#this is finally done!

[forevfangirlwrites]

new money, suit and tie chapter 11 (end)

“Are you kidding me?” Piper says over the phone call. “That’s so stupid.”

“I know, and if he hadn’t been so clearly working hard to make it up to me I would have walked away.” 

She’s driving home from work. (Or rather, the extended time she spent with Percy over Chinese food.) 

“Well, I suppose he’s alright then,” Piper says. “I only approve because he’s so hot.”

“Thanks,” Annabeth replies, rolling her eyes but she can’t stop the smile on her face. “I think he does want to ask me out. He’s been trying.”

“That was a power move,” Piper cuts in. “Telling him to ask you out. I’m proud of you, Annabeth.”

Annabeth smiles at the memory, remembering how hard her heart was beating right after. “I don’t know how I managed it.”

“Oh, I’m sure it was nerve-wracking but it doesn’t change the fact that it was a power move.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep you updated.”

“You better!”

And with that, Piper hangs up and she pulls into her parking spot. How she’ll be able to go to sleep with all of this running through her mind, she has no idea.

She’s getting into bed when she gets the text. “Please pick up coffee from Cali’s Cafe tomorrow morning.”

Raising an eyebrow she types out her response. “Sure thing.”

It’s not an odd request, he’s definitely asked for this before, but given the evening they had just shared it feels a bit weird. Then again, despite all that, she does have a job to do. 

But her curiosity is still lingering as she shows up to the cafe the next morning. The morning rush means she’s at the back of the line, but she scans the specialty menu wondering if she should get herself something now that she’s here.

“You should,” a voice next to her says. She jumps at the sound and turns to find Percy Jackson standing next to her. 

As she tries to control her shock, he smiles.

“You should get something for yourself,” he says. 

“How…how did you know I was thinking that?” 

KEEP READING ON AO3

[herawell]

Pamphagous: eating everything; all-consuming, character or pairing that's been on your mind lately?

On days when the thorns of the past do not prick as much, Dushala likes to remember Raudrakarman’s soft-spoken wit, Ugra’s agile fingers, Mahavahu’s innate shyness. Not all of her brothers were scheming kinslayers willing to cast aside all for a power struggle; some of them were content to be minor princes, and the world must remember that as much as it remembers Duryodhana’s poisoned kheer and Dushasan’s grasping hands.

Draupadi has only scorn when Dushala tries to share her fonder memories. “Why should I care that some of them might have been more mild than their brothers? Not one of them spoke up when I was thrown to the ground and nearly stripped.”

“Vikarna did,” Dushala says, “and not all of them laughed.”

They are in the gardens, where the seasonal shift from winter to spring has half the plants bestrewn in bursting buds and the other half still a snarl of bare branches. They sit side by side on a bench, Draupadi stiff and unsympathetic, Dushala stiff and unapologetic.  

“And yet he fought for Duryodhana, as did all the rest. They all met their richly deserved ends at Bhima’s hands, every last one.”

“You cannot simply cast them down with the likes of Duryodhana and Dushasan!” Dushala bursts out, even as she is aware of the childishness of the words.

Draupadi merely lifts her chin at this. Panchali is always imperial, even in anger, in a way that Dushala has never been able to master. Her awareness of this leaves Dushala only more flustered.

“I have paid my dues to you. When your husband tried to abduct me, I begged my husbands to spare his life for your sake. He repaid my kindness by murdering my brave stepson in a mockery of war. You will receive nothing else from me.”

The Empress of Indraprastha rises from the bench and takes her leave of the Queen Regent of Sindhu.

Later in Dushala’s private sitting chamber, Charvi says, “You shouldn’t have spoken of such things to her.”

Charvi is taciturn, almost timid, in a way that had Dushala dismissive of her when she first married Suratha, a scorn she is ashamed to recall now. Her daughter-in-law may be reserved, but when she does speak, as she does now, her words hold a quiet steadiness that leaves the listener breathless.

“Surely she could forgive a sister’s grief, having had brothers she loved so much she trusted them more than she did her husbands,” Dushala points out. “Just as she can understand a brother’s loyalty, having been married to five brothers for decades and knowing the depths of the bonds between them.”

She says more softly, almost pleadingly, “You knew your uncles-in-law Raudra and Ugra, didn’t you? How they would always bury themselves in poetry or painting where my eldest brothers preferred to scheme, and how they used to bounce this one on their knee?”

She indicates Yathartha playing on the carpet at their feet, her boy king grandson and the bastion of all her hopes.

“How Suratha would write to them for their thoughts on what artisans to patronize?”

She feels her throat tighten at the thought of those precious letters, now carefully folded and tucked away in one of her bedside drawers.

“Do those parts of them not deserve to be remembered?”

Charvi’s eyes shine overbright, and she turns away, blinking rapidly.

“It was obscene to ask it of Panchali, of all people.”

[sheepandpencils]

Here’s another unbelievably late giveaway gift, this time for @redcole, who requested awkward nose bumps during a first kiss! I know this took me forever to complete, and I’m terribly sorry, but i hope you like it anyway! 

[universe-and-universe-universal]

This is my first youtube video, on my new channel. My edits will be probably uploaded on here as well. Reblogs would be appreciated since I worked more than two days on this bad boy. Enjoy!