#SECOND. these are PLACEMENT exams. to see what you know so you are placed in the right class. being in a higher level does not help or

[lukesunbornn]

not to have a superiority complex but my peers are so so so so so so so so stupid.

[veraghost]

𝙃𝙊𝙒 𝙄 𝙇𝙊𝙊𝙆 𝙊𝙉 𝙔𝘼 ! - 𝙅𝙐𝙅𝙐𝙏𝙎𝙐 𝙆𝘼𝙄𝙎𝙀𝙉

an upcoming exam can be stressful, especially when you have a hard time with memorization. lucky for you, your boyfriend seems to have a solution.

𝙋𝘼𝙄𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙂: camboy!choso x innocent gf!reader

𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙉𝙏 𝙒𝘼𝙍𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂!! 𝙈𝘿𝙉𝙄: fem!reader, established relationship, piercings, choking, overstimulation, detailed body descriptions, dirty talk, pet names, recording

𝙒𝙊𝙍𝘿 𝘾𝙊𝙐𝙉𝙏: 3.5k

a/n: installation one of my first series, loosely based (aka one lyric) off of this song by Ariana Grande. i wrote this after a 7 hour shift + a nap, so i apologized if i missed anything proofreading, happy reading xoxo, lex

SERIES MASTERLIST

𝙇𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙊𝙉-𝙊𝙉𝙀.𝙈𝙋4

there are often times at university when you have questioned why you chose to become a nurse, especially when it comes to studying for biology exams. in the past, you've found ways to memorize the majority of what's given to you, walking into each assessment prepped and prepared, knowing you've done your best and you'll most likely receive an amazing grade. however, as you walk into your apartment, you don't even know where to begin. biology was never your strong suit, especially when it came to navigating people's bodies, finding small veins and understanding certain placements. the silver lining of your current situation, you had just under a month to prepare before the exam day, which meant time to create study sheets and cue cards to practice with.

as you set your bags down on the kitchen island with a deep sigh, you begin to piece together everything you need to do, the list slowly piling up in your head. "everything okay?" your boyfriend asks you, walking into the kitchen. you assume he was filming content in his room while you were gone to class, seeing as though he walks out of the bedroom in nothing but sweats, and judging by the look of it, his fans will be happy with what he's recorded. "yeah, no, i don't know choso, i forgot how killer biology was" you respond, utterly confused on how you should feel. sitting down on the barstools surrounding the table, head in your hands, you grab your ipad from your bag and begin writing your to-do list.

the list is extensive and almost all-consuming, as you take in everything. leaning over your frame, choso is reading the list, eyes trailing down the screen, brows slowly rising as he realizes just how much you have to deal with. "damn, that's... a lot", he says, looking down softly at you, "what do you think you're gonna start with?". you debate in your head, genuinely wondering what to do. "probably start with the bigger stuff, that seems smart right? begin with broad topics and slowly get more specific as i understand the content." you decide, finding a starting point to your dilemma. choso hands you a plate with apple slices, yogurt and granola, with a simple smile, before settling himself on the couch a few feet away from you.

"so, what're you starting with then? i mean there's a bunch of large topics, might as well pick one and start as soon as possible" you hear him say, taking a bite out of his own food. glancing at you hunched over the island. "probably mapping the body for veins, where's safe to place needles is iv's," you say, tracing your own arms as you speak, "and then i'll move onto bodily reactions to certain things, mostly if the body rejects a needle or medication, and how it'll affect the patient."

placing your plate in the sink, satiated for now, you saunter over to the couch, sitting in the spot next to choso. "were you filming while i was gone?" you ask, eyeing him up and down before he nods. "at least i was trying to, i have no ideas and don't wanna just show me jerking off and that's it you know, i got popular for doing more than that, but i'm running out of ideas." he replies, looking just as defeated as you did a second ago. it's understandable tho, he's been at it nonstop for months, and the fruits of his labour have been nothing but rich, being able to pay for rent while also saving for his own degree.

the room falls silent for awhile, a comfortable silence as you begin to trace your arms, struggling to find your own veins. choso is watching you, following your finger up and down your arms. you catch notice of this, and also of how pale your boyfriend is, an idea popping into your head.

"choso... could i use you to study?" you ask him, innocent eyes looking into his. "i mean, look at your arms, i can see almost every vein without having to even squint, your the perfect candidate to help me ace this exam" you continue, basically pleading with him to agree. you can tell he's debating in, listing the pros and cons in his head. you know he doesn't like physical affection much, especially when dealing with his own assignments, but he'd be doing you such a big favour. he shrugs before putting his plate on the coffee table next to him, before pulling you onto his lap.

"i'm assuming this is a yes, baby?" you say, shifting a bit in his lap to get comfortable. a light sigh is heard from your boyfriend, before he agrees, letting your fingers go up and down his arms. you move the short sleeves of his t-shirt exposing his shoulders to you, letting you see more of him. "can you take this off, it keeps falling back off your shoulder, plus then i can use my supplies to make little marks to show where i could put needles and everything into a patient" you say, slightly tugging at the bottom of his shirt, before he pulls it off completely.

fuck, you thought, forgetting just how strong your boyfriend was. although he doesn't look it choso was built. big arms that help you carry groceries into the apartment, big shoulders hiding under every shirt he owns, and a perfect set of abs to top everything off. blushing lightly, you thank him quietly before getting up and grabbing your bag, pulling out a handful of markers to begin mapping his body out. choso is sitting there silently, watching you work meticulously. this was one of his favourite parts about you, the way you fall silent in focus, looking so innocent compared to him.

it wasn't that choso was bad per say, he just looked so different from you. other than the size difference between you both, he was also into different things, his arms adorned in tattoos, a tongue piercing hiding in his mouth, and nipple piercings, his smudged eyeliner, his dark, wild hair, normally worn in ponytails or buns, let loose in the comfort of his home. in comparison to you, he looked like someone who belonged elsewhere.

the amount of moving you're doing on his lap, the friction between your bodies, the heat the proximity creates, becomes unbearable. you're so deep in thought, making sure every mark on his body is placed so perfectly, you don't even notice the growing erection in your boyfriends pants until you hear a small groan. looking at him, he grounds his hips into yours, making a red blush appear on your face.

"i'm sorry baby, i know but you're just so pretty on top of me, i couldn't help it." choso says, sounding so honest, as if he wasn't the one who pulled you onto his lap a half hour ago. "please just give me a kiss, i promise i'll let you go back to work afterwards" he says, tilting your chin before leaning in, a small peck on your lips. one turns into two, then three, and before you know it, the marker has fallen into his lap, choso's holding your waist, and there's not a thought in your head.

breaking the contact between your lips with a sigh, you try and find your marker, lifting off choso's lap just enough to hunt for it. looking around frantically, you feel a pulse between your legs, then another, and another. you realize this feeling isn't going away any time soon, and neither is choso's fully grown erection, still painfully stuck in his sweats. giving up on your hunt, you place all your weight back onto your boyfriend, hearing him suck in a breath.

"baby, remember how you said you needed to study bodily reactions?" he asks you curiously, moving you slightly, hands gently on your helps. you nod silently, knowing if you open your mouth it'll only be moans from how sinful he feels underneath you. "do you think - just maybe - some reactions are like this?" he says, before pushing you further into his lap, letting you feel every inch that's hiding under layers of clothing. you let out a light moan, wanting nothing but more, more of him, more of this.

"i mean probably, right?" you respond, before feeling another grind into your core, riling you up even more. choso smiles, so kindly at you while giving you another drag against his lap. lifting you up, he starts walking you both to the bedroom, placing you down gently on the bed, standing between your legs.

"cho, i..." you start, not knowing how to bring this up to him. even though you and choso have known each other since freshman year of uni, you started dating after becoming roommates. originally, you lived with a few of other friends, before moving in together a handful of months after getting together.

"what baby, if you don't want this we don't have to-"

"i'm a virgin", you tell him hiding your face from his gaze, "actually i haven't done... anything with anyone," you say. god you wanted to die in this moment, basically ruining the entire mood. if only you had kept your mouth shut. choso is silent, making you even more nervous.

"oh baby, why didn't you tell me sooner? we've been dating for months and yet this is the first time you've bothered to say something." he replies after a few beats, grabbing both your cheeks so delicately, wiping the tears that started to well in your eyes from panic. you breathe a sigh of relief, thankful you chose someone so soft and loving. "i didn't want you to look at me differently, i mean, all of our friends have done it, except for me. as much as they love me i know they probably judge me for it, and i didn't want that to be you." you say, tears coming back just as quickly as they were wiped away.

"no, no, sweetheart, never. i chose you as you are, no matter the past, you have or the things that i still don't know, you're my baby." he says, bringing your head to his stomach, your arms wrapping around his waist. you can still feel his erection to your surprise, thinking the moment was over. "i don't mean to ruin this moment, but did you want to..?" he trails off, looking at you with something in his eyes, something dark and almost primal. and truthfully you do, you trust choso so much, he would never hurt you.

"baby i need to hear you say it, i need to know you fully want this" he says, voice sounding so raw, like he's holding himself back from just pouncing on you.

"yes choso, i want to, wanna feel good. but can we go... slow?" you reply, still feeling a bit jittery. it's not that you didn't want to fuck choso, you knew he was good in bed, the hundreds of fans he has on twitter speaks for itself, but this was different, this was personal.

"of course baby, anything for you." and then it's back on like nothing ever happened in the first place, he's leaning over to capture your lips in a kiss, gentle yet consuming, making all thoughts wander out of your head. pushing you further onto the bed, leaning you back against the pillows, his weight a comforting, before something shifts. the kisses become more frantic, and then animalistic, both of you just tongue and teeth, hands roaming everywhere, his hands on your waist, then to your hips before moving to the hem of your shirt, slightly tugging to up.

breaking the kiss, you throw your shirt somewhere on the floor before pulling him back to you, hungry for more of this, more of him. choso is just as hungry as you, grabbing and groping every inch of skin he can get to, before moving his kisses to your jawline and down your neck, kissing every square inch of you. the kisses turn into nips, and then he's sucking a hickey into your neck, one that's sure to come out dark and pretty, adorning your beautiful skin. upon feeling the slight sting, you let out a gasp, learning something new about your body.

"fuck baby, you bruise so easily, so simple to mark you as mine." he mumbles mindlessly, before making a second further down near your collarbone, and another right on top of one of your breasts. he seals each mark with a kiss before sitting up and unbuttoning your jeans, throwing them on the floor to join your shirt. "is this ok? do you wanna stop at all?" he asks, making sure your still set on this.

instead of answering, you grab his face before pulling him down for another kiss, wrapping your legs around his waist, letting him feel the heat thats coming from your core. his hands start to play with your panties, before slowly slipping them off your legs along with your bra.

he sits up, taking in you, completely naked, so fucking pretty.

"hey, don't stare for too long, but thank you, cho" you say, a sheepish smile on your face before your arms start to try and hide yourself from him, getting embarrassed from his stare. "don't you dare hide yourself from me baby, not when i'm gonna make you feel so good." he says, pulling your arms away and pinning them down by your head. he fits both your wrists into one of his hands before lightly tracing your body before reaching your pussy.

"oh baby, look at her, she's basically begging for me to touch her." he says, basically to himself, before putting one finger to your entrance, feeling just how wet and messy you are, hours worth of teasing finally building up to this. "you better pay attention, this is how to body reacts to pleasure", reminding you on what got you into this position, before taking his finger and tracing around your clit, making you gasp. "oh so sensitive, haven't even touched you properly yet" he notes, before finally rubbing your clit, slowly, watching your reaction.

your so quiet, almost shy to show him your pleasure, not wanting to sound slutty. he's treating you so carefully, a drastic change to how he was kissing you just a few minutes ago. he's tracing your entrance again now, gaging how you react to his slow push past the first rings of muscle, and your gasping again, back arching up in pleasure as your eyes close. it doesn't hurt, but feels weird. his middle figure fully sat in you before it pulls back, leaving you empty.

he watches your face, before plunging his finger back in again, eliciting a small moan from your lips, before getting another, and another. you understand now why your friends won't shut up about sex, it feels so different, and yet so fucking good. you can feel something in your stomach, feeling so good and warm, and as choso continues his magic, the feeling slowly builds.

choso isn't even doing that much, he doesn't even say anything, so in awe of your reactions to the simplest ministrations. when you seem comfortable with one, he adds a second, and that's when he sees your body react so wholly, a louder moan coming from you, he speeds up, allowing you to feel everything. and god, you look gorgeous, eyes tightly shut, back slightly arched from the bed, mouth open, moans and sighs of pleasure falling from your lips. his other hand has long since discarded you wrists, allowing you to claw at his shoulders and back as he decides to test the waters a bit more.

he lets his hand wander a bit, not wanting to make his actions to obvious, before speeding up a little more and stopping his hand on your neck, thumb and fingers resting lightly on your pulse points. you don't even notice when he tightens his grip on your neck a bit, so caught up in the pleasure, his thumb finding your clit, and that's when you wake from your trace. eyes opening wide, a loud gasp coming from your mouth.

"feels good, doesn't it baby? didn't even notice me choking your pretty little neck. my pretty girl, so overwhelmed she doesn't even know what to do" he says, a small pout on his face before tightening his grip a bit more.

"feels so g- good, wanna feel like this forever cho, just y- you and me never leaving this room." you moan, dumb off his fingers "can you go even tighter? feels so goooood" eyes rolling into the back of your head when he fulfills your request. he's so focused on you, completely forgetting about his own erection, you just look so angelic. he adds a third finger, noting the little twinge of pain that shows up on your face, keeping his pace nonetheless. the strange sensation thats your stomach becomes so much more prominent, and you can feel yourself losing control.

"awh baby, are you gonna cum? gonna cum all over my fingers like a good girl? yeah c'mon, cum for me, get my fingers all messy" he ebbs you on, watching as pleasure consumes you completely, body spasming and exhaustion paints your face. when you open your eyes, you see choso sitting up between your legs, fingers in his mouth. "you're so sweet baby, it's fucking intoxicating, wanna taste you" he says, licking every inch of his fingers clean.

"can i taste you baby? i'll be extra gentle with how sensitive you must be. came so prettily on my fingers for me" he says, slowly moving his lips to yours, letting you taste yourself slightly on his tongue, before he's trailing his lips down again, taking a your nipple into his mouth. you gasp, body jolting upwards from his piercing, cold on your skin.

his lips trail down, down down, until his head is right between your thighs, looking up at you so innocently, silently asking if he can taste you, and you silently respond.

everything is so much more enhanced, if you weren't sensitive before, you definitely are now. as his tongue circles your clit, piercing creating such a strange sensation, your hands fly straight to his hair, moaning. "oh cho, feels so good, makin' me feel so good fu- fuck!"

you can feel him smile before he takes your clit fully into his mouth, letting a finger circle your entrance yet again. everything is so hazy, your eyes blurry, mind foggy, and yet you wouldn't have it any other way. he's so loud, sucking and licking at you so obscenely making such a fucking mess. he's so obsessed on you and your release, he doesn't even notice his hips rutting into the bed beneath him, solely focused on making you cum on his tongue.

it takes you a fraction of the time to cum again, and has he tastes you fully for the first time, he moans, groaning when your release coats his tongue, and it's good that he cums, right in his pants. he's so drunk off your pussy, you have to push his heaad away from your pussy, wanting more, wanting to memorize how good you taste on his tongue. it's only when he's finally straight in the head he feels so sticky his pants feel, silently cursing under his breath.

"fuck baby, why didn't we do this sooner?" he asks you with a laugh, pulling you onto his chest after finding you a shirt to put on, and new pants for him. everything is so calm now, hearing his heartbeat, the faint lub-dup echoing in his chest. you shrug, genuinely not knowing why you didn't let anything to further than kissing if you knew it would be like that.

you both sit in comfortable silence for a bit, before an idea comes to your boyfriends head. "baby, why don't we record ourselves when we do this?" he asks you, eyes bright and brows raised.

"why the fuck would we do that?" you say, sounding a bit meaner than you meant to. i mean, the boy in front of you just made you cum, twice, and now wants to make porn to post to his twitter of it?

"no baby, so that you can use it to study" he says, and you come to the realization you said that aloud. you ponder. it for a bit, not a horrible idea. you'd have a visual to study off of, and could use the videos to draw diagrams of the body for different tests and assignments, while also leaving timestamps at certain points to describe how something felt for your upcoming exam.

"sure, why the fuck not? we're young, and it's not like anyone else is gonna see these" you say, looking at him for approval. "right, it's a win-win, i get to make you cum, and you get to learn about the human body and all of it's amazing sensations." he replies, reaching out a hand for you to shake. sealing the deal with a firm handshake, you both grow silent before falling asleep, still on choso's chest.

surely these videos will be for educational purposes only... right?

© veraghost 2024. All work belongs to @veraghost. Do NOT repost, modify, translate or plagiarize in any way on ANY platforms. This includes themes and pinned.

[astrhoeluvr]

Astrhoe Observations Pt.8 🫂🥰🫶🏻

(AHH I’VE BEEN PREOCCUPIED WITH EXAMS BUT I’M BACK🏃🏻‍���️😈✨)

Back to 👉🏻 my materialist 👁️🫦👁️.

a lil disclaimer : these are just my personal observations, so don’t take any of them to heart🥳.Some could be applicable to you and some would differ, so take all of them with a grain of salt OKIE! enough of me blabbing let’s get on with it🫶🏻🥰

🌗✍🏻: moon-mercury aspects 🤝🏻 their handwriting heavily depending upon their mood.

For instance if they’re not having a good day, their handwriting could be all wonky or messy and honestly they could NOT care less lmfao.😭🙏🏻😃 [unless they have dom Virgo placements😗].

Also people with this aspect have impeccable imagination. *chefs kiss* 👩🏽‍🍳💋 [mainly trines, sextiles and conjunctions].

💻💤: Uranus in the 12th housers, have y’all ever seen your phones/laptops in your dreams? Cause I have this placement and I always see my phone pop up in my dreams😭😭🙏🏻 LIKE WHAT EVEN😃.

🏡✈️💼: 4th house ruler in the 10th could mean moving places for your career.

🤪🤨: From what I’ve seen, Sag mercuries could be really good at multitasking😳.

For instance they could be blasting hardcore metal music and solving math equations 😭🙏🏻. TALK ABOUT BALANCE ⚖️🤪. (as a sag mercury, I can confirm 🫶🏻).

🫂🤝🏻🚴🏻‍♀️: Saturn in the 5th housers could always have this underlining desire to grow up fast. They’re the kids who had to learn to be extremely independent from a young age. Some of the most hardworking and determined people I know. Your hard work WILL always pay off. So don’t doubt your abilities for a second. A BIG PHAT HUG TO ALL MY Saturn in the 5th house besties🫶🏻☹️. *HUGS Y’ALL VIRTUALLY*

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦😬: Mercury- Pluto tough aspects could manifest as having issues with your siblings. Like getting compared to your sibling, envying your sibling.

Nsfw 🔞

🫣💻💦: Mars aspecting both Jupiter and Uranus could LOOOOVE watching porn.📸🤨

😵‍💫📱: Jupiter-Uranus negative aspects could indicate over consumption of technology. These people are always on their phones, laptops, iPads etc. 24/7🤨. BESTIE PLEASE TOUCH SOME GRASS.🥰😯😐

Okay that’s all for today luvs🫶🏻🥰

(Please do not copy or plagiarise any of my work <33)

- san✨🍵🪴📖🧘🏻‍♀️

[matthyeu]

marker of the end ― zh.

pairing ⇢ zhang hao x gn!reader 

genre ⇢ fluff, angst, academic rivals to lovers/enemies to lovers, college!au

warnings ⇢ like one swear word, mention of drinking

word count ⇢ 1.5k

synopsis ⇢ this would be the last time you and zhang hao crossed paths as rivals.

this was the moment you were waiting for the past few years. hearing your name called to walk across the big stage. shaking hands with several of the university board. most importantly, looking your rival in the eyes in a gloating way to celebrate your own accomplishments, your graduation at the top of your department. you had won. 

what you didn’t expect was for zhang hao to look back at you with a soft look in his eyes, a wide smile on his face, and two thumbs up for you once you made eye contact. for the first time, you could understand why he was the campus crush. you never understood such blasphemy because the two of you had always been at ends with each other in academics. 

at seven years old, you found the most pride in your ability to quickly do math, always completing the tests your teacher distributed every week in under 20 seconds with 100% accuracy. there was no one that could beat you. 

until the time you and hao both brought your tests up to the teacher at the same time, the first time he had caught up to you. by some miraculous twisted fate, you had gotten one question wrong, and he had taken the title of the week’s fastest perfect scorer. 

