#all his training plus support items could get him far okay

[mangosmoothies]

deku ending up quirkless at the end of such a big battle is a perfect tie to his character argue with the wall

[jazzycurls]

You belong to me - part 4.

Pairing: Eddie Munson x fem!Reader

Summary: It's a surprise 😉🤫

Warnings/Tags: 18+ minors dni! Cheating, angst, hurt & comfort, smut, mentions of stalking and pregnancy (let me know if I missed something)

An: Hi, you guys! I guess I'm not new to writing anymore, but I'm still a newbie. All feedback is welcome. Be gentle please haha. Please do not steal or copy my work. Don’t repost without credit. This is my written work, everything besides the characters and plot points by the original writers, belongs to me. Love you guys, and thank you so much for the support, hope you enjoy ❤

Word Count: 6,306

It's been exactly four weeks and two days since you last spoke to Eddie. Ever since that day you saw him and Chrissy together, you vowed to never let him hurt you again. It was tough going to school and dealing with all the rumors swirling around you, Eddie, and Chrissy.

Most people had called you a slut, others said Eddie was the slut who had corrupted you in some way and a few people said it was a hoax, unwilling to believe that Eddie The Freak Munson was able to date two women at once. You ignored the rumors, choosing to focus on your schoolwork so you could graduate and get the hell out of this town.

Clara was there beside you through it all and helped you brave the storm. You were forever grateful for her friendship, people like her are hard to come by and should always be cherished. You vowed to repay her as soon as you got the chance.

Eddie had tried his best to talk to you afterward. He had tried everything from following you around at school, showing up at your house, and calling you every night but you shot him down every time. The blinders were off and you wouldn't allow yourself to be fooled by him any longer.

You still loved Eddie but not enough to sacrifice your happiness. You vowed that you would never do that after witnessing the destruction of your parent's marriage. Your mother had spent many nights crying herself to sleep and now was a shell of who she used to be, throwing herself into her work to avoid her harsh reality.

They say that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree because here you were, on your way to your new job at Family Video. You'd had the great idea to get a job to help keep you preoccupied. You've been working there for officially two weeks now and you loved it. It's a laid-back job with decent pay plus your co-workers were awesome.

You pull into the parking lot and park your car. As you make your way into the store the hairs on the back of your neck began to stand on end. You stop in your tracks as you look around the lot cautiously, heading into the store when you don't see anything strange. For the past few weeks, you kept having the strangest feeling that you were being followed. With Hawkins being notorious for people going missing and all of the strange occurrences, it was always best to be on guard in a town like this one.

"Hi, Y/n," your coworkers Robin and Steve echoed in union.

You raised a brow at them as you entered the store and went behind the sales desk. "Oookay, that wasn't creepy at all," you laughed as you placed your bag under the counter.

"What do you mean," they both asked in confusion.

"Okay, seriously guys, this is weird," you stated, getting slightly creeped out. With the weird feeling of eyes watching you at random times of the day, it didn't take much to put you on edge nowadays.

"Sorry Y/n, it was Steve's idea," Robin laughed, hugging you.

"Hey, not true! Don't believe her Y/n," he tells you as he hugs you as well. The bell on the door chimes, signaling the arrival of a customer as you are wrapped up in his arms.

You turn your head to see Eddie headed your way with his eyes trained on you. Steve lets you go to help Eddie as he places his items on the counter. His eyes are dark, nearly the color of coals as he glares at Steve.

"Harrington," he sniffs before turning to Robin with a bright smile. "Hey Robbie," he grins.

"Munson, if you call me that name one more time, I'm going to jam your precious guitar up your ass!"

Eddie throws his hands up in mock surrender "Yes ma'am," he replies jokingly. His gaze finally settles on yours "Hello Y/n," he whispers, his eyes soft and shining with emotion.

"Hi, Eddie." Your voice is monotone and your expression is indifferent, a severe contrast to the emotions raging inside of you.

Sensing the awkward atmosphere between you two, Steve steps in and picks up the movies Eddie placed on the counter. He taps a few keys onto the register and scans the barcode on the back of the tapes. "Alright Munson, it says here that you have an overdue late fee of $6.18 on your account. Would you like to make a payment today?"

Eddie begrudgingly looks away from you and turns toward Steve. He digs into the pocket of his jeans, pulls out a wrinkled ten-dollar bill, and hands it to Steve. Unable to stand the tension building, you busy yourself by going over to the romance section to organize the shelf.

Minutes go by, and you hear the soft footsteps of someone walking up behind you. You look over to find Eddie standing there with his hands shoved into the pockets of his well-worn jeans. You stand up and move to leave before he stops you.

"Wait Y/n, can we talk? Please!" he begs, his hands stretched out towards you blocking your exit.

You sigh deeply and shake your head, feeling your resolve break. "You have a minute," you relent, crossing your arms as you wait.

"Baby, what happened before," he begins, as he takes a step towards you. You take a step back, holding your hand up between you two.

"Sorry," he mutters sadly before continuing. "What you saw with me and Chrissy, it wasn't what it looked like. I was about to tell her that it was over between her and me when she —," he trailed off unable to continue. He couldn't tell you about the upside down. It could put you in danger and that was something he refused to allow to happen.

You lifted a brow expectantly as you waited for him to continue. Your patience was starting to wane thin.

"Um, she said that she um— that she needed me," he responded weakly. It sounded unbelievable even to his own ears. He sees your face drops back into a cold stare and his chest tightens in fear when he realizes how bad he's fucking this up right now.

"You have to believe me Y/n. It's just for a little while and this doesn't mean that I'm with her because it doesn't and I promise you she knows that." His words are rushed and awkward as he tries to convince you that his words are true.

"Times up Eddie." You turn to walk away and he grabs your hand quickly.

"Y/n wait, I'm telling the truth. I just need you to wait for me, please, at least until I sort everything out." His plea is desperate as he holds your hand close to his heart.

"Why should I Eddie? You haven't been honest with me not once this entire time! You won! You got what you wanted so just leave me the fuck alone." Your voice rises out of anger, causing Robin and Steve to throw concerned glances in your direction. You let out slow deep breaths as you attempt to reel your emotions back in.

Shock is evident on Eddie's face, which soon gives way to anger. If he was honest with himself he's never done well with confrontation. With his father mentally and physically abusing him throughout his childhood, he's developed a sort of defense mechanism, which makes him run away when he feels threatened. The hurt that he feels because you don't trust him makes him angry, not knowing how to properly deal with his emotions. He feels that he's been nothing but honest with you this entire time. If there was anything he left out it was for your safety, not so he could try and fuck you over.

"You know what, fuck this," Eddie grunts, as his feelings get the better of him. "You don't have to believe me." As the words leave his lips his heart breaks and regrets already spreading through him as he turns away from you, storming out of the store.

You want to call out to him, tell him that you were sorry for going off. You're not a confrontational person, so your reaction just now took you by surprise. Bile rises in your throat as you watch Eddie leave. You turn and run to the employee's lounge, slamming the door shut as you hurl your lunch into the toilet. Your fingers grip the wall tightly and you begin to dry heave once there is nothing left. Once your stomach settles you drop down onto the tiled floor, trying to catch your breath.

A few minutes go by when you hear a knock on the door. "Y/n, is everything okay?" Robin asks you from the other side.

"Yeah, I'll be out in a minute." Your voice sounds weak as you answer her. You rise to stand and go to wash your hands. Once you're done you splash cold water on your flushed face. 'What the fuck.'  You wonder as you gaze at your reflection in the mirror. Was this whole situation so stressful that it was making you sick? Or was it the thought of things finally being over with Eddie that made you ill?

You honestly didn't know but you refused to dwell over it any longer. Taking a deep breath you opened the door with a fake smile plastered on your face.

"You okay," Robin asks when you appear back at the counter.

"No, but I will be," you reply with a strained smile but you're not convinced you will be.

Steve takes in your appearance noting how squeamish you look, a stark contrast to how you were when you first arrived. "Hey Y/n, if you're not feeling well you can leave early if you want. I think Robbie and I can manage," he says earning a smack on the back of his head from Robin.

"Yeah, I think that's for the best," you say, laughing in response to their antics. You begin to pack up your things and give them both a hug before making your departure.

The fresh air of the evening does little to settle your stomach and the nagging thought of something you had forgotten in the back of your mind. You make a pit stop at the local mart, unaware of the eyes watching your every step.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

You sat on your bed with Clara, your fingers gripping the unopened pink box tightly. She listened intently as you told her the events of what happened a few days ago with Eddie. Her features shift with each detail you relay. Shock settles over her face once you end with the purchase you had made due to the absence of your period.

"Why haven't you taken it yet," she questions as she clasped your hand in yours. You blinked your eyes, trying desperately to stave off the tears threatening to escape.

"I'm scared," you admitted. "If I take this test, then it becomes real and then I'll have no choice but to deal with it." Your hands shake nervously, causing the box to fall onto the floor.

Clara bent down and picked up the box, pressing it back into your hands. "Y/n, this isn't something you can ignore. The longer you put it off the fewer options you'll have."

"I know, but what if it's positive? Things between Eddie and me are horrible right now. A baby will only complicate things even more." A few tears skip down your cheeks as your emotions began to overwhelm you.

"Whatever happens I'll be here for you okay? I'll even beat Eddie up for you if you want," she says, pulling you into a tight hug.

You laugh along with her as you hug her back. "I'll keep that in mind," you snicker as you get up from the bed, making your way into the bathroom. You close the door behind you and lean up against it. You take calming breaths as you read the instructions on the back of the box.

'Okay, remove cap and place tip into urine stream for five seconds. Replace cap, lay it flat, and wait for results, should be ready within five minutes. Seems easy enough,' you thought silently.

You will your hands to stop shaking as you unwrap the package and begin to follow the instructions listed on the box. Once finished you lay the test flat on the counter and began to wait. The seconds ticked by agonizingly slow and you become all too aware of the silence in the bathroom. The walls felt as if they were closing in on you with each minute that passed.

Your timer beeps on your watch, signaling that the test result was ready. Turning back towards the counter you eye the test warily. You could feel a trickle of sweat running along your spine as you start to perspire. 'This is crazy. Just pick it up and read it. It's not a big deal, it's not like this is going to change your life from this point in every single way.'

Exasperated, you sink down onto the edge of the tub. "Clara" you called out through the closed door.

"Yes!" She replied immediately, busting through the door.

You gesture towards the test on the counter. "I can't look," you said softly, letting your head fall into your hands. You stare at the patterns on the tile floor as you listen to her pick up the test.

A soft gasp fell from her lips making your blood run cold. "It's positive," she murmurs as she crouches down in front of you.

"Of course it's positive, I've never failed a test before. Guess I'm not going to start now huh." You laugh bitterly, shaking your head in disbelief.

"Y/n, it's going to be okay. Whatever you decide to do, it's going to be okay." She laid her hand on yours as you sat there in silence. "Are you going to tell Eddie," she asked.

"I don't know if I should. I mean, what would even be the point of that anyways? I don't want a pity relationship because he made the mistake of knocking me up." Your words come out heated and rushed as your anger washes over you.

"He deserves to know Y/n. Don't keep it from him because you're scared of what his response may be. You never know, maybe he'll step up, maybe he won't but you'll never know if you don't give him a chance." Clara's voice was firm and sure as she held your gaze.

"You're right, I'll tell him," you huff out a moment later.

She gives you a small smile before standing up and pulling you up along with her. "Fuck! Squatting like that made my legs hurt," she complained trying to shake the pins and needles feeling out of her legs. "I guess I'm getting too old for that now. Welp, no more blowjobs for Steve then," she jokes, crouching over and holding her back dramatically.

"Yeah right, I'll believe that when pigs fly," you laugh snorting obnoxiously as you follow her back into your room.

"You calling me a slut," Clara growls, her hand inching towards the pillows on your bed.

"Uh yeah. You and Steve are biggest the horndogs I've ever met," you retort grinning cheekily.

"You're gonna regret that Y/l/n," she yells, smacking you in the face with a pillow. You stand there for a moment in shock before springing into action, grabbing a pillow for your counterattack. Peels of laughter sound off in the room along with thumps from the pillow fight, giving you a welcome reprieve from the tough decisions sure to come.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Eddie sat perched atop his throne in the old theatre room, which was also their meeting place for all of their D&D campaigns. Drumming his fingers against the chipped wooden table, his patience began to wear thin as he waited for everyone to sit down and get situated. After a minute had passed, everyone was still talking animatedly to each other. 

"Can we hurry this along please!" he yelled out, causing the room to go silent as all eyes snapped onto him. "Thank you," he said once he had everyone's attention. He had called an emergency meeting weeks ago as soon as Chrissy had told him her dreams had returned. Due to conflicts of schedule and the matter of long distance for some, it had taken a while to get everyone back together again.

"What's going on Eddie? Why are we all here," asked Dustin.

"Vecna's back," Eddie replied somberly, getting straight to the point. A few gasps of panic flew across the room at his announcement.

"Are you sure? I mean— how do you know, what happened?" Nancy questioned, her eyes flickering with concern.

Eddie began to explain what Chrissy had told him that day, omitting the part with you in it. He didn't need everyone to know about his relationship with you when he was still trying to fix the damage he'd caused.

"So why isn't she here if she's so scared that he's after her?" Max's voice was low and her expression held a look of skepticism. Something about this situation seemed off to her but she didn't want to jump to conclusions just yet.

"She had cheerleading practice," Eddie replied rubbing a hand across his face tiredly. Between Chrissy hanging onto him like a leech every chance she got and you avoiding him like a leper, he felt as if he was losing his mind. He hadn't had a proper sleep in weeks and it was beginning to show. His eyes were dull, sporting dark heavy-looking bags underneath each one.

Murmurs echo around the room at his response. "I'm sorry man but I call bullshit. I've seen Chrissy around town and she didn't look scared to me," said Steve.

"Why would she lie then huh? If you have an idea, then by all means please share it because I don't have a clue!" Eddies hands grip the arms of his chair as he struggles to regain control over his emotions.

"Are you okay Eddie?" Robin asked. She had never seen Eddie like this before and it was starting to scare her a little. After witnessing the scene between Eddie and you, she had the sinking feeling that this all had something to do with one another.

"Yeah— I'm fine, just a little tired is all. Now, can we please get back to the matter at hand?" Eddie hated being so dismissive toward his friend but he wanted to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.

"Well, I haven't felt anything from him. Honestly, I thought he was dead. I haven't felt this peaceful in a long time," Will replied in a soft voice.

"Me too," Max confirmed as others began to echo in agreeance.

"I think that settles it, dude. It sounds like Chrissy lied to you," Dustin said softly so only Eddie could hear him.

"I think you're right and I'm going to find out why." Eddies features were stony and everyone could see the shift in his demeanor. He adjourned the meeting, thanking everyone for coming and apologizing on Chrissy's behalf.

Before he left the room he tapped Robin on the shoulder, pulling her from her conversation with Steve. "Hey, I just wanted to apologize about earlier. I haven't been—, he started but Robin cut him off with a  wave of her hand.

"Don't worry about it. There are no hard feelings okay? Just go handle whatever it is you need to with Chrissy. To be honest Eddie, I never liked her anyways," she tells him with a smirk.

Eddie gives her a quick hug before taking his leave. He was on a mission as he made his way hastily to the gym, determined to catch Chrissy before she left. He wanted an explanation as to why she had lied and he wasn't going to leave until she gave him one.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

Chrissy's friend Alice stood to the side of the bleachers anxiously. The loud voices of Chrissy and Eddie rang out sharply throughout the gym. Standing in the shadows, she wasn't trying to be seen until the time was right.

The words lying bitch could be heard clearly throughout the room followed by a resounding slap. Chrissy stormed by quickly tears streaming down her face. She passed by quickly, not seeing Alice standing in the corner. Once the double doors had closed, Alice stepped from behind the bleachers into the light. Eddie stood close by with his head hanging down, his hair hiding his face. She cleared her throat lightly, gaining Eddie's attention immediately.

"Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me!" He yelped, holding a hand over his chest. His heartbeat was erratic as he took a deep breath to calm down before he had a premature death. "What do you want," he asked warily after he had regained control of his breathing. He knew you only through Chrissy and had never spoken to you alone before. If he was a betting man, he would bet that Chrissy didn't know you were here, especially right after the fight they'd just had.

"Chrissy doesn't know that I'm here," she said confirming his suspicions as she looked over her shoulder cautiously. Eddie nodded in response and she continued, wanting to get this over as soon as possible. She didn’t want Chrissy to find out about what she was about to do.

"Chrissy's been lying to you, Eddie. She's been seeing Jason behind your back the entire time you two were together," she whispered.

When Chrissy told her that she and Eddie didn't have sex, she was in disbelief. The reason why became even more obvious when she caught them hooking up in Jason's car during school once. Jason had later told her with a smug look on his face that he and Chrissy had always maintained a sexual relationship even after she had gotten with 'The Freak'.

When she confronted Chrissy, she only shrugged with a coy smile, "I get what I need from Jason and Eddie, what's the big deal?"

Alice had told her that it wasn't right but Chrissy didn't want to listen to reason, only warning her to stay out of it before flouncing away, her ponytail bouncing perkily behind her.

"Wow, I mean what the fuck. I know I have no room to talk but for her to pretend to be so innocent when she's just as bad is fucking insane." Eddie's eyes were big as he ran his hands through his hair.

He had tried before to initiate a sexual relationship with Chrissy but she had told him she wanted to wait until marriage. He had accepted her decision, not wanting to pressure her into something she didn't want but he couldn't deny that the thought of why things were the way they were didn't cross his mind at times. Boys tended to talk and he knew that she wasn't a virgin because of Jason, so the new information just revealed to him, answered the questions he's had for a long time.

"Thanks for telling me," he said finally, looking over to Clara. "I know that couldn't have been easy."

"You're welcome, Eddie. I know I can be a bitch sometimes but I like to think that I'm still a good person," she said as she began to walk away. Before reaching the doors, she turned around to look over her shoulder at him. "Eddie be careful with Chrissy. She's not the same anymore and I'm afraid of what she may do if things don't go her way."

He nodded in response and watched as she walked through the doors, her ominous warning of Chrissy repeating over and over in his head.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

You're lost in your thoughts as you walk along the crowded hallways. You had spent the entire weekend trying to figure out how to tell Eddie you were pregnant. The last time you talked, it ended horribly and you were kinda ashamed to have to approach him again so soon. You were sure that after how you treated him, he didn't want to speak to you again.

As you neared your classroom a hand snatched you into a nearby closet, closing the door briskly behind you. "What the hell," you shrieked before a hand clasped over your mouth keeping you silent.

"Shhh Y/n, it's just me," Eddie whispered as he clicked on the overhead light.

You snatch his hand from your mouth, looking upward at him. "I knew that Eddie. You are literally the only person who snatches me into closets at random."

"Yeah, you're right," he says laughing awkwardly. He rubs the back of his neck as he takes a moment to look at you. It feels as if he hasn't gotten a chance to really look at you in forever. His heart flutters nervously as you stare back into his eyes. The speech he had prepared, long forgotten at the sight of you.

You were also experiencing something similar as you began to malfunction at being in such close proximity with Eddie. An apology sits at the top of your tongue for the way you treated him before but you quickly swallow it back down as quickly as it comes. "What do you want," you question once you finally begin to settle from the mental Olympics your mind is going through.

"I wanted to talk to you. I know that our last conversation didn't end well and I want to apologize to you." He takes a deep breath in an attempt to settle his nerves before continuing.

"I let my emotions get the best of me and I reacted poorly. I know that you're probably getting tired of me apologizing and I promise to do better— I want to be better for you. Whenever I'm with you, I feel better about myself. Even though we haven't had the chance to be together, I'm sure of how I feel about you. You don't have to worry about me and Chrissy anymore because I've handled that situation and it's completely over, I promise you. So please Y/n, please take a chance on me and I promise I won't let you down again ever." His eyes are big and wet as he looks down at you pleadingly.

You lean back up against the door as you consider his words. The fierceness in his eyes is endearing, making you want to believe him this time, but there is still a nagging thought in the back of your mind. You still feel that there is something that Eddie isn't telling you. Until you know the real reason he broke his promise and chose to stay with Chrissy, you can't forgive him just yet. "I want to trust you Eddie but for me to do that, you have to be completely honest with me. I don't want to start a relationship on a half-truth."

Something akin to fear flashes across Eddie's face before disappearing quickly. His features relax again as he takes your hands into his hesitantly, pulling you in closer. "Y/n— there's a lot of things that's happened in Hawkins in the past couple of years. A lot of things have been kept from the public for safety reasons," he pauses to make sure that you are still following him. "I'll tell you everything but I need you to keep an open mind okay? I know that what I tell you may be hard to believe but just trust me okay?"

You nod your head slowly as your heart begins to race. You're not sure what it is he is about to tell you but you have the feeling that it will change everything moving forward. Just as he opens his mouth to speak, the tardy bell rings announcing that you both are late for class.

"Fuck! Can you follow me to my house after school?" He says hopefully, resting his hand on the doorknob behind you.

"Yeah," you reply breathlessly as he leans in closer to you, resting his forehead against yours. Your eyes flutter close as his nose brushes against yours, his breath is warm as it fans across your face pleasantly.

The sound of the second bell rings and the moment is gone. Disappointment is clear on both of your faces as he pulls back, giving you room to move away from the door. "Later?" His eyes are bright, filled with hope and longing.

"Later," you smile squeezing his hand gently before slipping through the door. Eddie waits a second before taking his leave as well. His smile is big and wide as he walks into class, even after his teacher tears him a new one for being late once again, his smile never fades.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

You rush out of class once the final bell rings and you head to the parking lot, eager to meet Eddie as planned. After you have your talk with Eddie, you'll have to go straight to work, so you're grateful that you were able to get the car from your mom this morning. You spot Eddie in the crowded lot once you make it to your car. He gives you an excited wave and you wave back with a shy smile.

You both enter your cars and you began to follow him as he leaves the school. As you're driving out of the lot you pass by Chrissy standing near her car. She stares at you with a blank expression as you pass by. Your eyes meet and you hold her gaze before looking away to safely follow the traffic.

"Crazy bitch," you mutter under your breath. You shake it off mentally, you refuse to let her ruin the good mood you were in. You're anxious about what Eddie is going to tell you. Optimism is flowing through you and you can feel your walls lowering for what could be. You hope that he'll be receptive to the news you have for him as well.

Your hands begin to shake as your mind wanders at what his reaction will be. You had planned on telling him today but you're not sure you'll have time after he reveals whatever the secret is he's been holding in.

Before you know it you are pulling into the trailer park behind Eddie. You follow closely as he passes by several trailers before pulling into what you assumed was his home. You park behind him and get out of your car.

Eddie walks over to you with a smile, taking your hand into his, and leads you up the steps. As you both enter his home you notice the trailer is a little on the small side but has a homey feel to it that you find charming.

"Welcome to my humble abode," Eddie says bowing at the waist as you walk into his room. You giggle in response as you sidestep some articles of clothing and stand awkwardly beside his bed. His room is for the most part clean, albeit a little disorganized.

You're not sure if you should sit or stand so you choose to wait for him to tell you what to do. You act as if you're strangers as if Eddie hasn't been inside of you and made you cum in almost every way.

Eddie closes his door, kicking off his shoes. "Make yourself comfortable sweetheart, mi casa su casa." He takes a seat next to you on his bed and takes your hand into his.

"I'm so happy you agreed to listen to what I have to say. I was afraid that you would never talk to me again after last time," he says honestly. He feels happy but also nervous for what he is about to expose you to. He knows that everyone will be pissed at him for getting you involved but he could care less. At this point he would do anything to get you back, he would even travel through Mordor unarmed for you.

"Me too Eddie," you reply sweetly. Your heart skips a beat as he presses a kiss to your knuckles. "Eddie, before you begin, I just want to say I'm sorry for how I acted the last time we spoke. It wasn't unnecessary and I said some things that I didn't mean." Your head drops down and you look at your lap, unable to meet his gaze.

He lifts your chin with his ringed finger. "I already forgave you, baby. There's nothing to apologize for," he whispers against your hand still pressed to his lips. You smile as a heated flush creeps up your neck and settles on your face.

Eddie smiles at your response before he begins "As I said before sweetheart, what I'm going to tell you may be hard to believe but just know that everything I say is the truth." He licks his lips as he prepares to tell you the truth about Hawkins.

His eyes are wide, filled with warmth that eases any doubts you may have had before. You nod your head and you listen intently as he begins to tell you a tale so bizarre that it sounds like it's straight from a movie scene.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

You wave goodbye to Robin and Steve as you walk across the dark parking lot toward your car. Your mind races as you fumble with your keys to unlock the car. Hours have passed since your conversation with Eddie but you're still in shock.

The story he had told you felt too bizarre to be true. But when you sat back and thought about all of the strange occurrences that's happened, his explanation was more reasonable than what the media had portrayed. You were correct before when you thought that you wouldn't have time to tell him your truth. He had taken hours to go over everything with you and by the time he was done you were late for work.

You promised that you wouldn't tell anyone about what he had revealed to you, including Steve and Robin. He wanted to keep everyone oblivious to the fact that you knew everything, for now. You smiled to yourself, the way he worried over your safety made your heart clench in happiness and hope that he would be open to what you had to tell him.

