2022 Round 1: Quotes

[hwarium]

Status: Closed This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted. Seventeen Holidays Round 1: Quotes About "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more." "What is grief, if not love persevering?" "You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath" Calling all readers, lovers of poetry and music, screen and stage. Quote collecters and lyric hoarders, unleash your archive. Each prompt must contain a quote - you can combine them, add commentary, link to articles, and more. Steal from a literary classic, or WeVerse drama. Have fun! Examples Minghao + Ocean Vuong The most beautiful part of your body is where it's headed. & remember, loneliness is still time spent with the world. Ocean Vuong - night sky with exit wounds Hoshi/Anyone; "Beauty is terror" Thinking about these two quotes together and the idea of on/off-stage personas: "Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful we tremble before it. And what could be more terrifying or beautiful, to the Greeks to to our own, than to lose control completely?" - Donna Tartt, the Secret Histories "I am calm in everyday life but when I put on my in-ear device and step on stage, I can feel the tension and hear the cheers getting louder as the music gets louder. When the staff tells me it's time to step on stage, I feel something boil inside me. I feel it steaming inside and I think I have to give a burst of something, spill what is inside me." - Hoshi in Hit the Road Ep. 04 Any ship; "It's been so many years" Hello, hello there, is this Martha? This is old Tom Frost And I am calling long distance Don't worry 'bout the cost. 'Cause it's been forty years or more Now Martha please recall Meet me out for coffee Where we'll talk about it all. Tom Watts - Martha Rules Sign up is not required. Fills have a minimum of 400 words for prose, haiku-length for poetry (3 lines), and 400px by 400px for art (memes are also art). Other mediums are fine too! There is no maximum cap. Tag and provide content warnings at your discretion, but a good guide are the Ao3 four (Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage) and this list of common CWs (cr: SportsFest). NSFW/Explicit content should be tagged NSFW art should not be visible, please provide a link and a warning. You may crop the artwork and embed a SFW preview. How it works Prompting Click on [Post a New Comment] at the bottom of this post; Change the subject to something interesting; Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment and edit the sections. Feel free to add as much detail as you want! <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Do Not Wants:</strong> None <strong>Prompt:</strong> <blockquote>[QUOTE GOES HERE] </blockquote> Filling Reply to the original prompt; Change the subject to [FILL], you may add a title or stay chaotic; Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment, edit the sections, and add your text. You may also upload your fill to the AO3 Collection. <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Permission to remix:</strong> Yes/No/Please ask *** Remixing Post as a reply to the fill you are remixing, using the same HTML as above; Change the subject to [REMIX]. Art/media Upload your work to any platform (twitter, imgur, youtube, soundcloud, google maps, etc.) Using the same HTML code as above, copy the link into your fill or remix. That's it! Optionally, you can embed a picture into your comment. Please use the following code instead. (To explain, the HTML resizes your picture to 400x400px so that it fits on most screens. Users can view the full size if they click on it. You can also add a link to your work on twitter so that others can share it, or to any other website you want) <strong>Ship/Member:</strong> Any <strong>Major Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Additional Tags:</strong> N/A <strong>Permission to remix:</strong> Yes/No/Please ask *** <img src="INSERT IMAGE URL" width="400px"> <a href="INSERT ANY URL YOU WANT">TEXT THAT DESCRIBES THE LINK</a> Note! On dreamwidth, you can't edit a comment once someone has replied to it. Navigation ABOUT DATES FAQ BAITS ✧ FILLS ✧ ❮ ROUND 1: QUOTES ❯ ROUND 2: ALTERNATE UNIVERSES ROUND 3: LAST WORDS

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Jihoon/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I've been playing dead
My whole life
And I get this feeling whenever I feel good
It'll be the last time
But I feel something when I see you now
I feel something when I see you

- Phoebe Bridgers, ICU

and if don't want to remember what it was like to be young

[deadwine]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Any, (Soonyoung/Minghao/Junhui??)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:
I think we can live forever
In each other’s faces cause I’ll
always see my youth in you
-Halsey, Ya’aburnee

brimming/heavy

[deadwine]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

What I mean to say, perhaps, is that, in a way, I am never empty of you; not for a moment, an instant, a single second.
-Virginia Woolf, a letter to Vita Sackville-West

[FILL] heavy is the head

[cruelsummers]

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/Seungcheol
Major Tags: medieval-esque, king jeonghan & captain of the guard seungcheol, implied violence
Additional Tags: major injury, love as duty
Permission to remix: pls ask!
a/n: i... don't know if this quite fills the prompt but this is where my brain went forgive me

***

If you still want me, please forgive me
The crown of love has fallen from me
If you still want me, please forgive me
Because your hands are not upon me
-Arcade Fire

Seungcheol was not born to be Captain of the Guard. He was born and raised as Jeonghan’s companion, first and foremost, always at the crown prince’s side. Seungcheol was born two months prior, a gift just for Jeonghan.

Wherever Jeonghan went, Seungcheol followed. That was the way of things.


–


“Why are you learning the sword?” Jeonghan is displeased, lying in Seungcheol’s bed, watching as he puts on his practice armour. “Who is supposed to entertain me in the middle of my lessons?”

Seungcheol doesn’t look at him, struggling with his breastplate. “His Highness will have to find new sources of entertainment,” he grunts. Jeonghan watches him struggle for a minute longer before getting up with a sigh. Hopeless fool. He means to be a swordsman? Jeonghan tuts under his breath as he helps lace Seungcheol up properly.

His hand pauses at Seungcheol’s bare neck. Jeonghan hadn’t thought he was serious in his endeavor, until he chopped off his hair, adopting the usual short-cut meant for soldiers. Jeonghan’s own hair is loose and free, to his shoulders. The way he always wears it when it’s only the two of them.

Seungcheol is still, letting Jeonghan touch him. Duplicitous creature, letting Jeonghan do as he wants, and then turning around and doing as he pleases in turn.

“I don’t like it,” Jeonghan declares sullenly, one last protest. “What if I order you to stay?”

Seungcheol grins. “Forgive me, Hannie. Just this once.”


–


Jeonghan thinks it would have been easier if Seungcheol was an only child. That way, he could devote himself solely to Jeonghan. But Seungcheol admires his older brother, newly appointed Captain, and has a score of cousins that he’s always carrying on his shoulders. Laughing, so generous with his love.

Give it only to me, Jeonghan wants to demand. Especially in times like these, celebrations that force him in formal dress, to be seated with his parents and sister, the royal family on display. Seungcheol is a noble, but gets to run around in the streets, full of childish glee.

Most of the time, Jeonghan enjoys being a prince. But sometimes, he thinks he would give it all up. If only to be a boy running free, with Seungcheol.


–


Two years before his coronation, the castle is attacked. Jeonghan watches in muted shock as his father’s personal guard, the one that’s been in service for over a decade, slits his throat. Seungcheol’s brother is quick to react, charging the traitor with a roar. A frantic Seungcheol shoves Jeonghan’s sister in Jeonghan’s arms, and drags him away, hiding them in a secret compartment in the kitchen quarters.

“Don’t make a sound,” he commands. “Don’t leave, until I return.”

Stay with me, Jeonghan means to scream, but Seungcheol takes his sword out, shuts the door, and runs.

In the bloody aftermath, Jeonghan comes out King, shaking and shivering.

And Seungcheol, sobbing next to his brother’s corpse, becomes Captain.


–


“No,” Jeonghan shakes his head once all the advisors leave them. Jeonghan knows what being Captain means, especially if their enemies are still at large. His body seizes with fury and fear. Seungcheol belongs to him, not their kingdom. “No, no. It doesn’t have to be you. Be my personal guard instead. Someone else can do it!”

Seungcheol’s eyes are exhausted. “Forgive me, Jeonghan,” he whispers, resigned. He has always loved too much for his own good. “Your Majesty.”

Jeonghan could not have hoped to keep him as his own.


–


Seokmin and Mingyu are handpicked by Seungcheol for Jeonghan’s personal guard. Both strong and sturdy. Jeonghan scoffs when he first meets them, but six months into service, Seokmin kills an assassin before they can even wake Jeonghan up and Mingyu finds the rest of them in three days.

“They’re adequate,” Jeonghan tells Seungcheol when he returns from battle. Seungcheol, even covered in weeks’ old grime and sweat, is still the sweetest sight. Bowing low to Jeonghan in court to report their success.

Bowing in an entirely different way when they are alone in Jeonghan’s chambers.

“Do you mean for them to be your replacements?” Jeonghan asks, naked and sated. Seungcheol snorts lightly.

“If you’d like,” Seungcheol says. A jest.

Jeonghan wonders if Seungcheol has anyone out there, on the battlefield, that is meant to be replacing Jeonghan.


–


Most of the time, Jeonghan hates being King. Especially in times of war, Jeonghan can hardly trust any voice in his ear, maintaining a strong, stoic disposition as he sends more and more men off to die.

Seungcheol leads them all, promising to come back every time.

It is the only promise Jeonghan wants him to keep. He would not forgive him otherwise.


–


Dark wings carry dark words. A messenger hawk arrives with dire news of a lost battle, countless dead men on their side. A missing Captain.

“He’s dead,” Mingyu says, thoughtless in his shock. Seokmin elbows him harshly, and Jeonghan clutches at the letter with white knuckles. Seungcheol isn’t dead. He can’t be. Jeonghan would have felt it if he was, would have collapsed to the ground the moment Seungcheol’s heart stopped.

Jeonghan walks around like a ghost for an entire month before Seungcheol rides back to the castle, half-dead on his horse. It is not proper for the King to be so involved in the healing process, but he’s at Seungcheol’s bedside every night until he wakes up.

When Seungcheol’s eyes finally open, Jeonghan is furious.

“What is more important?” Jeonghan hisses. He should be grateful Seungcheol is alive but he is too angry for that. “Your duty or your life? Or me? If you cared about me, as you did when we were boys, you wouldn’t risk your life so foolishly!”

Seungcheol takes his hand, placing a weak kiss on it. “You are my duty,” he murmurs, half out of his mind. “I care about you more than anything. I carry you with me, everywhere I go.”

Kings do not cry. But Jeonghan does, dropping to his knees, cursing Seungcheol’s foolish, good heart.

If he carries any more of him, there will be none of Jeonghan left to rule.


–


Jeonghan carries Seungcheol with him everywhere as well. He cannot do a single thing without his mind wandering to him. It is a particular kind of agony, to wait on the throne while Seungcheol rides out to fight on his behalf.

He knows, if Seungcheol ever does fall, Jeonghan won’t let him rest alone. He will go to his grave, claw at the dirt with his own fingers, and settle next to Seungcheol’s body.

Wherever he goes, Jeonghan will follow. To hell with everything else.

Days

[sunwalkr]

Ship/Member: any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: snapshots of a life. maybe a lesson/study on love & its maintenance over time, how relationships grow & wane & have to be worked at through the lens of days / time / what it means to live.
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?
— Days, Philip Larkin

we all share the same sky

[sunwalkr]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: meditations on being alone but not alone at the same time, found family-isms. love as a choice and as a reminder that you cannot be alone as long as someone loves you OR platonic love & friendship & the strength it brings
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

When you’re lonely, please look at the sky and stars. We are looking at the same sky and same moon, and we’re breathing the same air. You are not alone.
— Xu Minghao, when asked about the CARATs he cannot meet right now.

