#excuse my actual french and free translation

[minkyungseokie]

第二章 | Moving and Meeting the Boss

warnings; age gap love(R: 23, S:39, T: 50), gxg, throuple, controversial age gaps, random German and Scottish pet names, topics of eating that aren't ED related, but might be triggering to some, DeepL translated languages. Untranslated Chinese, French, and other languages

note; okay! second chapter is now ready. I might start another series based on driver x reader x wag. I sort of rushed through this. I also changed a couple of things

She now contracted meningitis during her F2 days and that was the reason for her leaving, but she told people it was the lack of funds

There has something to do with eating, but it's not an ED

The eating thing is based off of a very adorable mukbang YouTuber named Tzuyang. I also never been to Monaco, so Idk how everything works

Realized she should have a last name since she's Felix's sister

note2; please give me requests for moodboards, blurbs, smaus, or anything else you want for this series. Or just request anything as long as you read my rules and how to request thing

fc; imleslie(Y/n), xavier serrano(Aaron Antognelli), blanca soler(Chiara Lorenzi)

Come Talk to Me | Driven by Destiny Masterlist

Autosports Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Toto Masterlist

I do not give anyone permission to change, copy, or put my work on any other platform. It will only be on top, so if you see it, please report it. Or let me know.

DO NOT ask me to update this story. I'll update when I can.

Anyway, only accepting 10 more people to be tagged

Buckle up! This is a long one!!!!!!!!

(My god, Susie is so fucking pretty that I might actually cry)

In the now packed-up house, Y/n gazed around. "Are you all packed up?" Her brother asked as he crossed his arms next to her. Chan sighed, "I'm going to miss coming over to your house and hanging out," he said, looking around the house. With a soft smile that showed off her sharp teeth, Y/n looked at her brother, "He'll miss popping by my house during random times when the homeless orphans don't have work to do and mooching off me until he needs to go home to Korea." Y/n teased, pinching his freckled cheeks.

Chan giggled at Felix's expression and looked away, clearing his throat when Felix's glare turned to him. The long-haired male slapped his sister's hand away gently and tried to keep his scowl before giving up and breaking out into smiles as laughs filled the room. "For real though, I am going to miss you." Felix said, opening his arms for Y/n to enter, "Aw, I'm going to miss you too, but you can come visit me anytime you want in Monaco." Y/n offered, pulling back.

"You too, Channie. You and the rest of the derelict unparented are free to come visit me in Monaco when you want." Y/n said, opening her arms up to the shorter male. "Why does this feel like I'm sending my little sister off?" Chan asked, gladly accepting the hug that was offered, "You are basically family, mate." Felix assured, wrapping his arms around both his sister and his best friend. The group continued to hug until there was a loud honk heard in front of the house, "Well, I guess we should get this stuff into the truck." Y/n said, letting go of the two singers to grab one of the nearest boxes.

Y/n lugged the box to the truck where a mover stood, ready to grab the box from her hands and put it in the truck, "I'll take that, sir." The worker offered. Y/n froze and stared at the mover, "Excuse me?" Y/n asked, "Oh? Did I say something wrong?" The worker questioned, looking at Y/n with a raised eyebrow, "I am not a man. Please don't assume because I have masculine features." Y/n said, steeling her nerves. Y/n wasn't a confrontational person, but over the years, resentment had built up enough for her to tell someone off when they called her a man.

Her boobs were prominent enough for people to know that she wasn't a man and she was wearing a sports bra with flannel, how the hell did the man assume she was one as well? "I'm sorry, I didn't know--" "I think you did know, but it's whatever. Don't do it again." Y/n huffed, turning around and walking away.

Y/n entered the home again and grabbed a box aggressively, huffing dramatically. Felix and Chan shared looks before putting the boxes they had in their possession down, "Hey, what's wrong?" Chan questioned.

Y/n shook her head, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. She sometimes felt like it was irrational of her to get so upset by someone assuming she was a man, but at the same time, anyone would get upset by being called the wrong gender.

Y/n squared her shoulders and picked up another box before turning to look at the two with a smile, "It's nothing, mate. Just a bit of an annoyance." Y/n then turned and walked out with the box in her hands.

The trio made their way back and forth until all the boxes were in the truck. Now, they stood on the lawn watching as the movers grabbed the furniture and loaded it onto the truck, "Y'know, we're actually going to miss you." Chan spoke up, continuing to watch the movers work. "I know. That's why I said you're free to visit me in Monaco. I'll also try to visit you and in Seoul whenever I can." Y/n assured, throwing her arms around each of the boy's shoulders and giving them an awkward side hug.

"We know. We'll try to visit when we can too." Felix said, laying his head on her arm with Changbin following suit, "We're done, ma'am. We'll be taking this to the sea freight now unless there is something else you need." The mover looked at the tall half-Asian with a pointed look, asking if there was anything she needed or if were they good.

"You're good to go. Thank you." Y/n said, nodding at the mover. The trio watched as the movers packed up and drove away, "What time do you leave?" Felix asked after a few moments of silence, "Three o'clock in the morning. Seeing as my insomnia is so bad that I can't fall asleep, I'll probably be up and out by two. Do you mind dropping my keys off at the realtor office safe drop box? I won't be able to do it since I leave at three." Y/n said.

"Yeah, we can do that. We'll be dropping you off anyway." Chan nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets.

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙

"Yah, wake up. It's two." Felix hissed as if there were others in the house.

Y/n groaned and swatted Felix's hands away before turning onto her side and snuggling into the blankets, "Y/n, it's time to wake up." Chan said, joining Felix at the side of the hotel bed Y/n was sleeping in. The two put their hands on her and looked at each other, nodding before violently shaking Y/n back and forth.

"搞什么鬼?!" Y/n yelled in Chinese after being woken up so violently, turning to stare at her brothers with wide eyes, "Sorry, you wouldn't wake up, so we decided to shake you until you woke up." Chan snickered, signing as he spoke, looking away as Y/n glared at him and Felix. 

Y/n sighed and threw the blankets off of her body, "Jesus, dude. You could've kept trying to wake me up gently." The dark-haired woman scowled, reaching over to grab the external part of her cochlear implant and the hearing aid for her other ear. Felix grabbed the hearing aid and helped her put it into her ear, "When are you getting your other cochlear?" Felix questioned, making sure the volume was on the level Y/n always kept it on.

"I get the second implant after I start my new job. I'll have to tell the boss about it as soon I do the interview. Especially since I forgot to tell her about my lack of hearing." Y/n mumbled, looking at Chan and Felix from the side since she knew that they would be giving her judgy looks.

Y/n turned to see that they were indeed giving her disappointed looks as if she wasn't taller than Chan, older than Felix, and more intimidating than the both of them combined. "Stop looking at me like that! I was trying to get the application in as fast as I could. I simply just...forgot to put it on my application." Y/n explained, looking down and scratching her cheek. When she looked back up, they were still looking at her with disappointment, "Stop looking at me like you're my parents and I just got caught smoking a fat one....or something cause I wouldn't know how they would look at me." Y/n quickly added the second part and gave the two boys a awkward smile.

Felix and Chan sighed in unison, "Okay, well, I guess we can't really be that upset with you since you'll be telling her face-to-face. Get up and get ready. Felix picked out some clothes for you to wear." Chan said, pointing to the end of the bed where some clothes were laid out for her, Y/n sighed, running a hand through her thick hair, "Okay, whatever. Please move out of the way." 

Chan stepped back as Y/n swung her long legs over the side of the bed and planted her feet onto the floor, grabbing the clothes and studying them before going to the bathroom to get changed while Felix and Chan checked to make sure that everything was properly packed. Y/n exited the bathroom wearing a pair of high waisted brown trousers, a white collared button down with a brown, beige and white sweater vest one top.

Y/n sat down on the bed and picked up the socks that were sitting on the bed, putting them on while Felix and Chan continued to talk, "Y/n, do you want to get some McDonald's on the way or something?" Felix asked.

"I just want a coffee and a bagel honestly. We can get something from the bagel shop nearby. I heard they have some good bagels and coffee." Y/n suggested, putting on her boots and grabbing the glasses that were on the nightstand next to the bed. "I'm down." Chan said, looking to Felix, "I'm okay with that." The blonde shrugged, grabbing Y/n's suitcase and pulling it out into the hallway.

Y/n stood up and looked around, making sure that she had left nothing on the ground

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙

Y/n turned and looked at her brother as she got ready to board the plane, "Okay, so you'll call when you've landed in Monaco, right?" Felix inquired, holding her wrists lightly. Y/n rolled her eyes and chuckled, "I promise that I'll call you as soon as I get to my new home in Monaco. Don't worry about me. Just make sure that you take care of yourself. All of you." Y/n gave a pointed look at Chan.

"What? Why'd you look at me like that?" Chan chuckled nervously, "I'm telling you to take care of yourself. You tend not to do that." Y/n joked, looking him in the side. Chan jumped away as if he was shocked and held his side, "No promises, but I'll try."

"Flight 35 A is now boarding."

Y/n looked over at where people were beginning to line up, "Alright, it seems I've got to go." The girl pointed behind her with a thumb. Felix pulled his sister into a hug and laid his head on her shoulder, "You better call me when you land. I'll fly to Monaco myself if you don't." He said voice muffled into her sweater vest.

"Okay, let go. I have to board." Y/n groaned, pushing the blonde away from her playfully, "See you, Y/n." Chan said, giving the girl a quick hug. Y/n grabbed her carry-on and boarded the plane, "Make sure the other Stray Animals are around when I call. I want to talk to all of you." Y/n spoke.

After a long flight, of which she slept through most, she hopped off the flight feeling groggy and completely disoriented. To be quite honest, she just wanted to go to sleep in a bed with thick blankets and the fan blasting on her face so she didn't overheat while sleeping. The thing was, she wouldn't be able to meet up with the person who sold her the house until the next day because the offices were closed and her stuff wouldn't arrive until the next day either, so she had to get a hotel for the night.

Y/n groaned as she rolled her neck, attempting to massage the stiffness out of her shoulder and neck as she entered the Uber, "Uh, Hôtel Fairmont Monte Carlo, s'il vous plaît." Y/n spoke in a tired and dull tone.

The driver nodded and pulled off. Y/n pulled out her phone and pressed on the contact of the one person she knew would be up. It was 9:41 PM in Monaco, which meant it was 4:41 AM in Seoul currently and there was one person she could guarantee would be up at that time.

Chan.

Y/n pulled out a pair of headphones with a large-diameter ear cup that completely encloses her ear and audio processor and put them on. Y/n looked out the window while the phone rang, "Hey! You're in Monaco, I'm guessing." Chan said as his face popped up on the screen. "Yeah, I'm in an Uber right now. I'm heading to the hotel." Y/n mumbled, mouth stretching into a little yawn.

"Oh, yeah. Your stuff isn't there yet, is it?" Chan asked, looking at something off to the side, "No, it'll be arriving tomorrow afternoon. I'll be contacting Mrs. Wolff tomorrow as well to schedule the interview. The jet lag was going to be a bitch." Y/n sighed, leaning against the window. "Yeah, it is. What time is it there?" Chan questioned, "It's, uh, 9:43 PM." Y/n answered, dragging her eyes away from the fogged-up window to the face on her phone.

"Have you eaten?" Chan questioned, "No, not yet. Have you?" Y/n raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I ate some ramen earlier. I'm just snacking on some honey butter chips right now." Chan responded, lifting the yellow bag to the screen.

Y/n opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by the driver, "Madame, nous sommes arrivés à votre destination."

Y/n looked out the window and saw they were indeed in front of the luxury hotel, "D'accord, merci, monsieur. Je vous souhaite une excellente soirée. Sorry, Chan. I have to go. Tell Lixie and the others to text me when they can." Y/n said, exiting the car.

"Okay, I will. Have a good night." Chan said, "Have a good day, mate." Y/n said before hanging up. Y/n pocketed her phone and grabbed her items from the trunk. She waved at the driver in thanks and made her way into the hotel. It was a random one that she picked out and it was probably way too luxurious for a one-night stay, but it was the closest to where her new home would be and she was way too tired to find an even cheaper hotel.

She checked in and paid for the room, trudging up the stairs in a slumped-over position. As soon as she found her room, she stood up and unlocked it as if she was being followed by someone and had to enter quickly. Y/n threw the door open and closed, dropping her bags where she stood before making her way to the bed and getting in

Y/n woke up the next day and immediately ordered an Uber. Her items would be arriving today and she already slept in pretty late. Y/n's dark brown eyes swept the room until they landed on the digital clock on the dresser. It was 2:52 PM. The truck with her stuff would be there around four and the realtor would be there around 3:00, so she had to get going pretty quickly. Luckily, her Uber was on its way and she would be at her new address in no time.

Honk!

Y/n's head snapped up once she had heard the honking of the horn. She could only assume that they were there for her and the chime from her phone telling her that her ride has arrived only confirmed her suspicion. Y/n quickly gathered her items and sped and walked out of the front of the building with her hand up in a wave to show that it was her who had ordered the Uber. Y/n pulled up the trunk after the driver had opened it from the inside of the car.

Y/n put her suitcase and carry-on bag into the trunk and closed it, rushing to get to the backseat and get into the car. "Bonjour, Monsieur. Monaco, La Condamine, 98000 Monaco, s'il vous plaît." Y/n said breathily, pulling her phone out of the bag she had and opening the notes app. Seeing as she would have to move all of her stuff in, of course with the help of the moving pros, and there were some other things she needed to do through the day, she decided that it would be a good idea to make a to-do list.

To do for today and tomorrow

Move my stuff into the house

Rearrange everything to my liking

Unpack everything

Go grocery shopping

Call Mrs. Wolff back

Y/n reread the list over and over to see if anything else came to mind, but when nothing did, she pocketed her phone again and stared out the window. Monaco was a truly gorgeous place and she could see herself living out the rest of her life in this beautiful country.

She could definitely see herself finding a man or woman, who would most definitely be an F1 fan seeing as the country basically lived and breathed F1, finding a much better home, settling down, and having a family.

It wasn't something she wanted anytime soon since she was still pretty young, but it was something she could see happening when she was ready.

Actually, now that Y/n thought about it, and as the car passed by the water, she doesn't think any house, which was actually one of those apartments where you have a whole floor to yourself, would be better than the one she got. It cost an arm and a leg to get and she would be able to afford it after she finally started the PA position.

The flat included three bedrooms, one bathroom, two shower rooms, one separate toilet and a kitchen. In total, it has four rooms. Two underground parking spaces provide space for any vehicles and a balcony that overlooked the water. It that high street, city center, bus station, and shopping center all within 500 m, so it was well situated.

Y/n sighed and closed her eyes. This was the start of her new life. While she was is Monaco, she was going to be a different person then what she was in Australia. Gone is the shy, antisocial, introverted girl that lived in Sydney and in is the girl who is still the same thing, but trying to be more confident.

"Pardonnez-moi, madame. Nous sommes arrivés." The driver announced, "Hm? Oh, merci beaucoup." Y/n thanked as she exited the car. She waited until the driver popped the trunk and then grabbed her things, "Merci encore, madame. J'espère que vous passerez une excellente soirée."

The driver gave Y/n a smile, "C'est très gentil de votre part. J'espère que vous passerez également une excellente soirée." She responded before driving off, giving Y/n a wave as she drove off.

"Miss Lee?" A voice with a thick accent called out from behind her. Y/n whirled around to face a tall man with dark, curly hair, a chisled jaw, and broad shoulders. It was the realtor, "Ah, Mr. Tomatis. How are you doing today?" Y/n greeted, looking to the side so she didn't make eye contact. "I am well. Listen, I would love to stay and talk with you, but I have an important showing to do, so here's your keys. Enjoy your new home." Mr. Tomatis gently place the keys into her hands before walking off.

"Oh-kay. Guess it's time to check out the new place in person." Y/n took a deep breath, trilling as she exhaled. The girl made her way into the building until she reached her floor. Y/n put the key into the door and unlocked it, "Home sweet home, I guess. Once I step through this door, my new life officially starts." Y/n mumbled, resting her forehead against the cool wood. Y/n opened the door and wheeled her suitcase in behind her, "Woah, this is sick!" Y/n awed, looking around her home.

She left the suitcase and carry-on near the entrance and walked around, looking through each room and mentally mapping what went into each room and how she would lay everything out.

Once she was done with her mental mapping, her hands fell to her sides and she looked around with a flat face and eyes dulled due to boredom.

She didn't know what to do now.

The truck wouldn't be there until four and it was only... Y/n looked down at the screen of her phone, which displayed the time in a large blue font...3:12.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Y/n's head. She had to schedule the interview and was advised to do so once she was settled down enough, but since she had time to waste, why not do it now? Y/n opened her contacts and pressed on Susie's, making sure it was on speaker, "Hello?" The sweet Irish voice that Y/n had heard last time, answered the phone.

"Uh, yes. It's Y/n Lee. I'm calling to set up my interview for the PA position." Y/n stammered, "Oh, Ms. Lee! I've been expecting your call back. I assume that means you're in Monaco?" Susie asked, "Yeah, uh, yes...ma'am." Y/n confirmed, nodding as of the woman on the other line could see her.

"Great, I know that you're going to need some time to settle down completely, so the interview will not be taking place any time this week. How about the next week around 10:00 AM? What day works for you?" Susie questioned, "I can do next week. How about Wednesday?" Y/n pulled out a pen and pad of paper to write down the date and time. "Wednesday works perfectly. Alright, I will e you then." Susie said.

"See you then." Y/n confirmed before pressing the 'end call' button. Just as Y/n put her phone on the counter, she got another call but this time from the company that had her stuff, telling her that they had arrived early and were ready to move her stuff in.

Y/n ran out the front door and down the stairs to see that they had indeed arrived earlier than planned and were already beginning to unload the lighter stuff, "Hey, I didn't expect you to be so early. Please, follow me and I'll show you where my apartment is." Y/n said, grabbing a box and leading the way to her floor.

After showing the movers where she was, Y/n went back down to grab another, but before she could make it too far, someone stopped her. "Hey, I couldn't help but notice you're moving in. Do you want some help?" A tall slender man with dark hair and dark eyes. The man in front of her was the very definition of tall, dark, and handsome and Y/n was the definition of awkward around pretty people.

Y/n opened her mouth to decline, probably stutter through the sentence before falling too embarrassed to continue speaking, when another voice spoke up. "Babe, what are you doing? Who's this?" A woman who absolutely gorgeous saddeled herself next to the man, looking up at Y/n with a raised, perfectly sculpted, eyebrow. "I-uh..." Y/n's eyes darted around frantically, trying to find any way out of the situation.

She knew she said she was going to be a totally different person than she was in Australia, but she had the worst night of sleep where her body got too hot with the blankets, too cold with the fan, and still too hot with both. She also kept waking up randomly during the night, feeling dizzy and disoriented. She also may be up and doing things, but she was severely jet lagged and wanted to do nothing, but drop dead on the floor and sleep until she could physically no longer sleep.

Y/n was going to be quite honest, she could use the help and it would make things go a lot faster, but how was she, a socially awkward person, to talk to two very pretty people? 

Answer; she didn't.

She walked past them with a quick 'excuse me' pretending like she didn't hear them. If they got upset with her, she'll just say her hearing aids weren't on or turned up enough for her to hear that they were speaking to her. "Wait! Ma'am, hold on." The man called out, following Y/n outside and grabbing her wrist gently, stopping her in her tracks. Y/n steeled herself and whirled around with a fake smile, "Oh, sorry. Can I, uh, can I help you?" Y/n asked, eyes darting between the man, who was giving her a smile, and the woman, who was scowling at her with her arms crossed.

"Yes, you can help us. My boyfriend asked you a question and you just walked past us as if you didn't hear. Are you deaf or something?" The girl sneered.

"Yes."

"Pa-pardon?" The girl asked, dropping her arms, Y/n turned her head to the side, showing the couple her cochlear and the the hearing aid, "I-I am in fact...deaf." Y/n muttered, turning to go get more boxes. Behind her she could hear the flustered man scolding his girlfriend while she stammered out flustered responses, 

"How could you-?!"

 "I..I didn't know, okay? Hop off my balls."

"Woman, what balls would I be hopping off of?"

"I... You... Just shut up! We should be helping anyway."

The two stopped their flustered play fighting as Y/n walked past. They both grabbed boxes and followed her, "Hey, we are so sorry." The man spoke up, speed walking so he was next to Y/n, "Especially me. I didn't know you were actually deaf and even if you weren't, I wasn't being the nicest. It's just, and this isn't an excuse, there have been some... how do I say this?" The girl asked, looking up.

"Issues." The man supplied, the woman snapped her fingers and pointed at her boyfriend before quickly putting her hand back under the box as it began to tip over in her hands, "Issues. We have had some issues with our last neighbours and it made me sort of defensive. Sorry about that. My name Chiara Lorenzi and this is my boyfriend..." Chiara trailed off so that he could speak for himself.

"Aaron Antognelli. And you are?" Aaron asked, depositing the box on the floor of Y/n's apartment, "Y/n Lee." Y/n answered. "It's nice to meet you, Y/n. I hope we get to become very good friends in the near future." Chiara said, nudging the taller girl as she and Aaron walked out to grab more boxes.

With the extra two sets of hands, Y/n and the movers were able to get everything inside quickly and it was a good thing too since the sky began to dark with thick rain clouds. "Um, thank you for your help." Y/n muttered, going into her house and beginning to close the door when a hand appeared between the door and the frame, keeping her from closing it fully, "Hold on there, kangaroo. Don't you want help unpacking?" Aaron asked.

"Oh, no. I couldn't ask for that. You have done quite a bit a-and I don't know you well enough." Y/n frantically shook her head. The couple shared a look before turning back to Y/n, "Please, we... I insist. We want to make up for the rocky way we greeted you. Of course, we won't force you to and if you don't want us to help you, we'll leave." Chiara said.

Y/n sighed and nodded, opening the door fully to let the couple in. She didn't know them or trust them, but she also needed all the help she could get. That, and she was shit at decorating, so it would be nice to enlist the help of someone else.

Chiara and Aaron looked around, "Why does your apartment look so much better than ours?" Aaron asked, "I thought they were all the same." Y/n said, looking at her spacious place. "Nah, yours has much more space, but it could be the fact that you're living alone that makes it seem that way." Aaron shrugged.

Chiara whirled around and clapped her hands together, "Alright, let's get this done."

With a yelp, Y/n fell out of her bed as the alarm she had set on her phone blared in her ear that contained the hearing aid. She had so much fun with Aaron and Chiara the previous night that she ended up going to be later than she usually liked to whenever she had something important to do the next day. After the day they helped her unpack, the two quickly became friends Y/n and they had been hanging out with each other ever since.

Y/n groaned and hobbled over to a cabinet near her bed where she kept her medicine, "Shit, getting drunk the day before my interview was not smart." Y/n grumbled, opening a bottle of pills and a bottle of water from her mini fridge.

Y/n gathered her clothing and put it on the end of the bed then went and took a scalding hot shower that helped her sober up. Y/n gave a quiet groan as she messaged her shoulders, "Man, my shoulders are stiff." She complained.

Stepping out of the shower, Y/n put on her outfit, which consisted of wool wide-leg pants, a skims t-shirt bodysuit, a nocturne cropped jacket, and a pair of heeled patchwork boots. Looking in the mirror, Y/n narrowed her eyes, "Hmm, wait." Y/n looked around to the clothes she had thrown everywhere when looking for a good outfit.

Her room was covered in an explosion of beige, brown, white, and black. There was not a lick of color in any of her wardrobe, save for her shoes, which were still not brightly colored, so they still fit her aesthetic. "I need to add some color to my wardrobe." Y/n muttered, before grabbing her things and making her way down to where the Uber was waiting for her.

