far.”

“But you always sit at the front!” Anakin says, appalled. Sure, he hadn’t managed to make it to the most recent round of parent-teacher conferences due to an unfortunately timed shift at the garage, but he knows where his kids sit in a classroom.

Luke mumbles something into his bowl.

“What was that?” Anakin asks.

Leia translates. “Din doesn’t sit at the front,” she says.

Anakin sits back in his chair and runs a hand over his mouth. Luke has a crush. His son, Luke, has his very first crush on a boy and he’s already doing stupid things in order to see the boy. Oh no. Oh god. Of all the things to take after Anakin on, it’s this one.

“Okay,” he says, mostly to himself. “It’s okay. Unicorns aren’t so bad.”

“Way better than giraffes,” Leia tells her brother bracingly, seeming to know instinctively that the gossiping part of this conversation is over. “And you got a rainbow, which means Mr. Kenobi isn’t mad.”

Anakin wonders, with the context, if that’s actually what the rainbow means, or if Mr. Kenobi isn’t just incredibly observant.

“TV time, kids,” he says, only feeling sort of bad about the screentime or whatever, as Luke perks up and runs with Leia into the living room.

After five minutes to make sure they’ve successfully turned on and found a child-appropriate show, Anakin gathers the dishes and loads the washer. Then he sighs as loud as he can without disrupting the kids.

Then he pulls out his phone and the school directory and finds the email for one Mr. Obi-Wan Kenobi, art teacher.

It takes him twenty minutes to figure out an email that doesn’t sound too judgemental, harsh, worried, skeptical, or angry. It takes another five minutes to figure out how to sign off on it. Kind regards? Best? Thanks? Sincerely? What is the etiquette for emailing your son’s art teacher to arrange a meeting because you’re worried your son will fail the class simply because he’s inherited terrible genes from his father?

It takes ten minutes, in the end, for Mr. Kenobi to email back, and he does so with a very straightforward message. He’s available to chat after school hours tomorrow, if it works for Anakin.

Anakin pulls up his work schedule. He’s supposed to work until five in the evening tomorrow, has already booked a slot at the after-care program for the twins. But.

He texts Ahsoka to ask if she could cover the last few hours of his shift. She texts back a string of rather offensive emojis, but settles down when he tells her it’s for his kids. Technically, he isn’t even lying. He’s just being overbearing.

He spends another fifteen minutes trying to compose a response email in between making sure the kids brush their teeth, wash behind their ears, and have their bags packed for the morning. He’s so stressed out by it that he’s not even sure he includes a signature at all before he hits send. God. Meeting Mr. Kenobi had better be worth all of this stress.

---

Finding Mr. Kenobi’s classroom is almost more stress than the correspondence from the night before had been. The only reason Anakin doesn’t sit down and cry against the garishly yellow brick lining the hallways is that he keeps telling himself that if his two seven-year-olds can do this, Anakin surely can.

The art classroom is tucked away in a forgotten corner of the school and it takes three wrong turns and one accidental entrance into a thankfully deserted first grade room for Anakin to find it. He knocks on the open door and then decides he should call as well to announce his presence. “Uh, Mr. Kenobi? I’m Anakin. Skywalker. We talked last night?” He takes a couple of steps into the room, which is lined in children’s art and paint-stained tables.

A man emerges from a backroom, dressed in a very loose and paint-flecked denim shirt over a white tank top and a pair of slacks. He’s wearing a pair of thick glasses that he takes off as soon as he sees Anakin. His beard is neatly trimmed and his hair, a sort of bronzed auburn, neatly combed.

He’s holding a paintbrush in one hand, and still, of course, Anakin’s dumb brain overrides the part of him that’s saying, This is clearly Mr. Kenobi in favor saying, quite politely, “Oh! I’m sorry. Is Mr. Kenobi back there?”

The man who could not possibly be more obviously the art teacher raises an amused eyebrow.

Look. No one told Anakin that elementary school art teachers could be so attractive. He’d not done anything to prepare for this.

“You must be Luke’s father,” Mr. Kenobi says, waving him forward.

“What makes you say that?” Anakin asks, a tad too defensively, thinking of his own self-deprecating thoughts last night about Luke taking after him when it comes to being sort of stupid around people they liked. He’s just being paranoid.

“The...last...name,” now Mr. Kenobi is definitely trying to hide his smile and Anakin wants to die. “Would you like to sit?”

Anakin does so rather graciously, given the circumstances. He even makes sure he keeps their chairs very far apart. Mostly in order to preserve his own dignity, but he thinks he should get credit for his self-control at this spur of the moment single-parent-hot-teacher conference.

“I’m sorry for my appearance,” Mr. Kenobi says, pulling the oversized button up closed over his tank top. “I must admit, I mostly forgot you were coming by. I was working on one of my own projects.”

“You paint?” Anakin asks.

Mr. Kenobi tilts his head slightly and flicks his eyes around the room as if in answer.

Anakin flushes but digs his heels in. “Well, I don’t know,” he mumbles mulishly. “Do math teachers do math in their spare time?”

This startles a laugh out of the teacher, which makes some long forgotten part of Anakin’s psyche sit up and preen. “I’m sure some of them do,” he says. “No, I do art mostly for the town right now. I’m working on a series of pieces for the public library at the moment.”

Anakin tries his hardest not to obviously melt, but Mr. Kenobi has not looked away from his face much so surely he can see it in his eyes.

“That’s quite. Nice,” Anakin says, coughing into his fist.

“And what do you do?” Mr. Kenobi asks in a way that’s just on the other side of polite. Anakin has the strange thought that if they had cups of coffee between them, he’d feel like he was on a very casual first date.

He has to shake his head to rid himself of that idea. “I’m a mechanic,” he says.

Mr. Kenobi looks interested, of all things. Most people don’t. Most people make some sort of assumption about him, about his life, his ability to parent his children, as if they’re not the ones rolling into his shop at 5:54 pm because their car is “making a funny noise”.

But Mr. Kenobi just looks interested.

“Oh?” He says. “That makes sense. Leia is always talking about how her father can fix anything.”

“Well,” Anakin blushes and looks away. “You know kids. Turn it off and turn it back on usually blows their minds.”

Mr. Kenobi smiles indulgently before clearing his throat. “You wanted to talk about Luke?”

“Oh! Yes!” He had come here with the express desire to talk about Luke with Mr. Kenobi. Not secure a date with Mr. Kenobi. “I saw that Luke got a... unicorn...and a rainbow on his last project, and it made me worry.”

It sounds very, very overbearing coming out of his mouth. This is an elementary school art class. Why did he think that he should come in and talk to a teacher over his son’s bad grade? Especially when it was pretty clear Luke deserved it.

Mr. Kenobi tilts his head in confusion. “Well, yes, I suppose I usually give Luke two suns on his work, so I understand if the change was upsetting to you.”

“And we’re saying that two suns are good?” Anakin checks, feeling very out of his element here.

“Oh, yes, very good,” Mr. Kenobi assures him. “But his last project wasn’t. Well.”

“He says he got distracted,” Anakin mutters, rubbing a hand down his face. “Over a boy.”

“Haven’t we all been there,” Mr. Kenobi murmurs, sounding very amused. Anakin peeks over his fingers at this declaration.

“Yeah,” he says roughly. “That’s sort of exactly what I thought.”

Mr. Kenobi clears his throat again. “Well. That’s why I gave him the unicorn then. It was a bit of bad work, but a very rare showing of it. And the rainbow, to signify that I know he’ll be back to normal again next time. You shouldn’t worry about this one project either, Mr. Skywalker. I do give final grades holistically, not weighted by any one assignment. This is, after all, a children’s art class.”

Anakin wants to thunk his head on the table in front of him. “You do know that all the parents think unicorn means unsatisfactory, right?”

“Why?” Mr. Kenobi has the nerve to look shocked.

“They both start with U, I don’t know,” Anakin says, waving an agitated hand through the air.

“Well, sometimes parents can be quite stupid,” Mr. Kenobi says primly and then looks horrified at himself. “Please don’t tell them I said that.”

Anakin laughs and gets to his feet reluctantly. His worries over Luke have been dealt with, but he finds himself very reluctant to leave.

“Well,” he says slowly, eyes firmly looking only at Mr. Kenobi’s face, “Thank you for meeting with me. I guess you don’t get many frantic parent-teacher conferences over a unicorn sticker.” He ducks his head and rubs the back of his neck with his hand in embarrassment. He can admit now that perhaps he had overreacted.

Mr. Kenobi places his hand delicately over the hand Anakin still has on the table, just for a second, squeezing it with enough pressure that Anakin has to look up at him again. “Only the best parents,” he says with a half-smile.

Anakin finds himself grinning back, unwilling to move his hand now that Kenobi’s touching it. “And, um. If you ever take the kids on an art museum tour or something, and you need chaperones….give me a call.”

“Would I have to wait that long?” Kenobi asks innocently.

Anakin’s never shaken his head no so quickly before. “Any time,” he tells the man very seriously, already backing out of the room. “Before you think too much about it and decide not to would probably be preferable.”

Mr. Kenobi laughs. “I’m sure I’ll think about it a lot,” he says as he turns to go back to his art studio. He calls over his shoulder. “In bed, tonight.”

Anakin trips over a child-sized easel with a loud clatter and an even louder curse, and he can’t decide which of the two should be more thankful school is out for the day. Probably Mr. Kenobi. Yeah. Probably definitely Mr. Kenobi.

#asks #my fics #obikin #just fluff #also omg re: my last tagged fic prompt and my gyoza #i was so excited about my gyoza i forgot to add a keep reading cut #so it looks SO long #and i went back and i added it but im also very sorry #i also had three gyoza which was a bit too much for 12:45am #and now it's 3:15 but i finished another prompt bless #prompt fill #art teacher obi-wan au

[cattles-bians]

damie vibecca exes au part 21

post directory

em: viola and becs love their lil hikes

em: oh actually did we already designate hiking as a damie thing

em: hmm.

em: yknow what damie and vibecca can both enjoy their weekend hikes

em: they bring isabel and she’s RUNNING up the path and tires herself out in 10 minutes and rebecca and viola swap out piggybacking her

obsetress: yeah it tracks because they both like fitness and viola likes her walks

obsetress: plus viola's like "it's good for isabel"

em: vibecca power lesbians love the challenging trails and damie just enjoy the sights

obsetress: dani venting to jamie one night: they don't even LIKE hiking, but they still had to do the blackjack loop, and WE won't even do the blackjack loop,

em: dani and her fanny packs... every time she sees isabel on a trail she like

em: stuffs her pockets w granola akdhdkfhdj

em: drives viola NUTS she’s like we packed our Own snacks

obsetress: dani gets SO excited

---

obsetress: man i love these lil gay bitches

obsetress: no but um

obsetress: jamie gets in some fight w rebecca early on after they've reconnected

obsetress: prob about her dating vi tbh

obsetress: and jamie's so put off by the whole thing and is ranting to dani about it and dani's all like "you just need to have better boundaries, jamie, they're her choices, aren't they? not yours"

obsetress: and jamie just stares at her like.........................................

obsetress: "dani, you literally continued hooking up with viola for weeks after you broke up"

"oh, c'mon jamie, it wasn't weeks"

"no?"

"it was months"

em: dani shooting herself in the foot to like. correct jamie is so funny

em: not even ‘no that’s different’ or ‘no i’ve changed’ like ‘actually it was months’

obsetress: she says it w such a lil pleased smile on her face too

---

obsetress:

obsetress: like who the FUCk gave her the right???

obsetress: a whole babe

obsetress: she didn't need to smirk like this

em: god she’s so Hot

obsetress: just think about all the times she and viola get into the banter

obsetress: and this exact face

em: i know we veered dramatically into soft territory w exes au but vi extremely stubborn lloyd and rebecca lawyer do no harm take no shit jessel truly. have some spectacular arguments

obsetress: they have absolute blowouts

obsetress: and then blowouts after the blowouts iywkim

obsetress: like dani's do no harm take no shit but she and vi also enable the SHIT out of each other

em: like dani tried but dani wasnt like. fully baked yet

obsetress: yeah! and then when she finally does and breaks up with her, she's back in her bed a few weeks later

obsetress: rebecca is the first person to not take viola's shit and to tell her no and viola can't fucking stand it

em: jamies convinced it’s a ruse for more make up sex

obsetress: dani's like "no, babe, trust me, i know what that looks like and this––"

"wot"

"what?"

em: dani (hushed) no she’s regular mad this isn’t fun mad

em: jamie (hushed but incredulous) FUN MAD?!

obsetress: please tell me how dani explains fun mad

em: a lil eyebrow waggle and a wink but then i like

em: thought abt her going to lift jamie up on a bench ‘well she kinda’

---

obsetress: the way rebecca looks at peter when he is (seemingly) (unfortunately) good w the kids has me thinking about like

obsetress: rebecca seeing vi w isabel for the first time and just

em: turns out the evil landlord shes banging is also…… soft

obsetress: rebecca and jamie on the phone and rebecca's like "i know she's... a landlord and all, but you should've seen her with isabel"

"you've gotta be fucking kidding me, becs––"

"no, maybe you're too quick to write her off. maybe people can be more than one thing"

and jamie just groans

em: poor jamie and her class traitor ex gf

em: blows kiss to rebecca

---

em: dani: i gotta go to the bathroom i’ll be right back

em: jamie: ok love

em: dani; (elbows jamie) ive Gotta Go To The B

obsetress: screamed

obsetress: dani trips over her own feet as she gets up to go

obsetress: then i just start thinking about dani absolutely pouncing on jamie the second they get into the bathroom and then i just start thinking about. how often that happens

obsetress: bathrooms or closets or wherever else

em: dani has this 6th sense for places to sneak off to

obsetress: god she DOES

obsetress: she's so good at it

em: she enters a new building and is taking lil notes just in case

obsetress: meanwhile rebecca and viola exchanging a look while they wait, knowing EXACTLY where they're going

em: viola leaning in like how much time do we have and becs is like vi. where’s your decorum

em: then she looks down at her watch and lists it down to the second

obsetress: she pauses

obsetress: then

obsetress: "and another six minutes if––" and vi's like "she'll want to go again"

em: viola buffing her nails on her blazer: she’ll want to go again

obsetress: rebecca rolls her eyes but she's grinning

obsetress: "you're all too smug" "me? smug?" becs just shakes her head and tugs her in by the lapels of her blazer

em: damie coming back to a fairly chaste vibecca kiss: BLEH can you guys GET A ROOM

obsetress: rebecca's just verly placidly like

obsetress: "dani, your zipper is still down, by the way"

em: dani; thanks :)

---

em: dani clayton voice i’m braver and severely Weirder than ppl think

obsetress: she's a bit of a weirdo

em: see now i’m thinking about dani glancing away going dang i thought i was keeping it under wraps

obsetress: ngl i think about that a lot like

obsetress: she IS a weirdo but what does jamie know

obsetress: that she's like yeah she's a fucking weirdo

obsetress: like she's anxious and jumpy but jamie wouldn't call that weird

obsetress: what did she know and when did she know it

em: i’m thinking about jamie catching dani doing something like. idk eating a burger layer by layer or w a knife and fork and going

em: what a freak. i’m gonna marry her

em: dani tells jamie no this is a normal american thing and then when they go to vermont jamie realises no this absolutely is not

obsetress: she says something about it and dani doesn't even remember saying it in the first place

obsetress: "i didn't say that"

"you literally did say that"

"why would i say that"

(jamie taylor eyebrow raise) "you tell me"

(dani clayton flush and stutter) "i–– i..."

em: dani mumbles something like i didn’t think it’d pan out like this i just wanted the cool gardener to think i was. semi normal

em: jamie waggles her eyebrows like cool gardener???

obsetress: dani bumps her shoulder into jamie's "shut up"

"don't think i will, actually"

em: jamie starts to v seriously eat her burger layer by layer. danis like ‘ur taking the mick!’ and jamies like (sheepish) naw i just. wanted to see what it’s like

---

em: every so often they’ll run into someone who went to school w jamie or knew her as a youth and they’re like ‘wow you’ve mellowed out heaps’

em: therapy queen

em: theyre in a pub and someone’s like ‘as i live and breathe! jamie taylor! i heard you died! someone told me you were arrested for (crime that becomes bigger and more outlandish w every new person)’ and jamies like ‘aye’ and they’re like

em: all sharing a beer at a quaint little pub n this old acquaintance from before has these v chaotic stories and danis like

em: jamie? my jamie? u must be confused. jamie goes to bed at 9:30pm watching antiques roadshow

obsetress: jamie just grins a lil

em: danis like haha jamie wow ur so mysterious and (she is already casing the joint for places to sneak off too)

---

em: damvibecca sittin in a circle passing a joint around

em: a nice thought

obsetress: Wholesome

obsetress: dani falls asleep first, with her head in jamie's lap and they're all just kinda vibin and rebecca gets up to get her a blanket or smth and vi's just kinda like

obsetress: "you're really good for her, you know"

obsetress: all quiet and pensive

em: jamie takes a loooooonng pause and she’s like. i was sceptical but. you’re good for becs too

em: and then even quieter she’s like

em: thanks

em: the softest thank u from one jamie taylor

obsetress: rebecca gets back and looks back n forth between the two of them

"why are you two being weird"

"we're not–- what?"

"we're just sitting here, baby"

obsetress: rebecca narrows her eyes

---

obsetress: jamie likes vi for becs because vi reminds her to live a little

obsetress: and can also keep up with her temperament because holy shit did jamie hate all of becca's bougie shit

em: jamie absolutely has um

em: like a repairs pile that shes gonna get around to Some Day re fixin clothes etc and

em: as much as i love 'rebecca and jamie worlds most calm and collected no drama couple' im defs toying with like

em: their ONE Big fight is beccs throws out the repairs pile

obsetress: "i was gonna––"

"no you WEREN'T, jamie!"

em: jamies like i The Tool I Needed is outta stock i had to- and becs is like? what, like you couldnt make do?

em: and even then when the heat dies down its still v calm and civil but like

em: FINALLY a lil dramatic angle to jamie rebecca

em: dani loves the repairs pile bc she loves a project

obsetress: she's also very content to let jamie have her silly little thing

obsetress: because it doesn't bother her and jamie is very good at keeping it in her space

obsetress: rebecca asks her about it one day and dani's like "oh i'm just glad she has a hobby :)"

em: couple times jamie's like. shes been tryna repair this one chair for months and eventually shes like

em: (swings axe) winters coming

obsetress: dani just watches with the dopiest grin

obsetress: jamie's all wot

obsetress: and dani's like

obsetress: :) you're hot :)

em: danis like hey i know its a brisk autumn but um

em: if u wanna

em: mimes taking shirt off

obsetress: jamie does it

obsetress: jamie rolling her eyes as she unbuttons the top couple buttons then tugs her shirt over her head

obsetress: but she's grinning

obsetress: dani sneaking up behind her as she's sorting the wood and just leaning into her bare back

obsetress: jamie jumps "oi!" and dani grins and nuzzles between her shoulders

---

obsetress: been having so many becca feelings in our rewatch

em: oh gosh

em: i love her she truly is a tragic character

obsetress: same

obsetress: i just want her to live happily ever after in her lil power lesbian outfits with her lil power lesbian wife

obsetress: like she needs someone who can MATCH her

obsetress: her energy and her intensity and her passion

obsetress: and like she and jamie can push each other to be better but jamie’s just kinda like “lemme chill n do my gay little tasks” yknow

em: ya and like they Worked but they worked Much better as friends than anything romantic

em: jamies the lesbian best friend that’s like girl. stop settling for mediocre men with accents

obsetress: yeah!

em: jamie ‘how soon is too soon to ask out my good friend rebecca jessel after her v messy break up w peter quint’ taylor

em: and then rebecca ends up being the one like ‘have you ever thought about us?’ while jamies agonising over it like four months later

em: rebeccas a little go getter and jamie needs a little bit of a shove sometimes

obsetress: jamie, surrounded by three shovers,

obsetress: rebecca says it so casually over dinner like she’s talking about the weather and jamie’s like !?

obsetress: i can also see like

obsetress: rebecca says that bit about "have you ever thought about us" at dinner and jamie blanches and second guesses everything they do "is....... is this a date" becca just shrugs "do you want it to be?"

em: jamies motormouthing like ok but i cannot stress enough that i was comforting you about ur break up in a friend way no ulterior motives way i am ur friend first and foremost and rebecca just like

em: lets her get it out of her system

em: ‘well what about my ulterior motives’

obsetress: she WOULD

obsetress: "did you ever consider that maybe i had ulterior motives"

em: jamie: (pursing her lips, furrowing her brow that way she does) you had a messy break up with peter quint….. to seduce me.

em: rebecca: mmhmm

obsetress: jamie: me?

obsetress: rebecca: well, maybe a couple of reasons, but... yeah. you were up there

---

em: after i asked out [ex] i spent ages agonising over when it would be appropriate to kiss her (i know...) and then one night at a party she’s like ‘so why haven’t u kissed me yet?’ and i’m like are u fucken. mate it takes two to tango

obsetress: oh my god?

em: drawing from that

em: jamie thinks they’re taking it slow (but not that slow) and rebecca is like girl what

em: ‘i never took you for old fashioned’

‘wot, me?’

'mmhm’

‘old fashioned?!’

‘well, you haven’t kissed me yet-‘

‘you haven't kissed me! i figured you wanted to take it slow after p-‘ and then rebecca like full on dips jamie and kisses her

em: rebeccas like always wanted to do that at least once lol

em: jamie is speechless for a couple minutes

obsetress: rEBECCA

---

obsetress: thinking thoughts rebecca jamie same height but rebecca heels

obsetress: jamie looking up @ her all

obsetress: rebecca in her heels and is chilly and jamie getting up onto her tip toes to wrap her big coat around rebecca's shoulders

em: softtt

#the dani jamie viola rebecca exes au #featuring soft jambeccas... #one more! #when im done editing it! #would u believe we go on a lot of tangents also i edit a bunch of keysmashes out jshabfkas

[ellenripleysbelieveitornot]

AcuteAngleAziraphale Fics

Finally got around to making a directory of my Good Omens fics, with links to AO3 and Tumblr (including a fic by fic breakdown of the Chicken Soup for the Ineffable Soul drabble collection.)  A few at the top, everything else under the cut, since there’s like, 50+ fics here. (sorted by most hits on AO3)

Your Lips Are Poison; Your Taste Is Divine (Explicit)

He was beautiful, but in a ‘don’t touch’ sort of way, like the apple he was famous for- freedom and banishment all wrapped into one tantalizing fruit. Unfortunately, Aziraphale had never been particularly good at resisting temptation. So, of course, it started with a touch.

AO3 only

Chicken Soup for the Ineffable Soul (Collection)

Threadbare Heart (Gen)

For the last ten or so years, Crowley has felt an odd sort of affinity with Aziraphale’s waistcoat.

Tumblr | AO3

Wanting (Gen)

Crowley was used to wanting. Answers from a god. A place to call home. For his love to be returned.

Tumblr | AO3

Lucky (Gen)

“Angel,” Crowley said, draping his entire body across the desk where Aziraphale was reading. “Angel, let’s go somewhere.”

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Three Words (Gen)

Three words. Three simple, little words. That was all it took for Crowley's world to fall apart. "I'm in love," Azirphale had said, a soft smile gracing his lips.

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Free Fall (Gen)

Aziraphale fell in love slowly. That was probably for the best, since once he started, he just couldn't seem to stop.

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Anytime with You (Gen)

Aziraphale loved spending mornings with Crowley. He loved those early hours that he got to spend reading in bed with the demon curled up, asleep, by his side.

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Prayer (Gen)

Crowley is a prayer waiting to be answered, and Aziraphale is finally ready to let the hymns spill from his lips.

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To Love the Sky (Gen)

There once was an angel who loved the sky more than anything.

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Grace (Gen)

Crowley liked churches, and Aziraphale pretended that he didn’t know.

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Hymns (Gen)

Crowley sang hymns long forgotten to the choirs of heaven.

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I Choose You (Gen)

Some people believe in soul mates. Crowley was not one of those people.

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Unsaid (Gen)

Aziraphale could fill entire books with words he’s left unsaid. If he transcribed every utterance he’d bitten back on his tongue, he’d find that he had covered enough pages that he could line every bookshelf he owned. 

Tumblr | AO3

Giggly (Gen)

Aziraphale had a problem, and that problem wore skinny jeans and strutted around like he was more limb than substance.

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Flicker (Teen+)

“Crowley,” Aziraphale mumbled into the demon’s lips as they kissed. “You’re doing it again.”

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Bigger Than These Bones (Teenish)

Crowley was most definitely not human. That fact must be made abundantly clear.

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Get Your Ducks in a Row (Gen)

The angel paid him no mind as he stopped in the middle of the path and turned around, forcing Crowley to stop, too. “Crowley, please, would you mind explaining the ducklings?!”

Tumblr | AO3

A Sort of Wickedness (Teenish)

There’s a sort of wickedness to his smile, Crowley notices, and he wonders how he didn’t see it from the start. But that’s why they go together so well, isn’t it? Just as Crowley has a little of the light running through his veins, Aziraphale has just a lick of the dark, there below the surface.

Tumblr | AO3

Not Made To Love (Gen)

Demons are not made to love. That is the only explanation Crowley can come up with for the way he feels ready to come apart at the seams. 

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Where Legends Are Born (Gen)

Crowley walked the streets of legend and saw the world unfold before him.

Tumblr | AO3

Constellations (Gen)

Aziraphale had stars covering his skin.

