2022 Round 2: AUs

[hwarium]

Status: Closed This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted. ✧ Seventeen Holidays ✧ Round 2: Alternate Universes About When you put the characters you love in a new world, you end up loving them even more. Sometimes it's about the aesthetic (dark academia). Sometimes it's about straining those ship dynamics to the extreme (Pacific Rim). Maybe life is hard and you need to exorcise something (unemployment/coporate slave AU). Or perhaps you are so in love with the world you want to see Seventeen in it. Shakespeare, My Hero Academia, RuPaul's Drag Race. No problem - just give some context so anyone can fill it. Examples MinWon - Bittersweet Ah yes, the ambiguous Bittersweet MV. I'm curious to see anyone's interpretation of those MinWon scenes. Any / NCT AU Remember how Seventeen was supposed to be subgroups divided across Korea, China and Japan? What if that happened and the members were split up, only to reunite once a year. Or if they promoted like NCT - thinking about the graduation angst of NCT Dream, the ridiculous schedules of SuperM. Who is Mark and over-employed. Who is Shotaro and stuck in the basement? Wonhui X Link Click (Donghua) Link Click is a show about two guys who run a photography studio and time travels to help their customers. Wonwoo knows every event within 12 hours of a photograph being taken and Junhui can time travel and possess the photographer for 12 hours to complete a mission. Wonwoo speaks in Junhui's mind and tells him what he needs to do - where to go, what to say, what will happen. There's a rule that Junhui can't change the past because it will change the future :') but Junhui wants to :'). Would love to see WonHui investigating another sebong's story, or an exploration of their contrasting attitudes to fate (resigned vs headstrong - roles can be reversed if you want). 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> [PROMPT GOES HERE] 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! Have you considered trying for the 17hols hall of fame? The categories are: Exactly 400 Words, Year of the Tiger, Five of a Kind and the Rarest Pair. ▽ Click for More Info ▽ Exactly 400 words: your fill is the absolute minimum word count. Well done you cold curt succinct savage. Year of the Tiger: in celebration of 2022, we will also celebrate anyone who supports this agenda (context: burn your ears). You must seamlessly incorporate a horanghae or wooahae or hahahahanihae (etc) in your fill. You can not regret it. Five of a Kind: You win this if you fill 5 prompts, and each fill is different in the same way. E.g. 5 different ships, 5 different AUs, 5 different mediums. You also win this by doing 5 remixes! The rarest pair: the fill with the rarest pairing at the end of the fest wins. This is based off the number of works in the ao3 tag. For simplicity, this will be the / tag and not &. (e.g. a “Wonwoo & Minghao” platonic fill will be counted by the “Wonwoo/Minghao” tag). The ship must only have Seventeen members and be the main pairing in your fill. We will update the category with the current titleholder during the fest so you know who to challenge~ I anticipate polyamory. (To help us out, please mention that you’re going for one of these categories at the beginning of your fill.) Navigation ABOUT DATES FAQ BAITS ✧ FILLS ✧ ROUND 1: QUOTES ❮ ROUND 2: ALTERNATE UNIVERSES ❯ ROUND 3: LAST WORDS

Comments

[almondtree]

Ship/Member: Any
Major Tags: love death + robots au, sci fi/magical realism/horror
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: honestly just pick any love death + robots episode!! they're all self-contained little narratives and many of them would make a great fic. would love to see more than one fill with people picking different eps, but some of my faves for inspo are sonnie's edge, the witness, shape-shifters, and the tall grass.

[almondtree]

Ship/Member: Any, Joshua, Seokmin, crossovers welcome
Major Tags: the lighthouse au, mermaids, eldritch horrors, being tormented by visions, not trusting the person you are confined with
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: just a dude losing his mind in the lighthouse! doesn't have to be a ship fic although i kinda thought the guys in the lighthouse should have explored each other's bodies. you can make jeonghan the mermaid i would be into that but honestly do whatever you want as long as it's insane

[almondtree]

Ship/Member: Any, Mingyu/Hoshi
Major Tags: space feudalism à la dune, mingyu as paul atreides, more being tormented by visions
Additional Tags: i promise im done with sci fi prompts after this
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: i know the Lore of dune is pretty hefty and convoluted so i really just want the atmosphere! bright young ducal heir mingyu navigating a new planet and not yet knowing he was brought there by destiny, soonyoung curious about a visitor from the stars who might save or destroy his home, mingyu having the revelation that he's taken water and nature for granted. bonus points for sandworms

[maritimo]

Ship/Member: Seungkwan/Wonwoo
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Genderbend, Fem!Seungkwan, Modern Setting
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: Actual Virgin Incel Wonwoo meets Girlboss Chad Seungkwan. She's completely oblivious to how much he wants to smash and treats him like a funny little guy, which just makes him more attracted to her. Some power dynamics would be amazing as well.

be right back

[kwontent]

Ship/Member: Any!!!
Major Tags: black mirror s2e1
Additional Tags:
Do Not Wants: None, MCD is essential to the AU

Prompt: character a and character b are in love and live happily together. then, character b dies suddenly, leaving character a in shambles. they end up buying an AI robot that can mimic the mannerisms and thoughts of their dead lover, but it's never exactly the same. the AI isn't warm like them.

your crowning glory

[kenata]

Ship/Member: any 97z or 96z configuration!
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: bantering and bickering, unresolved sexual and romantic tension
Do Not Wants: a/b/o

Prompt: a princess diaries 2 au where two people who have history and ~tension~ cannot be together because one person is trying to get the crown from the other person

[FILL] your crowning glory

[stickystickysticky]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Minghao, referenced Seokmin (sorry for always making him the other guy...😭)
Major Tags: Princess Diaries AU, nsfw mentionings, wanting what you can't have is very sexy (as long as you don't think about it too hard)
Additional Tags: N/A
Permission to remix: Please ask

The fountain scene-ish from Princess Diaries 2. I didn't get to the part where they both fall into the fountain, but we all know they kiss a little and end up in there and it is very, very not prince like and Minghao is very, very embarrassed and also really, really likes it. Poor guy. Good luck with that.

***

“You two make a lovely couple. It’s a shame you’re not attracted to him.”
- Chris Pine, or whatever his name is in Princess Diaries 2

Minghao smiles at Seokmin, nodding and telling him, “Yes, go have a drink with Jeonghan,” while cursing him in his head as he actually goes and does that, leaving Minghao and Mingyu to just stand there, in the middle of another garden party. Minghao’s grandmother loves to host, and especially now that Minghao is back in Genovia and is supposed to be gaining favor amongst the elite, there are many parties to attend.

Mingyu and Minghao aren’t actually alone. There’s plenty of people standing around elsewhere at the party. Just not, paying attention to them, which makes it feel like just them two. And it’s awfully uncomfortable to be standing in front of each other like this for the sheer fact that Mingyu and him aren’t good at…being alone. Well, being appropriate alone. Not in the way a prince should be when he’s with someone that is vying for his crown.

But Mingyu. He gets under his skin. Has somehow found a way to camp out there, made a home there. Minghao can’t seem to rid himself of him no matter how much he scrubs and washes and picks at himself.

“You two make a lovely couple,” Mingyu compliments.

The compliment catches Minghao off-guard, but he should have known that Mingyu didn’t mean for it to be a compliment. Not when he finishes it off with, “It’s a shame you’re not attracted to him.”

And that does it. The smug smile on Mingyu’s face. The way he turns on his heel right after he gets to take in Minghao’s shocked expression, feels the pride of knowing that he’s gotten under Minghao’s skin, again.

How fucking dare he. Not attracted to him? Not attracted to Seokmin? Mingyu thinks he’s the only attractive person in the goddamn world. Which is not true. Is he attractive? Sure. Yes. By objective standards, Minghao will not deny that. But is he the only attractive person? God he’s so full of himself.

Minghao does not chase people and he is not chasing Mingyu of all people. He’s just hastily following in step behind him, to defend Seokmin’s honor.

Mingyu leads them underneath an arched entrance to the much more secluded fountain area of the garden where Minghao can insult him with more privacy. “I will have you know that Seokmin is very attractive, one of the most attractive men I have ever met actually. And in bed he’s–”

“He’s what?” Mingyu whips around. Their noses are nearly touching.

