By the time Winter came, each day was starting to bleed into the next.
As they got closer to the holidays, Dawn was putting together multiple events and working late into the night.
Often, she’d crawl into bed long after Phoenix had fallen asleep.
Due to her late nights, she’d start her mornings later, and Phoenix would be up early, doing his best to get ready quietly so as not to wake her.
For him, work had become so busy that he rarely got a day off.
However, they both finally got a break over Winterfest. It felt like it had been months since getting to spend a day together.
And with no obligations aside from their annual dinner at Julian’s, they spent every possible minute in bed, knowing they'd be back to their busy schedules the next day.
Prev // Next
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ok now u got me thinking. aki coming back as the Cold devil. or the Winter devil. or the Snow Storm devil. and he looks the same as he did when he was human but his irises are like a powder blue and there’s always snow in his hair and his lashes. and contrast that with falling in love with you again who he thinks of as so warm and kind and loving….. thawing him….. much to think about - 🍊
the same year the gun devil was eliminated, japan experienced a particularly hard winter season — perhaps that's why he was reborn as the snow devil. when he first opened his eyes, he was met with a dark and cloudy sky, he could hear the lull of the ocean, his ears were still ringing from the hum of a chainsaw and the only thing he can remember is his first name, and particularly not his last.
public safety is quick to follow through on the reports of a humanoid-looking devil wandering the outskirts of hokkaido, leaving a trail of frozen water and dead trees in his path. upon capturing him, since he seemed to not pose much of a threat, he's escorted to the headquarters in tokyo rather than slain.
once the devil gets there, he's apathetic, quiet. doesn't speak unless spoken to. his skin is pale, his lips are chapped, his eyes are a pretty shade of blue and his eyelashes are pure white. he'd pass as a human if it wasn't for the twist of icicles sticking out from his head like horns, covering his hair and his shoulders in tiny droplets of snow, or for the intricate marks on his skin, faint tattoos in the shape of snowflakes.
he looks familiar. like someone who's face was in the obituaries a while ago.
in the mail, you get an unexpected letter from public safety. it includes train tickets, and it's telling you to come to tokyo on urgent business. the minute you've arrived, some devil hunters explain the situation: you need to have a look at this devil — the snow storm devil — and tell them everything you might know about it.
of course, you've never heard of such a thing before. you don't know anything about devils, how are you supposed to give them any valuable information? but when the hunters unlock the cell for you, when you take a step inside and they tell you, don't worry, just keep your distance and you won't get hurt right as they flick the lights on, you realize exactly why you were called here.
it's him.
it's aki, this devil looks exactly like aki, his hair is long and dark and messy, he's got the same face as aki and the same voice as aki when he opens his mouth to ask who you are. he doesn't get to finish his sentence and tell you how damn familiar you look to him because you're already running over, reaching out to touch him even though the devil hunters are yelling at you from the other side of the door, telling you it's too dangerous.
and his skin is cold, he's freezing. you grip his hands, you wrap your arms around him and hug him and it's aki.
aki isn't sure why, but right then, he feels like crying. he's felt nothing but coldness since he came to this place, but you feel so, so warm. his heart twists in his chest, he hugs you back even though he doesn't really know why. he could kill you, he could press his palm to your back and watch you freeze until you're nothing but dust and ice. but he doesn't.
he holds you close, he breathes frost-filled air into the nape of your neck. his body shakes, you mutter into his ear that you've missed him. you pull away, and there's a look in his eyes that's familiar, it's one you've always known.
and yet, when you nervously ask him if he knows who you are, if he remembers you, aki answers honestly, and it's the most the devil has ever spoken: "I don't. But I feel like I should. I'm sorry."
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Ivy’s sweater slipped off her left shoulder when she leaned forward, baring skin of golden cream to the morning sunlight. “Okay, I get that.” She didn’t notice when he nudged the sweater back in place with [telekinesis], the temperature too cold for her to be so exposed.
[...]
“How did they know your subdesignation so fast?” Her sweater slipped again and he nudged it back. “It usually takes time to be certain, even with genetic markers.”
[...]
Vasic glanced at her shoulder, nudged the sweater back up. This time, she noticed, color on her cheeks as her hand went up to the spot. “How many times?”
“Five.” He got to his feet before he could make it six. “I need to rest.”
SHIELD OF WINTER by Nalini Singh
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my official take on the moon/qibli/winter love triangle is that winterwatcher is a much grander, epic romance, and moonbli is a much more level, sweet-and-simple romance, but ultimately i think it was a better decision to have the latter be the canon romance in a series primarily marketed towards children and teens than fall into the "bad boy" romance trope, and instead romanticize the earnest, genuine, sweet relationship
obviously there's way more nuance to this involving internalized/unconscious bias, and winter doesn't even REALLY fit into the "bad boy" archetype, but purely based on genre conventions, the gruff, rude, brooding, tortured hero VERY often falls into that category, and at the ages of 7-14 most of us were very LIKELY to be romanticizing that archetype, which again is very often treated as interchangeable with the "abusive bad boy" trope, and while i might have a few gripes with the writing of moonbli and i ENJOY winterwatcher a whole lot, i DO appreciate the more gentle, "safe" romance being treated as the ideal, rather than the tense and angst-filled nature of the alternative
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you are perfection, my only direction (it's fire on fire)
piarles ~ dragon rider au ~ 40k words ~ rated e
"Since I'm already happily married," Sebastian says dramatically, but somehow also fondly, "it will have to be you, Charles. For the good of the House, and all that." He waggles his eyebrows suggestively. "So, is there anyone from House Tauro you might agree to marry, Charlie?"
Charles suspects that Sebastian loves to fluster him, and he hates that it works every time. "I… I mean," he stammers, his mind going suddenly and suspiciously blank except for blue eyes, and the familiar lilt of Pierre's laugh. Yes, of course, his heart wants to scream. Of course. Always. Anytime.
(The one where Pierre and Charles are Dragon Riders, and spectacularly stupid about their feelings, and have to marry each other to prevent an inter-House war.)
written for the incredible @effervescentdragon for the Piarles Winter Fic Exchange 2022/23 ❤️ surprise, babe 😘 i really hope you like this <333
a big thank you, as always, to @redyellowstupid for the amazing moodboard! and shoutout as well to our other two amazing co-mods, @leclerctops and @welightitup: girls, we make a fab team. ily all ❤️
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Father, why are you obsessed with Mia /genq
Because she's
FUCKING
HOT
Also I find her voice really nice, she's arguable really smart, and realistically she'd be kind of badass if Capcom didn't fucking nerf her. She's a character who's gone through a lot of shit that's just never talked about or addressed in-game and that makes her incredibly interesting. She's morally grey. She has PTSD that's clearly going unchecked (and potentially unmedicated. She has a lot of pills, but I don't know that any of them are actually meds to help with her problems. Like I've looked into possibilities before and *one* of them might be anti-depressants/anxiety meds but I don't know enough about medications to confirm that. It's just as likely they're just vitamins or birth control or something). She cares about her daughter, but then vanishes from the story and is barely mentioned.
She feels like a very neglected character, which is incredibly unfair considering she's pretty much the reason for half of the shit that happens. So maybe there's a part of me that just wants to add to her and flesh her out.
All in all I just find her interesting.
And also she's hot and I want her to bend me over a table.
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