Tumblr | AO3

Paint the Sky (Teen)

Crowley used to paint. His brush was the cosmos and his canvas was the universe, infinite and vast. With just one stroke, he could bring the sky to life.

Tumblr | AO3

I Love You (Gen)

It was unexpected, almost. Aziraphale wouldn't have thought it (though, that was more because he had never allowed himself to dwell on such things) but, despite all of Crowley's rough edges and walls he had built to protect himself from getting hurt, he loved incredibly freely and easily.

Tumblr | AO3

Made To Love (Gen)

Crowley was made to love Aziraphale, he was sure of it.

Tumblr | AO3

The Truth (Gen)

Fic request: Crowley gushing to The Them about Aziraphale

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Harmony (Gen)

Crowley’s love was a hurricane; wild and all-consuming, it surged within him until there was room for little else.

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Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before (Gen)

Crowley relaxed even further into his lover’s lap and closed his eyes. “Can you tell me a story?”

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Eden (Gen)

They met for the first time in the garden, but not atop the outer wall, on the day of the first rain.

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Me-ow! (Gen)

“Oh, good lord- I’m jealous of a cat.”

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*bang*bang* Tartan Love! Whoa! (Gen)

It’s ridiculous, really, the things Crowley will do for love. Walk across consecrated ground. Run inside a burning building. Change the upholstery in his Bentley to bloody tartan.

Tumblr | AO3

First Kisses (Gen)

The first time Aziraphale had leaned forward and closed the six thousand year long distance between them to kiss Crowley, he had made a strangled sound much like a giraffe choking on a twig and promptly fallen to the floor.

Tumblr | AO3

Call Me Angel (Gen)

Aziraphale still remembered the first time Crowley had called him ‘angel.’

Tumblr | AO3

Warmth (Gen)

The lump of tartan blankets on the couch in the back room of Aziraphale’s shop appeared with the first snowfall after the apocalypse-that-wasn’t.

Tumblr | AO3

Your Hand in Mine (Gen)

They held hands on the wall.

Tumblr | AO3

Titus Anacondicus (Gen)

...and maybe Aziraphale had just confessed to six thousand years worth of longing to a snake that was not actually Crowley at all.

Tumblr | AO3

An Absolute Angel (Gen)

In retrospect, Aziraphale probably could have avoided making an utter fool of himself if he had simply asked Crowley if they could meet up to compare disguises before making their way to the Dowling residence. As it was, he was lucky he didn’t blow the whole con by turning into a blushing mess during his job interview the moment Crowley stepped into kitchen as Nanny Ashtoreth.

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Companion (Gen)

Though he never talked about it, Aziraphale was ancient. One of the first angels.

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Sunrise (Gen)

[Aziraphale] had already filled this sky with his favorite colors (every shade of blue and the lightest yellows imaginable) but now the sunrise had him a bit stumped.

Tumblr | AO3

He Loves You, Idiot (Gen)

If Crowley hadn't known any better, he would have thought that Aziraphale was in love with him.

Tumblr | AO3

Treasure Beneath Gold (Gen)

Crowley, in the guise of Aziraphale, fidgeted nervously on the bench as he awaited the angel’s return from hell.

Tumblr | AO3

Accidental Miracles (Gen)

It was too much. Aziraphale was in love and it was too much.

Tumblr | AO3

Forgiveness (Gen)

“Forgive me,” Aziraphale whispers as he presses his lips to tear tracked cheeks.

Tumblr | AO3

He Knows (Gen)

‘I love you,’ Crowley says, not with words, but with his actions...

Tumblr | AO3

All This Time (Gen)

Aziraphale has a husband. This is news to Crowley.

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Nothing Rhymes With Aziraphale (Gen)

Crowley took to writing when the moments without Aziraphale seemed to stretch into infinity. There was something about the repetitive scratch of the quill against the parchment that seemed to calm him; maybe it was just the way it seemed to drown out the part of him that had (unforgivably) learned to miss someone.

Tumblr | AO3

By Any Other Name (Gen)

Crowley wasn’t sure what exactly went wrong, but somehow, his lunch date with Aziraphale had ended with the angel acting like a complete nervous mess. OR the one where Crowley tries out various pet names.

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The Other Side of the Coin (Collection) (Role-Swap AU)

The Beginning (Gen)

An angel and a demon meet outside of Eden.

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Azra and the Antichrist (Gen)

Azra rides a bicycle and misplaces a baby. Raphael makes Gabriel drink coffee.

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On Being a Bastard (Teen)

The first time Raphael had called him ‘bastard’ Azra was, understandably, a little bit insulted.

Tumblr | AO3

The Bentley (Gen)

"I still don't understand," Raphael said, as he maneuvered his Bentley at breakneck speed through the busy streets of London.

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From an Outside Perspective (Collection)

A Little Secret (Gen)

Brother Francis, during the course of his employment for the Dowlings, always seemed to be on the very cusp of being fired.

Tumblr | AO3

Local Idiots Terrorize Ducks at St. James Park (Gen)

There was a small group of ducks at St. James park that were far more intelligent than any ducks had any right to be. This tended to happen when certain celestial beings were involved.

Tumblr | AO3

Ducks! They’re what you practice proposals on. (Gen)

It wasn’t everyday you walked into St. James’ park to find a man down on one knee, ring box in hand, declaring his undying love to a duck, but it seemed today was a day of absurdities, because that was exactly what was happening.

Tumblr | AO3

Snark (Snake Park)

As a spy, Agent [redacted] of the British Bureau of [redacted] had seen some, for lack of a more elegant word, shit. Which is why when the sunglasses wearing redhead in St. James’ Park turned into a massive snake in broad daylight, he didn’t bat an eye.

Tumblr | AO3

Because I Love You (Gen)

This is too much. They barely survived the apocalypse, barely survived getting offed by their head officers, and now Crowley asks him for this?

Tumblr | AO3

Mr. Fell and Mr. Fell (Gen)

Crowley once again changes his name.

Tumblr | AO3

Allow Me (Teen for blood)

Heaven orders Aziraphale to kill a human. Crowley is there to pick up the pieces.

Tumblr  | AO3

Third Time’s the Charm (Gen)

For the prompt “please marry me.”

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Routine (Gen)

For the prompt “why haven’t you kissed me yet?”

Tumblr | AO3

Sentimentality (Gen)

Aziraphale keeps his most treasured possession in a cigar box that finds its home nestled in the tea cupboard next to the angel’s favorite brand of earl grey.

Tumblr | AO3

It’s Always Been You (Gen)

A love story told in reverse.  

Tumblr | AO3

God Only Knows (what I'd be without you) (Teen) (4/8 chapters)

Crowley and Aziraphale through the ages, but each time they meet it is for the first time.

AO3 Only

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Exorcism (Gen)

Aziraphale and Crowley fake some exorcisms.

Tumblr | AO3

An Unfortunate Lack of 'Wahoo's (Gen)

“–And then I finished my presentation, Angel, my really good presentation, I might add, you would have been proud, I used notecards and everything. Notecards, Angel!”

Tumblr | AO3

On the Stars (Gen)

I hung the stars for you.

Tumblr | AO3

I See You (Gen)

Crowley sees Aziraphale in the sunrise. He sees him in the light as it graces the sky with color and warmth.

Tumblr | AO3

One, Two, Three (Four) (Gen)

Each time they meet, it's like a dance.

Tumblr | AO3

Big Spooky Fan, Me (Collection)

Trick or Treat! (Gen)

Nanny Ashtoreth and Brother Francis take Warlock Trick or Treating.

Tumblr | AO3

A Dark and Spooky Night (Gen)

Aziraphale and Crowley tell scary stories.

Tumblr | AO3

traditions, old and new ( winter fic collection)

Traditions (Gen)

And suddenly, it’s about traditions made together.

Tumblr | AO3

#good omens fanfiction #my fic

[wingsofkpop]

When You Love Someone - Part One /// Ludus

pairing(s): Yoon Dowoon x Reader, Day6 x Reader

genre: High School!AU, Young Love!AU, brief Angst, some Fluff

warning(s): None, aside from rejection??

word count: 3,1k 

synopsis: There are many paths in life, but the longest of all is the path to the heart. In your eyes, what does it truly mean... to love?... 

chapter directory

“Do you think Mr. Park will actually give us a pop-quiz today?” Wonpil asks, ferociously flipping through his government textbook. 

“I mean, he never gave any in my class last year… but I can’t be sure.” 

You watch as your best friend peruses through a section about the advantages of a representative democracy, before turning your attention to something actually worth your while—not that the daily routine of the school cafeteria is any more interesting than government. With kids waiting in line to snatch up the last of the desserts, jocks dodging that one obnoxious freshman that doesn’t know how to take a hint, and social butterflies jumping from table to table, unable to go a day without interacting with their many cliques. Oh, and the lunch ladies pretending to do their job when they’re secretly gossiping about the rich students’ parents. 

Only one month until graduation. Better start counting the days. 

“Will you help me go over some of this material?” Wonpil asks. “I want to be prepared just in case.” 

“You know I wasn’t great with gov,” You reply and inhale another sip of your water. “Why don’t you track down Jae? I’m sure he’s in the library hiding from Chaeyoung.” 

“I don’t want to blow his cover.” 

“If he doesn’t want to go out with her, he should just tell her.” You snort, wincing as a group of nearby cheerleaders erupt into a rather loud argument. 

“You know how he is. He just doesn’t want to let people down.” 

Wonpil only receives a hum in response. You were too interested in the drama brewing a couple tables down. Wanting to hear more, you attempt to focus your ears in that direction—even through the typical lunch conversation buzz. Your tries do little, as you can only pick up something about the basketball game on Friday. 

“I guess I could see if Sungjin-hyung could help me.” Wonpil says. 

Another hum. 

...Something about a date… You wonder who the unlucky guy is. 

“(Y/N)-noona... Have you spoken to him?” 

“-What?” You return your gaze to the boy. This time, with features pulled into a blend of confusion and concern. You shake your head, “No. Why? Is everything okay?” 

Wonpil shrugs, “Yeah. I was just wondering is all.” 

Aside from you, Sungjin is Wonpil’s closest friend. The two are as inseparable as you and your favorite food. Sungjin tutors during lunch period which is the only reason he’s not with the two of you. After years of knowing Wonpil, you and Sungjin have grown somewhat close. You’d even consider him a close friend too. 

“Hey, check it out,” You glance to where Wonpil is pointing toward, only to find it to be a whom. You watch the dark-haired boy make his way through the cafeteria, beelining straight for the rooftop entrance. From here, it was pretty obvious he was attempting to get away from something. And you immediately understand once the cheerleaders hop out of their seats and dash after the male. 

Dowoon, the most wealthy and thus, sought after guy in the school has been dealing with these types of girls for as long as you can remember. It’s sad really—especially when you used to be one of those girls. 

Although back then, you admired him for his quiet, withdrawn personality rather than his money like most pursuers. Stuff like that has never mattered to you; money can’t buy happiness after all. But anyway, your sophomore heart was torn apart after you confessed to the boy and found he wanted nothing to do with you. You’re pretty sure you cried for weeks. 

He was your first crush after all. 

“Poor Dowoon.” You murmur to no one in particular as the girls follow him like a hungry pack of wolves. It’s still hard to believe you followed—more like stalked—him like that. Then again, you were naive and practically set on the idea that you and Dowoon were a match made in heaven. That one quiz on the internet never told you otherwise. Nor did those poor flowers you always tore apart. 

“I heard his parents forgot his birthday.” 

“No way.” You can’t help the disbelief that extends through your voice, “What kind of parents forget their own kid’s birthday?” 

He shrugs again, “You’d be surprised.” 

Your thoughts grow clouded at the thought. No one deserves to spend their birthdays alone; feeling unloved and unappreciated. Your eyes drift downward to the brownie you packed this morning. You were going to save the treat for a pick-me-up during world history, but you could endure Ms. Suzy’s lectures without a sugar rush. No matter how boring they’ll likely be. 

Wonpil’s expression shifts to confusion as you begin to gather your belongings. He opens his mouth to say something, but immediately closes it when he notices the determination blazing in your eyes. His lips upturn, but they don’t mirror exactly that of a smile. 

“Good luck on that quiz if you have it,” You say and ruffle your best friend’s hair. “I’ll see you later.” 

“Yeah.” He murmurs, “See you later, noona.” 

With one final wave, you adjust your backpack strap and head for the door where Dowoon and that group of girls disappeared behind just moments ago. You might be a little late to class, but that’s not a huge deal. The material is easy to make up. 

Plus, someone needs you more right now. 

Anxious sparks snake through your nerves like fire-crackers, kickstarting the time-ticking bomb that is your heart. You wipe your sweaty palms against your jeans, although there’s probably no point since they’ll only moisten again. Maybe you should put on your mittens… then again, that’ll just create more sweat. 

You were never one of those girls that liked Valentine’s Day. Especially considering the fact you were always the single one in your group of friends. Hell, even Jae managed to land himself a girlfriend this year. The whole tradition of sending bouquets of bright, crimson roses and packets of expensive, exotic chocolates to your lover never struck your fancy, considering the flowers would only wither and the candies were bittersweet anyway. The stupid valentines were always something to laugh at too… especially the ones with horrible poetry.

How hypocritical you are now: Stood outside the school with a red envelope in hand.

 Another chilly gust caresses your face, sending more shivers through your already quivering body. There was still time to back out now—he probably hasn’t even been to his locker yet—and flee to the safety of Wonpil’s house. He’s likely waiting for you with a celebratory cup of cocoa… or a pick-me-up cup. 

“(Y/N)-noona? Is that you?” 

“Dowoon!” You exclaim, immediately hiding the letter behind your back. The ‘pity-hot chocolate’ long gone from your thoughts.  “You came!” 

Dowoon gives you a strange look, which you unfortunately mistake for confusion. He shakes his head, “I guess… Why am I here?” 

“I wanted-” You pause to cough, “-I-I wanted to tell you something… something important…” 

“About?” 

“W-well… it’s kind of about us-” You chuckle bashfully, “I-I, um, I-I-” 

The boy sighs impatiently while running a hand down his face. His frustration sends warning bells off in your head, and unfortunately, clears the confession speech you rehearsed over a hundred times in the mirror from your mind. Like an idiot, you stand gaping at Dowoon as his face gradually grows one shade darker after another. 

“-I knew this was a bad idea.” Dowoon harshly mutters. He peers over his shoulder, releases another sigh of indifference, then turns to you with a tired expression strewn across his features. “Look, (Y/N)-noona-'' You can’t help but falter beneath his sharp-ish tone. “-Whatever you think is going on between us… is nothing. In fact, there is no us.” 

“Wh-what are you talking about?...” 

“I’m talking about how you’re just another person who wants to use me for my money, noona.” Dowoon harshly says while beginning to traipse down the front steps, “Nothing is ever going to happen between us, so you need to get this fantasy of you and I out of your head and just leave me alone.” 

“Wait!” You lurch forward to grasp the boy’s arm, “It’s not what you think-!”

Dowoon wrenches his sleeve from your fingers, “Just leave me alone, okay! I don’t want to talk to you ever again!”  

With watery irises, you watch as Dowoon scurries across the white wonderland that is the front courtyard; crunches of snow growing fainter the further away he runs. Your tears freeze against your cheeks as they slip from your eyes, only increasing the harsh shivers attacking your body. You attempt to wipe them away with the sleeve of your jacket, but it only smears and burns your skin even more. 

Your hands are quivering as you bring them forward, revealing the confession letter that now sears at your palms like a cigar. With a sob, you go to tear the package in half when another voice stops you: 

“(Y/N)?” 

You turn, finding Sungjin stood in the doorway of the school. He takes one look at your tear-stained face and pained stance before lurching forward to take you into his arms. No longer worried about the cold, you release the anguish overcrowding your naive heart, pouring every ounce of rejection into your companion’s shoulder. 

“He doesn’t know what he’s missing, (Y/N).” Sungjin hums, rubbing the expanse of your back. “It’s his loss.” 

“St-still hurts…” Your whimper causes the boy to tighten his hold around your figure. The extra security slows your tears, gently reducing the volume of your gasps. Hugging Sungjin was always like this. Safe and warm. 

You feel his head shake against your shoulder, “‘S not worth it, sweetheart… You deserve so much better… 

“I really wish you could see that…” 

So hence went the day where Yoon Dowoon ripped the rug out from beneath your feet,  stomped on your poor heart until there was nothing but broken shards remaining, and left you like you were a piece of trash on the ground. Then again, rejection as a 10th grader seemed like the end of the world at the time, so you’re probably overexaggerating a bit… Maybe a lot. 

But as Sungjin told you during then: It really wasn’t worth it. Dowoon was just one of many set-backs in your book of life, one obstacle that you managed to overcome, though it took quite a few cartons of ice-cream and marathons of sad romance movies. 

You push against the heavy metal door to the roof with a heave, barely managing to catch your foot on a loose piece of concrete. The obstacle protests, a high-pitched squeak resonating as it swings open. Not even a step through the doorway, a cringe travels through your body at the nasty glare lasering your direction, belonging to an elegantly-uniformed, and rather pissed off, cheerleader. Dowoon had yet to meet your eyes. 

“What are you doing here?” The Head Cheerleader—Nayeon, if you recall—spits the words as if they are venom. While anyone would be intimidated by her tone, you knew better, considering she dated Sungjin back in the spring of junior year. Why, you still don’t know, since Sungjin isn’t the ‘cheerleader’ type. The guy’s a dork for goodness sake. 

“Just passing through,” You shrug, “and was hoping to talk to Dowoon for a sec.” 

Nayeon narrows her eyes, “I don’t think so-” 

Another cheerleader, Sana, places her hand on the group leader’s shoulder, “-C’mon, unnie, the bell’s about to ring anyway.” 

Her laser-like eyes soften at the younger girl’s warning, a short nod soon following her silence. You move aside as Sana and the other cheerleaders pile their way through the doorway, not without Nayeon sending you one last daggered-glare. She’s probably still pissed about that prank Wonpil and you played on her last year. But in your guys’ defense, it was originally meant for Sungjin. 

It takes a moment for the realization to sink in that it was only you and Dowoon left on the roof. You take a quick peek at the younger boy, who again, would not meet your eyes. Instead, his focus was trained onto his phone, thumb mindlessly scrolling against the screen. An annoyed huff drips past your lips at his apparent indifference, one thing that hasn’t seemed to change since Valentine’s Day of sophomore year. 

Instead of backing down, you narrow the distance between the two of you and shove at Dowoon’s shoulder, effectively snatching his attention in the form of widened eyes and a confused expression. He lowers his phone and plucks the airpods from his ears rather awkwardly—it was almost cute. 

“Hey.”  

“Hi.” Dowoon returns your greeting with a soft smile, “It’s been awhile, (Y/N)-noona.”

“You could say that,” You shrug. “Do you mind if I join you?” 

“Hm? Oh, no! Not at all! Here,” The boy feverishly slides his backpack away from his side, clearing a place for you to lower right beside him. You make yourself as comfortable as possible against the concrete, before offering the foil-wrapped treat. 

“I heard it was your birthday, so I figured I’d give you this.” 

Dowoon unwraps the brownie, his face contorting to all types of wonder as he stares at the treat. He shyly rubs the back of his neck, “Wow… Thank you, noona.” 

“You’re welcome. Everyone should get something on their birthday.” You move to rise again, having completed your set task. “I hope you have a special day-”

“-Wait, noona.” Dowoon places a hand on your knee, stopping you from climbing to your feet. Surprised by his sudden reluctance for your departure, you lower back onto the ground with a furrowed expression. 

The boy quickly removes his hand, “Sorry… I just… I just wanted to apologize…” 

“Apologize? For what?” 

Dowoon sighs, “For the way I treated you that day… That was so not cool of me.” 

To say you’re surprised by his apology would be an understatement. In the long time since you’ve gotten over Dowoon, you never once thought that he would ever atone for his harsh behavior. Then again, you never thought you’d speak to him ever again after that day either. 

“Oh… It’s okay. I understand why you did.” You send the boy a gentle smile, “If I had a bunch of girls following me around 24/7, I’d be pretty annoyed too.” 

“Yeah, well, it still doesn’t make up for the fact I flat out broke your heart.” Dowoon says remorsefully. 

“I got over it.” 

“I just… feel bad.” For some reason, his words lift an imaginary weight off of your shoulders. One that you hadn’t realized was there. 

You move forward to wrap your arm around the junior’s shoulders. At first, he tenses at your touch, but gradually leans into your friendly embrace. With your other hand, you pat at his bicep with a chuckle, “You’re forgiven, Dowoon. Consider it another birthday present.” 

Dowoon laughs at your retort, but you can tell your pardon of his past actions relieved a weight of his own chest. “Thanks, noona.” 

“Of course. Now eat your brownie before I change my mind and eat it myself.” 

“Yes, ma’am.”

While Dowoon devours his birthday treat, the two of you catch up on each other’s lives like old friends. You tell him about the worst of your senioritis, along with some current plans for the world after high school. In return, he spills some juicy secrets about his time on the basketball team—and by juicy secrets, you mean how the school’s loner, Younghyun, got into a fight with the coach because he wouldn’t let him on the team. How chaotic. 

Gym class was never your favorite subject. Most classes, you and some other friends would pack yourselves in the alcove underneath the bleachers, partly to avoid any sort of participation, and partly out of the fear of being crushed by the actual athletes. This time was spent catching up on the latest drama and juicy gossip…Funnily enough, this was also where  Dowoon caught your eye for the first time. 

He was a freshman at the time, challenging a bunch of seniors to a game of basketball. While your friends drooled over his defined muscles and tight butt, you admired his technique and obvious knowledge of the sport. Whenever an enemy would head his way, Dowoon would mind game them. Whether it be faking a pass, or a particular direction, he always managed to overpower the other and score. Sometimes a two pointer. Most times a three.

He was also clearly passionate about the sport, something that immediately caused your infatuation with him in the first. And by the way he talks about his team and this year’s season, he’s still very, very passionate. You’re happy to know he hasn’t lost that spark. 

“-so are you going to come to the game, Friday?” You backtrack from your thoughts at Dowoon’s question, just realizing his hopeful eyes set on yours. “It’d be nice to have a friend there.” 

“I’ll be there. Sunjin’s one of my best friends, so Wonpil and I kind of have to be.” 

“I know. He talks about you a lot.” 

You laugh, “All good things, I hope.” 

“Definitely. He pretty much worships the ground you walk on.” 

“Oh,” Your laugh falters. “He’s a good friend.” 

Dowoon sends you a strange look, “Right. A good friend.” 

You don’t like the awkward change in the atmosphere, choosing this time to bid the younger boy a farewell and actually go to class before the office phones your parents about your disappearance. On the way down the stairs, your mind drifts back to that Valentine’s Day. More specifically, the moment where Sungjin eased the pain of your first rejection. That’s one thing you’ve always loved about him: He’s always there for you when you need him most. 

Lately things have been… different though. You barely see your friend anymore, even during school hours. While it’s not much of a surprise, considering Sungjin is senior class president, leader of the basketball team, and on his way to being valedictorian of your class, it’s still concerning. Especially Wonpil’s comment earlier about talking to him… He couldn’t be actively avoiding you, could he?...

“Ms. (L/N)?” You snap out of your inner monologue at the call of your name, a wave of embarrassment emerging at the sight of Mr. Park, your principal, standing in the doorway of the lunchroom. “I believe you are aware that class has begun?” Without bothering to answer, you dash out into the hallway toward your Physics classroom. Even beneath the anxiety of receiving a detention—Sungjin still lingered somewhere in the back of your mind. 

And you didn’t like the strange feeling stirring inside your chest.

#day6 #day6 x reader #day6 fanfic #day6 au #day6 fluff #park sungjin #park sungjin x reader #park jaehyung #park jaehyung x reader #kang younghyun #kang younghyun x reader #kim wonpil #kim wonpil x reader #yoon dowoon #yoon dowoon x reader #kpop fanfic #kpop au

[elizabethrobertajones]

14x05 watching notes

filed under: episodes that demand a written apology from the writer

Morning, I opened the episode to check it worked and the first thing on screen was dead Maggie, so I guess skip the preamble, let's get rid of that D:

Meredith is going to look after Maggie. Who so far this season has just been the human representation of the :o emoji

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Er, she's not going to look after us, after the THEN card we abruptly drop into Dean having his beach retirement chat with Sam

A lingering reminder of how Jack would help - if he had his powers - but Sam asks "then what would we do" and cut to Dean being Michaeled. At this point I can't tell if we need to remember 13x23 for Reasons or if they just don't trust us to remember the recent history of the show at all and are catching up people who might have dropped by to see how their favourite guest star, Maggie, is doing.

-

I mean I love her but she isn't the headliner normally :P

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OH GOODNESS SHE'S THE COLD OPEN GIRL. Maggieee no. She looks so scared. Why are they sending her hunting on her own??? She is a smol scared bean who was not prepared for the apocalypse and surely must be able to find other off-the-radar jobs for a person from another universe in this world that don't involve throwing herself at monsters!

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She's wearing pink trousers for a stealth mission at night. She makes Sam's orange jacket look like camo

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Also she's recording herself... Maggie... What are you doing........ hon......................

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I have adopted her, but it turns out I have another stupid child among my many, many stupid children and just once I wish they didn't turn out like this :P

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So she's like, attached a go pro to herself to record her hunt for... training purposes? reporting back to Chief? because she's become an adrenaline junkie after all the time she was nearly eaten by supervampires?

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MAGGIE

Gad dangit

He was slow moving and you heard him behind you. Swing first, ask questions later, when it's a growling noise in a dark crypt.

