#if you made it to the end you sincerely deserve a medal

[wannaeatramyeon]

You hit the nail on the head! I‘ll ask for more professional assessment: honest opinion on Crystal?

Following on from my ramblings about Sally Park. Oops! Edited to add in Zoe too.

Well written female characters in Lookism? Uhh...

When the bar is at an all time low, it's really not hard to step over it.

At this point, I've been pavloved to think that any female character that expresses a personality trait other than 'simp' is pretty good. Simp is fun when it's part of a list of characteristics (Zack, Ryuhei). Not so much when it's the only thing.

Long live PTJ, the greatest feminist. Anyway.

Female characters I like

Mary Kim

Love her. Empress of 2 seconds. Queen of my heart.

Surprisingly kept a platonic relationship with Vin Jin, showing quite a healthy mixed gender friendship. Sassy and smart. Loyal. Good taste in men (Jace). Is shown having a life and interests outside of a man.

On my hands and knees praying that PTJ doesn't ruin her. Kinda glad she hasn't appeared in a while so she is kept away from his incessant need to turn everyone into a love interest.

Lua Im

Once we got over the odd Johan panels, which I heard the Korean audience didn't like and I'm quite happy about, she's fine. And it's not that I care that much about Johan staying a single dog-dad, I just needed a coherent reasoning/build up why they would be interested in one another.

Lua has potential.

Sourcing intel, even impressing the likes of Gun? A little Muay Thai knowledge? Jake and Jerry scared of her? Lol. Ok. Good. Let's build on this.

Just please don't white knight her.

Crystal Choi (meh)

And Ms. Choi, because anon specifically asked. I really don't mind her? I know she's meant to be anti-Lookism but still judges people based on their looks eh. That's fine. Pretty realistic actually. Whatever.

She can be a bit bitchy for no reason. So can I. Handwaving all that.

What I do take issue with though, is her so called title of Business Genius. Please show me the chapter where she actually does something to earn that title besides the one where other people ooh-ed and aah-ed over her in the meeting with DG.

Wow she's sooooo gorgeous. Ok good for her. If that's the route they're taking her character then at least OWN. THAT. SHIT. Use her beauty and looks to sign deals and get what she wants. GOOD. DO IT.

Zoe Park (also meh... Wait)

Sorry anon, I think 'really well written' is a bit of a reach... She does have some decent character development, starting as quite a flighty, shallow girl and then showing that she has a heart of gold, liking both Daniels and. Huh.

Wait. You're right. She is pretty well written. She's selfless and kind and loyal to her friends, putting up with Logan's bullshit. There's enough of a character arc for her from the Zoe we're introduced to at first.

And I do like that she's good at maths too.

Wasted potential

Minseong Kang (Jake's momma)

Appreciate this is the older generation and from a much more conservative culture. Saying that, I am so over the slighted and bitter housewife rotting at home while her big powerful husband cheats on her.

And then some sort of marriage redemption cos they pop out a kid. Whatever. (Sorry Jake bb, I love you).

If you were going to do that, give me the most toxic red flag shit where they are constantly at each other's THROATS. Show me how they are equals. Can't live with or without one another. That's the good kinda shit.

Leonn Lee

I just. What the fuck was this.

A girl in Burn Knuckles? A group that reeks of testerone and (positive) masculinity? Show us why she joined! Show us why she stays. SURPRISE. Main character trait?? Having a crush on Vasco.

She could have been SO interesting. And she obviously trains, why not get her to fight?

Hate for irrational reasons

Joy Hong

Listen, she's not really in enough or significant enough for me to really feel one way or another about her. BUT. The reason I HATE her is because I was trying to write a headcanon involving everyone and then I got to Joy and I was STUMPED.

Sub in a plank of wood, and it would have the same depth of personality.

Truly. Who is she apart from Jay's sister and a Daniel simp? At least everyone else has something.

Others

I don't really think about them. Sera Shin has potential I guess.

And of course a special mention to Daniel's momma. She's not exactly a unique character, but who doesn't love her?

LET. THEM. FIGHT.

Lastly. Why can't we see women fight? Like the men's fights are realistic LOL. Ultra instinct? Smashing through walls? So why are women fighting men outside the realms of this.

And yes yes. Men are SoOoOoOo strong. But can they take a kick to the balls?

Are you saying Gun Park has been training his dick and balls and would be able to eat a hit there? He wouldn't go down like a heap of shit??

HUH. TELL ME THAT.

In Summary

Mary by and large is pretty well written. Lua has improved.

I don't care much about anyone else.

And I wanna see Gun, Goo, Sammy, Vin etc. get kicked in the balls in a fight.

#is this my most disjointed rambling yet? quite possibly #if you made it to the end you sincerely deserve a medal #sorry if i've completely forgotten about any female character development loooool my bad #and sorry every time I refer to the women as females it makes me feel incel-y #lookism #lookism manhwa #lookism webtoon #lua im #mary kim #crystal choi #leonn lee #minseong kang #joy hong #wannaeatramyeon

[ysapawithfeelings]

It's all in the little things because you're everything.

Originally wrote this back in 2018

---

Maybe it's in the funny things, like when I was three or four years old, and you taught me how to blow my nose. Two hours and counting, and I still couldn't do it. Back then, you had a bit of a temper, so you sent me away out of frustration. Five minutes into running away from home, and you were already running after me.

Maybe it's in the lonely things, like when you lost your father too soon. He succumbed to the big C, and for the first time, young as I was, I understood where your profound sadness was coming from. You were a rookie psychiatrist then, but humble enough to admit that even psychiatrists get depressed too. And it was okay. It was okay not to be okay.

Maybe it's in the scary things, like when we were eating BBQ for merienda in your old clinic, and you suddenly had a heart attack. It was the longest eight minutes of my life, seeing you yelp in pain, before you were rushed to the hospital. Little girls like me were not allowed in ICUs, but thankfully, you survived. You came home, and the three of us -- mom, you and I were sleeping in the same bed again.

Maybe it's in witnessing moments of heroism, like when I was nine years old, and this group of hooligans attacked our car because we had a 'Gringo Honasan For Senator' glued to it. This tall, long-haired guy spit on the poster, and you tried to talk to him diplomatically, but to no avail. There were probably 10 guys ganging up on you, but you were fearless and undaunted. They all got pretty beaten up; meanwhile, you went home with just a broken knuckle. I still find it hilarious that that brawl actually made it to the newpaper's headlines the next day.

Maybe it's in the shameful things, like the night before I was going to compete for Math and Spelling quiz bees. We had a fight, and I ended up writing pretty harsh things about you at the back of my Math book, and deliberately left it open for you to see. I was just 11 years old, but I hurt you in a colossal way. Of course, I lost both quiz bees the next day.

Maybe it's in the painful things, like being a teen-ager and doing stupid things that would upset and disappoint you, like causing myself harm and making the wrong decisions and tainting our family name. You forgave me for everything, not just for the heck of it, but you truly, sincerely did. Even when I didn't deserve it.

Maybe it's in the shining moments, like graduating valedictorian, and seeing your hands shake as you put the medal around my neck, or when I returned home from UP, giddily showing you a college scholar certificate on the first semester of my first year in campus. You were the first to believe I could be anything I wanted to be. To this day, you never stopped believing.

Maybe it's in the tangible things that could break like the glass or the car's spoiler or the cellphone. Thank you for always making sure I was alright, before anything else, even when we both know your fuming rage for my carelessness and recklesness is an eruption waiting to happen.

Maybe it's also in the intangible things like broken hearts, restless minds, desperately hopeless scenarios -- and you were always there to hold my hand. Your hand used to be a lot bigger when I was small. But the feeling of security it gives me only grows stronger and bolder with time.

Maybe it's in the redeeming things, like being bullied in high school, and you taking it to court. The bullying also happened at work just a few years back, and again, you were there to show everyone that nobody messes with your children, and gets away with it -- for as long as you're around. You were always the frontliner, even if it was Ryan's or my battle to fight. Thank you.

Maybe it's in the small mistakes that you make, the corny jokes that you crack, the wrong lyrics that you sing, the humor that you bring to the table, even when you had a bad day.

Maybe it's in the little things that not the entire world could see -- how great a father you are, not just to me and Ryan, but also to nephews, nieces, younger brothers, your children's friends, patients, your basketball players, pets, even stray dogs, and the list just goes on and on. You're the light and anchor of our lives.

And maybe the maybes aren't really uncertain. And the little things aren't really little. They're big. They're sure. And they're everything that you are, and everything that you do.

You make Lolo Vic and Lola Nene proud every single day. And they don't have to be alive to tell me. I know.

Happy Father's Day, dad.

#FathersDay

[owlyflufff]

Team Japan wins the Olympics and the awarding ceremony commences. Everyone lowers their heads as they receive their medals, except Koutarou. He gently raises his hand to diminish any chances of the medal being wrapped around his neck and instead, takes it in his hands. He holds unto it throughout the rest of the ceremony and picture taking.

This brings about a faded whispers and lingering questions among the crowd, especially Keiji. The expression on his face between his initial pride and current confusion. Almost immediately once it's done, Koutarou makes a mad dash for Keiji, medal raised and arm waving.

Keiji catches this and runs to meet his husband at the center of the arena. At the center of it all.

"Keiji! You know how, I said that we're gonna win it all?!"

A wave of wistful nostalgia flourishes in Keiji but he nods quitely, a small smile on his lips.

"And you know how...things didn't go the way we wanted?" Its hesitance blended with acknowledgement. Both of them know all too well how that had ended. Another nod.

"Well, I guess it's only right for me to do this." Before Keiji can utter a word, the gold medal is already brought above him and lowered by his husband. It's heavy on Keiji's neck but it's warm and meaningful all the same.

"I wanted you to be the first to wear it. A promise is a promise and I made sure to keep it!" Koutarou continues as he takes a step back, a smile on his face like he's never been fonder.

Keiji gently touches the medal around his neck, the urge to withdraw surfacing his mind. "Kou, I'm grateful for this but you deserve to wear it more than I do. This is your greatest victory afterall. You've worked so hard to get here-"

"But I wouldn't be here without you." Koutarou interjects softly.

Words were futile and any sense of argument was foolish in this moment so Keiji allows himself the silence. Allowing Koutarou to continue.

"Keiji, it's not just my victory. It's ours.I wouldn't be where I am now if I didn't have someone as loving and supportive as you! I know this is the Olympics Keiji but to me..."

Koutarou takes one step forward.

"Being by your side is the greatest victory I will ever have."

Something small and gentle greets Keiji's eyes and trickles down all too soon. It streaks his cheeks and brings a flood of emotions one can't possibly contain.

Another step forward.

"Having you as my partner is my greatest victory."

Another step forward.

"Being able to spend my life with you as your husband is my greatest victory."

One final step forward.

"Keiji, it's you," Slowly, Koutarou intertwines his fingers against Keiji's own. He shares the tears with him as they free flow not long after. Amidst the fatigue weighing on his limbs, he has never been more sincere. Never been more honest with his feelings for the man in front of him

"You are my greatest victory."

#Bokuaka #Bokuto x Akaashi #Bokuaka fluff #I love timeskip Bokuaka lots and lots #They have a special place in my heart #I love Bokuaka sm #Short drabble #Fluff drabble #I love them sm and I only wish for their happiness #Elina's soft scribbles

[skylarmoon71]

Tadashi Oneshot (Big Hiro 6)

"(Y/N) do you wanna come with us to the cafe, Hiro is celebrating our newest rescue." Honey Lemon's offer was tempting, but you denied.

"It's okay, you guys have fun. I got midterms next week. Gonna try and shove as much information into my brain."

"Hah, if you were a genius you wouldn't have to." Hiro taunts. You just grab him into a headlock, and now he's struggling. He's at an obvious disadvantage with the height difference. "I don't need to be a genius to beat you up short stuff."

When he finally gets free he's fixing his hair with a little growl. 

"Just wait until I get taller!" He hollers. You laugh, and he's running off with Fred and Baymax. Wasabi and Gogo are close behind lecturing them about crossing the street recklessly. Honey Lemon is just beaming as she follows. Tadashi is the one who stops to look your way. The moment his brown eyes meet yours you look away, turning your back and heading in the opposite direction.

"Is that really the reason, or are you just trying to avoid me." You tense, stopping in your tracks. You just clench the bag by its straps.

"I don't know what you mean." It's said so coldly, and you just continue walking, not looking back or even hearing him out. When you're at a reasonable distance you can finally breathe better. It's then that you chance a look back, and Tadashi is still standing there with a solemn look on his face. There's obvious guilt, and you don't pay it much mind turning the corner.

You were a part of their friend group. No, you weren't a genius or even a hero like the rest of them. You were just a friend. You thought it was awesome, not many people could say they were friends with Sanfransokyo's superhero squad. You were just an average teen, enjoying college life. Trying to at least.

After the fire at the University, everything changed. The man behind the crime was caught and locked up, and no one was hurt. Tadashi wasn't hurt. Even though that was the case, you were angry at him. When he stormed into the building it exploded, everyone assumed he was gone, but luckily he'd gotten trapped in a backroom that was built to handle high temperatures. You'd never forget that day.

The fire department stormed the building and recovered his body that was thankfully unharmed. All he'd received was a small burn on his right arm. But for you, it left a lot more than a battle scar. Tadashi had been your friend for years, even when you were kids he was always considered the level headed one. He had to be with his parents gone, and you knew he needed to be the example for his younger brother. You were two years younger than Tadashi. It could have been the fact that he was older that you always admired him. But as you started to grow, that admiration turned into a crush, and that crush formed love. You were in love with him, probably long before you even fully understood what the word meant.

So that day when he rushed into a flaming building, you were just a couple feet outside, and the moment the explosion went off, you felt like your heart had been ripped right out of your chest. You couldn't speak, move, breathe..

Discovering that he was not only alive but fairly unharmed, it was easily the best news you got that day. But since that day, you've never been able to look him in the eyes. Whenever you saw him that dreadful feeling returned, it was like you were being suffocated. Rather than confront those negative feelings, you were trying to avoid it, except Tadashi wasn't an idiot.

Three months passed, of course he would notice. You made sure to never be alone with him. As a group, you could manage, and luckily no one else picked up on your distance. For now, you needed time to sort through your feelings. If you could get over how much you felt for him, maybe you could return to being friends.

