#except for the hermits who never came up for air

[dark-empress-rey]

The types of Sith Eternal members according to their relationship with Empress Rey

Type 1: The Palpatine fan club traditionalists who were okay with me killing Palpatine and taking over because ‘that’s how it’s always been done.’

Type 2: The Palpatine fan club modernists who thought Palpatine had achieved immortality and were butt-hurt that I took him down.

Type 2a: The ones who were in on Palpatine’s plan to take over my body were especially upset about me defeating him and assuming the throne because ‘that wasn’t supposed to happen’.

Type 3: The ones who were intensely loyal to ‘whoever was in charge’.

Type 4: The apathetic ones who didn’t really care either way as long as their needs were taken care of.

Type 4a: The ones who were too focused on their research in the Sith catacombs beneath Khartsis to care about politics. “Wait, Palpatine’s dead?”

#dark rey #sith rey #star wars #empress rey #rey #rey palpatine #empress palpatine #Palpatine #Sith #Sith eternal #Exegol #and I had to deal with them all #except for the hermits who never came up for air

[satorisoup]

Are you writing for Sugawara? If yes, can you write something where Sugawara is the (fem!)Reader's (if you're okay with that?) crush. They're out with friends in an izakaya and she thinks he's flirting with someone else (bc she has zero self-confidence, and why would he be interested in her and so on). And obviously she's sad about it but later she goes outside for fresh air and he comes to find her, somehow admitting his feelings (this is so self indulgent, I'm sorry, I may be getting more drunk than I intended bc my crush is flirting with any girl but me). Or generally any hurt/comfort with Sugawara if you write for him.

Sorry for this weird request, feel free not to write it, if it doesn't resonate with you!

Have a nice weekend.

#SUGAWARAS UNEXPECTED CONFESSION

#A/N : fun fact suga was my first favorite when i started watching haikyuu. dont worry this request isn’t weird at all, dont apologize. hoping things get better for you!

#WARNINGS : f!reader. cursing. alcohol mentions. angstish to comfort. aged up.

tonight was supposed to be an evening to celebrate. to wash away the worries and stress from work. to overcome exhaustion and fatigue for a few hours. to “stop being a hermit and live a little!” as shoyo would say.

so here you are, sitting at a nice table in a popular izakaya spot, your friends surrounding you. cheer and laughter, pink dusted cheeks from the buzz of the alcohol becoming prominent amongst their faces.

and you couldn’t miss the way sugawara chuckled lightly at something asahi had said, the small glass in his hands held by his fingertips, lifting it to his lips as he took a sip.

sugawara was nothing short of all you wanted and more. a silly high school crush carried throughout the years and turned into something more. a burning passion and adornment for him, some might call it love. and you couldn’t really deny it. however, you never really got the chance to tell him either. you remained close friends, spending time together quite often which you were more than grateful for, and you weren’t one to throw it all away.

ice dancing in your neglected glass of “something fruity”, per your request, you watched it slowly melt.

sugawara and a few others stood up to walk to the bar, waving down the bartender to order another round, and you stayed sat in your seat.

your gaze from your cup lifted to glance at him, and honestly, you really wish you hadn’t looked.

there stood sugawara and a random girl who must’ve took it upon herself to come and introduce herself to him. her hair bounced with each step she took and her lips shone from the pink gloss she had on. and sugawara was talking back to her. that casual toothy smile that you’d been admiring for so long was grinning at her, and her hand came up to dance her fingers along his shoulder.

you shouldn’t of felt so fucking bothered. you were hot, sweating almost. maybe it was the few sips of alcohol, or maybe it was the saddened rage that burned in your heart. you silently stepped out of your chair, leaving your bag and heading to the entrance to take a step outside. fresh air.

“so, sugawara, are you single?”

“sorry, but i actually have my heart set on someone already.”

you stood with your back against the outside wall, gaze to the floor. sugawara was someone you desired. someone you loved. someone you had spent countless times thinking about before you went to sleep. but he wasn’t yours.

self doubts had filled your mind more than once, and now wasn’t an exception. you couldn’t help but think. maybe if your lips were shinier, maybe if your put more effort, maybe if you had just told him in highschool you could’ve faced the rejection then.

your eyes stayed trained to the floor, almost not noticing the sudden presence at your side.

“y/n? what are you doing out here?”

oh. the universe really didn’t like you today, you supposed.

“nothing, koshi. just needed some fresh air.” you replied.

“oh okay. well why don’t you come on back inside? you’ve barely touched your drink.” he said, and you looked up to catch his eyes. a soft smile grazed his lips and he gestured his hand to the door.

“i don’t know, i think i might just go home. im not feelin’ the best.” you lied through your teeth.

“are you sure? i mean it’s not the same without you, you know.”

why did he have to be so god damn sweet. he still displayed a little smile on his face and you really just had to wonder why. why was he bothering to get you to stay. why did he care.

“that girl in there seemed to like you. you know you dont have to do this suga. just go have fun.”

you really didn’t care what was coming out of your mouth or how stupid you sounded saying it. you just wanted to go.

“i turned that girl down. i told her i had my heart set on another. so yes, i do have to do this. because it’s you.”

you practically choked on nothing as your eyes darted to suga’s. he held that kind smile, a soft hand held out to you, beckoning you not to leave.

“what exactly are you saying suga…”

“im saying i denied her for you. you’re the one my hearts set on. so please, if it’s mutual, come with me inside.”

suga stared at you with pure sincerity, corners of his lips never once faulting.

maybe the universe noticed your shitty treatment, or maybe it just wanted to mess with you for a bit of time. but it finally, finally listened to your heart.

“well, it took you long enough, koshi.”

#anime #haikyuu drabbles #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu x you #satorisoup #haikyuu x reader #sugawara x reader #sugawara koushi #haikyuu sugawara #sugawara kōshi #hq sugawara #sugawara x you #sugawara x y/n #sugawara headcanon #koshi sugawara #haikyuu suga #haikyuu x y/n #haikyuu x imagines

[i-write-things]

You're Forever Safe with Me (Elliott x Abused! Reader) Part 1! (Hurt/Comfort)

(This has all the parts) “Elliott, maybe you should take a break….” Two weeks. That was the amount of time you counted seeing Elliott like this. Well, technically speaking, you didn’t really see him. But that was the problem. He didn’t come out of his cabin for anything or anyone. He didn’t talk to Willy, he didn’t visit his best friend, Leah, he didn’t go to the saloon or library. He didn’t even visit his love, you. You made sure to spend some extra time ‘fishing’ recently to keep an eye on him. Maybe to catch him come out of his cabin, and treat him to a nice night out at the saloon. But he never came out. Maybe he came out when you weren’t there, that’s always been a possibility. Up until now, at least. He was currently hunched over his writing desk, in the dark. His posture was worse than before, and his candle was nearly a puddle of wax now. It’s truly a wonder how there's any left to light. The cabin was dark except for the little light the candle gave off, giving it a depressing aura. Not to mention, dust started collecting. There were spider webs everywhere, too. Elliott always had a soft spot for them, and there had always been a few webs in the corners of his ceiling, but now they wear in different places. Under the table, under the bed, the side of the wall, you name it. The air just smelled musty. Not in an overbearing way, but in a way that just smelled like it hasn’t been cared for in a while. Not to mention, the person who hasn’t been taking care of himself for a while. “I can’t.” Was all he responded with. No ‘love’, ‘dear’, or even ‘hermit tamer’ (per a joke that came about). And not only was there no affection in his words, but his tone, either. He just said it in complete monotone. It was completely empty. If you weren’t worried before, you sure as hell were, now. Your heart started beating faster, but not in the way it usually does around him. Anxiety started building up in you, but you pushed it down. Elliott was a calm, understanding, compassionate man. That’s what you love about him! He would never do anything to wrong you. Not like they did. So why were you so afraid? “Elliott,” You began, inhaling a breath and taking a quiet step towards him, “Maybe just a little break won’t hurt? Hm?” You ask, successfully controlling your voice to prevent it from shaking worse than your hand. “No, I cannot. Another deadline is coming up next month, and if this chapter isn’t finished, I’ll be in serious trouble. Please, leave me alone to myself. I don’t think your presence will help right now.” Something about the way he said that last part hurt. You understood he meant that he doesn’t want to be distracted, but he made it sound more personal than it was. Or perhaps you were just making it personal. You were quite selfish. Clearly, he doesn’t want to be bothered, and yet, here you are. Bothering him. Didn’t you already learn what happens when you burden someone who doesn’t want you? Why were you so dense sometimes? Growing up, reading the room and the atmosphere was a skill you quickly learned. The moment you stepped in, you knew it was going to be like this. Why didn’t you leave? It’s not too late to go back. No. Elliott needs you right now. And you’re already thinking about leaving because of a few bad memories. God, you were selfish. Suck it up, and help him.

#Stardew Valley Elliott x reader #Elliot x reader #I write for you

[putah-creek]

A note:

While the pandemic was horrible, I confess that I enjoyed the isolation. Of course, I had my wife so it wasn't total isolation, but still, as things returned to 'normal' I found myself reluctant to to rejoin my previous life. I didn't want to go out. Not out of fear, I just really like it in here. I could easily be a hermit, given the proper bandwidth. And I wrote a helluva lot of COVID poems. Here's a small sample.

-james

PS: I had COVID twice, my wife once.

---

In the time of COVID we washed our hands with the spittle in the air and prayed for death. We touched our eyes and waited for death or a ventilator, whichever came first. We counted the number of deaths but not the names of those who died.

The names of the dead were written somewhere with invisible ink, but no one knows where. If someone does have that knowledge, they have never admitted to it, and who could read invisible ink anyway?

In truth, a few people prayed for life, but we also failed to record their names, and there was no god to answer such prayers. Death was everywhere.

In the time of COVID the televisions worked just fine, and computers streamed concerts and videos. You could get anything delivered to your home except cheer. We ate pizza and cut our own hair and stared at social media until it invaded our dreams.

Many of us now distrust social media as much as we distrust the spittle for its infection, as much as we distrust the fools who lead us. Indeed, is there any leader worthy of trust? Spit for me and I will wash my hands again.

In the time of COVID we shaved off our body hair and covered ourselves with oil. Naked, we rubbed against each other until we screamed and our house pets screamed along with us, not understanding.

Or perhaps I am wrong, and house pets understand more than they let on. Perhaps they find the sounds of human orgasm to be funny.

In the time of COVID the police continued to murder Blacks until riots overtook our cities and dumpster fires lit the night, the sound of police sirens was a symphony of horror, a symphony of fear.

Even now we can hear the music starting all over again. Even now it is the time of COVID.

---

The dead of COVID-19, all in one teardrop. Grief this morning with my coffee. Both are bitter, and I cannot put either one down.

---

Hundreds die everyday. Everyday. COVID-19. The wave of grief Building up Will be a tsunami. To wash us all away. Tears like a raging ocean. And now? It’s afternoon And a frail sun breaks through The heavy clouds.

---

The ghosts of COVID-19 are asking for new names and new faces. They come to me in the night and whisper their absurd requests in my ear. I am never frightened, but I also never oblige them; I offer them poems instead. So far not one ghost has accepted.

---

james lee jobe

#poem #poetry on tumblr #poets on tumblr #poetry #poems on tumblr #dead poets society #writers and poets #writers on tumblr #poetrycommunity #poetscommunity #poems #poems and poetry #original poems #poemsbyme #my poems #original poetry #poetry blog #tumblr poetry #spilled ink #covid

[elis-corner]

To anyone who isn’t on Xisuma’s mailing list (yes that’s a thing, on his website there is a box where you can sign up)...

This week he said the “project” that he had been talking about a while back on stream still isn’t ready to be revealed, and that he’s “trying to forge a new path as a creator” (also mentioning challenging himself with ambitions he’s wanted to pursue for some time). He says he won’t say much yet, but as it becomes more complete he will shed some light on it, except he says that by then it will be obvious.

Email and thoughts under the cut ⬇️

Of course as a grammar freak my first thought is how he could better use punctuation, and that he needs to check his ‘to, two, too’.

But aside from that, I really want to hear everyone’s opinions as to what it might be. I’m certainly not the best theorist, and it’d be nice to hear the thoughts of people less and more involved in his fandom.

I myself have looked at the hints he’s given over time, and I remember one stream a few months ago he said (paraphrasing) “if you looked around a bit on the Xisumatwo channel you’d probably find something”. This lead me to believe he may be making an Xisumavoid guitar, as it is something he’d said he’d never gotten around to doing, as well as him having talked about it a bit. Another thought of mine is a new Let’s Play or SMP he’ll be doing on top of Hermitcraft, or that he might create a new map (as in a game like he did Rush, which is now Bedwars). The other thing that came to mind is a stretch, but maybe he’s thinking of something grand as a face reveal. It’s most likely not this, but it would all tie in. The Hermits could do an IRL meetup somewhere for the Hermitcraft 10th anniversary (which is what he’s organising and planning, but it’s taken so long that it’ll have to be later in the year), therefore meaning his face would be revealed at last, and that he’d be able to meet the Hermits IRL like they sometimes do due to Minecon and similar things instead of having to be a literal Minecraft head for Tango to hold in the air like a trophy. And in my time of knowing Xisuma, the only times he’s posted himself doing things is guitar covers and the occasional biking video, but suddenly he’s posting photos of an arcade he went to, and him with the creator summit hat and mug; the sudden increase in IRL photos seems to be hinting at it, surely?

Those are my probably wrong ideas, but I’d love to hear some of yours!

#xisumavoid #xisuma #x #theory

[jexvex]

{⚜️Warning: Horror and other uncomfortable topics ahead⚜️}

Vital Virus

chapter 2, Barely Noticable

Another day on the new server, more work was getting done.

All the hermits were working on detailing of their bases, sending over trades they needed, finding pets and going about things as normally as they could. As 'Zedaph' said, the noises in the trading system were gone. Chat was booming once again.

>Bdouble0100< Does anyone need anything?

>Xisumavoid< I am good thank you.

>Grian< I was going to say TNT but Iskall promised me a hook up

>Grian< no scar

>Grian< A hookup of some TNT later on through the system so I should be good!!! Thanks anyways!!

>Bdouble0100< oh okay!! Great! Ethos what are you working on?

>EthosLab< Gathering items for shulker boxes and elytra since they will be needed

>Bdouble0100< OOOOOOO YESS

>Bdouble0100< I NEED those SO BADDD, once you get some I call dibs for first call

>EthosLab< lol ofc you can, I'll even make you a green shulker. Just for you

>Bdouble0100< YOU'RE LIKE AN ANGEL

>GoodTimesWithScar< Aw that's such a sweet moment

>GoodTimesWithScar< HOWEVER I call second dibs

>Bdouble0100< LOL

>Grian< YOURE SO LUCKY I WAS TYPING THAT BEFORE YOU SENT IT

>GoodTimesWithScar< better luck next time

The discussion continued, bickering and laughing. They were too distracted to hear a small sound through the walls. Too busy to realize their bases being mapped out. Marked.

Sun setting now, Zedaph's eyes opened. He felt cold. Looking around he noticed he was in the middle of the sky, starting to scream. Only to look down. There was no blur of trees, no feeling of a jump in his stomach, and no legs seen squirming in loss of ground to stand on. There was only trees and a nice view. Looking around himself more, he couldn't see his own body. Now the screaming was due to that realization. He was dead. A Spector. The entire time he screamed no one could hear, for he had no lungs. No mouth. His screams were falling on deaf ears.

Only after that realization, he came to another, having no mouth meant no means to warn his friends that Bdubs was the killer.

All he could do was spectate. Watch them suffer.

If he could cry, he would.

Zedaph hurried to his base through the air, looking for his body. Any evidence of a home invasion, something. Nothing. There was nothing robbed. There was no body. The walls that were broken in were neatly replaced as if the whole incident never happened. As if he never died. No face to show the horrid fear he felt.

The walls. They were replaced. He came to conclusion to check inside them, follow the mass. Zedaph went through the wall, looking around. The mass was curled and wrapped along the dirt, spread longated off in so many directions. Off to the north he saw his neon pink tinted goggles. Going towards the view he noticed a body. Twisted and contorted along the vines. As if it fell from a building.

It was his.

He looked away.

Only to continue going down different directions, seeing where it lead to. All of his friends bases. Except dear paranoid mumbo's.

The cords. Mumbo never gave Bdubs his cords.

Zedaph found another body along the vines, looking as if it was currently still being eaten by the carnivorous plant. It was his, again.

He died four times. There must have been four bodies inside the walls.

Zedaph left the inside of the walls, left underground. He couldn't stand seeing them. It was hitting him hard that he was dead. Really dead. His curiousity had really been the death of him.

Bdubs watered his beautiful rose bush garden. Watered his other posies, tulips, and then his gorgeous mass. A smile as wide as can be as he pet the growth like a cat.

"You're doing such an amazing thing for me, yes, you are! Yess you are. Who's a good little plant? You are! You! That's right!" An eerie little pet baby voice left him in a coo, little proud giggles to go with such a voice. "You will be my eyes. You will be my help while I am theirs. How does that sound? I know. I know. I'm a genius." While he spoke he stopped watering the mass to give it some pork. "I helped and I think I can be so much more helpful with you...though I think..I want to recruit more help soon. What do you think?"

The mass does not respond. It can not speak.

"That's what I was thinking!!! You are just as smart as I thought." He giggled more madly now. Bdubs brushed off his hands. "I think I'll pay Keralis a little visit. Check on his building. I'm sure..he will need my help. If I can't help him, I think I'll watch. I'm just..I just have that itch. That itch I have to scratch. I know,,I knowww we aren't allowed to see friends. But! I think some rules are meant to be broken." He then put his hand back on the mass, the petting more slow. "I know you believe the same.." His eyes scanned over his beautiful plant. Patting it before walking off to the upper section of his base. The bush base had been redesigned as a greenhouse.

>Bdouble0100< Are you still working on your base Keralis?

>Keralis< That I am! I am almost done!

Bdubs whines under his breath.

>Bdouble0100< Do you need help?

>Keralis< Nope! :D

>Keralis< You can come to see it with your beautiful eyes if you would like! Just stay at a distance for safety!

>Bdouble0100< I WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT! On my way!

>Xisumavoid< I will be keeping watch for you two

>Keralis< Thank you sweetface

>Bdouble0100< That's so smart

During lunch Bdubs had been sitting in the grass with crossed legs to watch Keralis work. Eating raw beef.

Zedaph looked down at Bdubs from the sky. Going down closer to get a better look. Bdubs did not appear to be the same as he saw him before he died. Zedaph looked for any difference, anything at all. Something that would give his killer, his friend, away. Nothing.

Keralis now turned around, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. Sighing with relief. His plaid cover-up over his shoulder, turning to bdubs. "Well, what do you think?"

Bdubs took a second to mentally click in. "Hm? Oh- OH!!! I LIKE! I REALLY LIKE! Do my big eyes lie or is that flooring beehive?"

Keralis chuckled. "It is beehive! Expensive but Papa K likes it regal." He joked with a shoulder shrug.

"REGAL?!" Bdubs snorted with a snicker. "Oh yeahh yeah very regal! Says the man who makes the worst kind of jokes along next to Scar and Iskall!"

Keralis makes a big dramatic gasp. "Moi?!"

Bdubs rolls his eyes and points to Keralis. "Yes!!! Yes you!!"

Zedaph felt sick. Disgusted. Such a friendly man. His good friend. Always so funny and kind and deadly. He watched, anxious. Always on the edge, expecting the worst. The worst that never happened the whole meetup.

Bdubs hummed, carrying some logs in his hands. A gift from Keralis. Putting it in his storage system.

Zedaph looked away. He couldn't look at him the same way anymore. He was acting so normally after his death. Bdubs wasn't mentally all the way there. It was obvious. His friend was still his friend. His friend was just, sick. Sick in the head. Sick. Zedaph wondered around more. Noticing all the hermits going about their day. They all were so unaware of his death. It was unsettling. Someone was bound to find one of his bodies during mining. Till then, the coverup in the chat and the base would last for some time.

Until then, Zedaph looked back at Bdubs. He would follow him around everywhere he went now. If the world would be infected from Bdubs, then from a scientific standpoint he wanted to see this happen.

From a victim standpoint, he wanted to see the man fail. Be cured. Death be the cure.

He just wanted bdubs back. Not this parasite.

Zedaph wanted to watch the others too, yet morbid curiosity was keeping him tethered to the parasite.

Tension formed anytime bdubs would be near someone he shouldn't be near. Interacting with people despite the rules. Xisuma noticed and only lectured him once, zedaph noticed.

>Grian< Mumbo do you have any sticks?

>MumboJumbo< Only a few, I know Ren has too many

>Rendiggitydog< TRUE BUT THEY ARE LIKE GOLD TO ME MY DUDE

>Grian< What if, you give me sticks now..and in the longer run..I give you MORE sticks back. Like interest..