She gave the driver the address of a café that Susie had suggested, Café de Paris, and  off they went. Y/n's heart thudded so hard in her chest that she was pretty sure that the beat was coming from her stomach rather than her chest. Y/n ran a hand through her long, messy hair and tried to calm the nervous feeling in her stomach.

The driver looked at Y/n through the rear mirror and cleared his throat, "Nerveux? Vous avez un rendez-vous ou une raison de vous énerver?" He asked, causing Y/n to jump from the sudden addressing. "Euh, oui. J'ai un entretien très important. J'ai déjà obtenu le poste, mais je suis encore nerveux." Y/n answered shakily, wringing her hands together nervously.

The driver studied Y/n through the mirror before turning his eyes back to the road, "Eh, don't be nervous. It must be just a 'get to know you' interview." The driver said, switching to English and waving a hand to the side as if he was brushing Y/n's nervousness away.

"You're right. Merci, Monsieur." Y/n sighed, leaning back against the headrest. The rest of the car ride was spent in silence.

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙

Susie sat at a table in Café de Paris, occasionally looking at her watch as she waited for Y/n to arrive. Admittedly, she had arrived a bit too early, but she was excited. She had been looking forward to finally starting the F1 academy and with Y/n working by her side, she'd make these girls into Formula One champions.

Susie continued looking out the window for Y/n, even though she has no idea what Y/n looked like at all. Y/n walked through the door and approached Susie from behind, "Mrs. Wolff?" Y/n spoke up, causing the blonde woman to jump up. As soon as they were face-to-face, both women froze.

Now, Y/n was open about her sexuality and what she liked, but Susie wasn't. Susie had never been interested in women and she wasn't one who would ever fall in love when she already had a husband and a beautiful son, but Susie's heart raced looking at the younger woman and she couldn't understand why. Susie had no problem admitting when another woman is beautiful and the one in front of her? Well, she was drop dead gorgeous in Susie's eyes.

"Ah, Ms. Lee. You startled me." Susie chuckled, putting a hand on her chest to calm her racing heart. Whether it was racing because of Y/n's beauty or because she genuinely got startled, she didn't know. Either way, the woman in front of her made her heart race. "My apologies, Mrs. Wolff. I didn't mean to scare you." Y/n apologized, giving the older woman a shallow bow instinctively.

"Shall we sit and begin?" Susie asked, gesturing to the chair. Y/n nodded and sat down across from the older woman. "Okay, remember that you already have the job. This is just to get to know you a bit more. Do you want to order something or do you just want to start?" Susie questioned.

"I would like to order something." Y/n muttered, Susie gestured to someone and a waiter came over, "Are you ladies ready to order?" The waiter asked politely. "Yes, I would like a chocolate chaud and panna cotta parfumeé au citron." Susie told the waiter who wrote it down before turning to Y/n, "I would like Le Chou Profiterole and the Irish coffee. Please." Y/n said.

Once the waiter finished writing down their orders and left, Susie turned back to Y/n with a smile that made Y/n want to throw herself off a cliff. She was so pretty and Y/n didn't think Susie knew just how gorgeous she was.

"Okay, let's start while we're waiting for our orders. Can you tell me about yourself?" Susie questioned, "Oh okay, um... I'm Y/n Lee, I am half Chinese and Half Australian, I am 23 years old, I want to do modeling in my spare time, I like surfing and skiing, and I used to be a Formula Two driver before I contracted meningitis and had to stop." Y/n replied.

"You contracted meningitis?" Susie asked, "I did. I lost hearing in my right ear," Y/n turned her head and moved her hair, showing her cochlear, "I had to get a cochlear for my right ear and I have a hearing aid in my left because I'm losing my hearing in that ear. After I got my surgery, I just decided not to continue driving even though I would love to continue." Y/n shrugged.

Susie nodded, "If you had the chance, would you try and continue to drive in F2?" Susie questioned. Y/n sighed and looked around the café, "I honestly never thought about it. I wanted to but I didn't have enough money to continue, so I thought that my chances were over. If I had the chance to do it again, I don't know if I would take it. I'm turning 23 soon and I fell like I'm getting too old." Y/n said, looking up as the waiter arrived with their stuff.

"Thank you/Merci." Susie and Y/n said simultaneously. Y/n brought the glass mug up to her lips and took a sip of the drink. Y/n put the mug down and looked at Susie again, "What are your goals for the next five years?" Susie asked.

"Hmm, I think I still see myself working in the motorsports world or perhaps attempting to further my modeling career. Or both." Y/n answered, picking up one of the cream puff and taking a bite, refraining from making any sort of noise. 

"Do you consider yourself a passionate person when it comes to this sport?" Susie inquired, Y/n nodded as she swallowed the pastry in her mouth, "I was..am...Before I got meningitis, I was obsessed with being a Formula One driver. I was about as passionate about it like most of the guys on the grid. It was my passion." Y/n explained.

Susie nodded and sat back in her chair, "That'll be all." She said, picking up her spoon and eating some of her panna cotta parfumeé au citron. Y/n paused halfway from the plate where she was reaching for another mini creampuff, "That's all?" She asked, "That's all." Susie reiterated 

"Okay." Y/n nodded. She was honestly so unsure as to why she needed to do the interview when she was only going to be asked about four questions, "Now, let's get to know each other since we're going to be working closely together. My name is Suzanne Wolff, but you can call me Susie. I am Scottish, 39 years old, I have a wonderful husband who is the team principal of Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team, and I have a gorgeous fiver-year-old son named Jack." Susie introduced herself.

The woman held out a hand for Y/n to shake, "It's wonderful to meet you, Mrs. Wolff. I look forward to working with you." Y/n said, grabbing the older woman's hand and shaking it firmly. Susie waved off her formalities, "Oh, please. Call me Susie. We'll be working close together, so we might as well drop the formalities." She chuckled.

The two women continued to talk about random topics, getting to know each other more and more. The two became quick friends and even made plans to hang outside of work sometime in the future and even talked about Y/n meeting her son and husband since she would have to meet them eventually.

By the time Y/n was in her Uber and on her way home, it was well into the afternoon and Y/n had a small permanent smile on her face as she thought about the older woman.

Y/n hated to admit it, but she tended to catch feelings for people quite easily. She didn't and never would believe in love at first sight, but she did believe that one can get to know someone well enough to gain some sort of feelings for someone. 

And Y/n could tell that the bubbling feeling in her stomach was her feeling giddy and anxious. She was beginning to feel something for the older married woman, but she brushed it off. It was just a small puppy crush, and even if it wasn't, nothing would ever come of it. Susie was a heterosexual married woman with a family and if there was one thing Y/n could never be, it was a homewrecker.

 Susie entered her home happily. Her husband and son greeting her at the entrance, "Hello, liebling. How was the interview? I can assume it went well since you're smiling from ear to ear." Toto said, kissing his wife on the forehead. "She's perfect, Toto. She is everything I wanted and more in a personal assistant. Not to mention she's absolutely gorgeous. If she were to go to a GP, people would assume she is some sort of supermodel WAG." Susie said absentmindedly.

Toto gave his wife an odd look as she bent down to greet their five-year-old. His wife was what some people would call a girl's girl and she definitely has complimented other women before, but the way she had talked about the woman she had met with made him feel curious. She had never sounded so infatuated with anyone other than him and Jack.

Of course, Toto knew that his wife was not going to cheat on him and especially not with another woman, but there was just a feeling in his gut that said there was something more than just a regular excitement to be getting the F1 Academy project off the ground. 

"Yeah? Is that right?" Toto asked, "Yes. She used to be a F2 driver too, so she is the most perfect candidate for the job. I think you and Jackie would lover her." Susie said, kissing the top of Jack's head and carrying him into the kitchen.

Toto shook his head as he chuckled. He didn't know what the woman was like, but she must have been super amazing because she left such an impression on his wife that she was positively gushing about the new PA.

By the time Susie stopped talking about the new PA, Toto himself couldn't wait to meet her and he was now sharing the excitement that she was practically projecting off her in waves.

This was the start of something new and both Wolff's could tell.

↳ ❝ [Taglist] ¡!❞

@exotic-iris13 @alliwantisadonut @evie-119 @xoscar03 @cheyxfu @laur2608 @sunnylikesfrogs @goldenmoonbeam @victorharrington @only-nope

Unable to tag all of you

This one was over 6k words. I felt like I needed to give you guys this since I had been away for so long.

DO NOT ask me to update this story. I'll update when I can.

Anyway, only accepting 9 more people to be tagged

#f1 x reader #f1 imagine #f1 x you #f1 fanfic #f1 fic #formula one fanfiction #formula one fanfic #formula 1 fics #formula 1 fanfic #formula 1 x reader #formula one imagine #formula one imagines #formula one fic #formula one x reader #formula one x you #formula one x y/n #f1 one shot #f1 smut #f1 fluff #f1 x female reader #toto wolff fanfic #toto wolff x reader #toto wolff imagine #toto wolff smut #susie wolff x reader #toto x reader x susie #x female reader #f1 x y/n #f1 x poc!reader #driven by destiny series

[gurinpotte]

“

love me in the snow, love me in the sun, love me, the beige skin among the flowers of red" ∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄∾⋄

Inspired in part by beloved Gravity, by @katnissmellarkkk and by Roi, by Videoclub! The song doesn't have the everlark vibes per se but the lyrics are so cute and very snapshot like. The fic is perfect, very natural paced and full of longing, 100% recommend!!! Please do zoom in for hi-res, gave my life and tears for this one 💖

#everlark #just wanted to do bits of their life post mj #not as angsty as it should be #i know #but this kids! they've been thru enough #also so funny that videoclub is literally a teenage couple #excuse my actual french and free translation #both these languages are not my original one #might find some brazilian song to everlark to next #thg #thg series #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #peeniss #katniss and peeta #post mockingjay #gurin illustrates thg

[flashbic]

So, as someone who does not have any French or Canadian heritage, what exactly is Cartouche? I haven't heard of it before, but it seems like there's a show and books and stuff, is it fairly popular among french-speaking communities? You've made me curious lol

Ngl i went "nyehehehehehe" out loud when i found out i was being given an excuse to ramble about the thing :D

The short answer is it's a french cartoon from the early 2000s! One season-long, with 26 episodes! And yeah in 2010 they eventually made little books that are based on some eps, and they are very cute! They all have unique artwork because instead of using screenshots from the show they hired an artist to illustrate everything.

Most of the show is sort-of lost media, by which i mean that there are only 5 episodes still available in the original french audio… BUT an arabic dub exists, so I've been going through that with a translation app for funsies in my free time! So to answer your question, no, it's not a well-known show, but to me it's a nostalgic one asfdkg

More rambling about the thing under the cut!

What it's about:

Think Robin Hood in the early 1700s, but in Paris! Specifically, it takes place 2-3 years after Louis XIV's death : the future king is a tiny 7yo kid, and since he can't reign yet, the old king's nephew, Philippe II d'Orléans, is regent. In real life, the regency lasted 8 years, and Philippe d'Orléans is generally now considered by historians to have been An Okay Guy Who Did His Best, but every show needs a villain, so here he's the Prince John to Cartouche's Robin Hood! So the bulk of the show is Cartouche and his lil group of buddies helping out poor people and fighting for justice.

I was always fond of the show, but ngl part of the fun in recent months has been reading up on the time period; it's a unique but very short transition era between two very long reigns, and a lot of stuff actually happened during it! The show has a fun amount of references to real people and events here and there. Makes reading all those History books feel like the Pepe Silvia meme, really

Who are these characters:

Our main character is this dude! Cartouche is your brave hero archetype, but also a bit of a smartass with a penchant for shenanigans. And he's named after a real-life criminal! The actual Cartouche was notably Not Nice, but a lot of people at the time did cheer him on because, well, he stole from and attacked rich people. There are actual books and movies about him that did generally keep the bandit-with-a-heart-of-gold legend alive! Cartoon!Cartouche is even designed after one of the movie versions, where he was played by actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. He's got the same outfit and everything, it's cute :D

Real!Cartouche had his own group of allies called the Cartouchiens, and some of the characters from the show are named after them! The main ones are…

Louis du Châtelet, aka le Lorrain, he's a noble who decided to join the good guys! He's a fancy dude, and notably he used to be a massive jerk, but he got better!

Fleur d'Épine and Galichon! Galichon was sentenced to the galleys and escaped! He's the team dad… and is also Fleur d'Épine's actual adoptive dad. Fleur d'Épine is the youngest of the group and has a whole backstory the show takes time to uncover: she was found by Galichon when she was just a baby! She gets a bunch of episodes about her mysterious family situation...

Freluquet, who is, let's be real, the token kid they added for the show. But he's generally a fun little dude, and very importantly he often relays messages from...

Isabelle d'Entraigues, Philippe d'Orléans's niece! She's not named after a real person, but after a character in the Belmondo Cartouche movie. She's a fave, she's got a temper! She's a spy from the good guys.

And then we have our main villains!

Philippe d'Orléans, the Regent. He's cruel and power-hungry and not above trying to get rid of the young king.But of course, he's not going to get his hands dirty. (The real guy is super interesting! I've been reading up on him a lot!) He has two people doing work for him:

Demachault, the police lieutenant, who is named after a real guy and is doing his best but honestly just sucks at this job, poor guy.

Nero Falconi, who is the Regent's right-hand man. He's the competent one here, but unlike our other villains he's not a noble!! His sad backstory ties with le Lorrain's, but instead of acting angsty about it, he's just seething with rage at all times. I Just Think He's Neat <3 He's the one main character who isn't named after a real person or a movie character!

There are other characters, but these are the main ones! It's a cute show! The references and links to real events are fun to spot, the setting is neat :D

Also Falconi's sad backstory lives in my brain rent-free, despite the flashback being only 60 seconds long. I can't justify that one, it's not that deep, it's just been occupying space in my brain for almost 20 years for some reason

#cartouche prince des faubourgs #characters i didnt mention who are also neat: Isaac de Tolède who is a doctor and also a lil science nerd! he's cute!! #Chien Noir who is the chief of another group of bandits but he's not nice #Mordoc and Brutus who are the two big scary guys who work for Falconi sometimes. they're twins! #la Veuve Richard who is the lady owner of the inn where the Cartouchiens live #learning that Demachault in particular was named after a real dude was A Good Time #bc he so feels like a goofy guy the showrunners would've come up with. but no. he was an actual person

[is-it-mungojerry-or-rumpelteazer]

Multilingual brainfarts you can actually use in your writing

Sorry for the clickbaity title, I’ve just read one post too many about how people are writing multilingual characters wrong “because language changes are always on purpose and a multilingual character would never use the wrong language on the wrong person”. (heavy sarcasm) And while it’s true that people don’t usually do random language changes in the middle of a sentence because they enjoy being understood, brainfarts exist. With annoying frequency.

So here you have some multilingual brainfarts you can use in your fic without shame, because I know they can happen, because they happen to me.

Watching a movie in Japanese with English subtitles (because that’s how we found it) with a French friend, finishing it, and talking to my friend in Greek for a couple of sentences because my brain just went “different language! Quick!” and didn’t worry about which one it took.

Similar situation as before, but realizing mid-sentence I was using the wrong language and ending it in straight up gibberish because my brain didn’t catch up fast enough.

Answering a phonecall in Spanish because I was reading a book in Spanish, even though the caller ID meant I knew the person didn’t speak it.

Daydreaming about something and answering “what?” in the language I was daydreaming in when addressed.

Saying “excuse me” and “sorry” when bumping into people in the language of the country I live in, even though I knew I was back in my native city, because I was on automatic pilot.

Saying an idiom and immediately asking “... is that [language I’m talking]?” because I genuinely don’t know.

Saying an idiom out loud and immediately knowing in my bones it’s not the right language, but having no idea what language it is. Having to translate it in my head to every language I know until it clicks in one of them.

Talking to two people in different languages at the same time (especially if translating) and talking to the wrong person in the wrong language without even noticing until someone tells me.

Giving a talk in English and only realising in retrospect that I have been saying letters and numbers in my native language the entire time.

Pronouncing borrowed words in the original language, independently of the language I’m speaking (example: I cannot pronounce “déjà-vu” in any way but French, even if the rest of the sentence is in English or in Spanish).

In summary, I wish my brain was as well-oiled and precise as writelr posts pretend it is.

If you’re multilingual, feel free to add your own brainfarts!

#multilingual struggles #text posts #personal #languages

[ilostmyblueberries]

Love Change

≈pairing : Sukuna X female reader

≈genre : Yuuji and Sukuna are twins, university life, slow burn romance, strangers to lovers

≈You moved from France to Japan and attended an University in Tokyo. Your student life was stereotypical until you met Itadori twins (Sukuna and Yuuji.)

≈WARNINGS : swearing, bad relationship with parents and relatives, swearing, translator French (I am studying French but I suck at it. So in some phrases, I used a translator, so I am really sorry to all my French readers and people who know French, if there are some mistakes. I just really love the language and I wanted to include it. Also, feel free to reach out me, I am more than happy to learn my French through conversations.)

≈around 9k words

Pain, frustration, boredom,... There are many words that could describe your current situation at university. But to put it simply, it was waste of time.

You were sitting in the library, trying to focus on your assignment but your mind just kept on wandering, thinking about the most absurd shit that could possibly exist.

You took off your glasses and hid your face inside your palms.

„Excuse me,“ a male voice disturbed you. You looked up, your eyes meeting a dusty pink-haired male figure. He wore an innocent and warm smile. „Can I sit here?“ he pointed his finger at one of the two chairs that were in front of you.

You just nodded, a bit annoyed that you have to share a table with someone else. But still, it was a table for four and the rest of the library was pretty packed as the exams were creeping around the corner.

„Thaaank you.“ he beamed and ploped down.

You just nodded again and put your glasses back on, trying to dive back into the writing. Fortunately, after a few minutes of just mindless typing, the ideas started to pop out and you eventually gained a momentum. Absorbed into your work, you lost any contact with the outside world.

Your eyes finally left the computer screen, as you took off your glasses and rubbed your eyes. You looked ahead of you and noticed that there wasn´t just one boy but two now. And they looked the same.

„The hell.“ you muttered, thinking you are slowly getting crazy from the sleep deprivation and constant studying.

You rubbed your eyes again, adding a bit more pressure and put back on your glasses. Still amazed by the fact that you are going mad, you stared at the two in front of you. That´s when you started noticing the slightly different features they bore.

You kept observing them until you noticed your phone buzzing.

„Salut Lauren. (Hello Lauren.)“ you whispered.

,,Désolé, je ne peux pas appeler maintenant. (Sorry, I can´t call right now.)“ you noticed the boys looking at you.

„Je suis à la bibliothèque. Je t'appelle ce soir, d'accord? (I am in the library. I will call you in the evening, okey?)“ you gave them an apologetic look, thinking you disturbed them with your phone call.

„Papa. (Bye.)“ you quickly ended it and put your phone back on the table.

„That was English, right?“ The boy who came there first asked, little sparkles appearing in his eyes. His frame was a bit smaller than the other´s one, and his facial features were softer. The other one was more broad-shouldered, his eyes appealed to be a bit sharper and he had a scar on his nose that stretched horizontally through the middle part of his nose bridge.

„Idiot, that was clearly Spanish.“ the bigger one growled at him, hitting the back of his head.

„French actually.“ you corrected them. A light shade of pink appeared on both of their faces.

„Ahhhh! This is pointless.“ the smaller one panted.

„Shut the fuck up Yuuji.“ the other one hissed at him.

You raised your eyebrow, confused at their behaviour. You knew something was going on but you just tried to mind your own business. You had more than enough of your own bullshit, so of course, it will be for the best if you won´t engage.

„By any chance, do you also speak English?“ the boy who was referred to as Yuuji asked you.

„No.“ you cut him off. He threw his head back in frustration and let out a big sigh.

Moments like these were exactly the ones, when you wished you could be a complete asshole. If that was the case, you would live up to your words, stand up, take your stuff and leave the library, not giving a single duck what will happen to the two of them.

But no matter how rational your reasons to just walk away are, the slight guilt and need to save others knock out any reasonable thoughts that you had out of your head.

You exhaled, done with your own shit. „What do you want?“

Yuuji´s gaze immediately focused on you. He blinked a few times, dumb-founded by the whole situation.

„Do you know how to form the IF sentences?“

„You mean conditionals?“

Yuuji nodded enthusiastically.

„Yeah, I know how to use them.“

„Could you please explain it to us?“ he pleaded.

Your eyes shifted from Yuuji to his twin. He was just sitting there with his arms crossed, observing the whole situation. When he noticed that you were looking at him, he just rolled his eyes. He looked at you and grunted a small ,What´

„Okay.“ you agreed and took the paper and pen that were laying in front of Yuuji. You started with the basics and how to form each conditional and ended with the correct usage of them. It took you a while but they seemed to genuinely understand it, so you felt like the time wasn´t entirely wasted.

„Let´s try a quick exercise to make sure you really understand it.“ you looked up on your laptop some sentences that you could use.

„Okay,“ you turned your attention to the boy with the scar, „Try this one... Uhm....“ you tried to recall his name but nothing came to your mind.

„Oh, we actually didn´t even introduce ourselves to each other.“ The other twin leaned forward. „I am Itadori Yuuji. Nice to meet ya.“ he grinned, extending his right hand to you.

„Y/N L/N.“ you shook his hand and turned your attention to the second boy, your hand reaching out to him.

„Sukuna Itadori.“ he just sighed, his arms still crossed while showing no intention of changing it.

You drew your hand back, your eyebrow slightly twitching at the amount of disrespect this man kept showing you.

„Okay. Do the first one.“ you turned your laptop towards him.

„Won´t is... Will pass...“ he shrugged.

„What?“ You and Yuuji said at the same time.

„Won´t is, Will pass. Third conditional.“ he repeated calmly, enjoying the annoyance that was forming on your face.

„Could you at least pretend that you are trying?“ you held in your anger.

„That wouldn´t be authentic.“ he smirked.

You have never known that someone actually had such a punchable face.

„Sukuna, you are being a jerk again.“ Yuuji testified.

„Oh god, my apologies.“ he taunted. „Could ya please explain again how to form the third conditional? I couldn´t really focus the first time.“ he leaned forward, resting his chin on the back of his left hand, his gaze fixed upon you.

You smiled, „If you had been my sibling, I would have killed you a long time ago. Use past perfect in the if clause, would have with a past participle in the main clause.“

Sukuna´s smile faded for a while before he grinned again. „Well, I will get going now. Thanks for wasting my time.“ he stated before standing up and leaving.

To say that you were ready to throw hands would be an incorrect statement, as you were currently fighting the urge to run after him and stab him in the back with a pen. But you pushed back all those thoughts and turned to Yuuji.

„I am sorry. He can be such a bitch sometimes.“ he apologised on his brother´s behalf. „Well, most of the time...“

Yeah, you could see that.

„Anyway, thank you so much for all the help! As a payback, let me pay for your lunch tomorrow. You can choose anything you like.“

„Okay. Give me your contact info so I can let you know when I am free.“ you handed him your phone. Free lunch is always a good deed.

He nodded enthusiastically and started to fill in the contact info.

 ...

 The next day you entered the cafeteria as agreed. Yuuji said that he would already be sitting somewhere in there and would wait for you and his other friend that was supposed to join you.

You scanned the room, looking for the pink-haired boy when your eyes stopped on the remote table where two people were seated. You started walking towards them, approaching them from behind.

„Hey.“ you greeted them and both of the heads turned towards you. That´s when you noticed a small scar. You stopped in your tracks and muttered, „Wrong twin.“

„Tch, try using glasses next time.“ Sukuna taunted.