"I promise I'll always be there (Y/N). We're best friends after all." A childish promise when you were young. It was ridiculous to cling onto something like that.

~~~~

"Food." Your stomach had been grumbling for the last half hour, and you were so in tune to the tv show that you were ignoring it. The buzzing of your phone made your eyes shift. It was a text from Hiro.

"Can you stop by, I wanna show you my newest upgrade to Baymax. " 

You were about to respond but another message popped up.

"Don't forget the gummies." you giggled responding and tucking the device into your pocket. Now you really needed to get food.

It took about fifteen minutes to get there. You stepped out of our car, tucking the pack of gummies under your arm as you tried to balance your own meal. Locking your car, you headed into the building, stopping when you got to Tadashi's door. You opened it. 

"Hey Hiro you better pay me back for the gummies cause I nearly dropped my chicken for your stupid-" your words stop mid way. Tadashi is standing in the room, having turned when he heard your voice. You placed your food and Hiro's on the table, swallowing. 

"S-Sorry I..Hiro said he wanted to show me something so I just dropped by, but I can come back later." you don't want to be in here alone with him, you can't.

"(Y/N)." you're still facing him, and it's hard to not look at him.

"I guess it's harder for you to look at me now. Some of the girls have said this scar is cool, but most people aren't as impressed." Your brows knit at his words. He's trying to play it off as a joke, but there's a sadness that reaches his usually bright chocolate orbs.

"You..you really think it's because of a stupid scar." You're angry now, furious. Was his opinion that low of you that you'd shun him for a wound he got trying to help someone.

"BASTARD!!" Tadashi's is completely thrown by your words, and he can see it now, the sheer anger. "Stupid stupid stupid!!" your screaming, and Tadashi takes a step forward, not prepared at all for your outburst. When he gets closer he can see the tears, and it hurts him to see you so torn.

"Why are you-"

"YOU'RE SO SELFISH WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!!" He reaches out to touch you, maybe try and calm you down but you shove him back. "You could have died and you just left me. Y-You didn't even care about Hiro..What would he have done, you're his only brother. Y-You just ran into the fire like you were some type of bullet proof vest! You didn't care!!! You don't care one bit about anything!! I hate you! I HATE YOU!!!"

Now it was starting to make sense. How could he not realize before. You were scared.

Terrified was more like it.

"(Y/N)..." He should have been more understanding of your feelings. Even Hiro was pissed with him when it all happened. It wasn't like he planned for that. It was somewhat of a reflex, he couldn't help it. "I hate you.." you mumble, dropping to your knees, Tadashi went down with you, pulling you into his arms. This entire misunderstanding was solely your fear of losing him. He should have put it together sooner. 

You'd known each other forever. Making such a decision without considering the residual effect it would have not just on his family but also his friends. At the end everyone was far more happy that he survived, but it could have just as easily turned bad.

"I'm so sorry (Y/N). I should have done things differently." helping people had always been something he wanted to do. It's a bit impossible to help if you're not there though. Risking his life like that, it was reckless. In a way he acted the same he'd constantly told his brother not to. Impulsive. The sincerity in his eyes, you could see it. This was the first time in a while that you'd been able to really look at him. He gave a small smile, and you returned it. 

"S-Sorry I called you a bastard." Tadashi laughed, wiping at your cheeks.

"I think I deserved it. So no harm done."

Now that you were no longer high on the adrenaline of the situation, you felt a bit vulnerable. Tadashi was so close. "You know..I've been thinking about a lot of things since then. These past few months I've come to realize that you aren't just a friend (Y/N). At least..not to me." you held his gaze, unsure of what response was right. His knuckles brushed the last of your tears away, and you pulled in a breath at the way his eyelids lowered. He bit his lower lip, and you could see he was evaluating something.

"Tadash-"

"Shhh..just let me..I just need to.." he didn't finish his statement, just leaned in. His kiss was so sweet, tender. Just like him. He didn't put too much pressure, or hold you down. They way he held you left so much room for you to move away if you really needed to. That's the last thing you were thinking though. You leaned in, hands gripping the front of his cardigan, tugging him forward. He took the initiative, slipping a hand into your hair as he continued to kiss you. The sound of a camera clicking is what made you pull apart. You both separated, and Hiro was standing behind the wall with his phone. He smirked. "Took you guys long enough. I hope you brought a lot of gummies, I should be given a medal honestly. " Tadashi glared, and it dawned on you that he must have set this whole thing up.

"When I get my hands on you!!" Hiro was running out the door laughing, and you could tell Tadashi wanted to go after him, but you took his arm, and he halted.

"I..I love you Tadashi. I always have." It took so many years to finally admit it, but when he smiled, and raised you off the floor, wrapping his hand around your waist, you could have melted on the spot.

"I love you too (Y/N). So much.'' you grinned, pulling him in for another kiss which he returned happily.

#big hero 6 tadashi #big hero 6 #tadashi hamada #tadashi x reader #hiro hamada #honey lemon #gogo #wasabi #fred #fear #loss #pain #fires #heroes #crime #feelings #childhood friends #crushes #brothers #family #fluff

[siriuslywolfish-pg9]

I shared my Dessert! (And my heart)

- by Perrygrace9 (ao3) A Drarry one shot.

Based on a Prompt I received on tumblr: “Ok hear me out. This is based on how I got with my bf. Draco has had a crush on Harry forever(and they're sorta friends but not really) One day Harry walks in on Draco crying in a stairwell of a hotel, harry goes to comfort him and Draco fesses up to how he feels. Ok this is just what happened to me with new names but still it would be dope to see it written out.

________________________________________

Draco buried his face in his knees, his fingers fisting his hair as he bit his lip in a vain attempt to stifle the sobs that wracked through his chest. 

The image of Harry kissing Oliver Wood was still flashing through his mind, burning and stinging his heart, scorching him to the very core. 

He hated it! Hated the way Harry was leaning against the counter in that easy confident way of his, with his strong arms wrapped around Wood's waist as the Quidditch star nipped and licked at Harry's neck while Harry chuckled before leaning down and catching his lips in a heated kiss.  

He hated how easily Oliver Wood had taken the glass of scotch from Harry's grasp—like he owned the man—and had nestled into Harry’s arms before proceeding to make out with him, as if Wood belonged there, as if he was laying claim on Harry by kissing him in front of everyone, right at the bar counter in the middle of a party for all the world to see that he owned the saviour who was coveted by the entire wizarding world. 

It made Draco sick. And so he had chucked down the last of his drink and stormed out of the hall, leaving Pansy surprised and calling after him. But he hadn't turned back, too desperate to hide his tears and leave the hall before they fell and spilled from his eyes, making him the object of ridicule. 

He shouldn't have come to this stupid ministry gala. But he did anyway. Just to look at Harry. To see him dressed up in all his glory and see the shine in his eyes. Harry looked beautiful in his full Auror uniform, his medals and tags adorning his chest and shoulders. His eyes sharp and his smile genuine and kind as ever. It was a rare sight and Draco didn't want to miss it for the world.

Last month Draco had received the invitation for the gala—which he knew was partly Harry's doing since the ministry would never voluntarily invite an Ex Death Eater to a function, even though Draco had been acquitted and had been serving as a healer for the past few years, doing his utter most to make up for the damage he had caused. 

He had been hesitant to go to the gala at first, not ready to face so many scornful eyes and glares. But the other reason why he didn't want to go was because he would have to see Harry taking someone else as his date. Draco had tried, or fantasised really, to ask Harry to be his date, but he knew it wasn't possible. Even if Harry agreed simply out of politeness and the goodness of his heart, because the idiot was too soft hearted to reject someone, Draco still did not have it in him to create problems for Harry by being with him so publically. He knew how draining Harry found the hungry media. And Draco would be  nothing but a stain on his shining golden image.

In the last few months they have become tentative friends and Draco respected and cared too much for Harry to hurt him in anyway, especially not after how kind Harry had been to Draco when the world had shunned him.  

But even worse was watching so many people asking Harry to be his date. Every time Draco had been at the ministry to drop Auror medical reports or samples or anything, he had seen someone asking Harry or hinting to it or making a pass at him. And each time Draco's insides had clenched in a tight knot, afraid that Harry would agree. But for some reason Harry had turned down everyone, saying he had someone special he wanted to take. 

And that had been worse to hear. This whole time at least Draco had told himself that Harry was single. That even if it was impossible, Draco still had a chance. He could almost delude himself into thinking that he had time to get close to Harry, to know him and love him. But now, knowing that Harry probably already had someone special, had nailed down the reality for Draco and his hopes and dreams had come crashing down. 

At last, he had asked Pansy to be his date. Even though he knew he would regret it later, it was impossible for him to miss the chance of seeing just who Harry's someone special was. His desperation and curiosity had gotten the better of him. And now he regretted it tremendously. 

He cursed himself, a choked sob racking through his lungs. He was so stupid. What had he expected to gain by coming here? That somehow a miracle would happen and Harry would confess his love for Draco? He had known Harry would be bringing his "someone special" . Harry himself  had told Draco when he had asked Draco if he was planning to go to the gala. 

Maybe some stupid part in Draco, a naive and hopeful and idiot and stupidly in love part of Draco had hoped it to be untrue. Had hoped that Harry's partner would be someone who didn't deserve him (not that Draco ever considered himself worthy of deserving Harry, but still!). That way at least Draco would have someone to hate, to scorn and detest and direct all his resentment and frustration for not being able to express his feelings for Harry, and eventually get over Harry. Even though Draco knew that would never happen, he could never get over Harry. 

But it had turned out to be Oliver Wood. The famous, charming, successful and dashing Oliver wood. Draco never stood a chance against Oliver. It was pathetic to even dream about it. 

But what could he do? Draco was known for making the worst decisions, for screwing up the simplest of things. And now he had fallen in love with Harry. Stupidly and madly in love with Harry. He had tried so hard not to let himself be carried away by those piercing eyes every time they had looked at Draco with warmth and sympathy and understanding. He had tried so hard not to trip over and fall for that lazy smile, charming and goofy and yet so open and honest. 

After Harry had ensured the safety of his family and kept him and his mother out of Azkaban, Draco had done his best to make the most of this generous second chance, but to also avoid Harry at all cost. But Draco being a healer and Harry being an Auror prone to injury had made their meeting inevitable. And before Draco knew it, Harry was inviting him for dinners and pub nights and friendly outings with friends.

Draco had tried to refuse, partly out of wounded pride at being perceived as a pathetic loner (although now he knew that Harry didn't see him that way) and partly because he knew he wouldn't be welcomed. But Harry's sincere attempts to mend things between them and his earnest eyes had been difficult to rebuff. 

At first it had been awkward, and more than once he had caught Harry glaring at someone or pointedly shutting them up if they tried to say anything mean or degrading to Draco and his friends. Yes, Harry had been kind enough to extend his generosity and his forgiveness to Draco's friends too, so that Draco didn't have to come to these gatherings alone. The noble, pure, giant hearted idiot that Harry was, how could anyone not fall for him?

And look where it had all ended up. With Draco crying on the eve of Christmas in the dark corner at the bottom of the steps of the empty stairwell of a grand hotel, while the rest of the wizarding world celebrated in the grand ballroom. The ceremonies had ended long ago, giving way to the more raunchy after-party with booze and band and blasting music. It was then when Draco had seen the sight which had broken his heart into pieces. 

He had known this was coming, he had always known that this would end in heartbreak when he had first realised his feelings for Harry. But he had no idea that it would hurt this bad. To see someone else in Harry's arms was gut wrenching.  It was like Draco's heart was imploding into itself. But it was happening slowly and torturously, as if every chunk was falling piece by piece, every vein and tending snapping like a thread one after the other, and pain chipping away at his insides until Draco couldn't take it anymore. 

The place where his heart should be felt hollow and painful, and heavy, and it ached! It ached so bad. Worse than the cruciatus, because at least the pain of the curse always ended. But this? This heart break? This loss? No. Draco already knew that this was a wound that would never heal. 

"Draco?" 

His head snapped as he looked up, his eyes wide. Harry was standing there, leaning against the column, one hand in his pocket. His medals glinted in the moonlight. His hair was tousled and the top buttons of his collar were open. He looked breath-taking. 

 

"Harry?" Draco choked out and looked away, sniffling and hastily wiping his tears. "Wha--what are you doing here? I thought you would be at the party." 

"I was looking for you. You suddenly disappeared." 

"Oh." Draco looked at his lap, he hadn't expected that answer. Something warm spread through his chest, like a gentle balm soothing his flaming nerves. Harry had come looking for him. "You—" his voice caught, scratchy from crying. He cleared his throat, "You should be inside." 

“So should you." 

Draco remained quite, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. He was well aware that Harry could see his tear tracks and his rumpled, dishevelled appearance, and was desperate to avoided this conversation before Harry had a chance to make any enquires about his well being. 

“Are you alright?" Harry's voice was soft and so full of concern that Draco wanted to just pull him close and spill his heart out to him and never let him go. 

Instead Draco just glared at the floor, stubbornly pulling at the cuffs of his sleeves. 

Harry sighed and sat on the steps, facing Draco. Leaning his back against the railing, he scrutinised Draco with a grave expression on his face, his arms crossed over his chest. "Draco, look at me." Draco didn't. "Did someone say anything? Was it the media? You can tell me, you know, I will see to it that they--" 

Draco shook his head and the tears that had been clinging to his eyelashes rolled down his cheeks.

"No, no one said anything,” he mumbled in a small voice. Harry's protectiveness and indignation on his behalf was bitter sweet. It made Draco crave him even more, but at the same time the realisation that, no matter how close Draco got to Harry, Harry would always be just out of his reach, tarnished and chilled the warmth that he had felt moments ago. 

More tears fell down his cheeks. "Fuck!" He cursed under his breath, angrily wiping them away.  But they kept falling. "Shit! Don't--" 

"Hey." Harry's voice was soft and oh so tender. Warm hands cupped Draco's cheeks as Harry turned his face to make him meet his eyes. "Draco, look at me, please." 

Draco slowly peered up at Harry from under his eyelashes, his vision a little blurry from tears. Harry's expression was concerned, and there was such tenderness in his eyes that Draco felt his heart breaking, he could almost hear the crack, like the shattering of frozen ice over a lake. He choked on a sob. 

Harry’s expression went from concerned to panicked, and he pulled Draco close, wrapping him in his arms. And Draco knew he had lost it. It was a hopeless battle to begin with. Loud, broken sobs wracked through his body as tears flowed down his cheeks in abandon, soaking Harry's expensive robes. 

But Harry didn't seen to mind. He just held Draco close, drawing soothing circles on his back, shushing and mumbling sweet nothings into his ears. 

If anything, it made everything ten times worse. How could Draco ever be expected to forget this beautiful, caring, selfless man? Especially when he was hugging Draco like this, like he was the most precious thing in the world. In that moment, Draco wanted to stay in Harry's arms forever. He would happily embrace death in that moment if it meant that he would die in Harry's arms and Harry calm, loving voice would be the last memory resonating through the beats of his fading heart as he took his final breath. 

But at the same time having Harry so close and yet so far was torture, and Draco wanted to pull away from him as if burned, unable to endure the agony of his yearning heart anymore. 

"I am sorry, Harry," Draco mumbled between his sobs, his voice muffled and  strained with guilt and shame. "I am so sorry. I tried--I tried to stop it, I really did—but I can't anymore, I am so sorry." 

Harry hugged his tighter. "What are you saying," he said softly in Draco's hair. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Dragon"

Draco’s breath hitched at the use of the pet name, it was something he allowed only Harry to call him. His face still buried in Harry's chest, Draco shook his head. It was now or never. "I—I like you Harry. I like you a lot."

Harry froze. Draco felt it the instant when Harry's entire body went rigid. Draco's stomach dropped. 

Harry pulled away, keeping Draco at arms length, his jaw slack as he looked at Draco with an unreadable expression in his face. 

Draco dropped his eyes to the floor. His heart hammered against his chest, filled with guilt and self loathing. How could he even dare to like Harry, let alone love him. And now Draco had gone ahead and dumped his feelings on Harry. It wasn't fare to him. He was sure Harry would hate him now. Or worse, he would try to make it up to Draco, and would be too careful around him to avoid hurting him by further. 

"I will understand if you want me to—” Draco hiccupped—"I would understand if you don't want to remain friends with me anymore. Not that we were ever friends. I wouldn't be so arrogant as to assume that but—I know I shouldn't—It’s okay if you hate me. I deserve it. I would never say it again, I promise. These are my feelings and you don't have to—" 

Draco's rambling was cut off by a pair of soft lips crashing into his in a chaste but firm kiss. Draco's eyes widened, but then they fell shut on their own accord as Harry snaked an arm around Draco's waist, his hand coming to rest on the small of Draco's back and pulling him close, his other hand cupped Draco's jaw before burying into Draco's hair as the nape of his neck. Draco gasped, Harry deepened the kiss and continued to kiss Draco like a traveller in desert quenching his thirst. 

The kiss was languid and sure and warm and chaste, full of assurance and meaning, like the sweet words of comfort or the safety of Harry's embrace. Harry kissed like he protected, like he cared and like he loved. With his entire being, giving away his everything, without demanding anything in return. Just giving and giving and giving...

And Draco was drowning in it. His toes curled, and the very tips of his fingers tingled with the sweet sensation of the feeling of Harry’s lips on his, Harry's hand on his back, his firm chest and his strong shoulder in Draco's grip where he clutched onto Harry for dear life. 

Slowly, the heated kisses turned gentle and light and lazy, and Harry finally pulled away, his hand still on Draco's cheek, the thumb of his other hand tracing circles on Draco's back, teasing the hem of his shirt where it had ridden up. 

Draco's eyes fluttered open. Harry was staring back at him, his hair and eyes shining like a mossy lake under the moonlight. He looked ethereal. 

