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#I’m sure wall jumping is so much easier on every other version
abstractsnail · 8 months
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Finally beat AC2 last night!
Switch controls are absolutely janked so that made some of the more precise puzzles way more frustrating than it should’ve been. I enjoyed the story a lot! I had to play it in chunks a few months apart so some details may be hazy but it wasn’t hard to jump back in and know what I needed to do.
It took almost 30hrs on my first playthrough to 100%. I only needed a guide a handful of times for collectables or a puzzle, and for the eagle feathers
All in all a good experience, can’t wait to play the next game!
I’m think I might do like a light review of some of the stuff I’m getting into right now so I can have a place to collect those thoughts n see how they change over time
I’ve never really done anything like that before but I think it’ll be neat!
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ms-demeanor · 1 year
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since twitter has become actively hostile to its users, so they came to tumblr, and reddit has become actively hostile to its users, so they came to tumblr, what do we do now that tumblr is becoming (more) actively hostile to its users? i’ve been here for over a decade so i know tumblr users are the type to cling on despite everything and revel in undoing every change, but i’m so tired of the way this website breaks the way it fundamentally works in order to appeal to new users. the twitterfication of the site seems so much worse than when people jumped ship after the porn ban, and even then, only small communities (and twitter) cropped up as solutions. you might not be the person to ask for a definitive answer, but i figured a tech blog might be interested in considering - what do we do when there’s nowhere left to go?
Okay so, I mean this very seriously: how has tumblr meaningfully become like twitter?
I don't personally find the sidebar view obnoxious and it seems to me like just another layout change that's pretty typical to tumblr. New users are getting signed up with a bit more emphasis on algorithmic feeds, but that is still very easy to change (MUCH easier than on any other social platform) and the algorithm has been there for everyone for quite a while, we just typically don't notice it because a lot of long-term tumblr users don't go into the "for you" feed.
I don't think that tumblr *has* fundamentally broken the way that it works to appeal to new users. My dash now is still very much like my dash in 2019, and still very much like my dash in 2018 (though much less pornographic). Reblogs are still reblogs, likes are still likes. Replies, for all that they seem like they've been around forever, are new and good and I think they work well. I'm irritated that the notes menu doesn't have a "view all" option but I think that's a worthwhile tradeoff for an easy way to see tags.
I *do not* understand why tumblr has broken linking back to previous reblogs but I don't think that's out of an effort to act like twitter; it is a bizarre choice that I dislike and don't understand but I also don't think that it has fundamentally changed the way the site works and i mean you've been around long enough that I'm sure you've had the same experience I have of going into the notes of a post and randomly clicking until you found a version that you wanted to reblog without a bunch of bullshit at the bottom. Tumblr has always kind of sucked, this change DOES suck but it doesn't suck in a way that is particularly novel or insurmountable. (For instance, I think this change sucks MUCH LESS than when they made posts with links invisible to the search, that is something that is genuinely bad that has been long lasting but doesn't get brought up much in lists of the ways that tumblr has gone wrong)
Tumblr *is* changing, but I think it is changing more incrementally and less terribly than other parts of the internet. I also hate the floating clown, the login walls, the dash-only view for blogs (you can't archive it and I HATE that), and - to an extent - the new lightbox on mobile. And I dislike that less than I thought I would but I don't think it's a fundamental change that necessarily impacts my interactions with the site - it *adds* a feature that I don't care for but it doesn't *break* anything that I require to have a good time on tumblr - in that way I think of it very much like Live. People hate Live so much and I find that perplexing because it is so easy to simply ignore it.
But that's not really your question; that's just some stuff I want people to think about because as much as tumblr has changed in the last two years it is nowhere near as fucked up as the recent things that twitter and reddit have pulled.
So, as to your question: where do we go?
Well. Not to be an extremely old person on the internet, but damned if I don't miss email lists. And forums. God I miss forums. Neither of those things has all the bonuses of platforms like twitter or reddit or tumblr or facebook, but they were great ways to hang out with people you liked on the internet.
The internet is changing. I can feel it, you can feel it, I'm pretty sure we're all like cattle in a field lifting our noses and hearing some distant rumbling and becoming slowly aware that it's almost time to run. There's a coming stampede and it isn't here yet but you know it's on its way. You're not imagining that, that's how things feel right now and there are a shitload of things contributing to it.
Things like SESTA/FOSTA and KOSA (which has not passed yet but is a big red flag waving on the horizon) have been eroding away the way that users on various platforms can function. Some platforms have consolidated in ways that harm users; some new platforms have popped up and shaken up the map of the internet; some platforms are being torn apart brick by brick by owners who don't care about the users. It kind of seems like people are actually looking up and realizing that advertising is A) bad and B) doesn't actually work and I think we're running straight toward another advertising-based crash like we saw in 2017. It feels like all the desperate things that tumblr is doing is just rearranging deck chairs on the titanic as the internet as a whole starts to sink into the ocean.
Honestly, I don't think it's that bad. I think it *feels* bad, but I think we're looking at a slow whimpering death of the platforms, not a bang. I think tumblr is going to hang on at least for a few years and I think it's going to end up like livejournal and myspace, which both still exist as websites that are recognizable as updated versions of the sites they were in 2004-2010. The thing that I think would really, honestly hurt tumblr in a fundamental way is if it moved to a more algorithmic and data-sales based model of advertising, and I think that's still pretty distant. I think Automattic is aware that killing the chronological feed would be the one unforgivable sin that would cause a mass exodus and a final crash, and I think when we see that, when we can't just scroll through the feed and see what our friends did that day in order of when they did it, that's when the party is over here.
But that's still not answering your question.
So, where do we go? What do we do? Well, for now, I'd say it's a good time to get contact info for your friends across various platforms. Get email addresses, get phone numbers.
Now is also the time for you to set up a personal website. NeoCities is currently the best place to do this, though it takes a lot more effort than just starting a blog on tumblr. I think that various oldschool blogging sites like Wordpress and Blogger/Blogspot/whatever the hell the google one is are a better place to have your emergency backup than a more platform-y platform if you aren't up to doing something with NeoCities.
If you've got the ability to do so and a group of people who are interested in the same core subject, set up a forum. There's a decent amount of off-the-shelf forum software out there and a text-and-small-images forum isn't prohibitively expensive, but it's never going to be huge and you're never going to have the kind of spread and virality and random connections that you would on a platform with millions or billions of users.
If you can't set up a forum, setting up or joining a discord server for your friends is a decent enough option at the moment, and may be a very good option for people who are looking to keep their interactions more private.
But yeah i think right now is a great time for people to start setting up their own personal websites, to start visiting actual webpages again, to start bookmarking their friends' websites, and to start collecting contact info that isn't tied to platforms.
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maemelany · 4 years
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Fixing the Broken (Part 3)
Summary: People say that time heals all wounds. In your case, time made it worse.
You’ve been married to Chris for five years, but his absence spoke louder than his words. After 5 years of trying, you’ve decided that you’ve had enough, and you left him. But Chris doesn’t want to let you go; he doesn’t want to give up on your marriage.
Would he be able to fix what you consider irretrievably broken?
Warnings: Angst, tiny tiny mentions of sex
Word Count: 2.6 k
Pairing : Chris Evans x Reader
A/N: I hope you like this one. I can’t wait for your reactions about this one. I can only imagine what @fallenoutofrose will have to say about Chris’s behavior in this part 😂
Enjoy and let me know if you want me to add you to the tag list
Love x  Mae ❤️
Masterlist 
Prologue , Part 1 , Part 2 Part 4 
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“It is better to hope than despair.”
-Lailah Gifty Akita,
You finally knocked. After standing in front of that door for what felt like an eternity now, you finally knocked. Your legs felt like jelly, and your heart was pounding in your chest. You were feeling more anxious than the day of your wedding, and the irony of the situation made you almost laugh. Almost, but not quite. You were about to when Lisa opened the door.
She was as radiant as ever, a big, warm smile on her face. Honestly, it surprised you. You knew that she knew. Now that Chris was back, there was no way Lisa wouldn’t know what was going on. That man told everything to his mother.
Lisa let you in, and you followed her into the living room. The house felt like a second home to you. Actually, it felt more like home than your place with Chris sometimes. There was always something happening here. When you left your house, you almost came here. But you felt like it was unfair to Chris. Lisa was his mom, and her house was his safe place, not yours.
“Chris told me everything. How are you holding up honey, are you okay?” Lisa asked you
Her kindness broke your last defence. Her genuine, motherly concern about you made you feel guilty that you didn’t come to her sooner. Lisa had always been so kind to you, taking you in as her own daughter from the moment Chris introduced you as his girlfriend. Your lips started to shiver as you were trying your best to hold the tears back.
“Oh, honey… please don’t cry.”
She took you in her arms, and you broke into tears. It may have lasted five minutes or an hour; you weren’t sure. These days you were crying so much it was just the new normal.
Your best friend had been a great support to you, but she had to. She was your best friend. Chris’s mom was supposed to be on his side, defending her son’s best interest. Not yours.
“Why didn’t you tell me things were that bad, Y/N?” Lisa asked you
You looked away. Somehow ashamed that you thought Lisa would reject you.
“I … I don’t know. Chris is your son, and…”
“And you’re my daughter. Y/N, you’re family. We all love you!” Lisa said, taking your hands into hers. “Plus, I bet some even love you more than Chris,” Lisa joked.
You laughed, feeling a little bit more at ease now. “I’m sorry…” you whispered.
“Don’t be. I am sorry we didn’t see anything,” Lisa said
You shook your head. It wasn’t their fault. They weren’t responsible, Chris and you were. It was your marriage, after all.
Lisa asked for your version of the story, and you could tell she was trying to be as partial as possible. You hated that you had to put her in that situation. She cringed when you told her Chris didn’t notice you were gone until he went to Carly’s place.
“That boy…” she said, shaking her head. “I’m so sorry, honey,” she said, a sad expression on her face.
“It’s not your fault Lisa. Actually, it’s not even Chris’s fault. I can’t force him to stay married to me,” You said
“You think he feels… forced to be with you?”
You shrugged. “I mean… why else would he be as far away from me as he possibly could?”
Lisa watched you closely. You could tell she wanted to say something but was refraining herself.
“You two should talk. Maybe you could solve this…” Lisa said
“I don’t think us talking would do any good. We tried that yesterday; you should have seen how shi… messy it was”
Lisa tried to hide her smile when you stopped yourself from swearing. “If talking to each other doesn’t work, maybe you should try talking to someone else…” Lisa suggested
You frowned. You didn’t see how Chris and you talking to Lisa would help. Yes, Lisa was a wise woman, but as she said herself, she was your mother both. Knowing Chris, he would take it personally if his mother called his shit out about his marriage. You still remembered what happened the last time Lisa agreed with you instead of Chris. He was salty for days.
“I love you, Lisa, but I don’t think talking to you would fix this,” you gently said
Lisa laughed. “I wasn’t talking about me, honey. I meant a therapist.”
“A therapist? Like couples therapy, you want us to go to couples therapy?” you asked.
Lisa nodded. You never thought about that.
“I thought couples therapy was supposed to happen before couples decide they want a divorce.”
“Not necessarily. It could help you express your feelings in a safe place. And, you decided you wanted a divorce, honey. I don’t think Chris agrees with you.”
You frowned. If Lisa thought the warm smile would help you accept the subtle criticism easier, she was wrong. You were even worse than Chris when it came to being right. 
You loved being right and hated being told that you could have done something wrong, especially in that very particular situation. You were right. You had to be right. It would kill you to realize you were wrong and left the man you loved for nothing.
“Do you think I went too far…” You said, the tears resurfacing
“Oh no,” Lisa immediately told you. “You did what was right for you, and that’s the most important. I can’t even imagine how you must have felt, alone in that big house.”
A huge weight lifted off your shoulders. Secretly you thought people didn’t understand you. You were married to Chris Evans, living what they thought should be a fairy tale. 
Even though you and Chris were what people called a private couple, he would sometimes tell things about you or express his love for you when he was being interviewed. When those things happened, your friends would always send you messages, reminding you how lucky you were. 
They didn’t know how far they were from the truth. Most of the time, you were alone in your bed when you were reading their messages. Alone and lonely. 
People think they know things about your life, your marriage, but they don’t. They would have to walk in your shoes, feel what you daily felt to actually understand.
When you left Lisa’s house, she had convinced you. She made you realize that even though things between You and Chris were pretty bad, your relationship was worth saving, or at least you owed it to Chis and yourself to try. Even if therapy didn’t work, you still owed it to yourself and Chris to end things the most peacefully possible. Before being your husband, he was your friend. You needed at least that friendship to be saved.
Instead of going back to your best friend’s place, you went home. It wasn’t even a conscious decision. You started driving and found yourself taking the way home. Instead of turning back, you continued. You realized waiting wouldn’t help. You’d waited so much already, now was the time to act.
As you opened your front door, you felt submerged with that particular sent. You were home. Despite what you told Chris yesterday, this house was your home. You chose almost every piece of furniture.
 Chris was more than happy to leave it to you; he didn’t understand why you needed so many pillows on the bed or a particular shade of beige for the dining chairs. Instead of explaining everything, you would just ask for his opinion when it was absolutely necessary. Plus, it was hard to decorate a house via FaceTime. 
Thinking of it now, decorating this house helped you manage your loneliness for some time. You were proud of every single room, from your bedroom to the laundry room.
You found Chris and Dodger sleeping on the sofa. You weren’t surprised. The couch was probably Chris’ favorite spot in the whole house. You had your office, and he had this sofa. 
You were tempted to lay next to them. They felt like home. But you didn’t want to wake Chris up. If there was one thing Chris was lacking, it was sleep. You also noticed the dark circles under his eyes yesterday, and the current situation was not helping his sleep deprivation.
When you noticed a few takeout boxes in the room, you knew exactly how to occupy yourself. Chris used to love your cooking. Your skills were definitely better than his, but as your husband liked to say, one cannot be good at everything. You smiled when you remembered how you would tease him about his horrible cooking skills, and he would remind you how messy you were.
Even now, after thirty minutes of cooking, the countertop looked more like a war zone than a kitchen island.
“It smells good.”
You jumped. You didn’t see Chris coming, and now you had tomato sauce all over your blouse.
“Chris! You scared me!” you said, looking at him.
He was leaning against the opposite wall, observing you. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
You looked at him with more attention. He looked less tired. You wanted to say something, but Dodger was all over you before you could open your mouth.
“Hey, baby. I missed you so much,” you said to your dog.
Dodger started to bark. The high pitch he usually reserved to Chris when he was coming back home after long periods of absence.
It broke your heart.
“He missed you,” Chris finally said
You didn’t know what to reply. You didn’t want to say something that would create a hostile environment for the rest of the evening.
“I need to change myself,” you said, showing your now stained blouse.
You were gone before Chris could even blink. Once in your bedroom, you found everything exactly as you left it. You rolled your eyes, mentally asking yourself how Chris could be so organized. And then you realized he wasn’t that organized. It wasn’t just the bedroom that was exactly as you left it. The walking closet and the bathroom were too.
Chris wasn’t sleeping in your room, and you wondered why.
When you went downstairs, you found him making the table.
“I thought I’d made myself useful,” Chris said when he saw you.
You smiled. That was the kind of evening you used to dream about. You and your husband casually sharing dinner together.
Chris was very attentive, serving you wine, asking you if you needed anything. You wished you could be so relaxed. You wished you weren’t about to drop a massive bomb on him.
“Why aren’t you sleeping in our bedroom?”
Your question surprised you both.
“I… I don’t know. It doesn’t seem… right.”
You looked at each other, your eyes saying more than a thousand words. Again, you were reminded how easy it would be to just give in, to just come back. But it would be a temporary relief, one you would only enjoy until he’d decide to leave again.  
It took you the whole dinner, and filling the dishwasher, and watching the first part of a show to gather enough courage and tell Chris you two needed to see a therapist.
It happened before he was about to kiss you. You could feel it in his eyes, the way they became darker, and the way his body leaned closer to yours. You could feel your heart beating faster and the room suddenly feeling hotter than before.
You wanted to give in, you missed his touch, you missed his kisses. You missed sex with your husband. But you knew it would make things more difficult. Sex had never been a problem in your relationship. Actually, it made you forget about the problems. You couldn’t remember how many times you were on the verge of telling Chris you weren’t happy with the situation and totally forgot about it the minute his hands were on you.
“No,” you said, standing up.
You started walking around the room, trying to compose yourself. It was frustrating how all your perfect, well-prepared plans got ruined the second you were around Chris.
“Y/N,” Chris whispered.
“No, we are not having sex!” you half screamed.
You needed to convince not only Chris but yourself that you were not having sex tonight. But looking at him, looking at him, looking at you made things very hard, literally and figuratively speaking.
“We’re going to therapy,” you quickly said
Chris blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
You cleared your throat. “I said, we are going to therapy.”
You could tell he was surprised. You didn’t know if it was good or bad.
“Y/N… I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
It was your turn to be surprised. You opened your mouth but closed it immediately after. You wanted Chris to explain himself before jumping to conclusions.
“With how public we are and…”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you said, anger quickly possessing your whole body.
“Y/N…”
“You’re worried about your reputation? Do you even want us to be together, Chris?” you asked him.
“I’m not worried about my reputation. I’m worried about… our privacy.”
“Chris, therapists have a duty of confidentiality,” You said, raising your voice.
“Well, you won’t believe how many people would break it given the right sum,” he screamed back.
You wanted to scream, anything that would release the frustration you were feeling inside.
“Do you even want to fix this?” you ask, as calmly as you were able to
Chris huffed. “I was begging you to come home with me yesterday. Of course, I want to fix this.”
You crossed your arms. “me coming home right now would not fix things; it would bring us back to this,” you said, throwing your hands up.
“And this is so bad, right?” Chris asked, bitterness in his voice.
“No, this is perfect. This is what I want permanently. It will kill me to come back to this if this is not forever.”
The room went silent. So many emotions went through Chris’s eyes, and you were trying to decode them all.
Chris finally drew a long breath. “I am not going to couples therapy.”
His words stung more than you could have imagined. They also unleashed the silent anger that was rising inside of you since the beginning of that conversation.
But instead of screaming and crying and pleading with Chris, you reached for your handbag. You were done trying to negotiate with him. You were done trying to spare his feelings.
You removed the divorce papers that had been sitting in your bag for days now. You threw them on the coffee table near Chris and waited for him to look at them.
You could see him become very pale, and if you weren’t that angry, you would be worried.
“Are they…” He started
“Yes. Divorce papers. We go to therapy, or you sign them. It’s your choice.”
Chris was startled. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m more than serious. I have a pen if you want to sign now.”
You looked serene, but inside, your heart was dropping lower with every second Chris wasn’t doing anything. You knew you were forcing his hand, but he left you no other choice.
“So, what is it going to be, Chris?”
Chris took the divorce agreement into his hands, and you held your breath. Your heart started beating again when he tore them in half.
He gave you a deadly stare, but at this point, you didn’t care anymore. He could be angry, scream at you, even hate you, as long as it meant you were doing something to try to fix things, you could take it all.
“Text me when you find a therapist you can trust,” you said before taking your bag to leave.
If he thought you’d be the only one sweating for this, he couldn’t be more wrong. It takes two to tango. It was about damn time for Chris to act. Because you were sure that this time feeling sorry or even good sex wouldn’t fix things.
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elstreem · 3 years
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ALBW Roleswap AU...thing?
Trying to write about this idea where it's Hyrule that got devastated and so Link seeks help from Ravio and Hilda in Lorule. Long post, but here's what I've written about it. I don't think I'm gonna do anything more substantial for it, but it's fun writing this.
Here's a google docs version that's prolly easier to read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ar_f6wXBTeY3DGfWeM667QqwvyS-2GfrlZTMCcKQ6BY/edit?usp=sharing
ALBW AU: The Appointed Knight and the Feral Hero
Among the realms created by the Divine mothers, two were tied like the two sides of a coin - both fair kingdoms, with a royal family who protected the sacred relic, Triforce. The Triforce was the sum of the Goddesses’ powers left in these realms, and was even said to be able to grant wishes, leading some to seek its power...unbeknownst to the guardians of the Triforce, it also serves as the cornerstone of their respective realms. No one knows what would happen if the Triforce was broken in some form, for it has never happened before…
As mentioned, the Triforce was left in two particular realms, so close and yet far from each other. The realm bathed in warm sunlight was called Hyrule, while the realm under the cover of soothing darkness was called Lorule. Without knowing of it, the denizens of these two realms prospered similarly to each other. But they were never able to meet, save for when a slight distortion in time and space would show times and places through mirrors and reflections. Only a passing mystery, and were it not for a grievous calamity, perhaps there would never have been a time when Hyrule would need aid from Lorule…
-----------------
The clamor of war rang loudly throughout Hyrule Castle. The castle was besieged by terrible forces, slavering monsters and twisted ghouls, howling as they clashed with the soldiers of Hyrule. Men shouted and attacked, hoping to defend their kingdom to the last. However, this was not where the real battle was to be found. In the chaos, there was only one place of stillness - the castle sanctuary, where the princess stood and her knight stood against the demon king, who had risen again. Behind the two protectors of the kingdom, the Triforce shone with a radiant light. “Hand over the Triforce,” Ganon rumbled, hands flexed around a trident. The princess stretched out a hand, tapping into her magical heritage. Link readied his blade and shield - they would never let this monster ruin the world with the Triforce’s power. Never.
The battle began, trident slashing, magic weaving, sword and shield parrying. Link and Zelda fought desperately against the strength of Ganon, who shrugged off their attacks as though it could only annoy him. With a roar, Ganon swatted away Link, the young Hylian’s slight frame getting thrown into the wall with force to crack his bones. Zelda cried out, but she did not waver - even as Ganon lunged forward to lay his hands on the Triforce, she spun around and reached for the relic herself.
“Oh goddesses, protect us!” Zelda wished with all her heart, but even as her words tapped into the Triforce’s power, Ganon’s own hand had reached the relic.
Even while bloodied and bruised, and screaming from the effort, Link got up, trying to move, desperate, as Ganon wished for Hyrule’s destruction.
The two wishes, opposite to each other, warred within the activated relic. Link tried to run, to reach for Zelda even as the Triforce shattered with explosive power, with blinding light pouring out of it.
In those terrible last moments, Link saw the princess turn to him, her form becoming rigid. Ganon too, had stopped - and Link found his own consciousness dimming, burning with only one thought. He had failed his home.
-------------------
The sun was yet to rise and all was still in the dark hours preceding dawn.
Or so it was supposed to be, if it weren’t for the angry yells of a woman and a sound of scurrying feet.
The village Blacksmith groaned and hauled himself up from his bed, drearily wiping a hand across his face as his wife rushed into the room.
“Now what is this ruckus all about!?” the Blacksmith complained.
“The stinking thief is back! I told you to report it to the castle, but no, you just had to wait for proof! Well, here’s the proof you want!” the hassled woman said sharply, and she grabbed hold of her husband’s arm and fairly dragged him outside, causing a string of complaints. She ignored the fact that he was barefoot and still in his sleeping clothes and hurried him into the cold air of the early morning. She paused very briefly to grab a fresh torch, and continued along. When she stopped, the Blacksmith was not in the most agreeable mood, but even he could see the damage.
The pots they used for storing water and grains were smashed, and their little garden that had once been full of promising vegetables had been ransacked. But even with the messy scene one could see paw prints in the dirt.
“What was it?” the Blacksmith asked, taking the torch from his wife. He knelt to take a closer look at the destruction.
She sniffed and crossed her arms. “I wasn’t sure - I just heard the sounds of a pot getting smashed and I rushed on over here. I only caught it running away, but it looked beastly, all matted fur and glowing eyes - ugh!”
It would be no match for you in your state, the Blacksmith thought, and he hid a grin. Keeping a straight face, he stood up again and said, “Well, I’ll call on our neighbor to help. No need to alert the Castle.”
She gave a disbelieving snort. “That lad is good for nothing but lounging around!”
“But still, he’s the appointed knight of the realm. Go on inside dear, that is enough trouble for one morning,” the Blacksmith said.
After putting on work clothes and making sure that everything was secured, the Blacksmith walked on over to a house on a hill, keeping his eyes peeled for any lurking creatures. However, upon reaching the house, the man gave a groan - of all the mornings he made this trip, today was the miraculous day the appointed knight was not sleeping in. The house was dark and a piece of paper was tacked to the door. The paper read:
“If you’re looking for me, I’m at the Castle!” - Knight of the Realm, Ravio.
--------------------------------
Morning came and went, the sun’s rays bringing cheer and light to the land. Within the Castle’s kitchen, the maids and cooks were bustling about, preparing food for lunch. But in the middle of all this activity, a boy was sitting still, snacking on an apple as he idled the time away.
“Surely you have business to do, Ravio?” one of the exasperated cooks asked, watching Ravio take another apple from the kitchen’s stores and eat it.
“I’m in the business of filling my energy up after an early morning training!” Ravio said, grinning as much as he could with a mouthful of apple.
“...right,” the cook muttered. Sure, Ravio had been in the castle before dawn’s light, but all the staff saw of him was him taking a nap in the knight’s training room.
A page popped into the castle kitchens, and seeing Ravio, marched up to him. Ravio’s grin slid off his face as he saw the page’s gleeful look. He knew what that meant.
“Her Grace, Princess Hilda, commands the Knight of the Realm to the Counsel Room!” the page said as loudly as possible. The nearby kitchen staff snickered as Ravio stood up and wiped the apple juice off his face.
Ravio might not fear monsters, but he had a healthy fear of his closest friend.
-------
"I tell you, your Grace, something has been ferreting around, stealing food and making a ruckus. The missus reckons it’s some sort of beast from what she saw. Maybe a wolf? But then again…"
"There are no wolves in Lorule."
"Exactly!"
"Well, wolves or no wolves, if it is disturbing the peace our appointed knight of the realm should be looking into it," Princess Hilda of Lorule said.
Her crimson eyes flicked over to said knight of the realm, even if he wasn't acting like it. Ravio might have looked the part, wearing armor stamped with the royal sigil of Lorule. It was an impressive enough sight that most never minded the lack of a sword at his back. However, instead of standing at duty, he was slouching, idly tugging at his scarf and wishing the audience would be over.
Hilda cleared her throat and tapped her staff on the ground, making Ravio jump nervously. As carefree as he was, he did not like testing Hilda's temper.
"Yess, your Grace?" Ravio asked.
"The Blacksmith brought his problem personally to the castle, Ravio. And I say, you must look into it this time," Hilda said, emphasizing her last two words.
Ravio groaned. Hilda was annoyed that the Blacksmith had to bring this problem up personally. Okay, so he was the knight of the realm, but that did not mean he had to solve every problem his neighbors had, right?
Then again, it seemed like a monster was involved.
