#it's the highs and the lows just a whole journey

[redgoldsparks]

May Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut.

The Crane Wife: A Memoir in Essays by CJ Hauser 

This essay collection focuses on human relationships, many of them romantic, but also with grandparents, parents, sisters, best friends, COVID-isolation pods, and with the children of romantic partners from previous relationships. The title essay interweaves the experience of a broken engagement with a scientific expedition to study the dwindling population of whooping cranes in the Gulf Coast of Texas to devastating effect. Another experience, covering the DARPA Robotics Challenge trails, in which teams test out potential robotic first responders, speaks to the author's own desire to both save others and be saved by a string of problematic men. The author dated a lot of men and a few women in their twenties and processes them through the lens of media (the film The Philadelphia Story, the TV show The X-Files,the novels Don Quixote, Rebecca, We Have Always Lived in the Castle) and the perspective gained with time. I really loved this whole collection, but the piece that keeps rolling around in my mind is "The Fox Farm", about trying to recreate an archetype of a child's fantasy house (full of animals, friends, gardens, infinite rooms) in real life as an adult. I left this book wanting to know more- when did the author start using nonbinary pronouns? Have they resolved their feelings about their tits? Is that guest room in their big upstate New York house still available for visiting artists, and if so, how do I apply for the position of resident writer/new friend?

American Teenager: How Trans Kids are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era by Nico Lang

Queer journalist and author Nico Lang traveled around the US to meet 11 families of trans teens and see how anti-trans legislation is impacting their daily lives. Each family has different circumstances; one teen fears his top surgery will be indefinitely delayed, while another had surgery already and has joined the boys swim team at his high school. Some teens are moved to become activists while others want to just live their normal, low-profile lives. With humor and compassion, Lang shows trans teenagers as they really are: kids trying their best, day by day, to grow into their truest selves and fullest potential. The various chapters are by turns deep, silly, introspective, sweet, and smart, just like teens themselves. I was able to read an advanced copy of this book- pre-order it now, or look for it on shelves in October 2024!

Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb read by Elliot Hill

NO ONE IS DOING IT LIKE ROBIN HOBB. NO ONE! After a disappointing journey up the Rain Wilds River, baby we are BACK! And by back, I mean, back in a first person POV and back with FitzChivalry, one of my literal favorite fictional characters ever. This is the 7th book about his life, and the 14th overall book in this series, so I won't be summarizing it. Let's just say that Fitz found his happy ending (minus a few key soulmates) and then his life kept going. More problems, more politics, more magic, maybe stranger than ever before. A new character introduced in this series swept in and stole my heart. I can't wait to dive into the next book very soon!

Rose/House by Arkady Martine read by Raquel Beattie  

A brief murder mystery set in an fully conscious AI house in the southwest desert. This story feels in conversation with Ray Bradbury's story The Veldt and has many elements I enjoy, but a somewhat unresolved and slightly unsatisfying ending. I'm honestly still simmering on my thoughts, but looking forward to discussing this in book club soon! Edit post book club: a discussion helped me clarify what I thought was working in this book (tone, setting, themes) and what was not working (too many red herrings for such a short book, and an ending twist that seemed to undercut the book's main premise). I still think it's worth a read for Arkady Marine fans, but it is not as strong as her full length books.

Dances of Time and Tenderness by Julian Carter

In 2016 Julian Carter, a queer author and long-time participant in San Francisco's dungeon kink scene, received an invitation to be part of an archival matchmaking project. The project paired artists, activists, and scholars with specific issues of OUT/LOOK: The National Lesbian and Gay Quarterly. The assignment was to use the issue as a jumping off point to think about queer history and make something "new and provocative." Carter's assigned issue was from Winter 1991, the year the CDC announced 1 million American were HIV positive and AIDS was the 3rd leading cause of death in people aged 25-44 years. One of the many who died in 1991 due to AIDS related complications was Lou Sullivan, one of the first trans men to publicly identify as gay. From this starting point, this book traces paths of queer lineage, both proclaimed and obscured, traveling through history, memory, and poetry. Carter is linked, through friendship or scholarship, to Susan Stryker, pioneer of transgender history, to Zach Ozma, who edited Lou Sullivan's diaries for publication, and to Lou himself. Casting a transgender eye back on a queer history divided sharply into gay and lesbian, Carter allows himself to claim as ancestors sailors, skeletons, writers, lovers, and reaches forward in time towards students, readers, and artists. Including me. I was fortunate enough to be gifted an early copy by the author, and read it back in February back in one delicious rush. I already want to read it again, and more slowly, this time underlining and annotating it. This is a book to savor, but is easy to devour instead. It's sensual and surprising, formally precise, and made me want to dig around in a mess of queer historical papers and also contribute my own to the pile. It's out on June 4, 2024; give it a pre-order or look for it on shelves soon!

49 Days by Agnes Lee 

Kit, a young Korean American woman, wakes up on a beach with a map and a watch telling her she's already late. For days, she clambers over rocks and up trails, reaching for an undefined goal. Slowly, the book begins to flash back to Kit's childhood and family, the people she loved and left behind after her accidental death. In Buddhist tradition a soul travels for 49 days before rebirth, and this book follows one version of that path, the grief and slow healing that follow a loss. Drawn in a very simple yet evocative style, the spare ink lines and limited color fill this journey with meaning.

Early Riser by Jasper Fforde read by Thomas Hunt 

What a bizarre and delightful novel. It's set in an alternate history in which ice-age level cold spells cause the majority of humans to hibernate every winter, which has ripple effects on the development of technology, societal rules, culture, and family structures. Charlie Worthing was born in a "pool" in the independent nation of Wales, or a group home in which nuns dedicated to reproduction birth and raise dozens of children, in returns for credits from those who can't or don't want to have their own kids. Charlie has very few job prospects, especially ones that will give him access to morphanox, a drug which helps most people survive their months-long winter sleeps. The drug also turns about 1 in 3000 into a brain-dead zombie, but this risk is considered better odds than sleeping without it. So Charlie volunteers for the Winter Consuls, the law-keepers and problem-solvers who stay up all winter to safe guard the majority. There he has to face the three well documented dangers of winter- Vacants (zombies), Villains (the British) and Winter Volk (fairies, whose reality is debated), as well as rumors of a viral dream. The humor in this book is a close cousin to Terry Pratchett's work, in which absurdity and invention mask some pretty biting social commentary and anti-capitalist motives. I did think some of the twists at the end didn't quite pay off, however, I had such a good time with the ride this book took me on that I'd still recommend it.

Blue Flag vol 2 by Kaito 

This vol has already taken a kind of melancholy, bittersweet narrative tone which might put me off the series. I still really like the characters and overall think the writing is very effective, out I wish the humor and sweetness of book 1 would last farther into the series!

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Jester Lavorre by Sam Maggs, Laura Bailey, Matthew Mercer, Hunter Severn Bonyun, Cathy Le, Ariana Maher

Short and sweet, this prequel comic shows Jester's first meeting with The Traveler, the prank that caused her need to flee from Nicodranas, and a window into Jester's relationship with her mother. It's a slight story but I loved the artwork, especially the outfits and the beautiful city views.

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

Kelly Link, one of my favorite short story authors, debuted a novel 650 pages long. I bought this the day of release but it took me a few months to actually crack it open. I'd seen it described as slow, but I think I'd say leisurely. It opens with an intriguing premise- four teenagers come back from the dead, not knowing how they died or why they were brought back 11 months later- and have to solve a magical problem if they want to keep living. But the book is less a mystery than a close examination of the teens lives in a small New England town in December. The teens include Danial, oldest of many step-siblings, who rejects his new magical powers and just wants to live a small and ordinary life. There's Mo, who lost his parents young, and was being raised by his grandmother, a famous Black romance novelist- who herself died during the 11 months he spent in an underworld. There's Laura, a musically ambitious teen, who comes back to her single mom and sister Susannah, who seems somehow entangled with the magical ritual that killed and might save her friends. And then there's a fourth person who none of the others know, who snuck out of death on their coat tails and has no name and few memories. The book rotates POVs every chapter, with more than 15 different POVs, some of whom only appear once in the whole volume. I love Link's writing style so this worked for me, but I can see how this choice to linger over details not directly related to the plot might not work for some readers. I really enjoyed this but it did take me 3 weeks to read it and I suggest other readers pick it up when ready for a slow burn of a book.

Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol 

This original fairytale opens with teenage Jane mourning the recent death of her parents, after she already lost her younger brother to the sea as a child. Because there's no male heir, Jane's horrible cousin will be kicking her out of the house in a week. The only option she can see is marrying within the week so that she can access her dowry. So Jane walks down to the fishing village below her manor and proposes to a beautiful but shallow fisherman's son. He accepts- then is immediately lured under the waves by a mermaid. Jane runs into the town asking for help but only an old woman with witchy vibes is willing to aid her. The crone gives Jane a potion so she can breathe underwater, a stone which will allow her to walk on the bottom of the ocean, and a shawl to keep her warm in the depths. So armed, Jane walks into the sea after the boy who feels like her only hope. Under the waves she encounters allies and enemies, learns the true power of her own will, and realizes she might have more choices than she's realized.

Blue Flag vol 3 by Kaito

Well, I started another book because the last one ended on a massive cliff hanger, but I think I'm setting the series down after this one. I still think it's very well written, but the main character has such low self-esteem that he shouts at other characters that he sucks, he's a jerk, he doesn't deserve their friendship and they should leave him alone. I bet the arc of this series will be building this character up to where he believes he deserves their love and friendship, but I just don't feel like dwelling in this character's self-pity at the moment. I would have eaten this shit up as a teen though! Especially with the queer characters.

The Free People’s Village by Sim Kern

Set in an alternate timeline in which Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared the War on Climate Change instead of the War on Terror, this novel is an interesting mix of hopeful and dystopian elements. The main character is Maddie Ryan, a white high school English teacher working in a primarily Black neighborhood in Houston, TX. The novel is Maddie's written account of a tumultuous year in which the grungy music warehouse where her punk band practices and performs is threatened by a proposed high way and oil line which will rip up not only their art space but also a historically Black neighborhood. Maddie starts attending activist meetings which quickly morph into a full blown protest encampment surrounding the warehouse. Dubbed the Free People Village, this protest movement goes viral and is met with the exact same kind of violent police response as the current student encampments protesting for Palestine on college campuses. Woven through this depressingly accurate political forecast are multiple queer love stories, interracial friendships, a 101 crash course in anarchist philosophy and bracing look at what long-term activism takes. Folks with more of an organizing or activist background than I might find some of this book a bit basic; but I was completely drawn in by the relationships and conflicts of Maddie, Red, Gestas, Angel, and Shayna. This book feels almost painfully timely, and I hope a lot of people read it and gain both courage and perspective.

#maia kobabe #book reviews #comics #reading #books

[thresholdbb]

Doesn't matter how many times I've seen it, some Star Trek moments will always crack me up

#tell me your funny moments #macrocosm is hilarious #that intro? hysterical #it gets more attention for action janeway which fair #it's the highs and the lows just a whole journey #genuinely just makes me happy #even Kate has a moment where she almost cracks during the intro #ok the side of her mouth quirks for a split second she keeps it together she's a pro #lung is comedy gold you can't tell me otherwise #then kj just steamrolls right over him #Star Trek #star trek voyager #voyager's back baby #Sisyphean voyage

[onyourstageleft]

#dan and phil #weed #besties i am so high rn i am losing it #i took like one too many bong hits #started playing flight rising on the desktop computer bc it loads so much faster than my chromebook #opened youtube to have something on the second monitor #found dan and phil's fuckin lofi album??? #lost my absolute shit about it #went to post about it from tumblr mobile but wanted to make this meme to do it justice so pulled up a meme editor on my desktop #(the meme editor had so many advanced text options since when have meme editors come this far??) #anyway made the meme realized my phone is at super low battery so decided to just log on to tumblr to post it directly from the desktop #even though i'm nearly exclusively a mobile user now and have been for years #so i have to log in to tumblr and now i'm experiencing making a post from the desktop site while still pretty blitzed #is it firefox that allows me to edit the tags after i've typed them or is that a desktop thing now #oh shit do i have any extensions on #depending on what imported from chrome when i changed my browser like six months ago this may be some sort of extension #whatever it is im okay with it this is great #i'm having such a good time right now genuinely #also watched chappell roan's hot to go music video for the first time during an interlude in the whole meme making process #there is currently a restoration video playing in the other tab that's been going for 10 minutes while i've been making this post #this is me living my best life honestly #i need at least one person to acknowledge the journey of tags on this post if only so i know I'm not alone in knowing my experience

[bmpmp3]

now that virvox has basically handed me my own personal slightly clunky boyband with the voicevox humming update to play with i now fully understand the urge for anime idol companies to give all the vocal lines to one specific character. i want to put my specialest little guy of all time (takehiro) in like every part LOL