“Why?" was all Draco could manage.  

"I like you too." He tentatively wiped Draco's tears, caressing his cheek with the pad of his thumb. "I am sorry I didn't say anything sooner, love." 

"Do you really mean that?"

 Harry nodded. 

"But what about Wood?" Draco asked, his voice just above a whisper , afraid that this was a dream and he would wake up  if he raised his voice. He deliberately stopped himself from fixating too much on the fact that Harry had just called him love. "I just saw you two together..." 

Harry's mouth formed an "O" "You saw that?" 

Draco nodded, his cheeks burning pink, whether from embarrassment or fear, he didn't know, or maybe it had something to do with Harry's closeness or the affection in his eyes when he looked at Draco. He suddenly realised that Harry had been giving him that look for weeks now, only he had failed to notice it in his apprehension. 

Harry ran a hand through his hair, “That was just drinks and we were being stupid....Oliver would be leaving tomorrow for his tour anyway. There is nothing between us. We were just fooling around." 

"But wasn't he your special someone?"

Harry laughed, then shook his head when Draco's eyes widened in horror, thinking that Harry was mocking him and that this was all a sick joke. Harry stopped and smiled fondly at him, tucking a loose strand of hair behind Draco's ear. "No, you prat. Oliver isn't my special some, you are." 

Draco stared at him dumbly. "But I thought—Why didn't you ever say anything?" 

“I tried! I tried to ask you but I kept chickning out and then you said that you were going with Pansy." 

"I said that because I thought you were going  with some one else and I didn't want to—you know..." 

"We are so stupid." 

Draco pouted. "Speak for yourself, Potter. You are the one who chickened out of asking me to the ball. It was all your fault." Draco sniffed. "We could have avoided all the angst, but no, you had to go and make me cry. You enjoy it, don't you?" 

Harry burst out laughing and pulled Draco close again, smothering him in a hug. "Like you gave me any chance. You are as cold and stiff as an iceberg." 

Draco pulled away just a little from where his face was smushed against Harry. "I was obvious, Harry. You were just too oblivious to notice." 

Harry raised an eyebrow. 

Draco held up his hands in a gesture of dramatic defeat. "I shared my desserts with you and sacrificed my beauty sleep from time to time to be with you. That's as obvious as it gets. Even Blaise knew, and he is a slut who only concerns himself with the matters of his dick, and even he saw that I was arse over tit for you!"

Harry opened his mouth and closed it again, looking amused. "You are ridiculous." 

"No, you are just thick!" 

"Hey! That's no way to treat your boyfriend." 

Draco’s stomach flipped and he blushed. "Boyfriend?" 

Harry looked away, "I mean, if you want to." 

"Do you want to?" 

Harry glanced at Draco and nodded. 

Draco's heart skipped a beat and he inched closer to Harry. Boyfriends! 

“Wait. If you and Wood are not an item then why were you snogging his face off? I can understand why he was doing it. But I thought hook-ups weren't your thing?"

Harry flushed crimson, looking sheepish. "I thought you would never reciprocate my feelings. I was trying to get you out of my system." 

Draco's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "By snogging Wood?" 

“Yes?”

“Why would I not want you, Harry? Have you seen me? Have you seen yourself?" Draco gestured at Harry from top to bottom, generally encompassing his whole being. 

Harry just blinked back at him. And Draco realised that Harry, stupid, idiot, modest, wearing-his-heart-on-his-sleeve, dorky Harry, really did think that Draco would reject him. 

Draco couldn't help the fond smile that curled across his lips. Harry's innocence in such matters was endearing. Harry really had no idea how amazing he was. It looked like his dreadful relatives really did a number on him when it came to self-appreciation. Well, Draco would just have to rectify that.  

“So," Harry said haltingly, almost hesitant. “Now that you know everything, may I kiss you?”

Draco blinked, his lips parting in shock. He was still a little dazed and incredulous at the turn of events. The first kiss had been sudden, barely giving Draco any time to think before he had reacted. But this time it would be for real. 

Harry took his silence as a yes and slowly leaned in, giving Draco enough time to pull back. His lips graced Draco's, gentle and tentative at first, then sure and firm and full of promise as he pulled Draco close. 

Wrapping his arms around Harry's neck, Draco kissed him back with fervour, almost climbing onto Harry's lap. 

Draco stopped, panting. "You know, there are a lot of rooms here," he mumbled between their almost touching lips. 

"Yeah? Would you like try one?" And without waiting for an answer he hauled Draco up with ease. Draco squealed and instinctively wrapped his legs around Harry's waist.  

"Someone is impatient," he said, breathless, brushing his nose against Harry's. He felt so elated he could fly. 

"You bet I am." Harry mumbled before attacking Draco's exposed collar. He pinned Draco against the nearest door, his hand fumbling as he swiped his all access Auror card to enter the room, all the while not taking his mouth off Draco. The moment the door was shut behind him, he pushed Draco against it and latched onto his neck. "I have been waiting for this for so long, you have no idea." 

Draco moaned as Harry sucked at a specially sensitive spot. "Really?" 

Harry broke away, "My fantasies were getting so blond It was creepy." 

That startled a laugh out of Draco—who would have guessed?—but it was cut short as Harry grinned and attacked his mouth again. 

Safe to say that Draco had an amazing Christmas.

#drarry #drarry fanfic #draco x harry #drarry fluff #drarry angst #drarry oneshot #ao3 #hp fanfic

[obx-saltlife]

Can’t Quit You

gif credit goes to always awesome @ptersparkers​ This came outta nowhere, tbh. I was thinking about the fake dating trope and it kind of evolved into this. I kind of wish I had enough to make it a longer thing but I think I’m gonna leave it as it is for now. Warnings: Smut, obviously. Fluff, if you squint. But like, really squint. Oral sex (female receiving) and dirty talk, I guess. If you’re not comfortable, don’t read, etc etc etc. Ward is strange and I don’t know how to write him. Word count: 2.5K+ Rafe x Reader smut.

Was this actually real fucking life?

It couldn’t be. Not really.

It couldn’t be that you were here, in a car with Rafe and Wheezie, heading to The Island Club for the annual Midsummer’s party. When Rafe had come to you to ask about it, you thought he was certifiably insane. You guys had broken up almost two months ago, after a screaming match where you both said less than desirable things about one another; things you weren’t so sure you’d ever come back from. It had been extremely awkward seeing as you saw each other around the island often, not to mention Sarah was one of your closest friends.

You had both only very recently started talking to each other again, at least in a civil manner. And really, mostly because you had recently started making appearances at the Cameron house again. Never mind asking each other for favors, that was definitely new in this new dynamic between you. And wasn’t that exactly what this was, just a favor? When Rafe had stopped by your house one night, waiting for you on the porch as you stumbled home from drinking with Sarah, John B. and the rest of their crew. He had looked so sincere; it threw you off balance for a moment.

“Listen, I know I have no right to...or…fuck me, I need you to…” he ran his hands through his hair, making you notice the lack of hair gel in it and how long it had gotten. He continued running a hand over his face and growled deep in his throat before you put your hand on his shoulder and he began to calm down.

“Just ask whatever you want to ask, Rafe,” you said softly, your buzz still flowing through you body as you made polite conversation with him for the first time since your big blow-up. You sat beside him on your porch at 2AM and listened to what he had to say.

“Midsummer’s is coming up and Ward wants all of us to show up as some big happy fucking family because he’s getting an award or something and if I show up alone it’s just another reminder that I’m the family fuck-up and it’s gonna be a fucking wreck…because I haven’t really told anyone that we’ve broken up, except I guess Sarah knows but she hasn’t said anything so I’ve kind of just let it go…and well, Ward and Rose like you, and I told them…Can you come with me? I’ll do whatever you fucking want. Whatever it takes…give you head for hours…I’ll let you use those handcuffs on me…I’ll-“ you laugh and put your hand over his mouth to stop his rambling.

“I’ll come. Of course I’ll come.” You said, taking your hand way. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint Ward,” you added with an eye-roll, really meant to be sarcastic but you know how hard he took Ward’s criticism and even if you had ended things with Rafe he didn’t deserve half of the shit he got from his father.

And now, now you were on your way, in a fancy dress with you hair done and your makeup done as good as it was going to get with the humidity and the summer heat. You felt a little awkward that Wheezie had decided to hop in Rafe’s truck with the both of you. She kept throwing you and Rafe looks from the back seat as if something sketchy was going on.

Walking in to the party, it was just like any other Island Club party you’d ever been to with Rafe. Various Cameron Family friends nursed drinks as they nibbled on expensive hors d’oeuvres being passed around. You’d never actually been to a Midsummer’s party though; you hadn’t been officially together with Rafe for last year’s so you relished in the fact that everyone was dressed up to the nines and enjoyed the fancy party.

Food at these kinds of Island Club parties was legendary. They obviously didn’t scrimp when it came to food choices. You were just about to grab another amazing little puff pastry filled with something you weren’t sure what it was (but you were also not going to ask) when you felt Rafe’s hand on your lower back as he stepped up beside you.

He looked fucking good in his suit, you couldn’t lie. You smiled up at him and reached up to straighten his bowtie. “Having fun?” you asked, feeling the tension radiating off of him. His fingers dug into your skin and he looked around. You definitely knew that look.

“Yeah…no…fuck no-“ he said, looking down at you. “I’m sorry I asked you to do this, it’s so pointless. No matter what I do-“

You didn’t have to look over to know that Ward had walked up to both of you.

“Jesus, Rafe. Can’t you stay away from the bar for fifteen minutes?” You both turned to see Ward’s face pulled in tight. You felt Rafe tense beside you.

“Nice you see you again, Mr. Cameron.” You offered with a small smile, trying to difuse the tension and shaking his hand lightly.

“And what have I told you about calling me Mr. Cameron? Ward is just fine.” He smiles aggressively at you before you stepped back and grabbed Rafe’s hand in yours, giving it a small squeeze.

“Hey Dad, ready to go talk to the Walkers about that deal?” Rafe slid his other hand into his pocket and nodded his head at his father.

“Yeah, glad you and your date could make it out tonight, it’s an important night for the family.” Ward chuckled softly.

“Oh! That reminds me…” You said, shaking your head. You tossed back the champagne flute you were holding before handing the empty glass to Rafe and reaching into your small bag.

“I forgot I was holding on to this,” you added, pulling out a small card and an even smaller velvet drawstring bag. “My grandmother said Knights of the Rhododendron used to pin these to their lapels when she was a member here. Nobody in my family’s going to use it so…just a gift from Rafe and I, I guess.” You said, handing the small bag over to Ward.

Rafe looked at you questioningly but you just shook your head as Ward opened the card and then the small little pouch. Inside, a small, silver, leafy-flower shaped pin. “Thought you might like something, other than that big medal to go with the honor tonight. I should’ve given it to you before walking in but I forgot.”

“Wow, this is great! Rafe, you think you can help me pin it on?” He demanded, handing Rafe the pin and pointing the left side of his chest towards his son. Rafe pinned it on his lapel before stepping back. “Glad you understand how important tonight is, son. This is a great gift.”

“Yeah…yeah, of course.” Rafe swallowed, looking down at you. You looked up at him, flashing him a cute smile and a wink. He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to your lips, grateful that you played along and didn’t act as surprised as he felt he was acting right then and there.

“Well, make sure you keep this one, Rafe. She’s good for you. I like her better than the revolving door of girls you keep trying to bring around.” Ward said before waving at someone in the crowd. You didn’t really know what to make of his statement and if you were confused, you knew Rafe was too. Ward was very strange; you didn’t really know how to act around him half the time. But it was important that you stepped it up tonight, even for Rafe’s sake.

“Excuse me, you two, come by our table later, I’d like to introduce you to some people Rafe.” He added before walking away.

“That was a fucking beast move you pulled there”, he said looking down at you. “You really thought of everything, didn’t you?”

“I figured a little sweet-talking wouldn’t hurt. Plus it was true; nobody in my family was going to use that. I saw it on the mantel and figured to put it to use. I knew he’d eat that shit up.”

“You really saved my ass. Listen...-“

“Rafe!” Topper interrupted whatever he was about to say. “Come check this out, bro!”

“You better go before he does something dumb.”

“Can we talk later?”

“Rafe!”

“Of course, Rafe. Go!” You said with a laugh and pushed him towards his friend with a laugh. He gave an exaggerated sigh and went, leaving you with tingling lips and something resembling desire pooling in the pit of your stomach.

You watched Rafe with his friends. Topper and Kelce pulling him along as he laughed with them. You shook your head, smiling, glad to see him have a semblance of happiness in his life. Why was it that at that very moment, you couldn’t remember for the life of you, why you had ended thing with Rafe?

Why was it, that all you could think about was his lips on yours? If you were going to make it through the rest of the night you really had to stop thinking about that. You shook your head and headed for the bathroom to splash some cold water on your face.

Fixing your lipstick in the mirror, you heard the door open and close and looked over, surprised to find Rafe.

“Did you know you’re in the wrong room?” You asked with a laugh as you put your lipstick back in your purse. Rafe walked over and pushed each bathroom stall door open before going back to the restroom door and locking it before crossing the small distance towards you in three long strides. He grabbed your face in his hands and leaned down; pressing his lips to yours in a passionate mix of want and need.

You breathed a sigh when he pulled away breathless, lips swollen. “Rafe…”

“God, that was fucking sexy, you know…” he asks, his hands running down your sides, stopping at your hips. He lifted you and placed you on the small vanity table you could always find in fancy hotel bathrooms.

“You show up, looking like a whole ass fucking meal. You impress everyone I give remotely two shits about.” He starts murmuring, placing kisses against your throat, his hands coming up to pull some of the fancy pins out of your hair.

“I’ve been half hard all night long and I can’t do this anymore.” He pulls back to look down at you, bunching up your dress at your hips and revealing the lace pair of panties you’re wearing.

“Now,” he starts, sinking down to his knees, lifting your legs and hooking them over his shoulders. “You can say no, if you want.” He said, as he started peppering soft kisses along your thigh. “But I actually think I might die if I don’t get to eat your pretty little pussy right now.” His eyes searched yours for a yes or a definite no. You lick your lips, no use in denying how wet you already are as you nod at him, giving him the full go ahead.

“Thank fucking god”, he groans as he tests a lick over your panty-covered slit. His hands flutter for a moment before he shrugs and rips at the lacy material at your hips, letting it fall to shreds on the table. “Don’t even – I’ll buy you another fucking pair, don’t get mad.” He said before he buries his face between your legs.

Rafe’s large tongue licks straight up your slit, collecting your sweet slick with a groan. A gasp falls from your lips, feeling his lips vibrate with the sound. Your fingers go straight into his hair, holding him in place. How was it even possible that you’d forgotten how good he was with his tongue?

“God, you taste so fucking good, pretty girl.” Rafe moaned, smirking up at you, sucking two of his fingers for a hot minute before pressing them into you. Your hips push towards him as you clench around his fingers, feeling delightfully good but not quite full.

“Do you feel that? Feel how much your tight little cunt wants this?” He asked, his other hand, pulling your lower lips apart so he can see his fingers pushing in and out of you. “How fucking tight you are,” he continued, before leaning down and putting his lips around your clit and giving it a suck.

“Oh fuck!” Your hands go back into his hair, pulling tightly at the roots. He continued his assault on you, the sounds of your wet cunt being fucked by his fingers mixed with the sounds Rafe makes as he messily eats you out is the only thing you can hear over your whimpers and moans.

He pulls his fingers out of you, replacing them with his tongue. His wet fingers wrapped around your thighs as he pulled them even further apart. You wrap your legs tighter around him, your hips moving against his mouth as you hold him to you. You feel him chuckle against you, the vibrations going straight to your clit and deep into your core.

“Shit, Rafe.” You groaned out, trying to disengage from holding onto him so tightly.

“No, no.” He groans and pulls back to look at you. “Smother me in your tight little pussy, pretty girl. I want to die here. Fuck my face,” he added, biting at your inner thigh, definitely leaving a mark.

“I want you to cum down my throat, think you can do that baby?” He waits for your hands to find their way back into his hair, pressing him back where you want him before he continues to suck and nibble at your clit. His fingers curve up to find your unsuspecting g-spot and it sends your toes curling in your fancy heels. You dig the shoes into his back and pull Rafe even closer.

“Fuck, I’m so…I’m so so close,” you pant out in a ragged breath. Your hips move against Rafe’s mouth and his fingers. He presses around one of his fingers inside you and repeatedly hits that spot before his teeth scrape ever so lightly against your clit. It’s like you lose all connection with reality as you cum against his fingers and into his waiting mouth. Your walls clench around his fingers that he has to coax you to relax so he can pull them out of you. Rafe stands and brings his hand to his lips before sucking his fingers clean. He lets you sit back against the wall, your breathing is ragged and you’re panting, your cheeks are his favorite shade of  ‘just fucked’ pink. You look up at him, biting your lip ever so slightly and he beams down at you.

“You did so fucking good, pretty girl.” He said, leaning down and pressing his lips to yours, letting you taste yourself on his lips and tongue. “Now, let’s say goodbye so I can take you home and fuck you all night long.”

#rafe cameron x reader #rafe cameron smut #rafe cameron imagine #outer banks #outer banks netflix #obx netflix #outer banks smut #rafe cameron #outer banks imagine #obx smut #obx salt life masterlist

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Three Minutes to Eternity: My ESC 250 (#140-131)

#140: Lordi -- Hard Rock Hallelujah (Finland 2006)

“You will see the jokers soon'll be the new kings!” I'm semi-convinced that if I heard this song when I was a child, I would've been so scared I would just hide (I also panicked at the cover of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, though that maybe because I didn't want to read such a long book). Watching it for the first time in 2020, I didn't mind it, though the monsters still puts me off. As much as I like to jam to this one, I can’t see myself listening to it over and over again. That said, one can’t take away from the sheer catharsis of this song, from the opening notes to how Lordi gleefully announces their arrival and thunders down Athens with the arockalypse. Whether it’s the first hard rock winner or the last schlager one, Lordi came, saw, and grabbed a first win for Finland after so many attempts, and made rock more popular in Eurovision for a few years. i You can’t resist yourself from headbanging to this one! Personal ranking: 3rd/37 Actual ranking: 1st/24 GF in Athens

