Gojo Satoru talks like the world will stop spinning if he shuts up.
You noticed it the first time you met him, back when he was just your classmate, your friend—before you realized that being near him felt like standing too close to the sun. He had this way of making noise like he was afraid of what would happen if there wasn’t any. A running commentary on things that didn’t matter. Complaints about the cafeteria food. Arguments over what counted as a dessert. Long, convoluted rants about how nobody appreciated his genius.
At first, you thought he was just like that. Loud. Annoying, even. The kind of person who didn’t care if people were listening, as long as he was the one talking.
It took you longer than you’d like to admit to realize that he only filled the silence because he was terrified of it.
Because silence meant thinking. And thinking meant remembering. And remembering—
Well. That wasn’t something Gojo Satoru liked to do.
-----
Somewhere along the way, you learned how to read between the lines.
How his voice was always just a little too high-pitched when he was lying. How he made fun of things when he wanted to pretend they didn’t matter. How his laugh was just a little bit too loud, a little too sharp, like he was daring you to believe he was as happy as he sounded.
How, sometimes, when he thought nobody was looking, he would get this look in his eyes—something far away, something quiet.
The first time you saw it, you thought maybe he was just tired. Maybe he wasn’t sleeping well. But then it happened again. And again. And then, one day, in a moment of rare honesty, he said something you weren’t expecting.
"It’s funny, y’know?" he’d said, tilting his head back against the wall, the light catching on his blindfold in a way that made it impossible to tell if his eyes were open or closed.
"I can hear everything. Every heartbeat, every whisper, every single sound in a mile radius. And still, sometimes, it feels like I’m the only person in the room."
---
You don’t know when you started seeing him for what he really was.
Not Gojo Satoru, the loud-mouthed idiot with a god complex.
Not Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer alive, the untouchable, the unkillable.
Just Gojo Satoru.
The boy who talked too much because silence was unbearable. The boy who smiled too much because frowning would make it real. The boy who laughed too much because, if he stopped, he wasn’t sure if he would ever start again.
Gojo Satoru, who could kill a god but couldn’t hold onto the people he loved.
Gojo Satoru, who had spent his whole life outrunning grief, only to realize that no matter how fast he moved, it would always be waiting for him at the end of the road.
---
"Do you ever get tired of it?" you asked him once.
"Of what?"
"The act."
Gojo grinned. "What act?"
You rolled your eyes. "The one where you pretend none of this matters. The one where you pretend you’re not—" lonely "—carrying the weight of the world on your back."
Something flickered across his face, there and gone in an instant. If you hadn’t been watching for it, you wouldn’t have noticed it at all.
Then he laughed.
"Oh, please," he said, stretching his arms over his head. "You think I do all this for fun? I’m naturally this charming."
"Liar," you said softly.
Gojo Satoru looked at you then, really looked at you, and for a second, you thought maybe he was going to tell you the truth. Maybe he was going to say that, yeah, sometimes it was exhausting. Sometimes, when he was alone, he didn’t even turn on music because the silence was better than hearing his own voice echoing back at him.
But then he smirked.
"Yeah, well," he said, standing up and stretching. "If I talked less, you’d miss me."
He left before you could tell him that you already did.
---
But sometimes—sometimes—you wake up in the middle of the night and find him still asleep.
And he looks different, then.
Gojo Satoru, who is always moving, always talking, always on, is finally still.
And in that stillness, he looks almost human.
Almost breakable.
You never wake him up.
Because you know that as soon as he opens his eyes, the act will start all over again.
---
"You know," you say one night, when the city is quiet and Gojo Satoru is sitting on your couch, blindfold pushed up, staring at the ceiling like it holds the answers to a question he hasn’t figured out how to ask. "You don’t have to be on all the time."
He hums. "I don’t know what you mean."
"Yeah, you do."
Gojo tilts his head, a slow, lazy movement, like he’s thinking about something too big to fit inside words. "If I stop," he says finally, "then what?"
(You don’t answer.)
Because you don’t know.
Because maybe he doesn’t, either.
