#i think i might go to the market and grab some more water

[goddesstrolls]

rotates the blorbos very slowly

#bastspeaks #wanna do things but god my brain is mush #ive just been sitting here for half an hour #i think i might go to the market and grab some more water #maybe a soda for a sugar boost.

[frxxxncx]

wet shirt - y. jeonghan

»boyfriend!¡yoon jeonghan x fem!¡reader.

»Summary: you were just playing with the cold water, but jeonghan was getting hotter and hotter.

»Tags: smut (MDNI), pet names, establish relationship, comedy?(I tried), exhibitionistm, dirty talk, suggestive (I didn’t write a full sex scene, sorry😭), sex in public, fingering, unprotected sex, creampie, jeonghan and reader are two broke collage students, there’s no a/c in the middle of the summer, jeonghan is down bad for readers waist, mingyu’s cousin is car washing with her cheerleaders friends, dom!jeonghan, sub!reader.

»Words: 2,5k

note: I’m struggling to survive during the heatwaves in my country.

note 2: Any typo or incoherence that you might find was completely intentional, it’s for the sake of learning about my mistakes.

An extremely hot day of September, Jeonghan and you were about to die because of the heat, with the a/c broken and without any money to get it fixed, the only thing that was left for both of you to do was endure it.

You were laying on the cold living room floor, feeling briefly fresh, well, only your backs felt cool, but that was better than nothing at all. You wanted to cry so bad, maybe if your boyfriend and you have gotten an smaller apartment or if you had gotten another part-time job all your problems would be solved, but that was the closest apartment to the campus and both of you were in a moment in your carriers were only one job was starting to crash with you studies.

Jeonghan let out a loud sigh and approached you sliding slowly through the floor, a long arm wrapped you tightly, body’s melting together, he hugged your pretty waist, and your face hid in his chest while he smelt the scent of your shampoo.

“Jeonghan, get away from me, we are in the middle of a heatwave with no a/c and the last thing I want is sweat” you said trying to loosen his grip, you only managed to get even more impossibly close to him.

“Your waist is very pretty, did you know?” He stated, letting you go, but now he was outlining your figure, specifically the big curvature of your waist while you were lying on your side.

“It’s not that pretty” a shiver ran through your body at the soft feeling of his hot hands over your covered skin.

“It is, and I like it a lot” he left a cute little peck on your lips, before getting up to go to the kitchen.

You giggled like a high schooler whose boyfriend just kissed her for the first time, and kicked the air once you were laying over your back again. You found the ceiling very interesting for a moment, thoughts ramming in your head, and then one of your top 10 most humbling moments of all time popped up. Well the floor was an incredible place to think about shit from the past.

Trying to forget by closing your eyes tightly you didn’t notice when your boyfriend came running from the kitchen with his phone in his hand, jumping like a child whom just was rewarded with candies.

“¡Baby!” He called you many times jumping beside you, but when you didn’t answer at the fifth call he got genuinely annoyed for a moment.

“Fucking bitch, get up, we are going to earn some quick money” he declared upset, putting one of his feet’s on you stomach.

“Ouch, take your feet away from me and my tummy” you said while grabbing his ankle trying to move him away.

You sat up stretching your back that cracked very loud making you win a weird look from Jeonghan, that was a nice crack though.

“Babe, my tummy” your voice came in a childish tone making you cringe.

“Tummy my ass, get up, we are going to work” he said at the same time he offered you his hand.

“Work?, wher-, no, how? Don’t tell me, did you sell one of my kidneys?” The fake fear in your voice made Jeonghan crack a smile while helping you get up.

“But you can live with only one” he played along, and you gave him a weak punch in his arm “Come on, I would never sell your organs in the black market, they are for me in case I get sick” he said boasting

“You little fucker” you whined in a very high pitched tone while he laugh loudly “Now, for real, where are we going to work in a Sunday afternoon?” You asked, getting close to your boyfriend so you could steal a soft kiss from him.

“We are going to wash some cars with Mingyu’s cousin and her cheerleaders friends” you looked at him in disbelief, where you were going to wash the cars?, Mingyu lived in a New York size apartment with no parking lot “you know the gas station where he works?” You nod and he smiled, an “ooh” left your mouth.

Jeonghan kissed you again, but this time, instead of giving you just a cute peck, you felt his tongue caress your lower lips and with a weak moan you give the wet muscle permission to enter you mouth, his hot tongue stroked your own, a whimper escaped from the kiss and Jeonghan stopped but not without biting onto your lower lips, you were just so cute and desirable.

“Let’s go?” He said licking his pinky and glossy lips.

“Yeah” you felt pathetic from the way your voice came out in a thread. Shit.

[🍭]

The sun was in a burning heat, attacking mercilessly everyone, you were squeezing the sponges, feeling drops of sweat dance in your forehead when you saw how the cheerleaders along with Mingyu's cousin were playing with the water, wetting themselves while soaping the cars.

Both of you were damp in sweat and your hands hurt because of the rough texture of the sponge, but you and your boyfriend were firm, both determined to get the money to fix their portal to heaven. The air conditioner.

Mingyu finished his turn a few hours ago, leaving you and Jeonghan alone, with a bunch of “pretty” teenage girls that were rubbing themselves in the windows of the cars. You noticed how this man who seemed quite old and looked… somehow weird got into the space given from the gas station for the car washing, the car was shining like it was brand new, even the wheels were sparkling.

“Disgusting” you mumbled, but as the time passed by, you didn’t even care to look again if the cars were clean or not, more money for the a/c.

Yet the sun was affecting you, tiny tears were starting to build in your eyes.

“Hannie, my eyes hurt” you said, pounding to just sit next to your boyfriend -whom was cleaning the rims- and hug his side, resting your face in his arm.

“Baby, we’ll be lucky if we just get out of here with our eyes hurting and not with a sunburn,” he said, kissing the top of your head.

“Can’t wait to have the apartment as cold as the north pole” you whimpered with a high pitch tone.

“Me neither”

[🍭]

You guys didn’t have any idea of how the things turned out this way, the girls were having a wet shirt contest and maybe it was the fact that the school shirts were so soaked they looked translucent and that some of them didn’t have bra, but the clients were giving money like crazy, the tips jar was about to burst, and that indeed made you both so happy.

But your happiness was about to be doomed, you saw how JiWon -Mingyu’s cousin- was getting closer with the old green hose in her hands, with determination in her eyes.

Jeonghan and you ran like a soul who is hunted by the devil, the much younger girl was faster, relentless and with no mercy, the first one to get drenched With the extremely cold water was Jeonghan.

His grey shirt attached to his chest like a second skin, Jeonghan thought that the feeling was going to be excruciating, but the only thing that he felt was satisfaction, making his muscles relax.

“Jiwon!, me too, me too!” You beg when you saw how your boyfriend enjoyed the bath of cold water.

Your cousin’s friend did as requested, soaking you more than your lover who was laughing soundly, he was going to crack a joke when he finally caught more than a glimpse of you, mouth agape at the sight.

The thin fabric of your blouse outlined your delicate figure, accentuating your small waist and the curvature of your breast, black underwear, noticeable under the cloth, your hair looked darker, droplets of water travelled over your neck, disappearing at the collar of the shirt.

Jeonghan was certain, he needed more than just a little splash of water, he was getting hotter and hotter, and if the water wasn’t going to cool him down, only your arousal could.

You gave him a bright smile, his heart melted because you were just too adorable. He wanted to eat you whole.

A smirk was painted in Jeonghan’s pretty face, walking towards you while feeling his hardening cock rub against the fabric of his shorts.

He grabbed you by the waist, body’s so close your face was pressed to his chest, and you couldn’t help but joggle at the hard touch of his dick on your belly.

Jeonghan’s face got close to your ear, biting down your earlobe; he felt you trembling at the action.

“You know, pretty doll?” His hoarse whisper in your ear was ecstasy for you “In this wet shirt’s contest, you are the winner” his grip on your waist tightened taking your breath.

“Han-hannie” you said in a pathetic cry of his name, his hot chest against your was to much,

he was holding you firmly, making you that you could feel his dick poking your belly “We’re at the gas station, Hannie” you tried to move away from him, only managing to make him let go of your waist, but now he was fondling your breast over your shirt in a public space.

“Mmh, you’re right, but I think everyone is focused on the girls, so maybe, it would be better…”his face approached to yours, so close his lips stroked yours faintly “It would be better if we get into the car”he said with his honeyed voice, abiding into your ears“I’m going to fuck you so good, doll” his hot tongue licked you lips and you wanted to cry so bad, because of how much you craved his touch.

Your boyfriend grabbed your hand, interlocking your fingers and guided you towards the old -old- jeep, that was parked behind the gas station.

Once you were beside the car, Jeonghan parted away from you, this time groping the curvature of your ass, making you yelp.

With some struggle he opened the back door of the truck and manhandled you into the back seats, getting inside after you, closing the door with a slam.

He hovered over you, dragging with his hands your oversized shorts, smoothing your cute and puffy thighs, feeling the wet and slightly cold skin.

“Jeonghan, I don’t think this is a good idea” you stuttered, containing a loud and scandalous whine because of the flaring touch of your lover getting closer to your crotch.

“It is a bad idea, in fact it is an incredibly bad idea, but that doesn’t mean we are not going to do it anyway” he whispered with mockery splattered all over his voice, his soft lips grazing over you neck, making you shiver.

Jeonghan hands descended completely to your crotch, touching just lightly over your clothed cunt to then grab your waist tightly once again.

His fingers soothed your flesh over the shirt, they stroked your back, meeting with the hem of your shorts and sneaking inside your underwear.

The skin from your ass was smooth and warm, he massaged up and down, squeezing and spreading your asscheeks shamelessly while you drowned your whimpers in his mouth.

His fingers groped your tight and sticky core, caressing carefully, enjoying how you tried to silence your moans biting your knuckles.

He got his hands out of your shorts, unbuttoning them with expertise, pulling them out in a quick swing, skin reddening at the friction.

Your cheeks were bright red, embarrassed because of the situation you were in, naked from the waist down, with the strong and obscene gaze from your boyfriend over your body. Your forearm rested over your eyes, feeling overly exposed. It's not the first time Jeonghan sees you like this, but you still have the entitlement to feel a little bit of shame because of how vulnerable you are right now.

“You’re perfect” he said, grabbing your arm and pinning them over your head with one hand. “You’re perfect and only mine.” He howled and kissed you passionately, sucking, biting your lips, enjoying the sugary taste of your mouth, and swallowing your moans delightedly.

With his free hand, he lifted your soaked shirt, now contemplating your soft and milky skin, his eyes now fixated over your breasts, his free hand moved your bra, tits now spilling over your chest, perky buttons saying “hi” to Jeonghan in neediness.

He licked his lips with lewdness in his eyes, his hot breath made your perky buttons even more sensitive -if that was even possible-, his lips left an open mouthed kiss, gifting you a hickey just above the bud of nerves, to then proceed and bite and suck your nipple, your boyfriend couldn’t help but feel thrilled by the cry’s that slipped from your mouth.

“Ha- nnie” you said in a pathetic mewl, you felt feverish when his teeth bit into the sensitive flesh, just like you were about to pass out from the sensation.

Jeonghan pressed his fingers in your mouth, making you lick and suck them. Once they were covered in your spit, his hand went once again to your cunt, pressing his fingers into your soaked core.

Two of his fingers entered into your inviting pussy without a warning, digits curling and hitting deliciously every good spot inside of you, Jeonghan savored how your face was showered in ecstasy, knowing that only him could make you feel this good.

You rolled your eyes and your mouth fell agape, gutural moans coming from you, your damp hair sticking to your soft skin and your cunt drooling exited, velvety walls pulsating and sucking his fingers, making him grunt because sooner than later it would be his cock fucking you to the hilt.

“Y/n l/n, hear your name now, pretty, because I’m going to fuck you so hard you’re going to forget it”.

[🍭]

Fast forward to now, Jeonghan was doing the roll of a crutch so you could walk properly towards the younger girls. The mess spilling from your cunt into your underwear making you feel embarrassed, and the burn in your gummy walls, only made you more expectant for what was coming at home.

“Jeonghan, I can assure you that you fucked something inside of me” you whispered not feeling your legs at all, they were asleep because of the cramped place you just had sex in.

“I did more than that,” he said nonchalantly, tightening the grip on your waist.

“Shut up!” you said in a funny cry.

Once you were close to the group of girls, they excitedly gave you an envelope full of money as they thanked you for the help.

Jeonghan got so excited that he let you go, making you lose your balance. You felt a sharp pain in your knees, a loud howl slipped from your mouth, and when your boyfriend looked at you, he felt his dick twitch in his shorts at the view, you were giving him such a mean glare.

“Don’t look at me like that, I might fuck you again”

#I swear the jokes were funnier in my head 🥲 #this is a fever dream so it doesn’t have to make sense #I hate car washing manually 🫠 #seventeen #svt #svt fanfic #svt x reader #seventeen x reader #svt smut #svthub #jeonghan #svt jeonghan #seventeen jeonghan #yoon jeonghan #hannie #jeonghan smut #seventeen smut #seventeen fanfic

[devsgames]

"Is Tumblr Blaze Worth It For Promoting My Indie Game?" - a Postmortem

Lately I've been thinking about marketing and promotion of my games and wanting to explore new avenues. Tumblr Blaze was one of those things I wanted to dip my toes into a bit to understand how it works and if it has potential for advertising my sort of stuff. Like as not, there's no point in making games if nobody actually plays them after all!

Conversely I have also heard bad things about Tumblr Blaze; that it's not very targeted, the reach is fairly limited, and people on this site generally hate anything that is Blazed to them.

I wanted to test all these waters a bit to see if it's something worth investing in, and share what I found for my own benefit and the benefit of others. Finding various info on topics like this for indie dev can be a pain, so why not share my findings?

The Plan and Goal

While Centauri Dark is still in development and is the thing I actually want to advertise more of right now, Bombing!! 2 is already out and is much more marketable with some cool art made by community members. I think as a first impression it tends to show well, so I decided to make my test post with that to get exposure to it and see how it goes.

My goal was mostly to see what a Blaze post does for advertising a launched indie game and how much "eyes on" it actually gets in terms of actual engagement.

Posting

From the outset I knew I wanted to make a post that 1) wasn't annoying to people just looking at the webbed site 2) featured a call to action of some kind I could measure 3) wouldn't break the bank.

Here's what I came up with:

The intention was to flash some cool looking art to grab their attention, explain what they're looking at, and then link the game a couple of times while mentioning "Buy or Wishlist" for good measure as a call to action.

Since Bombing!! 2 is such an art-forward game, I found the coolest art pieces made by community members that felt the most "Tumblr" to match the audience, and would also show off the range of art you could make in the game. I also wanted to make it personal, like me writing a message to whoever would read it instead of something that sounded like a standard ad. Generally I think it was a fairly reasonable little post that catches some interest and doesn't overstay too much of a welcome. What I think also helps is it's explicitly a "hey this might interest you" sort of framing (as opposed to a more "why am I even seeing this" sort of post you tend to get from Blaze sometimes).

I also think it's worth emphasizing that writing a posted explicitly intending to be Blazed was a much stronger approach than just Blazing some random post I had made for my own followers months ago, because I could align it to my promotional goals. It also assumed that random people on the Internet would be the ones seeing my post, and not the followers and friends who already know me and my work.

Blazing

As I looked into Blaze early on there was actually a few key things I wasn't fully aware of about the system.

It guarantees a minimum amount of views

It guarantees it will be Blazed for a minimum of 24 hours no matter how many views

You pay a single base rate for the whole campaign (great compared to some ads which tend to price based on views/engagement).

You can define an audience explicitly (some info that was floating around lead me to believe this wasn't the case).

Campaigns come in a few amounts:

I paid for the 2nd tier; $17 USD for a campaign, which amounts to $25 CDN. I wanted to go a little more into it than the lowest tier offered, since I figured the lowest wouldn't give me as much data as I would've liked and I wanted to know what to reasonably expect should I decide to do it again in the future.

Since Bombing!! 2 sells for ~$20USD I also figure if the Blaze campaign prompts at least two people to buy the game then the Blaze would have paid for itself.

Blaze lets you use tags to define which audiences you want to reach. Unfortunately it doesn't let you view that data after you've applied it, but the tags I chose were generally anyone who spoke English and has an interest in Digital Artist or Video Game circles.

The campaign ran for 24 Hours, starting yesterday and ending today.

The Results

I definitely noticed a sharp uptick in engagement during the campaign! It hit the target audience of ~7k around one hour into the campaign, after which point I noticed engagement take a sharp decline.

Here's the Blaze campaign analytics provided by Tumblr (which was also very helpful to have):

So it seems ~12.5k views from Blaze, ~370 likes, ~80 reblogs, 5 shares elsewhere. The post itself has ~520 notes, so I assume there's some reblogging and liking happening from beyond the Blaze campaign that isn't pictured here. The good thing is that despite having reached its 7k target after only 1 hour, it continued to circulate and be Blazed until 24 hours later. Eventually the post made it to ~12k views overall, which was nearly double the amount promised by the campaign - I attribute this mostly to a strong post/target audience/subject matter and I'm sure it's not standard.

Here's the general velocity of engagement around when the post was Blazed:

It jumped much more than I honestly expected, but you can tell Blaze seemed to put it in front of people's faces more than my regular posts do. You can see it drops off sharply as I hit the quoted amount as well, back down to the normal amount of engagement I get on Tumblr.

But this stuff isn't really what I was looking for; I was looking for sales and keeping an eye on 'conversions' - or how many users followed my call to action because of the post. Likes and stuff are fine and cool, but how many people bought or wishlisted the game on Steam as a result of seeing the post on Tumblr?

Tumblr and Blaze obviously have no way of telling me this, so I'm looking to Steam to show me changes there.

Here's what Steam shows me happened to the Bombing!! 2 views yesterday:

That's not nothing! This shows the last month's worth of traffic to the Bombing!! 2 page, and that number was at least double yesterday as it was regularly. It's very cool to know a number of people did actually click through to the game page in order to view the game from the Blaze post.

But the real REAL question is how many bought or wishlisted the game because of this post?

I'll start with Sales, on a graph of 1 month of data:

Flat line :( Which is fine though, as the game wasn't on Sale and was just reaching people for the first time. I didn't honestly expect any immediate sales from this, and was more focused on other engagement anyways. Honestly I would be surprised if someone saw the game on a Blaze post and bought it immediately. I mean it's good but it's probably not THAT good!

Now to Wishlists, which can be a good indicator of who might likely buy your game in the future. Basically if someone has added a game to their wishlist, there's reason to believe they might buy it in the future, which is good for your game.

Here's the Wishlists for Bombing!! 2 from the last month:

That's 23 Wishlists in one day! That's roughly ~18 Wishlists more than an average day!

