#i’m also wanting to reach out to ppl but i’m unsure how to and it’s hard and it’s all just stressing me out more

[meowzfordayz]

telling tanjirou you self harm(ed)

Author’s Note: proceed w/ caution. Read CW (content warnings).

telling tanjirou you self harm(ed)

Kamado Tanjirou x Reader

Word Count: ~600

CW: self harm references, traumatic references

Emergency Request Fulfilled: ⚠️TW FOR SH⚠️

I started hurting myself a few years ago and now I didn‘t do it since Easter Holidays and the scars are still there and I‘m actually very close to relapsing so I thought you could eventually do a Tanjiro x Reader headcanon on how he‘d react to his gf doing that to herself and what he‘d do now that he knows

~faqs~

Ngl, first thing that comes to mind is: he’d be a lil clueless as to what to do/how to react

My pet peeve (which, I realize SH is a personal experience and don’t mean to assume/project onto anyone else’s experiences) when it comes to SH is ppl overreacting (yes I’m hurting; no don’t treat me ~too differently), but ofc, underreacting certainly doesn’t feel particularly supportive or loving either

And I think Tanjirou would be intuitively aware of this (the tentative balance between showing concern vs becoming overwhelming), and thus panic inwardly: Do I hug them? Should I ask questions? How can I help? Is it even my place to help?

All the while you’re staring at your palms (for the sake of imagery/setting: how about your bedroom? there’s something intimate and genuine about sitting crossed legged—facing each other—toward the edge of your bed, Tanjirou grappling w/ his words as you avoid eye contact), unsure whether you’d rather he say something or nothing

“Thank you for telling me,” he finally murmurs, eyes soft and glistening, voice strained yet steady — disappointed but adoring

“I just thought you’d want to know,” you mumble quietly, stare sharpening, attempting to drill holes through your trembling fingers, hyper aware of his searching, caring gaze

“I want to know everything about you,” he admits, fondness creeping onto the tip of his tongue

And you promised yourself you wouldn’t cry, but the trust and fragility in the hesitant way his fingertips dig into his thighs has your eyes glistening too

“You can touch me, you know?” you whisper, space between you wavering, his fingertips pausing, calloused thumb reaching for the damp splotches on your palms, smearing your fear with a practiced reassurance

Are we okay? Do you hate me? Can you love me as I am? tangled roots grown over days, months, years; of loathing, of proving yourself To whom?, of a sticky, familiar dread

“You don’t want to touch me?” you hadn’t intended to verbalize the worst case scenario etched in your skin, but confession brought as much relief as it brought a condescending urgency to lose yourself to the infinite noise of What if Tanjirou’s lying?

He frowns at that, harsh, “No!” puncturing your cushion of deprecation, “I want to touch you!” blushing despite himself, “I want to touch all of you,” scooting over until his knee bumps against yours, “I cherish you.”

Because even though he’s still figuring out how to perfectly communicate the scribbles—the insatiable desire, need to make you believe—clinging to the back of his throat, he wants you to know

Wants you to know how deeply, indisputably, he believes in you

He knows believing isn’t enough: knows pretty words and prettier gestures can’t replace uprooting, well, the root of the problem — knows he isn’t qualified to help you

But he can support you, encourage and listen to you, dispel the creases in your loneliness

TL;DR? I hate romanticizing SH, but I also strongly hc that Tanjirou would have comforting ~instincts

100% the type to overthink his immediate reaction, but you can just feel that he means well

Lets you take the lead, all the while offering his hand, his head, his heart

Physical proximity? Researching therapists/educating himself to better understand SH? Floating further than you could possibly return safely from; needing someone to remind you of what’s real?

He’s got you 

#tanjirou kamado #tanjiro kamado #kamado tanjirou #kamado tanjiro #tanjirou x reader #tanjiro x reader #kamado x reader #headcanons #modern au #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #emergency request

[kyojurismo]

do you have any advice for new writers? i was thinking abt writing but i have no idea where to start

hello anon! this is my second time ever giving advices i think . . . and i’m very grateful you reached out to me for something like this, even if i don’t think very highly of me as a writer lmao

but that being said, here are some things that helped and are still helping me since i started writing <3

READING A LOT

follow me alright. reading helps increasing your vocabulary, and it also helps learning phrases and how to put words together, if that makes sense. it probably helps if you’re a foreigner writing in english, which is my case, but i still believe that there are many many words that we never heard and reading anything can help us learn something new.

DRAFTS

don’t be scared to have too many drafts, unfinished work, just a phrase or even two words. it’s okay, you’re just putting down something that came to you and sure don’t want to forget.

you don’t have to finish everything all at once. this is super important if you’re writing for fun, and in the past years i used to scold me for being too slow and stopped writing for a long period of time bc i didn’t feel good enough.

remember : take your time.

LONG FICS

if you’re writing long fics (multiple chapters, etc) i recommend writing down everything about your original character (if there’s any ofc) such as basic info, backstory, what they like / dislike, etc.

not only it helps you develop a complete character, but then you can keep track of your creations, so you won’t find yourself thinking “did my oc enjoy […] or not?” for example.

it’s also super fun imo, it helps spreading your imagination and your ideas. don’t be scared to put too many details too!

GENERAL ADVICES

now, these are a couple of things i just want to say before finishing lol.

1. don’t stress too much if you think that your story is obvious or anything such, remember that you are the one writing it, so of course it sounds familiar to you.

2. if you plan to post it on tumblr / ao3 / wattpad or anything else ig, don’t look too closely to the initial amount of ppl that will interact with your work. remember that you’re mostly writing for yourself and your own enjoyment, so don’t worry too much about it. it will come any time soon and people will give you feedback and show real appreciation to your work <3 so yeah, i speak like this bc when i was younger i used to delete my stories bc very few people interacted with them and i don’t think that’s right lol.

3. if you have a close person you trust, you can ask them to read your work if you’re unsure about posting it online. maybe someone else opinion about it can help, or also hearing just a “yes, post it!” can do the difference.

4. if you don’t know where to start, you can also search for prompts online so you have a starting point and it also can be used as an exercise. it helps me whenever i’m in a writer block.

5. HAVE FUN! don’t be scared to put silly things in your stories, don’t be scared to put a plot twist, don’t be scared of trying something new! it’s your story, you’re the one writing it. i assure you that out there are people who are gonna enjoy your stuff. don’t be scared of trying to write something new for you, you can always learn something. and that’s amazing in my opinion.

that was it, anon. i hope it helps you a bit <3

#📮 — questions !! #ty for asking me haha <3 #writer advice

[diaryfullofsparklesandkisses]

Lol it’s funny, I barely ever talk to my family anymore. Mainly because I’m not really sure how they’d react to me transitioning and being more feminine. Also I’m very unsure how conservative most are, some I know how views that make me a tad scared and others I’m like could go either way. But like I rarely make the effort to reach out right, and sometimes I do like on socials.. a handful of them follow me online like they know I “have pronouns” type of thing.. when I do reach out sometimes it doesn’t get volleyed back very clearly like that happened today.. but also I literally never have any of them reaching out to me or trying to talk to me. I have distanced myself physically, so, fair. But a bunch of them have me on insta, like they could message me. If they had questions or just wanted to talk I 100% would. That’s another thing like, bro I am an open book if u ask me questions, I will tell u everything. No one ever asks about what I do or what happened to me. And that’s good kinda because I don’t want some shit to start, I have a trans and queer second cousin and it was rough. Like I’m not gonna full come out to my mega christian family and be like hi I’m new name and they pronouns like god no so cringe I can’t. Maybe that’s why I’m not like haha hey let’s hang out yay! That sounds so uncomfortable. They’re good people and my friends, it just is unforch they’re not like, progressive christians I guess. That disturbs me a little right, that dissonance is hard to get past and it’s done a lot of damage to a lot of families over the years. But anyway like, I think people don’t want to know. I don’t think they hate me, cuz like literally what have I done except come out in my own life now, as if they couldn’t have seen that coming I’ve always been the weird kid. Even tho I feel like I’ve become more “normal” now lmao. But like nooobody checks up on me, I actually truthfully don’t care I know I could, it just makes me question what that’s about. Even my dad lol. I think I give off the vibe that I don’t want to talk maybe? I think ppl think they’re better not knowing, maybe they get the vibe of my politics and that I’m not straight. But idk like besides suffering under “the system” lmao, I’m not a bad person or having a bad time. Like I wonder if they think that because I’d definitely vote democrat that I’m evil or lost or something. Then I’m like oh geez what/who would they want me to be, and what would that even look like. And how off and weird that would be to who I am right.. like I know I don’t fit in. But again like I’m not a bad person or a criminal. I have a lot of empathy I think, I like to talk to ppl about their problems and talk it out or try to give appropriate advice. Like maybe they think I’m bad idk, for some reason that also weird me out. I don’t think they’re bad, I know for a fact some have old fashioned annoying views about gay ppl being allowed to marry but that’s not their whole personality. Yes I don’t like that but I live in the world some people have bad takes. Some people hate “pronoun ppl” right like, but I’ll still have a conversation w them. Maybe about that but I’d rather not. Like I get they might think I’m weird for that but, I can very logically explain it, and I don’t give a shit if someone doesn’t want to use they/them, like I have to not care right. Idk I think I’m reasonable and fine to talk to. Anyway lol, just kinda weird that all I had to do to stop talking to my family I’m slightly scared of was to move away. Again I actually think I don’t care, maybe I do if I’m thinking abt it this much but I think it’s just meh.. but that being said it’s does feel like I was kinda forgotten about lmao. And it’s kinda nice to not have to pretend I’m christian and never swear or whatever. Again idk what they’d prefer me to turn out like.. I just feel like either accidentally or purposefully I’m a dirty little secret lmao. Probably just me making it up. Like I super could be tripping on this one. It’s just been so long, and there has never ever been any fights or even stated disagreements. Weird idk

[pascalpanic]

hi angel 🥺 i’ve had some time to think of what i want to request and i’ve finally come up with something ;-;

do you think you could write something comforting (doesn’t have to be long!) where maxwell is caring for a reader who is a little tipsy or drunk? the reader is the kind of drunk who’s giggly and playful. and he’s super sweet and gentle with her. maybe they already have a pre-established relationship? maybe some slimy guy is hitting on her and he gets all protective and takes her home? and i’d neverrrrr object to smut either. but i’m leaving it up to you to write whatever you think works the best. i just miss reading soft and protective maxwell yanno ;-;

Overdoing It (Maxwell Lord x f!Reader)

W/C: 1.5k

Warnings: alcohol obviously, sexual innuendo, Maxwell lifts reader so I know some ppl aren’t comfy with that

A/N: RACH MY LOVE I’m sorry this took so long but I’m glad I finally did it bc I love how it turned out! ALSO HAPPY WW84 DAY (July fourth) SO WHAT WONDERFUL TIMING!

You certainly had not intended to imbibe to the level you had tonight. The problem was Maxwell, really, although in the best possible way.

The man has a high tolerance; you, admittedly, have one considerably lower than his. You love seeing Maxwell when he’s tipsy. It’s rare that you get to see it and remember it. The times that he’s tipsy are the times where you’re next to vomiting.

But tonight was a celebration, and Maxwell spared no expense. You’d finally received a position in a job you’d dreamed of, one that caused the two of you to spend hours poring over applications and perfecting cover letters. It was a success for the both of you, you said, but Maxwell insisted that it was all you.

You’d said that takeout was just fine with you, so long as Maxwell was there, but he insisted that a bigger celebration was in order. You didn’t really mind; you love getting dressed up to go out. Max made a reservation at a nice place in downtown D.C. and kept the specific place a surprise from you until now.

As you walked inside, the gorgeous atmosphere made you lose your breath for a moment. Your eyes nearly watered as you looked at Maxwell, and he simply kissed your forehead. “You deserve it, my love. I’m so proud of you.”

The words aren’t exactly rare from Maxwell, but they mean the world to you. Having someone tell you that they love you is one thing, but having someone say they’re proud of you is a completely different one. “I love you,” you grinned and followed him to your table, lacing your fingers through his.

Dinner was wonderful, unsurprisingly. Maxwell had scanned the menu the last time he came here, with business cohorts, and been certain you would like it. The delight on your face as you scanned the menu confirmed it, and Maxwell mentally gave himself a little pat on the back.

You’d ordered appetizers and drinks, then more drinks with the main course (two to accompany the meal, to be exact), and then more with dessert. By then, you were starting to feel a little tipsy, but nothing you couldn’t handle. Slowly, as you left the restaurant, the alcohol sunk in. The drinks were stronger than they’d seemed.

Luckily, Maxwell has a chauffeur. He’d had as many drinks as you, but the man’s tolerance is quite high. He seems barely affected, if not slightly looser and more carefree. The two of you made your way outside, Maxwell holding his arm around your waist to ensure that you didn't stumble; just in case, he reminded you, but you didn’t believe him.

In the car, you snuggle into Maxwell’s side happily, resting your head on his shoulder. “Buckle please, love,” he insists and wraps an arm around you.

“No,” you whine, kissing the soft cologned skin of his neck. “You’re too cozy.”

Maxwell laughs and nestles into you. “I’ll excuse it this once, only because I trust Jeeves,” he teases you. “How are you feeling, love?”

“So happy,” you smile up at him, dazed but content. The alcohol has brought you to a state of bliss now; love for Maxwell, a full stomach from the wonderful dinner, pride in your achievement.

Maxwell nods. “Of course you are,” he murmurs, mostly to himself.

“Ooh, do we have wine at home?” You ask, sitting up and looking at him. “You need a few more.”

“No, no more drinks,” he chuckles and pulls you back into his side. “I think we’re both done for the night, don’t you?” His hands slide over your shoulders, smoothing the bare skin that’s cold to the touch.

You pout at him and Maxwell turns his face away, smiling. “No, I can’t look at that. I won’t be able to say no.”

“Please, baby?” You plead with big eyes.

“We have wine at home,” Maxwell tells you, even though he’s unsure whether or not it’s true. Either way, he won’t be allowing you to drink any of it.

Sighing, you snuggle into his side, shivering. “Car’s cold,” you murmur.

Maxwell removes his suit jacket and drapes it around your shoulders, kissing your head and smiling down at you warmly. “How’s that?”

“Smells like your cologne,” you practically purr like a satisfied cat as you wrap yourself in the expensive fabric. “I love you so much, Maxie-poo.”

“I love you too, darling,” he chuckles. The chauffeur brings you to his house not long after, and Maxwell offers you a hand when you get out of the car.

Sitting in the seat, you frown up at him. “I’m fine, Max.” Standing in your high heels, your wobbly legs thanks to the alcohol send you falling into Maxwell, who catches you.

“Fine, yes,” he chuckles and lifts you back to standing. “Take off your shoes and let me help you inside.”

Sighing and crossing your arms, you step out of your shoes, calves screaming a thank you for removing them from those torture devices. He reaches down and picks them up, ass straining in his suit, and you can’t help but give it a smack, giggling.

“Oh, no, little miss,” Maxwell playfully chides and grabs your arm. “Let’s get you inside, tiger.”

Your legs lead your brain without any thought, drunkenly stumbling your way inside. Maxwell’s arms are your support, really the only thing to keep you from falling. He purposely steers you away from the path leading to the kitchen, knowing you’ll ask for more alcohol should you see it. When you reach the foot of the stairs, you groan and look at Maxwell with puppy eyes. You know his back has been bad lately, his joints ache when the humidity rises, but you can’t do this without him. “Can you carry me? Please?” You ask him.

Maxwell chuckles and kisses your head tenderly. “I suppose. Climb on my back.” He stands with his palms the wall, squatting for you to jump up on him.

The formal dress makes it difficult, but you hop up, both of you groaning as you latch onto him. “I love you so goddamn much,” you babble happily, kissing along the skin behind his ears.

“You’re lucky I love you too,” he grunts as he makes his way up the stairs, his knees aching from the weight of carrying absolutely anything on his back.

When he reaches the top, you get down and sigh, kissing him sloppily. “You’re the best.”

“I’m wonderful,” he sighs and rolls his eyes, leading you to the bedroom and letting you plop down on his plush California king bed.

You strip off his suit jacket and toss it at him, and he catches it without even looking. “Don’t even think about seducing me tonight, darling. You’re too far gone,” he chuckles.

His words make you frown and stop in the middle of unzipping your dress slowly. “I wasn’t gonna,” you grumble and stand, slipping out of the dress and getting under the thick covers of the bed.

“Sure,” Maxwell smiles and retreats into his large closet. He returns in pajama pants and the white tee he wore under his button-up.

He looks so soft like this, and even drunk, you recognize what a privilege it is to see him like this. His large suits hide his frame, but you can see the soft curve of his tummy, his broad shoulders and narrow torso. “We should get married,” you blurt to him, your heart-eyes penetrating through to his center.

“You’re drunk,” he shakes his head as he wanders to the bathroom. He returns with his thick-rimmed glasses on, and it completes the look, his highlighted hair messy and beginning to curl.

He sits on his side of the bed and hands you a glass of water and some painkillers. “You’re going to feel like shit in the morning, and you’re not allowed to blame me.”

“I won’t,” you pout and take the pills, rolling onto your side to face him. His legs are beneath the covers, and one of yours snakes to his and wraps your ankle around his.

Max smiles softly at the gesture. He recognizes it. You need his touch, want to snuggle tonight rather than keep to your own in his spacious bed. He lies down and you quickly scoot over to him, resting your head and a palm on his chest.

“I love you, dear,” he murmurs and kisses your forehead, his hand stroking your back lovingly. “You sleep now. Please.”

“I want to cuddle a little longer,” you frown and look up at him, face barely peeking out from the covers.

Max laughs. “Of course. We’ll stay like this, but at least make an effort to fall asleep. Your headache in the morning will be better if you sleep more.”

“Fine,” you sigh and scoot your body as close to his as possible, kissing his chest through the plain white t-shirt. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” he repeats and sets his glasses to the side, letting himself sink into the squishy bed. He’ll surely have to care for you in the morning too, but he doesn’t mind. It’s worth it.

-

taglist:

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#maxwell lord ww84 #maxwell lorenzano x reader #maxwell lorenzano #maxwell lord x you #maxwell lord headcanons #maxwell lord fanfic #maxwell lord #maxwell lord x reader #ww1984 #ww84 #ww84 fanfiction #wonder woman 84 #wonder woman 1984

[aetherarf]

Not the one who requested the scara x tall!fem reader but as a female who's taller than the average in her country i'm thanking you with all my 173 cm of height :") honestly it was soooo good! loved it so much! ><

If this isn't too much to ask, could you write something more with that prompt? Say something like Scara wants to show off how cool and beautiful HIS tall gf is during some sort of diplomatic event he had to attend because all the other harbingers were already doing other missions and some ppl there decide that it's a good idea to comment on the height difference which sort of hurts his s/o a bit :') thank youu

I'm glad you could enjoy it! Also, of course! This can, arguably, be a continuation of the other but I'm not linking it for... Tumblr-Is-Stupid reasons.

[[ Summary: Scaramouche doesn't like big frilly events... However, even if he's forced to go to one, he's going to give you an opportunity to show off... and maybe he's showing you off as well.

Word Count: 1'311 ]]

You looked in the mirror, twirling a little as you looked over the dress...

At first, you were... hesitant. It felt getting measured, and having to discuss specifically what you wanted, but looking at it now... Oh, it was wonderful.

Scaramouched walked up beside you, setting his hands on your waist, pressing a kiss to the back of your shoulder, "You look good," he praised, sweetly.

"Only because you knew that designer," you said, thinking aloud beyond all else.

"Well, it doesn't matter. Are you ready? The Tsaritsa is cruel to those who aren't overly-punctual."

Looking over your dress, ensuring there wasn't anything wrong with it, and examining your entire appearance in one last check...

"I'm ready."

Scaramouche stepped back, grabbing your hand, "Come, let's get going." He pulled you closer to him, an arm around you as he set his hand on your side--

Oh, you knew exactly what he was doing--he wasn't just going to a meeting, he was intending on showing you off. A warm feeling in your chest--He adored you so, he's willing to show off his love.

Before walking out the door, you bent down to give him a kiss, him trying to stand on his tip-toes to chase your lips... Only to huff, quietly pout, realizing that he couldn't exactly reach up and force you to kiss him.

He always got so huffy whenever he realized this.

...

As you walked in... you realized how mentally un-prepared you were. It was... massive. A grand, almost terrifying chandelier as you looked up at the ceiling, and it seemed that even your dress, at the time you had thought would might be a little too dramatic, eye-catching, it was actually one of the most mundane outfits in the room. From extremely rich merchants and industrymen to the other Harbingers themselves who seemed to adore drawing attention to themselves, with their clothes, their masks...

At least you didn't feel self conscious about being stared at anymore.

"Hey," Scaramouche said, garnering your attention, "I need to do something, I'll be back in a few minutes. Okay?"

"Oh, alright. I'll just... probably mind my own business."

"That's for the best. They're all monsters, here... Try not to get eaten up by them."

He sounded oddly serious as he walked away, you watching for a moment as he left, disappearing past the crowds of people.

Oh well. After looking around, feeling lost, you spotted a few chairs at the edge of the room, away from most people. It was probably for the best, reasonably easy for Scaramouche to spot you when he came back, and you wouldn't accidentally intrude on others... on whatever conversations, business or otherwise, they would be having.

You sat down, looking around... distantly, you could recognize many people of prestige, ones you've seen written about, or only in the distance as others listened to them speak, or nearly worshipped them as though they were divine.

Was Scaramouche posing a risk to himself, bringing you?

You suddenly felt self conscious once again, damningly so... And you shook your head, sighing softly.

"Well hello sunshine," you jerked your head up, looking at someone who was standing before you--A charming young man, with pretty blue eyes and messy, copper colored hair.

Childe, you believed this one was called.

"Oh, am I in the way of something," You asked, about to stand, but he immediately sat in a chair beside you.

"Of course not... I was just curious. You were sitting alone, and I wondered might be going on in that head of yours," He looked at you with adoration, and pure curiosity... you could only be flattered.

"Ah, I'm... just someone's plus-one," you said, "He's busy right now, so I just decided to wait for him."

Childe's eyes widened slightly, and his smile grew to a grin, "Oh, he left you, did he? How cruel. After all, you're like a beautiful white fawn wandering into the forest of grey wolves... How could he leave you like that?"

You laughed, unsure and nervous. Rejecting him flat out might not be the best idea, but...

"Ahem," You heard his voice, and Scaramouche walked over--not sitting beside you, but right on your lap, grabbing your jaw and jerking his head to kiss you--intensely, your face burning with the shamelessness of his action, and when he pulled away, you were gasping for breath, and he had your lipstick on his lips. He jerked to look at Childe, a smug smile on his face, "Oh, Childe, were you saying something to her?" He asked, and he... stared.

"Uhm, just chatting, I should probably go talk with Signora or something. See you later, Balladeer."

"Bye." He said, and then he looked up at you, "... He was flirting with you, wasn't he?"

You were still reeling, and you wouldn't lie, seeing Scaramouche with your lipstick on him was a prettier sight than you'd like to admit. "Y-yes, I was just trying to be nice."

"Being nice gets you eaten alive out here," he said, wiping the corner of his mouth, trying to wipe off his face, "Damnit."

"I, uhm..." you fumbled for a moment, and provided your lipstick, "I don't think it'll come off, but you might be able to just apply more and make it look good." You admitted, and he took it without question, applying it...

It, shockingly, managed to work on him. He handed it back, "Yours is smudged a little, fix it. We're going to start the dinner soon, I can bring you to the restroom so you can have a mirror to do it with."

"Right," you said, lightly tapping his lower back so he'd get off of your lap, "That'd be nice.

After a quick trip to the restroom, cleaning off the mess on your face and trying to calm down after such a shameless display, even if you had done nothing but sit there and mind your own business, and when you came out, he offered his arm for you to hold onto as he escorted you to the massive dining table, sitting down with the countless other Harbingers and big-name figures within Snezhnayah.

The Tsaritsa stood at the head of the table, and her voice--Gods, it was booming, and it sent a shiver down your spine. However, it quickly proved that this was something she had spoken about it constantly, over and over again, a sort of rite to promise that the words spoken here not be forgotten...

But focusing on it was hard when Scaramouche's hand rested on your leg, lightly pushing up the skirt of your dress to gently rub the skin, you lightly tapping his leg with your hand, warning him.

"Your skin is soft," He whispered, plainly, and his hand stilled, but it did not move away from your leg.

... Only for him to begin stroking your skin once again,

"Shouldn't you be paying attention?" You asked, voice low and quiet, terrified of a possible punishment...

But his smile, oh, that damned smile, you knew he was up to trouble...

"I'll behave," he said, softly, "But you owe me."

"I always owe you," you said, not trying to tease, but realizing how much he could toy with those words now that they were in the air between only the two of you.

"We'll talk when we get home." He declared.

He said this--And you knew, if he was any other man, he would end up wanting some... favor. A very particular one you could think of.

But Scaramouche?

He'd drag you to bed, and press kisses to your face until you were falling asleep, and if you even tried to leave just to go to the restroom, he'd whine, crying for you like a spoiled baby.

Maybe you did spoil him.

He was too sweet, in the quiet and safety of your home, not to spoil.

#genshin impact #genshin x reader #scaramouche #scaramouche x reader #genshin scaramouche x reader #tall fem reader #fluff #fluffy bark #// ig #bark writes #fallinfl0wers #request

[redxblueihateloveyou]

What did you mean when you said that they transmit their feelings differently into swimming? And did you really imply that Rin can be faster than Haru?! I'm just curious, cause I love your arguments.

Yes, yes... I just... I've been thinking if my theory about Rin and "being free" is correct haha. And I think it is, idk, but just look... Well, you see, I do indeed think they're on par and that at the beginning they initially got attracted to each other bc they in advance sensed that and that excited them. Same as with wangxian whose level was different from others and they besides the "opposite attracts" thing, immediately gained interest into their flirting "power games", bc LZ was bored also with a fact that there was no one for him to play with to say xD. I mean Haru and Rin fell in love later for another reasons, after knowing what kind of ppl they really are, but at the beginning that was it, the fact that they felt with their asses that they're equals in terms of how "powerful" they are, despite it coming from different places. But... but... here's the thing...

Despite the fact that they both haven't reached their potential yet, bc their feelings to each other connected to swimming and they haven't sorted it out yet, in my opinion it's Rin's real power will be more surprising and here's why.

I think the irony of this show is that for them to become free, they must not be free from each other. As in being free.. admitting to yourself that you want something and be in peace with it. Be true to your heart. That’s free in Haru’s opinion. Remember how in s1 Rin cried "why can't I be free like you?", he broke the wall right after returning and seeing Haru and after admitting that he wants to be with Haru, but when he backtracked and acted like he doesn't want to be with him he kept slowing down. Haru if you remember told Rei "I in fact am not free", while picturing Rin in his head. And that wasn't the fact that he felt guilty or smth, it's the double meaning, you know.

They both obviously haven’t felt the highest, bc they never had each other fully. But Haru gave up the struggle a long time ago about his feelings for Rin, that’s why he never hit any walls, if you see his crisises, it’s not that he can’t swim faster, it’s "I myself will slow down/stop bc I’m unsure of that one thing (you know). But he never had a problem like "I can't seem to go faster than that". Haru always went where his heart lead him, until well, now, when he decided that its better to go on without it.

And with Haru we already (not fully, but close) saw stuff like that he’s faster than Albert in s3 and that he was faster than the world record timing etc, he just couldn't go until the very end, bc he’s not fully happy.

Rin on the other hand still as you see refuses to give up his defenses and keeps struggling saying that it’s not right to fully go there (bc of that it's scary to depend on someone like that, esp when you're so crazy about them, plus his "you have to do everything on your own"), that’s why his heart and body as he says aren't truly connected, when he's swimming. Thats why he always hits the wall, as in he can’t go faster. Bc he doesn't allow his heart to be free and bc he stubbornly cages himself. And that’s why I’m thinking when he stops being like this we’re gonna be in for a surprise.