~~~~~~~
The bushes underneath the trees rustled, and as Ravio followed close, he saw a pair of eyes looking out at him from the shadows. They glowed as they caught the light, and Ravio hesitated - human eyes did not glow like that, which could only mean this was a monster.
He quickly grabbed his Hookshot, and fired - the claw shot through the air. The beast leapt clear, but was too slow by just a second and caught a glancing blow. Ravio heard a yelp, and some footsteps going away. Ravio gave chase - even a glancing blow from a Hookshot was enough to give the most hardened monster some pause. And a pause was all he needed for another shot, and whatever his faults, Ravio had a good eye. Again the Hookshot pierced the air, and this time he scored a direct hit. Ravio knew it from the way the Hookshot had struck.
He hurried after the beast and came into the circle of trees, where he found something lying limp on the ground.
"Got you," Ravio murmured to himself, grabbing his bow. He readied an arrow at the beast, and was about to loose the projectile when the beast twitched and groaned - but the groan did not sound at all beastly.
Ravio dropped the bow and came close - yes, now that he was near he could see a hand peeking out from underneath some clothing. Perhaps a humanoid monster? But in the next moment he heard a soft whisper, and the creature went still. Ravio dropped to his knees beside the figure and turned him over, gasping at what he found. The "monster" was a lad his age, covered in a dirty old cloak. He couldn't see much of the boy's face as it was covered in grime and dirty blonde hair that spilled over one side of his face, but it was definitely a human.
"Hey! Can you hear me?"
All he got as a response was a sigh. Ravio's blood went cold, remembering how the boy had gone still. Ravio dropped his head onto the boy's chest, and listened hard - it was faint, but there was breath and a heartbeat within him.
Moving quickly, Ravio pulled up a bottle of Red Potion and carefully tipped it to the boy's lips - he was unresponsive at first, but when Ravio put a drop of potion to his lips, the lad's tongue licked it away. Very, very carefully, Ravio put a small amount to the boy's mouth, and he swallowed it. In this way, the boy finished the bottle of red potion, which brought back some color to his face.
"Hey, hold on, okay? Stay with me, here," Ravio said. He slung the boy's arm over his shoulders, and putting his own arm around the boy's hip, he stood up. The boy's head leaned limply into Ravio's shoulder, and Ravio fought the urge to sneeze - the guy smelled bad - like he'd been sleeping in the wilds and rolled through mud, kind of bad.
The lad was dead weight, and Ravio had a hard time pulling him along. It was with relief that Ravio heard the Blacksmith calling.
"Ahoy! What have you got there? The beast?"
"Nah, I clobbered the beast good, it should stay away. But I found a stranger, he clearly needs help," Ravio reported. The knight's normally jolly tone was urgent and the Blacksmith knew he wasn't goofing around.
"Alright, here I go! Phew, this one needs a bath," the Blacksmith grunted as he scooped the boy up easily.
"And a good meal - he feels almost dead," Ravio panted, relieved at having the weight off his shoulders.
"Bother, the house is full of weapons to be shipped - we should put him in your house, yeah?" the Blacksmith said.
"Mine!?" Ravio said in dismay.
"Of course. You helped him, you have to see it through," the Blacksmith said.
"Oh, I guess. He better pay rent," Ravio muttered.
For all of Ravio's words he was anxious for the boy and was relieved when the Blacksmith put him into his own bed.
~~~~~~
The boy wandered back inside, shrugging off his cloak. Ravio looked up with a smile and then gasped in surprise - with the grime wiped away, he could have sworn the face he was looking at was his own.
Well, not quite - the stranger's hair was blond and his eyes were blue. Also, he had seriously dark bags under his eyes and hollow cheeks, like he had missed many good meals and nights of sleep.
"Whoa - wow, this is a shocker - talk about seeing your twin," Ravio said.
The boy looked blankly at him.
"…look .are you really just speechless with shock all the time?" Ravio asked.
The boy shifted his feet uncomfortably.
"Well, nothing for it. Here, maybe some food will loosen you up. You look faint with hunger," Ravio said.
The boy nodded gratefully, and dropped himself into one of the chairs at the table.
Ravio brought out a plate, filled with goods from the castle - bread, butter, fried eggs and apple slices. He had a feeling that the boy was hungry, and he was right - though the lad tried to restrain himself for politeness, he gulped down the meal as if famished. Ravio busied himself with cleaning his kitchen, which was a little dusty.
“Well, you look much better now that you had a bite or ten in you,” Ravio said as the boy set down his spoon and fork with a sigh.
~~~~~~~~~
"Well Ravio, have you considered one thing?"
"What?" Ravio asked, shifting uncomfortably at seeing Hilda's raised eyebrow.
"That maybe…you're talking way too much to give space," Hilda said tartly.
"Hey!" Ravio said in indignation. Hilda didn't show any outward signs of amusement, but Ravio knew her long enough to know that her eyes were smiling at the joke. It almost made the little jab worth it.
"Anyway, I shall go see this stranger, see if I can loosen his tongue," Hilda said.
The response however, was far more dramatic than the two expected. On seeing Hilda enter the room, the boy's eyes widened, and he hurriedly dropped to one knee and put his hand on his chest in a knight's bow. Hilda and Ravio traded glances.
"Please stand, good sir. I heard from Ravio about your appearance…but please, tell us more about yourself," Hilda said.
The boy raised his head, but looked down again and sadly shook his head. He opened and closed his mouth several times, but no words came out. He raised his hands and folded them in front of his throat.
"Ah, so you cannot speak…I'm sorry to have asked it without consideration," Hilda said.
The boy shook his head as if trying to reassure her there was no offense.
~~~~~~~~
A stone statue stood inside the blasted courtyard. Even petrified, the beauty of the strange lass was not marred at all - her form perfectly captured in rock. She would have looked lovely if it weren't for the expression of horror on her face. The wolf circled the statue, and Ravio read a great sadness in Link's blue eyes.
Ravio drew close and saw, among the petrified waves of the lass's hair, a crown, and her dress bore a banner displaying a royal crest similar to Lorule's.
The wolf sat down, facing the statue, before raising his head and giving off a lonely howl.
--------
Aaaand that's it. I have a few more ideas to toss into this (Link and Ravio searching for the lost Master Sword of Lorule? Hilda facing off against Ganon?) but I highly doubt I can add anything more weighty to this. I don't even have a proper explanation for why Link turns into a wolf (though in my mind, what's happened to Hyrule is a similar situation to the Twilight, where time has stopped and the souls of Hylians are left as wandering, dazed wraiths.) I might post other writing scraps if I feel like it?
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btsqualityy · 4 years
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Heaven Sent; Part 10
Jin x Reader
Genre: Angst, hurt/comfort, fluff
Warnings: None to note.
Author’s Note: This is the last part of this series! Thank you so much to everyone for all of the love you guys have given me, I appreciate it more than you know!! I hope you guys enjoy this final part!!
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Two Years Later
“Yoon Aera!” You shouted, sighing heavily as you took in the sight of your eight year old’s destroyed bedroom. You could hear running footsteps, which only further annoyed you because you couldn’t remember how many times you had told this child to stop running in the house. 
“Yes Mommy?” She answered as she stood next to you, and you looked down at her with an arched brow. 
“I thought you said that you could handle packing up your room by yourself,” you said.
“I did, and I can!” Aera shot back. 
“And this is your version of packing your room up?” You questioned as you used your arm to motion into her bedroom, where books littered the floor, clothes were all over her bed, and none of the large boxes that you had set in her room where being used. 
“I pulled everything out though, like you told me to,” she pouted. 
“Love, we’re moving tomorrow and you’re literally not even halfway done,” you pointed out. “Not only that, but you promised Jin that you would have it done by the time that he came home from work.”
“Sorry Mommy,” she muttered. “I’ll start now.”
“Alright, you better get to it because Jin should be off of work by now,” you told her and that made her jump into high gear, and she rushed into her room and pulled out one of the boxes. You just smiled at her and shook your head before walking out of her bedroom and down the stairs. Just as you made it off the last step, the door knob jiggled and suddenly, the door opened and Jin stepped inside. 
“Hey,” you smiled, pacing over to him and placing your hands on his cheeks before pulling him down for a kiss. 
“Hi yourself,” he grinned, giving you two more quick pecks before pulling away to take off his jacket and shoes. 
“How was your day?” You asked and he just sighed before shrugging.
“Work was work,” he replied lamely. “How was packing?”
“It was fine, except Aera hasn’t finished packing her stuff,” you told him. “I really wish you would’ve just let me do it for her.”
“That probably would’ve been easier, but we have to let her be independent,” he pointed out. “She’s been acting so much like Hae lately, we have to give her some freedom or she’ll feel stifled.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” you grumbled, not exactly thrilled with the idea of your baby growing up. Jin just chuckled and leaned forward, kissing your lips softly. 
“Come on, I’ll help you finish packing up the bedroom,” he offered, stretching his hand out to you and you didn’t hesitate to take it before allowing him to lead you back up the stairs. When the both of you walked into the room, Jin let out a low whistle from how much you had managed to do in the seven hours that he had been gone for work. 
“Damn, maybe you don’t need my help after all,” he chucked, making you nudge his ribs. 
“There’s some shoes and stuff still in the wardrobe, plus your clothes that have built up from your staying the night over the years,” you said. “So feel free to tackle those. I have to finish up in the bathroom.”
“Alright,” he nodded and the two of you went your separate ways, you stepping into the en suite while Jin grabbed a box and walked over to the wardrobe. After kneeling down in front of it, he opened it up and let out a soft gasp at how empty it was. 
“Hey babe?” He called out and he heard you hum in response. “Where did Hae’s clothes go?”
“Oh, I packed them up and his mom came to get them,” you explained as you leaned against the doorway of the bathroom. “I knew that I didn’t want to keep them and it didn’t feel right to just stuff them in the garage of the new house or to give them away so I called his parents and asked if they wanted to take them.”
“Oof, how’d his mom react to...that?” Jin asked, motioning towards your left ring finger, where the engagement ring that Jin had given you two months prior sat. 
“Jin-joo didn’t outright say anything about it, but I know she saw it,” you shrugged. “She suddenly started acting all pissy and she made an excuse to hurry up and leave once she had the clothes.”
“I hate how she acts about you just wanting to be happy,” Jin muttered, beginning to grab some of the shoes that sat at the bottom of the wardrobe and putting into the box. You couldn’t help but to smile, because Jin had felt some type of way towards Jin-joo every since you had explained to him that the conversation you had with her over two years ago was the reason why you had avoided him for almost two months.
“Eh, I’m over it,” you sighed. “I only want to keep things civil for Aera but other than that, I could care less.”
“It’s still annoying,” he replied. “But you’re right, Aera’s more important than my dislike for her.”
“That would be mutual dislike,” you pointed out with a smile, which made Jin chuckle. Just then, Aera walked into the room.
“Mommy,” she whined but she stopped when she saw Jin kneeling on the ground. “Jinnie!”
“Hi Little Heart,” Jin smiled, opening his arms and letting out a huff of air when Aera ran into his chest. Aera had long since stopped referring to Jin as her “uncle”, but it made you happy that their relationship hadn’t changed at all.
“How’s packing going?” Jin asked her and she pouted.
“Slow,” she huffed, making Jin chuckle while she turned to you. “Mommy, I don’t know what to do with my jewelry box.” You gasped softly as you walked over to her, gently taking it from her hands. The jewelry box was made of maple wood, the finish soft to the touch. 
“I don’t want it to get broken when we’re moving,” Aera whispered and you smiled because you knew why it was so important to her. 
“How about if we wrap it up with extra bubble wrap, and we can put it into one of the boxes that’s going to be in the car with us?” You suggested.
“And it’ll be ok?” Aera wondered and you nodded your head.
“Promise,” you smiled, handing the jewelry box back off to her before she bounded out of the bedroom. 
“What was that about?” Jin asked.
“Hae gave her that jewelry box,” you explained. “He actually bought it for her once I found out that I was having a girl.”
“That’s cute,” Jin smiled. “You know, are you sure that you’re ready to move out of this house? I mean, I know it’s the house that you and Hae bought together and the house that you brought Aera home to.”
“That’s true, it is but I’m ready,” you said as you walked over to him, kneeling down next to him. “This house was where we started our lives together but it’s also the house where our life together ended. It’s you, me, and Aera now so we should have a place where we can have a fresh start, you know?”
“I get it,” he nodded. “I just don’t want you to regret anything.”
“I wouldn’t have agreed to marry you if I thought I would,” you pointed out with a smile. “Now, come on. The movers will be here at 9am tomorrow and it’s gonna take you at least two hours to pack all of your clothes alone.”
“I feel judged,” he pouted, making you laugh before you leaned over and kissed him firmly. 
..................................
The next day was a complete chaotic mess, with movers everywhere, an overexcited 8 year old who was happy to be moving but also sad at the same time, and your and Jin’s friends who insisted on coming over to “help” you guys unpack.
“Why do you have so much shit Y/N-ah?” Jungkook grunted as he picked up a box to carry into the living room. 
“No cursing around the baby,” you and Jin both reminded him at the same time, referring to Aera.
“And it’s not my fault,” you laughed. “When you live in the same place for 10 years, you have a tendency to let stuff accumulate.”
“And now we’re here, stuck unloading all of this...crap,” Yoongi corrected himself at the last minute after receiving a warning eyebrow from you, since you knew that he was about to curse. 
“I think it’s cool,” Jimin spoke up with a smile. “It’s like seeing years of your life right in front of you.”
“You’re so cute when you fawn over things,” Taehyung cooed, which made Jimin blush harshly.
“Ok, don’t make this weird with your awkward mutual pining, you two,” Hobi muttered as he worked on setting Jin’s book on the shelves of the large bookcase that was placed against one wall of the living room. 
“We’re not!” They both replied at the same time.
“You definitely are,” Namjoon chuckled. 
“It’s not pining if they’ve done something about it,” Yoongi pointed out and everyone’s head whipped towards him. 
“Really?” You gasped. “But you and Tae...”
“He didn’t say that he wasn’t in on it,” Taehyung supplied and everyone’s eyes widened.
“So, throuple?” Jin guessed.
“Throuple,” Jimin nodded in confirmation. 
“Weirder things have happened,” Jungkook shrugged and everyone murmured in agreement before going back to their separate tasks. 
Later that night, after all of your friends had left, you and Jin managed to put Aera down for bed before walking into your new shared bedroom. 
“It feels so good to finally be moved,” you giggled as you threw yourself onto the bed, Jin’s body following close behind and landing right next to yours. 
“It’s nice to know that this house is ours, together,” he nodded. “No more debating about where to spend the night, no more having Aera’s stuff split up between two houses.”
“Ugh, it’s amazing,” you laughed. 
“All that’s left now is for us to get married,” Jin smiled as he turned onto his back then, extending his arm and you didn’t hesitate to move over and snuggle into the side of his body. 
“And after that?” you wondered.
“You want more?” Jin teased. “Me giving myself to you in holy matrimony isn’t good enough?”
“Shut up,” you scoffed playfully, smacking his chest lightly. “I meant as in, what you want life to look like for us after that.”
“Well, I guess I’d like for us to just settle in together as a family more,” he started. “Hopefully, I’ll be in a place soon where I won’t be working as much anymore and I can spend more time with you and Little Heart.”
“And what about...babies?” You questioned quietly as you looked up at him. 
“Babies?” He repeated with a soft smile. “You want a baby?”
“Well, I’ve always wanted Aera to have siblings,” you shrugged sheepishly. “And you’re so great with Aera, it would kind of be a crime to not add another baby to this.”
“Plus my good looks combined with yours would make a gorgeous baby, right?” Jin added, making you laugh as you nodded your head.
“That too,” you agreed. biting your lip afterwards. “So what do you think?”
“I think that I would very much like to have babies with you,”  he smiled knowingly. 
“Really?” 
“Really. In fact,” he smirked, pausing his words to wrap his arms around you and roll over so that your body was trapped underneath yours. “I think maybe we should start practicing now, just so that we know what to do when we do decide to have a baby.”
“You’re very annoying,” you whispered, your smile wide as you wrapped your arms around his neck. “Anyone ever tell you that?”
“Someone that I love very much, yes,” Jin nodded. 
“I love you too,” you replied before leaning up and pressing your lips against his. Jin’s hands moved down to rest on your waist while you wrapped your legs around his waist. Just as Jin allowed himself to rut against you, there was a tiny knock on your bedroom door. 
“Damn it,” you whispered in defeat, removing your lips from Jin’s and letting your head fall back against the pillow as Jin moved to lay next to you again. 
“Come in Little Heart,” Jin granted her permission and the door opened then, Aera’s little head poking into the room. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m scared,” she whispered and you couldn’t help but to smile softly. “Can I sleep in here?”
“Sure Love, come on,” you nodded and it didn’t take her long at all to rush over to the bed, hauling herself up onto it and crawling over your body in order to settle down in between you and Jin. 
“Your new room is still a little too new, huh?” Jin guessed and Aera nodded. “Well, we can just have a little movie night in here until you fall asleep. That alright Y/N-ah?”
“Fine with me,” you responded, watching as Jin allowed Aera to snuggle into his side as he grabbed the remote and turned on the TV that was hung on the opposite side of the wall from where the bed sat. 
As you watched them, you couldn’t believe just how far you had come in the three years since Hae-il died. Of course, you had your days where you’d see or hear something that reminded you of him, or Aera would say something that sounded just like her father and it would make you break down into tears. One thing that you learned was that the grief you felt from loosing him would never go away, it would just change and evolve over time. 
However, you had done your best to keep true to your promise that you made to Hae-il, about doing your best to be happy, and you were more confident than ever that Jin was exactly what you needed to be happy again. Jin was a man that loved you, loved your daughter, and the respected the place that Hae-il still held in both of your lives. He never tried to overstep boundaries, or create new ones; he simply loved you and Aera the way that the two of you were, and that was more than enough for you.
Looking back on everything, you never thought that you would lose your husband in the first place. Even more, you never thought that Kim Seokjin would be the one to make you whole again. As more and more time passed, you were convinced that he was truly Heaven Sent.
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Press: Elizabeth Olsen and Jurnee Smollett Compare Notes on Genre-Blending Acting and Advocating for Performers on Set
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VARIETY: Neither Elizabeth Olsen nor Jurnee Smollett are strangers to having to really stretch their imaginations to dive into complex characters and even more complicated worlds.
Both have superhero films on their résumés: Smollett portrayed Black Canary in DC’s “Birds of Prey,” while Olsen stepped into Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch’s shoes for Marvel’s “Avengers” franchise and then some — including Disney Plus’ first Marvel series, “WandaVision.” They are both now Emmy-nominated for projects that tasked them with jumping through time, blending genres and telling epic love stories (Olsen with “WandaVision,” Smollett with HBO’s “Lovecraft Country”). And, even though they are up in different categories (Olsen in lead limited series/TV movie actress; Smollett in lead drama actress), both of these shows are one-season wonders, leaving the performers and their audiences wanting more.
Olsen and Smollett dissected all that of when Variety brought them together post-nominations to talk about their celebrated roles and surreal playgrounds.
You both had a lot of magical or otherwise surreal elements to interact with on your shows. What did you actually have in front of you to react to on set?
Jurnee Smollett: We were very fortunate on “Lovecraft Country” because the whole VFX team worked so hard to create an atmosphere that was also practical in our space. I remember on Episode 3, the exorcism scene, we shot it over a course of three days and, while there was not a man in real life with a baby head on him, you’ve got the wind machines and the pictures are blowing and all the special effects makeup is being touched up. Atticus [Jonathan Majors] has pretty much turned into a rabid dog and I’m doing this spell with my ancestors and whether they were shooting behind us or shooting the elements, we were at our max capacity regardless because that’s just how we approach the craft. It was such a big sequence to shoot that that’s when the actor in you has to advocate for your instrument. I did go to the director and say, “Can you jump in and cross shoot Jonathan and I?” As an actor it is our job to shoot however many takes, however many angles you need, but then it is also our job to advocate for yourselves. And I love playing in this space because you get to use your imagination you get to go to crazy places. Because even while the practical elements are there; you get to go to crazy places. But I was grateful for the practical elements because it’s just so much easier.
Elizabeth Olsen: Did they have pre-viz so you knew what some of the supernatural elements looked like?
Smollett: With the Shoggoths they not only had a pre-viz for us, but for some of the scenes they had massive sculptures, like a dude standing there in a green suit with a Shoggoth head. The pilot we didn’t have this puppet, but by Episode 8, maybe we got more of a budget or something, but eventually we did get a puppet — which was really cool because you could see, “This is the moment his mouth is opening.” But also, Misha [Green], our showrunner, she just wants more blood, more dirt. She’d try to get them to blow spittle at us.
Olsen: That’s so gross!
Smollett: This concoction of Shoggoth spit, throwing it in front of this wind machine. I find the more practical stuff we have to work with, it just helps so much. And then there were the moments where it’s like, “No it’s just a green tennis ball and an X, and go.” How about you?
Olsen: For all those little things in the air and stuff in the ’50s, it was really important to our director [Matt Shakman] that we did everything ala “Bewitched.” It was all camera tricks, it was all wires. Our head of special effects had a lineage of a father who [did] special effects before him, and so puppetry and wire work and stuff like that were things that were already in his vocabulary, but we would have our special effect guys who are used to blowing things up and putting things on fire just balancing and making sure things aren’t swinging but they have to move. Even in the ’70s when she’s pregnant and everything’s in chaos, we really had a picture on the wall going in circles; they just figured out things with magnets.
When we were filming the finale, it was during COVID, during the fires last summer, and we shot Kathryn [Hahn’s] side at the beginning of the episode when she has my boys with her magic — we had to shoot them out because you always have to shoot the side with the kid out and also Kathryn was doing wires for the first time and of course it was with a corset and it was really hot and really bad air quality and so she had to be sent home by the medic at the end of the day. And so, on my side we were running out of days, and I think we had 35 minutes to shoot my side and my reactions to all of that, and there’s quite a bit of back and forth and throwing myself to the ground and hitting a different mark that will then stitch with the stunt double being pulled. I did a weird one-woman show sans kids, sans Kathryn. Our stand-ins were such a huge part of our show and I was so grateful to have them they’re reading lines with me, and our director, Matt Shakman, was like, “If you feel like you can’t do this, we’ll just do this tomorrow.” That gave an adrenaline rush to me and it just became, “I’m just going to do it.” There’s a lot of fear when you’re like, “Oh I don’t have the elements and I am on my own, literally.” But I’ve had to do this before and I’m just scared to do it because I feel stupid. But I already look kind of stupid — I’m shooting things out of my hands — so why don’t I just lean into it as full as possible and just do it and find it in some core, guttural space of desperation? That day was bizarre, but I was actually very happy that I didn’t put it off. I feel like sometimes as actors when there are things that make us nervous it’s like, “Oh we don’t have enough time to explore so let’s do it the next day if we can,” and then you’re in your head all night about it. And so, it’s nice to just do it, even if it feels silly.
Smollett: I’d imagine surrendering and using the fear and all that that you were feeling probably served you so well in it.
Olsen: And don’t you feel that, though? When you feel unsupported you just want to break down in tears and you’re not supposed to break down in tears or you’re not supposed to have those it’s those feelings in the moment, but there are other times where it is really useful and there’s something freeing about channeling it in some way.
Smollett: Yeah and it’s that word you just used: freeing. Being able to surrender — leap and the net will appear. And you’re right, if you would have gone home, you probably would have come back the next day and you would have overthought it. There’s something about using the adrenaline in that moment that I don’t think you can really teach an actor to do; it’s just experience. Because we go and we prep and we do all these things, and then you get to the set and there’s one distraction, two distractions, and those are the elements that just through experience you’ve learned to use.
But I have to say, when I was little, I used to go to sleep every night watching Nick at Nite and “Bewitched” was one of my favorite shows. I did not expect you guys, at all, to go to land of “Bewitched.”
Olsen: I didn’t either. I’m so grateful to it. I felt like I like forgot my body as an actor. You’re a very physical actor, so I feel like you probably don’t have that experience because you just seem so connected and free whether it’s on stage or doing action. And I really felt disconnected from my body until “WandaVision.” I was like, “Right, I have posture; I can walk; I have legs — all of these things are going to be telling the story and it’s period and so I get to move differently.” It’s been a while since I needed to create quite a different character, and it felt so good to wake up my body to the full character work.
Just watching you in the first episode on stage, I was like, “God damn, I want to feel that free on stage with a song and with an audience.” I’m a self-conscious actor when it comes to extras and things like that. There’s something about it where the crew’s the family, and with extras, I feel so vulnerable. And you seemed so at ease and in control and confident. It made you understand her fierceness and how fearless she was.
Smollett: Thank you so much! It’s so interesting that you point that out because, for me, singing in front of people terrifies me. It truly is one of the things that terrifies me the most. The thing about Misha’s writing is, she finds a way to teach you so much about a character in such a small amount of time. And in that first sequence we learn so much about Leti, from that fearlessness you talk about, the ease that she has in herself and in her person, but then you learn so much about her hypocrisy and the contrasting ideas that are at play inside. She’s a very complex one. In the scene with her sister where she’s talking about having dreams of pioneering into an all-white neighborhood in 1955, but she can’t afford to may for socks. [Laughs.] She didn’t come to her mother’s funeral, and yet she’s here yearning for some sort of family connection. And so, I just remember reading that and feeling so drawn to her and feeling like it’s a side of myself that I needed to unearth — there’s a Leti in me that I desired to actually be, but sometimes am not. And it’s interesting because through Leti, she really forced me to do so many things that I hadn’t done before and really become more fearless, become more unbound. It was just such a very cathartic experience for me.
Olsen: I felt that way with getting to do this sitcom comedy part. I felt like I was touching my childhood version of myself who was a ham doing children’s musical theater, who just who just like played for the laughs or whatever — that part that I don’t access at all, really, when filming. And Kathryn Hahn was such a force and Paul Bettany raised to the challenge, as well, of these comedic performances that were really physically funny. I started to get more comfortable — in the ’60s, ’70s, really got comfortable — and it was so much fun to touch that child that maybe was told too many times, “Oh, you’re such a ham” or you just felt like your big personality as a kid was not OK or wasn’t as appropriate. And so, getting to play with that was really freeing and very fun. As you were saying, there’s a release I needed to have, and through the comedy I was able to have it.
How did this sense of empowerment affect how you carried your own characters’ power? Was there something your character that inspired you to advocate for yourself or did advocating behind-the-scenes inform in-world behavior?
