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sandwichrin · 3 years ago

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A Little into You (Junkyu x Reader) (Ch. 27)

Chapter 27 - Is it still cold?

Word count: 4k words

Genre: Fanfiction, PG13, Comedy, Romance.

A/N: Hi! Here’s the next chapter ^^ Let’s get the ship sailinggggg~ (Well, technically, it hasn’t fully sailed but you know, we’re getting there fhdjsjs) Hope you all like this one btw <3

YGE Building (Cafeteria/Rooftop Balcony)

Junkyu stared at the being underneath the table. His knees were starting to feel numb from kneeling at this point.

He had searched the whole 1st floor for you, and never would it cross his mind that you’d literally be underneath a table—at the far end of the balcony, where it’s most exposed to the cold breeze outside too.

Junkyu sat himself down comfortably and scooted closer towards you, him being directly facing you; and struggling to fit himself underneath the table as well.

He lifted his finger to poke your hands that were hugging your knees close to your chin.

Cold. Too cold. How long have you been out here?

Junkyu gulped to himself. Fearing the worst. Is y/n even alive at this point?

He leaned in closer to your face and lifts his finger towards your nose to check on your breathing.

“Ah, she’s still breathing. Thank goodness,” he muttered to himself as he felt warm air against his finger.

But Junkyu was still worried. Why aren’t you moving? Why are your eyes closed even when he poked you?

“Ah, right! I should give Jihoon-hyung a call,” he began rummaging through his pockets—only to realise that he had left his phone in his small bag in the practice room. Junkyu groaned to himself, disappointed that he had rushed off to find you without at least grabbing his phone.

“What should I do now? Why are you unconscious out here?” He asked you even though he knew you wouldn’t answer him.

Junkyu sat there for a minute, taking in your image in front of him right now.

Your head leaning forward, chin resting against your hands—arms hugging your knees close to yourself. You looked like you were in a deep slumber, he thought. Few strands of your hair were covering the sides of your face, making your face look small. Even with your skin turning pale by the second because of the cold breeze outside, Junkyu thought you looked pretty.

Junkyu wanted to maybe stroke your head, maybe push your strands of hair away from your face but he didn’t want to come across as creepy.

His eyes fell towards your hands. Your fingernails were turning blue.

“Ah, you must be really cold right now,” he said, panic in his voice. He realised that this wasn’t the time to stare and be mesmerised by how pretty he thinks you look—he needed to do something.

Should he go downstairs and call for his friends? Should he try to wake you up? But what if you didn’t want to see him? It had been clear that you were avoiding him.

Just what should he do now?

YGE Building (Staircase Loft)

“Hyung! You should eat it this way,” Jeongwoo said as he demonstrated how he dipped his kimbap slice into his ramen broth. He pressed the kimbap into the broth, letting it sit in there for a couple of seconds.

“That’s…kinda weird…” Chani said as he watched the younger kid in front of him. “Besides, I thought your ramen finished long ago,”

“Oh, this isn’t mine. It’s Doyoung-hyung’s,”

Doyoung choked on the drink that he was drinking from, earning a slap on his back from Mashiho who was seated beside him on the staircase.

Doyoung wiped his mouth after he was done coughing. “Hey, why’d you soak the kimbap into my broth??” he pulled back his bowl from Jeongwoo’s hands.

Jeongwoo snickered at him. “Heheh I was just teaching Chani-hyung how to properly enjoy the kimbap.”

Chani shakes his head. “Nope, not gonna try it.”

“Aw come on!”

“I’ll try,” Yoshi said with his small smile. He grabbed a piece of the kimbap with his chopsticks and dipped it into his ramen broth, eating it after letting it soak for a while.

Everyone watched Yoshi munched on the kimbap.

“Hmm, good,” he said, his voice slightly muffled as he chewed on the food in his mouth.

“See? It’s good, hyung! Try it!” Jeongwoo said, still trying to convince Chani.

“I don’t know…I mean, I’m not—”

Chani got interrupted when in all of a sudden Doyoung raised his hand.

He lifts a finger to his mouth and whispered, “Shh, I think I hear footsteps approaching,”

Everyone fell silent for a while. They waited to hear if there were any more sounds.

“Hm. Nothing.” Jeongwoo said, assuming that there was nothing else to be heard.

And just as they all resumed to eating their food, they heard a loud gasp coming from behind Mashiho and Doyoung.

All of them turned their heads to look at who it was.

“Oh??” Jaehyuk said as his head popped up behind Junghwan.

“What are you doing down here??” Junghwan asked, his face in shock.

Everyone turned to look at Chani.

“Wait, you mean, me??” Chani questioned as he points at himself.

Junghwan shook his head. “Sorry, I meant—what are you all doing here?? I thought everyone was supposed to go search for Y/n!”

“Uhh, what are you guys doing here?” Chani asked Junghwan’s team back.

Junghwan, Asahi and Jaehyuk all exchanged looks with one another.

“Uhh…” Junghwan scratched his head and looks away from all of his hyungs.

“Ooohhh you’re all here to go sneak and buy some snacks from the convenience store!” Jeongwoo said, teasing the other team.

All three whom were standing on the top part of the staircase began to blush, embarrassed that their plan was exposed this way.

“Yahh, you’re all eating and having fun anyways. Why can’t we do the same?” Jaehyuk said this time, a slight whine in his voice.

“Okay, okay. Let’s not argue,” Doyoung said, getting up on his feet. “Come here, Junghwan. Here, have some of my kimbap,” he held out his ramen bowl to the maknae.

Junghwan leaned forward, peeking into the bowl. “Hyung…There’s nothing left in there…”

“Eh??” Doyoung said loudly. He checked his bowl and uses his chopstick to pick up the already broken kimbap in his broth. “What are you saying? There’s still some kimbap here. If that’s not enough—my love for you will keep you full,”

“Eyyyyyy” Everyone groaned at his pickup line.

“Noooo hyunggg don’t start,” Jeongwoo begged.

Junghwan giggled at his hyungs’ antics and shook his head. “Fine, fine. We’ll join you. What else do you all have here?”

YGE Building (GS25 Mart / Ground Floor)

“That’s weird. I thought Mashiho and Jeongwoo were in charge of being down here,” Jihoon said, as both him and Yedam stood in front of the convenience mart.

Yedam looked around, “Huh. You’re right. I don’t see them around at all,”

The both of them were approached by Hyunsuk and Haruto not long after, both looking tired and hungry.

“Jihoon-aa, where are the rest?” Hyunsuk asked as he walks up towards the two in front of the store.

“Beats me,” Jihoon shrugged. “I told Yedam to text them just now though,”

Haruto pulled out his phone from his pocket and tried to dial Asahi’s number. He shook his head when the hyung failed to pick up his call.

“I guess not all of them brought their phones with them. I saw Junghwan sending his bag to the practice room earlier. He must’ve left his phone in his bag,” Hyunsuk reasoned.

“Yeah, sure, but some of them must have carried their phones with them too, you know?” Jihoon replied.

The four of them looked around the area, noticing how deserted it was considering its way past lunchtime now.

“Oh well, I guess we can buy some food first and wait for them out here after that,” Jihoon suggested. “You okay Ruto? You must be hungry, huh?” he asked the youngest among the four of them there.

Haruto nods back at his hyung, “Somewhat hungry,”

Jihoon snickers at this and gestured them all to follow him into the store. “Come on,”

And just as the four of them were about to enter the convenience store in front of them, they heard the door not too far on their left opening.

It was the door leading to the staircase loft.

The four of them turned their heads just in time to catch—

Jeongwoo and Junghwan walking out of the door and chatting with each other; oblivious that their hyungs were watching them.

“Yahhhh I know that sunbae!! He picks on the girls in my class too! Aish, what a douche!” Jeongwoo said to the maknae who was walking beside him.

“Really?? Aigoo. He should know his limits though! One time, he came over to my class to pick on the girl sitting behind me too! The sunbae said to the girl; ‘your hair is so springy like noodles even my dog wouldn’t date you’,”

Jeongwoo lets out a loud gasp. “That’s so rude?! So, if her hair is super-straight, he would’ve said said ‘my hedgehog wouldn’t date you’??” Jeongwoo said in annoyance.

The both of them stopped by the trash bin at the center of the floor and Jeongwoo discards the ramen bowls he collected from his hyungs before this.

“Oh, right. Let’s stop by the store and grab some soda for the other hyungs,” Junghwan said. Jeongwoo nods back at him.

But then, as they turned around, they saw Jihoon already standing right in front of them, a smirk on his face.

“Having fun, kids?”

“Uh oh,” both the maknaes said at the same time.

YGE Building (Cafeteria / Rooftop Balcony)

You felt cold all over. You were starting to feel numb when you felt something poking your arms.

You scrunched your nose, feeling itchy in all of a sudden.

“Yahh, why won’t you wake up? How long do you want to stay like this? It’s cold here,” the voice whined.

You stirred from your position, trying to grasp the feeling of your numb body.

Slowly, you opened your eyes, expecting for your face to be hit by the bright sun despite the cold wind that you felt the whole time.

But then, instead of the sun rays hitting your pupils—you opened your eyes to meet bright, dark brown orbs staring back at you.

The both of you gasped at the same time.

You hugged your knees closer to your chin, surprised to see Junkyu sitting right in front of you, him looking as surprised as you were.

When did he get here? You were sure you had been alone earlier.

And wait—how did you not realise him being here??

Another gasp left your lips when you realised—that you had cried yourself to sleep before this.

You touched your cheeks, feeling the sticky residue from your dried-up tears. You groaned to yourself. You probably look like a mess right now.

Junkyu watched as you touched your face, shaking your head on your own and then rubbing your eyes slightly before finally looking at him again; as if you’d just remembered him being there.

“I uhh,” you began to say. “You…what are you doing here…”

“I should be asking you the same thing. Why are you huddled up here—” his eyes looked around as if judging you for choosing to sit underneath the table. “—and out here too, where it’s cold,”

Your body shivered after he pointed out the weather being cold. He was right though. You still couldn’t feel the tip of your fingers too. Your body must’ve absorbed all the cold whilst you were out asleep, you thought.

“Let’s go, we might catch a cold if we stay here any longer,” Junkyu said when you didn’t respond to his question.

“What—wait, go where?” you asked, your mind still groggy from the sleep you had.

Junkyu looked at you as if he was mortified by your silly question. “Anywhere, duh. You don’t want to stay here, do you??”

You looked away from him. A little taken aback by the way he responded to your question.

Junkyu noticed your expression changing after what he said, making him feel a little guilty. His tone must’ve sounded a little harsh, he thought.

“Look, I didn’t mean to say it like that—let’s just get back inside, okay?”

“Why are you here, Junkyu?” you asked him back, your eyes now on him again.

It was Junkyu’s turn to fall silent now, him being taken aback by your sudden question.

“You…Junkyu, look. I had a bad day. And you being here, after what happened between us; it’s all just making my head hurts. I can’t. I really can’t deal with everything like this, not all at once,” you huffed.

“I know. I’m sorry,” you heard him say, with a small voice.

You sniffled. The crying you did earlier plus the coldness out here must’ve made your nose runny, you thought as you tried to keep your runny snot from dripping out your nose that you couldn’t seem to feel at this point.

“Y/n, I know… what I said had hurt you. And I’m sorry. I really am,” he paused, staring at your eyes, trying to assure you that he meant what he said.

“I hope you know…that I didn’t mean what I said the other day,” he continued.

“But you did.”

Junkyu shakes his head, “No, I really didn’t! I just—I just…” he lowered his gaze, not looking into your eyes anymore.

You let out a sigh. Taking in a deep breath, you tried to move your legs just to make sure it doesn’t stay numb.

Junkyu kept quiet as he watches you again. His mind racing, thinking on how to make it less awkward between the both of you. He said sorry didn’t he? But why is it so hard for you to accept his apology?

After making sure that you could somewhat feel your feet as you tapped your feet against the cold floor, your eyes looked back at Junkyu, noticing that he had been watching you since just now.

“What?” You asked him.

“Where are your shoes?” He asked, curious as to why you were barefoot.

You looked down at your feet, embarrassed that he questioned you this.

“W-well, my feet were hurting from wearing my heels. Also—I don’t see the point of wearing it when I’m sitting down here, duh,”

Junkyu shrugs at your reply, not knowing what to say now.

“You don’t have to stay here, you know.” You said.

“What?”

“Wait, no. You haven’t answered my question though. What are you doing here??”

Junkyu shifted in his position, trying to make himself comfortable whilst sitting in front of you. He looked down at his hands for a while before looking back at you whom was waiting for his response.

“Well…Chani told us you had gone missing. So, we went around the building searching for you…”

“Wait—we?”

“Yeah, me and the other boys. And well, Chani too,” he added as he rolled his eyes at the moment Chani’s name came out of his mouth.

You stared at him in shock. “Whoa.” Just how did it come up to this? Why would they search for you though?

“Hold on, but you’re here,” you pointed out.

Junkyu nods at this.

“Does that mean…you’re the one that found me first?”

Again, he responds with a nod.

“Huh…” you wondered how much of a coincidence that the only person you dreaded to meet after what happened was the person that succeeded in finding out where you were.

You sniffled again, trying to stop yourself from shivering. One thing you were glad was that you had worn your slacks instead of your skirt today. At least you’d feel less cold out here.

“Y/n,”

You looked at Junkyu who was giving you a serious look right now. “Hm?”

Junkyu was determined. He was determined to explain himself to you. Sitting out here, underneath this secluded table; the cold wind slowly making his ears feel numb, he realised that this was indeed the only time he would have to actually tell you everything.

When would he get the chance to be alone with you again, right?

And so, with his trembling hands, he reached out to grab your hands in his.

“J-Junkyu,” you stuttered as soon as you felt his warm hands touch yours. What’s going on right now?

Junkyu took a deep breath before saying, “Y/n, listen, okay? I want you to listen to what I have to say.”

You blinked a couple times, your heart beating fast now. You nod your head slowly.

“Okay,” he said before swallowing the lump in his throat as he felt even more nervous now that you’re really focusing on him.

“I…I may have said some words that hurt you. And I regret it. I really did. I couldn’t sleep just thinking about how much I have hurt you. I saw how you looked at me that day—and it pains me to have you look at me that way. That isn’t the way I want you to see me as,” he shook his head.

“Y/n…I really am sorry. I really am. You might think that I have meant what I said, but I didn’t mean it. No way. You’re not annoying, not at all,” he continued.

You felt your eyes welling up. You could tell that he was trying his best to apologise sincerely but then, him talking about what happened just reminded you of how painful it was to hear him say those words about you. It hurt you so bad—to think that the person you like would have the guts to say that about you.

Junkyu felt your hands tensing up in his, so he gently rubs his thumb along your knuckles, trying to calm you down. “Y/n, look at me,” he said.

You didn’t realise that you had averted your gaze from him while you were reminiscing on what happened that day. Slowly, you lift your eyes to look at him again.

“I am so sorry. I was annoyed—yes, I admit it. But it wasn’t you I was annoyed with. I was just…upset at the time, you see. Your name crossed my mind at the time, but it wasn’t you that was annoying to me, I swear!”

You reluctantly nod at his explanation, trying to understand what he was trying to say.

“Y/n, I…Actually I…” Junkyu took another deep breath, gathering his courage. “I uh, I like—"

“AHCHOO!”

Junkyu froze in his spot, surprised by the sudden intrusion as he was about to confess his feelings for you.

“Oh my god, Junkyu! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—” you panicked as you saw him freeze and not blink after you had accidentally sneezed in his direction.

Pulling your hands out of his hold, you looked around, as if you’re looking for something.

“Damn, I didn’t bring ‘em,” you complained to yourself since you were sure you had tissues in your bag.

You turned your attention back to Junkyu who was still silent, probably still in shock of you sneezing at him. Great, he probably thinks I’m gross now, you thought.

“Junkyu, I—”

“Do you want to go inside?” He suddenly says, interrupting you from panicking any further.

“S-sure,”

YGE Building (3rd Floor / Treasure’s Practice Room)

“Hold ‘em straight! That’s right, just like that,” Jihoon’s firm voice boomed in the walls of their practice room.

“Hyungggg please, my arms are screaming at me, can we please not do this??” Jeongwoo cries out, his arms shaking from holding it up straight for the past 10 minutes.

“It’s only been 10 minutes Jeongwoo,” Jaehyuk said to him.

“Still! I’m tired!” Jeongwoo continued whining.

Jihoon shakes his head at the younger boy and scanned his eyes around the room to see if anyone was trying to get out of the punishment.

The only boys who weren’t punished were of course, Jihoon, Hyunsuk, Haruto and Yedam. The other three aside from Jihoon were sitting comfortably on the floor, eating up hot ramen from their purchase earlier.

“This isn’t fair, my team was the last to join them eating, hyung. We didn’t loiter as long as they did,” Junghwan complained, pointing out that the other teams had indeed stopped their search way earlier than he did.

“Now, now. You all have another 10 minutes to go. If I hear any more complaints, I’m adding another more 5 minutes, get it?”

“Awww nooo hyung!” “No way!” the younger kids in front of him groaned as they struggle to stay still.

“Aigoo Jihoon-aa. Just let them go already. Come here and eat with us, will ya?” Hyunsuk called out to his co-leader.

Jihoon looks back at the boys in front of him before shrugging and attending to Hyunsuk’s side. He sat himself down beside his hyung and grabbed the bowl of noodles in front of him.

“Here, hyung,” Haruto handed him a can of cold drink as he took one for himself.

“Thanks,” Jihoon said, earning a nod from the boy.

“Yah, aren’t you gonna let them go just yet?” Hyunsuk asked again, concerned that the kids might feel too tired for practice later.

“I want to. But I can’t yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” Jihoon stopped stirring his halfway-soggy noodles to turn and look at the rest whom were still raising their hands up. His eyes fell upon a specific person, making him smirk as he turns back to Hyunsuk who was still looking at him with concern. “I think it’s kinda fun. Don’t you think so, hyung?”

Hyunsuk furrowed his eyebrows and looks over at the others. “Jihoon…I know what you’re doing,”

“Aigoo, hyung. He deserves it too, no? He’s been bothering you and Junkyu’s minds lately—as if I don’t know that,” Jihoon chuckled, finally taking a big slurp from his bowl.

Hyunsuk looks over at the rest again and mouthed a ‘sorry’ to them since he couldn’t help them much.

“Yah, Kim Doyoung. Stop moving about, will ya? You’re distracting me,” Chani complained.

Doyoung rolled his eyes at the boy. “I wasn’t moving at all. I was just scooting next to Asahi-hyung,”

“Hey, no moving about!”

“There was no rule about changing seat positions, though,” Yoshi defended Doyoung.

“Yeah, he’s just scooting over. Chill it, will ya?” Junghwan replied in annoyance at the hyung.

“This is stupid. Why am I even here anyways,” Chani huffed, dissatisfied as to how he was getting punished as well.

“Yeah. Why are you here, huh?” Jaehyuk asked back.

“Beats me. Your hyungs brought me here along with you guys. This is stupid, I’m putting my arms down—”

“If Chani puts his arms down, I’m adding 10 more minutes for you all,” Jihoon’s voice said in all of a sudden.

Instantly, all the boys surrounded Chani and forced him to raise his arms up all over again.

“Hey, hey! What are you all doing?? Let go of me! Hyungggg they’re all breaking the rules!”

“Hm?” Jihoon tilts his head as he watches his kids and Chani struggling to push one another.

“Yah, yah, yah! That’s dangerous! Stop it, kids!” Hyunsuk said to them but they all ignored him.

Haruto and Yedam stayed put in their spots laughing as they watched Mashiho managed to hold both Chani’s arms up and the rest of the boys laughing and cheering at him.

Jihoon too, giggled as he watched this. “Hmm, Hyunsuk-hyung is right. Kids, you all can stop.”

“Oh?” The boys stopped and turned to look at Jihoon.

“Yup, you all are free,”

“YAYYYYYYY FREEDOMMMMMM” Jeongwoo ran around the room, chanting the word freedom over and over.

“Except for Chani,”

“What?” Chani looks at him in disbelief.

“Hey, I would’ve let you go but you were the noisiest at the end,” Jihoon shrugs.

“No way,”

“Okay kids, make sure Chani stays putting his arms up for another 10 minutes,” Jihoon said casually before returning to eat his food.

