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catskets · 3 months

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A more in-depth guide for creating visual novels, especially in the horror, horror-romance, etc circles

Some of you have seen my previous, smaller post on crafting visual novels, especially in this little space of Tumblr that a lot of us have found themselves in. Since that post took off, I've wanted to create a longer guide to help touch on some points I've thought about for the past few months.

In case you've never heard of me, I'm Kat, also known as catsket. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Design. I've been making games for nearly 5 years, and I've been doing visual novels more "professionally" for 2. You may know me for Art Without Blood, 10:16, God is in the Radio, or Fatal Focus. I'm here to help you make your first visual novel.

Please note that my advice does not fit everyone, and you may disagree with what I say. That's okay! It doesn't work for all. That's why there's thousands of resources out there.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER MADE A GAME

So, you have an idea for a huge visual novel. Horror, a shady and obsessive love interest, a little bit of woo-hooing. 100k words. Maybe a million. What is this, the 07th Expansion?

I notice a lot of people getting into visual novels are artists first. That's okay! I wanted to do art for games before I realized how much I enjoyed writing. And even less of you have probably touched Visual Studio. Again, perfectly okay. We all start somewhere.

My number one piece of advice? Make shitty games.

What does that mean?! My recommendation to those who have never done games is to make a bunch of shitty ones. Think of a theme, or hell, even join a game jam, where you make a game that fits a theme in a short amount of time. Spend about a week on your game. Focus on making something polished. Polish your mechanics. Polish your output.

I recommend, if you can, to make at least 4-6, if not more, kind of shitty games before hopping into longer projects. Making a game is a skill, just like art, just like writing. And game development is combining ALL of these together into one big soup being stirred by a skeleton hand puppet. You'll get into the rhythm and see what works for you.

It also helps you learn, perhaps, the second most important thing here: do you even like making games? There are cases out there where people have created video games (not saying visual novels) just for clout. That's no fun for you, that's no fun for your players. And you might go through this process and find that you don't like making games. That's completely okay! It's not for everyone.

Also, you can use these shittier games to gather an audience. I've built my audience because, for the past few years, I've been releasing games that slowly give me growing fields of eyes every day. A success story overnight is a rare one. It takes time. It's like building a brand, but you aren't a brand, you're an artist.

REV UP YOUR ENGINES!

Ren'py is the number one engine you will be recommended. It is very beginner-friendly, with lots of tutorials, assets on itch.io to use and download, and support. The engine comes with a few tutorials in the form of games, whose code you can freely browse. This is the engine I use most often. Most visual novels you see are made in this engine.

Twine is a text-based engine that most people use for interactive fiction. You can add images and audio, though, if you don't mind messing with HTML. I use Twine for text games and for outlining for my larger games. Ever played Degrees of Lewdity? Yeah, I know you have. Don't ask why. That game was made in Twine.

RPG Maker has multiple versions and has been used for exclusively VNs if you don't mind fucking around with plugins. It can definitely give your game a super unique feel. I recommend RPG Maker MV, since it has the most resources. This line of engines usually costs money, but it often goes on sale for under $5-$15.

People will recommend TyranoBuilder, but as a user and player, the lack of options and the format the games often come in is just...not fun to navigate. It advertises itself as little to no code, but it's often evident in the final results. Some good games have been made in it, though, so if you want to use it for prototyping/practice, you can. I'm not a fan, but that doesn't mean that fans don't exist! This engine costs money.

Not an engine, but check out Ink! Super useful scripting language that's used for more professional projects.

DEMOS, DEMOS, DEMOS

You've got an idea for a long-term project, and now you want to show it to the world! But wait, wait, don't do that yet!

When should I start advertising my game? This is a personal opinion, but I say that you should not start advertising your game until 50-60% of your demo is complete. Why? As I've discussed with some fans of indie VNs, they can name quite a few projects that have been in the "working on the demo" age for 1-2+ years. I've been in the Kickstarter MMO circles. If you, making a single-player experience with little mechanics to balance and polish (aka a visual novel), are taking that long on a demo, I am going to assume the game is not coming out. There are some games I have seen out here that have been in "working on the demo" phase where I haven't seen a single ounce of what the project will look like.

What should I put in my demo? The purpose of a demo is to showcase the mechanics and the vibes and the mechanics of your game. It's a demonstration. In my last post, I pointed to the Dead Space 2 demo that was showcased at E3 (RIP), that takes place about 2 hours into the story and shows how enemies are defeated, some animations, bits of the story, etc. Usually, because it's less about mechanics and more about vibes, visual novel demos showcase a certain percentage of the full thing (5-10%.) Can you showcase the vibe of the game here and what players should expect? If not, show off another portion.

How long should I work on my demo? Before, I said 3-4 months. That can be true, that can also not be true. Think about how long the demo takes you in proportion to how long the actual game should take you. Don't put too much effort. The demo is to showcase the vibe. It's to see how much the public and fans may enjoy the game.

My game is 18+, what should I do? Make a splash screen when the game is downloaded to let players know your game is 18+. If it's going to contain sexual content, you can hide it with itch.io's adult content filter. Write it on the page itself that your game is for adults only. Don't put your demo behind a paywall. This is genuinely ridiculous. The purpose of a demo is to showcase what a game is like before a player purchases it. That defeats the point of a demo. I've seen this happen, and it discourages players from approaching, especially because most demos never make it past the demo phase. So...I'm paying you $10 for 2-3k words of a game that may never come out?

Should I make a social media for my game? YES! Go for it. These anchors are how people will find your game. Make a Tumblr and open that ask box. Make a Twitter. Go to BluSky. Advertising is not bad. Some YouTubers even take e-mail suggestions from developers. Feel free to shoot your shot. The worst they can do is not respond.

HOW TO SET UP YOUR ITCH.IO PAGE:

Getting your itch.io to a presentable state can be very challenging! There's many ways to do it. I highly recommend using this page image guide for learning how to size your images to make your page pop!

Itch.io themselves has suggested to not publish a page until the game or demo is released. You can make the page and keep it as a draft, but do not publish it until you're ready!

Your cover image is the image that will appear in the search of the website, on any front pages, in collections, and on your profile. What have I seen that works? Key art of one of the characters up close and the title of the game! If you can make it a .GIF, do it! Bitches love .GIFs!

Itch.io recommends 3-5 screenshots on your page. I recommend 1 of these 5 be a .GIF that shows how gameplay feels. This is effective, even for visual novels!

Write a 3-5 sentence summary about your game for the description. What is your story about? What is the draw?

DO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO IS GOING TO SAY "This is not like other visual novels. It doesn't have that cheesy this or that or-" No one cares. Genuinely. You're putting down other games in your genre and elevating yourself to the pompous level.

TAG YOUR GAME! itch.io gives you a list of tags to choose from when you go to tag. DON'T USE THIS! Try to go for more specific tags. Arimia has a very good guide on how to use itch.io's tagging system to your advantage.

GENERAL GAME MAKING ADVICE

SCOPE KNIFE IS SUPER USEFUL! Everyone makes games that are way over their workload. It's okay to cut out features and add them later. Prioritize making a finished game before hitting those stretch goals.

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Writing outlines is super helpful. I use Twine for my outlines, because you can connect your passages together and make really well-thought webs.

IT'S OKAY TO ASK FOR HELP! Whether it's from friends, professionals, or anything in-between. They can help with assets, editing, etc.

HONE YOUR SKILLS OUTSIDE OF GAMES! Write some poetry. Do some sketches everyday. Improve on your craft to improve your games

MUSIC IS HARD. THERE ARE RESOURCES. Most of us aren't musicians. That's okay. Make sure the music you get for your game is allowed to be used. You can use anything non-commercial if your game will not cost money or donations. I try to do songs in the public domain or free to use overall with credit if I don't have a musician. Consult the Creative Commons website if you're unsure how you're supposed to use a certain piece of music. If you don't use the right stuff, not only can it put you in legal trouble, but it can put streamers in hot water if they play your game and they can't upload the video because music is copyrighted.

PLEASE, DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR UI. Wanna know an easy way to get your game to look more professional? Edit the damn UI for your game. Make a new textbox, even if it's just a black box. Change the font. Eventually, players recognize the defaults and patterns of games made in certain engines and may attribute a lack of UI changes to a developer being lazy. It doesn't take very long to change the colors around and move text! Please do it to add a little pop to your game.

DEADLINES ARE AWESOME. Not everyone works well under pressure, but if you give yourself an infinite amount of time to make something, it'll never get done. Set goals for yourself for how much you can work on something.

IF YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP, GIVE UP. Making things is hard, especially long-term. Emergencies happen, jobs happen, life happens. Let your fans know that a project isn't happening anymore. Don't leave them in the dark. You don't need to tell strangers your medical history or anything, but transparency + honesty are really hot traits. You should use those in your creative work. This is one reason why I advocate for not publishing or advertising things until you know it's stable.

SHOWCASING YOUR CONTENT

People love to see WIPs for games! This is what the devlog is good for! A devlog is a post where a developer talks about and showcases some things happening in the game? What can you add to your dev log?

PERCENTAGES! How much of the artwork is done? How much of this character's route is done?

SNEAK PEEKS AT ARTWORK AND SPRITES!

GIFS! GIRLS LOVE GIFS!

Anything else to showcase your game's content! Posting consistent updates retains and even gains a fan's attention for your work.

RUNNING YOUR TUMBLR

You've joined us, and you've made a Tumblr for your blog! Link it on the itch.io page, so people can come find you after playing your awesome demo!

Do I have to respond to every ask? No. It's your blog. Delete whatever asks you want.

I got a hate comment! What do I do? Delete it and move on. I have a more detailed section on hate below.

I want to interact with [blog]! How do I do that? Reach out to the devs for silly little collabs. If you come onto a developer slightly headstrong, they might feel you are being abrasive or using them for content.

If people make fan content, interact with it! Encourage it! Reblog it. Show your love.

OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS

PROFESSIONALISM IS KEY. These may be pet projects, but you want to appear some level of professional on your actual itch.io page.

Being dismissive of player and fan complaints or criticisms will make you appear childish.

If your game is broken, fix it. I have been told by some amateur developers to ignore game-breaking bugs. It does not make me, a player, want to engage with your content. It seems messy and unfinished.

With the above point, it's 100% okay to have bugs and errors upon release. Every developer and their brood mother has. To decrease these issues, get playtesters. Friends can play your games, spot any errors, and help you point out things that can be improved upon. I recommend having playtesters at every stage of development.

Make sure your game runs before you publish it. Please.

You can still be silly and giddy! There's no reason to not be, especially when you get positive comments! The point of this is to not be outright rude to potential players and fans.

IGNORE HATE COMMENTS. In this case, a hate comment is a statement that contains no constructive criticism and are only here to be insulting or malicious. People are going to leave you with actual piles of dog shit in your ask box. They are trying to provoke you. Giving hate comments any attention, even if you're there to "clap back" proves that they got to you, even if you don't take the hate to heart. They will continue to pester you. Delete any hate comments and ignore them completely. Laugh about them with friends in a private setting, sure.

THINK BEFORE YOU REFERENCE! I know one big thing in this community is adding references to other games in yours, such as plushies of other characters or putting them on posters. The best thing you can do it ask the developer before adding this. How would you feel if some random person you've never met put your character in a video game? Most of us would feel weird and potentially violated. Open communication with devs is awesome. I am usually okay with it as long as someone asks for permission.

As a complete aside, I prefer more tasteful references to other games as opposed to 523482346 plushies and posters. These have been slightly overdone. Why not theme a candy after another game's character? Maybe your characters know each other.

OTHER RESOURCES I RECOMMEND

Devtalk is a server dedicated to independent visual novel creators. You can find jobs, resources, advice, talks, and, like, everything there! Devtalk is super useful. Everyone in there is so cool. They have a really great and comprehensive list of resources that I could not even begin to cover.

Visual Novel Design is a great YouTuber. No other words, check the guy out!

Ren'py and whatever other engine you're using has documentation that's super useful to follow.

Arimia not only has amazing VN resources, especially for marketing, but she also just has? Amazing games that you should check out?

And for a shameless self plug, I'm the lead of Sacred Veins, a collective of devs creating narrative games, whether it be horror, humor, romance, or everything in-between. Come hang out with us!

#visual novels #game development

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leviismybby · 11 months

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I am weak for single dad Levi so I wrote a little something for fathers day...

Levi Ackerman x fem babysitter!reader

Nsfw 18+, mdni, hot and steamy sex, this nasty, you have been warned, age gap

Single dad!Levi who isn't too happy about having to find a babysitter for his daughter, he trust only a few people so trusting a stranger with his child was tough for him.

Single dad!Levi who goes through tons of young people who applied for a job and didn't accept a single one until he saw yours.

Single dad!Levi who likes what he sees as soon as his eyes land on you. You were a young woman trying to make money for yourself.

Single dad!Levi who lets his eyes run up and down your body as you tell him about yourself, you don't notice it because he makes sure that you don't.

Single dad!Levi who is about six years older than you, yet he looks better than all the men your age.

Single dad!Levi who shows you around his house on your first day, he explains everything to you. He clearly cares about his daughter very much.

Single dad!Levi who is surprised when his daughter starts talking about you and praising you to him, he is more than happy that he hired the right person.

Single dad!Levi who watches as you take care of his daughter, it makes him melt, you would be a good mother.

Single dad!Levi who checks you out every time he gets the chance, your body is delicate, you were made to be touched.

Single dad!Levi who starts noticing you returning his gazes a few months into your job. You bite your lip as see him change his shirt before heading off to work.

Single dad!Levi who sees that the things you're wearing start to get more and more provocative, he doesn't mind it, not one bit.

Single dad!Levi who invented you over one night while his daughter was with her mother. His intentions were clear and he wasn't shy about the fact that he wanted you.

Single dad!Levi who teases you about the short black dress you chose to wear, he will be more than happy to rip it off of you.

Single dad!Levi who sits on the couch next to you as you two talk, Levi stares at your legs as you speak, his mind filled with different positions he wants to try with you.

Single dad!Levi who kisses you, his hands immediately finding your hips as the kiss gets more intense.

Single dad!Levi who rips your dress, he just wants to see you naked. "I'll buy you a new one, doll" he mumbled as he pushed you down on the couch and found a comfortable spot between your open legs.

Single dad!Levi who bites down your neck and collarbone, he leaves wet patches behind as his mouth goes lower and lower.

Single dad!Levi who sucks and licks your nipples, he loves the grip you have on his hair as he swirls his tongue around your hard buds.

Single dad!Levi who has you naked under him quickly, your body is truly a piece of art, Levi almost growls when he sees it bare.

Single dad!Levi who eats your pussy better than those clumsy men your age, his tongue is ruthless on your wet folds.

Single dad!Levi who takes his time to figure out where and how you break, when he does, he won't stop until you beg him too, even then he will still continue.

Single dad!Levo who makes you cum over and over again on his tongue and fingers, your pussy is swollen but he only wants more. "One more for me pretty. You can give me that right?"

Single dad!Levi who ruts his hips against the fabric of the couch as he eats you out like a madman, he can't wait to be inside of you.

Single dad!Levi who makes you arch your back as he fingers you. He starts with one finger and ends up making you cum with three....

Single dad!Levi spreads your legs wide and spits on your pussy before he enters you without warning.

Single dad!Levi who thinks he might just love you when you moan his name over and over again. That only makes him fuck you harder.

Single dad!Levi whose thrusts are brutal, your wet cunt makes his crazy, his eyes roll at back of his head. "You keep clenching, doll. So deliciously fucking tight."

Single dad!Levi who wraps his hand around your neck and pushes you deeper into the cushion as his cock slides in and out of you.

Single dad!Levi who throws your legs over his shoulder, his fat cock pouring you deep and hard, your nails dig into his back.

Single dad!Levi who kisses you sloppily as he fucks you, at this point, he is sure that the whole neighborhood is hearing you but he doesn't give a single fuck, not one.

Single dad!Levi who is begging to come inside of you. "Let me breed you. Let me give you your firstborn, you'll be such an amazing mother."

Single dad!Levi who cums deep inside of you, his warm cum feels amazing in you. "Good girl....good girl..."

Single dad!Levi who picks your body up so that he can pin you against the wall and fuck you again. His cum drips out of you as he enters you again.

Single dad!Levi who leaves love bites all over your neck, that's his mark on you and he loves it see it.

Single dad!Levi who loves to praise you as you take him in deeper. "Just like that..taking my cock so fucking well. You love it don't you? You love me fucking you like this?"

Single dad!Levi who creampies you over an over again until your belly is full of his cum and he is sure that he got you pregnant.

Single dad!Levi who keeps taking you whenever he can, he is too addicted to stop now.

Single dad!Levi who will never fuck another girl again, he has his pretty doll now after all...

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

Taglist: @youre-ackermine @the-milk-anon @yakaaamoz @mrsackermannx @humanitys-strongest-bamf @levisbrat25 @notgoodforlife @svftackerman @sixpennydame @lovolee3 @luvjiro @randomlevithoughts @sparkywrites25 @cometlevi @ackermendick @loveackermannn @shoisae

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artificial-transmutations · 8 months

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Anger Issues

When Owen first came to this new city, in this new and foreign country, he was full of hope. A fresh start in an unfamiliar land. It was an adventure! The world was his oyster, and the possibilities were endless! He had just finished university and had a degree in art history, which should make it easy for him to find work.

As it turns out, that was a lie.

For three long, grueling months, Owen tried everything to make a living in the big city. The truth was that his degree often wasn't recognized, and even when it was, he wasn't considered qualified to do the job, often without any obvious reason. The financial reserves he had were draining quickly and his hopes of finding good and fulfilling work in the new city were getting smaller and smaller every day.

"You need experience to get a job, and you can't get a job without experience". Owen never realized how true this saying was until he had stumbled into that very situation. Desperate to get out of it, he finally found an unpaid internship in a museum for ancient art. It was a really interesting field for Owen, but it turned out his tasks were mundane and not related to the exhibits at all. Instead, he was confined to a small office room to scan and sort invoices - a tedious job and hardly what Owen had studied for.

