#i started rendering this yesterday i spent like 4 hours on it until i realized i hate rendering so gray it is

[pinkd3mon]

Gardening pals

#kirby #kots #kirby of the stars #kirby fanart #hoshi no kirby #taranza #Galacta Knight #last year I had it revealed to me in a dream that Galacta would enjoy gardening #it made so much sense back then #it doesn't make sense now but i don't make the rules #i think Taranza could show Galacta how to interact with fragile things without you know killing them #Galacta has been destructive for so long they have been used as a weapon for as long as they remember #and then being free and discovering they are capable of gentleness??? #the best i think #i started rendering this yesterday i spent like 4 hours on it until i realized i hate rendering so gray it is #please forgive me rendering gods I'm just no good #morpho butterflies surround Galacta in the garden if it wasn't clear #i know some people see them and freak out for obvious reasons but they're kind to Galacta and Galacta is still grateful to them #do you like galacta's cap it took me so long to figure out out how to get it on their head #i don't know anything about gardening so i just made Taranza hold any gardening tool I could think of #he has too many hands in my opinion i don't know what to do with them

[veryrealimagination]

Febuwhump Days 1-11,

Text Dump, bc i just wrote these. Drabbles, all only 100 words.

DAY 1: touchstarved

It was on certain days that William noted that Llewellyn became quite bitter, throwing out harsh comments when he mentioned things that needed to be done. Liza’s chores were split between the two, highlighting her death even more.

He didn’t actually connect, or understand, until he had the breakdown over Liza’s kettle breaking. The young man had been the one holding him after the funeral. There had been no other hugs or touches after that, and Llewellyn clung to him for an hour.

The next harsh comment, William had a hand on the back of his neck until Llewellyn calmed.

DAY 2: flinching

Watts noticed when George recoiled from certain actions. After the horrific events of the twins and what they had done to the man and his sweetheart, he came back more subdued than ever, as far as he knew the man. Murdoch was wrapped in his own troubles, and while he had his, he was perhaps the better of the two to approach.

Keeping an eye out, he would go and talk to the man if he flinched from a constable he didn’t know. Bring him out for food if Higgins slammed a box down or a door slamming. He understood.

DAY 3: muzzled

Murdoch had been left alone. No gag, no bonds. Their captors realized if he wasn’t good to threaten.

Instead, they went to the people they kidnapped him with.

George once again had a broken foot, as they had found out about Dorothy and what they did to him. Threatened a few of his fingers before Murdoch relented.

Watts was strapped down, rendered immobile. The worst being a muzzle that someone had configured. An asylum gag, and leather straps keeping it in place around his head. He went a full day before they even approached Murdoch. They didn’t take it off.

DAY 4: knife to the throat

Murdoch realized that Gillies had started running away after the people he paid were distracting and fighting the officers from Station House Four. Forcing himself up, he chased after him. Especially given that he hadn’t merely run, but taken someone. Llewellyn, why did he have-

Twisting around, Gillies held Llewellyn around the chest with a straight razor at his throat. There was a gag keeping him from yelling out, but his eyes actually caught his in fear. “Let him go, Gillies,” he demanded.

“Hmmmm. No. Doesn’t work for me. I’m taking him like I wanted to do the last time.”

DAY 5: “that’s gonna scar”

George froze when he saw the metal sticking out of Henry’s side. It was far too deep and wide to be anything but utterly fatal. The man had his eyes closed, mimicking ~~the final~~ sleep and he wanted to shake him awake to ensure he was still living. “Henry. Henry! Higgins!”

Someone was pulling him back and he felt himself being wrapped in the arms of Captain Brackenreid while Parker and Torva got ready to rush him to the clinic. “Just think about the type of scar Higgins is gonna have waking up. Beats Pendrick’s by a mile, won’t it?”

DAY 6: secrets revealed

James froze as he saw the proof scrolling over his computer. His wife had been stealing and sneaking out his designs. Timestamps on the camera and when it happened confirmed it. He had been warned by his assistant, before he had suspended him for the week when he thought he went too far. He was on the phone and calling the detective, while emailing the proof.

It disconnected before he heard anything.

“I was hoping to catch you before you found out.”

Sally was standing at the doorway. “Come with me, or I will tell my partner to kill him.”

DAY 7: made to watch

They warned Murdoch that if he interfered, he would be dragged out of the room. Then, they would torture his compatriots worse than what they were about to show him.

George had been tortured yesterday. Heated metal and pressed it against his arm and legs. They ensured his foot stayed broken and useless. They spent all night talking to distract him.

He didn’t know that they planned on doing to Watts. There wasn’t any of the normal instruments that they’ve used in sessions before. There was nothing, and that terrified him. “A few of the boys are bored. They begged.”

DAY 9: voice loss

Llewellyn never thought he would have to tell them.

But during his sickness, he had developed a fever and they had taken off his clothing to find the whip marks and everything else he had endured from Duvos. Now that he was better, they wanted answers.

Only, he couldn’t talk.

He opened his mouth and nothing came out. “Watts,” Murdoch demanded. The harshness of it caused him to flinch and shrink.

“William,” James warned. “Llewellyn.”

He tried again, but there still wasn’t anything. There was barely enough air going through his throat, but all of it bypassed his vocal cords.

DAY 8: panic

James watched as Llewellyn collapsed to his knees. Diving after him, he kept the teen from completing the trip to the floor. As he held him, he felt the heart beating too much to be healthy. “William,” he said.

“Do you have that bear clean?”

“Yes.”

“Grab it.”

William took the teen and wrapped around him. “Follow my breathing.” He exaggerated his in and out, counting. It wasn’t long before the bear was placed in Llewellyn’s arms. He wrapped around it quickly before he buried his head in the fur.

“Couch and tea, before we try questioning him again, William.”

DAY 10: difficulty breathing

Something was sprayed in George’s face.

Coughing, he shook his head to try and get to clear air. Instead, every step and every breath became worse. He wasn’t sure what was happening until he collapsed against a wall.

His throat was closing off. He had felt that a couple of times during his childhood. Once was due to panic as he wondered how his aunts would react to a broken window from a bad throw. Another was due to eating something that turned into his first allergic reaction.

People were started to react, trying to help out while he panicked.

DAY 11: fever

Higgins had been staring at a drawer for fifteen minutes.

Even that was a bit excessive for Watts. Standing up, he made his way over and startled the poor man when he waved about a foot away from his face. “Constable Higgins-Newsome?” he inquired.

The poor man took a minute to answer. “What do you need, Ddetective Wattss?”

Oh, that is not good. He saw the paling of the man’s skin, except with hints of red that indicated a flush. He believed it to be from sickness and not another factor. “Perhaps you would be better off at home?”

“Can’t.”

#febuwhump2023 #there are 11 here #not doing it #murdoch mysteries #smol watts au #castle au #could actually be canon #torture au #portia au

[thehollowprince]

Civil War Fixit #4

Parts One, Two, and Three (updated for easier browsing)

Notes: sorry for the long wait, but, as many of you know... life happens. Plus, ever since Endgame, I've been less than enthused about this whole universe. My love for Steve has diminished, but I still remember what was and what should have been, so here we go.

I didn't really feel like doing all of the action sequences, because I feel like the most character growth happens in those "In Between" scenes, so this takes place after the Winter Soldier was activated by Zemo and the escape from the CIA facility. It picks up just before the airport battle.

Steve, Sam and Bucky sat silently in the old Beetle, waiting for their reinforcements to show up.

Bucky eventually broke the silence. "So who's the girl?"

"Buck." Steve sighed.

"What?" Bucky asked. "Its a fair question from your old best friend." The super soldier reasoned. "This girl violates a dozen laws, steals our equipment back and you lay one on her. And judging by both of your expressions, that was the first time you two did that."

"Did I ever tell you how creepy it is that you analyze everything now?" Steve rebuttaled.

"No." Bucky plowed forward. "She must be a pretty special girl."

"You've no idea." Sam muttered under his breath.

"Sam." Steve said with a warning in his tone.

"What?" Sam fired back. "She is a special girl. You two spent the last two years dancing around each other and now is when you decide to make a move? When we're wanted criminals?" Sam huffed. "You really do have horrible timing."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, first you kiss Peggy back in the day."

"You and Peggy kissed?" Bucky interrupted.

"Yeah, just before he flew a plane into the Arctic." Sam said.

"And now you finally make a move on Sharon, just before we're going to break a whole mess of international laws?" Bucky questioned. "Sam's right, you do have bad timing."

"Oh, and we didn't even get to the part where Sharon is Peggy's niece."

"Sam!" Steve was exasperated.

Bucky, for his part, just looked from Sam to Steve and back again, unsure if this was some kind of joke or not. Thankfully, Steve was saved from any more of this awkward conversation by the arrival of a big, white, serial-killer style van.

"Oh, look, backup's here." Steve said and immediately exited the vehicle to greet the driver, who was none other than Clint Barton.

Bucky stared after his old friend before turning to look at Sam with an incredulous look.  “Her niece?”

“Yeah.” Sam sighed.  “Though, to be fair, we didn’t know that until yesterday.”  He then opened the car door and exited the vehicle.

Outside, Steve approached Clint and shook hands with his old teammate.  “Thanks for coming.”

“Cap.”

“You know I wouldn’t have called if I had any other choice.”

“Hey man, you’re doing me a favor.” Clint waved off Steve’s Steveness.  Behind him, Wanda climbed out of the passenger seat.  “Besides, I owe a debt.”

“Thanks for having my back.” Steve nodded at her.

“It was time to get off my ass.” Wanda replied. Her attention was diverted to behind Steve’s broad shoulders to where Sam was struggling to hold in his laughter, phone in hand as Bucky attempted to navigate his way out of the back seat.  This video would definitely go viral.

“What about our other recruit?”

“He’s rarin’ to go.” Clint answered, walking back to the van and slid the side open, revealing a passed out Scott Lang laying on the seat.  The moment the door was all the way open, rocking the van, Scott jolted awake.  “Had to put a little coffee in him, but...” He looked at Scott, who seemed confused as to where he was.  “... he should be good to go.”

“What time zone are we in?” Scott asked as he yawned and stretched, sliding out of the van to place his feet on solid ground.  He steps forward, ignoring the weird tingles in his legs indicating they were waking up, and immediately accepted the hand presented to him, without really realizing who it was attached to.  That is, until he realized who’s hand he was shaking and just kind of gaped at the man.  “Captain America.”  He looked both amazed and dumbfounded at the same time.

“Mr. Lang.” Steve replied, his hand still in Scott’s grip, but too polite to pull back on his own.

“It’s an honor.” Scott was still shaking Steve’s hand, and only now seemed to realize it.  “I’m shaking your hand way too long.”  Despite saying that, he continued to shake the hand in his grasp.  “Wow, this is awesome!  Captain America.”  He seemed to realize what he was doing and stopped shaking Steve’s hand, looking around him at the other people assembled in a parking garage, his eyes landing on Wanda.  “I know you, too.  You’re great. My daughter loves you.”  Wanda smiled in return as Scott turned back to Steve again, feeling up the super soldier’s epic shoulders.  “Jeez.”

Scott snapped out of his hero-worship and stepped back, hands to himself.

“Ah, look, I wanna say, I know you know a lot of super people, so... thanks for thinking of me.”  He spotted Sam over Steve’s incredibly broad shoulders.  “Hey, man!”

“What’s up, Tic Tac?”

“Uh, about what happened last time...”

“It was a nice audition, but it... it won’t happen again.” Sam said firmly.

“What happened last time?” Steve found himself asking.

“Well, you see, I, uh...” Scott started, only to be interrupted by Sam.

“It’s not important.”

Steve looked between the two, Sam staring firmly at Scott, who looked a bit sheepish.  “... okay?”  He turned back to Scott. “They tell you what we’re up against?”

“Something about... psycho-assassins?” Scott supplied, not sounding entirely sure.

“We're outside the law on this one. So, if you come with us, you're a wanted man.” Steve said, laying everything on the line from the beginning.

“Yeah, well, what else is new?” Scott said with a shrug. 

“We should get going.” Bucky supplied, finally free from the metal death-trap.

“We’ve got a chopper all lined up.” Clint said.

A voice speaking in German sounded over the loud speakers in the garage, with Bucky looking up first, “They’re evacuating the airport.”

“Stark.” Sam said with a sigh.

“Stark?” Scott questioned.