Mingyu isn’t that much taller than Minghao and when he’s making himself small, as he often does, they’re always eye-level or Mingyu somehow finds a way to be looking up at Minghao instead. Eyes wide, glassy, his mouth– no, not that, Minghao shakes the memory away and refocuses. Right now, Mingyu is towering over him. His back straightened, chest out, and his eyes are tilted downward just slightly.

Minghao’s breath catches in his throat and his eyes land directly on Mingyu’s lips. It feels like he’s starting to drool (he’s not though, a prince doesn’t drool, that’s for dogs). He bites down on his own lip just to make sure though. And Mingyu catches on, of course he does. He’s smirking. God fucking dammit.

Mingyu leans down, his mouth close enough to brush against Minghao’s ear, but he stays just enough away so it doesn’t. It puts Minghao on edge. He wants Mingyu closer, he’s begging for Mingyu to come closer.

“Is he better than me?” Mingyu whispers, pretending to pout, like he’s actually questioning it.

Minghao’s mouth runs dry. He could and he should push Mingyu away. But it feels like then Mingyu wins. Like Minghao can’t take the heat. How can he rule when there’s someone out there that can make him feel completely off kilter? A good king wouldn’t falter like this.

The other option is Minghao can lean into it. If Minghao asks, he knows Mingyu will say yes. Minghao can have him the way he wants. On his back, panting and begging and asking Minghao for more and more and more and Minghao will deny and give as he sees fit. Always ending in giving.

One night was not enough. Minghao knows that deep down. Minghao still thinks about it when he’s alone, after all the royal training and classes and council briefings and PR visits to every school and public facility in Genovia. Minghao returns to his bedroom and thinks of Mingyu, always.

But that’s not really an option, not if he wants the crown, his birthright. Which he does. Of course he does. It’s his duty and his honor. So no, he can’t have Mingyu. Not again, not ever.

He does the next best thing instead. Something that will keep Mingyu close, but remind him that he can never get closer.

Minghao places a hand on Mingyu’s waist, under his jacket, the other on the back of his neck and tugs him down, gently enough to make it tender, hard enough to make Mingyu whimper. And Minghao can feel the heat from Mingyu’s body and the smile on his face now, thinking he’s got Minghao right where he wants him.

It makes Minghao do the same. It makes it even more delightful when Minghao does press his lips against the shell of Mingyu’s ear and feel him shiver. And once Mingyu’s hand finds its way from where they’re held tightly behind his back to Minghao’s waist, Minghao says, “He is. Much, much better.”

Minghao can’t have him and he can’t have Mingyu. Sometimes, they both need a reminder.

please take care of my cat

[replaydebut]

Ship/Member: Any! can be genfic or a ship fic
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: coming of age, genderswap, female friendships, the angst of navigating adulthood/the way life inevitably changes and friends grow apart, possibly navigating crushing on your childhood friend
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: any type of story inspired by the movie Take Care of My Cat (고양이를 부탁해)! This is an early 2000s coming of age film following the lives of five female friends after high school as they try to understand themselves and their relationship to the world/adulthood. It's set in Incheon, so you can keep it there or just use the premise of the film/themes of the film set in a different city in Korea. You can also keep it as five friends, or add more!

You can really do anything you'd like, I'd just love to read a fic with similar vibes/atmosphere to the film which tackles similar issues that the film does.

Here is the wikipedia entry for the film if you wanna learn more: link

And here you can watch the movie if you'd like (even tho it's a bit low quality): link

normal people au

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Minghao
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: complex relationships, lovers to exes to friends to lovers
Do Not Wants: N/A

Prompt: a normal people by sally rooney au following two people as their relationship develops and they grow up. consider jock with a heart of gold seungcheol as connell, and minghao coming out of his shell as marianne.

you are my polar star but he is my only true match

[deadwine]

Ship/Member: Any, (but consider) wonjunhao
Major Tags: War, Violence, Murder
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: Iron Widow Au.
Person A is taking over the world and Person B is their forever rock, the guy they've been in love with for three years who is ready to do anything for Person A. Person A is 'bonded' to Person C to helm the most powerful Chrysalis/big human-held weapon together because they're the only match for each other. (Think Pacrim) Oh Person A just killed an important war general and Person C murdered their own family and Person C is rich, so close enough. Oh and they all fall in love.

Consider: Minghao as Yizhi, Wonwoo as Shimin, Jun as Zetian. You don't have to, But Im BEGGING you to consider.

FILL: loaded god complex

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Jun/Minghao
Major Tags: minor references to alcoholism, non-graphic violence, reference to patricide, heavy references to the source
Additional Tags: wonwoo martyr complex
Permission to remix: No

This is quite possibly incoherent but my brain has been made into noodles by this. The consequences of my own silly little actions!

***

There is darkness, and then there is the true dark. Darkness is what gave birth inside of Wonwoo after the death of his father, after he was sentenced with committing patricide. What hardens him to the trauma of war. Shedding blood is easier when your mind is numb to empathy, when you've had the blood of your family on your hands.

But true dark is what resides in the inner confines of his mind. Being forced to relive the realities of his situation, the concrete weight of his condition keeps him upright long enough to turn into a killing machine.

True dark is the sound of screams, each one belonging to a pilot too young to die in a war that they had no choice to enlist in. All by his hand. True dark threatens to swallow him. To consume him. On his best days, he is barely staying head above water.

He wants to relay an apology to each and every one, send on some sort of token when their bodies go home to their families. Tell them, we were both prisoners, but only one of us could survive. Tell them, your child deserved more than being a life force to a man more infamous than honorable, and you are owed more than a death gratuity.

Strapped inside of the pilot’s seat, his fingers traces shapes, relying on muscle memory and intuition to guide him along the path of least resistance. Outside of the Chrysalis, the Hunduns swarm, and his numbed mind moves into autopilot. The Vermillion Bird remains in its first form, but he pulls from his partner and finds—

For the first time, a strong resistance.

The secondary pilot killed their first. He supposes it's a controlling method. That the secondary pilot dies and they lose a would-be Iron Widow, or Wonwoo dies, and they lose their top-ranking pilot in a casualty of war. Two nobodies they want to wash their hands of, and the secondary pilot spit just as much in his direction, all hissing malice.

Wonwoo tries to draw from their qi, and bits and pieces of the other man's memory floods his senses. He tries to not see it, see him. Carry the guilt of another into his next life.

But the mind, it's strong. Resilient. He came ready to kill, that much he can see.

The mind, it pushes against him. He's not used to pushback like this.

The other man—Wen Junhui, he snarls, fingers pressed around his throat inside their mind link—resists him, and the world goes white.

--

When the guards come to lead him out of the Chrysalis, it is a shock to hear another person's voice. To not smell a copper corpse beginning to rot in the secondary seat.

Wen Junhui's voice, though wiry, taunts. "Surprise."

Wonwoo cannot see more than Wen Junhui's shape, but the blurred form turns solid. It's not often a secondary pilot lives long enough to force themselves to be seen.

He hopes that Wen Junhui can feel his open shock staring right back.

For the first time, Wonwoo leaves the cockpit with his hands clean.

--

They dress the both of them up in new clothes. Not a prisoner's jumpsuit, but in the uniform of a pilot. It's to make examples of them.

Wen Junhui is thinner than he expected from someone with so much fight inside. But Wonwoo supposes that’s part of it.

The other pilots spread rumors that Wen Junhui is possessed by a fox spirit. That his advantages are supernatural. That the only way that Junhui has stayed alive twice now in the Chrysalis is based on pure luck rather than his own strength and willpower.

Someone tries and fails to level Wen Junhui. They may be quick-witted, but Junhui is more clever, lobs the words back across the net until the other pilot's face shatters like glass.

Unfortunately for him, his bark is worse than his bite, but the guards made a terrible mistake in taking off Wonwoo's muzzle. He is all bite, no bark.

Wonwoo’s vision zeroes in, and it’s Wen Junhui’s stone face that is all he sees when white-hot anger and a metal try turn the tile floors red.

Their eyes meet.

It's a surprise to find a familiar darkness inside of Wen Junhui.

In the end, his new glasses shatter and his short-lived memory of Wen Junhui becomes more statuesque in his mind.