So, one day, in his break, when he went through the exhibition as usual, a wooden figure caught his eye that was apparently brought here this morning. It depicted the torso of a man, showing a sculpted chest. The figure was cut off below the upper arms and above the legs. The face of the man was symmetrical and angelic, although frowning. Above the hair, it showed either a thick halo or some kind of hat.

Owen was inexplicably drawn towards the figure. It was well-preserved and Owen couldn't quite assign it a region or time period. Looking at the sign, Owen realized it had no information about this either. Clearly a curiosity!

Driven by his own desire for knowledge, Owen stepped closer, hoping to get a more detailed look. It was as if a faint whisper was coming from the grim statue, but that must have been his imagination. He reached out with his hand to touch the wooden surface, only to hesitate again. It was, of course, forbidden to touch the exhibits, but perhaps feeling the structure of the wood would help him understand the piece more.

As soon as he touched the surface, the whispers grew louder all of a sudden, and his fingers felt a slight jolt - but both sensations stopped immediately again.

Someone behind him was clearing his throat.

"Ahem. Owen. Do I need to remind you not to touch the exhibit?", Mr. Hastings, the director of the museum, said, looking sternly at Owen.

"Oh, no, Sir, I just thought... it might give me some better understanding..."

"Rules are rules." Mr. Hastings said, but he was smiling again.

Owen however felt a most unusual feeling bubbling up in him. At first, he didn't quite know where to put it, but it soon became very clear to him. He was angry! The rational part of his mind tried to understand why - there was no real reason. Mr. Hastings was right of course and judging by his smile, Owen really didn't have a problem. Regardless, he felt as if he had just been insulted the worst possible way. Before he could stop himself, he burst out:

"Do you know where you can put your precious rules? Fuck them! Fuck you! Fuck this whole place! You don't want me to do real work here?! Fine! I quit!"

Head steaming, Owen removed his museum badge from his jacket and threw it to the ground with such force that the plastic shattered. With another loud "Fuck you!", he ran off, leaving the befuddled Mr. Hastings behind, as well as the museum.

Only after he had walked a few blocks, Owens anger subsided somewhat. What has he been thinking? He should turn around and apologize at once!

Then again, it was an unpaid internship. Even though the way to quit this job hasn't been too professional, what was done was done - and perhaps for the better, too. He could focus on finding a better job now. There surely had to be something.

There wasn't. Owen had no better luck then before, but inexplicably, his tolerance for frustration had diminished. After the third denied application, Owen had become so angry that he actually punched a hole into the thin walls of his apartment. Alongside the anger, there had been some changes to Owen's body, as well: He seemed overall fitter and filled out his clothes better. He also found his libido increased somewhat. Where before he had jerked off perhaps once a week, he found himself hard now more and more often, and his hand was drawn to his cock even more.

Jerking off helped to cool the red hot anger somewhat that he found himself quite often in, so it was quickly becoming a daily thing. However, being constantly torn between being angry and being horny didn't leave much space for patience. His money was running dry, too, so, Owen finally accepted a job in a field that was far below his academic standards: He started a job as a fast-food cashier.

The red "FST" uniform, as the fast food chain was called, was tight on Owen's chest, when he started his first work day. They had probably given him a smaller size, even though they said it was XL. Owen was already feeling angry about that obvious mistake, but he swallowed his anger and let himself be introduced to the cash register.

The system was overwhelmingly complex. It had like a hundred different buttons, and Owen quickly felt his head swimming. It shouldn't be so hard to understand a fast food cash register, but apparently, this one was extra complex. Just his luck!

At some point, he just nodded as the manager showed him the functions of the device. The introduction wasn't very long, only ten minutes, but Owen didn't understand a thing. You really needed a degree for that monstrosity! Still, he was expected to serve his first customer right away, pure insanity.

The first order was easy enough, a plain hamburger and a coke, and after searching the right buttons for a good two minutes, Owen managed to put in the order. However, the second customer wanted a milkshake, too, and that was the final straw. They really couldn't expect Owen to juggle such complex orders in his mind AND put them into the machine. Angrily, he shouted out in frustration and let his fist come down on the cash register with full force, again and again. Of course, the thin metal and plastic yielded to his rage and the machine broke.

"FUCK THIS FUCKING JOB!"

This was the breaking point for Owen. Everything had gone wrong since he had moved to this fucking city. No job, no money, no nothing! He tried to wriggle out of the way-too-small uniform top but ended up ripping it apart instead.

The manager ran over and pulled him from behind.

"Stop that! Stop that right now!"

"LET ME GO! I QUIT!"

"You're going nowhere! You can't leave after what you've done!"

With an angry roar, the now half-naked Owen shoved the manager against the counter with full force and stormed off. He didn't care if the manager wanted to call the police, or sue him, or whatever.

As soon as he arrived at his shabby apartment, Owen took out his laptop and started looking for jobs. He didn't get very far, though. The computer was confusing, and Owen was still feeling angry from his last job. He finally managed to pull up his favorite porn site and started watching videos.

The normal porn he usually consumed didn't do a good job of calming him down today. He needed something rougher, something more primal. The female porn stars were too weak for the sex to be stimulating, he decided.

After clicking through a few more videos, he spied a thumbnail of two guys getting at it roughly. Brilliant. When there were only men involved, the sex would be much better. They wouldn't take shit from the girls, and they'd be strong. Much more satisfying.

Seeing two men having sex brought back his cock to full erection and soon enough, Owen splattered his cum all over his muscular torso.

As the post-nut-clarity set in, Owen realized he had a problem. He needed something to channel all that rage into before it destroyed his life entirely. After some research, he decided to join a Krav Maga club.

The raw brutality of the sport helped Owen to tune off the complicated world around him and made him feel happy for the first time in weeks. He trained often and hard, quickly stacking even more muscles on his already impressive frame. Of course, Owen wasn't clever enough to grasp the techniques of the sport, so he just substituted it by raw strength. A lot of kicks and hits found their way into his face, but he was healing quickly as well. Over the course of a few weeks however, the brutality left its marks in his face. His nose looked crooked as if it had been broken and his jaw looked manly, but not exactly beautiful.

Still, joining the club was the best decision he could have made. He met some new friends, who set him up with a new job as a warehouse worker. Carrying crates and heavy barrels from one place to another was the perfect job for Owen. He didn't need to understand what he was moving, nor did he have to do any paperwork (not that he would have been able to - Owen had his trouble with letters and numbers, which left him pretty much illiterate). He just needed to do what his manager said, and he was happy for it.

Besides the Krav Maga, he found another outlet for his anger issues. Since he couldn't afford his flat anymore, Owen moved in with a couple of garbage workers he met at the warehouse. As it turned out, they, too, were gay and enjoyed it quite a lot when Owen split their cheeks roughly, not holding back one bit.

#male transformation #muscle transformation #dumbing down #straight to gay

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ikeuverse · 11 months

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MARRY ME — l.heeseung

PAIRING: heeseung x fem!reader GENRES: fluff, humor WC: 6.1k+

WARNINGS: mention of alcohol, kissing and i think that's it. let me know in case i have forgotten something.

NOTES: here i am with my first enhypen story. this plot came to me from some funny video compilations i saw of hee and knew he would do it. so i just let my imagination run wild. i don't have a taglist yet, but i can provide one for the next stories. english is not my first language, so sorry for any spelling mistakes too. hope you like it!

masterlist

You felt that since you met Byeol, your best friend since the third grade, you would never be alone again. And you were really right. You look at that little girl who walked shyly into the classroom, her front tooth almost growing into a gaping smile as she clutched her box of crayons against her chest.

"Hi" was the first thing she said as she approached you "I'm Byeol, what's your name?"

"Y/n" you smiled too, but unlike her, your tooth had grown long enough since last month.

And since that moment you two have never been apart. Not even when Sunghoon, the younger boy next door, wanted to play with you in the school playground. There was born the purest friendship trio you could ever imagine.

Afraid of the inevitable changes in life like school life for example, your thoughts were flooded with "What if they find a better friend than me?", or you and Byeol always talked about Sunghoon starting dating in high school and just walking away from two female friends because the girl would surely die of jealousy.

"That will never happen" Sunghoon smiled at you two during the coffee the trio shared every Thursday morning before math class "Because I know you two long before you have all your full teeth. You are like my sisters."

That was extremely cute and comforting to hear, even more so coming from Sunghoon who rarely showed his feelings to anyone. But not to you and Byeol. As he himself said, you were like his sisters, and that was amazing.

In high school a lot changed, for sure, but the friendship of the three of you always became stronger and stronger. You both saw Sunghoon cry when he got a low grade in science, and Byeol comforted you together with Sunghoon when his model broke down because of the rain that had come without warning on the day of the art assignment. The three of you were each other's safe haven. You were always together and always shared almost everything - even the people around you. Like, for example, Byeol's younger brother.

Heeseung had never been anything but the youngest brother and later became one of Sunghoon's best friends. Byeol knew that this would happen even because Sunghoon would not deal with two female friendships for the rest of his life. And Heeseung was always close, so the feeling of losing his best friend would not be a problem. But for you it had been a nuisance.

Well, not so much. Heeseung was beautiful, outgoing and very funny. And this last fact made him make fun of practically everything that might be going on. And that wouldn't leave you out.

It all started with little teasing that he also had with Byeol. Because you two were always together, he might see you as a second older sister, hence the teasing and funny nicknames he gave you and your sister. But it wasn't just that.

You regretted the day you were at the Lee brothers' house, studying for the next big exam for the second year of high school. You and Byeol were paying attention to all the video lessons she had separated with the content while eating the last piece of chocolate cake Mrs. Lee left for both of you. Your attention quickly came to a screeching halt when a squawk came from the kitchen door.

"Who ate the last piece of cake?" Heeseung was panting and in baggy workout clothes. The basketball just below his arm and his hair stuck to his forehead in his sweat wave.

"Me" Byeol smiled victoriously as soon as her brother's scowl was present "And y/n helped me" at that moment you felt a strange chill in your stomach as his expression softened. Soon an angelic smile that was almost never given by Heeseung.

"Oh, she can."

"Why?" Byeol asked raising one of his eyebrows.

A short period of silence until Heeseung went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. He made his way around the counter so as not to get in the way of the study session and returned to the kitchen door.

"Because since we're getting married, we need to give things away for each other. Right, y/n?" he cast a wink in your direction, leaving shortly thereafter.

And that's when the saga began.

Each and every opportunity that Heeseung had, he said that he would marry you. And the reason? You didn't know. Because he always annoyed you, just as he annoyed Byeol. So why, all of a sudden, did he simply say that he was going to marry you?

In the third year of high school, where parties became more frequent, it seemed that Heeseung took even more pleasure in saying this to each and every person who was around him. Besides Sunghoon, he now had a few other friends that he had met because of basketball and the extra-curricular classes he took to try to get a good college education. Jake and Jay joined the group without much effort, while Jungwon, Sunoo and Niki, even younger and in other years of high school, met because of the friendly basketball games Heeseung liked to play on the outdoor court on the weekends when the school allowed it.

"What's up man, are you okay?" Heeseung left his drinking cup on the kitchen counter, looking intently at Sunghoon, who was sitting in one of the chairs.

"I think…" the boy sobbed "I'm drunk" Heeseung let out a loud laugh.

"You think?" he saw that his friend was going to answer, but was interrupted by his arrival.

"Oh God, Sunghoon, I finally found you" you sighed with relief, nodding to Heeseung as you approached your best friend "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough for me to find him" Heeseung replied "Where's Byeol?"

"With Jay around" you shrugged.

"What?" Heeseung froze every muscle in his body, imagining Jay's hands on his sister's body and whatever he had to do to her. Soon a frown of disgust showed on his face.

"Come on, like you've never done that" you reached for a glass of water to offer Sunghoon.

"Of course not" he boasted "I'm waiting for our wedding day, then I can do whatever I want."

Again, you rolled your eyes at the typical answer, but you smiled because he was smiling - or because Sunghoon laughed, you wanted to believe faithfully in the latter option.

And over the years this had never changed, but you also didn't care how often Heeseung talked about it. Your friends had gotten used to the amount of flirting he gave you, and how your eye rolls had become smaller in comparison to the dull smiles you threw in his direction.

"It's a win" Sunghoon muttered once to Heeseung, pouring the cheese packet over his french fry. Heeseung tried to deny that it had made his heart beat faster, so he took a bite of his salad and went back to paying attention to his college book.

Because now he needed to graduate. Being in his last year was a lot of work, but he liked what he was doing. He liked the path his life was taking and he saw that all his friends were happy and fulfilled, so this made Heeseung call this the best moment of his life.

The best until he looked at Jay's dark orbs on a Saturday night, glowing and he didn't know if it was because of the light of the room or because they were watery.

"You… you're going to propose to her? Oh my God, man!" Heeseung now looked more nervous than his best friend.

"I don't know… Do you think it's a good idea?" Jay stammered "I mean, it's been two years. We've graduated and I've just stabilized myself in this new job, I wonder if I'm being hasty?"

He knew he wasn't. He knew that Jay had planned this since the third year of high school when he started dating Byeol. Heeseung was a jealous brother yes, but he was fully aware that his best friend made his older sister happy. And this was also due to the fact that if she was happy, the whole atmosphere was happy.

Your friends supported this, you and Sunghoon supported this, so Heeseung had to support it too. He had to give a positive sign so that Jay would finally make the big request.

And that was why now Byeol, you and Sunghoon were sitting at the bar. At the present moment of their lives.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Byeol asked Sunghoon "You are part of Jay's party, not mine" her sneaky smile made Sunghoon chuckle a little, turning his attention back to you.

"Am I being kicked out?" he whispered, but not loud enough since both you and Byeol heard perfectly.

"I guess so, and you know she's right" you tried to look serious, but giving away your lie as you smiled along with the boy.

"Okay, I'm leaving" he held up his hands in a sign of surrender, straightening to get up from his chair "I only came here because Jay and Heeseung wanted to know if everything was okay."

"Oh, yeah" Byeol rolled his eyes "Soon the girls will arrive and everything will be fine, I promise."

Sunghoon nodded and drank some of the contents of the cup that was right in front of him. You grumbled quickly, but let him drink, since you would soon fill it with soju once more.

"Okay, we'll get them as soon as you two can no longer pronounce your own names."

"You're the best friend in this world" Byeol hummed.

"Hey!" you pretended to be offended.

And with a stretch of her arms, she motioned for the two of you to come closer. You, who were sitting next to her, slid down the bench and soon snuggled in. Sunghoon approached seconds later, hugging you both as tightly as he could. Placing a kiss on the top of both of your heads as he whispered:

"I love you both too much, please stay safe until we come back for you."

Saying that you both loved him too, making sure that he could be reassured while he was with Jay and the rest of his friends, you and Byeol smiled until he left the bar.

"Okay, enough soju… How about something stronger now?" she winked at you, and as if your best friend read your thoughts, she nodded to the bartender in search of the most fiery drink in that bar.

"Shit, how am I going to call Jay now?" Byeol forced her eyes down the screen of her cell phone, trying to press her fingerprint to unlock.

"Ok, are we that drunk?" you giggled to your friend, staring at the other girls chattering at that table and continuing to drink the round they had ordered.

"I think I am" she laughed as well "Do you want to try calling?"

"To Jay?" you asked, wrinkling your forehead as she gave you her cell phone to call. She shook her head positively, hoping you were a little more sober. But maybe not. You and Byeol had about the same intolerance to alcohol, so you were either equally drunk, or you were even a little more drunk than she was because you had turned the last glass of booze over as if your life depended on it - or because you swore it was a little water and were too thirsty.

Your miserable attempt to unlock Byeol's cell phone took a good few minutes before a name started flashing on the screen. Your vision tightened just enough that you saw Heeseung's name flashing.

"Your brother is calling you" you pointed the device at her, but didn't actually hand it over. Byeol didn't ask either, letting you answer the call right away "Hi, Heeseung."

"Y/n? Hi" a little noise was heard in the background of the call. He and the boys were also at a bar for Jay's party, after all "Are you two okay?"

"Yes" Byeol always agreeing with your every look, as if you were going to lie to her little brother.

"That's great" he laughed muffled on the other end and right next to your ear from the pressure you were putting on the phone, it made your whole body shiver "Do we need to pick you and Byeol up now?"

A short pause for you to put the phone away and ask your friend if she wanted to leave at that moment. She nodded, but kept refilling her glass as she offered more to you as well.

"Y/n… Are you still there?" Heeseung called out.

"Hee, hi, yes I am"

"Yeah, you guys are totally drunk" he laughed.

"What? What do you mean?" you asked after drinking a crazy concoction that Byeol made. Projecting a quick grimace as you listened intently on the other end of the line.

"You called me Hee without any effort" he hummed victoriously "So if I talk about our marriage now, would you accept?"

"Yes" you replied. And it was Heeseung's turn to pause briefly before continuing.

"Okay, you guys are completely drunk. We'll be right there" and then he hung up.

From your drunken state, you didn't even notice Heeseung's nervous, flustered tone. Never had you called him by that nickname. And never, under no circumstances, had you accepted his offer to marry you. In all these years. Either you were very drunk indeed, or your thoughts of that offer were beginning to be considered deep in the back of your mind. And in your current state, you didn't even know what was actually true.

You and Byeol sat on the couch in Sunghoon's apartment, each at one end while the boys divided themselves up around the room. The three youngest in the group had said goodbye to you when they picked you up at the bar later that night. Byeol still tried to drag Niki to stay, so that he could save himself some of the lectures the older ones would probably give. But he couldn't. Niki had a faculty exam as did Jungwon and Sunoo, so they just said goodbye before Heeseung drove them home to meet all of you at Sunghoon's apartment.

"I didn't think you guys were going to drink that much" Jay was serious, not in his usual way because Byeol couldn't look at him straight. Maybe out of shame of his state, since he and the boys had gone out too, but they were nothing like you and her.