It's hard to know if some of these are because of the post or just a statistical fluke. However, when compared to previous trends on the game page that's quite a noticeable difference. It means even if no one bought it now, they were interested enough to add it to their shortlist. Looking at it another way, if two people who Wishlisted decided to buy the game in the future the campaign will have paid for itself.

Conclusions

I think like any advertising if you go into it with a plan in mind and try to build something around a specific action, Blaze seems pretty worth it to me especially if I just want to get eyes on something. On top of the obvious data telling me people were interested in the game, there was a few folks who just plain complemented the game or acknowledged it 'was the first Blaze post they were actually interested in', which felt worth it in it's own qualitative sort of way. It's also worth noting my game sells for $20USD, so the margins are large enough that making it back isn't too challenging.

I think having an idea of the message I wanted to send really helped, and I'm sure I'd happily do this again with a larger audience and another plan (and probably will do it for when Centauri Dark releases).

#gamedev #game dev #game development #indie games #indie game #gamedevelopment #indiegames #indiedev #indie dev #bombinggame #blog #blaze #tumblr blaze #game design #thoughts

[themisimagines]

prompt generator: person a and person b sharing a bath content: smut under the cut! - self loving, bathtub shenanigans characters: artem, fem!reader

Thank god it's the weekend. You leave the office at 7, a feat given all that's gone on this week, and pop your head into Celestine's office to say goodbye, thinking you might swing by Artem's office to try and convince him to leave work with you. Unfortunately, he's in Celestine's office already when you look in, and they seem to be in deep conversation.

"Have a good weekend," Celestine chimes. Artem raises his hand in parting. You look wistfully at him, but decide to head home first.

Artem texts you on your way out.

<Wait for me to have dinner. Shouldn't be too much longer, I'll pick up ingredients on the way back.>

Your heart warms. He probably knew that you were looking forward to your first free weekend in weeks, having barely had the time to spend with each other beyond curling up together, exhausted, in bed each night, and blearily getting ready for work in the mornings.

Another text. <Don't eat too many snacks.> Ugh, this man knows you too well.

When you finally reach the home you share with Artem, you can almost literally feel the ache in your neck and shoulders from hunching over documents and screens, so you decide to run a hot bath. It's almost criminal that neither of you spend much time in this bath, with it's beautiful city views and skyline. But to be fair, you both only moved in together three months ago, and that was round about the time work started to pick up again. You even take out a precious bubble bath solution you've been saving for a special occasion, the scent of lavender and hibiscus foaming up underneath the running water.

As the bath runs, you pop in a record on the vintage player Artem picked up from his parents recently, and both of you have been enjoying going to markets searching for records, your recent favourites being jazz ballads, the crackle and pop of these old records invoking a different time entirely. The music drifts into the bathroom as you turn off the taps, stripping down and stepping gingerly into the bath, fragrant steam wafting into your face.

Oh, this is nice. You fiddle a bit with the water temperature before it's finally perfect, and then you sink in, closing your eyes blissfully.

<Tell me why we don't take baths on a daily basis again? Are you home soon, by the way?> You grab your phone and send to Artem, snapping a picture of your legs, just obscured by the bubbles.

The feel of the water caressing your body and against your tired muscles is soothingly erotic, and you feel a familiar jolt of arousal flowing down your body. Your hands run up and down your soft inner thighs, the arc of your collarbones, luxuriating in the sensation.

Ding! Artem has messaged you back. <Almost home.>

Then, a follow up: <It's not good for our water bill or the environment to take so many baths, but I agree with you that ours is underused.> You laugh. Ever the practical boyfriend.

Still, if he's still on the way, that leaves you free to take care of... some business. Your hands plunge back into the water, stroking your thighs, your breasts, slowly teasing at your nipples to send delicious shivers up your spine. All the while, the water swirls around you, making you even more excited. One hand drifts further downwards, settling onto your clit, and you draw slow, lazy circles around it, letting a slow pressure build up in your core.

The music swells, and you let yourself enjoy each and every sensation, a small moan escaping your mouth and echoing around the bathroom, your back arching slightly as you chase the peak of your pleasure. One of your fingers is just tracing your opening, ready to slip in, when a knock sounds on the bathroom door, and Artem peeks in.

Startled, you sit bolt upright, almost getting a mouthful full of suds.

"Sorry," Artem apologises for startling you. "Just wanted to let you know I'm home, and I'll be making dinner downstairs. Come down when you're ready.

From the crack through the door, you see that his tie has been loosened slightly, hair slightly rumpled from the day. Even though he's interrupted your moment, you can't help but appreciate how much of a goddamn gentleman he is, barely allowing himself a glimpse of you in the bath. Artem is about to close the door when you call for him to wait.

"Come and join me in the bath," you ask. "We did get one that was big enough for two, after all."

The door freezes, and even though you can't see Artem anymore, you can sense he is debating furiously with himself on the other side of the door.

"Please?" you wheedle. "The water is still nice and warm."

When the door next opens, it does so uncertainly, and Artem blushes upon seeing your clothes tossed haphazardly around the bathroom, the bubbles leaving very little to the imagination. It's hardly as if you both haven't seen each other naked before, but you always sense that Artem is holding himself back, too aware of trying to perform the part of gentleman for you, being overly considerate of your needs. Always too afraid to let his eyes linger for too long, or his hands to rest too inappropriately (except in the heat of the moment), afraid that you might think him crude or impolite.

You take charge of the situation. "Clothes off, Mr. Wing. Now."

His hands hesitate at his shirt-buttons, but then he steels his spine and strips off his clothing efficiently, letting you admire the hard planes and lines of his body, so often hidden away behind suits, which, while flatteringly cut, look much better off him. Belt and trousers join the pile on the floor, and you can sense that Artem is itching to refold his clothes nicely instead of leaving them there, so you launch a distraction tactic, rising in the bath so that the tops of your breasts are just visible, watching his eyes drawn to them as the blush in his cheekbones grows higher and higher.

"Should I just - get in?" He stutters. It's so cute to see him embarrassed. He clears his throat, and although he shifts from side to side, you can see his cock twitch slightly, already half-hardening before he's even in the bath. You slide your knees up to make space, and he climbs in, careful not to let the water splash out, although it's dangerously close to doing so, with an extra person in the tub.

It's almost comical to see him curl up so tightly into himself, trying to avoid touching you. Arms hugging his knees as he watches you intently. You stretch your legs out so they just barely graze the sides of your legs.

"Are you really comfortable like that?" You tease, leaning forward and putting your face closer to his. He continues to stare.

"Come on, stretch out." You try to get him to loosen up. "The point of a bath is to relax, after all. No point in getting even more tense, right?"

"You... hm." He conceeds, stretching his limbs out tentatively, but it's an awkward tangle of limbs with you both sitting opposite each other. Then, you have an idea.

"Artem, what if we sat facing the same direction? I could just nestle myself between your legs. That would solve our space issue, and we'd be more comfortable."

He thinks about it. "I don't dislike the idea."

You stand up to spin around, your body covered in suds, and Artem politely averts his eyes a little, face still red, although you're not sure if it's from the steam or embarrassment at this point. You settle down between his legs, gently pressing up against his chest, and give a sigh of contentment. Artem is the best pillow anyone could ask for. As you purr and squirm to find a comfortable position, you feel a distinct hardness growing against your back and stifle a laugh to yourself. Artem's hands settle awkwardly around the curve of your waist, as if he's holding himself back from letting them wander.

"Comfortable?" you tease.

"Hn." He agrees. His cock has grown to full length now, and you can't help but rub yourself against it, feeling him stiffen. You turn your face slightly behind to look at him, and he doesn't dare to meet your eyes.

"You have soap on your face." He says in a matter of fact tone, reaching a hand out to wipe off soap bubbles on your nose very seriously. You giggle in response, then close the gap to kiss him, gently at first, then deepening it, still rubbing yourself slowly against his cock. You slide one of his hands up your body, encouraging him to grab onto your breast, and faced with so much stimulation, Artem loses control and lets out a small moan into your mouth.

That tiny noise is a sudden breaking of the floodgates, and you can almost hear him think, fuck it, as his hands surge up to hold your body closer to his, hips thrusting upwards greedily between the curves of your ass. Panting, you both break apart the kiss, and Artem dives for your neck, licking and sucking the soft skin until you are sure he will leave a bruise. Rolling your nipples between his clever fingers until he draws out a desperate cry from you, the other hand teasing your clit, your entrance, just barely slipping a finger in. You are writhing and completely at his mercy, reaching behind you to stroke his cock.

"Bed?" Artem asks, voice rough with desire. But you can't be bothered with all that now - getting out of the bath, drying yourself, all that nonsense. You want him now.

"I have a better idea," you reply, then turn around so that you are facing him again, sitting on top of him, nestling his cock between your thighs. He makes an attempt to continue with the foreplay, but you stop him.

"I need you, now." you beg him, and like the gentleman he is, he lets you climb on top of him, lining his cock up with your entrance, sliding into your slick warmth. You both cry out at the sensation, taking a few moments to stretch out and get used to the feeling. Then you slide up and down his cock, panting and not caring that the bathwater is sloshing onto the tiles below, probably getting all your clothes wet.

Artem throws his head back, until you can see the line of his throat, his eyes closed in pleasure. His hands are unceasing, moving to play with your breasts, guiding your waist as you plunge again and again on his cock.

An angle hits particularly well for both of you, and Artem opens his eyes, a wild abandon in them. He seizes your hips and thrusts his hips upwards, creating great swells in the water, but hitting that spot again and again until you feel like you are about to explode, begging him not to stop.

"I'm going to cum –!" you cry. "Please don't stop, oh, don't stop Artem!"

His hips drive into you faster and faster until you hit your orgasm, clenching around him. The tightness drives him over the edge, and with a last few thrusts, he follows suit, cock pulsing inside you as he fills you with his cum.

You collapse against his chest, breathing heavily, both locked in an embrace. Artem doesn't let you rest for too long, as he taps your shoulder.

"We'd better get out, or you'll catch a cold."

"Can't you let a girl bask in post-orgasm glory for a few minutes at least?" You complain, although you know he's right - the bathwater has gone cold during the time that you both were otherwise engaged. You peer out at the floor, where half the water seems to have tipped out onto. Artem catches what you're looking at and grabs your shoulders.

"On second thought, wait. Let me grab some towels for the floor, I don't want you to slip." He steps out of the bath and you watch him leave, sighing happily at what a thoughtful boyfriend you have.

#tears of themis #tears of themis smut #artem wing #artem wing smut #tot smut #artem wing x reader #artem smut #artem x reader #tears of themis imagines #tot imagines #how tf did this end up as almost 2k words of smut??

[spidernerdsblog]

cool for the summer

A/N : it's really hot and humid over here and I don't know what came over me but here we are. Enjoy this filth and let me know what you think.

Summary : one broken ac, two neighbors with pent up sexual tension. What more could happen?

Pairing : tasm! Peter Parker x Reader

Warnings : 18+, SMUT, minors DNI, oral (f receiving), overstimulation, ice play, spitting, multiple orgasms.

It was the middle of summer, Peter didn’t feel like doing anything except lazing around on his couch in this sweltering heat the whole day. Just then there’s a knock on his door as he frowns wondering who it might be in the middle of the day. He opens his apartment door to find you, his pretty next door neighbor. 

“Hey Peter.” you smiled. Peter did a once over of you dressed in dark denim shorts and a blue tank top knotted in the front exposing a good stretch of your stomach. He tried really hard to ignore the fact that you weren't wearing a bra underneath as he could clearly form the outline of your nipples through the thin cotton of your top. 

“Oh hi Y/N. What's up?” 

“Are you busy?”

“No. Is everything alright?” his brows draw in with concern.

“My ac broke down and it's like melting in there.” you tell him with an agonized expression.

“That's bad. Did you call the company?” 

“Yeah I did and they said I've to wait until tomorrow because Sunday is a holiday.” you explain. “But then I remembered you mentioning that one time about knowing a little bit of the mechanical stuff.” 

“Yes I do.” he concurs.

“I know it’s too much to ask of you but can you maybe come and look at it for once? Please?” 

Peter could never say no to you especially when you’re giving him those puppy eyes. “I can try but there are no guarantees.”

“That will be so nice of you.” your face brightens. “In return I’ll treat you to fresh watermelon which I brought from the farmers market yesterday.”

“You don’t have to repay me with anything.” he chuckles, closing his apartment door and following you to your apartment.

It was relatively hot and humid when your ac decided to give up on you which had left you no other choice than to ask your next door neighbor for help. So when you knocked at his door little did you expect to be treated with him in a black undershirt and gray sweats. It was a rare sight to see him out of his usual t-shirts and hoodies and that is why his bare muscular arms had left you stunned for a second and practically drooling on the hallway.

To be honest you always had a crush on Peter Parker. You both had moved in the building at the same time. He had this whole awkward geek thing going around him with a hint of mischief behind those chocolate brown eyes which promised of more. And from the little conversations you had in the hallways you thought he was cute with his boyish charm and dorky attitude, always ready to help.  

And now he was in your living room standing on a chair in front of the ac unit. He grabs the wrench from the toolbox and starts to unscrew the nut and bolts— the movement making his biceps flex and veins pop out on his arms as you enjoy your free arm porn. His back muscles ripples when he pulls out the dust filters and your mind starts to build up a totally different scenario which required you on your bed and him on top fucking you nine ways to Sunday had you pressing your thighs together. 

“So what do you think?” you ask, shaking out of your dirty daydreams.

“You’re in luck.” he replies. “The filters seem to be blocked with dust, that's why it’s not cooling properly. A little clean up is required, that's all.”

“Oh thank god.” you let out a sigh in relief as Peter steps down the chair.

“Let me just clean them with some water and it will be working just as fine as before.”

You grasp on to his hands “Peter Parker, you're my savior on this hot summer day. I'll be grateful to you all my life.”

“Always happy to help my pretty neighbor.” he gives you one of his boyish grins and casually walks over to your bathroom leaving you with thousands of butterflies in your stomach. 

If you aren’t wrong but that was definitely a little bit of flirting over there. With the giddiness inside you tried to make yourself busy in the kitchen preparing watermelon lemonade. You cut the fruit in half, scooping the flesh to blend it with some lemon juice, mint and soda. By the time you were done pouring the mixture into a pitcher Peter had finished cleaning your ac as well. He screws the case tight and switches on the ac. The first wave of cool air hits your face and you feel like you’re already in heaven.

“Oh…” the moan that leaves your mouth shoots straight down to his cock.

“That good huh?” he chuckles.

“You have no idea.” you smile cheekily. “And as promised, I made fresh watermelon lemonade.” you gestured him towards the kitchen.

“Ah, nothing as refreshing as a lemonade on a hot day like this.”

You fill two glasses with lemonade and place them on the kitchen island. “Wait, let me get some more ice.” you take out the ice tray from the refrigerator to empty it in a bowl before adding a few in your drinks. Both of you pick up your bowls and clink your glasses. “Cheers.”

“It’s really good.” Peter says after taking a sip.

“Thank you.” you smile at him shyly and watch him through the rim of the glass, his adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows the drink which you find damn sexy.

Peter finishes his drink and his gaze locks on you drinking as some of the lemonade dribbles from the corner of your mouth down to your cleavage. He did not miss how your nipples had pebbled in the cold air and were poking through the top. The sudden urge to lick and taste every inch of your skin makes his throat go dry.

It is implausible how much he has liked you since the very day he met you. The short meetings with you in the hallways while going or returning back from college left him wanting more. Especially when you wore those thin tops and tight shorts that showed off your round ass. The number of times he had fucked his hand imagining it was you riding his cock at night is embarrassing.

He clears his throat brushing aside those thoughts so that his semi doesn’t turn into a full on erection in front of you. “Guess I should get going now.”

He turns towards your door but you didn't want him to leave so you blurt out. “Or you could just stay.” 

“Why does anything else need fixing?” Peter looks at you skeptically.

“I don’t know… it’s still kinda hot in here don’t you think?” you are stalling. Peter could see the desire in your eyes but he still wants to be sure that you want him as much as he wants you.

All these months of secretly pining over each other you were now treading dangerously along the lines. Peter decides to take the brave step and moves around the counter caging you against it. “You do look all flushed.” he observes, tucking a wisp of your hair behind your ear.

“I know right?” you smile nervously.

“I can think of some other ways to cool you down.” his voice husky as he lazily runs a finger down your arm. 

“Really?” you ask quietly, chewing on your bottom lip.

“Want me to show you?” he lifts up your chin and brushes the pad of his thumb through your bottom lip.

“Yes.” it comes out barely as a whisper from your mouth but Peter was quick to catch it. With his eyes trained on you Peter reaches behind you to grab an ice cube from the bowl and pops it in his mouth. 

You watch his every move with anticipation. He leans forward to capture your mouth in a slow tantalizing kiss. His tongue pushes past your lips as he rolls the ice into your mouth. You moan at the delightful sensation of the cold ice mixed with the warmth of his mouth. 

Peter devours your mouth as he sucks and nips playfully on your bottom lip. His hands get frisky exploring the curves of your body before grabbing the front of your tank top, giving it a light tug. It tears into half and your breasts bounce free as you breath out a shocked gasp against his mouth at his sheer strength. 

His large hands cup your breasts feeling their weight in his palms. Quiet whimpers escape your mouth as he squeezes and tweaks your nipples, turning them into hard sensitive points. Your nails scrape the back of his shirt tugging on it. Peter stops for a moment to let you lift his shirt above his head. The heat of his bare chest against your breasts feels good as you run your hands through his toned abs before placing two featherlight kisses on his pecs. 

Peter lifts you by the back of your thighs on the counter and then gently pushes you to lay on your back on the cool granite surface. You hear the clinking of glass as he reaches for an ice cube. Goosebumps rise on your skin when his mouth connects at the nape of your neck with the cold ice held between his lips. He drags his mouth over your collar bones and then down between your breasts leaving a cool trail of water on your flushed skin. He looks up at you, his dark eyes glinting with mischief as he crunches the left over ice with his teeth before popping in another one.

“Relax,” he says and presses the ice cube on your nipple, circling around the stiff bud. Your stomach clenches, a warmth spreading across your lower region as he moves on to your other breast and repeats the same. Your back arches when he slowly drags his mouth down your ribs to your stomach, the cool water feeling like a hot trail of fire. He drops the ice from his mouth on your navel and steps back to watch the ice melt into a pool of water trickling down your sides.

Slowly Peter unbuttons your shorts and slides it down your legs followed by your panties which were now soaked with your arousal. 

“You’re so sexy.” he rasps, lust swirling in those coffee brown eyes. He kneels down and spreads your legs apart, running his hand up and down your thighs in a soothing manner. His hand reaches for the bowl again to pick an ice cube and pops it in his mouth. 

Peter kisses the inside of your thigh, holding the ice between his lips he slides it up your soft skin. Your body tenses when you feel his warm breath against your aching core but to your disappointment he ignores your dripping wet pussy and kisses his way down your other thigh. 