-

Has anyone been counting the apocalypse world peeps because I'm pretty sure they're relying on us not to recognise them because they're a crowd. At this point we almost certainly have like 50+ distinct individuals instead of the 25 they purportedly rescued.

I say this because I feel like some of the white guys from the original batch appear to have metamorphosed into a more diverse group

-

Sammy setting homework.

Sorry, not Sammy. The Boss.

Dean comes in to observe class.

Sam immediately sheds all his confidence and goes back to being Sammy. He does seem to have a slight layer of scruff more, or maybe it was just that he was looking particularly clean-shaven last episode out of shock

Dean offers to get him a camp counsellor whistle, and Sam gets even more awkward about hunter check ins. I can see this feeding itself here, with Sam blustering and getting weird about his position of authority in front of Dean, and Dean who is both latching on in a brotherly way, and lashing out in a recently emotionally maimed Dean way, but can't yell at the apocalypse peeps they rescued and graciously allowed to stay because, you know, Michael destroyed their world, so taking it all out on Sam... Unfortunately, Dean being the wounded, irrational party, it's down to him to realise he's being a lil too harsh on Sam OR Sam to stop rising to the bait.

In this case, I would say the ball is firmly in Sam's court, not because he's at any particular fault for instinctively reacting like the needled little brother when big bro wanders in snarking at his attempts to do his job, but because he is the one behaving like the adult already in this scenario when he's facing the AU peeps and being The Chief in a natural way where he's thriving in the environment, and crumpling immediately in the face of this one random element is a clear part of his growth and maturity arc. As it is he's feeding Dean's reaction a LOT by getting embarrassed and changing his behaviour and not standing his ground and continuing to act like a mature adult, and giving Dean the little brother teasing opening he feeds off in the dynamic.

In other scenarios this could flip with Sam doing his best and Dean being a dick who's seeking an opening and trying to get Sam to crack and in that case it would be all on him to correct his behaviour, but in this case, I'm leaning Sam being the problem despite the appearance, because he crumpled just to hear Dean coming up the steps, never mind how it went from there. He's acting ashamed of being the leader, because he knows it's emotionally infringing on Dean territory, as he sees Dean as a natural and more rightful leader, and doesn't recognise his own strengths and skills being applied in spades here; his self-confidence immediately is put under the microscope when he knows Dean is there, and it topples his precarious house of cards of self confidence.

He has also put himself in a position of managing Dean, coming in last episode all, alright champ how's it going? and had a success by a country mile with getting Dean to leave his room, open up, and have some fun, and that's not even comparing it to the same time last season when in 13x05 he completely failed at the same task. He has been working gently on Dean to help him, but he can't when it comes to getting Dean used to having the AU peeps around and accepting Sam's new job there, if Sam acts like it's something to be ashamed of and is too horrified by usurping Dean to focus on letting his instincts talk and continuing to blatantly be a wonderful leader.

-

These AU peeps are also seeing their venerated war hero general just crumple into an insecure mess as soon as his brother walks into the room >.>

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Sam gets coffee, turns into coffee!Sam (Lizbob's on the record favourite character in the entire show), finally snaps back at Dean about how many hunters he's keeping track of right now when Dean stops needling in a funny way and asks about Sam's health - of course, now it's all built up into Dean bothering Sam so instead of being a nice request, Sam snaps.

It's possible that while Sam now runs the hunters, delegating to Mary and AUBobby and even Dean if he'll accept it, to help keep track etc, will really benefit in the long run.

-

Slick way to work where Cas and Jack are into the same breath as where Mary and Bobby are - rugarou, which is code for off screen case - and throw it all out there as plot and ongoing character work AND the requisite where is Cas comment to keep fandom happy.

-

God, I haven't even gotten around to what I meant to say immediately that Sam dropped down into his codependency seat at the table and Dean is unintentionally mirroring 9x13's final scene of all the many times they've been around this block - off the top of my head but as someone who has been keeping a very close eye for a very long time, I can't think of another significant instance where Sam was sitting and Dean was standing while it got heated.

Of course 9x13 was working very hard to show their divisions, while of course here Sam is just sitting in his Dean Is Upsetting Me chair and Dean's not sitting at the table which just means not engaging with Sam on his level in a very literal as well as metaphorical way - in character, that's a body language dissonance as well as making Sam look up at him. In staging terms, it carries the weight of years of directorial and acting decisions about how to portray the brothers in crisis that I've been noting in case of a pattern.

-

"Yeah, but a war isn't hunting" good grief Sam is making their entire lives sound even worse than ever given they grew up in this and now he's listing off all the stuff they need from the perspective of being the Bobby. I mean, when they say they were raised like soldiers, they're adding in the fact they do zillions of almost completely unsupported 2 man raids into hostile territory with limited gear or recon. The recap at the start, showing them going in to fight the werewolves with an angel and a nephilim on their side, was an easy hunt for a reason and not just because there were 4 of them :P Without that, no matter how many hunters they accumulate, it's always looked like a losing battle because many of these things you'd want to call the national guard on if civilians could be alerted to the danger.

-

See, Dean is acting needle-y but as soon as Sam gets an unnerving alert on his phone he's concerned and asks who it is - remember last episode where he was like don't know don't care about the guy Sam was Bobbying from the car? - and when he says "maggie" ... well, they're all clearly protective of her in particular D:

-

Oh good, the body cams thing was a Sam innovation and therefore a good idea and we can pat his head for it

-

Bobby never had that and I bet he'd have LOVED to keep track of his peeps that way.

-

The other hunters meet up on the last thursday of the month to watch the highlight reel from Garth Cam, BYOB, popcorn provided

-

Nyooom

This shot should win awards for the fuckin horrifying perspective that I, as a non-mountain-dweller, can barely comprehend that it looks like the sky but then you keep on looking up and there's trees in there. Is this something people in big countries are used to? I mean I've seen my share of mountains in Scotland and they're way too cramped to fake you out like that.

You have to understand that in my town, wedged between two cliffy cliffs, the entire old town is like 500ft wide at best before more cliff. There's only 2 directions - up and towards the sea :P  You don't need fancy camera tricks to contain everything... I'm getting agoraphobia just looking at this. I mean I don't think it's intended to cause existential horror but mission accomplished.

-

Dean getting morbid talking about how having a private cemetery would be nice. I mean, they practically need one behind the Bunker after all this time, wherever the final resting place is of at least Kevin and Charlie's bodies as well as anyone else who died in and around there who wasn't dumped in the sewer like Ketch was :')

During day this place isn't half bad, with its whimsical overgrown look, the slanting fence of the bridge to cross to get there, the jungle closing in around the little plot...

But remember, Dean. Beach holiday. Eyes on the prize, man. You and the rest don't get to hang out behind the Bunker for eternity at least until you're all old and earned it.

-

Dean defends knowing what a walker from the Walking Dean is... in 12x15 he was playing with a Negan bat which I assume he still has somewhere, washed off and placed in the armoury :P Sam is at least being a bit more authoritative here in the sense of reeling off info as the Chief in charge of Maggie's fate and knowing her mission etc...

Honestly this makes me feel like the dynamic of Dean drives, Sam rides shotgun can mature too, in the sense that Dean is no longer taking control from Sam - back in season 10 that was very heavily used as part of their toxic dynamic and there's definitely shades of season 10 dynamics on the chopping block around these parts - because Sam needs all the extra time to manage his army from the road, with his hands free to check the phone and read up on everything, while Dean is free to drive and be Dean.

-

Sam being all I FAILED SHE IS DEAD at every turn and Dean being all "hey check it out, drag marks! :D" "but no blood!!! :D :D :D"

-

As a student of analaysisisign things I have no idea what was just implied by Sam and Dean being called back to the surface followed by the sound effect of spooky cold breath, a wonky focus on a statue of a bearded dude and smol cherub, and then being interrupted by a 1900s gardener.

Apron plus hat seems like Michael coding but god knows what it means.

I bet they're actually talking to a ghost but he's so busy just defending the ancestral land that he's passing as a real alive person and it's one of those completely harmless cases where the ghost just lurks around protecting the land, doesn't go vengeful, and wards off people who hang out there... Not that he had much luck with the drunk teens.

-

1900s gardener stands outside, unable to go into the house, surveying it with a weary eye.

The garden is completely and utterly overgrown, almost like no one has gardened it for 100 years, even though there appears to be a gardener on the property.

*rubs chin*

-

1900s gardener gives them one last suspicious look before wandering back to work, significantly enough that we see it with a whole separate shot

what is his deal

why is he dressed like that

-

Does Meredith feel guilty for MURDERING JOSHUA and side note, can we really trust that it was him who got murdered. Maybe he's in retirement dressed in an olde timey shirt and waving antique gardening implements at Sam and Dean for kicks.

-

Considering they improv'd the line about the HPS it's very lucky that Mobby came up with that line - I guess showing how they think alike and all

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"Just wish you'd checked in with the main office," Sam bobs his head, like, "ME", "before you came out here..."

Yeah, here's the Sam and AUBobby leadership conflict I was hoping for :P

-

Mary asks for a mo and shepherds Sam out in particular, leaving AUBobby and Dean to handle the architect digest subscriber. She's all momsy with her handling of him, and Dean and AUBobby are left to do the awkward small talk - we know AUBobby really doesn't have it as his strong suite, even though it was Bobby's, like in 6x21 where he was the only one to ever say sorry about your mom to the guy. It also means they have to do the blathering while trying to work out any supernatural history on the property in character, while Mary and Sam are designating themselves the ones who can get to the heart of the problem and handle it like the profession adults. I like the implicit trust/respect bond that gives here.

I mean she has it with Dean too I would think but she's spent more time with Sam lately and it's important now to show she's grown such a bond with Sam, as it's been 2 whole years of her being back before they could begin to properly bond due to various issues.

-

"It was her first solo hunt and she was nervous" listen Sam and Dean are like 1000 pounds of muscle and "fuck you apocalypse" experience and they hunt together. Maggie was smol and wore pink trousers.

-

Is. Is smol.

God. I'm turning into Sam.

-

Lol conspicuous blood transfusion bags. Nice gig, to drain peeps and get a nurse to apply the blood directly to you. Is he a vampire with an olde timey set up?

-

Maggiieeee

stealing her boots is just mean.

Does she have pink plaid as well as pink trousers?

My god how did they let her out of the house? She's too cute and innocent for this world.

Or her previous world.

Can we shunt her along one more world to one which doesn't have this much monster trouble even, as she's clearly still not found the AU which suits her best.

-

Heee Dean knocking the mantelpiece and saying the house has "good bones" like he's an expert on houses

The question is, has he watched a lot of junk reality TV about house refurbishment, or is he just faking on the fly

I have not watched enough aforementioned junk TV to call this one

-

Oh, nope, the daughter validates it by saying her grandpa used to say it. Dean has watched enough TV to pass

-

Ooooh AUBobby having a go at Sam for his shoddy leadership of letting Maggie come here when she had no idea what was up.

I'm guessing the help over text messaging may have been a bit more backseat hunting from AUBobby, but he didn't try to STOP Maggie, or tell her to wait while he and Mary dashed up here.

In any case, here's the conflict of leadership I've been waiting for since before the season began :') Unfortunately, Sam shaved off his beard before going toe to toe with AUBobby, so he takes the first round by default of bristliness, as Sam ceded some portion of control back to Dean on Dean's return and this has made him weird and jumpy about acting like the chief in front of his peeps, and now AUBobby's taking the opening.

-

He has such a power stance that Bobby never had

Shoulders back, beard out

-

Dean defends Sam like when is anyone ready to hunt, because from their perspective of course they were as smol-seeming as Maggie and CONSIDERABLY younger when they were plunged into hunting. She's a grown adult! She can handle it! (she may or may not be a mirror to Jack, who is consumptive, and therefore betraying some sort of inherent unreadiness to hunt and a requirement that the smols among you be protected rather than forced to grow up too young and go hunting as a rite of passage, just as Sam and Dean were given their first beers barely in single digits by gnarly hunters)

"A real leader would have seen that a mile away" Yeah AUBobby is too used to leading his peeps - perhaps he liked a semi retirement where Sam was the leader and the world seemed safer and they could hunt like the old days...

-

Mary mediates, splitting up the team in the only way that makes sense, hoping that Dean can defend Sam in absentia (and thus be forced to confront that Sam IS a good and thoughtful leader and to stop mocking him and start defending him) and she can comfort Sam and build him back up as the Chief.

-

Dean goes on such a face journey about this whole thing, from feeling weird about AUBobby to bad about what's going on with Sam to just worried about Maggie and very much taking on that blame for sending a smol out into the field, especially as he has recused himself from responsibility to these people - while fairly taking a mental health break from the frontline as well as competing with how Sam already got there... Anyway that was like 18 distinct facial expressions each with a story and it's too early in the morning... I JUST got my cup of tea and it's still too hot to drink so Jensen's defeated me this round

-

Sam gets comforted by another trenchcoated figure

"Don't listen to Bobby" "maybe he's right" shush.

"THIS IS WHAT HE WAS BORN TO DO"

ILY Mary. She's coming in fresh on adult!Sam, she doesn't even have the feelings about him as she does to smol scared 4 year old boy Dean, especially if we account for postpartum depression making it hard for her to bond with him as per the entire metaphorical structure of the show from episode one to present. Now she's getting to spend time with him - and especially as her only significant time with him BEFORE this was 12x14 aka Bobo's ode to Sam's leadership round 1... Yeah, she sees Sam as this giant gangly admirable leader guy she happens to have birthed.

-

"Bobby can't see that... not the only thing he's been missing lately."

Good grief, Mary in the trenchcoat has been making the eyes at AUBobby all Michael-hatted up and being ignored and rebuffed from her sparkling heart eyes. I wonder what this is a metaphor for, Ms Meredith Mixtape "know who you love" Glynn.

-

Also, Mary feeling comfortable to innuendo her crush on AUBobby to Sam - it really is an adult relationship and respect and emotional trust that I feel never in a million years could just pop up between her and Dean.

Oh boy, this scene is still going.

*Hides behind the secondhand embarrassment cushion* Sam goes there, like, not going to mention it but you - he sounds less bumbling than he has at other points... Sam's awkwardness factor can shoot through the roof to the point where in 3x04 where he attacks those guys and then is like "have a nice day" when they're not demons? I kinda want to reach through the screen and strangle him with my bare hands before he does it just to spare myself seeing it. Also the gifset of that has been on my dash all week, and it predisposes me to loathe Sam's awkwardness. Please god let us get through this in one piece.

Mary is too busy being wistful to realise her son is an awkward bumbling moose who is all misplaced stammering words and wonky legs spinning for traction when he's out of his depth.

-

Aww now Mary is getting to talk about her deal... She thought she had something good going with AUBobby but since they've been back he's been "hunting all the time and won't take a break not even for a second" - the ole bury yourself in hunting to avoid facing trauma or feelings thing. Of course AUBobby may be struggling with the weight of the world he left behind, the people who he couldn't save there and not knowing what has happened to them. There's a lot to unpack with him that hasn't been explored on screen and a lot of it is casting him as behaving in a Dean-like way, while Mary is the "I'll just wait here then" to his coping mechanisms.

-

"There's something on his mind, and he doesn't want to talk about it"

Aforementioned trauma, OR a pun about him being possessed by Michael

yeah I'm harping on it as a half-joke half-kinda want to have it on the record in case I'm right :P

-

"Bobby's not open like your dad"

Mary, you do realise how that sounds to literally everyone else, right? We KNOW you're practically from a 3rd AU aka the past where John was practically the mirror AU to his future self

Unfortunately, Mary is the only person in the room who ever has that particular story, which sucks for her

-

Anyway Meredith has reached some sort of characterising level with these people that I am just in pure awe of

-

"Not like your dad when I knew him"

"Bobby's got walls. Big ones"

I do think it's funny that Mary has essentially ended up crushing on a man who is a John-like parallel to the anti-John mirror that Bobby was, who of course had his own Karen who he was a different person with, who was a Mary mirror, and .... yeah

it's an interdimensional timetravelling wife swap

-

It makes Destiel look straightforward

-

Part of Meredith's skill here is not just accounting for every angle, but also juggling this nonsense

-

Anyway Mary doubting she can get through AUBobby's walls and be the person who has to do the emotional labour to get the guy she wants - if she's ready to put herself out there again

this is NOT a conversation to have with Dean in a million years. Even Sam takes a mo

"I shouldn't be talking to you about this!" she giggles and she and Sam smile and set off again, all touchy feely.

Sweet.

-

Anyway there's another dynamic in these woods.

"You think I was too hard on your brother back there." "He's doing his best. He's doing better than his best." Funny way to phrase it but yeah, Dean can see Sam's levelled up and his new best is this new levels of responsibility and good leadership overall.

-

LOL at how terse that conversation was. Dean points out that Sam could do with a hand running things, makes fun of the beard, no offence, and cut back to Sam and Mary

-

Sam explains Karen to Mary, to give her an idea of what might be AUBobby's backstory too.

"he never had any children?" "no"

Scuse me, that's the line that makes me BAWL every time I watch it. HE DID SO, YOU FOOL. IT WAS YOU AND YOUR UNGRATEFUL BROTHER

I am writing a letter of complaint to the management

-

"Whatever your Bobby" - oh dear, AUBobby is now "your" Bobby, like, they found him first but he's now Mary's :p

Sam is now full on giving Mary relationship advice about how it's worth it to move past those walls and give him a go if she really cares about him.

-

Has he ever had this chat with Cas, or is this just practice

-

"Cas, wait, I really appreciate you came to me with this but I am getting killer deja vu for a second here..."

-

Mary finds a disturbing firepit, Dean finds a creepy hunting cabin. This is about to be a barrel of fun

-

AUBobby... Don't just run off. Poke Dean and POINT AT THE THING YOU'RE FOLLOWING

... Dean, also, have some awareness in your peripheral that AUBobby just legged it

-

Again, way more athletic than our Bobby was

-

That's a human hand

-

Are those real IDs or hunter IDs

-

Oh it all came from one wallet, with the same pic on them all, so yes.

-

"Not one of ours" but part of the wider network/family nonetheless. His bearded look recalls Asa Fox, and there's the unspoken discussion again about sharing resources, if ALL hunters shouldn't be pulled into their network and the word spread that the Bunker is at least a resource, that Sam is there to be the hub even if they aren't all part of the centralised AU hunter squad, and Sam starts Bobbying in earnest for this world as a whole.

Of course they'd never have sent Maggie somewhere that a seasoned hunter had already disappeared.

-

Dean finally realises AUBobby is gone, and immediately gets jumped, with rather less warning than Maggie had.

I like how the man has had time to dress up in a suit from his sick bed, if indeed that is the case

monsters in suits

-

Well that's new

-

Well in 13x14 Meredith wrote Gog n Magog who were a fake out full of sand... Now this monster is a fake out full of ash?

-

Cut to: Old man still in his hospital bed, definitely not attacking people in the flesh

-

Oh dear, his daughter hearing something in the house while earnestly getting on with dealing with his estate makes me pretty sure she's not in on anything and she shouted them out of the house in genuine grief-stress, which I already wasn't particularly doubting.

-

The ole dragging chains upstairs ghost trick, which I honestly wish I could say I have never heard for myself but the ghost next door is not my problem, Victorian walls keep them contained, and honestly if you've been following the saga on random incidental comments on my blog I'm really only inclined to believe in ghosts for the humorous fake hysteria of a moment's entertainment but the odd noises next door late at night really have been going on long enough and yesterday some folk moved in so, you know, first act of a horror movie setting up mere feet away from me, the disinterested neighbour scowling at all the evil poured into the walls of that house by careless landlords and human suffering I witnessed firsthand caused by it >.> Anyway. Unlike this woman I stayed right in this spot instead of wandering around trying to work out where that noise was coming from, because I'm in the house with the wacky backstory where weed dealers sawed through the support beam in the roof and the front of my room collapsed shortly after we moved in :P

-

I'm sorry, but if a ghost opens a door for you ahead of you in the hall, my advice is not to immediately go up to the door and go in

-

SUPERVAMP IN THE ATTIC

-

She does an admirable duck and cover maneouver, only to realise he hasn't chased her. Huh.

Michael's super vamps are super weird.

-

"You're not crazy" Neil the nurse immediately straightens up and eyeballs Sam a lil harder.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

PS where is the ghostly gardener in all this because he wasn't the supervamp so

-

this is like a murder mystery puzzle but all the bits are so utterly wild... Dead hunter, Maggie being drained for the "stroke" victim who is also attacking people in a suit while made of ash... supervamp in the attic who won't follow her out of the room she found him in

I mean in all this has no one gone back up to the attic where a supervamp is apparently just LIVING?

He's currently just chilling there while they have this conversation

he's just, like... waiting for them????

-

Dean walks in mid-crisis "You hunt monsters?!" "oh good you told them" He does like when things are all quick and easy and right to the point.

Last episode he cheerfully told Dirk that hatchetman Jordan was coming for them, while Sam blustered over telling Sam even when the EMF was SCREAMING that there was a ghost right in the room with them and the display cases were freezing over.

With Mary's influence at least, Sam is happy to get into telling the full story

-

"Wait time out, there's a dead body on our property?"

THERE IS A SUPERVAMPIRE IN YOUR ATTIC

BIGGER PROBLEMS

-

Dean is entirely brushed down... Like... He must have been brushing ghost ash off of himself all the way back to the house.

-

Sam invokes 8x08 right after I was talking about Fred. Dangit, Glynn.

I feel like Sam is sort of making a jump here, but on the other hand the house isn't under ghostly or vampiric shutdown. The father is here, unconscious, so perhaps projecting and I guess if Sam is wondering how he could be doing it, then astral projections may make sense to some degree... Working out how it all ties together is going to be another huge step though. I know the sell for this episode was partially nightmares and dreams, and we have Maggie in a djinn-like trap and the old man both a sleeping Bobby from 3x10 and also a possible Fred Jones projecting it... The supervamps are something that Dean would have brought here, and "walkers" from the Walking Dead is something the boys could have brought. Which means the other hunter could have been murdered by his own trauma... idk. Why am I trying to piece it together now?

watch the episode, lizzy

-

LOL the daughter just reeling off her dad's "workaholic with textbook narcissistic tendencies" while also herself clearly being the offspring of such a person (is the manifestation of her dad her own trauma?) and hey no doubt that description of the father might come to bear on some of the father/power figures in the episode. Definitely not what Sam is though he's among the mix - perhaps a dark warning of a guy who works himself to death like this and becomes entirely self-absorbed in the process, but Sam just took a minute to advise his mom's love life so he's hanging in there with his sense of self for now. In the sense that a dark arc doesn't seem to be looming for him in such a way as red flags literally followed pre-Mark Dean around.

-

Okay took a LOT of me yelling at the screen but they FINALLY realised there's an unresolved vampire in the attic situation and Sam's going up to check

-

Meanwhile Mary has been separated out in this cursed property to have her own side-adventure with AUBobby

-

Lol the daughter downs some anti-anxiety medication with whisky while Dean sits behind her tuning his knife in a rather grim melody. What a scene.

-

He also has his foot on an armchair like the total troll he was raised as

-

She goes off on one and Dean immediately likes her

"Thanks dad" "no love lost between you two, huh?"

T stands for terrible father

-

"I get it" "not here for a heart to heart" *pause* *launches into a John Winchester Metaphor Of The Hour rant

"But my MOM" *Dean looks up, eyes all vulnerable* "Depression runs in our family" oh booooy

So she found her mom and Dean saw his mom consumed by fire in a way that is still scarring him TO THIS DAY (re: 13x01 nightmare) and this is our first Mary parallel of even a dead mom but one with a personality, and her own problems... Not the temporary insanity of drowning her children like Constance Welch in 1x01, but a woman who had depression and a husband who wasn't there for her... In 14x01 Mary and Sam's discussion revealed how much she was doggy paddling on the surface of all the awful that's happened to her, but this is our real notable parallel to discuss a family history of depression running through Mary's side of the family, which goes not just for Dean (who, like, really has anxiety himself) but also all of Mary's issues, including in 12x21, begging Ketch to kill her at a lowest point before they got her to entirely retreat into herself.

-

Glynn still out for Dean's blood: "the most ridiculous thing is... I worshipped him when I was a kid" Dean is feeling like she took that machete and shoved it in his stomach, as she sits there swigging whiskey and telling him how he feels. "Didn't know any better. He's the only family I have left."

-

"Can I give you a little advice?......... let it go." Oh Dean :')

Emerging from his cocoon, still mostly trapped in there but I think that's a bit of a wing poking through.

"The past is -" *forcefully stops himself from saying "in the past"*

He talks about it as baggage and how every single day he tries to let it go and leave the baggage behind. God he's strong and amazing and working so hard to be the best version of himself.

-

Oh my god who builds the hall up to the attic as part of the crawlspace? This is horrifying on an unnecessary level and I'm writing into that architecture magazine to complain

-

This is the creepiest attic. Who KEEPS these horrifying mementos. Give them to a thrift shop for a hipster to buff up and turn into a conversation piece in their living room.

-

Okay, blood bags and a girl in chains (explains the clinking) are a bit weirder than average.

-

"Sam... it's here" "What?" "It's heeeere" Sam how long have you BEEN in this business?

File this under your panicky first aid to Stuart last episode

-

Sam got ashed just like Dean did. Hm.

It also looked like one of the crazed hunger vamps from apocalypse world more than one of michael's supervamps maybe? It's really hard to keep track of all these :P

-

Oh my god AUBobby has a son, who was murdered by angels. This is terrible D:

Something about the immediate moment of him wandering in... When Bobby went off earlier I was thinking of 7x11 where he saw his younger self. This approach seems almost more like 6x04 and Crowley seeing Gavin for the first time.

