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I'm tired reading fanfiction non stop. I feel like I don't pay much attention towards real life and right now my life sucks. I need a new job but i spend hours reading. And i hate my self and i read to soothe my self and the circle keep coming back. HELP ME

#fanfiction #fanfic reading #fanfiction reading #mentally tired #hate myself

veeaziel

every day i am percieved™️

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

There is a reason for this though!

The original tweet summarizes it pretty well. Fanfic tends to be popular among certain types of neurodivergent people (aka people most likely to read excessively as a child, and have burnout as an adult) for the same reasons that we tend to hyperfixate–neurochemical signaling (I hope I’m using that phrase correctly). What I mean is, for people who are really dependent on changes in dopamine/serotonin/neurotransmitter levels, who have low levels or wonky neural reward systems (perhaps the most common types of neurodivergence)…people like us rely on dependable external sources of those neurochemicals. In order to function, we spend a lot of our free time trying to level out our brain chemistry using things that can reliably bring us a steady stream of joyful moments (rewards) without costing too much of the mental effort that is already in short supply.

significantly: the investment of reading has to be balanced with a steady “return on investment”–and this return has to start fairly quickly. because again, we don’t have a lot of attention/energy to invest on tiring things. we have perpetual “low batteries” in that regard.

that doesn’t mean these stories are “simple,” or that they lack complexity or value–only that the reward has to come in short regular intervals, and it has to have a low “upfront cost.” these stories are only “easy” to read in the sense that the effort we put into them is rewarded in a timely manner. which is why fanfic stories are so perfectly formulated for neurodivergent readers–they are often beautifully written, but skip a lot of the upfront costs (of introducing new characters, of world-building, of getting the audience emotionally connected to the story elements).

the nature of fanfiction is that the reader has a pre-existing relationship with this world and these characters. that–combined with the shorter average length of fics–means that fan fics very quickly start rewarding the reader in a way that traditional fiction struggles to. that’s not a bad thing! and maybe it’s something more traditionally published writers should be paying attention to.

Fanfic, as a genre, has been uniquely helpful and accessible to many neurodivergent readers who would otherwise struggle to immerse themselves in stories. I’m glad so many of you have found a way to love and enjoy reading again! The important thing is that you are spending time inside stories you love–the way those stories are published or presented to the world is just one detail. The fact that you find joy in the process of reading (or listening!) to stories–that is what matters.

attackofjak

I feel understood 🥰

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

a bunch of people have reblogged this with the default “i feel called out” reaction….and i know when we say that we mean it tongue-in-cheek….but this comment sorta blew my mind & shifted my perspective up and to the left a little thank you♥

zadabug98

The Serotonin is stored in the Ao3

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

The Serotonin is stored in the Ao3

galvanizedfriend

Chloé Zhao, who just won an Oscar for best director, writes fanfiction.

That's the kind of validation I needed in my life. Thank you, ma'am.

rainbowdazzle

iconic

katherynefromphilly

LIFE GOALS.

josie817

For all the fanfiction writers out there...

ectoheart

Happy 40th Birthday, Draco Lucius Malfoy | June 5th 1980

ouchthatwasgood

Fanfiction is the literal embodiment of “if you want something done right, do it yourself”

asstroids

Strugglin from the womb to the tomb

brutereason

I find it fascinating that people who choose not to have children are generally assumed to feel really strongly about not having children (or even to feel really strongly against children, anyone’s children, in general). I am probably not going to have children, not because I REALLY REALLY HATE the idea of having children, but because I don’t really really love it. Out of all the major decisions I will make in my life, this one is the only irreversible one. I can sell a house, quit a job, divorce a spouse, whatever. I cannot unhave a child. I cannot opt out of being a parent once I become a parent. I can’t even take a step back for the sake of self-care or whatever, or else my child will suffer.

So for me, having children is fuck yes or not at all. The default will be to remain childfree. Having children should be an opt-in decision, not an opt-out one. Until/unless I develop really strong feelings about wanting to have children, I won’t have them, even if that means I never end up having them at all.

functioning-minne-holic

Sometimes you just come across something that puts into words what you have yet been unable to.

bookishdiplodocus

Reblog the writers’ fortune cookie for luck!

redeadepression

Guys I reblogged this and then wrote an 8000 word story I didn’t even have a solid plan for. Reblog this shit.

cleanfreakromhell

I ain’t risking it.

mrsren

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

naomijameston

Tell you what, if this reblog can break through the headache and brain fog I’ve had going for two days, I’ll believe in it.

freshtoxinn

The Deepest of Bonds

Prompt: “Closure”

SasuSaku Month: Day 29

Rating: T (Really heavy angst + death! Please fasten your seatbelts my dudes. If you don’t like this kind of content please skip this post and don’t leave rude comments.)

