#also I almost laughed out loud due to the fox thing.

[thatone-brightstar]

The Bear & The Fox (Carmy Berzatto x Fem!Reader)

Chapter 3: Pin a Fox skin to the wall, call it decoration

Words: 4.9k

Summary: With a few drinks in, you both confess your feelings. But there's always something getting in the way.

a/n: I am the gift that keeps on giving! So here's the next chapter cuz I feel shitty just leaving it in my documents and you all have been so nice! Enjoy! xx

P.S. Reader is Latina in this, so there's gonna be melanin for daysss.

“How much longer do you think you're gonna be?!” Syd yelled at her phone through the noisy bar.

Everyone was on a different wave of conversation, ranging from sports to food to whatever new show they were hooked on. The buzz of chatter around them combined with the pulsing music and lack of food in his system was enough to create a growing migraine in Carmy’s head. He gladly took a swig of the beer in front of him to dumb out the increasing sensation as he waited for Syd to hang up on you. He thought their reaction to joining them would be one of distaste or discomfort but his first drink had been on Sweeps, who was glad to finally see him outside the perimeters of The Beef. 

“I like what you’ve done to the place.” He said after finishing the second beer. “But you gotta lighten up, man. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Also you could use a tan. Try going out in the sun every once in a while!” He joked and a genuine laugh had left Carmy’s lips for the first time in forever.

“She’s on her way!” Sydney yelled to the table and everyone acknowledged it before returning to their conversations.

“Does she know I’m here?” He asked her over the noise, a bit concerned whether he wanted to know the answer or not.

“Yeah! I told her we’re all here!” She answered and of course she would tell you, because as far as they were concerned, nothing out of the ordinary had happened between you two.

His hand began to grow clammy and he took another hefty swig of the amber liquid to try and calm the nerves down. At least the music was loud enough to drown out the sound of his thoughts, he'd have to make due with that for now. The chatter transitioned into anecdotes about the stupidest things they had done as teens and they spent the next ten minutes debating whether Angel stealing single batteries from the family packs at Walmart counted as kleptomania or not. By his third beer, he felt his shoulders lose a bit of the perpetual weight that had been sitting on them since he had arrived back in Chicago; the music felt more bearable, his laughs lighter and his nerves almost down to a hum. 

They had been lucky enough to get a booth table by the windows, the sight of River North’s night life was in full bloom behind the old stained glass and his eyes wandered to the new perspective he had been granted of the old neighborhood. Between neon signs and moving cars he saw you from afar. Standing patiently for the little human to move on the crosswalk light. You looked like a radiant ray of moonlight, with loose curls framing your face like a dark halo and even though he had found you absolutely beautiful with your paint splattered overalls, this was something entirely different, something that would have him losing his balance if he wasn’t already sitting down.

He watched you move your boot-covered feet closer towards the bar, and with each stride on the long skirt, the slit up your thigh revealed a glimpse of lovely tan skin with swirling designs he had known no existence of until then, but now wanted to discover more of. Golden rings contrasted against the black jacket covering your arms as you raked your fingers through your hair and turned towards the window where he had shamelessly been gawking at you. A small smile covered your previous serious features and you waved nervously before disappearing through the entrance.

He shuffled in his seat and wished he would have at least run some water through his hair before leaving, but looking around at everyone’s post work attire, he figured he’d be fine. A cheer of ‘Hey's was heard through the group as you approached the table and you made a little dance once you reached them. You scooted into the booth beside the edge by Carmy and threw a nervous smile in his direction.

“Sorry I’m late! Two fuckin Ubers canceled on my last minute. I swear I was about to start walking!” You yelled exasperated.

“Well you’re already two drinks behind so start catchin’ up!” Marcus said, calling the waiter over and ordering another round of beers and a double  shot of tequila for each one.

“Oh it’s gonna be like that then, huh?!” You asked him with raised brows and a smile.

“Uhh, yeah!” He mimicked you in a pitched valley girl accent and the table roared in laughter.

They went around talking about their day and how Richie, as he does, had death threatened Fak for suggesting he should go to anger management classes. Your shoulder rubbed alongside Carmy’s in the small booth as you laughed at their stories and the friction along with your delicate perfume was making it hard to concentrate on anything at all. He took a couple of fries from the dish at the center of the table to keep his mouth occupied as he listened to Syd and you argue about the best contestant in a new baking show you were both watching. 

The shots came with cheers, and as everyone took the small glass in one hand and a lemon wedge in the other, they went around the table to say something they cheered for,

“I’m thankful that I got tomorrow off so I can get as hammered as I want!” Cheered Sweeps and it was followed by a choir of Boo’s from everyone.

“I guess I'm thankful that I got a job that I actually like.” Marcus continued and the Boo’s turned to Aw’s.

“And I’m very thankful for you, bunch of idiots.” You finished shily and only Marcus, who was sitting across from you, noticed your eyes linger a little too long on Carmy.

Their little glasses clinged against one another and everyone downed the transparent liquid with a scrunched face. 

The conversations broke into groups again, and he took his shot at catching your attention before anyone else. He gently bumped his shoulder against yours while he took a sip of alcohol for courage. From his side view he saw you had turned up to look at him and noticed you swallow hard scanning his features. When he turned to you, a soft smile covered your face and it was hard not to smile back.

“Hey” You whispered, bumping your shoulder back to his softly.

“You..um, you look really nice.” He said leaning towards you so you could hear him better above the music, and also so no one else would  notice his words. 

His breath ghosted over the skin of your ear and you were thankful for the jacket covering your already bumpy skin.  

“Thank you.” You whispered, cheeks warm.

“Look, I’m sor-“ 

“I’m sorry for-“

You interrupted each other, then laughed waiting for the other to continue. 

“You go.” You insisted.

He breathed in deep and turned his torso towards you to give himself a false sense of privacy in the crowded space. “I’m really sorry If I made you feel uncomfortable… back at the office.” He started and his eyes jumped between yours trying to decipher your thoughts through your expressions. “That was not cool and kinda creepy and I don’t want you to go because of me-”

“Wait-”

“You’re a great addition to the team, honestly one of the best, you’re good at calming Richie when he gets stressed and you're fast and precise, and you're good for me too-” He kept rambling, his gaze now focused in his hands.

“Carmy-” You tried to interrupt again with no avail.

“And I’d hate for you to leave cause I’m an impulsive jackass and I wouldn’t know what to do if I.. couldn’t see you.. anymore.” He finished swallowing hard, his eyes dragged slowly from his hands to your features and he grew scared of the confession that had left his mouth under the rambling.

All his words separately meant something different, they meant a thank you, a praise, a gentle pat on the back. But not like this, not all together, jumbled and tied with a string of revelation that there might be something more than what he was saying. He saw your chest raise with the motion of a heavy breath and your eyebrows were scrunched in concentration over his face. The background noise had been covered over by the thumping of blood rushing to his head and for a second his heart stopped at the idea that he had dug himself a deeper grave than he had wished for. He stared back at your eyes unable to look away, the ‘Fuck it’ from a couple hours ago now sour on his tongue.

“Do you wanna talk outside?” You whispered leaning forward so he could hear you, brows still knotted together.

You didn’t wait for his answer as you reached down to his tightly clasped hands and wedged your fingers carefully to get them to separate. You held on tightly then began to slip out the booth telling everyone you were gonna get more drinks for the table, before getting lost in the sea of bodies standing around. He let you guide him through the free spaces between the swaying crowd of drunks as he did his best to calm the growing anxiety in his chest. All he could concentrate on were your delicate fingers brushing softly around his hand.

This is what he wanted, right? This is why he had come knowing you would be here, to tell you how he felt, to clear things up, and since the cat’s head was already out the bag, might as well let the rest of the body out. 

‘Let it rip’ his brother’s words danced in his mind and he smiled humorlessly at how they teased him with how easy it sounded to do so.

**********

Fuuuck. You had not planned this far ahead. At least not this early into the night. You expected to do this with maybe another three drinks in your system, when you could still hold a serious conversation without crying for getting rejected cause the voice in your head would slur that it was his loss and that you were still a bad bitch. It also didn’t help that you had smoked a bit while getting ready and the cloudy haze around your brain had not subsided. You were coherent, yes, which was important, however you were not very good with your self control and with the way your throat had closed up at the sight of his profile while he simply took a drink, god you knew this was gonna be hard. 

His confession still swam in the swampy waters of your foggy brain as you pulled both of you through the crowded space. Your hand was tightly wrapped around what you could hold of his and when you finally spotted an exit, your heart leaped in your chest at the idea of how the conversation would go. The emergency door stood tall between the bathroom entrances, an inaudible creek vibrated through the metal as you pushed yourself against it and a cold breeze of air welcomed your face when you both stepped out into the alley. You expected a few smokers to linger around, but then again many who did choose to smoke did it in front of the place, not the side alley like rats; so you were alone. Great.