[FILL] we all share the same sky

[hoshingies]

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: found family-isms (for you, karina •3•); love is a choice; seokmin as the introvert we know he is; and where he recognizes he can’t always be the kind & happy one; slight angst
Permission to remix: Please ask
Word count: 1,809

Lol I’ve never written Seokmin or Minghao before, I tried ; w ;

***
Loneliness is something Seokmin doesn’t like to think about, something he tries to push away as he reaches out a hand to be close to the friends he’s made after so, so many years of being alone.

He’s fine with being alone, welcomes it as a part of his life. He’s been seen as the happy, go lucky sunshine in his friends’ life, placing their happiness in his palms to help balance their hardships.

But sometimes it becomes too hard, his smile just a bit dimmer, the light not quite reaching his eyes, and shaking his head when Mingyu and Soonyoung ask if he would like to go out with them.

He makes up an excuse like him not feeling good, he’ll see them later, a reason to go back to his room and hide away. Alone time to make his mind feel more at ease when he feels the loneliness flood through him with so many people around him.

It doesn’t go away when he enters his room, immediately closing the door as a sigh leaves his mouth.

The only phrase he can think of is that he misses Minghao. He misses Minghao’s presence, the way he felt like a security blanket in Seokmin’s rocky foundation. The one that fills the cracks when he needs it.

He’s left to visit his parents in China, and Seokmin feels his entire body want to jump through the phone so he can see him again. To hug him again. But he couldn’t deny his friend the chance to see his parents after so long, not when he finally got the chance. He’s selfish, but he’s not that selfish.

A voice in the back of his head tells him he wishes he was.

He doesn’t know when he pulls up a FaceTime call to him, waiting with anxiety that floods through him like a hurricane as he stares at his own face.

He feels a sense of relief the moment it pauses, and is instead flooded with Minghao’s face. A smile that adores it as he stares at Seokmin. “Hey,” he says and his voice is a whisper.

Seokmin immediately says a quiet, “Hey,” back.

“You know Mingyu texted me?” He asks when there’s a pause, like Seokmin can’t figure out his words. The wave of loneliness that had flooded him with his friends comes back harder, and it brings a chill to him.

But Seokmin only shrugs a shoulder as he adorns a smile that he can tell is too fake when he glances at the corner to see himself. “I wanted to be alone,” he feels the need to explain himself, leaning back against his window with the curtains drawn closed.

There’s a brief thought that flits through his mind, their lips meeting in just a brief second. He shakes it away though, and instead pulls his knees up to his chest and waits for Minghao to say something back. He nods, hums a bit before his head turns to stare out the window. “I like being alone too,” He tells Seokmin, and Seokmin wonders why he hates feeling so alone right now. Why the silence that’s surrounding him is too loud compared to the usual peace it brings him. “Are you okay?” He asks after a brief moment, and it takes Seokmin a minute to bring himself back to their conversation, back to staring at Minghao’s concerned look with the way his eyebrows knit together.

Seokmin thinks he really needs a haircut. A text message from Soonyoung pops up on the screen that he immediately ignores.

“I…,” he pauses, tapping a finger against his thigh before he leans his head back against the window behind him. “I don’t know,” he finally admits aloud, something he doesn’t even admit to himself.

He’s supposed to be the one that brings out the happiness through their friend group, one that makes everyone smile. The one that’s okay with shouldering his own problems and problems that he’s handed to when they need a moment away.

And Minghao is the one who understands him the most, understands his thoughts and his ways as he nods again. “It’s okay to be alone,” he says after a few moments, trying to find his words when he pauses. “You know we care about you?”

“Who’s we?” Seokmin can’t help but joke, but Minghao just frowns at him and he immediately drops it.

“You’re not alone,” Minghao pushes again, leaning closer to the phone as if he were beside Seokmin right now. “Everyone. You can’t be alone when we’re all here for you.”

“But,” he wants to say something, that he’s pushing them away. That they’ll leave when he can’t be the same upbeat Seokmin that he’s usually taken on for them.

Minghao immediately shakes his head. “We love you,” he whispers, eyes flitting to stare out the window once more. There’s an even quieter, “I love you,” that he whispers.

Seokmin’s brain doesn’t hear it at first, until it processes a second later and he feels his face flush. He refuses to stare at his little portrait in the corner, ignoring the way his cheeks feel hot when he shakes his head. Instead he whispers back just as quiet, “I miss you.”

“Are you by your window right now?” Minghao wonders, flipping his phone to shine out his. Seokmin nods, squinting as best he can to see the sky that’s blinded by lights in his city. He turns the camera back to himself when he gives a smile, “Look outside for me.”

He frowns in return, pulling the curtain to the side to press a hand against the cool glass before he pulls it open. The December air blows through, too cold to be standing in his room in just his pajamas but it doesn’t deter him. “Okay, now what?”

“The stars,” he says, like Seokmin is supposed to understand him. Minghao just laughs, smiles gently and continues, “We’re looking at the same stars. The same moon.” He leans closer, and Seokmin feels his breath hitch with a wave of emotions. “When you’re lonely, look at them. We’re breathing the same air.”

He nods in return, as Minghao tells him once more, “You are not alone, Seokmin-ah. I’ll be back next week.” Seokmin doesn’t know when the tears leave his eyes, only reaches up to wipe at his cheeks that makes Minghao chuckle.

“I love you too, Minghao,” he replies back, staring at the sky for just a second more before they fall into their usual conversations.

maybe i wasn’t cut out for love anyways

[sunwalkr]

Ship/Member: Any, but bonus points if it’s a Wonwoo or Jeonghan pairing (WONHAN???? MINWON????)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: unrequited love / a love that is not equal, where someone keeps giving and giving and the other person wants to see how much is too much. feel free to make it as nasty and rancid and bleak as possible
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Why take more than we need? Because we can.
Deep footprint, it leaves a hole. You’d break your heart to make it bigger, so why not crack your skull when the mind swells?
— Richard Siken

[FILL] 겨우 (barely)

[nunssaum]

Ship/Member: jeonghan/wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: unrequited love, being on the other side of it, childhood friends, mentions of past relationships, ambiguous ending.
Permission to remix: Yes


***

“don’t take me home,” jeonghan says from the backseat. he doesn’t know why he had called wonwoo in the first place. he should have taken the bus home, ordered some chinese food and slept the day off. like it was any other day.

wonwoo meets his eyes through the rear view mirror for a brief moment, asking why without asking. why did you leave work early? are you okay? what did you need me for?

jeonghan wants to close his eyes and sleep this away. he wants to go back to his office and take the invitation he left there on purpose. “seungcheol is getting married next month.”

there he said it. a name he hasn’t spoken for the past two years. the world doesn’t fall silent like he had imagined. but that doesn’t mean he isn’t affected. it’s like a ghost that had been sleeping for a long time had woken up and he remembers all the haunting.

wonwoo looks at him once again, quick and studying. “oh,” is all he says. 

jeonghan closes his eyes and buries himself into the seat. “anywhere. it doesn’t matter. i don’t want to be home now.”

 

in his dream, he sees mingyu, a shattered plate on the floor, his fingers bleeding. then there is seungcheol, raised voices and slamming doors. he hears wonwoo calling his name.

when he wakes up, he finds himself three hours away from home. in gongjin. where the ocean waves sound like i like you, i like you, i like you.

 

the first thing jeonghan realizes is that he’s hungry. he doesn’t remember eating anything apart from the sandwich he shared with seokmin that morning. wonwoo drives them to the seafood restaurant that jeonghan likes.

jeonghan orders maeuntang for him and ramyeon for wonwoo because boy can’t even stand the fishy smell let alone eat something fish. “we could have eaten somewhere else.”

wonwoo pours water in a glass and pushes it towards jeonghan. “you loved their maeuntang last time we came here.”

the second thing jeonghan realizes is that seungcheol is somewhere at the back of his head. he isn’t going to vanish anytime soon. but with wonwoo in front of him, it doesn’t feel like his world is about to end tomorrow.

jeonghan looks out at the sea through the glass windows. it’s beautiful as he remembers it, the sun bleeding gold over the waters. it’s calming and daunting at the same time. the last time they were both here, wonwoo almost drowned in the very same place.

“i am sorry about the last time,” jeonghan says.

wonwoo turns to look out at the sea. to see what jeonghan is on about. he stays quiet for a couple of minutes. “aren’t you like, eight years late?” there is a small smile when wonwoo looks back at him and jeonghan takes it, lets himself relax in that familiarity.

 

at eighteen, jeonghan learns nothing good ever comes from playing pranks.

wonwoo isn’t the one to get fooled by his antics. he has known jeonghan long enough to see through jeonghan’s lies. one time when jeonghan falls into the water purposely to deceive wonwoo into thinking he’s drowning, jeonghan expects him to call him out from above. in case he really falls for it, to cry for help because he can’t swim.

wonwoo calls his name once, in panic. then the next thing jeonghan hears is the loud splash of water and the rest of the events are blurry in his memory. he doesn’t remember how he brings a passed-out wonwoo to the shore nor does he remember how much time it takes for wonwoo to gain consciousness. even when wonwoo wakes up, he doesn’t meet jeonghan’s eyes.

at some point, jeonghan holds back his tears because wonwoo is supposed to be the smart one between them, he shouldn’t have jumped into the water because something worse could have happened, he should have known that it was a prank—

“since when were you this gullible?” jeonghan turns to him, glaring, “even if i was really drowning, you can't jump into the water like that. this isn't a movie, wonwoo.”

jeonghan is being too much, he knows. if anyone should be mad and yelling, it should be wonwoo. jeonghan is the one responsible for wonwoo almost dying. but jeonghan is the one angry and asking questions because what fool believes him?

wonwoo, who is now curled up, knees drawn closer to his chest, looks down at the sand. his face doesn’t look like he’s mad anymore. that’s wonwoo, he doesn’t stay mad for more than fifteen minutes.

“i was scared. i didn’t think at all,” wonwoo’s voice shakes a little. he must be still in shock and jeonghan feels so bad. they don’t say anything for a while because jeonghan lets what happened to sink in and wonwoo looks like he has more to say. then wonwoo looks up at jeonghan, meeting his eyes and says something with a sad smile, in a very quiet voice. jeonghan almost doesn’t hear it over the sound of waves crashing behind him.

(he hears it clearly even in its quiet but he doesn’t let those words take root in his heart. he carries them gently in his hands, puts them down and lets the waves take them far away from him.)

 

when it comes to love, jeonghan thinks he’s always afraid; that he’s too much. that he is giving too little—afraid of not being enough.

eventually, the word love became too heavy for him to carry.

 

“do you wanna go watch the sea?” wonwoo asks after they finish eating.

jeonghan doesn’t say no.

 

they say the water remembers. when jeonghan lets the first of the many waves gather at his feet, he is back to that day. he turns to look at wonwoo a little far away watching him.

suddenly wonwoo is that sixteen year old boy from years ago. with his knees drawn closer to his chest, he smiles at jeonghan, his eyes sad. even when he doesn’t say anything, jeonghan hears the waves.

i like you.

i like you, hyung.

seungkwan sang this in the gose mag ep!