Anyway this is of course another way to twist AUBobby around on himself - he managed to get a son, maybe Karen wasn't murdered by a demon, maybe he had a different wife. Whatever it is, it gives us a version of Bobby totally different from ours and also in how he will relate to Sam and Dean - not as the sons he never had, but if he's thinking of young men in the fight...

-

Oh no AUBobby just got stabbed... Er... is this a nightmare or is he just dead?

-

Is AUBobby really going to -

OW

That's more impressive than breaking a crypt scene mental wall to save your loved one. Then again, original flavour Bobby once stabbed himself in the gut to save Dean so I guess he takes a lot of pain for his loved ones, and honestly gathering the strength to pull a knife out... Maaaybe nicer than putting it in???

The fact this is all going down with angel blades as well.

-

I swear to god... Meredith, don't make me watch AUBobby stab a vision of his own son to complete the loop with our Bobby stabbing Karen.

-

"I'm sorry"

*WhOMph grey ash everywhere*

Kinda takes the pure angst out of it at least :P

-

Dean gets a better look. "You're giving him a transfusion?"

Yeah, there's some fuckery at work here, sir. The nurse seems a lot less flustered answering this one which is almost as suspicious as someone who has been non-flustered suddenly getting flustered

-

Dean regrets saying "make me a sandwich before he is done asking. Which is the only reason I forgive that request :P Remember in 1x06 where he was bossing Sam's friend around to get them a beer and a sandwich so they could talk in peace about shifters? God. She KNOWS about monsters it's just that he wants to ask a sensitive question here.

Or punch the nurse in the face over the comatose form of her father.

A nod to her that it's a ruse gets her in on it, though. Female!Dean who is a different mirror than Dirk (though still messed up by a father) gets on his wavelength.

-

AAH He remembered the djinn thing!!! Dean's memory is so good and I love him and he's the best and also Meredith is riffing off 2x20 which is actually illegal, I literally have that written down here in the rules and regulations. Although it does give me my opportunity to remind us all of Dean's long speech about why does he have to be the one to save all these people to John's grave when he was thinking he had to go unwish stuff.

-

Sadly he didn't show up with a knife tipped in lamb's blood so let's see how this goes.

-

Oh my god the djinn's literally thought Dean was Michael the whole time. I have to rewatch now >.>

Well, not now, but.

-

He thought Michael was testing him, and would be back to give him an upgrade, and now he's waxing poetic about the untapped potential of djinn. We're back at season 6, with the hunter compound vs a monster army, except this time the monsters aren't a reaction to the nonsense of angels, they're the direct work of the angel stepping into the place of Eve as the experimenter, his grace vs her black goo. I suppose the weirdness out here is the djinn flexing its muscles with projecting hallucinations.

And I guess that means it hasn't affected Dean except the generic ghost of Mr Comatose over there (apologies to Cas) which I'd assume is part of the generic set up for killing hunters as it was what got Maggie too.

-

The question is, is that Maggie in the attic, or a nightmare for Sam. Wouldn't she be djinned too?

-

"Because of him - because of YOU - I can bring those nightmares into the world" well that's a weighted line >.> Dean's guilt for saying yes,  for these things done with his face. Literally bringing nightmares into the world.

Which does at least confirm that the nightmares so far have been external and we're not IN a dream which has been worrying me.

On the other hand that means AUBobby really did get stabbed that badly.

-

"I highly doubt you have a knife dipped in lamb's blood" I TOLD him.

-

you can't just kneecap the djinn

-

"I am curious, what are YOUR nightmares"

Literally pausing it because Meredith is absolutely horrible and I hate her and she keeps being mean to my boy Dean and I can't handle this and I don't want to know

(I am curious. What ARE his nightmares?)

-

Er excuse me did he just prod his way into finding Michael still in there

Because the other option is that Dean's mind is so utterly scared and scary with all he's been through he literally just out-nightmared a nightmare machine by force of personality.

-

"You don't know my family"

Keep the one liners coming

I'm easily placated by them

-

Cut to: the next morning. He offers his double a chance to get her apology from her father, and books it.

-

Nyoooom back along a CONSIDERABLY less horrifying shot of the same sort of landscape

-

Maggie's back! Everyone loves Maggie. She is the adorable mascot of these people.

Keep the cute pink bunny back at home maybe

Dean gives Sam some affirmation about being the leader of his people.

Now Sam needs to not fold immediately the next time he sees Dean seeing him do something leadery. Deal?

-

Mobby H/C

You know he's vulnerable not because he has his shirt off, but because he has his hat off.

-

These "angel wars" in the AU sound pretty formal.

You know, it would probably be PRETTY HARD to get the average American to fight a war against angels until it's way way waaay too late.

I mean, case in point: we call where they come from, "apocalypse world"

-

"Hunting" "it ends the same." "No." Mary F Winchester puts her foot down. No it ends bloody speeches on her watch! All she has is her optimism but damned if she won't use it!

"I don't know any other way to live" "Then we'll find one"

You are doing a good job and you can save all these dumb guys from themselves.

-

DEAN TALKED TO MAGGIE. HE'S HELPING. HE WENT AND LEADERED HER FOR SAM.

Now have a beer, bro

"She learned from the best, huh? :)"

":)"

-

Awww Mary comes up with AUBobby and they're taking a vacation. Let AUBobby go fishing or something. Good lil Cas parallel Mary fixing her broken warrior with a Donna cabin adventure.

...

Do you not worry a lil about what is out there? Donna comes prepared with a flamethrower.

""relaxing"" """vacation"""

-

Anyway best reason ever given on the entire show for a set of characters not to be in the next couple of episodes, second to "Cas is taking his son out to teach him to hunt some more"

-

Bobby has a clean new formal black mourning cap to deal with fresh memories of Daniel

-

Sam getting the leadership baton from a representative of Bobby who he may see more as Bobby than perhaps he ought. AUBobby says he's not sure he ever had it in him to be a leader, while our Bobby was the undisputed best at what he did and as much as he may have complained, his competency is what Sam is now emulating.

-

Mary being "allowed" to go by Dean. "if you need anything... ANYTHING..." *grabs his shoulder and shakes him* You're starting to turn into the mom in a movie who leaves the kids behind and without supervision they throw a wild party to rebel against you stifling them. SO not the dynamic, but that's the licking a thumb and pressing down a stray bit of hair type momming she's doing all of a sudden.

"Go. Be happy." :')

HUGS FOR THE BOY. That's 2 whole onscreen dean hugs this season.

-

Aww Dean talking to Garth :')

Sam and Dean in synchronicity, talking to ALL their hunter network, not just Jody plus the AU peeps

-

Though. Sam has implemented a buddy system.

Dorky camp counsellor that he is.

-

Dean should get him a ceremonial whistle for Christmas.

-

"Move on from what I - from what we - from what he did"... Dean. Buddy.

Go lie down.

That's some of the most intense blurring of self ever, between Dean's guilt, whatever made the djinn scream in horror to delve his head, and his symbolic blending with Michael as the Michaelsword...

-

"Starting to feel like myself again... almost..." shakes his head and starts heading out to go watch more movies, sad that halloween is passed so no more slashers on every channel

-

"We'll work harder" "how, you sleep 3 hours at night" "then I'll sleep 2" *Dean gives him the NO look*

Well there's a great representation of how their issues mess themselves up and they carve away their sense of self and their health for each other.

-

Seriously. What did the djinn SEE. What nightmares are in my boy's head? Oh god I'm stressed.

-

What happened to the 1900s groundskeeper, Don?

#14x05 #season 14 spoilers #my stuff

[ff7central]

Creator Spotlight: The Calamity

This week’s spotlight is The Calamity! ( https://the--calamity.tumblr.com/ )

Want to be on a future spotlight? Sign up on the FF7Central directory to get in on the list: https://goo.gl/forms/u0h5rJXmgv40zX9m2

Miri: Is there an idea or AU you want to write but haven’t been able to yet?

Calamity: All the time. Unfortunately, most of that time is slotted to non-creative tasks.

Miri: Who has been the most difficult character to write? Who has been the easiest?

Calamity: Since I focus on fanfiction centered around The Jenova Project specifically, I've been lucky to write with a smaller "required" cast. I feel like I know and "get" all these people pretty well. That being said, teenage / adult Sephiroth is actually a pretty difficult headspace for me to get into. This is a character that, in my stories, is a vessel of anger, resentment, spite and pride. He is the other side to Vincent, who is by far the easiest for me to write, a character focused on guilt and fear and self punishment. Where Vincent is "oh no, what have I done to you?!" Sephiroth is "oh no, what have you done to me?!"

Miri: Which of your works is the most memorable to you? I don’t necessarily mean favourite or best work, it could be the work that taught you the most making it or that holds a special reason in its creation. Drop a link.

Calamity: The Nightmare Begins, which covers the Jenova Project up to Sephiroth's birth. It gets into everyone's motives for participating in the project, none of which have anything to do with the ShinRa. It is a character study, some bioethics, and a sprinkling of horror. Starts off slow burn, ends in an absolute emotional frenzy. This was a super personal story, way more than I ever intended it to be. It also was really fun and challenging to try and make something solid that fit canon well out of something so vague. https://archiveofourown.org/works/8201843

Miri: Favourite party (three person team) idea when playing FFVII? They don’t have to actually work mechanically, just that you like the idea of them together as a fighting party.

Calamity: Cloud, Cid, and Vincent. I love the dynamic between Vincent and Cid.

Miri: Pantser/Emotive Writer/Gardener or Planner/Structured Writer/Architect? (Do you outline or just go with the flow?)

Calamity: I am a complete and total pantser/emotive. More than once I have had a "brilliant" idea for a scene but when sitting down to write, the characters want to do their own thing. I trust 'em.

Miri: Any remake thoughts you’d like to share?

Calamity: I hope it never comes out.

Miri: What do you do when you get stuck on a project?

Calamity: Go for a night walk while listening to music.

Miri: What’s your ideal writing environment? Background noise, indoors/outdoors, desk/couch, etc.?

Calamity: Inside, thunderstorm, ambient music. But always music. Always.

Miri: Do you do commissioned fics, requests or prompts?

Calamity: I would yeah, but nobody has ever asked.

Miri: Anything you’d like to say to the community?

Calamity: I am so amazed and humbled by the content creators in this fandom. There are so many unique voices and SO MUCH TALENT. It really is astounding. For the most part, the people behind the creations are just as supportive and amazing. It is so neat to come together over this shared love of something, and all add to this pool of passion and creatively. I feel so lucky to have met and befriended people from this community.

Miri: Recommend me a fic of yours!

Calamity: My heart is in The Nightmare Begins, but A Cold Hearted Boy seems to be more popular, though it is not finished. A Cold Hearted Boy follows Sephiroth through his childhood in the ShinRa labs, his father-son relationships with Hojo, his pseudo-romantic relationship with Aeris, and later Zack, up until THE INCIDENT. My goal in this story was to play with the idea of nature versus nurture. Sephiroth had all the genetic components to be a monster, but it was, in the end, nurture that pushed him over the edge. https://archiveofourown.org/works/9280250/chapters/21032600

#creator spotlight #thecalamity #community #fanfic

[sharethelove-ly]

Eco Wedding Tips - Save Money, The Environment and Look and Be Beautiful

Eco-Friendly Sustainable Wedding Resources - Save Money, The Environment, Beautifully!

    Looking for eco-friendly wedding ideas? Planning a green wedding doesn’t have to be hard.  Reduce wedding waste, find second-hand wedding dresses, and look for other easy ways to have a sustainable wedding.  The environmental impact of weddings is huge and we should all do our part to help.  Here are a few ethical, eco-friendly, zero waste ways to say ‘I do’. Consider this as a guide to spend less, giving more and getting more in the end.  Don’t get sucked into the idea that ‘bigger is better’.  The cost of your wedding does not do anything to make your marriage last longer. But it CAN destroy your budget and have a huge carbon footprint. 

  The Rising cost of weddings

Did you know that the average cost of a wedding has risen to almost $30,000 in the United States?  Considering the pressure many couples are under to throw an elaborate wedding, many people are left wondering how they can afford to tie the knot. However, there are many ways you can save money and still have a beautiful, luxurious wedding. I've been to a few weddings that went "all-out". Those weddings were actually less beautiful and the experience less appealing than weddings that were mindful. I much rather have a tree planted in my name than a bag of chocolate-covered almonds initialed in gold lettering.

  Check Out Our Favorites Ways Below!

You don’t have to be a hardcore Greenie to appreciate the allure of a wedding in the midst of rolling meadows, botanical gardens or forested hillsides. You can double your venue's green quotient by selecting a site managed by a non-profit organization that protects the land—or sea! In Florida, Tampa Bay Watch is doing invaluable work through their restoration of wildlife habitats, education programs, and cleanup efforts. Your rental fee goes directly towards ensuring they can continue to preserve and protect these waters for future generations.

  Eco-Friendly Wedding Tips

Planning an eco-friendly wedding can be fun and leave you with a feeling of satisfaction for your minimal impact living. It won’t be quite as easy as calling your local wedding planner, unfortunately. Here are a few tips to get you started on your road to your low carbon footprint married life!

Purchase Eco-friendly Wedding Rings

  The amount of money and human labor that goes into supporting the precious metals and diamond industries is immense. Many diamond-mining organizations have come under fire for the mistreatment of their workers. Natural resources are slowly becoming depleted as more people want to own precious stones.

Promote sustainability and the proper treatment of workers by purchasing wedding jewelry made from recycled materials. This jewelry is often more affordable than other diamonds and wedding bands.  Check out the sustainable wedding bands from AU-Rate. They use only 100% recycled gold and all pearls and gems are purchased only from ethical sources.  From family-run pearl farms to strict working conditions in gem mines, they focus on producing beautiful jewelry with strong ethics.  

Another sustainable jewelry idea is to upcycle an old family heirloom. Have an old piece of jewelry that has been passed down your family for generations? Reuse parts of old heirlooms, including gems, diamonds, and metals, to create a piece of jewelry with a unique family history.

Resources: 

Taylor & Hart

Aurate

Noemie

James Allen

Catbird

Fair Trade Jewelry

  Plan a Recycled Wedding

Thanks to many eco-conscious and economical brides, there has been a recent boom in websites that allow brides to “recycle” parts, or all of their wedding. Brides who have just recently said ‘I do’ often sell their gently used decorations, wedding invitations, and even their wedding dresses. Second-hand clothing is the cornerstone of eco-friendly fashion!

Browse through the offerings on places like eBay and Craigslist and find huge savings on everything you need for your wedding. Thanks to the internet, you can incorporate beautiful secondhand pieces into your own wedding. This saves you money and prevents these good-as-new items from simply becoming trash.  Check out Bride2Bride.com for second-hand wedding dresses! 

Eco-Friendly Wedding Planners:

Greater Good Events

Green Wedding Professionals

Eco Cult Directory

  Select an Eco-friendly Wedding Venue

An eco-friendly wedding venue saves you a great deal of money. It also drastically reduces the carbon footprint of your wedding. Many large venues, including hotels, banquet halls, and reception areas, require a large amount of electricity. All the lighting, sound systems, heating, and cooling are not a great choice for the environment. Host your reception outdoors to reduce the need for constant lighting and energy usage.

You can also host your ceremony and reception at the same venue. This way,  guests don’t have to waste gas traveling from one location to another. This is not only on my list of green wedding tips but also on my list of ‘make everyone’s life easier’ tips!

If you must host the ceremony and reception in two different places, consider renting a shuttle or other form of eco-friendly transportation to take people between the venues. This will mean fewer vehicles on the road and a decrease in harmful emissions.

  Eco-friendly Wedding Venue Resources:

Eco-Friendly Venues

Sustainable Wedding Venues

Green Building Information Gateway

Ceremony and Reception Sites

  Consider Registering for Donations

Simplest of all the eco-friendly wedding tips I want to share is to ask for money for a green cause! Committed to making a difference in the environment? Have guests make donations in your name, instead of purchasing gifts for you through a registry. Many charities offer donation cards that you can fill out and send to wedding guests, which indicates that you would like them to make a donation in lieu of giving a gift.

There are plenty of great eco-friendly charities that focus on protecting the environment and the earth’s species. Some of my favorites are the World Wildlife Foundation, Rain Forest Action Network, Conservation Fund, American Forests, and Greenpeace.

  Donate Leftover Wedding Food

When it comes to weddings, the mentality is often that it is better to have too much food than too little. With hors d’oeuvres, cocktails,  appetizers, entrees and desserts, there is often a large quantity of food leftover after the reception. Choose local food and donate leftovers instead of simply wasting it.

    As food decomposes it releases methane gas, a toxin that is 20 percent more harmful than carbon dioxide. Help cut down on methane release by donating food to organizations such as America’s Second Harvest Food Bank, City Harvest or other local food kitchens. Food waste is a huge problem in this country, however, there are many ways to reduce your garbage output and prevent your wedding from contributing to it.

  5 Things You Need for a Green Wedding

Many green wedding supplies will be bought second hand or borrowed from friends and family. There are, however, a few items that you might want to buy new. Choosing eco-friendly wedding items will seriously reduce your carbon footprint. Here are a few of my favorite suggestions:

Biodegradable confetti. Don’t throw things on the ground that won't biodegrade, even if you ARE getting married!

Paper straws are a great alternative to plastic for your beverages. No straw is great too, but, some people really do love those things!

Eco-friendly paper lanterns. You can find ones that are 100% biodegradable which I think is totally cool.

Disposable Wedding Plates made from sustainable materials. Find compostable tableware free of dyes, bleaches, or other harsh additives. A great alternative to single-use plastic.

  Eco-Friendly Wedding Dress Ideas to Consider

If an earth-conscious wedding dress brings to mind an ill-fitting hemp garment, you couldn't be more wrong. Whether vintage, or made of organic materials, eco-friendly dresses take on many styles and couldn't be more beautiful. And in an increasingly green environment, there certainly isn't a shortage of options. Where to start? Consider the following:

1. Re-wear a gown, such as your mother's — even better because it has sentimental value. If you're not a fan of her '80s-style sleeves, take it to a seamstress to redesign the look. Or, you can buy or rent a pre-worn gown.

2. Take re-wearing a gown to a new level and go vintage. Check out consignment shops or vintage boutiques. You might get lucky and find something one-of-a-kind.

3. Look for a dress made of organic fabrics, such as organic cotton, organic silk, or peace silk. A dress made out of recyclable materials can also do the trick.

4. Choose a designer that creates sustainable gowns, whether it's by hand-making the dress or supporting women in developing countries. Need some options? Try any of these designers...

  Organic Wedding Dress Designer Resources:

Daughter of Simone

Indie Bride

Leila Hafzi

Deborah Lindquist

The Cotton Bride

  Sustainable Wedding Shopper-Stylist Resources

Sustainable Brides

Ethical Weddings

Green Wedding Designs

  Is a Green Wedding Right for You?

Plan a green wedding to save money and the environment. You can promote sustainability by finding innovative ways to reduce the carbon footprint of your big event. It is easy to incorporate eco-friendly elements into your wedding. That way, you and your soulmate can start off on an eco-friendly life together. I hope these eco-friendly wedding tips will help you in planning your own special day!  Check out Bridal Guide for more wedding planning tips!  Have any other green wedding tips to share?

[tinkaranrmozelliny69insuran-blog]

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[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

"get me a damned matcha" | Chapter 16: September II

{{ Chapter 15: August II | Chapter 17: October II }} Chapter Directory

this is honestly my fave chapter tbh, i've had it written since may

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✧ pairing ➼ levi ackerman x fem!reader, college x coffee shop x roommates!au ✧ summary ➼ After you find yourself plagued with misfortune due to struggles in your personal and family life, you find yourself needing to move last minute. As a junior in undergrad with little money and little social support, you considered yourself lucky when you found a sublease that was close to campus and was relatively cheap. Unfortunately, it seemed that your roommate did not seem to be so excited regarding your presence. ✧ content/warnings ➼ fluff, slowburn, mutual pining, idiots in love, car accident, explicit descriptions of injury, blood, explicit descriptions of panic, explicit descriptions of being overstimulated (in a bad way) ✧ word count ➼ ~6.3k

The events of the past month went unaddressed. Although part of it was due to the two of you avoiding each other, the biggest reason was simply because you were out of town. Paradis University had enrolled in an annual conference for aspiring authors to attend in their junior or senior year. You didn't make it in last year because of the chaos surrounding Zack and moving, so you dropped everything to make sure you were able to go this year to get some networking under your belt.

This resulted in Levi coming home to an empty apartment for the past week. Once again, he found himself feeling defeated whenever he went home and was reminded that you weren't going to be there for the night. He remembered that when you first moved in, he couldn't wait to get rid of you. Now, not having you around felt wrong, as if he was missing a constant in his life.

Being left to his own thoughts whenever he was at home forced him to try to process what had happened two weeks ago. He remembered being in shambles after half of his work that was saved remotely on his computer in lab went down in flames, which would push him back at least another year in terms of graduating. He remembered coming home to see that you had been sitting at the dining table all day, waiting for him. He remembered you hugging him—which was more than enough to throw him into a state of shock (the last time you had hugged him was when you were horrifically drunk)—before kissing him. 

He had kissed you back. 

He knew that. What he didn't know was what this meant. Was it just emotions running high? The whole incident seemed so blurred to him and you just never addressed it afterwards. Not having you around to talk about it was even worse, although he wasn't even sure if he wanted to bring it up. It could've just been a mistake that you two could forget ever happened.

Levi sighed to himself, scowling at the freshly brewed batch of tea that he had restocked to prepare for the evening rush of customers. The sun had just gone down and ominous clouds were beginning to cover the sky. That translated to more people taking shelter in the café, which meant more work for him.

Good, it'd at least take his mind off of you, although his eyebrows furrowed as he wondered when you'll arrive home, given the incoming storm. He knew it didn't matter in the end. He'd be up regardless. The real question was if that shared kiss was worth bringing up.

As he pondered over if he wanted to subject himself to that conversation, he was distracted by the buzzing of his phone in his pocket. He pulled out his phone and saw that it was Marlo calling.

What the hell does that kid want?

He pressed the answer button and brought his phone up to his ear.

"What?" Levi asked in an irritated fashion. "I thought you didn't get back until tomorrow."

Levi's facial expression quickly transitioned from an irate one to a horrified one as Marlo quickly spoke to him over the phone. The young man was talking so fast that it was nearly incomprehensible, with clear panic present in his voice, which was further muffled by the sound of the wind coming through the phone, which indicated that he was outside. 

As soon as Marlo said the words "car accident", Levi's eyes widened and his face drained of color.

You and Marlo were carpooling to and from the conference together.

"I know you're roommates and I didn't know who else to call," Marlo continued to speak as Levi remained silent. "_____'s unconscious and I can't get her to wake up and I don't even know if she's breathing and-"

"What the fuck are you calling me for?" Levi said in a monotonous tone. "Call the ambulance already, you idiot."

Levi began to walk towards the staff locker room, untying his apron as he continued to speak into the phone.

"I'll be there in ten."

He hung up the phone and momentarily looked at the call log that popped up, with his eyes out of focus, indicating that he wasn't actually processing what it was that was on the screen. Levi stood still in front of his locker for a while, unable to put his phone down or put his apron away, being completely paralyzed at the situation that had just been dropped onto him.

"Shit," he muttered to himself, pulling himself out of his stupor.