#139: Natasha St-Pier -- Je n'ai que mon âme (France 2001)

“Mais je n'ai que mon âme pour te parler de moi, Oh, juste mon âme, mon âme et ma voix,” “But I only have my soul to talk to you about me. Oh, just my soul, my soul and my voice.” By the turn of the millenium, France switched back to contemporary ballads to represent them. While 1999 and 2000's entries didn't do well, their next two would be really strong songs amongst the weakest years ever, and that's why I appreciate France so much in the contest. Initially, I didn’t get it, because it sounded a bit derivative (not unlike what Celine Dion would sing). However, one thing which won me over was with the intro, which provided the base of a really great build. A soft intro leading to a lush instrumental, it shone above the crowd, and it turned from being "derivative" to being "gentle and sincere. Natasha delivers this with equal parts softness and grace, though the English parts did feel a bit out of place in the end. That might have cost it a (deserved) place on the podium, and France would have wait twenty more years for the next medal-placing. Personal ranking: 2nd/23 Actual ranking: 4th/23 in Copenhagen

#138: Lena -- Satellite (Germany 2010)

“I even painted my toenails for you I did it just the other day!"

Whenever you check the comments of any video on this song, you will note a bunch of angry Turkish people who insist MaNga should’ve won 2010. While I really love their song (and will end up later on the list), Satellite was a worthy winner. Along with its commercial success, Satellite is adorable because it is uptempo, sweet, and infectious. Lena acts like she’s having fun on stage and doesn’t even try to pretend. Her accent, which emerged as a result of her English teacher, adds to the charm and her overall innocence. It’s cute, which can turn off some people, but not me--I really embrace it. Also, Arilena Ara made a cover last year for Eurovision Home Concerts, which you should check out! It keeps the poppy vibe, but adds a funky edge to it. Personal ranking: 4th/39 Actual ranking: 1st/25 GF in Oslo

#137: Lazy Bums -- Shir Habatlanim (Israel 1987)

“עושה לי כוס קפה ומדליק לי הסיגריה יוצא אל המרפסת לפצח גרעינים הציפורים יורדות העציצים של המרפסת ומפזמות איתי את שיר הבטלנים” “I make myself a cup of coffee and light a cigarette I go out to the balcony to crack open some seeds The birds come down to the plants of the balcony And sing with me the bums’ song” The Culture Minister threatened to resign when Shir Habatlanim was chosen for the Israeli entry in 1987, but it adds to the charming element to this performance. After a decade in which the Israeli entries pranced around, this was something different, and the two actors really take on the role. The lyrics were a bit silly, but relatable with the bums not seeing the sun because of the buildings and doing random tasks while hanging out with the birds. The Lazy Song before the Lazy Song, I'm starting to think this is the "reality" on playing hooky, whereas "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is the "expectations" part (and they are really high in the movie). The Blues Brothers-inspired performance ("We're coming to ya--"), combined with Kobi Oshrat's orchestration, makes this otherwise troll song into a comedic masterpiece. It's three minutes of fun and endearment, and I can't help but smile. Personal ranking: 4th/22 Actual ranking: 8th/22 in Brussels

#136: Antique -- (I Would) Die for You (Greece 2001)

"Κάθησα και σκέφτηκα Κι είδα ότι μ’ αγαπάς Μόνο εσύ, μόνο εσύ" "I sat down and thought Realised that you love me Only you, only you" Greece's first top-three placing in Eurovision is thanks to Helena Paparizou and guy whose name we do not know Nikos Panagiotidis, both who were based in Sweden at the time. They were well known for combining Greek instruments and dance beat; Opa Opa (written by Giorgios Alkaios, see #207 for his entry) is a really good example of this! (Thanks again, Nikos Terzis for composing this too) From the opening bouzouki, Die for You establishes a sense of cool; the pop production following it adds a sense of modernity that the 2001 class lacked for the most part. And compared to Je n'ai que mon ame (#139), the switch from Greek to English is absolutely natural. It feels like being in an exclusive club, filled with dim lighting and a very spacy ambience of it all--though the orange in Parken works as well. And despite being nineteen, Helena oozes cool in all the ways. From her sleek hair to her jumpsuit to how she moves, she makes the song her own, for what it's worth. I frequently find myself copying her handography, though sometimes my desk lamp blocks my left hand, making it feel a bit clumsy. Though I don't say this often, either Antique or Natasha should've won in 2001. Personal ranking: 1st/23 Actual ranking: 3rd/23 in Copenhagen Final impressions on 2001: DR tried to go big with 35,000, but everyone went to drink, and it felt like one hundred. The songs at hand tried hard to be cool, though in some places, we were better off in school. On their own, the strings in our hearts remain broke, though when the trophy did, our minds awoke. Despite the ambitions, the contest would make people leave the room. Thankfully, it was better than that of 2002! :) (On another note, of all the years Italy didn't participate in the contest, 1999 and 2001 were the most irritating. Here, Elisa's Luce (tramonti a nord-est) won Sanremo, and it's a surrealistically beautiful indie song with cool lyrics (especially it was originally written in English, and had to be changed to Italian for the contest). Had they competed, I could see a top-five finish for them, and I could see this as an all-time favorite for me.)

#135: Katerine Duska -- Better Love (Greece 2019)

“Won’t you lean on me You can lean on me Let them look, don’t know, don’t care Go deep with me...” She's not Amy Winehouse, she's Katerine Duska! I had a love/hate relationship with this song during the 2019 season. On the one hand, it’s a really good song, with a lush production and sultry vocals from Katerine Duska. The lyrics, while simple, deals with the theme of love in an interesting way--no matter who you are, you deserve a love that suits you.

On the other hand, considering my grudge towards the 2018 contest, I was worried that this may do well and restart the Greek golden age. That feeling amplified when the rehearsals started, when Katerine and co. had this faerie queene aesthetic. It looked absolutely beautiful, with flowers and fantasy and whimsy. And most important, swords (the MV had sabres whereas the live performance had epees.)!

Of course it qualified, but it collapsed in the final and placed 21st in the end. Some people attributed to how "messy" the staging was, along with Katerine's vocals. In hindsight, I could see it with the former, but the latter remained firm, and she aced that high note.

But it was a good change for Greece, showing that they can do indie music as well as pop and ethno. And Katerine's non-Eurovision songs are fantastic; especially check out Autumn Again and Athenian Skies! Personal ranking: 4th/41 Actual ranking: 21st/26 GF in Tel Aviv

#134: Netta -- Toy (Israel 2018)

“Wonder Woman don’t you ever forget You’re divine and he’s about to regret...”

This has been a total phenomenon ever since its release. However, it’s also quite polarizing, with some people really bopping to this one whether it's on the radio or Tik-tok, and others getting repulsed by the chicken noises or the strong message it provided.

For me, it's Toy's "in-your-face' nature which makes it really special. From the first listen, there's the element of surprise with Netta's looping (the MV intro on Spotify >>> regular studio intro). It then builds until Netta announces herself as a "beautiful creature" and that she wasn't going to be bullied by others. While the songwriters definitely used the "Me Too" movement as a vehicle for the song, it's Netta's influence, along with the Mizrahi instrumentation in the chorus, which packs a punch. Without those chicken noises, Toy would fall flat.

The staging had to be worked on several times, but the final result captured the song's kookiness in every way. From the fake looper to the backing dancer's choreography, the following three minutes is an explosion of fun (though some of the energy died on stage on first viewing).

In short, Netta deserved to win, and those who suggest otherwise is just mean.

Personal ranking: 5th/43 Actual ranking: 1st/26 GF in Lisbon

#133: Mariza Koch -- Panagia Mou, Panagia Mou (Greece 1976)

“Κι αν δείτε ερείπια γκρεμισμένα, όι-όι μάνα μ', Δεν θα 'ναι απ' άλλες, απ' άλλες εποχές, Από ναπάλμ θα 'ναι καμένα, όι-όι μάνα μ'…"

“And if you see shattered ruins, oh oh my Mother, It's not from other, from other eras It is burnt by napalm, oh oh my Mother...”

In their second appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest, Greece sends this politically-charged song to criticize the invasion of Cyprus two years before. The Greek military junta at the time wanted to unite the island with mainland Greece, which led to a coup. As a result, the Turkish government invaded Cyprus, and declared the non-recognized Republic of Northern Cyprus. This status remains to this day, which has hindered Turkey's admission to the European Union.

(Interestingly enough, Turkey broadcast this contest despite not participating, and censored the Greek song to replace it with a patriotic song. Haha)

Dark context aside, it ties into the folk tradition during that time, but adds a Greek touch to it with the bouzouki. Combined with thoughtful yet tragic lyrics, it stands out as a darker yet deeper tone from the 1976 contest. Mariza also conveys this with her clear, yet harsh vocals pinpoint the horrors of what was going on. Also, the orchestration adds to the grandeur of this with its lush strings.

Personal ranking: 3rd/18 Actual ranking: 11th/18 in Den Haag

#132: Chocolate, Menta, Mastik -- Emor Shalom (Israel 1976)

בוא, בוא, בוא עוד היום”, אני עוד כאן אז בוא אמור שלום, אמור שלום

“Come, come, come today, I'm still here so come say hello Say hello..”

From one heavily politically charged song to a slightly less so, haha! Emor Shalom is s very playful and cute song, the three girls charm their potential lover (or diplomatic) with their voices and dance moves.

The hidden political context comes from "shalom"--is it hello, or is it peace? When the song was performed, Israel had been independent for thirty years, but their geopolitical relationships were not good with their neighbors. So the three girls, who sung for the military, were not only hoping for a lover, but also for peace.

The song itself incorporates some elements disco with trumpets, which got me into it in the first place. I'm not entirely sure about how the latter works--they are fine, but it does feel a bit cartoonish. While the lyrics are a bit simple, they still add to it.

Personal ranking: 2nd/18 Actual ranking: 6th/18 in Den Haag

#131: Sonja Lumme -- Eläköön elämä (Finland 1985)

“Kaupungissa on yö, puistoon kanssasi jäin Sä seisot edessäin täynnä toivoa” “It’s night in the city, I stayed in the park with you You’re standing in front me full of hope” Top ten anime opening themes, part two!

From the intro until the end, I love how Eläköön elämä progresses. It not only has a sound which matches with music trends (along with those mullets, but it's the 1980s so we can move on about this...), but also has a joie-de-vivre in terms of the lyrics. I've heard about it being connected to the Cold War; considering it was before glasnost, I'd imagine one of the themes here was to enjoy every moment before the world ends.

Ossi Runne's orchestration mixes the punchy pop-rock with some really good strings and brass. An awesome instrumentation and hopeful lyrics, when put together, you’ve got one of Finland’s best ever entries.

Personal ranking: 1st/19 Actual ranking: 9th/19 in Gothenburg

Final impressions on 1985: While Sweden first hosted in 1975, the production ten years later shows their capabilities in putting on a good show. From the graphics to the stage to Lilli's hosting, it's a totally fun experience. The songs were a bit weaker than it, though there were enough gems to keep the mood buzzing. Plus, there were several good orchestral moments there (especially #193) which made it all the better!

#esc top 250 #esc 250 #eurovision song contest #esc finland #esc france #esc germany #esc israel #esc greece #vintage eurovision #three minutes to eternity

[maariarogers]

flash review for episode 15 cause ur girl managed to catch it a bit early than the usual, and im still re-watching it tonight to soak all the heartache again, but for now, lets just get into some instant review cause i wanna know where y’all stand

so first of all, HAN SEOJUN IS SO FINE????????

that long coat, dat lean leg in black pants, dat leather boot like....... honey im playing ABBA whenever u walk in from now on mr. han seojun SIRRR

sua is a queen as always, she’s there at her ex’s party like its nothing and we respect that

also moon gayoung and that guy she accidentally mistaken as suho,,,,, yo,,,, is it just me or they look good on-screen together like.....,,,,, where’s the tv show with them as main leads i’m waiting @ korean-drama network

i feel,,, super, SUPER bad for seojun to be honest

i’ve been in the position where i pined over someone for YEARS and it’s really like you’re just left there, hanging, and i know jugyeong doesn’t mean to and she, by all means, do not owe him anything, but the pain i can feel he’s going through... that hits me

like,,, the whole time i was just really like??? “baby, move on, u deserve so much better” but feelings aren’t that easy i know!!!!!!!! there’s a reason he can’t move on!!!!! and i just feel so bad :(((

he’s been put in that delicate position where he’s taking care of jugyeong because she’s his friend, and because he knows jugyeong has gone through so much from suho’s departure, but u can tell it’s hurting him as much as he tries to pretend it isn’t

and the way the drama portrays jugyeong’s feeling vs. how she was in the webtoon is so, so, so good

in the webtoon, there wasn’t really much at stake i could say? suho and her never really went on a date. there was once, and they were almost almost together, and while they confessed at the airport, thats??? just it???

when suho stopped responding to the texts, it must’ve been easier for jugyeong to cast suho aside, even though it must’ve hurt her deeply that he’s become unresponsive

she decides that he mustn’t cared much, or he was just too busy, and she puts him behind. she was angry, but she wasn’t - really hung up on it, if that makes sense?

but in the k-drama, they already have this history with each other. more than being one another’s first love, they’ve both become a prominent figure of strength in each other’s life; suho was jugyeong’s anchor, as much as jugyeong became suho’s. they established it, they made it known, they showed it. (in the webtoon - it was more subtle. you can’t really see it unless you look for it.)

which was why it’s so believable to see how jugyeong couldn’t really - move past what she’s shared with suho, even if she was mad with how they ended their relationship.

in the webtoon, jugyeong considers and sees seojun as a romantic partner fairly quickly. once seojun’s made his feelings known, it wasn’t long that jugyeong realises, oh, i could like this guy, i could fall for him, and they dated, but in the k-drama, she considers him - but she’s still so unsure. she’s still so hesitant.

and that is SUCH!!!!!! good writing??? because i get the vibe that, it wasn’t like jugyeong’s still in love with suho, per se - because he dumped her. he hurt her. and she is furious over it. but she still - think of him in every aspect of her romantic life. and it’s so ..... delicate, this line between “still being in love” and “not being able to get over someone” that the k-drama, i believe, portrays well??

it’s almost like, suho’s haunting jugyeong. she’s accepted he’s gone, he’s not there anymore, but his ghost follows in nearly all her decision, in all her steps - if that makes sense? yeah. idk i just think the portrayal of this ambiguous state is neat, and i give kudos to the director and writers

i’m lowkey pissed at suho because he just seems???? so careless??? with jugyeong’s feelings????? but then like .......... i kind of get too, why he acted the way he acted???

i’m not saying i agree with his actions cause nah bitch needs to STEP UP TO MY GIRL IF HE WANTS A PLACE IN HER LIFE, but the idea that he could just,,,, “continue where he left off” seems logical coming from suho. i assume he doesn’t realise that there’s this chance that jugyeong might’ve moved on, might’ve even been seeing someone new; because he hasn’t.

i like that in the next episode’s preview we see him apologising, presumedly for dealing with their relationship the way he did (and hopefully for how he acted after) and he sounds soft, sincere, when he’s at it. i want the show to pull the rug on suho. he can’t just hurt someone, and not deal with the aftermath of what he’s done. this isn’t how this works.

on another note, Y’ALL KNOW I’M HERE FOR MY TRUE QUEEN LEE SELENA

yo..... selena was a bitch skdkshfekgf but like??? i like it???? the whole lee family’s just a bunch of assholes on different levels, and i feel like it’s so appropriate for some reason, and selena rlly be out there building her career while she leaves suho to care for their dad huh

(im kidding my headcanon is that selena flies back to care for suho too ok but she still gets shit done she’s just that badass)

kang sujin........... i love u madam, take all my money

SHE’S SO PRETTY???!?!?!??!?!?? and with her volunteer vest and her pamphlet and she’s out there in the cold doing what she does and im 😭😭😭

heegyeong and mr. han are cute ig.... heegyeong is so pretty tho??? omg???

the lim family once again takes the medal for being the best family

also can we appreciate that jugyeong’s family knows suho and jugyeong are romantically together cause in the beginning jugyeong’s mother immediately knows ‘BOYFRIEND’ call ID is suho? UGH love that detail

convinced 23843947% that kim chorong has feelings for han seojun WHAT HAVE I BEEN TELLING Y’ALL?????!?!?

overall score: 7/10 because while the angst is Up There, it’s still so??? unpredictable???? i kinda dont want suho and jugyeong to end up immediately together in the last episode, cause i feel like suho needs to really build back that trust that he broke, and i really want seojun to be able to finally move on or have a peace of mind, or like??? idk, a chance??? like, if u wanna follow the webtoon for their storyline, its just much better if u do it right??? but ofc we can’t have that cause everything’s wrapping up but yeah!!! its ok, its just i wish not everything is rushed?

OK IM DONE RAMBLING good luck @ episode 16 y’all, see u on the other side!!!!!!!!!!!

#True Beauty #i screamed when selena came back #SHES MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER!!!!!

[rin-archives]

Enchanted | Mark Lee

Pairing: idol!au mark lee x y/n Genre: fluff, pure fluff. Words: 3,132k (woops 👀)

Enchanted - Taylor Swift

“Y/Nnie~ you’ve got mail.” your British friend approached you with the envelope in her hand. “Mail? Why would I get mail?” you scoffed at the idea of you receiving any mail when you thought you didn’t really deserve all the praise. “It’s from Korea.” you froze thinking that it could be from your family but when your friend said that it wasn’t you felt like you recovered half of your life. “That’s odd. I don’t think I wrote to anyone else. Especially these past months.” you took the envelope from your friend and tucked it in the pocket of your duffel bag telling your mind to keep a note about the letter.

After training for several hours you arrive in your apartment. Kicking your shoes off, not bothering with wearing your house slippers since you just want to have a hot bath right now. You walked straight into the bathroom, dropped your duffel bag on the floor and prepared the bath. You set your sleeping clothes by your bed then went back to the bathroom to turn the water from the tub off. You got in after tying your hair up in a bun and released a long sigh. It was a sigh of relief. You hadn’t felt this exhausted since the first time you competed.

You were about to close your eyes and lull yourself to sleep but you remembered about the mail you got. Turning your head to your bag you reached for the mail lying inside the front pocket. You looked at the return address then you saw that it really wasn’t from home. The address was unfamiliar as well. “Hm..a fan letter? But I never posted anything about where I am.” You thought aloud. Flipping the envelope around to carefully open the sealed flap. You take out the paper inside and unfolded them to see what the content was.

Hi Ms. y/n!

I’m sorry if this is so sudden and random. I realize now — as I’m writing this that maybe you didn’t want to receive any fan letters. I sincerely apologize for that! I swear this is probably the last time you’ll be hearing from me.

My name is Mark Lee and I’m from Seoul, Korea. I’m not sure if you’ve heard about NCT before but I’m part of that group. Anyway, I didn’t write this letter to promote myself or anything like that...I wrote this to let you know I admire you so much.

