#THE FIRE BIRD COMING OUT OF NOWHERE AS A VILLAIN

[artemishdp]

So…. Is it safe now to discuss how disappointing the last episodes of Alchemy of Souls Part 2 were?

[girl-named-matty]

Hogwarts Legacy characters and my first impressions of them pt.1

Semi-in order of when you meet them.

Eleazar Fig: Cool guy, seems to care a lot about me so that's nice.

George Osric: This guy is TOTALLY the villain. Why would he just come out of nowhere and be acting so weird and like he doesn't want anyone else to hear what he has to say? (LOL sorry George 💀We all know how that ended)

Ranrok: Naww who is this- DID HE JUST KILL THAT GOBLIN?!

Professor Black: Annoying. Annoying, Annoying, Annoying. GO AWAY.

Professor Weasley: She's awesome, super sweet, and she's in Gryffindor and I'm in Gryffindor so that's nice. Oh, wait a Weasley???

Cressida Blume: She's cute. Has cute freckles.

Nellie Oggspire: I need to be her friend IMMEDIATELY.

Garreth Weasley: Oh this guys a cutie--OH SHOOT HIS LAST NAME IS WEASLEY.

Natty Onai: Her name is Natty... and mine is Matty... We now we HAVE to be best friends.

Professor Ronen: Oh, he seems like fun!

Sebastian Sallow: Woah wait why are they fighting. OH SHOOT IS THAT GINGER KID ABOUT TO DIE- Oh, never mind. Was this guy allowed to do that? Is he gonna bully me? Should I be suspicious of him? Oh, well either way he's kinda cute.

Professor Hecat: Oh, she's cool.😎

Lenora Everleigh: So cute and has a very beautiful name.

Sirona Ryan: An absolute queen. Gave me free butterbeer and she seems really considerate of the other shop keepers. Oh and she defends me so yeah absolute queen.

Victor Rookwood: Uhh who is this guy? Oh shoot wait is he supposed to be another villain? His top hat is kinda goofy ngl. Also what kind of a threat is "Can't drink butterbeer forever?". I don't know whether to be intimidated or to laugh. Maybe both?

Theophilus Harlow: MY EYEESSSSSSS! 😭😭😭 (Sorry but he looks nasty)

Professor Garlick: OH SHE CUTEEEEEEE.

Leander Prewett: Oh I HATE THIS GUY GET ME OUT OF HERE!!! SEBASTIAN SALLOW SAVE ME. PROFESSOR GARLICK HELP. (I promise I have changed my ways and I now love him)

Professor Sharp: OoOooo he looks intimidating but he is very handsome.

Amit Thakkar: CUTIE RAVENCLAW!

Andrew Larson: ANOTHER CUTIE RAVENCLAW! (throwing him in here now bc I'll tell you guys I didn't even know he had a name until like six or seven+ months ago so I got my first impression of him online LOL)

Lucan Brattleby: This kid looks fire. He's my little brother now and nobody can stop me.

Eric Northcott: He hasn't said a single word yet I do not like him. (Sorry Eric girlies)

Ominis Gaunt (1): Why does this guy keep talking to me in the hallways. Is he mad at me? WHAT DID I DO?! Oh, shoot wait is he blind? CAN HE SEE WITH HIS WAND??? DAWG THIS IS AWESOME. also he's really pretty.

Richard Jackdaw: Why does he look and sound exactly like Garreth? Is this another Weasley I don't know about?

Madam Kogawa: She looks cool. Kinda intimidates me tho and I have no idea why.

Everett Clopton: His voice is kinda annoying and we got in trouble but he did teach me how to go super fast on a broom so I'll give him that much.

Deek: AWWW I LOVE THIS GUY!!

Ominis Gaunt (2): WHY DID YOU YELL AT MEEEEE?😭IM NOT GONNA TELL ANYONE ABOUT THE UNDERCROFT I SWEAR. 😭😭

Percival Rackham: Don't like him. I don't know why but I do not like him.

Professor Howin: ...is that dodo bird actually gonna attack me or are you just saying that-

Poppy Sweeting: Aww she looks cute. She is very small but obviously that doesn't stop her from defending beasts from bullies LETS GO! Oh also she's got a cool hippogriff friend!

Imelda Reyes: Oh, I am going to beat her time by a LANDSLIDE just because she said that to me. (rivals to lovers fr)

Lodgok: Oh he seems really nice for helping us but should I be suspicious of his connections to Ranrok?

Gladwin Moon: Saw this guy earlier and he was acting weird. And now I figure out it's because of some statues. Can this school get any weirder?

pt.2 coming soon 👀

[helluva-simper]

In your dreams- Dabi x Y/n

For mushymroom

How you ended up in this situation. You don’t know.

                                   (Hours ago)

 You are part of a gang of criminals called the League of Villains. You were on a small heist directed by Shigarki due to lack of money. You were  accompanied by Dabi to help you get away. At 11:30 pm,  you were heading towards the bank and you asked Dabi,”Is this your first heist? You don’t look like the type to be a robber.” He looks at you confused. “What do you mean?” He asks continuing to look forward. “Quirk or not, most people would bring a weapon because of the possibility of Eraserhead showing and if you burn the place down, so will the money too.” You answered by cocking your gun as an example. 

Dabi scoffs. “Hello, you two love birds.” A voice said. You quickly turn around pointing your gun at the darkness. “Show yourself!” You said. Dabi used his quirk to make light but nothing was there. A manic laugh comes from everywhere. “Over here.” The voice said as a cold hand grabbed your shoulder. “Wha-” “Boo!” That was the last thing you heard before passing out.

 - - - - - 

                                            (present time)

“Gah! What the hell?!” You said as you felt cold water on you. “Get up and look around. We’re in the middle of nowhere.” The familiar gruffy voice said. You looked around. There was low cut grass all around you and that’s all you could see for miles. Also the sun was out. Bright as day.

“Hello again, my little plaything.” The voice from earlier said. Just like before you and Dabi couldn’t see the person. “You must be wondering where you are. Well, to you: you are on a desert island but actually you are in a dream.” The voice explained. “Why are we here?!” Dabi asked, infuriated. “For my entertainment, of course! You will wake up in a few hours, so put on a show!” The voice replied. 

You sigh. “Welp, it could’ve been worse. We could’ve been dead.” You said to Dabi who was looking off into the distant awfully quiet. “We might as well enjoy ourselves. Not like we can force ourself out.” You spoke again. Dabi didn’t reply. He was lost in thought. You wondered what was going on inside that brain of his. 

You laid back down. The breeze caressed my face as you looked up at the sky. 

“Did you hear that?” Dabi asked. You sat up. “Hear what?” you said looking at him confused. “The noise.” You looked around. You didn’t hear anything beside the crashing waves but then you heard it. A long, low growl in the distance. “What is that?” You asked him as he shrugged. The growl became louder until you could see it.

The monster was all red. Eyes darting everywhere it could. Its tongue was outside its mouth dripping saliva. It was absolutely disgusting. Once it spotted you and Dabi, it ran towards you. 

Dabi immediately blasted fire, burning its skin making it let out a painful scream. After a brief moment it began running again. Dabi let out another blast but this time it dodge, jumping up in the air and landing on its feet shaking the ground. 

‘Was this the dream guy’s doing?’ You thought. You watched as Dabi launched balls of fire at the monster as it got closer and closer. What were you supposed to do?! You were quirkless which made you quite useless when it came to long-range attacks. Maybe Dabi could handle this. No need to risk your life when you can't do anything. 

The thought came to you. A while back you heard someone say, “If you die in a dream, you die in real life.” So does that mean if Dabi dies here, that means he’s gone…. Forever. This hit you like a train. You couldn’t say it outloud but you loved that man. Even Though he was a cocky, walking corpse, you loved every part of him. You can’t lose him. You swore he would never love you back but you didn’t want him dead.

Taking you out of your thoughts, you saw the monster right in front of Dabi pulling back its arm ready to punch him. With no thoughts you quickly ran towards them pushing Dabi out the way taking the hit for him. “Y/N!” He yelled. Not a second later, Dabi yells out, “Prominence Burn!” burning the monster to ashes. 

Dabi runs to you. You were half awake and you think you broke a rib or ribs. “Y/n!” He yells again, turning you flat on your back. “No, no, no. Stay awake! You can’t die! Not now.” He yells. Your vision was blurry as you were attempting to stay awake. “You can’t die. No!” You looked at him confused. He never showed any other emotion other than snarkiness. 

“I love you, d##mit!” He said to your surprise. “L-love me?” You asked confused. “Yes… so don’t die.” You slowly close your eyes from tiredness.

- - - - - 

You suddenly up back in the street where you were before. You looked around seeing Dabi sitting up and rubbing his eyes. You sat as well. “Was that-” “No. I’m definitely sure that wasn’t fake.” He said. 

Dabi looked at you again with sincerity in his eyes. “What I said in there was true. I do…. Love you.” You smile. “Love you too.”

[paralyze-fic]

Paralyze.

Chapter 20

It has been God knows how long, and we still couldn't get this guy off our faces.

"This is getting annoying," I greeted my teeth as Todoroki made another wall of ice when Bakugou tried to attack the villain, which was a bad idea, seeing as we were surrounded by trees and bushes.

"If you use big flames and then it spreads, the fire would surround us and we're all gonna die! You understand?!" Bakugou tsk-ed in response.

"Shut up! I know!"

"Flesh... I want a piece of flesh... Flesh!" And after the villain said that, one of the blades went right through the ice and right past my arm, gracing it.

"Fuck..." I winced in pain, as the blade had cut the skin and flesh of my (left/right) arm, Jiro's clothes had been ripped slightly, but she was completely fine.

"(M/n)!" I looked at Bakugou, who was staring at my bleeding wound.

"I'm okay!" I yelled back at him, sending a reassuring smile his way.

"There! I see ice! They're fighting!" I could hear Izuku's voice echoing from afar and some hard thumping noises right after.

"Bakugou, Todoroki, one of you make some light!" Shoji yelled while carrying the curly-haired boy on his back, and the villain turned to them.

"Flesh!" A big black bird-like hand grabbed the villain and stamped him on the ground. The wind force of it had made some pieces of shattered ice come falling right on top of me.

Thank god, I had good reflexes because that would have caused mine and Jiro's death for sure. I sighed and I rested my back against one of the nearby threes.

"Kacchan!" The faint yell of Midoriya made me look up from Jiro, as I was inspecting her to see if she had some injuries, and I saw that Todoroki's ice had made me break apart from the rest. I wasn't sure if there was a safe way to go around it, and I didn't want to risk it, I had to get Jiro safe first.

So I took off speed-walking through the woods as I heard Dark Shadow yelling 'I want to destroy more!' And notice how the pink gas was quickly dissipating.

I thought going back to the camp might have been the safest idea. So now I used this opportunity to enhance my legs and make me run faster, but on my way there, I encountered a boy and a girl from 1B. They said something about going back with some of their classmates, who were also unconscious.

"Can I go with you?" The exact moment I asked them that, a giant wall of ice appeared again. Todoroki. Something's wrong.

Tetsutetsu-kun and Kendo-san said a 'yes' together and ran, I followed them closely, stopping the use of my quirk. There was a voice inside my head telling me I might need it for later.

As the feeling of something going wrong grew up inside of me, both students from 1B slowed down and soon came to a stop in front of a girl with short black hair. I looked over my shoulder at the ice rising taller than the trees.

I have...

"I have to go," I muttered and laid Jiro down. "Sorry, could you take care of her for me? I've got to go." The girl sitting on the ground nodded and I enhanced my legs, jumping high and landing on a tree.

My eyes scouted the area before I saw three flying bodies going after a single one. There they are.

I jumped down the tree and ran forward. I had to redirect my run, seeing as there were some blocked-up ways. My legs were feeling worn out and my muscles were painfully twitching, the air in my lungs was getting in and out difficultly, the bit of gas I probably had inhaled was making me feel dizzy and my steps weren't as straightforward anymore.

No, keep going... you can't stop... now. Bakugou needs... you, you have to protect... him, that's... what Heroes do...

With a new feeling of conviction, I forced my legs to move, but I couldn't use my quirk or I would collapse. I came to a stop when I saw a dark purple mist, Todoroki, Shoji and Midoriya together. Bakugou and Tokoyami were nowhere in sight.

Shoji had two greenish pearls on his fingers, the ones that, when the quirk was released, turned out to have...

"My ice?!" Todoroki exclaimed. The villain with the suit moved his mask aside and poked his tongue out, showing us two other pearls.

I was still hidden from them... I hadn't been noticed yet... I can attack and rescue Bakugou-

A bright blue light went right past my head, making me stumble backwards some steps, now I had a better view of the villains. Shoji, Midoriya and Todoroki were running forward, but Izuku tripped. Shoji managed to grab one of the pearls, but Todoroki couldn't.

The villain with dark hair and burnt scars caught the second pearl.

The bad feeling grew up inside of me even more as the guy in the suit walked through the mist, only leaving his hand out, snapping his fingers.

"No!" A scream left my lips as I saw that spiky blond puppy in the grip of the scarred villain, "Katsuki!" I desperately ran at them, the mist slowly disappearing with them both. My legs burned with tiredness, but I didn't care, "Katsuki..." I whimpered at him as I, with my last effort, jumped at the mist, hoping to catch him and save him.

But the mist faded in my arms as I heard his scared voice, "(M/n)... help me."

My body hit the dirt hard, and I raised my body with my arms, keeping my head down staring at my hands. Izuku's agonizing scream echoed, but I couldn't focus on anything else other than the last memory I had of Bakugou.

"Katsuki..." my eyes watered quickly, as my hands punched the ground hard and I cried.

I cried as loud as I could. The pain in my chest was unbearable, and I screamed too, trying to get rid of that stinging pain.

//////

My mind was blank, Bakugou being the only thing I could think of.

Damn, it hadn't even been an hour... I miss him.

The mere thought of what just happened made my sight get blurry again, and I let myself cry. Crying was the only thing I could do for now. But I had decided.

I'm gonna rescue you Katsuki, even if it's the last thing I do.

[justsomewritingblog]

Robin Hood

Request:  None

Requested by:  Nobody

Pairing:  Dick Grayson/Nightwing x reader OC

Prompt:  “You’re the hero, huh?  I guess that makes me the villain.”

Warnings:  None?

Word count:  1K+

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You weren’t supposed to get caught.

Stealing had always been something you were good at.  You learned at a very young age that you needed to do certain things to survive.  Those certain things were unethical, more often than not.  Over the years you’d become more proficient at it.  If you wanted something, you could get your hands on it.