“Hey, that’s not fair! I’m not even your team member. Where’s your sidekick, huh? Shouldn’t he be getting punished too?”

“Huh, he has a point though. Where is Junkyu anyways?” Hyunsuk asks Jihoon.

To be continued…

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sabraeal · 3 years ago

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If All Else Fails Just Play Dead

[Read on AO3]

Obiyuki AU Bingo 2021 Swan Princess AU

There is a boy in her house.

Two boys, actually; not counting Uncle, who is the Margrave Entaepode, or Papa, who acts like he is, or Raj, who everyone simply tolerates because there are worse things than having the first prince adopt your heir as their particular friend, and all of them start with denying said prince what he wants.

(And also because when he’s not trying to flex all his royal powers at once, Raj can be almost tolerable. He at least believes in magic, which gives him a leg up over just about every other boy Shirayuki has known, save for uncle, even if he doesn’t know any himself.)

Sakaki is also not to be counted, though she feels bad about it, on account of how often she typically forgets that Sakaki is a boy and not just some boy-shaped furniture Raj travels with, like how he always brings his pillow and his favorite chair. She’ll have to remember to bring him some extra pastries from the kitchen as an apology.

No, these are two entirely foreign boys, shipped straight from the court of the King Who Isn’t, as her father calls him-- though not within his mother’s hearing. Shirayuki is resigned to make the best of it; Uncle asks for so little, and she is the Lady of the Manor, even if she only comes by the title from a lack of older women to fill it. If she must, she can entertain their guests, but that doesn’t mean she has to like it, not one bit at all.

A shelf rattles, jostling the books on their bindings. Shirayuki’s fingers nearly dint a page as she turns it, but she does not look up. To look up would be to give in, and even if she is charged with entertaining, she does not need to be the entertainment.

It rattles again, now with two giggles to accompany it. Excellent. It seems both her troubles are accounted for.

With a sigh, she collects herself. This is what is fair, after all. It is her duty to see after Entaepode’s guests, and Papa is already taking on the brunt of the Her Majesty’s needs, as well as the marquis’ that travels with her. Not that she would have minded if he wanted to switch; Queen Haruto at least seemed like the sort to enjoy a quiet afternoon in the library.

A leg swings over the top of the shelf, long and skinny and ending in a particularly scuffed boot.

Very much, Shirayuki thinks, slapping her book shut on the table, unlike her son and his companion.

“You’re not supposed to do that.” She means to be mild, but each sound falls so waspish from her lips that it could sting. Oh, Uncle will be displeased when he finds out she was rude to their esteemed guests. “It harms the books.”

A sly, cat’s grin shines down on her as a second leg follows the first. “We’re just on the shelves.” Obi twitches his shoulders in a lazy excuse for a shrug. “It’s not like we’re ripping out pages.”

Of the three of them, he’s older-- oh, well, both boys are older than her, but he’s oldest. Only a few years shy of being a man in his own right; the sort of older that’s supposed to know better. Not that he looks it-- Obi’s supposed to be thirteen, but he’s barely an inch taller than Prince Zen, showing none of the stretch in his limbs that boys his age should before they come into their growth.

His feet dangle, just at the level of her nose, and uncharitable irritation itches in her thoughts. Maybe he’ll be one of those boys who’s small forever, a man in a child’s body. The sort of boy she’ll be looking down on instead of up at, should she get Papa’s height, or Uncle’s.

“The shelves are where the books live,” she tells him officiously, fists high on her hips. “And if you knock it over, then you might hurt your spine, or worse, one of theirs! Or even worse,” she adds with no little horror, “you might tear out a page!”

He blinks, those wide, gold eyes flashing like candlelight. “Huh.”

She conjures up Uncle at his most imperious as she says, “This isn’t a training yard.”

“How would you know?” The shelf wobbles, and a pale white mop heaves itself over it. The second Prince of Clarines is pinch-faced, like he’s always just finished sucking on a lemon, and pale as an invalid. She could believe he was bedridden, from the way he keeps waiting to be served. “It’s not like you’ve ever been on one.”

A breath hisses between her teeth. It’s not from lack of trying, she wants to say; her last birthday, Papa has trousers sewn for her, plus a shirt and waist. He’d promised her a sword, even traipsed her through the halls to the yard, but Uncle had been waiting right at the gate, mouth drawn to a forbidding line.

What are you thinking, Mukaze? She’d heard him growl, her ear pressed tight to the study door. My own heir, and you put a blade in her hand.

If she were a boy, you’d have thought I’d done it too late, Papa had replied, easy as always, the way that would drive Uncle mad. I don’t see the harm--

Of course you don’t. Uncle had never sounded so cold, so bitter as he did in that moment. You never do.”

Her stomach twists, slithering around like a nest full of snakes, only getting more knotted, more sick as she thinks about it. Uncle and Papa were close as brothers, surely--

Surely, she shouldn’t be worrying about this at all.

“Why are you wearing all that black?” she snips instead, ignoring the heat that licks up her neck. “It’s summer.”

It’s not doing him any favors either; all that thick velvet just makes his limbs skinny and his face more drawn, like he’s a skeleton rather than a boy.

The prince stills, legs no longer kicking, lips no longer flapping; just a steady, slow rise and fall of his chest. Obi-- a study of constant motion-- doesn’t even do that; instead he sits, utterly immovable, and stares.

With a voice chilled with the winter he’s never felt, His Highness finally says, “My father died.”

She’d known that, she had. His Majesty died a year ago, her Uncle even told her, their legs pressed tight on his study’s sofa. She liked doing that, lining bone to bone, like they might one day be a matching set, margrave and heir both. Another pair of shoulders to carry the burden of rule, after so many years of an absent, broader pair.

Her Majesty has ever been a bosom companion to this family, he’d continued, a strange tightness to his voice. Now that her mourning is over, she is bringing her youngest son to visit. I’m sure your father would be pleased if you became...as close as they.

So much for that. Uncle would be so disappointed-- not only had she scolded the prince, but she’d insulted him too, and--

And he had started it. Her mouth settles into a thin line, so like Uncle’s.

“So did my mother.” So long ago that she is barely more than a song and a scent. Still, there is no ceding ground, not to Prince Zen; every inch she gives him yields a mile, and he considers it his due. “And you don’t see me walking around in velvet during high summer.”

The prince’s skin is pale as moonlight, the envy of every maid in the manor, but it flushes an angry red now, his body trembling to contain him. “My father, he sputters, leaping off the shelf, “is more important than your stupid mother ever will be.”

Papa praises her for her even-temper. Just like your mother, he laughs, not as boldly as he is wont. You never let anything under your skin. Not like me. Though all our impulse certainly bred true.

Anger, Uncle would say in his soothing voice, every syllable measured, makes a man a fool. You would do well to eschew it if you can, my little girl.

So it is not that Shirayuki is angry; oh no, she is incandescent.

Her finger curl, carving pitted crescents in her palms. For once she is glad that magic is consigned to history books and scholars in their towers, for if she could but call fire to her fingertips, this whole library would be alight. Her mother may be more sense than solid to her, but there is not a stone here she has not touched, and--

Well, Uncle is right, but Shirayuki is content to be stupid.

“Maybe so,” she says, so calm, so even, just as Uncle might. “But at least people liked her.”

For a moment, Prince Zen looms, every line trembling, and she is convinced that he will raise a hand to her, that he will truly treat her as her father’s mouth has earned her. But instead he spins on his heel, stalking out of the library with naught a word.

Wrath leaves her at once, a spirit exorcised from her chest, and oh, she’s dizzy with the lack. Her hand reaches out, meaning to grab for the chair--

But another hand grabs it instead. Shirayuki had never noticed at what a patrician angle Obi’s nose sat, not until he stares down it at her, his face a smooth bronze mask.

“That,” he says, finally sounding his age, “was badly done.”

Had her father sat her down after that terrible, disastrous morning, and told her that one day she would consent to marry the prince, Shirayuki would have--

Well, she would have done something Uncle wouldn’t approve of, surely. And she had, when Papa sat her down not too long after the queen’s carriage disappeared into the horizon, and told her that their union had been agreed upon, dowry and all. But to think she would ever want to, that she herself would gladly make the plans-- impossible.

If only it had stayed that way. If only she had remembered why she’d waved him off at arm’s length every summer, why she’d tossed him in the pond when he tried to kiss her at fifteen and told him he’d have better luck finding a princess of his own species in there. At least then she might be able to scuttle this whole wedding, instead of having Papa and Haruto cluck at her pitifully when she asks, telling her that it would all work out eventually.

After all, hadn’t she loved him just last night?

Shirayuki huffs, rolling to her side. She’s no longer livid, which is an improvement; last night she’d thought quite long and extremely hard about how many tapestries she would need to tear from the walls to get a good, solid bonfire to catch and burn Wistal palace to its very stones. Once she started considering where the custodians might keep turpentine, or whether she could wheedle the key to the cellars out of the chatelaine, she’d forced herself to lay down. Few things had ever made her so angry that they couldn’t be solved by a good night’s rest.

Wrath and rage has cooled, but not to her usual levelheaded calm, the answer filling her with vim and vigor and a dangerous determination. Oh no, instead her fine barrel of fury has turned to melancholy, and with each minute that ticks by, she drinks a deeper draught.

Is beauty all that matters to you?

Even now her breath catches at the roiling confusion in Zen’s eyes. What else is there?

“What was I thinking?” Her fists clench at her sides, but it’s not enough, not until she brings them to her eyes and pressed down, colors sparking across her eyelids. “Why did I...?”

She thought he had changed. They all had, these last few years, hadn’t they? No longer the three children that had tripped over each other in her uncle’s halls, bickering and pinching and causing trouble wherever they roamed. Shirayuki’s temper had mellowed. Zen had grown taller-- or at least tall enough to please him. And Obi--

Obi should be here. And now he’s not, and it’s yet another why she has no answer to.

A timid knock brushes against her door, followed by an even softer, “M-my lady?”

Shirayuki pulls her fists from her eyes, blinking away the blur. “Come in.”

A small girl slinks inside, dark eyes wide and round. “M-my lady...” Her brow furrows. “Your hands are wet.”

She glances down, staring at the fingers laces so tightly in her nightgown. Her knuckles do indeed shimmer in the light, right where they had been pressed along her eyes. “So they are. I...suppose you are here to dress me.”

“Ah...” The maid loses her certainty, eyes darting around the room. “About that...”

Her heart leaps in her breast. “Has something happened?”

“Ah, well.” The girl winces. “There’s a bit of a, um, problem. With the arrangements.”

“The arrangements?” Shirayuki echoes.

“Ah...”

That’s when she hears the screams.

Her twelfth summer marks the moment that this arrangement becomes completely, irrevocably unfair.

“I don’t see what the problem is.” Branches shiver above her, the only sign of Obi a few flashes of black and buckskin and the leaves quivering in his wake. “You two have gotten nearly civil these days.”

“But you’ve gotten tall,” Shirayuki grouses, tucking herself between the roots of the old oak, book sprawled upon her lap. “Any day now you’ll be head and shoulders taller, and what if Zen’s the same? I can’t be the smallest.”

“Well.” She can’t see him, but she knows he settles above her, perched on a branch too precarious for his size. “You are a girl.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t be tall.” A finger taps against the page, thoughtful. “Haruto is.”

“For a lady.”

“For anyone,” she corrects primly. “It’s fine enough for you to be tall-- you’re tolerable. But Zen...” She grimaces. “His height it the only thing that keeps him humble. The king isn’t tall, is he?”

“He is,” Obi informs her with relish. “Almost taller than my father, and he’s not done growing.”

She pictures it, Zen being able to look Haruka square in the eye, and shudders.

“I was afraid you’d say that.” Shirayuki sighs, finger knitting in her lap. “Uncle should forbid you from coming. You can stay for now, but next summer is right out.”

It’s strange how even though she can’t see him, she can feel his grin on the air. “I’m sure nothing would make him happier.”

“Or me,” she admits, wistful. “What good neighbors Zen and I might be, if we never had to look at each other again. Save for weddings and births and funerals, of course. And you’d always be welcome, Obi.”

“Thanks.” He drops down one of his too-long legs, toes curling in the air above her, the only visible part of him. “But I wasn’t talk about the Young Master.”

Shirayuki blinks, mouth curving in confusion as she parses his words. “You can’t mean Uncle.”

Obi leans, just enough for her to see his dubious, arched brow. “Why not?”

“Uncle’s always liked Zen.” He’d been the one to calm her when she’d come crying, distraught that Papa would make her marry a boy as pompous as him. Plenty of boys grow out of their pettiness, little girl, he’d told her, smoothing the wild riot of her hair, at least as many that don’t. “Even now, he’s with him, showing him the march.”

“Only because your father asked him,” Obi says, settling back into the canopy. “The next Margrave Entaepode needs to know what his lands can bring. Especially if he means to bring them to his brother.”

Shirayuki frowns. “I’m the next Margrave Entaepode.”

“No,” Obi hums. “You’re the next margravine.”

Shirayuki is not sure what she expects when she walks into Clarines’ great hall, but it is certainly not carnage.

“What happened?” she breathes, picking her way over a toppled chair. There’s not a scrap of fabric that’s not torn, not a table nor chair without a wobble. Flower petals lay strewn on the ground, and the cake--

“Oh no,” she sighs, “I was so looking forward to desset.”

It’s toppled, every tier crushed to the stone beneath it, buttercream and jam and custard smeared up and down the aisle. It had been a gift from the Seirans; Zen had been so excited to know their much-beloved cook had made each layer with him in mind-- Except one, Obi reminded him, swiping a bit of cream from a spoon. You know who Cookie loves best.

“A beast did it,” the steward tells her, near to tiers. “Knocked it over, then even stopped to take a bite.”

“Three bites,” a maid chimes in. “Odd, it was. I could have sworn it thought about it too, just stood there looking as Cook came in, shouting to high heaven, and ate its share.”

Shirayuki glances down. “Flew? As in-- with wings?”

“Yes,” the steward agrees, “it had wings, and a mouth with cruel teeth.”

“There weren’t no teeth,” the chatelaine snaps waving the wailing man off. “It was just a bird. Swan, I think, from the size. And the meanness. Came in here like a holy terror, it did.

“It was a beast with teeth,” the steward insists, “and it bit one of the footmen!”

The chatelaine huffs. “What did you expect, trying to grab it like that?”

Shirayuki can’t help but agree; she’s bitten more than a man or two that tried to catch her as well. But that’s not what has her attention now; instead it is the cake on the floor, those three big bites out of it, baring chocolate sponge and raspberry custard. The layer Cookie made special. The one she thought would go to waste when...

“Where is he now?” At their looks, she amends, “I mean, it. The beast.”

“Outside,” the steward says, sending a narrow look toward the door. “A few of the maids managed to chase it out, but I’m afraid it will have gotten into the decoration-- my lady, where--?”

“I’d like to take a look,” Shirayuki calls back, slippered feet already carrying her to the door. “I, ah, think I might know how to solve this...problem?”

The steward blinks. “Is there some...Tanbarunian folk tradition for this? Ridding the grounds of a foul beast?”

Her feet stutter at the threshold, and she swallows down a laugh. “Certainly something for removing one fowl.”

At thirteen, Shirayuki will admit, Zen becomes tolerable. Not without extreme duress, and certainly never if Obi is around, but being in his presence no longer feels like slivers under her fingernails. Now it’s just that unpleasant drone of cicadas, the same that herald his arrival every summer.

“Are you supposed to be climbing?” she asks, settling herself at the base of the tree’s trunk, as always. “Your mother won’t thank you for ruining those trousers.”

Obi laughs, already deep in the canopy. “I think you mean his laundress.”

“I have plenty more,” Zen scoffs, levering his boot over another knot, giving him the height to reach the first branch. “And I think you’re only so cross because you can’t climb for beans.”

She retracts her opinion. His Highness has certainly not become tolerable in the least.

“Come off it,” Obi laughs, so easy in his bower. “Anyone can climb.”

Zen grins down at her with smug authority. “Not Shirayuki, she’s a girl.”

“So is Kiki,” Obi reminds him, “and if she heard you talk like that, she’d come up and throw you off that branch herself.”

“Kiki hardly counts as a girl--”

“--That’s not what Mitsuhide would say--”

“--And that doesn’t mean Shirayuki can,” Zen adds, tone brooking no argument. “She doesn’t even have trousers on.”

“Shirayuki can climb in a dress just fine.” Obi swings down, right to the lowest branch. Or rather, the second lowest, since Zen hasn’t vacated the first. “Come on, I’ll tell you how.”

She spares the tree a dubious glance. “Are you sure--?”

“Always. Don’t you trust me?” He lowers down a hand, callused and bronzed, and she takes it. “Good, now put your foot there. Now just...think up.”

She sends him a dubious look. “I don’t think it’s possible to just go up by thinking it.”

He grins down. “You’d be surprised.”

Shirayuki is definitely ruining her dress.

“You’re sure it’s up here?” she calls down, a worried swarm of footmen huddling beneath her. “Waterfowl aren’t really...tree-dwelling birds.”

“I’m sure, my lady,” one pipes up beneath her. “Took to wing, then hopped up the branches easy as you please.”

Shirayuki casts a long look up the oak, sighing. “Of course he did.”

One slippered foot lifts, hooking over a thicker branch, resting her weight right by the trunk.

“Just think up,” she murmurs, irritation rising with every word. “Just think up and it’s hardly anything at all.”

“HONK,” agrees the goose above her.

“Oh.” She blinks, taking in the sleek white body and the webbed feet tucked unnaturally beneath it. Well, not that the pose was unnatural, but the place. “You’re not a swan at all.”

“HONK,” the goose informs her, wistful this time.

“Be glad,” she says, reaching for him. “If you were any bigger, I wouldn’t be able to carry you, and you’d be stuck up here with your big wings and bad decisions.

The goose ducks it head, abashed. “HONK.”

“You better,” she starts, trying to wrangle a bird his size beneath her arm, “be exactly who I think you are.”

This close, her fowl friend doesn’t dare express his opinion at the only volume nature saw fit to give him, but instead, cuddles right against her neck. For one, weak moment, Shirayuki leans against the trunk, letting her head sink into his feathers. Please let this be him. If it is, she can worry about the how later. Maybe even the why. As long as he hasn’t abandoned her, there’s nothing--

“Not to interrupt you,” a lady’s languid voice drawls beneath her. “But I’m assuming that you might need some help getting down.”

Fifteen is when Shirayuki is made aware of just how utterly unfair her life will be from now on, now that she’s to be the wife of a prince.

“No, no,” Obi laughs, nervous. “I think the Young Master has it right this time, Miss. You can’t come.”

“Why not?” He’s gotten much taller now, taller even than when he arrived, and she has to look up to guilelessly meet his eye, much more than she’s used to. “If I can climb trees with you, I can splash around in a pond just fine--”

“Yes, but--” his mouth split into a pained grimace-- “climbing trees doesn’t involve taking off clothes. You can see how that might be a, hm, problem now, can’t you, Miss?”

“No.”

His exasperation is completely unwarranted, considering how exasperating he’s being. “You’re a lady.”

“One that can swim,” she counters. “We’ve done it before, I don’t know why it’s bothering you now.”

“Because you’re...” He waves a hand at her, a harried up and down, but she only stares back. “Of all the things for Master to leave to me...”

“I can keep my shift on,” she offers, “if that helps.”

“It really doesn’t, Miss.” Obi sighs, one hand coming up to rub at his shoulder. “Surely your father-- no, your uncle. Surely your uncle’s talked to you about how boys and girls shouldn’t, um...you know.”

“I don’t.”

“It’s just...” He takes a steeling breath. “Miss, you’re a woman now. You can’t be naked with men.”

She wrinkles her nose. “I said I would wear my shift. And besides, you’re not men, you’re boys.”

Obi head rolls heavenward. “Only to you.”

Shirayuki gives him a considering look and pulls out her trump card. “Would you let Kiki Seiran come?”

She doesn’t know this Kiki Seiran, not from anything more than what’s been said in her presence, but she knows-- whatever a man does, Kiki does, and better too. The moment her name leaves her lips, Obi drops her a helpless glare.

“Kiki,” he says, as if savoring the word, “doesn’t count. No one lets Kiki Seiran do something, she just does it, and we all live with the consequences.”