“ha, finally!” he exclaimed. 

“mmm just a fluke.” 

at twelve years old, you found the most pride in taking honors classes in secondary school. you were always placed with students who were older than you, many of them baffled at how such a young person could be learning the same material as them. 

but of course, there was also a certain someone who always managed to find their way into your class as well. in fact, the first time you had one of those classes, he plopped down next to you, his irritating aura being something you could always sense. 

“fancy seeing you here,” he jeered, taking out his notebooks and pencil pouch filled with various pens for note taking, “thought you’d be stuck in the regular classes seeing how panicked you were for placement exams.”

“shut it zhang,” you spat, slamming your own pouch onto the table and drawing attention to yourself, “you can’t get rid of me that easily.”

at age eighteen, you found the most pride in taking the podium at your high school graduation, doing a speech as the valedictorian. being able to stand there amongst your peers knowing you had worked the hardest and done the most for your position was everything you dreamed of. 

however, you had to share it with him. the teachers tried and tried, but they could not find even the slightest difference in your grades. you were practically the same student: studious, hardworking, and intelligent. there was nothing to set the two of you apart, so it was only fair for you to take the podium together. you only wished they had allocated more time for the venue because sharing your valedictorian speech was definitely not something you always wanted. 

“now don’t you try to push me off the stage in front of everyone,” he warned, “that wouldn’t be very top goody-two-shoes student of you now. let’s be civil today.” 

you rolled your eyes. “funny for you to say that when you’re always the one provoking me with your irritating voice. i already have to hear your voice blasting through the speakers, so why don’t you just save my ears from bleeding before i even have to hear that?”

at age twenty-one, you found the most pride in sitting at the library speeding through your assignments at a quick yet accurate pace. you tried not to procrastinate, but sometimes things did happen. at those times, there was nothing more satisfying than seeing the to-do list diminish into nothing. 

and for once, you didn’t mind your rival sitting across from you doing work. his presence actually made you feel more motivated to complete your assignments, wanting to finish your long list before he finished his. 

“finally off your spree?” he questioned, looking up to see you chewing on your pencil at a particularly hard problem, “too hard for you?” 

“please shut the fuck up. i can’t concentrate if you’re bothering me.” 

“okay chill,” he raised his hands up in defense, “i was just wondering if i could maybe help or anything. you look like you have a lot on your plate today.” 

“you? help me? you literally pray for my downfall, why would you do that?” you interrogated, believing he would somehow sabotage your problem by giving you some preposterous answer. 

“yeah, but you seem to be stressing a lot, so i thought i’d offer. one nice act in our rivalry won’t undermine the countless other things we’re at each other’s throats for, right?” 

you eyed him carefully, still wary, but you had no other choice. you couldn’t even comprehend the question. “fine.” 

looking back, maybe the rivalry was fading out at the end. nearing graduation, it seemed the two of you cooled down, not constantly trying to one-up the other in any class. in fact, you no longer shared most of the same classes and were basically in your own worlds. apart from the occasional glare you gave each other while walking across campus, your hatred had not been so apparent. even your friends had pointed out how you complained less about the equally-studious boy. 

that was why you let your guard down when he approached you after the ceremony, when you were taking pictures with your family and friends. they all wanted to capture the moment on your wonderful day. 

“well, we meet again,” he joked, trying to copy the once threatening tone he had the first time he said that to you in the second grade. though, now there was no sense of menace in his tone, only congratulatory. “good job out there. you deserve it.” 

“why thank you zhang.” 

“hao, you can call me hao,” he clarified, sticking his hand out as if to mimic a first interaction, “you don’t have to refer to me with my last name anymore. we’re not rivals now.” 

“are we not now?” you ask teasingly as you shook his hand.

“unless you want to apply to the same jobs and try to rob each other of opportunities, then sure,” he teased back. 

“i never thought i’d see the day you two get along.” 

the two of you turned around to see your friend, the one who had received the most complaints about hao throughout your college experience. there were so many nights where you went on tangents about how stupid your rival was, more of them drunk than sober. if anyone knew how much you hated hao, it was them. 

“i say we should save this as a memory. how do you two feel about a picture?” 

you looked at hao to try to see his stance on it, but he only gave a mere shrug as a response. you assumed that was a positive response, so you moved next to him for the picture. 

“get a little closer now you two! who stands a foot apart in pictures?” 

rolling your eyes at your friend, you inched closer to hao until your bodies touched. it was the first time you two had ever gotten so close. 

“now, let’s get a little arm around the shoulder!” 

once again, you wanted to strangle your friend for the nitpicky requests. it was just a picture! all that needed to be done was a simple click to capture the moment. though, to make it go faster, you obliged, swinging your arm around his shoulder while he did the same to you. it was an awkward position for you to be in after despising him for most of your life. 

as your friend tried to find a good angle, hao made conversation with you through his smile. “so what if i asked you for lunch as ex-rivals?” 

you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. “ex-rivals in what kind of way? like are we hanging out as friends, or are you asking me out on a date?” 

he chuckled. “i didn’t even think of the second option, but if you want it to be a date, i can certainly make it that.” 

you stepped on his foot, but he had to hide the pain for the sake of the photo. “that is not what i meant. do not get ahead of yourself. i’m just making sure you’re not trying anything.” 

“yeah, like i would ever. so how’s next wednesday sound?”

“sure.” 

“awww you guys look so cute!” your friend complimented as they came over, showing the picture to both you and hao, “do you want me to send it to you?” 

you waved it off, “you can keep it. why would i want to have a picture of myself with a guy i spent my whole life loathing in my camera roll?” 

what you didn’t know is you’d be asking that same friend to dig up the picture from their camera roll when you and hao bought your first home together. that way, you’d both have a memory of the moment your rivalry ended and your love began. 

[creativia10]

Hexside Starts and Locker Haunts

Hunter is looking forward to attending Hexside where he can see most of his friends. He didn't expect his new ghostly guardian to look out for him while there.

Warnings: reference to past child abuse

Let me know if I've missed anything

Word count: 3215

Notes: This is going to be the second one of a series about Hunter and Ghost Caleb. I really like this concept. I don't know how many works this series will have yet.

Hunter could hardly believe this was happening. He was going to go to Hexside and learn alongside other kids his age. Including his friends. Well, hopefully he would that was. Apparently, he had to take a placement exam, where enrollment wasn’t guaranteed. At least, not when he wasn’t a full witch like most of the students would be. He knew Luz had to deal with that, they’d talked about it.

He needed to know two spells on his own in order to not be placed at the lowest level in the school, the baby class. He only had one ability on his own, the teleportation and flash step from Flapjack. He couldn’t even use the glyphs that Luz had been able to. Ever since Belos possessed the titan and the battle ended, the glyphs hadn’t seemed to work. He didn’t really understand why. He had a feeling Luz would know more about that, as she seemed to.

He could do more with his artificial staff though, which he would have to start using again. Part of him didn’t want to, but it might be his only option if he wanted to go to this school. And he did.

He didn’t understand why this presentation was like a show for himself on the stage before the principal. He could appreciate the showmanship though. At least, he could have if he wasn’t so nervous.

Darius stood backstage giving him encouraging hand gestures. Darius has been there for Hunter now. More than just giving him somewhere to stay, which Hunter appreciated. It did seem like Darius was stepping into more of a guardian role for Hunter now. If the check-in after Hunter went on his own, the day Belos was defeated, said anything. Still, Hunter wasn’t quite used to a safe guardian who only had his best interests in mind. So, Hunter was having a hard time believing that was going to be the case. For now, he could just accept that Darius was safe and there for him. And really, that said a lot there.

Hunter had his artificial staff off to the side, easy to reach backstage, in case he did need to grab it. He wanted to try on his own first though.

Hunter took a deep breath and walked onto the stage.

“Hey, Principal Bump,” He said a bit awkwardly. Bump’s face was a bit hard to read, but he just nodded in response.

“Yes. G- uh, what is your actual name again?”

“Hunter,” He said.

Hunter’s eyes were drawn to a flash he caught from the back row of the seats. Odd, Hunter was sure it was just supposed to be the three of them in there for this exam.

Hunter’s attention was brought back to the conversation though.

“Yes, Hunter. Given your history in the emperor’s coven-“

Hunter couldn’t help but wince at that.

“-I’m well aware you have the magical abilities to be able to attend here.”

“…right.”

Of course, not everyone knew he was a powerless witch on his own. Only his friends knew that, and he didn’t exactly want everyone to know.

“So by all means, show me what you’d like. To give me an idea where to place you.”

Hunter took a deep breath and then flash-stepped to the side. He also teleported up into the air and then quickly back down, as his staff wasn’t in his grasp to catch him.

“Does that count as two?” Hunter asked.

Bump scratched his chin.

“Hmm, I’m not sure. Is there anything else?”

Hunter hesitated and then walked to the side to grab his staff.

“Well, if I may ask this not leave here, not really without my staff. As the glyphs don’t work anymore.”

Bump blinked.

“What, really? But many have seen you use powers. And you have,” He gestured to Hunter’s ears. Hunter reached to touch one on instinct.

“Uh, yeah. I’m a powerless witch, or I was. Belos gave me this artificial magic staff to be able to use magic abilities.”

Bump hmmed.

“I see.”

“But with it, I can do this!” Hunter held his staff up, making sure not to point it at anyone, and let the staff build up an energy blast at the end.

“I can also move earth with it.”

Bump nodded.

“Well, you have certainly shown you’re magically capable before, considering. Although, you may have some limitations with what tracks you can take though.”

Hunter sighed. “Yeah, I figured as much. I can live with that.”

“Very well. With this in mind, I welcome you to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics.”

Hunter smiled and bowed to him.

“Thank you sir.”

Bump raised his hand.

“That’s not necessary. I’ll let you look over the tracks before you start classes. Let me know if you’ll need any help testing out which ones you are able to do.”

Darius asked Hunter if he was okay while they on their way back home from the entrance exam.

Hunter shot him a confused look.

“Why do you ask? I got what I wanted. I can go to Hexside.”

Darius hmmed.

“I know, but some topics got brought up in there that I could tell you weren’t thrilled about.”

Hunter sighed and shrugged.

“I don’t know. I mean, it was bound to come up. Of course, I’m going to have to consider that I’m fundamentally different from other witches. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. At least I’m able to go to that school at all. Gosh, I need to be able to see my friends there.”

Darius nodded.

“Know that you can talk to me though, alright?”

Hunter hesitated. Trust was a hard thing. He was not used to opening up at all.

“I appreciate that,” Hunter said.

Darius pursed his lips, probably seeing how that was a non-answer. Hunter didn’t know if he was ready yet though. Maybe he could focus on one thing at a time. And at that point, it was figuring out his tracks at Hexside. He was used to working hard, so surely doing so for classes of his own choice would be better. Right?

*

Hunter was surprised that he came to the school his first day with so much trepidation. More than he had the first time he came onto the Hexside campus. Maybe because then he had a mission as the golden guard. And a lot of false confidence for some reason. But this time, he was just Hunter. Not even a full witch. Entering a building of normal witches and demons around his age. Which was something he was very much not used to. It was actually a bit overwhelming.

So he stood there for a moment just staring forward as students milled about the campus.

“Hey, Hunter. Are you alright?” Darius asked. He hadn’t left yet. Hunter took a deep breath. He didn’t know the answer to that. But he didn’t want to worry the other.

He did want this. He just didn’t feel fully prepared.

“Hunter!” Several voices shouted.

Hunter glanced over and his shoulders relaxed some as he saw his friends. Gus, Willow, and Amity made their way over.

Darius shot him a smile.

“I’ll see you later Hunter. Let me know if you need anything?”

Hunter nodded at Darius with a smile, before the other left.

Gus and Willow immediately hugged him.

“You’re finally here!” Gus exclaimed. He let out little illusion fireworks in celebration.

“Yeah, I know right?” Hunter said.

“It’ll be great to have you on the Emerald Entrails flyer derby team full time!” Willow cheered.

Hunter smiled at that.

“Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that.”

They chattered a bit more as they headed into the school. Being among familiar faces did wonders to help Hunter feel more at ease. It was a great reminder of why he wanted to go there in the first place, even if he was different.

A flash of light would be harder to see in the daytime outside. Hunter had a good sense of when someone was looking at him though. That had developed from moments with Belos. Sometimes he didn’t know when his uncle was understanding or in a bad mood, and he needed to be on guard.

But there are a lot of people at school there. He tried to reassure himself that it’s possible it was nothing. He was new after all, and some did know he was the golden guard. Maybe it had been a passing glance. There was a difference between one look and being watched though. Hunter could usually feel it, but that was likely no magic though. Just an instinctive intuition, or maybe even paranoia.

Still, he looked around, not seeing anyone.

“Hunter?” Willow asked. “Is everything alright?”

Hunter turned back to his friend group.

“Yeah, I think so,” He said.

She didn’t seem convinced, but let the conversation continue. Hunter couldn’t shake the feeling though.

-

Hunter went into Principal Bump’s office first, as he was told to. So he could choose his tracks and get to class.

He had been doing a lot of thinking about this. Yet still, he looked over the choices. He understood why Luz had a hard time choosing. Unlike her though, he probably couldn’t do all of them.

Potions was easy to tick off. It was the easiest for a low or nonmagical person to learn.

Beastkeeping. He liked palisman, so maybe he would like working with other magical creatures too. Construction seemed to be the closest to what he could use the earth-moving abilities for.

He pondered Healing, it was an ability he would like to know how to do.

“Can I add more later?” Hunter asked.

Bump thought for a moment and then nodded.

“Yes. With the new addition of multiple tracks learning, many students have been adding more tracks later.”

Hunter nodded. He held off on that one for then, since he wasn’t sure how he’d be able to do that. Illusion was also a no.

He supposed plants could be similar to earth, but he had moved the ground itself more, not so much growth.

He was almost good with his three tracks, but then he paused on the oracle one. He had read up a bit about that. He was less interested in knowing the future, as it was hard to think about that when you didn’t know how long you’d live. But the pamphlet had said those on the oracle track communed with spirits. He wanted to understand more about that world given recent events. He could at least learn more about the spirits. Besides, he was pretty sure that moment with the ghost of Caleb wasn’t going to be a one-time thing. Even if he wasn’t sure when he would see the other again.

So, he had decided on four tracks for then.

-

 Hunter was surprised he hadn’t seen his friends in classes yet. He supposed they did have different track focuses, and the ones he chose didn’t overlap, but still. There had to be some classes everyone took. He hoped they would have some in common.

Anyways, there was something in the schedule called a break? That was not something he expected. When he trained to become the golden guard, his learning was pretty intensive. He didn’t quite understand why there was a break, and so early. It had only been a few hours. Still, he wasn’t going to complain about the chance to see his friends some more if he had time. He was still figuring out the layout of the school.

As he walked through the halls, he walked past a group of students with a girl in the middle who looked familiar. Boscha he thought? She had been that pseudo-leader when the students hid out at Hexside during the Collector’s games. He hadn’t been able to catch everything that happened. He thought Amity had managed to convince her to go against Kikimora who had been taking over though.

So, that in itself could have meant she was an ally. But the Isles were no longer in emergency mode, at least not in the same way. He had heard his friends talk about this girl before. She was a bully. So it was probably best to steer clear of her. At least, that’s what he tried to do.

He was starting to wish he had asked even more about what to prepare for at this school. He caught her looking him up and down before she scoffed.

“Wow, someone’s a bit ambitious. Try hard much?”

Hunter rolled his eyes and kept going. Honestly, many students were taking multiple tracks now.

“Hey!” She exclaimed. “Don’t ignore me!”

Great. She was an attention hog as well. She then walked over to him and started following him.

“Who do you think you are? You’re not the golden guard anymore, nothing special about you now.”

Hunter paused and turned to her.

“How did you know about that?”

Boscha rolled her eyes and smirked.

“Oh, please. Word goes around fast here.”

He really hoped that didn’t extend to other parts about him.

“So you won’t be able to get away with stuff like before. This is Hexside, my school.”

“Oh please, you’re just a student here,” He said.

Boscha laughed. “Did you ever think about why I was the leader when everyone hid out at the school? People listen to me. And ignoring me isn’t gonna fly.”

“Why do you care if I give you attention? You don’t even know me. If you had as many fans as you imply, there would be no reason to make a scene at me walking past you.”

She glared at him and clenched her fists at that.

“Because you’re not just anyone. Most students here know their place by now, but you’re new. I can’t have you think you’re better than me. I’m most popular for a reason. The losers need to stay down. Especially half-witches.”

Hunter’s eyes widened at that last part and took a step back.

“What?” He asked.

She put her hands on her hips and smirked at him again.

“What, you think I didn’t notice your limited use of magic? And that you always have a staff with you now, even when it’s not a palisman.”

Hunter pulled his artificial staff slightly behind his back.

“Why were you even watching me for that?” He asked.

“I look out for the important things. Such as threats and the wastes of magic that need to be avoided.”

Just after she said that, a nearby locker door swung out and banged her in the face.

“Ow!” She cried out, stepping back and holding her face.

Hunter startled and looked on in surprised.

Boscha continued to hold her face, but glared out and looked around.

“Okay, who did that!?”

Some students fled at her yell. Hunter looked around, but he couldn’t tell. He hadn’t seen any spell-casting circles. His friends didn’t seem to be in the vicinity either.

Just then, he saw another flash at the end of the hallway. Okay, that couldn’t be a coincidence.

A faded figure formed the silhouette of a familiar man for a moment. The figure then drifted around the corner of the hallway.  Hunter sped walk in that direction right away.

“Hey!” He heard Boscha shout behind him, but Hunter ignored her. He went around the corner to a subsection of the hallway off to the side away from things.

The ghost of Caleb reformed to appear as he had when Hunter first saw him. Hunter stared for a moment.

“You found a way to follow me,” Hunter said.

Caleb nodded, “I can’t exactly say I understand why. Perhaps I was able to attach myself to you when my former reason for haunting died. Or it could be because that staff is from the castle.”

Hunter glanced to his staff at the mention then back to Caleb.

“You slammed that locker door into Boscha’s face.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“I said I would look after you. I wanted to protect you.”

Hunter huffed.

“I wasn’t in any real danger. She’s just a brat.”

Caleb hmmed.

“Perhaps. Doesn’t mean you have to deal with that.”

“I’ve been through worse,” Hunter said.

Caleb sighed. “I know. Trust me, I know. I don’t have to like any of it though.”

“So what, you’re just going to try to throw things at anyone who gives me a hard time? I don’t need that.”

“Do you know what you need?”

“Maybe not to be coddled!”

Calen floated back some.

“I don’t think one instance of retaliating against a bully counts as being coddled. She had no reason to be like that to you.”

“I mean, yeah. Of course she didn’t have a good reason. But I don’t need you to do that.”

“I know. I wanted to. She was annoying me.”

Hunter huffed. “Yeah, she was definitely annoying.”

“See?”

“How often are you going to do something like that?”

Caleb shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

“Because, if that becomes commonplace, someone is going to figure out I have a ghost haunting me.”

“Well, it’s more watching over you than haunting. Are you expecting this type of thing to happen often?”

Hunter opened his mouth and then paused. He didn’t really know what to expect if he was being honest. Caleb seemed to sense that. He smiled.

“Well, then I’m definitely not going to stop.”

“Caleb!”

“My brother caused irreversible damage to this world for years. It’s the least I can do.”

“You are not responsible for his actions.”

“I know,” Caleb said. He looked sad now.

“But if I can do something good in spirit after my brother cut my life tragically short, then I want to be able to.”

It was hard to argue against that. Not like Hunter didn’t appreciate this ghostly ancestor wanting to look out for him. He just wasn’t sure if he deserved it. Especially over something like a mean girl. His life hadn’t even been in danger or anything.

