is this your villain

“Home’s a bit of an illusion, no? Something we say to many ourselves feel better. The idea of something we’re moving towards, something we can return to, when we’ve actually left years ago.”

Alina stared at the icicles, hanging from the eaves like great daggers made of ice, like they personally offended her.

It was a distinctly adorable look on her.

"Do you wish them gone?" he asked softly, with only just a tiny bit of a teasing edge in his voice. "You only have to say, although I'd love to hear the reason why you find them so enraging."

"No, they don't bother me. Not really." She shivered, almost as if trying to get rid of something unpleasant stuck to her skin. "They're just… bringing up some memories."

Aleksander wasn't so sure if he wanted to know what kind of memories—when brought up like this, they usually were something abhorrent about the orphanage—, yet he found himself saying, "Care to share them with me?"

"It's not that big of a deal, really," she shrugged. "It's just that the orphanage used to get great big icicles like these, and Ana Kuya always fretted that they'd fall on someone. So one year, Mal and I had this brilliant idea of getting rid of them—we thought we'd garner some goodwill from her that way. There were always some pebbles around, and he had a slingshot…"

"Oh, no."

"We broke a window." A surprised chuckle erupted from him at her deadpan delivery. "Don't you dare to laugh! I couldn't sit properly for a week."

this got me thinking about the last time i read a fanfic and i just realised that it has been a year since i visited ao3 or more than that. damnnn. why am i losing interest in everything 😭. anyway, here are the ones that i read and loved almost a year ago.

Timeless series by destinies

Start a War & Lone Candles by nymja

A hundred Lifetimes Ago by Insectkin

Alina is vaguely aware of the fact that she should be getting up. That beyond the drawn bed curtains the sun is shining and the Little Palace is getting up, readying for the day—she can even hear the maids bustling around the room—they're not even trying to keep it down. Its only the matter of minutes—seconds—until someone draws the curtains, flooding her with light.

Which is fine. Because she should be getting up. Urgently. Life in the orphanage and the army has taught her what happens to those who don't greet the dawn, alert and fit. (Her bottom still stings when she thinks about it.)

…Only her whole body aches, her head throbs, her stomach is upset, and her mouth feels like it's been stuffed with cotton wool.

In a nutshell: she feels rotten.

Sleeping just a smidge more might not be such a bad idea—slash—such a capital offense, after all.

She wakes again five minutes—or an hour—later, to the curtains being pulled open at last. Light floods in, she hisses—like that bloodsucking monster in that book Nina was showing her—and curls into a ball. The mattress dips, then there's a hand on her hip, urging her to uncurl.

"Here," says a gentle voice, pushing a glass of water under her nose. "Drink this now nicely."

Alina cracks open an eye—Aleksander sounds almost amused, which is a good sign—, then, half-sitting up, takes the glass.

"Thanks," she croaks, gulping down the water. Heaven.

"So…" there is a smile hiding in his voice. "What did you learn from last night?"

She groans. "That vodka is evil and that you never, ever get into a drinking contest with David."

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