#WHICH then only the japanese half of the company said yeah okay. give us a season of that

[istherewifiinhell]

"Do not question vector sigma [computer which grants them all life], it was [created] by those far greater than you"

sorry werent yall all created by beings who want you to be non sentient servants. seems like a good reason to question it.

[demonslayedher]

Okay so this might be nsfw(?) I’m not sure, but I’m just really curious to know if there were bras in the taisho era. Because I was wondering if that was what Daki/Ume was wearing during her fight(s). So so sorry if this has been asked before !!

Bras are reality, Anon, that question is safe here, no worries. And it's a quick answer: nope! Bras as we know them weren't even invented until 1910 by a young New York socialite, as the story goes, and although they very quickly gained popularity in the US and Europe, they didn't come into common use in Japan until the post WW2 period. Because of how they better shape the body for western style clothes, they really took off in Japan in the 1950's, when western clothing styles really started sweeping the country.

What would had been more common in the Taisho era was not to wear anything but normal kimono-like layers as chest undergarment. Even nowadays, bras are not typically worn with kimono due to the curvature they'd add to the chest; there are instead other padded undergarments which cover the whole chest area to add to the more tubular shape of a kimono ensemble. Depending on how tightly the kimono is bound and where the obi sits on a women, often that's all the support she feels she needs. On her lower half, however, women often wore yunoji, which were like skirts tied around the waist and covered the hips and upper thighs. The male equivalent was the fundoshi, which, and by merit of watching anime or generally having interest in Japanese culture, you've probably seen here or there, tied in various forms. Even Inosuke uses one, and his name is written on it. (And in case you're wondering about what women did when menstruating, as I understand, folded paper was pretty common.)

So when a woman wanted more support in the chest area, what could she do? A traditional form of chest binding, more or less, with a long piece of cloth called sarashi. In addition to supporting the breasts, it was also common to use these to wrap the botton of a big pregnant belly for more support, or even to carry children around afterward. When used like a bra, you may have seen this among girlbosses who have only half their kimono on and smoke from long pieces while generally being intimidating. In my personal experience, I've even seen it used at festivals, which is how I've worn one once. My experience was that it felt very secure, so I had a lot of freedom of movement. It did start to feel like one solid object that kept sliding down and needing constant readjustment after several hours of sweating and moving around in it, but otherwise I was comfortable. Appearance-wise, it actually spans a pretty wide area of the rib cage, from right under the armpit, so I didn't feel overly exposed in it either. If you're thinking of a certain character who could have really, really benefited from a sarashi both in how it could have supported what she was endowed with and how it would have made her more confident in her appearance, yes, I'm with you, I totally agree. The haori and socks are great and all, but someone give that girl a sarashi.

If we take this back to Daki, yeah, she... uh.... was pretty fashion-forward in her tastes, even predating bikinis by a few decades. (That being said, there are worldwide records of bikini-shaped undergarments from around the world that didn't exactly influence Taisho era Japan, but long, long, long predate the bikini or bra anyway.) But she's in good company for not being dressed in a historically accurate way, female ninja never wore anything like that in real life.

So anyway, here's Daki in more standard undergarments. It's very unexciting.

[hitoshisbabygirl]

WHEWWWW CHILEEE 🥵😳👀

After a certain conversation I saw from the lovely @mythiccheroacademia about a bass voice induced/hood(ish) Tamaki I HAD to write this idea. I feel like he’s still be shy but let the right one say down outta pocket shiii...the black force energy is ACTIVATED and he’s not backing down from a fight 😌

So I write this up , I hope it’s okay sskksndkdn it’s really my first official black!reader with a character 🥺 (also me admitting how much I love Cece and her works with this here 👉🏾👈🏾)

Paring(s) : Tamaki Amajiki x Black!reader

Word count: roughly 2.4K

Warnings ; LANGUAGE LANGUAGE LANGUAGE. Just some explicit language of tama telling off hoes ✨ jealous and hot under the collar tamaki of sorts 😌 yes tamaki is older, they’d both graduated and currently in a pro hero company

Don’t play with me// T. Amajiki

It was just a day out with your loving boyfriend Tamaki. The two of you had been dating for a while. Now in the summer of no classes and no extra hero work to do , the two of you decided to do way more together; dates, game nights, other festivities you name it the shy boy went along with it. To the surprise of you both, your two cousins and big brother decided to have a surprise trip to Japan to see you, and to meet the man who stole your heart. They were rough around the edges, tattoos as far as the eyes could see, but to you, they were who you grew up with, the fun and adrenaline filled things y’all did made up your childhood and life until you transferred to U.A wanting to strengthen your own quirk and be a hero , plus you always wanted to visit japan, you being prepared already, almost outstanding in your Japanese, and loving the culture you could experience first hand there.

And that’s where you met a very shy but handsome Tamaki Amajiki. Surprising most around him the two of you hit it off, understanding eachother and quietly talking to yourselves about whatever topic that came up. It was evident to his friends, especially his best friend Mirio that he had fallen for the exchange student from across seas, who stole his heart and made him more confident. Getting that confidence boost made him ask you out, and now you two were a happy couple of 2 years, going on to a lifetime.

Which brings us to the current time, it too you at least a half hour for him to come from your shared room to meet his other family to be. After the first tedious round of talking , the boys were getting along, Tamaki trying (and failing) to fit in with your more aggressive brother. Sighing you called out to them “Aye, I’m gonna get some food, want anything?” With calls of ‘nah’ and full meals you sighed, taking down who wanted what and leaving . They planned to be here a week or two, and that alone wasn’t bad. They just could be...hot under the collar and with them having explosive quirks, you didn’t want a fight breaking out from someone looking at their “little sister” wrong.

The weeks went by too fast, the five of you having a lot of fun together, exploring and just catching up on what you missed back home. Giving you a hug each of them told you how much they loved you and would be back while you were still on break. Giving your brother a suspicious look he laughed “ Don’t worry , mama’s coming up too, she misses her baby” he said as you laughed “ I was just curious on how you got the money to keep coming back and forth here to see me” “I got that promotion at the construction company, more money, and way better hours” he laughed as you gave him a bigger hug “and you’re just now telling me as you leave, you ass” giving you one last look he smiled, throwing a hand up at your usually timid boyfriend “I’ll see you later G ight? Don’t forget what we talked about and what we taught you yeah?” He said as Tamaki did the same back , giving a surprising “I got it” back to him as they walked down the driveway to their cab. “What did he tell you?” You questioned as he gave you a uncharacteristic smirk, kissing your forehead “don’t worry about it sweetheart”

As the next few vists happened throughout the year you realize tamaki was becoming more and more like your brother, less timid and more dominant over conversations, but your soft and loving tamaki never left, if anything it got stronger. He took you out to the mall to shop, wanted to do more outside dates and loved picking out cute outfits with you. He enjoyed the ink adorning your skin even more than he did when he first saw it, asking for you to help him pick out something for him eventually. “Okay who are you and what did you do with tamaki?” You questioned one day when he came home, giving you your usual kiss as he came in the door. Except it was nothing like you had before, he put his hand under your chin and tilted you until you were in your tippy toes to keep the kiss as deep as he started, his other hand dangerously low on your back as he gave your ass a squeeze, chuckling as you gasped, pulling away with a smug look “Hey doll what’s up? How’s your day been?” He asked as he slid past you, Ignoring the shocked look on your face “Tamaki how are you feeling? Are you alight you’ve never been this..forward” tilting his head he came over to where you were , standing in your shared kitchen with your bottom lip in your mouth. Grinning he pulled it from your teeth, giving you another peck “You shouldn’t be teasing your bottom lip, that’s for me to do” he whispered as you gasped, burying you face into his wide chest. “Nothings wrong with me sweetheart, I just..realized how valuable you are to me. You’ve always been but...I know to what level of a queen I have as my girlfriend yknow?” The iconic shy Tamaki made an appearance , making you look up to him. He was shy but he was confident behind what he was saying. “It’s not a bad thing..I like it” you admitted as you traced his cheek “Good, Heyo don’t think I’ll be changing again”

This year for a piece of your summer break you and Tamil decided to go visit back to the states, the two of you loving and hating the heat wave that hit you coming off of the plane. Once again you were with your brother and only one of your cousins this time, visiting your mom and having family cookouts. Planning to stay a month you two had some time to spend together and with your family. Your nieces and nephews loved Tamaki, the fact he could make his limbs into what he ate made them love to try and have him pick them up with his tentacles the most. Your mom loved him and everyone had accepted him as your husband to be.

On one of the hottest days y’all experienced there, you decided to wear one of the cutest outfits you had bought, a two piece ; a crop top and a mini skirt. Both pieces black with blue butterflies over them. As you sat in the living room waiting for your boyfriend you heard footsteps from upstairs, being greeted with a sight you wish to burn on your eyelids. A tank top , the infamous, grey Nike joggers and black forces. A whole meal stood in front of you. Holding in a gasp and a subconscious lip but you cleared your throat, giving him a reassuring smile “well look at you, you really are turning into my brother” you joked as he gave you a shy smile “ I wanted to wear something I’m not used to..I hate things clinging to me..unless it’s you of course “ he teased back as you wrapped your arms around his torso, standing on your tiptoes as you gave his cheek a kiss “you look good..really good..I might have to fight the girls around the block if they look at you wrong.” You warned as he smirked, wrapping a large arm around your shoulder “don’t worry they have nothing on you baby..”

Heading out to get some lunch you fanned yourself with your hand, the heat really getting to you as you stood in line. Tamaki when you get drinks, promising to meet you back at the circle so you two could heard to the nearby shopping plaza, wanting to get some more things before going to get some games to play later with your family members who planned to come and hangout before one of their games came on that night. You and Tamaki were planning to just be upstairs and watching your own movie by then.

Hearing someone clear their throat you valves over to see a shorter, chocolate man staring at you, a wide grin on his face as he licked his lips “whatsup baby how are you today?” Knowing how this was gonna turn out you gave him a polite smile and a quick “I’m fine” before going to look around to see if you saw that familiar tuff of indigo walking around “Soo..what's a fine ass girl like you doing in this heat alone? You’re [. ]’s sister right?” He continued as you shook your head yes, not giving him a thought as you stared at your phone “You aint gotta be shy , your brother knows me. I’ve always saw you and that ass wander around when you used to be here, now you moved away to some other country what was it again? China ? That Asian land aint meant for a sista like you, they don’t even got enough to please you with unlike me” sighing you started to correct him “I live in Japan for one, two I have a boyfriend and three don’t you still have something unresolved with that one girl? Ion need nothing from no one that isn’t my boyfriend thanks” You snapped back as he laughed, comfortably putting an arm on your shoulders “Oh who ol’ girl Ki? Nah I ain’t messing with her and what , you got you a little Japanese man , what is he and his short ass gon do yo me huh? Don’t think that you having one of those short Kung Fu doing ass gon do anything to a real man now baby, you’ve been eating too much rice huh?”

Before you could open your mouth you felt an arm wrap around your waist and move in front of you. Now staring at the strong back of your boyfriend you went to stop him before your mouth dropped open “And who said ya ass could keep talking to her huh?” Without a stutter in sight Tamaki snapped back to the slightly shorter and smaller male “ And who the hell are you?” “The same man you wanna talk about being a short ass Asian” with a look of interest you watched your boyfriend stand up for you “Ooohhh I get it , you think you can just step up to anyone and they not be scared of you huh? Mann you aint in Japan anymore boy , you ain’t gon do shit” the guy barked back, making Tamkai raise an eyebrow and laugh, looking him up and down before squatting down some to match the arguing guys height “At least I can reach my girlfriend, even she can look down at you” which a few ‘oohs’ and ‘damns’ coming from the bystanders the boy gave him a snarl as he tried to come for Tamaki again “she wants some real dick not some little pepper in her walls” and with that Tamaki gave him a even harder laugh, walking until they were too close for your comfort, before you could stop him he gave his last and seemingly damaging blow “But I wonder who’s dick she’s bouncing on and screaming for more from hm? Oh trust me I know how to dick her down and then some”

With his words he reached over and pulled you to his hip by your ass, making the boy give up with a huff , walking away as the others around him boo’d and made fun of him, praising Tamaki as he gave his own satisfied smirk, dapping up some of the guys who came up to him.

Pulling you from the line he left his hand at your hips as your jaw still was open “Where in the hell did you learn that?? Damnit [. ] he must’ve taught you” you huffed as he looked you over , licking his lips as he kissed your cheek. “Mhn..your brother said defend what you love so..I simply did that. He had no business thinking he could step to my girl and hit on her from thinking he was good enough to talk to a queen, my queen at that. Shit ain’t sweet but I respect myself and you too much to fight some low life” he finished as you bit your lip, liking this side of him “Well shit...aren’t you the man Tamaki?” He laughed as he kissed you, biting where you were tugging on your bottom lip to make you let out a squeal. Pulling away he gave a lopsided smile “I’ma keep true to what I said too, when we get home I’m making sure you know I meant what I just said back there, no one tries to take what’s mine, especially with mediocre ass attempts with dick” he growled as you stuttered giving him a wide eyed look. Maybe tamaki was less of the baby you’ve come to see him as. Once you got home, Tamaki made sure you knew how much he loved you, making true on the words he threw to that guys he got into it earlier

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Before I go and party with family, a Quick gift of an AU that I probably will never continue but it was fun to start!

Notes: Twitter Fic that would also have regular scenes, idea is that Izuku follows a Quirkless Twitter user. This is a collection of scenes.

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 Well, well, well. Guess who found out a fun Japanese law clearly stating that being forced to disclose your Quirk is illegal? And that requiring it on any piece of ID is to? Hey! All those business I never got hired by because I had to disclose my Quirk status? I’m fucking coming for you.

All Might Stan @greenbean

 Does this count with schools? My middle school has it on all our ID.

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 … what the fuck? That is so illegal. What the shit?!? Wait- KIDS. WHO ELSE HAS THIS SHIT ON THEIR ID?

Fight Me @dinoboy

 Me

Eraserhead Stan @purpleinsomniac

 Me- not Quirkless but I have a ‘villain Quirk’

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 I didn’t want to involve my brother. I didn’t want to tell him about this account I spend my days complaining about the stupidity of Japan and their bias against the Quirkless. He’s protective.

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

BUT THIS?! 

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

Fuck this.

Future Pro @professionalherointhemaking

 What’s a worthless Quirkless’s brother going to do? Whine?

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 Mostly go after every school in this damn country. @quirklessandunafraid We’re talking about the rest of your Twitter later.

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 Fight me S*****.  

All Might Stan @greenbean

Ehrniendjene bskandhskwj

 -0-

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 So now everyone knows. Also, fuck you man. It took me saying Snipe was my brother to get verified? Snipe, I’ll beat your ass later.

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 Shit. I’m gonna be staying at work later this week…

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

@Nezu will you let me come so I can beat him up?

The Principal @Nezu

 Hmm… perhaps. Will you be willing to give a demonstration on Quirkless hand to hand? You were almost a national champion in Judo correct? Though you were in the Canadian championship!

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 Wow that’s creepy but yes. And then the BULLSHIT OF HAVING TO GIVE YOUR QUIRK OUT was here in Japan BEFORE I knew the laws. Seriously Japan, I know ya’ll are still recovering from Destro and his cult but go over the laws he had a hand in and his ideals man. But yeah sure. 

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

@officalherosnipe get ready for an ass kicking.

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 … I wonder if Shiketsu would do this to me.

-0-

All Might Stan @greanbean

 Umm… I have a question?! @quirklessandunafraid. What did you mean by the Destro stuff?! And like what do you mean about the laws?!?

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 Buckle in kiddos, it’s story time.

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 Okay so Destro was a villain who was Quirk supremacy over all, but he like managed to keep it low key for a while and managed to get into office. And then he had a BUNCH of 1/?

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 laws passed that were like super anti Quirklessness and stuff and like super awful in general. Like legit, [here] [is] [every] [source] [you] [need.] He was even responsible for one of the nastier laws back then- which said anyone with a QUIRK was protected under the laws. 2/?

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

This supposedly was to combat previous laws against Quirks. Newsflash- THOSE WERE ALREADY BEING REMOVED. So like this law was passed and suddenly people were killing and hurting Quirkless people for fun and no one did anything until Destro started targeting those with Quirks he deemed bad. 3/?

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 The law was removed but a LOT of his laws and thought processes still are around. Like half of his anti-Quirk bullshit is the reason why Japan is ranked around… 5th worst place for Quirkless people in the world. 4/?

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 Destro was tried and convicted as a villain. He’s dead now so FUCK HIM. The only thing Destro did I find funny was accidentally make the Great Loophole. 5/5

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 You love that one.

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 You do to. You find it hilarious as well. You tell the story about Sparks ALL the time.

SCREAM @presentmicoffical

 WAIT SNIPE YOU KNOW THE SPARKS STORY

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 … did… wait- you’ve been following me for a while. 

SCREAM @presentmicoffical

 Yep! You have good points and I’ve been using them to help when I’m on patrol. I tend to frequent… areas I might need to help.

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

Ah. Bridges and tall buildings. Gotcha. Many red shoe kids?

SCREAM @presentmicoffical

 Yeah?!? How did you know?

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 The ONLY company that makes shoes that fit us Quirkless people is this company that only makes them red here in Japan. I had to go digging but Destro had his hand there again by giving us red shoes to make us visible. They haven’t changed it so like… 98% times someone wears red shoes? They’re Quirkless.

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 I can pay for you to get custom shoes.

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 Dude I already live with you rent free cause FUCK HALF THE LANDLORDS. Also like… I’m Unafraid.

SCREAM @presentmicoffical

 Cool, cool, cool… sparks story? Pwease? uwu 

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

Not after that. 

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 Okay so Sparks was a vigilante. She ran around Tokoyo for a while and did her thing. Me and an underground hero found her. Now, I see her shoes.

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 Given who my sister is, I’m aware of what they mean. Add in she used tasers? I’m thinking she’s Quirkless. I’m also well aware of the Great Loophole. So I’m like well, guess we’re done. The otherbhero? He goes after her. She’s fine, let’s herself get wrapped up. She also has a big grin on her face.

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 He’s like: your coming with me to the police station. She’s like: under what laws did I break? He’s like: Vigilantism. Her grin wides.

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 She rattled off her name and tell us to look her up. I do. Yep, she’s Quirkless. She then tells us to look up the vigilante laws which-

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

‘Using your QUIRK to impact justice without a license.’

SCREAM @presentmicoffical

Oh… my… god. NO!

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 She got away Scott free!

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 And that’s the Great Loophole. A few of us abuse it to keep our neighbourhoods safe. We live in slums mostly and well, spotlight heroes rarely go there due to a lack of people watching (no offence bro)

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 None taken. I try but my agency prefers me patrolling other places to get publicity

Quirkless and Unafraid @quirklessandunafraid

 So like we abuse it badly. 100% though NO MINOR DOES THIS I WILL FIND YOU KIDS. 

Snipe @officalherosnipe

 If any kid needs us, DM me but I won’t let you go out yourself. I’ll let the adults do it, but not you.

[kyotakumrau]

2020.12.21 The World You Live In at Zepp Tokyo, 2nd event report

Fujieda again started with greetings, introduced himself and Takabayashi and then asked for applause for the band members.

And we got quite a surprise!

Kaoru and Toshiya came on stage!

Thus making Tokyo the only place where band members changed for each slot/session. As much as I'd love to see Kyo again I was happy as my friend only went to Tokyo and she's Toshiya's fan😊

F: please introduce yourself.

Kaoru: you already did lol. I'm Kaoru.

T: I'm Toshiya.

F: the last video you just watched was different from other sessions. The trailer for the concert film screenings that will start from February. It's something only you know right now. As you can imagine from the title it will be something similar to this, with the band members coming for the talk after.

K talked a bit about the situation as well.

T: it's still difficult to hold concerts, but this is something we can do. So I hope you will look forward to it.

Next F started the 'merch items introduction corner', he passed the items to the members.

K: I was watching the 1st slot and we talked about them in Osaka, too. (he talked more about the items and what members said)

F: yes, everything can fit in the pouch so it's a very useful item. You can buy all merch items and put then in the pouch and take home like that. Let's look at Toshiya's big pick key chains (he pronunced that very carefully😂)

They talked about members signs and company logos when suddenly K requested to have to lights in the venue set brighter so he could see everyone.

After that F announced they wil start with questions from the fans, passed the part of papers to others, but K gave his to F saying it's better if he chooses.

T: ok, I have a good one! 'It was Die's birthday yesterday, did you send him a birthday message? And are there any memorable presents you've received in the past?'

T: I got a bicycle. I was really happy at first, but then it was stolen from the parking area.

F: when was it?

T (I didn't catch it but from the context it must have been quite early on in their career)

F: during the tour?

T: yeah, we were always giving each other something for our birthdays, every year, but as years passed it got more difficult to choose something good and we then just stopped.

F: how about you, K?

K: I got a Mickey Mouse, about this size (he showed us with his hand, about 1m tall).

F: 'how do you deal with feeling tired?'

K: I go for a massage.

F: only during the tour?

K: anytime.

F: when the most? When writing songs?

K (laughing): but we're always writing songs

T: for me it's sauna.

F: do you often go when just staying at home?

T: for example after the gym

Ta: 'what did you eat most often during the stay at home period?'

K: ...what did I eat, what about you, Tooru?

Ta: sausages.

The whole venue kinda rotfled 🤣🤣🤣

F: that's cute😆

Ta: it's something I can usually only eat at home.

K: ...something I was really into...(still thinking)....(thinking)

F: for me it was Jiro-ken ramen.

T: at home?! So you weren't really staying at home?

F: I gained some weight after the overseas tour. I started to diet then, and one day a week, a cheat day, I could eat whatever I wanted. My cheat choice was Jiro, either at the restaurants or to take away.

K: ...what was it for me...

F: maybe nabe you talked about before? (in Osaka)

K wasn't impressed 😆

T: canned mackerel for me.

F: for when you drink etc? No, just like that?

They all laughed here a bit.

Suddenly K jumped in with a new topic.

K: in Osaka you talked about the theme behind Kyo's outfit, you said it was pink but he pointed his green hair as the main point.

F: that was difficult.

K: tbh I also thought the main idea was pink (he also talked about Kyo's use of Kansai dialect)

T: 'what were you able to do after becoming an adult?'

F: there's a lot of food people start eating when they grow up.

T: food topic again? 😆

F: for example for me it was raisins.

T: as I get older I can drink more. When we just debuted I couldn't drink at all.

F: drinking wine?

T: おっさんだから・'cause I'm an old guy.

K started talking about the food he couldn't handle when he was small but the next question kinda made me forget it 😅

' 'wet cat food is actually quite good, have you ever tried?'

F: I have a cat and sometimes when I give my cat wet food some will get on my fingers. I'd just lick it. You know some of it, the mackerel or tuna, it looks so good.

T: please send me a video when you eat cat food next time.

😂

(but to be fair most of canned cat food in Japan is 100% fish🤷‍♀️)

K: 'when you can tour again what local specialities do you want to eat?'

F: motsunabe in Fukuoka

T: miso type?

F: of course (if not Shinya would kill him)

K: what did you eat in Sendai?

F: bento

K: in Nagoya?

F: nothing special

T: we had normal bento, but it was miso katsu (Nagoya's style cutlet)

F: but if it's not in a restaurant it's not the same. Anything you want to eat, T?

T: Beki soba from Niigata.

F: have you tried it before?

T: when we went there on a tour, I really like soba.

They talked but more about food, tare katsu, okonomiyaki from Hiro and Jiro again.

T: is Jiro really that good?

F: 😍

K: I've tried it before, but it's (just) okay.

F: it's all about how the noodles taste (type of flour etc)

(more food talk, choosing between salt and tare options)

K: 'what's your favorite onigiri (rice ball)?'

F: how about you, K?

K: I don't eat onigiri.

T: Me also, but if I have to choose it's sujiko/salted salmon roe.

K (about not eating onigiri much): right, you only eat soba.

T then told us the story how much he loved salmon roe even as a child. When he was quite small he went shopping to the local supermarket with his grandmother. When he saw salmon roe in the shop he just started eating it directly from the shelf/container. Of course when his grandmother and supermarket staff found out it got very noisy, but because he was so young it was forgiven.

(back to onigiri topic)

Ta: salmon for me.

F: oh that is nice, I love the most tamago-kake-gohan rice ball (TKG is a very simple, traditional Japanese breakfast dish - just rice with a raw egg eaten with soy sauce, sometimes other toppings), the Newdays chain is selling them

K: the chain operates only in this area, no?

F explained that there are Newdays in other places too, fe Sendai. He also really got into explaining all pros incl the tasty gooey filling inside of the rice ball.

K (imitating F) oh that's nice 😂

F: 'it got so cold recently, what's your favourite season?'

T: spring or fall, I don't hate winter but I definitely don't like summer.

K: fall. (he said as this year wasn't too cold he could go out a bit during breaks)

F: so 2~3 weeks ago was your fav time.

K: here in Tokyo at least.

F: 'as we're staying home much more now do you have a recommended tv series or a channel?' (not just a movie)

K: Cobra kai.

F: ah, you tweeted about it.

K: it will be on Netflix next month, the 3rd season.

K talked about The Karate Kid (Japanese title 'Best Kid').

F: I don't know it.

Ta: me too.

K (shocked): you're serious???

T: I know, of course.

F: 'Best Kid'? 'Best Fit?'

T: just stop it🙃

F: how about your recommendation, T?

T: The BOYS on Prime.

K: I haven't seen it, but it seems interesting.

T: it is! I also like BOSCH. I'm just watching like after work and so on.

After that K talked about how cinema with the capacity reduced by half was nice because you could put your bag on the seat next to you etc, but recently came back to the full house (Demon Slayer did that...)

F: 'how do you feel being in front of people first time in a while?'

T: I'm sorry it has to be done this way

F: don't say that😆

(missed K's reply)

T: it's tiring to be in front of people.

F: but we do it in an interesting way.

T: yeah.

T: 'what's your favourite game? Even including older ones like famicon?'

K: games?

T: Spelunker on Amicon😆

T/K in agreement: where you die so quickly

K: PS5 is so popular, I didn't win.

F: it seems Kyo won once but the information he submitted had a mistake.

K: I applied for Sony's lottery and Big Camera's.

F: you don't want PS5, T?

T: recently I don't play.

K: what about the... what was it Tsushima?

They all reacted with 'ah'

F: what kind of game is it?

K: don't ask me😅 but it looks interesting.

T: it seems to be very popular abroad.

F: 'what's your favourite way to eat ozoni?'

(A new year soup with rice cakes)

Ta: the soy sauce based soup, with grilled mochi.