The first time I saw your match, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. You were oozing with confidence and you were sure you’d get that gold medal. When they announced the scores, I couldn’t help but feel the way you felt. You felt vulnerable - I could tell, but you were able to keep your head high. I really admire you for that.

I know it seems weird that I somehow was able to write you this letter. I wanted to message you privately instead on social media but I heard you weren’t a fan of that. So I went old school. I really hope this reached you. You don’t need to let me know but here’s my kakaotalk ID. I know you’re probably busy but if ever there’s a chance for you to let me know that you got it, I’ll be waiting for your reply. I promise you I’m not a creep or whatever. If you’re still skeptical, here’s a photo of me. Uh...it’s the only one I could find so I’m sorry if it looks awful.

Have a good day, Ms. Y/N! :]

Sincerely,

Mark Lee

You picked up the photo that was wallet sized and you felt your lips curve into a small smile. You admitted he was cute and that his letter was adorable. This guy was a fan, but not only that he’s actually an idol who admires you as an athlete. “I guess it’s okay...” you mumbled to yourself while gazing into the photo at your hand.

After drying yourself, you laid down on your bed scrolling through the messages you received. They were mostly updates on your schedule in the group chat with your team. Then you had a thought. You suddenly remembered Mark’s kakaotalk ID and thought of sending him a message. It was the least you could do after reading that adorable letter. You searched for the time in Seoul right now and learned that it was 6PM. He’s not busy right now I suppose...

itsy/n: Hi :) Is this Mark Lee? From NCT?

Six and a half months, you and Mark became good friends online. You’d tell each other how your days were when they’re over since you don’t live in the same area. Sometimes, he’d give you a call — with your permission of course and if you didn’t have training the following day or if he didn’t have rehearsals or anything scheduled. Both of you made sure that you wouldn’t get in the way of each other’s lives too much since both of you require focus, most especially you.

Few months after, the competition drawing near and it just so happened to be in Seoul. You packed your things two days prior to the flight but you told Mark weeks before. He was excited that you were coming home and he made sure that he’d watch the competition live. He couldn’t hide his excitement to the members that they ended up being excited for him as well. They’ve seen your matches on tv before or whenever Mark would watch reruns and they weren’t oblivious to the friendship you and Mark made. They would also tease him on how much you both talk to each other or how much he mentions you to them. He brushes off that feeling quickly because he didn’t want things to be awkward— well he hope he wouldn’t make it awkward. The members weren’t just teasing him for fun, they had a feeling he had taken interest in you romantically and obviously he’d never admit that. At least not yet.

The day of your arrival came and lots of press came to greet you. The flash from their cameras were blinding you that it was starting to get on your nerves. Thankfully, you were able to get on the car quickly. You arrived in the hotel that the event organizer booked for all the athletes that came. Since dinner was much later, you took this chance to freshen up and rest for a bit in your room. Just then, the sound of your kakaotalk went off notifying you’ve received a message.

Canada: Hey :) You landed yet?

You: Yup, just got in my room too. Your timing is perfect haha

Canada: Cool! Hope your flight was smooth. Have you had dinner?

You: Not yet. Dinner’s going to be a little later. All the athletes are having dinner together at the same time so, I’m gonna freshen up a bit and rest.

Canada: Make sure you eat a lot! :) 

You: Ha, I think I should be telling you that? The last photo you sent me of yourself, you’re not looking so good? Are you sure you’re eating? :P

Canada: I am! I’m gaining muscles too! 

You: Uh-huh, yeah, sure you are

As you were about to put your phone down a sudden call came from Mark. It wasn’t just an ordinary call, it was a video call. You froze for a bit, not knowing what to do but you couldn’t leave him hanging either. After two rings, you answer the call and made sure the camera wasn’t too close to your face.

“Do you see that?” He asks, pointing the camera on his mirror as he flexes his biceps showing you his muscles. 

“Hm, I don’t really see it Mark.” You lied. Of course you did.

“Why are you doing this to me, girl?” He clicked the icon that rotates the camera to his face and pouted. All you could do was scoff and shake your head as you walk around with the phone in your hand. Now that you’ve guys started the video call, neither of you wanted to end the call. 

“My bad, were you about to prepare?” He sets his phone down on his stand as he sat down in front of it. “Sort of? I was just going to wash my face and change to something more comfortable.” You said while going to the bathroom, setting your phone down on the counter. “I guess I could show you how I wash my face.” You chuckled as you removed your team jacket to hang it behind the bathroom door. “Alright, let’s get it.” You laughed when he said that. Hearing your laugh was the highlight of his night after coming back from a really sweaty practice.

Your first video call went well. He made sure washing your face was entertaining that you couldn’t actually do it properly. After that you had to close the camera so you can comfortably change. Once you were done, you opened the camera again and set the phone down to the dresser to put on light make up that was close to looking natural. Mark kept talking to you as he watched the way you put on the foundation and fixed your eyebrows by coloring it lightly. The whole call wasn’t awkward at all and when it was time for your dinner you told him he call you back if he wanted to. 

You couldn’t stop thinking about the call you just had with Mark. Although you weren’t paying attention to him since you were busy with preparing, you’d take glances at your phone and notice how his eyes were big. His face was somewhere in between a little boy and a boy in his teens when he’s already in his early 20s. 

The whole month you arrived in Seoul, you spent the days training and constantly talking to Mark. The day of the competition was about to arrive and you found out that Mark and his group were invited to perform. You were nervous to see how he was on stage because you got to know him as someone who was a goof ball, really loves to laugh and generally he seemed like a happy person to you. You wondered what he was like when he was performing, but you didn’t wonder long since you also had to keep your head in the game.

You were aiming for gold this time and you couldn’t let your team down. You couldn’t let yourself down either. You wanted to win it this time. 

The time has come for the event to open and all the athletes were in their respective areas. The announcers on the side were doing their opening spiels then when they were done they announced that NCT 127 is about to take the stage. You didn’t want to seem too excited to see Mark performing for the first time so you kept your composure. But when you see him walking towards the stage as their music began, you felt your heart rate rise up as if you were the one performing. Their song began, a song you’ve listened to a couple of times but it was very different when seeing it live. 

You saw a very different Mark up there and that really caught your attention. You couldn’t stop staring at him. The way he looks at the cameras passing by towards them was very intense but left a charm for their fans for sure. After the performance, they introduced themselves and all their charisma while performing vanished. Some of them were shy, some were actively smiling towards the fans and the cameras and then where was Mark. It was like he reverted back to the guy you were talking to but a more professional one. When one of their members were talking, you accidentally locked eyes with one another and you panicked inside. You didn’t know whether to give a wave or smile but before you could decide he sent a smile and a light nod towards you. You returned it hoping that none of your team mates saw that.

Finally, the match began. NCT had the privilege to stay and watch but not all of them were able to due to other schedules. Mark stayed behind with another member, they stayed where the audience were seated but they were in front. Just when they sat down it was your turn. You were competing in the archery category since that was forte and that was you’ve been training for ever since you discovered archery. You took your position with your professional bow and waited for the referee to signal you to begin. You take a deep breath slowly, calming your heart and your mind. The referee nodded his head towards you and you inserted the arrow to where it’s supposed to be. When you were ready, you held your equipment high, keeping your eye in the middle marking the bullseye. You pulled the bow string backwards while holding on to the tail of the arrow, you took another deep breath and released.

A year has passed since then and you kept in touch with Mark as he goes in and out of Seoul. You made up with your family before heading back to London to continue your training and at the same time continue your education. You prioritized training over studying before but now since you won the gold medal you’ve been working hard for, you now had to face another challenge. Graduating.

There would be times that you and Mark would meet up in London in secret if his group was there but most of the time you had video calls and regular calls. His group members already had an idea that both of you were more than friends at this point and were just denying it. There were pros and cons of dating each other that you both knew even if neither said anything about dating or confessing your feelings. He constantly travels, you permanently live in London and his bombarded by fans all the time. There was actually no time to see each other to date if ever and it was entirely impossible. 

However, one night, you and Mark were on a video call. He just got back from a schedule while you were working on homework. “What are you working on?” He asked while munching on a bowl of cereal. “Science homework. I want to get this done so on the weekend, I can just train or something.” You replied typing on your keyboard. “Do you seriously just train the whole weekend? Don’t you have friends to hang out with?” 

“I’d rather just train. Training is tiring enough for me, socializing will just flat out make me lowbat.” you chuckled softly. “Ah, then I must be lucky.” 

“Why’s that?”

“’Cause you have enough energy to socialize with me like this.” you can see him grinning even though you weren’t looking at the screen. “Shouldn’t it be the other way around? I mean, I’m practically talking to an idol.” you chuckled. “You didn’t even know me until I mailed that letter. Girl, please.” he rolled his eyes playfully. You both were laughing. “I had my doubts you know.”

“About what? The letter?” you saw him blink his wide doe eyes. “Mhm.” you nodded slightly. “Why?”

“I don’t get mail. Let alone a fan letter.” you chuckled softly at the thought of calling it a fan letter. “No one knows my address here. My family didn’t even know until I came home and made up with them. So, how did you find out?” by now you were looking into the camera. “I- uh..” he kept averting his gaze elsewhere, unable to look at you. “Come on Canada, you can tell me. You’ve got no choice anyway.” 

“I...really wanted to find a way to reach out to you.” he began. “There was something that drew me to you. I just felt like, I needed to reach out somehow. So, I had help from the staff on finding out how to at least send the letter.” you weren’t typing anymore. You just watched how he told you about his efforts on finding a way to reach out. You saw how he was looking for the right words to say, every pause he took before speaking out and the way his hands rubs against his own. He looked nervous and you wanted to hold them. “Thanks to one of our staff, they got a hold of your manager and explained how much I really needed to send the mail. Your manager wouldn’t budge at first, but she eventually did. I guess, she got tired of me or us for constantly trying to get your address.” he rubbed the back of his neck feeling embarrassed.

“Nah, she was actually surprised that I’d get a fan letter. I was the one who didn’t want to receive anything coming from Seoul. Because at that time, I wasn’t in good terms with my parents. I didn’t want to receive anything from them either so I told my manager, my team and my coach even that if anyone sends me anything from Seoul to not accept it.” you explained. “They were just doing what I told them.” you assured. He let out a sigh of relief which you found cute. 

“Thanks for that by the way.” you started to speak. “If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have had...motivation.” you saw that he was doing the same thing you were doing when he was the one talking. “I actually wanted to give up everything before I got that letter. I wasn’t doing well during training that I kept missing the bullseye.” Now you were the one trying to focus your eyes elsewhere. “I had doubts because it was too good to be true that it was from an idol and...also I thought my team mate was lying when she gave it to me. I thought it was from my parents but when I saw the return address that’s when I opened the letter and read what you wrote.” you paused.

“I didn’t think I’d be texting you on kakao, actually. But I’m glad that I did.” you showed a shy smile which Mark returned. Both of you were silent for a while. You let the comfortable silence seep in before reaching out to your keyboard again to type. Both of you knew what that comfortable silence meant. Both of you wanted to say something but thought it wouldn’t be the right time. 

Both of you were enchanted to meet each other and hoped that both of you wouldn’t fall for anyone else until the day one of you confesses.

a/n: that was longer than i expected 👀i hope you enjoyed it as much as i did writing this. there’s a part here that happened in real life but of course not with mark lee lol can you guess what it is? 🤔

copyright 2020 rin-archives, all rights reserved.

#nct mark #mark lee #nct mark lee #nct dream mark #nct dream mark lee #super m mark #super m mark lee #kpop stories #kpop au #kpop drabbles #kpop one shot

[yourehereyourereal]

BLADES BLADES BLADES

(long rambling post about the finale ahead)

I simply have no words. @playchoices this book is FREAKING GOD-TIER and I LOVE IT SO MUCH and I don't say this lightly. I can honestly be singing praises to Blades until the end of my days. I fell in love with it at first sight but it was aging like a fine wine with every chapter and becoming even better. I really hope book 2 will be equally powerful and I believe in the writers and the team, they've got to deliver. I don't even mind for them taking the time, even though I will miss the book so much. It was my greatest quarantine joy and made the first half of my 2020. Here are my messy thoughts about the finale because I have finally found something new to nerd out about and Blades deserves all the love in the world.

First, the fight was epic. The Shadow Court lady was gorgeous, even though we had to end her. Nia the Dreadlord was SO ICONIC. The way she wanted to break through the darkness, how she controlled it, and her self-sacrifice. Speaking of which, I really regret not letting the timer run out, because, from the experience of Bloodbound, I knew there had to be something interesting, but I didn't have much time to think and kinda assumed that if you don't kill Nia she just kills herself or the Dreadlord does it or something. But I saw screenshots of everyone dying and... wow. It especially hit me how Tyril fought until the end, even when he was already stabbed - characters with that much inner passion and determination are my everything, and it was so sad and definitely how he didn't deserve to go. I'm kind of a sucker for dark endings that show "what could have been" and aren't actually canon or can be avoided (like in It Lives series), because they have a lot of depth and this alternate reality makes you really appreciate the times with your LI and friends.

The Nia art was AHHHHHHH. How come this book blessed me with such amazing, epic LIs and I'm supposed to choose between them??? I adore all of them, but I have a special soft spot for Nia and Tyril since their stories are truly god-tier. I romanced Nia from the very first chapter (and then Imtura a bit), but switched to Tyril recently, and I don't regret it one bit because he's amazing and incredible and I love him so much. But during these scenes where MC told Nia to resist darkness I was constantly thinking of how it would hit differently if I romanced Nia until the end, because I'm a MASSIVE SUCKER for tropes when someone's pure love breaks the spells or darkness in the other person. It kinda reminded me of the Bloodbound finale when the LI did it for us. I just have to replay one day and romance Nia, even though it will be sooo hard for me not to flirt with Tyril.

I knew the fandom would explode at the option of flirting with Aerin. I myself am not a huge fan of romancing him but I chose the seduction option anyway because I was curious, and it failed me because I didn't have history with him which cracked me up so much 😂 Then Kade punched him and it was truly something - you go, Kade! I wonder what consequences will it have in book 2, I was almost debating setting him free so we could see him again. He was a good villain. I also laughed at the "sack of potatoes" line.

MC with the Blade of Light was just... I FELT that writing. Like there was fire inside them. Like they were fire. Speaking of which, the writing in the finale was so, so good, I can't remember when it was that good for the last time. It was worth all the hiatuses.

THE SCENE WITH MEDALS GAVE ME SUCH A HUGE STAR WARS A NEW HOPE ENDING VIBE. I was so proud of the squad, they've come so far and reached a better understanding of themselves on a personal level.

I played a 30 diamond scene with Tyril and I'm speechless. I honestly don't know where I can ever find someone like him because he raises my relationship standards so highly. It was wonderful to go on a real date with him and have some relaxed fun as a couple. He said "my MC" and oh my freaking God that was awesome. Their romantic exchanges are always the best. They are cute, poetic, sincere and don't feel forced. There were so many indications of true love between them, and it's like PB wanted to feed us Tyril stans well today because the scene was simply neverending (I was playing it for such a long time, it seemed endless) and they just kept professing their love for each other and that's how you write satisfying, amazing diamond scenes that you don't regret buying and would buy all over again (take note, Witness). I'm a huge Damien Nazario stan and finally I found a LI with diamond scenes that are just as epic and emotionally charged as his. I feel like Tyril and MC's dynamics even remind me of Damien and MC's a little bit (and the two do have some similarities, but I'll probably make another post about it someday)

And the sex!!! I'm not a huge smut fan because I'm ace/demisexual and those things are not very relatable for me (that's also why books like The Nanny Affair are a bit cringe to me, just not my piece of cake), but I LOVE good sex scenes where the two characters have a strong emotional connection and genuine love for each other (totally a demisexual point of view). I was smiling and giggling like a little girl, especially when they were talking about making sounds and doing it in public (again, I somehow thought back to the Eiffel Tower scene with Damien/Dames and it made me laugh). And then he said those beautiful things like "you complete me" and ahhhh... Tyril loves us so much. We love him so much, too. MC just wants to be with him and assures that he grew as a person, even if he always doubts himself. It's true, he had the most amazing character development.

I will have to fully stick to romancing Nia on the next replay, I'm curious what her diamond scene was like. I have a feeling it's just as adorable and wholesome and has a lot of complexity. God, I really felt for a second like she's gonna die, PB gave me a scare as it did feel final and I was like "did they really just...?". I don't know much about other LI scenes but I heard Imtura's was cute (and you could shout "that's my orc girlfriend" which itself is great), and Mal wanted to open the orphanage and wow I'm so proud. On a related note, it's freaking great that they give all LIs similar scenes but don't copy-paste their dialogues like in some books, there are clear differences as they all have a unique distinctive personality. And, I forgot to mention that Threep and Loola are the best bat-kitties! (even though they wouldn't approve of this term)