You whine in protest, squirming unable to take anymore of his teasings which only earns you a throaty chuckle from him. 

“So needy. Don't worry baby, I'll take care of you.” 

He spreads your pussy lips and lets a cool trail of spit drip down your slit. It’s downright filthy but also turns you the hell on finding out this kinky side of your sweet nerdy neighbor. Peter pulls the ice cube to the back of his mouth before diving in.

“Oh fuck!” your hips jerks off the counter at the onslaught of his cold lips wrapped around your sensitive bud. A heavy hand comes to rest on your stomach holding you in place as Peter swirls his tongue over your clit while your hands dig his thick hair.

Peter rolls the ice across his tongue and presses it against your engorged clit with his mouth. You let out a little scream tugging on his hair way too harshly and he groans into your heat. He holds it for a few seconds before sucking it back in his mouth. He runs the tip of his tongue in a straight line from your pussy to your clit making you moan and scream again as he presses the cube against you. 

The ice melts rapidly between the heat of his mouth and your pussy turning into a small ball. Peter dips his head and pushes it inside you with his tongue. Your body shudders as he thrusts in and out fucking you with his tongue. Pleasure surges inside you and you begin to cum. But Peter doesn’t stop as he laps up all your juices along with the pool of water dripping out of your hole. You are still high on your first orgasm as you feel the second one building quicker than before. Peter presses his thumb against your swollen clit drawing tight circles and you fall apart screaming out his name.

You were panting hard, expecting him to stop but he’s so drunk on your taste that he continues to lick up and down your slick folds with the flat of his tongue.

“Peter…” you squirm away from his mouth.

“One more baby girl.” he croons, sliding two fingers inside you with ease.

“I can't.” you groan as your whole body feels like a bundle of exposed nerves. 

“Yes you can. Give me one more and then you can have my cock.” he curls his fingers against your g-spot and his mouth is back on your clit, sucking it hard to the point where the lines between pleasure and pain seem to blur. Your eyes roll back into your head as spots cloud your vision and then you explode all over him. 

“Holy shit!” he exclaims. Your body feels like a limp noodle, ears still ringing from how hard you came as you weakly lift your head to look at Peter between your legs— he was drenched down to his chest. 

You squirted, you fucking squirted. 

Embarrassment flames up your face but Peter just smiles and stands up to lean down and press his lips softly on your forehead whispering “you did so good for me.” and lifts you in his arms, carrying you to your bedroom. 

Your back hits the soft linen of your mattress as you lie motionless watching him. You couldn’t decide what you liked more. His chiseled jaw, those bulging biceps, the flat planes of his stomach or the sharp dips of his hips. But then he pushes down his sweats and boxers and his long, hard length bobs in front of him making your mouth water.

He catches you staring and grins. “Like what you see?”

“Yeah it’s alright.” you try to play cool even though the reality was far from alright as you wonder how that big of a dick is going to fit inside you without splitting you into half. The math seems a little bit hazy for you right now.

Within seconds he’s on top of you peppering kisses down your neck and breasts as you squeal and wriggle underneath him. “I’m gonna see how alright you feel when I’m done with you.” 

“Promises, promises.” you giggle before your breath hitches when he shoves two fingers into your pussy, finding you wet and ready for him.

“Condom?” he asks.

“Second drawer.” Peter leans over to open the drawer of your bedside table and a huge grin appears on his face discovering your little toy collection. 

“You got a nice collection in here.” Your eyes go wide when you realize what he is talking about. 

“I wonder who do you think of when you use those little toys of yours hmm?” he tears the foil with his teeth and rolls the condom down his shaft. Your cheeks heat up as you look away hiding your face in the pillow.

“Now don't get shy on me, Y/N. Tell me who did you think of while you played with this little pussy?” he rubs the head of his cock through your sensitive folds teasingly.

“You… Peter.” you stutter.

“We should use them.” 

“Now?”

“No, some other time. Today it would be just us.” he lines his tip to your entrance and slowly pushes in. 

He was barely a few inches in and it had you gasping for air at how his thick girth was stretching you to your limits. “Oh god… you're so big.” 

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” he grins and slowly withdraws to push in a bit more deeper. Your back arches as he repeats the motion gaining another inch. Peter thought he had prepared you enough with the three earth shattering orgasms he gave you earlier but it was still a tight fit. Your pussy grips him like a vice as he tries to be gentle, grunting with each thrust to fully sheath himself inside you. 

You press the heels of your feet into his ass cheeks pulling him closer. “Fuck me already, I can take it.” you rasp impatiently.

There goes being gentle as your command sends a shiver down his spine and he gives one hard thrust filling you to the hilt. Your back bows off the bed pushing your breasts to his eager mouth as he captures one pert nipple and flicks his tongue over it. Your moans were music to his ears. 

“One last question, do you still think I’m alright?”

“Oh god Peter you’re fucking perfect. I can feel you up in my throat. Now move please.” you almost sob in desperation.

Satisfied with your answer he pulls back and slams back into you. Your body moves up the mattress with each powerful thrust and he is entranced watching your breasts bounce everytime. A thin sheen of sweat covers your bodies as you find a rhythm. A tight knot forms inside your stomach as your walls clamp around him tighter and he almost loses his goddamn mind at how good you feel. His hands cup your ass lifting you up the angle allowing him to pick up his pace and pound into you deeper.

“Ah right there! Don’t stop!” your nails score down his back when he hits that magical spot. Your body trembles and you bite down on his neck as your orgasm sweeps through you. Your walls flutter milking every last bit of pleasure out of him and he moans, pumping harder before his hips stutter coming undone with his own release. Your bodies quake with the aftershock of your orgasms as you pull him closer sealing your lips together in slow, drugging kisses not yet ready to let him go.

“This was the best sex of my life.” you say between ragged breaths.

“So do you’ve anything else to fix?” he grins widely.

“Yeah my legs, they feel like jelly. I don't think I can walk properly for a month.” 

“That means I did a good job.” he replies smugly as he brushes away your messy hair sticking to your forehead.

“No need to get so cocky now.” you give a light shove on his shoulder and he finally pulls out to lay on his back beside you.

“You wanna go out sometime?” he asks.

“Go out you mean like a date?”

“Yeah” he turns on his side. “I like you a lot Y/N and I’ve been meaning to ask you out for quite some time before we had sex. That doesn’t mean I regret whatever happened today because I really liked it and I don’t want you to get the impression that I’m some kind of a fuck boy and and…”

You find rambling Peter adorable a stark contrast to the confident and dominant Peter who fucked your brains out a while ago. So you decide to bring him out of his misery and cut him off. “Peter, I like you too and I would love to go on a date with you.”

For a moment Peter goes speechless before he finds his words back. “Thank you.”

“You hungry? I’m gonna order some Thai” you prop yourself up on your elbow.

“Yeah sounds good.”

“Ok, I’ll be right back.” you kiss his nose and slide out of the bed to go and find your phone in the living room but not before turning around with a sly grin. “Maybe after that I can show you my toys.” 

Reblogs are appreciated ❤

#andrew garfield #andrew!peter smut #andrew!peter x reader #peter parker smut #peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x you #peter parker fluff #tasm!peter parker #tasm!peter smut #andrew!peter parker #tasm!peter x reader #andrew garfield smut #andrew garfield x reader #spiderman #spiderman fanfiction #peter parker oneshot #peter parker imagine

[writingforatwistedworld]

Otome au

I’ve had this in my head ever since your AU came out because :) OK Mc still does the side quest and so does the storyline but they always try to take stuff from the villagers or like the side characters( I do this it doesn’t work most the time)🤣

For example mc : i’m gonna take your bread sir(Mc tried to take it but but they can’t)  give me my bread

Villager: my bakery is closed you can come back another day:)

Mc : let me take your Bread SIR SIR let me take your bread STOP WALKING AWAY FROM ME SIR!!!??

Can you do Vil,epel, azul how would they react mc like that I thought it would be hilarious!!! please thank you love your stuff<3

THE BREAD! HAIL THE BREAD! EAT THE BREAD! RESPECT THE BREAD! And take the bread away from NPC's. (I hear the murder in the voice of that example NPC XD)

Otome-au

I do not take any responsibility for you reading this no matter which age group you are from!

WARNINGS: Yandere themes, poison, violence, stalking, obsession, possessiveness, murder, death

Azul Ashengrotto/Vil Schoenheit/Epel Felmier-“I’m gonna take your bread sir… let me take your bread SIR SIR STOP WALKING AWAY FROM ME SIR!!!??”

Here he is sitting, watching you through his mirror, looking at how you talk with those land-dwellers (idk about what you think but bread underwater is a bit hard u know...)

And... could it be that you are hungry?

Because all he is seeing is you jumping like a madman in front of random people (you call them NPC's, right?) wanting their bread if they had one

Ok, imagine this with me, he just woke up, was done with his hair so it was... like it usually was and just put the mirror on like some TV

You following me, right? Well he was staring at it with an open mouth watching how you wanted everyones bread for the first two minutes

And once the shock is gone he is going mad

“ARE THEY NOT FEEDING YOU WELL??!”

Then he remembers that this is not your real body and just some shell so you can experience this world

But then... what are you doing? Is this something in another culture? Is he missing something here?

Poor Octopus is so confused.

Why don't you just take some fish if you want food that badly, they are practically swimming into your hand... oh, yeah, right, you not in water

Let us remember that panicked state he was in before, yes? The three people that he could also see with you in the mirror are now cursed, byproduct of his abilities (don't question it)

But you seem to like bread a lot... should he try to create a waterproof one??!

Cue you looking at your screen confused when they achievement “culinary inspiration-the merpeoples best chef” popped up

Guess you just brought bread onto the plate of fish

But no one dares to steal the recipe. Otherwise they might find themselves at the mercy of an angry outcast of the sea, the mersorcerer himself

Yeah, that garden is growing pretty neat

So... you expect this cold-hearted tyrant king to just ignore what is going on?

My dear friend, he has a magic mirror that can see and show more than any other reflecting surface

He was this close from throwing his own most prized reflective surface out of the window (again)

Life of a mirror can be hard you know? If it isn't easy with competition on the mirror market and if that doesn't kick you out of the business then it's your owner shattering you (and I'm sure a fall from a tower also does the job)

Since you know me you also know what comes next, we build the scene

He just sat there, staring at your body in this world and how it didn't move for about half an hour (you probably went to grab a bite)

He almost screamed when you suddenly jumped up and sprinted to the next baker

Oh I also forgot to mention, you were screaming “BRRREEEAAADDDD” (you doing that. Not me. I'm just an author)

That was rather... u elegant but he can pass this...

Until you go to the next person and repeat the whole “gimme your bread” thingy

I told you, that mirror better learn how to fly and that fast

You want bread? YOU WANT BREAD??! Fine, then you shall get bread

Suddenly someone appears out of nowhere, handing you a basket filled with bread, saying “in the name of the king”

Maybe he will even get so annoyed that he will try to poison his brother yet again but this time with bread (imagine, it was not an apple but bread XD)

But if you thought about giving it to one of the suitors I would advise you to forget that

You know, he has a certain special magic and he might have done something to the bread that would affect them but not you... Just might (nah he has definitely done something to it)

So bread is the way into your heart huh?

Forget his apple carving skills! *sobs* He is going to learn how to bake bread!

The kitchen looked like it was a battlefield after the first time... why was there a knife sticking out of the bowl?

But anyway, he is trying his best

But why did he decide to walk the treacherous path of bread baking?

Well... you were screaming like a madman and telling everyone to give you bread

Oh boy was he happy that the people would forget what happened after you would restart the game or loaded an earlier safe file

Lowkey embarrassed but then it struck him!

If you want bread that badly then he shall make it!

He was so motivated that he totally forgot that this body of yours can't even get hungry

Remember that he is also the poison dealer which would hand the king the poison to finally reach his goals in the plot of the game?

That left over bread which isn't 100% perfect doesn't get thrown away, no

Bread can actually soak up a lot of liquids so just a few drops of this and that... there, his next client should be pleased

Also, might use the power of the oh-so-malicious poisoned bread to make sure Neige doesn't come close, he can't have the main plot ending too fast after all (falling off a cliff hurts)

But in the end he can bake bread like a champion

Just don't take the bread from that basket. That other one is for you. Oh why? Well... he made it for that nice person you met yesterday. Had to take extra measures because of an allergy... want to deliver it with you?

#yandere twisted wonderland #yandere twst #yandere twisted wonderland x reader #yandere twst x reader #twisted wonderland otome au #twsited wonderland azul #azul x reader #twst azul #yandere azul x reader #yandere azul ashengrotto #azul ashengrotto x reader #yandere azul #vil schoenheit x reader #yandere vil schoenheit #yandere vil x reader #yandere vil #twst vil #yandere epel x reader #yandere epel felmier #yandere epel #epel x reader #twst epel #tw: yandere #tw: poison #tw: violence #tw: stalking #tw: obsession #tw: possessiveness #tw: murder #tw: death

[kit-williams]

Healing

Male Lead: Tulio Female Lead: Psychi Universe/AU: Warhammer 40k/Yandere Space Marine Canon Status: Yes

Note: Sorry this was late T-T & this might be set before Tulio's initial post but basically she's not serving his friend yet.

I sobbed against his broad chest as he held me in just one arm, hardly exhausted. I feel like I've seen him before maybe in the market maybe as one of the few in passing but how my eyes water so much looking up at him as I look probably so awful. My robes ripped and torn. There are beasts and animals in the forest and dark woods... and normally they stay hidden but I just was going to head home...

I can't help but start to cry again as he stops for a moment and cradles me trying to get me to breathe. "There there my lady you're fine. Your leg will be good as new."

"My leg..." I look down and see how it's torn up and bleeding as I hardly feel the dull ache I just feel more scared. I start to sob again as I remember the hands grabbing me and pulling me into the woods. How I screamed out for just a moment before I was smacked hard to be quieted.

His name is Tulio... he said he saw me get grabbed and heard my screams and came to my rescue. I cling to his blue robes tightly as he walks through these darkened woods getting his clothes dirty because of me. How those fat tears of mine stain his clean robes and I try not to get any more of my fluids upon him. Yet he holds me so close just smiling as I continue to cry.

I look up at that smiling face as his grass green eyes look down at me wrinkling at the edges as he just smiles so handsomely down at me... the way the light plays with his brunet locks as the patchy breaking up of the tree coverings just make him look so much more handsome. He was my knight as I sob against him just pitifully thanking him.

"Shhhh shhh my dear lady there is nothing more to fear. The bandits are slain and you are here safe in my arms." I hear the slight uptick in his voice but I assume it's just as he maneuvers over the uneven ground... and nothing to do with how he holds me. "Forgive me for my hands my lady... I do not with to hurt your leg." He says adjusting how I sit in his hold feeling his hands brush against the back of my thighs at times and on the curve of my rear but I hardly care for the moment.

I sniffle loudly as I wipe my eyes with my scrapped palm and I wince. I look down at myself as I am a mess... my hair pulled from its bun letting my hair flow free, my poor outfit torn, and all the cuts on my form. "They... they were going to sell me." I whine softly as while I realize I am an indentured servant I have a chance to be free unlike being a slave.

"Shhh shhh I know they have been slain my dear Psychi... no one is going to touch you like that again." I think little of his words as I am too busy weeping clinging to him like a lifeline.

"You saved me."

"Of course my dear lady... I will always save you." Again his words slip out of my mind only for me to reflect upon them later.

As he carries me out I see the sun is getting low... it will surely be dark by the time I return home. "Thank you my lord I'm certain I can make it home." I say and just am surprised by the look he gives me... as if he is shocked by what I have said. "My lord? Um... you could carry me home I suppose." I say trying to assuage his concern.

"No my lady you will stay with me for the night."

"But... but... but... my master-" I say worried.

"Will understand once I explain what had happened. You need to be looked at right away. What with the swelling and the cuts all over your body and that torn up leg of yours. I'm sorry if this is me overstepping but you need to be looked at right away." He says gently but firmly as he carries me back into the city. He wraps me in some fabric as he moves through the crowds quickly. I feel so tired and overwhelmed I can feel a headache rushing through my veins so perhaps it is not a terrible idea to accept his generous offer.

I blink my eyes again as his warm hand cups my face and a cool rag gently wipes away the blood off my leg. "What..." I mutter softly.

"I said I was sorry for... it's nothing important that I said." He says cleaning out the gouges in my leg. I wince occasionally in pain and I can hear the softly muttered apologies.

"You're very gentle." I say softly and weakly.

"Thank you my lady." He says as he tightly wraps the bandage around my leg allowing me to adjust it as I see fit. I look over the bandages over my form some of them looking far more costly than what I would use upon me but perhaps this is all he has.

I go to stand but he catches me as I collapse into his arms, "I'm sorry I should-"

He gently places a cooling pack on my head watching me wince as it is tender from being hit after I screamed for help. "I understand that this isn't... " His dry and scarred lips quirk for a moment as his brow furrows trying to think of the word and he just sighs muttering something in high gothic. "Just allow me to help you heal? I would feel awful if my effort simply died on me from an infection that could have been prevented." He gives me a sad smile and I just chew on my swollen bottom lip.

"Of course my lord I am sorry for trying to scurry off after all of your help."

He nods and that handsome smile returns as he places me back into the soft lounging chair. I wince seeing my blood on the fabric though I wonder if it is even my own given how dark it is. I just close my eyes for a moment... just a small reprieve of this pounding headache... and unfortunately again time has passed far too long.

"I'm sorry for waking you my dear little one but you must drink something." Lord Tulio speaks as I open my mouth to reply it feels so dry and my throat only makes some horrible warble as I am disturbed from my impromptu slumber. "Drink." He says putting a cup to my lips.

The cold water burns my parched throat as I drink too much before coughing softly and his gentle hand rubs my back. He gives me an herb mixture to chew on and spit out for my aching joints and lingering pain. I look outside and whine softly as it is fully dark and now the fear of being reprimanded grows. "Eat." He gently commands again after I spit out the medical herbs into his palm, I really didn't want to but he told me to spit.

I stammer for a moment as I look at the good food in front of me but my stomach demands to be sated and so I obey both it and his gentle orders. "Thank you." I say softly as I eat the generous meal given to me. I feel his large hand pet my head for a moment as he just chuckles at me and says something in high gothic. I don't press him to tell me what he had said. He once again changes and cleans my bandages with such a gentle touch that I did not expect from him.

The bare room he has me stay in is still far more than what I am use to. He tells me should I need any help just to say his name and he will certainly hear me. I thank him once again and drift off into a dreamless sleep.

The morning after is funny as I call his name and the way he looks at me for a moment as he looks surprised as he grips the doorframe tightly, "I'm sorry did you forget I was here?" I say with a soft laugh, "I mean... forgive that jest my lord..."

He laughs softly recomposing himself, "I thought it was but a dream I had last night of saving a dearest maiden from some banditry."