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/ Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: getting back together
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I heard you bought a nice car
An expensive car that you always talked about
I am also learning how to drive
I didn't know how hard it was

I'm fine thank you thank you and you
I can't believe we used to be in love long ago, it's so funny

-10cm, Fine Thank You And You

love and drowning

[latespring]

Ship/Member: Any, Minghao/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: themes of water, maybe idolverse?, take this wherever you like!
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

But

in long months alone, I’ve learned there’s love
in drowning. In having someone to watch
as I struggle, each twist of mouth
to sky. To pull my body
from the dark & lay it down.
- Shipwrecks & Drownings by Chelsea Dingman

[FILL] hungrier/tides

[deadwine]

Ship/Member: Minghao (& The8)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: poetry, experimental? open to interpretation, idolverse??? can be read as both gen or romantic
Permission to remix: Yes/No/Please ask
WC: 404 (hwa, take note)

A/N: I have absolutely no idea what this is and I haven't tried anything like it before so if it's an unintelligible mess (or just vagueass purple prose) please bear with me.
***

When I was younger—are you listening? No, no one’s about to die.

Hey, I love you—but don’t call me morbid for this one.

When I was a young boy my mother took me swimming to the creek that ran behind the inn, the one that all the rich kids at school swore was cursed and the girls claimed had never seen a night without blood.

But I wanted to swim so desperately, my mother spent all morning in prayer and in the afternoon, she walked me to the creek, hand-in-hand, only parting from me at the water’s edge, with a kiss pressed to my forehead.

You know how this story goes don’t you? I flew like a bird and sank like a stone to the bottom of the riverbed and my mother screamed and screamed until the crowd that had begun to gather made way for the boy who would drag my heaving body back to shore.

Have you ever watched a body writhe and twist itself on a barren riverbank? Have you ever watched a fish die?

I told you it wasn’t going to be morbid—no, I’m not about to ask you if you have ever killed a fish with your bare hands.

Have you?

Have you ever had water pumped out of your lungs, love? They say you never forget the first clean breath of air after all the water has poured out of you and I took mine inside somebody else’s mouth.

Yesterday when you asked me why we always travel from land to mountain, why I never come to the beach with you and your friends, when you asked me if I was afraid of the ocean, I wanted to tell you that you are never who you were before you drowned.

Yes—I know I was saved, that’s not what I’m saying. Pay attention, would you?

What I’m saying is that the moment between my body breaking the water’s surface and it’s sinking, the moment when I was suspended and hurtling towards an inevitable flood: I was not afraid. I was waiting.

What I’m saying is when I was younger I once drowned and it wasn’t the saving that saved me but the drowning.

Do you understand?

There was water in my lungs, love. It got out.

I’ll say it again, listen carefully this time.

There is water in my lungs. I don’t want it out.

don't you hate it when you love someone

[hwarium]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: angst, the paradox of being so uncontrollably in love that you hate it, exes
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I felt the old habit of our love as if it had been broken yesterday, and knew the faithfulness in him that had sent him to share my ruin. And feeling that unavailing bond close on me anew, I was angry; for Ashe's love had always forced me to act against my heart.
- Ursula le Guin, Left Hand of Darkness

[FILL] don't you hate it when you love someone

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Jihoon/Soonyoung
Major Tags: Idolverse
Additional Tags: N/A
Permission to remix: Yes

***

Jihoon hears the door unlock. He hears the telltale rustle of a plastic takeout bag, and the sound of two cans of soda being set down on a coffee table.

"Jihoon."

Jihoon doesn't bother looking away from his monitor. Seungcheol is the only person who has the new passcode to Jihoon's studio. Seungcheol is the only person Jihoon trusts like that.

"I don't want to eat," Jihoon says.

"I don't care," Seungcheol replies, plucking Jihoon's headphones off of his head and swiveling him in the direction of the coffee table. "You need to stop working on that song."

"I can't," Jihoon croaks out. "It needs to be perfect."

For possibly the hundredth time in the span of a day, Jihoon thinks about the first time Soonyoung heard Ruby.

Soonyoung, six months ago, two weeks before it all fell apart. Soonyoung sitting in Jihoon's chair with Jihoon's headphones on. Soonyoung grinning when the first verse started. Soonyoung jumping up when the pre-chorus came in, one hand over his mouth, the other hand clutching Jihoon's in a vice grip. By the time they got to the bridge, Soonyoung was pressing kisses all over Jihoon's face. "This is the one," he'd said in earnest. "This is your song."

Soonyoung came up with three different choreography ideas that same night.

As Jihoon dozed off on the car ride home, his phone started buzzing incessantly -

the song's about me isn't it
LOL ur so weak literally all ur songs are about me
do u think people will be able to tell

Jihoon remembers how he had squinted as he clicked his phone on, the light from the screen illuminating his face as he scowled at the boy sitting right next to him.

"You're such a fucking idiot," he grumbled.

Soonyoung just smiled, quickly typing out another text -

can i sleep over tonight

Jihoon had flopped his head down in Soonyoung's lap in response.

"Earth to Jihoon." Seungcheol snaps his fingers in front of Jihoon's face.

Jihoon stares at him blankly. Seungcheol was already halfway through his dinner, and Jihoon hadn't even noticed.

Seungcheol sighs. "I can't help you if I don't know what's going on."

"You know what's going on," Jihoon retorts.

Seungcheol raises an eyebrow, waiting for Jihoon to continue. This is the last song I'll allow myself to write about him, is what Jihoon wants to say. I just need to have this one perfect song and I swear I'll be done.

"It comes out in two weeks," is what he says instead.

"You need to stop doing this," Seungcheol tells him gently.

Jihoon fiddles with his ear, not meeting Seungcheol's eyes. "Doing what?"

"Going where I can't follow." Seungcheol points his chopsticks at Jihoon. "You get so fucking stuck in your own head and I feel like I can't reach you."

"I don't know how not to do that," Jihoon says quietly. "I'm sorry."

Jihoon's eyes drift towards the shelf where he had stuffed his journal - in it, hundreds of lines about the way Soonyoung's body fits against his own. Several pages of little anecdotes about Soonyoung's childhood that he didn't want to forget. A whole spread dedicated to the reasons why they didn't work out - we're too stubborn, we're too similar, we don't know how to ask for what we want.

Jihoon doesn't realize what he's saying until he feels the weight of it settle deep in his chest: "What if every song I write from here on out is about him?"

Jeongcheol + Tampa (Alissa Nutting)

[ninispaperbag]

Ship/Member: Jeonghan / Seungcheol
Major Tags: Sex or implied sex, first times, unhealthy relationship (if the author is so inclined)
Additional Tags: Jeonghan pov / Jeonghan centric, innocence vs experience
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Like a tollbooth in his memory, every partner he'd have afterwards would have to pass through the gate of my comparison, and it would be a losing equation. The numbers could never be as favorable as they were right now, when his naivety would be subtracted from my experience to produce the largest sum of astonishment possible.

FILL: what's left of you

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/OMC (unnamed); Jeonghan/Seungcheol
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: sexual content; navel gazing while getting railed i guess
Permission to remix: Yes


this kind of got away from me and is only semi-what you prompted, sorry!
***

The concept of virginity is archaic but he does think that maybe sex was ruined altogether by Big Dick Seungcheol and his lovesick puppy eyes.

Seungcheol is a standard that not many people can touch, despite the constant need for assurance, like a desperate weed sapping the life from an already dying tree.

But Jeonghan does still think of him. In anger when he remembers the things that annoyed him, or with fondness, seeing a friend fall in love.

But usually, he thinks of him when he needs to get off, thinks of the rough callouses of his palms, the kiss-perfect pout warm and plush against his own lips, slow and syrupy makeup sex to amend the hours or days of sniping at each other over next to nothing.

Sex with others ever since has been a hallway of memories, the paintings come to life for a fleeting moment before taking a step forward and finding each would-be masterpiece counterfeit.

It makes him feel like a stranger in his body, trying to learn the secrets that the past taught him and failing to get it right. Used goods. Never the same, unable to be made new.

So he closes his eyes and thinks of Seungcheol and his slow and steadying voice. About what it felt like, being touched with that much love.

The body on top of him may not even remember Jeonghan’s name in a matter of days, but he will leave with pieces of Jeonghan that he won't be able to erase.

Teeth sinking into the flesh of his lobe. His eyes, glinting in the dark. The soft oh when the man swallows him down, wringing out sounds that he has made for others, but will never make for him again.

His hips turn down at an angle and the light flashes behind his eyes like a bulb, photographing the memory to start to overwrite the past. For now, they're still overlapping layer by layer by layer.

The space between himself and Seungcheol will eventually be an ocean, with only the distant whisper of salt and sea spray at his back.

“Do you like this?” the man asks. The pace is too arrhythmic, despite himself, more indulgent in his own pleasure than theirs, but he presses himself closer, legs around his waist until he has no choice but to slow down.

“Like that,” Jeonghan replies, reaching between them. The weight of his body flattening him into the mattress is nice. Hiding his face in his shoulder he nips at the skin, kisses it.

what you will think, of the me that lives on without you

[hwarium]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: Major Character Death
Additional Tags: the bittersweet victory when you save the world but outlive your comrades (post-apocalyptic mecha AU is optional)
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

開いたばかりの花が散るのを 「今年も早いね」と 残念そうに見ていたあなたは とてもきれいだった	You, who looked at the flowers that just bloomed but were already falling said, "it was fast this year too". You were so beautiful
あなたが守った街のどこかで今日も響く 健やかな産声を聞けたなら きっと喜ぶでしょう 私たちの続きの足音	If you could hear the healthy cries of the newborns Echoing in this city you protected, You'd surely be happy, I think Hearing the footsteps that follow us
もう二度と会えないなんて信じられない まだ何も伝えてない まだ何も伝えてない	I can't believe I will never see you again I haven't told you anything yet I haven't told you anything yet

- Hikaru Utada, Sakura Nagashi (ED of Evangelion 3.0; full lyrics and translation)

(had to restrain myself from translating the whole song ahhh, its also about helplessness, of duty over love, of the pain when you could never say the words, but now it's too late)

[FILL] built on the ashes of our hope

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: 8jun, 97z
Major Tags: Character Death
Additional Tags: N/A
Permission to remix: Yes

***

The end of the world doesn’t look quite like Minghao expects. For one, it’s too bright, too many lights. For another, there are too many trees and too much wildlife; it was a definite far cry from the nuclear wasteland everyone thought the world would end with. He’s always thought that by the time humanity managed to lay waste to the Earth, they would have also stripmined her of all her resources, dug out her cores and left her hollow.

Nobody could have expected the monsters that came from the sky and sea instead.

Nobody thought they would live to survive it but by some miracle, scientists managed to produce a way to generate contained nuclear fusions, an infinite source of energy. It was the breakthrough advancement of the century, the lightning in the bottle innovation that changed the course of a war. Minghao has no doubt that without it, there wouldn’t be any humanity left to puzzle at the state of their world now.

But no war was without consequences and even with hulking metal robots powered by the same reaction that burns through the sun, they were still fighting creatures of never-before-seen proportions and strength and someone had to pilot those mechs. The government set up training centers and strategic strongholds, recruited the most promising pilots the army and civilian population had to offer, the ones who were ready to die for god and country. Recruits were taught to look death in the eye and take the swing anyways, that it was an honor to be shot out of the sky like Icarus too close to the sun.

None of them were taught what to do if they survived. None of them truly expected to survive.