“I suppose that’s fair…” Hunter started. He wasn’t really sure what to tell the other. Could a ghost be reasoned with? It’s not like it would do much harm. Hopefully. This was still new to Hunter, so he wasn’t sure what to expect.

Before he could say anything else,

“Hunter!”

Hunter turned to see his friends running towards him. Hunter turned back to Caleb, or where he had been. Caleb had disappeared again. Hunter sighed.

He still had questions about this whole thing. Like, why did the ghost keep disappearing on him like that?

The school bell rang signaling that the break was over. Other students around started to head to their next classes.

His friends were talking over each other. They mentioned how they heard something happened with Boscha. Concerned that he ran away after. He walked with them to start heading to his next class as well. He tried to answer their questions, without mentioning Caleb. He was honestly still in a bit of a daze over what had happened. He was really dealing with a ghost now even with everything else going on? Well, at least Caleb was a nice ghost, but still. He didn’t know anything about this stuff. He supposed he was going to find out.

[shardsofswords]

The painting on my desk

So, in september of 2021, I went to a fantasy festival and bought a painting. It was by Paul Yperman, a french artist who attends multipe of these kinds of festivals and events all throughout europe and whose work i've been a fan of ever since i first saw it, on that same festival years earlier.

Here's some of his work (and his facebook https://www.instagram.com/ypermanpaul/?hl=en from what i know he sells his work online too, through facebook. So if you live in europe i highly recommend it)

As a younger teenager i'd bought the cheapest item in his shop, a small framed painting on paper, about a5 size, it cost about 10 euros at the time. It stil stands in my childhood bedroom, on my desk. But this time, i was older, i'd had a parttime job or a while, and i could afford an actual canvas piece.

My handbag was my grandmother's old one, she had jsut died and this was the first time i'm using it after my grandfather gave it to me. its smell reminded me of her. it had two facemasks in it that smelled like her too. I wore one, even though that's probably not hygienic. I gave the other one to a stranger who forgot his and couldn't enter the bus without one. It wasn't covid that killed her, it was probably fine. Maybe. When the smell faded i kind of regretted giving that second one away.

There was a painting in my grandparents' house of an old traditional windmill in their town that doens't exist anymore. My grandmother loved windmills, my father told me on the day of her funeral that she was delighted when the town they moved to, my childhood home, was in walking distance of more than 5.

It took me more than 20 minutes to choose a painting of Paul Yperman to buy. I'd wanted this for so long, and they're also beautiful. i'd gotten it down to two when i saw something in the corner of my eye. This one had a windmill on it.

That's the one i bought.

I carried it back home with me wrapped in paper, put it on my lap in the train and bus (it was tall enough that i could not see past it when i did that) and watched my every step, scared to death that something would happen to it.

It got home unscathed. but, because i was renting my student appartment, and didn't know if i was allowed to drill any holes in the walls, and didn't have anything for alternative options on hand, I didn't hang it, just unpacked it and set in on my desk, which was also my dining table, against the wall.

And it stayed there. I learned i was allowed to drill in the walls, and it stayed there. I discussed methods and placements with my parents, and it stayed there. I ate my dinner carefully to not splash any food or grease on it. It stayed there. I failed every single exam i took that year, and it stayed there. Like a momument to my executive dysfunction. Can't study, flake on the sport lessons my parents are paying for until the trainers text me worried if somethign happened to me (I don't answer. I don't tell my parents either.) don't hang the painting. I end the year technically allowed to continue my study, because in my country's system after you pass your first year you can take however long you like, but when i tell a study advisor i'm considering switching he tells me that's a good idea, because clearly this isn't working.

So i move back home, i go to a school that's only a one hour trip away, just short enough to make every day. I'm too scared to completely give up and don't officially move out of the appartment, just hire it out to another student. So all the furniture stays. But the painting comes home with me.

I ruin it immediately, i fail my first period at my new study so bad it is now by all accounts impossible for me to pass the whole year. I never actually unregistered from the old one, unable to let go, as i said. That turns out to have been the right decision. The student who was renting my room finds another place, I move back in. I'll have to make it work, somehow.

I pass my first exam there, i just barely fail the second, but last year for that very same exam i sat at my table for half an hour before turning in an empty answer sheet and leaving without making eye contact with the examinator, so let's call it an improvement. My therapist when i came in last time told me i was noticably more relaxed and comfortable.

I'm eating my dinner and wondering why, when everything is going much better than last time, does cooking and eating feel less fun.

And I look up and I realize

The painting stayed back home.

I convinced my mom to hang it in our living room a short few weeks before i stopped lying to her and admitted i was failing.

I am staring at my wall and i realize that i didn't look at it at all when i went back this weekend. For all that I hated myself for not properly hanging it up and what that meant about me whenever I saw it, it was a really beautiful painting. One i'd been planning for a full year to buy. One that i loved, that made eating my dinner alone less lonely.

Before it was on the living room wall back in my childhood home, it was back in that same old paper packaging i carried it home in ( I never actualy threw that away) standing in a corner of my bedroom. That exact space is now occupied by two old paintings from my grandparent's home. One of them is the one with the windmill. My grandfather isn't alive anymore either. They died 8 months apart. He wasn't there to offer me anything of his so from the attic i took an old school diary from his student days, where half the pages were falling out. And the paintings, of course. Since then, i've taken up bookbinding.

I am still looking at my empty wall.

I'd considered hanging it above my bed last year, to make the wall i saw first thing in the morning a bit livelier.

I've changed my mind. I want to hang it right above the my desk. With the other painting of the windmill next to it. they'll clash, the colors don't fit together. I don't care.

I'll have to make it work, somehow

[planetsstarsandmoons]

I know this is not my place to ask an astrology related question (I'M SORRY) but astrology always peaks my interest and although,I've been deeply studying it myself, I have a question to ask. I hope I'm not overstepping 🙈

I'm a venus in 8th house in the sign of aries. It is conjunct my sun, mercury, and mars in the 8th house in taurus with jupiter and saturn conjunct in 8th house in aries. I have a grand stellium with 5 planets in the 8th house (funny cause 8,5 both represent scorpio according to numerology) and my moon is in the second house.

What does this mean to you? Anything that you can tell, I'm very grateful for it. :))

My initials are RA. My sun sign is Taurus.

Thank you very much in advance!

Hi! I get a lot of questions about astrology in my inbox ! 🌸 and I hope to answer all of them one day (so if anyone who hasn’t received their reply yet sees this, I’m sorry and I’m getting on it after my exams! 😂)

Like you said, I’m not an astrologer, but what I see here is the year 2000 taurus/aries conjunction with mars jupiter and saturn! I’ve seen it a lot with friends from that age lol.

I see the houses as the ‘where’ in your expression of the planet, but also in what nurtures the planet. If your moon is in second house, it means that your natural self expresses and counts their emotions in value, such as gifts, self worth, or amount of touches. It also means that this your planet, the moon in this instance, is nurtured by things of value or ‘increase in value’, such as self esteem, hugs, pep talks, fav dishes etc. This house is ruled by taurus which is your sun, mars and mercury sign. This makes your ego, drive and ‘thinking’ (your intellect) and the ways of behaviour that they choose, correspond very well with how you feel most safe and nurtured as your moon (safe emotional world/personality). That’s a very harmonic placement. Myself: I see the taurus stelliums like this that I know as outwardly calm, but driven individuals that can surprise you with the amount of drive and zest they have. Part of it is because they are so balanced: their ego, intellect and drive (often their jupiter too, their idealism) correspond with each other almost exactly. Makes for very interesting individuals!

You have a big 8th house stellium. All of your personal planets except your moon fall into their place in taboo, sex, secrecy and control, and are nurtured by taboo, sex, secrecy and control. This can be a hard stellium if you don’t have other plutonic aspects in your natal chart! You can imagine that these people are very charming and intriguing and fascinating. People attract you and therefore you attract them. Your venus in aries can make you an intense fireworks kind of partner ! You have somewhat of an edge, but you feel that edge yourself just as deeply as other people do. Your eighth house often is the ‘house’ that people keep, well, private. It often is seen as the depth of their souls. Everyone has one, but not everyone has such a big stellium in them! The difference here is that you will learn to carry this part of you with pride and will learn to bear the heaviness of practically everything that motivates you. I imagine this stellium fighting for the money like only an eighth house person can, and then your moon comfortably counting it on their bed 😂😂

[ackerfics]

so this is love — annie leonhart

— annie leonhart x female reader

— request by anon: I kinda have a request. How about royal au? Where 2 kingdoms are at war with each other, and reader is the heir of the throne of one kingdom (but they’re not the spoiled type of heir, more like the solider one?) and then the kingdoms decided a truce. Reader will have to marry the heir of the other kingdom which is Annie. Idk maybe those arranged marriages that they never get along at first? Kinda like they were enemies bc they never get along until some development of feelings happen along the way. Maybe Annie will realize that she has feelings when reader got injured since they’re a soldier

— warnings: mentions of war, slight angst if you squint, just two idiots falling in love with each other :))

— summary: you were sent off to another kingdom as a sign of a truce, promising to yourself that the engagement is close to death at how you got off on the wrong foot with your betrothed. it was hell at first but who knows? maybe, unbeknownst to you, the two of you are a match made by the gods.

— word count: 7.5k

— author’s notes: i am so sorry this came out so long :((( we just finished our exams and we have a case study to write as our midterm for a subject. i hope this will still quench your annie fic cravings. and by the way, i fashioned the kingdom of idylle to mondstadt because genshin impact is my stress reliever right now and a kingdom built upon freedom sounds like a gem. plus, the glass castle of the reader is based off of the castle of cinderella, which is the reason for the title hhhhhh happy reading !!!

so this didn’t appear in the tags so i reposted it :”(((

Corsets were abominations that needed to be burned.

The girl with your features staring at you from the mirror was someone you couldn’t recognize from all the preparations your chambermaid did on your figure. The make-up was appalling and thick that you could see a smear on the back of your hand when you tried rubbing your itching nose. Your hair was done in a half up-do with too many decorative pins sticking out, creating a makeshift crown of silver roses, one of the symbols of your kingdom. The dress your mother expected you in was straight-up ridiculous, you couldn’t move from the tightness of the corset and the heaviness of your skirts was hindering you from moving freely. You couldn’t even deny that it was a lovely gown but its inconvenience was irking you at the slightest turn or stretch.

Dressing up this lavishly was rare for you, the Crown Princess of the kingdom boring flags of silver and lilac. You very much preferred the heaviness of your armor and your title as one of your kingdom’s Commendatore rather than the ladylike image your mother has been forcing you on the past few weeks.

You were livid when your parents renounced from the ten-year war that was purging the continent with just a sign on a piece of paper — one that included your name and your honor. Everything was brutal, carnage dotting every town and village of the two kingdoms throwing spears and fire cannons, and you witnessed it all firsthand when you started being one of your kingdom’s soldiers four years ago — a sixteen-year-old girl throwing orders that gave you an advantage from your enemies wearing the crest of the kingdom that painted your lands a heart-wrenching red. Of all solutions that your parents and the other kingdom could come up with, it involved you in the most unacceptable way possible. Officially entering your twenties this year, your parents thought it necessary to offer you as a bride that signified peace to the warring nation right beyond the border. The idea made your vision red, an outburst coming out of your mouth mere seconds after the proposal was announced in the council meeting.

A soldier, a knight, a commander — that’s what you are.

Not some forsaken young woman ready to be shipped off to your rival nation because it was the only way out of this bloody mess.

You had no choice.

The only way for you to grasp the final moments in your kingdom was relishing the touches of the chambermaid and taking in the décor of your room — the small trinkets scattered on your nightstands, the books you escaped to, the jewelry that boasted the colors of your family, and the stuffed animals your nanny sewed for you when you were a toddler. You closed your eyes and let the feathery fingers of the people around you lull you into a prayer for the gods in their celestial thrones, asking for their blessing in this far travel. In the middle of reciting an ode dedicated to the goddess of divine bravery, you felt a cool pendant carefully slide over your collarbones.

Your mother’s face appeared beside the watery princess of the mirror, a forced smile pulling on the corners of her lips. Your distinctly colored irises flickered down on the necklace your mother placed upon the exposed parts of your body. It was a flower-pressed necklace, the gold plate carefully protecting the flower representing your birth. The golden chain holding the necklace together was so thin that you worried for a moment that the fragile piece of jewelry might break in less than an hour while you meet your partner-to-be. You met your mother’s gaze in the mirror — from a chivalrous princess of armor to a dignified queen ruling within a land of eternal spring.

“You look so beautiful,” your mother breathed your name, holding your arms tightly against her ring-adorned hands. Tears blossomed her eyes, trickling down her cheeks akin to the lavender flowers’ petals of the large white tree in your backyard. “You look like the queen you were supposed to be.”

You tried smiling but your wobbly lips made you falter. You can only purse your lips in a tight, flat smile as you face your mother, face set in a kind expression. “Please don’t cry, Mother,” you murmured, placing your palm on top of hers, squeezing it for reassurance. “They wouldn’t do anything to me.”

They, meaning the kingdom you were at war with, the nation that claimed they needed a bride for their Crown Heir. In your world, there was freedom even in marriage — with the kingdoms pairing their sons with the sons of their enemies all for the sake of a truce, especially if the two of them were firstborns. This is very much your situation at the moment. The kingdom of Idylle was a beautiful haven of songs dedicated to the god of the winds, very contrasting to their military power that could take down a good number of your soldiers. You heard stories from some villages in your nation that Idylle was a hoax, that they were bloodthirsty warmongers hungry for the spilled blood of the people of Glaieul, your kingdom. You couldn’t help but believe their words. That was the only addition to your knowledge of Idylle except for their battle tactics and placement of soldiers on the battlefield.

“We’ll pray to the deities that they will do just that,” your mother laughed a little despite the tears. “Or else your father will wage war if they so much scratched you.”

“He wouldn’t do that, Mother,” you shook your head with a slight smile. “You two have worked so hard for this peace treaty. If I ever scratched myself in Idyllic lands, trust me that it would most likely be my fault. Not theirs.”

Your mother’s laugh twinkled in the room, painting everything in a light that erased the heaviness shrouding in every corner of your chambers. “I suppose so. You and your love for your sword are unrivaled. I can still remember the time when you first got the weapon, you were so thrilled for a six-year-old that one would think you were born in the barracks. I have to admit, you looked adorable swinging your sword until the greeting of the night and its stars.” She wistfully sighed, looking down at the necklace she gave you. “Your father was so proud when you came back for dinner that night.”

“My sword has always been a lifelong companion. I will even bring it to their castle.”

Your mother placed a hand on top of her chest, over her heart. “I hope you don’t unsheathe it in front of their royal family.”

You breathed a laugh. “No promises.”

The two of you talk about all the things that happened in your childhood, your laughs echoing through the hallways. The maids and the butlers bade you goodbye and safe travels as you passed by, never forgetting to nod in their direction in acknowledgment. You will miss their company for they saw you grow up before you decided to partake in the war. Almost all of them fussed over the mess you made while practicing your swordplay, cleaning up the broken vases and the mud on the carpeted floors. Even one of the apprentices of the Keeper of Books residing in the palace, Armin, enthusiastically waved at you, his friends flanking him for a visit in the kitchens. You didn’t miss how Eren directed an incredulous stare towards the blonde man, with Mikasa looking shocked at how easily the apprentice interacted with you in a public setting since your times with them only happened behind prying eyes.

You gave the three of them a huge smile that gave their faces a pretty rose shade.

Upon reaching the foyer, your father stood at the foot of the stairs along with the soldiers you acquainted in your time on the battlefield, sending a wave of warmth through your chest. His silver coat lined with gold details was a beacon and his white breeches were tucked in a pair of knee-length boots. His chest was decorated with his sash full of medallions, the kingdom insignia of lilac gladioluses and silver roses pinned on top of his heart. The king of Glaieul softened his eyes, crinkles appearing at the corners, at the sight of you and your mother descending on the stairs.

“My little flower,” was his greeting to you when you reached him.

“Father,” you breathed, picking up your skirts to settle in the embrace of waiting arms. You buried your figure against him, inhaling his scent of pine and rosewater, creating the last memory you will have of him. The two of you pulled away for a moment, your eyes watering at the sad visage your father sported. You felt the lightest brush of his kiss on your forehead. 

“Now I’m becoming reluctant in sending you off,” he told you. “I felt guilty when I saw you fight against this during the council meeting. But it is what they offered and I have no say in the matter.”

“I know.”

“May the eternal spring never waver in your soul.”

You nodded before taking a step back, bowing with your knees on the marble floors. Your crown glinted against the light from the stained-glass windows, your hair forming a curtain around your face as you replied, “I will let it fester among the ballads and idylls they will offer. I will carry the name of Glaieul with faithfulness, honor, and grace.” You raised your head to meet your father’s eyes. “I promise to never deter the eternal spring.”

It would be that way until your last years in that kingdom. And as you rode the carriage with the soldiers you fought with guarding the vehicle with their lives on the line, you could only sigh and offer another round of prayers that this swerves in a more positive direction than what you were expecting. After a hefty journey across the bustling capital (people stopped by and waved your carriage goodbye, offering you flowers that one of the captains of the fleet, Levi, scowled at — you coaxed him that it was alright, though) to the hectares of meadows in the countryside, the sight of flowers mixed with emerald turned into a sea of teal as you entered the outskirts of Idylle, your betrothed’s home. Everything was bathed with the endemic species of grass solely blessed by the god of the winds on Idylle — legends say that it was because He wanted the kingdom that worshipped him to look different than the rest. No matter how much you deny it, it was beautiful.

“How are you faring, princess?”

Your daze was interrupted by a baritone voice, deep enough to alert some of the men around the carriage. His gray eyes provided you support during the war. You couldn’t help but smile at the onyx-haired man riding by your right window. “Hello, Captain Levi.”

“Tch. Drop the title, brat. You and I both know that the war made us friends somewhat.”

You let out a small laugh. “Well, Levi, to answer your question, I’m quite fine even though my parents just sold me to gain peace.”

Levi rose an eyebrow at the remark. “I am not one to have the capabilities to comfort someone but think of this as a way for you to help the kingdom without sacrificing your life for once. A nation without its heir is just like losing its king. I’ve seen you train when you’re starting as a squire and to the point when you got the position you deserve. This would be like a small walk in the gardens of your mother.” He fixated his stare on you, eyes dull yet determined to get his point across. “You have a role in every part of your life and this time, this is what the gods crafted for you. Do not fret, princess, you have more chances of being on the battlefield again.”

The words Levi spoke settled in you until you reached the capital of Idylle, a small island in the middle of a clear azure lake with walls resembling a huge castle. The bridge leading to the gates was lined with guards bearing the kingdom’s crest, all of them standing under the flapping flags bearing the symbol and colors of the royal family they serve — a harp surrounded by the colors of gold and blue. Their eyes warily followed the series of carriages, postures becoming stiff in the realization that the entourage holds the visitor their rivaling country sent. That was still the scenario when the series of carriages and horses passed by the marketplace, the vicinity on the lowest part of the walled capital, as if the wind even ceased to let the people gawk at the brightly-colored entourage making its way to the highest tier depicting mansions and the main plaza where their patron god stood tall and proud in front of the palace’s gates.

Everything looked magnificent.

It was a breath of fresh air from the glass castle you grew up in. Whereas your kingdom built a white, blinding home that withstood for hundreds of years, Idylle’s palace blended with the brick walls with its leveled mansard roofs and turrets. The gates were made of gold, welcoming you into a huge square of maze-like hedges, a fountain sitting in the middle of the labyrinth. Some gardeners stopped their daily chores to greet the carriages with a wave of their hat, seeing as you were going to be an addition to the royal family after the wedding in a few months. The steps leading to the main doors loomed in front of you with only a few servants waiting for you to step out of the carriage.

You took in a deep breath, nodding at Levi to open the door. When it swung open, you placed your hand on top of Levi’s as he guided you down the propped steps on the side of the carriage.

“Well,” Levi hummed from behind you, making you glance at him with a curious eye. “May the eternal spring never waver in your soul, Your Highness.” He bowed in front of you, only a dip of his head, a firm hand on his heart, and yet that was enough for you to reciprocate it with a kind smile.  