You finally let go of his hand, a cold absence replacing it, then leaned against the wall in front of the metal exit, staring at him. He took a cigarette from the packet inside his jacket and lit it, mimicking your actions by the door. He took a couple calming drags while both of you thought about what you were gonna say next. 

You could play this two ways: One. Pretend like you hadn’t understood what he said at the booth and say the whole office thing had been a misunderstanding. A little gaslighting wouldn’t hurt, right? It was for your own good anyway, the both of you. The pessimist in you was sure Carmen didn’t know what he was getting into and he already had enough problems trying to get the restaurant off the ground to add yours to the mix. 

And two, Tell him how you felt, fuck the rule. You had known him long enough to know he wasn’t the type of guy you established the rule for in the first place. He was nothing similar to the mutherfuckers you had met in your other jobs, he was nice and patient and cared more about others than he liked to admit; and for fuck’s sake if the bar was already on the floor, finding someone like that and also have him be hot, was not a common occurrence. 

You took your eyes off your boots scraping the pavement to look at him. ‘Why is he so hot and so miserable?!’ you thought as you watched him with his cigarette, the gloss in your eyes making any source of light into twinkling stars. His eyes met yours and normally you would avert your gaze. Normally, however, you would not be in this situation and normally you would not be feeling this angry all of a sudden. 

“You thought I was gonna leave?” You asked. ‘Solid start’.

“I thought I freaked you out.” He shrugged. “You walked out on me.”

“Yeah, and how did you expect me to react?” You respond a little more defensive than you intended. 

“Look, I know it was fucked and I’m sorry, okay? I just-” He took another drag to calm himself down then looked back at you, ocean eyes harboring a storm. “I don’t know what happens to me… when you're around. You make my chest not hurt as much and I- It feels easier to breathe with you.” 

You stayed silent, staring at him through hooded eyes and heavy breaths, trying to keep your mind clear because how could you concentrate on anything when he spoke so sweetly about you? You had to keep reminding yourself that this was for the best. Around you, the low rumble of the music vibrating past the walls could still be heard, like a distant world existing outside your current bubble of angst.

“Wh-what did you mean?” He asked after a long silence and he noticed the confusion in your blank stare. “When you said you needed to get me out your system, what was that?” 

Carmy noticed the subtle change in your expression, how your shoulders tensed and you diverted your gaze to anything else but him. You wanted to shout that it meant exactly that, he was so deep in your thoughts that some days you had caught yourself shamelessly daydreaming about the two of you together, in any way possible. But the last rational part in your brain held your tongue from speaking, you couldn’t say it, there was too much at risk to do so and he was not helping with the way his words were making your chest swell. You were getting angry because this would be so much easier if he was just another asshole. 

You shrugged looking at him. “Nothing, i-it just came out.” ‘Gaslighting it is.’ 

He exhaled a humorless laugh, his eyes still trained on you. “You’re a shitty liar, you know that?” He said with a last drag of his cig before flicking it to the ground and stomping on it.

He raked a hand through his hair and shameful observation had taught you that this meant Carmy was getting stressed.

“Okay, fine! You wanna know?!” You finally spat with anger, “Because I fuckin’ like you, Carmen!” You raised your arms in exasperation. “Because you have no fuckin’ idea what it does to me when you look at me like-like that!” His gaze was fixated on you, head slightly tilted down and to the right, jaw tensed. His brows dropped lower in a scowl and a jolt of lightning traveled down your back at his expression.

“And why didn’t you say anything!” He yelled back.

“Oh, seriously?! What did you want me to say? I need two roast beef sandwiches, hold the peppers and FYI Carmy, I got a crush on you?!”

“How the fuck was I supposed to know then?!” He said in frustration, taking a step closer to you and the height difference was significantly more noticeable when he wasn’t shrinking into himself.

“You weren’t supposed to, that’s the fuckin’ point!” His shoulders fell slightly and the strength in your voice lowered. “I just... needed to get over you and you’d never know. Get you out my system with someone else and never have to mention it.”

Carmy tried to ignore the flashes of your rosy cheeks and short breaths, panting under someone else. ‘This is not the time.’ he reminded himself.

“So, what? You were just gonna leave me believing I did somethin’ wrong to you when you actually liked me?”

“I wasn’t gonna leave.” You whispered. The words get caught on your tongue and you take a deep breath before continuing.

“But the last time I liked someone at my job it… It didn’t turn out right.” You struggle to calm your racing thoughts, his eyes a distracting lighthouse guiding you back in. His brows knitted together. “I don’t wanna go through that again, Carmy” You said defeated.

“You don’t know if it’s gonna be the same.” His voice pleaded just above a whisper, lower than you were used to when it came to him or his cousin.

“I don’t think I can risk it.” You whispered back, doing your best to keep the tears under control.

You were both silent for a while, until Carmy began to shake his head slowly.

“No, no, no you don’t get to do that, okay? You don’t get to tell me you like me then immediately blow me off cause some asshole in the past hurt you.” He took the last two strides in your direction, his chest now so close you could feel the heat radiating from his body.

You pushed yourself against the wall from the sudden proximity. Your breath seized in your lungs as you felt both his hands cup the sides of your face and tilt it up to stare deep into the pits of your eyes. You swallowed hard at all the scenarios flashing through your head, the turn of events giving you whiplash. He lowered his forehead slowly to yours, your eyelashes fluttered trying to close, but your eyes were fixed on his. Carmy’s face was so close, you could feel the heat off his breath. The smell of tobacco that lingered around you and mixed with the smokey wood scent that seemed to cling to him after a long workday, had your head grasping onto the last threads of self control left in  you.

“Tell me to stop. Tell me to stop and I’ll do it, I’ll never touch you again or mention it, I promise.” He rambled, a soft desperation clear in his voice. “I won’t even look in your direction but please, please don’t ever think for a second that I would do anything to hurt you.” He whispered.

Even in the darkness of the alley, you could tell his irises had swallowed the last drop of blue, now so dark and glossy you could see your own despair reflected back to you. You swallowed hard to get rid of the cottonmouth and his eyes flickered towards your lips for less than a second. ‘God, why couldn’t you just say yes?!’ Your head screamed at you through the dissipating smog of weed and untampered emotions.

He had not only given you his heart on a golden platter, but had plated it himself and set the table for you, too. Now it was solely your decision if you wanted to take it or not, if you wanted to guard his heart next to yours for safekeeping or let it finish crumbling on the grime covered pavement. You stared at his features in contemplation and scanned your brain for all the ways it told you this could go wrong. And yet, even after a thousand scenarios came up, you held in protective arms the few ones that bloomed a warm excitement in your chest. You wanted to, even if it was just this once, to be fearless, jump into the unknown regardless of the outcome. You truly did.

“It’s not that easy.” You whispered, shutting your eyes to avoid the look of hurt haunting over his. His hands faltered their grip on your face and soon a cold rush of air replaced the warm contact.

You reopened your gaze to see him standing with his hands now resting on the brick beside your head, defeated. His stare was glued to his tattooed skin, not even daring to look directly at you anymore and you knew, he was withdrawing back to the depths of his mind where one goes when you’ve been completely shattered. You could see his jaw tense up, probably in anger and he was well in his right to be so. He had bared his feelings to you and you had massacred them all over the walls in less than five words. ‘It’s better like this.’ You tried to convince yourself.

“I’m so sorry Carmy, but I-I can’t-”

He cleared his throat then pushed himself back with enough force that it almost felt like he had pulled on an invisible string against your chest.

“No- uh, no I get it.” he sniffled “You’re right, it’s better this way.” He did his best to avoid your gaze, settling it on anything around the empty alley. “I’m gonna go buy the drinks and then head home.”  He said walking back to the door.

You watched still from your position by the wall how he reached for the handle pulling the metal open. An immediate rumble of bass surrounded the once empty area as Carmy walked halfway in then stopped. He slightly turned his head in your direction, eyeing you over his shoulder.

“Don’t-uh.. don’t worry about.. this.” He said to you over the music. “I meant what I said about not sayin’ anythin’.” He rose his head to the sky for a couple seconds then back down. “So, don’t worry about it.” The gravel under his feet groaned as he turned to look at you one last time, “See you at work, chef.”

He was gone with a slam of the door. You stayed motionless, fixated on the space his body had occupied only seconds before. The ghost of his touch still tingled on your face and it took you an unspeakable amount of strength to not break down for the second time that day. It was already atrocious enough that you had committed what was probably the second worst mistake of your life by letting him go, but if you let yourself fall apart in a dingy unlit back alley of some bar, you have truly found a point lower than you thought possible. So with a very, very shaky breath and with the vast expertise as a teen with an overprotective mother, you pulled yourself together, sniffled back the tears and made your way inside ready to pretend like the last fifteen minutes had never happened.

When you reached the booth with your friends, a tray of five shots sat untouched on the table and a sour taste invaded your mouth to see the sixth had been downed and turned upside down at the end of the tray. 

“Carmy said your mom called, is everything okay?” Sydney asked as soon as you were in earshot, the pit in your stomach grew again  because even after hurting him, he still considerate enough to cover for your absence.