"Look, we can defend ourselves," you began, seeing that Byeol wouldn't say much in his current state.

The boys let you continue, nodding one at a time until Heeseung stared at you, as if trying to pass on the confidence you needed to continue.

"The girls arrived shortly after Sunghoon left" Byeol finally looked at you. Her head bobbing up and down as he agreed with your sentence "It would be rude of the bride, at her own farewell, to deny any drinks."

"That is true" Byeol said "Did you deny something your friends offered you?" she finally looked at Jay.

He then stared at his three best friends, Jake's laughter in the background as his fiancé's state started to get awkward and speechless. Jay didn't know what to say.

"Maybe they both have a great point in this" Jake held Jay's shoulders in the process.

"See that, I always liked you a lot better, Jake" Byeol celebrated.

"Hey!" Sunghoon, Heeseung and Jay said at the same time, causing everyone in attendance to laugh.

"Okay, since you guys worked it out" Heeseung stood up and walked around the room, stopping next to Sunghoon this time "How about we go home?"

"Can you give me a ride?" Jake smiled at his friend as soon as he got out of Jay's grip.

Being there at Sunghoon's apartment was the closest to the bar that Byeol had chosen for her party, so going there just to get some fresh air and chat before leaving seemed like a good idea. Of course, now his best friend had the need to be alone, take a long shower, and fall into bed. Jay's farewell had been lively and he even felt his stomach hurt from all the laughter he shared with the boys throughout the night.

"See you all in a few days" Sunghoon hugged you and then Byeol "The last preparations until Byeol puts up with Jay forever…"

"My God, you are terrible" Jake laughed when Jay threatened to slap him, but backed off because his hands had been caught by Byeol at that moment.

"Hey, why are you standing there?" your voice came out without thinking, looking at Heeseung who had been the only one not moving in that room. Everyone was already near the door to leave.

"Because Sunghoon didn't hug me too, and I demand that before I drive home."

"Really?" you laughed along with Jake. And Sunghoon really had to hug you because he wouldn't get out of there without teasing his friend and leaving.

Meanwhile, the walk to the car had not been uncomfortable because Jake kept you both company. He chatted with Heeseung all the time while sitting in the back seat, but leaning towards the middle of the driver's seat - where Heeseung was driving - and the passenger seat that you occupied. They were completely random subjects because Jake had this power, he liked to talk and you, in your normal state already talked a lot, drunk so you gave him even more subject so that the whole way was one long comforting chatter.

"And this is where I'm staying" Jake waved to both of you, squeezing your shoulder and Heeseung's in an affectionate way of greeting you as he got out and said goodbye. You and he waved before the boy drove back after Jake entered the house.

"Will you drive me home?" your question came out low after it was just you and Heeseung in the car. The U-turn he took on a familiar street indicating that he was, yes, taking the road to your house.

"Sure" he replied sarcastically "Or do you think I'm going to leave you here alone to get going?"

"Idiot" you grumbled next, choosing not to say anything else the whole way. Not least because your apartment wasn't that far from Jake's when you were driving. So it wasn't a long time in silence until Heeseung parked in front of your building.

"Okay, safe and sound" he turned off the car engine and picked up his cell phone. Typing a few things and quickly exiting the vehicle to make the turn. You stood there, waiting - not knowing why - until he opened the door next to you.

"What—"

"I was seeing if Jay and Byeol arrived safely" he put his cell phone away in his pocket "And now I'm taking you to the door of your apartment."

Strangely his smile made your heart beat more than usual. You mentally thanked yourself that any and every blush on your face had the drink as an excuse, and not Lee Heeseung's damn smile.

"I think I can make it on my own…" your sentence was interrupted by his laugh, causing you to frown in response, but still unbuckle your seat belt to get out of the car.

"You? Find your apartment alone?" Heeseung denied with a nod, braking the car and putting his hand on your back to guide you. The small, minimal physical contact making your whole body shiver. Maybe it's the cold in the city, you thought. But it wasn't even cold… what the fuck did you want to invent, anyway?

"What's the matter? You think I can't?" you asked.

"Well…" he shrugged, walking with you into the building "Last time you got drunk, you called Sunghoon because you pressed third floor and couldn't find your apartment at all" he let out a chuckle. His free hand pressing the button to call the elevator "And I remember you live on the fourth floor, it's not that hard, y/n" Heeseung wasn't whispering, but from the proximity you could hear the intonation of his voice a little lower.

And still carrying that fucking smile on his face.

You resolved that you wouldn't say anything else for the rest of the way - and because you were intimate enough with that proximity - so you just let the sound of the buttons on each floor of the elevator be the only sound in the room.

As soon as the elevator stopped at your floor, you got out first and Heeseung still behind, this time his hand no longer holding your back and you felt a huge void where his fingers had last touched.

Stop being ridiculous, y/n. Are you drunk and having these thoughts right away with Heeseung?

You sighed as you stopped right in front of your apartment door.

"Okay" showing his teeth in another smile, now a little warmer, he nodded "Now no risk of getting lost out there."

"Thank you, Hee" you said simply, noticing the wide-eyed look he gave in your direction.

"You… You did…" what the fuck, why was he stuttering?

"What?" you began to feel guilty, thinking you had done something wrong.

"You called me Hee again, and with such naturalness…"

"It's your nickname," you shrugged, trying not to sound affected by how natural you were being around him.

"But you don't even call me that" he joked "The most affection you call me is seductive jerk."

"Which is not a lie" you smiled along with him, Heeseung crossing his arms in front of his own body afraid that his hands would give away his nervousness at the closeness.

"Now I'll leave you alone, you need to rest" he tried to change the subject, forcing his brain to work on something other than the fact that at this very moment your eyes had gone straight to his lips.

He might have had something in his teeth, or you were aiming so hard that you were trying to punch him right there. But no, you just stared restlessly at the spot where Heeseung timidly bit his lips. And it seemed that you had realized that he had noticed your gaze, because you quickly turned away to face his eyes.

"You also need to rest, take a shower, and stop driving around town at this hour. It's getting late" you stuck the key in the lock, unlocking the door.

"Worried about me?" he forced his lips into a pout, you turned around quickly and rolled your eyes.

"What's your problem?"

"None" he winked at you "But I promise to get home safe and sound, nothing will happen to your future husband."

"Ugh" you rolled your eyes again "Don't you ever get tired of that?"

"Never" he celebrated you scowling, taking a few steps towards you to brush his lips against the top of your head "Good night, y/n" Heeseung whispered with his lips still in your hair.

That touch made you close your eyes for a moment. That was literally the closest he had come to you in all these years, it was the only time his mouth had ever touched you - even though he had plans for it to happen in other ways - but Heeseung never crossed any boundaries. And you wanted him to do it now.

Maybe it was too bold and you could even blame the drink afterwards, or blatantly say that you wanted it. So taking advantage that his lips still remained on top of your head, you pulled back far enough to tilt your head up. Heeseung hadn't moved to move away, so it was the perfect moment for you to lift one of your hands to meet his cheek. Your fingertips glided across his skin only to pull his chin toward you and seal your lips in a quick kiss. Leaning your mouth against his, the warmth of both your lips in mere seconds until you pulled away.

"Good night, Heeseung" you whispered with your face still close, turning and rushing into your apartment.

You just brushed your mouth against his, not going into the depths of that kiss at all. It was something simple, a kiss that anyone could receive. But why had it caused Heeseung to remain motionless in your hallway? Without feeling his legs, much less knowing how to react afterwards? You had finally kissed him, and never in his life had Heeseung thought that you would take the initiative.

Heeseung took a deep breath, trying not to let any tears fall as he held the glass firmly in his hands.

"Hyung, are you okay?" Sunoo asked genuinely concerned, while Niki held herself to keep from laughing.

"Yeah, it's just… Byeol is getting married, my older sister…"

"And he's all sentimental, so he wants to cry" Jake joked.

"What?" he shouted in amazement "I don't cry!"

"For nothing?" Sunoo asked again, Heeseung agreeing with a quick nod before clearing his throat to really not be a hypocrite at his own sister's wedding.

"Oh, I think y/n is flirting with a guy at the bar" Sunghoon came over to the table with a few glasses of drink, setting them down there. At the same moment Heeseung turned with all speed towards the direction of the bar, only to find an old couple - probably some relative of Jay's - but no y/n there.

Sunghoon, Jake and Sunoo fell into laughter.

"That wouldn't make you cry, but it sure as hell almost knocked over our drinks" Jake picked up his glass and raised it with his other friends in a quick toast that Heeseung also participated in.

"We found you guys" Jungwon came over to the table with Jay in his wake, both holding their glasses as well "What did we miss?"

"Heeseung almost crying" Jake spoke after taking another sip of his drink.

"Heeseung believing y/n was flirting with someone" Sunoo added.

"Heeseung almost killing you all" he said quickly, rolling his eyes before standing up.

"Come on hyung, I think you're a little nervous today" Jungwon said softly, trying to keep a tender smile on his lips.

"Actually since—"

"Don't you dare" the boy faced Sunghoon with his eyes glaring in his friend's direction.

Yes, he had told him about the kissing episode at his apartment door. Also, it was a subject he needed to shout out to his friends while they were trying on suits for Jay's wedding. Something had to be the subject, and this was a topic they all followed early on.

The boys were trying to encourage him to talk to you, after all, it was a kiss. You really kissed him even if it was only for a few seconds. But Heeseung thought you would barely remember because you had alcohol in your system still, even if you weren't completely drunk.

"You know that y/n, of all of us, is the one who remembers things the most when she ingests any drop of alcohol, right?" the phrase from Sunghoon echoed through Heeseung's mind all week until the present moment. And he knew it was true because you barely looked at him at the wedding. Your gazes would cross and you would quickly look away. When it came time to intertwine your arms in his as best man, Heeseung swore that you were trembling under his touch. Or he was trembling more than you, the boy couldn't tell. But you just followed everything as planned until you sat down after the ceremony. He had to drink something or he would go crazy.

"I think you have to go talk to her" Jay loosened his tie after long minutes of dancing, greeting the guests and thanking them for every congratulations he received. Heeseung let his eyes roll around the party only to land on you again. Now you were smiling and saying some compliment to Byeol and his amazing hairdo.

"Why?" he stared at Jay, at which he sighed heavily and waved to the boys who said to go dancing. Sunghoon decided to stay too, he wouldn't pass up a good gossip, even more so involving the relationship - not established, but well known - he and you.

"Because you two finally kissed" Jay spun the empty glass in front of him "And this relationship you and y/n have goes back long before I met your sister…" the other two at the table listened to everything intently as Jay stared at them "It's about time you and her were straightforward enough."

Silence. Only the music and side conversations at the party could be heard. Heeseung snorted.

"That means you're right, Jay" Sunghoon hummed "And he's probably cogitating the idea of getting up and going to talk to her…" Sunghoon seemed to be narrating exactly what was going on in Heeseung's head. Because as soon as he stood up and walked towards them, he looked back one last time to see Sunghoon laughing, Jay raising his thumb in approval and the other boys approaching the table. Probably wondering what had happened for Heeseung to be moving away.

"I just didn't like that nail polish" he heard his sister's voice loud enough as he approached her and the group of friends and bridesmaids "It could have been something more… Sober… Oh, little brother."

All the girls - including you - turned in Heeseung's direction. A few hopeful smiles coming from the girls who always complimented Byeol's little brother.

"Hi" he greeted them shyly, and Byeol looked at him fondly "You look so beautiful" Heeseung couldn't help but compliment his sister, and it made her eyes water at the statement. She quickly moved closer to him to hug him as tightly as she could.

"I love you, you know that, don't you?" Byeol whispered, causing him to close his eyes and hug her a little tighter.

"I love you so much more" Heeseung said soon after.

"Now go, you need to say it before it kills you inside…"

"What?" he whispered still hugging his sister.

"I'm your older sister, Lee Heeseung" she joked as soon as she pulled away enough from the embrace to be able to look him in the eye "I know you like the back of my hand. And I approve of what you are about to do."

Having Byeol's approval meant a lot to him. Even though they lived off of picking on each other, Heeseung never stopped being protective and listening to what his sister had to say. So hearing this from her seemed to give him even more courage.

After the little hug between the brothers, it seemed that the conversation between the girls was no longer focused on staring at their younger brother Lee. So this helped Heeseung to approach you without anyone staring at him for too long.

"We… Can we talk? In private" he called to you with a quick tap on your shoulder. Your eyes quickly landed on his and then you agreed, nodding and smiling at Heeseung.

He walked ahead of you, afraid that you would see his nervous expression and the bites on his lips that indicated that he might almost faint right in front of you. On the other hand, you felt the palms of your hands sweat and your legs almost wobble, but you pulled yourself together and followed him outside the party where there was no one.

"Is everything okay, because you're starting to make me worried" you said trying to break the silence that had settled since he had called you. Heeseung finally turned toward you and you could have sworn it was your turn to almost faint. He looked incredibly gorgeous, which was nothing new, but the serious look and his countenance contrasting with his perfectly lined hair made an almost inaudible sigh leave your lips.

"You know y/n, I want to know if you remember… If you… Well…" why did he feel like an idiot who couldn't form a single complete sentence? This intensifying after you let out a low chuckle immediately afterwards.

"Of course I remember kissing you" you said bluntly. Maybe the conversation with Byeol about your feelings starting to make sense for Heeseung, and her and Jay opening your eyes about how you could finally let it roll.

"Really? I mean—" he straightened his tone a little trying not to sound so excited because you remembered kissing him that night "You really wanted to do that?"

"Yes—" remember Jay's words, always be honest. You are an adult and to keep circling that conversation would only postpone what you no longer wanted. Spending years denying the requests - even jokingly - that he made, only brought you ruin because now you wouldn't stop thinking about him.

"Then do it again."

"What?" you widened your eyes. Being direct and honest was your part of the conversation, you just didn't count on Heeseung being much more like that than yourself.

"You heard me, y/n" he took a few steps in front of you, in a bold act to lift his hand and place it on your waist, pulling your body towards him "But kiss me decently this time, please."

What the fuck was the effect Heeseung had on you? Because with that simple sentence you couldn't say anything else, just close your eyes and feel his breath beat against your nose. Your hands went up to his neck and the moment Heeseung's lips touched yours, you finally had time to give way for his tongue to touch yours. Perhaps it was this decency of kiss that he was asking for. Tongues entwining each other as his lips pressed against yours slowly, in a synchrony surreal compared to the speed both of your hearts were beating. The whispers between the kiss contrasting with her nails on the back of his neck made Heeseung tighten his fingers around her waist and, consequently, press her body against his. Now that kiss was decent. Now that could be called a real kiss.

As the two of you clamored for some air, he decided to nibble your bottom lip to finally finish kissing you, but without disconnecting his forehead from yours so that their breathing calmed down a bit.

"I think… I think we can do this more often" he whispered still panting. You laughed low, sealing his lips once again as a silent response that you agreed with him in a long time.

"I found you two" Sunghoon said loudly.

"Oh my God" Jake shouted after seeing you and Heeseung still hugging, your lips both reddened from the fresh kiss as he didn't want to let go of you. But you pulled away enough to face the two of you who were in shock looking at you and him.

"What do you two want?" Heeseung asked, pretending to be angry at being interrupted.

"Byeol is going to throw the bouquet now" Jake said all too loudly, excited enough to finally see you and Heeseung together.

He then looked at you next, a smile making its way onto his newly kissed lips. Heeseung's perfectly aligned, white teeth right before your eyes.

"Will you take it to finally accept my request?" he looked hopefully at you.

"When will you give up?" you asked him.

"After this kiss and all the ones we're going to have for the rest of our lives?" he asked back, seeing that Jake had already come screaming into the party that you and Heeseung kissed. Sunghoon ran after, probably announcing that he had won the bet with Niki "I don't think I'll ever give that up."

You walked into the party, but you chose to stand a little further away and not pick up the bouquet, entwining your fingers in Heeseung's when you saw him slightly disappointed in that.

"You know what?" you said, and he hummed and looked in your direction, not caring who had picked up the bouquet at that moment. His eyes were far more inviting than that "I don't want to marry Byeol's bouquet."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I want you to choose them, after all, I find it much more romantic to marry your favorite flowers. Don't you?"

A glimpse of Heeseung's bright gaze, his smile widening even further and making even his jaw hurt. In all his life he would never have believed that you would actually consider his idea of getting married.

Even if it started as a teenage joke, he also didn't know that he woulddevelop feelings for you over the years. He didn't know that you would match him with it. Much less did he know that you would be kissing him at his sister's wedding, holding hands, and contemplating the idea of - finally - marrying him.

#heeseung fluff #heeseung au #enhypen au #enhypen fluff #enhypen x reader #enhypen heeseung #enhypen scenarios #enhypen masterlist #heeseung fanfics

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bettyfrommars · 1 year

Text

I'm on Fire

biker!Eddie Munson x fem!reader

Part 3

🚨18+Only, biker!Eddie, tow truck driver!Eddie, adult themes, mentions of smut, angst, mutual pining, slow burn, cheating (not on reader), alcohol consumption, flirting, mention of biker!Steve Harrington, 90's music & nostalgia, mention of a loved one with cancer, self-deprecation, eventual smut. Reader and Eddie are late 20's-early 30's

Word count: 5k

Series Masterlist

🔸Reader and Eddie are pining for each other in secret, and reader takes bold initiative to bring Eddie a gift. The two of you keep crossing paths as this crush intensifies and complications arise.

A/N: Always look forward to hearing from you all, what you thought, or what you'd like to see happen 👀

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Steve called a day or two after the initial meetup, but Katie was headed to a conference out of the state, so they didn’t make any immediate plans. The conversation started in the living room where she first picked up the phone; she made a wild hand gesture, arm pivoting from side to side at the elbow, mouthing his name to you so that you would know who it was, and then she switched to the phone in her bedroom. They talked for over an hour, and he told her he’d check back in when she was back from her trip.

“Okay, so Steve thinks that Eddie has a little crush on you,” Katie told you when she came back out to give you the recap. “He said you might have to make the first move, though.”