#i reigned myself in. but just so u know. the green genbu track was in danger of taking over the whole thing HKJDSJFDSD #part of it is also because hes honestly one of the strongest male vocals for voicevox humming rn -- least amount of like #breathy noise messing with stuff. might be because he was one of the earlier ones to be updated so maybe theyve like #slowly fixed up glitches? or maybe the previous experiences with this voice being turned into a singing synth #even though unrelated -- maybe that helped development in some way? gave an example of how things should sound? #i dunno LOL im not a programmer #but also the other reason i keep wanting to overcenter my center is because he is my special little guy HJKSFS #and also im like. a sap. now that ive figure out more fruity loops techniques (how to cut and silence audio LOL) #watch out....i can make any mix of vocals and duets and whatever i want.......watch out........ #i can make them as overly emotional and melodramatic and related to character relationships ive made up as i want!!!! #NOW i do need to deal with the audio levels. pray for me. the automation clip situation is starting JHKSDJFDS #i also need to figure out how to deal with kotarous voice because holy shit. i do NOT know how to compress higher voices #i mean i dont know how to compress low voices either BUT I CAN FUDGE IT i can fudge it....but this is a new world for me #i always heard people saying mixing deep voices is harder than higher voices but because i started my #amateur hobbyist audio mixing journey with fucking. asterian. i just dont know what to do with a mid-high voice LOL #i'll have to mess around a bunch i think. just turn dials until something sounds okay. thats my method <3 thats THE method

[amerricanartwork]

RW Headcanon: Know the Difference! | An Overview of Quetzalli's Slugcats

Here’s a headcanon I’ve wanted to elaborate on for a while, and today I finally felt compelled to make it real! Also, just a disclaimer I am not a huge biology nerd nor have I studied it that heavily, so I apologize if something here doesn’t make sense or if I get something wrong. I just like fantasy worldbuilding from time to time, and I always like trying to make sense of things I’m interested in!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Basically, I’m in the crowd that interprets slugcats as mustelids rather than literal slugs. When I say this, however I don’t mean that slugcats would necessarily be classified in the actual mustelidae family, seeing as Rain World’s world is most-likely not Earth and therefore our taxonomic classifications and phylogenetic relations can’t necessarily apply. Thus, when I call them “mustelids”, I really just mean that I imagine them as some kind of weasel with all the necessary physical traits to earn that general label. 

The first half of the name “slugcat”, in my headcanon, is thus not referring to any literal connection to slugs or other mollusks, but is instead derived simply from their appearance. Due to their long ears and thick tail, and because their fur and fat often squishes together in such a way that it makes their features blend together and their bodies appear more smooth (it’s the same physics as that whole “cats are liquid” idea), the general silhouette of a slugcat can easily be likened to that of a literal slug. The second half of their name is also not literal, and instead refers to their jumping and acrobatic abilities and their skill in hunting and pouncing on small prey, which is very similar to that of small cats.

Species Overview

Now to give a little more detail on slugcats themselves as a species! I headcanon them as small to medium-sized mammals most similar to Earth weasels in both their biology and their ecological niche, who originally served as cute low-maintenance pets for the Ancients and as hunters of small pests in facilities on the ground. They’re clever by nature and good at fitting through tight spaces, and later on they evolved greater jumping abilities to pounce on prey. They’re also very social creatures, who’ve taken to forming medium to large colonies primarily in and around the massive trees that thrive between the cracks in iterators’ rainstorm areas (like the one Gourmand, Survivor, and Monk’s colony lives in). Due to this social nature they also generally travel in groups of at least two, both for company and protection against tougher animals. Travel partners are usually siblings or good friends, and sometimes even whole families will journey out together to find food and other resources for the rest of the colony.

Despite being a small prey animal, slugcats have managed to get by not only due to their intelligence — the evolution of which would be seen as a rather unexpected twist of events if you asked their creators, for the Ancients found them cute but rather simple — but because of their impressive adaptability. It’s similar to that of real life red foxes and pigeons, and it allows them to survive decently well even in less ideal environments; a trait especially necessary for a world as industrialized as this one, even if its people are gone and most of the machinery is inactive. As such not all colonies live in trees; some find homes in the abandoned facilities, large underground hollows, and a few bold colonies have even claimed territories high up in iterator cities alongside scavengers. Slugcats are opportunists and masters at making the best of their surroundings, yet even beyond that they carry a certain other, “special” ability of their own that makes them as diverse as they are clever. But that’s a headcanon for another day…

Reasoning

Now for some out-of-universe explanation for this classification choice. I’ve always seen slugcats as some kind of small scurrying mammal (kind of a bias on my part, I just like mammals honestly, and they’re most familiar to me), mainly due to the way they look and move when on all fours, and their place in the game’s food chain. Originally though I saw them as rodents and compared them to mice and rats, which I still sometimes use for anatomy reference for these creatures. But one day a friend of mine saw me drawing slugcats and thought they were weird ferrets, and the more I thought about it and the more I developed personal speculative biology headcanons for slugcats, the more that label seemed the most fitting for them. It was also solidified when I did a bit more research and realized the main characteristic of rodents is their buck teeth, which just didn’t seem to fit with how I perceived slugcats. Not to mention rodents aren’t really predator animals, and slugcats’ implied natural diet and the gameplay itself does strongly imply if not confirm they have some instinctive hunting ability. 

Thus, it seemed “weasel” was the best classification for these creatures, and I quite like it so far! Once again it satisfies my mammal preference, but I also just think it’s a fun idea that neither part of the “slugcat” name is literal, similar to a lot of real-life creatures named after completely different animals, including fellow weasel, the polecat. Plus, I realized recently it’s kind of ironic with how I perceive the messenger slugcats, Hunter and Spearmaster, as being like hunting or guard dogs for their creators, when weasels are exactly the kind of animal humans with their dogs would normally hunt for! It’s cute, it’s familiar, it’s fun, yet I think it still has just as much potential for some interesting speculative biology ideas as the literal slug slugcat interpretations!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I'm so glad to finally get this out! I like seeing specbio slugcat headcanons in the RW fandom, yet I haven't seen many more in-depth takes from artists who don't take the "slugcats are literal slugs/mollusks/primarily mollusk-based" angle. Not that that's a bad headcanon of course; do what you think feels right! But once again I personally prefer slugcats being mammals, and I always look for fan-content that's as close to my personal preferences as possible. And when I can't find enough of it, I make it myself!

So hopefully this serves as a bit more of that kind of representation for the mustelid slugcat interpretation. It at least helped me develop my own idea of the species a bit more; much of that stuff in the overview part was ideas I came up with while typing this whole headcanon out!

As always, I hope you enjoy this headcanon of mine! I've still got so many ideas to develop and share, and even more coming as I continue to ponder these characters and their stories, so as long as you guys still like these Rain World headcanons of mine, they'll keep coming!

#art #artwork #drawing #drawings #sketch #sketches #digital #digital art #animal art #slug #worldbuilding #fanart #rain world #headcanon #headcanons #rw headcanons #slugcat #rw slugcat #quetzalli draws #quetzalli headcanons

[ethanedwardsnumberonefan]

Is It Over Now?

Rafe Cameron x Reader

angst, angst, angst

Word Count: 1K

Summary: Breaking up with Rafe was one of the hardest things to do, but at least you’d be free and feel good right? …Right?

A/N: I’ve never written a fic before um

And did you think I didn't see you?

There were flashing lights

At least I had the decency

To keep my nights out of sight

Rafe Cameron, a name you hear all throughout Kildare, not always in a good context but often with the name Y/N L/N attached to it. Since in diapers you and Rafe knew each other. Best friends to lovers is what it was, the perfect trust fund kids who were destined to eventually fall in love, wed and have the perfect fairytale family together.

It truly was all on that track before the small cracks in the relationship weren’t talked through and patched but left neglected and unattended till there were too many to handle and she cracked.

After the break up you took the time to reconnect with everything you neglected throughout your romantic relationship with Rafe. Your friends, family, yourself. This time was the first time you’ve felt free since you started dating Rafe, the memories and time with him prior that were strictly as friends were the best years of your life, and so was the beginning of dating him. Till you realized while Rafe slowly destroyed himself with his malicious coping behaviours of drugs and violence, he was also destroying you.

Consoling him and endless ways to help him always worked with him, honestly anything that was just with you. But focusing all your attention into making sure he was okay, drained from your duties to make sure you were okay.

Suddenly everything just revolved around Rafe and you couldn’t take it anymore. I mean, you took a whole gap year for him from university that eventually turned into two, which eventually turned into not going anymore because you were scared he was going to get himself killed.

Even after everything you did for Rafe including putting your life on hold, gave him no mercy to show he was “okay” without you. The rates of parties at the Tanney Hill spiked up and so did the amount of girls in the Outer Banks whispering about their amazing night together with Rafe Cameron.

Worst of all you couldn’t say it didn’t bother you. Even with everything you still loved Rafe, a person and love that you had can’t just be erased. Then again, your journey to reconnect with everyone meant reconnecting with friends, which meant reconnecting with the party life.

The difference between you and Rafe was at least you had the decency to keep your nights out of sight, keeping it low and minimal and not throwing it out to the entire country that you were now single and ready to do anything with anyone now.

Let's fast forward to three hundred awkward blind dates later

If she's got blue eyes, I will surmise that you'll probably date her

You dream of my mouth before it called you a lying traitor

You search in every model's bed for something greater

Perfect, everything’s been “perfect”. Three weeks after the break up you’d say you’d been doing okay but some things just don’t feel right anymore. The high of being free was finally settling into the reality that you’ve lost your best friend and boyfriend.

Although Rafe was draining and depended on you like you were his nurse, he also was still your boyfriend. Or now ex-boyfriend. All the little things you began to miss and thoughts of “did i make the right decision?” Scathed your mind over and over. You didn’t think you could go anywhere without seeing something that reminded you of him, not even your own bedroom.

It wasn’t till a trip to the country club when you saw Rafe with an oddly familiar aura with him.

The girl he was with looked exactly like you. Her hair, her eyes, her smile. Irritation fills your body, you thought you’d been going crazy when the other night you told your friends the theory that Rafe was only going with other girls that resembled you but this really confirmed it because this girl was an exact clone of you.

Did he dream of my mouth while he kissed her? While he did anything with her? Because he knew well off in no matter how many girls beds he climbed into he’d never find anything greater.

Let's fast forward to three hundred takeout coffees later

(Flashing lights) I was hoping you'd be there

And say the one thing (oh, Lord) I've been wanting (oh, Lord)

But no

2 AM, you’ve been at this party for eight hours in honest hopes you’d bump into Rafe. You couldn’t take it anymore. You were weak and missed him. Every thought you had was of him and seeing him so easily run off with half Kildare’s population was killing you. That’s why you were here. You took the entire day to mentally and physically prepare yourself to see him at the party and get him back. It was pathetic but you couldn’t take it anymore.

But he never came. You sat in the corner of all these sweaty people dancing and snorting drugs for hours and Rafe never showed up. You thought about calling him, or just texting him but even that was too much.

On your way out of the party you hear a ping from your phone and open it to a message from your friend that sent you Rafe’s most recent post.

It was of her. That girl from the country club. The girl from the club sitting in your spot, your hidden, secret secluded beach spot that you and Rafe discovered in sixth grade near the water that tourists and locals didn’t even know about.

Your heart shattered. Tears spilled down your face as you crumbled down to take a seat on the houses front steps.

It was so naïve of you to even think that Rafe wouldn’t exploit that spot. You knew how petty he was. You should of seen in coming. Yet deep down you were hoping that it would never get to that point.

But here you were, on the front steps of a random house party sobbing into your hands all because you truly believe that Rafe Cameron was going to come to the party and say the words you’ve been yearning to hear from him again.

I Love You

How foolish.

pt. 2…?

#rafe cameron #rafe obx #rafe outer banks #rafe cameron x reader #outerbanks rafe #rafe cameron x reader series #rafe imagine #rafe x reader #rafe x you #rafe smut #rafe fanfiction #rafe fic #rafe cameron x you #rafe cameron x female reader #rafe cameron smut #rafe cameron angst #outer banks #jj maybank #jj mayback x reader #john b routledge #sarah cameron

[astronicht]

Since finishing Fellowship I keep seeing references to LOTR as a sweeping heroic tale etc and this is now confusing to me, both in terms of story structure (hero tale or Romance; immram or exile tale) and the level of fantasy. The thing I’m learning about the art of writing swords and sorcery is that — to me, personally! And I get that this sounds bonkers! — Tolkien mostly feels like low fantasy. He just made the magic that was already there real. To the point where it takes a long time to even notice when people are doing magic, and whether it’s magic is sometimes debatable. Sam even complains about this briefly in Lorien (that the Elf magic isn’t dramatic) which is funny bc he’s utterly surrounded by small magics the whole time. Hell, in a story that stresses the power of words, quite literally to protect, I think that in of the fellowship plus Bilbo, only Aragorn, Bilbo, Legolas [edited to add Legolas sorry for forgetting u my guy], and Sam have actually composed their own poems and songs. And most of Aragorn and all of Legolas’s was Boromir’s funeral song.