Minghao had never meant to start piloting at all but Junhui had turned out to be a phenom in the sims and Minghao would have followed him anywhere, would have died for him like other men would have died for god and country. They endure basics together, huddled in their shared dorm trading stories about their terrifying sergeant, and live out of each other's pockets as much as possible through training.

The first time they actually get to pilot real mechs is a revelation for them both, Junhui whooping into his comms the entire time while Minghao is simply too breathless to scream. It’s also the first time they kiss, wide eyes and fumbling, high off the adrenaline of rocketing through the sky defying all laws of physics.

It becomes a sort of routine; Minghao and Junhui fly thirteen missions together and against all odds, they make it home together every time. They fly together, eat together, sleep together; they trade messy desperate kisses when they survive, just to remember that they were alive together, that they aren’t one of the many who had fallen to the seemingly endless siege of monsters from god knows where.

It becomes a sort of ritual; everytime, Minghao looks at Junhui, the curve of his eyes and the dip in his smile, and thinks desperately I love you. I love you. I love you. Until the words become stuck in his lungs, caught in between his teeth. Everytime, he swallows his words, the things he’s not allowed to want and cannot hope to have in these hopeless times.

“They want me to go on a flight alone,” Junhui says one day, “Not a fight, just a recon patrol.”

Minghao frowns. Junhui was the most talented pilot they had but everyone knew that solo recon patrols were too dangerous, researchers only beginning to unravel the monster behavior patterns.

“Why aren’t they sending anyone with you?” Minghao asks.

Why aren’t they sending me with you?

Junhui shrugs, “Too many pilots lost in the last fight, they don’t want to risk anymore people.”

Please don’t go, Minghao wants to say.

“Come back safe.” Minghao says.




The base never even recovers the mech in the end.





Seokmin and Mingyu are the only pilots who dual pilot a mech. Minghao meets them shortly after Junhui’s funeral and they fall in together almost immediately, bonded by age and pre-army interests and a kindred grief. Neither of them ask Minghao about Junhui but they know, everyone knows.

Watching Seokmin and Mingyu work is a marvel. Unlike Minghao and Junhui, who never were even in a mech together, the two of them never seemed to agree on anything. Mingyu purposely leaves out Seokmin’s laundry in spite when he’s cleaning their dorm and Seokmin likes to wait until Mingyu answers any question just to respond in the negative. They can never agree on anything for lunch, are constantly arguing over which is the best flavor of ice cream, and yet, Minghao has never seen any pair like them.

They speak in half spoken sentences, a foreign language born out of knowing someone so intimately you can tell their thoughts from the tilt of their head, the flicker in their eyes. Seokmin is always reaching for Mingyu, leaning towards him, seeking him out in a crowd; actions so practiced they are now more instinct than thought and Mingyu reciprocates everytime.

It was impossible for Minghao not to be drawn into their orbit, for their presence to fill in the cracks of his ribs like kintsugi, mending along the frayed edges of his loss.

When the researchers announce that the number of monsters were dwindling, their numbers no longer replenishing each time one falls, the three of them celebrate the news together.

“I want to build a house by the beach, after all this is over.” Minghao tells Seokmin and Mingyu, heart hammering in his chest with hope.

Mingyu tilts his head and says, more than a little amused, “At the beach? With all the fighting over the water we’ve done?”

He never asks if he or Seokmin is invited, if this would be a house for the three of them. He knows it is.

Minghao nods and Mingyu says, “Alright. We’ll build a house by the beach.”

“With a dog, we need to have a dog.” Seokmin says, sounding absolutely convinced that this house by the beach would not be perfect without a terrier nipping at their heels.

Minghao laughs and says, “We’ll also have a dog.”




Minghao hears it when they are ripped out of the sky, comm link a static shock before falling silent.




So the world hadn’t actually ended, but Minghao sits on the ledge of his cockpit and thinks of everyone who hadn’t made it back to him, the ones who hadn’t made it home. He thinks of Mingyu and Seokmin and Junhui. He thinks about the house on the beach, the dog, the words he never said caught in his throat like needles.

He thinks of what it might have been like to die with them.

--

largely pacrim, vaguely other mecha inspired. I didn't think the worldbuilding through tbh.

worse than knowing

[grainfall]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable haemophilia: you bleed and bleed and bleed. Like Schrödinger’s cat inside a box you can never ever open.
— David Mitchell, Slade House

[FILL] worse than knowing

[kwontent]

TW: Major Character Death/Disappearance
Rule 63 8Jun

Jun is sure she's in the lake.

They've checked, obviously. Police have done whatever weird dredging they do in a situation like this, combed through decades of layers of litter and trash and fish carcasses and found nothing of interest.

Still, Jun is sure she's in the lake.

It happens like this: Minghao has weak ankles. One fundamental flaw. We all have them. Jun has a short tongue. That's her burden to bear.

Minghao has weak ankles. She likes to run at the lake. She likes to run before the sun melts the frozen grass. She likes to run with music in, loud enough that nothing can be heard.

She likes to run before anyone else is awake.

She was gone before Jun's alarm went off at noon.

And so, Jun is sure she's in the lake.

She waits for a week. She can't tell the police how to do their job, but she's so fucking sure that it eats at her. She's restless, jumpy. She stays with Minghao's parents but can barely stay still.

She's in the lake, Jun just knows it.

Someone more hopeful might assume Minghao is still alive. Jun is hopeful, hopeful to a fault, but Minghao would call. If she was alive at all, even semi-conscious, even if she had amnesia or was in another fucking country, she would remember Jun. Jun knows this in her bones, in the callouses on her feet from a summer gone barefoot down at the coast when they were 16 and barely had hips. She knows this in the ends of her hair, still bleached from Minghao's brief foray into cosmetology. She knows in her fingers, two nails still short just because it makes Minghao flush whenever she paints her fingernails.

Minghao is in the lake. Jun would bet anything.

The police close the case after two months, to public outcry. Minghao is young, pretty, successful. Surely someone, somewhere, should know something. But no one does. Minghao is just gone. Not dead, not alive, not anything. Like she was never there, like the little tattoo on Jun's wrist means nothing. Like the matching one never got inked in the first place.

Jun goes to the lake. The water is warmer than she thought it would be. It feels like a hug.

Minghao is in the lake.

i have faith but don't believe you

[almondtree]

Ship/Member: Any but i was thinking maybe josh idk go wild
Major Tags: vampirism, major character death (and maybe rebirth?)
Additional Tags: poison comparison, powers you never wanted, control, blasphemy
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

[
"It was a gift. It's a gift. He spat it out." — Father Paul, Midnight Mass

not a direct midnight mass au but i would like to see accidental/non consensual vampirism and dealing with the aftermath and the self hatred that comes with becoming a monster]

[FILL]: i have faith but don't believe you

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Joshua & Taehyung, Joshua/Jeonghan
Major Tags: major character death (and rebirth)
Additional Tags: vampirism, religious guilt, fear of damnation, tae the sexy vampire, happy rebirth joshua hong!
Permission to remix: Yes

this is probably slightly less serious than what you were expecting but my hand slipped a bit
***

Waking up feels like resurfacing from a long period underwater, lungs constricted and the need to take big gulps of air, mouth opening on a gasp and body shaking with the aftershock.

If Joshua were to be underwater, if he were to hold his breath until he almost reached his mortal demise, he would be feeling the loud thumping of his heart in his ears now. If he were to be underwater, he would feel seasalt on the tip of his tongue, and not the metallic flavour of blood coating his mouth.

His eyes snap open and take in the world around him, perceive colors he never even knew existed before. The world has a sharp clarity to it, one that is made of static electricity on the surface of his skin and - the pain, dull, horrible pain in the middle of his chest.

He presses his hand on top of his sternum, trying to feel his own heartbeat through the fabric of his shirt, through the skin, the muscles, the bones.

Silence greets his touch, a hollow home for a dead organ. Not a single beat, not a movement.

Realization hits him in a cold wave, as he sits up in a frenzy only to find cuffs around his ankles, tying him to the metal bed.

He’s in a morgue, he realizes, he should be dead. Why isn’t he dead?

“I brought you back.” The voice is familiar, a deep timbre that makes him squirm in his seat, chains rattling with the movement. “I’m sorry about the restraints. I’ll set you free soon.”

“Taehyung?”

The name falls out of his mouth easily, familiar. He knows Taehyung, has known him for a very long time.

“Josh,” Taehyung greets him, appearing out of the shadows like a vision of darkness, tendrils of it sticking to him like a coat. Joshua stares, confused. “You’re back.”

Taehyung is a friend of a friend, someone he knows in passing, someone he greets when they meet on the street. He can’t be… he’s not one of them.

“What happened?” Joshua asks, feeling confused. He remembers the car speeding towards him, he remembers Jeonghan screaming his name, turning around to see the horror on his face, the fear. Then he remembers the gravel, hard against his cheek, he remembers the sound of the brakes being pulled just a second too late, he remembers the warmth surrounding him, the delightful embrace of light behind his eyelids.

“Don’t you dare die on me, Joshua Hong,” Jeonghan’s voice, broken, as if he was… crying? Jeonghan never cries.

“An accident,” Taehyung tells him, dragging a chair out to sit on it, one of his legs folded below him. “Too much internal bleeding. You died on the street.”

“I… I died?”

“Yeah,” Taehyung confirms, as if dying isn’t that big of a deal. As if dying, and then waking up to have a chat with a friend of a friend in a morgue is an everyday occurrence. “Jeonghan begged me to bring you back.”

The light was so warm, Joshua remembers, and then. And then he woke up to the taste of copper in his mouth and cuffs around his ankles.

“Consider it a gift,” Taehyung chuckles, unperturbed. “From a friend you share a birthday with.”

“A gift?”

There’s a shrug from Taehyung, as if it’s not that big of a deal. As if the fact that Joshua died, and now he’s sitting in front of him, breathing, speaking, isn’t unnatural, an abomination. As if he himself isn’t a creature that shouldn’t exist, forgotten by God, a monster.

“What about my soul?!” Joshua asks, in a panic. “What about my life after death?”

“Technically, this is your life after death,” Taehyung tells him, placid, smiling to himself as if he just delivered the best punchline of his life. Unlife. Whatever.

“I,” Joshua starts, but Taehyung interrupts him. “There’s no need to thank me, really. I just did Jeonghan a favour. He’s a good man.”

“What about me?”

“What?”

“Am I not a good man, too? Don’t I deserve to go to Paradise? Don’t I deserve to choose?!”

Taehyung’s face stays impassible, the handsome mask of a prince, someone who could have destroyed empires just with a raise of eyebrow. Maybe he has. Maybe he’s been around long enough to see wars and bloodshed, and he doesn’t care enough about a stupid Catholic boy who’s afraid of having lost his soul.

“I’m sorry, Josh.” Taehyung gets closer, fingers reaching out to comfort him, but Joshua retreats on himself, arms tight around his knees, feeling like a hissy kitten when Taehyung’s hand falls back to his side. “I can help you in this period of transition, that’s all I can do. I promise you, it’s not as bad as it sounds.”

“I’m a fucking monster now. This isn’t a gift, it’s a curse,” Joshua spits out, a building rage filling his veins as reality starts to sink in. “I’m damned. This is Hell.”

“It’s not that bad,” Taehyung chuckles, seemingly unbothered by Joshua’s breakdown. “At least there are still people that love you, don’t you think?”