I was on my second hour of playing that chapter (yeah, it was like, the longest one ever! Maybe it's because I was excitedly sharing screenshots with a friend and freaking out the whole time) when the book finally seemed to be coming to an end. I love how my MC fell asleep in Tyril's arms and then we had this nightmare that foreshadowed book 2. I'm glad they gave us a glimpse of what to expect (imagine if we didn't know it will have a sequel, plus the finale had a bit of a standalone feeling, and then boom! Surprise). I fully hope this book will have a book 2, book 3, and a Christmas special 😂 It's just so, so incredible, and this universe deserves expanding like no other.

I hope PB knows how we all collectively love it, and I also hope they'll learn from the success of Blades and will write more books where the funny banter and serious moments are balanced, the friendship group feels natural and like a family, the plots are breathtaking and the LIs are god-tier. It's obvious how much heart Andrew and the crew put into it, and I'll be patiently waiting for book 2, however long it takes. Hopefully, not too long, but like they said, masterpieces take time to create!

#blades of light and shadow #choices #playchoices #blades #bolas #my posts

[tenglows]

Could I request # 8 and enemies to lovers with fluff with Ten from the prompts? Thank you💛 Tried to send one yday, but i think it got cut after hi hi 😅

[ 8: kiss me again and you’ll see ] i loved this so much i got a little bit carried away and made it kind of long. i'm sorry jsjd

the prompts

you were one of the best bakers in town. one of them, not the actual best. although you believed you deserved to be the only one with that title.

you had never considered yourself a competitive person until you met ten. the town’ sweetheart who for your misfortune, owned the other most claimed bakery.

for a while, you did take the cake for making the best pastries and desserts. you had always loved cooking, and having your store filled with your satisfied neighbors every day was all you could ever ask for. you lived in a small town too, so acclamation flew fast and soon there was not a single villager that wasn’t obsessed with your patisserie.

that lasted until there was a new baker in town. it was never a drastic popularity loss that caused your shop being completely empty and your sales crashing down, but you were totally sharing the praise that was previously merely yours with ten’ stupid sweet eyes.

therefore, it was an understanding that you hadn’t stepped out of your kitchen ever since the town mayor announced the yearly municipal contest. it consisted on the food professionals exhibiting their specialities, people trying everything so at the end of the day, they could vote who was their favorite.

every year in a row you had been given the medal of the bakery position, but for the first time in your life you now had your doubts. could you really win against ten?

hibernating in your kitchen resulted in you going over your recipes, modifying everything a hundred times until you found the perfect design. your friends and family adored you, but you were honestly driving them a little nuts, filling their mouths with cakes every second and asking which they liked better. only for you to not listen to their thoughts and start another recipe from scratch.

it was almost midnight when you were convinced you had finally figured the exact and right amount of ingredients you needed to make the winning cake. you wrote it down so you wouldn’t forget, on the roughed notebook that had the instructions of all the supposedly winning cakes.

after frantically opening the fridge, you almost broke down to tears when you couldn’t find anymore eggs. how could you have ran out of eggs???

you glanced at the clock before storming out of your house, running to the small market down the street. everything was closed now, but you knew old patty kept her store open until midnight.

“hi patty” you sighed and sprant inside, heading to the egg’s shelf.

there was no one in sight until, of course, in front of you, there was ten. holding the last egg carton.

you looked daggers at him. trying to step back so you wouldn’t end up physically harming him.

“ten” you spoke slowly, containing yourself from exploding. “i really need those eggs”

“i need them too, y/n. this is simply a matter of who got here first”

he smiled at you, almost looking nice, and left you there.

when you got back to your place you were a mess. you pulled your hair while you screamed all the words you would like to say to ten. his comment had annoyed you more than you could explain. if it truly was a matter of who got there first, this had always been your town. he was the intruder, the one who got here last. hence, he should have given you the eggs.

you were doodling on your journal when there was a knock on the door. you furrowed your eyebrows, wondering who of the people you knew would show up at one in the morning.

seeing ten with a basket full of eggs was an image you couldn’t wrap your mind around when you opened the door.

“these are better than the ones at the market”

“where are they from?”

“from my chickens. i raise and take care of them myself, i assure you won’t find better eggs than these ones”

you looked at him distrustfully, still not taking the box from his hands.

“why are you being nice to me?”

ten ignored your question and looked around your house, solely what he could observe from your doorstep, since it didn’t seem you would let him in.

he beamed sincerely at you when he noticed all the various cakes spreaded around your furniture.

“don’t be too hard on yourself, y/n” you didn’t know what to say, specially because those were the words you needed to hear at this time of pure self-criticism.

“hey, the cake of yours that is white chocolate mousse with lemon cream inside is mind blowing. totally contest worthy. i think it was called blanc?”

that comment took you aback.

“when on earth have you bought one of my cakes?” you didn’t recall the boy ever coming to your shop, you would probably have kicked him out if he had.

“my mom got it for her birthday” he shrugged and put the basket on your door mat. “goodnight, y/n”

ten walked away after that, and now you were staring at the eggs in your kitchen counter. you had never seen ones so fresh since forever, they were in impeccable condition.

you shook your head and stored them in the fridge. you couldn’t accept help from the competition, that was just plain weak.

you got ready for bed and reminded yourself to get eggs at patty’s first thing in the morning. you also crossed out “blanc!!!! winning cake!!!!! (for real this time)” from the notebook.

it was finally the day from the contest, the town had been beautifully adorned, garlands hanging from the food stands.

you were currently at your stall, serving people the cake with a big smile even though you were a nervous wreck. you had barely left your spot to try the other delicious stuff that was going around.

“i see you settled on that one. it must be delicious. can i try?”

ten spoke softly with a smile on his lips. like he always had.

“just so you know, i had already made up my mind before you came by” you cut a piece and passed it to him.

of course you didn’t trust ten’s recommendation to go for that exact cake. what if he was planning to do the same and then accuse you of plagiarism? you never knew. but after asking around and confirming that he had prepared a chocolate cake, you were safe.

“mm, this is great. seriously. really tasty and the right amount of sweet”

“thank you”

ten arched his eyebrows at that.

“what did you say?”

“thank you” you repeated a little louder, still mumbling, not wanting him to actually hear you.

“wow, the y/n thanking me?? her archenemy???? must be my lucky day”

you couldn't help but giggle. the truth was that ten wasn't a bad person or anything for that matter. he was actually really nice and sweet, maybe that was made you hate him even more.

“did you use my eggs?”

“not really”

“what, why?”

“i wasn't sure if you had poisoned them”

you spoke in such serious and confident tone now it was his turn to burst into laughter.

“you really think i would modify my chickens just so i could give you poisoned eggs”

“better safe than sorry”

“you are something else” you wondered how he never appeared without a smile. it was like his signature. but you kinda didn't mind it today.

“do you want to try mine?”

you nodded and he guided you towards his stand. the cake was delightful, and you became aware that you had never actually tried ten's cooking before.

suddenly, you heard the mayor's voice through a megaphone saying they would announce the winner soon. ten and you went together to the town square, before parting ways to your respective friends. he didn't leave without wishing you luck first.

your mom wrapped her arms around you as the winning names were told. the bakery category was left for last, and your nails were suffering the effect of your nerves.

“and the winner for this years best baker goes to...”

you shut your eyes.

“y/n!!!!”

your family and friends cheered noisier than everyone else, but your eyes glowed when seeing the entire reunited town applauding and complimenting you. all that energy and hard work had reaped its fruits and it made you more than happy. you only wished you could have enjoyed the process a bit more, after all, you loved baking and you loved this town. you shouldn't need much more.

you were thanking someone when you saw ten making his way towards you. he waited aside for you to finish, a radiant smile on his face.

“congrats”

“thanks a lot, ten. your cake was great as well”

the boy moved closer and fixed his eyes on yours. your arms shivered. you had never let him be this close to you, and you could sense he was testing the waters by the way he hesitated sluggishly.

honestly, you weren't even conscious of your surroundings when ten kissed you. this was a scenario you had never given thought to before, but it didn't bother you, not one bit. you liked it, his lips on top of yours. his mouth was so warm from all the smiles he gifted.

he pulled away and looked at you once again. he had expected you to run away, scream at him, hell, maybe even punch him, but you didn't. you just stayed there, beautiful as ever. and he thanked all the gods above for that.

“here, i made you a congratulations cupcake. i always knew you would win” you hadn't noted he had an arm behind his back, which was now handing you a cupcake with flawless buttercream icing.

“how can i know this is not poisoned?”

ten eyed you before taking a bite out the pastry, watching you as he did, humming in satisfaction.

“there's only one way to find out. kiss me again and you’ll see”.

#ten au #ten scenarios #wayv ten #nct ten #nct scenarios #wayv scenarios #ten fluff #ten #fluff #enemies to lovers #ten imagines

[laceymorganwrites]

I envy her

Word Count: 1,579

Pairing: Zoro x reader

Warnings: swearing, mentions of sex, mentions of injury

A/N: SLIGHT WANO SPOILERS!!! Nothing Major, I tried to Keep it spoiler free but I had to Mention one character from Wano

When somebody would´ve told you ten years ago that you would join a scrawny looking rubber kid and a nap loving, socially awkward swordsman on their journey to make the rubber kid pirate king, you would´ve been seriously concerned about the person´s mental stability.

But if the same person would´ve told you you would fall in love head over heels with said swordsman and find love within him as well as happiness?

Well, the hypothetical person would honestly deserve a gold medal for predicting the future so accurately.

You were a pirate yourself before you joined their crew, meeting them after a battle in the new world you just barely escaped.

Never in a million years would you have believed you´d actually survive the new world and end up in the east blue.

Your ship was about to sink when Luffy and Zoro took you in, saving you from drowning.

Luffy wanted to hear everything about your adventures, so you told them all there was to them. They told you about how they first met and Luffy´s dream.

It was nice sailing with them in safe waters, but eventually you had to stop at an island to get some food.

As you walked around town you started to really look at Zoro, he was handsome with his defined muscles, the way he seemed so cool. And yet, he was the most awkward person you ever met.

Whenever you gave him a compliment about his physique he blushed bright red and started stuttering in embarrassment.

This always made you laugh and think about how cute he was.

It wasn´t long before you started glancing over to him once in a while.

More people joined the crew, you two talked more and more, spent more time together.

And it came as it had to: you fell head over heels in love with him.

After all this time you still couldn´t grasp why, it just happened out of the blue and over time there were simply so many reasons you lost count.

Yes of course your first kiss was awkward, he was too embarrassed to hold your hand in public, not to mention the disaster of your first time. But all of that was normal, and it was Zoro.

He was worth everything, he was worth the waiting, the fights, the jealousy, all of it.

Nobody said it would be easy.

Yet, when he didn´t let go of your waist when you were out, your heart fluttered and you felt safe.

It was the way he looked and smiled at you that made you sure this was true love.

And it was the way he got jealous of any male eyeing you that made you know this would last.

You never knew it was possible to love someone as much as you loved Zoro, yet here you were.

You also never thought you´d be with someone this long, you always were afraid of falling out of love, but with Zoro you just kept falling in love, with every day you loved him more.

And then you arrived in Wano.

Nothing, literally nothing went like planned.

You ran into Luffy and met some residents of the country, after some very chaotic happenings the two of you ended up tagging along the most famous courtesan of Wano.

Well, she was tagging along you and your boyfriend, third-wheeling even, you´d say.

Of course you were mad, you had lost your captain and you doubted you´d find him again so soon, then a whole bunch of other avoidable things happened that led to your presence being known throughout the entire country.

But the woman who was known to give the best head in the country apparently only joined when you and Zoro were in trouble.

All you remembered was running, trying to drag Zoro with you.

How did you get into this situation? Why were you running from a bloodthirsty murderer? Well, Zoro managed to slay the wrong people and now the whole country was after him and with you being with him all the time, they were also after you.

Not having his Shusui made it harder for him to fight and he even got injured by the murderer.

As it turned out you weren´t the ones being chased by the man, it was in fact the priciest courtesan of Wano.

It was the first time you saw her and goddamn was she beautiful, you could never compete with that.

She asked Zoro for help and Zoro being Zoro in his weakened state agreed to fight the murderer.

After the rather unsuccessful fight she invited you for food.

She then proceeded to bandage his wounds, at this point you were fuming.

How could this stranger make your boyfriend undress like that? You didn´t like the way she eyed his toned body like that, you didn´t like the way she touched him the least bit.

But the worst thing was that he didn´t mind it at all.

“You´re overreacting, she just treated my wounds” he tried to calm you down, making you out to be the angry, crazy jealous girlfriend.

The more time you spent with her, you felt yourself drifting apart from Zoro more and more.

You felt as if you were the problem suddenly and kept to yourself in the next days.

Maybe Zoro was right and there was nothing to worry about, maybe you were just overreacting.

But then again, whenever Zoro was jealous, it was a different story. He was jealous way more often than you and very protective over you. Jealousy only ensured in something beautiful with him, but now that you were jealous the first time, it was like you were suddenly the fury from the legends.

It was unfair.

You were about to confront him about this, saying it was silly being jealous and apologizing, but when you entered the shed you stayed in you found Komurasaki snuggled up against Zoro the way you´d normally do it.

Perplexed you stood in the doorway, Zoro was still asleep like a baby, it didn´t even bother him.

“Did you like sleeping with me?” she cheekily asked him and glanced up to you with an innocent smile.

That. Fucking. Bitch.

Saying you were angry would be true at first, but then you saw how calm Zoro was when he was sleeping in her presence. You´ve never seen him so peaceful before.

And it broke your heart, it hurt seeing him like this, with her, knowing she was better than you in every way.

She was the most beautiful creature that ever blessed the earth with walking on it, she had an effect on Zoro in just the few days she knew him you couldn´t compete with.

Hell, she was everything Zoro ever wanted. She needed to be protected and Zoro loved protecting people. You could protect yourself.

Maybe it was you all along who pushed him to her, you were his first partner, showing him everything and now that he knew all that, he could find his true love.

And Komurasaki seemed to be just that.

The more you thought about it the more it all made sense.

When was the last time he said he loved you? You knew he was sick of you, especially now.

You decided you couldn´t stay with them and sought out Komurasaki.

“What´s the fastest way to the flower capital from here?” you asked her.

“Did something happen? Is it not safe here anymore?” she grabbed your arms and looked deeply in your eyes, she was scared, you could sense it.

Sighing you pushed her away softly. “You´re perfectly fine here, besides, shouldn´t you be happy    I´m finally gone? Nothing´s in your way anymore… I´m sorry for being so rude to you before, I should´ve let you have him all along.” you apologized sincerely, but your heart weighed heavy in your chest and your lungs squeezed together.

“But...you´re not in my way, what are you talking about?” she tilted her head.

You didn´t know why now but the lump in your throat wasn´t going away, it only grew the more you thought about how your unreasonable jealousy just screwed up your relationship.

“I´m sorry…” were the last words you were able to squeeze out before the first tears started falling.

Komurasaki was sightly overwhelmed with the situation and rushed out of the room to get Zoro.

You weren´t able to hold her back unfortunately, you didn´t want Zoro to see you cry, he never had, you didn´t want him to see you weak like that.

When Zoro heard crying he immediately ran to the room you were in, when he didn´t see any danger he came closer to you in confusion.

Something must´ve happened to make you cry like that, you never cried, not even with a knife buried inside your belly.

“Oi, what happened? Did you hurt her? Don´t upset my partner” he growled at Komurasaki.

She held her hands up defensively and explained the situation.

Zoro´s expression clearly softened after he listened to her.

“I told you there´s no need to be worried, babe. You´re the only one for me” he embraced you in a warm hug, holding you tight and nuzzling his face in your neck, cradling your back and taking in your scent.

He wasn´t good at words or romance or comforting people but he hated seeing you cry and there was one thing he knew: he would never let you go.

#one piece #one piece imagine #one piece one shot #one piece zoro #anime #anime imagine #anime one shot #one shot #imagine #reader insert #zoro x reader #roronoa zoro #zoro

[spaceskam]

blood and water

Day 12 of my 12 (actually 13) days of gifts goes to the lovely @brightloveee! I sincerely hope you enjoy this even though I’m posting this at 1 in the morning. Which. Is one hour earlier than I told you I was going to post, so look at me being productive

warning: mentions of child abandonment

ao3

“I just don’t understand why you didn’t take my brother with you.”

Alex clenched his jaw as he, not for the first time, second-guessed the decision to ask Isobel to come with him. He’d woken up two mornings prior to a phone call from an unknown number and, when he answered, he’d been shocked into silence at the sound of his mother’s voice. He hadn’t heard it in years. Decades. Michael had asked him if he was okay and it was the only thing that shook him out of it enough to respond.

She had told him that she missed him and would like to see him if he was up for it. She provided her address that was painfully close by in one of the reservations and asked him to come for dinner in two days. Alex had been unsure if he was willing to put himself out there like that, but she told him there was no pressure and she would understand. She just wanted to get to know who her boy had turned out to be. 

With a little persuasion, Alex had agreed.

“Because your brother wouldn’t have kept me calm if things go wrong,” Alex admitted, “He probably would’ve fueled it while you’re really good at smoothing things over.”