“Uh… yeah she’s fine. Just wanted to know when I’d be back.” You lied as you slid back into the booth.

With no hesitation, you reached for one of the glasses and downed it straight, no lemon. Syd gave a confused look to your expressionless face and even reached for one of the glasses to prove it was actually alcohol when you were laughing at Angel and Macus’ arm wrestling.

The liquid burned a distracting path down your throat and kept your attention diverted enough from the emotions you knew you’d have to figure out when the fog had lifted. For now, at least you would allow yourself to play with the idea that everything was fine and that your chest wasn’t shattering with every whiff of his lingering scent that permeated on your jacket.

The rest of the night was a blur of strawberry daiquiris, tequila shots, terrible karaoke and the guys competing over who could throw the furthest a traffic cone they found off the side of the road while walking you and Syd home, at almost four in the morning. They had dropped you off with a chorus of slurred ‘bye byess’ and kept walking in the direction of “Adventure” as Sweeps had called it. On your way up, the usual still stairs had become a workout to climb and Syd had almost landed on her ass on the second and third floor, before tripping on the forth and sliding belly first down half the flight of stairs. You did your best to contain the laughter after seeing her reaction to finally landing with nothing but a bruised chin and ego, but her surprised face was enough to have you slumping on the last step and heaving with tears in your eyes. After you both caught your breath, you reached towards her and held her hand until you were in the safety of your room.

You giggled drunk while changing into your pajamas and turned to Sydney, telling her about your foolproof plan of going home with a stranger to get Carmy out of your head.

“I don’t get it.. why not jus’ like, bang Carmy, right? And get it over with?” She said between hiccups as you both climbed into your bed.

“It’s jus’ not the same!” You whined, turning off the light. “He’s too good for that.” You heard Syd groan beside you and you’re glad the lights were off so she couldn’t see you rolling your eyes at her. “He is!”

You shimmied under the covers and stared at the glow in the dark stickers on your ceiling, the alcohol making them swim around the blank canvas like shooting stars.

“He’s sweet and kind and… funny in like a fucked up, kinda tragic way..” you giggle “and he’s so fuckin’ hot, Sydney! So hot! Every time he looks at me with those eyes I want him to bend me over the expo an-“ you feel a soft smack against your face and the plushness of the pillow drowns out your laughs. 

Syd groaned in disgust at the image you planted in her head “Dude gross! Why would I ever need to know that?!” She said taking the pillow back from you. 

You giggled again and turned to Syd’s silhouette, softly combing back the braids that rested on her shoulder to distract yourself. “I think I really fucked up tonight, Syddy.” You finally admitted in the darkness of your safe space and heavily intoxicated. 

Sydney hummed in question and you knew you only had a few moments of clarity before falling unconscious. You took the end of one of her braids and used it to tickle under her nose to keep her awake a little longer while you failed to understand the many emotions in your head.

“I think he hates me now.” You said softly, a small tear sliding out your eye and quickly disappearing into the soft fabric of your pillow.

She scratched at her nose in frustration then slightly slapped her palm against your forehead. You laughed softly but continued to bug her.

“He could never hate you, he loves you too much.” She mumbled carelessly, readjusting herself and swinging a leg up on your hip under the duvet.

Your cheeks felt warm at the idea of love and even though you knew it was too soon to call it that, you couldn’t avoid the fuzzy feeling the word brought to your insides. ‘Oh to be loved’ you thought ‘and by Carmy of all people’. 

“You can’t know that.” You said with a sniffle, caressing the tip of her braid now on your own nose. You liked how it tickled.

Syd sighed before lifting her head as best she could in her drunk and half asleep state and slurred your name “Please, that man has been tripping-over-his-feet in love with you since day one.” She paused to pull her hair from your hands and adjust the pillow under her. “You two are the only idiots who haven’t noticed.” Then laid her head back down with a soft smack.

A new sensation filled your chest, one you hadn’t really given a name to before because there hadn’t been a reason to. It was a warmth that spread from the crown of your head down to the tips of all your extremities as your friend’s words floated in your head. A slow smile extended across your face and with the last waves of consciousness you decided to put an end to all the doubt and talk to him tomorrow, the stupid rule be damned. 

Capter 4.

Taglist: @pearlstiare and that’s it lmao

[praebitorem-glaciei]

Alley

I also wrote Esen and Scar because uhm, well. I want to whore out my oc? anyways transmasc Scar content!!!

The start is a bit. dubious. But its very much consensual.

Esen gasped out when something hit him square in the back, the pain radiated downwards and the location caused his legs to collapse. He hit the hard ground even harder, the pain in his already weak legs intensified as he dug his fingers into the stone.

When he tried to push himself up to see what it was, he was properly pushed onto the ground, somebody’s weight heavy against his back. His chest hurt pressed into the ground, tacet mark being scratched by tiny rocks. 

His heart raced as he panicked, his mind drawing a blank as he tried to figure out how to get out of the position he found himself in. “We would love to have you join us!” A familiar voice spoke gleefully in his ear and he relaxed almost immediately despite the physical pain he was in due to the familiar one in question.

“Scar!” Esen breathed out, body relaxing somewhat. “You can’t just jump people like this!”

Scar let out a strangled laugh, one more akin to confusion than anything else. “Do you know who I work for?” As if that absolved his behaviour. Then, it did explain it. Maybe. Esen racked his brain while pinned beneath the man’s weight.

“I forget.”

The weight lifted from his back but only for Scar to grab him and flip him over and once more the weight was on him, keeping him pinned down. “The Fractsidus.” Mismatched eyes of red and grey narrowed at him. Esen let out a noise of remembrance, right! That was right. The Fractsidus. 

“Right! New recruiting method then?”

Scar rolled his eyes but the action was more playful than anything else. “Well if it’ll convince you! You know how it is, the bosses are real interested in you, little black fox.” And so was he. Esen’s irregularities could not be denied. Nor could their capacity for violence.

Esen raised a brow, the hair brown laced with tinges of green. “Yeah, okay, but you’re a virgin… So why did they send you of all people?” Esen wanted to laugh at the man’s surprised and quickly unamused expression. “No offense, Scar, but I doubt you know how.”

“I’m not-” He started but was quickly cut off.

“You are. Nobody stays around long enough.” Esen’s words stung, they cut deep. But they both knew he was right. Even if Scar let out a loud growl at the accusation.

Scar’s gloved hand wrapped around his throat, squeezing hard enough black dots appeared in his vision. “You talk a tough game.” He spat, grip tightening so that the claws on his glove dug into the side of Esen’s throat. “I could kill you.” His voice dropped to a manic whisper.

But Esen could only laugh.

Wheezed and quiet as he was stripped of air. 

His clothes were tugged off but not ripped despite Scar’s aggression, perhaps due to the fact they both had to walk out of this public space. The fabric of his shirt pulled aside, exposing his bare skin. His shorts undone and pulled off with his underwear. Scar was grabby, all teeth as he kissed them. 

He didn’t even know how to kiss. But at least he let Esen start breathing again.

“This is really sad.” Esen commented, laying mostly nude on the cold stone. “Can you even get out of that stupid getup in a reasonable amount of time?”

“I was just going to finger you and call it a day.”

“With those gloves? No way. I like my insides intact, thanks.” They eyed his gloves, the clawed gloves that faded to red from black. Were the claws part of the gloves or did he really just not cut his nails? It must be uncomfortable. Either way Esen refused.

“What do you mean no?”

Scar sounded genuinely surprised. It was even more pathetic than the virgin thing. 

A strong gust of wind blew, silver eyes turning into pools of swirls, as Scar was sent backwards off of him. “I said no.” Despite still being naked, Esen pinned the man down. “Also is the crotch patch a sign or?” 

“What do you mean? Get off of me.”

“No.” Esen searched for a zipper, pleased to find the Overseer’s stupid pants actually had one. 

Scar wiggled beneath him but he was effectively trapped by both Esen and his Aero attribute. His pants were unzipped, the chaps were unclipped, and then the whole ensemble was tugged down with the same force he’d shown the independent contractor. 

“Knew it.” Esen commented under his breath, eyeing the darker white, grey? Bush. Scar quickly looked away, arms crossed over his chest. “Are you pouting?” He looked up. “You’re seriously pouting? You have a pussy patch.”

“It isn’t a pussy patch!”

Esen brought his hand to his mouth, chewing one of his claws. He spat out the nail tip, then he grabbed Scar’s arms, separating them from his chest so he could lean forward and press their bare chest against his.

Scar’s eyes widened when the man’s finger trailed through his, admittedly, wet folds. The hormone enlarged clit was sizable and fun to toy with, Esen used his pointer finger and thumb to roll it slightly through his fingers. “You-” But Scar choked on his spit as the man poked and prodded him with experience.

“Do you ever touch yourself like this? Nah you probably hump the pillow, right?”

“Shut the fuck up, Esen.”

“Sure.” 