A fond smile flickers across his lips, and for no reason at all, her stomach twists. “You should marry her.”

Obi blinks. “Huh?”

“Kiki Seiran,” she says lightly. “It seems she’s really quite impressive.”

For a long moment he stares at her, unblinking. Then he coughs, one, twice, until it’s no longer a cough but roaring laughter.

Shirayuki stares at him. “Is something funny?”

“Oh, Miss,” he wheezes. “That’s some vote of confidence, but Kiki Seiran-- she’s not for the likes of me.”

The sick knot in her stomach dissipates into affront. “Why not? There’s nothing wrong with you.”

“Again, you really know how to compliment a man,” he teases. “But no count worth his acreage will marry his daughter and heir to a bastard. With her pedigree, they’re probably planning to marrying her to Elder Highness as we speak.”

“Well, that’s silly,” she huffs. “You’re worth a thousand princes Obi. Any lady would be lucky to have you.”

His smile wavers. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

“You should bring her next time,” she decides. “I can talk to her.”

“Ah,” he coughs, shaking his head as he traipses after her. “That won’t be necessary at all.”

This is not how she thought she’d meet the illustrious Kiki Seiran, her wedding dress torn to rags and goose hugged tight in her arms, but it would not be the first time today fate thwarted her expectations.

“I’m fine,” Shirayuki assures her, slowly making her descent. “But do you have, um, water?”

One elegant brow arches. “Water?”

“Ah, yes.” She drops down before her-- oh, Lady Seiran is...quite a bit taller than she’d imagined, and at least twice as pretty. No wonder Obi always smiled when he talked about her. “Like a, um, lake? Or a river might do?”

“A lake?” Her gaze drops, mouth canting into a thoughtful line. “For your avian compatriot, I suppose. You think his home must be close by.”

“Yes,” she lies, because babbling about ancient texts she’s certain she was never supposed to see and magic of the blackest sort seemed a poor first impression to make. “It would probably, uh, help with the...destructive behavior.”

“He has left quite a spectacle behind. It will take hours to clean that up. Or days,” she adds with a pointed look toward the goose. “Your wedding seems to be thoroughly postponed.”

Good, she doesn’t say. This Kiki Seiran is Zen’s friend too, after all. And even if Shirayuki could have shaken him to pieces last night, she’s that too.

“Water?” she says instead.

It’s the right thing to say, since Kiki turns around, gesturing toward the treeline. “There’s a pond back there. Just follow the cobblestone path and it should take you right out to the dock.”

“Perfect.” Shirayuki takes two hurried steps before pausing, turning over her hip to add, “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Kiki. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

There’s that brow again, lifted into an elegant arch Shirayuki could never hope to mimic. “Only good things, I hope.”

Her stomach lurches as she replies, “The best.”

#obiyukibingo21 #obiyuki #akagami no shirayukihime #snow white with the red hair #swan princess au #my fic #ans #listen this is another fic where like #i want to write the 50K lead up #the political intrigue that leads to this whole arrangement #and the magic #and obi and shirayuki and zen as kids who BARELY like each other and then become besties and then have this LOVE TRIANGLE #the whole terrible relationship between Uncle and Mukaze and Shirayuki's Mom and Haruto and KAIN #sideplots with Izana and Raj #like guys i have THOUGHTS #one day i'll come back around and write more of this #or someone will make me #WHO KNOWS #😂

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pocket-luv101 · 4 years ago

Text

First Impressions // Chapter 4

Fandom: Servamp Ship: LawLicht (main), KuroMahi (side), Tetsono (side), Jekuni (side) Characters: Hyde, Licht, Kuro, Mahiru

Summary: After Licht meets the wealthy bachelor, Hyde, she was certain that she could never be friends with him. Their paths continues to cross and she slowly comes to know him. Licht wonders if she judged him too quickly. (LawLicht, Pride and Prejudice AU, Fem Licht)

Ch.1 // Ch.2 // Ch.3 // (Ch.4) //

Hyde leaned against the door while he waited for Licht to change out of her wet clothes and into dry ones. He asked the maids to prepare clothes for her to wear while they sent her wet clothes to be washed. After the times he saw Licht protect her sisters, he predicted that she would visit Mahiru after she learned that she was ill. He never expected her to leap over the creek and almost trample him with her horse though.

The door next to him opened and Licht stepped into the hall. The dress she wore belonged to Hyde’s sister who was taller than her. Licht gripped a handful of the skirt and lifted the fabric slightly so she wouldn’t trip as she walked. She addressed the maid before she spoke to Hyde. “Thank you for the clothes and drying my hair, madame.”

“I don’t know many people who would be so polite to the staff.” His comment turned Licht’s attention to him. Her sisters worked closely with their staff and she considered them friends. They would tell her that noble families were often haughty and unappreciative of their work. Licht’s eyes narrowed at the thought that he could be the same. He appeared surprised by her kindness towards the staff.

“I believe a person’s character is shown through their work rather than their rank or wealth. I enjoyed speaking with her. She told me that my sister is resting in the room down the hall.” Licht nodded to the room and then she walked in the direction. Hyde fell into step next to her and he held his arm out to him. She knew that it was customary for a gentleman to offer his arm as he walked with a lady. “There’s no need to be so formal. It shall only take a few minutes to reach the door.”

“I was worried that you’ll trip on that long skirt. You can hold onto me so you won’t fall even if you become tangled in the fabric. I wouldn’t want you to twist your ankle. May I escort you to your sister, Angel Cakes?” He continued to hold out his arm to her. After a moment of hesitation, Licht let one of her hands fall from her dress and she placed it on the crook of his arm. She was able to feel his warmth and his toned muscles through his jacket.

They walked down the hall and Licht glanced to the family portrait at the end of the corridor. Hanafield’s manor was a grand building and the rooms inside were even more so. Licht couldn’t imagine how they were able to collect enough flowers to cover the tall walls. Despite how extravagant the manor was, her gaze would always fall onto Hyde. She had to admit that he was handsome but she didn’t know if his heart would reflect his exterior the way Hanafield did.

They stopped in front of the room they gave Mahiru and he opened the door for Licht. He noticed the way she leaned forward slightly to peer into the room and search for her sister. He thought the subtle gesture was endearing. Before he moved into Hanafield, he learned that his neighbours were a prestigious family. Hyde had assumed they would be cold and formal but he could see that he was wrong. He wanted to learn more about her. He considered asking her about her opinion on the play he gave her but he knew it was better to wait until after she spoke with her sister.

“Mahiru!” Licht almost tripped over her dress as she walked to the bed where she laid. She sat on the edge of the bed and she found that her sister appeared only slightly flushed. It was a relief that her cold wasn’t as dangerous as she feared. “We were worried sick when we learned you caught a cold in the rain. Mikuni and Misono wanted to come to see you but they had to attend to family business. They will come as soon as the work is done.”

“I didn’t mean to worry you or any of my sisters. I thought I would be able to reach the manor before the rain started. As you can see, the weather did not agree.” She told her through several sniffles. Licht took out a handkerchief from her pocket and handed it to her sister. “Thank you, Licht. I’m glad you’re here but there was no need to fret. The Servamps would’ve written that they are caring for me. What would’ve happened if you got sick coming to see me?”

“Your motherly instinct would fight off your cold and you would rush to the kitchen to make me chicken soup.” She joked and Mahiru giggled. Her laughter was quickly overtaken by a cough and she pulled the blanket to her chin. Licht could easily see that she was trying to hide the symptoms of her cold and lessen her concern. “You’ve taken care of us for years but it’s my turn now. I’ll pour you some tea.”

Licht turned to speak with the maid but she saw that Kuro had already made a cup of tea for Mahiru. He placed it on the table next to the bed. “Would you like sugar in your tea?”

“Only a spoon, please. Thinking simply, it wouldn’t be good to have too much sugar while recovering from a cold.” Mahiru smiled up at him. Her face was a little red and she didn’t know if it was caused by the cold or Kuro’s kindness. “Thank you for staying by my bedside and making sketches for me. They have lifted my spirits even with this cold.”

“This man was alone with you while you were weak from a cold?” Licht’s eyes narrowed at Kuro. It was improper for a man and a woman to be alone in a room together. She knew the assumptions society would make if they knew. She hated the thought that people would whisper rumours about her sister. A scandal could quickly grow from the rumours and limit Mahiru’s future choices. She started to rise to her feet but Mahiru placed a hand on her sister’s arm to stop her from turning her anger to Kuro.

“Kuro has done nothing but treat me kindly and be respectful, Licht. Wrath has been with us this entire time as well. There is no need to worry about my reputation.” She nodded towards Wrath who sat next to the window. Licht had been so concerned for her sister that she didn’t notice the others in the room. With a light tug on her sleeve, Mahiru urged her to sit down again. “I know you mean well in your heart but you shouldn’t be so impulsive.”

“Licht is your sister. I understand why she would want to protect you.” He didn’t appear to be offended by Licht’s anger as others would be. Mahiru felt a warmth spread through her heart. She could only be with a man who respected and understood her sisters with their quirks. Kuro placed a sketchbook onto her lap and said, “I should go so you can speak with your sister alone. It has been a pleasure. Wait, I don’t mean to say I’m happy that she got sick.”

“I understand,” Mahiru laughed and her warm voice made him relax. She watched Kuro leave the room and she waited for the door to close before she turned to Licht.

Her sister sat in the chair next to the bed where Kuro had been. Mahiru tilted the sketchbook to Licht so she could see the drawing of a rose. “When I fell ill, Kuro came and asked if I wanted something to pass the time. He didn’t want me to be bored or lonely in this large room by myself. We both enjoy art and we took turns drawing in this sketchbook. He kept me company. He’s a good man.”

“You don’t need to convince me of his noble character. My sisters are fellow angels and their divine judgement is never wrong.” Licht told her confidently. Mahiru had always been able to make friends quickly and she trusted her opinion on people. As long as the Servamps didn’t give her a reason to object, she would support their relationship.

“I feel guilty that I might have caused you worry while I was here in a warm bed. Mikuni is already stressed about the house and Father’s will.” Mahiru let out a heavy breath. “A wealthy marriage would solve our problem because our husband can buy the house or inherit it. I like Kuro but I don’t know what I’ll do if he starts courting me. I don’t want him or anyone to think I’m with him for his wealth. Thinking simply, it’s not fair to either of us if we start a relationship with such doubts.”

“You’re not the type of person who uses others in such a way. I’m certain that Kuro will be able to see that as well. If he doesn’t, he wasn’t worthy of your heart.” Licht reassured her sister. “Maybe we can write a petition to the court and ask them to grant property rights to women. There must be other families with only daughters in a similar situation to ours.”

“The house’s title might fall to Haruto before the law can change.” Mahiru was the most optimistic of the sisters but she couldn’t deny that it was nearly impossible to keep their home. Mahiru laid back against the pillow and she stared at the tall ceiling. The golden leaves painting on the ceiling was beautiful but she closed her eyes to imagine the simple wooden roof she would see when she woke up. Others would call her strange but she preferred her modest home.

She felt the bed shift beneath her and Mahiru opened her eyes to see Licht lay next to her with her face buried in the pillow. At first, she was scared that her sister would catch her cold by lying next to her. Mahiru noticed how stiff her shoulders were and she could tell that there was something in her mind. She patted her hair like a mother would. “We’ll find a way to keep our home. Haruto might be a reasonable and progressive person who we can compromise with.”

“I yelled at Mother before I left the house. She deserved it but I know she’ll be angry at the both of us once we return home.” Licht chose not to tell her the reason she lost her temper at their mother. Anger still lingered in her blood at how their mother had been so cold towards Mahiru’s condition. How could she be more focused on matching Sakura with a Servamp when she learned Mahiru was sick?

“Families fight but we can understand each other after a talk. You won’t have to face Mother alone when you return home because I’ll be there with you. We’re sisters.”

Licht stepped out of the room and she carefully closed the door so the soft click wouldn’t wake her sister. She asked a maid to watch over Mahiru while she slept and to call her if her condition changed. She wanted to stay by her side but she thought she should take the chance to thank the family for caring for her sister. The maid gave her directions to the library where the family would likely be. The manor was large and she could easily imagine becoming lost in the winding halls.

She followed the faint sound of voices in the distance and she recognized Hyde’s laughter. Licht stopped in the doorway and there were a few other guests she didn’t recognize. The family sat with their back to the door so they didn’t notice her. Most of the group were seated around a table playing cards while Hyde was at a writing desk. Occasionally, he would look up from his letter to speak with his guests.

“I hope we are not boring you, Lady Hina. You came to visit in a very short time and we didn’t have the opportunity to prepare anything for your arrival. We’re cousins and we enjoy your visit but letters are a formality to help prepare us.” Hyde folded his letter and handed it to a butler. “You’ve caught us in the middle of work and we already have guests.”

“Do you mean the woman with the dark hair? I saw her briefly in the foyer but she didn’t stop to introduce herself to me when she passed. I would excuse the rudeness as shyness. It must’ve been mortifying for her to be seen in such a state. Her skirt was caked in mud. I overheard from the staff that she rode through the rain. Whether she is mad or stubbornly inclined to show her independence above other women, I cannot say. I can only assume she was a spectacle when you found her.”

“I assure you, Cousin, I thought no such thing. Licht is not the type to shy away from people due to social pressure either.” Hyde corrected his cousin. “She had something more concerning on her mind than polite greetings. Her sister has fallen ill in our care. I understand her motivation but I would not like the thought of my sister riding in this weather.”

“Your sister is from a prestigious family while I hear that the Eves hold a modest income. The Eve sisters can afford to be more reckless when their prospect for a husband is already so little. It must be difficult to find a match in their situation.” The feigned sympathy in Hina’s voice made Licht’s hands tighten at her side. “I stopped at a cute little ribbon shop and the seamstress told me that Kuro danced with an Eve.”

“Kuro never cared for the family title or wealth so he won’t consider those things when he chooses someone to court.” Hyde envied his older brother who had decided to retire to the drawing room rather than gossip with their cousin. He wished he could do the same but it would be impolite to leave now. “I would like to find a wife who is refined, witty, and talented in the dramatic arts.”

“Talented is such a belittling thing to call something.” Licht’s voice turned the room’s attention to her. She didn’t step back from their surprised stares and she stood with her back straight. She entered the room and she met Hyde’s red eyes. “The word implies that someone is born with a gift when most would pour hours of practise into perfecting their craft.”

“How would you show your appreciation for someone’s craft?” Hyde asked her, intrigued. He thought most would be happy to be called talented.

“I cannot know the preference for each artist or performer. I play the piano and I enjoy when a person dances along to Choppin or cry after I’ve played one of Beethoven’s Sonatas. It helps me know that I have moved the audience and properly portrayed the emotions of a song.” Licht stopped in front of Hyde and curtsied slightly. “I came to thank you for housing my sister while she’s sick.”

“It was our invitation that caused her to be soaked by the rain. How is your sister? I would wager she’s better since you’re willing to leave her side.” He moved from his spot on the writing desk to offer his chair to her. Hyde thought the tea would be more fun with Licht present. “We only arrived a few days ago and the staff haven’t moved the furniture in yet. You may sit here.”

“I wouldn’t want to take your seat while you’re working.” Licht nodded towards the letter on his desk. “The doctor says that Mahiru is recovering well and it’s possible she will be fit enough to return home within a few days. My sister fell asleep a few minutes into our talk and I thought it best to let her rest. I only came to thank your family so I should go now.”

“Sitting by yourself will be boring. Would you like a book to read and pass the time.” Hyde walked to the bookcase and took down a few novels. “I’m an avid reader myself. Did you enjoy the Shakespeare play I suggested last night? I could give you something similar.”

“I read the play with my sister and it was fun. I do enjoy gothic novels though.”

Hyde smiled at her words. “As do I. Though, Shakespeare is my preference.”

#servamp #lawlicht #kuromahi #greed pair #sloth pair #servamp hyde #licht jekylland todoroki #servamp kuro #mahiru shirota #fanfiction #fem mahiru

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galaxwrites · 3 years ago

Text

That time Kaito (accidentally) seduced a dragon

Yugioh writing, this time.

crossposted on my AO3

A mix of Zexal and Arc-V

Ship: ...what's the ship name for Kaito x Shun? that's the one

Dungeons and Dragons AU!

Please, enjoy~

-------

The very way Yuto Sakaki was sitting on the throne radiated power, but... His face looked sorrowful. Kaito had seen plenty of sorrowful kings, but never one this...gloomy. Almost as if in mourning.

He did find it weird how there was no advisor or queen that sat besides him. The last time the pirate was in front of the king, he had the Kurosaki siblings at his side. But now...He was alone.

Yuma's voice snapped the pirate out of his thoughts, as the paladin spoke to the dark-robed king. "Your majesty, I am Yuma Tsukumo, Paladin of Ellipas. And me and my gang have a proposition for you."

The king raised an eyebrow. "What kind of proposition, and what is in it for my people?"

"Well, you may already know about your brothers and their kingdoms. And...The threat that Yuri's kingdom poses." Yuma stated. "We believe it'd be best to reunite the kingdoms into one. We've got King Yuya of the Kingdom of Flames on board. We want to continue with you."

Yuto rose from his throne, and walked up to the party of four. Kaito noted that his cape was...well, pretty long. "Reuniting the kingdoms would be vital to our survival, but if I am to get on board with this plan...I need something in return." He stopped right in front of Kaito. The pirate gulped. "My advisor and my queen, Kurosaki Shun and Ruri.. They've gone missing and I am assuming it has to do with the two dragons that have shown up at the edge of my territory. I wish for you to find them, and get rid of my little dragon problem."

Ryouga nodded. "Piece of cake."

The king only narrowed his eyes, at Kaito in particular. "You've been in my kingdom before, and caused quite a stir.. I don't trust you, Tenjou."

"I assure you, your highness, I won't cause that sort of trouble again." Kaito replied, having to physically stop himself from shaking by gripping his arm.

---------------

Yuto had lead the group to a dark forest he called "Raptor's Hollow". It was thick and twisty and Kaito wondered how any creature could live here.

A distant roar, that steadily grew closer as the group pressed forward, was heard. One of the dragons, maybe.

It took about an hour of walking before the group had reached it-a large, dragon-made clearing. Stumps of wood and full trees were scattered around it. Two dragons sat in the middle, one roaring in pain and the other whimpering while trying to help the other.

The roaring one was much bigger than the other. Its scales a dark green, with a lighter teal underbelly and wings. Its gold eyes shimmered with a sort of familiarity.

The other was a deep purple, with hot pink eyes and pastel purple wings. A small ribbon was tied around its tail.

The bigger one lifted its snout, sniffed the air, and roared, heading straight towards the gang. Yuto and Kaito simply jumped out of the way, with Ryouga and Astral simply running.

But like always, Yuma was an idiot and froze up, getting rammed into a tree. He cried out in pain. "OW-"

"YUMA!!" Astral yelled, obviously concerned. The paladin flashed a thumbs up.

"I'm okay! I think I broke a few ribs but I'm okay!"

Kaito sighed. That's gonna be a Cure Wounds later. For now, he had a plan. A risky one, but when were his plans ever risk free?

He took his lute, and strummed a small tune, letting the spell he had prepared be cast on the dragon. The dragon tilted its head and looked at the bard, listening to the tune. Kaito continued to just...play. Not just for his spell, to to calm himself down as well. Playing music always seemed to help.

As his tune ended, the bard put his lute back, and held a hand out to the dragon. "Hello, there." He said. "Are you hurt?"

The dragon nodded, holding up its tail. A rather large bear trap was secured on it, and dark blood still steeped out of it. Kaito winced. The thing looked painful to even look at. But he nodded and walked over to the dragon's tail. He wasn't a formal healer, but he knew a thing or two about traps and how to get unstuck from them.

He barely even touched the trap when the dragon roared. He held out his hand again. "Easy, there." He said, softly. The dragon layed his head down next to Kaito, softly whimpering. Kaito placed his hand on his head. "Try and stay still."

The smaller dragon tilted its head in confusion as Kaito got to work. With all the strength he could muster, he opened up the bear trap. The dragon roared again and raised its tail, only for Kaito to push it back down. "Let me patch you up, first." He reached into his pack and took out two large rolls of gauze, and started wrapping it around the dragon's tail.

Meanwhile, Yuto turned to Ryouga. "Are your party members always like this?"

