Back At It For 2021! Re-blog If You Love Orcas 🐋

Some warm poetry, for cold evenings:

Molly Fisk, “Winter Sun” (We can make do with so little / just the hint of warmth, the slanted light.)

Pat Schneider, “The Patience of Ordinary Things” (It is a kind of love, is it not? / how the cup holds the tea.)

Barbara Ras, “Bite Every Sorrow” (You can speak a foreign language, sometimes / and it can mean something.)

Jack Gilbert, “Failing and Flying” (Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.)

Lisel Mueller, “Things” (Even what was beyond us / was recast in our image; / we gave the country a heart, / the storm an eye)

Rabindranath Tagore, “On the Seashore” (The sea plays with children, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach / On the seashore of endless worlds children meet)

John O’Donohue, “Matins” (May I live this day / Compassionate of heart / Gentle in word / Courageous in thought)

Wallace Stevens, “The House Was Quiet and The World Was Calm” (The summer night is like a perfection of thought. / The house was quiet because it had to be)

Brian Patten, “Inessential Things” (Cats remember what is essential of days)

Emily Dickinson, “Simplicity” (How happy is the little stone / that rambles in the road, alone)

Yi Lu, “Valley’s Green” (flowers like tiny saucers — little bowls — little cups / filled to the brim with their own colors)

Jacques Prévert, “How to Paint a Bird’s Portrait” (When the bird comes / if it comes / observe the most profound silence)

Archibald MacLeish, “Eleven” (Happy as though he had no name, as though
 / He had been no one: like a leaf, a stem,
 / Like a root growing…)

Denise Levertov, “A Woman Alone” (Then / self-pity dries up, a joy / untainted by guilt lifts her. / She has fears, but not about loneliness)

Richard Brautigan, “Your Catfish Friend” (I’d love you and be your catfish / friend and drive such lonely / thoughts from your mind)

Linda Gregg, “The Letter” (I’m not feeling strong yet, but I am taking
 / good care of myself)

Andrew Lang, “Ballade of True Wisdom” (And I’d leave all the hurry, the noise, and the fray, / For a house full of books, and a garden of flowers)

Ada Limón, “The Raincoat” (my whole life I’ve been under her / raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel / that I never got wet.)

Jorge Luis Borges, “The Just” (These people, unaware, are saving the world)

Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things” (I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.)

That really is navel-gazing, sorry but I just thought of that appalling pun!

Here's a little secret about me, I hate the word belly. You will never ever hear me say it and very very rarely see me writing it, I avoid it whenever possible

"You... Don't have a navel?" Irene said, almost frowning as her eyes glided down Kai's firm muscles, following the trail that her fingers had made as she unbuttoned his shirt.

"A what?"

"Navel? A belly button? Do... Do dragons lay eggs?"

"Of course. What did you expect?"

"I don't know!" She exclaimed. "Have you never been with a human before?" He ruffled his hair. "I thought, well, you implied, that you'd had a good many partners."

"No, I said that I was good in bed. No, there were no humans before you." He said. "And I take it that you've never been with a dragon then?"

"No, only humans... Well, there was a vampire once." She shrugged. "Never a dragon. God, that's weird."

"What's a navel?" She opened her mouth, and shut it again.

"Well it's... Well, do you know what an umbilical cord is?"

"I have vague memories from a biology class well over ten years ago." He said. "Something to do with repro... Do humans not have gen-"

"We do!" Irene interrupted. "I just assumed that your bodies would be identical to humans." There was a side note that she hoped that they were... compatible. "No, its to carry nutrients to the foetus before we are born. Everyone has one, its a small mark on our stomachs."

"Really?" Kai wrinkled her nose. Irene sighed and started on the ties of her dress. "Oh..."

"Shush." She muttered, she let the dress pool to fall at her feet before starting on the strings of her corset. "Men have it so easier with fashion." She said, not unkindly but with a sharp edge.

"I'm more than happy to help." He smirked as Irene managed to get the knot undone and parted the boned fabric at her chest. "Heaven and earth, how many times have you been stabbed?"

"Not that many times? Maybe four or five times?" She said, looking down.

"That one is awful." He said, putting his index finger on her navel.

"That's my navel." She said. "I guess it's technically a scar?"

"But you said it was so you could eat as a baby."

"No, it- have you ever studied human biology? And- oh you- you're messing with me, aren't you?" He grinned and nodded.

"I'll admit that I have never seen one in real life and was unaware that it does in fact look like a scar." He said. "But I'm not that dim."

"You are the worst."

"Yeah, but you like me anyway." He said, stroking her jaw. "It looks weird though."

