#like i'm not even worth the time of the people i've “known” the longest even the ones that are supposedly interested in the same things | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jennay · 7 months

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Photographs

Noah Sebastian x reader

Request: I've got a fluffy one with Noah!! You've been best friends forever, and one day, Noah looks over old pictures of you guys and realizes that he's in love 🥰

An: this is around 3-4k and it's the longest thing I've written on here. I loved this idea so much. 🖤

Noah Master List

Noah didn't want to tell you the bad news. He didn't think you would take it well, but much to his surprise, you acted like you didn't care.

You didn't want him to feel guilty, so you put on a brave face and pretended it didn't matter. "It's okay." You give him a reassuring smile. "We've celebrated so many birthdays together, one more or less won't make a difference." You wrap your arm around his and pull him along. "Let's make the most of our time?"

"Really? You're not mad?" He asks, sounding doubtful but following your lead.

"I know you have a lot going on, and you need to show up at these things." You say, stopping in front of an old building with a sign that says 'Antiques.' You'd always loved browsing through the dusty shelves and finding hidden gems from the past.

Noah, on the other hand, hated the smell and the clutter of these places, but he never complained when you dragged him along.

"Come on, let's go treasure hunting." You say, pushing open the door and stepping inside.

"It smells like my grandma's attic," Noah whispers to you, keeping his hands in his pockets and looking around nervously. He always acted like he was afraid of catching some ancient disease.

"Stop." You laugh, "You're literally so dramatic."

You unlock your arm from his and walk into one of the sections filled with stuff from the 1950s. You loved the feel of the fabrics between your fingers, the smell of old perfume and dust, and the thrill of discovering hidden gems among the piles of clothes.

You told everyone you would reinvent the style and wear them, but you never did. Instead, they collected dust and stayed in boxes. You always told people it was because your apartment was too small for such a big project, but the truth was, you just didn't have time for all your hobbies.

Noah watched you with amusement, wondering what was going through your mind. He'd known you for a lifetime, yet you still surprised him.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see him watching. "You look awkward, Noah. Can you at least pretend to look at something? They're gonna think you're casing the place."

He saunters closer, standing behind you and leaning down to rest his chin on your shoulder, "I hate this place."

You pick up another shirt, holding it in front of you, and observe the fun pattern, wondering if it's worth it. "Do you think I should get this?"

Noah stands straight and gently grabs the shirt from your hands and holds the shirt close to your chest, imagining what it would look like on you. "I like it, but I think your boobs are too big." He laughs. "I don't think it's going to fit."

"My boobs aren't even that big." You say, shrugging your shoulders; you grab the shirt back, folding it and setting it down.

You notice his eyes falling to your chest as he says, "They are!"

You cross your arms over your chest, a light laughter falling from your lips, "Stop looking at them!" You snap your fingers at his face, "My eyes are up here!"

"Sorry, but the denial is extreme."

You tilt your head back, looking at the ceiling, praying for the strength not to murder him right then and there. "Let's get out of here; I'm not asking you for advice ever again."

Noah laughs, following you down the aisle, and when you reach the door, he gladly reaches out, holding it open. "After you." He smiles goofy as he showcases the world outside.

He inhales the fresh air, glad to leave the musty store behind. "How about a drink?" He gestures to the bar down the street. "Or are you ready to call it a night?"

"Let's go to my place instead. I still have some beer from the last time you were over. And I found these old photos of us when I was packing. You have to see them!"

He freezes on the sidewalk and gapes at you. "Packing?" His voice croaks, and his smile quickly fades.

Your eyes widen. "Shit." You say under your breath. "Noah, I…let me explain."

He blinks at you a few times, waiting for you to start explaining, but you can't find the words.

You and Noah never kept secrets from each other, and his heart sank at your words. He feels anxious as he wonders why you're moving and why you didn't tell him sooner.

You two had been inseparable since childhood, growing up in the same neighborhood in Virginia, and when he moved away, you followed him. You had never lived more than half an hour apart.

"I meant to tell you, but I knew you'd freak out, and I had this whole speech planned." You say, trying to sound casual. You hope he'll understand you're not abandoning him but just trying something new.

He shakes his head and walks away from you towards his car. He presses a button, and the doors unlock.

"You can explain in the car." He says coldly.

He's angry you didn't trust him enough to tell him sooner and feels betrayed by your secrecy.

You fasten your seat belt, feeling a knot in your stomach. The silence between you and Noah is deafening. You wish he would say something, anything, to break the tension.

Noah rests his head on his hand on the middle console and steers the car with the other. His expression is blank, but you can sense his resentment. "Where are you moving? Is it far?" He asks, his voice flat.

"Washington." You manage to squeak out.

He straightens up and grips the wheel with both hands. He glances at you when he stops at a red light. His brown eyes are cold and distant. "That's two states away from me." He says, his tone bitter.

You sigh heavily, "My brother offered me a job, and with it being a new company, I want to help. He helped me through some pretty hard times." You pause, remembering how your brother was always there for you when you needed him. "I wanna help him out now that he needs it." You say softly, hoping he will see how much this means to you.

You glance at him, hoping to see some understanding in his face.

"What about me?" He quietly asks, his voice cracking slightly. "You're okay with just peacin out on me?" He stares at you with disbelief.

"It's not like that." You try to explain, but your voice trembles. "Noah, you do this to me all the time. Every year four the last four years, to be exact." You look away from him, feeling tears welling up in your eyes. Arguing with him was your least favorite thing to do.

He rolls his eyes, "My job is touring, and I always come back!" He reminds you, raising his voice slightly. "And when I'm not working, I spend time with you!"

He pulls into your apartment complex, but you don't respond to his words. There was no use in adding gasoline to the fire.

You unclick your belt and open the door. On a typical day, this is where Noah would get out and meet you in front of the car and give you the biggest bear hug telling you he will see you soon, or he would come upstairs and have a few drinks while the two of you played games and laughed your asses off, but Noah won't even look at you after you.

You shut the car door and walk around to his window. He rolls it down and numbly looks at you. You hate this. You hate hurting him like this. "I know you're mad, and I'm sorry. I should've told you a long time ago. Before I started packing." You say in a shaky voice. "I didn't mean to upset you."

He nods, biting his lip. He doesn't know what to say to you. He feels like he's losing you.

"Can you wait a minute? I have something for you." You ask him, hoping he will accept your gift.

He studies you for a second, noticing the fear in your eyes. He doesn't want you to be afraid of him, but he's angry, too. "Yeah." He says softly, giving you a weak smile.

Noah waits for you in the car, lost in his thoughts. Is he wrong for feeling this way? Does he have the right to be upset?

You come back with an envelope in your hand. You hand it to him through the window. "These are some photos of us. I thought you might like them." You say with a sad smile. "I made copies so you can keep these."

He takes the envelope from you but doesn't open it. He looks at you with a conflicted expression. "Thanks." He says quietly. "I'll look at them when I get home."

Noah was curled up on the couch, his eyes glued to his favorite show. He knew it was a futile attempt to distract himself from the pain of losing you.

The envelope you gave him lay on the coffee table, a silent reminder of what he was about to lose.

He had brought them down from his bedroom, telling himself he would look at them, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. They just taunted him with their presence.

He glanced away from the TV, noticing his bandmate and friend coming down the stairs. He watched as Jolly approached and sat on the couch beside him.

Jolly picked up the envelope and examined it curiously. "What's this?" He asked, shaking the envelope slightly.

"(Y/n) gave me some pictures," Noah muttered, turning his attention back to the TV.

"Ooh, pictures? Like naughty pictures?" Jolly joked, wiggling his eyebrows. He tore open the envelope and pulled out the photos.

Noah didn't stop him; he wanted to see the pictures, too, but he needed someone else to do it. "She's moving to Washington next week," Noah states painfully. "She thinks she gave them to me as a parting gift, but I think she's a sadist."

Jolly hands Noah the photos one after one, making sure that he looks at every single picture. "You're going to let her go?"

He shrugs at his friend, "I can't tell her what to do, man. It's her life."

Noah stares down at one of the photos, feeling nostalgic. He smiles as he recognizes it's a picture of you and him from your teenage years when you were both rebellious and adventurous.

Noah remembered the day perfectly because it was the same day your parents decided he was able to stay with your family for a few weeks until he could figure something out.

He was always grateful for your parents, who treated him like their own son. He bounced back and forth between your house and a few others, never feeling like he belonged anywhere. But with you, he felt at home.

You were sitting next to him on a bench at the park, leaning your head on his shoulder. Your hair was bright pink, contrasting with your black clothes and accessories. You wore stud bracelets and Converse shoes, showing off your punk style. Noah wore skinny jeans and a red band t-shirt, matching your edgy vibe. You thought you were the coolest kids in town, but doesn't every 16-year-old think that?

You had a camera in your hand and snapped a selfie of the two of you, capturing the moment forever. You smiled at him with your eyes sparkling, and he felt his heart skip a beat. He still feels it every time he looks at you.

He continues to flip through the photos, listening to Jolly's side comments about how dorky the two of you are or how he couldn't fathom having a friend that long.

Noah felt a strange sensation in his chest as he continued flipping through the images. He saw your smile, your eyes, your laugh, and he realized how much he missed you. He was starting to comprehend why he was so upset you were deciding to move away from him. He felt like he had been punched in the gut. "Fuck." He says, tilting his head back and dropping the photos beside him. He runs his hand down his face dramatically. "I can't let her go."

Jolly finds this whole situation amusing. "Oh?" He laughs.

"It's her. It's always been her, dammit! I'm mad because I love her, and she wants to leave." He shakes his head, feeling a rush of emotions.

Jolly chuckles at Noah's sudden realization. "Yeah, man. I was wondering how long that was going to take. Glad you caught up." He says sarcastically.

Noah leans forward, groaning while resting his face in his hands, "What do I do?"

Jolly stands up, stretching his arms out and yawning. "You can start by, I don't know, telling her?" His hands fall back at his side, "Why are you still sitting here? Go tell her." He demands. "I think heartache is great for making music, but dealing with you having a heartache moping around all the time is going to be miserable for all of us."

Noah looks up at him with a hopeless expression. "But what if she doesn't feel the same way? What if I ruin our friendship?"

Jolly rolls his eyes and grabs Noah by the shoulders. "Dude, trust me. She feels the same way. She's been dropping hints for years. You're just too dense to notice." He says bluntly.

Noah blinks in disbelief. "What?"

Jolly sighs and lists some examples. "Like how she always hugs you longer than anyone else. Or how she laughs at your lame jokes. Or how she looks at you with those puppy eyes. Or how she always calls you her best friend, but in a way that sounds like she means more. She's never gotten along with any of your girlfriends…and she's jealous when you don't spend time with her?"

Noah thinks about it and realizes he's right. He feels hope, "She does do those things."

Jolly nods and pushes Noah towards the door. "Exactly. Now go get her, tiger." He laughs.

Noah smiles and walks out of the door, leaving Jolly behind.

Jolly shakes his head and smiles to himself. "I did it."

You'd just finished packing the last box for your kitchen. You hated packing. You always left it until the last minute, hoping that somehow it would magically get done by itself. You always procrastinated. It was your biggest weakness and a terrific motivator.

You lay on the cold kitchen floor, exhausted from the continuous packing. You felt a wave of sadness wash over you as you looked around the empty room.

This was where you cooked, laughed, cried, and shared many memories with your friends. And now you were leaving it all behind. You thought about asking a friend to sit with you, but part of you wanted to be alone. This would be your new norm until you made new friends.

Am I doing the right thing? You text your sister.

You needed some reassurance, some validation, some support. You peeled yourself off the ground, lazily crawled to the fridge, and popped open a beer. It was one of the ones that Noah left. You stared at the label, feeling a weird pit in your stomach. You wanted Noah here helping you through this and sharing what's supposed to be a positive pivot in your life.

You wanted his support more than anyone's, but he ignored your text, and you decided to give him space. You understood why he was upset but thought he would get over it. It's not like the two of you were dating, and this was somehow breaking up your relationship. But maybe that was the problem. You wanted more, and he didn't.

You sipped the beer, feeling the bitter taste on your tongue. You wished you could talk to him, hear his voice, see his smile.

You wished he would tell you that he loved you, would miss you, and would follow you anywhere, but that just wasn't the case.

I think big decisions are sometimes scary. Besides, this will be the first time you won't have your sidekick, and I'm sure that's a weird feeling.

You sigh as you lean against the cupboard, texting her back, I don't think I can do it.

You feel a surge of panic and desperation. You can't leave without telling him how you feel. You can't let him go without knowing if he feels the same. You stand up, set your beer on the counter, and search for your keys. You knew what to do, and it was now or never. You didn't care that you were in pajamas; you needed to talk to Noah and understand what would happen if you chose to stay. You grab your purse and head for the front door.

As you open it, you're startled to see someone standing in your doorway with his hand up as if he were ready to knock. Your heart stops as you recognize him. It's Noah. He's here. He's looking at you with shock and confusion. "Hi?" Noah says as if the wind has been knocked out of him.

You stare at him, speechless. You can't believe he's here, at this exact moment when you were about to find him. Is this fate? Is this a sign?

"Is this a bad time?" He asks.

You shake your head no. Your shoulders relax, and you smile while letting him in. You hang your purse on the coat rack and lead him to the living room. "Sorry, there's shit everywhere."

He doesn't seem to care. He only has eyes for you. "You can't go." He bites his lip nervously. "I can't let you."

Your eyebrow raises, and you decide to stay quiet, hoping he will enlighten you.

Noah nervously grabs your hand and pulls you to the couch where the two of you sit. He turns to face you, holding your hand tighter than before.

"Just hear me out for a second." He swallows hard, unsure of how to say the words. "I'm an idiot." He exhales loudly. "I'd do just about anything for you. I hope you know that. Miles got us out of that interview on your birthday… the one out of town. So that I could be with you."

You pull your hand back, squeezing the bridge of your nose. "You guys didn't have to do that."

You feel guilty.

He reaches for your hand again, gently caressing it with his thumb. "We did Because I wanted to spend that day with you. I need to tell you something."

He looks into your eyes, his own filled with sincerity. "I'm in love with you." He says softly. "I can't stand the thought of losing you."

You feel stunned. You don't know what you were expecting, but it wasn't that. You feel a surge of joy and relief mixed with disbelief and fear. Is this real? Is he serious? Do you dare to believe him?

Your stunned face finally shows a smile creeping on your lips. "Good. I was going to find you to tell you the same thing."

He grins, no longer nervous, as he brings his hand to your face, closing the gap between your lips and pressing down. You feel his tongue gently trace your lip, asking for permission, and you don't hesitate to accept, allowing his tongue to dance with yours.

You wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him closer, feeling his heartbeat against yours, and before you know it, he's pulling you on his lap and deepening the kiss, making you moan softly.

In between kisses, he tells you how much he loves you, wants you, and needs you.

You gently pull away, resting your hands on his chest, lust in your eyes, craving more touches from him.

He smiles at you with love filling his eyes, "This means you're staying, right?" He rests his hands on your hips, waiting patiently for a response.

