#I like Cavendish between when they are just turning yellow and when they start to freckle

[rugessnome]

me, Saturday, buying three types of eating bananas bc suddenly Meijer just has that many?!: this will probably be too many bananas but fuck it I can just like... make banana bread Cavendish (modern standard issue banana), Wednesday: eaten up with the last banana today just starting to freckle with black and so nearly, but not quite, riper than I prefer manzano bananas, Wednesday: still yellow but not freckled with black the way (imo) they need to be to not be astringent. hopefully ready in a day or two baby bananas, Wednesday: remain dauntingly green?! I probably have eaten a Cavendish or two at this stage but they aren't quite pleasant yet and I really doubt the baby banana will be

[psychotecha]

Title: Once Forward, Twice Back Pairing: Kid x Law Prompt: 7. Taking a walk in the park with ice cream  AND 32. Soulmate AU where you sometimes dream about the day the other person had.  Warnings: Second part has a scene taking place in Flevance so violence and death there. Notes: Entry for one of the KidLaw Summer event put on by @kidlawevents.

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Kid looks over the small park from the parking lot with a scowl pulling his face into severe lines that make more than a few people skirt wide around him as he walks in. The day is nice, the heat that’s been sapping the life out of the world eased by a storm, and a stiff breeze countering anything that lingers. It’s got the place packed full of families with their screaming kids, which is annoying enough to kill off any part of him that might have been looking forward to this meeting.

It’d been a small thing to begin with anyway. Despite Kid usually enjoying sniping back and forth with Law, today’s meeting is all but guaranteed to suck.

Owing Trafalgar Law a favor is not a position that anyone wants to be in, and yet it’s one that many have found themselves in over the years because the bastard has an annoying habit of making himself useful. Given how long he’s known Law, Kid’s been pretty proud of the fact that he’s managed to not find himself on the wrong end of owing him anything.

Had been until last week when he found himself in a fucking stupid bind and had been desperate enough to trade anything to not only get out of it but also keep Law fucking silent about the whole thing. A blank check Kid’s been dreading having cashed in every day since. Something that Law has been milking with the kind of sadistic glee Kid usually likes seeing in the man. But only when it’s directed at someone else.

He should probably be grateful the shithead hadn’t drawn it out for a month, like he did with Drake in their last year of high school, before calling it in, but Kid’s never had much patience in him to begin with and the wait has been hellish.

Finding Law is easy. He’s wearing one of his dozen eye-searing yellow shirts that stands out among the crowd because they’re all long sleeved. Kid would bet anything the lanky ass wore them through the worst of the summer heat. Just to prove to the world that he can’t be bothered by it and no other reason. Which Kid can grudgingly respect.

His mood is hovering between foul and mean as he stomps up to find out what his fate will be. “Alright, I’m here now. What the fuck do you want?”

The last person to owe Law anything had been Cavendish, and the stuck up prick still hasn’t fully recovered from it enough to tell anyone about it. Kid’s not counting whatever the mess with Luffy had been as one, because the stupid fucker likely would have gone along with the insanity Law launched them both into without having to be forced to play along. So he’s expecting something big and outrageous when Law fixes him with a look.

“Buy me some ice cream,” Law demands with a smirk that no sane man would ever trust. Pushing himself off the tree he’d been leaning against to step next to Kid.

“Excuse me?” Kid eventually says when Law doesn’t blink or back down, just to verify his ears are still working at the inane request.

"You heard me, Eustass-ya," Law tilts his head back to fix Kid with a look that he can't read, but that makes him start to sweat a little despite the nice weather. "I want you to buy me some ice cream and walk with me for a bit. Does that sound doable to you or should I find something simpler?"

"Sounds like a date for middle schoolers," Kid scowls as his temper rises at the mocking words even as he tries to find the angle Law's taking. He's not seeing it but that's not unusual for the man.

"Then it's perfect considering I've been waiting since then for you to get a clue before coming to the depressing realization that if I don't beat you over the head with it you'll never do anything on your own," Law says, managing to somehow look amused and annoyed. He turns to the park and starts to walk addressing his last comment to the air around him. "If that's still too much for you there's plenty of slides we can push each other off of or whatever it is elementary kids do when they like like someone."

Kid chokes on a noise that wavers between rage and surprise. Neither wins out when Law glances over his shoulder, one brow raised in a silent question, and Kid follows the infuriating man to buy him some fucking ice cream.

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Kid’s never paid any attention to his dreams growing up. He has better things to focus on than some gross romance shit. He ignores all the stories and the other kids who talk about their dreams of their soulmate. It’s always boring things they talk about, seeing their soulmate’s hands doing chores or watching them take a walk. Stupid things like that. Nothing ever actually interesting or worth sharing.

Kid himself never dreams of anything. If his soulmate’s sharing their day with him they’re obviously the most boring person in the world. Nothing at all like Kid. He makes sure that he’s doing something interesting every day with Killer. Just to show how much better Kid is than some stranger. He’s got a real dream to chase down after all, and there’s no time for him to laze around doing nothing to prepare for it.

No time for him to worry about a soulmate who’s got no presence at all to talk about. Not a good quality for the soulmate of the future King of Pirates. Kid shrugs the whole soulmate thing off early in his life because it’s obviously a load of shit that he’s not going to allow to hold him back.

~

 There’s fire and screams everywhere. Bodies lay strewn about everywhere. Men, women, and children crumpled where they fell. Their blood staining the pretty white stones that make up the road as shots continue to ring out. Near, far, the sounds of violence and death assail their ears from every direction as the massacre continues.

They’re running. Dodging through streets that have become unfamiliar in the chaos as their heart pounds with a terror that doesn’t allow for any thought other than to get to safety, to get away, to go home. The uniform of the Marines blend in too well with the white washed city but they keep an eye out for the bit of blue or a muzzle flash to guide them away from clumps of them clogging the streets, and blocking all the paths out of the city. Stopping people from escaping. Because they are not trying to run away like so many of the bodies that pile up on the major roads it’s easy to avoid the worst of the Marines.

 Their eyes sting with tears, smoke, and the blood of a woman who hadn’t been quick enough to turn away from a street lined with Marines. The muscles of their legs burn and their lungs beg for rest but they don’t stop. They push on even as it gets harder to breathe because they’re close. The buildings are absolutely familiar even as some of them blacken and fall to the spreading fire.

 They push harder to round the corner, to dart through the gates of the fence that is never closed, and see for the first time what has happened to their home.

 Flames roar high and hot as the hospital is fully ablaze. Licks of fire lashing out through the broken windows and two bodies lay slumped against the busted door. The blood spattered white coats smoking as the fire escapes and starts to consume their parents too.

~

Kid wakes up. Throat sore from a scream he never made and face wet with tears he furiously rubs away. His hands shake even when he clenches them into fists and it takes a long time for his heart to stop trying to pound it’s way out of his chest. His window is still dark, the sky barely showing the first hint of dawn, but Kid doesn’t go back to sleep.

He’s scared –for the first time in his life– of what he might see when he closes his eyes. And he is right to be.

There’s nothing boring about the dreams that slam into Kid over the next few days. They’re the rarest kind of dreams too. Not the snippets of memory or vague feelings that most people get, but long dreams with all the senses involved so that there’s no way for Kid to escape seeing up close as a whole ass land gets slaughtered by the government.

Marines are all asses. Kid’s always known that, but there’s something different about watching them callously mow down entire groups of panicked people. Begging to be saved, to be spared, to be shown just a little mercy. There’s a practiced precision to it that Kid notices in pieces as his soulmate plays a dangerous game of keep away. Dodging from a ruined home to an overflowing sewer with a group of people that steadily gets smaller. There is no fighting the Marines killing them, every single one of the people they hunt down are too weak and scared to even try.

Kid hates it. He hates the Marines hypocrisy, he hates the scared mass of people, and he hates the useless feeling that lodges itself into his soulmate’s chest that sticks with Kid even after he’s awake and running around. Doing what he needs to do and glaring at the bored looking Marines that do a sloppy patrol of Kid’s village knowing that if they decided to turn on them now it’d be no different. Kid can count the number of people who can do more than just drunkenly throw a punch on his hands with fingers to spare. And half of those people are too old to be able to put up more than a show of a fight.

Kid cannot count himself among any of those people.

The helpless feeling is disgusting and he hates his soulmate for putting it in him. For making Kid see how very unprepared he is to fight an actual group of marines for real.

“We need to learn to fight,” Kid growls out to Killer who hasn’t asked once why Kid’s been so snappish lately. He can still see the mangled remains of the girl who had been dragged out, inches from his soulmate’s hiding spot, by the hair. Her flailing somewhat effective and that Kid knew would’ve been enough to make him really have to work to win in a fight. It hadn’t been enough to keep her from getting killed. “We need to get stronger.”

They need to get more than that, but Kid doesn’t really want to talk about it. It’s bad enough he has to deal with the shitty dreams at night. He’s not sure he can handle sharing it out loud. Even to Killer.

“Sure, Captain,” Killer agrees easily, Kid can see a flicker of eyes behind the curtain of hair as the boy pauses his wild swings with the stick he found earlier. “I can ask my cousin to teach us some things.”

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these both have a real chance of becoming longer so you might see them again.

[shintorikhazumi]

Two is company, Three's a Crowd, but Four is the Death of Diana Cavendish (4): Dumb and Dumbass

A/N: Sorry for not writing enough recently. Been burnt out and have some terrible writer’s block. Hope I can write quite a bit these next two weeks before classes start up again. Had my finals recently and just... ugh.

Sorry for the not-so-good chapter.

Right. Tagging people. Uh @komatsuna-yuki @dianacavendishisgay @tanuki-pyon. Thank you for supporting my madness.

Enjoy?

~Shintori Khazumi

Two is company, Three's a Crowd, but Four is the Death of Diana Cavendish (4): Dumb and Dumbass

"This is dumb."

"It is not! Right, Barbara?"

"This is dumb."

Diana switched her exasperated gaze between the pair who had their arms crossed, vehemently against her "step one" of  the plan: Proper Courtship for Miss Kagari Atsuko.

There was absolutely NO way they were doing that.

Hannah ran a hand through her curled locks, freeing it from her signature yellow bow as they got ready for bed. She tried to ignore Diana's pleading eyes, but ultimately could not. She took one look at Diana's helpless face and sighed, walking forward to pinch her nose and plant a kiss on her forehead.

Really, courtship wasn't the issue in and of itself. It was Diana's view of courtship. There were just too many things to be said about it.

Starting from the issue of daily sending a truckload of roses to Akko every morning.

Literally.

She lived in a DORMITORY for crying out loud!

How was she supposed to receive them, much less keep them around??

It wasn't as though she had the luxury of living in a flat a little too big for just its occupants- just like their own right now. Hannah sighed, giving Diana a look. She received an indignant one in return.

Physical constraints aside, how would Akko feel receiving such an overwhelming gift? She already exploded in embarrassment from the simplest of flirtations. Who knew what her reaction would be to such a grandiose gesture of affection?

Hannah concluded it would be best to keep it simple, walk it slow. Ease into the already shocking situation they'd kiiindd of threw her in.

Okay, but Hannah didn't desire anything too slow either. Just right. Enough that Akko wouldn't spontaneously combust beyond recovery.

Holding out a pointer finger, with the other arm crossed about her waist, Hannah warned, "I swear, if I see even one petal, we're not talking to you tomorrow. And we're taking Atsuko with us too".

"One petal?!" Diana gawked at her with such pure incredulity, Hannah wondered if she was really all that shocked.

The look on her face almost made Hannah reconsider. Almost. She thought about it again, pausing and tapping her cheek in contemplation.

"Okay."

Diana's face lit up in hope.

"Maybe I'll allow two."

Nope.

//

"Morning, Atsuko~."

Akko jumped in her seat as she felt cool arms snake around her neck from behind, a soft weight pressing against her back. The scent of honeysuckle permeated her sense of smell. It was fruity and warm; like hints of honey and ripe citrus on a summer's day. For some reason, it made her calm immediately.

Turning around, Akko tried to return the greeting. "M-Miss Engl-" A finger quickly hushed her lips, Hannah's coy smile settling in while Akko's heart became unsettled. She didn't think it was in a bad way.

"Hannah. Call me Hannah."

"Mi-"

Akko would have tried to gently deny that request, not being one to so quickly drop formalities as was her upbringing before coming to England. However, there was just something in Mis- Hannah's eyes that compelled her to not even try to fight against the command.

"Y-you can call me Akko then,, .I-if you want! Only... if you want... it's... it's what my friends call me...""  Akko mumbled in reply, voice growing smaller and smaller as she shyly pried her eyes away from the magnetic hazels that were so keen on pulling her in.

She had missed the way her companion grinned, leaning in closer to her, arms tightening about her. "Adorable." Hannah playfully whispered into Akko's ear, the tips reddening brightly.

'Save me.'

"Oh, but we don't want to be just 'friends'." Barbara suddenly popped up, positioning herself right in Akko's line of vision, propping her elbows on her desk, face nestling in her hands comfortably as she smirked at Akko with a little wink. "But you already know that."

She watched as Hannah and Barbara shared a quick, sweet kiss as a good morning greeting. Eyes glinting as they caught Akko watching them.

"Oh? Do you want a nice "hello~" as well, Akko? I wouldn't mind~." Barbara grinned, fingers tilting Akko's chin up already, eyes flickering between Akko's own and her lips.

Akko felt her face burn that extra bit more. She wasn't going to make it through class like this if they kept teasing her so early in the morning.

Barbara was beginning to lean closer and closer as Hannah simply watched from behind Akko, inadvertently keeping her in place due to their positions.

Akko swallowed nervously. Sure, she did not necessarily have any qualms against kissing someone as pretty as Barbara. Even Hannah maybe, but at the very least, she wanted to have her fi-first kiss with...

"Girls."

Diana's arrival shook Akko out of a trance she had unknowingly been placed under. She had somehow expected, at the back of her mind, for Diana to arrive soon as the trio was rarely apart except for when they had separate classes.

Akko felt her heart do a little flip in her ribcage, breath stilling in her lungs at the refreshing sight of Diana in a ponytail, a pale nape and a slender neck exposed for the world to see. A bead of sweat rolled down the smooth expanse. Had it been hot outside? Maybe. For some reason, Akko just wanted to lean into the crook of Diana's neck and maybe-

Diana's cough told her she'd been staring an uncomfortable while. Akko flinched, her hand instinctively reached up to touch her bangs, smoothing out each strand of hair nervously in attempts to redirect her thoughts- wherever they were heading.

This was neither the time nor place to be having such... inappropriate musings.

"Aww~ Diana's so lucky to be the favorite girlfriend~." Barbara said with a pout as she observed the awkward two, pulling away from her initial position on the desk and walking around to take a seat next to Akko instead, leaning her head on the girl's shoulder.

"Right?" Hannah sighed, finally releasing Akko as she went to sit next to Barbara. "We put in all this effort to fluster our dear Akko, but Diana just has to breathe and she has her heart and her soul. Oh Barbara~ whatever shall we do?" She sniffled, wiping away a non-existent tear with her index finger.

Akko stared at the pair, mind short-circuiting at a particular word.

Diana was silent as well.

Hannah and Barbara exchanged a confused look at the lack of reaction, as well as Diana's frozen state.

"Um... did we perhaps say something wrong?" Hannah began nervously, not wanting to possibly offend Akko or hurt her like they could have the last time.

Barbara bit her lip, equally anxious. "If so, then-"

"G-girlfriend?!" Diana and Akko had burst simultaneously, earning looks from the few early students around them.

Akko bowed in silent apology as she turned back to her companions.

"W-what do you... what are you...?"

"Huh?" Hannah and Barbara tilted their heads in confusion.

"Eh?"

"What?"

"G-Girlfriend...?" Diana repeated, vision swirling as her face reddened.

"Aahhh..." Hannah and Barbara got the message, nodding... before doing a double-take. "Wait, we're not? Girlfriends?"

//-//

Akko slammed her head onto her locker door right after shutting it. She shuffled her subject materials for the next class in her hands, trying to check if she missed bringing anything, sighing heavily all the while.

She was lucky her second class was away from everyone else's. That gave her some breathing room to recollect herself.

Hannah and Barbara were way* too skilled at riling her up. She had no idea how to deal with them. She was sure she wouldn't get used to their antics anytime soon. The whole situation with them spun her wheels around so well, it was actually tiring her out.

Then there was the matter of being g-girlfriends, and Diana.

Diana...

"Diana..." Akko's head banged against her metal door again with a clang, a few passing students casting her worried gazes. "What the hell..."

When was it, she wondered, that she had first taken notice of the incredibly gorgeous biology major. Diana with her clear blue eyes like the oceans and the sky at the peak of a beautiful summer; her hair that flowed down to her waist in flourishing curls; Diana and her sharp and classy style; Diana and her shapely body- Akko hit her head once more against the locker, groaning against the cool metal.

"What the hell am I thinking about?" She muttered, pushing herself away from her locker to get ready to head off to the next class. Maybe she should just keep her mind off of it for now, focus on what was in front of her, and deal with it later. When her head cooled down.

Yes. That was the perfect plan.

Before she could leave, however, a hand slapped against either side of her head, a the impact causing a ringing sound in her ears that only added to her headache. Her eyes that she had unconsciously shut fluttered open, widening at the sight that greeted her.

Oh, this was just great.

"Oh, I don't know, Kagari. What *were you thinking about? Hmm?" That familiar snarky tone of voice bit at her, a hand resting on her shoulder before pressing her into the hard metal.

"Chloe..." Her weak response coupled with a glare only made the perpetrator grin happily.

"Atsuko~ our cute little lackey." Short-haired and short-tempered towards Akko was Avery trailing behind the Frenchwoman- the actual lackey, Akko thought.

"Geh- Avery..."

"Glad you're happy to see us." She rolled her eyes, popping her bubblegum as she picked up a paper Akko had dropped in her surprise, flipping through its contents, bored. "Our lackey seems to have been doing good in school lately. Doing her homework and all. Guess you could do ours too?" She smiled that sickly sweet way that Akko loathed.

Akko's breath hitched when she made a little tear on the sheet just to spite her. Finnelan was surely going to chew her out again for a reason she couldn't explain.

Akko grit her teeth, truly wanting to retaliate physically, but then remembered that they weren't in high school anymore. These girls had no real power over her. Not then, not now. She needed to just ignore it and walk away. Really. Years and years of this, and they never got sick of it? Why did the universe allow them to apply to the same university anyway? Not that it mattered anymore.

Resigning herself to a -hopefully- more peaceful exit, Akko sighed, attempting to move Chloe's hand away with only enough force not to trigger her more. "I'm not your lackey." She said, kneeling to the ground to grab her other scattered materials.

"Aww, you're not?" Chloe whined, watching Akko like a hawk.

"I'm not." Akko replied, standing up and throwing them a blank look. "I have to go. See you."

"Leaving so soon?" Some girl she didn't know called after her, sneer evident in her tone. "Not gonna entertain us for a little longer?"

"Obviously." Akko responded, not looking back. She just needed to get the hell away as fast as possible and avoid any further interaction with them.

"Oh, then you wouldn't mind if we told the entire school about how you're always off to a strip club."

Akko halted in her steps, turning around to stare hatefully at the evil grin Chloe sported after knowing she got her way once more.

"Always, as in everyday?" Avery added, leading the group forward to surround Akko once more as other students avoided the potential mess in the hallway.

"What has that got to do with anything?" Akko grit her teeth, fists clenching "And I already told you... it's not what it looks like."

"Then why are you so scared, hmm? About word getting out?" Chloe tipped Akko's head up with her index finger, making her look directly into her eyes. "You know how they say that if you have nothing to hide, then there's nothing to be afraid of."

"That's-"

Akko swallowed the lump in her throat, searching her mind for a comeback to that without revealing too much about herself and giving these bullies more information to harass her with.

She had nothing.

They didn't like that she was quiet and had nothing to say.

She heard Chloe sigh before Akko's cheeks were squeezed together in her hands, nails digging into the flesh slightly. "Also, what was it? Your friend, uh... Lois or something."

"Lotte..." Akko corrected, barely managing the word out; she hoped they weren't planning on doing anything to her sweet friend. She could handle their insults, their disgusting behavior, and their petty tricks on her, but she couldn't stand it if her friends got hurt in her place instead.

"Whatever. Her." Akko slapped Chloe's hand away, earning her a pleased smile and a pat on the cheek. "There's the little tiger we love." She giggled, a glint in her eye.

Akko gripped her books in her hand, trying her best not to throw her fists right at them. The last time she had let her temper go, she was wrongly suspended anyway. She'd rather not have to live through the same sucky school experience again.

"So,"  Chloe continued. "you wouldn't want the entire school to read her disgusting work, right? Fanfiction? I can't remember it all that well. Couldn't stand to read that shit for more than five seconds." She made a gagging motion, tongue stuck out at Akko.