The independent contractor stopped fingering him, the man whining at the lack of stimulation to his aching cunt. He looked back at the man though when he got off of him, or rather, wiggled downwards. Cold tongue pressed against his small dick and his eyebrows furrowed. Cold, but good. It felt-

Esen purred, tail swishing behind him. Scar slapped a hand over his mouth, surprised by the moan that escaped him. He barely made any noise when he masturbated, or well. No Esen was right, unfortunately. But still, he was usually so quiet. Esen’s tongue worked wonders, licking at his cunt, sucking his dick. They barely took a breath.

Scar watched him with eyes that refused to relax, still wide and surprised as he looked down at the man’s exposed chest. His eyelashes were long and pretty, eyes closed as they focused entirely on giving Scar head. This was definitely not how he expected this to go, but Scar laid his head back against the stone, he couldn’t complain. He’d never experienced euphoric pleasure like this.

“Want to feel something really good?” Esen asked after several loud moments on Scar’s part, well aware the man came on his tongue twice. Scar gave a shaky nod, eyes squeezed shut, mouth open, he was still panting.

Esen got up, spreading Scar’s legs and putting him into position. They were almost surprised by how obedient and malleable he’d become, almost. Esen then straddled him somewhat sideways, legs interlocked. He’d had plenty of sex with women and other trans men, despite how uncomfortable for his legs it was to be the top in this position, he didn’t mind.

He ran a clawed hand up Scar’s bare thigh, pushing it up somewhat to hook around his hip. “What are you even-” Scar opened his eyes but couldn’t finish his question, Esen’s wet cunt slid against his. There was slight friction from the hair, but it was another facet Esen was used to. Scar however wiggled, immediately squeezing his eyes shut again.

His actions were experienced, tailored to maximum pleasure, as he rubbed against Scar’s heated cunt with his own. Esen even enjoyed the way his small dick caught on his cunt, the tip always forcing its way in when he slid forward, falling out when he slid back.

“I- fuck-” Scar choked on his spit, balling his hands into fists so hard his claws cut into his palms despite his gloves. He was already sensitive from earlier, but this was something else. He’d never thought to put what he considered so small into someone like this. He didn’t even know he could.

Scar’s cunt spasmed, clenched around nothing, but Esen kept up his pace. Resonators had increased stamina, and he was going to make use of it. If Esen had to guess, between his natural growth from the hormones and what was clearly a release surgery, maybe almost three inches? Not large, but Esen didn’t mind. It was enough.

Definitely enough to change tactics. 

Scar bit his hand entirely instead when Esen let his small dick penetrate him fully. They couldn’t be as fast or rough as before, but the way their tight cunt felt was beyond anything. Scar was seeing stars, even with his eyes closed. It only took Scar’s fourth orgasm for Esen to finally get off.

And while the independent contractor let him catch his breath, helped him dress. He didn’t stick around long, standing up after a few minutes.

“I can’t be sexually manipulated to your side.” His tone was more serious as Scar looked up at him from where he sat against the wall on the ground. “See you around, Scar~” Esen cooed, giving a short wave before he disappeared to the alleyway entrance.

And as if on cue, Scar’s terminal beeped.

The Overseer groaned.

[sklifasofski]

Hi, hello @bamsara) I recently stumbled upon your blog and I fell in love with your drawings almost immediately) Simple in appearance but very well detailed. The universe of your Cult story is very well understood. And then I found out that you also have a fanfic, I read ALL of it (two days in a row!) And I loved it! The way the humour, joy, fear and chthonic vibes presented and carefully intertwined so well!

I like how Narinder is gradually becoming more stable than he was before (one of my favourite moments is when he almost kills Leshy and then attacks Lambert without getting what he wants, then disappears into the forest and does the wild thing. At the same time he still thinks of Lambert and doesn't use his followers for snacks for the Fox).

And although I understand from the tags why Lambert treats Narinder with warmth, but so far his true intentions remain a mystery (both to us, the readers, and to Narinder. Although the latter may realise it, but doesn't want to admit it due to bitter experiences in the past). And this is not a minus, but a plus to the story!

The moment with the robbery of the Golden Cave is above all praise!) I vividly imagined the picture of Lambert with a bunch of gold in one hand running to the exit, laughing, and the other pulling behind them dazed Narinder, who was also on autopilot holding a bunch of gold).

There were other moments that I liked, but here I have to look it all up again, my memory is a bit fuzzy. (I remembered some things while writing this text).

I'll also attach some sketches of how I imagine Lambert and Narinder. I don't know if I'll be able to make them into "full drawings", but I wanted to share something already. (Plus a bit of angst came in towards the end, hopefully it's not too bad. That's roughly how I imagined Narinder's reaction to Leshy's disappearance.)

About Narinder's scythe. I'm not very good at English, so I introduced his scythe as Kusarigama. Probably because he also knows how to summon chains and I connected the two things together. I only then (somewhere in the middle of reading) decided to clarify the image of the word "Scythe" for myself and for a while my brain mixed these two images between the appropriate contexts for them, but then settled on Kusarigami again.

Another very interesting point with Finor. Yes, I read and realise she (he?) is a rabbit, but my brain gives her the image of a chicken from the Robin Hood animated movie. I don't know why that is, apparently they have similar characters (or so it seems to me). And the way she interacted with Narinder when he picked the lock to Lambert's room... very interesting! Such mysticism immediately appears behind that rabbit: is she immortal? Did she recognise who Narinder is? Maybe she was a follower of The One Who Waits like a very long time ago? All in all, a lot of food for thought!

And lastly, a little bit about "love". The tags in the fanfic's cover gave me some idea of what would happen and a little later, after about chapter 5-6 if I remember correctly, when Lambert and Narinder were alone together, my brain kept thinking "well, this is the right time for kissing!". Not that it interfered with my enjoyment of the reading, just thinking out loud. I only later looked at the Q&A to make sure you weren't stressed about fanart of your universe, and I share your view on NSFW content, and that Disney-like love in this story is preferable to just "love for love's sake" and other nonsense. (So far, the most intimate moment in the fanfic for me is Lambert gently bandaging Narinder's hands. And generally when they can just touch each other like that. It's a very soft and tender scene.) What is interesting is that from the moment when Narinder realises that he is in his dreams, his image for me changes to his game version, or even that he just becomes the same height as Lambert from his dreams. And it makes for such an interesting contrast between the "real" and "dream" Narinder, if you think about it that way.

Anyway, it was a pleasure to read your story) I can't wait for its continuation!)

And a bit more theories and speculations for the end. After reading the fanfic, I decided to look at your artwork again and so far I have one specific thought about how Narinder and Lambert might meet Shamura's "rebirth". Or rather, how she (he? not sure of gender again) would react to them. Given that she has head damage, I imagined that she might be reborn a bit half-witted and she won't realise at first what's happened to her or how it happened, as if she's stuck in memories of the past where nothing bad has happened yet. That said, she recognises Lambert, but she doesn't treat him with hostility. And I think if Narinder does try to deal her a killing blow, her half-empty, trusting gaze will make him lash out in rage at her statue, which is the only one left untouched in the arena. I hope I'm not rushing things too much, and I'd be happy to read any plot developments you have in mind for the characters in your fanfic ;з

[shadamyheadcanons]

Submission #68: Yet another take on shadamy

Unlike my last submission “a take on shadamy” this is actually going to be a story and not just thoughts or just a headcanon (ha). This is gonna be a long one so strap in everyone. Also this is based in a little “custom” universe so some stuff that are mentioned that hadn’t happened in game, have happened my my version.