Jeonghan. The terror on his face, the blood - oh, it must have been Joshua’s blood, that stained his cheeks together with his tears. The whispered ”Please don’t die on me, I can’t do this without you.” Oh, Yoon Jeonghan.

“You’ll be able to see him soon,” Taehyung promises him, this time reaching out to pat his shin affectionately, like an owner with his dog. “We need to teach you a couple of things, first. But then everything will go back to being the same.”

“Except I have poison in my veins and no chance of being saved,” Joshua bites out, but the fight has already started to leave his body, sapped by the exhaustion that is suddenly downing on him.

“What a dramatic way to say you just gained immortal life and incredible powers.”

“I never asked for any of these,” Joshua whispers, but his prayer goes unanswered, just like all the other ones that follow.

God can’t hear him anymore, from where he’s sunk down into his own personal Hell.

that old intimacy

[bluerthanbluets]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Jeonghan, Jeonghan/Jisoo, any?
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Former big love, current love that doesnt quite measure to the former
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

“sometimes, when he and I are making love, there are moments I’m overwhelmed by sadness, and though I’m there with him I can’t help thinking of my ex-husband’s hands, which I especially loved, and I want to go back to that old intimacy, which often felt like the purest happiness I’d ever known, or would.”
- Kim Addonizio

guts

[bluerthanbluets]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Rule 63
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

My eyes and groin are permanently swollen,
I’m alternatingly brilliant and witless
—and sleepless: bed is just a swamp to roll in.
Although I’d cream my jeans touching your breast,
sweetheart, it isn’t lust; it’s all the rest
of what I want with you that scares me shitless.
- Marilyn Hacker

[FILL] her lady's wishes

[seokmin_liker]

Ship/Member: Seokmin/Minghao
Major Tags: explicit sexual content
Additional Tags: rule 63, pwp?, handmaiden-ish vibes, fantasising and yearning
Permission to remix: Please ask
Word count: 3169

hi. uh. i don’t really know what this is either. inspo came from the prompt and also this poem. enjoy…

[1/2]

***

Seokmin can see them from across the room. Seungcheol standing next to Minghao, looking at her with a suave smile. Minghao giggling at something he’s said. The pearls - the ones that Seokmin had worn just hours earlier - gleaming at her throat.

That is one of Seokmin’s many jobs: to wear the necklace during the day, to warm the pearls for Minghao so they shine with more lustre at night. Seokmin doesn’t see the point of it, really. Minghao’s laugh is brighter than any pearl, no matter how warm. But she does like feeling the weight of them on her as she goes about her day. It almost feels like it’s Minghao on her, over her, weighing down her neck the way she weighs down her thoughts.

Seokmin thinks about Minghao too much. She knows it’s true. No servant should be thinking about her mistress this much, certainly not like this - not in a way that makes her ache for the pearls to bind her, to tell Minghao that she belongs to her. But how can she help it? When Minghao looks like this - tall and willowy and beautiful, with silky hair and rosebud lips that occasionally bless her with a small smile - how can Seokmin not think about her?

She watches from a distance as Seungcheol makes her laugh again. Her throat closes up at the sight. She wants to tell Seungcheol to move away, that he isn’t the one who has seen Minghao cry over a lost ring, or who has seen her sip some green tea in her nightgown, or whose heat fills the pearls on her skin. But she can’t, of course she can’t. All she can do is watch.

At the end of the night, Minghao smiles as she bids Seungcheol adieu at the front gate. Seokmin knows that there is something between them, that all the other servants hope that Minghao will be married to him soon, so she won’t have to spend all her time alone in this big house. They don’t know what Seokmin knows, though. They don’t know that Seungcheol is no good for her. Seokmin is hardly good for her either, but at least she knows her. At least she can see Minghao for who she is - kind, and thoughtful, and delicate - rather than just as an heiress, rich and pretty and convenient.

The gate shuts, the front door is locked, and Minghao makes her way back up to her chambers. She doesn’t like to have any of the servants undress her at night. Seokmin doesn’t quite understand why. But it does mean that at the end of the night she can go to her own chambers, to think and dream and wonder.

***

Seokmin likes to think that if she were helping Minghao get ready for the night, it would go like this.

She follows Minghao to her room, closing the door gently behind her. She stands awkwardly near the door, watching Minghao sit at her dressing table. Minghao takes the clips and grips out of her hair, loosening it from the tight bun she kept it in that night. Her hair is long and glossy, so it falls over her shoulders, graceful in its bareness. Minghao brushes her hair slowly, taking her time, looking in the mirror with that determined look she gets when she wants something done right. That’s probably why her hair is so beautiful. Seokmin has always thought Minghao has beautiful hair.

Minghao ties it into a loose ponytail. Then she turns to look at Seokmin, light amusement in her voice, asking,

“Aren’t you going to come and help me? Or will you just stand there all night?”

Seokmin makes her way over before her knees could give out. “What do you need help with, my lady?” she’d ask.

“My face. Will you wipe my makeup off for me? I never quite manage to do it right when I try.”

Seokmin nods vigorously, rushing to fetch some damp cloths. Something about Minghao always makes her feel urgent, like she needs to answer to Minghao’s every whim or she’ll be thrown away. She’s back quickly enough, Minghao quirking an eyebrow up when she returns.

“You were very quick. Eager, are you?”

Seokmin gulps. Minghao doesn’t normally talk like that. She can be teasing, but normally she’s full of understanding. This is something else altogether, something that makes Seokmin’s guts coil.

“I’m just doing what will help you, my lady.”

“Well, go on then. Help me.”

Minghao’s eyes close, and Seokmin realises that she has to kneel in front of her to do it properly. So she does. She starts with Minghao’s eyes, wiping off the thin eyeliner and the mascara that makes her eyes look so big. She goes gently - the last thing she wants is to make her uncomfortable. Minghao isn’t uncomfortable, though. She’s relaxed, perfectly still, with Seokmin ensuring the last remnants of the makeup came off.

She uses a different cloth for the rest of her face. She starts with the forehead, gentle as ever, moving her hand up to the side of Minghao’s head to hold her still. Minghao’s breath hitches, almost imperceptibly. Her hair is just as silky as it looks under Seokmin’s hand, and it takes all Seokmin’s self-restraint not to grab it in her fingers.

She moves to Minghao’s cheeks, taking her time over the ridge of her high cheekbones. Minghao sighs in satisfaction as Seokmin drags the cloth over her cheeks, her fingers itching to touch Minghao’s bare skin. Seokmin starts to feel uncomfortable kneeling like this, but she would do anything if it would mean that she could feel Minghao’s light breath on her fingertips.

Finally, she runs a cloth over Minghao’s lips, savouring the plushness of them. The red wipes off, and Seokmin half-wishes that Minghao would paint her red instead. But she has a job to do.

When she's finished, she takes a moment to look at Minghao - skin a little red and raw and her eyes less defined and her lips less prominent, but still gorgeous. Seokmin feels, deep in her chest, how lucky she is. Even Seungcheol hasn't seen Minghao look like this.

“All finished, my lady,” Seokmin says, rising to her feet.

“Thank you, Seokmin-ah,” Minghao replies, voice still sparkling as her eyes open. “Now can you help me with my dress?”

She stands up, tucking the chair in, facing the mirror on the dressing table. She brings her plait over her shoulder, exposing the bare skin on the back of her neck. Seokmin’s throat feels dry.

“The zip is at the back,” Minghao adds, a little quieter, “so I can’t quite reach it myself.”

Seokmin moves over to her, catching sight of the zip at the top of the dress. She tries her hardest not to look at the smooth skin of Minghao’s shoulders, focusing instead on pulling the zip down carefully. The dress is expensive, like everything Minghao owns, so it’s best not to be too rough with it. Seokmin holds the top of the dress to keep it steady as the zip moves further and further down, exposing more of the white corset Minghao is wearing underneath. Somehow, that’s worse than if Minghao’s skin was bare - it gives her more of an excuse to look at Minghao, to keep her fingers close to her body but never quite touching it. Seokmin can’t look, so she glances up for a brief second. She’s startled when she finds Minghao looking at her through the mirror, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. She averts her gaze back down immediately, feeling like she’s been caught.

Finally, the dress is fully unzipped, and Seokmin lets it go, letting it fall off Minghao’s shoulders loosely. Minghao smiles at Seokmin - properly this time, not through the mirror - and moves to the other end of the room to shrug it off completely, laying it out on a table. Seokmin just stares at her back, at the corset clinging to her slim figure, at the gentle curves of her waist.

“There’s one more thing I need your help with, Seokmin,” Minghao calls, moving back towards the mirror. “My necklace. Can you undo it for me?”

Seokmin’s heart jumps to her throat. The pearls that she had worn that morning are strung around Minghao’s neck. Seokmin can still feel the weight of them pulsing on her own skin, a phantom chain. Shaking slightly, she brings her hands up to the back of Minghao’s neck again, looking for the small clasp.

“You wore the pearls so well today,” Minghao says, voice barely a whisper.

“Sorry, my lady?” Seokmin asks, not sure she’s heard right.

“The necklace. You looked beautiful when you warmed it for me. I noticed.”

Seokmin’s fingers feel clammy as she fumbles with the clasp. “They’re more beautiful on you,” she replies, her tone just right for a compliment to her mistress.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. You are beautiful. The pearls only enhanced it. So beautiful, Seokmin-ah.”

Seokmin finally manages to undo the clasp. She rushes to get the necklace off Minghao and onto the dressing table. Once she puts it down, she moves to walk away, but Minghao grabs her wrist before she can try.

“Seokmin-ah,” she says, voice pitched a little lower. “You want to touch me, don’t you?”

“I-” Seokmin’s tongue is thick in her mouth. “My lady, I-”

“Don’t. I know how you look at me. I want you to touch me too.”

“My lady, I’m sorry- I- I couldn’t-”

“Do you need me to order you to do it? Touch me, Seokmin-ah.”

Minghao brings both of Seokmin’s hands to her waist. Seokmin’s hands relish the softness of the silk corset, even as Seokmin thinks this is a bad idea. She glances at the mirror for a brief second, and once again, Minghao is looking straight at her, almost daring her to stop.

Seokmin doesn’t want to stop.

Minghao turns in Seokmin’s arms, a gleam in her eye. Seokmin can’t help the way she spreads her hands wider, holding as much of Minghao’s waist as possible.

“Are you just going to keep looking at me like that?” she asks, no real bite to her voice.

“What do you want, my lady?”

“Kiss me, Seokmin-ah.”

Tentatively, Seokmin brings a hand to cup Minghao’s cheek, keeping the other splayed on her waist. Minghao leans into it, and Seokmin’s veins spark. She leans in and closes the distance between them. Minghao’s lips are soft, just as plush as they felt under Seokmin’s fingers, and Seokmin wants to commit them to memory.

Minghao pulls away for a brief second.

“Come on, now. I’m not delicate. You can do better than that.”

Seokmin’s pulse roars in her ears. She leans into Minghao again, kissing her a little rougher this time. She slides her tongue into Minghao’s mouth, running it over the backs of all her teeth, and she nips at Minghao’s bottom lip when she pulls away. The way Minghao’s breath hitches is music to her ears. As soon as she catches her breath, Minghao pulls her back in again, moving her hands from Seokmin’s waist up to her shoulder blades.

“You can- you can take your clothes off, if you want,” Minghao says through a sigh.