Which is why it bothered you so much that you’d been caught.

You were crouched down in front of a safe, a metal baton visible in the corner of your eye.

It was at your cheek level, no doubt ready to swing at your jaw.

“You know…” a male voice said.  “Stealing is wrong.”

You smirked beneath your ski mask.  “Wouldn’t that depend on the reason?”  Your gaze moved towards where the voice came from, but you didn’t see anything more than you had, careful to keep your head still.

“Stealing is always wrong.”

You chuckled darkly.  “You’re the hero, huh?”  You stood, turning around.  “I guess that makes me the villain.”

The figure before you was clad in all black, a blue bird on the chest of his suit.  His dark hair swooped up, looking far too elegant to be doing crime fighting in.  A second baton was in his left hand, resting at his side.

Confident, but cautious.

A domino mask shielded his eyes from view, but the rest of his face was uncovered.

He grinned, crooked, and tilted his head to the side a little.  “Guess so.”

You let out a small laugh in surprise.  “You do this kinda stuff often,” you asked, nodding your head slightly for emphasis.

“You must be new around here.”

“No,” you replied matter-of-factly.  “But I haven’t seen you around.”

The man grinned again.  “That’s the point.”

You had to give him that one.  You smiled, tilting your head to the ground and shaking it in disbelief as you chuckled.  You looked back up, glancing at his outstretched baton before shifting your gaze to his face again.  “So, you gonna arrest me, or let me go?”

He raised an eyebrow, the grin never leaving his tanned face.  “Well, I can’t let you go.  And something tells me you aren’t going to come easily.”

“You got that right,” you replied quickly before rushing around the desk in the middle of the room.  Clutching your finds, you pushed over the comfy chair that said behind the desk, sprinting towards the door as fast as you could.

Your opponent was quickly on your heels.

Jumping out the window you entered from, you scrambled up the fire escape, landing on the roof and running to the other side.

The ‘hero’ was right on your tail.

You looked over the side of the building.  There was no way you were making that jump.  You turned around, looking back at him.

He stopped chasing you, slowing to a casual walk.  His batons were strapped to his back.  “Aw, went on the roof- nowhere to go: rookie mistake.”  He grinned.

“Hey, this is my first time trying something this big.  Gimme a break,” you requested, crossing your arms.

“Sorry.”  He shook his head.  “No can do.  I’ve gotta take you in.  Stealing is a criminal offense, no matter how much we may dislike the recipient.”

“Rupert Thorne has more money than he knows what to do with,” you complained, scowling and turning your head to the side.

“Look.  I get it.”  He placed a hand on his chest, partially covering the blue bird.  He extended his other hand slightly to the side.  “I don’t like him, either.  But stealing is stealing.”

You returned your gaze to the man.  “You’re such a hero,” you said, though there was no admiration in your tone.

Mostly annoyance.

“Indeed.  And as the hero, I have to return what you stole.”  He reached a hand out, opened and turned up.

You looked down at it before raising an eyebrow, looking back up to him.  “If you’re expecting me to just hand you this money I rightfully stole, you’re mistaken.”

He retracted his hand.  “Alright.  Hard way it is, then.”  He surged forward, one hand outstretched, the other close to his body, should he need to block anything.

You dove to the side, but he wrapped his hand around your other wrist.  You spun back, glaring at him before moving to hit his chest.

He grabbed your other wrist, spinning you into his chest so your arms were crossing each other.

You grunted, trying to wriggle your arms free.

No luck.

The bag of money you stole was ripped from your hand.

Spinning around, you reached for it.

He raised it above your head.

You jumped, trying to reach it, letting out a huff when you couldn’t reach it.  “Give it back!”

“What’s the magic word?”  He asked, grinning at you.

You deadpanned at him.  “Seriously?”

“No.”  He turned around, beginning to walk away.  “Go home, thief.”

“I’m not a thief!”  You yelled.  “I need that money!  Other people need that money!”

The hero paused.  He turned half-way, looking over at you.  “What do you plan on doing with it?”

“The same thing I do every time!”  You paused, eyes widening.  “Not that I steal often.”  You huffed.  “Please- I’m just trying to help the people who can’t help themselves.”

“A little ‘Robin Hood’ action, huh?”

You crossed your arms, cocking a hip out.

“Bruce Wayne does a lot for the people,” he said.

“Which is why I haven’t targeted him.”  You moved forward slowly.  “I need to do this.”

He turned to look at you.  He appeared to be mulling it over before clenching the stolen loot tighter in his fist.  “Sorry.”  He shook his head, his hair moving slightly with the action.  “I can’t let you keep this money.  But if what you’re saying is true, I can admire that.”  He turned his back to face you, looking over his shoulder to see you.  “I’ll let you off with a warning.”

You blinked in surprise.

“See you later, Robin Hood.”  Without another warning, he jumped into the air, disappearing over the side of the building you were standing atop.

You rushed to the edge, placing your hands on the ledge and looking over it.  You reached it just in time to see his feet enter the same window you snuck in through, no doubt returning the money.  Your hands tightened on the ledge.  Scowling, you looked up at the city skyline.

“You can count on it, Hero.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/n:  Hope you folks liked it!

[ashiristic]

Okokok hero x Villain ask here we go! So let’s say that Villain just recently lost a family member, they immediately stop showing up to fights, making schemes, all of that stuff. Instead, they sit in the cemetery where their beloved lays. Hero doesn’t know and thinks villain is planning something big and goes to search for them. Upon finding Villain at the cemetery and they have to comfort them! :D

Request:

The hero glanced at the hologram, then up to the sign above them. Cold air kisses their cheeks as the smell of crying grass permeates the air. The signboard lets out a small creak after a gush of wind slams against it, giving more chills down the hero’s spine. Are they in the right place? Out of all places to go, the villain visited this old, eerie-looking cemetery. 

They couldn’t help but gulp, striding forward to the entrance as their eyes wandered from the endless field of gravestones. The rusty gate closed out of nowhere, while the fog continued to cover the other side of the cemetery. This is giving them pure creeps. What if the villain has dug their grave for preparation? They shouldn’t have come here without their sidekick. 

“Hello?” the hero said, scared of their voice when it echoed back to them. They glanced back and followed the paved way, ignoring the death stares of the crows above the electric fire. Ducks eventually quack in front of them, running into the river separating the forests and the land of corpses. This place doesn’t look that scary at all.

Soft sniffles of a person and caws of crows eventually filled the silence… they kinda take it back now. The crows flew to a certain gravestone, cawing as if following the music of the person’s cries. The hero can’t help but walk towards the place where the birds flocked. There, they find a familiar silhouette of darkness. Black hair, tendrils, and clothes, crying in front of a headstone.

“Villain?” the hero called, walking back as the tendrils began hissing and poking them to go away. The villain took a sharp breath, calmed their trembling body, and wiped their tears. They turned to the hero with their hollowed jet eyes red in tears. 

“Hey, hero. Nice seeing you–uh… here?” the villain said, cheeriness visible in their voice, yet a hint of pain sings in there. Deeply hidden. 

“Are you okay?” the hero asked, crossing their arms. A bad thing to do when someone is mourning in their face. They do not know what to say, whether to sit and comfort the villain, hug them, or none of the above. The hero would choose none of the above in no time, but the villain looking like the entire world fell apart in their eyes makes the hero’s heart wrench in pain.

The villain stared at them for a moment as if they were hallucinating before they nodded. “Yes… yes, I am okay.” 

Their eyebrows creased, their eyes observing the villain from head to toe. “You are not okay.” They said, frowning as the villain tensed up at their statement. “What happened?”

The hero didn’t expect tears to flow down the villain’s eyes after asking such a question. Was that a sensitive question? Did they make it worse? Questions flooded the hero’s mind, their hands moving on their own. Their hands reached down to engulf the villain in a tight hug, shushing them in a gentle lull. 

“He is gone…” the villain sobbed. “He is gone because of me. I should’ve listened to him. I should’ve never gone inside that pathetic laboratory.” The villain buried their face deeper in the crook of the hero’s neck. Icy tears wet the hero’s outfit. Their hand wriggled around the calming tendrils behind the villain. 

“If it wasn’t for me. If I listened to him–” the hero held the villain tighter, letting their nemesis break in their arms like a rag doll full of emotions. Draining the tears they haven’t squeezed out for years, leaving themself helpless, and begging for the pain to stop. Guilt and hopelessness painted the villain and sculpted them into who they were, as anger brushed them in crimson red for the last time. Creating the villain.

“I hate everyone…” the villain said, pulling away from the hero’s embrace. Their gazes met as a light shone inside the villain’s hollowed eyes. The hero can’t help but caress their cheeks and breathtakingly admire them. If the hero could describe the villain in one word, despite their puffy eyes and ugly black tendrils scattered on their back, the word is ethereal.

The villain broke eye contact while the hero’s admiration remained unnoticed. “Your organization’s experiment made me like this. I hate your father and your family for that.” They paused, taking a deep breath as they slumped down, then looked back up again. “But why can’t I hate you as I despise them?”

It was all it takes for the hero to kiss them deeply.

[livingforthewhump]

Can we have a part three to the Villain x Hero (injured by Mentor)? Heh sorry you left on a huge cliff hanger and you know I need to see what’s next

I knew this was coming when I wrote that second part XD

Continued from here

—

Hero’s recollection of events was groggy at best. It swirled through their memory in bits and pieces of pain-fueled delirium. But even though the memories were mere snippets, Hero couldn’t seem to stop seeing them.

After Villain showed up, they knew there was a fight. They heard Mentor’s sardonic voice just above them, felt their hand knotting their hair in a cruel display of affection that fooled no one. Understanding words seemed to be beyond them at that point, but they understood the boundless rage in Villain’s voice well enough.

When Mentor laughed, they curled into themselves and heard a small whimper. Had it come from them? It must have.

But that was when Villain attacked.

Their memory blanked out, and when it resurfaced they were crumpled on the floor, watching the fight through half-lidded eyes that were quickly sliding shut. The darkness was cool, soft compared to the sticky wetness that pooled beneath them. The fire on their back.

The whip cracked, and they jerked violently in an involuntary flinch, eyes flirting open with panic. No pain followed. It was Villain holding the whip, using it against Mentor. At some point Villain had been disarmed. But Villain had seen their movement, and when their eyes landed on Hero, they were beyond murderous. They were terrified.

Then the world sank into sleep.

The next memory resurfaced like cold water doused on them, but much clearer than the rest.

They were curled up on something soft, with gentle fingers slipping through their hair. And they were so, so tired.

Hero made a noise in their throat, then frowned. This felt very real for a memory.

“Hero?” Villain’s voice was thick.

It was too foggy to be really happening, though. Surely it couldn’t be.

“Are you really here?” Hero found themselves asking in a voice coated with cracked porcelain. They cracked their eyes open to see Villain huddled over them, face contorted with worry, and suddenly they knew the answer.

“Yes, Hero. I won’t leave you again. I promise,” Villain said anyway.

“Mentor, they-they-” Hero’s vision blurred as they tried to croak out the words.

“I know.” Villain’s hand found Hero’s and squeezed. “I know.”

“They said they—that you—they said they killed you.”

Villain’s free hand smoothed the tears off of Hero’s cheeks. “Oh, Hero,” they breathed, “why on earth did you have to be so good?”

Hero tilted their head to look up at Villain, but stopped mid-action. “Why am I so dizzy?”

“You lost a lot of blood.” Villain sighed. “Mentor really wanted to make sure I would never let them see the light of day again.”

“Did you—”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Normally Hero would have bristled at that, but now they just nodded gratefully. They really didn’t want to have to worry about that right now.

A small silence stretched out before Villain pulled their hands back, propping one underneath Hero’s head. “Can you drink some water for me?”

Hero let themselves be pulled into a sitting position, hissing softly at the way it pulled at their bandaged wounds.

Villain murmured apology after apology, but it was only when Hero saw their hand with the water shaking that they heard the slight tremor in their voice. Or the way their lips were pressed together ever so slightly.

Hero drank the water before asking, “What’s wrong?”

Villain looked at them appraisingly. “Are you in a condition to be asking that question?”

“Villain.”

They exhaled slowly, lowering Hero back onto the bed. “It’s really nothing. I’ve just been so angry and scared and worried that at this point I just feel…tired.” Villain pressed their palms to their eyes. “Tired and exhausted and drained and—gosh, Hero, that must be nowhere near what you’re feeling right now.” They huffed a humorless laugh. “Isn’t that selfish of me?”

Hero didn’t say anything, but they scooted away from Villain on the mattress, then grabbed Villain’s arm and pulled them into the open space.

Villain laid down beside them without complaint. Their eyes were watery. “You’re not allowed to die on me, okay?”

Hero rolled their eyes. “You would never let that happen.”

A bird chirped outside, landing on a branch that skirted the window and sending the leaves dancing patterns in the shadows of the late morning sunlight. Villain’s breathing slowly evened out, but Hero waited until the worry lines softened from their face completely before closing their own eyes.

Taglist (message me if you want to be added or removed): @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @twistedcaretaker @lonesome--hunter @poppys-writing @endless-whump @susanshinning @multifandoms-multishipper @shadowylemon @utopian819 @whumpkitty @journey-the-panda @freefallingup13 @shameful-indulgence @1becky1 @temporary-whump-sideblog @chartreusephoenix @thelazywitchphotographer @onestopheroxvillain @smolxhero @mylifeisonthebookshelf @broadwaybabe18 @grizzlie70 @sunflower1000 @digitalart-dwa @tobeornottobeateacher @whatwhumpcomments

[elftwink]

no thoughts only taakitz superhero/villain coffeeshop au. taako’s power is shapeshifting but he has a cool gun from lup. kravitz’s power is Big Fuckin Scythe With Unspecified Abilities. also there was no time to get into it but fantasy starbucks isn’t a real starbucks it’s a borderline illegal unaffiliated bootleg starbucks that taako and lup own. like dumb starbucks was.

By all rights, it should have been a fairly routine night for the Reaper. Go out, stop some crimes, arrive just in time to prevent whatever scheme the Mongoose had cooked up this week, exchange some one liners, make some threats that essentially amounted to ‘same time next week?’, the works. A regular Tuesday as a superhero in Neverwinter.

But Kravitz is tired, and more than a little distracted, so he’s not doing so hot on the one liners, and the Mongoose’s attacks are a little closer than they would normally be. He doesn’t even have a good excuse, it’s not like he’s injured, or that he has anything pressing to think of.

It was just— this morning his barista (who he may or may not have been harbouring a small crush on) had mentioned offhand that he thought the Reaper was ‘probably hot under the stupid all-black getup’, and Kravitz didn’t really know what the protocol was for someone complimenting your alter-ego was.