“Safe travels back, Captain Levi. May the gods protect you.”

The servant boys standing on top of the stairs jumped an inch in the air, going down in fleeting steps to get your luggage when they realized they were staring too long at you. You smiled at them in gratitude before stepping inside the palace as the guards opened the huge, gilded double doors in front of you.

The inside was just elegant as the exterior appearance of the entire capital. Everything was bathed in gold that seemed to rival the Sun and it made you look away for a moment. The grand hall followed the kingdom’s colors, from the turquoise carpets leading towards two winding staircases to the golden ceilings decorated with paintings of cherubs and the story of how their god of the winds came to be. One of the servant boys slightly cleared his throat, snapping you out of your curiosity of the myths laid on the ceiling. You turned to him with raised eyebrows, spurring him to whisper a faint, “Follow us, Your Highness.” They led you through hallways hung with tapestries and paintings, drawing rooms where the queen hosted her tea parties (Levi would have loved it), and ballrooms that have the same aesthetic as the foyer. Finally, you stopped in front of one of the apartments in the palace, the servant boy who told you to follow them brightened at the guard stationed there.

“Reiner!”

You waited patiently and let your eyes roam across the hallway.

“Hello, Falco, Udo.” The man, Reiner, smiled at the young boys before turning to you. He placed a hand on his heart and bowed. “Welcome to Gale, the capital of Idylle, Your Highness.”

“Thank you for the welcome,” you replied, motioning for him that it was quite alright to straighten his posture. “The palace looks lovely.”

“Indeed, it is.” Reiner opened the doors of your room and once again bowed with an outstretched hand towards the room. “Here are your chambers and I will be your guard for the entirety of your stay here in the palace, Your Highness.” You muttered a faint ‘thank you’ as you entered a drawing room with a door to the private chambers on the left and the bathrooms to the right. There was a table fit for two people, armchairs, and drawers with vases on top. A huge floor-to-ceiling window illuminated the room, your feet carrying you there to open them, and letting the wind caress the curtains as they danced in the breeze. “If you ever need anything, you can call for my name and I will be here in an instant. Your chambermaid will be up here in a moment to help you prepare for the family dinner. For now, rest well, Your Highness.”

“Thank you, Reiner, Falco, Udo,” you smiled, retreating towards the private chambers.

You let out a sigh and stared at nothing for a few moments. It came down to this. To think that you were in enemy lands and was treated so well without any degradation came as a shock to you. The people so far that radiated negativity at your arrival were the guards stationed at the bridge and some of the townsfolk and nobles parading in the streets. As you think about the servant boys and Reiner’s calmness in receiving you in the palace, you immediately thought that it would be better than you expected.

You took off your heels under your dress, mind racing that this wouldn’t be so bad, and plopped on top of your canopied bed, its baby blue curtains protecting you from unknown disturbances and drowning you in a rapid of dreams.

-

The dinner didn’t go so well as you expected.

You donned a more suitable dress for indoor use, something that doesn’t include forcing your figure in a tight corset and yet presentable enough to be shown in the family dinner. You even placed a circlet of silver flowers on your head to compensate for the dull dress you chose, the description fitting after one of the chambermaids expressed their perplexity at how simple regarding design your dress has. Your light blue skirts fanned out around you as you made your way to one of the grand dining rooms reserved for family use. The choice of the color of the dress should be enough to express that you are willing to be on good terms with the family of the person you will marry.

But your first meeting with Annie Leonhart was interestingly disappointing.

Before departing from your kingdom, you learned the royal family and even Idylle’s customs. You learned how they always valued freedom and expression above all else, compared to your home that valued their ties with the gods more than the idea of getting rid of the shackles placed by your deities. You learned how they have this festival dedicated to celebrating the love they share with their patron god and how it spanned for half a month.

Finally, you learned about the indifferent Crown Heir of Idylle, the young woman with the piercing blue oceanic eyes sitting in front of you at the dinner table. She was known for building up walls that discouraged some of her engagements with other royalties across the continent. She was so closed off that she didn’t even glance in your direction for one second. Her hair was done in an elaborate bun wrapping around her head in a braid, her small, thin diadem resting against her golden hair. Annie kept her gaze on her plate, even playing with her food mindlessly for a couple of minutes before sighing and taking a bite of the chicken the maids served. No conversation was exchanged and the dinner ultimately became one of the most awkward meals you had. The king even tried to engage his daughter for casual talk but Annie dismissed them with a hum.

The queen had to apologize to you several times after the dinner, with Annie huffing at the back and eager to get out of the room. Despite how much she was against this engagement, you still bowed at her before you retreated to your room.

Now dressed in your nightgown, you stared at the canopy of your bed, already missing your home the more you fixed your attention on the bundled-up curtains. You badly needed to hit a straw dummy with your sword to let out your frustrations. Of all the royalties present in your continent, why did it have to be you that was shipped to this measly forced marriage? There were still so many solutions that could lead to a peace treaty but why was this the only one the kings and queens could present to their courts? A sigh escaped your chest once again at the thought of actually getting to know Annie. You laid on your side, curling your legs towards your chest and prayed that the god of dreams will visit you sooner than expected.

A knock reverberated through your chambers, the sound making you sit up.

You went to the receiving room and opened the door. You kept the small hitch of your breath in your chest at the sight of Annie and her half-lidded eyes. There was no one in the hallways. You figured that she sent Reiner away for some privacy, meeting the blue irises you likened to brilliant sapphires. 

“What brings you here, Your Highness?” you asked, opening the door wider.

“Annie.” She saw how your eyebrows raised in surprise. “Call me Annie, we’re betrothed after all.”

“Of course.” You smiled. “Annie,” you tested her name softly, missing the way she inhaled too sharply at your voice. 

Annie reciprocated the gesture by saying your name. The two of you stared at each other and it felt like an eternity before she looked away to focus on the receiving room behind you. She noticed how your eyes held kindness underneath the star-like shine even though she showed hostility during your first dinner with her family. Your hair was disheveled and it didn’t take her a minute to realize she might have woken you up from a good night’s rest. The journey from Glaieul to Idylle was a long one. You deserve all the rest you can get, “I apologize if I woke you up but I feel like I should do this before dragging it out.” You once again raised an eyebrow so she took out a leather box, opening it to reveal a ring with a holographic gem showing teal and pink in the middle. The Leonhart family ring. “Here.”

“Oh.”

You were gawking at the beautiful piece of jewelry, with Annie taking the matter in her own hands. She took the ring out of the box and pocketed the container. Her hand reached out to hold your palm against hers, sliding the ring in your ring finger. Your hand still hovered in front of you after Annie retracted hers to find their place by her side. She continued to eye your mesmerized visage with a half-lidded gaze, clearing her throat to catch your attention. You turned to her with a small apology for spacing out.

“It’s fine,” Annie waved off. “It’s yours starting today.” She turned away from you and went down the hallways but not before saying a “Good night, [Name].”

-

The entire week of your stay in Idylle was uneventful, to say the least.

Annie kept her distance from you after that night she gave you their family ring. It left you thinking that you should also gift her the [Last Name] ring your family treasured for centuries. The ring was placed in a small cushioned jewelry box that you opened and propped on one of your night tables. Your conscience was telling you to give it to her but there wasn’t exactly any moment alone with her let alone just passing by her in the hallways. The blonde princess made it her mission to never let your fates meet the more time you spent in the capital. You then decided that she probably didn’t want this engagement to happen.

But she gave you the ring. Wasn’t that a strong signal that Annie accepted you as her betrothed, unlike the others before you?

You shook that thought as you focused on giving consecutive hits on the dummy in front of you. Two days before, you proposed to the king to let you have a moment alone in the training grounds for about two hours or so to keep you in shape. He reluctantly agreed, but not without a side stare at the queen. They heard of your glorious feats during the war, how you managed to become one of the Commanders of a battalion of soldiers tasked with being in the frontlines and how you won constant ambushes against Idylle’s numbers. Two hours of training became three until here you are, still not stopping as you finished every single dummy in the private training grounds. With your day spent outside, you thought it would be nice to have a nice dip in the bathtub before dinner.

In your walk towards your chambers, you spotted Annie in one of the drawing rooms, sitting in the window seats with a book of war tactics in hand. You recognized the author as one of the revolutionaries mentioned to you by your tutor. 

“That’s a nice book,” you couldn’t help but mention. Annie turned to you unfazed by your interruption though there was a glint of interest in her eyes. “The book mostly describes battle formations but I think the author likened it to every situation on the battlefield. For instance, the phalanx was native to the empire of Great Findara and it was great for preventing casualties until it was overpowered by the infantry tactic of the city nation of Khisfire where every man has a role and a weapon depending on their group. The latter was more on the long-range yet melee way of taking back the territory.”

Annie hummed. “Do royal tutors of Glaieul teach this to their students?”

“Oh, no. I learned it while taking on the role of a squire.”

She once again hummed. “It completely slipped my mind that you are one of the Commanders in your military. You were ruthless as the folks in the noble plaza say, blood tainting your hands from doing raids in the border villages of Idylle.” Her tone was like a jab to your side, like an arrow tearing through your skin. “I know it was a time of war and desperate times call for desperate measures but our people didn’t deserve to experience the massacres.”

“They were far from being massacres,” you gritted your teeth.

Annie scoffed. “Then what were they? Because that’s what it looks like to me. I can still remember the story two years ago of a young girl wearing her lilac cape in the bloodbath, eyes so dull that you can see your reflection on it. What’s to say that this engagement is a hoax plotted by your parents to assassinate my family for you to win a territory you greatly needed because of the resources?” She closed her book with too much force, bitterly spitting out the next words, “The apple doesn’t fall from the tree as the saying goes.”

“If you question my being here then why did you give me your family ring, Annie?” you asked, your body now facing the tense young woman by the window. You cursed at how the light made her look angelic like the girl the god of the winds sacrificed his life to before he ascended to the heavens. “This peace treaty is everything my family wanted even though hundreds of our soldiers died in vain for not meeting the ends of what they fought for. If you’re saying that my parents placed me in an undercover predicament to add to the weight of deaths on my shoulders, I suggest you tell your father to put a stop to our betrothal. Because I don’t even want to be here, Your Highness, and it would do me such a huge honor. I would rather spend my time out with my fellow soldiers than pretending I’m some dainty princess my family sheltered when in fact, I was anything but that.

“Have a good day and I hope you enjoy the rest of the book. Chapter ten was a personal favorite of mine,” you dismissed, turning towards the direction of the apartments.

Once you reached your door, Reiner straightened his posture, faltering for a second when he noticed the cross look on your face. He chose not to say anything as he opened the door for you. You took off your boots right beside one of the armchairs of the receiving room and immediately went inside your private chambers. The glint of the ring on your night table mocked you. You stomped over the furniture and forcefully closed the small jewelry box, throwing the container inside one of the drawers.

Maybe sleep will be much kinder to you, the sheets enveloping you in an embrace you wish your mother can only give in this time of need.

-

You were radiant under the harsh heat of the Sun.

Annie was scheduled to have a free slot in her timetable after being included in one of the court meetings regarding the resiliency plan of some of the villages in the borders that managed to survive the Glaieulian raids. She suggested that the villages should be moved to one of the more remote villages nearer the capital, where the terrain is suitable for growing crops and starting small farms. There wouldn’t be an issue with overpopulation because the recommended village was home to the elderly and children. The newly situated families will also aid the old people as they go about their mundane activities. It was a sound suggestion and her father was also considering it. Annie hoped that would be the case as she scribbled a small note on a piece of paper. After the meeting, she stopped by one of the windows overlooking the training grounds, and there you are.

Your small argument that happened a few days before stirred some guilt in Annie’s stomach. 

You weren’t even part of the raids she was talking about. They were led by a commander by the name of Erwin Smith. The stories about you that she heard were from Idyllic soldiers that suffered a lot during the war, not from the people of the villages Erwin raided. Annie couldn’t deny it but she did step out of the line by accusing you of being an assassin. That was too far-fetched. She was just stuck in her suspicions when she was supposed to be getting to know you.

All she knew about you was that you were adept with a sword and can name any tactic written in books about wars.

Annie saw a maid cleaning one of the vases in the hallway. “Miranda.”

The maid turned around, curtsying in a haste before patting her uniform. “What can I do for you, Your Highness?”

“Can you prepare a tray of iced apple juice and some cakes?”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

Annie nodded. “And can you place this note on the tray and deliver it to [Name]’s room?”

The maid was taken aback. “Well, it would be my pleasure, Princess.”

“Thank you.” With that, Annie walked away without a glance back.

Curious eyes followed the princess’ form, the maid finding herself looking at your figure sparring with Reiner and a smile instantly greeted her face. This could be a turning point in the betrothal because she could’ve sworn Annie had a small blush on her cheeks at the mention of the other princess. 

After your training, a tray of sweets and a pitcher with glasses of apple juice awaited you in your receiving room. You wanted to ask Reiner if he asked some of the chambermaids to prepare the afternoon snack but a folded note caught your eye. With one hand gripping the towel around your shoulders, you read the note, your face warming up at the short yet endearing sentence.

Indulge in these, they taste better after a good training session.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all, you thought as you munched on a sprinkled cookie.

-

Her eyes kept following a trail of gold tulle, silks, and laces, never looking away the moment her blue eyes laid themselves upon a beauty that rivaled the goddess of oneiric realms, the most ethereal goddess of the heavens. You were dressed in an off-shoulder gown with loose sleeves reaching your elbow, the bodice carefully wrapping around your torso in the most flattering way possible, and skirts adorned with silver gems. In a sea of aristocrats with fabulous dresses, you were a sight to behold in this ball dedicated to commemorate the truce between Glaieul and Idylle as well as announce the engagement between the two countries. You were starlight personified, shining in Annie’s eyes under the lights of tens of chandeliers in the ballroom. 

You were on the other side of the ballroom, laughing with your friends from your home kingdom. There was a tall brunette that seemed to be star-struck because of you just like Annie, a black-haired young woman who was smiling slightly, and a blonde who was engaged in an animated conversation with you. Your smiles were refreshing, to say the least, Annie seeing it for the first time since you came to their palace. Your laughs are genuine and it came out of you so easily when in the company of your friends.

Annie visibly stiffened when you turned around and smiled at her, gesturing for her to come to join the small huddle. Your three friends tensed noticeably at her half-lidded stare, with you reassuring them that she’s not that indifferent all the time. 

As if sensing Annie’s hesitance, Reiner chuckled behind her. “You know, it wouldn’t hurt to introduce yourself to them, Your Highness.”

“I’m getting to that, Reiner.”

A laugh came from the blonde man. “She’s good for you. That much I can tell. The kindest soul I’ve ever met in my life.”

Again, guilt pooled in Annie’s chest. Those words are the opposite of what she spewed out to you the last time you talked. She called you a power-hungry monster who ravaged the war with no care on your shoulders. She didn’t even apologize yet. Annie sighed, “I know.” Then, she pulled up her skirts, navigated the ballroom, and stopped directly beside you. Her blue eyes scrutinized the three people you grew up with, with the brunette and black-haired woman stepping a small step forward to assert their dominance while the blonde pinched their backs to warn them not to step out of line in another kingdom. “Hello.” She transferred her eyes on you afterward, placing a gentle hand on the small of your back and rubbing it in a comforting motion. “I hope you enjoyed the ball so far.” Those words were directed to you.

You only nodded with a smile. “Annie, this is Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. They’re my friends when I was growing up in the glass castle.” Annie nodded. “Everyone, this is Annie, my fiancé.”

“We know,” Eren, the long-haired man in a low ponytail murmured with his arms crossed over his broad chest.

“Eren,” Armin reprimanded. He smiled at a stone-faced Annie. “Thank you for making [Name] happy! I can sense that she has a different air around her while we talked. It must be because of you.”

Annie stayed quiet, her hand coming into a still on the small of your back. It was a good thing her left hand was hidden away because they would immediately think that you didn’t accept the engagement. She glanced at the ring nestling in your finger, a perfect match against the golden train of your dress. Realizing that she created an awkward stretch of silence, Annie could only nod wordlessly before shifting her attention to you again. It seems like you’re the only one who can calm her nerves down inside the vast ballroom. She never took her gaze on you even as you continued the conversation between your friends.

Her mind was fogged with thoughts of only you throughout the ball.

The two of you excused yourself from the trio when Annie’s father called for everyone’s attention from the front of the huge chambers. “Everyone, kind souls and pure-hearted people of the continent, since tonight is all for enjoyment, the waltz of the ball will now commence.” His blue eyes went to his daughter, standing at the side of his throne. “The moment everyone is waiting for — the first waltz.”

She rehearsed this too many times for when a proper betrothal comes into play but why is her hand shaking when she outstretched it in front of you? You must have felt it because you flashed a comforting smile her way. The two of you went to the middle of the ballroom, the guests staring expectantly at the birth of a romance. They were wrong because you hate her and she hates you. Right? Her hatred for you will never waver for killing her people even though you look like a descended goddess with the lights of the chandeliers raining on you. Hatred must be fueling her heart to beat faster than ever, why she seemed to trip over her skirts and how her words stumbled in her tongue. That must be it.

The dance slowly made its way to the part where she struggled, dipping you as gracefully as she can. Before it happened, you whispered to her, “Please don’t make me fall.”

Annie’s voice was soft, for your ears only. “I promise, my princess.”

It truly was a birth of a romance, the two of you unaware of it all.

-

“Come on, Reiner!” You shouted at him from across the training field. “Come at me with all you’ve got.”

The blonde man hesitantly shifted into position as he eyed you. “Are you sure, princess? I wouldn’t want to hurt you.” He remembered the threatening look he received from Annie before this training session and he would like all of his limbs intact, thank you very much. “I just don’t want your chambermaid to nag me again after last time.” He managed a cut on your arm your previous session and you had to wear a long-sleeved dress in such stifling weather.

You scoffed lightheartedly. “I can handle it, Reiner. You don’t have to worry about it. Plus, I can dress my wounds perfectly.”

Reiner didn’t believe that. Your skills in covering up your wounds were lacking despite being a soldier. The most you could do was apply some salve on your bruises, that was it. He had no choice because the past month he spent his days with you, you were like a persistent little child that reminded him of his younger cousin. He hoped that you two wouldn’t meet. “Alright, here I go, Your Highness.”

Parry after parry could be heard in the private training field. You were doing fine in deflecting Reiner’s sword but your ankle immediately ached after shifting your body, leaning back to avoid the sharp edge of the knight’s weapon. You let out a huff as you dropped on the ground, jolting when Reiner called for you to stay alert. Seeing the glint of his sword, you rolled away and the pain on your ankle flared, even more, traveling through your calf. It also didn’t help that you received a cut on the side of your bandaged arm. You picked yourself up despite the throbbing pain on your ankle and arm, now being on the defensive as Reiner continuously struck you with his sword. He then circled his weapon around yours, throwing your sword on the side and pushing you to the ground with the tip of his weapon. That was the time where your ankle finally twisted into a sprain.

“Ah!”

“Princess?” Reiner’s tone became alarmed, dropping to your level and taking off your boots in an instant. His hands ghosted around your swollen ankle, not knowing what to do. “Gods, Annie’s going to kill me!”

“Annie?” You asked between pants. “What does this have to do with her?”

He only shook his head, carrying you in his arms and into the palace. His steps were hurried and the maids gasped at the sight of your red ankle. “Please prepare a bucket of ice and bring it to Princess [Name]’s private chambers.” He turned to you. “Hang on for a moment, Your Highness, we’re nearing your room. Just a little bit more.” Reiner entered your room and gently placed you on your bed. “I’m going to be taking off your other shoe, Your Highness.”

“Reiner, I think I’ll take it from here.”

Reiner stiffened, slowly turning his head to the entrance of your private chambers. Annie was impatiently standing with a bucket of ice in both hands, eyes glacially set on the blonde man kneeling on the floor in front of your confused form. She didn’t care if Reiner trembled in front of her. She vividly remembered telling the knight to never hurt you (she didn’t see the cut you had last training session because Annie was in another court meeting involving the incoming tax collection of various villages). Annie glanced at your ankle, barely grimacing at the state of it before gesturing for Reiner to get out of the room. The large blonde man took his leave, bowing at the two of your hastily and closing the doors with finality.