So you sit beside him instead, close enough that he could touch you if he wanted to. Close enough that he could feel you there.
And maybe that’s enough.
Maybe, for once, Gojo Satoru doesn’t have to fill the silence.
Maybe he can just exist.
Maybe, for once, he doesn’t have to be alone.
---
You never say it out loud.
But some part of you thinks that Gojo Satoru talks so much because he’s trying to drown something out.
And maybe, just maybe—
He’s waiting for someone to listen.
-----
Greetings, Dreamers and Readers ✨🌸
You ever look at Gojo in that Toji scene and feel something uncomfortably close to pity? Not the kind you give to someone weak, but the kind that comes when you see someone who should’ve had a chance to be something else. Because that kid—that Gojo Satoru—was raw. Serious. The kind of serious that a boy his age shouldn’t have been. His face wasn’t blank, but it wasn’t guarded either. He was just there, fully present in the moment, taking the world in as it was. And maybe, back then, he still thought he was a part of it.
But fast forward a few years, and suddenly he’s the loudest guy in the room. A boy who never really grew up, at least not in the way that mattered. A boy who talks too much, laughs too hard, makes a joke out of everything—because the alternative is what exactly? Silence? Reflection? Feeling?
It makes you wonder. —What did he suffer, to look at the world and decide that maybe it wasn’t worth his real emotions? What did he lose to become someone who only lets himself exist through noise?
And the worst part? —Nobody even asks. Because Gojo Satoru is fine, right? Because he smiles. Because he jokes. Because he’s the strongest, and people like that don’t need to be understood.
But if you look closely—if you really pay attention—you’ll see it. He’s been holding the world at arm’s length for a long, long time.
--
Anyways I'll love to hear your thoughts on this one shot and do you too know people who like being the center of attention but for a complete different reason
✨ Bye and take care, hope you all have a good day ✨
I fully support it 😭👍
Reblog if you want the indian government to change the coin design
Levi pretends he doesn’t care.
He has to, or else the weight of the world might crush him completely. It's easier to bury things under the surface. Harder to let them show. If he never admits he cares, he can keep things at a distance. At arm's length, where they can’t break him down.
But if you pay close attention, you’ll see the cracks. The way his eyes flicker when he sees you pick up your tea mug, the way he memorizes the subtle curve of your smile when you talk about something you love. He'll never say it, but he knows your favorite tea—green with a hint of jasmine, not too strong, just enough to calm the nerves. He’s noticed it, every time, when he makes you tea just the way you like it, with no questions asked. It’s almost like he’s learned it without trying to, as though his mind simply stores things that matter, even if it’s not something he ever lets you know.
-----
You don’t say much about it. The tea. The way he always seems to have it ready for you, even when he looks like he’s barely awake. You don’t mention how he remembers, even the smallest details. But you notice. You always notice.
And then there’s the bread. The way you take it—lightly toasted with just a smear of butter. It's something you’ve always done. Something small, but Levi knows it. He’ll pretend it’s nothing. He’ll never make a comment about it, but when he watches you sit at the table, tearing off pieces of your toast, he’s quietly acknowledging it. It’s the little things that make you human, make you more than just a soldier to him. He never says it, but he remembers.
"Stop looking at me like that," you tease one morning, as you catch him watching you for the umpteenth time as you take your breakfast.
Levi raises an eyebrow, the ghost of a smirk playing on his lips, but he doesn’t respond. His silence is enough.
(He knows the truth in it.)
It’s easy to pretend he doesn’t care. It’s easy to hide behind his cold exterior, to keep his feelings locked away in some dark corner of his mind. But even Levi can’t stop himself from remembering the details. The way you hum under your breath when you’re content, how your hands always seem to find a way to smooth your clothes when you’re nervous. The way you fidget when you're worried, how you never quite look people in the eye when you're lying. He knows it all, even when he never asks.
There’s a comfort in knowing. A comfort in keeping it to himself, like a secret only he gets to carry. It doesn’t make him weak, he tells himself. It just makes him... human. And sometimes, that’s all he can allow himself to be. Just a little bit of humanity in a world that demands too much.