In my opinion, it's not really about them being together in freestyle, relays, even though obviously its a bomb for them and their favorite, but they can as you saw be at their absolute best on their own and thats gonna be for Rin when gives up his "I really need you, but I can't allow myself need you." For Haru its just the wait for Rin to give himself up to him fully. Bc Haru's problem in the fight surprisingly isn't that he thinks that Rin doesn't love him (he actually played on the fact that he does himself). It's that bc to him it seems like Rin doesn't want to love him and act like "its better probably to not have such strong feelings for someone".

In sports there are 4 important things: talent, hardwork, how much you love what you’re doing, inspiration (goals, love, etc).

So lets just for fun check them through this list.

Some say that with ours two this is hardwork vs talent but it isn’t , and that's what so interesting about rinharu. Bc in the book it was said that Rin has the talent on par with Haru’s, they’re just different. Haru since the moment he saw Rin swim just knew and was so in awe with the way Rin interacts with water, that his knees gave out (yeah!!!). Combine this with his the most dedicated excessive training, since he was tiny, that went beyond everyone elses. And just... imagine that.

Rin has talent AND hardwork AND he loves what he's doing AND he has Haru (his love, his inspiration, who you know makes him so happy that he's actually terrified of that). Rin was hardcore training almost his whole life, doing everything possible to get there in terms of setting goals, physically doing his best and etc. His head and his body are 100% there, but smth is not always there (the most important part according to the theme of this show, the part that allows you to be free), but he still stubbornly keeps making the same mistake, shutting it out.

Now let's see Albert. 1) He has talent, 2) hardwork - for sure, most likely, considering his coach 3) he hates what he's doing, 4) he has no inspiration.

Those who swim with Albert automatically lose the 3rd point, bc he ruins the water for everyone, but if you have point 4, you're immune.

So Albert has 2 to Rin's 4 out of 4 (if he obtains the last one), even if Albert has more talent and was equally hardworking (which I highly doubt on both), I do not see how Rin canNOT beat him. That's if he has everything in place.

Haru's talent is just... holy fuck I mean yeah, but again this is bc of his strongest point that he beats everyone above at - he adores swimming the most, he literally can't live without it. His talent is his interaction with water, he doesn't need to "threaten it" and get menancing how Albert is, Haru is just one with it. And Rin Rin.. Haru describes it as... when he's in the water "the feeling is so intense, so exhilirating, so consuming, its like pure energy that floods you with excitement". Haru is agressively hardworking now, but he started late (he still trained enough bc his big scare is to let down his teammates, but he isn’t a craycray about it, bc before it wasn't hard for him to beat anyone really, but he also still swam every day way too much bc he just wanted to, in a chil way maybe, but I'm guessing his legendary stamina comes from this).

See what I mean. For rinharu, when they're at their best it's anyone's game really. Like he and Rin also have their physical difficulties, but its again canonically a balance. You know that Rin doesn’t have Haru’s stamina, but Haru doesn’t have his strength as in no matter how hard they work out they can’t gain it, bc it is what it is. Even if Haru is more talented (which again i think is untrue according to what I've read), Rin is still more hardworking (that for sure true), but in general their balance is same, bc they both still have it all. They do not miss out on any category like Albert.

But Rin is the one who never felt this exilirating feeling of getting the whole combo yet. Bc he just won't give in. Like he never fully gave up his heart, he always holds back like "yeah, I want him... but I can't want him. yes, I need him... but its not right, I can't need him." He to this day doing the same thing. He holds back. The whole reason why the fight started is because instead of saying what he felt, he decided to be rational about it. He is not being true to his heart and you can't be free that way, Rin hehe. Watch if I'm gonna be correct, watch it haha

When Rin finally takes off his "10 masks" Haru was talking about and calms down already about the fact that some weaknesses make you stronger and it's okay to love freely, he's gonna go fast. But if Haru told him how much he loves him.. I'm just saying... And ps beating Haru when he's missing the key 4th point is uninteresting, so hopefully, it's gonna be in the order I hope its gonna be lol.

My high hopes are this order: someone tells Rin about the whole truth and how for Haru he's his shining too and how he can't live without him => Rin understand the true meaning of what Haru said in the fight and has the revelation of how much more of an idiot he is => bringing Haru back party => afterparty when Haru tells him how much he loves him => Rin wins the gold in free =>. Haru kisses him on the world arena and Rin's heart flies so high and then he lovingly looks at him and whispers "so thats how it feels like.." and Haru ask "what?" and Rin says "to be free". The end.

LMAO SHUT UP LET ME DREAM!

#answered #anonymous #rinharu #harurin #sharkbait #free! the final stroke #free! #rin matsuoka #matsuoka rin #haruka nanase #nanase haruka #rin x haru #haru x rin #free #anime

[dreamteamspace]

MCYT subway au Part 3 because I’m a sucker for attention and the 2 ppl who made part 1 and 2 noticed me

Holiday Shift

- Everybody who works on the holiday gets double. Those that can’t work have to put their name on a list. Lowest entries and those that don’t enter need to work the shift. It’s Phil’s idea don’t ask

- George is the first to put his name there but Sapnap skribbles it out and makes sure everybody else gets their name in first. It’s his punishment for leaving Dream and him alone for rush hour when Karl was sick. Dream wasn’t all that mad but Sapnap Will Not let that shit slide

- Tommy gladly takes the oppertunity to not have to spend the entire day awkwardly hugging relatives and being told to keep their elbows off the table. Convinces Tubbo to join them, supposedly for the Money

- Dream: “So Karl did you put your name on the list yet?” Karl: “What list??”

- Shift staffing: George, Tubbo, Tommy and Karl

- George becomes the reluctant babysitter of what feels like three kids

- “Karl stop WASTING the bread we NEED THAT.”

- Tommy is told to go pull what they need for monday out of the freezer. Tubbo offers to come with him and holds his hand the entire time. They’re best friends your honor. Tommy promises Tubbo to make it up to him

- George does about 60% of the work on a four person shift. Swears to murder Sapnap on sight. Probably slaps a pastry in his face later

Promotion pt. 4: Taking Over

- Tommy begs Techno to join in support of Wilbur. Techno reluctantly agrees because he can’t really say no to Tommy and because he doesn’t really want to become manager anyway (too much paperwork and he’s fixating on the origins of vedgetables) 

- Tommy now adds #WilburForManager to his pogway stickers. Wilbur is also reluctantly Growing Soft in face of Tommy’s undying support

- Nobody knows why, but Quackity has the unspoken ability to make Schlatt give him sick leave or remove him from shift?? All Quackity has to do is point to his phone and give Schlatt a smug Look.

- Ppl are suspicious but really Quackity just has a video of Schlatt kissing a baby kitten in the face and talking to it in a high pitched soft voice

- Wilbur needs to visit extended family and leaves for 2 weeks. The day before he leaves is surprisingly light-hearted and Wilbur admits that Schlatt isn’t the worst manager imaginable. He lets them waste things sometimes and has yet to give anybody a cut for not showing up to a shift

- Dream can’t openly go against Schlatt, silently wishing he’d just put the milk in The Right Spot before his shift. But no. It never is. It’s always somewhere else. Always.

- Schlatt continues to place things in slightly different places than they belong and following his whim more than the rules. One time he didn’t order the dark chocolate cakes they sell because “Who likes those anyway”

- Phil is there more often to make sure Wilbur’s work is covered. The war continues to rage in stolen glares and misplaced ingredients.

- Bad and Skeppy are slowly genuinely growing concerned, watching the whole thing go down like a movie.

Promotion pt. 5: Adopted On Sight

- Schlatt tells Tubbo he’s doing great One Time because he literally saved Schlatt’s ass from being fired for the whole cakes thing by biking it to the nearest store that sells them and getting some

- Tubbo will now follow Schlatt around to ask him how he’s doing, if he did everything right, if he needs any help, how his morning went so far

- Schlatt does Not Know how to handle Tubbo and suddenly wishes for Wilbur to just Come Back and Take His Kid. Tubbo wishes him a good morning and good night every single day. How is he supposed to keep up his tough old man appearance like this

- Tommy is still on Wilbur’s side and purposefully makes Schlatt’s life just a little more difficult. Small pranks. Stickers on the cakes, wasting them. Writing #TommySupremacy on the sandwhich wraps with markers while nobody is looking. Taking 4 chairs to the back to stack them on top of eachother and stand on them to reach the ceiling. Being the teenager he is.

- Tubbo think it’s funny and that’s the main thing keeping him going really

- Schlatt confronts Tommy but with no results. He turns to Phil to ask him what to do and Phil is like, you don’t do anything. That’s just Tommy for you. Usually Wilbur keeps him occupied with the Dreamon hunting and now he has too much free time

- Quackity is using the blackmail more and more. Does he even work here anymore? When was the last time anybody saw him apart from looting the expired sodas? He’s the only one who can order avocados on a spanish site online that don’t cost their weight in gold

- But as it tends to be with good friends, Schlatt knows the amount of blackmail he has is enough to fill everybody’s need for drama here for the rest of the year. Also he can’t say no to Quackity

- Fundy recieves yet another apology card from Wilbur from Ireland, a whole postcard with a picture attached and a little doodle of a fox. He finally caves and forgives him, now refusing to do Schlatt’s work anymore.

- Dream is Popping Off. Nobody can stop him from working once he starts. He’s 2 months ahead on Literally Everything. Somebody help him

Promotion pt. 6: The Finale I promise

- Wilbur returns! Schlatt is THIS close to throwing in the towel

- Tubbo says he wants another sleepover, wanting to de-escalate the whole manager war. Tommy has to stay true to his promise in the freezer and they convince Wilbur together. Techno was on board before they even asked

- Unbeknowedst to them, the Dream Team + Karl wanted to stay in that night as well to sabotage Schlatt

- Both groups stare at eachother in confusion at first

-They combine their resources to figure out a way to sabotage Schlatt. Dream is growing increasingly quiet and unsure while Tommy stares at The Adults with dissapointment. Tubbo tries to get a word in about how Schlatt isn’t That Bad but they all yell over him. “The milk, Tubbo! Why can’t he put the milk back like a normal person!”

- Eventually Tommy pulls out his bravery and tells everyone to Shut Up

- Everyone stares at eachother

-Tommy: “How come you guys yelling over bullying somebody out of their work sounds less mature than when my literal nephews are screaming at eachother over 10 year old pokemon cards??“

- The adults stare at eachother even harder

- Dream shyly clears his throat. “From an outsider perspective, you know, uh, I should probably be fired for plotting against a fellow manager-“

- Wilbur finally finds his tongue. “Maybe this wasn’t the most... mature idea.”

- Everybody carefully agrees to apologize to schlatt and never speak of this again. Tommy has unknowingly gotten a lot more pranking rights

- They spend the rest of the night organizing the storage, hunting Dreamon, Dream telling them about that one time he ate a living frog, and taking turns playing some free racing game on Karl’s switch

- Lots of laughter, return to their shifts the next day

- They wait for Schlatt to come in to work and pull him to the back. Only Bad and Skeppy are already allowed inside while they keep the doors locked for anybody else

- Dream issues a formal apology to him and tells him everything, and Wilbur jockingly mentions they were really close to pouring food coloring into his rubber gloves as they try to laugh it off

- Schlatt stares at them

- “You know what? I quit. I don’t want to be the manager anymore. I feel like the dad of lord knows how many kids. Phil is some kind of angel. Wilbur please adopt Tubbo and Tommy again, as long as our store isn’t on fire I’m never going to complain about them ever again. Dream you might wanna phone Quackity.”

Insiders

- After a good, short era of peace within the establishment, the Drama Bois are getting bored and latching onto new things

- The bets on whether Skeppy and Bad are a couple or not are getting ever higher, especially as they’ve started letting them behind the counter. They figured out pretty quickly that they’re officially not together, but that just makes the betting all the more exciting. Do they like eachother? Are they hiding it? Are they just really good friends? Are they THAT oblivious or just really good at covering it up??

- Bad especially becomes good friends with Dream, George and Sapnap, and yet they’re all just as split as everyone else on whether he likes Skeppy or not

- Bad pretends to be but is in fact not oblivious to this at all

- Dream especially will often tell them they’re being VERY close to eachother or how cute they are next to eachother, revelling in teasing his friend, especially as Bad will sometimes start to get flustered while Skeppy manages to somehow stay 100% cool

- One day when a middle aged white woman is extremely unhappy with her order she starts talking down on George about being uneducated, and too clumsy for being useful at all, and how they should fire him. George asks her if he should just get the manager and she gladly agrees, only for Dream to swoop out of a back room, a good head taller than her, and sternly tell her if she can’t treat employees like human beings then he will ban her from the establishment immedietly. The woman stutters, takes her order and leaves, cursing something as she goes.

- Bad and Skeppy were sitting at a table nearby quietly the entire time, and Bad has this a-little-too-wide smile on his face.

- Dream murmurs something about having to go, but the seeds are planted. The idea has bloomed. Bad is ready to get his teasing revenge.

- Just as they’re closing, George puts away the milk that Dream left on the counter, telling Dream that he’s putting it away. Bad: “Wow George, that’s so thoughtful of you!” George: “???”

- Dream, softly telling George he can go home earlier and he’ll take the rest of the shift so George can catch up on sleep: “It’s okay, just go. I’ve got this.”

- Bad, just as George left, slurping his milkshake innocently while Wilbur and Sapnap are in earshot: “Awww, Dream! That was SO nice of you!”

- Dream, knowing exactly what this is for: “I’m just... nice to my friends!“

- Bad: “Really?! How many times do you let Sapnap go home earlier?” Sapnap: “You let George go earlier AGAIN?” Wilbur, having waited his entire life for someone to finally notice this: “George is getting so much favored treatment, Dream. But you’re really just good friends, right?“

- If looks could kill they’d all be dead at that point. Especially Bad, who continues slurping his milkshake as the chaos unfolds and Dream knows there’s no escape

@labbyyyyy @karlljacobs

#mcyt #subway au #mcyt subway au #dreamteamspace speaks #i dont have a tag list #space writes #i just have to tag the two ppl in charge #feel free to toss this to the ppl in the taglist if u wanna #since its technically unofficial #im burnt out for now but dont think im consistent #i could drop another 2k words out of nowhere at any given moment #like some kind of writing cryptid #ive also never worked at subway before #if you couldnt already tell lol #slkdfjsdf #this doesnt have to be canon #i just wanted to wrap up the arc? from before #arc. character arc. #I put a character arc that is 2 posts and 6 parts long. #in a shitpost #about youtubers working at subway #this is my life now #and i am okay with this #fav #yes im fav-ing my own post

[jockbots]

Ok hear me out. Why would the Noldor resort to Kinslaying? Why would the Noldor travel across an icy wastland to reach middle earth? Why? I have some thoughts:

First thought is that when the trees died and the world plunged in darkness is that everyone went a little stir crazy. If you imagine livong ur life for thousands of years with the lights on, one day waking up to find it so dark you can't see your hand infront of your face. So to begin everyone is afra8d of the dark and start hoarding lights.

we are all currently living through a pandemic and what was the first thing we did. Stockpile. The first born on Valinor probably stockpiled everything from lanters to wheat to water because they were so unsure of what was going to happen to them.

furthermore I believe the death of the trees brought upon famine and shortages. No light to keep crops growing? no food. The diet of later ages of elves is vegan in nature, and if nothing grows, theres no food. If theres no food people starve.

as a result hunting might have increased. parties going out by torchlight and hunting in the pitch dark of drowsy and confused animals might not sit right with many of the more osnwe sensative elves that can taste the fear in the meat.

Yavanna stricken with grief might have retreated further into herself leaving the world barren and bare. Her Maia might have saught to protect her wildlife as best they could without killing the first borns but in the same breath leaving them to waste away.

I wonder if Alaquande actually made a good profit during all this time. Not intentionally maybe but the fish are easier to catch and the constant use of their ships and tools means they must charge more coin, trade more precious things so that they can keep their ppl fed

its easy to assume that tentions got high. that ppl became resentful of what others had and protective of the little that they had.

then maybe the younger elves become ill. starved of food and light they are week. Babies are born fragile and some don't live to see the tide come in

I'm not saying Feanor wasnt proud and tainted by the Silmarils and Morgoths lust for them. But I also dont think he would have garnered the following he would have on spite alone. His ppl were desperate. And when Finwe died it was the final straw.

No king. No light. No food. And their families suffering some were driven to kill.

That being said I also thing that the younger elves had hopes of retreaving the Silmarils for a purpose. To restore the trees.

Not to be a nerd on main but I believe that when Feänor made the Silmarils he used purly resources from the trees. I think Yavanna allowed him because she wanted to see how he would honour her work.

He used the sap, the leaves the soil and the flowers. Bark and root and even collected the light itself to make stones that in my mind are like magical resin shell holding magical glitter inside. I have popsocket on my phone that has purple glitter on it and I would stare at it and play with it for ages if given the opportunity IMAGINE THAT except its the most breathtaking mixture of petals and clouds of pale soil all flouting in a shimmerong mixture of gold and silver that just keeps glisening and turing and revealing something else that keeps catching ur eye.

In more innocent days that was the beauty of them. When Morgoth turned his eye and intent on them that beauty inevitably, as is the tradgedy of Morgoth, became tainted too.

So Feanor is obsessed. Ppl are dying. I think someone like Fingon would just go to war over a pretty face and an ancient friendship. well ok maybe he would. But i dont think it was his loyalty to Maedhros alone. I think he truly believed that they needed the Silmarils back to restore their home. To save their people and bring justice to all the wrong that their taking caused.

I think the Feänorians were angry and grieving but I also think they genuinely thought it was the right thing to do. That is of course until they got to the shore and watched the ships burn and realised they weren't following a king that wanted to save their ppl. But a madman hellbent on getting back what belongs to him.

However I also think that there was a lot of fighting between houses because of this. For glory, or for protection for their family, maybe ppl became more paranoid as a result of the tradgedy. And then divided into parties when Feanor raised his sword to Fingolfin. There are so many ways this can be twisted.

#silmarillion #valinor #ooo i have headcannos #lotr #silm #listen i think i was told once tolkin had a degree in agriculture and u kno he was thinking abt it

[kuekyuuq]

Gloria, Jet-lags and Imps [6x11]

Let’s jump right in:

Kinda love how Kara lamp-shaded addressed the fact she didn't tell the gang about her adventures in the PZ. She’s not wrong, tho.

...what do I want to say about Mxy using what's basically a well-known gay-anthem to tell his tale? I mean, it didn’t lead anywhere. The original song is about freeing oneself, liberation, stepping out of a (gone bad) relationship and moving on, stronger for it - empowerment. The only connection I could make, is that originally it was Nyxly’s aim to just do that (freeing herself and her kind from an oppressor), but in the way Mxy performed it, that part of the parallel was long over before he even reached the chorus. It’s also a popular Karaoke song, tho, so... he chose it because it’s catchy? I’ll try not to overthink it for now. At least, the Superfriend’s reactions were fun.

Nia exiting the elevator, "And what's this Old Stone?" I love it when ppl enter a room / situation and pick up on words that they couldn't have possibly heard. I think cinema sins ding such... Are we to assume, she dreamed Mxy's rendition of ‘I will survive’? Or is the elevator not sound-proof at all? (If it’s the latter, Nia later apparently telling Brainy “in private” between scenes / during the elevator ride about her Nyxly adventures, was a silly thing to do.)

So, "Jared" created the ring Old Stone to rule them all, it got shattered into the Paragons totems? Nyxly needs the totems and to get them she needs a crystal which also belonged to "Jared" - who happens to be Mxy's ancestor, which is why she needs Mxy / his blood, too.

I have one important and incredibly relevant question here, tho... 

With the introduced imps and their names... Why’s dude named Jared of all things?!

Really, did I mishear that? If so, I’ll leave it as is and never edit, bc that would be hilarious in its own right 😋

...

Not sure what to make about Supergirl paraphrasing a Dirty Dancing quote.  "Nobody puts Mxy into a power crystal on my watch."  ...is he Baby now? (Seriously, though: Which of the writers thought that was a fitting quote to use in that particular context?)

...now, is the exposition section of the episode over yet?

Sensitive Brainy sensed something was up with Nia. He can relate... Nia doubting Kara would understand, too, is ridiculous. But I get it... insecurities and all. But, I mean, just 5 minutes later Kara announces she wants to save Nyxly despite her wrongdoings. And yet Nia still remains convinced, Kara wouldn’t forgive her own personal mini-me... After having witnessed Kara forgiving Lena for a whole season of the writers being stupid messing up to the nth degree. But I digress, Lena’s Lena.

...how old is Nia meant to be again? Just asking out of completely unrelated curiosity.

F*ck. They really went with NewFoundland...

Imma assume it was an executive choice after realizing they couldn’t find enough actors and actresses with a convincing Irish accent... maybe. Again, no offense to Newfoundland! Just... we got the insinuations of Ireland, not Newfoundland... And truthfully, when I think of magic, Ireland is an easy association. Whereas I only due to this whole debacle learned Newfoundland has Irish ancestry. So, okay, the show forced me to learn something new... I give ‘em that.

An easy journey, she said.

Lena's been off-screen for two whole episodes, Kara announcing at the beginning of ‘Dreamweaver’ [6x09] Lena being “back east” (at least insinuating Lena’s left the west-coast already), which span over at least one full day (feat. a scene at night), and ‘I still rise’ [6x10] at least another a whole day (the whole Nia’s mom back for a day deal). And, now, after at least 48 hours she barely just arrived.

Lemme check how long a regular plane would need to fly from California to NFL......... ... .. .. So... approx. 10 hours with at least one layover. 

Yeah, using a private jet made it easier, but apparently also much, much slower...

Or, Lena randomly went some other places / did some sight-seeing in NFL before she decided to finally visit her mother’s hometown...  [Either that or the timelines don’t match up and Lena’s scenes are flashbacks of sorts.]

Optimistic and relaxed Lena is a sight to behold. I rewound 3 times, just to enjoy it for as long as possible. We all knew it was going to be short-lived... 

Let’s check off a few more items...

OMG, Kara hiding behind Alex at the mere sight of the PZ-projector broke my heart!  😢

"Elisabeth Walsh" is the new 'the one you shall not name'. ...poor Lena. 😭

Oh, so Mxy wants to be Patrick Swayze instead of Baby... gotcha.

...is this going anywhere?

KITTY!!! Okay, this must be the best opponent in the history of CWSG. 

Despite the horrible CGI, SG using her heat-vision to project a laser-beam to distract the cat had me in (happy-) tears! 🤣

Gotta love the civilians of National City quickly returning to business as usual once the giant cat is gone. Even the police officers looked rather chill...

Nyxly did look fabulous this episode ^^ 

Andrea being Lena's rock is both great and annoying. I can't fault Andrea. It's just, that we still have to see an on-screen interaction between Lena and Kara and that bugs the heck out of me. I can’t help it. I’m sorry, Andrea.

Nia: "...is my fault." Kara: "Nu, is MY fault!" J'onn: "Stop fighting, kids!" Space-dad has spoken.

Mxy used an LuthorCorp copy machine... and of cos it's faulty. It's not an L-Corp product.

Kara forgiving Nia came as a surprise to her... Oooookay. I mean, the show has been writing Kara a bit inconsistently the past two seasons... so, yeah, maybe being unsure which of her traits apply this week was not such a far stretch...

Maybe it's the hair, but I wished, Florence was played by Alex Kingston.

So, not-Alex-Kingston shows Lena herself with a funny wig and tells her how her mother was still watching her...

If it wasn't for Katie's acting skills (I love her.) I would have already hit my head against the wall repeatedly. Something about these scenes had me constantly cringe and I made it through 5.5 seasons of this show already... Can’t quite put my finger on it, but it was highly distracting from the story that explained Lena’s mom was special even to another witch, where there was domestic abuse, and an accidental murder. Y’know, important stuff, deep-cutting stuff! 

At least, poor widddle Lena got some closure there. Elisabeth was a good cookie. And filled with magic. And Lena’s gotta have that ‘spark’, too... 

....so... Lena’s gonna stay in NFL for how much longer, to train becoming a witch?  Please, just hand her a how-to manual and send her back home, to figure it out on her own, please... (Yes, that would be horrible decision-making, but I need her back with the team!)

On to the finish line: 

So... Mxy IS Nyxly's brother? Wait, that doesn’t sound right... then Nyxly would have the same blood... Did I miss something? Can someone explain, please? Or is he her ex, and that’s where his rendition of “I will survive” makes sense?

Hnn... I can't help, but think Kara's speech for Nyxly was 85% based on her experiences with Lena in s05.

Awww... he said "stronger together"... Mxy... I hope, you'll be okay!

Lena believes in magic now. And I absolutely love how Lena wants to science magic XD

...but apparently magic isn’t science that hasn’t been explained yet, but parallel... powers? concepts? ether strings?

Nyxly has a loyal henchman now. Which was a bit heavy-handed. Took way too much of screen-time, so it better leads to something interesting.

And Kara is on a warpath now. Wooooot! Girl’s got enough.

...what else? 

Did I miss a third Patrick Swayze hint / quote / mention?  I learned, these things come in threes... Y’know, basic writing rules... 

I guess, for once the episode title was meant to be taken literally, Mxy popping up between characters, to try and help. (I need in-show footage, of Mxy sneaking up on ppl, without his powers, on all fours / crouched, just to get the desired effect.) I mean, I’ve never really watched Malcom, but wasn’t he like what Mxy usually is? A bit of a trouble-maker, prankster, chaos-ensuing wherever he goes? ...well, in that case, the episode title didn’t hold up, as Mxy’s scenes were not fun or really goofy. Yes, there was some superficial humor, but just to serve Mxy dealing with not being able to use his powers, which in turn was only barely scratched at (although it turned out to be his final character development crisis, appreciating not having powers and - in turn - facing consequences for once). Again, a whole lot going on in the episode, so a lot of that may have ended up on the cutting-room floor.

...where’s Kelly? Secretly adopting a kid, maybe?

...Kara’s still a reporter, right? I mean, whenever it serves the immediate plot, yes? ...Not even a throw-away line, that she has to pop up at CatCo for appearances sake? Since Andrea is already upset with her AND looking into her friends’ identities? At least, Kara should take a peek to make sure Andrea hasn’t uncovered anything yet... No?

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Kue out.

#Supergirl #supercorp #Mxy in the middle #6x11 #mxy #nyxly #lena luthor #magic #lena's mom #fiction dissected #fandom #episode #Nia nal #dreamer #brainy #brainia

[taelme]

Where’s your good-natured Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry?

request: (anon): hi!! can u please do an enemies-to-lovers with mark lee? i live for your aus, you really are an amazing writer💜 if you don’t want to it’s completely fine😅 anyways hope you have a great day/night💜💜

genre: kind of friends-to-enemies-to-lovers??, Hogwarts!au (fluff, mild angst, kind of slow burn, mutual secret pining??) 

pairing/s: Mark / Reader (ft some of 127) (side yuwin and johnil!)

word count: 23k+ rip 

tw: mark and the reader are both like not pureblood wizards in this so there's sort of like mentions about ppl hating on them lol bc of like blood purity and stuff so yeah thats abt it 

a/n: this is something a little diff from what ive put out!! bc ive always loved Hogwarts aus so I kind of wanted to try something a little different for this trope? and I decided to show their relationship a little differently from how I would typically imagine enemies-to-lovers to be but nonetheless I hope you guys enjoy it!! also anon if you're seeing it here first thank u for being patient!! had alot of fun with this one n I hope u like it!! (also plsss im devastated at the thought of baby mark in a Hogwarts uniform) also I tried to be as like explanatory(?) as I could so i hope even if u’ve never watched Harry Potter before the terminology won't be hard to understand! (PPS gif creds to op this gif is so cute)  read this on ao3

The first time you met Mark, you met the wide-eyed first-year who was still trying to get over the shock of running through a pillar at a train platform, the one who was simply looking for a friend.

“Hey, can I sit here?”

Your head snapped around when the train cabin doors had opened roughly, slamming against the wall. You spotted a young boy who didn’t look any older than you, standing there with his eyebrows raised, wincing slightly as he yanked his luggage into the carriage, struggling to maintain his balance while the train moved bumpily over the tracks.