“Suit up.” Steve commanded.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve, now all suited up in his Captain America uniform, jogged across an eerily vacant tarmac toward the chopper that Clint had pointed out.  His eyes scanned back and forth, knowing that Tony and Rhodey and who knows who else was with them was lurking around here somewhere.  Less than ten meters to the chopper and some sort of electro-doohickey that he didn’t understand landed on the machine, frying the engine and rendering it useless.  Steve skidded to a stop and watched as Tony and Rhodey, Iron Man and War Machine descended from the sky.

“Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird?” Tony joked, always with the quips, even in a serious situation, because he obviously didn’t know how to read the room... so to speak.

“Definitely weird.” Rhodey agreed, always following Tony’s lead.

“Hear me out, Tony.” Steve interjected, trying to talk sense into his former teammates.  “That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this.”

To his left, T’Challa jumped over a parked truck and landed in a crouch before standing up to his full height in his black vibranium suit. “Captain.”

“Your highness.”

“Anyway, Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in. That was 24 hours ago. Can you help a brother out?” Tony announced, retracting the helmet of his suit so he could talk to Steve face to face.

“We’re not brothers.” Steve countered.  “We’re not even friends.”

“Hmm.” Tony huffed.

“You’re after the wrong guy.” Steve tried to reason with him.

“Your judgment is askew. Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday.”

“And there are five more super soldiers just like him.” Steve tried to explain.  “If you would just shut up and listen to me, I could explain.”  Tony’s face darkened.  “I can't let the doctor find them first, Tony. I can't.”

“Steve... you know what’s about to happen.” Rhodey said, retracting his own helmet.  “Do you really want to try and punch your way out of this one?”

“Wait.” Natasha walked up, dolled out in her own tactical gear.  “What do you mean there are five more?”

“Alright, I’ve run out of patience.” Tony said.  “Underoos!”  Steve was obviously confused for a moment, until he saw a shadow flip over him.  His shield was wrenched from his hands, which were suddenly tied together with some kind of material he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know what it was.  Looking up, he saw a man in a red and blue costume with a web-like pattern, his shield in this person’s hand.  “Nice job, kid.”

“ Thanks. Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit… Well, it's nothing, Mr. Stark. It's--it's perfect. Thank you.” Steve’s eyes narrowed the more he listened to this man - this boy - talk.  On Tony’s side, Natasha’s expression was similar.

“Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation.”

“ Okay. Cap . . . Captain. Big fan, I'm Spider-Man.” He saluted Steve.

“Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Just...”

“Hey, everyone.” Spider-Man waved at the assembled heroes.

“... Good job.” Tony finished.

“You’ve been busy.” Steve said icily, his glare directed solely at Tony.

“And you've been a complete idiot.” Tony fired back.  “Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place.” Steve snorted at that.  “I'm trying to keep . . . I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart.”

“You did that when you signed.” Cap retorted.  “And when you dragged in this kid.” He nodded toward Spider-Man.  “How old are you?”

“That’s not important - “ Tony started to say.

“No, that is a good question.” Natasha interrupted.  “How old are you?” She directed her question at Spider-Man.

“I... uh...” Peter wasn’t sure what to do.  The scary redhead was on Tony’s side, but Tony wanted him to stay a secret.

“If he’s over sixteen, you can keep my shield.” Steve interjected.  Now everyone was looking at Tony, with mixed expressions of shock and even outright anger.

“Alright, We're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us. NOW!” Tony was shouting by the end of the sentence. “Because it's us! Or a squad of J-SOC guys... with no compunction about being impolite.”  Steve looks aside, as if he’s deep in thought.  “Come on, man.”

Meanwhile, in Steve’s comms, Sam was talking to him.

“We found the Quinjet.  Hanger five, north runway.”  Steve nodded before holding up his hands, almost looking like he was surrendering.  An arrow pierced the material that bound his hands, freeing them.

“Okay, Lang.” Steve said into his comms.

“Hey, guys, something’s happening.” Spider-Man said, usure of what was going on but sensing something.  He spotted a really tiny man on Captain America’s shield, who quickly turned normal sized and knocked Spider-Man away, before flipping off the truck and handing the shied back to Steve with an exaggerated “I believe this is yours, Captain America.”

Rhodey’s and Tony’s helmets went back up.

“There’s two in the parking deck.” Tony said, using his suit’s enhanced features to spot them.  “One of them’s Maximoff.  I’m gonna grab her.”  Tony started to take off.  “Rhodey, you wanna deal with Cap?”

“Got two in the terminal.” Rhodey said as he also started to rise into the air.  “Wilson and Barnes.”

“Barnes is mine!” T’Challa snarled, immediately racing off in that direction.

“Mr. Stark, what should I do?” Spider-Man asked, sounding more and more like a frightened teenager.

“What we discussed.” Tony snapped over his comms.  “Keep your distance and web ‘em up.”

“Okay, copy that.” Spider-Man leapt off of the ground and produced another of those spider web lines and swung toward the terminal.

The fight was on.

#civil war fixit #how the movie should have gone #my writing #anti tony stark #still waiting for cap 3

[stormtrprinstilettos]

“It’s not like I’m asking you to dinner.” - Roger x fem reader (smut)

Summary: It’s 1983 and Queen is recording their next album at the studio where you work, and things get a little heated between you and the drummer.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

In this “episode”: Roger finally gets Reader to go on a date – an actual, real date. And a question is popped. (No, not that one, calm down.)

Word Count: ~5k

Warnings: age gap (21 vs. 35), language (WTF no smut?)

Tagging: @fixedonroger @a19103 @ginabaker1666 @thickthighsandbasicbrowneyes @culturefiendtrashqueen @imaginesandideas @rogertaylorscar @painkiller80 (let me know if you want to be added)

[A/N: An anon sent me the fluffiest idea and I just had to use (most of) it. And, dammit, I’m sorry, no smut this time, but it needs to happen this way. Keep sending me those ideas because I need them in order to keep this going!]

Sunday. Finally. A day off. And you have tomorrow off, too, since your boss was kind enough to hire another girl to sit in and answer the phones a few days a week to help out. When Roger brought you home this morning he was headed off with the rest of the guys to go do some interviews so you weren’t expecting to hear from him anytime soon. You’re trying your best not to replay the conversation you had with him last night, but it was stuck on endless repeat in your brain. What did he mean – “I’m not giving you up any time soon,” you keep thinking. This is ridiculous. He’s leaving, he’ll be in Munich, then touring… Stop it, Y/N. But you can’t stop. He’s right. You overanalyze everything. This is just fun and he’ll move on when he leaves.

You desperately need a distraction, so you decide to start rearranging your albums again, this time by sleeve cover instead of alphabetically. It was stupid, especially because you knew it was going to get on your nerves the first time you’d go to look for one, but it got your mind off of him. You’re concentrating hard on the task you’ve given yourself when the phone rings.

“Hello?”

“I’m in the mood for Italian food. What’s the best place in this god awful city for Italian food?” It’s Roger, and you can’t help the massive smile that’s formed on your face.

“Dan Tana’s,” you tell him. “But they don’t open until dinner time.” You hear cars rushing by and horns blowing in the background. “Where are you? It’s so loud.”

He starts to chuckle. “I’m on some payphone outside. Dan Tana’s, you said?”

“Yeah, but they don’t open until dinner time and…”

He cuts you off. “Can you be ready for 5?”

“You’re talking to me?” you ask.

He’s laughing at your awkwardness. “Yes, you. I’ll pick you up at 5:00.” He doesn’t wait for an answer and he hangs up the phone.

You start to laugh at his sheer audacity. Part of you wants to be difficult and tell him you’re not going when he shows up, but you know you won’t do that. It’s only noon, but you rush to your closet to find what you’re going to wear.

The hours eventually passed, and you did your makeup three times, changed your clothes four times before finally deciding on your blue dress. You find yourself in the same situation as yesterday evening before he picked you up for that dinner with everyone else – nervous as hell, sitting in your living room, waiting for Roger to knock on the door. And when he did, you had to compose yourself again and not run to the door like you wanted to. And when you open the door, there he is again, wearing a tie – no blazer this time – and those sunglasses. God, do we really need to go to dinner? you groan to yourself, wanting to make him ravish you right there in the doorway.

“Hey, beautiful,” he greets you, with a toothy smile and a kiss on your cheek. He holds his arm out for you to hook yours into. “Ready to go?” You smile and grab your purse and head out the door. “Thought I’d take you this Italian place I heard about,” he jokes as he walks you to the car.

You hear the people whisper and feel them staring as the two of you are walking inside the restaurant, trying your hardest to ignore them, but it’s hard to do. Roger, on the other hand, isn’t paying them any attention, instead focusing his attention on you and making sure you’re guided through the crowd waiting to get in as effortless as possible. The restaurant host immediately recognizes him and hurries the two of you to a table, far in the back away from as many people as possible, but you still feel people looking at you. “Ignore them,” he whispers, leaning over the table and taking your hand in his. “It’s just the two of us, no one else,” he says as he’s giving you a comforting grin. He glances down at the menu. “What’s good here?”

“I always get the veal parmesan,” you tell him with a chuckle. “Not that I come here a lot. That’s what I always get at Italian restaurants.”

He starts to laugh. “Not the adventurous type?”

“It’s my favorite,” you shrug. He’s still holding your hand as he looks over the menu, and you sit like that, in silence, watching him, and you can’t stop smiling. He glances up and you and smiles back before going back to the menu. You start to giggle at his deep concentration before realizing he probably doesn’t know what he’s reading and pull the menu away from him. “Pasta, seafood, meat or veggies?” you ask with a giggle.

“Meat,” he playfully growls. “Like a real man.” You roll your eyes and point to the menu section with the meat selections as you push it back to him and he smirks. “I have no idea what any of this is.” He points down. “What’s this?”

“Liver,” you tell him, laughing at his disgusted reaction. When he points to the next one, you giggle. “That’s veal parmesean.” He nods and closes the menu and gives you an impressed look. “I spent a semester in Italy when I was in college so I learned the cuisine. Studied that more than what I was actually there to study.”

He listened to you intently as you talked over dinner. For some reason you were chattier than usual, probably doing it because people kept staring and you were trying to distract yourself. It didn’t matter to him – he loved hearing you talk. After the waiter took your plates, he inched his hand to yours so he could hold it again, and as soon as he grabbed it, you were rendered speechless for some reason. Apparently he was too, because neither one of you spoke, sitting there and smiling at each other instead, until the waiter brought your coffee. “Did I ever tell you how beautiful you are?” he says, softly, looking deep into your eyes. “Because if I didn’t, I just want you to know that you are absolutely beautiful.” You smile and he brings your hand up to his lips and kisses your knuckles. “And not just tonight. Always.”

You’re smiling as you melt inside, a different feeling than you usually get when you see him. It’s not that sexual desire that almost burns. It’s a flutter, a calmness, a… What is he doing to me? you ask yourself. Everyone else disappeared. It’s just the two of you, no one else, just like he said earlier. You lean over the table to get closer to him. “Come here,” you whisper, and he leans over to meet you and gives you a soft, slow peck, your eyes closing as you feel the warmth of his lips on yours. The moment is interrupted when the waiter brings the bill, snapping you both back to reality.

“Let’s get out of here,” he says as he hands the waiter the payment, standing up and holding out his hand for you. You walk out holding hands, this time not caring that people see you with him, ignoring the whispers and quiet gawking everyone is doing. It’s just the two of you, no one else, and you’re floating.

He’s driving around, not sure where he wants to go next, but he does know he doesn’t want to take you home – not yet. The conversation is flowing so smoothly, and you’re both enjoying the evening and the company so much you don’t want it to end. “Turn here,” you tell him at one point, so he listens to you, knowing you can navigate this place much better than he can. A few minutes later, you tell him to pull over, and excitedly jump out of the car, waving for him to join you. Shaking his head and chuckling, he gets out and walks over to you. “Come on,” you smile and grab his hand, pulling him along as you walk out to a view of the city below. “Just in time,” you murmur as he starts to take in the view. “Haven’t been up here in a while. My favorite place to watch the sunset.” He draws you in from behind, wrapping his arms around you and resting his chin on your shoulder. He’s done this so many times before, and your insides flitter every single time. As you stand there, wrapped in him, you have no cares in the world. You’re not overthinking things for a change. You’re not questioning his motives or even worrying about what the future will bring. You’re in this moment, and you finally understand why he was always telling you to stop worrying about tomorrow, or the next month, or the next year. Now – that’s what it was all about. Now, the only time you can control, and this is exactly where you want to be.