„I already wear them, genius.“ the sarcasm escaped your lips even tho you didn´t want to.

„I can´t see any.“

„Maybe you need some too.“

„What is wrong with you, woman?“ he leaned towards you.

You were about to fire back at him when you felt an arm on your shoulder. „Y/N— You came earlier than I thought. Hii Megumi—´´ Yuuji´s voice was as enthusiastic and loud as ever. Seems like he always talks that way, not just when he is frustrated.

„Tchus.“ the black-haired boy greeted him back.

„This is Y/N by the way. Y/N, my classmate Megumi Fushiguro.“ he introduced you to each other. „We can sit here, right?“ Yuuji didn‘t even wait for a response and already started putting down his stuff. „Nobara should be coming as well, so we can all eat together.“ he was smiling like a small child while his twin was piercing a hole in him. Megumi was meanwhile trying to fight the urge to laugh.

You just let out a big sigh and sat next to Yuuji, which was, unfortunately, a seat in front of Sukuna. Damn, you could have at least switched with Yuuji so you wouldn´t have to look at that jerk while eating.

He glanced at you, not saying anything. Instead, he stretched out his legs so he would take up as much space as he possibly could, forcing you to pull your legs as close to the chair as you could.

„What´s up losers.“ a honeyed female voice rang in your ears.

You looked behind you and noticed a familiar short figure. You didn´t know her name but you remembered her from your classes. Her short brown hair that was parted on the left side, and her piercing brown eyes, that always seemed to be judging everyone and everything they do.

„Oh.“ she stopped in surprise when she noticed you. „We share a class.“ she said, putting down her stuff and pulling in a chair from the nearby table.

„Truly. I am Y/N L/N.“ you stretched out your hand towards her. She accepted your gesture and squeezed your hand lightly.

„Nobara Kugisaki.“

„Now that everyone is here, we can go and-´´ Yuuji was speaking as he was looking for something in his bag. „And-´´ he froze, his smile leaving his face, an expression of confusion appearing instead.

„Sukuna.“ he turned to his brother, „Could you please pay for my meal? I forgot my wallet.“ he shot him a guilty look as he pleaded.

„Ha?! No way, that´s your problem, not mine.“ he grunted in response, turning down his brother. Nobara and Megumi stood up in the meantime and started walking towards the counter. It seemed like they were so used to the bickering of the two, that nothing could surprise them anymore.

„Pretty pleease. I will do your laundry for a week.“ Yuuji tried to negotiate.

„Nope.“

You stood up as well, holding your purse with both hands. „What do you want? I will buy it for you.“

„Really?!“ the two same faces turned to you. „But I was supposed to pay for your lunch today.“ Yuuji continued, guilt building up.

„Don´t worry about it. Just accept the offer.“ you shrugged it off. Sukuna was in disbelief.

„Ah, okay.“ Yuuji laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

You started walking towards the counter when you heard Yuuji saying to his brother, „See, even my friends are fancier than you will ever be.“ then he jogged towards you.

„I am really sorry.“

„Don´t worry about it. Happens to everyone.“ you tried to comfort him.

„I am also sorry that you have to spend time with more people than was initially agreed on.“

„Whatever.“ you said it quietly but Yuuji caught it.

„Are you okay?“ It feels weird to be asked such a thing by a stranger. But you could kinda understand it. All your responses were short and cold, you were aware of it. You just couldn´t help it.

„Just a bit tired and stressed.“ you tried to sound as sincere as possible. But it wasn´t even a lie, just partly. You were sick and tired of this whole school and in constant stress and fear of failing your exams or getting kicked out of the university.

„I see.“ he hummed and stayed quiet for a few seconds, „Do you like movies? I think they are a great way to relax.“

„I guess.“

„How about we go watch a movie?“ he chanted.

„A movie?“ Nobara joined your conversation.

„What kind of?“ even Megumi showed an interest.

„Uhmm, lemme see.“ Yuuji took out his phone and started googling. „Mugen Train is playing tomorrow. How about that?“

„Isn´t that kinda dark?“ Megumi questioned while Nobara nodded in agreement.

„I can look for some comedy. Wait.“ he started scrolling again.

To be honest, you didn´t even really want to go to the movies but somehow, you got dragged into it.

„How about Battle of Concepts?“

„Eeeew, that´s sports.“ Nobara pointed out.

„Why don´t YOU find something then?“ Yuuji challenged her.

„They are playing a good comedy tomorrow." Sukuna joined in. You didn't even notice him coming.

„You ain‘t invited." Yuuji hissed at him.

„Ha?! Who do you think you are to decide that?" he barked back.

„I am someone who wouldn't let his own blood starve to death." he crossed his arms, turning his back to him.

„Whatever." Sukuna shrugged it off.

Before they could argue any further, you lightly shoved Yuuji to get his attention.

„Choose whatever you want."

„Oh, okay." he smiled and started scanning the food. „That Takoyaki looks good."

„Sure. I will have some Ramen. Could you please take the food and wait while I pay?" you asked Yuuji to which he agreed. But before you could reach the cashier, Sukuna cut in front of you.

„You don't need to be in such a rush." you growled, done with his shit.

„Shush it." he shoot you a glance and turned back towards the cashier. „I am paying for the Ramen, Takoyaki and Teriyaki chicken." he said and placed his card on the terminal.

You kept standing in the line to pay, a bit confused when Sukuna´s voice snapped you back to reality, „What ya waiting for? A miracle?"

„I think I just witnessed one." you told him as he was taking his food.

„Don't think I did it for you." he said as the two of you were walking towards Yuuji who was already waiting with yours and his food on one tray. „I paid it for my dumbass brother. Inviting someone for a lunch and then making them pay. He sure hit a new low."

„Shit happens."

„Nothing new. But I will want that money back from him anyway." he grinned evilly as if he had formed a perfect villain scheme on how to retrieve that money back.

„Y/N, I just noticed. You ain‘t wearing your glasses today!" Yuuji pointed out when you reached him.

No shit Sherlock. Sukuna noticed it right away. But on the other side, how well do you remember the appearance of someone you met just yesterday?

„I am wearing contact lenses today."

„Ooooh!" he seemed genuinely amazed by it while Sukuna just rolled his eyes.

When the three of you sat back down at the table, Nobara was already half-finished with her meal.

„When and where will we meet tomorrow?" she asked and put another spoonful of rice in her mouth.

„Like always, in front of the school gate." Yuuji specified.

„The movie is starting at 6 so we can meet at 5;15 or something." Sukuna completed his brother's response.

„So... 5;15, in front of the school gate." Megumi repeated to which Yuuji nodded his head. „Okay."

 ...

 It was 5 o'clock and you were pacing up and down your room, trying to remember all the terms and what they mean, for the next week‘s big exam.

You were fully aware that you were supposed to hang out with the people from yesterday, you just decided not to.

At least that's what you thought when it was 5;30, the time past the arranged meeting, and your phone exploded with calls from Yuuji.

Annoyed, you picked it up, only to meet with Yuuji's panicked voice about how you must have forgotten and that they are all waiting for you. He didn't even give you a chance to explain that in fact, you are not coming, before he hung up.

Now there was no other choice just to go. They were all waiting for you so even if you called him back now, it would be really rude to cancel it. They waited for 15 minutes in a cold just for you.

And so you quickly put on some casual clothes, took your bag and jogged out of the campus.

„Sorry to keep you waiting." you apologised, trying to catch your breath.

„Try using a watch next time." Sukuna threw a mocking reproach at you.

You bit your tongue, holding back all the swear words and nodded your head instead.

„I am sorry."

„Enough, enough." Yuuji stepped in, „Important is that you are here now." he smiled and you all started walking outside the school area.

„Did you forget about the meeting time?" Nobara caught up to you, starting a small chat.

„I lost the perception of time."

„Aaah, used to happen to me too. Back in the days, when I lived in the stinky countryside." she started her little rant, „I always got so immersed into the training that I would forget about everything else." there could be a great pride heard in her voice.

„You enjoy living in Tokyo?" you asked, trying to show a bit of interest to not come out as rude or ignorant.

„Very, very much. It's nothing like that hellish bitchy village that I am from." her voice turned hoarse and dark with the last sentence. It must have been a very unpleasant place for her to speak of it that way. „Where are you from?" she shifted from her rambling to questioning you.

„I grew up in Lyon." you muttered it quietly, mentally preparing for what is next.

„Huh?" she stopped in her tracks, dumbfounded, „HEEEEEEE?!" she shrieked loudly after a few seconds of processing what you just said.

The others turned around as well, curious about the talk you two led.

„Lyon?! Lyon like France?!" she covered her mouth. You nodded, signalling her she is correct.

„What are you talking about?" Yuuji tried to join in.

„Nothing." you tried to shrug it off but Nobara was too excited for that. She put her arms around your shoulders, holding you tightly. Maybe a bit too much.

„SHE IS FROM FRANCE."

„WHAT?!" Yuuji was now fired up too.

At least Megumi and Sukuna had a down-to-earth reaction. They looked a bit surprised but that was all.

„Which part of France?" Megumi asked.

„East-central France. From Lyon to be specific.“ you repeated.

„When did you come to Japan?“ Megumi continued but was interrupted by Nobara´s squeaking, „Why would you leave France for the love of God?“

Neither of those questions were comfortable for you to answer but thankfully Yuuji saved you by over-yelling them, „SAY SOMETHING IN FRENCH!“

„Je me sens vraiment mal et je veux rentrer chez moi.“

This one sentence shutted all of them up, except Sukuna who hit the back of Yuuji´s head, telling him how they already heard you speaking French two days ago in the library.

„We have ten minutes left till the movie starts.“ Megumi interrupted the chaos, looking at his watch.

All of you just decided to pick up the pace a little instead of chatting. That could be done after the movie in some small coffee shop. But of course, you didn´t know there was such a plan at that time.

 ...

 A few weeks passed and you started to find yourself in the presence of Yuuji and his friends more and more. You never understood how or why you ended up with them, you just simply were there. Nothing more, nothing less.

„Y/N!“ he found you again.

No matter where you would hide. Whether it was in the library or around the campus, Yuuji had some kind of weird ass sixth sense and would always find you.

„Sukuna said I would find you here.“ he giggled. „There will be held some additional lecture specialized on effective learning and self-growth. You coming, right?“ he didn´t even wait for a response before he started ranting again, „Everyone is coming. Megumi, Nobara, Sukuna, me.“ he stopped to catch a breath.

„I-´´ you tried to interrupt him but he kept on going.

„You are the only one who didn´t say in the group chat whether you are going or not. So I volunteered to go find you and ask you myself. Sukuna is holding two seats for us. Or at least I hope he does.“ he finally went silent.

You really wanted to stay here and kept studying but it´s quite hard to say no to Yuuji. He always managed to somehow persuade you. Also at this point, you were kinda curious about what would come out of that additional lecture. It´s never a bad idea to learn something new.

„Okay.“ you said and started packing up your stuff. Yuuji waited for you while you gathered your stuff.

As you were walking towards the class, he kept on ranting about some problem that they were trying to solve in their class for weeks. You were in front of the big wooden door of the class when Yuuji ran in. You were about to step in as well when you noticed Sukuna getting out of the bathroom.

You stopped in your tracks and observed him.

„Tchus.“ he greeted you and opened the door to step in but turned back to you before he walked inside the room, „You ain´t coming?“

„I am.“ you started walking behind him. „But weren´t you supposed to hold the seats for Itadori and me?“

„Was I?“ he thought out loud, trying to recall any memory of such a thing. „Yuuji probably asked me to do something like that. I don´t know.“ he shrugged it off.

You looked around the class and noticed it was already almost full. All the way down there were three familiar figures – Nobara, Megumi and Yuuji. But nowhere near them was any other empty seat.

„Guess it´s full already.“ you stated and were ready to leave when you noticed Sukuna was already seated, blocking two chairs at once,

„The floor seems clear.“ he teased you, a smirk appearing on his face.

„Yeah, sure, I am leaving.“ you said, turning around to leave once again when Sukuna gave up, putting his hands up in the air in a surrender gesture.

„Okay, okay. Sit here.“ he moved over, emptying one of the chairs for you.

„Thank you.“ you said, unimpressed.

You´ve been sitting there for about thirty minutes, getting bored out of your mind when Sukuna poked your shoulder. You turned your attention to him and he looked down at his desk. There was a small piece of paper with a drawn game of Tic Tac Toe.

You drew a small circle in the right upper corner. He followed by drawing a waggly cross in the middle. Circle in the left bottom row and another wobbly cross in the right bottom part.

„Why are your crosses so waggly?“ you asked as you drew another neat circle in the left upper part.

Sukuna who was focused on the game looked up at you. „What do ya mean?“ he looked back at the paper, observing the play. „Shit.“ he cursed under his breath when he noticed what you did. With no other chance of winning he drew a cross in the middle of the upper row and watched how you drew a last winning circle and crossed all the circles with one straight line.

„I mean the lines. They are so wobbly.“ you pointed out the crosses drawn on the paper.

Sukuna held out his right hand, still holding a pencil in it. His arm was shaking uncontrollably. It wasn´t much but enough to be noticed and to affect his ability to draw straight lines.

„Is that normal?“ you asked, half amused and half concerned.

„I guess.“ he shrugged it off casually.

You turned your attention back to the lecture. The lecturer, who was a man in his mid-thirties, was currently speaking about the learning abilities that kids have. This whole thing could have been at least a bit interesting if he hadn´t been speaking in the most monotone voice ever, flooding everyone with boredom.

„One of the psychologists who were interested in this topic and expanded it further was HanRy FaLLon.“ the name couldn‘t possibly be pronounced in a more affected way. There was a hint of the IKnowHowToSpeakFrench in his voice but his pronunciation was painful to listen to. It genuinely ticked you off but you tried to ignore it.

And you would have succeeded if he hadn´t kept repeating the name, pronouncing it the same incorrect and affected way as the first time.

The moment he mentioned that name for like the tenth time, you leaned towards Sukuna „I swear to God. One more of that HanRy FaLLon and I am leaving. Just say it as a normal human. Either with an English accent Henri Wallon or if he really wants to be all that fancy and use a French accent, it´s Anry Wallon, the H is fucking silent.“

Sukuna laughed at your comment. It was actually the first time you have seen him laughing wholeheartedly.  

Most of the time he would either frown or had this expression like he owned the world.

He would laugh really rarely and if so, it would be at someone´s misery or some dark joke.

„Wanna tell him that his pronunciation sucks?“ he whispered to you with a smug expression on his face.

„I think I´ll pass.“ you admitted, not wanting to draw any attention to you.

„Why is that? I really wanna see the look on his face as you will humiliate him in front of the whole class.“ the devilish grin spread over his face.

„You can tell him yourself if you want to.“ you dodged his question.

„You are right, I should.“ his hand was about to shoot up when you quickly pinned it down without any thought.

„Whatcha doing?“ he asked confused, as you were holding his hand under yours. „You know I have two hands right?“ smirk quickly replacing the initial confusion.

„Don´t-“ you said letting go of his hand.

„Seriously, what´s up with ya?“ he leaned back, slightly pouty because you ruined his fun.

The rest of the lecture passed in silence.

 ...

 „How shall we spend the break?“ Yuuji exclaimed while trying to balance the pen above his mouth, so it would look like a moustache.

„Good question.“ Nobara caught up on his question in an instant. „How about we go on a trip somewhere?“ you didn´t even have to look up from your textbooks to know, that she is super excited. It could be clearly heard in her voice.

„Don´t use us as an excuse so you don´t have to return back to the countryside.“ Megumi shut her down.

„Haa?! What do you mean?! Is it a crime that I want to spend holidays with you guys?“

„Because you don´t wanna go home...“ Megumi repeated.

Nobara was ready to throw hands when Yuuji joined in, „I think it´s a freaking great idea.“ he repeated. „How about a trip to Kyoto?“ he suggested.

„Why Kyoto? I was thinking of a more tropical destination. Somewhere near a sea.“ Nobara started daydreaming.

„Uhm... I don´t know I would like to go hiking or something.“ Yuuji argued.

„Hiking sounds nice.“ Megumi agreed.

„So how about a short trip and then we can all go home. Sukuna, I already told grandpa that will be coming later in the break.“

„I am not going back home.“ Sukuna growled at Yuuji.

„You should go. I already told him that we are comin-“

Sukuna cut him off, „Then untold him. I didn´t tell you to include mne or anything.“ he was getting irritated.

Yuuji let out a big sigh.

„How about you, Y/N? What do you think about going hiking?“ Yuuji turned his attention to you.

„I am staying here. I have to study.“ you kept reading and highlighting in your textbook, not shooting him even a single glance.

„Come ooon- You can´t spend the sunny days here, behind the closed doors. We can go on a local trip. Somewhere near.“ he kept on persuading.

„Itadori,“ you looked up at him, „I said I am not coming.“

„Why do you keep calling me Itadori?“ he sat back, leaning on the back of the chair.

„What´s your problem now?“ you looked up at him.

„How come I am the one who always gets yelled at when I am just trying to be nice.“ The moment Yuuji said this, you felt a lump forming in your throat.

It is true that Yuuji kept dragging you into social activities that you didn´t even want to do, but he never meant it in a bad way. He was just trying to include you.

You probably are a bit bitchy for no reason. You have been this whole time.

You let out an audible sigh, „I know a good French bakery in Tokyo. We can go and check it out.“ you spoke out, your words mainly directed towards Yuuji.

But the idea seemed to get others excited as well as their eyes perked up.

„What about a weekend in Tokyo? We can go check out the French bakery and do some other fun stuff. Maybe karaoke.“ Nobara started planning out.

„And go hiking.“ Megumi completed.

„So? What do you think of that Itadori?“ you looked up at him again.

„I will agree if you stop calling me Itadori.“ he was speaking softly while looking out of the window.

You shook your head and shifted your attention to Sukuna, „Are you coming too, Itadori number two?“

„Haaa?! Why am I number two?! I am clearly first, number one, the better twin.“ he was getting all worked up, „You really better call us by our names.“ the last sentence was spoken quietly as if he was ashamed of saying it out loud. He even mimicked Yuuji´s behaviour as he turned his face away from you, looking in the other direction while leaning on the back of his chair.

You looked at Yuuji, then back at Sukuna. There was no doubt that they were family.

„Okay.“ you let out another sigh, „Sukuna, Yuuji, what do you think about spending time in Tokyo?“

„I think it´s an amazing idea!“ Yuuji gushed.

„Cool with me.“ Sukuna mumbled under his breath still facing away from you.

 ...

 „So which direction is the bakery?“ Nobara asked as you were walking towards the busy city centre.

„Ain´t we gonna check out some shops first?“ Yuuji threw an arm around Nobara and you.

You wiggled free from his grasp, „You choose.“

„Let´s go eat first. We can visit the shops later.“ Megumi suggested and Sukuna nodded in agreement.

„Sure.“ you said and started leading the way towards the French bakery.

It took you almost half an hour to get there but you knew it will be worth it. And it sure was. The moment you arrived at the small shop, you could already smell the scent of freshly baked pastries. The store was small and had a store window made from glass with big letters on it, that spelt BOULANGERIE & PATISSERIE.

„This is it?“ Nobara asked hopefully.

„Yup.“ you answered her, being excited yourself. It was quite some time since you ate homemade French food.

All five of you entered, a nice wave of warmth that was coming from the ovens hit you in the face. It was a cosy place with a very few tables and chairs to sit on. Most of the space was taken up by a huge counter with many different cakes, desserts, croissants, loaves of bread and other yummy pastries.

„Oh my goodness, look at those cute macarons.“ Nobara and Yuuji were glued to the counter, scanning all the different products.

You walked over to one of the tables that was big enough for all of you and put your stuff down.

As you were walking towards the counter to join the others, an old woman walked out from the kitchen that was in the back room.

„Hello Y/N! Long time no see.“ she greeted you with a kind smile.

„Good afternoon. It´s nice to be here again.“ you smiled at her back.

„So how can I help you?“

„Mrs, Could you recommend the best cake that you have here?“ Yuuji chanted.

„That depends, young man. Would you like something with fruit or chocolate?“

„I don´t mind either!“ the old bakeress looked a bit surprised by the sudden response but then smiled warmly.

„How about a strawberry cake? They are quite popular among younglings.“

„Looks delicious! I will take it.“

„And the rest?“ the old lady turned to others and took their orders. Only Sukuna was left.

„I can´t really choose.“ he admitted, looking over the pastries for like the hundredth time.

You stepped towards him, „How about Paris-Brest? They are super delicious, it´s always a great choice.“

„Okay then.“ he took your advice to heart. „I´ll go with that. But if it ain´t good, I´ll eat your croissants.“ he threatened.

„Don´t judge food by its looks. That´s just rude.“ you playfully shoved him with your elbow.

You all sat down around the table with your food. Happy and full of memories, you took your croissant and were about to take a bite when Nobara stopped you.

„No eating before a picture!“ she took out her phone and turned on the camera.

„I am hungryy-“ Yuuji whimpered.

„We need memories. Now come on, get in here.“ she switched to a front camera, „Megumi, move a bit to the left. Perfect.“ she smiled, showing her white teeth, „Smiiile!“

The picture was cute. The warmth of the moment was captured perfectly and even the yummy food could be seen placed on the table.

„We can eat now?“ Megumi asked her.

„Just a moment.“ she said and started snapping pics of the food.

„Nobara...“ you called her out.

„Okay, okay.“ she put down her phone, „Your French accent is really showing when you say my name.“ Nobara pointed out with small sparkles in her eyes.

„Does it?“ you covered your mouth with your hand as if it would hide the accent.

„Kinda.“ Megumi confirmed.

„Say it again“ she pleaded.

„Nobara.“ you looked at her. You could now hear the slight French R that was pushing through. „Megumi.“ you said the other´s name as well.

„How would you pronounce my name in French?“ Yuuji was full of expectations.

„Yuuji.“

„Huh? It sounds the same to me.“ he said a bit disappointed.

„I find it the same too. I don´t know.“ you were now genuinely confused. Other than the R, you couldn´t hear any other difference. „Aren´t you just mishearing it? Since you know I am from France, you may be just thinking that you hear it. Like you are thinking it´s coming off differently.“

Nobara thought, „ I don´t know now. Maybe I do.“ now everyone was confused.

„How about ya teach us some phrases?“ Sukuna broke the confusion.

„Like what? Uhm... Bonjour means Hello, Merci is Thank you-“

„No, no.“ Sukuna cut you off half laughing, „More spicy phrases.“

„Oh, you mean like: Votre haleine sent le marché aux poissons. Essayez de vous brosser les dents la prochaine fois.“

„What does that mean?“ his eyes lit up.

„Your breath smell like fish market. Try brushing your teeth next time.“

„Exactly phrases like that! Now say it slowly.“ he urged you on.

You started laughing, „Maybe try some easier phrases for the start.“ you covered your mouth with your hand, hiding your smile.

„Wow.“ Yuuji said in amazement, „I never thought you were actually capable of laughing.“ Nobara nodded her head in agreement.

„You guys are overreacting.“ Megumi joined in.

„The same goes for you, Mr Serious. Even Sukuna laughs more often than you.“ Nobara smacked his head.

„That´s because he is malicious.“ Yuuji stated.

„So what? Is there a problem with it?“ the other twin voiced.

„Nah, I got used to it.�� Yuuji lied to which Sukuna just grinned.

„I sometimes don't understand how you two are twins." you admitted.

„I had the same problem," Megumi supported your statement.

„I know, right? I am such an amazing and wonderful human. And then there is Yuuji." Sukuna looked at him as if he just touched a piece of food while washing the dishes.