Ryouga nodded. "Sadly, yes."

"...I am deeply sorry for you."

The siren shrugged. "Eh, I'm used to it. Though Yuma's idiocy can be a bit much."

"I figured." Yuto said.

As that went on, Kaito finished wrapping the dragon's tail. "There. You should be good for now."

The dragon bowed his head in thanks, and made a sort of friendly growl.

"...I can't understand you, you know." Kaito stated, but he got an idea. "Hang on." With a snap of his fingers, he casted a spell; Speak With Animals. "Try now."

Thank you, kind stranger. The dragon said, in its growly voice. Who are you?

"My name is Kaito Tenjo, I'm the captain of the Starry-Eyed serpent." Kaito replied. "Part time bard. And your name?"

Kurosaki Shun. I was cursed to stay in this form until someone breaks the spell placed on me and my Sister.

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "And how do I do that?"

Shun shrugged. I've no idea myself..

The bard thought for a moment. What breaks curses?

....A kiss? That might work!

"...I have an idea, but I have to ask if it's alright for me to kiss you."

In the background, Ryouga mumbled "Of course he's suggesting that." Yuto facepalmed, and Yuma just weakly cheered Kaito on.

Shun tilted his head. ...Why?

"In some of the old fairy tales I've read, the curse is broken with a kiss." Kaito explained. "It might be the case here."

...Just do it then. I can't take this form any longer,

Kaito nodded, and pressed a kiss to Shun's snout. In a flash of dark magic, the dragon-just the one, the other who Kaito guessed was Ruri was just hugging Yuto at this point-seemed to shift into a young man who was just Kaito's type. Dark hair of green and turquoise, yellow eyes, and dressed almost like a classy vampire.

Needless to say, it was pretty much love at first sight.

"Thank you, Kaito." Shun said, with a smile. His voice was smooth and deep.

Kaito took a bow. "You're welcome, Sir Shun."

---------------

After the incident, Yuto joined the alliance, and Shun joined the group. Turns out having a shapeshifting sorcerer as a teammate is a good idea. As night fell, the Starry-Eyed Serpent set sail once more, towards the Kingdom Of Winds. Kaito stood out on the main deck, the wind blowing in his coat. Most of the crew-minus Droite and Gauche- had gone to sleep. But, Kaito never slept. Not like he needed it, anyways.

As the moon and stars rose, Kaito held a hand up to one of the constellations. Gemini.

"Hang on, Gem." He whispered. "I'll find you.."

"What's all this about?" Shun asked, walking up behind Kaito.

The bard turned around, and smiled. "Shun. You need anything?"

The shapeshifter shrugged. "No, just...Couldn't sleep. Why you up?"

"I don't exactly need to sleep." Kaito stated, pointing at his pointy ears. "Just meditation every once in a while. Comes with being a half elf."

"Ah." Shun said. "...May I ask who Gem is?"

"...Gemini is one of my siblings." The bard stated. "Hart isn't my only one. We have ten others, and Gemini's one of them." Kaito explained. "...They'd be 15, today."

"...Did they die?" Shun asked.

Kaito shook his head. "No. Just...Father mistreated them and Virgo. So all of us ran away from him and...we somehow got separated. I'm still searching for them."

"What were they like?"

"Well, Gem's really bright and fun. They loved it when I sang. And Virgo was just really shy, but she got along well with basically everyone." Kaito said. "I miss them..."

"I know the feeling, dude." Shun said. "One time I lost Ruri, and I almost went insane trying to find her."

Kaito chuckled. "I can see it, I suppose."

"Yeah..." Shun gave a small laugh of his own. "One more question?"

"Yeah?"

"...Your siblings seemed to be named after the zodiacs, but you and Haruto aren't?"

"Oh, that. We chose these names to distance ourselves from our father." Kaito explained. "My real name is Sagittarius."

Shun smiled. "..Kaito fits you a bit better."

"I know, it does. Now I've got two questions of my own." Kaito stated. "One, mind calling me Kite? We're friends, now. You don't need to be so formal."

Shun nodded. "Sure, Kite. ..What's the second?"

Kaito-Kite-smiled. "....Is there anyone out there whom you like?"

The shapeshifter blushed. "..T-there's someone. Not s-sure if he reciprocates."

The pirate raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"...W-well, it's you.." Shun confessed.

Though Kite kept his cool, he was screaming on the inside. This hottie liked him? WHAT THE HELL?

He took a deep breath, and calmed himself. "What if I said I liked you back?"

Shun's face gained a dusting of red. "...Wait, seriously?"

Kite nodded. "Why wouldn't I? You seem like a nice fellow, and it helps that you look positively handsome."

"I.. I m-mean... Oh fuck it." Shun grabbed Kite by the coat, and pulled him in for a kiss.

Kite blushed heavily, but...well, he kissed back. His arms wrapped around Shun's waist and pulled him close.

It wasn't anything big, it was just a kiss, but Kite, in that moment, felt utterly elated.

When the two had to pull away for air, he smiled. "Look at that. I seduced the dragon."

Shun huffed. "Yeah, yeah. Guess you did.."

#yu gi oh #yu gi oh arc v #yu gi oh zexal #kaito tenjo #yuma tsukumo #astral #ygo zexal #ygo arc v #shun kurosaki #yuto (arc v)#ryoga kamishiro #dungeons and dragons #dnd #dnd au #shun x kaito #please tell me the ship name someone #this is so cute i caaaaaaaaant

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elias-bouchards-tenth-divorce · 5 years ago

Photo

aaa shoutout to @duskpostin for the template!!! there’s an explanation under the cut

Romantic OTPs

Misumi/Kazunari - look I feel like the summer troupe was the first time in since like... ever since sumi had people who were actually his friends and not just making fun of him? and??? have you seen how misumi lights up when kazunari calls him his “bud”??? i just,,, aaaaaaa they’re in love okay!

Banri/Juza - when banri told juza that fighting him/competing against him was the first time he felt like he wasn’t mindlessly gliding through life and actually had a reason to stay motivated and work hard at something....... that was him confessing his love. you cannot change my mind on this

Izumi/Sakyo/Azuma - izumi/sakyo already has a pretty good precedent since they knew each other as kids and izumi made a vow to marry sakyo when she was just a lil babby, and azuma is there for... reasons besides the fact i have a crush on him bcjhskcsnd. anyway, sakyo is always stressed and needs someone to cuddle and vent to

Matsukawa/Tetsuro - they’ve been friends since the old days and matsukawa can tell what tetsuro means even when he’s dead silent... that’s love, babey!

BROTPs

Citron/Sakuya/Muku - this is mostly just because sakyo and muku seem so enamored with citron’s stories nacsjlkjnvscjlk. plus sakuya and muku are the two softest boys!!! it’s only natural that they would bond

Tsuzuru/Omi - okay so I know there’s a triangle but i actually think of it as three distinct friendships more than a frined triangle? mostly just, tsuzuroon and omimi are the two moms of mankai company. they do the bulk of the cooking together, and they’re not super exciting, but they’re always reliable and there for their troupemates. they’re kinda like the brackenfurs of a3??? idk if that makes sense csnjiksdnjd

Tsuzuru/Kazunari - one, they already knew each other growing up, and two, did... did you read the camping event story. tsuzuru is willing to drag kazu through the woods on his back just to get him back to the camp. that’s such a pure friendship, bless

Kazunari/Omi - i think they’d have this dynamic that’s like. bassard/person who always cleans up after the bassard ncsjdkncjvkc. i can imagine kazu going to a party and partying a bit too hard, and then omi is there in the morning to cook him breakfast and make sure he slept well. because that’s what friends do :3

Citron/Homare - citron would think homare is an absolute genius at poetry, and homare would be thrilled to finally have found an audience who Understands his work

Muku/Misumi/Hisoka - *chanting* cat friends cat friends cat friends cat friends cat friends cat friends cat fr

Kazunari/Taichi - i mean. they’re canonically “the puppy pair”. but also! i think they get one another on a deeper level because despite both being extroverted, they both know what it’s like to be lonely and to feel like you have to put on an act so people like you! kazu would definitely be there for taichi when he’s feeling blue, because i guarantee kazu’s felt like he’s been there before

Juza/Omi - juza loves omi’s cooking... omi loves cooking for juza............ symbiosis

Taichi/Tasuku - taichi and tasuku said FUCK god troupe!!!!!

Yuzo/Tetsuro - like matsukawa/yuzo, but platonic. tetsuro likes the feral, messy types, yuzo has his shit together too much ndasjlkcnanjk

Neutral

aaaaaa just. assume that if there’s nothing between the two, they’re neutral/okay friends but nothing noteworthy

Enemies

Yuki/Masumi, Yuki/Itaru, Yuki/Tenma - yuki.......... doesn’t get along well with a lot of folks cbhdsajcnkd

Yuki/Sakyo - this one is more specific, sakyo is always trying to cut back on spending and binch! what if yuki needs that rich, corinthian leather for the outfits! how dare

Taichi/Haruto, Tasuku/Haruto - to reiterate: taichi and tasuku said FUCK god troupe!!!!!!!!!!

Sakyo/Reni - this one is also more personal because sakyo just reignited his passion for acting, and this fuckin guy tries to sabotage his show? what an asshole, i hope sakyo gets sakoda to bash his kneecaps in or something

Homare/Hisoka - this one is admittedly because i have a friend who kins hisoka and he hates homare cnijksanksd. just let hisoka sleep!!! you don’t have to be so loud all the time, sometimes you can think things in your head instead of saying them out loud!!!

Hate It, Don’t Want It

Masumi/Izumi, Itaru/Banri, Taichi/Omi - this goes for all ships like this, but especially because i see these ones more than i want,

DON’T! SHIP! KIDS! WITH! ADULTS! YOU! WEIRDO! PERVERT! CREEPS!!!!!

Has Potential, I Guess

Sakuya/Masumi - i mean. they go to the same high school and have kind of a friendship! i see why people would, i just can’t picture myself actually shipping sakuya with anyone nscajdasnk

Tasuku/Tsumugi - i just started act 4 and i... know nothing about tsumugi other than tasuku doesn’t like him because he dipped out on acting. i’m sure i’ll grow into liking it, but for now, mysterious

Other

Sakoda/Tsumugi - i didn’t want sakoda to feel left out so i paired him up with the other character i know the least about lmao. i would have put him in Enemies with sakyo, but that’s too one-sided, i think. sakoda would die for sakyo and sakyo would say “then perish”

aaaaaaaaaaa okay that’s the end of this post!!! thank you so much for reading!!!!!!!

#a3!#a3! act! addict! actors!#act! addict! actors!#sakuya sakuma #kazunari miyoshi #ze speaks!#hey please play a3 its vry good

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sailor-cresselia · 6 years ago

Text

Zi-O episodes 31 & 32 - AGITO TIME

Okay, I want to know how long this actually takes me this time around, so… I’m starting playback at about a quarter past midnight. (I got distracted earlier, when I told myself I was going to start. I’m not good at timekeeping.)

((also, as I mentioned in the previous liveblog, if you comment on any of the sections in here, I’d really appreciate it if you specify which statements you’re talking about. These recaps get really long, so… y’know, it’ll make it a little easier for a conversation.))

~cut goes here~

Bullet casings? In MY Kamen Rider? It’s more likely than you think!

(I haven’t seen Agito, but as with Ryuki and Blade, I’ve seen the History Of’s that Marcosatsu did. So, I… should be okay? Ish.)

But why do they want G3 units nationwide? Are they finally sick of all the yearly monster attacks, and doing something about it? … Okay, yeah, I don’t believe it either, but hey, we can speculate!

Ouch, rest in piece G3 user number 2. He got thrown so hard he’s stuck in the viewing window.

Another!Another Agito’s got some muscle on him.

aaaand this is the tribute arc where the Another Rider name scheme is going to be incredibly problematic, like people worried.

I get that there are six watches left to acquire – notably including Drive, since the one they currently have was brought back by Geiz. But would it have killed Toei to let the W and Kuuga watches be in-show? Would it? They had to make them appear in the movie? Specifically, the movie that the producer has said is only psuedo-canon?!

Six left, and Sougo doesn’t want them to become Oma Zi-O. He wants them so he can stop Oma Zi-O, so that he can match his power. But, you know, the team kind of lucked into finding them, what with the Another Riders being created… or… hm. They get the Ride Watches because of the Another Riders. The Time Jackers are the ones creating the Another Riders, and they’re from the future, and know full well how Zi-O acquires his watches. The thing is, they initially said it was to ‘find a new candidate for king.’ We know that that’s not nearly so true as Heure and Hora were led to believe, since Swartz already had his candidate chosen. And we were led to believe that said candidate was Hiryuu, Another Zi-O. Except! “I’ll see you on the Day of Oma” wasn’t… exactly said to Hiryuu, was it? And then, we saw that an earlier version of Swartz was responsible for the bus crash, as he was looking for A Boy Who Would Be King. He found Sougo.

Sougo has been his choice all along.

(un-Pause to hear Woz talk!)

“No, no, we just need to continue as we’ve been doing. The watches will show up.” … Well, you’re not wrong.

Junichiro rushes in, asking if they were watching. And, I mean, I don’t know Japanese, but I am pretty sure that under normal circumstances, people don’t usually use the English verb ‘to watch’ when referring to a news broadcast.

Come on, man, you just won me over in the last few arcs, don’t blow this.

Wait, the public knows about the G3 units?! Were they common knowledge in Agito? Or, at least, publicly available knowledge?

HAHAHA I didn’t even NOTICE that Woz hadn’t done his Recap yet! Oh man, I’m slipping! But no, now he does it, by Pausing the show, and incidentally casting everyone else in the room in shadow. … Wait, has he been actually doing that the entire time? Just? Pausing time for a moment to talk at us? I mean, I wouldn’t put it past him, the drama hog that he is. Also, where did you get the confetti, sir? And is that going to be in the actual room when time resumes?

Meanwhile, in… France, I think. “I must go. My planet city needs me.”

It takes four minutes into the episode to reach the Opening. It took me almost 20 to reach that.

Also, the shot of Zi-O II has been replaced by Trinity. I like how the pose they chose is basically a combination of all three of their styles. As a small note, it flashes over the faces in the order of Zi-O, Geiz, and Woz, before moving into a full-body shot. Also, I can’t remember if this change had been made last episode or not, but there’s no sign of the Future Note in the Kamen Rider Woz segment anymore. (I think it would have been a nice touch to have the Twilight Chronicle replace it in the background, but oh well.)

… and I just remembered that with Agito’s lore, that ‘my planet needs me’ quote isn’t nearly as out of left field as I intended when I made it a few minutes ago.

Okay, I know that we have the incredibly ominous “We really don’t know what Swartz is up to” discussion with Heure and Hora, and him interrupting as he is prone to do, and him being all “No, I’ve already got a plan going, as I am prone to do.” But what I’m stuck on is just how many sugar cubes he’s adding to his… well, I don’t know if it’s tea or coffee, but it’s far too many.

(Swartz has just joined Haruto and Kiriya in the ‘that can no longer be called coffee’ club.)

Damnit, Geiz, I wanted to make a crack about how ‘it’s less that the police are tracking the target, and more that the target is tracking the police’! It does make sense that this particular division would be fighting Another Riders, though, especially since they look even more like MOTWs than Kino did. Zi-O!Another Agito kind of has a toothy grin, too. I remember being weirded out by Kino!Another Agito’s design when I watched Gorider, but this is just. Eesh. Creepy.

Ohhh dear. If Tsukuyomi’s an amnesiac, that would explain her lack of last name. And since this is a time travel show, we’re all screwed! She could have been anyone! ...That sequence in the opening, with Tsukuyomi and the Time Jackers on the stairs, before they disappear and she’s alone is feeling really ominous right about now.

And this is a good arc for this reveal – since Agito’s Shoichi was an amnesiac protagonist. … hang on, wasn’t there a sibling confusion then, too, like in W? With… Philip… oh dear.

I have avoided shipping in this season at all costs, for precisely this type of reason. And because it’s time travel, to avoid whatever it was that happened in Den-O. (I haven’t seen past the first two episodes of Den-O. I’m working on it!)

OKAY! That aside! I’ve noticed that even though Tsukuyomi has the tablet, and pulls up all sorts of information on it, Geiz is usually the one to bring up who the past Riders were. He knew about Wizard, I’m dead certain there were other instances that I can’t recall off the top of my head, and he knows who the G3 unit is.

Okay, I love that we finally have officials trying to keep untransformed riders out of the battle field. It’s about time, and not just for Zi-O, it’s been lacking in the genre as a whole. I also like that the people in G3 armor don’t seem to trust the three Riders.

HEY! HOLD UP! SOUGO HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE OMEGA SYMBOL IS?! I thought you were terrible at math and science! Those are pretty much the only place you’d see that, these days – wait. Sougo’s a history buff; or, at least, that’s his only good subject. Or, was his only good subject, because he’s graduated. (Good for him!!!) Omega is Greek, maybe he actually could have picked it up in a history class!

Also, is this confirmation that Agito is supposed to be written using omega, like it its logo?

Mind you, it’s not as though anyone is going to be actually doing that, but still.

JESUS FUCK WHAT THE HELL DID FAKE!ANOTHER AGITO JUST DO? He tore off the chest armor, and ugghgh that sounded like he was trying to eat the poor man, but now said man is getting up, what the hell-

AAAAAGHAAAAGH! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!

Agito powers as zombie plague.

Kino was Another Agito because Agito is more of a powerset than a name.

It is now 1:10. I am ten minutes into ep 31.

This explains the excessively toothy mouth, at least.

Tsukuyomi used a Time Stop. With the same effects and sounds as the Time Jackers. And it was super targeted, too – it only hit the Another Agito that was attacking her and the officer. She didn’t know she could do that. Woz didn’t know she could do that.

It looks like Swartz didn’t know she could do that.

It looks like the time stop is an innate power.

Okay, okay, back to 9-to-5.

So, yeah, everyone thinks the Another Agitos are really weird. Sougo wants to try and find Kamen Rider Agito. Absolutely nobody is surprised that he has no idea how to follow through on that idea. “What if we try the internet?” Sougo, he was active in 2001, internet archives are terrible for going back to 2011, to say nothing of – Sougo.

Sougo. Kid. Why do you know how to get auto-correct to make the omega symbol? Did you actually learn that for a history class? I mean, good catch on the spelling of the name, and it worked, so. Points? I guess?

Okay, why is Woz’s voice echoing so much today?! I thought the first time I noticed it was because they were outside, but it’s happening inside, too. What gives?

Heure, no. No ‘proving you’re still useful’ to Swartz. Get OUT of there! Just go! It’s not safe for you! You just keep raising death flags!

But what Swartz is most interested in right now… is testing Tsukuyomi’s new power.

Sougo immediately asks if Kamen Rider Agito is in. Like the blunt little fool he is. His second try isn’t much better. Being Geiz is suffering.

But when the woman – Mana, right? When Mana recognizes the name Agito as a person, Geiz takes notice. Remember, boys, everyone else still remembers now, too.

Haha, see, Shoichi has the right reaction to the ‘he wants to be a king’ speech! Dumbfounded shock.

GEIZ! Why are you suggesting heading ‘overseas’ with the Time Mazine to find Shoichi? That’s! That’s Sougo logic! Noooo don’t let that be what rubs off on you!

Case in point, Sougo thinks it’s a good idea!

UGH Both Swartz AND Woz have had that stupid echo all episode, it’s driving me up a wall. It makes it feel like the audio’s balance is off or something.

So, creeper mc-purple-coat wants to… ‘test out’ Tsukuyomi’s power. Fair. She says that it’s none of his business, and that she doesn’t have any power, which is also fair. But I’d say that siccing one of the Another Agitos on her is overkill. And terrifying.

...wait, could Shoichi tell when enemies were appearing in his season? I legitimately don’t know.

(16 minutes in and 1 hour fifteen minutes later)

Okay, so, your choices here, boys.

Zi-O II. Good call, powerful, can read movements ahead of time.

Quiz. VERY good call. His powerset ‘asks’ the opponent to answer questions, or get electrocuted. Normally, I’m decidedly not okay with that, but from a tactical point, right now it makes sense. The rampaging Another Agitos are like, well, they’re Fast Zombies. They can’t answer questions.

BUT STOP USING REVIVE. I get why Typhoon is a good choice tactically. Like I said, FAST Zombies. Being even faster is a good survival strategy. But using REVIVE is a very BAD survival strategy.