>Iskall85< What an investment

>Rendiggitydog< DEAL

Zedaph wanted so badly to press any communication buttons on his stolen communicator, so badly to tell them to stop worrying about sticks and find his bodies. Find who will be devouring the server. His friends. He knew there was nothing he could do. Nothing.

A thought hit him that hurt him to his core.

They'll never find his bodies and they will never know he was dead in the first place. They'll go the entire season without him. Never knowing.

Zed didn't want to watch anymore. Curious or not he did not want to be the curious cat that continued to be turned into roadkill. Zed just wanted to be noticed. To be avenged. To know his friends cared.

A week passed by.

All while Zed had been having many realizations, the mass it grew. The mass would be made of more matter the more time and care it had received. Bdubs always loved to spoil his friends. The mass was now one of his friends. So the mass, was spoiled. Spoiled and growing more and more. Bdubs gathering false alibis accidentally without second thought. All he was doing was spending time with the other hermits.

They all thought, it couldn't be him. Thinking, if it was him, he would have killed anyone of us by now. They all give him such a clear slate by wrong assumptions.

Grian didn't open a detective case yet since there was no deaths. Nothing to run on by with evidence yet.

>Grian< Anyone else besides Xisuma loose any lives?

>GoodTimesWithScar< I fell down a ravine yesterday!

>Grian< Anyone ELSE besides Xisuma AND SCAR loose any lives?

>Grian< I mean to the killer

Zedaph was filled with hope for once since his deaths. Finally there was a serious discussion about the killer.

>ZedaphPlays< If you have, I can take note!

Zedaph watched as his name popped up in the chat. That wasn't him. He watched as Bdubs giggled, taking over from his communications. Bdubs having now two watches on his left wrist. He was known for collecting those golden watches but this was another sick and twisted form of collecting.

>Grian< That would be great! You can be my keeper!

>ZedaphPlays< I can do that :)

>Grian< Perfect! So since I didn't get an answer besides scar, I think we are all doing pretty good surviving

>Iskall85< kinda reminds me of the zombie apocalypse

>MumboJumbo< ISKALL NO

>Iskall85< What?! It does!! Think about it, virus and deadly in a way? C'mon bro that is so close

>MumboJumbo< I'm choosing to take your words with a grain of salt

>Grian< He has a point wafflehead

>MumboJumbo< I hate it here

>Iskall85< You love us

Mumbo rolled his eyes, responded to the text by an 'unfortunately' before looking away from his communications, muting it for some time. He wanted to continue working on his underground farms. At the moment he was working on a zombie farm.

As Mumbo was mining for his farm he heard a familiar sound.

Squelching.

He froze. Waiting. Surely he heard wrong, he thought to himself.

One minute. Silence.

Two minutes. Silence.

Three, four, five, six, silence.

Seven.

Squirming, muffled squirming.

Mumbo looked at the wall, cold sweat covering his face. Backing away. His anxiety was just acting up he thought, he was just being paranoid. Mumbo wanted to pretend that he didn't hear anything. Pretend it and possibly it would be true.

Mumbo started to mine again after some hesitation. Humming to himself to calm his nerves. He didn't hear anything for some time after that one time.

He was just paranoid and thinking illogically based on fear is what he concluded with.

Mumbo decided from then on out, if he heard another noise, he would trust Zedaph's word on it.

Trust his good friend on it.

There was no more red mass and Zedaph was fine.

He could ignore the red against his walls, it was just leftover Redstone.

>Grian< Another question, anybody notice anything weird?

>MumboJumbo< Anything?

>Grian< Yeah anything!

>MumboJumbo< I uh

>MumboJumbo< Weird noises

>MumboJumbo< The weird noises

>Grian< you sure they aren't just made up by you? I do trust you! I just think you tend to overthink things! Are you sure?

>Iskall85< Yea man are you sure? This is important

Mumbo sweat at being put on the spot.

>MumboJumbo< No no you know what, yes, yes you are both right. I must be overthinking it. I do that. Everything's fine. I'm safe, I'm just scared.

>Grian< it's okay to be scared! Try to think before answering questions! Zedaph is taking notes and I need the story to be clear!

>MumboJumbo< Right, Right. I'm sorry grian

>Grian< you're alright!

Mumbo muted his communications again. Feeling guilty.

His private messages being spammed.

>Bdouble100< You heard weird noises?

>Bdouble100< Do you need help dealing with them?

>Bdouble100< Where did you hear them from?

>Bdouble100< I wouldn't mind going all the way over to help

>Bdouble100< No matter how far your cords are

>Bdouble100< I would go to so many lengths to get those cords of yours

>Bdouble100< Mumbo? Are you there? :D?

>Bdouble100< I didn't even know you were connected to the trading system! How did you do that without my help?

>Bdouble100< I can help you, you know?

>Bdouble100< Why don't you trust me?

All of the messages at some point still dissapear over time. Hours being waste away as Bdubs gets no response and Mumbo works on his Redstone.

>Bdouble100< Mumbo am I helpful? You don't think I'm helpful do you?

No response. It was making Bdubs antsy. Clingy. Desperate. He wanted to help. He needed to help. Mumbo wouldn't let him. Didn't trust him. He craved it.

>Bdouble100< Mumbo

>Bdouble100< Mumbo?

>Bdouble100< Mumbo please answer

>Bdouble100< mumbo I will help you, let me help you

No answer. Bdubs knew mumbo got quiet during his builds. Even if he knew this he was covered in sweat. Crying and laughing. It hurt so bad not to be able to help. It hurt so bad knowing that something felt abnormal about himself. Even if he was a monster he still wanted to help. Even in his twisted sense. He wanted to help.

He opened his chat. Private messaging Keralis.

>Bdouble100< Keralis

>Keralis< Oui?

>Bdouble100< I'm upset and I don't know what to do

>Keralis< Aw no, come here now, I give you honey and tea and we talk, yes?

>Bdouble100< you'll help me?

>Keralis< yes, I help you

Bdubs wiped his face and started to head over to keralis's house. Face dripping with liquid. Tears he figured.

Keralis turned around to smile widely at his favorite wide grinning man besides himself, only to fall short. Pausing in his turn.

"BUBBLES?! Who has made you bleed this way?" Keralis ran over and rubbed a thumb over Bdubs cheek, runny red liquid getting smeared against his skin.

"Bleed? I'm? IM BLEEDING???" bdubs blinked quickly

Keralis now squished Bdubs face with two hands. "YOU ARE BLEEDING SO MANY! SO MUCH! What has happened????"

"I don't know!!" Bdubs genuinely could not remember.

"Is your blood, right?" Keralis raised a brow.

"I think so???? Is it?" Bdubs tilted his head, confused.

Keralis runs a finger by it and lightly licks it like a cat. "Yes is yours."

Bdubs blinked rapidly. Standing there for a moment.

Zedaph would blink so fast if he could.

Keralis smiled. "No worries, I am a professional."

"I" bdubs smiled and then started to laugh. "I trust you. Tango was right." Right about him being a freak.

"hey!" Keralis puts his hands on his own hips. "Take it back or no tea."

"okay okay I take it back! I take it back!" Bdubs couldn't stop laughing.

"first we get you aid, then we clean you up and get you the tea. Lets go. Tell noone or Xisuma, all of them paranoid. No need to add stress." Keralis walked behind bdubs and started to push at his back to get him moving.

Zedaph was coming to acceptance of being barely there. Just known of sounds and maybe red.

Just barely noticable.

#jexvex #hermitcraft #jexywrites #Vital Virus

[buckybarnesb-tch]

Bucky with Pregnant Reader Headcanon Pt.2

Trigger warning: Mentions of Domestic Abuse

Part 1

~He brought up his want for another baby just before Steven turned one.

•Y/n wasn't shocked at all, she knew Bucky wanted to have more than one child and she wasn't against it at all, she wanted to give him as many babies as his heart desired since the day she saw him look at their son for the first time.

•It was honestly like the fact that Bucky hadn't gotten her pregnant himself never crossed his mind, Steven was his son. When Sam came to the apartment for the first time it was a surprise and Y/n found out he hadn't told his friend anything about them except that Bucky had met a girl.

•"You must be Sam. Bucky has told me so much about you."

"I...wish I could say the same. It's Y/n, right?" She nodded. "He told me he had a girl that he was in love with, never said he was living with you." Y/n was shocked but also not surprised, Bucky was a private person and she also knew there was a part of him terrified to lose everything he had.

"Don't take it personally, Bucky loves you, you're his best friend and I know he's yours even if neither of you ever admit it. Why don't you come in and meet Steven." The look on Sam's face was beyond shock but he followed the beautiful women he was still unsure how a perpetually staring hermit like Bucky landed in the first place, stopping her from alerting him when they walked in on Bucky playing with his son.

"Ready? One, two, three, Weeeeee!!" He was lifting the child into the air like an airplane and the innocent giggle of the baby boy in his fathers arms was enough to warm the coldest of hearts.

"As I live and breathe-" Bucky spun around quickly as he heard the voice of his friend. "-I can honestly say I never thought I would see this day come. Fatherhood looks good on you, man."

•Sam was officially the only person who was allowed to babysit Steven, the only one Bucky would ever trust enough with his son.

~They had been trying for another baby for about 4 months before succeeding.

•Bucky was on a mission when Y/n found out she was pregnant. She made an appointment at the clinic the same day just to be sure with a blood test and it was positive.

•She had put Steven down that night and stayed up, making breakfast for dinner which was Bucky's favorite, it being the first meal Y/n ever made for him. He was stunned to see her still awake but none the less happy to see her and the hot meal waiting for him.

•"You know you don't have to do this, but I'm always happy to come home to my sexy fiancée and a fresh meal." He dropped his bag, kissing her roughly before she pulled away and sat him down at the table, giving him a plate with enough food for a hungry super soldier.

"How was it?" Y/n knew not to ask specifics so she never did, not wanting to know them but always asking in passing, especially to ensure he wasn't hurt at all. She hated seeing Bucky hurt.

"Simple, nothing too big this time. Nothing for you to worry about Doll, now tell me, why are you awake and waiting for me? You know I'm perfectly happy coming home and crawling into bed next to you." Bucky began eating his omelet happily, exhausted and ready to go to bed but also starving from having put off meals while on the mission.

"I know you don't eat much when you're working and it worry's me, I always want you to eat when you come home...plus I got you a little something." Y/n placed the box on the table for Bucky to open, seeing his shocked face at receiving a present for no particular reason. "Well, I guess technically you got me a little something." She giggled and he was now very intrigued, putting down his fork to pick up the box and remove the lid, seeing the plastic stick before him. It took him a second to realize what he was looking at before processing the 2 pink lines on it, his eyes snapping up to look at his soon to be wife.

"Really?" She nodded. "You're sure?!" He was trying to control himself, not wanting to get too excited if the test was a false positive.

"I went to the clinic for a blood test. I'm positive that it's positive." Bucky hesitated for only a second before springing up from his seat and grabbing Y/n, hoisting her into his arms and spinning her around in pure excitement.

"Yes! Oh my god! We're gonna have another baby! I'm gonna be here for the whole thing this time, I won't miss a doctors appointment, I swear, not one appointment! I will be here for everything! Oh my god!" He set her on her feet and dropped to his knees, lifting her shirt to kiss her stomach, the stretch marks there reminding him of how sexy he thought she looked carrying his son. "Hi baby, I'm your daddy. Daddy loves you so much Princess!" To say he ravaged her that night would be an understatement. She found herself unable to move for the rest of the night.

~About 5 months into her pregnancy there was a knock on the door and Y/n answered it to see the last thing she ever wanted to. Jason.

•Bucky was gone on a mission and had been for 2 days. He was due back any minute now so when she answered the door she thought he had just forgotten his key again.

•Jason had apparently had a change of heart over the last few months and decided to try and find his ex girlfriend and his son.

•"Go fuck yourself Jason, he is over a year old and you haven't seen him once, you forfeited your parental rights, you signed papers to never see him if you didn't have to pay child support and I've never asked you for anything-"

"Well, I changed my mind. He's my son, I'm allowed to do that-"

"No, according to the legal documents you signed, you're not!" She could see him getting more and more irritated, and one thing she had never told Bucky, too ashamed at not being able to defend herself or leave him, was the abuse that Jason put her through.

"I'm going to see my son-"

"He's not your son. He has a father, one who loves him like his own. You are not my boys father, just a sperm donor and you need to fuck off!" She went to shut the door, getting very close before he shoved it back open, knocking her to the ground.

"We can do this the easy way if you want, you show me where my son is and I have a nice quiet visit while you sign a few paper for me saying that you allow my visitation rights, or we can do this the hard way, and I still see him but I break bones until you sign the papers." He set the papers from his back pocket onto the table as she got to her feet and backed away, making sure to keep herself between Jason and her son who in that moment began calling for her, at 16 months old he couldn't say too much but he could call for his parents. She was just about to start panicking when she heard the beep of a car parking in the lot, one that she recognized knowing Bucky would be here any second.

“I'm never going to do that. You will never put your hands on my son."

"My Son! Hes My Fucking Son!" She stopped in the doorway that led down the hall to the bedrooms, refusing to let him go any farther as she saw the door swing open behind Jason, Bucky clearly not happy that it hadn't been shut and stopping when he sees what's happening.

"You're an abusive piece of shit and you will never see him as long as I'm fucking breathing." Bucky gestured for her to keep talking as he silently dropped his bag and began moving toward to the man.

"Hmm. What a lovely loophole you've given me. You're going to sign those fucking papers if it's the last thing you do-"

"I couldn't even if I wanted to, you would need Bucky's signature too, my husband adopted him, signed the papers the day I gave birth, Steven is his son." Bucky moved closer as quietly as possible, not wanting Jason to be able to get his hands around me before he could grab him so I made sure not to look away from Jason's face.

"Okay, the hard way it is then Y/n. I'll start breaking bones until you sign the paper, and then when your little bitch of a boyfriend gets back he'll sign them too, if he doesn't want your pretty little neck snapped. How does that sound?"

"Sociopathic to be honest with you." Jason spun around just as Bucky grabbed him, pinning him to the wall, not letting him go no matter how hard he struggled.

"I have to go get Steven. Are you okay?"

"Of course Doll, go get my son, I want to see him. You're safe now, I promise." I ran down the hall to gather up my crying boy who settled down almost instantly as I picked him up, carrying him out to the living room to see Bucky having tied Jason to the dining room chair. Tightly.

"Hey buddy!" Bucky grinned, always thrilled to see his son.

"Dada!" He squealed, wiggling in my arms to get to his father who took him instantly.

"That's my baby's father. All of my babies actually." Jason's eyes widened just as Bucky placed his hand on my belly.

"Yes, how are my girls doing?" Only 4 days before Bucky and I had been to an ultra sound appointment to find out the sex of our baby. A baby that we found out, much to Bucky's excitement, is actually twin girls.

"They're okay. No more morning sickness so that's good, he didn't touch me so I'm alright, I should call the cops." Bucky nodded, pulling me close and pressing his lips to mine desperately, clearly having been very worried he wouldn't be able to get to me before Jason grabbed me.

"I'm just so glad I came home today." He kissed me again before letting me go to grab my phone.

•Jason was arrested and is currently serving a 10 year sentence. Apparently threatening the wife of an Avenger is something most people take very seriously.

•After the scare you both decided you should move. Sam wanted you both closer, he adored Steven and so did Sarah and her boys so you ended up in a house with a bit of land about 15 minutes from them, making sure you had enough room for your son and twin girls...Bucky may have also made sure you had enough room for just one more.

~Bucky was absolutely in the delivery room when his girls were born, Sam babysitting Steven while they were at the hospital.

•He never left your side, not even once, helping you walk around the room when you needed to, feeding you ice chips, rubbing your neck and talking to his girls, telling them to 'get out here quick and stop hurting your mama'

•He let you hold his flesh hand, using the vibranium one to keep your neck cool as you pushed, Bucky's coaching while appreciated, was very fucking annoying while shoving 2 tiny humans out of you.

•He didn't even try to hide his tears when they were finally here, holding you through everything as the nurses cleaned off the babies, you getting one quick look at them before they were whisked off to be looked over.

•"Are they okay? Bucky...make sure they're...okay..."

"I will Doll, it's alright. You sleep, I'll check on them, I'll make sure every one of you is okay. Sleep baby."

•Y/n drifted to sleep very quickly after 9 hours of labor, Bucky noted that even with twins it had gone much faster than Steven's birth had, maybe a third will go even faster once he gets you pregnant again...but he's getting ahead of himself. As soon as you were asleep he was out of the room, going to find his girls, watching the nurses weigh them and check everything that needed checking, deeming them completely healthy.

•A nurse quietly brought them into the room, all 3 of his girls now asleep, knowing that wasn't going to last long he signed the names you had both discussed to the birth certificate, as well as his own. Ryleigh Paige and Rebecca May Barnes. Rebecca after Bucky's younger sister and Paige after Y/n's mother, wanting both girls names to begin with 'R'.

•Y/n woke up a few hours later to find Bucky with both of the girls in a large chair that had been pulled up beside her, one settled on each side of his chest as he laid his head back. She reached her phone on the side table, carefully and quietly, snapping a picture of the man's first moments with his girls, a moment to remember...a moment which she quickly sent to Sam

•She happily watched them until Ryleigh woke up crying a few minutes later, Bucky gasping and rocking her carefully against him.

•"She's hungry." Y/n stated and he nodded. "This one is..."

"This is Ryleigh." He stated, handing Ryleigh to her mother who quickly pulled down her top, feeding her baby girl for the first time. Rebecca had somehow slept through the screaming of her sister and was still settled on her fathers chest.

"She's a Daddy's girl, you can already tell." Y/n teased but Bucky knew she was right somehow, he loved both his girls the same obviously, more than the entire world, but from the moment the nurse helped him get both girls on his chest she had wrapped her little fist around his shirt and settled right down, not even bothered by the fact that the vibranium arm was the one that delicately held her. "Did you bring the nail polish?"

"Of course, I put it in the baby bag weeks ago." They had decided to paint one of the girls toenails, telling identical twins apart being a difficult task at times, up until the umbilical cord falls off that is. "Uh oh. Might want to just take your top off gorgeous." Bucky told her as Rebecca began squirming.

•They we're in the hospital for only 2 days before they could go home, Steven falling in love with his sisters instantly and both Sam and Sarah refusing to let them go once they got their hands on them.

~Y/n put her foot down at only one more child, which she failed obviously.

•Over the next 5 years Y/n had another boy and girl before convincing Bucky to stop, the man had never been happier in his entire life.

•Bucky had been through so much in his life and for so long he wished he could go back in time, never even know what Hydra was, find himself a wife and a family in his own time, but now he had a perfect wife and 5 wonderful children, Steven, Ryleigh, Rebecca, Jasper, and Leanna. His life was perfect and he wouldn't change a single thing about it.

Bucky Barnes Masterlist

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #marvel #the winter soldier #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky x reader #pregnant reader #bucky x y/n #bucky fic #bucky barnes imagine #bucky imagine #bucky barnes headcanon #bucky barnes x oc #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x oc #bucky barnes fluff #bucky fluff #bucky barnes fic #james barnes #james buchanan barnes #sebastian stan #sebastian stan imagine #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes x fluff #captain america #the avengers

[moriiartist]

Hello! I wasn't sure where to submit a request so I apologize if it's the wrong spot! Feel free to delete. Since you were taking requests I wanted to ask for anything with Rendog. Anywhere your inspiration strikes is fine, there's not enough out there of him! Love your writing. Your Scar and Etho Christmas fics are two of my favs. Have a great new year!

‧₊ WEREWOLF RENDOG HCS

PAIRING: C!Rendog x GN!Reader

SYNOPSIS: Headcanons for a werewolf Rendog that may or may not have a huge crush on you.

WARNINGS: Mild language(?), possessive behavior (not the bad kind, though)

A/N: Awww! I'm glad you enjoyed the fics! And, yes- you did submit to the right thing :) I hope you like what I've written for you, and happy simping my friend!

For as long as he could remember, Ren has been like... this.

At this point it’s not even something he’d even consider wrong with him- it’s honestly just a condition that he lives with, similarly to people with disabilities.

For the most part, Ren is a stereotypical lycanthrope: abundant and fast-growing body hair, sharper teeth and nails than the average human, enhanced sight and smell, and- oh, yeah- the uncontrollable ability to transform into a giant fuck-off wolf during the full moon.

It’s one of the Hermitcraft server’s not-so-secret secrets.

I mean, it’s not like he’s actually trying to hide his, er, ‘condition’ all that much, and everyone kinda knows that he’s not quite human, but nobody really bats an eye when they see a giant dog just zoom past them when they’re building late at night.