“I think if you were gonna go for the strong silent type, you had to start doing it months ago. Now it’s just acting like an asshole. Are you mad at me?” the Mongoose cuts into his thoughts, firing off another few missiles from his stupid umbrella gun (Umbrastaff, he called it, although it was a gun and not a staff so Kravitz had no idea why he insisted on calling it that).

“We are literally fighting as we speak,” says Kravitz, playing up the cockney accent, spinning his scythe to deflect the missiles off the blade, sending them ricocheting around the room. He’d said something like ‘how can you tell’ to Taako— the barista (well, they’d been on a first name basis for a few weeks, so, Taako), and he’d said ‘I can just tell’ which was not at all helpful in getting Kravitz through the conversation without saying or doing something to give himself away.

He’d almost given Taako his number, but how was he going to justify that? Hey, it’s me under the all black getup. Do you want to go out sometime? As if.

“You can have fights without being fuckin’ rude,” says the Mongoose, firing off another few rounds, which Kravitz deflects again, advancing on him.

“You’re right, sorry. I’m a bit scattered. Not exactly my A game.” As if to prove his point, the Mongoose easily dodges his next couple swings with the scythe, not even bothering to leave his range.

“Clearly. I mean, normally you’re at least close enough that I can feel the breeze from your sword.”

“It’s not a sword, and you know that.” Kravitz brings down the scythe in the space where the Mongoose was only seconds before, having already backflipped out of the way and landed a few metres back. Show off. Not that Kravitz had room to complain about that. The Mongoose spins to face him again, at least this time seemingly aware of what a close call that was. He’s tense, and his hair, which Kravitz supposes has thus far been hidden underneath his costume, has come somewhat unravelled, black braid falling to the middle of his back.

It seems... familiar?

He doesn’t have time for that right now. Kravitz draws back the scythe, feeling the hum of energy under his fingers, swinging again, and—

“Wait! Time out!” the Mongoose puts up a hand and Kravitz, for who knows what reason, stops his scythe mid-swing. The familiarity sticks, so it’s not just a trick of the light. It takes him a second to place, but the hairstyle... it looks a lot like a certain barista he’d been spending all night thinking about.

He shakes his head, trying to clear it. It’s because he has Taako on the brain, is all. Besides, he has other things to worry about besides seeing his crush in his enemy. Namely the fight currently happening with said enemy. “What? You can’t call a time out.”

“I just did,” says the Mongoose, fishing through his pockets and pulling out several bobby pins, sticking them in his mouth so he can use both hands to fix his hair. Kravitz blinks, still trying to shake off the sense of deja vu, but it won’t quit nagging him. “It’s a whole safety issue to leave long hair down.”

“It’s still in a braid,” retorts Kravitz.

“Somebody never took Foodsafe.” the Mongoose gives him a lopsided grin that Kravitz fucking knows he’s seen before, and suddenly it’s more than just passing familiarity, and how could he possibly have not noticed before, and— the Mongoose finishes putting up his hair, raising an eyebrow at Kravitz and his private crisis. “Alright. Ready—”

“You work at Fantasy Starbucks,” blurts Kravitz, without even thinking about it. The Mongoose stops dead in his tracks, and Kravitz can see his eyes widen even behind the mask. He splutters for a moment, and then seems to find his footing, already ready with a snarky remark.

“Yeah, well— your accent is fake.”

Shit. He’d forgotten. At the only time so far that having it would have been useful too. Still, he pushes it out of his mind; the Mongoose hadn’t denied it. And, well, he’s already solidly derailed this fight, so he might as well get some real confirmation out of it.

“...Taako? It is you, isn’t it?”

“Just who the fuck are y—” The Mongoose— Taako— levels the Umbrastaff at him, and then stops again. “...Kravitz?”

Well. Shit. Again. Kravitz doesn’t bother to affirm that; his silence is more than enough confirmation. One of them has to say or do something, but the seconds stretch on.

“You’re telling me I said all that shit to your face this morning?” says Taako.

“That’s what you’re worried about right now?”

“Uh, yeah—” Taako is backing up now, and they’ve fought enough times that Kravitz knows when the Mongoose is looking for an escape route; Kravitz’s feet still feel glued to the floor, even when Taako reaches the window, fingers already turning to talons around the Umbrastaff. Taako breaks the glass (because of course he does, even though the windows aren’t even fucking locked), breaking eye contact with Kravitz in order to swing his legs through the window before his form changes too much. “Look, this is like, a lot right now, and I— I’m getting the fuck out of here,” he says, and then drops. Whatever had been keeping Kravitz in place, slack jawed, ends as soon as Taako leaves his sight, and he’s moving before he has time to think about it.

“Wait—!” Kravitz runs for the window, but by the time he gets there, the bird clutching the Umbrastaff is nearly out of sight.

Well. That could have gone better.

***

Kravitz doesn’t go for his coffee the next day. Or the next day, either, although the day after that he’s sick of making his own coffee. And frankly, he misses chatting with Taako. Even if the guy was trying to kill him like once a week. He couldn’t just avoid this forever.

Still, the fact that Taako is working cash when he comes in makes him want to turn tail and run back home. He conjures up the memory of yesterday’s shitty coffee and pushes onward. The shop is mostly empty still, so there’s no line.

“The usual?” says Taako, like nothing abnormal has happened.

“Please,” says Kravitz, and then, before he can chicken out entirely, adds, “Uhm, do you have a few minutes?”

“My shift isn’t over until—”

“I’ll cover you,” comes Lup’s voice from the back room; she pokes her head out and gives Taako a look that is clearly significant, but that Kravitz can’t quite puzzle out. “Take five minutes after you’re done making his coffee.”

Taako scowls at her, and she smiles brightly before heading to the back again.

“Okay. I guess I have five minutes. Talk to you after I make your coffee.”

Kravitz nods, and goes to hover around the pickup counter, pretending to be interested in things on his phone. Taako makes his coffee in a ceramic mug, which at least means he doesn’t want Kravitz to get the fuck out as soon as possible, so that’s... something.

Taako slides the finished coffee across the counter, circling around to join Kravitz on the customer side as Kravitz grabs the mug.

“Lup!” he hollers, and then starts walking towards one of the corner booths without checking to see if his sister is headed to cash or if Kravitz is following. Kravitz does, though, sliding himself into the seat opposite Taako, hands wrapped tightly around the mug.

Taako speaks first. “To be honest, I kinda thought you would rat me out.”

“That would be shitty of me, to just sic authorities on your place of work without so much as a warning.”

“So is this the warning?”

“No,” says Kravitz, taking a sip of his coffee, “I... can’t really make coffee without burning it. And this is the only place for miles with tolerable muffins.”

Taako cracks a grin, like Kravitz knew he would. “Flattery will get you nowhere.” His smile falls, and he crosses his arms and leans back. “So. Reaper. Why didn’t you rat me out?”

Why indeed. Kravitz takes another sip of his coffee and thinks for a second, not even sure himself what his explanation will be once he starts talking.

“It didn’t seem... fair. You’re less of a villain and more of a pain in my ass—” Kravitz ignores Taako’s indignant noise and keeps talking, “—and while we always have cause to fight when on the clock, you’re not doing anything that I feel needs to leave the bounds of those... work hours, I guess.”

Taako is trying to pick him apart with his gaze; it’s something he’s been subjected to several times, although normally in costume, and in retrospect it’s difficult to imagine how he spent so long not noticing the Mongoose in Taako.

Whatever Taako is looking for, he must find it, because he relaxes a bit, and shoots him a lazy grin. “Plus, Mongoose related insurance just got rolling and it would be fuckin’ rude to take me out of commission before anyone got to use theirs.”

Kravitz laughs. “Sure.” He’s silent for a second, before adding, “You aren’t planning on revealing my secret identity, are you? Awfully rude of you to double cross me like that.”

“Wha— You didn’t even give me a chance to respond! Maybe I wasn’t!”

“Were you?”

“I was,” admits Taako, not even pretending to look sheepish. Kravitz raises his eyebrows, and Taako shrugs. “Oh, like you didn’t think about revealing my secret identity? And could you imagine the hype if I unmasked the Reaper? I was tempted.” He sighs. “But I figured then you’d have no reason to keep my identity a secret. No way am I risking a backfire like that.”

It sounds callous, but Kravitz has been talking to Taako almost daily for months; at this point, he can pretty reliably pick up on when Taako isn’t being entirely truthful about something.

“Hmm. Then I suppose it’d be in my best interest not to tell you that I wouldn’t reveal your identity even if you revealed mine?”

Taako narrows his eyes. “Why not?”

Kravitz makes a face. “It’s just in poor taste. I just think we all go through all the trouble to hide who we are and use these powers for good— or whatever it is you do— that it’s always going to be such a low blow to reveal who we are. There might be times where it’s necessary, but petty revenge is not one of them.”

Taako’s expression hasn’t changed; if anything, he’s narrowed his eyes more. “God, you are like— fuckin’ irritatingly nice. Fine. I wasn’t going to reveal your identity. That would be fuckin’ annoying to deal with. Plus I’m having fun.”

“Fun?”

“Oh don’t— don’t fucking lie to me. I know you’re having fun out there too. With your stupid accent and one liners and shit.”

“Alright, alright,” says Kravitz, rolling his eyes. “But I’m not supposed to be having fun, so keep it quiet.”

“See, that’s why I market myself as a villain. No dumb rules.” He puts an elbow on the table and leans on his hand. “Why do you have a fake accent anyway?”

Heat rises to Kravitz’s face, and he’s hoping he looks less embarrassed than he feels. “It’s my— I do it so people don’t recognize my voice.”

Taako laughs. “Well, it doesn’t really do that if you immediately stop using it when you realize you might know someone.”

“I was caught off guard!” defends Kravitz. “It’s not every day you find out your nemesis is your barista.”

“Nemesis, huh?” Taako grins. “Didn’t realize it was that serious to you. You know I have other heroes to fight.”

Kravitz rolls his eyes again. “I don’t see how you have the time, considering how often you’re causing trouble for me.”

Taako laughs, and it’s so contagious and the whole conversation is so surreal Kravitz can’t help but laugh too, before they both lapse into a comfortable, if drawn out, silence.

“So, uh,” says Taako eventually, “what now?”

“Well,” says Kravitz, “I want to keep coming in for coffee in the mornings. And I assume the Mongoose will continue with... whatever chaos it is you currently have planned.”

“It’s not chaos,” insists Taako, “I have plans. But yeah. And I assume the Reaper is gonna show up and throw a wrench in those plans?”

“Yes, probably. So we’ll just be enemies by night...” Kravitz trails off, not entirely sure how to refer to their by day relationship. Friends? Potential love interests? Acquaintances? There’s a few seconds of awkward silence before Kravitz gives up entirely.

Taako pulls and pen and a napkin out of his pocket, jotting something down and pushing it towards Kravitz.

“Here’s, uh, here’s my number. If you give me a heads up five minutes before you get here, we can have your coffee ready by the time you walk in. If you’re nice to me out there.”

“I don’t take bribes,” says Kravitz, grabbing the napkin and pulling out his phone to type in the number.

“That wasn’t a bribe, it was a threat. You don’t even wanna know what I’ll do to your coffee if you fuck me up.”

Kravitz doesn’t bother to point out that neither of them have ever caused any extreme bodily harm to one another and instead says, “So you’re asking me to go easy on you? I thought you were having fun.” He sends Taako a ‘hey it’s kravitz’ text before he has time to second guess himself.

“Could you stop poking holes in my threats? You’re harshing my fuckin’ vibe, Krav.” He sounds irritated, but Kravitz can see the smile tugging at his lips as he texts Kravitz a couple of skull emojis. “I should get back to work before my sister kicks my ass,” he says, standing back up. “I’ll see you tonight, nemesis.” Then he turns on his heels and heads back to the counter, saying something to Lup as he walks by. Kravitz watches him disappear into the back room.

Tonight.

Kravitz had better make sure he had hung his cloak up to dry.

[creweemmaeec11]

My favourite prompts:

A list of my favourite prompts that I’ve posted in the past, all curated into a huge list just for you guys!

1

Finally, the day has come. The villain is thought to be dead. The hero has won.

Until suddenly the hero learns the villain left them EVERYTHING in their will. Made them the owner and operator of all their illegal business.

Obviously, the hero plans to shut everything down immediately. But they quickly realize just how many people the villain employed… how many family’s they fed…

2

“You kissed me,”

“I did… and?”

“What-!? What do you mean and!?,”

“What more do you want?”

“An explanation would be a good start!”

“…or I could just do it again…”

*other person turns bright red,*

“Or… or that, I suppose,”

3

“What the hell are you doing here!?”

“I think the better question would be what in the hell are you wearing,” the villain replied, amusement clear on their face, like they were struggling to keep from laughing.

“What- it’s-” the hero blushed, remembering what they were wearing, “their pajamas! What are you-!”

“Oh my god…” the villain replied, like they were struggling to come to terms with what they were seeing, “the hero of the city not only own, but wears a onesie,”

“Excuse me!” The hero snapped in defence, “They’re comfortable!”

“They? You have more??”

4

“I gotta say hero,” The villain mused as they casually moved toward the cell bars, “I’ve been called many things in my life: monster, villain, outcast, loser, scoundrel,” they tilted their head, examining the hero before them, “but ‘our last hope?’” *clicks tongue* “that’s a first,”

5

You live in a world where anyone born with superpowers must become a super hero. It doesn’t matter what the power is, or how small it is, it is mandatory. It was deemed that having anyone with superpowers work alongside regular people was “unsafe” and “unfair.” Every year, dozens of superhero’s with powers useless for fighting are killed. You’ve managed to make it this long with nobody finding out you have a superpower. But how much longer can you hide in plain sight?

6

The city’s villain mysteriously disappears and hasnt been seen in a week. The people are celebrating, but the hero is worried. What if the villain is planning something big? Determined to stop whatever evil plan is brewing, the hero tracks the villain down, but they dont find what they expected. Instead of evil plotting, the villain:

-Has been taking care of a sick pet -Come down with the flu -Been helping arrange a friends wedding -Found out they were pregnant -Is getting married themselves -Mourning the death of a loved one -Has adopted a young pet and been occupied taking care of them -Has been helping one of their lackeys who’s in a desperate situation -Has been feeding the homeless and offering blankets

7

You’re the most wanted villain by all highest ranking authorities, but all the heros “just can’t seem to catch you” (they always let you get away) because all your crimes are things like stealing expensive medication and then donating it to hospitals, robbing toy stores and donating to orphanages, robbing banks and giving to charity, robbing grocery stores and feeding the homeless, ect

8

A hero/villain with the power to materialize their own tattoos. Got a wrench tattoo? Now you’ve got a wrench. Got a tattoo of wings? A bomb? A get away car? Well…

Dragon tattoos have always been popular, havent they?