Your heart fluttered, but you tried to play it cool. You looked up from your magazine. “Please tell me you didn’t spend the entire time talking about me?”

“Oh, of course not,” Katie shrugged. “Only a half hour or so.”

“If I were Eddie, I’d be pissed if my friend spilled the beans like that,” you said with a tilt of your head.

“I told Steve I wouldn’t tell you he said that,” she countered.

“Well, that makes it better.”

“Steve is a really…” Katie hesitated, trying to find the right descriptive as she plopped back down on the couch. “...intelligent, charming guy. I don’t know, maybe I’ll go out with him when I get back. If he asks like a gentleman.”

“Maybe?”

“Probably.”

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The next week came and went. You were busy, so you didn’t have much of a chance to think about the possibility that Eddie might have a crush on you.

No, that was a lie: you thought about it a lot. The bad part was, this whole feeling a chemical pull towards him was a distraction that you didn’t need in your life, and it made you do creepy, irrational things, like driving by Munson’s Garage one day after work just to see if you could get a glimpse of him.

The good part was, it had you feverishly painting until after midnight a few days in a row. You were feeling inspired for the first time in months, and even if you still had to be at work at 9am looking like death warmed over, it was worth it.

On Thursday afternoon, you were at the gallery preparing a huge piece of art to be shipped out of the country when you heard it: the unmistakable purring growl of a chopper gunning down your street. You let the corner of the box fall to the ground with a heavy thud, eliciting a horrific yowl from your assistant who had been helping you wrap it up meticulously for the past hour, and sprang to the window like a little girl at the distant tinkle of Santa’s bells.

There were three of them atop their menacing leather and chrome beasts, but they were already disappearing around a corner at the other end of the street by the time you got there. The next thing you knew, you were out on the sidewalk with your hand up to block the sun, squinting, trying to see if one of them had long, dark hair. The high pitched whine of a car alarm shrilled in the distance, and a woman pushing a baby stroller had to go around, eyeballing you with disdain as she went.

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Meanwhile, Eddie was seeing you in the face of every woman he met, and simultaneously looking forward to the day when that was not the case. He didn’t have the energy to pine over someone, let alone have issues performing in bed because the woman wasn’t you. Having sex with other women was starting to feel like cheating, and that was an icky, embarrassing truth that he would never confess to one of his buddies.

“Oh? You can’t stop thinking about her when you fuck other women? Damn, that pussy must be tight.”

You were basically a figment of his imagination, and he was having these really gross daydreams about just….holding your hand and shit like that. Not cool, not bad ass. Jerking off to a porn or the idea of some nameless, faceless mouth on his cock was fine, but doing it to the idea of tasting your cum while his mouth was between your legs made him want to lobotomize himself with Jack Daniels.

This was dangerous, bitch-boy territory, and he honestly couldn’t say he’d navigated it in almost a decade. Maybe he’d been hanging out with Steve “Loverboy” Harrington for too long, listening to him get all goo-goo ga-ga over some new chick every other week. But also, he envied him; Steve didn’t just sip the juice when it was good, he let himself drown in it, over and over again.

Eddie shrugged it off and acted like he didn’t care the day Steve told him that he talked to your roommate, but then he came back around a few hours later and asked him if he was planning to meet up with her again. “You should call her friend,” Steve told you. “She digs you, Katie told me.” Katie told him no such thing, as she had a very strict girl code, but Steve couldn’t help himself.

So yeah, Eddie drove by your work on Thursday. Innocent enough, but the part of town where you worked was very high-end, and nowhere near the place him and the boys were headed, but nevertheless, he gave the signal and they followed. One of his buddies ran with the Coffin Kings---a bearded monster they called Tank----and he got a kick out of rumbling his hog close to the expensive cars parked along the street to shake the foundation and make their alarms go off.

He didn’t even turn his head to see through the glass storefront and check if you were inside, that wasn’t the point: he just wanted to be in your orbit, to drive down a street that you parked on every day.

Holy shit, Munson, why don’t you just put your tap shoes on and break into song about it?

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On Friday, you left work early, announcing that you had a very important appointment, and then you went and sat in your car around the corner from Munson’s Garage for a half hour. It took you way too long to work up the courage, listening to an album by the band Hole, specifically the song Violet. A gang of bikers rolled up to the stop sign across from you, and you did a comical job of sliding down in your seat so they wouldn’t see you.

Once they were gone, you looked down at what you had in your lap; a gift wrapped up in brown butcher paper and tied with jute string. “This is so stupid,” you told yourself, putting your car in gear to drive away, but then you flipped it into park again with a pensive groan.

After a dramatic pause, cursing as you went, you circled the block one more time and then entered via the open gate at the side entrance. The main garage and supposed clubhouse for the Coffin Kings---the spot where you had dropped the boys off the week before---was to your left, but ahead of you was another garage, and the wide expanse of a junkyard full of wrecked cars behind a fence. Your eyes landed on the black tow truck that Eddie drove, giving you hope that you hadn’t missed him. A row of motorcycles were lined up in the middle of the pavement, and then to the right there were angled parking spots under an awning, and that is where you went.

Your stomach bleated its discontent when you saw that there were at least 10 or 12 guys in biker cuts hanging outside near the grill, flipping burgers in front of the main garage, blocking the entrance to where you would most likely find Eddie. They all had the Coffin Kings insignia placard on the back of their leather vests, and they were tossing back beers and taking shots. After you parked, you craned your neck to see if Eddie was one of them, but there were a few obscured by one of the pillars holding the roof up. Surely, he would’ve spotted your car as you inched along at an elderly crawl.

You took a minute to fix your hair and makeup in the visor mirror, practiced stretching your lips in a grimace smile a few times to make sure there was no lipstick on your teeth, and then made the leap.

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Eddie should’ve been down with the guys getting hammered, or having a game of pool in the club house after a long week, but no. He was on the second floor in his apartment, getting in some bench presses before he showered and continued on with his evening of laundry and trying to get to bed at a decent hour for once. He was listening to Slayer, but the widow was open and he could hear them all giving each other shit down below.

In between songs, at the end of a set, he heard a different type of ruckus going on outside and it made him sit up, sweat dripping into his eyes and down his neck. The guys were giving wolf whistles and saying something about “look at that fine piece of ass” and Eddie didn’t know why, but he felt like he needed to go down and investigate.

That was when he opened the door and saw you making your way across the parking lot. You were carrying something flat and square in your hands and you looked like you were cautiously assessing the scene, like maybe you should return to the safety of your car, and he didn’t blame you.

“Cool it, fuckers,” Eddie told the guys as he pushed by some of them to go out and head over to meet you. But he could still hear them saying things to each other under their breath, whispering about you, and how good you looked.

He didn’t want you to be there, in that moment. Not because he didn’t want to see you, but because he didn’t want the other guys to think you were just some whore he was fucking, or worse yet---he didn’t want any of them to think that they could fuck you. He tried to walk toward you at the right angle so that you would be blocked from their view, inadvertently squaring his shoulders and asserting his dominance as he went.

-------

You had a feeling this was a bad idea, but you had no idea how bad until a dozen pairs of eyes were turning to stare at you, narrowing on you, and unabashedly so. You were too far away to hear what they were saying, and there was heavy metal music blaring from inside the building somewhere. You planted your feet, looking around, wondering what you would do if Eddie wasn’t there: hand over the cutsie little gift to one of his biker buddies? You didn’t want to embarrass him.

But then, the door opened and there he was, frowning at you like you were the last person on earth he wanted to see. It was more of a scowl, actually, eyebrows knitted together and upper lip rising in an abominable snarl. He said something to the rest of the guys, and a few of them seemed to snap back to reality, but he couldn’t wipe the pissed look off from his face as he made his way over to you with an air of reluctance.

He had on a white wife beater and jeans with his boots unlaced. The front of the tank was damp and his arm muscles were especially defined and swollen. You could see that he had some kind of huge, tattooed chest piece that came up to his clavicle and stretched over his shoulders. Various other ink decorated his arms; the one on his forearm being the most faded of them all. Your pussy fluttered at the sight of him, even though he looked like he was ready to put his hand around your throat. Or maybe because of it?

“What are you doing here?” He barked in a voice low enough so that only the two of you could hear it.

His attitude was not your favorite. “Well, hello to you too, grumpy.”

Now you wished you didn’t have the stupid gift in your hand. Couldn’t you have left it in the car and waited to see if he was here first? No, you had to bring it with you, and now it was too late, dummy.

Eddie glanced over his shoulder at the guys, jaw muscles flexing, and then he gestured for you to walk with him over to where your car was parked, under the awning, out of the overcast but bright sky.

He put a hand at your elbow and maneuvered you so that you were facing away from the riff raff, the view of your backside blocked by your car. There was a matte black Chevelle parked in the slot next to you, and he leaned back against it, crossing his arms at his chest.

“Sorry about that,” he told you. “We usually keep them locked up during the daytime.”

At his joke, your shoulders softened and you exhaled, flexing your fingers on the package. The movement caught his attention and his cocoa brown eyes shifted to the gift.

“You said to come by whenever, but I should’ve called,” you hadn’t planned out what you would say, but now you wished you had.

“No, no,” he assured you, crossing his feet at the ankles. “I promised you a spare tire. I haven’t forgotten.”

Truth, you had totally spaced that he said he’d give you a free tire, which was no small expense, but it was a much better reason than, “I made you something because I can’t stop thinking about you,” or “here’s a gift, now let’s kiss.”

“What’s that?” He asked the dreaded question, tilting his chin at the package and meeting your eyes down the end of his nose.

“Oh this?” You asked cheerily, feigning mock surprise, as if it slipped your mind that it was in your hand. “This is nothing. Just a thank you for...the tow and the tire. I made it, it’s no big deal.”

“You made it?” His voice flew to a higher octave than he was comfortable with at that revelation, and an invisible warm hand wrapped around his heart.

Scratching your eyebrow, you passed it to him. “You don’t have to open it here,” you added, hoping he wouldn’t.

He held it in both hands, strong fingers curling around the backside as his thumbs stroked the front of it to feel the texture of the paper. It had been a while since he’d received a thoughtful gift that wasn’t booze or scratch tickets or a Hickory Farms sausage and cheese platter.

Overall, he was speechless, but one thing that did come second nature to him was offering acts of service as a way of showing his appreciation. “Let me take this up to my place, and then I’ll get you that tire. Can you wait here? I’ll just be a second.”

He was already on the move, but you stopped him. “I can’t sorry, I have to go. Rain check?”

You put your hand on the crook of his elbow without thinking, to stop him, and then all you could think about was the heat of his skin, the way the hair on his forearm tickled your finger. His eyes went to your hold on him and his Adam’s apple jerked in a quick swallow.

You lowered your hand. “Maybe I’ll surprise you again one day,” you were blushing now and you moved your chin to your chest to try and hide it. This was feeling less and less like an interaction between two grown adults, and more like some high school crush that you giggled about to your friends and wrote little hearts around each others name in class.

Over your shoulder, Eddie could see that Wayne was coming that way with an invoice in his hand, probably to ask him a question about one of the pickups that day. He looked a bit pale and peaked, and even though Eddie begged him to take the day off work whenever he had chemo treatments, the old man refused to listen.

“Okay, so, I’ll see you around then,” Eddie heard it come out of his mouth and he wished he could take it back. The tone was off; he sounded like he didn’t care if he saw you again, but that was the furthest thing from the truth.

“Okay, bye,” and you were back behind the wheel of your car, panting, wishing you had a paper bag to hyperventilate into. In the rear view mirror, you watched an older man with gray hair meet up with Eddie. His clothes were baggy, as if he’d suddenly dropped a significant amount of weight. Eddie clapped his free hand on the older man’s shoulder and they walked back to the garage together at a slow pace, your gift in his hand swinging level with his wallet chain.

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After finishing up for Wayne and demanding that he go home to get some rest, Eddie was finally alone again in his apartment. The string you used to secure the package might as well have been steel bars with how tight it was tied, and so he reached over for the butterfly knife on his nightstand and popped it open with a few flicks of his wrist. He sawed the string with caution, careful not to puncture whatever was in it.

His heart was racing and his palms were a little sweaty, and for some reason, the rising of sweet emotions made him angry. Just settle down there, bucko, the voice in his head told him, she probably gives gifts to anyone who does anything remotely nice for her; this doesn’t make you special.

He touched the black painted edges first, realizing it was a canvas, and then the back side fell open to him first: To: Eddie, my hero, and then it was dated and had your name signed on the wood cradling.

Turning it over, he had no idea what to expect, but as his eyes took it in, a quivering sigh escaped his lips.

It was a piece of art depicting the sunset exploding from beyond the low hills in Hawkins; the view you see from the freeway from the exact spot where you had blown your tire, the spot where the two of you had met for the first time. It wasn’t just a standard scenery painting either; it was abstract and full of texture, with tiny bits of paper collage added in. Bright, bold colors, with tiny hand drawn details.

He took down his framed Dio poster so that he could hang your 12x12 painting across from his bed where he could see it from all angles of the room. He puffed his cheeks out and blew air from his lips to make a low whistling sound as he stood there admiring it, wishing he would’ve opened it in front of you, so that you would know how much he cherished it. You might never know how much a gift like this meant to him; it was immediately one of his prized possessions.

Absently, he crumpled the wrapping paper and string up in his hands, pounding it into a compact ball, so that he could make a jump shot for the trash can, and then made it in with a swoosh.

What he didn’t see crushed inside the ball was the square, pink piece of paper with a little note on it that said: “I know Steve has this number, but I also wanted you to have it. Call me sometime.” and then your phone number in cute, block digits.

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Another week went by, and you had officially resigned yourself to the fact that you would, indeed, die alone. Putting yourself out there, even as infinitesimally as you had with Eddie, almost killed you. Getting excited every time the phone rang, hoping it was him, had you regretting the choice to ever make a move in the first place. Besides Katie, you were the only single person in your friend group, and that’s just how it would stay until Keifer Sutherland proposed.

Steve called Katie though, and even though she had the feeling he was a bit of a player, the idea of jumping on his cock had her chomping at the bit.

“Are you sure?” Katie asked as she dowsed herself with hairspray in the bathroom mirror, an L7 cassette in the tape player. You were just behind her in the hallway, and you leaned back to avoid the fumes. “I can hang out with Steve a different night, I don’t want you do go to Marysville alone.”

Marysville was a town down the road, not fifteen miles away, and there was a huge gallery opening in an old airplane hangar, and as the manager of Moon River Gallery, you were forced to attend.

“That’s sweet of you, but Jeff will be there.” You held your breath and waved your hand in front of your face. “But I’m counting on you to get laid for the both of us.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m going to let Steve know what a deadbeat his buddy Eddie is for not calling you to even thank you for that gorgeous painting.” Katie was using her protective mom voice.

“Please don’t,” you begged her. “He just didn’t want to see me again, and that’s fine. I don’t need someone to call me out of obligation. Really, don’t mention anything to Steve or I will turn to stone and crumble to pieces.”

Katie went into your bedroom instead of hers, and held up a certain shirt, asking if she could borrow it. “That’s actually yours,” you told her, waiting on the bed as she changed.

You were putting your arms into your jacket, just about to head out the door, when Katie came around the corner holding up flavored condoms and Magnums in each hand. “Do you want to take any of these with you? Plenty of cute guys in Marysville.”

“No, thank you,” you assured her politely, fixing your collar. “Besides, I’m sure Jeff will have a stockpile with him.”

But Katie threw one at you anyway, and you caught it with a slap to your chest. “Here, just take one of these Magnums, for prayer’s sake.”

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The airplane hanger gallery was situated near the lake, and it was an unarguably stunning venue full of massive artworks and expertly blown glass. You and Jeff arrived together, but went your separate ways initially, both stumbling upon friends from other galleries you knew, and you sipped some expensive champagne while you mingled. You were bent over, reading the details about one of the paintings, when two of the new people arriving caught your eye.

Fantastic, it was Eddie and Charlene.

Charlene looked like she was a movie star about to walk the red carpet and Eddie looked as good as ever. From the waist down was dressed like normal: jeans, boots, and wallet chain--but he always put a nice dark red or black shirt on for the events. Three buttons undone down the front to give a peak of that chest tattoo, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a little earring dangling from one ear, and those chunky, silver rings on his hand. Obviously the two of them were a couple, regardless of the fact that she was married, and regardless of the fact that Eddie referred to himself as being single.

He escorted her in with his arm linked in hers, and you could tell he was about to fall back and head outside to wait, but then his eyes locked on you. You turned your back on him, guzzled your champagne, and then headed over to where you could get a big glass of wine, thirstier than you’ve ever been in your life. Jeff had volunteered to drive you both back, and you had just decided in that moment that you were going to let him.

You were a couple of swallows in when you felt the front of his warm body press up at your side, against your arm, hands in his pockets, and then he leaned his head down closer, wavy dark hair skimming your shoulder, to whisper in your ear. “Your art should be in a place like this.”

“Oh hiiiiii,” you turned, pretending to be shocked to see him. “What a nice surprise. How are you?”

He backed up a step to give you some room, not checking even once to see where Charlene was or if she cared where he was; his eyes were intent on you.

Jeff, was off to the side, flirting with one of the guys on the catering staff, when he glanced over to see who you were standing with, and his eyes bulged wide.

“You clean up good,” you told Eddie, getting intoxicated on how delicious he smelled. Almost two glasses of alcohol in, you were already getting ballsy, and you reached up to brush his hair back from his shoulder and straighten his collar. “You look like you could run for mayor.”

He glanced down at himself, and then met your gaze from under his lashes, full pink lips curving up on one side. “I was going for Colombian drug lord, but I guess I missed the mark.”

Okay, so he made you laugh and he was sexy. So what.

Someone you knew came up to hug you and say hello, and you expected Eddie to take advantage of the moment and make a getaway, but he stayed.