"Lotte... Lotte is amazing at writing..." She whispered, hoping they actually didn't hear those words. "Don't touch Lotte." She managed to say loud enough, raising her head to gaze upon them with a warning. It only seemed to fly over their heads as they all sashayed away from Akko, feeling like they'd won.

"Anyway, we'll keep your secrets for another day, Kagari." Chloe waved over her shoulder. "In exchange for our, ehem, considerate service, we expect cutlet sandwiches on each of our desks. Noon. Sharp." She commanded.

Akko, immediately recalling her class schedule for the day, wanted to protest. "But my class doesn't get out until-"

"Is that a no I'm hearing?" The group paused in their steps, all pinning Akko down with their looks of contempt, daring her to say anything besides their desired response.

Her fists trembled, knuckles as white as her torn assignment paper. She felt the quiver in her lip and the tension in her frame as she held back from screaming bloody murder.

"... I'll get you your damned sandwiches."

//-//-//

"Akko! What took you so long!" Akko's friend, Lotte, worriedly asked. "Finnelan usually comes in really early. You could have been in some major trouble!"

"Maybe she just got lost in the cafeteria again? Among all the donuts and pastries." Sucy drily replied, not looking up from her textbook.

Akko kept staring at her torn paper in dismay, pondering if she should risk it and start rewriting a new one, hopefully finishing before the professor arrived.

The lack of response only fed Lotte's concern even more. She squeezed Akko's shoulder to catch her attention and noticed her friend flinch.

"Akko?"

"H-huh? Oh! What? So-sorry. I was... I dropped my phone in the toilet, haha." Akko said, not looking at her friend at all as she dug around her bag for a pen and hoping for a clean sheet of paper as well.

"Wait, what? Is your phone okay?" Lotte asked, skeptically watching her friend's frantic movements.

"Yeah, yeah." Akko replied half-heartedly.

Lotte frowned, feeling that Akko was still hiding something. "What happened to your assignment?" She questioned, noticing the crumpled and torn edge. A thought came to her mind. "Was it them?" She asked in a quieter voice. "What did they say? Did they hurt you?" Lotte scanned over Akko's features, pupils shaking. They settled on her face and Lotte's frown deepened. "You're cheek..." She reached out, trying to touch it.

"Huh? N-no? It was... the school... cat...?" Akko tried lamely, moving away from Lotte. She instantly felt bad about it as Lotte sported a hurt expression in response to her actions.

"Akko..."

Akko finally faced Lotte, guilt on her features. She was never really good at masking her feelings from her friend. She could never lie to her. They both knew that.

"What was it about this time?"

Akko bit her lip. Despite how close they had gotten over the years as friends, Akko hadn't revealed too much to them about her background. She wasn't sure she was ready to either. Not anytime soon. She also couldn't find the heart to let Lotte know that part of it was about her.

"Just that I'm a dumbass, and the other typical stuff, y'know? Appearances and that kinda thing." She lied.

"Hmmm..." Lotte was clearly not convinced, but she let it go, knowing Akko wouldn't budge on things like this. She instead decided to  settle down in her seat next to Akko.

Akko knew Lotte wouldn't pry anymore. She was both thankful and sorry for having to do this to her friend, but she really couldn't help it.

Akko sighed, clicking her pen open.

"Want me to poison their lunch today?" Sucy piped up, flashing Akko a vial from her bag.

As much as Akko wanted to say yes, she knew it could only make things worse and reluctantly declined. "Maybe in my dreams." She smiled at her friends weakly, finally turning to her fresh sheet of paper to begin copying her assignment.

She missed the shine in Sucy's eye and the grin that was starting to grow on her face. Akko only looked up in terror as she heard the words that spilled from Sucy's mouth, hoping she wouldn't go through with any funny business.

"That can be arranged."

Akko felt a shiver run up her spine, whipping her head back to her paper to avoid that scary expression.

"Let's just... not."

"Tch. You're no fun."

Maybe she really wasn't.

A/N: I would have made this longer and added one more scene, but my brain cells can’t. Sorry haha. ;-; Really sorry. 

~Shintori Khazumi

[autumnwoodsdreamer]

Photographs (August 2168)

.....

Characters: Balthazar Cavendish, Vinnie Dakota, Savannah (mentioned)

Rating: G

Words: 2302

Genre: Friendship

Summary: On their first day (officially) working together, Cavendish starts to realize there’s more to Dakota than meets the eye...

.....

Balthazar Cavendish had only met Vinnie Dakota twice so far: first when he rudely barged into his student time vehicle and then the next day when fate twisted again and assigned them as partners.

It had been a week since that whole incident and today they were to receive their first (official) assignment. Vinnie suggested they carpool and drive over to the Bureau together; still nursing the bruises from the last time he was relegated to the passenger seat, Balthazar insisted he would drive.

Vinnie lived clear on the other side of the city—a 20 minute drive from Balthazar’s apartment near the east hills (well, 20 minutes by airway, but closer to 30 if traffic forced him to travel by road, as it did today). Although the prospect of a lengthy commute annoyed him, he supposed the distance could be a good thing as it lessened the likelihood of them running into each other outside of work.

As he drove, he found his spirits caught in a strange mix of both burning optimism and ice-cold dread. While he couldn’t deny that saving the day and working with a partner had been extremely exciting, that element of unpredictability still bothered him.

He didn’t like things he couldn’t control; he never had. The high regard he held for order and precision had enabled him to play piano with astounding technical accuracy and to learn and practise law with a keen certainty. When he had first shifted his attention to studying time travel, he was sure his eye for detail and reverence for rules would make him a fine agent; now, in light of recent events, he couldn’t help but wonder if it would be enough...

He reached the address Vinnie had described over the phone and decided it would be best to pack his niggling doubts away in a proverbial box and leave it on a very high shelf for the time being.

He parked on the street, got out the car, straightened his attire, and paused for a moment to take in the scene. This part of town was built well over a century ago and the majority of its inhabitants occupied that odd but plentiful bracket of the lower end of middle class. Vinnie’s apartment building stood in a row of similar, blockish structures, all of which boasted bare bricks and wrought iron fire escapes and stood somewhere between eight and twelve storeys high. Altogether, it seemed a pleasant neighbourhood but Balthazar thought it better suited to struggling artists or the blue-collar crowd rather than a Time Agent.

He found and rang the bell for the apartment listed under Vinnie Dakota. Enough time passed that he considered ringing again when the intercom crackled on and a tired voice greeted him.

“What’s up, chicken butt?”

“I beg your pardon?!”

“Oh, hey!” Vinnie exclaimed. “Mr Banana! How ya doin’?”

“It’s Cavendish,” Balthazar corrected, icily.

“Oh, right. Cavendish, banana—eh, that’s just how my mind works. Sorry. Hang on, I’ll buzz you in.”

“I can just wait out h—” he began but the intercom clicked off and the door unlocked before he could finish. With a resigned sigh, he entered the building.

He took the elevator to the seventh floor, then it was “just down the hall, take the first left, and it’s the third door to your right. Ya can’t miss it.” Well, Vinnie had been right about that: it was the only door covered in stickers.

“My friend went to Hawaii and all he got me was this lousy sticker,” lamented a disproportionate pineapple wearing sunglasses and surfing a wave. Another portrayed the Eiffel Tower with a moustache and a beret bidding “Bon voyage!” A variety of stickers brought greetings from Italy, Tokyo, Cape Town, Sydney, and other capital cities around the world (most with their old names no one used anymore, Balthazar noted). Dotted about the place were depictions of random objects like a ukulele and some kind of car, some were types of food like pizza and kebabs, but he couldn’t miss the fact that most were cartoonish caricatures of extinct creatures he had only seen pictures of in textbooks.

Distracted by the odd collage, Balthazar jumped back when the door opened without warning.

“C’mon in, Stretch,” Vinnie beckoned, bringing his hand up to just barely cover a loud yawn as he stepped aside to allow his guest in. “Make yourself at home; I’ll be with you as soon as I find my jacket.”

Balthazar glanced over his new partner’s attire and pointedly cleared his throat.

Vinnie closed the door behind them and turned around, frowning in confusion when he caught sight of the other man’s disapproving expression. He looked down and only then seemed to register that he was only wearing a faded T-shirt and boxers. “Oh. And my pants. Probably need those, too.”

Balthazar crossed his arms. “You should be dressed by now. This is highly unprofessional.”

“Hey! I am dressed!” Vinnie protested. “Just not for work. And, in the future, if you’re gonna get all high and mighty, the least you could do is warn a guy when you’re gonna be a whole hour early!”

“I am not—!” Balthazar began but cut himself off when he caught sight of an analog clock on a bookshelf. In preparing to travel to the past, he had had to learn to read those: both hands pointing down meant 6:30.

He consulted his own watch and his face went red. “Oh, blast it!” he muttered, hotly, as he started fiddling with the settings. “I forgot I had this infernal contraption set an hour ahead!”

“What? You on daylight savings time or something?”

“Pardon?”

“Daylight sa—never mind. It was a thing over a century ago.”

“I set it an hour ahead last week because of my driving test,” Balthazar explained, trying not to sound too sheepish.

Vinnie raised an eyebrow, his expression suddenly turning as serious as it had been when he saw those kids in danger. “Are you that bad at keeping time?”

He quickly shook his head. “Hardly ever; I just really didn’t want to chance being even the slightest bit late for my final exam.”

“You know there’s such a thing as too early, right?”

“I don’t believe so; no.”

There was a moment wherein he thought Vinnie was going to argue the point, but he just shrugged and waved a dismissive hand. “Like I said: make yourself at home, I’ll just be a few minutes,” he said and peeled away.

Balthazar intended to remain in the one spot; he had finished resetting his watch but still felt like a complete idiot and didn’t want to risk any further gaffes. But his curiosity got the better of him and he soon found himself wandering (well, he did have permission...)

He had to admit he held a few preconceived ideas of what the home of Vinnie Dakota might look like. He’d only met the man briefly, but he seemed rather committed to his reckless, blasé attitude and he could only imagine such a person living in a slovenly, malodorous nest.

That was not the case.

The apartment was small and cramped and cluttered, but it wasn’t dirty. There was a strong, unusual smell hanging in the air; although Balthazar couldn’t identify it, it wasn’t all that unpleasant—actually, it reminded him of those old-fashioned restaurants he used to play piano in.

The bookshelf he noticed earlier caught his eye again; this time, he took note of the colourful array of books stacked and lined on the shelves as well as the diverse collection of trinkets, souvenirs, and gadgets. The objects were displayed with little rhyme or reason regarding their order: snow-globes of all kinds and shapes mingled amongst Chinese fans and Russian nesting dolls and defunct devices such as a camcorder, a dial telephone, and a zoetrope. Balthazar didn’t fail to notice that, although most of those things would be considered antiques, they were all in fairly new condition.

After a few minutes, he took a step back and his attention quickly shifted from the bookshelf to the hundreds of photographs in mismatched frames covering the walls, so much so that one could barely glimpse the bright yellow wallpaper beneath. The quality of the photographs varied from grainy, black and white to slightly washed-out, sepia tone to clear and vibrantly coloured.

Balthazar knew his new partner had been a Time Agent for a while already; it was the Bureau’s policy to pair new recruits with full-fledged agents. But knowing this man had already been on missions throughout time and actually seeing snapshots of that career were two very different things.

Quite a few of the photographs showcased places and buildings in different time periods, positioned side by side to highlight the changes through the years; a number featured archaic machines and devices, and more of those extinct creatures (except this time they were real, not just cartoonish representations); but, most notably, the majority of the photographs were candid shots of people.

After casually examining the photos for a few minutes, Balthazar began to register a few recurrent faces. The most notable subject was a young man with olive skin, dark hair, and a short but lean frame; always wearing tinted shades of some sort, always caught in the middle of a laugh or striking a silly pose—without the wild shock of curls, it took him quite a while to identify him as a younger Vinnie. Often pictured alongside him either mirroring the silly pose or with his hand on his shoulder was a much taller, older man with dark blue hair and weathered skin; if it weren’t for the fact they lacked any physical similarity, Balthazar would’ve assumed the man was Vinnie’s father. Wherever the older man was absent, a young woman with a dark, flawless complexion and glossy, violet hair took his place—there were hardly any instances of her smiling and she didn’t seem to care for Vinnie’s antics at all but she must not have completely disliked him as there was one photo of her curled up and asleep in the backseat of a Time Vehicle with her head resting on his shoulder.

There was only one photograph with all three of them. It seemed to be after a mission of some sort. They all looked dog-tired, covered in bruises and dirt, but they still managed smiles for the camera, holding their heads up even as they leaned on each other for support. The muted colouring of the photograph suggested it had been taken somewhere around the mid-1900’s but Balthazar hadn’t honed his skills enough to pinpoint precisely when. Most of interest was a small note accompanying the photograph in the frame; it was just a scrap of paper, presumably torn from a cheap notebook and not at all remarkable save for the short message scrawled on it:

To Vinnie and Silvia,

Count every moment and make every moment count,

Emit Relevart

The Hot War Mission (1964 / 2164)

“‘Hot War’?” Balthazar read aloud, his face crumpling in confusion. “What the deuce is—?”

“It’s everything the Cold War wasn’t.”

Balthazar gasped and jumped backwards, a hand flying up to clutch his chest. “Kidney pie and chips!” he exclaimed. “Don’t do that!”

A now more appropriately dressed Vinnie gave him a sideways glance. “Well, that’s one way to keep it PG,” he remarked with an utterly infuriating bemused smirk. He let out a soft huff of a laugh and gave a small shake of his head as he returned his gaze to the photograph.

Balthazar opened his mouth, ready to say quite a few things—such as “What does ‘PG’ mean?” and “Don’t sneak up on people!”—but the words stopped in his throat.

Something flashed across Vinnie’s expression, something even the bulky sunglasses with their vibrant tint couldn’t hide; it was only there for the briefest of moments but Balthazar didn’t miss it. He’d seen it before, on the faces of complete strangers who gathered whenever he played an old, slow melody on the piano in the middle of the city square.

He turned his attention back to the picture one last time. He couldn’t quite determine if it was the people or the referenced occasion, but he got the sense this was an important piece of Vinnie. He made it a point to commit the little message to memory—what it would accomplish, well, he wasn’t so sure in that regard, but it felt too significant to miss.

Vinnie cleared his throat; the sound was abrupt but Balthazar was aware of his surroundings enough this time around not to jump again. “So,” he said, his smile and easy demeanour returning in a flash, “seeing as we have a whole hour to kill, how’s about we get some breakfast?”

Balthazar crossed his arms and put on a glare that was only half-strength. “I hope you’re not planning to kidnap me and drag me to the early 2000’s just for omelettes.”

He seemed to consider that for a second before shaking his head. “I can’t think of any good places for omelettes... not in the 2000’s, anyway. Nah, I was just gonna make something.” He whirled around and headed for the kitchen. “You like pancakes?”

“You actually know how to cook?”

Vinnie shrugged. “Eh, I picked up a few things here and there. It comes in handy when you travel to time periods that don’t have auto-preppers.”

“And yet you still felt it necessary to hijack my Time Vehicle and travel back over a century just to get lunch?” Balthazar raised an eyebrow.

Vinnie shot his new partner a lopsided smirk. “You’re not gonna let that one go, are you, Stretch?”

[skywardsoul]

Dianakko Week 2019!

Day 1: Star-crossed Lovers/Soulmates!

@dianakko-week is finally here, and this year, I’m throwing my hat back into the ring and participating again! Hope you all enjoy my submission for day 1 and look forward to the rest of the week! 

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20391742/chapters/48365332

Read on FF.Net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13372417/1/Dianakko-Week-2019

“Don’t worry Diana! Astrology is one of my best subjects! With your help, we’ll be done with this project in a jiffy!”

Luna Nova’s prodigy offered a giggle and a playful roll of the eyes in response to Akko’s loud boasting. Professor Du Nord had assigned them the task of studying various forms of divination spells and writing up a report detailing their results. Honestly Diana had intended on completing the project by herself but that all changed when her professor announced they could work in pairs. It must have been mere seconds before Akko had raced over to her seat, sparkles in her eyes. Of course there was no way Diana was going to say no after that. Besides, Akko had become rather diligent in her studies as of late, and Diana found the two of the actually worked quite well together.  

She recalled a few of her classmates being rather stunned when she so readily accepted. In a way she couldn’t blame them. Afterall, her close friendship with Akko was more of a recent development. Once the noir missile crisis was over, things changed between the two young witches. It’s amazing how easily one gets to trust another once they've stopped a world ending threat together. As frightening as the event was, Diana guessed she owed it a level of thanks. Her friendship with Akko had become rather important to her, and she wouldn’t have it, at least not as easily, were it not for impending doom.

What was that saying? The strongest bonds were born out of turmoil? It was something to that degree, but Diana couldn’t quite remember it. A Diana of the past might have been annoyed by that, but if the Diana of now had learned something from her brunette friend, it was that sometimes it was okay to not sweat the small stuff. The excitable witch in question walked happily alongside her as the two continued on their way back to her dorm. They had gone to borrow several needed astrology texts from the library, as well as some supplies from their professor. 

“I really need to remember to buy a new scrying mirror,” Diana thought off handily to herself.

Eventually they reached the blue team’s dorm, and Diana opened the door for her friend.

“After you, Akko,” Diana said with a smile.

“Why thank you my lady Cavendish,” Akko said, with an exaggerated posh accent. “How very gentlewomanly of you.”

For some reason, Diana felt something in her chest tighten as Akko said ‘my lady Cavendish.’ Figuring it was best to ignore that for the time being, Diana enter the room after Akko, and quietly closed the door behind her. As she turned around to face the room proper, the sight that greeted her didn’t surprise her in the least. She had to suppress a giggle as Akko threw herself onto her couch with an exaggerated sigh. Thankfully Akko had the sense to set down the many books she was carrying before doing so.

“You know Akko, I may only be a student like yourself, but that doesn’t look like working on our project to me,” Diana teased as she sat opposite of her sprawled out friend. 

“Well yeah, we just got out of class Diana! It’s the weekend! We should take a bit of break first!” Akko argued.

“Akko, classes let out more than an hour ago.”

“Okay but we went to the library and to Chariot’s office right after. Still totally felt like we were working.”

“What happened to finishing this project in a jiffy?”

Akko rolled over onto her stomach and turned her head towards Diana.

“We will! Which is why we have time to relax!” Akko said with a bit of smugness. This time, Diana couldn’t suppress the laugh she felt bubbling up. Only Akko could find such logic so sound.

“Counterpoint,” Diana said. “If we complete the assignment now, won’t we have more time to relax later?”

Akko let out another exaggerated groan but conceded Diana’s point. “Yeah I know. But you’re buying us icecream later!”

“Deal,” Diana said, satisfied. Forget all her debate training. Winning an argument with Atsuko Kagari was all Diana needed to prove she was a master of words.

As Diana got to work opening books and laying out things to write notes with, Akko sat up and lightly smacked her cheeks in an attempt to get into her, “focused mode,” as she had once put it.

“Alrighty! I'm ready to work!” Akko declared confidently. “What, uh, should I do first?” her early confidence sure didn’t last. Diana raised an eyebrow at her friend. She had a sneaking suspicion about something.

“Akko, you are aware of what we have to do for this project, right?”

Akko let out an awkward cough and suddenly found the wall of the room quite interesting.

“Of course I do,” she said somewhat indignantly. 

Suspicion confirmed. Akko had no idea. Diana figured she probably only tuned into Professor Du Nord’s words the second she said ‘partner up,’ and hadn’t heard much else. Diana found that she didn’t care all that much though. That just meant Akko was excited to have her as a partner in this didn’t it? That she was excited to spend more time with her. The tightness in her chest from earlier returned. Thankfully, Akko shook her from her thoughts before she could ponder on it.

“If did need a refresher though, which I don’t! What were we supposed to do again?” Akko said sheepishly, turning back to face Diana.

Figuring that was about as much pride she was gonna get Akko to swallow, she took out her notes from class.

“Professor Du Nord has instructed us to select three different divination rituals and record our findings once we’ve properly conducted them,” Diana explained.

Akko tilted her head slightly in confusion. “Wait a minute. Don’t we need stars to do that?”

Diana shook her head. “While many astrological divinations do require observation of the patterns of the stars, there are several that do not.”

Flipping through one of the books they borrowed, Diana stopped on a page and turned the book towards Akko. “Palm reading, for example, uses the natural lines of one's hand in combination with magic to predict certain things about their future life.”

Akko had begun reading the book Diana had handed her, but snapped her attention up the second she heard Diana say “future.”

“Woah! Can you really tell someone’s future? I thought divinations, was more like, suggestions of destiny and stuff. Like the one we practiced in class.” Akko asked.

“Well you are correct in a sense. No divination can one hundred percent tell someone's future, but the more powerful the spell, and the more concrete the ritual is, the more certain one can be. Star-scrying is on the lower end of the spectrum in this sense,” Diana explained.

Akko sure seemed eager to try out a divination now. “Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s tell some futures!!”