Annie mimicked Reiner’s position, kneeling in one knee to place your injured foot on her thigh. She didn’t wear any dresses for the day and it made her look dashing. The image implanted itself in your brain. Her hands are gentle against your skin, your cheeks flaring at the contact. Her features were contorted in a downturned one that showed how bothered she was. 

“How did this happen?”

Your eyes settled on the top drawer of your nightstand. “I dodged Reiner’s blow and I twisted my ankle in the process.”

“You should be more careful.”

“I’m always careful.”

Annie scoffed. “That’s clearly obvious.” She said nothing more while dipping your foot in the ice bath. She lifted her head too fast when you winced at the coldness of the water. “Deal with it. We wouldn’t want this to be worse than it already is.”

“Thanks for the concern,” you dryly mentioned.

“What makes you think that my being worried is all fake?” You’re silent, Annie choosing the moment to continue the words she didn’t have any control over. “When the maids prepared this bucket of ice in the kitchens, I was out of the council meeting. When I saw then bringing this up to your chambers, I was alarmed and my mind was a mess of thoughts concerning what happened to you.” At each word, her face held a multitude of emotions that you never saw on her. Her lips became pursed whilst you wordlessly stared at her. “I am not pretending to care for you. How could I pretend when I’m already feeling foreign emotions when it comes to you? It’s my first time feeling this way so I don’t know if I can categorize this as falling in love. But it feels like it. So, for the love of the gods, can’t you see that I’m rambling because of you?”

You didn’t reply, instead, you reached out to the drawer where you kept that ring.

“What are you doing? You should be still right now.”

You pulled out the jewelry box and flipped it open, showing the blonde the ring fashioned in a vine, the centerpiece being a group of small gladiolus flowers with diamonds in their centers. 

Annie’s cheeks reddened, flustered at the pretty jewelry. “What?”

Words never came out of you as you took Annie’s left hand. The ring looked pretty on her, the two of you admiring it after you slid the engagement jewelry in her ring finger.

“I now accept you as my fiancé, my future lover, and holder of my heart. Annie Leonhart, may our eternal spring bloom for centuries, and may your god of the winds bless us with his idyllic ballads.” Annie’s eyes were wide and you can see your reflection on them, along with constellations that lit up her irises. You placed your forehead against hers, looking straight into her flushed face. “They were right, this is the birth of a romance.”

And as you two kissed for the first time, the gods were rejoicing in their thrones, each of your prayers answered — your love finally etched in a whimsical melody. 

[dumbikawa]

Being Stressed About Exams & HQ Boys Comforting You

GN!Reader | Comfort/Fluff | Warnings: stressed reader

Characters: Atsumu, Oikawa

A/n: This is extremely self-indulgent as school has been kicking my butt and the future post-graduation is very terrifying lol

ATSUMU

You stare at the computer in front of you, the text you’re supposed to read for class beginning to swim together as your eyes fill with tears. Everything is happening too fast and you feel completely unprepared to take any of it on. What if you spent all of this time and money on schooling only to fail so close to the end? What if you finally do finish, but then can’t find a job in your field? Should you have studied something else? The questions become more exhausting and constant the closer it gets to exams. 

Small droplets roll off your cheeks and begin to pool on your keyboard. You haphazardly wipe them away before powering off the computer and tucking it back in your bag. Out of sight, out of mind, you figure. It’s not like there’s any use in trying to finish it tonight when you can already feel another wave of stress induced tears coming on. Those have also become a regular thing.

You click the volume button on your phone so that the sounds of music fill the room before leaning back in the desk chair, testing the limits of how far you can recline before gravity takes over. Atsumu had made this study playlist for you when he first noticed how stressed you were. It contained a mixture of your favorite songs, his favorite songs, and a few ‘motivational’ songs he pulled from his work-out playlists. It was a bit of a weird Frankenstein mash up with the large variety of genres, but it quickly became one of your studying must haves.

Over the sound of the music, you couldn’t hear the shower click off and the door to the bathroom swinging open. When Atsumu steps out, he sees you sitting where he’d left you, although, in a more dangerous position than you’d been in before as he notices the way the desk char teeters back and forth. His attention is quickly caught by the music choice, though, recognizing one of the songs playing as a favorite of his he added to the playlist he made for you a couple weeks ago. A smile breaks through his face as he hurriedly jumps into a pair of sweatpants before approaching your quiet figure.

As he comes up behind you, though, he notices a slight glisten upon your cheeks and a few fresh tears that tumble from your closed eyes. His upturned lips quickly sink as worry floods through him. Exams had been taking a toll on you, it wasn’t hard to tell, but he would never get used to seeing you cry.

“Baby,” he whispers, gently wrapping his arms around your shoulders. “What can I do for ya? Food? Cuddles? Cry it out?” You nod, resting the chair back on the ground and practically launching yourself into his arms.

Atsumu catches you with ease, his strong arms holding you against his chest. His hand rubs up and down your spine, sending shivers racing down you back, but there's no ulterior motive to his gentle touches. He continues the soft touches as he guides you to the bed, only letting you go for a second before allowing you to bury yourself in his side again.

“What if I can’t do it?” you whisper, trailing your fingers across Atsumu's toned chest. “I’ve studied for so long, but what if it doesn’t work out? What if--What if I don’t actually know anything and I crash and burn and--”

Atsumu shushes you gently, placing a few comforting kisses to your forehead. He notices your breathing beginning to grow heavier as your anxiety takes over. There's a few moments of silence as you try to match your breathing to his, the two of you taking slow, deep breaths in sync.

“The future might be unsure and stressful, but I know you’re going to do your best and make it work. All you can do is continue to work towards your goals and handle everything as it comes. Not to mention, I’m always going to be here to remind you of how strong you are even if you don’t see it.”

A new wave of tears begins as his words echo through your ears. You bury your face in his chest as your arms wrap around his waist in an attempt to pull yourself as close to him as you physically can be. Somehow he knew exactly what you needed to hear and a part of you wonders if he’s ever repeated those sentiments to himself when things felt unsure.

He continues to whisper reassurances as you fully relax against him, your tears finally beginning to dry up. You lift your head and offer him a weak smile.

“Thanks for letting me cry on your abs,” you sniffle, allowing yourself to truly laugh.

Atsumu feels lighter as he watches you smile and joke, hopefully being able to forget about the more stressful parts of life for a while as he holds you close. There’s been countless times where you eased his worries about the future, so he’s just happy that he can return the favor and create a safe space where you’re allowed to simply be.

OIKAWA

The cup in your hand is warm and comforting as you trudge towards your bedroom, a sense of dread washing over you as soon as your eyes land upon the laptop you left sitting open on the bed. With finals coming up, you thought it would be a good idea to transfer the notes you had written down during lectures onto your computer, figuring it would make them easier to access and that the process of going back through the information would be a good way to ensure you remember the material.

What you didn’t realize, however, is how absolutely time consuming and exhausting it was going to be. Your neck hurts from constantly looking back and forth between the paper and computer screen, your back hurts because somewhere along the way you abandoned any semblance of healthy posture and decided to go full cave gremlin in the way you hunched over your work, and instead of absorbing the information for a second time it seemed as if your brain had completely abandoned you and gone on autopilot. Shoving the computer off the bed and taking a nap feels like the best course of action right now, but you know if you stop now there’s no way you’re going to want to finish later.

Begrudgingly, you settle back onto the bed and take a large swig of coffee before stretching your fingers and placing them back on the keyboard. It couldn’t take that much longer right? All you have to do is push through and get it done.

And, for the next few hours, that’s what you do. You jump back in where you left off and race through the next few, gruelingly long chapters. The daylight outside quickly dwindles away until you’re forced to turn on the bedside lamp when you realize the sun has sunk far below the horizon and is beginning to cast bizarre shadows around the room. It was no bother, though, because you’re so close to being done. The issue is that neither your brain nor your body could keep up anymore.

Your fingers keep hitting the wrong keys, typing made up words that have you constantly backspacing and starting sentences over again for a third of even a fourth time. The breaking point comes when you go to take a sip of your now cold coffee and look back at the screen after attempting to type an entire paragraph from your notes in one go. Little did you know your finger placement was off, yet again, and the entire paragraph is an unreadable mess that even spell check doesn’t want to touch.

The tears that sting your eyes make you feel stupid. It was entirely too dumb to cry over something as superficial as misspellings that could be easily fixed and cold coffee. But once the tears start they won’t stop. Suddenly, you’re not crying over the notes or even school work in general. You’re crying about the crushing weight of change that's soon to come once you finish with classes and how impossible everything has begun to feel.

You’re too exhausted to focus on anything anymore, letting the hot tears run down your cheeks freely, which is why you don’t hear the rushed footsteps of your boyfriend who could hear your hiccuping breaths from down the hall. 

He doesn’t say anything when he sees you curled up on the bed, your face buried in your arms. Oikawa sits on the ground closest to you and lays his head near yours as he begins to run his slender fingers through your hair. It doesn't take a psychic to tell you've been stressed with the quickly approaching exams, and from the collection of notes littered all around to the half closed computer the dots practically connect themselves.

The slight dip on the bed near your head alerts you to his presence, but you don't move. His hands guiding themselves over your scalp is quick to relax your body, but your mind feels like it's about to burst any moment as the thoughts continue to race.

“You’re doing so good,” he whispers against your temple, planting soft kisses after every word, “and you deserve to take a break. Remember when you used to have to tell me that all the time?" The feeling of his quiet laughter against your skin makes you smile, along with the memories of simpler times before either of you had barely begun to grasp how harsh the world could be.

"I picked up dinner for us, it was an apology for coming home late," he admits, kissing the top of your head. "But let's go heat it up and you can either tell me everything you're worried about or we can try to forget all about it for now and watch a movie. I'd really like it if you talked about it eventually, though. I know I'm not going to be able to fix it all, but that doesn't mean I can't try."

You turn your head to the side, exposing your tear stained cheeks that are quickly wiped away by Oikawa's calloused thumbs.

"I will," you say, voice heavy. "For now could you just hold me?" There isn't a second of hesitation as Oikawa slips his arms beneath your figure and presses you tightly against him.

"Movie it is," he announces, laying you on the couch with the remotes so that you could put on whatever you want. Your brain would never stop the constant anxious thoughts, but losing yourself in those chocolate brown eyes made it easy to imagine a future where it all works out somehow. Little do you know, Oikawa sees the same thing reflected in your eyes as he wonders about the right time, perhaps a couple years from now when you've both settled down in your careers, when he can finally buy that ring he's been looking at.

[quirkisms]

OFF YOUR CHEST - M. TOGATA (i)

pairing: mirio togata x fem!reader

summary: Mirio tears himself apart, and you're there to heal the pieces.

word count: 2k

tags: angst, hurt/comfort, strangers(ish) to lovers, AU where UA is college, not highschool (i dont want 2 write about minors), mirio is quirkless and is Dealing With It, slow burn, trauma and anxiety coping 

ao3

He splits another knuckle open.

It’s no different than any other exercise or training, but he’s different. He’s stronger now, and smarter but he’s still less. He punches the wall again, willing it to go through. For a second, he thinks he can feel the soft tendrils of the void past the surface beckoning him, urging him forth. It’s asking him where he’s been, that it missed him and that he’s back. For that second, it’s real. His hand is sinking through and he’s back.

But the rough texture of the wall sinks into the cuts he’s ripped into his skin and he’s pulling back, sucking in air through his teeth and withholding curses.

He cradles his right hand with his left, blood trailing down the grooves of the taught tendons on both battered hands.

Mirio’s chest is heaving, his breaths varying from deep to shallow, his heart rate erratic. The buzz in his pocket disrupts his stare at the red stains his punches had left.

TAMAKI

where r u

It hurts to curl his hand around the device, but he does anyway. He wipes the other hand on his pants before responding.

Training! What’s up?

TAMAKI

patrolling tn. just wanted to lyk

Okay - Stay safe! 😀

Mirio pockets his phone. He wants to manually rub the grime out of the cuts or even just leave them the way they are. The sting is a juxtaposition from how his life was before. No longer can he float in the nothingness, phase through infinity until he needs to come up for air.

He feels everything now.

He makes his way towards UA’s medical clinic. It’s late, past dinner at least, which means it’ll be empty save for one person. Recovery Girl doesn’t work the hours like she used to, not since you came in. The clinic after hours feels safe, secretive and his. You’re always there late, as far as Mirio knows. Since the first time he injured himself by pushing himself past his newfound limits (which were significantly less than what they used to be) you’d always been there when he’d sneak in.

Tonight, you were hunched over textbooks, highlighter dangling out of your mouth. If he could’ve, he would’ve lingered in the doorway to watch you. Instead, the few droplets of blood spilling from his hands alerted you of his presence. You peek over your shoulder at him before capping the marker and nodding for him to sit on one of the empty exam beds. It was routine.

“You outdid yourself this time,” You said as you cleaned the open wounds. He’d beaten the flesh raw, almost exposing bone and you wanted to scold him but you knew it was useless. He’d just brush you off with a shrug, a smile and tell you it’s not that big of a deal. Pain is part of getting stronger.

Mirio doesn’t respond. Instead, he chooses to let his eyes flick around the room. Recovery Girl’s absence is notable - no more jar of candy, and you’ve taken over her desk and littered it with your own knicknacks. Your textbooks, an All Might water bottle, a Kamui Woods pez dispenser. It’s cute, he thinks.

“Did you have a punching match with one of those hardening quirks?” You’re frowning as you pop a piece of jerky in your mouth. “Maybe Cementoss?”

“Cementoss,” he confirms, only because that would be the only way he’d have so much...particulate within the splits. Cementoss was made of rock, and Mirio would rather die than admit to you he was relentlessly punching a wall.

You snort, shaking your head as you chew. You both know he’s full of it, but you drop it. You always do.

A soft, blue glow escapes from underneath your hand. His hand feels fuzzy, like it's fallen asleep before it dissipates and you remove your hand, motioning for him to lift his other so you can begin the same process.

As you clean the other hand, Mirio watches you work. You ignore the weight of his gaze the best you can, focusing on repairing the skin and not how strong and smooth his fingers are. His hand is heavy in yours, and the glow of your quirk flickers as you lose focus imaging what his grip would feel like on you.

“Done,” you said, flicking your used gloves into the wastebasket by your feet. Mirio flexes his fingers. Healed. “Y’know, after all these visits,” You raise an eyebrow, “I think you owe me.”

Mirio looks up from his hands to tilt his head at you.

“Tell me how you really get these injuries,” you grab one of his hands loosely and run your thumb over the freshly regenerated skin.

He wasn’t expecting that.

Mirio gapes at you like a fish out of water, like you’re Thirteen and you’ve sucked all of the air out of the room. He pulls himself from your grip to rest his hands in his lap. He’s uncomfortable, uneasy now. He’s liked this place, liked you because questions weren’t asked that he had to give real answers to. It’s not betrayal that Mirio feels, it’s more like loss. It’s the loss that comes with the realization that you can’t outrun everything you want forever. With all the training, all the work Mirio had put in, he thought he could.

“They’re self-inflicted. The bruising, the wound placements. It’s like you’re training yourself to death.”

“It’s not like that - I’m fine, I promise!” Mirio throws his hands up in a defensive motion. He’s summoning the sunlight, the optimism and charm that swooned UA and motivated him to keep working, keep training, to save a million people. He can feel it churning in his chest, but it’s been pressed so deep he’s grasping at the edges and they don’t want to meet his fingertips.

Mirio knew you never believed his excuses - you knew he knew that and you’d been pulled thin between wanting to show concern and ask what was up and respecting his privacy. But at the previous state of his knuckles, you couldn’t drag your feet any longer.

You watch him, face soft and stoic. You’re not coddling, but you’re not cold either. He realizes that you’re just simply waiting.

“I just train too hard,” he gives in, just a little. You raise your eyebrows a fraction and he continues. “I have a lot to make up for, so I tend to overdo it!” He laughs it off - the injuries are a joke, truly. They’re funny to him.

“You get more banged up than Midoriya,” you look at him over the clear frame of the glasses you seem to only wear at the clinic. “How does your training get you more banged up than the other heroes?”

“I’m not a hero,” he’s quick to say, and it stings more than it should. He was, should’ve been, should be.

Your face is soft again, and it’s an art you’ve mastered over time. You’re good at composing your features to appear passive and static. In your many hero encounters, pity is the quickest way to lose trust. So you watch Mirio, with his soft smile and now long hair tied back at the nape of his neck. He’s analyzing you just as you are him, and you keep your eyes from flicking to his knuckles when you respond with, “Okay.”

His stomach is churning, still sour with his words but he rubs his hands on his thighs. Why are they so sweaty?

In his distracted state, Mirio doesn’t notice you scribbling down something on a notecard shaped like an anatomical heart. You hand it to him, knocking him out of his trance.

Seven digits, followed by the letters 3G, and four more digits.

“What’s this?” he asks. Obviously the first line is your number, but you lost him with the rest.

“My number,” you aren’t looking at him. Instead you choose to refold the sleeves of your white coat as you continue, “and the passcode to get into my dorm building.”

Mirio does white. The passcode? Why would he need that?”

“I can’t be staying here late every night in case you show up.” You hated trudging back to your dorm on the nights he didn’t show, both eyelids and textbooks weighing you down. “Just stop by my dorm if it’s late like this.”

Mirio opens his mouth but you cut him off.

“Floor 5F, my name is on the door.”

He closes his mouth and smiles, nodding and bowing in thanks. He doesn’t trust his voice, not right now. You’re packing up your textbooks as he exits the clinic.

It doesn’t hit him until he gets back to the 3A dorms that he doesn’t know your name.

He beats himself up about it the whole night. He wishes he could go into Tamaki’s room to distract himself, to ask him about the person who’s basically taken over Recovery Girl’s mantle. Tamaki frequented the clinic as well - used it as an excuse to get out of the heroics lessons and sleep. He’d definitely know your name, unlike his golden counterpart who visited her frequently and never thought to ask.

Mirio tried to comfort himself by thinking that maybe you didn’t know his name either. You’d never asked. But then again, Mirio is (was?) part of UA’s Big Three. The aftermath of the Shie Hassaikai was all anyone talked about for weeks. You’d definitely have to know who he was. Mirio Togata, the kid who lost his quirk. Le Million, the hero who gave and lost everything. You went to UA yourself - there was no way.

He didn’t want to be that sob story to you. But he was constantly coming to you with injuries - split knuckles, a dislocated shoulder, a torn achilles. Maybe he wasn’t exactly that sob story, but he knew you pitied him regardless. Maybe that’s why you always stayed so late - you felt bad for him.

The thoughts makes Mirio uncomfortable.

And so much so that to make himself feel better, he adds your number to his phone. Typing in the numbers, he thinks about how he likes that your handwriting was shitty. Another little thing you let him see, let him learn about you. In lieu of a name, he makes your contact name the stethoscope emoji. He laughs to himself when he saves the contact and types out a message:

How late is too late?

He hesitates, but hits send. It delivers, and after fifteen minutes, Mirio is worried he confused one of your twos for a seven or vice versa. Or, maybe he should’ve introduced himself instead of just sending you a basic question that revealed his identity in no way whatsoever. In the eighteenth minute, you buzz back a response.

🩺

Why?

Might break a bone tomorrow.

It only takes eleven minutes for you to respond this time, and Mirio hates that he’s counting.

🩺

I’ll be sure to eat breakfast then.

No later than midnight, tho.

Okay!

Seven minutes this time. He wasn’t expecting a response.

🩺

You don’t need an injury to stop by, you know.

Mirio grins. A real one.

If you insist. Still might have a scratch or two, though. 😀

Two minutes. Mirio is oblivious to the fact that you are cringing hard at his emoji usage.

🩺

don’t be taking advantage of my quirk :(

You’re right… promise you will be compensated for your time. 👍

It’s immediate.

If it’s not edible, I don’t want it.

Mirio decides he might take it a little easy when he trains tomorrow.