F: but what ingredients do you add?

K: isn't that way too detailed??

Ta (tries): spring onion etc

K listed grilled mochi, spinach, carrot etc. Then he told us about his family tradition to properly make rice cakes for New year, pounding was so loud even if you wanted to watch tv, you couldn't. But then they had enough for a month.

T: soy sauce style.

F: with miso or?

T: I said soy sauce.

F: what ingredients?

T: rice cakes, spinach, and what is that... (he started to make circles with his hand) ...?

F: naruto?

T (yeah that/nods)

F: in my family we do soy sauce, rice cakes, carrot, fish cakes etc.

K (ignoring F comment that they should finish now, in a teasing way): what about osechi, which dishes do you like?

F: konbu maki or kurikinton.

K: how about you, T?

T: that egg dish that is kinda like this (he gestured the shape again)?

Ta: tatemaki?

F: datemaki!

T: I think it's datemaki.

K: I like that beef roll with carrot and green beans inside (its 牛肉の八幡巻き)

F (making very dreamy face): Aaaaaaah that😍 green beans are so good.

F: ok, thank you all.

K: what about Tooru (Ta)?

F: it's time, sorry.

Last comments.

Toshiya: thank you all for gathering here despite the COVID situation. It's difficult to do concerts now so we tried doing film screenings. In difficult times like this it's not only about the band members, there's our staff and also the venues. I'd love to play concerts again, please wait for us.

Kaoru: it is a difficult situation to share my personal opinion... if we can't do the concerts in a way everyone can enjoy... enjoy, it will affect our relationship of mutual trust. I think this (COVID) situation will continue for some time still, so I think it's better to go with the film screening events. But we will keep checking the situation. Please stay healthy and I hope all of you will come to watch it.

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Alright kiddos, it is time for! The last chapter of the opening arcs / battle trial! Wherein we continue Katsuki's mental breakdown! <3

I’m considering doing some kind of end-of-arc(s) summary / personal thoughts thing after this as a way of sort of compiling my thoughts on the story as a whole so far, as well as just being open to answering your general ideas and open questions / suggestions about the story and characters and whatnot so far (and I guess to come?) So have at it, I want to know what you all think about these first eleven chapters as an introduction to the series / characters / plot / whatnot.

[No. 11 - Bakugou’s Starting Line]

That is… a lot less damage than I thought there was. Like, it still looks pretty bad, but not to the point of ‘it’s going to collapse if someone breathes funny’ bad like I was thinking before. The active explosion of the panels before this probably added to that impression. Also, the building is a LOT smaller than I thought it was?

And speaking of Katsuki’s mental breakdown! He’s just standing there in complete shock while Tenya is comforting a vomiting Ochako, and Izuku is passed out on the floor. Someone points out that the losing team is almost unscathed while the winners are down for the count - they lost the battle but won the war, so to speak. Tsuyu points out that it’s just training though.

(to the tune of ‘Final Countdown’) It’s a mental breakdown~ (kazoo solo)

But in full seriousness, this is the first true moment we see of his worldview being smashed open. Like, he was definitely shaken with Izuku’s actions back with the sludge villain, but Katsuki was just more quiet and sullen. Here? Here he’s just had one of the pillars he built his entire mindset around - that Izuku was weaker than him - torn down as violently as the wall he blasted open. He is not okay with this. He’s sweating, he’s shaking, he’s probably about five seconds from collapsing to his knees and screaming. 

Fortunately, he’s mostly knocked out of his own head by All Might showing up and placing a hand on his shoulder, telling him to head back so he can get graded. Katsuki doesn’t really seem to be listening as All Might goes on about how whether one wins or loses, they can come out ahead by learning from the experience - instead he’s watching as Izuku is taken away on a stretcher by two transpo-bots to the nurse’s office. 

In the monitor room, All Might announces that the VIP of the battle was Tenya, much to said boy’s surprise. Katsuki is looking pretty gloomy and stuck in his head, while Ochako is still struggling with the lingering nausea. Tsuyu asks why the VIP isn’t one of the hero team who won, and All Might asks the class if any if them can guess at his reasoning. 

Momo raises her had and says she does, and then explains that Tenya had best adapted to the scenario. Katsuki’s actions were motivated by a personal grudge, and his use of destructive attacks indoors was foolish. Izuku’s performance suffered from the same faults. And Ochako lost focus halfway through and her final attack was haphazard - if the weapon had been real, the attack would be unthinkable. Tenya, on the other hand, formed an actual counterstrategy, and thought about what the struggle would be like. His only fault was being too slow to react at the end, and the hero team only won because it was a training exercise with exploitable restraints. 

Tenya is touched. Meanwhile, the rest of the class is stunned silent, with All Might shaking because she said it better than he could. He hesitantly adds that Tenya was a bit too stiff, but otherwise she was correct. She huffs and says that they need to start at the bottom and work up - if they don’t cheer each other on, they won’t even become top heroes. Her name is also introduced here, as well as the fact that she’s the number one recommended first year.

How’s Katsuki doing?

Eh… we’ll come back to you in a bit. For now, the other battle trials! Shouto and Shouji (hero team) versus Ojiro and Hagakure (villain team), in a new location. The heroes are both quiet, while Hagakure is getting hyped up and taking off her gloves and boots to go full stealth mode. Ojiro is a bit flustered at that, thinking that it makes sense for someone invisible, but that it feels unethical.

(Which is, I’m guessing, that comment that her ‘hero costume’ is being buck naked, which honestly, I refuse to believe. If the support companies can make a costume for someone who goes impermeable (which, by its own definition, would mean light goes through as well, ergo ‘invisibility’), then she can get one as well. I think she’s just a troll who says the costume is nothing to fluster others - I mean, considering she does like hidden camera shows, and they tend to do those weird stuff to surprise or discomfort people, it would fit in line with her character.)

Anyways, when the hero team is sent in, Shouji is listening in just inside the building with several arm-ears, right before they shift into really concerning-looking mouths to relay information. Shouji tells his partner that one is on the north side of the fourth floor, while the other is on the same floor barefoot - clearly, the invisible one is trying to ambush and capture them. Shouji also gets a title card and an explanation of his quirk, Dupli-arms: he can replicate his own body parts at the tips of his tentacles!

Shouto warns Shouji to get out, since it’s about to ‘get frosty in here’. Their opponents think they’re playing a defensive game, but it means nothing to him. He then proceeds to show off just what he means by ‘frosty’.

Yeah, that’s a bit OP there. Poor Ojiro - and definitely poor Hagakure, who got frozen to the floor with bare feet. Shouto walks in and says to bring it on, but that fighting without the soles of their feet will be painful. All Might and Kirishima are shivering in the monitor room from the cold, with All Might noting that neither Shouto’s ally nor the weapon were harmed when he immobilized the enemy; Kirishima says that he’s too strong. 

Hagakure’s hurting where she’s frozen, and Ojiro is freaked out and not even trying to break out as Shouto walks past and puts his left hand of the weapon, giving his team the win. Shouto apologizes to them as the ice steams away, Ojiro shocked to see how quickly the building is warming up. As Shouto finishes melting the ice, he declares that they are in different leagues - and we get his title card!

Number two recommended first year, quirk Half-Hot, Half-Cold (which I think is supposed to have some greater pun or sound better in Japanese? [Hanrei Hannen] I suppose does roll a bit better, but hmmm…) His right side can freeze things and his left can burn. His range and limits are unknown - what a beast! 

(Katsuki, meanwhile, is biting his lip to keep himself from saying anything - likely another blow to his preconceived belief that he was the strongest right while he’s trying to come back from the last one.)

We get a brief summary of what the other teams did: Sero and Kirishima played villains and defended with Sero’s tape as traps around the room. Tsuyu went along the walls while Tokoyami had his quirk primed to attack. Jirou scouted with her quirk while Kaminari kept a charge prepped in his hand, and Mina threw a ot of acid around, a bit of which burned Aoyama’s cape. 

We transition to the end of the class, with All Might telling everyone well done, and that besides Izuku, there were no serious injuries. He complements their teamwork and says they all did splendidly, considering it was their first exercise. Someone in the class mentions that after Aizawa, a straightforward class that that was almost a letdown. All Might walks away, saying that the teachers are free to have no-nonsense classes if they like, and that he’s off to give Izuku his evaluation, letting them know to get changed out of their costumes and head back to the classroom before he runs off in a hurry. Mineta notes he seems to be in a hurry, but that he’s also so cool.

All Might glances back, seeing Katsuki in the back of the class still in a gloomy state. He thinks about how Katsuki is ‘a bundle of conceit’ and how the most inflated egos are often the most fragile. As a teacher, he needs to give the boy some counseling, but for now, he has to save on his time, due to only having enough strength to get through a single class.

Which, considering All Might’s limit before USJ is three hours, seems a bit weird, so let’s do some math.

The villain teams have five minutes to set up, and the heroes have fifteen to get to the bomb after that - twenty minutes. With five rounds, that’s an even hundred minutes for the exercises, not counting those that ended early. With all the time saved from Shouto’s instant take out and assuming average times for the others, we probably have more like eighty minutes spent on those exercises. Of course, we can then add time for getting to and from the buildings, as well as the assessments of each match and determination of the VIP. So that can probably bumped back up to 100 minutes, maybe closer to 110? Which would just fit within the bounds of a double-class period for Japanese schools (which are fifty minute classes with ten minute breaks in between). 

Japanese classes have four periods before lunch and three after. The ‘canon’ schedule has heroics lessons happen THROUGH lunch period, which makes no sense when they need that energy in order to be able to fight. I am also skeptical of fighting right after lunch, when that makes it more likely for them to throw up if they take a bad hit, ergo, the reasonable time period for these lessons is the last two periods of the day - thus giving the kids about an hour for food to digest and energy to get into their systems.

I think this is also added onto with how Izuku doesn’t freak out after this over missing a class, which makes sense if it was the last one. Plus, well, scheduling the most exhausting and injury-prone class at the end of the day means that anyone who needs to rest a while actually can without missing important things - and that the kids won’t be too tired to pay attention to whichever teachers they would otherwise have afterwards.

...right, my original point. All Might is supposed to have three hours, but gets stressed out after using just two hours here. I can get that maybe it’s three hours total, but holding it for two continuously without chances to ‘unflex’ and rest for a bit might be straining on him still? Or maybe he just spent some time that morning doing hero things and so ran out of time a bit early. 

Anyways, I think I’ll end this off here, since it’s about halfway and we did get through quite a bit. Next time, we finish off the opening arcs of the series, and then I guess I do some Q&A / personal thoughts so far / narrative analysis / whatever? I guess send in questions or thoughts or whatever you guys have, and I’ll answer them after the next post. 

[general-kenobi357]

Someday Soon-Chapter 1

Pairing: JJ Maybank x Fem!OC

Summary: The only goal Isabella Bailer has this summer, is to have a good time with her friends, the Pogues. But when they find a ship wreck after a hurricane their summer takes an unexpected turn. 

Note: So this is my first fic that I have actually properly finished and I am so excited to share it. I first posted it on Wattpad but I find that I don't really use that platform much so I wanted to post it somewhere I go on often. I hope you enjoy my twist on Outer Banks :) Also the I have written Iz to be as nondescript as I could so that you can imagine her however you want. 

Word Count: 10.5k (The first chapter is really long but later on the chapters get shorter.) 

🔅🔆🔅

We’re the Pogues, and our mission this summer is to have a good time, all the time.

The soft breeze brought the smell of the ocean to my nose while the sun shone brightly on my cheeks. I had to squint to see my friends through the bright rays. As the sun fell lower the day only seemed to get warmer, the beer in my hand brought a cool relief, after taking another drink a smile grew on my face as I listened to the conversation between Pope and John B. 

“That’s what, a three-story fall to the deck?” Pope asked, looking up at John B who was currently balancing on one foot on the edge of the roof. We were all hanging around one of the many mini-mansions that were under construction in Figure Eight. “I give you about a one-in-three chance of survival.”

“Hm” John B replied as he stuck a finger into the air pretending to check the direction of the wind. “Should I do it?”

“Yeah, jump.” Pope quipped, pointing a drill at him. “I'll shoot you on the way down.”

“You’ll shoot me?”

“Yep. Pow!”

“They’re gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers.” Kie told us shocked, as she emerged from the house that was yet to be finished. 

“Of course. Why wouldn’t they?” I inquired somewhat bitterly from my spot sitting next to JJ. Nothing Kooks did surprised me anymore, all they seemed to care about was their own vanity.  

“This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about turtles, I guess?” Kie asked, sounding somewhat defeated. I sent her a sad smile, wishing I had more power to change the way things were. 

“I can’t have cold towels.” JJ added sarcastically before we all directed our gaze towards John B. 

“Can you please not kill yourself?” Kie asked him sweetly as he continued to lean dangerously close to the edge of the building. 

“Yeah that would really ruin my summer.” I added, I had protested John B climbing onto the roof in the first place but once that boy got something into his mind, no one could change it.

“And don’t spill that beer. I’m not giving you another one.” JJ warned seconds before the can slipped through John B’s grasp and came crashing onto the deck.  

“Whoa! Oh, shit.” John B exclaimed as he attempted to regain his balance on the roof, I turned to look out at the ocean again, not wanting to see him hit the deck as well. 

“Of course you did. Smooth.” 

“A plus.” Pope commented as he leaned over the side of the deck before looking back at the group. “Hey, uh, security’s here. Let’s wrap it up.”

“Humpty Dumpty, let’s roll.” JJ called to John B while he hopped off of the scaffolding we had been sitting on, before turning around and offering me his hand to help me get down. “Sweetheart?”

“Thank you.” I replied, accepting the hand he held out as I jumped down onto the deck.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” John B agreed as he followed us down. 

“Gary, is that you?” JJ called out to the security guard as we gathered our stuff up. “It’s me. Gary, good to see you, man!”

“You’re just asking for it.” I told him as I shook my head trying to hold in my laughter. 

“Get ‘em! They’re comin’ your way!” I heard one of the guards shout from behind me as I followed Kie towards the van. “Hey! Stop!”

I spared a glance behind me as I exited the house and saw the guard catching up to JJ. 

“Not much of a hugger!” I heard JJ shout as he avoided the guard. 

As I ran down the front steps John B pulled up in the van, Kie hopped into the passengers seat as I climbed into the back leaving the side door open for the boys to jump in whenever it was they decided to show up. 

“Bus is leaving!” John B called out as he honked the horn. I peered out the back window watching as Pope started climbing over the fence, before promptly falling flat on his face. JJ hoped over next and helped him back to his feet. 

“Come on, boys!” Kie called.

I held out my hand for Pope who was struggling to get into the moving van. Once both boys were inside John B stepped on the gas and we all watched Gary hopelessly chase after us. We were all left in a fit of laughter after JJ was done teasing the poor security guard. 

🔅🔆🔅

The Outer Bank, Paradise on Earth. It’s the sort of place where you either have two jobs or two houses. Two tribes, one island. 

All right. So there’s Figure Eight, the rich side of the island. Home of the Kooks. So, guess where we don’t live?

And then, there’s the South Side or the Cut. Home to the working class who make a living busing tables, washing yachts, running charters. The natural habitat of… drumroll, please… the Pogues. 

That’s us. 

Pogues, Pogies, the throwaway fish. Lowest member of the food chain. Okay. So, the downside of the Pogue life is we’re ignored and neglected. But the upside of the Pogue life? We’re ignored and neglected, which means we do whatever we want, whenever we want. So, let me introduce you to the crew.

First up… JJ Maybank, my best friend since the third grade. He's about as local as they come. Latest in a long line of fishing, drinking, smuggling, vendetta-holding salt-lifers who made their living off the water. Best surfer I know. Just don’t tell him I said that. Mild kleptomaniac and a future tax cheat.

Next up is Isabella Bailer but we just call her Iz. A former Kook up until she was ten and her dad was caught embezzling money from his company and promptly arrested, her family basically lost everything. Shortly after that she moved in next door. Definitely the Mom of the group, she basically takes care of all of us, and when she’s not cleaning up our messes, she’s working with her Mom, cleaning houses for the Kooks. Iz is the sweetest girl you’ll ever meet until you threaten her friends then you better run the other way and hope she doesn’t find you. 

After Iz there’s Kiara Carrera, or Kie, as we call her. When she’s not saving turtles or listening to Marley, or getting a dolphin tattoo, she hangs out with us. I’m not really sure why though. So, she’s a rich kid, actually. Foot in both worlds. Her family owns The Wreck, this Outer Banks institution. Total cash cow with the tourists. You know, I’m not really sure how her parents feel about us. But I think we all have had a thing for her at one point or another. 

Finally we have Pope Heyward, the brains of the operation… finalist for the Lucas T. Vanderhorst Merit Scholarship. And the smartest person I know. Little bit of a weirdo. His father’s this legendary character, Heyward. Anything you wanted on the island, Hayward could get for you. Now, I’m not sure Heyward knew what to make of his oddball son, but it didn’t matter. He was a Pogue, just like the rest of us.

So, that’s my crew. And my name is John Booker Routledge. I’ve been living on my own for the past nine months in an old fish shack on the marsh. The Château, as my dad used to call it. Where is my dad? Well he disappeared at sea nine months ago, looking for a shipwreck. Who disappears at sea these days? I miss him. Any other possible guardians who could look after me, might be your next question? Well Mom split when I was three. Last I heard she was in Colorado and Uncle T who is supposedly my legal guardian is currently in Mississippi, building houses… 

Which means it’s just me right now, on my own, hangin’ with my friends. 

🔅🔆🔅

I swung lazily in the hammock that sat between John B’s house and my own as I watched the water. The sun was starting to rise higher and I could already tell it was going to be another long hot day. I was lost in my own thoughts until I felt the hammock dip to the side. Glancing up I gave John B a small smile as he tried to readjust the balance of the hammock. 

“You know I really hate this thing?” He told me still struggling. 

“I know it's ‘cause you don’t know how to relax.” I replied, teasing him as I shifted to help balance the hammock after the change in weight. 

“I’m gonna take it down one of these days.” He threatened, finally leaning back.

“No, I love this hammock, it's my favorite spot.” 

“I know I’m only teasing you, I’m not sure you would ever talk to me again if I took away your hammock.”

“You’re damn right I wouldn't.” I told him attempting to sound serious before letting out a laugh. We laid quietly for a few minutes before I spoke up again. “So do you have big plans today?”

“Um, yes.” He responded after taking a moment to think. “I get to go down to social services and talk to some people about how there are no responsible adults in my life.”

“Oh that sounds like sooo much fun.”

“I know right? You want to come with me?”

“As much as I would love that, JJ said he was going to take me out so I could practice driving the boat.” I had my license but I was not the best driver on land and I had barely ever driven in the water. 

“Oooh you and JJ alone on a boat?” John B asked, stretching out his words and wiggling an eyebrow at me. He loved to tease me about the very obvious crush that I had on JJ every chance he got. At his teasing I took the half empty beer he had brought out with him much to his protest. 

“No, number one, you and I both know that I will never be brave enough to make a move, number two, no Pogue on Pogue macking and number three I think that Pope said he was coming with us.” I rambled about the many reasons why what John B was suggesting would never happen before I downed the rest of the beer and handed back the empty bottle.

“Wow, thanks, I wanted to drink that.” He commented on the bottle in the grass beside us, I shrugged my shoulders as if to tell him he should have expected it after his teasing. “Also if I were you I’d go confirm that JJ still knew this was happening because he’s inside with a girl right now and they looked like they might be awhile.” 

“Seriously?” I groaned trying to cover up my jealousy with annoyance. I knew that I had no right to be jealous, JJ didn’t belong to me and I was far too scared to ever confess how I really felt, not that I could even figure out how I really felt. But it still hurt to see him with different girls all the time. “I guess I’ll go investigate.”

I quickly stood from the hammock before thinking, but it was too late. As I turned around and watched the hammock flip and John B tumble off onto the grass below. 

“Thanks for the heads up.” He grumbled as I helped him to his feet. 

“Sorry. I forgot how terrible you are at sitting in a hammock.” I said trying to cover the smile on my face.

“Yeah laugh it up, your friend just got attacked by a hammock, real funny.” He replied pretending to be upset as he dusted the dirt off of himself. 

“I mean it is kind of funny.” I called over my shoulder as I made my way back towards The Château to find out who was around. “I’ll see you later John B.”

I stepped onto the porch only to find Pope stretched out on the couch fast asleep. ‘I suppose he won’t be joining us.’ I thought as I walked past him into the house. 

In the main room Kie laid on the pull out couch blowing clouds of vapor above her. I sent her a soft smile which she returned before I turned the corner towards the bedrooms in the Château. 

Only one of the room's doors was closed so I figured that was where JJ was. I raised my hand to knock on the door but the sound of a shrill giggle stopped me. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know what was going on so my hand retracted back from the door and I walked back towards where Kie was. 

I laid down beside her with a sigh. Kie shifted closer to me as we both just hung out. 

“I’m pretty sure it’s some Touron who’ll be gone by the end of the week.” Kie finally spoke up, I raised my head to send her a questioning look. “The girl in there.” She added pointing to the room JJ was in. 

“Oh.” I nodded laying back down. I stared back up at the ceiling, contemplating whether I wanted more details about this girl. “Was she pretty?”

“I didn’t get a good look.” She responded. 

“Huh.” I responded, unsure if she was telling the truth or just trying to make me feel better. “Are you working today?” I asked, wanting to change the subject before I thought about JJ anymore. 

“Um, yeah. I have to leave soon.” Kie responded, glancing at the time on her phone. “Did you want to come with me, I might be able to sneak out fries for you.”

“No, I better stay here. I think my Mom has a few things she wants me to do before the storm tonight.” I responded, I also still half hoped that JJ would want to hang out. 

“Okay, well I’m sure that I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said, smiling as she stood to gather her stuff. 

“Yeah, tomorrow morning we’ll all go out and check out the damage.” I responded, standing up as well.

“Love you.” She cooed, pulling me into a hug. 

“Love you too.” I responded, before we both let go of each other. She then grabbed her backpack and headed for the door. “Stay safe!” I called after her as she walked towards her car. 

After Kie had left I had made my way to the dock, which is where I was now sitting watching the stormy clouds that were forming out in the open water. 

“Hey.” Pope spoke softly, alerting me to his presence, before he sat down next to me. 

“Hey, I figured you were going to sleep all day.” I teased, sparing a glance at him. 

“Yeah, I guess I was more tired than I thought.” He responded with a smile. “It looks like it’s gonna be bad.” He added, referring to the dark clouds that were beginning to move closer. 

“Yeah I just hope it isn’t too loud, last year Emmy had nightmares all summer from the thunder.” I said, remembering how bad my little sister’s nightmares had gotten. 

“Well there aren't any thunderstorms in Agatha’s path so there shouldn’t be much thunder this time.” He informed me. 

“You are too smart for me, Pope.” I said with a smile.

“Speaking of smart things, we should bring in the boat before it ends up in a tree somewhere down the road.” He said, I looked over at the boat which had sat in the water by the dock all day, waiting for us. I was more than a little bitter over the fact that JJ had stood me up. “Iz?” Pope asked, pulling me from my thoughts. 

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, yeah let’s bring in the boat.” I finally responded before standing up to help Pope.

We were able to bring in the boat before Pope had to head home to help out his Dad and I walked back to my house to help my Mom before the storm hit. 

🔅🔆🔅

The next morning I woke up to the sound of someone clattering around in the kitchen. After getting dressed I walked out to see my Mom and Emmy at the kitchen table eating breakfast in the dark. 

“No power?” I asked as I flipped the switch knowing nothing would happen. 

“Nope.” My Mom replied as she walked past me to put her bowl in the sink. “And no water. I’m gonna pick up another tank of water from Heyward on my way home from work. Seems like the storm took out the whole island. Listen I know that you wanna hang out with your friends but I need you to take down all the storm shutters at some point.”

“Mom the day after a hurricane is a free day.” I argued, I knew better than to argue with her most of the time but I still had to try.

“I know and I’m not saying right this minute but at some point it would be nice.” She surprised me with her reply, most days I would get a lecture about talking back. 

“Are you feeling okay?” I asked checking her forehead temperature. 

“Yeah are you feeling okay Mommy?” Emmy parroted from behind us, one of her new hobbies.

“Yes, I’m feeling fine.” She said, swatting my hand away from her forehead. “I’m trying to be nice, this is your last summer before you graduate and I know you’ve been working a lot.”

“Okay…” I replied, still suspicious that this was some kind of trick. Quickly kissing her cheek, I grabbed my bag and kissed the top of Emmy’s head, jogging to the door I left the house before she could change her mind. “I’ll see you when you get home.”

I heard them both say goodbye as I closed the door behind me and made my way over to where John B and JJ were standing clearing branches off the HMS Pogue. 

“Mornin’ boys.” I greeted the pair as I helped them finish clearing off the boat. 

“Someone's in a good mood.” John B suggested as he made his way over to the side of the boat I was standing by. “You and JJ have fun?” He asked in a quieter voice. 

“Nope, he completely blew me off. I don’t even think he remembered.” I replied, biting the inside of my cheek trying to not show my disappointment. “But it’s fine, today is a free day and we are going to enjoy it.” I said putting a smile back on my face as I looked over to where JJ stood oblivious to mine and John B’s conversation. 

🔅🔆🔅

“Well, look who we have here.” JJ taunted as we pulled up to the Heyward’s dock. 

“We have a safety meeting. Attendance mandatory.” John B added pretending to speak into a walkie talkie. 

“I can’t. My Pop’s got me on lockdown.” Pope replied sadly. 

“Come on, man” JJ grumbled from his spot beside me. “Your dad’s a pussy. Over.” he commented speaking into his own pretend walkie talkie. I turned to look at him surprised as I hit his arm lightly. “What? He is?” JJ tried to defend. 

“Oh, I heard that, you little bastard.” Heyward scolded JJ.

“We need your son.” I said as I directed my attention to Heyward. “Island rules. Day after a hurricane’s a free day.”

“Who made that up?” Heyward demanded moving closer to the boat. 

“Uh… Pentagon, I think. We have security clearance.” I added, trying to come up with excuses. 

“Yeah, I have a card.” JJ tried to add to my story. 

“You think I’m stupid?” Heyward challenged. 

“I'll do it tomorrow. I promise. Tomorrow.” Pope told his dad, getting ready to get into the boat. 

“You think... No, no. Hell no. You doin' it right now.” Heyward told Pope as he hopped into the boat. “Bring your ass back up here.”

“I promise I'll do it tomorrow, Dad.” Pope assured his father as we started to float away.

“We’ll bring him back in one piece.” I called back to Heyward as we started to speed off towards Kie’s dock. 