And with that the two launched into their assignment. It wasn’t a terribly difficult one, so they were making good progress. It seemed that Akko’s early boast of “finishing in a jiffy,” was looking to be a reality. The most time consuming part of the project, if anything was the setting up of each ritual. Diana had tried to steer them clear of any particularly difficult and powerful spells, but even the midrange ones required a fair bit of precise preparation. Still, one palm reading and one water gazing later and the two witches were close to wrapping up their assignment. Akko had gone back to laying down on the couch, her feet kicking in the air idly as she thumbed through a book on plant divnations, looking for their last target. Diana was looking through a larger, much older tome. This one seemed quite focused on soul divination, reading one’s very magical energy to obtain a glance at the future. The concept was intriguing for sure, but most of the spells in the book were very high level. Most of these could only be done by a heavily accomplished astrologer. Professor Du Nord herself might even struggle with some.

As she flipped through the book however, something caught her eye. She hadn’t really meant to linger on the page for as long as she did, but something about it gave her pause. Written in thin cursive letters at the top of the yellowing page was the words, “Amor Meam: discovering one’s soulmate.”

The spell apparently required little to no actual set up surprisingly. That being said, it did require a high level of soul bending ability. For the spell to work the caster had to practically connect themselves to the world’s leylines. When it was successfully done, it would allow the caster to sense others magical energies. Which ever one felt the strongest to them, no matter how far away that energy was, was said to be their destined love. It was certainly an...interesting prospect, but surely not one Diana had any need for, right? As she thought this, she found herself looking up at Akko. The heart started to race with a vengeance. Quickly Diana turned her gaze back to the book. Nope, this spell was not useful to her at all. Besides, it was probably too difficult. It was best to turn close the book and simply forget-

“Woah!” Came Akko’s voice, suddenly from over Diana’s shoulder.

Diana felt her heart leap into her throat as she turned around startled.

“Akko! Wh-what, where...when did you!?” Diana stuttered uselessly, a crimson blush beginning to paint her face.

Akko, to her credit, seemed to make sense of her startled friend’s babbling. “You were reading really intenly a few seconds ago, so I wanted to see what about.”

An excited sparkle entered Akko’s eye as she picked up the book that Diana now realized she had flung in her panic.

“Can this spell really tell you your soulmate? That’s so cool!!” Akko squealed a bit excitedly before turning back to face Diana. She knew exactly what her friend was about to say. “Diana! We gotta try it!”

Thankfully Diana had a bit of time to recompose herself, and was ready with an answer. “I’m afraid that wouldn’t be a very good idea Akko,” She tried to ignore the deflated expression on the Japanese girl’s face. “It’s a very high level spell. One that I’m not even confident I could pull off.”

Akko however, wasn’t going down without a fight. “Oh come on Diana! You’re the best witch in our grade, hell probably the whole school! If anyone can pull it off it’s you!”

“I don’t know Akko. Soul bending is rather tricky, it’s-”

“Please Diana! Can’t we at least try? Don’t you want to know about your soulmate? Isn’t that like, super romantic??”

Diana knew she had lost this argument as Akko affixed her with her best puppy dog eyes. There was no way in hell Diana was going to fill those eyes with disappointment. Damn. What had she said earlier? That she could win an argument with Atsuko Kagari? Ha! What a joke. With a resigned sigh Diana took the book from Akko’s hands and laid it on the table in front of her.

“I suppose it couldn't hurt to try,” Diana relented. “I could use the soul bending practice anyhow.”

“Yay! Thank you so much Diana!” Akko cheered. “What should I do?”

“This doesn’t really require more than one person, so feel free to sit quietly and wait,” Diana said. Despite her current nervousness, a bit of playfulness made its way into her voice.

It was weird to think about, the fact that she was nervous. What was she? Did she not want to mess up the soul bending? No, that couldn’t be it. This particular spell was fairly harmless. Messing it up wasn’t dangerous in the least. Did she not want to disappoint Akko. No that wasn’t it either, but Akko did seem to be at the center of it. Why did she immediately look to Akko the second she read what the spell did? Maybe she wanted Akko to ask her about it? Maybe, deep down she wanted to try it too.

Whatever the reason for its cause, Diana couldn’t afford to focus on being nervous right now. Soul bending required a large amount of concentration. Slowly, Diana took a deep breath and drew her wand. As she felt her breathing even out and her inner energy grow stable, Diana brought her wand in front of her face and spoke at a near deathly quiet,

“Amor Meam.”

The sensation the followed was strange, but not unpleasant. Diana had done some low level soul bending before, so the feeling wasn’t entirely alien to her. It felt a bit like a warm hug. Once she got a hold of her own magical energy, the tricky part came next. Now she had to connect it to a leyline. Thankfully the was one fairly close to Luna Nova. Slowly Diana felt for it, searching for the surge of magical energy she knew she would feel once she found it. For a few minutes, Diana thought she had failed, and that she wasn’t a strong enough soul bender to seek it out. All of a sudden, however, she found it.

If manipulating your own magical energy felt like a warm hug, then connecting it to a leyline was like stepping into a heated room after having been out in the cold. The world’s magic surged through Diana’s body and in that instant, she knew. She had actually pulled the spell off! Slowly, Diana opened her eyes.

For a split second, Diana feared that she somehow blinded herself. A powerful, white light shone in her eyes, blocking out nearly everything else from her vision. What was that? She soon got her answer. Gradually, the glow began to fade, and as Diana regained more and more of her vision, she realized it’s source: Akko. The brunette witch eagerly watched Diana, her fist clenched in anticipation as the glow of her magical energy slowly subsided. Immediately the text of the book played back in Diana’s mind.

“Who’s ever magical energy glowed the brightest was the caster’s one, true, soulmate.”

“Well!?” Akko asked suddenly, ripping Diana back to reality. “Did it work!? What did you see?”

In that moment, Diana had no earthly idea how she managed to put up a semi-normal facade.

“No, Akko. It, uh didn’t. I didn’t see anything,” Diana said.

“Whaaat? Aww man!” Akko said with a pout, crossing her arms in disappointment. “Guess you were right Diana. That spell was too tricky.”

“Yes. Quite. Let’s find another one, shall we?”

“Yes ma’am!” Akko said, turning back to her book.

She took no notice of how hard Diana’s heart was pounding, or how flushed her face was becoming. 

[neverwatchedonepiece]

648-649: "Making a Sortie! The Legendary Hero Usoland!" and "The Fierce Battle Coming to the End! Lucy vs Chinjao!"

*looks into the camera like in The Office*

The fight between Luffy and Don Chinjao is finally over! I think after what happened, Luffy might have found a new friend. Law also made a stressful phone call to The Krusty Krab Sunny and ordered delivery of one ship to Green Bit.

Zoro and Franky have teamed up with Sol at Resistance HQ in Flower Field, and if Usopp keeps perpetuating his fantastic bullshit, the entire Strawhat crew will be elevated to God status in the Tontatta tribe.

Slightly worried about Law and the Strawhats stuck on Sunny but I’m seventy percent certain they will pull through and won’t be captured by any Donquixote family affiliates. (The thirty percent left over remains a huge, nagging doubt.)

Luffy’s Tough Love Fight Therapy

The Colosseum showdown between Luffy and Don Chinjao picked up at the start of episode 649.

The action was fast and furious. Luffy pulled out all his quick moves: jet pistol, jet gatling, jet stamp gatling. All defended against by Chinjao. The crowd went wild. It was one of the greatest matches the Colosseum had ever seen! Some cheered for Lucy. Others cheered for Chinjao. The atmosphere was electric.

“You’re quite a fighter,” Don Chinjao said.

“Yeah, you’re strong too, as I thought,” Luffy answered. You know. Being honest as he is.

Don Chinjao totally overreacted. “WHAT U SAY? STRONG? U TRYIN TO INSULT MEH??”

Luffy was, quite rightly, bewildered. “Wtf, all I said was that you’re strong?”

Apparently, this was a grave insult to Don Chinjao. A huge kick in the ego. Chinjao had been much stronger before.

“I’m no better than a wolf without its fangs now. A skin-headed man without his drill. A brat like you can’t understand how miserable I feel living my life like this. I’m frustrated, disappointed and sad. But you can never understand.”

I laughed when Luffy yelled, “How can I understand? You keep messing with me without explaining anything!” (He’s just saying what we were all thinking, right?)

“You really want to know why I’ve become like this?”

“No, I’m not that interested.” (Lmao! We meet again, harsh Luffy.)

“Well, I’ll tell you before you die, since you insist.” 

Don Chinjao is one of those old dudes that is TELLING you that long and rambling story even though you have showed zero interest and have been glancing at your watch for the past half hour.

Suddenly, Luffy the Fight Therapist was unwilling and open for business.

According to Chinjao, Garp punched his head in thirty years ago. Literally. As in Don Chinjao once looked like Dan Akroyd from 90s sci-fi comedy, Coneheads. 

That was until his resplendent, pointy napper met Garp’s fist.

The whole flashback was hilariously weird. Turns out Chinjao’s drill-like bonce was the only means to access his remote family treasure vault under an ice sheet. Once Garp took away the key, Chinjao fell into a deep depression. Heartbroken, he retired from piracy, a lifeless shell, just idling away time.

That was kind of sad. I felt for Chinjao then. He’s like the model of the old, proud working man who suffers a physical injury, can no longer work and slips into anger and depression. Since Chinjao knows and values nothing but strength, wealth and power, he cannot and will not see another way forward. Unlike Luffy, Don Chinjao got his ass beat and never found the strength to crawl out of the gutter and retrain.

Instead, he decided to lay the blame for his misfortune squarely at Luffy’s feet.

Luffy, naturally, was outraged. “Wtf are you talking about? Grandpa and I are different people. Look, mate. I’m busy. I’m gonna win Ace’s fruit at any cost and become the Pirate King. I have no time to be your therapist.”

Then Chinjao made two Big Mistakes.

Wow, Chinjao has Really Specific Taste

Mistake #1?

Chinjao laughed off Luffy’s chances at becoming Pirate King. The reason was typical crotchety old man talk: “the media lionised you worst generation squirts and it emboldened you. But none of you are strong enough to sail across the sea *we* fought on. After Whitebeard’s death, I ain’t expecting much. The only guy who looks good is Blackbeard Teach.”

At the mere mention of Teach, Luffy’s eyes became two circles.

“If I had to pick one, it’s him. But anyway, if you’re only good enough to compete against me, just give up!”

Oh, Chinjao, I thought. Ohhhhhhhh, you just goofed. You goofed big time. You do not mention Teach in a positive light within Luffy’s earshot. You just do not. Teach was the asshole who captured Ace and handed him to the Marines. He shares Public Enemy Number One status with Akainu. Tell Luffy you believe Teach will become Pirate King and your fate is sealed.

Mistake #2?

Chinjao’s fighting style is kinda lame. People who spin during fights in shounen anime are always fodder (the one that sticks out is that spinning top guy in the HxH Heaven’s Arena arc.) This was not his mistake. It’s just a side thought.

The Teach comment pushed Luffy’s buttons. But what Chinjao said next was even worse.

“You’re not too bad but if a guy like Rayleigh chose a brat at this level as the flag bearer for this generation, he’s not as smart as he used to be. The Marines were smart when they squelched the most evil one of the lot: Ace. That man had demon’s blood in his veins. Do you think you can beat the Marine admirals, the Yonkou and surpass Roger? That’s impossible!”

Demon’s blood? Most evil one of the lot?

*cue Kill Bill red-mist music*

“Stop whining over one punch!” Luffy yelled, as he wound up a Thor Elephant Gun attack. “I can’t count how many times I got punched by Grandpa!”

When the attack connected and that spike popped back out of Chinjao’s head, I laughed like a drain. Luffy hit Chinjao so hard, he turned the clock back thirty years.

I’m sure Chinjao will be ecstatic. Take the L with good grace, mate. Your conehead is back! Go and wreak havoc on the high seas again. Recoup that treasure. The world is your oyster!

Up on the balcony, Bartolomeo still has not revealed his connection with Luffy. Cavendish is still throwing a strop. Bellamy is lurking in the shadows, clearly in two minds about his new assassination mission. And Burgess, thanks to Cavendish and his big mouth, knows that Luffy is Lucy.

Thanks, Cavendish.

(And Burgess really does walk around chortling and flexing all the time. He’s like an evil All Might.)

Thus the Legendary Heroes of Green Bit were Born

This cast reunion based on Usopp’s total bullshit was so much fun.

I loved Usopp and Robin’s expressions when the Tontatta took them to their airport. They were starry-eyed. And so they should’ve been. It was a miniature version of a proper, fully-equipped modern airport. I wouldn’t be surprised if the place had Duty Free, passport control and Starbucks concessions.

But it was not a holiday destination Usopp and Robin were flying out to. The entire airport had been overtaken by a military operation. Cub, the yellow bee squad leader, and Bian, the pink bee squad leader, reported for duty. Usopp picked up the bee planes and kept saying, “I wanna show this to Luffy.” (They are such good pals, it warms my heart.)

Unfortunately, Usopp and Robin were too big to travel by bee plane, so they had to take the local number 20 bus to Dressrosa. The buses were cute, vulpix-like foxes with huge, fluffy tails you can sink right into for a comfortable ride.

While they made their way through the tunnel, Master Roshi - the pervy little Tontatta chief - emerged from Robin’s cleavage. He bore dire warnings. “I should tell you because you will risk your lives for our cause.”

Usopp was thinking, “I ain’t gonna die for you but go on...”

“Doflamingo has been causing our tribe a lot of pain recently, but our connection with him goes way back before the last decade. Nine hundred years ago!”

Then the narrator interrupted and I was like, “So you’re just going to leave it there when I was about to get Doflamingo family history? I am not at all mad about this. No, sir. Not one bit.”

The action cut to Flower Field, where Franky and Sol descended a secret stairwell. Said stairwell led to the Resistance Army HQ! Some soldiers ran up to Sol and addressed him as “Captain”, so Sol is a Big Deal in the Resistance.

Franky was like, “Why are all these small people swarming me?”

Sol explained. The Tontatta people were called fairies in town, how they moved faster than the human eye could detect and how they were immensely strong. Franky put two and two together and realised one of them stole Zoro’s sword!

And guess who reached Flower Field before Franky? Before any of the other Strawhats!

That’s right. It’s our boy Zoro. (So proud he learned to follow directions.)

Zoro, hilariously, had made himself at home and was watching Luffy vs Chinjao on the big screen TV. He was absolutely fuming. Why hadn’t Luffy told him there was a fighting competition? THE BETRAYAL. Will he get over it? Probably.

He must’ve been distracted by the fight, as he completely forgot 

Then some intelligence scouts ran up. They had a report for Sol. “We already know what our enemies and Sugar are doing!” (Sugar? Who dat?) “And with the battle close at hand, some legendary heroes have appeared at Tontatta: Usoland and Robiland. They have brought with them Luffyland, Zoroland, Namiland, Sanland, Chopperland, Fraland and Boneland.”

Franky and Zoro exchanged a Look. They knew instantly Usopp was on the bullshit wagon again.

“Um, I think I’m Zoroland,” Zoro said. (Lmao, better get into character quick.)

“And I’m Fraland. Nice to meet you!” Franky added.

It was round about then that Zoro remembered that Nami, Chopper and Brook were in serious trouble back on Sunny. He now wants to skip the battle (he doesn’t yet know about) and rescue the other Strawhats.

I wonder how this will go? Wicka did say she would let Zoro go back to Sunny once he’d taken her back to Resistance HQ. But Leo and the others back on Green Bit were suspicious of Robin and Usopp escaping. Will they let Zoro go or will he have to fight the battle first? Hmmm... I’m fifty/fifty about this.

God damn it, Caesar

*curb your enthusiasm music kicks in*

Meanwhile, back on Green Bit, Law was under heavy bombardment. Fujitora took a step back in this episode and Doflamingo stole the limelight. The cool music from Enies Lobby (as I call it in my head. I have no idea what the real title is) played as Doflamingo pursued Law. 

As Doflamingo was about to land a finishing blow, Caesar shrieked, “OI, JOKER! Before you kill Law, I need you to take something back for me. Law took my heart and I don’t know what he’s gonna do with it!”

Doflamingo looked round like, “Wtf... are you talking about?” And while he was distracted, Law shambled his way out of trouble.

Doflamingo was furious. FFS, CAESAR. I bet he wanted to say that but couldn’t. Gotta keep your cash cow scientist happy..

Please send help. Our art teacher has locked us in class.

Unfortunately, Law didn’t have time for a breather. He had an urgent phone call to make.

While Nami, Chopper and Brook were brought up to speed on the Humans Turning Into Toys situation by Giolla, the ship’s DDM rang. Chopper hilariously ignored Giolla and answered the call (she was maaaaad).

It was Law. He said, “Is that Nami-san?”

To my disappointment, Chopper did not answer, “No, this is Patrick.”

“I don’t care what’s going on over there,” Law said. “Listen carefully. I need you to sail Sunny to Green Bit right now. I wanna leave Caesar with you guys. No time to explain. Bye!”

Okay, so I added in the “bye” part. Law abruptly hung up.

I like how he has faith that Nami, Chopper and Brook will be able to handle the situation, but their weapons have been rendered usless by Giolla’s Art Art Fruit power. I have no idea how they’re going to get out of this one (and I’m keen to see Oda’s creative solution).

The shitshow that is Law’s current existence continued once he hung up. Doflamingo is Doflamingo. He caught up with Law again near the end of episode 648. With that slasher smile, he shot Law with a string bullet and demanded to know who Law had called for help.

Doflamingo must be confident he has Law where he wants him because he spilled the beans on his diabolical plan to snare Luffy. “Give me back Caesar’s heart already. It’s so meaningless for you to keep hanging on here. Strawhat has already walked into the trap I set. He’s fighting in the gladiatorial contest at the Colosseum. Tough contenders from all over the world come to fight in it. Outlaws only. It’s a deadly competition. When someone loses, it’s a one way ticket to hell! He will never come out of the Colosseum alive! It’s the end of your alliance, Law. Just give up!”

I wonder if Law will use the heart as leverage. Maybe he’ll give up Caesar’s heart to escape, regroup and stop Doflamingo the old-fashioned way: with Tontatta military might. (Doflamingo better not kill him off...)

Don’t worry, Chinjao. Luffy will beat you until you feel better! :D

[mcphersonlausten34-blog]

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[insomniac-arrest]

Edges of Ink

pairing: Diana/Akko lwa

words: 6k

summary: Akko is a popular tattoo artist who specializes in Chariot card tattoos, Diana is a college girl who keeps walking in (and then out again)

Diakko Tattoo artist AU

Ao3

It was March fourth. Diana’s hands were practically numb from the slight chill and her face felt like it had been cursed by a witch to be stuck in a scowl.

This wasn’t working out for her so far, she had run all the way here and she glared at the passing crowds of tourists and businesspeople. She ran across town, that was the first sprint, then she arranged her hair back into place and made her way calmly across the street.

The first parlour was run by a man over six feet tall that smelled like onions and whiskey, it had a line of five people and made her skin feel like an oil slick. She accidentally kicked an umbrella stand on her way out as she left.

The second establishment was a runny little building at the west end, its gutters were overflowing and it reminded Diana of a living health code violation. She watched a 40-year-old woman wipe the needle on her pants and Diana departs immediately.

It was March fourth.

The third location was a hole in the wall, stuffed between a specialized grocery store and two pubs in a row. It was twice as long as it was wide, had a large glass door on the front and a deep blue exterior, it was the blue that caught her eye.

A deep royal blue that reminded her of valleys or oceans or not some smokey London street that sold cigarettes outside the looF. It reminded her terribly of something else and she managed to stop just down the street to stare at it.

She flipped her collar up against the misty chill of the evening and walks toward it mechanically, her phone had already told her this was the other closest tattoo parlour she could visit that weekend. Diana tries not to dwell on what she’s doing at that moment.

She was a Cavendish, she inspected something thoroughly before she didn’t do it.

The hazy night sky was barely visible against wispy grey clouds and Diana was standing outside a tiny blue tattoo parlor with a sign in the window: Come in! :) . It looked handmade. She leans forward and makes out lights and wall paper with big yellow flowers on the inside.

“Well fine,” she goes in.

She may have been expecting a lot of things, more cigarette smoke and bad 80s rock, another man asking if Diana came to ‘let loose a little.’

She didn’t expect a cluttered warm-smelling room, covered with different haphazard wallpaper on each wall, a glass case, and then a tiny brunette in a plain t-shirt and jean jacket stood in the corner. Bubblegum pop music plays softly in the background and the Japanese girl with a huge smile on her face turns toward the front door.

Diana’s mouth makes a little ‘o.’ This wasn’t a 40 year old women accusing her of being drunk or a six feet three sailor.

“Hello!” She waves, Diana hardens her eyes.

She felt a little dumb standing in the doorway, she nods stiffly back. The girl blinks a couple times and then wipes her hands down.

“What can I do for you today?” She was still smiling, Diana looks creakily to the left and then to the right.

“What can you do.” She didn’t state it like a question, she just felt her thoughts ramming into each other as she took in the pictures pictures of trading cards in the case. Chariot trading cards.