But then there’s the sleep. That’s when it all spills out. When you’re not awake to stop him, when you’re too vulnerable to hide it. You don’t know, but he does. He’s heard you speak in your sleep. Not often, but when you’re stressed or overwhelmed, your mind races in the silence of the night. He listens. And the words that slip out of your mouth don’t break him—no, they only draw him closer. He never mentions it. He knows better. But he hears you say things you would never dare to in the waking world. Words that are soft and unsure, the things you’ve been too afraid to share. He holds onto those too, locked away in his mind, tucked between the moments when everything else feels too heavy to carry.
“Stop moving around,” he mutters one night, his voice rough from sleep as you shift beside him.
You mumble something about the mission, about the weight of the world, and he almost doesn’t hear it over the blood in his ears. But he does. He always does.
The next morning, he’s as cold as ever. No mention of last night. No comment on the way you curled into him, your breath slow and steady as if you trusted him, even for just a moment.
You pretend you don’t notice either. Pretend it’s nothing. But you both know.
It’s easy to convince yourself the things that matter don’t make you weak. But they do. That’s the problem with caring, with remembering. The things you keep to yourself are the things that matter the most.
And it gets harder to pretend they don’t when every passing day adds another layer to it all.
-----
“You never ask me how I take my coffee,” you say once, breaking the silence as you both sit in the mess hall after another long day. It’s a quiet evening, the fire crackling softly in the background.
Levi doesn’t respond immediately. He sips his coffee, the bitterness cutting through the silence, before he finally speaks.
“You take it black. No sugar. No cream.”
Your eyebrows raise. “How do you know that?”
Levi shrugs, his expression unreadable. "I pay attention."
And there it is again—the way he says the simplest things like they don’t matter. Like the fact that he knows how you take your coffee, or the fact that he’s remembered all the little things, doesn’t mean anything at all. But you know better. You know what it means when someone remembers the things that are so easily forgotten. When they pay attention to the details, to the pieces of you that no one else cares about.
“Yeah, well, I take my coffee with the same amount of bitterness you carry around with you every day,” you say, your voice more playful than you mean it to be. But something shifts in Levi’s expression. For a moment, his mask cracks. It’s brief, almost imperceptible, but it’s there.
"Don't go around getting sentimental on me now," he mutters, though there’s a softness underneath the words.
You don’t press him, not this time. Instead, you sip your coffee, and for a while, silence falls between you two again.
(But you both know.)
He remembers everything. Every small, unspoken detail about you. The things you think he doesn’t notice. He carries them all with him, tucked into the corners of his mind, kept safe from the rest of the world. And maybe that’s the most human thing he’s ever done.
And maybe, just maybe, you can carry that with you, too.
You look at him, his eyes flickering toward yours for just a moment. You’ll never say it aloud, but you both understand. The small things matter.
The things you never say are the things you care about the most. And Levi, despite all his pretensions and all the walls he’s built, remembers them all.
-----
Greetings, Dreamers and Readers ✨🌸
You know, it’s funny how the smallest things end up meaning the most. A favorite tea, the way someone takes their bread, the tiny details no one asks for but someone still remembers. Who does that remind me of?
My Bua (paternal aunt), actually. The lady is too sweet for this world. She’s the kind of person who will remember exactly how you like your toast, even if you never told her outright. And the next time you’re around, she’ll make it just right—not because she has to, but because she wants you to feel comfortable, because she loves you in that quiet, thoughtful way. *Sighs* Ahhh, love her to the moon and back. Would probably kill for her—okay, that’s the intrusive thoughts talking, but you get the idea.
--
Anyway, feel free to comment and share your borderline obsessive yapping about your loved ones. We’re all a little feral about the people we adore.
✨Bye and take care, hope you all have a good day ✨
"People trust what is beautiful, what is soft. But flowers can poison, too." – Lily Calloway
---
"When I was little, my mother told me that good girls are loved, and bad girls are left behind. But I watched the world, and I learned—good girls get nothing. Smart girls take everything."