🔅🔆🔅

After picking up Kie, Pope had taken over driving the boat and the rest of us were sitting around watching JJ attempt one of his many tricks that he had tried a million times but that never seemed to work the way he wanted it to. 

“You’re getting beer in my hair!” Kie reprimanded JJ. 

In an attempt to avoid the same fate as Kie I stood up from my spot beside her. But just as I got to my feet I felt the boat shift under me and jolt to the side throwing me off the edge. After a moment underwater I realized what had happened and swam back to the surface. 

“Jesus, Pope!” I heard Kie berate Pope. 

“You okay, JJ?” John B asked, I assumed he had also been sent overboard. 

“I think my heels touched the back of my head.” I heard JJ reply from the other side of the boat. 

“Kie, you okay?” John B asked, shifting his concern away from JJ.

“I’m all right.” Kie answered John B after a moment of pause. “Where’s Iz?”

“Over here.” I called from where I was treading water, a moment later I saw JJ swimming over to where I was. We made eye contact for a moment before he scanned that rest of my face with concern making sure I was good. I gave him a reassuring smile before looking back at our friends on the boat. 

“Guys... I think there's a boat down there.” Pope said looking out from the ledge of the Pogue. 

“Shut up. What?” Kie asked moving to look into the water. “No way.”

“No, no, guys. I'm serious. There's a boat down there.” Pope added confidently. “For real. “

“Holy shit, he's right. Let's go.” Kie said, getting ready to jump into the water.

We all dove down as deep as we could and sure enough a sunken boat was sitting below the surface. 

“You guys saw that?” JJ asks as we all come up for air. A chorus of agreement followed JJ’s question as we looked at each other shocked. “That’s a Grady-White. A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy. That’s a primo rig.”

“Yeah. That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge.” John B informed us after we had all climbed back into the Pogue. 

“You surfed the surge?” I asked, concern filling my thoughts.

“What the heck John B?” Kie added in the same tone. 

“That's my boy. Pogue style.” JJ congratulated him, as John B nodded confirming what he had just said. 

“Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat that is?” Pope asked curiously, wanting to know more about the wreck. 

“No, but we're about to find out.” John B replied as he went to grab the anchor of the boat. 

“Dude, it's too deep.” JJ warned as John B made his way over to the edge of the boat. 

“Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ.” John B challenged as he readjusted the anchor in his grip. 

“Well, I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front.”

“That's fine.”

“Diver down, fool.” Pope said while giving John B a mock salute. 

“Diver down.” We all called as JJ pushed John B off the side of the boat. We all leaned over the side of the boat anxiously waiting for John B to come back up. 

“Should we go get him?” I asked the others in a concerned voice. It felt like he had been gone for ages at this point and I couldn't spot him in the murky water. Moments after I spoke John B broke the surface tension in a fit of coughs. 

“Oh, my God. That took forever!” Kie said, relieved as we all allowed John B some space to climb onto the Pogue. 

“I found this motel key.” John B supplied holding up the key while he got into the boat. 

“Great! We salvaged a motel key.” JJ spoke sarcastically as I inspected the key that John B had found. 

“Guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard.” Kie suggested “Maybe we'll get a finder's fee.”

“Yeah, and not work all summer.” JJ added, hopefully as we speed off toward town. “Thanks, Agatha, ya batch.”

🔅🔆🔅

After an unsuccessful talk with the coast guard, as in we were completely ignored because they had no interest in what a group of teenagers had to say, we decided to head straight to the source and check out the motel. 

The boat slowed down as we got closer to the motel and began to take in the scene before us. It was a disaster, mattresses thrown on the lawn, windows broken, and trees that had been uprooted or close to it. I had to wonder how much of this damage was caused by the hurricane and how much was caused by a neglectful owner. 

“I thought the Château looked bad.” JJ commented from the front of the boat. 

“This place is a shitshow.” John B added. 

“Doesn't look like a place somebody with a Grady-White stays.” I said, confused as to why someone with such a nice boat would be staying somewhere so rundown.

“No. Looks like a place someone with a Grady-White would get killed.” Pope suggested.

“All right. Here we go.” JJ started jumping out of the boat ready to tie us to the shore. “This is your captain speaking. HMS Pogue comin' in for landing.”

“We good?” John B asked, standing beside me. 

“Yeah, we good.” JJ confirmed. 

“All right. Here goes nothin'.” I stated, while I tried to take the key from Pope’s hand, who had elected to stay on the boat with Kie as lookouts. 

“Hey.” Pope said seriously, while he held the key just out of reach.

“Yeah?”

“Don't let them do anything stupid.”

“Yeah, I’ll try.” I gave Pope a reassuring smile as he passed me the key, still holding a look of uncertainty on his face.

“Uh, be careful.” I heard Kie tell John B from behind me. “I mean it.”

JJ offered me his hand as I jumped out of the boat but I just ignored it, still a little mad that he had forgotten about me the day before. I made eye contact with him for a moment and saw a look of confusion grace his features before disappearing. I began walking away from the boat as JJ waited a moment for John B to finish talking to Kie. I listened to them talking behind me.

“Just be so careful, John.” I heard JJ tease as I started making my way across the front lawn of the hotel. 

“God, you're so weird.” John B replied.

“What was that about?”

“I don't know. Maybe she wants us to be careful?”

“Ever since she heard you're being threatened with exile, she's just been, like, <Oh! Be so careful, John B.>” JJ mimicked what Kie had told John B earlier as we started to climb the stairs to the second floor. “<Oh, just give me that John D already.> Just ask Iz she sees it too, right Iz?” JJ asked me. 

I paused for a moment when I reached the top of the stairs, turning around to meet JJ’s eyes

“Are you done?” I asked in a sour tone. 

“What?” He responded with confusion evident in his voice and the smile falling from his face. I rolled my eyes before turning around and beginning to count room numbers. “Why are you so mad at only me? What’d I do?”

“Dude.” I heard John B start saying. “You completely blew her off yesterday.”

I was curious what else they said to each other but their voices became muffled as I walked too far ahead. Stopping at the end of the hall in front of room twenty-nine. I turned to find the boys jogging towards me, John B gave me a small smile and JJ had a look that almost resembled remorse on his face. 

“This is it?” John B asked as JJ took the key that I was holding up in front of me. 

“Housekeeping.” JJ called out in a shrill voice knocking a few times on the door. 

“Should we try it?” John B asked, pointing to the key in JJ’s hand.

“No power. No security cameras. No one's gonna know.” JJ reasoned as he pushed the key into the lock. It felt like we could still get in trouble if we were caught but before I could voice my concerns JJ was already half way into the room.

“Huh.” I muttered, as the two of us followed JJ in. It was dark and smelled of mildew, definitely not the kind of place someone would stay if they had the funds to buy a Grady-White. 

“Check the bag. See if there's a name on there somewhere.” John B instructed JJ as I moved past the pair to open the blinds at the side of the room.  

“A jacket.”

“No name on the jacket?”

“No. It's a nice jacket, though.”

“Definitely over 50. He's got New Balances.”

I listened to their conversation as I walked across the small room into the bathroom. As I moved through the bathroom and rustled through the medicine cabinet, I heard the beeping of a safe in the other room. 

“Uh… JJ? Iz? You’re gonna want to see this” I heard John B call from the other room. 

Entering the room I looked at John B first who was looking over to where JJ stood with wide eyes. Following John B’s line of sight my own eyes widened as I realized what JJ was holding.

“Is that a gun?” I asked as if it could be anything else. 

“Put the gun back, JJ!” John B tried to reason with him. 

“This is a fucking spendy gatt, man. Just…” JJ said, eyes wide like a kid in a candy store. “Bam! Bam!” He mimicked the sound of a gun as he pointed it around the room.

“JJ, we’re not stealing anything.” John B told him for the hundredth time. 

“Just take a pic of me. Right here.” JJ pleaded with John B, but my attention had shifted to the sound of a rock landing on the window sill. 

I pushed past the boys as they continued arguing with each other, and looked out the window.

“Cops. Cops!” I could see Kie and Pope whisper yell while they pointed in the direction of the door. Turning around quickly I waved at the boys to get their attention. 

“Guys, the cops are here.” I told them in a hushed tone. John B moved towards the door to see if he could hear anything. “How are we gonna get out?” I asked them, feeling panic start to rise through my chest. 

“Out the window?” John B suggested as he pushed open the small window as far as it would go. 

With John B out first and standing to the right of the window, I followed quickly behind him moving to the left so that JJ could get out. In an attempt to keep us from being seen JJ pressed me against the wall of the motel, which meant that I was now pinned between him and the wall. My chest rose and fell unevenly as I squeezed my eyes shut hoping the cops couldn’t see us. As we we’re standing on the ledge I felt JJ’s hand grab on to mine and give it a reassuring squeeze. 

“Listen Sweetheart, I’m sorry I ditched you yesterday. I didn’t mean to forget.” JJ whispered to me, his head was right next to my ear and I could feel his breath fan out against my skin as he spoke. 

“As much as I appreciate your apology, I really don’t think this is the time JJ.” I whispered back terrified of every word that left my tongue. 

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right, sorry.” JJ replied, shifting his weight slightly. 

“Guys! Shut. Up.” John B whisper yelled from where he stood on the ledge. 

As we both turned to look at John B I felt cold metal touch my free hand, startling me I pulled my hand back swiftly and as I did I heard a clattering as something fell from the ledge. 

“JJ, tell me that wasn’t what I think it was?” I demanded as quietly as I could. 

“Well you tell me what you think it was and then I’ll tell you it wasn’t.” He said and I could hear the smirk in his voice, shocking me that he could still be joking when we were about to be caught at any moment, I rolled my eyes at him. 

🔅🔆🔅

After our narrow escape from the motel, myself and the Pogues were headed towards town, discussing what we were going to do next. 

“The cops took everything like it was a crime scene.” John B stated still sounding shocked at what he had seen back at the motel. 

“Did you guys find anything?” Pope asked us curiously. My gaze shifted to JJ as I already knew what he had taken. 

“Did we find anything? No, I don't think so. Oh, yeah, we did.” JJ responded smiling as he held up the gun, and to my surprise a wad of cash. I let my head fall into my hands wondering how JJ could be so dumb.

“What the hell?” Pope asked standing, panic written all over his features. 

“Dude, chill.” JJ started walking over to where Pope stood. “Better than cops having it.”

“I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship.”

“Hey, hey, hey. Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh.” JJ said, grabbing Pope by the shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. “At least you have us, right?”

“I'm living the nightmare.”

🔅🔆🔅

After a trip to the marina and witnessing Scooter Grubbs get taken away by a coroner, we were back at the Château trying to figure out what to do next. 

“Okay. So, um... we didn't see anything.” Pope spoke up as he paced in front of us all. “We don't know anything. We need to have total and complete amnesia.”

“Actually, Pope's right for once.” JJ stated, looking at us all. “See, I agree with you sometimes.” He assured Pope. “Deny, deny, deny.”

“Guys, we can't keep that money.” Kie piped into the conversation. “We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise, it's bad karma.”

“Bad karma to be implicated in a felony, too.” I added referring to the gun JJ was still in possession of. 

“We gotta go dark.” Pope suggested. 

“None of it makes sense.” John B finally said, breaking his silence. “This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about. Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole. Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas. We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden, he's got a Grady-White? Just sayin'.”

“So how does a marina rat get a Grady-White?” I asked, thinking out loud. 

“Prostitution.” Pope suggested making me laugh under my breath. 

“Okay...” John B stated, trying to move past Pope's comment. “Or maybe they're trying to fly under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ?”

“They were straight smugglin'.” JJ finished John B’s thought. 

“Smugglin'.” John B confirmed. “And I guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck.”

“For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it…” Pope said and I could tell he was thinking about all the terrible outcomes. “...it probably belongs to someone else.”

“Minor details.”

“They could come looking for it.” Pope warned. “Taking it would be catastrophically stupid.”

“Right. Well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time.” JJ reasoned holding up the money that he had now decided belonged to us. “All we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck.”

“Until then, we just lay low. Just act normal.” John B added. 

“Right. And how exactly do we do that?” I asked. I still felt like Pope was making a lot of good points that the others were not listening to. 

“Kegger?” Kie suggested looking at the rest of us for confirmation. 

🔅🔆🔅

You can't understand the Outer Banks without understanding the boneyard. It's kinda like a three-layer burrito. There's us and our friends, the working-class derelicts. Then, there are the Kooks, the rich second-homers. They're mostly from poncey-ass boarding schools, just rich trustafarian posers. Our natural enemies. And then, there are the Tourons. Totally clueless. Here for a week on vacation with their families. Chum for the sharks.

Later in the day after the sun had set, the kegger was coming to life, basically the entirety of the island's teen population was in attendance and the beach was getting pretty crowded. Earlier on I had been hanging around with JJ, all had been forgiven between us and we were back to cracking jokes. 

Up until JJ spotted a girl he wanted to flirt with and I was left alone. Since then I had started chatting with a couple of Tourons who had taken one surfing lesson earlier in the week and now thought they knew everything about the sport. Desperate to make my escape I searched through the crowd for my friends. Just as I was about to make up an excuse I heard shouting from the water. 

“Sorry, I have to go.” I told the pair lamely. “I think that’s my friends calling me.”

“Okay. Bye.” They replied as I walked away. 

Much to my horror, once I had reached the shore it turned out to actually be my friends shouting, and the shouting had turned into a full out fight. I recognized John B in the water but the Kook he was fighting had their back facing me. I pushed my way through the crowd once I spotted Kie and made my way to stand beside her. 

“What the hell is going on?” I asked, looking at her face which was covered in fear. 

“Topper and John B started arguing and now they're trying to kill each other.” Kie answered, watching as the fight got worse. That’s when I noticed the Kook Princess, Sarah Cameron, trying to calm down her angry boyfriend. 

I used to know Topper when I was young. We had been friends but when I had moved to the Cut we lost touch. Now as he stood over John B I barely recognized him. He wasn’t the young boy I had once known, now he was a cruel person who thought he was better than others just because his parents had money.

“Hey, John B, don't make me drown you like your old man, all right?” I heard Topper challenge John B.

After that comment I had had enough and I was desperately looking around the crowd trying to figure out what I could do to stop them. I felt useless as I definitely couldn’t just jump in there, I had no idea how to fight. But we had to do something before Topper killed John B. 

As my eyes scanned the crowd I noticed JJ who was already looking at me. His once bright eyes looked dark and it seemed like he knew exactly what he was about to do. I shook my head as I tried to make my way over to him, but he was already stalking towards where Topper and John B fought. I had a feeling I knew what he was about to do but I didn’t want to believe it. 

I held my breath as I heard the crowd go silent when JJ clicked the gun's safety off. 

“Yeah, you know what that is.” JJ threatened as Topper pulled away from John B. “Your move, broski.”

“Come on. Chill, dude!” Topper responded, trying to reason with him.

“Put the gun down.” Sarah cried desperately. 

“Did you say somethin', Princess?” JJ asked, not taking his eyes off of Topper. 

“We're good. We're good.” Topper tried to tell him, raising his hands in surrender. 

“Kie! Iz! Can you check your psycho friend, please?” I heard Sarah screaming behind me pulling me out of the trance I had been frozen in. I took a few steps closer to JJ but I didn’t want to get too close when he had a gun pointed at someone. I had seen him get in fights before but never like this, this was different. I really thought that he might kill Topper and that terrified me.

“JJ.” I spoke softly so as to not startle him. He turned to glance back at me but kept the gun pointed at Topper who was looking back at us. “Think about what you’re doing.” I continued speaking calmly, meanwhile I could hear Sarah practically sobbing behind me. “You have to let him go.” I said, at this JJ nodded ever so slightly before pulling the gun away from Topper. 

“Okay, everyone, listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!” JJ yelled into the crowd of people before shooting the gun into the air. 

The second JJ moved Topper was out of sight and Sarah wasn’t far behind. While Kie and Pope began to berate JJ over his actions I ran into the water to go check on John B. 

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked John B once I reached him, holding his shoulders so he wouldn’t fall back into the water. He mumbled back something incoherent as he swayed in my grasp. “Guys! Can you help?” I asked the three Pogues who still stood arguing behind me. 

With their help we got John B out of the water and closer to the fire that had been started a while ago. We all sat silently there for sometime before John B was able to get up again and we all headed home. 

🔅🔆🔅

After a sleepless night, we were all back together at the Château, I sat next to Kie as she lazily hit a pair of bongos that sat on the table between us and Pope. JJ was further away in the yard throwing god knows what into the grass. I stood up as I saw John B make his way over to us. Meeting him halfway between the main house and where the rest of our friends were I pulled him into a bone crushing hug. 

“What was that for?” He asked, chuckling while he looked at me. 

“I’m just glad to see you’re okay. I can’t lose you, any of you guys.” I explained making myself think back to last night. 

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He joked trying to lighten the mood. 

“Yeah, I know.” I said the smile returning to my face. “Hey, by the way I saw the cop car driving away this morning, is everything okay?”

“Eh, it’s alright Peterkin stopped by, told me to stay out of trouble and to clean up the house.” John B explained as we made our way over to the others. “Look, I'm callin' it off. All right?” John B announced to everyone. “Peterkin said, if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS.”

“And you believed her?” JJ questioned. 

“Yes, I believe her, JJ.” 

“An actual cop, John B. You believed a cop.” He added, trying to make his point. 

“All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple days, and she'll help me out. It doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun.”

“You know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown your ass.”

“Topper was gonna drown me?”

“Sure looked like it.”

“Alright, calm down.” I spoke up trying to get them to stop.

“Come on. They always win, don't they, man? Kooks versus Pogues. They always, always win!” JJ started to raise his voice. 

“Look, it's okay!” Kie reasoned, also trying to help me calm them down. 

“No, it's not okay!” JJ argued, turning his attention to John B. “It is not! They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there, and you know it. I know you do. And I understand why you don't wanna go. You're the golden boy. You got way too much to risk.” JJ added pointing a finger at Pope. “ And you...I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway. Why would you bother?” He asked Kie. “But us three.” He finished looking at John B and I. “We got nothin' to lose!” 

“I don't want to talk about this.” John B told JJ as he began to walk away. 

“So that's it?” JJ asked and I could tell he was losing hope in John B. 

“Just get out of my way, bro.”

“John B, listen to me. I have a plan.”

JJ telling us he had a plan? That was never a good start. 

🔅🔆🔅

We all gathered around Kie who was inspecting the tanks that John B had stolen from the Cameron's. JJ had tried to argue that we were going to return them so technically we were just borrowing them but I didn’t think the Cameron's would see it that way or the cops they would inevitably call if they found out. 

“This is empty. You took empty tanks? I…” Kie told John B sounding defeated. “Okay, this one's a quarter full. It's enough for one of us. Love it when a plan comes together. Does anybody know how to dive?”

“It's kind of a Kook sport.” JJ replied. 

“I... read about it.” Pope responded cautiously. 

“Great, Pope read about it, so someone's gonna die.” Kie reasoned.

“Look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?” JJ asked. 

“If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends.” Pope told him.

“Bends like, bend over and…” JJ asked, making me roll my eyes at him. 

“The bends kill you.” Pope said seriously and JJ straightened up.

“I can do it.” I finally said standing up at the front of the boat. “I went diving a few times with my dad when I was younger.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” JJ stated, a look of worry crossing his features. 

“I’ll be fine, it’s like riding a bike, you don’t forget.” I reasoned. “Right?”

“Let me do some calculations real quick.” Pope said while he looked through his bag for a notebook. 

“Are you serious? You’re gonna do some calculations right now?” John B teased Pope with a smile on his face. 

“Hey, let the man do his calculations, alright?” JJ told John B before glancing over at me again. 

“That boat's about 30 feet down. Okay.” Pope stated, thinking out loud. “So it'll take 25 minutes at that depth.”

“Twenty-five.” I confirmed half listening to him half focusing on keeping my hands from shaking, suffice to say I was a little nervous. 

��Which means you need to make your safety stop at about... ten feet. All right? For two minutes.” 

“Okay, ten feet, two minutes.” I confirmed, attempting to remember everything he was telling me. 

Kie suddenly stood up from her spot and jumped off the side of the boat, disappearing into the dark water. 

“What was that all about?” Pope asked, distracted. 

“I don't know, but I liked it. A lot.” JJ commented. 

“Anything else I need to know?” I asked, looking at the boys who were all very clearly still thinking about what Kie had just done. 

“All right. Yeah. Uh, when you... uh, when you're down there, you look for the cargo hold.” John B stated remembering where he was. 

“You stick this thing inside and twist and pull, okay?” JJ told me, holding up a key and miming it in the air. 

“Yeah I think I know how a lock works JJ.” I told him sarcastically, as I took the key from his grasp. 

“Hey! I tied my T-shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down.” Kie said finally emerging from the water. “It's where you need to do your safety stop.”

“Okay, thanks.” I responded giving her a smile before pulling the heavy tank onto my back. I could barely pull the straps tight because of how much my hands were shaking. Seeing me struggle, JJ made his way over to me and finished strapping me in. Giving a thumbs up as he took a step back. 

“Keep an eye on this.” Pope said, pointing to the console attached to the tank before handing it to me. “You need to make sure you have enough air to decompress.”

“Okay, how much do I need?” I asked. 

“Unclear.” He answered truthfully after a brief pause. “Breathe as little as possible.”

“Zen. Think Zen, you know?” JJ commented trying to get me to relax. He took my hand in his while I looked around at everyone. 

“Yeah. Got it.” I responded, moving closer to the edge of the boat. 

“Hey, if we get caught in the marsh, we're basically screwed, so... better get a move on.” Pope said. I knew he was just trying to be helpful but it did not help me feel very Zen. 

I was about to pull down my mask from where it was sitting on top of my head when I realized JJ still had a tight grip on my hand. 

“I’m gonna need this.” I told him, holding up our interlocked hands. 

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that.” He said, awkwardly letting go of my hand and rubbing the back of his neck. “Be careful, yeah?”

“I’ll be fine.” I responded, but I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him of myself. “Diver down?”

“Diver down.” My friends all confirmed as I pulled the mask down over my face before jumping into the water. 

🔅🔆🔅

A couple of minutes after Iz had dove off the edge of the Pogue, the rest of the group sat waiting anxiously in silence for their friend to return. Well everyone but JJ who was currently pacing back and forth across the floor of the small boat, seemingly mumbling something under his breath about how Iz would be fine. The other Pogues watched, baffled as to how he could do things like this and yet still not realize how he truly felt about the girl who had just dove into the water. 

JJ and the rest of the Pogues were pulled out of their thoughts by the sound of sirens and the flashing lights of a police boat. 

“Shit.” Kie said, alerting everyone that the cops were pulling up next to them. 

“Guys, that's the police.” Pope said, the panic in his voice rising with each word. 

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me.” John B said standing up. 

“Yep, that's the police. Just act frickin' normal.” JJ confirmed what they were all seeing, meanwhile acting the least natural the Pogues had ever seen him. JJ never panicked. “Evening, officers.”

“How you kids doing?” Deputy Shoupe asked the group, passing a rope over to connect the boats. “You know the marsh is closed?”

“No. No. Wow. I didn't know that. Why... Why is it closed?” Pope asked, trying to look calm.

“Well, we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down. Seen anything?”

“No. No boats. No.” John B responded. 

“Where's your other friend you always hang out with? Who’s that, Bailer’s kid, uh, Isabella? She here?” Shoupe asked.

“She's working.” Kie lied. 

“Hm.” Shoupe hummed, not entirely convinced. “I'm gonna check your little boat out.”

“Yeah, hop aboard.” John B said, waving a hand. “You wanna check... uh, check her out.”

Meanwhile below the surface Iz had found what she was looking for and began unlocking the hold. 

After Shoupe had inspected their life jackets, he made his way to the front of the boat, putting his sunglasses on and looking out onto the water. From the back of the boat JJ also scanned the water, he thought that he saw something move beneath the surface and prayed that Shoupe hadn’t seen the same thing. 

🔅🔆🔅

After getting into the hold I found a small bag and took it with me as I swam towards the anchor of the boat so I could make my safety stop before heading back up. 

From my spot ten feet below the surface I looked up, noticing the shadow of a new boat and someone looking into the water. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment as if that would help me keep from getting caught before opening them and looking at the console in my left hand. There was less than thirty seconds of air left and I was panicking even more than before. 

Just in time the figure left and moments later the second boat disappeared. With my last breath of air I swam to the surface pulling off my mask as I took a huge breath of fresh air. 

“There she is!” JJ pointed at me letting out a sigh of relief. “Don’t scare us like that!”

“How'd it go down there?” John B asked as I made my way to the ladder on the back of the boat. 

“Did you find anything?” Pope asked, pulling me up.

“Did I find anything?” I answered the question by holding up the small duffle bag that I had found in the hold. 

“Yeah, there we go! That's my girl!” JJ hollered scooping me up into a hug as John B took the bag from me. 

“Jeez.” I laughed as JJ let go of me again and Kie made her way to my side. 

“You okay?” She asked, a look of concern painting over her usual happy expression. 

“Yeah, I ran out of air.” I said trying not to worry her but realizing my words did the opposite of that. 

“You scared the shit out of me.” JJ said, snaking an arm around my waist. I knew he just thought of me as a friend but his actions still gave me butterflies, it was nice to know he cared. 

“Yeah, the cops were up here, but, uh... we took care of 'em.” Pope informed me. 

“Hey, guys? Guys, bogey, two o'clock.” Kie said, pulling us from our previous conversation. 

“Do you recognize that boat?” Pope asked.

“I've never seen it.”

“What are they doing here? The marsh is closed.” John B asked and I couldn’t help but smile at the irony of his words, after all we knew better than to be there and yet here we were. 

“Let's not stick around and find out.” JJ stated, moving to the front of the boat. 

“Should we wait on 'em?” Pope asked. 

“Are you joking?” I asked, helping start the boat up. “JJ, hurry up.”

“Guys, don't wait for me. Go.” JJ told us as he pulled the anchor up as fast as he could. 

“Go right.” I suggested to John B who was standing behind the wheel, thinking if we went further into the marsh they might not follow us. 

“Let's go!” Kie rushed as the boat turned behind us. “Hey, guys, they're following us.”

“This can't be good.” I said as JJ moved to stand beside me.

“Dude, you gotta go faster!” JJ urged John B as the boat began to gain on us. 

“I'm going!” He said while trying to maneuver the marsh that was filled with thick weeds. 

Looking back I noticed that one of the men had leant down and was now standing back up holding something I could quite make out.

“Uh, guys what is that?” I asked as everyone but John B looked back. 

“What the…” Pope started but the rest of his question died out at the sound of a gunshot. 