A noise startles you from behind and you drop your keys in fear. You were on edge and every little sound was making you jump. Bending down you scoop up your keys swiftly, fear pumping through you as you slot your keys in the lock. You climb into your car swiftly, slamming the door behind you.

Your heart is pounding as you look behind you out of your car windows. For a moment there you could've sworn that you heard footsteps behind you. Taking a deep breath you start your car and head back to Eddie's house. He had invited you back to his house after work once you told him that you had something important to tell him as well. Your mom was out of town visiting family and you hoped that if things ended well, you could spend the weekend with Eddie.

So wrapped up in your thoughts you didn't see the car behind you until it slammed into you, causing you to swerve hazardously before regaining control.

"What the fuck," you yell in surprise. Your eyes fly to your rearview mirror and you're blinded by the harsh light reflecting from the beams.

You realize with a start that the reason you didnt notice them was that they didnt have on their lights until just now. They obviously didn't want you to notice them until it was too late. The car behind you rams into you again and you jerk forward from the impact. A cry leaves your lips as you step on the gas, you have to get away from this person before they kill you.

The other car is right on your tail as you bend the corner dangerously. Sweat coats your entire body as your adrenaline skyrockets. No matter how fast you go, the unknown assailant is right behind you.

The roads are dark and empty as you both race along the paved road. You cry in relief when you realize that you're a few minutes away from Eddie's house. No sooner than the thought enters your mind, they slam into you violently, and the wheel jerks as you lose control of the car. Your car veers off the road and your wheels screech as you skid across the pavement. A silent scream leaves your mouth as you realize that you are headed straight for the treeline.

As you brace for impact, your last thoughts are of Eddie, how you didn't get to tell him you were pregnant and that you never got the chance to tell him that you loved him. Your thoughts are filled with him as glass breaks around you with a sickening crunch and everything fades to black.

Taglist: @bibieddiesgf @tlclick73 @seventhlevelofhell @emmysuebull22 @adequate-superstar @vintagehellfire @sidthedollface2 @blue-eyed-lion @hazydespair @fly-on-the-wall @nicolaj1978 @sinczir @starrywhitenight @merciiss @hanahkatexo @kellysimagines @hargrovesswifee @simp4rengoku @igglepiggle22 @isimpforeveryonee @urdad-hot @thikkiesixx @billyhargrovesfuturewife @sammararaven @yogizzz

[itsbeaconhillsbaby]

octopus hearts || tom holland x reader

a/n: how do my intended blurbs turn out so long! god dammit. this idea popped into my head, so I hope you all like it. as always thank you so much for supporting; liking, reblogging, commenting or messaging me about any of my work. I love interacting with you guys and I plan to try and be more of a presence in general, not just with writing. come chat! hope you’re all well x  word count: 1638 warning: none...I think everything I write is pretty tame summary: it’s about time you and tom extended your little family 

“You do know she’s only young...” “And? What’s your point?” “The point is, you’ve managed to find the biggest toy in this whole place!” Tom turns to you, cradling two sacks of dry food to his chest, muscles straining slightly against his t-shirt. In his free hand was a large fluffy purple octopus - all 8 legs dangling centimetres off the ground. You’re both stood in front of the full aisle of toys, picking out your favourites for your new arrival. “She’ll grow! Plus look at it...she’ll love it.” He holds up the toy until it’s eye level with you, its stitched mouth looking at you almost mockingly. You roll your eyes, smiling at Tom’s pleading face, his bottom lip curling upwards into a pout. “Okay, it is cute. But that’s the last one Tom, we don’t even know if she’ll like them yet.” Tom grinned cheekily, slipping the toy into the growing basket you were holding, planting a sloppy thank you kiss onto your cheek as he did so. You laughed as he fist pumped the air before continuing your way through the aisles. The excitement was building, the whole situation becoming more and more real, as you searched for the necessary items.

//// “No peeking!”

If you could’ve rolled your eyes, you would have. You had been sat in the car for around 15 minutes, with your eyes closed and your hands covering your face.

Tom had finally wrapped his latest film in the US, and you had spent the past three days in-between your classes ‘reuniting’ – neither of you surfacing from your shared bedroom unless you were forced to do so. You had assumed Tom had met up with the boys, gone down to his local or played golf during your class time and were therefore extremely confused as to why he suddenly woke up one morning, bribed you to get dressed and dragged you out of the house, only to beg you to keep your eyes closed as soon as you got into the car.

“I’m not sure I like this surprise Tom, where the hell are we going?”

“We’re almost there, you’re going to love it! I promise.”

You felt the car come to a halt, gravel crunching beneath the tyres.

“Stay here one sec.” You heard Tom’s car door slam shut, and soon enough you felt the cold air as yours opened.

He guided you out of the car, allowing you to use him for balance as you struggled to get your bearings, eyes remaining closed the entire time.

“Okay. You can open them.”

You slowly opened them, blinking confused as you looked at a grey building. you eyed tom from the side, seeing his cheeky grin lighting up his entire face before you turned back to the building. It was then that you noticed the sign.

You were at your local dog rescue shelter.

“Tom…what are we doing here?” You fully turn to face him, eyes widening in both excitement and shock.

“Well we’ve lived together for over a year now and I know we said it wasn’t possible. But with this new film, they’re looking at a franchise and it’s an entirely UK based production, so I’ll be here, and I don’t know – you’re graduating soon, I’ve looked into dog sitters and walkers for during the day. My family can help ou-”

You interrupt him mid-sentence, arms wrapping around his neck and shoulders as you pull him towards you, eyes fluttering closed as you kissed him. Your entire stomach erupted into fluttering butterflies at all the thought behind the surprise, at the idea that Tom was genuinely just as excited about adding to your little family as you were.

You push back suddenly, “This is actually happening right now? You’re not messing me around? Because that would be a mean prank…”

“No,” he grins, laughing. You felt his breath tickle your cheek, “it’s all real. Now c’mon, we’re going to be late for our doggy date.”

He tucks you into his side, arm wrapped around you as you head into the building, your stomach doing somersaults the entire time.

////

Your phone buzzed, lighting up next to your laptop. You were in your university library, researching titles of books you needed for your dissertation when a text from Tom popped up:

eta 10 minutes x

You immediately took note of the last couple books on your list, before closing your laptop and stuffing it into your bag. You grabbed the pile of books you’d already collected into your arms before checking them out at the front desk, heading immediately for the nearest train station.

You made it home in record time.

As you unlocked the front door you could hear the pitter patter of tiny feet on the wooden floor. Placing your bag and books on the entry table, you let your keys fall into the bowl alongside Tom’s.

“Hey baby. In here.”

You peeked around the corner into the living room where Tom was lying stretched out on his side in the centre of the room. Holding his head up with his palm, he held up a soft crinkly toy as your new little ball of golden fluff jumped on her hind legs in her attempts to reach it.

“We’re bonding,” he murmured, lifting his head to look up at you, “come join us.”

The little puppy was all legs and floppy ears as she caught her toy and bounced across the room, tripping over it as she tried to hold it up. She paused as you entered, her head tilting dramatically from left to right, her toy immediately laying discarded as she tumbled towards you.

“Hey puppy! Hi Nala.” You kneel down, letting her sniff you to remind herself of who you were, before she wiggled onto her back, paws in the air as you gave her belly rubs. Her white and golden tail thumping on the wooden floorboards.

“Oh my god Tom, I can’t believe she’s here!” He sits up, grinning from ear to ear. He rolls one of the balls next to him and you both watch as Nala bounces after it, attention immediately grabbed. You shuffle towards him, placing yourself in his lap, “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Did she cope with the journey okay?”

Tom winds his arms around your stomach, “She was a star. She’s great in the car, didn’t even cry.”

You nod as he begins peppering kisses on your collarbone, as you watch your new puppy continue to explore her new home.

Your eyes are immediately drawn to one of the discarded toys, the giant octopus that was taking up a scary amount of room on the floor. You roll your head towards your boyfriend smirking slightly, “I take it she didn’t like it?”

He whines quietly, huffing, “So she might have run away from it, I think it freaked her out…” you laugh, tangling a hand into his hair as you pull him towards you, before you hear a noise that causes you both to dart your heads up in search of the destructive sound.

“Oh, fantastic so she’s hates my choice in toys, and she’s a cockblock,” Tom mutters as you stifle a giggle, immediately hurrying after your little pup.

////

You were laying on the couch, Tom’s chest pressed to your back. Nala had completely passed out, lying half in her crate, and half out of it and you couldn’t take your eyes off of her.

“Well, I think that was relatively successful,” you murmur.

“You would think that, it wasn’t your shoe laces that she chewed up,” Tom murmured from behind you.

You’d both had a tiring day with Nala. Once she got bored of playing with her toys, she immediately decided that running outside with Tom’s shoe and hiding under one of the bushes just out of reach would be far more exciting.

“You can’t get mad at her, look at her little face.” You sigh, officially completely head over heels in love, “I can’t believe someone would just dump her, she’s gorgeous.”

You felt Tom brushing a hand up you side absentmindedly as he nodded, “I know. They think she was bought as a christmas present, and then abandoned a couple weeks later.”

“We’re going to give her so much love. And I can’t wait to introduce her to Tess. You think they’ll be friends?” You grasp the fingers trailing up your arm and bring them closer round you, interlocking yours with his.

“For sure...best of friends.” He says as you snuggle further down against Tom, his arms tightening around you as you both relax against each other.

The pair of you let Nala recharge her batteries, diving into an episode of the latest show you had been watching together when you jump with a small gasp at the startling movement beneath you, as Tom sat himself up.

“Oh my god, look!”

You take a glance at Nala. she’d shifted herself in her sleep so instead of laying on the cushioned dog bed and blankets that were in her crate, she’d shimmied out and lay flat out against the giant octopus. Paws tangled with the soft legs of the toy as her head rested on its fluffy body, her pink tongue lolling to one side.

“Yes!” Tom cheered, Nala’s eyes immediately opening from the noise, “I knew she’d love it! Watch this space, Oscar the octopus is going to be her favourite.” He jumped off the couch and hunkered down next to her.

“Wait…do not tell me you named it?”

You took in the man in front of you, lying on his front playing with the pads of Nala’s paws and felt your cheeks begin to ache slightly from the smile on your face.

“Who’s clever! Yes Nala, clever girl.”

You took in your dorky little family, sliding off the couch to join them. The perfect little family of three. 

[scapegrace74-blog]

Ginger Snap, Chapter 6

A/N  Well, here it is.  The last chapter of Ginger Snap.   As an unplanned fic inspired by a vanity license plate, I’m happy with how it turned out.   There will be a short epilogue posted in the next week or so.  In the meantime,  thank you so much for coming on this unexpected ride with me!   This chapter’s themed title is Fire in the Belly.

Previous chapters are best enjoyed on my AO3 page, because I have a bad habit of going back and editing them after they’ve been posted.

The next five months were some of the most difficult of my life.  

After our talk, Frank and I agreed that it would be best that we parted ways.  The Southside flat was close to the university, plus I’d never truly felt at home there, so it made sense for him to keep it.  Fortunately, we’d never combined our savings and I still had money tucked away from my time as a medical resident in Boston.

Geillis wanted me to move into her sprawling Murrayfield home, at least temporarily, but I knew that I needed a place of my own.  To stand on my own two feet, as it were.   Which was how I found myself moving my few belongings into a modest Morningside walk-up as the rest of Edinburgh celebrated Hogmanay with fireworks and drunken revelry.

I scheduled the written component of my medical licensing exam for February.  This was likely foolhardy, but I’d already wasted enough time.  As a result, almost every waking hour was dedicated to studying.  The flat remained an empty box whose naked beige walls bore witness to my rudimentary existence.

Geillis called regularly, reminding me to eat and to occasionally step outside for a breath of fresh air.  Returning up the high street from one of our weekly coffee dates, a bright flash in a shop window caught my eye.

I stopped and stared as the afternoon sun lit the vase like a shard of stained glass.  It was a profound shade of blue: the colour of a field of indigo, of the night sky in a Byzantine icon, of Jamie’s eyes when he laughed.  It sat on my windowsill, filled with the season’s first daffodils, as I pored over practice exams.

***

“Geillis, I passed!  I fucking passed!”  An elderly woman seated across from me on the bus muttered under her breath about vulgar Sassenachs, but I was too elated to care.

“Of course ye did, ye brilliant disaster.  Now I can brag tae the neighbours I have my own personal physician.”

“Not so fast, Duncan.  I still need to pass the clinical exam, and that’s no small thing.”  My gut twisted just thinking about it, but unlike the written exam, there was little I could do to prepare.  Either I knew how to perform as a doctor or I did not.  The long months since I’d last treated a patient loomed like a large shadow over that question.

“Och, yer bum’s oot the window Claire,” my friend dismissed blithely.  “Ye’re gonna do great.  When do ye head down tae yer homeland, then?”

“May first.”  The practical examination took place in Manchester and needed to be scheduled three months in advance.

“Sounds like ye’ve got some time on yer hands.  Whate’er are ye going tae do with yerself?” Geillis asked in a singsong voice.

Fortunately for me, spring was Edinburgh’s most pleasant season.  Its many gardens and laneways erupted in carpets of buds and blooms.  The air smelled fresh and green, like biting into a tart apple.  I took long walks and fell in love with the city I now called home.  There were secondhand bookstores to explore and a weekly craft market where I gradually amassed an assortment of items that made my flat feel like a home.  With each passing day, my existence felt more and more like a life; one I defined for myself.

I also started to explore my options for employment, hoping for a job offer from one of the city’s hospitals that was conditional upon my successful completion of the licensing process.  It was to that end that I found myself walking down the corridor of The Royal Edinburgh hospital after what I hoped had been a rather successful interview with the deputy director of surgery.

“Claire?”

I recognized her voice immediately.  Before turning around I closed my eyes and sent out a fervent appeal to the universe.

“Jenny, hi.  How are you?”

She looked just the same, her straight black hair such a contrast to her brother.  Next to her stood a man, but not the man I had conjured the moment I heard her voice.  I was unclear whether that meant my prayer had been answered or not.  Seeing my gaze stray, Jenny jumped to introductions.

“This is my husband, Ian.  We’re here fer treatment on his leg.”

“Nothing serious, I hope.”  

“Jes a fitting fer a new prosthetic.  Jenny keeps beatin’ me o’er the head with the old one, ye see.”  I laughed, instantly liking his easy-going manner, so in contrast with Jenny’s intensity.

“Ye must be the Claire I hear sae much about,” he went on, and I wondered what had been said about me in the Fraser household.

“Nothing bad, I hope.”

Ian smiled warmly.  “Only good things, I promise ye.”

“What brings ye tae the hospital, Claire?” Jenny interjected.

I explained how I was in the process of qualifying to practice medicine in Scotland, provided I could pass my exams.  Jenny and Ian were both delighted, congratulating me as though I’d already accomplished my goal.  As we spoke about Wee Jamie’s latest exploits and the ongoing growth of Ginger Snap, I couldn’t help notice that Jenny was staring at my hands.  At my left hand in particular.  Finally, I couldn’t resist temptation any longer.

“And, how is Jamie doing?”  I tried to sound casual, but I was certain my faltering voice betrayed me.

“Very well,” Jenny replied.  “Busy, as ye can imagine, but he thrives on chaos.”

I nodded, trying to be satisfied with the news that he was well.  It was the most I could hope for, really.  Jenny eyed me shrewdly before continuing.

“He’s a good man, my brother.  Any lass would be verra lucky tae have him.  I’d like tae see him settled, but he refuses tae be rushed.  Says the right woman is worth the wait.”  She paused before adding,  “I reckon ye ken wha’ he means.”

“Yes,” I breathed.  “I know exactly what he means.”

***

I took the overnight train from Edinburgh to Manchester.  It meant I was likely to arrive at the testing centre deprived of sleep, but I rationalized that most of my residency could be characterized as one long evaluation under similar conditions, and I hadn’t killed anyone yet.  Still, as the velvety darkness slipped by outside my window, studded by the lights of passing farms, my doubts got the better of me.

I texted Geillis, looking for moral support.  For once she didn’t reply immediately.  There was one other name on my laughably short list of contacts.  I deliberated for all of a minute, but the late hour and creeping panic made me impulsive.

Hello.

Best to start with something innocuous, rather than the slightly more revealing “I miss you.  I think about you every day.”  A reply bubble appeared immediately after I hit send.  At least I hadn’t woken him up.  A small tempest stirred in my gut.

Arsonist.  Hello.  How are you?

I tried to picture him.  Was he at home?  Working late?  Or, in a scenario that played out far too often in my mind, on a date?

I’m alright.  Well, to be honest, I feel like I’m going to puke and cry.  Not necessarily in that order.

Och, lass.  Do you need me to come over?

Damn it, this man.  I had done nothing to deserve his unswerving loyalty but mislead him and then disappear for months on end.  And yet here he was, willing to come to my aid on the flimsy pretext of a late night text.  Guilt and tenderness warred for possession of my heart.

That may prove a bit difficult, Jamie.  I’m on a train to England.

There was a long pause, and then a two letter reply.

Oh.

I realized at once that he’d leapt to the wrong conclusion: that I had left Edinburgh for good.  I rushed to correct the error.

I’m taking the second stage of my examination to practice as a NHS doctor tomorrow.   It’s all hands-on situations, and the licensing facility is in Manchester.

Arsonist, that’s wonderful news!  I’m so proud of you.

I blushed, then leaned my heated cheek against the chilled pane of glass.  It had been a rash impulse, but this conversation was exactly what I needed.  I wasn’t alone in this.  Geillis and Jamie were in my corner.

What has your stomach in a twist, then?

What if I’ve forgotten what to do?!  It’s been almost a year since I’ve so much as used a stethoscope, Jamie.  The exam is eighteen real-life situations and you’re given eight minutes to respond to each one.  Not a second longer.  I’m just...  what if I fail?

And there it was.  The kernel of fear that lived at the heart of everything I did.  What if I failed?   What if my best wasn’t good enough?

Claire, listen to me.  You’re a doctor, just as I am a chef.  It wouldn’t matter if I had not set foot in a kitchen in ten years, I would still remember how to cook, and I know that it’s the same for you.  I believe it with everything in me.

On some level, I knew that he was right.  But it still comforted me tremendously to hear it from someone I trusted.

Alright.  That helps.  I should let you get to bed.  Thank you for talking me off my ledge, Jamie.

Anytime, Arsonist.

As I got ready sign off, another text bubble appeared.

Oh, and Claire?  Don’t burn down their wee laboratory, okay? ;-)

I laughed out loud, muting my phone and reclining my seat.  Outside, the stars shone brightly, tiny fires in the firmament to guide me on my way.

***

It was a lovely late spring day, and the retractable doors to the fire station were open to the warm breeze.  I could hear Angus’ voice as he led a cooking demonstration for a group of young women; a bridal shower by the look of their ridiculous costumes.

“Mind the coriander, lass.  Tis a verra powerful aphrodisiac, ken?  I willna be held responsible if ye canna resist my considerable charms after ye eat yon soup.”

There was an outburst of giggles as I rounded the corner and entered the reception area.  Jenny was on the phone.  She halted mid-sentence when she saw me walk in.  I rubbed my hands down the front of my jeans, trying to stay calm.

“He’s in the storeroom, in the back,” Jenny prompted before I could even offer a greeting.  I smiled gratefully, relieved I didn’t have to make small talk.  I had only so much courage stored in reserve, and I didn’t want to use it all up before reaching my destination.

The storeroom was long and narrow, lit by a single naked bulb and girded with shelves.  Jamie stood with his broad back to the door, his curls absorbing the light like amber.  He had a clipboard in one hand, performing some kind of inventory.

“Jes how many lentils dae ye reckon we need, Janet?  There’s nine cans of them here already, and ye have us ordering ten more.”

I’d almost forgotten how much I loved his voice, the undulating grit and silk of it.  I had to remaster the art of speech before I could reply.

“It’s not Jenny.  It’s me.  Claire.”

He froze, and if it weren’t for the sudden rapid flow of his breath I would have assumed he hadn’t heard me.  My nerves got the better of me and I blurted out, “I like lentils.  You should listen to your sister.”

“Claire.”  More sigh than word.  He slowly turned.  It was when our eyes met that I knew nothing had changed for him.  It was still there, after all these months.  That look that told me I was the map to his journey, the focus to his vision, the reason to his why.  

Hopefully he could read that same certainty on my face.

“I passed my exams,” I began.  “I’m a doctor again.”

“Ye never stopped bein’ a doctor.  This jus’ makes it official.”

“I’m still a disaster in the kitchen,” I continued.  “Last week I ruined two saucepans.”

“Tha’s only a tragedy if ye dinna have someone willin’ tae cook fer ye,” he replied with a strange squinting motion I understood was meant to be a wink.

“I’m still learning who I am.  How to be true to the person on the inside,” I confessed.  This is what had kept me away for so long, worried that I would escape from Frank’s orbit just to be caught up in another.  Jamie never once expected my submission, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t offer it out of habit.

“I’ll let ye in on a secret.  Sae is everyone else,” he replied.

Without realizing it, we’d both been moving until we were crowded together amongst the dried herbs and canned goods.  My hand rested against the solid metronome of his heart.  Just one more confession to go.

“I burn for you in a way I’ve never burned for anything before.”

There.  It was said.  A thousand wings of rapture beat against the cage of my ribs, clamoring to break free.  Jamie carefully pushed a loose curl behind my ear before cupping my jaw.

“Wee arsonist.  Come, set my life on fire.”

[ashenpages]

Current Projects & Emoji Voting Key

Quick disclaimer: I’m a romance writer in all aspects of the term, so most of my works will contain mature content. Engage at your own risk, you know the rules, you’re responsible for curating your own experience of the internet, blah blah blah.

This post serves as a current mock up of fic ideas I’m either actively working on or considering working on next. You can drop me an ask about any of them, or just vote via the emoji combo I’ve assigned them.

Voting lets me know you’re excited about an idea and makes it more likely I’ll actually work on it. You can vote anytime, there’re no deadlines or winner announcements, just me gauging your interest by what I see in my ask box most often.

You can also ask me about the original stuff I’m working on currently. The current WIPs are Medusa centric and the emoji for them is: 🐍

Support my original work on Ko-fi and Patreon.

- Lupin: 🤑🤠💍  These are all oneshot ideas, between 5-15K each. If you want to vote for a specific idea, send me the emojis and the number of the idea.

Born from the idea that Goemon and Zenigata probably couldn’t be an item, my brain decided to come up with how I could write for them. Goemon’s teaching an ikebana class as part of his training, and Zenigata shows up as a student on forced recreational leave for his health from the ICPO. Zenigata wins the samurai’s heart through flowers. But what happens when Lupin and Jigen find out? (Only good sexy things, I promise. These beans are in a healthy polycule--be gay, do crimes) (WIP)

Jigen/Lupin, but it's Jigen deciding to seduce Lupin while wearing his own Lupin disguise. The thief is waaaaay too into it, and some artistry is taken with the sex so that they don't mess up the disguise too much during their encoutner.

Jigen/Zenigata/Lupin where Jigen has some fantasices about Zenigata, but is pretty sure they'll never happen. Tells Lupin about them. Suddenly the fantasies are coming true, in the middle of a heist, and Jigen doesn't what to do except get swept up in the moment and enjoy. Plot twist, it's Lupin dressed up as Zenigata granting all his gunman's dreams. Plot twist again, Zenigata catches them at it.

Zenigata/Lupin, where Lupin keeps doing good things in illegal ways and Pops has to find a way to punish him for it. Good thing for Pops Lupin's a masochist?

Trans!Lupin and Trans!Jigen premise: Jigen cares for Lupin after the master thief has top surgery, since Jigen has Been There and Done That. Caring, sweet, and a little sexy. Lupin is a much better patient than Jigen.

The one time Zenigata caught Lupin in an alley and kissed him and it was Jigen in disguise. Things get sexy anyway, and Zenigata has crushes on two thieves now. Lupin and Jigen "kidnap" him later for an evening of taking care of their inspector.

The background plot of Jigen's Gravestone where we see Jigen think he's done for and try to leave Lupin. Our thief has none of it, and we get to relish in the inherent eroticism of Lupin sitting in sniper fire, knowing Jigen's got his back. This is the moment I think Jigen finally believes he can be with Lupin forever.

I love the idea of something longer and more plot driven like a Lupin special where Lupin ends up in hot water and Jigen and Fujiko have to work together to save him. Jigen and Fujiko have such an interesting relationship. They're both partners of Lupin, they don't really like each other, they constantly screw the other over, but when it really matters they take care of each other. I'd like to see that highlighted a little more and also give them space to call each other out and bicker. Nothing sexy between them, but maybe a really interesting threesome with Lupin and Fujiko in a strap on once they save their boy.

- Sonic Vampire Novelist Coffee Shop AU: 📚☕💐

Shadow is an immortal vampire who has seen the world change for the worse too many times. These days it feels like he only lives for his coffee dates with Rouge, another immortal who loves each new era they encounter, warts and all. He has to admit that the book series she got him into speaks to him, at least. If someone in this era can understand him without meeting him, it can’t all be bad. But he hardly expected the goofy blue barista at the new coffee place to understand him the way those books do.