Everyone knows shadow the hedgehog to be the “ultimate life form” and is probably one of the strongest people that Amy knows, everyone knows he’s reliable, practically a one man army that G.U.N loved to take advantage off, in fact that was a whole situation with G.U.N trying to actually take “ownership” of him due to them thinking shadow is their “property” since they technically funded the creation of him however everyone else in their team stood up for shadow but that is a discussion for another day… Amy has spent a lot of time with shadow but she was never sure on how she felt about him, at first it was just them being mutual friends, then once team dark and team rose had to work together for a few weeks they grew closer to good friends. She thought that was the end of their growth as friends but it continued to develop further into a trust that they both have in each other, similar to how she has with sonic but maybe even more, she couldn’t believe she thought that at the time, how could she feel more safe and wanted with Shadow than with her “true love” Sonic The Hedgehog… at least that’s what she thought until today where she finally realised her emotions for him… “only took him almost dying” Amy says out loud to no-one in particular, ever since what happened, after everyone took shadow to the nearest hospital she had basically vanished with how fast she left trying to make sense of how she was feeling and to deal with her guilt… Her eyes were practically red from all the crying she had been doing, she prides herself on being both physically and emotionally strong however she knows that what happened to him was her fault and the guilt is too much for her to take and after all the crying and thoughts, she fell unconscious due to herself being too tired, she wasn’t at home though, she went to the most isolated place she could reach… the mystic ruins and she just lay up against the tree, unconscious. ____________________ A few hours earlier… “So let’s just recap the plan one last time” Tails tells everyone, this operation had been weeks worth of planning and if they fail all of that time they spent with recon and gathering information would be for nothing… “So we know this is one of Dr Eggmans main robotics operations, it supplies him with around 30% of his badnik forces and is surrounded by 3 generators powering the first layer, so that’s where the first 3 teams will be” tails informs everyone as a few of them nod eagerly, some just look and others just do their own thing, I’m sure you can guess who did what. “Ok so Team A, will consist of cream, me and espio taking out the first generator, after it’s taken out I will go back with the others to regroup and you two stay to clear up the rest of the mess” the two tailed fox says again whilst looking at his small team where cream nods excitedly and espio just gives a thumbs up. Another voice speaks up “Team B will have me, vector and knuckles clearing the second generator, whilst that muscle head knuckles along with vector distracts the badniks, I will fly right past and disable the second one, vector you stay behind and deal with the remaining badniks whilst me and knuckles get to the others” the bat speaks up with a flirtatious voice when mentioning knuckles name which causes the echidna to blush and look away, causing both sonic and her to laugh a bit whilst amy lets out a much quieter laugh… before knuckles can let out a fit the two tailed fox speaks up again after laughing a bit himself “Team C will only be gemerl, Charmy and sonic however sonic you will go meet the rest of the group for the outside raid to help out with the badniks that will inevitably be released as gemerl can deal with the remaining threats whilst charmy sneaks in” Sonic nods with a grin “heh! no sweat, by the time I arrive the generators will already be down!” With his usual cocky attitude which gives everyone the tiny bit of confidence, it’s just the effect sonic has on everyone. Shadow steps up as well “remember, things will get difficult and especially dangerous even before the

generators are down so make sure you stick with one other person” everyone nods once again looking at their supposed partner. Sonic talks again after listing the designated partners from a piece of paper “Amy and Big Silver and blaze Omega himself as he doesn’t want anyone to steal his glory Knuckles and rouge once they arrive Me and tails once we Shadow by himself” This was the first sign… the second she realised shadow was by himself she felt a pit in her stomach… it wasn’t great but she tried to shake it off noting that she will just look out for him, because of this her mood was worsened a bit which was noticed by both sonic and silver who tried to reassure her that “he’d be fine, it’s shadow, he does things alone” and silvers “trust me, shadow is basically unstoppable” even rouge tried to make amy feel better even though she was also worried… After a few hours everyone arrived and got into position, the team at the front would have to deal with everything that is thrown at them however they still had a bit of time before the operation commenced… this is when shadow decided to talk to amy “Sorry for not telling you I wouldn’t be partnering up” he says with about as much care in his voice as he can put without making it too obvious, amy sees right through it and even giggles a bit but responds “I would like to know next time honestly, I do get worried you know”, this causes shadow to smirk and talks again “oh, you’re worried about me? You almost sound as if you wanted to partner up with me” he teases which causes her to laugh a bit “oh please, you’d be lucky to be with a young woman like me” she says in a ‘posh-like’ voice as they both laugh a bit, silver and blaze look back at the duo for a second and then begin to whisper which the two somehow miss. Shadow glances at amy noticing that she’s loosened up a bit and is less stressed which is good, he’s glad she feels better and admittedly he was hoping to be able to partner up with her at least once. Their conversation is cut a short as multiple badniks stay to flood in from the front now that the main gate is opened they all get ready to fight and begin fighting. The team seems to be wiping out the badniks with ease as they haven’t even had to resort to splitting into duos just yet, 2 of the generators blow up in the distance and soon after sonic and tails arrive at roughly the same time to help with the battle which they are actually winning, the badniks are being pushed back and a little bit after the final generator makes an explosion which leads to the arrival of knuckles and rouge together and the front gates have now been opened fully. Amy runs in looking at the giant tower at the centre of the base swinging her hammer and using it to jump towards the flying badniks and then back down, sonic quickly jumps from one badnik to another, tails uses his spring fist to deal real damage to the badniks (tails’ attacks from sonic battle if you don’t know what I’m talking about), knuckles and rogue dig around and fly around together being almost coordinated like they’ve practiced this before, amy reminds herself to tease rouge about that later. Silver uses his telekinesis to lift and throw badniks towards each other and even the odd hedgehog between sonic or shadow when they’re in the spinball, blaze is…well setting things ablaze, big is using his sheer brute force to crush the badniks and shadow is teleporting using chaos spears and physical attacks all around the group to support them. Massive explosions are set off and they all see a massive swarm of badniks approach, that’s when omega slowly walks up to them firing everything it has at them. “Omega seems to be enjoying himself” amy thinks to herself. Things seemed to be going well until something unexpected turned up, something a select number of the group had not seen in a while, an artificial chaos appears out of seemingly nowhere which causes them all to need to group up, unlike the one from the ark this one is easily 3-4 times as big as those ones. Similar to how perfect chaos did, it uses its watery like

tendrils to attack the team which manages to hit a few of them, one tries to use its tendril during the chaos to sneak attack amy from behind her however before it can shadow kicks the tendril causing it to retract. “Thanks shadow” she says as they are now back to back, “no problem, I’m going to do something stupid so don’t interfere Rose, I’m serious this time, I don’t want to see you hurt” he states with a bit of worry and stress in his voice, before amy could shout back to him to stop she hears sonics voice. “This thing is really messing us up! Eggman had upgraded it somehow and there doesn’t seem to be any weak point now” sonic shouts to the group and that’s when shadow teleports next to him “That thing is resonating with artificial energy like the ones in the ark, but it seems different… il handle it, you guys all stick together and make sure no-one gets close” sonic looks at the hedgehog worried and responds “let me help you, these things are dangerous and dealing with this one alone is going to be-“ the blue blur is cut off by shadow “you need to keep everyone here in check and keep their confidence up, we all look up to you believe it or not so if you run off the help me then they lose confidence” sonic notices what shadow said and smirks a bit and responds in a bit of a cocky voice “il also keep an eye on amy for you, I know how you feel about her” Sonic says but shadow just smirks and nods his head in a seemingly silent mutual agreement they both continue with the plan whilst amy just watches with complete and utter fear in her eyes, not for her but for him. Shadow rushes instantly towards the creature and kicks it in its metallic head pushing it away from the group and when it crashes back on the floor it becomes a large puddle, shadows knows better than to get near its puddles and it instantly reforms again, shadow throws chaos spears at it, causing it to be pushed back even further however this time it retaliates with its tendrils again all among towards shadow this time, he skates across the floor with his hover shoes jumping and sliding across the floor however s few manage to cut him but not before shadow teleports in front of the creatures face and hit it again however something happens, once he hits it a tendril manages to slam shadow into the ground which normally wouldn’t do much much this thing is different… shadow gets up and shoots another chaos spear which the creature just now had no effect. “What? Maybe it’s immune to the effects of chaos?” He quickly thinks and dodges the attacks the artificial chaos launches at him however he gets hit again but this time it tries to impale the hedgehog which he manages to dodge last second, seemingly before the creature attacks again whilst shadow can’t get up a high pitched voice can be heard and then a hammer hits the creatures face causing it to hit the floor. Shadow hears multiple deep and exhausted breaths from the person who saved him and both surprisingly and unsurprisingly it’s none other than any rose who doesn’t look happy at all… “You idiot! You ABSOLUTE DUMBASS!” She shouts at shadow who is taken aback at the sudden outburst but she continues… ohhhh she continues “WHAT WERE YOU GONNA DO! GET YOURSELF KILLED AGAIN SAVING US!” She continues to shout at him with small tears coming from her eyes, sure she’s pretty damaged and even has a bit of blood over her which is probably from the injuries she’s taken. Amy takes a deep breath and shadow speaks up “Thanks for the save but what are you doing! You left your partner by themselves to help something who Is quite literally built to sustain and heal from major injuries!” He says back to her a bit angry “You put both yourself and your partner in danger all to save me, you don’t have to help me! I’m built to withstand pain and can handle it!” He continues and is cut off by amy who does something, something he didn’t expect at all… A slap Now shadow is actually taken aback and now the small tears leaking from her eyes are now running down her face slowly “something? You see yourself and something! What