I’m mostly asleep and have effectively only read Fellowship so far but idk! My point is that it doesn’t feel like it’s so influenced by the structure of later high medieval and onwards hero stories all that much. WAS Tolkien influenced by French Romances and Shakespeare and modern novels like oh absolutely! But lotr isn’t the Green Night or even Melusine, and it is only Macbeth for special occasions.

I know it’s considered a model hero’s journey or whatever but in-universe (and again, maybe just to me!) it’s not? it’s an exile story. Like The Wanderer or Erik the Red or Deor. Frodo et al say it at the beginning a bunch of times: the hobbits have exiled themselves. Gollum we’re told was exiled by his matriarch long ago and has lived as an exile ever since. Where I am at the beginning of Two Towers, Aragorn just saw the mountains that hide Gondor to the south and sang to them because he cannot yet go home. And there are a lot of those exile stories to draw on, in the time period and languages from which Tolkien was drinking deepest. Exile was a legal state and also a favourite story-frame.

#I may read more sagas and eat my words on this but! #mostly I need to go to sleep #Astro lotr

[chelscait]

porkie pies save innocent minds. | Mary Earps

category: fluff.

summary: too caught up in how much you missed your wife, you forgot there were a pair of innocent little ears upstairs.

word count: 3k.

warnings: a weeny bit suggestive, mentions of abuse. btw she's so mother in this gif.

You had been waiting eagerly all afternoon for your wife to enter the front door, only distracting yourself from the thought when you had Marnie around. However, now that she was tucked away in bed, your impatience was now seeping through your skin, and you had the attention span of a carrot while you tried to watch the series that was on low volume on the TV, only because you didn't want to disturb your daughter's sleep.

Marnie was a mini-representation of Mary, a hyperactive and high-maintenance three year old who will forever have a case of verbal diarrhoea now that she knows how to hold a sentence. You did find yourself staring at her blankly when the most random phrases spilled out of her mouth more than often, but that happens with Mary too, so you were used to it, always carrying on the conversation with another question.

It was very quiet when the house only had you conscious in it; it was too silent, and you felt uncomfortable now that you had gotten used to the continuous noise that was usually flowing around you. You wouldn't change it for the world, which is why you are in this state as of now.

Mary had been gone for way over a month, nearing two, for England and the World Cup, and you had missed her like crazy- in all aspects. You weren't able to go to Australia to watch her because of work, and you would have if you could have, but you knew a three year old and time zones would have also driven you mad.

You were craving adult touch, your partners touch to the point where you would do anything- the frustration mixed with the impatience- and you found yourself looking towards the door every minute, huffing when you saw no movement through the frosted glass.

The glass of wine in front of you was dry; there was nothing left in the glass, and you exasperated as you chucked the blanket off your lap, snatching the glass from the table and making your way to the kitchen to grab the last contents of the bottle, not bothering with pouring it in the glass and instead taking a swig from the bottle.

You heard a clearing of a throat mid-sip, turned your head with the bottle still pressed against your lips, and found your lover leaning against the wall with her eyebrow raised at the odd behaviour she doesn't normally see from you.

She stood up straight from where she was leaning as you strode over to her. "Are you oka-"

She didn't get to finish as you smashed your lips against hers, wrapping your arms around her neck as hers found their place around your waist. She moaned into the kiss out of surprise before she relaxed, her touch trailing down towards your ass as you both feverishly attacked each other's lips.

You whined against her lips as her grip tightened, your vulnerability allowing her to slip her tongue into your mouth as well as lifting you up into her arms with ease. She adjusted you in her hold while your lips were still pressed together, still not departing for air, before she moved you both towards the sofa. It was too much to make the journey to your bedroom.

"I've missed you so much." She whispered against your skin as her mouth trailed down your neck, nibbling and sucking before she found your weak spot- the starved sensations making the sensitivity heighten.

"Mary, baby, please." You whined as you wrapped your legs around her waist, pulling her in closer.

"Here?"

"Anywhere, please.. I just need you."

During the whole occasion, you found it harsh to admit that the both of you completely forgot you were not alone, too mixed up in the emotions to remember your curious little girl upstairs who, as you now thought about it, was probably waiting for her mama in secret also. You had woken up under your bedsheets, even though you seemed to have done everything downstairs. You were grateful that it was Saturday, as it meant you had a whole two days as a family to catch up.

Eyes squinting from the sunlight that crept through your curtains, you turned towards your wife's body to snuggle into her further and shield yourself from the brightness. She responded by pulling you in closer before softly falling back to sleep again, which was the opposite for you, but you blamed it on her jet lag, so you did everything you could to ensure she was as comfortable as possible.

Your thoughts drifted as you stared at the wall from where your head rested on her chest, tracing small shapes on whatever bit of bare skin you could reach. Funnily enough, you had managed to put some clothes back on last night, and you found yourself in Mary's pink England top.

So far in the distance, you didn't hear the little feet pattering across the hallway towards your closed-over door before you felt movement on the bed, your head whipping up with a gasp to spot the cheeky grin of your daughter as she sat at the end of the bed, eager to pounce on her mama.

"Hey, baby.." You mumbled, rubbing the sleep from your eyes as you lifted your arm up as an invitation for her to join in your snuggle. She shuffled up the bed, and you realised what she was about to do, quickly catching her small frame before she could do so. "Mama's asleep, honey; she's very tired. Give her a few more minutes."

She nodded into your chest, fiddling with your hair as she watched Mary sleep, awaiting one small bit of movement before she could start her attack. Luckily for her, she moved a bit in her sleep, and your reaction time was not good enough for the little girl as she sprung up from your lap, falling straight on top of Mary with full bodyweight.

She groaned as she felt the unexpected impact before she opened her eyes to find a head of knotted hair in her face, which would take you a while to tame later.

"Awh, hey squidge." Her voice was hoarse with sleep, but she built up enough enthusiasm for the first time she had seen her baby in so long, pulling Marnie more comfortably in her arms and giving her a squeeze with lots of kisses added to the mix. Her giggles echoed around your room as they both wrestled the kisses, which had turned to tickles. Your wife ended up blowing raspberries, which made the volume heighten with her laugh in the mix.

Mary leaned back after she ran out of breath, Marnie wiggling in her lap, still in a fit of giggles with her pyjama shirt ridden up, and yourself reaching out to pull it back down.

"You alright, missus?" She reached out to tickle her once more before sitting up against the bed frame like you, reaching out a hand for you to hold to fulfil her hunger.

Your daughter, still sprawled out sideways, sat up and crawled towards the middle of you both before cocooning over Mary in a big bear hug.

"Can you play with me today?" She mumbled with a pout, her fringe sticking each and every way as your wife tried to tame it by brushing it to the side.

"Of course I can." She smiled, pressing a sloppy kiss to her cheek. "Guess what? I can play with you all week."

Marnie sat up as quick as she could with a big smile etched on her face. "Can we go to the park? Can we get ice cream? Can we go see Grandma?" She exclaimed, gasping at every new suggestion that came to her developing mind as she bounced up and down on your wife's stomach in excitement. "Can we go feed the ducks?"

"Yes, yes, yes, and yes!"

"Well, before you do all that, Marnie, do you remember what else you have to do?"

"Spelling.." She murmured with a cute pout on her lips, giving puppy eyes to Mary to try and make her tell her that she doesn't have to.

"We'll have to do that first, then, monkey." Mary raised her eyebrows with a serious look before pulling her forward and lifting her out of bed with her, adjusting her on her hip before pinching the hem of her top down, which got creased in the making. "But first, breakfast. Who wants pancakes?"

"ME!" She squealed, wiggling out of Mary's hold, before rushing off towards the door, where she impatiently waited for your wife to make a move, hanging on the door handle. Mary leant down to kiss you before she felt a tug at her shirt, conclusively being pulled away (exaggeratedly) to give the hungry child what she wanted.

You trekked down the stairs to your wife dancing around the kitchen whilst watching over your three year old that was sitting atop the counter, nicking a few strawberries from the freshly prepared bowl, making sure to avoid the banana that also resided inside. She was suspiciously quiet as she munched on them, and you grabbed a bit of kitchen role to wipe up the remnants that dripped down her fingers. She'd usually be nagging your ears off about some odd dream she experienced in her sleep.

"Are you having pancakes too, love?" You heard your wife ask as you wiped Marnie's lip away from any residue before turning towards your wife, who's placed her arms around your waist, pressing a sloppy kiss on your cheek.

"Can never turn down your special dish; it's the only one you can actually cook." You lean your head back to face her, stroking your finger over her cheek before moving away to prepare anything else. Hearing your wife gasp, you giggled, and she smacked your bum from a distance, stepping closer to you when you kept laughing before stopping in her tracks when she heard a cry.

You both froze as you heard a weak 'no', turning around to find your daughter in tears with a stray strawberry in her lap.

"What's wrong, squidge?" Mary placed the pan back on the counter, and Marnie stared at it like it was the worst thing she had ever seen. You were both shocked by her sudden change in behaviour, and Mary was the first one to get to her, but she shuffled back. Your wife turned her head towards you, and you made a move, reaching out for the usual cheeky girl before you, and she climbed into your arms as quickly as possible.

You hushed her as she sobbed in your arms, rocking her sideways as you looked at a distraught Mary from over her shoulder. She shrugged as to the idea of what could have spurred the moment on- just as confused as you were. Marnie calmed down but kept her head buried in your neck, sniffling a few times.

"Do you want to tell us what's wrong, lovely? We hate seeing you so upset." You asked, your voice full of sympathy.

It took a few moments before she lifted her head up; her bed hair had evolved into a mass of mess, and you tried your best to brush it away from her face. You watched with her as she looked back at her mama, eyes full of worry, and she turned to gaze back at you as her eyes teared up.

"Talk to you."

"Okay, talk to me, baby."

"No, own." She mumbled, although coherently, and your mouth was kept open by the statement, empathetically looking at Mary as if a bomb had just dropped. Her shoulders slumped, and she stared down at the floor, her face full of hurt and confusion as to her baby's sudden distaste. She mouthed a 'what?' to you as she lifted her head back up, her lips wobbling. Shaking your head, you stood where you were and watched as Mary decided what to do before sombrely walking past you both, not without placing a hand on your daughter's back in comfort.

"It's just us now, sweet." You mentioned, before placing her on the counter, staying as close to her as possible. A child shouldn't be feeling this way at such a young age, and you were heartbroken as to what could have caused it.

She sniffled, messily wiping her nose. "Hurt."

"You're hurt? Where? I don't see, baby." You checked around her, eyes messily scanning as you moved her for a better view before her arms pushed you away.

"No, you."

"Me? Why would I be hurt?"

"Noises woke me up; I hear a smash." A fresh wave of tears tumbled down her rosy cheeks, and you swore you could have let out a sigh of relief- wrong thing to say, but you definitely were relieved, as you thought something much worse had come to town, but instead it was just your unplanned series of events. Of course she didn't know it, and she didn't need to know, which made you panic.

"A-uh, a smash?" You cursed yourself for knocking over that wine glass without thinking about how loud it could have been, stumbling over your words due to the awkwardness.

She nodded in reply, sniffling for the umpteenth time.

"Did mama hurt you?"

"Marnie! Of course not; why would you think that?" You exasperated as you straightened up, causing the girl to let out a sob at the way you worded it. "Hey, hey.. your mama and I just, uh, we found a spider- like a really big one- and I got scared, and Mama was the one who protected me from it. That's what she does; she protects me, you, and everyone else she loves, and that includes a lot of people. She would never, ever hurt me, and especially not you, okay?"

She nodded, and you knew she immediately felt horrible, but you didn't judge her for it.

"I am very proud of you for speaking up about your concerns, my love, and you should always talk about whatever may be stressing you out from now and forever." You lifted her up after you spoke before placing her down on her feet, wiping the last stray tears and drool. "You have to go and give your mama a massive hug and kiss now, okay? You think you could do that?"

She once again nodded while she messily tucked her hair back, taking your hand to come with you and go find Mary, whom you suspected would be in your room. You let her walk in front of you up the stairs and across the landing, yourself pushing down the door handle to reveal your wife laying on your shared bed with her phone in her hand, face without an expression until she saw you both.

Letting go of Marnie's hand, she instinctively climbed up on the bed and jumped on Mary, squeezing her as hard as she could, and you smiled as she returned the gesture, nuzzling her face in her daughter's hair. You perched on the edge of the mattress, fiddling with your rings as she looked up at you, wanting you to evaluate.

"In a minute." You mouthed, and she nodded back, indulging in her position once more.

They both laid there together, and it was your favourite thing to watch- the two loves of your life. Before you knew it, the three year old suddenly perked up again and sat up on her knees, puppy eyes watching Mary intently before she pressed a kiss to her lips- now perking your wife up too as she returned many more.