This is a novel length romcom romp with some big feelings about what it means to watch as things change, grow, and die. Expect lots of Big gothic feelings from this one, emotionally charged kissing, and overly-adoring sex. But also expect shenanigans from everyone in the coffee shop, which include Rouge, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and more.

- Sonic Blazamy, "Like the Sun": 💖🌸💎

Amy Rose has been in love with Sonic for a while.

Or has she?

When the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver are trapped as the fuel sources for Doctor Eggman’s newest evil scheme, Amy teams up with Blaze, Rouge, and Cream to save them. With Sonic out of the picture and Amy fulfilling his role, was she ever really in love with him? Or did she just want to be like him?

This is a novel length epic romance with lots of competent women and lots of romantic Blazamy content. Expect flowery hopes and dreams, badass self-actualization, and glancing hand touches that give way to cuddly and sweet sex.

- Persona 5: 🗡🍛☕

After bringing down the Metaverse twice, Ryuji didn’t think graduating high school and figuring out what to do with his life would be so hard. Akira’s back in town, and the gang’s more-or-less all in Tokyo, but everyone else seems to have a plan while Ryuji just floats. How’s he supposed to change the world when he’s not a phantom thief anymore?

This is a novel length fic that addresses how powerless one can feel being just one person in the face of all the corrupted systems and bigotry the world has to offer. It’s about holding on to what you believe in, working through the doubt, and fighting your way to a better tomorrow with the power you do have. The whole gang is queer, featured relationships being Mako x Ann, Ryuji x Akira, Futaba & Yusuke as platonic life partners. Akira is polyamorous and omnisexual, Futaba’s asexual and aromantic while Yusuke is demisexual and very romantic, Makoto’s a lesbian, Ann and Ryuji are bi, and Haru’s pansexual, demisexual, and aromantic. They’re one giant band of queer Phantom Thieves, and even if they’re not really doing the Metaverse thing anymore, they’re still gonna save the world!

Also, I’m gonna make Makoto not a cop. That super didn’t age well. Zenkichi and his boss can work on making them better/abolishing them for other better organizations.

- Hades Game: ❤️‍🔥💀

Oneshot. I just really need to elaborate on the threesome you can have with them in-game, okay? Healthy and canon poly relationships are so few and far between, so often I have to do a ton of groundwork to explain why it’s working in the fic, but NOT WITH THESE KIDS!

Get ready for Meg helping Zag and Than be better at expressing their feelings, lots of kissing, and probably pegging.

- Castlevania Animation Trevor/Sypha/Alucard: 🧛🏰🛌

Castlevania gave Alucard a threesome last season, and I just really need S4 to give me him being taken care of by his partners. They’re probably not going to give it to me, so I’ll need to do it myself. This is just an everybody loves Alucard oneshot, with the gang’s signature banter (to an extent), Sypha being sexy, and Trever being remarkably sincere. This fic is gonna feel like that Ann Hathaway picture with Trevor kissing Alucard and Sypha holding the end of Trevor’s whip while she leans her head on Alucard’s shoulder adoringly.

- Devil May Cry Nico/Lady/Trish: 💋✨😈

Nico’s gay, okay? Like really, really gay. And Lady’s bi and not into men who make her pay bills, but very into women who make amazing guns for her and demonesses with hearts who fight by her side. Trish is ace, but loves people and is pretty attached to Lady at this point. Plus it’s cute when Lady blushes and says nice things like they’re insults. I don’t have super solid ideas for them yet, and I envision these more like a polycule where Lady’s with Nico and with Trish but they’re not with each other more than seeing it as a threesome, but who knows what might happen. This is probably 1-2 oneshots depending on ideas, but might turn into a series of oneshots if people are interested (or I can’t control myself and inspiration strikes).

- Post FMA:B Blind Roy & No Alchemy Ed: 👀👑🙏

This is actually an old novel-length fic I wrote ages ago and didn’t post that didn’t turn out well because I was new to writing sex when I first wrote it. The plot is good, and is all about Roy learning to work with his blindness to reclaim his ambition of being Fuhrer and changing the system to something that actually cares for its people. He and Ed reconnect, fall into bed, and both set about working through their respective traumas about being “useless” having lost their sight/alchemy. They go to Xing as an ambassadorial party to offer Amestris’s collaboration on Al and May’s Alkahestry experiments--and uncover a plot that might threaten both kingdoms.

- Age of Calamity continuity Mipha x Revali: 🦚🐟💘

The first time Revali noticed Mipha, it was in the heat of battle. She stole his mark, taking them down with a flurry of quick blows from her spear. Violence rained from her like water--and then she healed him on her way to her next battle. No questions, no conditions, just pure kindness. The usual need to measure himself against those around him was quiet in her wake. And Revali couldn’t understand it. But how to get to know more about her? A fish and bird may fall in love, but where would they live?

This fic could be a oneshot or novel length depending on how far down the hole I fall. I need it to cover time, but it could be done in linked vignettes or with actually covering events in detail. I may elect to do a oneshot just to get it done and out of my system faster. So much fic to write, so little time.

Expect trans!Revali, polyamorous Zoras, scary competent Mipha, songbird Revali, love confessions that are made up entirely of berating Link for not loving Mipha the way she wants him to, and breaking these characters a little outside of their assigned roles in BotW and Age of Calamity. Background Link x Zelda, and Urbosa x Zelda’s Mom.

- Epic desert romance about Urbosa and Zelda’s mom: 🏜🏝⚡

I just think Urbosa should kiss women and Zelda’s mom should get more development and maybe a name or something. Also, lightning imagery/metaphors/play.

It also went way over my head that Riju wasn’t Urbosa’s daughter the first time I played BotW, so now I want to write about the Gerudo queen who refused to produce an heir. The Gerudo are fascinating and have a very interesting cutlure, but I think it could be examined from a nonbinary perspective that rejected pregnancy and wanting to find a husband. Not in like a hateful way, but in a way that examines if that’s really right for everyone. There’s that shop in town that sells Voe armor, after all. Maybe finding a husband and having children isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to. And Urbosa really doesn’t want to.

[meggannn]

shepard/garrus?

oh boy, sorry for the late response! I always end up posting these things and then going to read/take a nap/play a game or something. anyway writing this up took two hours, i hope it is even slightly interesting to read. cut because this is looooooong

What made you ship it?

I think I was interested in this ship before I even played ME. I was just like “I know Shepard is a character and an alien named Garrus is a character, and people draw porn of them together.” because I think it’s reasonable to say it’s one of, if not the most, popular ship in the fandom, or at least in ME’s tumblr fandom? and the way people talked about it, I knew their tropes were #banter, #battle couple, #partnerships, and... and as we’ve learned from royai, I am a bit weak to those tropes (assuming I like both of the characters). the way people talked about them also from a “best friends” angle—which is sort of forced in-game in a way that seems strange to me now—was also a plus in its favor at the time. (if they get together, I do see their friendship/companionship, in whatever form, in some ways integral to their romance—unless you’re playing full far-right renegade who’s like a xenophobe and hate-fucking Garrus, I guess?—but Bioware also kind of shoehorned Garrus into that best-friend role and that’s a topic for another day.)

What are your favorite things about the ship?

(my friend will hit me if I say “partnerships” again) I’m gonna talk about the way I play my Shepard now, because so much is dependent on the unique Shepard. for Lydia’s journey over the series, I see a large part of her journey as basically a study of her (often self-inflicted) loneliness. and she never entirely breaks her habits of self-isolation, but the events of the series force her to be vulnerable in a way she would prefer not to be in front of a crew, or, y’know, ever. Garrus becomes an integral part of that story to help her break her out of these bad habits (all of the crew does, particularly also Ashley for my Shep), but to my eyes, the story of “Shepard and Garrus’s relationship” is also one of mutual respect, burden-sharing, and sanity and morality checks.

I don’t think of their “mentor” relationship in ME1 very often mostly because I don’t think it was done particularly well, but for all its faults, I do like how naturally the jump from “subordinate” in ME1 to “ally” in ME2 felt; once you meet Garrus on Omega you feel more on the same footing as two friends greeting each other because you’ve both recently been through trauma and the sight of a friendly face in a station full of hostiles is so unexpectedly welcome that it lets them both hope things will be okay for a minute. starting from that moment, Garrus becomes one of the few people who can see “under” her mask, I guess: partly because he’s one of the few combatants from the SR-1 who knows Shepard well and sees who she is both on the field and onboard the SR-2, with the ability to compare both to the times of “before you died”; partly because he has trauma response training and recognizes it in others even if he doesn’t in himself; partly because his loyal personality makes him sensitive to wonder how she’s dealing with being resurrected; and also partly because they’ve both gone through similar things. namely, getting your squad killed and blaming yourself for it, and it possibly being your fault (BioWare is inconsistent on what Shepard’s role was on Akuze, but in ME1 she has the chance to reply that she was responsible for getting them out safely, and failed).

necessity forces Shepard to adapt to things like being effectively forced to work for terrorists; being isolated from her support system; being resurrected and feeling like a stranger in her own body; later, getting decommissioned for making an incredibly difficult call to save the galaxy; watching your homeworld burn; being forced into a political role negotiating high stakes you don’t know how to play; being told you’re the spearhead of a galactic war; doing all of this without a full crew complement; the list goes on. those are all, on their own, incredibly isolating, traumatic experiences, and my Shepard’s not emotionally sane at the best of times. (emotionally stable, perhaps, only in the most literal of terms, at least on the surface. she’s like a rock when shit hits the fan. emotionally sane, no, for that reason and more.)

the tables have turned, and Garrus ends up becoming a large part of helping her regain agency in most if not all of those things: in ME2 he was a former crew member she trusted, and he was eager to work for her and be distracted from his failures on Omega. over in the battery, he is himself recovering from a major injury (like Shepard) and going through the aftermath of a bloodbath he feels responsible for (like Shepard), working on a crew that holds him at arm’s length, that he also... arguably... didn’t have much choice in joining (like Shepard—I’m assuming he wasn’t held hostage and joined voluntarily after waking up, but lbr this is unconfirmed). their reasons are different and varied, but they don’t realize until much later that they have found each other at the most opportune time, providing a sense of stability for each other, and also, frankly, sanity and morality checks.

in ME3, he steps into this role more fully because he’s become more disciplined, is doing work firmly in his wheelhouse, and paired up against Shepard struggling with their positions somewhat reversed from ME1: him more confident and her now completely out of her element, floundering with her place on a galactic scale. without Garrus—and Chakwas, and Joker, and Tali, and later the loyalty of the entire SR-2—the story of ME would be a tragedy, and it would end shortly in ME2; it’d be the story of how my Shepard slowly went insane being forced to fight boogeymen under a terrorist banner. Garrus isn’t, like, the keeper of her sanity, but their ability to check each other, and see themselves in the eyes of each other, provides stability and occasionally a bit of a wake-up call to both of them. when they’re both vulnerable, they both feel most seen, and most understood, by an alien that listens.

one angle of this ship that highly interests me at the moment, along with the above, is that while it’s not illegal for them to be together, it’s still... a really bad fucking idea lmao. (I could make the argument that it’s a bad idea for Shepard to be in any relationship with their crew but I think there are a few ships—Garrus, Tali, any Alliance crew at all—that realistically would be huge political clusterfucks.) so overcoming personal insecurity and fear of the unknown to acknowledge interest in each other, and the desire to become an item, getting roadblocked by a reality wake-up call with the fact that 1) she’s his boss, 2) Garrus comes from a society where station matters, like, sort of a lot and it even determines your job and how much legal power you have, 3) the potential political blowback (which would be ENORMOUS because lbr the hierarchy may not care about what turians do in off-hours but they WOULD care about the superior/subordinate thing, the human thing, the fact that they’re doing this while a war is going on. basically one of their best agents is on the Normandy to negotiate their interests and they’re basically at the whims of their relationship the whole time)... it’s a lot! all of that sort of makes it tragic, but I’m curious to see how they’d overcome it.

anyway, all of that is where I’m coming from when I think or write about this ship, but there’s a lot more I’m not mentioning here. there are a lot of juxtapositions that in my head that I’ve either added or extrapolated from canon that also interest me about this pairing. Garrus is a former cop, as is his father; Lydia is a poor kid who used to be in a gang out of necessity. Garrus is a turian with often traditionalist thinking; Shepard is a human who has much less sociopolitical power than him, even if she is his superior on the Normandy. both of them are roughly as old as the First Contact War, when their people were at each other’s throats not thirty years ago. Garrus idolizes Spectrehood while Lydia hates it, feeling it was forced on her. they can’t eat the same food. and yet despite all of that, and the fact that they need translators to communicate, they manage to understand each other when a lot of the world around them doesn’t.

god this is not even the full list of it. anyway I could go on but I’ll stop there lol.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

oh jesus, so much. I’m a grouchy and picky shipper, be warned.

pining can always make my ships more interesting, and imo it’s a consistent part of any ship of Shepard’s, considering it’s wildly inappropriate and unprofessional for her to be fucking any subordinate, so I think more consideration could be given to shakarian in the “we shouldn’t be having a thing and oh also you’re an alien and I’m kind of scared of both your government and your body” angle! I hope to explore that a bit with a fic I’m writing (if I ever finish it, god).

I hate the flavor of fandom!shakarian where Shepard romanced Kaidan in ME1 then felt “betrayed” when he’s confused and hurt on Horizon, so she gets with Garrus as like... revenge? idk. and then Garrus usually develops this bias against Kaidan as a sort of author mouthpiece (which is inconsistent with his characterization cause Garrus is nothing but pleased to have Kaidan back on the SR-2 in ME3!) and takes up the anti-Kaidan crusade cause K ~questioned the commander~ (since when does Garrus fall over himself defending a superior from criticism?) like, idk. I think Garrus can be sensitive to the fact that that reuniting must’ve been painful for Shepard, but also be aware that it was also really painful for Kaidan because all of Kaidan’s complicated feelings about Shepard’s resurrection were, realistically, things Garrus should’ve felt too! this trope is very popular but just feels like manufactured drama for drama’s sake, idk, I’m also not big on love triangles so. I would much rather people just rescue Ashley on Virmire and avoid the whole thing rather than have previously-romanced Kaidan around in ME3 for the sole purpose of forcing him to watch Shepard/Garrus being happy together tbh.

I think full goody-goody paragon Shepard is too preachy to make a good partner for Garrus and full shoot-anyone-in-my-way renegade Shepard encourages and emboldens his worst tendencies (and Castis Vakarian is right to disapprove of them). most people end up playing some combination of both, or if they do settle in one camp or the other, usually there is some sense of realism where Shepard doesn’t play nice/naive or play mean all the time, so it’s rare I see either of those kinds of extreme Shepards depicted, but in general if there is a Shepard that is so far in one direction it seems illogical to me that they ever stay together.

I think wanting a mShep romance for Garrus is a pretty welcome idea in fandom, but adding onto that, I think Garrus should’ve been romanceable in ME3 for players who changed their minds on other romances or want to play slow-burn romances! we had it for Kaidan—and should’ve had it for Ash—so (pounds fist on desk) Garrus too imo!

I hate the canon get-together because Shepard walking into the battery and asking “do you want to fuck” feels very tailored to the players who want to romance Garrus, not to who Commander Shepard is, imo. it lacked all of the subtlety and depth of some other romances—until the scene of Garrus coming to her cabin with a wine bottle, at least, cause I do like that scene, but anyway, I dislike the actual get-together.

just in general, I’m a stick in the mud, so my favorite iteration of this ship is where Shepard is resolutely professional, and the challenge of it becomes him getting her to open up, not the other way around. like, I think on some level every iteration of Shepard is a bit of a lunatic/eccentric, because you have to be to do the things they do, but I like to see their flirting with less of her calling him “big guy” (not sure where that came from, is that in canon? I must’ve missed it, but personally I don’t like it) and more of Garrus making wisecracks in the canteen while he’s talking to Joker, but he’s looking at her out of the corner of his eyes and he really said his joke with the aim of making her laugh, and as she’s reading her datapad she hears him, and even when she wants to chuckle she stops himself and just smirks cause she doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a laugh, but he sees her lips twitch and feels his heart flutter. that. I want more of that.

oh lastly, I hate “Shepard takes Vakarian clan markings” in any iteration. there is no canon relation to turians being poc—in fact I’d argue they have sociopolitical privilege real-world bipoc do not—but the concept of social face markings, face tattoos, etc., is rooted in non-white cultures and with the fact that 1) turians had a literal civil war over the territories those markings represent, 2) we don’t even know if marriage is how markings are shared or if non-turians are ever invited to wear them in the first place, 3) most of the art of this trend, lbr, is of mostly white Shepards in wedding dresses and blue face paint... all that combined just makes me frown and scroll faster every time I see it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bipoc Shepard with Vakarian face markings in fic/art, and that to me is very telling (not because they should have them, but because bipoc fans who make bipoc Shepards usually recognize when a racially-coded trope is uhhhhh not so great to appropriate for someone not of that group).

[chibinekochan]

How to become a Demon Ruler 207

Part: 00 I 01 I 02 I 03 I 04 I 05 I 06  I  

Gender Neutral Reader insert

taglist:  @ayesha95  ;  @nomnomcupcakesworld ;  @fex-phoenix ; @depressed-bixch ;   @kitsune-oji  ;  @witch-o-memes ; @gallantys ,@tanspostsblog  ; @undertaker-02 ,

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

My classes are finally done for the day and I'm more than ready to go home.

  I spot Beel, he carries Belphie on his back.

  "Is he alright?" I worry that he got hurt somehow. 

"He is just sleeping, happens all the time." Beel smiles lightly. "Are you done for the day?" 

"Yeah, I was just about to head home. What about you?" I feel relieved that nothing bad happened at least. 

"Same, want to go together?" Beel offers with a big smile. 

"Of course." It's definitely better than going alone. 

We start walking at a casual speed. 

"You and Belphie must be super close." It seems unusual to carry a sibling home at least. 

"We are twins so it's natural," Beel explains. 

"Ah, that explains it. I just didn't think of that, since you two look so different." It's a bit strange at least. 

"We were just born at the same time. You see we are all brothers by choice." Beel says this with a big smile. He must really love his bro

I can only smile at this. "That is very awesome. I'm kinda jealous of that." I admit a bit shyly. 

"You, Diavolo and Barbatos seem to have a good bond too. It will only get stronger. By the way, if you run into any issues you can always come to me or any of my brothers. I know they can sometimes be trouble but they would always support people they care about." Beel is serious about this. 

It fills me with warmth."I hope they will care about me soon then and I kinda feel like I belong here already thanks to all of you. It might be a bit early but I'd like to see you all as my friends someday." It's a nice goal to have at least. 

"Sounds good to me." He smiles, but then his stomach rumbles. "Oh, do you mind stopping by a bakery quickly?" He looks guilty at me. 

"I don't mind. I'm getting hungry myself." I have to admit that school drained all of my energy. 

"I'll get you something too then." Beel offers this very nicely to me. 

"Better not. I'm getting fat anyway at this rate." I admit with a low voice. 

"Fat? Were?" He narrows his eyes at me. "Well, if it bothers you you can train with me. I do that too since I don't want to gain too much weight either plus I enjoy the exercise." Beel has a good idea, but there is one issue. 

"I don't think I'd be able to keep up with you at all." I sigh, remembering my training with Barbatos.

"Hmm true, humans are fragile apparently. In that case, I will go easy on you. Just stretches and a few rounds around the house of lamentation and some light exercises for the start." Beel seems to have made a plan already. 

"Let's start with one round and tone down whatever your definition of 'light exercises' way down." I can only shudder at the thought of repeating my experience. 

Beel shrugs. "Alright, it's a plan then. I'll buy you something."

  He heads into the store and comes out with a bag filled to the brim. He hands me a small bag with two items.

  "Can you keep one for Belphie? I usually just end up eating his food too." He admits sheepishly. 

"Of course. No problem." Both items seem to be the same. It looks a bit like a croissant with chocolate and berries.

I take a curious bite. It's sweet and very juicy while also somehow not dripping. "Wow, this is amazing." I can't hide my enjoyment.

  Beel nods while stuffing his mouth. 

When his mouth is empty again, he starts speaking again. "I'm glad you enjoy it."

At that moment, Belphie wakes up. "Hm? Oh, is class over? Thanks for carrying me, Beel." He smiles sleepily. 

"No problem. I got us all a snack. Do you want to walk the rest?" Beel let's Belphie down. 

"Hm? You haven't eaten everything yet?" Belphie yawns and stretches. 

"No, I gave yours to them." Beel smiles at me. 

"Here you go." I hold out the tasty treat for Belphie. 

He takes it. "Thank you both." Belphie smiles mostly at Beel, but that's okay for me. 

"It's very good. Is it one of your favorites, Belphie?" I can imagine that Beel would buy that for his brother. 

"Nope, never even seen this." He bites into the treat. 

"It is brand new and I wanted you two to have it." Beel smiles sheepishly. 

"It's good. Good choice, Beel." Belphie seems pleased enough. "What did you two talk about when I slept?" He looks at Beel. 

"We made plans to train together," Beel replies calmly. 

"Hahaha, good luck with that. I might come to watch that." Belphie finds this very amusing. 

"Just wait and see." I feel strangely motivated by his comment. 

Belphie just shrugs. "Suit yourself."

  We soon arrive at the house of lamentation. We say our goodbyes and I quickly make my way back home.

  I laugh at the thought that the big castle is now my home. It's a nice feeling. I wonder if anyone is home yet?

  Then I see Barbatos waving at me with a smile. My heart jumps with happiness. 

It's been only a few hours since I saw him but I realize that I missed him. 

"How was your first day?" He greets me in a friendly manner. 

"It was pretty good. I even managed to get access to Diavolos power but sadly I set a table on fire. Overall it was a lot better than expected." I figure it's best to be straightforward with my mistake.  There is a good chance that Barbatos knows already anyway. 

Barbatos raises his eyebrows, and this information surprises him after all. " Are you unharmed? " He sounds very worried. 

"I'm fine, it was just pretty surprising. I need to train to control that better. I still have no idea how to access my power yet either, but the other human exchange student is some wizard and he will help me." I shrug and share more news with Barbatos. 

He smiles at me. "I'm glad you are alright and you speak of Solomon, I assume?"

"Yeah, do you know him?" This is pretty interesting to me. 

"Indeed, as a matter of fact, I have a pact with him." Barbatos' face doesn't move. 

It's hard to tell what he feels sometimes. 

I know what I feel at least, jealousy. It's not a nice feeling for sure. I have no clue why I'd even be jealous of that? 

"Is there anything troubling you master?" He looks at me. 

"I'm just kinda tired." I turn away from his gaze, fearing that he somehow can peer straight into my heart. I'm truly stupid for feeling this way. Not only does Barbatos only see me as his master but it's just a pact. It's not like they are dating.

I sigh deeply. 

"Let's head inside then. I have coffee and strong tea that will wake you right back up." Barbatos politely smiles, seemingly unaware of my inner turmoil. 

I'm thankful for that though, I don't like my ugly feelings right now.

  He serves me some hot coffee. I drink it slowly, enjoying the quiet moment after my hectic school day.

  I tell Barbatos about the rest of my day. He listens calmly and seems very pleased.

  "For the rest of today, you can take off. It would be pointless if you would exhaust yourself." Barbatos is still concerned. 

"I'm fine. I want to train a little bit at least. Solomon said I should train with fire or another strong force. I think I will stick to something less dangerous though. Any ideas?" The fire incident is still fresh on my mind. 

Barbatos sighs lightly, then he thinks for a moment. "There is a waterfall in the far back of the estate. It's far enough away if any flooding should occur."

I sweat lightly at the implication. "Sounds great."

"I shall show you the way but promise me to only train for an hour and then take at least a break." Barbatos knows me too well at this point. 

"Thank you. Let me just quickly redress and it will only be for an hour. I have to text Beel anyway regarding our training." I don't plan to exhaust myself. 

"You certainly are getting along well with the brothers. I need to keep an eye on that." Barbatos looks troubled. 

"They are pretty nice and I'm glad to make friends." It's been a long time since I could call anyone my friend, it's a nice feeling to be so accepted. 

"I don't mind you making friends of course. Though it troubles me a bit knowing that you will spend less time at home." Barbatos' words surprise me. 

"Are you feeling lonely?" I say with a teasing smile. 

Barbatos' eyes widen for a split second. "I guess I do…" He looks like he just realized that. "I might have gotten too used to you being around all the time." He admits with a bashful smile. This is a very rare moment. I try to burn it into my memory. 

"Aww, I missed you too," I admit, feeling a bit bashful myself. 

Barbatos smiles unusually softly. "I'm glad we are on the same page about that." There seems to be so much more he wants to say but simply decides to keep quiet.

  I leave him be and quickly run to redress. My outfit is perfect for training and getting a bit wet.

  "I'm ready." I almost run into the waiting Barbatos, who is tending to the flowers in the garden. 

"You are certainly filled with energy. Must be nice." He looks at me with a slightly teasing smile. 

I pout at him. "Are you going to show me that waterfall now?" 

Barbatos gives me a slight smirk. "Of course, follow after me."

  Barbatos leads me through the vast garden, it's even bigger than I assumed. 

I keep an eye on the path, not wanting to repeat the time I fell into Diavolo’s arms. Well, it's not like that was bad, but I shudder thinking what would've happened if I'd fallen into the rose bush. 