“Can I get you another one?” He asked, gesturing to your almost empty glass. Never mind that everyone was glancing over at him, asking themselves with shifting eyes who the hell let the scary biker dude in to mingle with the rich people. The irony of a bunch of art snobs recoiling at someone who brought something new and different to the table was not lost on you. Sure, he made them uncomfortable, but who would be the one to ask bad boy biker Eddie Munson to leave? Eddie could flick his lighter open and set one of the paintings on fire, and still no one would question him.

“Aren’t you here with someone?” You asked, glancing around for that big gold explosion of wealth that was Charlene.

“No,” Eddie said initially, but then. “Well, I drive for Charlene from time to time but we’re not...together, if that’s what you mean.”

Eddie could feel Charlene giving him the evil eye from across the room, but he didn’t care. He stopped having sex with her two weeks ago, but he wasn’t ready to give up the extra cash working as her personal escort service and hired muscle.

Staying sober for the night, he brought another glass of wine over to you, and then he started asking you questions about the artwork and the artists as the two of you walked.

“Isn’t that Charlene Gregson’s boy toy?” Manny, one of the caterers, asked Jeff as they watched the two of you flirt with each other.

Jeff nodded, a smile creeping across his face. “Oh, this is going to be juicy.”

There was a snap high on the back of your shirt, and you could feel that it had come loose, so you beckoned for Eddie to follow you to the walkway just beyond the paintings, into the shadows, so you could put your glass down on the cement base of one of the pillars.

“Could you...help me with this?” You turned your back to him and pulled your hair to the side. “Fasten this for me, please? I can’t reach it.”

Eddie licked his lips as he closed in behind you, enjoying the proximity of it, and moved his fingers to your neck, callouses from his fingers grazing your smooth skin, taking an audible, deep intake of breath as he caught a whiff of your shampoo. When he was done, his hand slid down your back, indulging himself, letting it land at the curve of your hip in a slow circle. “All good,” he said in a low whisper.

You spun around to face him with a crooked smile, the alcohol in full affect, and your eyes fell on a loose thread that had escaped and was resting on his crisp, dark red shirt, your eyes lingering on the black ink of the tattoo underneath.

You brought your hand up to pick the thread off, but then he caught your wrist, your palm sinking flat to his body, melting, right at the epicenter of his life blood; his heart racing. You shifted your gaze from his grip to meet his eyes, pupils dilated, and your breath caught in your chest; your fingers started stretching out and back against him in an alien form of physical communication.

His lips parted, gaze flicking to your mouth, holding your wrist with a grip that was firm but tender while his other hand rose to cup your face. Rough fingertips grazing your throat until they curled around the base of your head, metal rings clicking together, and then his thumb brushed across your jawline.

You bit your bottom lip softly, delirious need pulsing in your core.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Your voice was tiny, and his eyebrows knitted together, confused. You could see he was just about to say something, but then:

“Eddie,” the unmistakable voice of Charlene Gregson called to him from the other side of the gigantic painting you were both doing a poor job of hiding behind. “It’s time to go. Please pull the car around?"

She was looking directly at the two of you from only a few yards away, with her hands on her hips, but still he held your palm to his chest and searched your eyes, trying to understand. After a beat, he cleared his throat and said, “I’m sorry,” under his breath before turning on his heel to go and play chauffeur again, shoving one hand in his pocket to get the keys as he went.

Charlene stood there and stared at you for a bit longer, her eyes taking you in from head to foot, probably trying to understand what you had that she didn’t. But it must’ve occurred to her that she was the one he was going home with and not you, because then she flipped you a little sly smile and puffed a laugh out of her nose as she turned, shaking her head.

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Part 4

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my lovelies who asked to be tagged: @hellv1ra, @tlclick73, @corrodedcoffincumslut, @ms1oftheboys

#eddie munson #eddie munson fanfic #older eddie munson #eddie munson smut #eddie munson fluff #stranger things #stranger things eddie #fem reader #eddie munson x fem reader #eddie munson series

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lostelfwriting · 2 months

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Bury Me with a Rose, We Both Have Thorns (Prologue)

Rating: Explicit

AO3 Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Death & Dream, Dream & Hob, Dream/Hob Gadling

Characters: Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Death of the Endless, Hob Gadling, Jessamy, Matthew, Corinthian, Lucienne

Additional Tags: NO Major Character Death, Hanahaki Disease, Terminal Illnesses, Thoughts about death and dying, Decaying Health, Refusing Treatment, Strong Language, Unrequited Love, Enemies to ?, Past Minor Characters Death(s), Protective Death of the Endless, Doctor Human!Death of the Endless, Alternate Universe - Human, Tattoo Artist Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Flower Shop Owner Hob Gadling, Blood, Angst with a Happy Ending

Word count: 32k

I'm posting the whole work here on the 1st of March, but I strongly reccommend you read it on AO3, where I will be posting one chapter per day. Either way, click Read More or go to AO3 to read the Prologue!

Written for the event @the-centennial-husbands-bigbang. With beautiful art by @five-and-dimes!

It is a slow day at the studio, so while he is waiting for his next appointment, Dream is – like he does almost all of his free time – sketching new tattoo designs to add to his portfolio and listening to music loud enough to completely shut out his own thoughts. He is sketching a snake, having no doubt that it will catch someone’s eye. There is always someone who wants a tattoo of a snake. He pauses to look at his progress and ends up snorting in disbelief.

The drawing is truly a snake, but the reptile is weaving among the stems of flowers instead of a dead branch like Dream had intended. And they are ugly flowers at that. He is pretty sure that he gave a pot of those flowers to his secondary school teacher, who always called him Murphy, even though he hated that nickname. He can’t resist snapping a picture of the flowers with his phone and trying to look up what they are, but once he finds the name – cyclamen – he refuses to look up their meaning. It would surely be something stupid, like forbidden love, or maybe hopelessness.

Even the snake’s scales seem to actually be made of flower petals, and Dream rolls his eyes as he flips the page of his sketchbook. The downside to trying to tune his mind out is that he doesn’t notice when his subconsciousness begins to interfere with his process, and it has led to many flowery paintings in the past months. With a sigh, he starts copying the usable parts of the design onto another page until an insistent thought makes him pause mid-movement.

Just a few weeks ago, he would have been furious if this had happened. He used to tear those ruined sketches to pieces and then go outside into the late winter chill and glare at every passing person who dared to look his way. He wished they all felt as bad as he did, and most of all, his neighbour with his shop opposite Dream’s studio, with its bright, flowery logo.

Today’s drawing incident feels like just a small inconvenience. He feels zero anger, though he might still opt to destroy the sketch later, just for the miniscule satisfaction that the action will bring him. Or maybe he will keep it. Pin it to the wall next to his bed and look at it every night. He will look at the ugly flowers and realise with wry amusement and aching hollowness that he has finally accepted his fate.

He, Morpheus Endeles, is going to die.

He thinks about it and waits for anger or grief to appear, but they don’t. Good. He was getting sick of the self-pity. It has been months since he noticed the first symptom – the occasional cough – as something seemed to tickle his throat, easily blamed on a bit of dust. And then, a bit later, when he lay awake late at night and everything around him was quiet, he heard the soft rustle of leaves as he breathed. He didn’t need a doctor to tell him that he had the Hanahaki Disease. He tears the ruined sketch out and shreds it into tiny pieces, enjoying the bit of satisfaction that it brings him. Maybe he is still harbouring some badly suppressed anger. He doesn’t need a fortune teller to tell him that he has no chance of getting affection from the person he hopelessly loves. Because it is his neighbour, the owner of The White Rose, Robert Gadling, a straight man who rightfully dislikes Dream.

+*+*+*+*+

Cyclamen: resignation and good-bye

#my writing #bury me with a rose #centennial husbands big bang #dreamling #hanahaki disease #angst #happy ending

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silenzahra · 8 days

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Luigi the Bookworm 📚✨

Today, April 23rd, we celebrate Book Day in Spain with a beautiful tradition: gifting books and roses. In the past few months, I've started to see Luigi, my favorite Mario character, as a bookworm, thanks to some art pieces like this one, by Mikis_art94 on Instagram, and this one, a short comic by Sarahsketckesluigi, also on Instagram.

And, since I'm also a bookworm myself, I thought of celebrating this day by sharing with you my own take on Luigi's bookish side 🤭 Warning: this is gonna be LONG, so make sure to grab some drinks and snacks and make yourselves comfortable! 💖

(Also, I may go and turn some of these into actual fanfics at some point because, well... I got myself inspired 👀🤭✨)

Please go and check this amazing post by @itsavee4117! It's a companion to this one and you can see many of my headcanons illustrated in his lovely art style!!! 📚💖

@bberetd @vulpixfairy1985 @peaches2217 @nuctoria @keakruiser

@pepperycar @kelbreyworshipper @roscolate and anyone else who might be interested: I hope you enjoy! Happy Book Day! 📚🥀✨

Part 1: Luigi's Bookish Side

Luigi is a person who tends to get excited easily, and when he does, he experiences those feelings with great intensity. This applies to all aspects of his life, and reading, one of his greatest passions, is no exception.

In terms of genres, Luigi is generally open to read anything. He enjoys realistic novels, historical novels, classic novels, mystery novels, sci-fi novels... And he also reads books about gardening, cooking, baking and mechanics from time to time. The only things he’s unable to consume are thrillers and horror. He's tried, but, with all the times he's had to face King Boo, he's had more than enough terror and frights to last him a lifetime, thank you very much.

His favorite genres are fantasy and romance. The former, because traveling to made-up worlds allows him to forget about his real-life problems and offers him an escape from his daily life, which can often be exhausting. The second, because he’s a complete romantic who loves to see people loving each other and living happily ever after. And also... because of something that has to do with Daisy.

Luigi lives every book he reads with the same intensity. For him, it's as if the characters really existed, as if they were his friends, people he can talk to, share common interests with, and also help to achieve their purposes in life (i.e. in the books they’re from).

And maybe... just maybe... he's fallen in love more than once while reading and now he has a loooong list of literary crushes thet only keeps growing.

So, when he’s reading, Luigi laughs with the characters, cries when one of them suffers or dies, his heart tearing in his chest, and is deeply moved every time a tender moment occurs, such as a kiss, a hug or a cute scene involving, for example, a baby or an animal.

His favorite stories are those about siblings. Not only because he enjoys reading family stories, but also because, without even thinking about it, he often finds it easy to put himself in the place of the younger sibling. For him, therefore, it’s as if he were reading a story starring himself and his beloved brother Mario, and he loves to imagine that they’re going on adventures together in an unknown world. Almost like when they first arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Over the years, Luigi has gathered quite a collection of books, so Mario, the moment they move into the little house in the Mushroom Kingdom that Peach offered them, doesn't hesitate to suggest to his brother that he use the extra room to build himself a small library. Luigi is not too sure at first, thinking that maybe his brother would like to have an office, but Mario insists.

So Luigi has a small library in his new home, which he soon fills to the top with books, and it’s his pride and joy. He and Mario assembled the bookshelves together, which they brought all the way from Brooklyn, and now Luigi has a wonderful reading nook where he can isolate himself to let his imagination run wild for hours. It is, along with the bedroom he shares with Mario, his favorite room in the whole house.

For Luigi, reading is something so important, meaningful and almost sacred in his life, that he has a whole ritual that he performs every time he sits down to read. He has a rocking chair in his small library, a present from his brother when they moved to live in the Mushroom Kingdom, and he has it placed right next to the window and in front of the fireplace. He likes to be able to see the sky when he looks up from his reading, and he usually stares at the clouds or the stars while he daydreams about or reflects on what he has just read. During the summer, he usually keeps it open, as he loves to read in natural light while the gentle breeze from Peach's land cools him, and in winter he keeps it firmly closed while the fireplace warms him.

Luigi loves to light a scented candle to help him get in the perfect mood for reading. His favorite scent is vanilla, as it reminds him of his favorite princess, but he also loves lavender and cinnamon. He usually makes himself a hot drink, sometimes tea, sometimes chocolate, and brings a nice blanket to warm up, which is why his favorite time to read is the coldest time of the year, especially autumn. He also prepares his set of post-its to mark his favorite sentences and parts of the book, and he has a ritual for colors too: yellow for funny moments, blue for sentences that make him reflect on them, red or pink for romantic scenes…

Luigi knows that there are many people who write directly in their books, but, for him, that is unthinkable. He sees books as a valuable and precious object, a repository of stories that helps him disconnect from reality and let his imagination run wild. He respects what everyone does with their books, but he’s simply incapable. Especially if it’s a book he has been given as a gift.

His favorite copies are hardcover, even more so if they include a dust jacket. He treasures all his books with the same affection, but those are undoubtedly his weak point. The most precious of all is a hardcover, dust-jacketed edition of his favorite book, which was a present from Mario, and which also has painted edges.

Usually, when it's time to read, Mario is either napping, spending quality time with Peach, or doing something else around the house. Polterpup, on the other hand, takes the opportunity to approach his owner and, if it's summer, lie at his feet while he reads. If it's winter, however, Polterpup will jump into Luigi's lap without his permission and cuddle up and fall asleep immediately, before Luigi even has time to recover from the fright and resume reading. (Check out @pepperycar's funny addition to this!)

Luigi is a speed reader. Usually, when he starts reading, he doesn't intend to go too fast. It's just that, after so many years reading, his eyes have acquired an astonishing speed, and he’s able to retain every word in his head despite going through them very quickly. Also, if a book really hooks him, he’s unable to put it down until he finishes it, which has caused him to stay up late several nights and go to work half asleep the next day, but it's always totally worth it. Because of this ability, he can finish books of about 300-400 pages in just a few hours, and sometimes also 500 if he gets caught up completely.

Luigi LOVES to buy books. His favorite visits are to Sarasaland and the bookstore, and he also does a lot of online shopping to support small publishers. Every time a new book comes home, he gets excited as if it's the first time, and always asks Mario to please record him while he's unboxing it. Mario unhesitatingly stands on the other side of the camera and makes sure that every shot is perfect and that the book looks great, and Luigi, delighted and grateful, always gives him the tightest and most spontaneous hugs every time they finish filming.

And, of course, once he has the book in his hands, Luigi squeals and kicks, excited, as he waves it in the air like maracas before hugging it tightly to his chest. And, when the book is a present from someone dear to him, he acts exactly the same, only he ends up crying and thanking again and again the person who gave it to him while, again, he presses the book against himself as if his life depended on it.

Luigi is VERY much a fan of merchandising. He loves collecting bookmarks, he has such a huge collection that he's had to divide it into several drawers, and every time he’s going to start a new reading, he tends to spend more time deciding which bookmark will be the most suitable than choosing the book itself. He’s also bought a few literary stickers and some printed works of his favorite books, like fanarts of different scenes or characters illustrated by various artists, which he's hung on a corkboard. And, of course, since his books are the most precious thing he has, he’s also bought many literary covers from different small artists' stores, so that he can keep his books well protected when he carries them around.

Luigi is the kind of person who takes a book with him everywhere. A doctor's appointment? Book in backpack in case the wait gets longer. Public transport? He can't think of a better way to spend it than reading. He even takes them with him when he meets up with Mario, Peach and Toad, just in case his brother and the princess get lovey-dovey, and Toad falls asleep. And, if there's one thing Luigi likes better than sleeping in nature, it's reading in nature.

Part 2: The Reader Brother

Luigi has loved reading since he was very young. When he and Mario were babies, their parents used to tell them a bedtime story, sometimes Pio, sometimes Mia, and Luigi always listened very attentively. He would gawk listening to them and loved how they used to put voices and even recreate some scenes to make them laugh.

Mario also listened very interested, but being a more energetic baby, he used to fall asleep about halfway through the story, with his head resting on Luigi's shoulder and his arm firmly around his brother's waist. Their parents would drool, but they had to continue, for Luigi, even if he was struggling to keep his eyes open, wasn’t going to go to sleep without knowing the ending.

Only then, with a satisfied smile, he would hug his brother back, curl up next to him, close his eyes, and put his thumb in his mouth to get ready for sleep. By then, Mario was completely asleep, clinging to Luigi like a koala to a eucalyptus tree, and their parents had to make great efforts not to melt as they tucked them in and kissed them goodnight.

Since then, both brothers have grown up being great lovers of stories, only that, while Luigi loves books, Mario prefers to consume them in movies or video games. Even so, these are all hobbies that the brothers share, as they love to immerse themselves in a good story that helps them escape from reality for a while.

When Luigi gets emotional about a book he’s reading or has just read, Mario immediately comes to his side to hug and comfort him. He knows that, even if it's fiction, his brother has lived through it all in such a way that his feelings, of sadness, joy or emptiness at having finished a great story, are real and intense. And Mario would never judge him for it.

Luigi is deeply grateful not only that his brother comforts him, but that he listens to him talk endlessly about what has just happened in the book he’s reading, and even catches his emotions. Mario may not cry, but he feels his brother's sadness as if it were his own. Fortunately, the same thing happens when Luigi is happy or excited because of a book, and even on the few occasions when Luigi has gotten angry with a character, Mario has giggled under his breath before calming him down, because he finds it extremely tender.

Luigi usually goes to the bookstore at least once a week, and Mario, since they were teenagers, has almost always accompanied him. The only exceptions were when Mario was dating Pauline, and Luigi had no problem paying his weekly visit to the bookstore by himself, but, deep down, he missed Mario.

His brother also loves to accompany him, because, despite not being as much of a reader as Luigi, he enjoys watching him go back and forth from one shelf to another, pointing out the books he’s already read and the ones he wants to read. Also, when he gets the chance to buy a new one, Mario is amused to see Luigi picking up one book after another and trying to load them all and then deciding which one to take home.

Of course, Mario immediately offers to help him carry the books so that Luigi can keep picking up more if he wants to, and Luigi appreciates it from the bottom of his heart. And also that, again, Mario listens to him chatting incessantly about why each book has caught his attention and why he has such a hard time making up his mind.

Mario always tries to guide him in the best possible way: "What do you feel like reading more right now?" "Is it part of a series or is it a standalone?" "Is the sequel already out or would you have to wait?" "Did you like this or that author better?"

And Luigi thanks him deeply for his advice and questions because, that way, he manages to discern which book he really wants to buy that time.