9

Write about a genius inventor villain who, while watching the news, learns about a sick child in hospital doctors arnt sure they can cure. The villain realizes something theyve invented could cure the child. Now the hard part is convincing them to let the villain help.

10

The villain starts to notice the hero is feeling more down the usual, so they start leaving the hero little notes to cheer them up. All is going well until the hero figures out who is sending them.

11

In a world of magic users where everyone is divided into the 6 eye colours, and the colour of your eyes represents what your powers are. Each colour has an elemental power, can talk to a certain type of creature(Invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals), and has 3 other powers. For example, blue eyes control water, can commune with fish, etc. Everyone in the world has either red, orange, yellow, green, blue or purple eyes. Except for you, you were born with black eyes. Everyone is afraid of what your powers will be, but they should be more worried about the kind of creatures you can talk to…

12

A hero and a villain (and maybe their sidekicks, up to you) trapped in a haunted house or haunted location.  

-One is scared so the other comforts them. They are both scared but trying to act like they aren’t. -One doesn’t believe in ghosts, and the other has the power to communicate with them or see them. -Ghosts aren’t real, but one continues to try and freak the other out, who claims they aren’t scared. -Ghost wingman. I need’ d say no more -One gets possessed, so the other has to do the whole ‘kiss to break a curse’ thing to bring them out of it. -The classic Person A thinks ghosts aren’t real so they prank Person B to scare them. Then shit gets real, but person B doesn’t believe person A, thinking its just another prank.

13

“I trusted you! You promised!”

“I kept my promise! I got you your results! Don’t question my methods from a top that high moral horse or yours, especially when the only reason you made a deal with me in the first place was because you were too much of a coward to do what needed to be done!”

14

The local wildfire has been growing out of control, forcing the city to have to evacuate. Suddenly, the villain with water powers shows up to lend a hand to fire fighters.

15

“Tell me hero,” the villain spoke, chains jangling from where they hung on the villains wrists as they walked up to the bars of the jail cell, “If you wanted to skip a press conference, could you?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re sisters getting married, but your needed for a big event at the hero academy that day. Would you be allowed to attend the wedding? What about if your brother stole a pack of gum. Could you let it slide? Not would you, but could you?”

The hero paused. Could they? They had responsibilities! They had commitments to the city, and to the serving of justice!

The villain laughed at the heros silence, “I may be in jail, but you’re more chained then I’ll ever be,”

16

“So tell me,” the villain drawled, dragging a finger across the heros skin, making them shiver, “what changed your mind?”

17

Hero discovers the villain has a day job. It isnt at all what they expected. (Day care, animal shelter, etc)

18

“What are you going to do if you beat me, and suddenly the city dosent need a hero? What are you going to do if you get hurt and can no longer fight, and the city forgets about you just like all the heros before you? Who will you be when your legacy crumbles under the weight of all those who follow? Will you take up knitting?”

The hero stared unblinking and frozen as the villain took a step forward.

“Sure, your a hero. But what are you without that?”

The villain took another step forward.

“Your nothing, heroism is all you have. That pathetic title you curl up to every night. But without it?” They looked the hero up and down, “Absolutely nothing…”

19

A villain retires from villainy and gets plastic surgery (or simply never showed their face) so they can live a normal life without being recognized. While living their new life, they bump into the hero, and the two start falling for eachother. But the villain is terrified of the hero finding out the truth

20

The hero slammed their front door as quickly as they could, eyes wide, heart pounding.

The villain. The villain was outside their door.

“Well that was rude,”

21

A hero with magic powers, in a world where magic is unheard of. They have always kept their powers a secret, fearing they would be shunned, or tested on. They never use their powers in battle.

One day, while practicing their magic alone in the woods, the villain appears out of nowhere. 

Before the hero can explain, the villain asks, “you have powers too?”

22

A hero dies. Or at least, they think they do. The next thing they know they wake up at their own funeral. And the only person there? Is the villain.

23

“The worst part, is you had the nerve to call it love”

[ribbonstrawberrysurprise]

Hi! I am a big fan of the Tokyo Mew series, and I was wondering if you could do an analysis on the Mew Mew's projected elements and animals and colors, and how they all tie into their powers as magical girls?? I've always wondered if there is a certain mythology or reason behind it, but it seems like the girls' colors are mostly based on their names(Strawberry- red and pink, Lettuce-green, etc), but what about their powers?

Like you said, TMM colors are much more based on their food names than on their animals. (Although, based on that one 4-panel side comic in volume 1, it seems that the colors came first, then the characters were given food names that matched.) There are two seeming exceptions:

1) Mint, but it is relatively common for mint flavored candy and gum to have blue packaging.

2) Berry, whose theme color doesn’t seem obviously related to her fruit. There are a few plants with white berries (snowberries, white beautyberry, etc.), but none that are very common in cuisine or native to Japan as far as I can tell.

Actually it seems to be the opposite (at least for the manga), with characters’ animal parts being colored as to fit with their food/theme color! Zakuro’s ears are colored much more purple than on an actual wolf, and Berry has pure white ears and tail despite neither of her animals being that color irl.

I guess it’s possible she’s supposed to be based on albino plants and animals? Her Mew form does pointedly have pale blond hair and red eyes…

Anyway, as for their powers/elements…

The Mews don’t really have defined elements, with the exception of Lettuce! They more so seem to have different methods of using generic light/emotion-based attacks.

Lettuce obviously has water powers in both the manga and anime. She’s introduced telekinetically controlling a swimming pool, and her attacks are always drawn/animated as water. (Except possibly in ReTurn? It’s hard to tell if LettuSniping Shot is a jet of water.)

Her power is clearly based on her animal and not at all on her theme color. She’s actually one of the few water powered magical girls who isn’t blue! I guess you could also make a connection with her name, in that Lettuce tends to have a lot of water in it (at least Iceberg does), but I’m not convinced that’s relevant.

Ichigo seems to have the power of love/heart/purification, in that her attacks can purify the Chimera Anima. You could also argue something to do with harmony/friendship, as she tends to get upgrades by receiving power from the other girls. Also, maybe healing, considering she brings Masaya back to life? In a way, it seems like the Mew Mews powers are very analogous to the Mew Aqua. As for her animal…. I guess people do love cats? But again, it seems more based in genre conventions than exclusive to Ichigo. Pink is classic love, but it’s also classic magical girl leader.

Berry seems to have the same powerset as Ichigo (logical, since she’s her replacement), at least at first. Her powers seem to be emotion-based, as she’s able to undo mind control with Ribbon Loveberry Check, but the other girls’ words (plus the fact that they attack her classmates first) imply this is true of all Mew Mew powers, not just hers. In ReTurn, however, she seems to explicitly have healing powers, which does seem like a natural direction to go from purification/love. Same as Ichigo for the animal connection. White does seem very associated with purity and healing (at least via association with nurses/doctors). Plus white mage.

Speaking of healing, Ringo pretty much exclusively has healing powers, plus her ability to grant power to Ichigo. Very appropriate for a Mew Aqua powered character! She also has a little bit of a music theme since her mini attacks are named after solfege and involve music notes. Penguins aren’t really associated with healing or music (really, you’d expect ice), nor are red or apples (really, they’re more associated with poison!), plus Ringo was explicitly designed to be a healer so your party wouldn’t get wiped out in the RPG. So, her powerset came first, then her design…

Next up is Pudding! Her element, as it were, seems to be… pudding! Sort of… It really looks more like gelatin than crème caramel. In the anime, she does raise up the ground to protect herself in her first appearance, and her attack animation does show it tunneling through the ground, so I can see why you’d make the argument her element is earth, but she never really does anything with this again. Even when it could really come in handy, like when she's trapped underground. And her attack is edible, as per the manga, so it can’t be clay or something! As for an animal connection, I guess you could say that monkeys are kind of known for eating things, I feel like this is clearly based solely on her name.

Zakuro…. sort of has an element? Her whip is called a “whip of light” in the anime, and in the manga it’s literally a glowing cross-shaped whip. This plus the “Cross” and “Pure” give it definite holy/purification/light vibes. But, in my opinion, this isn’t unique to Zakuro! Mint’s arrows are also pure light/energy, Ichigo’s attack is also very glowy, and Pudding’s… puddings(?) seem to form from light/energy. It seems like rather than a unique light element, she has the normal Mew powerset but used in a way that can cut or tie up the enemies. I can’t say wolves are particularly associated with light. Really, I’d assume dark, if anything, since they tend to be cast as villains? Same for purple…

Moving on to Mint! I’ve seen it claimed that Mint’s element is sound, but she never really does anything sound-based. Sure, her weapon has “Tone” in it, and her attack has “Echo”, but Pudding’s attack has “Inferno” despite having absolutely nothing to do with fire. “Check”, “Surprise”, and “Pop” are also seemingly unrelated to the attacks they describe. As for her weapon being lyre-shaped, yeah! All of the anime-style weapons are based on instruments!

As a a ballerina, she has an association with music, but she isn’t particularly useful in the fight in episode 6 vs Mary McGuire Chimera Anima, who really does attack with music. When she fights the ballerina bird Chimera Anima in episode 9, she doesn’t use music, or even really dancing! She defeats it with the power of Kicking Really Hard. And she does hear the Mew Aqua swan calling for help, but that’s just an extension of the generic “can talk to animals closely related to their infused genes” power that Ichigo and Zakuro also demonstrate.

Really, it seems like her power is just “arrow”. Like Zakuro, she doesn’t have an element; she’s just the one who’s able to aim the best from a distance. I guess when Lettuce steals her thunder in ReTurn, she's forced to upgrade to “a whole bunch of arrows all at once” and hit everything.

All Mew Mews basically have light and emotion based powers that they use slightly differently, with the exception of Lettuce, who seems to actually just generate water out of nowhere. But her powers are obviously connected to her emotions still (see how they manifest when she first awakens them). Them all having the same base power is supported by the way the manga will often not depict each attack individually, instead having each girl say her attack name and then showing the Chimera Anima exploding in a collective burst of light.

In short, rather than individual elements, I think it’s more like:

Ichigo: big finishing move

Mint: long range precision attack

Lettuce: knocking back the enemy? area of effect? (water)

Pudding: holding the enemy in place

Zakuro: cutting through small fry or holding the enemy in place

Berry: big finishing move, healing

Ringo: healing (music)

So, none of their character traits (color, animal, power) are that related? There’s some stuff that seems linked, but overall it seems like they’re most informed by genre tropes. (Also, a lot of the details of their powers were hammered out by the anime.)

[akawrites000]

history.

A tale that remains unchanged, no matter how many times it is retold.

Their hands are soft- I got to feel them when they grabbed my hand and pulled me into an alleyway, shielding me from oncoming bullets. Having not expected that at all, it took a few moments for me to come out of that headspace, as I stood there- dazed, staring at their back as their hand that held mine a moment ago, let go to grab their gun from their belt and point the weapon at our pursuers. My brain understood why they had to let go, but my heart refused to understand and kept yearning for that touch again and again- like a stubborn child who wanted to eat more ice cream and wouldn't listen to reason. The minutes passed by as I fought to keep my brain and heart at bay while trying to stay connected to reality because we still weren't safe. Move, I reminded my legs and held onto their silhouette with my eyes. Being a human was hard.

By the time we managed to outrun our pursuers, I was gasping, sweaty palm clutching my shirt- right above my heart, as if I'm pushing it to stay inside and not fall out of my mouth. Eyes on the ground and frantic heartbeats in my ear, I failed to register anything else. I felt a light touch to the top of my head and managed to look up from my bent-over-the-knees posture, just in time to see their hand falling from its spot on my hair a few seconds ago. My heart fluttered. And then our eyes met, their worried gaze trained on my face. I swallowed, but my throat still felt dry. I didn't like it when people worried about me, it made me feel guilty. So, I smiled like I always do when I wanted to hide something- when I wasn't ready to tell them why I might have looked like a flustered mess then. They gave up after a few seconds and began to scout our surroundings. I heaved a sigh, relieved, and tried to do a lot of silly things. I tried to tell myself that I was okay, when I was not (how could I be?). Even though that touch lasted for mere seconds, I could still feel the embers of the fire that it had sparked in my chest and now it threatened to burn me inside out. So no, I was not okay. Definitely not.

A bit more of walking and we were finally home!! It's not much- a small, rundown apartment at the edge of town but it was something. The metal stairs gave a *creak* as they stepped on it to climb up, and I was about to follow when a black cat came out of nowhere and climbed up before me. I landed on the ground with an embarrassing *shriek*, my backside aching. Sounds of their laughter echoed in my ears. I looked up at them, a not-so-serious frown playing on my lips because I just couldn't be mad at them when they laughed like that- like a carefree child who had nothing to worry about in life. I sighed and gave in to their smile but then the black cat stared at me, as if to challenge me and rubbed its fur against their leg. Their attention was completely on the cat now (unfortunate for me), as they gently stroked its fur, surprised and pleased when it purred against their blue jeans. Come on, you can't be jealous of a cat, you can't be jealous of a damn cat! You just can't-

But now, finally, they're sitting right in front of me, within the confines of our single bed, legs crossed messily, and all my mind can think of is that they're so close, so close, that if I reach out my hand, I can touch them. They lean towards me to reach for the blanket, their fingers brushing against mine and that fire which I felt earlier in the day was back now, and it was angry- ready to burn me whole.

They're staring outside our bedside window, looking at the city lights far away, oblivious of the plight I'm in, while I can't bring myself to look at anything else but their eyes. They must have noticed of course- as inquisitive as they are, so they turn over to look at me and all my breaths and words just die in my throat as I realise all over again, just how much I adore those blue eyes. They remind me of a sky, where the birds soar free; of freedom.

"What is it?" They ask in a teasing tone, smiling softly but I can't answer. I can't do anything. I can only look at them. Their brows furrow slightly in concern, and they move closer, those lovely soft hands brushing against mine again. But they don't stop with that alone this time. Their fingers become curious as they start exploring my hand, dragging their index over my palm, down to my fingers, feeling them over, digit by digit and I can feel myself going crazy.

Before I know it, my hand is entirely in theirs and they're so close that I can feel their warm breath fanning over my neck. My mind goes empty but my body is set ablaze, and I think that maybe, I've stopped breathing entirely, if only for that moment. Noticing my lack of response, their hands become braver, their right one tangled with mine while their left one rises up to cup my cheek with the gentlest of touches that makes me feel so giddy.