You giggle, a little surprised by his question. You thought it was obvious. "Yes," You say, looking around the apartment, "Wanna help me unpack?" He groans, but his eyes sparkle with joy. He pulls you closer and kisses you softly. "I guess I can, but only because I love you."

#noah sebastian x y/n #noah sebastian #noah sebastian bad omens #noah sebastian x reader #noah Sebastian x you #bad omens #bad omens cult #bad omens fanfiction #noah sebastian fanfiction

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fantasydaydreamers · 1 year

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Not-So-Villainous Firsts

Summary: Dating a villain isn't easy, but experiencing those cute first moments with them makes it worth it. From first dates to first kisses...they'll make sure to make you feel special~

Word Count: 1,665

Warnings: None

Author's Note: I've had this in my drafts for a hot minute...I actually don't know why I never posted this. VILLAINS CAN BE SOFT AND CUTE TOO!

Shigaraki

Shigaraki came to your house in the evening with a bouquet of flowers, the hand on his face covering the obvious blush. Villian life kept him busy but he so desperately wanted to make more time for you and show you just how much he cared for you. It made him nervous, to ask you out on a date, but seeing your ecstatic smile made him deem it all worth it.

He had a crush on you for a while and building up the confidence to ask you out took the longest. Not like you made it easy for him. One day you would make flirty comments, and the next act like it never happened. You gave him multiple openings to take and he never followed through until now.

Since he is a villain, he thought long and hard about his options for date ideas. Broad daylight is inconvenient and just lacked common sense.

But damn did he want it to be a special first date.

It wasn't until he was walking along a street one night, scoping out an empty building for potential future use when a scattered flyer hit him in the face. Almost turning it into ashes, the word 'carnival' caught his eye and a lightbulb went off in his head.

"(Y/n)?" Shigaraki said your name quietly, sitting next to you on the couch.

"Hm?" You were currently rubbing moisturizer into his arms and hands, trying to help him fix his dry skin problem.

"Are you free this Friday?"

You glanced up and noticed he wasn't even looking at you, his voice wavering the tiniest bit. You bit back a smile that so desperately wanted to show. Finally. Finally! "Yes, I'm free."

"....Good. I'll be here to pick you up around six"

From there, Shigaraki made sure to send an anonymous note to the carnival threatening them to keep it open until late unless there would be no carnival in the morning.

You don't know that though and you were oblivious to the paranoid workers that worked the rides until late into the night, their eyes constantly looking around.

"Ooh~ let's go up there!," you point up to the ferris wheel, dragging a shy Shigaraki along by his wrist.

The worker at the ferris wheel barely even looked at the two of you, Shigaraki being thankful that you were excited so it didn't raise suspicion.

The both of you settled in the two-seat carriage, you snuggling closer to Shigaraki as he gripped the bar securing you two in with four sweaty fingers.

"I had a really fun time tonight," you snuggle closer to Shigaraki as the ride started.

"Y-yeah."

Shigaraki's voice was trembling and you wanted to 'awh' at how cute he sounded. The view of the carnival was coming into view as you two reached the top, the ride slowing to a stop as other people were getting off.

You turn towards Shigaraki with an eyebrow raised in expectation.

"D-don't do that, (Y/n)," he said, a blush covering his face cutely. "I can't handle it."

"Handle what?" You shyly respond, lowering your eyes as you meet his gaze.

Shigaraki inched closer, his eyes also lowering as you closed yours completely, waiting.

His face was bright red now, observing you for a second as you waited for him, unguarded with your eyes closed, completely trusting and open.

His heart pounded hard against his chest as he committed the sight to memory and closed the remaining distance.

Your first kiss with him was shared on top of the ferris wheel, a warm summer breeze washing over you two as your lips moved together.

The carnival ended up staying open all night.

Dabi

Dabi was a confident man when he asked you out, already knowing you had the hots for him but still, a part of him was nervous. He didn't date, obviously, mostly known for hooking up or one-night-stands whenever he felt like it. Dabi was busy helping the League and just never felt like he had the time or energy to put into a relationship.

Until you came along.

You were the first person that ever made him do a double-take and pique his interest. The way you had conversed with him like a normal human being instead of who he was made him highly suspicious at first. Why would he be blessed with an angel like you? He felt undeserving at first, making a mental note to not treat you like his past hook-ups because he knows a good one when he sees it.

He tells himself that, but something inside of him changed after meeting you. He felt softer and although that bothered him at first, you showed him a patience and kindness he never thought existed.

Dabi had walked you home one night and asked you if you were free the next night.

"No, I think I'm going to my side-dudes house. How about this weekend?" You turn to him in all seriousness, trying not to laugh at his dead-faced expression.

"Very funny. I'll be here at eight."

"Why so late?!" You ask his retreating back, whining even though your heart was racing.

"You'll see."

Dabi picked you up one night and took you out on the town. He brought you to small street areas filled with food vendors, people coming together to party with music blasting and laughter filling the air. It was a classic city boy move, but you didn't mind. He was a villain after all so he had to be careful not to be in daylight as much, so...this was the only thing he could think of.

You two had walked up to different stalls, trying different foods, and talked while walking through the city. It felt so comforting to be around him, considering he was one of the most wanted villains in the world.

"I honestly thought you were going to take me on one of your little schemes," you admit, drinking from your frozen strawberry lemonade.

Dabi side-eyed you while chewing on some teriyaki chicken. "Why would I get you involved in that? I don't want you to get hurt."

Your chest warmed and you smiled, bumping into his shoulder playfully. "I'm a tough girl! I think I can handle a bit of danger." Puffing out your chest, you purse your lips proudly.

The next thing you knew, Dabi was pulling you into an alley.

"Oh? Can you?"

His words were huskier as he had moved close in your space, starring you down. His blue irises were mesmerizing, pulling you into his gravitational pull. You didn't even realize you were leaning in, failing to notice the small teasing smirk on his lips. Dabi shuffled back a bit and that's what broke you out of your trace. Embarrassment flooded your face, as you also pulled back, flattening out against the wall.

Adverting your gaze, you try to walk away until his arm comes up, hand pressing against the wall as he blocks your exit.

"You didn't answer my question."

Reluctantly, you turn back to him, still seeing that annoying taunting smirk.

"Apparently not you assh-"

Your first kiss with him was shared in an alleyway with blue, pink, and purple neon lights illuminating you two. Although you gave him a bit of attitude, it was nothing he couldn't handle, and most of the time you gave off such a sweet and innocent vibe. Your innocent eyes gazed into his completely trusting and unguarded which just...did something to him.

The kiss was gentle and breathtaking. When his lips met yours, the sound of laughing party-goers passing by the alley entrance and one of the neon signs flickering would stay vividly in your memories.

"Wow..." He had breathed out unknowingly. Your innocence and trust captured his heart that night. From his experience, he developed the pet name "dollface" because of your innocence.

Overhaul

He was never a sociable person so when he even remotely started feeling something for you, he hated it.

It took him a while to warm up to the idea of being in a relationship, but once he did, he turned into the softest man ever.

Chisaki had taken you star-gazing. Same as the other villains, he had wanted to keep a low profile, for your safety and his. He had taken you to the outskirts of the city where the lights wouldn't impact your view of the stars and he had even packed a little picnic and blankets. This surprised you greatly because...a secret romantic? Chisaki?

It happened to get chilly tonight and you had only worn a t-shirt, and as cliché as it was, Chisaki was taking off his leather jacket for you to wear. A slight blush appeared on his face when you put his jacket on, snuggling closer to him while gazing up at the stars.

He was watching you more than the sky.

"Oh look!" You pointed to the sky. "A shooting star!" You gasp as you watch it travel across the sky.

"Mhm.." Chisaki mumbled still staring at you.

Your eyes were so wide and filled with wonder he swore he saw the shooting star reflect in your eyes. "What did you wish for?" You had asked excitedly, turning to him only to see he was already staring at you intently.

He slightly blushed again because he got caught. If you ever dared to bring it up, he would deny it and say it was dark and that you're an idiot while blushing AGAIN and turning away "So?" You had asked again, deciding to not call him out on how cute he was being.

"What?" He asked still staring at you but now on your lips.

"I said what did you wi-" You were cut off by a pair of lips against your own. Giving in to the kiss, you leaned into him. It was soft and gentle like Chiskai was scared to do any more than that.

Unbeknownst to both of you, another shooting star flew by.

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #mha #bnha #dabi x reader #shigaraki x reader #overhaul x reader #mha x reader #bnha x reader #mha imagine #bnha imagine #chisaki overhaul #touya x reader #shigaraki tomura

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sublimecatgalaxy · 2 years

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Okay but I will beg for an awkward, cute Daryl one bed trope confession fic. 👀 I feel like I haven’t seen nearly enough of them for him.

I live this out in my head at least six times a day.

Also this has way more of a plot than I intended and way longer than I intended, 2k lmao, but. Ya know me.

(Gif off of pinterest. not mine)-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Didn't have to come out here, ya know." Daryl mumbles, stripping himself out of his poncho as he sets it out to dry, whistling to Dog as I shift my weight back and forth between my feet. From what I've gathered from Carol's stories, Dog was possibly the best thing to happen to Daryl in a really long time. He was a loyal companion, he's kept Daryl safe, and I can only imagine that he's been a comfort to him like he was to me all those years.

My hands itch to reach out to him, to hug him, to be back in his arms after all this time. After Rick, he took off, unable to move on and unable to accept Rick's untimely death. It was a hard experience to move on from, to grow as a civilization following the explosion at the bridge. But we all had to do it, even Michonne eventually had to set herself back down on earth and be there for her kids.

But Carol has been trying to convince him for years to come home, to go to any of the locations to at least be safe and sound with other people, other people he claimed to love and care for at one point. But he didn't want to, he wanted to be on his own, without anyone holding him down. He claimed it was how it should've been from the start.

This was the longest we'd gone without seeing each other since we've known each other, since the beginning of this whole thing. The longest I've gone without seeing him, being near him, high-fiving him, anything.

It took me months to get his location out of Carol's beautiful mind, begging and pleading and doing her jobs. I worked in the mud, I made food, I worked with people I hated to work with, I babysat Negan for hours and hours on end just to be able to come and see the man who's currently acting as if I'm not even here.

Daryl still doesn't realize how much he was missed. How much he is missed.

"It's been three years, Daryl." I sit down on the log in front of the fire, watching him as he works around the camp, ignoring the obvious- ignoring me. "I came all the way out here for you, will you please just talk to me?" I plead, shivering a bit as I run my hands over my upper arms, trying to gain all the warmth from the fire as I can.

Daryl turns to me, jaw gritted and chest heaving as he blinks rapidly. His eyes look over my shivering frame, my clothes damp from walking through the rain and a look of realization passes over his expression. He softens a bit, wiping his hands off on his pants as he steps around the fire to sit next to me.

"You walked here? In the rain?" He asks, my head bobbing in a simple nod as he sighs, shrugging off his jacket to wrap around my shoulders before pulling me into his side. "Dumbass." I chuckle, sniffling as I tug the jacket further around me, cuddling into his side.

An hour had to have passed before I started yawning, Daryl laughing quietly at my side as he stands, holding his hands out for me to take. He helps me up as I wobble a bit, body weak from walking the last few days. It had been the worst walk than it could've possibly been, between the walkers, the freezing rain, the lack of comfort. It was bad, but the endgame was going to be worth it- it is worth it.

"Lie down." Daryl nods towards his make shift cot, his arms supporting me as I lay back, feeling Daryl pull at my boots.

"I can do it-"

"Shut up." He laughs, untying my boots and tossing them onto the ground. Leaning over to his bag, watching him as I rest my arms under my head as he pulls out a fresh pair of socks, waving them in front of me as I reach out for them. "I got it, you need't rest." He whispers, sitting down on the edge of the cot as he pulls my wet socks off.

It makes my heart happy to see him again, to let him take care of me like he used to. He always kept me out of trouble, saved me if I was in trouble, and helped me heal from any and all trouble I've been through since the world went to shit.

"Thanks." I whisper, curling my legs up to my chest as I scoot over, making enough room for him on the cot. He looks down at me with a sideways glance, hands on his hips as Dog nuzzles his way into the makeshift tent. "Come on, D, stop acting like we haven't slept in worse conditions." I chuckle, my heart fluttering as he sighs with a playful eye roll, sitting down beside me. I watch as his fingers pull at his gloves, tossing them to the side along with his vest.

He lays down quietly on his back, hands resting on his chest as his fingers drum nervously. He looks boyish, biting at the inside of his cheek, eyes avoiding looking over at me due to the proximity. Proximity and closeness were never things he was particularly good with, always liking his own space because it made it easier for him to think. But I'd be lying if I said that seeing him so nervous around me wasn't the least bit exciting. It was more than exciting to me and it was exactly the reaction I want to get out of him.

"Our first sleepover." I tease, watching as a cringed smile appears on his lips, awkward and nervous as I snicker under my breath. He finally moves, tilting his head to look at me, our noses inches away as his bangs fall in his face as Dog jumps up onto the bed between our legs. With gentle eyes, he reaches up, moving some of my damp hair off of my neck, eyes now locked on the newly exposed skin.

"Gonna kill Carol for lettin' you come out here alone." I snort, scooting a bit closer to him as he lets out a nervous breath, my heart hammering against my chest as I watch him look over me, a glint of worry in his eyes.

"I'm fine. It was my choice." I assure but he shakes his head with a curt shrug.

"A dumb one." He scoffs, running a hand through his hair as I reach over to shove him playfully. "I'm just messin' with you." He smiles his fingers brushing against mine between us as I take a deep breath, my eyes flickering over his tired expression.

The art of eye contact was always mine and Daryl's thing, conveying more emotion through them without having to say a word. He has novels written behind his eyes, describing all of the pain and anguish that he's felt over the years along with the trust that he holds in me. My eyes convey a similar look but I'm not sure if Daryl is tuned in enough to read just how much I trust him and why. My trust goes deeper with him, venturing past care and into a more meaningful feeling, a feeling that I could only hope and pray that he returns.

"You look different." He whispers, biting at his lips as I smile, my eyes drooping a bit as I shrug. "What's different?" His eagerness makes my whole body heats up, my hands reaching out to play with the necklace around his neck, previously given to him by Judith. He watches me fondly as I do so, goosebumps erupting on his skin as I feel him shiver as my fingers brush against his clavicle.

"I told Carol I was coming to see you so she cut my hair." I admit, my eyes averting from his at my confession, embarrassment swarming around us as he lets out a quiet 'oh' as I cringe. "My skin's cleared up over the years too, Siddiq is great with natural anti-inflammatories." I blabber on, watching as he watches me speak.

"You look good." My brows tick up at his compliment, not expecting it at all. "I mean, uh-" he cuts himself off, clearing his throat as he rolls back onto his back, putting a bit of distance between us as I chuckle.

"You look good too. Just a little lonely." I reach up, poking his cheek as he huffs, reaching up to rub a hand over his face. I know he liked being alone, he liked his alone time so he could think and breathe, but I know there was apart of him that's happy that I'm here.