—

It's no surprise that Wen Junhui has an anchor. A person. A guiding light. He recognizes it in Xu Minghao and covets it. Wants it for his own.

Even when he publicly announces and fortifies his bond to Junhui, his thoughts are on Minghao.

Minghao who introduced himself with a small smile, who approached him without fear. Minghao who sees past the veneer and knows more about Wonwoo than he cares to remember. Flaunts his wealth the way he would in a past life, without any sort of humility. The wealthy are selfish, but Minghao is generous.

Minghao has a cruel streak, feels it in the grip on the collar that presses heavy against Wonwoo’s throat. “You need to stay sober for Junnie, or I’ll kill you myself.”

Minghao has kindness in him, one that takes the shape of a heaping dining table. Meals Wonwoo hasn't known since he was a teen.

It's so easy to fall in step with him, to know him, to see Wen Junhui through his eyes and understand what they see in each other.

They're both trying to protect something special.

But Wonwoo does wish that it was him that they were thinking of.

----

He breaks one night, and Minghao kisses the wine from Wonwoo’s lips.

Junhui follows after until his own lips are stained red.

They take him into their bed–Junhui’s bed, easily fitting two, now three–and oh.

The world shifts into focus.

---

Jun helps him believe again, that his spirit hasn't been broken by war.

Minghao fortifies him with patience.

Inside of the Chrysalis, he shoulders the hits of their fellow fighters. It was only a matter of time before they turned against him to tribute. You can only live so long before they fling you to the light.

Inside, he can hear Jun's rabbit-quick thinking, can hear Minghao's steady voice. Knows that being selfish gave him this much.

But some missions are greater than others.

Fingers hovering over the eject button, Wonwoo lets the dark consume him.

---

Sacrifice doesn't make Jun a widow. Sacrifice doesn't make Wonwoo a martyr.

But when he hears of Jun’s name in the distance, they whisper his name like a fearsome god.

give us soonsolists some bread

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Vernon/Hoshi
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: meet-cute but i really want something steamy and tension-filled dialogue hahah
Do Not Wants: MCD

Prompt: College AU wherein Hoshi of the dance club meets Vernon of the school band. Or you can reverse it, i just need these TWO flirting and maybe kissing OR maybe more.

for the gyusolists, like me

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Vernon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: modern day retelling of romeo x juliet but with two romeos
Do Not Wants: None


Prompt: This pic (https://i.imgur.com/YqZapDM.png) is the prompt. Two romeos from rival families that unfortunately fell in love at first sight. Write whatever you want. Make it painful, make it fluffy, change the ending, bring more conflict, etc. If you're ever thinking of retelling your own Romeo x Juliet, take this chance.

[FILL] for both are infinite

[fleurissons]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Hansol
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: modern-day Romeos, pining when you're already together, forbidden relationship, thinking about those French toast and gallery dates
Permission to remix: Please ask

***

Halfway through the chairman's speech, Hansol steps out into the balcony. He unbuttons his waistcoat to give his lungs more room to expand. The cool air greets his face, a sensory wake-up call. You should have known better, Hansol-ah, he hears his mother's reproaching voice, the inevitable earful he's to receive from her before the night ends. The Kim son is perfect. We cannot afford you being anything less.

"What are you doing?" Mingyu asks, joining him in ruin.

Hansol casts a glance to the lively ballroom behind them. The gala attendees pay them no attention, but Hansol knows better than to let his guard down. There are people assigned to watch him and Mingyu, seekers from both sides of the family, eager to exploit the mistakes they make.

"What are you doing?"

"We're allowed to talk."

"Did you come here to exchange abrasive remarks?" Hansol counters with a raised brow. "Because that is the only talk they allow."

He leans against the balustrade, tightening his grip around the blackened steel. Mingyu shuffles closer, just enough to conceal what he's about to do from prying eyes. He rests his hand atop Hansol's.

In four suffocating syllables, he teaches Hansol how to breathe: "I have missed you."

"I know."

"Say you've missed me too."

"That goes without saying."

"No," Mingyu says. "It doesn't."

"I've missed you," he confesses, bloody heart beating on his sleeve. "Even right now, standing right next to you, scarcely an inch between us, I miss you."

Mingyu accepts Hansol's humble surrender by squeezing his hand in reassurance before he steps away. Hansol wants to pull him back in, even if it means condemning them both.

"What if it erodes?" Hansol asks quietly. "Your love for me."

Days when Hansol eludes his surveillance team to meet Mingyu in a busy district, face obscured but feelings exposed—they are a breeze to live through. But for every day like those, there are thirty nights like tonight. Nights when they can stand in the same room but not touch, look at each other but only in animosity, drink from the same cup as long as it means poisoning the other.

Holding out hope feels impossible. Worse, it feels futile.

"Have I not shown you how sure I am of you?" The undercurrent of hurt in Mingyu's voice slices through Hansol's heart. "Say the word and I will kiss you right here. Right now."

In a happier world, Hansol would say the word. In this one, he stares at the scintillating skyline and blinks away the mist clouding his eyes.

"Thus with a kiss I die," Mingyu adds earnestly.

He clears his throat. "I want you alive."

Mingyu wouldn't meet his demise at the edge of a blade for kissing him—Hansol imagines he would have, had they been born five centuries ago—but they could still take him away. They could send him someplace Hansol can never reach.

That is a death truer than most.

"You should go, hyung."

He takes Hansol's suggestion, but not without bridging the distance between them once more to bid him farewell. Hansol closes his eyes.

"I’m kissing you," Mingyu paints with his words. "My hand cups your jaw, strokes the prominent bone of your cheek. The other arm wraps around your waist, fits you in an embrace shaped to hold you and you alone."

Behind Hansol's lids, the picture Mingyu draws come alive. He sees them kissing in a dim-lighted gallery in the early morning, behind the kitchen of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant as orange bleeds into blue above them, on the rooftop of a planetarium long past twilight.

"I never let go," he finishes; a promise.

"I’d never want you to."

His breath hits the soft cartilage of Hansol's ear, and it is the most intimate of kisses. "Until then, my love."

i've connected the two dots (you didnt connect shit) au

[wonwoes]

Ship/Member: Any ship that u think best fits the shane/ryan dynamics
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: pick any on-site unsolved location u want, crackfic, an ongoing investigation into the question...is shane (or whoever shane is in the pairing u pick) actually a higher demon
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: that's it basically! have fun ^^

[maritimo]

Ship/Member: Hoshi/Vernon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Suddenly a girl!Vernon
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: Hoshi and Vernon are roommates (for whatever reason), and one day Hoshi wakes up and sees a naked hot girl in Vernon’s bed. Little does he know! You can do whatever you want with this trope honestly I just think it’d be funny with these two

[(Anonymous)]

Ship/Member: mingyu/any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: a/b/o, omega mingyu
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: hate even prompting this cause i generally dont care for omegaverse much and i do try and keep it classy with prompts but, like, there's only so many times you can see mingyu posing for the brand OMEGA before one starts to think!

[oeillet]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Any
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: tension (any kind welcome), complicated relationships & feelings
Do Not Wants: None!

Prompt: The Devil Judge AU! Judges in a dystopian world.

Just go wild with the Kim Gaon and Kang Yohan-isms. You and I against the world, learning to live a little through the other, corruption, self-recognition through the other, etc etc. Seungcheol as Yohan? (Please consider this ) Would very much be devastated if the subtle neck and shoulder touches + gazing are included. Also consider these quotes:

"Even if no one else in the world does, I understand your feelings"

and

"I hoped for you to be on my side."

the abyss gazes also into you

[fleurissons]

Ship/Member: Seungcheol/Mingyu
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: the devil judge au, falling in love with the darkness we recognise, the kang yohan-isms of elle seungcheol in his black turtleneck, kim 'gaon' mingyu because who am i if not the person who projects jinyoung's characters onto the nearest available svt member
Permission to remix: Yes~ honestly I'd pay you to give me anything, especially jeonghan as sunah
A/N: mods, this fill is exactly 400 words ^____^ also linking a related tumblr post for anyone interested!

***

Concealing his entrance into Seungcheol’s study is impossible. The door screams every time Mingyu barges his way inside. A warning to who, he’s not sure.