He’s basically just a huge puppy when he’s in his feral form. Multiple Hermits have had him just come up to them while they’re working, body wiggling from how hard his tail his wagging, and beg for them to throw him a stick.

Very cute, until you realize that he has no idea that he is not a lap dog and decides to flop his entire body weight into your lap.

Say goodbye to your legs, may they rest in pieces peace 😔

Ren never really worried about himself, fully accepting of all his quirks and flaws, until you came along.

You, who oh-so effortlessly never failed to steal the air out of his lungs with just a smile, you who sent him stumbling over his words and fighting off the urge to just bury his face in your neck and breathe you in.

Honestly, mans is whipped and it is absolute torture for him to hide it when all he wants is to wrap you into a bear hug and claim you as his own.

His instincts agree with his heart, too- making him a little more aggressive, a little more possessive than usual when you’re around the other Hermits.

He tones it down, though. After all, who’s to say that you wouldn’t be weirded out by his more animalistic behavior?

Naturally, though, when the full moon rolls around, it becomes a little bit of a different story when he’s in his more... uninhibited state, fully shifted.

It’s become so common for the other players to see him dutifully following at your heels that they don’t even question it anymore- not even you, who has to actually deal with a giant fluffy wolf man basically mother-henning you for the next twelve hours.

Once he shifts back, he’s more than a little embarrassed when he learns what ‘the mystery wolf’ had gotten into, flushing bright pink as you recount his antics from the night before with an oblivious grin.

“It was so funny, Ren. Poor BDubs was just trying to give me some of his extra cobblestone, but he just ended up getting chased around the build by an absolutely ginormous wolf instead! I couldn’t stop laughing at the end of it.”

“That does sound cool, my dude. Anyhoosle- do you know anything that would make a super awesome apology present? For no reason in particular, of course.”

Lord help this man, he needs saving from himself.

Even though Ren doesn’t want to cross any boundaries (he knows that he could never own you or force you to make any decisions except your own, and he’s a respectful person), he still finds himself becoming jealous when you come over to his base smelling like the other Hermits.

Expect him to practically throw his clothes at you whenever you see him, feeling a quite honestly unreasonable amount of pride whenever he sees you wearing something of his, practically drowning in his cedarwood and pine sap scent.

“Hey Ren, how’s it going-”

“Wear this.”

“What?”

“Wear. This.”

I mean, it’s cute how protective he gets over you, but it’s like- he does know that he’s the only one with a nose sensitive enough to notice that stuff, right?

He’s a little confused, but he’s got the spirit, I guess.

It’ll probably take him a while to work up the guts to confess, being self-conscious about the whole situation, but when he inevitably does it doesn’t take much to assuage his fears 😊

Your days will be filled with plenty of rib-crushing hugs and the usual Ren shenanigans- going along with the latest eccentric character that he invented, helping out with his totally not ominous at all chunk error of a build, and all of the affection that he can smother you in now that he doesn’t have to hide his feelings.

He even goes so far as to intersperse playful nips to your nose and ears with his kisses, unable to stop the lovesick grin that spreads across his face when you try to stifle your giggles.

At night, though, you’re not getting away with wriggling to your end of the bed, no no no: Ren is laying on top of you, one cheek squished against the top of your head, arms wrapped securely around your rib cage, and your legs tangled up together.

He’s only just got you- why would he ever let you go?

#request #anonymous #a meal for the children #hermitcraft x reader #mcyt x reader #rendog x reader #c!rendog #renthedog x reader #c!renthedog #tw: mild language #tw: possessive behavior

[mini-melo]

right, because i just want to write down my headcanons man, and @petrichormeraki reblogged my last post with an ouch in the tags and i'm very willing to make it hurt a little more.

also it is literally 2 am, my new bed is too hard to sleep on, and i'm still sleepy as shit, so this is in no way a quality post.

---

Nobody "found" Tommy, exactly. Things started going missing in small quantities, objects moved randomly, and there were remnants of a basement that Grian never built in his old hobbit hole.

When the pranks started, and the obnoxious laughter followed it, the hermits weren't surprised so much as they were relieved that they weren't going crazy. They still don't know who it is, but as long as they aren't just imagining things, they're fine.

Eventually, Tommy just... shows up.

Grian sees blond hair in his hobbit hole every once in a while, and it's much too tall to be Zedaph, so he investigates his old base. When he sees a lanky guy who's very much not Zed preparing what looks to be a chicken canon, Grian turns around and pretends he didn't see anything. He laughs when he wakes up the next day with said canon in the middle of his base, shooting chickens all around him.

Scar sees red dart into some shops now and then. He thought it was Grian, pranking hermits again, so he follows the red streak running around and finds a tall—boy? man? —guy rummaging around the chests in The Barge. It doesn't take long for Scar to realize this is the guy that's been taking from the shops. He was about to confront the mystery man when he realizes that the guy in red leaves something else in the chest, and it may not have been diamonds, but Scar knows enough about scuffed appearances to know this guy doesn't really have a home. Doesn't really have anything.

Mumbo catches glimpses of a tall figure hovering around the edges of his industrial district. He thought it was Xisuma, with the height and all, so he leaves it be until he finally sees the figure in full view, blond hair blowing in the wind as he just stares at the melon and pumpkin farm. The next day, Mumbo doesn't acknowledge him except for a shulker box full of melon and pumpkins in the exact same spot. When he finds it again, the box is empty except for some redstone and a note. "I wanted to try it but I don't know how, so here's your redstone back."

Tango changes his door's button to a lever, and he keeps hearing it open and close. He thinks it's Mumbo checking the redstone, or Grian pranking him again, so he goes down only to find a blond boy (not like he realizes until much, much later that this is a child) flicking his lever repeatedly, a relaxed air about him and a small grin on his lips. Tango leaves him be, and the next day puts the button back. He leaves levers, unconnected to anything, around his base, and smiles when hears delighted laughter followed by the flicking of a lever.

Beef makes new maps only to find cobblestone dicks already made in some parts of his map district. He thinks it's probably another Grian prank and just destroys them. Suddenly, he makes a map clear of anything and he starts flying there. The next moment, he looks at the map and there's a grey line in the middle. Beef encounters a tall blond (he looks young but so does Grian so he doesn't think about it) happily building a cobblestone dick when he gets there, and he can't help but feel a little guilty at the thought of having to tear it down. He leaves it up, makes another map to build on, and hangs the map with the cobblestone dick in Grian's old hobbit hole, where the mystery guy is supposedly staying. The next time Beef visits the map district, the area above the cobblestone dick is full of wool, obstructing it from the map and making it free for more wallapaper.

It all comes to a head when Xisuma checks the whitelist after one-too-many incidents and finds a glitched out name.

T̷̢̧̰͙̜̩̺̜̤̰̣̖̣̙͋̊̅̽̆̚͘͠ọ̷̗̮̯̺̪̤̬͖̗̌̌̍̀͗̒͗̚͘͠ͅm̸̡͓͎̦̠̲̫̯̓͒̍̔̍̌͗̐͆͊̀̅̀̔͘ḿ̶̛̫̯͖̰̤̗͋̃̄̓̆̓̇͛̍̅̏͝ÿ̵͙̙̯͙̈́I̷̲̫̞̠̮̒̂̒͘̚̕͝n̸̡̳̮̲̝̮͍̦̑͗̑̄͌͛͌̋̀̇͆͠n̴̖̄̓̋̀i̴͚̘͂͆̿̕͝ţ̵̞̪̬̯̠̮͈̬̮̼͈̠̥́͊͐̀̊̐̆̂͑͋̎́

He looks at the code and realizes that wherever this TommyInnit came from, it doesn't have a very good admin if this is what his internal code looks like. Xisuma tries to fix it, and succeeds. For the most part. The only thing he couldn't seem to touch was a line of code so glitched out that he couldn't read it at all.

After that, Tommy is seen a lot more. Everyone has just accepted this random guy that Xisuma hasn't kicked yet and collectively decides to let him be. He seems to be paying for his stuff now, although not with diamonds, but he's still trying.

Tommy, for his part, comes onto a peaceful server full of big buildings and redstone contraptions. He wants to destroy shit, destroy everything beautiful, but then he remembers Wilbur blowing up L'manberg, and Techno summong withers in L'manberg, and Dream blowing up Logstedshire, and Tommy can't bring himself to destroy the hard work of these so-called hermits. Instead, he watches and observes and steals just enough to survive. He sees Grian's pranks and just emulates the gremlin, and his very first prank was so harmless and subtle that people didn't notice until they hit their own furniture. Who knew moving stuff two inches to the right would be a great prank?

Somehow, Tommy becomes part of the hermits without even trying. He emulates Grian even more and makes a small starter base of his own. Mumbo leaves him some redstone in shulker boxes and he makes his own farms, and eventually he starts his own big base. It takes him so long, so many tears, so many tests, and so much energy, but when he's finally finished, about a year into his stay, the hermits throw him a party in the big dining area of his cobblestone textured castle.

And if the castle was vaguely dick shaped? Nobody needs to know it was intentional.

---

it isn't even that angsty, which is surprising.

anyway, i have so many thoughts about this and i might expand on some things eventually. maybe later today, or tomorrow. definitely when i've slept for more than 2 hours.

#mcyt #hc x dsmp #hermit!tommy au #god i'm so fucking sleepy #but this bed makes me want to burn everything #have this very very rough fic #about how tommy ended up in hermitcraft #melowrites

[quaranmine]

The Babysitting Game

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, Grian doesn't have a child but he does have an egg and a village. That’s basically the same thing, right?

Grian acquires an egg. His friends help him.

No romantic relationships or content warnings. Mainly fluff! Hermits: Grian, Mumbo, Pearl, and Scar. My first publish fanfic since 2016 and my first hermitcraft fanfic :D ao3 link and some inspirations to be linked in a reblog

Words: 2862

•·················•·················•

"What if I touched it really quick?" Scar asked.

"No, don’t-don’t touch the egg," Grian said seriously. "Look, I even made a sign! It specifically says ‘Do not touch.’" He gestured to the sign in question, but Scar ignored him.

"Can I rub it?" he said. The man leaned over it, studying the object carefully. Grian hadn’t known where to place the egg when he got it, and it was just sitting on an anvil for the time being. He didn’t even have a starter house yet, but clearly he was going to need something soon if he was going to protect the egg from some of the more . . . mischievous residents of their Boatem village.

“No, don’t touch the egg! Scar-” Grian walked closer, hands outstretched, just in time to see Scar reach out with his hand and pat the egg.

Vworp!

The egg disappeared into thin air.

Dragon eggs had a tendency to do that. It was a survival tactic--Grian didn't really know how it worked, but just as endermen could teleport away from danger, so could the egg if it were touched. Now whether or not Scar was dangerous remained up for debate…

Scar giggled. "Oh, where did you go?" he sang, hunting around the area.

Well, he COULD be pretty scary sometimes.

"Scarrrr," Grian whined, helping him look. "I told you not to touch it!"

"It's over here!" Scar shouted, finding the egg at the bottom of a small slope nearby. "Just one more time…." He reached out again.

"No!" Grian said, slapping his hand away. "Look, you've got to pick it up the right way." He demonstrated, carefully lifting the egg and placing it in a pouch slung over his back. He had hurriedly stitched it together not too long ago, worried that transporting the egg normally might break it. “If you do it roughly, you’ll scare it and it’ll teleport away again.”

"I see!" said Scar.

"Now, please, don't touch the egg.”

"Oh," Scar said. He straightened. "You're really serious about this."

Grian glared. "I am."

"I'm sorry, I just thought it was funny!"

Grian sighed. "It's okay, Scar. It's just--this thing is a baby, it needs to be handled gently! You can't just go around scaring it! What if it falls into a hole or something?" he hissed.

"Oh my god," Scar laughed, "you're its mother now!"

"No, no, I'm not!"

"You are!" Scar cried. He suddenly stopped. "Oh no, didn't you kill its mother?"

"Well it doesn't know that!" Grian snapped. "Truthfully I didn't realize there would be an egg! And I couldn't just leave it, you know! Here, look at this." Grian gently withdrew the egg from its pack, and Scar moved closer. He held it up to the sun. "Look at that."

The sun shined dark red through the deep purple shell of the egg, making it glow within. In the middle, the silhouette of a curled up creature was illuminated. Blood vessels radiated outward, and at the bottom there was a blank space that Grian assumed was air. The egg’s shell was too thick for any detail to be made out, but the processes happening within were clear. Grian was enchanted with it.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

"Wow," Scar breathed. "There's actually a dragon in there! What're you gonna do with it after it hatches?"

"Well, I haven't exactly thought that far--I just want to worry about keeping it safe first. I mean, what do you even do with this thing?" Grian put the egg back in its satchel, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I suppose you keep it warm and safe but, like, I don't know what else-"

"I could help!" Scar said.

"You were just playing with it!"

"Hey," Scar said defensively, "that was before I knew more about it!"

Grian rolled his eyes.

“What are you guys doing over here?” said Mumbo, wandering over. Grian just knew he’d been up to something, and sure enough, there was a new tree next to his little collection of chests. Grian wasn’t very bothered by it, because he already had a plan to get Mumbo back for it.

“Grian is just showing me his new baby!” Scar teased. “He’s a mom now.”

“I am NOT its mother,” replied Grian tiredly, but he smiled at the sight of the other man.

“A baby?” Mumbo asked, choosing to ignore the rest of Scar’s statement.

“A dragon egg,” Grian answered. “I found it in the End.” He paused for a moment, feeling almost bad. “After I killed the dragon.”

“Grian! You’ve orphaned it!” Mumbo sounded scandalized.

“Why do you all keep bringing that up!?” he defended, glancing between Mumbo and Scar, who both gave him disapproving, albeit playful, looks. “I know you’re Mr. Peace, Love and Plants this time, but we’ve always killed the dragon in every new world!”

“Well, I guess that’s true, but it is a little sad isn’t it? You’re taking care of it but only because you killed its mum.”

“Yeah,” was all Grian said. The dragon always needed to be taken care of in each new world they visited, and while it was always a bit of a shame, he’d never really contemplated it that much. After all, he normally wasn’t the one who fought it--that last time in Evo aside. He didn’t really know what he had gotten into but he felt deeply like he needed to protect this egg. It was like a tug in his chest, drawing him into the egg and telling him not to let go.

“Show him the egg!” Scar said.

“You just want to see it again,” Grian replied, but pulled the egg out of the satchel again anyway for Mumbo to see. The surface of the egg wasn’t smooth, like a chicken’s egg, but bumpy. The purple spots almost seemed to glow, and occasionally little violet particles drifted off of it. Grian felt like he could stare at it in awe all day, and apparently his friends felt the same.

“How’re you going to keep it warm?” asked Mumbo after a moment of admiring it. “That satchel isn’t going to be enough, and to be frank, I don’t see you spending any time sitting on it, even if the mental image is pretty funny.”

Grian rolled his eyes at the comment, but thought about it. How would he incubate it? He may have had wings, but he didn’t know anything about eggs, other than that it was a safe bet to assume it needed to be kept warm. “I'm not sure, actually.”

“Hey, let me design something for you!” Mumbo said excitedly. “I could probably use some redstone and make an incubator of some sort for you.”

Grian smiled. “I’d really appreciate that.”

Asking Mumbo to create a contraption for him--what could go wrong?

•·················•·················•

“I’m not wearing this thing, you know.” Grian said, holding the contraption while Mumbo wheezed with laughter in the background. The design that Mumbo had come up with was essentially a backpack with heating elements strung through it, except for one thing . . .

“You-you wear it in the front,” Mumbo choked out, wiping a tear from his eyes.

“Yes, I see that,” Grian replied, unamused.

“Like a swaddle!”

“Yes, I see that.”

Mumbo laughed harder. Grian had to begrudgingly admit that it was well designed, however. It would fit the egg perfectly, keep it warm, and most important it was mobile to ensure that he could take the egg with him. It was thoughtful, especially since Mumbo knew Grian was quite protective of it.

“I’m not wearing this thing,” Grian repeated. “I’m not going to let you all laugh at me while I walk around the server with an egg swaddled to me!”

“I thought you’d say that,” Mumbo chuckled. “Here, you can switch the straps around and turn it into a backpack.” He unclipped the straps and moved them into the new configuration.

“Thank you, Mumbo,” he said gratefully. “This will certainly do the trick.”

“Glad to hear it mate,” Mumbo replied. “Now, while you’re here, may I ask why there is an incredibly tall tree on top of my camper?”

“Sorry, got to go!” blurted Grian, snatching the backpack from Mumbo’s arms and flying off in a burst of feathers.

“That’s unfair, I don’t even have an elytra yet to go chase him down with,” muttered the man as he watched Grian disappear.

•·················•·················•

Grian sat in the grass in front of his starter home and rubbed his eyes wearily. He was exhausted. Is this how all parents feel? he wondered. Was he just uniquely unqualified to be one? After all, this was only an egg! It hadn’t even hatched yet and he was already tired of keeping up with it.

Carrying it in the backpack was heavy, and Grian tired out quickly. It was hot on his back, and Grian found himself having to take breaks to avoid overheating. It was also cumbersome, and he found it difficult to build with as it shifted his weight. He almost fell off the roof once while building it! Of course, having wings meant that Grian could catch himself easily, but it had still given him quite the scare. Dragon eggs were pretty sturdy, and would teleport themselves out of danger if possible, but he was still so paranoid about breaking it. And now there was the Boatem Hole to worry about--what if it teleported itself into the void? These things kept Grian awake at night.

But if he left it...well, just like Grian had a tendency to lose items in his chest monsters, he also had a tendency to forget where he placed things. He had been forced to go back and rescue the egg from some place he’d left it more than once, which he wasn’t exactly proud of. What sort of parent forgot their child?

. . . He was definitely not admitting to being its parent.

Oh God, what did I get myself into?

“Hey Grian, what’re you up to?” came a voice, interrupting his thoughts. He looked up and saw Pearl standing over him. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and her hands were in her hoodie pockets. She took a seat on the ground next to him, and followed his gaze overlooking the Boatem village. “What’s on your mind?”

“This--this egg,” said Grian. It sat next to him in its backpack, still radiating heat. “I don’t know what to do with it. I’m just so tired of carrying it around!”

“I have to admit,” Pearl said, “I didn’t expect you to immediately adopt a baby dragon the very next time I saw you.”

“Yeah, well, it was an accident.” Grian groaned. “I don’t know what to do with it now, let alone when it hatches!”

Pearl thought for a moment. “You know, the rest of us are all here for you. The other hermits would be happy to help out, I’m sure.”

The other hermits . . . well of course they would. If it was one thing they were all good at, it was supporting each other. Scar had already taken a particular interest in the egg, although Grian was still a little suspicious of him scaring it again. Mumbo had specially designed an incubator for it. Pearl was visiting him to check up on him and offer help.

All Grian had to do was convince himself to let it go. To let them help.

“I know that but . . .”

“But what? Have you had any reason to believe they wouldn’t?” Pearl asked.

“Well, no.” He thought for a while. He thought of how his friends would lend materials when needed, or how they’d help replace someone’s armor and items if they were lost. He thought about the days where they all teamed up and chose one hermit to help out, and he thought about all the things they did for the good of the entire community without even being asked.

His desire to protect the egg was strong, and putting it into the hands of another person almost felt like simultaneously a betrayal of the egg itself and the biggest leap of faith he could take. But the hermits were good at leaps of faith, because someone was always there to catch you.

“You think it’d be okay?”

“I know it’ll be okay,” Pearl replied. “I haven’t been here very long but from what I’ve seen, I know they’d all help. They wouldn’t hurt it. They might be a little mischievous sometimes,” she said, glancing at Scar’s house, “but they know how important it is and would be happy to help. They helped you before, didn’t they?”

Pearl was right, of course. Nobody on the server had any desire to hurt the egg. He trusted that. If there was anyone that he could trust, it was them.

But how would he get them all to essentially sign up for babysitting?

An idea struck him, and Grian scrambled to his feet. “Pearl, you’re brilliant. Thank you!”

She blinked, a little startled. “Always happy to help.”

•·················•·················•

Grian stood back, admiring his work. A near perfect duplicate of the egg that was currently sitting in the backpack slung around his shoulder, but at a much larger scale. It was built out of obsidian blocks and crying obsidian for the spots, and if Grian was pretty proud of how it looked.

If Grian knew anything, it was that his friends loved minigames. And Grian was not above gently exploiting that fact to get a little help--just like barge game from the last world, where he managed to get his friends to help mine out the stone from next to his mansion. Just slap the title of “game” on something and you could get a hermit to sign up for anything.

“Now . . . I just have to write the signs on the inside.”

The game Grian had come up with was officially called Tegg--he needed to stay on brand with his tag games in every world--but he’d mentally been calling it “The Babysitting Game” for a while now. Because that’s what it really was--each hermit who signed up would also sign up to watch the egg and keep it safe. He set to work outlining the rules.