“I can see him being like ‘that’s right, baby, fuck her up!’” Isobel said, mocking Michael’s voice in a way that made Alex roll his eyes, “But I see your point. Glad I can help.”

“Well, I’m paying you in food, so,” Alex said. Isobel gave a shiny grin.

Things fell silent for a little while as they continued their drive to his mother’s house. The longer they were silent, the more Alex’s mind was wandering. He tried to focus on Michael’s encouraging words that it was only one dinner and would be closure for him. Two decades had passed with him never knowing why his mother left him completely. He had theories, but none of them seemed to explain why she had waited twenty years to reach out to him.

“So, Kyle and I went on a date last night,” Isobel started randomly, turning to face him in the car. Alex had to blink a few times before her voice registered in his head. “Wanna hear about it?” 

Alex glanced over at her and got the feeling that she saw his mind racing. He smiled.

“Sure.”

Alex listened to her talk about it in specific detail as he drove, nodding his head along to her repeating basically word for word their debate on what to eat. He allowed himself to get too invested because it was easier to get invested in their dumb date. It wasn’t even a first date. It was simply a date. And Alex was so thankful for the story.

However, it eventually came to an end as they pulled up to his mother’s house. It wasn’t big and it wasn’t super impressive. It was small and the yard wasn’t very kept up with. The paint on the shutters was faded and the gutters were stuffed with debris. But the door looked normal and the mat in front had welcome written in 20 different languages. Despite that, Alex looked to Isobel for the strength to get out of his car.

“The sooner we get in, the sooner we get out,” Isobel said and Alex nodded.

He could do this.

 Walking to the door seemed to take forever. It was painstaking and he kept looking at Isobel to make sure he should keep going. Part of him wanted to bail and to just go back home to his boyfriend and his dog where things were going great. This just felt like something to disrupt it.

“We can leave if you want to,” Isobel said, “But I don’t think you want that.”

And she was right which was annoying.

Alex knocked on the door and then waited. He waited. When it finally opened, he felt like he’d been punched in the face and, thankfully, Isobel was standing close enough to grab his arm and steady him.

There in front of him was his mother.

She was shorter than him now, but, aside from that, she seemed to look exactly as he remembered. The eyes she had given him were still the same. Her hair was still as dark as his. Her smile was the same as his. Her face structure, her skin color, her everything. It was too much.

“Oh my, look at you,” she said. She reached out for a hug, but he stepped further into Isobel rather than accept it. She dropped her arms. “You’re so grown up.”

“That’s what happens after twenty years,” Alex said before he thought about it. She gave a sad little smile and Isobel squeezed his arm.

“I know. I’m so sorry it took me so long,” his mom said softly, a voice too similar to his own when he spoke to people he loved. It made him feel sick. He suddenly wished he brought Michael if only so he could’ve held his hand. “But you’re here now. I want to get to know you now.”

“And we came all this way so we could do just that,” Isobel said, giving that all too charming smile that reminded Alex why he brought her, “Hi, I’m Isobel.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Alex’s mom said, smiling kindly at her and then letting her eyes go back to Alex. “Do you guys wanna come in?” He took a deep breath.

“I guess.”

Walking into the small house felt like a whole new wave of surrealism. She had pictures lining the walls and on every surface that could hold them. There were pictures of him and his brothers, but nothing recent. They all stopped two decades prior. There were more recent ones of other children though. Pictures of her with people Alex didn’t recognize, kissing and cuddling and smiling with them all. Sometimes they were in front of Christmas trees or fancy holiday dinners, sometimes it was just because.

“Who is this?” Alex asked bluntly, pointing to a picture on the mantle. It was the biggest and it was of his mother, a man with much darker skin than them both and much more native features, and two little boys all smiling in front of a house covered in Christmas decorations. It sat badly in his stomach.

“That is my late husband, Lewis, and his sons,” she answered slowly. He looked at her sharply.

“You remarried?”

His mother gave a tight smile and nodded. This was clearly an uncomfortable topic, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“I met him a year after I left your father. We married a year after that,” she explained. He kept staring. Simply, silently begging ’and the kids?’. She sighed. “John and Rickie lived with us. They’re a bit younger than you, they moved out a few years ago. Lewis died in 2014.”

Alex stared at the picture a little longer. His mother raised two boys that weren’t hers, but couldn’t be bothered to know her own children. He couldn’t understand that. He felt anger rise in him.

“Did he know about us?” Alex demanded, “Did he know that you abandoned your children?”

“Alex, can we please talk about that after we’ve eaten? I want to know about you and your life before we get into the parts I’m not proud of,” she asked. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked to Isobel who had a painfully blank face. 

“Just tell me this one thing first. I deserve to know,” Alex said as a compromise. His mother sighed again, shifting in her discomfort.

“Yes, he knew,” she said.

“And he let you be around his children?”

“Alex.”

“And he let you be around his children?”

“Yes, Alex, he did,” she said. Alex scoffed and turned to Isobel. He couldn’t understand why someone would marry someone who was known to abandon her family. “Can we please talk about something easier?”

“Fine,” Alex agreed. Just get it over with.

“You have a beautiful home,” Isobel jumped in, still on Alex’s arm to try to keep him calm. Admittedly, it helped. 

“Thank you, Isobel,” his mother said with a forced little smile, “Should we sit down?”

Alex and Isobel followed her to the couch, exchanging a silent conversation that contained a lot of Isobel telling him to play nice with her eyebrows. He agreed reluctantly and decided that at least he’d get rewarded for it. Either by her or Michael, it didn’t matter. He could push through.

The two of them sat on the loveseat across from his mother. She picked up a mug with a slightly shaky hand that Alex assumed he had caused. For some reason, he couldn’t find any remorse.

“You guys are very cute together, by the way,” she said, hiding the smile behind her mug. Alex just stared at her.

“I’m gay,” he said simply. Her eyes widened in shock. He tried not to show how badly they rubbed him the wrong way.

“So am I,” Isobel added, giving a truly Isobel smile as she propped her chin on her fist. Alex folded his lips in and looked down at his lap for a moment.

“Oh, sorry,” his mom laughed softly, unsuccessfully brushing off the awkwardness her assumption had brought on. “You know what, I’m gonna go check on dinner.”

The moment she was out of earshot, Alex turned to Isobel with a smile.

“Isobel, you aren’t gay,” he pointed out. She shrugged, waving him off.

“Yeah, but I hate that straight people assume that friends of the opposite sex should date. Heteronormativity is lame.” 

Alex let out a soft little laugh and shook his head. He never thought he’d say it, but thank God for Isobel Evans.

“Good point.”

His phone buzzed in his pocket before they could say anything more and Alex was relieved to see it was from Michael. Isobel took the opportunity to check her own.

Michael: hows it going?

Alex: Fine. I deserve a medal for this.

Michael: i’ll see what I can do 😘

“So, uh, tell me,” his mother said as she came back into the room. Alex locked his phone and put it back in his pocket. “What have I missed in your life?”

Alex scoffed, “Everything?” Isobel elbowed him at the same time she tilted her head and gave him a motherly look that he didn’t think she had the right to. “I don’t know where to start.”

“Well, did you graduate high school?” she asked. He held his breath. She really knew nothing.

“Yeah. And then I went into the Air Force, lost my leg in combat,” he said. Her face went stoic then.

“I’m so sorry to hear that. I didn’t know,” she said softly.

“How could you when you weren’t there?” 

“He’s ridiculously smart, though,” Isobel jumped in, “He has a job at some really prestigious tech company, basically runs the damn place.” 

“Well that’s nice,” his mother said, her fake smile still in place. She kept looking him over, looking for signs that he was broken. It was the first thing he’d seen all night that had snapped any desire to make her feel bad by saying how bad things went after she left. He didn’t want her to find anything. He didn’t want her to win.

He refused to be broken.

“I live with my boyfriend, Michael. We’ve been together since high school,” Alex said with a truly cynical grin. He knew he was embellishing a little, but he couldn’t help it. Her eyes widened and her smile seemed to grow into something a bit more genuine.

“That’s so nice to hear. Why didn’t you bring him along?”

“He had to work,” Alex lied. He didn’t have to do anything. Alex had forced him to pick up the extra shift so he wouldn’t spend all day stressing.

“Oh, well maybe next time,” she said. 

Then things fell silent. He very quickly realized that he didn’t have anything interesting to tell. Well, he did, but nothing you could tell someone that was practically a stranger. He didn’t want to tell her how hard it was after she’d gone and he definitely couldn’t tell her that he was currently in the middle of dismantling a government conspiracy. There was nothing to say.

“His brothers are doing good too,” Isobel said because of course, she would be the only one to be able to continue the conversation, “I’ve only met them a few times, but they all seem happy.” It was a lie too, but it was a good lie and Alex applauded her for it.

“That’s good to hear too,” his mother whispered, “I tried to call them, but they didn’t pick up.”

Oh, so I was the only idiot? Good to know. 

“I feel like we’re beating around the bush,” Alex blurted, “Why can’t you just go ahead and tell me why you left and why it took you two decades to call me?” 

Isobel squeezed his arm again as they watched his mother shift uncomfortably in her seat. She sighed slowly and clearly seemed to be gathering her thoughts. He waited very impatiently.

“Your father… I’m sure you know, but your father wasn’t a good man. Staying with him just wasn’t an option for me,” she said slowly.

“That doesn’t explain why you left us with him. If you knew he was bad, why would you leave us with him? Why would you leave us with no one to protect us?” Alex demanded, keeping his voice steady. I am not broken.

“Alex, you don’t understand. I didn’t have the means to take care of all four of you on my own. It was better for you to live there than to live with me when I had nowhere to go.”

“I would’ve rather lived like that than live with my father.”

“No, you really wouldn’t.”

“Don’t tell me what I wouldn’t want,” Alex scoffed, “You don’t know me. You don’t know what he did to me. And you don’t know because you left and didn’t bother to even try.”

“I wanted to reach out to you, Alex, but your father made that impossible.”

“And after we turned eighteen? It was impossible then?” he wondered. Her shoulders dropped and she rubbed her eye.

“At that point, I wasn’t sure if any of you wanted to see me again.”

“Then why now? Why not just stay away now?”

“Because I realized I was missing out. I’ve already missed out on so much and I don’t want to miss out more. I want to know you and your families and your friends. I want to be a mother to you,” she insisted. She sounded so, so sincere. A younger Alex would’ve bought it. A younger Alex would’ve hugged her. A younger Alex would’ve been stupid.

“I don’t need a mother anymore,” Alex stated simply.

Her lips almost pouted. It was childish. It was frustrating. Alex wanted to leave.

“Everyone needs a mother, no matter how old.”

“Then where were you!” Alex snapped. Isobel held him in place and grounded him to reality. He took a deep breath to calm down. “Nothing you say will excuse what you did, don’t you get that? You chose a completely different life over your own children. You didn’t even try. That’s unforgivable.”

Alex watched as she closed her eyes and bowed her head. They sat in silence and, while it was probably only a few minutes, it dragged on for ages. It was too much. Alex hated it with a passion. He wanted to go home.

“I know that. I know I can’t make up for leaving you. But I would really like it more than anything if you could give me a chance to be a part of your life. Maybe not a mother figure, but just… A part of it,” Lily Manes, or whatever last name she held now, said. Alex simply looked at Isobel for permission. She gave him an encouraging smile that fueled him enough to look back at Lily.

“I’m not ready for that.”

They left the house shortly after, but they stood outside the house for an extra five minutes. Isobel pulled him into a smothering hug, a comforting hand on the back of his head as he held him close. If she noticed that a few tears slipped, she said nothing. She just waited until he was okay enough to drive.

“I’m proud of you,” she said as they got into the car, “That took guts.”

Alex looked at her, really looked at her. He felt more love for her at that moment than he had for his mother in years. She was family. 

“Thank you.”

#my 12 days #isobel & alex #isobel & alex fic #alex manes #alex manes fic #isobel evans #isobel evans fic #roswell new mexico #roswell new mexico fic #rnm #rnm fic #my fic

[porthavenhq]

Welcome to September, Porthaven! We are so excited to share with you all PHQ’s first ever Monthly Review! It came to our attention a few weeks ago that while we list each month’s events on the sidebar of the main, a great many of our members weren’t aware it was there and thus did not know about what events the month would hold until specific posts were made for them. Thus, the Monthly Review will include all of the upcoming events and tasks for the month as well as some important notes from your admins. 

We know that with school starting back up for many of us and after loosing a few members over the past month activity has taken a bit of a dip, but we want all of you to know just how much we appreciate everyone who has kept up their activity and asked for hiatuses when they needed it. For that reason, we are also including an “honorable mentions” section of the Review where we discuss which member, character, thread, and task really stood out to us. More on the details of this category can be found further down!

Important Notes

As mentioned above, we’ve been struggling a bit with activity as of late. Since many of our members, myself included, are starting up school again we’ve been trying to be very lenient with our activity rules and haven’t been reaching out to anyone about low activity. We also acknowledge that this time of the year is even more stressful due to the pandemic and don’t want anyone to feel forced to do more than they currently can. That being said, if you need a hiatus please ask for it in advance if you’re able to. Members who suddenly go off the radar without saying anything have the rest of us worried if they are okay and wondering if they are planning to leave the RP. But if you’re not on hiatus, please try to keep your activity levels up or consistent. Not doing your replies means that those involved in threads with you have nothing to reply to either. If you have any concerns please reach out, and to everyone who has been active over the past month keep up the good work!

Additionally, if anyone has any ideas about events or tasks they would like to see please don’t hesitate to reach out to an admin on Discord or the main directly. We’d love to start incorporating more events based around or caused by our in-play characters (hosted parties, fêtes, trouble making that effects the city, etc). Event if it’s not something related to your character and just an idea you had we’d still love to hear it!

Honorable Mentions

Just as a preface to this section, we want to let everyone know that just because you, your characters, or something you wrote didn’t make the list doesn’t mean we don’t still appreciate and love everything you’re doing! This is just to give a round of applause to those who really stood out to us over the past month who we believe deserve some extra recognition. Members of the month are people who have helped keep Porthaven alive with their consistent activity, brought new and interesting plots to the group, or overall just did a really great job with their characters, threads, etc. Our honorable character mention will go to a character who went through a significant amount of development, shook up the city with their presence, or just made the dash really fun to read through. A notable thread is simply just which thread that started over the past month had everyone excitedly (or anxiously) waiting to read the next reply. And finally, our favorite task has to have been for a task posted that month and has obvious dedication to the character put into it.

Member : We’ve got to give it up for Duckie. A very new addition to our group, Duckie has amazed us her record reply speed. She’s helped keep the dash moving consistently since she applied and we’re super happy she chose to join Porthaven. Not to mention she’s brought a breath of fresh air with Phoenix - our new local grump who is doing a great job of promoting interesting character interactions.

Character : We love all of our taken characters so much, so this really was a hard one. After much deliberation we chose to give this honorable mention to Anna Àrnadalr! Anna always brings tons of fun to the dash and her upbeat personality never ceased to put a smile our faces. Between crossing paths with some of our darker characters and admirably continuing to try to reconnect with her sister, Anna’s interactions never cease to be a joy to read. We can’t wait to see what is in store for her in September!

Thread : Though it’s a fairly new thread, we have to nominate An Awkward Meeting of Ice and Fire. Elsa and Phoenix’s first interaction and awkward small talk as they walked together to Three Witch’s Brew got everyone invested in these two who seemed completely unable to have a casual conversation with one another. We love watching characters who are so incredibly different, but at the same time strikingly similar, meet. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we sincerely hope this won’t be the last time Phoenix and Elsa interact.

Task : This month we had two tasks and a solid selection of candidates for this category, but we believe that Blossom’s Fashion took the cake this month. Not only was the graphic beautiful, but Marie’s written description of how Blossom dresses gave us a great look into this new character to the group. Her “pink academia” aesthetic fits the character perfectly and we all support her decision to only shop sustainably!

Upcoming Events

The Amazing Race : September 5th. Porthaven’s 5K and half marathon. The weather is perfect for a run and that’s exactly what the city is giving its residents a chance to do. Sign up for the 5K or half marathon this upcoming Saturday or stand by along the trail to cheer the runners on. Still in need of plenty of volunteers to pass out drinks, race numbers, and medals.

Movie Night in the Park : September 11th. Roll up your blankets and snacks and head out to Aspen Park for this month’s outdoor movie night. Movie selection will be revealed in event specific post.

Back to School Fundraiser : September 13th. The city’s public school system is hosting a small fundraiser carnival on the football field of Beacon High to raise money for students who can’t afford school supplies or lunches. Admission is $10 and all money spent or donated within the event will go towards helping these kids out.

Mystery Event : September 16th. Please await further details.

Harvest Festival : September 20th to the 22nd. Porthaven loves an equinox or solstice and goes all out every time one comes around. The Harvest Festival is in celebration of the Autumn Equinox and will encompass three days with the first two being dedicated to fair-like activities and events. The final day will end with an autumn-themed masquerade. 

Tasks

Life, The Musical : A seven song minimum playlist that describes various events, relationships, and stages of your character’s life! Provide a short description under each song to explain how it connects to your character. Members can chose to go as far back in their characters lives or chose events that are more recent.

Autumn Questionnaire : Simply put, a list of questions to get a look at how your character(s) spend the fall season. Members are permitted to omit any questions they struggle with or do not want to answer.