I hear them call my name, but it feels like it's coming from the bottom of a well; so far away. Panicked, my hand reaches out towards that voice, only to be caught by theirs. I stop as I'm held in place by blue eyes; I can't escape. They're searching my face, my entire being for an answer, their soft touches coaxing me to relax and give in. I finally come out of my head, and it feels as if I'm being born again as I learn how to breathe, how to move and how to speak within the safe haven of their touch. And I don't want it any other way.

"You're beautiful", I breathe, leaning into their palm. Their lips part to let out a small laugh and my ears rejoice. "How can you say that with a straight face?!" they say fondly, as if it's something they wouldn't mind listening to everyday, my mind beginning to dream about that very scenario. Meanwhile, their lips inch closer and I don't notice until they're suddenly too close and touching mine.

And the rest is history.

Hello all of you lovely people!! Yes, I know it's been a while since I posted- been trying to find some inspiration and fight off procrastination. So here is this long piece to make up for that (hopefully xD) - I tried first person narrative this time and I don't really do this style a lot, so I hope this is satisfactory for you all to read and enjoy ^^ (also this can be read from either hero/villain/ or literally any of your fav character's pov- you decide <3)

[blushinggray]

Free! The Final Stroke screeching/reaction (spoilers)

AHHHHH I JUST WATCHED THE FINAL STROKE MOVIE TODAY IN THEATERS ON PREMIER DAY AND IT WAS LAKSJDFOAIFJWOEI to summarize it all, it was Very Gay, which was to be expected but they DID NOT have to get so freaking extra with it 😩😩😩

much screaming and many spoilers ahead

FIRST OF ALL, KIRISHIMA NATSUYA: HE WAS SO FUCKING HANDSOME DAFKJOIEFJOSIDJF. SO HANDSOME. SO HANDSOME AND STUPID AND OVERLY FRIENDLY AS WE LOVE HIM TO BE ALKDSJFOAIEW.

he was in the film for a total of maybe 5 minutes altogether, which was kind of a lot bc the film kind of was just putting all the characters back in for the sake of putting them in imo? for the fans, lol. so everyone could see their faves. and in these five minutes that he appeared, our mans:

bragged about his little brother he's so proud of

got laughed at by nao for being natsuya (aka dumb and straightforward) as usual

trained with sousuke (he was hanging out in the same pool with him, nao, and makoto to train and aid in sousuke's rehab training)

got a call from ikuya after the international swimming competition in sydney!!!! in that same cafe he's always at!!!! and he was with nao at the time he got the call. casual and cool as always, being the cool big brother or whatever. he ended the call with a curt, "you got it. see you. don't catch a cold."

HE WAS HANGING OUT AT CAFE MARON WHILE THEY WAITED FOR THE SYDNEY COMPETITORS TO COME BACK TO JAPAN. HE WAS BEHIND THE COUNTER WITH ASAHI (WHO WAS HOLDING BABY TSUKIMI IN A CARRIER ON HIS CHEST!!!!!) AND HE THREW HIS ARM AROUND ASAHI AND WAS GETTING SO CLOSE LIKE ALKSDJFAOIEJAOEI. I have absolutely no clue what he was saying at the time bc i was too busy freaking out and trying to hold in the sounds bc the theater was so quiet. but his GODDAMN FACE. HE WAS SMIRKING. SO HANDSOME 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

and of fucking course, they were all out together at a restaurant when the sydney competitors came back, and he was like, "wth no one else is drinking alcohol tonight?" and nao was like "ofc not haha" AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

HE FUCKING FALLS ASLEEP AT THE TABLE AFTER DRINKING AND EVERYONE IS SURROUNDING HIM AND PATTING HIM LIKE "dude..." and ikuya is sitting there like, omg can't believe this mess is my brother....

i thought that just might be his last scene in the film but then we show back up to the kirishima household and natsuya is eating some sort of luxury holiday(?) bento and ikuya is like "aren't you gonna save any for me?" and natsuya's like "of course not. this is for me, you gotta wait until next year xD" and then ikuya just fucking SNATCHES up several different foods and stuffs his face with all of them and natsuya starts arguing with him over them laskjdfoawiefjao where was this brotherly affection all this time?????

and then cut to a few seconds later, natsuya's bumming in his room on the floor like in s3 when ikuya comes in and tells him about his new future goals and alskdjfaoei brothers sharing their ambitions together 😩😩 WHAT IS GOING ON. EVERYONE GETS ALONG SO WELL NOW???

NEXT: we'll go back to the beginning i guess lmfao but they're preparing for some sort of university festival

we start off with an easily misunderstandable shoujo-style situation where asahi is talking to ikuya like, "i know it's your first time... you don't have to be nervous. i know you can do it." and ikuya's like "no! i can't 😣" like the tsun he is backed up against the wall. and then it turns out they're trying to make a mille feuille cake.... but everything he's made so far looked like crepes

and for some damn reason, KISUMI comes outta nowhere into the kitchen and is like "ooooh what's this? a mille feuille cake? although they all look kinda like crepes haha ^^" and then ikuya RUNS THE FUCK OUT OF THE KITCHEN, yelling, "i told you i couldn't do it!!!" like the fucking tsun he is... and asahi is yelling at kisumi like "why did you just say that!!!" and starts rubbing his knuckles into kisumi's head and kisumi's just laughing like, "oh did i do that hehe"

and for some reason... seijuurou is working at the booth in his speedo and swim team jacket. i mean i'm not complaining but sir.... PLS TAKE MY MONEY AND GIVE ME YOUR FAT OCTOPUS BALLS. (he literally started a batter mixing competition with hoshikawa inside the booth, like what are they even doing in the same booth???)

then rin and sousuke show up to ikuya, asahi, and hiyori(?)'s booth, and they're offering them the crepes and then they get into a conversation about smth that leads into them showing the embarrassing photos they have of each other?????? like ikuya has a pic of rin in his maid costume for some reason??? (tho it isn't shown) and rin shows an embarrassing pic of ikuya he has in his phone that he got from natsuya???????????? and then ikuya starts chasing after rin yelling at him to delete it lasdkjfoaei

and then haru is off to the side selling ugly ass bird mascots again lmfao. bc ofc he is. love that weirdo

BUT THE REAL KICKER HERE IS KINJOU!!!!!!!!!!!

APPARENTLY, HIS VILLAIN BACKSTORY COMES FROM HIS CHILDHOOD CRUSH (/exaggerated) ON HIYORI ALSKDJFOAIE WHAAAT. apparently he was that annoying kid in the playground who would go up to hiyori and bother him bc he wanted a friend. bb hiyori was literally like "why are you even talking to me so much?" in his sandbox. and bb kinjou is like, "well there's gotta be smth you like, right? what is it?" and hiyori's like "well i feel kinda happy when i'm swimming... :)" as images of ikuya flash into his mind, that gay ass

BUT KINJOU'S GAY ASS EYES START SPARKLING TOO AND THEN HE'S LIKE "I GOTTA LEARN WHAT THE BIG DEAL ABOUT SWIMMING IS" and he runs home, begs his brother to take him to the pool. but next time he brings his swimming stuff with him to the playground, hiyori isn't there anymore and apparently he left for america at that time (or smth). so poor baby basically got ghosted

but hiyori still knows him when they're older!!!! kinjou shows up when they're throwing out the trash after the uni festival and calls out to hiyori to taught him (which is where that bullying preview scene came from i guess) and alkfjeoiaejoaifj omfg it's like that estranged childhood friends (sorta) trope but it'll never go kinjou's way bc hiyori is and will always be in love with ikuya 😔

kinjou would make such a good yandere tho!!!! he has a feral expression on a few times throughout the movie, and during a race he gets super competitive mid-race and... ngl he was kinda sexy 😳 i'm actually kind of surprised by how taken i was with him in this movie. doesn't help that he's unfairly handsome and his hair looks fucking amazing. i MAY OR MAY NOT be exploring this man in the future..................

i also found the ending with haru pretty interesting!!!! it kind of hints at neurodivergence? smth along the lines of disassociation or multiple personalities? (guess 50% off was kinda right on that end lmfao).

he gets obsessed with beating albert wahlander, which is the most fired up i've ever seen him (to the point of almost hurting himself) and then the shadow or whatever effect albert has on haru kind of just overtakes him and pushes haru out of his own body in a way... it doesn't make sense to describe it this way, i know, but haru is literally watching himself say hurtful things to his friends while being overtaken by this... albert obsessed persona?

it's so interesting to see haru being the one obsessing over someone instead of the other way around for once!!! at the end of the movie (after all the credits) haru says the same thing he once said at the beginning of season 1? about how "at age 5, you're a prodigy. at age 15, you're a genius. at age 20(?), you're average." and this is def gonna be explored/concluded in the second part of the final stroke movie so i'm excited for that!!!! april 2022 come at me!!!!

there were SOOOOO many other things going on, plot wise and fanservice wise, and ofc kyoto animation was fucking TOP TIER SHIT. all the water effects... there was a shot where haru was looking at his reflection in the water and they make a drop fall and spread and shake his reflection in the waves and it was lafkjsefoiaeja fucking glorious. the soundtrack was lovely too. there was a RADWIMPS-esque beginning song and a sexy ass electric guitar buildup for kinjou (which may or may not be contributing to my growing obsession with him...)

AHHHH!!!! it was so good and everyone was so cute and handsome and gay and funny. we literally see every single character we've met before in some way, shape, or form lmfao. i might just go back to the theater and watch it again on one of the upcoming holidays this week.... SO GOOD. SO GOOD.

I LOVE ALL THESE GAY SWIMMING BOYS SO MUCH 😩😩😩

[yourheartonfire]

Hi! Your writing is super cool and I was wondering if I could ask for a snippet with a silver tongued villain who is super powerful and also possessive of a hero?

Thank you for the prompt! This took a while to think up a good fill, but I hope you enjoy it.

"You need help down from there, little bird?"

The hero closed their eyes. The iron of the construction crane scaffolding was bitterly cold against their ribs, but they had no choice but to cling on tighter. This high over the city, the wind was strong enough to whip them right off and there was nowhere in landing range, not even close.

There was only the villain, bristling with armor and artillery, smirking below them on the solid surface of the skyscraper roof.

"I can climb up there and get you if you're stuck!" the villain called, leaning themselves against the base of the crane. Their heavy armor hit the struts with a thunk. The structure swayed. The world spun and the hero bit back a gasp. The villain grinned. "Though I will admit I don't have your talent for heights," they went on. "All things considered, why don't you just crawl on back down to me, birdie?"

"I bet you'd like that!" the hero yelled, shifting their grip, forcing themselves to move before their aching muscles could lock up in the cold. They had to think. Too far to jump, no good anchor points for their grappling hooks...

"Yes," the villain purred, drawing out the sibilant s like a snake about to strike. "I would, actually." The hero shot them a startled look. The villain's eyes glittered against the dark metal of their helmet, stars reflected in their murky depths as they gazed up hungrily at the hero. "You know, I really did think you could fly at first. The way you move, like gravity itself couldn't tether you down. I redid my whole aim and tracking system just to bring you down, birdie."

The villain seized a strut and yanked with that terrible strength. The hero yelped as the metal shrieked and the crane swayed the other way. The villain chuckled, the sound echoing eerily.

"But that wouldn't be a challenge, just to shoot you out of the sky," the villain said, ducking under the bars to grab the struts from the inside. "Mm mm. I told the others, 'Hands off! I'm gonna bring this one down to earth myself.'"

Shit, could the villain knock the whole crane down? It was late but there was still traffic below. The hero couldn't let that happen.

The adrenaline burst of panic was just what they needed. The hero piked up to standing and let go, balancing lightly on the thin soles of their sneakers 40 stories over the buzz of traffic below.

The villain immediately tightened their grip on the struts, as if bracing. "Hey, easy now!" they said, in a very different voice. One that sounded... concerned? "You can't actually fly, birdie. Don't do anything stupid."

"I won't let you drop this crane!" the hero yelled. "There are people down there!"

For a moment the villain stared at them, then muttered something exasperated under their breath. "Okay, yeah, kiddo," they said out loud and extended a hand out towards the hero. "You want to save those people? Come back. Give yourself up."

The hero stared right back. The villain was not known for taking prisoners. "Give myself up? Why would I do that? Why do you want with me?"

The wind howled with sudden strength and the hero shuffled-stepped to keep their balance. The villain flinched. "That doesn't matter!" they snapped. "Just - please. Come back. I think you'll find my mercy better than being cracked open on the pavement."

"Your mercy." The hero crossed their arms, pressing against the growing unease in their stomach. "What's going on with you? Why are you acting weird? You want me to come back, you tell me."

The villain hissed a breath out between their teeth, but dropped the hand. "I...' they started, but stopped. The hero had never seen the villain at a loss for words. "You are on a collision course with death," the villain said finally, like pulling teeth from their own mouth. "The odds are clear - your luck will fail eventually. And I... I don't want you to die." They lifted their chin, nothing but hunger in their face, their voice a silky promise. "I could make you very comfortable, birdie."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go with no," the hero said, with a gulp. There was no time for this now. The wind howled again and this time they leaned into it and leapt.

"No!" the villain screamed and the hero counted two and then fired. A leap alone wouldn't do it, nor would the grappling gun. But the two together...

The hook connected to the skyscraper trim and the hero's fall turned into a parabola swing. They had just enough time to spare a glance up and back at the villain, clutching the edge of the skyscraper roof, aiming that massive shoulder cannon down.

They did not fire.

And the hero was left with the sound of the villain's panicked scream ringing in their ears for hours - for days - afterwards.

This had gotten a lot more complicated.

Now continued here!

[britishassistant]

The Villainous Paranoiac Just Wants An Uneventful Holiday (Part 1)

This is not how you wanted to spend your break.

The school was supposed to be empty. Everyone except the Octavinelle trio was supposed to be gone.

Not to say you don’t enjoy your friends’ company but. No magic-using people means no magic-spewing overblots.

You were looking forward to just bringing the fairies their firewood and working on your winter homework while taking the first opportunity in a good long while to unwind with Grim and the ghosts. No investigations to worry about, no weird dreams to get worked up over, no overblots to frantically try and survive.

You wanted a break.

This? Marching 10km into the desert with the rest of Scarabia dorm for the third day in a row due to their leader’s looming psychotic breakdown? This is not a break.

Although...