The best way to surprise Luigi, the best birthday and Christmas present, will always be a book. Mario knows this, and that's why he doesn't hesitate to ask his brother to show him his long and endless lists of books he wants to purchase, as well as discreetly taking notes every time he goes to the bookstore with him. Luigi cherishes every book his brother has gifted him like the priceless treasures they are to him.

Sometimes Luigi runs into space problems. Even though his bookshelf is large and spacious, there’s a limit to everything. In those moments when he’s overwhelmed because he doesn't know where to place his new acquisitions, Mario always comes to the rescue: he immediately offers to hang a new shelf on the wall, or to look for another bookshelf to place in some free space in the room, or, directly, he stares at Luigi's shelf with a frown and his hand on his chin for a few moments, before taking the new books from his brother's arms and, displaying his skills playing Tetris, manages to find room to place them.

He loves to do it not only because he enjoys applying in real life what he has learned playing video games, but above all because of the relieved smile that blooms on Luigi's lips when he sees that Mario has found the perfect solution.

Luigi loves going to literary events where he can meet his favorite authors and have his books signed, but he tends to get so nervous that he always gets stuck for words and sweats a lot, which embarrasses him deeply.

The first time, in fact, Luigi was so shocked to have his favorite author in front of him that he fainted. When he woke up in the ambulance, he was so embarrassed that nothing Mario, who, of course, always accompanies him, said succeeded in comforting him.

He only calmed down a bit at home, when, alone with Mario, he began to silently cry without even realizing it, and his brother, not uttering a word, sat down in front of him, worried, and wrapped him gently in his arms. He pressed the back of Luigi's neck softly to make him rest his head on his shoulder and stroked his back gently, his heart aching at each new sob that escaped his brother's throat.

It took him many, many years to convince Luigi to go to an event again, for Luigi feared the same thing would happen to him again. He didn't want to make a fool of himself like that ever again, especially not in front of writers he deeply admires.

So Mario decided that they would practice: he dressed as much as he could like Luigi's favorite author, watched as many videos as he could on the internet to soak up his personality and find out what kind of books they wrote, and pretended to be them again and again, relentlessly, until Luigi, little by little, managed to exchange a few words with him.

It took them many attempts, because, despite knowing it was his brother, Luigi had no trouble getting into the situation due to his overflowing imagination. Mario had to step out of character several times to try to calm him down and help him regulate his breathing.

Luckily, thanks to Mario's efforts, eventually it worked, and Luigi, a few years later, found himself back at an event and able to chat for a few minutes with the writers he read, even though his heart was beating frantically in his chest and excitement was flooding his insides.

He will never be able to thank his brother for his infinite patience, but Mario always plays it down tenderly. He keeps assuring him that it was not patience, but his deep and sincere love for his younger brother and his eagerness to help him fulfill his wishes.

Part 3: Royalty + Luaisy

Ever since the brothers met Princess Peach, she and Luigi have been, little by little, building up a beautiful friendship that grows every day, just like the sweet romantic relationship between her and Mario.

It didn't take long for Peach to discover Luigi's bookish side, and it made her eager and excited, as she has always enjoyed reading and loves to comment on the books she reads in great detail.

So she didn't hesitate to take Luigi to the huge library of her castle, and she smiled, touched, as she saw the amazement with which Luigi observed its towering shelves, turning on himself in the center of the room as he tried to take it all in.

Since then, Peach and Luigi have become reading buddies. The two of them love to immerse themselves in a good story, read together in the castle library while comfortably sipping tea and, of course, comment on what they have just read and exchange views. Luigi even ends up causing Peach to also take a liking to collecting bookmarks and literary merchandising.

They often do joint readings: they discover a book they both feel like reading and set a series of goals to try to read it at the same pace, so they can discuss it as they go along. Sometimes, however, Luigi discovers that Peach hasn't read one of his favorite books, so he doesn't hesitate to read it with her so he can see her reactions, and vice versa. They love to share their anger, their cries and their joys, for it fills their hearts with bliss and emotion that they have someone by their side who understands perfectly well what they’re feeling and why.

They enjoy hearing what this or that scene has made the other feel, or what they think of this or that character, because it helps them to see things from a point of view that, perhaps, they had not considered before. Reading enriches them, but their literary conversations enrich them even more.

And Mario, of course, is delighted that the two most important people in his life have forged such a strong, deep bond and spend so much quality time together, sharing one of their greatest passions. Often, unbeknownst to them, he stands watching them as they read in the library and gets a silly grin on his face when he sees them laughing together after chatting a bit about their readings.

When it comes to Prince Peasley, on the other hand, Luigi is the one who watches him while smiling, mesmerized, as the prince, always so elegant and sophisticated, has an exquisite oratory and knows how to strike the perfect tone every time a character intervenes, and also to confer the right emotion when it comes to the narrator. And Luigi, besides staring at him, enraptured by the fabulousness of his figure, also listens to him spellbound. He would almost say that he enjoys reading more when his beloved prince is the one who narrates, and plays, the stories.

Princess Daisy, due to her energetic nature, is not much prone to reading. She prefers more dynamic activities where she can unleash not only her endless energy, but also her competitive side. Even so, she knows and respects the value of books, having grown up well aware of their importance in safeguarding and protecting the history of her kingdom. (@kelbreyworshipper you may like these ones!)

But when she meets Luigi, she begins to show a slight interest in reading, something that at first was only born so that she could have something to talk to him about. Fortunately, Luigi, despite his initial shyness, doesn't need more than a mention of literature to start talking nonstop about his favorite stories and how much they make him feel. And Daisy, not even realizing it, finds herself listening to him entranced, very attentive to his every word and genuinely understanding why there are people, like Luigi, who find reading so exciting.

Over time, she starts asking him for book recommendations, which he happily obliges, and Daisy discovers that she actually enjoys reading, especially stories with tons of action. Still, what she likes the most about this is Luigi's thrilled and moved expression when he finds out she's actually listened to him, read the book he recommended and, therefore, now they can fangirl together. She falls even harder for him because of the cute little face he makes.

Sensing that her interest in him is growing and that it may be mutual, Daisy decides to invite Luigi to Sarasaland Castle to show him her library. At first she doesn't tell him what she has invited him for, which makes Luigi VERY nervous, as he doesn't know if this is a date or not. She playfully takes him by the hands, leads him to the library doors and asks him to close his eyes. Luigi hesitates a little, unsure, but ends up obeying so as not to disappoint her.

Daisy then opens the library and guides Luigi carefully inside. He almost trips, which makes her laugh, causing him, in turn, to relax a bit. And when she finally tells him to open his eyes, Luigi gasps and his jaw drops, his heart pounding in his chest, not only because that library is even a bit larger than Peach's, but also because, slowly, his mind understands and assimilates that Daisy had prepared this to surprise him.

And even though he’s fascinated by all the books before him, he ends up, without realizing it, looking at Daisy, with a blushing smile on his flushed face and his hands over his heart, while she explains to him that all those volumes belonged to his ancestors and that he has her permission to come whenever he wants to get them. "They're yours!" she says at last, turning to him, and Luigi's heart grows larger at the offer, causing a tear to escape his eyes as the princess, full of tenderness, smiles at him.

Over the next few days, Luigi goes to the library, encouraged by Daisy, who insists again and again that he come to Sarasaland. Her library has a huge ladder to reach the highest shelves, and Daisy uses it without a second thought to glide across the room, to the terrified gaze of Luigi, who dares not even climb the first rung.

As soon as she notices this, Daisy gets down, walks over to Luigi and takes him by the hand to guide him to the ladder. He almost cringes when she places his hand on the wood and freezes when Daisy encourages him to climb up. "It's completely safe!" she assures him. "And, besides, I'll be right here. You can hold my hand as you climb up. I promise I won't slide you down too fast the first time!"

Very slowly and clinging to Daisy's hand, Luigi climbs up the steps. She doesn't let go and keeps repeating phrases to encourage him, which makes Luigi feel almost as safe as when he is with Mario, though in a different way. Once he reaches the top of the first shelf, however, Luigi is unable to climb any higher, so Daisy doesn't pressure him any further. She gently grasps the lower end of the ladder and, after warning him, moves it a little, very slowly as she promised, to make him feel secure.

The next day, however, Daisy goes up right after Luigi and, leaning into the next bookshelf, pushes as hard as she can to propel the ladder to the opposite side at breakneck speed. Her laughter mingles with Luigi’s screams, but however, once they stop, he discovers that, despite his initial panic, he’s had fun with what Daisy has just done.

This then becomes a regular occurrence between them, until it gets to the point where Luigi feels comfortable and confident enough to climb the ladder by himself and propel himself across the library in true “Beauty and the Beast” style.

In the kingdom of Sarasaland there’s a tradition to honor books, as they’re not only a source of entertainment, but also the sacred objects that preserve their history. Daisy has grown up with these values and does not hesitate to tell Luigi about this tradition soon after they start dating.

On Book Day, it is customary for the man to give the woman a rose and the woman to give the man a book. This originated many centuries ago, before everything related to gender and relationships evolved, so nowadays, simply put, the members of a romantic relationship give each other both a book and a rose.

Luigi shows up in Sarasaland on the appointed date very nervously, dressed in a smart green suit, his favorite color, and carrying a wrapped book for Daisy, as well as a purple rose, very rare and hard to come by, which he has grown himself in his garden with Peach's help. Daisy greets him in a lovely purple dress, with a vaporous skirt, matching elbow-length gloves and her delicate shoulders bare. She holds out her gift to him almost before he reaches the castle gates and can recover from the amazement of seeing her so dazzling and beautiful.

He’s delighted when, upon opening it, he discovers that it is one of those special editions he’s been looking for for so long. Only Mario knew he wanted it, so he understands, without needing Daisy to tell him, that his brother has given his girlfriend a hand to surprise him. And that makes his heart fill with love and his eyes with tears, and the book even more precious to him.

Daisy excitedly opens her present and, to Luigi's surprise, squeals when she discovers that he’s gifted her a fantasy adventure novel that caught her eye when he first took her to his favorite Brooklyn bookstore. Daisy drags him into the library, invites him to sit down with some drinks (tea for him, a smoothie for her), and asks him to please start reading.

And so they spend their first Book Day together: settled on Daisy's fluffy library couch, she sat on his lap, the skirt of her purple dress spread over his legs, almost hiding them, and her arms around his neck, depositing light kisses here and there as he struggles to read aloud the book he’s just given her. This was the first time they gave each other a book, but of course it would not be the last, as reading together, visiting the Brooklyn bookstore and Sarasaland and Mushroom Kingdom libraries, and continuing to celebrate Book Day would soon become habit for them.

Daisy often stares at Luigi as he reads, amused by his reactions and the faces he makes, and, when their relationship is more established, she has no qualms about peeping over his shoulder. And Luigi, far from getting angry, what he did the first time and has continued to do ever since is to read aloud, so that she also finds herself immersed in the story without realizing it. (This may sound familiar!)

But what Luigi enjoys the most is that Daisy, whenever the characters in the book share some intimate gesture, instantly replicates it with him. If they hold hands, Daisy immediately reaches for Luigi's hand. If there’s a hug, Daisy wraps her arms around Luigi and holds him tightly, which leaves him breathless, but also makes him laugh and fills his heart with tenderness.

And, of course, if there are kisses, Daisy won't hesitate to start showering Luigi with them. First on his hand, on the tips of his fingers and on his palm. Then on the forehead, with a delicacy that always melts Luigi. His cheeks color every time Daisy places her lips on them, but what drives him absolutely crazy is when she seeks his mouth. It's the only thing that makes him put down the book and postpone reading for another time. (Check out @bberetd's wonderful art for this!)

Often, before they fall asleep, Daisy cuddles up to Luigi in bed, wearing his green shirt, and buries her face in the crook of his neck. Luigi absentmindedly begins to fiddle with her hair, delighted to have her so close, and, with his other hand, reaches for his book to read aloud a few more pages before they fall asleep. It's part of their routine and they both love sharing stories that way.

Part 4: The gang

The visit to the bookstore and libraries has now become a regular occurrence for everyone. As soon as he started talking about books with Peach and she showed him her library, Luigi immediately invited her to come with him and Mario the next time they went to their regular Brooklyn bookstore, and she gladly accepted.

On that first visit by the princess, Peach was as thrilled as Luigi and the two of them went back and forth in the bookstore, she eagerly looking at everything, he endlessly talking about the store and the many books he’s bought there. Soon they found themselves going often to acquire new books, not without first spending a good while in the place accumulating stories in their arms to, again, decide in the end.

Again Luigi was looking for Mario, who, unconsciously, had been staring at them with an amused smile and his eyes full of affection. Blushing, Mario would hurry to come to his side to help him, and Luigi, even though he’d caught him gazing at the princess in rapt attention, wouldn’t comment anything so as not to make him uncomfortable or put any pressure on him.

Many times, however, Peach would intervene and take two of the books Luigi had chosen. That's how she also started giving him books as presents, and Luigi couldn't be more grateful that his beloved friend pampers him that way. Her gesture makes her even more attractive and sweet in the eyes of Mario, who melts at seeing her displaying such adoration towards his beloved little brother.

Daisy, always eager to learn more about the place where her dearest hero in green grew up, also joins in, but, to her surprise, she finds herself next to Mario, fondly watching Peach and Luigi, especially the latter. They, however, are so excited talking about books that they never notice the goofy smiles with which Daisy and Mario look at them, delighted to see their two favorite people indulging in their greatest passion.

Despite this, both Mario and Daisy make sure to pay attention to the books that Luigi and Peach point out with the intention of acquiring them in the future, and then make plans with each other to decide which ones to give them on future birthdays, Christmases and, of course, regular days. Any time is a good time to surprise their favorite people with a new literary gift.

Sometimes, on their dates, Luigi and Daisy also go to the bookstore, and she, as always, listens to him talk very attentively. When it comes to advising him on which book to acquire, however, she’s much more practical: she thinks Luigi should pick the book he wants to read the most… or the one with the most romance in it.

And Luigi blushes violently because he perfectly understands the implications of such a suggestion.

Literary events also end up being a regular thing they all do together. Luigi, thanks to Mario, already manages to control his nerves and chat a bit with the authors when they sign his books. Peach, of course, is all sweetness and always tells them how much their stories have made her feel and dream. Mario just smiles and listens, delighted to be able to accompany them and to see them enjoying themselves so much, right up their alley. He always takes pictures of them with the authors, both together and separately, something he already did when it was just him and Luigi.

Daisy, on the other hand, is so spontaneous and genuine that she doesn't hold back when it comes to treating the writers with too much familiarity, which only embarrasses the others, especially Luigi. If it's the author of a romance book, Daisy doesn't hesitate to cheerfully tell them how much she and her boyfriend enjoyed the sensual and intimate scenes, or that she lost count of how many times she kissed her sweetie during the reading because of the sheer number of times the characters kissed.

In those moments, Luigi can only think of crawling under a rock. He has to resort to all the training with Mario to manage to keep his composure and not faint again or run away to hide so no one sees him turning red as a tomato.

However, then Daisy intertwines her arm with his and kisses him on the cheek, and he feels that his blush, this time, is due to being close to her and to her tokens of affection. After all, Luigi adores everything about his princess, all her sides and her personality, and besides, to other authors, fortunately, Daisy tells them how much fun she and her boyfriend had with their novel, and Luigi can only adore her.

At these events, both Mario and Daisy go out of their way to get lots of bookmarks and merch for Luigi and Peach, as they know they both love to collect stuff related to their favorite books. And also, again, they take mental notes of all the books they can buy as future presents for them.

From time to time, Toad and Peasley also join in on their visits to the bookstore, libraries or events. Toad is a big fan of fantasy and adventure comics, as they nurture his enthusiastic and adventurous spirit, and Peasley loves to talk endlessly with his favorite authors about the various subjects they cover in their books, thus unconsciously displaying, once again, his impeccable eloquence.

I really hope you liked this! I had a blast writing all of this and imagining my favorite characters in the many situations I've experienced myself as a bookworm, as well as adding others I came up with 🥰

Plase feel free to add your comments and feedback, and also headcanons if you have a few of your own! And if by any chance this inspires you to create your own stuff, I'd be more than honored 😭 All I ask is to please give credit! 🙏💖

Before I leave, please remember to check @itsavee4117's blog today! You won't regret it 🤩📚✨

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back2bluesidex · 1 year

Text

Baggage

Pairing: Ex-Taehyung X Fem!reader

Summary: After six months of parting your ways from each other, Taehyung receives your handwritten letter. An unexpected one.

Wordcount: 1612

Theme: Exes au, Angst, Exes to (?)

Warnings: mentions of infidelity, mentions of alcohol consumption, hints of smut, broken relationship, heavy emotional weight.

A/N: Bracketed parts are Taehyung's POV and the italics are part of the letter.

Follow up drabble: Rainy Days

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

Hey Taehyung,

Hope this letter finds you well. You might be finding it odd that I am sending you this handwritten letter while sending you an email would have been much faster and easier. But then again, you know me. Or at least, I think you do.

I received the courier yesterday and… that was unexpected. I know we have parted our ways but we decided on keeping the engagement rings, didn't we? So, when I opened the package, it hit me hard. And made me write this letter while two glasses of somaek are already in my stomach.

You should have just kept the ring, it wouldn't harm anyone. You could just keep it in the box and throw it in a corner of your closet or maybe in the storeroom, I would never know. You could also throw it away in a trash can and dispose of it on a fine bright morning. You absolutely did not have to send this back to me. But you already did and things like these can't be undone. So, why don't you return my other belongings too?

[Taehyung halts reading the letter. A frown takes over his forehead as he tries to decipher what you mean by "other belongings". When you two parted your ways or more like, when he decided to part his way from yours, you left with every single piece of shit you own. Starting from the furniture that you bought to your hair ties, you left absolutely nothing. Other than that engagement ring. He kept it for six months but then looking at it made him feel things he shouldn't. So, he sent that back to you. And now there's nothing. Nothing at all… except for the hollowness that rings in this apartment in his waking hours. Then what might your belongings be? He continues reading.]

