#last chapter!

[haleingstorm]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Miss the Person I Never Got To Be

Chapter 9: May

Summary:

Clarisse gets a visitor. A War Council is held. Thalia dreams.

[wordthieve]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

It's FINISHED! I'm sorry the epilogue was so late in coming, and I hope it brings things to a satisfying end.

This took far too long to finish but I'm so proud of getting here. Big thanks to everyone in this lovely damn fandom. You're nice.

[silent-stories]

fb tomorrow! 🥊🩹

[allmyfuckingobsessions]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

CHAPTER 5

“Do you want to go up until the rain stops?” she said those words without looking at him, almost without thinking about them, and when she heard them herself, she turned to look at his reaction, and saw a smile that she didn't know very well if it was pity, mockery, or satisfaction. “Well… also… you can dry yourself there… if you want, of course…” she began to stammer.

[grandapplewit]

Chapters: 7/7 Fandom: 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 天官赐福 | Heaven Official's Blessing (Cartoon) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hua Cheng/Xie Lian (Tian Guan Ci Fu) Characters: Hua Cheng (Tian Guan Ci Fu), Xie Lian (Tian Guan Ci Fu), Feng Xin (Tian Guan Ci Fu), Mu Qing (Tian Guan Ci Fu) Additional Tags: Hua Cheng as Wu Ming (Tian Guan Ci Fu), Amnesia, Calamity Xie Lian (Tian Guan Ci Fu), Shapeshifting, Genderfuckery, Female Hua Cheng (Tian Guan Ci Fu), For a few chapters, Jun Wu Being an Asshole (Tian Guan Ci Fu), Hua Cheng and Xie Lian Invented Love, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Kind Of Series: Part 1 of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Summary:

He died screaming.

[litsenn]

The rusty ring - Chapter 6: New memories

Previous chapter - Ao3

“I never saw you again… until the Nautiloid.”

He is still staring at the ceiling, his hand playing lazily with her red locks. It feels good, to finally have it out of his chest. To be able to share this memory – what should be their common memory – with Ellith.

She is silent. Unusually silent.

“Darling...?”

“Hmmm?” She is still lying against him, her face buried in the crook of his neck.

“Did you even listen?” He asks, a little bit worried.

Ellith lets out a deep sigh, her breath warm against his skin. After a few seconds of silence, she sits up on the bed and rubs her face.

“Why did you wait so long to tell me?” She asks, her voice imbued with puzzlement. “You obviously recognized me when we met after the crash, but you never mentioned it. Why?”

Astarion sits up too, crossing his legs and resting his elbows on his thighs. It's getting difficult to look at her, at her defiance, her disappointment.

“I… I thought you were pretending not to know me, to not know what I am.”

“What? Why would I ever do that?" Ellith shakes her head, a deep frown on her brow. "And you did put a knife to my throat that day although you knew me! what in the hells?”

“I did.” Astarion winces, shame gnawing at his heart. Why does it have to be so complicated? There are so many things he wants to tell her, to justify and to ask. But he doesn’t even know where to begin.

“Listen, darling, I saw you on the Nautiloid, and I immediately recognized you. But the way you were fighting, it confirmed a suspicion born after our previous meeting: you had become a fierce killer. I was wary when you approached me. And the knife on your throat, it was just in case...”

The half-drown crosses her arms over her chest, as if fencing herself against what is coming. Astarion is carefully choosing his words.

“Ellith, please sweetheart, try to understand. You were supposed to know me – you knew very well how to use a blade, and you had survived the crash. And yet, there you were, talking to me as if I was a stranger! I thought you were pretending. I even believed that you were trying to trick me. But I played along nonetheless...”

“You tested me.”

“I… In a sense, yes.” Astarion admits, lowering his gaze. “I was at a loss. Confused and…” His voice trails off and he looks in the distance, quite shameful again.

“You can say it.”

Afraid. That's what she expects him to say. Astarion shakes his head.

“You were intimidating. The half-drow I met in that tavern a few years ago was intimidating. I didn’t know what you were capable of. Playing along and pretending we had never met before felt somehow… easier.”

Ellith shakes her head slowly, thoughtful, if not plainly dismayed. “Easier… indeed.”