"I love you." Mary exclaimed, holding Marnie like she was a newborn again in her arms- of course she could still be able to do that with her, being a keeper and all.

"I love you too." The cheeky giggle escaped, and you felt like the pressure was lifted from your shoulders; you wanted it to be the only noise you wanted to hear from her from now on. You spent enough crying hours when she was little(er), and you were fed up.

"Marnie, how 'bout you go play? You don't have to do your spelling today; special treat."

"Kay." She squealed, back to her bubbly self, and she leapt out of bed and scurried towards wherever she was going.

Your head turned back to your love once she was out of view. Mary was pulling you by your hips to come closer to her. Biting your lip, you conjured up what you were about to say, not sure whether telling her the whole truth would do any better.

"She, um, heard us last night, and she took it the wrong way." You furrowed your eyebrows as if to make it make sense more, Mary raising one of her own as she urged you to carry on. "She thought you hurt me."

Her face fell, and she pushed herself up into a more upright position, her mouth partly open as her eyes welled up. "Before you think or say, she knows you'll never hurt me, her, or anyone rather, not on purpose. Okay, she knows, and she loves you."

"What did you tell her?"

"That I saw a spider, and you helped me and.. killed it?"

"What, and that went on for 4 hours?" She snorted, her hands roaming your bare thighs.

Slapping her hand away, you gasped, "Mary! What else was I supposed to say.. I panicked. She believed it!"

She laughed, pulling you in closer to her, and you couldn't help but join her. Now, thinking about it, she was pretty dumb to believe it, but she was only three.

"Next time, we're asking the grandparents to babysit." You mentioned laying your hand down against her chest as you nuzzled into her. She hummed in reply before her hand travelled down south, down your back, patting your ass.

"Tonight?"

"Not after that fiasco.. could get Monday off work?"

"Sold."

#Mary Earps #woso #woso x reader #woso imagines #woso oneshots #woso fanfics #woso imagine #woso oneshot #lionesses x reader #mary earps x reader #mary earps imagine #lionesses #woso community #wwc 2023 #engwnt

[darylsfavoritegirl]

SUMMARY: fem!reader gets sick after the events of terminus and daryl takes care of her!!

this was requested by @welcumetomyescape thank you for the idea once again!!!

A/N: this could've been a lot longer than this i just got really impatient because i finished early at school today so i was very much eager to write this. i hope you enjoy it and it satisfies the person who requested it!!!

You coughed for the millionth time, seeking your hand to cover your mouth as you leered through your brows at the crowd infront of you.

Your raspy cough caught Michonne's attention as she turned her head lightly to your side, her hands loose on her sides due to thirst and hunger.

"You alright over there?" She worried.

"Ahem." You made it out through your chapped, sore lips and moist eyes as you simply nodded. You scrutinized your surroundings, goosebumps swarming through your entire body in contrast to the heat of the south. You were left behind from the others, leisurely dragging your feet along as you hoped you'd make through the day until you'd find a roof to sleep under.

Michonne turned her head down, observing her shoes as the group halted on the side of a road and you thanked the one who suggested it.

You didn't bother to check to see what they were up to as you collapsed to a pavement, your palm reaching the paving stones eased your fall. You placed your elbows on your knees, your left palm massaging your forehead wretchedly.

You spotted Daryl's boots drawing near you from your semi-shut eyes. You raised your head, feeling dazed due to holding your head high too much. You lowered your head as he knelt down infront of you, grabbing your kness softly to get strength for his position.

You observed his face, dark circles shaping under his eyes and were you so sure you had them, too.

"You look awful." You joked with a withered voice escaping your mouth.

A pityful smile tugged on his lips as he lingered his eyes through your soul. He had been perceiving you all day long, how you'd grown more tired with each passing hour, how you'd been burning up; yet resisting it with the very less brittle power left in your body.

He lowered his head

"Brough' ya water." and passed you a bottle of water that was on his pocket.

"Save it for Judith." You spoke low, putting your hand on the water bottle to push it away as you eyed the others from the corner of your eye.

"She dun' need water."

"She need' formula."

"Sum' damn baby food."

He uttered in a deflated tone. He broke the eye contact, behelding the woods as he kept resting his hands on your knees.

"Plus, yer burnin' up." He shifted his gaze to you with heavy-lidded eyes.

"I'll get through this, too." You assured him, putting a constrained smile upon your face.

"Like hell ya ar'." He disdained as he heaved out a long sigh. He got up, looking down at you.

"Don't make a fuss about it." You hissed under your breath, making sure no one else heard it. A brief silence passed like a decade as you glared at him with stern eyes. His posture didn't shift after all, not taking in to process anything you said. You felt all your boldness flowing away as he didn't seem to give your words a second thought.

"Screw you." You bellowed in a tone above whisper when your hands met on your lap, drawing your knees to your chest as you looked away.

"I'ma talk ta Rick." He grunted, maintaining the eye contact he just forced you.

"And then what?"

"There 's gotta be sum' cabin I know of 'round here." He uttered, scrutinizing the area with his smokey eyes.

"I'm not so sure... After all that cannibal sensation." you huffed as you started scribbling the ground with a damp twig. Your whole journey was about this, escaping the what so-called safe sanctuary terminus.

"We got real far off." He shrugged his shoulders, the water bottle swinging on his fingertips as he eyeballed the others. His eyes met with yours.

You simply heaved a sigh, whimpering under your breath to the unbearable aches on your joints and entire body. You lifted your head, not uttering a word. You were very well aware of your condition, sweat beading your neck mixed with dirt repulsed you with nausea.

"I ain't jus' gonna sit 'ere and watch yea torture yerself." He stated with furrowed brows. You, once again remained silent as you lowered your head at your doodles covering the soil.

A part of you would give worlds to stick to one place with roofs and a tender bed with pillows for a while, yet it wasn't the time nor the place to mull over for such self-centered ideas.

You ran your fingers through your hair as you hunched your shoulders. You refused to gaze at him, though you felt his penetrating gaze sticking through you.

"Tha' wound ain't gon' heal itself, neither." He mumbled, resting his body weight on his left leg.

"It's just grazed me." You shrugged your shoulders, embracing your legs even thightly with your left arm. You wished to be as small as possible, as invisible as possible.

He stood there with complete silence briefly, seeing that you weren't lifting your head even an inch to meet with his gaze nor saying anything else, he left you there. You heard him exhaling abruptly.

You observed him approaching Rick from the corner of your eyes as you shook your head in apace as if it'd heal your maddening migraine. You screwed your eyes shut, resting your forehead on your knees as you gradually let go off your clutch on the twig.

All you could hear was your shallow breaths along with the muffled conversations from your people that wind carried all the way to you.

You opened your eyes. It was almost like your wide-eyed gaze gave you your five senses back. You were suddenly sweating buckets, though sane part of your mind notioned it was like that all along. You leered at the center of your shorts zip and your hair obstructing a clear view when you heard shallow footsteps drawing near you.

You raised your head, saw Rick looking down at you with his hands on his waist.

"Damn, you look awful." He exclaimed in a raspy voice owing to thirst.

You failed to find strength in responding back so you stayed put, waiting for him to talk again. You sighed as you spoke

"It isn't safe."

You noticed Daryl rolling his eyes lightly as he shifted his position.

"You got Daryl." Rick remarked with self-confidence.

You slouched your posture, locking your eyes on the opposide direction.

"C'mon." Daryl grunted as he reached his arm to grip you by the biceps.

"I can't." You breathed out as you shook your head and gave him a stern glare.

A brief silence as no one said a word.

"Y'ain't gon' do nothin' but slow 'em down." He growled, getting looks from the group, some of them you'd just met a few days ago.

"Come on y/n. Daryl's right." Rick mumbled, inattentiveness bearing his features.

"I got it." Daryl huffed under his breath to Rick.

Daryl clucthed you by the biceps with his firm grip as he held his other hand close to your waist.

You couldn't comprehend how sitting down for 5 minutes had an unbelievable impact on your body as you almost toppled over him. Your legs were practically useless as Daryl caught you by the waist and lingered through you with his smokey eyes. You leered back at him through your lashes, failing to find the might to speak.

"We'll catch up with you all in a few days." You mumbled as you turned your body towards them, your right hand was over his shoulder, he held your hand securely.

"Well, don't you look like shit." A new bulky ginger guy called Abraham uttered, sniggering under his long ginger mustache.

"I've heard that many times today." You forced a smile as you narrowed your eyes at Michonne and Rick friskfully. He scoffed tauntingly with his girlfriend.

"Ain't yea a chatter now?" Daryl quipped low, not loosening his grip on your hands as Rick approached you. You rolled your eyes, craving nothing but to spend atleast a day in a safe cabin.

Your hair danced with the breeze as you tucked strands of it behind your ear. Rick started walking to your direction as he passed you a pistol, giving you an assurring look then shifted his attention to Daryl.

They exchanged silent agreements by nodding their heads consecutively. A sense of safeness washed all over you.

"Can ya walk?" He inquired with cautious eyes incase you'd lie.

"I'm fine." You whined as you started walking toward the woods, peeking a glance at the others for the last time.

You strolled through the woods, then a hilly, then a road. Your head felt like exploding at the heat, sweating buckets hence leaving your body sticky.

Your undertaking of not letting out moans due to your pain grew to fell short swiftly.

"Where is this cabin, Daryl?" You puffed sharply as you halted in the middle of the road.

"Ain't so far." He lifted his shoulders, scanning the area.

"Can we stop for a minute?" You asked, glancing through your brows as you put all your effort to maintain your heaving chest.

He clattered a sound to indicate it was ok. You tossed your backpack to the ground as you sat down on the warm surface.

Your placed your hands on your knees as you observed the area.

"Should'n be out in the open like dis." He spoke, lifting his brows to scrutinize his surroundings with a wrinkly forehead.

You kept quite as your head sagged on your shoulders out of lassitude. You squeezed your eyes.

"Hey hey, stay wit' me." He rushed next to you, taking out a water bottle out of his backpack.

"Need yea ta stay hydrated." He muttered as he cupped your neck softly. He passed the water bottle near your lips, almost forcing you to drink. You heaved a sigh and wiped your mouth with your thumb.

"Gon' cook ya up a nice squirrel or sumthin' once we get there." He joked.

You creased your brows and painted a smile on your lips.

"I'm good with anything as long as it's not a snake." You uttered tauntingly. A sense of darkness hovered his features as if he was insulted and it passed within seconds. You sat like that for quite a long time.

Your flu got worse by the time you got to the cabin. Plus, it was almost like you were at the brink of a seizure with your wound on your leg. Daryl had to carry you all the way down to the cabin, safe to say you were slowing him down.

Your bottom lip trembled as he put you on the bed, tucking the hair behind your ear that was soaked with your sweat. Your eyes were heavy-lidded, seeing only a blurry view infront of you.

His eyes darkened as he observed you with concerning eyes. He knelt down on the wooden floor, opened the backpack's zip in a rush and took out the rain water he stocked earlier that day. Thankful thoughts lined in your head to the rain, your friends most likely had benefited from it aswell.

He got up and placed the jar on the broken table. He scanned the cabin in a flustered manner as he patted his hands on his denim jeans.

Daryl made his way to the thin sheets laying on the floor and cut a piece of cloth and rushed back over to you. Your gaze followed his every move.

"Dis ain't gun' do much."

"Still, better than nothin' " He spoke to himself as he inserted the cloth into the jar, making sure it absorbed the liquid equally.

You looked over him, your eyes fighting to hide behind the lids. You swallowed dryly as he came near you. Water droplets were sliding down his forearm to his elbows and to the floor. Goosebumps flooded through your entire being as some of them hit your skin.

He pushed your baby hairs aside, placing the soaked cloth on top of your forehead. He gazed upon you, then your clothes and how incompetently you tried to cover yourself up.

"That ain't gon' fly." He huffed as he pushed the covers aside.

"I'm cold." You whined, eyes semi-shut. You weren't aware of your surroundings, condition and Daryl being with you. You tried to grab the covers to your chest.

"Yer burnin' up." He grunted as if to correct you.

A moment of bickering passed with him persuading you.

"Might wanna lose the shirt, too." He spoke.

You whined once again as he didn't let you utter a word. He grabbed the hem of your shirt as your fixed your posture, the cloth on your forehead fell on your lap. He grabbed it and tossed it on the table.

"Sit up." He stated.

You got strength by your knuckles from the mattres. The bed sinked under your weight as he pushed the table aside. You raised your arms up high as he took off your shirt and helped you lay on your back. Your teeth chattered as you rubbed your arms on your biceps. A wash of despair washed all over him as he felt useless, that he couldn't do more.

He observed you for a while, contemplating what more he could do. He then, made his way to the end of the bed and started taking out your boots. He held you softly by the leg and tossed them to the ground. A groan of relief escaped your chest.