“Have you ever told me anything true?” He demands, wielding his voice like a knife. The attempt is clumsy—he’d sooner cut himself open than draw a drop of Seungcheol’s blood.

Seungcheol spins around in his chair. Seeing him out of his official gown and vest rattles Mingyu’s heart against his ribs. In his worn flannel pyjamas, with his unstyled curls framing a pair of deep brown eyes, Seungcheol looks harmless.

Oh, how looks deceive.

“I know my face earned me the seat to your left, but I’m not as gullible as you think I am.”

He rises from his seat and crosses to Mingyu’s side, leaning against the table as he traps Mingyu’s chin between his thumb and forefinger.

“A well-earned seat,” Seungcheol murmurs, low. “It is quite a pleasant face.”

Is pleasantness the reason you look at me with a gaze that puts a burning sun to shame?

Mingyu jerks his head, but Seungcheol’s hand merely drops to his shoulder. It slides along his back, greeting the songbird with a tender caress. He’d gotten the tattoo the first year of law school; a young man bursting with dreams of freedom, of flying away whenever his heart desired. The weight of taking flight never materialised until Seungcheol placed him under his touch.

That’s what finding a good tree means. It makes you want to build a nest. It steals the colours from the sky and the wind from beneath your wings. It promises you loneliness and heartache when you think of leaving.

Seungcheol guides him to the couch, and Mingyu follows—for the same reason he’d shielded him from the explosion, let Seungcheol confine him to a fortress that turns into a home with his presence, cooked dinner night after night sustained only by the hope that Seungcheol, too, has found a reason to stay.

“I will find who did this to you.”

The bomb was for you, Mingyu thinks. Seungcheol’s fingers in his hair eliminate the thought.

“What are you going to do once you find them?”

“Nothing you’d like to know.”

Fly, his sanity whispers. But Mingyu gazes up at him and decides, in a heartbeat, that he’d rather be consumed by darkness than look at Seungcheol and see a stranger. “Tell me, Chief.”

our beloved summer

[stickystickysticky]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Minghao
Major Tags: breakup makeup
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: not getting together…, love triangle

Prompt: Our beloved summer au where Mingyu is Choi Ung (obviously) and Minghao is Kook Yeonsu. Basically the story is that in high school they were in a documentary about the top student (Yeonsu) helping the bottom student (Ung) and they have a super antagonistic relationship, fall in love, date for five years (where she keeps breaking up with him ;-;;) until they break up for good, don’t speak for five years, and then start working together/doing another documentary again.

KP - Pain MV

[maritimo]

Ship/Member: Vernon/Minghao, others
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Celesbians, Genderswap, Alternate Universe - Famous
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: Basically Minghao and Vernon are dykes… Vernon the soundcloud butch rapper and Minghao the indie alternative artist (any kind)… They can be like D list celebrities for all I care tho. Perhaps they already have a complicated relationship or someone’s ex starts making their relationship difficult… The intricate web of lesbian relationships that overlap all the time… weirdlesbian4weirdlesbian :)

Totally back in love.

[infrequencies]

Ship/Member: Jihoon/Any; Seungcheol/Wonwoo; Any
Major Tags: Idolverse, Rock Band, any sort of Celeb setting
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: Summer of Like AU. Yes, as in the 2005 Pete/Mikey Warped Tour romance. Primer/manifesto linked for the unfamiliar, but essentially: Summer romance that fades out but never truly goes away. "Sorry every song's about you."

wrote you a goodbye note (you just wrote me off) on your arm when you passed out. bestfriends, exfriends- better off as lovers not the other way around. racing through the city in the back of yellow checkered cars. the takeoffs are the worst but the skin from your shoulder to your ear makes it all worth it. and im sorry the way my moods flicker on and off like old light on your porch, but i know you wouldn't have it any other way. sneaking in your window instead of out. the way you hold a cigarette cause you don't know what to do with your hands when we are sitting this close. the way the waists of pants feel better at the ankles. the way you always were my best excuse for calling in sick on everyone else. i miss you.

[FILL] that one summer i can't help but return to

[moonlitmelodiesfic]

Ship/Member: Soonyoung/Jihoon
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: summer feels, ambiguous relationships, yearning, uncertainty on feelings, idolverse, summer romance that never truly goes away, implied sexual content,
Permission to remix: Yes
a/n: hello op! it's me again! this fic is very much full of feelings and i wrote this with absolutely no idea where i'm going with it. i am not familiar with the summer of like and fob and mcr but i read through the manifesto and got hooked on the way pete's journals were so inexplicably full of Feelings and melancholy in a way (like, the vibes...) and this thing was born. it's probably a bit of a mess. but i hope it meets your expectations? enjoy:)
***

The summer Jihoon spent, alone, with Soonyoung is the summer that remains evergreen in Jihoon’s mind. He supposes there isn’t anything truly resembling solitude when every aspect of his life is stuffed with meetings and deadlines and expectations. It’s what he signed up for, it’s true. They were never fully alone, no matter what corner of South Korea, or the world, for that matter, they tried to hide themselves in.

But there’s something about heat-sticky summer air bloated with music and unrestrained laughter through open windows. Something about the freedom and joy that tasted like the youth he never fully got to grow into. Something about going to Jeju-do simply because they want to and they can. Something about it all that can make him forget it all; forget to check over his shoulder for cameras and fan swarms, forget to check to notifications on his phone from their manager.

He doesn’t remember the details of how Soonyoung managed to coax an entire free summer for them.

But here. He can list everything with heartstopping clarity from that summer. Orange and pink sunsets, clouds like smears on the horizon. The overly noisy splash of water at the Shinhwa water park and the shrieks of kids fucking around in the pools. The way Soonyoung’s bare chest gleams dark against the sun, water crystalline down his throat and arch of his neck. Curled up on the bed with the windows thrown open and welcoming like a fresh beginning. Frank Ocean soft through the air, the sheets damp under the indents of their knees. Summer heat shimmery against the darkening sky.

He’s never certain in those moments. Those moments when Soonyoung looks over as the shadows piece themselves together in the sky and Jihoon can only faintly see the outlines of Soonyoung’s face. Those moments when Soonyoung presses their lips softly together and Jihoon feels everything spill free like an open wound and the urge to press it all into song lyrics overwhelms and Jihoon unleashes it all upon Soonyoung’s skin. Shatters his words against the arch and roll of Soonyoung’s body and reforms them into a type of tactile worship he hadn’t known he was capable of. And then they're sticky and sweaty and so happy and Jihoon laughs, embarrassed, rolls away.

And then standing at the beach the next morning, the sun barely awake, Soonyoung certainly not, still sprawled on the bed, where Jihoon’s left him, to where he will inevitably return. But having this moment, rolling around thoughts in his head. Waves foamy over his toes, waiting for something to happen, for something to develop and some conversation to take place. He calculates every angle of every eyebrow tilt from the night before and wonders if there’s some coded love message in the gasps and grunts fused into his memory.

The ocean is still dark and ambiguous out far under the just breaking light. Jihoon decides that he has an aversion to the unknown and leaves the beach behind him, breathing around the well in his chest.

Soonyoung still isn’t awake when he toes off his shoes at the door and wipes his feet clean of sand. There is fondness, rushing like the tide through his chest. It’s pulling up some seaweed-like feelings he isn’t ready to deal with. So he shuts off his brain and climbs back into bed. It’s sweltering and he shouldn’t be pressing back into Soonyoung’s arms but he can’t help it. Soonyoung pulls him in unconsciously anyway, he tries to reason. He goes to sleep.



Summer swings around and goes. Jihoon wakes up one day and it’s time to go back, to the studio, to the dorm, to the rest of the members. Time to step back into the idol personas they both left in the trunk of their car.

The advent of autumn blows their summer apart like dead leaves and Jihoon drives them back to Seoul with his head not quite down from the clouds and giddiness still wrapping like messy velvet ribbons around his heart. They don’t speak much on the drive back. Jihoon feels distinctly like he’s leaving a part of himself behind.

When they pull up to the dorm building and step out, Soonyoung reaches for Jihoon’s hand instinctively, the way they’d always done at Jeju-do. Jihoon shakes him off like his body still holds implicit memory of shaking off summer bugs and mosquitoes. Perhaps there are kinder ways to remind him that they are now back in the prodding range of cameras and reporters and eyes and ears. There definitely are. Soonyoung moves to leave a noticeable distance between them.