Albeit confused (since you were about halfway through the train ride already, finding it strange for him to only be finding a seat now), you dismissed your suspicions, nodding at him.

“Oh...yeah sure,” you murmured, watching curiously as the boy gave you an appreciative smile, shoving his bags in the overhead compartment before taking a seat in front of you, heaving a tired sigh.

“What’s your name?” he asked you, “I’m Mark.”

You averted your gaze, unsure why you were so shy in front of him. Sure, you thought he was cute, in an awkward kind of way, but you hadn’t even reached the school yet and here you were already developing crushes on other students?

“Y/N,” you murmured, earning another smile from him.

“Wait, you know what spongebob is?”

Taken aback by his sudden question, you followed where his finger pointed towards, spotting the keychain hanging from your luggage, a bubble-blowing spongebob bouncing above the both of you.

Giving him a slow nod, you dared yourself to meet his gaze, swallowing down whatever shyness you had in you, “you know it too?”

Strangely, he seemed almost afraid to agree with you, averting his gaze as one of his hands went up to the back of his neck, tilting his head as if he was hesitant to speak.

You were sure that people in the wizarding world weren’t very well versed on human (muggle) tv shows, trying to find the term in your head so you could tell Mark, in case his silence was because he hadn't been able to find the right term either.

You recalled hearing your brother Johnny mentioning it when your parents had asked about what house you could possibly have been sorted into.

“Are you a muggle-born?” you asked with a smile, proud at your first-year self that was properly using the terms Johnny had taught you.

Mark’s gaze shot up to meet yours almost instantly, a part of him waiting for you to react like those in the other cabin, calling him ​impure​, ​undeserving​ of his invitation to Hogwarts.

Nodding slowly, Mark scrunched his eyes shut, preparing himself for another look of disgust or discomfort, not expecting your response.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of...I’m one too, and my brother, he’s a third-year,” you told him, watching his eyes widen in disbelief, his hands shifting to grip at the hem of his sweater.

He didn’t have any siblings to rely on, rendering him rather alone in this new environment. Hence, his surprise that he’d been lucky enough to chance upon your cabin. Mark’s eyes wandered back to the keychain, thinking out loud before he could stop himself.

“I should’ve brought something like that too, my mom didn’t want me to bring too many muggle things along with me,” he smiled half-heartedly, pursing his lips.

“Here, do you want it? You can have it,” you were already climbing on your knees on the cushioned seat, reaching up to detach the keychain from your bag, holding it out to him as though it were a peace offering.

Or like how a parent would offer a child a sweet to stop them from crying. Except this time the sweet was one of your favourite keychains that you were now impulsively offering to your new friend.

“Really?” you watched as a hint of a smile played at his lips, “thanks.”

He accepted the keychain from you wordlessly, his gaze flickering between the keychain to you, “you seem really nice...” he murmured, his hand leaving his sweater almost reluctantly to fidget with his ear.

You smiled at him, genuinely this time, not being able to wait to tell Johnny about the new friend you’d made in the train (and hoping he wouldn’t ask you about the disappearance of your keychain).

“I hope we get sorted into the same house,” you told him.

Mark looked away, a small smile on his lips as he brought his other hand up to cover his mouth, resting his elbow on the windowsill and nodding at you.

“Me too,” he mumbled through a smile.

Trust you, it wasn’t as if you were very knowledgeable about this sorting hat business, especially after you’d taken your seat on the chair, your eyes gleaming with excitement as you waited for the sorting hat to put you in ​Gryffindor h​ouse so you could run along over to where your older brother Johnny was seated with his third-year friends. Not to mention your new friend Mark, who had taken his seat at the Gryffindor table just before you.

Gryffindors were known to be ​daring, courageous, chivalrous​, and ​brave. You wondered if that same boy you met on the train was capable of displaying such traits that seemed so different from his reserved demeanour.

But the sorting hat seemed to have different plans in mind for you. You heard the hat bellow a loud ‘​Slytherin!​’ into the hall, your heart sinking as you reluctantly made your way over to the table to be seated. Johnny was calm, giving you a reassuring nod, having predicted with your parents that you would likely be sorted into that house.

Mark’s heart sank. Watching with mixed feelings as you made your way towards the table where the other students who had insulted him on the train had taken their seats, he was unsettled by the feeling in his gut telling him this wasn’t right.

Thankfully for you, a certain mischievous third-year Slytherin by the name of Yuta had been seated across you, tilting his head at you with a smile, leaning closer and dropping his voice to a whisper so the other students wouldn’t hear.

“Hey, Johnny’s your brother, right?”

You nodded slowly, flinching back when Yuta had extended a hand abruptly for you to shake.

“I’m Yuta. Stick with me and I’ll show you the ropes around here,” he told you, quirking his eyebrows ever so slightly in his ​rather rehearsed​ proposal. Taking his hand slowly to shake, you made your first friend in your house.

He was Johnny’s friend, wasn’t he? How bad could it get?

Unbeknownst to you, Johnny and Yuta had sensed your magical proficiency from a very early stage, and with the both of their prior knowledge on how having a muggle-born sorted into a house where it was still hard to shake traditional notions on the importance of ​blood purity,​ they knew you would have your fair share of struggles with your fellow students in your house.

So, they’d made it a point to study with you. Which, in other words, meant Johnny and Yuta sneaking off with you to abandoned parts of the castle where they would casually ‘practice’ their spells in front of you in the hopes that you would imitate them (which you always tried to). And surely enough, you found after accompanying them for a few months, you had managed to compile a fair repertoire of charms under your belt.

It was for your protection,​ Johnny would always insist when his senior Taeil found out that he had been teaching you the ​sixth-year level​ spells, the ​Ravenclaw​ boy insisting that it was ridiculous for him to expect you to master spells of such calibre when you were only a first-year. But, well, you obviously didn’t know that.

Of course you would share your newfound knowledge with Mark whenever the both of you had classes together, and you were glad that you’d chosen him (or he’d chosen you, it went both ways, really) to be your friend. He was very much a reminder to you that you didn’t have to navigate in this environment on your own.

Sure you had Johnny and Yuta, but Mark was at the same stage of life as you, it was ​different​.

The two of you would spend your free time at the viaduct, enjoying the large expanse of the bridge overlooking the lake that you’d discovered together. Over there, you would spend your free time between lessons or on the weekends to talk about things you liked, about home, even about stupid things like missing ​pizza rolls​. Your first-year self grew to like the place very much, how it started to remind you of the comfort of home, the comfort of your new friend, Mark.

But for Mark, things went a little differently, having heard passing comments about you being a ‘​mudblood’​ , and how it wasn’t surprising that you were associating with him, you know, the stupid quotes about birds flocking together because of their feathers. ​Whatever​, Mark couldn’t be bothered to remember it. But the more he heard it, the more he wondered if it was better to keep you at arm’s length.

It was one particular incident in the boys bathroom that had put him in his place. How the same boys he’d encountered on the train had stopped him before he could leave.

“Look, it’s our ​favourite​ ​mudblood,​” they’d made their presence known, quite literally, with the way they’d blocked out Mark’s exit from the washroom.

Mark found the whole ordeal quite silly, that people in this day and age still cared about blood purity, but in cases like these, he knew better than to assume they weren’t brought up with these ideals. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t hurt by their words either, it’d already taken way too much persuasion from his mom to let their words ‘​pass by​’ him, like she always said.

“You really disgust me, you know that?” one of them spat, “how do you even do magic? Who’d you steal it from?” they prodded, shoving Mark harshly against the wall of the washroom, one of them grabbing Mark by the collar, almost making him feel more lightheaded than he already was from how tight his tie was.

“I didn’t,” Mark grunted, “​steal​ it from anyone.”

“Huh,” the one that held him by the collar had huffed, “for some reason, I don’t believe you. Maybe we should ask Y/N,”

Mark’s eyes widened, shaking his head, “why does Y/N have to get involved? She didn’t do anything.”

“Wake up, Mark. You think she’s really your friend?” the boy sneered, “you’ve got to learn how to differentiate friendship and ​pity​.”

After this, when Mark had started to grow busier after his teacher had signed him up for the Gryffindor quidditch team, he’d ​let​ himself be busy. Bit by bit, he would surround himself with his own friends, as if it was some sort of agreement that this was just how things were supposed to be.

It was a miracle in itself for him to make any move to even look at you, much less make a move to talk to you, afraid that if he did he’d be attracting unwanted attention from the people in your house.

He figured this means of looking out for you would be for the best. You would be happy without getting involved with him, he would tell himself from then on, that you were ‘​making your real friends’​ there, as the sorting hat had mentioned since day 1.

You were popular among the people in your house, they liked you, your drive, your way of speaking. ​There probably wasn’t room for people like him in your life anyway.

===

The next time you’d met him, you’d met the freshly-appointed third-year ​prefect​ Mark (yes, you read that right, he was such perfect, rule-abiding, teacher’s pet material that they’d appointed a ​third-year​ to be prefect), who would stop at nothing to prove that he wasn’t weak like people thought he was.

“Alright, class, just to get a sense of where you lot are at now, how about we have a duel? A few of you are in the duelling club, am I right?” your Defence Against the Dark Arts professor had proposed, Professor Park, a relatively young teacher that had just taken over the position as DADA professor when you’d enrolled.

His gaze searched the crowd of students that would rather ​die​ than meet his eyes, eventually seeming to have deemed you and Mark to be sufficient for the duel.

“Can someone else do it instead?” you pleaded with your teacher, not comfortable in situations that required you to duel, much preferring the confines of your own desk where you were free to practice your charms without risking hurting anyone, especially not Mark. And Mark knew this.

Your professor was insistent, however, coming behind you to push you up onto a platform that Mark was already standing on, the rest of the students in your class gathered round as though it were some sort of wrestling match (which you supposed it was similar to).

“C’mon, now, show us some good-natured ​Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry,​ ” your professor guffawed, making you let out a frustrated sigh as you straightened out your robes, readying yourself as he queued the start of the duel.

It was fairly simple at first. Mark seemed to have been going easy on you as he cast mindless spells that were making no such effort to hit you. You figured the both of you weren’t going to take this too seriously since it was just for your professor to see you apply whatever spells you’d learnt so far.

Well, that was until a few bored-looking Slytherin students (that Mark was ​very​ much familiar with) had spoken up.

“C’mon, ​mudblood​, is that all you got?” they taunted towards Mark, soft enough that your professor wouldn’t hear.

And you noticed how Mark’s gaze had almost immediately hardened, his grip on his wand tightening as his spells seemed to have gotten more intentional.

You’d missed the way Mark had glanced at them, one of them looking at him almost challengingly.

You weren’t sure what the term meant, frowning at what it could’ve implied since it warranted such a reaction from Mark. ​Mudblood​. The term itself sounded disgusting, even.

Mark wasn’t sure what came over him, the desire to prove himself, or the desire to end the duel, he wasn’t sure. He knew that he wanted to make sure there was no reason for those students to pursue you, yet at the time, he wasn’t sure about the lengths he would go to prove that.

All he was aware of was that he’d just cast a disarming spell that was powerful enough to send you flying backwards, landing on your back with a loud grunt. He’d surprised you further when he’d sent a bout of fire directed your way before you had even fully straightened up, making you flinch back, extinguishing the small flame gotten caught at the end of your robe, giving him a scandalized look.

The students broke out into hushed whispers, all eagerly anticipating your next move as Mark made no move to stop directing spells at you, the next swish-and-flick of his wand causing

your feet to lift off of the ground, making you wonder just how much power he’d put into casting that spell.

Wracking your brain for spells out of your sheer anger that he would’ve directed the fire towards your ​face,​ you recalled a particular silencing charm Yuta had shown you before, and before you knew it, you were expelling his wand from his hand and casting the silencing charm on him.

You hadn’t expected it to work, but you figured it did from the way Mark’s hand had flown to grasp his throat, frowning at the lack of sound coming from his mouth.

Mark’s eyes widened, and so did your professor’s, dumbfounded that you’d just easily cast a spell that even his sixth-years were ​struggling​ to perform successfully, deciding that that had been enough duelling for the day.

“Okay, class, enough, you’re all dismissed. Y/N and Mark, please stay behind,” you watched as your classmates had slowly dispersed out of the classroom, not without shooting you brief glances and fearfully looking away when you’d returned them.

You huffed at the sight of your professor cooing over Mark. You’d taken a blow to your back right in front of him and yet all he cared about was making sure his ​precious​ Gryffindor prefect was alright.

“Don’t worry, kid, the spell will wear off soon. Do you have a class after this?” you had eavesdropped from where you were packing up your things, a part of you still feeling hurt trying to digest the fact that Mark had been so competitive to the point of disregarding your feelings, just for the sake of winning the duel.

Maybe Mark should’ve been sorted into Slytherin instead.

The green in your robes taunted Mark, almost, as you made your way to where he was standing next to your professor, waiting for him to be done drafting the note to excuse his lack of voice for his next lesson (which was ​Charms​, quite unfortunately).

“Y/N, can I just ask where you’d learnt such spells? I mean, no third-year I know is ​that proficient in casting spells that are of a sixth-year’s standard.”

You ignored the way Mark’s gaze on you had hardened, turning into an almost-glare, simply keeping your gaze fixed on your professor as you shrugged.

“I don’t know, just... overheard it I guess. I didn’t think it’d ​actually​ work,” you explained, folding your arms “can I go now? I’m late for my next class.”

Mark scoffed, making a decision in his head. He was no longer going to let himself get swayed by you, you were in Slytherin for a reason, he figured, ​and it was best not to forget that​. Today was enough evidence for him.

Choosing that time to leave the class, Mark made his exit known with his angry stomping, which grew softer as he got further, making you glance back impatiently to see your professor narrow his eyes at you.

“Yeah, just...​be careful ​when you use that spell next time, which I hope you won’t find a need for,” he told you, dismissing you with a wave.

You’d tried to forget your little run-in with Mark, but by dinner, you’d been confronted by both Yuta and Johnny who were ​much too eager to know the details of your little duel.

“Spill,” you heard a small thud of Yuta’s forearm against the table as he sat next to you, ignoring the annoyed looks he’d warranted from the other Slytherin students (who upon realising who he was, had immediately made a space for him to sit), Johnny leaning on the wall behind you with an expectant look on his face as well.

“Spill what?” you huffed, turning around in your seat to press your shoes against the wall next to where Johnny was leaning, Yuta giving you a knowing smirk at you in response.

“We heard from Professor Park, you know,” Yuta made to swish an imaginary wand in front of you, “​silencio?​ Ring a bell?” Yuta deadpanned, reminding you of the silencing charm, earning a snort from Johnny.

“Taeil’s gonna ​kill​ me if he finds out I taught you the spell,” he grimaced, making Yuta wave him off.

“Yeah, right, as if you wouldn’t love another excuse to get one-on-one time with Taeil,” Yuta shot back, his gaze still filled with concern as he examined your expression.

“Who was it? I heard it was a Gryffindor,” Johnny changed the subject quickly, his gaze scanning the Gryffindor table at the other end of the hall, trying to see if he recognized any third-year faces, the only one being his roommate Mark, ​but Mark would never do that, right?

“If you’re ​that​ curious, it’s Mark Lee,” you told him with an eye-roll, “you know, your precious prefect.”

Johnny’s eyes widened, falling silent almost immediately, whereas Yuta simply hummed in feigned understanding, trying to place a face to the name.

Johnny glanced over at Yuta’s expression, contributing a, “Gryffindor’s chaser.” Only then earning a look of stark realisation from Yuta.

“Aren’t you two friends?” Yuta asked, having recalled stories you told him in your first year about how Mark was the first friend you made coming to Hogwarts.

You shrugged, “I mean, we ​were,​ ” you stopped yourself, tilting your head as you stared at your hands as if they could give you the words you were looking for, “I don’t quite know. Friends don’t act like he did. I mean, I get it, it was a duel and whatever, but...” you trailed off, not wishing to get into how you felt in the middle of the great hall where literally every other student was happily dining.

Yuta sensed your discomfort, giving Johnny a nod, “you deal with Mark, I’ll handle it here.”

Johnny pushed aside his hesitance, trusting Yuta to have your best intentions in mind (the boy cared for you as if you were his own younger sister), choosing to set his mind on observing the boy who tried to​ t​ torch his sister.

“I remember something,” you murmured after Johnny had left, Yuta looking at you with gentle concern, prompting you to continue,

“Some people called him a ​mudblood?​ And then he got mad and he started getting really competitive,” you offered, unsure why Yuta��s expression had turned almost grim.

“Lesson of the day, that term, is a ​disgusting​ term. If anyone ​ever​ calls you that you better let me know,” he held a finger up, pointing it for emphasis, “I don’t ​ever​ wanna hear you say it ever again. From now on, you use the proper term, which is a ‘​well deserving wizard​’,” he grinned.

You frowned, “would you at least tell me what it means?” Yuta was about to get up, turning to you with a sigh.

“It’s like how it’s spelled,” he told you, “dirty blood. People used to use it a lot in the past towards people with non-magic possessing parents, or half-bloods, like you and Johnny. But it’s bad, it’s really...bad,” Yuta inhaled deeply, practically being able to imagine all your thoughts swirling in your head.

Yuta turned to you with a frown, his expression breaking into a cheeky grin, “How about this, Taeil gave us a spell to get around the whole no-electricity thing, so...” he quirked an eyebrow at you with a small smile, “how does a round of mario kart in the common room sound?”

===

“What are you doing here?”

Your head snapped around just as you’d entered ​The Three Broomsticks,​ the cosy pub down the line of shops in ​Hogsmeade​, not having expected to come face to face with Johnny and his Hufflepuff friend Taeyong, who gave you a slight nod of the head in greeting.

You narrowed your eyes at him, raising up your bag containing your purchases from the quill shop, having run out of parchment after Yuta had ​‘borrowed’​ some for what you assumed was writing more love letters to the sixth-year Gryffindor Sicheng.

“What are ​you​ doing here?” you narrowed your eyes at him, seeing him glance at the far end of the pub cautiously, making you frown, wanting to follow his gaze but you not being able to find what he was looking at.

“Oh, you know... just, post-quidditch practice drinks.”

Taeyong stifled a chortle, “yeah...cause Taeil ​totally​ plays quidditch.”

You scoffed, “don’t you have to study for your exams?”

You heard Taeyong practically deflate in a sigh next to you, no longer looking as amused as he nodded gravely, “yes, he does.”

Johnny shrugged, “join us? I’ll pay if you promise not to tell mom I was here,” he bargained, earning a shrug from you, nodding.

However, what Johnny had failed to mention was that by ‘us’ he had meant Taeil and Mark.

Your fight-or-flight instincts immediately kicked in when you spotted Mark seated there with his tie loosened underneath his sweater, his hair messy and his round glasses perched on the bridge of his nose.

You shot a menacing glare at Johnny, about to pursue an argument with him but having been shut down quickly by Taeyong, who made you take a seat next to him, letting Johnny sit further from you so he could be next to Taeil.

“Hey! I was just talking about how much I missed you,” Taeil’s eyes lit up when he saw you, making you sigh deeply, giving in to Taeil’s welcoming smile as you pulled your glass closer to yourself, the warmth of your glass against your hand similar to his aura.

“Missed you too,” you frowned.

Mark had wanted to roll his eyes, annoyed at the way you’d seemed to be acting as if he wasn’t even there, your gaze skipping past him and greeting only Taeil.

Was there anything in the books that mentioned Slytherins being arrogant as well?

Johnny scoffed, “what about me? You never tell ​me​ you miss me,” he gave Taeil a pout, earning a grimace from you, watching as Taeil’s cheeks tinted pink, a small smile on his face while peeling Johnny’s hand away gingerly from his waist.

“How’s school been? Not still ​hexing​ anyone, I hope,” Taeil chuckled, earning a snort from Mark, whose gaze was fixed on his drink, his leg bouncing absently.

You furrowed your eyebrows, poking your tongue in your cheek as you turned your gaze towards him, oblivious to the looks of distress Taeyong was casting towards Johnny.

“Well I could now, if ​someone i​sn’t careful,” you smiled sweetly at Mark, the boy simply raising an eyebrow at you as if in a challenge. You ignored the passing comment from Taeyong that ‘​someone’s been spending too much time with Yuta​’.

Mark didn’t seem the slightest bit fazed, giving you a nonchalant shrug. “Be my guest. That’d be about like what...45 points from your house, at least, right?”

You inhaled deeply, choosing to drop the topic as you directed your attention back to Taeil, your grip on your glass hard enough to make your knuckles turn white.

You would be quiet today,​ for Yuta’s sake.​ He’d kill you if you botched his chances of winning the house cup just because of your beef with Mark.

Today, it seemed, you were meeting the fifth-year Mark that was ​aloof,​ that was ​daring (sometimes teetering on the brink of recklessness), that was ​evidently​ unafraid of you.

“How’s applying for the teaching position coming along?” you asked Taeil, smirking at the way Johnny’s eyes had widened along with Taeil’s.

“Oh? How did you know about that?” Taeil tilted his head at you.

You shrugged, “heard it from Joh-” you winced at the pain that had shot up your shin, making you sputter out into a cough, casting a glare at Johnny before you continued, “a ​little​ bird. A little bird told me.”

Taeil chuckled, shaking his head at Johnny, “trust you to keep things a secret,” he told him, though there was no menace in his tone whatsoever, not being able to find it in himself to be mad at Johnny.

“It’s going great, actually, to answer your question. They said they’d give me the position as Charms professor,” Taeil told you, earning an impressed hum from Taeyong, who seemed to only be finding this out now as well (or maybe he was just a better liar than you, you couldn’t tell).

“Will you guys be taking that for your subjects this year?” Taeil directed the question at both you and Mark, making you curse inwardly when the both of you had nodded.

What a shame,​ yet another year of witnessing Mark flaunting his apparent proficiency at non-verbal spells, something that hadn’t even been taught in the curriculum yet.

Taeil smiled, resting his folded arms on the table, his efforts to peel Johnny’s hands off of him long-forgotten now as Johnny rested a hand on Taeil’s shoulder comfortably.

“Well, that’s great, then! I’ll probably be teaching the both of you this year,” he smiled.

(Of course, what Mark would never tell you was that he’d only practiced so hard to make sure he was good at charms after you duelled him, not wanting to let himself be at a disadvantage without his voice in the future)

“I heard you’re really good at charms,” Taeyong commented, making you shrug, an unsure laugh leaving you.

“Not really. I much prefer ​Transfiguration​ or like...​Potions,​ ” you admitted, knowing that Mark was ​definitely​ better than you at charms after his drastic improvement over the years.

Taeyong and Taeil couldn’t help themselves from giggling, exchanging a look as Taeyong explained, “nah, we’re laughing because those happen to be Johnny’s worst subjects.”

You let out a huff of laughter, nodding in agreement, but not missing the way Mark had huffed next to you.

“Yeah, it’s a wonder how two siblings could be ​so​ ​different​.” Your eyebrows knit into a frown, your mood shifting instantly at his comment, taking a long

gulp of your drink and leaving just a mere sip of it remaining, letting out a controlled sigh. “I didn’t come here to listen to your childish comments, you know,” you muttered.

Taeyong jumped in immediately, eager to maintain the ​no-hex​ status of the meeting, “hey, it’s fine. I’m pretty sure Mark didn’t mean any harm—”

Mark’s eyebrows knit into a frown, turning to scoff at you. “​Childish​? What, you think you’re all high-and-mighty now? You wouldn’t even look at me—”

“​High and mighty?​ ” you scoffed, “have you ​seen​ yourself? Ever since you got sorted into Gryffindor it’s like you became a different person. Being a prefect doesn’t change anything, you know. Face it, Mark, you’re no different from the rest of us.”

Mark’s fist clenched around his wand, shoving it further down in his robe as if to remind himself that the last thing he wanted right now was to use it against you.

You made him uncomfortable. Uncomfortable at the fact that he’d changed, that he’d let his personal vendetta against ​all things Slytherin​ get the better of him.

“Y/N, calm down,” Johnny told you, his tone a desperate attempt at gaining back control over the situation, at a loss as Taeil and Taeyong watched the scene play out in awe, somehow being able to sense that there was​ a lot m​ore to unpack behind what you two were throwing at each other.

Also because Johnny may have felt like it was kind of his fault for bringing you and Mark together here.

Though just because Mark wasn’t physically retaliating, that didn’t mean his sharp-tongue wouldn’t, his words leaving him before he could stop himself.

His voice dropped to a bare murmur, “and you’re no different from the Slytherin scum—” 

“Shut up, Mark,” Johnny cut in, frowning deeply.

Johnny knew his words struck a nerve with you from the tell-tale way your hands shook as you withdrew them from your glass, not to mention the way you’d taken your lower lip between your teeth, blinking rapidly, the sight almost enough to bring back Johnny’s memories of the first time you’d almost injured him when you practiced your magic at home.

You let out a huff, nodding slowly as you got up from your seat, your vision blurring as your eyes welled up with tears.

“Thanks for the drink,” you tried your best to keep your voice stable, averting your gaze from Johnny and taking your leave.

Johnny glared at Mark, the sound of the door bells jingling loudly in the background, “not cool, man.”

Mark had cowered instantly, feeling as though he were being chided by his parents with the way Johnny looked at him, especially because of how Taeil had started to rub soothing circles onto the back of Johnny’s hand.

Taeyong huffed, “I’m gonna go get Yuta...” casting Mark a look of sympathy before leaving, leaving just Mark, Taeil and an eerily calm Johnny at the table.

“Look, dude, I know you’re my friend and all, but...that was a low blow,” Johnny gaze looked almost defeated, wracking his brain for ways to save the situation.

Taeil gave Johnny a look of almost-pity, “Youngho, he’s a kid, he doesn’t understand.” Johnny shook his head, hating the way he’d softened at the sound of Taeil calling his name,

casting one last glare at Mark, “oh, he understands ​very​ well, believe me,” he sighed. “Whatever it is you two have going on, I hope you settle it quickly. Or you’ll wish she was your only enemy.”

===

It had seemed that after that, Mark had figured the lesser contact he would have with you, the better. Johnny had eventually taken pity on him after that incident at ​The Three Broomsticks​ in your fifth-year, since Mark was an absolute guilt-stricken wreck afterwards when Johnny had told him how upset you were after being sorted into Slytherin. Johnny had also gained a little more insight that night about why you guys had started being so cold to each other in the first place.

Hoping that that would’ve been the beginning of the end of whatever rivalry you had between you and Mark, Johnny was more than disappointed when he realised it had only made Mark withdraw from you even more.

Mark’s reasoning was that he didn’t want to hurt you out of spite, lest Johnny beat him up for it (or at least, that was the excuse Mark gave himself). Resulting in Johnny having to deal with the constant frustration of witnessing Mark cast furtive glances in yours and Yuta’s direction in the great hall every day, the fact that the Slytherin table was on the complete other end of the hall doing nothing to deter him (or maybe, it was actually doing everything to deter him).

You were currently watching a Quidditch match of Gryffindor against Hufflepuff, knowing that it was more than likely that Gryffindor would win and be put against Slytherin for the final match, Gryffindor’s players being considerably stronger.

With Yuta beside you and the fifth-year you’d taken next under your wing named Donghyuck on your other side, you watched intently from where you sat at the back of the stands, Yuta busily counting the money you’d gathered from taking bets for the game.

“Listen closely, hyuck,” Yuta beckoned the fifth year over, “they don’t teach you this shit in the real wizarding world.”

Donghyuck gave him a questioning stare but entertained Yuta anyway.

“Is that why you stayed back an extra year in school?” Donghyuck snickered, earning a glare from Yuta.

You couldn’t help but snicker as well, almost losing sight of Taeyong, the seeker for the Hufflepuff team, who had been chasing the tiny golden snitch for what seemed like ages now, desperately looking for that 150 point advantage.

Yuta scoffed, waving the money in his hands, handing it over to Donghyuck unceremoniously as he showed him the book where they kept the records of everyone that had placed bets.

“I’ll have you know, I stayed for the sake of quidditch.”