-----
Tucked away in the heart of Birmingham, Calloway’s Garden is a charming little shop where the air is thick with the scent of lilies, violets, and roses. People walk in for fresh-cut flowers, never questioning why some bouquets come wrapped in whispers and secrets. A flower shop is a good place for business—the real kind. The kind no one talks about.
---
"She’s a liar, but a useful one." – Thomas Shelby
---
Lily Calloway is not the woman people think she is. A social butterfly, warm and disarming, she knows exactly what to say to make people lean in, listen, trust. But beneath the charm is a mind that sees, calculates, and survives. She’s not cruel—cruelty is too messy, too blunt. She prefers subtlety, making people think they’re in control when she’s already three steps ahead.
-----
Theo Carter : He was her brother’s best friend. Now he’s hers. He came back from the war when Charles didn’t, and she doesn’t know if she keeps him close out of loyalty or something heavier.
Janifer Smith : Her partner-in-crime, her best friend, and sometimes the devil on her shoulder. They are two sides of the same coin—one soft-spoken, the other bold, but both dangerous in their own way.
---
Tommy Shelby?— She respects him, and he sees potential in her. But she knows what men like him do to people who get too close. And Lily Calloway? She wasn’t made to be anyone’s pawn.
-----
Writer’s Note:
So, this is my first-ever OC, and honestly? I have no idea what I’m doing, but we’re rolling with it. Lily Calloway has been living in my head rent-free for weeks, so it’s about time I let her loose into the world. She’s manipulative but not cruel, charming but not harmless, and definitely not the kind of woman you want to underestimate.
I’ll probably be dropping the first chapter in 2-3 days (if I don’t get distracted by life ). I have the whole story outlined—25 chapters, slow-burn, morally grey choices, and a whole lot of drama. So, if you’re into that, stick around.
--
Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Lily! Is she giving femme fatale or just a girl trying to survive in a man’s world? Maybe both. We’ll see.
✨ Bye and take care, Hope you all have a good day ✨
How the Mighty Fall :(Quietly)
Gojo Satoru met her on a day so ordinary, he almost didn’t notice her.
Almost.
She was standing by a cracked vending machine outside a jujutsu conference hall, jamming the return button like it had personally insulted her.
Her uniform was rumpled, sleeves half-rolled, phone balanced on her shoulder as she muttered into it.
When she hung up, she let the phone fall into her pocket without ceremony, kicked the vending machine once (precisely, as if she’d calculated it), and grabbed the stubborn can of coffee that tumbled out.
When their eyes met, she gave him the same look she might’ve given a mildly interesting cloud.
He wasn’t used to that.
Gojo Satoru was used to stares that held awe, fear, lust, envy.
He wasn’t used to being dismissed.
He told himself he didn’t care.
(Later, he would realize that was the first lie.)
-----
Inside, introductions were made. "Gojo Satoru," the principal said, almost with a bow. "The strongest."
He flashed his trademark smile. The room tensed the way rooms always did around him — shifting in awe, or jealousy, or terror.
Except for her.
She glanced up from her can of coffee, blinked slowly, and said, "Congratulations," in a tone so dry it might’ve been sarcasm or exhaustion or both.
Gojo actually missed a step.
It was like tripping on a stair you hadn’t noticed.
Ridiculous. Forgettable.
Except the body remembers how it fell.
And the pride remembers harder.
-----
He found out her name later — a relic name from a once-great family.
Fallen into disgrace. Neutral.
Neutral in a world where neutrality was treason.
She hadn't come here for prestige. Or power.
She hadn't come to heal the broken system or tear it down.
She had come because, somehow, life had shoved her into it, and she hadn't found a way to shove back.
There was something about her that infuriated him.
The way she didn't try.
The way she didn’t look at him like a miracle or a weapon or a god.
He tried, subtly at first, to impress her.
(The strongman tricks. The lazy jokes. The almost-accidental flashes of power.)
She sipped her bitter coffee and said things like:
"You're flashy. That’s not the same as important."