As everyone one dropped down to the floor of the boat I felt as if I had been pushed, there was a heavy weight on my chest.

“Holy shit!” I heard Kie mutter as I opened my eyes realizing that JJ was on top of me. This was now the second time in the past two days that I had been pinned between JJ and another surface. Had it been under different circumstances I might have been able to enjoy it. 

“John B, get down!” I heard JJ yell as I felt the vibrations of his voice echo through my own chest. 

“We're gonna die!” I heard Pope say hopelessly from beside me.

“Shit! Pope, move.” Kie muttered, I couldn’t see much but I thought I saw Kie walking to the back of the boat carrying something. 

“Get down, Kie!” John B yelled as the man in the other boat continued to shoot at us. 

Then the shooting stopped as the sound of the other boat died out. 

“Oh my god.” Pope sighed, sounding very relieved as everyone started to get back up except for JJ.

“JJ?” I asked, looking up at him. His face turned towards me, inches away from mine as he hovered over me.

“Yeah?” He asked, sounding completely oblivious.

“You gonna let me get up?” I asked, smiling.

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that Sweetheart.” He said standing before he offered me his hand. A look flashed across his face that I couldn’t quite recognize, if I didn’t know better I would think it was disappointment?

🔅🔆🔅

After arriving back at the Château we all gathered on the dock. To take a look at what I had found in the hold of the Grady-White. 

“What do you think it is?” Kie asked us. 

“Gotta be money, right?” John B responded with another question. 

“That or a couple of keys with street value from the low-to-mid-mils!” JJ added. 

“Can we please just open the bag?” Pope let out looking impatient. 

“Wow, Pope. That's a rare outburst of emotion.” John B teased as he stretched out the wait even longer. 

“Okay. You guys are literally killing me with anticipation.” I said in the same boat as Pope, urging them to hurry up. 

“Alright Sweetheart, calm down.” JJ said from beside me putting a hand on my arm to calm me down. 

“We almost died over this.” Pope added to our argument to open the bag faster. 

John B opened the bag pulling out a metal canister. After opening that too he let the contents spill out onto his hand. Disappointment rose up as we looked to see that all it was was an old compass. While taking a second look I thought that I recognized it from somewhere but wasn’t sure. 

“Oh, wow. Yup. That's about right.” Pope stated, standing from his crouched position. “Good job, everybody. We found a compass.”

“Dude, what? It's not worth anything.” JJ told John B who was staring at the compass in awe. 

“This was my father's.” Were the only words that left John B’s lips. 

🔅🔆🔅

After the disappointment of not finding much of anything after we all risked our lives we all headed home. Entering my house the sun was setting outside and it seemed empty. But my Mom’s car was parked just off the road and I could hear faint talking coming from the back of the house. I walked through the living room and kitchen, past the stairs that led to the loft which was my Mom’s room. Past my own room and the bathroom before coming to a stop in front of my little sister’s door. Leaning against the door frame, I saw my Mom reading Emmy a book by candle light, I assumed that the power was still out. 

Walking back to the main room I started to make myself a sandwich, realizing that I hadn’t eaten much of anything all day. Just as I was about to take the first bite. I heard Emmy’s door close and my Mom entered the room, holding a candle in her hand. 

“Hey, Honey.” She greeted me as she set down the candle. “How was your day?”

“Good.” I responded in between bites of the sandwich I had made. “Pretty uneventful.”

“Really?” She asked, almost surprised. “I saw Shoupe on my way out of town and he said that he saw your friends out on the marsh when they were doing their search for Scooter’s boat. He also said that you weren't there. Your friends told him something about you working, but I didn’t know you were working at all for a few days.”

“Oh really?” I said trying to figure out how to cover the real story up. “Um, Mr. Cameron came down and asked if I could pick up another shift. I guess his kids have been spending a lot of time inside since the storm so it was a bit of a mess over there.”

“He drove all the way down here?”

“Yeah well since the phone lines are down he couldn’t call.” 

“Huh, it seems strange he would come all the way down when he could just wait a couple more days for us to come over.”

“Yeah well it was really bad. I would have taken pictures if my phone wasn’t dead.”

“Oh no I don’t need pictures, I’ve met those kids and cleaned that house, I believe that they could make a terrible mess.” She said seemingly believing everything I was telling her, she paused for a moment before asking another question. “You don’t know why your friends were in the marsh do you?”

“Well” I started, thinking about what I could say that would get us all off the hook. “They were actually waiting to pick me up. Yeah. Cause I went up to Figure Eight with Mr. Cameron but I didn’t want to make him drive me all the way home. So they hung out in the marsh I guess while they waited.”

“How’d you call them?” Mom asked, picking apart my story. 

“Walkie Talkies.” I blurted out. “You know the ones that Heyward got Pope and I a few years ago? And that must have been why they were in the marsh even though it was closed. You know cause the walkie talkies only work for a certain radius, and the Cameron house is probably too far from here.”

“Yeah I guess so.” She said moving towards me to grab my now empty plate. 

“Thanks.” I said, as she put my plate in the sink. “I think I’m gonna head back over to John B’s if that's okay.”

“Of course just don’t forget to sleep at some point. You do still require sleep.” She told me. 

“I know, I’ll see you later.”

“Love you!” I heard her call after me as I closed the door and made the short walk over to John B’s where I saw him and JJ lounging on the porch. 

🔅🔆🔅

[lailyn]

The Way We Were

The knock on the door came late evening, so faint and hesitant Loki almost brushed it off as a product of his overactive imagination. On days like this, when the sun was low and the birds had settled to roost, Loki’s melancholy often paid him a visit. Hearing things was not unheard of. 

There was the knock again. It sounded more resolute this time. 

The banging and clanging from the kitchen ceased momentarily and Tony’s head bobbed up from behind the island counter. “Do you mind getting the door, babe? I kinda have my hands full at the moment.”

Loki rolled his eyes. He waved away their daughter’s toys and righted the cushions on the couch before trudging grudgingly to greet whoever was at the door. For some reason, the journey from the living room to the front door felt long and never-ending, his feet heavy and his heart heavier. 

His wards were holding, but he felt far from safe. He held onto the small frame tighter and closer to him. 

“Stephen.” 

“Loki.” 

“I...wasn’t expecting you.” Loki's grip around his daughter tightened. 

"Mama, is he a bad man?" He heard her whisper in his ear, and just like that, the tension drained out of Loki like water.

"No." Loki loosened his grip around her. "No, baby, he's not."

“Stephen, my man! You made it!” Out of nowhere, Tony appeared, and the trance broke instantly; Loki took an abrupt step back as his husband reached over to give their guest a hug. 

“Tony.” Stephen’s smile was warm and genuine, as was the affectionate squeeze he gave Tony’s shoulder. “It’s been a while.”

“Yes, we’ve really moved out of your jurisdiction,” Tony said with a roll of his eyes. “Wellness checks probably aren't warranted as much.”

“Not when you’ve moved upstate, no, not so much,” Stephen said serenely. 

Upon realising that none of them had moved in the last thirty seconds since Loki answered the door, Tony balked, “Are we just going to stand here like a bunch of idiots? Get your ass inside!” 

“Husband,” Loki admonished him, doing his best to cover both their daughter’s ears with one hand.

“Oops.” Tony shooed them all in. He could no more bear the awkwardness than Loki could pretend that they were nothing but old friends. 

He closed the heavy mahogany doors behind them. “I’d offer to take your coat, but…” 

Much to everyone's amusement, the Cloak of Levitation had flown across the threshold to make itself at home, pretending to socialise with the other outer garments on the rack behind the door. 

The toddler in Loki's arms squealed in delight.

Stephen admired the cabin, casting an appreciative eye at the high, lofty ceiling with its great timber beams, and the great roaring fireplace. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”

“I didn’t think the neoclassic, minimalist luxe look was going to work but you know our dearest Loki. He always knows what he wants.” The look of pure adoration on Tony's face was something to behold. 

A soft blush coloured Loki’s cheeks, his “Stop it,” half-hearted and weak. 

Stephen's fingers hovered over the lone Japanese ceramic tea bowl on a display table. "Edo period?"

Loki’s eyes were unreadable. "I imagine so."

Stephen would recognise the rough, rustic finish anywhere; the crack that went down all the way from its rim to its bottom was unmistakable. He remembered the hours Loki had spent studying the gold lacquer with which the crack was filled, and he remembered keeping him company. 

"Wabi-sabi." Stephen nodded in approval. "The art of seeking beauty in imperfection."

Loki's stoic face gave an imperceptible spasm.

“Espérance, darling, be a dear and go upstairs for a short nap, okay?” Loki pressed a kiss to the little girl's cheek. "Daddy and I are going to talk to Uncle Stephen for a while. We'll call you once dinner's ready."

"I'll take her," Tony offered. "Why don't you take Stephen outside, babe? I've put out some hors d'oeuvre on the patio."

"She's grown so big." Stephen marvelled at the sight of his friends' eldest daughter as she climbed up the stairs one step at a time, clutching the rail in one hand, her father's hand in the other.

"That's one way of telling time." Loki said coolly. "Watching children grow."

Without another word, Loki turned and led Stephen onto the patio, where several chairs had been laid out on the deck overlooking the picturesque lake below. 

Loki had no sooner sat on the chair that offered the best view of the mountains on the other side of the house than the first hum of a familiar tune began to play from the various speakers hidden in the trees around the property. 

Tony must have tinkered with the controls inside the house, and Loki heaved a sigh, forlorn and pensive. 

He did not blame his husband for the poor choice. It had nothing to do with Barbra Streisand’s metier as a singer, as legendary as it was. 

"I could listen to this song over and over if not for the memories."

Stephen took a seat on the other side of the coffee table. It was a comfortable, yet companionable distance. "It's always been your favourite."

"The song or the film?"

Now that Stephen really thought about it, he had no idea. "You never told me."

Loki allowed himself a wistful smile. "You hated it. The ending."

"I don't understand why they couldn't be together."

"They were too different."

"They were their own person, sure. But they loved each other. They should have been able to make it work."

"Are we still talking about Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford?" Loki eyed the man sitting next to him. "Or are you talking about us?"

Stephen felt like kicking himself. This was not why he came. He was not going to ruin what was left of this fragile friendship lamenting lost loves and what-ifs. He did not have many friends left, in this world or off it. 

"We were too similar," he managed. 

Loki snorted. "Polarity has nothing to do with compatibility. What repels does not always repel. What attracts does not always last."

"That is true," Stephen agreed reluctantly.

"You Midgardians look to the stars for guidance, do you not? The alignment and such, to see if one is right for another?”

“Certain cultures do, yeah.”

“I was not born under these stars, Doctor." Loki raised his head to the heavens. "So your theory is flawed."

Stephen knew better than to challenge an idea when there was no point in winning. He had lost so much already. A wiser man would argue that losing was not the same as sacrificing; if done for the greater good, it was noble and worthwhile and who cared if he was alone? If his bed was cold every night?

As long as Loki was safe, warm and loved, Stephen cared not one damn bit. 

"It's pretty cold tonight, huh. How about a drink?"

Two steaming cups suddenly appeared on the coffee table.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Pumpkin spice latte? You hate this stuff."

Stephen flashed him a smile, boyish and familiar. He offered no explanation for why it looked so sad. Perhaps he did not realise he was wearing it. "Not anymore."

A sudden splashing sound and a whiff of bourbon had Loki shooting out a hand to cover the rim of his cup before Stephen could offer to do the same to his drink. "I'm alright, thank you."

In his shock, Stephen nearly dropped the bottle with a fumbling gasp, and his host turned to give him a sharp look.

In profile, Loki’s looks had appeared untouched by age. But now, Stephen could see the passage of time in the seaglass eyes, how their piercing brilliance cast a sallow hue over a complexion so pale he could see the veins in Loki’s temples. 

"Does Tony know?"

Loki's forehead furrowed as though the question puzzled him, but it smoothened as he looked down at the hand he did not realise he was holding to his stomach. 

"I was planning to tell him the good news tonight."

Stephen closed his eyes. Finally he knew why he had come, and why he must now leave.

He recapped the bottle of liquor slowly. He banished it to his secret pocket dimension in exchange for another object, one he had coveted for his own but now only knew was only given to him for safekeeping. 

Slowly he stood. As if answering his silent call, the Cloak of Levitation flew through one of the open windows upstairs to settle around his shoulders. 

Loki tore his eyes away. He could not look at Stephen's majestic silhouette for too long.

"Must you leave so soon?" He asked lightly. "You'll break Tony's heart."

The foliage of red and gold here was as beautiful as the one Stephen and Loki once shared a long, long time ago. 

He pressed in Loki's hand a memento of that time, a souvenir from one of the many Shinto shrines Loki had dragged him to up and down the ancient town of Kyoto. 

"Fall has seen its share of broken hearts." 

With the return of the sad smile and a small shrug, Stephen then asked the cruelest yet kindest question of all. "What is one more?"

_____________

Loki watched the last of the autumn leaves fall one by one onto the cold, hard ground. He had never told anyone but his eyesight had become better with age, especially in the dark. Be it his Jotunn blood or his ever-growing proficiency in the practice of magic, he found it both a blessing and a curse.

Winter was coming. 

And something was burning. 

The smoke detector blared but the alarm sounded distant, unimportant. A white noise of modern living. 

There was a time when Loki would have let the world around him burn, just for one moment of peace...until he learned that solace was not a place. Tony taught him that.

The patio door slid open behind him and before his husband could speak,

"Do you need a hand, darling?" Loki said without turning his head.

"I think I burnt the turkey!" Tony said, sounding awfully stressed over an overdone poultry no one was going to eat anyway. "I need some time-turning magic! Stephen, you need to timey-wimey the turkey back to edib - "

He frowned. "Where did Strange go?"

"He had to leave."

"What? Why?"

"He didn't say."

"It's not Thanksgiving without turkey."

"I'm sure we'll manage," Loki said mildly. 

He waved a hand and the smell of smoke disappeared, the smoke detector alarm dwindling into the first chimes of the cicadas' night song.

"Think it was some kind of Sorcerer Supreme business? He left without saying goodbye."

"Must be."

Tony sank slowly into the chair Stephen had so hastily vacated. "Well, I guess protecting our reality comes first.” 

“Yeah,” Loki said softly. “I guess.”

"Are you alright?" Tony asked carefully.

“You didn’t tell me he was coming.”

“I didn’t know he was. He has never RVSP-ed before, no matter how many times we invited him over.”

“Why now? Why this year?”

“Maybe he just misses you.”

“Anthony…”

"How long has it been? Seven, eight years since you last saw each other?"

Loki had meant to leave Tony's rhetorical question unanswered but nostalgia had other ideas. "Ten."

Tony whistled. A decade, huh. "That must be why."

“Tony, don’t.”

“Look, Lokes,” Tony said haltingly as he ran a rakish hand through his hair. "Everybody has a history. You know mine. I'm lucky if I could learn half of yours before I die but what I do know of it, I'm cool with it. You're with me now and that's all that matters."

Loki said nothing.

"Am I wrong?" Tony pleaded when the silence went on for far too long. 

Loki rolled his eyes. "There's a little girl upstairs who has your face and your name, what do you think?"

"Seeing as she is our daughter, she's mine, sure." Tony's eyes were asking a different question altogether, Are you? 

Loki sighed, feeling sick to his stomach. The one sip of the sickly sweet drink he took sat heavy and sour, heralding the onset of nausea that would take hours to calm.

His hand slipped inside his pocket and grasped the palm-sized object, not knowing what to expect - 

The tiniest gust of wind blew against his cheek, and Loki let out a startled cry. He had not felt Stephen's magic in a long, long time.

"Loki?" he heard Tony call out, the abject concern in his husband's voice.

He picked up the pouch that had fallen out of his pocket and fisted it tightly, noticing how his nausea had completely vanished.  

"It's an Omamori charm," he said faintly. "The Japanese would gift these to expectant mothers as a good luck charm for safety in pregnancy and childbirth."

"Why would he - " Tony's eyes bulged as he gaped, "You're pregnant?"

"Yes," Loki said, painfully aware of how feathery and weak his voice sounded.

"And you told him?" Tony asked, his voice rising in pitch. "Before me?"

Loki ignored the jealousy in Tony's voice and the hurt in his husband's eyes. Not only was it unfounded, Loki was barely holding it together himself. 

He shook his head more forcefully than he intended and a few tears landed on the weather-beaten deck, darkening it in places. 

"Stephen just knew." Loki wiped his face surreptitiously. "He knows these things."

"I bet he does," Tony muttered darkly. 

Loki turned to look at his husband furiously. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"Baby, I didn't mean it like that." Tony hurriedly tried to gather Loki in his arms but his unyielding husband refused to budge so Tony slid onto the floor and surrendered himself to the mercy of Loki's lap. "I say the stupidest shit sometimes, stuff I don't even mean." 

But Loki was nothing if not persistent. "Then what did you mean?"

Tony was quiet for a time. "Bambi, I'm the coolest guy I know. I look good for my age. Did I tell you my skin age dropped from fifty to thirty after I went on that cleansing diet Bruce recommended on his podcast?"

If Loki waited long enough, Tony almost always got to the point. Eventually. 

"Hey, Fury told me that the last Sorcerer Supreme lived for hundreds of years. How crazy is that?"

“Where are you going with this?”

“Nowhere,” Tony said all too quickly. 

"You are talking to the God of Lies, Tony, or did you forget?" Loki's eyes glinted dangerously. "Try again."

“Someday...one day when I’m no longer around and if you decide that - ” Tony hesitated. His gaze shifted to the floor. “I just want you to know that I’m okay with it. I’m okay with the idea of...you. And him.”

“You would say that to me when I have given up everything to be with you. To take you as my husband." Loki's eyes welled. "To bear our children.”

His breath hitched, his chest felt tight. "After all these years, you still - "

"No, Loki. Please, don't." 

Tony could never stand to see him cry, but Loki could not help the tears streaming down his face of their own volition.

"Please don't cry…" 

Rough, calloused hands pawed at the hollow of his cheeks. 

"I just wish I could make you happy."

But Loki was not having it. "The man can see into the future, Stark. Do you honestly believe he would have let you have me if you couldn't?" 

Tony was stunned into silence.

"What ever gave you the impression that I was not happy with you?" Loki asked bitterly, his entire frame trembling under the weight of anger and some other emotion he dared not name. "You are not some charity case I picked up because you had the shorter life to live."

The silence stretched into long minutes of heartache and morose reflection.

“Are you mad at me?” Tony asked quietly.

"No." Loki shook his head. “I am thankful for you. You gave me a chance. No one else did.”

“Hey, hey. It wasn’t all me. It was mostly you. It was all you.” 

Tony grabbed Loki's hand and pressed an exceptionally fierce kiss on the bone-cold knuckles. “You gave us a chance. I just wanted someone I couldn’t have.”

“Someone you thought you couldn’t have," Loki corrected. 

Tony gazed into the icy depth of Loki's eyes, looking for an affirmation only Loki could give.

“Stephen may have come first but you are not second, Tony." 

Loki touched his fingertips to the sides of his husband's dear, sweet face. "You were never second.”

"I love you, Games."

"And I, you," Loki reassured him, stilling the quiver of Tony's lips with a brush of a thumb. "Even if you don't always believe me."

"I do." In a throwback to his overexcitement on their wedding day, Tony showered Loki's face all over with kisses, each more desperate than the one before. "I do, I do, I do!" 

"I never doubted you, Loki. I was just being an idiot. An insecure, self-centered idiot." Tony reached out a hand to touch Loki's stomach. "Are you okay?" 

"I am more than okay." Loki laced his fingers through Tony's. "Are you?"

"Are you kidding? Do you see this?" Tony gestured at the giant grin he was wearing. It was so huge he felt as if his cheeks would snap. "This is my happy face. I am super happy." Then his face contorted. "When did we -?"

"Make her?" Loki bit down on his lip. "By my calculation, probably last month on our trip to Italy."

Tony's already big eyes widened. Her? He mouthed. 

Loki thought of the pouch charm with its exquisite pink brocade and gold silk lining. 

The Sorcerer Supreme was never wrong.

"Yes, we are having another girl," Loki  said giddily. Tears of happiness did not sting as much so this time he did not bother blinking them away.

Tony's eyes danced. "Can I tweet this yet?"

"No."

"But my followers come up with the most amazing baby names!"

"No!"

Tony pouted. "Fine. But we're giving her an Italian name."

"Tony, we don't really have to name every kid we have after the place where they were conceived, you know."

"Espérance grew into hers," Tony argued. After a few seconds of heavy thinking, "I quite like Isabella."

Loki wrinkled his nose beatifically. "Too common."

"Ludovica? You thought the sculpture was beautiful."

"I am not naming our daughter after a tomb effigy!" Loki said indignantly. "Although I did meet Bernini once. Give him a slab of marble and he could breathe it to life." 

The reminiscent smile on Loki's face took on a life of its own. "You would have liked him. He was quite flashy, like you."

"God you're sexy when you name-drop famous dead people," Tony sighed.

Loki began to laugh; it started off slow, before escalating into a full, heartfelt laughter that had him grabbing Tony's face in both hands. 

Stephen chose to serve the world. Maybe in another life, he would choose Loki. 

But for now, and forever…

There was no other man for him. 

He bent down to kiss Tony on the lips, gently, deeply and fully. 

"Anthony Stark, you have my heart." For Loki too remembered his wedding vows. "Whole, healed and eternal."

And eternal indeed was their love, the former Iron Man and his Ice Prince, and healed were their hearts, conjoined as one, for as long as they both shall live.

[repentantsky]

9 Things I’d like to see at E3, 2021

So E3 2021 is a thing. It’s gonna be all digital, and several companies have already signed up to join, sounds like a good deal, but the question is, will it be what we normally expect out of E3, or will it be more like Summer Game Fest Last Year, where everything that looked like it was gonna be great, but just turned out to be okay? Who can say, but I have some...suggestions, that might make it better, along with some game announcements, that might make it all it should be cracked up to be. 

9. No low quality, at home interviews during the main show 

E3 has had a history of doing interviews during game shows to try and break pace a little, and keep people from being too excited, only to potentially be let down later. However, possibly the worst problem with Summer Game Fest last year, was the at home interviews, which broke pacing during game announcements in a way I can’t imagine was on purpose, and for many, was the time to take a bathroom break, or simply look away for a while. It’s important of course to hear from developers about their projects, and they can divulge some interesting information about games, that either puts something confusing into context, or is accidently leaked, but when we watch shows about game releases, we want to see the games. Interviews should be held in between shows, or better yet, the days following the conferences themselves. 

8. Nintendo finally talks about the big three 

While it’s safe to say Nintendo has done some banger numbers over the last year espeically, due to better console availability, which I never thought I’d say about Nintendo but here we are, it’s also safe to say that fans have been waiting for literal years on Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4, and Breath of the Wild 2. While some have been more patient than others, and of course I understand there’s a flipping pandemic going on, Nintendo told us far too long ago about these games, or the restart of their development, and Breath of the Wild 2 was promised to at least get an update this year, and E3 seems like the best place to do it, especially after their last direct, one that was more than a year in waiting, and left so many people disappointed. And this is coming from someone who had literally only hoped to be excited about one thing, and it didn’t happen The future of how they present games, almost feels like it’s in question after such a show, which did not justify itself, so hopefully, they can finally let everyone walk away happy, and talk about the projects that have been generation the most excitement, for literal years now.

7. Space things out better

You might now know this, I only made one list about it after all, and literally no one reacted to it, but I’m a huge wrestling fan, and one of the promotions I watch, is WWE. Now, WWE is about to launch WrestleMania, their equal to E3 in a lot of ways, and are splitting it up over two days, and that goes for their third brand NXT as well, because they have a history of making the show sometimes 8 hours long. For fans of video games, watching The Game Awards, which can be two to three hours long, is arduous, and tiring, and E3, can also have that same effect. I remember in 2019, I literally fell asleep watching Bethesda’s conference, because I was so tired trying to write about the previous shows in between them, never mind actually watching them, that I was burnt out. Since E3 is going fully digital this year, and everyone is going to be in that same boat, it would be nice if we didn’t have too many shows, spanning over a near 12 hour period, which was happened before, making people stay up late to enjoy what they want to, or you know, work, which is free promotion for whatever gets announced. Spacing the shows out to no more than three a day, and giving people enough time to get their thoughts together, would just be really nice. 

6. Devolver Digital, tries a different style

Look, I don’t hate Devolver Digital’s approach to talking about games at E3, but what I do hate, is them telling the same jokes over and over again, and expecting everyone to laugh, because you know, it’s so funny when something that’s already been said, or shown, is modified ever so slightly for years on end. I’m not saying they can’t still tell jokes, please do, E3 is as much a good time as it is stressful depending on who you are, so the change of pace can at times be a lot of fun, but the last time they had a “conference”, it was a slog, and generally left me feeling annoyed, and I can’t help but feel I’m not the only one. They want to be different, I say that’s great, but they need to do it in a way that for one, is actually different, because their style has become a cliché in and of itself, and where they don’t spend time talking about fake games, because it’s hard to know at times what’s real and what isn’t. I honestly thought the last time they did one, the final game they talked about was just a play on the “one more thing” trope conferences have, and when I later realized it wasn’t, I never got that first sense of hype, and so lost interest, and that’s not a good business model. We don’t even know at this point if they’re going to declare for E3, and since it was announced late, it might be too hard to get a show at all, but if they do show up, or even when they next do a conference, it would be nice if they considered this line of thinking.

5. Drop the “Exclusive Online Portal” idea

Yeah I don’t know what the ESA was thinking with this one, but they mentioned that E3 will be streaming from an exclusive online portal, and not only do we not know what that means, but no one flipping cares! We’re all going to watching it on YouTube, Twitch, or dare I say it but it’s possible, Facebook Gaming, and any other platform is completely useless. We are all tired of hearing, download a new program to do a thing you can already do on other platforms, PC gamers especially, stop releasing new flipping launchers and...sorry, that’s for another list in the future perhaps, but the point stands. You might get streamers to download, or go to whatever site they need to, to watch the shows, but everyone else, is either going to watch those streams, or as it often happens, watch the highlights at a later time, so to add a potentially extra step to that process, is just not going to go anywhere, and since E3 will be free to watch, it’s not like this is going to be a good way to make money, unless you do plan to do the following...