It's a bit hard since all of the plants just look so interesting to me.

  Barbatos keeps a close eye on each of my movements, which motivates me to not get distracted from walking. 

Finally, we reach the waterfall. It looks man, or better said, demon-made. It's pretty impressive regardless.

  "I never thought someone would build a waterfall this big in their backyard." I stare at it in awe. 

"It's one of the many projects that the young master build for fun. At least it has some use now for you." Barbatos frowns lightly. 

"Does Diavolo often build random things?" He doesn't seem the type, but then again he kinda does. 

"He sometimes just acts a bit on a whim. It's not necessarily a bad thing but sometimes it can become a burden. Like when he wanted to create a beach. That was quite a hassle." Barbatos sighs. 

I giggle imagining that. "Doesn't the devildom have beaches?" 

"We do, but we have a lava ocean. He wanted to experience a human beach." Barbatos seems slightly troubled.

"A human beach? That sounds like fun. I wonder if I'll ever get to see one again." I remember a vacation that I spent at the ocean. I somehow feel nostalgic.

"Maybe we can arrange something." Barbatos smiles mysteriously at me.

  I don't doubt that Barbatos would create an ocean just for me if I'd order him to do so. Even when it seems like a ridiculous idea it makes me smile. 

Barbatos looks at me with curious eyes but doesn't ask. 

I settle on the side of the river flowing from the waterfall.

  Barbatos seems to be thinking for a moment and then nods. "This is far enough away, but be careful or you might slip." 

"Don't worry, I'll just stay here." It's pretty comfortable on the grass here anyway." I get into a more comfortable pose. 

Barbatos still seems a bit reluctant to leave. " Sadly I have duties to attend to but you just need to yell and I will be right there." He seems to mostly assure himself. 

"I will do that." I agree, even if it's mostly to assure him.

  Barbatos seems to accept this and leaves me alone. 

[lcvelymxnifest]

FT: Jadyn Lewis 

Damiar had just gotten off of work at the shelter and decided to head to the closest cafe to get a coffee and a something to snack on before he met with one of his clients for a dog training session. He’d taken a seat at one of the corner tables after ordering his items, sticking an earbud in to listen to music as he scrolled through his phone to check anything he may have missed from being at work. Dami used this time to reply to a text from Fi as well as respond to a few training requests. Anything he could do while he waited for his order to be finished.

Only a few minutes passed before he heard his number called by the worked behind the counter. Taking his earbud out of his ear, he tossed it onto the table and stood up, his gaze going over to the counter as he was about to start his way over. Before he could take a step though, his breath got caught in his throat as he saw a familiar face. A face that he hadn’t seen in almost seven years, a face that was supposed to be dead. His first thought was to grab his stuff and make a break for it, cause apparently he was going crazy. His legs wouldn’t move though, he couldn’t find any words to say and he didn’t even realize that his number was being called once again.

The younger boy was standing there, maybe ordering some food, he wasn’t sure. All he knew is he wanted to get the hell out of there before- shit. The other had turned his gaze towards Damiar after the worker behind the counter pointed him out. Too late. “Dami, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Jadyn spoke in clear French before clearing his throat as he noticed the look he was getting from Damiar. “Apologies, I’m not quite used to speaking in-”

“What the fuck is going on?” Dami questioned, cutting the other off, his hands balling into fists and his voice shaky. He tried not to sound surprised, to sound scared, but how could he not? He was seeing a damn ghost. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Damiar could see Jadyn flinch at his words, which did make Damiar feel a little guilty, but he wasn’t going to just believer his was happening. “It’s me, Dami. It’s Jadyn.” They spoke as if trying to talk to someone who had forgotten him. “I know this is kind of sudden, but I had to find you.”

Damiar shook his head, trying to hold back tears that were now forming in his eyes. He wasn’t sad, or at least he wasn’t going to admit he was. It was anger that was filling him right now. “No, Jadyn is dead. So who the hell are you? Some damn twin he didn’t know about? Some asshole trying to pull some cruel joke?”

“Dami, I swear it’s me.” Jadyn swore to him, but it didn’t change anything. It didn’t change the fact that Damiar knew Jadyn was dead, he had to be. Why else would they not have told him? “I’m not dead, I’m fine. I just-”

“Stop!” Damiar scolded him, sure he was getting plenty of stares from the others in the cafe, but he didn’t care. Damiar wasn’t one to get mad easily, but this was different. Jadyn had been his best friend, a brother practically and he loved him, but he was dead. Or at least that’s what Damiar had been told. “Jadyn died in a fire five years ago, he’s not alive and he sure in the hell isn’t you. Unless… unless I’m actually going crazy and seeing ghosts now.” Damiar said, his anger turning to fear for a moment as he fell back into his seat.

“The orphanage fire?” Jadyn questioned, as if he was reading from a script of some sort. “I was hurt, badly. The doctors didn’t think I was going to make it. I was on life support for weeks, but I’m fine. I’m here, and I want my big brother back.”

Damiar remembered the call like it was just last week. He’d been finishing up his first week at the shelter as a volunteer when he got the call from the head of the orphanage, explaining the fire that had happened. She’d said that all of the kids had made it out fine aside from a few burns. Except one, Jadyn. He’d ran back in to save one of the younger kids who hadn’t made it back out yet and in the process ended up getting himself hurt. He’d inhaled so much smoke and got severely burned. The hospital had told them there was a slim chance he’d make it, but they’d keep him updated. Damiar never heard from any of them ever again. He’d taken the next couples weeks off work, not able to be around many people. He’d talked to Fi about it, but she had been the only one he was really able to talk to. After no calls, no letters, it had come time for Damiar to assume that Jadyn hadn’t made it, but everyone from France was too scared to tell Damiar. He’d been closest with Jadyn out of everyone there. “You’re…you’re dead.” Damiar said after a minute of silence. If he had lived, someone would have called him, he would have called him. Let Dami know that Jadyn was okay again.

Jadyn was silent for a moment, probably thinking over some way he could convince Damiar this was all true. Why would Jadyn keep this from him so long? His own best friend. “I’m sorry, I should have told you sooner. I know. I’m not dead though, it’s me. In the flesh and if you’ll let me, I want to talk to you about-”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Damiar snapped, his gaze finally returning to Jadyn and while his eyes were filled with tears, it was very clear how angry he was. “If you’re really here, if you’re really not dead. I’m not imagining all of this, then that means you hid from me for five years.” Damiar said, his voice filled with anger as his hands gripped the table tightly. “You made me think you were dead for five whole years, Jadyn!” Over Jadyns shoulder, Dami could see the manager staring them down. Grabbing his things off the table, he shoved his phone into his pocket. “I’m not doing this.” He stated before turning to walk out of the cafe.

“Damiar, wait. Please,” Jadyn protested, starting to walk after him. Damiar turned on his heels to look back at him with a glare. “No, Jadyn. I won’t, I cannot deal with this, with you right now. You can’t just expect to throw all of this in my face and except me to be ready to talk to you, or even forgive you. Just… leave me alone.” He said the last part quietly before turning away from the younger boy and leaving the cafe, shoving the earbud back into his ear as he wiped the tears away with his other hand.

A FEW DAYS LATER

Damiar let out a heavy sigh as he leaned against one of the trees at the bottom of the trail. He’d joined the nature therapy class a while ago, but never had he actually needed it this bad. With the ghost of his best friend showing up in town, he had become over stressed, and he was hoping a hike with the group would be of some help. However, he wasn’t expecting to said ghost show up to the class as well. Was he following him? Trying to piss him off? Just ignore him. He’s not there, he told himself.

Pushing himself away from the tree as the group began to walk, he made sure to get himself as far away from Jadyn as he could, hoping he wouldn’t even notice him and he could enjoy the hike peacefully. Why would the universe be that kind to him though? “Damiar,” the younger boy sighed out as he stepped in line with Dami. “Please, I know you’re probably still upset, but can we please just talk? You don’t even have to respond, just let me explain.”

“I told you, I’m not ready to talk to you.” Damiar said, trying to keep his voice calm. He didn’t want to cause a scene like he had the other day, he was pretty sure he’d never had the guts to return to that cafe, at least not without like a ten page apology. “But you can tell me why the hell you’re here. Did you know I’d be on this hike?” Maybe asking wasn’t a good question, it would make Jadyn think he was ready to have some sort of conversation with him, but he wasn’t.

“No, I didn’t. Well, at least, not until I saw you earlier.” Jadyn admitted to him. “I heard there was a hike today and I’ve always loved hiking so I thought I could use this as a chance to see more of town. Plus maybe make some friends.”

Damiar pressed his lips together at the last part, taking in a breath. “Why do you need to make friends? Aren’t you going back to Paris? Surely you’re not staying here.” If this was some long game plan to get Dami to talk to him, it wasn’t going to work. Damiar would go six more years if he had to without talking to Jadyn, just to show him how much this really hurt him. Or at least he told himself he would.

“Actually, yeah. I was planning on staying.” The younger boy admitted after a moment of silence. Just great, as if Dami needed to see more of Jadyns face around town to remind him of all of this. “I’ve been out of the orphanage for a few years, I thought I needed a change of scenery. Uh, and not to make things even more awkward, but I’m actually staying with your parents. Just until I find a place.”

“You what?!” Damiar stopped walking, turning to Jadyn in disbelief. No way either of his moms actually offered to let him stay there, right? Sure Jadyn had been his best friend, but he’d been lying to him, to all of them for five years. Why would they go behind his back and let Jadyn stay with them? “You’re staying with my parents?”

“Uh, yeah. I got in contact with them before I came, they were kind of upset with me for everything,” Jadyn said quietly. Well, duh, you hurt their son Dami wanted to smart off, but held his tongue. “but once I explained everything and told them I was looking for a place to stay, they offered. Said you were living with some friends so they had a spare room.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Damiar said with a laugh, though it wasn’t a good laugh at all. This was just pissing him off more by the second. First his old friend comes back from the dead -when he wasn’t really dead in the first place- and now he’s being told that he’s been staying with Dami’s moms this whole time? This sounded like the beginning of a nightmare.

“Dami, look, I just-” Jadyn began but he was quickly cut off by Damiar once again. “No, just stop talking. I’m here because I want to relax, I want to not be stressed out by whatever all of this nonsense is. So please, do me a damn favor and go talk to someone else, Jadyn. Literally anyone else that’s not me.” With that, Damiar turned away from him and walked the other way, moving to the back of the group and hopefully away from the other.

“Y-Yeah, okay. Fine, I’ll just go talk to.. that girl over there.” Jadyn faltered over his words, Dami was sure he wanted to talk to him, but he was in no way ready to talk to him yet. Even less so than he had been back at the cafe. Once he turned back around to start walking again, he was sort of relieved to see Jadyn had actually made his way over to someone else. Maybe Dami did want him to make friends, it would mean less time for him to try and ‘explain’ himself and more time for Dami to actually figure out what he should do about all of this.

[swimyghost]

Roses

Hey, I’m super tired but here’s a (possibly) non-canon story about @self-insert-nonsense‘s MHA OC’s mother, Sonaka. I really hope you enjoy.

---

She had double- no, triple checked everything. Every important item was wrapped and placed carefully into one of the two suitcases the sat on her bed. Sonaka knew if she carried any more people would get suspicious.

As if a gray-skinned woman and her equally pale child wouldn't arise suspicion.

"Mama?"

Sonaka perked up at that sound. She turned her head and saw her little girl innocently glancing up at her. Although she was visibly struggling to carry her suitcase, Sonaka's pride and joy wasn't going to let a minor inconvenience get in the way of impressing her mother. Sonaka bent down to her daughter's level.

"Nusuma, are you sure everything is packed?"

"Yes, Mama!" 

Sonaka frowned. "Are you sure? We can't come back once we leave."

Sonaka watched as Nusuma's face scrunched up into as close to serious as a six-year-old could get. "I'm sure!"

Sonaka chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Alright, let's get moving, shall we? The train will-"

A knock at the door set Sonaka into a panic. No one knocked on her door unless it was... Them.

Sonaka frantically shoved her suitcases under her bed before thrusting Nusuma out, slamming the door shut behind her. Nusuma watched with a curious gaze as her mother paced her newly barren apartment. 

"Mama?" She called, growing weary at the sight of her mother's panic.

"M-Mama's fine, honey. Mama just-"

The knocking grew louder. Nusuma whimpered and buried her face into her mother's brown skirt. The suitcase fell from her grasp with a resounding thud. Without a second to spare, Sonaka tossed it onto her bed's stripped bed and closed that door as well. Sonaka pulled her daughter in close.

"Honey, you can't tell anyone we're leaving. Understand?" she whispered.

"But... You said lying is wrong." 

"I know, but this is to keep you safe, okay? You know Mama just wants to keep you safe, right?" Sonaka prayed her daughter wouldn't ask any more questions.

"Okay..." Nusuma murmured back.

With a deep breath, Sonaka made the treacherous journey to her front door. She took an even deep breath once she made it. Shakily, she swung it open and was met with four pairs of glowing red eyes. 

A tall figure with luscious purple hair that fell to her waist stood at Sonaka's doorstep. Her eyes were constantly shifting, yet all eight of them held an aura of concern. Her hands (if you could even call them that) were two thick pieces of carapace with their "fingers" just being individual pieces of the shell. 

"Joro." Sonaka let out a sigh of relief.

"Auntie Tsuchigumo!" Nusuma cried with joy.

The young woman scooped up the child and tickled her stomach. While Nusuma laughed and giggled at the touch, Joro cooed. "How's my favorite ghost? Huh? How is she?"

"Great! Me and Mama are gonna stay home all day!"

Sonaka winced. She loved her daughter, honestly. 

But she's a horrible liar.

Joro easily saw through Nusuma's lies. Her red eyes showed everything Sonaka to know.

"Honey, can you go to your room and play with your toys?" Sonaka said, taking her daughter from the spider woman's grasp.

Nusuma looked up confused. "But-"

"Now, Nusuma."

Sonaka placed her on the floor. Nusuma didn't even look back as she scurried to her room and closed the door behind her. Sonaka turned her attention back to Joro who was taking in the apartment. She crossed her arms and glanced at Sonaka. Not with anger, but with clear pain.

"You're leaving, aren't you?"

Sonaka couldn't even try to deny her friend. The lifeless apartment was all the proof she needed. The to-bursting bookshelves had been stripped of their occupants. The vases that held the most beautiful array of flowers had been sold and the flowers buried under a mountain of trash. All the pictures that had ordained the walls had been removed from their frames, which also had been tossed, and placed in the suitcases. The same suitcases that were at the forefront of Sonaka's mind.

Sonaka couldn't hold it anymore. Without asking, she rushed over to her friend and buried her face into her purple sweater. Tears flowed freely at the same time as her sobs. Sonaka tried to speak, but her throat was closed. Each sob was wracked with grief. Joro, instead of pushing her away, pulled her in closer.

"It's okay, I already knew."

Her friend didn't seem phased by her words so Joro just chose to gently stroke her head. Sonaka was too busy thinking about all the wrongs that she had caused throughout her life. The same wrongs that could easily affect Nusuma.

"I can't let her get hurt, Joro. I can't. This life of villainy and evil isn't for her." Sonaka sputtered.

"We're not-"

"Don't try to say we're not because we are!" Sonaka shouted.

Joro blinked. She didn't even flinch at her friend's anger. Instead, all she did was stand Sonaka up straight. Joro forced her to look into her eyes.

"We're villains, yes. We weren't evil, however, not until he took over."

Joro was talking about Bladespinner, the current king of their villain syndicate and a powerful mutant Quirk bearer. After the previous leader stepped down, Bladespinner naturally took the position unopposed, with people either unwilling or too frightened to fight him. His saw arms were infamous for slicing through objects and people alike. He was one of the many reasons Sonaka couldn't live the life anymore. 

"He'll kill her, Joro," Sonaka said, fear seeping into her voice. "Maybe not personally, but he'd send her into Hell if it meant fulfilling his twisted goals."

"I know. And that's why I'm here to help."

Sonaka was shocked. Yes, Joro and her were friends for years now, long before Nusuma came into her life. But Joro was completely submerged in the life of villains. Joro noticed her surprised and raised one carapace finger.

"I'm not going to be joining you. I will help you out of the country, however."

Sonaka blinked. "Wha- I was just going to go North!"

Joro let out a sad chuckle. "You really think it'll be that easy? Bladespinner will be furious when he discovers one of his one deserted. No, you need to go away. Far away."

Sonaka's brain was still spinning with the realization of it all. This was happening. This was really happening. "But... Where will I go."

Joro thought about it for a moment. "Korea. There's a former villain there that specializes in forgery. She'll help you get all the necessary paperwork. Tell her that Tsuchigumo-hubae sent you and she won't ask any questions."

"Korea?" Sonaka repeated. "But I don't speak-"

"Do you want a better life for Nusuma or not?!"

Sonaka flinched at Joro's tone. She knew the villainess was right, but it still hurt to know she was leaving everything behind. Joro gripped both of Sonaka's shoulders and squeezed tightly.

"Do this not just for her, but for you. You deserve a real job, real life, a real man who isn't-"

"Don't you dare mention his name! I don't care wherever he ran off to or whatever he does, whether it be picking turnips in Russian or being a stripper in the States, he's more than dead to me."

Joro raised her hands. "Fine, I won't say it. But you should tell Nusuma when both of you are ready."

The mother sighed but nodded anyway. There would be a time Nusuma would learn about her father, but today was not that day. Suddenly, Sonaka realized something. 

"You wouldn't come here just to help me. I know you better than that."

Joro's tough demeanor fell she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. "Bladespinner requires us to come to fight with him."

Sonaka snorted. "Can't he do it himself?"

Joro shook her head. "It's not that simple. A bunch of his lesser lackeys wanted to prove themselves to him so they started attacking the city."

"This includes us why?"

"Bladespinner was just going to let them captured but realized only one hero and his interns showed up to the fight. He thinks we can make a name for ourselves if we cause some real damage."

Sonaka frowned. "I just told you I wanted to leave the life. You told me you'd help me accomplish that goal. Now you want me to throw it all away just because some hotheaded dumbass wants to stroke his ego?"

"It won't only help him support his superiority complex," Joro explained. "It'll also keep him distracted on his victory, giving us enough time to help you two escape."

Sonaka knew Joro was right. Bladespinner was not only a ruthless demon-like man but an egomaniac who lived to support his delusions of grandeur. If this battle was a success, he'd be too busy basking in the light of "his" glory to notice one of his minions had gone missing.

But what about Nusuma?

Nusuma, her pride, and joy, the reason Sonaka got up every morning, the catalyst for this entire escape attempt, still had no idea of her mother's day job. Sonaka did everything in her power to make sure Nusuma wouldn't become a target for Heroes or other villains. Joro was the only exception since she still had some honor still left in her (plus she was a great babysitter). Nusuma, despite her young age, was already growing suspicious of her mother's activities.

"Why are you always hurt?" Nusuma asked one day after Sonaka returned home from an intense battle with some Heroes. The previous head of her syndicate believed that attacking a known meeting spot for heroes would weaken both them and society's moral. It failed miserably with many villains in critical condition or spent to Tartarus.

"Mommy got into a little trouble at work, sweetie. That's all." It was a weak explanation, but Sonaka hoped it'd placate her.

It didn't as Nusuma scrunched up her nose. "You're lying! You and Mrs. Nakamura always say lying is wrong."

Sonaka let out a silent curse to herself and her daughter's kindergarten teacher.

"Well, I'm not lying," Sonaka struggled to think of what to say next. "Only telling... A half-truth."

"Half-truth?" Nusuma questioned.

"It means I'm not lying, just not telling the full story. To protect you." Sonaka explained.

"But you're always protecting me! Why can't I protect you?" Nusuma whined.

Sonaka chuckled. "Because you're five."

"But I already have my Quirk!" 

Sonaka winced at that. Nusuma's Quirk had shown itself early and was similar to her father's. Too similar. It was why Sonaka had to pull her daughter out of kindergarten after the aquarium incident. Possessing a child like that would only lead to skepticism amongst her peers and adults. 

"You will protect me. Just let me do it first. That's my job."

"So that's your real job!" Nusuma gasped with joy, tackling her mother.

Sonaka sucked in a yelp of pain as Nusuma leaped onto her bruised legs. She put on a fake smile and rustled her hair. "Oh no! You found me out!"

"Sonaka?" 

Sonaka snapped back into reality. Joro was nearly pressing her face into Sonaka's. She jolted backward in surprise. Joro genuinely looked hurt as Sonaka tried to regain her bearings.

"Sorry, I just-" she took a deep breath. "My costume is in the wastebasket. Over there in the corner."

Joro went to place a hand on Sonaka's shoulder. "Are you oka-"

"I'm fine." Sonaka backed away. "Let's just go before Bladespinner throws a fit."

The villain looked over her shoulder and called out. "Nusuma, dear, can you come here."

It took a few moments, but the little girl shyly opened the door. She was clutching a toy figure of a Hero. Once she saw her mother's shining face, she ran over and gave her a tight hug. Sonaka ran her fingers through her hair.

"Mama's got to go out one last time, okay?"

Nusuma looked worried. "But... What about-"

"Everything will be okay. Mama just has to go do this one thing and we're gonna go to a magical land called 'Korea'."

"Koreena?" Nusuma attempted to sound out.

Joro snickered at mispronunciation, causing Sonaka to glare at her. "Korea. We'll have a new life."

"But I like it here!" Nusuma pouted.

Sonaka sighed. "You'll understand when you're older."

"Sonaka," Joro warned, glancing down at the phone she produced from her skirt pocket.

The mother bit her bottom lip. Nusuma was still looking bitter about the whole arrangement. She couldn't ask Joro to stay, knowing Bladespinner's temperament but she couldn't just leave her.

"Tell you what," Sonaka said with an attempt at a smile. "What if I get you something while I got out. Would you like that?"

Nusuma rocked back and forth on her heels, pondering the question. A smile broke out on her face. "A rose!"

Both Joro and Sonaka looked at her confused. "A rose?" Sonaka muttered.

"Yeah! I watched a movie where there was a magical rose and a princess and a beast but the beast was a good guy and the rose helped them fall in love!" Nusuma looked up with a Cheshire grin. "I wanna have you fall in love!"

Her heart tore at that statement. Joro could clearly tell that this the time to step in. "Your mama and I have to go now. Please be a good girl and stay in the house. Do not open the door for anyone. Do you understand?"

"And Nusuma," Sonaka dropped to her level. "I'll be home after this, I promise. Do you understand?"

Nusuma dipped her head. "Yes, Mama. Yes, Auntie Tsuchigumo."

Sonaka planted a kiss on her daughter's head before exiting the apartment. Noticing Joro's black car in the parking lot, she turned to her friend and saw her costume in her arms. 

"I got it when you were dealing with Nusuma," Joro explained, seeing her friend's perplexed face.

She thanked Joro and, once she got into the back seat, began changing. Joro smirked. "Shouldn't I be paying for this?"

"Shut up!" Sonaka shouted, but the playfulness in her tone wasn't lost on Joro. "At least my costume is decent! With yours, nothing is lost to the imagination."

Joro shrugged, turning the car on. The engine purred as she spoke. "Hey, my gift to the world is showing off my greatest assets." She motioned towards her breasts and rear.

Sonaka rolled her eyes.

Just before they were to drive towards their destination, Sonaka gripped her comrade's shoulder. "Make sure I get home. For Nusuma's sake."

Joro nodded in agreement. "For Nusuma."

---

For someone who spent almost two decades battling Heroes, Sonaka knew when a battle was starting to get rough and this battle was it. 

The Hero that swooped in to save the day, some hotshot named Fantastic Devil (a red-skinned twenty-something with horns, a tail, and fire-breathing. Your standard edgy hero-style), and his four interns. Bladespinner's lackeys were barely keeping up with the Heroes before Joro (codenamed Spinneret) and Sonaka (codenamed Wraith) showed up.

Weaving into and out of the fray, the ghost-like villain pop out of the wispy form to slash at her enemies. She noticed a couple of Sidekicks showed up to attempt to defeat the villains, but she wasn't worried. They were novices compared to a master of concealed weaponry. Currently, she was dealing with an intern with some sort of speed Quirk. He dashed back and forth like a child on a sugar rush. He attempted to land some square hits on her, but Wraith used her Quirk, Phase, to simply turn into a puff of gray smoke. 

Suddenly, the speedy intern landed a strong jab right in between her ribs then a swift kick to her right arm. Her blade was launched from her grasp. Cockiness must've taken hold of him because he tried to unleash another attack. But, as a concealed master, Wraith always had something up her sleeve. In this case, literally. Sliding out a blade from its hidden sheath, she let out a yell as she dug it straight into the man's orange helmet. It's pale yellow screen cracked due to the force. The intern was too stunned to block Wraith's second attack. She side-kicked the helmet, causing both the wearer and it to drop to the ground. She was about to turn away when she noticed something.

A round young face, mousy brown hair, as he laid gasping she could see braces. The most damning evidence was the giant UA logo on the back of his hero costume. 

"You're... A student?"

Before he could reply, a shot of web stuck to the kid's back. He was whipped into the air and slammed into the ground several feet away from Wraith. The attacker was Joro, Spinneret, donning her infamous costume. A black mask shielded her identity, but not her vision. Even from far away, Wraith could see the intensity in her eyes. Her costume was a tight latex with a cobweb type shirt and boots. Two latex pieces were barely holding up her breasts. Wraith would've said she was beautiful, had she not slashed the throat of the student with her long carapaces.