Or worse:
"Sometimes I think the world doesn't want saving. It just wants witnesses."
He laughed it off, of course.
Loudly. Carelessly.
(And hated how much he thought about it later.)
-----
One night, after a mission gone sideways, they ended up on the same train platform.
She sat two benches down, damp with rain, bleeding slightly from a cut on her forehead.
She looked small, but not fragile. Just very, very tired.
He sat beside her without asking.
After a long silence, she said, "You don't have to sit here."
"I know," he said. "But maybe I want to."
She gave a dry, almost-smile. "Your charity is overwhelming."
Gojo tilted his head back and stared up at the grey sky, feeling the ache of bruises under his jacket, the throb of exhaustion deep in his bones.
"You ever think," he said, "that saving people is worth it even if it’s selfish?"
She didn’t answer for a long time.
When she did, her voice was very soft:
"Wanting to be needed isn’t the same as being good."
The train rattled by. Neither of them moved.
He didn’t know how to answer her.
He didn’t know how to stop wanting her to believe in him.
He didn’t know when wanting her belief started to feel more important than winning.
-----
Weeks passed.
Gojo Satoru, who had outrun every emotion in his life by being faster, louder, brighter,
found himself slowing down around her.
Not because she asked him to.
But because she didn't even notice when he sped up.
Because around her, there was nothing to prove.
No war to win. No audience to perform for.
Just the terrifying idea that maybe being "The Strongest" meant nothing if nobody was watching.
And maybe that was okay.
Or maybe it wasn't.
He wasn’t sure which scared him more.
-----
The fight, when it happened, was stupid.
A cursed spirit too small for his attention, too slippery to ignore.
She fought it first, knives flashing, blood wetting her sleeves.
She fought like someone who didn’t expect to survive, but would be damned if she made it easy for death.
When he stepped in — easy, graceful, efficient — she didn’t even thank him.
Just leaned against a wall, breathing hard, looking annoyed more than anything else.
"You didn't have to," she said.
"I wanted to," he said, before he could stop himself.
She wiped blood from her mouth and smiled, thin and crooked.
"Of course you did."
As if kindness was another form of violence.
As if saving her only proved her point.
-----
They sat on the curb afterward, side by side, rain seeping into their clothes.
He pulled down his blindfold, let his eyes roam the ruined street, the broken lamplight.
Everything was grey and wet and stupidly, achingly beautiful.
"You know," she said, conversational,
"all stars burn out."
He looked at her. Really looked at her.
Not as a mission.
Not as a critic.
Not as a fantasy.
Just — a tired girl, soaked in rainwater and blood, laughing at how the universe devours everything eventually.
"Maybe," he said, "some are just slow enough to light the way for a while."
She didn't respond.
Maybe she didn’t believe him.
Maybe she didn't need to.
Maybe it was enough that he believed it for both of them, for once.
-----
He would never tell her that she ruined him a little.
That she made him gentler, angrier, sadder, more human.
That she made the invincible feel a little more mortal.
That she made the strongest sorcerer alive wonder what strength was even for.
He would never tell her.
Because she already knew.
Because she didn’t care.
And that, somehow, was the most beautiful thing about her.
-----
Ahh, come on, man. I already had my JJK OC half-built in my drafts, all planned out and everything—but I guess that’s how it is.
But hey, I’m glad so many of you voted and actually enjoy my JJK one-shots! I’ll keep posting them, then.
---
Feel free to comment and throw your ideas at me—I’d love to hear what you guys want to read next.
Sukuna’s hands were never meant to be touched.
They were carved by power, molded for violence. Fingers meant for destruction, palms that know only the heat of blood, the crack of bone, the sharpness of steel.
And yet, they are scarred.
Not from battle—no one has ever been strong enough to leave a lasting wound on him—but from himself. From the weight of his own strength, from the countless times he has torn himself apart and stitched himself back together with sheer will alone.
His body is a temple built and rebuilt from ruin.
And his hands are the proof of it.