"Not anymore." The smile on his lips comforts me as I scoot closer to him, resting my head on his chest as his arm wraps around my shoulder. My knees move to rest on his hip, still curled up as he lets out a deep breath.

A few moments go by, my eyes fluttering shut at the sound of his heart beating slowly, a reminder that he's here with me, safe and sound and in my arms. But I'd be stupid to ignore the way he's fidgeting, even Dog whines every once in a while at the way that he's stirring.

"Can I tell you somethin'?" He asks suddenly, taking me off guard as I tilt my chin to look up at him through my lashes. "Can't laugh or nothing." I hold up my pinky to him, an action I used to do frequently with him when I would make him promise that he'd be safe. Instinctively, his pinky wraps around mine. He takes a deep breath in before looking up at the ceiling, his tongue sweeping out to wet his lips. "I bugged Carol 'bout you every time she'd come out here." My stomach flips at his confession, my brows pulling together as I grin.

"Oh, so you did miss me?" I tease, watching as he nods, his arm tightening around me as the wind whistles outside the tent, the sound chilling me to my bones.

"More than you think." He admits, voice shaking a bit as he gulps, letting me get impossibly closer to him without hesitation. My arm wraps around him, resting on his other bicep as I trace over the skin. "Every time I'd go out to hunt with traps I'd hear your damn voice in the back'a my head telling me not to step in one." I giggle quietly, quickly followed by a yawn as his fingers run through my hair. "Hope you stay."

"I told you I'd stand by you and not walk away, even when you do." I feel him press a simple kiss to the top of my head as he stutters out a reply.

"If you want to, you can stay. I want you to." I lean up a bit, resting my weight on my elbow as I look down at him, feeling his hand at the nape of my neck. He looks embarrassed almost, cheeks blushed as he mutters, "I, uh, want you." My breathing stops at his second confession of the night, my heart skipping a million beats in my chest as my lips part. "Been meaning to tell you that."

"Only took ten years of knowing each other, Daryl- Jesus." I chuckle, my hand reaching up to cup his cheek gently as he sends me a tight lipped smile and a nod, tilting his head to hide in my shoulder. I just giggle, hugging him close to me and I press a kiss against his cheek.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Taglist: @bubblebuttwade @rafelover2405 @leslienjazzy @sorceresss @grxnde-dwt @alex–awesome–22 @bunnietoof @niyamar1e @serialghost @plantlungs @geniusohn @akaliltimmytim @lilaalouuxx @xshariex @elliotsbeigeguitar @elle4404 @lelieja @srhxpc i@joselyn001 @taysirene @spinkspanther @thedivineuphoria @peter-maximoffs @tsukishimawhore @poohkie90@szlaco @distantsighs @nstyles4299 @wolflover384 @givemefoodandlovesstuff @vane28282 @yeswhatever33 @amirrahfranson @vvaalleennttiinna@f-mu @yaspillz @jeyramarie @skylievin @abbybarnes17 @jointherebellion215 @visiondaddy @steezysimfinds @its-ya-gay-boi-luigi @crunchytoenailsyum @glizzymcguirex @beth123lg @melovesmut @rafecameronswhore @ariianelle @write-from-the-heart @vampviolets @haylee-e@popehaywardssecretgf @honee-chai-tea @lokiandbuckywife @smoke-and-fire @officiallyunofficialperson @heyaitsklaudia @rosepetalsparks @bluetreecloud20 @scenesofobx @double-shot-of-tequila @1dluver13xx @colbysbrocks @iamasimpingh0e @smoke-and-fire386 @chiyongberry @id-3-kbro @diorsitgirl @errorfound101-allideasburnedout @neverwillknowme18 @ellyskey @taylors-folk @loversjoy

#daryl #daryl dixon #daryl x reader #daryl dixon x reader #the walking dead #the walking dead universe

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utilitycaster · 1 year

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My unpopular opinion is that Im0dna is a great example of "just because someone knows you the longest, doesn't mean they know you the best". They don't really underwater each other like other people in the party already do

Hi anon,

So the ask meme is done but I don't actually know if this was intended as part of that, as I also have the sort of personality that solicits unpopular opinions into my inbox anyway. (Also I am guessing underwater is a very funny autocorrect mishap for understand; I have been there).

Anyway, yeah. I think my favorite meta I've seen is that what Imogen and Laudna actually ask of each other is just to be there - because it is true that they have both lived incredibly lonely lives. For what it's worth I think loneliness/missing someone is perhaps the most common thread among Bells Hells, with a secondary theme being victims of circumstance/irrevocably altered by events beyond their control, and it frustrates me that a lot of framing of the ship ignores that Imogen and Laudna are not uniquely suited to understand this about each other. But it is true they have experienced loneliness that, in my opinion, is at least partially self-inflicted (also not unique) and that their response has been to be there for each other.

But it also means there's little room for change, because change threatens that status quo, and there's therefore no space to delve deeper. It's a little bit of the classic problem of if you start a romantic relationship with a friend and then break up, you might lose both the romantic relationship and the friendship. But it's more than that - Chetney and Imogen have zero romantic interest in each other and aren't even terribly close within the party, but when Chetney asks Imogen if she's okay Imogen is actually able to answer with some amount of honesty without pretending everything will work out, as she's not worried about making sure he feels comfortable. Deanna, who's known Imogen for less than a week, is able to address Imogen's constant use of psychic powers in a way that's not unkind but is in fact the honest sort of thing a best friend should be able to tell you. Or for another example, FCG's tendency to strongly urge people, including Imogen, to confront their pasts isn't always the most skilled, but it usually comes from a place of good intentions, whereas Imogen and Laudna's relationship feels...unconsciously transactional? I think we saw in the gnarlrock fight that they're just absolutely terrified of being in a fight and don't really know how to resolve conflict in a way that actually moves forward rather than smoothing things over. Like, it's not an unfair relationship - they're both getting the same companionship out of it - but there's not really space for one person to be angry at the other or to feel wronged. There's no room to breathe.

Anyway - I think the party split is really illuminating this! Imogen is benefiting immensely from this arc, as it both spotlights her relationships with other party members and gives her some time to process after being the central focus for so long. While I have to admit that Team Wildemount is the one I'm far more interested in for a number of reasons (fantastic guests, all the main PCs have cool plot hooks to explore, I love Uthodurn and Molaesmyr) I do hope that we get to see Laudna similarly have a chance to branch out (pun kind of intended).

#answered #Anonymous #critical role spoilers #cr tag #i need to write up about loneliness and choice tbh bc like #honestly the aeormaton date conversation ACTUALLY did everything people claimed the 3x49 conversation was supposed to be doing #and it just feels so disingenuous to ignore that fearne's felt abandoned and orym's experienced profound loss #and ashton fcg and chetney have all been altered in ways far beyond their control and been incredibly lonely as well #sorry to tag rant on your ask anon but like. i still maintain this isn't a notp for me yet #it's just...generally not working and then the fanon is so unbelievably dismissive to everyone else in the party and wildly biphobic #that whenever i'm like let's focus on the positive! my brain instead decides to be Hater Columbo like JUST ONE MORE THING

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nabaath-areng · 2 months

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I feel so strange thinking about how I considered myself "new" in FFXIV for the longest time, as when I started playing there were so many legacy players around. I saw their mounts and their titles, I talked to them, played with them, and to me they were the experienced ones teaching me how to play my first MMO. For years I considered myself a newbie.

And then, just the other day, I see in the chat of an FC I was invited to on an alt, people talking about having played for a long time, and their longest playing member having been around for 5 years. It hit me just how long of a time that is, and how much longer passed before I'd even realized it.

I ask others if they remember various things from the past, and I can count on one hand the amount of people I meet in recent years who do. So many things I still consider new and flashy, like Gpose and job gauges for instance, have now been in the game far longer than they have not. It's a strange situation caused by me losing about a decade's worth of memories and life (due to mental health issues that practically broke me) as well as the normal feeling ot time passing without me really thinking about it. Less and less did I see the legacy titles and mounts, but I didn't pay much heed. Until one day I suddenly stop and look around, realizing that I haven't seen any legacy players at all for a while. I'm certain they're out there, but most likely not in the same sheer abundance as before.

It's a bit similar to real life, where my home was once just an old, secluded village that have now become geographically closer to the city without ever moving. Where the others I used to surround myself with have all moved on in slow trickles over the years, and where I cannot expect everyone to remember the same things that I do. So many new people everywhere, some that cause lines in the grocery store that can afford to keep running after all these years, and some that fail to load in on my weak little laptop's screen.

It's like I have two homes mirroring each other, and obviously that means I age in both of them. I bought this game as a gift for myself on my 18th birthday... and here I am 10 years later, turning 28 today, and realizing that I'm still here in both places despite everything. Waiting for another expansion all over again, just like when I was staying alive just because I wanted to play Heavensward so bad.

I can't even begin to count just how many people I've known and interacted with throughout the years in this game. There are memories that my years of paranoia and psychosis stole from me (something which I only shook off the last remnants of half a year ago), of people who I know were important to me but who I'm also unable recall much about beyond their names, which is something which fills me with both deep shame and sorrow. Some I remain in touch with to this day, and some I am mutuals with on various sites, even if we don't chat regularly anymore.

There's a lot that I don't remember, or that I even memorized in the first place. Things have changed time and again for both better and worse. But FFXIV has remained a constant throughout it all, even when I've been unsubbed due to lack of a PC and just on a general break.

I don't know what my point is with all of this really, but I guess I just really wanted to get it off my chest. It's not all sunshine and rainbows these days either, but my mental health is better than it's ever been, I have a partner and friends and family who all mean the world to me, and even though some things will forever be less than ideal, I am so so so happy that I didn't give up. Staying alive really was the best decision I ever made ❤️

#pardon my emotional wall of text #that probably looks weird with phrasing etc #im all over the place and sleepy and unmedicated #its just been a Lot lately while playing #some bad (realizing how much has been taken from me due to mental illness)#but also a lot of good (realizing how much better things are now)#anyway i should rest my eyes now oops #good thing im not celebrating with family until tomorrow cause my sleep got fucked LOL #anyway ANOTHER EXPAC TO BE ALIVE FOR YEAAAAAH #idk theyre just like life milestones for me yknow #hw was the main one but the others have functioned similarly

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ivy-saurs · 4 months

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20 fic questions

i was tagged by @mutxnts ! thank you so much for the tag ash, i had a lot of fun answering these questions 💜

1. how many works do you have on Ao3?

i have 3 posted and i'm hoping to publish more this year! i have a few wips in the pipeline :)

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

40,769 words (haha 69 nice)

3. what fandoms do you write for?

ace attorney and the simon snow/carry on series

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

a snowy christmas (simon snow) one of us is lying (simon snow) carpool (ace attorney)

5. do you respond to comments?

yes! comments give me so much serotonin hehe

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

none of the fics i've written really have angsty endings haha, they have angst in the middle/towards the end but then i like to end on a happy note. if i had to go with one, maybe it would be one of us is lying?

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i would go with carpool because even though the ending is open, there wasn't any angst in that fic and it was a pretty short and happy fic

8. do you get hate on fics?

thankfully i haven't so far 😅

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

i don't at the moment but i would never say never...

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

i've never written one but there are some very cool crossovers out there!

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

thankfully not (at least not that i know of)

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

no i haven't!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i haven't but it's definitely something i would be open to doing! in primary school, my best friend and i would often co-write stories together and it was so fun!

14. what’s your all time favorite ship?

either narumitsu or snowbaz

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i'm worried that i'll never actually finish the AU i've come up with where edgeworth owns a gay bar and suddenly he's losing customers because a rival gay bar opens next door - and it just so happens to be owned by a cute guy called phoenix wright...

16. what are your writing strengths?

i think i'm fairly decent at writing dialogue and writing concisely!

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

stealing ash's answer for this one lol i'm also not the best at writing prose and i struggle with using flowery/poetic language and vocabulary

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i don't think i've ever done it before and if i did i would only do it for very well-known phrases in other languages like "te amo"

19. first fandom you wrote for?

technically pokemon when i was a kid, although i never published it, so if we're talking published works, then it's the simon snow fandom

20. favorite fic you’ve written?

one of us is lying! i worked so hard on it and i took a long break from writing it, to the point where i wasn't sure if i would ever finish it. but i did and it was SO worth it. i recently found my notes from when the fic was in its infancy and it made me so proud to see how much the fic changed and grew while i was writing it! it's my longest fic and i really wanted to post it all in one go - it took so much willpower to only post one chapter a week even though all of it was already written haha

i'm not sure who to tag but please feel free to do this if you want to and say that i tagged you in it, i always love reading people's answers to these questions!

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anipgarden · 7 months

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Ani Reviews: Hellstrip Gardening

Alrighty homies here's another Informal Book Review. This is the second time I've done a book review, but I hope this is helpful!

[Photo ID: a book, titled "Hellstrip Gardening: Create a paradise between the sidewalk and the curb" by Evelyn J. Hadden (Author of Beautiful No-Mow Yards) With photographs by Joshua McCullough, Foreword by Lauren Springer Ogden]

Out of the seven books I checked out from the library this round, I picked this one second because not only was I looking forward to the read, but so were some friends in my gardening server! Its one of, if not the longest book in the stack--the main contents are 279 pages total--but its definitely well worth the read! You can see where I live blogged it here.

The inspiration and energy in this book is potent! By the time I finished reading the foreword and the introduction, I was already dreaming up new gardening projects to work on next spring, and that energy stayed up all the way until the end! It definitely helps that the photos in this book are absolutely gorgeous! Seriously, even if you aren't wanting to make a front yard garden, I'd recommend this book for cool garden photos alone! This is another one of those books that's way more relevant if you're the home owner, or a landscaper (or just got permission from your parents to do some front yard gardening), but even still so much of the advice in this book is great for just about any kind of gardening as well! Between beautiful photos of front yard gardens others have already done, tons of encouragement and advice on how to handle anything from trees to poor soils to outdated laws and HOA boards, and a deluge of plant recommendations for different grow zones and purposes, it's definitely a valuable resource!

After the introduction, this book is separated into four major sections referred to as Parts. There's Inspirations, Situations, Creation, and Curbside-Worthy Plants. If you're looking for ideas on what a converted yard can look like, Inspirations and Creation is the place to go. If you're unsure how to do so with any specific circumstances you may be facing, Situations is the section for you. So on and so forth. All in all, between the gorgeous photos, and the amazing content, this was a fairly quick read for me!

I will say, this is a book aimed directly for gardeners in the US. While some of the general advice might be good for people abroad, at the end of the day its a book written in an American perspective for gardeners in America. That being said, it focuses on America as a whole--so if you're hoping for a dedicated section on how to do what you want in your state specifically, you might get lucky, you might get unlucky. I know the example garden for my state wasn't anything I'd be excited about, meanwhile there's three sample gardens for Minnesota (two in Minneapolis) and there's only twelve sample gardens in the book! Also, if you're looking for a book to tell you to only ever use native plants in your garden, this isn't the one--the book will eagerly encourage you use native plants, and will implore you to remove any invasive plants that may be on your property, but is also more than welcome to recommending well behaved non-native plants. Let it be known that I don't think this is a problem at all! But if you're picky about that, I'm just letting that be known.