Kudos for the touch of Sougo telling the cops to help their wounded – which they notably weren’t doing before he said that.

HI SPEAKING OF BAD CALLS! IN THIS CASE TRINITY IS A BAD IDEA!

Like Geiz says, you need NUMBERS.

Running Decade and Ex-aid would be a better choice right about now! That would give you two Zi-Os! ...and if Geiz gets Ghost, he can summon some of the parka ghosts to help, because they let THAT be a thing for the Ghost watch!

WOZ NO. You don’t need to IWAE this! This is now a no REJOICE zone! Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Although, now the cops are evacuating the heck out of there while Woz distracts the Agitos with his absurdity.

Unfortunately, he’s also distracting Sougo and Geiz with said absurdity.

Quick! Back to sanity! Tsukuyomi! We need you to be the impulse control for all three of the boys now! I’m so sorry, we kept Woz contained as long as possible, but this much proximity to Sougo at one clip has spread the cloud cuckoo lander traits.

“Oh, you don’t remember anything? Well, you’re probably better off not knowing, I suppose.” (F you too, Swartz.)

“Do… you know something?”

~The sound of a Legend Rider’s belt approaches from the shadows~

Kamen Rider Agito is on the scene.

And Swartz is smiling at that.

THAT! Is NOT how Bike Fu works!

OH LORDY the Power Knuckle buzzsaw and the spear’s… well, spear projections can combine into a massive, even pointier circular saw blade! Trinity really IS a fusion form, isn’t it?

“...wait, where’d the others go?”

It was! A distraction! And a very good one!

It is now 1:50. I’ve been at this for… one hour, 35 minutes. I’ve watched one episode.

Oh boy.

…

Time for ep 32!

Yooooo! Okay! So! Heure and Hora are stepping in because Swartz was ‘dragging his feet’, they weren’t invited, because he’s an ass. But Heure! Just! Pulled the Another Watch out of one of the transformed Agitos – not the main one, mind you, he’s ticked off now – and! He! Pushed it to Rider Agito, drained his power, and turned! The Another Watch! Into a real Ride Watch!

!!!!

Tsukuyomi stopped time to save Shoichi from Another!Another Agito… which is great! Good work! Except that it’s SUPER POWERFUL. She can move, but everyone else is completely frozen. COMPLETELY. ...Everyone but Swartz, who’s eyes are moving.

(click) AS IT IS WRITTEN HERE!

(GDI Woz)

(and with a SPOTLIGHT, too!)

(Theatre kid Woz confirmed)

Woz, you’re incredibly proud of Sougo for graduating, aren’t you? You mentioned that last Recap, too!

(insert 20 minute gap to take care of the dishes here, resuming at 2:20)

Huh! The title card came in from the opposite side of the screen this time! Interesting!

Heure, you can’t just put a regular Ride Watch into an Another Rider, That can’t be good for the poor host. And, oh, no, look at that, he’s just turned into a duplicate of Kamen Rider Agito. An exact duplicate. Appearance-wise, anyway.

WELP.

Okay, I rag on him, but Junichiro’s reaction to Professional Chef Shoichi complementing his cooking is great.

And then right back to serious, as soon as he leaves the room.

“I’m sorry… they took my Rider powers from me.”

“Which is really weird, since those are literally part of me. Trust me, things were weird in the early ‘00’s, kid. A whole bunch of us wound up being not entirely human.”

Hora? Hang on, can you clarify that? “Does that mean she’s a Time Jacker too?”

Are. Are you saying that being a ‘Time Jacker’ isn’t a group affiliation? That it’s the name of a powerset?!

… Just like how ‘Agito’ is?

Okay, so the current active party layout is:

Team One: Sougo and Geiz, dealing with a swarm of Another Agitos, while Heure and Another Agito Prime watch.

‘Team’ Two: Woz confronting Swartz about Tsukuyomi’s powers. Apparently Swartz is ‘the only one’ who can grant powers over time, which implies that he gave them to Heure and Hora. But he didn’t give them to Tsukuyomi, and he implies himself that the two of them are ‘cut from the same cloth’. Woz knows what that means.

Team Three: Shoichi goes to talk to Tsukuyomi. He’s the resident voice of experience on finding out you’re not who you thought you were, after all.

Well, him, Philip, and Sento, but the other two aren’t exactly here at the moment.

So, yes, as I thought he’d do, after bringing Tsukuyomi to the restaurant, he tells her about his past. About how Shoichi Tsugami isn’t technically his name. About how he tried to live his life the best he could, after losing who he was, and finding out he had powers. It worked out for him. And after all, hasn’t she already been doing that? The power is just a little more than she knew about.

And right after he says “Haven’t you already been doing that”, guess what starts playing?

The instrumental version of ‘King of Time.’

...Huh. It’s more noticeable with Geiz, who’s usually either frowning or exasperated. But… we never see Tsukuyomi smile, either, do we?

And then, with Sougo…

“I’m fighting to make the world better, and that’s what you’re doing too, right? So, does it really matter who you used to be?”

She responds with a smile. It’s a good look for her.

And of course, Woz shows up with bad news.

“So, fighting Agito’s a BAD idea, because once there’s one Agito, there can be countless Another Agitos. We are going to be overwhelmed. This is literally straight from Swartz. We’re screwed.”

“You better not be playing double agent agai-”

“Well, I mean, I already saw that was going to happen, so…. Besides, we don’t really have a choice in the matter, since we need to get that watch.”

““...fine...””

((It’s about 2:50 now, so I’m at… a little over two hours.))

Stop! Using! Revive! Unless you guys worked out how to keep it’s time compression from literally killing you a little more with each use, you! Need! To! Not! Use! That!

Unfortunately, Fury and Kikai make perfect sense here – the brute strength should help keep you two from getting too injured.

AAAND then they go for Typhoon and Shinobi for a speed-off. BOYS! Stop it! Although, I will admit, the flight and teleport spamming is pretty cool when you’re not using it on each other.

AHAHAH! Shoichi’s playing distraction in a G3 suit! That makes a LOT of sense! He can’t fight in his usual manner right now – on account of his powers being otherwise occupied. But the G3 suits were meant for humans to fight monsters on a more level playing field. AND the Another Agitos had been going after police facilities… which they haven’t mentioned again, but it sure seems to be drawing attention to him.

Tsukuyomi’s already got really good control, hasn’t she? The first time, she froze only the one Another Agito, and nothing else in the area. The second, she panicked, and was able to stop literally everything. Well, again, Swartz was slightly moving. Slightly. This time, it’s four Another Agitos, but Shoichi, who was right in the middle of them, is unaffected.

One direct hit from Zi-O II was able to knock the Ride Watch out of Another Agito Prime, and it rolled right to it’s proper owner. And for the first time, we get to see a Rider regaining their powers – the Ride Watch fades from existence, and Shoichi’s belt reappears on his waist.

“Transform!”

And then a (largely reluctant) transformation into Trinity. Geiz has had it up to here with Woz’s Announcements. You don’t have to do them every time, you know. You used to only make those when a new power was achieved. You guys have done this twice already.

(Tsukuyomi is in hell. That’s the only explanation she can think of.)

I like that ripple effect they used for Agito’s own Trinity transformation. I don’t know what sort of effects they used in 2001/2002, but it’s nice to see a nod to older FX in this incredibly flashy show.

(Tsukuyomi is definitely in hell. That’s the only explanation she can think of.)

Woz just has to do a proclamation. I don’t think it’s even part of his contract, I think he’s just THAT into this sort of thing. He was BORN to be a herald. Problem for HIM is, even Sougo’s had enough.

But!

He thinks this might work.

~Old catchphrases reappearing is actually my jam!~

~Who knew?~

...okay, everyone who’s been following me through this liveblog for the past… six months that I’ve been doing liveblogs for. Oh. Huh. I. Genuinely hadn’t realized it had been that long. I started doing these full reactions with the Gaim arc in November. Hm.

!!!!

!!!!!!!!

Over-Time included LYRIC SUBTITLES!

Zi-O! Why! Why can’t you put the song credits in the credits!

I mean, that would have been an INCREDIBLE spoiler in this case! But! Holy shit!

It would be a huge spoiler because this isn’t one of Zi-O’s songs.

This is from Agito. It’s titled BELIEVE YOURSELF.

This is appropriate.

The Zi-O team hasn’t had a real chance to fight alongside their predecessors. Not really. Zi-O and Geiz fought ‘with’ Build and Cross-Z, but they had to bow out shortly through the fight. Same with Ex-Aid. Ghost and Specter only fought together, not with the boys. Quiz and Kikai don’t count – they debuted in Zi-O. They fought AGAINST Decade and DiEnd. The next people to transform… were Blade and Chalice, and they weren’t working together. Their powers were taken before they could have fought as a team.

This? A fight with the Kamen Rider having his powers intact? Not just intact, actually, but returned? And not rapidly disappearing?

This is what we WANTED. I mean, hell, this is what the SHT movies SHOULD have been.

And the choice of song is incredibly fitting, too. I mean, here. Here’s the page on the KR Wiki. Go check it out, and you just try to tell me that’s not appropriate for Zi-O as a whole, but especially for the events lately, and of this arc.

Okay, okay, back to the battle. Which is glorious.

For one, Zi-O using one of the Agito Drones to hold part of his sword while he removes the mask element from it, so he can attach said mask to the other sword, and combining the two while the drone is still slightly impaled? That’s CLEVER. And I’m pretty sure that’s Sougo at work, too – he’s done similar before, getting others to turn his belt and complete his transformation. And the Kings Slash grows and impales several more drones before he swings.

And, interestingly, when Trinity and Agito prepare their finishers? Another Agito Prime forces his way through the drones to be the one to take the hit – to the point of standing directly in front of the two Rider Kicks, and putting his chest out there. Asking to be hit.

And that Dual Kick is SOMETHING ELSE! Driving him all the way across the plaza, knocking over any drones they encounter in the line of ‘fire’, and digging a trench into the ground! THIS is a fight scene!

Yet another entrusting of the watch.

Tsukuyomi has found her resolve.

Woz has found a secret.

And next episode –

Wait a minute.

(checks the calendar)

VERY nice.

Sougo’s birthday episode? Airs on his birthday. Nice planning, Toei! And you checked a calendar correctly this time!

(But you couldn’t be bothered to check the year when you set Kazumin’s phone, could you?)

Also, it looks like they might be aiming a little closer to the first part of Hibiki for the tribute arc, with the kanji appearing on screen in the preview.

((so, it’s now… 3:45, so I wound up taking… let’s see. Started at 12:15, so a complete time would be three and a half hours, but there was that twenty minute gap when I went from 31 to 32, so… about three hours and ten minutes to watch 40 minutes of a children’s Sunday morning superhero show.))

((WORTH IT.))

#kamen rider zi o #kamen rider agito #sailorcressy says #when did i start noticing musical cues so often?#i genuinely don't know #but oh man OT included the lyrics this time YES

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lwbluedice · 7 years ago

Text

Masterpost for my Stories and Ocs!!!

A spoilerfree list of most of my Ocs and stories (reuploaded here on my main blog)

Includes:

- Name of the story and state it’s in

- short summary/facts

- Character names

If you want more information abt any of them(like a description or a pic) or abt the stories, just message me/ ask me! Also feel free to ask me to draw them ( for example in the color scheme thing or sth)!

Note: The stories are all written in german so if you don’t speak that language i can’t send you the original documents but i can try summing them up for you!

I bet this is not everything and i will add stuff but yeah!!!!

Hotaru (first draft is finished)

- Abt two men that are linked through a surgery called “synchronisation”, which basically connects their minds and bodies, so they are forced to work as a team. Ea is an ex-soldier and Cain was a hacker, but due to the fact that they can’t stand each other, they also didn’t share their pasts with each other. To pay someone to unlink them, they become bounty hunters and kidnap the girl Ai and her robot Subaru, which is one of the old military robots, called Hotarus (high technologised, operating, transforming, artificial intelligence, ranger units). They are connected to a human ranger and can transform into what the ranger wants them to transform into.

The Hotaru headquarters exploded 10 years ago and since then the Hotarus are super rare on the black market.

The two men plan on selling both the girl and her robot and let’s just say it all doesn’t work out that well.

Ai Hoshino

Cain Bishop

Subaru

Dr. Chandra Natarajan

10 A

10 B

and other synced pairs

George Watton

Asha Watton

Elaine Bishop

Christopher Bishop

Haruto Hoshino

Shiori Hoshino

The Pleiades. A Hotaru Unit.

Atlas/ Emmett Hunter

Maia/ Ilya Neverwinter

Elektra/ Hailey Gray

Taygete/ Daiyu Ghou

Alcyone/ Charlotte Gryffith)

Caelano/ Sora Aurora River

Merope/ Imogen Harrington

Sterope/ Elizabeth Bresley

Additional Characters for the (maybe Sequel) in which the grown up Ai will try to find out who attacked the Hotaru Headquarters

- Skya

The day the world turned white ( first draft is finished, working on it)

To stop global warming some scientists basically caused a new ice age. On the long run this might be very effective but the former countries, now sectors, are hit by strong ice storms, called snow white. To stay safe huge bunkers, the Safe Cities, were built and the local fauna and flora were stored in Arks, to preserve them.

Usually an alarm sounds before all citizens are brought into the SCs, but this time Reese and her best friend Yuki dont manage to get to the vehicles on time and are left behind. They seek shelter in a private bunker outside of town that Yuki found out about recently. Suddenly a group of boys their age knocks on the door, because they were also left behind and followed the girls.

Al, the brothers Eli and Isaac, Gil and Henry become the new bunker-mates and the group has to survive one year in the bunker, until the storm is over.

( I have a blog for this story, just search for The day the world turned white! There are pics and some posts for example abt which patronus/spirit animal the charas have!)

Reese/ Therese Wells

Al/ Alexander Glover

Yuki Sarah Brooke

Eli Green

Isaac Green

Gil de Santos

Henry Summers

The Sun will always rise (The sequel, probably forever unfinished)

About a group of rebels, the Sun Children, that are sworn enemies to the government and its ways to cope with Snow White.

Takes place abt one/two years after Tdtwtw.

Lucy and Aidan are kicked out of an underground organisation that stays in the cities underground system during the storm phases and the two wander around in the snow until Michael and Rin pick them up and bring them to the Sun Children. From looking into the snow directly to maneuver, Lucy has turned snowblind.

Yeah the plot is… not 100% existent.

Characters:

Lucy

Aidan

Michael

Kate

Gil

Finya

Rin

The XII Games ( First book is finished, i started the second one, unfinished)

A story abt spaceships that let slaves fight in games, if they win a certain number they are “free”. Cassidy makes it and is sold to a women, Trisha, that takes her home onto her home planet, where Cassidy lives a nice life and learns abt her heritage. One year later she meets Tobias again and she and Trisha are brought to a planet that is basically the universes capital. Cassidy has to take a more important role in the uproar of a war, than she ever imagined.( The cast members are mostly human looking but are other, non human, races)

Cass (Cassidy ) E’ Alandril

Tobias

On the slave ship:

Neala

Sam ( Samuel)

On Anterra:

Trisha Willowrish

Max ( Maxwell) E’ Alyndral

Lukas

Tori

Khorr

Keri

Wil

Quinna

On the Space sparrow:

Zach ( Zacharyas) Gryaan

Benj ( Benjamin) Bottledom

Rashka Hyrelian

Oreadh Urunna'ur

Butcher

Kagrim

Kyluur

Irian Ashcott

On Capital Estellar:

Galea ( Galeandrih Fiyur’ Ihal)

Iyal

Wren Fawell

Luasia

Luminor the Shining

Fallen Angels ( A trilogy, one and a half books were finished, reconcepted)

We don’t talk abt this but it was one of my first stories i truly wrote.

Abt fallen angels saving the world or sth. It’s super clichee and just ugh.

The newer version would cancel some charas and make it abt rebalancing Darkness and Light in the worlds. With a more diverse cast and also different magical races. And a way less creepy Adam.

Eve/Evelyn White

Adam

Peregrine/Perry

Ray/Raven

Sera

Colin

Robin

Raphael

Ky/ Kyron

Gabe/Gabriel Frost

Bree/ Gabriella Frost

Indigo ( haven’t written it yet and i don’t know if i ever will, but have drawn stuff. I lowkey wanna see this as a comic)

A story abt a clan of shapeshifters, called Indigos. They are basically human that can shift into dolphins and their clan lives on an island near Australia. Its a modern story and the gang consisting of our local gay dolphin girl Keerie, her cousins Akash and Arjuun (younger brother, older sis), and Ky ( adopted as a child, japanese heritage, a different breed of dolphin idk) lives their “normal lives” with lots of shenenigans and drama.

Some day Keerie falls in love with Navy, the daughter of the owner of the local Aquapark (that the clan suspect also does illegal stuff like snatching wild animals).

Keerie

Arjuun

Akash

Navy

“Neo Alcatraz” ( reworks of a very old story)

To put it simply, there is a pack of scientists that bionically enhance children and send them off to different countries to basically be local superheroes. Our gang was kinda left behind bc the countries rather took the newer, better versions and here they are now, a bunch of supernatural teens facing the (not so) everyday struggles of life.

Atalanta

Chi

Callie

Lee

Victor/Konrad

Gemsona (just art)

Larimar

- has water powers and her backstory bases on my private/old Squads life story and a lot of me thinking of drawing music videos for her but never doing it

Anthea (art and headcanons)

- my Dnd Oc

The Bender Girls ( art and headcanons)

- basically some Avatar the last Airbender Ocs i made once

Daiyu

Hotaru

Yura

Sündenfall / Sinfall (short story)

A short story i wrote for a competition which is basically every crime series but magic.

Harvey is immortal, he dies and is revived, and solves crimes through it. Paige is basically his assistant and the case they are on is abt a person that kills magical beings and “arranges” the victims fitting to the seven sins.

Ilya Winter

Harvey

Paige

Delphi

Sphinx

The concept charas, that had a different storyline ( they were basically a team of magical beings that would solve cases… rather unconventional.) I considered reworking them into the new Fallen Angels concept:

Ilya

Harvey

Timothy

Worth mentioning:

Project Alpha (script, some art):

The script for a shortfilm i once made with my friends. A school class has a plane crash and only a few students survive, they all embody a different character archetype (the sunshine, the soziopath, the smart one etc.) They try to survive and are put through weird psychological mind experiments like the trolley problem.

To be honest, the concept had and still has a lot of potential and we just hadn’t the opportunities to rly set it the way we anticipated. The shooting day was super fun, though! Still laughing about the outtakes

Astral Chronicles (some art and a few chapters, unfinished)

A story Idea i still like but probably wont write like this because of copyright problems. Its basically a giant Crossover.

Its abt people who have an Astral( mostly a literature figure) they embody when they are dreaming. Their body stays in bed and is vulnerable but the Astral can basivally run around and has special powers. If the Astral dies, the person wakes up but i think when the body dies the person dies too? idk.

The Protagonist embodies Alice and there are also the White Rabbit, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell usw.

There was also some kind of conflict? I dont remember.

If i would ever rewrite it the Astrals would be embodiments of the Zodiac signs.

(does this even fit?)

The Fanfiction thing i wrote abt Peter Pan/ Jack Frost

- like i have tons of short drabbles and the start of a fanfiction and honestly i liked the ideas i had a lot

The ones we better not talk abt:

Part Hunter

Basically there was a being named eternity/aeterna that was shattered into oarts (like in TRC)

and chosen ones have to reclaim them.

The ones that basically die are turned into guardians, like Time and Space ( they had animal companions they were fused with i guess)

Melody is the current part hunter and has a tragic love story, her animal is a tiny horse thing??????

Idk

basically a long story in which i used my dreams as base for the episodes

The nameless story

Actually super interesting but too many charas and a too tiny will to draw action scenes or write them.

Like its based around a super popular game in huge spheres/buildings and the teams wear some anti gravity outfits and shoes and can walk on the walls and shit and can basically attack using elements/illusion/ conjure monsters idk.

And the main team had an opponent team that basically specialized in the 25272 other elements and some day they just fused teams idk.