-----
The scars are strange things. Some thin as hairline cracks, others jagged, deep—memories of a power so vast it could not be contained, even within his own skin. He has felt his bones fracture under the pressure of it, muscles split, skin burned away, only to heal again, over and over, as if his body has long accepted that it will never truly be whole.
He doesn’t think about it. There’s no point.
It is what it is.
And yet—sometimes, when the world is quiet, when his hands are still, he can feel it. The ghosts of old wounds, the echoes of destruction.
The knowledge that his body is both indestructible and deeply, deeply broken.
-----
He doesn’t know when you first noticed.
Perhaps it was the way his fingers curled absentmindedly when he wasn’t using them. Perhaps it was the way he flexed them, as if reminding himself they were still there. Or maybe it was the way they traced over things—absent, almost thoughtful—when he thought no one was watching.
Whatever it was, you had noticed. And that was a problem.
Because people who noticed things about him usually didn’t live long.
And yet, there you were.
Watching. Thinking. Understanding something he did not want to be understood.
One night, as his fingers drummed idly against his knee, your gaze flickered down to his hands. The movement was so slight he almost didn’t catch it.
"Does it hurt?" you asked.
He had half a mind to ignore you. To dismiss it with a sneer, to tell you that pain was beneath him. But something about the way you said it—calm, certain, like you already knew the answer—made him pause.
And for just a moment, his hands stilled.
Then he laughed. Low, sharp, edged with something unreadable.
"You think a god suffers from something so trivial?"
But you didn’t back down.
"Gods suffer more than anyone, don’t they?"
And he should have struck you down for that. Should have reminded you of what he was, of what you were, and of how your words were nothing but fleeting air against the weight of his existence.
But he didn’t.
Instead, his fingers twitched.
And in that moment—so small, so insignificant he almost didn’t notice it himself—his hands curled, just slightly, as if remembering something they were not supposed to.
-----
Sukuna does not think about his hands.
Not in the way you do, with your quiet observations, your thoughtful little remarks.
But sometimes, when your gaze lingers on them—when your fingers brush against his in passing, when your touch lingers for just a second too long—he thinks about what they would have been in another life.
If they would have held instead of taken.
If they would have been human.
And then he laughs, because the thought is absurd. Because that life never existed, and never will.
But sometimes, when the world is quiet, when he lets his hands rest against you without thinking—when they do not tighten, do not wound, do not take—they do not feel like weapons.
If they would have built instead of destroyed.
They feel like hands.
And that is the cruelest trick of all.
-----
Greetings, Dreamers and Readers ✨🌸
Here I am—stupid little me—trying to make this walking catastrophe feel a little human again. Like that’s ever going to work.
If Sukuna knew I was sitting here, dissecting his hands like some tragic metaphor, he’d kill me before I even got to my second sentence. No hesitation. Just a flick of his fingers, a scoff, maybe an "Tch. Foolish human," and then—nothing. I’d be gone. Reduced to a smear on the ground, utterly irrelevant to a god-king who has never needed to justify a single thing he’s done.
But I don’t know. I keep coming back to it. His hands—scarred, precise, brutal—feel like they tell a story he has no interest in acknowledging. They’ve taken everything, ruined everything, but they’ve also rebuilt him over and over again. He’s been unmade by his own power more times than anyone else ever could, and yet, here he is. Still standing. Still undefeated. And if there’s one thing Sukuna hates, it’s the idea of anything having power over him.
So what does that mean for the hands that have both created him and destroyed him?
---
Anyway, those are just my thoughts. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Maybe I should shut up before Sukuna manifests just to personally smite me. But hey, feel free to comment and share your thoughts—I’d love to hear what you think. And if you’ve got headcanons, send them my way. I might try writing them too.
Until then, I’ll just be here, waiting for the inevitable divine wrath.
✨ Bye and take care, hope you all have a good day ✨
Levi drinks his tea like Kuchel is watching.
Like someone, somewhere, will be disappointed if he rushes it. If he forgets to do it right. The first time you notice it, you think it’s just another one of his quirks—like the way he folds his cravat with military precision or the way he flicks his wrist when cleaning blood off his blade, like it’s not even worth a second thought.