is WRONG WITH YOU! Just because you can handle pain doesn’t mean you should! I hate seeing you hurt so STOP BEING SO DAMN SELFISH AND LET US HELP! BY TAKING ALL THE PAIN IT HURTS US EMOTIONALLY!” She shouts back whilst actually constantly pushing him and shadow grabs her hand then she falls but shadow manages to hold her up but she leans into his chest a bit then she whispers “it hurts me…I can’t stand to see you hurt” shadow didn’t quite catch all of that but that’s now not what he’s worried about… Sonic looks around and realises that the waves of badniks are slowing down, thanks to omega and his “sport” of destroying eggman’s machinery it’s heavily reduced the wave and then omega meets back up with sonic and inquires something “Sonic the hedgehog… where is shadow, I have important information for him regarding something here that affects him” sonic responds “We’re all getting tired omega… what’s your point, shadows one of the strongest here, he’ll be fine, I need you to do a numbers count though, I can’t keep track of everyone” omega speaks up instantly “there is a creature here that resembles one found on the space colony ark called an ‘artificial chaos’ based on the god cha-“ sonic interupts omega “yes, yes, we know, shadows dealing with it now” this causes omega to sound a bit worried now talking faster with its voice “Doctor Eggman has modified it to SPECIFICALLY kill any beings that can control or use use chaos by making it immune and effective to its power AND the one who can manipulate chaos energy the most is shadow the hedgehog, I fear he is in imminent danger!” Sonic instantly stands to panic and comes up with a quick plan “TAILS! COVER FOR ME!” The fox nods quickly, managing to hearing everything. “Omega head count!” Sonic shouts as they try to rush towards shadow but is blocked by multiple badniks “Calculating…. Currently only 8 out of 10 accounted for shadow and…IDENTIFYING…Amy Rose is near the creature” the robot warns which causes sonic to get truly worried now, him and omega destroy the multiple waves of badniks blocking their way and finally say shadow and amy…hugging from what it looks like but sonic notices the creature get back up and launch all of its tendrils at the two… “LOOK OUT!” In this split second, this is the moment that amy constantly is looking back on blaming herself… He sees the modified artificial chaos get quickly reform and launch all of its tendrils at them, amy can’t see as she’s too distracted with her emotions with shadow still attempting to process his… within the few seconds shadow has to think of something he knows he can’t carry her, wait for his hover boots for activate even if it’s almost instantaneous and move in time before the tendrils impale them both, whatever this creature is had also effected his ability to teleport since he feels like he’s heavily weakened and tired by the few hits, so he does the one thing he can think of and before he can sonic shouts “LOOK OUT!” This is when shadow is glad, amy turns around to see the tendril launching right at her face but before she can react she blinks and is suddenly feeling cold claws holding her, she realises that she’s in omegas hands, in her confusion she turns around to see shadow the hedgehog…impaled through the chest by the modified artificial chaos with his hands looking like the threw… that’s when she realised… In those few moments those small tears were instantly lose since now she’s fully crying, seeing him, the one she thought would never leave her, dead… “SHADOW!” Sonic shouts rushing to attack the creature and amy let’s put the loudest cry she’s probably ever let out, even everyone else can hear her voice.. “SHADOW!” She screams whilst running towards him as the tendril retracts from his chest, his lifeless body falls to the floor and once amy Red he’s she begins to hold him. She just sitting there holding him crying muttering to him “everything is going to be fine, you, please stay awake, I don’t want to lose you, you’re the ultimate life form, I can’t the the reason you’re dead, PLEASE! I don’t want to

lose you, I can’t lose you…I need you…” eventually get voice begins to whimper as she continues to hold him, she doesn’t want to let go. Sonic is thrown back by the creature right near the two and once he sees Amy’s face as she looks at the blue blur his face drops… then is filled with rage, the creature lurks over amy but she doesn’t move. She won’t let go of shadow but before sonic can do anything, omega stands in front of amy holding shadow then it’s claws retract into its arms revealing 2 mini guns along with countless weapons being revealed from almost anywhere on omegas body as omega talks in the most cold blooded and rage filled voice a robot can talk in “ELIMINATE…TARGET…COMMENCING…REVENGE!” After that hundreds of explosions make impact with the creature leaving quite literally…nothing left of it…omega beings to scan shadows body and words that amy has never been so glad to hear… “SCANNING VITALS…SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG IS….” “STILL ALIVE” _____________________ Amy instantly picks up shadow ever so gently and starts to run out, rouge notices Amy’s face, shadows seemingly lifeless body and is practically frozen, knuckles sees everything and holds her hand “go…I can handle this, he’s your friend” he says to her seriously and she just nods her head and flies towards amy… As they both just reach the front gate they see espio, vector and charmy and instantly realising the situation, vector takes action “Espio, go help out the others, cream, you two, with me , I will carry shadow whilst you three go ahead and get an ambulance, i well get to the main road to meet you there” they all nod minus amy who begrudgingly gives shadow to vector whilst they all run to get medical assistance. ______________________ They eventually reached the hospital since rouge and cream flies but amy could keep up by running, she may not be as fast as the other two but she can keep pace, then rouge asks the question… “What happened?” Amy’s heart feels like it stops after this question… “It’s all my fault…” she begins to cry again, this causes cream and rouge to consult her “I got angry at him for putting himself in danger again and in the middle of a battle field-“ she starts to cry even more. “Don’t worry, it’s shadow, he’s pulled through a lot worse..” rouge says and cream speaks up “don’t worry about mr shadow, he’s very strong and cares for everyone, he will be fine” then amy continues… “whilst shadow was distracted with me the creature rose up, he couldn’t move in time because I was shouting and crying at him so he had the get me out of the way since I couldn’t see what was going on because I stupidly turned my back!” She now just feels like she’s run out of tears… her face now looks dead “Honey it isn’t you’re fault, he wouldn’t want you to blame yourself…” the bat tries to cheer her friend up whilst crying herself and they all just sit in the hospital waiting for shadow to arrive… After a few minutes Shadow eventually arrived but no-one was allowed to see a patient in surgery, they was told he would be fine since his body has somehow already started healing but at this point amy left and you know the rest… _____________________ The rest of the group arrives after managing to destroy the base, after the artificial chaos there wasn’t much left and everyone being fuelled by anger made them all stronger… They all ask about shadow and he’s actually in his room, like they said the surgery was a success but he’s now got a small scar on his chest which isn’t too visible thanks to his fur and is currently resting AND THATS THE END TO PART 1 i would’ve finished the rest but I’m really out of time for today so I hope you all enjoy it. I know my writing skill ain’t the best but I am trying to get better, either way enjoy this little story

--

((I always love a good ‘Mission’ story in the Sonic universe. Hope everything turns out alright! I like your idea of G.U.N. trying to claim Shadow as their “property,” too. I could definitely see them doing something that scummy.))

[rencesworld]

How they react to you wearing something sexy at a party.

Suna x Black Reader, Oikawa x Black Reader, Iwaizumi x Black Reader, Kuroo x Black Reader

Warnings: swear words, smut mentions, all the boys are 18

Also the pictures are just demonstration of the dress the reader is wearing cuz I suck at describing stuff😭

Also, English is not my first language. So sorry for the errors!

Suna

The Miya(Atsumu’s idea)twins were having a Halloween party at their house, so of course you and Suna were invited.

Though Suna didn’t want to go, he only went because you and Osamu, especially you, begged him to come.

You and Suna have been best friends since first year at Inarizaki High School. You've had feelings for the sleepy fox eyed boy since the first day you met him.

You were thinking about confessing to him soon because your feelings for him grew stronger and it frustrated you. It's not that you're scared of rejection(you are) but you're scared ruining a perfect friendship. You don't want to lose the only friendship you valued the most because of your feelings getting in the way.

Osamu and Aran are the only ones who know about your crush for Suna, and every day they encourage you to confess to him.

You had ordered this sexy bunny costume hoping it would get here before the party, and lucky you, it did.

You ordered this costume because one, you wanted to look good and show skin. Two, you've always wanted to wear the Bunny costume for the longest, but you've never had the confidence to wear anything that revealing. Three, you wanted to surprise Suna(get some dick).

At the party.

You saw Suna in the kitchen, sitting on the kitchen counter using his phone.

When Suna saw you, he was SHOOK!

You looked extoic. You had a black curly lace wig(or any other hairstyles you prefer). You did a very light makeup, eyeliner, mascara(or fake lashes), and a dark brown lip liner with lip gloss(or any lip gloss/lipstick you prefer).

Suna felt like he was falling in love with you over and over again when he saw you with that costume. As you were walking over to him with a little smirk, knowing what you were doing to him, honestly turned him on. He could tell how confident you are due to the way you are swaying your hips a little and how you flipped your hair, when walking towards his way.

“Suna! Do you like the costume?” you asked, as you wrapped your arms around his neck and making sure to press you chest against his.

Baby boy was flustered and horny. All he could think about was all the dirty things he would do to you while wearing the costume, but was also shy and ashamed that he was thinking of his best friend like that.

But after a minute, he came to his senses and realized that you were teasing him on purpose and he wasn't about to let you tease him that.

Suna starts to rub your mid back close to touching you butt and bites his lips, “You look very good,” his voice getting deeper, and raspy.

The way Suna was staring at you was starting to really turn you on. He was looking at you , like you were his last meal. His voice sounded so tempting, ready to make you go on your knees.

“Prove it Rintarou.” You said seductive while pulling him close to your face. “Prove to me how good you think I look,” pulling him down closer, lips almost touching. He didn’t wait a second to prove it to you, he pressed his lips against yours. The kiss was filled with love, passion, but also sloppy, slow, and sensational.

He definitely proved how good you looked that night…(wink wink).