I cannot help but laugh softly, "Unfortunately that was very real. I shouldn't take up more of your time my lord... I must return to my master." I say softly and as sweetly as I can as once more I try to get up and then in a flash I've fallen into his arms again.

"You're very stubborn do you know this?" He says with that airy laugh of his. I feel his chin against the top of my head as he pulls me up and putting me back down, before I can stammer out an apology he just smiles, "It's very cute." My face turns so very red as he turns away before walking back into the room with something that look too expensive for me. "They're not the nicest robes but they should work to keep your modesty my lady. I can call one of the serfs to come help you change if you need it."

"I'll manage. Thank you Lord Tulio."

I watch his throat bob for but a moment before he just quietly says, "Just Tulio is fine." He turns away before I can argue with him.

I dress with little hassle before he carries me once again. He tells me I hardly weigh a thing in his grip so him carrying me is hardly any effort. Breakfast is far too good for my station again as he once more cleans my cuts and scrapes, gives me more herbs to chew one, before he takes me in his arms and carries me back to my master's house.

On the way back some guards do approach to let me know that I was counted as a runaway. The dread in my eyes as I feel Tulio hold me a little tighter as he just whispers to me how things will be okay. The expected yelling at me doesn't come as only sweet words to placate the astartes that is holding me as Tulio explains what had happened. Apologizing at the circumstances as he wasn't concerned with what my master had to say. There was a strange look in his eyes as he looked at me as if he didn't want to let me go... but that's a silly romantic sort of thought.

"Thank you Tulio." I say to him softly and kiss the part of his palm near his wrist. I hear the way his breathing hitches for a moment but I discount it as any of my doing. I smile up at him as I know I look like a mess... with how my hair is down in robes that hardly belong to a woman of my station.

"You're welcome." He says before I reach out and Alba, another indentured servant, comes to help me limp back inside. I will certainly have to think of a way to pay him back... hopefully something will come to mind.

Fluffuary taglist: @bispecsual @the-californicationist @egrets-not-regrets @libraryshadow @bleedingichorhearts @liar-anubiass-blog

#warhammer 40k #fluffuary #fluffuary2024 #OC: Tulio #yandere #yandere space marine #space marine #yandere ultramarine #ultramarine

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

Chopped

Part Ten of If You Can't Take the Heat

You Got a Minute? | Masterlist | To Market

Pairing: Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto x Reader

Rating: M (though it may have explicit chapters in the future)

Notes: Welcome back! I hope y’all are having a nice week!❣️ Also no worries, there’s another chapter incoming, it just doesn’t have a name yet.

Also also we will return to the land of plot next chapter. This one is just for funsies.

Warnings: Fluff! Chopped! Not beta-read.

Summary: It seems more like something Carmy might make at the shop—a panini spilling over with bright vegetables, chicken, and oozing cheese. There’s a serving of fries there as well, and you know that they’re handcut and baked.

“First baskets are ready to go…Please open your first basket.”

“Babe, it’s starting,” You call out, eyes set on the television as the contestants open their baskets. “Do you want me to come help you?”

“Nah, you’re good. Turn it up!” Carmy calls back. You reach out, grabbing the remote and turning the volume up so that Carmy can hear it from your kitchen. Ted Allen’s voice rings out across your living room: 

“Green tomatoes…” 

“I’m looking at these tomatoes, and I’m just thinking uh, I hate these,” Groans one of the contestants. 

“Venison,” Ted Allen goes on. 

“Ooo,” You frown, brow furrowing. “What even is venison?” 

“Deer meat,” Carmy says, setting two plates down on the coffee table in front of you. You glance down, and do a double-take at the sight of the food there as the scent of it catches your nose. 

“Damn, babe. That looks good,” You reach out, taking your plate up. It seems more like something Carmy might make at the shop—a pannini spilling over with bright vegetables, chicken, and oozing cheese. There’s a serving of fries there as well, and you know that they’re handcut and baked. You reach out, taking your plate and leaning back in your seat, popping a fry into your mouth with a groan. When you look up again, you find that the chefs are already off and running. 

“Wait, what else did they get?” You ask. 

“Water chestnuts and wonton wrappers.” 

“No.” 

“Mhm.” 

“Those wonton wrappers are so dangerous…What would you do?” You ask, glancing at Carmy. 

“Bacon wrapped venison bite. Use the wonton as a little bowl, pan sear the venison ,” He answers without a second thought. “Throw the water chestnuts and the green tomatoes into a puree, add some shallots, garlic, some heavy cream. Give a brighter taste to the bite—cut through the salt, counter the crunch.” 

You blink at Carmy, stunned, watching as he plucks up a couple of fries and pops them into his mouth. 

“...How long did it take you to come up with that?” You ask. Carmy just shrugs nonchalantly, reaching out and taking his beer. You smile, shaking your head and resting your chin on his shoulder. 

“Fricking genius chef.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

“Gordon Ramsey’s got nothin’ on you.” 

“Eat your food,” Carmy presses. “It’s getting cold.” 

You can see, though, that his cheeks are pinking with flattery. You’re perfectly content to lean back and watch Chopped, but Carmy mutters to himself every now and again—between bites, after sips—completely unprompted. 

“Plating always makes me the most nervous,” You mutter as you watch the four chefs hurriedly put their food up. “Like, what if you drop something?” 

“What do you do if you drop something when you’re bartending?” Carmy asks, glancing back toward you as the four chefs line up to 

“Laugh it off in person but, like, scream on the inside.” 

“But you keep going, right?” 

“Yeah, ‘cause I have to.” 

“So do they.” 

You scoff, leaning back in your seat. “Alright—Michelin Miyagi.” 

-- 

“Oh my god, are you kidding me!” You crow as one of the contestants leaves. “That’s insane!” 

“No it is not—” 

“The other guy left off a basket ingredient!” 

“Yeah, but raw pork could kill someone.” 

You consider Carmy's argument before you slouch back, grumbling.

“For your main course, we have…”

You half-shove the remainder of your panini into your mouth as Ted Allen begins to introduce the new ingredients. 

“Swordfish…Fennel seeds…” 

You glance toward Carmy as he gives a short nod, and lets out an appreciative hum. 

“Maraschino cherries…And potato chips.” 

“Breading for the swordfish?” You pipe up. 

“Good,” Carmy nods, pointing at you without looking away from the television. “If you grilled it, that would be good. Drain and rinse the cherries, turn that into a salsa.” 

“What about the fennel seeds?”

“Add it to the swordfish. Some paprika, garlic, lemon.” 

“...Hell, I’d eat that.” 

--  

“Wow—” 

“Saw that coming,” You mutter. “You can’t just shove something into a blender with cream and call it a hummus.” 

“Amateur hour,” Carmy agrees. You watch, smiling as Carmy scooches down om the couch, resting his head on your lap. You reach down, tenderly combing your fingers through his hair as Ted Allen proclaims:

“And your dessert must feature…Granny Smith apples…Sweet vermouth…” 

“Curveball,” You mutter.

“Gingerbread…And apricot paste.” 

“Ice cream?” You ask. 

“Mm…With what?” Carmy asks, tipping his head up to look at you.

“The apricot paste and vermouth? Turn the gingerbread crumbs into a crumble…”

“And the apples?” 

“....Okay, I take it back, make a little, like…apple pie?” 

Carmy considers for a moment. 

“I’d make an apricot ice cream, use the vermouth to cook season the apples with, and use the gingerbread as a crumble.” 

“...Yeah, you know what,” You nod. “That’s the move.” 

“Uh-huh…Good jumping-off point, though.” 

“You're too kind, Berzatto.” 

Carmy huffs softly, amused. 

“...You’re pretty good at this,” He comments. 

“You’re a freaking rockstar at this, but like…Knew you would be…I'll do the dishes after this.”

"I got 'em."

"You cooked, it's only fair."  

“...We'll do 'em after the next episode.”

Tag list: @bobawithpomegranate ; @brandyllyn ;  @artemiseamoon  ; @amneris21 ; @buckybarneshairpullingkink ; @backoff-imreading ; @quietpainter ; @milf-trinity ; @distinguishedfilipina ; @peoniarose ; @missredherring ; @estrela-rogers ; @silkiers ; @sammiekay01 ; @velmalav ; @themartiansdaughter ; @eddiemunson4ever  ; @whoahoney​ ; @wittyno ; @winchestershiresauce ; @artaxerxesthegreat ; @blueeyesatnight​

#Carmy Berzatto x Reader #Carmy Berzatto x You #Carmy Berzatto/Reader #Carmy Berzatto/You #Carmy Berzatto fic #Carmy Berzatto imagine #If You Can't Take the Heat

[dirteater69]

here’s something that i wrote in february. its a segment of a fic i’ve been writing since last year, that i might post if i ever finish it. its about the killjoys ten years or so before the music videos, when they’ve just escaped battery city and are fighting in the analog wars as teenagers.

There’s a lot more waiting in war than Party expected.

That’s not to say that they expected much about war — they barely knew there was a war happening before they were dropped into it like oil in water, like a fish into a desert — but they had their ideas, set up by movies and assorted Americana folklore. This war is not much like those ideas. There’s no uniforms, for one, at least not on the side they’re fighting on. There’s no mustachioed generals walking around with sticks up their asses that yell at you if you’re not enthusiastic enough about killing other human beings. There’s no melodramatic longing for the home front, for the women and children only seen in photographs in lockets, because the war is taking place in the zones, which Party has come to know as their home whether they like it or not, and because women and people-who-are-practically-children go out and fight in it just as much as anyone else. Party’s yet to have a friend bleed out in their arms on the battlefield, which they’re very thankful for, but they do think that if they attempted that, they’d be gunned down before anyone could say the first word of a bleeding heart monologue.

Some things do line up with their expectations. None of Party’s closest friends have died yet, but that’s not to say that people don’t die, because they certainly do. There’s the direct deaths in the battles, but there’s also those who’ve died of festering infections weeks after they got the wounds, or of diseases, or amputations gone wrong — these are the kind of topics that come up when you try to have a conversation with your best friend who works in the medical tents. There’s those who took too much of what everyone takes to numb the pain, and passed out in a pool of their own vomit, and then never woke up. Some people just disappear: they might silently get out of their sleeping bag one cruel night and walk off into the stars, leaving only a memory and a pair of boots bound to get taken by someone else because, hey, who would waste a good pair of boots in a time like this; or they might get dragged off screaming on the battlefield by someone dressed in the whites and blacks of the enemy, one of the few unlucky chosen ones grabbed for rehabilitation in the big bad battery, or else turned into a masked and mindless weapon if they won’t comply.

There’s a lot of fear. Fear and worry, as well as rage and indignation, despair and nihilism. Impatience. Mania. Apathy. Hope. After a while, everyone’s grasping at straws to feel something, and not everyone’s sure they even want to.

The smell is bad. Party didn’t really expect that, but they can’t say it surprises them.

But they definitely didn’t expect all the waiting. Between the battles and attacks, you are obviously waiting for more battles and attacks, but you’re waiting for more than that. You’re waiting for news: partially reports from spies, strategy and intelligence regarding the elusive Other Side, but you’re also waiting to hear something exciting on the radio. Is there a party or a market happening soon? How shall we drown our sorrows tonight? If you’re Party, or another of the two dozen or so people in the zones like them, you’re sometimes waiting to be called to a strategy meeting. Party doesn’t really know shit about strategy meetings, at least they didn’t the first few times they attended them, but they got a feeling it made people feel better to think that they did, so they did their best to pretend.

Really, a lot of the waiting in war is like the seasons, like how you want it to be cold when it’s hot and hot when it’s cold. When nothing is happening, you want something to be happening; when something is happening, you want nothing to be happening. That’s how it is for Party, at least.

There is also waiting during the actual battles, though. If you’re pulling an ambush — like Party and those on their side like to do — then you’ll be waiting a while until you’re given a signal and get to actually start the fight. Even beyond that, though, there’s a lot of waiting in battle. Looking at it from the outside, it might not look like there’s any possible pauses, but it’s very different in the heat of the action. You’re always waiting for something: a new strike or shot to hit you, a new enemy closing up on you with hardly any time to retaliate, a new order shouted out barely audible over the gunshots, a new plan to form in your mind.

Party’s currently waiting for all of these. They’re crouched behind a car that has, at some point in the past ten minutes since the battle began, tipped over onto its side. They’ve never seen the bottom of a car before. Sadly, they won’t get much of a chance to look at it now, because they’re currently busy desperately reloading their blaster. They spent the final bits of their last battery pack making a couple of particularly rowdy Draculoids see the light of heaven, and now they’re hurrying to get back into the game before something similar happens to them. They fumble getting the handle open: they’re high on adrenaline and a few other things, and the roaring and blasting of the battle pulls their mind in all sorts of directions. They’d’ve thought they’d be used to it by now — or, at least deaf enough to ignore it better.

The handle of the gun comes open with a satisfying click, and they barely have to think in order to reload and close it again, pure muscle memory. This proves itself very useful when, as if on cue, a white-dressed BL/ind soldier jumps around the corner of the car with a glowing shotgun pointed at them. Party doesn’t get a good look at the soldiers face: they turn it into a mess of brain matter and burning flesh before anything else can happen. Ray gun wounds are messy.

Party scrambles up from their spot against the car to inspect the body, wearily glancing around themselves, the way you have to on a battlefield. They consider looting the body, but they don’t have the time; besides, this is just a toy soldier, and it’s usually only the Scarecrows or Exterminators that have good stuff on them. The shotgun could be worth taking, though, so they do. It’s heavy, and bright white — like most things BL/ind made. Their blaster’s still a little too hot to holster, but they do it anyway.

They crouch to protect their body as they creep around the car, taking in the battle. It’s what it always is. Something like a thunderstorm: car motors and shitty zone-made bombs create a sea of gray clouds; ray guns blast out neon lightning, beautiful and skin-scorching, always just a few inches away from hitting one vital organ or another. There’s people all around, Zonerunners and BL/ind troops shooting and stabbing and hitting and screaming. The shotgun is a little uncomfortable in Party’s hands, they’ve only used one a few times, but they’re good enough to take down a couple of Draculoids that they spot rushing at them. Four or five of the bastards down in fifteen seconds, max.

They run a sweaty hand through their hair and take a split second to consider the situation. There was a big strategy talk before this, they’re sure, but they can hardly remember any of it. This is a siege, right? A siege of a BL/ind base, somewhere in zone 2, definitely. Or zone 1.

The car behind Party shakes, and they stagger away from it, shotgun grasped tight. It’s caught on fire, the car — someone’s thrown a bomb at it, and now it’s tipping over. They bolt forward, still crouching like they have to. They glance around and spot a Drac and Zonerunner guy wrestling in the sand twenty or so feet away. Neither of them have their blasters, but they’re choking and punching and clawing at each other, and the Drac has got the Zonerunner under it with a hand on his neck.

Before Party knows it, they’re kicking the Drac of the Zonerunner, and then in the ribs a few times for good measure, until it’s no longer moving. Wordlessly, they hand the Zonerunner their shotgun — he clearly needs it more than them — and pull out their blaster to carry onwards.

Were they supposed to be doing something specific in this battle? They weren’t, right? They would almost definitely remember if they were. Almost. They comb through the mess of chemicals and fantasies that they call a brain and try to find any sort of mission, any sort of plan or direction, but they get nothing. Hopefully, the fact that they don’t remember anything important means that they don’t have anything important to remember.

There’s a loud blast behind them. It’s louder than the car falling over, louder than all the bombs around them combined, louder than anything they’ve ever heard. It’s like a gunshot and a punch in the face all at once. They spin around, and in the distance, beyond the metal fence of the BL/ind base — they were right, it is a siege — is a red form with glowing black eyes, two hundred feet tall. It’s made out of sand and smoke and carnage, with a gaping maw full of scrap metal teeth, and it’s lumbering towards the battle on four blurry but certainly real legs.

Their first thought when they see it is that the colors are all wrong. It’s supposed to be a black form with glowing red eyes, not the other way around, and surely something black can’t glow. But the black eyes of this monster are surely glowing. Their second thought is that they don’t know who it’s aligned with. They would know about it if it was a secret weapon of the Zonerunners, and it’s far too colorful of a monster for BL/ind to use, so the only other option is that it’s here to destroy all of them.

Their third thought is their about ray gun.

They look down at it, in their hand. Yellow-painted and nimble, freshly loaded. It’s taken many lives, this ray gun, but Party knows it would be ridiculous to try to defeat that giant with it. All of the weapons of the Zonerunners and BL/ind combined couldn’t take it down. It is going to eat Battery City and have the desert for dessert.

Still, it’s worth a try.

Party raises the blaster to the monster, but when they look up to aim, it’s gone. There is nothing but the battle, and beyond that the fence, and beyond that the sky. It’s gray. Too pale to be the night, too dark to be the day — is it evening or morning, right now?

Another BL/ind soldier charges at them from the left, blaster aloft and yelling, and Party takes her down with two shots. It’s a really dumb strategy to do alone, running at someone and yelling; especially when you have a ray gun that could just kill them from a distance. At least she had a flare for the dramatic, Party thinks, as they step over her corpse and look around the thunderstorm. She will be sorely missed, or not — if she will, it’s not by Party.

They start to run towards the direction that they saw the monster, for lack of a better plan. Maybe they’re looking for something. It’s unclear. A mean-looking Exterminator sets his eyes on them, and they fire off a series of shots at him. The sky remains a confusing gray.

Suddenly, when the fence is only fifty or so feet away, they start to feel horribly dizzy. It’s like all of reality has been flipped upside down, but they’ve been left still and hanging. They try to take a step forward. They’re not sure if they succeed. A convulsion strikes through their body. There’s a little vomit in their mouth, and the texture is weird. They can’t remember what they last ate.

Then, the world spins around them, and all they see is the uncaring gray of the morning-evening sky.

#the true lives of the fabulous killjoys #ttlotfk #party poison #killjoys

[random-writer-23]

Welcome Home (Poe x Gn reader)

Summary: Poe's been gone on a mission for longer than he was supposed to.

Words: 1,387

Warnings: tooth-rotting fluff, mentions of reader not eating (not eating disorder), brief description of minor injuries, allusions to sexy time cause c'mon it's Poe you can't expect me to not slip that in.

A/n: just thought I'd try my hand at writing something short for once, this has got to be the shortest thing I've ever written, and it's still over 1k words. And it took all the strength I had in me not to turn this into a full-blown oneshot. Anyway, this is mostly unedited but my last Poe thing is doing well so I figured I would feed you more Poe content. What the public wants they shall receive. Also, I'm pretty sure I wrote this with gender neutral reader, but if y'all find something not gender-neutral, lmk so I can fix it :D But anyway let me know what y'all think of my first drabble, and I might write more in the future when I feel like I haven't published anything in a long time. And as usual, all likes, comments, reblogs, and follows are welcome and greatly appreciated Also I am still looking for beta readers so if you’re interested see the pinned post on my profile for more information. happy reading my lovelies!