“Y/N?” he says as he turns you to face him. The sun has just about disappeared from the sky, but there’s still a slight glow that’s making his eyes look even more enchanting than normal. You look at him and smile, his face telling you he has something he wants to say. “I… uhh…Thanks… for sharing this with me…” His words are stumbling a little, and for the first time since you’ve known him, he seems a bit nervous. He runs the back of his hand on your cheek, smiling and piercing your eyes with his. Your heart is beating so fast you can hardly catch your breath, and you sense he’s having a harder than usual time breathing as his smile fades and his expression turns serious. He opens his mouth and takes a breath like he’s about to say something else, but nothing comes out. He slowly leans down, and you can feel his breath on your cheek as your eyes flutter, then close as his lips meet yours. His hands slide down your arms before resting on your hips, drawing you in closer as your arms wrap around his neck, and the entire world starts to melt away. You slowly pull back, your hands resting on the nape of his neck, and you slowly open your eyes. He tries to say something again, but the words don’t come out.

All you can do is smile, finding this nervousness of his endearing. He pulls you close, wrapping his arms around you and kisses the top of your head. “Why are you so tense?” you ask him. “Your whole body is tight.” You look up at him, your chin on his chest and and you start to rub his back.

He kisses your forehead and smiles. “Maybe being around you is stressful,” he chuckles, and you push yourself away, pretending to be upset and offended.

“I don’t know why I still like you, knowing you’re an asshole,” you laugh as he pulls you back close, leaning down so his nose touches yours.

“Oh, you like me?” he grunts sarcastically. “I happen to L…” He quickly stops himself and smiles. “I happen to like you, too.” He kisses your forehead again and pushes your head to rest on his chest. You can hear his heart beating, and you start to giggle again. “Stop being cute,” he laughs. “I’m trying to relax and enjoy the view.”

You look up at him again, giving him an adoring look and smirk. “My view is quite nice to look at.” He rolls his eyes and laughs, pulling you in even tighter. Just as you were about to speak, a car pulls up and four teenagers crawl out. “Ugh,” you groan. “It was nice while it lasted.” You slowly pull apart from each other and watch as these jackasses who interrupted your moment start to walk into view.

“Brownies,” he blurts out, out of nowhere. “You brought those brownie things to the studio the other day. Those were good.” You look at him, humored with confusion “I want some.”

“I don’t know where to buy brownies at 8:00 on a Sunday night,” you laugh. “I made those anyway.”

He grabs your hand and starts walking to the car. “Then let’s go so you can make me some.” He’s serious and you’re still laughing.

“I can’t just make them, Roger,” you laugh. “I need the mix and…”

“Well let’s go find the mix,” he says, hurrying and opening the car door and shoving you in. “What?” he asks, starting to laugh at himself when he gets in the car and puts the keys in the ignition.

“The stores are closed,” you tell him.

“Damn,” he chuckles. “Well… Where to next?”

“I don’t know,” you giggle. “You’re the one who invited me out tonight.” He nods and starts the car. “So where are we going now?” He shrugs and pulls out, not knowing which way to turn on the road and looks at you for guidance. “I don’t know where we’re going so I can’t tell you where to go.”

“My place?” he asks, not sure of anywhere else to go. You point in the direction he needs to turn and he starts to drive. He grabs your hand again, bringing it to his mouth so he can kiss it, and you look over at him and smile. You’ve been smiling since the second you opened the door when he picked you up, and you don’t feel like you’ll ever stop smiling again. “Tell me, what does a girl from [your hometown] want out of life? I mean, really want out of life?”

You sigh and lean your head back on the seat and gaze out of the window. “All I’ve ever wanted was to be happy,” you say quietly. “Not that I’m not a happy person or that I’m not happy where I am.” You turn your head and look at him. “I just want to be able to take my final breath, whenever it may be, and know that I’ve lived a happy life.”

“Wow,” he says, impressed by the maturity of your answer. “Usually people will say they want the big house, fancy cars, loads of money…”

“None of that matters to me,” you say, cutting him off. “So many of these people in these obnoxious houses have all of that, but they’re miserable.” You turn your body in the seat so you’re facing him, his hand still holding yours. “It’s not always about material things, you know? I mean, yeah, they’re nice, but it’s about the people you surround yourself with.”

He starts to laugh, loud and heartedly. “I think you’re the only person out here who feels that way.” He stops laughing and starts to grin. “You’re too good for these people.” He raises your hand so he can kiss it again, only this time he holds it there for the rest of the ride to his place so he can keep giving it random kisses.

He starts to loosen his tie as you walk inside and head to the living room. “Do you want to change?” he asks. “Get more comfortable?” You follow him back to his bedroom and he pulls out some sweatpants and a t-shirt. His eyes suddenly light up, having an idea pop into his head. “Change,” he says as he heads out the room. “I’ll be right back!” He rushes out, not saying a word about where he’s running off too.

After changing your clothes you sneak back into the living room, thinking you’re going to catch him doing whatever he rushed off to do, but you don’t see him. You don’t hear him anywhere, so you start to wander around the house trying to find him. You should know better by now than to put yourself in a position where he can scare you, but you forget about every other day before this one. When he sneaks up behind you and grabs you, you scream and slap him. “Dammit, Roger!” you yell and he’s in complete hysterics. It only takes a second for you join him in the laughter. “Stop doing that!”

“Never,” he laughs. You roll your eyes and slap him again. He grabs your hand and walks you to the kitchen where he points at a box of brownie mix on the counter with a proud look on his face. “Got it from my neighbor,” he chuckles. “Nice old lady.”

“Really?” you ask with a laugh. “You want me to make brownies?” He looks at you and pokes his bottom lip out in an over exaggerated pout that makes you giggle. You roll your eyes, smiling again, and walk to the refrigerator. “Well? Get me a pan. You have one of those?”

He gives you a big smile and reaches into a bag. “She gave me one,” he laughs. “Everything’s in here but the eggs.” After you grab the eggs from the refrigerator you start to look through his cabinets, searching for a bowl to mix everything in. He walks up to you holding one and smiles. “Told you. Everything’s in the bag.”

He leans on the counter watching you mix the batter and pour it into the pan. “Do you know how to use the oven?” you joke, but he gives you a blank look. “You’re useless,” you giggle as you set the temperature yourself. “You’re quite sneaky, too,” you tell him with your back turned. “Bringing me to dinner just so you can get me back here to make you brownies. I could have done this…” You turn around to finish your statement, but you can’t, because as soon as you turn around, he plants a kiss on you and smiles. Faking an unamused expression, you stick your tongue out at him and he takes his arm from behind his back and wipes a finger full of brownie batter on your face. “You’re such a child,” you laugh as he stands there with his eyebrows raised and licks the rest of it off of his finger.

When the brownies were finished, you took them to the living room, where you cuddled on the sofa and watched a movie. You’re not sure when you fell asleep, but you wake up on the sofa, curled next to him, your head on his chest. He coughed, and that’s the only reason your eyes opened. “Sorry,” he whispered. “Go back to sleep.”

“No,” you groaned. “I have to clean the mess in the kitchen.” When you stand up, he stands with you and turns your body in the direction of the bedroom. “That’s not where the kitchen is,” you giggle.

“Go to bed,” he tells you, standing behind you and bending down to give you a kiss on your neck. “I’ll take care of it.” You turned yourself around, ignoring what he said. “I know how to wash, Y/N,” he chuckles. “Go to bed. I’ll be there when I’m done.”

You shuffle into the bedroom and collapse on the bed, and immediately your brain started running its mental marathon. The entire night was perfect. Dinner was sweet and romantic, even with the crowded atmosphere with the gawking and whispering. The sunset seemed like it was almost special ordered just for that moment. And the rest of the night, here, at his house, had an oddly comforting domestic aura. If one of your friends had told you they were the one who experienced all of this, you’d have been nauseated by the sweetness. You were nauseated, but because, despite all of it, all you could do was think about him leaving. You hadn’t thought about it for a second the entire night, but now, being left alone with your thoughts, that’s all you can think about. When he comes to bed, he snuggles up as close as he can to you and holds you tight, entwining his hands with yours. He meant it when he said he wasn’t going to be letting you go any time soon, and this was the first time you believed him. You had convinced yourself that this whole thing was only about sex, but now you weren’t so sure anymore. Not now that the two of you spent the entire night together without it, and especially not now that you’re both laying in this bed and neither one of you are trying to rile the other up. But still, there’s a nagging feeling in your gut kept telling you that you had to let him go, and if you didn’t do it soon, it was going to hurt that much more when you did.

He dropped you off at home on his way to the studio the next morning. You stayed chipper enough on the ride, cracking jokes and laughing with him, doing a great job not exposing the thoughts that are swirling around in your head, when all you really wanted to do was cry. Which is what you did the second you closed your apartment door. You didn’t even make it further than the door before the tears started to flow. It pissed you off that you let yourself feel things for him.

You sat alone all day, wallowing in the tidal surge of emotions that overcame you, feeling like you were drowning with no life preserver in sight. When your phone rang around 5:00 you didn’t want to answer it, but you did, clearing your throat, hoping that would mask the raspiness you knew your voice would hold. “Hey, beautiful,” you hear Roger say when you answer. You can hear his smile on the other end.

“Hey, you,” you say, almost in a whisper, cringing because your voice sounds terrible. “How’s it going over there?”

“Fine,” he replies but quickly changes the subject before it can be discussed further. “Are you feeling alright? You sound hoarse.”

You feel tears starting to well up again when you hear his voice, but you fight them off. “No, I’m feeling a bit icky,” you lie, although not completely. “It just came over me all of a sudden.” You hate lying to him, but you can’t exactly sit here and tell him the truth.

“Do you need anything? I can come…”

“No!” you stop him. “No,” you lower your tone. “I’ll be fine. I just need some rest.” You’re trying so hard to fight back those tears but they’re not holding back and start to slide down your cheeks. “You don’t need to come. I don’t know if it’s contagious.”

He knows nothing is physically wrong with you. There was nothing wrong with you this morning. But he’s not going to argue. He’s going to give you the space you apparently need, and he’s not going to ask any questions, even though he has no idea why you’re blowing him off. “Alright,” he whispers. “I’ll be here until 7 or so, so call if you need anything. The new girl is here so she’ll be around to answer the phone.” After assuring him that you would, you can hear him sigh. “Last night was one of my best, Y/N. I want you to know that.”

You close your eyes, wishing he would stop being so fucking perfect, because all it’s doing is killing you slowly. “Mine too, Roger,” you whisper. “Go on, they’ll get tired of waiting for you,” you giggle. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah,” he whispers back, and you can hear his smile again. “I L… I’ll see you,” he says and hangs up the phone.

For the first time since the guys have been recording you’re dreading going into work, only because you don’t know how you’re going to react when you see him. What you do know is that if you don’t stop overthinking and worrying about this then you’re going to make yourself sick, for real this time.

When you walk in, Anna, the new girl, greets you, overly cheerful and eager to be your friend it seems. You’ve met her once before, the day your boss brought her in for the interview. She seems nice enough, but a bit too much to handle right now. You’re listening to her dribble on about her boyfriend and how much she misses him since he’s out in New York at college when Roger walks in, much earlier than expected.

“Hello, Anna,” he greets her, smirking and being the flirt that he can’t help but being. “Looking lovely today.”

She starts to giggle giddily. “Hey, Roger,” she says, her cheeks turning a bright pink. You roll your eyes and smirk, finding the whole scene amusing.

He looks over and sees you sitting at your desk and smiles. “And you, Y/N, even more beautiful than the last time I saw you.”

Oh, fuck, you groan to yourself. Just seeing him ruins everything, because you had your mind set on ending it with him. You were going to tell him today, maybe tonight. Or next week. Or next month. Or the day he left. You didn’t know anymore. That damn smile… “Not looking so bad yourself, Mr. Taylor,” you tell him, still smirking and unable to break free from his eyes.

“Can you come help me with something?” he asks, walking closer to you, not smiling anymore. You hesitate, but follow him into the recording room anyway, closing the door behind you. He takes your hand and guides you to the sofa in the back of the room and sits down. “Let me in, Y/N,” he says softly. “Tell me what’s going on in that pretty head of yours.”