Suddenly feeling an incredible sense of urgency, Levi threw his apron into his locker, grabbed his wallet and car keys and rushed out of the café towards his own car.

~~~~~

Focusing on the road felt impossible. The storm had come down in full force, limiting the visibility of the road, and Levi couldn't get his own heart rate to calm down. He had told Marlo that he'd get there in ten minutes, but it became closer to twenty due to the storm. If Marlo was telling the truth in that he didn't know if you were breathing, Levi could be much too late by the time he arrived.

He continued to curse at himself as more and more time passed. He had foolishly been wondering if he wanted to bring up something as innocent as a kiss once you got home when you had actually been in a car crash that could possibly take your life. It felt trivial to be stressed over something as small as a kiss. He gripped at the steering wheel upon realizing that, depending on your state once he found you, addressing whatever was going on between the two of you might not be a reality. He could be too late. 

He wouldn't have the chance to explore that with you, instead only being left with a sense of regret for not bringing it up sooner.

His eyes that were fixated on the road darted around his field of vision, keeping an eye out for the red and blue flashing lights that indicated the presence of an ambulance. He felt his breathing begin to destabilize the longer he drove without the siren of an ambulance in the distance. 

Maybe they had already gotten to you and were on their way with you to the hospital. That would be the best case scenario.

His heart dropped once he arrived at the location that Marlo had sent him. No ambulance had arrived. Marlo's totaled car had its emergency blinkers on and Levi could see that there were parts from the front bumper strewn about the ground. The main frame of the car was completely bent in and the passenger side of the car was caved in. 

Levi immediately turned on his own blinkers and got out of the car, holding his hand over his head in an attempt to at least keep the rainwater out of his eyes as he sprinted over to Marlo. 

Marlo himself seemed fine, save for a few scratches, but he definitely looked panicked. 

Levi felt his panic and anxiety only continue to increase as his eyes searched for where you were, his eyes immediately snapping to the passenger's seat once Marlo pointed out where you were. 

Marlo was saying something, but none of it was processed by Levi as he stumbled through the wreckage to get to where you were. Once he finally reached the door, he tugged on it to pry it open after it had gotten stuck due to the main frame of the car caving in. 

He let out a sharp exhale once he saw you.

Your side of the car had gotten directly hit and your airbag had failed to pop out. You were leaning forward with your head against the dash, your arm was bent at an odd angle, and blood was gushing out of your nose and down your face from a wound that Levi couldn't begin to attempt to identify.

He could tell that you weren't hurt anywhere else. None of your chest and abdominal regions seemed to have been punctured and weren't bleeding, but he had no idea how bad your head injury was. He could understand why Marlo had panicked. 

Shit.

He wasn't processing anything around him. He didn't feel the rain falling on him, hear the thunder crashing above him, or even see anything that wasn't the sight of you leaning forward in that car after having smashed your head against the dashboard. Panic only continued to build in his gut and it took everything in him to pull himself back into reality.

"Shit," he said out loud as he pulled out his phone, shakily dialing for the ambulance again. 

After placing his phone back into his pocket, he leaned forward and stepped over some of the debris and placed one hand on the nape of your neck and used the other to gently push you away from the dash, his breath getting caught in his throat once he saw your head bob to the side. He got a closer look at your arm and was able to deduce that your arm was certainly broken, but he still had no idea how bad your head injury actually was. There was certainly more blood dripping down your face than he had initially expected.

"_____?" he called for you, raising his voice so that you would be able to hear him over the pouring rain. 

You didn't stir, but he was now close enough that he could see your chest rise and fall. You were still breathing. That at least meant you were still alive. 

He felt himself exhale in relief at that one positive fact amongst the ocean of negatives around him.

Levi gently shook at your shoulder in a vain attempt to wake you.

Open your eyes. Come on, _____, open your fucking eyes.

You weren't waking.

"_____!" he called out again, feeling his breath hitch as he saw the extent that you were continuing to bleed from your head wound.

Knowing that you weren't going to wake, he looped one arm under your legs and the other around your shoulders, propping your head up against his chest as he lifted you out of the car. He glanced down at the blood on your face that was mixing in with the rain water and he felt his own heart rate only continue to rise. His shirt was soaked in the mixture that was your blood and the rain water falling down on him. Your hair was matted and stuck to your head from the bleeding. 

The worst part was that there was still no sign of an approaching ambulance.

"Fuck!" he yelled out.

He immediately turned around and began carrying you back to his car. 

"Stay here so you can report what happened when the police decide to actually get their asses here," he spoke to Marlo as he walked past him. "Keep me updated."

Levi slowly lowered your legs down to free his hand to open up the passenger side door for you, taking care to not put too much pressure on your broken arm. He reclined the seat all the way back and then lifted you into the seat, immediately rushing to the driver's side once you were secure. 

He immediately turned on the engine and drove off as soon as he shut the driver's door, desperately trying to deduce the fastest route to the hospital. The last time he drove around in this state was when he had gone looking for you during the New Year's Eve party. The exact scenario that was happening in front of him—finding you injured, in trouble, or hurt—kept playing through his head during that night. Relief fell upon him when that reality didn't come to fruition.

That sense of relief felt stupid now. 

"You better stay with me, you goddamned brat," he mumbled as he glanced over at you, his grip on the steering wheel tightening as he pressed down on the gas pedal to speed his way over to the hospital as quickly as he could.

~~~~~

He couldn't tell if the wetness was from the blood or rainwater. He had taken off his jacket that was drenched in rainwater (or blood, he couldn't tell). 

Levi currently stared at himself in the mirror of one of the private bathrooms in the hospital. He didn't want to wander into a public one in the state that he was in. 

He was absolutely filthy. His hands, arms, and shirt were covered in blood. He had spent the past five minutes desperately trying to wash away the blood on his hands and arms, but he couldn't get all of it off. Even if he could, it would do little to ease his distress. He had continued to scrub harder and harder in a vain attempt to not only wash off the blood, but also the stupidly uncomfortable feeling that was building in his chest and throat upon seeing your blood that had dried onto him. 

He had scrubbed until his arms were raw, yet the blood stains were still there and his distress had not shown any signs of dissipating. 

Fuck!

He gripped at the sink and tightly shut his eyes. Everything was setting his senses on overdrive. His eyes hurt from the bright hospital lights, his skin hurt from the scrubbing and the feeling of his wet clothes clinging onto him, his head hurt from hearing the whirring of the ventilation above him and from the smell of hospital cleaners permeating his nose. He felt nauseated and wanted to throw up. He couldn't stop his shaking. Every breath he took felt like he was inhaling fire. Even the loose strands of hair that rested upon his forehead felt like they were stabbing into him. 

He had rushed you into the emergency room as soon as he had arrived and felt both a sense of relief and dread once they took you away. He was relieved that you were finally getting help, but also hated not being by your side. He had no idea if you were going to be okay. You were breathing and alive, sure, but he had no idea if you would wake and what state you would be in when you woke. 

He felt so stupid for holding back on discussing any of the intimate emotions that arose when he was around you, and even moreso when he recalled the fact that he had tried to push you away. He still didn't know what it was, but he knew it was something—and now he might never get the chance to figure out what that something was. 

Levi slowly opened his eyes again and looked at his reflection. He really was a mess. He took a shaky inhale in an attempt to calm himself down. He couldn't last the night in this state and he needed to be by you when you woke up—if you woke up.

He felt his breathing destabilize again upon having that thought.

Shit, get yourself together.

He tried again to take a breath in.

Breath in for four.

Hold for four.

Out for four.

Hold for four.

After a few more rounds of box-breathing, Levi was finally able to loosen his grip on the sink. He felt weak and his lips looked pale. He hadn't eaten anything since the afternoon before he left for his shift and it was now approaching 10pm, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep anything down until he knew if you were okay.

He slowly walked out of the bathroom, silently thanking the heavens that the waiting room was mostly empty. He didn't know how well he'd be able to cope with people walking around and talking next to him. Every additional sound was only contributing to his headache.

Levi collapsed into one of the chairs that was close to the operating room so he could be prepared when someone came out to inform him of your condition. One hand was rapidly tapping on the armrest of the chair and he found himself biting at his nails on the other—something he's never found himself to do. He only recalled resorting to it in an attempt to calm his anxiety down once—when he was waiting to hear back about his mother before she passed.

He remembered calling the ambulance when his mother had fainted after weeks of being sick and weak, kneeling next to her as the ambulance took much too long to arrive at his home. He remembered sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, regularly going up to the front desk asking if she was going to be okay. She wasn't. 

He was only eight at the time—and here he was, nearly 15 years later, feeling like he had regressed back into the body of that small child that kept on begging to himself that his mother had survived and being devastated when she didn't. He didn't know if he could go through that again.

Every second that passed was agonizing. He needed to know. He wouldn't be able to rest until he knew. Part of him wanted to just assume that you were dead so that he wouldn't be as devastated when they delivered bad news, but that itself was already too painful for him to bear.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally heard footsteps approaching from the operating room.

"Mr...Ackerman, was it?" someone spoke as they flipped through some papers on a clipboard.

Levi's eyes shot up at the doctor that had approached him.

"Y-Y..." Levi began speaking and found that his words weren't coming out properly, immediately clearing his throat to gather himself. "Yes."

The doctor looked at him and then back to the forms that had your information listed on it.

"Are you her boyfriend, I assume? She had you listed as her emergency contact." 

"What?" Levi asked, his eyes widening at both the fact that you had listed him as your emergency contact and at the doctor's somewhat absurd question. "No, I'm her roommate."

The doctor noticed his reaction.

"My mistake," they said, lowering the clipboard. "She just didn't have anyone else listed, so I assumed. That's my bad."

Levi had known about what happened with your parents and your turbulent relationship with your aunt, so he wasn't too surprised at the fact that you had listed him as your emergency contact. However, he would have assumed that you would have put Petra or Oluo instead of him. If he wasn't so freaked out about this entire situation, he might have even felt flattered.

Levi listened closely as the doctor discussed your injuries with him. He was correct in that you had a broken arm, the doctor had mentioned that it had been fractured in the accident, but should heal in a month as long as you didn't injure it again. You had a sprained ankle that should heal within a week. The most concerning injury was your head injury. The doctor mentioned that they did a CT scan and said that you had a "mild traumatic brain injury", which immediately caused Levi to tense up. 

"Fortunately, it was mild enough that she should have a speedy recovery and doesn't need to be held here for prolonged observation, but I would suggest the two of you be on the lookout for any developments."

Levi nodded as the doctor spoke, feeling himself able to gradually calm down after the doctor only listed non-fatal injuries. You were going to be okay.

"We'll probably keep her until the morning when she wakes so we can do a mental status exam, but she should be good to go home afterwards."

Levi sat back down in the chair again once the doctor walked off, holding his head in his hand. The sudden wave of relief that overtook him was almost as bad as the distress that he had been feeling for the past few hours.

Thank fuck you're okay, you annoying ass brat.

~~~~~

The last thing you remembered was the blaring horn of a pickup truck that had slammed into your side of the car. There was nothing after that.

Your head felt like it was trying to explode from the inside out. It made it so that you felt nauseated and even attempting to open your eyes seemed to prolong the pain. There was an annoyingly persistent beeping sound next to you that made it feel like there was a hammer pounding at your head every time you heard it.

Your arm felt even worse. You felt like you had gotten punched in the shoulder, except the pain radiated throughout your entire arm. You tried to lift it to maybe stretch it out to normalize the pain, but even your slight movement made a surge of pain shoot through you in such an intense wave that you wanted to cry. 

You finally peeled your eyes open and found yourself staring at the ceiling of an unfamiliar room. You weren't in your room. You weren't in your living room. You had no idea where you were. You looked down and saw a pulse oximeter attached to your left index finger and that your right arm was tightly held in a cast.

Your eyes widened and you looked over to the side at a sight that was definitely unfamiliar to you.

You saw Levi sitting at the side of your bed, looking down at the ground with a grim expression. You looked towards your night stand and saw three empty coffee cups, indicating that he had literally stayed up all night watching over you.

He suddenly raised his head as he heard you shuffling around, taking a deep breath once he saw your eyes looking back at him.

He scoffed as he shook his head at you.

"About fucking time," he said in an annoyed tone. 

You couldn't see it, but his nails had been digging into his hands for the majority of the night, and it wasn't until now that he had been able to release his clenched fists. The events of the past 12 hours had put him in a state that he hasn't experienced since childhood.

He saw you try to push yourself up and he immediately stood up, placing his hand on your back to help push you up so that you were sitting.

Your cheeks flushed up as soon as he came over to you and even more so when he placed his hand on your back. He was being oddly caring and it made you suspicious.

"Lev', where are we? What happened?"

Levi sat back down once you were up and stable.

"You were in a car accident, _____."

Your eyes went in and out of focus as you listened to Levi explain everything that had happened the previous night. He spoke about how he found you unconscious in the middle of the storm and had to drive you to the hospital himself. When you looked at him again, you saw that his shirt and pants were stained in red, which you deduced to be your own blood. 

He had been here literally all night. 

"And that's why I had to spend all night dragging your ass to the hospital," he finally ended and you grimaced at the irritation that you could hear in his voice. He was mad. You could tell that he was mad.

"...I'm sorry," you said, which earned you a bewildered look from Levi.

What the hell are you apologizing for? he thought.

"I'm sorry you had to go out of your way for that."

Levi scoffed and shook his head.

"You're such a dumbass."

"What?" you asked, unsure what he was referring to.

"Nothing," he said as he stood up. "I'm going to grab the doctor since you finally decided to wake up. Don't move."

"Not like I can move anyway."

Levi grunted as he turned away and walked out the door, the corner of his mouth twitching up slightly into a small smirk. The presence of your normally irritating sass indicated that you were okay and for the most part functional, which was all that mattered to him in this moment.

~~~~~

After being observed for 24 hours at the hospital, you were finally discharged and able to go home. The biggest concern was your head injury, so once it became clear that you didn't have a concussion, the doctor said that you were good to go, but to also keep an eye out for any signs that might reappear once you get home and to come back if they do. 

Levi walked closely behind you as you navigated your way down the hall towards the door to your apartment on crutches. You were technically able to walk, but were told not to until your ankle healed. 

He stepped forward to unlock and open the door for you and you immediately went for the kitchen table, collapsing down into one of the chairs, letting out an exasperated sigh. Everything was shit right now. You had a sprained ankle and a broken arm, and this was the first time you had been home in a week.

You weren't sure when, but your life living in this small apartment with Levi had quickly become somewhere you considered to be home.

"You'll let me know if you start feeling dizzy or any of that, yeah?" Levi asked, taking a seat next to you.

Although you were here in front of him now, he felt like his body still hadn't fully processed what had happened. He remembered just how panicked he was when he was waiting at the hospital and he still felt like there was another shoe that was going to be dropped. Something was going to happen where you fell and hurt yourself again or a symptom indicating a concussion would appear when he wasn't around to help you. He couldn't help but feel that he was still holding his breath for whatever follow-up disaster was going to occur.

You nodded, shutting one eye in pain as you tried to adjust yourself in the chair. Your entire body still ached and you knew you needed to move or at least do something to distract yourself from it.

"Where's my laptop?" you asked, opening your eye again.

Levi raised an eyebrow at you.

"Are you seriously thinking of doing work the day you get out of the hospital?"

"Where is my laptop?" you repeated, not being in the mood to suffer through Levi's attitude.

Levi sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"Marlo is coming to drop it off along with the rest of your things later tonight."

He frowned as he saw you tense up at his comment.

"How the hell am I supposed to catch up on my work-"

"Are you serious?" Levi snapped, cutting you off. "You're so stupid."

Your tenacity and stubbornness never failed to impress him. You literally had a life-or-death scenario and you were sitting in your kitchen worrying about missed schoolwork. 

His eyes darted over to you as he saw an offended look appear on your face. He immediately looked away, an uncomfortable feeling growing in his chest at the thought of hurting you.

Since when did he start caring so damn much about that?