I paced the floor of my room, trying to figure out something to do, I could do laundry, read a book, or make lunch. Preferably that option, I hadn't eaten a proper meal in what seemed like weeks. Just snacks when the stress got too much to handle and I didn't know what else to do. The fighter squadrons should've been back by now, they were only sent on a short recon mission, they must have run into some trouble, or worse what if they were dead? I stopped my pacing and headed to the kitchen, ready to make something to eat, I had to take my mind off the quiet in the room. I opened the conservator and looked for what we had that I could use to make something to eat. I rifled through the food I had getting more discouraged the more I looked. A sandwich would have to suffice for my meal today, and I'd also have to make a list of things I'd need to get from the market on base. I mean sure I could always go eat at the canteen but canteen food everynight gets sickening, and theres nothing like a homecooked meal. I began to hum a little tune to myself as I spread mayo on my bread. When I heard a knock at the door. 

"Who is it?" I called to the person on the other side. 

"Lucy!" the voice announced, Lucy lives in the room next to me. 

"Come in!" I told her, and the door slid open revealing her standing there, hair messed up and very out of breath. "Oh dear Lucy, what happened?" I asked her my eyes wide as I moved to get her a cup of water. "Here I'll get you some water" I told her. 

"No time" She breathed heavily, hands on her knees to stabilize herself and catch her breath. I looked at her confused. 

"wha-" 

"(y/n) they're back!" She blurted out, and I froze my brain processing what she was saying. 

"They're..." I mumbled my voice going quiet as she grabbed my hand and smiled nodding. A smile quickly made its way across my face and I laughed "They're back!" I shouted giggling, Lucy grabbed my hand. 

"well let's go!" She said turning to pull me out the door, trailing me along behind her, we ran through the base to the landing bay. Only yelling 'they're back' at the people who gave us weird looks. We sprinted giggling all the way back and once we got to the landing bay, time seemed to stop. I stopped running and Lucy ran forward to greet her girlfriend, running into her open arms with shouts of joy. I didn't have to look very long for my love. I saw him immediately, climbing down the ladder from his x wing, when his feet touched the ground, a huge crowd immediately swarmed around him, and he smiled laughing as people patted him on the back congratulating him on another successful mission. He quickly turned his attention away from the people crowding around him, his eyes searching the crowd quickly. A look of subtle panic slowly crossing his face the more he searched. Until our eyes locked and I saw his instant relief. Watched all the stress drain from his shoulders, the exhaustion he didn't let show to the others wash away. I smiled a wide smile, giggling at the goofy grin spreading across his face. He pushed through the crowd around him, and they parted easily around him. Going back to congratulating each other the second he moved past as if he wasn't even there. He finally made it through all the people, and as soon as he did, time resumed and I ran towards his open arms. Once I got to him he picked me up spinning me around laughing. He put me back down, and once my feet hit the floor, he wrapped his arms around me tightly pulling me against him desperately.  As if holding me as tight as he could, would prevent me from ever leaving his side again. And if I had the choice it would. I breathed him in,  my fist clenching around the fabric of his flight suit tightly. The tears welled up in my eyes and I blinked letting them fall. I pulled away from him for a minute looking him up and down, to make sure he wasn't visibly hurt. Just to make sure he was really there, and he wasn't some illusion my mind had come up with. I pulled his helmet off his head dropping it to the floor and grabbing his cheeks turning his head looking for any sign of injuries. He had a couple of scrapes on his face, and smeared dried blood along his brow and forehead, but other than that he was fine. I touched his face, running my fingers gently along the cuts. Once I determined he was fine, I pulled him back in hugging him close, my body shaking with sobs as I came to the realization he was back and actually standing relatively unharmed in front of me. 

"You're safe" I murmured into his chest, almost disbelievingly. 

"Of course, couldn't leave my pretty girl all by herself" He smiled lifting my head with a hand under my chin making me look up at him. He wiped away my tears with one hand, and I smiled leaning into his touch. I opened my eyes and leaned in placing a soft kiss on his lips. Gently, delicately, hesitantly, pulling away and looking up at him through my lashes. He smiled and pulled me back in for another kiss, fueling this one with more desperation, gripping my waist tightly, and moving his hand from my face to the back of my neck. I wrapped my hands around his neck tangling my fingers in his hair. Smiling against his lips, he pulled away chuckling, and leaned his forehead against mine. "Maker, I love you" He mumbled, pressing his lips against me again, pulling away quickly, "I missed you" he kissed me again. "You're so beautiful, (y/n)" another kiss. "My (y/n)" another kiss, an explosion of affection. My heart fluttered, and I giggled turning away from him to hide my flushing face. "Don't hide from me gorgeous" He mumbled into my ear, only driving me further into hiding. 

"I love you too Poe" I looked back at him, placing one last kiss on his lips before his friends ran up to us cheering and screaming. He rolled his eyes at their approach, and he stepped away from me unwillingly. Not letting me go too far as he stood next to my side pulling me close to him. Finn, Rey and BB-8, came up to us Finn pulling us all into a large group hug, blubbering about how they survived another day. I rolled my eyes pulling out of the group hug with a laugh as I felt something hitting my leg. I looked down and gave a shout of joy as BB spun in a circle joyfully having my attention. I knelt down to his level giving him a kiss as well. "I'm glad you're back BB" I smiled, and he wooped in reply. I laughed, standing back up when Poe tapped my shoulders. I looked at him with a smile and he gave me another quick kiss. Finn groaned,

"Alright, get a room you two" Rey laughed,

"but not before we get a drink from the canteen" Finn added pumping his fist, and we all cheered.

"you good to celebrate" Poe leaned close to my ear whispering the question so only I could hear him. 

"Of course, you are a hero after all" I giggled, "but let's make it quick, I want to give you a proper welcome home" I smiled slyly and his eyes widened, realizing what I meant. He perked up quickly. 

"Alright let's drink!" He cheered loudly and I laughed. He leaned down to pick up his helmet, placing it on my head and gripping my hand tightly. "Maker I'm glad to be home" He smiled. 

"Me too" I replied as we followed the cheering crowd to the canteen, hand in hand, and the weeks of stress I felt washing away, and all was right in the world once more. 

--Fin--

QOTD: What is your favourite star wars movie? Mine. is either revenge of the sith or the animated clone wars movie!

Join my discord server: https://discord.gg/9bwRmtXCuB

#Poe #Poe dameron #Poe fanfic #Poe dameron fanfic #Poe drabble #Poe x reader #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron x y/n #Star wars

[kiasnocturnality]

Can I ask for Nasana's reaction to Reader tending to his wounds? Maybe when he has seen Reader a couple times but is still not sure whether he trusts them or not, and the tenderness of the moment tips the scale a bit and he allows it

characters: Nasana

notes: I'm soso happy to be getting all these requests, honestly I didn't think that people would be so interested so soon AHAH. I might have got a bit carried away and hit 2k words.

Upon returning home from the market, you wouldn't normally go wandering into what you knew to be naga territory, having been escorted once by him off his lands when you grew lost and having seen him a few times at the border. However, you had been down by the stream when you noticed that an alarming amount of blood was flowing through it from further up and so, you found yourself running along the side of the water, something from deep within telling you that this was just the right thing to do.

Not too long later, you found him lying in the water, the upper half of his body sprawled out across the bank of the stream. You froze for a moment when you saw him, dark grey skin and black tail that shimmered like a rainbow. His long hair was a tangled, matted mess around him and you could see the shimmer of blood on his skin and scales. This naga had once escorted you off his land and promised you that he wouldn't be so kind should he see you trespassing again but you hoped that, for now at least, circumstances were different.

You ran to his side and crouched down, grabbing his wrist to feel that he still had a pulse. You looked around for somewhere that you might be able to treat him, somewhere more sheltered. You had no idea where he lived, whether nagas lived in caves or trees, and so you would have to find somewhere to make do for now while you helped him. You could run around a bit now and see if you could find anywhere but that could waste precious time. You knew that there were caves at the base of the cliffs, not too far from the river, because you and your father had camped there once when it was too late to make the hike up the cliffs once you had come back from the markets in the nearby town.

This naga could likely fit in your boat if you could just get him that little distance downstream to the river, it would be easier to get him to the caves at the bottom of the cliffs and the commute from there to your home for medical supplies. Ok, cliff caves it is, you just needed to carry him to the river. Slinging the other strap of your bag over your other shoulder so that it wouldn't get in your way, you hooked your arms under the naga's and tried to drag him out of the water, downstream, but you only managed to move him a tiny bit and were digging holes in the ground where you were pushing your feet. You looked back up at his serpent's tail, which appeared to be 18/20 feet or 5/6metres long. He was heavy and he was big so you would have to rethink your strategy.

You carefully eased him down and picked up the end of his tail which was lighter than his torso, carrying that as much as you could until it became heavy. You then moved the middle section of his tail with some more effort before carrying his torso in the same direction. This would be tedious but it would be necessary to give him a chance to survive.

You did this for a while, pausing at one point to tear up your shawl into strips to wrap some of the more serious wounds, trying to stop the bleeding. It must have taken 20 minutes but you got him down to the river where you retrieved your boat and set him inside. You gathered some wood by snapping small branches off nearby trees and secured them under the top flap of your bag then joined him in the boat, cautious of how much his weight had sunk it, before rowing off in the direction of the cliffs.

You soon reached the caves and had to remove him from the boat and deep enough inside with the same technique you had used to carry him downstream. Knowing nagas were cold-blooded and it was chilly in the cave, you got straight to starting a fire, grabbing some cattails from the riverbank for kindling. You took out your water bottle and removed the makeshift bandages to begin cleaning the wounds, inspecting along his tail where it was harder to spot injuries among the scales. You took out the jar of honey that you had got on the market and began to slather it on the wounds, knowing that it could help to prevent infections and that it was all you had with you to do so. Your shawl was torn up even more into strips to try and cover up the open wounds and you grimaced at one across the back of his shoulder that would undoubtedly need stitches. You had nothing with you to give him that sort of treatment and so you would need to go home to fetch some more supplies. He was still unconscious when you decided to make the hike home. You would come back with more medical and camping supplies, some food, some fishing gear and a pot to boil more water in. 

You felt exhausted by the time you got home and wanted nothing more than to crash onto your bed but you settled for boiling the kettle on the stove to make some coffee instead as you gathered up everything that you would need, unpacking anything unnecessary from your bag that day. You left the house with a heavy bag, tired, with a flask of bitter black coffee. 

You wanted nothing more than to go to sleep as you made the hike back down the cliffs but you knew this trail well and were at the caves before many others would be in your shoes. The naga was still there and still passed out. You fed the fire some more and stitched and wrapped his worse wounds before laying out your bedroll and getting some rest. 

✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆𓍊𓋼𓍊⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩

The next few days passed quite monotonously: you would check his injuries, treat his fever, fish for food, purify some water, cook and keep the fire going. You had managed to get him to drink some but eating had been unsuccessful for the most part with the exception of some pieces of fish. However, one day, you were startled from your focus on cooking a fish you had caught by a groan from the naga and you turned to watch as he tried to push himself up but lacked the strength, falling back down to the bedroll you had set him on. His eyes scanned around the cave and landed on you, eyeing you warily and flashing his fangs. 

“Calm down.” You said as you turned the fish over. You had been expecting a negative reaction when he finally awoke and found you in his company, antisocial as nagas are, “I’ve been treating you for the last three days. I found you hurt in the stream and I brought you to the caves in the cliffs to treat you. I’ve been cleaning and bandaging your wounds, be careful with your left shoulder and the mid-underside of your tail, I’ve had to put stitches in and I don’t want you tearing them.” You spoke matter-of-factly. That gave him pause and he looked down to inspect the bandages you had wrapped around him, wincing when he moved his left arm a little too much. “Fish?” You offered him some by gesturing down to the piece you were cooking. He pulled a face. 

“I don’t particularly like fish.”

“Then starve and undo all my hard work.” You replied. You felt he would need a hard hand if he was ever going to recover under your care and you were more than sure that he would try to leave this cave before he recovered. 

“...just scale it and give it to me uncooked, leave the bones in, I need them.” Your brows shot up at the request before you realised bones must be important in a serpent’s diet – you weren’t really sure where else they would be able to get calcium from. 

“Alright.” You replied, picking up your fishing gear and heading to the mouth of the cave, “I’ll be down by the river, call me if you need anything, I’ll be able to hear you.” He didn’t reply as you left, neither did he say a thing when you returned, however you did notice him move in your peripheral when you took out your scaling knife. You glanced between him and the blade and muttered a ‘sorry’ before getting to work on scaling the fish and handing it off to him once you had put the knife away. You hoped that he was sensible enough to know that you wouldn’t want to hurt him if you were going to all this effort to heal him. 

You watched on as he opened his mouth wide and then wider, the white lines leaving the corners of his lips that went to the centres of his cheeks opened up to reveal a maw of teeth and a forked tongue. You were surprised to see that he didn’t chew the fish at all but that he swallowed it whole before he closed his mouth again. His brown eyes met your own which were full of mild surprise. 

“I don’t need to chew like you humans.” 

“Noted.” You replied as you took your own fish, scaled with the bones removed, from the fire, setting it down on a large leaf and pulling off pieces with your fingers to eat. It was bland and you missed your spice rack at home. You tried to spark up a bit of conversation with him but it was fruitless and so you went out to gather more firewood instead. You returned in the evening and announced that you needed to change his bandages. 

You removed the old bandages and cleaned out the wounds, being more careful than ever to not hurt him now that he was awake. He watched you with unwavering focus as your warm hands gently tended to his injuries. He could feel the heat radiating from you and it lingered pleasantly in his cold body in the wake of your touch. He took a moment to imagine you laid down in his coils, his body covering yours, arms wrapped around you, cheek pressed to your warm chest and hearing your heart as you warmed his cold body with your heat. You were a pretty thing to look at, something he hadn’t wanted to admit the first time he saw you up close. He struggled to recall your name which you had once given him. He had refused to give his own as he had not intended to see you again. He had seen you though, a handful of times at the border of his land but there had been some distance between you and you were a mere blur of colour and a particular scent to his senses. 

Nasana wasn’t a people-person, whatever the opposite of that was called, that’s what he was. But he found himself enjoying your company. You knew of his nature, what he was and that he didn’t like people on his land and yet you had risked provoking his temper for the sake of helping him and here you were, camping out in a cave (something he knew humans typically did not do for long periods of time) so that you could treat him. He looked over your form, so much smaller than his own, and knew that carrying him here mustn’t have been an easy feat for you. 

“Thank you.” You almost jumped when he broke the silence by speaking but you knew that something like this was a big leap in how he had acted with you before. You flashed him a kind smile. 

“It’s not a problem, what sort of person would I be if I left you to die?” You spoke quietly as you reached around his tail to wrap the bandage, “Besides, you helped me once when I was lost so I’m repaying your kindness, you earned it, you deserve it;” You shot him a teasing look, “Cold as you may be and I’m not just talking about your temperature.” He rolled his slitted eyes but you noticed the small upturn of the corner of his white lips. 

“Where did you learn to do all this?” He asked and you were glad that he was now trying to make conversation with you. You laughed a little. 

“Let me tell you about my little brother, he’s like a disaster waiting to happen…” 

You were glad to see the softer side of the cold naga who owned the stretch of the rainforest beneath the cliffs and beyond the river. 

𓋼𓍊⋆ﾟ Buy me a coffee? ｡˚:✧｡Want to be tagged?

@writing-noah @edensrose

#✧･ﾟINTO THE FOREST #✩⋆ﾟNASANA #naga oc #naga oc x reader #naga x reader #terato #terato x reader #monster boyfriend #monster oc #monster boyfriend x reader

[hermesserpent-stuff]

u kno the drill. spoilers for stolen heir below!!

“We would like to adopt you and your brother as our brothers.”

Viggo says calmly. Dagur jerks away teeth flashing while he grabs the back of Hiccup’s fur vest and tugs his little brother up and back. He is so very pissed.

“Is this why you brought our boat here instead of the Markets?! To try and trap us in some sort of- You don't even really want me!! You just want Hiccup! For his designs!”

Accusations come quickly, and they kill the flicker of hope that had rested in Hiccup’s eyes for just a second. Hope that Dagur is man enough to admit sent a spark of jealousy. But he also does believe his words. Dagur shoves Hiccup behind him and makes a quick sign to his little brother out of view of the Grimborns. He then pulls his ax, ready to be a distraction. Ryker speaks, voice too calm.

“We want both of you equally.”

“Don't LIE to me. I hate it when adults do that!”

He howls and spins his ax. Both Grimborn’s have their eyes on him good. Good. He will buy Hiccup time.

“Ryker is not lying. We want to take care of you. Have our past actions not proven that?”

Viggo asks sounding for all the world like Dagur had hurt his feelings. But it has to be a lie! Who, other than Hiccup, would genuinely want him?? No one wanted him. Not really. They just wanted something from him. That is all. So he has to get him and his brother off of this island. This trap of an island that they had been dragged to while too ill to say no or resist. 

“You brought us here to make it harder to get away from you! To force us into saying yes! Well, it! WILL! NOT! WORK!”

He swings and is then fighting both brothers who just block. They do not fight back. Dagur silently notes that Hiccup is gone and mentally calculates how long it would take his brother to get back to the boat without being spotted and prep it for sea travel. He is so glad that he had gotten it repaired first thing while waiting for Hiccup to start feeling better. 

“This is not a trap!”

Ryker yells back as metal clangs against each other. He snarls loudly and then roars like a dragon as he twists and thrusts. He slices Rykers left hand shallowly and kicks out Viggo’s legs. Then he is off like a shot through the door, clambering the side of the nearest hut with the tree climbing skills he gained while following after Hiccup. He runs from roof top to metal rooftop, using momentum to help himself fling across gaps. He can hear yells filling the village and sees people heading for the docks. He needs to be there first. He gets within yelling range and screams at Hiccup.

“Sail!! I’ll swim.”

His brother hesitates and then undoes the rope morning the Hopeful Puffin to the dock and unfurls the sial. Dagur leaps down from the roof, rolling and dodging hands that try to stop him. One last check to his ax to make sure it is secure to his back, and he is at the edge of the dock.

He dives into the water and powerfully swims through the salty water, gaining on the tiny ship. Hiccup tosses him a rope and then he clambers on. Then he pulls out the two massive oars he made while on the Acumens island to prevent what happened from ever happening again and dips them into the water to give just a little more speed. The other ships were not ready to set sail on the island behind them but it would not take them long. What the Hopeful Puffin had going for it was her tiny stature and quick build, aided by the pounding oars. He throws his back into it and pushes and pushes. Hiccup mans the rudder and they flee. Flee as night falls, flee as day breaks, flee as the wind stutters. Hiccup keeps an out behind them and calls out as their pursuers vanish across the horizon line. They make it back to their island but Dagur refuses to stop until they are hidden in the center of their home. 