The girl bounces to her feet and then seems to bounce right over to her, “I’m Akko! Akko Kagari, I can do anything you have your heart set on,” The girl clapped her hands together and Diana stepped backward at her sun glare.

“Oh,” She sort of wished somehow she’d been turned away. It was March the fourth.

“Hmm.” Akko looked her up and down, “a heart? A star? I can do some killer roses! Or,” she winks, “a lovers name maybe?”

Diana narrows her eyes, she wasn’t sure what her angle was for this sales pitch. Diana straightens her suit jacket, “a caduceus.”

“A what?” Akko tilted her head, blinking serenely now. Diana could just make out the edges of an almost golden ink along her collarbone, a shimmering tattoo. Diana’s face heats up.

“The winged staff and two snakes, or,” she frowns, “a unicorn. Yes, no,” she twitches, “a unicorn with...with a woman.” “Uh, I can do unicorns.” Akko was giving her a funny look, Diana was feeling a little funny.

“I have to go,” she turns around, this had been a bad idea to begin with.

-----------

The temptation to get a tattoo was not a regular one, especially for Diana. It had begun late in the evening and dragged her across the city streets of London.

She wasn’t a particular fan of London, it was lovely and sometimes it reminded her of a milk white hand holding hers, of going downtown and eating smoked nuts. Of something else.

But London meant business, it meant visiting boardrooms and interrupting her school life to hold together her family legacy.

It would be nice if her aunt was trying to sell their assets off to the highest bidder as quickly as possibly, that would be nice. If this was still an era for duels Diana might have thought of alternative solutions to Daryll.

It was however, the twenty-first century and Diana was a twenty-first century girl who didn’t have any tattoos, she didn’t regularly want any tattoos. Until she did.

“It’s just another peak,” she assures herself the next day.

She only had two days of business in London but it was usually enough to fill her time and give her a headache in between meetings, she found time to get to Wittenberg Street anyway.

It was a smokey downtown street where they sold cigarettes outside the loo and some of the sidewalk turned to cobblestone if you kept walking long enough. Diana was on the phone when she got off the underground.

She was supposed to get back to Oxford that night, she was walking toward the tattoo parlour.

She was sure there were other tattoo parlours in the world, some even in Oxford, but this one was blue with a glass door and a handmade sign. This one had three walls with floral blue wallpaper on one, nautical anchors and mermaids on the other, and finally one large mural of Chariot, Chariot DuNord.

Diana finds herself walking back.

“It’s a quick trip,” she was saying to herself, “it won’t even hurt.” She walks like there was fire on her heels, past the specialized grocery store and the smells of something musky cooking from inside.

She stops at the door and takes a couple steadying breaths before she changes her mind.

The bell on the door jingles sharply this time as she goes in the door, the dim lights and whirr of some machine in the corner fills the space. Her eyebrows raise, she wasn’t alone this time.

She saw the back of a brunette head with her hair tied back in a tight ponytail and the face of a very tense looking boy with his forearm out. He looked like he was trying to gnaw through his own bottom lip.

It smelled like heather and perhaps rainwater, something damp almost- that was for sure.

“You’re doing great,” Akko was talking to her customer as she seemed to be working on a circular design, “we’re almost there.” The boy’s features were pinched at every angle, but nods.

Diana blinks a couple times and thinks about leaving, she knew she didn’t need this, her aunt Daryll would shame her for months for getting it. Her board members would have something to say.

Diana stands dumbly in the entranceway and grips her right wrist with her left hand.

“I’ll be with you in a minute!” Akko calls over her shoulder and Diana jerks her head to the right. She waits.

“Is it almost done?” The boy's voice squeaks and Diana wonders how actually painful tattoos were, it couldn’t be worse than having your ears pierced.

“It’s gonna look awesome!” Akko cheers and Diana tilted her head at the sound of her voice. It was warm.

Diana might have just told the boy to stop sniveling, but maybe that was just another memory.

“Annnnn,” Akko was so loud, Diana wrinkles her nose as she drags out the word, “nnnnnnd, ta-dah!” Akko jumped backward with her whirring needle, “Look at it for a sec and then I’ll wrap it up for ya. Pretty cool!” The boy blinked his charcoal brown eyes and then down at a rectangle tattoo, he beams. “Oh damn! It really came out.” “Uh-huh, uh-huh,” Akko nods and turns her machine off as she reaches down.

Diana peers over and recognizes the ‘Pappiliodya Chariot Trading Card’ almost glowing on the boy's arm, she wrinkles her nose again. Wasn’t everyone in this room above twenty?

The trading card presents an intricate flowing yellow butterfly design.

“Dude, this is sick,” he bounces in his chair, “they weren’t kidding when you said you could make it look like the real thing.” “Of course!” Akko flexes her right arm and kisses her muscle, the boy laughs and Diana has to cover her face after a brief smile. “Now, be sure to keep this on for four hours and not pick at it. Put moisturizer on it when it starts to peel! It’ll bleed a tiny bit, but that’s normal.” He wasn’t looking at her as he looked down at the square card with a deep reverence, Diana was looking at it too. The boy looked like he might hug Akko.

“She’s gonna love this,” he says with a grin and Diana watches as Akko wraps the boy’s arm up in some plastic material.

She was still just standing on the door.

“I’ll take you to the front now,” Diana shuffles to the side, Akko’s eyes glide over her but she seems to finish the transaction first. Chariot Cards were extra it seems, but Diana tell see why.

The ink was detailed and swirling, moving almost, just like the card, and laced with some gold shimmer ink. The boy was pretty excited.

“Todd is going to be so fucking jealous too,” he puts his fist up and presents it, “so glad we got to you in London.” They fist bump and Diana restrains from rolling her eyes, the boy seems to tip Akko and then turns around. “Night Akko!”

Akko waves and she straightens some papers and a stack of business cards with an over-enthusiastic font. She turns to Diana slowly.

“It’s you!” She crows, putting her hands on her hips and leaning forward, “I knew it.”

Diana furrows her brow, “excuse me?”

Akko rested her hand on the glass case, “oh, you just looked like you’d be back!”

Diana shook her head, “it’s not what you think.” Akko shifted from side to side, “I think a lot of things, I wouldn’t be so sure.” She never really stopped smiling, did she?

Diana’s skin prickles, she frowns, “the butterfly…” “Yeah, we could do one of those. Or a bird, or a heart! You look like you might like a heart, with a moon in it maybe? Or,” Akko’s face goes slack. “Of course.” Diana hunches over, “of course?” “You want my specialty,” she whips one of the cards from the case, “you want a Chariot Card!” Akko seemed like she might rival the Tuscan sun at that moment, she shines. “The Alcor card, no! You’re a ‘A Believing Heart’ card girl, I know it, I know it- I can see it in you.”

Diana clenched her jaw, “you don’t even know my name.” “Oh,” Akko pauses and puts down ‘A Believing Heart’ card before walking over. “I guess in-out girl isn’t a good name either.” Diana’s mouth fell open. “It’s Diana.” She says roughly, not giving her last. She didn’t need ‘Cavendish was in my downtown shop’ gossip running around.

Akko’s face split, “That’s a very nice name.” She pushes a stray hair back, “Yes, it suits you!” “Thanks,” Diana says sharply, her eyes dart back toward the chair and the needle, “I’m interested...in the work.” “There’s a unicorn Chariot Card too,” Akko was going through her stack.

“No,” Diana’s thoughts raced, “I mean, I mean I want to learn to tattoo.” Diana isn’t sure where that came from, but it was one way to stop this parade of excitement from the artist. It felt like the thing to say at the time.

Akko paused, her hands slowing, “you what?” Diana stood all the way up, “I said, I just want to learn some of the art. To do one myself.” She wouldn’t have to say any embarrassing requests out loud then, she could just ink herself.

Akko’s mouth was open, Diana lifted her chin. “I can pay you.”

Akko tilted her head to the side, she hummed, “That isn’t what I expected.” She looked her up and down, “aren’t you a university girl?”

Diana raised both eyebrows, maybe she was observant. “That doesn’t mean I can’t learn something like this.” The words feel a little foolish in her mouth. Akko was looking at her searchingly, “And if you can’t do it…” She starts to turn around.

“Why?” She feels a hand tug on her sleeve, Akko had reached across the counter and latched onto her. “You really…?” Diana sniffs, “it’s just something I want.”

Akko seemed to study her, “I really can do most things. It won’t be an embarrassing request if you’d like a bunny or lyrics or something!” “I know.” She says softly.

“Or even Japanese characters if that’s what you’re here for.” “I’m not,” Diana pushed her own hair back, “I’m sure you’re very talented.” Diana sniffs, “And I’m sure you’re busy.” She reaches for the door.

“Wait,” Akko was still holding onto her arm. Diana pauses, Akko takes a deep breath, “you are pretty fancy.” Diana raises an eyebrow and then clears her throat, “alright then.” “You wouldn’t want this if you weren’t serious,” she says simply, “and you’d like to pay me, yeah?”

Diana squared her shoulders, she had Akko’s attention. “I would.”

Her thoughts bite at each other’s heels as Diana stares back at her, this isn’t what she intended when she walked in the door.

But Cavendish's follow through.

“Can you get to Oxford on some weekends?” Diana suddenly had a tattoo mentor, she told herself that would be the fastest way to solve this dilemma.

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

Diana was not sure she liked the things she got up to after long days in London staring at the back of aunt Daryll’s head. Apparently, she went off and enlisted tattoo artists to teach her random skills.

She was about to get an MBA in Business Management and was somehow arranging a train ticket for an overly-friendly stranger around her age.

Atsuko Kagari. She started to google her.

Akko Kagari was 21 years old, Akko Kagari learned to tattoo in Okinawa and then did specialty practice in Seattle. Akko Kagari had an Instagram and people that favorited almost all of her inking posts.

Akko Kagari had another string of people making jokes about her early designs, which were, admittedly, terrifyingly bad- squiggly rabbits and poor elephants and uneven ears. But she had mastered gold ink, she had traveled to different mentors.

Picture after picture of Akko in Mexico City, in Rome, in Buenos Aires, in Moscow and Beijing and then London. Then a little shop in Wittenberg street.

Where was she going? Diana didn’t know.

It was a Saturday, it was a Saturday at the tail end of a very damp March and right before more midterms. Diana felt the strong impulse to study, to lock herself back up in the library and bury herself three stacks deep in books- that would be preferable.

Instead, she was waiting at the train station to greet one stranger who was going to teach her a trade skill she didn’t need. But Diana never backed out.

She saw Akko’s ponytail first, barely visible above the crowd as she tore her way through the people and bounded forward. Despite the weather she had on a pair of shorts, brown boots and a heavy red jacket.

Diana waved a hand loosely over to her, “over here.”

Akko looked back and forth and then trotted over in Diana’s direction, “hello majesty.” Diana blinked a couple times, Akko pointed at her hand, “you’re waving like the queen.”

Diana sighs to herself, “this way.” She hunched her shoulders slightly, “I brought a notebook to write down the basics.” “Uh,” Akko followed her through the busy station and Diana tries to navigate to the secluded hill by the rivers. “It’s really more of a feeling,” Akko was chattering, “you gotta feel it. Like a smell! You feel the thing, and poof, it’s all around you- pouring out.” “That doesn’t sound safe,” she says flatly, “it’s a sharp needle.” Akko snorts, “I’ve only ever stabbed myself.” She chirps and Diana cringes, “if you feel right, the picture comes out right!”

Diana shakes her head and starts climbing, “up this way.” Luckily, the weather wasn’t so terrible to stop them from sitting outside, the grass was almost dry even.

Akko bobbed onto the spring grass first and Diana eased herself into the place next to her, flattening her skirt down as she kneeled. She clears her throat and they spend a moment looking at each other, brown large eyes with a red sheen. Like a door, a Mahogany door.

Diana realizes she’s holding her breath and then kicks her legs out.

“I was just interested in the basics.” She says sternly, like she was chiding herself, and then looks away.

“Sure,” Akko was nodding, “we can do pressure application and how to work with different parts of the body.” Akko stuck her tongue out slightly, “I have the book here.” Akko took out ‘Tattooing for Dummies’ and Diana has to cover laughter, there were colored tabs throughout the pages. Diana swallows down another laugh.

“Oh gosh,” she snorts and Akko glances at her.

“Diana,” she says slowly and Diana almost chokes on her tongue this time. “Is there a type of inking you’d like to focus on?” Diana pushed her hair back and looked away, “not really.” She sniffs, “I just want one. One to do myself.” Akko wags a finger at her, “you really shouldn’t tattoo yourself if you’re not an expert.” Diana puts her hands out and nudges her, “Make me an expert then.” She sets her jaw, “I’ve seen your work.” She watches Akko’s cheeks pink slightly, “alright...I can try,” she gives a cheeky grin, “for your majesty…”

She cracks open her book, littered with notes on the margins and papers stuffed into the front cover, “let’s start with applying pressure…” Diana has to sit still and listen as Akko’s voice falls into something serious, Diana has to stop and pay attention. Akko’s brown hair floats in the breeze and her lips move to some unseen rhythm.

Diana has to turn off her group text with Barbara and Hannah and listen. Akko was business at first, like the words had been drilled into her with a persistent hammer, but she was easily lost.

“... and then I had Sucy, she works in the place next to me, she’s getting this list on her thigh. She gets one thing of the list every few months and she likes it when I press down harder. But she’s a weirdo! She finally told me the list is instructions on how to avenge her death. Weird! And then there was this other guy who wouldn’t let me so much as touch him.” Diana tried to nod and then watches Akko’s hands dance around her as she talked, it was animated like an energy drink hit by lightning. Diana clears her throat.

“Can we go over line work? I’d like to make steady lines.” Akko raises an eyebrow, she puts her finger in the air, “that’s one of the hardest parts.” Diana gives a small smile, “I see.”

Akko shakes her head, “you’re pretty persistent.” She hugs her legs to her, “you’d make a great tattoo-ist.”

Diana sticks her lip out, “who says I won’t be?” Akko snickers, “you’re only doing one for yourself. I meant in a parlour.” Diana gives a cheeky look, “who says I won’t?” “Haha, I’ll be the first to hire you!” Akko laughs, “you can do all the tiny heart designs that I don’t want to.”

Diana leans back on her arm, “weren’t you going to give me a heart design?” “Yeah, but that’s before,” Akko looked both ways, “before.” Diana raises an eyebrow, “before?” “You know,” Akko’s hands were waving around again, “before I knew you weren’t just another university girl ‘experimenting.’ Not that that’s bad! But they uh, usually get those.” Diana shakes her head and looks up to the shady pale skies, “Perhaps I am just another university girl. Perhaps I’ll get a heart.” There is a long pause, a little lull of silence that made her hiccup on her own breath.

She hears Akko laugh, “A heart with a little dagger in it's hand.” “Dagger?” Akko had Diana’s attention.

“For when you rip people’s hearts out and tell them this happened because they were idiots or something.” Diana sniffs angrily, “Don’t forget the grave I shove them in.” She says flatly and Akko laughs again, it was a good sound. Diana joins her briefly.

“See? Not flower-moon material.”

Diana let’s out a long breath, she opens her mouth, I don’t know which one I want. She closes it again.

A long pregnant moment stretches between them again before an earth-shaking rumbling noise vibrates the air, Diana turns to Akko languidly, “Hungry?” Akko holds her stomach, “maybe… a lot. Very much.” Diana chuckles.

She looked like a little kid in that moment, a little kid with a tattoo of a woman on her leg and almost a full-arm sleeve. Sitting on the grass and asking her where the closest Nandos was.

Diana looks the over direction, “my treat.” She sees stiffly.

“What’s that?” “I’ll take you to this Ethiopian place around the corner. My treat.” She tenses, “for the lessons.” “Really?” Akko clapped her hands together, “A prince among men!” She whoops and Diana dusts herself off as she gets up.

“I thought I was your majesty?” She fixes Akko’s askew collar instinctively, Akko squirms.

“You’re a lot of things.” Diana smiles a little and walks her down the hill and toward the sleepy university town, “now, tell me about hand-steadying techniques.” Akko sighs and puts her hands up, “I suppose I can’t just say ‘you have to feel it,’ can I?” “No.” Akko tries again and they discuss tattoos and the world and whatever the hell Akko meant by ‘listening closely to your heart before working.’

She buys her a Doro Wot and is amazed as Akko somehow adds hot sauce to it and keeps eating, slurping down the spicy chicken.

She keeps talking while she eats and Diana wants to wipe her chin or smack her, Akko was describing different cities.

Rome, Riga, Chicago, Jamaica briefly (apparently she passed out and ended up there with some very nice people after being kicked off a cruise). Diana finds herself laughing a little too much.

She watches her move like a live-action claymation video set on fast-forward. Diana only puts her hand out once, curiously, strangely.

“Why are you moving through all these places?” As far as Diana understood Akko saved up her tattoo money off of tiny shops she established and then used that to push off again.

Akko chews on her chicken again, “lookring.” “What?” Diana pauses eating her Gomen.

Akko seems to swallow the entire bite whole, her face goes still, like a butterfly suddenly being trapped under glass. “You know,” she says tentatively, “I’m just looking for someone.”

Diana looks her up and down, biting her cheek, “will you be off again soon?” Akko frowns for once, “Not yet.” She says halting, “I think I’m close. Maybe just one more plane ride. Or tip off.” She takes a deep breath, “I think I’m getting close to Chariot!”

“Oh,” Diana didn’t know what to make of that. Chariot DuNord was entertainment star most people just assumed faded like a dying red planet and dropped off the map.

Maybe someone was still looking.

Diana studies her face, “good luck to you.” Akko was making a strange expression, “if anyone could do it…” Diana didn’t know what she was saying, “you seem like the right fit.” “Really?” Akko had sauce on her nose, Diana looks away.

“You seem...persistent.” Diana fluffs her own hair and says, “Stubborn.” “We have something in common then!” Diana rolls her eyes and Akko tells her more about lattice techniques with ink.

Diana couldn’t remember when she had an evening like this before, maybe she never did.

----------

Diana doesn’t know why she plays the fool to herself. March fourth had already passed, she already jumped through the hoops, she had already played the game.

She arranges to see Akko again anyway.

And then again.

She finds herself texting her in the middle of class, mostly to tell her to stop texting her in the middle of class. She finds herself seeing her on weekends, waiting at the train station earlier and earlier each time.

She finds herself spotting Akko in the crowd, and realizing it’s not her.

To her own surprise, Diana was making a friend. She wasn’t used to that, mostly friends were just brought to her and had their own trust funds and small business empires she needed to cozy up to.

Diana was starting to feel twists form in her stomach.

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

It happened on one April morning, almost at 4am, a slight drizzle was gracing the sky and the whole room swam with dark colors. Diana was looking into a pool, a deep pool where a figure sat underneath the waters and perched on a dead tree stump, Diana began to cry.

“No,” her head swam, “no…” Her voice was hoarse from calling out, her fingernails tearing at her nightdress as she violently flailed in bed, March fourth had already passed.

“No!” She dug her nails into her leg and starts awake, she fumbles for the phone with the dream fresh in her scrambled thoughts. Her hands tremble and her vision is completely blurred. A soft drizzle coats her window and she peers out as she dials a number.

Why was she dialing a number.

“Diana,” it was a sleepy voice, thick with a tangible grogginess, “is that you?” Diana’s eyes go wide, that isn’t who she meant to call. She gives a deep shuddering breath and wipes the wetness from her cheeks, “G-go to sleep Akko.”

“You’re the one that called me,” Akko sounds awake now. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m sorry.” Diana hangs up the phone and hugs her legs to herself, she was sorry, so sorry.

Diana stayed awake after that. She had managed to snag her own lone flat next to the school and she felt the echoing of the empty halls in her bones. She hugs her legs to her chest and let the deep shuddering breaths rack her body.

She wasn’t going to cry, she wasn’t going to cry again.

She doesn’t know how much time passes, it all swam before her like a wave taunting the shoreline and swooping back and forth, merciless. It must have been a lot of time.

“Diana!” She hears a turbulent knock on her front door, “Diana, I’m here, come out!”

She stiffens and wonders why someone was pounding on her front door and why Mr. Stevens wasn’t getting it for her. She wipes her face and realizes he had quit two years ago.

Diana sways to her feet and fumbles to the door, “I’m fine!” Her voice was raw and naked in her throat.

“What was that phone call?” “It’s nothing,” Diana pushes everything down, “wrong number.” “Let me in then,” Akko says thickly, “It’s Saturday, we could go see the movies. I’ll teach you a new technique.” “I’m sorry you came all this,” she keeps her tone even, “but I have school work.” Akko was knocking at the door, “You sound funny.” She knocks again, “come on! Even queens need companions. Tell me why you called.” “Go home Akko.” She hears a thump sound, someone was leaning on the front door, “I’m not going anywhere.” Diana heaves a long sigh and reaches out, her fingers shaking as she grasps the nod, “I’m not, I’m not-” She swallows painfully.