Oikawa

It was your 18th birthday and Oikawa had planned for you a birthday party.

You bought this pink dress that you fell in love with instantly and knew Oikawa was going to love it. You got the shoes and the purse that matched with the dress.

You finished getting ready, your hair, nails, and makeup was done. Your outfit on, ready to take some pictures.

The doorbell rang which meant Oikawa was here to pick you up. You checked again in the mirror making sure everything was good. You walked down the stairs to open the door.

When Oikawa saw you, this boy gasped so loud, you flinched a little. “Baby! you look beautiful,” he said as he grabbed your hand to twirl you around to admire you more.

After, he pulled you in for hug and as he hugged you he tried to cupped all your ass, “I love how the dress hugs your body so perfectly. Your beautiful curves are showing, your ass looks mighty good.” He rubs your butt.

“Thank you Toru, let’s go now so we won’t keep everyone waiting any longer for the birthday girl,” you said giggling and loving the affection he was giving you.

“I can’t wait to show you off to everyone at the party. You’re breathtaking, I mean you’re always breathtaking but in this dress, you’re glowing.” He grabs your hand leading you out.

You guys make it to the party and Oikawa wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to show you off to everyone.

“Look at my Princess, doesn’t she look stunning? Wait let me rephrase that, She looks absolutely stunning!”

“Iwa-Chan, look at Y/N! She’s divine!”

“Iwa-Chan, take pictures of me and Y/N, I need the whole world to see how stunning she looks tonight.”

He made sure to let everyone know how amazing you looked tonight, he even made sure to prove to you more how beautiful you looked privately.😏

Iwaizumi

It was Oikawa's birthday party. You and Oikawa were best friends and his only present from you was to make Hajime flustered and of course you agreed, because you love teasing Iwa.

Oikawa just loves seeing mean Iwaizumi flustered. So, Oikawa came up with a plan to go shopping for the outfits for his party. You both wanted to get something sexy to wear for the party.

The day finally came and you got ready for the party. Your hair was slayed, nails were popping, makeup on point. You knew the dress you were wearing was definitely going to leave Iwa stunned.

You made it to the party a little early since Oikawa texted to come fast before Iwa was there.

“Iwa-Chan is going to be amazed by your beauty Y/N! I can’t wait to see his reaction!” Oikawa says with so much excitement while stares at you in awe.

Before you can respond back to Oikawa you saw Iwa walking in the house, “well, we are about to see his reaction now.” Oikawa turned and smirked when he saw Iwaziumi’s standing by the door frame looking around, probably looking for you and Oikawa, “Iwa-Chan! Over here!” Oikawa yelled over to Iwaziumi. Iwaizumi rolled his eyes hearing Oikawas voice, he started walking towards yall but stopped when he saw you.

He was breathless seeing you in that dress, your body fitted so right in that dress. Seeing how your boobs were showing out a little too much riled him up, but not in a bad way.😌

Iwaizumi started blushing from the thoughts he was having of you, he felt so embarrassed. Oikawa smirked at how flustered Iwaizumi was, “Iwa-Chan, aren’t you going to compliment Y/N-Chan, instead of just standing there gaping at her,” Oikawa teased.

“Shut up Shittykawa, I was going to compliment her but you interrupted me, asshole,” he said walking up to you and pulling you by the waist, “you look beautiful, Love,” he kissed you.

“Thank you Haji,” you softly giggled when you saw the tint blush on his cheeks. “Awe, I want a girlfriend now,” Oikawa said, both of you guys forgetting he was still standing there. “Then go find one, you are surrounded by so many people,” you said.

The whole night, Iwaizumi would not keep his hand or eyes off of you, he was craving you badly and it showed. You weren’t complaining with the attention you were receiving from him, in fact it encouraged you more to tease him all night.

With all the teasing you did at the party, you knew you were in for it😏.

Kuroo

Bokuto was throwing a graduation party for the 3rd years that were graduating, so of course you and Kuro were invited.

Kuroo was the one who bought the dress at the mall. You guys were out shopping for outfits for the party. “Baby, how about this dress. You would look really good in it,” holding the dress out for you to see it. You studied the dress, “don’t you think it’s a bit short,” you said, “that’s the whole point Chibi-Chan,” he smirked.

You decided that you would get it because you really did love the dress. After 10 minutes of arguing about who’s going to pay, you gave up because you knew Kuroo wasn’t going to give up. “Chibi-Chan, what kind of man would I be to pick out a dress for you to wear and make you pay for it. I would be a terrible boyfriend and I’m never that,” he says dramatically.

At the party

You made it to the party with a couple of you friends.

You start to look for Kuroo, to find him and Bokuto dancing but from the looks of it, it looks like are competing against each other to see who’s a better dancer.

“Look, Kuroo can you do this? Huh? Huh?” Bokuto said, doing some weird dance moves. You started laughing at their little competition and how silly they looked.

Kuroo looked your way, “Kitten, you look stunning as always,” he smirks walking your way to give you a little twirl, smacking your butt in between the twirl.

“Are you made out of fluorine, iodine, and neon? Because you’re FINE.”

You laughed at his lame pick up line, as you wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. “Thank you,Tetsu.”

Kuroo was in love with how the dress fitted your curves so well, he mostly loved how your butt looks in it. He couldn’t help himself from rubbing your butt. “Tetsu! The dress is too short for you to be rubbing it like that,” you said looking around to make sure nobody was staring at you guys.

Kuroo smirked, still continuing to rub your butt. “I can’t help it. Your body just looks amazing in that dress, especially your ass.” He says pecking your lips a few times.

The entire night, Kuroo would not keep his hands away from your butt. He just loved how short the dress was and how it made your butt stick out more.

“Are you made of Nickel, Cerium, arsenic and sulfur? Because you got a NiCe AsS!”

Y’all know what happened after the party😉

[avversiera-writes]

touch your heart [senju tobirama/you] - prologue + chapter 1

Summary: Hashirama might go down as the worst matchmaker in history, but he thinks he might be on to something. Tobirama sees through his brother's schemes and is determined not to fall for it. Or fall for you.

Word Count: 5k-ish

A/N: Yoooo sorry for taking this long to post it LMAOOO anyways, this work is available on AO3 with 12 chapters in, so if you want to read away! 

also dedicating this post to @senju-sekhmet you’re the best, and happy belated XD 

AO3 LINK FOR TOUCH YOUR HEART

LINK FOR THE REST OF THE SERIES 

[PROLOGUE]

Thank you. 

Those two words are what Tobirama’s mother seemed to tell his father all the time. She looked grateful saying it too. Too grateful to the point that she is cooped up in the Senju compound all the time, with nowhere to go. Tobirama was a smart kid–too smart for his own good–and he saw that the last place she wants to be was here, with family and raising children in this godforsaken war zone. 

 His mother said that was how she met his father, and how she fell in love with him, by the words of gratefulness, but Tobirama is a smart kid. He knew nothing of love, but he could tell that his mother did not love his father. She mistook feelings of gratitude as feelings of love.  

His mother has a cold face, but she was gentle and fierce and was a great story-teller. She told stories of the great mountains and rivers that she has seen before everything fell into disarray. His mother loved art, books, and knowledge. She always encouraged Tobirama and his brothers to pursue their own curiosities beyond war.  

Tobirama always took that to heart. Sure, his body and his mind are well-suited for battle but his interests lie elsewhere. He loves to explore, to discover, to observe and to experiment to prove something foreign to him. He loves to break down something to its smallest detail and build it back up to make something new. He wants to create. 

Thank you. 

Those were two words that were too much for his mother to bear all her life. It weighed on her. It chained her down. 

Thank you. 

Those were her last words to Tobirama. 

Thank you, for being my son, for letting me be your mother. 

Those were two words that stuck to him like a curse. They were binding, until the bitter end. 

.

.

.

[PART ONE, CHAPTER ONE]

The first time Tobirama sees you, he immediately forms the opinion that you are too loud. Loud, in a sense that everything that passes by you, has to pay attention to you. Loud, in a sense that, when you speak, everyone has to hang by your every word. You are too loud, and he immediately concludes that you will not last long in a battle because you seem like an easy target. It is not like him to make fast conclusions without further observation, but you are just so loud that he wants to immediately shut down his senses.

So loud in fact, that even among the crowd, Tobirama cannot help but look your way and be wary of your presence. 

Contrary to what he thinks, you are not that much of a blabbermouth nor a person who speaks aimlessly, but he does not know you yet. He has not even had a chance to look you straight in the face. 

Today, he finds you standing by an umbrella stand, where a dozen colorful and detailed parasols are opened as a display to passerbys. You are in your casual kimono, and because it is spring, there are lovely pink cherry blossoms etched on your left sleeve, spreading towards your chest. Your obi cinches your waist and holds your sword by your side, so that it is easy to rest your hand on top of the hilt. Your hair is held back from your face with a simple hairpiece, and a festival fox mask hangs on the side of your head.

Tobirama stares, not having anything else to look at. 