„At least I am pretty." Yuuji argued.

„We share the same face, idiot." the laughter broke out.

„But there are some slight differences." Nobara stated.

„That's true, it is possible to tell you apart." you agreed with her and Megumi nodded.

„That's why you confused me for Yuuji the first time you had lunch with us?" he teased you about something that happened months ago.

„I was coming from behind. Come on." you argued.

„That's a fair point." Megumi said.

„You are on her side just because you couldn't tell us apart for weeks."

„Oooh- I remember that!" Yuuji recalled, „That was horrible." a look of horror spread through his face.

„Why's that?" you asked Yuuji but he didn't hear you as he got engaged in conversation with Nobara about the begging of the year.

You glanced at Sukuna who was taking a bit of his pastry. „Is it good?"

„I thought you knew how it tastes."

„Oh, I know. I meant if you like the taste of it." you corrected yourself, asking properly this time.

„It's tasty." he hummed, „But I really wonder why in the fucking hell would you order a plain croissant in a fancy place like this."

„Because it's delicious." you shoot a glance at the half-eaten croissant.

„You can get them literary anywhere."

„Excuse me," you were slightly offended, „Have you ever eaten the TRUE FRENCH BUTTER CROISSANTS? It's the bestest thing in the whole world." you motioned your hand towards the piece of pastry.

„Is it?" he raised an eyebrow. „Lemme try then." he snatched the rest of the croissant from your plate.

„No!" you caught his hand and tried to hold it down but he was stronger than you.

He raised his hand high up, the croissant was out of your reach now.

„You kept rambling about how delicious it is and now you won't let me try it."

„Buy your own one." you muttered as you glanced over to the other three, asking for help.

„Sukuna, put it down." Yuuji stood up for you.

„Nah, I don't wanna."

„You can literally go and buy your own one." you argued.

„That wouldn't be such fun." he laughed.

„Please, just put it down. I haven´t had one of those for so long.“ you admitted.

Sukuna let out a sigh and lowered his hand down. „Enjoy.“

„Go buy yourself one.“ you snatched it out of his hands. „Don´t go around stealing mine.“

„Okay, okay.“

„Are you getting nicer or am I just imagining things?“ Yuuji stared at him, his eyes piercing probably all the way into Sukuna´s soul.

„Is this what you are calling nice?“ Nobara barked out, laughing.

„Don´t forget it´s Sukuna who we are talking about.“  

„Truly.“ Megumi added casually.

„You can be such a pain in the ass sometimes.“ you turned to Sukuna.

„But now it is only sometimes.“ Yuuji stated, „He used to be an ass 24/7. Are ya finally maturing?“

„Weird one coming from someone like YOU.“ he flicked his forehead, shutting him up.

„Where are we going next?“ Nobara stepped in.

„Some shops. But tomorrow we are going hiking, aren´t we?“ Megumi reminded.

„Yesss. Where will we go? How about Mount Nokogiri?“ Yuuji suggested.

„There is no way in the hell that I am going all the way up Mount Nokogiri.“ Nobara crossed her arms.

„Let´s go to Kinchakuda then. Even a non-hiker like you will manage it.“ Megumi gave another suggestion.

Nobara hummed and took out her phone, „I will look it up and tell you.“

„Isn´t that the place where Spider Lilies grow?“ you asked.

Megumi nodded his head.

„Wouldn´t it be better than to go when they bloom?

„No, no. Y/N don´t talk him out of it. What if he chooses something more difficult? Do you want me to die?“ Nobara put her phone back down. „Kinchakuda is it then!“ she closed up the comversation before it would go any further.

„Okaaaay!“ Yuuji was already excited and full of energy.

 ...

 It was something over a week ever since you returned from the trip to Tokyo. Everyone from your friend group, except you, returned home for the summer break. Even Sukuna after some further persuading and arguing went home along with Yuuji to see his grandfather.

You spent most of your days in the library, either reading or studying. And when you didn´t feel like it, you would just lay around in your room, listening to music while staring at the ceiling till the night came.

It was one of the hottest days, you were sitting in the library, working on one of your assignments that you were supposed to finish by the end of the school break.

„Tchus.“ a familiar voice interrupted you.

You looked up and noticed one of the pink-haired twins. He rubbed his nose over the small scar.

„Hi.“ you greeted Sukuna back, a bit confused by his sudden appearance. He sat down on the chair that was opposite you. „You came alone?“ you asked him, breaking the silence.

„Mhm,“ he hummed, „Yuuji stayed back at home.“

„I see.“

„Watcha doin?“ he started to go over the books that you picked up, thinking they could be helpful for you.

„I am trying to finish this thing. But if I can be honest, it is quite boring.“ you admitted, stretching your back and arms.

„This whole place is boring!“ he was frustrated.

„I know, right?“

„Weird one to be coming from ya...“ he observed you, „Ain´t ya like a straight A student who spends all their time studying.“

„If you hadn´t noticed I hung up with you guys a lot in the last few months.“

„How could I overlook, you were literally everywhere where my brother was.“ he stated with his hands crossed.

„Trust me, I was more frustrated by that at first than you are now.“ a small chuckle escaped your lips, „But it isn´t so bad now. It is quite fun.“

„Who said I was frustrated by that.“ he blurted out, „Anyway, why are ya even here? Why didn´t you go home?“

„I didn´t really want to see mother after forcing me to leave France.“ you thought that you would never speak with someone about this openly. But right now, you just felt some sort of need to speak out. It was bothering you for a long time now. Like a small monster with its claws sank into your skin, making your body ache whenever you thought about it.

„Ah, so you are here against your will.“ he stated, trying to wrap his mind around what you just said.

„Kinda.“ you admitted. „And why did you run away?“

„Just didn´t feel like staying in that house with my grandfather any longer.“ he leaned back in his chair.

„Did you get into a fight?“ you asked.

„Guess, ya can call it that.“

There was a short silence between the two of you. You saved your work and turned off your laptop.

„Let´s go somewhere else.“ you suggested, putting your stuff in the bag.

„Sure.“ he stood up, „You should clean up those books first.“

„Can you return them please while I will pack my stuff?“

„No.“ he answered simply, a big grin appearing on his face.

„Oh God, okay.“ you let out a sigh but before you could say anything else, he was already making a pile of them so he can return them in one go.

„Thank you.“ you said to him with his back turned to you, already walking away.

You stepped out of the library, Sukuna right behind you.

„Where do ya wanna go?“

„I don´t really know.“ you looked at your shoes, „I just didn´t feel like sitting in there anymore.“

„You are really something.“ he let out a sigh and started walking away.

„Where are we going?“ you caught up to him.

„Somewhere.“ he said nonchalantly.

You ended up roaming around the town. Just walking through the streets and around the shops, talking every so often about some dumb shit.

You were walking by a cosy coffee shop when you stopped in your tracks. „Let´s go in there.“ you suggested.

„Nah, I know a better place.“ he said walking away. It took you a few minutes of walking down the main street when Sukuna suddenly turned left, into a narrow empty street.

„I hope you are not planning out to bash my head open here and then run away, leaving me behind for dead.“ you blurted out, joking of course.

„Maybe.“ he laughed. But it was a nice, warm laughter that wasn´t so usual for the tougher twin.

There was an old vending machine with many different drinks and a few snacks.

„What do you want?“ he asked you while he was scanning the content of the machine himself.

„Is in there some strawberry-flavoured water?“ you asked, already seated on a curb, placing your bag next to you.

„Hmmm, yeah.“ he said and started throwing in the coins. You drew in your legs, hugging your knees and placing your head on top, your face turned to Sukuna´s direction, your eyes observing his every movement.

He pressed some buttons and a loud thump followed. He crouched down and took out a bottle. He then repeated the whole process two more times and finally sat down next to you and handed you your water. Grateful, you took it and placed your head back on your knees, your face still turned to him.

„Don´t fall asleep in here.“ he teased you, opening a bag of chips and taking one.

„No worries.“ you straighten up. He placed the chips between the two of you. You reached out your hand and took one but before eating it, you observed it for a while.

„You scared I managed to poison it?“ he asked, eating another chip.

„No, I just remembered something.“

Sukuna raised his eyebrow.

„I´ll take a potato chip...“ you made a dramatic pause, „and EAT IT!“

Sukuna cracked up, „You are more fun than you seem.“

You adjusted your glasses, pushing them up as they kept falling because of the sweat. „Thank you, thank you. To this day, it´s one of my favourite shows.“

„I remember watching it as a kid.“ Sukuna recalled.

„I think it´s kinda dark for a kid to watch it. Maybe that´s why you turned out to be so frightening.“

„Do I look frightening to ya?“ he laughed but you could hear the pride in his voice. He sure was happy with the way he came off to others.

„Nah, not really.“ you dragged him back to reality. „Should I be tho? Are you some secret bully?“

„What if I am?“ he looked at you.

„Then you should grow up.“

„And what if I used to be?“ he asked again, still looking at you, his eyes tracing all your facial features.

„Then you have already grown up.“ you answered honestly.

„How cheesy of ya.“ he grinned.

„Poetic, wasn´t it?“ you scrunched your nose and cringed over your own lines.

„Surely.“ he laughed.

It was getting dark when you started walking around again. The sun was slowly setting down, painting the sky in different shades of orange and pink.

„Should we head back to campus now?“ you asked him while you were walking somewhere random again.

„Hm? The night just starting.“ he argued.

„I am getting tired of carrying this around.“ you admitted while patting your bag slightly with the laptop in it.

„Geez.“ he let out a big sigh, „Give it to me crybaby.“ he extended his arm to you.

You gave him your bag and he threw it over his shoulder.

„Thanks.“

„Now let´s go. I wanna feel alive.“ he grinned and quickened his pace.

„What does that mean?“ you asked a bit anxious.

„Arcade of course!“ he dragged you into a huge building lit up with neon lights. It was a bit crowded but there was still more than enough space. The whole place was a mix of colours, sounds and music from all the games and chatting of strangers.

„Let´s do this one first!“ he stepped towards the basketball shooting game. „How good are ya at aiming?“

„Pretty average I would say.“

„Hmh, let´s have a competition anyway.“ he announced, „I choose two games and you choose two. The one who wins will buy the dinner.“

„Challenge accepted.“ you cracked your knuckles.

The first game went horribly wrong for you. Sukuna was too good in it and even if you managed to throw in almost all the balls, you were no match for his speed. The other game that Sukuna chose was Air Hockey, which to your surprise, you won. And the two games you chose were a sure win for you too. So the overall score was 3 : 1 for you.

„I beat your ass in three games from four. You know what that means, right?“ you grinned at him.

„Sure, sure.“ he shrugged it off, pouting that he lost to you.

„I wanna pick where we eat.“ you exclaimed already dragging him towards the place you had in mind.

You just had to walk down the street when you arrived at your destination, the 7/11 store. You entered the shop and sat down at the table in the corner near the window.

„What do you want to eat?“ you asked him, taking out your purse.

„Whatcha doin? It´s my treat.“ he tried to stop you but you slapped his hand away.

„You paid enough for today. Let me buy you this dinner.“ you explained to him.

He let out a sigh, „I will at least help ya bring the food.“ he stood up.

You both ordered cold noodles and ate in silence until you were the one to break it. You were almost done with your meal when you slammed down your chopsticks a bit harder than you wanted to.

Sukuna stopped mid-eating, looking at you. „What?“ he asked with his mouth full of noodles.

„Nothing. I didn´t mean to put it down with such force.“ you addmited, „I was just thinking.“

Now you had Sukuna´s full attention.

„How about we buy a dessert as well?“ you proposed.

He choked on his food, laughing and dying at the same time. You quickly passed him a bottle of water which he gladly accepted and took a big sip.

„I thought that you will say some other poetic shit or something.“ he laughed.

„Like what?“ you chuckled, surprised by his perception of you.

„I really don´t know.“ he scoffed.

„You are being ridiculous.“ you found this entire thing funny. There was no reason for it, it just made you laugh so uncontrollably. You leaned back in your chair, moving your arms around in the air while laughing and laughing.

Sukuna just stared at you, speechless, the corners of his mouth facing up even if he tried to fight it.

„You are ridiculous! What are you even laughing at?“

„I- I don´t- know-“ you said while trying to calm down as you were short of air.

„Jeez, woman. You are really weird.“ he stated.

„Well- What can I do with it?“ you calmed down a bit.

„Nothing, just stay the same. It´s easier to tolerate ya this way.“ he confessed, his cheeks heating up a bit.

You smiled softly at him, „Whatever you say, Mr Grumpy.“

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

-the main character in this one is half French (father) and half Japanese (mother)

-parents got divorced and you were forced to move in with your mother back to Japan, leaving all your friends and everything in France

-Yuuji doesn´t have a crush on you, he just tried to include you plus he knew that Sukuna liked you

-the university is in Tokyo

-Thank you so much for reading the whole story, I appreciate it very very much! I hope you are all doing great, stay safe and healthy!

BONUS - Sukuna asking you to be his GF

#anime drabble #anime imagines #anime scenarios #anime story #retro anime #anime #anime and manga #jjk x you #jjk x reader #jjk #jjk fluff #jjk manga #jjk fanfic #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jujutsu sukuna #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu yuji #jujutsu itadori #jujutsu sorcerer #jujutsu icons #sukuna #sukuna x reader

[definitely-not-leda]

learning a lot of kinda similar languages (german, english, italian) next to my native hungarian means that i do not learn any of them, i usually just translate one to the other based on grammatical and appearance similarities. i might not even know what a word means or if it even exists in my native language, but i could tie it to feelings or synonyms on another.

it also means i have to explain to some very suspicious friends that no, i did not, in fact, learn french in my free time to fuck with them. however, for some reason “these words give off the same vibe as…” is not actually a reasonable excuse to vaguely understand a french lyrics

#foreign languages

[ultrakatua]

Witnessing the whole AI art stuff is funny because that shit has been happening in my sector (translation) for at least 10 years if not more and it's getting actively worse in ways you wouldn't suspect.

First there's the fact that some people will be happy with "shittier than human but somewhat ok" quality and humans will lose these markets. Look no further than Microsoft. Half their support/help related content is just raw machine translation because the AI "does the job" even if it's subpar. The content is obscure/with so little exposition they simply don't care to invest into it.

Just one step above that, the AI is used to do most of the work, then a human will "clean" it. Nowadays that's probably 90% of my day to day work. Basically the AI is supposed to make your life easier. You are more productive and that's an excuse to pay you less. It's a coin flip because the AI can do a shit job, but sometimes it's actually pretty damn good.

Which leads me to the last point. The AI can be frighteningly good. Of course I can only speak for English to French but like... It's learning from humans, in that it's trained from human translations. And with the new technology, a good AI can even do marketing stuff. Even free tools like DeepL can be super impressive with that, especially with prose. I've proofread AI that was better than humans.

Because of the way French works wrt English, you often have to change the orders of words, not even because grammar forces you to do so, but because it will flow better. Sometimes, add logical connectors that don't exist in the English sentence, and so on so forth. I shit you not, I've seen the AI do it. And not even just with simple sentences. It won't just translate literally. And the answer is basically just "yeah because it's using human translations". Frightening, I'm telling you.

#ddon't know where this is going but tbh i can see AI becoming the norm in 'tool-assisted' way #and for jobs that don't need extra polish #like shitty f2p mobile games #i mean they already do it for translation it's just the next step

[linettefox]

How to watch Sally Bollywood in the 2020s?

TL;DR: I wanted to watch an obscure childhood favorite of mine but struggled to find it. Eventually found it right there on YouTube.

RAMBLING INTRO:

During my kid to early teen years, I was obsessed with a show called Sally Bollywood: Super Detectives. I made YTPs, wrote her into a butt ton of fanfiction, and made my PfP on Sonic Amino and Wattpad an image of her. But like most things for some reason I stopped watching it, this has happened a lot with my interests as a child I would make up an excuse like me growing up, worry people would judge me for it, or deem the series as being the devil? (I still don't know how that last one got into my child-brain, it was about Yokai Watch btw). But in the past few years starting from late 2020 onwards, I have started revisiting these things. Some I still have little interest in for actually valid reasons but the important ones have all stuck around. (I.e Yokai Watch, MySims, etc) So my next move is to let Sally back in. But without Quobo the channel it was most known for being on how was I supposed to watch it?

SENSICAL:

Sally Bollywood's first season is streamable in full on what claims to be "the safest free streaming service for kids" Sensical. At first, the layout of this site confused me but once I found the search bar I was good.

This is all well and good but how do I watch season 2? Sensical excludes the second season entirely and Wikipedia has little information on it besides episode names and a few air dates. At first, I thought this meant season 2 was lost media but I have actually seen episode 11 Night At The Museum on YouTube. How did they get the episode?

EDIT: The one I found on YouTube is actually season 1 episode 7 Trouble At the Museum not Night At the Museum. Still, there are season 2 episodes reuploaded onto YouTube so still, how did they get the episode?

PRIME VIDEO:

Likely this is how. In some parts of the world, I'm not sure where the series is available on Prime Video. If you have a VPN and know exactly where it can be found then you can watch it there, I unfortunately cannot. For some reason, they do appear to be missing episode 1 and likely a few others. This will not do.

🏴‍☠️:

The full series is available on a site, just out of order... For the most part, there is very loose continuity so I suppose it doesn't matter which order it is watched but I personally hate this! Everything I watch I strive to watch in chronological order oldest to newest so for me there is no way in hell I'm watching it on this site.

Episode 1 is supposed to be Cockroach Capers.

YOUTUBE:

Finally, after much searching, I found it where I should have gone in the first place, YouTube. The official Sally Bollywood channel has every single episode in both English and French separated in playlists but also combined into hour-long videos and mixed around into compilations. All the Sally you could ever want is right here.

Another thing I found particularly interesting is their affiliation with LoliRock. This is another nostalgic show I have always loved, never in my life would I have imagined Iris, Talia, and Aurianna being friends with Sally and Doowee. The category is translated via Google Translate to: "Other friends for more adventures!". They are also both now connected to Totally Spies which I have not seen but know some people may find that interesting.

IN CONCLUSION:

If you want to watch this obscure children's show after the death of Qubo, here it is! Qubo had a very diverse catalog of shows and when it ended these shows belonged to so many different people who know what happened to them! I hope that all of them at least found a home somewhere whether it's YouTube or a free streaming service. I was so worried this would be partially lost now but glad it is alive. This is off-topic but there are four Sally Flash games I'm not sure of the origins of, I'm not sure how to get them working so that is actually lost media right there.

I do have a plugin that can make some Flash games playable again but it only works for games that have been archived. Anyway, enough rambling I have a show to watch bye!

#sally bollywood #doowee mcadam #finding nostalgic kid's shows #rip Qubo #where did Qubo shows go? #How to watch #My journey #Thank you for reading #obscure media

[terinour]

Harvey and the old lady / Harvey et la vieille dame

Harvey and the old lady

Harvey walked his loneliness as others would walk their dogs. He would collect the little things, a mundane event, the weather of the day and sometimes take a picture with his polaroid. He would slip his views and writings into a notebook. After a few years Harvey had become an explorer of the everyday and a collector of a new kind.

He did not believe that everything had been discovered and that nothing new could happen. For Harvey, there were still untapped and infinite resources, starting with the human interior. He had decided to dedicate himself to this research for the rest of his life. He was not in pursuit of precious stones, works of art or forgotten temples in the depths of inhospitable jungles, but of something that he himself could not define.

Harvey had many notebooks filled with notes and photos. That morning he sat on one of the park benches next to an old lady.

She turned to him and asked:

- Are you a writer?

- I write but I am not a writer

- It's just for you

- That's what it is

The old lady squinted her eyes as she looked towards the kindergarten. After a long silence she said:

- Excuse my indiscretion, but what are all these notebooks for?

- I am looking for some light, I am trying to understand myself

- It is normal not to understand everything. It is our way of living this incomprehension that distinguishes us from one another. I just have to come here and observe. Look at these children, for example. What does that inspire you? - They are not aware of the passage of time and this may be the source of their happiness. They easily get in touch with each other. They have fun with little, pieces of wood, stones. They succeed most naturally where others fail throughout their lives. It makes me think of this sentence of Nicolas Boileau: "He who lives contentedly with nothing possesses everything".

- Is this the kind of stuff you write in your notebooks? - Yes, I must have written it down somewhere

- Yes, but where did you write it down? In your notebook, in your brain or in your heart? Do you have children?

- No, I don't. For a while I lived with a woman who wanted them

- And you didn't want them?

- In fact, it was a time when I was very often annoyed and for nothing. One day I found myself alone with my anger.

The old lady nodded her head. She moved closer to him, stretching her wrinkled neck:

- You remind me of a penitent. You've never actually forgiven yourself.

Harvey didn't know what to say. Deep down he knew the old woman was right, but he couldn't accept it. She continued:

- You've gone from one extreme to the other

Harvey remained silent as she continued: - One day anger and the next day penitence. A long time ago someone said "stop doing, and just experience being". Perhaps you should accept yourself, and especially forgive yourself.

The old lady got up with difficulty, leaning on her cane. Before leaving him alone with himself, she concluded:

- When you get there, you will find that light. Then you won't need to search anymore.

Teri Nour

Note: I had translated my own text below in french. I apologize for this appoximative translation with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

Harvey et la vieille dame

Harvey promenait sa solitude comme d’autres auraient promené leur chien. Il collectait les petites choses, un événement banal, la météo du jour et parfois prenait une photo avec son polaroid. Il glissait ses vues et ses écrits dans un carnet. Au bout de quelques années Harvey était devenu un explorateur du quotidien et collectionneur d’un genre nouveau.

Il ne croyait pas que tout avait été découvert et que rien de nouveau ne pouvait arriver. Pour Harvey il demeurait des gisements inexplorés et infinis, à commencer par le territoire intérieur humain. Il avait donc décidé de se vouer à cette recherche pour le restant de ses jours. Il n’était pas à la poursuite de pierres précieuses, d’œuvres d’arts ni de temples oubliés au fond de jungles inhospitalières, mais de quelque chose qu’il n’arrivait lui-même pas à définir.

Harvey avait beaucoup de carnets noircis de notes et garnis de photos. Ce matin-là il s’était installé sur l’un des bancs du parc, à côté d’une vieille dame.

Elle se tourna vers lui et demanda : – Vous êtes écrivain ? – J’écris mais je ne suis pas écrivain – C’est juste pour vous en somme – C’est ça

La vieille dame plissa les yeux en regardant vers le jardin d’enfants. Après un long silence elle reprit : – Excusez mon indiscrétion mais, à quoi il vous servent tous ces carnets ? – Je cherche un peu de lumière, j’essaie de me comprendre – Il est normal de ne pas tout comprendre. C’est notre façon de vivre cette incompréhension qui nous distingue les uns des autres. Il me suffit de venir ici et d’observer. Regardez ces enfants par exemple. Que cela vous inspire-t-il ? – Ils n’ont pas conscience du temps qui passe et c’est peut-être là la source de leur bonheur. Ils entrent facilement en contact les uns avec les autres. Ils s’amusent avec peu, des bouts de bois, des cailloux. Ils arrivent le plus naturellement du monde là où d’autres échouent tout au long de leur vie. Cela me fait penser à cette phrase de Nicolas Boileau : « Qui vit content de rien possède toute chose » – C’est ce genre de trucs que vous écrivez dans vos carnets ? – Oui, j’ai du le noter quelque part – Oui mais où l’avez-vous noté ? Dans votre carnet, dans votre cerveau ou dans votre cœur ? Vous avez des enfants ? – Non. Un temps j’ai vécu avec une femme qui en aurait voulu – Et vous vous n’en vouliez pas ? – En fait c’était une époque où je m’énervais très souvent et pour un rien. Un jour je me suis retrouvé seul avec ma colère.