Wraith wanted to scream but her throat had closed up. The sounds around her became muffled as the realization hit her. These were just regular interns. They were students. Children. 

She backed away from Joro, no, Spinneret, as her former friend basked in the glory of her kill. As she backed up, she felt her heel step onto something. Something squishy. Wraith (could she still call herself that?) Turned and nearly throw up.

It was another student. Her costume was torn to bits but she could make out that it had something to do with constellations. A mask, probably hers, laid broken against the pavement. Sonaka leaned in to meet the girl's eyes. They were a teal. Sonaka could imagine how bright they were when this girl was told she entered the Hero Academy.

"Please..." the girl noticed Sonaka and weakly reached out for her. "Please... Help."

Sonaka choked by a sob. This was someone's daughter. No, this may potentially be her daughter.

"I'm sorry." Sonaka managed to say, grasping the girl's hand. "I'm so... So sorry."

The girl didn't say anything. She couldn't. Her eyes were dull, one of the key depictions of death. Sonaka let her hand fall back to the pavement without another word.

The world around her was crumbling, both physically and mentally. A burning piece of a car crashed landed next to her but she didn't even move. Not even All Might himself could get her to move from this position. The girl was young, sixteen or seventeen at the most. Black hair with specks of white. But despite her physical differences, all Sonaka could see was a teenaged Nusuma. Laying like that in the middle of some pointless battle.

"Who did this?" Sonaka murmured. She placed the girl on her side a gasped.

Her stomach was completely torn up. It was like a pack of wolves that had chewed through her organs. Blood was pooled all over the front of her costume and the pavement. Sonaka gagged when she noticed the chunks of meat. And all of it red. So much red.

Like a rose.

Sonaka reluctantly traced her fingers over the wound. It wasn't as messy of a cut as she once believed. It was crude, yes, but done with a clear purpose. Like it was made by a tool.

"Bladespinner!" shouted Sonaka to no one in particular. She needed to stop him. Fast.

Nusuma, I'm sorry. But I have to do this.

Sonaka's costume flowed elegantly behind her even as she threw herself into the chaos. Quirks were flying all over the place. That Fantastic Devil guy was hanging off the side of a building breathing fire onto the villains below. Mountains of debris loomed threatening around her. Sonaka could see in her peripheral another villain pounce at a sidekick. The sidekick bounced away and disappeared in a shimmery flash before appearing behind him. Normal Sonaka would've floated up to save her comrade. But that wasn't her comrade and, right now, she wasn't her normal self.

She shifted into her Wraith form to move past the burning rubble and blood spatters.

"I wanna have you fall in love!"

Sonaka dodged another flying piece of debris when she saw a familiar muscular form. 

Bladespinner.

His silver was caked in blood and, most horrifying, skin. His villain outfit, a silver and black skintight costume with a saw symbol on the front and back was mostly torn, revealing his muscles and machine parts. His arms, if you could even call them that, were giant mechanical wonders. A mixture of organic and machine parts with two razor-sharp saws at the end of it. He was currently locked in battle with a pink-haired- correction, pink petaled girl. Her pink eyes were filled with terror, yet determination. Next to her was the body of another student, most likely one of her classmates.

Another intern!

Sonaka's body moved on her own. She couldn't watch another death. She was tired of it all. The fighting. The lack of trust. The hatred from society. The reality that you'd never know if you'd make it home or not.

For Nusuma

"Kaori!" Sonaka screamed over everything.

Bladespinner, before landing the final blow, angrily spun around to glare at Sonaka. The girl managed to scurry away as Bladespinner drew closer to a frozen Sonaka.

"What... Did you say?"

"Kaori... Goto... You need to stop." Sonaka waved her hands to motions towards the environment. "Look at this! Look at you! Look at what you almost did."

"I was about to defeat our enemy," Bladespinner bared his teeth. "Are you questioning my decision, Mimoto?"

Sonaka stiffened but stood her ground. "I'm questioning the fact you're about to murder a child!"

"A child!?" Bladespinner scoffed. "That's our future enemy! The ones that might kill us! It's better to strangle the weeds before they overrun the garden!"

"This isn't one of your stupid analogies, Kaori! These are innocent lives!"

"You have no right to call me that!" he snarled. "If you wanna protect them so much, you can die with them!"

Bladespinner had raised his arm to strike, but Sonaka already had disappeared in a poof of smoke. She reappeared just above him. She swiftly tapped her ankles together and two blades shot out from the back of her boot's heels. She raised her left leg. She struck down, but Bladespinner managed to just barely dodge. Still, she managed to graze his cheek. A trail of blood dripped down and onto the ground. 

A rose?

Sonaka snapped back into reality when Bladespinner used the back of their arm to bat her away. She wheezed as all the arm was forced out of her. She went tumbling across the ground, hitting several mounds of rubble. She was sure his attack at least cracked a rib or two was cracked but she needed to move. Like a raging bull, Bladespinner began to charge. Just before he made it towards her, she managed to disappear and poof back into existence right in front of him. She just managed to dig a knife right across his chest and popped out of the way. 

I'm going to get a serious migraine after all this Quirk usage she groaned, already developing a headache.

"Stay... STILL!" 

Bladespinner tried to punch her but she already was gone. Before he could blink, his throat was already slit. He choked out blood with it splattered on a broken pile of bricks. Before he could even get another word out, another knife was planted in his back. Then another. Then three more. 

All Sonaka could see was red. Both figuratively and literally. Bladespinner had hit the ground several seconds ago, let she just kept stabbing. All the pent up rage she had built over the years were being unleashed on the body of her murderous boss. Was she just as bad as him? Probably, but she just needed to be free.

Free.

Nusuma!

Struggling to stand due to her shaking legs, Sonaka started to shuffle her way back towards an alleyway. Maybe she just shed her costume and make it back to her apartment just before nightfall. The last train left at eleven in the evening, she cod make it. She had to.

The sounds of fighting and over the top Quirks were dulled by the memories of her child. Nusuma's birth was a painful, lonely, yet beautiful experience. Her first words 'up, Mama' might've been small to everyone else but the world to her. Her smile was so precious. Her laugh was music to her ears. Her first ever A was on a math test; basic, but God did she almost cry at seeing her child succeed.

Succeed. Nusuma would succeed.

Nusuma, Mama's coming. Don't worry.

"You!"

Bladespinner? No, it was a feminine voice. Joro? No, too young.

Sonaka turned around. She wasn't prepared for the thick piece of wood going straight through her chest. Sonaka let out a deep wheeze. It pierced her lung, she could feel it. Her attacker? That same pink-petaled intern/student from before. Except her eyes were now a green, a green that reminded Sonaka of the grass at the park she always took Nusuma to. Although rage was pouring out of those emerald eyes, Sonaka also detected loss and hurt. Sonaka couldn't blame her. She was a child pretending to be a great Hero. This was probably her first experience with death, at least death that involved her friends and Hero's life as a whole. She wanted to tell her that she was sorry, but the girl raised another arm. It was covered in wood like a thick armor plating. Her hand, although covered, managed to sprout another tree branch.

"I-" 

Sonaka couldn't finish. Her heart was immediately struck and everything slowed. She always thought death was supposed to be painful but she just felt tired and, in a twisted way, peace. All the stress dissolved at the moment of impact. The girl's face was still morphed due to all the suffering she was struggling with. Sonaka wanted to give her peace to her. But she couldn't.

She was falling.

Darker and colder was the only place she was heading and she embraced it with open arms. Sonaka let out a tear; it was her final regret.

Nusuma, I'm sorry. I didn't keep my promise.

[kibleedibleedoo]

Hero of your own Fate 2/?

Thorin x reader

Warnings - brief mention of mental illness, slow burn

A/n - sorry it's a long one

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

~Thorin's POV~

It had been a long detour via the Blue mountains which unfortunately had not born any fruit. All Thorin could think about was a hot meal and a place of safety to sleep tonight. He was getting far too old to be a solitary nomad. His fantasising of his next meal led thorin down his third wrong turn of the evening. The shire was full of winding roads that seemed to follow no logical order in their constuction. Thorin could see the house up on a hill, by mahal he probably could hear the company from back in Bree, but he just could not find the right path to get there and the fading like was offering him no favours.

Thorin watched confused as the heavens seemed to rip open as Bagend was aurrounded by a vrief thunder storm and depositing a girl on top of the hill. From this distance it was hard to tell but she certainly wasnt one of his kin and the clothes she was wearing made ger look out of place in this world. Maybe you were a one of a secretive kind, some even more secretive than dwarves that few even knew the existance of. He watched as you settled yourself and entered the hobbit hole. Something deep inside him was drawn to this unfamiliar woman so deep that Thorin was taken by surprise when he knew how to get to that blasted house, to get to you.

~Reader's POV~

That evening was a whirlwind so much seemed to happen in so little time. The quest was explained along with the risks and contracts were handed out to you and the other burglar Bilbo. It took many by surprise when he fainted at the thought of incineration, sure it would be a bad way to go but an instant death was far more preferable than a long drawn out one, the only one not surprised was the leader of our company Thorin oakenshield. He seemed to react to the hobbit with pure annoyance even going so far as to question him on battle experience upon entering poor Bilbo's home. You had no battle experience at least none in hand to hand combat. You cast your mind back to one of your childhood school trips where you were taught how to fire an arrow and a bit of fencing neither of which you were any good at, at the time which gave you little hope for your ability to fight on this quest. You needed training or you would be a liability and you were positive the whole company knew it.

You took the time during Bilbo's recovery to pull Gandalf aside.

"what am i doing here?" you asked rather annoyed with the wizard.

"You offered to help in the café did you not?" he quipped knowing the answer.

"Yes but there is no point me joining if i am only going to be a liability Gandalf" you huffed, you wanted to help you really did but there was no point volunteering for this quest if it was going to end in your demise or the demise of some of the dwarves before the quest is complete.

"You posess talents aside from fighting that will come in useful that I am sure something that those of middle earth lack" the wizard mused. He was almost certainly keeping something to himself about what you could contribute. Before you could respond he continued "I took the liberty of packing supplies for you, some hygiene products from your home but mainly supplies from here for the journey. They are with your pony at the stables" Your eyes grew wide as you realised the wizard had gone through your things.

"You broke into my house!" you exclaimed in a hushed tone trying to stop any of the dwarves from prying, unfortunately you could not seem to shake the handsome one's peircing gaze. "What if my roommate saw you? omg wait what did you see in my stuff!" at this point you were starting to panic, your roommate had always suffered from anxiety and happening upon a strange man riffling through your stuff wasnt exactly something they would take in their stride.

"I was not seen, and magic comes in useful in your realm too" he chucked "the essentials come to me, they seemed nicely organised so I packed the entire bag for you" mentally you were piecing together what you would be carrying. That bag contained your toothbrush, toothpaste, a few wash cloths, deoderant, conditioner, a spare pair of panties, and some everyday makeup items. Okay so no shampoo, you werent exactly sure when you would get the opportunity to wash your hair while trekking across this world but you had heard others try a no-poo style of washing their hair so that must be what you would have to do from now on. "Along with what is already packed here are a new set of clothes to help you fit in better and if you will let me I can exchange and money you have for coin you can use here." You werent sure exactly where he had stored the fresh clothes but he seemed sincere so you handed your bag over to him.

"Dont touch anything else in there, you only have permission to exchange currency" you said in a stern voice "they might not all work here but they are important to me" you finished softly. You took the clothes to a seperate room and closed the door behind you. It was dark but you still had your phone in your pocket so could use the torch for a while. You silently thanked whatever deity was up there that your parents had got you a solar powered power bank for christmas and it was in your bag, where you always kept it, your phone might run out of battery soon but you knew that you would be able to look through your photos whenever you got homesick on this quest. You turned your attention to the clothes, inspecting each item you noticed the outfit looked like something that would have been worn during the 18th century back home. Luckily your roomate was studing fashion history at the local university so you knew where all the fabric was supposed to go. Gandalf had also been nice and provided you with a corset which did up on the front, looking at them you could almost hear your roommate telling you this style was called a 'pair of bodies' and you chuckled knowing that while this outfit might be more practical than what you were wearing it was still going to be a nuisance to put on and wear all the time. You got undressed and threw the shift over your underwear, not ready to give up your modern bra and pants just yet, next you decided you still wanted to wear your leggings. If you were supposed to learn how to ride a horse tomorrow you sure as hell were going to have some fabric between your skin and the saddle plus it would preserve some of your dignity if you fell off and your skirt flew over your head. Time for the corset, the stomacher was rock hard which you thought might provide some protection, against what you werent quite sure of yet, and the corset was surprisingly easy to lace up at the front. The next item you loved, it was a shame modern women's fashion hated them so much but these bags you tied at your waist formed huge pockets which could fit most of the contents of your bag in without anyone being any the wise. The petticoat and skirt followed and a jacket tied the look together. You decided your doc martens would be far better to wear than whatever flimy shoe gandalf had provided so with your outfit complete you returned to the company.

Gandalf sat there smiling with a bag of coins in his hand. You felt you looked slightly ridiculous, especially since your bosom was more pronounced than in your oversized tee.

"Now you look like you belong here" he took a sip of wine and nodded.

"I might look like it but I have still kept some of my modern luxuries" you responded smugly waving your t-shirt a bit. He smirked handing you over the coins and your backpack back. You stuffed the tshirt in with the rest of your stuff and made a mental note to wear it as a pyjama top.

~Thorin's POV~

Y/N had disappeared off into one of the rooms shortly after her argument with gandalf. It seemed like the company had lost both of their burglars within the space of five minutes. Thorin huffed and sat back next to Balin who was always a source of comfort to him even before Erebor fell.

"We do not have time to delay Balin, if we must leave without them then that is what we must do" Thorin sighed, fewer and fewer folk were supporting this mission a band of 13 dwarves and a wizard was hardly a match for a dragon if Smaug still lived.

"I know lad, have faith this is a worthy quest and mahal would not have forsaken us" Balin smiled reassuringly at Thorin. Balin trusted Thorin like he trusted no other, he knew Thorin would give anything for his people and would do everything in his power to provide them with a place of sanctuary. The pair sat in silence for a few moments when Y/N came out of one of the rooms in a different outfit. The dress made her look like one of them, it fitted her so much better than what she had on before and Thorin found himself staring in awe at her.

"it seems she hadnt given up on us afterall" Balin nudged Thorin grabbing his attention

"aye but does a woman belong on this quest" Thorin sighed "she looks weaker than Dis and we wouldnt allow her to join us"

"she will be fine" Balin was puzzled by Thorin's sudden change in attutude until he realised Thorin was still watching the lass like a hawk. "she will have us to protect her and Im sure you wouldnt mind training her" Balin joked.

"I will not let her presence effect this quest, we will make sure she is trained" Thorin barked back. Both dwarves knew it was already too late just her sheer presence made Thorin reconsider his priorities.

[anika-ann]

Heart Too Cold, but Friends of Gold - Prologue

Just My Luck

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader     Word count: 1730

Summary: Avenger!reader AU. Part 2 of Melting Hearts series. Part 1 HERE.

Your life ended the moment you gained your powers and then found your way to the Avengers business. It’s a logical move for a villain to hurt your family to get to you – except no one outside your team knows who’s hiding behind the mask of Frostbite and they think you died the day of the lab accident giving you abilities.

Who found out? How? And what is their game? Only if you knew… at least you’re not alone in this. Far from it. You have an amazing boyfriend and a bunch of friends by your side.

Warnings: swearing, mentions of kidnapping, mentions of terminal diseases and experimetal treatment, mention of (sexual) child abuse

Story Masterlist

────── ·❆· ──────

Happiness did not last. It was a known fact, clear as day. Yet, you had let yourself believe for a while.

When you opened the envelope, scolding yourself for your naivety was truly the first thing you did. Or rather the second thing, because the first instinct was to curse.

“Fuck.”

Only then came the realization and the flash of anger aimed at yourself.

Happiness was not something to last. When had it ever in your life?

When you had been four years old, you had found the best friend for life or at least you had thought so. Her name was Emma, she had owned the biggest collection of hair-bands and she hadn’t minded sharing them with you.

Her family moved out from your neighbourhood before you turned six.

Few months after your first day at school – where you had loved it, finding a cheery boy with chubby cheeks and long-ish blond hair to sit with, immediately making friends with him and meeting his other friend, this time a girl again – you had started feeling dizzy and weak.

You had been diagnosed with a disease of incidence of 1: 100 000 000 shortly after. Just your luck.

While the headmaster of your elementary school had been promising they would provide you with an individual studying plan, they hadn’t. You had to switch schools and you had lost contact with your friends again.

By the time you turned thirteen, you had been to tens of doctors, but all they had been doing had been slowing down the progress of your disease almost insignificantly. You had been sleeping twelve hours a day, exhausted all the time. Any sort of sport had been out of question except walking – short walks, of course.

Your parents loved you nevertheless, even when you could tell that taking care of you, running from one doctor to another with zero results, had been draining them. They had dealt with your puberty and depressing thoughts. You had never told them you had wanted to kill yourself and that the one time you had actually started gathering pills, you had flushed them down the toilet in the end.

What you had told them was when you had met a guy at your support group. Ian had been a really sweet guy who had been diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Ian had been your biggest love so far and the first serious relationship. You had been going through the hard times of therapy; together, since a new hope for your successful treatment had risen.

Ian had achieved a complete remission and his family had moved three states over to get a fresh start; it had been a heart-breaking goodbye. The goodbye felt even worse when not even two months later, the doctor leading your experimental treatment had gotten inappropriately handsy with his ten-year old son and went to jail, crushing your hopes completely.

You had been almost shocked when the alien invasion of New York hadn’t taken your parents from you considering your luck.

It had been the opposite actually, at least you had thought so – there truly had been some kind of luck, because relatively shortly after the City of New York had got hit, a new doctor had appeared out of nowhere.

Of course you had say yes to the new treatment – maybe rather for your parents than yourself.

Once again, you had learned that happiness never lasted. The experiment had gotten out of the team’s hands and it blew up to their faces. Or rather made their blood run cold. You had.

You dying to protect everyone you ever loved and who had stayed – that only being your parents at that point – had been necessary. You had told to yourself that it had been for the best, ending your parents’ misery. After all, they still could have another child, or adopt at least.

Cutting the ties had been the only option.

You had been lucky in a way – in return, you had gained a bunch of friends who were now as close as family to you, the best bunch of siblings (slash uncles, because really, Tony and Hawkeye were too much of father figures to be considered your brothers) and one amazing man to love.

No matter how crazy it was, you became a hero of some sort – you had become an Avenger and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Your family was safe, your parents moving to Pennsylvania to start a new life and after a long time, you were truly happy.

It was a stupid mistake to think it could last.

Four months after getting together with Steve, you had received a phone in your fan mail, together with a tiny note in a neat handwriting.

‘Wait for my call, Snowflake’.

“Steve!” you called out for him, dropping the phone as if it burned you. It hit the wooden table with a clank.

You voice shook with fright on the simple syllable. Your heart was fighting its way out of your chest, beating rapidly.

Why would anyone send you a phone? Why would anyone call you a Snowflake? Steve called you that. And no one outside the team knew.

Well, Matt Murdock aka Daredevil knew, but just like everyone else, he knew better than to call you that; Tony had once called you your captain’s nickname jokingly and Steve shot daggers from his eyes so sharp that no one dared to do so ever since. Plus, this handwriting was way too pretty to belong to a blind man.

Not to mention the fact that you were sure as hell that Matt wasn’t just walking around spilling the beans about your privacy.

“You called? You okay? …had anyone asked you out again?” he teased you in the end to light up his concern. You nearly jumped out of your skin at the sound of his voice, snapping your head to him. He was exiting the bathroom, only his sleeping sweats on, his hands busy with drying his hair with a towel. He frowned when seeing your expression. “Snowflake?”

You winced at the addressing, so soft on his lips, yet making your throat tight as the author of the note – a complete stranger – had used the same nickname.

Steve’s brows furrowed as he walked closer, tossing the towel on the bed carelessly. His eyes were examining your face closely.

You couldn’t say a word; all the words, all the panic grew as lump in your throat, tying your tongue.

“May I?” Steve asked quietly as he leaned closer and you nodded, turning back to the desk. Steve glanced over your shoulder, his big palms resting on the table.  

You squeezed your eyes shut, praying the items wouldn’t be there when you opened them again.

Steve’s sharp inhale crushed your hope and told you that you had no such luck.

“Who wrote it?” he demanded, switching from Steve to the Captain in a second. Tears escaped your eyes.

“I don’t know. There’s no address or signature.”

His warm palm touched your shoulder, squeezing lightly. You could sense his inner turmoil, him trying to balance the soothing boyfriend and reliable leader. “We’ll get it to Banner and Stark. Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out.”

His lips kissed the top of your head and then his comforting presence was gone. He pulled a t-shirt over his head, taking both the note and the phone into his handkerchief so he wouldn’t add his fingerprints on the top of yours and the mailer’s.

Except the phone started ringing on the way to the lab.

“Shouldn’t I…?” you squeaked weakly.

You felt like you had never received all the training, all the hours of Natasha and Steve teaching you how to remain calm in stressful situations. It wasn’t like you hadn’t been through worse; yet, there was something extremely wrong with this, something your intuition was nudging you with.

You couldn’t help it – the way this whoever got so close to your intimate life was scaring the shit out of you and your mind was suddenly blank, all experience and training thrown out of the window.

Steve shook his head. “Not until we get to the lab so they could at least trace the call.”

You gulped and followed Steve as he made his way in long strides, in rapid tempo. You were trying your best to ignore the annoying default ringtone, but it was like ringing was coming right from inside your head. It was ringing for eternity.

Steve looked at you with worries as it felt silent. His gaze softened when seeing your face and he slowed down his pace. “Hey. We won’t let anything happen to you. Promise.”

You gave him a tight smile neither of you believed and your shaky legs finally brought you to Tony’s lair.

“Oh, there are my favourite frozen friends. What can I do for you?”

“Not really in mood for joking, Stark.”

Tony’s too-much-caffeine-induced cheerfulness fell just like his smile. “What is it? Why do have these faces?”

You looked at Steve, hoping he would do the talking. He barely opened his mouth when the phone beeped again, this time with a text.

Steve frowned at the screen, his eyes going wide and his shoulders tensing.

“What is it?” you whispered almost soundlessly.

You could see his Adam’s apple bobbing as he raised his gaze to you. His expression was one of horror. You were too scared of what he had seen to check the screen yourself.

“There’s a photo attached to a message,” he announced, his voice strangled. What on Earth could make him sound like that?

“What does it say?” you asked hesitantly, while Tony spoke up at the same time. “Whose phone is that?”

“You better pick up next time if you want them back in one piece,” Steve read out loud and quickly looked away from the phone.

Your heart stopped. Want what back? Want who back? Who the fuck was threatening you and what were they threatening you with?

You cleared your throat while Tony walked to Steve’s side, impatient with the slow progress. He froze too, shooting you an alarmed look.

“What’s in the picture?”

It was a rhetorical question, really. Deep inside, you already knew. There was someone threatening you, most likely with a picture of someone you would want back, and they had somehow got close enough to you to know you were being called Snowflake by the man you loved. There was no doubt they figured out your identity and there weren’t many people they could have targeted.

Steve raised his gaze to you, blue eyes serious and full of sorrow, confirming your suspicion with only two words.

“Your parents.”

────── ·❆· ──────

Part 1

────── ·❆· ──────

Tags: @mermaidxatxheart​, @murdermornings​, @elisaa-shelby​ @ask-hellbent-tweek @cxptain​

I tagged people who followed the previous part, sorry if you didn’t want that. Rules remain the same - anyone wants in or out, send me a message :)

Thank you for reading!

[kiyoitsukikage]

Sasuke Shinden - Characters & Prologue

Hello everybody!

Last year (more or less) I made the promise I'd translate Sasuke Shinden: Teacher's Star Pupil if nobody did. Well, apparently (the awesome) OrganicDinosaur did, but she didn't finished it. If it's okay with everyone, I'll post my translation as well.

So... The rules are always the same: NO REPOSTING, NO COPYING THIS TRANSLATION AND PUTTING IT SOMEWHERE ELSE ON THE INTERNET. I apologise in advance for the mistakes I'm bound to make when translating. And: support the official release!

Ready? Start~

Sasuke Shinden: teacher's star pupil

By Jun Esaka and Masashi Kishimoto

The novel has five chapters, plus a prologue and an epilogue.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE & EPILOGUE

CHARACTERS

Uchiha Sasuke

He’s Naruto’s rival, Sarada’s father. He has a teacher-student relationship with Boruto.

Uzumaki Naruto

He’s the Seventh Hokage, Boruto’s father. The hero who saved the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Uzumaki Boruto

Genin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. His father is Naruto, his teacher is Sasuke.

Uchiha Sarada

Genin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Her father is Sasuke. She’s a member of Team Seven together with Boruto.

Mitsuki

Genin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. His parent is Orochimaru. He’s a member of Team Seven together with Boruto.

Sarutobi Konohamaru

He’s a jōnin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves and leads Team Seven. His grandfather was the Third Hokage.