She opens the door ever so slightly, just a crack, “I need you to go.” Akko’s large brown eyes are looking her up and down, she was leaning on the door and crawling toward the opening.

“You’ve been crying…” Diana doesn’t respond, Akko grabs at the crack in the door and pries it a little wider open, “Tell me Diana.” Diana rubs at her ruddy face furiously, her thoughts racing. “I need it.” She says roughly, “I need the tattoo today. I can’t wait any longer.”

Diana’s body gives out, dropping to the ground slowly- like a chair leg that finally gives out under a heavy weight. Akko barely catches her as she curls into herself, Akko holds her for a very long moment.

“Okay,” she says in a small voice, “whatever you need Diana.”

-

Diana bundles herself up in her long coat and slips on her summer sandals before numbly walking out the door, the sky is over so slowly clearing and peaking through a moderate day. She isn’t sure how she made it to London but she did remember Akko taking her hand on the tram.

It was warm.

Diana’s eyes glazed over and when she blinked she was somewhere new. Wittenberg Street again, the smokey narrow pass where they sold cigarettes outside the loo and the pavement turned to cobblestone if you followed it long enough.

Diana closed her eyes and realized Akko still had her hand, Diana’s senses come back to her one by one. Akko leads her to the tucked away tattoo shop that was twice as long as it was wide. Diana touches the blue paint on the outside.

She sniffs, “I always liked this.”

Akko’s eyes were unusually soft, “me too.” She follows her in, Diana’s gaze is unfocused and loose, she tries to put her hand on the glass case with Chariot Cards inside.

“A Unicorn,” she murmurs, “or maybe that doctor symbol. The staff with the snakes.” She buries her face in her hands, “a nightingale. Anything.” Akko leads her to the chair, “you can get whatever you like. More than one even!”

Diana shakes her head numbly, “just one. Where I can see it.” “Anything you want,” she kept saying that, Akko threaded her fingers through Diana’s hair- it had become knotted during the night, Akko untangles it. “But you have to tell me what this is about.” Diana blinked unseeingly ahead, “nothing.” Akko shook her head, “I can’t give tattoos to people who are not in the right state of mind. Not drunk or drugged or…” She peters off and her eyes flash up hesitantly.

Diana bit her bottom lip, and then she kept biting it, “I,” she took in a wheezing shattering breath of air, “you won’t understand.” She hated how small she sounded, how frail, Akko was squeezing her hand.

“Are you looking for someone too?” Akko was staring ahead at the Chariot mural behind them.

Diana shook her head, “No…” She trails off and the words bubble up from deep within, “I don’t remember her face.” It tumbles out of her like a confetti canon, the tears well up again, “I realized,” she heaves a breath, “I don’t remember her face.” Akko leans forward until their eyes are inches apart, she speaks gently, “who’s?”

“Mom’s,” she whispers, “it was our anniversary and I tried,” she swallows a wet sound, “I tried to remember it.” She covers her face with her free hand, her shoulders shaking, “It’s gone, it’s all gone!”

I’m a disgrace, Diana wanted to stop crying, she wanted to be someone else- the person she created. Not this.

“Sshhh,” Akko pet her head, “it’s okay.” Diana shook her head, “I don’t remember it.” She starts to hyperventilate, “I need to remember her. Everything, her.” “Ssshhh,” Akko presses down on Diana’s skin, “you’re safe here. You’re doing great.” She said the words like she talked to the boy the second time Diana visited. She didn’t know what she meant.

Akko crawled into her lap and pet her hair while Diana worked through a very bad dream. It wasn’t March 4th anymore.

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

Diana didn’t end up getting a tattoo that day, nor the next. She took Akko to ice cream shop and told her not to tell anyone about that. Akko rolled her eyes and told her Diana had to have more faith in her friends.

Friends. It suddenly felt like a bad word, but she doesn’t say that.

And the next day Diana takes Akko to the movie she wanted to see and maybe she talks about her mom for a couple hours on the walk home, the long way home.

Akko says she’s getting closer, closer to all the paper trails Chariot left, Diana’s heart thumped.

-----------

Diana got her first tattoo of a caduceus. It was gold and winged and reminded her of her mom’s saying: help who you can Diana, whenever you can.

She told Akko about her mom’s doctorate and all the nurses at the Royal London Hospital.

It was on her forearm.

----------

She got her second tattoo of a unicorn, a young woman standing by a unicorn’s mane, petting it. Akko leaned over her as she made it and Diana counted her eyelashes, they were large and framed her brown irises. Her eyes were different in light of her concentration, clear, taut.

She dotted Diana’s skin carefully, moving closely and precisely. Diana had found that she had begun to enjoy the sting of the needle as she watched her work.

“Do you want me to detail the face?” Akko asks breathlessly, softly.

Diana shakes her head, “not yet.” She holds her hand on the way home and they drive miles and miles out of London and into the countryside, it’s a four day weekend and she shows Akko her favorite farmhouses and sheep.

-----------

She gets her third tattoo on a dare.

A bad dare, a poor dare, a dare nonetheless.

They were in Oxford, walking next to a footpath by the Thames and listening to a bicyclists yell at a motorist for swerving into his path. It was a fair day, the clouds were puffy white cotton balls instead of flattened grey pancakes and the sun gently kissed Akko’s cheeks as she turned toward her.

Diana smiles to herself.

“I hear you’re selling to some heiress next week,” she says with a little grin.

Akko shrugs, “business is good.” She leans on Diana’s arm, “too good. They want me to do water color work.” “Can you do water color work?” Akko puffs her chest out, “of course.” She set her chin, “with a little practice.” Diana laughs, “well, I’m sure someone in London could give you a lesson if you look.” Akko shakes her head and tugs on Diana’s sleeve again, “When are you going to get your next one? I’ll learn watercolor tattoos if you’re the one that wants one.”

Diana felt her face heat up slightly, she looks away. “I can’t just get these things on a whim.” “Of course you can!” She cheered, “that’s what makes them fun.” Diana slows down their slow and pauses to glance at her, “you’re a menace to public decision making you know.” Akko snorts, “I love being a menace.” Diana laughs and pats Akko’s arm, “I can tell.” They laugh again and Akko is still looking at her.

It happened on that clear spring day, with clouds like cotton balls and sky like lovely blue syrup.

“What should I get then?” Diana asks teasingly, “You seem to have lots of answers.”

Akko tapped her chin, “something just for you!” Diana feels her expression pinch.

“Oh?” “Or a lover!”

If Diana was drinking something she would have spit it out, “What have I done to ever suggest I have a lover?” Akko put her hands together, “duh, you’re like the prettiest most intelligent girl I know. Don’t hide it from me! No one could resist your fluffy princess hair.” Akko primps Diana’s long blonde hair and Diana swats her hand away.

“It takes more than that to get dates you know.” She says in a monotone. “ Plus, tattoos are permanent and love isn’t exactly like that.”

Akko’s mouth falls open, “they’re the same thing!”

“I don’t want some random person’s name on me forever.” Diana defends.

Akko crosses her arms across her chest forcefully, “Love tattoos are the best ones. They’re the same things.” Diana raised her eyebrows, “how would you know?” “I have eyes,” Akko stuck out her tongue at her, their eyes meet. “And they’re both, you know, both can be permanent.”

She frowns deeply, “you can be a little silly sometimes I’m sure you know.”

“You’re the silly one,” Akko’s face was burning an angry red as she balled up her hands, “you don’t even…” Diana took in a deep breath and looked Akko up and down, “do you have a love tattoo?” She asks curiously, Akko just shook her head.

“But if I did…” She looks up, the heat dying in her eyes, “I know what I’d want.” Her eyes were on her, Diana slowly counts her eyelashes. She holds her breath. “Not that you understand.” Akko said the last sentence like heartbreak. Diana steps forward, her color rising unexpectedly.

“Where would get it?” Her heart thumps in her chest.

Akko looks at the ground, like a puppy locked outside. “I don’t know.” She reaches up to touch her face.

Diana takes another tentative step forward, “I’m not an expert.” She says shortly and Akko glances up. “In fact, I think I’m terribly suited for it.” “Huh?” “But I could show you where I’d put it.” Akko’s eyes go wide, she nods ever so slightly and Diana was already in motion before the answer hung in the air. She kisses her shoulder.

“Diana…” Akko fades out, Diana reaches up and kisses her cheek. “Diana!”

Diana leans forward and captures her bright lips for a moment, and maybe if that could be permanent, for just a second. She kisses her and the cotton ball clouds seem to pause and the syrup of the fine blue skies drips down on her like a warm bath in her chest.

It was quick and forever all at once, the speed of her heart beat mixing with the slow press of her lips, gradual and soft at first and building into something solid. Burning.

Akko wraps her arms around her neck and Diana stands up straight, dragging her feet off the ground into a kiss with a slight twirl. She laughs and Diana holds her. “There. Right there.”

Akko boops her nose, “You can’t tattoo your mouth.” Diana shakes her head, “I can try.” She kisses her again.

Diana gets one last tattoo, Akko dares her to get one over her heart and she accepts.

[archuve]

Closing the distance

Dianakko week day 7 Free Day

@dianakko-week

A/N This one shot is a nice shout out to all the long distance relationships that happened thanks to the fandom and lwa cause I know several people got together thanks to this lovely show. Speaking of which, this one shot is dedicated to my lovely gal pal @oceankasko who I met thanks to lwa <3

Summary: After 2 years of a long distance relationship, Akko and Diana finally meet.

“I can’t believe this!” Amanda howled with laughter, her hands clutching her sides as she bends over laughing with tears skimming the corners of her eyes. Diana look could already feel the heat of embarrassment brush over her cheeks as she stares at the times on the board. “We came here 2 hours earlier than we needed to because Diana is too gay!”

“Amanda!” Lotte chided as people started to stare at the girls as they walk past them with disapproval, whether it was because Amanda was laughing too much and caused a slight scene or because Diana is an open gay, Lotte didn’t care and didn’t really want to know.

“It’s true though!” Amanda reasoned, her laughter dying down as she wiped away the few tears that were near her eyes. She stands up, one arm on her hip as she points to Diana who is facepalming near them, red cheeks just peeking from her hand. “Look she’s not even denying it!”

“That doesn’t mean you need to tell the whole airport about it though!” Diana scolded as she looked up and to the side to meet Amanda’s eyes but all that did was trigger another wave of cackles and laughs for Diana didn’t look all too intimidating with a tomato flustered face. “This is brilliant,” Amanda laughed as she picked up her rucksack and moved to a seating area, the other two following behind her. “Like this is gold, 24-carat cavendish gold,” she snickered as she sat down on an empty seat.

“For the 88th time Amanda, my house does not have gold hidden in some hidden basement or room,” Diana hissed as she sat next to her.

“Ah but that’s what you want me to think,” Amanda said with a smirk.

“I personally showed you the blueprints of the house,” Diana said quickly in hopes she would stop. Amanda did not.

Amanda shrugged, “Blueprints can lie-

“They were the original copies!” Diana exclaimed as she faced Amanda fully, as far as she was aware no one made any changes par the general repairs and refurbishment.

“Then they aren’t worth anything because they are wayyyy outdated,” Amanda said as she put her hands behind her head. Diana was about to lose it there and then, the red on her face that was once embarrassment shifted to anger and it clashed with the pale blue shirt that had a nice ocean crest in the middle that she was wearing. She was really really tempted to hit Amanda with her handbag that was in her skinny jeans.

“Amanda, would you please stop antagonising Diana? You're supposed to here to support her meeting her girlfriend Akko.” Lotte said as she sat on the other side of Diana. She was wearing a pretty yellow summer dress with various flowers at the end. In her hands was a book of her favourite series Nightfall, and it was already opened with the pages flicking every now and then.

At the mention of her girlfriend, the bright red face of anger turned to a darker scarlet, the angry snarl of her lips transformed into a shy smile and the cold blue flames in her eyes flickered to the warmth of a fire that came from a fireplace and slowly the warmth spread all over her body as her mind is swarmed with her presence: of small recollections of late night messages, of her beautiful face and smile, of the human angel that is Akko Kagari.

In all honesty, she has no clue why or how she managed to meet and fall for the girl, and online on a hellish social media website in a fandom of all places. If someone told her that this was how she would meet the greatest person in the world when she was younger, she would’ve taken them to the nurse’s room to see if the person was ill and probably stay away from them. She just couldn’t see how this was even possible! Even now there are some days where Diana would wake up and ask herself how is Akko real? How are they real? Then she looks at her phone and her heart would flutter when she sees Akko’s adorable smiling face on her home screen and she becomes glad that they are real and now today it would be even more real when she hugs her for the first time.

Her daydream mind talks end there as Amanda talks once more, “Actually Lotte, you’re here to support her, I’m here because I made these two idiots get together so I need to see it happen again in real life.”

“You’re here because you have the only decent video camera to record our first meeting.” Diana corrected. “Also with the promise that you make our meeting look one of a kind.” Diana also included when Amanda opened her mouth to argue before shutting up at the promise she made late at night playing a game with all of them. Diana gave her a small smirk as she looked away to the distance, one thought replayed throughout her mind; she didn’t deny the fact that they did meet through and got together through Amanda.

When they first meet… it wasn’t the greatest first impression.

In a short summary, Amanda was close friends with Akko, a new cosplayer who dabbles in fanart and dabbles even less in fanfics. Diana was this highly acclaimed fanfic writer and theorist of the fandom and was just only a frenemy of Amanda. One day Amanda vented at Akko about Diana which caused Akko who is protective of her friends to slide into her DM to yell at Diana. Of course, no matter how Amanda tried to quell the flames of anger, the private fight between Akko and Diana of squabbles and disagreements continued on until one day Amanda told Akko to leave Diana alone a bit from the arguments.

Curious on why, Akko did not leave Diana alone and asked what was wrong and in the heat of the moment Diana confessed that she is being pestered by a person who claimed that she is stealing her work and ideas and no matter how much she tries to explain and argue her points the person refused to listen. It made things, even more, worse when Diana refuses to bring this to light to the fandom community for she does not wish her followers to send death threats to such a simple but long-winded misunderstanding.

What Akko did next not only surprised Diana but everyone else that knew about Akko. Akko in public confronted the person and with every newly added statement made, Akko seemed to turn the information to her favour, coming up with ideas and ways to tackle the problem that Diana never saw before. After a long fight of a week of drama, the person admitted that they caused this to only make Diana look bad due to extreme jealousy that their fic is getting pushed away by Diana’s and was quickly thrown out of the fandom.

When Diana confronted Akko days afterwards when everything on both their ends died down, Akko confessed that the same thing happened to her but through cosplays in a different fandom and no one wanted to believe her so she left and vowed never to let anyone go through the same things because she wanted everyone to be happy. After that Diana and Akko quickly became friends and instead of arguing for hours they talked for hours and hours and before they knew it they were crushing on each other.

Diana fell first, she touched by Akko’s passion and kindness and protectiveness and determined nature. Then she admired her laughs and funny jokes and memes. Without realising Diana fell for her and she fell hard. She only realised it when she hasn't seen Akko’s cosplays and for the first time in her life, in her writing hobby, Diana was found lost for words. Her eyes could never leave the screen. They just kept staring and looking at Akko, they were lost in Akko’s beautiful red eyes, she was entranced. Then when she looked down and saw her smile… Diana’s heart jumped. It jumped more and more as Diana stalked her cosplay photos and general selfies she posted and by the time she reached the end Diana’s heart sunk that there wasn’t anymore.

That was the moment where Diana realised she had it bad.

Naturally, of course, she went to Amanda about it who didn’t believe her until Diana posted a gay poem about her ship but with lines that also doubled as confessions and her feelings for Akko. The hints were too obvious that she was talking about someone else and that was when  Amanda decided to play the wing woman.

Akko fell as soon as Diana did, or at least she recognised it as a crush. Akko had a lingering feeling that Diana was special hence why she stayed around so much and it’s only when they became closer, Akko saw why. Diana just amazing, she could write so much and update so frequently that it was insane, every compliment given was received with grace and modesty and every public fight made Diana seem so much nicer and smarter to Akko. She helps people with writing tips, helps them get more exposure for their fics and even if someone told her that she was ill, Diana would give them good solid instructions to make them feel better and they worked.

Then Akko was invited into Diana’s group by Amanda who was also there and Akko swears that when Diana talked it was the sound of angels. She was so dumbfounded that she shouted in surprise because she was so lost in thought of Diana and decided to spill the information on Amanda. Long story short, Amanda was fed up with them dancing around each other and shoved them in a private 3 way call where they confessed after a lot of talking and they became girlfriends which lead them to now, where Diana is waiting for Akko to arrive in the Heathrow airport.

/-/

“So…,” Amanda said as she fiddled with her video camera, her eyes lost of its usual thunder and spark for teasing and annoying Diana. She sighed, turning off the camera when she had no reply from her friends. She turned to the left of her, to see what Lotte and Diana were doing. Lotte was once again her her nose deep in another Nightfall book, though it surprised Amanda when she leant forward a bit more to see and saw that between Diana and her there was a small pile of books she already read or will read through when they wait.

Amanda blinked, accepting the fact that Lotte came with maybe 5 or more books to the airport and right under their nose. She turned her attention to Diana, rolling her eyes as Diana’s eyes are staring into the distance. Amanda knew what she was thinking of, anyone would with that sincere dopey smile, of that obvious lovestruck grin that stretched across her face. She was thinking of her darling Akko, the girl who they were waiting to meet.

Amanda’s mind fell back into the topic of Akko. She leant back into her chair, leaning more on her palm as her elbow was resting on the back of her chair as her eyes drifted upwards. She won’t lie to herself that the fact that Diana fell for Akko was a huge shock. Sure before when Diana was venting to them in the discord about how annoying Akko was and they teased her about liking the girl since boy she talked a lot about Akko yet she never expected them to actually get together.

Also, she didn’t expect them to stay together for this long, not that she would ever tell them of course. She just thought considering how much they fought before they might fight again and break up but Amanda didn’t mind being proven wrong, one easily tell that they were good for each other. Not to mention Diana being flustered over Akko and vice versa was the best thing to mess around with.

They, especially Diana had the best reactions. Amanda remembered the time she hosted a video call and it was the gay losers’ first time seeing each other through a screen. Diana couldn’t stop staring at Akko and her mouth was open like a big fish and a tomato face. Whilst Akko talked in Japanese for 15 minutes because she couldn’t think straight. Then again, Akko never thought straight to begin with.  

Amanda looked at Diana once more with a small smile on her face, hidden laughter conveyed in her smile before exhaling a long breath as she looked around, waiting for anything to get her bored attention. She shifted in her seat, keeping her ears open for any noise that may be used to her. There was the constant shuffle of movement and wheels squeaking as they roll on the tiled floor. The muffles of small talk, the soft thuds of when luggage hit the ground or when bodies briefly collided when passing.

As Amanda thought, there was nothing for her to pass the time, how long will it take for Akko to arrive anyways? They’ve been sitting down for a while now.

As if it was an answer to her thoughts, the generic beat of airport music was cut short, replaced by the shriek of a 3 beat alert, the signal of an important message delivered through a muffled robotic voice. “This is an announcement to say that the 13:30 flight from Japan has landed-” Amanda didn’t have a chance to hear the end of the message because she was instantly shouting in Diana’s ears.

“Diana, Diana, Diana” She repeated, shaking Diana out of her reverie with every name pronounced.

“What!?” Diana snapped back to Amanda with a glare. Amanda just smirked at her as she turned on her camera and faced it at Diana, looking through the lenses. She was not going to miss Diana’s reaction to this great news.

“I repeat: The 13:30 flight from Japan has landed…. ”

The sudden switch from anger to pure happiness and excitement was everything Amanda was hoping for.

Amanda was so glad that she recorded that moment. The way Diana’s narrowed glare of her blue eyes started to widen, the fire of annoyance that burnt in her irises expelled into this spark, this flare of happiness. Her smile that was so full and reached the corners of her cheeks erupted from the lined lips of annoyance. Amanda could see the star’s glint in her eyes, the rainbow’s happiness in her smile. It reminded her of her childhood photos she saw of Diana when she was younger, of that young, pure, innocent sense of happiness before her mother died.

“However due to an accident in the landing strip, the arrivals from the 13:30 plane from Japan will come through Arrival Area D oppose to Arrival Area A.”

If Amanda wasn’t so happy to see Diana’s face when she found out that her girlfriend will arrive sooner than expected, Amanda might laugh at the shattered shocked smile. The sudden startle in her eyes, the way her mouth hung open like a dead fish. Of course not out of malice, but because of the suddenness of it all and the fact that Amanda has a tendency to laugh at many things.

They all stayed there, suspended in an air of shock and surprise, even when the third and final notification replayed ended and the generic beat of the airport music played once more. Amanda was the first to snap out of the trance or realise that they were standing there for 7 going 8 minutes thanks to the runtime showing on her video camera. “Hey, Diana…” She said with a nervous laugh, she had no clue on what would happen next.