RULE ONE: Protect the egg and keep it safe.

RULE TWO: Keep the egg incubated or it’ll die.

RULE THREE: Keep a close eye on the egg.

RULE FOUR: Call Grian if it starts to hatch.

Satisfied, he wrote out the rest of the instructions. Because it was a game, he wanted to make it fun for the hermits too, so he’d decided to make it like a scavenger hunt. People were allowed to take the egg, provided they adhered to the rules, and were encouraged to hide it and keep it safe. Otherwise, someone else who wanted to have it could get it. The safer the egg was, the less likely for someone else to find it. The winner was whoever had the egg the longest when it finally hatched. Grian didn’t know how long that would take, but he didn’t want to miss it either, hence rule four.

Yep, totally outsourcing his babysitting onto his friends.

Grian squinted at his wall of signs, before placing one final sign at the bottom: Grian will track the game and has final say on points and rules!

“That should do it,” he mumbled. He still wanted to keep an eye on the egg, to make sure that he knew who had it and how many people’s hands it had gone through. After all, he was the one ultimately responsible for it.

Grian pulled the egg out of the backpack and carefully placed it on the ground. He’d somehow made a habit of just speaking to it every now and then--he had no idea if the little dragon could hear anything in there, but he liked to think that it could. “Hey there,” he whispered, and stroked the top of the egg. “Some new people are going to start taking you pretty soon, but it’s okay. They’re going to give me some help and make sure you’re safe.”

He paused, taking in the little room he’d made and the wall of signs he’d written with meticulous instructions for the egg’s care. It may have been the first thing he’d built for this egg, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t be his last. A baby dragon was a commitment and for the first time Grian really let himself think about what that meant, beyond just an egg that he had to carry around. Would he house it? Train it? Let it stay by his side? Would he love it?

I think I already do, he thought.

He thought of the hermits--their mischievousness, their pranks, their hard work, their friendship, and their goodness at heart. They were his family, now. What was one more addition?

“It’s okay,” he whispered to the egg. “I trust them all with my life, but more importantly, I trust them with yours.”

#hermitcraft #hermitblr #grian #mumbo jumbo #goodtimeswithscar #pearlescentmoon #hermitcraft fanfic #quara fanfic

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

supernova, m | kth

pairing(s): taehyung x reader, mentions of seokjin x reader

summary: Kim Taehyung is your best friend. Considering him as anything more was asking for a collapsed relationship. You two were just two points in the sky, side by side, always shining together. Stars aren’t meant to collide, right? 

warnings: rated M (18+) for language; smut (m-receiving oral, nipple play, fingering); non-idol!AU; supposed to be crack but, uh, I failed; yes there is a reference to that confused-lady-doing-math meme lol

--

You were having the stupidest argument of your life with your best friend.

“Obviously I know how to suck dick!”

Kim Taehyung nearly spit his soda everywhere.

“How the fuck,” he sputtered, coughing. “Would you ever know how to suck dick?”

You rolled your eyes. “Duh, I learned, of course.”

Taehyung raised his eyebrows so high that they disappeared into his dark brown bangs. “From who? You kind of need a boyfriend to suck dick.”

“No, you don’t,” you retorted.

Taehyung blinked at you. “I can’t imagine who would let you within ten feet of their dick.”

You threw a pillow at his face. He punched it away as you fumed. “If you must know, I’ve been told I’m good at it.”

Taehyung snorted. He placed his soda farther away from you, afraid it was going to be spilled. “By who? Your delusions?”

“Wow, Tae, seriously?” You puffed your cheeks, glaring at him. “You’re being so mean about this. Don’t pretend you have any experience at all.”

Taehyung frowned at you. “I’ve had experience. What makes you think I haven’t?”

You made a face. “You literally only spend your time at my place or at Jimin’s and you definitely aren’t getting your dick sucked here.” You placed a hand over your eyes, scooting away. “I guess you guys are closer than I thought.”

Now Taehyung picked up the pillow and threw it at you. It bounced off your head.

“Jimin doesn’t suck my dick.”

“I mean, you literally just implied–”

Taehyung pushed you into the plushies on your bed, planting a cat one on your head. “Dumbass, I’ve obviously had other opportunities. I’m not a hermit like you.” He pelted you with a Shiba Inu plush as you struggled. “I actually go outside and socialize.”

You glared at him. “I socialize.”

“You play online games all day,” Taehyung shot back, getting off you. “That’s not socializing.”

“Seokjin-oppa comes over,” you muttered, slinging a turtle at him.

Taehyung caught it in the air. He gave you an odd look. You raised your eyebrows back at him. He slowly lowered his hand, narrowing his eyes.

“You can’t be serious.”

“What?”

“I will call him right now,” Taehyung announced, pulling out his phone.

“No, you will not!” you roared, throwing yourself at him and knocking the phone out of his hand. It bounced on your lavender duvet. You planted your hand on it, halfway in Taehyung’s lap. “Ha!” Your other hand was on Taehyung’s thigh. You felt…

Something.

“What is that.” It wasn’t a question. The words just came out of your mouth automatically.

Taehyung cocked an eyebrow at you. “Wouldn’t you know since you have so much experience with the dick of Kim Seok–”

“Do not say it, Kim Taehyung,” you hissed, prodding him in the chest. “I will shut you up permanently. Also,” you added, hand still on his phone. “You shouldn’t be hard.”

Taehyung snorted. “You’re literally going on and on about sucking dick. Of course, I’m hard, you idiot.”

You pointed a finger at him. “It is not appropriate to get hard in front of your female best friend.”

“It is literally appropriate to get hard when you’re next to someone you think is hot and said person is suggesting they can suck pretty good dick.”

“It is absolutely no–” You cut yourself off this time. “Hold up. What did you just say?”

Taehyung’s deep voice seemed to get even deeper.

“I said, if you can actually suck dick, fucking prove it.”

You pulled your hand back, narrowing your eyes. “That’s not what you said.”

“I’m quite sure of what I said.” His expression was completely blank. The harsh overhead lighting of your bedroom seemed to make his dark eyes even darker.

You pointed an ice cream plush at him. “You also said you can’t imagine who would let me within ten feet of their dick.”

“I mean, I can’t imagine,” he said, shrugging. “But I know who would.”

This did not add up. You sat there, trying to do the math to see if it checked out. Which trigonometry equation would it be? Or algebra? An integral, maybe? Kim Taehyung wasn’t making any sense. He sat there, legs spread, obvious tent in his gray sweatpants, brown t-shirt barely covering it. But… why though? In all the years you’ve known him, Taehyung had never, ever asked to be more than friends. Never. In fact, he teased you all the time about how you never had a boyfriend.

You narrowed your eyes at him.

“You’re acting sus.”

Taehyung rolled his eyes. “Are you smooth-brained or what?”

You held your hands up, backing away from him. “All I’m saying is, you’re contradicting yourself.”

Taehyung let out a puff of annoyed air. “I can’t believe you would pick Seokjin-hyung over me.”

You got off the bed to walk over to his soda to drink the rest of it. “He’s good-looking,” you said absentmindedly. “Not that anything specific happened between us or anything.”

“Stop pretending you didn’t fuck him.”

You nearly spit out the soda, coughing. “I only might have suc–”

His eyebrows raised.

“You know what, I don’t have to talk about it. I don’t.”

Taehyung’s mouth thinned to a line. “I’m way more handsome than he is.”

You put the cup down, wondering why you even bothered to drink the rest of that. It was already flat anyway with how heated this conversation was.

“You are handsome, Tae. I just assumed you didn’t want me asking you weird questions like, can I suck your dick?” You shrugged. “Because that would probably make you uncomfortable.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung muttered. “Because I’m clearly comfortable right now with a raging hard-on and you admitting you sucked hyung’s dick.”

You chopped your hands in the air helplessly. “Look, you asked! I answered! What do you want, an apology?”

“An apology of you sucking my dick, yeah.”

You froze. Did he just–? It was the most childish thing you ever heard. Taehyung tucked his tongue in his cheek and glared at you. You were best friends. Best friends! Best friends don’t do that kind of stuff (right?). Best friends don’t think about each other like that (… right?). And you, well, the thing between Seokjin just sort of… happened. And maybe you had exaggerated a little. You weren’t as experienced as Taehyung. Even though you made fun of him, you knew Taehyung had more sexual encounters than you.

The girls around you always ended up gossiping about it.

You really were a hermit – you stayed home and played games, listening to music in your room. There weren’t any chances to do anything with anyone except for the few friends who visited you. And Seokjin was nice, patient. Just as nervous as you, afraid to make it too, er, overwhelming.

“Why… why are you mad?”

Taehyung looked down at the floor, sighing. “I don’t know.” He tilted his head, frowning. “It just pissed me off that you don’t trust me with something as important as that.”

“That’s not…” You paused, fiddling with the bottom of your purple pajama shirt. “If things got weird and Seokjin wasn’t my friend anymore, I would be sad.” His brown eyes slowly found yours as you spoke. “But… if you weren’t my friend anymore…”

You rubbed the back of your neck, not quite looking at him.

“I would be broken.”

He looked away from you too, to the fallen cat plush on the ground.

You chuckled nervously, sighing. “I don’t know if it would work. And I don’t want to ruin something that is already great with something that is just… my lack of confidence in being as cool as you.”

Taehyung placed a hand on his heart and winced. “Cheesy.”

You twitched and picked up the cat plush, chucking it at him. It bounced off his head, making his hair fly everywhere. He didn’t move, staring at you. You hesitated. Ah, you shouldn’t have said anything at all. It should have just stayed a secret between you and Seokjin. But you always ended up telling Taehyung everything, one way or another.

Taehyung patted the spot next to him. You carefully walked over, measuring a very deliberate space between you two before sitting down. He exhaled slowly, nodding to himself.

“You wanna just kiss and see if it’s weird?” he asked suddenly.

“It’s gonna be weird, Tae,” you laughed nervously. “This whole conversation is weird.”

“Hm.” Slowly, slowly, he leaned over and placed his head on your shoulder. You didn’t move away, continuing to stare at your hands. “Eh. It’s fine if it’s weird, I think. All relationships start off weird.”

You snorted. “I don’t think any relationship starts off weirder than you figuring out I blew one of your friends, then getting mad about it, and somehow we–”

He cut you off because he kissed you.

His lips on yours, sweet like cola, that familiar scent you could always associate with him. The scent that lingered on your pillows after he left, the scent that clung to you after the two of you shared a bed, completely platonically. You always thought falling asleep next to Taehyung was comparable to two stars beside each other in the sky, impossibly far away despite being the closest objects in space together.

Nice to sparkle together, but impossible to be together.

Stars colliding made a supernova, which was amazing, but then collapse into a black hole – the part that worried you the most.

And yet.

You pressed back against him, breathing him in. Your hand came up and held the back of his head, not wanting it to end, his soft lips against yours, not even a hint of messy tongue or anything crazy, just his taste. Taehyung mouthed inaudible words against your lips and you pulled back a little, not even realizing how breathless you were.

“Is it…” he muttered, voice so deep it felt like your heart was vibrating. “Weird?”

You nodded. “Yeah.” You chuckled, looking down at your lap. “That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“Ah.” He didn’t move away from you. “Want to do it again?”

Even if it all eventually collapsed into a black hole… What if I live like that? You looked up, right into Kim Taehyung’s eyes, your best friend in the whole world and, even now, you didn’t know if it was going to work out, but, maybe in the off-chance, in the impossible, improbable probability that it did…

You leaned over and kissed him, arm around his neck, pushing him down onto your bed. He smiled into your kiss, his larger hands travelling up to your waist to hold you. Your eyes opened a little, just to see his dark brown hair against your sheets, his tan skin against the lavender color. Lashes so long and dark they made you jealous. He was usually on your bed, but this time was different. This time, he was in your arms like a lover, pulled into your gravity. You softly moaned into his mouth and his tongue slid between your lips, rubbing against yours. You played with it, sucking on it. He moaned back, grip on your waist tightening.

“Tae…”

You breathed against his lips, not wanting to back away too far. He opened his eyes, so heavy with lust you almost forgot what you were going to ask.

“I need you to move up a little,” you said apologetically. “I, uh, I don’t…”

Taehyung laughed. “Sure.”

You didn’t know how to tell him that you basically only learned how to suck dick when the guy lying down. But he didn’t ask, simply scooting up the bed before reaching for you and placing you on top of him. Normally, you scolded him for laying on your plushies, but at this point your mind was somewhere else.

“Better?” he purred, kissing your forehead.

“Y-yeah.” You got onto your hands and knees, nervousness flooding through you. Taehyung reached for your wrist, wrapping his fingers around it. You blinked at him.

“You don’t actually have to suck my dick,” Taehyung chuckled. “I mean, if you don’t want to.”

You gave him a confused look. “Isn’t that why you were annoyed in the first place?”

Taehyung puffed his cheeks. “I was annoyed because you fucking sucked Seo–”

You slapped a hand over his mouth. “Not the time.”

He rolled his eyes at you. You kept your hand on his mouth as you slid down, glaring at him until you had to let go to get into position. He watched you with a raised brow. He balanced on his elbows, amused.

“Stop judging me.”

Taehyung grinned. “I’m not judging. Just viewing technique.”

You frowned and pushed his t-shirt out of the way.

“I can take it off.”

“Let me concentrate, you fool.”

Taehyung finally shut up. You kept telling yourself to just take off his pants. It was not that weird. It wasn’t like you hadn’t walked in on him changing before. But you had never seen Taehyung naked and, obviously, had never seen his cock. The tent in front of you was not as big as it was before, but all the girls ever talked about was…

You heard your name being called. You snapped your head up.

“You okay?” Taehyung asked, tilting his head at you.

“Y-yeah.”

“Sounding really confident there.”

You clicked your tongue. “Hmph.”

And you hooked your fingers on the waistband of his sweatpants and pulled down. Taehyung lifted his hips to help you and you were nearly smacked in the face with his cock.

“The fuck, Kim Taehyung?” Your eyes went wide as you bunched his pants around his knees. “The FUCK? Kim Taehyung?!”

Taehyung laughed. “What?”

“What?” you echoed, indignant. “Excuse me, sir, you tried to take out my eye with your dick and–” You pointed accusingly at his cock. “Um?”

“That’s not fully hard yet, yeah.”

Alright, it wasn’t like he was some Dragon Dildo cock but, still. You had a pretty small mouth (at least that’s what your dentist told you before he removed all four wisdom teeth, sigh). Taehyung rubbed his chin, sticking his tongue in his cheek.

“That’s why I said you don’t have to do it.”

You stiffened. “I mean… I can do it. I-it’s not like I can’t or anything.”

Taehyung shrugged. “Just don’t bite me.”

“Why the fuck would I bite you?”

“I’m just saying that’s not my kind of kink.”

“Just… shut up for a second.”

You furrowed your brow. It felt strange remembering Seokjin’s words to you now, but those were the only ones you knew. He told you to be gentle at first. You leaned forward, kissing the head softly. It felt warm and velvety against your lips. Just kisses, all up and down the length. You licked Taehyung’s balls lightly, using your hand to hold his cock out of the way. Taehyung’s eyes went wide as you ran your tongue over his balls, softly taking one in your mouth, bouncing it on your tongue.

“A-ah…”

You wrapped your hand around him to hold him in place, swirling your tongue around and around. You looked up at Taehyung. His eyelids were fluttering, groaning as you switched sides.

“F-fuck, normally they just go straight for the dick…”

You pressed your tongue flat and molded him to the crevices of your mouth, making him gasp and grab the sheets as you sucked hard. He made eye contact with you. Lips soft, mouth tight. Plenty of saliva. Slow, slow, popping your lips off.

“Just that was pretty impressive,” Taehyung panted, pulling his shirt up higher. You swallowed, inhaling sharply as you saw more of his torso. His skin was a lovely tan that accented his muscles and his cute bellybutton. You shook your head slightly, trying not to get distracted.

You pressed your lips just under the head, a soft chaste kiss. Your tongue slid out, running over the sensitive skin, saliva dripping down his cock as you looked up at him, eyes half-lidded, moaning hotly.

Seokjin didn’t teach you to do that. You were just enamored with Taehyung’s cock almost in your mouth.

Taehyung breathed your name, low and sensual.

You took him in your mouth, slowly, lifting and lowering your head as you went, lapping against the underside. Fit only what you’re comfortable with. Don’t stress about getting it all in. Lips loose, inside of the mouth tight. You went straight down, using gravity to your advantage. He wasn’t fully hard yet, but he was getting there, swelling in your mouth as you begun your pace, using his hips as leverage to hold yourself up.

“Right there.”

You paused, repeating your last movement. Rubbing your tongue against the bottom of the head, pressing his cock against the roof of your mouth. Taehyung’s voice was breathy, almost pleading.

“Down.”

You did so, keeping your tongue in place as you slide down, the head against the soft upper part of your throat. Taehyung moaned deliciously, hissing softly.

“F-fuck, that’s so good.”

You repeated the movement, bobbing your head up and down. Slow at first, but building up, gaining confidence. Spit slid down the length, pooling onto his balls.

“Ugh,” Taehyung grunted, clenching the sheets. “Your mouth is soft, but tight. Such a perfect combination.”

You couldn’t exactly respond. He wasn’t fully in your mouth, but you only focused on speed and precision of your pressure, making sure to squeeze the head as it pressed against your lips. You shifted, moving one of your hands to cup his balls, smearing the wetness everywhere. He sucked in a breath, setting his jaw.

“A-ack…”

You decided to try it. A moment of pause and then a slow, slow descent, all the way down. Relax your throat. Front tight, back loose to prevent yourself from gagging. The head hit the back of your throat and your heart jumped. Just a little more. Control. A little lower and your felt your throat tighten around the head. Oh fuck. You couldn’t breathe. But Taehyung was moaning your name so wantonly that you nearly forgot you were almost choking on his dick. You can do it. Slight, sharp ruts of your throat on the tip itself, making Taehyung jerk his head back and cry out in ecstasy.

“Holy fuck,” he breathed, gasping down at you. “You have it all in your mouth.”

He sounded very impressed. You opened your eyes, not even realizing you had closed them, and winked at him. He laughed, shaking his head at you.

You had to pull back a little, conscious of your breathing as you regained sweet oxygen. You didn’t want to sound like you were dying, after all. Taehyung was about to say something, but you started up your fastest pace yet, bouncing up and down, not looking at him as you focused completely on your pressure control.

“A-ah, shit!”

You used both hands to hold yourself up as you bobbed, hyper focused on giving him a raw, wet, tight hole to slide into. For you, this was the easiest because gravity did half the work for you, adding to the speed and cutting half of the stress on your neck, which was occupied with ramming the head down your throat as you tightened your muscles even more, fingertips digging into his skin. You could taste it, the pre-cum leaking into your mouth. Those pathetic, muffled whimpers couldn’t be you, right? You flicked your eyes up to him. Taehyung was watching you, panting hard, pupils blown so wide that his doe eyes looked even bigger.

“Damn, you’re even hotter than I thought,” he choked out, groaning sharply. “I’m close, I don’t know if you want to swallow–”

You dug your nails into his hips, moving even faster, desperate for him to cum in your mouth. He whimpered himself, leaning his head back as a low moan tore from his throat, your name falling out so sweetly and deeply that you felt it in your soul as he came in your mouth, flooding it. You pulled back a little to give it space to collect as you swallowed, his cock jerking in your mouth. Three gulps and there was still a little left. You swept it with your tongue and Taehyung shivered under you as you swallowed that too, lingering. Your tongue gently coated him. You pulled back, centimeter by slow centimeter, teasing the tip with the end of your tongue. Taehyung whispered at the sensitivity, but you pressed your lips against the head, soft pressure at the very end until the tip popped out.

“Could you just…” Taehyung panted, one eye closing as he struggled to catch his breath. “Not be good at that?”

You grinned, straightening. “Oh? I did good?”

Taehyung gritted his teeth. “I have never thought a blowjob could be comparable to pussy until just now, holy fuck.”

You rubbed your jaw in a startlingly similar manner to his habit. “Think I’m gonna be sore.”

Taehyung gestured down to his cock, who was rapidly falling asleep. “You killed him. How the fuck am I supposed to fuck you now?”

You shrugged. “I like other things too.”

“I’m listening.”

You scratched your head. Shit. You haven’t actually expected Taehyung to want to reciprocate. It wasn’t that what you wanted was strange, but it felt embarrassing to ask him, because it was something you learned about yourself with someone else. Taehyung’s eyes were boring holes into you. He was silently commanding you to tell him right now or else.

“I have to make you cum,” he said softly. “Tell me how.”