They settle back into schedules with professional efficiency. Jihoon tries to rid himself of summer memories with far less success. On hotter nights he still opens his phone to the page of notes he had impulsively created.

There is only one line he’d penned from all those nights at Jeju-do.

Hot and miserable and so in love.

***

with the lack of frame of reference i had i based a lot of this on what i read in the manifesto.

making me a beautiful jewel

[infrequencies]

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

Prompt: Ruby Sparks is a fantasy-romance about a lonely writer named Calvin (Paul Dano) who spins a story about his dream girl — she listens to Phil Collins, roots for the underdog, loves motorcycles, and didn't finish high school — and then that girl comes to life.

Ruby Sparks is about the danger of idealizing a person, of reducing a person down to an idea of a person.

please let it be you who loves me

[moonlitmelodiesfic]

Ship/Member: Any (but seokhao, gyuhao, soonhoon...generally timid/bold dynamics if you know what i mean)
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: slightly futuristic, love alarm app, love detecting
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: love alarm au! "Love Alarm revolves around the story of a technology that enables users to discover love through an application which notifies users when someone within 10 meters has romantic feelings for them." (Wikipedia)

think maybe the giddiness of finding out someone loves you, the curiosity, or conversely the fear and nerves of walking into the vicinity of somebody you love. or maybe, just as an example, jihoon has never turned on his love alarm ever, and he gets pestered all the time by soonyoung, who just so happens to be the one he loves...go wild!

here are your upturned hands

[fleurissons]

Ship/Member: Your choice of 96z/Any, Any
Major Tags: Violence
Additional Tags: The Witcher AU, when is a monster not a monster?, sexual content in a 'i say i want you inside me and you split me open with a knife' way
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: One of the 96z members as a witcher, or you can go wild and make them all witchers! They travel to a village constantly under attack by a monster and set out to kill them to collect the reward. Things, of course, don't go as planned. The hunter suddenly decides the hunted is worth saving, despite what their vibrating medallion has to say. The leaves read a tragic ending in this one, you know when you think you can control them because you love them and that should be enough (it never was), but if happy is where you see this going, yeah why not!

Presents you with the following quote:

Monsters are more than just horrid looks and claws and teeth. Monsters are born of deeds done. Unforgivable ones.

and, of course, an obligatory monster poem.

[FILL]: last tender place to sink your teeth in

[oeillet]

Ship/Member: Wonwoo/Jeonghan
Major Tags: blood, mild violence and sexual content, MCD
Additional Tags: the witcher au, witcher Wonwoo, vampire Jeonghan, both monsters of a different kind, past relationships, it is you and i at the beginning and at the end
Permission to remix: Yes

I feel like i've taken some liberties with the prompt but! hope it is enjoyable nonetheless ^__^ (p.s. in witcher lore higher vampires can only be killed by another higher vampire, though i've decided not to use it for *coughs* obvious reasons)
***

Few promises surpass the lure of a sack full of gold for witchers in this land.

Wonwoo knows this: if he’s heard of the bounty promising riches beyond what a common man can dream of, then others would have too.

One of Redania’s main artery for agriculture, the unassuming village had been upholding the trade for produce—now, dwindled to a pitiable half. With the enemy pressuring Redania from the South, any diminution of the heart is a weakness they can exploit. Hence, the plentiful reward. Wonwoo cares not for it.

From where he stands on the hill, the barricades splitting the village seems like a rift that has risen from the land. A menacing row of sharp woods and fire. Not nearly enough to keep the monster away.

Elusive creature of the night, as rare as they are deadly, killings graceful as they are violent.

When Wonwoo arrives, his medallion remains quiet. The absence of a hum only confirms his guess, and his heart now thrums with anticipation. He’s going to see a familiar face tonight.

“Wonwoo,” the creature greets, rows of teeth far too sharp glinting under the full moon. He perches atop of a roof, one feet dangling in the air. “Pleasure to have you with me, wolf.”

They say higher vampires elude even the most sensitive detectors of magic. Their appearance so much alike that of a human’s. Clearly, whoever wrote the tales for men has never encountered one.

Jeonghan’s hair flutters in the wind, waves of blond and red interweaving beneath the sky. The circles of blood on his dress shirt are like rubies, almost glowing, rivalling that of his eyes—brewing a storm. He’s the most beautiful Wonwoo’s ever seen him.

“I had hoped that you were going to be the first here.”

That isn’t the truth. Jeonghan knows Wonwoo was going to be the first, as it has always been. It is ordained by Wonwoo’s insatiable thirst for him, in spite of everything.

“Why are you doing this?”

Jeonghan laughs, sound a chorus of warning bells of death in Wonwoo’s ears.“Does a monster know reason?”

Wonwoo’s medallion now hums, a lone wolf crying into the night. His silver sword remains sheathed.

Jeonghan jumps down, soundless, and he’s nose to nose with Wonwoo in a blink of a second. “Even if I do, does it matter to anyone? Isn’t having these enough?”

Jeonghan smiles as emphasis, teeth growing sharper by the second, hands turned into claws of a hunter.

There is still wet patch of blood on Jeonghan’s cheeks, Wonwoo rids Jeonghan of it with a brush of his thumb.

“You’ve never been a monster.” I am more of one than you ever were. “And it matters to me, Jeonghan.”

There is something wet on Wonwoo’s cheek, cold where it’s supposed to be warm. Jeonghan’s blood-stained hands cradle his face. The gentleness underpinning the touch has something terrible stirring inside Wonwoo.

“So you can decide whether you should strike me down or not?”

“You know the others will come, and they will not extend the same kindness.”

“I don’t desire kindness from you, wolf,” Jeonghan whispers, breath fanning on Wonwoo’s face. “I want you to take what you’ve always wanted to take from me.”

All Wonwoo feels is the wind whipping around his ears, the sound of movement, and the pressure on his chest. His back collied with what Wonwoo guesses is a wooden wall, grating against his armour.

Then, Jeonghan.

His still sharp claws scraping Wonwoo’s torso beneath his shirt, piercing skin, other hand a vice grip on his neck. Jeonghan pulls Wonwoo unbelievably close, until the taste of blood permeates unto Wonwoo’s tongue.

What a shame, Wonwoo thinks, he’s always wanted to know what Jeonghan tasted like. Now, he finally gets the chance to. Not in the way he wanted.

Wonwoo’s under the mercy of Jeonghan’s inhumane speed, and he lets himself give in. For time is a foe, promising a line of enemies the longer they think it is a friend. The house Jeonghan leads him in is grimy, death lingering in the air.

“They made Seokmin leave me.” Jeonghan moves, drives himself open. “They made him leave this world, for being with me.”

It’s a name Wonwoo doesn’t want to hear, yet Jeonghan’s tears spilling down on him seizes any disdain in Wonwoo’s system.

“I won’t leave you,” Wonwoo vows. “I won’t leave you.”

“Thank you, I know you won't,” Jeonghan sighs, before coming undone above Wonwoo.

Selfishness is a toxin no potion can ever cure. Wonwoo finds himself wanting to erase all of Jeonghan’s suffering, engulf Jeonghan in him completely. It had only been Wonwoo in Jeonghan’s beginning. And it shall be no one but Wonwoo in the end, even when he knows he’s merely playing into Jeonghan’s scheme.

“You’ve been so good for me,” Jeonghan says, at the end. “I must see Seokmin, now.”

It’s a quick affair, done after one last embrace.

Jeonghan’s last smile will forever be etched on Wonwoo’s memory, will forever be carved into his face for as long as Wonwoo’s alive. Vampires don’t rot, beautiful and deadly even until the end of time.

He slides his arms underneath Jeonghan, lifting him and cradling his head on his chest. The added weight will make a three days journey into five, tracks harder to cover, and other witchers can easily catch up to him.

Wonwoo will not hesitate to stand in their way. Put his life on his sword even if it meant betraying those of his kind.