Olsen: I felt very lucky coming into this, because this is a world I know. And so, where my voice of advocacy came in was for actors who are coming into the world — like Teyonah [Parris], wanting to make sure that she had everything that she needed to understand where her character was going because this was a character that’s going to continue [and] if she had everything she needed for stunts. And then similarly with Kathryn, she didn’t realize there was someone who she could use to teach her hand gestures for her magic. And so, she was feeling nervous and lost, like, “How do I do this thing?” And I was like, “Oh, how do you not have that information!?” And then having a conversation with whom you need to on the crew up top and figure out how to keep everyone else feeling like they had everything they needed. And luckily, because this was a show with characters that Paul and I had before, the pieces came together and it was a situation where your voice is welcomed and heard.
From “Sorry For Your Loss,” the TV show I did with Facebook, I now have a producer voice that I can’t shut up. I now just need to talk to ADs a lot, and I need to talk to line producers a lot. I realize that I like having — especially if I’m No. 1 on the call sheet; if I’m a primary part — all of the information so I can understand why decisions that seem weird are happening, or else I’m going to get in my head about, “Why are we doing this this way? I just let people know that off the bat now because it makes me less of a control freak, having information. And it is a team effort and I think the actor’s value has changed in that in that respect. There’s a lot more opportunity for women to be vocal now, and so I’m just really seizing that opportunity.
Smollett: It was a very personal growing experience for me. It was time of transition [and] I’m still going through that transition in my life. In order to truly surrender and do the text justice, there was so much I had to bring to the altar every day to sacrifice. I remember talking to Jonathan about that, and he would refer to it as allowing your heart to break and hoping that the Holy Spirit would put it back together. She was essentially a woman trying to navigate her womanhood but she was never actually allowed to have a childhood. She was habitually abandoned by her mother and didn’t know her father and there’s something in that parental-daughter split that I found myself really relating to. Oddly enough like Leti, I was estranged from my father for years. He eventually passed away, really before there was that healing and so, oh man, it brought up so much shit with Leti. How does she see the world? She sees the world through the eyes of an abandoned child. With Leti, that made her overcompensate; with Jurnee, it made me shrink a lot. When you talk about that artist child, those of us who have been in this business for so long, you take on all the sensors. And I found myself just trying to love her a little more. One of the things I admired so much about Leti is this desire to love herself — this real desire to own herself unapologetically in a world that told her she was too Black and female, to exist in her entirety. It’s still a transition that I’m in, but I definitely feel so grateful to have been able to walk through some of that and navigate through some of that with Leti. But that’s, I think, the blessing and the curse of being an artist. You’ve got to be willing to bring your whole mind, body and spirit to it; nothing’s off limits.
Jurnee, the last time you spoke with Variety we were all assuming you’d get to return to this character, but now that HBO has said it’s not being renewed, do you have unfinished business with her?
Smollett: It’s no secret I’m heartbroken. I loved Leti and of course would have loved to continue playing her. But I am so incredibly proud of the work that we all created together — it feels so special and unique — and I am finding peace in that. We’re artists and there’s an endless well that dwells inside us— and there’s so much that’s out of our control. And I think I’ve done this long enough and I’ve experienced enough heartbreaks to know you don’t get attached to the results too much; you just try to stay in a moment. And I feel just so proud and blessed to have been chosen to go on this ride with these collaborators, so I am more so in the place of gratitude than loss.
On the other end of the spectrum, “WandaVision” was a limited series but Wanda Maximoff is a character you have been coming back to for years, Elizabeth. How do you approach that longevity — the changes in her, the changes in you and the interest in revisiting her at all?
Olsen: I’m 32 and I was 25 — so seven years ago — when I did the first one. There’s so much change that I’ve had, even as an actor and how I approach work and, I think, honor work so much more in the last five years, four years of my life. [Jurnee’s film] “Birds of Prey” feels like such a female-empowered thing, so I feel there’s a really incredible energy to beginning it, but then with me you hear people make comments about Marvel movies and it affects your own process. “WandaVision” really shook that up for me and made me reinvest.
Smollett: I so want to know your process with that because the comic book space was new for me. I’d been a fan; I’d seen all your movies and the other movies. How did you navigate all of those voices? Because they can be very loud.
Olsen: Luckily and also frustratingly my character was always this emotional anchor to a piece of the story. It was like the heart, if there’s a heart. Paul and I were the only romance that was really fleshed out in those movies. And so I just treated it like I would anything. And then, we have a really fun time filming “Avengers” And so it’s really goofy and the Russos are great. And so we, it feels light-hearted, and it feels like we have the last laugh at the end of the day. But when it comes to the reinvesting, that’s the whole mind game, right? Because you just hope that it continues to have this quality control, but the more the more things get made, you’re worried about that. Especially because I did a show on Facebook that was scripted, and I didn’t love the way they handled it. And it was hard. And so second season, we went back and we literally, as a team of producers, had meetings with people who ran Facebook Watch about where we thought they could improve. We had a whole presentation for them. And then eventually, they were like, “We’re not doing scripted anymore.” And so I didn’t have the greatest experience being a part of the launch of another streaming service. And so, the Disney Plus part made me nervous and then bringing these characters that are so big to television made me nervous. But Kevin Fiege explained to us that that they were not going to cut corners, and they’re going to try and create the same attention to detail, and they did. And I think it was really important for them to have that care for these first three shows that they were putting out because it was defining a new thing for them. And so, we were taken care of.
I think more for me with this with the reinvestment moving forward, I never had a six-movie or nine-movie thing; it was always two or three at a time — those were my contracts. And so, it’s always a really conscious decision. I wrapped “WandaVision” on a Wednesday and flew to London on a Friday to continue playing this part [in “Doctor Strange 2”]. I could have used getting out of the mindset, though, because they were totally different utilizations of the character and people would have had more time to understand “WandaVision” had we not just wrapped. And so there’s just a lot of, “We covered this in ‘WandaVision…’” It’s bigger than me, there’s lots of threads that are continuing on after me that I’m not aware of, and so it’s always about, “What can I get from this journey with this character that maybe I haven’t tapped into yet with her?” That’s where I keep approaching things from, so that I feel like I have some sort of strap-hang — that I can know that there’s going to be growth of some kind, even though it all maybe looks the same to other people. There is that conscious decision to learn a new element of this woman, or even of myself as an actor — something that I want to explore that I can bring to it.
Your passion for acting is apparent and you both produce as well. What about directing?
Smollett: I would love to one day. I find myself currently being incredibly excited about producing and ushering new voices and excited voices. I don’t know that I would want to direct myself — that’s a whole other skill. I remember watching Denzel Washington, who directed me in “Great Debaters” but he was also in it, and at that point he had such a command of his instrument that he was able to do that. But it’s a lot. And I remember him telling me, before directing himself, he went and made himself watch all his films just so that he could stomach this idea of watching himself in the editing room. And so, I love the idea of storytelling; I’m obsessed with just telling stories, but I don’t know that I would self-direct.
Olsen: I find myself still loving producing so much because I love asking questions and poking holes and thinking about reorganizing of storylines, things that I feel maybe need more structure. I loved writing essays in school so much; it was like something that I found creative because it was about putting so many different sources into a braid that could maybe create this larger conversation or thought at the end. And so, that’s how I look at scripts. That’s really satisfying enough for me, to play that role. I think one day I’ll think about it more honestly, what it what it would mean to be a director. I fear that if I were to do it anytime soon, I wouldn’t have the tools that I would want. I do ask lots of lens-y questions because I’ve really only been working for 11 years and only recently have I tried to really understand the art of what lenses to choose and why and what it makes an audience feel based on what you’re choosing. I want to have a better, more holistic understanding of [that] before attempting [directing] because I do think it’s such an art and just because I understand the structuring of a story or how a set works, I want to be able to provide the the image in my head. I don’t know if I have that skill yet, but I am curious about feeding it and nurturing that.
Press: Elizabeth Olsen and Jurnee Smollett Compare Notes on Genre-Blending Acting and Advocating for Performers on Set was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen
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kbsd · 4 years
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not sure if you’ve answered this before, but what’s your process look like when you make an amv? i’m just curious and in constant awe of ppl who can make videos like you do :)
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hello all!!! i have answered this before and i have a vid help tag with other asks i’ve gotten about stuff like this! but i’ve gotten several more messages along these lines so i’m just going to answer a bunch of them together (under a cut since i love to ramble about editing lol). i do just wanna say i’m definitely not the authority on video editing and obv everyone has their own techniques!
edit: i just finished typing all this up and it’s SO long so sorry in advance LMAO god bless anyone who reads this entire thing
so i work in news tv and we have a very specific workflow for writing scripts, sourcing video, producing, and editing. i’ve just applied that to making amvs! for every video i make, i copy the song lyrics into a google doc and adjust them to match the song i’ve cut (i often will trim songs for time and/or content purposes). then i start planning! i’ll mark down what clip i want to use for each lyric next to that line, and any sound bites i want to use (with episode numbers!). i’ll color code between video and sound bites and lyrics, so my scripts end up looking something like this (for my honeybee amv):
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doing the planning ahead of time makes everything much easier when it’s a video that spans the whole show or involves a lot of sourcing, like honeybee or sports analogies. that way when i get to the actual editing process, i already know what i’m going to do and have a game plan. for videos like happy ending or believe it or not, where i’m mainly just pulling from a few episodes, i can just plan it in my head as opposed to writing it all down, and produce as i edit. obviously i do make in-the-moment decisions while editing—sometimes a shot doesn’t work the way i thought it would, or i go where the video takes me—but planning ahead definitely helps. i know some people use spreadsheets as well, with columns for lyrics, video clips, and sound bites if applicable. once you find a system that works, it actually goes pretty quickly.
as for sourcing clips themselves/finding clips within episodes, i talked about that here and kind of here. the short version is that transcripts are a must, and the supernatural wiki is hugely helpful by cataloguing all the hugs, prayers, phone calls, etc. in the show. gifmakers that tag episode numbers on their posts are your friends. it gets easier the more video you make—that’s another huge reason i make the google docs for each video (even the ones i plan in my head, i end up going back and making a loose script with episode notes just for reference). if i can’t remember where something is but i know i used it in another video, i can easily reference past scripts!
i also cut all my videos in the same project in premiere pro, so i can flip between them easily. instead of checking a past script, i can just go to the video sequence itself and copy the clip i’m looking for! this was especially helpful when i match cut together the 5x18 and 4x22 wall slam shots for my bestie video, and then stole it from myself for honeybee hahaha. at any given time i have at least 8 sequences open:
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because of the sheer volume of videos i make, it’s worth it for me to download the entire show—i have all 327 episodes in HD, plus deleted scenes. if you think you’re only going to make a few videos, i’d start with scene packs. you can usually just google “destiel [or whatever ship/character you’re looking for] scene packs” and there will be any number of ones you can download. if you need other specific scenes, you can always download/torrent individual episodes or screen record netflix (that’s what i did before i got HD download links). i’m happy to share my links if you DM, but be warned it’s a lot of disk space (about 500GB on my hard drive). someone also compiled every destiel scene, downloadable here.
having every episode already loaded in premiere for all my projects also makes it a lot easier to source clips. once i use a clip in a video, i’ll put a marker on the episode file, so that after a while i have most of the important scenes/lines marked to easily find them. to give you an idea, this is my episode file in premiere for 12x10 lily sunder has some regrets (markers at destiel scenes, the car fight, hot girl cas, etc.). markers are the green tabs along the bottom:
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premiere also lets you color code and name markers, so ONE DAY i will go back and color code them all. the ones above are all the same color, but in a perfect world, i’d have a myraid—for destiel shots like hugs, touches, looks; for important pieces of dialogue; for action shots; etc. but for now this works ok for me, so that’s a project for another time!
between detailed scripts, one giant premiere project, markers, the wiki, and my own memory, i have so many points of reference that i can usually find any clip i need in about 2 minutes max. sound bites are often harder to start out, or tiny specific shots i haven’t used before, and that’s when i turn to tumblr gifsets or beloved mutuals to crowdsource. but if you’re as obsessive about marking/keeping neat scripts as i am, it gets easier and easier with every video you make. that’s part of why i’m able to cut videos together so quickly. (also i want to stress i do this for a living and have to produce/edit a new piece for my show every day so i’m used to it. and compared to constantly updating content/sources and news that changes every day, 327 highly documented episodes that never change are much easier to handle hahaha)
this is all great for me since i make so many videos and plan to continue doing so, but if you’re only making a few, this level of work isn’t worth it imo. really it’s all about developing a system that works for you. whatever you do with episodes/sourcing, though, i cannot recommend planning things out in a script ahead of time enough. 
everything i just mentioned is producing, though. for the editing process, i usually do it in this order:
music first. any parts i want to cut, i make sure it all sounds smooth
then soundbites. i usually try to weave them into the lyrics—i have characters talk in breaks between lines or instrumental sections as much as possible. i’ll sometimes go so far as looped/extending an intsrumental part to make room for the soundbite i want there lol. if i do have dialogue over a line, i do the sound mixing/levels at this point as well to make sure everything is audible/one doesn’t overpower the other. (also i always include the video that goes with these bites when i drop them in, and decide later if i want to show the character speaking or have other clips cover the dialogue)
once i have all the audio locked in, then i bring in all my other video clips. sometimes i edit completely chronologically, sometimes jumping from section to section—it depends on the song or how i’m feeling
double check sound mixing. i usually listen to my videos through a few times, with headphones and without to make sure it’ll sound good no matter how people watch it
once i have picture and audio lock, i go through and color correct my clips. i’m basic and just use lumetri color in premiere, and usually just play with brightness, saturation, temperature, and tint until i like it
render and export! :)
i always have several audio tracks, but i try to keep my video tracks condensed. i’ll drop clips on a V2 level, and edit a section there, and drop the whole chunk down to V1 so i know it’s finished. that way when i leave and come back i can know where i left off/what’s done/etc. to give you an idea, this is the timeline for my what the hell video:
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i always render as H.264 with high bitrate, and make sure to check “render at maximum depth” and “use maximum render quality” for the best quality. i’m sorry, but i don’t know what the equivalent options are in final cut, imovie, kdenlive, etc. i post on youtube mostly so i don’t have to sacrifice quality, but usually just using a lower bitrate will get you under the tumblr file size limit and it’ll still look good.
as for the anon who asked about “polishing”: first of all, thank you!! second of all, it’s in the details. all of this is a matter of taste and my own insanity, but here are some little things i always try to do:
after i color correct, i blur out any credits from the starts of episodes. i use gaussian blur for this, but really any blur tool works
as much as possible, i avoid clips where we see a character’s mouth move but don’t hear the words. in tv/film we call it “lip flap” and i just think it looks messy. also i’m trained to avoid it at all costs at work hahaha. it’s more for serious videos that this matters a lot to me (e.g. i think i did a really good job eliminating lip flap in my happy ending amv)—for comedy videos i don’t sweat it as much
i put audio fades on the start and end of every single audio clip i use, even if i don’t think i need it, to make sure everything sounds smooth
i use markers for timing, especially in action-y videos like what the hell. i’ll put a marker on the clip i’m using at the exact moment a punch lands, and in the song on the beat. if i have the magnet/snap in timeline tool on i can just easily snap them together instead of having to spend time finagling it
this is such a small thing but i dip/cut to black for a tiny bit at the start and end of every video. this way if i post with tumblr video player, there’s black between the loops, and it gives you a beat before the video restarts. i do this even on videos i post on youtube, just because i think it looks nicer/more professional
this is 1,500 words so i’m going to stop myself before i pull something. if you have follow-up questions feel free to ask and i’ll continue to add them to the vid help tag, but any more questions about sourcing clips or my process in general i’ll just link this post going forward. anyone who made it this far, i am sending to a telepathic kiss. thank you for reading and happy editing!
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nickydestati · 4 years
Text
duolingo tog prompts #13
prompt: Now he is just a normal citizen (Adesso è solo un cittadino normale)
i am aware this is a superhero au for what technically is a superhero movie already but oh well, i hope you enjoy it anyway!
*
In general, Yusuf likes being Joe. On some days, though, he feels like screaming. Only yesterday night he was chasing down some stalker scum to teach them a lesson and make sure they would never even think of harassing anyone ever again, and now he is just a normal citizen. Just a face in the endless, dreary morning commute. 
He wants to grab someone by the shoulders and yell his secret in their faces. Just so someone knows he’s doing it all for them.
But he buries his hands in his pockets and walks on.
A bell rings when he enters the antique shop. The Old Guard, it is called. And of course, it’s just a facade, but to his surprise, Joe genuinely likes working there. He likes being surrounded by ancient and not so ancient objects, he loves walking around in the chaotic assortment of precious art pieces and absolute junk. He often wonders how Andy has gotten hold of all these things, but however sneakily he tries to coax it out of her, she always sees right through his schemes and just shrugs.
He puts everything ready and turns the sign of the door around so the ‘open’ side is facing the street. He glances at the numerous grandfather clocks lining one of the walls. Booker is late. Maybe on a job Joe forgot about, so he guesses he’s on his own for today.
He’s staring at some lists with a lot of numbers he doesn’t understand much about because 1) this is usually Booker’s job and 2) he’s running on three hours of sleep and caffeine, when the phone rings. He picks up immediately, grateful for something else to do.
“The Old Guard Antiques, with Joe, how can I help you?”
“I’ve got a job for you.” Andy.
“Hello to you, too,” Joe says, glancing about for customers, though the bell hasn’t made a sound yet all morning. He lowers his voice just to be sure. “And a job? So soon? I just finished the last one this night.”
He can barely hide his excitement, he quickly checks his free hand, making sure he doesn’t start glowing by accident.
“It’s urgent. We’ve got word that someone is after Lykon’s bracers.”
“Lykon’s bracers?” Joe’s happy mood sobers. Lykon was one of their team once. But the life of a superhero is never without danger. Things went terribly wrong on a mission a long time ago, and Lykon had sacrificed himself so the rest could get out with the people they were saving. They went back later, but despite his healing powers, he hadn’t been able to use them on himself in time. 
His bracers still hold fragments of his powers, though, just like Joe’s rings will when he dies. Every hero has such a token, and there are rumors it might grant the powers to someone else if used right. But so far, no one has tried yet. All superheroes agree that it’s simply too morbid and intruding.
“Yes.” Andy sighs. “I knew I shouldn’t have given it to the museum. It would’ve been safer with us after all.”
“Hey, boss, don’t beat yourself up. It was the best option back then. So, who’s after it?”
“Some rich megalomaniac called Merrick. You know, the usual. The theft is planned for this Friday. Booker is at the museum now to find a way to get you inside and get a layout from the building. He’ll be on it for the rest of the week so you’re on shop duty alone for a while.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll send you some more details you can look through. How did it go last night?
“It went well,” Joe answers, but it’s a tad too late and of course Andy notices.
“But?”
Joe sighs. “But the Shadow showed up and I had just gotten them right where I wanted them, but when I rounded the corner, he’d taken care of them already.”
“The guy’s good,” Andy says and the appraisel in her voice makes a spike of jealousy flash through his chest.
“Maybe you should ask him to join us, then,” he says and he hates how annoyed he sounds.
Andy chuckles on the other end. “Have to figure out who he is first.”
Just some pretentious bastard thinking he’s too good to talk with other superheroes. But Joe is tired talking about him.
“So how are you and Nile? Have you found her yet?”
“No, no sign yet.” All mirth has left Andy’s voice and Joe’s heart clenches.
“It’s only a matter of time. We’ll find her. Or she’ll find us again, she wouldn’t leave us like that.” She wouldn’t leave you.
“Let’s hope so,” Andy says with a heavy sigh. “Gotta go, I’ll send you the information. Keep me updated, okay?”
“Sure thing, boss. Say hi to Nile from me.”
He’s breaking his head over the lists again when the bell makes him startle. 
His throat runs dry when he looks up because the most beautiful man in all the universe has just entered the shop. Joe really shouldn’t be so dumbfounded by the man, because objectively speaking he is rather plain-looking with that simple hair cut and those pants that are really doing nothing for him, but still. Even like that, he has something incredibly mesmerising to Joe.
He pretends to look back at the lists for a while, but glances at the customer every now and again from the corner of his eye.
When the man has been wandering around for a while and has been staring at those small angel statuettes for five minutes already, Joe slips from behind the counter and goes to him. 
“Good morning, sir, can I be of some assistance?”
The man turns around and a small smile appears around his mouth when he sees Joe, melting Joe’s heart into a puddle.
“Maybe. I’m looking for a birthday gift for my nonna, but I don’t know which archangel she would like more.”
And to Joe’s surprise, the man goes on to explain the different meanings behind them which is incredibly fascinating - and not only because his hand gestures are so elegant and his eyes are alight with a passionate glow that Joe would describe as moonlight in one of his poems. And Joe is all too happy to chip in with his own knowledge of art and iconology. 
They get so caught up in their conversation that Joe jumps when the grandfather clocks start their various announcements of the fact that it is twelve o’clock. The man startles too by the cacophony and glances at his watch. 
“Oh, I should get going. I’ll take this one.” And he picks out Joe’s favorite. 
He follows Joe to the cash register and pays. 
“I am Joe, by the way,” Joe says when he’s wrapping the statue in bubble plastic to protect it.
“Nicky, nice to meet you,” Nicky says and Joe can’t keep the wide smile from his face.
“We should do that again some time,” he says, gathering all his courage. “Talk, I mean, not necessarily buying or selling angel statuettes.”
Nicky laughs, and the little snort makes Joe’s heart jump to his throat. “Let’s grab some dinner then, when are you available?”
“Only Friday wouldn’t work for me,” Joe says.
“I can’t make it on Friday either, so let’s say Saturday? Here, let me get your number,” Nicky says and picks his phone from his pocket.
They exchange numbers and say their goodbyes, Nicky flashing a last smile at him from the door before leaving Joe helplessly lost behind his cash register. 
*
Focus, Yusuf! Yusuf chastizes himself when his mind has wandered off to what he’s going to wear for his date tomorrow for what must be the millionth time. You’re supposed to be watching out for a thief, focus!
Yusuf takes a deep breath and scans the room again. He’s hidden in a very uncomfortable position against the ceiling, holding on to a pillar that grants him a view of the entire exhibition room. If he didn’t have his powers, there was no way he could have endured this position for so long, and while it would have been even easier if the sun was out, he manages. 
The minutes are ticking by, no sign of a thief yet. The bracers are still safely in their display case beneath him.
Then there’s a movement, ever so slightly, by the windows. Yusuf’s eyes latch onto it, but it’s gone so soon that he almost thinks it’s a trick of his mind. 
Always trust your instincts, Andy told them over and over again. Our minds don’t play tricks on us.
Sure enough, there’s another flutter in the shadows. No, not in the shadows. Of the shadows.
One of them is moving.
Joe curses inwardly, of course Merrick has hired the Shadow.
He waits for the Shadow to reach the display case. Then, when he reaches over the glass, Yusuf slides down right behind him. He reaches for him, letting out a sound of victory when his hands guess correctly and circle around the Shadow’s neck. He lets his hands glow, unleashing the heat he’s always containing. 
Surprised by the sudden attack, the Shadow turns visible and Yusuf stumbles back out of pure shock.
He’s all clad in black, with a balck version of a mask not unlike Yusuf’s own, but Yusuf would recognise the eyes peeking through it anywhere. Those eyes that are unmistakably glowing with moonlight now.
“Nicky?” Yusuf exclaims.
“Joe?” 
Nicky seems just as confused as Yusuf who’s still looking him up and down as if he might change into someone else after all - and oh man, these tight pants are definitely doing things for him. Nicky recovers faster from the shock, though. 
“Sorry, but I really gotta take these,” he says and before Yusuf can make his muscles move again, Nicky already has the bracers in his hands and is dashing for the windows.
“Wait no!” Yusuf sprints after him, but Nicky whisps away into shadow-form again and slips through a slightly opened window. 
“Nicky!” Yusuf screams after him. He opens the window wider - not alarming the guards be damned - and looks out over the city. But there’s no trace of Nicky.
His heart is pounding. Nicky, the beautiful man he is already head over heels with, is the Shadow. Not only is he the Shadow, but he has also stolen Lykon’s bracers for some capitalist asshole.
Shit.
“Is our date still on tomorrow?” Yusuf calls weakly into the night.
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imomomi · 4 years
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         The doodles first started when he was 16. Little stars on his wrists when he woke up, a flower curling on his palm before class, an inky sketch of some mountains on his thigh. Rationally, he knew what they were, why they were there, but it didn’t stop the initial stab of disgust at seeing the ink on his body. He washed it off frequently and often right away. By the end of the week, the drawings became less frequent. The loss of them did not hurt, but a stab of anxiety followed when he woke inkless and alone like always. Kiyoomi had never written back. The idea of writing—what if the ink was toxic and made him sick, what if they were allergic to something and it somehow leake---he took a breath, shaking the thoughts from his head.
          He didn’t hate the idea of having a soulmate. It made life easier knowing that he didn’t need to waste his time looking for a partner. He preferred it when things were clear cut, easy to understand, and with a visible end in sight.
          Not where people can see, he wrote on his thigh, just high enough that it wouldn’t show when he was playing. His handwriting was chicken scrawl and despite his attempts to make it neater, he never managed it.
          He waited minuets, checking with such frequency that not even cleaning his room had taken his mind off it. Words didn’t always make it through. No one knew why or how the process worked. Scientists debated that the reason words didn’t appear were because communication as a human method, poets wrote about the mysteries of soulmate marks and fate, but Kiyoomi thought it was simpler than all of that. Soulmate marks lead you to your soulmate when you were ready. Relationships were messy and complicated and despite how alone he was at times, he didn’t want one right now.
          A single word followed, written so neatly it could have been its own font.
          Ok.  
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          The eighty-eighth floor of MSBY’s headquarters was not a place that Kiyoomi ever dared enter. He was content in receiving his paycheck on the day he was meant to and waiting for contract negations to raise any issues. Atsumu had managed to sneak his way into the Management and Finance department the first week he’d joined the team. Apparently, the gossip among their teammates wasn’t enough to quell his nosy behavior. How he’d managed to convince him to join in on his lunch-time venture, Kiyoomi wasn’t too sure. All he knew was that he regretted his decision already.
          Couches were scattered in the main room surrounding large flat-screen T.Vs that played the news in a constant cycle. A large-open kitchen faced the back wall where a couple of people hung around, holding steaming mugs. Two people sat at one of the couches, intensely focused on a video-game they were playing. All around the floor, leading up the offices down the hall, were flowers. Some hung from the ceiling, spilling over the pots with vines drifting downwards. Large bouquets in crystal vases littered the tables. Kiyoomi could feel his nose twitching.
          “Come on,” Atsumu said, leading him down the hall where several offices were tucked against the floor to ceiling windows. They came to a stop in front of a corner office where a small shoe rack lined with slippers, some still in the plastic casing, rested outside the door. A pair of pale pink slippers were on the top shelf, bunny ears plastered obnoxiously at the front.