A shiver ran through you. Your eyes shifted down to his hands and he lifted them from the bed, observing you curiously. His lips curled into a wide smirk. You glared at him and pulled your pajama shirt over your head so you didn’t have to look at his smug face. You straddled his legs, pulling yourself up to him. You were still wearing your underwear. You reached into the cups of your bra and pulled your breasts out right in front of his face. The bra still on your body pushed them together so your nipples stuck straight out. Taehyung licked his lips.

“A meal? For me?”

You puffed your cheeks and took the back of his head, pushing him towards your nipple.

“Lick.”

His brown orbs became mischievous. His pink tongue darted out, flicking your nipple. You sucked in a breath and grabbed one of his hands, pressing his middle finger on your other nipple, rubbing it in slow circles. Taehyung got the hint, licking one of your nipples as he played with the other with his fingers.

“Pinching?” he mumbled.

“Y-yeah…”

He pinched you lightly. You yelped, fingers tangling in his hair. Lightly constrained in your clothes, your nipples being played with. One more step. You reached down for his free hand and dragged it up your thigh, moaning as his knuckle brushed against your soaking wetness.

“Ah,” he purred, vibrating your nipple with his voice. “You like a triple assault.”

“Tae, just fucking finger me.”

He chuckled deeply, rubbing you though your panties. They sank into your folds. Your clit throbbed with need, desperate for attention as he rubbed the slopping wet fabric against it.

“I will,” he drawled, staring up at you. He rubbed harder, keeping pace with your nipple. “How many?”

“I-I don’t think you can fit more than two,” you gasped, grinding against his hand.

“Okay,” he purred, hooking a finger around your panties. Strings of your juices clung to his hand as he pulled the fabric to the side. “One first.”

You felt him slowly slide his finger into you, his lips pressed against your nipple as he did so, his eyes closing. Your breathing became shallow, pleasure snaking upwards.

“Oh, fuck, you’re so tight,” Taehyung breathed, licking your nipple in between his words. “So fucking wet.”

You clutched his head tighter as he pushed in and out of you, curling it slightly. You chopped his neck feebly.

“N-no, straight.”

Taehyung raised his eyebrows, but complied, straightening his finger and thrusting it into you. Oh, yes. You clenched around him, shoving your tits into his face as you wiggled your hips on his hand.

“Need m-more, Tae…”

He rolled his tongue around your nipple and sucked it hard, shoving another finger into you at the same time, making your cry out and squirm. You gripped the hand on your nipple, encouraging him.

“I got you, love.”

Your heart skipped two beats. And then he began to really finger-fuck you, driving them into you hard and fast, pinching your nipple and sucking on the other. Pleasure shot throughout your entire being, so drunk with lust that you leaned into it, spreading your legs to give Taehyung more space to move his arm, fuck you harder.

“Taehyung, oh, fuck, Tae...”

You felt eyes on you and you looked down, seeing Taehyung’s sharp brown orbs watching you, brows furrowed as you bucked on his hand, detaching his mouth as he whispers hotly into your chest.

“Fuck, I want to fuck your pussy so fucking bad,” he growled.

His eyes were so dark that you felt like you were falling into space, into his gravity, trapped. He pounded you his fingers into you harder, pinching and twisting your nipple. You were ready to fall apart, gasping and moaning so much that your throat was dry.

“Can you take one more?”

“I-I don’t know…” you whimpered. “So f-full…”

He chuckled. “I have a big dick, remember?”

Your teeth sank into your lower lip. “O-okay, do it.”

Slow, slow. His third finger buried itself into you and you squeezed your eyes shut, gasping as you felt him began pace again. Your nipples were extra sensitive now, making your body shiver as he touched them again. Just a little more…

“Tae,” you gasped, “Go as hard and fast as you can.”

“You sure?” Even just the feeling of his lips brushing against your nipple had you trembling.

“Yes, do it.”

He wrapped his lips around your nipple before ramming his fingers into you, tearing a plea of his name from your throat as he fingered you roughly, almost like a fucking vibrator. Oh, fuck. If Seokjin was in the back of your mind, he quickly vanished as Taehyung pounded you, forcing you to take it all, spreading you out as you saw stars in your peripheral vision. He didn’t hold back and you didn’t want him to, squeezing his fingers as they entered you, pressing his head down on your breasts. Everything tightened inside you, so close to the edge that you could smell your juices dripping onto his lap.

“Tae, fuck, I’m so fucking close, a-ah…”

He sucked on your nipple, hard, pinching and twisting the other and it pushed you over, crying out as everything snapped suddenly, pleasure racking through your entire body as your pussy throbbed around his hand. You nearly sank down, Taehyung’s hands the only things keeping you up as you buried your face in his hair, gasping for air.

“Careful,” Taehyung murmured, pulling his fingers out, sticky and covered in your juices. He looked at his fingers for a moment before shoving them in his mouth.

“T-Tae!”

He made eye contact with you as he licked them off slowly and purposefully, moaning lustfully around them. Your pussy throbbed with need at the sight of his pink tongue slurping up the glistening liquid.

“Mmm, delicious.”

You felt your ears turn red and you climbed off him, righting your underwear before flopping onto the bed. Taehyung laid down next to you, pulling up his pants.

“Give me a couple hours and I’ll rail you with my dick.”

“Wow, that’s so romantic.”

Then came the awkward moment. The one where you stared at your pillows and squashed plushies, realizing what you had just done, realizing that you couldn’t turn back now. The stars had collided. Now what? The black hole? You didn’t look at Taehyung. You couldn’t.

He said you name, softly.

“Yeah?”

“I wasn’t being serious. You’re a virgin, right?”

You shifted your eyes. “Erm…”

“Ah.”

Silence.

“I’m gonna kill Seokjin-hyung.”

“No, Tae–”

 --

masterpost

#taehyung x reader #taehyung smut #kim taehyung x reader #kim taehyung smut #bts smut #taehyung x you #kim taehyung x you #v x reader #v x you #v smut

[hansoulchews]

White Horse (4/11 of Exile) | Vernon Chwe x Reader

Pairing: Vernon Chwe x gn! reader / past Park Seo Joon x gn! reader

Genre: fluff, angst, strangers to lovers

Sypnosis: Famous singer-songwriter, y/n, quietly released an album 2 years after ghosting the music scene suddenly. After their infamous scandal in which y/n was videoed to be in an altercation with established actor, Park Seo Joon at a restaurant, y/n ceased all their music activities and went into hiding, refusing to comment further on the issue. Lucky for all you conspiracy theorists! It seems as though all the questions left unanswered in 2019 are finally addressed (or so we think!) in this unexpected album drop.

A/N: Honestly, I have trouble writing realistic dialogues especially when they are between romantic partners/exes etc. because I have never really been in committed relationships but yeah we work with what we have 

Series Masterlist | Next

White Horse

White Horse is a remastered song from y/n’s debut album. We find it interesting that they chose to revisit this song and to insert it into an album that discusses one of, if not the most, adult, authentic and painful relationships that y/n has gone through. It is a track that talks about how y/n woke up from the illusion of a fairytale-esque relationship and coming to terms with the fact that it is over. Whatever this relationship was, it has caused y/n to realize that the narrative of a fairytale romance does not play out ideally in the real world. We do hope that y/n is able to “find someone who treats them well”. 

May 2019 

The cicadas filled the silence of a warm spring day. Your breath got heavier as you took a step higher. The most annoying thing about this hiking trail is that they have large stairs as opposed to steep, narrow stairs. It made it hard to build momentum and to feel like you were making progress. You could tell Woozi was beginning to regret forcing you to join him in this activity. He was a nocturnal gremlin for god’s sake. 

“The… things… I do… for you,” You heaved, regretting even starting a conversation with him. It was a waste of your breath.

“Bitch… this is for you.” You can hear Woozi’s exhaustion. 

“Can the both of you shut the fuck up?” Hoshi glared, him being way ahead of the two of you. “You are ruining beautiful mother nature for me.” 

Ah yes. The actual perpetrator for the predicament they were in right now.  

“Beautiful mother nature, my foot.” You grumbled childishly. 

Ever since the incident, you have been cooped up at home. It’s not like you could actually go anywhere else. You weren’t ready for it. But with you being basically a hermit, even Woozi felt unsettled with it. Bringing people into your house to create any semblance of socialisation was getting too pathetic and mundane. That’s where Hoshi came in.

Woozi, being as reclusive as you, felt like a hypocrite for wanting you to go out, at least for fresh air, when he himself preferred his dark studio and could literally hibernate in it for months. He then turned to the most outgoing person he knew to be your new motivational speaker — Hoshi. 

All of Seventeen (and the world), sort of knew what happened from the articles published, usually embedded with a video secretly taken by a patron of the restaurant on that fateful night. They knew the person you were romantically involved with was Park Seo Joon and they knew something bad had happened that led to that sort of reaction from you. No one exactly knew what entailed and how the dynamic was really like (with the exception of Woozi, of course).

But the members were concerned and you being Woozi’s friend made you their friend, by association. No one really knew how to approach you though, knowing that Woozi was really good at drawing the lines of a professional social circle and a personal social circle. And even though you both met as musicians, your friendship had transcended beyond that. In fact, there was sort of an unspoken no-shoptalk policy in place. Thus, you fell into the category of Woozi’s personal social circle.

When Woozi approached Hoshi to get him to encourage you to come out again, Hoshi was more than delighted to do so. Of course all of this had elaborate steps, including warming you up to the idea of Hoshi being around you. Hoshi began to tag along when Woozi came over to your place to hang out. It started with a flimsy lie from Woozi, saying that he and Hoshi had a place they had to go that was around your neighbourhood and thus, he just brought Hoshi for convenience sake. You eventually got comfortable with Hoshi enough that he was able to come over to your’s without Woozi.

You regret letting him in, though, because right now you are 4 short breaths away from an asthma attack, being mosquitoes’ most appetizing main course and feeling icky everywhere. Everywhere.

However, all complaints you intended on throwing to Hoshi dissipated when you saw the horizon that was coming into your own view. 

“Woah,” Woozi said what you wanted to say. 

“Yeah, woah…” You trailed off. No wonder Hoshi pushed for the three of you to keep hiking up even though most of the hikers stopped at the resting area in the middle only to go back after admiring the sight. 

“See? I told you the view was worth it.” Hoshi smugly said. The vastness of the forest went on for miles, burying the horizon. “Let’s settle here,” Woozi said, already beginning to unpack the food tupperware from his bag. You and Woozi made the kimbap earlier in the morning with the idealized vision that you were going to eat it with a scenic view, fully content. 

“Yeah yeah, it was still a pain in the ass to get to it though,” You grumbled childishly as you sat down beside Woozi. Hoshi, of course, took the mandatory selcas to share on Weverse.  

 Hoshi quickly joined you both and the three of you took a moment to appreciate the view, the presence of each other and the white noise of nature, humming lowly, undisturbed. 

 “Isn’t this nice?” Woozi broke the silence.

“Mm…” You hummed thoughtfully. “Views like this remind me how insignificant I am in the eyes of the Universe,” you said softly.

Hoshi nodded his head subtly, absolutely understanding what you meant. 

“It’s kinda a big relief. It reminds you how, in the grand scheme of things, you are just a speck.” He responded.

It was a big relief, indeed. You have been feeling a silent (well, not a silent in the real world because everyone has been rioting ever since they saw that leaked video of you but in the vacuum space you have carved for yourself) pressure to respond to the ridiculous (and untrue) allegations and theories. And you feared the backlash, a lot. Park Seo Joon was the nation’s sweetheart. The status of a nation's sweetheart can easily erase your traumatic history with him. And you don’t know if you had that strength yet. This mini field trip with the guys gave you the affirmation that the world will go on, even if it feels like you will forever be stuck. The world goes on and so will you. 

Unfortunately, you were forced to confront your past sooner than you thought you would.

A few days after that trip, you were invaded by the man who had been the source of your pain for the past few months. 

“I’m ready to talk if you are.”

You wanted to say that you would never be ready to talk to him. You wanted to say you wished he just erased you from his life. It was easier. But instead, you stepped aside and let him into your abode.

His apology was the last thing you expected to hear. Maybe it was because you knew him too well, but remorse was never something you have seen him having. 

“I’m sorry for pushing you into that state. I didn’t know you were so affected by the environment… and our age gap.” He said the last part awkwardly.

“I gave you the space you needed but now, I just want you back. I miss you and I regret how things ended. We were so good together and we can continue that. Please, y/n. I’ve been so miserable without you.”

A petty part of you wanted to play the misery olympics. 

Honestly, by this point, you never expected him to come back to you. Him abandoning you and neglecting you at a time when you needed his affirmation the most was the closure, albeit how bitter and inconclusive it was, you needed. 

“My heart has no more love for you, Joon. It’s busy mending itself. I honestly don’t see you in my life anymore,” you said it as sincerely as you could. 

He frowned, almost shocked that your response would be a no. 

“I don’t like who I am when I’m with you. And I don’t like how that makes me feel.” 

“How do you feel when you’re with me?”

“I don’t feel like myself. The damage is too much at this point,” You took in a deep, shaky breath.

“Too much? It was just one argument in the fucking restaurant after an exhausting day, for fuck’s sake!” He raised his voice slightly, clearly exasperated.

“It wasn’t just one argument.” You frowned, being livid that he still didn’t get it.

“What do you mean? Sure we argue with each other from time to time but we always make up.”

“We don’t make up. I negotiate with myself and bow out of the argument to satisfy you.”

Seo Joon cursed under his breath. “I can’t believe you. Even now, you want to make me the bad guy.” 

You scoffed at that. He wasn’t really sorry, was he?

“No, I can’t believe you. Even till now, when you’re asking for me to go back to you, you’re making yourself a victim. Get out. And don’t come back.”

You crossed your arms defensively, putting up a strong front. Seo Joon studied your face for a moment before closing his eyes.

“Fine.” 

And that was the last you saw of him. Even when asking for forgiveness from you, he causes you so much pain. 

It took a lot of courage but you repeated the words you have heard Hoshi and Woozi lectured to you countless of times.

You deserved better. 

#vernon fic #vernon #vernon angst #vernon scenarios #vernon x you #vernon x reader #seventeen x reader #seventeen fic #seventeen #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios #svt imagines #svt fluff #svt #svt fanfic #svt fic #vernon fluff

[spook-central]

So you know how I said I was gonna write a short Ray fic based on that garage kiss in Some Kind of Wonderful?

GUESS WHAT I DID IT

I’ll be posting it here and on archive of our own! Find me there at egonspenglersnose and give it some love!)

It’s based on this scene and this song if you need a little more context! Enjoy!

•••

She Loves Me

Word Count: 2939

Warnings: none it’s fluffy!

The day had started off normally enough, aside from the usual craziness that often occurred around the firehouse. Spring was in the air, and after what had felt like a bleak and oppressive winter, it was finally time to open up the doors and air the place out.

It felt good, letting the spring air in, and it made your overtime far more bearable.

You often stayed late a few times a week to make sure everything was caught up on for the next day when things got busy during the work week, something which Janine always appreciated greatly. Tonight was no exception, but the sun staying out for a longer time in the evenings definitely made it more enjoyable.

It also helped that Ray had lingered behind this evening to work on the Ecto. You had always been incredibly fond of him, and it was obvious to just about everyone that a crush had blossomed on your part.

You recalled the day you had met him; they had hired you on the spot mainly because they needed the help but also because you had a fairly impressive resume, and Ray was one of the first of the guys you had been introduced to.

He was quite honestly one of the best looking men you had ever met, and so incredibly sweet. You immediately liked him and got a good feeling about him.

You loved how passionate he was about the Ecto, and his overall knowledge of cars had always impressed you. Even if you didn’t know much about them, you loved his enthusiasm for them and it easily rubbed off on you.

Now, as you finished up the last of your paperwork for the evening, you could hear him tinkering away not far from you. Ecto had her fair share of problems, but there was nothing Ray wouldn’t do for that car. It was like another member of the team, and you couldn’t imagine the guys doing anything without it.

Ray would occasionally come in from where he was working for something he needed, and your eyes would meet on occasion. You had never had the guts to tell him of your feelings. Ray was just so cute and enthusiastic about what he did that it was hard NOT to give him heart eyes 24/7.

From time to time, you would hear him shuffle in for a drink of water or a missing wrench that he had left in the lab, smiling at him as you took in the sight of his wild brown hair and big, sweet eyes. How was it fair for one human to be that cute? You felt like you were sixteen again with the way you wanted to fawn over him.

However, restraint was a quality you possessed as well, and you hoped that you had been able to be somewhat subtle around him.

Oh well, maybe someday you would have enough courage. Sighing as you finished up your paperwork for the night, you stood to stretch your back, adjusting your jeans, purse and blouse as you made your way towards the door.

“She still down and out?” You asked Ray as you came to stand carefully beside the lovely car he had so caringly constructed and repaired. It really was his baby, in a funny way, and you respected the work that had gone into it a great deal. Ecto kept the guys in one piece, and you gave the vehicle a sweet little pat on the roof as if to say thank you.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” he said, his voice echoing off of the metal interior before attempting to stand up too quickly and bumping his head on it. “Ow!”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, it always gets me like that,” he chuckled, rubbing the spot on the back of his head that had been bumped and smiling that sweet, bright smile of his at you that always made you melt. “Are you headed out for the day?”

“Yup, unless you need anything else from me that is,” truth be told, you would’ve gladly stayed all night just to hang around with him. Ray seemed hesitant to fully say Goodnight, and you couldn’t help wondering if he was thinking the same thing.

“Well, uh...hand me the socket wrench?” You had gotten a fairly decent rundown of which tools were which upon receiving your first car as a teenager thanks to your father, so luckily you knew exactly what he needed. “Thanks.”

“Sure thing,” adjusting your purse on your shoulder, you couldn’t help asking about a case that had piqued your interest. “How did that class 5 turn out?”

“The one from yesterday?”

“Yeah, that one sounded nuts!”

“It was,” he laughed, “Venkman’s aim is getting better, he didn’t make any chandeliers explode this time.”

“I thought that one was Egon?”

You both laughed, and part of you was thrilled at how naturally conversation came for the both of you.

Needing a socket wrench turned into needing pliers, but soon enough Ray ran out of tools to need and it was clear that he really just wanted to spend time with you. You weren’t about to object in the slightest, comfortably sitting on a nearby stool and watching as he worked.

Truth be told, he had liked you ever since meeting you on that first day. You were always kind to him, and listened to anything he had to say no matter how out there it was.

He also couldn’t help thinking that you were incredibly pretty and very smart, but his own shy nature prevented him from saying so the way he wanted to.

A long time passed with you talking to Ray as he worked, and it was quite nice. The sun was setting now, the light golden as it streamed in from the open door beside the Ecto, but you didn’t mind.

“So Venkman seriously busted up this woman’s entire China cabinet?” The conversation had strayed back to Venkman now, and you couldn’t help laughing. He was such an odd duck, and you always got a kick out of him and his wild antics.

“We were able to blame it on the ghost being rowdy, but my god, it was a mess!” Ray tried to smooth back his messy hair as he laughed again, his hands covered in engine grease and not helping the situation much.

“He seems like he can be a real peach when he’s not causing trouble,” you rolled your eyes, smiling as Ray closed up the Ecto’s hood.

“He teases me plenty, that’s for sure, but I love him. He’s one of my best friends,” Ray was clearly fond of Venkman, and you didn’t doubt that their bond was a special one.

“What on earth does he tease you about?”

“Mostly my luck with women. Not that his is anything to go by,” this got a gut laugh out of you, and you were surprised by how witty Ray could be at times.

“No kidding. What, does he think you haven’t got game or something?”

“He tells me women won’t want to kiss me since I smoke so much.” Ray rolled his eyes, and you couldn’t help thinking about how far from the truth that actually was. “Or he acts like I don’t know how to do it at all. I mean, sure, I spend a lot of time at work but I’m not a complete hermit.”

You both laughed again, and you sat your purse on the ground as you got a rather cheeky idea. Was it even smart to try and approach things like this? Would he go for it? God, you hoped so.

“I’m sure you know how. I mean, everybody has a general idea of how to lay a proper smooch on someone if they want to.”

He raised an eyebrow at this, thinking the phrasing was humorous and wanting to hear more from you on this subject in particular.

“A ‘proper smooch’?”

“Yeah, you know. The kiss that kills. Butterflies and rainbows and all that stuff.”

He watched you as you took a few causal steps toward the Ecto now, the gears visibly turning in his head. Was this some subtle attempt at flirting?

The nearby radio, which had been playing softly in the background the whole time, played a song that perfectly fit the mood, the lyrics softly ringing out as you contemplated what to say next.

‘Who made the rule

that I should always play the fool?

All the nights I suffered

when I need not have bothered…’

“I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those, now that I think about it,” he admitted with a half smile.