Oh and also one final note. The book is called Hellstrip Gardening, and it does talk about hellstrips, but it doesn't only talk about hellstrips. A good chunk of the example gardens don't even have hellstrips. This book talks plenty about full yard transformation! Which I find fantastic and enlightening! If you're looking for a book that's only about hellstrips, though, this isn't it.

All in all, this is an amazing book with amazing photos, 10/10 could probably show to someone to get them to see the light of front yard gardens.

#ani reviews #ani rambles #out of queue #hellstrip gardening #I think another cool thing about this book is that it--albeit briefly--addresses some of the fears people might have about converted yards #like it doesn't go into full detail about all of them but it at least acknowledges it #which is honestly better than what a lot of articles i've read or the other book I've read in this stack have done #and granted the info they gave about alleviating tick fears isn't anything I haven't heard off a headspace hotel post #but it is nice to see it acknowledged in a published work!#still not sure if I would be able to convince My Mom to do something like this #because outside of 'wide paths' it gives no advice about Snakes and thats probably my mom's biggest concern outside of 'yard is lawn is gra #and my previous google search attempts yielded Nothing Helpful in that front #but thats less of a flaw of the book itself and more of a 'hurdle i personally gotta figure out'#i am getting off topic lets end the tags here gbye

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taihua · 5 months

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20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @gekidasa whose answers were excellent to read at 2am when I couldn't sleep <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 91

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 437,726

3. What fandoms do you write for? TGCF obviously is the main one, and Tolkien fic is something I regularly write because it feels like going home. I dipped my toes into Genshin fic this year and I've been known to randomly drop one-off fics for other fandoms when the brainworms hit!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

After Hours. The magnum opus. Deserves its place at the top.

I Want to Ki** You. I never expected this fic to get so popular so it amuses me that it's still near the top.

Further Precautions. Dumb humor win!

Carved in bone, heart engraved. The trope inversion amnesia fic!

Bet On It. So near and dear to my heart that I have spent the last two years trying to scrub off the serial numbers for publication and if that ever happens, it'll be amusing to see who recognizes it.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I used to, but then a depression era hit and now I have Inbox (666) and it fills me with dread to look at the number. I do read each and every comment and 9 times out of 10 I start tearing up even if it's something short like "loved this, thanks!"

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I'm too sappy to do actual unhappy endings, but Still Have Time sort of implies a cycle of toxic breakups that can't be fixed.

... I also forgot that I have that one Celebrimbor/Annatar pre-torture fic, which is objectively much worse than breakups now that I think about it. Does it count when Tolkien is the one who wrote the death-by-torture ending for Tyelpë, though?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? All of them!!!!! But I'll nominate Money Maker, because it's the only fic I think I have ever written, for any fandom, that involves the couple getting married at the end. I bullied them so hard in this AU that I decided they earned it.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Never in the comments themselves, but I saw people being dicks about my writing on Twitter every now and then, which is the unfortunate downside of having a well-known fic in fandom. Not everyone has to like my fics, but like... I can see what you're saying on the public forum in the community that I myself am active in, guys.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? *gestures at my AO3 profile*

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? The most I've done is throw in a cameo from other MXTX fandoms, and I guess that one self-indulgent Sk8/tgcf fic that lives in my drafts and will never see the light of day. I just don't find "they meet!" to be enough of a plot to be worth reading or writing. The thought of writing all that introducing sounds like hell, sorry.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yup, there was that time the person almost word-for-word replicated Still Have Time. They claimed it was an accident and apologized before taking it down when I commented, but that wasn't fun. I felt like a jerk for commenting even though it was blatant theft; they even left kudos on my fic :/

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, I have a handful of my fics translated into Russian thanks to some Twitter pals!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Sadly no. I always thought this would be fun, though, so if anyone wants to try it sometime... just sayin'........ my inbox open....

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? 300,000+ of my AO3 wordcount is for Fengqing and they're always going to be one of the most specialest ships ever for me for many reasons, but I also feel like I have to give a shoutout to Maedhros/Fingon in Tolkien fandom for being my longest-running ship? I got into them in high school and they're the ship that I feel I can just sit down and write something for them whenever I want.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? There was that Fengqing police AU I started and I thought it would be good, but it ended up not really feeling like them and that was part of what pushed me to focus on original writing instead of fanfic this year. Funnily enough, I Frankensteined some of the concepts from that AU into Constellate, which is to date my only unfinished WIP on AO3. I never really had a plan for what I was doing with that fic and I thought I could just power through it, which failed miserably.

16. What are your writing strengths? Humor, probably! It's hard to be funny in writing, but I do try.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I have about a year's worth of fic that needs to be line edited and reposted because I was cueing--sentences like "He felt that he was afraid" rather than "His heart pounded in his chest" etc. A writing teacher pointed it out to me this summer and I've been consciously trying to fix it, but I know a lot of my fics are worse because of this.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I never see this done well in fic. Personally, if I'm writing Chinese characters in China in an English language fic, it's implied that they're speaking Chinese, so there's no need to stick "Hao jiu bu jian" in quotation marks, yknow? It only makes sense to change languages if it's implied that this section of language is different from the rest of the narrative, and even then it can be distracting in a bad way to have it written out rather than saying "'Hello,' he greeted in French."

19. First fandom you wrote for? Lord of the Rings probably. I'm not going to look at my FFN profile to check.

20. Favorite fic you've written? I have lots of favorites for lots of reasons, but I'll give a shoutout to No smoke without fire this time because it's my only OC-centric fic and I'm happy that people like it anyway even though OCs aren't really a thing in danmei fandom.

Tagging: I will take the lazy route and say steal it and tag me. I like reading answers to these

#meme answers #i miss fics so bad... rattling my cage rn!!!!

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liltaz-asatreat · 2 years

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oooh working on the moon is fine but the alien jokes are getting old and lucreita :0 ??? thank you!!

...so this got slightly out of hand lol I wanted to do a time lapse of different scenes, and it turned out way way way longer than I thought it would alsdkjfdsglk

This is literally the longest single piece I've ever written, and I really hope you like it :D

Edit: Forgot to put this here, but this prompt came from this prompt list here!

Edit 2: You can also read this on ao3 here -> No Aliens on the Moon

“We could probably find a place hidden somewhere in the Sword Mountains or find a clearing in the forest.”

“There's also the desert if you don't mind the heat. No one goes that far out of Goldcliff for obvious reasons.”

“Hmmm,” Lucretia hums noncommittally. No that wouldn't do, she thinks as she pores over a map of Faerûn with Maureen and Lucas Miller. They're all standing around a table in the Millers' laboratory, looking for possible locations for Lucretia's future headquarters for what will become known as the Bureau of Balance. All the places the Millers have suggested so far could be reasonable, but she's still afraid someone unwanted will stumble upon it. Or, more concerningly, Barry would be able to find it. She needs it to be somewhere that's guaranteed to be unreachable with the exception for the people she wants there. It can't be anywhere on land. The best place and the one she's most comfortable with is up in the sky, but Barry obviously knows the Starblaster, and the ship isn't big enough to house an entire organization.

And the thought of having it be overrun with people who aren't her family makes her sick to her stomach. That's her home. That's her family's home with all of their century's worth of belongings still in it. There's too many memories. It's too sanctified a place that was theirs and theirs alone. The only thing they had left.

Lucretia shakes her head to stop that line of thinking. She needs to focus. Having it up in the sky isn't a bad idea, and the Millers have the technology. She just needs to figure out how to–

“Lucretia? Are you okay?”

Lucretia looks up to see Maureen looking at her with concern. She'd been silent for too long. Too caught up in her thoughts. She tries to give her a small smile as she says, “Yeah, I was just thinking. Could we build it in the sky?”

Maureen and Lucas look at each other. “I suppose we could, yes,” Maureen says. “Why do you want it there?”

“If it's on the ground, even in a remote location, there's still the possibility of someone finding it accidentally. If it's in the sky though, then there's no way for anyone to get there without doing so on purpose.”

“That's true, but aren't people going to recognize that there's a big floating base in the middle of the sky?” Lucas asks.

“We'd need to disguise it as something else.” Maureen walks over to a cabinet and pulls out parchment and a pen. “Something that people wouldn't think twice about it being there.”

“Like a cloud?” Lucas suggests.

“How about a moon?” Lucretia says.

Maureen laughs, and it's full of warmth and life, and it makes Lucretia's heart skip a beat. “You want to live on the moon? Like an alien?”

Lucretia smiles and rolls her eyes. “I already am technically one on this planet, so sure. Why not?”

“Everyone is going to notice if there's an extra moon in the sky,” Lucas points out.

Lucretia thinks for a moment. “Not if I erase that fact with the Voidfish.”

Maureen shakes her head with a smile. “That's true. Be careful how much you erase though. You can't let that kind of power go to your head, or it could do irreparable damage.”

Lucretia's heart plummets again and twinges painfully, but she forces herself to laugh through it anyway. “I won't. I'm only using it as much as I need to to destroy these Relics once and for all.”

“So this is the base. It's almost finished being built; we're just working on a few more dormitories, and, of course, the hangar.” Lucretia nods her head at a passing group of people as she leads her newest recruit, Avi, through the courtyard of the moon base. “I can take you to the hangar, so you can get a look at the cannons. Maureen and Lucas should be there already, and they can give you a tutorial on how it works.”

“Great! I can't wait to take a look at it! I've never been a part of operating such a technological marvel.” Avi says excitedly.

Lucretia smiles. “Do you have any more questions for me about your job duties or about the Bureau?”

Avi furrows an eyebrow. “Yeah, I have a few. If the Relics are as powerful as you say they are, how are you planning on destroying them? Do you have another engineer working on a machine that will be capable of destroying them?”

“Yes, it's actually almost finished,” Lucretia says smoothly. “It took a bit to figure out the logistics of how such a thing would work, but we've figured out the arcane technology needed to at least destroy other powerful magic items, so it should work on the Relics. I can give you a demonstration of how it works later with something not so important.”

“That would be great!” Avi says brightly. “My next question is, how did you come up with the idea to use cannons to get people off the base?”

“Well, we needed to have some way of getting people planet side,” Lucretia says with a chuckle.

Avi laughs. “Yeah, but why not use hovercrafts or something? If you have the technology to make the base float, then flying vehicles can't be too much of a leap to make.”

“Cannonballs are a much faster and more efficient way to travel. People won't get stuck going through a forest for days on end or something if we can just send them directly to their destination. Also, they're less noticeable and harder to track than traveling in a vehicle on the ground.” Lucretia explains.

They make it to the entrance of the hangar, and they stop to watch the process of people working on building the cannonballs and the cannon itself. Lucretia spots Lucas working under the table with the controls for the cannon and Maureen standing nearby, looking at a piece of parchment in her hands. She has her hair tied up in a messy bun, and she's somewhat covered in grease. She looks up at her for a second and smiles, and fuck she looks so beautiful. Lucretia's in too deep. Maureen waves at her, and Lucretia feels her cheeks heat up as she smiles and waves back.

“Director, did you hear me?”

Lucretia tears her eyes away from her and looks back at Avi who has an amused smile on his face. Her cheeks are burning even more now, and there's no way she can pretend that she heard what he said. “Um, sorry, no. What– What did you say?”

Avi laughs and shakes his head. “I asked why you decided to disguise this place as a moon. It could have been anything, and you chose to make the world forget it only had one moon? Do you just really like having an alien aesthetic or something?”

Lucretia sighs. “Really funny, but no, it has nothing to do with an alien aesthetic. It would have been really weird if it was a clear day and there was only one cloud in the sky or if it was grey and there's a singular white puffy cloud standing out against the dark ones.”

Avi laughs again. “But a second moon is less weird?” He asks incredulously.

Lucretia rolls her eyes with a small smile. “It's easier to make people think there are two moons than come up with a bunch of reasons why there's an unchanging white cloud no matter the weather.”

“I suppose you're right,” Avi concedes.

Lucretia nods. “Anyway, Maureen and Lucas are over there if you want to help them and learn more about the cannon,” she says, pointing them out to him.

“Alright. I'll see you around, Director,” Avi says with a smile, and he waves at her as he walks to join the Millers by the cannon's control table.

Lucretia watches as Johann looks up at Fisher in wonder. He seems entranced with the Voidfish already which is good. If Lucretia can't keep up with feeding it and spending time with it while running the organization at the same time, it at least deserves to have the company of the best bard in Faerûn. She hopes Johann will agree to watch over it, and she hopes Fisher will enjoy his company too.

Johann puts his hand up on the glass, but Fisher doesn't put up a tentacle to match. It hasn't done that with anyone since Magnus...

Lucretia sighs and shakes her head to rid of herself of that line of thinking. Fisher does, at least, hum a little at him, and Johann's face lights up.

“It's beautiful.” Johann lets his hand fall as he stares at it for a second longer before turning to look at her. “And it's incredible. Is it really responsible for stopping the war and making everyone forget?”

Lucretia nods. “Unfortunately, I can't spend enough time with it and feeding it now with everything I have to do, so I'm really hoping you're onboard with helping me in that regard.”

Johann's face falls again. “But if I feed it my compositions, no one else is going to hear them. I'll... No one's going to know who I am.”

Lucretia's heart breaks a little at how small his voice gets at the end of that sentence. “It's your decision. I won't make you do anything you don't want to do, but if you do want to help save this world, the job is yours. And I'll be sure to pay you very handsomely for your contribution. And this will only be until we destroy all of the Relics. Once they're all gone, you will be relieved from duty, and you can share the rest of your music with the world.”

Johann looks back up at Fisher for a long time. Fisher hums a little tune at him, and only Lucretia knows that it's not as energetic as it could be. Johann smiles a little again and takes a deep breath. “There's only seven, right? It shouldn't take that long, so I think I can hang around until they're gone from this world.”

Lucretia smiles a little. Gods she hopes it won't take that long. It's already taken way longer than it should. “I'm glad to have you onboard with this organization. Your job duties will just include taking care of the Voidfish, and I'll pay you 500 gold pieces a month. Do you have any questions for me about this job or this organization?”

Johann stares at her blankly and in disbelief for a few seconds as he mouths the words 500 gold pieces a month? Then he seems to register that she asked him a question, and he shakes his head a little. “Y-yeah, just one.” He scrunches his face up for a second and cocks his head to the side. “Why the moon? Do you like being considered an alien or something?”

Every fucking time. Lucretia sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “No, it's just a great way to make sure no one stumbles upon the base on accident or for the Red Robes, if they're still out there somewhere, to track us down.”

Johann smirks a little. “So it has nothing to do with the fact you have a possibly alien jellyfish that you have to keep secret?”

Okay, that's kind of funny. Lucretia shakes her head. “That's just a coincidence,” she deadpans, and Johann laughs.

“Thank you again for helping Killian and Boyland take care of Sally Oswald. That was very kind of you.”