          “Take off your shoes. Y/N-chan hates dust. I’m pretty sure she ripped out the carpet with her bare hands when she got here.”
          “I’m surprised you’re actually doing it,” said Kiyoomi. Too often had he watched in disgust as the man went home wearing the same sweaty clothes he’d practiced in.
          “Y/N almost had a heart attack the first time I came in here, kinda made me feel bad not to listen after that,” Atsumu admitted. Kiyoomi struggled to rearrange his features to hide his doubt at the words and failed.  
          “Yet, when I tell you to stop stealing my face masks and towels, you never listen,” he said, dryly.
          “That’s different. She’s a girl. You’re Omi-Omi.”
          “So, if I miraculously gain a vagin-” Kiyoomi started.
          “Do ya ever shut up? I’m not arguin’ with ya in the middle of the hall,” Atsumu hissed, his accent coming out stronger in his annoyance. Kiyoomi rolled his eyes. If anything, it was Atsumu who started every one of their arguments, but his own boredom didn’t help.
          “No need to be so sensitive,” said Kiyoomi.
          “Put the damn slippers on,” Atsumu said, shoving the unopened packet into his gut. Sakusa smirked beneath his mask, gingerly opening up the slippers.
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          They were in the office for a full ten minutes before anyone arrived. Atsumu took the time to make himself comfortable in the leather chair behind the desk, making the various figurines of the team fight. Prototypes for the upcoming season, thought Kiyoomi, glancing at the little chibi version of himself in curiosity. The door snaps open and a woman walked in harried and tapping on her phone. She wasn’t dressed in office clothes, rather in an oversized hoodie with the name of a foreign university splashed across the front and leggings. The pink slippers that sat outside were on her feet.
          “I thought I banned you from here last week,” she said with a groan, tossing a bag down onto the couch. She nodded to him in greeting, but otherwise ignored his existence.
          “I bought a friend as a peace offering,” Atsumu said, throwing a hand in his direction. Y/N’s gaze fell to him briefly, brow furrowing.
          “I don’t accept,” she said, turning to glare at Atsumu. “Human trafficking is bad. You would have learned that if you actually made it to college.”
          “Sorry for joining the team,” said Atsumu. He stood from her desk, letting her settle in. Kiyoomi watched the two interact, wondering how long they had known one another.
          “Please, I can replace you any day,” she muttered.
          “We all know you love me too much to do that.”
          “When I finally jump from the roof, I want everyone to know it’s your fault.”
          “Take me with you,” Kiyoomi muttered, shooting Atsumu a look of disgust. Her lips twitched and she offered him a smile. Kiyoomi averted his gaze immediately, not liking that her attention finally focused on him. There was something unnerving in her gaze.  
          “What do you want?” she asked.
          “Business as usual. Sakusa needs you this time, not me,” Atsumu said.
          “I’m sure you had nothing to do with that,” she drawled.
          “I was brought against my will,” Sakusa acknowledged. She picked up a pen and notepad from her desk, clicking it rapidly as she started to scribble.
          “We can file a report,” she joked, “I’m sure the papers would love to hear how Miya Atsumu was involved in a scandal with his teammate.”
          “Suddenly, I’m regretting all my life choices leading up to this moment,” Atsumu said.
          “You didn’t before?” Sakusa asked. Y/N laughed and Kiyoomi hated how the sound filled the air, bouncing with a levity that he’d never experienced on his own. People like Atsumu---and it seemed like Y/N---had a way of taking up space and never letting it go. They were loud because they thrived on the attention and Kiyoomi who had been surrounded by people but, alone all his life flinched away from it.
          He pushed the thoughts away, explaining quickly and concisely that Atsumu had brought him here to specify how he wanted the locker room set up before games. Kiyoomi anticipated resistance to his requests but was shown a brutal efficiency that he can’t help but admire. Y/N listened attentively, taking notes, and asking questions, before promising that they would implement a new cleaning schedule before their next practice. They leave as quickly as they arrived, but part of him expected more and is left empty with the thought that there was something incomplete about their meeting.
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           That night’s drawing was a little cat curled up in a box. It looked like any other stray that he might see in Tokyo, but there was something endearing about the way its eyes were closed in two tiny smiles. Kiyoomi traced it idly. It must have taken a long time, he thought. The urge to draw something back filled him, but he has neither the talent nor willpower to sit and draw on himself for any length of time. Unlike when he was younger, the drawings came less frequently and always at night.
          He watched; brow furrowed in confusion as words appeared beneath the drawing. The rare sight had his heart hammering loudly in his chest.
          Azabu, Tokyo.
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Masterlist || Next
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Taglist: @haikyuuopalite​ @cuddlesslut​ @sckusa​ @imuziawi​
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tchallasbabymama · 4 years
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M’Baku’s Love- Chapter 10 (Finale)
Thanks for bearing with me on this journey, it’s been a good one. Here’s the last chapter, I hope y’all like it! Normally I would post on M’Baku Mondays, but I just couldn’t wait to share this ending with the like 5 people who read my stories. 
Don’t forget to check out my masterlist HERE to read my other stories. M’Baku fans, don’t fret, I have another M’Baku fic starting next week...well its an M’Baku x OC x T’Challa fic. That’s right, we’re going for a throuple. Check out the preview HERE. As always, let me know what y’all think and if you want to be tagged in any of my other stories.
CW: smut
Word count: 10,630
Monae fiddled with JJ’s collar as they stood on the tarmac waiting for the Talon to touch down. He loved seeing Uncle Challa’s “spaceship” and they regularly got to see him off and welcome him back. This time would be a little different though since he would be bringing M’Baku to meet his son for the first time. Monae’s nerves were shot and she vibrated with anticipation.
As the ship came into view a lump caught in Monae’s throat. She was about to see him again for the first time in years...he was about to meet their son. She could still barely process the fact that he was alive and almost needed to see it to believe it, but he was just a few moments away.
The Talon floated closer and closer to the ground and her palms grew sweaty when it finally made contact. 
JJ jumped up and down as the doors opened and he saw Okoye and Ayo exit the craft. He immediately went to go hug his aunties as he waited for his favorite uncle to come out. Pretty soon he emerged, alone, and JJ ran to him and jumped in his arms.
“Uncle Challa!”
“Igorila encinci, I’ve missed you! Are you being good for your mama?”
“Yes!” T’Challa raised an eyebrow and looked back to Monae who was steadily creeping closer. She nodded with a smile and T’Challa started tickling JJ, making him let loose the boisterous laugh he no doubt got from his father. 
Monae’s eyes travelled to the open door behind T’Challa and he noticed, giving her a soft smile. “He needs a minute.”
She nodded and looked down, twiddling her thumbs when JJ’s voice brought her out of her daze.
“Uncle Challa, who’s that?” he looked over the king’s shoulder and saw a large man hesitantly stepping through the Talon door and into the light. T’Challa set JJ down and turned to look at Monae, but her eyes were already raining tears down her face.
“That is my friend, M’Baku. Why don’t you say hi?”
M’Baku walked down the ramp and met the king on the ground, unable to take his eyes off the little boy in front of him. He looked just like a miniature version of him with a head full of locs. The pictures didn’t do him justice. 
JJ waved at the stranger and introduced himself, “Hi! I’m Jabari, but everyone calls me JJ. What’s your name?”
M’Baku’s eyes grew misty as his child smiled up at him. He cleared his throat and got down on one knee so he could be eye-level with JJ.
“My name is M’Baku, and I am-” he cut himself off, as he looked up and made eye contact with a crying Monae behind T’Challa. The king moved out of the way and gave the little family some privacy, joining his Dora near the car and trying not to be nosy and watch too intently. Monae took a step forward and that was all the permission he needed. He stood from the ground, and just as he did she threw her arms around him, crying into his chest. His head rested on top of hers as he cried and rocked her from side to side. 
“Mommy? What’s wrong?” M’Baku wiped Monae’s tears before she turned to their son and squatted down to his height.
“JJ, baby...remember how mommy told you your daddy died before you were born?”
He nodded his head silently with his brows furrowed.
“Well I was wrong...and Uncle Challa was nice enough to bring him here to us,” she looked to M’Baku and smiled, but he couldn’t take his eyes off his son. 
“You’re my dad?”
“Yes, you can call me ‘baba’ if you like.”
“Baba? What’s that mean?”
“It means ‘father’ in my language.”
“What language is that?”
“Xhosa.”
“Oh, like Umalume Challa.”
M’Baku smiled up at Monae, “He knows Xhosa?”
“T’Challa taught him some, he’s pretty good. He’s even teaching me a little bit.”
“Yeah, she’s a fast learner like me!”
“That’s right,” she tickled his sides and his infectious laughter rang out again, the most beautiful song M’Baku had ever heard. When he came down from his tickle high his eyes settled back on M’Baku.
“So if you weren’t dead where were you?”
“I do not know…”
“Baby, you remember the other day when people started appearing out of nowhere?” he nodded again, “That’s what happened to your baba.” 
He still didn’t really understand just what actually happened with those people, but knowing his baba had been one of them and wasn’t dead or just gone for no reason eased his mind. 
Both adults stood and Monae grabbed JJ’s hand as they walked back towards T’Challa, who was trying really hard to not seem like he was eavesdropping. JJ reached up and grabbed M’Baku’s hand and all the adults present struggled to keep their composure.
--------
 Every time the Wakandans came to town, they stopped by Monae’s house for dinner at least once, so the group split in two as they got in their cars to drive to Monae’s. Monae could hardly speak, so she was thankful that JJ was full of questions on the ride home.
“So do I have grandparents?”
“Yes, and my mama would love to meet you.”
“How is Ada?”
“Shaken up...she was also one of the Dusted.”
“The Dusted?” JJ asked.
“Yes, that is what we Jabari call the people who disappeared and reappeared.”
“I thought your name was M’Baku, not Jabari.”
M’Baku chuckled.
“It is, but I come from the Jabari people. In fact, I am the-”
Monae cleared her throat and subtly shook her head.
“-I am...excited for you to meet them.”
“What are they like?”
M’Baku and JJ went back and forth the entire ride home as Monae drove in a daze, her brain still trying to process being so close to M’Baku again. The drive only took about ten minutes and as they pulled up to the house M’Baku’s eyes scanned the neighborhood, taking it all in. He saw the colonizers walking their dogs by the old drunks outside the corner store, and he noticed the expensive cookie cutter townhouses right next to the smaller, old homes that had been there for decades. This was definitely not the Nashville Monae had told him about.
M’Baku couldn't help but smile as they walked into her house and he felt the same warmth and openness he felt in her apartment all those years ago. Monae headed straight for the kitchen to check on the vegetable gumbo she had going in the slow cooker all day while JJ pulled M’Baku into the living room with everyone else. Monae watched with a smile as JJ talked his baba’s ear off and showed him around, pointing out the pictures on the wall. M’Baku’s eyes wandered over the photos, but he was distracted by a loud “meow” and a paw on his pants leg.
“Juju, old friend.” He reached down to pet her and she moved away from his hand, choosing instead to go back the way she came.
“Don’t be sad, she does that sometimes,” JJ comforted his dad, whose jaw was hanging open in disbelief until he heard the tinkling of a bell. Sure enough, Juju trotted back in and dropped her favorite feather toy at M’Baku’s feet. “Hey, she likes you!”
The three of them played together for a couple minutes, all the while M’Baku kept an eye on Monae slowly pacing back and forth in the kitchen. JJ chased Juju off through the house and M’Baku took the moment to try to talk to Monae while everyone was preoccupied setting the table and securing the perimeter of the house. 
Monae stirred the gumbo and tried her best to calm her nerves, but the butterflies in her stomach weren’t going away any time soon. They weren’t helped by the heat that crept up against her back as a large shadow loomed over her. She turned around to face him and he tipped her chin up.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“I...um, it’s already done.”
“You are nervous...why?”
“M’Baku,” she sighed, “I need you to understand that you died, or I thought you were dead. I mourned you. I buried you in my mind and visit on your deathiversary every year...but you crawled back out of that grave and it’s just hard for me to wrap my mind around.”
He nodded and placed a kiss on her forehead before moving back and giving her space. Monae cleared her throat and shook herself from her daze. She needed to get a handle on herself and fast.
“JJ, come wash your hands.”
The little boy came sprinting from the back room.
“No running inside,” Monae and T’Challa echoed each other and JJ slowed down, sheepishly walking the rest of the way to the stepstool at the kitchen sink. M’Baku helped him wash his hands as Monae filled their bowls with rice and gumbo. She grabbed a bottle of hot sauce from the counter and placed it in the middle of the table before sitting down at the head. 
“So, T, how’s Nakia?”
“She’s doing well. This pregnancy has been much easier on her than the first. In fact, she and the twins will be coming back with me next time.”
“Really?!” JJ was excited to see his play cousins, it had been months since the last time Hasina and Hasani visited. They were only a few months older than him, and the three of them were inseparable whenever they got together.
M’Baku sat back and watched their interactions, feeling slightly left out. He had missed so much of their lives. What was her pregnancy like? What were his first words? He just had to know. Right as he worked up the nerve to interrupt the ongoing conversation, JJ did it for him.
“Baba?” 
M’Baku was still so unused to hearing that name, however he already loved how it sounded. 
“Yes, JJ?”
“So what did it feel like when you got Dusted?”
Monae almost choked on her gumbo.
“JJ, let’s not-”
“I did not even know I had gone anywhere...it felt like no time had passed.”
“So you...you really think it’s been two months since we last saw each other?” Monae asked him.
“Yes, although I know now that is not the case,” he smiled at JJ who gave him a snaggletoothed smile right back. He turned to T’Challa, his face turning serious. “Thank you for looking after them, brother.”
“Any time, they are family. Isn’t that right igorila encinci?”
“Yes!”
Monae chuckled as she got up to bring out his favorite pineapple upside down cake she made late the night before. She disappeared into the kitchen as the others continued to talk amongst themselves.
“You call him ‘little gorilla’, eh?”
“Well yes, he is your son.”
“Do they call you the ‘Big Gorilla’ or something?”
“No, I am the Great Gorilla, ruler of the Jabari-”
“You’re a king, too?!”
“What?!” Monae yelled from the kitchen.
Okoye, Ayo, and T’Challa all made eye contact and decided it was a good time to leave.
“Well, we do not want to intrude so we will see you tomorrow,” Okoye rushed out.
“Monae, do you need any help cleaning up or anything before we leave?” Ayo added. 
“No thank you. Y’all get to the hotel safe, see you tomorrow.” She and JJ hugged the three of them and they took their leave. As soon as Monae closed the door behind them, JJ went right back to the previous conversation.
“So if you’re a king, that makes me a prince!”
“JJ, go upstairs and start getting ready for bed, I’ll be up soon.”
He sighed, but did what his mom told him, but before he made it all the way up the stairs he turned around and asked, “Is baba staying?”
Monae turned to look at M’Baku questioningly.
“If your mother will have me.”
“Please mommy!”
“No need for all that, I want him to stay too,” she laughed as her son ran back down the stairs to hug them both before going up to his room.
“So you want me to stay?”
Monae rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t have told him he’s a prince, M’Baku.”
“Why not? He is a prince, he should know.”
The two of them cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher as they went back and forth.
“He’s too young, that’s why. I want him to have a normal life.”
“He is not a ‘normal’ boy, Monae, he is royalty. He is my heir.”
She knew he was right, but she just didn’t want to let go of the life she and JJ had that she knew now was about to  be turned on its head. She didn’t want to have the conversation that she knew they needed to have.
“Let’s put JJ to bed and then come back to this.”
M’Baku agreed and the two of them went upstairs to do just that. After JJ’s bath, M’Baku told him the story of how the Jabari found the mountains, and he was hanging on every word until sleep overtook him and he passed out around 8:30. 
Monae was almost moved to tears by their interaction, and she kept from sniffling as both adults crept out the room and back downstairs. She went straight to the wine rack and cracked open a merlot, pouring two generous glasses for the two of them. He grabbed her hand and led her to the couch, sitting down next to her and pulling her legs across his lap. She didn’t know what to do, her mind still hadn’t caught up with her body yet, but her body melted right into him.
“I know it has not been as long for me as it has for you...but I have missed you, Babygirl.”
M’Baku heard a sniffle and looked down at her as her body shook and tears escaped her eyes. He grabbed the wine glass from her and set both glasses on the coffee table in front of them before placing his arm around her and pulling her in tight. 
The next hour or so consisted of M’Baku consoling Monae as she released five years of grief she had been holding onto. After a while, she calmed down and they sat in silence before she tore herself away from his lap and took a deep breath. She looked into his eyes and he moved in for a kiss, but she pulled away at the last second. 
“So what now?” She asked and his eyebrows furrowed as she spoke. 
“What do you mean?”
“JJ...since he’s a prince and all.”
M’Baku took a sip of his previously untouched wine, prompting Monae to do the same. 
“He will need to come be with his people, Monae.”
“He has people here too, M’Baku. He has friends and a community here.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“Coparenting.”
“Coparenting?”
“Yes. I don’t want him to lose his home here or keep him from his home there...so lets let him have both.”
“I do not want you two halfway around the world-”
“And I don’t want him so far away from me, but parenthood involves sacrifice. Welcome to the club.”
“Then come with him.”
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“She is being unreasonable!” M’Baku sat on the couch in T’Challa’s office, complaining to the king and queen. He had stayed with Monae for only a weekend since he needed to get back to ruling his kingdom that was still restructuring after the return of the Dusted, but in that short time he was unable to convince her to let JJ live with his people. 
“I think she was being more than generous. I don’t even like when T’Challa takes the twins with him to America without me , I can’t imagine being without them for any longer than that.”
“Yes, but she could just move here! And at first she said we would split our time 50/50, now she wants to keep him during the school year and I get summers.”
“You’d prefer to disrupt the boy’s education?” the king chimed in.
“Oh please, we both know he would have a much better education here anyway.”
“True, but you’re asking Monae to uproot her whole life,” T’Challa added.
“M’Baku, you need to look at this like a parent, not like a chief. He’s just a little boy, he’s her little boy-”
“Our little boy.”
“For like five minutes. She’s been there for five years. She’s kissed his wounds and weathered temper tantrums. She pushed that boy out in the middle of her living room, she caught her own baby despite the fact that the midwife was right there. It’s just been the two of them since her aunt died...you can’t just expect her to give in so easily. You’re asking a lot of her.”
“Maybe if they both came to visit it would ease her mind a little,” T’Challa suggested.
“Could the two of you try to talk to her?”
“Absolutely not,” Nakia said as T’Challa shook his head.
“This is between the two of you, my friend.”
“Uncle Challa and Aunt Kiki are sitting this one out, sorry.” Nakia’s hands raised in surrender.
“Aunt Kiki?”
“I couldn’t let him be the only one with a nickname.”
M’Baku nodded as he mulled over their conversation in his head. He felt they were probably right, but he needed one more opinion.
When M’Baku made it back to Jabari land he went straight to his mother’s quarters to seek her advice. He found her in the middle of braiding her hair, and sat across from her as she worked.
“So how is my grandson? Did you bring me pictures?”
“Of course, mama,” he pulled up pictures of JJ on his beads, swiping through and smiling like a fool as he looked at his son. “He is well. He is so inquisitive and joyous...Monae has done a good job on her own.”
“Of course she has, I always liked that one.”
“I know,” M’Baku chuckled before his face fell.
“What is it?”
“It is Monae...she wants to coparent. She would have him during the school year and I would have him during their summer break.”
“That sounds pretty good to me.”
M’Baku sighed and hung his head.
“That is what the queen said.”
“Smart woman, our queen.”
“That she is...mama, I do not want to be apart from him so much, but Monae refuses to move here. I do not know what to do.”
“It sounds to me like you will be making a lot more trips to America then. She never said you could not see him, just that he stays in America with her. That does not have to exclude you.”
“I have duties here-”
“M’Baku we were gone for five years and the council ran things just fine, and before that you were gone for three months. I am not saying you should move there, just that your job is much more flexible than you realize.” 
Meanwhile, on the other side of Wakanda, the king decided to go back on his word just a little and texted Monae and asked her to call him when she had the chance. Later that night, his phone rang and he looked to see it was Monae calling. He checked to make sure he was alone in his quarters before answering. Thankfully, Nakia was down the hall putting the twins to bed while he worked on some last minute paperwork, or she’d have his head for this.
“Monae, I’m glad you called. How are you today?”
“I’d be much better if the city wasn’t breathing down our necks about this block party.”
“I’ll handle them, don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks T.”
“No problem.”
“So what’s up? It sounded important.”
“Yes, well, it is. I spent the earlier half of today listening to a certain chief bemoan his new custody arrangement.”
“You can’t talk me out of it. I don’t even want him gone during the summer, that was hard enough.”
“I wouldn’t dare. I would dare, however, to formally invite you to Wakanda. Come see it for yourself for a couple weeks, you might like it. If nothing else, it will ease your mind for when Jabari comes here by himself.”
“Me...come to Wakanda? What about my job?”
“Don’t worry about that, just worry about when you want to leave. We can have a jet there immediately if you wish.”
“Jazz is moving in on Saturday, how about next weekend?”
“Next weekend it is.”
“Can we keep this between us? I want to surprise him.”
T’Challa chuckled just as Nakia walked in the room, “It won’t be easy to keep from him.”
“Try your best.” She knew there was a good chance T’Challa would let it slip to M’Baku. Everyone knew the king was notoriously bad at keeping secrets.
He looked up and saw Nakia standing in front of him with her eyebrow raised and a hand on her hip, her belly protruding in her nightgown. He mouthed “Monae” and pointed to his phone. 
“You just couldn't help but meddle, eh?” She rolled her eyes.
“Is that Nakia? Hey Kiki girl, I miss you!” T’Challa moved the phone away from his ear before she blew his eardrums out. 
“Hey Nae! Is my husband meddling in your business?”
“Only a little, but it’s good. Thanks to him, I’ll be seeing you soon.”
“You're coming to Wakanda?! Oh thank Bast, now I don’t have to hear M’Baku-”
“It’s just for a couple weeks, sis,” Monae chuckled as Nakia deflated.
“Well that’s better than nothing.”
“Keep it between us though.”
“So you tell him?” Nakia laughed as her husband looked at her in faux offense. 
“It was his idea!” The ladies continued to laugh and talk as T’Challa’s grimace grew.
“Ok, well I know it’s late there, so see y'all in a couple weeks?”
“We’ll be here,” They ended the call and T’Challa looked to the queen, shrugging.
“I couldn’t help myself.”
Nakia laughed and crawled in bed next to her husband, both of them swiftly falling asleep after a long day of ruling a whole country. 
--------
JJ was super excited to ride in the Talon, never having seen the inside before, and even though Monae worked around Wakandan technology, she was just as much in awe of the futuristic aircraft as her son. Okoye made sure they were comfortable on their trip, but Monae’s anxiety almost got the best of her. There were times when she almost started hyperventilating, but then JJ’s bright smiling face brought her back out of it. She was leaving the country for the first time in her life and flying in a human spaceship to a formerly hidden African country with technology way more advanced than the rest of the world. If someone had told her ten years ago that this would be her life, she would’ve laughed in their face, yet here she was.
When Okoye called them to the front of the ship to watch them enter the dome, Monae’s heart almost beat out of her chest as they glided through the trees and into Wakanda. The city she saw before her blew her away, it was bigger and more beautiful than New York or Tokyo or any of those other big cities she’d seen or read about. The real life afrofuturism stunned her to silence, and it was only broken when JJ noticed the people waiting for them to land.
“Look, it’s Uncle Challa and Auntie Kiki and Auntie Shuri and Uncle Daka and Hasina and Hasani. Where’s baba? And who's that?”
“Baba isn't here, baby. We’re here to surprise him...and I think that’s T’Challa and Shuri’s mom.”
When the ship touched down and the doors opened, JJ ran out and tackled his play family in hugs and kisses. Monae carefully made her way down the stairs and joined the group, giving hugs all around.
“Long time no see, Nae!” The prince 
“How’s Oakland treating you?”
“Much worse now that I have left,” Shuri interjected, making N’Jadaka roll his eyes and mush her face. “Hey!”
“Oakland’s great, running just like before. You should come visit.”
“Only if you visit the Nashville Center.”
“Deal.”
Monae turned to see JJ walk up the one person there she didn’t know.
“Are you Uncle Challa and Auntie Shuri’s mom?”
Queen Mother chuckled and bent down closer to his level, “That I am. And you must be Jabari.”
“Or JJ!”
“Nice to meet you, JJ. My name is Ramonda.”
“Can I call you Auntie too?”
“Of course, you wouldn’t be the first,” she winked at the older prince and he smirked back. 
“Monae, dear, I’ve heard so much about you. All good things, of course. How are you?”
“Honestly, Queen Mother, I’m a little nervous to be here.”
“Trust me, you will love Wakanda. And you are family, call me Auntie.”
The group relocated to the domestic wing of the palace as the kids ran ahead and Queen Mother chatted with Monae. T’Challa showed them to their rooms, and allowed them time to get settled in before dinner in an hour.
Monae was nervous, she knew she would see M’Baku at dinner, and since T’Challa has a flair for the dramatic he had planned for her to get there a little late and make an entrance. Well, not a huge entrance, since it would be a small family dinner, but still. She fixed the collar on JJ’s shirt and then smoothed out the front of her purple dress that contrasted beautifully with her pink fade. She took a final breath before reaching for the door handle and being led down the hallway by the palace guards. They arrived at the double doors and Monae froze.
“Mommy?”
“Y-yes baby?”
“Are you ok?”
“I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.”
“Don’t be nervous, it’s just baba.”
His words echoed in her head as she thought back to their time together. It’s just M’Baku, she thought to herself before taking one last breath and opening the doors.
When M’Baku arrived he was confused to see the two extra place settings, and as the food was brought out his confusion only grew. When the doors opened and his eyes met Monae’s he felt his heart drop into his stomach. JJ ran to him and threw his arms around his neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Hi baba!”
“Hello,” M’Baku chuckled. “What are you two doing here?” He got up and went over to Monae, enclosing her in a hug.
“Someone had the idea that I should surprise you and come see Wakanda for myself. Maybe that way I’ll be less nervous about him coming out here.” Monae took in his traditional attire and tried not to make her infatuation so obvious, but she failed. He looked damn good in his chief furs.
“How long are you here for?”
“Just two weeks.”
“That is all the time I need.”
“For what?”
“To convince you to stay,” he winked and walked her to her seat, pulling it out for her as she fussed at him.
“I never said I was staying, I said we’re here to visit.”
“Tomato, potato,” M’Baku said as Monae almost spit out her drink and half of the table fell out in laughter. 
“I think you mean ‘tomayto, tomahto’ my G,” N’Jadaka corrected him with tears in his eyes from laughing so hard.