_______________________

Prologue

A line of Thunder Train wagons was running fast, dragging along the white smoke emitted by the stout chimney.

Sarutobi Konohamaru was sitting deeply into his seat, and gazed absentmindedly at the scenery full of brown and green flowing from left to right. The railway that had been laid, which meandered as if it was weaving its way through the ravine, was extremely long, and even the landscape framed by the train window was more or less the same. Sometimes, the white and the pink of the flowering dogwood blended together with the new green leaves of the trees, which grew choking thick.

“What shall I eat when I get back to the village, kore… Ramen Ichiraku? Or I’ll save some money for once and try and cook by myself…”

He was on his journey back home form an individual mission, that is, delivering something to the Kazekage.

Letting his mind wander completely, Konohamaru was worrying about that day’s dinner. “Never lose your focus, no matter what kind of mission it is…” Even if he always warned Boruto and the others with a proud attitude saying things like that, in his way back home from an errand mission in which the possibility of a battle were almost zero the feeling of tension was very low.

“I wonder if we’ll arrive soon, kore…”

Konohamaru, who was stretching himself letting out a yawn, noticed a human figure sitting on a faraway seat, and suddenly stopped in his tracks.

A man that was hiding half of his face with his long bangs — he was Uchiha Sasuke.

He had buried his face into his usual black cloak, and apparently he had fallen asleep.

“Sasuke-san being here is so strange, kore… A regular report?”

Konohamaru gazed at Sasuke’s sleeping figure, very curious.

His features, which were handsome and famous since when he was a boy, didn’t look weakened even now that he was grown up. The creases that had appeared around his eyes gave his natural appearance a refined taste. Moreover, two special eyes that a normal person could by no means possess — the Sharingan and the Rinnegan — were probably lying dormant behind his closed eyelids.

Being one of the world’s strongest ninjas, and a cool, good-looking man nonetheless, he had surely charmed the heart of many women when he was unmarried. Whether he had been susceptible or not to this situation it’s a completely different matter, though.

“To think that I’d be able to meet Sasuke-san in a place like this.”

Again, Konohamaru took a look at the inside of the wagon. A baby who was sleeping soundly on his mother’s knees, an old husband and wife who were sharing some dorayaki*, and a young couple who was apparently coming back home from a trip. The ones who were riding with him were villagers enjoying the peace, not related to the blood-stenching world of shinobi.

Since he was resting nonchalantly, blending among people like that, it must be said that even his way to erase his presence was praiseworthy.

Sasuke’s position in the Village Hidden in the Leaves was extremely elusive. He was so famous that he had become extremely rare in the Gemaki cards, but he barely showed his face in the village, and officially he was a criminal under probation. Even if he had a lot of friends his, enemies were a lot — if those around him noticed that Uchiha Sasuke was riding a Thunder Train with them, it would inevitably cause a great uproar; but everyone inside the Thunder Train was staying there without noticing the man.

Konohamaru closed his eyes, wondering if he could doze off himself. Bumping his head against the windowpane with a thud, he leaned on his seat.

The following moment—

Bang!

The sound of an explosion resounded, and the railroad wagons shook. When he opened his eyes, startled, the very last wagon of the Thunder Train that could be seen outside the window was emitting flames with black smoke.

«An explosion! The smoke!»

One of the passengers raised a shout that sounded like a scream. Suddenly, the whole wagon fell into panic.

«Yaa—!! I don’t want to die!!»

«Stop it! Don’t push!»

«Run! To the first car! Quick!»

The passengers rushed into the narrow aisle, striving to be first.

«Please, calm down!» Konohamaru raised his voice, stepping out into the aisle.

The fact that everyone was panicking was even worse than the explosion itself.

«I’m a shinobi of the Land of Fire! The explosion is in the last wagon! It’s quite far from here! Everybody, calm down… please, first of all, wait in your own seat!»

He didn’t know if he should lead them to the first wagon… but if the explosion had been caused by human hands, the first wagon, where there was the control engine, was an easy target.

Soon, the wagon fell into silence.  Thanks to Konohamaru’s instructions, apparently the passengers had regained their composure, more or less.

«I’ll go check the situation on the actual scene. I think that the Thunder Train will stop soon, so if it stops moving completely please go outside and carry just the minimum baggage possible. Please, make sure not to cause panic!»

“By the way, where’s Sasuke-san?” he suddenly realised, and searched the inside of the wagon, but Sasuke’s figure was nowhere. Apparently he had gone immediately to the scene of the explosion. It looked like Sasuke had given priority to the fact of extinguishing the flames rather than soothing the passengers.

Noticing that he had fallen behind, Konohamaru climbed onto the roof opening the window in great hurry, and rushed to the last wagon where the explosion had happened.

*****

Konohamaru, who had arrived to the last wagon, number 12, stood stock still in surprise.

For some reason the wagon, which should have been violently destroyed by the flames, was frozen — completely. When he smashed a frozen window with a kick and went inside, a cold air that pierced his cheeks was blowing with a howling sound.

Uchiha Sasuke was standing in the middle of the whirling cold air.

In front of the hand he was holding out, even the last red flames that were burning the wooden frame of the seats were wrapped by ice and disappeared very quickly.

«Sasuke-san… what the heck…»

«Konohamaru?»

Sasuke turned around, pointing out the inside of the frozen wagon with his eye, and said: «It’s as you see. I’ve extinguished it.»

«E-extinguished… well, surely the fire disappeared, but…»

The whole last wagon had been turned into a first-class seat, and its appearance was completely different from the other wagons. It had been built with comfortable large sofas facing each other, and each compartment was divided by a thick oak wall. The ceiling had been miserly crushed by the shock of the explosion, but one could perceive that the lighting equipment (included the fans, which had fallen down, broken, onto the floor) was a first-class item in which fine engravings had been carved. Also each piece of furniture had been crooked by the shockwave, and in addition of being burnt black now it was covered by ice and it was just a shadow of it former self.

«With the extinction of the fire through a Water Release, I ended up making high-temperature steam.» Sasuke told Konohamaru, who was overwhelmed. «That’s why I joined a Wind Release to the Water Release, and froze the steam that had formed and all.»

«That’s not a Water Release, it’s “Ice Release” though…?»

«It’s close, but it’s not that. It’s a technique that mimics the one used by an opponent I once fought, but it’s no match against the power of that one.»

“No match? Like that?”

Looking up to the wagon that had been completely frozen from the floor to the ceiling, without even leaving an inch, Konohamaru exhaled white mist. Joining Water Release and Wind Release — easy to say it, but emitting two different nature transformations at the same time wasn’t simple at all.

That moment, «Hyaa!» a short shriek came from the door.

«W-wha-wha-wha-wha-what, what’s that…»

The one standing there was a young girl in her middle teens, sporting a short cut of red hair. She had jingling earrings on her ears, and also the nails of her hands were richly decorated with rhinestones and things like that.

«Why is my seat frozen…?»

«There was an explosion in this wagon, so that’s the result of the extinguishment of the fire.»

When Konohamaru said that, the girl shouted, opening her eyes wide: «An explosion!? When!?»

«A short time ago. You didn’t notice even if you were inside the wagon?»

«I though that everyone was just making a ruckus, but… I was listening to the music.»

In fact, there were orange earphones hanging from the girl’s shoulders.

Sasuke made a step forward, and asked the girl with a voice without inflection: «What have you been doing until now?»

«What… since I was a little hungry I’ve been eating, well, pasta, and escargot, and panna cotta in the dining car, then I bought some water to take away and I came back here.»

Saying so, the girl held out the glass of carbonated water she was holding in her hand, as if to show it.

«What happened to the other passengers?»

«It’s just me. This is the first-class car. The whole car is reserved, you know!»

Konohamaru took a long look at the face of the girl, who was puffing her chest out in pride.

…this girl was in the first-class car all alone?

«What’s with that face?»

Noticing Konohamaru’s expression, who looked suspicious, the girl pouted.

«A minor can’t ride on a Thunder Train alone?»

«No, it’s not that…»

«Don’t make fun of me, if it’s for the money, I’ve got it! Even if it looks like I don’t…»

«Konohamaru, did you feel the presence of a suspicious person on your way here?» Sasuke asked, interrupting the girl who was about to complain about something.

Konohamaru shook his head.

«No… since I came here through the roof, I don’t even know the appearance of the wagons inside.»

«The culprit that put the bomb inside this wagon could still be inside.»

Sasuke picked up and gave Konohamaru the fragment of a glass pane that had fallen down.

It was a thin, gently curved piece of glass, which was clearly different from the one used in the windowpane. “It’s part of a fuse used in a time-bomb.” Konohamaru realised immediately when he took it.

If they had caused the explosion using that, surely it was more natural to think that it was a crime caused by an ordinary villager that couldn’t deal with ninjutsu. Moreover, if the criminal wasn’t a ninja, there was no way that they had escaped from the Thunder Train, which kept running at full speed.

In other words, it meant that the bomb criminal was still inside the train. They had to catch them before they hurt other passengers.

The moment Konohamaru began to move—

Dong!

The sound of another explosion resounded.

«This time it’s the first wagon!» Konohamaru yelled shortly, looking outside the window.

«The speed of the Thunder Train increased…»

As soon as he muttered so Sasuke, who had browsed the scenery outside, put his foot on the window frame, and climbed on top of the wagon.

«Sa-Sasuke-san…!?»

Sasuke, moving on the roof of the wagons at an awesome speed, finally arrived to the first wagon in the blink of an eye, and jumped without hesitation inside the smoke that was rising and had become a dense mass.

“Settle down.” Konohamaru told himself. “During emergencies cooperation is important.”

It was highly probable that the fact the speed had increased after the second explosion meant that the thing that had been destroyed was near the control panel that regulated the speed. If it was like that, they probably had no choice but stop part of the dynamic force by halting safely the Thunder Train immediately. For that, Sasuke’s ice technique would be effective. Moreover, if Sasuke was acting to halt the Thunder Train, on the other hand Konohamaru’s job was to catch the bomb criminal inside the train.

— the time Konohamaru had needed to came to this conclusion was about two seconds.

The fact that he could work with a first-class ninja like Sasuke was a precious experience, but at any rate both the scale of his techniques and the speed of his judgement were widely different, so it was difficult to follow him.

…anyhow, he himself had to catch the bomb criminal that was inside the train.

Konohamaru, who was about to leave the wagon, suddenly noticed it, and turned around.

The girl that was the passenger of the first-class car was poking the wall of ice, looking curious.

«…please, absolutely don’t get out of this wagon. It’s dangerous.»

«Okay~» the girl replied gently, shook an icicle that was hanging from the ice wall, and stirred up the carbonated water with a rattling sound, using it instead of a stir stick.

“Will she be alright, this girl… No, there’s no time to worry about that, kore…”

While being slightly worried, Konohamaru headed towards the wagon number 11.

 The wagon number 11, where the second-class seats were lined up, was completely empty, and bags and other things had been scattered on the seats and the aisle.

Probably the passengers had already escaped to the front. Of course, it was because the explosion had occurred in the wagon immediately behind.

Konohamaru walked through the aisle while being careful of his surroundings, and entered the wagon number 10.

Also in that wagon there was no one, after everyone had escaped… or so he thought, but there was the back of a trembling woman, curled into a ball on a corner of the seats.

«Excuse me, are you alright?»

When Konohamaru called out to her, the woman turned around, shaking her shoulders. Her face wet with tears, she was holding a baby to her chest.

«Y-you are…?»

«I’m a shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. As for the explosion of some time ago, the fire has already been extinguished, so please don’t worry.»

«Ahh, I’m glad… Well then, both me and my child are safe from harm then!?»

«Yes. Please, settle down and sit here, and wait.»

As he said so, Konohamaru was about to advance, but «Wait!» the woman called him to stop him.

«I, I’ve got a favour to ask, don’t leave me alone! I, I’m scared, I’m scared…»

«Err, please calm down.»

“I give up, I have to look for the bomb criminal quickly…”

Aiming at Konohamaru, who had turned around worried, the woman suddenly tossed the child she was holding.

“…eh?”

«It’s dangerous!»

He unconsciously jumped out and caught the child with both his hands, and the moment he thought that he had been foolish it was already too late. Bong, with a dull sound the baby took the shape of a shinobi in a deep-purple attire, and pushed out a kunai aiming at Konohamaru, who was in front of his nose.

Bending his body backward somehow he managed to avoid it, but it grazed his cheek and blood gushed out.

The baby was a transformed ninja!

“So this means that also the mother is an accomplice?”

The moment he thought this, he was kicked on his back from behind. Before he knew it also the mother had turned into a shinobi, and drove a right uppercut aiming at Konohamaru’s flank, who had been thrust away.

«Catching me off-guard pretending to be a weakling, such a bad personality, kore…!»

Bam!

Konohamaru kicked the ceiling with force, and dodged the uppercut of the former mother, changing his posture. The kunai of the former baby that was approaching him from the left clashed against the covering of his glove since he had almost avoided it, and he hit his face with his backfist with the same violence.

Then, he saw something sparkling at the corner of his field of vision. “—A shuriken!”

Konohamaru jumped back, and withdrew to the aisle.

He confronted with the two ninjas once again.

One of them was an elderly man. As a trace that he had transformed into a baby, a bib was still wrapped around his neck. The other one was probably a man, judging from his body and all, but since he had his face concealed by a cloth his countenance wasn’t clear. Just a mole below his left eye was his distinctive trait.

As they prepared their weapons, they looked warily at each other.

«Judging by your carriage, I suppose you’re a jōnin.» the man who had the bib wrapped around said slowly.

«Well then, how will it go?»

Trying not to give information to the enemy, Konohamaru avoided him.

«Konoha’s ninjas are all strong, kore. Someone like me could even be still a chūnin, right?»

«Don’t be modest. I’m grateful to destiny.»

«Eh?»

«I’ve been given the opportunity to kill a jōnin.»

“Confident?” Konohamaru spat out inside his mind, and quickly glanced outside through the window.

Just a little, but the speed was decreasing. In the front wagon, Sasuke had probably frozen the engine and stopped it.

“I want to finish them off before Sasuke-san returns, and show him my best, kore…”

«You won’t get away.»

The man with the mole suddenly took a step forward in front of the man with the bib.

«This man will deal with us.»

«Us?»

Almost at the same time Konohamaru was about to ask for a clarification—

Behind him, the door that led to the wagon number 9 opened, and another purple shadow slowly appeared.

«Damn it, another one…!»

Konohamaru jumped back.

With that, they were three against one… he had a moment to think that.

Behind the newcomer, there was another purple-clad ninja. Then, another one behind him, and another more behind.

Four, five, six… twelve against one.

It was not the case to say he had hoped to capture them alive. Surrounded by twelve ninjas in a semicircle, Konohamaru, who had backed off, knocked his back against the door with a thud and stopped.

“That’s bad, that’s bad, wait a second.”

Fighting with that number of people as his enemy, in that cramped wagon?

«Wait, time-out…»

The slashing attack of the twelve ninjas swooped down on Konohamaru from three directions. He was surrounded too closely, he didn’t even have room to run away.

Shadow Clones — no, turning it into a melee in such a tight space would be dangerous.

“Wah, seriously, what should I do kore…!?”

First of all, he avoided the kunai of the enemy that was getting closer in front of his eyes, leaning over.

A terrific hot wind grazed the top of his head.

Urged by crimson flames, the men backed off, faltering.

“That’s — Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.”

«Uchiha Sasuke…!»

The man with the mole breathed hard while clearing away the burning flames.

Sasuke blocked his way to protect Konohamaru, who was still crouched on the floor, and briefly asked «The situation?» with his back still turned to him.

«The enemies inside the train maybe are all with them. The leader is that old man with the bib. There’s the possibility that there’s a bigger organization behind them.»

«We’ve got to capture them alive then.»

«Yes.»

The second after Konohamaru replied, Sasuke disappeared.

When he realised it, startled, the purple clothed man that was next to him was shaking violently. As soon as the man fell onto the ground, also the man next to him went down to his knees and collapsed, crestfallen.

He beat down two men just like that.

«Here we come…!»

Another man blocked his way as to protect the man with the bib. Without a word, Sasuke thrust down his hidden blade, which was still inside the scabbard.

Protecting their leader, the man received the stroke of Sasuke’s sword with bare hand. However, there was no way he could endure it, and was thrown against the wall, blown away.

It was an overwhelming difference of battle power.

The man with the bib, after a moment of hesitation, jumped out of the window.

Crash!

Breaking the glass, he jumped outside.

«Ah, wait, kore…!»

Konohamaru gave a fleeting glance to Sasuke, but he didn’t acted as if he cared about the man with the bib.

“…so that means that I am charge of that man?”

Konohamaru followed after the man with the bib, and jumped out of the window.

*****

Sasuke had neutralised the enemies one after the other with the back of his sword and his hand.

Since the speed of his movements was at an incomparable level even if decreased by a degree, no matter who they were, they couldn’t match him. The purple-clad bomb criminals, as they couldn’t even follow Sasuke’s movements with their eyes, collapsed.

Just a couple of minutes had passed, and the purple-clothed enemies that were standing were only two. One of the two was that man with the mole, who had transformed into the mother.

«…»

Sasuke glared at the man with the mole, as if to prompt him to surrender.

«Shit…»

The one with the mole clicked his tongue, and formed short hand-seals.

Bonk!

Suddenly, a square pole made of steel sprouted from the floor under Sasuke’s feet. The sharp point stretched out with force aiming at Sasuke. Sasuke nimbly dodged it, and while he dodged it he stunned the nearest man hitting his jaw.

The steel pole pierced the roof of the Thunder Train in an instant, and stretched towards the sky while swaying.

It was a ninjutsu he had never seen before. It was quite powerful, but Sasuke’s enemy wasn’t.

Anyhow, with that, there was only one left.

Sasuke stared straight at the man with the mole, whom had saved for last, with his black bottomless pupil.

«Kuh… come, Uchiha!»

It happened the moment the man with the mole desperately unsheathed the sword on his back and got ready to attack.

«Say, how come the Thunder Train has not stoppe~d?»

An insolent voice echoed, out of place.

The door behind the man with the mole opened, and the girl who was riding the first-class car suddenly peeked through with her face.

«Get away!»

The moment Sasuke shouted, the man with the mole kicked the floor. Rushing towards the girl, he grabbed her slender body and seized her.

«…eh?»

The girl titled her head in puzzlement, without understanding the situation.

The kunai that Sasuke had promptly thrown pierced the stomach of the man with the mole. However, the movements of the man didn’t stop, and he threw the girl out of the window as if she had been a ball.

«Kyaaaaaa!!»

Crash!

The windowpane broke, and the girl was thrown outside the car.

«Tch…»

Clicking his tongue, Sasuke broke a window with a kick and jumped outside. He caught the girl’s body in midair, and landed onto the ground.

«Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-what’s that!? It’s too frightening! What’s with that man!? I was about to super-die!?»

If she was being noisy just for that, probably she wasn’t injured that bad. The man with the mole was a more serious problem.

Sasuke dropped the girl he was carrying under his arm in the nearest thicket and turned towards the train.

He jumped on it, put his feet on the window frame and peered inside.

“—Just as I thought, the man with the mole committed suicide.”

The inside of the car was dyed deep red to the roof. The man with the mole was blood-stained, and was sitting leaning on the wall. Judging from the haemorrhage of the nape of his neck, he had slashed himself with the kunai that had fallen on the floor. His ankle was slightly having convulsions, but in both his open eyes the pupils were completely dilated, and it was clear that he was already dead.

“I’ve been fooled…”

Sasuke turned upside down another men that had collapsed face-down onto the floor. A kunai was pierced on the left side of his chest, and blood was oozing out. He checked also the other men, but just like that one all of them had received a finishing blow and were dead. Probably the man with the mole was angry for the leak of information, and had killed them.

Sasuke sighed in annoyance. Even if they were bomb criminals, he had no intention of letting people die. It made impossible to get some information about the criminals, and more than that the current Hokage didn’t like people dying.

“Though we should capture at least the leader that’s being pursued by Konohamaru.”

Sasuke turned his back to the eleven corpses, and jumped down outside the wagon.

The girl from before had fallen on her backside onto the ground, and was sitting down hard. Her eyes were feebly trembling, and she was shaking for the shock.

«…How are you?» Sasuke asked, noticing the girl’s unusual appearance.

«Ah…ah…»

Her voice trembling, the girl lifted a shaking finger.

Turning his head following the point of her finger, Sasuke knew that his last hope had already vanished.

The steel ninjutsu that the man with the mole had unleashed when he was fighting against the men in the car. The steel that had sprouted from the floor had twisted and destroyed the seats, pierced the ceiling and was sharply stretching towards the sky.

The leader of those men was pierced into the point of the stretching steel,.

Just like the pray a butcherbird had pierced into a withered twig.

*****

Konohamaru, who had jumped outside the wagon, shouted at the back of the man with the bib who was running away.

«Wait, kore! Anyway I won’t let you get away, so give up!»

The man with the bib was trying to take shelter on a forest that extended next to the railway.

Konohamaru pushed the button of the Scientific Ninja Tool he kept on the inside of his wrist and grabbed a small scroll that had popped up from the firing opening.

The thing that had been stored inside was a light current attack that used Lightning Release. However, its strength was calibrated on a level that would defeat without killing and yet stun the body and block the movements even if he used it on an average ninja.

An electric shock was fired from the palm of the hand Konohamaru was holding out. While making a crackling sound, it cut through the air like a golden dragon, and hit the man with the bib straight on his back.

Crackle-crackle…!

The man pitched forward, and his body shook — however, he immediately recovered, and continued running as if nothing had happened.

“Eh? Did I miss him???”

Even if his head was full of question marks, Konohamaru followed after the man first of all. The electric shock of some time ago was something that had been surely prepared calculating the electric shock that would only stun without killing through the measurements of the Scientific Ninja Tools Team. Moreover, the electric shock had surely hit the man.

“…don’t tell me that he’s resistant to electric current?”

Even while thinking, Konohamaru climbed on top of the Thunder Train and quickly threw his sickle and chain. The weight attached to the tip of the chain seized the feet of the man with the rib.

“First of all I’ll force him to a close-range fight, kore!”

Konohamaru tugged the chain sickle.

Whoosh, the man’s body floated in the air.

The man with the bib, who was dragged towards him drawing an arc, smashed his fist aiming at Konohamaru’s face, using that impetus to counter-attack. Konohamaru guarded himself with his left hand, and grabbed the man’s head, who had come closer, with both his hands. With the intention of smashing his own head as well, he delivered a headbutt without thinking.

Dong!

The sound and the shock completely shook his skull.

Putting up with the pain in his eardrums, Konohamaru immediately moulded chakra.

“—Rasenga…”

Faster than a second, the man tore off the bib from his neck. As he grasped the bib tightly, he violently seized Konohamaru’s ankles. Against his ankles, it felt hard, completely different from cloth.

“Damn it!”

The moment Konohamaru twisted his ankle—

Boom!

The bib exploded.

An intense pain ran through his right ankle. Even if he had avoided the direct hit immediately pulling back his foot, a piece of the bomb had completely pierced his calf, and somehow it had turned into a lump of meat and scattered all around.

Of course, the left hand of the man who had set off the bomb with bare hands had been completely blown away. The man brandished his arm, which was amputated from the wrist down, aiming at Konohamaru’s face.

The blood that was spouting out from the man’s wrist went directly into Konohamaru’s eyes.

«…!»

An unbearable pain ran through his eyes. However, Konohamaru kept his eyes open with sheer will-power, and straining his eyes on his warped field of vision he twisted the man’s right arm.

«You bastards, what’s your goal! Why were you aiming at this Thunder Train!»

«Our goal?»

The man squinted his eyes in a provocative way.

«That’s right, my closest goal… is to kill you, Konoha shinobi!»

The man sent Konohamaru flying with a kick.

Konohamaru’s body, who had suffered a damage on his right leg, was simply shaking. However, also the man’s own body staggered backward for the reaction.

“—Now!”

Konohamaru gathered chakra on his palm.

“This time for sure, Rasenga…”

The next moment, a black steel pole pierced the body of the man with the bib.

«Gwah…!»

The blood the man spat out scattered in the air. Both his legs, which had languidly given way, were having convulsion, twitching, while kicking the empty space.

«…!»

Konohamaru turned towards the man’s face while dragging his leg along.

The steel pole had sprouted piercing the wagon’s ceiling. Probably someone inside had unleashed it using a ninjutsu.

The man’s cheeks were twitching, and he was showing the white of his eyes. From the other side of his tongue, which was hanging loosely, thin bloody foam was gushing out. The first drop of blood fell, and spotted Konohamaru’s shoes.

He was dead.

«Shit…» Konohamaru muttered, and collapsed on the spot. He desperately extracted the piece of metal that had pierced his calf.

He didn’t dare to meet Sasuke face to face.

On top of not having been able of getting information, he had let the enemy die.

 ~End of Prologue~

NOTES

*Pancake-like sweets filled with red bean paste. You probably already know what they look like – they’re Doraemon’s favourite food.

Konohamaru always ends his sentences with kore (lit. ‘this’), which doesn’t really have a meaning (much like Naruto’s ‘dattebayo’ or Boruto’s ‘dattebasa’). I decided to leave it as it is – sometimes it’s useful to understand who’s saying/thinking what, and I like to convey the character’s peculiar way of talking.