[sadpotatoondrugs]

Time For a Change [Ch.3]

<< – First

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——————————–

Not even a week after Marinette met up with the school counselor, she received another letter stating the dates of her placement tests. They were each three days apart from one another, which she found nothing but stressing. While the days were intended to let students take their focus off of the test they just went through and review notes for their upcoming test, she spent those days trying not to explode from excitement.

She was glad that she made this decision this early into the year, otherwise she would probably struggle a lot more with catching up to their curriculum than she did now. Joining in the middle of the sophomore year would be a lot tougher than joining in the middle of the freshman year. From the information she was given on what to study, she was pleasantly surprised to find out that she knew the majority of it already! Which, to her relief, meant that she could take a breather for a while. She appreciated that a lot. After so many days of stressing out, she was happy to finally enjoy some time with her mom and dad playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III, helping them out in the bakery again and even just relaxing back in her room.

After her exams came a wave of freedom. Until her results came in, she would have nothing to do other than wait. And help her parents out in the bakery, of course.

“Thank you! Have a nice day!” Finally serving the last customer in line, Marinette took off her gloves and entered the bakery kitchen. Her parents were working on one of their long-term orders; A three layered cake with a lot of custom decorations that the client was very specific about. While her father worked on the foundation and the structure, her mother was stressing over making the details for the cake right.

“How’s everything going?” She asked after making sure her mom was not touching the small marzipan pieces of decoration she was working on. It seemed to be parts of very detailed flowers and leaves and she was finishing the final detailing on them, checking twice to make sure every piece made was properly decorated as the customer ordered.

“It’s a bit much, but nothing we can’t handle. Thank you so much for helping us out, sweetie.” Sabine smiled at her daughter tiredly. She sighed afterwards, turning her head down to finish checking the leaves before moving up and taking them to the main freezer.

“Are you sure I can’t help you with it? You seem like you could use some rest.” Shutting the freezer door tight and turning the handle, Sabine smiled at her before moving to her husband’s side and helping him straighten the white fudge on the cake.

“Marinette, you already helped us so much by taking care of the customers and making the majority of the decorations.” Tom answered, moving aside for his wife and helping her place the stretched fudge on the cake properly. “And you still need to finish the final touches on the dress. The wedding is in two days already.”

Oh, that’s right. Half a year back, their bakery was tasked with the catering for a slightly big wedding that was bound to happen on December 14th. Marinette, along with her parents, couldn’t be happier to find out that Nadja Chamack was going to remarry. After what happened with her past husband, they were worried she might never marry again, but here she was! Announcing not only her wedding, but their invitations along with Sabine’s task as a Maid of Honor and Marinette’s task as a bridesmaid. They accepted with a hug as they all congratulated their long-time family friend. Before she left the bakery, she asked them one more request; to cater at her wedding and prepare the cake. They immediately accepted and even offered a family discount since she was a close friend. After trying to disagree and failing horribly, she turned to Marinette with a request for a dress.

She found out that the Dupain-Chengs were all better at negotiating than her and left defeated with two family discounts on her list.

Marinette never knew she was even seeing somebody. Though, she did suspect something from the lack of babysitting requests, but she thought that Nadja hired a professional babysitter to take care of Manon. And even though she was sad at first for not getting to see Manon that often anymore (that little rascal had claimed a place in her heart), she was glad the little girl would finally have a father figure to look up to again.

She met the man when they came in to try out the flavors for the cake. He seemed like a gentleman at first, but after spending some time with him over dinner (yes, her parents invited the whole family over for supper), she found out that not only was he a gentleman, but a huge dork resided in his soul. She saw how he and Manon got along really well and how he made her and her mother seemingly happy. That was all she needed to know that he was a good man.

Marinette had enough time to plan both the wedding dress and her bridesmaid dresses – as the designer for the wedding gown, the bridesmaid dresses needed to match according to the style of the bride’s dress.

It was pretty easy to design the bridesmaid dresses, it was Nadja’s dress she was stressed about. After all, it was the first wedding dress she was going to be making. And it was for their long-time friend! She couldn’t bare to let Nadja down.

The first design was kind of a fail; she sketched a simple wedding gown with hidden underlayer of very faint pastel pink that matched the color of the flowers embedded along the center front of the dress. Sadly, she completely forgot about the wedding happening in winter and sketched the dress with short sleeves. Thankfully, Nadja told her not to stress about the dress that much and only asked for two small changes. The first one was obviously to make the dress appropriate for winter, as she did not want to freeze over while telling her vow. The second one was a color change, as the color pink was not the woman’s preference. She asked for it to be a shade of cream white instead.

Marinette, though slightly embarrassed for making the dress styled by her favorite color, changed the color and made the sleeves long, adding a furry bolero for her to cover herself with to provide more heat. Nadja approved of the changes.

Since she didn’t think about winter while designing the bridesmaid dresses either, she had to change them as well. She chose the bridesmaids to have hourglass sheath dresses of a shade of grey with the top layer being a see-through sparkling fabric. The grey layer had faint designs of white flowers to follow the wedding theme but still be vague. The dresses didn’t look right to her with long sleeves, so she only added the same white furry bodice as she did to Nadja’s wedding gown.

To top the looks off, she sketched the veil for the bride to be in the for of a flower crown, with the flowers being the same shade of cream white like the dress. The bridesmaids did not have a veil attached, but they did have their own flower crowns, only theirs were white and the petals were remarkably smaller. She was pretty bummed about not getting to make the bridesmaid dresses and having other designer make them, even the one for her. But she understood. And with the amount of work it took her to get the right materials and make the wedding gown, she was glad that she didn’t have to worry about making them in the end.

Alas, the bridesmaid dresses turned out great. After going to the designer for measurements and then the final fitting, she was satisfied with how the dress turned out. She thankfully didn’t have to pay anything (Nadja paid for all the bridesmaid’s dresses since they had to match), so she merely thanked the woman and went home to carefully put them away.

And while the bridesmaid dress took a while to make, she had it safely stored in her closet by the end of September. It looked wonderful and it fit her perfectly.

Anyway, back to the story where Marinette is leaving the bakery kitchen.

Glancing towards the bakery to see if there are any customers, Marinette takes off her apron and brings out a phone.

“…..Hello, Nadja! I’m just calling to ensure that you will meet with me for the final fitting today at four pm, is that correct?... Alright, perfect. Thank you…. Yes, they are. They will talk it over with you after the dress fitting. Okay, thank you. See you at four!” Hanging up, she sighed and poured herself a cup of coffee. Bringing it over to the bakery and slipping back into her apron, she put her phone on the counter and took a sip of her coffee, watching the people outside pass by their bakery door.

It was going to be a long day.

 Somewhere around 1 pm, her parents emerged from the kitchen right as she was serving the last customer in line. She noticed her parents and gestured to the coffee machine nearby while she stepped around the counter and went to close the bakery for lunch break.

“Did you call Nadja about the dress?” Her mother asked, pouring herself and her husband a cup of coffee that Marinette prepared earlier. Marinette nodded and took off her apron, setting it aside and pouring herself a cup of coffee, too.

“I told her you would show her the cake after we do the fitting for the dress.” Sabine sighed with a smile

“What would we do without you?”

“Hired a worker, probably.” That earned her a slap on the shoulder. The family moved to their apartment and began preparing lunch. After their break was over, the trio went back into the bakery, with only Tom going back into the kitchen. Sabine stayed behind and made her way behind the counter, putting on an apron and going through the pastries to make sure every one of them is soft.

Marinette helped out for a while before her mother instructed her to go upstairs.

“We’ve got it handled from now, Sweetie. You can go upstairs.” Who was she to argue.

Thanking her mom and kissing her cheek in gratitude, she basically sprinted upstairs and into her room. As soon as she entered, she collapsed head-first onto the chaise.

“This is good.” She sighed in content “I’m gonna stay like this forever.”

“Marinette-” A scream could be heard coming from somewhere in Paris.

“Goddamn it.”

 “See, this is why we can’t have anything nice.” Marinette muttered under her breath as she watched the akuma destroy the Eifell Tower (..again. Like, seriously, what’s with the akumas always going for the tower?).

“That’s where you’re wrong, M’Lady. Paris has the nicest heroine it can have.” Sighing in relief at the sound of her partner finally joining the fight, she jumped back to avoid getting hit by the akuma’s power and landed right next to Chat Noir.

“Nice of you to drop in. The akuma is in his headdress, don’t get caught by his vines. If you do, the more you move, the tighter they get. And watch out for getting hit, too. Some of them have thorns.” Before Chat Noir had a chance to respond, the akuma noticed his presence and rushed his vines at the both of them. They jumped sideways, splitting up to outrun the vines.

“Where are all these vines even coming from?” Ladybug wasted no time in responding, circling one of the vines with her yoyo, snapping it in half.

“The vines are actually his hair. He can control them and even snap them and grow a bunch of other vines if needed. I tried getting the all stuck but-” Dodging a wild vine, she ducked behind one of the chimneys. “-they just snapped off and regrew.”

“Do we know enough?” Ladybug nodded, even though he was too occupied with the akuma to actually see it, and called on her lucky charm. A pair of scissors.

“Well, he could certainly use a new haircut.” Groaning at his pun, like usual, she looked around for any ideas. It would be pointless to cut his hair when it could immediately grow back. There was nothing that would help her find out what she was supposed to do. At least not near the Eifell tower.

“Chat Noir! We need to lead him away from the tower.”

“You heard the lady. Come on big guy. Time for your gardener appointment.” The akuma growled and went after the two heroes. Ladybug kept searching for anything that would help her think of a plan. The akuma was fortunately focused on them and caused minimal harm to the citizens around. There weren’t many of them in the first place, anyway.

She kept glancing around, thinking about any possible plans to defeat the villain and get back to her lovely unfinished nap. (Not that it even started in the first place)

“I got you, now!” In her moment of un-focus, the akuma got a hold of her foot with one of his vines and yanked her towards him.

“Ladybug!” Reacting quickly, she grabbed the scissors and cut the vine that was holding her ankle, yanking her foot away from it. It worked and she was free of the vine, but she had no time to bring out her yoyo and crash landed on a nearby roof.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” A voice not belonging to her partner asked. She looked around and spotted a girl who seemed to be about her age. Her blonde hair were put in a long braid and she seemed to be wearing a pair of overalls with a simple purple t-shirt.

But that wasn’t important.

What was important was that she was mere meters away from the akuma battle.

“I’m fine, thank you. You need to get inside, quickly.” Standing up and spinning her yoyo, she turned around to protect the girl from the akuma in case it attacked them.

“Well, as much as I would love to hide in the comfort of my room, I can’t.”

Seeing the akuma preoccupied with her partner (Who seemed to be angrier than before she got thrown away), she faced the girl once more.

“I’m dirty.” Pushing aside any remarks that came to her mind at that sentence, she glanced at the girl and noticed her hands, boots and even some parts of her overalls covered in dirt and mud. “Plus, the door got stuck.”

Sighing, she glanced around at their surroundings and registered that the roof she got crashed into was actually a small roof top garden. It clicken in her mind that the girl must’ve been working in the garden and taking care of the plants when they decided to crash the party with the akuma.

Wait.

Garden.

Plants.

“Oh and you dropped this.” The lucky charm’s pair of scissors.

She smiled at the girl in determination.

“I have a plan, would you mind helping me?”

 The akuma got easily angered once he noticed the spotted heroine destroying the lovely garden. And not only the weeds, the plants and vegetables. His focus switched immediately from Chat Noir to her, which was what she wanted. Once he was on the roof, Chat Noir resumed in distracting him. Once the akuma was near the storage shed in the garden, Ladybug smirked and grabbed a hose.

In a second, the akuma heard the snipping of scissors and felt his body get lighter. At the same time, he felt Ladybug tying him up with the hose she grabbed prior to the assassination on his hair.

“Kind of a dumb move.” He tried snipping the hose with his vines, but-wait. Where were his vines? Why weren’t they growing back? Glancing back, he saw a tan, blonde girl, holding a spray bottle.

“A mixture of salt, vinegar and water. We always have some of that around here.”

“Now, Chat Noir!”

“Cataclysm!”

In an instant, the akuma was defeated.

“What.. What am I doing here? Where am I?.. This… This isn’t my garden.”

The three fist-bumped. While Ladybug purified the akuma, Chat Noir took care of the victim and told him what happened. Ladybug smiled and turned to the girl.

“You did great! Not everybody would remain chill with us destroying their property, uh-..?” Noticing the implication, the blonde giggled.

“Allegra. And thanks, I would be pretty upset about this but this was for the greater good, so… It’s fine.”

Ladybug turned to Chat Noir, her earrings flashing that she only had two minutes left (But whatever, when did time work as it should for the miraculous). “Will you take care of the victim? I need to get going in a bit.”

“Of course, M’Lady.” He winked and, after kissing her hand lightly, Chat Noir took the previously akumatized victim and carried him to the ground floor, leaving the two girls alone.

“…”

“…”

“So.. Uh… Are you… Are you going to repair my garden, now, or…..”

“Oh! Right!”

 When she finally arrived home, she was more than happy to resume her previous plans on napping until Nadja came over for the final fitting. She woke up a few minutes prior to her arrival to get everything ready and check the dress one last time.

The woman saw the gown on many occasions when she came over to check up on it and, on few occasions, drop off Manon when she and her fiancé had a date night. Nonetheless, Marinette was still nervous about showing her the finished version of the dress. She hoped the woman would be fully satisfied, since the wedding was in two days and there was no time to make big changes to it.

A knock came from the other side of her hatch at exactly 4 PM, and she was happy to invite the woman in. As soon as Nadja saw her dress, she froze. That stunt made Marinette freeze as well, her overreacting thoughts coming out from the deepest, darkest hole in her brain as she started apologizing for anything that might be wrong with the dress.

“Marinette.” She halted her words immediately, hands freezing in the position they were in when she was explaining certain parts of the dress. Nadja smiled at her, a tear visible in her eye. “It’s perfect.” She hugged the young designer she has known since her birth. Marinette came out of her shock, smiling softly at her and hugged her back. “Sorry if I made you worried.” She stated teasingly after releasing her from the bone-crushing hug.

“No worries. I’m pretty used to it. Speaking of; I think your daughter has your strength… Phew..” Nadja giggled as Marinette let out a puff of air. She then sighed and looked longingly at the gown.

“I just can’t believe it’s really happening.” Marinette looked at her curiously. “I mean, of course I know it’s happening, I just… It seems… Unreal. Like a dream.. You know?” She glanced at the girl.

Marinette didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. She didn’t need to. She knew the question wasn’t meant to be answered, it was merely rhetorical and it was more like the woman was admitting her emotions rather than asking for her input. She instead moved towards the divider and extended it, creating a temporary changing room.

“Time to try them on, then.”

 Of course, Nadja liked them a lot. She actually cried once more after seeing herself in the mirror wearing them. And although Marinette couldn’t possibly understand the emotions the woman was going through at that moment since she never even had a boyfriend so marriage was far from the girl’s mind, she could imagine the love and happiness (and maybe.. pride?) flowing through Nadja’s heart. She once thought about what her marriage would be like, back when she had feelings for a very specific model, but that image in her head died a long time ago. Along with her feelings for the boy.

After making small changes on the dress, mostly tightening spots that were loose on Nadja’s body, the dress was done and could be marked off as finished. After letting the designer take pictures of the dress alone and on Nadja for her portfolio, Nadja paid the respective price for it and thanked her again.

“Nadja… You look… Perfect…”

The two turned sideways to a teary-eyed Sabine, poking into the room through Marinette’s hatch. Upon noticing their stares on her, the woman ascended the stairs and stood before the woman in white, slowly circling her and gently touching the soft fabric. Seeing this as her que to leave the two women to talk, Marinette quietly announced her exit and left the room, only grabbing her purse and her coat on the way out.

“Hey, papa. How’s the cake?”

“Almost finished. How’s the dress?”

“Finished.” She stated proudly.

“Good job, Sweetheart. Do you know where your mother is? She suddenly disappeared.”

“I think you can go and rest for a bit. She is upstairs with Nadja and.. I think it’ll take a while. I left them alone to talk.” Tom smiled at his daughter, ruffling her hair over the counter before noticing her outfit and purse.

“It’s Friday.” At that, his face suddenly lit up and he immediately packed two croissants into  a paper bag, handing them to Marinette while kissing her forehead.

“Alright, have fun.”

“Will do, papa.”

As Marinette stepped out, she took a moment to embrace the coldness of December. Shivering slightly for a while, she took out her phone after feeling it vibrate in her purse. She smiled upon noticing the contact name and read it.

I arrived earlier. Our usual table was occupied so I found another one. You will need to head the other way.

Walking quickly to get to warmth as soon as possible, she looked at the time. It was half past five, but since it was winter, the sun was long gone from the sky and replaced by the beautiful moon. Marinette enjoyed the winter in Paris. Apart from the cold, the snow-covered Paris illuminated by the Christmas lights from people’s windows and homes, along with the streetlights, it made it all seem magical.

Not even ten minutes later, she was standing inside a small restaurant that she, over the past few months, came to love and know like the back of her hand. She followed the instructions she was told and found her friend patiently waiting for her in one of the booths. When they spotted each other, they both immediately smiled at one another and waved.

Usually, they would sit outside while drinking their favorite juice, but ever since it became cold, the outside patio had been closed. Nobody would sit in the cold anyway. The beverages they normally drank changed with the seasons, too. They both preferred to order hot chocolate or coffee, depending on the energy levels of the two.

“Hey, Kagami! It’s good to see you!” Marinette greeted, sitting down and making herself comfortable in her seat.

After a year of Lila’s manipulations and Marinette’s loneliness, Marinette decided it was time to meet new people, meet new friends. She signed up for a friendship day contest in hopes of finding a new friend. Imagine her surprise when she got partnered up with Kagami, her former love rival.

Since she didn’t have any silly crush clouding her mind anymore (mainly, her opinions), she smiled warmly at the girl. It was all weird at first, the questions she asked and how she smiled at her. Nonetheless, she was determined to give the girl a chance. Together, they got through the contest rather quickly. She was actually pleasantly surprised at how well she and Kagami worked together.

They were even close to winning the contest! They just had to split up and take selfies with the other one’s phone. Marinette quickly took a simple, peace-sign selfie with a big smile. They quickly met back up and exchanged their phones back and Marinette was pleasantly surprised to see a smiling selfie of Kagami. Kagami’s phone rang, unfortunately, and her mother was not pleased with her daughter participating in a game for making friends. She got upsed and, sadly, akumatized.

Ikari Gozen somehow knew where her daughter was and appeared before them in an instant. Marinette tried to get Kagami out of the way and hide her, but her mother was too fast and strong. She pushed her aside with a mere shove and grabbed her daughter. Marinette tried to get the girl back from the akuma’s grasp, but her efforts were futile. She yelled at Kagami to hold on, and that she was going to get help for her.

After retrieving the miraculous and informing Longg of her plan, she delivered it to Kagami. If all went according to plan, the akuma could be dealt with in minutes.

Not even a minute after the delivery was made, Ikari Gozen fell over in pain, clutching her robo-stomach and releasing immense amounts of water. She collapsed afterwards, and with the water around slowly transforming into the newest heroine. She asked Ladybug of the whereabouts of her friend, which Ladybug reassured her that she was the one who alerted her and she got her to safety. After introducing the dragon hero, Ryuko, to Chat Noir, and taking care of Kagami’s mother, the two girls were off.

After the two of them regrouping as Kagami and Marinette, the two found out that the game had already ended. While Kagami seemed a little bummed about the loss, Marinette was quick to cheer her up and the two went for their first juice together. And as it turned out, it wasn’t their last.

The two talked over the juice and when Marinette asked Kagami about her strange behavior and her mother, she got a pretty sad backstory. She felt guilt for being suspicious of the girl at first, and felt even worse when she was told that Kagami had no friends and how her mother was strict about everything.

Needless to say, Kagami was proud to say that her mother wasn’t the only contact in her phone after that day.

Anyways, forgive the author for getting sidetracked, back onto the main storyline.

Kagami smiled at her friend as she sat down.

“Hello, Marinette. It’s good to see you, too.” The waiter came and took their representative orders, smiling at the familiar customers kindly before walking away. “Did your results came in yet?”

The ravenette shook her head slightly.