Monae grabbed M’Baku’s hand and squeezed it before he brought it to his lips for a kiss. She allowed it since she was slowly getting used to him again and he couldn’t be happier.
“So, Monae, how do you like your rooms?”
“They’re so nice! Mine alone is the size of my first floor at home, add in JJ’s and we have the whole house.”
“Wait until you sleep on the bed-”
“Wait, are you not staying with me?”
“Well I didn’t want to assume…”
“You two will always have a place with me. I can have your things moved while we eat, unless you would rather stay here.
Monae was apprehensive about the cold, but she had to remind herself why she was here. Everything was for JJ.
“Ok, we’ll stay with you.”
“Yay!” JJ cheered as a huge gap toothed smile appeared on M’Baku’s face.
--------
“I can’t believe you did this…”
Monae looked around JJ’s room and almost shed a tear. 
“I had it set up as soon as I learned I had a child. We can personalize it and change it however he wants, I have interior decorators lined up-”
“M’Baku, it’s perfect. I mean, look at him...look how happy he looks.”
JJ picked up a pretend sword and M’Baku beamed at the future warrior. Monae playfully rolled her eyes as they watched him play-fight with an imaginary assailant. 
“I will have to teach him how to fight for real one day, you know?”
Monae sighed, reminding herself yet again that this was all for JJ. “I know.”
“But you do not like it?”
“No, I don’t like the idea of my son running into battle,” Monae snipped before taking a second and centering herself. “I’m sorry, I’m just...I’m trying, ok?”
“I know. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome...so my room?”
“Yes, right next door here.”
He showed her the room and the view from her window stunned her speechless. She could see all of Wakanda.
“This view…”
“The best in all of Wakanda.”
She felt him close behind her and turned around, coming face to face with the Jabari chief.
“Better than yours?”
“No,” he smirked. “Let me show you.”
They checked in on JJ, who had already curled up with a storybook ready for bedtime.
M’Baku read to his son as his eyelids fell and he eventually drifted off to dreamland. The two adults snuck out of the room quietly and closed the door behind them, saying good night to the guards, before walking just a few doors down and entering the largest room Monae had ever seen. It sat on the corner of the palace, with a large balcony swooping around the side, looking out onto all of Wakanda. She could see even more of the beautiful country and maybe even past it to neighboring countries as well. 
“This is...wow.” 
“Sometimes I cannot believe it myself. Can I get you anything? Water, whiskey, tea?”
“Tea would be great actually,” she sat down on the couch as her eyes continued to wander around the space before they landed on his bookshelf.
“See anything you recognize?”
She got up to take a closer look and saw the books she gave him all those years ago, and a shy smile took over her face. She continued to browse his space, much like he did the first time she brought him to her place five years ago. 
“Is this you? You look just like him!” Monae stopped on a picture of a young M’Baku with his parents. JJ held a striking resemblance to young M’Baku just like how older M’Baku looked just like his father in the picture. “The Jabari must have strong genes...I thought my family all looked alike, y’all are something else. Let me guess, you look like your granddaddy, too?”
“I do, actually,” he chuckled as he handed her a cup of jasmine tea. “Have a seat, make yourself comfortable.” M’Baku disappeared into what Monae assumed was a closet and reemerged in a brown hoodie and sweatpants.
She kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs under her as she sat on the couch, sipping her tea.
“So…” she started.
“So?”
“So, I guess we should talk about JJ.”
“JJ is fine for now, let us talk about something else. Like why you are so nervous around me.”
“I’m not nervous-” he cut her off with a look. “Ok, fine, I’m nervous, but I don’t know why.”
“Monae,” he turned her jaw towards him so they could look into each other’s eyes, “I know this is hard for you, I do. And I am not asking for you to completely uproot your life for me, but I want to be with you again...even if we have to make it work across the world.”
“M’Baku, I-” her head dropped.
“Do not have to make a decision right now.”
“It’s not that, it’s just…”
“Is there someone else?”
“Wh- no! I barely have time for myself, much less anyone else. I mean, I’ve gone on dates, had a few hookups-”
“Please, spare me the details.”
“Right, sorry,” she cleared her throat. “Don’t you have some royal suitors lined up or something?”
He chuckled, “I did, until I met you. They had been trying to find a chieftess for me for years.”
“Chieftess?”
“Yes, my wife would be my chieftess.”
“And if we get back together…?”
“I told you I could give you a kingdom, Monae.”
She hadn’t noticed he’d moved closer until she felt his breath on her cheek. She turned to meet his face and their lips connected, making fireworks shoot all over Monae’s body. She pulled back and looked at him before she straddled his body and dove back in for more. Their tongues danced against each other as the kiss turned passionate and his hands explored her body. He let out a moan as his hands gripped her ass that had gotten bigger over time. Her waist was thicker and her breasts hung a little lower, and he loved every inch of her. She grinded into his lap as she sucked on his bottom lip and he let out another moan that sounded closer to a growl before pulling back.
“If you want me to stop-”
“Don’t stop.”
A fire burned behind his eyes as she pulled her dress over her head, revealing her body to him. His fingers traced over the stretch marks on her stomach and she shivered at his touch as his eyes raked up and down her naked form. When she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, he stood with her in his hands and walked her to the bed, lightly placing her down in the middle.
“I have missed you so much Babygirl,” he said between kisses as she squeezed her legs tighter around him. She could feel his  dick hardening between his legs as she opened her legs wider to let him in. 
He kissed down her body until he reached her center, his lips ghosting over hers as he thanked Hanuman for bringing this woman back into his life before digging in like it was his last meal. Monae writhed on the bed as his tongue alternated between exploring her insides and licking her clit into submission. When his lips closed around her as he sloppily tongue kissed her entire pussy, she let out a deep moan that overwhelmed her emotionally and tears sprang from her eyes.
“Cum in my mouth.”
“Mm, yes.” her tears continued to pour out of her eyes as her body shook and tensed up before releasing a deluge onto his tongue. He didn’t stop either, he kept pushing her to her breaking point over and over again until he finally got tired and kissed his way back up her body.
“Are you ok?” he asked as he wiped her tears away.
“I’m ok,” she nodded.
“You are crying more than usual.”
“I just really missed you. It’s hard to explain how all this feels and the feelings are overwhelming as fuck...but I know I want this. I know I want you.”
He pecked her lips.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Monae, I am not just talking about sex-”
Her hands cupped his face and she pulled him into her so their foreheads rested against each other. “Neither am I.”
His thumb traced her bottom lip as he stared into her big brown eyes. Her hand made its way down his body and rested between his legs, rubbing along his thick, juicy dick that she missed oh so much. She grabbed the head and rubbed her thumb over his tip before running her fingernails up the leg of his sweatpants. She caught the bottom of his sweatshirt and pulled it up, prompting him to break their kiss and pull the hoodie over his head. His pants went next and she was met with the sight of his beautiful naked body.
He came back in for a kiss and she pulled his body over hers, opening herself to him again. He rested his forearm on the pillow next to her head and his other hand found its home under her knee, pulling her leg back even more as he leaned in to kiss her deeply.
“I love you,” he whispered in her ear as he slowly pushed inside her, working his way in one inch at a time then pulling out and pushing in deeper with each thrust. Her relatively short nails marked up his back as he filled her in a way she hadn’t been filled in years. She felt emotions swirl in her chest and escape from her eyes and he kissed her tears away one by one.
Once he was fully seated inside her he stilled to compose himself, allowing her to feel all of him inside her. Her pussy squeezed him tight and she grinded up into him.
“Move, baby.”
His hips pulled back before rolling forward, pushing deep into her wetness as she cried out to the heavens. Every thrust brought their already intertwined bodies closer together and he looked down at her with love in his eyes as he played her body like a drum. Monae couldn’t handle all the feelings and eventually they boiled over and she snapped, cumming all over him and rolling them over so that she was on top. Her hips worked him like it was her job, and her hands clawed at his shoulders. She corkscrewed her hips as she leaned her body back away from him, exposing her breasts for him to play with. And that he did, taking them into his mouth and teasing her pebbled buds before covering her entire neck and chest in kisses and light nibbles as she got up on her tiptoes and pounded her hips down onto his pelvis. 
She felt the pressure rising in her lower abdomen and circled her hips, dragging her clit along his body and letting out a moan from deep within her soul as the pressure released. 
“Let me see that arch in your back,” he said with a slap to her asscheek. Monae hopped up and kneeled down next to him before leaning forward and dropping her top half to the bed, leaving her voluptuous ass in the air for him to do as he pleased.
“Good girl.” He came up behind her and entered her in one swift motion, grabbing her hips and thrusting into her with rhythmic abandon. 
“Yes! Yes!” was all she could say as she gripped the sheets in front of her and did her best to hold her ass up for him. He could tell she was struggling, so his hands came up under her hips and lifted them for her, making sure he got the correct angle to hit her spot. His grunts of passion mixed with her high pitched moans as he tore her apart to create a symphony in the large room, their voices echoing off the walls and out into the mountains. 
His hands slipped and her body slid to the bed, prompting him to lean over her body and pull her neck back for a sloppy kiss, tongues meeting each other before their lips did. He used his other hand to grip her ass tight after slapping it. 
“I feel you getting ready to cum again,” he whispered in her ear, “I am right there with you, Babygirl. Just tell me where you want it.”
“I-inside me. Please, Daddy.”
He flipped her over and plunged back inside, kissing her deeply as he dug into her. Monae’s nails found the same indents as before as he gave her all he had to give. Their foreheads connected as her walls contracted around him and his strokes faltered. 
“M’Baku!” she cried out as she exploded all over him again, kicking his orgasm into gear as he stared deep into her eyes and emptied himself into her. The two of them fought to catch their breath as they untangled and laid next to each other. As they came down she was finally able to find the words she had buried for so long.
“M’Baku?”
“Hm?” He turned to look at her with his arm folded behind his head and she curled up at his side.
“I love you too.”
He chuckled and kissed her nose, “I know, Babygirl.”
--------
The next day, M’Baku showed his family around to the other tribes, but of course he saved the best for last. The Jabari people welcomed Monae and JJ with open arms and a week later, they held a celebration in honor of the little prince. He loved the attention, but mostly he just liked getting to play with his Panther tribe cousins and the other Jabari kids. Several elders came up to Monae to ask questions about marriage, all of which she managed to dance around like an expert, but the questions about JJ’s crowning were a little harder for her to dodge. She had hoped they would be able to put it off some, but it didn’t seem as though the elders were too keen on waiting. After the feast was over and the two parents put JJ to bed, Monae finally spoke up.
“So...the elders…”
“Yes, they seem to like you
“Oh I know they like me, each one of them asked me at least twice when I’m marrying you.”
“When are you marrying me?”
 “M’Baku I-”
“No I am serious, Monae,” he cooed as he walked towards her. “Stay with me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I just can’t.”
“That is not a good enough reason.”
“I have Jazz, and my job, and my friends.”
He grabbed her hands in his.
“Monae, Nakia did your job at the Oakland Center while living in Wakanda part time...travelling to see Jazz and your friends, or bringing them here even, would not be a problem. You are best friends with the king and queen, not to mention you yourself would be a chieftess...these problems are easily fixed, my love.”
Monae removed her hands from his and walked to the balcony, pulling the collar of her fur coat up to shield her from the elements. He followed after her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his head on hers. 
“M’Baku, I’m not saying no...I’m saying I can’t just up and follow a man I was with for just two months to the other side of the world because he magically reappears in my life.”
“I am not just some man, Monae,” he turned her around to look at him, “I am Lord M’Baku the Great Gorilla, Chief of the Jabari. I am the father of your son. I am the man that you fell madly in love with in just two months. I do not want you to follow me, I want you to be with me...even on the other side of the world, if that is where your heart desires to be.”
“What would I even do here?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
“You could teach dance classes, or plan events, or whatever else might play to your skillset. You can even do nothing for the rest of your life if you want to-”
He was cut off by a nigga please glare from Monae.
“So basically, I can do whatever I want.”
“Yes.”
“And JJ? What will he do?”
“He will do everything Jabari children do. He will go to school, learn to fight, and when he is in his teens I will start preparing him to take over one day.”
“Teens?! Isn’t that too young still?”
“He will not be in charge then, think of it more as an apprenticeship.”
“Ok...this is a lot to take in, M’Baku. I’ll talk to JJ and see what he thinks.”
“But he is just a child.”
“And as his mom I want him to know that even though I have the final say, his voice gets to be heard.”
“You are a good mother.”
A tear came to her eye and she looked down, “Thank you.”
“If I absolutely had to accidentally abandon a child with anybody, I am glad it was you.”
They broke into laughter and he kissed her forehead.
“We will figure it out.”
The two of them fell asleep in each other’s arms, and when the next morning came Monae decided breakfast would be as good a time as any to gauge JJ’s reaction to their possible move.
M’Baku flipped the pancakes on the griddle as Monae sat at the table with JJ, both coloring away in his Blue’s Clues coloring book. They were so engrossed in their artwork that they barely even noticed him set the food down in front of them until he cleared his throat. They both looked at him and gave a sheepish grin, making M’Baku wonder how JJ could look so much like him yet so much like his mother at the same time. 
Monae made JJ’s plate and cut up his pancakes for him before digging into her own. The pancakes melted in her mouth and the eggs were perfect fluffy clouds. She had forgotten how good he was in the kitchen. “Mmm this is delicious.”
“Baba, you can really cook. You’re as good as mommy!”
The adults chuckled as M’Baku sat down and dug in, enjoying the fruits of his labor. After a few minutes of just scraping utensils silling the silence, Monae cleared her throat.
“So...JJ. How do you like it here?”
“It’s really cold, but it’s fun. I like the snowball fights.”
“You are very good at them,” M’Baku added.
“You are. So do you like it more than home?”
“No they’re both good, especially with Auntie Jazz there now.”
Monae had hoped for a clear cut answer, but it didn’t seem like she’d be getting one.
“Well what do you like about both places?” she asked.
“Here there’s baba and umakhulu and Hasani and Hasina and my aunts and uncles and rhinos and snow. Auntie Jazz is at home though, and so are my friends and Juju and the Center.”
Monae contemplated his words, still not coming to a concrete solution.
“JJ, how about you help me clean up the kitchen?” M’Baku asked after noticing the perplexed look stuck on Monae’s face.
“Ok!” JJ hopped down from his chair as M’Baku collected the plates from the table and brought them to the sink. Monae watched how the two of them interacted while they washed and dried the dishes. JJ and M’Baku had grown close in the time they had spent in Jabari land. She loved watching them laugh and goof off together, and every time she watched him read JJ a story at night, her heart felt full. When they finished washing dishes M’Baku sat back down at the table with Monae and grabbed her hand, bringing it to his lips for a kiss.
“Did that help with your decision making?”
“Not at all, he’s so diplomatic.” she groaned and put her head against the table.
M’Baku stifled a smile as he rubbed her back.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?”
“Just a little headache, baby.”
“JJ, what do you say I take you to a gorilla nest?”
Monae’s head popped up immediately, “Is that safe?!”
“Yes, the ones we will visit are used to being around humans.”
“I don’t know, M’Baku-”
“Come with us, it will ease your mind.”
Monae took a deep breath then nodded before the kimoyo beads she had been gifted upon arrival started to make noise. “It’s Jazz, I’m gonna take this in my room.” 
He nodded, knowing she needed to talk things out with her sister before she could make a decision. 
When Monae made it to her room, she answered the call and Jazz’s voice filled the room.
“Heyyyyyy!”
“Why are you awake? It’s like midnight.”
“You know I’m a night owl. So what’s up? Your text sounded like you were freaking out.”
“I am freaking out.”
“Why? The sex not as good as you remember or something?”
“No it’s definitely not that...he wants us to stay.”
“Ok...and the problem is?”
“My life is in Nashville, you’re there, my job is there, my friends are there. JJ’s friends are there.”
“He’ll make new friends. And didn’t you tell me you worked with the queen? In Oakland...on the other side of the world from her kingdom...that she ruled...while working in Oakland?”
“Ugh yes, you sound like M’Baku.”
“You got a smart babydaddy. One that I’m sure wouldn’t mind me coming to visit. It’ll be just like when I was at NYU.”
“I know, but you just moved in and now I’m abandoning you-”
“Sis, you’re not abandoning me. I. Will. Be. Fine.”
Monae took a deep breath.
“So what’s with all the excuses?”
“Huh?”
“You heard me. Why all the excuses, Nae?”
“I just want to do what’s right for JJ, but I don’t know what that is. He likes both places equally. I don’t want to uproot him, but I also don’t want to keep him from M’Baku and his side of the family.”
“All I’m hearing is that you’re too scared to make the decision you want to make. Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you hiding behind JJ as an excuse knowing damn well he’s going to be more than fine wherever y’all go?”
“I...damn. You’re right.” Monae had exhausted all her excuses and felt defeated. She really was the only thing standing in their way. 
“Duh, so what are you gonna do about it?”
--------
The night before their departure, M’Baku and Monae did their usual routine of getting JJ ready for bed then retiring to his quarters for tea or something stronger. 
This time was a little different though, despite the red wine poured into two glasses. Monae was usually much more talkative, but this time she seemed to be in another world.
“Is everything ok, my love?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, just thinking.”
“About what?”
“About a lot of things, really. About JJ, work, my future...us.”
“What about us?”
“I know that being with you, I'd have certain responsibilities,” she paused as M’Baku nodded. “Like what?”
“Well I am not entirely sure. We are restructuring the way we run things here. I was gone for five years and the council had no problems stepping in and ruling in my absence. The flexibility will allow me to come to America more often to visit...I don’t think I can handle just seeing him for a couple months a year, but I can come to you.”
“Isn’t that against tradition?”
“Yes, but so is having a child out of wedlock and I do not see anyone complaining about that. In fact, the people love JJ...and you,” he grabbed her hand in his and intertwined their fingers.
“I’ve noticed,” Monae deadpanned, thinking back to all the questions about marriage the council threw her way. M’Baku chuckled as he read the frustration on her face.
“Tradition got thrown out the window as soon as the aliens arrived.”
“I bet,” Monae laughed before her face turned serious. “What was it like fighting aliens?”
“Terrifying. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw that day in battle,” he kissed her hand, “but the whole time I was praying to Hanuman that I could see your face again. When T’Challa told me how much time had passed, I was heartbroken. I just knew you had found somebody else...when you told me I had a son, my whole world changed. Now I have to raise my little boy in a world with terrifying aliens that I don’t understand and cannot explain to him.”
“I still can’t explain The Snap to him, maybe when he’s older I’ll have the words, but as for now I don't even understand it enough to answer him. He asked me the other day if you would get Dusted again...he’s worried about losing you and I can’t give him an answer because I’m worried about the same thing.”
“Is that what all this is about? Your hesitance?”
Monae burst into tears and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in closer.
“It-it’s just that it could happen again at any moment. What if you’re gone for another five years? What if you never come back if there’s a next time?”
“Monae, it is over. The Titan is dead, the stones are gone, the gauntlet is gone...there will be no more Snaps. I cannot promise that something else equally preposterous will not happen instead, but that worry is gone now.”
She crawled into his lap and curled up into a ball as he stroked her back.
“So...no more aliens?”
“I cannot promise that...just no more Snaps.”
She nodded and rested her head in the crook of his neck, breathing him in and relaxing more with each inhale of his scent. 
She let out a sigh.
“Is something wrong, my love?”
“I just remembered we leave tomorrow.”
“Yes, I have been trying not to think about it.”
“I’ll miss you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know...but I won’t miss you long.”
M’Baku deflated.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she sat up and looked him in his sad eyes, “that it’s not fair for JJ to bounce between us. He needs a home that’s not split in half, and there’s more for him here than back in Nashville.”
“You are saying-”
“That we’re gonna go home tomorrow, pack our things, then come back in a week.”
A slow smile spread across M’Baku’s face as a tear came to his eye. Monae wiped it away as he kissed her all over her face before pulling back and staring into her eyes.
“I know you are coming back for JJ’s sake, but what does this mean for us?”
“It means that although JJ comes first, and is the main reason for this move...I can’t say that being closer to you had nothing to do with it. I’ve been alone for five years, I don’t want to be without you again.”
“I am sorry that I left you, Monae.”
“You had no choice, don’t be sorry.”
“I just hate that I missed out on so much. Pictures aren’t enough.”
“You’re here now. Yes you missed his birth and his first steps, but you’ll teach him how to shave and how to be a Jabari warrior. There will still be plenty of wounds to kiss and make better, baby. Plenty more ‘firsts’.”
“Mm. Would you ever consider having another child?”
“My answer used to be ‘hell no’, but that was before you came back. I could consider it...I think JJ would make a great big brother...maybe in another year or two?”
M’Baku’s smile was wider than ever and his eyes twinkled in the light as he looked at her, studying her features. Her big doe eyes always gave her emotions away, even behind her thick tortoiseshell frames. She had laid her heart out on the table for him and he almost couldn’t believe how quickly she seemed to change her mind. He wasn’t sure exactly how their conversation went, but he knew he had Jazz to thank for this. 
“That sounds perfect.”
The two of them stayed up all night discussing their future, emptying the bottle of wine around midnight, and falling asleep on the couch shortly after. The next morning, Monae was awakened by the sound of JJ knocking on the door. She opened her eyes to see they had somehow made it to the bed and smiled picturing him carrying her while she slept peacefully in his arms. M’Baku stirred next to her and stretched as she got up to answer the door.
“What’s up baby?” she asked him, still groggy and voice cracking as she adjusted M’Baku’s t-shirt she was sleeping in...that she also did not have on when she fell asleep.
“I’m hungry, it’s late.”
Monae looked at the time and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head, “How is it already 10:30?!”
M’Baku made breakfast again while Monae rushed to get herself and their son ready for their trip. When JJ started folding his clothes to pack in his suitcase, Monae stopped him, having forgotten that he didn’t know the plan yet. She noticed he was moving slow and looked a little sad.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
“I’m gonna miss it here.”
“You like being with your baba?”
He sniffled and a tear rolled down his cheek. It was at that moment that she knew she had made the right decision. 
“JJ...honey...mommy and baba have something to tell you,” she looked to M’Baku right as he walked in the door, filling the entire frame with his body. He sat on the bed on the other side of JJ and pulled him into his lap while Monae grabbed his little hands in hers.
“What is it?” he sniffled again as M’Baku wiped his tears.
“We’re going home today, but we’re coming back...we’re gonna move here to be with baba.”
JJ’s face lit up and he stopped crying. “Really?!”
“Yes, really,” M’Baku chuckled as he tickled his son, making his infectious laughter ring out once again.
“But what about Auntie Jazz?”
“It’ll be just like before, we can go visit her or she can come visit here.”
“But I thought you didn’t like the cold?”
Monae sighed as M’Baku stifled a laugh. “I don’t, but a Jabari man stole my heart and we made a little Jabari that belongs in the mountains with his people. I’ll adjust.”
“So...we’re really moving?” The hopeful look on his face made both his parents smile.
“Yes,” she laughed, “we’re really moving.”
“I have to tell Hasina and Hasani!” he jetted off to find his beads. They were programmed without most of the normal features so that he and his cousins could talk anytime they wanted to, and sure enough he immediately spilled the beans to the twins despite the fact that they would be seeing each other in an hour’s time. As they chatted, Monae and M’Baku grabbed the few things they would actually need for the week they would be gone and in no time flat, they were ready to go.
“Is that everything?” M’Baku asked as the family of three travelled to the small jet that would take them down to the palace. It was a gloomy, overcast day and the two parents tried to not let it affect their moods as JJ said goodbye to his grandma. Neither wanted to say goodbye, even though they both knew it was temporary. Any time apart felt like a lifetime.
“I think so, but we’ll be back so it’s fine.”
“I love hearing you say that,” he leaned in and kissed her.
They arrived at the palace and they were greeted by the royal family again, minus N’Jadaka who had gone back to Oakland a few days ago. 
The cousins immediately gravitated towards each other and started chatting away as the adults did the same.
“We heard from a couple little birdies that you’re moving here. What changed?” Nakia asked.
“I had to be sure...but I’m sure now.”
“Well dear, it seems you have made the right choice,” Ramonda motioned behind them and the two of them turned around to see the three kids play fighting. “I know M’Baku must be happier than a hippo in the Nile.”
“He is,” she beamed, “and honestly I am too. I was scared, but it’s like as soon as I said ‘I’ll stay’ my worries just disappeared. I knew it was the right thing to do.”
M’Baku, Shuri, and T’Challa joined them and the two men put their arms around their loves.
“Are you ready?” M’Baku whispered to her.
“Yes,” she giggled at his breath tickling her ear.
“Enough of that, she’ll be back in a week,” Shuri playfully ribbed them and everyone laughed.
“But that is so long-“
“Five years, M’Baku.”
He conceded with a kiss and the group meandered towards the jet where Okoye and Ayo already awaited them.
Monae and JJ turned and said their goodbyes, leaving M’Baku for last.
He knelt down to JJ’s level and pulled something from his pocket before placing it around JJ’s neck. It was a wood bead necklace with a small hand-carved  gorilla pendant.
“It’s just like yours!”
“That is right, igorila encinci.” 
JJ threw his arms around M’Baku’s neck and M’Baku hugged him tight. 
“I love you, baba.”
“I love you too, Jabari.” he held him close and a tear almost came to his eye at hearing those words for the very first time. 
“Do you love mommy?”
Both parents smiled as M’Baku stood to his full height, carrying a giggling JJ with him. 
“I love you and your mommy more than anything else in this world,” he said, looking into her eyes. He leaned in for a chaste kiss and she obliged, making JJ giggle at their display before Monae reached out and started tickling him, really giving him something to laugh about.
“We’ll see you in a week?”
“I will be here,” he kissed both of their foreheads before they walked up the stairs and onto the ship. 
T’Challa and Shuri came up on either side of M’Baku as he waved at them before the Talon shimmered out of view as it went through the dome. He let out a sigh and everyone could see the dopey smile lingering on his face.
“Someone’s happy,” Shuri nudged him in his side and it broke him from his daze.
“Very.” He turned to the king, “Thank you.”
“For the ship? It is no problem, really-”
“No, for sending me to Oakland. I hated the idea of going, but I never would have met Monae otherwise...so thank you for not letting me talk you out of it.”
“You were never going to talk me out of it...but you’re welcome.”
T’Challa clapped M’Baku on the shoulder as he turned to go inside with the rest of the family.
“You coming?” Shuri asked M’Baku.
“In just a moment.”
She nodded and followed behind her brother, leaving M’Baku alone, staring up at the sky.
“Hanuman, Ancestors,” he started, “thank you for blessing me with the air in my lungs and the blood in my veins. Thank you for allowing me to be in my child’s life. Thank you for leading me to Monae, and thank you for her choosing me over Damon. I have no words to express the depths of my gratitude, thank you just does not seem like enough...but that is all I have right now, so thank you, thank you, thank you. Please, keep them safe on this journey and bring them back to me.”