This is not the conversation you want to have right now. You weren’t ready, but you knew it had to be done. “You make me feel things I’m not supposed to be feeling and it’s infuriating.” You look down at him as he’s sitting there, looking at you, and he has that damn smile on his face. “Don’t smile at me like that. You know it drives me crazy.” He’s tickled by your frustration, but you don’t find it funny. You can’t deny it anymore because that night, in the studio – that was fucking perfect. Sunday night – that was fucking perfect. Every minute spent with him, even if it’s just talking about some minor thing – fucking perfect. But you didn’t want to feel. You didn’t want him to feel. You just wanted to have your fun and move on when he did because you didn’t want to get heartbroken. You were the heartbreaker, not the recipient of it. “I don’t want to feel anything, Roger.”

“But you do,” he says. “I didn’t want to feel anything either.”

“Well, stop feeling it,” you staunchly tell him. “You’re only going to be here another month or so and…” You look at him and sigh. “We’ve already talked about this.”

“Well things have changed,” he said with a bit of force, startling you a little. Your want to walk away, but you can’t. He’s holding on to your arm and pulling you closer to him. “I’m going to Montreux for a few weeks when I leave here to work on some solo stuff before going to Munich. Come with me.”

“W-what?” Shocked. That’s all you felt. Shock and, oddly, sick to your stomach. All you can do is sit down.

He turns his body to face you and grabs your hands. “I need you to come with me.” His face was serious. This wasn’t some game anymore. This wasn’t what any of this was supposed to be. “I fucking need you…” He cleared his throat. “I don’t want to leave you here.” You can’t even speak. This has caught you so off guard you can’t even think straight. “I never wanted this to happen either, Y/N, but it did. And now, well, now I can’t stop it. And neither can you.” He leans over and gives you a soft kiss on your completely flabbergasted lips and smiles. “I don’t need an answer now, or even tomorrow. Will you just think about it?” You shake your head. “That’s all I ask.” He runs the back of his hand on your cheek, smiling that damn smile you can never say no to. “You said all you want out of life is to be happy. I know I can make you happy if you let me.”

You know he can. He already does make you happy. And you don’t know why you aren’t yelling at him that yes, you will go with him, that you’ll go anywhere with him. You can’t say anything. You’re not even sure if you’re breathing right now. All you do know is that you’re engulfed in his stare, in his smile, and in the feeling he’s giving you with his hand on your face. He’s rendered you completely speechless again, but suddenly you start laughing, confusing the hell out of him. “This is stupid,” you giggle, confusing him even more. “I shouldn’t have to think about this.”

He starts to giggle too, albeit nervously. “No, you should. It’s not like I’m asking you to dinner.”

“Roger, I…” You can finish what you want to tell him because everyone walks in, ready to get to work, but you can’t take your eyes off of each other. He knows exactly what you were about to say, because he replied without even hearing it.

“Me too,” he whispers with a smile.

[part 7>>]

#roger taylor #roger taylor x reader #roger taylor fanfiction #roger taylor x y/n #roger taylor x fem reader #roger taylor x you #roger taylor fanfic #roger taylor fic #roger taylor smut #1983 roger

[cyberloops]

I decided to keep fiddling with my last piece, see if I could make something out of it.

But my wife and I are also trying to be productive and get our house in order, after more than two years of living in it and only using the kitchen, bathrooms, bedroom, and living room in spite of the fact that we also have a basement and several other rooms that we could use. So we spent most of the day clearing out spaces and going through boxes and filling up shelves that have sat empty for the last 2+ years.

Here was my distracted workflow yesterday while working between doing various chores around the house:

1) Open up Magix, which I always forget about because it’s glitchy, prone to crashing, and generally not as good as Acid. But it has some really nice built in instruments. Return to chores.

2) Fiddle around until I find some instruments that I like that would work in the Tyrell test (I’ll shorten it to TT from now on.) Record a few snippets of the tune to TT to see how well it plays back. Return to chores.

3) Close Magix and open up Acid to extract the MIDI tracks I wanted to try with the other instruments. Open up Magix. Put tracks in. Start fiddling with them. Return to chores.

4) Get them to a functional state. Render tracks. Return to chores while rendering is happening.

5) Realize I was a doofus and forgot to change the tempo of the Magix track to match that of the MIDI tracks. Realize I don’t recall what tempo I used. Close Magix. Open up Acid. Check tempo. Open up Magix. Return to chores.

6) Come back and tweak tracks a little more. Re-render tracks. Return to chores while rendering is happening.

7) Come back and realize that I’m still a doofus, and while I now know the tempo, I never actually changed it. Change tempo. Re-render tracks. Make dinner.

8) Realize that with a softer, more subtle saxy solo line rather than a more solid straight brassy one, the percussive low notes in the left hand in the intro part don’t come out well, so I start looking for another instrument. Eventually get something that works. Render it out at the right tempo.

9) Open up Acid. Play around with it a bit. Realize I needed to record a slightly longer section because there’s a bit of R in the ADSR on that instrument. Re-open Magix. Re-render.

11) Decide that my back, knees, and general everything is too sore to dig my car out of the snow, so I take my wife’s car to the grocery store for a late-night essentials run. Ever since I discovered lactose-free milk, I can have cereal for breakfast again, and coffee with actual milk in it. And gods damn it all, I wanted cereal and coffee if I was going to have to wake up an hour early to carpool with my wife to work. Close Magix and re-open Acid when I get back, intending to mix tracks afterward.

12) Forget about everything until the next morning, when I was bustling around getting ready for work. Say, “What the hell?” and quickly hit render before I walk out the door.

... so yeah. I might have a track to upload when I get home from work. :) I may or may not also think of an actual title instead of the working title by then.

#workflow #rough draft #cyberpunk #cyberpunk music #cyberpunk soundtrack #synth

[nekumiko]

Colors

Fandom: Daiya no Ace

Genre: Romance

Rated: T

Words: 3, 944

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Summary:  She’s fascinated with his hair. Just his hair. But Ryousuke finds it invasive, and of course he won’t let her off that easily.

Chapter Six: Ryousuke and Aya

That sure cheered him up, alright.

And Kominato Ryousuke in a good mood spells trouble for the other teams. The opponent that Saturday is Kiryuu High School, famous for having the best batters in Osaka. In the top half of the first inning alone, Kiryuu is up by three runs – or rather, three bases-loaded walks. But then, the next batter hits to center field… right into their territory.

Toned (short) legs run after the baseball, which consequently bounces into the waiting glove of the second baseman.

“Ryou-san!”

In the split second before Kominato falls prone to the ground, he expertly throws the baseball to his reliable partner.

With his signature laugh ringing through the field, Kuramochi then practically flies over the Kiryuu runner to throw the baseball all the way to their captain at first base.

The well-known double play of Seidou’s Iron Wall had not only prevented another bases-loaded walk, but ultimately ended the top half of the inning.

“H-he stopped it?”

“How did he catch that?”

“Nothing can get past those two!”

As the crowd continues to marvel over the wholesome turnout, Aya grips the underside of the bench she’s sitting on, grinning excitedly.

The infamous duo would be on a roll now as they would finally start up the offense.

Kuramochi steps onto the box as the lead-off batter. Once he hits the very first pitch, he becomes barely a flash of white and blue speeding through the field, shocking the whole of Kiryuu team and almost freezing the fielders up. Almost. Kuramochi steps on the third white bag, but not before its baseman catches the baseball from another fielder, rendering him out. A close call.

Maybe Aya had spoken too soon.

It doesn’t change the fact, though, that the second batter is the player with the best batting eye. Having full control of the baseball once it hits his bat, Kominato Ryousuke always keeps everyone on their toes. Today, after committing three balls and two strikes, the next pitch could either advance or take him out of the field. But he intentionally drives that and the next nine pitches into fouls, prolonging him at-bat.

Alas, Kiryuu’s pitcher starts showing signs of fatigue.

That is when Kominato decides not to swing anymore, effectively prompting the umpire to call it the fourth ball and award him a walk.

Was it some sort of comeback, or something he’d been planning from the start? Either way, it fills Aya with pride, with hope for a victory today, and maybe with a little selfish happiness knowing she’s a reason behind his good plays.

But she somehow feels sorry for the Seidou team, too.

For Kominato Ryousuke in a good mood may also be a bit bad to his own teammates’ sanity.

No doubt Kuramochi would be insulted for not getting on base, as if it hadn’t been enough that Kominato playfully hit his stomach with a glove after just complaining about fatigue from camp. Aya wishes she didn’t need to see how the poor shortstop had curled up in pain.

And it seems like the senior had been more than happy to stay quiet along with the other fielders during the first five innings Furuya had pitched, a plan they had apparently come up with just to loosen the stiff first-year up. Birds of the same feather flock together, they say.

That good mood extends up to the following day – where Seidou plays in a three-way round robin against Shuuhoku and Inashiro Industrial – not even dampened by a little pest named Narumiya Mei showing off a new pitch to watch out for (if anything, it had only fired he and his friends up even more).

At the final game against Shuuhoku, as their beloved ace, Tanba, stands in the batter box for the bottom half of the inning, Kominato now teams up with another notorious bully. Their voices ring out all the way from the dugout.

“Hit it, Tanba!” Isashiki Jun shouts.

“But don’t try too hard!” “It will affect your pitching!” Kominato adds.

Back-and-forth they continue, to the point where everyone, even Aya, had to tune them out.

Yet, as all baseball games go, things always take an unexpected turn.

Shuuhoku’s pitch becomes a dead ball in the worst possible way – it hits Tanba right in the face. In a flash, the field swarms with white, crowding around the fallen Seidou ace and swallowing up Coach Kataoka, the first one to rush in.

It’s the seniors’ last chance to play in Nationals. Chris had already been eliminated from the roster because of his injury. That fact remains hard to swallow, for what would be the point of reaching the top if you all won’t be there together? And if Tanba – their ace, their friend – would end up the same…

Aya had to do quick errands for the Art Club at lunch next day, and therefore can’t help but sneak a peek at 3-B’s classroom. She had spent a good portion of yesterday staring at the cold white screen of her phone when Kominato only replied with a highly doubtful “I’ll be fine” to her texts.

He is seated up front beside the window, his chin propped on one hand. Masuko and Isashiki, as well as their other teammates from the class, surround him, along with an almost tangible gloom.

Practice the following morning is devastatingly quiet, too. The seniors remain strong in their throws and swings, remain excellent in catching. But these are all obviously out of frustration.

Dealing with a low-spirited sportsman, however, is not new to Aya. He would just need time to sort out his feelings, and that is best done in the company of his teammates. But with the upgrade in their relationship, she now has the urge – no, a sudden sense of duty to comfort him. Yet this relationship is still so fresh that she realizes she doesn’t know how to. Would he really want to be left alone? Does he have a comfort food, or a way to let off steam? Having only focused on his physical attributes before, and not to mention their bad history that had kept her distant, her knowledge about him is merely a speck of pink in a huge, white space.

As white as the papers she’s currently drowning in.

“Is this how you absorb your lessons?”

Aya opens her eyes to come face-to-face with the exact person filling her thoughts.

“Found you~” he says softly, a small smile finding its way on his lips.

She smiles back, relieved to see it. Until she realizes she’d been asleep. She immediately straightens up and covers her mouth with her hands.

Kominato chuckles as he sits up too, shifting in his chair so that he stays facing her, his knees almost touching her right leg. “Don’t worry.” He pries her hands away. “I would’ve already wiped away any drool if you had any. Although,” his hands move to fix her hair, fingers running through the flyaways, “you do have the beginnings of a bird’s nest.”

She fights the urge to lean into the touch.

When he pulls away, the amused smile vanishes. “You haven’t been getting enough sleep.”

Play it cool. Aya shrugs. “I’m taking commissions again, so I’ve been busy.”

“Shouldn’t you be studying? Final exams are just around the corner.”

“I am!” She gestures at the books and notebooks in front of her. “I only study in the library, though.”

“Sure, if that’s what you call studying.” He tilts his head at the portraits she’d drawn for the past hour, half-hidden under her book.

“I need breaks, okay?” She giggles. “And don’t worry. Between me and my cousin, I’m the one blessed with academic excellence. So I’ll be fine!”

“Oh? Then does that mean we can’t have study dates?”

She laughs uneasily at the mention of the word, suddenly turning a page in her book. “How did you find me here?”

From her peripheral, Aya swears Kominato’s lips quirk up for a second. “You texted me.”

Now, that’s not what she’s expecting. Aya looks back at him with a small frown. “I did?” She checks her phone. “Oh my god, I thought I was texting my cousin!” Because he’s the only one who occasionally asks if she got home already. The only one who texts her, actually.