There’s definetely something rotten in Scarabia dorm, you think to yourself as you watch Viper-senpai hand out skeins of water. Kalim-senpai had no problem using his unique magic yesterday, and yet today he acted like Grim had mortally insulted him when he asked for a repeat performance.

If the outburst had been after two or three other instances of Kalim-senpai using Oasis Maker and receiving what he felt were insufficient thanks for it, then his current attitude would make a little more sense. But taking umbrage after using it just once? And being universally praised by everyone else the rest of the day for it?

It doesn’t add up.

Even deranged behavior has some sort of internal logic to it, as Rosehearts-senpai and the Rules of the Queen of Hearts have taught you. Even with how nonsensical all 810 rules are, it’s rare to find a scenario where one rule actually conflicts with another— all of them usually work smoothly in tandem with the goal of having an orderly unbirthday party in mind.

Even if they do violate most forms of dignity and common sense.

Kalim-senpai’s behavior though? It’s erratic without rhyme or reason, bouncing from nice to mean and back again seemingly as he enters and exits a room. He insists you and Grim stay and participate in this asinine “training”, despite the fact that you both belong to a different dorm, and are technically rivals to Scarabia in Magift and exams.

If you didn’t know better, you’d say it’s almost like he’s trying to imitate Rosehearts-senpai before his overblot—and doing poorly at it.

And with how much Viper-senpai has been invoking parallels between the current situation and what happened back then...

The smartphone Crowley gave you is a cold, heavy weight in your pocket. Its charge ran out yesterday, which is unsurprising given how many times you dialed and redialed the dumb bird headmaster’s number only to be met with his voicemail. You can probably recite that stupid message by heart now. You’ve heard nothing from Ace and Deuce either.

One thing is clear; no one’s going to help you out of this mess but you.

“Kalim-senpai?” You brace yourself as you step towards him. “Can I ask you something?”

“What could you possibly question me about?” He barks, glaring down at you haughtily.

“Well, I was just wondering, what’s the point of all this?” You fight to keep your nerve as his posture stiffens. “I don’t mean any disrespect, none at all, but you do want everyone to do better in Magift and exams, don’t you? I was hoping you could explain to me how the parades and defensive magic training are supposed to do that. I apologize for my ignorance, I’m nowhere near as smart as you, but could you please tell me why we don’t just practice Magift and brush up on the class material inst—”

Your head’s ringing.

You think you hear faint yelling, though it sounds like it’s coming from somewhere far away.

Your cheek aches.

Numbness blooming into a sharp stinging throb that feels like it’s growing with every second that passes, burning hotter than the sun above you.

You cautiously poke your tongue against your teeth, but none feel loose, thank the Seven.

Damn, the desperate, near-hysterical thought flits through your head. Even a pampered rich boy like him has strength behind his hits, huh?

The rest of you is just trying to process what the Hell just happened.

“How. Dare. You?!”

Asim-sama looms over you, red eyes burning with fury.

It’s a fight to keep yourself from curling into a terrified ball under his gaze, tucking into yourself as though seeing less of you would abate the anger, the shouting, the hurt, like you used to when you were a child.

“You dare to question my methods, my leadership of this dorm?! You? A sniveling street rat leeching off my hospitality?! Do you know who I am?!” He rages. “I am Kalim al-Asim! I am the Head of this dorm! I don’t have to explain ANYTHING, justify ANYTHING to the likes of you!!”

You knew, you knew you were pushing your luck when you first asked, but you thought it would just be yelling, like it was before. You can handle yelling, nothing Asim-sama can say could ever be worse than what you’ve already heard.

You didn’t think he’d hit you.

You didn’t think he’d hit you.

You didn’t think—

“DON'T YOU TOUCH MY MINION, FGNAH!”

Your arm whips out almost on instinct.

You jolt forward slightly as Grim collides with it, hissing and spitting like he really was an irate cat, the flames in his ears flaring brightly enough that some detached part of you is worried about getting burned.

The other Scarabia students are reaching for their magic pens.

“Lemme at ‘im! Lemme at ‘im!!” Your friend howls, fighting to get past you. “Forget butt on fire, I’ll BURN IT TO A CRISP FOR HURTING MY MINION!! I'LL STEAL EVERYTHING YOU HAVE AND SELL IT FOR LUXURY TUNA!! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR CROSSING THE GREAT GRIM—”

“No, Grim.”

Your friend halts in his flailing to stare uncomprehendingly at you. “But Yuu—!”

“It was my fault.” You say, trying to keep as much emotion out of your voice as possible. Tears and trembling only show weakness, only make them worse. “Asim-sama was just correcting me. He was right to do so. I shouldn’t have questioned him. I overstepped my bounds.”

Asim-sama sniffs. “At least you know your place. Be glad I don’t punish you anymore than this.”

“What?! He slapped you for asking a question, you can’t possibly believe—” You gather Grim into your arms and hug him close. You quietly thank the Great Seven you at least have him, trying to hide the quiver in your limbs by burying your face in his fur.

But that’s exactly why you can’t let him do this. It’s just the two of you, you can’t win against an entire dorm of wizards like you did against the ghosts. Maybe if Ace and Deuce and Jack were here...but it’s just you. You need to protect your friend in the only way you can. “We can’t win this. Please, Grim.”

You feel him grumble, then a paw carefully pushes at your forehead. “Hrm...I’ll show mercy for now, so geroff already. It’s too hot for you to keep hugging me like this, I’m cooking here fgnah.”

Despite saying so, he settles onto your shoulder, tail smacking your arm as it flicks irritably.

“If you’ll excuse me, Asim-sama.” You duck your head slightly. “I will remove myself from your sight and head back early as penance for my behavior. Once again, my deepest apologies for insulting you.”

Asim-sama gives you a curt, dismissive nod.

You turn and make your way through the crowd of Scarabia students, snatches of muttered conversations floating to your ears.

“How could he—?”

“Just for a question?”

“Isn’t that going too far...?”

“Unforgivable...”

“Prefect.” Viper-senpai takes you by the shoulder, turning you to face him. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” You reply monotonously, eyes on the sand below you. “Just...just need to be by myself for a bit.”

His lips purse and you can feel him study your face. He presses a full water skein into your hands. “Take this. Even if it’s not as cold as I’d like, it should help with the swelling some. Plus you need to stay hydrated out there.”

“Thank you, Viper-senpai.” You nod, keeping your eyes down.

“And Prefect?” He squeezes your shoulder, voice lowering only a fraction. “I am truly sorry about this. All of this. It will not happen again, you have my word.”

It would’ve been a nice apology, had you not caught a glimpse of a smirk on his face.

You nod, making sure not to outwardly react to that or to the way the whispers of the other Scarabia students turn from the condemnation of their dorm head to the exaltation of the vice dorm head. You begin following the tracks in the sand back to the main dorm.

The sun beats down on your back as you take a swig from the skein and pass it to Grim to drink from. He’s still grumbling about how you should’ve let him recreate his rampage at the entrance ceremony.

For your part, the distance and good company have let you pull yourself out of that headspace enough that you can try and look back objectively on what happened.

Your mind keeps circling back around to one question: why did Asim-senpai hit you?

Based on your interactions before this, Asim-senpai doesn’t seem to be the type to resort to physical violence as a first response, or even a last one. Which means something in your question likely backed him into a corner enough that the normally pacifistic dorm head felt lashing out physically was the only way to get you to stop.

...Like the fact that he couldn’t answer it?

Even when screaming abuse at you, his ultimate response was that he wouldn’t explain himself to you. Is that because he didn’t want to? Or because he couldn’t? Does Asim-senpai himself not know the reasons behind his own actions? But how can someone act without knowing or meaning to, without being under the influence somehow?

Under the influence.

People acted without knowing or meaning to thanks to being under the influence of Buchie-senpai’s Unique Magic during the Magift incident. But he went home, you saw him leave, so what...?

You pull out your notebook, flipping through the pages with sweaty hands until you get to your records of the testimonies from the incident. You scan through the testimonies from Scarabia students, hoping to find something, anything—

Oh.

Oh.

“Motherfucker.” You hiss, staring at the page in dismay. You are an idiot. You are the biggest idiot, you make Deuce look like a genuis, how could you forget about this?? It was only the key testimony that helped pinpoint Buchie-senpai and Savannahclaw as the culprits behind the injuries. And it explains so much— why you kept agreeing to stay here despite wanting to go back to Ramshackle so desperately, almost like your mouth was speaking without your consent.

“Minion?” Grim asks, pushing the water skein back onto you. “What’s wrong?”

You snap your notebook shut and slide it back into your pocket, taking another fortifying swig from the skein. “Grim? Think we can get back soon enough to work on the escape route in our room before the others arrive back for lunch?”

“If we pick up the pace a bit, yeah.” He hops back onto your shoulder. “But what’s the rush? We have all night tonight to work on it.”

“Let’s just say the sooner we can get out of here, the better.” You mutter, cogs and gears turning in your head as a tentative plan begins to form.

This is not how you wanted to spend your winter break.

[hwkhs]

Terms of Endearment

summary: what the bnha characters call their s/o with a little imagine to go with it

pairings: hawks/takami keigo, dabi/todoroki touya, amajiki tamaki, togata mirio x gn! reader

warnings: none

style & genre: headcannons; fluff (but for hawks it’s not because it just came to me, it’s still fluff though!)

notes: the imagines are longer in this one :) i need to catch up on the manga everyone’s freaking out rn and i want to know why and i need to finish prep work for school does anyone remember how to do calc

and reposted because tumblr algorithm ahehe

Part One | Part Two | cont. soon…

Hawks/Takami Keigo

what he would call his s/o: little bird, lovebird, lovely

he thinks it’s cute if he adds “bird” somewhere in there

he likes it when you call him “birdie” or something like that so he calls you one of the two above so you guys can match

i feel like he’d be the one to use nicknames the most out of all the characters just because

You are both patrolling on opposite sides of the city when a villain appears out of nowhere. There aren’t enough reinforcements near you and Hawks knew the alert was coming from your patrol area. You have a fairly strong quirk, enough to get you into the Top 10, however, he had a sense that there was something else amiss.

His fears are confirmed when he sees you laying on the ground in a pool of your own blood. His attention snaps to the villain hovering above and sends his feathers towards them before flying up himself, red overcoming his vision.

It may have only been minutes after but the villain is detained and he is by your side in seconds. Your quirk is barely keeping you alive and he scans the area to see other heroes who fought with you with the same injuries only less serious. Holding you in his arms, Hawks places his ear to your chest and releases his breath when he hears your heart beating.

Your eyes crack open but the pain is unbearable. He sees you looking at him and he brings your head to his chest. “It’s okay, little bird, you’ll be fine. Help is on the way.”

Dabi

what he would call his s/o: doll/dollface, sweet

a little shit

he says these nicknames with a teasing tone all the damn time and it doesn’t matter if you are male, female, nonbinary - he’ll call you DOLL because he thinks you’re cute

he’s never been in a serious relationship so calling someone these names is pretty important because he actually cares about you

“Hey, doll.” You jump at hearing the voice behind you until you realize who it is. He chuckles to himself as he sauntered over to where you were, just closing the door behind you to your room.

He is already used to being quiet, with your parents being home and all and them being pro-heroes no less. Your relationship with the blue fire user had sprung up almost spontaneously but you wouldn’t trade it for the world, and neither would he.

Much back and forth had gone on, mostly on your part, but you both had come out stronger from it. While you didn’t necessarily like his profession, you couldn’t say you were too keen of the heroes either. Whether that was influenced by him or not, you would never say.

In the midst of your thoughts he had already gathered you in his arms and thrown you both into the bed. Being a villain living a shabby building didn’t provide him with much luxury so he was happy to know that he had you to hold onto and a comfortable bed to lay in.

“I missed you so much, dollface.”

Amajiki Tamaki

what he would call his s/o: bunny, butterfly

another one who makes me soft

he’s so innocent so it takes a bit before he starts calling you these

the first time he called you bunny/butterfly he was so embarassed until you told him you liked it and even then he would still flush even though HE said it to YOU

You hold onto Tamaki’s hand tighter as you drag him to another booth. Being in a crowded area wasn’t his forte so he appreciated when you pulled him away from the other people to more secluded areas. It was his idea to bring you to the festival for your anniversary and you felt immensely happy to know he would go through with human interaction if it made your day. He even brought along his camera to take pictures.

“What do you want to eat?” You point at the menu that was full of delicious sounding crêpes. You both choose what you want and the dish is given to you in a pretty basket. The large smile on your face doesn’t go unnoticed as Tamaki holds the camera slung around his neck.

You look up at his red face when you hear the camera shutter go off. He has a soft smile to which you kiss his cheek. The picture of you is cute.

“You have a beautiful smile, bunny.”

Togata Mirio

what he would call his s/o: sunflower, pumpkin, honeybee

the perfect™ man pt. 2

he gives off just WHOLESOME WHOLESOME boyfriend material right here this man oh my god help

cheesy yet cute names for you though his favorite is calling you sunflower

“Sunflower, have you seen my–” Mirio’s words get caught in his mouth when he sees you napping on his bed. Not only that, but in his hoodie no less. He was bigger in size so the article of clothing engulfed you almost entirely.

You slept soundly, soft snores coming from your mouth as he made his way to lay beside you. As if on instinct, you snuggle closer to his warm body, face finding rest in the crook of his neck. He smiles when he hears you let out a sigh of content before returning to your previous state.

‘Good timing’, he thinks to himself, ‘I was actually looking for this hoodie.’

[captain-josslett]

Broken Melody - Part Twenty

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten, Part Eleven, Part Twelve, Part Thirteen, Part Fourteen, Part Fifteen, Part Sixteen, Part Seventeen, Part Eighteen, Part Nineteen...

Summary: Grammy Award winning Emma Danvers is the first to say she has a pretty good life. But what happens when it implodes around her and it looks like things will never be the same again?

Words: 5.8k+

Warnings: Angst, Fluff.

Pairings: Emma Danvers x Lena Luthor

This Part: Emma tries to work through everything and continues to struggle with not seeing her sisters.

So, so, sorry it’s been a while since updating. I’ve started a full time job and my mind just hasn’t been able to write 😅 But I do get to daydream when I work so I have loads of ideas stored away and hopefully will be able to update quicker.

Thank you for reading and let me know if you wanna be tagged or any general feedback will be greatly appreciated. Please! I like knowing your thoughts.

Taglist: @finleyfray​​, @life-is-hella-unfair​, @natasha-danvers​, @supergirl-writingz​, @camslightstories​, @thinking1bee​, @aznblossom​,

Ten year old Emma Danvers jumps awake when she hears a blood curdling scream. For a few moments she blinks into her dark room, confused at the noise that woke her. But when a softer wail fills the silence Emma quickly rolls out of bed. Recognising the cries coming from her recently adopted kryptonian sister, Kara.