You raised your head lightly, getting strength from your elbows and chuckled at the scene.

"What a caretaker you are?" You joked as your head fell back.

He mumbled a "Stop." as he came next to you, a subtle smirk tugging on the corner of his lips at your teasing words.

He put the cloth in the jar and let it sink to absorb more water. His attention shifted to you as he sat on the edge of the bed. One could sense that he was in a huge dilemma, that he wasn't completely sure which course of action to take.

You swallowed dryly once again. He reached for your hair, your eyes widened at him. He clattered an "Sssh." between his lips without looking at anywhere else besides your hair. You had to lift your head for a brief moment. With stiff and an upright neck, did he grab all of your hair in his fist and spread them on all over the pillow. Your hair was no longer sticking to your back and neck and you sighed in relief at the feeling.

You lied down as you crossed your hands together on your stomach. You peeked at him with weary eyes, so did he. His attention spaced out to the wall as you uttered after observing him all the way down.

"Help me sit up?" He turned to you, immediatly grabbing your torso with his big hands and helping you sit up without questioning. He couldn't help but ponder in his head how you'd heal more quickly if you didn't try to be the tough one once.

Your fingers digged his bare shoulders as you groaned out of pain. You raised your head to meet with his gaze. You could sense the hesitation on his features as he looked back and forth between your lips and eyes. Safe to say, his hesitation wasn't because of your sickness but because of your potential reaction. He, then let go as he leaned forward.

"Ew, no. Disgusting." You grimaced as you pushed yourself away from his touch and leaned back on the wall.

You avoided an eye contact as he came closer on the bed, forcing you to look at him. You finally gave in and stared upon him, face rosing with heat.

His hands clutched you by the side of your faces and slowly leaned in for a kiss once again. You didn't pull away this time, letting his balmy lips leaving you overstimulated and shaky. So many thoughts, worries ran through your mind. You didn't want him to get sick if he hadn't already catch it, yet you could never resist his touch, his lips. Your face loosened at the feeling of his body against yours. Your grip on his left wrist fell loose as you breathed out after a short kiss.

He gazed through you for a hot minute before he got up.

"Sleep." He grunted as he grabbed his crossbow that was hanging on a hanger.

"Get sum' rest."

"I'll be in the front." He uttered before leaving the cabin

#daryl dixon #daryl dixon imagine #daryl dixon one shot #daryl fanfiction #the walking dead #the walking dead daryl #twd daryl #daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl dixon walking dead #daryl dixon twd #daryl dixon the walking dead #daryl dixon oneshot #daryl dixon angst #daryl dixon drabbles #daryl dixon fluff #daryl dixon fic #daryl dixon gif #daryl dixon headcanon #daryl dixon x y/n #daryl dixon x female reader #daryl dixon x you #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon blurb #daryl dixon moodboard #the walking dead fanfiction #twd imagine #the walking dead fandom #the walking dead fic #the walking dead imagine #the walking dead universe

[authenticyuri]

Listen I know I know, referring to Laios’s party as found family isn’t breaking new grounds but like. Can I talk about how literally everyone in the main cast has been ostracized or othered throughout their life and how they can form connections with each other despite their differences and how they don’t belong anywhere else but they actively want to stick together?

The Touden twins have never belonged in their family or with their peers. Laios’s fascination with monsters and low people skills are obviously the main traits that lead people to find him and his interests weird and creepy and cause them to have inaccurate and exaggerated views of how he acts in their head. Whenever people don’t outright tell him how weird he is they always pretend to be his friends while secretly hating him and acting passive aggressively towards him. Even when his knowledge and skills are put on full display and are actively useful, people are still on the fence about him as a whole and don’t take any time to understand him, constantly insisting he’s a freak and an idiot.

Falin was never understood by her parents because of her magical abilities and didn’t fit in at all at her academy. Others always saw her as the weird, muddy, quiet, irresponsible girl in their class, and while she never payed much attention to how others perceived her, it still left her completely isolated from others, until she met Marcille.

Chilchuck faces discrimination from other races constantly looking down on him (in more ways than one) and seeing him as literally disposable. He developed trust issues around others and tried to overcompensate by acting dryly and being as profesional as possible, but it does nothing to deter people from seeing him as a child and underestimating him.

Marcille’s huge age gap and irregular aging from others has made her feel completely isolated from everyone around her since her childhood. She is looked down upon by high and mighty elves who don’t see her as an equal due to being a mixed race. Her interests in ancient magic actively creep out her party members and everyone else who can only see it as the illegal and dangerous “dark arts.” She’s never been able to meet anyone else like her and feels isolated due to no one else having to bear and therefore never being able to understand her situation and frustrations.

Senshi was seen as an inconvenience in the original party he was a part of. Out of the main cast, he probably suffered the most traumatic circumstances and hasn’t been able to overcome that lingering dread in the back of his mind for years. He explored the dungeon in complete solitude for many years while never going out of his way to meet new people until he met Laios’s party. He is someone who uses his interests to try and connect with the people around him but people are unable to see that due to just finding him a weird man who lives in the dungeon and is obsessed with cooking.

Izutsumi never being properly raised and given love by anybody and seen as a freak because of her curse to be a beastkin, to the point she convinced herself that getting rid of her curse is the one thing that would finally make her happy. She’s never formed a close genuine connection with anyone and understood the concept of relationships as give and take.

Many or all of the preconceived biases each individual character faced are still present when it comes to how they view each other, and yet, despite it all, they are still sticking around, regardless of how many opportunities they had to leave. It’s how Chilchuck put himself in harms way despite not being strong and how he finally opened himself up to these people. How Senshi always stuck around to provide food for the others and help them along their journey, and come to accept different ways of doing things or understanding the world because of them. How Marcille ate every single meal she was served despite constantly showing hesitation, and she kept going despite how many times it seemed like they would never make it out or accomplish their goal. How Izutsumi learned that sometimes it’s necessary to do things you don’t like for the sake of other people, and she stuck around cause she knew they needed her, despite her not needing them. How Laios did gain a positive outlook on humanity and betrayed his instincts to save and protect the people he cares about. And about how Falin, after years of eating all by herself, was finally able to share a delicious meal with other people.

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #I just love them waughhhhh #laios touden #falin touden #chilchuck tims #marcille donato #senshi of izganda #izutsumi #rem talks #analysis

[siriustaylorsversion]

She's always owned my heart (Taylor Swift x reader) pt.2

it's been a long time coming... part 1 part 3 part 4

taylorswift

taylorswift In my Eras era. 💅 liked by yourname.official, gracieabrams and 10,556,004 others.

yourname.official it's been a long time coming, miss americana 🫶🏼

florence.bysinks WAIT WILL WE SEE YOU TOGETHER??? gracieabrams mothers 🧎🏻‍♀️ forever.more GRACIE REPRESENTS ALL OF US DJWNJWCNJKHRCG

sadiesink_ OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD

blakelively screaming crying throwing up

y/n_sink I'M LITERALLY CRYING

tay.y/nforevermore MOTHER CAME BACK STRONGER THAN A 90'S TREND costataylorsversion i wake up TO THIS???

yourname.official

yourname.official is there anything better than opening for the opening night for the best, most talented woman? wait... what if it's performing with her? WHAT IF IT'S BOTH??? glendale, can't wait to see you tonight! liked by taylorswift, blakelively and 7,900,544 others.

taylorswift stop i'm BLUSHING

yourname.official *plays maroon* costataylorsversion NOT yourname.official BEING THE DEFINITION OF A SWIFTIE oliviarodrigo i LIVE for these interactions

conangray TAKE MY HOUSE GIMME TICKETS

oliviarodrigo (real) snehit.13 😭🫶🏼😭💘

ememyers SEE YOU TONIGHT MOTHERS

tay.y/nforevermore please gimme the tickets or jenna's number I'M BEGGING YOU zendaya 💕💕

theerastour.updates

theerastour.updates taylorswift and yourname.official IN THEIR INSTAGRAM STORIES!!!!!! liked by yourname.official, forever.folklore and 400,930 others

taylorswift

taylorswift WOW, just… wow. Thank you to the band, dancers, and I can’t stop talking about how insanely magical it was playing for you guys tonight. You were always bouncing, dancing, screaming every lyric. And you created so many breathtaking moments for us, you know what I mean. Looove yooouuu.

And, yourname.official, YOU WERE WITH ME throughout this unreal night!! Beyond the music, you are my partner in every sense of the word. Through the highs and lows, you've stood by my side, and together, we've made memories that I will cherish for eternity.

Thank you, my love, for being the muse behind every lyric, for sharing this magical stage with me, and for filling my life with endless love and happiness. With you, the world becomes a symphony, and I am forever grateful for the melody we create together. liked by yourname.official, blakelively, and 11,800,300 others.

yourname.official I'M CRYING WTF

yourname.official MY HEART JUST SKIPPED 13 BEATS

tomholland2013 so you're dead... hopefully? tay.y/nforevermore MY FAVORITE ON SCREEN SIBLINGS😭

theerastour.updates IM FREAKING OUT I WANNA BE HERE OH MY GOD I WANT TICKETS PLEASE

ememyers LITERALLY THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE 💘

zendaya SAME conangray *plays jealousy jealously* oliviarodrigo STOP- forever.folklore CONAN REPRESENTING ALL OF US RN

blakelively MY FAVORITE PEOPLE ARE HERE AAHH

vancityreynolds The girls and I are offended... blakelively shush, now's not the time.

yourname.official

yourname.official THANK YOU TO ALL THE LOVELY FANS, THANK YOU TO THE GODDESS THAT IS BLONDIE!!! i was dared to write something more romantic than taylorswift wrote.. we all know that's not possible but i shall try.

taylor, beyond the stage, you are my rock, my confidante, and my partner in crime. your unwavering support and love have lifted me up in ways I never thought possible.

tonight reminded me of the beautiful journey we've embarked on together, both personally and professionally. the music we've made, the memories we've shared, and the love we've cultivated is something i hold dear to my heart. it's a testament to the power of two souls intertwining and creating something extraordinary.

thank you, for being my light in the darkness, for always believing in me, and for making this night an unforgettable chapter in our story. with you by my side, anything feels possible, and i am forever grateful for the love we share. it's you and me, that's my whole world. liked by taylorswift, zendaya and 9,700,405 others.

taylorswift your caption is definitely better than mine, i'm crying

taylorswift MEET ME BEHIND THE STAGE YOU LITERAL ANGEL.

yourname.official your wish is my command. tomholland2013 😏 yourname.official @tomholland2013 DIE.

conangray WHEN I TELL YOU I SOBBED

ememyers literally the most relatable person ever. florenceby.sink CONAN FNKHTNJAWHTBVJWHJ

blakelively IM CRYING MY BABIES ARE BREAKING RECORDS 🥺

mayahawke PLEASE PERFORM TOGETHER AGAIN. PLEASE GIVE TICKETS. PLEAASSEE.

DOES ANYONE WANT ANOTHER PART??? I NEED REQUESTS??

#siriustaylorsversion #taylor swift #taylorswiftxreader #the eras tour fic #the eras tour #taylor swift x selena gomez #taylor swift x reader #taylor swift x fem!reader #smau

[avatar-anna]

Love on Tour: The Documentary, Part 2

we all know harry is working on a documentary, so this is my take on how young dad!harry would approach it!

and now a little key:

bold and italics: camera directions, or what you would be seeing as a viewer of the documentary in person

just italics: interviewer questions, or people who are speaking off camera

Young dad!Harry x Young mom!Reader universe

Part 1 Part 3

In the interview room with Harry.

“There are some pretty heavy songs on Fine Line.”

Harry scratches his chin and looks away from the camera. “Yeah.”

“You’ve said in the past that you write from personal experience. Where did songs like ‘Cherry’ and ‘Falling’ come from?

“Uh...Not the uh…not the best time of my life.”

Cut to Y/n’s interview.

“Harry is…the most hard working person I’ve ever met. He wants to do everything he does with a hundred and ten percent. Almost to a fault, and there—there were moments where I felt like he was choosing his career over his family. You know, once One Direction went on hiatus, I thought things were gonna be different. I thought we would have more time together as a family, but we started falling into the same cycles. Write, promote, tour.”

Cut to Harry.

“Were you choosing your career over family?”

“I know how Y/n felt back then, and we’ve talked about it at length since then,” Harry says. “I think…I think at the time I only knew one way of having a music career and providing for my family, and it worked, so I almost felt like I had to keep that momentum. After the first tour ended, I came home and we spent time together, but…All I’ll say was it was tense.”

Cut to Y/n.

“I often think the pandemic was a blessing in disguise.”

“Really? Why?”

Y/n looks down at her lap before answering. “Because I was done.”

Cut to clips of Harry in Japan and in recording studios with his team.