At the mention of her name, Diana snapped awake in a heartbeat. For a split second, Amanda’s eyes reached Diana’s and Amanda knew what she was going to do. She could just see it in her desperate eyes. She saw it in the reflections when she’s been caught sneaking around. The girl was going to bounce. Something Diana would never do was it not for Akko’s intervention of some sort and for some reason, Amanda was not okay with that.

Before she knew it, Diana fled from her eyes.

“Diana!” She shouted, waking Lotte from her small trance as well. Diana ignored her shout as she came around the end of seats. Amanda didn’t hesitate to heave her backpack on her arm, one hand still holding the camera, mouth a quick apology to Lotte before she races after Diana.

She should be excited about this, this was an interesting meeting that only Diana and Akko can pull and if she wasn’t worried about them being kicked out for causing trouble for running she might be. “Amanda slow down, they still need to get through security, we still have time to meet them!” Lotte called behind her. Amanda paused, her breath slows to deep intakes and long exhales as she looked at Lotte who smiled at her as she caught up. “Now why don’t you tell Diana that so that she won’t get into trouble.”

If Amanda was a better friend then maybe she would. Instead, she laughs as she shakes her head, “I would but where was the fun in that?” She adjusted her bag over her shoulders, “Come on maybe we could get Diana treat us to lunch for running, especially if it looked like we chased after her.” Amanda grinned before chasing after the runaway gay. “Diana!” She called, “Slow down a bit!”

/-/

Diana internally laughed at herself, she came early out of excitement and so that she can have her arms open and Akko would jump in her arms and she would spin her around, hugging her as they laugh together before she sets her down and kisses her. That was her ideal plan, this: running across one gigantic airport and let Akko meet her all breathless with messy hair was not.

But this current scenario is reality and so Diana needs to adapt. It’s a good thing she didn’t bring the violet and yellow lilies as a bouquet for her or else there would be a trail following her as she runs. Maybe if she gets there quickly she could have time to calm down and fix her hair but she knows that idea is against the clock. She wasted precious time already watching her ideas and dreams of her perfect way for them to meet shatter and crumble in her head.

Quite frankly, if Amanda didn’t call out her name she might’ve stayed there forever. She can hear Amanda from the distance actually, calling her name and telling her to slow down. Diana did not; nor did she look behind her in case she would collide with someone.

Before she knew it, she was in the right arrival area and with a few minutes to spare. Diana quickly became familiar with the seats as she collapsed on them to heave oxygen back into her lungs. Even then that still didn’t help the rapid pace in her chest, the ball of excitement that surges in her, bubbling and brewing like a volcano ready to explode. She is so excited, the thrilling sparks of anticipation are just electricity dancing between the nerves and the bones of her being.

Finally, she can be with Akko.

After so long, after so much waiting and dreaming for this day to come.

“You are either the dumbest, the most useless lesbian I have ever met or the most desperate lesbian I have ever met,” Amanda said through fast pace breaths of air. One hand leaning on a nearby chair, the other clutching the video camera tightly, the lens pointing at Diana.

Diana jumped from her seat, totally caught off guard from what Amanda said. “You would be like this if you are just seconds away from meeting your girlfriend for 2 years for the first time,” Diana argued, her eyes narrowing, her chest still rising and falling in the final attempts to normalise her heart rate.

“Yeah,” Amanda conceded her voice getting a bit louder, “But I wouldn’t run here like a madman!”

“We are just minutes away from meeting each other!” Diana reasoned, crossing her arms. Her eyes looked up at lingered on the clock. She wished she can speed up time, this wait seemed unbearingly long.

“Actually Diana, we still got 30 minutes left at least, They need to get their baggage and passports checked out and make it past security,” Lotte said to her with an apologetic smile as she walked to them with, she wasn’t tired at all. Unlike the other two she walked instead of running and chasing but how can anyone run with those heavy sets of books.

There was a long pregnant pause between the three of them. Lotte glanced between the two, Diana’s eyes were wide with surprise whilst Amanda gave her a small frown that didn’t quite match the smug amusement in her green eye. It didn’t take long for Lotte to see why Amanda was still filming this entire thing. “So are you telling me I didn’t need to run?” Diana asked, her eyes wide, cheeks flushing a warm pink from embarrassment.

“Well, if you wanted to you could and you did but…” Lotte reasoned as she put her bag next to Diana’s chair. “You really didn’t need to.”

“My apologies,” Diana muttered as she covered her face in an attempt to hide her face. “Clearly I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Amanda snorted as she moves closer, the lens focusing on Diana’s bashful and embarrassed expression, “You never been thinking straight to begin with Diana.” Amanda laughed, moving back as Diana leaned forward to grab the camera. “Hey come on Diana, you wanted me to catch a 'one of the kind' meeting between you and Akko,” She reasoned as Diana left her chair to cover the lens of the camera. “Besides it’s not every day your perfect hair is a mess.”

“Amanda!”

/-/

“Would you stop bouncing, it makes you look like an idiot.” Sucy chided as she nudged Akko at her side. They were waiting for their bags to come and Akko couldn’t stop bouncing. The Japanese girl grinned widely at her, her eyes being fireworks, an extravagant display of the sparks and flames of anticipation.

“But Sucyyyy, she’s here!” Akko squealed as she clasped her hands and brought it close to her chest, her squeal hidden within her intertwined hands.

“Oh boy…” Sucy muttered with a roll of her eyes, she could just tell what the girl was going to talk about next. Anyone with within a 10 feet radius could see what Akko would ramble on about.

“Diana is here!” Akko giggled as she twirled around, her steps were giddy and elaborate as she danced around Sucy who grumbled under her breath. “Diana is here and I’m meeting her~” Akko sang as her eyes closed and the world disappeared around her. She waited for this day to arrive, this day where they meet. The dream that powered her to work hard in her classes, get the grades needed to go to England with her parent’s permission.

No longer did she need to dream of holding Diana in her arms, the dream of kissing her till they are both out of breath, those dreams can become realities. They have been together for two years but to Akko, it was more than two years. Time sped up for them when they talked but it also slowed down and paused like it was the only two of them in the world but that was always something that happened.

Diana always found a way to make her feel special, to make her be something she isn’t. She won’t deny it, Akko knows she is a clown, a clutz who always mess up despite trying so hard. She understands why people laugh at her when she proclaimed that she was going to England to study. She could see why teachers would try to talk her out of it, why her own parents were hesitant about letting her stay hours after school to study for an exam they thought she could never pass. She even saw it in herself, she would look at herself and laugh and joke that even if she didn’t pass she would be content on going down as the biggest laughing stock of the year.

Yet Diana… Diana never believed that. Diana wholeheartedly believed her, she knew that she could pass the exams and come to England to study in the Luna Nova University. Diana would look at her say that she sees a queen, a queen who despite her flaws, bad habits and quirks were the best thing that ever came in her life.

Diana could make her smile with a simple message, with a picture her heart would race and her voice… Diana would always deny it with a cute fluster but Akko swears on her chariot cards that it was the sound of an angel. Now just meeting her, being in her embrace would make her be the happiest person to ever exist and she just hopes for the rest of the time they were together she would return the favour.

“Hey lovesick, what does Diana look like again?,” Sucy said as she nudged Akko once again, snapping her out of her daydream over Diana. They were walking for a while, their bags already collected and they were just heading to the arrival area, Akko’s suitcase was decorated with rainbows and the iconic image of a 4 pointed star that belonged to Shiny Chariot.

Akko’s serene smile broke to an excited grin, “Diana looks beautiful, she has this long and wavy blond hair that always look so fluffy and soft,”

“Okay,” Sucy said pausing for a bit, her eyes looking in the distance not that Akko noticed. “What is the colour of her eyes again?”

“Blue!!!!!” Akko squealed as she shut her eyes once more, the enchanting image of her eyes. “They are the greatest shade of blue, like its sooooo pretty and beautiful and I could just get so lost in them.”

“I see…” Sucy mused as her smile widens a bit more as she tugs on her shirt. “Hey, Akko I think I found her.”

Akko forgot to breathe.

Her head turned so quickly to Sucy’s direction, her heart jumped into her throat as her voice hitched. She can see her.

She can see her clearly despite the many people walking between them. Her eyes linger on her hair as it moves, her heart flips as she flipped it. Her images, the pixel faces she saw her through phone lied. Her eyes, those beautiful ocean blue eyes she can never stop staring at on her phone were stunning and were more beautiful than anything she ever saw.

She can feel her heart skip beats, she can hear the buzz of anticipation flow through her vein, the rush of fire that spread to her cheeks. This was a sensation she can never truly describe. She couldn’t think at all, lost for words and mind. Seeing Diana made Akko, the girl who couldn’t stop moving become still, the sight of her rendering her useless. So it’s a good thing she fell back on instincts, on her impulsive nature.

Her hands fall from the grip of her suitcase as she ran forward. It fell to the floor, the same time she shouted with all the love she had.

“Diana!”

/-/

Diana heard her name and her eyes grew wide. She recognised that voice anywhere. Every time she says her name, the cute unique way she says it, her heart thunders like a stormy ocean night, where wave after wave of overwhelming emotions drowns the oxygen in her lungs and swept it away.

She turns around, the world going deaf around her apart from one thing. The sound of running, of her name being said again and again like a song on repeat, the song her heart dances. Her eyes break into small tears, small happy tears as she sees who is running to her. A thief, a beautiful dorky thief in a shiny chariot shirt and ripped jeans and converse shoes that stole her heart and breath away.

“Akko,” she breathed before she runs to her. “Akko!” She shouts again, the thrill and happiness blooming from her voice.

“Diana!” Akko answers with a wide smile that mirrors Diana’s.

They meet halfway in a clash of arms that wrap around tight around the others. Akko’s arms were hugging tight around her waist and Diana’s arms clung to her shoulders as she pulled Akko closer and bury her head on her shoulder. “Akko,” Diana cried as her hands roam around her back and one moves across to the top of her hair and runs through it.

This is real. This moment is real. This was actually happening. All of that longing and waiting, of sleeping giddy in an attempt to push away the emotion of loneliness that Akko was not cuddling her right now was worth this moment. Where time froze and it was just her and Akko.

Diana can feel her weight on her body, she can smell the shampoo in Akko’s hair as she buried her face in it. Her cheeks hurt from smiling too much, so much as she held her closer, tighter in a way that screams that she won’t ever let her go.

When they pull away after the longest time hugged, Diana, can’t help but laugh at the height difference between them, even if it was just a couple of inches, “You are so small,” She laughed as she placed both of her hands on Akko’s cheek, her thumbs rubbing away the happy tears that stain them. Akko chuckles, a sound that makes Diana’s heart melt, her knees go weak as Akko turns her head slightly, placing one hand over hers and kisses the inside of her palm. If Diana wasn’t aware of the burning sensation on her cheeks, she could sense it now as it burns through her entire body.

“And you are so beautiful in person,” Akko murmurs to her palm before she turns her head again to face her.

Diana doesn’t know how to react, her mouth opens and closes like a fish. She doesn’t know how to react to this, usually, she is the one talking smoothly to make Akko blush that adorable shade of red but now she is caught off guard and is just a blushing fool in love. Akko giggled again as she put her other hand out and wiped away Diana’s own set of happy tears, smiling softly as she does so. “Lost for words again Diana?” She teased.

Diana smiled at the tease, removing her other hand to hold Akko’s and without losing eye contact with her, intertwined their hands together, their fingers fitting together like two pieces of a jigsaw. Her smile turned into a smug as the soft pink around Akko’s cheeks deepened in colour, her mouth slowly squirming in a bashful smile as Diana brought Akko’s hand and hovered her lips above it. She isn’t going to kiss it, not yet.

“Of course,” Diana admits with a chuckle, laughing even more when she can hear Akko’s gulp, her eyes not leaving Diana’s except only to glance at her lips or her her hand that is so close to it. Diana knows exactly what she wants and as a great girlfriend, she will give it to her. “Your angelic presence always made me speechless my darling Akko.” She whispered in soft sincerity before she kisses her hand.

Her lips lingered there, her eyes closed before she opened them, pride swelling inside her as she saw her darling Akko all red in the face and looking adorable as ever. “You did that just to one-up me didn’t you?” Akko accused as Diana removed her lips from Akko’s hand. Diana laughed at the words Akko said, she recognised those words. She saw it before in a text form when she sent Akko a photo of herself all too quickly to make the gal be flustered. She can see where this conversation was going and her heart raced even more at the thought.

“Maybe I did? Maybe I didn’t?” Diana mused as she made the distance between them became smaller. She let go of Akko’s hand and cupped her other cheek with it. “The question is Akko,” she smirked, her eyes glancing at Akko’s lips, a quick signal that she wanted this too and the way Akko’s hand tighten as Diana cups her cheek shows that she wanted this as well. She leaned closer, inches of a distance between, the stage was set and it was now the great finale of the show. Diana ignored the pounding of excitement in her chest, the sparks of electricity across her nervous system, of how her legs and knees are trembling as she stared at Akko.

“What are you going to do about it?”

Akko did the same thing she replied with to her text that night, many many months ago.

Akko kissed her.

Diana expected this, she knew there was a likely chance for them to kiss when they first meet, but she wasn’t prepared for this. She was on fire, heat burnt through her skin, red spread from her face to the tips of her ears and knuckles as her thumb rubbed circles on Akko’s cheek as she pressed deeper into the kiss. The other hand moved to her waist to pull their bodies closer as Diana relaxed to the Akko’s fingers threading her tresses of blonde, of how her other arm wrapped around Diana’s neck anchored her to reality. Her eyes stay quiet, closed as her mind tried to capture the moment she longed for and desired for so many months. Whatever she dreamt of, when Akko consumed her ever waking thoughts, it was nothing compared to what she feels now.

There was nothing that she could describe, Diana for all her writing glory was lost for words. Nothing would ever justify how right it felt having Akko’s lips move against hers, how intoxicated she was from it all, how despite her breath slowly being seeped away, she wanted more. This was the thrill that came from a Chariot show, the familiar comfort of writing, it was the fireworks that left her in awe, it was the autumn breeze on a sunny day. It was everything she ever loved all placed in a melting pot and served straight to her lips.

After was seemed like an eternity, they broke apart. Their eyes fixated on each other, giving Diana more chances to admire the beautiful unique colour of her iris before Akko placed her forward against hers. “Why must you be so good at everything Diana?”

Diana laughed at the question but that only prompted Akko to continue. “You are such a great girlfriend, writer, friend and now a great kisser.”

“I could teach you if you like?”

“If you’re going to teach her to do you mind giving a private lesson,” Amanda said, breaking the mood entirely. Akko smiled sheepishly as she buried her head into Diana again and Diana flushed red as the others smiled at them. Amanda however, laughed at the response, her eyes flip to the camera, still recording them and closed it. This part of the story is documented, it was up to them to document the rest.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 1)

Summary: To Weiss, legends were all about luck and circumstance: being in the right place at the right time, with the right skills and the right connections, a little luck on your side and a whole lot more hard work and determination. So it was for her grandfather Nicholas Schnee, her best friend Akko's idol "Shiny Chariot," and the Cavendish family, one of the most important figures during and immediately after the Great War.

And as she finds herself entangled in an ancient conspiracy that threatens all of Remnant, she starts to get why her grandfather always said “You never know you’re going to be leading the charge and making history until it’s already way too late to back out.”

Notes: RWBY/Little Witch Academia Crossover, Alternate Universe, Major Original Characters, References to Depression and Mental Health Issues, Family Issues, Explicit Language

The top of the tower exploded in a massive cloud of red dust and debris, ancient Mistral architecture that had withstood the ravages of time for centuries undone in seconds by a team of four teenage huntresses and the one Nevermore.

The Grimm screeched as it was engulfed in fire and blasted with bits of exploded rock, but louder still were the screams of Akko, Ruby, Weiss, and Diana as they plummeted into the nearby ravine, probably several hundred feet of empty air between them and wherever the bottom was.

As they all faced certain, painful, inglorious, death, Weiss wondered just where things had gone so horribly wrong this time...

It had all probably started yesterday afternoon, when she and her friend Akko first arrived in Haven.

“Yatta!” Akko cried, dropping her bags by her side as she threw her arms up into the air, started laughing and spinning round and round in place. “We made it! We made it! We made it!” she cheered, before she abruptly stopped, bent over with her hands on her thighs, her long hair falling around her face.

“Oh, dust, please don’t tell me you’re going to barf...” Weiss said as she walked up beside her friend, a cart loaded with suitcases in front of her.

Akko chuckled weakly, before she turned her head up to the buildings in the distance. “Weiss, if I’m going to get sick today, it’s going to be joy-puking from how HAPPY I am that we’ve made it to the promised land: the birthplace of one of the greatest huntresses Remnant has ever seen...”

Akko bent back up, her hands on her hips, her eyes beaming as she cried, “HAVEN ACADEMY, ALMA MATER OF THE ONE AND ONLY SHINY CHARIOT!”

The moment was ruined as some of the many other students disembarking onto Haven bumped into her, nearly knocking Akko down, the rest casting them dirty looks as they tried to move around them. Weiss caught Akko and helped her regain her footing, before they grabbed their bags or the handle of the trolley and started making their way towards the Great Hall in the distance.

“We’re taking our next big step towards fulfilling our dreams here, Weiss!” Akko said as they walked. “All those years in Sanctum, those hard summers training with Uncle Nick, all the bruises, all the cuts, all the times I set accidentally myself on fire—they’re paying off today!”

She stopped suddenly. “You know what we should do?” she asked, beaming.

“Go hunting for trophies, commemorative photos, and memorabilia of Shiny Chariot on campus?” Weiss offered.

“No!” Akko replied. Beat. “Okay, we’re definitely going to have to do that one of these days, but I was talking about Uncle Nick’s big mission for us both!”

Weiss frowned. “Do we really have to today? I mean, it’s only little less than 24 hours before we’re both forced to live and work with two or three strangers for the next four years...”

“Of course we do!” Akko said as she looped an arm around Weiss shoulder. “Look around you, Weiss: what do you see…?” she asked as she slowly swept her other arm through the air.

“A whole bunch of freshmen like us, some of whose presence should prompt us to mind our scrolls and wallets whenever they’re around...?”

“Friends, Weiss!” Akko hissed. “Potential friends! Friends you can make right now, and keep for life just like me, if you just try!”

Weiss sighed. “I still stand by my statement that I’d rather just start with my/our future teammates...”

Akko pulled her arm away, and pouted at Weiss. “C’mon, Weiss! Is that really any way for the granddaughter of the Nicholas Schnee to talk? Waiting to scavenge what’s leftover when everyone’s already had their fill, than stepping right up to the buffet table and taking their pick? It’s not even that hard!

“Here, I’ll show you! I’m going to...” Akko paused, pursed her lip as she scanned the faces around them. “… make friends with that girl over there, and show you how easy it is!”

Weiss followed Akko’s line of sight, found herself frowning as she saw a disturbingly pale girl with long, pink-hair in a full-length dress, seemingly not walking along the path so much as… slithering along it. “Please tell me you’re not seriously considering that girl...” she said quietly, warily eyeing the satchel slung over her shoulder.

“And why shouldn’t I?” Akko replied. “Auntie Frosty would be so disappointed in you right now, judging someone just by their looks! She could be perfectly nice and sweet, and just happens to look creepy, for all we know! As a matter of fact, I’ll go and find out now!”

“Wait, Akko--!” Weiss started, reaching out for her friend, before she sighed, and stayed by their belongings as Akko marched off to intercept the pale pink-haired girl. She couldn’t hear their conversation for the din of all the other students and the distance between them, but it seemed to be going as Weiss expected it to, with Akko talking up a storm, incredibly enthusiastic and chipper as always, probably breaking the ice by asking the pink-haired girl if they knew that Haven was where Shiny Chariot trained and got her hunting license.

Then the pale pink-haired girl lifted her hand, pulled back her sleeve, and used a wrist-mounted sprayer  to spritz something into Akko’s face while she was taking a short break for air.

Weiss watched in horror as Akko suddenly dropped to the ground, face contorted in disgust and horror as she shook and gagged, all while the pale pink-haired girl loomed over her with her tablet out, watching—no, studying the effects whatever the hell that was was having on Akko. Weiss abandoned their things and rushed to Akko’s side, knelt down beside her and picked her up, flinching and nearly dropping her as Akko puked all over the grass nearby.

Weiss pulled out her handkerchief, wiped the excess mess of Akko’s face. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked. “Do you need to head to the infirmary? Should I call for help?”

Still shaking and shuddering, Akko shook her head. “No, no, I think I’m going to be fine, just… need some fresh--” she puked again, thankfully all over the mess she had made earlier.

Weiss scowled and looked around, but Akko’s assailant seemed capable of some truly deceptive speed—she was gone, long-melded in the crowds, and she doubted that she would see her again soon, not without external forces and coincidence like having the same classes in the future. She groaned, wiped up the new mess from Akko’s face, before they returned to their things, thankfully exactly as they left them.

“Okay...” Akko said as she stood with one hand on her rolling suitcase for support. “So that didn’t go so well...”