“Pssh, yeah, it was no problem. I'm not one to stand around when people need help, and it looked like they could use it.” Carey Fangbattle twirls one of her daggers effortlessly between her fingers for a few seconds before catching it and using it to clean under her claws.

Lucretia's grip on her staff tightens slightly as she forces a smile on her face. “Well, now that you know what we're doing here, we would be happy to have you on board as a Regulator. I've been looking for someone to fill in as a third for Killian and Boyland's team for a little while now, and you've proven to be able to work well with them.”

“Hell yeah! That would be great!” Carey says emphatically. “I love what you're doing here, and– Well, wait. I should ask first, is this a paid thing?”

Lucretia chuckles a little. “Yes, you will be paid handsomely every time you come back from a mission. In fact, I can give you your payment for this mission right now.” She claps her hands and calls out, “Davenport!”

Davenport comes walking out of her office, holding a tray with a small bag of gold pieces and a token for the Fantasy Gashapon, and he walks over to Carey before handing it out to her. “Davenport!”

“Sweet, thanks!” Davenport nods as Carey takes the bag and token, and she looks the token over carefully as Davenport walks back into Lucretia's office. No doubt to get Carey's bracer ready.

“There's 600 gold pieces in there, and that's a token to the Fantasy Gashapon in our artificer's office. See, Bureau members aren't allowed to give each other magic items, but we know having some items is necessary for us to do our jobs, so the Gashapon is a clever work around for that. Leon will explain it more when you go see him. You can also spend your money at the independent retailer we have up here on the moon called Fantasy Costco. It should be easy to find because it's the only building here that isn't a dome.” Lucretia grimaces slightly as Carey laughs.

“Couldn't convince the store manager to conform to the aesthetic here, huh?”

“No, we couldn't,” Lucretia says bemusedly. “Garfield is... very persuasive and very stubborn on some things. Anyway, like I said before, we're happy to have you on as a Regulator. Your job duties will include checking up on Bureau members planet side that haven't checked in with us in a while to make sure they haven't gone AWOL, tracking down Bureau members who have gone AWOL and are going after the Relics for their own personal gain, and stopping them from collecting and using a Grand Relic by any means necessary. I'm not going to lie, this is a really hard job to handle because you may end up going after people you know and have befriended in your time here.”

Carey looks up at her with a little concern. “Oh yeah. I guess I didn't consider the fact that Sally worked for you too, huh.”

Lucretia gives her a tight smile. “She did. She was one of our Seekers. Usually a really good one too, but she must have gotten some inaccurate information about the whereabouts of a Relic called the Oculus, and she went after it in the hopes of collecting it herself. At least, that's what she told Killian and Boyland when they first confronted her before you turned up.”

“I'm... I'm sorry for your loss.”

An uncomfortable silence stretches between the two of the for a few moments before Lucretia shakes her head. “What had to be done was done, and we're lucky she was found before she could find it and use it. It would have ended very badly for her and a lot of other people if we hadn't caught her in time. Now, from Killian and Boyland's reports of your performance and the fact that Sally is now gone, I think we can skip the formalities of the Trial of Initiation before you get your bracer.” She claps her hands again and calls out, “Davenport!”

It takes a couple of seconds, but Davenport eventually walks back out into the room carrying another tray with a silver bracer on it. He offers it to Carey, and she takes it. “You should put it on your non-dominant arm, but really, it's up to you. It's just easier, people find, to put it on their non-dominant arm, but whichever you choose, your decision must be final because the bracer never comes off.” Lucretia says.

Carey looks at it for a moment longer before she puts it on her left arm. It closes around her arm, and the seam vanishes. “What's the point of having it not be able to come off again?”

“It's to help track Bureau members in case they get into trouble and need help or in case they go missing and need to be Regulated. It also serves as a way to identify each other out in the field, summon the transport when you're planet side, and opens some of the doors up here moon side that lead to more restricted areas.” Lucretia explains. “Do you have anymore questions for me about your job or the organization?”

Carey nods. “Yeah, actually. Am I going to still be able to keep in contact with my family? I have a brother I'm pretty close to, and I don't want to suddenly go missing on him.”

Lucretia smiles softly. “Of course, you're still going to be able to see your brother. The only time you won't be able to keep in contact with your family and friends outside of the Bureau would be if you die on the job. Not just because you would be dead, but in order to keep people from asking awkward questions about the whereabouts of dead Bureau members, we erase knowledge of their existence with the Voidfish.” Carey looks up at her in shock, and she quickly adds, “But that's only if you die on the job. If you die under other circumstances that can be explained, we won't erase you, and of course, for as long as you're alive, the people you know and love will be able to still know you and keep in contact with you. But, while it's an ugly part of the job, it's necessary to erase all evidence of the fact that we exist from the world, which includes death by what would be mysterious circumstances from an outsider's perspective.”

Carey slowly closes her mouth as she nods a little. “I– That makes sense, I guess. Is... is there any way to give that information back to them after the Relics are found?”

Lucretia's heart twists tight. Fisher hasn't broadcasted anything in decades, and even if it wanted to, would it be a good idea for the world to know about the Relics again even after they're all destroyed?

Lucretia shakes her head and sighs. “I'm afraid not. Once you're gone... there's no coming back from that except for people who have drank the Voidfish's ichor. Do you have any other questions for me?”

Carey is silent for a moment. “Yeah, I do have one other question. Why the moon? Is it so that the Bureau can have a mascot like in school? Are we known as the Aliens to everyone who's drank from the Voidfish?”

Carey laughs a little at that as Lucretia groans. “No, we're not called the Aliens. It was just a convenient way to make sure no one found us on accident.”

“Ah, but that's something an alien would say!” She cackles some more as Lucretia puts her face in her hand. Not one person is going to let the moon thing slide are they? Not one single person.

“That was a great training session, boys. Well done.” Lucretia says as Magnus, Merle, and Taako walk out of the arena portion of the Icosagon. They've only been here for two weeks, but she still has to fight off tears of happiness every time she sees them. It's been so long. And they're here now. They still don't remember her, but they're here, and she didn't realize how hard of a time she was going to have at containing her pure joy around them when she first sought them out.

“Thanks, Director,” Magnus says as he picks up a towel he left on the bench and wipes some sweat off of his face and neck.

“Yeah, it was great. I especially liked the part when Merle was standing still right next to the stationary dummy, and he still missed with his warhammer.” Taako snipes with an amused glare at the aforementioned dwarf.

Merle glares up at him and crosses his arms. “It's been a while since I've pulled out ol' Smoosher, okay? And that's better than having to rely on a spell that automatically hits no matter how you cast it, Pointy Hat.”

“Yeah, but I'm like, good at it. And I'm good at other spells too.”

“Well, that's what training is for, getting better at the things you are or are not already good at, and I think you have all improved a lot this session,” Lucretia quickly cuts in before it devolves into a full fledged argument. “I did want to ask you boys a question before you leave though.”

Magnus picks up his water bottle and bag as he turns to face her. “What's up?”

“How have you boys been adjusting to living up here? I know I put a lot on you all when I first hired you, and I just wanted to check in and see how things are going.” Lucretia says.

“It's mostly been boring,” Taako says as he puts Lup's– his umbrastaff in his bag. “You really don't have a lot going on up here do you?”

Lucretia grimaces. “No, not really if you're talking in terms of places to go. I have been working on planning a corporate retreat some time in the next few months, so there's that to look forward to.”

Taako rolls his eyes. “Is it mandatory?”

Lucretia stifles a laugh. “Yes, I'm afraid it is.”

“I have a question,” Merle cuts in. “Is there any possible way for us to move dorms or something? Like, you've gotta have some other living spaces available, right?”

Yes, but she can't show favoritism, and there's no reason she can make up currently as to why she'd give them the apartment below the base. She sighs internally and says, “Unfortunately, no. Is there something wrong with the dormitory you have now?”

“No, everything's fine,” Magnus says as he tries to subtly kick Merle who glares up at him in response. “You don't need to worry about it.”

Lucretia narrows her eyes slightly. “Well, that's a little suspi–”

“It's Robbie,” Taako says, rolling his eyes again. “He's creepy and annoying and–”

“And he steals all of my Kenny Chesney CDs and leaves empty Pringles containers all over the floor–” Merle jumps in.

“Guys, come on!” Magnus interrupts. “That all may be true, but you gotta agree he makes some really good potions, and I don't want to lose out on getting free potions.”

“He does make really good potions,” Merle grumbles in agreement.

“You could live without getting free potions,” Taako says stubbornly. “I can't live with the stench of him mixing them up at all hours of the day and night.”

Lucretia sighs. “This sounds like something you're going to have to work out with him because unfortunately, I can't move you boys to a different dormitory.”

“That's fine, I do have something else I wanted to ask you,” Magnus says, bouncing up and down a little on the balls of his feet in excitement.

“Is it about getting a dog?” Lucretia deadpans.

Magnus stops bouncing. “Yeah.”

Lucretia fights off a sad smile as she remembers every time he and Davenport had had this exact argument about bringing a dog up on the Starblaster. “I'm sorry, Magnus, but there are no dogs allowed on the moon. Can't stress that enough.”

Magnus tries to give her puppy dog eyes. “But I want one so bad! I'd make sure he doesn't run off the side of the moon, I promise!”

Lucretia takes a deep breath to respond, but Merle cuts her off. “Speaking of the moon, why did you make the base a moon?”

“Because she's an alien, obviously,” Taako laughs, and Lucretia goes rigid. There's no way he'd know that still.

“Oh, I thought it was because the Voidfish is an alien and would obviously belong on the moon,” Magnus says.

“Why not both!” Taako exclaims.

“Oh, does that make us aliens?” Merle asks enthusiastically.

“Yeah, does it, Director?” Magnus asks.

They don't actually remember. They can't have remembered. They're just goofing around. Lucretia forces a small smile and says, “No, I'm afraid not. No one up here is an alien. Disguising the base as a moon was just a simple way of having an excuse of having something up in the sky.”

“But that would probably make us aliens, wouldn't you say?” Magnus asks.

“Hello, people of Abeir-Toril! We come in peace!” Taako says in a dramatic voice.

“Take us to your leader!” Merle adds dramatically.

Lucretia puts her face in her hands as they laugh and high five each other. She doesn't know whether she wants to laugh or cry. The fucking irony. She should've preemptively banned alien jokes because this is getting ridiculous. Then again, banning something is only going to encourage them, specifically, even more.

“Oh! Madam Director? When the Reclaimers come back, can I watch you destroy the Gaia Sash?” Angus McDonald asks as he looks over her bookshelf in her office. “I really want to see how the Relic Disposal Chamber works.”

Lucretia sighs. She's only known the ten-year-old for less than thirty minutes, and in that time he has not stopped asking questions. That's a good thing, honestly. It makes him a good detective and will serve him well as one of her Seekers, but some of the questions he's asked has gotten a little too close to her past and her personal life for comfort. This, at least, is a benign question, but she didn't realize how careful she's going to have to be about what she says around him and what he observes when she first thought about hiring him.

“Of course you can, Angus. It's going to be quite spectacular to witness, I assure you. They should be getting back soon, actually, and I need to go prepare for that. Do you have any other questions for me that I can answer?”

“Yeah!” He picks up a book and rifles through some of the pages curiously. “Where did you find the Voidfish? There's nothing like it in the world as far as anyone knows, so I'm curious as to how you came across it.”

Damn it. “I didn't so much find it as the Voidfish found me,” Lucretia says carefully. “I was walking through a mountain one day, and I saw it floating around in a cave.”

Angus looks up at her at that. “The Voidfish can float?”

Lucretia smiles and nods. “Yes, it can fly around in the air and swim in the water, but it seems to like the water the best.”

“How did you find out that the Voidfish can erase memories and that you can get around that by drinking its water?”

“Well, when I first came to see it, it was scared of me at first, and it splashed me as I entered the cave. Some of the water got into my mouth, and I remembered some songs and stories that I heard once a long time ago that it must have gotten a hold of and erased. That was really surprising, and it gave me the idea that if the information of the Relics could be erased, then it would be easier to try to collect them and destroy them while preventing the world from killing itself in the mean time. I was able to gain its trust with showing it some of my own writing and artwork, and, well, you know the rest of the story.” Most of that is technically true. Please let him buy the story.

Angus scrutinizes her for a few seconds, and she tries really hard to not hold her breath. Then he nods and turns to put the book back on her shelf. “It's really lucky that you found it when you did and no one else found it first.”

Lucretia sighs a little in relief and smiles. “Yes, I suppose it is.” She stands up and rounds her desk to get to the door. “Is there anything else you want to know, Angus?”

She sees him smirk a little as he picks up another book and starts looking through it nonchalantly. “Yes, ma'am, there's one last thing I'd like to know. How did you find yourself identifying as an alien? I can only assume that you like the idea of being one with the base being disguised as the moon and all.”

Lucretia wants nothing more than to leave her office and slam the door shut behind her dramatically, and she is being so brave about it. She resists the urge, however, and she says in as even a voice as possible, “Angus, I promise you, the moon was just the easiest facade to have explained away for why there is another object in the sky. I am not, and have never identified as, an alien.”

Angus rolls his eyes playfully as he puts the book back on the shelf. “Of course, ma'am. And I'm not the world's greatest detective.”

Lucretia groans and really does leave her office this time, though she leaves the door open for Angus as he laughs behind her.

It's really late at night as Lucretia walks across the quad, alone. It had been a long day. Hell, it's been a long three days since she and everyone defeated the Hunger. Everyone was celebrating both planet side and on the moon, and everyone wanted her and her fa– the people she traveled with for a hundred years, at all of their parties. They had all turned down most of the invitations that first day, but they couldn't keep saying no. So the past two days Lucretia spent jumping from party to party and trying to do everything in her power to avoid the other crew members, particularly Taako. There's only so much of his silent thousand yard stare being directed at her that she could take.

Today had been the first day she was able to start helping the rebuilding effort and relocating people whose homes were destroyed by the Hunger. She spent all day organizing and reassigning roles for her remaining Bureau members who volunteered to stay and help, and she has a long day of meetings with Lord Artemis Sterling and other leaders of various cities and towns to look forward to tomorrow. She should really be asleep. She has to wake up really early tomorrow, after all.

Lucretia stops walking and closes her eyes, taking in the sweet smell of grass and summer air. Grass and summer air that wouldn't exist if they had ran away from the Hunger again or if they had lost.

Was it worth losing them?

“Hey–”

Lucretia scrunches her face up in anger as she spits out, “For gods' sake yes, I am an alien, yes I decided to make my home base on the moon–” She turns around and opens her eyes as she continues with “–no, the joke is not fun...n...y.”

Her last word dies on her tongue as she watches the light in Lup's spectral hood flicker a bit in a slightly amused way. She suddenly feels very bad that she snapped, especially at her, and she looks down at the ground and whispers, “Hey, Lup.”

“Yikes, Creesh, I knew you weren't doing well, but where did that come from? That seems oddly specific.” Lup says.

Lucretia slowly looks up at her and wrings her hands together. “I–“ She sighs. “It's a long story. Just a joke that people have been making for years now that got a resurgence from everyone in the last few days now that... you know...”