Not a single soul is going to take the reward from the king, no one will take Jeonghan from him.

soongyuhao + pacific rim

[chickenfrog]

Ship/Member: soonyoung/mingyu/minghao (gyuhao + implied/onesided soonhao or vice versa also okay!)
Major Tags: none!
Additional Tags: pacrim drift (in)compatibility and all the intense emotional intimacy/invasiveness that comes with it; aka the inherent awkwardness of being confronted with feelings you don't want to or aren't ready to acknowledge while someone else is occupying your brainspace
Do Not Wants: none!

Prompt: newbie jaeger pilot-in-training minghao respects/adores senior trainee soonyoung So Much, (not-so-)secretly wants to be his drift partner So Badly. whether he likes it or not, though, it turns out his most compatible partner is fellow newbie kim mingyu. (is mingyu his best friend he shares his bunk with when training gets hard? the rival trainee who gets on his nerves and butts heads with him constantly? all up to you!)

any sort of internalized homophobia and/or sexuality crisis ("oh shit do i like him as more than a friend/mentor? oh shit do i like boys?? oh shit i'm not gonna think about that") moments are a major major bonus

[FILL] in new shapes

[seasignals]

Ship/Member: Mingyu/Minghao, one-sided Minghao/Soonyoung
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Pacific Rim AU, drift compatibility, internalized homophobia, constructing intricate rituals etc.
Permission to remix: Yes

it’s been a minute since i watched this movie, so some of the lore might be a bit off… and the busan shatterdome and academy are my own additions.

***

Soonyoung caught him in the mess hall, passing off his empty tray onto the pile. “Cadet Xu,” he said with a grin that scrunched up his cheeks, like his name and rank were an inside joke. They probably were; Soonyoung seemed to take the formalities of rank and title as suggestions rather than rules. “I’m headed to the Kwoon Room. Want to come with?”

He said it so easily that Minghao felt even stupider for the way his heart hammered and fipped at just the thought. Biting down the Yes, yes, of course, he replaced it with what he hoped was a perfectly neutral, “Why?” It must have come out on the wrong side of rude, from the way Soonyoung half-winced. “I just mean, Cadet Lee—”

There were maybe two dozen Cadet Lees at the Busan academy, but Soonyoung would know who he meant. Anyone would; at least since the entrance of Minghao’s class, no one’s seen Soonyoung train with anyone but Lee Jihoon. They had the highest sync rate at the base. If something happened to one of the active Rangers, they could be in a Jaeger the next day.

Soonyoung’s mouth did something complicated and a crease appeared between his sharp eyes. “You didn’t hear?” he asked, forced-casual. “J-Tech got him.”
He started walking away, but Minghao got the feeling he wasn’t being left behind on purpose; he half-jogged to catch up. The path was obvious: they were, as he said, headed to the Kwoon Room. “He’s pulling out of Ranger training?”

“Ah, well,” Soonyoung shrugged. The lightness was returning to his voice with more ease. Minghao wondered how many times he’d explained it already—it felt like only a day or two he had last seen them flying through their katas on the mat together, moving like two shadows cast by one body. “It wasn’t really his choice.”

“That’s not fair,” Minghao blurted, and was immediately embarrassed by the childishness of the thought.

Soonyoung didn’t scoff at him, give him the Life isn’t fair, kid, that he probably deserved. “The techs want him in their program, and to be honest, he’s wasted here,” he said simply. “I don’t know if you know, but he’s really got a good mind for that kind of thing. He just understands it like this,” he snapped his fingers. “You’d think he’d pass some of it over to me, but...” He chuckled, a little bashful.

Some of the cadets in Minghao’s year insisted Soonyoung was too scary to talk to, but he’d never seen it. It felt like Soonyoung was always bending over backwards to make himself available to the newer recruits, always willing to make himself the butt of a joke if it meant that his juniors would be less afraid to ask him for help.

“Well, it sucks,” Minghao said, hoping Soonyoung would understand what he meant to encompass in the useless words. He’d never drifted himself, at least not all the way. He was good, even excellent, in the Kwoon Room, able to match his movements with anyone who put in the same effort he did. He’d made it as far as the sims with Jeon Jungkook, Hirai Momo, Ha Sooyoung, even the untouchable Lee Ten. Every time, he’d floundered less than halfway to completing the handshake, backing away like a frightened animal. The trainers were probably starting to think he wasn’t worth the cost of feeding and housing him.

If he managed to find someone he was compatible with the way Soonyoung was with Jihoon, he didn’t know if he could stand to give it up.

Why me why me, he wanted to ask, the question matching his pulse in his ears. Of course Soonyoung wanted to get back on his feet as soon as possible, but anyone who wasn’t such a coward they avoided him on principle would jump at the chance to spar with him. He couldn’t judge whether he should be excited by the fact that Soonyoung sought him out specifically, but he couldn’t stop himself.

Kim Mingyu and Lee Seokmin were on the mats when they entered the room; both instinctively dropped their staves to rest position when they saw Soonyoung. Two girls in their class were waiting off to the side, one half-asleep on the other’s shoulder, and both stiffened to attention. If Soonyoung noticed any of it, he didn’t show it. “Hyelim-noona, can we have the floor for a minute?”

Fightmaster Yoon, who Minghao would never dream of addressing on any other terms, spread her hands wide. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s stopping you.”

Mingyu flashed Minghao one of his blinding smiles as he gave up his space on the mat. Minghao couldn’t think of a response and just blinked at him like an idiot until Fightmaster Yoon threw him a staff and he was back on solid ground.

It wasn’t perfect. Soonyoung clearly wasn’t used to sparring with someone taller than him, and Minghao was nervy in a way he’d never been before in the combat room, every clash of their staves sending shockwave pulses down his spine. It sped up his movements by half a beat, rushed and uncertain—Fightmaster Yoon clearly saw it, barking corrections, but he couldn’t parse it, his already shaky Korean turning to a wasps’ nest of buzzing white noise. But they caught up to each other at a startling speed, Soonyoung giving ground to accommodate for his wider range, Minghao slowing to follow through each move the way he’d trained on his own. They shared a preference for flashier moves, a palm spin meeting a downward flower—and then Minghao was disarmed and on his knees, breathless, electrified.

“Noona—Fightmaster—What do you think?”
They both knew before she answered. Sure, they could have done better, but no one could keep Kwon Soonyoung out of a cockpit.

**

“Keep your breathing steady,” Soonyoung said. “And, you know, don’t chase the rabbit.”

From anyone else, Minghao would have taken it as condescension. It wasn’t his first or second or third time in the sims. But Soonyoung didn’t condescend, so Minghao didn’t bite back. He nodded, and let himself drift—

Soonyoung at maybe nine or ten, scattering feed to chickens. At twelve or thirteen, running to the bakery on his mother’s request and staying to watch the baker toss the dough, pull it easily from the sizzling pan. Then in high school, called home with a sharpness that felt unjust until he saw the footage on the news, an impossible monster breaking from the sea, breaking through everything he’d known as his reality. Staying home day after day, glued to the television, face bathed watery blue: The first victory of Korea’s first Jaeger, Blazing Muse, and the first interview with her pilots. Ranger Choi Minho beaming and Ranger Kim Kibum laughing wryly at his side.

I get it, I see you, Minghao tried to say. He’d watched the interview too, subtitled.

Then a familiar surge of cold panic as it was Soonyoung’s turn to walk around inside his mind. Wushu practice after school. The same news of the same first impact. His mother taking the job at the Shanghai Shatterdome, her biology degree finally finding a use. Enrollment at the academy—Jungkook pinning him to the mat, grinning wildly, sweat dripping onto Minghao’s face—the night Mingyu dragged him out with a handful of their cohort to go club-hopping in Seomyeon, stumbling together into a grimy bathroom stall—Soonyoung seeing himself through Minghao’s eyes, a hand ghosting over his spine to correct his form—

Neural handshake 62% completed.

“What happened here?” Officer Kye asked. He had a good way of speaking to the cadets, never too harsh but never coddling. Soonyoung’s mouth parted, uncertain, and Minghao forced himself to find his words.

“Modesty reflex,” he said, patient as the staff unplugged the headsets, powered down the simulator. “Nothing serious.”