Why don't you return my first kiss that you stole while I was tipsy during college fest? It could have been Namjoon if you didn't meddle in between. You should also return the booze that you drank from my red cup while you could easily refill yours. Return the confession that I made that night right after you kissed me on my doorway for a second time in five hours.

It would be different if I didn't confess to you. It would be different if you would just let me kiss Namjoon. I heard that he has started his own chain of art galleries. So aesthetic of him, just like me. We would make a perfect couple, don't you think?

[A pang of uneasiness hits Taehyung's chest. He never liked Namjoon. Back in your University days, Namjoon used to be head over heels for you, he never liked that. He wanted you all to himself, all for him. The thought of you being with someone else never sat right with him and it still doesn't. You and Namjoon being a couple! No! He still can't imagine, even after he claims to have fallen out of love with you.]

Back to the point, if you are returning those then make sure you return the dryness of my trench coat as well. You may not remember, but when we went on our first date, it rained cats and dogs. We bought an umbrella from 7/11 since we could only afford one. We had to share it all the way to your dorm. Half of my trench coat got dumped because the heavy rain.

I want you to take that wetness back and give me back my dryness. Can you? You can, right?

[Taehyung thinks you have lost it. What have you even been thinking at this point? Dryness of trench coat? How the fuck that makes sense?]

Now you must be thinking why am I writing about that damned trench coat. Well, because that was my favourite one. It was white, I know you don't remember it. The beautiful snowflake white colour is now ruined because we got soaked, because I got soaked. Can you bring me back the pretty white colour that it had before? Can you take back the ugly spot that now resides on the fabric? Please take it back if you can because it reminds me of our first date, reminds me of you, reminds me of us.

[Taehyung's breath starts to get heavy as he deciphers the weight of your words. He remembers. He remembers it all. Your first date, that white trench coat you looked so pretty in, that heavy rain, he remembers everything. How can he forget when it's one of the most beautiful memories that he cherishes.]

Do you remember the day when I was working in the kitchen and you back-hugged me all of a sudden? I was so startled that I burnt my finger? The burnt scar is still there. Each time I see it, it reminds me of the kisses that we shared in the kitchen, the joint baking endeavours that were never once successful, the fights that we fought over choice of take-outs, and more…. More.

[Only you can do this to him. Only you can make his heart race without even being there in front of him, without even letting him hear your voice, seeing your picture. He questions himself, where did it all go wrong, how did it all go wrong.]

So, can you kindly return my flawless skin that I possessed before that scar happened? I want to stop thinking about the moments we shared in the kitchen. I want to stop thinking of us.

[Taehyung's heart drops at your words and he doesn't know why. He knows well that it's him who chose to walk away, it's him who sought warmth in unfamiliar embraces. It's him who ended it all saying he fell out of love but then why does his heart twists at you saying you don't want to think of him? It's not natural, is it? He should not be impacted with anything you say but then why is it happening whatever is happening? He wonders and wanders endlessly.]

Now if I have started about the kitchen then I have to get into the bedroom as well. I want my sleep back. I want my sleep back from when I used to be sound asleep on a weekend morning and you would wake me up with your wandering hands all over my body. You would always find your ways under my tshirts and shorts. Groping, squeezing, rubbing as if your life depended on it. You used to wake me up very cruelly, Taehyung, and then you would make love all the damn day leaving me sore for the rest of the week.

I can't sleep these days, Tae and I wish to replace it with my uninterrupted sleep from those days. Please return it as soon as possible.

[Taehyung's eyes have turned blurry by now. But he desperately blinks away the tears. He can't cry for you, he won't cry for you. What's the point of crying anyway? The damage is done and it's not a computer program that everything will be as it was with a mere Ctrl+Z.]

I won't ask you to return my hugs and kisses that you savoured for the first five years and ignored for the last one. You can keep those. I hope those can make you feel a bit alright when you have to deal with another cranky stakeholder. Keep those, consider it a parting gift.

But make sure you're returning the worries that I have wasted on you when you didn't return home for the entire night. Return each piece of self respect that I lost when my calls went unanswered and text were left read. Return the efforts that I have put to keep that broken hell of a relationship somehow going when you shamelessly found a different escape each night. Return the trust that I had over love, relationship and promises and now lost because of you.

Return it all.

But most importantly, return the part of me that I have left with you, that I have lost for you. You must return myself, Taehyung. Return all of my baggage.

I will be waiting for your next courier eagerly.

Previously yours,

Y/N

[A whimper left Taehyung's throat. He can't control himself anymore. He is finally letting it all go. The pain that he thought was long gone or maybe never existed, is more than prominent now. He knows he committed a huge mistake. He knows he has hurt you beyond words but never did once you say anything. You left, just left without a single word. No matter how many arms has he been in during all these times, none could make him feel like home. He would always return to this emptiness where once you resided. He misses you but he is too adamant to accept that. He never fell out of love with you, he knows but he is scared to admit that. He was a fool to give in to the flow. He is a fool because he listened to his friends telling him it's too soon for him to get engaged, he should explore. He is a complete fool to let you go, let your existence disappear from his life. He didn't even think twice before walking on your beautifully crafted dreams and trampling those under his high-end Gucci shoes. He wishes you would fight, slap him, scream at him but you did none.

You left being broken, left him broken. And now he has no idea how to return your baggage to you. He is lost, lost without you.]

Taglist:-

@phenomenalgirl9 @variety-is-the-joy-of-life

#taehyung angst #bts angst #bts taehyung #bts fanfiction #taehyung x y/n #taehyung fanfic #taehyung x reader #taehyung smut #bts fanfic

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pinkroseblooms · 3 months

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Usahara Tobikichi in love with f!Reader headcanons (sfw and smutty)

(look at this official art by gaku kaze, why is he so cute/hot?!)

SFW:

Usahara is (to borrow a trope title) a Casanova Wannabe. He likes getting attention from women and wishes he could pull off the playboy persona; the idea of being irresistible to women is a nice daydream, especially considering he seems to be consistently overlooked in comparison to guys like Kumatani and Uramichi

Despite having dated before, relationships never quite seem to work out, whether it be due to Usahara's partners not wanting to stick around after realizing how tactless and irresponsible he is or Usahara stops putting in the effort to keep the relationship afloat. He’s not intentionally mean or careless, but truly good intentions can only make up so much for his flaws.

With all that in mind, Usahara wants a girlfriend; he would take being devoted to one woman over being admired by dozens any day of the week, even if he’s a touch embarrassed to admit it.

In comes you: Usahara thinks you’re cute and immediately tries to get your attention. He doesn’t have high hopes, but hey, it couldn’t hurt to put himself out there. It doesn't take long before Usahara starts going out of his way to talk to you, firing off jokes and one liners at any given time, basically making a fool of himself for a hint of a smile from you. In a short amount of time this casual attraction develops into not so casual, knee buckling, sweaty palms crush. Usahara's heart will shatter into a million pieces if you decide to reject him.

You’re so cute, patient and sweet, being with you just feels right. Every time Usahara sees you that throbbing ache in his chest only gets worse. You’re probably too good for him, he knows it, everyone around Usahara won't stop reminding him when he looks at you with goo goo eyes and insists today's the day: he's going to take that leap and make a move on you. Usahara feels like he hit the literal jackpot when you agreed to go out with him.

When the two of you begin officially dating, it’s like a light switch clicks in Usahara’s head. Maybe because he’s older and (at least somewhat) wiser, but he’s making genuine efforts this time around to not repeat past mistakes.

When you bring up the issue of his spending habits or taking a joke too far, Usahara will listen and work with you to fix the issue. It’s important to him you know he’s taking this seriously. Usahara wants to have extra money to spoil his girl and the idea of saying something to hurt your feelings gnaws at him. He's determined to be the best boyfriend you've ever had or will have.

He tries so hard for you; Usahara honestly didn’t expect to get so attached. It makes him a bit more reflective, but also paranoid of messing up; he's always been his own worst enemy. For how easy going and chill Usahara comes off as, he's way more insecure than you might guess.

Expect clinging and being spammed with texts at any given moment, maybe a phone call or a silly picture. Now that he has an adorable girlfriend, Usahara jumps at any opportunity to do couple things, go on all the cute dates, call you pet names, buy matching charms for your keys/phones, feed each other, etc. But because he’s so eager and already fairly attached, it can be a bit...much:

“Babyyyy, I had a rough day! 😭 I need cuddles. I’m free after work, can you come over tonight? 😘"

"How's your day going? I wish I could skip work and see you..."

"I miss you xoxo ❤️”

"Babe, did you get my message? Are you busy?”

“Is everything okay?”

“Hey...are you mad at me?😥"

“Sorry, didn’t mean to spam you.”

“So, should I get food omw home? What are you in the mood for?” "

Besides me lol"

"....babe? Did I do something wrong?”

“I’m sorry, did I forget our 3 week anniversary? Month anniversary?”

"I'll make it up to you, I promise!"

“Baby???”

And you will get all of these messages over the course of an hour or so. Yes, Usahara does calm down eventually; granted, he'll still spam you with texts now and then even after he feels more secure in the relationship, but usually only when he's out drinking and he wishes he was with you instead.

Usahara keeps things from exes partially if they’re useful and there is a sentimental aspect to it for him; that being said, if it makes you uncomfortable, Usahara doesn’t hesitate to get rid of anything you don't want him to hold on to. You’re with him now, and besides, Usahara needs room for all the things of yours he plans to keep at his place from now on.

And now, for the spicy stuff (and a little smut):

Eager to please is an understatement.

Seriously though, Usahara struggles to keep his hands to himself, particularly when it’s just you and him. He doesn’t want to come on too strong or too desperate, but he wants you.

He’ll probably try to just go with whatever you’re ready for but if it was up to Usahara, he would never have to use his hand again. Not when he has your soft, warm body to touch and explore.

You’ll definitely need to tell Usahara exactly what you want, because again, he has a hard time going on instinct or reading subtle cues. And honestly, he kind of likes being bossed around in bed.

When you ask him to pleasure you and he gets it right, Usahara gets off on your praise and satisfaction. He’s practically glowing when he first makes you cum and the first time he gets to feel it raw and dripping down his dick makes him almost climax inside you right then and there.

Usahara’s preferred positions are either you riding him while he sits up right and he loses his mind a little when you suck him off. He just can’t get over what you’re doing to him; extra points if you let him cum in your mouth or even just on your face or tits. It’s dirty and you look so beautiful, Usahara can hardly believe you’re real.

Praise kink aside, Usahara also gets off on soft domination, edging (maybe because he’s so impatient), dirty talk, and costumes, Specifically seeing you with thigh highs and a mini skirt or a too big shirt, with or without panties.

Talk about fucking like rabbits. Usahara has a high sex drive and would fuck you every day if he could, but he understands you might not always been in the mood. He’s actually happy to just kiss or cuddle, anything to feel you and be close. His favorite thing to do is strip down to nothing and lay over you, head on your chest and hugging you tight while he listens to your heart beat. He’ll still be horny but it can wait.

“I can’t help it.” Usahara whines, only half teasing as he starts rubbing himself against you, silently begging you to touch him. You have no idea how fast you turn him into a needy mess just by stroking his hair or kissing his neck; he thrives on your attention, he wants to lose himself in you.

When he’s especially pent up, Usahara acts pussy drunk, doubly so if he’s been putting off the orgasm. Once you finally let him fuck you, your arms around his neck and thighs squeezing his hips, Usahara could cry from how good you feel. He can't believe he gets to be with you like this, that you want him as badly as he needs you.

“So good so good so fucking good, I wanna fuck you all night, gonna cum so hard in your pussy baby. Can I go harder? Pleeeease?”

Drool is trailing down the corner of Usahara’s babbling mouth; he practically melts into your body, head resting in the crook of your neck and arms wrapped tight around you while he fucks you, barely pulling out of your gushing pussy with each sloppy thrust.

“I wanna cum, can I cum inside again? Sorry, I need it, need to fuck you. I can’t stop, fuck, fuck, oh fuck!” Usahara gasps, eyes blown wide as you squeeze around him, not even really meaning to; he hugs you tighter, nuzzling your neck, pressing soft kisses to the love bites he made earlier. It's all you can do to not go utterly limp and just allow him to use you like a living doll. Usahara pants, whines and whimpers like puppy as he mindlessly fucks into you, begging for you to hold him closer and spread your thighs wider.

“So pretty, so good to me...I love it, love you," Usahara sobs and clings closer, cock is buried as deep as he can go while he rocks his hips. "Baby, I'm really gonna cum, gonna cum, please, wanna cum, I love you so much, baby, can I cum inside? Please? Just one more time, please, please, please!?”

#usahara tobikichi #usahara tobikichi x reader #life lessons with uramichi oniisan #uramichi oniisan #big brother uramichi #fem reader #reader insert #x reader #headcanons #ngl I love this dumb bunny

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aethon-recs · 1 year

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30 Tomarrymort Recs for February 2023

I keep telling myself that I won't do month-by-month recs and that they're too much of a commitment, but then a month like February hits where there were so many knock-out Tomarrymort fics published that I couldn’t resist celebrating all the incredible works posted in the last month, including for two Tomarrymort-themed fests. Apologies that this is coming a bit late in the month — it took me quite some time to write up thoughts on each due to the huge influx of unforgettable fic in February!

Criteria for this list: one-shot, complete, published in February 2023, in alphabetical order by title. It’s quite an extensive list, but every single one of these is worth reading.

Tomarrymort Recs (February 2023)

A Lesson Learned Well by @ellionne (M, 2k)

A very creepy take on a captive Harry and how he slowly starts to lose his mind until Voldemort can get him to do anything. ‘Anything’ includes some pretty gruesome cannibalism and other horrors!

Amensalism by @cindle-writes (E, 6k)

Tentacle sex! Inspired by the Venom movie! Harry/Scarcrux based off Eddie/Venom! Need I say more?

Anchor the Moon by Xenjn (M, 8k)

A very cool spin on genderswapped Tom and Harry who attend Hogwarts together! No matter the setting or era, Harry is obsessed with stalking Tom and proving she’s up to no good.

Anniversary by @vdoshu (E, 4k)

The last place that Harry would want to have sex is back in his cupboard at 4 Privet Drive. Yet Voldemort still takes him there for their anniversary. The mind games in here are absolutely top-tier!

Because it is his by TheOnceandFutureQueenofTarts (E, 2k)

An experiment in polyjuice leads Harry to discover that Tom is extremely attracted to… Tom. A truly hilarious take on Tom Riddle’s unhinged and unparalleled levels of narcissism!

Cynosure by @wolfantlersinspace (E, 3k)

When Voldemort steps out of the cauldron, he is the hottest man in existence. We've all seen that scene in the 4th movie! Harry can’t help but feel the same way, despite how much he tries to resist it...

Eulogy by @meles-merrivale (E, 6k)

A brooding, pensive glimpse into a day in the life of Harry who’s been raised by Voldemort. How Harry yearns for him, yet never quite gets the emotional fulfillment he so craves is heartbreaking! I gasped at the ending!

Frigid by @mrviran (E, 3k)

I don’t know if the world is ready yet for Puritanical Voldemort, but if you think you might be, this fic does it BEST. The way Voldemort fixes Harry is so… chilling (pun intended — it'll all be clear once you read the fic!)

Honeyguide by @cannibalinc (E, 7k)

Tom, an unmatched Omega, is determined to have Harry as his Alpha, no matter the costs. The rut scene is so intense, with Harry completely losing control in a very sexy (and dangerous!) way.

Identity by @crowcrowcrowthing (E, 5k)

Harry and Tom go on a road trip together to celebrate their anniversary. The reveals in this fic were SO GOOD, I didn’t see any of them coming — crowthing skillfully delivers intricately layered tangled plots-within-plots in just 5k words.

In the library by @chiocchi (G, Art)

Harry and Tom studying in the library — with an adorable depiction of Tom letting his guard down around Harry. Both the scene and the coloring are so very soft!

Insatiate by @vdoshu (E, 2k)

A very bleak and dark take on an AU where Voldemort wins and Harry lives a very empty life, only to be filled by Voldemort’s cocks and some magical immortality juice.

it's kind of tripping me up babe, i've got it bad for you by @limonium-anemos (E, 3k)

Harry and Voldemort get isekai'ed into a cursed romance-novel AU. I love how all the long-standing love and trust between Harry and Voldemort shines through in this fic, as they make the best of their time in this very wacky erotica setting by fucking each other's brains out.

Keepsake by IceLynx (M, 5k)

Harry suffering from amnesia wakes up with Voldemort telling him that they're in a relationship. But when the pieces don’t quite add up, Harry discovers the horrifying truth. A very creative twist at the end!

アンバランスなKissをして by vash (E, 2k)

A show-stopping alternate ending to the Final Battle, with Harry asking for a final kiss from Voldemort.

Matriphagy by @being-luminous (M, 2k)

This fic takes the whole “Voldemort hunting Harry because of a prophecy” origin story, and adds a vampire twist to it. The floaty and detached vibe is a really nice contrast to the visceral horrors of what’s happening on-page — very skillfully done!

Phalanx by @vdoshu (E, 4k)

There’s a reason why Voldemort doesn’t wear shoes, which Harry, to his horror (and our delight), finds out firsthand. The foot worship in here is magnificently over-the-top in very satisfying detail.

Quiet as the Moon by @itsevanffs (M, 2k)

A Beauty and the Beast AU that’s a sequel to @duplicitywrites’ Certain as the Sun. I thought what was a really nice touch is how we see the state of their (unhappy) relationship through flashbacks interspersing the main action — in just a few sentences, itsevanffs manages to paint a picture of a very wretched existence for Harry, before he takes matters into his own hands.

Research and Development by @cannibalinc (E, 6k)

Voldemort captures Harry and proceeds to experiment on him. And by ‘experiment’, I mean, carve Harry up and fuck him with his hemipenes in delightfully gratuitous, violent and unrestrained, and gushingly hot fashion.