Emma pads out of her small room and into the hallway, yawning and tiredly rubbing her eyes as she gently pushes Alex and Kara’s bedroom door open. Kara’s whimpering increases in volume as Emma enters the room. She softly closes the door behind her and quietly tiptoes over to Kara’s bed.

Emma sadly looks over at her oldest sister, Alex, who is turned away from the crying alien. Seemingly ignoring Kara’s pain. This annoys Emma greatly and the sisters have already argued over it. The blonde had even offered to swap rooms with Alex but the redhead stubbornly refused saying it was her room.

“Kara?” Emma whispers softly and waits for the crying figure to respond. Tearful blue eyes peer over the shaking duvet before quickly disappearing again.

Emma looks mournfully down at the other blonde as she thinks of ways to help her. After a few moments Emma lifts the corner of the covers and climbs into Kara’s bed. She gently reaches out and hugs Kara close, remembering how her Mom would comfort her after she’d have a bad dream.  

Her new sister flinches slightly at the touch but soon Emma feels Kara settle and maneuver around to hug her back. The alien starts to shake as she tries to stifle her sobs into Emma’s shoulder.

Emma’s heart aches at the sound. She pulls her head back so she can see Kara’s face. The night light illuminates Kara’s flushed cheeks and bloodshot eyes. “No, it’s okay to cry. Mom said you get sick if you try to keep your tears in.” Emma tries to encourage the alien. Though she doesn’t know if Kara can fully understand her yet. However, Kara’s face scrunches up and fresh tears fall.

“It’s okay.” Emma says soothingly while stroking her hair.

“S-s-sing?” Kara gulps out and buries her head back into Emma’s little shoulder.

“Which one?” Emma asks softly and Kara thinks for a moment but shakes her head as she sniffs heavily. “Okay.” Emma purses her lips forward as she thinks about the other songs she has sung to Kara. “I got it.”

Somewhere over the rainbow, Way up high, There’s a land that I’ve heard of, Once in a lullaby.

Emma immediately feels Kara relaxing as she continues to quietly sing. The sisters had recently watched ‘The Wizard of Oz’ with Kara because Emma wanted to show her new sister one of her favourite films. The alien had truly been fascinated with the movie and Emma couldn’t help but watch Kara’s reactions to certain parts. How Kara’s face lit up when Dorthy opened the door to a world of colour or how freaked out Kara got when the Wicked Witch appeared in a plume of red smoke and disappearing in a blaze of fire.

Somewhere over the rainbow, Bluebirds fly, Birds fly over the rainbow, Why then oh why can’t I?

As Emma nears the end of the song Kara’s sobs start to die down, being replaced with shuddering breaths. The twelve year old alien clings tightly to the little human, the pressure hurts Emma slightly but she knows Kara doesn’t mean to hurt her and she is not use to her super strength yet.

Emma stares over at Alex’s back. Not knowing if the redhead was awake or asleep. But Emma guesses she is awake by how she is breathing. Silently Emma hopes her oldest sister will come around to Kara.

Yes it had been a shock when Superman brought his older, but now younger, alien cousin to them but Emma was overcome with curiosity and intrigue over the other blonde. She tried to communicate with the alien and found a way through hand gestures and persistence. Repeating words for Kara and pointing items out. Mainly important things like water, food, Star Wars and everything a ten year old finds important. Once Eliza found Emma talking to the Kryptonian about the different plants and vegetables in the garden and Kara patiently listened. Fascinated by the texture of the leaves and the words Emma was saying. Both missing the scowling glare Alex was giving them from her bedroom window.

Emma then presented the wooden swords her dad had made. Giving Kara Alex’s and demonstrating how to sword fight. Soon the two blonde’s were giggling while twirling around and bashing each other’s swords. Until Alex furiously stormed over to them and took her sword away from Kara. Grumbling it was hers and she was going to break it. Jeremiah immediately set to work making Kara one of her own. Which the two blonde’s watched with tilted heads.

But when Jeremiah told them to go play and leave him to concentrate Emma took Kara back into the house, trying to figure out more things to show her new sister. She had already displayed her seashell collection, which Kara analysed deeply and Emma noticed a crinkle appearing between the other blonde’s eyebrows.

Emma looks around the house and her eyes fall on her art supplies. Making Kara jump when she claps her hands together in excitement.

“I hope you like art! Alex doesn’t really, which is sad but she likes her own things. Like reading. Reading is okay but I much prefer doing something.” Emma smiles at Kara who smiles politely. “Have a seat.” Emma points at the dining room table and Kara complies. The ten year old then pulls out all of her art supply to show Kara. She watched as the alien’s blue eyes lit up behind her glasses.

“Did you do art on Krypton?” Emma asks, happy that she may have found something Kara enjoys.

Kara nods and the pair quietly sit for hours as they draw and paint. Emma didn’t mind Kara using most of the red paint and was pleased she thought of a good idea.

She hardly sees Alex, seemingly too moody that she wasn’t the centre of attention in the Danvers household anymore. Keeping to herself and barely talking to her baby sister.

Weeks turned into months and slowly Alex seemed to warm up to the new addition to the family. Especially when Kara defended Emma against a group of bullies. Standing with her little sister and ready to defend her. Alex marched over and stood next to her side, ready to punch any bully in the face that hurts either of her sisters. This was the moment Kara uttered her family motto, explaining they were stronger together.

The three started to become closer over time and would regularly be found in the forest by their home playing and having adventures.

On one such occasion a fifteen year old Alex and twelve year old Emma teamed up together as heroes to try and take down the evil villain that was destroying their town of Midvale.

“Psfft I don’t see the target. Over.” Emma quietly talks into the walkie talkie and holds her wooden sword tightly in her other hand.

“Please tell me you did not just make the static noise?” Alex laughs while rolling her eyes.

“Ah come on Al! Plus you need to say over. Over.”

“Fine.” Alex sasses back. “Over.” The redhead continues to look around, listening intently for the fourteen year old Kara. Having a sneaky suspicion that her alien sister was using her powers. Which was against the rules.

“Psttf I have an idea. Over” Emma’s voice whispers out from the walkie talkie.

“And what is that?” Alex responds quickly. “Over.”

“What if we do what that guy did in that movie. Over.”

“Vague… We watch loads of movies dork.” Alex rolls her eyes again at her little sister’s comment. She twirls her bow in her hand as she waits for Emma’s response.

“You know he sacrifices himself. Draws the evil guy out and gives the hero a chance to defeat them. Over.”

“Not a bad idea. Especially if you are the bait.” Alex chuckles and shakes her head. “Over.”

“Let’s do it by the fallen tree in the clearing? You can hide and I’ll call for her. Over.” Alex smirks at the excitement within Emma’s voice.

“Sure Peanut. Over.”

Alex quietly jogs to the huge fallen tree. Constantly on the lookout for Kara. But her adopted alien sister is nowhere to be seen. As Alex approaches the clearing she sees Emma step out of the other end and start to look around. Their eyes immediately connect, as if Emma could sense where she was and Alex quickly hides within some bushes and waits. Readying her bow and arrow. Making sure the arrow was a dummy that would only sting Emma slightly if she got in the way.

Emma waits for Alex to get into position and cups her hands over her mouth, yelling loudly. “Kara?! Hey Kara!” She waits and soon enough a blur appears before her. “Hey! You used your powers!”

“Well as a villain of course I would!” Kara bites back slyly with a grin.

“You really are evil!” Emma gasps dramatically, raising a hand to her chest.

“And when I am finished with you I will hunt your sister down and hurt her! And your little dog too!” Kara slowly takes a few menacing steps towards Emma who stands her ground.

“No! Not Alex and Toto!” Emma’s eyes fill with tears. Alex is always blown away that her baby sister can cry on demand and would often use her sister’s talent to get extra treats from their Mom or sitter.

“Little one?” Kara asks, concerned enough to break character.

“They are fake, keep going! You’re doing really well!” Emma gives Kara a smile before filling her eyes with tears again. “You will never get away with this!” Emma yells dramatically, pointing at Kara.

‘Give her the damn Oscar!’ Alex thinks with a smile as she watches the blonde’s.

Kara nods and puts a sly smirk back on her face. “But I already have!”

“No! You will never win! Good always defeats evil, you piece of bantha fodder!”

Alex snorts at Emma’s Star Wars reference and readies herself, knowing she’ll need to spring out at any moment.

“How dare you insult me! Me the mistress of all evil! You are nothing but the dirt on the bottom of my shoe!” Kara yells as she reaches for her wooden sword. Emma circles around so Kara’s back is to their eldest sister. “Now prepare to meet your doom!”

“Not if I can help it!” Alex suddenly appears behind them and fires her bow and arrow at the blonde. Hitting Kara’s right shoulder where it harmlessly falls to the ground.

“No! Ow!” Kara screams and collapses to her knees. “Damn you!” She coughs comically and falls to the floor.

Emma snorts and places a hand over her mouth.

“Emma! It’s rude to mock the dead.” Alex scolds her little sister.

“Sorry.” The blonde tries to wipe the smile off her face and make her expression natural.

“Who says I’m dead?” Kara’s muffled voice pipes up from the ground.

“Well the arrow would have been made out of a substance that could kill you and due to my excellent marksmanship it went through your heart. Killing you instantly.” Alex explains as she twirls the bow around.

Kara lifts her head up and smirks at the redhead. “You hit me in the right shoulder. My heart is on the left dummy.”

Emma snorts again which erupts into loud laughter when Alex glares at her. “Great shooting Alex!”

“Which means… Sneak attack!” Kara yells while pulling Emma onto the floor and starts tickling her.

“Nooo!!” Emma screams with laughter and tries to get out of her sister’s grip. “Please! Stop! Argh! Alex! Help!”

The redhead watches the pair with amusement before stepping in. “I’ll help you!” Alex yells theatrically. But instead of aiding Emma she joins in with Kara.

“Traitor!” Emma gasps out. “You’re… My sister!”

“And? Maybe I purposefully aimed for Kara’s right shoulder to take down the real villain!”

“Dun dun dunnnnn!” Kara laughs out as she continues ticking the thrashing blonde.

“Please stop! I’m gonna pee!” Tears of laughter stream down Emma’s face and the sisters finally stop their attack.

Alex smirks at her baby sister as Emma wipes the tears from her face, the redhead then looks up at the sky. “It’s getting late, we better head back.” She stands to her feet and holds out her hands for her sisters to take, helping Kara and Emma stand. The sister’s turn towards home and walk together in unison, laughing and joking together. Ready to take on the world.

-- -- --

Present day Emma stares out of the DEO window while plucking at her guitar while her mind wanders through her memories with her sisters. Though she can’t really remember the time before Kara came. To her Kara has always been there.

Slowly her mind starts to filter through the session she had with Alistair. They had worked on her fuzzy memories of the attack. How they are slowly coming back into focus but seemingly her brain was protecting her by blocking most of it out. Emma had projected the hurtful words spoken by her sisters that Emma does remember. That a part of her believes making her insecurities bubble up to the surface.

Lily, Alistair’s white german shepherd, had almost instantly jumped up on Emma’s bed and placed her head in Emma’s lap. Staying there throughout the session. Helping to ground Emma and when she got emotional or experienced a flashback, Lily had been a comforting presence.

A noise by Emma’s open door draws her attention away from the window. Standing in the hall was a transfixed Winn with Brainy and Nia behind him.

Emma smirks and waves at the trio. Stopping the music seemingly snaps them out of their trance.

“Hi Em.” Winn smiles brightly as he approaches one of the chairs around Emma’s bed. Emma returns his smile but it is more subdued. “You okay?” He frowns at the blonde, noticing her lack of a smile. He places the food container on the tray table by Emma and she nods while pulling the table closer to her. Her smile brightens slightly when she sees the sausages, vegetables and mash potato.

“Doctor Hamilton said you can start trying some form of solid foods and as I know you like that British restaurant down the road we thought lunch could be a bit more international.”

‘So the Tai food the other day wasn’t international enough for you?’ Emma wants to say but doesn’t write it down. Instead letting out a breathy snort as she starts cutting into the food.

“Oh yea Doc also said to cut it up real small. Chew lots before swallowing” Winn lists off the instructions Doctor Hamilton had told him while opening his container. Watching as Emma nods in response. “Enjoy your bangers and mash!”

Emma lets out a breathy laugh, remembering the weird names the Brits call their food. ‘Spotted Dick’ being her favourite by far. Not believing they would call a fruit, sponge dessert by that name, but had been proved wrong when the amused waiter brought the pudding out for Emma to try. Despite the very off putting name, Emma thoroughly enjoyed it. Almost having to fight off her bandmates to eat all of it in peace.

“Have you been to the UK Winn?” Nia asks, filling the silence.

“Yea I have. Both future and present.”

Emma lifts an eyebrow in response. Wondering what life is like in the future and being frustrated that Winn was keeping so tight lipped about it all.

“Awesome! I haven’t yet but it’s on my bucket list.” Nia replies enthusiastically, a longing look fills her eyes.

“Did you know the British public consume over sixty billion cups of tea a year. Around 100 million each day.” Brainy chimes into the conversation, causing Nia and Winn to gape at him about the statistic.

Emma continues to listen to her friends talking. Wishing she could join in and tell them about her time in the UK. But also being aware of how painfully slow conversation flows when she has to write everything down.

Sighing deeply Emma shoves more food in her mouth. Thankful that Winn chose something she enjoys. To be fair Emma likes anything. Other than Marmite… A disgusting yeast spread that half of Brits like. One of her stage managers in the UK dared Emma to try it. Making the blonde gag and causing her to drink loads of water to get rid of the horrible taste in her mouth.

“Emma?” Nia calls out, breaking Emma’s train of thought. “You’ve been to the UK many times right?” Emma nods. “Have you seen the Queen?” Emma nods again.

“What when?” Winn asks with a mouthful of food and his eyebrows almost up to his hairline.

Emma quietly sighs and grabs her notebook, keenly aware of the silence in the room as she writes.

‘The Royal Variety Performance.’

“Ah yea!” Nia smiles remembering the video she found on youtube after Kara first told her about Emma. She had been transfixed by Axis’ music and Emma’s performance. Singing a powerful ballad that moved the brunette to tears. Nia had spent hours upon hours going through Axis’ social media and debated about whether to send Emma a friend request. The brunette had squealed loudly when Emma had accepted and immediately messaged her,

A knock stops Nia from asking more questions as Emma looks over to see Lucy standing awkwardly by the door. Emma can’t help but shift uncomfortably in the bed, hoping Lucy has calmed down from earlier this morning.