Officer Kye’s mouth was a hard line. “Cadet Xu—” You’re wasting Cadet Kwon’s time, Minghao filled in when he cut himself off. Soonyoung still hadn’t spoken, and Minghao could feel without looking at him, in the dizzy after-effects of the simulation, that his eyes were on the ground. His hair was plastered to his forehead in sweaty clumps, and Minghao couldn’t help wanting to brush it out.

“I’m sorry, Officer.”

Last time, Officer Kye suggested meditation, that maybe he needed to learn to sit inside his own head before he could let anyone else in. And Minghao had tried, really made the effort, and this was all he had to show for it.

“I don’t need an apology,” he said. “Get back to your training and come back when you’re ready to drift for real.”

In the corridor, under faltering fluorescents, Soonyoung repeated it back to him: “I’m sorry.” He moved as if to throw an arm over his shoulder, maybe, then seemed to think better of it. “That wasn’t that bad. I mean, we made it more than halfway. And I’ve seen way worse in Jihoonie’s head.” He shuddered theatrically, and Minghao felt the sting: he was playing the appeasing senior again, comforting a dongsaeng whose pride had been wounded. The same way he’d made Seokmin laugh, weeks ago, after Minghao laid him out on the mat in two strikes. The camaraderie, the chance at a relationship of equals, all up in smoke because he didn’t know how to separate matter from mind.

“That’s the highest sync rate I’ve ever gotten,” he ground out, because if he’d sacrificed the rest of his pride already, he may as well throw the last of it away. Beg a bit, implicitly.

Soonyoung gave him a sympathetic, courteous little smile. “I’m sure you’ll find someone...”

And that was that.

**

“I thought you and Soonyoung-hyung might have been it,” Mingyu said, and Minghao did his best not to snap at him. He only meant well, in the same blunt-edged way he always did.

And of course he knew. Even if Minghao was still a rookie, everyone knew Soonyoung, and word of potential matches spread fast. Minghao twirled his bo staff, trying to ground himself out of the embarrassment with the repetitive motion. “I didn’t,” he said. It wasn’t quite true. Before Mingyu could blunder into a well-intentioned question about what went wrong, Minghao asked, “You’re here to train?”

It was the middle of the night. Only insomniacs and people with too much to prove came to the Kwoon Room at this hour. Minghao was both. Mingyu, as far as he knew, was not.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Mingyu pouted. The kicked-puppy look stirred a familiar, unwelcome slurry of feelings. “I’ve been working harder.”
Minghao let the staff fall still, put on what he hoped was a conciliatory smile. “I know. I can tell.”

That was true. The first time he saw Mingyu on the mats, he got the measure of him at a glance. He was a head taller and maybe ten kilos heavier than the cadet he’d been paired up against, but held himself with uncertain, flat-footed awkwardness. His eyes were flickering up and down, left and right, missing every obvious cue. He’d never thrown a punch. Maybe he’d raised a fist to scare someone away from a sister or a girlfriend, but anything more than that? When he was downed before he could get in a single strike, Minghao coolly filed him away under cut before the end of the month and wondered why he couldn’t forget the match the way he’d discarded so many other non-starters.

But Mingyu hadn’t been cut. He hadn’t even dropped out of his own volition, while plenty more talented than him had. And day by day, he found his footing, started learning to use his natural advantages.

Minghao’s scant praise was enough to light him up at—what was it now, three in the morning? He puffed up, beaming with all his perfect teeth, and Minghao’s eyes dropped to the floor. Something had long been growing in his chest like kudzu and every now and then it tightened around his heart and lungs.

In another life, he and Mingyu might have been best friends. He was bright and affable, so quick to draw people in. He had an old film camera—Minghao had no idea where he went to get it developed—and went around taking pictures of everything and everyone. Every time Minghao caught him kneeling or contorted to capture something in that flash, he wanted to ask what it was he still found beautiful in this bullpen of exposed wiring and freezer-burned food while the world ended around them. He wished he could see it too. The only beauty he could see anymore was in people, and even that made him sick with guilt and fear half of the time.

In another life, they could have been best friends. Instead, Minghao watched others get drawn into his orbit in his place. (Soonyoung, even, head always turned up to grin and giggle at Mingyu, while Minghao seethed with a jealousy that couldn’t find a place to roost.) They remained cautious allies from a safe distance. And they forgot about the night that didn’t matter because it didn’t, not when they were drunk and pent up and losing their minds from the news of the Category Four ravaging Australia’s west coast and two Jaegers going down and the countdown to the end times winding on fast-forward. They didn’t talk about it. Minghao was scared of what he might say if they did.

“So if I’m doing so much better—”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Minghao said, but he was smiling; he knew a set-up when he saw one, and Mingyu shared Soonyoung’s gift for putting people at ease by giving them the upper hand.

“—If I’m doing so much better, should we go a round?”

Minghao felt his mouth fall open: body, as always, a step ahead of his mind, but caught himself. “I’m the only one here, aren’t I? I’d be insulted if you came here to train and wouldn’t spar with me.”

For a moment Mingyu’s warm eyes sharpened to a kind of scrutiny Minghao wasn’t sure he’d seen in him before. “It’s not about me,” he said, less playful than usual.

You’re right. I don’t want you in my head. But there he was already, reaching in with his clumsy hands. For whatever reason, he’d been the one to see more of Minghao than nearly anyone else, and there was no taking that back.

“Let’s try,” Minghao said, feeling his heart speed up, blood pulsing where his skin met the staff. Maybe he wanted Mingyu to touch him again, even if it was like this.

At the end of the world, there wasn't much left to risk.

soongyuhao + beach vacation au

[chickenfrog]

Ship/Member: soonyoung/mingyu/minghao
Major Tags: none!
Additional Tags: the murky lines between will-they won't-they, between friends and more-than-friends; wondering 'what are we' but being too afraid to ask; off the charts levels of unresolved sexual tension
Do Not Wants: any pre-established relationships

Prompt: best friends gyuhao are on their Nth beach vacation together and meet (fellow traveler in the same tour group? local boy next door/tour guide/cutie at the club?) soonyoung. they already have weird super-intimate these-guys-are-basically-a-couple vibes out the wazoo; but somehow it's meeting soonyoung, and their mutual attraction to/budding interest in him, that finally catalyzes their relationship into Something More, even Something Unexpected (an ot3 lol).

any au in a modern setting is fine!

[FILL] SUMMERLOVING

[klav]

Ship/Member: Minghao/Mingyu/Soonyoung
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: surfing, ambiguous relationships, ust
Permission to remix: Yes

***

Just cross-posting this here!

BTSVT

[dumbo1510]

Ship/Member: Any x han
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: dysfunctional family, found family
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: magical realism/supernatural/slice of life/office/idol/anything is fine

what’s wrong with secretary josh?

[stickystickysticky]

Ship/Member: Joshua/Any (feels like Joshua/Minghao though tbh…)
Major Tags: office au, putting on scarves as a love language, hurt/comfort/taking care of people who pretend they don’t need taking care of >:\
Additional Tags: N/A
Do Not Wants: None

Prompt: You don’t need to know the KDrama but it’s based on What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim and all we really need to know is that Josh is hot sexy perfectionist secretary to hot sexy well dressed ceo (minghao???). Josh has never missed a day of work in his life and then one day it gets cold outside and Josh did not bring a scarf…

[FILLL] what’s wrong with secretary josh?

[notspring]

Ship/Member: Joshua/Minghao
Major Tags: office au, boss/secretary
Additional Tags: none but i'm sorry it came out so much sluttier than you asked for asasdafj
Permission to remix: yes

***

Truthfully, Joshua hates events like this. It’s fine when he’s trailing along behind Minghao as he makes his rounds, nodding polite greetings and then hovering on the edge of the conversations that follow. But there’s always a point where he starts to feel like an imposition, just standing there smiling without contributing anything, and the moment he politely backs off the awkwardness always slams into him in a wave.

Tonight he’s hovering close to the bar, using it as cover even though he isn’t actually drinking, casting his eyes around the room to try to find his best option.

There’s always Mingyu — chatting cheerfully with a group of older women as he undoubtedly waits for Jeonghan’s signal, at which point he will swoop in with some excuse or other so Jeonghan can leave early. Joshua’s halfway through heaving out a sigh, thinking about how much of Mingyu’s inane chatter he’ll have to put up with only for Mingyu to inevitably ditch him, when one of the lawyers from the floor below sidles up with clear intent in his eye.