But then you realize it’s something else entirely. A ritual. A quiet, fragile thing, stubbornly existing in a world that never stops breaking.
-----
You don’t ask him about it. Not at first. You just watch.
He boils the water himself. Even though there are lower-ranked soldiers who could do it, even though he has more important things to do. He lets it sit for exactly the right amount of time before pouring, never a second more, never a second less. And when he drinks it, it’s with the kind of patience he never seems to have for anything else. Like it’s the only thing keeping him tethered to the present moment.
It isn’t until months later, when you find yourself in his quarters during another sleepless night, that you finally ask.
“Do you actually like tea, or is this just another one of your obsessive habits?”
He doesn’t look up from his cup. Just takes a slow sip, the steam curling against his face like something alive. “Tch. What kind of stupid question is that?”
You shrug. “You treat it like a religion.”
A beat of silence. He sets the cup down carefully, like it’s something breakable. When he finally speaks, his voice is quieter than you expect. “It’s not about the tea.”
You should have known that already. With Levi, nothing is ever about what it seems.
You don’t press him, but after that, you start drinking tea with him. Sometimes you talk. Sometimes you don’t. But there’s a kind of understanding in the silence, in the way the both of you sit there, letting the world exist around you without demanding anything in return.
-----
One night, after a long mission that left more bodies than survivors, you’re sitting across from him when he finally says it.
“My mother used to drink tea.”
You almost miss it. The words are quiet, as if they might disintegrate if he speaks them too loudly. You wait, letting him decide if he wants to continue. He does.
“She never had much, but she’d always make time for it. Said it made her feel… I don’t know. Like a person.”
You think of the stories you’ve heard. The brothels, the underground, the kind of life that doesn’t allow softness. And yet, she had this. A small rebellion against the world, steeped in hot water and patience.
Levi exhales sharply, like he hates that he’s saying any of this. “It’s stupid.”
“It’s not,” you say immediately, because it isn’t. And he must know that, somewhere deep down, or he wouldn’t be holding onto it so tightly.
He doesn’t say anything, but he pours you another cup. You take it, letting the warmth seep into your fingers.
In the months that follow, you start noticing it more. The way Levi treats the ritual with the same respect he gives to his blades. The way his hands are always steady, no matter how many deaths he’s carried that day.
The way he closes his eyes after the first sip, like he’s remembering something he refuses to forget.
-----
One night, when the weight of existence feels unbearable, you find yourself saying, “Tell me about her.”
Levi doesn’t look at you, but something in his posture shifts. “She was too good for this world.”
You nod.
Wait.
“She had this way of looking at people. Like she already knew how much they were going to hurt her, but she still wanted to see the best in them.” A humorless chuckle. “Fucking Foolish.”
“Sounds familiar.”
He shoots you a look, but you just sip your tea, unbothered. He doesn’t argue.
There’s a long pause, and then, softer,“ She deserved more."
You wonder if he means himself, if he thinks he wasn’t enough. You wonder how long he’s been carrying that with him, how many times he’s tried to outrun the ghost of a woman who gave him everything and got nothing in return.
You set your cup down, leaning forward slightly. “She’d be proud of you, you know.”
He tenses. Like he wants to reject the thought outright. Like he can’t allow himself to believe it. But he doesn’t tell you you’re wrong.
The tea cools between you, but neither of you move. The world outside keeps turning, keeps bleeding, keeps taking. But in this moment, at least, Levi lets himself exist in the quiet. Lets himself have this.
Like Kuchel is watching.
Like she never really left.
-----
Greetings, Dreamers and Readers 🌸✨
I’ve always found comfort in the smallest things, much like Levi does with his tea. For me, it’s the little tokens from my mother. I still use her hair clutch sometimes—it's not just an accessory, it’s a way to feel close to her again. I also keep her old metal pocket makeup mirror, not just because it’s practical, but because when I look into it, I see her, looking back at me through the reflection. It’s almost as if she’s still here, in the way I inherited my face from her, in the way her eyes shine through mine.