Seokmin takes it as an order. She strips herself of her dowdy servant’s gown and her undergarments, feeling Minghao’s eyes roam over her body. When was the last time anyone had seen her like this? Seokmin doesn’t remember. It doesn’t even matter. When she moves back to kiss Minghao again, she doesn’t want to think about doing this with anyone else.

Minghao steers her towards the bed, pulling Seokmin on top of her. They break apart for a moment, just watching each other breathe.

“My lady,” Seokmin asks, voice scratchy, “may I take your corset off?”

“Please do,” Minghao replies.

Seokmin shifts so she is close to Minghao’s front, undoing the loops and clasps of her corset with trembling fingers. After so long, she can finally feel the skin she has only dreamt of. Her lady has always been so kind. Minghao herself shuffles around, pulling down her underwear and throwing it off the bed.

After what feels like years, Seokmin manages to undo the corset, sliding it off of Minghao slowly. She looks carefully at where she’s putting it on the floor, not quite ready to look at Minghao yet.

“Seokmin-ah?” Minghao calls when Seokmin has turned away for long enough. “Aren’t you coming back to me?”

Taking a deep breath, Seokmin turns to face Minghao. There’s a small smile on her face, but Seokmin can tell she’s nervous too - she can read it in the stiffness of her limbs, the tension in her shoulders. That won’t do. Minghao can’t enjoy herself if she’s nervous, and Seokmin wants her to enjoy herself.

She moves over to Minghao, heart thrumming as Minghao lies back against the pillows easily, without Seokmin even asking her to. With her knees caging Minghao’s hips, she leans down to kiss her, long and soft, relishing the way Minghao’s pretty mouth opens up for her.

“What do you want, my lady?” Seokmin asks against the line of Minghao’s jaw.

“I- Whatever you want, Seokmin-ah,” Minghao replies, breathless and wanting, head tilted up to let Seokmin reach her neck.

Seokmin presses kisses along her neck, deliberately wet. When she reaches Minghao’s collarbone, she bites down gently, spurred on by Minghao’s gasps. She doesn’t want to leave a mark - that would lead to too many questions - but she does want Minghao to make those sounds for her. She continues mouthing down Minghao’s chest, running the pad of her thumb over her nipple, smiling to herself at Minghao’s high-pitched whine.

She continues kissing her way down Minghao’s stomach, stopping just below her navel.

“My lady,” she says, “can I-”

“Yes, yes, please, Seokmin-ah,” Minghao cuts in, “just make me feel good.”

Seokmin can do that. Whatever pleases her mistress - that’s what’s important.

“Put your knees up, my lady,” she says, trying not to make her voice too commanding.

Minghao does as she’s told, bringing her knees up and keeping her feet flat on the bed. Seokmin kisses and nips at the inside of her thighs, and something in her swells when she sees the way Minghao’s eyes close, her eyebrows furrowing. Distantly, she wonders whether Minghao has done this before - she wonders how many people Minghao has brought to their knees, men or women. Seokmin wants to think she’s the only one, even if she’s wrong. There’s something heady in the thought that she might be the only one to see her lady like this.

She uses her hands to spread Minghao’s legs further apart. Minghao’s already so wet, just from Seokmin kissing her and touching her, and that makes Seokmin feel more capable than she ever knew she could feel. Slowly, she drags her tongue in Minghao’s folds, and the soft moan Minghao lets out is worth at least a hundred pearl necklaces. Seokmin grips Minghao’s thighs tight as she keeps going, moving from Minghao’s clit to her entrance.

[...]

the necessary killers lyric prompt

[yeollama]

Ship/Member: Minghao/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: anything you want!
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

You sit there in your heartache
Waiting on some beautiful boy to
To save you from your old ways
You play forgiveness
Watch it now, here he comes
-The Killers, When You Were Young

p.s. minghao can totally be the beautiful boy in question

when and when and when

[klav]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: (optional) wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey stuff (time travel/time loop/multiverse), growing up
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Be patient. Your future will come to you and lie down at your feet like a dog who knows and loves you no matter what you are.
-Ted Chiang

&

And now time is rushing towards them
where they stand side by side with arms touching, immortality on their faces, night at their back.
-Anne Carson

[FILL] when you are, where i am

[cruelsummers]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Minghao
Major Tags: time travel shenanigans
Additional Tags: ANGST!! i'm sorry
Permission to remix: pls ask!

***

Lost in time and space
Aimless drifting in a far off place
Hurtling through the vast unknown
Staring straight into the pure, black void
Drowning in the sea of stars
Lost in a galaxy of cocktail bars
Blinded by the neon lights
I lie awake and say your name into the night
-Lord Huron

Mingyu disappears in the middle of dinner.

They eat on the sofa because Mingyu wants watch a movie. A fruitless endeavor since he keeps talking over it, Minghao pausing at every interruption with a fond laugh. He teases Mingyu for buying a red wine - “we’re having fish Gyu, you should’ve gotten a Riesling” - and Mingyu pouts until Minghao concedes and opens it. Predictably, Mingyu spills wine on himself and Minghao laughs and laughs and laughs.

Then, Mingyu’s body sort of shimmers. A trick of the light maybe. Minghao blinks, rubbing at his eyes.

When he looks again, Mingyu is gone.

“Gyu?” he calls out in the empty apartment. Mouth dry, head spinning. Panic settling into him slowly because - where did he go? He was just here. “Gyu - Kim Mingyu come out right now!”

But Mingyu doesn’t come back, not for hours and hours. Minghao numbly calls Junhui, because if he calls the police they will think he’s lost his mind.


–


Minghao walks through the busy streets of Shanghai, a to-go coffee cup in one hand. He’s running through his pitch for his meeting later today, when someone tall approaches him. A frown spreads on his face as he prepares to step around them. Some people don’t know how to navigate foot traffic.

He freezes.

I’ve lost my mind, Minghao thinks faintly, when Kim Mingyu stops in front of him, completely unchanged from that miserable night five years ago. Down to the wine stain on his shirt.

“Hi Myungho,” Mingyu says softly.

Minghao throws his coffee at him.


–


Junhui sits him down, wrapping a blanket around his shivering frame, and holds his hand as Minghao stutters through an explanation. He nods once. “Hao, we’ll find him. Ah, don’t cry.”

“He’s gone,” Minghao manages to say. Gone, gone, left me.

Other people filter through the apartment throughout the night. Hansol, brewing him a cup of tea while Seungkwan clears away their half-eaten dinner. Joshua, gently coaxing Minghao into taking a shower. Seokmin, to carry him to bed at the end, Soonyoung crawling in beside him to hold Minghao when the tears come again.

Wonwoo arrives the next morning, with an apology, and an explanation.


–


“I’m sorry,” Mingyu whines, following Minghao as he continues to walk, fists clenched at his sides. “Please - will you stop for a second?”

Fuck you, Minghao thinks viciously, even though it is unfair. Mingyu didn’t choose to leave. Fuck you for leaving, and coming back now. “No. I have a meeting.”

“I always wanted to come back here with you,” Mingyu sounds wistful.

Minghao stops. He will not cry in the middle of the street. He turns to face Mingyu again, taking in his tired, rumpled appearance. “Are you real?” he demands. The words come out choked up, diffusing his anger.

Mingyu’s face crumples as he nods. “I’m sorry,” he says miserably. “Can I hug you?”

He opens his arms and Minghao falls into him.


–


Wonwoo’s words fly over his head. Time travel, and experiments, and unforeseen side-effects.

“I don’t understand,” Minghao says. “I thought your work was… theoretical.” Why hadn’t Mingyu told him anything?

“It was at first,” Wonwoo replies. To his credit, he looks Minghao right in the eye as he speaks. Explains just how he’s taken half of Minghao’s heart away. “We’ve been doing trials for the past year. It’s not… exactly legal, so Mingyu offered.”

Minghao closes his eyes. Mingyu’s voice echoes in his head. Hyung’s research is really cool… they need some money so I’m going to help… he said I could come to the lab! “What happened.”

Wonwoo sighs. “We put him through too many times. His atoms, they’re unstable now. They can’t stay put in the same place. He can come back, but we aren’t sure how.”

“He can come back?” Minghao demands, latching on to the words. A rope to pull him out of this hole he’s buried himself in, without Mingyu. “From where? Where is he?”

“It’s not where, Myungho,” Wonwoo says gently. “It’s when.”


–


“Stay with me,” Minghao murmurs in the quiet early morning, Mingyu’s arms heavy around his waist. He knows Mingyu needs to call Wonwoo, they need to figure out what’s going on with his body, where and when he’s been.

Minghao doesn’t care about Wonwoo’s stupid research. He doesn’t care that technically he’s five years older than Mingyu right now. He just wants Mingyu to stay. Needs it.

Mingyu continues to sleep in his arms.


–


Everyone protests when he puts their apartment up for sale. “You can’t just leave!” Seungkwan snaps in a fit of anger. Vernon calms him with a touch, but Minghao can see the silent accusations in their faces.

You have to be here for when he comes back.

But it’s been a year, and Minghao is tired of waiting. Tired of this empty apartment, and every little thing that reminds him of Kim Mingyu.

“Don’t run away.” Junhui looks sad when Minghao tells him he’s moving back to China. “He’ll come back to you. You know that.”

No. Minghao doesn’t know that. He doesn’t know anything about Mingyu now. Not anymore.


–


Once, Mingyu was running late for dinner. He texts his apologies, with a stupidly cute Katalk sticker and Minghao loves him too much to be truly annoyed. He waits, asking for another cup of tea from the waitress.

His phone buzzes. Mingyu. Minghao picks up, exasperated. “I know you’re running late. No need to call.”

“Myungho.” Mingyu sounds strange. Almost agitated. Minghao frowns. ”Wait for me, won’t you?”

“I already said I would?” Was he drinking with Wonwoo and the others at the lab? That might explain it. “Where are you, right now?”

Mingyu lets out a noise that makes Minghao’s stomach drop. “Mingyu?”

“I love you,” Mingyu replies desperately. Minghao is frozen in his seat. “I love you, and I will always come back for you. Wait for me.”

He hangs up before Minghao can say anything back.

When Mingyu finally arrives, Minghao stands up to smell his breath. “Did you get drunk?” he asks suspiciously. “You were weird on the phone earlier.”

Mingyu laughs. “Oh yeah? What did I say?”

Minghao blinks at that. He doesn’t remember.


–


Minghao wakes up in his apartment in Shanghai, alone. Resigned, he stares up at the ceiling, wondering if it’s going to take another five years to see Mingyu again.

i die every time you look away from me

[deadwine]

Ship/Member: Any, Jeonghan/Wonwoo/Chan, Seungcheol/Seokmin/Mingyu, Kibum/Soonyoung/Seungkwan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: mentorship, bbb-isms, never meet your heroes? power imbalance?
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Are we only biding time 'til I lose your attention?
And someone else lights up the room?
People love an ingénue.
-Taylor Swift ft. Phoebe Bridgers, Nothing New

[FILL] i die every time you look away from me

[latespring]

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/Wonwoo/Chan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: superheroes, jealousy
Permission to remix: Yes

A/N: this is exactly 400 words! also going for rarest pair if this counts, I believe there's one work for them currently on ao3

this is kind of an aftermath of the quote above, if you read it from wonwoo's perspective

***


The first time Wonwoo sees Lee Chan, he hasn't yet picked a hero name. Not that Wonwoo would have asked. He's trailing along in Jeonghan's shadow, another in a long line of sidekicks Jeonghan has taken on. Like a dog, Wonwoo thinks, and curls his lip as he turns a corner.