“Not yet, but they should arrive by the end of this week.”

“Don’t worry, Marinette. They would be fools to not accept you.” Kagami stated, noticing the slight grimace that presented itself on her friend’s face. She tried to be more empathizing to the emotions of others, especially her friends. She wanted to let others know she wasn’t emotionless or uncaring. It was still hard for her to notice when her friends were upset or realize when her words sometimes seemed a little harsh, but it was still a work in process.

Baby steps.

“Besides, I haven’t met anybody as devoted and as talented as you. I am telling you, they will accept.”

Marinette smiled in gratitude.

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” By then, the waiter came back with their orders, a simple hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream topped with chopped chocolate for Marinette and hot chocolate made of almond milk with whipped cream on top of it for Kagami. Marinette didn’t dislike the hot chocolate, it was really good, but growing up in a bakery meant a lot of homemade hot chocolate. And there was no hot chocolate in Paris that could ever top her mother’s. None.

Alas, what mattered was that she got to enjoy some quality time with her busy friend.

The two spent the next half an hour talking about anything that happened to them that the other doesn’t know about yet, bringing up what they saw on the internet, Marinette sharing the funny stories that happen with her customers, Kagami sharing her stories from fencing and business meetings, generally the two of them bonding over a cup of hot chocolate.

“Wait, it’s in two days? And you are not prepared yet?” Marinette giggled nervously. Was she supposed to prepare something?

“Well, I really don’t know what I should prepare for. I’ve never been to a wedding before.” She paused, suddenly looking lost in thought. “Maybe once. When I was a child… Hm..”

Kagami sighed.

“You said you are going to be a bridesmaid, no?” Marinette snapped out of her memory lane and nodded. “Bridesmaids are usually the ones to take care of the bride. Help her dress up, do her makeup and hair if there is no hairdresser hired for it. They are the pillars supporting the bride on the special occasion. Although… Are there any other bridesmaids?”

“Well, there are two other bridesmaids, with my mother being the maid of honor.” She nodded

“Then I guess they must’ve been the ones to help her plan the wedding and everything before the wedding. You could ask the bride yourself what is actually expected of you, but that’s up to you.” She took a sip of her beverage, finishing the cup. “Also, didn’t you tell me you were staying the night there with the other guests?”

A look of realization passed by the pigtailed girl’s face.

 Then horror.

 “I NEED TO PACK, DON’T I.”

[masterlist]

[hopelesshawks]

History of Us Part 11- Qualifiers

Summary: Once upon a time Todoroki and (y/n) were best friends. Now they haven’t spoken in years. When (y/n) is forced to transfer to UA, will she and Shoto reconnect or will their troubled past keep them apart? A childhood friends to enemies to lovers hybrid fic.

If you don’t want to see History of Us content blacklist #hopelesshou

Masterlist Kofi

The moment right before the start of the sports festival is shockingly nerve-wracking. Each step through the tunnels, closer to the main field of the arena, fills you with more dread and excitement and anticipation. You keep your head raised high, wearing your UA gym uniform proudly as the roaring of the crowd starts to meet your ears. With Bakugo on your right and Kirishima on your left, you almost feel invincible. This is your chance, your opportunity, to show everyone what you’re capable of and show all of Japan that you refuse to be defined by your father’s tainted legacy. Present Mic’s voice booms over the speakers, his grinning face plastered across the monitors as you finally step out onto the field, astroturf crunching beneath your feet as he sings the praises of hero course class 3A. The crowd’s enthusiastic cheering is addictive. You make a point to soak it in while you can. Right now each and every one of them see you as a hero. While some of the students lamented not being able to wear their costumes for the event, you were secretly glad for it. The uniform made you a generic UA student; for now, unburdened by the past.

“This never gets old,” Kirishima grins next to you as you all step into the central area and the other classes begin to filter out into the coliseum as well. A few of them grumble, giving the hero classes jaded looks, but even their ire cannot dampen the overall atmosphere. You instinctively find yourself seeking out a familiar pair of heterochromatic eyes, eventually finding them next to Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka. You can’t help the way your heart trips over itself when you lock eyes with Shoto. Memories of the night before and of waking up in his arms float to the forefront of your mind and you scowl before shaking your head to physically dispel the image from your mind. You turn away from him, missing the hurt that flashes across his eyes. He redirects his attention back to Principal Nezu, chief umpire as usual for the third years. “Now Shoto Todoroki will give the class pledge,” Nezu announces before ceding the floor.

The school had made the executive decision not to let Bakugo give the pledge after that first year. Midoriya had nearly passed out when it was his turn second year (as much as he has grown, public speaking still isn’t quite his forte). This made Todoroki the obvious choice for this year’s class pledge. As he approaches the mic he can’t help but think of Bakugo’s first speech. He remembers Midoriya telling him later the apparent narcissistic declaration that Bakugo had made to be number one had actually been to box himself into a corner to make sure he followed through. The more he thinks on it the more Shoto relates to that desire. His eyes scan the crowd until he spots his father amongst the rest. He makes sure to make direct eye contact, his eyes boring into his father’s as he leans down to speak into the mic. “I pledge... that we will create a new legacy of our own and destroy legacies of old,” he says confidently. He thinks he sees a flash of hurt and disappointment in Endeavor’s eyes even from the great distance between them. He turns to stride down the stairs of the stage and he can’t help but seek you out amongst the crowd of fellow students, hoping you got the message.

You tense a bit as your heart skips another beat. That boy is going to give you heart palpitations. Bakugo nudges you harshly in the side, causing you to jerk your head to scowl at him. “You good, nerd?” he asks, concern softening his usual bite a fraction. “I’m great. Ready to start kicking ass,” you reply, pushing down all your Shoto-related feelings for examination later. “Good,” is all Bakugo replies before his attention returns to Nezu. You can’t help but smile a little at Bakugo’s concern. He’s a surprisingly good friend and you’re grateful Kirishima introduced the two of you. When the direct elimination round comes around you’ll be merciless, but you have full confidence the two of you will make it through the qualifiers and you know the two of you and Kirishima will make for a great team for whatever the second round will be. “Don’t forget loser. I better see you on the fucking podium,” you remind him with a smirk. “You ain’t gotta worry about me idiot. Worry about yourself,” he replies although there’s no heat behind the words and he’s smirking just as much as you.

As the first game is announced you resolve yourself to staying middle of the pack for now. You don’t want to draw too much attention and let everyone discover your identity too quickly. You’re keenly aware that the second round is almost always a team event and without knowing how many people will be on a team, you can’t rely on Bakugo and Kirishima. Furthermore, any team you’re on would only become a target. Bakugo would kill you if he knew you have no intentions of trying your all in the qualifying round of course but you have to be strategic. No one pays much attention to the lower ranks from round 1, it’ll be easier to slip under the radar. Then, in round 2, you’ll kick it up a notch to prove your worth. At that point winning will become the only important matter. Creating a new legacy while destroying the old, as Shoto put it.

So that’s exactly what you do. The first game is a so called “Tower of Terror” that had been constructed in the preceding weeks. The task is simple enough in theory: scale the tower, cross from there to the ramp connected to the stadium, and return to the field. Only rule is that falling off the tower entirely is an immediate elimination. The amount of people being promoted out of the qualifying round is, as usual, a secret but you do the math to get a good idea of how many would optimally be removed and think you have a good estimate to ensure you’ll remain relatively anonymous. Your strategy pays off and you finish in the 30s out of the approximately 50 who qualify. As you finish your slide down the ramp, glowing faintly as you heal the minor injuries you’ve collected, a fuming Bakugo is storming up to you and you roll your eyes.

“The fuck you doing half and half?” he demands as you dust yourself off. “None of your goddamn business Pomeranian,” you fire back. “What happened to trying to be the best huh? Didn’t think you were one for dirty tricks,” he accuses. You feel your temper starting to genuinely flare at that comment. “I’m not pulling dirty tricks I’m trying to survive asshole. Not all of us can afford to be showy right out the gate,” you seethe. “I didn’t take you for a coward.” “I didn’t take you for an idiot.” “Say that shit again and I’ll blast you out the fucking stadium.” “I’d like to see you fucking try.” Both of you grip hold of the front of each other’s shirts, your right hand raised as your quirk makes shadows pool in it and one of his hands raised already popping off explosions. Before either of you can draw more attention to yourselves or actually act on your anger, you’re frozen in place. Literally. “All that work you did to keep your identity under wraps will be for nothing if Present Mic or Nezu comment about you and Bakugo fighting between games. Especially if they decide to disqualify you over it,” Shoto says as he approaches the both of you before melting the ice keeping you and Bakugo from pummeling each other. “I don’t recall fucking asking you,” you spit back, whirring to face your former friend. “I’m only trying to help,” Shoto responds placatingly but it’s too late to quell your anger. “Well fucking stop trying to,” you tell him before storming off. You need to focus on the next event anyway and not stupid Shoto with his stupid face and his stupid need to stick his nose in your fucking business.

The second event is...

Rough.

To say the least.

You and Bakugo were still too pissed at each other to make a proper team so you’d ended up with Yaoyorozu, Denki, and Sero. You admired their quirks and objectively they were strong, but it wasn’t exactly a perfectly complementary combination of skills. Each member of the team was given a target they were required to protect, almost exactly like the provisional licensing exam held during your first year, except with one major twist. Every member of your team was linked together by a short leash attached to their wrists. Last four teams standing would advance to the finals. Without his costume or support items to help direct his lightning Denki’s quirk was difficult to utilize without risking stunning the entire team. Sero’s quirk was more useful but the placement of the leash made it difficult for him to use it without tugging around the hands of the teammates on either side of him. You and Yaoyorozu, the only two whose quirks weren’t actively impeded, struggled to compensate for the other two and coordinate your actions. In the end, the four of you had barely qualified, leaving you frustrated.

So much for crafting a new legacy.

As Present Mic gleefully announces that the teams of Midoriya, Bakugo, Monoma, and Yaoyorozu will be moving on, a picture of all those advancing flashing on the monitors, you can’t help but sink deeper and deeper into regret and frustration. The others head to the cafeteria as the lunch break is announced but you storm off in the opposite direction in hopes of getting an opportunity to cool off and clear your head before the break ends and the next game begins. The universe, however, seems to have other plans because instead you crash into another, much larger body. As you look up your apology shrivels up and dies on your tongue as you find yourself staring into the eyes of the only man who inspires similar ire in you as your father does.

Enji Todoroki aka Endeavor aka the (second) largest tool in the entirety of Japan.

“Where are you sneaking off to?” he asks, making no attempt to mask his suspicion of you. “None of your fucking business,” you retort. You move to step around him but he quickly steps back in front of you. “The cafeteria is the opposite direction,” Endeavor informs you. “Gee thanks, I had no idea even though I literally go to this fucking school,” you reply, each word dripping with sarcasm. “Then what could possibly have you traveling this direction instead?” “Like I said. None of your fucking business.” “Your suspicious behavior is my business. I made a mistake with a (y/l/n) before, I won’t make one again,” Endeavor swears and you reel back almost as if struck. “I am not my father,” you spit out. Your quirk activates unbidden in response to your anger, black shadows curling out of your clenched right hand and forearm. “Sure looks like it to me,” Endeavor scoffs, looking pointedly at the shadowy tendrils rising out of the right side of your body. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” a familiar voice asks from behind you and you wish the earth would swallow you up. Shoto steps around and in front of you, taking up an almost protective stance between you and his father. “Shoto step aside and-“ “No,” Shoto insists, staring down his father in challenge. He and Endeavor’s gazes stay locked in a silent argument, neither willing to back down, so you take the opportunity while they’re both distracted to slip away. You make it to about halfway down the hallway when a hand catches your shoulder. You whirl around knocking it away to find Shoto there looking genuinely stunned at your hostility. “Jesus christ will you fuck off!” you snap at him and maybe it isn’t fair but you’re frustrated and angry and you fought with one of your best friends and you’ve barely squeaked through each round so far and the last thing you are mentally or emotionally prepared to do is confront your increasingly complex thoughts on Shoto fucking Todoroki whose father just all but accused you of attempting to sabotage the competition.

“Hey I just wanted to check on you,” he says and for some reason, the show of compassion only pisses you off even more. “Why can’t you just leave me the fuck alone?” you demand. “Please (y/n) I-“ he tries to say, clearly confused by your rage. You know most of your anger is actually directed inwards and not at him but you don’t care. “I get that you are trying to grow as a person or whatever and pity me because you were a complete and utter dickhead a decade ago but I don’t want your fucking pity friendship so leave me the fuck alone Icyhot,” you spit with all the venom you can muster before promptly spinning around and continuing your path down the hallway, leaving a stunned Shoto behind.

No one needs to know that you’ve already started crying before you’ve even turned the corner away from him.

A/N: Oh you thought the good feelings from last chapter would last? Nah, have some angst 🙃

Taglist: @sorrythatspussynal @miss-bakugo-writes @pixelwisp @larkspyrr @sokkaandzukosimp @akkaso @sunaispretty @mindofess @todoplusultra @oliviasslut

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Time for the rest of the first challenge. Event. Whatever. Words hard.

[No. 26 - Chase Down The Leader]

We flashback just a minute or so from where we left off, in order to see just how Izuku pulled off his impressive launch across the field. He stands at the start of the minefield, watching other students pick their way through - and occasionally setting off mines with missteps - while having a veritable mumblefest over the mines and the general issue of trying to pick past them. 

The general gist of the mumbling: The mines are the type that blow up when stepped on, and aren’t that strong, but can throw a student off enough to possibly cause a chain reaction and lose them a lot of time. It’s better to go slow to avoid damage, even for leaping types, and trying to slow others is a guaranteed time loss. Izuku then analyzes the field in front of him, noting the spots people avoid and that most students will be most on guard at the entrance, which means there are plenty of mines left for his plan so long as they stay frosty. 

Izuku puts his armor plate to work digging up mines, muttering about how anti-personnel mines should only be 14 centimeters or so deep (about 6 inches). Jirou, just making her way into the field and using her quirk to… I guess disable mines in front of her? Anyway, she actually notices Izuku is up to something and asks what he’s doing, though I think it’s not one she expects to get answered. In short order, Izuku has a pile of about a dozen mines, and mentally claims he’s taking a page from Kacchan’s book. Meanwhile, Present Mic announces Shouto and Katsuki are still in the lead, and that they’re about to cross the finish line.

Not for long, though, as Izuku names his adhoc maneuver ‘great blasting turbo speed’, throwing himself on top of his armor sheet and onto the pile of mines, launching him over the field and right towards the two leading the pack. Pretty much everyone hesitates or stops to stare for a moment, shook by the sheer brass balls it had to take to literally blow yourself sky high. The two most shook, of course, are Shouto and Katsuki, who only just start moving again when Izuku actually flies ahead of them, forgoing their fight in order to catch back up.

Izuku considers the whole experience intense, and is even more focused now that he’s managed to gain the lead. However, there’s one huge issue - he didn’t think far enough ahead to consider how he was going to land. As if that’s not enough, Katsuki is throwing himself forward with more explosions, screaming at ‘Deku’ to get back there (presumably to fight). Shouto’s not far behind, giving up keeping the others hindered in exchange for the speed he gets from icing over the field ahead of him - he doesn’t have time to worry about those behind him now.

Present Mic announces the temporary ceasefire between the two in order to chase down Izuku, and how when a common enemy appears, people stop fighting - then tacks on that, well, actually they’re still fighting, just not each other. Aizawa wonders what his friend is even trying to say. 

Izuku starts floating away from his armor sheet, the larger surface area causing it to stall and slow faster then he is. He grabs onto one of the wires as he recognizes this, and that if he loses time on his landing, passing the two again will be impossible. As the two just start to rush past him, Izuku swears mentally, telling himself to not let go - while he’s still ahead, this is his only chance. So, if passing them is impossible, then he has to maintain the lead. 

Somehow, he manages to flip in the air, using the momentum to bring the armor plate swinging around and into the ground right between the two, the pressure enough to set off several more mines. The two are forced to stop from the resulting explosion, while Izuku’s newfound momentum throws him readily ahead. 

As he falls into a duck and roll, Present Mic announces how Izuku blows off the competition with no time to lose. He goes on to marvel at Aizawa’s class, wondering what he’s teaching the kids. Aizawa says it’s not his doing, and that they’ve been spurring each other on all on their own. Present Mic rolls on with his commentary, asking who could have predicted such an incredible turn of events? Aizawa asks if he’s being ignored as Present Mic announces the first one back to the stadium:

Midoriya Izuku. The crowds go absolutely wild. Outside the stadium, Death Arms recognizes Izuku as the kid from a year ago. At home, Inko falls off the couch sobbing while repeatedly stumbling over Izuku’s name. In an unknown location, Shigaraki watches on while scratching idly at his neck. 

Izuku looks around the stadium while breathing heavily, eventually looking at one spot in particular. Somehow, he’s found Toshinori in the stands, and the two have a Moment™ from across the stadium. 

These fucking two, man. 

While Izuku is trying to keep himself from crying, the other students start making their way across the finish line as well. 

Toshinori thinks about how Izuku has the spirit of a savior hero to the core, but the sports festival is a competition that tests the exact opposite of that - your willingness to take down the enemy. Heroes nowadays depend on popular opinion so much. So many selfishly seek to beat everyone else. But that’s not Izuku - and that’s why Toshinori chose him, even as he thoughts that lack of selfishness would be his one weakness. He claps in the stands, happy to have been proved wrong and mentally apologizing for doubting him, even as he laments Izuku’s crying habits.

Some business students nearby catch Toshinori’s attention, mostly due to them discussing Izuku’s potential and how they’d market him. They talk about how Izuku’s stock is about to rise, but it’s hard to say what’s still in store for him since he didn’t show his quirk. They then start speculating about how a hero agency would market him if they took it on, with one pointing out how he’s not much to look at, so they’re have to push his skills and his unique, almost artistic sensibilities. When the resources you need aren’t there… Well, we don’t hear how that gets handled, but Toshinori does note how some things never change.

We get a brief narrative insert about the business course, most notably how they have nothing to gain by directly competing in the sports festival. Instead, they hone their skills as salespeople and run business simulations. 

Back with the hero students, we see Katsuki and Shouto both catching their breath. Katsuki is furious at Izuku once again managing to wrangle a win right from under him, while Shouto is just staring after Izuku silently. Present Mic announces more racers reaching the finish line, and that the standings will be gone over later, so the students can catch their breath for now.

Ochako and Tenya make their way over to Izuku. Ochako calls Izuku’s strategy awesome, while Tenya is in despair over losing a race with his quirk, stating that he still has progress to make. Ochako states that she’s jealous of Izuku’s first place; Izuku flushes and hides his face behind his arms, stating that it wasn’t that impressive, and was still too close. Internally, he laments that he just got lucky, that all his chance strategies happened to work. They say it’s awesome, but it was just a lucky break, and that the real test of skill starts now.

Anyways, Midnight announces the end of the race, and we get the results:

Midoriya Izuku

Todoroki Shouto

Bakugou Katsuki

Shiozaki Ibara

Honenuki Juuzou

Iida Tenya

Tokoyami Fumikage

Sero Hanta

Kirishima Eijirou

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu

Ojiro Mashirao

Awase Yosetsu

Asui Tsuyu

Shouji Mezou

Satou Rikidou

Uraraka Ochako

Yaoyorozu Momo

Mineta Minoru

Ashido Mina

Kouda Kouji

Jirou Kyouka

Kaibara Sen

Tsuburaba Kosei

Kaminari Denki

Bondo Kojiro

Yanagi Reiko

Shinsou Hitoshi

Kendo Itsuka

Shishida Jurota

Kuroiro Shihai

Kodai Yui

Rin Hiryu

Shouda Nirengeki

Komori Kinoko

Kamakiri Togaru

Monoma Neito

Tsunotori Pony

Hagakure Touru

Tokage Setsuna

Fukidashi Manga

Hatsume Mei

Aoyama Yuuga

I wasn’t able to find this list in word form anywhere online, so I made it myself. You’re welcome. I also calculated the points each of them had going into the second event, but I’m not gonna worry about that here. I’ll do individual and team points when we actually get to the teams. That way, we’ll know who has which teams’ headbands at the end!