“I uh...I think I’ve gotten close, but never all the way there,” you tucked a bit of hair behind your ear, watching as Ray adjusted his uniform, which he still had on. It had smudges of engine grease on it now, and you found it endearing.

He realized that this chance was now or never, gauging by the look in your eyes that you wanted what he wanted and deciding to go for it.

“How would it work? I mean...you seem like you know more about it than me,” he took a step closer, and you knew your eyes were shining in an undeniably flirty way.

“Oh you—you want me to show you?”

“I mean...if you feel up to it. I’m no expert and I could use the help.” Cheeky man, you thought. You could certainly show him if that was what he wanted.

“Do you have your eye on somebody, Ray?”

He wiped his hands on a nearby rag, the tension heightening as you watched them and then met his eyes again. You had always had a thing for those wonderful hands of his.

“I guess you could say that, yeah,” he nodded, his big brown eyes warm and sincere and you knew what he wanted to say but didn’t right then.

Instead of pressing further, you nodded, thinking this might be the most fun lesson you ever had the pleasure of teaching anyone as you got right into it.

“Well...I mean, first you have to start off in a stationary position. That helps,” he was closer now, and your cheeks flashed a soft tinge of pink as the space between you lessened. You didn’t usually have it in you to be playful, but decided to gently hop up on the hood of the Ecto in an attempt to bring him closer. “Come a little closer than that. Can’t do a thing from that far away.”

You moved to scoot nearer to the edge of the hood, willing Ray closer and practically beaming as he closed the space between you both more and more with each step.

Had anyone else sat on the hood like this, Ray might have gotten finicky, but the sight of you so close to the car he loved so much actually only ended up getting him going even more.

“It definitely helps,” he rubbed the back of his neck now, seeing that this had clearly turned into something beyond just a lesson in kissing techniques. You could smell his cologne now that he was so close, which only seemed to set your senses on overdrive even further.

“Now, uh...do you know where your hands go?”

His eyebrows raised in what seemed like a mix of curiosity and confusion, and you couldn’t help the way your breath hitched now that he stood directly in front of you.

“My hands?”

“Yeah. They go on the hips of whoever you’re kissing,” the mood had certainly shifted now, and you felt more daring than you ever had before. A timid smile crossed your face as Ray allowed you to guide his hands to the appropriate place, and the realization that this was definitely about to happen made your stomach do leaps.

“Hips, got it.” God, his hands were so strong and steady and you didn’t even care if this got engine grease on your jeans, it was just thrilling to have him this close.

“Okay, now look into my eyes. Eye contact is important.” The both of you gave a shy, breathy chuckle as your eyes met, and you playfully shoved Ray’s chest. “Come on, we’ve gotta take this seriously if you want to learn anything.”

“Sorry, I get a little skittish with these things,” he admitted, and you shook your head with a smile.

“It’s okay, but the lesson isn’t quite over yet,” you said, your cheeks noticeably warmer. The tension was enough to make your heart race.

“Alright, and uh...after that?”

“Well, uh...my hands go here,” you reached up to loop your arms around his neck, inevitably bringing him directly between your legs and causing Ray to clear his throat.

“How do you, uh...I mean, how do you know that that happens every time?”

“I watch a lot of TV, I guess,” you managed a soft laugh with this, “now, uh...close your eyes.”

Ray’s heart was pounding. Was this seriously about to happen?

“Close my—? Oh, yeah, okay.” He nodded a bit, doing as you said and knowing he had wanted this for what felt like forever. He was so handsome up close, and you couldn’t believe your luck.

It was time to go in for the kill, and you didn’t waste a second.

Leaning in, the first contact was soft and exploratory, and it took Ray a moment to figure out exactly how to respond. But once he got the angle right, it was everything you had described and more.

The music swelled on the radio nearby, and you thought you could’ve melted right then and there.

‘The minutes that we missed

idle lips that should’ve kissed

and now gently together

The first kiss lasts forever

She loves me, she loves me

Oh and she loves me, all the time…’

Tilting his head a bit, Ray found just the right angle, and one kiss turned into what felt like a million. Your hands made their way into his hair, that hair you loved so much that often seemed to fly out in all directions.

His lips were soft and very pleasant to kiss, and it occurred to you that he must use lip balm of some kind. Ray himself couldn’t believe this was happening. He honestly couldn’t fathom how he had been lucky enough to end up kissing you like this, but he was, and he was putting everything he had into it.

Ray’s mind moved at a million miles a minute. All he could think about was how it felt when you moved in a rhythm with him, how soft your lips were, your soft body, and how GOOD you smelled—

He nearly sighed as he felt your leg brace around him to bring him in as close as possible, gripping your jeans to pull you close by your hips in return.

You nearly melted into a puddle on the floor at the feeling of his grip, so strong and firm on you like he couldn’t bear to leave any space between the two of you at all.

He must have shaved that morning, you thought, having expected him to have at least a little stubble and feeling surprised that there was none. Where on earth had Ray learned to kiss so well? Boy would Venkman have egg on his face if he knew about THIS.

Unfortunately for you both, you had to break away and breathe at some point, just looking at each other until you finally managed to speak.

“Well, uh...Venkman was wrong. Way wrong. Wow.”

“It was...I mean, was it like you said? Butterflies and—and all that for you too?”

“Are you kidding?” You laughed, “sheesh, I didn’t know you had that in you. You wouldn’t have any trouble hooking any woman you wanted if you kissed her like that.”

He seemed surprised and incredibly flattered, looking down and then back up at you with a grin and eager brown eyes.

“Was it obvious at all that I was referring to you?”

“I kind of hoped that was the case,” both of you grinned then, the final chorus of the song fading out in the background as the spring breeze blew in once more.

‘She loves me, she loves me

Oh and she loves me all the time…’

You couldn’t resist leaving a sweet peck on Ray’s cheek just because you could, earning a bright smile from him as he got a somewhat playful gleam in his eye.

“The guys are gonna be gone for the rest of the evening, and I don’t have anything else planned...would you want to grab some dinner with me?”

“Sure, but only if we can do more of this afterwards,” you giggled, and Ray helped you off the hood of the Ecto to stand you up and kiss you so that he could press you flush against him now. You were sure you looked like a cartoon character with birds chirping around your head as he pulled away.

“You drive a hard bargain,” Ray said, unable to keep from grinning as he took your hand, “but you’ve got yourself a deal.”

What a lesson to teach with anyone, you thought. He was a fast learner, that was for sure.

Picking up your purse, the two of you headed out, and you couldn’t help humming that lovely chorus to yourself one last time.

‘She loves me, she loves me

Oh and she loves me all the time…’

#ghostbusters #dan aykroyd #ray stantz #ray stantz x reader #ray stantz fanfic #ghostbusters fanfiction

[quirkle2]

OH BOY HERE WE GO SO (WARNING: LONG)

This is sorta a strange AU in that it doesn't have the Hero's Cycle or Ganon or even possibly the Triforce as a real thing??? Possibly might end up more generic but i hopefully made up for it with All The Stuff Happening

So! We have Legend, who's a warlock that lives in a lil hobbit hole in the woods and generally doesn't wanna talk to anybody EXCEPT MAYBE for those few people that come by and say hi every once in a while. Maybe them. Hobbit hole and surrounding land is like covered in plants and stuff. He generally deals in more "man-made" magicks, enchantments on jewelry and man-made objects and written spells n things (just a heads up the magic and how they use it is gonna be like. super up in the air for a while so i might change it. except for wild. you'll see in a bit)

Hyrule! One of Legend's closest buddies and Half-Fae High Mage (in training)! Also lives in a hobbit hole in the woods; he and Legend are hobbit hole buddies. Because of his half-fae status, he gets to pick and choose what rules, fae or human, he is beholden to at any given time. Thiiiis has a bit of a stigma, I'll say that much.

Rulie's more attuned to magic as a part of nature, not requiring written word to cast anything, and generally isn't as bound by rigid structures as humans who classify magic (this may possibly be because of the Triforce, which i have now decided is real in this AU). He could tell you right off the bat if something is cursed (he's got experience, after all!)

Wild! Also one of Legend's closest buddies and a witch! He can cast enchantments over the food he cooks and is very good at brewing potions and drinks. Possibly wants to open his own tavern someday. (Apparently the origins of the witch possibly came from lady brewers who worked in taverns and bars! I thought that fit way too well for Wild)

Twilight! Werewolf, plain and simple. He bothers Legend sometimes (affectionate). He's the son of Time and Malon and lives on Lon Lon Ranch.

What is Lon Lon Ranch? Why, no mortal knows! They couldn't tell you where it is, how to get there, or even how it never seems to be marked by the passage of time or space! They just know you can get some dang good milk from there.

Time! Just An Old Man, Promise. Definitely nothing going on here. Definitely not somehow outside the bounds of time and functionally immortal along with his wife Malon and possibly his son Twilight. Nope. Just Some Dude who works on a farm and goes fishing with Wind and Wild and somehow has vast tomes worth of knowledge and history that Legend is itching to get his hands on. And also has a soft spot for fairies.

YUP. Just a normal dude.

Warriors! Royal Captain of the Guard and Right-Hand to Sky and Sun. Generally suspicious of magicks and their goings-on. Totally not backstory relevant (wink).

Sky! Prince-Consort, God-Killer, and betrothed to the soon-to-be Queen of Hyrule, Sun! Yes, while the King was much adored, his time is swift coming to an end, but it's okay, he lived a good long life, and- what do you mean the King won't die? What do you mean he got a new advisor with possible ill-intent? Well that doesn't sound good, hopefully some prince-consort won't go harrying off to the woods to some random hermit in the woods because he's been having dreams about something going horribly wrong and magic being involved! That'd be absurd because that's something only prophetic seers can do - aw dangit there he goes.

Four! Has possibly the most wild backstory of them all, but suffice to say he's the apprentice and grandson of the Royal Blacksmith who has the ability to weave elemental enchantments into the blades he forges. Has a twin brother changling (Shadow) and four younger brother who might be spirits and might have pieces of his soul because of backstory shenanigans.

Wind! Possibly a mer. That's all I got so far, I'm sorry buddy.

This got long wow. Um... can you tell I've thought about this a lot?

OOHHHH I LOVETHIS SO BAD I LOVEIT

idk much about some fantasy creatures like faes or changlings or anything like that but i love them anyway that's so fuckingcool,, i actually Love that the ranch is outside the bounds of time that's actually so fucking sick ?? that's such a cool concept??

wild wanting to open his own tavern,,, that'sso cute i love that. AND LEGEND IN A HOBBIT HOLE i love himso bad . yes. put the leedol boye in the leedol hobbit hole. also hyrule bein good at magic my beloved :)

this is so cool this isso cool dude what the hell,, ur insane /pos very very pos

#aw yeah [looks at my doctor's notes and puts on my stethoscope for no reason other than for dramatic effect] you've got brainrot bad #I WILL JOIN U IN THE BRAINROT if u have other stuff to share about this at all at any time Yes Please #qktalks #servantprincess

[tundrainafrica]

Title: A Tale of Two Slaves (17/17)

Summary:  “Soulmates don’t exist. Fate doesn’t exist. Everything is a choice.” At that moment, Levi could only watch as she made the choice for him.“

Reincarnation AU. Levi remembers everything from their past life. Hange doesn’t.

Other Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Link to cross-postings: AO3

The most difficult part for Levi was picking the best place to read.

His first choice was the oval. It was almost summer though and Levi was familiar enough with the timeline to know training must have started already. The last thing he wanted to do was run into old teammates and be forced to maintain some inkling of a conversation.

His second choice was the library. And it wasn’t a bad choice. For a while, Levi had settled on one of the desks at the corner of the library, far from cramming students or students looking for a convenient place to cool off. Seats on the corner didn’t have wide windows though and the artificial light and the artificial chill of the room had turned out to be distracting.

It was only a few pages in did Levi realize, he would have preferred some green around him and the heat of late spring wasn’t so bad. He started to wonder why he had even considered reading indoors in the first place.

He had ended up wasting a good fifteen minutes only to fall back to where he had parted ways with Hange anyway.

In front of the science building.

Hange was inside one of the empty classrooms defending her final thesis. Levi sat on one of the benches to the corner of the building, closing his eyes tight as if that would have been enough to make out the voices inside the building.

Others came to watch and he was sure of that. He had seen Erwin on the way in. Nanaba and Mike had waved at him, asking if he’d be coming inside.

Levi decided against it long before and maybe Hange would have preferred it that way too. After all, she must have left him that particular manuscript before entering the building for a reason. He read the title page, neatly printed in a very much readable and professional font.

Although it had looked like one with the thick cover and the hard binding, as soon as Levi opened the first page, the small title on the upper left had him speechless yet very much convinced.

It wasn’t her thesis manuscript.

To: Captain Levi

Captain Levi. How long had it been since he heard that name and that title? Hange had called him that months before. He had remembered writing about him. The words on the page, Hange's voice, Kuchel’s voice and his own voice all mentioning those same two words in succession had happened, he was sure of that much.

The circumstances though with each memory had blurred into each other one by one and he liked to attribute it to his hermit tendencies the succeeding months after his injury.

Life had been different since then. He had gone back to face to face classes. He had been working on his thesis. Hange had been working on her own thesis too. And they were both just too busy trying to graduate on time given the chaos of the first semester.

He stared at the title page for a few more seconds pondering that chaos, possibly trying to reach for something behind that haze to no avail. The only thing he was able to grasp then had been a bout of nostalgia.

And the nostalgia was more than enough to get him in the mood to read. He chalked up the small stint in the library to a test run and started again from the beginning.

Hange Zoe was born to a rich family within the Walls of Wall Sina…

Hange had taken great pains to describe everything from the cobblestone streets to the crystal-like bricks that lined the walls of the elegant buildings. The bricks shone with a unique glint and that alone had been enough for Hange to waste one paragraph on it.

She then used up another few paragraphs talking about the stifling life within the walls and her own curious nature.

If there’s something you don’t understand, go out and learn to understand it.

Living within the walls wasn’t in her nature so she ran away. She joined the survey corps. She was drawn to the outside world, drawn to titans.

So she became a researcher.

Levi didn’t notice it at first. Although his brain had been able to partition those few early events on the timeline, eventually the words started to shift, blur into one another and he found himself scanning through the paragraphs much quicker than usual.

He knew that much about squad leader Hange Zoe. He knew she hyper fixated on titans. He didn’t need vivid descriptions of Sonny and Bean nor did he need detailed descriptions of the outside world, the guns, the war or even her theories on the rumbling.

She had already told him everything then in the forest. She had told it to him back then in the office. Before he even knew it himself, he was flipping through the pages much faster. Suddenly his mind was pushing him to look out for certain things as he read.

There was something else he was looking for, between the lines of the descriptive narrations of Hange Zoe’s life.

“Maybe we should just live here together right Levi?”

Levi found the quote three pages before the back cover, towards the upper left of the page. He found himself running his left hand up to the corner of the page, slipping that corner between his two fingers, pressing on the ink on paper, just to make sure it wouldn’t so easily smudge with touch. Maybe it might even disappear like some sort of an illusion.

He just had to make sure it was real.

Hange’s exposition on sceneries was exhaustive. They were clear and vivid and they covered everything to the most granular bits of the large painting in his mind. If Levi closed his eyes, he was sure he would see the forest then.

Although Hange’s descriptions were detailed, comprehensive, enough to paint easy pictures in his head, they were far from introspective.

She had taken great pains to describe the darkness, the crackling campfire and the rough gashes of his face but she didn’t talk much about how it felt. Maybe it was up to the reader to contemplate them.

So Levi filled in the blanks, he filled the spaces between the lines with emotions, musings, ponderings. He couldn’t be too sure yet whether they were his or hers though, so he trudged on aimlessly as he read.

Everything happened in fast forward from there. Although Hange never left his side when she could, she was still fighting, suddenly she was strategizing.

Of course she would, she was a commander. He was just an injured soldier.

There was another quote, towards the last page on the upper right and Levi found himself running his pointer finger through it and he pressed on it hard, hard enough to crumple the pages of that corner. He ran his nail through it leaving a noticeable crease before he closed the binder and took a deep breath.

Dedicate your heart.

Just like every other page, there was no introspection into the character that made Hange Zoe, only words, more words then vivid descriptions of everything that happened after.

He didn’t need white spaces between the lines to figure it out for himself. Even if the pages had all been black, save for the words and the emotions they evoked, he felt it then like a weight.

But he shook it off, opened the book once again and continued to read.

Hange flew up. She fought titan after titan. And the fight had ended with her burning up in the air with the one last quote below.

“Titans really are incredible.”

Levi had half the mind to close the book again there, except that time, with no intention of reopening it. If he didn’t hyper fixate on that last sentence towards the end of the page, towards Commander Hange Zoe’s last words, maybe he wouldn’t have noticed the faded grey at the back of the last paragraph.

It was particularly noticeable on the white, between the lines of paragraphs. Once again Levi played with the creases just to make sure he hadn’t missed it. It was the last page, he was sure.

There was something written on the other side of the page. As much as it had ached to read on, Levi willed himself to flip the page.

It was empty, a blank white page. Fortunately, Levi was desperate enough to stare at it a little longer and he soon realized, he was focused on the center, somehow he had expected to find some sort of resolution there.

Hange had left the last line towards the upper left corner.

See you later Hange. Watch over us. Next to it was a shabbily drawn airplane and unlike all the other pages, it was smudged. The ink had blotted, sending light streaks of gray towards the right in such a predictable manner, Levi could almost imagine the way she had held the crease of the corner between her finger tips.

Once again, he shifted the weight of the page, moving his thumb and his pointer to that corner, reproducing the motions of how she must have messed up something so simple. It was easy to imagine and Levi found himself smiling.

Below it, towards the lower part of the page, he saw it. It was written with the same gel pen that bled through the other side of the page.

There were so many things I wanted to tell you but I never got the chance.

“Then why didn’t you say it? You had ten pages to say it.” Hell, you had five years to say it.

The next line read as if Hange had already predicted what he was going to say next.

I was the commander. You were the captain. We had a war to fight.

But you know, I thought when everything ends, once we retire I could let you know.

In a moment of dissonance, Levi started to wonder who those words were for. For all he knew, he could have been telling her the same thing.

Even if you don’t remember, I hope you at least felt it.

Please remember. Even if I wasn’t able to tell you anything, even if I couldn’t stay by your side.

I was watching you until the end.

Commander Hange Zoe

“Commander Hange Zoe,” Levi said it out loud a second time. Those words were ambrosia to his lips and he probably mouthed it a few more times as he stared at the blue sky above him.

Levi let his shoulders fall and he looked back down at the binder. He didn’t even notice he had closed it. “There were so many things I wanted to tell you too.”

You said it already. Commander Hange heard you. The answer came as a whisper. A quiet whisper that blew into his ear, caressing his neck.

And it had him jumping on his seat. “What the fuck Hange.”

“Are you done being sad already?”

“Why would I be sad?”

“Because Commander Hange Zoe died and you were staring at the sky like this for a good few minutes.” Hange let her head fall back playfully and Levi could have sworn he didn’t look like that. When she looked back at him a second later, she gave a knowing smile, an almost mocking smile.

That was enough to get Levi a little abrasive. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was watching you,” Hange said. “You looked like you were concentrating so…”

“I was.”

“So I didn’t wanna bother you.”

“You could have announced your presence like a normal person at least, maybe drop a greeting?”

“I had to look for you and you weren’t answering your phone then I got impatient.” Hange seemed unperturbed. “Come on, I’m treating you guys out to dinner.”

Levi opened his phone to see an hour had passed since he last checked the time and beneath it five missed calls, all from Hange. On the upper right of his phone, the silent mode sign flashed like some sort of reminder. “I was in the library so I had to put my phone on silent.” Those words in defense of his actions were instinctive. Soon, as Hange looked back gesturing for him to follow her, he started to realize that maybe that defense was useless.

“Okay Levi,” Hange said. Her tone was reminiscent of a know-it-all. Her pace was insultingly slow. Levi found himself angrily quickening his pace to catch up to her.

Hange’s pace was at least slow enough that even with his recovering leg, he found it easy to catch up. The moment Levi walked past her, he felt familiar arms on his shoulder. They weighed on him and in a way, they had prevented him from overtaking her.

He had no intention of doing so anyway. “How was your defense?” Levi asked. It was an easy question to start with.

“Better late than never but I’m getting a diploma.”

“Late? You’re graduating with all of us.”

“I’m the last one among my batchmates who presented.”

“Believe me, I’m more amazed that you managed to get something out even after redoing your thesis three times.”

“I should thank Kuchel, it was her sources which got me here. I’ll probably send her a copy of my thesis as a thank you. You think she’ll appreciate that?”

“She probably will. Something to help her pass the time when she goes on leave.”

“Leave?”

“In our last session, she told me she’s expecting.”