You pressed your lips together, leaning back against the wooden panels of the stand, folding your arms in front of you as you nudged your glasses higher on your nose bridge.

“Uh-huh, you and my brother,” your tone was patronising.

“Taeyong too, we made a pact. In case you forgot,” Yuta paused his explanation to Donghyuck to inform you with a satisfied smile.

You’d startled at the way the crowd erupted in anxious shouts when Johnny had managed to beat a ​bludger​ towards the Hufflepuff chaser, who avoided the tough ball by mere seconds. You couldn’t imagine what a nasty bruise would show if you’d ever gotten hit by one.

Donghyuck hummed when the Gryffindor crowd had echoed bellowing cheers upon the ding indicating another goal had been scored by the chaser.

“Gryffindor’s chaser isn’t that bad,” he commented. Which in Donghyuck’s terms, meant that Gryffindor’s chaser was ​amazing.

Yuta’s gaze had flickered to you quickly, as if to gauge your reaction, smirking at the way you’d simply shrugged.

“Slytherin’s is better.”

Donghyuck scoffed, his hand going up to adjust the scarf around his neck that you’d loaned to him, since his had been ruined in an accidental fire casting spell incident a month prior. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Please, Doyoung has ​nothing​ on Mark,” Yuta snickered, seeming to share Donghyuck’s sentiments, making you shrug.

“Doyoung has his own...​strengths,​ ” you directed your attention back to the game, watching as Mark had scored yet another goal, putting Gryffindor at an almost 130 point advantage.

Who were you kidding,​ ​Mark was definitely a better player than Doyoung.​ Doyoung wouldn’t have even joined the team if not for his unfortunately high score in his first-year flying classes.

You know that the point advantage meant that it was a clear win for Gryffindor if their new seeker Jeongin managed to catch the snitch.

And by the looks of it, he was almost there.

After catching a bludger to his broom, Taeyong had spun out of control, losing sight of the snitch, allowing Jeongin to have a clear advantage, already inching closer to the snitch.

Resigning to the fact that the match’s outcome was rather clearly decided, you turned your attention back to Yuta, nudging him to start preparing the money for the winners of the bets.

“Damn. I mean, I get it, Hufflepuff isn’t the worst but still, the amount of faith these people had to have bet on them is crazy,” Donghyuck murmured, awe laced in his tone as he helped Yuta to arrange the money.

And as usual, you’d adjourned to the bottom of the stands, allowing the students to approach the group of you discreetly while they were heading back to the castle. You’d developed this system overtime, thanks to Yuta’s idle mind in divination lessons, to carry out this plan smoothly. The only bump in your road you would say, was...well, ​Mark​.

You were already tired of standing for so long, and Yuta was (thankfully) almost done distributing all the winning amounts to the students when you’d heard rowdy cheering get louder, Johnny’s distinctive yell letting you know that the Gryffindor team was heading out.

Turning quickly, you’d ushered the last of the students away, shoving Yuta’s book into your coat, Yuta’s gaze flickering behind you as you heard Johnny’s voice followed by high-pitched giggles from Mark.

Donghyuck hummed, his gaze following Mark (his laughter had died down quickly) who eyed you blankly, yet making no move to greet you.

“What are you guys doing here?” the prefect in Mark was showcasing itself, knowing better than to think the three of you would linger here for any ‘normal’ reason.

Yuta simply smiled, stepping closer and blocking you from Mark’s line of sight.

“Waiting for you, of course. Wanted to congratulate our ​favourite​ Gryffindor chaser,” he drawled, sarcasm practically dripping from his tone and managing to unnerve Mark.

Mark was annoyed, of course (knowing that you and Yuta were ​never​ the type to listen to him, and now that Donghyuck was in the mix it didn’t make things any easier), choosing to direct his annoyed glare towards Yuta.

“Cut to the chase, I don’t know what kind of illegal shit you guys are running here-”

“​Mark​, chill, it’s a game day. Just let us have our fun, hmm?” Yuta hummed, slinging an arm around your shoulder casually, making you roll your eyes.

“He ​can’t,​ ” you supplied, “It’s literally his job to make sure we don’t ‘​have our fun’​ ,” you huffed, reminding Yuta of Mark’s status as a prefect, and perhaps reminding yourself as well.

Ignoring the way Mark’s stare had fixated on you, though his expression was unreadable, you decided not to take his demeanour to heart.

Today, it seemed that you were just meeting the sixth-year popular version of Mark that looked at you with contempt, only viewing you as a means to increase the house point gap between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Huffing, you stepped forward, deeming the conversation to be over. Shivering at the gust of cold wind that had brushed past you, Yuta was quick to notice your discomfort, wordlessly reaching over to remove your scarf from Donghyuck’s neck, ignoring the younger boy’s sounds of protest as he wrapped it around yours.

Unaware of the way Mark’s gaze was practically burning into Yuta’s back, you huffed at the sound of the boisterous laughter echoing behind you, making you more eager to get away from the Gryffindor team in their celebratory mood, waving their win around as if it was their birth right.

“Where are you going after this? Do you wanna join me and Sicheng for drinks at Hogsmeade?​ ” Yuta asked, gaining Donghyuck’s attention.

Mark tried not to eavesdrop too much on your conversation, though eavesdropping in itself was already made difficult with how loud the team was being.

“Can I come?” he heard Donghyuck speak up. And maybe it was the feeling of someone else’s stare on them but Donghyuck had turned to look at Mark in question, making Mark avert his gaze quickly, pretending to be fascinated with the cloud cover in the sky.

You let out a surprised hum, “he finally agreed?”

Yuta shut Donghyuck down quickly, casting you an unamused look, “yes, he agreed. So, are you coming or not?”

“And spend my evening third-wheeling? No, thanks. I’m gonna try to get some studying done.” You were already nearing the path that would split the both of you.

Yuta groaned, seemingly with his entire body just to prove how frustrated he was with the information, “it ​pains​ me how boring you are sometimes. Guess I’ll have to bring ​this​ ​one​ with me, then.”

Donghyuck scoffed, “I don’t need you to ​bring​ me.” The stark contrast to his previous eager request to follow Yuta making you laugh.

You rolled your eyes, a smile finding its way on your face not long after, “whatever, I’ll see you later. Have fun with Sicheng,” you sing-songed.

Later on, you were busy trying to get back to the common room before curfew, since you knew now was about the time where the prefects like Mark would be lurking around the campus, eager to catch students like you who had ​no sense of time management whatsoever.​

You’d done a quick cloaking spell on yourself, keeping your footsteps light as you got closer to the Gryffindor common room, startling when you’d heard a thud against the painting of the fat lady that guarded Gryffindor’s common room. Turning around to spot a ​very​ ​tipsy​ Mark who was struggling to get into his own dorm.

The perfect-prefect-extraordinaire actually knew how to let loose?

You stopped in your tracks, observing Mark curiously as he let out a giggle and whined at the fat lady to let him in.

“C’mon, you ​know​ me! I’m a prefect!” he insisted, his hand coming up to find his badge but coming in contact with just the fabric of his shirt instead, confusing him further. The very fact that he was still dressed in his uniform made you wonder just how long the Gryffindor team had been celebrating to render someone as usually responsible as him in ​this​ state.

“Okay, okay, I got it. I got it,” he cleared his throat, clapping his hands together in realisation, “​fimblewimble,​ ” he murmured to the painting, his hands gripping on the frame desperately, earning a huff from the fat lady, who simply looked at him in disbelief.

Taking pity on him, you’d made your way closer to him, murmuring the password you remembered Johnny telling you in case of ​‘emergencies’​.

“​Acid pops,​ ” you did your best to refrain from laughing at the way his eyebrows furrowed with how seriously he was taking this.

Mark wondered what kind of sick joke his mind was playing on him, if the voice of reason in his head was beginning to sound just like you.

Not that he didn’t like the sound of your voice, of course, he just figured it would definitely make it harder for him to keep hating you if your voice was ​quite literally a​ all he could think of.

The tipsy side of him briefly wondered if you were the angel or the devil on his shoulder.

His head whipped around in shock, pupils blown and cheeks and the tip of his nose dusted with pink, his gaze skimming right past you as he scanned the area around him, the flickering flame of the lamp above him being the only thing that he deemed to be moving in the area.

“Y/N?” he murmured, frowning when he hadn’t seen anyone.

And in that moment, you were very grateful for magical cloaking spells, not knowing what you would’ve done if he had seen you standing right behind him.

“...weird,” he huffed, rubbing his chest with a small groan, turning back to face the fat lady with a lazy smile, “​acid pops!​” he drawled, more confidently this time. His smile only grew when he heard the fat lady huff, granting him entry into the common room.

“Thanks, imaginary Y/N,” he huffed, stumbling into the room and leaving you flushed and at a loss for words.

“I think I'm crazy,” Mark would later confess to his roommate Johnny in a drunken stupor, giggling wildly as he tried to say more words in his head, looking to see if he would hear your voice saying them.

Johnny himself was busy laying on their bedroom floor with a tired smile on his face as he clung to his stuffed animal, snuggling his face deeper into the soft toy. The sight would’ve been quite endearing to Mark if he was sober enough to notice.

“Why? I mean, I think so too, but I still wanna know why,” Johnny huffed, letting his eyes flutter closed, too tired to open them.

“Just now, I was trying to get Y/N- I mean, no, I was trying to get into the common room, but then I forgot the password and I was like,” Mark paused, trying to recall how the events had played out, his delay making Johnny open his eyes, blinking slowly.

“Shut up, Mark...” Johnny slurred, “...too many words. Wait, did you say Y/N?”

Mark nodded, “yeah. Okay, wait, I wasn’t finished. So, I couldn’t remember the password, right? And then all of a sudden I just ​hear her voice​,” he cast Johnny a wide-eyed look even though he knew Johnny wasn’t looking at him, “and it’s her voice telling me the password, isn’t that crazy?”

Johnny perked up almost immediately, the sound of perfect blackmail material allowing him to regain his senses just slightly.

“Not ​that​ crazy if you asked me,” Johnny said matter-of-factly, making Mark frown, annoyance taking over his features.

“What makes you say that?”

Johnny shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe it really ​was h​er,” he stopped to let out a giggle, as if he’d recalled a funny memory, “I used to think I heard Taeil’s voice too back when he was still a student, still do sometimes, actually,” he trailed off.

“Are you making fun of me?” Mark whined, earning a giggle from Johnny.

“I’m not,” Johnny sighed, calming down from his laughter, “or am I?” he burst into another fit of giggles, seemingly satisfied with himself.

“No, dude you don’t get it-” Mark stopped himself, a long pause ensuing. ​Maybe he was the one that didn’t get it.

Mark couldn’t help the belated giggle that escaped him, “dude, I think we drank too much...never mind, goodnight,” he told Johnny, though it seemed the snoring boy next to him had already beat him to it.

===

It seemed as though you were running into Mark a lot more in the days after that Quidditch match, especially ever since Taeil became your Charms teacher and decided it was a ​splendid idea to put you and Mark on the same bench.

Obviously this led to more eye-rolls and bickering in class, with you performing the new Charms with an apparent ease, whereas he continued to fumble turning his stupid vinegar into anything that even closely resembled wine.

This was all, of course, very amusing to Taeil, whenever he caught Mark’s harsh looks cast towards you when Taeil would choose you for demonstrations, and vice versa when Taeil would ask Mark to demonstrate an example of a non-verbal spell. To this, Taeil would never miss an opportunity to mention to the both of you that ‘​peer tutoring is still an option, you know​’.

Of course, you would refuse this (​to the death​, Taeil would like to point out), insisting on surviving on your study sessions at the bridge and consultations you would squeeze in with professors after lessons.

Mark would’ve done the same, if he wasn’t so busy trying to juggle catching up with his classes and practicing for the quidditch finals. You’d noticed his disappearance after lessons, no longer finding the Gryffindor boy competing with you for a consultation slot with your Potions teacher or a space at the library.

The day before the Quidditch match, you’d just ended a consultation session with Taeil (which Johnny had not unceremoniously interrupted this time, due to him calling an early night for the sake of tomorrow’s match), and though you knew you were already past curfew, you weren’t as stressed about it, you knew Mark would’ve been too strung-up about the match to pay attention to your disobeying of curfew (or at least you hoped).

Plus, he was the only prefect that found it necessary to make your life hell just for something as simple as going to bed late. ‘​That’s 15 points for sneaking out after curfew’​ you could practically hear his voice.

Deciding to take a small walk while you headed back to your common room, you decided to take the longer route back, which would lead you towards the viaduct, something that you found looked absolutely beautiful in the night.

Hugging your robes closer to yourself, you’d let out a sigh at the feeling of the cool breeze caressing the skin of your face gently, almost freezing in place when you saw a figure walking towards you on the bridge.

Your wand instantly went to your robes, casting a spell to freeze the figure in place, daring yourself to go forward, slowly trying to piece out more details of the figure, like how they were only dressed in a loose white shirt and sweatpants, how they were crazy to have gone out dressed in just this, how they wore round glasses on their face similar to Mark’s.

Leaning closer and squinting your eyes, you saw that it really ​was M​ ark.

In your time in Slytherin, one thing Yuta had taught you was to trust your gut. And one thing that your gut was telling you right now was that him being here now was definitely not his own doing.

And as much as you didn’t like him, ​it wasn’t like you to leave him here like this. “Why are you here?” you pushed down your pride to ask, earning a frown from him. “I’m heading to the common room,” he told you as if you should’ve known.

You shook your head, “I’ve been through this route a thousand times. This isn’t the way to the Gryffindor common room...” you began, your intuition proving right when you saw the way he’d pointed towards the direction of the forbidden forest.

“No, it’s this way. I have to go through the forest,” his eyes looked almost glazed over, too blank to be normal.

Your frown deepened, you knew that this had to be the doing of those horrible Slytherins because the final quidditch match was tomorrow. And like you said, ​you couldn’t just leave him here.

Undoing the leg-locker curse you’d done on him, you watched as he visibly relaxed, about to continue on his way towards the forbidden forest until you’d caught hold of his arm quickly, almost flinching at how cold his skin felt.

“You’re crazy, coming out just in this,” you sighed, not wanting to think of the possibility that the students who had done this to him had rid him of his robe and scarf as well, though it had seemed they were kind enough to leave him with his wand.

“I didn’t,” he looked down at his clothes, almost as if he was only realising then that he wasn’t wearing his robes anymore, his hand moving to grasp his wand, making your eyes widen.

“Hey, hey, chill. Don’t curse me,” you rushed to shove his hand down, Mark observing your face in suspicion, as if he was supposed to remove you for obstructing his path to the ‘common room’.

Biting down on your pride once again, you figured Johnny had better thank you for being so nice to his friend as you unwrapped your scarf from your neck, slinging it around him, folding it so it was snug against his neck, the little embroidered flower your mom had sewn onto it practically glaring at you mockingly.

“Uh...follow me, I’ll take you to the uh...​forest​,” you told him, seeing him nod dumbly, letting you grab his wrist and lead him around the castle towards the potions room.

Whatever nice night walk you had planned had long been forgotten now, the only thing weighing on your mind now being to cure him of whatever ​confusion draught​ they’d given him and find out who exactly did this to him.

You could practically hear Donghyuck making fun of you for being so compassionate, especially to Mark, of all people, who you were just saying a week ago that you wished you could transfigure into a snail so you wouldn’t have to hear him.

Successfully unlocking the door to the potions room, you’d seated him down on one of the benches, your hands moving quickly to set up whatever you needed.

“This isn’t the forest,” Mark pouted, disappointment evident in his tone.

You moved quickly as you’d prepared everything you needed, hoping your memory wasn’t failing you, “uh-huh, I’ll bring you to the forest after this, I promise. Can you bring me one of the textbooks?”

It seemed that the confusion Mark was under hadn’t rendered him completely unable to follow instructions, with how he’d wordlessly reached over to the shelf and grabbed a textbook, standing up and going over to hold it out before your face.

Taking it from him, you gestured for him to sit down, a slight tinge of annoyance still within you at the fact that he’d ruined your plans for the night.

Flipping the pages to find the potion you were brewing, hoping that it would be enough to counter the effects of whatever spell they’d casted on him, you sighed, continuing to mix the potion.

“Why are there so many damn colour changes to this stupid potion,” you huffed harshly.

Once the potion was supposed to be simmering for 10 minutes, you’d finally looked up from the pot to assess Mark’s current situation, the boy growing more impatient that you weren’t leading him to his ‘common room’.

“You said you were gonna bring me to my common room,” Mark frowned, looking at you with apparent distrust, his hands gripping the sides of his seat firmly, tucking his chin into your scarf with a sigh, making his cheeks squish up (rather cutely, you hated to admit).

“Yeah, shut up, I’ll bring you, just wait like,” you paused to glance at the wall clock, “6 more minutes.”

Out of curiosity, you’d narrowed your eyes at him, “who was the last person you remember meeting?”

Mark’s gaze clouded, almost as if he was ​made​ not to remember, looking up to you with his lips parted, shaking his head as his tongue peeked out to wet his lips.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, his hand leaving the chair to run his fingers through his hair in frustration, “why can’t I remember.”

You glanced at the potion, deeming it just about ready, not bothering to waste any more time to pour it into a pretty vial, simply scooping an ample amount on a ladle and holding it out for him, “drink.”

Mark was obedient, that in itself scaring you with how impressionable the confusion charm had made him, taking the ladle from you and downing the potion, and you’d done your best to return everything to its rightful place while he was busy, clearing the table of any spills or possible ‘evidence’ used against you with a quick spell.

By the time you were done, it seemed that Mark had regained his bearings, the usual awkward tension between the both of you returning.

For a second, just a ​tiny​ second, you’d wished you hadn’t given him the potion, much preferring the lack of hostility he had towards you when he was under the effects of the spell.

“What...” Mark examined his surroundings, his gaze fixating back on you as if out of habit, opening and closing his mouth as he tried to find the right words, “what did you do?”

Scoffing, you narrowed your eyes at him, “I didn’t ​do​ anything. Contrary to what you may think, I actually have things to do other than fight with you.”

Mark raised his eyebrows in surprise, opening his mouth but closing it back for lack of a better response, a part of him still confused about the situation at hand.

You let out a small sigh, dropping your voice to a soft murmur, “long story, think some people tried to send you into the forbidden forest. Seemed like you were under a seriously strong confusion draught,” you told him as briefly and void of emotion as you could.

Thankfully for you, Mark had been too embarrassed to pursue the topic further, simply letting out a sigh, nothing but an ‘oh’ leaving him.

You’d gone before him, peeking through the small window in the door before pushing it open gently, stepping out and deciding the coast was clear enough for Mark to come out as well.

You’d trust your gut as you walked, since neither of you had made any move to shine a light to see better lest you attract attention, “can you see anything? Because I can’t, like, ​at all​,” you murmured.

“Me neither, but we don’t have any cloak to hide the light so we have no cho—”

“Wait, shut up, someone’s coming,” you whispered upon spotting one of the Ravenclaw prefects patrolling at the end of the corridor you were at, shoving Mark back behind a pillar, eliciting a small yelp from him.

“​Invisique,​ ” you murmured the first spell you could think of, earning a glare from Mark, who clamped a hand over your mouth, using his wand and making a motion around the both of you silently as he performed an invisibility spell, trying desperately to hold back his laughter at whatever faux invisibility spell you’d muttered.

While you were waiting for the Ravenclaw prefect to leave, you hoped the pounding of your heart wasn’t too loud, Mark’s hand over your mouth rendering you even more frozen in place, not used to being in such close proximity with him in the six years you’d known him.

You’d tried to keep your gaze steady, hating the way you’d let your gaze wander to the exposed skin of his arms, not used to seeing him in anything other than his school and quidditch uniform.

Letting go of you finally, you’d taken a small step away from him, your expression showing evident distress from his actions, taking your lower lip between your teeth as you did your best to look anywhere ​but​ at him.

Nodding your head at him in thanks, you’d followed him in silence back to the common rooms, stopping at the Gryffindor common rooms first.

“Just so you know,” Mark began, “don’t think I didn’t realise this meant you were out past curfew again,” he whispered, making your eyes widen.

“I basically undid that spell for you! If it weren’t for me—”

Mark couldn’t help the breathy huffs of laughter that escaped him, “right, you and ​spells​. What was that you said just now? ​Invisique?​ I’ve never heard that one before.”

You huffed, your cheeks flushing at the reminder of your fumble just now, “right, you haven’t...because it’s from a tv show. I got it confused with the actual spell...”

Mark pressed his lips together in a firm line, his hand coming up to cover his mouth, though it did nothing to hide his smile, making you scoff at him, shoving him lightly.

Was he actually smiling at you? Like, ​genuinely​ smiling? None of those ‘​oh yeah you totally did well’​ smiles or ‘​wow, congratulations on getting first in class​’ smiles. The smile you were looking at now reminded you vividly of the smile you saw on your very first train to Hogwarts.

Now, you were meeting a different Mark. Not the sixth year Gryffindor golden-boy that wouldn’t even spare you so much as a glance, but instead, the Mark that gave you hope that there was still some semblance to the boy you made friends with.

Mark noticed this too, how just one incident was enough to make him slip up in front of you, making him regain his composure quickly, clearing his throat softly and glancing around even though he knew the prefects would have gone back by now.

“Uh, yeah...goodnight.”

Your eyes widened, not being able to help yourself from blurting, “really? no detention? You’re not even gonna minus any Slytherin points?”

Mark huffed, averting his gaze again as he shook his head, “go before I change my mind.”

You smiled, the sight in itself enough to make Mark’s breath hitch, having to turn around to face the fat lady’s portrait as he tried to steady his heartbeat and rid the tint from his cheeks lest Johnny get suspicious.

And you were the same, going back into your dormitory with a giddy smile on your face, the relief of today’s interaction with Mark making all those years of bickering start to feel worth it.

===

Surely enough, you were sure that if magical Gods existed, they were definitely trying to clown you now. The quidditch match had gotten postponed because of some disagreement between the captains of the two teams, the professors having gotten fed up and given the teams a month to settle their differences.

Long story short, you wished you’d just let Mark waltz his way into the forbidden forest, considering a month was long enough for him to recover from whatever was awaiting him there.

Which was what caused you to be looped into a round of pity drinks in Yuta’s dorm room, Johnny having snuck in seamlessly after years of doing so with Taeyong to hang out with Yuta.

“Heard you went on a date yesterday night,” Donghyuck began, eyeing you curiously for a reaction that would prove his suspicions correct.

You almost choked at Donghyuck’s sudden accusation, making your eyes widen, casting a wide-eyed look at Yuta.

“Who’d you hear that from?” you scoffed, your attention directed towards Johnny, who was leaning against the lower bunk of the bed, wiggling his fingers in a wave at you.

“That would be me,” he drawled, a knowing smile on his face.

You shook your head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I went back to the common room after I finished studying,” you told him, almost feeling like you were defending a lost cause from the way Johnny had scrunched his nose up.

“C’mon, the least you could do is ​entertain​ me,” Johnny whined, “I already had my game cancelled this morning,” he prompted, making you raise an eyebrow at him, hoping your lying had improved over the years .

“As much as I ​wish​ I had someone I could go on a date with, I don’t. And that’s that, end of story,” you shrugged, bringing whatever strange drink Yuta had brewed up to your lips and taking a sip.

“Mark seemed to think differently,” Donghyuck gave you a nonchalant shrug, shifting in his seat so he was lying on his belly now, fiddling with his empty can of soda.

You tried to keep yourself calm, narrowing your eyes at Yuta who was looking at you blankly, his gaze intense as he tried to figure out what you were feeling, “what?”

“Are you and him on good terms now?” Yuta asked with a frown, earning a shake of the head from you.

“Things like that don’t happen overnight, you know.”

Johnny snorted, “just tell us what happened, please,” his voice had a hint of a whine to it, like a stubborn child.

You rolled your eyes, “okay, fine. But it really wasn’t anything special. I saw him when I was going back to the common room, and he seemed really messed up by some confusion charm some people did on him, so I just brought him to the potions room and then that was it.”

You were met with the blank stares of the three boys, Johnny breaking the silence first to huff.

“Seriously? That’s it? Even Taeil and I had more exciting stories,” Johnny huffed.

“Firstly, I didn’t need to know that,” Donghyuck made a gagging noise, “and secondly, that’s because it probably wasn’t romantic at all, I mean,​ look at them.​ I don’t think Mark has a single romantic bone in his body,” Donghyuck rolled his eyes, making Johnny burst into giggles.

“And you do?” Yuta quipped with a smirk, quieting Donghyuck almost immediately. Yuta turned to Johnny, tilting his drink slightly in his direction, “that was disappointing, you would think just one drop of a truth serum got more details out of him than you did.”

“You guys used truth serum on him?” your eyes widened, making Johnny glare at Yuta.

“Dude, you weren’t supposed to say anything,” he spoke through gritted teeth, making Yuta struggle to hold back his laughter as Donghyuck was losing it on the floor, clutching his belly as his laughter made him roll onto his back.

“I mean it with all my heart when I say the two of you are hopeless,” he sighed, wiping the fake tears from his eyes.

You’d averted your gaze, staring into your drink in hand, “uh...well, what did he say?” you asked, making Johnny sigh wistfully.

“I don’t know, maybe you should ask him yourself, ” Johnny shrugged, making you frown, knowing there was no way you would ever do that unless you were being held under gunpoint, or wandpoint in this case.

“Shut up, Johnny. You know that’s not happening,” you huffed, downing the rest of your drink as Johnny hummed thoughtfully.

“Well, then I guess you’ll have to live without knowing, then.” And live without knowing you did.

What Johnny wouldn’t tell you, was that Mark had little to no recollection of what had happened before he’d drank the wit-sharpening potion you made for him. All he remembered was the journey back from the potions room and that was it.

Which was why he was even more confused at the green and silver scarf that was sitting on his bed when he’d woken up the next morning.

Examining the scarf closely, Mark had figured it was Donghyuck’s scarf, since he knew Donghyuck had been in his dorm that weekend to play video games with Johnny. Deciding that that was enough deduction for him, he had gotten it ready on Monday morning, planning on giving it to Donghyuck during lunch.

“Where are you going with that?” Johnny asked, earning a shake of the head from Mark, who was already taking the scarf out from his robe pocket.

“Oh, I gotta return this to hyuck,” Mark explained, unsure why his statement had only seemed to amuse Johnny further.

“Donghyuck?” Johnny swallowed his mouthful of food with a wince, “he burnt his scarf a month ago, that’s definitely not his. ”

Sensing something was off, Johnny looked across the great hall to see you sitting with Yuta and Donghyuck, except you were missing your scarf as well.

Tilting his head down slightly, Johnny turned the scarf around, his amusement growing when it revealed the embroidered flower at the end.

“This,” Johnny’s thumb brushed over the stitching, “this is Y/N’s scarf.” Johnny murmured casually, turning to bring his cup of what he figured was grape juice to his lips.

“Who?” Mark sputtered, almost choking on his own spit.

Johnny pressed his lips together firmly, though it did nothing to hide his growing smile, nodding at Mark, “you heard me. Why do you have it, anyway?” Johnny narrowed his eyes at Mark.

“You’re asking me?” Mark’s tone was incredulous, and too defensive to be neutral, “​I​ should be asking ​you!​ I honestly don’t remember ​anything​ about how I got this.”

Johnny nodded slowly, raising an eyebrow at Mark who was slowly pushing the scarf towards him, taking one of Johnny’s hands and placing it on top of the scarf gently.

“Oh...no, no way,” Johnny sputtered into a bout of airy laughter, removing his hand from the scarf instantly, “I’m not returning it for you, if that’s what you’re thinking. You gotta do it yourself.”

Mark frowned, “but I ​can’t,​ dude—”

“‘​But I can’t dude’,​ ” Johnny mimicked, “Why not? It’s ​just a scarf,​ ” Johnny’s smirk only seemed to irk Mark even more, feeling helpless at the thought that ​both​ Johnny and his sibling were the cause of his distress. ​Maybe it ran in the family​.

Mark glared at Johnny, (though it wasn’t very menacing, Johnny found that Mark likened to a baby lion), practically rolling in satisfaction as he pushed Mark to initiate a conversation with you, or an interaction, at least.