La vieille dame hochait la tête. Elle se rapprocha de lui en tendant son cou ridé : – Vous me faites penser à un pénitent. Vous ne vous êtes jamais pardonné en fait. Harvey ne sut quoi répondre. Au fond de lui il savait que la vieille avait raison, mais il n’arrivait pas à l’accepter. Elle reprit : – Vous êtes passé d’un extrême à l’autre Harvey resta silencieux tandis qu’elle poursuivait : – Un jour la colère et le lendemain la pénitence. Il y a longtemps quelqu’un a dit « arrêtez de faire, et faites l’expérience d’être, tout simplement ». Peut-être devriez-vous vous accepter, et surtout vous pardonner.

La vieille dame se leva difficilement, en s’appuyant sur sa canne. Avant de le laisser seul avec lui-même, elle conclut : – Lorsque vous y arriverez, vous trouverez cette lumière. Alors vous n’aurez plus besoin de chercher.

le 21 mars 2021

#short stories #writing #écriture

[loubrary]

Billy Hargrove x Male Reader

Headcanons: You’re new in town and help Billy become a better person.

Warnings: mentions of violence and homophobia, hints of smut.

A/N: This doesn’t really follows the ST timeline but who cares about canon or accuracy, am I right?

[ Masterlist ]

Your parents move you a lot due to their jobs, they’re always researching something in some strange corner of the world. You can’t understand how you went from living in South America for the last six months to living in middle-of-nowhere Hawkins Indiana.

You’re out to your parents, and they’re very supportive. You consider yourself lucky, they’re very modern and open-minded people.

The kids at your new school don’t know what to make of you with your different clothes, hair and accent. Some of the teachers are fascinated to learn of the places you’ve been to. 

When you met Robin your gaydars went off and you’re both excited to have a Fellow Gay in town. She introduces you to her friend Steve and the three of you become very close. Soon you are also helping Steve take care of his kids.

Billy hears of this strange new kid and goes to look for him to show him who owns this school. When Billy sees you he is enthralled, the world stops and all he sees is you, he feels a strange sensation inside, and he hates it.

In the days that follow, Billy makes his moves. He is mean to you, calls you names. He tries to intimidate you and scare you. But you’ve dealt with his type many times before and you have some tricks up your sleeve. 

Billy hates that you don’t react to his taunting. You just smile and laugh.

“F*g!”

“You too?! Wanna go on a date, darling? Bad boys with pretty hair are totally my type, Hargrove.”

His words don’t work, so he changes his tactics. 

You’re walking through an empty hallway when he attempts to grab you and slam you against the wall. Only to find himself on the floor completely immobilized. He had no clue you had trained in various martial arts. 

Putting the pain aside, Billy is turned on by the feeling of being dominated, he feels himself hardening against the cold floor. 

You lean down and whisper in his ear, “think twice before daring to touch me, pretty boy.” You let him go. 

One side of him wants to fight but when he sees the determination and fearlessness in your eyes he backs down. “This isn’t over,” he huffs and leaves stomping the floor.

Billy leaves you alone after that. He only glares at you and curses at you under his breath. He hates that he can’t stop thinking about that day. He hates that he enjoyed being under your control. He hates how he can only cum to images of you. But at this exact moment he hates seeing you with Steve laughing. 

You feel his eyes on you, how they follow you as you move. When you face him his face hardens and his fists clench, but there’s something in his eyes you can’t decipher. 

One day you’re alone in the showers, or so you think. You turn and see Billy checking you out from the other side, completely frozen. You notice his hard-on and his eyes open wide. He thinks you’ll say something but you just smile and wink at him. He leaves hurriedly trying to control himself. 

That confirms your suspicions and you know what is up with Billy. You’ve met guys with internalized homophobia, but never like Billy.

After that, teasing Billy becomes one of your favourite activities. You pay him visits at the pool, making sure he gets a nice view of you. You notice when he covers his lap with his magazine, and tries to focus on something else. 

“Why do we come to the public pool? We both have pools at home,” Steve complains. Robin laughs at the clueless boy, and proceeds to explain the situation.

One day Billy finds you alone and he attempts to make a move on you. He was so confident believing you’d accept his advances. 

“I’m not some desperate lonely gay boy, Billy. I don’t bend over for any hot guy that offers me his dick.” “So you think I’m hot?” He smirks. You scoff leaving him there.

Billy hates that you rejected him. How is it possible? He thinks of the guys he tormented and then fucked back in California, how easy they fell to their knees for him. 

Billy has never met a gay guy as confident and unafraid as you. Deep inside he feels jealous and admiration for you. He secretly wishes he could be as open and be free as you.

You get paired for a project, you are prepared to do all the work and let him take part of the credit. You’re shocked when he asks if you want to get together to work on the project. You’re even more shocked when you learn that he actually understands the material and is quite smart. 

Against your better judgement you invite him to your place. You’re surprised he shows up on time.

When he greets your parents, it’s like he’s a completely different person. He laughs at your dad’s jokes, compliments your mom, and even asks about what they are working on.

Billy is even more jealous of you when he sees how loving and caring your parents are, how happy and peaceful your home life is. 

The second time he comes over he has to excuse himself and go to the bathroom to splash some water on his face and calm down. All he can think of is everything you have that he doesn’t.

He finds you and your parents sitting tightly together as your mother reads a book out loud in french for you and your dad. 

“Sit down honey, I’ll translate for you,” your mother says. 

By the fourth day he accepts your parents’ invitation to stay for dinner. He has fun, he’s fascinated by your parents’ stories and their research work. 

You get a glimpse of the real Billy and can’t help but smile. 

One day during dinner your mother talks about your exes trying to embarrass you, and asks Billy if there’s a special boy in his life.

Billy’s breath hitches and starts to sweat. He stands up quickly bumping into the table, saying he has to leave. 

Your mom tries to apologise and your dad asks him to stay. 

You follow him outside the house. “Billy, wait!” 

He turns around to face you and his eyes are red as he tries to hold in the tears. “Hey, it’s all—“ “I’m not a... I’m not.” he grunts before getting in his car and speeding off. 

Billy parks somewhere secluded and hits the steering wheel with his fists, he cries and yells in anger. He’s angry, sad, jealous. 

He cries for his mom, for a life he wishes he had, for the love and support he yearns for. 

Billy returns the following week to finish the project. He plans to just focus on the project, finish it and never return. 

Your mom answers the door. “So good to see you, love, we’ve missed you,” she says warmly rubbing his arm, “sorry about the other day”. He almost doesn’t hear the last sentence, he hasn’t heard those words or felt that way in a long time. Someone being happy to see him, missing him, calling him love. 

Your dad greets him and calls him son, and asks him to join him later in the study to show him their latest findings. 

You and Billy don’t talk about what happened. You focus on your project.

“Have you always been out to your parents?” Billy blurts out.

You decide to be honest. “Yeah, they sort of figured it out when I was little.” You tell him how growing up you met all kinds of people through your parents. You tell him about your parents’ gay friends that you call uncles and aunts. Telling him how you always felt free to be yourself with your parents even though you know the world is cruel and unaccepting. 

After a moment of silence Billy speaks. He talks about the only openly gay person he ever met, a friend of his mom back in California. He tells you about how his father hated his mom’s friend and got in fights with his mom about it. 

He tells you about his dad, how aggressive and angry he is. He doesn’t tell you about the physical abuse. He went on about how unhappy he was, and how different your lives were. 

You start to see why Billy acts the way he does. Bullying others is his way to feel he is in control.

“How do you do it?” 

“What?” 

“Being gay like that, you don’t hide.” 

“We only live once, I’m not gonna let a world full of bigots tell me I can’t be myself and be happy.” You pause. ”Billy? You can always be yourself here.”

After you finish your project, Billy keeps coming to your place to hang out. 

He’s more relaxed and tones down the attitude. He even starts being nice to Max.

He’s still the bad boy to everyone else, but when he enters your home all that stays outside.

You learn more about the real Billy. How he likes science and music. How curious he is. How funny he can be. And you slowly start to fall for this Billy.

One day Billy and you are in the living room listening to music lying on the carpet and giggling when your mom comes in. “Honey, your friends are here.”

You both look up and see a shocked Steve and the kids, and a grinning Robin. Max is especially shocked by the whole scene.

“Oh hey guys, you know Billy, right? We’re just listening to this new album.”

Billy panics, and stands up to escape, “I have to go.” You understand, not wanting to force him into anything. 

The others sit down looking suspiciously at Billy as he leaves. Billy avoids all eye contact. “What did I get himself into?” Billy thinks. 

Meanwhile Robin and you have each other’s arm over your shoulders as you sing dramatically.

“Is anyone going to talk about how you were on the floor giggling with Billy Hargrove?” Mike asks. 

One rainy night, Billy is driving to your house. His eyes sting, his knuckles turn white gripping the wheel. He feels his cheek and eye starting to swell. He stays on the driveway debating on what to do. He sees your bedroom light on and goes to ring the bell hoping that you open the door.

It’s your mom that opens the door. “Billy? Come on in, love, you’re soaking wet.” When he steps into the lit hallway your mom finally sees his face. “Oh my god, sweetheart. What happened?” 

“Who is it darling? Oh Billy!  Are you okay, son?” Your dad asks him.

Billy wants to lie, he had this planned, he would have said how he got into a fight with another guy and didn’t want to go home looking like that. “I got—I...” he tries. But he can’t keep it in anymore. “It was... My—my dad...” he chokes as he lets out a cry. 

He feels two sets of arms engulf him, and he lets is all out. He cries like he’s never cried before. He thinks he hears your name being called. He hears your parents’ voices, encouraging and supportive words he can barely make up. He cries even more when he think of how these people that he met not long ago care more about him than his own father. 

You find your parents consoling Billy. Your mom is holding him while your dad rubs circles on his back. And Billy holds on to them like his life depends on it.“Billy?” He looks up to you and you see his broken face, all the pain and suffering he has endured and your heart breaks for him. 

You help him get up and walk him to the living room. Your dad goes to prepare the guest room and your mother prepares some tea. Billy is curled into a ball under a blanker with his head on your lap. You run your hand through his hair as you rub his arm comfortingly. 

When he calms down, he starts telling you of everything his dad has done. All the punches, the bruises, the hurtful words. 

Later you take him to the guest room, you help him get his clothes off and rub some medicine over his bruises. 

“Can you stay with me?” 

“Of course.”

You hold him close, his face pressed on your chest. 

For the first time in a long while Billy sleeps peacefully.

After that day your parents take action, they’re on the phone with their lawyers, looking at how they can help Billy and Max.

Your parents help him get custody of Max. 

The both of them move in with your family. 

“Can’t believe you’re taking me to live with your boyfriend,” Max tells him. “He’s just a friend,” he groans. “Yeah, right.”

That night Billy is in your bed as you read to him, his head on your lap. “Thank you,” he says pulling your book down to look at you. “What for?” You ask, running a hand through his hair. “For saving me, and Max.” You smile and kiss his forehead and continue with the story.

In the morning you wake up to Billy facing you, looking at you and he smiles. 

“You okay?” He nods and reaches for your hand, holding it tightly as he scoots closer to you.

You move a loose strand of hair behind his ear, caressing his cheek, feeling how soft his skin is. 

You two stay like that for a while just enjoying each other’s warmth in silence, playing with your hands and looking into other’s eyes. Neither of you can’t stop smiling. 

“I love you, (y/n).”

“I love you too, Billy.”

#Billy Hargrove #billy hargrove x male reader #stranger things #tw: violence #angst #fluff

[ridiculousn3sswrites]

Lost in Translation

*Lafayette x Reader

*Request: “ @thefluffypancake asked: ‘Hey could you do a Lafayette x reader where she’s learning French and she try’s to ask him out on a date but accidentally asks something else. If not, it’s okay! Have a great day! 💞💞’”

*Warnings: Language, my own personal issues with French as a language. Let me know if I missed anything!

*A/N: This request is so old and I’m so sorry for that. Also I kinda changed the request a bit to reader saying she wants to kiss Laf because that word-for-word translation is off and you’ll see in the fic.

Tip Jar

**********

French was definitely a made up, ridiculous language. While - as your friends always felt the need to point out - every language was made up, French was even more made up than anything else. And yet here you were, trying to learn French on your own just so you could ask out the Frenchie in your friend group. It was a stupid idea in hindsight, but you thought it’d be cute to just surprise him by talking to him and then asking him out in French. Turns out it was a lot harder than you thought it would be. When your initial plan didn’t work out, you could always count on your friends to fuck up in a way that would make things somewhat better. 

Apparently, John never got the memo to not tell Alexander you’d asked him for help with French, and Alexander never got the memo that you learning French was supposed to be a secret. He definitely didn’t get the memo to never bring it up in front of Laf (even though you were pretty sure you’d told John you were trying to learn to impress Laf), so he did exactly that when all of you were hanging out. You had just got back to the table, coffee in hand when Alexander opened his stupid mouth. “Hey, how’s learning French going?”

“I mean, that’s one way to greet me I guess,” you said, trying to ignore the heat rushing to your face. Nope, the best course of action would just be to avoid the conversation. “Like, I haven’t even sat down yet.”

“Wait, you’re trying to learn French?” Laf asked, looking at you in excitement. You could already feel your resolve weakening.

“I mean, I’m trying but it’s not working out so great. Turns out that Duolingo owl only cares about Spanish,” you tried joking, taking the empty seat next to him.

“Dude, you asked me for help,” John spoke up, like that would make the situation any better. It wasn’t your fault that French was an utterly ridiculous language. What language even needs that many vowels? 

“Not my fault you’re a shit teacher,” you shot back, deadpan but completely joking. Even though John looked offended, you knew he wouldn’t hold it against you. After all, you were his ride back home. It took John a second to bounce back.

“Nah, you’re just a shit student.”

“I mean, my grades aren’t gonna argue with you there,” you laughed, the tension finally easing up some. You were still gonna strangle Alexander later, but for now things were fine. For all of five seconds.

“Why didn’t you ask me for help?” Laf asked, stealing your coffee and taking a sip. You were quick to take it back from him, trying to think of an excuse that wouldn’t give away your true intentions. However, now that you thought about it, just asking him to help you learn French probably would’ve been the easiest course of action. Have lessons with him a couple times a week for a few weeks, ask him how you ask someone out in French, and then bam! hit him with the question. Why do I always make things more difficult than they need to be?

“I… actually, I don’t know. Do you think you could help me out?” You tried to ignore the impressed look John was giving you. Sometimes you hated the fact he was your best friend.

“Yeah, of course! I’m offended you went to him first,” Lafayette said, stealing another drink of your coffee.

“Dude, buy your own!”

“But yours tastes so much better,” he teased.

“Gross, can you guys get a room or something?” Hercules spoke up. “Actually, don’t. I forgot I share a room with Laf for a second.”

“And you just made it worse than it had to be,” Angelica muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Anyways, when are you free? It’ll be fun helping you learn,” Laf said, turning his attention back to you. “Just send me your schedule and we can set it up!”

“Yeah, sure thing,” you agreed after a second, trying not to seem too eager. You and Laf rarely hung out on your own, normally having at least one of your other friends there with you. You couldn’t remember the last time the two of you had been alone, let alone you not being awkward when it was just the two of you. You texted him a screenshot of your schedule, your heart already racing at the thought of getting closer to him. You could handle hanging out with him with other people, but alone was a whole different story.

“Great! This’ll be fun!” His bright smile was enough to take your breath away, easing your worries somewhat.

“Yeah, I can’t wait.”

“Okay, so back to me,” John redirected the conversation, making a face at the look you were giving Laf. You couldn’t help but laugh at his obvious attempt, gladly letting him talk about whatever project he was working on now. No, you needed to figure out how you were going to handle this.

**********

Considering it was the middle of the semester, it was difficult to find a time to meet up with Laf that worked for the both of you. You both had papers, midterms, and group projects to work on, but you were finally able to find some time to have a little French session. The first few sessions were accidental, happening when Laf happened to find you in one of the 24-hour libraries, way too late for anything to actually stick in your mind. You found yourself only focusing on the way he spoke French, which was way too attractive to be fair.

After you had a few more impromptu sessions, you were finally able to actually set something up with Lafayette. For once, the both of you had a Friday afternoon free, so you’d be able to see him when you didn’t look absolutely destroyed by assignments and projects. It was still early on into your changed plan, but you figured now was as good a time as any to make your move. You managed to convince John to leave the apartment for a few hours at least, not that he made it easy on you. With his incessant teasing, sometimes you wondered why you chose him to be your best friend and roommate. 

Once John was finally out of the apartment, all you had to do was set things up. You set out some snacks, not really knowing how to host other than offering people food, had some study materials set out because the two of you were going to work on some other assignments before you started with the French lessons. Things didn’t have to be perfect, but you were determined to make it as close as possible. You had a note on your phone for what you wanted to ‘ask’ Laf about, and you were ready. The only thing you needed was for Laf to show up.

As you waited for Laf to make his appearance, you decided to get some reading done for class. Well, you tried to. You couldn’t help you constant fidgeting, switching between tabs as though there would be a different internet on each one, checking your phone and scrolling through Twitter - you really had no idea how you were supposed to pretend that you were going to study when he got here. You knew it would be super obvious that your mind wasn’t 100% on your work. Before you could think about it any longer, there was a knock on your door. Holding yourself back, you waited a minute before getting up to answer it.

“Hey,” you said with a smile, acting like you hadn’t just been fretting over how you were going to get through this.

“Hey! You ready to study?” Laf asked, tugging on his backpack strap as if to prove he brought his work with him.

“Yeah! I’m set up at the table if you wanna just head over there.” You silently cursed how non-human that sounded. As soon as the two of you sat down, though, things got easier. Even as the two of you worked, you kept a small conversation going, making jokes about things you’d just read or were working on, telling stories about class. For the first time in a while, things were going just like they were when the two of you hung out with the group. Lafayette made it really easy for you to like him.

After a couple hours of the two of you working on your own things, Lafayette closed his laptop, getting your full attention. Laf leaned forward like he was about to let you in on some giant secret. “Are you ready to learn some French now?”

“Yeah, I wanna know what you, Alex, and John are saying whenever you go into French,” you teased.

“Non, that’s a secret,” Lafayette laughed, looking away. “Alright, let’s start.”

The session started out much like your impromptu sessions: Lafayette would say a common word or phrase in French, he’d ask you what you thought it meant, he’d tell you what it actually meant, and then you’d repeat it to him. He’d fix any mispronunciations, and you’d keep going until you got it right. This would go on for as many phrases or whatever until one of you decided to take a break. It was a nice little process and was definitely helping things stick in your mind more than when you tried learning on your own or with John.

You were the first one to call for a break, your heart pounding as you tried to figure out how you were going to do this. You wanted to ask him out soon, not willing to let yourself chicken out at the last second, especially since you knew John would talk so much shit if he found out you kicked him out and didn’t even ask Laf out. As you were in the kitchen, filling up your water bottle as an excuse, you tried to calm yourself. The worst that could happen would be things getting weird between the two of you, the best was the two of you would get together, so that meant reality would be somewhere in the middle. You took a deep breath before making your way back to the table.

“Ready to start again?” Laf asked, looking up from his phone.

“Yeah, I actually had something I wanted to ask you.” You took your seat next to him, grabbing your phone to double check what you had translated earlier.

“Go ahead.”

“So, uh,” you paused for a second, gathering the last bit of courage you needed. “Right, uh, what does je veux te baiser mean? Because, uh, je veux te baiser.”

Immediately, Lafayette looked away, drinking his water so he didn’t have to answer you. You could just tell something was wrong and felt your face heat up as you just looked down at your hands. When Lafayette finally spoke, you felt your heart drop. “I… I don’t think you know what you just said.”

You looked up, eyes wide. You knew French was tricky, but there was no way you messed up something that simple, right? You tried not to appear too flustered, but you knew it was a losing battle. “Wait, what did I say then?”

“I think I know what you were trying to say, but you didn’t say it.”

“So what did I say?”

“Okay, so direct translation was that, but what you said was, uh, you uh wanttofuckme,” he rushed out the last part, and it took you a second to process what he said. If you thought your face couldn’t get any hotter, you were wrong. 

“Jesus Christ, I am so sorry. I mean I really like you but I didn’t mean to say that and I’m so sorry, that probably made you really uncomfortable and I understand if you want to leave and-” You were cut off by his lips on yours. You quickly melted into the kiss, even though you still weren’t exactly sure what was going on.

“Je veux t’embrasser,” Lafayette said as he broke the kiss.

“What?”

“Je veux t’embrasser. That’s how you say I want to kiss you,” he explained.

“Je veux t’embrasser,” you repeated with a small smile.

“Good.” You were rewarded with another soft kiss. Maybe French wasn’t so ridiculous…

No, it definitely was. 

**********

Permanent Tag List: @treatallwithkindness, @laic2299, @delaber

#lafayette x reader #lafayette imagine #hamilton imagine #reader insert #requested

[imabeautifulbutterfly]

The Reunion - Part 4

Summary: Dealing with the aftermath of losing Omega; How Phoenix Ghost and Echo met. 

A/N: I tried my hand at Kyuzo, apparently it’s suppose to be mispronounced French, according to Wookieepedia, if that’s wrong I do apologize.  Also, FYI, there might be slight canon divergence, I'm going to try and include what happens but that might not be possible. 

Italics - Flashback

(Bold) - Translation

*Bold* - Action

Warnings: Anger, Grief, Hurt, Loss, Attacks, Explosives, Sniper shots, talks of killing, innuendos, flirting, kissing, death, feelings of not enough, if there are any I missed let me know. 

Words: 9,529 - story kind of got away from me a little

AO3 Link

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this.  I appreciate all the love you guys show, so feel free to drop a comment, show some love or do a reblog.  It’s always welcome. 

Previous -> Masterlist -> Next

“What do you mean you lost Omega?!” I shouted at Hunter’s image.

“I’m sorry, hun” Hunter’s eyes were full of pain and sadness.  I know it wasn’t his fault, after all they told Crosshair and me everything that happened, how the Empire somehow found them through some scavengers, nearly lost all their lives, only for a bounty hunter to show up, shoot Hunter in the chest and kidnap Omega.

I let out a sigh, “No, I’m sorry, it’s not your fault.  Are you okay, love?”

“Slightly sore”

“Huh, sore?” Wrecker pushed Hunter out of the way, “He nearly died!”

“His injury was pretty bad Medic Kambe, we could have used you” Tech finished pushing Wrecker out of the way.

“Are the rest of you okay?”

“Yes, vod’ika.  We are all fine.” Tech answered

“Tell us what the plan is?” Crosshair asked

“We need to figure out who’s after Omega, it’s the only way we’re going to find her” came a woman’s voice, I’ve never heard before.

“Who’s that?” I asked

A beautiful woman came into view, my throat tightened, who was this woman, and why was she leaning on my Hunter’s shoulder.  

“Hi, I’m Phoenix Ghost” came her smooth voice, her skin was perfect, her eyes piercing, “relax doll, I’m not interested in your man, I’m married”, she held up her finger displaying a ring.

“Oh … no … I wasn’t …”

“Ha, yes you were” Crosshair chuckled

“Can we focus on what’s important, please” Hunter cut in

“Do you guys have an idea as to who wants Omega?” Phoenix Ghost asked

“You mean besides the Empire” Crosshair answered

“The Kaminoans” I answered contemplatively.

Everyone looked at me, the silence grew, “What do you mean, cyare?” Hunter inquired.