Right in Front of My Salad? by IceLynx (T, 2k)

Draco Malfoy dies right in the middle of Harry and Tom’s kitchen (rude). A hilarious sequence of misunderstandings ensues, which leave you with no doubt that Harry and Tom are absolutely perfect for each other.

Run Boy Run by @youknowmevj (E, 6k)

The ultimate chase & capture fic. The anticipation builds with every one of Harry’s steps as he's trying to run away, and we’re left with some delicious emotional manipulation and a very hot wall sex scene at the end.

silk of midnight and dawn by @ilya-zzz (E, 3k)

Such a cool concept! Harry and Tom decide to become animagi, and when Tom transforms into his animagus form, his animal instincts kick in... and Harry is right there unable to defend himself...

Tantrums by @crowcrowcrowthing (E, 5k)

Featuring the brattiest Tom I’ve ever come across, and an incredibly impulsive Harry who can’t resist Tom’s allures. You'd think this combination would automatically spell destruction and disaster, but they actually work out really well together in a surprisingly compatible way!

Tearing me apart (like a new emotion) by @rudehellion (E, 2k)

As this fic progresses, the horror of what’s happening to Harry in his forced marriage to Voldemort continues to build and build. Not only is Harry getting taken part physically, he’s also getting taken apart mentally ("Every night, there’s a little more trust to break.") I loved what the ending implies for Voldemort’s favorite hobby.

That's Your Boyfriend by @solavonn (G, Art)

This artwork is so cute!! Depicting Harry who's overwhelmed by how hot his Quidditch boyfriend Tom is. Harry's not the only one — Solavonn's Tom Riddle art is always so good-looking that we all feel the same way, Harry!

The Green Herring by @duplicitywrites (G, 1k)

A hilarious cracky take on what exactly Tom Riddle thinks of his boyfriend Harry’s very special, very extraordinary, very memorable eye colour.

The sweet burn of venom by @loneamaryllis (E, 4k)

SMOKIN’ HOT ABO! Harrie goes through her first heat, and Voldemort provides relief, but is he really there, or is it a (very hot) dream?

thrice-bound, twice-filled by @cindle-writes (E, 4k)

Voldemort. Hemipenes. Double-stuffing Harry. A perfect setup for a very hot pwp!

We're (Not) Together by @vdoshu (E, 3k)

This fic is the EPITOME of gaslighting and manipulation. An extremely controlling Tom refuses to accept that he and Harry aren’t still together… or are they?

you alone of all creatures by @duplicitywrites (E, 3k)

I love the concept of Tom having an illicit affair with his very sexy and married Professor Potter. All the sneaking around is SO HOT as he seduces Harry and cracks open his defenses bit-by-bit.

#tomarry #harrymort #tomarrymort #tomarry recs #tomarrymort recs #hp fic recs #one-shot recs #ao3 recs #fanfic recs #harrymort recs #2023 reads #2023 recs

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veilantares · 4 months

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LOST LOST really is 2023's theme for me. I spent most of this past year on my PhD project, so my output has been quite scarce overall - certainly so compared to the industriousness of years past. When I had chances to draw this year it was often like a gasp of air amidst a sea of my other efforts. "What's the next step forward?" I think at times. Consider the center drawing my face of course, because in real life I look like if cannonbolt was a sad refridgerator.

I started a new physical sketchbook and made some breakthroughs in my personal illustrations, but nothing I'm happy to share - in previous years I didn't have as much nervousness to experiment in public. Anyway this feels like a good opportunity to do a bit of a retrospective on the last ones of these I did.

In many ways 2022 was the best year of my work, I both did my most challenging (and correspondingly complex) pieces this year, and had the confidence to make several things a week. Past the initial few months I had really started to hone my mix of solid shapes, lineart and linelessness thats ubiquitous in my pieces now, though I wonder if I have grown too comfortable with the stability of a partial formula.

One disadvantage about only choosing nine pieces was that in wanting them to look good together I had to exclude a series of the coloured background pieces that interspersed the dark background ones. In those, I felt like a lot more of my effort went into the shape language, so there was a synergy with both approaches letting me understand things.

In 2021 I started using colours instead of grayscale, that years inktober could almost be said to be my best work, there was both a variety and scale to it..I drew something virtually every day for almost three or four months straight and crucially, I also shared it all after I was done. It really felt worth it planning art ahead, but also spontaneously filling the blanks it in the moment. That being said maybe that productiveness was not sustainable because I'd have very little time for much else after school, work and art.

Late in that year I realised I could just draw the things I like if I wanted, instead of the things I thought people wanted - so some of the later pieces really resembled discount warframes. That game has so deeply hooked itself into my visual library that I draw it even when I'm not intending to, and so when I started deliberately trying to evoke it (with very fledgling art analysis skills), I think I got more and more familiar with what I wanted.

In 2020 I was just starting out so I did not yet recognise there was something specific to aspire to - I dont have a retrospective montage like these other years for 2020. You can see virtually every piece I've ever uploaded on my instagram page, so I think I might not narrate as much about those in this post. Maybe in the future I'll review all these years through a completely different lens.

#veilantares #digital art #my art #illustration #art vs artist #art vs artist 2023 #artvsartist2023 #retrospective #q&a #voidpunk #character design

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jojo-schmo · 6 months

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My old Good Omens art from 2019-2020!! :O (In somewhat chronological order)

In the interest of sharing my art in one place, I thought I'd revisit this era of my art! I made much more traditional art at the time. But I like thinking about the evolution of my skills over the past few years.

Director's commentary below:

I believe the first four images are from 2019, when the first season of GO came out. Boy, did that show come out at a good time for me! I was in a deep art slump that had lasted for a few years at that point. Long story short, because of untreated depression and a chronic illness that brought me physical pain, I didn't get everything I wanted to get out of college classes and I was deeply self-conscious of my skill level. I knew I wanted to tell stories but I was frustrated that I seemingly couldn’t make my ideas come to life at all.

Being alive was very difficult for me at the time and I was fighting my own dark and negative thoughts that I directed towards myself constantly. I didn't see a psychiatrist until the Spring of 2020, and only then did things start getting better. If I had to describe it, it's like a storm in my head finally cleared. The weight on my shoulders lightened up a lot. I had enough mental clarity to gain more self-awareness and really work on myself. And that included my art. And it shows a little in the last few drawings.

(Side note, I am much, much better now. Medication and ongoing therapy has completely changed the quality of my life. I am very happy to be here!)

Anyway, I was making efforts to get better at drawing after college by taking Aaron Blaise's online art classes. (Side note, his class on drawing human anatomy helped me immensely!!) But it was just the beginning of a long art improvement journey!

But I see the stiffness and insecurity that was still present in my art from that time. Whenever I shared it on Twitter (which was my main social media at the time) I'd be lucky to hit ten notes. It didn't bother me all the time, but it did get discouraging as time went on. Until one day I decided to just deal with it. Whatever the reason was that nobody was seeing my art- whether it was due to the Twitter algorithm or if my art was just not appealing enough. I was going to keep drawing. If nobody clicked the like heart on my art, fine! I was going to keep throwing it into the void anyway and see what sticks. If it got ten likes or one I tried not to care as much.

My transition from drawing what I thought other people wanted to see, to drawing what made me happy, made a huge difference. Likes and reblogs do feel really good, but I'm happy to hear even what one person likes about my work. I try to keep that mindset with me as much as I can. And I'm not perfect at it. But it helps me a lot.

Of course that transition in my mindset was gradual. Took place over a few years. But I realized lately that I have a confidence in my art that I've never had before. And I'm really happy about that!!

All this to say, whether you've been drawing/writing for ten years, one year, or a few months, it's always nice to remember where you came from and far you've come.

Looking back, I wish I could tell my past self that her best was yet to come. And I still have a long way to go but I'm excited to see what I can make in the coming years!

If I had one preachy piece of advice to offer as a final note, remember that the ability to draw and write is an awesome skill to have. A skill that not every human being has. But a skill that can be developed and cultivated over time if nurtured. It's a beautiful thing to me, to be able to create something that didn't exist before. Something that only you can bring to life. And while it might not resonate with everyone who sees it, it might resonate with one person. And I love that. So when you can, create things that make you happy, the happiness might just be contagious to its viewers. <3

...I think I should draw some more Good Omens sometime soon. I miss those guys and they are dear to me :)

#tw mental health #good omens #jojo rambles #not to get too dramatic about myself on a post. I just wanted to share some thoughts aloud :)#and in the hopes that maybe someone will learn from my journey and not make the same mistakes I did

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sylvan-librarian · 8 months

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Nissa's Pilgrimage Part I: Worldwaker

Preface:

Hi there! My name is Steven; I recently wrapped up a master’s degree in library science and am doing my best to segue careers. Since my terminally long job hunt has left me with more down time than I ever wanted to have, I decided to put my English degree to good(?🤷) use by writing a bunch of personal essays on Magic the Gathering, as it is a topic I have been obsessed with for around a decade now. I didn’t intend to share these ramblings at first, and I began this whole project for my own edification, to keep my brain active, and to prevent myself going insane from boredom. However, I thought it couldn’t hurt to throw these online and see what comes of it.

This particular piece is part 1 of ???. I have a lot of notes in my drafts and even more thoughts in my head, so it may just go on indefinitely until someone (finally) gives me a dang job.

TLDR: I’m a deranged MTG Vorthos and former English major with a lot of thoughts and even more time on my hands, so I began a handful of English major-y essays on my pet topics. I’m posting them here for now.

Introduction:

Almost every Magic player who began learning the game after the planeswalker card type was introduced in the Lorwyn expansion in October, 2007 can tell you a story about the first planeswalker card they fell in love with. It might have been because the mechanics on the card melded perfectly with their preferred strategy of play, it might have been because they kept up with the story and were invested in the represented character’s journey, or it might have simply been because they thought the art looked cool.

For whatever reason under Mirrodin’s five suns a Magic player first became attached to a planeswalker and their cards, the character often become symbolic for our love of the game itself. These symbols grow beyond simple loyalty abilities on a piece of cardboard and become inexorably intertwined with our own personal Magic experience.

For me, this planeswalker was Nissa Revane.

You see, in March of 2014, I started working at The Game Closet in Waco, Texas. I had just finished getting a master’s degree in English, so of course, my first job out in the real world was to become a clerk at my local game store (really putting my humanities education to work). Having grown up in a small Louisiana town, I never had a chance to play Magic. I entered the tabletop gaming world through my obsession with Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun, and sundry other RPG’s.

Nevertheless, as Magic players made up the majority of the store’s customer base, I took it upon myself to learn the game. The Theros block was wrapping up at the time with its third set, Journey into Nyx, and a bunch of friendly players were more than happy to unload all of their bulk commons and uncommons to me (Journey into Nyx was famously underpowered, after all), so I tried to make a standard deck out of all this draft chaff and run it at Friday Night Magic.

It didn’t go too well.

However, I was happy with the overall direction of the deck, and I immediately discovered that I loved green decks, specifically green ramp strategies.

I was enthralled with the idea of accelerating mana so that you can play flashy, intimidating creatures and cool, game warping spells far earlier than you have any right to, so I continued to tweak the deck until I made a functioning version of the Theros Standard Mono Green Devotion deck. Even though I wasn’t good enough at the game in my early days to consistently win (even at the local level), I had a lot of fun with it! It was fast and explosive, but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was missing something.

However, not a few months later, the Magic 2015 Core Set gets released, and the chase mythic rare in the set’s early days was exactly the kind of card I was looking for: Nissa, Worldwaker. I had no idea who this Nissa character was supposed to be — though I did think the art looked pretty cool — but I was in awe of the card’s abilities! It was precisely the kind of fuel I felt my standard deck needed at the time, and it turns out I was right! My Magic the Gathering “competitive” “career” begins and ends with a handful of first place rankings at my local game store’s standard FNM events, but as small a victory as those are, nearly all of these top rankings were due to Nissa, Worldwaker.

Needless to say, I became devoted to the character overnight.

Exploration:

But who is Nissa, really? Let’s start with the basics. Nissa is an elf planeswalker from the plane of Zendikar, a largely untamed wilderness where the land itself has a will of its own, causing unforeseeable (un)natural disasters called “the roil” by Zendikari locals. According to the recently-released Magic The Gathering: The Visual Guide by Jay Annelli, Nissa is in her 60s and she is 5 feet, 2 inches tall, making her the smallest of the original four members of the Gatewatch (five if you count Liliana). Nissa has a mystical connection to the land and can sense a plane’s leylines, giving her a measure of control over the ground she walks on; this allows her to animate the very land itself to fight her enemies, a narrative element that has been expressed mechanically time and time again on Nissa’s cards throughout the years.

Ostracized from the elven clan she was born in, the Joraga, for the crime of having this connection to the land (a rare brand of sorcery called “animism” in the lore of Magic), Nissa spent large stretches of years alone with only the spirits of the natural world as companions. This has made her socially awkward to a fault, and the issues she has in communicating with her friends (and later, lovers) has been a fairly consistent plot point throughout all of the (canon) story arcs she has played a part in.

In a fictional universe that contains ageless elder dragons, a man-eating toad, a sentient robot who literally created a planet from scratch, and a wizard who once phased an entire continent out of the time stream, Nissa Revane’s eternal struggle to express simple feelings to people she shares a bond with always seemed to me the most human element in the Magic canon. Additionally (big surprise), that’s something I have in common with her. While other Vorthoses have made the argument that Nissa is on the autism spectrum, that is something I have neither the personal experience with nor the education of to speak about. That is certainly a valid lens to view this character through, however, so if that interests you, I’d encourage you to search up these pieces on your own.

What I can speak on with a certain level of expertise, however, is the personal struggle of being a shy, withdrawn introvert in an extroverted world. As a lifelong wallflower with a vivid imagination and a rich inner world, I can deeply relate to a character who doesn’t know how to put her intense feelings to words. For example, in the final story of the Kaladesh arc, Renewal, Nissa tries to express to her companion Chandra just how deeply she wants to be “friends” with her:

Nissa swallowed past the desert in her throat. "I don't speak often. I lived alone for...decades. Zendikar was my companion. We understood each other at a level deeper than words. I...I don't know how to talk to you. I'm trying to learn." Chandra looked up, eyes wide and startled. "You don't know how to talk to me?" "I will make mistakes," Nissa said. "Pick the wrong words. Misunderstand yours. I'll act strange and won't know that I am. But if you can be patient with me, I would like to be..." Waves of sky-song memory welled upward, symphonies of color and warmth, resonant movement and shared breath. She stilled them, reduced them, and forced out angular words shaped in a pallid shadow of acceptable truth. "...your friend." Chandra's hands leapt out to enfold hers, warm as a bird's nest. "I dunno," she sniffled, one corner of her mouth quivering upward. "I think you're pretty good at picking words." "It took all afternoon to decide how to say this."

While this section of Renewal is a cornerstone of Nissa’s and Chandra’s future romantic relationship, that is a topic big enough to warrant its own essay in order to do it justice. For now, though, let’s focus on this bit: “‘I would like to be…’ Waves of sky-song memory welled upward, symphonies of color and warmth, resonant movement and shared breath. She stilled them, reduced them, and forced out angular words shaped in a pallid shadow of acceptable truth. ‘...your friend.’” Nissa’s never ending struggle to use words grand enough to communicate the intensity of the feelings in her heart has stuck with me since Renewal was posted on Magic’s website in 2017. I doubt I’m the only one, either.

Heroic Intervention

Nissa was already the character I was most invested in back in 2017, but observing her deep well of emotions she didn’t know to express and her entire lifetime's worth of interests and experiences she didn’t know how to talk about helped me, I think, come to terms the previous two-and-a-half decades of my own life that I spent cowering in corners at parties, being as unobtrusive as possible in the lives of my friends and family, and holding myself back because I didn’t think anyone would ever want me around - as a friend, as a lover, or even as a coworker. This section, from later on in Renewal, really gutted me at the time:

What would she do, if she had the time again? If she didn't flinch at light, noise, and touch, or speak in gestures and movements strange and off-putting to others? How could she tell this new life to laugh and weep without reservation or regret; to sing to the stars and waters, or to nothing at all; to love unreserved and unguarded; to treasure every moment with those beloved; to forgive any regretted trespass; to dance when moved to; to savor long silences in warm company; to greet each dawn, each face with the thought, this will be an adventure; to be brave, and kind, and trusting, and... ...like Chandra. The aetherborn waited, flickering. But why would anyone find her thoughts on the matter of value, anyway? Don't be afraid to follow your heart, Nissa told them. ...Why would that be scary? Halfway across Ghirapur, her body exhaled a laugh into the deepening twilight. May it ever puzzle you.

It wasn’t too long after this story was published that I began my own journey from hiding in the shadows to living my life in a way I was proud of. I moved away with the woman I was dating at the time, and even though that relationship ended up not working out, I spent five long, fun, life-altering years learning to

laugh and weep without reservation or regret; to sing to the stars and waters, or to nothing at all; to love unreserved and unguarded; to treasure every moment with those beloved; to forgive any regretted trespass; to dance when moved to; to savor long silences in warm company; to greet each dawn, each face with the thought, this will be an adventure.

I wonder to this day if the courage Nissa displayed during her own pilgrimage helped nurture in me the courage I needed in my own…

Conclusion

If you made this far, thanks! I’m not sure who, if any, will be interested in these endless ramblings, but if you're here, I hope you found something in it to enjoy!

Further entries in this little series will cover who Nissa is as a character, how she has been treated by various writers in Magic's various seasons, and why that matters (to me at least). The next longform piece I post will go over Nissa’s dual origins, why she was retconned from an incompetent xenophobe into the cinnamon roll with baggage we know today, and what both the Magic Story Team and its fans have made of this shift over the years.

References

Annelli, J. Magic The Gathering The Visual Guide. DK Publishing

Li, M., Digges, K., Luhrs, A., Beyer D., & L'Etoile, C. (2017). Renewal

#magic the gathering #nissa revane #vorthos #magic story #mtg story #essay #chandra nalaar

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