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Mark narrowed his eyes at Johnny.

The older Gryffindor held his hands up defensively, giving Mark a shrug before he returned to scooping another heaped spoonful of food into his mouth, “not my scarf, Mark. Not my problem,” there was a teasing lilt to his tone as he shrugged.

“Johnny, ​please,​ ” Mark whined, still trying to shove the scarf into his arms, making Johnny huff, shoving it back to Mark with twice the force.

“Just hand it back after your lesson together or something,” Johnny shrugged. Mark wanted to cry, “but we have ​every​ lesson together—”

“Shut up, you’ll be ​fine​, don’t be a baby,” Johnny insisted, managing to shut Mark up for the rest of the meal, said boy too busy thinking of possible ways to give you the stupid scarf.

It’s fine, he’d just hold on to it now, and then put it on your desk before Charms, simple.​

Except, one lesson turned into one day, and one day turned into two days, and soon enough Mark was almost a week in and still struggling to find the ‘​perfect time​’ to give you back your scarf.

His first attempt laid in sending his owl to you with the scarf. However, one thing he failed to realise was that his owl was ​very much blind​ and he’d forgotten to send it together with the scarf, leaving you more than confused when his owl had squawked its way into the library, dropping a note unceremoniously onto your head and attracting a whole lot of unwanted attention towards you. ​Not to mention from the cranky seventh-years who were busy studying for their final year exams.

That had seemed to minus off more brownie points for Mark than add any, since it’d only made walking around the castle harder with all the fifth-year girls from Mark’s personal fan club shooting death glares at you whenever you walked by.

It wasn’t as if his letter said anything anyway, since his owl had delivered the wrong one. But sure, if they wanted Mark to send them a blank card with an ink splodge that read ‘​testing pen ink​’ you would’ve assured them that they could just have yours.

The second attempt was when you’d started noticing how weird he was being. He’d stopped you outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom with a resolute look on his face.

“Yes?” you glanced around in confusion, knowing that there were many students walking past you who wondered if Mark approaching you meant another fight was about to break out in the hallways.

It was all confusing you, really, how he’d gone from his snarky comments to just completely avoiding you, and then proceeding to ask you if you could ‘​spare him some time’​ to talk after class.

Mark was about to speak, only his words had gotten caught in his throat when he heard someone call your name, spotting Yuta bounding over in your direction, his hair bouncing on his head lightly as he jogged, casting a curious look to Mark.

Mark felt almost frozen in place, making you furrow your eyebrows at him, “what do you want, Mark? We’re late for class.”

You didn’t understand if this was some kind of prank he was trying to pull on you, though even if it was, you wouldn’t have understood his motive. But thankfully for you, Yuta’s hand around your shoulder had taken your attention away from Mark, making you turn away from him briefly.

“Oh, ​Mark​,” Yuta smiled, tilting his head expectantly at the Gryffindor boy, “how can I help you?”

Mark’s eyes widened, his eyebrows raising in panic, making him shake his head quickly, “no, nothing just...wanted to remind Y/N about uh...her detention this evening.”

Your lips parted, your head tilting in confusion at Mark, ignoring the way Yuta had giggled next to you.

“What did you do this time?” Yuta nudged you, squeezing your shoulder. “I didn’t do anyth—”

“And please wear the right socks,” Mark tried to keep his voice as steady as possible, turning around and briskly walking off before you could pursue the topic further.

Glancing down, you saw that you were indeed wearing mismatched socks, though that didn’t seem to be an issue for you before, not like anyone paid attention to your socks anyway (well, anyone other than Mark)

“God, he’s been so weird these days,” you told Yuta, who decided he had enough time to escort you to your class, the boy walking beside you and thankfully warding off all the dirty looks you’d been getting from Mark’s fanclub, all of them seemingly too scared to look Yuta in the eye.

“Here he is, telling me about my ​socks​ when your shirt looks like you’d squeeze dried it straight from the wash,” you huffed, “and it isn’t even tucked in!”

“I thought it was pretty cute,” Yuta shrugged, “he seemed shy, almost, just now.”

You looked at Yuta as though he’d grown another head, “excuse me? Did you ​not​ hear the part where he gave me detention for no reason?”

Yuta held his hands up in defence, shoving them into his pockets as you neared your classroom, “what? I’m just saying, you gotta consider how if you guys weren’t at each other’s necks all the time you’d actually make pretty good friends.”

You groaned, “and you decided that ​now​ would be a good time to give me counselling on that? Look, Mark has made it pretty clear that he doesn’t want anything to do with me, or just anything Slytherin in general,” you added, “I’d much rather leave my expectations ​low​, thank you very much.”

Yuta nodded patronisingly, “yeah, yeah. Whatever. Enjoy ​maintaining​ your enemies, then,” he ruffled your hair, “have a good lesson, I’ll see you at dinner. Wait no, after your ​detention​.”

Bidding him goodbye, you’d tried not to let whatever Yuta said about Mark get to you too much, entering the class and coming face to face with your least favourite professor. ​History of Magic ​wasn’t the most amazing subject in the world, so you figured that was why it didn’t have that amazing of a professor either.

The other Slytherin students seemed to like him quite a fair bit, considering he was one of the head teachers for Slytherin house, but you never got very good feelings from your interactions with him, something in his words always leaving you with more to unpack.

Today, he’d initiated a discussion on the Second Wizarding War, seeming rather insistent on the fact that your class didn’t know much about it from your poor scores on the last test he’d assigned.

He’d instructed a Slytherin student to hand out the papers (not that that wasn’t expected of him), not missing the way the student had eyed you curiously when he handed you your script, making you curious as to what was on your exam script, surprising yourself when you saw that you’d gotten a good grade on your essay.

“Who here can tell me what kind of changes the wizarding world went through before, during, and after the second wizarding war?” His voice bellowed obnoxiously around the classroom, as you tried to suppress your confusion at his loaded question.

You heard a voice from the back of the class (surely one of his Slytherin pets) squeak out, “the laws changed, sir.”

“Very good,” he clasped his hands together, making his way around the classroom slowly, “now can you give me an example of what kind of laws were in place before the war?”

There were shouts of things like ‘​no underage magic​!’ or things along that line, not that you were paying much attention, your gaze seeming to constantly wander towards Mark’s direction, seeing the boy flipping the pages of his book half-heartedly, clearly uninterested in the discussion at hand.

“Y/N! You did well for the test, so you should be able to answer my question, right? Considering you’re well read on the war.”

Both yours and Mark’s heads had snapped up at the mention of your name, your eyes widening when you saw your professor standing in front of your desk.

Using one hand to gesture for you to get up, you did as he told, gulping visibly as you fiddled with your fingers, “uh, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your question.”

Your professor sighed, “I said, you all are forgetting one important rule that was, ​quite unfortunately,​ revoked after the war. I gave you a clue already,” he seemed as though he were addressing the rest of the class despite how he fixed his gaze on you.

“You, as a Slytherin, should be very knowledgeable about this. It’s something the founder of your house found ​very ​important regarding the students of your house,” he smiled, though it seemed awfully sinister.

You furrowed your eyebrows, not knowing what answer he was expecting from you.

“I...” your gaze scanned the classroom, meeting Mark’s eyes before averting your gaze quickly, “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

You heard harsh whispers around the class, one of the Slytherin students behind you speaking up, “sir, I think Y/N doesn’t know because they’re one of them,” making the students around him snicker, poorly stifling their laughter.

As if that wasn’t confusing enough, your professor had raised his eyebrows, looking at you with almost a certain amount of disdain.

“Is that so? Well, I never would’ve expected that,” he turned quickly to face the rest of the class, his gaze landing on Mark, who had tensed up in his seat.

“You, Gryffindor boy, get up and tell the class the answer,” he murmured, making Mark’s eyes widen, getting up from his seat hesitantly, keeping his gaze fixed firmly on your professor. If you didn’t know any better, you would’ve thought Mark was angry.

Inhaling deeply, Mark sighed softly, refusing to meet your gaze all the while. “Blood purity, sir.”

“Thank you, you may sit down,” he gestured for Mark to sit, “now I want the rest of you to read pages 103 to 115 now.”

He turned to you afterwards, not bothering to lower his voice as he narrowed his eyes at you, “is it true? That you’re a ​mudblood?​ ”

Mark was watching intently from where he sat, discreetly casting a spell for him to better eavesdrop on your conversation with the professor.

Your lips parted, uncomfortable under his scrutiny, especially with the way he was attracting the attention of the many Slytherin students behind you that had shared his sentiments.

You nodded, albeit belatedly, “yes, professor.”

Mark’s eyes widened, forgetting all about whatever page he was on, trying desperately to crane his neck to get a look at you, his gaze hardening when he saw the look on your professor’s face.

He pursed his lips, his expression changing to one of disgust, letting out a huff, “how disgraceful. It seems I expected too much from you,” he murmured,

Mark couldn’t focus for the rest of the lesson, his head was a mess of thoughts about how you may have been feeling. A strong feeling within himself begging him to comfort you, yet the other part of him feeling like he didn’t deserve to swoop in after all the hurt that he had caused you. He could almost laugh at his situation.

Ironic that it was all because of the silly issue of how pure one’s blood was.

It wasn’t as if you were able to focus very well for the rest of the lesson as well, the not-so-hushed whispers from the students behind you putting you in a sour mood, wanting nothing more than to just find somewhere as far away from them as you could possibly be.

After the lesson, Mark had expected to see you with Yuta at the great hall, figuring he would be a good person for you to confide in about what had happened during the lesson. Although, you hadn’t seemed to show up.

Yuta seemed equally as confused, going over to the Gryffindor table asking if Mark or Johnny had seen you.

“Y/N’s last lesson was with you, wasn’t it?” Johnny had asked Mark once they were back in their dorm room, Mark looking awfully jittery while he sat at his desk, his leg bouncing restlessly.

“Yeah, actually. Uh... I think she was pretty upset after the lesson,” Mark began, halting Johnny’s movements at his bed, craning his neck around the bed-post to look at Mark with furrowed eyebrows.

“What happened?”

“Oh, you know... just...the History of Magic professor back on his bullshit, same old—”

Johnny straightened up abruptly, making Mark pause mid-speech, his urge to go and check on you growing with each second.

“Yo, you know, maybe if you happen to walk past the viaduct later you could see if Y/N’s there—”

“Go, Mark.” Johnny’s tone was knowing, tired almost. ​Definitely tired of Mark’s mixed messages, that was for sure.

Mark sputtered, opening and closing his mouth as his gaze darted around the room, going back to look at Johnny for a silent confirmation.

“I’m- what, huh?”

Johnny sighed, a hint of a smirk at his lips as he shook his head at Mark.

“Shut up, dude, I know you heard me. Go,” Johnny repeated, firmer this time. And that was all Mark needed to hear, not bothering to remove his robe before he’d left.

You knew that it was probably about time for you to return to the common rooms, but something just made it hard for you to move. You’d spent who-knows how long trying to hold back your tears as you leant against one of the pillars of the bridge.

Hearing thumping footsteps get louder, you inhaled deeply, hoping that your breathing wouldn’t be too loud to expose you. Your hand had gone to cover your mouth when you’d realised it was Mark, looking up as you blinked back your tears rapidly.

He knew you were here, no matter how strong your cloaking spell was. Mark knew what this place meant to you, and to him as well. He just ​knew​ you would be here.

As he made his way closer to you, your lips trembled under your palm, your other fist clenching as you struggled to maintain your steady breaths, not understanding why his presence made it so much harder for you to keep yourself from crying.

Mark stood across from where you sat at the viaduct, a soft hiccup letting him know that you were here.

Trying his best to keep from smiling, Mark pulled his wand from his pocket, pointing it at you and silently undoing your cloaking charm, revealing you seated there with your knees up to your chest and your hand clasped over your mouth, your eyes red and brimming with tears.

Looking away, you’d wished you could telepathically shoo him away as he continued to take steps towards you, your hands coming up to wipe roughly at your tears that had refused to go away.

“Go away, Mark,” you mumbled, your voice shaky, “I know I skipped detention, just... go ahead and minus the points.”

Confused at his lack of a reaction, you dared yourself to look at him crouching in front of you, an unreadable expression on his face.

“I lied, about detention,” he told you, making you frown.

“Is this some kind of joke to you?” you scoffed, your tears welling up once again, warranting a frustrated huff from you.

Mark shook his head, pressing his lips together firmly, “no, it’s not. I’m sorry. I just kind of, you know, panicked when Yuta showed up.”

You shot him a look, “okay, fine. Apology accepted. If that’s all you came to say, can you leave me alone now? I ​really​ don’t feel like fighting with you right now.”

Mark wasn’t sure what came over him when he reached into his robe, taking your scarf out from his pocket, rendering you speechless as he wordlessly reached forward to wrap the scarf around your neck, folding it just like how he always saw you’d worn it.

“Then don’t,” he murmured, shifting so he was sitting next to you now, with his back against the pillar as well, propping his knees up and resting his arms on his knees, a deep sigh leaving him. He wondered for a moment, how long it’s been since the both of you sat here together listening to the rustling of the trees and the flowing water of the lake. Too long, he concluded. 

Today, you were meeting a different Mark, yet it was a side of him that felt so comforting, as if you’d always known it, yet it managed to spark so many unfamiliar feelings in you. The Mark that you were meeting today looked at you with such a pure, unadulterated concern that it made your heart do flips, wishing that this Mark was here to stay, finding that you needed it’s familiarity now more than ever.

“I wanted to uh... thank you properly, for that day at the potions room,” he mumbled, “I um... I honestly, really owe you for that.”

You nodded, taking your lower lip between your teeth as you rest your head on your folded arms.

“You’re free to feel indebted to me, that potion wasn’t easy to make,” you huffed.

Mark couldn’t help himself from smiling, the sight of you making him have to sit on his hands to refrain from reaching over to pat your head.

A heavy silence had fallen between the both of you, almost suffocating you with how thick the tension had felt while you still struggled to swallow the lump in your throat and fight back the urge to cry. Mark’s presence beside you making it even more painful that the universe would send you someone like him when you were in such a vulnerable state of mind. 

“You’re allowed to feel hurt, you know,” Mark broke the silence eventually, his words proving enough to push you off the brink of tears, letting out a small huff as your tears had started to fall. 

In that moment, Mark decided that today wasn’t a day to be so calculative over his decisions regarding you.

Mark shocked you when you’d felt his hand on your shoulder, your body tensing up under his touch, to which he’d gulped, his gaze clouded by the sheer amount of feelings within him.

Finding the strength in him to meet your eyes, you watched how his lips had parted, his tongue peeking out to wet his lips before speaking.

“We can go back to fighting tomorrow, just... for tonight,” he inhaled deeply, “let me be here for you.”

And strangely enough, you didn’t need any more words to be exchanged between the both of you, letting yourself relax and allowing him to pull you closer so your head rest gently against his shoulder, his hand coming up to caress the back of your head soothingly, letting your tears seeping through the fabric of his robe. Mark wordlessly reached over, removing his prefect badge from his robe so it wouldn’t scratch you.

Mark didn’t mind the extent he would go to make sure you were okay. He didn’t back then, and he didn’t now. Not at all.

That was how you knew that perhaps this side of Mark was present all this while, but just didn’t know how to make itself known. You were starting to understand that now.

===

It seemed that after that night, the two of you hadn’t necessarily returned to your routine of fighting each other, but instead, your relationship was almost...​transactional,​ in a sense. Well, maybe just on the surface.

For instance, the next time you’d seen Mark in ​Herbology​, he’d gotten distracted by the way you were so focused on your task, (which was poor judgement on Mark’s part) resulting in him being seized by one of the more dangerous plants you were dealing with.

It was called a ​Venomous Tentacula​, Mark remembered the teacher saying before he’d zoned out to look at you, an ugly looking plant with curving vines and pointy spikes lining it’s branch. His loud curse had caught your attention quickly, casting a severing charm to free him from the plant’s hold.

After this, Mark had insisted he was still ​‘indebted’​ to you, trying to find any means possible to make it up to you. Though slowly, it became less of ​‘debt’​ and more of an excuse for him to do nice things for you.

Like how on another occasion, he’d bumped into you after a late night of studying in the library, choosing to pretend the encounter had never happened.

“Okay, fine, when’s my next detention slot,” you sighed expectantly, catching Mark off guard with how willingly you were accepting your fate this time.

“I owe you, it’s fine,” he insisted, letting you off in broad daylight (moonlight, if you were being specific). The worst part was, he’d even ​smiled​ at you that night.

Taeil found it painfully obvious in Charms lessons, where Mark had slipped up on his spell (out of distraction, once again), causing him to make a crack in the lens of his glasses.

To which you had to go through the longest 2 minutes of your life listening to him struggling to remember the spell to repair his glasses, making you reach over with a loud sigh and point your wand at his face. Leaving Mark wide eyed as he watched the crack in the lens of his glasses disappear.

“You looked like an idiot trying to do it yourself, don’t get the wrong idea,” you would say, which Taeil would proceed to recount to Johnny, who would then relay it to Yuta and Donghyuck, the group of boys growing more frustrated at the both of you the more stories they shared.

You’d been making your way down the spiral staircase when you’d felt yourself freeze in place, unable to walk any further, making the students around you tut their tongues at you in annoyance as they walked around you.

About to undo the spell, Mark had shown up in front of you, shaking his head to get his hair away from his eyes.

He looked anything but apologetic, giving you a nonchalant shrug, “What? You were walking too fast.”

“Undo it, Mark,” you sighed, hoping your face wouldn’t give away how flustered you were on the inside.

“No, wait, wait. Here.” Mark held a small notebook in front of you.

You frowned, “​a notebook​? I have plenty in my dorm. No, thanks.”

Mark rolled his eyes, a small groan leaving him, “it’s not ​just​ a notebook. It’s my charms notes, I wrote them for you- I mean, for the practical test coming up...” he shoved the book closer to you, taking one of your hands to place the book in it, “and before you ask, I’ve already studied for it. I just... thought you might need it, and stuff.”

You scoffed, wanting to reject him but knowing better than anyone that you needed those notes, since you knew Mark had written many notes on non-verbal spells for his perusal.

(He would never tell you, but he’d made sure he’d added every single one he knew, even the ones he never felt the need to write down before, you know, ​‘just in case’ ​you would need them). Eyeing him suspiciously, Mark was prompted to continue, nudging his glasses higher on his nose bridge as he spoke.

“Consider it...​ payment​ for fixing my glasses... and saving me from the crazy plant thing,” he added, seeming to be giving you reasons to take the notebook.

So, like any reasonable person, you accepted. Unfortunately, not missing the way his cheeks tinted pink as he undid the spell quickly, nodding at you before jogging off. Leaving you about a hundred percent sure the reason behind your legs feeling like jelly when he left was ​definitely not because of the spell.

===

“Damn, when did your handwriting get so ​ugly.​ ”

You shut the book with a loud thud upon hearing Donghyuck’s voice, turning in your seat in the library to look at him with wide eyes. 

“What?”

Donghyuck narrowed his eyes at you, a slight pause before he’d lunged forward for the book, harshly ripping it out of your grip as he flopped down onto the seat next to you.

Flipping through the pages, a sound of confusion left Donghyuck, feigning an exaggerated yawn as he read the page contents, “seriously? You were hiding ​charms notes​ from me?”

Your lips parted, unsure how to respond to him as you nodded in apology to the other students at the library, your silence only prompting him to continue.

“I thought you were writing in your diary or something, seriously, could you give me something to work with here?” he sighed, shoulders sagging in disappointment, “your handwriting ​really sucks by the way, did I already mention tha-wait...” Donghyuck let out a long gasp, he had flipped his way to the back of the book, spotting a small inscription on the back fold of the book.

‘​property of mark lee/ lee minhyung’​ it read.

Donghyuck’s eyebrows raised higher than you’d ever seen before, a mischievous smile making its way on his face.

“Why do you have this...did you steal it?” he leaned closer, inspecting your face for a lie, you supposed.

Rolling your eyes, you’d taken the book back from him with a huff, “I didn’t,” you lowered your voice to a whisper, “​steal​ it. I borrowed it fair and square.”

“Yeah, ​same difference​. What’s his excuse now? Did you ​save him a seat in class​ or something?” Donghyuck cooed, making you wonder why he was so confidently accusing you.

“What do you mean, ​‘excuse’​?” you folded your arms, leaning back in your chair as you fiddled with your sleeve anxiously.

“Don’t act stupid. You and I both know ​‘feeling indebted’​ isn’t the reason why you and Mark have been so weird with each other lately.”

You ignored his knowing smirk, choosing to change the subject.

“Where’ve you been, anyway?” you asked, your sudden change in topic catching him off guard momentarily.

Donghyuck gave you a shrug, “you know, studying with Yuta.”

“You? ​Actually studying​?” you snorted, “I’m assuming an ill intention is involved somewhere?” you teased, appreciating the way Donghyuck grit his teeth at you.

“You’re projecting,” he smiled sweetly.

“That reminds me, I told Johnny I’d meet him tonight. He said he had a bunch of stuff he wanted to give me,” you sighed.

“He’s ​already​ packing? He’s that confident about his exams?” Donghyuck’s tone was amused to say the least, holding out a hand to help you up.

You shook your head, “it’s more of...​stress​ cleaning than spring cleaning.” Upon reaching Johnny’s room, having snuck in seamlessly after a few compliments to the fat lady, you’d winced at the sheer mess of things in his room.

From old textbooks to boxes filled with miscellaneous junk he’d collected over the years, you pitied his roommates, his stress creating barely enough space for even ​breathing.​

“Good, you’re here!” Johnny beamed, pulling his headphones down so they hung around his neck as you walked over to his bed, spotting a box full of varying gifts from small teddy bears to heart shaped lollipops.

“What’s all this?” you giggled, sitting cross-legged on his bed as you sifted through the box.

Johnny turned to cast a half-hearted glance at the box, “oh, nothing. Just gifts I got after quidditch matches, feel free to look.”

“There’s so many,” you hummed in awe, “I wonder how much money these people spent just on your stupid gifts,” you giggled, flipping over a small pink compact mirror that someone had bedazzled for him.

Johnny straightened up with a sigh, wincing as he cracked his back.

“Mark’s been telling me to clear them out for ages but I just can’t bring myself to throw them away.”

You hummed, too impressed at his popularity as you read some of the cards people had left with the gifts to notice his mention of Mark, “I mean, the notes are nice. I wouldn’t throw those away,” you shrugged.

Picking up what looked like a heart-shaped jewellery box, you saw a note on it that read ‘​enjoy your win -Yuta’.

“Yuta?” you mumbled, opening the box and being pleasantly surprised when you found that it was a box of ​chocolate cauldrons​. Holding the box over your head, you saw that there was still a more than reasonable amount of time before it expired (God bless wizardry, really. The shelf life on these things were ​amazing​).

Deciding to help yourself, you popped one into your mouth, biting into the chocolate with a surprised hum leaving you.

“Can I eat your gifts?” your question came a little belatedly, but the distracted half wave from Johnny was all you needed to carry on.

About halfway through the box, you started to feel almost giddy, awfully endeared at the fact that Yuta had given Johnny these chocolates.

Taking a bite of another truffle, you’d spotted Mark entering the room, dressed in a grey hoodie and sweatpants, his hair still messy and damp from showering.

Though strangely, you found that you weren’t feeling the same ​butterflies​ or ​jelly-legs​ you usually felt when you saw him these days, all that occupied your mind right now seemed to be Yuta and Yuta only.

“You want one?” you held the box up to Mark, who politely declined.

“Nah, I’ve brushed my teeth already,” he told you, confused as to why you actually initiated the conversation with him first. 

Mark figured he would let it slide just for today that you were blatantly breaking a school rule right in front of him by being here.

You’d shrugged, humming in response, “suit yourself.”

You’d abandoned the rest of the chocolates along with the note on Johnny’s bed when he’d beckoned you over to where he was holding a heaping box of things.

“These,” he heaved a sigh, “are a bunch of books for when you get bored, there’s also art supplies, which may come in handy again, if you’re bored. The rest are textbooks that are pretty much as good as new ‘cause Doyoung helped me wrap them.” He shoved the box towards you, making you grunt at the sheer weight of it.

“Whatever, I’ll see you tomorrow,” you made your way out of the dorm, turning to add, “oh, and you should thank Yuta for his gifts, those chocolates were really tasty.”

Mark furrowed his eyebrows, “Yuta?” He hadn’t recalled Yuta giving Johnny any chocolates recently.

Making his way over to Johnny’s bed, he had one hand on the top bunk to support himself, bending down to pick up the box along with the note, examining it closely.

“Dude, how long have you been keeping these chocolates?” Mark frowned, the last time he remembered seeing this box being when Johnny was at the end of his sixth year, which meant it’d been sitting around for more than a year now.

Johnny frowned, making his way over to Mark, his eyes widening when he’d immediately recognized the box.

Taking it from Mark and opening it frantically, he’d whimpered at the sight of the almost empty box.

“Shit,” Johnny winced, groaning and stomping his feet in frustration, “you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Mark’s expression darkened, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, “please don’t tell me these are what I think they are...”

Johnny closed the box roughly, not knowing whether his immediate reaction to this was to burst out laughing or to burst out in tears. Clearly he was projecting his stress about his exams onto something else now.

Looking at the box as though it had offended him, Johnny groaned, “why did you have to show up ​now​ of all times? My exams are in less than a week!”

Mark watched the scene play out in horror, Johnny’s breakdown would’ve scared him a lot less (and that was saying a lot because he was very very scared) if this situation didn’t involve you.

Eventually, Johnny tossed the box of chocolates into the trash, giving Mark a grave nod that made Mark’s heart sink.

“I hate Yuta.” 

===

Figuring the potion would have worn off on its own within 24 hours (as he had checked in his potions textbook that same night), Mark had left it alone. But when he’d walked past the quidditch pitch on his way to the library more than 2 days after and seen you sitting at the benches watching Yuta play with a lovestruck expression on your face, Mark knew he was done for.

He was surprised the teachers weren’t able to tell you were under the sickeningly strong love potion with how distracted you were in classes, somehow managing to find the space on each and every one of your notebooks to doodle drawings of Yuta or hearts around his name.

Maybe it was only obvious to him because of how much attention he paid to you on the usual (which was also something he was realising now), but that didn’t change the fact that love potions were banned on campus, and his moral duty as a prefect was his main priority in this case.

Which was basically the lie he was religiously feeding himself as he read up on the antidote.

Taeil never enjoyed his position as a professor more than he did now, finding the situation more than amusing. From the scandalised expressions he would see Mark cast you whenever you were doing pair work and you were exceptionally distracted, to the way he’d seen your pencil scribbles of hearts and Yuta’s name at the corner of random pages in Mark’s Charms notebook during a consultation. And ​especially​ after Mark had confronted him one day after Charms class, with a list of ingredients that he demanded Taeil get for him from the potions room.

“​‘Extra credit’​, huh?” Taeil smiled, his demeanour letting on as if he didn’t already know why Mark was asking for these ingredients.

“Yeah,” Mark breathed, rocking back on his heels anxiously as he watched Taeil pack his things into his satchel.

“Didn’t know your potions professor gave out extra credit for love potion antidotes,” Taeil quirked an eyebrow knowingly at Mark, who had frozen in place, eyes wide and unwavering.

“H-Honestly I—”

Taeil sighed, “I’m really disappointed, Mark.”

Mark winced, already formulating plan B in his head from the way Taeil didn’t sound too keen on plan A.

“I may seem old but I was a student here too, you know,” Taeil continued. 

Mark’s lips parted in shock, not having expected Taeil’s response. He scrunched his nose up, nudging his glasses higher on his nose as he did so, not knowing how to react to Taeil’s words.

“Why’s it so important anyway?” he prodded, simply wanting to hear the reason for himself (you know, just to make sure his hard work in gathering the ingredients wouldn’t go to waste).

Mark pursed his lips, suddenly feeling shy at the thought of explaining to Taeil his stakes in the situation.

“It’s more for her than for me, really,” he shrugged as nonchalantly as he could, “you know, save her from the embarrassment once the potion wears off.”