Just then, the clouds moved out of the way and the sun poked through for the first time all day.
“Glory to Hanuman,” M’Baku praised before he turned and walked back into the palace with a huge, goofy smile on his face, content in knowing his family would return to him soon.
The end.  
Taglist: @devnicolee, @maddeningmayhem, @theblulife
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fizzysugarwater · 4 years
Text
Uhhh no title for this one
This is just the product of my brain when I ask “What if Cole had had Enough of Jay skirting around his actual attempts at flirting and passing them off as him trying to get with Nya, and got fed up with him and at the ToE duel just kissed him on the moUTH-” Enjoy!
A/N: I use fessin’ as a ninjagan version of frickin bc I physically cannot imagine jay saying frick, but he doesn’t swear in this so. also fessin sounds like someone tryna pronounce FSM phonetically (which is a thing I’ll talk about in my ninjagan expletives hc post in the near future)
Out on the hexagon tiles of Chen’s arena, Jay felt a strange kind of aching in his chest. A tugging, sinking feeling. Like somewhere in his heart he didn’t want to be fighting Cole.
And he didn’t! Not like this. Sure, he was still mad about seeming to have lost Nya to him, but there seemed to be more to it than that. He had… small inklings, that his and Nya’s breaking up was due to grief, the toll Zane’s death had on all of them. The longer he thought about it, the more he figured it was mostly grief, the rest being dysfunction on his part. Losing Nya was his fault, Cole had nothing to do with it. But Jay wasn’t ready to face that, so he kept blaming Cole. 
But… he didn’t want to do this. He didn’t wanna fight him for the right to keep his powers, he didn’t wanna fight him to settle a score, he didn’t wanna fight him at all! Fessin’ hell, it was easier to hate him from a distance. Now, here? His heart kept aching for him. For… Cole.
Jay didn’t recall much of how the fight played out in the early beats. Just throwing earth and lightning around, and yelling at each other. Even when he was fighting with all he had, Cole seemed to have this hesitance about him. Nothing like when they were sparring, or when Jay watched him kick ass against a common enemy. Against him, Cole hesitated. And seemed to grow more agitated with every word out of Jay’s mouth.
Eventually he reached a breaking point. Cole looked mad, like right pissed, and he managed to get close enough to pull a stunt Jay never expected. This part he remembered vividly.
“Okay, fine. Fine!! You wanna know why I’m mad about this still, sparkmouth??? You REALLY wanna know?!” Cole shouted at Jay, having him backed practically against the wall with stalagmites on either side. Jay kept his fists up, not sure what Cole was about to do. Of course, there wasn’t much he could do when Cole outclassed him on a purely physical level. The earth ninja grabbed the front of his shirt and lifted Jay off his feet, slamming him into the wall. Jay yelped in surprise and pain, and for a second he caught sight of Cole’s glaring face, filled with a kind of meaning Jay wasn’t expecting. His breath would’ve hitched, if something else hadn’t happened not a moment later.
Cole kissed him. 
He fessin’ kissed him, and the kiss filled Jay’s senses all at once. Maybe it was the exertion they had both been doing but it was… warm, in a good way. Soft, too. Cole’s eyes were shut tight, while Jay’s were wide open, too shocked not to. A loop of WHAT WHAT WHAT kept playing in his brain, and he felt his whole face go red, all the way to his ears. The most jarring part of this was his desire to return it, to kiss back. I mean, sure, Jay may have had ridiculously strong feelings for Cole back during those couple of weeks when it was just them at the monastery! Sure, those feelings may have never actually subsided and he had to catch himself months later to stop staring at Cole when he was training in the courtyard and just looking - yknow. Hot. Sure, this moment being as confusing and fantastic as it was may have sprung those feelings back full force, and Jay really, really wanted to make out with this dumbass for like, another five minutes. Maybe so.
What was happening again? Oh yeah. Jay was being kissed, hard, by the guy he never got over. In the middle of an arena. Oh yeah, we’re supposed to be fighting. And people are seeing this. Oh hell, Kai and Lloyd are seeing this too!
Finally, Cole pulled back, still pinning Jay to the wall, and Jay sucked in a breath, realizing that he wasn’t even trying to breathe there. He glanced up at Cole after a second, absolutely bewildered, and was met with a red-faced gaze from a normally-stoic, suddenly embarrassed master of earth, staring back at him with so much meaning.
“That is why, Jay. That is why I’m still mad,” Cole said breathlessly. And despite the thousands of thoughts running through Jay’s head, one managed to slip out.
“Huh??? That doesn’t explain a thing!” Jay blurted out. Cole’s eyebrows shot up and he looked something like a deer in headlights, blinking at Jay and turning even redder.
“Uh-“ Cole choked out, like he was a little surprised that his kissing skills didn’t convey the meaning he wanted. He didn’t get the chance to say anything else, because a frustrated groan sounded from above them in the stands. Chen was clearly very upset with this turn of events, and Jay was subconsciously offended. Excuse you, we’re having a moment here!
“Ughhhhhhhh, you’re supposed to be fighting each other!!!!!” Chen smacked his chair buttons a bit and glared down at the pair of them. “Send in the Condrai Crushers! That will get them fighting again!”
A door opened up in the wall of the arena, and Cole promptly dropped Jay and whirled around, cursing under his breath. Jay landed on his feet, and was looking to where Cole was as two large vehicles rolled out into the pit, both outfitted with extremely sharp implements. Jay’s breath caught, and before he had a chance to react Cole grabbed him by the wrist and dashed away from them.
“Wh- Hey!” Jay protested, wrenching his arm out of Cole’s grip and running to keep pace with him. “This conversation isn’t over, boulderbrain! What the hell was that supposed to mean?!” Cole glanced at him, then groaned slightly, skidding to a stop and whirling around to face the crushers again, stamping hard on the tiles and kicking up a large rock at one of them. Then he turned and looked at Jay, brow half-furrowed.
“The reason I’m still mad with you is because you still think I’m trying to take Nya from you or some bullshit like that. Even after every master-damned hint I keep shoving in your face!” Despite the situation he let out a dry laugh and pushed hair out of his face. “It is honestly baffling how you can be so ridiculously, beautifully smart and also so stupid at the same time!”
“Huh???” Jay squeaked. “I- wha- beautifully smart???” Wow, way to go that THAT’S what we latch onto. He shook his head out to clear his ears, then heard the thrum of the motor of the other crusher, behind them and dove sideways into Cole, knocking them both to the center. Once there, he stood up and kept talking. “So you’re not...?”
“OF COURSE NOT!! Fuckin hell, Jay, I never had any interest in Nya like that! She’s my workout buddy, but that’s it!” Cole pushed his hair off his face again, and shook his head. Jay couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“B-but I thought- th-the soulmate machine-“
“Was a prototype, and a tourist trap kind of attraction and I don’t know why you trusted it! Seriously, I still don’t get how you trusted that thing over me.” Cole chucked another boulder at one of the crushers, flipping it over. He turned back to Jay with just this nervous smile that made Jay’s heart flutter. The lightning master stuttered, trying to figure it all out.
“So then- it was- wait, it was me? You’re in love with me?” Jay finally put the pieces together. Cole just lit up once Jay admitted he figured that out, a bright grin plastering onto his face, and then they jumped apart into spinjitzu to dodge before joining up again. Cole grabbed both of Jay’s shoulders and kept grinning, a frankly adorable look.
“YES! Jay, you stupid gorgeous bastard, yes it was you! It was you the whole time! Still is, actually!” Cole looked almost like he was gonna cry, cry happy tears at least. Jay looked rather flabbergasted.
 Admittedly, Jay was still figuring this out, because what???
The whole time? The whole time, when Jay thought Cole was interested in Nya, Cole was in love with… him? With Jay? It felt like something out of a cheesy rom-com. Or one of his daydreams. The fact that he had to make this realization while dodging out of the way of a very sharp vehicle did not help matters.
Jay was suddenly wrenched out of his thoughts when he realized the remaining crusher was coming right at them. He had to act fast, so he dashed at the wall, ran up and sprang off of it, landing behind the driver of that one. He then proceeded to fry the living daylights out of the driver, until he was incapacitated and the thing came to a stop, just in front of Cole.
Jay hopped off again and came right up to Cole, mind spinning. He may not have had everything together, but he did have something he needed to do, to at least tell him without telling him.
“Are you serious with this? Are you genuinely, actually serious about this, Cole?” About me? Jay didn’t add. He looked up into Cole’s eyes, trying to convey about the same meaning to him as he was earlier. Cole froze, for a second all deer-in-headlights again, but then nodded.
“Yes I mean it. I am seriously in love with you,” he said, with all the conviction in the world. Jay looked up at him, took a small breath, then popped up on his tiptoes and kissed him.
In all honesty, this kiss was far shorter than the earlier one. It was small, and sweet, and soft (fessin’ hell his lips were soft) but it got the point Jay wanted to make across, clear as day. He cupped Cole’s face for a short moment, then dropped back down to his feet and was met with a rather starstruck look from Cole, to which Jay couldn’t help but smile. He almost didn’t register the audience they were still before, offering an “awww”, before he heard it drowned out by the whining of Chen.
“... okay, good, glad we got that squared aWAY-“ Jay started to say, before the floor tile he was standing on suddenly dropped out from under him. He yelped, but was very quickly grabbed in a bear-hug by Cole, keeping him from plummeting. With a start, Jay realized the arena floor tiles were disappearing into a pit at a rapid rate. “Crap, Cole!! The Jade Blade!” He pointed up at the knife stuck into the top of the central pillar.
Cole seemed to be on the same wavelength as Jay again, and holy crap was that a feeling Jay missed. “Cmon!” Cole barked, grabbing Jay by the hand and starting to dash forward to the center pole again, hopping from tile to tile as they dropped. Jay tried for a second to ignore his heart fluttering again when Cole gripped his hand - jeez I’ve really got it bad - and instead yelped in fear when he let go for a fleeting moment and got cut off by the ever-increasing pit. Separated now.
Cole whipped around for a second, eyes full of worry. Jay frantically shook his head. “Go, go!” He yelled, and Cole hesitated another beat before turning back around and sprinting for the pillar, then climbing it, then-
Once the blade was pulled the tiles stopped falling. For a very short moment it went quiet. Then Jay caught sight of something hurtling to him and he caught it on instinct. And then he looked down at it in his hands and-
What?
The Jade Blade. It was the Jade Blade, and he was holding it. Jay’s eyes darted back up to see Cole at the top of the pillar, looking down at him with a look of determination.
“WINNER!” Chen’s voice rang out over the announcement but Jay wasn’t processing it, still looking at Cole. Cole gave me the win. Why? He knows what happens when he loses, and I lost! What is he-
“Jay it’s gonna be okay, you hear me? We’ll figure it out. I want you to keep going,” Cole spoke up, landing back on the arena floor several feet away. He looked pained, but he was smiling all the way through it. There was an ache in Jay’s chest again, for Cole. “You keep going, zaptrap, and you win this thing for both of us, okay?”
“Cole, I- wh- we can’t just leave it like this!” Jay found himself blurting, frantic and scared. This CANNOT be how this goes, I barely even got time to get into it! The whys, the since-whens, all of it!
“You’re gonna be alright, Jay! I’ll see you. I’ll see you on the other siIDE!” Cole’s last word was cut off, as he was suddenly dropped into the pit below the arena. 
Jay could’ve screamed because it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair that they didn’t have any time to talk about this. He wanted to talk, he wanted to tell him all these reasons why he was so hopelessly in love with him and for a brief moment he was scared he’d never get the chance, now.
Instead, he just found himself reaching for the spot where Cole fell, feeling tears pricking at his eyes as the door in the wall opened again and Chen’s men ushered him back through to the others.
It shouldn’t be ending like this.
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colorseeingchick · 4 years
Text
Oh Baby! A series (Sugawara x Fem!Reader)
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Summary: Sugawara loves to play-hide-and-seek with your nieces and nephews, almost as much as he loves them. But this usually light game has real stakes when you, your brother, and your sister-in-law decide to get involved. What does Suga win in this special game? 
Warnings: Fluffy fluff, mentions of pregnancy 
Word Count: 4k
A/N: I have severe baby fever and time is a construct. This is on the longer end but I think its worth it :) Hope y’all enjoy! <3
Tired. That was the only possible way you could describe the way your husband looked as he stepped through the door of your brother’s home. His tie loose and shirt half untucked- he radiated exhaustion. But right here and right now, there’s something important that’s about to occur. And Sugawara Koushi would be at its forefront. 
“This is for you, Koushi-ojisan.” Your eldest niece, Tsubaki, bowed as she offered a folded piece of paper to your husband, who froze in the process of sluggishly sliding on his house slippers.
Suga shot you and your sister-in-law a questioning glance as he hesitantly received the piece of paper. Your sister-in-law feigned an innocent look, and you just shrugged your shoulders, pushing yourself to hold back your mischievous smirk. 
“Ne, what is this Tsubaki-chan?” The initial tiredness that had weighed down on his face had receded, being replaced with a burning curiosity and loving smile. 
“It’s to make our game of hide-and-seek more fun. You’ll play with us today, right Ojisan?” Tsubaki shyly smiled at her uncle, a plea subtly being communicated through her gaze. 
Of course he would play with his nieces and nephews. Even if he wanted to say no (which, obviously, he would never do), how could he ever reject those eyes? 
You and Suga had been married for quite a few years now, but you had been together for a long time before that. Soon after you two started dating, Suga had become best friends with your older brother. Moreover, you were very close with your brother’s girlfriend as well. So the four of you were inseparable. 
That continued into your married lives. You and Suga would invite over your brother and his wife once a week on Friday, spending the time to go out to restaurants, do game nights, or just watch movies. However, as time went on, the family dynamic shifted as your brother had his first child. And then the next one. They were now up to 4 kids, the oldest being 7 years old, the youngest at 2. Double dates became Ghibli Studio binges and babysitting time. 
Not that either of you minded, though. Your nieces and nephews were all angels, and you and Suga both loved caring for children. You and Suga had been trying for kids of your own for a while, but for the longest time, things didn’t seem to be in your favor. Suga knew that you felt responsible and that it weighed down on you, so he always kept his spirits high for you both. But you knew your beloved husband too well- he wanted a baby as badly as you, if not more. 
“Of course I’ll play with you guys,” Suga ruffled her hair, tightly holding the paper in his other hand. 
“I’m assuming Sumire-chan, Fumio-chan, and Mizu-chan are already hiding then?” He asked, glancing around the room to see if he could see any poorly hidden heads or tiny movements. 
“Y-yes...When you find them make sure you ask them for their papers, okay?” Before Suga could answer, she quickly turned around and scurried to the kitchen and grabbed her father’s leg, tugging on the fabric. “Did I do okay Otou-san?” She whispers quietly. 
Her father gives her a big smile and nods, patting her head. A hint of a smile pulls up at your lips as well. Tsubaki was the oldest of the group, and such a good older sister to her siblings, but she was yours and Suga’s lil princess. When you asked the kids to help you out when you arrived at the house that day, she was the most enthusiastic about making her Ojisan happy. 
Suga opened the folded piece of paper in his hands, very curious as to what this was all about. On the white piece of paper, in his niece’s bubbly and straight handwriting, was written:
 “for giving us another.”
His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, and his head instinctively tilted. That told him absolutely nothing. But he could conclude that there was some bigger message. They were all too small to come up with something like a scavenger hunt/hide-and-seek game, so he knew it was the doing of the three suspicious-looking adults watching him intently. 
What are you all planning? Suga asked with his eyes, eye contact jumping between all three of you. Hide and seek was the kids’ tradition with Suga. Without fail, they would beg him to play EVERY Friday when you guys came over. And without fail, he would always agree. It was his game with the kids. But it seems like the adults had a hand in the game this time around. It was a competition with them, too. Alright then, game on.
Now, there are some things you have to know about this household’s version of hide and seek. The kids have numbered them as rules and made a nice little poster to go along with them, that way everyone would know them. 
Rule 1! Suga Oji-san will always be the first one to seek. 
Because, for some reason, Suga Oji-san was also a master hide-and-seeker, there was an extra rule when he was seeking. 
Rule 2! When Suga Oji-san is seeking, he has to do it in 15 minutes, or else we win!!
“Tsubaki-chan!~ when does my time start?” He calls out to the little girl, but his eyes are trained on you. 
Tsubaki looks up to her father because she forgot to keep track (oops). 
“You’re down a minute, Koushi,” your brother responds, leaning against the table in the kitchen. 
“You know, if you don’t find all the kids in that time, you may not get all the pieces of paper,” your sister-in-law chimed in, teasingly, at which you chuckled. 
Suga quirked an eyebrow, his competitive spirit really getting riled up now. “Tsubaki-chan, are you gonna come help me find the others?” He put his bag down by the door itself and started to quickly move towards the stairs. 
Rule 3! Once found, you have to help the seeker find the other hiders. 
Tsubaki scurried back to her Oji-san, happily (but quietly) saying, “Let’s go find Sumire-chan and Fumio-chan,” as she pulled his hand, leading him up the stairs. 
Suga knew that he genuinely couldn’t lose this time around. Sure, he could usually find the kids easily because they rotated through the same spots, but he always made a spectacle of trying to find them, loudly expressing how lost he was. Sometimes he would even lose on purpose. But not today, knowing that the adults would hold to their word of not letting him see the last piece of paper if he wasn’t in time. Sumire, first on the list of kids to find, had also gotten better at hiding now that she was older, and Suga wouldn’t be surprised if her father helped her find a new hiding space.
“Ne, Tsubaki-chan, do you know if Sumire-chan is hiding in the spare guest bedroom?” 
“Oh uh, I-I don’t know…” she pushed up her glasses and tugged on her sweater. 
He’s taking that as a yes. “Let’s go check.” 
Usually, she hid under the bed or burrowed beneath a pile of pillows that sat by the headboard, but she was in neither location. Suga pursed his lips, hands falling to his hips. “Sumire-chan is almost always in this room! But I can’t find her anywhere. She must be a master hider, I swear,” he proclaims, leaning against the wall. The closet door that was mostly closed didn’t mask the muffled giggle that carried in the air. 
“Tsubaki-chan, is that a… monster in the closet?” He gasps dramatically, as he pushes the door open slightly, just in case Sumire was behind the door. The giggling from the closet mixed with Tsubaki’s as they found Suga Oji-chan’s commentary hilarious. 
There, hiding in the corner of the closet with spare pillows and stuffed animals covering everything but her face, Sumire was now giggling uncontrollably. 
“I’m not a monster, Oji-san~~~!” 
“You’re right,” Suga responds as he pulls the pillows and stuffed toys off her body, pulling her arms lightly to help her stand up, “you’re Sumire-chan!” he cheers, pulling her into a hug, which she joyously returns. 
“Sumire!” Tsubaki whisper shouts. “The paper!” 
“Oh! Oji-san take this~!” she pulls the piece of paper out from her overall’s front pocket and holds it up to him. 
Suga takes the paper and opens it to read- 
“Thank you” 
-written in neat cursive, resembling his sister-in-law’s writing. 
“For giving us another” and “thank you.” Yeah, I still have no idea what this means. He just has to find the other two pieces, then. No point in overthinking. 
“Tsubaki-chan, did Otou-san give you the timer to carry?” 
Yes, there is an official stopwatch they carry for this game. That’s how seriously they take hide and seek. 
“Mmhm! You have 8 minutes left, Oji-san.” 
“No time to waste, huh? Ok, let’s go find Fumio-chan then.” He slides the pieces of paper into his pocket and offered his hands for the little girls to hold, although Sumire opted to just hold his two fingers instead- it was easier for her smol hands (I love when children do that 🥺💖). 
As you put your mug into the sink while carrying out conversations with your brother, you watch Suga and the two little girls descend from the stairs, their tiny hands gently clasped in Suga’s. As they reach the bottom they dash to your brother, leaning against his legs. Suga makes eye contact with you and smirks lightly, his competitive spirit shining through. 
“Found Sumire, hmm?” You taunt, knowing that he took a little longer than usual. This game that usually had no stakes had insanely high stakes, which Suga had no cognizance of, so you try to be as unassuming as possible. 
“I did!” He taunts back, but his eyes drop to her and his voice softens. “She did a good job hiding, though.” You turn just in time to see her whole face light up. Your heart bursts at the sight. You both would die for these kids. From when Tsubaki was born to Mizu’s first steps, you and Suga had been there to see a lot of it and raise them in part.
“The next target is Fumio. But I have no idea where he is!!” Raising his voice at the last part, he looks around dramatically, eliciting a giggle from the two little girls. 
Fumio is almost always in the kitchen- during hide and seek and even outside the bounds of the game (baby loves food). Suga monologues, opening the pantry and turning on the lights. 
Would he go somewhere entirely different to throw me off? 
Well, no. The point of the game IS for Suga to win (this time around). 
So where is he? 
The girls let out another round of giggles when Suga opens the fridge to look for Fumio, and you and your brother can’t help but chuckle as well. 
“Ne, Ni-san,” Suga calls to your brother. “Can you give me a hint to where Fumio-chan might be?” 
“I don’t know,” he pulls his mug away from his face. “Do you think I should help Oji-san?” He looks down at his girls.
Little Sumire nods her head aggressively and Tsubaki quietly responds, “Yes!” 
“Koushi-kun. You remember when Fumio was like, 2 and would crawl everywhere?” your brother starts.
How could any of you forget? The kid ended up hiding unintentionally in all the worst places. Underneath desks, behind the couch, inside the dishwasher- it was endless. But there was one place above all he loved to hide…
Suga’s eyes met your brother’s, lighting up with understanding. 
“Fumio loves helping put away the dishes, right Tsubaki-chan?” Suga walks around to the other side of the kitchen, where you were now standing next to all the cupboards filled with cooking pots. 
“But sometimes he puts himself away, with the pots, too.” He was right. Fumio would put a pot away and push it all the way to the back of the cabinet, only to crawl in after it. How he found the spot comfy, none of you understood. But it made for some very cute photos. 
“Fumio thinks he’s a pot!” Sumire chimes in. 
“So I should check where all the pots are, shouldn’t I?” With that, Suga opens the (already slightly open) cabinet, to reveal a little boy with his hands over his mouth (concealing giggles) and a pot on his head. Suga smiles and lifts the 3-year-old out of the cabinet, pot sliding down and covering the child’s eyes. 
“Look! Fumio-chan is a pothead!!” Sumire cries out. 
All three of you burst out laughing, your brother almost spitting out his hot chocolate. 
“Su-Sumire-chan don’t say that okay? It means something different,” you try and talk without dissolving into giggles again.
“Hmm? But he has a pot on his head. What else could it mean?” She looked extremely confused and you couldn’t even fault her for it. 
“You’ll find out when you’re older,” your brother’s classic way of shutting down unwanted topics (for now). 
Fumio, on the other hand, was just glad to be in his uncle’s arms, surrounded by his favorite pots. 
“Oji-san, here!” Fumio giggled as he held the piece of paper up above his head with both hands. Suga pulled the boy against his body, opting to hold him with his left arm, while receiving and reading the piece of paper with his right. 
“To play with”
-was all that was written on the small piece, this time clearly in your brother’s handwriting. 
“Thank you for giving us another… to play with.” Suga’s hand goes slack as his eyebrows furrow in thought. What did I give them to play with? Did I buy them a toy recently? Was I supposed to buy them something!? 
The little boy in Suga’s hand notes the pensive look his Oji-san had-- leading to the boy’s decision to poke his Oji-san’s face, right on his beauty mark. “You have to find Mizu-chan!!” He cries, his smol finger gently pressing into Suga’s cheek. 
Your brother gently tilts the watch in Tsubaki’s hands. “2 minutes, Koushi.” 
“2 minutes!” A lot more time actually elapsed than he expected. “Let’s go find Mizu-chan then! Come on, Tsubaki-chan, Sumire-chan!” 
Suga hands Fumio over to you, taking the pot off his head and placing it on the table. He reaches his hands out to the girls again, both of whom accept gladly. And with that, he bounds back into the living room where your sister-in-law still waits. 
“One minute, Oji-san!” Sumire calls out this time, genuinely concerned her uncle won’t make it in time. 
But there’s another unspoken rule that’s been accepted by all the participants that ensures Suga’s success. 
Rule 4! The baby gets to be found last. 
Mizu was just 2 years old. He didn’t understand the concept of winning or losing. He just liked it when other people played with him. But the older kids did understand winning. And just like Suga, they were quite competitive. This rule was made to teach them that being nice to those who can’t play as much (like a baby) is more important than winning. 
With this stipulation, Mizu consistently hid in the same spot for every single game. Without fail, in the small woven basket used to house all the family blankets, the baby boy would sit in silence, his mom right next to him on the couch it lays adjacent to. 
Suga was gonna draw it out, though. If it's not a show for the kids, then was there really a point? 
You and your brother (who now had his turn at holding Fumio) watched as Suga ran behind the TV, searched beneath the table, and moved pillows on the couch searching for the baby of the family. 
“30 seconds!” 
“I have no idea where Mizu is! What should I do?” 
Sumire’s face is flushed with worry and excitement as she runs up to him and grabs his hand with both of her own, pulling him towards the blankie basket. “Oji-san! He hides here usually! Hurry before time runs out!” 
You sit down onto the arm of the couch as Suga stares at the woven basket. 
“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2…” 
“Found you!!!” Suga pulls the cover of the basket away, triggering an endless stream of baby giggles from little 2-year-old Mizu. Suga picks up Mizu and his stuffed bear that he had been clinging onto. 
“Oji-san wins!!” Sumire jumps up and down, hopping onto her mother’s lap. Tsubaki opts to sit on the floor, ready to watch what was to come. At this point, you and your brother are also sitting on the couch, your anxiousness raising in your belly. 
“So where’s that last piece of paper….” Suga scans the baby for any pockets when he realizes it's tucked into the ribbon around the neck of the bear in his hands. 
“I’ll take him,” your sister in law says as she gently puts Sumire on the side, grabbing Mizu from Suga before sitting down again. 
Suga slides the slip of paper out from the bear’s ribbon and sits onto his knees, retrieving the other pieces of paper from his pockets. 
“Ready for the big reveal?” He asked the kids in tone of voice, but the adults through eye contact. Although he had no doubts all the adults already knew the message. 
Tsubaki nodded in agreement while Fumio’s eyes were trained on his Oji-san. Sumire was fidgety. 
“Alright! So it says, ‘Thank you...’ ‘for giving us…’” he places the little slips onto the floor, leaving a gap for the 3rd piece. “...Something ‘to play with.’ Let’s see what I gave you guys to play with.” The final piece was now being flipped over in his fingers. He was killing himself with the suspense. “Thank you for giving us another-” he drops the last piece into line with the others, “-FRIEND… to play with…”  
Though the words came out of Suga’s mouth, he didn’t process what they had meant right away. For once, the fun and playful Koushi oji-san had dropped his usual playful demeanor for one of complete shock. 