He collapses after stumbling into the cave. He lays as Hiccup moves about and 

“I… I think they might have been genuine Dagur.”

Hiccup breaks the silence between them for the first time in two days. Dagur snarls.

“Not talking about it.”

“But-”

“Hiccup, I don't want to lose you to another tribe. Please, just… can we talk about it later?”

--

But later never came lmao dragons came first. ^_^

#hermes speaks #dagur the deranged #hiccup haddock #httyd #httyd au #stolen heir au

[twostepstyless]

Talent Show Reject

Fic Advent Calendar Day 8

Advent Calendar Masterlist

Main Masterlist

Author’s Note: Sorry for the delay today, besties. I like this one, I think it's dead cute. Harry's really excited for a family day out, the dog included, to the town centre's Christmas light switch on.

Word Count: 2.4k

———

Harry and Y/N tried their hardest to stay active participants in their community. Harry was away a lot, so it was usually Y/N who was showing face at any events in their area. Farmers markets, the shows in the local school, bake sales. This year, however, Harry was home, and Y/N had never seen someone so excited for the local high streets Christmas light switch on in her life. He was practically buzzing. 

“Okay, babe, so what time does it actually start?” He asked over their lunch at a local cafe the pair frequented, he was feeling a lot better after his sick day the day before and the dose of being babied and medicated by his love. 

“Think the switch on is at 6:30, but they have a few cute stalls and little performances by kids from the primary school,” she said wiping her hands on her napkin before folding it onto her plate. 

“You think it’s at 6:30 or y’know it’s at 6:30?” Harry pressed. 

“It’s definitely at 6:30 baby,” Y/N clarified for him, giggling as he checked his watch to see how much time they had. It was still four and a half hours away. 

“’Kay, so should we head down now?” Harry finished his water and went to shrug his arms back into his coat.

“Harry, gorgeous, we’ve got ages,” she pulled some cash from her purse to leave on the table to cover their bill from lunch and a tip. “Also you promised the dog we would take him and I can’t bear to look at him being sad if we don’t,” Y/N pouted as she stood from her place at the table.

“Okay, so we’ll got get Vinnie and then are we walking or taking the car?” Harry asked, holding Y/N’s coat open for her to slide into. 

“Let’s walk, it’ll tire Vinnie out too, think I might need a better coat though,” Y/N said as they stepped out into the cold, the bitter wind making her hug her coat tight to her body as Harry took one of her hands in his and slipped their intertwined fingers into his pocket as they took the short walk back to their house. 

Vinnie greeted them at the front door, with the waggiest of tails and his lead already in his mouth good to go. 

“Hi, m’special boy,” Y/N exclaimed dropping down to her knees quickly to hug him close to her as if she hadn’t seen him in years. As he leapt up to love on his Mum. 

“Y’are special if she gets on her knees that quick for you, Vincent,” Harry laughed at his own joke. 

“Don’t be a twat or I’m not going to the lights with you,” Y/N shot him a playful glare before getting distracted by Vinnie licking her cheek for more attention. “C’mon, let’s go get you some food and we’ll get ready to go out, eh Vinnie,” she gave him a last scratch before getting to her feet hearing his paws trot after to the kitchen. 

*** 

With Vinnie fed and watered, they had got him ready by attaching his light up collar so he could be seen in the dark, not that he would run away from their feet, he was much too scared to do that, but you never know. Y/N also pulled on his Christmas sweater she had found in Pets at Home for him last year, granted it was a little tight round his midsection now, but they’d get away with it for a few hours. 

“Are you Santa’s little helper, Vinnie?” Harry cooed at him as Vinnie sat at his feet after finding his Dad at the front door, his tail acting like a swiffer mop on the floor. Vinnie barked in response. “Y/N/N,” Harry called upstairs, “you about ready, if I miss the cute kids singing Christmas songs or ones from the nativity that’s on you,” he warned as he clipped Vinnie’s lead to his collar. 

“Keep your hair on, m’coming,” she appeared at the top of the stairs, adjusting the knit beanie on her head. She had shrugged on a green wool coat with an oversized check pattern covering it, “two seconds, jus’ need to grab something from the kitchen,” she kept walking down the hall and appeared a moment later with two thermos cups in her hands. “Made us two little hot chocolates for the walk,” she smiled softly, handing Harry’s off to him. 

“Hm,” Harry hummed dreamily, “you’re cute, y’look cute too,” he smiled, leaning forward to peck her lips, before giving a quick kiss to the tip of her nose as her eyes fluttered closed. 

“Shall we?” she broke herself out of her dreamy haze, as Harry opened the front door ushering her and the dog out of it as he locked up. “Wait, hang on, want to take a picture of us all,” Y/N ran forward to set her phone up, so it captured their front door, with the wreath hanging in the middle and a garland around the door frame. She had Vinnie sit in front of Harry’s feet, his chest puffing out proudly, clad in his slightly too tight Christmas jumper. Y/N set the timer and sprinted back to her spot next to Harry as he flung his arm round her shoulders and gripped Vinnie’s lead in his other hand as the smiled at the camera. The camera took a series of photos as Y/N went to collect it as they left the security of their front garden and made the walk to the high street. “Oh baby, look, these are so cute,” Y/N almost squealed swiping through the photos, “look how cute our little baby is,” she whined, turning the phone round to show Harry

Vinnie being such a good boy for his photograph. With the amount of times Y/N makes that dog pose for her in a day, he’s ready at the drop of a hat to have his picture taken at this point. Harry watched her change her lockscreen to the photo and then send it her family groupchat, seeing her family drop heart reactions and fawn over the cute little family photo within seconds of receiving it. 

*** 

The sky grew darker on their 15-minute walk to the high street and as they got to one of the busier areas, Harry leant down to turn on Vinnie’s glowing collar and clicked off the retractable part of his lead so he couldn’t wander too far from them. They had finished their hot chocolates on their walk too and Y/N had thrown the empty thermos cups in the oversized bag she carried on her shoulder. They hadn’t missed anything yet, but there were a lot of people milling around. The residents of the area were used to seeing Harry’s face around, so he received nothing more than pleasant greetings and nods of the head in their direction as if he was any other friendly neighbour. 

“Oh my god, d’you smell that?” Y/N’s mouth watered, there was a scent of zingy citrus and woodsy spices lingering in the air as Y/N’s head whipped round trying to find the source as they shuffled along with the crowd of people wandering around looking for a spot or ferrying children to where they were to be before their performances. 

“There’s the mulled wine stall there, sweetheart, want to set up shop her with Vin and I’ll go get us some?” Harry asked as they broke into a free area as Y/N nodded before taking hold of Vinnie’s leash, as Harry pecked her on the cheek and gave a warning to Vinnie to be good for his Mum before he disappeared back into the crowd of people. 

***

Harry arrived back a short while later with two steaming cups of mulled wine for them, Y/N grinning seeing a cinnamon stick sitting at the edge of the cup with a slice of orange and pieces of star anise swirling round in the dark liquid. Vinnie tried to take a sip after Y/N took her first and let the cup hang by her side. “Nuh-uh Vincent, not for dogs, y’wouldn’t even like it,” Y/N booped the dog on the tip of his nose with her free hand. 

“Vin, here, I have somethin’ you’ll like,” Harry said as the dogs attention drifted to Harry’s as he dug around in his coat pocket before bringing out a dog chew from the depths of the pocket as Vinnie tried to grab for it, “hey, gentle, Vincent, we take it gentle,” Harry elongated the last word as Vinnie slowly took it from his grip, “that’s it, good boy,” Harry praised, giving him a quick scratch behind his ear before the dog plopped down to lie on his belly across both their feet. 

“You’re the one who keeps saying we need to stop giving him so many snacks,” Y/N reminded him, as she watched the children from the primary school shuffle out onto the stage, some with bits of tinsel and Santa hats on top of their heads. 

“Shh, it’s his Christmas Day out with his parents, let him enjoy it,” Harry nudged her playfully as the kids’ music teacher began the opening to Away in a Manger as the little cuties on stage burst into song. 

*** 

Four songs later the children left stage to a deafening applause as parents wiped tears of pride away with gloved fingers. 

“That was lovely, wasn’t it?” Y/N beamed up at Harry, who hastily blinked away the watery sheen that collected in his eyeline. 

“Yeah, dead cute,” he said gruffly, trying to swallow past the emotion in his throat. 

“What is it with you and crying at children’s choirs?” she laughed as he swiped his under eyes quickly. 

“Shut up,” he whined at her teasing, “their jus’ so cute I can’t help it. Vincent, get your mother, she’s being mean to Daddy,” Harry said to the dog at their feet, he looked up from his spot lazily at his father before turning back to the front. If that dog could roll their eyes, Y/N and Harry are sure they would have rolled out his head by now. 

They watched as another three children shuffled out onto the stage, the announcer saying that these kids were getting to switch on the lights this year as a reward of the fundraising they had done at school this year. They got to the front of the podium where a big, shiny, red button waited for them to press to turn the lights on. The children screamed a countdown from five down the microphone before the three small hands clapped on the button after one as they yelled out ‘Merry Christmas.’ The high street suddenly flickered into twinkly life. Fairy lights rapped round trees and lampposts, glittering snowflakes strung between the buildings and at the top of the high street a big 18 foot tree, lit up with hundreds upon hundreds of bright white lights. 

“Shame about the colour of the lights,” Harry muttered into her ear, knowing Y/N’s distaste for bright white lights, being much fonder of warm white. He pressed a kiss to her cheek. 

“Can’t win ‘em all,” she sighed before turning to plant a sloppy kiss to Harry’s lips in the middle of the crowded street as people began to move on to their next destination for the evening. 

“Y’wanna head back? Think Vinnie is hitting his social interaction limit for the evening,” Vinnie was a great dog 99% of the time, but he was definitely getting tired as he missed out on his afternoon snooze, and they could hear him whining every time another child came to aggressively pat him on the head. Not that they were at all concerned about him acting out, but he was there baby, and they wanted him to feel as happy, and safe and loved as possible, and if that meant an early finish to their evening, so be it. Y/N nodded, looping her arm through Harry’s as he began to fight his way through the crowd to get them on the path back home.

*** 

“Did you ever do a Christmas light switch on?” Y/N asked once they were alone, away from the crowd and on their empty street as they walked back to the house, after a quick stop off in the park for Vinnie to do his business and get his post-bathroom break zoomies out. 

“Hm, no, why would I?” Harry mused. 

“I always remember it being like X Factor and reality tv show rejects who done them in my hometown growing up,” Y/N said softly not realising what her words implied. 

“Oi! M’not a reject, am I?” Harry asked, laughing as her mouth gaped. 

“Oh my god,” she smacked his shoulder playfully, “you know I didn’t mean it like that,” she giggled as Harry typed in the code to their gate as they reached the house.

“Nope, I have nothing else to say to you,” Harry said walking in front of her as she followed him, giggling away. 

“Harry,” she whined, laughing, “I’m sorry, you’re not a reject,” she said, trying her best to be serious, but a smile still fought its way to her lips. 

“Thank you,” he said sincerely, unclipping the dog from his leash as he sprinted to his bed in the living room. 

“Still didn’t win though, did’ya?” she smirked. 

“Oi!” 

“M’sorry, m’sorry, I just couldn’t help myself,” she laughed as she ran to the living room as Harry tried to grasp her around the waist. 

He caught her in the living room, her back to his chest as he gripped her around the middle, “y’gonna make it up to me?” He mumbled in her ear, before leaning down to leave a wet kiss on the side of her neck. 

“Mhmm,” she sighed out, gripping his arms that held her close. 

“How?” Harry whispered. 

Y/N craned her neck round to catch his gaze, “I’ll let y’do your own Christmas light switch on when we turn the tree lights on in a second. Y’can do the big countdown and everything if you want,” she said.

Harry’s brows furrowed, as his eyes searched hers, leaving a long pause before opening his mouth “…deal.” 

———

Advent Calendar Masterlist

Main Masterlist

#harry styles writing #harry styles fic #harry styles imagine #harry styles fluff #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x reader #harry styles x fem!reader #harry styles x you #harry styles one shot #one direction fanfiction #one direction #harry styles oneshot #twostepstyless advent calendar #harry styles christmas

[darshanoftheories]

We got the trailer, a bit later than last time

So I gotta be quick with my theories

So I gotta preface this entire convo with my believe that the playable characters won’t die.

I don’t think hoyoverse would be brave enough to do that, especially cause, no matter how much people might want to play guizhong and such, more people would be freaked out with playing a corpse. I think the Fontaine banners would ultimately not do as well as they could’ve, if the characters were dead for real. I don’t think hoyoverse would want to jeopardise their chances at making money.

So, that said, the trailer does depict quite a few dark scenes, in fact, most everything hints at death and destruction. The prophecy is being fulfilled, the people of Fontaine are dissolving. And in the middle of it all, Furina and Neuvilette. At the trial of the hydro archon Focalor.

Now it should probably be said, that those two, plus Navia, who is falling into the water after we failed to grab her, are the only people we see in the trailer as far as I know. Navia might still die, but she just got her character card confirmed and she was already one of the main characters in the archon quest, so again from a marketing standpoint it would be idiotic not to let people pay money for her. So I’m placing my bet on her being saved last minute by another person.

What we also didn’t see is the ship, that Wriothesley was building. Which I also feel like it has gotta play a part in the quest, or else they wouldn’t have gone through the effort of designing that big of a thing and only show it for like two seconds.

When we talk about the ship, we have to talk about the water.

The primordial water seems to be even worse off than before. “Everyone on the street who happened to be close to the water didn’t have a chance to escape. As the water levels rose, they suddenly disappeared.” Everyone, implies that it truly is everyone. Fontanians and every person from another nation who happened to be there. That’s not the properties of the primordial water we know till now. Even the traveler got warned not to go near suspicious water. I am a bit stumped why Navia would feel the need to clarify that it’s the water that’s ominous though. I wonder what they were talking about before. Maybe other people? Maybe the oratrice?

And that is the second thing we have to talk about. The trial. The trial of the hydro archon Focalor. People seem to have very negative response to justice right now, so there has to be something that’s besides the norm.

I think that Focalor and Furina might not be the same person. That theory has been floating around for some time, but it feels even more solid when we know how hoyoverse likes to bring us onto the wrong path. Every time the specifics of the trial are mentioned only Focalor or the hydro archon are mentioned. I could see Furina in opposition with Focalor, battling for the title of the hydro archon. So that in the end of it all Furina is finally the proper hydro archon.

But then again, Focalor has a Death sentence.

The way Furina looks like, we already know her white outfit, she’s been wearing that all the time, but now she also has a black outfit, in which her hair is cut short, without those long strands anymore. It makes me think of that blade going down, cutting her hair off, symbolising a new beginning. And yet. Black is also for mourning. Focalor dies, so isn’t it fitting to wear black? What is Neuvilette’s part in all this? If this is a trial, then shouldn’t the oratrice be able to handle it? Ah but no, it makes me think of a theory I have had before. Would the oratrice be able to remain impartial in a trial against itself? Maybe Neuvilette’s job really is to make sure to judge impartially. Maybe Childe’s sentence really was unjust. Neuvilette said Furina wasn’t quite as superficial as she made herself out to be and I have to agree with that.

Now I am really bad at figuring out whose voice is whose, but I believe it is Furina’s voice actor who says “Farewell, Neuvilette. I hope you’ve enjoyed the part you played these five hundred years.” And while it is Furina’s voice, it doesn’t sound like her. She has more glamour in her voice, more energy. I think that might’ve been the voice of Focalor.

Childe is also in his foul legacy transformation again, and with Skirk and the whale being in the trailer, there’s certainly something interesting going on. I like the idea that Skirk is somewhat parallel to Arlecchino, with being called Papa, cause the voice in the end, she knows more about what’s going on. I can also see the “Everyone’s dead.” line being from the past, because again, I don’t think our playable characters are going to die. The whale as the final boss in Fontaine is gonna be exciting, especially cause it seems like the whale got through a portal into the courtroom. And Neuvilette and Childe are battling to defeat it.

A parting thought that there are more trees than ever, they just continue to pile up. There are two main new ones in this trailer. It’s part of the Tevat symbolism.

Anyway gonna wrap this up for now, 4.2 is upon us soon, so we’ll see how this chapter of the archon quest is gonna end. (Probably with the Fatui having one more gnosis)

#genshin impact #genshin theory #genshin #genshin spoilers #fontaine archon quest #genshin analysis #fontaine #genshin 4.1 spoilers #genshin 4.2

[silent-silver-slip]

The Sea Never Dies Scene - Just Trust Me

Some people may be aware of my the sea never dies series and the work in progress original version of it as well. This little scene comes from that series, but the main things you need to know are:

Toru is the commander of a secret shadow force of mages and leads a team consisting of Ezra (2IC), Grace, and Maree

They are a team and, by that, I mean they're actually a family

Maree's girlfriend is only vaguely aware of the secret shadowy force, but Toru's well-known for also being the teammate to the leader of the mage village when he was younger

This scene itself won't appear in the original works, but it was a fun little work to enjoy on the side, and I DO have many of those written at the moment, must admit. (And for those curious, I'm around 63k into Sea Dreams at the moment!)

Now, this scene was specifically written for @femslash-february and the prompt 'Just Trust Me'. You can read it below the line!

“Just trust me,” Maree Inke says, a grin playing on her lips. “It’ll be perfectly fine.”

Her girlfriend, Adi Shipborne, presses her lips together and looks rather unconvinced. “How is it going to be fine?” she says, only just dragging her voice down to a level that isn’t quite hysterical—only close. “It’s the Archmage’s Apprentice teammate! Isn’t he crazy powerful?”

Toru is, of course, ‘crazy powerful’ to most and Adi knows that Maree’s a Specialist too, which means she probably knows that Toru is the same. But… Well, it’s hard to think of someone being ‘crazy powerful’ when you’ve seen them covered in feathers and paint from a quest—not even a prank!—gone wrong.

“He ate cereal with juice once, rather than milk,” Maree tells Adi instead, because at least they know how to observe opsec. They’re both mages, after all.

“That might be more concerning if you hadn’t told me how you’d decided to have cereal with water that one time, as opposed to going to the shops and getting milk. Or eating it dry! That is also a perfectly reasonable response!”

“We’d gotten back from a quest the night before, there was nothing else to eat! How is it not a valid reason?” Maree immediately protests, even as she spots her teammates sitting outside.

Adi rolls her violet eyes. “It’s not a valid reason because you used water, and also I know for a fact that the market stalls were open then and you weren’t injured enough to not go and grab something. Also, your teammates went without you. I think that’s a big sign. You told me that happened, by the way, so you can’t deny it.”

There’s no response Maree can offer to that, so she decides to go for the next best option: distraction.

“Well, we’re almost there,” she says. “Any more panic to get out before we reach them?” Of course, it’s highly probable that the others have already clocked her approach. Ezra, at the very least, is wiggling his fingers in her direction in greeting and Toru is smiling in her direction. Grace has her back to them, but she’s shifted, clearly aware of the actions of the rest of her table mates.