Mark hated the way Taeil’s gaze seemed to go right through him, as if he were prompting Mark to try again.

Mark felt his cheeks heat up, a small nervous giggle leaving him, “don’t look at me like that! Why are you looking at me like that?”

Taeil stifled a laugh, though his smile said everything, “​why do you think​ I’m looking at you like this?”

Mark huffed, “I’m starting to understand why you and Johnny are a ​thing​.” Taeil poorly hid his amusement, shaking his head, “you know, as a teacher I see a lot of things...” he trailed off, packing his things and picking his bag up to sling over his shoulder.

“What are you saying?”

Taeil smiled, shrugging in feigned nonchalance.

“I’m ​saying,​ ” Taeil’s tone rose and dipped with a certain teasing hint to it, “that it’s not against any rule or law to be in love with a​ certain Slytherin sixth-year,​ you know.”

Mark sputtered, his immediate reaction giving him away instantly. “I’m not in ​love—​”

“Alright, alright. I’ll get your ingredients, calm down,” Taeil chuckled, walking past Mark and beckoning for him to follow him.

“She’ll be yours in no time,” Taeil added. 

The look on Mark’s face was priceless​.

Taeil had agreed to help Mark book a slot that night before curfew so he could brew the potion, so Mark figured he would inform Yuta of his plan before he got to work.

He wouldn’t have approached Yuta first under normal circumstances, the boy’s sultry gaze and intense, flirty demeanour always seeming to send Mark into a panic, but he figured in times like this he wasn’t really left with much of an option.

Yuta was currently sitting in the quidditch pitch reading his book while you sat behind him with your head resting on his back, your hands wrapped around Yuta’s torso and your eyes slowly drooping closed.

“Oh, ​Mark​,” Yuta broke into a wide smile when he’d spotted the Gryffindor boy standing in front of him, “to what do I owe this pleasure?”

Mark heaved a deep sigh, Yuta’s words slipping past him when he’d noticed your position, strangely wishing he was Yuta in that moment. He knew it was a far cry for him to expect you to be okay with going back to how things were just because he gave you the antidote. ​But still, he couldn’t help but hope.​

“I wanted to tell you that I'm making the uh...” Mark dropped his voice to a whisper, “​antidote later, and I need you to help me give it to her,” he told Yuta a little too firmly.

However, Mark’s tone didn’t seem to affect Yuta, the older boy simply tilting his head at Mark with a smirk on his face, turning to look at you over his shoulder.

“​Antidote?​” 

Yuta’s smile grew, Mark finding that it awfully resembled a Cheshire cat.

“Why?” Mark wondered momentarily how someone whose smile was so innocent could be so good at getting on his nerves.

Mark’s forehead creased in a frown, “​why​? Dude, you’re messing with me, right?”

Yuta feigned nonchalance, his hand coming up to rest atop your clasped hands, rubbing his thumb on the back of your wrist soothingly as Mark watched in horror as you snuggled your head into Yuta’s back, Yuta having to hide the triumph in his smile from managing to annoy Mark.

“Me? Mess with you? ​Never,​” Yuta’s eyes widened, his tone mocking. “What’s so urgent about it?” he prompted, making Mark groan.

First Taeil, now Yuta, it seemed as if he would have to get through your entire group of friends just to get the stupid antidote to you​.

“​Look​ at her,” Mark gestured to you with wide-eyes in his sheer desperation, “you have no idea how long this potion’s gonna last.”

Yuta narrowed his eyes at Mark, his tongue coming out to wet his lips as they parted, smirking ever-so-subtly.

“And? I thought we’d all agreed to wait it out,” Yuta shrugged. 

Mark’s gaze hardened, snapping back in annoyance, “you may have, I didn’t.”

Yuta raised his eyebrows, slightly impressed at witnessing Mark’s tenacity for things other than quidditch or schoolwork now, “you know, I never pinned you as the jealous type.”

Mark scoffed, “Stop joking around, Yuta. Seriously, I just wanna make sure she doesn’t do anything she regrets,” he insisted, lying through his teeth. Well, technically it wasn’t ​completely a lie.

“You were never this convicted about it before, why now?” Yuta prodded further, knowing almost exactly how to push Mark’s buttons.

Mark didn’t even know why he was entertaining Yuta, something about the way he posed his questions to Mark making it harder for him to avoid them.

“‘Cause I want to be, okay?”

Yuta wanted to laugh, to tell Mark how you were almost equally as hopeless in your denial of feelings for him as well, but he figured he’d let the antidote move things along for him.

Letting out a resigned sigh, Yuta pat your hands gently, making you stir awake, “can’t say I didn’t enjoy having a study companion that basically ​smothered​ me with affection the past few days but... I guess I’ll have to say goodbye.”

Turning to cast a blank look at Mark, as if he were analysing him, Mark struggled to keep his gaze firm, staring Yuta down as if he were looking death in the eye.

“Go, run along and be potion-y now,” Yuta waved Mark off, and Mark hadn’t wasted another second, already turning to leave.

“Oh, but Mark?” Yuta called, making Mark turn to look back over his shoulder, “you might wanna be a little less obvious about your ​big fat crush​.”

Mark sighed, ​he figured he deserved that.

You wouldn’t have seen it, but the Mark that was in the potions room that night was desperate, not even to get the antidote to you, but for something much more serious.

Firstly, as he watched the potion turn from purple to red, he thought about how he’d spent the last few hours being annoyed at you for why you were so clumsy as to eat Yuta’s spiked chocolates. I mean, it was ​Yuta,​ giving a gift after a quidditch match that he ​lost.​ ​Shouldn’t you have been a little more distrusting?

Secondly, as the potion turned to green it reminded him of how ​extremely​ annoyed at Yuta he was, for having attained such a strong, perfect love potion that it made each second of watching you fawn over Yuta was driving him crazy. The thought almost made him overmix the potion.

And then, when he watched the green turn to orange, he contemplated on the very fact that it was driving him crazy at all. You were just a friend, ​or acquaintance, even,​ just an over-achieving Slytherin who found it your life mission to compete with him.

Mark loosened his tie, the potions classroom starting to feel awfully stuffy.

But, you were the same Slytherin whom he befriended on his very first train here, who accepted him for who he was even before all the complications of stigma and student leader hierarchy came into play.

The same Slytherin who made Mark wonder if Slytherins were actually ​that​ bad. I mean, he thought your smile was pretty cute, and so was the way your brow would knit in focus when you were performing spells, kind of. Maybe even the way that moment you shared on the viaduct reminded him of how you made him feel like he was on a long-awaited train-ride home.

And then, all it took was his waiting for the potion to turn from orange to pink for him to realise that he was absolutely a goner for you.

Which was what had ended you up in the Slytherin common room on a Friday night, staring at Yuta in absolute horror as the memories of your previous few days had flooded back to you, except this time you were looking at them with a ​non-Yuta-obsessed p​erspective.

Yuta couldn’t help himself from the bout of laughter that washed over him, his mouth open wide as his laugh echoed around the common room, tilting his head back with the sheer force of his laughter.

“It wasn’t ​that b​ad really,” Yuta spoke between his giggles, his hand coming up to wipe the tears from his eyes, “it was the first time in 6 years I heard you call me ​pretty.​ ”

You buried your head in your hands, turning around in the big cushioned chair you were seated on, hugging your knees to your chest for some semblance of comfort.

“I’m gonna go to sleep. Bye, forever,” you sighed, getting up from the chair, Yuta rubbing his bare arm as he leaned over so his face was right in front of yours.

“You know, just yesterday you would’ve been asking me to take a nap with you,” he giggled. 

“Shut up, Yuta.”

Yuta sighed deeply in satisfaction, “oh, how I missed that sound.”

===

“Why are we here again?” 

It wasn’t as if you wouldn’t have loved spending your Saturday evening exploring a toy shop but you would’ve much rather preferred if you weren’t already slightly tipsy and aching for a seat somewhere.

Yuta and you were previously at​ The Leaky Cauldron​ celebrating the end of his examinations, the said boy having abruptly dragged you out of the pub when you were barely on your second glass just to bring you to the toy shop. Yuta’s tipsy mind was clearly impulsive (or more than usual). 

Yuta scoffed, “It’s ​important​. Sicheng’s birthday is coming up and I wanted to get him this thing he’s been looking at for a while.”

You shot him a pointed look, “pretty sure Sicheng isn't an avid collector of block sets,” your tone making Yuta shield the box he was looking at from your view.

“Didn’t say​ ​I was looking for them ​at this very second​,” he murmured, a slight pout on his lips as he made his way to the slightly more pink-decorated part of the shop, Yuta having to contain his excitement when he saw the love potions.

 ​You would’ve figured that he would’ve had enough of love potions by now.

Taking one in his hands, he’d brought it up under his nose, finding that you could smell the potion through the cap because of how strong it was. Covering the seal, Yuta had scuffled over to where you stood looking at the muggle magic sets, startling you with his sudden call for your name.

“What?” you turned, annoyed at his sudden outburst, seeing him shove something he was holding just under your nose.

“Smell it, smell it,” he shoved it closer, “guess the scent.”

You frowned, wondering if he was trying to shove it up your nose, but you complied anyway, taking a whiff of it and finding the smell awfully familiar.

“It’s really familiar, is it supposed to be just one scent? I’m getting like...” you took another sniff, “a mix of things...” you trailed off, seeing Yuta’s eyebrows raise, his smile showing that he seemed to be enjoying this a little too much.

“Is that so?”

You nodded, humming thoughtfully as you took another whiff, “it smells like... rain? And like...the lake?” you pursed your lips, “I don’t know why but it kind of smells like baby powder, like you know, fabric softener?”

Yuta burst into a fit of giggles, making you even more curious as to what the true identity of what he was holding was.

“What’s so funny?” you huffed, turning your gaze away from the fake magic wand you were holding, turning to see Yuta open his hand up, showing you what he was holding.

“It’s a love potion, idiot.” 

Your eyes widened, immediately regretting your words as Yuta walked off to return the small vial back to its original place, turning back to you with a shrug, walking past you to beckon you to follow him out of the shop.

Hugging your arms closer to yourself, you glanced up at the sky, noticing that the clouds were getting darker, “hey, are you sure you wanna go back to the pub? It looks like it’s gonna rain.”

Yuta waved you off, “It’s fine, we can just run back if anything happens,” he shrugged, “anyway, now that I’m thinking about it, it makes sense for you to be smelling that, you know, since love potions are supposed to smell like what you think smells nice.”

You frowned at him, “that’s weird, I never knew I liked the smell of ​fabric softener ​so much. It doesn’t even smell like my fabric softener,” you hummed, stepping into the pub with a sigh, the warmth of the inside soothing you and putting you in a relaxed mode almost instantly.

“Might wanna think more about that little detail,” Yuta pointed out, stretching a hand out behind him for you to take.

Walking closely behind Yuta, you weaved through the crowd to get to a booth near the window of the pub, your eyes widening when you had spotted Taeil seated there with Taeyong and Sicheng.

Greeting them quickly, you’d slid into the booth next to Taeil, Yuta leaving to get his and your drinks.

Turning to face Taeil, you tried not to laugh at the way a flushed-faced Taeyong was leaning against him, his eyes hooded and tired behind his thick-rimmed glasses.

“Is he okay?”

Taeil sighed, “poor boy insisted on coming to celebrate but kind of forgot he was a lightweight.” Sicheng rested his arm on Taeyong’s shoulder casually, the Hufflepuff’s intoxicated state doing nothing to faze him.

“When did you guys get here?” you asked, relaxing into the cushion of the booth, almost letting your eyes flutter closed with how happy you were to be finally sitting down.

“We’re a few drinks in, if that’s any indicator. Mark’s already flushed,” Sicheng snickered.

“Mark?” you frowned, wondering when Yuta had gotten so chummy with Mark for even Sicheng to know him.

Taeil’s tongue peeked out from his lips slightly, an almost teasing smile on his lips, “yeah, hope you don’t mind that we invited him.”

Your eyes widened, having to stop yourself before you were too quick to reassure him.

“Oh... no, yeah,” you fumbled for the right words, stopping yourself when you’d caught sight of the knowing look Sicheng was giving you.

Leaning closer, he lowered his voice to a whisper.

“Yuta told me about you guys’ weird love-hate thing going on,” he gave you a slow nod as if to show you he understood, which somehow only made you feel even more helpless.

Ignoring Sicheng’s statement, you brushed it aside, your gaze scanning the inside of the pub to land on anyone with your brother’s height (finding the rest of them would be a lot easier after that).

“Where um... where are they?” you blurted, hoping it would distract Sicheng from tormenting you in his weird unsuspecting way. Sicheng gestured with his head behind you, and you followed his gaze to spot Johnny, Yuta and Mark heading towards your table, Mark busy giggling at something Johnny said.

“Scooch over,” Johnny gestured, making you get out of your seat to let him sit next to Taeil. You figured he should thank you for being a kind sibling, though you were wondering if that was a very good decision when you’d ended up having to awkwardly squeeze next to Mark.

Giving him a small nod in greeting, you picked your drink up when he’d returned the nod, the rosy tint on his cheeks as he gave you a small smile making your head spin.

“Where’d you guys go just now?” Johnny asked, making Yuta shrug casually as you took a sip of your drink, wondering if Yuta had added extra firewhisky into it with how strong the flavour was.

“We went to the toy shop,” Yuta gestured out the window.

“Toy shop? You should’ve told me sooner, I wanted to see if they had that toy I wanted.” Sicheng pouted, feigning annoyance towards Yuta.

“Toy shop? Why?” Mark asked, earning a glare from Yuta, who didn’t want to ruin his surprise for Sicheng.

“Oh, nothing. Y/N just wanted to look around,” Yuta shrugged, making you have to consciously hold back a snort, nodding along with his lie.

Sicheng frowned, clearly sulky at the fact that Yuta had gone without him, though his sadness was short lived, Yuta reaching a hand over to interlock his fingers with Sicheng reassuringly.

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t there anyway, all they had were love potions and boring non-magic magic kits,” Yuta assured, almost heaving a sigh of relief when Sicheng’s eyebrows raised in interest.

“Speaking of which, I heard about your little ​incident​,” Sicheng made no effort to hide his smile, looking at you with a teasing glint in his eyes. Not again, Sicheng. 

You’d hoped the lighting in the bar would hide the flush on your cheeks, the room feeling awfully hot suddenly, turning to look out of the window, missing the way Mark’s eyes had widened, his hand coming up to pull at the collar of his hoodie.

“Oh, would you look at that, it’s raining,” you marvelled, taking a long sip of your ​butterbeer,​ hearing Johnny let out a giggle.

“Uh-huh, it is,” he drawled, already almost done with his beer, sinking down in his seat to lean his head on Taeil’s shoulder, doing everything to lessen their size difference.

“You should’ve seen it, never in my 6 years of knowing her have I ever seen anything like that,” Yuta chuckled, managing to stir a laugh from Taeyong, who sat up in his seat.

Mark reminded himself that it was a potion-induced infatuation he witnessed. There was no reason for him to be getting jealous. 

“Should’ve seen Mark too, he wasn’t any better—” Mark let out a loud laugh, drowning out the rest of Taeyong’s sentence as you raised an eyebrow curiously at him.

Why was Mark involved? 

Y​ou’d wanted to bury yourself beneath the table, embarrassment kicking in as you realised Mark would’ve probably witnessed everything you’d done (or tried to do) to Yuta within those few days.

Casting a glance at him, you noticed he was already looking at you, looking away quickly as he fixed his gaze on the inside of his glass, inspecting his drink in feigned concentration.

“Did you make the love potion?” Sicheng asked, earning a shake of the head from Yuta.

“No, I didn't. I bought it from this shop in ​diagon alley​,” Yuta told him, pointing outside, “I didn’t know it was gonna be ​that​ strong, though.”

Mark couldn’t help himself from scoffing, “clearly.”

“Oh, then, did you buy the antidote from there too?” You asked, trying to recall if you’d seen any antidotes for sale just now, not having expected the boys to cast each other knowing looks, bursting out into laughter.

“No, they don’t sell antidotes.” Yuta pursed his lips, poorly stifling his smile.

You couldn’t help yourself from uttering a confused hum, figuring the drinks you had beforehand were seeming to fuel your lack of a filter, accompanied with a burst of confidence.

“They don’t? Where’d you get the one you gave me, then?”

Taeil watched the scene with an amused smile on his face while Johnny beside him was losing it, clutching his belly as he laughed soundlessly.

“Maybe you should ask Mark,” he blurted through giggles.

Turning to Mark, you gave him an expectant look, not having been prepared to hear him say what he did.

“I made it.”

Mark’s leg had started to bounce, his hands clasped on his lap as he bit the inside of his cheek.

You’d wracked your brain for possible things he was indebted to you for, coming up short, “​you? W​hat-why?”

Yuta eyed Mark intensely, gesturing outside with his head when Mark had met his gaze, and Mark knew now was his chance. There was no more ‘waiting for the perfect time’ like how he did with your scarf. This was his chance, and he didn’t think he would be able to wait any longer if he didn’t take it now.

“Can we uh... not do this here?” Mark blurted, wincing at his poor choice of words.

Your eyes widened, along with Sicheng, the both of you unsure what he meant by his words.

“Oh... okay, sorry for bringing it up then—”

“No, I mean like,” Mark sighed, “can we like...​ talk outside​?” his voice lowered to a murmur, speaking through gritted teeth.

Your mouth formed an ‘o’ shape in realisation, nodding wordlessly as Mark had stood up, already on his resolute path towards the exit of the pub.

Following him to one of the benches outside the pub, glad that the rain had forced everyone into the pub, leaving just the both of you alone, the drizzle softly acting as a filler for the silence that had fallen between you two.

Strangely, this time, as you met this Mark who wasn’t casting you glares and scoffing at you for once, this Mark who wasn’t in his school uniform and looked too comfortable in his oversized hoodie and pyjama pants (which was an awfully ​Mark​ thing to wear out of school). 

You didn’t sense any animosity between the both of you, just a silence that was waiting patiently to be broken.

“We’re far enough that they won’t be able to listen in,” Mark told you as if that was supposed to reassure you.

Taking a deep breath, you’d only realised then that you’d brought your glass out together with you, taking a sip of liquid courage (your drink, not the potion) before exhaling deeply, “why did you make the potion?”

Mark brought a hand up to tug his hood over his head, picking at a loose thread on his pyjama pants.

“I uh,” Mark let out a small giggle, “I guess... I uh... I don’t know.”

You narrowed your eyes at him, “what do you mean you ‘​don’t know’​? You wouldn’t go through the trouble of brewing an antidote as troublesome as that one for someone you don’t like for reasons you don’t know—”

“I don’t ​not​ like you,” he blurted, immediately regretting his words, looking away and wincing.

You couldn’t bring yourself to believe him, not knowing what you would’ve done if you did, the sheer hope inside of you that this Mark you were talking to now was even remotely close to feeling whatever confusing feelings you were feeling about him was overpowering.

“What?” was all you could muster, earning a small huff of laughter from him, a shy smile on his face.

“I’m sorry, there’s really...so many places I could start with but I don’t know if it’s right for me to be telling you now,” he murmured.

“Would you rather me like...shorten it, instead?” he turned to look at you, your breath hitching as he met your gaze, not used to the determination you were seeing in his eyes. The look being a sheer contrast from the softness of the dusty pink on his cheeks and the way his lips were ​so red.

You nodded wordlessly.

“I couldn’t stand seeing you act like that with Yuta.” 

Mark’s adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed, his throat almost feeling constricted with how anxious he was.

Your eyes widened, scoffing. 

“It never bothered you before,” you mumbled, the both of you still acting as if this was still about your rivalry when you knew deep down you were both ​way​ past that already.

Mark laughed, shaking his head, pursing his lips, “it did. You just never noticed.”

It was as if with every word he spoke, you were feeling the tension thicken, the way your heart had started to pick up speed, especially with the way he was looking at you, and the way your heart was just ​begging y​ou to indulge yourself. Just this once.

“I thought that I was doing the right thing by distancing myself from you,” he began, his eyes darting to your hands briefly, watching how you were fiddling with the glass anxiously, looking back at your face before he continued, “but then, all these ​things​ started happening and I just kind of,” he stopped himself mid-speech, inhaling deeply.

“Missed you,” his voice came out as just a little more than a whisper.

Mark wanted to run away in embarrassment at how vulnerable he sounded, figuring he shouldn’t disappoint the Gryffindor in him and continue to stand firm (even if his voice wasn’t).

You weren’t sure if you were breathing, you couldn’t even pay attention to that.

“What,” you swallowed, “...what kind of ​things​?”

“That, you know, that night you helped me undo the confusion charm.”

Your eyes widened, remembering what Johnny and Yuta had told you about it that day at the dorm, “sorry, by the way, about Johnny using the truth serum on you for that night,” you told him.

What you hadn’t expected, though, was the look of confusion you’d received from him in response, “truth serum? They’ve been banned by the ministry for ages,” he told you slowly, making your eyes widen, having completely forgotten about that.

No wonder Donghyuck had called you hopeless.

“Oh,” you muttered, not being able to help yourself from laughing as well when Mark had burst into a fit of giggles, his nose scrunching up cutely as he leaned back in his seat, leaning against the table of the bench.

“Shut up,” you muttered.

“Is ​the​ Y/N actually ​embarrassed​?” Mark teased, making you huff, making as if to stand up. 

“I’m not having this conversation with you, I’m gonna get a refil—”

In what seemed like mere moments, Mark had grabbed you by the forearm, pulling you back gently onto your seat as his other hand removed his wand from his pocket, pointing it at your cup wordlessly.

“Stay here. I wasn’t finished.”

You watched in awe as your cup had started to refill itself, a shiver running down your spine at the sheer ease he’d performed the spell.

“I know I’ve been a, you know, a dick to you,” he huffed at his own expense, “but, all you have to do is tell me if you want me to stop. I’ll respect what you want, if you want me to leave you alone I'll leave you alone. If you still hate me, it’s okay—”

“Shut up, Mark,” you blurted, not ready for whatever emotional ramble he was about to embark on, catching him off guard as he’d made known in the slight lift of his eyebrow.

“Is it a sibling thing?” a small smile played at his lips, “you and Johnny sure like telling me to shut up,” he huffed.

Once again, Mark had no idea what he was compelled by, but he’d dared himself to reach over, smoothing down your hair that had gotten messed up by the wind, and your breath hitched in realisation. 

There it was, you had recognized that distinct smell almost immediately.

His fabric softener.

You were done for, for sure​. But obviously, you didn’t mind one bit. ​Especially​ because it was Mark.

Mark’s throat had suddenly felt dry, his fist clenching unconsciously next to your head as he withdrew it quickly, your fight or flight instincts kicking in as your brain struggled to think of an appropriate course of action from here, your self-preservation instinct running on overdrive.

“I uh... I don’t really want this drink anymore, maybe I should go give it to Yuta—”

Mark’s nose scrunched up in distaste, wordlessly taking the glass from your hands, “guess you won’t mind if I drink it then, right?” he’d taken a big sip of the drink, setting it down beside the both of you on the table, though his gaze still had that determination in them.

“Are you drunk?” he murmured, your heart picking up speed again as you’d sworn he’d gotten closer to you.

You shook your head, “sober as a judge,” you huffed.

Mark smirked, a small smile on his lips, “I don’t know what that means, but I’m taking that as a no.”

You smiled, you would’ve shook your head if you weren’t so scared of this moment coming to an end, “yes, Mark. It means I’m not drunk.”

You’d felt Mark’s hand move to grasp your hand gently, the tension of the almost-touch of your lips driving you insane.

“Then whatever’s about to happen, you won’t regret it, will you?” he asked, leaning even closer to you, his head tilting slightly.

You couldn’t help yourself, “maybe.”

Mark scoffed, though you didn’t miss the small giggle that escaped him, “guess I gotta make it good then.”

Without another word, he’d brought a hand up to grasp the nape of your neck, bringing your head just that slightest bit closer to yours to press his lips against yours. 

Kissing him back, you’d sighed at the warmth he exuded, your hand coming up and accidentally knocking his hood off of his head, the hand you’d rest gently against his neck making him sigh into the kiss.

No love potion would’ve let you feel what you were feeling now.

Turning your body slightly, he’d shielded you from view, his other hand coming up to comb through your hair before coming to rest at the base of your neck, giving him more control over the kiss.

You didn’t care that the wind was blowing the rain onto your clothes, all you could focus on was the way you’d wanted to melt completely into Mark’s touch, the comfort of the moment washing over you as he pulled you closer to him, almost as if asking you to lean your weight on him, letting out a small hum as if to tell you it was more than okay with him.

Pulling away breathless, you’d spent a few moments catching your breath, the whole scene playing out in your head again as he looked at you with his pupils blown and his chest heaving. You swore you heard him curse under his breath.

And just like that, the moment was over. 

You hadn’t even noticed Yuta coming out to interrupt the both of you, Johnny and Taeil insisting that it was time for Mark to go home, the both of you smiling like idiots as Yuta and Sicheng dragged you (and a far too giddy Taeyong) back to the school.

“I’ll see you tomorrow! Same place as always!” Mark called out before Johnny could pull him forward, Johnny casting you a look of feigned disapproval.

Same place as always​. You liked the sound of that.

===

Contrary to what you’d expected, you figured Mark would’ve at least lived up to the whole idea of Gryffindors being ​chivalrous​ by at least defining your relationship, because you definitely were getting tired of Yuta always referring to him as your boyfriend when even you couldn’t feel like you had a right to call him that yet.

Sitting anxiously at the Slytherin section of the spectators stand, you watched the match intently as the Gryffindor and Slytherin final quidditch match had played out in front of you.

“I didn’t remember your boyfriend’s flying skills to be so bad,” Donghyuck nudged you, making you frown, taking your attention away from Gryffindor’s seeker to find Mark in the sea of red and green.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” you muttered belatedly, your gaze landing on his broom, watching as it seemed to move randomly, almost, in a manner that seemed out of his control.

Knowing this couldn’t have been just ​anyone’s ​doing, you narrowed your eyes to search the crowd in front of you, landing on the same Slytherin boys from your batch that had ​loved​ to bother Mark, seeing one of them moving their hands in a manner that was in line with Mark’s flying.

“If Mark asks, I didn’t do it,” you sighed. Practically being able to hear Mark’s voice in your head saying ‘​15 points if you cast spells unsupervised​’’.

“Didn’t do what?” Donghyuck frowned, following your gaze as you took out your wand discreetly, whispering a spell under your breath, slipping your wand back into your robe calmly as Donghyuck watched in horror as the boy in question had almost immediately started retching up slugs, his friends dragging him out of the venue in a panic.

“Problem solved,” you smiled, turning your attention back to the game, seeing Mark visibly relax when his broom had stopped being possessed.

Donghyuck shook his head, though he would be lying if he said he wasn’t slightly impressed behind his fear, “remind me never to mess with Mark ever again.”

After the game, you’d met Yuta outside the stadium who said that Mark had asked if you would meet him in the Gryffindor tent. Complying, (more than a little willingly), a part of you couldn’t help but hope that this was the time where he would finally ask you to be with him, to give you a dramatic confession,  telling you the typical ‘​I was stupid I’m sorry ill make it up to you’​ bullshit you knew he thought you would want to hear.

But, you should’ve known Mark better.

Walking into the tent, you’d spotted Mark in his quidditch uniform, his protective gear shoved into his duffel bag, turning around to look at you with a smile.

“Hey, I was just heading out,” he breathed, the smile lingering on his face. A tell-tale sign that he was still in his post-victory daze.

You raised an eyebrow, “Yuta told me you were looking for me,” you murmured.

His eyes widened in realisation, turning to take something from his bag, “right, I wanted to uh...give you this.”

He held out his hand in a fist, your delayed reaction making him roll his eyes with a laugh, reaching over to take your hand, holding your palm open for him to empty his hand’s contents into yours.

You’d wanted to laugh, sitting in your hand was a little acrylic keychain of the same bubble-blowing spongebob that you’d given to him in your first-year. Except, this time, you were seeing it in a new light. It seemed almost freshly painted, with a certain shine to it. Not to mention how the acrylic looked as good as new.