“That actually would make sense” responded Crosshair

I simply nodded, “Somebody wants to fill us in?” Asked Echo

“The Empire, specifically Admiral Rampart, didn’t want to bring you guys in, they wanted you all eliminated except for Omega…” Crosshair began

“… but” I interjected, “if Omega is brought in by the Empire, then there would be no use for the Kaminoans, since the Empire would have all the answers once they ran a deep scan on Omega.”

“What answers are they looking for?” Phoenix Ghost inquired

“How to make an elite clone, one …” I let out a sigh, “one who is force sensitive”

“WHAT!” Came the answer not just through the comm, but from Lurwa and Crosshair.

“Excuse me, but who else is there with you?” Questioned Tech

“It’s one of my Elite Squad, they wanted to escape the Empire too”

“Yeah sorry, everyone meet Lurwa Zelga, formerly ES-03” I added

“Actually, I was formerly ES-02” Lurwa said

“Oh, sorry about that”

“Why is she tied up?” Hunter asked

“We don’t know if we can trust her” answered Crosshair

“Then why are you allowing her to listen in?” Hunter was getting annoyed, “You know what it doesn’t matter! What are we going to do about Omega?”

“Babe, it’s okay, we’ll figure it out.”

“No, it’s not okay.  I FAILED HER!”

Everyone went silent, “Crosshair, I’m going to take the comm in the back okay, can you transfer it to the other room?”

Crosshair nodded, “Hunter, can you go to a private comm?”

*sigh* “Fine”

Hunter got up and moved, and went into the bunk room of the ship, Hunter’s face popped up on the private comm, “Alright babe, talk to me”

“There’s nothing to talk about”

“Oh I think there’s plenty to talk about, just start at the beginning, from after escaping the explosion of the engine”

Hunter ran a hand over his face, “Omega and I were almost cornered by the Empire, I really thought we were done for, but then we managed to find cover and make our way to the ship.  When we entered the hangar there was nothing but stormtrooper bodies lying everywhere.  I knew at that moment something wasn’t right.  Rather than waiting for the guys to show up, Omega and I walked in.  I should’ve … I should have made her wait, made her hide until I knew it was all clear.  I was so stupid! I put her needlessly in danger.  All my training, all my ability and I failed her.”

“You keep saying you failed her, but you still haven’t told me how?  Come on babe, talk”

“As we walked further in, a bounty hunter stepped out of the Marauder.  I don’t know who he was, he was a Duros with a ridiculous hat, blue skin, some sort of tubing coming out of his face.  His voice was dark and determined.  He didn’t look that dangerous, I mean he looked dangerous, but I didn’t think he … I thought I …

Bounty Hunter: I’ve taken down so many clones over the years.  Once you figure out one, the rest are easy.

Hunter: You’re in for a surprise

Bounty Hunter: I doubt that

Omega: He’s a bounty hunter

Bounty Hunter: Ain’t you smart, kid's got it all figured out

Droid: You’re in trouble now

Hunter: Who hired you?

Bounty Hunter: Son, that's confidential information.  Now hand her over.

Hunter: She’s with us, she’s not going anywhere

Bounty Hunter: That’s unfortunate, for you.

Next thing, I know, I've woken up to Wrecker, asking where Omega is.  He’s freaking out.  Tech is wondering what happened.  They’re trying to get me to the ship.  There’s a pain in my chest, that’s making it difficult for me to breathe.  Don’t you see, I failed her!  I’m just like all those other clones that were bested by him.  I wasn’t … I wasn’t good enough.  I wasn’t … I wasn’t strong enough.  I … I failed her cyare.  S-she was like a daughter to me, and I … I couldn’t … I couldn’t protect her.”  Hunter’s tears were clearly seen through the holo, I wanted nothing more than to be by his side, reach out and wipe the tears.

“Babe, look at me”

His head was in his hands, as he shook his head.

“Look at me, right now”

Hunter dropped his hands and looked me in the eye.

“This guy, this bounty hunter, he may have been faster than you.  But that’s because he’s probably had numerous of these duels, or at the least has been doing this for a ridiculously long time.  Not to mention, you did survive a ridiculous assault from the Empire.  It’s not your fault love.  It’s the Empire’s fault.  It’s this universe’s fault.  It’s the fault of the Kaminoans who put a stupid chip in every clone, that made them turn against the Jedi.  It’s not your fault.  You did your best to save her, and protect her.  We’re going to get her back.”

“How?  We don’t even know where he took her.”

“Maybe we can get help, we can figure all this out.  We just have to breathe.  We’re going to get her back.  We’re going to get your daughter back.  Our … daughter back, Hunter.”

Hunter let out a sigh, “You know cyar’ika, I didn’t think it possible to love you anymore than I do right now”

“I love you too”

- - - - - - - -

“So… that’s the Medic?”

“Phoenix…”

“What? I’m just asking a question ner riduur”

“Mmhmm”

I looked over to Echo and mouth a ‘no’, he looked at me and mouthed ‘no’ back.  I shrugged.

“How are we going to find Omega?” Wrecker asked

“I have an idea on that front”

“What do you got, Phoenix?” asked Crosshair from the comm

“I have some bounty hunter contacts, I think I know who it could be that took Omega, but I got make a few calls”

“Like you need the bunk room, kind of calls?” Asked Fives

“No, vod.  Not that kind of call.  A regular good old fashioned comm call”

“Alright, well we’re almost at the rendezvous point, we’ll comm you guys when we land” Crosshair offered

“Welcome back Crosshair” Wrecker said

“Good to be back”

Crosshair was gone in an instant, “Excuse me, riduur”, I leaned over Echo, and pressed the numbers for a comm link, “You know we still haven’t had our break” Echo whispered in my ear, I couldn’t help but grin.  “I think that’s going to have to wait, ner kar’ta.”

“Fine, but I say once everyone is safe, you and I take off somewhere no one will find us.”

I just looked at him, smirking.

“Whatcha guys talking about?” Fives asked

Echo rolled his eyes at his brother, I couldn’t help but laugh, “Huh, watcha talking about?” He asked, poking Echo in the shoulder, “How we should space you, Fives?” Echo answered.

“What?! What did I do?” He asked hurt

“Okay boys, find your happy places” Tech said

Echo simply looked at me, wiggling his eyebrows.  I stood straighter, hiding the blush creeping up my face.

“Your face is getting red, Ghost” Tech noticed

“Yes, thank you Tech”

“Why is your face getting red?” He inquired

“How are you this smart, and this stupid?” Fives asked

“Fives!” I shouted “Be nice, and apologize, that was rude!”

“Ha, I like you” Wrecker said, “You know how to control these di’kut”

“Wrecker, don’t make me force you to apologize too”

“Ow!” Fives screamed, I turned to face Fives, “What happened?”

“Tech flicked me” he answered

“He deserved it” Tech defended

“Don’t make me get the get-along shirt, and force you guys to get in it.”

“Get a ‘what shirt’?” Tech asked

“It’s a big shirt, that the two of you have to wear until you get along” explained Echo

“Uh … hello?” Came Sugi’s voice

“Hi Sugi”

“Gorgeous! How are you?”

“Ki ca?” (Who that?)

“It’s Gorgeous, Embo”

“Ah, Gorgeous! Bungour.” (Hello)

“Hi Embo, nice to see you”

“Vus volez êtr ma feme?” (Want to be my wife?)

“Ha, thanks Embo, but I’m married.” I held my ring finger up to show him I noticed Echo’s hand tightening on the controls, “Besides, aren’t you with Sugi?”

“Ne fat pasde mal demande”(Doesn’t hurt ask)

I simply shake my head, “Maybe you guys can help us, my friend’s daughter was kidnapped, I’m very fond of her, she's like a niece to me.”

“Gorgeous, I’m so sorry to hear that, how can we help?” Sugi asked

“Well, you guys know a lot of bounty hunters, if I describe the guy do you think you might know who he is?”

“Neput pas fair dema” (Can’t hurt)

“My friend said he was a Duros, blue skin, had a deep voice, wore a ridiculous hat”

“Wait… you said hat?” Sugi asked

“Yeah”

“Did he have tubes coming out of his face?”

“Yeah”

“It could be Cad Bane”

“Cela pourat êtrun problèm” (This could be a problem)

“Why is it a problem?”

“Gorgeous …”

“What?  Tell me.”

“Il des meileur” (He’s the best)

“Kriff! How good?”

“Let’s say he takes on extremely difficult jobs.  The ones that no one in their right mind would take.”

“Ki est ton ami?” (Who’s your friend?)

“I can’t say.  Do you know where we can find him?  Or if we can intercept him?”

“Well usually … “

“Attende” (Wait)

“What is it, Embo?”

“Il est la” (He’s here)

“Where?”

“Jabba’s Palace” Sugi answered

“Keep him there.  We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“What’s in it for us if we do?” Sugi asked

“I’ll owe you one?”

“Et moi?” (What about me?)

“I’ll owe you one too”

“How about I owe him one.” Echo answered

“Ki ca?” (Who that?)

“My husband”

“Ha, jalux?” (Jealous?)

“Anyways, keep him busy, and we’ll both owe you guys.”

“Not a problem, Gorgeous.”

“Thanks you guys, see you in a few”

The comm ended, “How is that you stayed single all this time?” Fives asked

I looked at him, “Fives…”

“What, I’m serious, the amount of people that hit on you, while you were working the cantina, even before you left the GAR” I looked over to Echo, his knuckles were white, I could see the veins on his hand.

“Echo, my dear, you need to relax”

“I’m changing our heading to Tatooine, I’ve relayed the message to Crosshair” Tech interrupted.

“I’m going to go tell Hunter” I looked over to Fives and mouthed ‘behave’, he just gave me a smirk.  I leaned over to Echo and whispered, “Ignore Fives.  You’re the only one for me”, I kissed him on his cheek.  His grip on the control loosened, and he let out a sigh, “I know, I just …”

“I know, Echo.  It’s okay” I kissed him once more on the cheek.

I turned to walk out, and glared at Fives again, mouthing ‘Seriously, behave’.  Fives raised his hands in surrender.

- - - - - - - -

“Hunter” I called knocking on the bunk door.

“Come in”

I walked in, the call with Kambe long ended, his hands holding his head, I could tell he was crying, “You ok?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, what do you want?”

“We found Cad Bane”

“Who?”

“The bounty hunter who took Omega”

He shot straight up, his eyes were full of anger and hatred, “Where?”

“Tatooine”

“How?” His anger was building, I could see his fists were clenched by his side, he looked ready to strike.

“I have some friends that know him, we were talking when he walked into the Palace”

“Who’s Palace?”

“Jabba’s”

“Do you think he’s the one who wants Omega?”

“No.  More likely, it’s a layover till he meets his contact.”

He didn’t say anything, I could feel his rage boiling over, “Hunter…”

“What!” I raised my hands and backed away.  I just looked down at the ground and turned to walk away.

“Wait!” Hunter called, I stopped and turned, “I’m sorry, it’s just …”

“I know”

“How could you?”

I let out a sigh, “Have a seat” I motioned to the bunk behind him, “Echo didn’t tell you how we met, did he?”

Hunter shook his head, “It was just after he joined the 501st …

- - - - - - - -

“I can’t wait to get out there, do Hevy proud” Fives said

“I think he would be proud of us, no matter what we did” Echo responded

“Of course, you would believe that”

“Men!”

“Captain Rex, Sir!” They both stood and saluted the Captain, I stood behind the Captain of the 501st, looking at these two fresh faces.  Fives glanced over to me, and did a quick once over, I couldn’t help but smirk, cheeky bastard.  Echo gave me a side look, but kept his eyes on the Captain.

“At ease boys, I have a special mission for the both of you.  This is Agent Halcyon, she has been tasked with a special mission and needs two good men to go with her.  I am trusting that you both will be good soldiers and show Agent Halcyon what it means to be part of the 501st!”

“Sir, yes Sir!” They both echoed.

“Agent Halcyon” he stretched out his hand and shook mine

“Captain Rex, always a pleasure” I winked at him, he smirked and walked away.

“Alright guys, relax.”

“Thank you, Agent Halcyon” chimed Echo

“First, it’s just Halcyon, don’t use titles.  What are your boys' names?”

“I’m Fives, that’s Echo.  I’m the one whose name you'll never forget to scream out.”  Fives winked, Echo rolled his eyes at his brother.

“Oh really?” I stepped up to Fives, my face an inch from his, he took a noticeable swallow, “Tell me Fives, exactly how will I not forget you?”

“Um… I …”

“Listen here trooper! You think you’re the first one who’s tried to get into my pants?”

“Uh…”

“Better man than you have tried, and do you know how many have succeeded?”

“Um…”

“None.  So take your ego, your misogyny, your desire to try to accumulate notches on your belt, and shove it! Is that understood?”

“Yes, ma’am”

“Good!” I stepped back, “Now that we have that straightened out, you both are going to follow me.  First we need to get you guys some civilian clothing, secondly I need to go over the mission with the both of you.  Now unless Echo here has any comment he would like to make?”

“No, ma’am”

“Oh one more thing, stop calling me ma’am.  It’s Halcyon.”

- - - - - - - - - -

“Is the plan clear?”

“I don’t understand, why are they trying to kidnap Senator Orn Free Taa’s daughter?” Echo asked

“He has the deciding vote on a bill in the senate, it’s not unusual for Senators and their families to be threatened.  Problem is we don’t know who exactly is threatening him, whether it’s the opposition of the bill, the separatist, or someone who has a personal vendetta against him.  It’s no secret that not all his people are happy he’s their representative.”

“Do we have to guard her in her house?  Wouldn’t it be better if we take her from there?” Fives asked

“Normally, I would say yes.  For me, I personally would rather keep her out of public view, but unfortunately that’s not possible.”

“Why’s that?” Inquired Echo

“She’s pregnant.  The stress of the constant danger of being on the move, could endanger the baby.  So while you guys maintain eyes on the perimeter I’ll be her personal bodyguard.”

“No offence Halcyon, but you’re just one person.”

“With you two, that makes three.  I think the odds are in our favour.  Plus, you don’t get to be the best, by being weak” I smirked at Fives, “If you guys want, we can spar a few rounds before we land on Ryloth, and I can prove how good I am.”

“Not necessary, Halcyon, Fives’ just an idiot.”

“Ha, spoken like a true brother.  Let me guess, you guys are batchmates.”

“Yeah we are” Fives answered, “How did you know?”

“When you're around enough clones, you can tell.  Alright you two, get all the equipment you need, once we leave the Resolute, we’ll be on our own.  I’d rather you guys take more than what we need, and have too much, then not enough.  Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am” they both saluted.  I just shook my head, “Sorry, Halcyon.”

“That’s okay, meet me at the ship at 0630”

- - - - - - - -

“Madam Oofatfeli” I bowed before Senator Orn Free Taa’s daughter.

“Halcyon, it’s been too long,” she stepped forward and hugged me.  Oofatfeli was one of the most beautiful women, her skin was an iridescent blue, it was a very rare and special Twi’lek colour.  Her husband passed away during Ryloth’s occupation, leaving her a widow and a child to raise on her own.

“You’re positively glowing”

“Oh! Feel! The baby just kicked.  Kid’s going to be just as strong as Mirtilo was.”

I placed my hand on her bump, as she guided me to where the child was kicking, I couldn’t help the smile that appeared on my face.  “Mirtilo would have been such a proud father.  I have no doubt about that.”

Fives and Echo seemed uncomfortable, quietly I asked “Oofatfeli, would you mind if they…” I motioned my head to them.  She smiled that radiating beautiful smile, “Not at all” she whispered back.

“Fives, Echo, come here”

They stepped closer, I guided their hands to where the baby had been kicking, “I don’t understand” Echo said.  

“Just wait” Oofatfeli answered, and just like that, the baby started kicking again.

“What was that?” Fives asked confused

“That’s the baby, it’s kicking” I answered

“That … that’s the baby?” Fives was mesmerized, “I never …”

“It’s amazing! Right?  To know that life has been created, and being cared for, by an amazingly, devoted mother.”

“See this is why you and I are friends, Halcyon.  You offer up praises like their nothing.”

“Hey if I’m the aunt and godmother of this child, trust me, I’ll offer up all the praises I can muster” I chuckled, “Alright boys, enough lollygagging, time to get to work.  I want every exit checked, examine the perimeter and tell me what areas, we’re vulnerable.  I want a backup hiding place.  I want a handful of weapons and explosives stored in the two hiding places.  I also want some explosives armed in the areas we won’t be able to cover.  Nothing too damaging, just enough to knock a perpetrator out.  Finally I want weapons hidden throughout the house, under tables, couches, maybe in some of the cabinets.  I want to fortify our last resort position.  If we need to hold them off, I want to know we can do it until backup arrives.  Understood?”

“Yes, Halcyon” answered Echo

“Great.  Any questions?”

“Just one?”

“What is it, Echo?”

“Can I feel the baby kick one more time?” I just looked at this man, this handsome man, so different from his brother, and at that moment he captured my heart.  He was so sweet, tender and caring, a soldier through and through, but went weak in the knees for a baby.

“Ha, sure, give me your hand Echo” Oofatfeli said, after a few moments, Echo’s smile radiated pure joy.  I couldn’t hide the smirk on my face, or the adoration in my eyes watching him, he glanced over to me, and smiled sweetly.  A blush started to form on his face.

“Ahem!” Fives cleared his throat

“Right, time to go” Echo said

Both boys left, “So… Echo?” Oofatfeli quirked an eyebrow at me.

“What about him?” I asked while grabbing my bag and beginning to set up my equipment, my trusty DC-15LE rifle, nicknamed Peacekeeper, it was an inside joke with myself, how far I went from being a Jedi Knight, an actual keeper of the peace.  She was my partner in crime.

“You know what?  I saw that look between you two.”

“He was being sweet with the baby, that’s the only look you saw.”

The rifle now strapped to my back, I began placing all my other DC-17 hand blasters, in strategic easy to grab locations.  “Yeah, but that’s not what I felt” Oofatfeli continued following me around.

“There was nothing to feel”

“Come on, just because you may have trained as a Jedi, doesn’t mean you can’t connect with someone.  It might even be good for you.”

“Oofatfeli, I love you like a sister, but you are way off base.  There is nothing between Echo and me, especially since I just met him, what, a few days, like three days ago.”

“When Mirtilo and I first met, in the span of an hour we knew we were meant to be.”

“That’s different”

“How is that different?”

“You look like you, and I …” I motioned to my whole body, I let out a sigh, “… I’m not the kind of girl, guys go for.  A one-night stand, sure they’re quick to try to get in my pants, but a relationship…” I shook my head.

“Is that why you still haven’t been with anyone?  You want a relationship and not a one-night stand?”

“I don’t know what I want, and until I do, it’s better if I’m alone.”

“Maybe you need to stop listening with your head, and listen to your heart.  Cause from what I saw, there was more there in that look, then just a one-night stand.”

“Alright, we’re done with this conversation.”

“Ha, that’s what you think.  But we can be done for now.  I need to use the fresher, I swear this kid thinks my bladder is a bouncy ball.”

I laughed, “Halcyon” came Echo’s voice, “Yes, Echo?”

“The perimeter is secure, we’re coming back in.”

“Okay.” I turned to put away my bag, when I heard, “Dude you got it bad for her” came Fives voice.

“No, I don’t.”

“Listen, I don’t blame you, she’s hot.”

“We all know what you think of her”

“Did I come across a bit too aggressive? Maybe.  Do I regret it? Not at all.”

“You're impossible.”

“Just admit, you like her.”

“Fives, shut up!”

“Hey I wasn’t imagining the look you gave her, or that smile vod.”

“I … uh…”

“You do like her!”

“Fives, she’s going to hear you?”

“She already has” I answered, “Next time, make sure to turn off your comm.”

I heard a beep and that was the end of that conversation.

- - - - - - -

Oofatfeli was sleeping in her room, the two boys were resting in the guest room, while I kept watch.  I noticed a shadow on the floor, walking along the roof.   I chimed the boys, and walked to Oofatfeli’s room.

Fives and Echo emerged in no time, “What’s the problem?” Fives asked.

“There’s someone on the roof.  You two guard Oofatfeli, I’m gonna wake her up, I want you both to take her to room A, while I check it out.”

“Halcyon…”

“This isn’t up for discussion, Echo.  You guys are here as the last line of defence if I fail, get it!”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

I opened the door quietly, thank goodness we made sure to cover the windows with a heavy curtain.  I nudged her awake. I put my finger to my lips, and escorted her into the hallways, into Fives and Echos waiting arms, “Go with them.”  She looked scared, “Sis?” Her eyes were wide and kept darting everywhere,

“Hey, look at me.  I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay?  I’m going to take care of it.  Fives and Echo are the best, they’ll protect you, okay.”

She simply nodded, I motioned with my head for Fives and Echo to take her to the room.  Once I knew they were locked and secure, I went to the window to see if I could see where the shadow was, it was just on the roof, closest to the east window.  I climbed up the ladder to the attic, when I heard a shift on the roof, they headed towards Oofatfeli’s room.  I climbed back down the ladder quietly, and heard them walking along the wall of the house.  I waited in her room, with my DC-17 blaster in hand.  I closed my eyes, allowing the force to calm me, steadying my hand.  

I heard a slight scrape on the window, and then a hand pushed aside the curtain. I grabbed the hand, dragging the person through the window, glass erupting everywhere and flung them in the room, throwing them against the wall.  I stunned the man lying on the ground looking at me, he was out in a matter of seconds.  I looked outside to see another shadow, however knowing the jig was up, they ran to the south side of the house.  I didn’t hesitate and exited the house, through the kitchen door on the west, I heard the perpetrator land on the gravel outside the house, and ran after them, within seconds, they were in front of me.  I hurled myself at their feet, knocking them down.

I stood grabbing Peacekeeper off my back, and aimed my rifle at the man’s head while he laid on the ground, “Go ahead, make a move”.  The man before me raised his hand. “On your knees” once he was kneeling before me, I threw the cuffs I had in my back pocket at him.

Cuffed, I brought him back to the house.  I had him sit in the dining room, tying him to the chair, separating his hands and tying each arm to the arm of the chair.  I then tied his legs to the leg chair.  Once I knew he was secure, I walked back to Oofatfeli’s room and dragged the man over to the dining room, tying him up the same way.  I double checked all their pockets, removing any weapons I could find.  

“Fives, Echo?” I yelled.

I heard Fives yell back, “We clear?”

“So far, I only found these two”, I answered, hearing Fives coming up behind me in the dining room.  He looked from me to the two men sitting before me.  One unconscious and the other tied and gagged.

“Okay, so I’m never getting on your bad side”

I laughed, “Glad to hear it.”

I stepped up beside him, keeping my voice low, “Take Oofatfeli to the guest room, there’s glass everywhere in her room, I also want you to call the Senator’s guard, find out how they let these two threw.”

Fives nodded and walked away.  

“Now, you’re going to tell me who hired you and why you’re here.”

- - - - - - -

“I don’t understand?”

“It appears Mirtilo didn’t die in the occupation, as everyone thought.”

“No.  He died.  I know he died.”

“Did you see a body?”

“It was the occupation, people disappeared, we were lucky if we found a body.”

“Well, I have to go with what they told me.”

“Maybe he’s lying” offered Echo

“It’s possible, but he would have to be quite strong to resist my interrogations.”

“What does that mean?” Fives asked

“Not the time” I offered, “Oofatfeli, can you think of any reason why Mirtilo would be doing this?”