4. Throwing flipping ads at everyone between shows or otherwise

Look, I get it, even an online show that’s going to be talking about games costs money to make, and so money must be made by other means, many of which are not available to the ESA without people actually being present, but the thing about E3 is, as much as we all love it, it is one massive ad, and even though it’s an add we like, it’s not one that needs too many ads thrown at it beyond what it already has. There are other, less annoying ways to make money, like having products from the games announced be available at a store online that people can access, that sees them getting part of the profit, or something of that nature, but this portal that was mentioned, seems like a place where the ESA can just throw ads at people all day, and that just seems like a horrible idea. A lot of people don’t see E3 as an ad, even though it absolutely is, and blowing away the smoke and mirrors that it’s not, by throwing countless ads at people for the sake of trying to make money, might be the end of E3 as we know it. 

3. Don’t spend too much time talking about games that are coming out close to the event, or just came out

Like I said, E3 is one big, massive ad, and for the most part, that’s totally alright, but E3 also has a habit of sneaking in little bits talking about games, that are coming out during the week of, or very close to the shows, to the point of being annoying. Most of the time these ads are short, show nothing new, and generally kill the pace of the conferences on display. While it’d be one thing to try and shadow drop a game this way, because we all love a good shadow drop, we really don’t need ads for games like FF7 Intergrade, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, or flipping Mario Golf: Super Rush. We know those games are coming, we are paying attention, give us a little credit, and save that for games that could use the push like Neptunia: ReVerse, Legend of Mana, or maybe even Scarlett Nexus who actually in way, has to compete with Mario Golf. This might be more a developer problem, and E3 itself might actually have little to no control over this, but whoever does it, needs to do it right.

2. Xbox needs to stop lying, and go big

I love Xbox, I really do, for whatever reason it’s become my go to place for physical indie games, and whenever I want to play a shooter, I start thinking green, but in their conferences, Phil Spencer has a tendency to oversell what Xbox is going to show, by talking about how many games are going to be at the show, or by constantly mentioning how Xbox is more powerful than it’s competitor consoles, like it does any good for the bottom line of the company. I don’t want to hear Phil say they are going to show off 80 games during their show, and have half of them be ports, or shown off in a montage. Doing that means everyone has to go look up a large portion of what they actually announce to learn anything, and that’s no fun. I don’t want montages during E3 at all, and while I’m at it, Xbox espeically needs to bring in the big guns. I’m talking Halo Infinite, Gears 6, the next Forza game, and maybe, finally, a Japanese exclusive title that will get people really hyped. Xbox might just have free reign over the show on the day they present, but another show that has extremely mixed opinions like in 2019, might not be the best thing ever. 

1. GET. SONY. 

Obviously we know that Sony and the PlayStation brand haven’t been associated with E3 for a while now, and I get it, it’s kind of hard to justify going down to L.A. every year, when an online digital show, saves a whole bunch of money, and can get people just as hyped as if they had been there, but this year, everything is online, and Sony’s State of Play’s have been a mixed reaction as a whole. Taking them to E3 not only sets up more hype for them, but it also gives people something they really need right now, something close to the norm, with all of console developers, showing off their best. E3 2019, just felt weaker, and too safe without Sony there, and last year was a total, long winded disaster because of Summer Game Fest. If the ESA is really going to go for this, and give it an earnest shot, and give us the best that they can, they need Sony to show up and blow our minds with, I don’t know, God of War 2, Spyro 4 (hopefully) and a new IP or two to really get the show to being considered one of the best. E3 will probably be alright regardless of if they are there or not, but if they are, the chances of it being truly great, go up in spades. 

And that’s my list, did I miss anything else you can think of? Let me know in the comments below, like this list if it interested you, reblog it if you love it, and have a wonderful day. 

[girlwithshipsshitshow]

Part 19

(Usagi and Misaki pulled up to a diner that sat on a  road off a beaten path, the diner looked virtually deserted but there were a few cars in the lot, Misaki figured it was probably the staff).  

Misaki: Why do you think he wanted to meet us here? You don’t think he want’s to kill us, do you?

Usagi: (Laughs), No, of course no.  Although, this place is in the middle of nowhere. 

(Usagi shut the car off, the two boys got out of the car,  holding hands they walked towards the diner until Takahiro, Shoved Usagi, causing him to fall to the ground).  

Takahiro: WHAT THE HELL! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO MY BROTHER HOW COULD YOU OUT HIM! HOW COULD YOU TELL THE WORLD YOU TWO ARE ENGAGED WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!

Misaki: WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU! (He walked over to Usagi pulling him up), you okay?

Usagi: Yeah, I’m fine. Takahiro, first of all I came out, Misaki’s name wasn’t even mentioned! 

Takahiro: Oh, really! Thank god!

Misaki: But, it will be after graduation! we WILL tell that, I’m the person he’s  getting married too!

Takahiro: WHAT, (He started to go after Usagi again but Misaki blocked him shoving him back instead). Misaki, don’t you see what’s happening here?! Usagi-san is manipulating you!  

Misaki: (Laughs) Okay, first of all, I’ve wanted to tell you this for a while now, Don’t call him that anymore, call him Akihiko or Usami, but I don’t want you to call him the same name I scream out it bed. 

Takahiro: I started that pet name.

Misaki: It’s even weirder when you say it like that, so stop. Second, I knew it, I knew you didn’t approve of us, so you’re convincing yourself that he’s manipulating me? I asked him to get married, I asked him if we could tell everyone about us, but he said he wanted to come out himself first. (Misaki took Usagi’s hand, the two started to walk towards the diner). Do me a favor bro, if you care about me at all, figure your shit out or leave us alone.

(Misaki sat across from Usagi in the diner sipping on his third cup of coffee, sharing a plate of fries).

Misaki: I think I finally understand why he hates us together.

Usagi: Yeah, the “Thank God” Comment”, did not help.

Misaki: I don’t want to talk about this right now. Can  I show you how I want our house to look? I know Ren wanted blueprints, but if we show him the outside of the house, and like an idea of how we want a layout of inside, d-do you think he could make blueprints that way?

Usagi: (Nods), Yeah, of course.

Misaki: Look, I just want you to know, (He reaches out taking Usagi’s hand), I want this to be our house so while I have ideas for the way the outside looks, and the inside, you have to contribute to stuff. 

Usagi: (Reaches across the table, caressing Misaki’s face), I’m fine with whatever you want. 

Misaki: I know, but the whole point, is for this to feel like out house okay?

Usagi: Yeah, Okay. So show me the house. 

Misaki: What do you think?

Usagi: I love it! (Usagi had moved to the other side of the table, he was leaning against Misaki, his chin resting on his shoulder). 

Misaki: (Turned his head slightly), Are you sure? because of you h-

Usagi: I love it, I mean it’s not a Japanese style house at all, so it’s definitely not traditional, but that’s what I like about it.  

Misaki: (Chuckles), I guess we aren’t the most traditional couple huh? 

Usagi: I mean, I fell in love with my best friends brother, my family hates you but also some of them are kinda in love with you, so yeah, i’d say so. 

Misaki: (Softy kisses Usagi’s check), You’re the only one for me.

Usagi: (Smiles), I love you.

Misaki: I love you too.

Usagi: So what other ideas do you have?

Misaki: So many! I kinda want four floors, that way we we have plenty of space. So we have the basement floor  and I was thinking could have like a ,oive theater there?

Usagi: I don’t think we need that, how often do you think we would use it? 

Misaki: I don’t know, I just always thought it would be cool. 

Usagi: I just don’t think we would use it.

Misaki: Okay, I was also thinking, we could have a room for the bears, but not all of them. But in the basement

Usagi: Yeah, I was thinking of getting rid of a lot of my toys and bears anyway.

Misaki: Really? 

Usagi: I don’t think I need them as much anymore. The snow globe you got me is amazing. Suzuki-san, and Jr for sure, but I think we can get rid of  all the other stuff, I’ll have  to look through it all, but yeah, I think I’m done with it, unless it’s something you gave me, I don’t want it. but if you want a basement, maybe a proper laundry room. You could have a door that says “Laundry room” and its a barn style door”. We can get drying racks, a table for folding clothes, nice laundry baskets.

Misaki: Awe! I love that, but the basement will be  kinda big, I mean what else would go there?

Usagi: We don’t have to decide now, and maybe in the future we could come back to the home theater, I’m just saying, with the two of us living there, we don’t need it.

Misaki: Yeah, you’re right. Okay so when we go to the first floor I was thinking an open living room, leading into the kitchen, a big on with seating in the kitchen. Oh, and an island is that okay? Like this... 

Usagi: I love that, It’s enough room for you to cook, and we can actually it in the kitchen. 

Misaki: Okay, and then the living room will meet with the kitchen, but I also think we can have sliding barn doors in case we want to close it off, and we can also have a half bathroom off the living room?

Usagi: I like it. Second floor?

Misaki: Okay, the  second floor, would be two guest bedrooms, each with a bathroom.

Usagi: Okay, that works. 

Misaki: The third floor is our space, I have a great idea...

Usagi: Can our bedroom have a balcony? 

Misaki: YES! I was thinking the same thing!

Usagi: Really?

Misaki: Yeah! Look, here’s an idea I found, it has a balcony so what do you think? 

Usagi: I think that’s amazing, and Pinterest has everything!

Misaki: (Giggles), I know.

Usagi: Can I design the outdoor space for the balcony?

Misaki: (Hands him the phone), DO IT BABY! 

Usagi: Okay, here I have three different ideas, which one is your favorite? 

Misaki: I think we could use the first and second, and then maybe the third for our backyard.

Usagi: Okay, cool.

Misaki: And I think a big walk in closet for us, do you want to see a picture? 

Usagi: No, if I say huge walk in closet, Ren will know what I mean.

Misaki: Okay, This part is my favorite, the bathroom, so this is part of it, and Instead of that tub I want this one. your going to love it.  

Usagi: I do LOVE it. I can  picture it now. (He smiled, wrapped his arms around Misaki and gently placed kisses on his neck, Misaki giggled then moaned slightly). 

Misaki: Hey, stop people are here.

Usagi: (Lips pressed to his neck), It’s only us and  the workers.

Misaki: Still. (He pulled away from Usagi), Save it.

Usagi: I’m tired of wating. 

Misaki: I know, me too.

Usagi: So, (clears throat), um seeming like our space is going to be pretty big, but there’s probably enough space for us to put an office right? Because I made one. 

Misaki: Top one would be your desk, bottom mine? We could add a couch? 

Usagi: Yeah, and I was thinking, It could just be across from our bedroom.

Misaki: Yeah, that’s perfect. So last thing, backyard.

Usagi: Hot tub, this one. 

Misaki: (Laughs), okay. I also want this for outside, we have lots of land, so we can always add more, one day.

Usagi: Well, what about the fourth floor? 

Misaki: What about it?

Usagi: What do you want up there?

Misaki: Oh, its dumb.

Usagi: Tell me. (He knocked against Misaki with his shoulder). 

Misaki: It’s just another little hang out space for us, like in case we have company, and we just want to get away, just a place the two of us can get too, and no one else. 

Usagi: (Grins), Can I see it?

Misaki: I guess. 

Misaki:  I know it looks dumb, and not our style really but it’s cozy and makes me feel warm... Do you hate it? You hate it don’t you I can look for something else. (He scrolled fiercely on his phone, until Usagi took it from his placing it on the table).

Usagi: (Takes Misaki’s face staring into his eyes), I love that little attic space, I love that we’re designing a house together, and I love you, so fucking much. (He softly pressed his lips to Misaki’s giving him a soft but deep kiss. (He pulled away, pressing his forehead to Misaki’s). I’ll send an email to Ren with our ideas.

Misaki: (Nods, he leans into Usagi, locking his hand with the big cold one), We’ve been here for almost two hours.

Usagi: Do you wanna go?

Misaki: No, I like being in a place where no one knows where we are, lets stay a while.

Usagi: (Grins, places a kiss a Misaki’s head, pulling the younger boy closer to him. It was nice to escape realty for a while).

(Takahiro was angry, he could not believe his brother was shutting him out of his life, after everything he’d done for him! and He was dating his best friend who the fuck did that, he took another shot of whisky slamming the glass on the table, no one was home yet, and he needed to vent to his wife, she always knew what to say. The door opened to the apartment and Mahiro ran inside hugging his fathers leg almost knocking him to the ground, he was really drunk so he’s balance was off.)

Mahiro: Hi daddy!

Takahiro: (slurring words): Hi buddy, where’s mommy?

Manami: (walking in with groceries, placing them on counter) I’m here, Mahiro, go to your room, and play, I need to talk to your dad.

Mahiro: Okay, (Runs into rum).

Manami: (Crosses arms), Are you Drunk?!

Takahiro: (Slurring) NO, I’ve only had like five shots and two beers.

Manami: (Rolls eyes), what happened? 

Takahiro: (walks over to sit on the couch, he couldn’t stand anymore), Usagi and Misaki. 

Manami: Oh, really?

Takahiro: I kinda attacked Usagi. 

Manami: What the fuck is wrong with you?

Takahiro: He came out on a Live, said he was engaged, and that they were living together.

Manami: SO? you know that already!

Takahiro: But now, he want’s Misaki to come out after graduation.

Manami: (takes a seat on the couch), I have a feeling that was Misaki’s idea.

Takahiro: So! I don’t want anyone to know!

Manami: Know, what?

Takahiro: THAT MY LITTLE BROTHER BROTHER IS GAY! I DON’T WANT HIM TO BE GAY! WHY CAN’T HE BE NORMAL?! 

Manami: TAKAHIRO, I CAN’T BELIVE YOU WOULD SAY THOSE THINGS, HE IS NORMAL, AND USAMI AND HIM ARE IN LOVE. IF YOU CAN’T ACCEPT THAT, THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULD JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE. (Stands up), You know what, I think Mahiro and I are going to leave for a while. 

Takahiro: Hon-

Manami: For someone who say’s he loves he’s brother as much as you, everything you just said disproved that. Grow up Takahiro. (Walks in Mahiro’s room)

Takahiro: (stands up, drowns the last bit of whiskey, then slams the bottle against the wall, Mahiro runs out of his room with a  backpack on).

Mahiro: What happen?

Manami: (Walks out of her bedroom with a small bag on), Mahiro, how would you like to go stay with Uncle Misaki for a few days?

Mahiro: MATKI!! Is daddy coming?

Manami: No, he’s not. (Sharply looks up at Takahiro), Your dad isn’t happy that Misaki is. (The two exit the apartment leaving Takahiro standing in the shattered pieces of the mess he made. 

[myforeverforlife]

the way to your heart.

For another anon! Chanyeol and 62. "You're not as quiet as you think you are." + 103. "Sharing is caring." (I hope you like it! 💕)

Pairing: Chanyeol x Reader

Word Count: 3,374

Masterlist

You watched with bated breath as your coworker, Minkyung, finished filling the newest batch of cream puffs. The bakery kitchen was warm from the ovens, but you didn't mind — not when fresh desserts were close by. 

"Oh my god, you're so good at this," you praised. Just as you tried to pick up one of the round puffs, Minkyung reached out to swat your hand away.

"Don't even think about it. You want one, you have to pay. Being part of the staff doesn't mean you get to eat everything." 

"Auntie won't mind," you wheedled. "And it's just one teeny, tiny cream puff." 

Minkyung sighed, eyes roaming over each bit of pastry as she tried to figure out which was the least fit to be sold. "Here," she finally said, picking up a slightly-lopsided puff and holding it out to you. 

You popped it into your mouth eagerly, humming blissfully as a burst of strawberry-flavored cream exploded in your mouth. "These are amazing!" 

"Good." Minkyung sent you an appreciative smile. "I'm going to finish decorating, then you can take these out to the front." 

At that moment, you heard the sound of the bakery door opening. The customer went the extra lengths to ring the bell on the counter, two sharp dings echoing in the air. 

Sneaking a quick look at the clock, you rolled your eyes with a smile. "Coming!"

You pushed the kitchen door open, wiping your hands on your apron. "You know, you don't have to ring the bell every time." 

The man at the counter grinned, leaning forward on his arms. "Sorry, was I too loud? I tried to do it gently, I swear."

"You're not as quiet as you think you are, Chanyeol. Sehun didn't come with you today?"

Chanyeol frowned at this. "Hey, what about me?"

"You always come here after your last class, Yeol. Plus, your mom owns the place, why wouldn't you come here? I rarely see Sehun, though." You copied Chanyeol, leaning on the counter as well. "How is he doing?"

"He's okay. How have your classes been?" he asked, eager to shift the conversation away from his best friend.

You shrugged. "The usual. I still hate the fact that I have to take Stats."

Chanyeol smiled sympathetically. "That sucks, sorry about that." He hadn't taken a math class since high school, which brought him no end of relief. As a student at K-ARTS, Chanyeol only had to worry about music. "What about your history class?" 

You perked up at this, a glimmer coming to your eyes. "Oh my god, it's amazing. We started learning about Japanese feudalism this week, and there's so much to cover." 

As you launched into what you had learned, Chanyeol couldn't help but chuckle at your enthusiasm. He wondered if this was what he looked like whenever he was talking about music, or writing and composing songs with Sehun. You and Chanyeol were in two completely different majors, and at different colleges, nonetheless. If it wasn't for this bakery, you probably would have never met. 

"Sorry," Chanyeol heard you say. "Am I boring you?" He glanced up to see you rubbing the back of your neck in embarrassment. 

"No!" he shouted, cringing when you flinched. "No," he tried again, at a normal volume this time. "Sorry, I think I'm just tired from classes." 

Thankfully, you bought the lie, eyes softening in sympathy. "Stop staying up late and gaming online. Sehun always tells me you guys play League for hours when you should be sleeping instead!" 

Sehun, again? Every time you mentioned his best friend, the envious green-eyed monster hiding deep inside Chanyeol tried to climb out. It was a juvenile emotion, yet like with every other emotion, Chanyeol felt it strongly. You didn't even think of Sehun in a romantic way, and Chanyeol knew that Sehun fet the same way. 

His mind knew better, but why wouldn't his heart listen? 

The front door opened, a familiar permed figure entering the bakery. "What are you doing here?" the woman asked, addressing Chanyeol as she kissed him on the cheek. 

"Hi, Mom. Just keeping Y/N company." 

"Hi, Auntie." You waved at Chanyeol's mother. "I didn't know you were coming in today?" 

"Yoonha called out sick, and I know that the neighborhood kids usually come here after school. I didn't want to leave you here by yourself," Chanyeol's mom said. She let herself in behind the register, searching for a clean apron. 

"You didn't have to," you said. "I can stay longer, if you need me to." 

She waved this off, tying the laces of her apron around her waist. "Don't trouble yourself. You're a college student, you need all the rest you can get. Dowon will be coming in half an hour earlier anyways, so we'll be okay." Chanyeol's mom left for the kitchen, the door swinging shut behind her.

"What time do you finish today?" Chanyeol asked.

You glanced down at your watch. "I'm off in an hour, but I have to run by the store for some more pens." A few wrinkles appeared on your forehead as you frowned. "I've used up almost all of my favorite pens with note-taking, and the others just aren't the same." 

Chanyeol grinned, amused by how particular you were with your stationary. "You wanna grab something to eat with me after? There's a really good pizza place that I've been hearing about." 

"Do they have chicken wings, too?"

"And cheeseballs," Chanyeol added.

"Count me in! You don't mind stopping by the stationary store with me, though?" 

"Of course not, I love hanging out with you." Chanyeol froze, surprised by his own boldness. But you didn't seem to notice, beaming brightly.

"You're sweet, Yeol. Now I can't wait for my shift to end! Are you gonna wait here?"

"Yeah, I'll get some homework done. I brought my guitar too, I was gonna see if Mom could take it home for me." Chanyeol reached down, picking up his guitar case from where it had been hiding out of sight on the other side of the counter.  

"I'll make sure to bring you some snacks while you're waiting then." 

At the mention of snacks, Chanyeol began looking over all of the pastries and cakes in the display cases, round eyes wide as he looked for the perfect, sugary after-school sweet.

The students in the neighborhood began to flock over to the bakery as school let out, children of all ages coming in to make the most of their free time. Most of the customers were high school students, groups of friends giggling over inside jokes, and the occasional couple out on a date. Other students came with their parents, as a special treat for a good grade on a test, or just to spend some time bonding together. It always warmed your heart to see how happy the bakery made these customers. Some of them came often, and you easily greeted them by name whenever they stopped by. The customers were just as happy to see you, always glad to see a familiar face. 

As much as they loved you, there was no denying that the neighborhood had a special spot for Chanyeol's mother. She was a social butterfly, much like her son, and was able to recall even the most specific of details about her customers. She came out to the front to help you as things got busier, seamlessly taking on tasks at the counter with you or going to help Minkyung behind the scenes. 

Every so often, your gaze wandered over to where Chanyeol sat in his corner, guitar propped up on his knees as he worked. Although there was music playing in the bakery, you could still hear the strumming of his guitar as he played with ease. Soon enough, you weren't the only one who was paying attention to him. 

Chanyeol strummed away at his guitar, pick in his mouth as his foot tapped against the floor. You recognized the chords of a Crush song, something he often played whenever he was in a good mood. As he finished playing, a few of the customers began clapping. Chanyeol's head shot up in surprise, almost identical to a meerkat. 

You joined in the applause, smiling proudly when Chanyeol looked over to you. 

His large ears started to turn red at the tips, a bashful grin appearing on his face. "Thank you," he said shyly.

"Do you take requests?" one boy asked, moving around in his chair to face Chanyeol.

"I can try." 

You watched in awe from the counter as Chanyeol took on song requests from a variety of genres. Most of them were pop songs, others more R&B or alternative. But with each request, Chanyeol managed to play them almost perfectly, only hitting a few snags a couple of times. You knew that Chanyeol was musically talented, but not to this extent. The customers were just as transfixed, many of them staying longer than they usually did. No one was able to resist being drawn in by Chanyeol's aura, by his friendliness and cheerful attitude. 

Before you knew it, your other coworker came in. You couldn't believe how much time had passed, but you were also glad that your shift was over. 

Chanyeol noticed how you took your apron off, heading to the back as you got your things ready to leave. He finished the song he was playing with a flourish, smiling at the student who had requested it. 

"It's time for me to head out," he said, much to the disappointment of some of the students. 

"Will you come play for us again?" one of them asked. 

"Definitely! I'll keep practicing until then." Chanyeol winked, packing up his things and going to the kitchen. He ran into his mother as he opened the door, barely avoiding bumping into her. 

"Are you leaving? Y/N's about to head out too," she said with a knowing look.  

"I know. We're gonna go shopping and grab some food together."

Chanyeol's mom held up a finger, turning around and going into the small room reserved for her office space. Chanyeol dutifully followed along, placing his backpack and guitar case on a chair. "Mom, can you take my things home for me?"

"Of course." His mother took out a few bills from her wallet, giving them to her son. "Make sure you pay for Y/N's food too. Oh, here's some extra!" She pulled out another bill. "And grab some more dog food for Toben on your way home."

"Mom," Chanyeol whined.

"He's your dog. After all the begging you did to get a dog, you won't take care of him?" 

Chanyeol knew it was wiser in the long run to just suck it up if he wanted to avoid a long lecture from his mother. "Fine." He accepted the money, smooching a grateful kiss to his mother's cheek. "I'll text you when I'm on the way home," he said over his shoulder as he left.

You were just saying your goodbyes to Minkyung, already changed out of your work clothes and back into your regular clothing. Chanyeol couldn't help but notice that you were wearing the hoodie he gifted you for your birthday a few years ago, the same year you came to work at the bakery. 

"Ready to go?" you asked him, moving the strap of your bag onto your shoulder. 

Chanyeol could hardly believe it — this was an outing for just the two of you. It wasn't a date, but Chanyeol still felt the exhilarating rush of butterflies in his stomach. 

He nodded, moving past you to hold the door open. "Let's go!" 

One subway ride and a few minutes of walking later, the two of you found yourselves in one of your favorite shops. Chanyeol felt out of place, a giant among the colorful pens and rolls of washi tape. It was easy to get distracted when everything was so pretty, and you were no different.

"Look at this bookmark," you exclaimed holding one up for Chanyeol to see. It was mostly translucent, covered in delicate drawings of flowers. 

Chanyeol came over to stand by you, picking up a similar floral bookmark and sticking it behind his ear. "What do you think? Do I look pretty?" 

You burst into laughter, the perfect reaction that Chanyeol had been hoping for. "Yes, very pretty," you agreed. Reaching up, you placed your bookmark behind his other ear. "Now you're twice as pretty." 

Placing his hands underneath his chin, Chanyeol blinked innocently.

"Wait, I need to take a picture of this," you said between giggles. 

Chanyeol gave you various poses, both of you finding the impromptu photoshoot more hilarious with each passing second. You hurried to find your pens before the shop employees could get annoyed with you for being too noisy, leaving with a paper bag of goods. 

"So where's this famous pizza place?" you asked, putting your purchases into your shoulder bag.

"It's not too far away. I didn't realize that store was so close to it until we were on the subway." Chanyeol switched places with you on the sidewalk, taking the spot closest to the street so that you were walking on the inside. It was a simple gesture, but it still warmed your heart nonetheless. 

Had Chanyeol always been this considerate? You had known him for a couple of years, but you only ever saw him as your goofy friend. It was strange to realize that Chanyeol could be such a gentleman as well, your thoughts drifting back to the way he had taken song requests without a complaint back at the bakery. 

"Y/N?"

You looked up, eyes wide. Sometime during your reverie, the two of you had come to a crosswalk. The light was still red, people on both sides waiting to cross. "Sorry, what?"

"Do you want to sit inside, or outside?" Chanyeol pointed across the street at a restaurant. You could see groups of people eating inside or out on the patio, each caught up in their own conversations. 

"How about outside? It's such a nice day today, it'd be a waste not to enjoy it."  

Chanyeol grinned from ear to ear, pulling the beanie off of his head as he ran a hand through his silver hair. "You're right." He nodded towards the street as the light turned green, stepping off of the curb once it was safe to cross. 

Ordering was simple, and even considering how busy the restaurant was, your food still came out fairly quickly. Your mouth watered as you looked at all the food, spicy chicken wings piled up on a plate, a large pizza taking up most of the table. Chanyeol was already biting into a cheeseball, stretching out the stringy mozzarella cheese inside. 

You soon found that the restaurant really did live up to its praise, falling in love with the pizza as soon as you took a bite. "This is so good," you gushed.

Chanyeol smiled, reaching for a slice himself. "I'm glad you like it. I figured we could deserve a treat, you know, with the new semester starting and all." 

"Don't remind me," you groaned. "I rarely have time for myself, nowadays."

"Same here." Chanyeol took a long sip from his soda before speaking again. "School just gets harder as we get older, huh? I miss the times when we were young and we just had to turn in a packet at the end of the week." 

"Now it's just endless amounts of assigned readings and papers. And making music, in your case. What's it like this semester?"