There also was some prophecy shit abt the anchors, ppl that can control all elements the same???? Idk

Element guardians

- basically four teens that control the elements and do shit together

- at some point i gave all of them dragons

- still thinking abt this sometimes

- The originals:

Luna: the shameless self insert , earth, pony girl, bland blonde i think

Katy: Air, best friend, bubbly

Dan: The jock. Fire

Nick: The emo. Water

At some point Katy became Skye and Dan and Nick got other names but yeah-

Talent Academy

The story thats basically a ripoff of Alice academy. Like a school with hierachie between the students and ranks and shit and different houses and the students have powers IDK

If you read through all of this, bless you for showing interest in my stories ;) And hey, if you want me to rant about any of them, just send me an ask or a message!!!

#masterpost #ocs #my stories #my ocs #stories #list

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inversekaon · 5 years ago

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[fic] Like Ships in the Night (2)

Fandom: Yugioh Zexal Paring: V/Gauche, background Mizael/Kaito Rating: T Wordcount: 5500+ dreamwidth link AO3 link

Soulmates AU. Fate would always ensure that soulmates found each other. Even if it had to try again…and again…and again…and again…

~*~*~*~*~

Like Ships in the Night Part 2 // Hailing

The writing on his arm seemed to tingle when he woke up again, standing on the dam where he had disappeared. So did everything else, in a way, so Chris didn't pay it much mind. He often forgot those words were even there, anyway.

"Let's go find Yuma," he suggested once he felt like his body was as solid as it was going to get. He held a hand out to Michael, who took it with a short, determined nod, and together they began walking back to the car.

The docks had been where the energy uniting the two worlds had originated, so it seemed prudent to check there first. They weren't the only ones who had thought so, either; on the way, they picked up Thomas and a few of the other duelists who had helped Yuma, and once they reached the docks, the rest were waiting for them, along with Yuma himself.

With one notable exception. Chris's heart sank as he looked around and found that Kaito was not among the other duelists. For a brief moment, he convinced himself that it was because it was more difficult to return from the surface of the moon than to be magically restored where they had fallen, until Yuma walked over to him, unusually downcast and fidgety.

"V," he said hesitantly, "I'm sorry. Kaito was...Kaito, he..."

Chris reached out to squeeze Yuma's shoulder. His fingers dug in harder than he meant them to, but Yuma didn't even flinch.

"I understand," Chris said softly. "Thank you, Yuma. For...trying to tell me."

Yuma smiled weakly and turned away to talk with someone else. Standing behind him had been Haruto, who stared up at him with unsure, shiny eyes once Yuma was no longer in the way.

Chris looked down at him just as hesitantly. He would never forget the part he had played in betraying and hurting the child in front of him for the rest of his life, nor was he unaware of how hesitant Kaito was to allow Chris anywhere near Haruto again, even if the two of them had mostly made up. But Kaito was no longer here, and Chris was probably the next best thing Haruto had right now.

It took a moment, but eventually Chris slowly lowered himself to his knees and held his arms out. Haruto didn't quite dash at him, but it had probably looked that way from the outside as he threw himself at Chris's chest. Chris wrapped his arms around him and hugged him tightly, and he politely said nothing about the wet spot slowly coming into being on his shoulder.

Haruto was fast asleep, cradled in his arms and his lap, long before anyone else tried to approach him. When a shadow fell over him and then sat next to him, he wasn't all that surprised to see that it was Gauche sitting there, his chin in his hand and expression surly. He didn't have the impression that Gauche liked him much, but the man had spent enough time in Heartland Tower that he probably was fond of Haruto.

"So, you're supposed to be a good guy now, huh?" Gauche said after a moment of glancing between him and Haruto.

Chris shrugged his free shoulder. "I'm not really any sort of guy."

Gauche made a very skeptical sounding grunt in the back of his throat and went on frowning at him. Chris very calmly stared right back, hoping that was a good enough answer and also offhandedly wondering why it being good enough was suddenly so important to him. They were hardly more than strangers, after all. Despite working in the same building for a year, Chris only vaguely remembered running into Gauche once, for approximately as long as it took him to walk past him. It shouldn't matter at all to him what Gauche thought.

He supposed that if Gauche really wanted to take issue with him looking after Haruto for a few minutes and tried to argue about it, it would disturb Haruto, and he didn't want that. That was probably enough reason.

"Well, I guess if he doesn't hate you after what you did to him, it's fine," Gauche finally said, glancing toward Haruto. Chris unconsciously hugged Haruto a little tighter. He quickly relaxed his grip again as soon as Haruto made a noise.

Gauche didn't seem to have anything else to say, but he didn't seem very inclined to leave either. The two of them just sat there for a while, silently watching Yuma and his friends chatter away. Chris might have finally thought about leaving, except that the group around Yuma included Michael, and it was too nice to see his brother so enthusiastically accepted into the group for Chris to want to ruin it. Even if his other brother was standing around the edges, looking thoroughly annoyed they were still there.

It was surprisingly comfortable sitting there next to Gauche with Haruto asleep on his shoulder. At least, it was for Chris. Gauche seemed unable to sit still after the first couple minutes, his fidgeting steadily growing more obvious, until it seemed he would surely get up and leave any second. Then he turned toward Chris again, and Chris wondered why, if he actually did have something else to say, he hadn't just said it to begin with.

"You owe me a duel," Gauche said, finally.

"Haven't we already dueled?"

"No, I mean a real duel," Gauche said, poking him in the shoulder. "I'd like to see you get away with all those cheap tricks of yours in a real duel."

Chris glanced at the finger jabbing at his shoulder, and then looked back at Yuma and his friends. He wasn't sure he could keep his eagerness off his face if he let himself look at Gauche. In truth, he wanted to set Haruto down and offer to duel right then and there. He couldn't remember the last time someone other than his brothers or Kaito had asked him to duel—had actually wanted to duel him and sought him out rather than the other way around. And Gauche wasn't brilliant, but he was enough of a challenge to make it appealing.

Chris snuck a glance at Gauche out of the corner of his eye. The man was leaning over with the most serious look on his (actually rather handsome) face, like he might drag Chris off to duel whether Chris said yes or not.

"Give me your phone," Chris said finally, holding out his hand.

Gauche looked utterly confused, but he dipped a hand into his fluffy coat and set his cell phone in Chris's hand. Chris deftly hit the appropriate buttons and held it back out to him in almost no time at all.

"Call me," he said as Gauche took his phone back. "I'll duel you any time you want."

Gauche stared at his phone, dumbfounded, for several long moments before he grinned up at Chris. "Really? Any time?"

Chris started to nod, but quickly added before Gauche got too carried away, "Just give me a little time to adjust my deck first."

He probably should have done that the first time he'd lost hold of Numbers 9. It was his ace, after all, and while his deck could work without it, that was far from ideal. It had turned out to be lucky that he hadn't gotten around to adjusting his deck, but from now on, he was fairly certain it would never be in his hands again. Not to mention, much of his deck was still tailored toward countering Kaito or the Barians specifically, even if it would work well enough against others.

He was looking forward to coming up with something new. He already had a few possibilities sitting half-built in a drawer.

"Oh yeah?" Gauche said with a grin. "Our last duel actually made you nervous?"

Chris snorted lightly and turned away. "Hardly. It simply wouldn't be fair to you to overpower you so thoroughly again."

Gauche jerked next to him, but whatever he had been about to retort was lost to his own imagination as footsteps approached, and then stopped, behind them.

"Christopher..."

Chris tensed up, his back suddenly straight as a board. Gauche was already scrambling to his feet—no doubt out of habit than any real respect for the man.

"...Dr. Faker."

For a moment, Chris had to close his eyes and take a long, slow breath. His father had forgiven Faker, so Chris had also given up on his quest for revenge—as well as any misplaced anger toward the man's sons—but Chris was not his father and he had not quite been able to forgive the man himself yet. He might have tried for Kaito's sake...but Kaito wasn't here. He supposed he could try for Haruto's sake as well, though.

When he opened his eyes, Gauche was holding a hand down to him. Chris took it with some relief and let Gauche help him back to his feet without jostling Haruto too much. His hand was pleasantly warm and dry, and the grip his other hand had higher up Chris's arm was firm yet surprisingly gentle. Chris nearly stumbled into him once he was one his feet, but Gauche just guided him back upright and held him there, until most of the tingling had gone from his legs and he could move away on his own.

"Haruto, your father is here," Chris murmured as he gently shook Haruto's shoulder. Haruto woke up enough to help move himself as Chris passed him over to Faker, and then as soon as he was cradled in his father's arms instead, he fell right back asleep against Faker's shoulder.

Chris regarded the man silently for a moment. Thankfully, Faker seemed to be waiting to see what he had to say before he actually opened his own mouth again.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Chris said flatly. The same words Faker had said to him those years ago. Chris, at least, had the decency to not lie straight to the man's face.

Then he turned and walked away, brushing past Gauche without another glance back. It seemed it was time to finally collect his brothers and leave.

~*~*~*~*~

That evening, they gathered to watch Yuma's last duel with Astral. It seemed like it was only Yuma's close friends and himself and Droite, until Gauche happened to glance up and saw a trio of figures standing on a nearby rooftop.

"Those guys," Gauche grumbled, rolling his eyes, "they're always so dramatic. What can they even see all the way up there?"

Still, he could helped grinning a bit as well and he thrust his hand into the air to wave at them. After several excruciatingly long, undoubtedly embarrassing for Droite seconds, the tallest figure on the roof also raised his hand halfheartedly.

But they didn't come down to watch with the rest of them, and by the time the duel was over and Gauche could glance back up again, the three figures were gone.

~*~*~*~*~

"Oh? Chris, your mark is lighter?"

Chris paused in dumping vegetables into a pot to turn his arm over in surprise. Tron eagerly leaned across the counter for a closer look.

It was rare that Chris had his sleeves rolled up enough to clearly see the characters on his arm, rarer still that it was while someone else was around. For that someone to be Tron was—perhaps—a stroke of luck, as he undoubtedly remembered what those characters used to look like better than Chris did and was just eager enough to reintegrate himself into his sons' lives to be very nosy about it.

Admittedly, Chris had not given those characters much thought in years, and Tron was also the reason for that. In the face of his burning, all-consuming need for revenge against Dr. Faker, everything else had seemed laughably inconsequential, especially some soulmate he might or might not ever meet. He wore long sleeves so often that he rarely saw them anyway.

When he was younger, he'd actually given them quite a lot of thought. He'd painstakingly translated the characters until he thought he had a reasonable understanding of what they said. He'd practiced again and again what they should sound like, so he would be sure to know them when he heard them. Even now, years after he'd bothered to glance at them, it was probably the one bit of Japanese he could write by hand without having to look any of it up.

And he'd certainly spent some time contemplating their meaning and what they hinted at how he might meet his soulmate. There you are! Someone who had been looking for him. We got a nice mood going on here! Someone who might even be very excited to find him. I challenge you! Someone who was a duelist.

Someone who had been looking for him specifically to duel him, maybe.

(He'd hoped so. Very much)

And it was someone who spoke Japanese. But none of that told him much at all, really. And then he had stopped caring.

Glancing down at those words now, Chris thought they did sound familiar, and not because he'd repeated them to himself so often when he was small. He could almost hear they way they had been spoken in his mind, could almost place where it had been and why, but every time he reached for the answer, it darted out of his grasp. It would undoubtedly come to him some time when he wasn't thinking about it at all, but for now, it seemed useless to keep trying.

"I think you're right," Chris said eventually. "They are lighter."

Tron smiled and sat back in his chair, his chin cupped in his hands. Chris could hear faint thuds under the counter where he must have been kicking his feet.

"So, do you know who it is? You shouldn't keep such big secrets from your father, Chris."

Chris frowned down at his arm for a few moments more. "...No, I don't."

Tron hummed, utterly unconcerned. "Well, you'll meet them again. It took me and your mother years to figure it out."

~*~*~*~*~

"All right, Kaito, I think we're done. You can get dressed now."

Chris turned away to look over the last of the data collected about Kaito's condition, while Kaito sat up on the examination table and grabbed for his shirt. Ever since Kaito had miraculously reappeared along with the Barians after Yuma had won his duel against Astral a few weeks ago, Chris had insisted on regular check-ups to make sure Kaito was recovering well. Between Photon Mode slowly killing him, the way Heartland had tortured him, and the stress of dueling Mizael and then suffocating to death on the moon, Chris was somewhat concerned that even the Numeron Code couldn't bring Kaito back at full health.

He had also insisted that he be the one performing said check-ups, because he knew that Kaito didn't care enough about his health to bother on his own.

Luckily, it seemed that the Numeron Code had been able to restore him to full health after all, and Photon Mode didn't seem to be putting as much strain on his body as it had been either. Chris still didn't like the readings he got after Kaito had been using it, but Kaito also had much less reason to use it now, so he could almost recover completely before using it again.

The readings today were much better than they had been a couple days ago. But there was actually something else he had noticed while Kaito had his shirt off, and now that he was done looking over all the data, he could finally turn his attention to more trivial matters.

Chris turned back to Kaito just in time to catch his wrist before he could hide his arm inside his coat again. He spent a moment inspecting Kaito's arm, and then smiled up at him when he was sure he wasn't mistaken.

"Your mark is lighter."

"So what," Kaito said. He jerked his hand free and jammed his arm through the sleeve of his coat.

Now, Kaito had never been overly enamored with the idea of finding his soulmate—at least, once he'd realized Chris wasn't it—but he'd never been quite this hostile about it. Chris tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Do you know who it is?"

Kaito didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. The way he crossed his arms and frowned at one of the screens—that was conveniently not on Chris's side of the room—was answer enough. And so was the faint blush on his cheeks.

"Is it Mizael?"

Kaito tensed up so fast he nearly jumped and whipped his head around. "How did you know that?"

"Please, isn't it obvious?" Chris said with a smirk. Not that he'd been one hundred percent sure, but between their twin dragons and their personalities, he would have been extremely surprised to learn it was anyone else.

Kaito scowled at him even more, though disappointingly, that faint bit of pink left his cheeks.

"And what about you?" Kaito demanded after a moment with an irritated jerk of his head.

Oh. Chris was quite happy to tease Kaito about this, but he did not particularly want to talk about himself. He turned away to do...something on one of the screens that would give the appearance of suddenly remembering something he needed to do.

"I've met mine as well."

"Oh?" Chris could practically hear the grin Kaito would be doing his best to suppress. "Sounds like we're both pretty lucky. Are you going to make me guess, too?"

"You can try, but I don't know who it is either."

"You don't?" Kaito said, surprised. "It's been a while since I've seen it...was it that generic?"

In an instant, Kaito had crossed the room to grab Chris's wrist. Chris sighed and let him tug his arm close and push up his sleeve to reveal the characters there. There was no denying it now, the way he maybe could have when Tron had noticed; those characters were absolutely more faded than they had been. They were more faded than Kaito's too, for that matter.

Kaito spent a long moment inspecting the words on Chris's arm. When he finally looked up again, it was with an odd look on his face.

"Chris, this sounds like—"

"I know who it sounds like," Chris said shortly. He jerked his arm away and pushed his sleeve back down.

He had been racking his brain since Tron had brought it up, trying to remember when he might have heard it, trying to put a face or a name to the voice he heard when he read over those lines again and again. He thought he might have finally figured it out, too, except that he had a hard time believing it could be that guy. He was attractive, anyone would think so, but...they had spoken to each other exactly twice, and he didn't have the impression of being very liked either time. Other than dueling, did they even have anything in common? Was there even any other reason for them to cross paths again?

Chris's pocket began to buzz. He fished out his phone before Kaito could say anything else, glad for the excuse to stop talking about this. As he read over the message and who it was from, his eyes widened a bit. Speak of the devil and he shall appear...

Your deck ready yet? I'll be waiting.

Chris spent a moment studying the attached map to make sure he knew where he was going. Then he dashed off a reply and stuffed his phone back in his pocket to begin shutting things down so he could leave as soon as possible. Finally. He'd been beginning to think the man had forgotten about wanting to duel him.

"Who was that?" Kaito asked. Chris started a little. He'd almost forgotten Kaito was there.

He also wasn't sure he wanted to respond, given the previous subject, but eventually he said, "Gauche."

"....You gave him your phone number...?"

"He wanted to duel me," Chris said. He paused to look over the room and make sure everything was taken care of.

"Chris..."

Chris glanced over. Kaito had another odd look on his face. But instead of saying anything on that subject they both wanted to avoid, Kaito shook his head and said with a slight smirk, "You're going to destroy him."

Chris smirked right back. "Yes, I know."

~*~*~*~*~

Gauche scowled up at the sky from the flat of his back. That V....he'd been hoping that if it was a real duel, V would drop his cheap tricks and duel properly, but that was all he seemed to know how to do. That wasn't satisfying at all!

But the most frustrating bit was that it worked. This was far from the first time Gauche had ended up on his back this week. It didn't seem to matter how much he adjusted his own strategies either; V was utterly unmoved by most of it, and for those hits that actually landed, he found a way to counter them by the next duel.

(Gauche was reluctant to admit it, but he could see how Kaito had gotten so good with this immovable wall as his teacher.)

But that didn't mean he was going to give up. Far from it. Gauche pushed himself to his feet and demanded they start again. He was not going to let someone with such an annoying style of dueling get the better of him forever.

~*~*~*~*~

Gauche frowned up at the sky from the flat of his back. That V...it seemed he could use other strategies after all, and he was just as annoyingly competent at them as the Burn and Negation effects he preferred. And thankfully, he'd started swapping out right as Gauche was starting to get bored of how he had been fighting.

It was still frustrating, regularly finding himself on the ground like this. And it just made him want to see V on the ground instead even more.

Just...maybe in a minute. Gauche shifted on the ground and let out a small groan at the bruises threatening to form on his back. It wasn't very comfortable, lying here, but it was tempting to keep lying here anyway. He finally pushed himself up on his elbows instead. He should probably make it clear he was going to get up, eventually, but they'd been dueling for a while now and he could actually use a break.

He glanced up when he heard a faint sound come from V's direction. V had taken a few steps in his direction but stopped, and he was now staring down at him with wide eyes and an otherwise very blank look on his face. Gauche arched a brow as he stared back up at him, which only seemed to make V's face tighten up even more. What was his problem? Was he worried? Was he mad? Did Gauche offend him somehow by not getting right back up?

After a moment, V's brows knitted together and he looked away, frowning at the ground next to Gauche instead. Then he turned on his heel with a whirl of his curtain of silver hair and walked back to where he had been standing. There, he spun around again and sank gracefully to the ground, pulled out his deck, and started calmly shuffling through it in his lap. He didn't glance back up at Gauche again. Gauche had the distinct impression he was refusing to.

He was probably mad. But if he was going along with Gauche's desire for a break, then that was fine. Gauche sat up the rest of the way and pulled out his own deck. Taking the opportunity to make a few adjustments wasn't a bad idea either.

~*~*~*~*~

Gauche grinned up at the sky from the flat of his back and let out a bark of laughter. Finally. It had taken V switching to a strategy that involved a lot of swarming and straightforward attacks—the way Gauche had been hoping he would fight from the beginning—but Gauche had finally managed...a tie.

Just a tie. But so what if it was just a tie? Normally, he might have been irritated by that kind of result, but against V, it felt like progress. And anyway, it had been fun. Not that dueling V hadn't become its own kind of fun, but there was just something different about exchanging blows directly. There was something different about V, who was normally so composed behind his Trap cards and monster effects, passionately fighting him head on like that.

In some ways, he felt like maybe he'd finally seen V's real fighting spirit, after only seeing glimpses of it for so long. He knew that wasn't quite the case—he'd never felt like V wasn't fully engaged with their duels, or he would have walked away long before now—but it still felt that way. And it was something he already, very badly, wanted to see again.

"You got me."

Gauche turned his head to find V standing over him, his hand outstretched and a smile on his lips. The light of the sun setting behind him illuminated the edges of his hair, so he almost seemed to glow, but it was nothing compared to the way that smile softened his face.

Gauche stared up at him for a long time, momentarily struck dumb by how breathtakingly handsome this man was when he smiled like that.

Until that smile faded and V was looking at him with concern instead. "Gauche?"

Gauche sat up and took his hand, chuckling awkwardly as V helped him stand up. "I haven't gotten you yet," he said, very keen to avoid any questions about his momentary lapse of reason. "But you'd better be ready for when I do."

V smiled again, sending his heart fluttering up his throat. "I'll treat you anyway."