“Oooh? A baby?”

“She ended up opening up to me about it after our session. She was pretty nervous about having a child for a while and recently, she managed to get over that fear.”

“I guess we all had something to deal with…” Hange said as she pulled him towards the gate. “You think we’ll get to meet the kid one day. I’d love to see Kuchel as a mother.”

“She’ll be a great mother…” Somehow, Levi knew it. He only had to look back at her words, her refined tone and the way she easily shifted between professional and motherly to be almost jealous of the child growing in her womb.

Hange gave him a toothy grin. “Let’s visit her together?”

“Why not?”

The conversation died as they turned the corner of one of the buildings along the path, a corner that opened up to a large courtyard and beyond it the gate of their university.

“Wait, where are we going?” Levi asked,

“I told you, I’m treating you guys out.” Hange answered matter-of-factly.

“Where Hange?”

“We’re having grilled meat.”

“Hange? For the third time… Where?” Levi asked.

It wasn’t Hange who had ended up answering the question. By the gate, Moblit and Nifa were waiting and they looked like they had been waiting a while. Nifa was tapping her feet impatiently while Moblit had seemed genuinely concerned.

“You guys okay? You looked like you were fighting,” Moblit said as he approached them.

“Where are we eating?” Levi asked.

“The Korean grill just a few blocks away.” Moblit said.

Levi didn’t need any more clarification from there. They were all from the same university and the restaurants around the area were a common language among them.

“That’s how you answer a question Hange,” Levi muttered coldly.

“Well, I didn’t think the location was important. I was leading you there already anyway,” Hange responding mirroring that same cold tone with her own. She went ahead and put one arm around Moblit muttering unintelligible words save for the quick congratulations at the start.

“Congratulations?” Levi asked.

“He got nominated for best thesis and everyone's pretty convinced he’s gonna win it,” Nifa answered. She had fallen back behind the two and matched Levi’s pace.

Moblit eventually raised his voice, loud enough for even Levi to hear. “No No… That was your data Hange and it was your idea. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

“Still…” Hange’s voice trailed off. She was far enough, her voice was garbled enough that with that few feet distance, her words were unintelligible. Her smile though was very much still perceptible, a genuine golden smile.

“Levi, you agree right?”

Levi looked towards the voice, Moblit’s voice. “Agree with what?”

“If Hange had submitted her thesis early, she could have won ri---.”

“Moblit, stop downplaying your nomination.” Hange interrupted, giving him a strong push n the back.

Moblit wobbled and held onto Hange’s shirt to keep his balance “But it was a good thesis right?” He asked as soon as he recovered. He looked at Levi expectantly.

It was only then did Levi realize, despite the five months together, he never really thought too much to ask what her thesis had been about. With his own hectic schedule, his physical therapy sessions, his sessions with Shela, maybe it just never peaked his interest. He was starting to feel guilty at such a reminder and before he knew it, he was finding excuses for it.

She spent a lot of the past few months cooped up in her room if not in class, save for the few moments when she would accompany to therapy sessions or to meet with Shela.

His thoughts flew back to the document she had shared with him.

To: Levi Ackerman.

And if that document was half as good as her thesis, he was sure she did well. So he returned Moblit’s approval with one of his own. “It was a good thesis,” Levi said. “But don’t downplay yours. You won fair and square.”

That was all there was to it. Hange didn’t win. But she didn’t seem to mind either. Hange had snuck what looked to be a grateful smile and she continued to playfully poke at Moblit then, probably whispering inside jokes, reminiscing about their life before.

Her mood was unwavering all the way until the restaurant

It turned out Mike and Nanaba were in the restaurant already and they only joined Hange at glomping Moblit for his nomination. The four childhood friends created a world of their own in the restaurant, a world full of inside jokes, long gone memories and maybe even discussions on future plans.

Levi deemed it appropriate to sit on a chair at the edge of their long table and just quietly listen.

Mike was selected for the national team.

Nanaba wanted to go back to minor league volleyball after college.

Moblit was going to medical school

And Nifa, who had joined their conversation then, was going to take masters.

Hange’s plans were either long-awaited or they were intentionally avoided. He couldn’t tell.

By the time the question came, it had come as a casual question by Moblit who had always been sensitive with the way he phrased things so his intention had been something Levi couldn’t read either.

Before Hange could open her mouth though, Nifa chimed in greeting. “Doctor Erwin!”

“Sorry I’m late. We were discussing the nominees,’ Erwin said.

And the topic shifted from there, even before Levi could get answers.

Erwin never spilled who the winner was, but it was apparent in his gaze that shifted to the side and the smile that curled up his lips that it was one of them. By the time Hange had started being too vocal about it, Erwin had spilled more than enough for the students to guess for themselves.

“You’re free anytime next week for an awarding ceremony right?” Erwin asked.

“Anytime sir! Thank you for this opportunity.”

Erwin shook his head. “You wrote a great thesis. It was well deserved. Will you be inviting Elijah?”

“I think I should treat him out, I’ve wasted a lot of his time this past year... He’s been pretty busy training with the national team though… But I’ll talk to him.”

Their long table was already a conglomerate of conversations and Levi struggled to keep up.

Somewhere between conversations, the charcoal had been added to the grills, the sides were served and Levi found himself listening intently to Erwin and Moblit’s exchange in particular while he played with the spinach on his plate.

Elijah swept the high jump. He swept the other events. He came out winning the Most Valuable Player Award for the High Jump. And he recently started training with the national team.

The Olympics isn’t a far off dream at this point. It’s probably just another step for him.

Moblit had shown up for the first training and he had started to describe Elijah’s skill with the bar then. His coordination with the take off food, his wide penultimate stride.

He was using lingo most track and field athletes wouldn’t have thought twice to use and Levi had used and heard them more times than he had counted through the years. Having not thought about high jumping in months, listening to such a conversation peppered with such words that used to be home for him, seemed surreal.

So surreal that for a second, Levi lost his grip on a reality. Enough to not have noticed the waitress who served the drink in front of him

It was a short and stout glass. The contents looked particularly ---almost dangerously--- colorful and the red stick on the side was enough for Levi to deduce what exactly it was. To confirm it, he took one sniff.

“Nanaba, why the hell did you order alcohol?” Hange asked.

“It’s a celebration right? We should be drinking. Cheers!” She raised her cup up to no one in particular.

Moblit and Nifa had been nice enough to join albeit a little uncomfortably. Levi found himself making eye contact with Erwin who was still slowly mixing the cup in front of him, seeming unsure of what exactly happened.

Hange seemed flustered. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with us drinking but more people are coming and---”

“Sorry we’re late Hange!”

Armin? That was Armin’s voice. But it wasn’t just Armin, tailing behind him were several other very familiar people.

Armin continued. “None of us wanted to go alone…”

Of course none of them would want to go alone, they were high school students and around them were a group of college students and a college professor.

A group of high school students among college students. Levi noted. He eyed the cocktail glass in front of him then. Was that what Hange was worried about? Levi found himself downing his cup a little quicker.

“Blame Connie here, He was the one wasting his time on extra batting practice until god knows what time,” Jean said as he followed behind Armin.

“Shut up Jean. At least Armin didn’t have to cover my subway fee.”

“I just didn’t have change on me.”

“Calm down you two, you’re eating here for free.” Historia went in between the two, and walked up to Hange who had stood up to guide them to their seats. “I could pay for my share.”

“No, no. I set aside money for this. I just wanted to express my thanks for the past few months and I wanted to meet you guys again. I hope we can keep in touch even after...” Hange pulled Historia to the side and Levi couldn’t make out the rest of their conversation.

So he focused elsewhere.

“Is this… unlimited?” It was Sasha who spoke up that time. It was great timing that the moment Sasha had come in, the first plates of meat were starting to be served on the table. Expectedly, she had been the first one to sit and she started cooking on her end.

“Yes it is,” Levi answered

“No way… Right after a long day of training? Is this heaven…” Sasha could have been tearing up at that moment. She had been too focused on the meat so Levi couldn’t confirm it for himself but the crack on her voice had been evidence enough.

Hange squeezed herself among the high school students who had settled on the nearby seats. “No no… This is a thank you for helping me with my thesis. I got some good data from you guys so really, thank you for taking the time to fill out those forms and dealing with all my messages and calls,” Hange said.

“You didn’t have to. You did more than enough for us.” Jean sat in front of Levi towards the edge of the table. “You helped me fix my dunking position.”

“Ah Jean, you mentioned last time, you’d be going abroad for college. Will you?”

Jean grinned. “Basketball isn’t too big of a sport here so I thought of going somewhere where I can go pro. I got a full ride in a pretty good university.”

“Jean! Congratulations!”  Their side of the table had exploded into other conversations.

They were all going to colleges, some abroad, some local. Levi had turned to their side, ready to passively listen for details. He was starting to get invested in their plans too.

“Is anyone sitting here?”

Mikasa Ackerman. He instantly recognized her voice. “Ah sorry, I didn’t notice you there.” Levi said.

Mikasa remained standing. She stared at Levi expectantly and pointed to the seat next to him. “So, I can sit here?”

“Go ahead.” Levi scooched over on the bench. He eyed the filled cocktail glass next to Mikasa and pushed it casually towards himself. The last thing he wanted to do then was enable a minor.

Mikasa didn’t seem to notice the drink at leats.. “I talked to Elijah,” she said as she started placing meat in the grill... “He welcomed me during my first training.”

“Didn’t he move on from collegiate jumping already?”

“He had some free time. We had a long talk about prospects after college. I’m guessing coach put him up to it. Some extra persuasion points maybe?”

“You’re not gonna change your mind.”

“I don’t plan on changing my mind. I submitted my documents, signed the contract and I’ll probably be moving to the dorm next week so I’ll be nearer to the oval.” Mikasa paused to eat an egg roll.

“To think you were so against it before.”

Mikasa shrugged. “I guess it’s just easier now since Eren’s starting to prepare for entrance exams. I’m actually convinced he’s gonna be fine. He’s been taking review classes and he’s been studying a lot outside the classes too.”

“Entrance exams of Paradis University?”

“That’s his first choice,” Mikasa said. “Are you still staying in the dorm? Maybe we could go through drills together on off-days and you could give me a few pointers.”

“I’ll be in the dorm for a week more or so... I’m not exactly sure.”

“You’re gonna wait for Hange?”

Is it obvious? Levi avoided her gaze then, looking back at his empty plate. He soon realized he hadn’t even started cooking himself. So he dropped a few slabs of meat on the grill in front of him to feign at least some disconnect. “Maybe,” he answered.

“It would be nice to get a few pointers from you,” Mikasa said. “You really were one of the best jumpers out there.”

“I won’t be able to demonstrate a jump if that’s what you’re expecting. Besides Hange is much better at giving pointers. She’s a lot more observant than I am.”

“I’m sure there are things you can teach me that Hange can’t. I wanna improve my vertical jump. And maybe try some of the other events as well.”

“This is a complete 180 from you months ago..”

“I’m stuck training twice a day. I barely get to talk to Eren and Armin. So I ended up finding happiness in just jumping… And I thought to myself, might as well make some jumping goals for myself right?”

“So what’s your goal?”

“I wanna beat your high jump record. Even Elijah hasn’t beaten that yet,” Mikasa said.

“That’s some character development,” Levi mumbled.

Mikasa ignored it though or maybe she didn’t hear it. Levi never really figured out how loud he had said it. “.. And the only person who can teach me how to beat your record is you.”

***

Levi had eaten too little and had drank a little too much. But he would rather not have told anyone that.

So he had made the journey to the rooftop of the restaurant alone. There was a toilet conveniently by the staircase where he had ended up dry heaving on the bowl. A few dry heaves and a few sets of stairs later, he found himself sitting back on the metal wired fence that lined the roof.

Just long enough to get my bearings. Levi reassured himself as he leaned further in.

As time passed though, he managed to convince himself that maybe he could stay there long enough to just wait for everyone to leave. The last thing he would have wanted to do was puke on anyone on the way down.

He checked his clock. 9:30pm. Most college students wouldn’t even be leaving for the party yet at that time. His strict athlete schedule meant he never was a normal college student though.

He graduated college already anyway. With that realization, Levi was a little more merciful towards himself. So he rode out the high of his inebriation. He counted out the stars above him, treating it as some sort of countdown to sobriety.

It probably wouldn’t work. After the tenth star, his head was still pounding, the stars were starting to show signs of blending amongst one another and he could feel his face warming up.

He was starting to feel the beginnings of dry heaving—or possibly wet heaving—again. Unable to sit up any longer, he lay on his side.

He didn't know how long he had lain there, waiting for the pounding to subside before he heard footsteps. His first instinct had been to force himself to sit up. His mind though was quick to recognize those footsteps, that natural mix of fast, loud and even as they made their way up the stairs and somehow, he ended up relaxing instead on the cold concrete floor.

How many times had he searched for those footsteps before?

“Hey, you know you’re lucky we’re here on a weekday during off season. If this were a weekend, the rooftop probably would have been full and they would have kicked you out already.”

“How’s everyone?” Levi asked. He kept his question to two words but the amount of syllables he had to pronounce then only garbled it.

“They left already,” Hange slid back on the metal fence and leaned back on it. “It’s just you and me now.”

“Okay,” Levi said. He would have wanted to say more. The pounding headache only made something so simple as speaking, a game of Russian Roulette and he didn’t want to figure out which word had the bullet, and which word could have him throwing up on Hange then.

“It’s just you and me,” Hange repeated.

You said that already. Levi would have wanted to say. Instead he kept his own response at a hum of understanding. She should interpret that as a yes at least.

“You don’t wanna talk? Or are you just too drunk?”

Levi didn’t respond.

“Didn’t you just have two cups?”

Levi raised up three fingers. He wasn’t exactly sure how many at that point. But he was sure it felt like more than two.

“Okay, that still isn’t enough to be deadass drunk you know.” Hange seemed impatient. And maybe a little disappointed.

So Levi took one risk. “Just keep talking. I’m listening.” Maybe that had been enough to get some bile up his throat. It had done more than enough to aggravate the pounding in his head and he found himself leaning on Hange’s shoulder.

As she held him closer, her hand gently guided him deeper onto her shoulder. Within seconds, Levi found he had rested his head on her lap and was staring up at the sky above.

The night was clear, the stars were shining and Levi was counting the stars again, a little ticked that he had lost his pattern and his train of thought of a few minutes ago. He was starting from the top again and he could have sworn the stars were constantly moving. There was no way he would have been able to guess which line of stars he had already counted.

“Hey, talk to me.” Hange only made the ordeal of counting stars worse. Her big head of all things was obscuring the view of the patterns he was starting to form as he counted.

Get out, I’m counting stars. That’s what he would have wanted to say then.

Hange could have heard it. Or maybe she didn’t. She bent a little more forward, so unnaturally, Levi could have sworn she had done it out of spite. She stared at him with wide eyes, her lips curled up into a playful smile. “Let’s talk Levi, one more hour and they’re gonna close. Besides the view here is nice, it’s breezy and…”

“And?”

“You’re probably too drunk to move now. We’re gonna have to get a taxi home.”

“Later,” Levi mumbled as he turned on his side and buried his face into Hange’s polo which smelled unavoidably like beef. He would have complained then if his head wasn’t pounding and if it didn’t dawn on him then, he probably smelled worse.

“Okay, Wanna talk about my work?”

“Thesis?”

“That… and, the binder I gave you, the one with the stories.”

“What about it?” There was a lot to talk about. But it wasn’t like there was much Levi could have contributed then but one to two syllable answers.

“What did you think?”

“Good.”

Hange pouted. “No, not about the quality. How did it make you feel?”

“Good.”

“Okay, how did Commander Hange’s death make you feel?” Hange had taken pains to pronounce the word death a little more clearly than everything else. Enough for Levi to almost think throwing up on her would be a good idea.

So he took another risk. “If you had so much more to say, why didn’t you say it?” Levi asked. His voice would naturally slur so he willed himself to enunciate every syllable even if it could make him look like an idiot in the process.

“That’s what Commander Hange should have been asking Levi,” Hange said.

“Captain Levi didn’t wanna let Commander Hange sacrifice herself. It was obvious.”

“No it wasn’t.” Hange shook her head, quickly enough to get even Levi dizzy. “You wrote something before, right? Your descriptions of everything were incredibly vivid, like I remembered the views, the appearance of the titans, the way you weaved words together but you know half the time, I couldn’t even be sure of what Captain Levi was thinking.”

“That’s how it felt reading your work. Squad leader Hange, Commander Hange… all they described were titans.”

“But Commander Hange explicitly said she wanted to live with Captain Levi. It was obvious too,” Hange said.

And for a second, maybe they were engaged in some mental sparring, a game of tug of war. Levi was still a little too incapacitated, he couldn’t take the initiative.

So Hange spoke up, loud and clear. “I thought being with each other, doing all that was enough of a love letter. Did they need words? A mad declaration of love?”

“Maybe, no one can be too sure unless somebody says something right?”

“Hange was the commander. Levi was the captain. With the war going on, I don’t think they could have left their post right. They couldn’t be too selfish. I think the commander was planning to wait until retirement to say it.”

“Retirement never came.”

“We’re both retired now,” Hange said. “I’m done with this whole academic stint. You’re done with your whole athletic stint. We have the time to make it work for Commander Hange and for Captain Levi right?”

“Are you saying we’re Captain Levi and Commander Hange?”

“My dreams tell me yes.”

“Dreams huh? That’s pretty objective.”

“Hey, I think I did enough research on this to make a theory about it. It was part of my thesis.”

“And you do realize you’ve never told me what your thesis was about?”

“Sorry about that…”

“So you knew? I always thought I was an asshole for not asking.”

“You asked a few times, not directly, but I think maybe you wanted to go in that direction,” Hange said. “And I admit, I ended up digressing every time.”

“Why?”

“I guess I wasn’t too comfortable telling you yet. I was writing my thesis side by side with that story and ever since I got serious about it, after a few dreams, after that night in the hospital, I wanted the memories to be as raw as possible, untainted by whatever story Captain Levi told me before. It was Commander Hange’s story, not Captain Levi’s. So I guess that’s why I wanted to avoid discussion on it.”

“Thesis is done. The book is done. You can talk about it now.”

“You're gonna get bored. So I’ll just read out the title.”

Hange twisted towards her side, jostling Levi in the process and Levi had to bite his lip not to aggravate the dull headache then. He heard the sound of a zipper and the sound of books pushed against one another.

After what felt like a lot more than a few seconds, it stopped. Hange opened the book, she turned on the flashlight of her phone.

The glare was sudden and for a good few seconds the glare of the light could have been right on him. Maybe that was what had made it particularly painful for Levi then.

He buried his face further into Hange’s shirt and let out a taut curse.

“Sorry,” Hange whispered, seeming distracted. After flipping through the pages for a few seconds longer, she read it out loud. “Nature and Nurture as Determinants of Athletic Potential, A Case Study on High Performing Athletes… Okay you know,  maybe I was a little biased towards ‘nature,’’ she added cheekily.

“Why nature?”

“Dreams… Past life. What if… You’re Captain Levi and I’m Commander Hange Zoe. Right? We have the evidence. Captain Levi was humanity’s strongest and he was really good with fighting in the air... Commander Hange Zoe liked strategy and research... And the fact that we had the same dreams?” Hange trailed off.

Levi was in no state to respond.

So Hange continued. “You wrote a lot Levi and maybe you’ll write it again. But I can swear, from what I remember about your works, and what I remember from mine, They’re the same story. And Kuchel had something similar right? What if past lives are real?”

“I don’t think you’re wrong..”

Hange pulled another book from her bag then.

Under the dim starry night, Levi made out the thin binder, the one he had read that afternoon. She started to flip through the pages, much faster as if she memorized the exact page and maybe the exact position where the paragraph was.

“Maybe we should just live here together, right Levi?” Hange read out loud.

If we keep running and hiding, what will that get us… I know you’re not able to stay out of the action. Those words echoed clearly in Levi’s mind then. Captain Levi was still alive inside him and he was whispering.

Clear enough to convince Levi. Maybe past lives are real. Levi thought to himself. He was in another life then, circumstances were different so he changed the script a bit, a script fit for soon-to-be graduates Hange Zoe and Levi Ackerman.

“Where to, Hange Zoe? What’s the game plan?” Levi asked.

“What’s the game plan of an academic washout…” Hange asked. “Well first things first, thank my parents for their grad gift, you know, the money to pay for the all you can eat beef… I’ll probably get a full time job, save up money then decide if I wanna go to med school again but at this point, I might just be better off pursuing a research track.”

“Didn’t Commander Hange wanna study plants?”

“She did,” Hange said. “And you know maybe she’ll get the chance now. Didn’t Captain Levi wanna own a tea shop?”

“I think that’s a viable career option for an athletic washout. The Olympics and the national team are out of my plate anyway.”