She shook her head, tears welling up.  I looked at Fives and Echo, “Could you guys give us a minute?”  They both nodded, I put my arms around her as she leaned into my shoulder crying, I rubbed soothing circles on her back, when I felt eyes watching us, I looked up to see Echo watching me.  My heart was breaking for her, to know the man she loved was the one behind the threat on her life, I couldn’t help but have tears well up in my eyes.  Echo looked into my eyes with determination, and closed the door.  I don’t know why, I didn’t yell at him to leave, but that look of determination filled me with a sense of purpose.  I wasn’t going to let Mirtilo hurt her, or the baby.

“Sweetie, do you think you can talk now? We’re alone.”

“I know why.”

“Why is he doing this?”

“He never agreed with my father’s political views, he believed Ryloth should be completely free, not belonging to any system.  The bill on the floor is to increase the Republic’s presence on Ryloth, to make sure the Separatist do not come back.  If Mirtilo was alive, he would have fought my father tooth and nail against the bill.  Mirtilo was afraid the Republic could be corrupted and become a dictatorship, ruling with an iron fist over the people of Ryloth.  But to go so far as to threaten me or our unborn child…” She raised herself and shook her head.

“Does he feel that your father would back down if something happened to either of you?”

“My father prides himself on his people and family.  If he couldn’t protect his family, he would lose the support of the people on Ryloth, and with it his wealth and status.”

I nodded, “What do you want to do?”

Oofatfeli looked at me shocked, “What do you mean?”

“My dear, this is your husband.  If you want to stay, I will defend you till my last dying breath, but that could mean the end of your husband’s life too.  If you want to leave, we can go to Coruscant and bring the matter to your father fully, maybe get him to back off from the bill.  At least that will guarantee the safety of you and your baby.  But this is your life and your baby’s, I will not tell you what to do.”

She nodded, “I think we should stay.  If I flee, I’m caving into his demands, he may be my husband, but he’s wrong.  Every action he has taken has been the wrong one.  Why did he hide from me?  Why didn’t he return home?  I will not cower from him.”

I nodded, she was right, I knew Mirtilo, regardless of his views, he would never harm them.  There had to be another explanation.

“Okay, then, we’re going to reinforce everything.  I want you to stay in Room A at night.  That way it can be a stronger defence point.  We won’t have to worry about getting to you to bring you to the safety of the room.  I’m also going to get you to carry a blaster the entire time, in case we’re incapacitated.  Finally, we’re going to get a midwife here, just in case you go into labour.  I want you to think of one that you trust, that you know will defend you and protect the little one.”

Oofatfeli nodded, “For now though, my dear sister” I patted her shoulder, “I want you to get some rest, while I deal with those two men out there. Just lay back down.  I’ll have Fives sit here with you, keeping watch, is that okay?”

“Yeah, but instead of Fives, can I have Echo”

I looked at her quizzically, “Sure, any specific reason?”

“I feel he’ll be calmer if something happens with the baby.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I think so too.  Not a problem.” I helped her lay down on the bed, and approached Echo, who was standing outside the door.

“Are you okay Halcyon?”

I ran my hand over my face, “Honestly, Echo, I don’t know.  Mirtilo was like a brother to me, when we thought we lost him, it … it was hard, you know.”

“Yeah, when we lost Hevy, Droidbait, and Cutup, it was … it’s still hard, I miss them.”

I nodded, “Listen, can you stay in the room with her?”

“Sure, but why me?”

“She thinks you’ll be calmer should something happen with the baby”

Echo nodded, “I don’t blame her” he chuckled, looking over at Fives.

“Thanks” I patted his upper arm, I was about to walk away, when Echo grabbed my hand, “Halcyon?”

I turned to look at him, “Yeah, Echo?”

“I’m sorry about earlier, the comm issue.  It was unprofessional and disrespectful of you.  I …” he looked to the floor, still holding my hand against his arm, “… I hope you can forgive me.”

“Echo, there’s nothing to forgive.  If anything I’m the one who should be apologizing” Echo looked into my eyes, questioning, “I should have told you right away, that I could hear Fives asking you the question.  But I guess…” I looked away, the blush rising, maker! I hate it when Oofatfeli’s right.

“You guess?” He stepped closer, moving my hand to hold in his left hand, while his right forefinger and thumb purchased on my chin, turning my head so he could look into my eyes, “I guess I just wanted to know the answer.”

Now he was the one blushing, “Oh!”

“Yeah” I leaned forward, he inched his face forward, less than a hair’s breadth away.  

“Ahem!”

Realizing how close we were, the fact his hand was still holding my face, at some point my left hand rested on his right wrist, I don't remember when that happened, while our other hand was holding each other.  I pulled back quite quickly, I don’t know what happened.  

“Sorry” I muttered

“No.. it was my fault” Echo sighed.

“I have to…” I motioned towards the other way.

“Yeah, I need to …” Echo motioned to the guest room.  We looked at each other one last time and walked away as quickly as our feet could carry us, with Fives standing there smirking, watching us move away from each other as fast as possible.  

“Not interested, my ass!” I heard Fives mumble.

“Hey Halcyon”

“Yes, Fives” I answered as I made my way to the dining room, “I’m sure if you ask Echo out, he’ll say yes.”

“Not the time Fives”

“Ha, yeah right!”

“Did the Senator’s guards show up?”

“Yeah they did, they’re with the men in the dining room.”

- - - - - -

“Care to explain how these men breached your security?” I questioned the head guard, with my arms crossed under my chest.

“Agent, I apologize.  I don’t know what happened.”

“Well let me tell you what is going to happen, from now on, I want double the guards, no, triple.  I want ID checks on all the guards stationed.  I want background checks done.  No visitors in or out of this place.”

“Agent that’s not necessary”

“Oh really?” I questioned motioning to the two men tied to the chairs in the dining room.

“Point taken.”

“Finally, I want an investigative team to search for Mirtilo, I want an answer, a lead, or even a suggestion by the time the sun rises, in the next 6 hours.  If I don’t have any of that, I will contact the Chancellor and the Senator myself, and we’ll see how things turn out for you.” I leaned forward, anger dripping from each word.  

“Agent…”

“Did I stutter?”

The head guard didn’t answer, “Fives, did I stutter or make myself unclear in any way?”

“No, Agent.  You were very clear.”

“Then I see no reason why you four men should be standing in front of me still, remove these men, arrest them and bring me a lead by the time the sun is up, or you will see a side of me, you wish never to see!  Do I make myself clear!”

“Yes, Agent” the head guard seethed, “very clear”.

“Good.  Get out of my face.”

The men untied the two intruders, and departed from the house.  The house was quiet now, all the lights were on.  I turned to face Fives.

“Fives”

“Yeah”

“I’m going to contact the Chancellor and the Senator now.  I don’t trust that man.”

“I agree, there’s something off about him.”

“Can you contact Rex, while I’m talking to the Chancellor and see if he can lend us a few more men.  I have a feeling this was a trial run.”

“Not a problem, I’ll do it right now.”

- - - - - -

“This is troubling Agent” the Chancellor’s concern was clearly evident.

“You really believe Mirtilo is alive?” Asked the Senator

“I don’t know, it could be they are using his name as a martyr for the cause.  For him to try and endanger the life of his wife and unborn child, I can’t see him doing that, no matter his political view.”

“I agree” concurred the Senator

“Tell us what you need, Agent,” the Chancellor inquired.

“I would like some extra men, I have a feeling they’ll be back in stronger numbers.  I also would like to request a Jedi to investigate this so-called rumour.  I do not believe the Head Guard is to be trusted.”

“Very well, since the 501st are already aware of the situation, we will redeploy General Skywalker to you, along with a garrison of his men.”

“Thank you, Chancellor” I bowed before the man, “Senator, believe me when I say I will protect Oofatfeli till my dying breath.”

“I know my dear, I never doubted that.”

I bowed to both men, and ended the transmission.

“Rex said he’s getting his men together, and they’ll be here by the morning, they were on their way back from a mission.”

“Remind me to buy Rex a drink at 79’s when we’re back on Coruscant.”

“I think you’ll have to buy everyone a drink”

“That’s fine, my credits are good” I smirked

“And, I’m sure Echo, would be all too happy to have a drink with you” I looked at him trying to hide the blush creeping up, as my lips tried to hide the smile appearing.

“You’re the worst, you know that!”

“Hey, I want to see you two get together, is that so terrible?”

“Really, because not that long ago, you were trying to get into my pants.”

“Yeah, but you know that was all talk.”

“You’re like the brother I never wanted, you know that.”

Fives beamed from ear to ear, “You know what we call brothers and sisters in Mando’a?”

I shook my head ‘no’, “Vod, so vod’ika, I will be happy to be your vod.”

“What does that word mean, v-vod’ika?”

“Little sister”

“Ha, I think I’m older than you.”

“It’s the sentiment more than anything else”

“Alright, vod.  I’m gonna check on Oofatfeli”

“Don’t you mean Echo?”

“Shut up!”

- - - - - - -

I opened the door slightly, to peer in, and noticed Echo had his blaster resting on his lap, his feet up on the other bed, his eyes closed.  Oofatfeli rested peacefully, I came up and placed a hand on his shoulder, he startled himself awake, thankfully quiet enough that Oofatfeli didn’t hear.  I motioned for him to follow me out.  

I kept my voice low “We contacted the Chancellor and the Senator, they’re sending backup.  General Skywalker and a garrison of your unit, will be coming to investigate and protect.”

“Do you think we’re in trouble?”

“I think Mirtilo is dead, and they’re using his name as a way to justify their actions.  I think they don’t care about her or the baby, they just want to hurt the Senator.”

“You’re worried”

“Yeah I am.  I don’t have family, they’re my family” I motioned my head to where Oofatfeli lay sleeping.  

“Well you have us now too” Echo grabbed my hand, rubbing circles on the back.

“Ha, yeah, I sort of adopted Fives as my brother” I chuckled, holding his hand tighter.

“What about me?”

“What about you?” I asked looking into his eyes

He stepped forward, moving my hair off my face, “What am I to you?”

“I … um…” I moved closer, my free hand resting on his chest, “Echo, I’m not good at this… I’ve never … I haven’t felt this way before.”

“Neither have I” he leaned in and closed the distance, his kiss was sweet, just like him.  His hand moved to the back of my neck pulling me in, deepening the kiss, while his other hand moved to my lower back pressing me flush against him.  The kiss lasted for what felt like eons, in that moment we said everything we needed to say.  We pulled back eventually when we needed to breathe again, his forehead resting against mine, “She’s your family, and I’ll protect her like she’s mine.  We won’t let anything happen to them.  I promise.”

“Echo, you can’t promise what the future hasn’t written”, I pulled back to look at him, “However, I appreciate the sentiment.”  I smiled and pecked his lips.

“I could get use to this”

“Yeah, me too.  Alright, we gotta focus.  I have no doubt they'll be back tonight.  I may have forced their hand.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told them if they didn’t provide me with answers in the morning I was going to call the Chancellor.”

“But you already called the Chancellor”

“Yeah, because I don’t trust them.  Something’s going on.  The 501st should be here in a matter of hours, if not sooner.”

“You’re amazing, mesh’la. I’ll follow you anywhere.”

“You’ll have to tell me later what that means.  Get to your position, I’ll stay with her.”

He nodded and walked away, I knew at that moment he was my future, whatever may happen, he was it, for me.

- - - - - - -

I looked down at the ring on my finger, moving it back and forth.  After everything Echo and I have been through, I had no doubt the Force brought us back together.

“What happened next?” Asked Hunter.

“Oh, right!”

- - - - - - - -

*Beep, beep* I pressed the button on my comm, “Fives, what is it?”

“We got movement.”

“Where?”

“South-west side of the house”

“How many?”

“Hard to say, maybe about 20”

“Kriff!”

“Language” came Oofatfeli’s sleepy voice,  I looked up to see her sleepiness ebb, when she the look on my face, “They’re back aren’t they?”

I nodded, “Time to get you to Room A”

“What about the midwife?” She asked, rising from the bed, I held her hand and guided her to Room A, “No time for that now, I’m afraid.  I have an idea.”

“Do either of you guys know how to deliver a baby?”

“Echo does” Fives answered

“It was basic med training.”

“Wait, you're a medic?” I asked

“No, but at least one trooper in each squad needed to know basic med until the medics arrived.”

“Okay, then you’re going to stay with Oofatfeli in Room A”

“Halcyon …”

“Echo, please! She’s my sister.”

“Alright, I’ll meet you at Room A”

The comm turned off, I made sure my comm was off as well.  

“So… what did I miss?”

“Not the time”

“Come on? Humour me, get my mind off of what’s happening.”

“Fine, we kissed”

“Eeek!”

“You’re hopeless”

“Actually I’m hopeful.”

I rolled my eyes at her. Echo was waiting for us in the room by the time we showed up.  We situated her on the cot in the room.  I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Be careful, sis”

“I will, Oofatfeli” I placed my hand on her shoulder, she grasped it, as I pulled away.

“Look after her” I whispered to Echo

“I will” he grabbed my hand, “You better come back in one piece.”

“I promise, Echo.  If they take a shot at me, they better aim true, or I’m coming for them.”

He chuckled, “My badass Agent”, he leaned and pecked my cheek, I cupped his cheek, and pecked his lips.  I squeezed his hand once, and walked out.  Echo locked the door behind me.  

“Alright Fives, where are they? Echo, can you hear us?”

“Yup”

“Halcyon, they’re by the hedges, edge of the property.”

“Explosives ready?”

“Just say the word.”

I sat in the hallway upstairs, with the window that faced west, all the lights had remained off, after the Senator’s Guard left the house with the two men.  I propped Peacekeeper against the windowsill, thankfully the moon wasn’t out, so there wouldn’t be any reflection.  I looked through my scope.

“Alright Fives, on my count of four, ready?”

“Ready.”

I breathed out, steadying my breaths, “Four … three … two … one … now!”

The explosives went off, in the chaos, I took out six men all head shots, five of the men died in the explosives being thrown clear.  Two of the men lost a limb and were unable to fight.  Leaving seven for Fives and I to engage.  I took down two more that came closer to the house.  Fives was able to get two as well.  Leaving three.  I heard a window break on the opposite side of the house.

“Fives we got intruders on the East, you handle the remaining three on the West, and I’ll head to the east.”

“Copy”

I shouldered Peacekeeper and flew down the stairs to the dining room, where I heard the windows breaking.  As I was heading down the stairs, I saw flashes of red bolts flying towards me, I grabbed my DC-17s and double barrelled it.  I took down three of the intruders in a matter of seconds as I slid down the banister.   I tucked and rolled once my feet hit the floor, taking out two more, when I righted up again.  

I crouched down behind the dining table, hearing the three remaining men that had entered the house.  

“Where is she?” The first assailant asked

“I don’t know” answered another

“Find her!”

I launched over the table shooting at two of the assailants in the opposite room.  The leader took off heading to the kitchen, “Fives, I think the leader is heading back towards you”

“Copy”

I heard another window breaking this time upstairs, “Fives there are more intruders, they just broke the windows upstairs, I’m going back up.”

“Where the hell are they coming from?”

I heard a blaster shot coming from the kitchen, “Fives!”

“I’m good, the leader is down.”

“Guys, I think I got company”

“Coming, Echo. Hold on” I raced back up the stairs as fast as my legs could carry, but the blaster bolts raining down were preventing me from going up, I was pinned by the banister.  Fives came up beside me, but he couldn’t get an angle either.  I put away my blasters, “Halcyon, what do you think you’re doing!”  I closed my eyes, raised my hands, sensing the five men on the upstairs banister, I heard shouting and screaming, but I couldn’t pay attention.  I felt as my force grabbed each of those men around the throat, I squeezed and pulled them down over the banister.  Each with a broken neck as they landed on the floor below.

Fives was shocked, “How… how …”

“Not now!” I grabbed my blasters and ran up the stairs, I turned the corner and the men had broken down the door.  Echo was on his knees with a blaster to his head.  Oofatfeli was being held by the Head Guard, a blaster pointed at her belly, tears were streaming down her face.

“Stop, Jedi!”

I raised my hands, “I’m no Jedi!”

“Yeah right, and anyone can just grab people invisibly, choke them and pull them over the banister.”

“I’m not here to talk about what I am or not, let them go.”

“No! We need to make a point.  The Republic doesn’t belong on Ryloth.  Ryloth deserves to be free!”

“I agree” Oofatfeli’s face was shocked, Echo, didn’t know what to make of it.  Fives was stuttering behind me.

“You do?” The Head Guard asked.

“I do” I put my blasters in my holder

“This is some sort of Jedi trick!”

“Ugh! For the last time I’m no Jedi.”  Returning my hands back to a surrender position.

“Then what are you?”

“We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about the people of Ryloth and what's best for them, and you seem to think you know what’s best for them?”

“I do… we do” he motioned to the other two men remaining, the one holding Echo at gunpoint, and the third one pointing his gun at Fives.  

“So you want to free Ryloth, want to have the Republic leave?”

“Yes!”

“Then what?”

“Then Ryloth would be free”

“Yes but then what?  You say Ryloth would be free, but then … what?  What would happen if the Separatist came back to occupy Ryloth?”

“We would fight them off”

“Really like you did when they first occupied Ryloth?  How did that work out for you?”

I could see in the other two men’s eyes their doubt beginning to form, I could also sense it through the force.

“What do you know about it?”

“I was here.  I fought on the front lines alongside Mirtilo.  We spent many nights around the campfire as soldiers talking about a free Ryloth, but you know what else we talked about?”

“What?”

“How without the Republic, Ryloth would truly be lost.  We barely held the front lines for weeks and months, but without the constant relief supplies from the Republic, from Alderaan, we wouldn’t have survived.  By the way, where were you during the occupation?”

“What?!”

I took a step forward, as I sensed the other two men’s doubt growing even more.

“Where were you?  I met all the Twi’leks who were fighting during the occupation, many of them respected me for being one of the few GAR Agents who stood beside them, fighting for supplies and relief.  Do you know what they called me?  What Mirtilo called me?”

“What?”

“Halcyon.”

“Your Halcyon” the man who had his gun pointed at Fives said.

“Yes, I’m Halcyon.  You’ve heard of me?”

“Every Twi’lek has heard of you, you never gave up, you fought beside our leaders day in, day out.  Oftentimes giving up your food and sleep to those who needed it more.  You saved my sister, when she was pinned down by droids.”

“What’s your sister’s name?”

“Don’t tell her!” Yelled the Guard.

“Aola, Aola’kopi”

“I remember her.  She’s a very brave girl.  Is that why you joined this man?  To honour your sister?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you’re honouring her now? Holding a pregnant woman hostage, the life of her unborn child in the balance?”

The man lowered his weapon, dropping it on the floor.

“What are you doing?!” The man holding Oofatfeli screamed.

“The right thing.  For my sister.”

He kneeled on the ground, hands behind his head.  Fives raised his gun to hold the man captive.  

“What about you?  Do you think you’re doing the right thing?”

“I … I …”

Echo didn’t let him finish; he grabbed his arm and flipped him over, pinning him to the ground with the man’s own blaster.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, now” I took another step towards the Head Guard holding my sister.

“Freeze, or I’ll shoot”

“You’ve seen what I can do with the Force, do you really want to test my patience?”

“No, Ryloth needs to be free!”

“I agree.  Free from tyranny, free from terrorists, free from a war that plagues the universe.  However, these are trying times, do you really think your lives will be better, right now during a war?”

“It’s not fair!”

“No, it’s not.  Now…” I closed my eyes taking a deep breath, I focused on the man, the anger boiling over, he still held her, I noticed how the grip he had on her throat tightened, she was struggling, I had to act or the baby could be hurt, “Let. Her. Go.”

He took another step down the hallway, I took a step forward, Fives close behind me.  “I won’t repeat myself again.  Considering that’s my sister, I’ve been extremely patient.  Let. Her. Go.”

I moved till I was directly in front of him, he loosened his grip on her, Oofatfeli, didn’t wait she ran straight into my arms.  I held her for a second before the blaster went off.

- - - - - - -

“She didn’t wait for me to disarm the man, she felt the grip loosen and she just went for it. I tried to scream to tell her to wait, but she took off before I had a chance to tell her no.  He saw it as his only way out to inflict pain on the Senator, on the Republic.  I held her in my arms, as I watched the life flow out of her.  The baby didn’t survive either, despite my best efforts.  I lost my family that day.  I failed them.  Despite everything, my connection to the force, my training, I wasn’t good enough, fast enough, or strong enough.  The only remaining survivors of the terrorist cell were the two that gave themselves up.  But in the end it didn’t matter.  I lost my sister and the baby.  Having to face the Senator was one of the hardest things I had to do.”

Hunter looked at me with a new understanding, “I’m so sorry, Phoenix”

I nodded, wiping a tear, “I know what it’s like to fail, to feel like you weren’t enough, that if you did one thing different, the whole outcome would have changed.  I keep thinking what if I just pushed him with the force, what if I choked him with the force, what if we didn’t stay in that house and left without giving her an option.  However, it doesn’t matter about the what-ifs.”

“Why not?”

“Can’t change the past.  No matter how much we wish things could have been different, wishing doesn’t make it so.  We have to face our actions, and do better.”

Hunter nodded.

“Hunter, what happened wasn’t your fault.  You did everything you could.  You protected Omega to the best of your ability, Cad Bane is the best bounty hunter ever.  Do you realize he only takes the jobs no one in their right mind would touch with a ten foot pole?  Do you understand, you walked away from a duel with the best in the universe!  That’s nothing to scoff at.  I watched the recording from your HUD, you were 0.1 seconds slower then him.  That’s all the difference.  0.1 second.  That’s incredible!  We know where he is.  We’re going to get Omega back.  I’m not letting another niece slip through my fingers.”

“Oofatfeli, was going to have a daughter?”

I nodded looking at the ground, “Yeah, she was going to name her after me”

“Halcyon?”

“No, my real name.  Tala, Tala Ilian.  She was going to call her Tala”

“That’s a beautiful name”

“Hence, why I don’t go by it anymore, it only reminds me of what I lost.”

*Knock, knock*

Hunter and I both wiped our eyes, “Come in” answered Hunter.

Fives walks in, noticing our faces, but not saying anything “We’ll be landing on Tatooine soon”

“Thanks, Fives”

I get up to head to the door, I nod to Hunter, an understanding passing between us that many could never understand.  In that moment, he reacted with all the emotion that had been building, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into a hug.  A tight brotherly hug, “Thanks Phoenix.  It means a lot”

I pat his back returning the strength of his hug as much as possible “You’re welcome, Hunter.”

I pulled back, once his arms loosened and his hands rested on my arms, giving him a sisterly smile, “Come on, vod.  Wouldn’t want your medic to think something’s going on or my husband for that matter.”

Hunter chuckled nodding in agreement, “Or your ori’vod” added Fives.

I looked at him and rolled my eyes, “I regret ever adopting you, you know that” I answered as I walked by him, “Too late, there are no refunds or returns on this purchase” he motions to his whole body.

I walk up beside Echo, placing my hands on his shoulder, I lean forward and kiss his cheek, “I love you” I whisper in his ear.  He turns his head and pecks me on the lips, “Love you too, rid’ika.”

“Alright, Tatooine in five … four … three … two … one” Tech’s voice echoes through the cockpit, tension rising not knowing what we could possibly be facing.  