Dear Self : Everyone has a moment in their lives that they could go back and fix or have had comfort for. In this task we would like you to have your character write a letter to a themselves at a significant age in their life. They can write to their younger self, wishing they could avoid the mistakes they made. Or perhaps they write to their older self, wondering what the future has in store for them. This task can just be an hc rather than something your character actually sits down and writes.

Share the Love : With how stressful the world is right now we wanted to create a task that would spread even more positivity around the group. Send a nice message to a member (it can be anonymous) about why you love their character(s), writing, or just the member in general. Also try to reach out to members you may not have gotten to know very well yet or plot with characters you haven’t interacted with. This is less of a task and more of an opportunity to build an even greater sense of community within our group this month. 

#phqreview

[fics-not-tragedies]

Stop making the eyes at me

It’s based on this gold medal worthy request, hope I didn’t went too overboard with it, because honestly and as a writer: this idea deserves a separate chaptered series, because it’s a pure gold (as I already said), so I decided to leave an open window for myself if I’ll go mad one day and decide to write it, like I don’t have enough ideas, please...

SUMMARY: Knowing Keanu for few years made falling in love with him easier. Being afraid of showing your feelings made not a single thing easier. Words:  1674; Warnings: none;

The fan was blowing the cold breeze right into your face, the heatwave that got to your town was absolutely exhausting and you still had few more papers to fill in.

A knock on your door snapped you out of your thoughts and you raised your head just to see Keanu leaning with his arm onto your door frame, the muscles of his arms wrapped in short, yet too tight sleeves of his navy blue T-shirt.

With a smile on his face he sauntered inside your office and you had to grab the bottle of chilled water you had by your desk to cool yourself a bit, the view of him in this shirt mixed with the hot weather was doing you no good.

“How are things going?” he grabbed the spare chair that was placed by the wall and pulled it closer to yours, before he sat onto it, huddling up inside it. He placed his elbow onto your desk and rested on it, his gaze making you melt.

“I-I- good, everything is just too… hot” including you chuckling to yourself you finished the sentence in your head, he giggled, hiding his face behind his hand.

“I just actually came here to ask you a question…” he scratched his forehead and run his fingers through the fluff of his raven hair, “are you coming to the party tonight?” the lines on his forehead became more visible, as he waited for your answer.

“Oh, I don’t think I am” you lied to him, your hands busy with the papers that were scattered all over your desk, “I still have a tonne of things to do” yet another lie that flew out of your mouth with such an ease.

Keanu just mouthed “oh” with such disappointment it torn your heart apart. He came inside your office with loads of joy and now, he’s gonna leave with sadness painted all over his gorgeous face.

“What a shame, I was hoping for a dance… with you” he added, like the statement wasn’t implementing that he had you on his mind when he said that.

“Maybe next time” a smile appeared on your face, like you desperately tried to fix his sadness with your gesture. He smiled back, but it wasn’t the sincere Keanu smile that always lights up the whole room.

“Be seeing you, then” with a shy wave of his hand he stepped out of your office.

“Be seeing you too, Keanu” you waved back at him and when the doors closed behind his disappearing figure you rubbed your temples harshly and mouthed “fuck”.

Falling back onto your chair you covered your face with your palms.

Every time you found yourself with only him in the room it never felt intimidating, he was like a waking ray of sunshine, his smile contagious. You loved how he always covered his mouth with his hand when he was laughing, it was a tiny gesture, yet an extremely cute one.

It seemed like he was always orbiting somewhere around you, no matter the place of the set you went to. Smiling and waving to you every time you passed him by. Too obvious, at least for you. That’s why you’ve never found the gut to talk to him about how you felt about him or what his smile was doing to you.

- - -

You were sitting on one of the fancy chairs they placed on the wide balcony. The music coming to your ears muffled from behind the glass doors. The wine glass you were holding was already empty, a cigarette caught between your rouged lips. After arriving at the place you said your hi’s and hello’s to everyone except for Keanu. Looked like he disappeared somewhere right before your arrival.

You remembered he wanted to dance with you and the truth was you were dying to have this dance with him, but he was nowhere to be found. Asking everyone if they saw him wasn’t a good idea, because you really didn’t wanted to hear that he left with someone else.

It was already late in the night and you were on the verge of holding your emotions inside. You knew him for few years now, you two became friends on the set of the first John Wick movie and grew closer with every month that passed by.

The floor length dress you put on was pooling on the floor right next to your feet. They probably will be covered in blisters by the next day, high heels you put on weren’t comfortable enough. But you loved how he stared at you, for a tiny bit too long, every time you made an effort and worn them to work.

Many men would just nod their head for few seconds and blurt out that you have “killer legs”, but he was more of a silent admirer type of man. Of course he told you many times that you looked amazing, his words being the ultimate praise.

Everyone around you saw the electricity flickering between you two when you talk or when you just simply were sitting next to each other, sipping iced coffee on hot days, or sharing a cigarette outside the studio.

Yet, none of you ever admitted that has feeling for the other one. Of course you noticed how his chocolate eyes lighted up every time you walked inside the room he was sitting in. When you stopped by his trailer just for a moment to discuss something, which always turned in an hour or two of talking about various things.

As for your own self you admitted many months ago that in fact you did fell in love with Keanu Charles Reeves, but you were too afraid to say to him something simple, yet stupid like “I love you”.

You were really holding to the thought that deep inside he feels about you the same way you do about him. But the magical moment of him telling you that he thinks about you not only as a friend, but as something more, never came.

You jumped up when suddenly the doors opened, thudding in their frame. It was him, in all of his suited glory, bear neatly trimmed a drink in his hand.

Keanu leaned on the door frame and lighted up the cigarette that was hanging between his lips. Taking a long drag he looked at you, “Bad habit, isn’t it?” he asked joyfully and moved closer to you.

“Everybody needs one” stubbing out the cigarette in the ashtray you rose to your feet.

His eyes scan your figure as he breathes in the view of your body wrapped in the silky material of your evening dress. There’s no need to say anything, that’s why he doesn’t, the glow of his eyes says it all.

After he’s done with his cigarette he stubbs it out into the ashtray. He plays with the glass he holds in his hand, fighting with his own self. After a one final swig of the liquor he places it onto the window’s ledge.

The sounds of a new song starting came to your ears and he gently wraps his fingers around your hand, bringing it closer to his face.

“May I have this dance?” his lips caress your hand, leaving a gentle smooch.

“Of course, Keanu” the words flow from your mouth subconsciously. He wraps his arm around your waist and leads inside, to the dancefloor.

He spins you around and you giggle, the warmth of his hand placed on your back makes you shiver. Your body pressed close together, swaying in sync to the song that’s playing from the speakers.

The smell of his cologne was clouding your mind, the heat he was radiating so cozy, you could spend the rest of the night nowhere else but in his arms and his arms only.

“Isn’t the song quite… ironic, I’d say?” another verse started and it got to you to what song you were dancing.

Somethin’ Stupid. Yes, it was too ironic to be honest. The irony was overwhelming at this point, that you couldn’t do much and just laughed like the fool you were.

“I wouldn’t mind hearing I love you” he blurted out on one breath. His face was in a shade similar to the one you had on your lips.

You moved your face closer to his, “Me neither” a soft whisper left your lips.

“So are we both…?” now he was the one whose face got closer to the other’s.

“Yes!” you almost shouted, a giggle curving the corners of his mouth upwards.

“Perfect” Keanu breathed, your lips almost touching with his now. Then, his arm wrapped around your waist pulls you closer onto his body and without much effort his mouth falls onto yours.

His lips taste like the last cigarette he smoked and the glass of whisky he finished on the balcony. You waited for the moment for far too long. It was now impossible to count how many times you dreamt of kissing this man, of how his lips would taste like.

After he lets go of your hand his own wanders to the back of your neck and presses you even closer, like your bodies weren’t pressed close enough to each other already.

The song already ended, but you stopped paying attention to it few moments ago.

He draws back from you only for a moment, to drag you from the dancefloor and as you press your body against the cold wall his lips are back to kiss yours.

Cupping your face in his large hands he moves upwards to smooch your nose, then your cheeks one after another and finally he gently kisses your forehead.

“I love you” Keanu press his forehead with your, trying to get his breathing back to normal.

“Oh Keanu, how I wanted to hear you saying that… I love you too!” your hands wrapped around his neck, fingers playing with his long hair.

Kissing your lips again he pulls you into the loving embrace of his strong arms.

#Stop making the eyes at me #john wick #john wick fanfiction #john wick fanfic #john wick fic #john wick oneshot #john wick chapter 2 #John Wick Chapter 3 #Keanu Reeves #keanu reeves fanfic #keanu reeves fic #keanu reeves fanfiction #keanu reeves imagine #keanu reeves oneshot #john wick x you #keanu reeves x you #imagine #fanfiction #fanfic #oneshot #keanu reeves/you #pairing: keanu reeves/you #kr:oneshot

[karaxreds]

Proud of you - Harry Winks

She watched the score as a small tear rolled down her cheek, it felt like someone has just stabbed her in the chest.

She felt bad for him, for his team and for the whole fans that travelled all the way down to Madrid to watch this game.

"Hey." Your future mother-in-law whispered, "Don't cry, honey! You need to be strong for your man, we all need to."

You just nodded your head, of course you were devasted but not as much as your finance who's probably heart broken , you couldn't see him yet.

He was subbed off a few minutes after the second half, you know he probably feels bad too about not getting to play the full ninety minutes but he also knows that his mamager knows better.

The score was disappointing, this was Harry's most important game of his career but unfortunately it didn't go their way.

You watch as the liverpool players lined up in two lines so they could clap to their opposites as they walked up to the small podium for them to grab their silver medals.

You started clapping as well as you saw that Eric was the first one to walk up and grab his medal, a disappointed look on his face, but he looked a bit more composed than the others fiving the fact that a few minutes ago he was the one collecting his devasted teammates from the ground.

You watched him walk toward the podium a small sad smile on his face as the man put the silver medal around his neck, he whispered a small thank you before he walked away, staying a little bit longer on the pitch so they all could thank the travelling fans.

You waited for what felt like forever before he finally started walking up the stands, toward his family, you took a deep breath, you had to be strong for him, for you and for everyone around.

His parent and siblings were the first ones to hug him, he seemed pretty composed untiil them and it made you feel a little bit relieved at the sight.

It was finally your turn, you give him a tiny smile, opening your arms for him and he didn't hesitate to throw himself into them.

"I am so proud of you." You whispered, kissing his head.

"I am so sorry." His voice cracked, and you could've sworn that you heard your heart crack as well.

"Baby." You muttered, slightly pulling away from him. "You don't need to, never ever. You were so great, so amazing on the pitch." You give him a small nod, "I am proud of you, proud of this journey of yours. I am pretty sure that everyone else feel the same."

You watched his parents and everyone else slightly nod at your words, they knew that if anyone could make him feel better it would be you.

Harry's brown wattery eyes pierced into yours, he opened his mouth to say something but no words came out.

He threw himself back into your arms and a sudden sob left his lips and it broke your heart, you just wish you could take his pain away even if it meant that it would only hurt you.

- A few hours have passed and you were on the plane on your way back to London, sitting right next to Harry's mom who looked exhausted, just like you.

You couldn't wait to go home, the spurs' players were probably still in Madrid for a couple more hours, just in time for them to gather all their belongings.

"You alright sweetheart?" Your mother-in-law's voice pulled you out of your thoughts.

"Yeah." You nodded too quickly.

"It just wasn't meant to be, Darling." She smiled, putting a hand on yours. "I am pretty sure there's going to be plenty more finals for him to play."

"I hope so." You mumbled, fighting a few tears back. "He only deserves the best, he deserves to win."

"I know, I know." She nodded, "And he will, we just have to be patient and believe in him."

You give her a sincere smile, his mother probably loved you just as much as she loved Harry and it always warmed your heart, knowing how much she cares about you.

"Thank you." You spoke, "I should be the one consoling you and not the other way around."

"Don't worry, darling. We're here for each other." She squeezed your hand slightly, "You just need to take care of yourself, you need to stay positive and avoid all the stressful things."

Her eyes moved down to your stomach as she spoke those words making tou blush lightly, she was the only one who know about it.

"Don't worry, I am fine." You smiled, putting you other hand on your stomach. "We both are."

"Are you telling him later?" She asked curiously.

"Probably yeah." You shrugged, you've already have known for a couple of days but you only told his mother, you thought that if they won the champion's league tonight, it would've been the best moment to tell him about it, just a few moments after he lifts the trophy but unfortunately it didn't go as planned.

"At least it will cheer him up, he'll be over the moon."

"I hope so, I just want him to feel better." You admitted.

"I can assure you, this will. This is the most amazing news a man could possibly ever receive." She giggled, "I am glad you chose my son."

"I am glad he chose me too." You smiled.

-You were curled up on the sofa a few hours after you landed in Londed, Harry arrived just an hour later after you did.

As soon as he opened the door and found you curled up on the sofa he immediately cuddeled down next to you, inhaling your sent.

"Haz." You whispered, cheking up if he was asleep or not.

"Humm." He hummed,  his eyes still closed.

"Babe." You sighed, "I know you said you don't want to talk, but you have to you know that right?"

He sighed and finally opened his eyes before he straightened himself on the sofa.

"I just think that I could've done better you know ." He whispered, "All of those fans who travelled all those miles down to Madrid, just to be disappointed with our shitty freaking performance."

"You weren't shit and you know that." You pointed out.

"Then why did we lose then?"

"Hard luck babe, just didn't go your way." You started caressing his head, "They were just a bit luckier. You guys did an amazing job and I am so proud of your Champions League journey, baby this is probably one of your best seasons."

"Not really my best." He shrugged, "This freaking injury just fucked up everything, I was out for weeks and didn't play so many matches."

"Hey hey hey." You said, putting your fingers under his chin and lifting his head up so he could look right into your eyes. "This isn't your fault, You did everything you could. Harry, you weren't supposed to be back on the pitch until weeks later but you worked so hard, so confidently that you came back weeks before." You told him, a hand caressing his cheeks wiping away the few tears that escaped his beautiful brown eyes.

"I am so proud of you, I could never put into word how much proud I am." You smiled, "And I am pretty sure you're going to be back next year, stronger than ever."

"You think so?" He mumbled,his voice cracking at the end. "You think we can do just like liverpool did?"

"Of course! I know so" You nodded, "They just showed the world how determinate they were, you guys just need to work a little bit harder next season for both the league and champions league."

He finally smiled for the first time in the last few hours,a genuine smile making butterflies erupt in your stomach. You two have been together for over five years but it didn't matter he still made you feel like the first time you met him, like the first time you kissed him.

"What would I be without you though?" He smiled.

"Probably already asleep in your bed, or just drinking a bit too much alcohol." You shrugged, a playful smile traced on your lips.

"I love you." He mumbled, leaning down and capturing your lips with bis own. You moved your hand away from his cheek and slid it into the back of his head playing woth his soft hair. "I am so in love with you." He added once the both of you pulled away for air.

"Kinda feel the same." You giggled, "We love you, so much. Both." You whispered.

You watched him pull away a frown on his face, and you heart started beating faster, you felt as if it was going to explode.

"Both?" He asked confused.

You nodded your head, before you took his hand and placed it down on your stomach.

"Both."

His eyes widened at you words, going from his hand on your stomach to your face than to his hand again.

"A-are you p-pregnant?" He asked in a pure state of shock.

"Yes, we're having a small Winksey." Your eyes full of tears once again for the millionth time this night just for another reason.

"I-I, Oh my god!" He screamed, jumping up from the couch and pulling you up with him. "We're having a baby!"

You just nodded your head,tears streaming down your face.

He pulled you into a bone crashing hug, and slightly lifting you up the ground and jumping up in pure bliss.

"Oh my god." He cries, putting you down on the ground. "I am sorry, Are you okay? Did I hurt you?" He asked concerned, putting his hand on your stomach.

"I am fine." You giggled, "We both are,baby."

"How long?" He asked.

"Six weeks." You told him, "found out a couple of days ago."

"God, why haven't you told me before?"

"Wanted to wait until we were back home." You shrugged.

"Mum, is going to be thrilled." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Oh believe me she is." You chuckled.

"What do you mean? She already knows?"

"Yes, she was with me when I had my blood test." You said, "Took three test and they all said 'positive' but I couldn't wait, so I called her and we ran into the nearest hospital."

"God, this is the best thing." He shook his head in disbelief, "can you believe it? We're becoming parents!"

"I know right, who would've thought?"

"You always said that we'll be having kids but only after we get married." He laughs.

"I know right!" You pouted, "I am glad though, could never not want this baby."

"But you're still marrying me this summer,right?" He smiled.

"Of course I am."

'I love you so fucking much." He mumbled  kissing your forehead.

"I love you too, Winks." You whisperes, "We both do."

You were probably the happiest woman alive, what a night it was went from tears of sadness to tears of joy and ro be honest, you wouldn't have it any other way.

Not edited, write this a couple of days ago idk just felt like writing something about him because we all know he must've been devastated that night, along with the rest of his amazing teammates.

Hope you'll like it and sorry for any grammatical, spelling mistakes english isn't my first language in fact it's my third so... ENJOY IT, MUCH LOVE TO ALL OF TOU BABES OUT THERE ❤❤

#football imagines #footballers imagines #harry winks imagines #Tottenham Hotspurs #football one shot #footballers one shot #one shot #imagines #Harry Winks