“No wonder you dropped polite speech with me.” He doesn’t bother to hide the smirk now. “Again.”

“Sorry.” She puts her phone down. “But why are you looking for me?”

“Simple. I missed my Mako-chan.”

Aya whines. “I told you not to butcher my very meaningful name!”

Kominato laughs, and it’s a pleasant sound she didn’t think she’d hear this week. Suddenly, the nickname doesn’t sound too bad. It was merely a chuckle, though, before he scoots closer. “Let’s go on a date, Mako-chan.”

Her small smile disappears as she blinks. “W-what?”

“I asked you out right before two whole days of games, and then stop talking to you for nearly two more days afterwards. I don’t think I’ve been a good boyfriend.”

She shakes her head vigorously. “No, Kominato-san! I understand all that! You’ve got Nationals to prepare for, so it’s really okay!”

He stares at her. “You haven’t dated before, have you?”

Aya’s jaw falls open.

Kominato coos, tucking a few strands of her hair behind her ear. “I’d be very honored to be your first.”

“I…” She lowers his hand to intertwine it with hers, resting them on top of his knee. “But what about Nationals? Are you really in a state to go on dates right now? I mean, with what happened in the game…”

“That idiot thankfully only cracked his chin, so he’d definitely still play. We’d just start off the season without him. While that would require more effort for everyone, there’s enough time.” He puts an elbow on the table and props his head on his palm, so that he’s angled to look up and into her eyes. “The team is a priority, but you’re important too.”

Aya gulps. Stares at him for a few seconds. Turns away to cover her face with her hands. “Who are you and what did you do to Kominato Ryousuke?”

He chuckles. “Oh, right. You didn’t watch afternoon practice. That’s why.”

She lowers her hands. “That’s why…?” It is then that she notices he is still wearing his white jersey. Had he sought her out right after practice?

“Tetsu and Jun did a good job at motivating the seniors earlier. But,” he leans closer to whisper his next words in her ear, “did you forget it’s you who could cheer me up the most?”

To address Aya’s concerns, Kominato – after getting harshly shoved away from her – sets the date on Saturday, for the team does not practice on weekends, and since his “smart girlfriend surely wouldn’t dedicate a whole day for studying.”

Now that they’re waiting in line at the movie theater, he turns to the girl who had shown up in a dress as pure white as her soul. “Are you sure you want to watch a horror movie?” Well, maybe not.

Aya nods quite excitedly. “I’m not actually fond of the romance genre. I like movies that could make you scream, jump, or basically just keep you up at night! Oh, especially if it’s gore. You can even ask Kazuya…” she trails off upon seeing Kominato’s tight smile.

“I just don’t think it’s a first-date movie.”

“Why not?” Aya slips her hand in his. “It would be a perfect movie for low-key cuddling when I get scared.”

If she gets scared. Aya instead ends up too engrossed with the movie, only staring straight ahead as she subconsciously munches on her sandwich. Of course, if she’d never been clingy when watching these kinds of movies before, she still wouldn’t be even if she has a boyfriend now.

“Mako-chan.”

She gasps loudly at the hand touching her arm. They are apparently outside the cinema already.

Kominato frowns slightly in concern. “Are you alright?”

Not making fun of me? “Yes, just… a little spooked. That movie was really good.” She holds a hand to her chest and breathes deeply. “Now, I need to burn all that adrenaline. Let’s go to a batting center next.”

It would be comical to say that Kominato Ryousuke’s eyes had widened. “Did I just hear you correctly? A batting center?”

“Why? You aren’t sick of baseball yet, right? Because that’d be bad news.”

Kominato shakes his head. “How would watching me bat help you with… with burning the adrenaline?”

She giggles. “Who says I’d be watching?”

And it finally clicks. “You can bat?”

She scoffs. “For your information, I am fairly good at it. It’d be a shame if I wasn’t. It’s the only game Kazuya knows how to play with me back when we were kids.”

“Oh?” Kominato drags the word out. “That’s interesting,” he says despite losing all color in his tone. He lightly grasps her wrist and starts walking. “Alright, I know a center nearby.”

Aya bites her lip to stifle another giggle.

He waits until they had crossed over to the other side of the street before speaking again. “Miyuki and you really go way back.”

Finally. “Of course we do. He’s my cousin.”

“What?” He stops. Fortunately, they are out of the way of passersby. “The cousin you’ve been talking about all along?”

“The one and only~” As he continues to only stare at her, Aya laughs. “I mean, seriously, how could people not see that? We have the same brown hair,” she twirls a lock of hair, “pretty brown eyes,” and then she places a finger gun under her chin, clicking her tongue, “and good looks!” She crosses her arms, humming in thought. “Maybe it’s because I don’t wear glasses. Oh!” She claps once. “No, it has to be the attitude. I am way kinder than he is.”

Somehow recovering during her little monologue, Kominato chuckles. “And way shorter.”

Aya gasps. But then she smiles goofily and nudges his shoulder. “But at least that makes you taller than me, right?” This time, she pulls him by the wrist so they could get a move on. “Anyway, I’d like to say that you disappoint me, senpai, for being one of those people sick enough to think of me and Kazuya as… ugh, eww.”

“But?”

Aya smirks at him. “But I’ve realized you’ve been jealous all this time, and that’s fun to think back on now!”

“I wasn’t.”

“Sure.” But before Kominato could even reply, Aya stops to look up at the batting center already in front of them. “You’re right, it is nearby!”

At first, it had been sweet.

“I’ll only play in the cages you’d play in,” Kominato says as he collects their tokens from the machine. “Don’t go off to another cage without me. I’d have to watch you because you’re not exactly wearing the right clothes for this.”

Aya blinks and looks down at herself. Her dress is not too short to ride up her thighs if she moves recklessly, but she finds her cheeks warming up at his concern. “Okay. Thank you.”

When he passes her the gloves that the center offers, Kominato tuts. “You really should’ve told me in advance that we’d go here today. I would’ve let you borrow my own gloves instead.”

She smiles, deciding not to remind him it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. “It’s okay. I’m not squeamish.”

But then he gets only one helmet, and leads her to the 90 km/h cage. And then he smirks. “Let’s start safe.” He puts the helmet on her head. “This is for you.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“You are Miyuki’s cousin, after all.”

Aya pouts. Miyuki Kazuya is known to hit homers and long balls, as long as there are runners on base. Otherwise, he only gets struck out. And in this setting that has absolutely no runners to consider, Aya might have picked up that weakness from the only one who taught her how to bat. Or maybe it’s just because of the person watching her today.

“Mako-chan, you won’t get to move on to the faster balls if you keep this up.”

“Whoa. You almost got hit. Again.”

“Mako-chan, do you want me to buy more tokens?”

“I am glad you did not decide to be a baseball player.”

Aya not only gets rid of all that adrenaline, but also develops a better understanding of the Seidou team fortunate enough to be playing in the same batch as Kominato Ryousuke. “I want to hit you.”

“I get that a lot.” He hands her a towel. “They don’t say it, but the look in their eyes does.”

“I am sure.”

After a few more rounds – to be fair, Aya had gotten over her nerves and it became a friendly competition – they finally decide to eat, and Kominato gets to choose where to go this time.

“Senpai,” Aya softly calls as she twirls her pasta around her fork, “why did you pick a French café?”

“If I let you pick again, we might be in a family restaurant right now.”

“What do you mean?”

He frowns slightly. “Aren’t you being too considerate of me? Watching a movie in a genre I like. Going to a batting center of all places.”

“And what? You expect me to suggest eating curry? I don’t even know your favorite food.”

He pauses. “It is curry.”

“Oh. Wow.”

A moment of silence passes.

Aya raises an eyebrow. “And you think I’d like it here?”

His lips part open in surprise. “You don’t?”

She shrugs. “It’s okay. I’m not exactly that high-maintenance.” Aya finally eats the carbonara on her fork. “And for the record, I don’t like curry. Or any other spicy food.”

Kominato sighs in relief. “Okay. I…” He looks out the glass wall of the café. “I just want you to feel special.”

Aya wants to melt. “Just that thought is enough, really! Don’t be pressured with me too, please.” She touches his hand on the table, prompting him to look back at her. “This might sound cliché, but I seriously think that any activity would be perfect as long as it’s with you. And hey, did it not occur to you that we might just like the same things?” She then clasps her hands in front of her, grinning. “That makes us all the more compatible, doesn’t it?”

He breaks out into a shy grin back, a slight pink on his cheeks. “I guess.”

Aya sips her iced macchiato, and then clears her throat. “I do have a very important question, senpai.”

He puts his fork down now, a small frown back on his face. “What is it?”

“Well, I know we’re a new couple, but we’ve technically known each other for a year now, making us fairly familiar with each other… so I’ve just been wondering…” It is now her turn to look out of the café. “Um, isn’t it a bit weird for me to keep calling you by your family name? Especially since your brother studies at the same school now.”

“I do remember that you call him by his first name.”

“Exactly! I call my boyfriend’s brother by his first name, but with my own boyfriend…”

He sits back. “I see. You want to call me by my first name.”

Aya turns back to him. “But that’s not all. Uh, you see, if you allow me to, another concern would come up.”

He nods once for her to continue. 

“How exactly would I do that? Your teammates call you ‘Ryou-san’ and ‘Ryousuke-san.’ Now, wouldn’t it be much weirder if I do the same thing?”

He chuckles. “You put a lot of thought into this, huh?”

She only laughs nervously.

He hums in thought. “’Ryou.’ You can call me ‘Ryou.’”

Her eyes widen. “No honorifics? Are you sure?”

He only nods, then resumes his meal. 

“Okay, Ryou.” She picks at her food, repeating his name for a few more times.

But he says nothing else. There’s not even a blush on his cheeks.

So Aya waits for him to take another bite of his bread. “Ryou,” she calls, and then smiles because he had the decency to finally look up. “You can call me Aya.”

He chokes.

Gauging his coughing fit to be at a level where he won’t see white lights yet, Aya smirks and leans over the table as she dangles a glass of water. “Aww, Ryou, do you need Aya to help you?”

Despite the not-so-pure-white individual personalities of the two, their relationship could be best described as painted in the color of new beginnings.

Not only is this Aya’s first relationship, but it also marks the end of their countless petty fights from the past year. Ryousuke and Aya are starting off on a clean slate, falling under the spell of awkward but sweet innocence of getting to know each other in a new light.

But the problem with having something so white is that you can’t exactly hide it.

As they get closer to summer vacation – and Summer Nationals – practice and final exams leave the team with almost no time for themselves. That brings Kuramochi into joining Aya and Miyuki’s near-regular lunches in the classroom.

“Are you sure you two can eat that much?” Aya asks as she closes the lid of her own lunchbox, having finished before them because her meals are much lighter.

“Three bowls of rice is the minimum back at the dorms,” Kuramochi replies. “Besides, this is good. And surely healthier than those in the cafeteria. I should order from you more often.”

“That’d be very nice! New customers are always welcome!”

“Hey, don’t let it get to her head,” Miyuki says.

“Well, I’m sorry.” Aya squints. “Even if my cooking is ‘second-rate,’ they’re well-appreciated.”

“Kuramochi’s the only other person you’ve ever cooked for.”

“That’s not true! I’ve cooked for Ryou before and he likes it.”

The two boys stop.

Aya drops her chopsticks, as wide-eyed as them.

“Ryou?” they chorus.

“J-just keep eating, okay?” She grabs her poor chopsticks from the ground, but resurfaces to find them still staring at her.

Miyuki is the first one to recover, a slight frown on his eyebrows. “Aya,” he drags the last syllable out, “has something been happening the whole week you barely talked to me?”

She starts packing up her lunch set to escape that all-knowing gaze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

And then Miyuki laughs so hard, the remaining students in the room start staring.

“Oi!” She lightly kicks his foot. “Cut it out already!”

“I just…” Miyuki manages to say before he laughs again.

Even Kuramochi sighs. “I don’t know why he finds it funny. I personally think it’s amusing.”

“That’s not very reassuring, Mochi.” 

He smirks. “I mean, who would’ve thought you two would actually – no, finally hook up?”

“You’re so foul-mouthed!”

Miyuki finally calms down. “Ah, that was a good one.” He points to the new ribbon on her half-ponytail. “I knew there was something behind Makoto Aya suddenly putting more effort in taming her hair.”

“Right?” Kuramochi shoves food into his mouth. “And it’s not like you two aren’t obvious, you know.” He swallows. “Don’t think I can’t see all his glances and smiles at the bleachers. Or how Ryou-san spends a lot of time texting.”