On a side note, I try to do my best but there are things I just can’t translate. For instance, personal pronouns and courtesy – Mitsuki uses boku for ‘I’ and uses polite language when he’s speaking to adults, while Boruto uses ore (more macho-like?) and rarely uses polite language (he uses very informal speech). Speaking of Boruto, he calls Sasuke Sasuke no occhan, which I translated with ‘Uncle Sasuke’, though it’s even more informal/casual than ojichan.

Ah, one last thing: I’m of two minds over the pluralization of Japanese nouns. When I translated things, in the past, I used not to pluralize nouns like ‘ninja’ because they’re foreign words. But sometimes it makes it hard to understand a sentence – so this time I decided to pluralize some words. (After all, ‘ninja’ is now part of the English vocabulary).

But I just couldn’t bring myself to pluralize ‘shuriken’ or ‘kunai’ – sorry.

 …as always, I promised to keep the notes as short as possible and I ended up writing a wall of text. Oh well…

EDIT: I think the prologue was released as a free preview, so I'm not going to delete this one - but, in general, when a new chapter is out, the old one gets deleted.

[batgirl-87]

For HM future ask numbers 8,9,10 and 11? I hope this helps distract you :)

Thank you for asking! 😁

From this Ask

8. How is MC’s and Jacob’s relationship now?

There may have been some tension and a need to rebuild after his disappearance and everything they went through. He left her! They were supposed to be a team! Them against the world! And he left her! Sure he may have his reasons, maybe he was trying to protect her - but look at how well that worked out! 

So some time is definitely needed to mend things but despite everything they’re still brother and sister, it still does feel like it’s them against the world - they’ve been through a lot together and only had each other to rely on. They’re still the first person the other thinks of when anything happens, good or bad to tell, to talk to, to turn to for help. And if the other called on them for help they’d drop whatever they were doing to be there for them. 

So after some time to mend and rebuild things, they’re back to being partners in crime...fighting =p They stay in contact with each other and talk as much as possible, support each other’s endeavors, and get together as often as possible. 

9. Does MC keep in touch with all their friends? Which ones do they write to the most?

They can try to escape Keira but it would be to no avail =p She loves and appreciates all her friends and all they have done for her. And she wants to keep them in her life or at least let them know how much she cherishes and appreciates them.

Of the ones she writes to the most... Well Charlie but they are sort of more than friends 😜

Tonks, of course! She wants to keep the little family she has close and Tonks and her are more than just family, they’re best friends! And they want to make sure each other is safe in their respected fields. Plus Tonks always makes her laugh still in writing. And she writes to Penny a lot who always sends her some gift with each other letter - so sweet! And Penny always manages to brighten her day with whatever she has to say and she needs the positivity still in her life. Greatly appreciated! And Penny is also probably their personal Healer in a sense that sends them healing potions they’ll need.

She also writes a lot to Barnaby, Jae, and Andre, partially for their friendship, of course, but also for work purposes. She’s always interested in Barnaby’s magical creature adventures and discoveries, plus he can provide some knowledge and insight into creatures she and Bill encounter as Curse-Breakers. And I have a personal HC that they work with Andre to create some better resistant and safer clothes, like light, comfortable armor they can wear on their Curse-Breaker missions. And Jae, well you never know what items will come in handy that he may have for them to aid them on missions, plus maybe he begins to design his own devices and they can test them out and use them on missions. And, hey, Jae also might be very good and helpful at determining certain artifacts they find...And he has connections to some shady underground business...

She still writes to the others - Tulip, Ben, Badeea, Talbott, Diego, Chiara etc. (Liz is probably working with Barnaby so she just stays in touch via Barnaby as well =p) but those handful she’s in contact with more often, partially for business or family reasons. Plus she knows they’ll all busy living their lives and doesn’t want to be a bother or worry them about her Curse-Breaker adventures but definitely keeps them informed that she and Bill are safe, no need to worry! 

10. How often does MC see their friends? Do they have an ‘anniversary’ where they all get together?

Well she sees Bill like every day because they’re partners and roommates *gasp* they were roommates...

She and Charlie travel to see each other as much as they can and stay in consistent contact as well as coordinate their visits back to the UK.

She actually sees Andre, Jae, Barnaby, and Liz often because, as mentioned previously, they do some work together so someone is traveling to see the other for some sort of reason - Barnaby and Liz are studying creatures there, Keira and Bill have new prototype clothes to try from or that need repairing by Andre (who’s designing clothes for them on top of his other work inspired/persuaded by Keira to do so - idk if he is going to become a fashion designer but he’d be great at it and definitely has the talent/skill for it so he can still do that and be a Quidditch player/working in Quidditch - The Quidditch Designer) 

And Jae for any items that may help them with their Curse-Breaking, help identifying or learning more about some objects found, and insight into what is happening with cursed object/artifacts bounty hunters, what’s being said in the underground shady business about these objects, etc. - essentially their personal source into illegal business dealings in their field.

She also actually sees Tonks and Jacob a lot, as much as possible, because they’re family and she loves them, supports them in their career endeavors; plus she and Bill may need to work with Tonks and Moody in some cases.

Any time she travels back to the UK she does try to alert anyone working there/still there that she’ll be there so they can get together and see each other. Although she sometimes does just pop up to surprise them =p Especially on birthdays! She’ll definitely always try to celebrate everyone’s birthday with them or at least send them something great and schedule a time to celebrate when they’re free.

And they definitely have a few anniversaries they celebrate. Couldn’t have just one =p

They probably celebrate on September 1 for just meeting all at Hogwarts, an anniversary to celebrate all the Vaults they survived, of course an anniversary honoring Rowan... I want to say at least one per season? Fall for meeting at Hogwarts and becoming friends, Winter for Rowan, Spring for surviving the Vaults, and Summer... I’m sure I’ll figure something out... It would help if I could better remember everything that’s happened so far 😅

Just overall being Victorious over ‘R’, the cabal - their enemies?

11. Who in the friend group was involved with the smuggling of Norbert out of Hogwarts? And how did that whole situation go?

Keira and Tonks, for sure. I’m on the fence whether Charlie was there or Norbert was just delivered to him but I’m pretty sure it’s canon that Charlie’s friends sneak Norbert out and deliver the dragon to him so he’s not actually a part of it, right?

Tulip could help develop a plan and Barnaby is the magical creature expert. Liz might even want in but I don’t want too many people! But she definitely supports it, if she doesn’t just show up to help =p And the rest of the friends, Penny, Ben, etc. will definitely know about it and await to hear how it goes down. Penny may try to figure out how to set up a muggle camera to record what happens - live stream it

So Tulip and Tonks are in charge of making the plan and then they, with Barnaby and Keira execute it to get Norbert safely out of Hogwarts. Although, with Tonks working on becoming an Auror she honestly is hesitant to go along with this and join in - despite how fun it sounds, she doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her career. But fortunately Keira is persuasive...

“Please, we can’t do this without you! We need you and your expertise!”

“I don’t know...”

“It’s a rescue mission! We have to get the innocent little dragon somewhere safe before they find it! Who better to do that than an Auror? This can really help you with your training. No one will find out. And if they do, I’ll take the blame, keep your name out of it. Besides... you know you want to. Come on, one last mischief mission - mischief rescue mission!”

“....Okay! Let’s do this!”

The gang meets in a top secret location - Okay, honestly, they probably gather at the Three Broomsticks - like old times! Commandeer the top floor for themselves, Tonks and Tulip lay out the plans across a table, they have a couple pints of Butterbeer or Fire Whiskey which is sure to make this mission a hoot. 

And by gang I mean those going on the mission as well as some extras who just want to witness as much as they can of this sure to be disaster of a mission or want to help make sure it’s not a complete disaster, such as Penny and Liz. Why do I feel like Andre, Jae, and Talbott would come just to witness the sure to be disaster? =p Jae could also offer some advice with smuggling things in and out of Hogwarts. Kind of his thing.

I feel like Bill is probably just hanging with Charlie, waiting for the dragon to be delivered because his work partner is gone, doing this nonsense, so he has a couple days off. Why not spend them with his brother?

(I so wish there was texting for wizards somehow or some speedy type of mail. 

“Your girlfriend is going to try to smuggle a dragon out of Hogwarts!”

“She’ll be fine. She’s overcome more challenging obstacles before.”

“I just got a message from Andre. They’re on their third pint.”

“....I’m sure they’ll be fine...It’ll be fine...” 😬)

“Are you sure you guys can sneak onto Hogwarts grounds,” Penny asked, clearly concerned for her friends.

“Fenrir and his pack of werewolves snuck into Hogwarts. We definitely can,” Keira informed her. Despite what everyone claims, Hogwarts was not really all that safe!

They could just fly in, but that could be way to obvious and they could be spotted - “Is it really a risk to get caught. I mean, what are they going to do? Give us detention? Expel us? We don’t even go there anymore!”  “Wouldn’t they want the dragon out of Hogwarts anyway? They should be paying us to take it!” - probably both said by Jae tbh... - Or Keira could sneak them through the tunnel under the Whomping Willow and then they could take their brooms and fly up to the tower. 

I imagine Harry and Hermione are a little excited to meet Charlie’s friends after all they’ve heard about them especially how much Ron praises his eldest brothers and their adventures with their friends while they were at Hogwarts. And now they were a Curse-Breaker and Dragonologist?! Cool! And their friends were also a Curse-Breaker, an Auror, and a Magizoologist - that’s cool! However, Ron is secretly dreading it because he knows they’re really a bunch of dorks. And now they were tipsy dorks =p 

Somehow the gang arrives before the Hogwarts First Year students on top of the tower and Tonks decides to mess with them, because that’s the type of person she is and when the trio appears (I can’t remember if Ron is in the hospital wing still or not but for my version he’s there so Keira can tease him =p) Tonks comes out from the shadows looking like Snape and scares them causing the gang to burst into laughter and come out from the shadows as well. Probably all wearing leather jackets. They look so cool. Sorry, they couldn’t resist messing with them! And honestly, a metamorphmagus?! How cool was that? Charlie had cool friends! (And since Harry isn’t the most observant, brightest kid he probably forgot he ever met Tonks until they’re reunited years later. May never even remember at all! =p)

Barnaby goes straight to the dragon because he’s so excited to see that!

“I’m no dragon expert like Charlie but... I’m pretty sure this is a female...” 

Keira messes up Ron’s hair and teases him about how much he’s grown and she remembers when he was 6 years old and sadly being tormented by Fred and George and hurt his tongue with that Acid Pop... But he talks so well, no one can even tell! She was worried there might be permanent damage =p Oh no, what happened to your hand, Ron?! Oh poor little baby Ronnie *forces into a tight embrace* Honestly I feel like it’s a lot of teasing little Ron because Charlie’s friends have definitely been invited at least once over to the Weasleys’ for something - a summer bbq, a holiday or birthday celebration - and have been around little Ronnie! 

And hey, where are Fred and George? How are they not a part of this? Also do they not miss them because they miss the Twins! The Twins definitely have to miss them, I mean, they basically idolize Tonks, Tulip, and Keira’s mischief making and Barnaby is cool and funny =p 

Ron decided that it was best to leave them out of this, they get into enough trouble on their own he didn’t want to get them involved in this too. Plus they’d probably use this to blackmail him somehow... Charlie and Bill wouldn’t do that to him. But now Keira might...crap.

And within five minutes of meeting Hermione declares she should be in Ravenclaw instead and told all of them to make friends in other Houses - it’ll enrich their lives. They were all from different Houses! And say one bad thing about Slytherins and she and Barnaby will beat you into a bloody pulp!

Honestly I don’t think Harry and Hermione know how to take these friends. Tulip and Tonks reminisce on all the pranks they played, Keira is resorting them into Houses and threatening to kick their arse if they disrespect Slytherins, Barnaby is attempting to better check on Norbert’s gender while narrowly missing being bitten or burnt. They’re just kind of a lot... And not really what they expected... 

They worked so hard on this mission, made plans, and now they’re just reminiscing on their time at Hogwarts and seem to have forgotten that they could get in trouble and have tossed the plans out the window - but like, what are they really going to do to them? They’ve also done way worse than smuggle a dragon out of the school, so the three little first years need to chill. They’ve literally fought a dragon here before, and not a baby one, so relax. 

Then Keira's all "oh so you're Harry" and basically glares at him and snubs him muttering about how he’s not that special - which honestly is a relief to him because he’s tired of being told he is! But hey, he’s a cute kid and life is going to get tough for you, trust her she knows *pats his head awkwardly* Also, Hermione is clearly the smartest one of you all so they both should listen to her, always. 

Meanwhile, Ron is urging them to take the dragon and go and get them out of there as soon as possible because the longer they’re there the more Harry and Hermione will see how not really cool they are =p Oh, also they could get in trouble... 

On one hand, they’re super cool - the jobs they have now are cool, hearing some of their stories as they reminisce are cool, and honestly they’re funny and nice and they appreciate their help! On the other hand, they’re...kind of drunk =p And dorks... and a little scary.... and weird... And after they take the dragon and leave Harry and Hermione are like ‘did that really happen?’ and Ron is just humiliated. He claims it was the Butterbeer and Fire Whiskey they clearly drank before this that made them act that way and honestly they’re way cooler than that. And because they’re in such a daze and distracted by all that, they forget about the invisibility cloak and get busted.

And that is not Keira or any of the gang’s fault!

They take the dragon, reunite with their other friends briefly - because they’re definitely not allowed to bring a dragon into the Three Broomsticks and they don’t want to get banned from there - who are surprised they actually managed to do it without getting busted or anyone getting bitten or their eyebrows singed off. And then Barnaby and Keira take the dragon to Charlie and Bill and tell them their tale 😊😆

[xjamlessparkx]

divorce | myg | 17 | FINAL

summary: in which you have to go through a painful process of your own family shattering

pairing: yoongi x reader

genre: angst

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 |12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17

You woke up to your bed being empty and you wondered if everything was a dream. Lying back into your bed you looked up at the ceiling, thinking about yesterday. You brought your hands in front of your face and spread your fingers, staring at them intensely. Remembering the warmth of his fingertips on your hand.

Smiling to yourself you stood up and walked out of your room. A heartwarming feeling was surrounding your body once your feet hit the stairs which led downstairs, following the nice odor of breakfast. You walked up to the doorframe of your kitchen and leaned you shoulder gently on the frame. The last time you saw Yoongi in the kitchen was probably while you were pregnant with Junsun. He was always taking care of you when you were pregnant. No matter how much you both argued and didn’t talk to each other, he made sure to take care of you whenever he could.

Ahran and Junsun were helping him. His back was facing you and you smiled faintly at him. How you wished to be able to walk up to him and hug him from his back. It was always those times where you longed for him the most, but rationality was keeping you from doing so. He should really make effort in deserving you and your children. This time you shouldn’t give in easily but still, give him his chance.

“Good morning, Mom!” Ahran waved her hands at you. Her voice stopping Yoongi from his actions and making him turn around to look at you.

“Morning” he mumbled, and you simply nodded at him and turned to your children to give them a soft peck on their cheeks. With that you turned to Yoongi, watching what he was cooking which made you chuckle softly. He eyed you curiously.

“What? I’m not bad in cooking!” He pouted which made you smile even wider.

“Well, I wasn’t saying it’s bad it just…” your eyes stared up at him and you just dropped your smile slightly, “Nevermind” you smiled and turned around to sit down. You didn’t mind him serving you food. From the outside, you two were looking like an ordinary married couple but if someone had to look closer they would see all the wounds of each family member. Knowing that each member suffers differently and knowing that literally nobody was at fault but each one had their causes. You wanted to stop blaming others for your failures.

“Where is my mom?” you asked as everyone sat around the table and started eating while you looked for her.

“She probably didn’t wake up.” Yoongi clarified and you just nodded your head.  

You sat up straight as you looked around the room, searching for your mother. Standing up, you decided to go upstairs to look after your mother.

“I‘ll be back“ you mumbled as you turned around to leave the kitchen. You went upstairs and opened the door to the room of your mother. She was sitting on the ground, in front of her a huge luggage as she started packing.

“Mom? What are you doing? “ you questioned as you stepped closer. With your question she noticed your presence as she turned her head, sighing lowly while smiling faintly.

“My work is done here. I was here to support you-„ she said, folding her clothes as she placed them in her luggage, one by one, „But I see that you start to support yourself. I see that you finally start to make your own decisions, showing me that you’ve grown up. Even though, your decision might be wrong in my perspective. I am happy to see that you rely on your words.“ she finished her words as she packed one last item before closing the zip of her luggage.

“Mom, I still need you,“ you kneeled down next to her as you watched her carefully. Your heart breaking apart, knowing that you will be left alone.

“Don’t leave me alone, please“ your hand reached out for hers as you squeezed them tightly. Her free hand moved on yours as she drew circles with her thumb on the back of your hand.

“You’re not alone. You have two beautiful children behind you and most importantly you have yourself who can build yourself up anytime. With strength and confidence“ she said, trying to motivate you. You knew that you were the opposite of strength and confidence, but her words were warm and nice, giving you hope for the future.

“Mom“ you mumbled, „No matter how old one grows. I figured that everyone still needs their parents for advice and help. Even though I‘m a mother myself, I thought what you would do in my position. I asked you for help and called you and you knew how broken I was, no matter how much I tried to cover up my sorrow. I‘m thankful for having you“ you smiled as you leaned in to give her a tight embrace. She stroked your head gently as you leaned your head on her shoulder, missing her closeness.

“Thank you“ you exclaimed as you were cut off by four small arms surrounding your body. You started giggling as your children hugged their grandmother jealously.

“Grandma are you leaving?“ Ahran stared at her a little sad. Your mother nodded, leaning back as she looked at her grandchildren.

“Can’t you stay longer?“ Junsun asked but your mother chuckled.

“Your grandpa will get angry. Plus, he has been alone for a while I‘m sure he missed me“ she giggled, “But next time you all have to visit us, okay?“ with that she stared directly into your direction. You smiled as you stood up.

“When are you leaving?“ you asked.

“In two hours to be exact“ she stared at her watch and your mouth dropped open.

“When you told me, you will leave I thought that you would stay a few days before your departure-„ she cut you off, standing up.

“I’ve stayed enough, already.“ she clarified, looking behind you.

“Will you bring me to the station?“ she asked and you furrowed your eyebrows, turning your head to who she was talking to. Yoongi bit his lip as he nodded hesitantly, knowing that he will have to listen to her gradual speech until she hops on the train.

“Great“ she stood up as she grabbed her jacket and a small handbag.

You followed her behind until she was at the front door.

“Mom you can’t leave without eating anything. Let me at least give you something to snack and eat until you arrive home“ you exclaimed as you turned around to the kitchen to grab a small bag. You put in some snack, fruits, something to drink and chocolate.

“I wish you would’ve told me earlier about your departure. I would at least buy a present for dad“ you said as you handed her the small bag.

“Your happiness and luck are present enough for us both“ she smiled as she leaned in to give you a tight hug. Her arms caressed your hair as you rested your head on her shoulder.

“I will miss you“ you mumbled which she responded with a chuckle.

“Call me when you arrive home safely“ she nodded as she turned around to your children and hugged them as a goodbye. She smiled back at you all and you saw how Yoongi took her luggage and brought it into the car.

“Take care,“ she said as she waved her hands while she hopped into the car.

Indeed, Yoongi was shifting nervously on the driver’s seat, his hands tugging onto the steering wheel. He focused on the road in front of him and was ready for the serious talk.

“You’re pretty tensed up Yoongi” she chuckled slightly as she focused on the road in front of her.

“I’m worried …” he exclaimed honestly, his eyes not leaving the road.

“Yoongi, I know that what happened between you and Y/N was heartbreaking. There were times where I simply cursed you and I never respected you through that time. I only put on the nice mother in law because of your children. I know how much children suffer from their parents not being by their side. From parents who were about to divorce and have a long way in front of them. Their silence is louder than a thousand words” she spoke tremulously.

“I don’t accept your behavior towards Y/N. Because I know how much of a weak person she still is. I hope that this opened her eyes and made her stronger though. If it weren’t for your disloyalty maybe you two would’ve even better hopes and chances in the future. As for now, I don’t want you to push her, but wait for her and fight for her if you really want her back. Give her time” she said, noticing that the station got closer, knowing that soon she had to say goodbye for a long time.

“I totally understand what you’re trying to say. No matter how much I think of it, I just can’t find anything bad she has done. It’s all my fault-“ you mother cut him off.

“C’mon Yoongi. The phase of giving each other the fault or responsibility is over. It’s not about finding the culprit anymore. It’s about finding a judgment. You’ve been sitting in this court for a long time and every evidence, everything that happen has to be left behind to be able to fix the future. But leaving everything behind doesn’t mean to forget about it. Learning from mistakes is one key in a marriage. If you’re not able to do that then fighting makes no sense” she looked at him one last time as she got out of the car. He followed her and took out her luggage, accompanying her to the train station and making sure that she hops on the train before he leaves.

Yoongi knew that his mother in law was right. She had been there for Y/N in her worst and he is thankful for that. He felt like the worst human being on earth as if he lost the most precious jewel in his life. Not losing but throwing it away with his own hands as if it meant nothing. He couldn’t remember the last time he shared a nice conversation with you, the last time he held you, the last time he kissed and truly loved you. These wonderful days were so far away and unreachable, in fact, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to bring those days back. Of course, if he insists to fight he must keep being optimistic and motivated, but he just can’t think of you being happy by his side again. He felt like he ripped you apart. But he couldn’t leave your pieces disordered when he knows that he was the cause of your broken state. Even if his fight can end without a happy ending, he wants to make sure that he brings together all of those broken and lost pieces of you. If it means letting you go for you to be happy, he was ready to do that.

“Take care of my child Yoongi” his mother in law interrupted his thoughts as he put his lips in a line, nodding wholeheartedly. Your mother smiled at him as she waved at him the last time before hopping on the train to leave.

Nobody has a perfect relationship, a marriage or a life. In everything, every human being is being confronted by their ups and downs. Each human being has a different capacity of dealing with the stress, the depression and with the sorrow. Sometimes one may feel suffocated and lost in their own world. In their own body and circumstances. You start wondering where this unusual pain comes from and why you have to be the one who has to suffer from it. Does everyone suffer like you do? Telling people that there are worse incidents or situations in the world isn’t helping at all since everyone has a different perception of the pain and how they deal with it. What might sound like a small depression phase to one, can mean something even deeper and worse for another? Nobody can measure pain.

Yoongi and you had to endure this dull and painful phase of coming close to shatter and fall apart. In some states, you felt lost, even though you had your mother and children supporting you. The more people surrounded you, the lonelier you felt. For Yoongi, it was totally different. He thought that he was doing good by giving in the divorce papers and deciding to leave you abruptly. Without thinking about the consequences, Yoongi decided to take a path he now regrets walking on.

You went through hardships with him, argued with him and even refused to divorce him. Trying your best to delay the divorce date because it was hard letting go of him.

After your mother left, the house felt empty but normal again. As if nothing happened. Yoongi was picking up your children after school and brought them home while you were working. With a lot of patience and hard work, you were accepted as an accountant staff in a small company near your place. Yoongi didn’t live far away from your house. He was happy and relieved when he had the chance to pick up his children to spend time with them on the weekends. Your children accepted their situation and relayed on the small glimpse of hope of their parents eventually reuniting.

“Happy birthday Ahran!” Yoongi held a small cake in his hands. His hands were red from the cold winter days. The ground was covered with snow and you chuckled behind your daughter, laughing at the way the cake looked frozen. Ahran clapped into her hands as she grabbed her father’s arm to pull him inside the house.

“It’s freezing” he muttered, giving his daughter her cake while he took off his coat. The house was pretty warm.

“I figured,” you said, taking Junsun’s hand and walking into the living room with him.

“My present is a lot better, right” you whispered into your daughters’ ear as she started chuckling while opening up her gifts from everyone.

“Yah! Y/N I want to know what’s so funny” he laughed, coming closer, making you wince at his closeness before you turned around.

“It’s a secret”

You haven’t recovered from these days at all and it was hard to forget the pain every time your eyes met his. But he was making sure that you were smiling more each day he met you. On Christmas, you visited your families. You all met up at your mother’s place, together with your parents in law. They were just as sweet and caring as your own parents. The joyful time of families reuniting and sharing their happiest moment together ended fast as new years eve came closer. You remembered sitting in front of the window as you watched the firework, shutting your eyes and wishing that one day you will sit here with your two children and your husband to make a wish together. As a family.

Work has been tiring these days and you found yourself exhausted on the couch, sleeping and not having much time for your children. But Yoongi was there to help you out. He made sure that you ate a lot and took your time for work and family. As the time passed you found yourself spending time with each other as a family, forgetting about everything as the four of you were together.

You knew that slowly, your pieces were returning to its place and it made your sorrow and pain fade away eventually if not, it let you get used to it and your situation. The years passed like autumn leaves in the wind and Ahran turned 14 while Junsun was still a baby in your eyes.

Loud music banged through the halls and you rolled your eyes at your daughter blasting her rock music through the whole house, letting everyone including the neighbors have a sneak peek into her taste of music. Her music was so loud that you barely heard the door ringing. You opened the door to greet Yoongi, holding the hand of Junsun who wasn’t pleased by that.