Note: Today we come to you with a project which, despite adversities, we wanted to complete. I came up with an idea that the wonderful @ss-tyytyy has written while my role was to illustrate a few situations in this story. We hope you will remember it for a long time. We both hope you will enjoy it as much as we do! 💕

~~~

There was a time when Sarada couldn’t understand the bond her parents had and she’d even questioned their love for one another. Papa was away for so long… mama was always alone.

Those were hard times for her and even after the three of them had been reunited she still hadn’t been able to grasp the entirety of how deep and true the love of the Uchiha ran. It was only after Papa had returned home for good that things truly started to become clear to her.

Papa was quiet and reserved, but Mama was easy enough to read. She was always her happiest when Papa was around, and Papa was happy too. Sarada spent a lot of time with her parents. They trained with her, taught her many things, and always made sure she was loved.

Those days were some of the happiest and most memorable of her life.

A new joy was born into their lives, another daughter who was named Sakuto. Sarada was fourteen at the time of her birth and though it was unexpected, she was just as elated as her parents to have a new member of their family.

Though she wasn’t a mirror image of Mama, she had her same soft, pink hair and had obtained her freckles as well. She had Papa’s eyes which contrasted beautifully against her pale skin and light-colored hair. Sarada and her parents loved Sakuto deeply, just as they loved each other and after her birth, their family was complete.

They were happy. Their bond was stronger than ever. There was so much love and affection, even if it was on the quiet side.

The more time that passed, the easier it was for Sarada to see just how much Mama and Papa cherished one another, and how much she and her sister meant to them. Papa was home most of the time, though Mama did work at the hospital almost every day.

Sarada took pride in her chores, even having dinner prepared for her family on nights when Mama was working late. She adored all the time she got to spend with her baby sister. But most of all, she loved watching her parents together.

It was unreal, how those two could just exchange a glance alone and it be so full of affection, understanding, and mutual love and respect. What really got her though, were those moments that Papa would reach out and poke Mama’s forehead.

Mama always said it was better than a kiss, and it had always been touching to Sarada; but she knew it meant so much to Mama. She would always blush and avert her eyes from Papa, and Papa would get that suggestive smirk on his lips.

Sarada hoped that one day, she could have a love as unbreakable as the one her parents shared.

Things weren’t always perfect, but they were pretty close. Mama and Papa never argued. They never got angry with each other. They were both patient and caring and always striving to have the best for her and Sakuto. Mama had finally talked Papa into accepting a prosthetic arm. It was funny seeing him get used to having two arms.

They were happy.

But their happiness wasn’t meant to last forever.

Keep reading

lesbiansitara-moved-deactivated

I wish that ao3 had an option to filter warnings (and tbh certain authors) out like I will never ever want to read it and just seeing it puts me off so much that often I end up closing my browser because that content upsets me so much lmao

darcylindbergh

There is a way to do this but I can’t recall how to do it. it’s something you type into the box for “other filters” or something, I don’t remember. who knows?? It’s not a great option, and I don’t know if you can sort out authors that way, but it’s better than nothing if someone can reblog this with how to do it!

fordeductions-blog

Alrighty friends! It takes some specificity, but you can do this. Let me show you how!

So I started with going to the Sherlock (TV) section of Ao3. On the right we find this lovely section! ((I know I’m going over things you already probably know, but I figure this post may go to new Ao3 users, so bear with me.))

Underneath this, I chose sort by Kudos, because that’s a quick way to find most popular fics, for the sake of this demonstration.

With those filters on, we end up with this being our first two results:

As you can see, we have Nature and Nurture by earlgreytea68, and The Internet Is Not Just For Porn by cyerus. So what if I am utterly sick of seeing earlgreytea68 on my list? Let’s pretend I’ve read all their fics, or that I just don’t like her, or whatever. I want this author out. I go to this section on the right:

In “Search within results” I type earlgreytea68 into the bar, with a minus sign in front. This gives me the following page, upon hitting the sort and filter button:

There goes earlgreytea68! But now I’ve decided that Crack is just not my thing, I’m sick of that, too, for heaven’s sake, I want something reasonable in my gay slash fanfiction about detectives that solve crimes about glowing dogs and irish megalomaniacs. Heaven forbid this get ridiculous.

Well, then I add this to my search:

Which gets rid of everything with that tag. My results are now:

Performance in a Leading Role is now my first result!

You can do this as many times as you want; the biggest problem I have is trying to filter out multi-worded tags. For example, “Secret Relationship” is hard to filter. Better to go with authors you dislike or with words like “DubCon”.

I hope this helps! Also remember that googling site:archiveofourown.org and then adding search terms will mean google searches Ao3 for you, and sometimes that works far better.

Good luck!

darcylindbergh

An excellent in-depth guide! Thank you!!

eyesofmedusa

omg changed my whole ao3 rarepair game

stucky-ficrecs

An excellent guide to filtering on AO3!

You can filter out phrases by enclosing them in quotes. For example, if ABO and Hydra Trash Party are not your things, try:

-“alpha/beta/omega dynamics” -”hydra trash party”

possibly-an-obsession

I have more advice!

Say, you’re in your random fandom- I went with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, since I’ve been reading Iron Man stuff recently. Tony Stark is awesome.

But anyway, you’re on the page, and you see that there are 174,774 works! That is way too many for a casual afternoon’s browsing.

And you see that the first one is Peter Parker/Tony Stark and that is not your jam. It doesn’t work for you, or it squicks you, whatever. Wouldn’t life be easier if you could browse without seeing that pairing (or whatever pairing you don’t like)? You can!

First, click on that pairing tag(You may want to open this in another tab, actually.):

and it’ll take you to the page for that pairing tag. Click this button:

and then look at the address bar! The actual page is unimportant. Copy the numbers located here:

and go back to the original search page! Down on the side, in the same place you can get rid of other tags, type -relationship_ids:”the number you just copied”

Then hit ‘sort and filter’ annnd… magic!

The fics with that pairing are gone! You can also do multiple pairings, get rid of any tags you don’t like, and sort it by date or length or kudos, or whatever.

Enjoy.

irenkaferalkitty

I’d just like to add that these sorts of search modifiers ALSO WORK IN GOOGLE AND MOST RESEARCH DATABASES. The more you know.

itsmajel

Just a quick reminder that AO3 uses Lucene as a search and index engine.

That means you can pretty much use all the Lucene Query Syntax in the “Seach within result” field.

I don’t think AO3 indexes the whole fic for searching but definitely it’s meta data. Combined with Lucenes awesome query syntax you can do pretty much every search you heart desires.

Addtional Lucene Query Syntax that has not been mentioned yet and you might find useful:

Wildcard Searches

You can use wildcard searches within single terms. For a single character wildcard search use the “?” symbol. For a multiple character wildcard search use the “*” symbol.

AND/OR

Lucene allows you to combin terms through logic operators. You’re looking for fics that are either “reunion” or “enemies to lovers”?

Just put in >“reunion” OR “enemies to lovers”< into the field

and you end up with all the stories that are either or but not both.

But wait, now you’re looking for fics that are both “reunion” and “enemies to lovers” at the same time? Now worries Lucene got you covered.

Just change it into >“"reunion” AND “enemies to lovers”“<

and you’ll get all the fics that mention both “reunion” and “enemies to lovers” somewhere in their meta data (note: it’s not just tags. It’s also title, summary …)

Boosting

You can also boost specific terms when doing a multi term search.

You can use the “^” Operator followed by a number to boost a specific term.

Say you’re interested in fics that are either “first kiss” or “bed sharing” but you’re much more interested in “bed sharing” fics and feel they are more relevant.

You can use the search >“first kiss” “bed sharing”^5<

to manipulate the order of your results in a matter that the score of every fic that contains beg sharing is multiplied by 5. Therefore all fics containing that term are given priority and shown at the top of the list.

You can also combine all of the above, target specifc fields (that’s what you did with the “relationsship_id:xxx”) and many more things.