"Get your ass on the couch and rest," he said, motioning over towards the living room before getting up. "I'll get you something to eat that's not the shitty hospital food."

~~~~~

The next 2-3 weeks primarily involved Levi helping you adjust to and heal from your injuries, which involved helping you in and out of bed, bringing you food, and generally helping you move around. He'd wake you up each morning with your coconut milk Matcha without fail, bringing a small smile to your face every time you took a sip.

After 3 weeks, you were able to take your arm out of the outer casing to move your shoulder around, but you still had to be careful to not move it too far or too quickly to avoid reinjuring it. Any symptoms of a possible concussion had long faded and moving your ankle became easier with each passing day. 

If you had to choose, the most annoying part was your inability to write. You remembered a point roughly a week after you came home, in which you were sitting in the living room with your bad leg propped up and your laptop sitting in your lap. Levi had been consistently telling you to cut it out whenever you tried to push yourself regarding school, which was made even worse given the fact that you could only type with one hand, significantly slowing you down.

You couldn't afford to be out of commission for a whole month. You sat in front of your computer, desperate for words to come out, and frustrated beyond belief at how slow your typing became due to your right arm being dysfunctional. You quietly groaned as you rubbed your head in pain. You needed more caffeine, and you were already past your third cup of coffee for the day.

"_____," you heard Levi call out from the dining area.

You didn't acknowledge him, only continuing to stare at your laptop screen as you tried to type as quickly as you could with your left hand.

You heard him sigh as he walked over and took your laptop from you, setting it down on the coffee table. 

"Cut it out," he said before you could protest, referring to you constantly pushing yourself past your limits when you were still trying to heal. "I'm sick of having to tell you this shit."

You knew that he was right. You couldn't realistically get any work done with the state that you were in, but you didn't want to just lay around either.

With the more days that passed, the more you became frustrated with your inability to take care of yourself that was compounded by Levi essentially hovering over you to make sure that you were okay. It was obnoxious and you relished any time you could actually have to yourself without your overbearing roommate watching your every move.

You currently found yourself laying in bed, glancing at the small ray of sunshine that peaked in through the curtains. You needed to get out of the house. You had been cooped in all week. While you were still supposed to be using your crutches, walking had gotten a bit less painful, which gave you hope that you could maybe go for a "walk" down the street.

You pushed yourself up off the bed, swinging your legs over the side, careful not to put too much pressure on your barely healed arm.

However, the unfortunate timing of when you pushed yourself up versus when you swung your legs over clashed with each other and you felt your bad ankle get caught in the blanket right as you moved. The sudden surge of pain briefly made you disoriented, which was more than enough to send you tumbling to the ground.

You whimpered in pain as you landed on your left shoulder (which was not the injured one, thankfully). Landing on your side also meant that you avoided hitting your head on anything. A dull ache radiated throughout your body as you rolled over onto your back. Every movement you made sent another wave of pain through you, which elicited more quiet groans of pain from you.

You tried to push yourself up, but you had nothing to grab onto and it hurt your arm too much to keep pushing yourself up. Your abs cried in pain whenever you tried to sit up on your own. You were stuck on the ground.

"Shit," you whispered to yourself. 

You knew the best course of action was to call Levi for help, but you had been so annoyed with his presence recently, that you'd rather lay on the ground and wait for the pain to pass so you could get up yourself.

However, not much time passed before you heard rushed footsteps approaching your door, and a dejected sigh escaped your lips.

You looked over as the door swung open and you saw Levi standing in the doorway with a scowl on his face.

"Hi," you said with a deadpan expression.

"Why the hell didn't you call me?" he asked as he flipped on the light switch, sounding as annoyed as he looked. "How long have you been down there?"

"Not long. I'm fine, Levi."

"No you're not," he said dismissively as he walked to you and helped you get up off the ground.

"I'm not a child, Levi," you said as you sat back down on your bed, rubbing at your left shoulder in pain. "I didn't need your help."

He stared at you, not believing a single word you were saying.

"So you're telling me you were just hugging the ground for the hell of it?"

He waited for you to come up with a snarky response or excuse as to why you were on the ground after he had heard a thud come from your room that didn't involve you tumbling out of your bed involuntarily. 

You didn't have one.

"Dumbass," he finally said. "Stay here."

You sat in your bed with an exasperated expression as you watched Levi walk out of your room after opening up the curtains so that you could get some sunlight. You heard him fumble around in the kitchen for a few minutes before he finally came back to your room with a cup of tea, setting it down on the nightstand next to you. His other hand held your computer, which you found oddly endearing for him to bring to you since he's been trying so hard to get you to not work on anything related to school.

"Could've gotten that myself," you grumbled.

"Could you have?" 

You rolled your eyes. Your arm cast was off, so you were able to move your arm around, although it still wasn't completely healed. You waved your arm to show him that you were functional, but then winced as you moved your arm a bit too far back, which earned you another surge of pain running up your arm. 

Levi stared at you with an unamused look as he watched you blatantly hurt yourself again.

"Quit looking at me like that," you said, frowning. "I can take care of myself. Arm's healed for the most part. I can walk without those stupid crutches now. I-"

"Can you just shut the fuck up so you can heal from this shit already?" Levi scolded, cutting you off, getting sick of your commentary.

"I don't need you hovering over me 24/7, Levi!"

"Tch. Tell me that when you go for a day without falling on your ass at some point."

He glanced at you again and saw that you were scowling at him.

"I can take care of myself," you said, clenching your fists in frustration, "so quit wasting your time feeling like you have to watch over me."

Levi remained quiet for a few seconds as he turned away, averting his gaze. 

He spoke quietly.

"I just don't want to lose you again, you dumbass."

It had been a few weeks since the accident at this point, yet that feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop never left. Levi still felt like any minute, something else would happen and you'd slip from his grasp. He couldn't get over the feeling of his heart absolutely sinking once he saw your condition in the wreckage or how he had relentlessly scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed until his arms were raw in that hospital bathroom in a desperate attempt to scrub away all of the chaos running through his mind as he waited for you in the operating room. He felt that if he had slipped up in any way, something would happen, and you would have to pay the price for it.

"Shit," he mumbled. "Why do you have to do this to me, _____?"

"Do what?"

He looked down at his hands, remembering the sight of them after he dropped you off at the hospital. The events of that stormy night kept running through his head, as if he was trapped in it. 

Levi looked back up into your eyes. You were here in front of him, awake and breathing—the opposite of when he found you in that car, unconscious, bleeding, with unstable breathing patterns. You were here. You were okay. He had no reason to still feel as panicked as he was, yet he did.

Before you could open your mouth to speak, he reached out to you, closing the gap between you, and planting his lips onto yours. His hand rested at the side of your face as he held you.

You tensed at first at the sudden gesture, but quickly relaxed into it as you kissed him back, placing your hand on top of his.

He pulled back from you and avoided your gaze as he whispered:

"I can't lose you again." 

You noticed him gripping at your bedsheets with his other hand and the pieces clicked together for you.

It wasn't that he thought you couldn't take care of yourself or that you were incompetent. He'd been so overbearing because he was afraid of losing you. You had guessed to an extent how rough that night must have been for him, but you had no idea about the magnitude of just how bad it was.

You felt your bed shift as he got up and your hands trailed off him as he pulled away.

"I'll be in the living room," he said quietly, still avoiding your gaze. "Call me if something happens again."

You reached out to him as he walked away.

"Levi, wait-!"

Your bedroom door was shut before you could finish your plea for him to come back, and you fell silent.

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Wheat fields, Bluebonnets, and Hedges: Chapter 2

PJO Arranged Marriage/Royalty AU Part 6

Rating: T | Pairing: Solangelo

Prev | Next | AU directory | Read it on AO3 (Recommended) | Arranged Marriage AU Masterpage

Summary: Now that he’s fully aware of his feelings for Will, Prince Nico spends his visit to Diana trying to lure his fiancé into kissing him, only to be continuously thwarted by either his guard or his fiancé’s obliviousness. Will, however, is more concerned with other matters — namely, his family’s ceaseless endeavor to embarrass him in front of the Prince.

Nico’s first day in Diana had not been a complete failure, but it hadn’t gone the way he had hoped.  To his surprise, he might have even done well when meeting Will’s family.  He had been quite determined to be polite and it appeared he had succeeded.  Yes, Will’s family was rather odd and lacked some refinement, but they were friendly.  They quite obviously adored Will—which was to be expected, as Nico believed it was rather difficult to not adore him.  Nico had enjoyed hearing about Will’s long-lasting admiration of him.  He’d also enjoyed the portrait.

However, Nico had been hoping for a bit...more.

When Will stayed in Divitia in the fall, Nico had attempted to get Will alone several times but Hedge had always been in the way.  All of Nico’s attempts to get Will to kiss him had been thwarted.  His disappointment had led to determination and Nico had resolutely decided he would succeed in kissing Will the next time they met.  Nico would never admit to it, but he had entertained fantasies about Will sweeping him into his arms and kissing him the moment he stepped foot on Dianan soil.  It was a ridiculous idea, so Nico wasn’t terribly disappointed that it didn’t happen.  He had been disappointed when Will didn’t kiss him at all that day.  Nico had given Will plenty of opportunities to do it.  He had complimented Will.  He had stood close to Will.  He’d touched Will.  He’d even managed to escape from Hedge!  And yet, Will had done nothing about it.

Despite that, Nico remained determined.  He vowed that he would get Will to kiss him on his second day.  Surely they would find an appropriate time for it; they would be in Delphi.

Delphi, the most important Sororal city in Jupiter, was located just outside of Phoebus.  Although they were both Sororal cities, Delphi and Venadica were said to be very different.  Venadica was the City of Enlightenment, a place where some of the most brilliant sorors and consors studied.  On the other hand, Delphi was known as a place for the entire Populus Romanus to gather and celebrate the gods.  Of course Delphi was dedicated to ’the hunt,’ as well—Will studied there in the winter—but that wasn’t the city’s purpose.

The city was most famous for its pleasure gardens.  The Gardens of Delphi were open to the public and contained not only stunningly artistic landscaping, but also an opera house and menagerie.  It was partially the Gardens of Delphi that made public pleasure gardens so popular throughout the Romanus Terris.  Its influence was no coincidence; the city had been a gathering place since ancient times.  According to legend, the city was the center of the world, located at Gaea’s navel.  Nico could remember Bianca telling him that late one evening when they had sneaked out of their rooms to play.  They had giggled about it all night long.

The important thing was that Will was taking them to a famously beautiful place and Nico would not let the day end before he got Will to kiss him.  It had occurred to Nico that he could simply tell Will that he wanted a kiss, but he had never seriously considered doing so.  That would be far too embarrassing and improper.  And, of course, Nico could theoretically be the one to kiss Will, but Nico would not allow himself to commit such a scandalous act.  The only viable solution was to somehow get Will to kiss him, preferably without revealing too much of his enthusiasm about the idea.  Unfortunately, Will was unlikely to do it on his own; as the Prince, Nico would be the one to initiate all novel steps in their relationship.  Nico had been the one to propose, their wedding would be in Nico’s home, and Nico would be the one to decide where and when they kissed.  So Nico had to somehow dictate the appropriateness of the setting to Will without actually giving the kiss itself.

“The room I stayed in was massive,” Nico said as they were traveling to Delphi.  “You didn’t tell me that your home was so beautiful!”

Will was watching him with a smile that was sweet, kind, and so very Will in a way that made Nico want to kiss it.  “Well, it is our best guest room,” Will said.

“But it was huge!  You could have fit a stable in there!”

Will chuckled.  “Rooms in southern Jupiter tend to be larger than those in Pluto.  The weather is warmer here.  Pluto’s harsh winters are what makes smaller rooms more common there; small rooms are easier to heat.  But, although your rooms are smaller, you have many more of them.”

“That is true,” Nico said thoughtfully.  Regardless, the Sun Palace had provided Nico with a clearer picture of exactly how wealthy his fiancé was.  Of course the Palatium de Divitae was just as opulent, but it lacked the liveliness of the Sun Palace.  The Divitae was kept clean and in good condition, but something about the atmosphere had seemed cold and dead since the Scarlet Delirium.  Will’s home was just the opposite; it was filled with people and activity.  Every room was kept lit, as they were constantly in use; the Sun Palace was home to not only Apollo’s family, but the staff and farm workers and their families, as well.  The wealth of the Dianan family allowed it to not only inhabit a beautiful palace, but to truly fill it with their presence and provide for everyone who called it home.

Even the carriage was luxurious.  They were taking one of Apollo’s, an updated model with a spring system that made the ride smoother.  There was enough room to comfortably seat Nico and Will as well as Reyna and Hedge, and there was still room for Asterion to lie on the floor between them.  The outside of the carriage was gilded like the Hall of Gold in the Palatium de Divitae and the inside was lined with leather.  Nico was in awe of how beautiful it was, but he was also insecure about what Will might think of the Pluton royal carriage he traveled in.  The seats were not cushioned as well, the ride was bumpy, and the design was rather plain by comparison.  Will knew about Pluto’s economic troubles, but how did that play into his opinion of Nico?

“Have you seen Rheae Fidelium?” Will suddenly asked, pulling Nico from his ruminating.

“I have not,” Nico replied, wondering if that made him seem uncultured.  It was a popular opera, but the royal family’s budgeting left the arts somewhat neglected.

“The current act in Delphi is performing it.  I thought we might attend, if you enjoy opera?”

“Do you enjoy opera?” Nico asked.

Still smiling, Will tilted his head to the side and said, “I asked Your Highness first.”

Without warning, Hedge suddenly exploded, “That is no way to speak to the Prince!”

Will looked shocked, then sheepish, but Reyna intervened before anything else could happen.  “Hedge,” she said sternly.  “Remember what we discussed this morning.”

Hedge grumbled to himself, but didn’t fight back.  It was pointless to resist Reyna; Nico knew from experience.  Earlier that day, when Hedge and Nico had gotten into an argument over what constituted as proper behavior of a suitor, Reyna had grown tired of their bickering and reminded Hedge that she was Nico’s chaperone, while Hedge’s main concern should be Nico’s safety.  Hedge feebly argued that he was trying to keep Nico’s chastity safe, but Reyna once again reminded Hedge that Nico’s chastity was her responsibility, not his.  “I find it difficult to believe that Lord William poses a threat to the Prince’s virtue,” she had added.  Nico hadn’t said it outloud, but he was fairly certain that he threatened Will’s virtue more than Will threatened his.

Nico cleared his throat to cut through the sudden tension in the carriage and said, “Yes, I enjoy opera.  And you?”

“I love the opera,” Will said.  Nico refused to admit that his breath caught just a bit at the word ’love.’ “ Rheae Fidelium is my favorite.  I admit I’ve already gone to Delphi to watch it a few times this season.  I never tire of it.”

“Then of course I would like to see it,” Nico said.  He wondered if they would have a box to themselves.  Last time they’d gone to the opera together, the box had been crowded.  Perhaps this time, they would be alone, sitting side by side in the dark.  Perhaps then Nico would get Will to kiss him.  They would kiss while listening to the music of Will’s favorite opera and it would make Will so happy that he would think of Nico every time he heard it in the future.

When they arrived in Delphi, Will showed him the city through the carriage window.  Nico’s heart raced when Will leaned closer to look over Nico’s shoulder at the passing scenery.  Hedge had looked like he wanted to interject, but Reyna’s scolding hadn’t worn off quite yet and he remained silent.  Nico was glad.  He liked the tingling feeling on his back as he imagined Will leaning closer, close enough to touch him.  To his surprise, he even liked the height Will had on him when his soft voice came from above his shoulder.  Will had grown taller since the last time they’d met in person.  Nico had grown taller, as well, and he’d hoped that he would have caught back up to Will’s height, but those hopes turned out to be in vain.  It was annoying, but also notably attractive.  Nico could admit that it was a nice angle to look at Will from.  Nico had also noticed that Will looked rather like his father and his oldest brother, Lee.  Both Apollo and Lee were quite handsome, which led Nico to believe that Will could only grow more attractive as he aged.  It was an appealing idea.

Will paid the entrance fee for the Gardens of Delphi—technically a voluntary donation, Will explained, but it was frowned upon not to pay—and Nico’s hopes about being alone in the dark were confirmed when Will sent notice to the staff that he would make use of the Duke’s box later that afternoon.  “Would you like to watch the nightly fireworks ceremony?” Will asked as they were exiting the carriage.  “I must warn you that it begins after sundown, so it will be late by the time we return to Phoebus.”

“Of course I want to watch,” Nico said.  “When will I have the chance to view the Gardens of Delphi’s famous fireworks ceremony?”

Will chuckled.  “Then we’ll be sure to make the most of your visit.  We have a few hours before the start of the opera if you would like to see the menagerie.”

When Nico agreed, Will offered his arm and started down the path that led to the menagerie.  Asterion trotted beside them while Reyna and Hedge followed farther back.  Will talked about the menagerie’s history as they walked, explaining that it had began as a collection of animals bought by an old Dianan duke who loved to flaunt his wealth.  “The menagerie is much better than it used to be,” Will said as he paid a second donation to enter.  “Long ago, they used to stage fights between the animals for amusement—bears and elephants, tigers and leopards.  Their care improved after the animals were moved to Delphi, but the menagerie was still rather ill-equipped to house them.  It puts quite the stain on Delphi’s history, to say the least.  Thankfully, the Sorority has learned quite a bit about animals since then.  Once, menageries were for spectators to gawk at exotic animals in cages.  Now they are becoming more educational in nature.”

Nico slowed their pace as they walked in front of the tiger exhibit.  “It seems to me that we are spectators gawking at exotic animals,” he commented as he admired the tiger’s coat.

“Well...yes.  But we made a donation when we entered and that will fund research and improvements for the facilities.  The animals aren’t in cages, as you can see.  The enclosures are much better equipped than they once were.  The foliage mimics the natural environment of the tiger and offers coverage, should she wish to escape from the view of visitors.  The menagerie receives complaints about the animals not always being visible, but zoologists believe that it gives the animals a sense of safety and a degree of control over their environment.  There are still many problems to be addressed, but this is progress.”

“I suspect the Sorority has had a hand in these improvements?” Nico asked.

“Of course.  Menageries are improving all across the Romanus Terris.  Delphi’s menagerie is by no means the largest, but it is one of the best.  The animals are quite active.” Will gestured to the lion exhibit, where a cub was playfully nudging and pushing his sleeping brother.  Ultimately, he gave up and lay down next to him to nap.  “Delphi’s lioness had cubs not long ago.  It attracted a nice crowd of visitors who donated to finance the cubs’ care.  They are doing very well.  Of course, the lions tend to sleep until dusk—many of the animals are most active at dawn and dusk, so we don’t always get to see it.”

“You seem to know a lot about the menagerie,” Nico said.

“I spent the last two winters studying the animals’ health,” Will explained.  “I was here when the lioness had her cubs.”

“You delivered the cubs?”

“No, no, the lioness did the work,” he said.  “I was only there to ensure it went well.  Most animals don’t need help delivering.  But anyway, would you like to see the apes?  Delphi is particularly proud of its ape exhibit.”

They passed by the elephants and camels on their way and Nico listened as Will talked about them.  He was quite impressed by how much Will knew, but mostly he liked listening to Will.  He was serious but passionate and excited, and he didn’t seem to be anywhere close to exhausting the topic.  Nico suspected he could spend days talking about it.  Nico also suspected he could spend days listening to Will talk; he enjoyed the sound of Will’s voice.  His Dianan accent was stronger than usual, which Nico found endearing.  Asterion seemed very interested in the apes and Will babbled about the exhibit for such a long time that he only stopped when he realized that they had to hurry through the remainder of the menagerie to get to the opera house on time.

“Many sorors and consors favor the term ’zoological gardens’ over menagerie,” Will commented as they were walking.  “They say it more accurately reflects the educational purpose.”

“Then why do you call them ’menageries’?” Nico asked.  It seemed like a movement he would support.

Will looked sheepish.  “I like the way it sounds,” he admitted.

Nico laughed, but he liked the way Will said the word, too.  “Your accent is different here.  It sounds much more southern Juvian.”

“Does it?” Will asked with a curious expression.

“You usually have a much more Venadican way of speaking,” Nico explained.  “At least, on the occasions I’ve seen you.”

“I suppose my accent changes depending on who I have been around,” Will said thoughtfully.  “I had not noticed that.  It’s a pity that neither Venadican nor southern Juvian are particularly attractive accents.”

“I don’t think so,” Nico protested.  “I think your accent is charming.”

Will’s face turned pink.  Nico liked it.  Nico wanted to reach out and touch Will’s flushed cheeks.  Were they hot?  Were they soft?  They were probably soft.  Nico wanted to touch them.  Then pull Will’s face closer.  Then kiss him.  A lot.

Nico forced himself to stop his thoughts there.

“But like I was saying,” Will continued, still blushing.  “Learning about the animals has helped us find out how to improve their lives.  Tigers prefer to be alone, but elephants like to be in groups, for example.  We do the same with our livestock.”

“Then we will need to make a proper ranch in Divitia,” Nico said thoughtfully.

“Yes,” Will agreed.  “Divitia must be prepared for the cattle before our wedding.  There are few options of suitable breeds that we are considering.”

“They won’t be the same breed as your herd?” Nico asked in surprise.

“No, they would not do well in Pluto’s climate.”

“I had not thought of that,” Nico said.  “Your family has considered everything.”

“My family has quite the passion for ranching,” Will said.  “My aunt cares deeply for animals, as well; zoology is one of her concentrations, along with gynecology and ecology.  She has sped up the Sorority’s progress on zoological studies.  She told me that her mother’s ranch inspired her love for animals.”

Nico sighed, remembering how sad Will had looked the day before when he told Nico he would miss being in Phoebus for calving season.  “I wish that you didn’t have to be so far from it,” he mumbled.  “When we marry, I mean.”

Will only smiled.  “I will be happy in Divitia,” he said, just as he had the day before.

“Have you ever even been through a Pluton winter?” Nico asked.

“Once, about nine years ago.  I’ll admit it wasn’t pleasant, but I will learn to survive it.”

A few absurd thoughts about methods of keeping Will warm crossed through Nico’s mind.  He flushed.  “What animal is that?” Nico asked to distract himself, pointing to a sandy enclosure with a pond and a large reptile.

“A crocodile, Your Highness.  They are native to Aegyptia—wouldn’t do well in Pluto’s climate either, I’m afraid.  Austin loves crocodiles; they are his favorite animal.”

“Austin didn’t talk much yesterday,” Nico commented.  “You did say that he tends to be shy.”

“Only at first,” Will answered with a chuckle.  He stopped and said a few words to a soror at the exit of the menagerie as they left, but continued when they passed through the gates.  “Once Austin feels comfortable, he is just as loud as the rest of them.  Loud er, sometimes.  Austin is....” Will paused like he was searching for words.  “He feels very strong emotions.”

“Strong emotions?” Nico asked curiously.

“He’s very passionate,” Will said.  “It’s a good thing most of the time.  It’s why he is such a talented musician; he gets lost in the music.  When he’s happy, he’s a joy to be around.  He has a wonderful sense of humor—and a cleaner sense of humor than my older siblings.  Being a part of his family is...I don’t know how to explain it.  When Austin loves, he loves with his entire being.  Everything Austin does is loud and filled with emotion.  Unfortunately, that extends to his negative emotions, as well.”

“Such as...anger?” Nico asked.

Will shook his head.  “Oh, no,” he said quickly.  “Austin rarely gets angry.  No, I mean sadness.  Anxiety.  Stress.  He takes everything that happens to him to heart and he feels things so deeply that sometimes it overwhelms him.  He knows that he can sometimes experience things a bit differently than others do and he’s sensitive about it.  Last night Lee made a comment about Austin crying around the rabbit, if you recall.  That’s the sort of thing that might upset Austin, which is why Lee quickly assured him that he wasn’t teasing.  Austin tries to control it, but he can’t help the way he reacts to things.  I think he’s so quiet around strangers because afraid that his emotions burden people.  It’s not a burden, of course; I only wish he didn’t feel so much hurt.” Will sighed as they ascended the stairs to the opera house.  “Anyway, I’m sure you noticed that my family members tend to tease quite often.  It’s always for fun, never malicious, but we know it hurts Austin if we take it too far; we’ve all seen Austin break down at some point.  We take care of him—not so much that he feels singled out, but enough to let him know that we think the world of him.  Oh, the box is this way, Your Highness.  We ought to wait for Lady Reyna and Hedge so they can follow.”

Nico had nearly forgotten that Reyna and Hedge were with them; Reyna seemed to have been effective in reigning Hedge’s behavior.  She constantly reminded Hedge that chaperones and guards should be present, but not intrusive, and it appeared the lecture she had given him the day before had been effective—at least for the time being.

“Now Kayla, on the other hand,” Will said when Reyna and Hedge got close enough for them to continue walking.  “Kayla is a bit of trouble.”

Nico laughed.  Early that morning, Kayla had found Nico to excitedly flaunt her destroyed Paris doll.  She’d informed him that Menelaus had grown tired of Paris and murdered him in exchange for an apple.  The wooden doll had barely been recognizable, as she had smashed it to splinters using a hammer.  Nico had complimented Kayla on her thoroughness.

“A bit?” Nico teased, then mentally scolded himself.  He shouldn’t tease Will’s family, especially not so soon after meeting them.  He’d meant it as a joke, but if Will didn’t take it that way—

But Will chuckled.  “Alright, she’s a lot of trouble.  But so charming.”

“Yes, she is.  Rather like a certain charming young boy I’ve been hearing about recently.”

Will went scarlet.  “That...that wasn’t...it was all very exaggerated.”

“Was it really?  The portrait implied differently.”

“I...that...uh...Kayla,” Will stuttered as they reached their box.  “I was talking about Kayla.”

“Yes, tell me about Kayla,” Nico agreed.  The lights in the theater hadn’t been dimmed yet, to Nico’s disappointment.  He hadn’t forgotten his plan to get Will to kiss him in the dark.  However, he was pleased to see that Reyna and Hedge remained at the entrance of the box rather than coming in closer, and he didn’t mind when Asterion decided to lie next to him.

“Kayla is a bit of a terror,” Will said, letting Nico take a seat before joining him.  “It’s probably our fault for spoiling her so much, but we can’t help but favor her.  She never seems to run out of energy—thank the gods that Chiron is so patient.  When she’s not playing with her dolls or her blocks, she’s running around some place, usually causing trouble.  She loves to be outside and making a mess of her clothes—which, by the way, she loves.  She has quite the obsession with pretty dresses.  Unfortunately, she also has a tendency to ruin them after only a few wears, so she goes through dresses fairly quickly.  It doesn’t help that she keeps getting taller.”

“Hazel loves her dresses, as well,” Nico said with a chuckle.  “Not to the point of an obsession, but she is revolted by the idea of ever wearing breeches.  I have been trying to convince her that they are much more practical for fencing, but she will not listen.”

“That’s right, you were helping her learn to fence,” Will said, lowering his voice as the lights dimmed.  “Lee and Michael both enjoy archery and they have been pleading for Chiron to let them teach Kayla, but he hasn’t allowed it.  Kayla has shown a great deal of interest in the sport, but...well.  We are hesitant to give her sharp objects.”

“Understandable,” Nico replied in a whisper.  The crowd was growing quieter, but the orchestra was still playing the overture.  “Sometimes I worry Hazel is a little bit too happy to strike the training dummy—or me, when we spar.  I keep telling her she isn’t meant to stab, but she hasn’t listened.”

“I admit I know little about the sport, but I thought you were supposed to stab?” Will said, cocking his head to the side in a rather adorable display of confusion.  Nico wanted to kiss the subtle pout off his face.

“Well, yes, in the Juvian school of fencing,” Nico said, ignoring the voices in his head screaming for him to just grab Will and kiss him.  “The Plutonian school is different.  Hazel would probably prefer the Juvian school.”

“And which would you prefer, Your Highness?”

Nico thought for a moment.  Ordinarily, he would have immediately declared that the Juvian school was barbaric, but when Will asked, he was forced to admit that he had a great deal of respect for the style.  “I cannot say,” Nico eventually replied.  “I am comfortable with the Pluton school, but I don’t deny that the Juvian school intrigues me, as well.  But I think the show is about to start; we will talk more at intermission.”

Will agreed and turned to the stage, which offered Nico an opportunity to admire Will’s profile.  He stopped as soon as he realized he was doing it and turned to watch the performance. Rheae Fidelium—which was old Pluton for “Rhea the Faithful”—was a well-known opera about Rhea’s role in the war between the Titans and the Protogenoi.  It was not an uncommon topic; the war was a frequent subject in art and music, particularly Rhea’s role in it.  When the Protogenoi’s mutinous children rose up against them, Rhea was the only Titan who remained loyal.  The first act of the opera followed Rhea’s struggle with her conflicting allegiances to her parents and her husband.  It ended with the downfall of Ouranos solidifying her resolution to return to Gaea’s side.