“So what? Teashop and research?”

“Teashop and research.”

“Well first things first, we’re gonna have to save right? My parents and I have been reconciling our differences lately already but I don’t wanna borrow too much money so our best option would be to get a place outside the city? You think we’d be able to afford that?”

Levi forced a slight nod. “Maybe a place with lots of green. You’d probably enjoy the trees and you’ll find lots to study during your days off. The commute to work is gonna be a bitch though.”

“We’ll find a job nearby or we’ll make it work. Just long enough to figure things out.”

Figure things out… The conversation died then. But maybe it did because Hange had started to do a little more research then, he saw in the glare in her glasses, the natural green over the white background.

Was she researching houses? Levi asked silently. It wasn’t worth asking anyway. They had only a few weeks before their contract ends and they’d be forced to vacate the dorms. Maybe it was a good idea to search much earlier.

So Levi endured the bright glare of the screen and searched for the beauty in the green glare on the white screen on Hange’s glasses then, and maybe he found it underneath in her eyes that seemed to be smiling.

If eyes could smile… No, they were definitely smiling.

“I’m sorry, we’re gonna have to ask you to leave. The restaurant is closing soon.”

Just like that, the moment was broken.

“We’re going down. Just give us a few minutes to fix our stuff.”

“Let’s go, Levi?”

“I would've wanted to stay here a little longer. It feels like a dream. I feel like Captain Levi here.”

“Because you are Captain Levi,” Hange said as she started to stuff the books back into her bag.

“Alright, Commander Hange.”

Hange chuckled. “You seem very disappointed.”

“Do I?” Levi couldn’t really tell the face he was making there. Hange’s face wasn’t the clearest either under the dark light. So he considered the possibility that she could be right. He might have been disappointed.

“Fine, I’ll give you something to dream about,” Hange said slyly. “You know, if Commander Hange Zoe wasn’t fighting a war, there was something else she probably would have done.”

“Wha--?” Before Levi could even complete the question, she had answered it herself.

She answered it with a quick peck. Or at least it should have been a quick peck.

With Levi’s mouth half open then, it morphed into something else in that split second, lasting a little longer. Their lips locked, their tongues touched and it had taken a few seconds longer to let go.

It probably could have taken a minute, an hour or even an eternity longer and Levi wouldn't have minded.

He continued to replay it in his head again and again as Hange helped him up, slung his one arm over hers. His surroundings changed, from the starry rooftop, the restaurant interior then the taxi on the way home.

And it ended with the sofa of the dorm lobby, the wooden ceiling and Hange leaning on him on the sofa.

He was still thinking about it then. In the silence, in the peace even with the changing surroundings, he had been on cloud nine the whole time.

He was convinced, Captain Levi wouldn't have minded that eternity either. Hell, he probably would have loved it.

***

There was a hiking trail near their house. Luckily it wasn’t too steep.

So Levi deemed himself well enough to brave it. It had been almost a year since his surgery, six months since the last tear and most days, as long as he wore his knee brace, his knee wouldn’t give out on him.

Unbuckling happened. Swelling happened. The dull aches never left. Levi had learned to just live with it, ride through the worst days.

It was as if his knee knew then that that day in particular was special. Or maybe Levi had chosen that day because his knee was feeling better. That day, Hange was notably freer and on the days leading up to autumn, it was only gonna getting colder and colder and he didn’t wanna have to wait another year to hike.

“Just tell me if anything hurts,” Hange said as they made the almost perilous journey up the hill.

The steeper it got, the harder it would be on his knees. He noted that, it would get worse particularly on the way down.

It was still far from the steep incline in the reserve Hange had brought him to more than a year ago.

There was a peak that overlooked the small town they had settled in. The incline, the climb albeit longer, was friendlier for his aching muscles and his bum knee.

Levi was counting his blessings. So through the worst of the dull aches, the worst of the pains as they climbed up, Levi gritted his teeth and clocked it as ‘bearable at least,’ not worth a complaint.

Hange probably could tell though. He didn’t figure out by her eyes since he kept walking behind her. She hadn’t been particularly pushy either. He had figured it out for himself when she started talking, and she never stopped.

“How’s Petra?”

“She’s working towards a PT Certificate.”

“How’s Isabel?”

“I heard she’s starting her third year of high school already?”

“And Farland?”

How do you even know them?

“I visited Erwin a lot in his office in the hospital you know. And I talked to them.”

But it hadn’t been just that. Hange had an emotional investment extending far beyond that. He slowed his pace, appreciating her seemingly interested voice then. With that, Levi was reminded, they were Commander Hange’s friends too.

So he continued to answer questions as they came. They were a good distraction from the specter of exhaustion that loomed over him.

And soon, he took the reins. "So how's Moblit?" It had only felt natural to ask too.

"He's in his first year of med school...How's Mikasa?"

"Her first college competition is next month.”

Conversations shifted quickly from topic to topic, person to person before dying somewhere at the peak when they attributed the death of such to speechlessness at the view before him or just utter exhaustion.

Levi knew it was neither of it and he became sure of it as Hange guided him to the bench that overlooked the rolling hills behind them.

She kept one hand over his knee. "Your knee did a good job not swelling."

"Even if it does, I won’t regret it. I wanted to do this for a while."

"Is this because you couldn't join me up the peak last year?"

"Probably," Levi said. He turned to her. "You didn’t get to the top then right?"

“No, I didn’t. I went back down as quickly as I could when I heard you scream my name.”

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what came over me. But Levi knew, so he kept that last part to himself. “You know, maybe I am doing this for you. You still wanna fly right?"

"Yeah, I do. Even if I remember everything then, after writing everything out… Sure I know how it ends for Commander Hange Zoe but... I still wanna fly. Maybe because I just wanna enjoy the freedom that comes with it.”

"Then I guess we made a good choice." Levi grabbed his backpack from behind him and unzipped it. "I wanted to give this to you. And I thought you might enjoy reading it in a place with lots of sky."

He had binded it the same way and he had titled it similarly.

It looked like Hange knew what it was. "Levi… is this…" Her wide eyes looked far from confused.

"After reading your work, I started dreaming about Captain Levi again so I rewrote the story I made a year ago. It's not a perfect copy but I think I remembered enough to maybe get you immersed again in his thoughts."

Hange didn't reply but Levi didn't mind.

In a way, she had responded, through whispers, murmurs and the grin on her face as she looked through the file. "To Commander Hange? Yours truly, Captain Levi?" Hange asked, a little louder and clearer than her murmurs. She wanted to be listened to.

"Are you laughing? That's the same thing you wrote at the top in your own file,” Levi said. “I guess you can say, it's Captain Levi's love letter to Commander Hange."

“A love letter huh? All I’m reading here are long drawn out descriptions of humanity’s strongest soldier fighting titans…” Hange chuckled. “And maybe some mentions of Commander Hange Zoe.”

“Captain Levi was with Commander Hange a lot right?” It was a shoddy reply. Still, an inkling of pride had Levi clinging on to that comment.

"Do you notice that neither of us actually wrote something introspective. It’s like they never could tell what the other was thinking. Captain Levi was too obsessed with fighting, Commander Hange was too obsessed with Titans."

"Those were how my dreams were."

"That's how they were for me too."

"But if you look over there, towards the last page, you'd find it. I wrote 'dedicate your heart' right? Captain Levi didn't want you to leave"

"I remember that and if you looked towards the end of my work you'd see I wrote... Commander Hange wanted to live with you."

Levi had a copy of it on his phone so he opened up, did a quick search and highlighted the text.

Maybe we should just live here together, right Levi?

For a second they sat in silence. Levi was too busy finding a reason for the tens of thousands of words worth of exposition all for one sentence. Maybe Hange was doing similarly.

Hange spoke up once again, only confirming it for herself. "Commander Hange and Captain Levi really took each other for granted huh?”

"They had a war to fight. They couldn't be too intimate could they?"

“So instead of just explicitly saying I love you through a love letter, they decide to send each other memories of a past life and we’re left to decode it for ourselves?”

“Captain Levi was never really the type to say he loves someone. And I’m guessing Commander Hange wasn’t the type either.”

“Or maybe... They were too scared to think about it to admit it was love, but somehow the reader just knows.” Hange suggested. She turned to Levi then, eyeing his phone.” It wasn’t just in the ‘live together’ part right? I’m sure you felt it in the letter? With every mention of Captain Levi… Toward the end, he never left her side and she never his side too right?”

Levi nodded slowly, gripping his phone a little tighter. “I felt it and every time I reread it, it only got stronger." And how many times had he reread it since she first gave it to him months ago?

“You know Levi, even since last year, the first time I read it, I felt it for myself and I really thought they would have kissed. And maybe if Commander Hange died they would have.” Hange cocked her head to one side. “So none of us needed reflection or introspection huh? I guess the descriptions on titans and technology made some great padding to the love letter.”

“Don’t you think it just made everything more complicated? For us?”

“Maybe it did. But I like to think this long drawn out puzzle just makes everything deeper, worth remembering. Think about it, just mentioning someone again and again, just quietly assuming that someone would be there by your side forever, not thinking too much of it but just casually thinking ‘I wouldn’t mind if they were there forever.’ And when the prospect of losing them comes up, that refusal to let go...the regrets that follow... I think those run deeper than any flowery declaration of love." Hange waved the binder in front of him. "I like this. It’s better than any love letter I could have gotten.”

“Two idiots just writing stories about their tragic past lives and exchanging it," Levi mumbled that first part to himself. He turned to Hange. "I enjoyed the process of writing these ‘love letters’," Levi said. "Did you?"

Hange nodded. “It wasn’t all happiness for sure but overall, I’m enjoying the writing process and I'm enjoying where the dreams brought me. It’s not where I expected to be a year ago but hey, who says life should be following the path we set for it,” she said. She took a deep breath. “And I should be saying the same to you. I’m not the Olympics. I’m not the national track and field team but you don’t mind right? Being stuck with me? Writing love letters like that?”

“Hey, instead of going to medical school, you’re here living with me in some small house near some hiking trail. We’re both on nine to five jobs saving up money until god knows when. It’s a far cry from what our teammates and blockmates are doing.”

“But you know if I didn’t drop the other theses, I don’t think I would have written this much about you.”

“And if I didn’t get injured, I wouldn’t have written. I’d probably be training with the national team now.”

And we wouldn’t be here. Somehow, Levi knew she was thinking about it too. From his peripherals, he saw, Hange had leaned back on the bench and had let her head fall back. She was staring at the sky above her.

He followed suit.

There was something about the sky at the top of the hill. It was a light yet mesmerizing blue that endlessly stretched above him. There were no buildings, no trees, or no highlands framing such a view. The sky looked free.

And for the first time in months, Levi felt like he was flying again.

But he didn’t want to fly alone. Levi dropped one hand along that very small gap between them.

It looked like Hange had taken that as a sign to reciprocate.

Levi looked to his hand, cradled against hers and up at her face to see that she still wasn’t looking down. In fact she held her head back further, propped her glasses on her forehead, and continued to stare at the blue sky above.

The blue sky reflected on Hange’s hazel eyes and it manifested in streams of color Levi couldn’t have even imagined as ever been producible by blue and brown. He wanted to catch her gaze then.

So he spoke up. “It wasn’t easy to accept it at first but I’m happy where we are. I’m not regretting anything and you know, there’s something liberating about failing---” Levi shook his head almost instantly as if what he had just said dawned on him then. “Actually wait, I think I phrased it wrong. This probably sounds weird.”

Hange continued to stare at the sky. “No, I think I get it,” she said. “Failing is embarrassing, it fucking hurts and for a while it feels like life stops. But when you fail enough times, failure starts to feel like a friend. And when you fail a few more times, you stop chasing and that’s the liberation you’re talking about right? There’s something liberating about accepting failure as just something that happens and just riding through that downward spiral before picking yourself up again." Hange held the booklet over her and reopened it. “I’m happy where I am now too, post-downward spiral.”

Levi could only watch and listen as she whispered unintelligible sentences to herself, grinning at the pages. He wondered which scenes she was reading through then.

“Well, it’s time for both of us to regroup then. We can't just keep feeling sorry for ourselves right?” Hange added as she stood up. “I have my research. You have your tea shop to work on. We better start hiking now or I don’t think we’ll make it back before sun down.”

“I would have wanted to enjoy this view a little longer.”

“Then we schedule another hike. We endure the uphill battle, we enjoy the peak then we deal with the downward spiral. That’s how it’s always been anyway.” She stuffed the booklet on her backpack and pulled him up from the bench.

“Yeah, we’re both used to it anyway,” Levi joked. He felt Hange’s hand behind him as he looked down at the decline. Only looking at it then did it dawn on him, hiking backwards, the downward spiral which followed the euphoria at the peak could be almost comparable to hell for his knees.

“Hey, I’ll go first. If you feel like you’re losing your balance, just grip my shoulder harder. Besides we can look for a gentler slope on the way down. We just have to get past this one.”

“We won’t be able to get down if we don’t deal with this huh?”

“We won’t,” Hange said. “I know it’s bad for your knees… but if you walk at an angle, it will reduce pressure. I’ll cover for you.” She clutched his hand, went ahead and guided his hand towards her shoulder.

Levi took it as a sign to grip..

“Just relax," Hange said.

It was easier said than done. Levi waited for his legs to start screaming then. The dull aches were ubiquitous, the buckling and unbuckling of his knees were a discomfort he had learned to just ride through and he was sure, he wouldn’t be hiking for another few months after that.

Even before the slope had gradually morphed into something gentler, Hange had started talking again as if she knew once again that it could ease them the whole ordeal of hiking downwards.

“Remember that teashop, the one just a ten minute walk away from our apartment, you wanna check it out?” Hange asked.

There was only one teashop near their place and Levi was quick to recognize it. “I’ve been going there everyday after work.”

“Without me?”

“Where do you think I buy the teabags and the coffee beans that never seem to run out?" Levi asked. He had taken great care to say the word 'coffee' in particular. It was Hange who went through bags of them too quickly that it was almost impossible to not frequent the cafe.

“Fine, I won’t complain. Tell me about it then, any regulars? Anything notable?”

“There are two kids who live nearby and they hang out there a lot. A brunette and a blond. Falco and Gabi.” Those names had been easy to remember. Yet as he imagined those two kids in the cafe, as he recalled their minimal interactions, he started to wonder if they ever really did introduce themselves.

“Those are familiar names," Hange commented.

“And there’s a pilot who hangs out there but mostly on weekends. His name is Onya--”

“Onyakopon?”

“So you’ve met them before?”

“No, just seems familiar.”

“So what, are you gonna tell me you’ve dreamed of them?”

“Maybe I did.”

Somehow, that had taken a weight of his shoulders then and it had started to become easier to admit on his end. “To be honest, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dream of them too.”

#levihan #levihan fanfiction

[nach0]

Me? Procrastinating and then speedrunning this to get it out before midnight so I can still claim daily uploads? Doesn't sound like me! /j

But yeah procrastination is a bitch lol I'm just glad I already had a rough plan for this

"I'm sorry but... neither of us know what you're talking about."

Gem froze, turning to look at Katherine and Shubble in shock.

"You don't remember? But we were all in the coven together, with Joey, Lizzie and Scott! Do you remember them at least?"

They exchanged another look before Shrub spoke again, tone placating.

"We know those names, they're some of our fellow rulers, but we don't know anything about a coven. I'm sorry Gem, I wish we could help more."

Gem opened her mouth to speak, to give more examples, to do something so they would remember, but Ren placed a hand on her arm and shook his head.

"It won't help. Whatever is going on, these dudes aren't the same people as our friends."

Gem looked at him for a few more moments with tears in her eyes before she turned away and fell backwards onto a bed.

"So what, does everyone have some kind of ruler counterpart?" she groaned dramatically, throwing her hands into the air. "Let's just hope yours isn't evil like mine is."

Ren let out a chuckle as Katherine cleared her throat gently.

"Actually, Ren, was it? You don't have a ruler counterpart as you put it. I could recognise Gem here, and the names she gave us, but before today I had never seen or head of you."

Gem suppressed a snicker at Ren's disappointed face before she sat up again, switching to a serious expression as she faced the other two.

"Can you give us the names of the other rulers? Even if they're not the same people it might give us a starting point."

Katherine nodded and settled back down into a chair opposite them, Shrub followed suit but instead sat in Katherine's lap. She gave the gnome a fond but exasperated look before continuing.

"To our north we have Lizzie, the ocean queen, Jimmy, the Codfather, ruler of the swamps, the king of Mezelea Joel-"

Katherine got cut off by identical scoffs from the two werewolves who then looked at each other in surprise.

"Why don't you like Joel?"

"He took my third life, why don't you like him?"

"He started a cult! About a donkey!"

Katherine and Shrub exchanged a look before shrugging, those both seemed like things Joel would do.

"Moving on, to the west we have Pearl, queen of Gilded Helianthia-"

But she got cut off once again, this time by Gem giving out an excited gasp.

"Pearl's here? PearlescentMoon?"

Katherine nodded hesitantly and Ren frowned, gently tugging Gem back down from where she had risen out of the bed.

"Gem, this Pearl is probably another counterpart, just because she's a hermit it doesn't change that."

But Gem just shook her head, eyes wild with excitement.

"No Ren, Pearl has always been... a bit more than human shall we say. She could have a way home!"

Ren looked at her with pity, understanding the desperation of a last hope.

"Gem, no one on Hermitcraft is human except Joe. None of them came through the portal with us, and Pearl evacuated with Boatem. This Pearl isn't her, I'm sorry."

Gem paused, though it was out of confusion more than anything else.

"Joe is human? No, that doesn't matter now, I just need you to trust me on this! I can't tell you why, not without betraying Pearl's trust, but if anyone is able to find us and get us home it would be her or Grian, and Grian's not here. Or I don't think-" she turned to Katherine who shook her head at the unfamiliar name. "Ok so it's just Pearl here! Look, come with me, I'm sure her empire isn't far, and I'll show you! It has to be her Ren, please, I can show you!"

But this time it wasn't Ren who protested, it was Shrub.

"You two are still healing, you shouldn't be running around too much. You'll be fine after a couple of days, but you need to limit your movements until then. Speaking of..." she trails of and turns to Katherine, receiving a small nod in support. "We were talking and we think it would be best if you moved into my empire, at least for the time being. Katherine's is an obvious place for you to hide, but mine is less assuming. Everyone overlooks the gnomes after all."

Gem and Ren exchanged a look, and Gem's gaze drifted to the plant on the windowsill. Nature was so strong here, and she didn't want to give that up. Shrub noticed where she was looking and smiled reassuringly.

"My empire, the Undergrowth, has almost as strong as a connection to nature as the Overgrown, and we also have the largest wolf pack of anyone in these lands." The last bit was said with a puff of pride and Gem could feel the temptation rising, with a quick glance to Ren proving he felt the same. They exchanged a look, holding a conversation in the silence, before they broke apart and Gem nodded.

"If there's anything we don't like we get to leave, and you don't try to stop us, understood?"

The words might have been a little harsh, but Gem had just been trapped and she was not keen to repeat the experience. Luckily Shrub nodded and pushed herself out of Katherine's lap, whispering a goodbye into her ear before heading for the door.

Ren opened his mouth to thank her but Gem kicked him, making him glare at her.

"She's a fairy, did no one teach you the rules of the fae?" She turned back to Katherine and thought a bit before speaking. "We appreciate your hospitality but we cannot owe any debts as you chose to help us of your own violation."

Katherine let out a laugh and grinned with pointed teeth.

"That's quite all right, I wouldn't try to collect a debt like this. Though just so we're clear, your friend here did ask me for help saving you. Be careful with your words little wolf, you never know when someone less nice than me may come along."

And with that she turned and left through a door no one had noticed was there. The two stood there for a few more moments before Gem snapped out of her stupor pushed Ren towards the door, rolling her eyes at his indignant cry.

"If you don't want to be shoved don't go around making deals with the fae! Or if you have to, tell me next time so I can word things accordingly!"

Shrub didn't look phased to see the two bickering, only gesturing them over to a nether portal.

"Good news, mine and Katherine's portals have a tunnel connecting them, so we'll be back at my empire before we know it!"

Gem and Ren let out twin groans. The nether stank.

~

Me: Yeah I'm going to try and speed through this one to get it out before midnight!

The thing I wrote that I finish just after 1am: 1140 words

so yeah enjoy this! Sorry I procrastinated so long lol

#it's before midnight somewhere in the world #blame Vee aka the scapegoat that doesn't have tumblr /lh #teasing some watcher Pearl and Grian in here #ex watcher at least #idk if it will ever come up #but I like it so #this is one on the longer side! #once again unintentional but oh well lol #geminitay #rendog #Prey No More AU #hermitcraft #hermitcraft 8 #empires smp #katherine elizabeth #shubble