For more info about the Lucene query syntax check out Apache’s Lucene Query doc.

thefriendlypigeon

^ sharing this because we all love fanfics and @itsmajel is a freaking nerd 👌

midnight-spectrum-again

Good to know

catchymemes

whifferdills

https://www.the-pro-creator.com/2019/01/I-hate-adobe-and-so-should-you.html

trekmemes-deactivated20220205

@ghosthikikomon on Twitter:

I’m so pissed that Adobe is hiking the Creative Cloud price (AGAIN) that I did a round-up of FREE ALTERNATIVES to all the major CC programs. Because FUCK Adobe:

IF YOU DRAW OR DESIGN

Instead of PHOTOSHOP, try GIMP

Instead of LIGHTROOM, try PAINT DOT NET

Instead of ILLUSTRATOR, try INKSCAPE

Instead of INDESIGN try CANVA or SCRIBUS

IF YOU MAKE PICTURES MOVE

Instead of PREMIER, try DAVINCI RESOLVE

Instead of ANIMATE/FLASH, try OPENTOONS or BLENDER

Instead of AFTER EFFECTS, try WAX, BLENDER, or FUSION

IF YOU BUILD WEBSITES OR SOFTWARE

Instead of DREAMWEAVER, SPARK, or XD, try WIX, WEEBLY, or WORDPRESS.COM, or WORDPRESS.ORG

IF YOU DO STUFF THAT REQUIRES THESE OTHER PROGRAMS

Instead of AUDITION, try AUDACITY

Instead of ACROBAT PRO try FOXIT READER or PDF ESCAPE

Instead of INCOPY try LOVING YOURSELF AND USING LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE (WHO USES THIS??)

IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS OR FONTS

Instead of ADOBE STOCK, try PEXELS, UNSPLASH, or PIXABAY

Instead of ADOBE FONTS try GOOGLE FONTS or DAFONT

BONUS: If you need FREE MUSIC OR SOUND EFFECTS try YOUTUBE AUDIO LIBRARY or SOUNDBIBLE

taichi-kungfu-online

Workout For Daily Life

chitarra10

Reblogging for the neck pain ones… whoa Nelly, do I ever get the most killer neck pains.

bananannabeth

Not So Shore

A ‘Mortals Meet Percabeth’ fic, with a twist!! 10k words

“Hey, Kelly?”

Kelly looked up from her biology textbook, blinking at her best friend Olivia, who was definitely not doing the chapter review questions they’d been assigned. “What?”

“Do you think there’s something weird about Percy Jackson?” Olivia asked.

Kelly followed her to gaze to where Percy was sitting at the back of the room, leaning back in his chair. He wasn’t doing the review questions, either - instead, he was staring into the fish tank behind his desk. Kelly couldn’t see his face, but his dark hair was ruffled up and he was wearing his AHS hoodie with ‘Jackson’ emblazoned across the back of it.

“What do you mean, weird?” she asked, turning back around to Olivia.

Olivia shrugged. “I mean, just… there’s something strange about him.”

Keep reading

nikitajobson-deactivated2024052

– whatever you want, granger –

senlinyu

I have had this in my head since Valentines Day, but I couldn’t get it to work out properly for the longest time. This is one of my all time favourite pieces of Dramione art, so I had to write a little homage at least.

Draco felt a chill in the pit of his stomach. She was humming.

That was always an unfortunate sign.

To anyone passing it might seem cheerful, but to those who knew Hermione Granger intimately, humming was a warning. Draco immediately moved closer as they reached the street corner, casting a discrete tracing charm on her coat before taking her hand.

She looked up at him, her dark eyes alight. “I’m going to leave the Ministry.”

Draco stared down at her, arching an eyebrow. “Are you?”

She nodded and raised her hand, gesturing forward into the distance. “Yes. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. I need to stop thinking and just do it. I’m not going to make the difference I want if I just stay where I am now. I need to travel and see things for myself rather than always reading about them.”

Draco tucked her hand securely in the crook of his arm, resting his fingers on top of hers.

“I thought you liked reading,” he said, his voice dry.

She laughed and rolled her eyes. “I do, but there are certain things you can’t get from books. The theory isn’t enough for some things; I need to experience them.”

“Ah.” Draco nodded, but his tone had become muted.

Hermione nodded resolutely to herself, expression steely and determined. “I’m really going to do it. I’m going to quit. I think it’s important that I do. I’ll travel, maybe for years.”

Draco’s stomach plummeted.

“Harry and Ron can’t assume I’ll always be right here to bail them out. I think it’s time.”

There was a hollow, throbbing sensation spreading steadily throughout his chest, but he forced a pained smile. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

She smiled brightly accompanied by a quick enthusiastic nod. “I will.”

She gave another hum and apparated without warning.

———

The first time Draco arrived at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, while Hermione was getting her coat, Potter pulled him aside.