“To say the least,” Weiss grumbled.

Akko ignored her. “… But that was just bad luck, is all! I’m sure that the next person I talk to, I’ll be coming back to introduce my new friend to my best friend!”

Weiss scowled. “Akko, you can’t be serious!” She groaned. “Okay, you know what? You win, I’ll go talk to some random stranger and attempt to make friends with them! Just let me pick whoever it’ll be, alright?”

“Okay!” Akko said, beaming. “Oh, and ask them if they’re a Shiny Chariot fan, if you can!”

“I will,” Weiss said halfheartedly as she scanned the area, found a black-haired cat Faunus girl that looked to be busy reading under the shade of one of the trees. There was a part of her that felt bad for choosing to bother her, of all the many other freshmen here, but she seemed the most approachable and the least suspicious looking in the immediate vicinity.

Weiss took a deep breath, then marched over to the Faunus girl. She slowed down and awkwardly stopped when she was about six feet away, hands held in front of her as she debated what to say, or if she shouldn’t just turn around before she noticed her.

Then the Faunus’ girls ears twitched, and she saw two yellow feline eyes peering at her over the top of her book. “Can I help you…?”

Weiss froze. “I, uh--” she started, before the Faunus’ girl’s eyes got VERY wide and she nearly dropped her book.

“Holy shit...” the Faunus girl whispered. “Are you Weiss Schnee…?”

Weiss winced, sighing as she stepped forward and put herself at a much more reasonable distance away from her. “Yes, yes I am. And you would be…?” she asked, forcing herself to smile and hold out her hand.

“Blake Belladonna,” Blake replied, taking it and shaking. “I’d heard the rumours and the news about what happened, but I never thought I’d actually see you in person.”

Weiss groaned. “Could we please stop talking about me like I’m some sort of famous celebrity that just suddenly dropped off the map, without a single trace? And could you please not bring up what happened? I’m really trying to put that chapter of my life behind me...”

“Sorry.” Blake said. She paused. “So, did you need something? When you came walking up to me earlier?”

“Forget it, I’m sorry for bothering you,” Weiss said, before she sharply turned around and walked back to Akko, eyes cast down.

“Excuse me!” Blake cried.

Weiss stopped and looked over her shoulder as Blake ran up to her. “Yes?”

“I have a group of friends who’d love to meet you,” Blake said. “They can really help you out here at Haven, among other things...”

Weiss resisted the urge to frown. “I’ll think about it, thank you for the offer. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go get back to my friend.”

Blake nodded. “Go on ahead, I’ll be around,” she said, before they turned around and went their separate ways. Still, Weiss couldn’t shake the feeling that those feline ears were still listening to her footsteps, that she’d be feeling those eyes and many more watching her from here on out…

“Didn’t go well?” Akko asked, frowning.

“To say the least...” Weiss said as she returned to her trolley. She sighed as she started pushing it again. “Let’s just go drop off our stuff at the Great Hall, then start looking for Shiny Chariot stuff, okay…?”

Akko’s frown grew, before she nodded her head and followed after Weiss. They slowed down as up ahead was a blonde girl and her companion, a much younger brunette who seemed intent on zooming and zipping all around the place, gawking and fawning over the students walking around with their weapons.

"Easy there, little sister,” the blonde said as she pulled her companion back by her red hood. “They're just weapons!"

"'Just weapons'?” the brunette cried. “They're an extension of ourselves!” she gestured out to the armed students. “They're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool!" she squealed, her hands held to her chest.

"Well, why can't you swoon over your own weapon? Aren't you happy with it?"

"Of course I'm happy with Crescent Rose!” the brunette said, now holding over her shoulder a scythe even larger than her. “I just really like seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people, but better..." she said as she folded her scythe and holstered it behind her back.

The blonde pulled her little sister’s hood over her head. "Ruby, come on: why don't you go try and make some friends of your own?"

Akko perked up, and leaned over to Weiss. “Opportunity…!” she whispered excitedly.

Weiss ignored her.

Ruby took off her hood. "But... why would I need friends if I have you?"

"Well..." the blonde said, before a small horde of students suddenly appeared all around here."Actually, my friends are here. Gotta go catch up. 'Kay, see ya, bye!"

Weiss and Akko both stopped as the blonde and her friends suddenly stampeded off to the Great Hall, howling and hooting, leaving Ruby dazed and spinning in her wake.

"Wait, where are you going?! Are we supposed to go to our dorms? Where are our dorms? Do we have dorms?" Ruby cried. "I don't know what I'm doing..." she said as she stumbled on backwards… right on to Weiss’ cart full of luggage.

Before Weiss or Akko could react, she tripped, falling right on top of the stack of suitcases.

Crash!

Weiss and Akko winced as both Ruby and the luggage came spilling out on the ground. “Oh, dust, are you okay?!” Weiss asked as she and Akko rushed to her.

Still dazed, Ruby tried to get up. “Yeah, I’m--!”

Weiss’ eyes widened as she saw some multi-coloured dust seeping out one of the suitcases. “Wait!” she cried, Akko freezing as she saw the spill, too.

Ruby froze, her already big silver eyes growing wider as she looked at Weiss.

“Okay...” Weiss said, carefully holding her hands out. “I don’t mean to freak you out or anything, but you just fell on top of some suitcases full of dust and ammo, and one wrong move might blow us all up…”

Ruby blinked. “Oh,” she whispered.

“Take my hands….” Weiss said as she leaned in.

Ruby did, her fingers tightly wrapping around Weiss, her own palms starting to sweat as she pulled her up. Akko skirted around the sides, checking the other suitcases for leaks, watching as the spilled cloud of dust was safely swept away in the breeze.

“We’re clear!” Akko said, giving them a thumbs up.

Weiss and Ruby both sighed in relief.

“Sorry about that,” Ruby said, smiling sheepishly.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Weiss mumbled, “it was an accident, after all. Just be more careful next time, okay?”

“I will!” Ruby chirped. Beat. “Uh, you can let go of my hands now.”

Weiss looked down, her eyes widening before she jumped back and let go of Ruby like she had just been burned. “O-Oh, sorry about that!” she said, blushing and unconsciously wiping her palms on the back of her skirt.

“It’s cool,” Ruby said. She looked at the luggage spilled all over. “You need some help getting your stuff back on the cart? I’m Ruby, by the way.”

“Weiss, and the thought is appreciated, but my friend Akko and I have got this, thank you,” Weiss said. “No offense, and I’m sure you know how to handle dust, but again: this is a LOT of it,” she said as she carefully opened one suitcase and checked its contents, before gently setting it back on the cart.

“Are those ALL filled with dust?” Ruby asked, peering at the suitcases still on the ground.

“Not all of them, no!” Akko said as she carefully checked another suitcase full of them. “But we’ve mostly got raw crystals or powder vials in here, or Auntie Freya’s super special shells for my weapon—and trust me, those things pack several punches!”

Ruby’s eyes sparkled. “Did you just say super special shells for your weapon?!”

“They’re called Showstoppers!” Akko said as she carefully stacked another suitcase on the cart. “I can’t show you just how awesome it is when fired, but I can show you what they look like!” she said as she picked up a new suitcase. “They should be in one of these right here!”

Ruby stepped up beside her and watched as Akko opened the suitcase. Then Akko’s eyes widened, and she immediately slammed it shut, Weiss and Ruby flinching in surprise.  “Ahaha, woops! Wrooong suitcase!” Akko said as she hurriedly put it back on Weiss’ trolley.

Weiss picked up another, and opened it. “It’s in this one!” she said as she quickly headed over to Akko and Ruby, and handed it over. “I’ll take care of the rest and get these into the Great Hall, you go talk weapons with Ruby here, Akko,” she said as she quickly loaded the rest on her cart, started hauling it to the Great Hall.

“You sure?” Ruby called. “I was going to ask you about your weapon, too, Weiss!”

“We’ll talk about it later, I promise!” Weiss shouted over her shoulder as she started walking faster.

Ruby looked at her in confusion, but as Akko pulled out her weapon from her luggage, Weiss was quickly forgotten.

She headed into the Great Hall, joined the line of new students depositing their luggage at the makeshift storage area in one corner. Weiss explained that most of her suitcases were full of dust and ammo, carefully handing them off to the staff, until they got to the one containing her personal belongings.

“Ah, you don’t check the insides of the luggage here, do you?” she said as she hugged it to her chest, her arms crossed over the front. “And have you had any incidences of theft or just, people opening bags and snooping around…?”

“No, we’ve got non-intrusive scanners for that, and no, we don’t, and if we did, you bet your ass we’ll get your stuff back and whoever did it will live to regret it,” the supervisor replied. “Why, is there anything in particularly valuable or important in here?”

Weiss hesitated for a moment, then whispered, “Prescription medicines and sentimental items.”

The supervisor nodded. “We’ve got lock boxes if you’d like, two copies of the keys—one for you, one for the admin; going to cost you, though.”

“’Peace of mind is always a good investment,’ as my grandpa might say!” Weiss said as she pulled out her wallet.

She was quite a lot of Lien lighter afterwards, but at least the thoughts weighing on her went with them, save for one niggling question: how much did Ruby see earlier…?

[cavendish-dakota-central]

In the spirit of Halloween, I wrote a thing based off the amazing ideas of @cutiepie-tro about Cavendish being a Vampire and Dakota a Werewolf. The fic is completely based on their first few ideas. I just really liked the idea and decided to take a stab at it.

It’s a little long but it kinda got away from me.

Warning for mentions of blood.

~

When you’ve lived as long as Cavendish, it’s easy to let time blend together until your own life and everyone else’s became two separate entities all on their own. Cavendish lived in a rather large house that had been passed down through his family to him when he moved to America. He was hesitant to call it an estate, for it was on a populated street, yet that was essencialy what it was. It had been the Cavendishs’ personal vacation property long ago occasionally rented out to those wealthy enough to afford the stay- but hadn’t seen guests for many years now. No one appart from it’s current, lone owner and occupant- dared to even step a foot onto the beautiful lawn.

The house was of a beautiful victorian style with a tall and deep inteior. It’s deep purple hue of slightly worn paint was only now starting to show any age. It also provided an interesting contrast to the overhanging trees and lawn before it, tamed only by cityworkers with nary a clue as to why they were hired to do such basic tasks. In the fall weather, the grass was drying out and the trees were only barely beginning to turn anything other than a bright green while inside a lone being stirred. Balthazar Cavendish was a simple creature who- in all honesty- had long since accepted that he would have to lead a simple lifestyle; seeing as the world wasn’t exactly prone to accepting his kind. You see, he was a vampire- and he had been for so many long years that he had all but forgot the world he was living in.

Before he was turned, he’d often dreamed of doing something better than what he saw before him. It was a cliche idea, but he was well aged. Back in the 1870s he’d wanted to make a difference, he wanted to change the world! He’d studied everything he could and had dreamed of building a new future! But that all changed when he was initiated into a group he had never before even recognized. As a vampire, every rumor- every /incident/- sent people after him, ready to hunt him down and kill him. He’d learned early on that if he wanted to do something big, he had to educate himself first.

And so he did. He spent his days locked away from those who misunderstood him and sterotyped him and especially away from the sun. He found ways to get the food and supplies required to live a normal life and with the invention of the internet came a new style of simply ordering whatever he wished for. Soon, the only things he left home for were a nightly change of scenery and a new source of blood. Sometimes he found online work or education, but for the most part he could easily live off of his inheritance- as long as he was practical with his purchases.

After long enough, his detachment from reality lead him to lose faith in his dreams and plans. In fact, he all but forgot them. He had to be careful simply leaving his house or even opening a window- why did he think he should bother make an impact on a world that seemed happy enough moving on without him?

He became used to his lifestyle. He’d sleep most of the day and then get up to dress in his same usual attire. After all his time, he’d never since seen any use in changing his style. Without a mirror or partner to help him, he’d never seen much hope in changing the only thing left he could recognize. He would then spend some time reading or doing something of the sort until nightfall when he was free to explore the city.

The world around him seemed to change every day. There were new buildings, people in new clothes, new vehicles, and new music. It was all a lot for him so he enjoyed heading to the nearby park and inspecting things from there. The cool night breases were his only friends as he walked alone along the paths near a small lake. He’d often grab some thing- and by that he meant some /one/- to drink on his way. He often left them healthy enough as to not arrouse suspicion so it took at least a few people to satisfy his tastes.

On one specific night, the dark world was busy with excitement of Halloween. It had evolved much since Cavendish’s day- but his predicament remained the same. It was too busy to find a drink without anyone noticing. With the park crowded, he didn’t even bother heading that direction. Instead, he traveled from his house -near the edge of town- to a large area of nearly untouched land not far away. There, he could feast on those dumb enough to dare each other to travel through the riveness and tall trees alone.

He easily found a group of victums and considered it a treat to taste that they had been drinking. Not only was the blood all that much sweeter, but it provided him with an easy excuse to simply leave them unconcious in the woods.

He made it back to his home with plenty of time to spare before sunrise, and settled down with a book he had been reading. It was about a monster competition; in the spirit of Halloween.

He was settled under a blanket in his chair near the fireplace, nearly asleep in his favorite chair, when there was a knock at the door.

He heard the confident raps from the other side of the door- but easily elected to ignore them. Every so often there would be one kid dumb enough to accept the dare to knock on his door. If the kid had half a brain, he’d quickly run away and Cavendish could return to his peace and quiet, never knowing a single detail about the prankster. Unfortunately for them, this wasn’t the case.

Another pair of wraps against the solid oak door.

Cavendish nearly scoffed to himself. Never had there been anyone as bold as to knock twice in a row- let alone with such confidence! He returned to his book.

Three knocks this time. He was nearly impressed. Someone had not only dared to step onto his property, but stand at his very door for nearly half a minute now.

It was still plenty dark outside, so Cavendish decided he might as well humor himself a bit. He wanted to scare this intruder so good that they would never again dare disturb him! Cavendish got up and headed over to the door.

He swung it open in a single strong motion that any human would have trouble duplicating.

“Foolish mortal!” Cavendish hissed, his British accent thick as he eyed over the man who now stood before him. The newcomer was shorter than the vampire. He had an abundance of dark-brown wavy hair and wore large orange-rimmed sunglasses that matched his 1970’s style orange tracksuit with its flattering red and yellow details. The being was fuller in shape than the boney brit but Cavendish barely noticed much about the stranger appart from the fact that he was intruding. Cavendish nearly hissed his words at his uninvited guest.

“You don’t know what misfortune you’ve wandered into-” He began to threaten. But the shorter man didn’t even seem to register it.

“Sure sure, but while you say all that could you get me a bandaid?”

This phased Cavendish for a moment. It could simply be the fact that it had been near a decade since his last personal conversation with another being- but he assumed it more likely that his confusion originated from the /way/ in which this man spoke.

He was calm and casual with a heavy Boston accent- if he was placing it correctly. But the thing that intrigued him most was the blood dripping through the man’s fingers. Cavendish couldn’t yet identify the origin of the wound, but if this man was willingly going to throw himself at a vampire feet… well Cavendish could live off his blood for quite a while with no one the wiser.

“Pardon me, please do come in.” Cavendish bowed slightly before moving out of the way. He closed the door behind his latest victum as he walked inside.

“Nice place.” The man said.

“Thank you.” Cavendish said proudly. He’d kept it nice and tidy all these years yet somehow forgot how good it feels to be complimented on all his hard work. Although it was rediculous, he was speaking to a simple human after all.

“So? Could I get somethin’ for this? I think I’m bleeding all over your carpet.”

The newcomer was correct, he was; however, Cavendish was only further distracted by this fact. There was so, much, red. What beautiful crimson color. His movement into the dwelling must have cause the sudden surplus.

“It’s a little hard to tell though…. I’m kind of dissy….”

He took a few steps towards one of the chairs before stumbling down to the floor.

“I’m Vinnie Dakota by the way.” He grinned as he slid down to sit on the floor at the base of a chair. His free arm soon lost all strength, leading him to fall flat onto his back on the livingroom rug.

Cavendish grinned somewhat fiendishly before hurrying over to the man. He pressed a hand against the wound between the right side of the man’s neck and collarbone before licking the blood from his own hand.

Cavendish immediately rubbed his tongue back onto the sleeve of his own jacket.

Werewolf blood??!

He sighed. Of course it was too good to be true. The man was no longer human at all! The tint of werewolf had already spread distinctively through the blood.

Now what was he to do?

Cavendish looked around and assessed his options carefully and systomatically. He /could/ simply hope the creature before him would bleed out before his healing took over, but then he’d have to dispose of the body without any other werewolf sniffing it out. The lone vampire wouldn’t be able to handle himself in any kind of fight- especially the kind of battle that could arrise if a pack assumed a vampire had killed one of their own.

Cavendish /could also/ simply toss the man outside and hope for the best, but it was nearly sunlight and someone besides his pack could find him and blow the cover of there not really being any supernatural creatures. Vampires and werewolves alike would be in trouble then.

Cavendish took an annoyed breath. He was going to have to take care of an idiot who chose to ask for help at the doorstep of the scariest house in town. Yeah, this should end well.

~

[Notes: Thanks for reading! I set it up so I can easily write more of this story if anyone wants but if not that’s fine. Sorry about gramatical/spelling errors btw but I was really tierd and I didn’t edit it as much as I probably should have lol. Anyways, sorry for rambling. I hope you liked it! :]

[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 30)

The others made way for Weiss first, Whitley pushing her wheelchair and stopping at the foot of the stairs.

“Do you need some help carrying Weiss down?” Ruby asked.

“No need!” Snowie said as she pulled out her scroll. “My dadd—ah, father built this whole house with a lot of useful gadgets and features in mind—watch!” she pressed a button, Ruby gasped as the wooden stairs suddenly started folded and locked into place as a ramp gently sloping downwards.

“Oh my gosh, that’s so cool!” Ruby squealed.

“I know, right?!” Snowie squealed right back, before her eyes widened and she quickly took an awkward, “serious” pose. “It’s, uh, super useful for wheeling lots of airlifted supplies or people down easily.”

“It’s also super fun to ride a bike down it!” Akko said. “Well, uh, so long as you remember to put something soft at the bottom, or you have a lot of aura so it won’t hurt as much when you crash.”

“What other gadgets does this house have?” Ruby asked excitedly. “There’s a transforming roof/landing pad, the security system in the forest outside, the elevator to get up and down the front door, and a staircase that transforms into a ramp if necessary, are there any more?”

“Quite a lot, actually!” Freya said as she went down the stairs next. “My husband never lacked for energy or boredom, had a constant need to occupy himself, and far too many non-cash favours to turn in for his own good.” She sighed. “You’re lucky you weren’t here when he was ripping out entire sections of the house just to run a new batch of wires and machinery into them, and/or rebuild them entirely.

“I swear, I never knew what the hell it is Nick was going to decide our house needed next, or that he’d build just to occupy his time.”

“Aww, I actually would have wanted to have been there...” Ruby said as she, Akko, and Diana followed, Snowie staying behind to turn the roof back to normal. “Sounds like it was a good opportunity to get a look at his methods up close!”

“Understandable, but you didn’t have to live here, too...” Freya grumbled. “In any case, welcome to our home! Please mind your sides and where you’re stepping, it may seem like there’s an abundance of space right now, but as soon as you start putting more people in, and especially when my husband’s around, planning your movements through any area of the house starts becoming a necessity.”

“I don’t really mind,” Diana said as she looked at the collections of random junk and papers stuffed into numerous shelves and cabinets built into the walls, hand-holds about the size of Freya’s hands built in the spaces between. “Your abode is rather…” she struggled to think of a word.

“Cramped?” Whitley offered. “Claustrophobic? A few steps from being a candidate for an episode of ‘Stockpilers’?”

“Cozy!” Diana said. “I was going to say ‘cozy.’ I’d never dare say anything so crass and rude about someone’s dwellings, especially while I’m a guest in them!”

“Don’t bother, Cavendish,” Freya said as they neared the bottom of the stairs. “We’re a rather frank, honest family here, frequently to the point most people would call ‘brutal.’”

“You forgot ‘angry and sweary’!” Whitley chirped. “A very key part of our identity, that,” he said as turned Weiss’ wheelchair around, backed up to make space for the others.

Freya scowled. “I was about to get to that, and would have phrased it better, but yes: flaring tempers, vulgar language, and rampant, casual verbal abuse is ‘kind of our thing,’ to use an expression…” the look on her face softened. “Please inform us if that could make you incredibly uncomfortable, and we’ll try to keep our tempers down, our swear words to a minimum, and not use ‘fuckface’ as a term of endearment, among other colourful words and phrases.”

“Oh, that’s fine!” Ruby said, smiling. “I lived in a halfway decent apartment in the lower city with thin walls and my sister Yang, I’ve heard WAY worse!”

“Cavendish?” Freya asked.

“I appreciate the honesty and the concern, but I won’t mind,” Diana replied. “It, uh, certainly is… unconventional, but, I suppose all I’ve seen so far says you’re a rather close-knit, loving unit.”