“I uh... fixed it,” he smiled proudly at you, “a little late, but better late than never, right?” he grinned.

Maybe this was Mark’s sweet for you to keep you from crying.

You nodded. 

“Thanks,” you awaited for him to continue, looking at him expectantly.

Mark rocked back on his heels, his mouth pulling into a rectangle shape as he struggled to find the last bit of confidence in him to tell you what he wanted to say.

“That’s it? You didn’t call me here because you wanted to tell me something?... or something?” you prompted, and Mark was thankful for the prompt, of course, he just needed to calm down before his heart was all he could hear.

Wincing, Mark looked almost pained, inhaling deeply.

“You know it's 20 points for fighting with students, right?” he blurted.

Your lips parted in shock, looking as Mark as though in a silent question if he was joking.

“How did you—”

“I knew it was you,” he grinned, “the moment my broom stopped going crazy. I just had a feeling—”

You opened and closed your mouth, gripping the keychain in your hand tighter as you scoffed, for lack of a better response, “okay, if that’s all you came to tell me i’ll just go—”

“Wait! Wait, sorry I was stalling,” he took a step forward, grabbing you by your free hand, searching your expression for a sign that he could proceed.

Once he deemed it alright, Mark nodded resolutely, “I wanted to ask you if we could like... you know,​ start over.​ ”

Your eyebrows raised, prompting him to continue.

“Because, I really uh...” he swallowed, his demeanour a stark contrast from how he was just seconds ago on the quidditch pitch, “I really like you.”

“Then we shouldn’t start over,” you told him, wanting to giggle at the sheer shock that had painted over his features.

“Let’s continue from where we’re at. I want to know more about this Mark in front of me now. I don’t want to start over,” you continued.

With your words alone, and the small smile that you gave him, Mark’s heart swelled up. This Mark, awkward, yet confident. Insecure, yet brave. This mark you were meeting for what felt like the first time but yet felt so familiar, you were more than happy with.

Mark’s smile widened, nodding at you.

“I’m an idiot for not giving you the antidote any sooner.”

#mark lee #mark lee au #mark lee fluff #mark lee scenarios #lee minhyung #nct mark #nct fanfic #nct #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct aus #nct 127 scenarios #nct 127 mark #nct dream #nct dream mark #nct dream scenarios #nct dream au #nct 127 au #nct 127 fluff #nct 127 angst #nct angst #superm au #superm mark #superm scenarios #superm #enemies-to-lovers!mark #idk what else I wna tag #super m scenarios #super m fluff #taelme

[rurifangirl]

aight. here somes the ask lore thingie

tw for ppl readin: mention of mental illness, father mention

firstly, how did rui end up meetin the rest of the gang? did they all have sum sort of run in? did they just happen to meet on exident?

also is the father a villain? i remember ya mention him, and was wonderin

and do they have a specific place where they stay? like in a dormstory, a single house, do they live in a single town, or in completly different places?

do any of them suffer from mental/physical illnesses? if they do, how does it affect their life/relationships w others?

Aight, so here we go, be ready cuz shit's long.

(1st part - The Rui n the gang meeting; The Shou meeting) No Tw

Honestly, I also kinda wanted to do this for quite a long time, so I'm gonna firstly talk about how the gang (w/o really mentioning the others name's since they're gonna get introduced soon) met itself and decided to form, and then I'll individually do It in Lyva's and Shou's case, specifically Shou's since i mentioned that his meetin was somethin id have to take care of in another post, so i will rn.

First things first, w the whole gang. Now It wasn't really casually, mainly because Lyva n Rui did meet up, but It was during a special occasion still, that being a really important manifestation in one of the main regions in my oc universe. (They don't have name's yet so pls don't bash me🤡) Them being primarly the Forest, where Rui eventually lives in after all of his past shit, the near-countryside part, where Lyva was living, a pretty much city living on water, where Shou's currently living, and many more, as such the dunes with which I'll introduce Qiran (hopefully tomorrow/today),The sea itself, some High up places and as I said many, many other more. Other than this brief intro, they meet up where Lyva used to live, but mainly because of problems and out of conviniance.

Everyone had something to take back from, so they agreed to help eachother to reach that end, so it's all really planned. Now i won't really go w Lyva, cuz i explained how she met Rui the first time n how they helped her, so I don't need to ramble more on this. Now I'm gonna go w Shou's part though.

This Is more of a note i wanted y'all to know first, cuz i really like how Lyva n Rui met him the first time (cuz the second time was when the gang then all agreed to form n all that jazz.). Basically, Rui n Lyva were out, n visiting new places as such, to prepare themselves further and to try and search for more weapons, cuz they both knew that they'd eventually get in trouble, and even though they still are good, they wouldn't stand much a chance, n since Shou's Place is known for its production they decided to go. N fun fact, there's many funny shit that happends, for example Rui tries to touch a fish, but gets SLAPPED by It. They're still mad >:[. Ajkskdj anyways, some other stuff happends n they just, lose themselves. They had a map ofc but still managed to do so. But Rui was usin It so, I don't really blame em for gettin lost.

Shit happends n they find themselves pratically in front of his shrine/palace. Shou's servitors (cuz he saw everything happend from afar n gave them the okay) brought em in, but rather than makin em idk some tea n just making them recouver, Shou rather put them under some "tests" w/o tellin em, to see if they were any use.

For example he brought them some cups of tea, but before drinking them Rui noticed somethin unusual in the water, so they gave Lyva a sign to not drink It, n as Shou asked as a reason why they just replied that they weren't thirsthy, leavin Shou in a kind of defeated state. Bitch if i love this part honestly, there's so much fun to seein all of their reactions, but I'm gonna go brief rn. So other of this tests pass later n Shou eventually gets upset cuz they're all winnin n seemingly makin fun of him, lettin him in a weaket standpoint, n a fight happends. Even though it's a 2v1 situation he can still manage pretty well, so It ends in a draw. They get to talk after this and get to understand that they don't have to necesseraly be on the opposite side, though Shou Is still unsure whether to belive in that or not.

After they leave him, pratically almost alone w only a bunch of servitors helpin him. He admits defeat n won't show up until the event and yadayada. (Also it's during this weak time of his he'll meet Qiran which i already have plans w so it's all goin to be said bout their relationship in their post.)

(2nd part, the father mention.) Tw:father mention

So it's true that w Shou i did mention his father, but I'm not entirely sure bout his involvment honestly. In theory he kind of is a villain itself, even because of his devilish nature, so it's true, but im not sure whether to make him an independent villain or part of a group of them. But rather than that yes, i do want to make him some sort of villain in the end, because that's also part of Shou's agreement to be part of the group. I will make concept art for him so he'll definetly be involved. Not gonna lie, mabye that bastards also involved w Rui's cult too in a way or another but im givin in too many details holy shit I'll never get outta this fuck

(3rd part- where do they live) No Tw

They live in their own homes honestly, but It would be no surprise if they'd all decide to sleep over someone in specifical, though they have their own place. I made some concepts for Rui's intern home, which here It Is 😤 (forgive me for the bad quality but it's 2 am rn 🤡) I made this a while ago but only did Rui's, so I'll do Lyva's, Shou's n the other one's too. They live in different places, for the exception of, atm, Qiran, since I'm gonna say that they're more of a traveller n don't have a stable home.

(4th part- the mental/physical ilnesses) Tw: Self harm and Mental ilness mention

Well, this Is gonna be a ride. They all suffer from Ptsd, which Rui n Shou suffering from It the most. It still affects them all, though in different occasions, so Imma just do them in specifical. (Also because i gotta add some shit to shou that i didn't wanna add because i thought It was too much honestly)

Rui-

It affects them really much. They use crystals n gems to avoid anything going w their past or anything remotely related It, as whenever they feel awful about havin those flashbacks when they still were a child. They never want to talk about what happened, n during their moments It gets really, really bad. Both emotionally and physically, as their body sometimes cannot handle anything so it completely shuts down. They never really got any help for It as Rui's too scared to share bout their experience, both because of trauma itself that doesn't make them say anything even if they wanted to and because of the cults influence, so either way they've got to handle It by their own.

Lyva-

Other than havin to deal w mornin sickness, which Is the least for her, she has to deal w her neglectful childood and how desperate she's always been for litteraly anythin, whether it's related about love,friendship, food, toys, anything. She tried to seek for help and semi found It, but as of now she can't keep up w It and has better things to take care of. It's still really bad overall, but she's hoping for things to get better. Spoiler It really won't.

Shou-

⭕Tw for sh⭕

It's... really fucking bad. I'm gonna get outta this w saying something i didn't want to add because it's really triggerin, but im gonna do It now. So basically, I've mentioned them acting feminenly for his own mother, but i didn't say what would've happened if he displeased her. She would just stare down at him and whispering some awful shit or names. This would happen especially whenever he'd slip off that mask of his or revealed even a tiny bit of his devilish essence. Note that he's still a child here. So, best thing he could to was to "punish" himself, which basically consists of him scratching his arms too much and, i don't really want to continue this, forgive me but it's kind of triggering even for me. But...you can guess what he's doing, since he even to this day still keeps sharp nails. I'm sorry for putting this, but it's another way to show how his mother fucked him up and now suffering from this.

I'm sorry for rushin the last part but i'm not personally vibing w it.

Tags undercut

@a-chaotic-dumbass @spoopy-fish-writes @dopesaladlady @damnfoxx (I'm really unsure bout taggin ya in this ;-;)

If you want your tag removed, dm me cuz it's 3 am at the moment n i may have messed em up. (I'm not gonna recheck tomorrow so that's why)

#whdkkwkwkdk honestly I've written so fucjing much n for what😭😭 #ruruasks #rurusocs #ruruslore #oc #ocs #my ocs stuff #rui #Lyva #shou #oc lore #i hope this shit doesn't flop cuz I've written so much n im just goinwbdjlwkdjdowodijqowodjdjoaodjdjdj #asks

[morkofday]

pingxie thoughts (and prayers) bonus 1/2

tbh i was very unsure if i should be doing any analysis on these pictures when am not that well aware of what happens here (i’ve never read the novels) but these pics just really deserve it. after this, i will try to return to the regular blabbering posts at some point but i hope you enjoy these in the mean time. part 2 you can find here.  

side note: the photos from the digital magazine (the ones without any watermark) belong to @/thosch3i who has been doing amazing work at keeping us all updated and translating things ♥ 

The Bazaar Photoshoot – Ideal Reality

As ppl probably know by now, the theme of this photoshoot was the Pingxie reunion that happens after the ten years Xiaoge has spent behind the Bronze Gate. I don’t have an impression of the original scene in the novels but ZSX and XYL very lovingly provided us with the most important dialogue in the video clips we got (which I will not be analyzing here bc this would become even longer than it already is), so I have at least some type of overall view through that. 

At first tho, I’m going to divide the photos into two categories which I will be labeling as “the (ideal) reality” and “the (future) dream”. In this first part I will be focusing on “the reality”. 

(more under the cut bc the pics obviously make this kinda long)

This part I called “reality” happens in the pictures with colors, where Pingxie are dressed in their more casual clothes (tho idk, who goes on a mountain in a suit? def neither of them, I bet, but it’s a photoshoot so let’s forget that). In these photos the whole reunion itself happens, concrete and very much real, easy for us to imagine. (One of the first teaser pictures we got was of this moment and it really felt like their reunion even without any context.)

They are facing each other in these photos to properly give off the feeling of them walking towards each other, meeting halfway, and finally colliding after all those years. (This also happens in the video clips so I think it really is their purpose here, to make them physically meet.) 

Wu Xie is grasping Xiaoge’s shoulder like he’s trying to make sure that Xiaoge is real. Like he’s trying to make himself believe that Xiaoge is actually there, right before his eyes, alive and healthy and for him to touch. (And I very much think that he is trying to do just that, trying to make himself believe, bc this moment is so unreal after all those years spent alone. I wonder how many times he saw mirages during the past years only to wake up and realize it was just a dream.)

In these photos where they face each other, it feels like they are looking at each other but then also kinda not? It’s like they’re looking through each other almost, seeing something more before them than just a person. Maybe it’s the future they see, or the past. Maybe it’s those both at the same time. (Maybe this is just me reading too much into them when they’re only being awkward and maybe I should stop. Maybe.) 

Then there’s also that permanent smile on Wu Xie’s face that I adore. It’s like in this reality there’s nothing that could make him happier than seeing Xiaoge again. Wu Xie seems so utterly delighted to be here (which, obviously, understandable. He’s waited a decade). His smile and eyes are so soft here. There is adoration in his look bc he’s been finally reunited with the person that matters the most to him. And Xiaoge meets him with this stoic look, this blank face we very often see but his eyes are locked to Wu Xie too. He’s glad to be there, glad to be back. (And I’ve heard that in the novels Xiaoge returns from the Bronze Gate without any serious trauma etc. but is that really realistic? I don’t think so. So only in this “ideal” reunion, neither of them carries the weight they actually do and can meet like this, happy and easy.)

Also, as a quick note, I need to mention the glasses in the photo below. It’s a cool little detail. It feels almost like a nod towards the fact that Wu Xie wishes he could change himself. That he could still appear the same in front of Xiaoge, be as innocent, be that “tianzhen wu xie” he used to be. Are the glasses his innocence then or him without it? I don’t know. 

Then let’s move to the lying-in-the-snow photos. Those seem to emphasize that, in fact, this truly is an ideal reality, a moment that’s almost idyllic to Pingxie. There is that feeling of basking in the other’s presence, the joy of closeness, the unhurried moment of pure bliss. They haven’t seen each other in ten years, Wu Xie has gone through hell, Xiaoge has been lost in darkness, and they both know the sacrifice they’ve made for the other. They are finally here after all that. They obviously want to enjoy their moment together, and I feel like these photos show how they wish for this moment to last. This moment that is still carefree and just filled with joy. Bc on that mountain, in the middle of the snow, they are not part of the cruel world quite yet. They’re away from reality even if this still is real. This is their little bubble, untouched by the life outside of this snowy scene.

After that, I gotta mention here that these are my personal favorites out of all of the photos we got. Especially the picture above where Wu Xie is smiling. He looks so content and happy in it that my heart just melts (and after knowing what happens in Sand Sea, he really does deserve happiness). 

I find it kind of symbolic in these photos how Wu Xie is the one with his eyes closed, basking in the moment, while Xiaoge is looking into the distance. It’s like Xiaoge is already being pulled away a bit, even in this ideal reality of theirs. He’s always away, not completely there. Even he himself doesn’t know who he is, like XYL said in their interview for the magazine. He would be the one to move first, if they had to.

But then again, in the picture below where Wu Xie has his eyes open, Xiaoge is turned towards him. His focus is solely towards Wu Xie while Wu Xie looks into the camera with eyes that could be almost seen as angry. And all of this feels like some type of new resolve, like things really have changed.

With this, it’s interesting to note that the photo above is, besides being the only one where someone is looking at the camera, also the only one where the snow isn’t falling. This makes it feel like some type of turning point, the crashing of reality. It’s like they have reached what they were looking for and now this is where we will move forward. This is where they have become something new. This is where and how they meet the world again. 

And how does that happen? With the new roles they have taken in each other’s lives. Wu Xie has come to protect Xiaoge, wishing to keep him safe from all those ppl that try to use him when he’s vulnerable. Wu Xie’s look in this feels almost like a warning to those ppl. And then there’s Xiaoge, finally in touch with his humanity despite of being so far away from it for a decade. He’s accepted that he can be someone that feels, who needs ppl beside him. He’s curled on his side here, looking very soft, almost fragile – and that’s what he can be now, with Wu Xie. (And we really gotta thank XYL for giving all of this humanity to Xiaoge bc now he feels real, and I always break when I think about the affection and understanding he has towards his character, it’s truly amazing). This is the photo where things have changed and we return closer to the “true” reality. 

So, in the end, this “ideal reality” consists of the actual reunion scene – which feels like the realest or most realistic part of the photoshoot – and then these other moments that follow, these brief happiness indulged dreams that probably only appear in their minds. (These feel a bit like those extra sappy scenes you get in romance dramas where a short moment suddenly turns into a pastel pink hued musical number, just saying.) This is Pingxie’s romanticized reality. It’s what they wish could happen – and maybe it does in some ways, tho I doubt they really go rolling around in snow like that. But I still wish they both can truly smile and be happy and forget about the world for a bit. The reality is harsh – let them dream a little. 

(more about those dreams in the next part!)

#dmbj #ultimate note #pingxie #the bazaar photoshoot really made me do this #i hope this makes any sense to you #i just have so many feels about this #also i wish i had the novels here #that i could dive into this better #i apologize for my lack of knowledge #also yes i can't keep myself from writing poetry smh #pingxiethoughtsandprayers #bonus part bc why not!!

[notnctu]

CONGRATS ON UR MILESTONE BBY!!! SO PROUD 😭😭 (also hehe can i request quote #4 with Jaehyun? with angst, fluff, and suggestive/smut- lol gimme all of them flavorssss) (also no pressure if it’s not all three haha ik it’ll be great anyways)

THANK YOU BB <3 we’re so happy to have ppl who actually... care and read our shit ? LOL i hope you enjoy reading your request! i tried my best to season it with all the yummy flavors hehe you can read it under the cut

-author doie ❀

jaehyun x reader prompt #4 - “You can do this but you can’t return my calls?” genre - angst, fluff, slightly suggestive (wow flavor packed)

dating jaehyun isn’t the easiest love you’ve ever experienced. the valentine boy enjoys to test your patience, but always knows how to mend his mistakes. in this relationship, it’s about compromise. however, you aren’t entirely sure how he is going to be able to make this one up.

you’ve been ringing his number for the past hour and to no avail. it’s your second year anniversary and you’ve overly expressed how important this one is to you. it’s a toast to another year together, when every living person has been fighting you for your favorite boy.

“jung jaehyun, where the hell are you?” you sigh and toss your phone. the restaurants are practically closing by now and your extravagant outfit has been sitting uncomfortably on your body.

not that you two had planned anything grand, just a simple dinner at your favorite restaurant and possibly indulge in a bottle of champagne. did he forget? he has been ignoring you the past days, and you’re not one to jump to conclusions, but he has been distant.

and nothing in your brain brings up any bad memories that you two didn’t amend. so why is he giving you the cold shoulder, especially on your anniversary night? it’s slightly hard to blink back tears when you stare at yourself in your bathroom mirror.

jaehyun loves you, right? you two trust each other. perhaps, he’s been having a hard week and needed space. one single droplet falls abruptly and hits your sink. but you wipe it away, remembering the foundation of your relationship is compromise. you had to meet him halfway.

so you sniff away any malice thoughts that threaten to break your relationship, and as you rush to grab your car keys. your phone rings and your heart falls into the pit of your stomach when you see the caller id.

“hey---”

“how was your anniversary date?! you gotta tell me all about it! did jaehyun get you flowers, he seems like the big bouquet type---”

“he never showed up.” you cut off your best friend, and the line goes silent on the other side of the receiver. it hurt more speaking it into existence, finally admitting it to yourself that your boyfriend never came for you.

“oh.. i’m sorry..” your best friend pauses, “do you want to come over here instead? fuck men.” she sounds persistent and a small vigor in her voice.

you take another deep breath, unsure now where to head to. you were so ready to barge into his apartment and check if he was even alive. “hold on.” you say as you check his location to make sure he’s home, but when you’re searching for his goofy contact picture, it doesn’t show up on the map. jaehyun turned off his location.

“he turned off his location.” you begin to tear up, but the gasp of your best friend catches you off guard.

“no fucking way. that piece of shit!” she yells and you cover your mouth to suffice the cries.

“i’ll come over.” you barely let out and your best friend wishes you a safe drive, telling you how she is ready to bust out all forms of social media to track if anyone was messing with your man.

but you feel a bit numb, more confused. he’s never turned off his location, is he hiding from you? but there are no secrets between you two. you hurry to your friend’s shared house, with unbelievable and unwanted tears running down your face.

there is no way. you reminded yourself of jaehyun’s loyalty and the trust you had in this man. he could never.

and when you pull up to the drive way, your affirmations are right. he could never.

jaehyun stands with the largest rose bouquet you’ve ever laid eyes on. his hair nicely slick back, in a suit to match your equally dressed up attire. he looks up from your head lights announcing your arrival and he can see the sadness that lingers on your cheeks.

he hurries to open your car door, and you shut the car off. “what the hell, jung jaehyun!” you lightly push at his shoulder when he reaches down for your hand.

he smiles sweetly, dimples deeply in his cheeks. “happy anniversary, y/n. you’re still absolutely breathtaking.”

you take his hand as he guides you to the entrance walkway, the bouquet of roses now in your other. rose petals are scattered on the pavement that lead to the front door and your best friend stands with the biggest grin on her face.

“you traitor!” you jokingly yell at her, but she cheekily hugs you.

“surprise! happy anniversary, y/n!” she guides you into her dining room and the table is full of your favorite dishes, prepped and cooked by two important people in your life.

you marvel at the fancy table cloth and pink balloons that roll around on the floor. it’s over the top cheesy, and definitely something you see in classic romance movies. and you laugh. you smile. you kiss jaehyun with gratitude.

“you can do this, but you can’t return my calls?” you raise an eyebrow at the handsome man, who blinks back at you with a gaze that makes your knees weak.

he chuckles, the baritone sounding lovely, “it’s because i was doing this, that i couldn’t return your calls. i wanted to surprise you with something special on this very important day.”

“you let me wait an hour!” you pout, of course you are more than grateful for your boyfriend setting up everything perfectly. you just wanted to express a few grumbles for more explanation.

“aw i’m sorry, baby. your best friend forgot to set an alarm to wake up from her nap... and i lost track of time when i was blowing the balloons. i swear she was suppose to call you earlier.” his thumb rubs circles on your jawline, as he gently caresses your face.

“i know, i’m the worst. but hey! you’re using my house, so i say we’re a little even.” your best friend laughs, grabbing her keys from the table. “have fun, lovebirds. you know which one the guestroom is.” she smiles before shutting the front door and leaving you two for privacy.

“why are you using her house?” jaehyun’s hand snakes around your waist, drawing you close to his toned torso. he plants a sneaky kiss against your neck, mumbling into your skin the answer to your question.

“jungwoo’s friend is staying over for the weekend. i can’t fuck you properly if we don’t have a bed, right?”

“don’t act like we haven’t done it without one before though.” your laugh is cut short as jaehyun gives your ass a small squeeze, groaning in your ear as filthy memories on his bedroom floor, bathroom, kitchen flood his thoughts.

“i’m a little hungry.. ready to eat?” when you meet his dark eyes, his devilish smirk and the suggestive tone imply something else. he is definitely going to make the lost hour up to you.

#nct scenarios #nct #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun fluff #nct asks #nct requests #jaehyun #jaehyun imagines

[angeltrapz]

m sorry ur havin a rough night, but i come bearing Chainshipping asks 💙💙 I wld love to hear ur thoughts on Adam teaching Diana photography, n how Lawrence feels seein her bond w Adam! + also favorite lil things they do to surprise each other, when they know th other is havin a rough day but not admitting it, or just bc they thought th other wld like it— lil stuff to make each other smile. + bonus, as far as the polycule goes bc we’ve both kinda touched on tht it takes a lil while to warm up to th idea, how do u think tht conversation goes between Adam + Lawrence, n who is th first other member where Lawrence is like “oh hey, I love them too”

thank u,,, I appreciate it sm <33 I always love getting asks frm u!!

Adam + Diana bonding over photography:

ohhh my gosh that would be adorable!!! I feel like it takes a little while for Lawrence to feel comfortable with having Adam and Diana interact - not bc he doesn't trust Adam or think he'd be a bad influence, but just bc he wanted to be sure things were going to work out between them; he didn't want to put Diana through that, have her get attached to someone who might end up not sticking around (again, not bc he thought he and Adam would split! he just wanted to make sure they were established for a while is all). but the moment he does? ohhhh these two melt his heart on the regular.

I kind of have this belief that Adam is good with kids, but not even he knows why? he has a heart fr kids, he can't help it, but he certainly didn't see himself becoming involved w someone who already had children,, that being said he loves Diana, and she loves him just as much!! it's kind of similar to the Daniel situation but leaning more toward the parental side of things; she just thinks he's about the coolest adult she knows and it's very evident. so they get along really well and god does it make Lawrence happy - honestly, it only serves to make him fall harder. Adam lets Diana paint his nails and will paint hers, he builds pillow forts for them to hide in, he'll read to her before bed, things like that; it's honestly not a surprise that she's interested in his photography!

the very first time she asks him about it, it starts with her being like "this is really cool!! how did you get so good at doing that??" and Adam's just sort of like. You Think That's Cool?? and that's kind of when he starts to become aware of how highly Diana thinks of him,, he needs a whole moment later where he just hides his face in Lawrence's chest and breathes through it bc Holy Shit. this is also where it kinda starts to set in for him that like, this is his family. (the next time he has a moment like that is when she calls him dad for the first time, but that's later down the line!)

hdkjsaf anyway. I feel like he wld be really excited to share this with Diana!! knowing that she's genuinely interested in it helps a lot and the fact that she's such a visual/hands-on learner like himself also helps things along!! I really like the idea that he gets her one of those disposable cameras to kind of give her a chance to explore it herself, so like the three of them will be at the park, Adam and Lawrence sat on one of the benches (when Adam isn't chasing her around the playground), while Diana runs around (within their line of sight, of course) and takes pictures of everything she finds interesting + worth capturing and Lawrence just sort of sighs and says "she's having so much fun. I love you." and Adam's just. "I love you too,,, 🥺🥺" it's so overwhelmingly domestic that Adam just needs a second to sit w it,,

Diana's also a quick learner so it's really cool when they compare her pictures to ones she takes later on!! it's definitely something that serves to strengthen their bond and kind of the catalyst for Adam to realize Hey, Diana Loves Me Too (ESP bc I feel like Adam would be super nervous around her at first, due to being Lawrence's new partner/not Alison, so her approval actually does mean a lot to him,, I gotta be honest I think abt chainshipping + Diana family dynamics all the time)!!

for Lawrence it's just like. Diana's approval ALSO means the world to him. he Loves seeing his partner and his daughter getting along so well; Lawrence didn't ever really envision himself being divorced prior to their game (even if he and Alison had discussed it/at least a separation of sorts), so he's kind of unsure about navigating dating after something like that, especially where Diana is concerned, so to have her love Adam just as much as he does is so so important. he definitely tears up over it sometimes, he can't help it. these are his two favourite people.