Joshua sighs again.

The Can I get you a drink? is as expected as it is unwelcome, and Joshua smiles blandly at him as he shakes his head in what he hopes is a manner that seems at least slightly apologetic.

“I’m not drinking tonight, sorry,” he says, polite but giving him nothing else, and that’s when it starts to get uncomfortable. The other man — over forty, flushed and stretched at the seams in the particular way that signals a life of excess — snorts, his feigned friendliness giving way to something uglier.

“Figures,” he says, and Joshua’s expression freezes on his face, a rigid plastic smile. “The kind of man who serves another man for a living….” he laughs as he trails off, clearly expecting Joshua to laugh along at a joke made at his own expense.

The worst part isn’t the look on his face, or the sound of his laughter.

The worst part is that Joshua does it, even as disgust washes over him — forces a smile, a few brittle “ha”s as discomfort washes over him in waves, wishing desperately he was almost anywhere else in the room. He should have just gone over to talk to Mingyu instead of being such a bitch about it — Mingyu would stand up for Joshua, no question, which makes Joshua feel a little shitty about how uncharitably he was just thinking about him.

Only a little, though.

Joshua’s still flustered, so focused on trying to think of an out that he doesn’t even notice Minghao’s presence until he’s right next to him, one hand touching lightly at Joshua’s back.

“What was that?”

Minghao’s question isn’t aggressive. There’s a challenging glint in his eye, though, even if there’s nothing but curiosity in his tone. If Joshua didn’t know better he might still think it was only that he didn’t hear the other man properly.

He does know better, though. A shiver runs down his spine before he can stop it.

The other man’s eyes flick to Minghao, then back to Joshua. A thrill of daring runs through Joshua and he holds the man’s stare, his earlier polite smile long gone, until the other man is forced to look away first.

Joshua’s shoulders straighten.

“Nothing,” the other man says to Minghao, another laugh accompanying his words — a little uneasier now, Joshua thinks, or maybe that’s just what he wants to hear.

“Figures,” Minghao says, smiling coolly. Joshua holds himself very still, waiting, but Minghao doesn’t say anything more, holding the smile until the other man excuses himself to walk away and then letting it drop immediately.

Joshua still doesn’t move, even as Minghao turns to look at him. Embarrassment starts to wash over him, making him feel sick and small. He doesn’t want to know what Minghao thinks of him.

Minghao, who’s still looking at him, gaze narrow and focused. Joshua hates when he does that — or, well. He hates that he doesn't hate it, not totally. There's something weirdly compelling about the idea that Minghao likes what he's seeing — Joshua likes being looked at, usually, when it's Minghao. 

Sometimes he even lets himself look back. 

He doesn’t like it now. He coughs a little, looking towards his feet, and Minghao makes a tiny sound — concern, maybe, or frustration. If Joshua could make himself check Minghao's face he'd be able to tell. 

He can't, though. So.

“Let's go,” Minghao says quietly, finally, and that’s enough to shock Joshua into looking up. He blinks at Minghao for a moment, mouth parted, trying to figure out the look on his face. There's no irritation there, none at all, which only leaves concern. 

Joshua's cheeks heat.

“You don't have to do that,” he says. “If you aren't ready — ”

“I'm ready,” Minghao cuts him off firmly. “There's nothing important for me here.”

Joshua honestly doesn't know what to say to that. If he was braver he would ask, maybe. Am I important? Am I important to you? But even the thought of it makes him cringe, ears burning to match his cheeks. 

“Okay,” he forces out, proud of how steady his voice sounds. The two of them are still staring at each other. “Do you need me to call you a car?”

“We can just take a taxi,” Minghao says, the we throwing Joshua for another loop. He doesn't know what to do with any of this. 

“Okay,” he says again, uselessly, before he takes a breath and forces himself together. “I'll get our coats.”

It's colder than he expected when they get outside and Joshua fights back a shiver as a gust of wind hits. His padded coat isn't formal so he's wearing a pea coat instead, suitable for the event but not the weather. Minghao looks over at him and frowns, hands pausing where they'd been fixing his own scarf. 

“Is that all you wore?” he asks, nodding towards Joshua's coat. Joshua slides his freezing hands into his pockets and shrugs, offering Minghao a smile. The wind whips against his face, no doubt turning his nose an unattractive red. 

“I'm fine,” he lies, just as another gust of wind hits and a shudder wracks through him. He tries to force his body still but he still feels shaky from the confrontation inside, embarrassingly, and it's harder than he'd like to hide it — especially from Minghao, whose sharp eyes seem to catch everything.

Sure enough —

“You’re cold,” Minghao says, frowning, craning his neck towards the road as though he can make a taxi materialize out of nowhere. “You’ll get sick.”

Joshua fights back a snort, coming closer to peer down the street along with Minghao. He hasn't gotten sick in years — not since before he even started working here, he's pretty sure. He takes all the herbal medicine his mom sends him and gets a flu shot every year, and he stopped drinking on work nights about three weeks after he took the job. Sure, he has a tension headache nearly every day and an anxiety stomachache every time he has to attend an event, but that’s nothing. Part of the job, that’s all.

There aren’t any taxis on the road.

“I’ll call one,” Joshua says, pulling out his phone and navigating to the app, putting in the request for Minghao’s apartment first without thinking about it. Minghao watches him do it, silent. “Seven minutes,” Joshua says, tilting the screen so he can see it better, switching the phone to one hand so he can slip the other one back into his pocket. It really is so cold.

“Here,” Minghao says suddenly, voice familiar and soft, and Joshua tears his eyes from the phone screen to find Minghao untying his scarf with brisk intention. An awkward laugh bubbles up from his throat, only a little panicked.

“You don’t have to — ” he tries, but Minghao shuts him down with a stern glare, softened by the little smile lurking at the corner of his mouth. Joshua laughs and shuts up, lets Minghao come closer and wrap the fabric around his neck. It’s soft, which he guesses he should expect, given what Minghao paid for it. Minghao’s hands are confident as he arranges the scarf to lie the way he wants, apparently just as comfortable fixing it for someone else as he is when he does it for himself.

He smells good, this close. Joshua tries very hard not to notice.

“You have to take care of yourself,” Minghao says as he finishes, offering one firm pat to Joshua’s chest before he pulls his hands back.

“Thanks,” Joshua says weakly, tearing his gaze away to look down at the phone in his hand just to give himself something to do. Four minutes.

Minghao doesn’t say anything else as they wait for the taxi, seemingly content to wait in silence. The inside of Joshua’s brain feels like a riot, thoughts flinging themselves against each other even as he holds his body perfectly still. He doesn’t quite understand where all this is coming from. It’s his job to worry about what Minghao does, obviously, and he knows he’s good at it — probably because he spends his entire life worrying about everything.

It’s only supposed to go one way, though. Minghao isn’t supposed to worry about him, too. Minghao isn’t supposed to leave the party for him, isn’t supposed to —

The taxi pulls up. Joshua opens the door to let Minghao slide in first, both of them silent as the car glides through one green light, and then another, and then —

“You don’t always have to be so polite,” Minghao says quietly, eyes focused out the window. Joshua’s stomach lurches and he doesn’t say anything. Minghao turns to him, then, their eyes meeting for a split second before Joshua’s drop to his knees.

“I mean it,” Minghao says as he reaches for Joshua’s kneecap, the touch impossible to ignore. “No one should ever say something like that about you. You don’t have to let them.”

I didn’t let him, Joshua opens his mouth to say, but it dies before he can force it out. Minghao would see through the lie, anyway.

I won’t do it again, Joshua could say, but Minghao would see through that, too. He keeps his mouth shut, instead, and doesn’t move Minghao’s hand from his knee.

The taxi driver takes a left at the next light — they’re almost there.

The air between them feels tight, nearly electric, as Joshua lets his knees open a little, until Minghao’s gripping his thigh for real. He can feel Minghao’s gaze, hot against the side of his face. His scarf is still warm around Joshua’s neck.

“Joshua,” Minghao says, very quietly, as the taxi pulls to a stop in front of the building. Joshua meets his eyes without flinching, knowing exactly what kind of man it makes him.

“Aren’t you going to invite me up?”