Moving on with the chapter. Midnight announces that the top 42 from the qualifying round will move on, conveniently just including every hero student as well as the two non-hero students who managed to place higher. For those who placed lower, the sports festival will have another way for them to show their stuff!

(Not that we see said show, which I mean, makes sense narratively speaking, but also…)

[I was going to insert the server discussion about my thoughts on the arbitrary cut-off point here, but it’s getting long enough to merit its own post at this point. So look forward to that whenever it goes up!]

Anyways, Midnight continues on, explaining that now the main selection really begins, and that the press corp is going to be jumping out of their seats, so the students should give it all they’ve got. Now, onto the second event, which she already knows - which confirms these are predetermined by UA and they just do the randomizer for the sake of the crowds. Said event is… 

the cavalry battle!

Kaminari is nervous at that, thinking about how he’s going to suck. Mineta is also looking concerned. Tsuyu notes they’re teaming up, but how, exactly? Midnight explains with a neat little graphic:

Basically, participants get in teams of two to four, and get into a horse-and-rider formation. The rules are the same as your regular cavalry battle - snag the opponent’s headbands while guarding your own - but with a twist. Each student has an assigned value based on their placement in the race. 

Sato notes that it sounds like the points in the entrance exam, so it sounds simple. Hagakure comments on how this means the point value of each team is based on its members. Midnight snaps and cracks her whip at the students that she’s about to explain, so they should shut up already. 

Individual point values start at five, at the bottom, so the student in 42nd place is forth five, 41st is worth ten, etc etc. However, the first place participant - that is, Izuku - is instead worth a whole ten million points.

That, my friends, is the face of someone realized they done fucked up.

Basically all the students stare down Izuku as he goes stiff from the internal panicking. Shinsou and Hatsume seem to be shown particular interest in it. Midnight finishes the chapter by noting that the higher-ranked students are the ones to aim for, and that this survival game is a chance for a comeback. It’s anyone’s game!

And with that, we end chapter 26… and volume three. Which means bonus content will be coming soon! See y’all then, and we’ll be back with more sports festival action in the next volume. 

[peculiar-lover]

First Encounters pt 2 (Neville x reader Steamy)

Neville and y/n set up a time to study together and tensions rise as reader makes a move on Neville. 

TW: Freaky, Neville getting “excited”, no smut (yet) 

You just arrived by the black lake sitting on a random log since you didn't know exactly where Neville wanted to meet up. You rushed out of your final class so fast that you probably looked really silly. It made you feel a little embarrassed, but you felt more anxious and excited. You were going to get help from Neville. He's so sweet. It was another wonderful trait of his that was definitely going to be added to the list. Before you knew it you saw him awkwardly walking towards you but looking down at his feet and mumbling a lot to himself.

Neville's POV:

I can't believe I dun it. I'm going to meet y/n in a few minutes. Gosh, what am I going to say? Hello! No HI y/n! No no. Let's get started! No. You look amazing! I wish. I don't know-

"Hello!" You greeted softly.

"OH, y-y/n. You're here!" He was startled a bit. He felt his face get a little bit warm. Merlin, please don't tell me they heard me.

Y/n POV:

"I did not think you were going to be here so quickly," Neville added.

"Oh haha well my class was pretty close to the exits." You chuckled knowing that you really speed "walked" here. "I didn't know where you wanted to meet so I just sat there, waiting." You said standing up and brushing any dirt from the back of your bottoms.

"Oh right, I guess I didn't really specify where." He rubbed his back of the neck feeling bad.

You quickly took notice and reassured him, "Oh Neville! It's ok, no worries, really. Im glad I waited because I probably would have gone somewhere else." Neville smiled but still looked slightly embarrassed.

"Besides," You walked right next to Neville, really close, and looked up at him, " Now we can walk wherever you had in mind together." You smiled softly, hoping he knew you didn't mind. He smiled back at you. You quickly looked down to hide your flushing cheeks.

Neville and you then started walking and found yourselves in a somewhat secluded area by the lake.

"I like this area a lot, not a lot of people come by here and you get a nice view of the whole lake." Neville was saying as he sat down on a large log. He smiled but then his face went cold.

"M-My book! I-I forgot my book!" Neville smacked his face, "Y/n I'm so sorry! I-i'll go fetch it-"

"We can share mine? I mean I don't mind." Again you wanted to reassure Neville and not want him to feel any more bad then he already was. He looked at you and nodded as you sat by him.

It was awkward because the book was not big enough for both of you to share, especially since you sat so far apart. Neville did not want to make you uncomfortable so he stayed put. You on the other hand felt really bad knowing that he would not be able to see the book as well.

"D-do you mind if I scoot closer? Just so we can both see the book?" You suggested and Neville agreed eagerly.

You scooted closer to him trying your best to ignore how he positioned his hand right behind you so he wouldn't be in your way and also the fact that your knees were touching his. You both shyly looked at each other to show that you were both ok with this.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It had only been a good hour but it was enough for both of you to get really comfortable to the point you were both making small jokes and laughing here and there.

"Yeah the concept of it is pretty hard to understand but once you get it, you will never forget it." he chuckled a bit making you laugh with him.

"Neville, thank you so much for this. I was really struggling and you really saved my butt for the next exam." You looked up at Neville and smiled locking your eyes with him, no longer feeling too flustered to look away not noticing that he also kept eye contact.

"It was no problem at all."

Silence filled the air and you both did not turn away from each other. You started to lean in closer to Neville's face and could hear his slow breathing start to get a little bit faster the closer you got. He was looking down, now ignoring your eyes, too nervous to initiate anything fearing that he had read the situation wrong. Before doing anything intense, you leaned into his ear and whispered.

"May I?" Neville was too captivated by your lovely scent that he couldn't eagerly nod his head but instead did it very softly and dreamily.

You faced him again and looked at his lips. His lips were centimeters away and slowly your lips locked with his. The kiss was really gentle and slow-paced. His lips were really soft and plump from him always pinching them. You grabbed the book that was in between you both and set it aside. One of your hands went to the back of his neck slowly and softly reaching to slightly tug on his hair. He seemed to like it a lot. Every Time you pulled on his locks he made a small almost un-hearable moan. He was worried about his hand placement but decided to softly put the hand that was behind you on your waist. He felt an immense amount of pleasure as he felt your hand go up and down his chest but his kisses were getting messy as you went down to his thigh and rubbed softly. A small whimper left Neville's lips as you pulled away from the kiss,

"I-is this okay?" Only your eyes looked up at Neville. He looked down at your hands and his eyes went slightly wide and his cheeks went warm and pink.

"I-I'm okay a-as long as you're okay." Neville refused to look at you in the eyes afraid that he would expose how much he really wanted you to keep going. You giggled at his response and started kissing him around his cheek and neck slowly rubbing his thigh again. Neville breathed out small moans as you kissed a sensitive area of his neck. You went back to kissing his lips. Your stomach twirled at the thought of how you were making Neville feel.

Neville quickly broke from the kiss and turned away from you. It was so fast that you had to give yourself a few seconds to faze out.

"Y-y/n, I'm sorry. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, I c-couldn't control myself th-this time around." Neville's voice sounded as if he was apologizing to his grandma right after being yelled at. You didn't know what was making him act up so you leaned to get a better view of him and saw him grabbing his robe and squishing it up to his-

"Oh." You said, surprised as to what Neville was referring too. You built whatever confidence you could and stood right behind him, "Neville, it's okay. If anything," You softly placed your hands on his chest from behind and rubbed softly. Neville shut his eyes very lightly for a bit to take in your pleasuring touch. As you went to the side to face him, Neville looked at you and your lips connected once more. You pulled away and whispered in his ear, "It's a shame we can't do anything to help out your "situation" since we're out here." You kissed his cheek very lightly and lingered for a bit before pulling away, knowing that he was at a breaking point. You smiled shyly to yourself and started to pack up your books and pencils signaling that it would be better if you both left.

"M-my dorm will be empty! Well... it can be. I-I'll just kick the boys out." Neville desperately said as he turned back to you. 

You giggled again, "Well what are we waiting for?" Neville awkwardly stood trying his best as to not reveal his "situation". You happily skipped right in front of him and pressed you back against his front, "I guess ill be leading the way." and off you went.

A.n: Woah this was like my first ever slightly freaky writing so yes it's probably bad but I love Neville very much.

[nonartisticbooknerd]

i notice you ship Kacchako- and there's nothing wrong with that but why? (note I haven't seen mha) from what I know, bakugou is a huge asshole who bullied deku a lot, while uraraka seems to be a nice person- i just wanna know why you ship them lol

oh BOY here comes the essay. 

Please note that this why I ship kacchako. This is not meant to convince anyone to ship kacchako, but simply my reasons as to why I like these two characters together.

To start off I will openly admit that yes, Bakugou is an asshole. He bullied Deku a lot (probably due to that wonderful inferiority/superiority complex he’s got going on) and in general, is pretty loud and rude to everyone. He makes it a point to let everyone know that they are beneath him and goes out of his way to prove that he’s the best and no one could even hope to compare.

Meanwhile, Uraraka is the exact opposite: sweet, bubbly, and very kind to everyone. She actually wants to be a hero for the money to help her parents out bc she comes from a poor family (which I LOVE but that’s a topic for another meta). She never tries to prove herself to anyone as a result, and just focuses on trying to learn to be the best hero possible (because the better you are, the more money you make).

The most notable difference is their relationship with Deku (and actually this is one of my reasons for shipping them but we’ll get to that). Bakugou was Deku’s former friend and he has a strong dislike toward Deku, stemming from an unhealthy need to prove his superiority in every respect over Deku. Uraraka, on the other hand, is one of Deku’s new and close friends, and they get along really well.

So why do I ship kacchako? Mutual respect, understanding, and potential character growth. Explanation of that below, with manga screencaps.

1. Mutual Respect

This is the major point of their ship for me and it stems from their fight in the Sports Festival. 

It’s quite obvious that Uraraka acknowledges Bakugou’s strength, after all, he’s seen as a powerhouse by everyone, and she repeatedly comments on his strength. But it takes a lot to get Bakugou to acknowledge someone. And with Uraraka, he does.

Aizawa just outright says it. Bakugou goes into the fight knowing that Uraraka is an opponent he needs to be wary of because she made it to the final round. Bakugou doesn’t see the small and sweet bubbly girl everyone else in the crowd is seeing, what he sees is an opponent, and Uraraka notices that. And just before launching her final attack, she thanks him.

Actually his reaction to her thanking him is one I love because we’ve never seen that kind of caught-off-guard expression on him before until this moment. To me, it seems that he couldn’t even imagine not taking her seriously because as mentioned before, she made it to the final round so in his mind she has to be strong to do that, and her thanking him for it is making him go “huh? what are you even thanking me for?”.

For her final attack, she drops a meteor shower on his head, he blows it away, and then we get this panel.

This is the first time in the manga that Bakugou acknowledges that someone nearly took him out. His hand is pounding from Quirk overuse and it’s the first time we see an adverse effect of his Quirk, the blowback from using too strong of an explosion. But more important is the fact that he says “that was close”, explicitly acknowledging that she nearly took him out. Respect.

So then after that Uraraka gets up and rushes at him again to attack, even though she’s clearly shown to be at her limit, and we get this from Bakugou:

He calls her by name. That’s incredibly important.

Throughout the manga, Bakugou uses nicknames (Deku, Shitty Hair, Flat Face etc.) to keep people at a distance and let them know he doesn’t give a shit about them. Keep in mind that before, he’d used a nickname for Uraraka, calling her Round Face right at the beginning of the fight. But now that she’s driven him to the limit he knows this girl is strong. And here, when he calls her by her name, he’s acknowledging her and her strength. This is the first person in class 1-A that he calls by name (Kirishima also eventually graduates from Shitty Hair to Kirishima, but that’s way later). After this, he doesn’t go back to using Round Face for her either. He keeps using her name when he refers to her, even in his head.

So Uraraka, at her limit, collapses before she even reaches Bakugou and he’s clearly shaken up by that. He was expecting the fight he’d been dreaming of, where he could give his all and fight an opponent that he genuinely respected and saw as strong, and then she collapsed. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a look of concern, I think it was more of mixed disappointment and shock.

When he re-enters the stands, all his classmates comment on the fight as he goes to sit down. A classmate (Kaminari) says something along the lines of “I can’t believe you could bring yourself to go so hard against such a fragile/small girl”. And in response comes the single line that was catalyst for me shipping kacchako. “Where do you see fragile?”

This is the first time he’s defended someone other than himself or All Might in this series. It just goes to show that he really does acknowledge Uraraka and her strength, to the point that he’s willing to speak up and say that to others, albeit in a indirect way.

Wayyy later he continues to respect her!

This is part of a page spread of characters introductions as given by Bakugou and Uraraka’s is the only vaguely positive character introduction Bakugou gives. Everyone else gets something kind of aggressive and along the lines of ‘I’ll beat you’ or ‘you’re weak’ and then Uraraka gets ‘her guts and roundness are acceptable’. Other translations say “her guts and roundness are respectable’ and I’m not sure which is correct, but either way, respect!!

The fact that one of the times he was smiling during a fight was against Uraraka. If he only smiles when fighting people he consider to be “towering walls” aka challenges, he must have seen Uraraka as one. Further proof of respect!

Over and over in that Sports Festival fight and then after, Horikoshi makes it a point to establish that Bakugou respects Uraraka’s strength. And that’s a major reason that I ship them. I like that dynamic of two people knowing that the other can kick major ass and respecting the hell out of them for it, especially if one character doesn’t look like they can kick ass.

2. Understanding

This goes a little bit more from Uraraka to Bakugou than the other way around, to be honest, but it’s a reason I ship them all the same. This is shown most clearly in the post- midterm exams omake (which is only in the manga and not the anime).

I love this omake so much because first of all, it reveals that Uraraka watches Bakugou from across the classroom closely enough to pick up on changes in his mood (as evidenced when she says “I sensed your Bakurage Aura” to him) and second, it reveals that she can pick up on changes in his emotional state easily.

But the most important part of that omake is this panel.

This is huge.

The way she outright says that Bakugou is terrified of Izuku’s potential development shows a deep understanding of Bakugou’s emotions and mental state that’s very unique. We never see anything like this level of understanding from any of their other classmates in direct relation to Bakugou. When she says “you act all menacing”, it shows that she knows that Bakugou’s yelling and bluster is an act put on the distance Izuku because he’s scared of him. 

This revelation wasn’t revealed to Deku and All Might until Deku v. Kacchan 2 when Bakugou told the two of them what he was feeling in terms that they could understand. And this was way before this, right after the midterm exams.

She follows this up by asking him to repair his relationship with Deku and be nicer to him. They hadn’t even interacted much, so the fact that she noticed this in the first place and then felt comfortable enough to tell him that to his face says a lot about how she understands him and is comfortable around him.

Bakugou is completely taken aback by this and sit and listens to her and lets her finish before yelling at her, which is big because if he didn’t respect what she had to say, he would have just cut her off and left, but he didn’t. That respect comes back into play.

So Uraraka genuinely gets Bakugou, both emotionally and mentally, and isn’t afraid to tell him about her observations, and that’s another big plus for me. I love how Uraraka can see right through him and catch him off guard every time they interact meaningfully. That deep understanding is an important part of any relationship, and the fact that she can analyze him like this, despite not being a close friend to him was interesting to me because of the potential for character development.

3. Character Development (both canon and potential)

Character development is a big thing for me when it comes to ships. I tend to really like ships that change a character for the better in some way or the other.

The Sports Festival fight changed the both of them. When Bakugou fought Todoroki and told him to give it his all, the speech bubble placement implies he was thinking of his fight with Uraraka when he said that. She’s his standard for a good fight now.

On the other end, Bakugou helped Uraraka realize that she didn’t need to exclusively focus on rescue with her Quirk and she takes an internship under Gunhead as a result, growing her character in a major way. Those Gunhead martial arts get used a lot later on by her, and none of that would have happened if her fight with Bakugou hadn’t happened. Overall, the Sports Festival fight was important to both their character arcs and I love that.

From the understanding part comes more possibility for character development. This is where their differing relationships with Deku come into play. One admires him and the other is scared of his growth. With her understanding of Bakugou and his relationship with Deku, Uraraka could genuinely help repair their relationship.

Also them as training partners! Not only do their Quirks have the potential for incredible compatibility (zero-gravity and explosions = human rockets/missiles??) but they could help the other with new skills. Uraraka could teach Bakugou Gunhead martial arts and help him improve his hand-to-hand Quirkless combat, Bakugou could help Uraraka with comabt awareness and increasing her power. He’s probably also got some ideas for creative applications of her Quirk. Make them training buddies, Horikoshi, I beg of you.

4. Other Things

Uraraka is completely chill with his foul-mouthed nature! She actually finds it even a little funny.

THE WAY SHE’S JUST NOT AT ALL SCARED TO THROW DOWN WITH HIM!! In the post midterms omake she even matches the Bakurage face at the end! She doesn’t take his shit at all and is 100% ready to fight again.

The chocolate manju scene from the war arc is hilarious to me because she’s comfortable enough around him to lightly reprimand him and the way he knows that she’s a foodie and wants to try the chocolate manju is really cute to me.

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Of course, everything I said can also be platonically interpreted. I would just love for them to be friends in canon, and really, that’s what all of this logically leads to. I just like to dream about it slowly growing into romance during their pro hero years.

[trnquilgalileo]

NCT Hogwarts House

Member: Taeyong

I would first like to say that I based this mostly off his birth chart and personality listed on the fandom wiki. Now I know that there’s an general apprehensive nature about using Idol birth charts, saying that it’s an invasion of privacy. However I would like to point out that all you need is a birthtime and place. Many people don’t know their own birth times so when that happens you just enter 12am, the day you were born and your home town (unless you moved beforehand.) His birthday and hometown are listed in the fandom wiki and I’m assuming someone entered 12am for the exact time or he gave out the time himself. If that is not the case, I’ll take this down for the sake of their privacy.

Taeyong is heavily influenced by water. Which means he’s very creative which we could see because look at him. Boy paints (see his latest piece titled Monroe) , writes and designs. Like share the talent pLease, some of us want to go to art school. But because his Sun is in Cancer is where we move a little off track.

Cancers are for a lack of a better term emotional. This doesn’t necessarily mean that he cries every two seconds but he’s more in tune with his emotions. And because of his artistic background he is able to channel that into what he produces. To loosely quote Ryan Bergara, the best art is created during extreme emotional times (he said this during the Van Gogh Buzzfeed Unsolved episode.) While this could mean a negative feeling such as depression this could as mean that he creates his art during times of tranquility and happiness. Also due to being a Cancer he is very empathetic, anyone who watches his vlives where he constantly gives us advice and makes the vibe chill. Like bros, come on he screams Cancer.

Taeyong’s moon is in Leo. Which is actually the same placement as Taeil’s moon sign. As stated before (if you actually read all of these,) Leo’s are a fire sign, their whole thing is look at me!! Look at me!! Which means he’s open with his emotions, he likes bringing them out and showcasing them when the time arises. He’s honest with what he feels and can share that. I don’t really keep up with NCT these days (cause finals/ap exams,) but i do know that Taeyong does talk about what he’s felt during certain periods of times. Also the discography that he worked on. Tell me that isn’t Taeyong sharing what he feels.

His Hogwarts house you may ask?

Hufflepuff.

Now I feel like this is an easy one to guess so do I really have to explain why?

Anyways. Hufflepuffs get quite the awkward rep of being the « unimportant until the fourth book and only the fourth book house. » but here’s the thing. Hufflepuffs are loyal, their compassionate and always willing to push their boundaries. Take Nymphadora Tonks, Newt Scamander and Cedric Diggory. Three Hufflepuffs who pushed their limits and stated true to themselves.

NCT during the beginning was deemed SM’s failure at first. But under the continuous hard work, effort and last but not least Taeyong’s silent leadership NCT as a whole has thrived. Its concept is quite complicated but Taeyong makes it work, he tries to interact with ALL the members (see dreamies, sungtaro and wayv) to make them transition easier and make them comfortable. He is the best leader we could possibly have and I am so so proud of him.

His secondary house: Ravenclaw