"Says the man without a navel."

"Technically, not a man."

credit: rookalbis

My eyes, my eyes!

One of these days I am going to have to think of the crackest ship that there is and write something for it

I'm thinking Irene x Ao Shun

This is amazing! Your writing is beautiful and it’s so in character for both of them- especially the proposal idea which I love. Also Jesus Christ Irene needs a break! Someone get that woman some chocolates, good books and a lock for her door, dear lord. Thanks for writing this, it made me super happy.

Day one: Holiday

Tags: fluff, light ansgt, hurt/comfort, implied sex

Rating: T

Pairing: Irene x Kai

Holidays whilst working for the Library practically never happened. Unless you were injured or someone that you were close to had died in tragic circumstances, you were expected to work. Sure Irene would compare some of her assignments to being like holidays (procuring a book through legal methods on the south coast of France was simply much nicer than thieving one from a mad scientist in Svalbard,) it was incredibly rare that she would be able to sit down and relax without the knowledge that some task was waiting for her.

And that was true for her current assignment, she knew that she was here purely for talks on the treaty, but staying at a very expensive hotel with very little to do outside of the few talks she’d sat in on for the morning, and a panel that she had the next day, to take questions, then she was free to do as she please.

The idea was to try to inform people of the minutiae of the treaty, but most of the people attending were more interesting in making their own much smaller arrangements. She didn’t mind that too much, it meant more paperwork for her, Kai and Sterrington, but as long as they were being civil, they were all quite happy to let the people who had cards in the game to play, whilst they watched and waited to intervene if necessary.

So far, it hadn’t been necessary, so Irene found herself with a free evening, leaning on the edge of the balcony and watching the sun go down between thin wisps of pale white clouds. The sky was painted with brushes of peach and pink, and when Kai looked over from his balcony (one floor up and to the left) he could have sworn that she was aglow with the light.

“Opposed to a visit, madame ambassador?” He softly called, and Irene startled and looked for his voice before finding him. “I fancy a walk in the gardens if you care to accompany me.”

“How long have you been watching me?” She asked, smiling but crossing her arms across her chest. Kai’s pale skin was turned pink in the sunlight, making him look like he had a healthy flush to him, and his hair shone like the wings of a raven as it soared through a summer sky, a black and blue lustre that she wanted to run her fingers through.

“Long enough to know that I’d rather watch you than the sunset.” He replied. “So, that walk?”

“I’ll meet you in the reception in five minutes.” She said. She already had a thin shawl draped around her shoulders but was barefoot.

She beat him down there and she waited by the reception desk. He made her startle again, she’d been watching the lift but he had taken the stairs. “Something is on your mind.” He said as he offered her his elbow. “What is the matter?”

“Nothing.” She shrugged before hooking her arm around his. “It’s so nice and… peaceful. I cannot believe it really.”

“Different to Paris.” Kai acknowledged. “It is quiet. I… kind of like it.”

“I think I would get bored if every day was like this, but it is nice.” There was a side door through into a restaurant, and then patio doors out into the hotel gardens. “I would get so much reading down at the very least.”

“I never thought I would hear you complain about too much reading.”

“No, not that. I don’t know. I think I am too used to things going wrong.” Kai sneezed as they passed a large lavender bush. Irene broke a twig of it off and tucked it into her pocket, knowing that it would make her wardrobe smell of the flowers. “I keep waiting for something to happen. I am tense and anxious because I am so used to things going wrong.”

“I know the feeling,” Kai said. There was a small fish pond and they stopped by it. Kai looked around before tugging her toward the shade underneath a large tree, where they’d only be found if someone was purposefully searching. “I want to relax, but the longer it stays quiet, the harder it gets.”

“Why do we miss people trying to murder us?” Irene sighed before wrapping her arms around his shoulders and rising to her tiptoes in order to kiss his cheek. 

“Will anyone miss you soon?”

“No, I have the evening to myself.”

“Excellent.” She smiled. “I have you all evening then.”

“You can have me all night too.” He said with an almost cheeky smirk and a knowing look in his eyes. He tightly wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her to his chest. “One day, we are both going to wake up and we won’t be waiting for the other shoe to drop. We’ll have days where nothing happens and we aren’t scared for when something does.”

“I want that.” She rested her forehead on his shoulder. “I want to be able to… I don’t want to always feel this massive weight on my shoulders that makes me ache to keep going when things are hard. I want to sleep and not have these nightmares. And I want you to make me jump, not because I am expecting assassins, but because you decided to surprise me.”