Draco braced himself for threats of dismemberment, but Potter just said, “Don’t let Hermione get drunk.”

Draco assumed it was some kind of protective warning, that Potter suspected Draco would try to take advantage of her if she were vulnerable and intoxicated.

Draco had no intention of ever cutting any corners. He barely paid attention to the warning and eventually forgot about it entirely after the first few months until an attentive waiter kept their wine glasses full for several hours straight. Hermione gave a loud and abrupt peal of laughter in response to an only mildly humorous joke and it occurred to Draco that she might have had a bit more to drink than usual.

However, she seemed fine. Her speech was unslurred; her eyes attentive and bright, brighter than usual perhaps. Her hands moved more emphatically when she spoke, but she didn’t seem drunk.

Until they were leaving.

She gave a little happy hum and apparated without any warning.

Draco had barely managed to grab hold of her sleeve and nearly splinched himself when they reappeared in an animal shelter. He’d stood by, nauseous and bewildered, as Hermione hurried over and began removing cats from their cages, stuffing them inside her coat.

By the time Draco managed to get her home, they were both holding cats, covered in scratches, and Hermione was crying and kissing a resistant tomcat while talking about how animals just needed someone to love them.

Potter wore the piercing expression of a disappointed parent as he held the door open and Draco dragged her inside.

When Draco had her safely in bed with all her new cats, he tried to explain. Potter snorted and said, “At least she didn’t jump you to Northern Ireland. Ron lost his elbow once chasing her.”

Potter pulled him into the kitchen to help heal the nastier scratches

”I probably should have mentioned. Hermione doesn’t really have impulse control when she’s drunk,” Potter said as he dabbed stinging antiseptic along the side of Draco’s neck.

Draco glared as he clenched his teeth. “It would have been helpful if you had.”

Potter gave a thin smile and spelled the cut closed. “To be fair, I didn’t think you two would last long enough that it mattered.”

Draco looked away.

“Cats are pretty minor, relatively speaking,” Potter said as he poured the stinging liquid across the back of Draco’s hand. “One time, she disappeared so long, Ron and I reported her missing. McGonagall found her in Hogwarts, having an argument with the house-elves. Another time, she robbed Borgin and Burke’s because she wanted to know how a cursed amulet worked. There was also—“ he winced, “—one time she apparated into Downing Street to scold the Prime Minister about a policy decision she didn’t like. It was a mess. Worst birthday I ever had.”

“You and Weasley are both unbelievable,” Draco said, rolling his eyes and standing to leave.

“Just watch out, when she hums, that’s usually the only sign she’s about to apparate.”

———

They reappeared in the Kensington Gardens. Draco was gripping Hermione’s hand, stomach roiling violently from the abrupt disapparition as he tried to regain his bearings. He discovered that his cashmere scarf and three buttons on his shirt did not appear to have survived the journey.

It was raining there. A light drizzle misting down on them as they stood in the dark and empty park.

Without releasing her hand, he studied Hermione, trying to determine what she might do next. Slipping her wand away from her would be ideal, but Potter and Weasley had several horror stories about the potential consequences of trying to relieve her of her wand. Drunk Hermione was apparently uninhibited and creative in her choice of defensive hexes.

She simply stood glancing around.

“This is one of my favourite places,” she finally said. ”My dad and I used to come here on Sundays. He used to travel, you know.”

Draco hadn’t known.

Her parents were in Australia, and it was, he had learned, not something she liked to talk about.

“Itchy feet, my mum always said.” The corner of her mouth curved into a wistful smile, and her eyes were far away as though she wasn’t seeing the empty park but something distant and lost in the past. The misting rain was catching in her hair and lashes, and she looked almost ethereal, so effortlessly lovely that Draco couldn’t have turned from her if he’d wanted to.

“When we came here, he always told me stories about all the places he’d been. We had a map at home, marking all the cities he’d visited. I always thought I’d travel after school. Even when I went to Hogwarts, I still planned to have a gap year so I could see the world before I settled down with a job, but—“ she looked down, “I needed an extra year to graduate, and by then, financially things weren’t exactly—