“If this goes poorly,” Adi hisses, tugging on a single strand of red hair before shoving it back out of her face, “I am going to run away from Kaisho, and Sumar more broadly, and live my best life as a hermit on the other side of the world. Hopefully on an isolated and abandoned island.”

Maree hums. “Is there space in your hermit hole for another person?”

“For you? Of course,” Adi says, even as she curls her pinky with Maree’s. Maree doesn’t blush, purely because she’s a hard-hearted mage who completes some of the darkest quests and certainly won’t blush just because her girlfriend decides to be affectionate in public.

And also because she has a bet with Ezra and is determined to win.

“Well, at least we won’t be alone in our hermit hole,” Maree says, with a cheeky grin. “Because my teammates would probably follow us.” She comes to a stop in front of their table. “Speaking of my teammates, let me introduce them. There’s Toru—” He waves a hand, offering Adi a polite smile. “—and Ezra—” Ezra’s grin shows teeth, but it’s toned back in the face of someone new. “—and Grace who is probably your best bet for a reasonable conversation.”

As the boys protest, Grace laughs, head tossed back, pink eyes glinting in the sun. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Adi,” she says. “Join us. We’ve saved you from sitting across from Toru.”

“Oi!”

Ezra nods, all too willing to prolong the joke, and Maree takes a seat beside her girlfriend. “He’s got the worst table manners of us all. Eats with his mouth open and all.”

“I really hope you know better than to listen to this lot,” Toru says. “Especially,” he adds, raising his voice, “as I was not the reason we ended up having to negotiate our way out of a political scandal.”

Both Ezra and Grace blush, though Ezra’s is harder to see with his dark skin. “Yes, well,” he says with an embarrassed cough, “we all have our moments, I suppose.”

“This sounds like a story,” Adi says, leaning forward. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance I could hear it?”

Toru glances slyly at the others before he leans forward too. “It was a handful of years ago when we were in the capital of…”

Leaning back in her seat, Maree watches her teammates entertain her girlfriend with increasingly stupid and outrageous stories. Ezra keeps chiming in with exaggerations even as Toru stresses Maree’s role and Grace keeps calling them out to tell the truth. It’s probably the best way their first meeting with Adi could have gone, and Maree knows that they’re doing their best to keep her girlfriend from panicking in their own ways.

She loves them, and she is forever grateful that they can have this.

Then it occurs to her that Toru probably has a fair share of embarrassing stories about her, and suddenly she’s no longer so certain this was a good idea.

#the sea never dies #dreams of the past #wip #Character: Toru #Character: Maree #Character: Grace #Character: Ezra #Character: Adi

[modernmisadventures]

Chapter 16: Dinner and a Show

What had possessed him to invite Kal’istae over? His apartment was thrashed. He’d been gone all week. There was a light layer of dust over everything, he had a ton of laundry to do, his bathroom had to be scrubbed, his floor swept, and everything aired out. Plus he had to replace half his groceries and buy what he needed for dinner tonight. But every time he even considered calling and postponing, his stomach immediately twisted.

Fine. He could do this.

Thancred dumped his suitcase out on his bed, then gathered everything together, including the sheets he hadn’t changed before leaving on his trip. Hauling the lot into the laundry room, he sorted them into the baskets for each lights, darks, and delicates, then began the first load. Leaving that to rumble away, he stepped out and into the kitchen next.

Pulling open his fridge, he wrinkled his nose. While some of it could be salvaged, a good chunk of the dairy and all of the leftovers definitely needed to go. His fault for not cleaning it out before he’d left, but it had been an emergency call, and he’d hardly had time to pack.

He grabbed his trash can and began to toss the spoiled - or almost spoiled - food into it, sending the tupperware sailing across the counter into his sink for cleaning. Once he’d managed to clear out the fridge, he set the bag to the side and started in on his dishes. 

As his dishwasher hummed merrily, he dug up the enchanted broom his friend Y’shtola had made for him and keyed it up to sweep and dust the apartment. He rarely bemoaned his lack of aether control, but this was one of those situations where the ability to do a bit of magic - in the form of a few cleaning spells - would have come in quite handy.

Still, the broom would chase away the dust while he tackled the bathroom.

A few hours later, the laundry was done and folded, the bed covered in freshly washed sheets, the kitchen and bathroom spotless and the living room free of dust. He took a quick shower to sluice the worst of the grime from his body and dressed in a pair of ratty jeans and an old t-shirt. Grabbing his shopping bags, he headed out and down the street to the market.

He took his time selecting his supplies for the evening, as well as a few staples. A carton of eggs, a jug of milk, a crock of butter - these were necessities. A bag of thin pasta for dinner along with some rosemary-infused oil he thought might serve as an excellent base for the cream sauce went in the basket. A bottle of heavy cream, a block of cheese, a salmon filet, and some fat, juicy shrimp fresh from Limsa rounded out the ingredients for the entree.

For greens he selected some thick stalks of asparagus and a bagful of fresh spinach leaves. Either could be added to the pasta itself, or served as a side, and he would make that determination later.

Dinner planned, he paid for those purchases and a few other essentials, then wandered down the street to his favorite liquor store. Though not a particularly heavy drinker, he had an appreciation for fine alcohol, and knew that the gentlemen who ran this particular store often had a few fine vintages squirreled away.

“Ah, Mr. Waters,” he was greeted as he entered. “Doing some shopping?”

Thancred smiled, adjusting the strap of his bag on his shoulder. “Picking up a few things I needed, and some supplies for dinner tonight. I… ah. I have a date.” Unaccountably, he blushed, and felt the tips of his ears redden further as the man stared at him for a full minute. “I was looking for nice wine to go with salmon and seafood pasta.”

The merchant blinked a few more times. “... a date?” he asked faintly, and watched as the hyur turned even redder. “Of course. Ah - you’ll want a fine white to pair with your salmon - especially as I assume you are doing a light cream sauce?” When Thancred nodded, he smiled. “A chardonnay, I think - we have a fine one from Ishgard, from House Borel, in fact. Oak-aged and medium bodied - not strong enough to overpower the cream sauce, but not too light to get overwhelmed by the herbs you’ll add.”

Thancred started to run some calculations in his head - then deliberately booted them aside. Cost didn’t matter. “Sounds delightful. I’ll take it.”

“Ah - do you not want to know the cost?” the man asked delicately.

Pale gold eyes were steady as Thancred shrugged. “If you think it will suit, then I’ll take it. I’m not worried about the cost - not for this.”

The miqo’te stared at him a moment longer, then grinned broadly. “Wait right here.” Before Thancred could say anything, the man disappeared back into the racks. Left to his own devices, the hyur prowled through the shelves, studying the bottles of liquor without seeing them. Most of his focus was solely on trying to keep himself from worrying overmuch about his plans for the night.

Was he moving too fast? Was he not moving fast enough? He was trying so hard not to pressure her into bed, but his body ached for her every time he thought of her. His fascination with the Au Ra drove him just a little mad; he’d never wanted - no, needed - a woman so badly. As much as he hated to admit it, he’d faced his fair share of rejection. Not every woman favored hyurs, or men, and he’d learned to take such things with a grin and a shrug.

But with Kal’istae, he simply hadn’t been able to accept a no. And so he’d persisted. And persisted. And persisted.

And he’d persevered.

But it hadn’t been enough. He wondered if it would ever be enough. Even once he’d had her, he had a feeling he would never have enough of her. 

What the hells was he doing? He was too old for this shit. He had a demanding career, a family that needed him. He didn’t have time to go romancing a woman. To go falling in-

“Mr. Waters?”

With a gasp, Thancred whirled, breaking off his thoughts before he could think something inconceivable. “Sorry, L’hyrn, I was… distracted.”

The miqo’te smiled and offered out the bottle of wine, setting it against his arm so that the hyur could read the label. “Someday,” he said conversationally, “I would like it if you would bring this date of yours by. I would love to meet the woman who could distract the Thancred Waters so badly.”

Thancred ignored the bottle, frowning at the merchant. “What do you mean by that?” he asked testily.

Too comfortable with the hyur to take offense, L’hyrn smiled. “Isn’t it obvious, my friend?” he asked. “Dates. Expensive wines. Home cooked meals,” he added, glancing down at the shopping bag hanging from the man’s shoulder, “and mooning in the wine aisle? Sir, you have it bad.”

Thancred stared at the miqo’te. “How much is the wine?” he asked, trying his best to stave off any more speculation on his relationship with Kal’istae. When the merchant grinned and named the price, he felt himself go pale. “Ah - hells,” he exhaled. “What do I need money for anyway? Alright. Let’s go pay.”

L’hyrn’s eyes widened, but he turned and hurried back to the register as if afraid Thancred might change his mind. “You won’t regret it,” he promised the silver-haired hyur as he accepted the man’s card and ran it through the machine. 

Thancred managed not to wince as he scrawled his signature on the receipt and watched impatiently while the miqo’te carefully wrapped and boxed the wine. Once he’d slid it home into his shopping bag, he smiled wryly. “Have a good evening, L’hyrn.”

“And may you have the most pleasant of ones, Mr. Waters,” the other man replied with a beaming smile.

As the door shut behind him, Thancred heard the tell-tale sound of a tomephone being dialed. At least, he thought philosophically, he waited for me to leave.

Grill the salmon, boil the pasta, saute the shrimp. Thancred listed out the steps in his head as he set his groceries on the island and skirted around it towards the pantry. Opening it, he began to grab spices off his rack. Some of what he’d use he had bought fresh, or grew in the tiny pot-rack out on his balcony (and here’s hoping Raha had really come over to water them like he’d promised) - but not everything was available fresh, or kept long enough to be worth buying.

The hours he’d spent in the Leveilluers’ kitchen, learning to cook at the knee of their chef, had been well-spent, no matter how Forchenault had mocked him for doing ‘servant’s work’. His tune had changed at any rate when their mother had caught him and sent him to toil at Thancred’s side.

Forchenault may have come out of it with a new appreciation for the labors of the previously invisible servants, but Thancred had come out with a lifelong love of cooking and a skill which had all but guaranteed him the bedmates of his choice when he wielded it. It was amazing how many women found a man who could cook - and cook well - absolutely irresistible.

Not that that was the reason he was cooking for a woman… this time. The invitation had been pure impulse mixed with just a hint of bragging. He wanted to show her that he could make magic too - maybe not the flashy kind, but the mixing of food and ingredients to make a tasty, well-presented meal was it’s own form of alchemy.

He wanted to show her that he brought something more to the table than just a great body and sparkling personality.

Gods, was he preening for her?

He paused for a moment, looking around the spotless apartment. He preferred it to look nice, but he’d dragged out the colorful old throw his mother had woven for him, tossing it over the back of the couch. The glass sparkled in the full-sized windows that overlooked the balcony and the city beyond. The floor gleamed. And beyond the door to his bedroom…

He’d used his favorite sheets, the ones he reserved only for himself, and always changed before having company that might share his bed. The only people who had ever slept on them other than himself had been his siblings. And he had made his bed up in them, fully anticipating trying to talk her into them by the end of the evening.

What the hells was he thinking?

He started towards the bedroom, intending to strip down the bed and fix it up right, when there was a knock at the door. A glance at the clock had him cursing; it was nearly seven, and he hadn’t even started making dinner yet. He hesitated, torn between doing something - anything - to make the place less spotless, and answering the door.

A second knock made him wheel on his heels and stride to the door. Politeness was too ingrained; he didn’t dare leave a visitor, especially one he had invited, waiting on the doorstep. Then he opened the door, and all of his reservations fell away, and he wondered why he’d had them in the first place.

She stood there on his welcome mat, small and slim and just a bit nervous, gazing up at him with those wide, lavender-edged eyes. Her hands were held before her, clutching a paper bag he recognized as having come from a local bakery - one of his favorites, in fact. She was clad in casual dress, wearing a pair of dove-gray leggings and a soft, wide-necked sweater that clung to her arms, puddling down to frame her slim throat and shoulders and setting her silvery freckles to glittering.

In silence, he stretched out a hand. She stared at it, then back to him, and carefully laid her hand in his. He drew her in and gently booted the door closed. Then he took the bakery bag from her and set it carelessly off to the side, leaving it on the floor. She blinked at him, frowned at it, and opened her mouth - then shut it again when he abruptly scooped her up.

She gasped as he lifted her, grunted when her spine smacked lightly against the door. She flung her arms around his neck, hitching her legs up and around his waist as he pinned her with his body, his arms banding like iron around her hips. “Hold on to me,” he demanded, and she could do nothing else when his mouth covered hers in a hot, hungry kiss.

There was only the briefest hesitation before she abandoned herself to the embrace, giving back as good as she was getting. And by the gods, was she getting something good. The man had the hands and mouth of a god - by the time he eased back and let her slide bonelessly to the floor, clinging to him while she got her legs under control, she was hot and tight and shamelessly hungry for something very different than the seafood she could smell. Gripping his arm as she found her feet, she gazed blindly up into his face. “Thancred?”

“You absolutely destroy my self-control,” he said, just a bit tightly. “I’ve never met anyone before who could reduce me to such a primal state before just by existing.” Closing his eyes, he drew her close and sucked in a lungful of air, holding it for several long moments before exhaling slowly. “I’m not sorry for wanting you - but I’m sorry for being so… forward.”

Kal’istae turned her face into his breast, shifting her grip so that she could slide her arms about his waist. She felt him hesitate, then his arms slid around her shoulders and he slumped until he could press his cheek against the top of her head. “I want no apology,” she replied, her words muffled against his chest. “The storm you stir in me…” She trailed off, sucking in a breath.

He stroked his hand along her hair. “I won’t lie and say I didn’t ask you here hoping to seduce you,” he murmured against her hair. “I want you so badly, the ache is physical. But I won’t force you.”

She pulled back and he straightened as she lifted her gaze to his, her eyes clear and direct. “I know. That’s why I’m here.”

He lowered his head to brush his lips over hers, then released her, stooping and scooping up the abandoned bakery bag before turning and leading her towards the kitchen. “I ran a little behind,” he stated as she followed on legs still a bit unsteady, “and haven’t started cooking yet. All good - I assure you,” and he grinned at her over his shoulder, “it’s a show worth watching. But first,” and he deposited the bag on his island while staring down at his ratty jeans and t-shirt with distaste, “I’m going to go change.”

“You look fine,” she began, then cut off when he sent her a patient look. “Okay, yes, you’re a mess, but that doesn’t make you any less hot.”

He snorted at her. “I’m going to go change,” he repeated. “Have a seat. Would you like some water? Soda?”

She waved him off. “I can get it. Go get pretty. Er. Prettier.”

He swung around and kissed her. “Doesn’t matter what I do, I’ll never hold a candle to you.” As she scoffed at him, he laughed and strode off into his bedroom, shutting the door behind himself.

Once he was out of sight, Kal’istae let out a breath and pressed her hand to her stomach. “Oh gods, oh gods, oh sweet gods,” she whispered. “That man is potent!” Skirting the edge of the island, she opened up his refrigerator and eyed the contents, mildly overwhelmed by the presence of so much fresh food. Hadn’t he ever heard of pre-packaged dinners?

Grabbing a soda, she booted the door closed and retreated to the other side of the island, sliding onto a stool just as he emerged again. Popping the top on the can, she turned to study him, sipping to hide her expression.

He was worthy of a long look and more. He’d exchanged his ratty jeans for a fitted pair in a dull black, his battered t-shirt for button-down in a rich indigo that was left unbuttoned to his breastbone. He’d brushed his silvery hair so that it framed his face and added a single hoop in dark gunmetal to one ear. His golden eyes were warm as he ghosted up to her, taking her soda and setting it aside before stealing a long kiss. “Mmm. Sweet.”

“You didn’t have any diet,” she began, then clamped her lips shut when he laughed at her. “You’re so smooth it’s a wonder you can keep your feet when you walk.”

He kissed her again, then set her drink on the counter and skirted around it, snagging an apron from the hook on the wall as he passed. “I’ve been accused of that before, but I assure you, you make me feel like a kid again, all angles and knobby knees and feet that don’t quite know where to go.”

Leaning against the island, she watched as he began to prepare the fish, laying it out on the cutting board and seasoning it by eye. “If this is you at your worst, it’s a wonder any woman’s ever been able to turn you down.”

“I don’t know,” he remarked as he rubbed a mixture of butter, lemon juice, and spices into the salmon, “you managed pretty well for a whole year.”

Admiring the way his hands slicked over the pale pink fish, she almost missed his comment. “Huh? Oh. By the skin of my teeth,” she admitted. “And deeply loathing myself the entire time for being such a coward.”

He tested the oil in the pan, then laid the salmon in it, setting it to sizzling lightly. “A coward? No, I won’t buy that. Prudent. Cautious. I have quite the reputation, even here. Add to it what I racked up back home, and I don’t blame you for thinking I was only looking for a good time.”

She rubbed at a swirl in the marble countertop. “Weren’t you?” she asked. “Aren’t you?”

With the salmon cooking, he turned to the washed and dried shrimp, dumping them from the colander into a bowl, then adding spices to mix them up. “Maybe at first,” he admitted. “Let’s face it, you’re fucking hot, Kali. Absolutely gorgeous. You have to know that - you’re not celibate.”

Her lips curved. “No. I’m not celibate. I’ve had my share of lovers,” she conceded, “friends with benefits. I like sex, Thancred. I like uncomplicated, no-strings-attached sex. I like men, and they seem to rather like me.”

Once the shrimp were seasoned, he covered the bowl and set it in the fridge, then started on the pasta. “So if you like no-strings sex, why turn me down?”

She was silent for a long moment, tracing the rim of her can with her fingertip. “Because I wasn’t certain I could keep it no-strings - not on my end, anyway. And I was afraid if I slept with you, I’d get attached, and you’d walk away. And that would damage my relationship with Ryne, even if neither of us wanted it to.”

Remaining quiet, Thancred focused on setting the water to boil, then checked and flipped the salmon. “Why,” he finally asked quietly, “would you think any of that?”

She gazed at his back, trying not to notice the way the shirt shifted over his back as his muscles flexed beneath the cloth. “Because I already half had a crush on you before I met you,” she admitted. When he remained silent, she exhaled loudly. “Minfilia used to talk about you. The man she spoke of sounded nothing like the man I remembered hearing of in Sharlayan. It made me curious. Then I met Ryne, and she would talk you up. Even if I chalked it all up to her affection for her father, I couldn’t help but fall just a little for the man she would describe to me so… enthusiastically.”

He finally turned to see her staring hard at the counter, her cheeks darkened to violet beneath the heat of her blush. “It was terribly unprofessional,” she admitted, “but… I guess it was just a continuation of my fascination from my youth.”

“Three weeks.”

Confused, she looked up into his patient gold eyes. “Huh?”