Lee Chan is part of a lineage now. That was how Jeonghan had described it when he took Wonwoo on, as he threw Wonwoo into the mats again and again and again. Wonwoo spat blood and got up. He got up.

People Jeonghan takes on become legends and then he lets them go. Wonwoo hopes it hurts, when Jeonghan's new boy realizes it's not going to last.



The next time Wonwoo sees Lee Chan is in the middle of a fight. Dino, he recalls briefly. His handler had called a meeting about it. Jeonghan had called in a few favors to give the new hero some more experience, and Wonwoo's team had agreed before he could even blink twice. Resentment gains him nothing, but that doesn't stop the feeling from sinking its teeth into his spine. His heart is a bad dog, bites down on things it should know better than to chew.

Despite what Wonwoo might have expected, Dino isn't doing well.

Wonwoo doesn't think Jeonghan would have let him into the field without some skill, but whatever Dino is trying to do with his super powers isn't working. He's huddled up behind a wall while some henchmen rain bullets in his direction.

No one is around to help him. Wonwoo is cloaked in invisibility on a nearby ledge, don't look this way like a whisper on the wind. The gunshots are deafening at range, and Wonwoo sees Dino flinch.

Jeonghan is off on some mission alone. There is no one else to save him.

Wonwoo takes a breath and jumps.



The last time Wonwoo sees Jeonghan's new boy is when he shows up on Wonwoo's doorstep, and asks for a place in his team.

Lee Chan looks Wonwoo in the eye when he makes the request. He's ambitious, the talk of the town. Newest in a line of legends. Wonwoo has worked with him a couple times since that fight--had drinks with him a couple more.

Wonwoo struggles to keep an ugly grin off his face. Jeonghan's boy. The next time Jeonghan sees him, he'll be Wonwoo's.

you be their hero now i'll be your monster

[deadwine]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Any, Seungcheol/Seokmin (Wonwoo/Jihoon, if you really wanna Get Me lol)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: complicated relationships, rivalfuckery, *cough* parksborn au?*cough*
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I’ll do the startling thing
I’ll have the knife in my teeth
I’ll be the star
You can be the horrified one.
-Alicia Ostriker, In the Twenty-Fifth year of Marriage, It Goes On

FILL: you be their hero now i'll be your monster

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Seokmin
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: implication of violence, alcohol abuse, implied sex, please stop saying parksborn i'm very small and have no money
Permission to remix: Please ask.

PB (derogatory).

Can live in an alternate universe of you, on my skin-verse, if you subscribe to seokmin villainisms.

***

He tells himself that it's not jealousy when he turns on the TV and sees him. The fucking Spider-Man.

Because it isn't jealousy, watching Choi Seungcheol take from him. In this life, Seokmin has everything that he needs. But that's the problem, isn't it? He doesn't have much life left to live. And it seems like everywhere he turns, Seungcheol is there doing what he does best.

His father used to say that some people were takers, and Seokmin thought that he was one of them. A taker, of risks, of adventure. But what Seungcheol takes is different. It's his kindness, patience. Love. Robbed from his grave while his heart still beats.

Maybe it was his fault for offering in the first place.

Seungcheol puts on a spandex suit and he saves people. Every day on the news, saving a life. People thanking him for life, giving them new life.

He'd been like them, too, once. Turned to a hero to ask for new life. He'd gotten an empty answer, broken promises, and a swollen knuckle from punching the wall.

It was easier to forgive before he knew the face behind the mask. But in retrospect, the eyes do see what they want to see. He'd know Seungcheol's body in a room full of shadows. He's held those hands and then some on the couch he sits on now, scowling into a Collins glass, barely sober enough to stand.

Down at the coffee table, he stares at the unfolded scrolls and considers the blueprints that his father left behind. His final affects, a dying man to his dying son, burdens handed down for generations only to die out with a 27-year-old college dropout.

Maybe he still has time to produce a bastard, someone to take on the generational wealth he'll stop being able to enjoy once his skin goes completely grey and his body turns cold.

Once upon a time, he'd thought he'd share his life with his best friend in one way or another. That his offering and wanting would translate into some sort of favor.

But in the end, the doctors give him a week, so he gives Seungcheol three days. Puts on his best suit and lures him to the city center. "I'll be the one in green," he sends from the clouds. And when he seems Seungcheol coming, he sweeps him off his feet.

He learns that the face he makes when anguished is a lot like the face he makes when he comes. His begging is similar, too.

Funny how he pleads now, 700 meters in the air. When he drops to the ground without webbing to save him, Seokmin wonders if he'll be as bent and broken as the bike he was riding the night they first met.

everyday i think about gyuhan

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Jeonghan/ Mingyu, Jeonghan/ Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: established relationship?, feel free
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

I will wash your hair at night
And dry it off with care
I will see your body bare
And still I will live here

- Mitski, I Will

[FILL] i will take good care of you.

[nunssaum]

Ship/Member: seungcheol/jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: idolverse
Permission to remix: Yes

***

“how do you do this?”

it’s 3 am in the morning and jeonghan finally gathers the courage to meet seungcheol’s eyes, now that the initial shame has dissipated. 

seungcheol, who is holding a clean towel to dry jeonghan’s hair, flicks his gaze all over his face. “what?”

he stands in front of jeonghan who is sitting on his bed, with only a towel wrapped around his waist and another thrown over his shoulder. they had returned to their dorm after a long day of practice and seungcheol had followed jeonghan straight to the eighth floor. they had stayed quiet the whole time and seungcheol had dragged jeonghan to his bathroom and washed his hair for him. that’s the least he can do to soothe jeonghan’s nerves.

this is not the first time seungcheol does something like this.

“this,” jeonghan points at something in between them vaguely, “this.”

seungcheol gently holds jeonghan’s chin with one hand and takes a good look at him. the blonde long hair looks good on him. no, jeonghan has always been beautiful. he starts toweling jeonghan’s head slowly, in a lulling way. “you have had a very long day.”

that makes jeonghan snort. “everyone did, seungcheol. i am not the only one.”

seungcheol knows exactly what’s up with jeonghan. not everyday in the practice room or the studio goes smoothly. some days it’s repeated mistakes on someone’s part. some days it’s the lingering feeling that they carry all the way to the end of the day.

seungcheol had noticed the frown on jeonghan’s face ever since the vocal unit arrived to the practice room after recording their unit song. he had seen the way jihoon kept glancing at jeonghan and telling him he really did well with the recording. he had seen the way jeonghan had brushed a playful seokmin off his shoulder.

he had noticed how jeonghan unintentionally slammed the door car a little too loud and then sent an apologetic glance towards him because it wasn’t directed towards him.

“tell me,” jeonghan whispers as he holds seungcheol’s hand to stop him, “how do you guys put up with me?”

“it’s because we know you. we all have our moments, jeonghan-ah.” seungcheol stares down at jeonghan until he gives up and lets seungcheol do his work.

“i thought i should give up being a singer if i can’t make it through today’s recording,” jeonghan says with his eyes closed. “if it wasn’t for jihoon, i wouldn’t have finished it.”

“jihoon said you did well. you know he is serious when he says such things.”

jeonghan sighs. “and i got snippy at seokmin earlier.”

seungcheol stops and tips jeonghan’s head up to meet his eyes. “you know what to do about that. it’s seokmin you are talking about.” then he leans down and presses a kiss to his temple.

that brings a hint of a smile on jeonghan’s face. seungcheol walks away to get the hair dryer and beckons jeonghan to come to him.

jeonghan doesn’t follow seungcheol right away. he doesn’t even get up from the bed. “how does he not take things like these to his heart? how do you do that?”

seungcheol walks back to jeonghan. “because i know you don’t actually mean it. seokmin and the others, they love you,” he pauses, then he reaches out a hand for jeonghan to take it, “same for me.” 

jeonghan stares at the hand offered to him and like all the other times, he takes it.

//

“ddaddu-ya,” jeonghan speaks after staying quiet for a long time, “thank you.”

they are now lying side by side on jeonghan’s bed, a decent amount of space between them, their pinkies intertwined. seungcheol looks over at him, his eyes heavy and gives him a lazy, soft smile. with his free hand, he reaches out and tucks jeonghan’s hair behind his ear. “for what?”

“for taking good care of me.”

SeokGyu (or Any Ship)

[flippinflakes]

Ship/Member: SeokGyu/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Crack/humor, potential Priest AU
Do Not Wants:

Prompt:

I feel like a priest in a confessional right now "Again, weird but technically not a sin"

- random Twitter user about a Reddit post on being a Goblin when cleaning things up

Any/Mingyu - Ain't Afraid of No Ghost (probably)

[flippinflakes]

Ship/Member: Any/Mingyu
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Ghoooosts?, Mayhaps Ghost Hunter Gyu
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Ryan Bergara: But that's just because I ain't afraid of no ghost
Shane Madej: Oh, I think you very much are is the issue

-Watcher, 2021

Any - Ghost Bro(mance)

[flippinflakes]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Can be romantic can be platonic
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Sometimes I wonder where my sensual ghost - friend? lover? admirer? is

-Shane Madej, Watcher, 2021

Soonyoung/Any - Possess Me, Daddy!

[flippinflakes]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Ghost possession implied, daddy kink is optional
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

(possessed voice) Possess me, Daddy!

-The Professor, Puppet History, Watcher 2021

[FILL] come on in, boy

[klav]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Minghao
Major Tags: NSFW, dubious consent
Additional Tags: demon!Soonyoung, your body is my body-isms
Permission to remix: Please ask
Title from The Haunting - Set it Off. This is extremely deranged, sorry if it strays from what you intended for the prompt!!

***

“You know what a succubus can do, right?”

Minghao settles back against the headboard, his throat suddenly dry. “Not really. How does it work?”

“Intention.” Soonyoung tugs Minghao’s ankles apart and wiggles his way up, palms catching gently behind Minghao’s calves, further, until his knees bracket Minghao’s hips. He settles on Minghao’s thighs like he’s descending on a throne. He worries his shiny bottom lip between his teeth before sweetening into a smile. “You have to let me in. You have to want me in.”

Minghao twists his fingers in the sheets. That won’t be an issue. The question has never been, does he want Soonyoung? Of course he does. The question is, should he want Soonyoung? Even knowing what he is?

Or, more importantly, knowing what he’s not.

He’s not human. That’s for sure.

When Soonyoung notches his thumbs into the waistband of Minghao’s jeans, his fingers have extended to an abnormal length. They’re spidery and grotesque. Claws protrude from his fingertips, their shiny face whispering with misty, reflective shapes. It looks wrong. It should be wrong. Everything about him is off, bad, rancid, some might say evil—

But. Soonyoung licks his lips, a tiny flicker of blood-red tongue. His breath is hot against Minghao’s neck. Alluring. He pops the button on Minghao’s jeans and presses his tongue against the backs of his own flat, pearly teeth. A shallow inhale shudders through Minghao’s chest. He imagines those teeth sinking into his skin, tearing away red and hot, leaving pretty little bruises.