I think that’s the beauty of Levi’s ritual. It's not just about the tea, it’s about finding a way to keep the ones we’ve lost alive within us, through the smallest, most personal acts. I hope you feel that same quiet comfort in reading this, like you can find a moment of peace amidst the chaos, even if just for a little while.
--
If any of you have had experiences with loved ones who’ve passed, I’d love for this space to be a safe haven. Sometimes it’s hard to speak the words aloud, but here, you can share them without judgment. Let’s make the comments a place where we can remember, heal, and connect. You’re never alone in this.
✨ Bye and take care, Hope you all have a good day ✨
_________________________________________
"Do you know what the most dangerous piece on the board is?
A pawn that refuses to stay one."
_________________________________________
Petyr Baelish never told me I was shaped.
He didn’t have to.
The thing about growing up in the shadow of a man like him is that you begin to understand silence better than words. You learn the meaning of a glance, the weight of a pause, the way power curls itself around a room like smoke, barely visible but impossible to ignore.
I was ten the first time he let me sit beside him while he played cyvasse against a visiting merchant.
It was not a lesson, not officially. Petyr never wasted time on things so direct.
But when the game was over and the merchant had left, my father turned to me and asked, as if it were nothing, “Did you see how I won?”
I hesitated. “You trapped his dragon.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “No, sweetling. I let him believe he was winning. Until he wasn’t.”
---
I learned quickly after that.
Petyr never told me to watch. But I did.
I watched the way he spoke to lords, all soft smiles and careful charm. I watched the way he moved through a room, unassuming yet ever-present. I watched the way people underestimated him, the way they dismissed him as nothing more than a minor lord with a sharp tongue and sharper ambition.
I watched the way he let them.
And I watched the way he won.
---
The first time I played cyvasse against him, I lost.
I was eleven, and I had thought myself clever. I moved my pieces with confidence, mirroring the strategy I had seen him use before.
He beat me in seven moves.
“Why? I asked, frowning at the board. “I did everything right.”
His fingers traced the edge of a pawn, thoughtful. “Did you?”
I looked again.
And then I saw it—the mistake. The opening I had left without realizing it.
The moment I had lost, before I even knew the game was over.
Petyr smiled, reaching out to smooth a hand over my hair, his touch as light as his voice. “You learn quickly, Rowan. But so do your enemies.”
---
I did not trust my father.
I respected him. I studied him.
But trust? No.
Petyr Baelish was not a man who inspired trust. He inspired awe, perhaps. Caution. Admiration, in the way one might admire a well-forged blade.
But never trust.
And he knew it.
Which was why, I think, he never asked me to.
---
I let him shape me. But only so far.
I let him teach me how to speak, how to smile, how to make a man believe I was harmless even as I unraveled his secrets.
But I also watched.
I watched him as much as he watched me.
Because if he was making me into a tool, then I needed to know what kind.
A dagger is not the same as a key. A shield is not the same as a lockpick.
And I did not intend to be used blindly.
-----
“You are too clever for your own good,” he told me once, when I was twelve.
I only smiled. “I wonder where I got it from.”
He laughed at that, shaking his head.
But he did not answer.
Because he knew.
And so did I.
Greetings, Dreamers and Readers ✨🌸
This chapter focuses heavily on Rowan and Petyr’s dynamic—the push and pull of power, trust, and manipulation between them. She plays the role he expects, but beneath it, she’s always watching, always learning. It’s a complicated relationship, built on something that resembles loyalty but is laced with too much calculation to be love.
I wanted to explore that tension—how much of her father’s influence she accepts, how much she resents, and how much she quietly resists.
---
Let me know what you think! Does their relationship feel as layered as I intended? Feel free to comment, share your thoughts, or ask any questions about Rowan!
✨Bye and take care, hope you all have a good day ✨
17 | Writer | Artist | Overthinker I write things, cry about fictional characters, and pretend it’s normal. 🎀Come for the headcanons, stay for the existential crises🎀
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