“Everyone knows you're an alien?” Lup asks, amused.

“Yeah,” Lucretia sighs. They're silent for a moment before Lucretia says, “Lup, I'm so sor–”

Lup puts up a skeletal hand to stop her. “Lucretia, I didn't come find you because I wanted to hear you apologize again.” She floats down to the ground and pats the spot in the grass next to her. “Will you sit with me?”

Lucretia swallows thickly and nods, carefully lowering herself to the ground. Now that she doesn't have a staff to support her weight, sitting down is much more difficult. She's going to have to ask Magnus–

She can't ask Magnus for anything. She knows he'd do it, but she has no right.

Lup tilts her hood up to look at the stars, and Lucretia does too. There's so many of them, and they're all so beautiful. They look so close and warm, in direct contrast with the cold distance of the few stars that existed in the Judges' World though she doesn't know why that particular memory decided to pop into her head. Maybe it's because she feels similarly to how she felt the morning after that cycle ended. When she had everyone back after her hard and lonely year, and she still felt like it was unreal. Or when she was sitting with the goddess, Itia, in her temple back in that world, staring up at those stars through the windows and telling her her whole life's story. She closes her eyes for a few seconds to let a few silent tears roll down her cheeks before she opens them again to continue looking at the stars. She mentally traces out the constellations she's learned about that this world has as she waits with bated breath for whatever Lup has to say to her. But she says nothing. Instead, she leans her hood against Lucretia's shoulder, and Lucretia can feel her magic energy, buzzing and warm to the touch. And that's enough to fully break her.

Lucretia puts her head down in her hands and starts sobbing, and she can feel Lup try to wrap her arms around her the best that she can. “It's alright, Lucy. I'm here now, and no matter how much you try to avoid me, I'm not going anywhere ever again.”

“I erased you, and then I couldn't find you, and– and– and–”

“Lucretia, we all agree erasing me was a dick move, okay? But you can't get rid of me that easily.” Lup chuckles a little at her own joke, but Lucretia doesn't find it very funny. “There was a break down in communication from all of us, and I can't blame you for doing what you did when I, myself, left without a word to anyone and got my ass trapped in an umbrella.”

“That's different though,” Lucretia chokes out, and Lup pulls away a little to try and look at her better.

“Is it really though?” She asks quietly. “We both left to try and fix our mistake on our own, and we both ended up hurting our family and ourselves, and we both ended up alone. And... Lucy, we promised after the Judges' Cycle that we wouldn't end up alone. Never again. And I know we both broke that promise, but that doesn't mean we can't do better this time.” Lucretia cries harder, and Lup leans in again to rest her hood on her shoulder. “No matter what you did, I still consider you family, Lucy. And I know the others do too whether they want to admit it or not. We're all angry, I'm not going to deny that, but we also miss you, and I'm not going to let you cut yourself off from us as a way of punishing yourself.”

“I just don't– don't want to upset you all ev-even more by hanging a-around,” Lucretia gets out.

Lup hesitates for a moment before she says, “I can't speak for the others, but you're not going to upset me by hanging out with me. I'm fairly certain right now Magnus and Merle feel similarly. It's going to take Taako, Barry, and Davenport some time, but I know they're going to want to be around you too eventually.”

Lucretia nods and leans her head as much against Lup's hood as she can without phasing through, and they hug for a long time as Lucretia's tears subside. When she's left sniffling, she sits upright again and wipes her eyes. “I missed you so much, Lup. And I love you so much.”

Lup floats over so she's right in front of her, and she looks up to see the light in her hood flicker warmly. “I missed you too, Lucy. And I will never stop loving you.”

They embrace again as much as they can, and when they move away, Lucretia says, “Will you stay with me and watch the stars a little longer?”

“Of course.”

Lup floats back to be next to her, and she places her hand over Lucretia's. They're silent for a while as they watch the stars burn bright in the sky. Then Lup bumps her spectral shoulder into Lucretia's shoulder, and she says, “You know, Lucy. You really could have picked for the base to look like anything.”

Lucretia laughs, long and hard, and it feels so good to be able to laugh with her again. “Yeah, I could have.”

I really could have.

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danpuff-ao3 · 1 year

Note

6 + 16 + 25 for the reader ask game

Hey there! Thanks for the asks!

6.) What's your absolute favorite works you read this year?

Oh goshhhh!!!!! How to narrow down my loves. I'll stick to fics that were posted this year, yeah? Otherwise we'll be here all day. (I do a lot of rereads!)

~ Compulsory Figures by LilaDiurne (@liladiurne)

I hate to do this to her, but like...Okay, my friend Lila is so very gifted and I adore all of her work, but Compulsory Figures blew my socks off. Smug, famous Severus and starstruck Harry???? The smut is stupid hot. I can't tell you the number of times I've reread this fic. It's ridiculous. It's a Muggle figure skating AU!!!!! All that elegance and grace and beauty I associate with figure skating and all the questionable hotness of Severus abusing his fame and power to seduce pretty boys?? Yes please and thank you.

~ Ghosts of Christmas by PinaNaponi (@vulnerasanenturmyprince)

My sweet Nina. She has produced so many excellent fics, but this one from Adopt-a-Prompt still stands out to me. Found family fluff plus family history angst. It's set at Spinner's End (which I'm always a sucker for) and features Eileen (who I'm also a sucker for.) Postwar recovery, set during Christmastime! Combines my love of Snarry in particular with my love of Severus himself, and how that love extends to learning more about his history and exploring more of where (and who) he came from and how it shaped him.

~ A Life Worth Remembering by Writcraft (@writcraft)

This is especially special since it's established Drarry that becomes Drapery. It's very rare that I can read Harry or Snape with others, even if it's both of them with others. I have very strange, specific feelings about my OTP, okay? But I've always loved Writ's work, and I knew they were very excited to get this work finished and posted, so I couldn't resist giving it a chance. And I'm so glad I did! (Should have known I could trust them!) It's such a unique premise, and it's de-aging the only way I like it (as in: retaining an age gap!) The exploration of each individual connection (between Harry and Draco, and Harry and Severus, and Draco and Severus), and how they all work together. The struggles they face. And how real and human they all feel. And while I've been able to read the occasional Drapery in the past, this is the first one that really made me see it. This convinced me it could be real, as more than just a bit of smut to scratch an itch. (For me personally, this is just about my weirdly specific ship feels LOL.)

~ The Lamb of Tartary by eldritcher

One of few WIPs I follow! Such a strange, dark fairytale-esque story! I still owe them a comment on chapter 2, I believe...Which means I need to reread, oh no. EYES. Eldritcher always has such unique ideas and such a unique writing style and every one of their works is stellar, but this one especially captured my mind and heart, and I'm so excited for the third and final chapter to be posted!

~ The Afterlight by perverse_idyll (@perverse-idyll)

Another of the very few WIPs I follow! Listen, PI has been my biggest writing crush for the longest time. I've been reading since The White Road, okay (still one of my top fave Snarries of all time, btw.) To get several new stories from PI this year was such a treat! Social Lubricant was such a joy, and I'm so excited to see where The Threefold Death goes, but The Afterlight has my heart. We're barely in the story at all but I already have a feeling it'll end up on my faves list one day, when all is said and done. Her characterizations of Harry and Severus are, as ever, fully on point and exactly how I like them, as is their electric dynamic. Her prose is as gorgeous as ever, and the story itself is full of the grit and humanity and passion I'm forever in love with. I could not be more jazzed about this story and I about die whenever I see an update. (Speaking of which, this is another one I owe a comment on...Oops! I'll get there soon, PI, I swear!)

16.) Were you comments coherent or mostly screaming?

Ahahahahaha. People tell me I'm more coherent than I think I am, so who knows. I make solid attempts at being coherent that I feel turn into babbling, rambling nonsense.

I think my comments for my favorites all turned out to be a good combination of both? Like "this work is so great and it blew my mind and it deserves me waxing poetic, but also my brain is melted so this is hard."

25.) Do you read on your phone or on your computer?

Prior to this year, I'd have said my Kindle! I was doing so good about reading all my fics there, but I got a bit lazy this year and have been reading on my phone instead. I think I've only read on my computer for helping check fest fics, or looking over fics for friends on Google docs. I don't like "checking" fics on my phone, it's easier for me to get in the right mindset for that on my computer.

ao3 wrapped: reader's edition

answered: 5, 9; 6, 16, 25

#asked & answered #ao3 wrapped #reader's edition

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water-mellie-seeds · 1 year

Note

Lake I’ve become so rejection sensitive dysphoria-ly upset by something so trivial tell me about your fos

I TRULY understand this one RSD is a cruel mistress for Real

OH BOY at risk of talking about serizawa AGAIN and at risk of talking about upwards of 50 f/os lets talk about our f/o fight finalists!

Approaching this as if the people reading Do Not Know all of these characters,just in case some people in fact do not know anything about them

Luigi! He's definitely the f/o I've known and loved the longest! The year of luigi was catered to me specifically/j I just think his evolution as a character is SO interesting,especially in the M&L series. He is just such a genuinely good guy,he's sweet and even competitive (moreso in the party/kart/sports games) and I would legitimately do anything for him. I feel this way about a lot of my f/os but i genuinely wish i could just tell him how important he is BECAUSE EVERYONE IS SO MEAN TO HIM SO MUCH(i know its for the bit but cmon!) oh yeah mario and that other guy type thing YOU LNOW HIS NAME >:(

Kumatora. I could literally talk at length about her but ultimately id just go in circles. Her recklessness when she was younger reminds me of mine. She's a badass,and she's sassy and headstrong and super powerful and yet so chill. She's also just. A good person. I know that if shit got real she would protect me,and even though i am absolutely all talk when it comes to my ability to kick ass,id do my best to protect her too. Also she has PSI so i mean. Kind of a pattern with me,huh?

Dr. Jan. I've always loved people who work in museums or amusement parks and the like. I love to see people who actually...like their jobs. Who make it their own and have fun with it! So..it's only natural id end up liking her. She's an enthusiast of all things ancient and an avid cryptid nerd. I LOVE her enthusiasm. I LOVE her vibe she is also very pretty.

Shuichi. I'm gonna be so honest i do not much like Danganronpa V3 as a game. I love the characters in it,though. but he's a really good protagonist and he just feels...very organic. His struggles with self worth and confidence really resonate with me and i love how he slowly starts to open up and really get into it during cases/trials! I'm also a voice guy and. I really like his voice very much i sometimes listen to like. Shuichi saihara voice files compilations on YouTube it scratches my brain.

Monika. Look. Again I'm a voice guy. Also,i stayed with her for every. Single. Topic she could bring up. Multiple times over. I am down fucking bad. I tried to start a literature club because of her in my own school. I started writing poems again because of her. She told me to put her file on a usb and carry it with me always and i did. I bought a lil white ribbon and tied it on there and then i put the usb on a neckace made of frayed computer wire and i BROUGHT HER EVERYWHERE I WENT. I am in love with her. She is. The true concept of an f/o. And she loves us back,that's the part that gets me.

Queen. Yeah i like silly women i like robots. No one is surprised. She is so cool i want to drink battery acid with her. Ill become a peon i dont even carw

CAPT. SPACEBOY. I haven't ever really been able to pinpoint why EXACTLY im so into him,but i am. I could treat him so so well. I couldn't fit him absolutely not but we could be worse together <3 he sings,he travels through space he's a pirate and also super nice and hospitable. We both got funky mental illnesses going on also hes just hot. Like objectively.

Jessie and James. Package deal. Im glad tumblr seems to appreciate them as much as i do. Theyre both SUCH well written characters. I have known them forever. When i saw them crossdressing as a kid it blew my mind. PEOPLE CAN DO THAT???? Indigo league in general is so so good,but jessie and james really steal the show. They have such interesting and compelling backstories and they are poor just like me fr.(well ok team rocket is. James' family doesnt count i would have also left) we could go on a date to the clearance section in the supermarket./hj i just love them very much ALSO THEY SHOULDNT HAVE TAKEN AWAY JAMES' FAKE BOOBIES! NOT FAIR! I would never do that to him.

Thank you for listening if you guys ever wanna pick an f/o on the list for me to go off about i will do it. For you all

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oncedied · 1 year

Text

okay i need to talk about djss i cannot take this bullshit anymore

this is a very long winded rant and probably very passionate and cringe and nonsensical but i am so fucking attached to this character and i need to voice why before i burst into sobbing. whoever made nova and wrote him i need to hug all of you because. thank you. youve. created something that i've really fucking needed in these last few months, years even. i dont even know where to start.

so like a year ago almost two years ago. i was in the transformers fandom. ran into some toxic assholes. basically treated me like absolute shit in every way possible. constantly walked all over me and did shit just to spite me, made fun of me when i was in pain, etc etc. all around shitty people. so for the longest time i used to go by nico, derived from nico di angelo from percy jackson. was super attached to the name. i'd perk up with happiness whenever i heard the name, or someone called me it.

now these toxic assholes literally ruined that name for me. the name sat like poison in my mouth, slowly dripping down my throat. i was basically dissociated from my identity and who i was because of how these assholes fucked with my head. i didnt know who i was. always floating, going by like a hundred nicknames but never knowing exactly who i was. it was like i was nothing, just. there. existing. a name i was attached to was sullied by toxicity and poison.

i've also spent many years, pretty much my entire 18-year-old life, ashamed of my weight. Ashamed of my body, hating it, curling my lip in spite. wishing i was as thin as my barbie dolls or my sister, or the women i saw on tv. or the men i saw on magazines posing flexing muscles. or whatever character i saw. people with my body type were always treated as a joke, always joked at for eating, always this and that, constantly yelled at to exercise. because i was built different. and stricter beauty standards over the years had me climbing closer and closer to being obese just based on my weight, even though i gained none. i was just heavyset since the beginning, and beauty standards were getting harsher and harsher.

originally my friend (who i love to death) tried to get me into nsr last year, saying it was something that i would like considering the art style, nature of the game, etcetera. she especially predicted i would love nova because space, which i've always had a love for. i thought he was pretty okay, but nsr never really held my attention for long. it wasn't something i was into at the time. but cut to a year later and I play it for the first time when I was on vacation with my partner... and NSR's time to shine in my life made itself known.

i was INSTANTLY attached to Nova. He had the same sort of features I did. those broad shoulders. that wide chest, that large torso. even the legs! even his fucking legs! i felt so seen. so heard. and i loved him, and he taught me how to love my body for the first time in my entire life. like hey, if i can love him for representing my body type, maybe i could learn to love myself as a result.

while i was at it i finally settled on a name -- nova. It felt like me, just like nico did. i'd light up whenever someone said it to me. nova. it was like that poison in my mouth turned into honey. nova. it felt like everything slid into place just because the funny space man reminded me of how much i love space, and if the name is taken from a character that's brought me genuine comfort and joy for the first time in literal years, then i'm happy.

nobody can ruin him for me. not this fandom, not anyone. two cunts came close but nova is worth more to me than those cunts ever will amount to in their entire lives. i will not let some lying maggots sully my happiness and my connection to this character. not now, not ever. this funny little space dj is worth more to me than some assholes who can't not act like babies for once in their lives.

look, call me cringe, call me this and that, bully me even. screenshot me and put me in your cringe comps. but this is how i feel, this is how i pour my heart out. nsr helped me fix myself. it's one of my biggest comfort games, and even though i'm hurting (both related to and not related to the two cunts) so it's hard to enjoy things, including my hyperfixations, i still turn to the funny dj for some comfort during those long nights crying my eyes out over things that are/were beyond my control.

i can go on all night but this post is big enough and i need to sleep and am currently crying behind my screen rn. im so fucking cringe im sorry feel free to make fun of me lol

#almost used a gif by one of the Two Cunts lmao #that would've been a disaster i dont need those lying worms going after me again #djss #dj subatomic supernova #nsr #no straight roads #words of a supernova

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sightofslumber · 2 months

Text

Sigh. I'm. So tired of this lol.