"I did a lot of acoustic music last semester, but someone I worked with let me try out his electric guitar and god, it was awesome. The way it feels just to hold one of those, Y/N, it's insane. We've been trying to write a few songs together." Chanyeol grabbed a piece chicken, taking a huge bite out of the small wing. 

"With your senior, right? The lizard guy, Gecko?"

Chanyeol choked on his food, coughing as he reached for his water bottle. He gulped down half the bottle in a flash, eyes still sparkling with mirth. "Gaeko," he corrected with a laugh. 

"I was close!"

Chanyeol nodded, a smile tugging at his lips. "I gotta call him that next time — Lizard Guy." 

"No," you pleaded, shoulders slumping. "You know what I meant. Anyways, didn't you work with him before too?" 

To your relief, Chanyeol went along with your attempt to brush off your misunderstanding. "Yeah, Sehun and I worked with him before. He's really — he lives, breathes, eats music. I've never seen anyone as passionate about music as him."

"Wow." You lifted your eyebrows, clearly impressed. "I already thought you were like that. No wonder you two get along together." 

The rest of your meal passed by as you and Chanyeol talked about other things on your mind. From talking about Chanyeol's latest compositions and favorite songs, to your anthropology class and latest drama you were binge-watching, there wasn’t a dull moment in between. There was never a boring moment with both of you, even in lazy, restful times like this.

"Ugh, I don't think I can eat any more." You leaned back in your seat, both hands on your stomach.

"We have one slice still. Someone's gotta finish it." Chanyeol wiggled his eyebrows, pushing the slice closer to you.

"Fine, but only if you help me out — sharing is caring." You ripped the slice in half, leaving the other piece for Chanyeol.

"Does this mean you care about me?"

You paused, the pizza slice halfway to your mouth. "Of course I do, Yeol." 

Chanyeol brought his elbows up onto the table, thumbs fiddling with each other as he mustered up the courage for his next words. "Uh, I have a performance coming up in a few months. Sehun and I are gonna perform some songs that we've been working on since summer. Do you want to come?" 

"Yeol, I'd love to! I'll be there, no matter what." 

Your friend cleared his throat, suddenly finding it hard to look you in the eye. "I mean as a date. But it doesn't have to be," he tacked on, worried that you'd be scared off. He took a brave peek at your face, noticing how you were shocked into silence. 

"A date?" you repeated. Your breath started to quicken as it finally started to make sense — Chanyeol had been acting weird around you because he liked you. The revelation made your heart race.

Chanyeol nodded, chewing on his lips as he waited for your answer. 

"Okay," you replied, completely taking him off guard. 

"Really?!" Chanyeol's voice boomed, garnering the attention of a few customers close by.

"Yes," you said with a laugh. "It's a date, Yeol." 

He stretched his hands out high into the air, a relieved smile on his face. "Oh my god," he breathed out. "This is great." 

"Chanyeol, people are starting to look." You trued to hide your face with your hands, unable to stop yourself from giggling.

"Let them look! I'm going on a date with Y/N!" His happiness was infectious, quickly taking over you as well and leaving a warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach. 

Chanyeol gobbled up the last piece of pizza left for him, and paid for the bill without letting you pay for a single cent. It was still light out, but the streetlights were just beginning to turn on. 

"I'll walk you home," Chanyeol announced, proud to have the honor of doing so.

"Are you sure? Your mom will worry if you're home too late." 

"I'll let her know, don't worry." Chanyeol started walking, hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket.

You hurried to catch up to him, your bag bumping into your hip. Once you were by his side, you wrapped an arm around his. 

Chanyeol jumped slightly at the sudden contact, smiling shyly as he realized it was you. One of his closest friends, his longtime crush, and now the possibility of something more. 

Somewhere, after years of getting to know you, he had found the way to your heart.

A/N: this was very loosely inspired by exo-sc’s “rodeo station”! It’s definitely one of my favorite tracks off the album! I figured a couple of college kids would probably hang out around smaller, more casual places than a luxury department store like the apgujeong galleria haha, but I really love getting to write college chanyeol who’s loved by his neighborhood. also, I was eventually going to write sehun in during his performance with chanyeol, but the fic was already at 3k+ words, so I had to stop myself 😂

[monstaless]

On The Low - Part One

Author: @monstaless​

Relationships: fwb!Bambam x Reader, some JB x reader

Warnings: angst, smut, language, my possibly incorrect Korean (which I guess in the context of this fic is okay)

Song - On The Low by Justin Park

Word Count: 3.4k

A/N: I hadn’t intended to release this in two parts, but I also hadn’t intended for it to be this long. I hope you like it!

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

The first time he saw her, she was in the lobby of his building. She was standing by the security guard’s desk and she had stopped Bambam dead in his tracks. She was gorgeous and impeccably dressed: a light purple dress shirt tucked into a knee-length white pencil skirt, and matching purple pumps. As she reached up to brush her hair behind her ear, he noticed that around her wrist she wore a strand of light pink mala beads. 

He wondered if she was the wife of someone else in the building, but he hadn’t seen her before. He couldn’t see a ring on her finger either. She must have just moved into the building.

He quickly turned away and pressed the button for the elevator as she thanked the security guard. He half expected her to make her way to the elevator, but as the doors were closing, he saw her walking out the front doors of the lobby.

The first time he spoke to her, she was running to catch the same elevator and he held the door for her. He noted how surprisingly steady she was in her heels as she slipped between the doors to join him.

“Gamsahamnida.” She smiled, bowing slightly to him.

“Munje eopseoyo.” He stood quietly for a moment before turning to her again. “Banggeum isa wassoyo?”

“Uh, I’m sorry, I don’t. Um, I don’t understand,” she replied awkwardly, her face flushing slightly.

“Did you just move in?” he asked with a polite smile. He felt more comfortable speaking English with her anyway.

“Yes, a couple of days ago.” She seemed surprised, but she smiled and appeared to relax a little. “Have you lived here long?”

“A couple of years. I’m not here often though. Work takes me elsewhere.” He shrugged.

“Oh, I understand that. It’s why I’m here after all.” She laughed. “What do you do?”

“Uh, you know, the usual.” At that moment her phone started to ring and she gave him an apologetic look after checking the ID.

“I’m very sorry. It’s a business call.”

“It’s okay.” He was too relieved that he didn’t have to continue to come up with an explanation that wouldn’t give him away. So far, she didn’t seem to have a clue who he was.

“Hai. Y/N desu.”

He recognized it as Japanese immediately, but only understood bits and pieces of her phone exchange and didn’t want to eavesdrop anyway. When the elevator stopped at his floor, he gave her a short bow before exiting.

“It was nice to meet you,” she called after him as the doors closed and he grinned as he made his way to his door.

The second time that they met, she was struggling to remove an armload of sewing supplies from her car in the parking garage. She seemed like she had it under control, but there was no way that she was going to be able to close the hatch or use the elevator without assistance. He’d just returned from a long day at the studio, but he didn’t have anything to carry, and he wasn’t so tired that he couldn’t offer his assistance.

“Would you like some help?” offered BamBam. She looked at him over the supplies that filled her arms and recognition flashed across her face. She smiled at him.

“Hi! Yes, I would love it, honestly.” Though she seemed ashamed to be asking for help.

“What can I carry?”

“Um, if you could take this box, that’d be fantastic,” she laughed, shifting so that he could take the box from her arms. It was heavier than he’d expected and he wondered what was in it, but didn’t want to ask.

“Anything else?”

“Nope, I think that we’re okay.” She shifted the items that she was still holding into a more manageable position before she closed the hatch. “I never introduced myself last time. I’m Y/N L/N, by the way.”

“Kunpimook Bhuwakul, but most people call me Bambam,” he replied.

“Thanks for your help, Bambam. I really didn’t want to have to make two trips.”

“I could tell,” he chuckled as they entered the elevator and she hit the button for her floor. They were both silent as the doors closed. After a moment, he turned to her. “So? Is it safe for me to assume that you work in fashion?”

“Yeah,” she laughed. “I worked for a company in Tokyo for a little while, mostly as a interpreter. It was a way for me to get my foot in the door. They didn’t really want any of my designs though. It wasn’t really in style in Japan, but one of my superiors really liked my work. He got me a job at a company here.”

“How are your designs doing here?”

“Really well. I doubted that my designs would do any better here, but the company liked them. They offered me the chance to start my own line and here I am.”

The elevator stopped and they both stepped off to make their way to her door.

“That’s what all of this is for. I’m trying to get some designs ready to present for next seasons line.”

She unlocked the door and BamBam followed her inside.

“You can just set that down anywhere. Sorry for the mess. I’m still kind of trying to get organized. As I’m sure you can see.”

He set the box down on the entryway table and looked around to find that there were still boxes stacked here and there throughout the living area.

“Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it. Can I offer you something to drink?”

“Ah, no. Thank you though. I need a shower and I don’t want to intrude.” He started for the elevator, but paused in the doorway. He wasn’t sure, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. “Uh, I’m having a party on Saturday, if you’d like to come.”

She looked up at him.

“I’m not much of a partier, but thank you for the offer.” Her response was polite, and he could tell that she was being honest. He decided maybe he should’ve chosen a more accurate word.

“It’s not really a party. It’s honestly more of a gathering. Just some people that I work with. It’d be a great way for you to meet some people. It’ll be pretty chill. I promise we won’t be getting too wild.”

“What time?” she questioned after appearing to consider it for a moment. He hoped that was a good sign.

“Six o’clock. Do you remember what floor I’m on?”

“Nine, right?”

He nodded.

“I’ll consider it.”

“Hey, you owe me one.” He teased.

“Of course.” She laughed. 

Bambam hadn’t actually expected her to show up, but there she was standing in the hallway in a white and black sheath dress. She held out a bottle of wine in offering.

“I’m not really sure what the protocol is for parties in Korea,” she said awkwardly. “But in Japan, you never show up empty handed.”

“You didn’t have to bring anything, but thank you. Mark will appreciate it.” He stepped out of the doorway so that she could come into his apartment. “I’ll introduce you to everyone. Follow me.”

“Oh gosh, I feel slightly overdressed,” she said quietly when she saw the other guys.

“Nah, they’re just usually under-dressed,” he assured her with a smile. “Can I offer you something to drink?”

“A water is fine. Thank you.”

He introduced her to everyone as they made their way to the kitchen.

“What’s up with Y/N and Jaebeom?” questioned Jackson later on after she’d gotten comfortable enough to mingle with everyone on her own. “I thought you said that she didn’t speak Korean.”

“No more than the basics,” shrugged Bambam. “But she does speak Japanese. She lived in Japan for a while before.”

He looked over to where she sat, her whole body turned towards Jaebeom even though the seats were side by side. She was smiling brightly as she talked to him. The smile was mirrored on Jaebeom’s face.

“So Jaebeom has somehow hit it off with her in his limited Japanese or his limited English?” questioned Mark, butting into the conversation. “Our Jaebeom? The same Jaebeom who gets embarrassed when talking to any girl that’s not on the staff?”

“Maybe it’s not as limited as we thought,” offered Jackson, shrugging as they continued to watch the exchange. Neither of them seemed to be having difficulty communicating. 

“Maybe you should’ve kept her away a while before introducing her to everyone, Bam. You might’ve missed your chance to shoot your shot,” laughed Mark. Bambam couldn’t disagree. He hadn’t really thought about the other guys hitting it off with her. He hadn’t even really had a real conversation with her yet. He was kind of disappointed that she seemed to be getting on so well with Jaebeom already.

She greeted him warmly every time she saw him after the party. Occasionally, she’d offer to bring him food when she had made too much. She’d grown up in a big family and she’d never really become accustomed to making food for just one person. 

This time though he invited her over for dinner. He’d been waiting for an excuse to make Thai food and an excuse for her to come over without the other guys around.

To his relief there appeared to be nothing going on between her and Jaebeom. He wasn’t even sure that the two of them had talked since the party. They also hadn’t asked about each other, which he hoped was a good sign that he hadn’t missed his chance yet. 

He checked himself in the mirror in the hallway one last time before opening the door for her.

“Hey,” he smiled as he opened the door.

“Hi.” He stepped aside to let her in. “You look very nice today. I love that jacket.”

“Ah, thanks. You look very nice too,” he laughed as he closed the door. “Do you want something to drink?”

“What goes best with Thai food?” She followed him into the kitchen.

“Mmm, probably iced tea or I have beer. Do you like beer?”

"Not really,” she replied meekly. He opened the fridge and leaned down to check it’s contents.

“How about I make Thai iced tea then?”

“That would be great!”

“Wow, you are a great cook. Can I just come here for dinner all the time?” she asked after taking a few bites of her food. He laughed, enjoying the praise. He thrived on praise.

“What do I get in return?”

“My gratitude and praise isn’t enough?” She pouted at him in mock disappointment.

“Babygirl, I get plenty of that already,” he laughed.

The next week he went to her place for dinner. The week after that scheduling had him out of the country for a few days and she offered to take care of his cats, which he accepted. They seemed to be almost as comfortable with her as they were with him and she facetimed him everyday to let him see how they were doing. 

When he returned, she came over to visit with him and the other members. She brought them desserts, which Jackson and Jinyoung attempted to decline, but ultimately accepted. 

Bambam discovered that she and Jaebeom had kept in contact since the first time they met, but it seemed to be nothing more than friendly conversation. They happened to have a lot of shared interests so it made sense. That didn’t stop him from feeling a tinge of jealousy though.

The other guys had all left one at a time, until it was just her and Bambam. They were sitting on the couch next to each other where they had been most of the evening. 

He was doing it before he’d even thought about it, leaning across the sofa to kiss her. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the fear that he was going to lose his chance to Jaebeom and for some reason, he just couldn’t stand the thought of her picking Jaebeom before he’d even had a chance. Maybe it was the slight feeling he had that maybe after all the time they’d been spending together, she might possibly be into him too.

To his surprise, she kissed him back, moving in closer to deepen the kiss. He’d thought that she had a thing for Jaebeom, but here she was. They’d both had a little alcohol and maybe that had something to do with their situation. He didn’t care either way. She tasted sweet, like only the fruity undertones of the wine lingered on her lips. 

“Maybe I should stop,” he murmured after pulling away. “We’ve both had a bit to drink.”

“Maybe you should keep going.”

“Okay.” he said quietly. He didn’t really want to stop anyway, even if he knew this wasn’t the best idea. ”Are you sure?”

“Definitely,” she replied and he moved closer. He kissed her again and soon he found himself on top of her, his body settled between her legs, holding his weight with one arm while he used his other hand to bring her face closer. Her fingers were curled into the hair at the back of his head.

He ignored his phone as it started to ring, letting his hand drift down her side, his thumb brushing against the exposed skin just above her jeans. Her hands were tugging his shirt free from his jeans when his phone started to go off again.

“Should you get that?” she panted, pulling away for air. He glanced at it and seeing that it was Yugyeom, he shook his head, pushing away from her only to press ignore. 

He was just about to kiss her again when someone started to ring the door bell. He groaned in annoyance.

“Sorry, I should probably get that,” he muttered. He reluctantly pushed himself away from her, helping her back into a sitting position before tucking his shirt back in. 

Yugyeom stood outside the door.

“What the hell, man?” questioned Bambam.

“I should really be going, Bambam,” said Y/N, placing her hand gently on his shoulder as she slipped by him. Her face was red and she didn’t bother to look up at Yugyeom as she slipped by him. “I’ll see you later. Bye, Yugyeom.”

Bambam watched her get into the elevator and then turned back to Yugyeom.

“Really?”

“I forgot my wallet,” shrugged Yugyeom.

“How?!”

He moved aside to let Yugyeom into the apartment.

“Hey, don’t tell anyone, okay? I don’t think she wants anyone to know.”

Yugyeom glanced over his shoulder as he picked his wallet up from the end table. “I won’t. I didn’t see anything.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Are you going to date her?”

“I don’t know.” He hadn’t truly thought about it. It had been at the back of his mind,of course, and he couldn’t deny that her living in the same building would make dating her super easy. Now that Yugyeom had planted that idea in his head though, it would be all that he could think about.

The next day, he couldn’t stop thinking about her leaving. Had she left because she was embarrassed? Had she left because she thought she was making a mistake? He kept checking his phone, hoping for an explanation. He couldn’t focus on anything and the other guys seemed to pick up on it.

“You good?” questioned Jackson.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He shrugged. He couldn’t even bother to make up an excuse.

Later, Yugyeom pulled him aside.

“I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t realize that I would be interrupting something.”

“No, it’s okay. I just don’t really know what’s going on between us,” explained Bambam. “She left last night and hasn’t said a word.”

“Maybe she’s been waiting on you to say something.”

“You’re right. I’ll text her.”

Bambam: I’d like to see you later, if you have time.

Y/N: I’m working late tonight. Maybe tomorrow?

Bambam: I’ll let you know when I’m done working tomorrow.

Y/N: Sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow then.

The exchange didn’t make him feel any better. It seemed too casual. She seemed apathetic about what had happened between them the day before.

“I’m sorry about the other night,” she started apologizing as soon as he walked through the door.

“It’s okay. I just hope that I didn’t ruin our friendship. I mean, I think we’re friends, right?” He asked, turning to face her as she closed the door behind him.

“Absolutely. It didn’t ruin anything. I was totally into it. I mean, I just got kind of nervous about the other guys finding out and I guess they kind of know now. I just, I’m not really sure that I want something serious right now and I’m not really sure what you want. I should’ve just waited and asked you, but I was really embarrassed.”

He couldn’t deny that he was relieved. He’d thought he’d been the issue. That she’d regretted it because of who she was with.

“No, I understand. I’m totally into you, but you know what my job entails. I don’t think me dating anyone would go over very well. I don’t think I want anything serious either at the moment.” It was a lie, but after hearing her say that she wasn’t sure that she wanted something serious, he was afraid to admit that he did. He just wanted her to stick around. He enjoyed her company and if that meant ‘just friends’ he’d take it.

“I don’t regret what happened the other night.”

“Yeah? Neither do I.”

“Do you think we could try it again? Maybe without an interruption this time?”

That caught him off guard. He cleared his throat. “What?”

“Sorry. Um, unless that’s something you reserve for serious relationships. Shit. I’m sorry. I’ve made things super awkward.”

“No. No, I definitely want to try it again.”

This time she kissed him first, having to stand on the tip of her toes to reach.

“That was way easier last time,” she laughed, pulling away.

“Maybe we can fix that,” he replied, leading her to the couch, where he pulled her into his lap. “Is this better?”

“Let’s find out.” She pressed to her lips to his as she settled into his lap. His hands fell to her waist, pulling her in a little closer. Her hands were moving over the buttons of his shirt, trying to get it off of him as quickly as possible. It slid down his arms easily and he leaned forward so that he could slip out of it completely before his hands found her waist again.

“Definitely better,” he breathed out against her lips when they finally pulled apart to catch their breath. She nodded in agreement before pulling her sweater over her head. He couldn’t help but let his eyes fall to her breasts. He didn’t get to look too long before her lips were back against his.

Her hand slipped between them to palm him through his jeans and he inhaled sharply. It was much needed friction, but not quite enough. He pulled her in close again, his hands on her hips to guide them in a slow grind against his. She shifted in his lap and her bra disappeared from between them, her bare chest pressing against his. 

He pulled away to press kisses to her jawline and down to her neck and she let her head fall back. She guided one of his hands up to her breast and he needed no further guidance from her.

“So when are you going to make dinner for me again?” she asked, pushing herself away from him.

“So you’re just using me for food now?” He chuckled.

“Hey, you said that my gratitude and praise wasn’t enough.” She grinned before pulling on her sweater. His eyes roamed over her legs and then flicked up to meet her gaze.

“I guess you’re right.” He pulled up his briefs and jeans as she disappeared, only to return with two glasses of water. “Thanks, babygirl.”

“No problem,” she smiled.

“You can’t stop smiling at me,” he noted. “Was it that good?”

“Don’t get cocky, it’s a turn off,” she warned, but she was still smiling. Her smile was contagious and he couldn’t stop smiling back at her.

“I’ll make you dinner next week,” he offered, pulling his shirt back on.

“Then maybe we can do this again?” He paused, midway through buttoning up his shirt.

“Oh, we are definitely gonna do this again.” He didn’t even try to hide the enthusiasm in his voice. He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on between them, but he was super into whatever it was. “We’ll give my place another try. Hopefully, no one will interrupt this time.”

[weebtarurights]

Seasonal Event: HOLIDAY PARK CARNIVAL - Part 4

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4  || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7  || Part 8 || Part 9 || Part 10 || Epilogue

T: Speech enclosed in “<  >” are spoken in English ^^ 

Tsuzuru: From today onwards, we will divide the work per teams. Citron: Our team's mission is to hand out flyers and arrest visitors!* Tsuzuru: We're not going to arrest visitors, we're going to attract them ! Juza: Do we need to speak in English when calling visitors? Tenma: Uugh... Citron: Everyone, how well do you speak English? Banri:  I'm cool with daily conversation. Hisoka-san's pretty decent too, right ? Hisoka: Yeah, I'm fine. Tsuzuru: Umm... I've only studied a little at university... so  it's going to be difficult for me to give a concrete explanation about the amusement park. Juza: Same. Tsuzuru: How about Tenma? You sometimes travel overseas for filming, right? Tenma: No, I have interpreters. I rarely speak other language myself. Tsuzuru: Ah... I see. Citron: Don't worry ! All you have to do is follow me, Banri, and Hisoka ! English skill is not the most important thing you need to attract customers. It's passion! Juza: Passion? Banri: Details 're already written on the flyers. If you got into trouble, someone can help you talk to 'em or sumthin'. Hisoka: Understood. Tsuzuru: Furuichi-san instructed us to gather at the amusement park after attracting visitors this evening. Banri: Gotta bust out at least half of these flyers till then. Hisoka: Yeah. Citron: Let's get starting with the promotion war!

Tenma: Distributing flyers alone isn't good enough. Citron: If we will just hand flyers like this, no one will accept it. No one will come to the amusement park ! Tsuzuru: Indeed, distributing flyers like this isn't very effective. Juza: But...’s there any other way... Citron: I have an idea! Me and Tsuzuru can perform a manzai ! Tsuzuru: What !?  No, you can't just decide everything on your own! Citron: Hi, everyone ! It's Citrun! Tsuzuru: Hey, you're starting already? ! Citron: We're going to perform on the amusement park ! Tsuzuru: I'm not going to do manzai with you, though. Hisoka: You're already doing it, Tsuzuru. Banri: Ain't surprised, Tsuzuru can pul off his straight-man act in almost every situation. Passerby A: <What is it? A conte?*> Passerby B: < Maybe it's a comedy show?> Citron: < We are members of Japanese theater company ! We can sing, dance, and do manzai ! > <Everyone, please watch us ! Grab some flyers too ! > Tenma: Thanks to Citron's follow up. Everyone's stopping by to watch. Banri: Let's hand out flyers to the audience.   Citron: Thank you ! Tsuzuru: T-thank you ! Audience A: <That was interesting. I never thought I'd be able to watch conte in a place like this.> Audience B: <I want to watch their performance on amusement park too. Please give me one of those flyers! > Citron: We did it! They're coming to see the performance ! Tsuzuru: Umm, we're not performing manzai on stage, are we? Tenma: Almost all of the flyers are gone too. Citron's amazing. Hisoka: It was interesting. Banri: Oi Hyodo, why don't ya try to imitate 'em? Juza: Aah ? Why don't ya' do that? Banri: Aah? Citron: Ooh ! It’s starting !  Tsuzuru: Wait, you two! Furuichi-san and Fushimi-san isn't here ...! Passerby A: <Is it action show now?> Passerby B: < Japanese yankee ?! So cool !> Hisoka: ... that aside.. Tenma: Thanks to their fight. People are gathering around. Man: < Amazing ! You guys looks strong !> Tenma: .... Huh? Hisoka: He said he wants to see both of you fight on stage. Banri: No, that's totally a different scenario ! Juza: We can't fight on stage like this.

Tenma: ..... Everyone have their own way to gather people...  but me... Hisoka: Tenma, let's make balloons together. Tenma: Balloon? Hisoka-san, when did you prepare this? Hisoka: Yesterday, I asked the staff if there's something we can use to attract customers. He gave this to me. Tsuzuru: Mikage-san sure prepared for this. Tenma: I've never done something like this before. I don't think I can make balloons as skillful as Hisoka-san. Hisoka: It's simple. I'm sure you can do it on your own. I will teach you. Passerby C: < This balloon is so pretty. You're really skillful> Passerby B: <Are you handing flyers for the amusement park? Please give me one. > Citron: Thank you ! Girl: < Hey, big brother. I want a balloon.> Tenma: Eh? Ah--, umm... what are you saying...? Hisoka: Tenma, she wants you to make a flower balloon for her. Tenma: I- I see.. Here you go. Girl: < Wow ! This is so cute ~> <Thank you, big brother ! See you ~> Hisoka: I'm glad she's liked it. Tenma: ...Yeah.

Tenma: ...... Juza: ......? You didn't want to hand out balloons? Tenma: T-that's not it ! Just that-- I don't understand their language. To be honest, it's really frustrating. Juza: All I did 's to quarrel. You're doin' better than me. Tsuzuru: It's rare for Tenma to say such thing... Banri: Talking' about seein' something unusual. Citron: Oh ! Tenma, I'll charge you up! Charge up, okay?*   Tsuzuru: What does it have to do with charging? Rather, you meant cheer up? Or you really mean charge up? Tenma: When did you...! Don't just listen to other people’s conversation without permission ! ???: Hey ! Big brother !

--------

NOTES:

1) Citron used the term "岡っ引" (oka-piki) are  unofficial collaborators of magistrates in  Edo era. They served to search and arrest criminals. The word is really close to "客引き" (Kyakuhiki) which means the act of attracting/touting customers. 2) Manzai is the traditional stand-up comedy in Japanese culture. It usually involves two performers trading jokes, puns, and verbal gags. 3) コント or conte means short story, or short play. It also refers to a short skit aimed to make people laugh. It's like  the equivalent of a street act. 5) Citron mistook the term "充電" (juden) or charging for "電気" (denki) which means cheer up.

[otterbeesfanficblog]

When neutron stars collide

(Bakugou Katsuki x Reader)

Part 1: Steps Before The Starting Line

Part 2: When a Star Chooses To Shine Part 3: Compare And Contrast Part 4: From Where We Stand Part 5: You Would Be Angry Too...