“What took you so long?” He got in and the moment he heard the music he shook his hand, not thinking that’s necessary to give an answer to his question.

“Dad, stop holding my hand. I’m not a baby anymore” he pouted as he went into the kitchen to grab some snacks. Your mouth dropped open as you chuckled at his behavior. What you thought is that when children are young one will struggle with them. The truth is actually that the more they grow up the bigger the struggle will be with them.

“Ahran!” you yelled from downstairs, she annoyingly opened the door.

“What?” she called out.

“Your father is here, come downstairs. Also, turn the music down!” you yelled, not being able to be understood by her. She pecked her ear at you, showing you that she can’t hear you.

“Your music!” you yelled at her.

“I know it’s so good, right!” she laughed it off, purposely ignoring your request as she shut her door and returned to her music.

“Puberty, I guess” Yoongi mumbled, looking at the door of Ahrans room and the way Junsun went as you chuckled. Yoongi was visiting often and he still had the key to your house because you didn’t want him and his children to have a distant relationship. Even though he was working hard, he made sure to give his children and your extra time.

“Y/N”, he started, “I was thinking. This weekend I will receive an extra paycheck and I thought about-“ he bit his lips, struggling to find a good way to ask you out. “I want to celebrate it with you. Should we go and grab something to drink?”

“Celebrate a paycheck?” you giggled, knowing where this conversation led to.

“I want to ask you out. For a new try. A new start.” He finally spits out as you stared at him intensely. Of course, your broken pieces weren’t found all together and you still lacked in many things. You were, just like him, hoping for your family to reunite again. But this time, you didn’t want to push anything. You wanted to wait and let the time heal your wounds completely.

Both of you made mistakes and with those mistakes, you learned to become a new self. Learned to fight for yourself, to respect yourself and love yourself. Yoongi did the same and to add on that he tries hard to fix his flaws and mistakes. For these past years he tried his very best to make you happy and this time he took his courage together to ask you out.

“Maybe, one day” you smiled at him, this time he knew that he had high chances. He just had to make sure to fight harder and more. It was a good sign from your side and he smiled as well, weakly since he still expected you to say yes today. Maybe he still has to wait a little more. Patience.

“Maybe”

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #274

“now i can hear the marching feet / they’re moving into the street”

What color was the last swimsuit you wore? I only have a black one. Is your dream job attainable? I mean define “dream job.” I’d ideally be a meerkat biologist if I was willing to live in Africa and could handle even mild heat, but I can’t/won’t do either of those, so it’s not obtainable to me. I’d also love to be a paleontologist if I could travel and handle heat once more, but again, I can’t. My only *attainable* dream job is being a photographer, which I am aiming for. I’d LIKE to focus on nature/wildlife photography, but that’s unlikely to be able to support me, so. Do you have to go to school or work tomorrow? N/A Have you slept for longer than usual today? Yes, but only because of my nightmares. I tend to take at least two (though sometimes one) hour-long naps during the day because if I wake up once during the night, as I usually do, I’m fucked because I’m very likely to have an intense nightmare. It seems like the medicine I’m on wears off with consciousness, I guess. I only allow myself to sleep an hour at daytime because my mother has noticed if I have a nightmare, it’s usually no earlier than one hour into sleep. Even then I still have them occasionally. Have you ever taken classes for a musical instrument? Recorder in elementary school was necessary for whatever stupid reason, and then I played the flute for years. Out of school, I took guitar lessons for a while. I got semi-decent (at best I could do the intro to “Crazy Train” at normal speed, I think), but it didn’t last because it was annoying/time-consuming to build up the calluses that make playing painless, I was really bad at overthinking where my fingers were, and I just wasn’t invested quite enough. I’ll tell you, it gave me mad respect for guitarists, that shit isn’t easy by any means. Have you ever been on vacation with someone other than your family? Yes, though it was brief. I was a kid (okay, pre-teen, w/e) still in my separation anxiety from Mom phase and it was literally because of me we had to go home. I still feel shitty about it, though no one seemed upset at me. How old do you think you’ll be when you move out on your own? Who the fuck even knows anymore. Do you have a job? If so, where do you work? If not, do you want one? No; N/A; yes ultimately but no at the current moment because I have to keep watch over Mom. If you wear make-up, which brand of foundation/powder do you use? N/A Would you call yourself a “people” person? Nope. What is one change you need to make in your life this month? Just one??? What’s been tugging on your heart lately? My PTSD plus self-image has been very, very bad. What is the last thing you did that made you feel guilty? Mom had to clean up my cat’s projectile vomit even though she’s supposed to stay away from this kinda stuff through chemo. I literally cannot fucking touch vomit, never mind what came out of him that night. I felt like absolute fucking shit and I still do because WOW I’m a great adult right!! Do you have any physical traits that are bothering you lately? Like, everything. What kind of dog is your favorite? I’m biased to beagles. What was the last thing you received in the mail? A book. What is the last thing you wrote? Like, physically? My signature at the doctor’s office. Do you still care about the person you first kissed? Way fucking more than I should. Do you require a lot of private time? Definitely more than most people. Do you have any songs currently stuck in your head? I haven’t listened to it in forever for ~reasons~, yet “The Mortician’s Daughter” is stuck in my head badly and really needs to fuck off. What was the last song you downloaded? I dunno, I went on a download binge a while back. Have you ever read a really funny book? I remember at least one. “Bite Me” by IDR-Who. Some vampire satire. Have you ever done something humiliating while drunk? Never reached the point of being drunk. How would you react if your celebrity crush came to your door? fuckin YIKES I am NOT attractive rn go away Has your mom/dad ever walked in on you kissing or anything more with someone? HAHA my mom has always had the decency to knock, not so much his mom a;lwkejrewoei but the answer’s still no. What electronics are in your room? (DVD player, CD player, etc) This laptop, my phone, a Nintendo DS, my iPod… Do you have a box anywhere with special items you'll to keep forever in it? Yes, actually. Grew up calling them “treasure boxes.” Do you have any pictures of yourself on your bedroom walls? Lol no, I’d definitely prefer to not see myself as much as I can. That sounds melodramatic, but I’m being serious. It either depresses me or makes me angry. Does your dad collect anything? The Cleveland Browns’ football team stuff, for one. Maybe Carolina Hurricane stuff, too? Idk. I don’t live with him and don’t go in his “man cave” at his house often ha ha. What's better, a desktop or laptop? Explain. A laptop. Portable; that’s all the explanation ya really need. Do your parents still hide chocolate eggs around on Easter for you? Nah. What do you typically do on Easter Day? We go to my sister’s house to watch the kids do their egg hunting and open their gifts, then we usually go to Ashley’s in-laws’ for dinner. Is there anyone you literally need to exist? Apparently not. Thought so. Never let yourself into that state of mind. What would you prefer to get from a guy/girl: flowers, a hand-written poem, a picture he drew of you or a nice night out? Oh, a hand-written poem would wreck me, yeesh. Or a drawing. But any would be very sweet. Do you remember why you made the last mistake you did? I don’t know the most recent mistake, but probably because I’m just in general a terrified person who second-guesses or overanalyzes everything. Did you check how many calories the last thing you ate had? Yes. I’m back on my calorie-counting obsession again. Are your nails long or short? Short, always. I can’t keep them long. What is your favorite kind of cookie? Just the ordinary chocolate chip is fine. What was the last compliment you received? I don’t know. Who will be the next person you kiss? I normally delete this question because the answer should be so obvious, but I feel like just pointing it out that no one fucking knows who they’re gonna kiss next. It’s a dangerous mindset. Don’t make assumptions about what you’ll have even tomorrow. Have you ever made your own icon? Yeah, on many sites. They’re just about always just edits, though, not truly original work. What color is your computer mouse? It’s black. Have you ever been sung to on your birthday in a restaurant? Yes. Do you like black olives? I don’t like olives period. Do you actually think there will be a zombie apocolypse? Personally, no. I do think it’s scientifically possible, we already see this in insects, but I just don’t imagine it happening to humans before we’re our own downfall. Do you like the person you’ve become over the past years? Fuck no. Have you ever gone to church just to get a significant other? … No…? Have you ever punched a wall out of complete anger? No, that shit is terrifying. Are you really ticklish? YES don’t fucking touch me. How do you decide what you're going to eat each day? I just follow what I’m craving that day. How are you similar to your siblings? Different? Compared to Ashley and Nicole at least, I can’t think of any real similarities off the top of my head. They’re intelligent, motivated, outgoing, successful, yada yada, then there’s me. What's your favorite type of non-fiction literature? Autobiographies by people I’m actually interested in. Do you believe in souls? Soulmates? Souls, absolutely. Soulmates, no. It’s fairytale ideation to think your soul has a perfect match with another, hate to break it to ya. Favorite soundtrack? BITCH don’t make me choose between Shadow of the Colossus and Silent Hill 2. Fucking masterpieces. Pianos or guitars? *shrugs* Depends on the music and my mood. Did an animal ever bite you? Never seriously. How many languages do you speak? Only English fluently. I’m poor at German by now. Wiggly worms or bumble bees? Worms gross me out, bees are Good Boys. Religion? I don’t really identify with any. I just believe there’s some form of ultimate intelligence and essences beyond just the body, and that’s all I even pretend to know. Fog, thunder, or rain? Fog gives me that Silent Hill Vibe *Italian kiss* What regret keeps coming back to haunt you daily? The way I treated Jason after the breakup. If you could cure yourself of one allergy, what would it be? Damn pollen. Do you know anyone else with your name? Yeah. What would you be most afraid of happening if you were to visit Africa? Viruses or botflies. Where are you tempted to move to sometimes? I very legitimately want to live in Canada by now, but I won’t because I’m not moving that far from family. Who seems like they have the perfect life? I try not to make that assumption of anyone. Do you ever take pictures of negative moments? Does taking pictures of roadkill count???? lmao probably Do you think it would be a good idea to post photos of negative moments as well as positive? Well… I guess it depends. Like ngl, the pictures some people share of them having panic attacks to just show how fucking real they are definitely touch you, as do those depicting poverty, etc., BUT I really do think there are limits and also differences in motivations. What time zone are you in? EST. Would you ever post a picture of yourself crying on social media? Wow, speaking of. No. ^Why or why not? I am an UGLY cry-er, my man. But I also just don’t want people to see that, and it’s definitely not on my mind to take a picture during a breakdown. What was the last thing you cried about? My life. Have you ever held a newborn baby? Yes. Do you know anyone who has twins? Yes. Where do you buy calendars from? I don’t. Do you shop at the dollar store often? Not *often*, but we’ll stop by for a snack or something sometimes. Are you following in the career path of any family members? No. Do you feel you missed out on a lot as a kid? I guess in some ways. Who was that best friend you ever had? Sara. What color is your laptop? Black. What are five careers you think you’d be good at? My work history has shown I can’t do shit right. Are you thriving in your life right now? lmao no one is in 2020. Who do you have moral support from? My family, doctor, and a few friends. Who encourages you to go after your dreams? The same as above. Do you have people in your family who want you dead? Wow, I hope not. Do you have a walk-in closet? No, but my room at the new house will. :’) Not that I need one, it’s just pretty cool. How do you feel about people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos having so much power and control in the world? Do you believe that any one person should have so much power? Let’s be real, in our current world, money is power, and no one should have that much control of the world, especially if your intentions are bad. NOW I don’t know jack shit about any of those are far as morals go, but just saying. It’s dangerous. Has your anxiety alone ever prevented you from doing something you wanted to do? This is ACTUALLY the story of my fucking life. Do you enjoy reading stories and novels that are heavily stylistic, poetic, or unconventional or do you prefer your prose to follow a familiar grammatical structure? Okay, I LOVE those, like Johnny Got His Gun and The Handmaid’s Tale that’s kinda like, run-on writing. Just letting a train of thought go. Those are two of the most powerful books I’ve ever read and they’re both written in a unique fashion. Have you ever fallen for any sort of Internet-based hoax? (e.g., fake celeb death, satire news article…) I’m sure at some point, especially as a kid. Do you tend to read reviews before you watch a movie or read a book? What do you hope to get out of doing so? NO. I don’t wanna have any precognition. When you go to a concert, how far must you travel for the most usual venues you visit? Most are on the other end of the state, and NC is long, so. We’re lucky if they come to Raleigh. Do you rent movies frequently? I never do, really. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Take pictures or swim. What’s your favorite meal to cook? I don’t cook. What movie has been taken WAY too far, as far as sequels go? Oh, I’m sure there are some, but none immediately come to mind. I’m not that into movies. Do you refuse to eat certain foods because of what they look like? Yes. I am VERY poor at getting past how a food looks. What are you listening to? NSP’s cover of “Don’t Fear The Reaper.” It’s fuckin gorgeous. How much homework do you have tonight? N/A Are you wearing any bracelets? Yes; one that Sara got me as well as an ovarian cancer awareness one. What's physically wrong with you right now? JINKIES I just feel really lethargic like always. Do you take any medications daily? Ha ha thanks for actually reminding me I need to now. When was the last time you moved to a new house? Two years ago, and now we’ll be moving to a much better place by the end of this month/early September, finally. When it comes to relationships, are you the jealous type? Nah. Which gift cards do you have in your wallet? Idk actually. It’s not like I use it a lot. Can you remember the last time you felt ill? What was wrong with you? A few nights ago. I was extremely hot, dizzy, and pretty nauseated. I was fine, though. If you wear make-up, do you take it with you, to reapply throughout the day? Does your make-up stay for a long time after you first apply it, or do you find that you need to reapply often? Are you wearing any make-up atm? I pretty much never wear makeup so have never really had a reason to reapply it. I’m definitely not wearing any now. Does your kitchen have a theme? No. Do you like ice cream sandwiches? GIRL yes. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones? Earbuds. They’re more comfortable imo but more importantly block out exterior noise very well. Are you a fan of any independent films? ngl, I don’t know exactly what that is and I don’t feel like looking it up. Could you possibly write a successful novel? I very genuinely think some of the RP stories I’ve taken part in are novel-worthy, yes. I wanted to make them books when I was younger, but now I no longer do mainly because there are areas that are just way too fucking dark that I don’t wanna put out there but play massive parts in the stories, so like… Do you regularly watch the news? I never do. Facebook is my “news” source lmao. Who was the last person you video-chatted with? I don’t remember for sure, maybe some doctor? What do you want the theme of your wedding to be? I don’t really think about this, seeing as my mind has changed enough, and it also depends on what my partner wants, too. Have you ever been caught passing a note in class? Noooo, I absolutely hated passing notes because I was genuinely a good student. I only did so very, very rarely if another friend started it. Have you ever had dandruff? I have dandruff AND a dry scalp. It’s a wonderful mix. Have you ever gone through a phase of crushing on EVERYONE? Definitely not. Do you have any clothes with spikes/studs on them? I have a spiked choker, and I might still have gloves with studs? Can you remember what you last clapped for? My mom’s birthday! :’) Have you ever given a pet to someone else? Yes, with cats; we had to do that quite often when I was a kid because we had so many cats, none which we could afford to fix. Then we’ve done it with two dogs we just couldn’t handle. Oh yeah, I gave my iguana away too because he was too high maintenance for me, but also because he DESPERATELY needed a much bigger terrarium, which we couldn’t afford. I absolutely could not watch him in that tiny tank. I miss him a LOT, but he went to a wonderful home! The lady who adopted him sent me pictures upon pictures months after taking him in. Do you know anyone named Walter? No. What's your least favorite ice-cream flavor? Strawberry is fucking disgusting. And that’s coming from someone whose favorite fruit is strawberries. What's your least favorite song by your favorite artist? I’m not sure. There’s a handful that just don’t grab my attention that I don’t even remember them. What was the last good news you heard? I can FINALLY talk to my psychiatrist tomorrow. Who’s your favorite singer of all time? Probably Freddie Mercury. What airline do you fly most? Idk, I don’t really pay attention. I haven’t flown very often though anyway. Do you have a dog that is destructive? I don’t have a dog. What’s one TV series you’ve seen every episode of? Meerkat Manor is the most obvious, ha ha. Maaaaany times. Assuming you have Facebook, who last left you a wallpost? Probably my friend Sammi. Assuming you have hair, how are you wearing it today? It’s too short for me to “wear” it any particular way. It’s just… there lmao. Assuming you're not homeless, what kind of living arrangements do you have? I live with my mom in a house she’s renting. Have you or have you ever considered messing around with the same sex? I’m bisexual so you can guess I’m not opposed to it. Are you particular about any brands of food you will or will not eat? Are there any restaurants you refuse to go to? Brands, no. I don’t eat Chick-fil-a because they’re run by fucking homophobic bigots that monetarily support conversion therapy and other anti-LGBT projects. I’m not giving you any fucking money. What was the most current dream you can remember about? Do you generally dream every night, or hardly at all? It was actually last night, when I dreamed about accidentally running into Jason where I last knew he worked, and he was really hostile. If I don’t take my medicine, I always have nightmares when I sleep.

[seafoamkazuo]

Does Schrodinger’s Cat have nine lives?

 Prologue - Next

Chapter 1: Future Problem Children

Pairings: None so far.

Sachie Komuro is not a good person.

“Sachie, how was school? Did you make any new friends?” Her mother smiled softly as she walked in the door of the apartment.

“Ummm…” She paused unable to immediately answer. “Well… Dad…”

She never was.

She felt the cold weight of her father’s hand on her shoulder. “Picked her up today… She was kind of upset about it. Guess it’s not cool to have your Dad come get you at school anymore, right?”

Sachie glanced up at her father, her mind fuzzed a bit around the edges. She had not really wanted to tell her mom after all. “Yeah… that’s right… It’s kind of embarrassing.”

Not since her father realized just what her quirk could do.

Sachie stood still at the door way as her father walked past her as her mother continued to speak, “Well… honestly I think she’d be fine walking home. The area around Nabu Middle School is supposed to be safe enough.”

“What and leave my little girl susceptible to villains there are more around than you think.” Sachie stared at the ground trying to clear her head letting her parent’s conversation disappear into the background. It was not like it mattered anyways she hadn’t been to school in the last five days. Dad had kept taking her out after day three.

Not since her quirk came in.

Sachie gasped for breath turning a corner before she ran into someone. She felt the shove coming more than she saw it. Going limp as she was shoved against the large window of a convenience store. She heard it wobble as she slide down. “S-s-s,” She tried to speak but the combination of her mad dash and memories caught the words in her. She heard Schrodinger beginning to yowl and hiss. She glanced over as she curled in on herself. She was surprised the cat had managed to keep pace with her. The man who shoved her grumbled out something, the familiar sound of an umbrella opening as the man stalked away. Right it was raining, no wonder Schrodinger was upset. She heard the swift movement of steps in her direction. “Are…. Ou… okay?” Her ears were ringing she could not make out what they were saying. Maybe they would leave her alone if she did not reply. They seemed concerned from what she could make out though; that was nice of them.

Schrodinger butted their head against her leg. There fuzzy face sinking into the leg in a way that would have been startling if Sachie was not used to it. Sachie unwrapped a hand from around her legs letting her finger stroke the fur on the Schrodinger’s back. They fell through entering the subspace that was the storage dimension that cat created. It wasn’t really what she wanted to do but she could never quite pet the cat right when she was upset. As she continued to pet Schrodinger, she could still feel the slight softness of their fur even if her fingers were still going through them. She heard additional murmurs but rather than concerned they seemed more focused on how interesting her quirk was. Sachie looked down to see Schrodinger walking through her legs as they tried to rub up against them. Sachie snorted a bit which caused Schrodinger to let out a soft, “Mrrp” as they stuck their head through Sachie’s leg. The face poking out past her knee. Sachie continued to run a hand along Schrodinger’s back bringing the other scratch underneath Schrodinger’s chin. She was spoiling them; she really should stop after all even if she thought these antics were cute other people were probably freaked out by the cat passing through her limbs. Sachie rolled her shoulders before putting a hand on the ground to stand up.

Then a hand appeared in front of her, “Here, are you doing better now?” Sachie froze at the movement and slowly looked up. There was a boy with vivid green eyes and a smile on his face watching her. She quickly averted her eyes as she took the boys hand who suddenly tugged pulling her to her feet. She stumbled a bit before righting herself wondering why she could not share in Schrodinger’s cat like grace, “If it isn’t too much invasive is that your quirk?” The boy seemed to point at Schrodinger, “I mean I thought at first that maybe you just had a quirk that let you phase through things but then I remembered that you ran into that gentleman earlier. Though I suppose maybe it’s a quirk that only works if you know the person is coming. I guess I shouldn’t really assume.” The boy continued to murmur to himself under his breath as Sachie could only stand there and listen as the he continued to ramble. Sachie looked down at her hand, she wondered if he realized he was still holding it. Sachie frowned before she decided to get his attention by running her thumb against his knuckles. The results were immediate. The boy threw his hands up gesturing wildly while apologizing.

“It’s fine.” Sachie stated as she looked at her hand, she almost felt disappointed. She shook her head slightly.

The boy looked at her a bit wide-eyed as if remembering something, “Ah but seriously are you alright. It looked like that guy shoved you pretty hard. The window even seemed to wobble.”

“I’m good.” She wasn’t really but in the context of the shove; it wasn’t the worst hit she’d taken over the years. “I went limp… so It didn’t hurt as much as it could of… or wait… Are you supposed to tense up when you take a hit?” She paused in thought before abandoning the idea, “I can never remember which it is?”

“That might be something good to look up for Hero work…” The boy began murmuring under his breath again.

“Hero work?” She tilted her head considering him for a moment.

“Ah yeah. I’m training for the U.A. Entrance Exams by cleaning up the beach.” The boy smiled again, “I’m on a pretty strict schedule… but it ended up downpouring so I was going to take cover for bit but then I saw you and…” The boy looked off a bit sheepishly, “You looked like you need help. Though I suppose I didn’t really end up doing much to help in the end.”

Sachie frowned before flushing her gaze turning away, “I mean… You actually came over to help. So… I say that was good heroic instinct in my opinion. You’d probably make a good hero.” She peered over in his direction and then jolted back. This kid had the ability to produce an ungodly number of tears. She averted her gaze again before looking down at Schrodinger; that was right. She really could not deal with tears, “Anyways… You wanted to hear about my quirk, right?” She opened up her arms so Schrodinger could leap into them. The cat snuggled into her arm rolling so that their belly was facing up. It was cute but that was beside the point, “Observe.” She brought Schrodinger in close to her cradling him in the crook of her one arm as she lifted her other hand up. The boy leaned over towards her eyes watching her intently as her finger glide into Schrodinger’s stomach like they were phasing through an object. She heard him beginning to mumble under his breath as he watched and while normally only sticking her hand in was all she had to do. She kind of couldn’t help but show off a bit; she allowed her hand to go deeper sinking her limb up to her elbow into the cat. She heard the boy shift beside her and figured he was trying to look and see if her hand had passed through Schrodinger but she knew already that it hadn’t. She then paused, trying to think of something she had on Schrodinger. “Umm… wait… what do I have?” Frowning she looked at the kid staring intently before something popped in her mind. She then pulled her arm back out of Schrodinger along with a protein bar. “… Ta-… Tada?” She then held out the protein bar to him.

She paused, the look on the boy’s face was not what she expected. His eyes seemed to light up with a sort of glee, “That’s amazing! Can you pull anything out of your cat?!” The boy seemed to go off on a tangent of theories as she felt her face grow warm. She was probably bright red; she wished she could pull her hood down over her eyes as if it would help quell her embarrassment. She’d never really received compliments before. She could feel her mouth trying to twist out of the neutral friendly expression she had put on. The guilt was eating at her again, why was this kid praising her. “Does the item have to be a particular size in order to be created- “

“Ah no it’s not creation,” She interrupted continuing to hold out the bar in the hopes that eventually the boy would take it from her. “My quirk is Schrodinger’s Cat. Schrodinger here is sort of like a pocket dimension where I can keep things that I can lift and place inside them. I can’t tilt a heavier object in that I would not be able to carry.  Of course, I also have to remember that they are in there or I won’t be able to pull them out.”

“That would be really good for rescue work though or even with Support work. You could probably carry around a lot of delicate medical equipment or supplies. Plus, since your cat can move on their own, you’d be able to maneuver around in tight spaces and not have to worry about equipment getting stuck. Are you thinking about taking the exams too?”

“No. I can’t.”

“Huh,” She kept her gaze averted, she had not meant to say that so bluntly. She frowned look down at her shoes. “Why not?” How was she supposed to answer that question?

“I… don’t really have the smarts for it. U. A’s got some pretty high standards, I doubt I’d pass the written portion and I’d assume there was some sort of practical portion as well.” Plus, it was not like someone like her deserved to try anyway. Especially with what had happened earlier. She was not a good person.

“I mean… it doesn’t hurt to try at least.”

“I suppose…” Sachie looked out past the awning of the building, “Looks like the rain’s cleared. Might want to get to the beach while you can. Also…” She shook the bar one more time hoping he would take it from her. “This is yours by the way. You look like you’re about to fall over.”

“I.” He looked like he was about to reject it but instead took it, “I’m Izuku Midoriya by the way.”

“Sachie Komuro.”

“Maybe we’ll see each other at the exams. Ummm... see you around.” And with that last statement he was gone running down the street again.

She watched him leave before looking down at her hand, “Maybe… probably not though…”