#artificvr

→ soft angst starters | accepting

                                     Nori could feel the familiar weight on her chest ; the suffocating pain that often overcame her. Working with infants too fragile to survive on their own often did that to her. She remembered them all ; each small precious life that fought for a chance to live. She didn’t think she could ever forget them.  ❛ I remember my promise. ❜ The promise to take a break , to let her heart heal after a particularly hard month. The infant she had been rooting for had died in her arms ;  leaving a hole in the center of her chest. ❛ It’s hard.. to walk away. ❜

@artificvr / five-word starters / accepting! 

he’s developing a terrible habit of falling asleep at bus stops. it hadn’t been this bad before, when summers were so merciless that only a mad man would find comfort on a bed of steel and bolts. but now, he’ll take any shelter from the piling snow and frigid wind, anything to mimic the safety of the indoors without the suffocation that accompanies four sturdy walls. perhaps it’s yet another string of the flu that coaxes him so deep into sleep, or the temporary comfort of finding a place to rest above the ice, but either way he’s caught off-guard by the familiar voice. 

startled, the boy wakes and nearly leaps off the bench, fingers wound like a vice around his bag. his heart kicks into a higher gear, sending adrenaline like a flood through his veins, and he’s fully prepared to run as far as his feet will carry him. mind still foggy with sleep, kyungsoo nearly mistakes the figure before him for an officer, but the ice caught in the pit of his stomach gives way when he registers the lack of uniform and general disdain that he’s found so often in strangers’ eyes. 

Winter & Holiday Drabbles - @artificvr[no longer accepting]

💔 – our muses are both single on Christmas / 🎁 – our muses exchange presents /  💋 – our muses kiss under the mistletoe  

author’s note : this is a drabble, nothing more.  @artificvr is a friend and this was sent in well before any relationships happened anywhere.  I’m just super slow at writing ;;

“I know that, like, a tool set is probably dumb as hell to get someone, but, ah..”  Suwon was just a little jittery as he placed the somewhat large box down on the table.  “I really figured you could use it no matter what?  I wanted the present to be practical.  I know I would be upset if someone got me something like socks or itunes cards instead of like, a Star Trek figurine or a Gundam.  You know? Something that I can take my time with and use and be tactile with. Because you know, you use your hands a lot and I like using my hands as well.”

As the last sentence left his mouth, Suwon immediately felt the sweats settle in.  Every time he and Jaewon were alone for too long, his nerves got the better of him and he would end up saying something stupid.  Something like saying how he liked to use his hands.  That didn’t sound overtly sexual at all… DID IT?

“Anyway.”  Suwon flailed a bit, waving away invisible butterflies that were taunting him at this point.  “I hope you like them.  And seriously, thank you so much for the vintage poster you bought me.  I really don’t even know if my toolset is as worthy a gift at this point.  You got me an original movie poster in the frame and I got you a torque wrench.  I almost don’t think thank you is enough.”

Jaewon had simply watched Suwon with a soft smile of fondness on his face.  If the shorter male had known what that face did to his friends insides, he may not have made the face.  He may have grimaced instead or something.  Suwon wanted to just… kiss the boy, but there was no way he wanted to ruin their friendship.  They had already survived the most awkward hotel room stay together, no need to add to it.  Yeah, definitely no need for Suwon to do anything else.

“Ah hey, since you’re here.  Wanna see what my mom sent me?”  Suwon asked, trying to move the conversation along some.

Jaewon nodded, his voice smooth as butter with his simple yet oh so endearing to Suwon reply,  “Yeah.  I bet it’s nice.  Parents are like that.”

“Yeah.”  He tugged out the package, reading the card attached to it first.  “She says it’s something that I have to hang.  ‘Dearest child, please make sure to take this box and hang it from the ceiling before opening it from the bottom.’”  He felt his brows furrow.  “I wonder what the fuck she put in here?  I bet it’s a box of confetti and a letter that says just being alive is a present.  That completely seems like something my mother would do.  It’s either that or a piece of tissue paper telling me to be responsible while I live alone.  Which if it’s that, I’m going to be incredibly embarrassed because one, I just said that out loud to you and two, I can’t believe that was the second thought I had about my mom’s present.” 

Doing like a good son, he took off the double sided tape that was on the top of the box and pressed it up against the short roof of his apartment building.  He hadn’t noticed it before hand, mostly because he wasn’t looking at the bottom of the box, but there was a pull string attached with another note that said ‘Tug on me while with friends.’.  God his mom went overboard sometimes when it came to the most random of things.  “Well, I’m definitely with friends. So uh,m yeah… Let’s see what she’s got going in here man.” A pause and a smile.  “Hey, you wanna pull the string?”

“But it’s your present.”  Jaewon frowned.

“But it says open with friends.  You are friend.  Wesa open together.  Wow.  Jar Jar Binks just stole my body and I don’t know how I feel about that.”

Suwon’s friend answered with a laugh, “I feel offended. Don’t ever talk like that again and yes I’ll tug the string.”

“Deal.”

Jaewon smiled and reached up to tug on the string.  

When the box opened, it was as if in slow motion.  Suwon noticed the white berries almost immediately and when the green leaves came down a moment later, he felt himself swear out loud.  His mother had sent him fucking mistletoe and told him to open it with friends.  His mother had literally sent a present that if people followed holiday tradition meant they had to kiss.  He was mortified.  

“Oh my god.  We.. don’t.. I am so sorry.”  He began sputtering left and right but  before he could get any further, Jaewon’s mouth pressed against his for a moment, maybe two.  It was over just as quickly as it began and Suwon wasn’t even sure if it had really happened, but Jaewon’s face was dusted with pink and he was looking away from everything now, so it must have.

another fall. a slightly bigger one. that resulted in a sitting kyungsoo on the ground, clothes covered in dust and dirt with an abandoned bike humming sadly in the background.

he urges the other male to take a seat on the second step of the stairs as he jogs inside the garage to grab the first-aid kit. it doesn’t take long for jaewon to find it, the harsh contrast of angry red and the boring greys make it easy for him as he shakes his head dismissively. he’s more worried than annoyed — even though it might seem like to be in the opposite way.

“i’m banning you from riding your bike if you’re not careful enough…” he mutters as he takes the empty space that was left for him on purpose, carefully tugging kyungsoo’s sweater up enough so he has a clear view of the wound. it’s not horrible, but it definitely needs to treated.

“you can choose whichever you like the most.” no, jaewon is not ashamed of keeping colorful band-aids adorned with cartoon characters in the kit that were probably made for kids under 14, whilst he’s pressing the cotton pad soaked with some disinfectant over the wound after he’s cleaned it up a little bit. “if it comes off then come see me again and i’ll give you a new one. if you want to.” 

he can count on two hands all the crashes he’s had. according to a certain mechanic, that’s two hands too many, but kyungsoo figures it’s better than not having any hands at all. the scattered scrapes and blooming bruises weren’t even really his fault this time. these were all thanks to a faceless, impatient driver who refused to drive any slower than twice the speed limit. but, all the same, kyungsoo finds himself sheepishly sat outside a now familiar garage, picking at loose threads in the sleeve of his sweater. 

like a child at the doctor’s office, he leafs through the plasters in the tin while jaewon fusses over the scratches. they don’t hurt much--at least, not until they’re poked at with disinfectant--and kyungsoo tries to communicate as much by picking out a band-aid with rilakkuma’s face stamped across it. “you can’t ban me from riding my own bike,” he muses quietly with a small smile playing at the corners of his lips, though he knows jaewon only means well. (he always has done, even from the first time kyungsoo dragged his sorry bike into the shop.)