Nico felt disappointed when the entr’acte began at intermission.  He had been too focused on the opera to get Will to kiss him.  The lights were raised between the acts, which made the atmosphere much less suitable for kissing.

Will, however, seemed delighted.  He asked Nico what he thought of the opera, then babbled about how much he loved it before leaning back in his seat, smiling, and saying something that shocked Nico.  “This opera house is where my father met my mother.”

Nico tried not to show his surprise.  “Your mother?”

“My birth mother,” Will clarified.  “Not my stepmother.  Daphne met my father at an arranged meeting, of course.”

“I see,” Nico said as he tried to organize his thoughts.  He was not sure how to respond; he did not mind that Will was natural-born, but usually such things were not mentioned in polite conversation.

“How did they meet?” Nico asked, pushing aside his astonishment.  Will was sharing a private story with him and Nico was honored to hear it.

“She was a singer,” Will said.  “My father always told me that he fell for her the instant he heard her voice.  After the performance, he asked to see her and they spent the rest of the day together around the park.  He went back to listen to her sing every day.”

“Was Daphne there?” Nico asked before he could restrain himself.

Will gave Nico a bashful smile.  “I was too nervous to ask,” he admitted.  “I’m not sure that either of them are willing to offer that information.”

“I did not mean to intrude—” Nico started.

“Not at all,” Will replied.  “I have no secrets from you, Your Highness.  Anything you wish to know, ask.”

Nico chewed the inside of his lip in thought for a brief moment, and then, before he could change his mind, he asked, “How did your stepmother react to your birth?”

“I don’t know what my father and stepmother’s relationship was like at the time,” Will admitted.  “I was my father’s first illegitimate child; I don’t know if she reacted differently to my birth than she did to Austin’s, but she accepted Austin into the family without question.”

“And what is her relationship with your father like now?” Nico asked, because he had been a bit confused the day before when Apollo was seated next to both his wife and his lover at dinner.  “I mean—you don’t have to answer that.”

“I don’t mind,” Will said.  “I am what I am, Your Highness, and there’s no point in being ashamed of that.”

“Of course, I didn’t mean to imply...I...I don’t mind.  That you’re natural-born.  It doesn’t matter to me—if you were worried, that is.”

Will’s smile was calm even though Nico’s hands were shaking.  “I didn’t think you would mind, but thank you for saying that.  As for my parents—my father and stepmother, that is—they don’t hate each other, but they don’t particularly get along, either.  My father married her because he fell in love, my stepmother accepted because of his wealth and influence.  I think....” Will stopped and cleared his throat.  “I’ve never told anyone this, but I think my father is still a bit in love with my stepmother.  I’ve always thought that he seems a bit sad after they fight.  I think my stepmother cares for him, too, in a way.  If you pay attention, you’ll start to see that she always seems to be looking out for him.  They are good parents.  Even if things between them aren’t quite right, they will work together for the family.”

“And what about Hyacinthus?” Nico asked.

“My father has a history of lovers,” Will said with a chuckle.  “He falls in love easily, but he has been quite monogamous to Hyacinth lately—apart from a few brief affairs, but he and Hyacinth don’t mind that.  Although, Hyacinth’s relationship with the Earl of Favonius has been going on for a few years now.  My father is a bit insecure about it; I think he’s afraid of losing Hyacinth.  Hyacinth is special to him.”

“Hyacinthus has another lover?”

“It’s confusing, I know,” Will said.  “Such is my father’s life.”

“But what about your birth mother?  What happened to her?”

Will sighed and folded his hands over his lap, looking less at ease and more artificially composed.  “She left,” Will answered.  “After she gave birth to me, she stayed as my wet nurse for a short time, and then she left.”

Nico nodded solemnly.  His own birth mother had also been his wet nurse, then she was a governess for both Nico and Bianca.  He remembered her fondly, despite being ignorant of their relationship as kin.  Will had not been given even that much.

“My father always told me that he was absolutely in love with her, but she had dreams that were too big for her to stay in one place for long,” Will continued.  “He said that she saw I would be cared for and left to continue singing.”

“And do you know where she is now?” Nico asked.

“No,” Will answered.  “I am not even sure that she is alive.  My father said that she was in a traveling act for a time, then he lost track of her.  She has never contacted since.”

“Have you tried to find her?”

Will shook his head.  “No.  I’ve never felt a need to.  She gave birth to me, she fed me, and those were the only roles we were meant to play in each other’s lives.  Daphne is my mother.  There are plenty of other women in my life who play that role, as well.  Perhaps it is cold or ungrateful of me to say this, but I don’t think I need her.  I am quite happy with the family I have.”

Nico wished he felt so at peace.  He considered Persephone to be his mother as much as Lady Maria, of course, but he felt dirtied whenever he thought about his illegitimacy.

I will tell him after we are married, Nico thought.  The King and Queen Consort had asked him to swear not to tell anyone, even Hazel, at least until she was older.  “It is a family secret,” they’d told him.  Nico had broken that promise twice: with Hestia and with Reyna, and only after asking for permission.  Truthfully, Nico hadn’t needed to be sworn to secrecy; he was too terrified of rejection to tell anyone.  He’d only told Hestia and Reyna because he trusted them to not judge him or leave him.

Nico knew he could trust Will with that secret, yet he still felt afraid.  Will was natural-born; it wouldn’t matter to him, would it?  Nico decided that he would wait until after the wedding.  When Nico married, Will would become part of the Pluton royal family.  Then Nico could tell him.

And if it did disgust Will, by then it would be too late for him to leave Nico.

“My brother Austin receives letters from his mother,” Will suddenly said.  “It was almost the same story: our father heard her compositions and went to meet her, then instantly fell in love.  Like my birth mother, she had dreams that were too big to be contained by one city, so she left after ensuring Austin would be cared for.  But for some reason, she stayed in contact even though my mother did not.”

When Nico turned to look at him, Will’s head was tilted to the side and he was frowning like he was trying to solve a difficult problem.  Impulsively, Nico reached out and put his hand on top of Will’s.  Will glanced at their hands in surprise, but he didn’t make any move to pull away.

“I don’t mean to complain,” Will said, offering Nico a smile.  “But I do admit, as a child, it was...confusing when Austin received letters but I did not.  But perhaps my mother was unable to.  Perhaps she is not even alive.  Perhaps we were simply not meant to have a relationship.  Whatever the case, I’m happy with my family.  I feel very blessed to have them.”

“I imagine that you must have questions,” Nico said slowly, struggling to find the right words.  “You were not left with many answers.”

“One thing that I have learned as a student in Venadica is that some questions will not be answered in my lifetime, others will never be answered, and still more should remain unanswered, at least until we are ready for the consequences that come along with that knowledge.  This is something I must simply accept.”

Nico looked down and saw that his hand was still on top of Will’s.  He had no desire to move it.

“Well, I...I think that she’s certainly made a poor choice, if she is alive.  She should know what a fine young man you’ve grown into.  I’d imagine everyone’s life could be a bit better with you in it.”

Will didn’t say anything, but when Nico looked up, Will was staring at him with a gaze so intense that it held him captive.  He looked handsome.  With the freckles splashed across his cheeks, his untamable curls of blond, and the soft, subtle part of his lips, just glancing at him made Nico nervous and excited.  Then there was the tender look in Will’s eyes: a soft but passionate depth that made Nico feel like his heart was going to burst.

Will had no idea what effect he had on Nico; that much was obvious.  Nico had once assumed that Will knew exactly how charming he was, but as he had gotten to know Will by watching his behavior and carefully reading over his letters, he had begun to realize that Will was not only sincere, but also was tragically unaware of how hard he’d made Nico fall for him.  It was so frustrating to know that even when Will looked at him like that, it meant absolutely nothing.  Will wasn’t trying to send Nico a secret message and he wasn’t trying to entice Nico.  Will really was just looking at him.  And yet, the things that simple look did to Nico....

He wanted to kiss Will.  Will was so close, just inches away.  Nico wanted to lift their joined hands and kiss Will’s fingers.  He could easily lean over and press his lips against Will’s cheek.  No one would be looking at their box.  It would be so easy, and it would feel so nice.

Nico suddenly recalled a thought he’d had when he’d first been introduced to Will in Divitia, before their betrothal had even been decided.  He’d thought that Will’s appearance was adequate, but nothing special, and had decided that was good; a terribly attractive suitor would have made him feel nervous and caused him to make a fool of himself.

How had he thought Will’s appearance was merely adequate at the time?  Had Nico not looked hard enough?  Had Will changed as he’d grown over the last year?  Perhaps Nico had simply been blind to it until Will had woven into his heart and opened his eyes.

And yes: as Nico had predicted, having a terribly attractive suitor did indeed cause him to make a complete fool of himself.  He thought about Will every day, sometimes sitting alone and making up fantasies in his head for hours on end.  He’d embarrassed himself on more than one occasion by revealing his enthusiasm for one of Will’s newly arrived letters in front of an audience.  He blushed and stuttered when he was supposed to be calm and poised.  His mind was muddled by rosy clouds whenever he spoke to Will.  And then there was Nico’s obscene desire to touch—no, his need to touch.  There was a persistent voice in Nico’s mind demanding constant physical contact, and even when there was physical contact, it demanded more.   Now touch him with both hands, it would say.   Hold him more tightly.  Step closer. Touch his face. Touch his neck.  Kiss him.

Nico tried not to listen to that voice, but it was too compelling to resist at times.  He couldn’t take his hand away from where it rested upon Will’s.  Even when the next act of the opera began, Nico hadn’t bothered to move it.  His hands felt like they were sweating and shaking and he wanted to adjust his hold, but he was afraid that even the smallest movement would mean the end of that static touch.

He found himself unable to follow the opera over the commands in his head for more Will.  He could move a bit closer.  He could entangle his fingers with Will’s.  He could lean over and use Will’s shoulder as a pillow.  He could kiss Will.  Gods, he wanted to kiss Will—but Nico couldn’t do that, no.  That would be far too brazen for a prince.

Nico gave in to one of the least scandalous impulses and shifted his hand to link his fingers with Will’s.  It felt better that way.  Nico liked how their hands fit together.

He caught Will glancing at him and immediately looked away, not wanting Will to know exactly how much he’d been staring.  He embarrassed himself enough around Will as it was.  It would be nice to preserve at least some of his dignity.  If he suddenly kissed Will, he would seem horribly unrefined; he had to somehow manage to get Will to do it instead.  Will always behaved perfectly; why couldn’t Nico be more like that?

But there had been a few times that Will had breached the rules of etiquette.  The first had been at the beginning of their initial arranged marriage meeting, when Will had nudged Nico’s foot with his own.  Why hadn’t Will done anything like that again?  Why was it that the only touch Will ever initiated was when he offered his arm to escort Nico?  Had Will tired of him?

Nico squeezed Will’s hand without meaning to.  Will’s eyes, which had drifted to the performance again, snapped back to look at him.  Nico smiled before quickly looking away, too nervous to use it as an opportunity to get Will to kiss him.

Nico knew that his fears were groundless.  Will wouldn’t initiate touch because Nico was a prince, simple as that.  Any rare moments when Will had breached that social norm had been exceptions to Will’s usual gentlemanly behavior.  However, knowing that Will occasionally acted on impulse gave Nico hope.  Perhaps if Nico managed to catch Will off guard, Will would be so overcome with his desire to kiss Nico that he would just do it.

That was what Nico had been counting on the day before.  He’d said such nice things to Will, he’d complimented Will’s appearance, he’d even touched Will’s hand and arm far more than etiquette required.  He had even touched Will’s ankle at dinner, futilely hoping that it would remind Will of the way he’d touched Nico’s at their first marriage consultation and then ignite such a passion in Will that he had to kiss Nico.

All Nico’s hard work had been in vain; Will had not seemed to understand Nico’s intentions at all.  Perhaps if Nico pushed him a bit more, he would finally figure out what Nico wanted.  Of course, Nico would have to find a way to keep Reyna and Hedge distracted.

However, this was all based on the assumption that Will wanted to kiss him.  It was entirely possible that Will simply had no desire to do so, but Nico thought that was unlikely.  After all, Will’s family had quite clearly alluded to Will’s long-lasting admiration of Nico the evening before.  Nico simply hadn’t pushed Will hard enough yet.  If Nico kept trying, Will was bound to understand at some point, wasn’t he?

The opera ended before Nico managed to find the courage to do anything more than hold Will’s hand.  Perhaps it was a good thing; if Will liked the opera so much, Nico didn’t want to distract him from it.  Unfortunately, Nico had been quite distracted as a result of Will’s mere presence and had missed much of the second act.

“Would you like to rent a supper box?” Will asked once they managed to get back outside.  He’d enthused about the opera until they’d managed to get through the crowd and leave the opera house.

Nico hadn’t realized how hungry he was until Will asked, so he agreed.  There was a dining area a short distance away with a row of individual supper boxes available to rent as well as tables across the green.  Will made their orders and they were directed to a box where they sat to wait for their food.  The supper box wasn’t much different from a box in an opera house, except it was outside; it was large enough to serve a group and opened to look out at the gardens, but still private.  Nico spotted Reyna and Hedge standing an acceptable distance away, and noted with satisfaction that Reyna was still keeping Hedge under control.

“Tell me more about your two eldest siblings,” Nico said.  “You haven’t spoken about them yet.”

“Three eldest, if you’ll pardon me saying so,” Will corrected.  “I consider Lou Ellen my sibling as much as the rest of them.”

“Three eldest, then.  Tell me about them.”

“They are practically inseparable,” Will began.  “Lee and Lou Ellen first got to know each other through letters while the arrangements were discussed.  Closer to the wedding, Lou Ellen traveled here for a visit so they could meet in person for the first time.  They had become friends through their letters and quickly connected in person, as well.  Michael, though—he was less than welcoming to Lou Ellen.”

“Is that so?  But I thought they got along well?”

“They do now, but I think Michael was afraid of losing Lee.  They have always been so close.  Michael, I think, was a bit jealous that someone else was stealing our brother away from him.”

“How did they ever become friends?”

“Oh, it didn’t take long.  Lou Ellen has quite the sense of humor; Michael wasn’t able to hold out against her.  Now they’re quite the trio.  Lee and Lou Ellen are deliriously in love, Lee and Michael are as close as brothers can be, and Michael and Lou Ellen are practically a pair of criminals, given the trouble they cause together.” Will paused as a waiter arrived with their food.  Nico was surprised at how fast it had been, but Will explained that they only served foods that were made in advance and quickly prepared, such as bread and cold cuts.

Will continued to talk about his family while they ate and Nico listened, occasionally tossing a cold cut in Asterion’s direction and ignoring Reyna’s disappointed glares.  Will looked happy when Nico asked questions and took interest in what he was saying.  “You must love your family very much,” Nico commented.

Smiling broadly, Will said, “Yes, Your Highness.  I’m very fortunate to have them.”

Nico took a deep breath before saying, “I hope that you’ll find something like that in my family, as well.” Really, he hoped that alluding to their marriage would spur Will into declaring his boundless affections before sweeping Nico into a kiss.

“As do I.  I’m quite excited to be a part of your family, Your Highness.”

Caught completely off guard by the warm hearted answer, Nico blushed and stuttered a vague reply instead of thinking of a way to steer Will towards kissing him.  At the rate he was going, it might be less detrimental to Nico’s pride to actually kiss Will rather than continue his blatant attempts to lure Will into doing it instead.  But Nico had committed himself to this particular course of action, and once he set his mind on something, he didn’t let go.  No, Will had to be the one to do the kissing.  Nico just had to figure out the right places to push to get Will to do it.

By the time they finished eating, the day was approaching dusk.  They were chatting and looking out at the gardens from their box when Nico noticed a hedge maze and started plotting again.

“The maze appears to be popular with couples,” Nico noted casually, having seen several pairs enter and exit.  He looked at Will out of the corner of his eye to gauge Will’s reaction.

Will flushed.  “It...um...yes.  It is.”

Nico waited a second longer, but when Will said nothing more, he tried to push harder.   “We are a couple,” he said.  “Shall we go there?”

Will looked embarrassed.  “I...um...” he began hesitantly.  “Well, I...I don’t think that Hedge and Lady Reyna would approve of Your Highness going there alone with me.”

Nico hummed and looked at the maze in thought.  It seemed likely that they wouldn’t be the first pair to hide from chaperones in the maze.  If he and Will could manage to to escape from Reyna and Hedge, they could go in there, all alone, in the dark, where no one would see them.  And then, Nico would finally get Will to kiss him.

His decision made, Nico said, “I don’t see why they should be notified.  Let’s go there a bit later, after we find a moment to slip away.”

Will looked alarmed.  “Slip away?” he asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to go in the maze with me?” Nico asked, knowing fully well that the answer was yes.  Of course Will wanted to spend time with him; Will told him that often enough, didn’t he?

When Will nodded, Nico bent his head closer and lowered his voice.  “Good.  Then we’ll make an escape and run for the maze.”

“Now I only wonder who will have my head first,” Will sighed.  “Hedge or Lady Reyna?”

Nico clucked his tongue.  “There will be no decapitation,” he said with finality.  Strict as they were, Hedge and Reyna still obeyed Nico’s orders, and Nico would allow no maiming to Will’s body.  Nico preferred for Will’s rather attractive neck to be intact.  “You mentioned that there would be fireworks.  That will be a good time to lose them.  We’ll slip into the crowd and they won’t be able to find us in the dark.”

“I get the sense that this is a very bad idea,” Will said.

“Nonsense, it’s a brilliant idea.  I want to go to the maze with you.  It’ll be exciting, won’t it?”

“Well...exciting is one word for it.”

“Please, Will?  It would make me so happy.”

Will sighed and rubbed his temple.  “Alright, yes.  When everyone starts to gather for the fireworks.”

Nico was shocked when his plan worked.  He had been expecting for it to go wrong—most of his attempts to get close to Will ended in failure—but when the sun set, they managed to escape.  A crowd shuffled around as visitors tried to find a spot with a good view, but Nico grabbed Will’s arm and hurried to the maze.  Thankfully, Reyna’s maintenance of an acceptable distance away had allowed them to get separated in the crowd.  They didn’t lose Asterion, of course.  It was probably good that Asterion hadn’t ended up with Reyna and Hedge; they could have used Asterion to track Nico.  Although he hadn’t been trained to hunt, Nico had trained him to do some basic tracking.  Unfortunately, Reyna had used that against him a few times in the past when Nico made the mistake of not bringing Asterion with him when he was hiding from his communication lessons.  Besides, Nico liked having Asterion around.

Although Nico was delighted, Will still seemed nervous when they entered the maze.  Nico even began to wonder if it had been a good idea after all; if Will was uncomfortable, he would never kiss Nico.  “Have you gone through this maze before?” Nico asked, hoping to lighten Will’s mood.

“A few times, Your Highness.  Austin and I got lost in here once when we were younger.  It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but I’ve gone through since then.”

Nico thought that it wouldn’t be so bad to get lost in the maze with Will.  He almost said that out loud, but he lost the courage.  “You will enjoy it this time,” he said instead.

“Of course I will; I always enjoy being with you.”

Nico almost tripped over a root in his surprise.  How did Will find the courage to talk like that?  Were Nico’s nerves just strange?

“Yes, also, for me, as well,” Nico said in an attempt to give some affectionate reply.  The sky was quickly getting dark, which only added to Nico’s excitement and put him more on edge.  “In fact, I think it wouldn’t be so bad to get lost,” he added, and then he suddenly didn’t know how to stop talking and kept rambling.  “In the maze.  With you.  And Asterion, of course, because Asterion is here and...but I mean, I would like to be with you here even if Asterion were not here.  That’s not to say that that I’m hoping to get lost, of course.  Just that it wouldn’t be such a bad stroke of luck, as a result of...uh...being with you.”

Nico finally managed to bite his tongue and stop himself from going further.  It was difficult to judge Will’s expression in the dark.  There was a beat of silence, and then Will said, “I...I agree.  It wouldn’t be so bad.”

They were saved from the awkward pause that followed by the sudden bang of fireworks, and then Asterion panicked and took off running.  “Asterion!” Nico called in surprise, cursing himself for forgetting that his dog didn’t like fireworks.  He ran in the direction Asterion had disappeared with Will following close behind.  They reached a divide in the path and Nico said, “I’ll go left.” Will voiced his agreement and they separated.

It didn’t take long for Nico to realize his mistake.  Getting lost in a maze with his fiancé?  Good.  Getting lost in a maze alone?  Bad.

He called out for Asterion loudly, feeling much better when he heard Will call for him, as well.  But it had been foolish of him to forget about Asterion’s sensitivity.  No dogs enjoyed fireworks and Asterion startled particularly easily.  Nico had been too focused on finding ways to get Will to kiss him to think about Asterion.

Nico tried to calm himself with assurances that Asterion would be alright.  He was smart enough to find his way back to Nico; Nico had trained him.  But the anxiety of being alone in the dark maze with no idea how to get out added to the stress of losing his dog was overwhelming.  He nearly crumpled helplessly on the ground, but his panic outweighed his hopelessness and kept him moving.  He had lost Asterion before.  He couldn’t lose Asterion again.

It wasn’t long before he heard Will’s voice again, this time calling for him instead of Asterion.  “Will?” Nico shouted back, and he had to repeat himself when his voice was drowned out by the fireworks.

Will’s voice replied, and Nico was able to pick out the words “I have him” over the noise.  He sighed in relief, reminding himself that his panic was pointless and that Asterion was safe.  He still sometimes had to reassure himself of that.

“I’m coming,” Nico called as he started walking in the direction of Will’s voice.  He struggled to remember exactly where he had turned in his hurry, but Will’s voice, always so gentle and calming, kept calling to him to remind him what direction to go.  He reached the divide they had parted at quickly and it appeared that Will hadn’t had to run far to catch Asterion.  Nico found Will sitting in the light of the fireworks with Asterion half on his lap, holding Asterion’s head against his chest and covering his ears.

“Praise the gods,” Nico said, deflating on the ground next to Will.  He reached out to pet Asterion, smiling when the dog’s droopy eyes turned to look at him.  “I forgot how much he hates fireworks.”

“We’ve got him now,” Will said comfortingly.  “He’ll be alright once he calms down.”

Sighing, Nico leaned back on his hands to watch the fireworks in the night sky.  Asterion would be safe in Will’s arms.  He could trust Will with Asterion.  He could probably trust Will with anything.

When Nico glanced over, he caught Will looking at him and offered a smile.  When Will smiled back, the fireworks illuminated the pretty lines of his face.  Nico found himself more interested in the way the light looked on Will than in the fireworks themselves and was so mesmerized that he just watched Will during the finale.  Will watched him, too.

“Will?” Nico whispered when the finale was over and the sky became dark and silent again.

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“I think we’re lost.”

Will’s laugh made Nico feel warm.  He couldn’t stop himself from laughing with him.

“Lady Reyna and Hedge are going to string me up by my ears and drag me behind the carriage on the way back,” Will sighed, but he sounded amused rather than panicked.

“No, Hedge will string you up by your ears,” Nico corrected.  “Reyna will be too busy stringing me up by mine.”

“She’s really that strict?”

“Oh, undoubtedly,” Nico replied.  “But she likes me.  Sometimes I manage to win her over after I’ve been particularly troublesome.  This time, though...she is not going to be pleased.”

Will laughed.  “Well, at least we are lost together.”

Nico saw Will’s silhouette releasing Asterion in the dark.  “Thank you for finding him,” Nico said.

“I simply happened to run in the right direction,” Will said.  He got to his feet and offered Nico his hand to help him up.  Nico considered kissing Will in thanks, but his pride demanded that the first kiss must be from Will.  “Shall we try to find our way out?”

Nico sighed, but agreed and took Will’s arm.  “Asterion likes you,” he said.  “You care for him very well.”

“I do my best, Your Highness.”

“You are going to be a very good husband,” Nico said automatically.  He could barely see Will in the dark, but Will was definitely looking at him and he appeared not to know what to say.  It occurred to Nico that although he said that quite often, he didn’t say it in front of Will.  “I think that I’m very fortunate,” he continued.

Will was quiet for a few seconds, long enough for Nico to worry he’d said something wrong.  But then he said, “I admire you, Your Highness.  I always have.  I suspect I always will.”

Nico could have melted on the spot.  He wanted to tell Will that he admired him, too, but he couldn’t form the right words to express it.  The feelings he had for Will overwhelmed him and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with them or how to convey them.  A part of Nico just wanted to hold Will tightly and never let go.

“I’m flattered,” Nico stammered.  He wanted to stop talking, but he couldn’t keep himself from rambling on.  “I...um...I like when you say things like that.  I’m glad you feel that way.  I mean, uh, I also think highly of you, and I’m very flattered and...uh...I feel glad that you’re...um...with me.  Engaged.”

Nico wanted to sink into the hedges and hide until his mortification passed.  He hated the way he couldn’t shut himself up when he got too excited or angry or nervous.  He always ended up embarrassing himself.

“I’m also glad,” Will said.  Nothing in his voice suggested that he thought Nico had said anything strange at all.  “When my aunt first approached me with the idea of courting you, I...well, I hadn’t bothered to hope for even a friendship with someone like you.” Will faltered for a second before saying, “I never forgot you.  When we were introduced as children, it was a special moment for me—of course, my brothers already told you that much.  So when I learned that I would meet you again...well, I was terrified when I met you again in Divitia last year.”

His embarrassment receding, Nico mentally celebrated.  He hadn’t gotten Will to kiss him yet, but he had gotten Will to ramble about how much he liked him.

“I didn’t know,” Nico said once he was confident that he wouldn’t trip over his own tongue.  “You seemed so composed that I almost didn’t know what to think of you.  You were all politeness and kindness and proper etiquette.”

“I wanted to impress you,” Will replied.

“You did.”

“And do I still impress, Your Highness?”

Nico was surprised by how easily he smiled at Will and said, “Yes.  You do.”

Nico reaffirmed his grip on Will’s arm, fighting his desire to stand closer.  It was brazen enough that they were alone in the dark, far away and hidden from sight.  He should not behave so shamelessly.

Yet Nico’s hand slipped down Will’s arm and he laced his fingers with Will’s.  It was more intimate that way; not quite scandalous, but deviant enough that Reyna would have raised her eyebrow and given him a warning glance.

In the dark, Nico was just barely able to see Will looking at their joined hands in surprise.  The reaction made Nico second guess himself, so he asked, “Would you like to walk like this for a while?”

“I...yes, I would,” Will said.  Nico suspected he was blushing; it was regrettable that he wasn’t able to see it.  The maze was dark.  Only the moon and stars and the far away glow of gas lamps lit the path before them.  Nico and Will were alone, without a chaperone, late at night, and Nico had just initiated a rather intimate gesture.

So maybe it was a bit scandalous.

Nico wet his lips.  He did not find anything wrong with what he was doing; deviant, yes, and perhaps inappropriate, but not wrong.   In fact, he liked it.  He enjoyed being so alone with Will, touching Will’s hand, and being hidden by the tall hedges and the cover of darkness.  It was scandalous, true, but that only gave Nico a small rush of excitement.  Reyna and Hedge would lecture him for running off without them, but it was well worth the chance to be alone with Will, away from prying eyes, the way married couples were allowed to be.  Nico could act however he wanted with Will, so long as Will did not mind.  He could kiss Will, if he wanted.

He did want.

It was a good time to do it; after all, no one would be there to witness it.  The kiss would be a secret between Will and Nico.  And it had to be soon; Asterion would be able to lead them out of the maze with his sense of smell and then Nico would lose the opportunity.  But how?  Even though Nico had been so obvious in his attempts to get Will to kiss him so far, he had been unsuccessful.  Will had just professed his long-lived admiration for Nico, and he still hadn’t done it.

Perhaps Will required a more direct approach.  Nico could just tell Will to kiss him.  It was embarrassing, but it could work as a desperate last resort.  That way, he could transfer the authority of the kissing to his fiancé without subjecting himself to committing such a scandalous act.

“You may kiss me,” Nico said before he could become too nervous to do so.  He tried very hard to keep his hands from shaking and to exude a sense of confidence.

There was a beat of silence, and then: “Your Highness?”

Nico’s confidence started to crumble immediately, but he attempted to maintain his composure.  He stopped walking and turned to look at Will.  He couldn’t see much more than the outline of his face.  “Uh—I mean, if you would like to.  Kiss me, that is.  You may do so.”

“Oh,” Will said.  “I.  Um, yes.  I would like to.  If you would like it, as well.”

Nico almost sighed in relief, but he did his best to keep his demeanor suitably indifferent.  “Well, you are permitted.”

He heard Will clear his throat.  “But...would you like me to...?”

Nico did his best to keep his frustration under control, but said, “I—Lord William, I would not have given you permission if I found the idea less than appealing.”

“So...you want me to?”

“Oh, for the love of Rhea!  I order you to kiss me.”

“Right, of course.  Then, if you don’t mind, um....”

Will’s face came closer.  Nico tilted his chin up expectantly, then closed his eyes when he felt Will’s breath against his lips.   Finally!   screamed a voice in his head.  He had been waiting for months with absolutely no progress, and now—at last—he was about to succeed.  But for a moment, Will merely stood there and Nico began to wonder if something had gone wrong.  Then the moment passed and Will closed the gap between them.