Harry’s voiceover: “I’d never felt truly alone until we separated. To some it may seem odd because I was touring so much anyway, but I spoke to my family every day. I don’t think a day had ever gone by that I didn’t speak to Y/n. I wanted to give Y/n space, and I felt so lost, so I just kind of…stayed away. It was so hard. All I kept thinking was, ‘I did this. This is my fault.’ I eventually started writing down how I felt, but…yeah. Not something I look back on with pride.”

Back to Harry’s interview.

“Why talk about any of this at all?”

Harry’s eyes are red and watery, as if he had just been crying. “It was part of this whole journey. It wouldn’t be authentic of me to only share the good parts. Fine Line is introspective. It’s an album about high highs and low lows, so it only makes sense to kind of…express what I was going through to make me feel a certain way while writing.”

Cut to Y/n’s interview.

“What was it like to hear Fine Line for the first time?”

“Jeff told me H jetted off to Japan to write songs for the next album, and I didn’t see him until after it was nearly ready to be released. I wanted him to fight for us, but he just left. It solidified for me how much we needed to take a little time apart and figure out what we wanted. I was…resentful going into it. It felt like his music was tearing us apart, and he went to write more. But…”

Y/n wipes a tear from her eye.

“He…He was hurting as much as I was, and I was partially to blame.”

When asked to elaborate about the children during that time, both Harry and Y/n refused to comment.

Cut to an interview with Jeffrey Azoff, Harry’s long time friend and manager.

“I have a lot of respect for the both of them,” Jeff says. “What the two of them went through together, what Y/n endured all those years. Being a parent is hard enough, add everything else they put up with on top of that?”

Jeff shakes his head.

“But Harry went on a huge tour under your management.”

“An error on my part. And his,” he says. “I think we were so excited to start his career, and as a manager who has a client who loves live performances, it felt like a no brainer. I could tell that H was going to be someone explosive in the music industry, and I let that kind of cloud my vision.”

Jeff also reveals that he has since apologized to Y/n and that they are on good terms.

“So how did you go about promotion for Fine Line?”

“It was tricky, you know, because to the outside world, why wouldn’t H be doing all the talk shows and interviews and things like that? To everyone who didn’t know what was going on, he had all the time in the world and no obligations, but that obviously wasn’t the case.”

“Were there ever conversations to reveal his family to the public?”

Cut to Y/n and Harry in an interview room together.

“We talked about our options moving forward,” Harry says. “But we decided the best way to protect the kids’ privacy was if no one knew I had a wife and kids.”

“Definitely not easy,” Y/n says, but not impossible.”

Clips of Harry on various talk shows (Late Late Show, Ellen DeGeneres, Graham Norton) and at the Jingle Bell Ball, and One Night Only at the Forum appear. Some are of him performing, others are of him rehearsing, and one in a green room with Y/n, Simone, and Collette sitting on a couch.

Harry’s voiceover: “We decided on a couple talk show appearances in places where I could drive home afterwards, and longer breaks between tour destinations,” he says. “I was prepared to hold off on the album release so that I could spend more time at home, but Y/n wouldn’t let me.”

Back to Y/n.

“Keeping him from doing what he loves was never the goal,” Y/n says. “I just wanted there to be a balance. The kids were getting older and had more things going on, and I didn’t want their earliest memories of their dad to be that he was gone all the time. H wouldn’t be the same person if he didn’t have his music, but he also wouldn’t be the same without us. I never wanted him to give up his life for us, but things needed to be different.”

“Global lockdown was certainly different.”

She nods. “I think H saw it as an opportunity to…make up for lost time. It was difficult for obvious reasons. Online learning, keeping the kids entertained all day, staying inside, the toilet paper thing, but we’d never been the kind of family that spent so much time under the same roof before. It was strange, but also really nice.”

Back to Harry.

“You know, obviously I was bummed that I put out this album that I was really proud of and couldn’t perform it the way I wanted to, and there were already so many fans who bought tickets. I felt like I was letting them down too. But at the same time, it forced me and Y/n to share common space after so much time apart. I wasn’t about to take that for granted.”

This was all Harry and Y/n were willing to talk about concerning their separation. They did not say how long they were apart or when they officially mended things.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

In another interview room are four children.

“Can you state your name for the interview, please?”

“Simone Styles.”

“Nicoletta Anne Styles.”

“Maeve!”

When the fourth child doesn’t answer, Maeve does it for him.

“And that’s JuJu.”

“No it’s not!”

“Then say your name!”

“My name is Julian.”

“Do you know what your dad does for a living?”

“He travels a lot,” Maeve says. “Sometimes we get to go with him!”

“Daddy sings onstage,” Julian says.

“And on the radio!”

“He’s a musician,” Simone says.

“Do you have a favorite song that your dad sings?”

They all begin to talk over each other.

“I like Adore You!”

“As It Was!”

“Only because you were in it.”

“Baby Shark!”

“I like his One Direction songs,” Collette says.

“So you know who One Direction is?”

“Yeah,” Simone says while the rest nod.

“Simone, do you remember anything about your dad being in One Direction?”

“Not really. But Mom likes to tell stories about all the cool places we got to go together.”

“What is the coolest thing about your dad?”

“Did he tell you to ask us that?” Maeve asks.

The whole crew laughs.

“No, he didn’t.”

“I like when he plays with my toy cars. Sometimes we make a really big racetrack with, like, loops and stuff,” Julian says.

“I like when he plays tea party with me!”

“I like it when Dad picks me up from school early so we can go shopping together,” Simone says.

Back to Harry and Y/n’s shared interview.

“You do what?”

“It was only a couple of times!” Harry says in his defense.

Y/n gives Harry a stern look before she says, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Mmhm.”

Harry looks at the camera. “She does this to scare me. Pretends like everything’s fine and then grills me later.”

Back to the interview with Simone, Collette, Maeve, and Julian.

“What was it like being in lockdown together?”

“It was really fun!” Maeve says.

“We played lots of games and did campouts in the backyard and stuff,” Simone added.

“I learned how to ride a bike!”

Collette tilts her head to the side. “Well, it was mostly fun. When Mom and Maeve got sick it was not so fun.”

“I think Daddy was in over his head,” Julian says.

Cut to Harry and Y/n’s interview.

“I was not ‘in over my head.’ We were fine. Better than fine, even.”

Y/n looks at the camera, clearly amused. “He called me crying several times.”

“How did you and Maeve quarantine while you were sick?”

“We took our bedroom,” Y/n says, gesturing between her and Harry. “And they would bring us meals and everything. I was a little worried because GiGi was only a couple months old, but we made it work.”

“Why were you crying so much, Harry?”

“It wasn’t so much. But…I think we’re all used to having Y/n around, and sometimes Simone and Collette would argue, and Julian missed having Maeve around, and you know, was looking after a newborn during all of it. Y/n is truly the glue that holds this family together.”

“He got really good at braiding my hair!”

Everyone laughs at the little voice off camera, which turns away from Harry and Y/n to where Collette is sitting in a director’s chair. Then the camera swivels back to Harry and Y/n.

“She’s right. I am a master at the French braid.

Cut to a home video of Simone and Collette with Harry filming.

“Welcome to our home!” Simone says. She spreads her arms wide as she presents the front room of the house to the camera.

Both Simone and Collette proceed to give a tour of the whole house. They show a kitchen, a home theater, what they call “Daddy’s office,” which appears to be a converted recording studio, and the twins’ bedroom.

“This is my room. I share it with Simone,” Collette says.

Simone shows off the bedroom, which has white walls with pastel accents. Lots of stuffed animals on two beds with princess canopies and a small sofa. There are two rugs on the floor, a white one with a textured pink and purple smiley face and another white one with an orange pattern. A teddy bear bean bag chair sits by one of the beds. There’s a bay window with a small mattress and curtains with hand-stitched cherries on them. “A project completed by yours truly,” Harry says about the bay window bed. “I’ve become quite the handyman during lockdown. And an interior decorator.”

“Dad!” they both cry.

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll keep quiet from now on.”

The “tour” ends in Harry and Y/n’s room, where Y/n lays on the bed. Her belly is big, clearly several months pregnant. She smiles as Simone and Collette approach.

“What’s going on here?” she asks.

“We’re giving a house tour!” Collette says as she jumps on the bed. “This is our last stop.”

“We’re gonna send it to Nana and Auntie Gemma and…”

Simone rattles off all the names they plan to send their video to.

“Wow! And I see you have your own cameraman,” Y/n says.

“He’s good, but we have some notes,” Collette says, and Simone agrees.

“That’s it. No more cameraman. I’m the tickle monster,” Harry says.

Simone and Collette scream and run away, and the video ends shortly after that.

#harry styles #young dad! harry #young mom! reader #harry styles blurb #harry styles x reader #harry styles fanfic #harry styles oneshot #harry styles imagine #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x you #harry styles fluff #harry styles writing #harry styles one shot #harry styles fic

[male-fictioner]

Boyfriends

Pairing: DomTop!Liam Payne x Bottom!male reader x SoftTop!Niall Horan

Category: SMUT

Warnings: Gay sex, anal, blowjobs, smut, marking, overstimulation, multiple rounds, possessiveness, jealousy, DP, idk i'm probably missing something.

A/n: I hope I did just to the request. I got distracted and hence the backstory is more drawn out that the smut. I'm sorry 😭😭.

Word Count: 2.8k words

Read at your own discretion.

"Will you be our boyfriend?" were not the words you were expecting to hear from the two people standing in front of you.

You were just surprised that these two hot guys want to be with you. You did not even realise when that happened or how that happened but you knew somehow you made them fall in love with you.

But all this started when you got famous. I mean how else would Liam Payne and Niall Horan even come to know about your existence.

You still vividly remember the first time you met them. Anyone who says that they are into guys and have never had a crush on one of the One Direction members then they are probably lying because how could you not. There is a whole variety to choose from.

And you certainly had your crushes on the guys in front of you. Asking you the question you always wanted to hear and hence you said, “YES! I would love to be your boyfriend.”

**********************************************

You always loved singing and always loved music. Being a musician, a singer has always been your dream. A dream you were ready to follow no matter what. So you started to write and record music at a very early age. You submitted it to various record houses.

Once you had graduated high school, you music journey began with a call that went like,

“Hello, am I talking to Mr. Y/n L/n?” said a guy with a low deep voice.

“Yes, who am I talking to?” you asked

“Mr. L/n, I am Robert Matthews from a2z record label. You have submitted your music to us, we would like to set up a meeting with you. We really think you have potential” 

You couldn’t believe your ears, someone liked your music? 

That meeting which you attended was the best thing that had ever happened to you. They had really liked your music and they were interested to sign you. You almost signed the contract that very moment but thought it was better if you actually consulted some people who had more knowledge than you. 

You were barely an adult and this was a huge step to take. So after some careful consideration you decided to sign on with them. 

But you didn't get the instant gratification you were hoping for when you worked vigorously for a whole year just to get an album. It took time to figure out what your sound will be. How you want your music to be. You also needed a lot of help to write your lyrics and everything. 

But after this year, your debut album was released. Save for some singles released by you over the course of the year to introduce you to your audience, this was really a big step for you. 

And this is where your life turns upside down. After the release of your album, a lot of people got to know you. Of Course you were no chart- breaking success but your album did well to get you invited to music events and also get you nominated for awards. 

You had Niall Horan to thank for some of your success too. On your post about releasing your album, there was a like by NIALL FREAKING HORAN and you were literally screaming when you got a COMMENT by him that went like,

Congratulations on your debut. You sound amazing.’

And this literally got you the free promotion you could have never even asked for.

After wondering what to reply, you just sent a ‘Thank you so much.’ But not without sending him a quick dm. 

And this is how you can say their friendship flourished and your old crush that he had stuffed somewhere deep inside reignited. After this, you and Niall talked a lot. Niall was a great mentor to you and helped you a lot with the journey. 

A few weeks later you were attending the Brits as you were nominated and supposed to perform. Niall was gonna be there and you both met each other at the show. You were a nervous wreck thinking thoughts of ruining your performance, not winning the show etc.  

This is when Niall introduced you to Liam Payne. You could not believe your eyes that he was actually in front of you. You wouldn’t be lying if you said that he was hotter in real life. All those muscles looked delectable. And what you had only thought about in your dreams, was actually happening. You were sitting across your crushes and having a conversation with them. It is actually surprising how you were calmly talking with them without choking on your tongue. 

The whole night, they kept you company and talked about all sorts of things to calm your nerves. They told you about their first experience and how they felt. That helped you somehow. Even though you did not win the award, your performance was amazing. And you received some applause for it too.

This meeting led you, Niall and Liam getting closer than before. You even decided to invite them to the opening show of your tour. While it was a small tour, it was very good for a budding artist. After the show, they took you out for dinner as a celebration. 

This led to you feeling comfortable with them and so did they. And hence they told you that they were dating each other for the past 4 years. You were surprised to say the least but very supportive of them. You told them that you are gay too and they were extremely supportive too. 