I almost went two whole days without crying over it. I was so happy yesterday & realized it was the first day I hadn't cried in who even knows how long. Earlier I even was thinking about his kid & started missing her a lot & almost teared up a little but I was in the car with my dad & was able to distract myself. I didn't even cry about the dead possum, I chose to be grateful the babies survived. Thought I'd make it through today with no tears- HAH, think again.

Then I get hit with cravings for my favorite chocolates, start thinking about better HEBs where I could find them, which makes my brain remember...

Annnnd then there it goes. How many times do I have to cry before I get it all out of me? It's honestly so ridiculous at this point. Sometimes I just laugh while I'm crying because of the sheer absurdity of it all. (This is not one of those times. It's just heavy right now.) Sometimes I catch myself getting mad at myself, but then I remember that I have to be kind & gentle with me because nobody else ever really was & the unfortunate fact is that I have a heart capable of feeling so deeply it's devastating oftentimes - if I don't honor that then how could I ever hope anyone else could?

How can a heart be broken so many times & STILL feel SO much? Funny thing is, for a while I really didn't think it was capable anymore after the last few years, my longest relationship slowly destroying me while also grieving my mother & feeling completely abandoned or/& betrayed by everyone "close" to me who was supposed to care about me. Not a single soul truly knows how much I went through or how bad off I actually was. The few people who did know about the attempt to no longer exist showed pretty clearly that they didn't actually care. I was attempting to process so many heartbreaks at once, on top of being bombarded with collective energy freaking out over a pandemic & all that grief, while also not having any idea what the fuck was going to happen in my life or how I'd move forward when I could barely function & literally didn't even want to be alive. There was way too much. Every single thing in my life crumbled apart. Couldn't deal. I numbed out for a long time. I felt like not even me anymore. I wasn't me anymore, that version I had once been died.

And then suddenly I felt so alive again. Started purging years worth of heartbreak & anger. I could actually feel energetic layers shedding off around my heart & energy field. Like a lifetime's (& even some past lifetimes) worth of caked on gunk was being stripped away. Discovered a new version of me that never quite existed before. Magic flooded back into my life, more than ever. I began to realize I was experiencing energy in ways I'd never known before. And there he was again, the connection with him was completely unlike anything I'd ever encountered. I had no idea I could feel like that...

But I guess it doesn't matter. Or, I mean, of course it does in some way. But maybe it was just to shake me up, to show that I can still feel deeply & maybe don't want to be alone for the rest of my life like I thought, maybe I do want a family (ask me again when I've healed a little bit more lol). Mmm seems a bit cruel, but I do my best to trust Spirit & know there have been so many instances that needed to happen in order for other things to happen. Maybe one day I'll be privy to the grand design.

But right now. I'm tired & tired of thinking about it all.

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starlightxsvt · 3 years

Text

Home | k.mg

pairing ➳ businessman!mingyu x female!reader

genre ➳ strangers to lovers, romance, slice of life, angst, fluff, gets spicy at the end

word count ➳ 5.6k (apx)

warnings ➳ cursing, reader is really indecisive, heavy makeout, implications of sexual activity.

synopsis ➳ an attractive stranger visits your cabin for a week with whom you quickly bond, developing some strong feelings in the process; leaving you to wonder if he's worth leaving everything behind.

A/N: henlooo~ I finally posted! This has been sitting in my drafts for a while but I didn't really feel like writing for a while, hence the delay. I hope y'all enjoy this piece and please don't forget to leave some feedback! It really motivates me :)

A cool gust of wind blew by as you finished typing your last column, leaving a soothing feeling behind as you exhaled loudly. It was hard to finish this piece of writing for some reason, maybe because you lacked inspiration or maybe because your life had been monotonous for a while or simply, a mix of both. Closing your laptop you stretch your hands and legs, feeling somewhat productive. Humming a tune, you looked out the window to see a Lamborghini come to a halt at the entrance.

It piqued your interest because it's not often that people riding Lamborghini come in this cabin so genuinely you're interested in the visitor. You shifted in your chair, waiting for the man to come upstairs to the reception and sure enough a tall- really tall man dressed in a neatly pressed suit appears into your view, briskly walking towards the reception where Chan stood to greet him. You could not get a good look at his face as he moved around quickly, grabbing his small carry on and heading towards his cabin after the formalities.

You watched his tall frame walking away as you got up from your seat and moved towards Chan.

"Who is he?"

"Kim Mingyu," Chan explained, resting his arms on the reception table." A millionaire, owns a lot of companies. No wonder he looked familiar."

"Oh, really? How long is he staying?"

"He has booked for five days. Said he might extend his stay."

"I see."

"Why are you so curious though?" Chan raised a brow at you, tilting his head to a side.

"Nothing." You shrugged. "He just has different vibes than the other people that come here you know?"

Chan hummed in agreement.

There was never much visitors during the rainy season which was both a blessing and a curse. Blessing because that meant the cabin was less hectic and curse because sometimes you are bound to get a bit too bored. You were helping yourself with a cup of tea to somewhat feel re-energised when your newest and the only guest for the week appeared from his cabin, padding through the corridor and stepping into the common kitchen area. You were taken aback for a moment before you composed yourself and smiled at your guest, "Good morning, Mr. Kim. May I help you with anything?"

"Mingyu, please," the tall male replied while scanning the kitchen area. "You're the owner right? What's the food arrangement here?"

"Well, our guests generally cook for themselves or order takeout. When there are many guests I sometimes do the cooking."

Nodding, he hummed before putting in a capsule in the cappuccino machine. You took a seat by the window, tea in your hand as you watched the male move around like he knew this place. Dressed in his pajamas and judging by the fluffy mess that his hair was you assumed he had a good night's sleep.

"I hope you had a pleasant night, Mr- Mingyu." You said to your guest who had whipped out a pan from the cupboard and was making omelette. "Yes, surprisingly so. Normally I have trouble falling asleep but I slept like a baby last night," he casually conversed as he prepared his breakfast.

You smiled, "Well, I'm glad to know that. If you need anything let my staffs or me know."

"Sure. Oh- I didn't get your name though." Mingyu turned to meet your eyes.

"___," you smiled.

"___, okay."

"This is gonna be a rainy week," Hoshi said from behind you as he stood holding a tub of fresh soil for the plants in the backyard of the cabin. You sat on your knees, eyeing the plants which needed their soil changed.

"Yeah? Well, good thing there isn't much guests now."

"I think there should be, I mean it's so pretty here during the rain too. People need to look at it themselves." Hoshi complained.

"Well, most people don't like going out in the rain. Pass me the soil, Hoshi. Let's get this finished before the shower starts."

Hoshi handed you the tub of soil as the sky above started growling, full of thick black clouds. It was gonna start raining soon.

Hoshi spoke, "Oh, Mr.Kim, Mingyu you know, asked me about the beach by the marketplace. Apparently he wants to visit so he asked me if I was free to show him around."

"And let me guess, you aren't?" You rolled your eyes.

Soonyoung pouted, "No! Well I would have given him a tour today if the weather wasn't so bad. And my friends are coming tomorrow, so I'll be busy then."

"Wait- you're friends are coming?" You turned, glaring at the boy who smiles sheepishly, "Oh! Um- I didn't tell you? Well they're only staying for a couple of days and it's not like they're staying for free."

"Well, make sure they clean after themselves okay? If I see them trashing all over the place like last time, I'm kicking you out with them." You gave him a pointed look.

"Okay okay," Hoshi rolled his eyes, puffing his cheeks. "Just- take the CEO out on a tour tomorrow for me okay? I haven't seen my friends in a long time."

"Alright, I will...if the weather is good which probably won't be." You sighed, gently removing the old soil.

Hoshi mused about Mingyu, "Bummer for him, he came in a wrong time. It's weird, no? We don't have such guests like him."

"Yeah," you hummed, focused on handling your roses.

Hoshi's friend, Seokmin and Seungkwan appeared early in the morning next day as you watched Hoshi vibrate from happiness when he hugged them. You smiled to yourself, laughing at at the antics of your staff as you saw him guide his friends into their cabin. The day was once again filled with dark clouds and raining which occurred every other hour. You and Chan cleaned up and completed some chores as the noon fell.

"Should I cook something up for them?" You wondered as Chan finished cleaning the common space of the first cabin.

"Nah, Seokmin hyung is cooking for them. He's a pretty good cook actually."

"Really? That's nice." You said pulling up a chair to sit down. "Are you gonna join them? Hoshi has been with his friends since they came."

"Yeah, probably. You should join us too."

"No, I think I'm gonna take a nap. I feel so tired."

"Alright."

You watched as Chan climbed down the stairs and stepped towards the second cabin where everyone else was. You were about to head to your room when the CEO, Mingyu appeared in the kitchen.

"Oh, hello."

"Hi."

"I haven't seen you since morning," you said watching as Mingyu poured himself a glass of water.

"Yeah, I woke up early today, went for a jog."

"Ah, I see."

"Couldn't go far though, the weather sucks you know." He said leaning against the kitchen top.

"Yeah. But I heard that it should get better from tomorrow. I could show you around if you want to. Hoshi, my staff, is going to busy for a while so I can guide you around."

"Really? That would be cool." Mingyu smiled. There was a small stretch of silence as you both listened to the rainfall before he spoke, "Have you had lunch?"

"Uh-no."

"Would you like to join me?" He asked "This is the longest time I've been alone and it feels a bit weird," he murmured more to himself than you.

"I mean- I don't mind," you shrugged. "Though I should be the one doing it."

"It's okay. People say I am a good cook," Mingyu smiled, his eyes crinkling.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to see."

It was weird how comfortable you felt watching Mingyu being clumsy and bump into things as he prepared your meal. It felt like you've been doing this forever- like you've known him forever and you thought to yourself what was suddenly wrong with you. He made small talk as he cooked and it felt easy talking with him- almost impossible to believe that he was stranger. He was friendly and easy to get along with, definitely not a cold and grumpy businessman like you imagined him to be.

Mingyu grinned as he set down the food in front of you- chicken soup, rice and cheese omelette. His eyes twinkled excitedly as he watched you take a bite, waiting for you to say something.

"What are you? A part time chef or something?" You tried not to moan as you chewed because it was that good. Mingyu laughed- a sweet, shy laugh that had his canines showing and his eyes forming crescents. "Thank you. I learned from my mom. I like cooking for myself when I get the time which is not often," he smiled- almost sadly.

"Well, you can cook for me all you want as long as you're here because this is amazing!" You grinned at him, cheeks puffed with food.

Mingyu chuckled softly as he dug in and you both started eating. It felt nice, to talk to someone new and spend time with them, someone other than Chan or Hoshi. It was a nice change- a change you probably needed for a while.

"So...What brings you here?" You asked as you finished your food, setting down the spoon and leaning back into the chair. Mingyu who was still eating, looked at you with a perplexed expression so you spoke, "I mean...we don't generally have guests like you. And it's not even a good time to visit...so I was wondering what brought you here?"

"Guests like me? What does that mean?"

"I mean...rich, okay?" You fumbled, feeling awkward. Maybe you shouldn't have asked. "Like...there are fancier places to visit, you know..."

Mingyu smiled at your words for a moment before he deadpanned, "I'm running away."

"Running away?" You gasped, almost jumping from your seat, "From who? The cops?"

"It would have been better but no, my family," he said, his voice as serious as ever.

"Oh...I see," you fell quiet. It definitely wasn't the answer you expected. You both remained silent for a while as he started out the window, lost in thoughts. "It must have been really bad if you're hiding out here." You spoke softly.

"It has always been," he mumbled. "I just couldn't take it anymore, you know? I desperately needed a break," he spoke more to himself than you. Instead of prodding further, you sat quietly, watching him and listening to his words. Seeing him now, he definitely looks troubled and you didn't exactly have the words to console him.

So you whispered, "Well, I hope it gets better."

Later that night, you find Hoshi and his friends and Chan preparing for a bonfire in the front yard of the cabin.

"Wow, you all are really having fun, no?" You said as you fisted your hands in your pockets from the chilly weather. The air was colder than other nights and everyone including you had put on some warm clothes.

"You wanna join us?" Seokmin asked as he stacked logs on top of each other.

"Nah, it's fine. You four carry on," you patted his back as you started walking back towards the cabin and saw Chan and Hoshi coming out with some boxes in their hands.

"Hey! There are marshmallows in the kitchen cabinet if you want.... nevermind," you finished as you saw beer cans and soju bottles in their hands.

"We're gonna get drunk baby!" Soonyoung yelled, grinning like a fool.

"Hyung, you look drunk already," Chan gave him a side look as they trudged towards the bonfire.

Laughing at their antics you climbed the stairs to the kitchen, preparing some hot chocolate for yourself. Holding the mug on one hand you knocked on the door to Mingyu's room, checking up on him since you haven't seen him since lunch.

The door opened revealing Mingyu in a baggy shirt and pajamas, his hair fluffy and messy.

"Hey," you chriped. "Wanted to check up on you. You wanna join the others in the bonfire?"

"Nah, I'm good. I've been watching them from the balcony." He smiled, his pointy canines showing.

"Oh, I see."

"You wanna come in? I've been getting lonely." He offered, moving away from the door to make space for you.

"Uh- I don't mind," you murmured, surprised that he asked you to come in. You tentatively stepped in and it was fair to say that you were surprised to see the room neat and pristine as most guests kept their room messy.

He ushered you into the balcony, which had a great view of your yard and the forest behind. You saw others laughing loudly as Soonyoung acted something out. Mingyu's voice pulled you out of your thoughts.

"You didn't join them?"

"Nah, they can get too loud sometimes," you chuckled, taking a seat on the bench. You eyed an empty mug lying by, guessing that Mingyu already had his fill of hot chocolate.

Mingyu took a seat beside you, stretching his legs and sighing as he mused, "The view is great."

You hummed your agreement. It was indeed. Not only did you have the full view of your yard and the forest, but you could see a vast horizon of the night sky, some stars twinkling through the clouds.

"It's even more beautiful during summer. You can see so many stars that it feels unreal." You told him.

"Then I will try to visit again during summer," he smiled and you were not sure if he was serious or joking. However you replied with a smile, "You're always welcome."