“Oh! Now I’m sure my eyes weren’t tricking me when I saw the ‘Ryou’ doodles at the back of your notebook,” Miyuki adds.

She raises an eyebrow. “We aren’t ‘obvious,’ you guys are just irritatingly perceptive.”

Huge grins slowly creep into the two friends’ expressions.

Aya curses.

Previous: Truce

Next: Jealousy (but not just Ryousuke’s)

#kominato ryousuke x oc #ryousuke x oc #kominato ryousuke #miyuki kazuya #kuramochi youichi #diamond no ace #daiya no ace #ace of diamond #ace of diamond fanfiction #diamond no ace fanfiction #nekumiko

[thedappleddragon]

how's about 4 days worth of logs because I kept getting too sleepy ok go

Today I fucked around made a lot of pasta spent too much time outside with my cat cut some more paw pattern pieces hand sewed the fingers as much as I could started makin the lining but gave up took a shower and did some much needed moisturizing did dishes ate candy and drew caras oc and started Anna’s final render but I need to do some cleanups

I woke up from a dream that my mom got the dog she signed up for but it was like a golden retriever that actually turn into a fat copy of my cat with bad eyes. Had a bagel for breakfast and saw my dad got chive and onion cream cheese :) Igot ready for the dmv and realized I should probably do laundry soon and put away clothes I’ve let pile up. Left for dmv after a while, went around the area a little bit, it started raining, waited inside dmv, a little nervous but not much, talked to same lady as last time (she was very nice and funny :) ) we had to sprint outside to the car because it was POURING OUTSIDE during the first half of the test and suddenly cleared up the second half. Ran over a big puddle. HOORAY I PASSED! Picked up subway, at half at home, went to grandparents house to look at old photos and read my moms old diary from her last family vacation before marrying my dad, stayed for entirely too long, came home, finished subway, laid down, drew and finished the princess lineup, now it’s only 1 am butn sleepy good night. Perhaps I will remember to post the past 2 days in the morning. Yesterday made 2 pastas and resin-Ed old new leaf charm

Writing the days summary through text for the 3rd day in a row because I am sleepy

I woke up pretty damn early, before 9am. Went outside with my cat, played webkinz, snacked. Then mom asked me to pick up her city barbecue which was my first time driving truly all by myself. I trusted myself to know how to get there but I was one street over and then going from the wrong direction and had to turn around, it was a mess. But I got the food just fine and got home safely and without problem. I wanted to drive a little more, so I went to the park, walked a lap around the perimeter, and came back home, sitting in the driveway for a little bit. I hung out for a bit, played stardew valley, quit because I accidentally died in the volcano, fucked around, idk. My friends ex tried snapping me but I didn’t answer and instead texted shit about him with the groupchat. Then we started talking about lgbt labels which tbh made me a little mad and overwhelmed and frustrated, and people were talking faster than I could type, and we talked about asexuality and lack thereof and everyone got uncomfy and fuckin. AAAAAAAH. I got mad and got a headache from hitting myself stimming and decided to try calming down by washing my hair in the dark. I like showing in total darkness occasionally. There’s nothing I need to see anyway lmao. I found myself not even noticing it was dark if that makes sense. Then my dad scared me by opening the door which I didn’t realize I hadn’t locked and telling me dinner was ready. I ate and we talked a little bit about job applications until I went back to bed and got in a weird board mood, and a mint chocolate chip Klondike bar, and now I’m going to sleep I guess. Lily is better at eating and existing on the floor like an animal after I put her food on the floor

today was very rainy and nice. I went with my sister to drive around and pick up food for mom. we dropped it off at home and went to go get our own food. Emily got a gyro and I got 5 guys. the gyro place had a little store attached off to the side with very cramped isles and kinder eggs, which was interesting because I thought they were still banned in America. 5 guys was very overwhelming because of how busy it was. after getting our food we drove to the top of the parking garage and ate there, looking over the main roads and stores and everything, watching the rain. we ate and watched tiktoks and hung out until we decided to go to mcdonlds for water. 2 large waters was only 54 cents so I paid in coins lmao. we sat in the target parking lot for a moment before shopping around. Emily got some shorts and a face wash, and I got a succulent in a bunny shaped pot. I'm 80% sure there's not any dirt in there, and the succulent is glued in, so I got it mostly for the pot. it looks like the bunny is holding the plant, so I think I'll use it for holding pens when the plant dies. right now it’s sitting on my window, looking very cute. after driving home I sat in the car for a bit watching tiktoks until my sister called me and my phone died. apparently my cat was looking for me and even jumped up onto my sister’s bed. so I spent some time in bed just hanging out with her, playing Webkinz and hopping onto animal jam for th first time in months. theyve added some stuff which is cool I guess. I'm not gonna try to log in every day like I did when I was hyper fixated on animal jam, feral, waking, and Webkinz Next all at the same time. that was A Time. maybe I'll jump onto feral tomorrow to see what’s up there. it’s a very pretty game, and the few mini games they have are fun. I just wish there were easier ways to get new avatars, or at least have more than one design for one species. bleh. anyways my friend sent a tiktok she made about our friend group so I spent the next several hours drawing it but as our royal bloodshed au sonas. saving all the frames to my camera roll filled up my phone and I had to delete Tumblr. its fine because I haven been able to use it on mobile for over a year now I think. my phone is so stupidly fulll because I don't delete messages or pictures x-x I just need to upload them all to a drive and delete them all or something. im proud of the animatic but I've only gotten one response in the grouch so far, probably because everyone’s asleep lmao. now it’s midnight and I'm just gonna take a Tylenol and hang out until I fall asleep.

#thanks for coming to my ted talk #long post #April 2021 daily #2021 daily

[sindrafalcone]

Wrong Number, Right Call (part 4)

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3

Fandom: BIGBANG/ Choi Seung Hyun x Reader

Synopsis: The first date...

Warnings: Does fluff need a warning? Because this is ALL fluff.

Author’s Note: We’re almost done with this cutie of a story. The epilogue goes up tomorrow! :) Also, I’m going to have to ask you guys to stretch your imagination a bit with this one... Seung Hyun goes out in public and doesn’t get mauled by fans.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. This story contains fictional representations of real people. None of the events are true. This is from an American standpoint, so some of the situations may not happen the same way they might in Korea. I make no money from the writing of this fictional work.

Masterlist

(Photo edit not mine, credit on pic)

You agreed to meet up at the subway station at eleven in the morning.

After you agreed on the time and place Seung Hyun hung up and had a moment to feel absolutely ecstatic as he realized what just happened. Then he really realized what just happened and started to panic a little.

He decided not to tell any of his friends. They already teased him enough about his "texting friend", if they heard about this date he would never hear the end of it. And to be honest, he'd rather they not be involved for now. Somehow he suspected they'd find a way to get invite themselves along & he didn't want that.

Which, unfortunately, meant he couldn't ask any of them about what he should wear. It had been so long since Seung Hyun even had a date, he just wasn't sure. A quick internet search didn't help much... apparently first date attire depended on the location. Amusement parks were considered casual, which meant nothing formal. Not to mention the fact that if he dressed up too much it would make him easier to spot. Seung Hyun reluctantly had to admit that dressing down was the best option, so he found himself picking a pair of dark blue, rather tight jeans. He'd bought them while going shopping with Jiyong one time, who had wolf-whistled when Seung Hyun stepped out of the dressing room (which he had taken as a sign that they looked good on him).

A t-shirt was the obvious other choice, but Seung Hyun wasn't really sure what type. He had plenty of plain, colored ones that were probably boring, but he didn't know which ones with prints on them would be appropriate. Any of the Bigbangr themed ones he knew were out of the question. Eventually, after upending half his closet, he picked a wine-red v-collared shirt and black striped hoodie to go over that. It probably looked dull, but by this point Seung Hyun had spent two hours in his closet and had enough of fretting over clothes. As he worked to set everything to rights again, he strictly forbade himself from reconsidering, the painstakingly selected outfit laid folded over a chair.

That turned out to be harder than he thought, but he managed to stay strong by distracting himself. It also helped that you had called him in the evening for a relatively short phone call, talking about inconsequential things. After you hung up he felt considerably less nervous and unsure.

Thankfully, the feeling lasted until he stepped off the train at exit 2. He was wearing a dark gray baseball cap, black face mask and had a pair of sunglasses hooked into his shirt's collar, just in case. Most of the time people didn't recognize him unless he was dumb enough to forego the disguise and hang around in public. Today, the chances were much higher that he would go unrecognized as long as he was careful.

Yesterday, when you agreed on where to meet, you told him that you'd be wearing a blue shirt. Nobody was waiting yet so Seung Hyun put his hands in his pockets and peered out at the subway traffic, casually people watching.

He hadn't even been waiting five minutes, which was why he almost missed when you showed up until he spotted a figure heading straight for him out of the corner of his eye. Turning towards the person, he lowered his gaze and was honestly rendered speechless.

You were... well, devastatingly beautiful came to mind. Hot as hell, too. The phrase sex on legs occurred as Seung Hyun found himself looking you up and down, completely forgetting about trying to be subtle because... holy hell.

You were wearing a pair of black jeans that looked like they'd been painted on. A blue shirt, as you'd said, with a washed out, fading white print of a butterfly on the front that fit very well, revealing only a subtle amount of skin. Your hair had been curled up into a messy bun and there was a light dusting of makeup on your face. Your eyes were warm and bright & there was an adorable curve to your lips. Bright red and delicious.

Seung Hyun hadn't expected this. He was curious what you would look like but he hadn't asked and you hadn't volunteered. It simply hadn't mattered to him. He was already attracted to you, he figured the physical aspect would follow once you met.

Boy, did it ever.

The very best part, though, was the way you were smiling. Talking to you on the phone, Seung Hyun had imagined you to be the type of person who smiled with their whole body, just by the way it was reflected in your voice. He'd been completely right about that. Just in the few seconds after Seung Hyun had met your eyes, the smile on your face had widened and brightened until you were all but beaming. He was helpless to do anything but smile back, completely charmed and embarrassingly breathless.

"Seung Hyun." you said, and then you hugged him. Not one of those polite, quick hugs either but a real hug where you pressed your chest against his and wrapped your arms around his waist, your cheek briefly resting against Seung Hyun's neck. Then, slowly, you let go and took a step back. "Wow, you look even bigger in person."

"Uh, you look..." Seung Hyun started, then stopped, because anything that came to mind was probably inappropriate. The only reason he didn't feel like a complete cad was that the word "beautiful" was the first one he thought of, quickly followed by "devastating" and then a pretty incoherent garble.

"Yes?" you said, one eyebrow raising, the remnants of the smile still curling your lips up.

"Good." Seung Hyun finally managed, sounding slightly strangled. "Really good, I mean. Really, really good."

You laughed. "Don't strain anything trying so hard, geez."

"No, I just..." feeling helpless, Seung Hyun gestured toward you a little, then flushed deep red and lowered his hand. "Uh. You really look good."

Grinning, you winked at him. "I get it."

You looked happy as you glanced toward the exit, body language loose and relaxed. "Ready to go?"

With Seung Hyun leading the way you left the station and started walking down the street, soon stepping out into the bright sun. It was a nice day, not too warm, not too cool, a few clouds in the sky but no prospect of rain.

"Are you hungry?" he asked.

"Seung Hyun..." you said with exaggerated patience. "You're taking me to an amusement park. The question isn't how hungry I am, it's how much I can eat without throwing up." you blinked up at him, expression set. "We're getting tonkatsu to start with. Let's go."

With determination, you started leading the way to Seoul Land, but not without reaching out to touch Seung Hyun's elbow. A little confused, Seung Hyun lifted his arm, and you clearly took that as an invitation to slide your hand down the inside of it to Seung Hyun's hand, where you laced your fingers with his. That wasn't at all what Seung Hyun had intended to do, but it was absolutely what he wanted to happen, so he curled his fingers around yours and found himself smiling helplessly at the ground.

Gently, you bumped your shoulder into his. "You're a sap. Somehow I'm not surprised."

"Shut up..." Seung Hyun returned warmly, feeling a big part of his nerves slowly seep away. Yes, this was you, but it was also _________. The girl he'd been talking to every day for weeks... months, if texting counted as talking.