~*~*~*~*~

"Dr. Faker is planning to hold another tournament," V said, handing him an ice cream. As V sat next to him, Gauche couldn't help but eye the ice cream he was holding—or rather, the amount of stuff he'd asked for on it.

"Already? Wait, who're they even going have host it? With Heartland gone and the deputy mayor's a bore..."

V's mouth tightened in disdain as he dug at his ice cream with a tiny spoon. He seemed to have been able to put aside his uncharitable feelings for Dr. Faker during the past few months, but that didn't seem to be the case for Heartland. Not that Gauche could blame him much for that.

"We've been talking to someone named Smiley...I was worried he might be cut from the same cloth as Heartland, but he seems alright. You'll see what I mean when you meet him." He stuck a chunk of ice cream, chocolate, and cookie in his mouth and fell quiet until it was gone. "Dr. Faker is planning on making the WDC an annual tournament, but he's going to have another one before that to get everyone excited for it. Invite only."

"Oh yeah? Since you're telling me, I guess I'm invited?" Gauche said with a grin. He reached over with his own spoon and snagged a bit of V's ice cream. V's eyes followed it all the way to his mouth.

"That's right. Those of us who made it to the last eight in the last WDC, the Barians, a few of Yuma's other friends...we'll be using the Duel Coasters so we needed enough people." V absently tucked his hair behind his ear. "It's going to be publicized as a precursor to the WDC, but it's really more of a gift to all of us and Yuma..."

That seemed...surprisingly generous of Dr. Faker. Particularly when he had only thrown the first WDC as an attempt to collect the Numbers, and he'd never seemed all that enamored with dueling itself. Gauche had a suspicion this wasn't actually his idea, or a lot of it wasn't. But more importantly—

"We're using the Duel Coasters again?"

V casually reached over with his spoon and snagged a bit of his ice cream. "My idea."

Frankly, Gauche couldn't care less whose idea it was. He jumped up with a wild grin, nearly crushing his ice cream in his fist in his excitement. "That's the best idea! I can't wait to be part of that again!"

~*~*~*~*~

As the tournament approached, holoscreens began appearing around the city to advertise for it with what little footage there was from the last tournament.

And Gauche finally had the satisfaction of sending V flying to the ground.

For the first few moments, he almost couldn't believe what he'd just seen. His monster's attack connecting, V's monster getting blown away and V along with it, V's lifepoints finally ticking all the way down to zero...

Then the reality of V's prone form on the ground finally sank in and he threw his fists in the air and let out a whoop of delight. And then ran forward to give V a hand in getting up and maybe gloat a little to his face rather than several feet away.

V was already sitting up by the time Gauche reached him, his pretty hair strewn haphazardly about his shoulders. The look on his face quashed most of Gauche's thoughts of gloating. He actually looked pretty peeved under all that hair, although he also wasn't looking at Gauche, so it was hard to say whether that was directed at him.

Then V glanced up at him and most of that dark look disappeared. He sighed and reached up to take Gauche's hand, his eyes glittering with a challenge.

"Good job. That won't be happening again."

Gauche grinned and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the holoscreen above them blared to life—with his own face, too, so he kind of wanted to see what part of the WDC they'd picked for this one. Something from the underground part of the Duel Coaster track, it looked like.

"There you are! We got a nice mood going on here! V, I challenge you!"

"...Hmph, you plan to fight me?"

V's hand was still clasped in his own, so he felt it when the man went suddenly went very still. Gauche was too busy frowning up at the screen to look at him. Why did that sound so familiar? Like something he had been trying to remember for months had just been dropped in his lap?

"So it is you..."

Gauche's gaze darted back down to his face. V was staring at him with a surprisingly vulnerable look, like he'd never really seen him before. Gauche stared back at him, bewildered, until his face and his words and his words finally all clicked into place.

"It's you?!" he blurted. He yanked V's arm forward and shoved up his sleeve. Sure enough, it was his own words that were inscribed there, and they had faded as much as the short phrase on his own arm. A phrase which he had very clearly heard just seconds ago from that screen.

His fingers brushed over the words, checking them over again just to make sure. V's muscles tensed under his fingers and his hand twitched in Gauche's grip.

"So it would seem," he murmured, his voice tight.

Gauche glanced back up at him. He still looked a bit unsure and lost, which was pretty much how Gauche felt about this too. This wasn't at all how he thought meeting his soulmate would go. Even after he'd discovered they'd already met, he'd been imagining something...else when they found each other again. He hadn't imagined it would feel like the world had suddenly turned upside down. And he definitely hadn't imagined it being V.

Then something else clicked, and Gauche frowned suspiciously at him. "Did you already know?"

V pressed his lips together and glanced down at where Gauche's hand was still resting on his arm. "I suspected."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Gauche demanded.

V didn't answer that right away, giving Gauche plenty of time to come up with his own reasons. V didn't like him. V already liked someone else. V didn't want to be with someone who couldn't beat him. V didn't want to be with someone who could beat him. V thought he liked someone else and didn't want to get in the way. V was actually secretly dying from some unknown malady—

"Because," V said finally, meeting his eyes again, "even if this is meant to be, I didn't want to fall for you because I felt like I had to. And I didn't want you to feel obligated to like me either. That's not the kind of relationship I want to have. With anyone."

That wasn't in his list of reasons.

Gauche's heart felt like it was in his throat again.

"That's the relationship I thought I wanted. When I was a kid," Gauche admitted sheepishly. It sure as hell wasn't what he wanted now, though. As of approximately five seconds ago.

"Well, so did I," V said with a faint smile. "When I was a kid."

Gauche nodded jerkily. There was something else he wanted to ask, but...well, it was kind of embarrassing just asking it. So it was another few seconds of opening and closing his mouth before he could manage it, and his cheeks felt warm when he finally did.

"Do you like me?"

V looked away and chewed on the inside of his lower lip. "More than I thought I would," he admitted after a moment.

Gauche's hand tightened around the one he was holding. That probably should have been insulting in some way, but honestly, wasn't that pretty much how he felt too? More than I thought I would...And anyway, insulting or not, unsure of his own feelings or not, it was hard not to feel more than a little affected by hearing this proud, beautiful man admit that he liked him. It was tempting to just kiss him right now and let that lead where it may.

"I need some time to think about it," Gauche said instead, feeling somewhat like he was having to force the words out.

V smiled and squeezed his hand back. "Good."

◁◁ Part 1: Passing By

Part 3: In Consort ▷▷

#Contrastshipping #Zexal #christopher arclight #Gauche #zexalfic #fanfiction

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blooming-blooming · 8 years ago

Note

All the multiples of 4 ^^

4. What’s your current NOTP? I’m actually really chill with most Zexal ships!! If I had to choose, though, probably Vector and Yuma. Kaiba and Jonouchi is also a constant NOTP of mine.8. Have you ever shipped yourself with a character? I did as a kid, and, embarrassingly, I still do. I have a DMGX era self insert I ship with Mai that I never talk about. It’s like Carol, but with more card games.12. Have you ever been disappointed when your ship finally got together? ….I honestly don’t think I have any ships that have gotten together. Minus, like, Judai and Yubel.16. Talk about a ship you initially disliked. Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth was something I wasn’t big on at all for a really, really long time; I always felt Phoenix would have been better with Mia in an AU where she lived. Then I met my (now) girlfriend and saw how much the pairing helped her. I kept an open mind to it when replaying the games a few years ago, and ended up falling for the ship. Since we’ve entered our relationship, I’ve ended up becoming majorly into it, which is something I never imagined would happen.20. Talk about a ship you feel alone in shipping. Kaede Ichinose and Ichigo Hoshimiya from Aikatsu! is a big one; they have a lot of development together towards the end of the first season, only for minimal expansion from season 2 onwards. It’s a rarepair in the Japanese fandom, which makes it beyond obscure in the miniscule western fandom. I feel lucky to know one other person who ships it.24. Do you mostly ship canon pairings? Ha ha, no. The only canon pairing I ship is Judai and Yubel from GX. That, and while I don’t “ship” for Utena, I have a very deep appreciation for the canon relationship between Utena and Anthy. But I consider that different than shipping.28. Does shipping come easily to you? Yep! I’m very drawn and prone to shipping, though there are some exceptions.32. Share five must-read fics.

Floriography by Lirillith: HeartCatch PreCure, Cure Blossom x Cure Sunshine. Post-canon oneshot; Itsuki putting together a bouquet of flowers to confess to Tsubomi. Anyone who knows me well knows that HeartCatch majorly shaped my identity and made me who I am today. My identity as a lesbian is no exception; when I was 15 I had a major crush on Itsuki, and Tsubomi’s canon crush on her helped me feel more comfortable in liking girls. This fic does a really good job on showing things from Itsuki’s PoV: While she looks cool on the surface, she’s majorly out of touch with her feminine identity and doesn’t know how to express her emotions, making her an awkward wreck. It’s absolutely adorable.

Hot For Justice by indirectkissesiniceland: Ace Attorney, Klavier Gavin X Apollo Justice. Post Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban 4, Klavier goes through a slump in his career until he starts getting to know Apollo better. A fic I’m sure is on most Klapollo fic rec lists; Hot For Justice hit me because of how eerily similar it played out to my own headcanons on how Klavier and Apollo get together. It’s wonderfully written as well – the scene of Klavier bluntly telling Apollo his feelings in Chapter 25 makes me cry every time I read it, and I strive to write a scene that can impact a reader in my works the way that one impacts me. My only complaint overall with HfJ is the few scenes where Kristoph is portrayed as a loving older brother to Klavier, which thankfully are few and far between.

Grasping Sunshine by Rosage: Ace Attorney, Sasha Buckler X Athena Cykes. Post Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies/Gyakuten Saiban 5 oneshot; Athena starts volunteering for the whale show at Ship Shape Aquarium and realizes her feelings for Sasha along the way. This ship is one of my favorites from Ace Attorney, and, sadly, probably my most obscure. This fic handles their relationship really well, and shows off a lot of little nuances in both characters that are big reasons as to why I think they’d make a wonderful couple.

Operation: Find Kaito Tenjo by Brushfire: YuGiOh Zexal, Kaito Tenjo x Mizael X V, with focus on Mizael X V and Kaito X Mizael, along with Shun X Haruto. Set in an Arc V AU before Kaito was confirmed to cameo; Kaito is kidnapped by Academia shortly after the events of Zexal and used to work on carding technology. Several years later, Heartland is a wasteland and Mizael and V have retreated to Kaito’s villa in the mountains to help raise Haruto. In their struggles to keep Haruto safe and fend themselves from Academia, their only goal is to get Kaito back. Sadly on indefinite hiatus, this fic has a lot of really, really strong things going for it: the relationships between all of the characters are really well handled, the premise is strong, and it is overall executed very, very well. While it is an Arc V AU, the author has confirmed the fic is more of a love letter to Zexal than anything else. It has at least some inspiration for my own fic, Ad Astra, and I have accepted the headcanon of Kaito being Alcor with open arms (albeit in different ways than she has, and I don’t know if it will come up in any of my fics).

Heartland City By Night by Fenikkusu_Ai: YuGiOh Zexal, Kaito Tenjo X Mizael. Post-canon oneshot, Mizael stays with Kaito after being revived. This fic shows that quality is better than quantity. Not even reaching 200 words, the language the author uses is absolutely gorgeous, and creates a very serene and emotional atmosphere. I can’t believe I forgot to kudo/bookmark this fic before writing this list, because I have read it so many times and consistently been blown away.

36. Do you create fanmixes/gif sets/fanart/fic/fanvids and so on for you ships? I’m an artist and fic author for sure!40. If you could change one thing about your OTP, what would that be? I’m pretty satisfied with MizaKai in canon minus their lack of onscreen closure (which I can fill in the blanks for anyways), so I’ll go with a different OTP.Hey Capcom: What the fuck have you done to Klavier Gavin and Apollo Justice in the newer games.

#mirokuna hime #ace attorney #precure #zexal #long post-

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pocket-luv101 · 4 years ago

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First Impressions // Chapter 3

Fandom: Servamp Ship: LawLicht (main), KuroMahi (side), Tetsono (side), Jekuni (side) Characters: Hyde, Licht, Kuro, Mahiru

Ch.1 // Ch.2 // (Ch.3) //

Mikuni didn’t bother to knock on Misono’s bedroom door before she entered. The room was dark but she had to note that smoke lingered over the candle as if the fire was recently doused. She turned away from the candle and looked to her sisters sleeping on the floor of Misono’s room. The sight reminded her of their childhood where they would make forts and tents to camp on the ground.

She could easily conclude that her sisters were pretending to sleep so they wouldn’t have to start their morning chores. The sun was only beginning to rise so Mikuni didn’t see a reason to wake them. The amber hue of sunrise was tainted with grey rain clouds. They had time before the rooster would wake the town. She knelt next to her sisters and adjusted the blanket over them. Her eyes fell onto the book next to Licht’s pillow, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

When they returned from the party, Mahiru suggested the sisters sleep in the same room and read the play Licht had brought for Misono. Mikuni knew that the suggestion was to lift Misono’s spirits after their mother’s hurtful words so Mikuni agreed. Her only condition was for them to sleep before midnight because they needed to wake early to care for the horses.

She had to finish the bookkeeping for the night so she told them to sleep first. Since they attended the ball, Mikuni stayed up later than she usually would. She was disappointed that she fell asleep in her office and missed the sleepover with her sisters. She placed the play on the desk and lit the candle again. “I know you’re merely pretending to be asleep, Ladies. While I was walking down the hall, I could hear you three reading the play. It’s not good for your eyesight to read in the dark.”

“Then we shall switch from reading the play to discuss our new neighbours? Licht told us that Hyde was the one to suggest the comedy.” Misono said and gestured for Mikuni to lay down with them. Despite how Mikuni knew it would be more responsible to start the day, she settled onto a pillow instead. “Perhaps we shall see them if we go to the theater. Mahiru will have the opportunity to speak with Kuro again.”

“Mother has voiced her approval of them due to their wealth but I dare say we must protect each other from them. We cannot trust them. Hyde called Mahiru mad when she is clearly an angel! He also bribed the mayor to sneak into the library.” Even as she spoke, Licht thought of her talk with Hyde earlier that night. She rolled onto her stomach and stared out the window to Hanafield manor in the morning light. “There is also their brother who lives in the town under a false name. Who do you think he is?”

“Kuro said his brother has his reasons to hide their family name. We shouldn’t pry. They aren’t a traditional noble family but we shouldn’t judge them. Our peers would say we’re far from conventional women and we know how hurtful it is to be called such.” Mahiru reminded them. The four sisters each had their own passion and they wanted to do more with their skills than call it a hobby. “People are far too complex to judge who they are after only one meeting.”

Mahiru thought of Kuro and pulled her blanket to her lips to hide her grin. She was certain her sisters would tease her for the budding crush. “At first glance, Kuro appears to be the perfect lord with how handsome he is. He can’t dance though. He stepped on my feet several times but his effort was so earnest and charming that I accepted another dance when he asked. I’ve never danced so much in a night.”

“All the mothers at the ball must’ve been jealous of you for catching Lord Ash’s fancy. I’m certain he spent half the night dancing with you. The rest of the night, he spent smiling at you. I would venture to say he’s smitten with you, Mahiru.” Mikuni laughed.

Heavy knocks pounded on the wall and it startled them. Licht instinctively placed her hand on Misono’s shoulder to protect her younger sister. She relaxed when Sakura’s voice travelled through the wall. “I’m trying to sleep! Quiet down!”

“Sakura does have a point. It’ll be better to continue our conversation while we do the morning chores. We won’t be bothering the ones still asleep.” Mahiru said and sat up. “We can’t waste the morning. The stable hands will come soon and I want to make something warm for them to eat. Will you help me, Misono? You can give something special to Tetsu.”

“What? Why would you mention Tetsu specifically in such a way? I don’t have any feelings for him.” Misono insisted with a bright blush.

“Oh, don’t be so upset. Mahiru is teasing you about your crush on Tetsu because you brought up her crush on Kuro earlier.” Mikuni laughed when both of her sisters tried to deny her feelings. She stood and placed the pillows back onto the bed. They cleaned the room and Licht’s eyes fell onto the play Hyde gave her. She made a note to herself to return the book to the library.

She wondered if she would see him once again since he appeared to enjoy reading. Hyde’s teasing grin from the day they met contradicted the soft smile he had at the library. He had heard their mother insult Misono and intended to ask her to dance. She didn’t know if he was motivated by pity or compassion. But the thoughtfulness in his red eyes made her heart stumble for a reason she couldn’t need. Licht cared for her sister and she was happy to see someone treat them kindly.

She didn’t know why she couldn’t stop picturing his face. Licht pulled her thoughts away from the man and she followed her sisters out the door. They went through their morning routine. Their family’s wealth was modest so they couldn’t afford a robust staff to care for the house. The sisters loved the aging building and they would help the staff maintain the home of their memories.

There was a knock on the front door and Licht glanced at the time. It was far too early for their stable hands to arrive and they would usually knock on the back door. Licht answered the door but she didn’t recognize the man on the other side. He bowed politely to her and held out a letter. “Good morning. I am the footman for the Servamps and they asked me to deliver you this invitation.”

“Thank you.” Licht was surprised by the invitation but she took the letter into her hand. She closed the door and she carried the letter to her sisters. She tore off the seal and opened it to skim the words. Mikuni was the first one to notice her reading.

“What is that?” Mikuni asked and looked over her shoulder. “The Servamps are inviting us to morning tea? I didn’t think we had made such a good impression on them to do such. The letter names all of us but my intuition tells me that this is clearly meant for Mahiru. The letter mentions that it was a pleasure to dance and she was the only one to dance with a Servamp.”

“I would love to have tea with the family.” Mahiru took the letter and searched for the line Mikuni mentioned. She smiled to herself once she found it. Then, she folded the letter and placed it on the counter. “But we will be far too busy to pay them a visit. I need to work with the staff to plan for Haruto’s visit next week. Mikuni will be too occupied with the family business to do so.”

“I’m sure Misono can handle the horses while I arrange everything for our cousin.” Mikuni waved away her protest. “Misono has been working with me and the family business for a year now and she can handle it for the day. If you want to go, you can without worrying about us. Do you want to attend the morning tea as well, Licht?”

“Since we went to the party last night, I wasn’t able to practise my piano like I usually would. I planned to compensate for that time by practising an extra two hours today.” Licht could see how excited Mahiru was by the invitation and added: “I would go to protect Mahiru from that demon but his siblings will be there. She should be safe having tea with them.”

“Thank you.” Mahiru beamed a smile at her sisters and held the letter close to her chest. “We would sneak into Hanafield’s garden and play. This will be my first time inside the manor. I will ask them to invite you three another time so you can see it as well. I’m so excited. Oh, we should tell mother and have the carriage prepared before the rain starts.”

Mahiru placed the letter in her pocket as she left the kitchen to tell their mother. She quickly found her in the drawing room and she sat across from her. “Mother, I have been invited to have morning tea. May I take the carriage to visit them? They live next to us but the distance is too far to walk.”

“I have already promised Sakura that we would take the carriage to town and watch the officers enter town. There shall be a parade! She’s so excited to meet a soldier and I hope the weather doesn’t postpone the parade.” Her mother took Mahiru’s hand and patted it gently. She didn’t feel her mother’s warmth after she said: “We have thirty horses and you can ride one to visit your friend for tea. I need the carriage.”

“I understand, Mother.” Mahiru nodded to her. She told herself to look forward to having tea with the Servamps and the opportunity to speak with Kuro again.

“Is this the file that you were looking for, Misono?” Licht asked and held out the folder to her. While she wasn’t as business minded like Mikuni, she did her best to help when Misono asked for her assistance. Mikuni said she trusted her with the family’s business but she felt a little uncertain. She was happy to have Licht’s support. “Perhaps I can bring the piano into the office to play a song to motivate you.”

“You’re a strong angel but I doubt you can carry the pianoforte up the stairs. Even if you did, you’ll leave drag marks on the ground and Mahiru will scream the moment she sees that.” They laughed as they pictured Mahiru’s reaction. She glanced out the window and she noted how heavy the rain had become. “Mahiru hasn’t returned from morning tea yet. Do you think the mud has slowed the carriage?”