You guys had dinner with each other often and the media thought this was a mentor- mentee relationship. Which it was but you had wanted more. After finding out that they were together, you did not want to ruin their relationship and so you decided to distance yourself. Not directly but emotionally.

With this, he started to flirt with other people, hookup with them just trying to get himself over a relationship he never even had.

What he didn't know was that Niall and Liam also wanted him as much as he wanted them if not more.

Oblivious to your want being matched, you continued flirting with other people. When you went to an album release party of some famous singer, whose name you couldn't remember, you were flirting with someone you really didn’t care about. That’s when you spotted Liam and Niall talking at the other side.

“I’ll be back in 5 minutes.” you told the guy you were with and went to talk to the guys.

“Heyy I did not know you were going to be here. It’s such a good surprise.” you said hugging them.

You had some small talk and parted to go back to your hookup for the night. 

Little did you know, they had been looking at you all this time. Seeing how you were talking to some guy who wasn’t them. Getting close to him, hardly any space between you. Bodies pressed together, slow and sensual movements, whispers in each other's ears, those chaste kisses and how you laughed at his jokes. They were seeing everything and the only thought in their mind was, that should be us.

Your fingers grazed his bicep and other on his neck, while his being on your waist inching lower and lower as time passed. That is when Liam and Niall decided that this is it. You were theirs and they will show you today.

When they stalked towards you, you and the guy were already making out with each other. After feeling a presence, you turn around and see Liam and Niall standing there. The look in their eyes was something you had never seen in the past almost year you had known them. It was something raw, anger, jealousy, lust? You couldn’t figure it out.

“Lets go Y/n” Liam said with an authoritative voice that sent a chill down your spine.

Without any question, you followed them despite the protests from your partner for that night. You shot him a ‘I’ll call you later look’ and left.

After going out, you finally managed to find your voice and asked in a low voice, “Where are we going?” 

“To our hotel room.” Niall replied. 

Liam did not say anything and after this neither did Niall. The ride to their hotel room was quiet and awkward. The sexual tension thick in the air. They let you enter the room first and before you could say anything, you were backed up against the wall by two taller guys and somehow they felt extra tall.

“What do you think you were doing?” Liam asked, staring in my eyes.

You gulped and replied, “What did I do?”

“Hooking up with other people when you want us and we want you. Teasing us like this. That is what you did.” Liam answered your question leaving you in complete shock to know that they want you. You looked at Niall for confirmation and his eyes said it all. He did not verbally reply but a slight nod made it clear.

You must have been blind to not see their interest in you. Lost deep in your thought, you did not realise when you ended up on the edge of the bed. When your legs felt the bed, it brought you out of your thoughts. You ended up with your back to the mattress. Liam and Niall looked at you like hungry predators who had just found their prey for the night. You gulped nervously wondering what is gonna happen to you. 

Noticing this shift in your behaviour, Niall being the sweet man he is, asked, “You want this too right?”

“Yes, yes I want it. I want you guys. Please.” You replied hurriedly looking at both of them. Niall smiled and inched closer to you.

“Look at him Niall, we haven’t even touched him and he is already hungry for our cocks. What a slut.” Liam said with a mocking smirk. His dirty talk led to an involuntary moan coming from your mouth to which he only seemed to be more pleased. 

“What do you want, baby boy? Tell us exactly what you want so we can give it to you.” He continued making you more and more flustered.

“I want you to fuck me.” You tried to reply as plainly as possible but your reddened face was betraying you.

“Come on Liam, don't tease him that much.” Niall laughed, turning to kiss you, giving you the first intimate moment of the night. His kiss was soft and inviting. It was teasing your lips making you want more. It felt different than any other kiss you hav had yet. Soft but equally dominating. Passionate but filled with love. His tongue licked your lips and you parted them to give him entrance. Both your tongues lapping each other and he let you win the game of dominance.

All this while, Liam was busy making quick work of the three of your clothes. He undressed himself and Niall first after which he moved on to you leaving all three of you in underwear. You felt a shiver once he was done with your clothes. 

You and Niall broke the kiss to catch your breath. Liam got next to you, took your face in his hands and said ,”My turn.” 

His kiss was much different than Nialls. It was rough, passionate and dominating. It was hard. He kissed you like you were his source of oxygen. You moaned when you felt lips on your neck. The source of them was Niall. This gave Liam the perfect time to enter your mouth. Your tongues fought for dominance but it was no fight at all. He had already won. 

After kissing for a while and Niall covering you in marks, you ended up with puffed lips and red spots covering your neck. You probably looked ruined already and this was only the start.

“Whose a better kisser Y/n us or the guy you were with ?” Liam asked, still being jealous about the night.

“You both. I can’t even remember his kiss. I only remember your lips.” You said lustfully. 

The answer seemed to satisfy him as he turned to Niall and asked, “How do you want to do this Niall?” He ignored your presence as he asked this like you had no input on how the night goes.

“Whatever you decide.” Niall replied. 

“I’ll take his ass, you take his mouth.” Liam said nonchalantly. 

And this is how you ended up on your hands and knees with Liam prepping your ass and eating you out while Niall takes your mouth.

Liam starts by licking a long stripe from your balls to your hole. He slowly pushed his tongue in the tight heat of your hole and you let out a moan at the intrusion. He pushes his tongue deeper at your sounds. Niall settles near the headboard taking off his underwear and bringing his cock to a semi hard state. He puts a finger in your mouth and you suck at it expertly. 

Once Liam is done with eating you out, he lubes his fingers up and enters one finger in the tight ring of muscles. Seeing the discomfort on your face, Niall tries comforting you.

“Relax for us baby, let us take care of you. We’ll make you feel good.”  he said running his fingers through your hair and kissing you softly.

Liam enters another finger and soon another opening you up for their big nice cocks.

Once he feels that you are loose enough, he and Niall enter you at the same time leaving you perplexed. Niall’s 6.5 inch dick making its way to the back of your throat is met with vibrations from your moans while Liam’s 8 inch dick enters your tight hole slowly but surely. 

After both of them have stuffed you up, they start moving. Niall keeps hitting the back of your throat while Liam keeps hammering you from behind making you choke more on Niall's length. Niall has a hand in your hair holding you firmly. And Liam has gripped your hips tight enough that they’ll leave bruises. He marks your back while drilling your hole making you moan and all the sensations go to Niall's dick.

There are praises being thrown at you often enough. You can hardly process most of them your mind being too hazy with all the sex.

You heard Niall say, "Such a good boy, taking us so well."

"He really knows how to suck a cock."

"He is so tight for us. I bet no one has fucked him like this." Liam had added.

Some other compliments that you cannot remember.

Soon enough your weeping cock comes in spurts completely untouched leaving ropes and ropes of cum on the sheets beneath you. This makes your grip on Liam’s cock tighter making his thrusts faster and sloppier. Niall's cock is close by the way he is thrusting and as if on the thought of it, he comes in your mouth filling you with copious amounts of cum which you are left to swallow. He is followed by Liam who comes in you ass and fucks you through the orgasm making you moan and wince from oversensitivity. 

After this, they took turns with Niall fucking your ass and Liam your mouth. For the last round, your tight little ass (which wasn’t nearly as tight now) was filled to the brim with both the cocks. You cannot remember how many times you came that night but it was more than you ever have in a night.

At this point, you did not have one coherent thought. You were too exhausted. You could not make out the words Niall and Liam said and neither could you say anything. All you had on your mind was dicks and sex.

After being stuffed by two big and thick cocks, you came one last time which was just watery at this point and passed out from pleasure and exhaustion.

When you woke up, you were clean on clean sheets with Niall on your right, your face against his chest and Liam on your left with your back to his chest. You drift off to sleep again and when you finally wake up, Liam and Niall were awake too.

“Hey there, Y/n. You must be exhausted.” Niall said softly. You just hummed in response not wanting to talk.

“I’m sorry if we were too hard on you.” Liam said rubbing circles in your back. You shook your head and nuzzled closer to Niall’s chest.

Soon enough the three of you woke up and had breakfast from the room service. During this time, you guys talked like you always used to and it felt like nothing had changed.

"Will you be our boyfriend? I know it must be weird for you but we just feel like it would be right since we like you so much."  They said leaving you speechless for a second. 

But of course you wanted this, how could you not.

“I would love nothing more in the world.” You answered honestly.

They smiled and you gave each of them a kiss. After this, you would need no one else.

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

I hope you liked this fic. Like and comment to let me know if you did. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Hate is not. Thankss.

#male reader #x male reader #one direction #niall james horan #niall 1d #niall horan #liam james payne #liam payne #1d liam #bottom male reader #1direction #smut #fluff #threes0me #fanfic

[shadowsingerofnight]

So um, to be honest I don’t know what this is. It was on a whim, written in one go so don’t take it too seriously lol

It was inspired by this post right here, by @dawntoducks

Hope you enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of the door slamming shut brought Elain back to reality.

Standing in the middle of the sitting-room, she glanced to the window, to the city beyond. Velaris was in full bloom, children running and laughing just outside. She could even spot some kites flying this and that way, guided by tiny, giggling kids.

She had always thought kites to belong in fairytales, somehow never considered actually playing with one. She marvelled at them.

She kept watching- stalling, as one little girl accidentally bumped into the big magnolia tree outside the gate and let go of the slim thread she was holding. A cry sounded, the girl immediately getting up and jumping towards the sky. Desperately trying to reach high, high, higher- like the hurt didn’t matter, like she just wanted to get back what she had lost. But it was too late.

Elain blinked. Once. Twice.

Her heart began racing, the rhythm akin a horse’s gallop. Frantic, but with purpose.

It was always like that, her soul recognising a song she sometimes could faintly hear herself. A poem that had existed within her since the dawn of time, somehow.

“Are you okay?”

Somewhere among the blooming trees…

Elain had never heard a voice like that. Not when she was human, not after. Non since she had heard his for the first time. A voice so stark and yet warm. So deep and yet melodious.

She could feel it, tingling on her skin.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked, still not looking at him.

Outside, on a magic wind, the girl’s kite flew right back in her arms. Elain smiled faintly.

“I… felt something,” he replied. “Like you were calling for me.”

She was? Honestly, it wouldn’t have surprised her. Elain still didn’t quite understand how this whole thing worked. But could he actually feel when she was thinking about him?

It was quite a lot.

“That’s why I thought you were in danger.” He went on, “I assumed it was the only way you could call for help.” His tone was low, steady. Like he didn’t want to scare her away.

Because I know it wouldn’t be me you’d call if you could help it.

She hated that he didn’t understand. She hated that she could not bring herself to tell him the truth, how his smile was the first thing she saw in the morning. That his laugh sounded in her ears with every step she took. That his hands were what she imagined when she… Red stained her cheeks.

She hadn’t yet looked at him, but she could just see his head dip to the side as if wondering what she was thinking about. Or rather, was she really thinking about what he suspected?

At the top of the tallest mountain…

“Elain,” he whispered and then cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, okay?”

Elain furrowed her brows, but her chin remained dipped.

He sighed unevenly and then spat, voice higher, “I’m sorry the Cauldron made me your mate. I’m sorry I’m so abhorrent you can’t even look at me. Just tell me you’re fine and I’ll go.” His arms slackened at his sides. Defeated.

Elain’s head snapped towards him then. Her eyes met one of russet and one of gold, like the brightest of suns on a fall day. She saw the tears first, the same ones she could feel marking her own cheeks.

In the depths of all the seas…

“You-,” she sniffed. “You stupid, stupid prick.”

She saw his eyes widen the instant she closed the distance between them and pointed an accusatory finger to his chest.

“You know nothing!” She yelled. Actually yelled.

Elain wiped some of the tears away, but they kept coming like an overflowing river. Feelings buried so deep came afloat.

“Don’t you understand I can’t look at you?” She demanded more than asked.

“How can you not see I’m burning?” Her index finger kept poking his chest of its own volition while his face had paled alarmingly. He was looking down at her, tears glistening in the light.

On a journey so certain…

“You think I don’t feel anything”? Elain sniffed again. “Well, you’re so terribly wrong! I feel so much every time I look at you, I don’t know what to do.” Words were flowing and she didn’t even have to think them.

“You live with me every second of every day. You render me useless every time I think of you because all I want is to touch you and kiss you and hold you and never let go.”

He caught her wrist and flattened her hand above his heart. It was beating so fast.

“I want you, Lucien.” She could feel him tremble underneath her palm, just when he closed his eyes as to savour her words. “I just don’t want to burn you.”

Lucien smiled, so sweet and wicked at the same time, eyes so full of hope she cursed herself for not telling him sooner. “Didn’t you hear?” He whispered, his breath caressing her neck. “I’m the Lord of Flames.”

I search for light and I find you.