“Only going to be downhill from here, I promise~!” Snowie called out. “Oh, by the way, step a little to the right please, Diana?”

Diana looked up then down, noticed she was standing by the fireman’s pole and inside a circle painted in black-and-yellow hazard stripes, and stepped aside accordingly.

“Thanks! Incoming!” Snowie went down the fireman’s pole again, much more gracefully than earlier. “Haah, so! We, didn’t really get introduced properly earlier, what with everyone arriving than I thought—I’m Snowie, real name ‘Silsa,’ but, ah, nobody really calls me that except my momm—mother!”

She smiled and extended her hand, before she panicked and vigorously wiped it off on her apron. “Ah, sorry, was just super busy cleaning house before you guys arrived, and I haven’t really uh… had the time to bathe or wash my hands, so I guess I probably shouldn’t have offered to shake...”

“I don’t mind!” Ruby said, offering her own. “I keep forgetting my hands are covered in machine oil all the time, and I just leave greasy fingerprints everywhere—had to learn how to use my scroll using the eye-tracker function, else I keep damaging the screen!”

“Hah, me too!” Snowie cried as she took Ruby’s hand, shook it vigorously. “I tried using the voice recognition function, but then I had to keep disabling it cause I talk when I work--”

“--Then you have to make super weird phrases for it so you don’t accidentally activate anything while you’re hyper-focused on your work?” Ruby replied as she took her hand back.

“Yes! Exactly!” Snowie cried, her eyes sparkling as she laughed, before she stopped abruptly. “Ah, I mean--”she awkwardly turned to Diana “--you’re Diana Cavendish, right?”

“Yes, yes I am, of the Cavendish Medical Foundation fame,” Diana replied. “Please forgive me if I don’t want to shake your hand; it’s not you, it’s just the…” she got a haunted look in her eyes “… numerous other things I’ve come into contact with on the way here.”

“Oh, I totally understand, it’s fine!” Snowie said. Her eyes softened as she smiled. “Thank you, by the way—to your family, and all the work you did. My father wouldn’t be around right now if not for your family...”

Diana smiled. “You’re very much welcome.”

“And I’m Whitley, Weiss’ little brother,” Whitley said, stepping away from Weiss and shaking hands with Ruby. “Pleased to meet you both, hope you enjoy my quiche as much as my sister does!” he said as he went back to Weiss, and started wheeling her into the kitchen.

“He cooks really good, you guys!” Weiss added. “You can’t really see it right now, but I’ve been dying to get at it since I smelt it upstairs.”

“Yes, another breakfast would be much appreciated...” Diana said quietly, before she looked at their belongings and bags, still piled up on the platform just outside their front door. “… After we get all of these inside and organized.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that!” Snowie said as she headed to them. “I’ll handle it, you all just have breakfast! I’m all gross, filthy, and sweaty all over anyway…! Ah, sorry, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that, didn’t I…?”

“… Yes, yes you probably shouldn’t have, but fret not, my appetite’s been in jeopardy all morning, anyway...” Diana muttered as she followed them into the kitchen.

“Let me just go get the Shiny Rod!” Akko said as she rushed out, came back with the weapon tied to a sash on her belt. “So, how have you guys been here since we’ve been gone?” she said as she headed to the kitchen.

“Well enough, I suppose!” Whitley called out from the kitchen as he helped Weiss to a seat. “Though could we please have that story for another time? Grandpa and Grandma have been rather skimpy on the details behind your obviously eventful first week in Haven, and all the news we could read from MNN haven’t been much better.

“Raised more questions than answers, really,” he said as he went off to the sink to wash his hands again, get plates and utensils.

Weiss groaned as she let her head hit the back of the chair. “Ugh, where do we even start…?”

“Agreed...” Diana grumbled as she headed to the sink after Whitley. “It feels like someone could have written an exceptionally lengthy novel of everything that’s happened to us, even if they only just pick and chose from the ‘highlights,’ so to speak.”

“Maybe we should start with when we found the Shiny Rod?” Akko said as she took a seat herself.

“That’d be skipping quite a lot of the important events leading to your finding the artefact, however,” Freya said as she climbed up a series of steps built into the base of the sink. “There’s the whole business with Manbavaran and her experimental Grimm bait, for one...”

“Maybe we should just start at when we got off the airships and came to Haven?” Ruby offered as she took a seat. “That seems like as good a place as any to start.”

“Yes, but from whose perspective, exactly?” Diana asked as she took the seat beside Weiss. “It’s not like the four of us have been conveniently been together since we got off the airships, not to mention all the noteworthy events that have happened to us separately, like our private talks back in Professor Schnee’s office.”

“An objective view might not be the answer, either,” Freya said as she took a seat at a chair that was taller than the rest. “I should know from having complied a good chunk of the reports to the Council—they were hell to sort through, let alone pick and choose what was actually important.”

“Well, I’m certain we’ll all think of something!” Whitley said as he and Akko started setting the table and serving up the quiches. “How about I start asking questions about the things I’m most curious about, then we’ll just use that as a guide?”

“Sounds good to me!” Akko said as laid out the plates and pitchers of drinks, the other members of AWRD and Freya saying much the same.

“Excellent!” Whitley said. “So, I heard there was something about you four blowing up an ancient tower…?”

The group ate, drank, and recounted their eventful week as best as they could. Whitley went through a gigantic series of emotions as he listened and asked questions, teetering back and forth from positive and negative, until everyone had had their fill, Snowie had joined them after taking a bath in the stream nearby, and they hadn’t even come close to reaching the circumstances that drove them to coming back together in Hoshiko.

“How…?!” Whitley muttered. “How is it possible that every single one of those things happened over the course of a WEEK?! It feels like you entered some sort of time-space anomaly that stretched days out to a month, and none of you have just noticed for how fast things were going!”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Diana replied. “Honestly, I’ve found myself struggling to remember things like what we even learned in our classes, or from all our reading without the help of my notes.”

“You know what?” Whitley said. “Never mind, I’m not that curious anymore, I don’t think I want to know if hearing all of this has given me several miniature heart-attacks in a row.”

“We came out of it just fine, didn’t we?” Akko said.

“Yes, but through a great deal of good fortune alongside the bad!” Whitley cried. “I’ve heard that the Schnee luck tends to follow a cycle, but what the actual fuck?! I’m suddenly so glad I had Sanctum to distract me all week so I couldn’t bug you or Weiss for an update!”

“Then you mind if we have that conversation about my depression now…?” Weiss asked. “I slept on the ride here, and I’m full… it was delicious as always, by the way, Whitley, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Weiss...” Whitley grumbled as he started collecting plates.

“Nah, I’ve got this,” Snowie said as she put a hand over Whitley’s wrist. “You go have your big, important team conversation.”

“Then off we go to our room, then!” Whitley cried as he got off his chair and headed out the kitchen. “Akko, take care of Weiss for me, I’ll set everything up...”

“Got it!” Akko said as she got up and made her way to Weiss’ wheelchair.

“No, not the wheelchair!” Weiss said as she gripped the edge of the table, and shakily stood up. “I want to walk… I want a break from all the laying around doing nothing.”

“Let me help, too, then,” Ruby said as she came up to Weiss’ either side, joined Akko in supporting her.

“Are you sure you should be doing this, Weiss?” Diana said.

“No, but I want to,” Weiss replied. “Besides, I’ve got Whitley, he can heal anything I might overexert.”

“Let me get the stairs for you!” Snowie said, fiddling with her scroll.

There was a girlish shriek, followed by the sound of Whitley tumbling down the stairs.

“GUYS, WHAT THE FUCK?!” he yelled.

“Oh shit—Whitley, I’m so sorry!” Snowie said as she shot up from of her seat and out the kitchen.

“I TOLD YOU I WAS GOING UPSTAIRS! WHY DID YOU CHANGE THEM BACK SO SOON?!”

“I forgot, sorry!” Snowie yelled.

As more angry yelling and frantic apologizing filtered into the kitchen, Freya sighed. “Yes, that happens a lot here… I suppose I shouldn’t have railed so much on Nick’s ridiculous obsession with mechanical buttons and switches...”

“You could just set up a motion detector or pressure sensors that’ll keep it from activating if there’s something or someone on there!” Ruby said as she, Weiss, and Akko headed out, Diana following suit.

“A good suggestion, but I’m afraid to relay it, as that might mean having to climb up and down via ladder all over again, while my husband rips up the stairs to work on them...” Freya muttered.

Team AWRD stepped out to the living room, found Whitley standing, miserably pressing to his head a cloth with Snowie’s beer bottle from earlier wrapped inside it.

“Shouldn’t you be using a cold compress or a bag of ice cubes?” Diana asked.

“MSB bottles retain their temperature for longer and better,” Whitley grumbled. “It’s practically a company secret.”

“Unofficial pro-tip from the field: they work even in a place as hot and dry as Vacuo or the most tropical parts of Menagerie, so if you ever need to keep food fresh or keep something or someone cold, just pack a shit-ton of them!” Snowie said. “… They don’t have to be full or have some in them, either, but they don’t work as good empty, just so you know.”

“Thank you for the tip,” Diana said politely, before she turned to Whitley. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine...” Whitley grumbled as he started making his way up the stairs again. “My aura may be small, but I’m still the grandson of the ‘Unkillable’ Nicholas Schnee...”

They followed after him, helping him throw pillows out onto the center of the Schnee children’s room, and collect an overstuffed, especially rotund plushie of a Solitan seal from Winter’s gigantic collection near her bunk. “Great!” Whitley said as he went to one of the two shared closets, and opened it. “Now all I really need to do is get my… crap.”

“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked.

“I forgot I lent my Starlight Crusader sword to Weiss before she left for Haven...” Whitley muttered. “… Damn, I can’t moderate a Blubbermouth session without it.”

“Why don’t you just use the Shiny Rod?” Akko asked as she held it out to him. “It’s about the same size!”

“An excellent idea!” Whitley said, smiling as he reached out for it.

“Wait! Akko! Whitley!” Diana cried.

“Oh, crap—sorry!” Akko said as she pulled it back.

Whitley’s eyebrows rose as he frowned. “… What was that all about…?”

“The Shiny Rod is SUPER picky about who gets to hold it,” Ruby explained. “So far, it’s just let me and Akko hold it without shocking us, or messing with us to get us to drop it.”

“… And I’m glad you all remembered that before I got my hands on it!” Whitley said, before going to one of the desks in the corner. “Nevermind, I just remembered I had a presentation I needed to make for school, and bought some supplies from Hoshiko, one of which was…

“… Ha-ha!” he cried as he triumphantly raised a pink, rolled-up cartolina like a sword. “This will do just fine,” he said as he returned to the circle, sat down and put Blubbermouth in the center. He looked at all of them in turn as he said, “Now, everyone ready to get this Blubbermouth session on going?”

“Do we really have to call it that?” Diana asked as everyone else nodded.

“Yes, because Winter started it, we named it in honour of her, and in respect for Blubbermouth,” Akko replied.

Diana sighed. “… Alright then, I suppose if it helps...”

“Then I, Whitley Schnee, do declare this session has started!” Whitley cried, proudly raising the cartolina roll up into the air. “Now, since we’re in the presence of two newcomers… as you might have guessed, this is Blubbermouth,” he said as he reached out and patted the seal plushie. “With the exception of myself, your moderator, only the person holding him can talk.

“No one will talk at the same time as whoever’s holding Blubbermouth, or speak without words, such as through facial expressions, writing, or ASL. As soon as you’re done talking with Blubbermouth, put him back in the circle, so someone else can pick him up and have their turn to say what they need to say.

“You can’t pick Blubbermouth up twice in a row, unless everyone agrees you can get a second turn, so say whatever it is you wan to say—no hesitation, or risk having to wait for the next person to stop!

“If two or more people want to take Blubbermouth, Boulder, Icicle, Blizzard for him. Respect the results, no do-overs.

“You can’t stop someone from talking while they have Blubbermouth, but you can leave if you’re uncomfortable for whatever reason. No need to ask permission, just get up, and leave quietly; you can discuss whatever it is that rubbed you the wrong way with me, your moderator, after the session ends.

“If it’s just a bathroom break, raise your hand, and make it clear, we’ll wait for you to get back.

“When it seems like everyone’s said what they need to say, I’ll ask if you guys want to stop. If you all agree that you’ve said what you want to say, everyone put their hands on Blubbermouth, and say, ‘I’ve said all I have to say.’

“And finally, keep it civil. No personal attacks, try not to raise your voice in anger, but feel free to use as many curse words and harsh language as you would like—whatever gets your point across as clearly as possible, without stepping on anyone’s toes, or their comfort zone.

“Are the rules clear to everyone?”

All of AWRD nodded. “This is kinda like the Talking Teddy back at the Bunker, actually!” Ruby added.

“Then let the talking begin!” Whitley cried, raising his cartolina sword into the air, before he rested it across his lap.

There was a brief moment of silence, before Akko, Ruby, and Diana all looked at Weiss, she sheepishly took Blubbermouth and cradled him in her lap. “I actually had this big speech I’ve been working on in the summer leading up to now, with all kinds of notes to myself based on what might happen, but I left that in Haven, it’s handwritten, and I didn’t take a picture on my scroll…

“… So, I guess you’ll all just have to be content with me rambling on and on about the shittiest part of my past that’s come back to haunt me.”

As Weiss began to tell her tale, the others silently listened.

Note: I feel like I should feel at least slightly bad for throwing Whitley down the stairs just for fun.

[cavendish-dakota-central]

Vinnie Dakota & Balthazar Cavendish

Synopsis: While on their way to a pistachio-related mission, Balthazar discovers that Vinnie is a much better singer than he’d thought and yet again questions the ‘coincidences’ of Milo Murphy.

AKA: Vinnie and Bradley sing Gitchi Gitchi Goo while Balthazar is annoyed. It actually works in context.

~Word Count: About 1359

“Dakota, could you /please/ take this seriously! I know it’s time travel, but every minute still counts!” Balthazar Cavendish said in a failing attempt to refocus his partner.

He was instead forced to wait where he stood at the back of the small crowd forming around some park preformers on one of the smaller public stages. They’d been on their way to yet another pistachio-basef mission, and while it was true that the task was minor and the time it needed to be completed by was hours away, Balthazar was nothing less than focused. Vinnie, however, had already climbed to the top of the small group set up on the stage.

He chatted with the member whom Balthazar assumed was the lead singer. It was almost half a minute before the rest of the group started playing the into of a very firmiliar song. He was a dark-haired, young man in a grey-blue plaid shirt and jeans. He seemed nothing less than happy as he called confidently to the others below.

“Hey everyone!” The lead singer finally stepped up to his mic stand as the intro played. He joined in on a guitar that was slung around him and continued to welcome the gathering crowd.

“Don’t be shy! Come on over for a song or two! I bet you all know this one!” He chucked at the last bit for a reason Balthazar didn’t know. “I’m Bradley and we’re gonna sing a song!”

Their audience clapped and cheered in excitement, but Balthazar only rolled his eyes. He had already easily recognized the famous tune but he wasn’t about to let his mild enthusiasm show. Even he could appreciate a good song when he heard one.

The only difference between this version and the original was that this one had a little more of a rock vibe to it. The lead singer was on guitar along with a girl with dark hair that was dyed at the ends, a blond boy was on the drums behind them, another kid was on bass, and Dakota had picked up a tamberine.

“Sing along! Bow chicka bow wow!”

“That’s what my baby says!” Vinnie sang the back up vocals.

“Mow mow mow-”

“And my heart starts pumpin’!”

“Chika chika chu whop!”

“Never Gonna Stop!”

The pair did the line together to the crowd, “Gitchi Gitchi Goo means That I Love You!”

Balthazar rolled his eyes yet again and crossed his arms tightly in front of his firm figure. He wanted to walk away, but knew his feet wouldn’t move if he tried. These kinds of things always frustrated him about his partner, but he’d never admit to anyone- even himself- that he almost enjoyed them. Luckily, he knew he could definately manage some genuine exasperation if they were anyone but Dakota.

So instead of continuing to walk in the direction of their assignment, he stared up at the small band with a solid gaze and rigid stance.

The younger singer sang the first part.

“My baby’s got her own way of talking  Whenever she says something sweet,”

Suddenly Vinnie picked up, his voice much stronger and much smoother than Balthazar would have expected- though somehow never loosing it’s rough edge. “And she knows it’s my world she’s a-rockin'  Though my vocabulary’s incomplete!”

Cavendish had heard him sing before, but never like this. His voice flowed as well as any professional.

Luckily the other singer’s voice picked up the next line and cut through his thoughts, bringing him back to his surroundings. “And though it may sound confusing, Sometimes I wish she’d give it to me straight,”

“But I never feel like I’m losing!”

“Losing,” The band leader echoed.

“When I take the time to translate, Here’s what I’m talking ‘bout!”

Suddenly a movement near the side of the stage caught Cavendish’s attention. It was that of a firmilar, reflective yellow and black stripped symbol on an olive-green backpack.

The singers alternated the next part a little differently than the original, yet it was orchistrated flawlessly. Unfortunately, Balthazar’s attention was now turned to the firmiliar figure of his self-assigned nemesis racing behind the stage.

“Bow chika bow wow,”

“That’s what my baby /says/!” Vinnie made sure to hit the high, swooping note, “Mow mow mow,”

“And my heart starts pumpi-i-in’, Chika chika chu whop”

“Never Gonna Stop!”

They then sang together once more, “Gitchi Gitchi Goo means that I Love You!”

The tall man quickly made his way to the side of the stage where he’d seen the firmiliar symbol and raced around it in search of the young boy.

“Milo Murphy, I’ll get to the bottom of this just yet!” He grumbled to himself, annoyed to find only empty space that gave way to the rest of the park. Milo was fast, Balthazar could give him that.

He continued around the stage but the figure seemed to have vanished. Cavendish knew it just couldn’t be a coincidence. There could /not/ be /this many/ coincidences in a row that involved the three of them.

The two singers did the rest of the song in flawless unison.

“Well I don’t know what to do-o!”

The crowd easily sang the back up, “I don’t know what to do.”

“But I think I’m getting through-ough!”

“I think I’m getting through.” The audience cheered.

“'Cause when I say I Love You-u!”

“When I Say I Love You.”

“She says I Gitchi Gitchi Goo You Too!”

They alternated, each note building upon the last. “Gitchi Gitchi Goo You Too” “Gitchi Gitchi Goo You Too” “Gitchi Gitchi Goo You Too!” “Don’t need a Dictionary.”

They were leading a beat clap. Meanwhile, Cavendish had no choise but to give up his hunt. The youngster was far gone from view.

“I said a- Bow chika bow wow,”

“That’s what my baby says!”

“Mow mow mow”

“And my heart starts pumpin’!”

“Chika chika chu whop”

“Never Gonna Stop!”

“Gitchi Gitchi Goo means- That I Love You Baby! Baby! Baaab-aayyy!” “Baby, baby, baby, baby….”

“Gitchi Gitchi Goo means That I Love You!”

There was quite a bit of clapping and Cavendish hadn’t even realized the amount of people who were now swarming the area. He’d been too focused on the assumed counter agent who was now long gone from his sight and the surprising yet /amazing/ voice of his companion, who was now climbing down from the stage. Dakota was at his side again nearly as quick as he had gone.

“Don’t worry. We can go now if you want, Balthy.” Vinnie said, salmly resuming the path they had been on before the song.

The taller of the pair shot a quick look behind him before he silently turned to follow his friend, his thoughts suddenly refocusing on the stunning effect Vinnie’s voice had had on him. He chose his next words carefully.

“You… don’t usually sing like that…?”

He felt a little dumb phrasing it that way, but did it anyways as he took the lead away from the growing preformance.

Luckily, Vinnie didn’t seem to notice his hesitation- or at least didn’t seem like he did. He turned to his british companion with a smile.

“Oh yeah. Well, it’s harder to- but puttin’ in the effort isn’t hard when you’re in the moment, yunno?”

He grinned even widder.

Balthazar tilted his head in thought but didn’t say anything more about it. His friend always seemed full of surprises, but this was definately one he would have never expected.

He instead changed the topic before he thought too hard on it.

“I saw that blasted Milo Murphy again but I lost him in the crowd. We need to get to the bottom of this!”

Vinnie sighed.

“And we will. But you could at least lighten up about it until we do.”

Balthazar replied with a huff.

Trying to make a difference in the world was difficult enough without all these distractions, yet he found himself thinking back to his companion’s amazing voice more than possible counter attack for his new and mysterious counter agent.

Blast him and the world’s strange mysteries!

[Notes: ~Excuse my horrible spelling. ~This took like the last half hour of my life to indent/format so I hope you appreciate my effort ~I have no idea if Bradley and Vinnie’s voices would work well together but I like to think they would. ~ yes bradley singing it is kind of a play on the fact that vincent martella voices both him and phineas who originally did song. ~Bradley just needs some attention so I like to think he tries to do things like this and actually has a really good time ~Poor Cavendish he’s just trying to complete his mission lol ~Feedback appreciated thanks!!]