At first conversation between the two of you was a bit awkward. The way Seung Hyun couldn't stop looking at you probably didn't help make things less so. But as you got used to the new circumstances, you both started to relax and found your stride again. Very quickly you were back to talking to each other the way you always did... a lot of teasing interspersed with conversation.

It was different, of course, being with you in person. Seung Hyun got to look at you, which he did... a lot. It was a bit embarrassing but he couldn't seem to stop himself. And he could also touch you, which he tried not to do as much as he looked, but he probably still touched you a great deal. Seung Hyun was a tactile person and wasn't always aware of it. More than once he found his hand somewhere thankfully innocuous on you, your arm mostly, your hand, the small of your back. Every time he guiltily retracted his hand again. To his embarrassment you definitely noticed, glancing at Seung Hyun out of the corner of your eye several times, looking amused. Once or twice you even grabbed his hand and put it back where it had been after he tried to remove it.

After the tonkatsu, you worked your way from carnival game to food and back, zig-zagging from fishing ducks to getting walnut cookies, from tossing hoops at a glass bottle to deep-fried seafood on a stick, and more. Eventually you decided you couldn't eat any more, your lips sticky with spun sugar that you licked out of the corners of your mouth. Seung Hyun didn't hear a word you said, too busy staring at your shiny lips, trying and thoroughly failing not to imagine their sweet taste.

"Seung Hyun?" you asked. You stopped walking and looked up at him, your expression highly amused. "Are you even listening?"

There were only two things Seung Hyun could do right then: lie, or... not.

"No." he replied, pulling his mask down so that it was tucked under his chin.

Seung Hyun reached out to cup your face with both hands and gave you just enough time to see the amusement fade from his eyes, lips parting as your chin seemed to lift almost instinctively, welcoming. Then he leaned in and pressed his lips to yours, warm and slightly sticky, impossibly sweet.

The kiss lingered, but he kept it as sweet as the flavor of your lips, not deepening it. He wanted to, but he also wanted to keep it just as it was, soft and almost light. It was everything you would have hoped  your first kiss with Seung Hyun would be, even if a little more spontaneous than you would have thought. People were walking past you, a lot of children that shrieked and yelled in excitement. You were warm and still, not quite pressed against him, your hand on Seung Hyun's wrist where his hand was still cupping your face.

It felt like ages had passed when you finally separated, though it probably wasn't more than a handful of seconds. Seung Hyun's heart seemed to be trying to jump right out of his chest, it was beating so fast and, inexplicably, he was breathing a little harder. In front of him you were real and warm and looking a little stunned, eyes wide and a little dark.

The tip of your tongue flicked out to wet your lips, and you blinked. "Hmmm, yes."

"Yes?" Seung Hyun repeated, slightly amused. His mouth started to stretch into a smile, entirely out of his control as happiness bubbled up in him.

You returned the smile, bright and pleased. "Yes." you leaned up for a quick kiss, then pulled back and took Seung Hyun's hand, pulling him along. "Now, let's go."

"Go?" Seung Hyun had to laugh, trying to catch up with you as he tugged his mask back into place. "Go where?"

Over your shoulder, you sent him a very significant look, a mischievous twinkle in your eyes, then you faced to the front again and made a beeline for the bumper cars.

"I am never, ever getting into a car with you behind the wheel." you swore half an hour later as you both stumbled off the steps leading to the ride. Seung Hyun laughed with his full body, head thrown back, and you physically felt yourself fall a little bit (more) in love with him, his bright eyes, his expressive face and body language.

"I'm not even allowed to drive. No license.” he explained, still reeling a little and utterly unable to refrain from slinging his arm around your waist, pulling you in to press a short kiss to you temple.

You snickered, the tips of your fingers casually brushing down Seung Hyun's belly.

“Ooohh." his entire body language changed all of a sudden as he spotted something that captured his attention. "Let's go." He grabbed your hand and walked quickly for a shooting range. "What do you want me to win for you?"

Caught a little off-guard, you stared at the gifts on offer for anyone who hit the target's center enough times. "Um... I don't know?"

"Alright." Seung Hyun said, suddenly all business as he handed you his mask and hat.

It was fascinating how his entire body language changed, he became focused and sort of... contained, as he received the carnival rifle the employee handed him in exchange for a couple of bills. Seung Hyun handled the gun expertly, weighing it and peering through the scope for a second before he got into position in front of one of the targets & pressed the butt of the rifle against his shoulder. His entire body went still as he peered along the rifle, then shot.... again and again. Hitting the center each time, making it seem effortless. You knew that carnival games were rigged, but you also knew that the very best of shooters could compensate for that. Seung Hyun seemed to be having no trouble.

It was breathtaking, captivating, to watch him. His usually expressive body language was stone still, focused completely as he obliterated the target. The carnival employee smiled, wide and fake, and a few people standing close by applauded as Seung Hyun handed the gun back with a slowly building grin, pointing towards a stuffed purple elephant. He took the elephant with a bow, then immediately handed it over to you, his smile widening and brightening, though his eyes were still calm, serious.

You took the elephant, much more occupied with looking at Seung Hyun and he looked back, for just a moment, until somebody approached him. You listened as a guy hesitantly asked Seung Hyun for an autograph so he could give it to his girlfriend. You did your best to melt into the background as a couple more people approached Seung Hyun to take photos. He accepted it all with a placid smile, nodded, shook hands and hugged that woman who seemed on the verge of tears. You knew what this was, just part of the life of being a celebrity. Thankfully it wasn't a lot of people, just a handful.

Once he'd shaken the last guy's hand, Seung Hyun stepped away and turned to you, his expression a bit wry. "Sorry about that. Let's go."

You shook your head, reached out to brush your fingertips over his cheek. "Don't apologize."

He shrugged a little and, after putting his hat and mask back on, lead the way over to a line for waffles.

Visibly shaking the topic off, Seung Hyun pointed at the purple elephant you had stuffed under your arm. "So what do you think? Good choice?"

You glanced at the elephant and grinned. "The best. Couldn't have chosen better."

Seung Hyun grinned. "Yeah? What are you going to do with it?"

"Put it in my bed and sleep with it." you improvised.

"Yeah?" the look Seung Hyun sent you at that made you flush. "Sleep with it, huh?"

"Oh geez." you lowered your face into you hands for a moment, entirely mortified. It was worth it a little for the way Seung Hyun laughed, but still. Embarrassing.

"Let's just... um, waffles?" sounding slightly desperate, you gestured toward the available toppings.

"Oh, ________." Seung Hyun shook his head. "A little more creativity, please." with that, he stepped forward, nodded at the vendor and ordered. "One with banana, chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles, please."

Not batting an eyelash, the vendor nodded and looked expectantly at you. Seung Hyun turned around to look at you equally expectantly. Knowing you needed to make a decision quickly you said. "Strawberries and whipped cream, please."

Seung Hyun blinked slowly and said not a word. You let him pay for the waffles (you'd been paying back and forth all day) and walked a few steps away from the stand to a free picnic table. Once he joined you, the two of you ate in silence for a little while.

Then, with an unabashed grin, Seung Hyun held  his waffle up for you to take a bite, which you did, if a bit reluctantly. It actually wasn't bad at all, if a little sweet for your taste. You preferred your own, though.

"Boring, ________." Seung Hyun sighed with mock disappointment when you told him as much, but still took a bite from your waffle when you offered, only to amend. "Good, but boring."

"At least I'm not going to be on a sugar high in three minutes.” you replied, unconcerned. “We can burn off our energy by going on there." you nodded towards the Black Hole 2000 roller coaster.

Oh, no. The last time Seung Hyun had been on that thing, when he'd been thirteen a couple of friends from school had dragged him along, he'd thrown up.

You laughed when he informed you why he'd suddenly gone pale in the face. "That's not going to happen again, is it? It would be a shame for all that good food to go to waste."

Seung Hyun couldn't even argue that, because most of it had been pretty good, for carnival food. "I think I'm more worried you are going to throw up." he returned. The two of you had been eating a lot.

"Please..." you scoffed. "I don't throw up unless alcohol is involved."

True to form, you didn't look even the slightest bit green in the face when you stepped off the roller coaster. Instead your face was bright, smile wide and cheeks flushed. "That was amazing!"you gushed. "Let's do that one next!" gesturing towards a machine the sole purpose of which appeared to be to toss the humans strapped into its seat up and down, twirling as it went.

"Sounds great." Seung Hyun said, determined to keep you looking that way, bright and incandescently happy, beautiful with it.

So you worked your way through the more adrenaline-laden rides. You took a couple of breaks for food and drink, sitting on a bench just as the sun started to set, painting the sky in bright orange and pink colors.

"Come on." you said suddenly, taking Seung Hyun's hand and heading for the Ferris wheel.

It was entirely cliché and Seung Hyun had absolutely no objection. He took a seat next to you in the two-seater car and captured your hand, twining his fingers with yours as you were slowly lifted into the sky. Seung Hyun slid the mask from his face so he could breathe in the crisp air. In the surrounding city lights had already begun coming on, the sky more pink and purple now as the sun slowly dipped below the horizon. It was a beautiful sight and Seung Hyun looked his fill, but then he glanced over at you. He was going to say something about how nice the view was, but the words died on his lips because you looked even more captivating than the cityscape ever could, no matter how pretty it was. You looked utterly content, eyes filled with a calm sort of wonder as you looked out at the city sprawled all around.

You gazed at the sights, and Seung Hyun gazed at you. Just as the car dipped past the highest point you turned toward him and went still. Your eyes widened a little, your breath audibly escaping past your lips in a gasp. Then you said, voice slightly hoarse. "If we were more romantic, this would be where our first kiss happened."

"If you were less irresistible, it might have been." Seung Hyun said. It was the first thing that came to his mind, but entirely true. He hadn't planned anything, but if he had, this was indeed how it might have happened.

"You're terrible." you complained playfully, and leaned in for your second kiss.

It was less tamed than the first kiss, but not wild per se. Your lips were soft and warm, not as sticky anymore but Seung Hyun would always be reminded of you whenever he tasted spun sugar, probably for the rest of his life. Now, your fingertips were on his jaw, tilting his face down, and he feels the tip of your tongue flick against his lower lip, wet and almost hot. It might not even be meant as an invitation but Seung Hyun couldn't resist it for a second. He opened his mouth to brush his tongue against yours, tasting the faint tang and sweetness and strawberries.

You didn't exactly turn wild and reckless with it, just brushed tongues for a second before pulling back, but a shiver ran through Seung Hyun anyway. He leaned in a little more towards you, felt you push back in return & flick your tongue out once more. Somehow your hands found their way to Seung Hyun's waist when he met your tongue with his own again, holding him close as Seung Hyun slung his arm around your shoulders.

The slight jolt as the wheel started turning again made you both startle. Seung Hyun had completely lost track of your surroundings and he blinked open eyes he didn't even realize he'd closed. He found you looking about as dazed as he felt.

"Damn." he rasped, blinking as he pulled back a little.

You silently agreed with the sentiment, nodding your head. You took a deep breath, and another, licking your lips and tasting Seung Hyun. All you wanted was to lean in and kiss him some more, but now that the real world was intruding you knew that you couldn't. You were about to reach the ground and have to get off the Ferris wheel.

You had sucked your lower lip into your mouth, white teeth digging into bright pink flesh, and Seung Hyun couldn't even look away from that, much less look around to see where the two of you were.

“Damn." you repeated his earlier assessment of the kiss, leaning in for a another that was there and gone again so quickly Seung Hyun couldn't really react. Then you leaned down towards the floor of the car to pick up Seung Hyun's baseball cap. He hadn't even noticed losing it. With a slightly rueful look, you put it back on his head as Seung Hyun put his mask back on.

Wordlessly, you both got out of the car when it was your turn and in silent agreement turned towards the exit for the amusement park. After a couple of steps you reached out and took Seung Hyun's hand. "So, it was probably good that wasn't our first kiss."

"Why?" he asked after a moment.

You threw him a look, then started walking backwards so you could look him in the eye. "Because the earth sort of moved and if it had been the first time, I would have always wondered if it was because it was actually moving. But nope, the first time we were on solid ground and still with the moving."

"Oh." Did that mean what Seung Hyun thought it did? It certainly sounded like it. He felt himself flush deep red.

The corners of your mouth quirked up and you looked at each other for a moment before you turned back around. But you still didn't let go of Seung Hyun's hand.

At some point he let go of your hand to sling an arm around your shoulders. He paid careful attention to see if you minded but you clearly didn't, glancing up at Seung Hyun from under your eyelashes as a faint smile played around your lips.