He nodded. “Three weeks,” he repeated. “That’s how long it took me to slide from just looking for sex to looking for something more. By the time I’d been pestering you for two months, I’d begun turning down offers and stopped seeking out partners of my own. I knew I was sunk,” he continued as she stared at him, open mouthed, “when a friend of mine from Radz-at-Han who visits twice a year for work came to town and I declined to meet up with her, although we’d been doing so for the past seven years.”

Kal’istae was reduced to just staring at him, speechless, and he grinned at her. “So yeah, it’s a fair concern - but I don’t think you have to worry about me walking away any time soon, Kali.” He checked the food, then crossed the kitchen to the island, wiping his hands off on a towel. Reaching out, he caught one of her hands and lifted it to his lips. “I’m afraid we’ve both moved beyond our comfort zone.”

Even as she scrambled to think of what to say, he turned back to continue cooking. Finally, she huffed out a breath. “Well, hells, Thancred,” she murmured as she planted her elbow on the counter and rested her chin in her palm, gazing at him. “If I must explore uncharted territory, at least I lucked out on my companion for the journey.”

His laughter was soft and affectionate. “I think I got the better end of the deal,” he replied easily as he slid the salmon out of the pan onto a pair of waiting plates. He put the pan back on the stove and added a little butter, searing it quickly while he got the chilled shrimp from the fridge. They sizzled as they hit the melted butter and the scents of garlic and lemon filled the air. “I won’t lie, Kali, I had some bad moments when I realized that every time you turned me down, it genuinely hurt. Not my ego - though that took more than a few pinpricks from your refusals, but my head. My self-esteem. I found myself wondering what was wrong with me, that you wouldn’t even give me a chance.”

Her heart twisted. “Thancred, why didn’t you say something?”

His back was to her, but she could hear the bittersweet smile in his voice. “I didn’t want a pity date. I wanted the real deal.”

Slipping from her stool, she padded into the kitchen and stole up behind him, wrapping her arms about his waist. Immediately he switched to stirring the shrimp with one hand while the other closed over her wrist, holding her tight. “So did I,” she admitted. “I wanted it so badly I would get nauseous every time I turned you down, certain that I was fucking everything up. I did everything I could to avoid scheduling any meetings on Thursdays, just so I’d be available if you came by. When you came by.”

“Gods, what a pair we are.” He gave the shrimp one last shake, then set it off to the side and turned off the burner. Before Kal’istae could slip away, he spun on her and caught her about the waist, hoisting her up until he could sit her upon the island behind her. When he moved in, she welcomed him, spreading her thighs and hooking her calves around his as she slid her arms around his neck. “Mistress Miurani.”

“Archon Waters,” she murmured, and her smile curved wide enough to flash that single dimple as her fingers tangled in his hair. He planted one hand on the counter, the other tucked against her back, holding he steady as he leaned in. Ever so briefly he paused, his breath warm and sweet against her lips as he met her gaze, citrine eyes and lavender-edged less than an ilm apart.

Startled by the unexpected pause, Kal’istae’s lips parted in question - but he leaned forward then and covered her mouth with his own.

She didn’t even consider resisting. With a soft sound of joy, she abandoned herself to his embrace, her body going languidly lax in his arms as he gathered her against him, his arms banding about her like iron. His tongue flicked out, brushing over her lips, then dipping between them as they parted willingly to his asking. 

She made a soft noise, a sound caught between longing and pleasure, and it took every onze of self-control that he had to keep himself from taking that which she offered so willingly. Instead, he contented himself with feasting at her mouth, tongues tangling, teeth scraping, lips all but bruising as languid kisses turned hungry in a heartbeat, fueled by a desire that neither of them was much able to keep in check.

With a gasp, he tore himself free, staggering backwards and lifting the back of his hand to his mouth. She reached up and touched her own lips, her eyes smiling with pleasure as she watched him. “Gods, Kal’istae, you undo me,” he murmured. “Never before have I met anyone who stripped away all of my ego, my self-assurance, my self-esteem, and sent me back to those striping days in Sharlayan, when I was still fighting to prove I belonged. To prove I was worthy. I don’t know how to prove to you I’m worthy of you.”

She gazed at him. “And here I thought it was the other way around,” she murmured, and he stared at her. “I’ve been certain I’m the one not worthy of you - the girl with no past, with an uncertain future. The orphan with no family, no friends. Nothing,” she sighed, lifting a hand, sapphire aether curling about her fingers, “but magic and a mystery that will never be solved.”

Reaching out, Thancred twined his fingers with hers, feeling the heat of her magic drift across his skin. “I like a good mystery,” he said lightly. “And I really like you. Kali, the truth is - I’m not looking for a romance with you.” When she stiffened and tugged on her hand, he tightened his grip. “I’m looking for a relationship.”

“Oh my gods.”

He had to smile at her reaction. “Gods, I feel like I’m back in high school. Kali, I really like you. A lot. I’ve never felt the same way about anyone the way I do about you. And I want to explore the potential I feel between us. I want to do so,” he added, stepping up to her and cupping her cheek, “as a couple. Exclusively.”

“I- I’ve never…” she stammered, lapsing into silence before she could finish her words. “I’ve never,” she finally repeated. “And neither have you.”

“And neither have I,” he agreed. “But I want to. Please, Kali.”

She met those earnest golden eyes. “Ah hells,” she murmured, and had to smile when he grinned like a little boy. “I want to, too. Alright then, Thancred. Exclusive.”

He dropped her hand, then swept her off the counter, spinning her in a circle while she laughed. “I’ve got a girlfriend,” he chanted in a sing-song voice, and she rolled her eyes. “Hey, I don’t care if I’m twelve, twenty-two, or thirty-two, this is a first for me. Let me live it up a little.”

She flung her arms around his neck and dragged him in for a short, hard kiss. “Fair’s fair,” she chuckled. “Now I get to gush about my boyfriend to my whole two friends.” Her smile curled at the edges, giving her face a mischievous cast. “One of whom is my boyfriend’s little sister.”

“Ugh. Just leave some things a mystery, if you please,” Thancred replied drolly. “Jess has no filter and happily parrots everything she hears to the rest of the family. They’re all already desperate to meet you as is.”

She winced. “Right. Family. About that…”

His smile gave no quarter. “You’ve already met Min and Ryne and Jess. Eventually I’ll introduce you to Arenvald and Raha. And I already know the Miuranis, so I have a leg-up there - but I still hope someday you’ll have the opportunity to introduce me as your… boyfriend.”

She couldn’t help but smirk over his slight hesitation. “Too high school for you?” she teased lightly.

“A little, but it suits,” he replied. “I like it better than any of the alternatives.” Carefully he set her down. “Alright. Pasta’s done,” he added, glancing over and noticing that it looked to be exactly the right softness. “Let me drain it and make up the butter sauce, then we’ll eat. Then, I thought, maybe we could sit on the couch and neck while we pretend to watch a movie?”

Kal’istae leaned back against the island, watching him while she struggled to control the rapid flutter of her overfull heart. “Why, Mr. Waters, you read my mind.”

“That’s because, Miss Miurani, our minds are often one and the same.”

The salmon had been flaky and moist, the shrimp tender and garlicky, and the pasta just a hint al dente - just the way she liked it. Added to it the unexpected addition of garlic bread - store-bought, but still delicious and the rich wine that even Thancred had to admit had been worth every gil he’d spent, and it was the best dinner that Kal’istae remembered ever having eaten. “You did not learn to cook like this in Sharlayan.”

“I did,” Thancred countered as they settled on the couch. He sank down on the cushions and held out his arms, grinning cheerfully as she slid into his embrace and curled against his side. “Gods, aren’t you the sweetest armful.” He indulged himself in a kiss before reaching for the remote. “Although I admit I didn’t learn the recipes themselves in Sharlayan - I’ve been collecting those since I got to the City - I learned the basics and more of how to cook from the Leveilleurs’ chef. I used to pester her day in and day out to teach me how to make food. I liked the kitchen,” he mused as he brought up one of the many services that streamed movies across the aethernet. “It was warm and the cooks were kind to the poor hyuran lad. It was a good place to hide from Forchenault when he was being particularly pugnacious about my existence.”

The wine had settled into her brain, and everything was enveloped in a soft golden haze, a pleasant buzz ringing gently in her ears. She was, she had to admit, more than a little tipsy - they’d indulged a little more in the wine than they should have, but neither she nor Thancred had been inclined to waste a drop. As a result, she was very, very happy to be exactly right where she was. “Well, Forchenault’s kind of a dick.”

“Kali!”

She sniffed. “He is,” she insisted. “Ameliance was one of the healers who treated me when I first got to Sharlayan, and Forchenault was just so cold and… a dick.”

Thancred struggled to find a counterargument to defend his brother - and realized he couldn’t. “Okay. Forchenault’s a dick. But he’s had my back more than once, and his kids are great, so he’s got that going for him.”

Kal’istae giggled, and while Thancred blinked muzzily at her in surprise, she stole the remote and began to surf. “I like the twins,” she admitted. “Alphinaud used to carry my bag for me home from high school, and Alisaie was forever pestering me to practice with her for the dance team.”

“He did, did he? Competing with my own nephew. How lowering.” Thancred rested his cheek atop her head and gazed at the TV, barely paying any mind to the shows as they flashed past. “They’re good kids. I miss them. Shame they’re so wrapped up in working on their Archons’ theses.”

Kal’istae didn’t really care about the twins. What she cared about was how damn good he smelled, felt, and, as she pressed her mouth to his throat, tasted. He sucked in a breath, then abruptly rolled her so that she was pressed against the couch cushions. “My turn,” he said thickly, and attacked her throat as his hands streaked up under her sweater to find her, then abruptly he gripped it and shoved upwards, tearing it from her body.

Her skin was on fire, every muscle simultaneously lax and taut as she arched upwards beneath his greedy, impatient hands and his hot, hungry mouth. Her bra soon joined her sweater, flung to only the gods knew where before he lowered himself to her and caught her mouth for an eager kiss. His hands slid over skin and scale, grasping possessively as he reached up to cup her breasts, rolling her nipples lightly between thumb and forefinger.

She gasped and arched into his hands, filling his palms with her breasts while she tugged at the buttons of his shirt, eager to delve beneath the soft fabric. Slowly the sensation of her hands against his skin percolated through his muzzy brain and he abruptly reared back, grabbing at her hands before she could slip them inside his half-open shirt. “Wait,” he said, even as she arched her hips and threw her legs over his, drawing him down until he could feel the heat of her even between the layers of their pants. “Wait!” he said again.

Her eyes opened, glassy and dazed. “But why?” she asked plaintively. “I’m ready.”

“I’m not,” he grunted as she writhed beneath him, and she stilled, blinking up at him in confusion. He wasn’t doing much better; he had no idea why he was resisting her when he’d been trying to get her into this position for a year.

Then she shifted again, tugging at his shirt, and he remembered what lay beneath the soft silken fabric. “Wait,” he said softly, and she stilled, frowning unhappily up at him. “We’re drunk, or the next best thing.”

Those lavender-edged eyes blinked slowly. “If you think this is the wine talking,” she said throatily, “think again.”

He eased her hands from his chest, holding her wrists firmly as he gazed down at her. “I think it is more than just the wine, but I think the wine plays a part. Lovely Kali, sweet Kali, when we finally come together, I want there to be no doubts, no regrets, no remorse.”

She sighed beneath him. “How in the hells are you so damn perfect and still single?”

He gave a choked laugh. “I am far from perfect, and I thought we established earlier that I am also far from single.”

Lips curving in a fond smile, she tugged on her wrists until he dropped down, covering her gently. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him long and slow, chastely keeping her hands to herself. “Very well, dearest Thancred,” she murmured, “as you abided by my wishes, so shall I abide by yours. When you are ready, and no sooner.”

Lowering his head to rest his forehead against hers, Thancred gave a faint smile. “I appreciate it, and I promise that unlike some people in this room, it will not take me a year to be ready.”

“Ha ha,” she murmured. “I suppose I should consider heading home.”

Thancred didn’t move. “Why?”

She blinked at him. “I mean, we could certainly make out more, but it’s growing late and I’d rather not get caught here…”

“I’d rather you stayed,” he interrupted her, and she stared at him. He pushed himself up so that he was kneeling on the couch, and she struggled up from the cushions, resting on her hands as she studied his face. “You’re drunk - or at least very tipsy - and I’d rather not send you home in that condition. And… I’d rather you stayed.”

She studied his face. “At least you have a comfy couch…”

“Don’t be silly,” he chided. “You’ll take the bed. I’ll stay out here. It’s the least I can do after turning you down.”

Shoving herself up into a sitting position, Kal’istae instead leaned forward, hands dangling between her knees as she caught her breath from the sudden rush of dizziness. “Thancred, I don’t want to put you out.” She reached up, shoving hair out of her face. “I will absolutely admit to being more than a bit tipsy, and I won’t argue about staying, since it’s a little later than I like walking home when I can’t be sure of my aetherical control, but I don’t want to throw you out of your bed.”

“To be fair, normally I’d be trying to share it with you, but I can’t be entirely certain of my own self-control,” Thancred admitted, “and if something were to happen and you woke up and regretted, I have every reason to believe it would break my heart. But I’ll be damned if I let a guest - my girl - sleep on the couch. My mother would kill me.”

Reaching out, Kal’istae stroked his cheek and he smiled, pressing into her hand. “When I think of how long I put this off, I could hate myself.”

Catching her hand, he drew it around until he could press a kiss to her wrist. “Don’t hate yourself, my dear. I was as much at fault. If I’d only made myself clear - if I’d only realized myself what it was I truly wanted with you, we could have avoided much of this. I don’t blame you for being so skittish.”

She tugged lightly, and he leaned in so that she could kiss him, softly and sweetly. “I won’t turn back now,” she murmured. 

“I’d just keep chasing you,” Thancred replied, nipping at her lower lip. “I’ll never let you go, Kali. Not unless it’s what you truly wanted.”

Charmed, knowing that the buzzing in her head was only partially the wine, Kal’istae draped her arms around his neck and laid back, drawing him with her. He stretched out, laying the long length of him along her body as he held her close. As a psychologist, he could cite all of the literature and research that told him that what he was feeling - the dizziness, the butterflies, the crawl of lighting up his spine and the fire along his nerves - it was all a chemical reaction, brought on by the play of neurotransmitters in his brain.

He didn’t fucking care. In his thirty-odd years upon this star, he had never once felt this low, languorous warmth that filled his breast from throat to belly. He’d never known anyone - man, woman, or besides - to ignite in him such a tender regard. Lust, that he knew intimately. And he knew that what he was feeling was not lust.

And he knew he wasn’t ready to try and put a name to it.

So he simply reveled in it, basked in it, allowed it to drive all worries and concerns from his mind, and indulged himself in the one sport he’d never particularly appreciated until now.

Cuddling.

Sometime around midnight, Thancred roused himself from somnolence. Beneath him, Kal’istae lay, lax muscled but still awake - barely. “Mmm. I could stay like this all night.”

“So do so,” came her sleepy reply, and her arms tightened about him as she nuzzled beneath his chin. “There’s no reason not to.”

He chuckled and tightened his hold, then reluctantly crawled off of her. “Come on, sleeping beauty. It’s time for bed. Comfy as this is, this couch is definitely not built to sleep two.”

She whined at him and he sighed, then stooped down and scooped her up into his arms. She gave a soft shriek of surprise and threw her arms around his neck, staring at him with wide eyes as he straightened and took a moment to secure his balance. “Thancred!”

“I promised you my bed, and I shall deliver.” Carefully, he skirted around the throw crumpled on the floor and carried her into his bedroom. When he went to lay her down in the bed, however, he overbalanced and ended up half on the mattress with her. “Whoops! Entirely unintentional.” It did not, however, stop him from stealing a kiss before he disentangled himself and pushed himself up.

“You don’t have to go,” Kal’istae reminded him as she pushed herself up, ignoring the fact that she remained completely topless.

His eyes drifted down of their own accord. “I really, really do,” he murmured, regret heavy in his voice. “Here. Hang on a moment.”

She shifted to lay down on the bed, rolling over on her stomach and staring at the wall as she rested her chin upon his pillow. She could smell him - sandalwood and peppermint and hints of chocolate - and the mingled scents made her head spin pleasantly. She was just drifting off when something soft landed on her back, and the scent of him intensified. Rolling over, she caught at the cloth and discovered it to be one of his button-down shirts.

Sitting up, she drew it on around her and fumbled with the buttons. He grinned down at her from where he stood, clad in a clean but ratty t-shirt and a pair of loose drawstring pants. Reaching down, he buttoned the shirt for her. “Gods. You look absolutely… delicious. Adorable. Alluring. I’m going to bed now, before I break my own rules.”

She sat on his bed, gazing up at him from beneath her lashes. “If you insist,” she murmured. “Good night, Thancred.”

He leaned down and kissed her, long and slow and sweet. “Good night, darling,” he murmured, and she smiled, pleased. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

She kept her eyes on his until he’d backed his way out of the room and shut the door behind him. Then she wriggled out of her slacks and left them on the floor before crawling back into his bed and pulling the covers up. Wrapped in his scent, wrapped in his shirt, she had only a brief moment to regret not also being wrapped in him before she dropped into a deep, dreamless slumber.

“Kali, honey. Kali, wake up.” Someone was shaking her. Sandalwood and chocolate filled her nose and she inhaled deeply. “Kali, babe. Please. Something’s happened.”

The terse panic in Thancred’s voice dragged her out of her languid slumber and she blinked her eyes open, hissing at the light. “What happened?” she asked thickly.

He stroked her hair then pulled away. Moments later, he pressed her slacks into her hand. “It’s Jess. She messaged me - us. Someone broke into the bar. She lives there, Kali. In the basement. Someone broke in while she was sleeping. I have to go. I’d like you to come with me.”

Sleep fled and she blinked again, suddenly wide awake. “Of course I will,” she stated firmly, wriggling out of the bed and drawing on her slacks. She hesitated over his shirt, then just left it on. She didn’t have time to hunt up her bra and sweater; she’d get them later.

He waited, having swapped his sleep pants for jeans but otherwise he hadn’t made much effort to dress. Once she was ready, he grabbed her hand and she could feel his anxiety and tension in the careful way his fingers gripped hers, as though he were trying not to hurt her. She squeezed firmly and grabbed her shoes as they sped through the living room.

He paused briefly to lock up and gazed at his door for a long moment, clearly collecting himself. Kal’istae waited in silence beside him, her fingers twisted with his while she gently stroked his arm. He shook his head, recalling himself, and glanced down at her with a distracted but grateful smile. “Alright. Let’s go. My sister’s waiting.”

Kal’istae nodded, trotting by his side as they set out into the night, rushing for the nearest Underground that would take them to The Bar and to Jess, who no doubt needed her brother the same way he needed to see her safe and sound.

As soon as possible.

#ffxiv #au: misadventures in modern eorzea #author: ainyan #ffxiv fanfiction #oc: kal'istae miurani #npc: thancred waters