A...a friend? 
Your nerves were now skyrocketing as you felt your brother squeeze your arm in a calm and reassuring manner. You get up, arms hugging yourself as you slowly approach Suga, who was dumb struck on the floor. 
But before you could speak, Tsubaki spoke up, scooching towards Suga, tugging on his arm sleeve.
“Oji-san, remember when I asked you if you and Y/N Oba-san had any babies I could be friends with, and you told me we would have to wait a while?” Suga’s eyes moved to the little girl, wide in surprise. In honesty, her words caught you and your brother off guard as well. 
She remembered that? It was a conversation from around when Fumio was a few months old, and you and Suga had been trying so hard for a child then. She asked Suga if she could play with your kids, somehow convinced that you guys were hiding your own children from meeting her. It crushed you both internally, but you had smiled as Suga told her “Oba-san and I don’t have any friends for you now. But I promise we will give you another friend to play with as soon as we can! You might have to wait for a while though.” He had ruffled her hair and smiled, but it was pained. Though she was young and didn’t understand why, she knew that what she had said had hurt Koushi oji-san, one of her favorite people. You assumed your sister-in-law had told her to just not ask you or Suga about it again, but you never assumed she actually held onto the memory. 
Suga just looked at Tsubaki, waiting for her to continue. 
“... well… Oba-san said that she has a baby in her tummy… and that when it comes out we can be friends… so we wanted to say thank you for keeping your promise, Oji-san.” 
Everything goes still. Even the small children sitting in the room, Mizu now sleeping on his mother’s shoulder while Fumio and Sumire hugged each other, aware of the frozen air... 
...until Suga lets out a shuttered breath. You look at him, watching tears stream down his eyes, and you exhale a breath you didn’t know you had been holding. 
“Yes, Tsubaki-chan, I told you we would keep our promise,” he jumps up, pulling her into a hug and spinning her around. She starts laughing and he laughs too. Before you know it your body starts shaking from giggles and tears that can’t help but escape you. You can hear your sister-in-law crying as well, and feel your brother’s arm pull you into a hug, a bright smile plastered across his face. 
Your sister-in-law had come with you to your doctor’s appointment 3 weeks prior to confirm the pregnancy. However, you wanted to hold off on telling Suga just to increase the chances of the pregnancy carrying through. You couldn’t bear the thought of telling him only to lose the baby mid pregnancy- that would absolutely crush him. So while waiting, you decided to come up with a fun way to tell him, getting your nieces and nephews in on the plan in the process. Although your brother and sister had known, neither had really processed the information. And neither had you. Not until this moment. 
Suga put Tsubaki down and approached you, face completely tear-stained and smile bright as the sun. You always somehow got lost in his beautiful features, and now you felt lost in the happiness radiating off of him. You let him engulf you in his arms, kissing your forehead while his tears rolled onto your face. 
“We finally did it, love.” He whispers. 
You push your face into his button-up shirt, inhaling his cologne and the reminiscent smell of detergent.
“We did,” you murmur against him. 
“Wait, Oji-san and Oba-san are gonna have a baby?!” You hear a surprised Sumire ask loudly. Evidently, she had been a bit out of the loop and Tsubaki one-san had to fill her in a bit. 
“Yes, Sumi, we are having a baby,” you respond, turning your head to look at her but not letting go of Suga. 
You watch the realization dawn on her, turning to Fumio. “Fumio there’s another baby coming!” She jumps up and down once more, spreading her excitement to the little boy who starts clapping and jumping with her. 
“Ba-by! Ba-by! Ba-by!” the two cheer while Tsubaki tries to shush them, Mizu still fast asleep. 
“Alright you two, shhh! Time for dinner. You can cheer more after dinner,” your sister-in-law chides as she heads to the kitchen. 
“Who’s ready for some ramen?” 
“Ra-men! Ra-men!”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once dinner was over, a movie was watched, the children were put to bed, and dishes put away, you and Suga say bye to your brother and sister-in-law. 
“Goodnight Ni-chan!” you say as you watch him close the door. 
“Night Y/N-chan, Koushi-kun.” He waves a final goodbye. 
As you approach the passenger side of the car, you feel a hand lightly tug your wrist. You turn around to have Suga wrap his one arm around you while guiding your face to his as he gives you a slow and loving kiss. As you pull away, Suga buries his face into the crook of your neck, his smile pressed against your skin. 
“We’ve waited for so long, Y/N… and now it’s finally happened.” 
You pet his hair and snuggle against his head. “I know, Koushi. And it will be wonderful. You’re going to be the best dad out there.” 
“And you’re gonna be a wonderful mom.”
You both stand there for a minute, bodies warm in each other’s embrace and hearts warm in the realization of your shared dream. 
“But you know, our baby’s gonna be really lucky,” you giggle. 
Suga pulls away to look at your face. “Why is that?” 
You put a hand on your stomach.
 “Baby is going to have a lot of wonderful friends to play with, always.”
183 notes · View notes
satendou · 4 years
Text
⟶ sympathy vs empathy
⍣ 365 days of sun series | next
・‥…━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━…‥・
⇢ pairing: iwaizumi/reader/oikawa
⇢ au: 365!au, poly!au, college!au, pro!oikawa
⇢ summary: after a close game and a closer loss, you learn the difference between empathy and sympathy the hard way
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⇥ masterlist 
⇥  requests are open! | rules
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⇢ warnings: smut, established relationship, threesome, polyamory, swearing,  mild daddy kink, semi-public sex, spitroasting, deep throating, fingering, unprotected sex, creampie
⇢  word count: 3.7k
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⇢  an: so this is my first fic for the hq fandom. essentially i am leading with my [redacted]. i hope you enjoy! my fic was beta read by the absolutely amazing @keijiskitten​ whom I love dearly. she writes for hq as well, so go check her out!
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There was a moment of silence in the split second after the ball hit the floor, the whole stadium seeming to freeze in time. The scoreboard read 37-35, but the players on the court stood staring at the ball rolling towards the wall. Oikawa lay splayed out on the floor, Iwaizumi and the libero whose name you couldn’t remember around him in similar positions. Shock was evident on their faces; even from the stands, you could read the myriad of emotions that flashed across their faces. Disbelief, followed by acceptance as their defeat registered, the anger, the resignation, and the regret all mixing in with it as their shoulders slumped in.
They accepted their defeat as gracefully as they could, thanking everyone for coming and smiling, but the blank stares and subtle wiping of their eyes as they took their walk of shame made your heart thump painfully in your throat. Your gaze flicked back and forth from Tooru to Hajime, unable to decide who you wanted to linger on.
Without really paying attention to what you were doing-- and probably stepping on a few toes-- you excused yourself, making your way out into the aisle. The throngs of people slowed your rush towards the locker rooms, most going in the opposite direction so that by the time you made it to their locker room, the team was just starting to stream out. Upon recognizing you, slightly out of breath and worried, they pointed towards the door, telling you that Oikawa and Iwaizumi were going to be out shortly. As they walked away, they let you know they were going to go and watch the last match of the day before you were finally alone.
You all knew what that meant. Oikawa and Iwaizumi were taking the loss the hardest, as they always did. They were the leaders of the team and losing meant that they had failed.
With a sigh, you pushed the door open and poked your head in, bracing yourself for the worst. Most of the lights were off, and the two men were sitting at opposite ends of the bench in the far corner of the room.
Iwaizumi was staring blankly at the wall, his hands curled into fists on his knees, his nails surely biting into his palm. His eyes shimmered with unshed tears, his teeth digging lol into his bottom lip as he fought not to let them fall and he shut them before they could.
Oikawa was hunched over, towel still over his head and his hands to his face. Though you couldn’t see, you were sure his state was no better.
Neither flinched until the door clicked shut behind you, both whipping around and ready to bite whoever’s head off until they saw it was you. All the air seemed to leave them when they realized, and it was like they deflated. Iwaizumi scrubbed his face with his hands, heaving a sigh as Oikawa returned to his previous prone position. Your heart hurt to see them like that and it never got easier.
Skimming your hand over Iwaizumi’s broad shoulders as you passed him, you knelt in front of Oikawa and took his hands in yours. The skin was rough and worn but warm-- and damp. You looked up, expecting to see fresh tear tracks on his cheeks, but they were dry. Scrubbed red, but dry.
And he was staring at you with a deadened expression.
What sounded like shuffling distracted you and a glance at Iwaizumi confirmed he had moved closer, reaching out to you. Your gaze did nothing to stop him and he brushed a strand of hair off of your forehead.
Your throat was sore with your own unshed tears, feeling their pain like it was your own. Every win was important to them, but the semi-finals were...well they were special. The championship had seemed so far off until they lost and they realized it was in their grasp.
With a hoarse voice, you whispered, “I-- I’m sorry, you guys. Whatever you need, I’m here.”
You felt Iwaizumi’s gentle touch on your cheek, but your eyes were locked on Oikawa.
As the words left your lips, his eyes had narrowed, a fire lighting in them and forcing a shiver down your spine. You were suspicious of it, like it was familiar yet not. It was like a harder version of the bedroom eyes he’d give you just before tackling you to the bed.
Fingers threaded in your hair, and you belatedly realized they were Oikawa’s. They tugged you closer and you shuffled forward, until you were knelt between his thighs. The sharpness in his eyes had subsided, leaving only that new, suspicious look in them.
“Tooru--” Iwaizumi warned, glancing at the door. He had vaguely recognized the look Oikawa was wearing too and took it at face value. Anyone could walk in, and Iwaizumi didn’t like the idea of getting caught by a referee-- or worse, the coach. The warning tone of his voice and the click of the lock fell on deaf ears as Oikawa continued to stare you down.
“Do you mean it, _____? You’ll do anything to make us feel better?” he asked, dangerously low and just above a whisper. The fingers curled in your hair tightened a fraction and you gulped as you realized the fire was exactly what you thought it was.
Iwaizumi cut in before you could answer, the last voice of reason, even though he wasn’t sure if he wanted it to stop. “You can say no, _____. This can wait until we get home.”
Both men paused, staring down at you, perched on your knees with your pretty mouth parted in surprise. They followed the way your tongue poked out and wetted your lips and your teeth dug into the bottom one. And both men thought about the way they would feel wrapped around their aching cocks, doing anything to help them feel better.
That thought alone, the mere mental image it conjured up, made them hard in an instant, straining against the fabric of their uniform shorts. They were already borderline too tight, and weren’t meant to hold a raging erection.
Iwaizumi fidgeted on the bench, feeling a little awkward, but Oikawa openly adjusted his shorts, drawing your gaze down for just a moment. Your mouth watered at the obvious outline pressing through, aching to skim your fingers along it as you had so many times before.
“I mean it, Tooru. Anything,” you whispered, just a bare breath of words. There was something sexy about the way you watched him, drinking in every small movement with an enraptured expression. You couldn’t have been more obvious if you had been trying, and he found it adorable Oikawa’s fingers tightened, silently telling you to stay as he tugged his shorts and boxers down with one hand. They slid down his muscular legs, pooling at his ankles and he led you forward with the pressure.
He tugged at the zipper of your jacket, the only sound besides your heavy breathing in the otherwise silent locker room. The sound of metal hitting the tiled floor made a small tink before it was forgotten, your t-shirt doing little to protect you from the moderate chill in the room.
Goosebumps rippled up your arms, and then Iwaizumi’s arms were around you, his hands rubbing up and down to warm you up again. It worked, you realizing that you were now sandwiched between your partners and that it was really going to happen. Your heart fell from your chest into your stomach, thumping away with nervous anticipation, butterflies spreading outward.
Oikawa groaned low in his throat as your soft, small hand wrapped around him and pumped, watching precum bead at the tip. Iwaizumi’s breath fanned across your neck, followed by his lips nipping and trailing their way up and over your pleasure spots. Your back curved, a shiver passing down your spine and your lips parting.
Your hand tightened around Oikawa and his hips jumped, a hissed curse leaving his lips at the electric pleasure it brought. He wanted more of that, precum now drooling down his shaft and easing the way for your hand to move faster. Iwaizumi tilted your head around to cover your lips with his, his tongue sliding past your lips to taste you.
“Hajime,” Oikawa bit out, glaring at the other man, “wait your turn.”
Iwaizumi chuckled as he pulled away, gazing fondly at your now swollen and parted lips. It was only just the beginning, and he ached to see it. Your eyes were glazed over, half-lidded and you went willingly when Oikawa pulled you back, Iwaizumi’s rough hands sliding up your back under your shirt.
He brought your lips right to his cock, tilting your head back just enough so that he could look you in the eye. There was playful glint underneath the needy lust, and it made him smirk, knowing you got off on this just as much as him. Taking his shaft in his free hand, he smeared precum all over your lips, making them nice and shiny. “You made a promise, _____. You’re going to keep it, right? Let me cum down that tight throat and I’ll feel much better.”
Iwaizumi scoffed behind you, his calloused fingers sneaking further up under your shirt while you focused on Oikawa. Already he could feel your breathing deepen, and he was sure you were wet beneath the jeans that you were wearing. He fiddled with the clasp of your bra for a moment before it came loose, letting your breasts free. He was quick to reach around, palming and kneading, nipples already hard and you mewled as you lapped at Oikawa’s cock.
Oikawa watched Iwaizumi groped you underneath your shirt for a moment before deciding he needed to see. His fingers finally came free of your hair only to tug roughly at your top, pulling it over your head. Looking at the door for the first time, he asked Iwaizumi, “You did lock it, right?”
Iwa blinked, shaking his head in exasperation at his captain, though he never stopped rolling your nipples between his fingers, enjoying the way you pushed into his hands for more. In typical Oikawa fashion, he only worried about the details after he’d made his decision, but one look down at you chased that annoyance away. It was usually Oikawa that got you into messes like this, not that you really discouraged him, and Iwaizumi usually got dragged along for the ride. He was almost always met with a reward, though, he thought with a smirk.
As soon as your head was free of your shirt, you returned to Oikawa, wetting your lips as you skimmed your lips in light kisses down the underside of his shaft.
Oh, if that doesn’t feel good, he thought, letting his head fall back. He found purchase on the bench and leaned back, closing his eyes as your mouth worked every sensitive pleasure point it could find. You knew him so well, knew exactly where to kiss, to squeeze, and to lick, making him feel lightheaded with pleasure. The feel of your lips parting around his tip caused him to sigh, pushing his cock further into your warm, inviting mouth.
Looking down once more, he admired the light reflecting off your hand, slick with your own spit as you twisted it, working it up and down where your mouth couldn’t quite reach yet. Tangling his fingers in your hair once more, he pushed, wanting to hear more of the wet sounds your mouth made as you swallowed him down. You tensed up as he reached the back of your throat, trying not to gag and he pulled back, allowing you a short breath before gently forcing you down again. He knew how far he could push you, unwilling to hurt you but determined to have your lips wrapped around the base of his throbbing cock when he came, and the intensity of the situation assured him it wouldn’t take long.
While Oikawa worked your throat open for himself, Iwaizumi contented himself by pinching your nipples one last time before moving on. Oikawa might like cumming down your throat, but Iwaizumi had better plans.
Fingering the button of your jeans, they came undone along with your fly. The angle was awkward, and Oikawa muttered in aggravation as he took your attention from him, but Iwaizumi was determined to get your jeans down to your knees, at least.
While he worked on that, Oikawa contented himself with just sitting with his cock halfway down your throat, feeling your muscles constrict around him while your tongue lapped at the prominent vein on the underside.
“That feels so good, babygirl. Don’t stop,” he moaned, sliding just a little further into your throat. He knew you could take it, needed you to take it. Your nails dug into his thighs, bracing yourself while you let him take what he wanted, and he was so grateful to you for it.
Forcing yourself to relax, you took him further, truly into your throat now as your nose buried in the brown curls at the base of his shaft. As he felt your hot breath fan, tickling the coarse curls, he groaned, the sound echoing in the tiled room. Twitching, he pulled back and thrust again, repeating the motion until the slick sound of him fucking your mouth filled the room.
Tears filled your eyes and you closed them, focusing on breathing and the feel of Iwaizumi’s fingers on your slick clit behind you. You trembled as one dipped into you before retreating.
“Shit, Tooru, she’s so  fuckin’ wet,” he said, almost in awe. Oikawa smirked at his words, staring down at you from between his bangs, his perfectly coiffed hair falling apart as the heat in the room built.
“Is that right? Does sucking my cock turn you on, princess? I wanna taste you,” he said, and your pussy clenched around nothing at the thought of his tongue on you.
Iwaizumi was quick to deliver, allowing Oikawa to wrap his lips around his fingers, lapping at the rough pads and nipping the tip of his middle finger as he pulled back. He made a show of savoring your taste, licking his lips in an exaggerated manner and moaning.
You fought back a moan as Iwaizumi’s thick fingers slid back into your tight heat, your slick folds offering no resistance, his thumb circling your clit. Even just those two gave you a pleasurable stretch, and you would never get tired of the feel of his rough hands running all over your body as he pleasured you. It felt like everything he did-- even when he punished you-- was done with some level of reverence. You fluttered around him when he plucked a nipple, as if to prove your point.
Oikawa must have felt it anyway, or perhaps it was the way your throat spasmed around him as you tried to hold back, because he jerked once and forced you all the way down, your nose in his curls once again.
He pulsed once, twice, three times, shooting hot cum right down your throat and you couldn’t fight the moan this time as he milked himself off in your mouth. When he finally let you pull away, his face was right there, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of your mouth before wiping at the drool there. You were beyond caring though, moaning against his lips as Iwaizumi fit a third finger inside you, your fingers curling tighter and nails digging harder into Oikawa’s thighs. There was no room for thoughts beyond Iwa and Oikawa, not even for worry about your current location.
He wasn’t even doing it to you, but you were giving him such a pleading, needy look that he wished he was. Cupping your face in his hands, he kissed you desperately, his tongue delving into your mouth, swallowing your moans as heat coursed through you. He almost groaned as he tasted his release on your tongue, a sense of satisfaction sweeping through him because of it.
Deeming you ready, Iwaizumi withdrew his fingers, and locked eyes with Oikawa over your back. They seemed to egg him on and he grinned, just a little uptick of his lips that Oikawa immediately locked onto. There was some rush of amusement as he drew one finger, then the next, then the last into his mouth, tasting your on his fingers in a show that outshined Oikawa’s. And Iwaizumi knew he enjoyed it, watched his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed, his tongue sweep across his lips before looking at him again.
Iwaizumi positioned himself at your entrance, spreading your slick all over the head of his cock and mixing it with his own precum. You trembled under his hands, listening to the slick sounds his fist made as he used it as lube and arched your back further, begging him without words.
Oikawa dragged your bottom lip between his teeth, nipping lightly as he pulled away. Now that he was satisfied, he was feeling much more relaxed, watching you squirm in Iwa’s hands as he teased you. “What do we say, princess?”
“I want your cock, daddy, please!” you instantly moaned against Oikawa’s lips, your eyes fluttering as you felt his cock slide into your tight hole. Too needy, too desperate, you didn’t want to play, not with the clock ticking on your hiding spot. “God yes, that--”
You choked on a whine as he bottomed out, grinding his hips against your ass to go as deep as possible. You might have stopped breathing, you weren’t sure. White flickered in your brain at the incredible stretch, friction against your clit sending shocks of pleasure to your toes.
“You’re so tight,” Iwaizumi growled, pulling out and slamming back into you, desperate to feel your soaking cunt cum around him, “so wet for us. You get off on sucking his cock, princess?”
But your mouth was occupied, Oikawa’s tongue halfway down your throat again. He could still taste the remnants of his cum on your tongue, underneath the normal sweet taste of your mouth.
Iwaizumi got his answer loud and clear though, when you clenched down tight around his cock as he thrust into you, hips slamming into yours. The utterly filthy sounds your pussy made as he pounded your tight hole filled the room, spurring him on faster. You squeezed tight around him, like you were trying to suck him back in and he didn’t deny you, chasing his own pleasure as your walls fluttered.
His rhythm stuttered when something brushed against his shaft, looking up to see Oikawa staring at him with a devious grin.
“Don’t let me stop you, handsome. Just gonna give our princess a little push is all,” he said, letting his fingers ghost along Iwaizumi’s balls for a moment before circling around your slick clit.
You jumped at the sudden spike of pleasure, spiraling as Iwaizumi filled you with his cock. It caused you to squeeze tight around him, your face pressed into Oikawa’s toned stomach as you let out a stuttery moan. Mindlessly laying open mouthed kisses on every inch of skin you could reach, you were more focused on the surge of white hot heat that came up on you suddenly.
Unable to stop it, you hid your face in Oikawa’s stomach as it overwhelmed you, your back bowing and a borderline scream ripping from your lips because Iwaizumi didn’t stop, riding through your orgasm until you were a twitching, overstimulated mess and the only thing keeping you up was Oikawa’s hold.
“Haji, Haji--” you cried, looking up into Oikawa’s face as your toes curled in pleasure that bordered on painful, your cunt clenching down in a chokehold on Iwaizumi’s cock-- whether to keep him out or suck him back in you weren’t sure.
But you were given relief when he buried himself to the hilt inside of you, his fingers wrapped in a bruising grip around your hips as he came, a broken grunt escaping his lips at the tight squeeze around him. “Fuck, princess, you feel so good.”
You let your head come to rest on Oikawa’s thigh, closing your eyes as his fingers pushed your sweat soaked bangs off your forehead before combing gently through your locks, asking “Did you enjoy yourself, _____?”
You laughed lightly, still lightheaded from your orgasm and Iwaizumi’s, and nodded. It took all your strength to lift yourself out of their holds, sitting up on your knees. Taking Oikawa’s face into your hands, you planted a kiss on his lips and asked, “Did you, you pervert? Do you feel better?”
You were pulled back into a solid chest before he could answer, hands coming up to cup your tits while Iwaizumi trailed kisses up your neck to your ear. He laughed against it, nipping at the shell as he stared Oikawa down. “Of course he did. And he better, because the rest of the team will be looking for us soon if we don’t hurry.”
Oikawa didn’t look remotely abashed as he threw Iwaizumi’s shirt at him and picked up yours, handing it to you much more gently. Iwa threw his on before helping you stand, keeping you balanced while you righted your jeans. No one commented on it, but everyone was thinking about the thick creampie now pooling in your panties, and you felt yourself get wet all over again.
You finished dressing in a rush, haphazardly fixing your hair. Oikawa tried to do the same, but there was nothing for it so you could only hope the rest of the team didn’t pay enough attention when you showed back up.
Poking his head out, Iwaizumi gave you the all clear and you snuck out, giggling like teenagers sneaking around. But the two of them seemed to be in better spirits, and you certainly weren’t going to complain if you got something out of cheering them up either.
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jessiebanethedragon · 4 years
Note
hello if you're not too busy or something may i request a crosshair fic where he teases the reader a lot bcs she's shorter than him (probably like, reaches his chest and that's it) and like it's cute and wholesome? srry if it's weird hehe im a sucker for height differences bcs i too, am vv short. i love your fics btw 👉👈
heya! thanks for the Request and the love xoxoxo, this started in my head as cute fluff and turned a lil more saucy than i thought it would be so... yeah... oops (Hope you like!)
Oh how you hated him, the resident sniper of Clone Force 99. You absolutely hated him, every single cell in your body despised the man. And every time you saw him that stupidly handsome face was there to mock you. He made you seethe with anger, that smirk with the toothpick and the eyes that would side stare at you like he was checking you out when in reality he was just trying to rile you up all over again. 
You’d kick his ass if it wasn't so damn attractive. 
“You look like you’re going to implode Picks.” Hunter mentioned offhand one morning in a briefing room.  Even the name sent you into a rage. Picks. Short for Toothpick, which according to Crosshair, you were the size of. 
“I hate him.” You grit out, causing Hunter to laugh from his spot in the corner, even the mere thought of you working with them again was driving you crazy. Well, okay, you didn't hate him per-say, in fact you’re actually afraid of the opposite but it’s easier to pretend that you dislike the  sniper than it is to pine over him constantly. 
“He’s not that bad…” Hunter started and then stopped when you sent him a glare. 
“Who’s not that bad?”  Tech asked entering the briefing room to look over the Holoprojection once more before you departed. With Wrecker in tow the two began discussing various assault attempts for the mission. 
“Crosshair.” Hunter supplied for his goggled brother, who immediately looked over to you, who was currently perched on a ledge, trying to ignore how your heart clenched at every mention of his name. 
“Ah yes, well…” Tech trailed off, “Don’t worry Picks i’m sure he’s uh…. Mellowed.” he offered, trying to ease your worries. 
“I hate him.” You stated again, maybe if you said it out loud enough it would be true. 
“Well that’s just rude Short Stuff.” The voice drawled from the doorway, where of course, the man in question was leaning. Not even wearing his full armor like the rest of the batch. You swore he left the top half off and pushed his sleeves up just to annoy you. 
“Listen here wise-ass. This is my mission, you follow my command.” You said hoping down from the ledge and stalking over to him, falling short (no pun intended) when your face met his chest. 
Oh the universe was cruel. 
“Yeah and what are you going to do if i don’t?” He teased, still very much relaxed. 
“I’ll kick your ass.” You snapped at him, causing Crosshair to smirk and roll the toothpick in his mouth to the opposite side. 
“Sure you can reach that high?” He asked, and if you weren't fuming before you were now. Why did he have to be so stunning and suave and flirty and oh right you’re supposed to be pissed at him... 
“Why you little…” you started.
“That's you pretty girl.” He interrupted, maker you could not win with this man.  
“I could have you court martialed.” You countered. Feeling a little disappointed that you’d reached the point of pulling rank in order to win an argument with him but he really was that difficult. 
“Of course you could. But where’s the fun in that?” He tossed back to you, before lazily saluting Hunter and striding out of the door. You threw your hands in the air as he sauntered away, had he really just shown up to drive you crazy and then leave. Probably. But he was certainly not getting the last say this time. 
“Hey!” you called after him, jogging down the empty hallway to catch up. 
“Yes general?” He raised an eyebrow for a split second before a look of fear overtook his face as you sprinted at him. Throwing yourself at the unsuspecting sniper and tackling him to the floor. Crosshair wasn't exactly as much muscle as his brothers, but he was still much bigger than you. And that didn't make an impromptu wrestling session in a GAR hallway easy. So of course in moments he had you pinned against the wall (no complaint from you other than the embarrassment of being beaten.) Legs flailing every which way in an attempt to kick/knee him in a not-so-low blow to his crotch. 
“Hey.” he said, trying to maneuver away from you legs but still keep your upper half pinned. You let out a frustrated scream. 