Tag List:

@liadamerondjarin​ @lady-ren​

#tbb omega #tbb #tbb crosshair #tbb echo #tbb hunter #tbb echo x reader #bad batch echo #bad batch #bad batch wrecker #bad batch tech #bad batch hunter #tbb hunter x reader #bad batch echo x reader #bad batch hunter x reader #echo #bad batch omega #oc #female oc #tech #tbb tech #wrecker #tbb wrecker #bad batch crosshair #crosshair #phoenix ghost #medic kambe #original character #original clone characters #original clone troopers #vice admiral rampart

[y0itsbri]

it's just a fuckin' dresser, man

To ease the pain of a Shameless-less Sunday, I wrote my first one-shot about Ian and Mickey building furniture together for their new apartment <3

word count: 1282

Mickey and Ian were finally settling into their new apartment. They had the space, sure, but no one told Mickey that picking out furniture was a lot more fucking work than he thought it would be. Wherever Mickey lived, things were already just there. Whether it be his childhood bedroom, which was practically all hand me downs from Iggy and Colin after they escaped the house, the standard juvie set, or any of the rooms in the Gallagher house, previously inhabited by god knows how many fucking Gallaghers before him. Mickey wasn’t used to owning things. But lately, Mickey was experiencing a lot of new things he never thought he would have.

After a quick trip to IKEA with only minimal arguments, “Really, Gallagher, that shit looks like it belongs at a free clinic – and that ain’t a compliment.” “Mickey, what the fuck, we’re supposed to be picking out a lamp, not scarfing down an entire plate of meatballs.” Mickey had absolutely zero regrets about the meatballs and would absolutely be going back solely for those bad boys.

Now assembling the dresser looked like a goddamn nightmare. After a few moments of bickering over who was doing what, Ian took a step back and let Mickey try his hand at putting together the fucking thing while Ian was just hovering only a couple feet away.

Ian’s face scrunched up as he rifled through a thick stack of papers next to their massive stack of empty boxes next to the door to take outside whenever they got around to it.

Mickey glanced up from the small metal tools in his hands and noticed Ian’s confused furrowed expression. He allowed himself to admire how cute his husband was for a brief moment before schooling his own creeping smirk. “What’s up, man?” He asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

There was a too-long pause as Ian continued to study the piece of paper in his hands, flipping it over and upside down. Mickey wasn’t even expecting a response when Ian finally said, “I think we got a defective manual. None of these instructions are in fucking English.” He mumbled a bit in broken French and German before it got too much to bear.

Mickey snickered at his husband’s lame attempts to translate. “Who the fuck cares? I got this shit anyways.”

Ian twitched his head to the side and didn’t even try to stop his eyes from rolling up to the ceiling as if to say, Yeah, okay Mick.

Whatever, maybe it has been a half hour of seemingly little to no progress, but Milkoviches don’t need to read instruction to get shit done, goddamn-it. Hell, Mickey wasn’t even sure half his family knew how to fucking read.

Ian continued murmuring anyways as he scanned the page. His voice perked up with realization, “Ah hold up, introducir dos bloqueos cam en el panel central. Asegúrese de que la flecha de la leva esté apuntando al borde corto.”

Although Mickey was damned to listen to the instructions against his will, he couldn’t help but find Ian endearing. The guy was slow, but his pronunciation wasn’t the worst. Maybe he’d taken that shit in high school or something. Mickey recalled his own struggles learning Spanish in Mexico, and he wondered how well Ian would have been able to keep up if he didn’t disappear once they had finally reached the border. Whatever. Mickey pushed that thought aside. That part of his life was long over, even if he still carried the ink in his skin in the form of Lado sur siempre.

Despite his best efforts to blatantly ignore the instructions and figure it out his damn self, it’s just a dresser for Christ’s sake, Mickey found himself understanding most of the directions in Spanish, even if it was some corporate Swedish based bullshit from people who’ve never actually had to build one of their own goddamn dressers a day in their life. Mickey only sort of understood what a couple of the tools were for and tried to use those for everything, feigning confidence of some secret building skills.

Ian paused his readings to take a sip from his vanilla Coke sitting on the floor next to them, and Mickey paused unconsciously as well, too in synch with Ian than he would care to admit. He quickly continued, hoping that Ian wouldn’t pick up on the fact that he did, in fact, need the instructions. Of course, nothing got past the sly bastard and Ian smirked at him.

“Oh, so you got this all by yourself, right Mick?” Mickey could have sworn he saw Ian’s eyes fucking twinkle as he teased him.

Mickey promptly flipped him off without looking up, feeling the blush creep up on his cheeks at the idea of being caught, “You can just shut the fuck up man.”

Miraculously, for once, Ian didn’t continue, studying Mickey’s moves with a growing intensity as Mickey’s attempts at connecting the drawers were becoming more and more apparently clueless. Ian was waiting for him to crack and finally admit he needed help. Ian was prepared to wait for however long his stubborn husband decided to take.

“’ey,” Mickey mumbled, working himself up as his progress was stunted.

“Yeah?” Ian asked, pretending to have no idea what Mickey could possibly be ‘ey-ing him about.

“If you wanted to, uh, keep reading and practice your stupid Spanish, I wouldn’t mind it.”

“Yeah, okay sure Mick,” Ian triumphed. Their communication skills have definitely improved over the past few months, and even when they weren’t direct, they just got each other.

Mickey wouldn’t accept his defeat this easy and made another feeble attempt to play off his true motives. He cleared his throat and rubbed his thumb across his bottom lip, “You just sound like a fucking gringo, man.”

Ian shook his head, obviously not accepting Mickey’s excuses. But hell, his Spanish did need some practice. He plopped onto the bed beside Mickey and held up the instruction manual dramatically, the pages making a thwumping sound as it bent with the air. He continued, “Coloque y fije el lado inferior izquierdo del cajón y el lado inferior derecho del cajón utilizando tornillos de cuatro de una pulgada.”

Despite understanding most of the instructions, Mickey bullshitted his way through it and ended up with a handful of leftover parts on the floor in front of him.

Ian leaned over and glanced at the small pile, “Huh, they must not be that important.”

Mickey lightly punched him in the arm but settled next to Ian on the bed, “Oh whatever I told you I got this.”

Ian frowned and rubbed over the sore spot on his arm before throwing his heavy arm around Mickey’s shoulder, admiring the finished product, “This is perfect.”

As much as Mickey wanted to grumble about all this fucking work, he couldn’t help but feel proud of himself. It looked like a damn dresser that’s for sure. Their dresser in their room in their apartment, as husbands. He never imagined he would have all of this. He decided that he would read a thousand fucking instruction manuals if it meant he could spend the rest of his life with the dumbass ginger hanging off of him. He shifted his weight so that he was leaning into Ian’s side a bit more.

“It’s just a fuckin' dresser, man,” Mickey practically breathed the words against Ian’s tee shirt, his tone completely reflecting how he was feeling underneath the harsh words.

Mickey felt Ian press a gentle kiss onto the top of his head. But yeah, it wasn’t just a fucking dresser. They were building their life together.

#this is the first thing ive written #if it sucks look away #my posts #fic #shameless #gallavich #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #gallavich fanfic #shameless fanfic

[sideblog-666-thousand]

Euronymous Interview in Decibel of Death, ‘87. English Translation. Ft. Euronymous’ depraved torture fantasies involving Coca-Cola.

‘Decibel of Death’ was a French fanzine from the 80s. It’s first issue was released in ‘86, and by the summer of ‘87, it switched over from French to English-language. This has been my favourite interview of Euronymous for a long time now, so I decided I’d translate it to English so that other, non-francophone, people could enjoy it too. This issue in particular is from February of ‘87, and was their fourth issue overall.

I’ll add a link to where you can find this, and other D.O.D scans, below. If anybody wants me to translate more French, or Russian, interviews, feel free to PM me.

Note: NDLR is the editor’s notes. Any commentary or context by me will be in bold and in parenthesis, so feel free to totally ignore it. If something is between “« »” it’s because it was already written in English to begin with.

Disclaimer: if some of the sentences sound like the energizer bunny is hooked on an iv rig full of pure meth, don’t blame me, I did my best. Take it up with Euronymous himself. Also, I’m not excusing Euronymous’ poor behaviour, I’m just saying his poor behaviour is kind of entertaining.

Without further ado...

D.O.D: And once again, here’s Norwegian Mayhem. If you remember, we presented them to you back in the May issue of D.O.D. Since then, they released a new demo titled “Death Crush”!! Because of this event, we decided to ask the guitarist of this rather sinister band a few questions.

D.O.D: Okay, there’s been more than a few line-up changes in Mayhem. Can you tell us what the current one is?

Euro: Alright, there’s me on guitars, Manheim on battery, Necro-butcher on drums, and our session vocalist, Maniac.

D.O.D:  And what is the medium age of the group?

Euro: We are all 18 years old.

D.O.D: How long has Mayhem been around for?

Euro: Mayhem has been around since August of ‘84 with this line-up, before that, I played in another shitty metal group that was also called Mayhem. The other members also played in a crappy band before we all met.

D.O.D: How would you describe your music?

Euro: Ah, well, it’s like a wall of sound played at extreme speed all mixed with the sound of a chainsaw!!

D.O.D: In your opinion, who are the biggest posers on this planet?

Euro: That definitely has to be the Swedish group ‘Europe’. «Fuck them!!» I hate this band!!

D.O.D: Ha ha, what would you like to do to make them suffer?

(This is the exact moment where the interviewers realize that Euronymous is literally fucking insane. The editor censors some of the things Euronymous says because he has a very vulgar manner of speaking, so, brace yourselves. To make it abundantly clear— I didn’t censor any of this, if it was me, I’d let him continue swearing ‘til next year if he wanted to. Take it up with D.O.D!)

Euro: First of all, I’d cut them and make them eat their own (bleep)!! Then, I’ll fuck them in the ass with an empty bottle of Coke, and if they’re still alive somehow, I’ll drown them in their own piss!! (NDLR: I’d do the same to a few guys in Germany and Switzerland!!) But all of this is reserved for their guitarist, drummer and bassist, I have a far crueler torture for their singer, for him, I’m simply going to break his mirror and steal his perfume!! Haaaaafuckinghah!!! (NDLR: ahahahaha, this is so much fun!!)

D.O.D: Okay, Euronymous, onto more serious topics, who composes the most in Mayhem?

Euro: It’s me and Necro, but sometimes Manheim comes up with good riffs, he actually wrote most of P.F.A (Pure Fucking Armageddon)

D.O.D: I believe thrashers reacted pretty well to your first demo, right?

Euro: Despite the zero sound of this demo. It's true that it's actually the hardcore thrashers that appreciated it, although it was the others hating it that gave us an enormous promotion like with 'Metal Forces'.

D.O.D: Has there been groups that have influenced you?

Euro: Of course, early Venom has really inspired us, although we don’t sound like them in any way. We’re also influenced by bands like Hellhammer and Sodom.

D.O.D: Mayhem is a common band name, what do you think of other Mayhem (such as NYC Mayhem, Mayhem (WC), Mayhem (Oregon))?

Euro: NYC Mayhem* are excellent, I adore them! (NDLR: me too!!) and they call themselves NYC Mayhem. But as for the other Mayhems, they stink, «fuckin’ shit»,  like the Mayhem that’s on Metal Massacre VI*, they really stink, their music isn’t destructive like ours is at all, they don’t deserve this name, I hate them!!

D.O.D: I heard you guys played a show, how did that go?

Euro: It was really «cool», it was at a small rock festival that had around 3-400 «discofucks» (NDLR: this is the censored translation) and when we went on stage with our first session vocalist “Messiah”, we broke a bass over their mouths!! We gave these idiots hell!! Ha ha!! (I’ll link the show he’s referring to below)

D.O.D: And how did your other gigs go?

Euro: For now this has been our only show!! And we don’t know how the crowds will react at the prospect of future gigs.

D.O.D: Fair. Since we’re talking about future gigs, what will those be like?

Euro: They’ll be full of occult things, we’ll play in complete darkness and there’ll be red blood spots, chandeliers, smoke, and pig heads on stakes, it’ll be totally thrashing!!

D.O.D: How’s the Norwegian thrash scene? It’s pretty dull, no?

Euro: Right now, «it sucks», there’s no audience, but it seems to be going in the right direction with bands like Vomit*, Septic Cunts, Decay Lust, and Flowers in The Dustbin.

D.O.D: And what kind of things are your lyrics about?

Euro: depravity, like tearing someone’s (bleep), eating worms, and all those fine things!!

D.O.D: What are your favourite bands?

Euro: Really hard question, there’s so many good bands coming out but I think the bands I like the most are old Venom, Deathchamber, Sodom, Necrophagia, Destruction, Death, Kreator, Poison. (No, not THAT Poison)

D.O.D: Do you ever listen to hardcore?

Euro: «Yeah» I like Chaotic Discord, Septic Death, UK Subs, and others. It hasn’t been that long since I went to see Disorder and it was awesome!!

D.O.D: Are you considering going on tour?

Euro: No, not exactly. But soon we’ll play at a Norwegian thrash festival. We’ll also play at a thrash festival in Copenhagen, and probably do a few shows with Kreator/Necrophagia in ‘87.

(No, this isn’t a typo on my end, it actually says ‘87. There’s two reasons why this might be the case. One, it could be an error on the part of the editor, who deserves an interview of his own, or two, it could be an error by Euronymous himself since the interview might have been conducted in January. Euronymous could have mixed the years up as one sometimes does. However, ‘Death Crush’, the demo, actually came out in March of ‘87. What the interviewer and Euronymous are referring to as ‘Death Crush’ is likely ‘Death Rehearsal’, which is exactly what it sounds like, and was taped back January of ‘87.)

D.O.D: I heard you guys are recording a new demo, is it ready?

Euro: We just entered the studio to record the second “Death Crush” demo, but at the moment, we only have three songs. I’m also unsure of whether or not we’ll have enough money to record anything else, and the vocals still haven’t been put to music!!

D.O.D: There’s some rumours that you guys were contacted by certain record labels, is this true?

Euro: It’s true, we got a letter from Axe killer records saying that they were interested in us but they never listened to our music and I also sent them our demo tape but I don’t believe we’ll be receiving any letters from them now!!

D.O.D: Do you have anything to add?

Euro: Of course, «fucking ARGHHHH!!»

There, that’s all :)

If you’re interested in some of the asterisks I put in, here they are in order of their appearances:

*Unlike most of the bands Euronymous named in this interview, NYC Mayhem (and later as Straight Ahead) never released more than a few demo. They were a straight edge band from, you guessed it, NYC— Queens to be exact. Despite never releasing a full album, their sound inspired some grindcore and death metal bands, notably Carcass. They were also straight edge, which makes Euronymous’ mental breakdown over the Mayhem that was on Metal Massacre very, very ironic. Especially considering he was pretty straight edge himself, especially back in 1987– outside of maybe smoking some pot.

Here is their 1985 demo, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t-3geR1JbY4

*Metal Massacre is a series of compilation albums starting in 1982, released by Metal Blade records. Typically, these were independent and unsigned bands. Some notable ones include Metallica on the first edition with ‘Hit the lights’. Slayer in ‘83 with ‘Aggressive Perfector’. The ‘84 edition had Voivod, Overkill, and Hellhammer.

The one which Euronymous is referring to, however, is the one from ‘85. Here it is, the timestamp is 14:19 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HqwfsLvLvuY

It’s really not that bad— certainly not worth the double exclamation points.

*If you don’t know who Vomit are, you must not know much about early Mayhem. They were another thrash band who shared rehearsal space with Mayhem. Torben Grue and Kittil Kittilsen (what a sad fucking name) were also ‘in’ Mayhem at some point. Kittil once shaved off his eyebrow, but I don’t know why. Here is a picture of the dork:

The show Euronymous is talking about: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mjay2Lmj9C8 yes, this is the show where Euronymous flashes his ass. I think it’s funny because he talks big but he seemed very hesitant to do it, and practically ducked backstage afterwards. Necro, on the other hand, was very proud to have broken his bass.

Well, that’s all I have. If you read this far, I hope you enjoyed the additional notes I left. Outside of a few more interviews of Mayhem, I also have a few obscure Emperor interviews that were posted to the internet in late 90s. There’s an especially funny one where Faust is allowed to interview Ihsahn and Samoth from prison. He’s sarcastic the entire time, refers to the readers as ‘morons’ and proclaims everyone should all die in a nuclear war with the same energy you cross yourself with. Overall, it’s a funny read. I also have one where he interviews Varg, and Euronymous (separately) for his own ‘zine back in the early 90s. Actually— I have A LOT of interviews of Faust for some reason, including two where he’s actually on camera. I might post them if I feel like it, or if somebody wants them. Is anyone here an especially big fan of Faust?

Last but not least, here is the link to the ‘zine:

http://france.metal.museum.free.fr/revues/fanzines/decibel_of_death/04/page_03.htm

#euronymous #mayhem #interview #black metal #true norwegian black metal #I typed this out so it’s mine #Euronymous interview #gee I really hope nobody else posted a translation of this because it took forever #can we make haaafuckinghah a thing?

[flying-elliska]

one of the most impactful things I have read lately are two of French author Edouard Louis' books, Pour en finir avec Eddy Bellegueule and Qui a tué mon père (translated into English as The End of Eddy and Who Killed my Father). It's been two months and I'm still thinking about it.

The first book is an 'autobiographical novel' about the author's childhood growing up as an obviously gay boy in one of the poorest areas of France, until he leaves and reinvents himself as a writer. It's fraught with bigotry, abuse, bullying, violence, deprivation and social despair, and it's one of the most harrowing things I have ever read. It reads as many things as once : a recognition of trauma, an angry exorcism, a cry for society at large to pay attention, and to be honest, as a horror story.

It was criticized by some in France as portraying the working class in a manner that was too negative, which tells me they missed the point entirely...ironic for a book by someone who actually grew up poor - one of my least favorite things ever is progressives telling a marginalized person they can't talk about their own experiences because they don't fit the desired mold. (The French love to romanticize the working class and I'm pretty sure it's often an avoidance mechanism.)

The point of the book is so obviously not about 'look at how terrible and bigoted those poor people are'. Little Eddy spends a big part of the narrative trying to escape - himself at first, then his family/circumstances and the persistent homophobia everywhere. In the end of the book, he finally manages to get accepted into a fancy high school in the city on a scholarship and tries really hard to fit in. The last scene of the book is a bunch of his - educated, upper/middle class - classmates throwing homophobic taunts at him, starting the cycle anew. I can't think of a clearer way to say 'this is not a story about a sad gay boy escaping the evil bigoted countryside for the city and then everything was wonderful!!!! this is a story about a systemic, pervasive problem.'

One of the key arguments of the book, to me, is how homophobia, sexism and bigotry in general are both a product and a reproduction mechanism of social and economic exclusion. For instance, he describes how the norms around what it means to be a man in his village (being tough, disobeying authority, quitting school early to go work at the factory, drinking alcohol, neglecting your own health, fighting over women, repressing your feelings, etc) perpetuates the cycle of poverty ; but again this isn't 'oh these people are so stupid' and more 'these people are trapped'. Because he makes it evident how degrading and dehumanizing poverty can be, this masculinity reads as a desperate attempt to cling to a certain amount of dignity - it's an extremely dysfunctional coping mechanism. At the same time, anyone falling outside of the mold is violently ostracized (like Eddy, who tries and fails to fit in). So the system keeps reproducing itself.

In Who Killed my Father, the author makes his political argument clearer. This is more of an essay, centering on his father, arguably the most complex figure in the first novel. The man is an angry, bigoted alcoholic who makes his family miserable ; at the same time he is the son of an abusive father who makes a point of honor to never hit his kids or wife even though it's very normalized in this context. In this essay the author keeps talking about the moments of almost tenderness with his father that haunt him, the picture he has of him doing drag in his youth, the fact that the father tried to leave the village when he was young to find a better life for himself with a close friend but failed and had to come back - the moments of what-ifs, of trying to struggle free from the cycle, when the system appears almost fragile and not so unbreakable after all, that the son kept holding close like a sort of talisman.

The narrative is structured around the fact that his father injured his back working in a factory and that he had to keep doing physical labor afterwards for money, instead of resting to recover, until it completely destroyed his body. Now he finds himself bed-bound at 53. Louis inquires into who is responsible for this premature 'death'. After considering individual choices, he turns towards political decisions - the successive governments, left and right, who have been destroying the French welfare system for decades and accelerating inequality. The point is to step out of the neoliberal obsession with personal responsibility and who is guilty and who is a bad or good person, and look at systems.

An element that isn't focused on but hovers over the story constantly is that this village is one where the majority of the population consistently votes for the extreme right National Front party in most elections. The book is too angry and nuanced to be some stupid "it's not their fault that they're racist because they're poor!" argument. It doesn't make any excuses for how awful this is but instead illustrates how dehumanization replicates itself, how people being denied basic dignity leads to them wanting to deny it to others. If you want to really understand the rise of the far right you have to look at where the inequality comes from in the first place, and how easy it is for people in power to wash their hands of it by blaming the bigoted masses. (Just like you can blame societal ills on minorities ! Two for one strategy.)

Towards the end of the essay, the author talks about how proud his father is of his son's literary success - for a book who clearly depicts him as a horrible person ! And this is a man who has spent his life openly despising anything cultural, because it never showed him a life like his own. But maybe now he feels seen, now he knows people want to read about these things. Maybe there is a reclamation of dignity through looking at the horror head on. Maybe his son somehow slipping through the cracks of the cycle gives him more room. The man stops making racist comments, and instead asks his son about his boyfriend. Most importantly, he asks his son about the leftist politics he's engaged in. They talk about the need for a revolution.

I think what strikes me the most is this attitude of "wounded compassion" that permeates the book. What do you do when your parents are abusive but even after you grow up, you can't help but still love them, and you know they've been shaped by the system that surrounds them ? Recognizing, speaking the harm is essential. You need to find your own freedom, sense of worth, and safety. You need to dissect the mechanisms at hand so they lose at least some of their power over you. You need to find people who love and believe you. But then what? Do you dismiss your persistent feelings of affection and care for those who hurt you as a sign you're just fucked up in the head ? You could just decide to never speak to them again, and it would be justified, but is that really what is going to heal you the most? It's important to realize you have the choice. But there are no easy conclusions.

This makes me think of a passage I have just read in Aversive Democracy by Aletta Norval. The essential ethos of radical democracy, she says, is about taking responsibility for your society, even the bad parts, instead of seeing them as a foreign element you have to cleanse yourself of. It's too fucking easy for queer progressives, especially the middle class urban kind, to talk about dumb evil hicks, to turn pride into a simple morality tale, and forget that any politics that don't center the basic dignity and needs of people are just shit. The injury is to you and by you and you have a duty of care just as much as a duty of criticism. (And this is obviously not only applicable to class matters.) You can't just walk away and save your sense of moral purity. (This is not an argument that the oppressed are responsible for educating the oppressors ; it's about how privilege is not an easy simple ranking and it is too damn easy to only focus on the ways in which you are oppressed and forget the ways in which you may have more leeway.)

There is no absolute equivalence between political and family dynamics but the parallel feel very relevant somehow. Several truths can coexist at once : you needed help and it was not given. You were let down. It's important to recognize that people are responsible of how they treat each other. You need to call out what isn't ok and stand up for yourself. At the same time, there is a reason why things are like this. Making people into villains is often bad strategy (within reason!), and in the end, easy dichotomies are often an instrument of power. The horrors you have been through might have given you a very specific wisdom and grace you do not have to be afraid of ; you are not tainted by your compassion (it is very much the opposite of forced forgiveness ; it has walked through the fire of truth.)

To me these books fit into what French literature does best, sociological storytelling a la Zola or Victor Hugo - the arguments aren't new and they can come across as heavy handed, even melodramatic. But I'll argue that the viscerality is the point, how the raw experience of misery punches through any clever arguments about how exploitation persists for the greater good of society. Really worth reading if you can do so with nuance.

#edouard louis #french literature #france #queer culture #queer literature #lgbt books #bookblr #also just like the first book is a walking trigger warning in every possible direction so like careful #also the dude is literary buddies with ocean vuong and im curious to see if there are any parallels there #long post #poli sci