A/n: Hello dear readers, I'm so glad you decided to read my story. I hope you have fun. Anyway, I wanted to clarify a few things before we begin. Because this is featured in Japan, your in story surname will be first. For your surname, I have chosen it based on your quirk. Many, if not all My hero characters have their surnames related to there quirk. Get ready if you don't already know this, you about to learn somethin'. For example: Bakugou's family name looks like this (爆豪), which is in Japanese kanji.  The kanji (爆) means (Burst) which can also be found in (爆発) (bakuhatsu) which means (Explosion). The second part of his surname (豪) has different meanings, one of them being (overpowering).  And in short, even his first name roughly means (Win) and (Myself) which really really relates to his need to win by himself and do most things himself. Now that we have explained Bakugou, let's explain you!I've chosen to use (宇宙急増) which is (Uchūkyūzō). The first half (宇宙) means (space), the second (急増) means (Surge or Explosion). From what you learned, I'll let you figure out what your quirk is. Either way, I simply wanted to explain this to you because I thought it was fun to do and I thought some of you would want to know. Japanese is such a beautiful and interesting language. Anyway, sorry for rambling, I hope you like the story!

You had to admit seeing it on tv, movies, shows, cartoons, animes...

The school was a lot different than you had expected it to be.

In all fairness, it was hard to say UA was a good example of what a 'normal' school is like. You may not be the most well versed in what a 'normal' school should be, but a school full of heroes and students training to be heroes was probably not too normal.

Your stomach twisted into a not as you watched all kinds of students pile into the UA for the same entrance exam, breathing in deep and letting out a big sigh you rubbed your face with your hands.

"Am I really doing this...?"

"I asked myself the same thing when I got here!"

You felt your body flinch at the sudden voice next to you, but looking to your side where it came from you relaxed. A little.

Standing next to you with a smile you can only describe as the rival of a golden retriever, was a boy with spiking red hair and red eyes. His teeth were as sharp as the points in his hair, but his eyes held nothing but friendliness in them.

He had a red tint to his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck with a groan.

"This is so nerve-racking, huh? I knew a lot of people would be here but man, it sure is crowded."

You were quiet for a moment, simply staring before you shook your head and realized normal people have conversations with each other.

"Oh, uh, yeah right. Crowded..."

"Sorry, totally blanked!" He held out his hand to you with his smile still wide. "My name is Kirishima Eijiro! Nice to meet you!"

You looked at his hand for a moment, slowly extending yours and giving it a small shake. His hand was warmer than yours and was rough, glancing up from his hand you realized how tall he was compared to you.

You mentally roll your eyes, scolding yourself for sizing up the first person you meet. He seemed nice enough...

"Yeah, nice to meet you too..."

He gave you a shy smile, tilting his head almost expecting something. You tilt your head back in confusion, trying to converse with him with your eyes. You jump a little and felt heat rushing up your neck you your cheeks.

"Oh! Right, my name... I'm Uchukyuzo Y/n."

"Wow! That's such a manly name!" He clenched his fist together in a fist pump motion in front of his chest, looking at you in awe, then quickly backing up and waving his hands around.

"Ah! I mean! Not to say you're like a man because.. you're a girl, obviously! Not trying to say you're manly. Eh-! I mean! Not to say you aren't manly! Just that, ya know, you aren't manly in the sense that you're a man! You're not a man! Well, unless you wanna be! If so - ah- That's awesome!"

You felt yourself grin up at him stumbling, it had been so long since you had talked to someone your age, let alone someone so... outgoing.

It was nice.

"It's cool, Kirishima. It's a compliment in my book, I think you're pretty manly too."

He paused his stumbling and gaped at you, then grin wide so wide he scrunched his face and closed his eye in glee.

"Oh wow! Being called manly by someone on my first day here, no way I'm gonna fail now!"

For the first time in a while you relaxed your body, then watched Kirishima bounce up.

"Oh! Hey, I got an idea! Let's sit together at the exam orientation!"

Grin not leaving your face, you nod with gentle eyes.

"Sure."

"Hell yeah! My first friend! Things are looking up!"

You let out a soft chuckle and let him lead the way while he continued to talk to you, telling you how excited he was to have this chance and how he was definitely gonna make it in. He treasures you that you would make it in too and that hopefully, you two could be in the same class together.

You just let him talk, agreeing with him every so often and chiming in if he had asked you a question or not. It was a little tricky at first, again you hadn't talked to someone your age for a long time, but with his outgoing personality, you quickly got into a rhythm with him.

You appreciated the fact that he wasn't someone to dig into your personal life after you dodged and gave vague answers to him about some stuff he got the picture you didn't talk about it that much.

He didn't at all hold back about himself though, which you found surprising. Everyone you had ever meet didn't really... talking about personal stuff like their life. You had been around people who minded their own business and didn't bother you so... you didn't bother them.

You and Kirishima had come in early so there were lots of seats open. You wanted to sit in the back and Kirishima wanted to sit in closer, so you two decided to compromise and you sat in the middle decently far back.

While more people were filling in seats, you were caught off guard by one of Kirishima's questions.

"Hey, noticed you aren't wearing your school uniform."

You froze and looked at the table in front of you, hiding your eyes from him.

You weren't wearing a school uniform the same reason why you don't have a bag like everyone else...

You were silent for a while and Kirishima was about to dismiss it before you looked up at him again. You gave him a timid smile while scratching at your cheek.

"Ah, I didn't really know I had to wear it. News like that doesn't really get to me until it's too late."

Kirishima looked at you with curious eyes, shrugged then looked at the screen in the front of the room.

"That's okay, I'm sure it won't be a problem. And if it is," He sends you a wink and shoves a thumb to his chest. "I'll be there to back you up."

Your chest clenched at his words, your throat barely letting any air in as you took a shaky breath in, hoping he didn't notice as you turn to the front. You give a strained smile and nod.

"Yeah... thank you..."

The orientation started boisterously by the pro hero and radio star Present Mic, though, no one reciprocated his calls to action. You were a little embarrassed to think you were actually going to respond to him, you opened your mouth to but when you heard nothing from your peers you quickly shut your mouth and slouched.

Then you felt secondhand embarrassment for a curly-haired boy with green hair and freckles as he was called out by a boy with blue hair and glasses in front of everyone.

"I could never..." You mumbled, crossing your arms and trying to hide more in your chair. Kirishima chuckled next to you and smiled.

"There's gonna be some interesting characters here, I'm excited! I mean, I already met you, and you're super cool!"

You looked at him confused, both of you leaning in close to each other so as to not get caught talking.

"But, I haven't done anything."

"You talked to me, that's pretty cool! Most people think I can be... eh, too much." He blushes and rubs his neck in a timid manner.

In all honesty, you only talked to him to blend in, it was only chance that you ended up liking his company.

"Anyway, he said we'll be in different battle centers. Which one are you in?"

You watched him pull out his exam ticket that you were also given when you came in here and looking at it, it said he was stationed at center D.

You reached into your pocket, pulling out the folded ticket, you realized how different yours was from his.

You only had your name, your examinee number, and the battle center you placed, which luckily was also center D. He had his school picture along with other information, which the picture you had to admit was cute. In the photo his hair was black and let down, showing he changed before he got here.

You didn't have any of that because, well... they didn't have records of that.

"Ah, yes! Same battle center! I already know we'd make a great team!"

Putting the ticket back into the pocket of your baggy ripped pants, you chuckle and shake your head at him.

"You do know this is basically a competition right? We have to win points for ourselves."

"Oh, sure, but who said we would have to do it alone? Present mic didn't say anything about not teaming up!"

You supposed he was right, but you had no doubt they would be watching for that too. They most likely wanted to separate friends to get the full potential out of everyone, and you can't do that if you are working with a friend, at least not all the time.

You both went back to listening to Present mic speak, but you weren't at all focused on his words. You glanced around at all the faces around you, some were serious, some were nervous, and some were just plain cocky.

You didn't use your quirk much, not unless you really needed it, which... That's a lie, you used your quirk often, but not at it's strongest. You did that once and...

Looking down at your clothes, you pulled at your baggy shirt and shuffled in your baggy pants. They looked like hand-me-downs from an outsider's view, which in a sense they were. You just hoped no one noticed...

They were the only clothes you had.

------

After you and many other students were bussed to battle center D, your nerves began acting up again and you couldn't help bouncing your leg.

There were a lot of people already showing off their quirks and getting pumped for the exam, you on the other hand couldn't get the sinking feeling out of your chest that you were not only being constantly watched, but also looked down on.

Kirishima had changed into something much more sensible than you, but he pressured you that it wouldn't matter what you were wearing once you got into it. You held tight to those words, knowing that you'll worry yourself into a hole thinking about things you can't fix so you focused on a plan.

Which... wasn't coming to you greatly. Of course, you had thousands of ideas popping off in your mind, but you knew plans can change in seconds, especially for hero work.

"We're gonna do great, then we're gonna get in, and be in the same class, and become pro heroes, and get to be symbols of peace all on our own!"

You chuckled and looked over at the red-haired boy, who you were sure if he had a tail it would be wagging non-stop.

"You sure are confident."

"And you aren't? Come on, once you get into it, it'll be as easy as breathing!"

The busses arrived and let you off, and you let yourself fall to the back of the group waiting at the large doors of battle center D.

Kirishima stood next to you looking more determined than before, which you were surprised because you didn't think he could be any more determined. Looking up at the large door you sighed, then glanced at your hands.

This whole time, you'd be collecting as much as you could and it was making your heart race. You knew you had to release it soon, but you also knew you could still gain more.

"START!!"

The doors opened and your head shot up.

You had this.

You ran close behind everyone else, closely feeling the vibrations of their feet hitting the ground next to you. Kirishima hollered in glee as he ran, grinning so wide it must have hurt. The group started to branch off every which way, but Kirishima stayed on your path with a few other people.

A three-point bot came around the corner and you all locked onto it.

"This one's mine."

There was no room for argument as you high jumped over the group with immense power, landing, then speeding to the bot. Jumping high above it you felt the power in your building as you land on it face, then you smile and started to glow.

"Boom."

You and the robot were surrounded in bright light, then an explosion came from you and the bot, sending a couple of people who were still behind you stumbling. As the light around you dimed, you were surrounded by specs of light that looked like tiny stars. The bot beneath you fell and you jumped off, landing before it and collecting the energy from the vibrations it forced into the ground upon it falling.

You yawned as a sense of tiredness fell over you, looking back you saw a few students still watching you in awe, one of them being Kirishima who looked like he was gonna cry.

"So cool..." He whispered.

You waved at him and began to jog off, calling back to him as you left.

"I'll see you later, Kirishima, get some points!"

Kirishima was right, once you were in it, you were in it. You weren't even really thinking about points even though you knew it was almost the whole point of the test, you just couldn't bring yourself to care about it.

You destroyed many bots and even saved a lot of people who were overwhelmed or just not ready. Time was going down but you were more focused on if this was real.

You've seen what villains could do in real life, they could be anyone, anywhere, anytime. You learned quickly at a young age, life will always be against you, and you have to be ready to fight to be alive.

You came down what looked like the main street, looking side to side. You saw a couple of students downing a few bots, while others stood and looked for more. Out of the dust clouds, you saw a bit of red hair flash into view, then you saw a very focused Kirishima.

He was breathing heavily just as you were, and he was helping someone up from the group, presumably asking if they were alright.

"Hey! Kirishima!!" You waved your arms above you, trying to get his attention. You couldn't help but smile, knowing not only he was your friend, but you were also so filled with pent up power and adrenaline, you didn't care if you stuck out.

He was quick to turn his head after hearing his name, once he saw you from down the street, he smiled and waved back.

Your meet up didn't last long when suddenly the ground started to rumble and shake, you allowed some of the energy from the rumbles to leak into your body. You didn't want all of it, in fear it would be too much, but you also wanted to be ready.

Turning around, you watched a humongous hand come around the corner, bringing with it its body and your eyes grew wide.

"Holy shit... That's a big boy."

The bot stood larger than the buildings and apparently was zero points, but the points weren't what you were thinking about as it easily collapsed a whole building. The collapsed building sent a huge dust cloud your way, you covered your eyes but took in all the energy you could from the blast and the bots movements towards you.

You started to glow as you glared up at the bot.

To you, it was real, very real. It remained you too much of your time as a kid, everything was bigger than you back then, you weren't about to step down from this thing. Especially not after you heard screams and people running away.

"Uchukyuzo! What are you doing!?"

Turning, you saw Kirishima running to your side with a look of our worry.

"This thing is huge and it's not worth points!"

"That's not the point." You glared back up at the bot as it got closer and closer, your body glowed and allowed tiny bits of star-like lights to fall from you. Kirishima looked at you as if you were crazy but stood firm by your side, readying his body and smashing his firsts together.

You watched sparks fly from them as the bashed into each other, seeing his skin turn stiff. His quirk was hardening, that could be very useful.

"Okay, then... I'm with you! What's the plan?"

"Catch me, I've got the rest."

Your eyes glowed and sparkled like a night sky as you smiled at him, you could see him sweating but he nods with determined eyes.

"You got this!"

With that, you crouched and sent a large amount of power through you legs to the ground, sending you flying into the air towards the bot. It wasn't long before you landed on it, with plenty of power still left and power you absorbed from its heavy movements, you knew you just needed a little more before you could to it.

You watched its many eyes glow in response to your appearance, zeroing in on destroying you.

If you were any younger, any less prideful, you would have ran away for sure. This was the thing you would run from as a kid, hiding instead of fighting. Not anymore.

You weren't going to hide anymore, you've hidden enough in your life.

It was time for people to know your name.

You began to glow too bright for people standing by to look at, bright as the sun. You friend down at the bot as you held onto it, hoping Kirishima could actually catch you.

"Let's create a supernova!"

You screamed this as you released all the pent up power you had, simultaneously taking in and expelling that same energy all at the same time. It hurt like a bitch, but you felt that power go right through the bot and a few feet into the ground below.

All that light disappeared, then reappeared with a vengeance, basically blinding anyone who was staring too close. It was silent for a few moments, but then almost a sonic boom came from where you were. A huge burst of wind and power exploded from where you and the bot were.

The bot exploded into pieces, and the sheer power behind the explosion sent you flying upwards. You, along with everyone else watching, saw the large bursts of colorful stars come from the bot as it fell to the ground. You were sent into the air, but soon you felt yourself start to plummet.

You gasped and forced your body to face down to see where you were headed, watching the ground below quickly approach as you looked for Kirishima.

Your heart plummeted into your gut when you couldn't find him, the one person you need to help you not die. You started to use the wind coming at you as a force of power, but you knew it wasn't enough to break your fall so you wouldn't die.

"UCHUKYUZO!!"

Your eyes go wide as you saw Kirishima jump from the window of a building towards you, holding out his arms. You reached out just the same, grazing him at first, then gripping his hands as he pulled you into his chest.

You felt his skin harden all around you, and you knew he was going to try and take the brunt of the blow as he placed himself under you.

You weren't having it.

The ground quickly coming at you, you flipped and had yourself beneath him. His eyes went wide at this, but you just smiled up at him, starting you glow.

Then, you both hit the ground.

Your eyes were tightly shut, your teeth clenched, until finally you opened you mouth wide and let out a breath you were holding in, along with a groan. You heard a groan from your chest, and you opened one eye to see Kirishima slowly getting up from on top of you. He opened his eyes, first blinking and just taking in what happened, then gasping and looking up at you.

"Uchukyuzo! Oh my god, are you okay!?"

You felt one of his hands behind your head, you suspected that was him trying to protect your head from the fall, the other was moved from your lower back to the ground on the side of your hip.

You let him pull his hand out from under your head and you went limp on the ground taking deep breaths as you closed your eyes and groaned.

"I'm okay, are you?"

"I'm fine, why are you asking me that!? You took the brunt off the fall! You told me to catch you!"

"And.." You opened your eyes and started to lean up. "You did, thank you."

Kirishima got off of you and sat next to you as you sat up, rubbing the back of your head before, tiredly turning around to see the mess.

It was big. Pieces of metal were everywhere, speckled stars still fell from the sky as the dust was clearing.

You slowly stood up, Kirishima standing as well and just silently watching you. Not to your surprise, many many students crowded around and stared at you. You looked on at all of them with half-lidded eyes, the adrenaline and power you had before was no longer there and you were exhausted and beat.

"Are... You all okay?"

They all started at you, mouths gaped and eyes wide. From what you could tell, none of them were seriously damaged, which was good. You nodded and put a hand to your stomach in pain, which you then felt your own skin.

Looking down, your clothes were ripped as hell. Your shirt was now a ragged, dirty crop top, and your pant legs were ripped at your thigh and your ankle, making it this mismatched length. Your shoes were as dirty and thin as they always were, if not a few new holes.

"Wow... I look like shit."

You turn to make a joke with Kirishima about how you really should have brought different clothes, but turning you saw him with tears in his eyes and clenching his fist. He tightly closed his eyes and nodded at you.

"So manly..."

You couldn't respond before you heard the overhead voice speak and a siren goes off.

"TIMES UP!!"

For a moment you just stood there then your eyes go wide.

"Ah, shit! How many points did I get! I wasn't paying attention! Did I get enough? How many is enough? I --"

The ground beneath you shifted and the word tilted to the side which made you stumble, you groaned again and closed your eyes.

"Well... shit..."

Then it all went black and you went numb.

-------

"Will she really be okay?"

"You worry too much, young man. She will wake up in no time."

A groan left your mouth as you rolled on to your side, snuggling into the blankets and pillow beneath your head.

"... Just five more minutes."

"AH! You're awake!"

You open one of your eyes to see where you were, the room was white and standing next to you with a sheepish grin was Kirishima, and next to him was a nice-looking old lady.

"I'm awake."

"Dude, you totally passed out at the exam. You freaked me out! You freaked a lot of people out actually!"

"Oh... sorry." You closed your eyes again and yawned, then sat up and rubbed your eyes. "How long have I been out?"

"It's sunset now if that gives you a clue, my dear." The old woman said, point out the window with a chain that kinda looked like a syringe.

Looking at the window, you saw that it was indeed sunset, which made you frown and look at Kirishima.

"Shouldn't you... I don't know, be at home?" After saying this he looked at you with shock.

"I couldn't just leave you here! I would just die wondering if you were okay or not! Can't have my first UA friend die on me!"

"Oh, hush, she wasn't dying." The old lady scolded him, turning and going to her desk as he rubbed his neck with a blush tinting his cheeks.

"Well, I didn't know that..."

You smile at him, throwing your legs over the side of the bed, partly wishing you could just sleep in the bed forever.

"Thanks for worrying about me Kirishima, but you should go home, I'm sure your family must be worried."

He shook his head as the old lady came back over and handed you some small candies.

"Nah, I called them to tell them I was making sure a friend was okay, they know where I am. I'm worried about your family."

You went still at the mention of your family, vaguely shrugging.

"I'm sure they're fine."

"We couldn't find any emergency numbers in your name, my dear." The old lady said, looking at you sadly. "So, we didn't know who to call."

"It's okay, really. Kirishima, you can go home now, you know I'm okay."

He then let out a sigh and ran his hand over his shoulder.

"Would... It be okay if I walked you home? Just to know you're really okay!"

You were about to quickly deny him the offer and even felt yourself thinking of some rude away to make him go home, but... looking at his concerned face and knowing you were the reason he stayed back so late...

"... Yeah, sure."

----

Recovery girl, as you learned she was the school nurse, gave you a new pair of clothes. You thanked her over and over for them, knowing the ripped clothes you had would no doubt go to the trash.

As you walked with Kirishima, you were both quiet. It was somewhat awkward and tense, but that was your fault.

You didn't want him to see your home, you didn't want anyone to see your home. You never let anyone go near your home, fearing judgment and pity.

"So..." Kirishima started, trying to fill the silence. "Your quirk is hella cool, how do you do it?"

You thought for a moment.

"Well... I think I would call it force control. See, I can absorbed any kind of force or power. Some more than others, vibrations and impact forces are easier."

"Uh..." He looked at you confused, so you slowed down and explained.

"Meaning I can absorb vibrations from the ground or if I was hit, say, in the face, I could take that impact energy and use it for my own. I can also take in things like air, light, and sound. Other stuff too but, those ones don't work as fast as the one I mentioned before."

"So," He looked off in front of him. "Are you like, collecting energy all the time."

You hum in though, waving your hand in a so-so motion.

"Well, yes and no. If I really focus, I can absorb a lot of energy. If I'm just walking like I am, I'm collecting but just not as much, just enough to keep me going."

He groans and puts his head in his hands, you look at him in confusion.

"What-"

"Your quirk is so cool! Mine's nowhere near that cool, or flashy! I mean, you explode like a star in the sky! All I do is get hard."

You choked on the air you breathed in and screamed, covering your mouth as you laughed. At first, he thought you were laughing at his quirk, then he realized what he said and his face grew almost as red as his hair.

"AH! I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!!!!"

You both end up laughing for a while, him from embarrassment, you from it being just plain funny. After you calmed down you smiled over at him.

"Hey, honestly, your quirk is fuckin' amazing. The ability to harden your skin like a shield, making it a fantastic defense tactic, while also being able to use it offensively. That's nothing to sneeze at, Kirishima."

He shyly chuckled, looking off into the distance.

"Yeah, I guess..."

You soon came to where you planned on taking him.

"Here we are."

It was a one-story house, it was clean, white, and had a for sale sign on it. Kirishima looked at it then to you.

"You're moving?"

You shrug.

"I move around a lot."

"Oh, well, okay."

You smiled gently at him.

"Thank you for taking me home, you're a really nice guy."

He waves his hand dismissively with a smile.

"No way, it's just the right thing to do. Oh, how bout I give you my number, and we can call each other while we wait for our results!"

You felt your blood run cold as you let out a chuckle, shyly scratching your head.

"Actually, I... don't have a phone."

"Oh..."

"Sorry..."

"Eh, it's okay, I know we'll both make it in any way. No worries."

He began to turn down the street you both came from, turning back with a smile and a wave.

"See ya, Uchukyuzo."

"... Hey!"

You called out to him which made him stop and turn back to you, smiling you shrug towards him.

"Just call me Y/n."

He seemed shocked at first, then gave a huge grin and nodded.

"Sure, and you can keep calling me Kirishima or Kiri if ya want! Bye!"

You waved at him one last time, watching his disappear around a corner. As he did so, your smile vanished and you dropped your hands to your sides with a sigh.

Looking at the house you stood in front of, you glared at it, knowing you would have to switch houses soon. Not because you lived there, god no. It was because you didn't live there, you were just using its mailbox.

If you tried to live in that house, people would start to notice and you didn't want to get in trouble like that again. So, with a sigh, you turn away from the house and venture off to your real home.

If you could call it that.

Making your way to a somewhat closed-off area, you looked to see if anyone was watching, then turned down an alleyway. In the alleyway was a large wooden board set up against the wall, talking the side, you drag it to the side enough to see the narrow space between the two buildings it was leaning on.

You shuffled your way in the narrow walkway, turning and pulling the wood board back into place, then turning and going down the narrow way. Once you were at the end, there was another wooden board, which you move as well. You made your way in the small boxed off area, the shoved the wood back in place.

Turning around, you faced your real "home".

A large tipped over dumpster was where you had placed your back shift bed, made from a dirty, old, and ripped table cloth and a bunched up pile of ripped clothing you couldn't wear anymore as a pillow.

In the middle was the small trashcan that you used as a fire pit, just the left of where you slept held all your canned and stolen foods. It also held a first aid kit you had stolen and a few other things you had 'permanently borrowed' from someone.

The whole place was covered by scrap metal you have found and use as a roof for your little 'home', only enough space to let the smoke from the fire out.

Speaking of fire, you walk over and pick up your fire poker, pushing around the embers that were just barely alive. Looking to your right, you didn't have much left in your pile of flammable items so you put the poker down and decided to let the fire die.

Going to your food pile next, you looked through it. Most of the stuff had to be heated up of the fire you so nicely let die, but your stomach growled in anger of missing another meal for the four-time in a row. You didn't eat at all yesterday and you certainly didn't eat breakfast today, to you picked up the can of peaches and went over to your bed.

You didn't have a mattress, you just used some extra clothes you found here and there. You sit down, you head just barely grazing the top of the dumpster that hid your bed, opened the can and began to eat.

And by that, you just poured the contents into your mouth.

You grew to realize you can't be picky about what you ate, if you did, you'd be dead. Staring into the dying fire, you thought back to the red-haired boy you met today.

You wonder: Was he at home now? Did he have a home to go to? He said he had a family so, that's good. He must have a bed. And food. A home... Good...

"... someone as good as him doesn't deserve this fate..."

After finishing the can you put it off to the side, crossing your legs your slouch and rub your hands over your face. Covering your face your eyes start to have a familiar sting, to which you growl at and shake your head.

Crawling out of the dumpster, you pull down the lid, encasing you in darkness as you curl up. Head resting on the pile of clothes, you pull the table cloth up to your chin and close your eyes.

You couldn't help but imagine how the nurse's bed was so much better than ... this. You gently raise your hand, letting it glow. You released a burst of energy that stuck to the ceiling of the bin and floated all around it.

If you really imagined it, it was like you were floating in space, far away from earth and just... floating.

You willed yourself to close your eyes and hoped that you'd get at least a little sleep before you found out the horrors of tomorrow.

[vampire207343]

Serenity Culpa

T%   What if..... Lily Potter end up cheating on her husband James Potter with a muggle and he found out the day Lily give birth to her son Harry James the boy look nothing like James so he ask the healers to run a blood line Test  on the boy.

Blood line Test Result...

Name: Harry James Evans “Potter”

Day of Birth: July 31, 1980

Statute: Half-blood

Mother: Lilian “Lily” Marie Potter nee Evens

Father: Alexsander James Smith

Step Father: James Charlus Potter

Aunt: Petun8a Maria Dursley nee Evans

Uncle: Vernon John Dursley

Cousin: Dudley Vernon Dursley

God Father: Remus John Lupin

God Mother: Amelia May Bones

 When I finish reading Harry’s Bloodline Test, I find out that my wife Lily end up cheating on me with a muggle or a squibe of the Smith Wizardering Line so I left St. Mungo’s Hospital and went to Gringrotts and since the Potter family is a Goblin friend they speed up the Divorce papper they finish before tge days out so he return to St. Mungo’s hospital and have his wife Lily sign the Divorce paper without her knowing and He have Potter name in harry’s removed. Before filing the divorce paper to the Ministry that by the time the day is over he is offically divorce in the eyes of Magic.

And the only one who knows that Harry Evans isn’t James’s son is Sirius Black and the Healers of St. Mungo’s Hospital after the divorce become offical, James Potter and Sirius Black decided to leave England and move to Japan. 

2 years in Japan both Sirius Black and James Potter found themsel having a girlfriend to two pureblood witch.

Sirius Black began dating the pureblood witch, Reina Ryuzaki, she has long brown hair and bright blue eyes. She is the solo heiress of the Ryuzaki family.