Minghao wants this. He remembers the strange, otherworldly feeling of that night in the woods, when he’d accidentally Summoned Soonyoung. How his skin felt electrically charged. How his blood surged and boiled, how even the earth moaned with pleasure beneath his feet.

“Show me,” Minghao says.

Soonyoung looks up. His eyes are black all the way through, two inkwells in his face. He cups Minghao’s chin with his pretty, ghoulish hands and says, “Baby. All you have to do is look.”

I’m already looking, Minghao wants to say—as if he could possibly look away right now—and a protest against baby rises on his tongue. Before he can speak, the shadows of the room suddenly shift.

One moment Minghao is simply making eye contact with Soonyoung. The next, he feels a chill eclipse his skin. He can’t move his hands. He can’t move his body. He watches, slowly, slowly, helplessly, as the darkness in Soonyoung’s eyes spills down his face like black tears.

It’s both gorgeous and horrifying. Minghao would gasp if he had use of his mouth right now. Soonyoung’s impossible pupils continue expanding, blotting out his entire face and then blooming outward, until Minghao’s entire field of vision goes black. He sees nothing but darkness.

A textured darkness. Underneath the blankness—there’s a feeling.

The void is hot. It’s bottomless. It wants to control him.

Minghao goes limp. His head lolls forward. He feels it happen like he’s in a dream, a passenger inside his own body. Aware but trapped. Someone catches him with warm palms and sets him upright.

Minghao tries to scream. Can’t.

His vision returns in cloudy bursts of light and color. When the bedroom resituates around him, Soonyoung is gone and Minghao can’t blink. Oh—he really can’t. He can’t focus his eyes, either.

He tries to shape the sounds of Soonyoung’s name. His lips are motionless. Unresponsive.

Scary at first, right?

Fuck. That’s Soonyoung’s voice—in his head? In his subconscious? Terror clenches its hot fist inside of Minghao, in the chaotic corner of his mind where he’s trapped like an animal behind glass.

He tries to project a thought back into the ether: Why can’t I move?

You gave in to me, baby. I’ve got you right now.

You’re possessing my body.

I’m borrowing your body.

Soonyoung’s voice manages to sound smug.

I didn’t know it would be like this, Minghao thinks frantically. A kaleidoscope of images cascade through his panicked thoughts—his supine body in a hospital bed. A bouquet of yellow tulips. The metronomic beat of a heart monitor. Mingyu on his knees, head bowed in defeat.

Relax, Soonyoung soothes. Hey. I wouldn’t do that. You wanna have some fun?

?!

Mmm. Sit back and enjoy.

Minghao takes a deep breath. At least—Minghao’s body does. Minghao himself, the consciousness he recognizes as his own, is tied up and powerless in the backseat. He looks on from afar as his eyes focus on the opposite wall.

Soonyoung has the reins now. Minghao watches as his own hand moves to cup the soft bulge in his pants.

Oooh, Soonyoung sighs. I missed this. You’re so hot, you know that?

How can I feel this, Minghao thinks, frantically, trying to jerk his hand back. He fails.

You feel it because I want you to.

Minghao’s wrist rotates to push his palm more purposefully against his crotch. He opens his legs wider and shimmies further down the bed. A pit of hunger opens within Minghao—and he can’t tell if it’s his own or Soonyoung’s.

His cock thickens. Minghao shifts his hips, pushing his jeans down far enough to drag himself out of his underwear. The air is cool and dry against his overheated skin. He starts moving his hand, a slow and certain rhythm. Warmth kindles in his gut.

This is Minghao’s hand on his own body—in essence, masturbation—but somehow it feels like a foreign touch, like he’s brought a stranger to bed with him. The same heady, foggy feeling from his Summoning in the woods starts to creep in. It softens the fear. Sweetens him.

There you go, Soonyoung coos. Feel good?

Starting to, Minghao thinks, before he can stop himself. Are you… making me feel…?

This time Soonyoung doesn’t sound smug. He just sounds happy. No, you’re just enjoying yourself. Gonna make us feel good.

Minghao thinks he’s still in shock underneath the saccharine glow of Soonyoung’s demon magic. It’s hard to tell what he’s feeling without a physiological response to track. But—fuck, no, it does feel good. That’s undeniable. Soonyoung is doing something ungodly with his fingers.

Where’s your lube? Soonyoung suddenly asks.

Not telling.

Ah, killjoy. I’ll find it myself.

The hand falls away. Minghao bites back disappointment. His body gets up and starts fumbling around in the desk drawer, pushing aside random black cords and post-it notes of Bei Dao stanzas he’d tried translating into Korean earlier that dreary month. Minghao watches Soonyoung loot around in his belongings, tossing pens and wrappers onto the floor, until he pops open the bottom drawer of the nightstand and checks under the hand towel. Shit.

Soonyoung waves the lube in front of his own face—their own face—as if taunting Minghao.

If Minghao could shiver, he would.

There’s no fucking around after that. Soonyoung strips out of his jeans and underwear. Minghao inwardly cringes, noticing the scrawniness of his legs from this angle, the sparse trail of hair on his abdomen, the half-hard lean of his dick. Usually he—well, tidies up a bit before sex. Usually his partners don’t get a bird’s eye view like this.

Stop that, Soonyoung reprimands.

What?

Looking down on yourself. I mean, I’m literally looking down at your penis right now, but metaphorically. You’re a hottie. Definitely one of the top three sexiest men I’ve taken for a joyride.

Minghao groans. It’s bad enough you’re in my body. GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

You invited me, baby! Don’t get mad at the bird for flying.

Minghao feels like a fucking idiot.

Soonyoung slicks up his hand and goes right back to touching himself. He closes his eyes, so Minghao is left fully adrift with nothing but wet noises and a budding warmth of pleasure throughout his whole body. Soonyoung tightens his grip, twists his wrist, and Minghao inwardly writhes.

God, he wishes he could touch himself, too. Grab the sheets for stability. Push back against Soonyoung with his mouth, his hands, his... anything. He’s never had so little control in bed before. It’s like his body is a toy, susceptible to Soonyoung’s whims, being used for Soonyoung’s pleasure alone. The fact that he’s enjoying this, too, in his cage, is clearly an afterthought.

It’s frustrating. It’s also turning him the fuck on.

Soonyoung slithers his other hand down. Minghao has a momentary flash of panic—not this—before Soonyoung bypasses his most sensitive areas to pinch the inside of his thighs. Hard.

Pain flares white-hot along his skin.

Fuck, Minghao thinks. Between the pain and dizzying arousal, he’s getting a confusing mix of signals. Every switch in his brain has been flipped, every light turned on. Soonyoung twitches and moans. His hand speeds up, wrist twisting so that the pressure is tighter. His breath catches in his throat. The muscles in his thighs go taut. Minghao has a half a second to deliriously think keep going please oh god don’t stop we’re close before he comes.

Soonyoung must black out for a minute, because Minghao can’t see a fucking thing. He picks up the scattered pieces of his brain and blinks open his eyes.

Minghao opens his eyes.

His body is back!

Gasping, Minghao rockets to a sitting position. He drags air into his lungs, holds his palms in front of his face and wiggles his fingers to prove they’re responding to him. Him, and not Soonyoung. He curls his knees to his chest, like a box snapping shut, heedless of the stickiness collecting on his stomach and the uncomfortable sensitivity between his legs. He’s here. He’s Minghao. He’s himself.

Minghao grips his own hair so tightly, he doesn’t realize at first that he’s shaking.

A warm body presses up against his back. Lips meet the nape of his neck.

“You did so well,” Soonyoung says brightly. “That was hot, right? The last guy started screaming halfway through and wouldn’t stop. This was way nicer.”

Minghao clenches his eyes shut and wishes he hadn’t liked it: the submission. The fear. He wishes he could tell Soonyoung he was wrong.

But he can’t.

“It was… a lot,” Minghao says, his voice hoarse as if he’d been screaming.

Soonyoung kisses the shell of his ear, wet and fond. When his hands loop around Minghao’s waist, he tickles his normal, stubby fingers into Minghao’s stomach. “I know, baby. I know.”

Minghao shivers. He hides his face in Soonyoung's shoulder. "Don't call me baby."

He can feel Soonyoung's grin pressed against his hair. "Yah, fine. Fine."

Wonwoo/Jeonghan - My Little Meow Meow (Evil)

[flippinflakes]

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Bonus points for catboy Wonwoo, Bonus points for chaotic evil Jeonghan, Bonus points for chaotic neutral Wonwoo
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt:

Which is fine, I'd love to be a little kitten on the lap of an evil genius

-Ryan Bergara, Watcher 2021

[FILL]: My Little Meow Meow (Evil)

[slytherminie]

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Jeonghan
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: magic, murder, catboy wonwoo, witch jeonghan, chaotic evil jeonghan, chaotic neutral wonu who only cares about jeonghan
Permission to remix: Yes

my little meow meow (evil) i've been staring at this title for two days
***

The world is burning, and Wonwoo doesn’t care.

Well, ok, the whole world isn’t burning, to be technically accurate. But the royal palace surely is - clouds of smoke so dense and dark that could be seen from miles away. For sure they can be seen from their small house on top of the cliff.

Jeonghan stares out of the window, the glow of the fire illuminating his face in shades of gold, a vision of beauty and destruction. His eyes are bright, his lashes casting long shadows over the apple of his cheeks.

Wonwoo blinks at him, but he’s too busy staring at the fire to blink back.

“Burn, baby, burn,” Jeonghan says under his breath, scratching Wonwoo behind the ears, blunt nails scraping the perfect spot at the back of his neck, the ones that makes him curl into a ball and start purring like crazy.

“Isn’t it beautiful, Wonwoo-yah?” Jeonghan asks him, as he presses the hand that isn’t busy caressing Wonwoo against the glass. “They got what they deserved, all of them.”

People are burning, and Wonwoo doesn’t care.

The yells can’t be heard from where they’re sitting, but Wonwoo knows that the fire caught them by surprise - Jeonghan’s spell was casted in the middle of the night, while people were in their beds, the king, the queen, their children. The people who hurt Jeonghan.

They woke up to the smell of smoke, scurrying like little rats to escape the burning charm, but it was already too late - and the flames, oh the flames, they’re so high and so hot, unstoppable. Jeonghan really knows how to cast a spell, Wonwoo has to give him that.

Jeonghan sits in his chair a little longer, and Wonwoo rubs his little face against his fingers, a loud purr coming out of his throat. Jeonghan is happy, and that makes him happy, too.

The night is long, and the fire is strong - Jeonghan’s smile widens the deeper the darkness gets, the higher the flames become, the louder the screams grow. Wonwoo's purring makes his whole little body vibrate, in his first row seat at the destruction of Jeonghan’s enemies.

“I think I deserve a kiss for my hard work,” Jeonghan says after a little while, shaking himself out of his reverie. The copper hue of the flames haloes his blonde hair, making it burn.

Wonwoo stirs in his laps, rolling onto his back and stretching his limbs out, until they’re growing, reshaping themselves.

He’s still in Jeonghan’s lap, but his fur is gone, and he’s very much naked. Jeonghan doesn’t mind.

“You do deserve a kiss,” Wonwoo tells him, before molding their mouths together in a reward that Jeonghan deserves for all he’s done - for all he’s done tonight, and all he’s done for Wonwoo, as well.

The world could burn, and Wonwoo wouldn’t care. All he cares about is Jeonghan’s happiness.