She stopped.

“It wasn’t in the cards anymore,” she finally said.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said, but she looked down. “It wasn’t the most important thing.”

Her shoulders squared, and she flashed him a brilliant smile. “I get to do it now. It might even be better. I think it could be, doing it when I’m older.”

She tilted her head to the side, eyebrows furrowing. “I never told anyone about traveling. Harry and Ron weren’t really interested when I mentioned it back in school. I’m not sure what everyone will think.”

Draco forced a smile. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. Even if they aren’t, you shouldn’t hold yourself back.”

But he looked away as he said it. His chest felt constricted and hollow at the same time. He squeezed her hand where it was still tucked around his arm and exhaled slowly, trying to ignore the corrosive sense of despair spreading across his chest.

He shouldn’t be surprised. He really shouldn’t. This was the way she was.

Full of plans and ideas for the future, and Draco never felt he had a place in any of them.

She always accounted for Potter and Weasley’s feelings, considered the disapproval of Molly Weasley, and the potential professional consequences or fallout when spinning her castles in the air.

But Draco wasn’t included.

Whatever impulsive plans she happened to be enraptured by, Draco was never factored into them. Not after six months together. Not after a year.

Not after two.

In all the infinite futures she envisioned and told him about, he was a non-element.

As he stood, trying to absorb it, her hand slipped free from his. Before he could reach out, she’d walked a few steps further along the path alone.

He stared wistfully after her. The rain was steadily seeping through his clothing.

“When?” he finally asked.

She stopped and was quiet for a moment before turning back, gnawing thoughtfully on her lip. “Soon. I want to go as soon as I can. I don’t want to keep waiting. I’ll just keep finding reasons to put it off.”

Draco nodded, wondering if he was at least part of that. Maybe there’d been a test at some point he’d unknowingly failed, some threshold he’d never reached.

If he could figure out what it was, he might be able to fix it. If he could pinpoint the ways in which he wasn’t enough. Perhaps she would have gone sooner, but she’d waited because of him.

A two-year delay, and now she’d made her ruling: the world had more to offer than Draco Malfoy did.

He could hardly argue with that.

She was turning away again, eyes dreamy and alight. The rain was falling faster now, hard enough to hear in the quiet of the park.

“Well,” he forced his voice to stay light. “I suppose I have to let you go then.”

She stopped mid-stride and her head jerked as she turned sharply back to stare at him. Her eyes had gone wide.

Draco raised an eyebrow. “What?”

She was silent. Then, after a moment, she inhaled and looked down at her hands, seeming to be at a loss for words for several seconds. “Oh. It’s — it’s just — I thought — I thought you’d want to come with me.”

Draco’s heart skipped a beat and then several more as he stared at her.

“Me?” He finally managed to say.

She was fidgeting with the buttons on her coat. “Yes.”

”You didn’t—mention me,” Draco said.

Hermione looked up.

“I — I just assumed. You always — come. You’re always interested in what I’m doing, so I thought —” She looked down again and exhaled. “Sorry. Of course, you don’t want to. That would be a lot — to leave. I wasn’t even thinking. It was — “ she shook her head sharply and bit her lip, “Sorry. Here I am talking about traveling for years, and you don’t even — Sorry —“

Draco stepped forward, closing the space between them. His hand slid against the side of her neck, slipping beneath her damp hair, fingers curling around the juncture of her neck and shoulder to draw her closer as he stared at her. The droplets of rain had caught in her lashes, glittering like constellations to framed her eyes.

“Of course I’ll go with you,” he said quickly, heart pounding out of his chest. “I’ll go anywhere in the world with you if you want me to.”

“Are you sure? You don’t—“

“Anywhere. Anything,” he said as he pulled her into his arms.

They were standing so close their faces nearly touched. His fingers brushed against the column of her throat until he found the quick, nervous flutter of her pulse where it was hidden beneath her jaw, racing at a tempo that matched his heartbeat.

He could scarcely breathe because he was drowning in her. He dipped his head forward. Her lips against his were like a firestorm, searing enough to burn straight to his soul.

He inhaled against her lips and pulled her closer, kissing her again. “Whatever you want, Granger.”