#acotar #acomaf #acowar #acofas #acosf #sarah j maas #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #elucien #elucien fic

[dreamlifebunny]

it doesn't matter where you came from, what matters is that you're here now.

one thing that really bugs me about spiritual communities in general (reality shifting, law of assumption, non dualism, etc.) is that a lot of people shame others for not understanding things or for believing in things that are limiting when they first start out. i mean, i understand the frustration - anons can ask a thousand questions that could be answered if they read pinned posts, and we all just want everyone to abandon their limiting beliefs and just get it.

but the fact is that we were born in a society that teaches us that we are limited and that some things are impossible, from the time that we are small until we find these teachings, and we are slowly undoing them through exploration and self-inquiry. it's an overwhelming and tricky journey, filled with so many beautiful highs and a lot of devastating lows, and i feel like everyone deserves a whole lot of compassion when searching for answers. i know i needed love and compassion when i first started, because my ego was scared and sad and was searching for answers in order to feel loved and secure. being told i was dumb and having someone be frustrated with me for my questions was the last thing i needed to become self-actualized. i know that everyone is different, but this is just my experience, so i wanted to share it.

my beliefs are constantly evolving into what brings me more peace and understanding. in the beginning, i wouldn't have been able to believe that my assumptions create my reality (law of assumption) if i hadn't been introduced to the idea of reality shifting. i wouldn't have understood the fact that this life is just beautiful dream and that my true Self is the dreamer (non dualism) if i hadn't first been able to separate my "imagination" from my "real life" (3D and 4D from law of assumption). these were all stepping stones in my understanding of the greater ideas that i needed to get to, and i feel no shame in formerly having beliefs or practices that i don't identify with anymore. i don't believe that you should have shame, either, regardless of where you are at in your journey of self-discovery and creative power.

i get so sad when i see bloggers shaming others for not understanding things when all of this is so fucking difficult to grasp when one is first starting out. i mean, we come from societies that have beliefs as foolish and damaging as skin colour making you inferior, or that gender is binary and you can't express yourself the way you feel inside. with beliefs such as these, of course the beliefs of anything being possible and the fictional being real are going to sound impossible and profoundly false. in my personal opinion, the tough love approach has never helped me - compassion and patience has. i feel like so many people believe and understand that we are all one and have a great understanding of the truth of things, and yet go around and are rude to those seeking answers. it just feels so pathetic to me to see bullying of those seeking answers when they're literally just an extension of the answerer. anons are showing up with silly questions because bloggers expect them to have silly questions. and i realize that even this is hypocritical of me to say because i could just choose to see a spiritual community full of love and compassion instead of what i'm seeing, but i still wanted to share this while i unravel my own hypocrisy.

i feel like if you are wanting to be a teacher of others, you have to take on the responsibility that being a teacher holds, which includes patience, patience, and more patience. that's just my own perspective at least, and everyone is welcome to have their own, but my favourite teachers have been ones that guide me to my own answers with patience and compassion. i am also profoundly sensitive and feel wilty when others are cruel to me, so maybe i'm just trying to speak out to those who feel similarly, because this is a post i wish i could have read when i first started my journey. ultimately, everyone can do, be, and say whatever they like - it's their own blog after all - but i just want to be a voice of compassion to anyone who is in the beginning stages of learning about the law of assumption, non dualism, or reality shifting. it all comes down to the same profound teachings that we are, at our core, limitless.

all of this is to say that i am proud of you. you are doing a good, great, amazing job. you are worthy of love and goodness in your life no matter what others may make you feel. you are worthy of the absolute best and nothing less. it is a hard journey at times, but it is a worthwhile journey, and you are brave and creative and beautiful for taking the steps to expand and give yourself the best life. you deserve compassion and love and patience, and i am rooting for you every step of the way. i hope you are rooting for yourself, too.

ultimately, it doesn't matter where you got your beliefs. what matters is: does it feel right to you? does it make you feel connected to your true, unlimited Self? does it open up your world and your heart to the endless possibilities available to you? does it give you peace? if so, it doesn't matter what practice or teaching you believe in. you are your own greatest teacher.

it doesn't matter where you came from, what beliefs you once held, or who you've been in the past. what matters is that you are here, learning and growing, learning how to give yourself the most beautiful experiences that your creative power has to offer. be kind to yourself and remember that we're all just trying to expand and love and open ourselves up.

#not sure how to tag this one considering its just a loving rant. but yeah #law of assumption #non dualism #sensitive bb bunny strikes again #bunny's originals #even now i'm worried that someone is gonna be mean to me about this post LOL gjhsghjgf #sensitivity is a blessing and a curse #neville goddard #edward art

[knoxdrei]

Morning Glow

For Trafalgar Water D Law, there was perhaps a view that he could get used to. The Polar Tang was calmly making its way through the sea. Close to the surface, just like every morning, so that they could exchange the stale oxygen from the night for a fresh sea breeze via the valves on the main mast. Even though they had an excellent ventilation system that filtered the air in a way that it wasn't actually necessary up to 96 hours, Law still insisted on it.

On one hand, it reduced the spread of diseases via ventilation and at the same time, it improved the crew's morale to see the sparse daylight shimmering in the ocean outside their windows.

Law would never admit it, of course, but even for him it was the perfect way to start the day, sitting alone in his cabin with his coffee cup and watching the sea shimmer and glisten.

And now that a certain swordsman was sharing the bunk with him while traveling from Zhou to Wano, maybe the whole spectacle had taken on a rather picture perfect touch.

Sipping the hot caffeinated brew, Law watched the reflections of the sea dance over marbled muscles. Small shadows were cast and continued to flit across the sea-tanned skin.

He leaned back silently on the couch, savoring the caffeine and the sight of the sleeping strawhat pirate in his bed. Stripped down to his bare skin and breathtakingly hot, piratehunter Roronoa Zoro laid across the mattress on his stomach, his arms crossed over his head, one hand buried in his soft hair and hummed under his breath.

A sign of trust.

Law had learned that the piratehunter only hummed like this when he was truly asleep. And heaven knows he really rarely did, which explained his need for constant naps.

In fact, Law had only known two situations so far.

One: Mugiwara-ya ordered his swordsman to do it.

The first time he had witnessed it was during their journey on Bartholomeo's fucked-up Fanboyship. Mugiwara-ya, usually so high-spirited and always in motion that Law had inwardly labeled him with the diagnosis ADHD, had calmly settled down next to the swordsman and ordered him to rest. The swordsman had snarled in disapproval but made absolutely no effort to resist when his captain had placed his head in his lap.

Law had watched the two of them for about an hour. Mugiwara-ya stayed abnormally quiet and serious on guard, while his swordsman allowed himself to let his guard down and actually sleep.

And two: for a couple of days now, Law could occasionally hear the exact same humming in his bed in the morning while he enjoyed his first cup of coffee of the day.

The first time, the usually vigilant piratehunter had been startled out of his sleep and, heavens, he'd been annoyed. Law had been flattered when he'd revealed that it was usually only around Mugiwara-ya that he was able to trust that someone was keeping track of things while he switched himself off for good.

The mystery that Zoro was now allowing himself this moment of vulnerability around the opposing pirate, passing that responsibility with the fresh smell of coffee for a while, remained a secret between the two of them.

It was perfectly fine with Law. As a captain it was his responsibility to protect the people on his ship anyway.

Besides, it gave him the chance to enjoy this picturesque view.

Of course Law would never tell anyone about this, but Zoro was an extraordinary specimen of the human race. His body was perfect and like something straight out of a medical textbook. Defined and an anatomical blueprint. Every single muscle was well-defined and trained. There was not an ounce of too much fat, allowing the muscles to stand out fine and marbled beneath his skin. When he flexed them, one could literally see them at work.

Fine veins were visible on the skin, making it easier for any doctor to insert injections. The skin was flawless, despite the many large and small but faded scars.

The swordsman's low hum was music to Law's ears. He still wondered how a man could have such an incredibly attractive voice.

The allied pirate fascinated him in more ways than one. The doctor in him loved his anatomy and was dying to dissect him down to the last fiber to figure out how the man had survived injuries that would kill any ordinary human. Ever since Chopper had handed him Zoro's medical file because of the short-term separation, his fingers had been tingling. The little quite adorable elk had warned him specifically about the swordsman as a patient. Although he never really got sick, he was constantly suffering from life-threatening injuries and had no sense when it came to his recovery.

Law hadn't been able to resist using his Room to sneak a closer examination of the documented traumas while Zoro was in a deep slumber. There was hardly a bone in his body without traces of old fractures and many of his organs had scar tissue from internal injuries.

Nevertheless, he was still a perfectly healthy man.

His ability to heal had to be extraordinary. However, Law already experienced that his sense of physical pain was almost non-existent. Which was absolutely incomprehensible when one considered just how ticklish and sensitive the swordsman reacted to being touched.

But apart from the fact that he was a medical wonder whose secret he would love to find out, Law was also fascinated by the man.

Piratehunter Roronoa Zoro was not some emotionless demon, contrary to the myths about him. A predator, no doubt. But one that was quite docile when not provoked.

The swordsman was somehow intelligent, cunning and stupid at the same time. On the surface he gave the impression of four functioning brain cells: Breathing, sleeping, drinking and eating, training and fighting.

Maybe even sex, judging by how needy the pirate could be.

However, on a closer analysis, he was so much more than that.

He was truly masterful at trusting his instincts. And so far, Law had never once experienced them cheating on him. Except maybe when it came to his sense of direction. Which was absolutely catastrophic.

Law chuckled softly into his coffee at the thought of how sensitive the swordsman was about his weakness. But who in the name of the devil got lost on a straight path? And how on earth was it possible not to tease him about that?

The swordsman growled softly, as if he knew exactly what Law was thinking about. The smile on the doctor's lips spread a little wider. Zoro had probably rested enough and would wake up soon. Returned to his vigilance.

And Zoro truly did always keep a watchful eye on the people around him, apparently feeling somehow responsible for their protection. He was just gentler than people gave him credit for.

"Your fucking eyes might just pop out when you keep staring at my backside like that!"

The swordsman's low sleepy growl filled the room, although it was barely more than a whisper. Zoro didn't even start to move, he wasn't really fully awake yet.

"Hmm..." Law grinned into his coffee. "Just admired that bite mark on your ass cheek."

Zoro laughed quietly and clicked his tongue. "Guess the little fucker just wasn't able to control himself last night!"

"Seems like it!" Law admitted and drained his cup. He watched as the swordsman stretched and finally rose. Still sleepy, he stumbled over to Law and reached for the cup in his hand. Law smirked as the man allowed himself a brief pout at the yawning emptiness of the vessel.

Silently, he took the cup labeled Greatest Captain #1 away from him and winked. Two hand gestures and two words later, the empty vessel in his hand was replaced by a cup of fresh hot coffee.

The swordsman grinned with satisfaction and took the cup. "Lucky you. I was about to call you a fucking egotist!" he grumbled into the cup and flopped down on the sofa with Law. Just like any other morning, the surgeon spread his legs without a word and let the swordsman lean back against his chest, enjoying his first sip of caffeine for the day.

"How rude, Zoro-ya! Who the heck said I'd share my beloved mug of coffee with you?" he teased, taking the cup from the pirate again. Zoro just grumbled again, low and vibrating so Law could feel it against his bare chest. It was their little ritual.

The swordsman stole a single sip of coffee and then laid back down to sleep. This time, on top of Law. And this time on guard.

Another small detail of his morning that he could almost get quite used to. However, there was absolutely no question of being given the chance to enjoy it over the long run. They almost arrived at Wano and it was out of question that their ways will part once they took Kaido down.

Law would ask, but he knew that it was absolutely pointless. And he had to admit, at least to himself, that he was a little envious of Mugiwara-ya. Envious that this annoying rubber gnome had found this man and earned his unconditional loyalty and devotion. Even if Law had the audacity to try to steal the swordsman away - and by heavens, if he had the chance, he wouldn't hesitate for a second - all he would gain was a loss, because piratehunter Roronoa Zoro would never pledge himself to anyone other than Monkey D Luffy.

Law grumbled scowling. Who was he fooling? He wasn't envious, he was freaking jealous of Mugiwara-ya. Sure, his crew was also loyal and devoted to him, but Zoro was taking it to a level with his devotion that he would love to have all to himself.

"How can you be in such a bad mood first thing every morning?" the swordsman muttered, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Shut up!" Law replied and reached for his chin. He gently pulled it upwards and placed a kiss on his forehead. Zoro grinned and looked at him.

"Good morning, sunshine!"

Law smiled as the piratehunter took his hand and placed it on his chest. Right over that heart. He felt a small skip in heartbeat. Well, while he might not have this man in his crew, there was something he had that nobody else could possess.

His own heartbeat safely stored in the strong chest of piratehunter Roronoa Zoro, whose beating heart he could sense calm and strong inside himself.

#roronoa zoro #zoro #trafalgar law #trafalgardwaterlaw #zolaw #lawzo #one piece #mugiwarapirates #heart pirates #fanfic #oneshot #one piece art #one piece fanart #polar tang #heartbeat #good morning #picture perfect moment #one piece fanfiction #headcanon #fluff