-

little things they do fr each other:

for surprises I think they're relatively lowkey just bc neither of them really like Big surprises,, most times it consists of smth like "I saw this and thought of you!" or "I thought you'd like this so I picked it up!" and that's more than enough for them. occasionally though they Do like the spoil each other in their own special ways, so sometimes Lawrence will come home from work and the entire apartment is clean, there's music playing from that little stereo they have, and there's Adam in the kitchen with flour and brownie batter on his cheek and his shirt and in his hair bc maybe he's not the best cook, but he can bake (at least. brownies.) and Lawrence will just stand in the threshold of the kitchen fr a little bit after dropping off his coat and briefcase and lining up his shoes in the hallway, just watching Adam with this lovesick grin on his face until Adam finally turns around and sees him (he's not shocked, Lawrence always announces himself) and smiles back and it's so. <333

other times Adam will come home from a shoot to see Lawrence on the couch with Adam's favourite takeout, already in his pajamas and with their comfiest blanket next to him on the couch, and he's got a movie ready (usually The Princess Bride, as I've mentioned b4,,) and is just like "hey, I know you haven't eaten yet so I ordered in. wanna sit w me?" and of course Adam is always like of course I do!!! it's definitely one of those things where he's just smiling the whole time because this is a level of bliss he never saw himself reaching b4 Lawrence. he never imagined having someone to come home to, someone who loves him like this, and it's as simple as Lawrence making sure he eats + just wanting to take the time to relax w him while watching smth they both enjoy to make Adam realize this is love.

as for little things they do fr each other when they're having rough days? for Adam, I like the idea that Lawrence tosses one of his sweaters into the dryer for a little while so that it's warm when he takes it out, and then he brings it to wherever Adam has holed up while he rides out a shitty day and is just like "here, I know you're not having a good day so I brought you this. it's warm :)" and Adam is always just. "thank you" bc verbalizing things is hard on his bad days if he's not completely nonverbal (he does know the sign fr thank you + teaches it to Larry so he knows), but on the inside he's definitely just like 🥺🥺 ohhh my god I love you so much?? the other is that he'll make one of Adam's favourites for dinner because he firmly believes in the concept of comfort food serving to make things a little bit better. then they'll just sort of curl up on the couch or in bed and Adam will hide for a little while (like u've mentioned b4) until he feels good enough to at least lay his head on Lawrence's shoulder and watch him read/fill out crosswords (my fave hc concerning Lawrence is that. he likes them. he gets books of 'em Adam is so endeared by it).

for Lawrence, since he's the kind of person that throws himself into performing tasks (stress cleaning, paperwork, tending to things around the apartment, etc.) to keep his mind off of how upset he's feeling, I think the biggest thing Adam does is after a little while of Lawrence doing his thing, he'll come up behind him wherever he is and just kind of lead him away like "why don't you rest for a minute." and at first he wasn't rlly receptive to it, preferring to just sort of shake Adam off and be like "I'm okay, thank you for asking," even if he was very obviously Not Okay. eventually, though, all Adam has to do is put his hands on his shoulders and knead for a little bit before Lawrence just sighs and melts into it. he tenses up a lot, so his muscles are often really sore as a result, so when Adam does that it's a reminder to kind of sit back before that happens. the other, like you've also mentioned b4, is that Adam just holds Lawrence when he needs it, which is something he hadn't ever really experienced b4 but comes to appreciate very much. this is usually when Lawrence feels safest/the most seen + heard, so it's often where he cries it out, too.

otherwise it's just those little things; Lawrence will make Adam his cup of coffee in the morning, Adam will do Lawrence's tie for him b4 he heads off to work (his one weird ability, he supposes), holding the door open for each other when they're out and about, getting each other smth to drink + little snacks, stuff like that!! (one of my other favourites: sometimes when they go out for dates, Lawrence will pull Adam's chair out for him. Adam used to think smth like that wld be very stupid. when it's Lawrence, he comes to realize what was so endearing about it - not that he'd say that out loud tho)

-

polycule discussion:

I've actually thought abt this b4!! I feel like Adam wld be very very nervous abt it at first, just bc he knows it's something that a lot of ppl still consider to be unconventional + impossible, but he would definitely want to have that talk w Lawrence bc 1. that's his partner, and 2. of course he wants Lawrence to be aware of that/wants to hear what his feelings are. like u said though, he doesn't reject it entirely or anything like that - he just sort of needs time to understand it + see how it works, as it's absolutely smth he would have no prior familiarity with (esp being w Alison in a monogamous marriage).

the important thing here is Lawrence is comfortable asking questions. he might word things a little funny and might make Adam laugh a couple times, not unkindly, but he's genuinely so curious abt it and unafraid to ask (which is better than coming up with some false assumption)!! it's both delicate and not, which I think Adam wld prefer rather than it being too serious or bc of disapproval obviously. he always feels more comfortable in convos where they can still contain serious subject matter, but they can still laugh a little bit.

so it does take Lawrence a while to warm up to it, but not out of a place of ignorance/ridicule; he just needs to familiarize himself w it is all! and that makes Adam feel sooo much better abt it. of course there was never the intention not to tell Lawrence, but to have him accept it and maybe even consider it down the line does wonders to relax Adam.

I've actually thought abt who the first other member Lawrence kinda fell for wld be and I think it wld be Eric! it can definitely be partially attributed to the fact that bc Adam spends a lot of time around him (they ARE dating), Lawrence does too as a result, but there's more to their relationship than just being. boyfriend adjacent. they have things in common that they don't really w anyone else (i.e. being a parent that has been through a trap + had their kid directly endangered by Jigsaw and are helping them cope) and they kind of have very similar feelings (guilt/thinking things were their fault, feeling like they failed their kids, feeling like they're bad ppl like Jigsaw thought, things like that) so they bond through those things - and, of course, over both of them dating Adam.

u've mentioned this b4 + I agree w it so: I feel like Eric might kinda be the first person other than Adam to realize Lawrence's tendency to overwork himself to avoid having to confront his upset feelings. a big thing Eric does for him is he'll bring a little snack w him and maybe something to drink and he'll hand them off and be like "I know you're busy but you gotta remember to eat, I'm just gonna go chill over here," and then he'll just set himself up in a corner in the same room so that Lawrence isn't alone. he doesn't try to get him to stop, doesn't ask him what's wrong though it's clear he'd listen if Lawrence wanted to share, just makes sure he's taking care of himself + reminding him that ppl are there for him. and fr Lawrence that's kinda like. Oh. bc it's that silent type of understanding where they don't even have to announce it out loud. Lawrence doesn't feel the need to explain himself. having that not only w Adam, but Eric too, is definitely smth that sort of leads into that realization of "I think I love him too."

and there are moments where Lawrence will come to spend the night at Adam + Art?(it's up to you)/Eric's apartment when Eric falls asleep facing Lawrence while Adam is pressed up against his back and knowing the issues Eric has w his chronic insomnia + feeling safe enough to drift off to sleep easily, seeing the way being around Adam helps him relax and that being held leads him to sleep quicker than anything else, it just kinda makes Lawrence wanna hold him and not let go. he knows Eric wasn't shown that kind of tenderness often, that physical contact was something he was denied for so long, and it just. makes Lawrence Seethe that someone would ever do that to him, in this protective way that Lawrence can't deny feels a lot like love. it only ever increases when Eric wakes up screaming later and ends up with his face against Lawrence's neck once the tension fades away and he just sags against him, crying. Lawrence allows himself to hold Eric then, and he still feels like he never wants to let go. this man is so compassionate, so protective himself of the ones he loves and wld do anything to keep them safe. he is a big dog of a man that makes ppl feel held + understood and Lawrence loves him a little bit, he can't help it.

I think Lawrence finally fully realizes it when Eric stumbles across him having a panic attack bc he'd forgotten to turn the ringer off and it just so happened to go off at that moment. he's trembling and it's hard for him to breathe but Eric just kind of crouches down in front of him and is like "focus on me for a moment. can you do that?" and he rests his hands on Lawrence's upper arms. when Lawrence nods Eric takes one of his hands and places it on his chest n says "can you breathe with me?" and somehow, Lawrence steadily finds himself relaxing and able to draw more air in until he's not shaking as hard and he doesn't feel like he's sucking in air through a straw, and by then he's so exhausted by it all that he ends up with his forehead against Eric's sternum, and Eric just holds him, no words. and he says, "it's okay that it still upsets you, it's smth you can't help and that is fine. I just want you to know that." like he knew what Lawrence needed to hear, and it's just. oof. that's when Lawrence is just like Oh I See. I Love Him. I Love Him Too.

Adam is beyond delighted abt it when Lawrence actually tells him, and Lawrence can safely say that he's definitely more open to the idea after that!!

#the domesticity of it all... #it's what they deserve #saw #adam #lawrence #eric #asks #thank uuuu I was so excited to answer this!!! #I love yr asks they get me Thinkin #long post #as u can see im Very fond of yr lawrence/eric interpretation!!!

[horansqueen]

Y/n and niall live I the same building but never really spoke to each other. Now that the quarantine has happened, they see each other in the elevator and begin talking. They befriend & niall invites her over one night. and sexy things occur....

2.4k.  SMUT. it sucks. its cheesy. but ppl asked for a smut oneshot so here it is. hope you guys enjoy it anyway :X

⚡  DO NOT DO THIS!!!! STAY AT HOME AND WASH YOUR HANDS!!!

The doors of the elevator opened and I held my breath when he walked in. I had seen him many times around since we lived in the same building but besides the usual ‘Hello’ and head nod, I had never talked to him. He stopped when he saw me, probably not expecting to meet with someone. Now that we were supposed to keep our distance because of the quarantine, he seemed unsure if he could be with someone else on an elevator ride and I just smiled at him and raised my eyebrows.

“I think it’s safe, you can come in.”

He hesitated an other two seconds but finally hopped in just as the door closed and ended up tripping a bit, falling slightly on me. Our eyes met and we both smiled before he stood next to me as we were both facing the door.

“Niall.” he let out, turning his head my way and smiling again slightly.

“Y/N.” I just answered, licking my lips. “I’d shake your hand but it’s inappropriate to do so these days.”

He chuckled and nodded before moving his foot slightly up.

“That’s how they do it nowadays, apparently.”

I laughed and hit the side of his foot with mine, trying to stop my smile from getting even bigger. I had noticed him, I couldn’t lie, and not just because he was my neighbor. There was something about him that attracted me and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was specifically. He was gorgeous, that much was true, but it was also what emanated from him that seemed to draw me to him. I never had the guts to start a conversation though, but this seemed like a good time.

“I’m not sick for now anyway and even if I was, I only go out to walk a bit and I don’t see anyone. My family doesn’t live around and my friends are gone. So I guess we’re safe.”

He nodded and shrugged before turning to look at me again.

“I’m pretty alone, too. This quarantine is good for now, but we’ll start getting lonely soon, no doubt.”

I glanced up, my eyes meeting his as I realized pathetically that I would love to spend my whole quarantine time with him. He put his hands in his pockets and his gaze left mine as he breathed in and the door opened, making my heart drop in my chest. He moved in the frame and held the door so it doesn’t close back before looking up in my eyes.

“Well, it was nice meeting you, Y/N.” he just said as I smiled a bit sadly at him.

“You too, Niall.”

I closed my eyes and sighed right after he left, a bit disappointed, but when the door started closing again, he reappeared and put his arm to stop it.

“Hey, I know it sounds irresponsible right now but, would you want to come in for a drink?”

My eyes roamed on his face and I took a step closer before nodding slowly. His lips curled and he let out a low “Okay, cool!” that made me smile even more. I followed him to his apartment and waited by his side as he unlocked the door. He looked good,  and I was tempted to touch him but instead, we walked inside and he offered me a seat as he reached for his fridge.

“I’ve got beer and wine, what do you prefer?”

“I’ll take the same thing as you.”

I expected him to come back with two beers but instead, he brought two wine glasses and a bottle of red one. I stared at him some more as he opened it and poured some in the glasses before handing me one.

“I didn’t think we’d ever have a drink together.” he laughed slightly before taking a sip. “I mean, not that I didn’t want to, just that I thought you had a boyfriend. But in the elevator, you said you were alone so I assumed…”

“You assumed right, I’m not with anyone at the moment.” I quickly replied, playing nervously with the glass in my hands. “I’m thinking you’re alone too?”

“Not anymore,” he pointed out, the right corner of his lips raising up. “You’re here.”

We drank the whole bottle and when it was empty, along with our glasses, we were laughing at some story he was telling me. I didn’t know when it had happened but I was now so close to him I could feel his thigh press against mine even if there was plenty of space on his couch.

“Can I try something?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at me when we stopped laughing.

“O-Okay.”

He took my glass away and put it on the coffee table before turning back to me. His eyes were sparkling and my gaze dropped to his lips for half a second before looking back in his eyes. They were so fucking blue it made me swallow hard, like I felt hypnotized by him, but it was probably just the alcohol in my body.

Gently, he grabbed my face and without thinking, I brought my own hand over his. My eyes fluttered close when his lips reached mine and without thinking, I let out a low whimper as he deepened the kiss.

“Can I try something else?” he asked in a whisper, his lips brushing against mine as they moved. “Something i’ve been thinking about for a while.”

“Mmhm, yes.”

My voice was low and needy but he didn’t say anything. He just lowered his hand and slipped it between my legs, over my jeans. I held my breath again and my legs parted slightly as I felt my inner thighs start throbbing. Slowly to give me time to push him away, which I would never do, he brought both his hands up and moved my shirt over my head, letting it fall on the floor. His hands grabbed my breasts for a few seconds as his lips ran on my shoulder. He pushed the straps of my bra down and groaned low as his arms wrapped around me to undo it. It fell on top of my shirt and he let his palm brush on my naked skin and rub on my nipples, making them harder with every touch.

“I wanna try something else.” he let out, biting gently my neck as I let my head fall back slightly.

“Do it.”

A bit quicker, he undid my pants and pushed gently on my shoulder to make me lie down. I held myself with my elbows to look at what he was doing and when he pulled on my pants, I felt suddenly slightly dizzy at the thought of what we were about to do. I was surprised when he spread my legs and crawled between them before trailing kisses on my thighs until my pussy. I could feel myself drip in my panties already and started biting my bottom lip until he pressed his mouth against my pussy, them being only separated by the fabric of my panties. I felt his tongue press on my slit and I shut my eyes tight at how good it felt. It seemed like I hadn’t had sex in so long and now that Niall was between my legs, I didn’t want him to ever leave.

It only took a few seconds before he pushed my panties aside and I barely had time to feel the cool air on my wet pussy.

“Jesus Christ.” he whispered before crushing his mouth between my legs.

I felt my whole body tense as his lips ran on me, sucking on my lips and rubbing against my clit. I moved up on my hands letting out a moan at the incredible feeling and finally brought one of my hands in his hair, pulling on it to make sure he wouldn’t move away. He pushed his tongue inside me as he fucked me with it for a while and ended up running it down to my asshole, sliding it in and making my thighs wrap around his head.

“Hold on, petal, let me make you cum.” he said in a low tone, pushing one of my thighs away and holding it. “You’ve got such a pretty little cunt, tastes so fucking good too.. and your ass…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, he just went back to run his tongue and lips between my legs. One of his fingers slipped in my ass and an other in my pussy as he wrapped his mouth around my clit, bringing me closer and closer to an orgasm.

“Oh my fucking god…” I let out in a low tone, my face twisting as I felt myself cum.

He kept finger fucking me hard as I shook over him, grinding on his fingers to feel them deeper inside me. I gripped his hair harder too, holding him against me until I came down from my high and I finally lied down completely on his couch, shivering slightly as an amazing feeling invaded me. I felt his body move over mine and warm me but kept my eyes closed as he kissed me deeply, the vestige of my orgasm transferring on my own tongue.

“Can I try one last thing?”

My eyes slowly opened just as my lips curled again. He rubbed his nose against mine and something stirred in my stomach. I fucking liked that guy, how did I like a guy I barely knew?

“Mmhm, i’m all yours.”

His lips brushed until my neck and I felt his warm breath on my skin as it weirdly made me shiver.

“Oh I’ll make you mine alright.” he whispered, making an other whimper escape my lips.

My hands reached between us to pull his sweatpants down, bringing his boxers down at the same time. I gripped the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head before my eyes traveled on his naked form. He looked fucking good and my lips parted when I saw his hard cock as he held himself with his hands on each side of my head. He bent down slightly and I felt the tip rub against my wet pussy, soaking it and making him groan again.

“Fuck, don’t move.”

I did as he asked even if I desperately wanted to reach for his cock. After a few seconds, I pushed on his shoulder and he frowned but slowly, I sat up and straddled him, sitting on his lap, trying not to think about how bad I was dripping on his thighs. I moved slightly closer until my pussy met his cock and slowly, while staring in his eyes, I started rubbing myself on him. I bit my bottom lip, trying not to moan too loud, and his hands found my waist. His fingers held me tight, sinking in my skin as the whole thing turned me on even more than I already was.

“Ride me.”

I nodded slowly, ready to do anything he’d ask me to, and moved up only to sit back on his cock. It found its way, I didn’t even have to touch it, and as it slipped inside me, I let out an other curse word. I stopped moving when he was completely inside me and he ran his hands all over me, starting on my back, down to my ass and reaching my thighs before ending on my waist again.

“Mm, never thought i’d get the chance to touch you.”

I moved my chin down to kiss him, grabbing his bottom lip between mine and nibbling on it gently and his grip tightened on my waist.

“Mm, I want you to touch me every fucking day.”

Without waiting for his answer, I started moving my hips and he let his head fall back on the couch. His eyes closed and his lips parted but his hands held me just as tight, if not tighter.

“That pretty cunt of yours feel amazing, pet.”

My lips curled slightly at his words and I started moving up and down on his dick, feeling him deeper every time he filled me up.

“Mm, harder.”

He spanked me, making my whole body throb and I did what he asked, feeling him slap my ass even harder. I reached behind to run my hand on his balls and he groaned again, spreading his legs very slightly to give me a better access. My heart jumped when he opened his eyes and brought one of his hands between us, finding my clit quickly and skillfully rubbing it, making me move unsteadily over him as I got closer to an other orgasm.

“Oh god, you’re gonna make me cum again.” I whispered as his lips curled into a smirk.

“Cum all over me, petal. Do it. Soak my thighs.”

My hips jerked against his fingers and I moaned louder as I came, still fucking myself over him while shaking at the same time. I came down from my high as he was squirming beneath me, my hand still playing with his balls, and he took his hand away from my inner thighs to bring it up. It slid between my breasts, leaving a trail of my orgasm on my skin, and ended up on my neck as his fingers wrapped around it. They pressed a bit on my throat and he suddenly moved his hips up, making me bounce more on his cock until he let out of low groan that dazed me a bit.

“Mm, fuck.” he whispered, moving his hips again but slowly until he stopped completely.

He let go of my waist and my throat, his arms slithering around me as he pulled me closer. We remained in silence for a few minutes, our sweaty bodies pressed together as we cuddled and panted low.

“We were supposed to stay two meters away from each other.” I joked as I played with his hair.

“Would you rather sleep in the guest room?”

I smiled more and licked my lips as he moved his head to look up in my eyes.

“You want me to stay?”

He sent me a bigger smile and chuckled a bit before pecking my lips gently.

“I think you have to.” he pointed out with a smirk. “We’re in quarantine, aren’t we?”

#niall horan #niall horan smut #niall horan blurb #niall horan oneshot #niall horan smut blurb #niall horan smut oneshot #my blurbs #blurbs #my fanfics #look idk what to tag this #and i know its cheesy and i know it sucks #but please dont let this flop 😂 #Anonymous

[anonbebe97me]

𝕄𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕚𝕥 𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕜 (Ch.4: Cupcake.)

A/N: This was a fic I’d originally posted on Wattpad last year. Hope you guys enjoy!

Description: Working for Mr.Yoo Kihyun was an absolute nightmare; Y/N hated everything about him, and was convinced he was either part demon or at least some sort of reptilian hybrid- never in a million years would she have expected to learn that he was, indeed only human, and even worse; that he might even be…likeable?

Link To: || 1 || 2 || 3 || 5 || 6 || 7

I sat at my desk, my face buried in my work as I tried to figure Kihyun's (and my) itinerary for our business trip to Korea. He had so many meetings that I needed to be in with him, that I could barely fit in any down time for myself.

My desk phone started to ring and I saw that it was coming from Kihyun. I sighed and bit my lip before I picked up the call.

"Yes, Mr.Yoo?" I asked.

"Y/N, I'm gonna need you to stay late tonight. I need you to figure out the building permits so that we'll have them in time for Tuesday morning when we leave," He said.

I shut my eyes tightly, trying to control my tone, "Are you sure you need me to stay late? I'd be happy to come in early for the rest of the week-"

"I want them done as soon as possible, so I need you to stay tonight and possibly come early as well," Though I couldn't see him, I was almost sure he was only half-paying attention to the conversation, as he was probably going through his schedule.

"Mr.Yoo, I think I'd really just prefer to come early-" I started feeling exasperated.

"And I'd prefer for you to do as I ask," He said, his tone steady but firm.

I looked down, defeated, "Yes, I'm sorry Mr.Yoo... I'll stay," I said.

Without another word, he hung up the phone.

I put my phone on the receiver and propped my elbows onto my desk, letting my face fall forward into my hands. My blood boiled, but the mental exhaustion that I felt was too great to dwell on it for too long.

Believe it or not, it was my dream to work at Yoo Industries, from the time I was in high school. My father worked here in the marketing department when it was owned by Kihyun's grandfather. I wanted to work in marketing myself, but no positions were open. Desperate to just find a job, I accepted the first one I saw; the position of a personal assistant to the CEO. I thought it would be a sure-fire way to secure a career in the company, but it seemed like I was at a complete standstill.

And yet, I still have hope...

When people started packing up to leave, I stared longingly at the elevator, wishing I could be one of them... thought it was quite a peaceful experience to be the only one in the office. Then again, a big con was having to stay late with Kihyun.

I was already feeling tired, though it was only about half an hour later than when I would normally leave. I yawned and stretched out in my seat. "I need coffee...I wonder if they're still open," I said.

I grabbed my mug and took the elevator to the lobby. Sure enough, Shownu stood at the counter, though it looked like he was getting ready to close up. I sprinted as quickly as I could in my heels.

"Oh wait!" I called out, causing Shownu to look up.

He smiled at me as I stood at the counter trying to catch my breath.

"Are you still open?" I asked between breaths.

"Well..." He looked around, a thoughtful look on his face, "Not usually, but I can make an exception," he said with a sweet smile, causing my stomach to turn to knots.

"You sure? I don't want to get you in trouble," I said, concerned.

"Don't worry about it," He gently grabbed the mug from my hand, "Besides, it's the least I can do for our prettiest customer..." He said, his sweet smile turning too a smirk.

I blushed uncontrollably and looked down. Suddenly, I as feeling wide awake.

He filled my cup and then handed it to me, "Thank you," I said with a smile.

I reached into my wallet for the money to pay for the coffee, but he put his hand up and waved me away, "This one's on me..." he said, making direct eye contact with me.

I didn't know how to react- I mean, I wanted to jump across the counter and have him right then and there- but I managed to nod.

"Wow... what a gentleman," I said, trying my best to sound flirty but not too eager.

"Thanks Shownu," I said before turning around and walking into the elevator.

This time, when I turned around, I saw only Shownu, who was still watching me as the doors closed.

My face was still burning when I got up my floor. Kihyun was sitting leaning on the front of my desk, his face glued to his phone. My heart dropped as I waited for him to notice the coffee in my hand and start yelling at me. I walked over to my desk- and him- with my head down and I put my coffee next to me.

"Did you need something, Mr.Yoo?" I asked.

He seemed to not have heard me, so I sat down and waited for whatever he as gonna say. I sipped my coffee, and I could practically feel my eyes dilating when the caffeine kicked in. Now, I was ready to work.

"You ever feel stuck?" His voice cuts through the silence as he looks up at the empty office, catching me off guard.

I was unsure of how to answer him, not only because of how random the question is, but because of how personal it seemed.

"I'm not sure what you mean, sir..." I said, choosing not to answer.

He stood up and fixed his blazer, keeping his back to me.

"Nothing. Where were you?" He asked, finally turning around.

He spotted the coffee cup next to me on the desk and  sighed, "Never mind," he said.

He was usually quite rushed and energetic, but in that moment he looked as exhausted as I felt. He went back to his office without saying anything else. II hadn't realized that I'd been holding my breath, but once he'd closed the door behind him, I was finally able to exhale.

Do you ever feel stuck? His words rang in my head.

"The answer is...yes," I said, more to myself than to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was 8:30pm, and I'd spent the entire evening doing the necessary research for the permits we needed in order to build the offices in South Korea. I hadn't seen Kihyun since the moment he'd had at my desk, and I was wondering how he was doing.

Kihyun walked out of his office without a word, got in the elevator. Surprisingly, he kept his head down the entire time. That was quite unusual for him.

My phone buzzed on my desk next to me, and Karina's name popped up on the screen. I picked it up and opened the message. Of course, in true Karina-fashion, she sent me a gif  of an old lady twerking.

Karina: Karaoke bar again this Friday?

I bit my lip, unsure of her plan. My phnoe buzzed again.

Karina: Come on, Lizzie was so mad we went without her last time. She said she'll buy the first round ;)  

I rolled my eye and replied to her message.

Me: Idk... I've got a bad feeling about it

Karina: Well don't. Your boss ain't gonna go to karaoke two weekends in a row. Normal ppl don't do that.

I chuckled and rolled my eyes, relaxing a bit.

Me: Normal ppl don't do that? Geez. What does that make us? Alright alright, we'll go. But if we see him, we're LEAVING.

Karina: Deal.

I sighed and put my phone back down. Just then, the elevator doors opened and Kihyun walked out holding two brown paper bags, one in each hand. They had the logo from the All-Night cafe, which was a few blocks away. My stomach growled, and I was glad he was still too far away to have heard it.

I looked down and pretended to be doing my work.

"Here," He said, placing one of the bags on my desk.

"Oh, did you need me to check it?" I asked, confused.

He shook his head, "No, it's for you."

"Oh no, Mr.Yoo, I'm not hungry, really-"

"I got it for you. You haven't eaten since lunch. Just eat it," He said, making his way to the entrance of his office.

I didn't know how to react- he'd never done something like this before.

He grabbed the handle to the door, but took a moment to glance at me, "and I heard your stomach growling... you're not a very good liar," He said with an eye roll.

I blushed, embarrassed.

He walked into his office, leaving me with the delicious aroma of whatever was in the bag. I reached into the bag and pulled out small cardboard box and a black container of fettuccine alfredo and broccoli. My mouth watered instantly at the sight of the pasta.

My favorite!

I put the container aside for a moment to see what was inside the little box. I opened it and was surprised to see a little pink cupcake with a small, edible pearl in the center of the frosting. I almost couldn't believe my eyes, and I glanced at his door in confusion.I grabbed my phone and look for Kihyun's contact.

Me: Thank you for the food, Mr.Yoo.

I then took a picture of the cupcake, deciding I had to document this uncharacteristically kind gesture- also, the cupcake was pretty.

My phone buzzed in my hand, and Kihyun's name popped up on the screen.

Kihyun: Don't worry about it.

I sighed and put my phone down. My stomach was growling even louder than before, soo I reached for the container of food and dug in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"He did what!?" Karina and Lizzie exclaimed in unison.

Even through Facetime, they were far too loud for me.

"He bought me dinner...kind of. I mean, we were staying late because we were working on getting the building permits done," I explained.

"That sounds so romantic!" Karina squealed.

I rolled my eyes, "No, no, no. It was business. We weren't even in the same room for most of the time," I said.

"Well, what'd he get you?" Lizzie asked.

"Fettuccine and a cupcake?" I said, unsure of what that had anything to do with.

"Girl! He got you pasta???" Karina asked.

"And a cupcake, don't forget the cupcake," Lizzie added.

I was getting annoyed, "So what?"

"SO, pasta is like, a sexy meal, you know?" Karina said with a serious expression on her face, as was Lizzie's.

"Pasta is a sexy meal," I mocked Karina, "Do you people realize how ridiculous that sounds?"

"What about the cupcake? Was it like, Safeway brand?" Lizzie asked.

I shook my head, "No, it was from the All Night Cafe. You know that super hipster place we went to for Lizzie's birthday two years ago?" I said.

They squealed once more.

"Am I talking to twenty-five year olds, or teenagers?" I asked, irritatedly.

They laughed at my expense.

"Wait..." I said, remembering the picture I took of the cupcake, "I took a picture of the cupcake."

"Send it to me!" Karina exclaimed.

I chuckled, "Fine. But after I send it, let's move on from this subject," I said.

I went to my gallery and grabbed and selected the picture of the cupcake and then sent it.

"Let me know when you get it," I said.

"Kay," Karina said.

A moment or two went by and I picked my phone up again, "Did you get it?" I asked.

Karina and Lizzie shook their heads, "Nope. Maybe you have to hang up- sometimes the messages won't send when you're on Face time," Lizzie said.

I nodded, "Okay, I'll hang up. Let me know when you get it," I said, pressing the End button on the screen.

I went to my messages and pressed on Karina's name, but I didn't see the message.

Hm...that's weird.

Suddenly, Kihyun's name popped up on my phone.

What the..? He never texts me after hours.

I pulled his name down on the screen, revealing the message.

Kihyun: ???

I was confused, so I opened up the entire conversation.

"Crap!" I squealed.

On the thread between Kihyun and I, was the picture of the pink cupcake he'd bought me.

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