“And when you finally told me about your memory loss, I knew for sure you were not pretending. But it was too late to say anything.”

With a succession of nimble movements, she leaves the bed and stands by the window. A heavy silence falls upon the room, enveloping them both as unsaid truths spiral in the air.

“Is that the reason why you chose to bite me that first time? Because of what I said in the tavern four years ago?”

Astarion is taken aback by her blunt question. That's how she tends to be with him now, throwing her questions with a frontal, disarming honesty. She doesn't need to play coy with him. She trusts him.

“Well, uh, I suppose.” He answers, his voice quivering a little. “I didn’t really think about it thoroughly. I was positively starving, and you seemed to be the better option.”

“The better option? Lovely.”

“Listen, love. I was being pragmatical. Surely you, of all people, can understand.” He has a good point, he knows it. After all, Ellith is always wearing her own pragmatism rather proudly.

She rolls her eyes, which makes Astarion chuckle as he lies back on the bed.

The tension is fading.

“Come on, Ellith, you weren’t expecting me to tell you a sweet love-at-first-sight story, were you?” He smirks, punctuating his question with high-pitched laughter. “No, not you my darling bard. We both know you never were exactly fond of that sort of romantic fables.”

Her smile is back too, a little smile, shining on her pouting lips. She seems to hesitate for a moment, but when Astarion tilts his head invitingly, she joins him on the bed. Before long, Ellith is back where she belongs, right next to his chest, the warmth of her body against him.

“Was I wearing the ring? Back then, I mean, four years ago?” She asks, fidgeting the split piece of jewel which she put back on her ear a few days before.

Astarion's memories of that night are still surprisingly clear, and he is certain the old ring wasn’t part of the picture. “I am not even sure I saw your ears. Your hair was covering them.”

He reaches out to her earlobe. The ring is indeed too large for her piercing and the skin is still red and swollen. “I do not understand why you insist upon wearing it.”

“You do not have to understand, Astarion." She shrugs, tilting her head to better look at him. “Who knows? Perhaps I am not that hermetic to romanticism. Perhaps this is my own interpretation of romanticism.”

“Careful, darling!” Astarion warns playfully through a silent cough. “Too much of that soppy non-sense and you might scare me away!”

A genuine giggle dances on Ellith’s lips, and she leans in to press a soft kiss on his cheek. “What can I say? I am a bard after all. It’s about time for me to explore the old corpuses of corny ballads.”

“As you wish, dear. But please, make them creepy.”

[cubes-of-sugar-and-pepper]

Ch. 7 So these are the consequences of our actions

E || Ch. 7/7 || 23K || Hurt/Comfort || Omegaverse

Summary: Something was wrong. Very very wrong. One moment Alex and Henry were talking about his omega's awful family and the next Henry became placid and compliant to their every wishes.

Something was wrong. And Alex was going to get to the bottom of it.

[pherryt]

Epilogue - Ranma - Ranma ½

Wordcount: 644

And last but not least, the second shortest bit. And a casually thrown out answer, because that's how the Doctor operates. I originally planned to have Ryoga falling out of the Tardis and kissing the ground but that was another one I couldn't get the composition and angles to agree on. Also... I attempted to use google translate for the challenge letter and had a friend who knows Japanese check it over for me. writing it that small was TOUGH

Teaser:

Ranma and Akane stared down at the challenge note from Ryoga. It was dated for a month ago and the guy still hadn’t shown up.

Now, Ryoga was always getting lost, which meant he was always late to shit, but this was ridiculous! He’d never been this late before!

“What if something happened to him?” Ranma asked. He couldn’t believe he was worried about the guy, but he was. Ryoga may be his rival, but he was also a friend.

“Don’t be stupid, Ranma,” Akane snapped. “He’s really strong, and a really good martial artist. He can take care of himself.”

She couldn’t hide the thread of worry in her voice, strong enough that even Ranma could pick up on it. Or maybe he was projecting. Akane was right. Ryoga was strong. And a damn good fighter. But he wasn’t always… well, a man. Sometimes he was far more vulnerable. 

As a pig, anything could have happened to Ryoga.