“Don’t worry, I’m not here to yell at you.” Lucy says as if she has read Emma’s mind. “May I come in?”

Emma nods before turning back to her meal. Though she feels like she has lost her appetite.

Lucy glances at the three friends who give her looks of encouragement as she cautiously approaches Emma’s bed, watching the blonde push her food around.

“Can I sit here?” Lucy points to the end of the bed and Emma nods without looking up at her. Lucy lowers onto the bed and takes a deep breath. “So, I’m sorry about earlier. I overreacted when I found out you were missing and you are like a sister to me and I got so scared-” Lucy lifts a hand to her head trying to find the words to how terrified she had felt when Emma wasn’t in her room or in the building. She immediately rushed down to the cells but when there was no sign of Emma anywhere the brunette really panicked.

A hand grasps her knee and Lucy’s green eyes snap up to Emma’s. “Sorry.” Lucy breathes out and Emma gives her a timid smile. “So, we also need to discuss the next steps. Mainly the timeline of your recovery because we cannot disclose the Phoenix serum.”

Emma nods and leans back against the bed.

“How long would this timeline be?” Winn asks with a frown.

“We are trying to not make it overly long. Doctor Hamilton did say wounds like Emma’s would have taken at least 3 months to heal fully and she’d be bed bound for a while.”

“But Emma isn’t bed bound.” Nia blinks in confusion. “Would Emma need to stay here?”

“Or in her apartment.” Lucy looks at the blonde mournfully, who deeply swallows in response. Not liking the sound of that at all. Not feeling at all ready to go back to the apartment. Even after J’onn had told her a crew had made it good as new, with no evidence of the incident.

“There would be a huge media frenzy if any photos come out of you like this. The world thinks you can barely open your eyes and hardly move due to the amount of broken bones you have.”

Alarm fills Emma and she quickly grabs her notebook to write.

‘Robyn?!’

“Ah yea. I had her sign a NDA.” Lucy rolls her eyes. “She was annoyingly persistent. I thought you hated each other?” Emma shakes her head and lets out a breathy chuckle. “Jack isn’t far behind, though I’m trying to hold him off for as long as possible.”

Relief starts to filter in and Emma nods before starting to write again. She bites the inside of her lip at the thought of returning back to her apartment. Not sure she’s ready or even wants to go back there.

‘How do you propose we move forward?’ She holds the pad up and watches her friend’s face as she reads.

Lucy hesitates slightly before unlocking her tablet to bring up the timeline. “We will need to stage photos and videos showing your recovery and release them at the right time.” Lucy looks down at her notes. “We do have some already but I’d be happier if we do more.”

Emma glumly sighs causing Lucy to glance back up at her.

“I’m sorry Em but we need to do this to keep the media off our backs. J’onn and I had hoped it would have died down but everyone is still up in arms about what happened.”

Emma’s expression morphs into one of shock and disbelief. She quickly writes one word before showing the lawyer.

‘Why?’

“Because those that listen to your music feel a powerful connection towards you. Even though they have not met you or know you personally.” Brainy explains simply.

“And the attack has brought your music to the attention of more people.” Winn points out.

“Tell me about it.” Lucy says exasperatedly and runs a hand through her hair. “I had a three hour debate with your record label as they want to release the work you’ve done on your new album. Even the covers you’ve been sending Lena.”

Emma immediately shakes her head quickly at the idea. Causing a ringing in her ears.

“Yea I told them they can shove it.” Lucy agrees and quickly takes a piece of sausage from Emma’s container. Almost getting her hand stabbed from Emma’s fork.

Emma playfully glares at the brunette and Lucy sticks her tongue out before popping the meat into her mouth. Emma shakes her head and starts writing.

‘So I will be under house arrest?’

“I’m afraid so.” Lucy says softly, causing Emma’s shoulders to slump and her expression becomes sullen.

“I may be able to help with that.” Winn pipes up, causing Emma and Lucy to stare at him. “I, with Brainy and Lena’s help, could develop a face modifier. That way Emma can move around freely and not disrupt the timeline.”

“That could work.” Lucy squints her eyes as she considers the idea.

“May help Alex and Kara to know Emma is moving around too. I’ve never seen them so broken, I mean poor Alex, you would have thought Kelly would have stood by her and not run away-” Nia comments passionately and Emma freezes.

Horror fills Emma's whole body. She remembers Alex telling her the morning before the attack that she and Kelly were having problems but Emma never imagined Kelly would leave Alex like this. Especially with what her sister is going through.

Immediately Emma leaps out of bed and sprints to the door. She needs to see her sisters. Her heart aches knowing they are both in pain. That they are broken.

“Emma?!” Her friends yells fill the hallway as they chase after her. Agents seemingly appear ahead of her but the blonde easily sidesteps them. Using the training Alex had taught her in self defence.

As soon as she reaches the end of the corridor the blonde slides into the wall and repeatedly slams her hand on the elevator button. When it becomes obvious the doors won’t open quick enough she dashes towards the door to the stairs. Her determination gives her tunnel vision and she ignores those around her.

Until someone leaps on her back.

“Emma stop!” Lucy yells as she clings to Emma, wrapping her arms and legs around the blonde. Halting Emma from leaving the floor. “I’m sorry but they aren’t ready to see you. I’m so sorry.”

Emma tries to get Lucy off her back but the brunette has too good a grip. The blonde heaves in heavy breaths and her face scrunches up as she starts to silently cry. She longs to hold her sisters. To reassure them they are okay.

A ping announces an elevator has arrived. Emma turns her head to gaze longingly at it but feels Lucy’s grip tighten around her chest.

“Emma please.”

The blonde watches mournfully as the doors close.

When it becomes apparent that Emma won’t be running down to the cells Lucy slides off her back.

The brunette sadly looks at the tears streaming down her friend’s face. Placing a gentle hand on Emma’s shoulder Lucy guides her back to the room.

“Emma.” Nia squeaks out with wide eyes as she walks with the pair. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t think-”

The blonde reaches out and squeezes Nia’s hand. Giving her a barely there smile which Nia returns with an encouraging one of her own.

Emma re-enters the room and sits heavily on her bed. Staring out of the window.

“Em?” Winn asks softly, causing Emma to slightly move her head and focus on him. “Are you gonna finish that?” Winn points at the half eaten food.

Emma shakes her head before turning back to the window. She ignores the yelp of pain from Winn when Lucy slaps his arm as he reaches out for the discarded food. Purposefully tuning out the conversation in the room.

Instead, focusing on the world outside of the DEO. The airplanes that zoom across the sky, the birds that flutter past the window and settle on the sill. The traffic down an avenue she can see. Anything to try and keep her mind from acknowledging the pain she’s feeling. The thoughts that are screaming in her mind about her sisters.

“-ma?” Winn’s voice breaks through as she recognises he’s calling out to her. Slowly she turns to look at him. “We’re going back to work. I- er- left your food.”

Emma looks down at the tray and sees that Winn hasn’t touched it. She nods and lifts the right corner of her mouth slightly to show her appreciation.

Emma eyes flick to Nia as she cautiously approaches her. “Can I give you a hug?” Emma nods and opens her arms. Nia immediately dives into them. “Message me if you need me.” Emma nods again and squeezes the superhero. When Nia steps back Winn is already there with his arms open, waiting for a hug. Making Emma voicelessly snort.

“Ah come on!” Winn whines and Emma motions for him to hug her. He does immediately and Emma can’t help but feel more of her anxiety melt away. “If you need anything just give a shout.” Winn says as he pulls away. Emma raises an eyebrow at him and can’t help but smile at the look of horror that comes across his face. Especially when Brainy, Nia and Lucy lower their heads into their hands. “Em. I’m so sorry I-”

Emma immediately lifts a hand to his lips, silencing him. Thankfully he complies, instead gaping at her like a goldfish.

“See you later Emma.” Brainy nods at her before quickly leaving the room, already analysing his tablet at ideas for a face modifier. Nia forcefully grabs Winn’s hand and pulls him out with her.

“I can stay if you want me to?” Lucy asks as she hovers by the bed and massages her shoulder.

Emma is tempted to shake her head but instead she nods. Not wanting to be alone right now.

“Okay great!” Lucy beams at her. “Do you want to do anything? I mean I have work I can be doing but I can watch a film with you or we could play a card game? Chess?”

Emma looks over at the chessboard on the coffee table by the sofa. Lena had brought it in to give Emma something else to do. But the board is currently being taken up by an intense game the girlfriends were playing. Emma reaches for her notebook and writes a response.

‘Lena will immediately say she’s won if we mess the board up.’

“Ah! We can’t have that!” Lucy jokes and sits on the end of Emma’s bed. Her expression becomes sombre as she studies the blonde closely and Emma stares right back. “Are you okay?”

Emma looks between Lucy’s questioning green eyes and slowly shakes her head.

Lucy reaches out and gently holds Emma’s hand. “I’m here if you want to discuss it.”

Emma’s eyes start to glisten with tears and she wipes at them in exasperation.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Lucy grabs Emma’s hand to halt her rubbing. “It’s okay to cry. God knows I’m done my fair share recently.”

Emma tilts her head and frowns slightly.

“What?” Lucy mirrors Emma’s expression. The blonde lets go of Lucy’s hand and starts writing.

‘What do you mean?’

“About what?” Lucy asks, confusion written across her face.

‘What have you been crying about?’

“About you! And Alex and Kara! This whole shit show!” Lucy says bitterly and watches Emma move her pen to paper. “And don’t even think about writing that you are not worth my tears cause you fucking are!”

Emma eyes’s snap up to Lucy’s and her mouth drops open. She was going to write exactly that.

“I’m right aren’t I?”

Emma shuts her mouth and shakes her head.

“Bull.” Lucy narrows her eyes. “Have you forgotten I am a lawyer? And a damn good one at that?”

Emma smiles sadly and looks down to write. ‘Yea you are. Frustratingly so.’

“Unless I’m the one defending you right?” Lucy raises an eyebrow and Emma nods, her smile turning more genuine. “So, do you wanna write about it? You don’t have to, I just-” Lucy hesitates, sighing deeply as she chooses her words. “I worry about you and I wish I could make everything better.”

‘I know.’

“You totally wrote that with Han Solo in mind didn’t you?”

Emma lets out a breathy snort and Lucy laughs loudly.

“You're such a nerd.” Lucy teases and Emma just shrugs. But her smile fades and the blonde gazes down at the paper as she thinks about her sisters. “Em?”

Emma takes a breath and starts writing. Lucy watches her and the expressions Emma makes as she scribbles her thoughts down. In these moments Lucy really misses Emma’s voice and her anger bubbles up at whoever did this to her friend. But before Lucy’s anger simmers up anymore Emma turns the notepad around.

‘I just feel so helpless. We’ve always done everything together and I’m happy they have each other but I want to be there with them. Dad always joked we were like a three legged stool. When one of us wasn’t at home we almost couldn’t function. I get what you are saying that they aren’t ready to see me... But I just miss them so much.’

“Aw Em.” Lucy says sympathetically after she reads. Her eyes flick back up to Emma’s. “It will get better. I know that doesn’t help right now. But, it will.”

Emma nods and leans back against the bed.

“So, what do you want to do?”

‘Okay if I paint?’

“Of course it is! I’ll just work here on my tablet.” Lucy smiles reassuringly at Emma and hops off the bed. She pauses and turns back around to Emma. “Hug?”

Emma smiles and opens her arms. Lucy wraps her arms around the blonde and tries to convey how much she cares for her in it.

After Lucy sits in a chair to work she can’t help but watch how Emma morphs into her creative mode. How the blonde focuses solely on what she’s doing with her paint brush. The way Emma’s eyes squint and her tongue slightly pokes out to the side.

Lucy smiles and tries to concentrate on her own work. Leaving the pair in peaceful silence.

-- -- --

Many hours later there is a knock on the door. Lucy glances up as Lena and Sam enter the room.

“Hi!” Lucy greets the friends happily and turns to look at Emma. The blonde is still so busy with what she’s doing she hasn’t noticed the new arrivals.

It’s only when Emma cleans her brushes, happy with what she’s done, does she sense Lena’s presence in the room. She quickly looks up towards the sofa where Lena, Sam and Lucy are sitting. Seemingly halting their conversation as the trio notice Emma’s focus on them. Lena can’t help but greet her girlfriend with a beaming smile.

“Hi love.” Lena says while standing and approaches the blonde. Emma waves at her but gives her a questioning look. “I didn’t want to disturb you.” Lena gracefully sits on the bed next to Emma and softly kisses the blonde’s lips. “You were so engrossed in what you were doing.”

“Sorry.”

“No don’t be! I’m glad you are painting.” Lena smiles reassuringly at her girlfriend. Her smiles then morphs into a shy one. “I- er- got you something.”

Emma tilts her head and her eyes bulge when Lena lifts a huge bouquet of flowers up. Having not noticed them when the raven haired beauty walked in or when she came over to the bed.

“Wow!” Emma signs and she reaches out to touch a red rose. Feeling the softness of the petal and admiring the colour.

“The florist told me the roses mean love, obviously. The baby breath is everlasting love. The-” Lena pauses as she tries to remember the meaning of the other flowers. Emma starts kissing her cheek making Lena beam and lean into them. “Em! I’m trying to think!” Emma pulls away and rests her chin on Lena’s shoulder. “So, the daisies are my love is pure and the tulips all have different meanings, the red being eternal love, the orange desire and passion, yellow happiness and sunshine and the cream tulips-” Lena gently moves her girlfriend’s head so she can gaze deeply into Emma’s slightly bloodshot eyes. “I will love you forever.”

She watches as Emma melts and her eyes glisten with tears. The blonde tilts her head and slowly leans towards her girlfriend. Lena copies her and they gently kiss but before they can deepen it further and noise fills the room.

“Blurgh!” Lucy yells out, pretending to heave. Emma furiously pulls away and flips her off. Glaring at the brunette before turning back to her girlfriend.

“Thank you. I love them.”

“I’m glad.” Lena smirks at the blonde and Emma carefully places the bouquet on the tray table. Making sure not to knock any of the other stuff on there. “So, how's your head?”

“Haven’t had any complaints yet.” Emma signs cheekily and Lena roars with laughter.

“What did she say?” Sam looks between the two girlfriends, wanting to know why Lena reacted the way she did.

“Haven’t had any complaints yet.” Lena responds while continuing to laugh, causing the two brunettes to join in with her and Emma just smiles happily at them as she snuggles into her girlfriend.

(Part Twenty One)