A silence falls among you two after that but it's not uncomfortable, as you both watched the night grow and Soonyoung and his friends got louder.

"Things got really hard for me, you know," Mingyu started speaking, his voice soft as he stared at the mesh of trees ahead. You were somewhat surprised at his words, but you didn't interrupt, opting for him to continue.

"Running a million dollar company was never easy but...it suddenly was unbearable. My parents always interfered in my work and how I run the company but I managed through all of that, really...until..." Mingyu heaved a long sigh, abruptly stopping.

"Until?" You tentatively asked, peeking at him.

"They want me to get married. With the daughter of their business partner. A marriage of convenience, really."

Oh.

You fell silent, watching him as the moonlight dimly lit the side of his face. There wasn't enough light to see his face completely, but enough to see the curve of his face, his sharp jawline and the sad, lost look in his eyes. Your heart suddenly ached for him. Silently you patted his shoulder, conjuring up some words to console him.

"That's ...awful, really. I'm sorry."

"I've never been so mad in my whole life. Can't they just leave me alone? They treat me like a puppet, like my only job is to live for them. I'm so done. " He said, his hands forming fists.

There's a beat of silence as you quietly patted his back and watched your friends get wasted by the bonfire before he chuckled softly, "I'm sorry for dumping all these on you. I just couldn't hold them in you know-"

"It's really fine, Mingyu. I don't mind. It would be nice if I could actually help you," you sighed, retracting your hand.

"Trust me, you are," he said and you caught a smile on his face.

"I suppose you don't have a significant other? Someone you could talk to freely?"

He shook his head. "That is why I came here. Needed to get my thoughts together, away from them. Not to mention I don't remember the last time I went on a vacation."

"And have you got your thoughts together?"

"I think so, yeah." He shrugged.

"What are you gonna do?" You asked tilting your head.

"Stand strong in my ground, I guess. There's no way I'm marrying their business partner, I'd rather die. And if all else fails, I'm staying here. I'm sure you have some type of job for me, right?"

You laughed at his words, "Maybe. But I'm not sure about your skills, Mr. Kim."

"Oh I'm a fast learner, Miss ___."

You both grinned at each other.

That night when you went back to your room, your thoughts were plagued by Mingyu and you could swear you saw him in your dreams too.

The next morning is brighter and shinier; the sky relatively clear other than some light clouds. After getting dressed and checking up on Hoshi and Chan who were still sleeping, you trudged through the cabin and towards Mingyu's room, before knocking on it. A fully dressed Mingyu appeared, clad in a white polo and jeans, his hair styled messily. He looked effortlessly attractive, making your heart skipp a few beats.

Damn it, what was wrong with you?

"Hi," you almost missed a breath, your face flushed with warmth.

"Oh, hey. I was about to come to you. I believe you were to show me around." Mingyu grinned, his pointy canines showing.

"And that is what I'm here for, Mr. Kim."

"Great! Let's get going. We'll take my car."

After showing Mingyu around for a couple of hours, you both ended up at the beach by the marketplace, sitting on the sand next to each other. The weather was nice; not too hot, not too cold as a light breeze flew by occasionally. Though you could see some black clouds gathering above, it wasn't to rain until evening if the forecast was correct.

"This place is so pretty," Mingyu mused, making you smile.

"I know right. The weather is great too."

You both watched the waves crash to the shore, occasionally wetting your feet as you both relaxed on the sand. There was a silence, a comfortable one as you finished eating the corndog you bought from the market earlier with some groceries. As you finished the last bite, Mingyu turned to face you and asked, "Tell me about yourself."

"What?" A squeak of surprise escaped from you.

"I shared a lot about myself last night. It's only fair I get to know about you too."

"Well..." You pondered. "There isn't much to tell. I've a pretty dull life, unlike you."

Mingyu chuckled, shaking his head, "Does the cabin belong to your parents? Is it like a family business type of thing?"

"No, not really," you smiled softly. "My parents are dead. The cabin belonged to my grandfather."

"Oh- I'm sorry."

"No it's okay. They passed away in an accident when I was a kid so I don't remember them much." You spoke, watching the sea, "My grandparents raised me. Growing up I've spent a lot of time in the cabin and when my grandfather retired he handed the job to me."

"Are they alive? Your grandparents?" He asked tentatively.

You shook your head, "Grandpa passed away a couple years ago and it's been a few months since grandma did too."

"I'm sorry, you must've been lonely," Mingyu offered, his voice soft.

You shrugged, "Yeah, like I said, nothing interesting going on in my life."

Mingyu hummed noncommittally and there was a few moments of silence before he spoke again, "Was managing the cabin something you have always wanted to do?"

You were quiet for a while as you thought over the question, "No...not really. I've just kept doing the job I was handed to. I haven't really thought about what I want to do."

"Well...I think you should hire a manager in your place and maybe...I don't come to the city and make friends, see what calls for you."

"Yeah, I've thought about it. But I don't know really." You murmured.

"Well, give it some thought. I could help you find a manager. In fact, I could help promote and upgrade your cabin if you'd let me. It'll be a good investment."

You laughed softly, not taking his words too seriously. He was just a guest. He was probably just being nice.

A gust of strong wind flew by, ruining your hair as it poked into your eyes and you laughed when your eyes landed on Mingyu.

"What?"

His hair was sticking in different directions because of the wind and you shook your head with a smile as you reached to pat the hairs back into place. It happened naturally, before you could stop yourself. For a moment your eyes meet as you quickly retract your hand, face heated.

Something was definitely wrong with you.

Mingyu's gaze stayed at you for a while; you could feel his intense eyes on you and you thought maybe he didn't like you touching him. Before your thoughts ran more rampant, he spoke.

"___?"

"Y-yes?"

"Do you...Do you have a home?"

"Home?" You were confused.

"Yes, home. Not like a real house but like a... person. Someone who makes you feel at ease, someone with whom you can be yourself without judgements, someone who keeps you cozy and safe and loved...like a home."

Somewhat taken aback by his words, you fell silent but their depth hit you and you found yourself thinking about it. Do you have a home?

No. No, you don't.

You shook your head, murmuring, "No."

Mingyu nodded taking his eyes off you.

"What about you?" You asked.

"Me neither."

You smiled, "Figures. Because if you had someone you wouldn't have run here but went to them."

Mingyu smiled, a sad smile gracing his lips. It was a somewhat bitter truth, he hadn't found his home no matter how much he looked for it. Maybe that's what he was doing wrong, looking desperately.

"Let's get going. It has started to rain," Your voice dragged him out of his thoughts as he felt small drops of water fall on his face. You reached your hand out to him and he took it, standing up. As you both jogged towards Mingyu's car, your hands remained connected, no one bothering to let go.

That night you had dinner with Mingyu again but this time it was you who did the cooking. After enjoying dinner over small talk, Mingyu like the gentleman he is did the dishes as you poured some wine for the two of you.

Sitting on the small table in common space by the window, you both watched the clear sky that had appeared after the shower. You sipped your wine, watching the vast expanse of stars that blinked in the dark sky.

"I think I've to go back tomorrow," Mingyu suddenly whispered, his tone so low you almost thought you misheard him. A bolt out the blue, you looked at him.

"Tomorrow?"

"Mmhmm," he fiddled with the hem of his cardigan as he stared at the table. "I've got so many calls and messages from work. My company won't run on its on, I can be gone for only so long." He sighed.

You didn't offer any words, too shocked to know that he'd be gone tomorrow. What is this attachment you've developed towards him? Why did the thought of someone, almost a stranger going back to where he came from, where he belonged hurt you so much? You didn't know what to label your feelings but realizing that you'd probably never see him again was tugging at your heartstrings.

Should you ask him for his number and stay connected with him? Is there even a point in that? You both live miles away from each other. Or should just take his advice and follow him to the city? Would that even be a good idea? Are you just reading all this wrong?

You were so invested in your thoughts that you didn't realize Mingyu was calling you until he shook your shoulder.

"You okay, ___?"

"Huh? Yeah...it's just, the news is really sudden. I didn't... expect you'd return so soon." You mumbled.

Mingyu sighed, his shoulder dropping a little bit. "Trust me, if I could I'd stay here forever. But...I can't keep running. I need to face my parents, the sooner the better."

At a loss of what to say, you just nodded. Reaching for your drink you took a big gulp, trying to calm your nerves. It's okay, you can do this. He's just another one of your guests.

You stood up, taking the empty glass in your hand, "Well, I better leave you alone now. I'm sure you've got packing to do."

You almost turned away; until a strong hand gripped your wrist and pulled you back, making you stumble towards Mingyu's body.

"Don't. Stay for a while. I don't want you to leave." His voice was soft yet deep and it immediately broke your resolve as you set the glass down and looked into his eyes.

He didn't let go of your wrist; instead only wrapped his other hand around your waist, pulling you closer, leaving just a few inches between your faces. You didn't tell him to move neither did you make any effort to get away from him- you didn't want to. It felt good, comforting as he held you and looked at you almost like you were his whole world. His eyes had so much emotion swirling in them and you were sure yours looked the same too.

"___?" His voice was breathy and it set your heart aflame.

"Y-yes?"

"Can I...kiss you?"

You inhaled sharply as his hold on you got tighter. You couldn't process a reply, overwhelmed with emotion. So you just nodded and Mingyu leaned in, pressing his lips to yours.

It was soft at first, his lips just resting against yours, as if he was testing the waters. When you didn't resist but only pulled him closer, he started devouring you, his tongue prodding in your wet cavern. Moans espaced from you as you kept pulling at his hair almost grinding on him, desperate for more. He was the same, kissing you with so much passion and vigour like you were the last female standing.

You somehow managed to tug off his cardigan between the kiss and when you pulled apart for air, Mingyu panted, "Can we take this to the bedroom?"

His deep raspy voice spread liquid heat throughout your body and you had to stop yourself from pouncing on him.

"Yes please," you breathed. Mingyu stood up straight, his tall and built body intimidating you in the best ways possible, "Oh baby, you don't have to beg. I'll give you anything you want."

Once again your breath was trapped as he picked you up, his hand under your ass to support you. When he dropped you on his bed and took off his tee you realized you were in for a long night. In the back of your mind, you also realized that this would make it even harder to let him go.

Next morning you were the first one to wake up as the sun barely seeped through the blinds. If you had to guess it wasn't any more than six am. Mingyu's hand rested on your waist as he remained snuggled against your back. It was so comforting that you almost forgot your reality and went back to sleep, until you remembered what had happened last night. Before you could start overthinking and possibly had a breakdown right there, you ever so carefully removed his hand from your body and scrawled out of the bed, grabbing your shirt and quickly throwing it on. Then you tiptoped out of his room despite the ache between your legs and rushed straight towards yours.

Slamming the door shut, your sat down, head in your hands. You've to now prepare for saying goodbye. Right, you just need to act casual and not let him know that you might have developed feelings for him in the past week.

His words came back to you.

"Do you have a home?"

You didn't have one until now but the realization that you may have found it brought tears to your eyes.

You spent the next hours wallowing in your self pity, curled up in your bed too afraid to get out and face Mingyu. Soonyoung dropped by once, knocking at your door and asking if you want breakfast, which you declined. Time slowly ticked away and you watched as the clock struck eleven. You couldn't stay inside forever. You needed to bid Mingyu a goodbye- that is if he hadn't left already. But you were sure he didn't; he wouldn't just leave without any words.

Sighing, you gathered every last bit of your courage and stepped out of your room. Immediately you saw Mingyu coming out from the opposite end of the corridor, the carry-on he brought with him in his hand.

"Hey, where have you been?" He asked, his steps getting quicker to come and stand in front of you.

"Oh- um, I took and shower and then dozed off, sorry," you lied easily, not meeting his eyes.

There was a beat of silence as you both stood in front of each other and when your eyes finally met his, a blush spread across his face like wildfire. The air was heavy with unsaid words and you coughed, trying to get rid of the terrible awkwardness.

"So, you're leaving now?"

What a nice question.

Mingyu seemed to be lost in thoughts as he snapped back to reality and scratched the back of his head, "Oh yeah, right. It'll be a couple hours drive so the earlier I leave the better."

Nodding you motioned your hand towards the exit, "I'll see you out."

Mingyu seemed to have something to say but he pressed his lips in a thin line and started to climb down the stairs, you behind him. Soonyoung, who was standing at the entrance gave you a conspirational wiggle of his brows but said nothing as he watched you follow Mingyu out.

You observed as Mingyu loaded his bag in the trunk, peeking glances at you every other second. When he finished, you spoke, "Well...good luck. I hope you can overcome your problems."

"Thanks. It won't be easy and my dad will probably take away my shares of the company but...I'm done living like this."

You nodded, smiling softly as you crossed your arms against your chest. It suddenly felt cold.

You both gazed at each other, saying nothing even though you've so much to say, as if the silence would carry your unsaid words to him. You were torn- wanting to talk about last night but chickening out knowing it was probably just a fling, a one night stand for him.

"___..." Mingyu spoke but the words died on his tongue. Not trusting yourself to speak, you swallwed the ball of emotions and looked at him with a curious tilt of head.

"...I hope you find what you really want to do. And I hope you find your home too," he said, his words so soft and gentle. For some reason you had a feeling that those were not the words he wanted to say yet you forced a smile and nodded, "You too, Mingyu."

His eyes swirled with so my emotions but you didn't know what he was thinking. He looked pained, just like you but you were too afraid to speak your feelings, scared that you misread him.

When you spoke no more, Mingyu sighed and backstopped slowly, "Well... goodbye, then."

You managed to choke out the words, "Goodbye."

Your emotions overwhelmed you, tears stinging your eyes as you watched him enter his car. Why did it hurt so much? Why did it feel like your heart was being ripped right out of your chest?

His engine roared to life and your stomach sunk. Was this really the right thing to do? Should you just let him go like this?

You made a split second decision that moment, just as his car moved forward a little.

"Mingyu!" You called after him, immediately making him stop the car. He came out, almost in a hurry, an expectant look on his face as you ran towards him. Then you made another split second decision as you wrapped your arms around his tall frame and held tight.

"I like you, Mingyu. I really like you." You mumbled in his chest.

He didn't say anything back but you felt his arms wrapping around you tightly and you stood there in each others embrace for a while. It felt like time has stopped, the warmth and safety of his arms comforting you and making you realize how you would have regretted if you had let him go.

Mingyu pulled back to take a look at your face, his hand cupping your cheeks, his warm but intense eyes on you, shining with love and adoration.

"Say something," you whispered, still unsure.

He chuckled, a light-hearted, carefree sound that made your heart swoon. "I like you too, if it wasn't obvious after last night."

Elated, you pulled his face down and kissed his lips as you felt him grin and wrap his arms around you once again.

"I want to go with you...to the city," you murmured into his chest as he rested his chin on the top of your head.

You couldn't see it but you felt him smirk, "Good. Because I think I found my home."

Your heart couldn't become fuller as you grinned like a happy child.

"Me too."

A/N 2: If you enjoyed reading don't forget to like and reblog and let me know your thoughts!

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