You didn't talk much as you walked back to the subway station... you didn't really need to. The silence between you was comfortable, feeling a little bit like a secret you shared, an agreement you'd come to. What it was Seung Hyun couldn't say, but he felt comfortable, like something had been settled. You kissed three more times on the way there.

When you got close to the entrance to the station, you looked at him. His face looked content, body language relaxed and loose. "When does your train leave?" you asked.

He shrugged "Doesn't really matter, there's one every ten minutes. Yours?"

You slipped the phone out of your pocket to check the time. "The next one is in three. Want to get some coffee?"

"Sure." Seung Hyun smiled faintly and, now that your hands were free, took your hand in his again. In silent agreement you headed towards a cafe & got coffee to go. You went down into the subway station and sat on a bench to drink the coffee while simply holding hands and passing the time with small talk.

"You're going to miss your train in a minute." Seung Hyun said with a grin after checking his phone.

Two minutes actually, but you didn't really care. You shrugged. "There will be another. I'll wait for the next one after you're done with your coffee."

"Aww, you're so sweet." he chuckled, but he looked honestly delighted and leaned in for a quick, coffee-flavored kiss.

"I think you're the sweet one here." you returned, licking the taste of caramel frappucchino off your lips. "You really have a sweet tooth, don't you?"

"I feel like I deserve a reward for going to the gym every day." Seung Hyun replied with an unrepentant shrug.

You only hummed in reply, letting your eyes slide down Seung Hyun's body. You couldn't imagine that you would care if he stopped going to the gym & didn't stop eating sweets, but he did look good.

"Alright. I have to get on my platform now, train's going get here in a minute." you smiled when Seung Hyun quickly got up as well. "So... I had a lot of fun today, this was great. Way better than I even imagined."

Seung Hyun couldn't even make a joke about being worried about what you had imagined, because he completely agreed.

"I had a great time too," he replied. For a second he wondered if he could kiss you goodbye, but then he decided that hell yes he could and leaned in to press his lips to yours.

It was the sixth kiss today, and it felt like a goodbye, maybe that was why it seemed more heated than any of the others. Or maybe it was because you were out of time. You leaned in eagerly, rising to the tips of your toes to be on the same level with Seung Hyun. He deliberately put one hand in the small of your back and leaned towards you. You opened your mouth when Seung Hyun did and welcomed his tongue, sliding inside just once before retreating like a promise as he pulled away.

Seung Hyun's expression was intense, eyes dark and heated as he stepped back. "We'll talk about our next date soon, yeah?"

"Yeah." you agreed immediately, lips tingling. You watched as Seung Hyun took one step back, then another, not taking his eyes off you until you finally turned around and strode off to your platform.

Seung Hyun watched until you were out of sight, vanished in the throng of people, and then stared in that direction for a while longer before he startled and hurried off for his own train.

Still in the train, he got a text from you. We should've had dinner! Why didn't we think of that?

Because when you kiss me I forget how to think. Seung Hyun replied, then immediately felt silly and ridiculous for it.

Except you wrote back, just one single word: ditto.

Suddenly he was filled with warmth instead of embarrassment, and he refused to feel silly for that.

At three am, Seung Hyun texted. I had a great day today.

You had an agreement about late night texts... the two of you would only reply if you were awake and in the mood for a conversation. If either of you texted and received no reply, it was understood that the other was asleep, no hard feelings.

You were woken up by the vibration of your phone on the bedside table. You sat up and took a sip of water from the bottle on the night stand, then replied a simple. Me too.

So I don't understand why I'm having a bad night. Seung Hyun wrote. Good day should mean good night right?

Even good things can be unsettling in their own way. you replied carefully. It's still a change, isn't it?

True... he agreed after a moment.

There was a picture attached to your last text, a photo you had clearly taken just now of yourself in bed, hair a mess. You were lying amid disheveled sheets, and the picture was in no way intentionally meant to be seductive. But the light was muted, dimmed, and you were wearing a soft-looking white shirt with a stretched out collar. It looked comfortable, intimate, and suddenly Seung Hyun wanted nothing more than to be right there with you, just so he could hold you close and tangle his fingers in your hair. You hadn't worn it down today so until this moment, Seung Hyun didn't realize how much he'd want to. Tangled up from attempts at sleep as it was now, your hair looked soft & it made his fingertips itch.

I want to touch your hair. he found himself writing before he realized it. He didn't delete the message though, and pressed send instead because what was the harm in telling?

In lieu of texting back, you called him. "That could be interpreted as the precursor to sexting." you said as soon as Seung Hyun picked up.

"I- what?" caught completely off-guard, Seung Hyun blinked at the ceiling in surprise.

Your chuckle was warm in his ear, soft. "No worries. Next time I'll wear it down so you can touch it if you want to."

"I do." he told you, deciding to ignore the whole sexting thing for now.

"So when do you want to meet up again?" you asked.

Seung Hyun could hear the rustling of sheets as you moved around in bed, and he saw the picture you just sent him as clear as day in front of his eyes. He really wanted to put his arm around you now and draw you close.

He got so derailed by his thoughts that he completely forgot that you asked him a question until there was stillness on the other line, and your voice sounded a little unsure all of a sudden. "Seung Hyun?"

"Oh!" Shit. "Sorry, I was distracted."

"By what?" you asked, not a demand but you didn't sound as soft anymore.

"By, uhm... I mean, I was thinking about your picture and I could hear you moving around and I was thinking, I want to be with you right now. Sorry." Grimacing, Seung Hyun pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and index finger. He was such an idiot.

"Oh..." you said, then exhaled. "Okay. Yeah. I'd like that too. But, uhm, it's probably better if we do this at a slow pace, considering everything."

"Everything?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but I kinda... well I could get pretty attached. I'm fairly invested already. I'd rather not take things too fast." you explained quietly.

Seung Hyun couldn't really argue that. "I guess you're right. But that's not a bad thing, ________. I realize that there's a lot to take into consideration about being with me, so we can take this as slow as you want."

He felt giddy enough already just about the fact that you clearly thought as well that you were heading towards... something.

Relieved, you huffed into his ear. "Good. I'm glad we can agree on that.”

The rasp of your voice in his ear was something that would never lose its effect on Seung Hyun, but being physically with you turned out to be just as important. Not to fall in love... being perfectly honest, he'd been there before you had ever met, but to live that feeling to the fullest.

Seung Hyun was pretty lucky, he thought. So many things could have gone wrong. It could have turned out that you didn't get along as well in person, or that the chemistry felt wrong, or that the feelings just weren't there anymore, for one of you or even both of you.

But that wasn't how things had turned out, thankfully, and Seung Hyun was pretty grateful for it. He didn't think he was getting ahead of himself by considering you... something. You hadn't talked about it yet, not really, and maybe you should.

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?" you said, voice sounding serious. "What is it?"

Which was where Seung Hyun's brain ground to a halt. How was he supposed to put this? Could you just ask a person if they were your girlfriend? Was that even the correct term? It sounded sort of juvenile, didn't it?

"We're... friends." he eventually spat out, haltingly. "But we're also... dating, right?"

You blinked and sat straight up in bed. "Seung Hyun, are you asking me to be your girlfriend?"

"Uh. Yes, actually. That's the correct term, right?"

Relaxing again, you huffed a laugh."Yeah, unless you'd like a different term. And... I'd like that. If that's what you want."

"Yeah, yes, it is." Seung Hyun nodded quickly, feeling like his face was about to crack from smiling so wide. "And I don't know. girlfriend just sounds so... childish. What about being my 'best girl'?"

"Best girl?" you repeated, amused. "As opposed to all your other girls? At least I'm the best."

Flushing, Seung Hyun laughed. "Shut up. You know you're my only girl. Person."

You hummed in agreement."You're totally my best guy too. And my only guy. Person."

There was a teasing lilt to your voice, but it still took some effort for Seung Hyun to fake exasperation as he sighed and rolled his eyes heavenwards. He was too happy about what you had just agreed on.

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[verykimmy]

My First 4 Months Doing Uber

So I mostly created this tonight because I've seen all of the horrible things being said about Uber drivers during the strike yesterday and wanted to say my piece. I started doing Ubereats 4 months ago. I was excited to have a job, I still am. 7 years ago I was hit hard with chronic illness that stripped everything from me. I worked in music for 15 long years, eventually starting a record label, and up until 3 years ago was content in my field of choice. My health got terrible along with doctors putting me on a host of meds, and I had to leave the business. The stress was swinging me into pain flare ups. My engagement also ended around the same time. My heart broken, I was out on my own, in bad health with no one to turn to and no one would give me a job because of my health and I couldn't get disability as sick as I am because I live in the state of Georgia and they didnt expand Medicaid.

I was super excited when I found Ubereats. I qualified barely with my 1999 car and it would allow me to make my own schedule so if i had a flare up and had to be home in pain, no one would fire me. It also made enough money to pull me out of the hole that my engagement ending and medical bills had put me in. I started driving, very happy to get to meet people and make money in the city i loved and lived in 25 years, Atlanta. So, every day i would get up, drive the hour and a half there because there are no jobs in my country town and no one would give me one anyway with my health.

At first it was awesome. I was like "Wow, I can make great money driving and picking up and dropping off food", and I couldn't be happier. I was having to pull overnight 12 hour shifts after I realized there was no money like I needed on day shifts, which was fine, I adjusted. The overnight helped me because pain is bad for me at night and gives me insomnia, so early mornings are hard for me. Then, after about 3 weeks I started realizing the bad to the job.

Late nights customers are requested to come down in bad areas, and you cant avoid those areas, because if you turn down too many orders you get messages saying you've cancelled too much. You get order after order way across Atlanta on the bad sides of town and you either have to take them or not make money. It ended up being not so bad until I had to deliver to an area known for drug dealing and violence. I was scared to death. I messaged the customer to please come down for her food (she only had a few steps), and she came charging out to my car, ripped the food from my hand and twisted my hand screaming for me to get out of my car so she could kick my white cunt ass. I booked it away from there, called support and they just said call the police. That was it....just call the police. Where was my company I was working long painful hours for?

After that the area scared me, but I had to do my job. I started noticing on late late weekend nights, customers would order and not put gate codes, apartment numbers and not answer us or just not answer in general. I couldn't tell if they were passing out, falling asleep or if it was some scam to get money or food somehow the next day. I strongly feel that they place big expensive orders, dont answer, we have to cancel after calls, texts, putting the timer on, knocking and even calling support, and they call back the next day getting free food or money they never spent. I still feel that way.

The problem? When that happens, we get an email the next business day saying we committed fraud. If you cover yourself calling support etc, the customer gets mad and submits fake reviews. One late Sunday night I was working and it happened a few times, and I received an alert that my account was frozen and could get no more orders. Someone reported I was in a wreck I was never in and they wanted pictures. It was a busy night and was costing me, but I complied. I pulled to a lit gas station, took pics of my car and sent them over with an explanation that I'd had a few bad customers in a bad area. Instead of letting me go back to work, I had to drive the long ride home having only made gas money and lost $250 in pay after it took 2 days to straighten out. The same thing happened a month later when someone reported I was drinking and driving although I dont drink. Another $250 loss. I started to realize that the company I was so excited about didnt care about me.

Over and over these things would happen. Crazy things. 2 months ago my little sister went into the ICU dying and I missed a month of work, the weekend back, I was struggling to make enough to catch up bills I got behind on. That Monday, I received an alert my fast pay was taken away, that I had committed fraud stealing food. It was after a long weekend of overnight driving and I had so many people not bother to answer the door. For us, no fast pay means no gas money through the night. With gas at $3.19 a gallon in Atlanta, me doing 12 hour shifts and living so far away, it rendered me jobless. I had to spend 2 weeks begging for my job, sending over screen shot after screen shot of it happening to hundreds of drivers. Obviously something isnt right. Obviously if its happening so much to so many drivers something is going on. I lost $2000, the money to fix my car that 4 months of driving put 34,000 miles on. An old 1999 Mercedes, an expensive fix.

After 2 weeks they finally let me go back to work only to find out that pay was reduced, promotions taken away and gas went higher. I was in debt, had lost money and my car was now breaking down. It finally stopped running this week. I'm penniless, carless and Uber just says tough, not our problem. I'm back stuck in the country with health issues, no doctors, cant go do my job and will only make barely over gas if I could. Theres so much more....illegal restaurants in people's homes, guns in our faces, being called names, no help from support that barely understands us, but that's been my last 4 months so far.