The kiss was quick.  Will pecked Nico’s lips and then drew back immediately, fixing his gaze on his shoes.  It felt nice, though.  Annoying, as well, because although Nico’s knowledge about kissing was lacking, he felt sure that Will hadn’t done it properly.  Even still, it was nice.  Will had kissed him shyly and bashfully and Nico thought that it was very like Will to kiss like that.  Even if it had been mildly annoying, Nico wouldn’t have liked it any other way.

“Was that alright?” Will asked.

“Yes,” Nico answered quickly, his voice coming out more squeaky than he expected.  “It was very nice.”

“I, um, also enjoyed it.”

Nico cleared his throat.  “Would you like to do it again?”

“Oh, uh, now?”

“If you would like.”

“And...would you like...?”

“Yes.”

“Right.  Then I’ll....” Will pressed his lips against Nico’s a second time.  It was still brief, lasting less than a second, but it made Nico happy, anyway.

“Another?” Nico asked impulsively.

“Now?”

“Now.  If you’d like.”

“Yes.”

And Will kissed him again.  That time, Nico stopped him from drawing back.

“Keep going,” Nico said, pulling Will closer.  “Don’t stop until you want to.”

Will cleared his throat.  “But...what if I want to never stop?”

“Well...perhaps I want you to never stop.”

“We have to stop at some point.”

“Yes.  At some point.”

And Will kissed him a fourth time, and then a fifth time, and then Nico kissed Will, and then he stopped counting.  To his relief, kissing wasn’t very difficult.  They were learning quickly.  It felt nice; not as dramatic as he had been hoping for, but not disappointing by any means.  The kisses were soft and gentle, just like Will, and Nico concluded that kisses were good that way, too.

Nico would have gladly spent the next several hours practicing with Will, but he knew that Reyna would find particularly brutal ways of punishing him if he made her wait that long.  He could have survived it, but he would not survive the mortification Hedge would put him through if he started lecturing Will again.  Reyna might not be forgiving enough to stop him.

“Perhaps another time when we are alone this way, we can do this again,” Nico suggested, leaning his forehead against Will’s.

“I would like that.”

Nico grinned when he heard the smile in Will’s voice.  “As would I.”

Reyna and Hedge were not pleased.  Nico didn’t particularly care.

It had taken them a while after that to find their way out, even with Asterion’s nose helping them.  Reyna and Hedge had apparently figured out where they had gone at some point, because they were waiting furiously at the exit.  Reyna, who would have usually saved Nico’s lecture for when they were without company, wasted no time scolding him in front of Will.  Nico ignored her.  Hedge tried to scold Will, but Reyna, apparently too angry to tolerate it, shut him up with the reminder that she was the chaperone.  Hedge apparently found her very convincing.

Reyna didn’t stop lecturing him in the carriage, but Nico occupied himself with gazing at Will’s profile instead of listening to her, then he pretended to fall asleep on Will’s shoulder when she started to annoy him.  Eventually, he really did fall asleep on Will’s shoulder.  By the time they got back to Phoebus and Will gently woke him up, Reyna had finally stopped.

The Sun Palace was wide awake despite the late hour.  When the door was opened for them, they were greeted by complete chaos.  The floor of the entrance hall was coated with mud.  An entire herd of pigs—one of them ridden by Kayla—stampeded across the hall and down the corridor.  Apollo and Hyacinthus were arguing about something in a room close by and horrible screeches of a violin came from down the corridor.  Nico heard Chiron yelling at someone not to run indoors, and he found out whom when Michael and Lou Ellen raced through the hall after Kayla and the pigs.  “Don’t tell Lee!” they shouted in unison when they saw Will and Nico at the door.  Meanwhile, Daphne was leaning against the bannister of the staircase, sipping a glass of wine and watching the scene in amusement.  She offered them a wave, which Nico weakly returned.

“Don’t worry; this is normal,” Will sighed in resignation, then he navigated around the mud to escort Nico to his room.

The scene distracted Reyna’s rage for a little while, but as soon as they reached Nico’s room and were left alone inside, she and Hedge wasted no time resuming their lecture.

“Do you expect me to let this pass, Your Highness?” Reyna demanded when Nico suggested they leave to let him sleep.  “I have been lenient as of late, but this was too far.”

“Your Highness, you can’t sneak off like that,” Hedge said.  “I say this for your safety.”

Nico sighed.  “We were in Delphi, Hedge.  What harm could possibly be done in Delphi?”

“Anything could go wrong anywhere, with anyone,” Hedge growled.

“Will wouldn’t hurt me—”

“I’m not talking about Lord Solace hurting you.  I’m saying that you were far away from us in some dark maze where anyone could have been hiding.”

“We didn’t even know where you were,” Reyna added.

“Don’t forget the reason I was assigned to you in the first place, Your Highness,” Hedge said.

Nico looked at his feet.  No, he hadn’t forgotten the attempt on his life that had caused Hades to give Nico his own personal guard unit.  He still had the occasional nightmare about it.

“I...I had Asterion with me,” Nico tried to reason.

“Asterion isn’t a fighter,” Reyna said.  “I don’t doubt that he’d do his best to protect you, but I fear that there’s not much more he’d be able to do than alert us.  The same goes for Lord William.”

“And we would’ve been too far away to help,” Hedge said.  “Pluto can’t lose you, Your Highness.  Please don’t be so reckless.”

Nico sighed.  “I understand,” he relented.  “I’ll do better in the future.”

“And you can’t sneak off alone with that boy!” Hedge added aggressively.

“That was extremely inappropriate behavior,” Reyna said.  “I agree with Hedge this time.”

“Now you’re just being overbearing,” Nico sniffed.  “And anyway, Will and I had a wonderful time together.”

“That is precisely what we are afraid of, Your Highness,” Reyna said.

Nico lifted his chin smugly and grinned.  Reyna’s eyes narrowed.  “What did you do?” she asked.

“I kissed him,” Nico said proudly.

Reyna stared at him.  “You what?”

“I kissed Lord William,” Nico repeated.  “Or, more accurately, he kissed me—”

“He what?” Hedge demanded.

“Because I gave him permission, of course—”

“You what?” they both said in unison.

“Oh, calm yourselves.  You were engaged once, Lady Reyna; didn’t you ever sneak off with your fiancé?  Actually, I’m better off not knowing.”

Reyna didn’t even react to Nico’s goading.  “Your Highness, be sensible.  You, an unwed young man of considerable standing, snuck away from us late at night, in an unfamiliar location, to spend time alone with another unwed man, and now you tell me that he kissed you during this time?”

Hedge punched his palm aggressively, like he was imagining beating Will to a pulp.  “I must speak with Lord Solace about this; that was grossly inappropriate behavior and—”

“I asked him to kiss me,” Nico said with a roll of his eyes.  “He was the perfect gentleman.”

“You asked him to kiss you?” Reyna demanded.

“I really don’t see the problem, Lady Reyna,” Nico said with a frown.

“The problem, Your Highness, is that I have utterly failed as your chaperone!  There’s no telling what depths of trouble I’ll be in when we return to the Palatium de Divitae!”

“Well, why should anyone have to know?” Nico asked.

“Do you suggest we lie, Your Highness?” asked Hedge.

“I’m only suggesting you omit certain elements of the account.  No one saw.” Nico paused and fiddled nervously with the trim on his coat.  “And I’m happy, very happy,” he admitted.  “Please don’t tell.”

Reyna and Hedge exchanged a glance.  After a moment, they both sighed, apparently having come to an agreement.  “If it makes you so happy, then we will allow it to pass this time,” Reyna said.  “Do not expect me to continue to be so generous.  Please use more discretion in the future and take care not to let your courting schemes get in the way of your safety.”

“Of course,” Nico said, but he had no intention of doing so.  In fact, he was already plotting the next time he’d sneak Will away for a kiss or two.

Next

#Will solace #solangelo #Nico di Angelo #solangelo fanfiction #solangelo fanfic #arranged marriage AU #solangelo arranged marriage au #pjo Arranged Marriage au #pjo royalty au #royalty au #solangelo royalty au #pjo fanfiction #my fic #trials of apollo #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #Heroes of Olympus #pjo #toa #hoo

[cattles-bians]

damie vibecca exes au part 6

post directory

em: i like the contrast of like. dani and viola ended v emotionally and raw and then jamie rebecca was like, probably extremely civil, amicable

obsetress: yeah!!!! it fits

em: still awkward but absolutely not as tragic as the danvi

obsetress: they're both too similar

obsetress: like dani and vi and rebecca and jamie

obsetress: which is why they just needed to

obsetress: trade

em: which is so funny bc if like. lemme just maths this out

em: ok if dani and vi are both A and rebecca and jamie are both B so jamie and dani are B and A, and rebecca and viola are B and A

em: also implies the existence of a compatible jamie viola and dani rebecca

obsetress: see i was thinking about that and like

obsetress: on paper

obsetress: yeah

em: which is NOT the case

obsetress: but in reality???? the least compatible of all three which is. hilarious

em: viola jamie hate fuck when but i think rebecca and dani would have a weird lack of chemistry

obsetress: agreed

em: too similar in a different way!

obsetress: vi dani similar in the right way dani becs similar in the wrong way

obsetress: but vi becs different in the right way

obsetress: also another belated c/p but

obsetress: after becs and vi have that conversation and becca is like can i see pics of ur daughter and i'd love to meet her someday

obsetress: vi is 100% like "do you wanna get out of here?" and they go back to her place but then they just

obsetress: snuggle on the couch and fall asleep together and it's the first time they've done that w/o having sex first

obsetress: soft!

em: babies...........

obsetress: just this, like, image of the two of them on viola's couch with their feet tucked underneath their legs with her dumb floor to ceiling windows overlooking london and a roaring fire in a fireplace in front of them and two whiskey glasses on the table and

obsetress: viola's looking at her in a way she hasn't looked at anyone in a long time and rebecca is smiling softly over at her and then they're leaning slowly in

obsetress: im gonna be sick

em: oh

obsetress: they're kissing soft then pulling away and rebecca's eyes are still closed when she's whispering "this might be something, mightn't it?" and viola's whispering "i think it is"

em: oh to be invested in the rarest of rarepairs

---

obsetress: brain update

obsetress: has now moved from soft to

obsetress: viola and rebecca going to all these dumb boutique fitness classes together

em: dumb boutique fitness classes jahskdhdkd

obsetress: they would tho in their dumb sports bras and high waisted leggings

em: dani power squats. jamie does a bodyweight workout and complains the whole time

em: oh

em: love that for them

em: and me, imagining it

obsetress: vi and rebecca are the ones in the dumb sports bras and leggings

em: they match. they coordinate gym outfits

obsetress: PLEASE

obsetress: hers and hers lululemon

em: it’s disgusting and unfortunately too attractive

obsetress: too! attractive!

obsetress: wheres that

obsetress: [this links to an instagram post by tahirah sharif]

obsetress: also belly button ring belly button ring belly button ring b

em: ma’am ur navel

obsetress: yeah

obsetress: dani and jamie meeting them outside whatever dumb lil gym and dani's stopping dead in her tracks and blinking at them

obsetress: jamie has to elbow her to get her to close her mouth

obsetress: they're following them inside and jamie's mumbling "keep it in your pants, yeah?" "but they look hot" "yeah, i fuckin know they look hot, i––"

em: i love a couple that's like, yknow. jamie and dani both know they’re still gonna find women hot

obsetress: it is So Important

em: even if dani didn’t have too much bad sex w eddie she’s allowed to think women hot

em: danis catching FLIES

em: danis like why did u and becs break up. how did u let her go

obsetress: WAIT LKSDFJLSDFl KJ

obsetress: i got SO INVESTED in the rest of this

obsetress: that i foRGOT JAMIE AND BECS DATED TOO

obsetress: jamie ignoring dani's "why did you two break up again" and then dani's poking her

"can you at least tell me if it was before or after the belly button ring"

em: danis like what if i get a belly button ring

obsetress: oh no

em: jamies like... (british grumbling) can we jsut work out

em: thinks abt it a little too much

obsetress: "you didn't even wanna work out in the first place, jamie, god forbid i help make it fun for you"

"yeah... fun"

em: jamies palms are Too Sweaty she falls off the pull up bar

obsetress: viola stares

obsetress: rebecca smirks

obsetress: dani GRINS

em: eheheh Little Shits Rebecca and Dani

obsetress: jamie watching dani do squats

obsetress: viola watching dani do squat

obsetress: jamie catching viola watching dani do squats

obsetress: jamie scowling

obsetress: viola grinning

em: danis like don’t worry i have enough ass for the two of u

em: wait

em: no well that took a turn

em: viola is a MENACE jamie never knows peace again

em: jamies like man at least during awkward lunches w eddie i could flex a little

em: (jamies gets to flex a little eventually)

obsetress: in the locker room after they work out dani and vi both make a beeline for the same shower and then have an awkward like

obsetress: u no u

obsetress: later, dani explains nervously to jamie "that was, um, ours, when she'd drag me to the gym with, um" and she's bright red

obsetress: "it's just... muscle memory, it's not like, you know"

obsetress: jamie is honestly more amused than anything else

em: jamie lets her sweat it out but she’s not mad or anything! jamie understands a routine

obsetress: yeah

obsetress: jamie's just grinning by the end and laughing "c'mere" and tugs her down the row of showers and picks a random one "a shower of your very own"

em: aw soft

obsetress: soft!

obsetress: until

obsetress: dani beams but then bites her lip and glances over at jamie "does it have to be just my very own"

em: jamies like no their PDA is disgusting. however our PDA is fine

em: rebecca showers separately bc she times it down to the minute and Someone has to be functional

obsetress: god chefs kiss

obsetress: viola doing a 12-step skin care routine in the mirror

obsetress: then drags them all to brunch after

#the dani jamie viola rebecca exes au #i have one more in drafts atm but discord c/p is. such a pain to format

[wingsofkpop]

When You Love Someone - Part Two /// Philia

pairing(s): Kim Wonpil x Reader, Day6 x Reader

genre: High School!AU, Young Love!AU, some Angst, but it’s completely sugar coated with Fluff

warning(s): None

word count: 3,3k

synopsis: There are many paths in life, but the longest of all is the path to the heart. In your eyes, what does it truly mean… to love?… 

chapter directory

Prom—the one event that always manages to send shivers down a wallflower’s spine. There’s the attire; dresses that sparkle enough to put the stars to shame and tuxedos that barely compete on a grey-scale color scheme (unless you’re gay with a knack for decent fashion). Then, the actual party, complete with over-sweetened punch, cheesy photo booths, and music that’s bad enough for even the chaperones to jam out too. But there’s one part that’s worse than all the rest… 

...The damn ‘prom-posals.’ 

Here’s the thing, the first few times someone hires the marching band to serenade their potential date into attending the dance with them are cute… But there’s only so many times you can hear Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” in English class, especially when it’s played on the trombone. 

Prom was never on your bucket list. Even more so since Wonpil would be out of town the weekend of. But unfortunately, Jae somehow caught a whiff of your reluctance, cornered you right before homeroom, and basically threatened to carry you kicking and screaming to the event whether you liked it or not. You can always thank Jae for his dramatic flare in the most inopportune of situations. 

And alas… Who are you to argue since he’d probably drag you there anyway? Which brings you to your current problem: Finding a dress that doesn’t make you look like a cougar or a whale. It’s surprising how little there is in between. 

“What about this one?” You’re careful leaving the dressing room, taking precaution to not trip over the obnoxiously long skirt. Once you step onto the slight platform, you’re met with your own reflection, the dress doing very little to compliment your figure nor your complexion. “I think there’s too much fabric… and the neckline is just bad.” 

“Why do you bother asking for my opinion if you already know you hate it?” Wonpil chuckles, never taking his eyes off of his phone. You watch, unamused, as he continues to type something out on the screen, paying your stare of judgement no mind. 

You scoff, “Maybe cause I know you’ll just say it looks fine. Like all the other dresses I tried.” 

“Hey, I did say that white one made you look like a giant marshmallow.”

“No, I said that-” Annoyance floods throughout your veins at your best friend’s indifference. “-You just agreed with it.” The brief distraction allows a sneaky piece of material to wind around your ankles, nearly sending you flying to the floor. A gracious wall manages to break your fall though. 

“I don’t know what you want from me, (Y/N)-noona. I thought you didn’t care about prom anyway.” 

You tug the privacy curtain back in place with a sigh, “Yeah, well, forgive me for wanting to dress to impress for one night.” The outsider grows silent, and you can’t really bring yourself to care over peeling the ugly dress from your body. Maybe you can just do as you did for homecoming and raid your mom’s closet—or just show up in jeans and a T-shirt. 

Just before you’re about to pull on your own clothes and call it a day, you hear a soft murmur of your name. You tuck your half naked body behind the curtain before peeking your head out the small gap. Confusion turns to surprise at the sight of Wonpil standing with an elegant, navy gown slung over his arm.  

“Give this one a try?” The cold facade melts from your chest at the boy’s apologetic smile. You roll your eyes with a soft grin of your own and snatch the dress from your best friend’s grasp. It’s a lot more simple than the ones you’ve been sampling; not overly decorated with lace, jewels and sparkles, or much of anything really. It was just as it was: A dark blue gown that barely went past your toes. 

Wonpil’s jaw drops as you pull back the curtain, his expression twisting a bout of insecurity in your gut. You frantically rush to the nearest mirror with a whine, “Is it that bad!? I look like a blueberry this time, don’t-” The words immediately die in your throat as you drink in the picture in the mirror.. 

No detail was neither too large or too small. The cool hue of the fabric blended with your skin like a dream, revealing just enough to bring a sense of both modesty and confidence to your mind. The garment also managed to hug all the right curves—even going as far as to bring out ones you didn’t know you had. To put it bluntly, you looked badass… 

...And you wouldn’t even have to shave your legs. 

“I should be a stylist.” Wonpil chuckles, retreating to your side in order to help smooth out some hidden wrinkles. You snort at his comment, but choose not to rebuttle, still under the spell of this gorgeous gown, and instead, mull over which shoes would fit with the style. In theory, you might be able to get away with sneakers. 

You fiddle with the waist, searching for the dangling tab that would make or break this decision. Once you find the price tag, you mutter a silent prayer to the universe before peering at the inevitable damage that would be done to your bank account. 

“Damn it,” You curse. “Of course the one dress I like is the most expensive.” 

“How much? Fifty?” 

“Try tripling that.” With a sigh and help from Wonpil, you wander back into the dressing room, already a professional in the task of slipping the gown from your body. Then again, there were a lot less zippers, buttons and holes this time. “I’ll have to see if I can pick up some more shifts at the store. Especially if I want to get my hair and nails done.” 

“Why don’t you ask your parents to cover some of it?” 

“Money’s been a little tight lately, so I’d rather not. They work hard enough as it is.” 

You make your way back into the lobby—properly dressed—with the beautiful dress in your arms. Wonpil points you in the direction where he originally found it, allowing you to sullenly return it to its rightful place. Even when you turn to acknowledge your companion again, you fail to notice the cunning spark glittering within his eyes. 

“Did you want to get something to eat or-?” You’re interrupted by the sudden blare of your phone. An irked sigh drips from your lips as you grab the device from your pocket to identify the caller, however, your annoyance immediately dissipates at the name that reads across the screen. 

“It’s Sungjin,” You say. “I… I should answer it.”

Wonpil nods, a knowing smile spreading across his lips. “You should. I’ll meet you outside.” 

“Are you sure-?” But he was already out the door before the protest could finish leaving your tongue. Left to your lonesome, you inhale a deep breath—confused by the anxious feeling swirling through your stomach. It was only Sungjin, for goodness sakes, the close friend you haven’t spoken to for awhile… so why were you suddenly so nervous to hear his voice? 

“Answer the phone, ditto.” Your murmur somehow produces the courage required to accept the boy’s call and bring the device up to your ear. It seems as if minutes pass by before the familiar, warm tone bleeds through the speaker: 

“(Y/N)?” 

“H-hey.” You curse yourself for stuttering. 

Sungjin’s chuckle resonates over the line. “I’m not bothering you, am I?”

“Oh no,” You shake your head, before chastising yourself with the fact the boy obviously can’t see you. “Just shopping for a prom dress with Wonpil.” 

“So you decided to go? Or did Jae change your mind?” 

You can’t help but laugh, “You know me so well.” 

“You know it. But I’m glad you’re going.” At his words, you feel something in your gut flutter—probably because you haven’t seen him in awhile… obviously. “Did you find one?” 

“Huh?” 

“Did you find a dress?” 

“Oh, yeah.” You reply sheepishly, carding your fingers through your hair. “I’ll have to work three extra shifts at the store to pay for it... but it’s worth it.” 

“I’m glad to hear.” He says, then quickly adds, “about the dress, not the working overtime.” 

“Yeah, I got that.” 

The conversation silences for a moment, sending your brain into another anxious frenzy. Before you could stop yourself, more words were already spilling from your mouth, “I-It’s blue… D-Dark blue, actually.” 

“Yeah?” Sungjin hums, “I hope you didn’t choose it just because blue’s my favorite color.” Your mind goes blank.

“Wh-what?” 

A wave of relief calms your racing heart as the caller erupts into laughter, “Relax, (Y/N), I’m just kidding.” 

“Right. I knew that.” The sad part is that you really don’t think you did—how could it slip your mind that blue is, in fact, Sungjin’s favorite color?... That’s obviously not why you chose the dress… obviously. “So, uh, how are things? I haven’t, well, we haven’t talked… a lot.” 

He sighs, “Yeah, about that… that’s actually why I called you.” 

“Really?” 

“Yes. I guess I needed to… figure some things out.” 

Your eyebrows furrow at his dark tone, “Is everything okay? Are you okay?” 

“It’s nothing like that, (Y/N). I promise, I’m perfectly fine.” Sungjin says truthfully. “Just… confused, I guess… and a little scared.” 

“Of what? Can I help?” 

“Yeah, actually-” You can make out a slight waver in his voice over the receiver—and you don’t like how it kickstarts even more uneasiness within your gut. “-do you want to grab dinner tomorrow night? Just the two of us?” 

“I have to work.” You whine, sensing the disappointed expression that was probably overtaking the boy’s face right now. “But we can do something after, like ice-cream or pizza?” 

“That sounds great.” Sungjin’s reply is relieved; hopeful, even. 

“I get off at nine-” 

“You get off at nine, right-?” 

A pregnant pause overtakes before the two of you erupt into laughter. Whatever negative emotions from earlier were long gone, leaving only the pleasant satisfaction of talking with your best friend. Before now, you never realized exactly how much you missed him. It’s like a piece of you is now complete. 

“Exactly right. You’ll pick me up right from the store, then?” 

“Yes. If that’s okay with you?” 

You smile, “Perfect. Can’t wait.” 

“Me either. I’ll see you then, sweetheart.” 

Your stomach seizes at the familiar pet name, but you pass it off as hunger pains. 

“See you then, Jinnie.” 

“I like this yellow sweater, but I think the white top goes better with the skirt.” A huff flies past your lips as you continue to switch between the two choices, attempting to note which one would be more appealing through the mirror. Curse your indecisiveness. “Pil, what do you think?” 

Your expectation for an answer dissolves into frustration, seeing as Wonpil was no longer sat on the edge of your bed as he was only a few minutes ago. The little fiend must have snuck out when you were debating whether to wear shorts or a skirt. He’s probably raiding your fridge as you think-

You continue to grumble as you toss both garments into the growing pile of abandoned options. At this point, you wouldn’t be surprised if your entire closet was strewn across your bedroom floor. You’ve tried on god knows how many things at his point, ruling them unworthy, ugly and just plain-old unwearable. Note to self: Go shopping this summer. 

Most people, like Wonpil, would think you’re absolutely insane for ripping apart your entire wardrobe for as little as something as a stroll in the park, but this isn’t just any walk in the park (mind the pun…)—this is your first ever date! Well, if you don’t count that one dinner you had with some freshman your dad set you up with… 

“I wouldn’t count it. That guy was a weirdo.” You nearly crash into your full-length mirror at the sudden voice and clumsily tumble to the floor. Laughter erupts from the intruder as you attempt to regain your breath, finally identifying the second person in your room. 

“Sungjin? When in the hell did you get here?” 

“Just now to overhear you talking to yourself.” He chuckles, sidling up to your place on the floor and offering his hands. “Wonpil called. Said you were having a mental breakdown over clothes.” 

You groan, allowing your friend to help you back to your feet. “Yeah, with no help from him.” After deeming you wouldn’t lose your balance again, you make your way to your bed and dive onto your mattress with a loud sigh. Sungjin’s footsteps grow louder in your ears as he approaches, the bed dipping on your side. A gentle hand centers on the small of your back, caressing soothing circles into the base of your spine. 

“Want to tell me the real reason why Wonpil’s hiding out in your kitchen?” 

“That brat,” You hiss into the pillows before angling your head to peer up at the boy. His warm, chocolate gaze helps to somewhat ease the stress budding in your chest. You can’t help but inch closer to him, laying your head on his lap with another deep sigh. “I think I’m just freaking out over nothing…” 

“I’m sure, whatever it is, it’s not nothing if it’s upsetting you this much.” He murmurs, “Now tell me.” 

You gather enough willpower to flip over onto your back, staring up at the bumps of the ceiling plaster as your companion replaces his hand on your head, as if attempting to coax the words from your lips. Even with the comfort, embarrassment still toys with your insecurities like a puppet, but still, you somehow manage to find your voice:

“I’m… nervous, Jinnie… This is my first actual date and I don’t want it to be a disaster…” 

The boy teasingly smirks, “And if you don’t find the perfect outfit, it’ll be a disaster?” 

“Shut up! You know what I mean!” You smack his shoulder, earning another round of raspy chuckles. Sungjin’s fit comes to a quick end though, and you’re surprised when he slides off the bed and heads straight for your mountain of mismatched fabric failures. A couple minutes pass as your companion pilfers through the contents, before he calls you over to the mirror. 

You hop from the bed, both eager and hesitant to see his pick. However, your mood darkens as Sungjin holds a plain pair of ripped jeans and a faded T-shirt up to your body—an outfit you wear on a daily basis. You shake your head, “This doesn’t really scream dress to impress, you know?” 

“Maybe not, but it screams you.” 

Your cheeks burn at his retort, “Sungjin-” 

“-You don’t have to impress anyone, (Y/N).” He continutes, meeting your gaze through the mirror reflection. “You’re an amazing person, with so many good qualities that people only dream of having. You should be proud to be who you are, because you’re beautiful. 

“And if your date can’t see that, then he’s a blind idiot.” With tears welling in your eyes, you throw your arms around your friend, tugging him into a fierce hug that leaves even your bones crying out in pain. But Sungjin doesn’t complain, only returns the embrace and murmurs in your ear: “Promise me you’ll never allow yourself to change for anyone other than yourself?” 

“I promise.” You murmur back, “You’re the best, Jinnie.” 

Eventually, you break away from Sungjin’s arms to look over the outfit choice still in his grasp. Maybe next time you’ll dress up to make yourself feel good—but for now, you’re gonna stay comfortable in your own skin. 

A buzz steals your attention away, the realization that your date was probably on his way now hitting you like a ton of bricks. You release a terrified shriek, yank the clothes from Sungjin’s hands and shove him toward the door. “Get out so I can change, you perv! Jae is going to be here in minutes!” 

Sungjin laughs at your frantic state, but retreats toward your bedroom door nonetheless. Unfortunately, too immersed in searching for a pair of clean socks, you fail to notice the boy turn back around and throw one last glance your direction. A sad smile spreads across his lips as he backs out of the bedroom and shuts the door with a click.  

—Your date was a complete success.

“So we’re gonna get ice-cream,” You explain to your best friend, sinking into the plush sofa with a sigh. “He said he wanted to talk about something that’s been on his mind for awhile.”

“Make sure you grab carton of mint chocolate chip for me.” Wonpil says, not looking up from his sheet music. He continues to scribble along the lines and map out notes, reworking the song to his own definition of perfection. You find solace in the sound of his pencil moving across the paper, along with the steady gust of his breathing. Moments like these—peaceful ones—were rare with the throes of real life approaching so fast. It’s crazy to think you’ll be gone in only a month, living a life of your own. 

“Have you heard back from that music academy yet?” You hadn’t meant to break the comfortable silence, but alas, your thoughts always seemed to overpower your tongue. Wonpil glances away from his page, before releasing a heavy sigh and returning to the music. 

“No. Last I heard, I’m on the wait list.” 

“They’re probably just backed with applicants. You’re definitely gonna get in.” 

“I don’t know, noona.” The boy falters, his pencil slipping from his fingers and crashing to the floor with a small thud. He picks the utensil up, but you can’t help but notice how sullen his movements were. 

You frown, “What do you mean?” 

“I just don’t think I’m gonna get in.” Wonpil gestures to the piano with a pained expression, “And even if I do, I don’t have what it takes to be a real musician.” 

“What are you even talking about?” Exasperated, you fly to your feet and round in on your companion. He doesn’t meet your eyes, even when you kneel down so your faces are level with one another. “Pil, you are the most talented artist I know. If anyone can get into that academy, it’s you…

“In fact, if anyone has what it takes to be a real musican… it’s definitely you.” Wonpil finally connects your gazes, a pinkish hue spilling across his cheeks. You coo at his embarrassment, reaching up to poke his nose. “Don’t give up when you haven’t even tried. Especially when you have all this talent.” 

He smiles sheepishly, “I guess I am pretty good.” 

You lower onto the bench beside the boy, “I’ll take it. Now shut up and play, Beethoven.” Wonpil bursts into a fit of laughter at the nickname, yet follows your instructions nonetheless and splays his hands across the keyboard with a bright grin across his face. Barely seconds pass before he begins to play. 

Your eyes flutter close as you allow your soul to succumb to the soft melody flowing from the instrument. Each note evokes some kind of emotion—whether it be melancholy, joy or overall drowsiness. You always loved listening to Wonpil play, ever since he begun to take lessons and could barely differentiate between the notes. But like most talents, he improved and plays as if he has been for years… which is true. 

You hum, opening your eyes in response to the beautifully drawn out decrescendo. Beside you, Wonpil snickers, but continues to glide his fingers across the piano keys. You watch them dance, strumming the instrument in a mastered routine. Entranced by the music, you allow your head to fall against your companion’s shoulder. Wonpil makes no move to push you away. 

It is rare you find moments where the two of you can just enjoy each other’s company after all.

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