   James Potter began dating Elizabeth Moonlight for 2 years now and she has long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, she’s like a queen of queens. She is the oldest daughter of the Moonlight, she has a younger sister Audrey who  recently married to a muggle man from Paris named Andre Bouegeois

James and Sirius had a diuble wedding with the fiancee in June 5, 1982

   On May 10, 1983

Elizabeth Potter nee Moonlight the new head of the Moonlight modeling Company recently given birth to her first child, 1 hour ago. Chole and James Potter named their new daughter Kamiko Rosabelle Potter- Moonlight (fem Harry Potter). Their new daughter has blushish black hair and she has her mother’s bright blue eyes.

2 months after Kamiko Potter- Moonlight the new God Daughter of Reina and Sirius Black, their own daughter is born on July 15, 1983, her name is Diana Reina Ryuzaki - Black.

By then they heard that the dark lord was defeated by the newly turn 3 years old son of Lily Evans, Harry James Evans is proclaimed by Dumbledore as tge Boy-Who-lived and the last newst they heard from the magical enclove of England was that their old friend Remus Lupin become a Teacher in Hogwarts.

2 years later...

Audrey Bourgeois gaved birth to her daughter Chloe Bourgeois who like Audrey’s older sister Elizabeth, she was sure that her daughter would be beauitful like her own older sister was wgen they were young. Chloe is born in October 5, 1985.

Elizabeth Potter-Moonlight and her family visit Aubrey and her family alot so Kamiko grow up along side Chloe dispite being 2 years apart of age they still become friends, France is also were Kamiko meet a guy she feel in love with who is the same age as her Felix Culpa the son of Amelia and Francis Culpa who are pureblood Wizardling family.  They were both about 6 years old when they meet and stay in contact with one another even though they lived in different country from one another, Felix Culpa lives in England while visiting their relatives in Paris.

Their daughter Kamiko adores Felix even if he dosen’t show alot of Emotion on his face tge only one who manged it beside his parents is Kamiko herself so they knows that Felix also care about their daughter.

17 years later...

Amelia and Francis Culpa enroled  Felix Culpa in Mahoutokoro School of Magic in Japan.

Since it’s one of the very best school internationally and that where Kamiko attented her magical schooling.

While Kamiko Potter-Moonlight’s

Bestfriend and God sister Diana Ryuzaki-Black 

Decided to be home school for her magical education and attend Ouran  High School where her fiancee Takashi Morinozuka is attending in their last year of High school along with his cousin Mitsukuni Haninozuka. 

Felix and Kamiko already meet the host Club they think that Tamaki Suoh to be to much for their taste but they get along with them all well enough.

The Potter family are involved in Resturant chains all over the world, Resurts, Hotels, Land mine, Scupting & Winery. While the Moonlight family are involved in Modeling and Fashion.

The Potters and Black family visit  the magical Encloved after the war with the Dark Lord is truely finish.

 The Ryuzaki family are involved in Food produce, Life Stock and Painting. While the Black family are all involved in Business and High Tect.

While the Culpa family are involved in Fashion, Acting, and movies.

When the Potters and the Black family arrived at England they went to the Potter Manor which has been close for about 19 years since James Potter Left the country.

 The house elf took care of everything, while they all took a look around England’s magical Encloved since today us the 2nd Celebration of the defeat ofbthe Dark Lord Voldemort . England  change a bit but not muh it’s still to far behind the Japanese encloved or American Encloved.

   Unknown to the two family that an aged Lily evans (She dosen’t even look around her age 43 more like she alreay look like she is in her 70′s) saw them in Diagon Alley, and She would recognize her ex-husband James Potter right away and it would seem that he re-married and now have a 17 years old daughter and Even Sirius Black is now married and have a daughter of his own.

Unlike Both Sirius and James who age well, but  everyone who fought in the war wasn’t so lucky. I now look beyound my age looking like I’m in my late 70’s instead of being 43 years old.

 And my son Harry Evans who recently married the only daughter of the Weasley now has grey hair even though he is only 19 years old he already look like he is in his late 30′s. The same could be said with his two friends Ron Weasley and Hermonie Granger I regret sleeping with Alexsander Smith a squibe of the smith line but the one thing I don’t regret is my son Harry, I just wish he was James’s son instead then I would still be married to him. Even though I am now married to mynold friend Severous Snape, I am still in love with my first husband James. Maybe if Harry was born as the son of James I wouldn’t be watch him from a far as he interact with his new wife who is currently pregnant.

2 weeks Later...

  The Potters and Black family return to Japan, since School break will be ending soon and I heard that a commoner gotten in Ouran High School.

Mitsukuni and his cousin Takashi also just got back from their trip to Swizerland.

2 days Later...

 On November 17, 2000

Elizabeth Potter-Moonlight gaved birth to her secound child a son the new Potter heir but Kamiko will remain the heiress of the Moonlight family. Her new brother is given the name Richard James Potter Moonlight he identicall to his father.

5 months later...

I heard from Diana that the new commoner boy became a member of the Host Club the club which Hani and Mori are a member. Diana haven’t really meet Haruhi Fujioka in person  before, until Diana drag Kamiko to Ouran High School after school to tye Host club to meet this commoner boy.

Diana’s friend from Ouran High School, Kanako Kasugazaki said that when she was still a guest in the host club, she meet him and even taught him how to waltz.

“Hey, Kyoya-sempai who are they?” Haruhi ask.

“Hm... oh those two, well the girl with the Blue-ish black hair is Kamiko-sempai she dosen’t really go to our school, she mostly got drag here again by Diana-sempai the brown hair next to her talk to mori-sempai and Hani-sempai. Diana-sempai is Mori-sempai’s fiancee so we see her from time to time” Kyoya said.

“Ah..” Haruhi said.

When Diana and Kamiko suddenly appear infront of Haruhi, without any warning.

“Hmm... You must be Haruhi Fujioka” Diana said.

“Ah.. yes” Haruhi said.

 “hmm.. we pictured you alot manlyer” Kamiko said.

“Yeah, and if we don’t know any better we’ll say your actually a girl” Diana said.

“Ha...Ha...Ha...You guys must be imaging it, Diana-sempai” Tamaki said with a nervous laugh.

“Yeah, Haruhi is a manly man” Kaoru and Hikaru said at the same time.

“We’re getting a feeling that your hidding something from us” Diana said.

“Wait...now that I really took a closrr look at Haruhi. Your not a man, your a woman” Kamiko said.

“Don’t be silly Kamiko-sempai Haruhi is a man” Tamaki said nervously .

“Tamaki do you think I’m a fool that I can’t tell a man or wownan even when their cross dress who do you think I am” Kamiko said.

“Guys, it’s okay .. and yes I’m a woman” Haruhi said.

 "What are you doing as a member of the Host Club then?” Diana ask.

They both discover why Haruhi is part of the Host Club, she’s their to pay the debt she own the Host club, when she sccidently broke a base that coset ¥ 800,000.

2 months later...

Felix Culpa and Kamiko Potter-Moonlight both Graduate Mahoutokoro School of Magic. And Takashi Morinozuka and Mitsukuni Haninozukavalong with Diana Ryuzaki-Black are also graduating Ouran High school the three of them are planning to attending College in  Boston while Felix and Kamiko are planning to attend College in Paris this would be the first time Kamiko and Disna would be country apart. Since they been together since they were babies. And the Moonlight and Potter family are moving to Paris to expan their company. And the Culpa are also moving to Paris as well. 

Both Felix Culpa and Kamiko Potter- Moonlight attending their college year in Roseheart Academy, in the other side of Paris where Chloe attend school.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng doseb’t believe she catch up to be a Hero so she gave up the Ladybug Earring after the stone Heart and the Guardian was force to give to find another Ladybug before another get Akumatist especially when Cat Noir also gaved up his ring so he need to find hero luckly, luck seems to be on his side that day since he meet two teen who are perfect for Ladybug earring and the Black cat ring, and the two of them also happen to be souls of creation the true holder of Tikki and plagg. 

(Kamiko’s ladybug suit and she also has two yoyo)

(Felix’s cat noir suit, I found this picture in Of Marry Madness )

3 years later...

 It’s been 2 years since Lila Rossi came back to paris and turn all my friends against me, I am basicly outcast the rest of the class at the back of the room with Chloe indoing so the two of us become best friends and I even meet her older cousin Kamiko Potter-Moonlight we look alike that anyone could mistake us to be cousin or sisters instead of Chloe’s and I even meet her boyfriend Felix Culpa who happen to be the older cousin of Adrien who has more of a backbone than Adrien himself while they look simliar in appearance but their personality is nothing alike what so ever. While Felix is strong and independant, Adrien on the other hand is weak, and dependant of others.

We even meet their 3 friends who remind me of so much of my old friends, but they are alot more Loyal than my old friends ever did so I end up befriending them.

Allegra remind me so much of my former bestfriend Alya but at the same time different. She even have a ladybug blog more famous than Alya since she got  her ow blog Lady Noir being Endorse by both Ladybug and Cat Noir personally. Which Alya dosen’t so it’s no suprise that Allegra’s blog is more Famous

Then is Claude and Allen, Claude personally remind me so much of Nino as well he even love music.

    Kamiko help me get an intern in her family fashion company the Moonlight Frashion line which rivals that rivals that of the Styles Queen, Aubrey Bourgeois.

Kamiko and Felix three friends are also their super hero allies Allegra happens to be Honey bee.

Claude is also happen to be turle miraculous holder Snapper.

 Then finally their Allen he happen to be fox miraculous, Artic Fox.

 Each of them discover each other’s identity.

1 year later...

    On June 5, 2004

Felix Culpa and Kamiko Potter-Moonlight are now 21 years old and graduating Roseheart Academy and their superhero self also manged to take back the Butterfly and the peacock Miraculous it was discover that Hawkmon is Gabriel Agrest and partner Mayura is his assistant Nathalie Sancoeur, they were catch by the police and taken to jail, while Hawkmon's son Adrien Agrest is taken custody by his Aunt Amelia Culpa until he graduate college 2 years from now.

With the Arrest of Gabriel Agrest, Lila Rossi's tower of lies are expose to all her classmate they were furious to be made a fool of for 2 years and 1/2 , and  by then Marinette Dupain- Cheng already cut herself lose from the rest of her former friends even if they apologize they can never make things right with marinette they bullied and even going in saying to Jump the Eiffel tower of Paris and died. The only friends she now have in her class is her two bestfriend Chole Bourgeois and Kagami Tsurugi.

Alya and the others are trying to make up to Marinette but she is avoiding them.

Felix Culpa and Kamiko Potter-Moonlight are getting married to japan in 3 months and Chole and her two friends Marinette and Kagami are invited for the wedding, along with their family.

3 months later...

  On September 5, 2004

Adrien Agrest is attending his older cousin, Felix Culpa's wedding with the love of his life Kamiko Potter-Moonlight an old friend of theirs who also happen to be the older cousin of Chloe Bourgeois. Marinette and Kagami are also in the wedding along with their family.

(Kamiko's wedding dress that she desgin herself for the perfect wedding she always to have with Felix)

Kamiko Moonlight-Culpa introduce Marinette Dupain-Cheng to Hikaru Hitachiin and gotten along to well she even meet his younger twin brother Kaoru Hitachiin and the rest of their friends. 

After the wedding Marinette and Hikaru decided to stay in contact with one another that even by seperate country they talk to one another everyday.

By the next school year Chole and Marinette along with Kagami transfer School to Roseheart Academy which will bring out their full potentional than College Francoise Dupont, which Chole's mother Audrey Bourgeois agreed that their old school didn't have the ablility to bring out their full potentional.

1 year later...

Diana Ryuzaki-Black and Takashi Morinozuka is finally getting married at the age of 22 years old on May 30, 2005.

By then Hikaru Hitachiin is already dating Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Kagami end up having a relationship with Mitsukuni Morinozuka, for 1 and 1/2 year now.

Another 1 year... 

Chloe Bourgeois, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Kagami Tsurugi finally graduate college at the same time as the Hitachiin twins and Haruhi Fujioka.

It wasn't long after graduating did Marinette & Hikaru, Mitsukuni & Kagami gotten married .

It wasn't long before Kaoru Hitachiin end up marring Chloe Bourgeois.

4 months later...

 During October 15, 2006...

Kamiko Moonlight-Culpa, Marinette Hitachiin, Chloe Hitachiin and Kagami Haninozuka Morinozuka fell pregnant with their first child and they were all excited for the future addition of their family.

On July 30, 2007

Chloe Hitachiin nee Bourgeois gaved birth to a daughter that has blonde hair and blue eyes like her own mother she was given the name Minako Rose Hitachiin.

A week later...

On August 6, 2007

Marinette Hitachiin gaved birth to a daughter who has redish brown hair and blue eyes, her name is Makato Mei Hitachiin the first daughter of Hikaru Hitachiin.

And 2 weeks after that 

On August 20, 2007

Kagami gaved birth to a daughter name Hotaru Reina Haninozuka she look like kagami herself.

Then a week and 3 days

On August 31, 2007

Kamiko Moon-Culpa gaved birth to a daughter as well by the name of Serenity Ryoko Moonlight-Culpa.

As the years pass by Minako Hitachiin, Makoto "Lita" Hitachiin, Serenity Moonlight-Culpa, and Hotaru Haninozuka have become great friends by the time they were two years old  they gained a little brother. Marinette Hitachiin give birth to Jason Xavier Hitachiin the Heir of the Hitachiin. Then their's Nathan James Moonlight-Culpa the heir to the Culpa family.

Lita, Minako, Hotaru and Serenity are now 14 years old and the memories of their past lives has return to them. Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury are awake and active in Juuban and Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus is also active, Sailor Pluto most likely awaken them to help Sailor Mars and Mercury defeat Queen beryl of the Negaverse.

And Tuxedo Mask is fighting along side the scouts, it dosen't take a geniuse  to know who Tuxedo Mask really is he is the reborn self of Prince Endymione, but it seem that he is dating the reborn self of Sailor Mars, It broke my heart that my prince fell in love with one of my scouts, but he if this is what he wanted then I will Comply to his wish, and removed the Bond that the two of us shared.

"Goodbye Endymione , I hope you find hapinese to the path you chosen"Serenity Moonlight Culpa. The three loyal sxouts of Princess Serenity help her move on from Endymione the three of them did always believe that Prince Endymione never deserve their Princess's Love for him.

The three of them help Serenity reclaim the Sliver Crystal.

Sailor Pluto watch from the time gate the future she so hold dear to her heart shatter to a million pieces and Crystal Tokyo

will never come to be in this new timeline. And a new future is slowly forming before her very eyes and Neo King Endymione is no longer the king and husband of Neo Queen Serenity but another by the name of Diamian Wayne as Neo Queen Serenity husband and King.

The new timeline of the future is more beauitful than Crystal Tokyo ever did Cosmic tokyo

While Small lady may not be the daughter of Neo Queen Serenity and Neo King Endymione anymore but what matter is that she is still alive even if she is no longer the daughter of her mother Neo Queen Serenity but  the  daughter of Sailor Mars and Endymione and the future Sailor Mars instead of being the future Sailor Moon.

But Neo Queen Serenity and her husband King Diaman has two beautiful children together the oldest child is a son by the name Aron Tranquility Moonligt Wayne who has her mother's gooden blonde hair and his father green eyes.

Then their's his twin sister Sadiya Serenity Moonlight Wayne who look like a mirror image of her mother in every way, but they were taught many form of fighting art.

7 years later...

Serenity Moonlight Culpa meet Diamian Wayne in College and tgey both end up falling in love with one another and gotten married when they were 21 years old March 15, 2031 by then Felix and Kamiko Moonlight Culpa are already 45.

While Lita Hitachiin found her old lover Nephrite, his new name in this life if their are  Nathan James Moonlight-Culpa the younger brother of Their Princess Serenity.

Minako Hitachiin also found the reborn self of her own lover Kunzite his new name is Jason Kyle  an old friend of Nathan while growing up they meet in College where his memories of his past return 

and the one Tudedo Mask and Sailor Mars and thenothers were fight with is nothing but a clone created by Queen Beryl.

While Hotaru end up marring  Jason Xaiver Hitachiin  the younger brother of Makato.

[betelgeusessonajblog]

Carlos’ Final Day....

You knew this was coming 

@thelostandforgottenangel​ not sorry!

Carlos rubs his eyes a little as he steps out of a portal, he groans a little then blinks “I need to get used to that.” he thought as he shook his head. It takes a minute before his vision adjusts to the normal light “Ah much better.” he smiled before pocketing the bottle that was in his hands.

He had decided to surprise AJ and, Raph after hearing both had managed to recover quite a lot since he’d last heard from them. 

Carlos walks down the street as he pulls out his phone then dials AJ’s number, wanting to see if AJ was free so he could visit them. 

After a few rings it goes straight to voicemail, Carlos thinks for a moment ‘Hm he must be busy with Raph.” so he decides to leave a voicemail “ Hi, Alex it’s me. I’m guessing you’re spending time with Raph. I’m so glad that you and he are doing much better. I decided to stop by Monstropolis to surprise you tonight but since you’re busy I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll be staying at the MonStar hotel. I’ll see you tomorrow, have fun!” he said as he hung up then decided to check AJ’s Facebook page.

He smiled a little as he saw a new photo of Raph and, AJ that the young lizard had posted not too long ago with the caption ‘Spending the evening with my hubby’ underneath it. 

Carlos exits his account then puts his phone away as he began walking down the street “I have time before I have to head to my hotel.”

He spends the next twenty minutes walking around, exploring the city as he never truly got the chance to do so whenever he did visit. 

Carlos stops in front of a fast food stand and decides to grab a bite to eat, he pulls out his wallet to grab some money but groans a little “In all my excitement I forgot to go to the ATM and get this world’s currency.” he muttered. 

Just then a woman with black hair in a bun approached Carlos “Excuse me but are you having some issues with money?” she asked as Carlos looked at her.

“Hm? Oh yeah, I suppose you could call it issues. In all my excitement to visit my son and, son-in-law I forgot to change my currency.” Carlos replied, chuckling a little in embarrassment.

The woman reaches into her trench coat and pulls out her purse “Allow me to buy you something from the stand.”

“Oh I couldn’t possibly do that.” Carlos replied as he held up a hand

“I do not mind as long as you can repay me.” The woman smiled 

“....Oh...Alright. I am rather hungry and I have some time before I have to head to my hotel. Not for another half hour.” Carlos said as the woman approached the food stand and begins ordering herself and, Carlos some food.

Soon she hands a hamburger to Carlos whom takes it with a smile “Thank you so much. I’m Carlos Garcia, by the way. I never got to introduce myself to you.” 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Garcia.” The woman smiled “You may call me Miwa.” she said as she took a bite out of her food.

Carlos nodded “Miwa? That’s nice. Japanese?” he asked

Miwa nods “Yes, that’s right. My father named me it after my late mother.” she explained as she and Carlos ate together.

“I am so sorry for your loss.” Carlos said with a sincere look on his face “Losing someone is never easy.”

Miwa nods in agreement “Yes, that is true.” she shook her head “But we live for those that are no longer around.”

Carlos nodded “That’s a nice sentiment.” he smiled. He pulls out his phone to check the time “Oh, it’s almost time for me to check into my hotel.”

"May I offer a cab service? I use this company all the time, they are very reliable.” Miwa said with a smile

“Oh that’d be appreciated, I don’t know any companies in this country.” Carlos chuckled.

“May I borrow your phone to call the company? That way you can save it to use later.” Miwa asked to which Carlos nodded, the idea sounded reasonable to him.

Miwa took Carlos’ phone then dialled a number into it, she spoke briefly to someone on the other end before hanging up “They’ll be here within the next five minutes. Luckily a driver was in our vicinity.” 

“Oh that is great. I hate having to stand around for long periods of time.” Carlos said with a smile.

Miwa nods a little in agreement “We should get going, they’ll be wanting to park nearby.” she said as she started walking off.

Carlos nodded as he followed Miwa towards a nearby store “outside here?” he asked

Miwa nods a little “Yes, I often stand outside this store whilst I wait on them.” she replied with a smile “plus it is a nice way to watch something on the TV whilst waiting.”

Carlos turned to look at the store, noticing it was an electronics one “Oh that is a nice idea.”

Whilst Carlos’ back was turned, a van pulled up behind him and, Miwa. Without hesitation, Miwa pulls out a syringe and stabs Carlos in the neck, he quickly passes out and is dragged inside the van.

Hours later Carlos groans as he wakes up in what appeared to be an old warehouse, his hands shackled above his head “Wh...where....”

Before he could fully grasp where he was or what was going on, something stabbed into his side then began to zap him. Carlos screamed out in agony as he felt the electricity run through his body.

Soon the zapping stopped as Carlos panted heavily, he looks up and sees Miwa standing before him “M-Miwa...?? What are you...”

“My name is not Miwa, you fool. My name is Karai.” Karai said as Carlos’ eyes widened in horror realising who it was

"Wh-what do you want from me??” Carlos asked, his voice trembling a little.

“You are going to spill everything you know about your son and the turtle.” Karai said with a smirk

"You must be insane if you think that I would ever betray my son and his husband.” Carlos replied before getting punched in the gut, causing him to grunt

Karai spends the next three hours trying to get Carlos to spill anything that could help the Foot win against Raph and, AJ but Carlos would just toss out useless information about AJ like how he has a passion for playing the guitar.

Karai slams her fist onto a nearby desk “STOP WASTING OUR TIME AND GIVE US THE INFORMATION WE WANT!!” she shouts 

Carlos’ face was badly beaten and very bruised, his left eye had swollen a little, he spits some blood onto Karai’s chest “I told you, you stupid bitch....I would never betray my son or son-in-law.”

Karai growled as she went to punch Carlos again “Do not bother, Karai.” a voice called out as Shredder appeared from seemingly nowhere.

Karai looks at Carlos then walks towards Shredder “I have been at this for three hours now, he has given no useful information.” she said with an annoyed tone in her voice.

Shredder walks towards Carlos whom was trembling a little “If you wish to make it out of here alive, you will comply with our demands, lizard.”

Carlos inhales deeply “I...am...NEVER going to betray my family.” he replied as he trembled a little.

Shredder shook his head silently before looking at Karai and, in Japanese, tells her to bring Carlos’ cell phone over. He looks back at Carlos “You might as well say goodbyes now....” Shredder said as freed Carlos’ hands 

Carlos drops to his knees, blood dripping from his mouth as he panted. He looks up at Karai as he takes his phone, his hands shaking as he dialled AJ’s number once again and...once again...only reaching his voicemail. Part of him was hoping AJ would be able to answer this time, hoping he could tell AJ personally his final words but decided to just leave one final voicemail for the young lizard “Al-Alex…I’m so sorry honey to call again….something happened and I’m…I’m not gonna be around anymore.” he took a deep breath but it still came out shaky “Alex….you have no idea….just how proud of you I am. Of the life you’ve built for yourself with Raphael…..I am so glad I took you in as my own son….You were the best thing to happen to me since Ollie….I want you to promise to keep doing your best….no matter what happens to me, okay? Tell Roger that I love him so much and he’s an amazing young man. Raph….Raph is an amazing partner….and I was proud to call him my son-in-law. I know he’ll keep you safe when I’m gone. Never forget how much you meant to me, Alex. I love you….I love you so much.” as Carlos finishes his message to AJ, Shredder looks at Karai and gives her a nod.

Karai quickly grabs some wire that was on the nearby desk then wraps it around Carlos’ neck and begins to choke the life out of him. He drops his phone onto the ground as Karai did this. He begins to struggle, attempting to break free. He wasn’t ready to die, not yet. There was so much he wanted to do and, experience. He wanted to live, he wanted to see his family again.

Karai tightens the wire around Carlos’ neck, she then puts her foot on his back as she pulls upwards causing a loud CRUNCH to be heard as his windpipe was crushed, killing him in seconds, the life quickly draining from his eyes.

Shredder stomps on Carlos’ phone as Karai lets go of Carlos, causing his lifeless body to drop onto the ground with a thud. Shredder looks at two nearby Foot ninjas “Hold his body up.” he says to which the two ninjas agree.

They each grab an arm then hold Carlos’ body up, he looks at his bladed arm then in one swift motion cuts Carlos’ midsection open causing his guts to drop out, blood pouring onto the ground “....Take his body and string him up. I want them to find him.” Shredder instructed some Foot ninjas whom all nod then carry Carlos’ body away.

A while later the Foot members wrap wire around Carlos’ neck then hang him up. Luckily for them this was the quiet hour in the street so no one saw them. Carlos’ body was soon hanging, blood dripping from his guts.

Meanwhile.....in the Netherworld....Carlos lays in the middle of a street, he sits up and rubs his neck “...wasn’t...I just...” he muttered as he stood up and begins to look around. it was clear to him that this wasn’t AJ and, Raph’s world....nor was it the Monster World....

Carlos walks backwards as he looked around until someone tapped him on the shoulder causing the lizard to turn around to see who it was. 

Carlos’ eyes widened as he saw a young dog-like monster standing in front of him. The dog-like monster had two small horns on his head, his eyes were a light blue colour, his body was muscular “...Hello...love...” the monster said.

Carlos began to tear up “O-Ollie...??” to which the dog-like monster nods smiling as Carlos quickly wraps his arms around Ollie. The two share a long, loving kiss before they pulled away, Carlos places his forehead against Ollie’s “Ollie...I...I am so sorry for...”

“Sssh....Carlos....not once did I ever blame you for what happened to me...I should’ve tried to keep fighting but I was just so broken....” Ollie said as Carlos lightly caresses his face “I was....sent here to help you with....dying.”

“...so...I really died...” Carlos said as he began to sob softly, Ollie wraps his arms around Carlos “I...I didn’t want to die, there was so much I....”

“I know, love...I know...” Ollie said as he lightly rubs Carlos’ back, trying to soothe the lizard.

“Wh-What about Alex....?? He...” Carlos started to say before Ollie kisses him on the lips gently

“Alex is going to be okay....he’s a strong kid....I’ve been watching over you for some time. I am so proud of you for helping him out when he needed someone....” Ollie said as he pulled away, taking Carlos’ hand into his “....Why won’t we go start our afterlife together?”

Carlos looks at Ollie’s hand then at Ollie, nodding a little with a small smile “At...least I get to be with you again, Ollie...”

The two walk off together, hand in hand heading off to start their afterlife together. For once....Carlos felt truly happy....he finally had the love of his life back. They stand in front of a door, Carlos was nervous about whatever it was that was behind it but Ollie gives him a reassuring smile before they walked through it, a bright light engulfs the pair as they share another kiss.