Kai pressed his lips to the top of her head. “One day, ‘Rene. I promise you all of that one day. And until then, I promise that I’ll be with you when it is assassins, to hold you when you have nightmares, and I am not half bad at massages, I am sure I can deal with the aches.”

Irene snorted, the sound muffled by his shirt. “That sounds like a proposal.”

“Would it be strange if it was?” She took a step back and looked up at him with wide eyes. “I know that we’d have to keep it a secret and that… if anyone found out we could both be in a lot of trouble, and I am not human but… we could come up with something.”

Irene’s lips were soft against his. One of her hands slid up the back of his neck and found a place in his hair as she pressed herself even closer. He could taste the cherry flavoured salve on her lips and smell the lavender in her pocket as he held her as tightly as she held him. He cupped her face, long fingers stroking over her cheeks and then down the lines of her jaw.

He pulled back a mere inch. “So, what do you say?”

“I don’t need it.” She said, shaking her head. “I need you and your promise, and not any bit of paper or shiny rings.” He smiled. “But if you want that, then yes.” He pulled her in for another kiss, pushing her back against the tree that hid the outpouring of emotions. His hands settled on her hips, keeping her pinned as he parted his lips against hers.

“I don’t need that either.” He said, voice a little rough. “I need you. That is all I need. A promise between just us.” He put two fingers underneath her chin and tilted her head back. “Your word and mine, the promise that we will get peace one day.”

“I promise,” Irene said. She felt a little breathless, heart thudding heavy in her chest. She could feel Kai’s too, beating almost in sync, so close together. She untangled her hand from his hair, and set it against his chest, feeling it underneath her fingertips, feeling the way that it was racing because of her. Racing for her. “I swear.”

“And I promise too.” He said, he ran his thumb below her lip, kiss swollen and parted slightly as she tried to catch her breath, drowning in his embrace but craving that sweet fate of his lips on hers again and a night in his arms. “If we ever don’t have to hide, we can maybe change our arrangement. But for now, this, and you, are absolutely perfect, and far more than I could ever ask for.”

When he kissed her it was hot and rough and just a little bit desperate as neither of them held back any emotion. Irene had never been any good with words, at least not when it came to those purveying to a softer side of her.

But she was good with actions.

And Kai didn’t need any words but her promise when he could feel the outpouring of love that she put into her actions. In the way that she grasped a fistful of his shirt above his heart, in the small, soft purring noise when he parted his lips against hers. In the whimpering noise that she made that night as he kissed his way down her body until they were both sweaty and exhausted and curled up against each other, clinging like the other person was the only solid thing in the world, and like something would rip them away if they weren’t careful.

Irene fell asleep with her head on Kai’s chest as her pillow, hair fanned out like a halo, his fingers running up and down her back and with a promise to fight the nightmares away.

‘Yours, always.’

Aww, very cute. Yeah, I agree about Kai being somewhat of a hopeless romantic.

Hiya, what do you reckon for 8 of the otp questions? Thanks

I think Irene probably would prefer if people didn't know that Kai was her student because they may judge her so they say that they met through work which is correct anyway.

Kai probably likes to describe Irene exactly as they met, right down to the gravel in her hair, followed by that he knew she was the one as soon as he saw her argue with Bradamant because he likes that fiery side about her.

Irene tells it very factually and calls him an idiot but kisses him anyway

Wow, that’s gut-wrenching. This is Evangeline, right? I’m really enjoying all the little titbits of your ocs that we’re getting, can’t wait to read the actual story.

Stay was always the hardest word.

No one had ever stayed.

Her mother dead for going on twenty years.

Her father ignoring her for work.

Lovers who left and friends who died.

None of them ever stayed when she asked, when she begged in sheer desperation, willing them to stop leaving. To stop breaking her heart.

But it never worked.

Stay was the hardest word.

It was a broken promise or a hollow platitude that they didn’t really care for.

No one had ever stayed until she had stopped asked and stopped hopping.

Klaus didn’t understand the way that her voice cracked as she whispered “Don’t leave yet.” He didn’t understand her inability to look him in the eyes or why she thickly swallowed a sudden lump in her throat, feeling naustead as anxiety welled up, preparing for him to walk away.

“Of course I’ll stay.” He said softly. “Why don’t you show me around your kitchen and I will make both of us a cup of tea, I think that you need it.”

Reblog to make a white gay big mad

bisexuals will see someone in period clothes and be like yes

Kai would be so miffed! He was saving those for a special occasion.

Irene: [tries to create a sense of calm by lighting incense, only to find out that the sticks were actually sparklers]

Irene: This is actually painfully on-brand for me.