As if to answer their question, Mikuni entered the room clutching a letter. Licht immediately knew that something was amiss by her pale face. “The Servamps sent us a message. Mahiru has fallen sick with a cold. She rode a horse to their manor and it started to rain during the last mile of the journey. They’re treating her cold but the doctor says it might take the night for her to recover.”

“Mahiru should know better than to ride a horse in this weather. What on earth would persuade her to do so?” Licht took the letter from her sister. She knew Mikuni would never lie about Mahiru’s condition but she was in disbelief. She wanted to immediately go to the Servamp’s manor to see her condition and to ensure that she was being treated well. In the back of her mind, she was reminded that Misono needed her help with the family business. She loved both of her sisters.

Licht turned to Misono and there was an understanding between them without speaking. “You should go, Licht. I’m worried about Mahiru as well and I’ll feel better if one of us was there with her. Mikuni and I will stay here to deal with the family affairs. We’ll go to Hanafield once we complete the work here.”

“I’ll send you a more detailed letter about Mahiru’s condition the moment I see her.” Licht promised.

She gripped the letter in her fist as she ran down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Licht only stopped to put on a coat and her bonnet. In the corner of her eyes, she saw her mother step into the foyer. She thought her mother may question why she would run into the rain. She rushed to explain as she tied the ribbons of her bonnet.

“Mahiru has fallen sick from riding in the rain and I must go to her bedside. She is being cared for by the Servamps since they planned to have tea together.” Licht slipped her feet into her boots without lacing them, worried that Mahiru’s condition could worsen if she dawdled for even a moment. “I will ride Pegasus so there’s no need to prepare the carriage.”

“The morning tea was with the Servamps? If I knew, I would’ve allowed her to take the carriage and have her bring Sakura with her. That would’ve been the perfect opportunity for her to impress the family.” Her mother sighed and Licht bit her tongue. “Sakura will be so upset with Mahiru for not telling her. She was already disappointed that we couldn’t take the carriage into town due to this rain.”

“Your daughter has fallen ill yet you speak of the feelings of Sakura’s alone? You have more than one daughter, Mother! Hell, Mahiru has been more of a mother to your daughters and she’s the third oldest of us. You would match us with husbands in exchange for dresses and Father will do the same for money to gamble.” Her worry for Mahiru caused her frustration to boil until she couldn’t contain it. Licht’s yells could be heard throughout the house. She didn’t bother to listen to her mother’s reply before she stormed out the door.

Hyde stood on the perron staircase behind the manor and he was protected from the rain by the canopy above his head. He took a long drag of his cigarette and blew out the smoke. He could see the creek past their garden and he recalled his first meeting with Licht. Their footman sent the family a letter to inform them that Mahiru became sick in the rain.

Sharp blue eyes played on his mind and he pondered if Licht would visit them to see her sister. She threw her shoe at him for insulting Mahiru and yelled at her mother for hurting Misono’s feelings. It was easy to see that she cared more for her sisters than how society saw her. Hyde couldn’t help but respect her passion and conviction.

He put out his cigarette in the ashtray sitting on the stair rail. Hyde intended to return into the warmth of the manor but something past the creek caught his attention. The person was too far for him to know who the rider was but he could see that they were riding towards the creek. He stepped into the rain and walked down the stone staircase.

The creek was only a short walk from Hanafield’s garden so he was able to reach the water with a light jog. On the other side of the creek, the horse continued to sprint towards the water but the rider made no move to slow down. Hyde tried to call out to the person to stop but his voice was drowned out by the rain striking the creek.

His eyes widened when the horse leapt over the creek and landed a few feet next to him. Hyde pulled himself out of his shock and he grabbed the horse’s reins to force it to stop. He shouted up at the rider: “Are you mad to perform such a dangerous jump in this rain?”

“Let go of me, Demon! I need to see my sister.” Hyde recognized Licht’s voice only a moment before she kicked him. Their screams scared her horse and the animal instinctively rose onto its hindlegs. She was thrown from the saddle and she braced herself from the impact with the ground. Instead, she found herself in warm arms when Hyde caught her.

“Are you okay, Angel Cakes?” Hyde asked. His heart was still racing and he didn’t know which of them was more startled. He looked down at her in his arms and the first thing he noticed was the tears staining her cheeks. He assumed that they were caused by worry for her sister and he wanted to reassure her. Before he could, Licht pushed lightly on his chest.

He placed her on the ground and Licht moved in front of the horse. With a simple hand on the horse’s muzzle, it became calm. Licht spoke to the horse in a soft voice and he was surprised by how lulling it was. “It’s okay, Pegasus. I was upset but I shouldn’t have rode so recklessly in the rain. When we return home, I will brush you and give you apples.”

“Our staff can care for your steed.” Hyde offered. He took off his jacket and held it over her head so she would be sheltered from the rain. The hem of her dress was coated in mud and her hair was dishevelled from the ride. Yet, she was still beautiful with her sharp blue eyes. “Your sister is well. The doctor said she only needs rest to recover.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Licht relaxed and stroked her horse’s mane. “Thank you for taking care of my sister and offering to help my horse. I want to see Mahiru right away.”

“I’ll walk you to the guest room where she’s sleeping.” He nodded. Hyde wanted to ask why she appeared so upset earlier but he didn’t know if it was his place to do so. He changed the subject and said, “I’ll have the staff prepare a towel and warm tea for you. We wouldn’t want you to catch a cold as well. Anyways, I owe you a dress after I ruined the one you wore to the ball.”

“You’re housing my sister while she’s sick. We can consider ourselves even.” She said and looked up at him. He held his jacket over her head and she felt surrounded by warmth.

#servamp #lawlicht #kuromahi #tetsono #servamp hyde #licht jekylland todoroki #mahiru shirota #mikuni alicein #misono alicein #fanfiction #fem licht #fem eves

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sabraeal · 5 years ago

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He Who Studies Evil [Part 1/4]

A prequel to Wanting Is More Pleasurable Than Having (And Other Things Vulcans Don’t Know a Damned Thing About), written for @bubblesthemonsterartist for her for birthday. I’m already sorry about how unlivable she’s going to be now since she’s getting a 10K multichapter.

It would be no surprise to any of Haruka’s crew that their captain had placed at the top of his class at the academy. Valedictorian, though he’d declined to speak at graduation. There had been other, more popular options for them to pursue, and even then he had known -- his place wasn’t in the spotlight. It was just to the left, seated with the others graduating with honor, watching the real star burn brightly on the stage.

Ah, well. A man didn’t reach his age without a few regrets.

In all his time at the academy, he’d built a reputation for himself; not as the one with the highest test scores -- though he had those as well -- or the one with the best flight rating, but instead as the youngest cadet to ever memorize the whole of Starfleet’s General Orders and Regulations, able to cite them nearly verbatim by the end of his first year. It had not been a choice that made him popular with his classmates, especially not those who shared his ethics seminars, but it had prepared him well for the rest of his student career. There was no text an instructor could assign that was more dry, more boring than the rules that governed Starfleet, and even when every other cadet struggled with the coursework, he had forged ahead, remembering how many times he had nearly fell asleep when trying to memorize the uniform regulations for species with more than four appendages.

Which is why there is no reason at all for him to be stuck like this, rereading the same three sentences in a work of fiction.

“Captain?”

The book snaps shut; it annoys him to note that it is a satisfying noise, as he’d been told it would be.

“Ensign Sui,” he intones ponderously, enjoying how it makes the boy straighten in his uniform. He’s from a good family, Starfleet for generations, but he’s a bit meeker than the academy usually mills out; one of their many prodigy students that probably graduated a bit too early for their own good.

That’s why he’d taken him in: good stock, plenty of promise, only needing a firm hand to help him up to captainship. In a few decades, of course. The boy’s practically shivering in excitement just from being able to fly the runabout.

“Zakura says we’ll be docking soon. We’re just waiting for the Cardassians to clear us.”

Haruka leans, just slightly, catching the dark head in the runabout’s cockpit. Ensign Shidnote, soon to be Lieutenant Junior Grade if he can keep on the straight and narrow. Which he had, so far as he had seen. Quiet boy, a little older than Sui, but dependable. And his flight scores weren’t anything to sniff at either.

“Well, that will take an age.” He gives the boy a tight smile. “You two best get comfortable up there. This sort of position jockeying is how little dogs show their bite.”

He settles back, bench creaking beneath him, and Haruka casts a wary glance at the novel in his hand. The thing is as thick as three fingers, and he hadn’t bothered to mark his place --

Ah, it can’t matter too much, can it? Not with a story like this.

“Is it good?”

His head jerks up, finding Sui lingering just at the edge of the seating, awkward. “Pardon?”

“The book you’re reading,” the boy clarifies, looking like he might break into a sweat just attempting this conversation. “Is it good, sir?”

He’s been at this job long enough to know that saying the answer just at the tip of his tongue would be a mistake. “It’s very...different,” he settles for, instead. The diplomatic thing would be to lie, he knows, but he’s made his career on being earnest, on saying the thing that needs to be said whether it is politik or no. “Have you ever read a repetitive epic, Ensign?”

His grimace says more about its appeal than words ever could. “Ah, I can’t say I--”

The comm chirps on the runabout’s console, loud even outside the cockpit. Ensign Shidnote is the one to take it, his shaggy head bending, hand pressed to his ear. It’s only because he’s watching that Haruka sees it, that sudden stiffness in his shoulders, as if someone replaced them with a single, metal rod.

“Understood,” he says, terse. “Captain, there’s a call for you. From Starfleet Command.”

Haruka rocks to his feet, hard as if the gravity on the shuttle heavy as the air on Vulcan, and he gives the boy a nod. “Put it through.”

“Yes, sir.” Shidnote throws a surreptitious glance at his copilot. “Hey, Sui, I think it’s time we handled that thing in cargo now.”

The boy blinks, guileless. “The thing in cargo? But there’s nothing in there but--?”

Shidnote huffs out a breath, annoyed. “No, Sui. The thing. Remember?”

Haruka’s heard reports from Security about Ensign Shidnote; he’s a non-traditional recruit, only just joined a few years before and hurried through the courses on his last ship, no time at the academy at all --

And he’s a natural at subtlety. A good thing, since he needs to be subtle for two with Sui around.

The ensign’s gaze flickers over to Haruka, then to Shidnote, and back again before he manages, “Oh yes. The thing. The thing in cargo, which is not here.”

The expression Shidnote wears could only be termed long-suffering. Someone would be earning that promotion to junior grade just from this shuttle ride alone. “Yes. That.”

“Don’t take long,” Haruka tells them, settling into the pilot’s chair. “We’ll be docking whenever the Cardassians see fit to give us clearance, remember.”

“Be sure to let us know when that happens, sir,” Shidnote says, a little more wry than Haruka would call good for his career. Maybe it’s not such a surprise he’s been stuck at ensign for this long, if he’s this well acquainted with sarcasm in front of his superiors. “We’ll come running.”

Left alone, it’s easy to hear the soft creaking of the shuttle, the soft whirring of its systems. It’s both comforting and unsettling, a reminder that for all the Federation’s shine and chrome, only a few access panels and life support keep him from feeling the crushing vacuum of space.

Haruka shakes himself. He’s stalling.

With a flick of his wrist, Kain’s grim face resolves on the screen, his square jaw and precision-cut hair saying Starfleet Command more than any of his pips could. It’s only been weeks since he last saw him, but already there’s more white at his temples, the burnished gold of his hair ceding to time.

“Haruka!” Kain’s face is transformed when he smiles, no longer the grave Commander-in-Chief, but instead the popular, carefree young man he had known at the academy. The one who had so easily winnowed notes out of him after staying up all night, flirting with the female cadets at the bars off-campus; the one who he had so easily given up his speaking spot to, when the faculty had offered it to him. “It’s good to see you’ve reached neutral space intact.”

The camera adjusts, and then a fairer face resolves next to his, her mouth smiling yet tense. It’s been years since the academy, but to his eyes, Haruto Wisteria has hardly aged a day.

His fingers curl tightly around the book, the cover digging sharply into his fingers. If only that speech had been only thing he’d given up for Kain.

“Thus far,” he replies, mouth ticking up into as much of a smile as he ever allows. “We’re still waiting for clearance to dock. Plenty of time for accidents to happen.”

“I wouldn’t expect it.” Haruto’s voice is as clear across the light years as it has ever been, eyes bright as they meet his. “The Obsidian Order has doubtlessly been giving you a...quiet escort since you crossed out of Federation space. To avoid any...misfortune.”

She is right, of course, but he can’t help but add, “Or assure it.”

“The Union doesn’t allow the Order any vessels,” Kain tells them, mouth pulled thin. Haruto glances at him, pointed, but he knows better than to look back, to give any sort of hint of conspiracy or mocking. Kain is cross enough as it is. “And even if they did, they’d be dogging you coattails, trying to keep you from even getting a ding on that hull. The Cardassians have put up a good fight, but they’re stretched thin, not matter what the Union wants to believe. They need this deal to go through.”

He nods. “I’ll keep that in mind, sir.”

“Make no mistake, we need this too, Haruka.” Kain fixes him with a heavy look. He doesn’t know what’s happening back on Earth, but it’s left both Starfleet’s commander and one of the Federation’s most prominent Senators looking tense. Too much so for comfort. “The Federation is eager to end hostilities with Cardassia. We’re by no means as pressed as they are, but there’s no need to be wasting the resources we are on a sector with no strategic advantage.”

And they were willing to sacrifice Bajor to do it. No wonder they weren’t sending Bergatt on this one -- he was the obvious choice for a flex of their military might, the perfect presence to force Cardassia to stand down after the admiral spear-headed the defense at the border, but --

It makes sense now, why they would pick him, a man who had never seen a Cardassian in anything more realistic than a holodeck module. He was supposed to be neutral, unaffected by sentiment. He wasn’t supposed to care what the Cardassians did with the Bajorans, just as long as the Federation got to withdraw their forces.

He looks up, meeting Haruto’s steady gaze, a message heavy in her eyes.

Maybe that’s just what the Federation wants Starfleet to think. “Of course.”

“We have ‘em on the ropes,” Kain pushes, miming the fight with his fists. “You just have to make sure we don’t get screwed in the deal. Just--”

A chime sounds over the link, and all at once the humor falls from Kain’s face, leaving only harsh, forbidding grimness behind.

“Excuse me, Haruka. It seemed something else has come up.” He lets out a long sigh. “Well, I trust my wife can impress the importance of the situation on you, if I haven’t already.”

“I do have a reputation for being quite convincing, when I want to be,” she reminds him, smiling up with a doting expression. Haruka wishes he didn’t know her so well, that he couldn’t tell just how much of this was an act, a performance of appeasement for a man who could suffer no fault.

“I’ve always found that to be so,” he offers, letting his tone take more of a point than he would normally dare. A lesser woman would have looked alarmed, but Haruto only turns her head, just so, so that he may read her reproach on every feature.

Kain’s far too distracted to notice, just as he’d thought. “Good. I’ll leave it to you, then.”

The door swishes shut, and there he is, as alone as a man can be on a runabout with two ensigns valiantly pretending they can’t hear a conversation only one wall away with her. Even after all this time, it still feels too intimate, too dangerous.

She smiles, and it’s too warm, too much. “Hello, Commander. It’s be a while, hasn’t it?”

“I’ll try not to cause any interplanetary incidents while I’m there,” he assures her. “You don’t need to remind me, Councilor.”

“I would never presume,” she hums primly. “How are you enjoying the gift I sent you?”

His eyes dart down, staring at the blue cloth cover, and he tries to estimate how much of this story he could probably guess at, if she asked. “It’s certainly...interesting.”

“The Never-Ending Sacrifice is considered the pinnacle of classic Cardassian literature.” He remembers this tone, the one she would take teaching one of her classes, back when that was what she did, instead of -- this. “It’s the quintessential repetitive epic.”

“It certainly is repetitive.” He must be getting used to all this diplomacy claptrap, if he could say that with a straight face.

Haruto’s mouth breaks into a wide smile, a real one. Ah, how he wishes he couldn’t tell. “I always did prefer the enigma tales, myself.”

He looks at her, taking in the innocence of her face, even now all these years later, as if she’s hardly aged a day since he was nineteen -- and he knows what a cunning mind lays underneath. A secret few do, and none of them her husband. “You don’t say.”

Her mouth curls with the barest amusement, only a hint of the sly woman that lies beneath. “I do hope, at least, that it had given you some perspective on the philosophy of Cardassia.”

“Some,” he agrees, though they cannot possibly be as dull a people as this confounding novel suggests. “It is clear how duty to family was so easily conflated with duty to the state after the Union was formed. You only need to replace every instance of ‘obey the elders’ with ‘obey the state,’ and you have an accurate summary Cardassian current affairs.”

“Mm.” Her mouth tilts, wry. “But I would refrain from such observations while you’re with your most generous hosts.”

He scoffs, shaking his head. “I doubt we’ll have much time to exchange philosophy, Councilor.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she warns him. “Cardassian culture views mealtimes as the perfect opportunity to exchange opinions, and doubtlessly they are interested on your views of them.”

“Of course.” He lets out a bitter laugh. “A bigot is easier to fool than a wise man.”

She inclines her head, pleasure sparking in her eyes. “As you say.”

A silence falls between them, and it’s far too comfortable, too nostalgic to let sit.

“I was, however, surprised about the devotion to children.” His fingers drum on the book’s cover, trying to cover his nerves. “The children are our future. Not something I had expected to see out of the Union.”

“They don’t give off that air of proud parents, do they?” Her mouth tilts with amusement. “It’s funny how you can be fooled by something like...”

She hesitates, and for a moment he sees her unsure, nearly nervous. “Haruka, we must -- we must talk about something else.”

He arches a brow. “Yes, Councilor?”

“No, not as -- not in our professional capacity.” She sends an uncertain glance toward the door. “I must talk to you in confidence.”

His heart pounds. He’s not -- he’s not ready for a conversation like this, for his suspicions to be confirmed when he is so far away, about to undertake a task with such importance.

“Of course,” he says even so, too eager. He will always be weak for her. “Whatever you need of me.”

She inches closer to the screen, until all he can see is her face, until all he can see is the worry in her eyes.

“There are rumors,” she breathes, eyes pleading, “that there is a member of the Federation incarcerated on that station.”

He blinks. Of all the things he thought she might tell him... “Terok Nor? It’s just a refinery station, convenient to get to, but not -- not a military installation.”

She nods. “That is what the Federation has heard as well. However, it also seems to have other...duties that it sees to, being so close to Bajor.”

He wouldn’t doubt it; from what he’d read, the Cardassians were pragmatic about such things. No need to ship pesky rebels far from home to torture them, not when an abattoir was in every home.

Haruka shakes his head. It wouldn’t do to think of them in unflattering hyperbole, not when he would be spending the next foreseeable forever ironing out an armistice everyone was eager to have, but reluctant to compromise for.

“I’m not sure what you think I can do,” he says instead. “Prisoners of war are not--”

“No, not a prisoner of war.” She raises a hand to brush back hair that has come loose, and he can see how it shakes. “It is a child.”

There might as well not be air in this runabout. A child. A Federation child. “I’m sure that can’t be true,” he hears himself saying. “Not when they revere children above all else--”

“Cardassian children.” There is something terrifying in her now, ruthless. “And what would you do to an enemy’s child, if you truly believed they were their future?”

He has never heard her be so forthright, so dire, but he cannot deny that her words make a frightening sort of sense. If each child was a priceless treasure to the Union, then to deny them to their enemies was --

Was unthinkable.

“Please, Haruka.” It has been so long since she’s spoken to him in that tone, since they stood outside the academy as she said, please understand. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but only -- only keep your ears open. I don’t know how accurate our intel is in Cardassian space but -- just in case.”

He lets out a long breath, but the tension in his chest stays, choking his lungs, his heart.

“What did I say, Haruto?” The name feels strange in his mouth, and it’s only then he realizes how long it has been since he’s said it, since it’s been safe to. “I will do whatever you need of me.”

#akagami no shirayukihime #snow white with the red hair #He Who Studies Evil #star trek AU #my fic #ans #this thing ended up being like...almost 10K long in the second draft #so it's been split up into nice bite sized pieces #that i'll post over the next few weeks #it is both haruka and obi backstory fic #and then Zakura and Sui came along for the ride #if you all aren't familiar with the reputation of the Cardassians #please be buckled up for some talk about torture #and occupation politics

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