“Hey.” He pressed again, softer this time. 
“What?” You huffed relenting, and slipping into the grip he had on your hands and one on your hip to support you. Oh, well now things were a tad awkward. 
“I think there was some miscommunication.” Crosshair states, watching you get more and more confused. 
“How so?” You take his bait, you have no idea where he’s going with this. He lets out a sigh looking around and stepping closer to you, is it weird to notice how good he smells? You ask yourself, right around the same time your eyes meet his and you turn to putty in his hands. 
“I was tryin’ to…”  he starts before letting off another sigh. Gently leaning closer, testing the boundaries, waiting for you to tell him to back off. Instead you take a breath. 
“Trying to what?” you whisper, before it all clicks, the teasing, the names weren't even names at all. Terms of endearment, your brain finally makes the connection. 
“Listen, the long necks didn't exactly teach flirting.” He admits quietly. Loosening his hands and letting your feet reconnect with the floor. 
“I can tell.” You tease, and you see Crosshairs mouth open and close, like it’s searching for words that he doesn't know. 
“I’m sorry.” He settles on, “if I upset you.” You straighten in shock, did he just apologise? Did the sniper of the Bad Batch, known for his assholery just give you an apology? Now that was a win. He pauses for a second before turning away from you. And as if you're possessed by a much more confident version of yourself, your hand grasps his and stops him from leaving. 
“You are so stupid.” You shake your head at him, leaning up onto your toes to fist his blacks and pull him close to you. 
It’s not exactly a romantic kiss, more like a kiss that's been pushed away for so long it’s surfacing with a vengeance. It’s full of yearning and want, and so when Crosshair leans down whispers for you to jump, and all but slams you into the wall again, you happily comply. Legs around his waist and tongues in each other's mouths. 
And then he groans. The bastard has the audacity to groan into your mouth, the sound has you reeling and whining into his. And maker what are you even doing? This is so against every rule in the GAR regulation handbook.    
“Regulations.” You pant as somewhere he moves from your lips to your jaw to your neck.
“I don’t give a damn.” He almost growls into your neck. Especially when your hands anchor themselves in his hair. 
“But…” Your brain tries to think of any reason to not do what you’re doing right now, but it draws a blank. So you let all your responsibilities go to hell as you pull his face back to yours and envelop his lips again.  
“That's so gross.” Tech comments at the view in front of him, having leant out of the doorway to make sure you hadn't killed his vod. And instead getting greeted by what could only be described as the most intense makeout session he’d ever seen. 
“What's gross?” Hunter asked, moving to join him, and before Tech had a chance to want him. “Oh for kriffs sake!” He shouted, throwing his hands in the air at his sniper's actions. 
“I liked it better when they hated each other…” Tech stated a look of disgust on his face. “Hunter?” He asked turning to where his sergeant had been, only to see him sitting back in the briefing room holding his head in his hands and Wrecker having the time of his life laughing it up in the doorway.
“It’s about damn time!” He called loud enough for the two of you to jump apart in surprise. Flushing red as you caught Techs terrified face and Wreckers loud laugh.
“Come on Toothpick, you got a mission to run.” Crosshair said, looking down at you and stealing one last soft kiss before turning back to his brothers. 
Okay so maybe you didn't hate him all that much. 
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sweetestlamb · 4 years
Text
You're My Favorite Song
Summary: Just the babies in love, that's it.
Author's note: I don't want to let this show go yet so I'll be writing fics of moments I wish we had seen on the show🥺🥰 this one is just fluffiness but I have dirty thoughts planned too. I don’t know why but I really wanted to involve her family and make them not so awful haha, this might become a little series of just sweet moments between the babies. I want to do a jealous SA fic because I like the idea of her finally claiming her man instead of backing off like she usually does. But life is hitting me hard right now so no clue when that will happen. Hope you enjoy this one I had fun writing it! 
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The keys jiggle as she pries open the door, grocery bags nearly tumbling from her grip as she wrestles with the cumbersome door, finally stumbling in and clutching the wall for support. He's supposed to come back tomorrow and she wants to tidy up and make sure he comes home to a fully stocked home, he'd been adamant on the phone that this wasn't necessary but she'd already made up her mind.
She was doing it because she wanted to, loving him made her eager to make his life easier any way she possibly could, his smile was the best reward of all.
Slipping into her house slippers with floppy bunny ears- a gift from Joon-young, he'd jokingly called her his bunny whilst slipping the pink slippers on her feet. She'd been too flabbergasted to respond but every time she came over now she happily put on her slippers, treasuring every thing he gave her.
Especially his heart.
With a sigh she begins to clean, dusting the nearly dustless tables and fixing the slightly crooked throw pillows on the couch.
"He's so clean." She whispers aloud annoyed, finding that her efforts to clean are mostly unnecessary as Joon young hardly leaves a mess.
Moving on to the kitchen she begins to stock the cabinets, taking out noodles and instant tteokbokki- not spicy because her pianist can't handle his spices, she puts the fruits in a bowl on the table and stores meats and frozen veggies in the freezer.
After she's done the kitchen no longer looks so desolate, and she smiles proudly wiping down the countertop before lighting a scented candle she purchased the other day.
It was the same scent as her favorite lotion, sweet Japanese plum, every time he would wrap her in his arms he would burrow into her neck taking deep breaths before sighing and whispering that she smelt amazing. She'd bought this candle thinking he could also enjoy her scent, even when she couldn't be here.
Her work is done, but she hesitates to leave instead sitting on the couch, remembering the last time they'd been here together watching a movie, at least she'd been trying to watch the movie.
Her boyfriend, however had different plans. Shifting on the couch until they were firmly side by side, before plucking her hand and encompassing it with his larger palms. Soon after he started stroking her skin with his smooth thumb, dragging across her creamy skin. She'd only hummed as she continued to watch the movie, trying her hardest to stay focused.
"Song ah ssi." His deep voice rumbled as he called out her name, head almost on her shoulder now as he purred into her ears.
Turning to face him finally, she met his warm eyes glowing in the dark, peering into her face with promise.
"Yes, Joon young ssi?" She answered, his smile distracting as she barely contained her desire to taste it.
"Aren't you going to miss me when I'm gone?" He suddenly asked, bottom lip jutting out into a perfect pout.
She knew that he already knew the answer to that obvious question, every time he left she was a bit of a mess mopping until he called and sighing forlornly after their conversations ended. She couldn't help it she wanted him around all the time.
So his line of questioning does nothing but confuse her.
She merely tilted her head and looked at him, trying to uncover what he was really trying to insinuate.
He broke under her gaze, chuckling as his bangs flopped across his forehead.
Then he begun to tug on her hand that was still captured, softly then harder until she tumbled into his chest with a soft "oof".
"You were giving the movie all your attention."
Looking at him from under her lashes she couldn't help the indulgent grin that formed, "And just like that you got jealous?" She teased reaching up to playful jostle his hair, giggling as he eagerly pressed his head into her hand.
When he acted needy like this it made her heart pound, knowing she was the only one who was allowed to see this version of the usually stoic pianist.
Suddenly he begun to lean back, bringing her with him her hair fell around them in a dark curtain.
She moved to lay more comfortably on him before his hands on her hips stopped her movement. He looked at her intensely, his thoughts all but flashing on his face.
A blush blazing across her cheeks, not immune to his charm despite their established relationship.
"Come here."
She leaned down to meet him before the words had fully left his lips, sighing as he opened underneath her, his soft mouth slowly engulfing hers his tongue not far ahead, licking into her mouth swallowing the little moans and sighs that escaped from her throat.
His hands sunk into her hair, gently tugging her head as he moved her deeper into their wet dance, leaving her breathless.
She jolted as his hand swiped up her back, clutching at her shoulder and pressing her deeper into his hard chest, thoughtlessly she grinded down into him chasing the sensation that was shooting through her veins.
He broke their kiss at her bold move, meeting her with wild eyes as he panted harsh breaths landing on her face.
It was impossible to ignore the rigid line that poked into her heated skin.
His arousal was also evident in his fingers that were wringing at her loose sweater, and his hungry eyes that were captivated by her lips.
Shyly looking back at him, she bit her own lips before grinding again, harder this time throwing her head back at the jolt of pleasure the move caused.
"Joon young ssi."
Groaning he met her slow grinds, moving his hips while grabbing her neck and pulling her back into a kiss- frenzied and heated this time. Gradually increasing their pace until she was so wet her panties were shifting uncomfortably across her lips.
Opening her legs to hug his hips, she impaled herself firmly on his burgeoning erection whining when his plump head stabbed at her sensitive bud through all the layers separating them.
Running his fingers up her smooth legs, he lifted her skirt making his way to her soaked panties, lithe fingers stroking at her through the wetness before dragging the material out of the way and without hesitation he sunk into her, deep.
They'd ended up tangled on the couch, him licking her until she screamed herself hoarse as he watched with delighted eyes before gently throwing her over the arm of the couch and sinking deep into her with a grunt.
She shakes herself from the memory, primly pressing her legs together, cheeks heated in embarrassment and arousal.
"What are you doing? This isn't why you came here."
Her phone vibrations offer a welcome distraction as she searches her bag for the device, lifting it and squeaking when his name flashes on the screen.
Drawing in a deep calming breath she accepts the call.
"Hello."
"I miss you." She softens at his immediate exclamation, drawing her legs up under her on the couch.
"I miss you too." She answers honestly.
"Where are you right now?" He sounds vaguely out of breath, and she wonders what he's doing.
"I'm in your apartment, I came over to clean up and bring groceries."
He sighs fondly over the line, "I told you that you didn't have to do that." But despite his words she can hear how happy he is, loving all the attention.
"I wanted to. " She answers easily, leaning her head back onto the cushion.
Then the doorbell rings, caught off guard she jumps at the mechanical chime.
"Joon young ssi, are you expecting anyone or a package?"
He pauses before answering, humming thoughtfully.
"No. Unless Chris sent something, I'm not expecting anything."
"Do you want me to check what it is?" She asks not sure if he's okay with her opening his door or accepting packages in his behalf.
"Go ahead, my home is your home." He replies breezily, making her heart flutter effortlessly.
Ignoring the butterflies in her belly she jumps up tugging the sweater he'd lent her a few weeks away back up her shoulder, lightly jogging to the door in her slippers.
"Okay one minute I'm opening the door no-"
As she swings the door open she sees what was delivered to the door.
Joon young grins at her, waving with the hand not holding his phone against his face.
"Surprise."
She throws herself into his arms, standing on the tips of her toes to place her chin on his shoulder. He instantly returns her hug, wrapping her in his warm embrace.
Minutes roll by as they sway in each other's arms.
He begins to draw back first, tenderly putting her hair behind her ears.
"Move in with me."
She looks at him. One blink, two blinks.
"What?"
"I want to come home to you everyday."
They had already discussed this, moving into together in the future when they were ready, both agreeing it was too soon.
"I know we agreed but I missed you so much and seeing you in my house in my clothes. I just....I want you here. I'm ready."
Her mother is definitely going to kill her, she'd been irate when she'd showed her the ring on her finger. Loudly complaining that they'd just been broken up how was it possible that they'd reconciled and were already engaged.
She hadn't been able to explain it to her, too happy to be brought down to earth and finally her mother had sighed before leaving with a final, "You've changed since being with him."
Her mother is right. She has changed and she might like the person she's becoming.
"Okay. I'll move in."
She's unprepared for him to lift her up and run into the apartment.
Her cheeks hurt from her huge smile.
Weeks later all her belongings are packed into boxes, labeled and neatly stacked. She says goodbye to the room where she's spent most of her life, practicing, crying, sleeping, reading, worrying, being.
Joon young had insisted on coming over to formally meet her parents, despite her oppositions fearful of her mother's wrath. Her mother hadn't spoken to her all week, passing by her room with deep sighs and blazing glares.
Brushing lint off her skirt she stands up walking to the shower.
She gets a text from her fiancée as she's blow drying her hair.
I'm outside.
With a deep shutter she walks to the door, buzzing him in and waiting by the door. When she hears footsteps outside the door, she pulls the door open before he can ring the bell.
"Hi." She greets him with a wave, taking notice of the flowers in his right hand and a bottle of wine in the left.
From over her shoulder her father's voice interrupts them, "Oh good! You brought alcohol good idea, my wife will need it."
She turns to lightly glare at her dad but he simply shrugs at her, taking his seat at the table.
Turning back to Joon young she offers him a reassuring smile, "My mom isn't that scary, you'll be okay." She lies, moving out of the way and allowing him to step into her home.
When her mother finally joins them, she's wearing all black from head to toe. The look on her face promises nothing good, her eyes narrowing into thin lines as she glares at Joon young.
Immediately he raises to bow at the waist, offering the flowers. After a moment's hesitation she takes them before thrusting them at her father, who rushes to find a vase to put them in.
Sliding into her seat, her mother's eyes remain locked on Joon young.
"I want to marry your daughter."
Song-ah and her father both twist to look at him in shock.
Under the table she nudges him, not sure this is the best thing to break up with her mother currently dressed for a funeral. Probably Joon young's.
"Oh really? And why's that? Didn't you two break up before, how do you know that you're ready for marriage? It's not as trivial as dating you can't just break up when things get hard."
Song-ah freezes in her seat, this is the most her mother has said all week. And with a chilling blow she realizes that her mother is worried about her, and she's showing it the only way she knows how, with anger and biting judgment.
"Yes, she broke up with me because I wasn't making her happy. After we broke up I realized that nothing mattered to me without her in my life. I'm happiest when I'm with her. I know I can't control her happiness but I'm going to try my hardest to put a smile on her face everyday."
Tears pool in her eyes, and finally spill when he captures her hand in a tight hold under the table.
Her mother scoffs, "When did you get so emotional?" But she simultaneously hands her a napkin to catch her tears.
After a pregnant pause, filled with her sniffles and Joon young squeezing her hand while stroking her fingers her mother finally sighs in defeat.
"Okay, you do that. She's your problem now."
That's all it takes to break the tension that lingered in the air and suddenly her father is chatting amicably with Joon young, filled with questions about the piano and whether or not he likes baseball. She watches them quietly, shoveling food into her mouth.
As dinner simmers down, her father has cajoled Joon young into agreeing to watch a baseball game with him, accepting his new son in law with open arms excitedly  clapping his shoulder  as she helps her mother to clear the table.
"Thank you for dinner, it was delicious." Joon young bows again, her mother's eyes lose a bit of their icy chill.
"You're welcome." She answers simply before walking away.
Then she suddenly stops, speaking without turning around. "I expect that you two will come for dinner at least once a week, she might be your future wife but she's still our daughter."
"Yes, of course." Joon young answers, gripping her hand tighter.
"Fine. Get home safely."
And with that she's gone, sequestered into her bedroom.
Her father's smile is a warm blanket after the cold dinner, "I think she likes you. The last time my other daughter brought home a boyfriend she wasn't nearly as friendly."
"He's not my boyfriend." She surprises them all with her immediate response.
Joon young perks up in pride, stroking her ring. His joy is palpable.
"That he isn't." Her father agrees, simply looking at them both. Before he continues, "You can walk him down, your mother wants you to sleep here tonight."
She nods.
When they get outside, he swings their hands in the space between them.
"I've been waiting to do this all night." And with those words, he yanks her into a kiss his lips tasting of the wine they drank.
He gently tugs at her jaw, pulling her mouth open to his exploration dipping and devouring her. Hands sensually sliding around her waist and pulling her flush against his body.
She loses drag of time and when she finally draws back, his blissed face greets her.
"I wish you were coming home with me. You look too pretty right now."
She blushes under his gaze, burying her head in his collar, overheated.
They stand in each other's arms, his hands stroking her back as she inhales his distinctive scent- masculine and clean.
"Well aren't you two just precious?" Her sister's voice cuts through the air, she jumps in the embrace but doesn't draw away.
They both turn to greet her, Joon young bowing again.
"Mom's been watching through the window so hopefully you two have only been hugging this whole time."
Her eyes widen as she peers up at the window, her mother's iron stare penetrating through her.
Her sister chuckles, "Oh look at the glare. You two were definitely doing more than hugging. Nice one, she won't be angry at me for drinking late now."
She glares at her sister's smiling face.
"You should go up." He softly says pulling her into a final hug, she nods before pulling away and walking away with her sister.
She turns to wave once more and he smiles from the same spot, lovingly gazing at her.
As they stand in the elevator, she avoids her sister's gaze.
"You've changed. You seem happy." Her sister mumbles.
She stills at the words, mulling it over before meeting her sister's gaze.
"I am. I'm really happy."
When she falls into bed, her phones buzzes and she already knows who it's from.
Good night, I love you.
Twisting in her bed, she squeals like a teenager clutching her phone to her chest.
She's so happy.
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hitsuackerman · 4 years
Text
Why Did It Have to be Him? pt. 4 (Aizawa x Reader)
a/n: sorry this got delayed :( this was supposed to be uploaded a lot earlier but then my laptop is basically dead at this point huhuhu legit waited for 30mins just for the chrome to stop lagging T.T welp... thank quirks for company laptops XD
that being said... here is part 4 for our Daddyzawa! <3
ps. i had to put an age for this fic :3 so you are 17 as the rest are 16 xD
Warnings: Student-Teacher relationship, Age-gap, Cursing, Not so subtle flirting
Link: Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 5
Materlist for my other fics :) here
All aboard the Aizawa-train!: @yukiimanic​ @leeeah-loooser​
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A few days have passed and you were now fully settled in your dorm. There wasn’t much to it but Aizawa managed to persuade you to buy new sheets and curtains to match. You weren’t exactly sure why but you complied nonetheless.
Monochromatic that’s how you liked things. Since he gave you full control as to what colors you could choose, you simply went for black.Of course, you made sure that a pop of color would add life to your room. A few trinkets here and there, your room looked good to go. Simplicity is key, that’s what you kept reminding yourself.
But it was rather ironic how your “love life” wasn’t as simple. It was much easier to see him back in your house. Now that you were living only a mere block away from the teacher’s dorm, it only made things much harder. Though, you understood, it was still frustrating not being able to see him as much as you wanted.
While doing your assignments, your phone rang. Not bothering to see who the caller was, you picked it up. Slowly, the corners of your mouth turned upwards. Right on schedule.
“Not disturbing anything, am I?” He asked. In the background, you could hear the keyboard’s soft tapping.
“Nope. I’m just about finished here.” Gathering your books and papers, you neatly stacked and put them away. Looking at the time, there was still 45 minutes before curfew starts. “I am hungry though, so I might have to run to the nearest convenient store~”
“Isn’t the fridge stacked with snacks, though?” The typing sounds had stopped and you heard a soft grunt.
“It is but they don’t have those juice packs I like.” There was some risk to this but you wanted to see him. It was hard enough that all you could do inside the classroom was to sit and stare at him. “Of course, I’m not implying anything. I do plan on leaving in about 5 minutes or so.”
“Do as you please, (Y/N).” He let out a soft chuckle before hanging up the call.
Grabbing your sweatshirt and wallet, you silently exited your room. Thankfully, the majority of rooms had their lights on. And, technically, it wasn’t curfew so you could still manage to buy a few snacks the dorm’s fridge had to offer. Shaking your head, you knew you couldn’t fool yourself.
Ever since the kiss, he became even more intoxicating. His musky scent and how you felt his arms wrapping around your small stature (compared to his at least) was addicting. It was a picture hard to forget, him straddling you in the comforts of your bed. The strands of his soft hair caging you from the outside world. Or maybe it was how his hot breath brushed your cheeks that made things even more irresistible? Closing the doors to the building, you were met with the row of streetlights. Each of them casting enough light to ensure safety to those who would walk the streets at this time of night. Of course, everyone knew this area was safe, afterall, only an idiot villain would dare attack near UA.
A little further and you could see the neon sign of the convenience store. Near the entrance, a man caught your eye. He was wearing an all black ensemble and his grayish pale skin made him look unreal. Yet, the all too familiar bun caused your heart to race.
Upon seeing your figure approaching his, he could feel the smirk forming on his mouth. It had only been a few hours since he last saw you but it was inside classroom settings. The secret glances you two would give each other was fun but he somehow wanted more. When you passed by him, he could make out the faint smell of your lingering body lotion. Very stimulating to the senses.
Trailing behind you, his eyes began to linger all over your back. Sure, you had a sweatshirt on but in his eyes you looked too good not to hug. When you turned towards the small aisle for chips, he glanced at the ceiling. The cameras were on the other side of the store. As you were choosing what junk to munch on, he leaned forward and rested his head on your shoulder.
Jumping at the sudden sensation of his warmth radiating on your cheek, all the heat travelled upwards as your eyes met his. The dullness to them now replaced with a hint of playfulness. His calloused hand began to brush yours. Slowly making their way up before he let go to grab a bag for himself.
Once again, your stomach felt all the butterflies going crazy with his touch. Chewing on your lower lip, you let out a shaky sigh as he lifted his head. Slowly walking away without looking back.
Such a tease.
Two can play that little game, you thought.
Aizawa made his way towards the refreshments. Searching for the perfect drink to pair with his chips, he settled for a can of beer. It wasn’t allowed but he could easily sneak it in knowing it was almost curfew. In his peripheral version, he could see you choosing as well. Following your hands, he saw how you had just chosen a can of soda.
“Got everything you need?” He asked.
“Not yet. I need some chocolate.” Pulling him towards the aisle with chocolates, you saw your target. The one you had been craving for a week now. Scanning the area, you saw how the coast was clear and it was your turn to make your move. “Hey, can you hold these for a sec?”
Handing him your stuff, you turned around and began to tug on the hems of your sweatshirt. His eyebrows jumped at your small actions. When you began to strip off your sweatshirt. The heavy material lifted your undershirt quite a bit. A bit of your skin got exposed to the coldness the store had to offer.
The coldness had no effect on Aizawa. Instead, he felt heat growing in his system. His mouth suddenly felt dry. His finger twitched and his jaw clenched. The hold he had on the goods tightened. Upon seeing you bend down to grab a bar of chocolate, the neckline of your shirt was big enough to expose the black strap of your bra.
‘Behave, Shota.’ His mind scolded him. ‘This is the only line you should NOT cross. At least not yet.’
Through your peripheral vision, you could see just how much your plan had worked. His squinted eyes only gave away his deposition. Flicking your hair just as you faced him, you caught a hold of his stare and blinked innocently.
“What’s wrong,” You took a step forward as you got a hold of your things. “Shota?”
His eyebrow jerked and his mouth was now a desert. Not wanting for things to get out of hand, he walked past you and made his way to the counter. Every ounce of his concentration focused on not pinning you against the wall and giving the cashier a show. Biting the corner of his tongue he paid for his purchase and waited outside as you paid for yours.
“You okay, sensei?” The last word was rather breathy, just as you intended it to be. Seeing him controlling himself was rather fun. He was struggling and the signs were very subtle. The only thing giving him away were his twitching eyes and furrowed brows.
Grabbing the bag of food from you, he led the way back to campus grounds. His eyes scanning the area and taking note of the small cameras set up on the street lights. The both of you were now approaching a blind spot. Letting out a rather long sigh, he held on to your wrist and pulled you into the dimly lit area.
“Be quiet.” Aizawa instructed.
Your eyes widened as you began to realize what he was planning on doing. The cameras would surely pick all of that up but then again, if he knew the area well then it should be fine. Heart now racing, you chewed on your inner cheek as the both of you were now approaching the blind spot. The small alcove one of the buildings had.
Things were now a blur.
The small squeak that escaped your mouth as your back hit the wall was immediately muted when his lips crashed into yours. Literally taking your breath away, you eased into the kiss. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you pulled the elastic band from his hair. On your tiptoes, you leaned on to his torso for support. Your knees were now barely functioning.
Knowing what was running through your thoughts, he bent down a little. His hands held tracing whatever curves your body had to offer. When you began to nibble on his lip, his hand grabbed your knee pit and lifted you. More than happy that you instantly clung your legs around his waist.
Tugging on his hair, he accidentally let out a small groan. Feeling your soft lips making their way towards his neck sent was enough for him to tighten his hold on you. The sucking sensation that followed made his member twitch and his pants tighten. A chill ran down his spine when your tongue trailed its way up to his jaw.
“Fuck...” He growled once your noses were touching once more. Running his tongue across your lip, you parted your mouth to give him entry. Tugging on your lower lip, he went back in with a much more long and thorough kiss. When he parted his lips from yours, his hot citrusy breath brushed your face. “Don’t tease me unless you know what you want, kitten.”
“Oops.” You brushed your nose against his. Your heavy lidded eyes hazy with need. The way he gave you a pet name hit differently. “My bad~”
The tips of his lips began to travel down your neck. Using his nose to move the neckline of your shirt, he licked a patch of your skin before biting on to it. The small moan echoing in his ears made curious. What other sounds could he make you do if he were given the chance?
‘This isn’t the right place, Shota.’ Once again his thoughts managed to save him from moving any further.
Pecking your lips once more, he put you down and patted your head. Despite the dimness, he could still see how flushed you were. Fixing himself, he looked at his watch and gestured that it was time to head back.
“Just in time for curfew~” You teased. “I won’t get in trouble now, right?”
“(Y/N).” He brushed his fingers with yours. The short contact the both of you shared was something his body still yearned for. “You are aware that you're still 17 right?”
“Yes.” Your step still had a certain hop to them. “And I’m aware that my birthday is coming up.”
“I’m not implying anything.” He handed your bag of food. Now giving a safe distance between you two. “I just want us to be careful. You’re still young.”
“Are you doubting?” The slight sadness in your voice was something you couldn’t hold back. “If it clears things up, I really am serious about you. I was shocked but elated that you were more than willing to try if things would work out. But, if you really don’t want to do this then I’ll back out. At least it’s still early and won’t hurt as much.”
“I never said I didn’t want to do it.” He stated. “What happened back there, I almost got carried away. I wouldn’t want you to regret this or… us.”
“Us?” The smile on your face was rather adorable for him. You felt your cheeks heating up at the confirmation that there really is something between you two and that it wasn’t just you carrying the feelings.
Lifting the corners of his mouth, he patted your head once more before picking his pace up. Ready to head back to the teacher’s dorms.
“Wait for my call later,” He glanced at you over his shoulder. A smirk on his face. “Kitten.”
“That I will, Aizawa-sensei.” You replied with a huge smile on your face.
Running back to the dorms, you carefully opened the doors. Making sure that no one was around, you snuck across the hall and took the stairs. The dimly lit hallway towards your room made things easier.
Moments later, you were now munching on chips. Your phone rang and for the rest of the night, till one of you finally caved in to slumber, Aizawa and you spent it on talking about whatever topics came to your mind.
At the end of call, both of you agreed that convenience stores would now be a recurring thing.
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if you want to be tagged in part 5 :) feel free to leave a comment :)
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