Hashirama and Madara are also walking around, greeting the citizens of Konoha, and holding children up in the air. Hashirama’s young sons follow closely behind, playfully roughhousing each other and anyone who happens to get in their way. 

Hashirama notices his brother, glaring at a distant point and decides to step in lest Tobirama accidentally offends someone. He knows that his brother does not mean to glower at times. It’s just his eyes are a bit sensitive to the sun. 

At least, that is the reason, most of the time.

Tobirama immediately looks away from you, but Hashirama already saw who he was looking at. He gives Tobirama a curious smile. 

“What?” Tobirama deadpans. 

“You should go talk to her,” Hashirama suggests. “You seem interested.”

Tobirama folds his arms. “No.” 

Hashirama opens his mouth to add another thing, but Tobirama beats him to it. 

“Brother, I said no,” Tobirama affirms, and that was that. 

 Hashirama sighs, and pouts a little. “She’s nice!” 

Tobirama fakes a cough, making sure to spit out the words idiot clearly, and he crosses his arms. “You think everyone is nice.”

“Well, innocent until proven guilty, as they say!” 

Tobirama glances back at you, and finds that he can easily track you. 

 “With all due respect, elder brother, that is a very naive statement coming from you.” 

Tobirama has heard of you and he stops himself from telling Hashirama that, and instead lets him point out that you were one of the newly ranked jounins and that you specialize in kenjutsu. You also have been spending your free time teaching some of the older genins the basics of close range fighting and defense. 

 As the Hokage, Hashirama is more than happy to get to know those who are rising to the ranks and especially those who are gifted. It means that their Academy is working, even though it hasn’t been very long since it was established. You were one of those people from a clan who are already shinobi, but had to be evaluated in order to determine your rank and the Shodaime Hokage saw how skillful you are, despite not being the most powerful user of ninjutsu. He wants Konoha to have dependable teachers who will pass on useful skills and knowledge to whoever wants to learn. 

You start to walk away from the umbrella stand, when suddenly a bunch of kids and teenagers rush towards you. Tobirama sees some young students in the group that he had picked himself. Hiruzen stands out among the rest, loud and rambunctious, while Danzo follows closely behind like a shadow, but as obtrusive.

“Sensei! You should join the sparring competition later! They have bokkens, you’re good with bokkens!” 

You laugh, and try to back out before the others start to make your decision. “I think I will pass!” 

“Aww, no!” 

Tobirama watches the commotion, and then you look towards him. He freezes, as you smile at him and continue to wave him forward. Tobirama glares, because you are still waving at him but he does not know you so obviously he is not going to wave back, but suddenly Madara passes by him and Tobirama almost feels embarrassed. 

  Almost. He checks himself.

The wave was not meant for him.  

He glimpses Madara give a small wave, and this makes him pause.

 Madara waves? Tobirama almost scoffs at this, but he must keep his public appearance. 

You smile warmly, and introduce Madara to the younger children who were starting to cower a little because of his serious and glum expression. Tobirama watches as you slip your arm through Madara’s arm like you have done it many times. Tobirama’s students look at each other, but they do not harbor any bad sentiments toward the Uchiha clan leader. Some of them even crack a smile at the younger children’s reactions. Madara can be a little intimidating at first, if you do not know him.

 Then, you say something to the kids, earning a laugh from them and a small, tight-lipped smile from Madara.

Tobirama notices that the edges of Madara’s eyes have softened, something he only does around Hashirama.

“Are you sure you don’t want to get introduced to her? She is a very warm person,” Hashirama asks. “She’s also very smart and I think you’d benefit from her insights.” 

Tobirama watches her say her goodbyes and pat a few children’s heads, and walk away. “I’m fine.”

 Hashirama looks at Tobirama, doubt painted across his face, but he lets it go. 

 For now. 

//

You stand in front of the Hokage, waiting for him to speak. You have been called early in the morning to meet with him, and you have been there for a few minutes, standing awkwardly. You are not sure whether to start some small talk since the Shodaime is busy peering over a few scrolls. Usually, whenever you see him, the Hokage is pretty chatty and offers a lot of kind words. He also seems to talk a lot about his younger brother to you, bragging about him and his accomplishments, and underwhelmingly explaining his personality, which you find strange. 

It makes you think that there’s something off about Tobirama. 

The door behind you opens and you step to the side to make a wide berth for the incoming person, even though there is enough room for at least a few more people to stand there. Tobirama walks in, his face sporting deep eyebags, but his eyes are hard and alert. You look him over, and your eyes go to his rough hands, where there are dried ink stains on his pale skin. His veins protrude out, blue and green rivers criss-crossing over his hands and up his arms. You see hints of faded scars on his skin, but in this light, his pale skin makes up for the blemishes.

“Brother,” Tobirama greets, although it sounds more like he is about to scold his elder brother. 

 Hashirama smiles and he motions for you to step closer. 

You do, and you feel Tobirama’s eyes track you. You immediately look up and you catch his gaze, which makes him look away. 

“I have a task for the two of you,” Hashirama casually brings up. He looks strangely cheerful. Like he has a step by step plan that went exactly as he wanted. 

You look at the Hokage, all ears. And curious as to why he is acting this way. 

“It has come to my attention that while we are training the next generation to be good shinobis, I do not think that we have a proper and standard curriculum,” Hashirama begins. 

Tobirama’s head snaps upright at this. “Brother, what do you mean?” 

He sounds almost angry, and well, if you were the creator of the education system in the village you built and someone had found flaws in it, you would be too. 

“I think that there should be specific learning materials for each year before graduating to a genin, and so on,” Hashirama elaborates some more. “The two of you are to come up with these materials, and I want you to include other aspects that are not just related to being a shinobi. I want the next generation to not only be bred for war, but to have dispositions in other areas.” 

Hashirama stands up and he places his palms on his desk. “Tobirama, you know this. You want to expand our village, I think this is a good step to make that happen.”

 Tobirama looks at his brother with narrowed, suspicious eyes. He is not an idiot. He knows this is some set up, otherwise, why would his brother call you earlier than him? Why would his brother need you for this? These are the types of things he can accomplish on his own, so why are you here?

 “I understand. Then, I think it is time for that to happen. We are at peace, after all.” 

You slowly raise your hand. You notice that Tobirama does not even glance at you, and you want to laugh. You have heard a few things about Senju Tobirama from his own brother, and while it does not surprise you that he has a prickly attitude, it is another thing to see it upfront. It does not intimidate you, rather, it makes you want to see more of his reactions. He reminds you of the shy children that you have met in the Academy. 

You just need to push the right buttons.

“If I may, Lord Hokage,” you start. 

 Hashirama nods for you to continue. 

“With all due respect, what qualifications did I have to help Lord Tobirama with this new project?” 

You swear you saw Tobirama’s eye twitch from the way you said his title. You hide your smirk by biting the side of your cheek.

Hashirama lets out a small chuckle, in which he earns a glare from his younger brother. 

“I have heard about your dedication in teaching the children when you have the time, and since you insisted that you do not want to be a jounin sensei yet, like my brother is, I think it is a good idea for you to keep your head busy. Besides, I have heard you are quite the quick learner. You will find that my brother here is a very good teacher and can offer guidance well, if you can look past his mean demeanor.” 

Tobirama opens his mouth to snap at his brother, but instead, takes a breath and holds his tongue.

Hashirama gathers up some documents from the corner of his desk. “You two can start tomorrow. I would love to have this done by the end of summer, just as the new school year is upon us.” 

 “Brother, stop being ridiculous. That is in three months,” Tobirama interjects. “I think I’m going to need time to plan.” 

 Hashirama glances at his brother. “Well, luckily for you, someone is here to help you. I have faith in you.” 

“Too much, perhaps,” Tobirama dryly says, not even bothering to hide that he does not like this.  

“And you, as well,” Hashirama says to you with a cheerful smile.

 “Lord Hokage, with all due respect, am I going to get paid enough for this? I am practically jobless, I have a living to make,” you inquire with a smile. “Besides, you may also have to compensate for putting me up with your dear brother.”

In the corner of your eye, Tobirama crosses his arms. 

 Hashirama laughs heartily, and he gives Tobirama a grin. “I like her!” He nods. “You will surely be thanked for your services.” 

He extends the pile of documents towards you and you step forward to accept them. You thank the Hokage with doubt, half-serious about the salary, but you decide to not push it today and you give him a smile. Then, you also smile at Tobirama.

 “I will see you tomorrow then,” you tell him. 

Tobirama carefully gazes at you, and then he nods. He turns to his brother with a determined look on his face. Or an angry look. You are honestly not sure. 

“The Hokage mansion’s library,” Tobirama grounds out curtly. “9 am. Sharp.”

You look at him, wondering what type of bad day he is having to be this abrupt, or if this is how he really is. You understand that he and his brother have been at war for all of their life, so maybe this is how he has turned out.

“I will see you.” You bow quickly and walk out of there, ready to dive into the materials the Hokage gave you. 

//

Madara aims a punch towards your way, but you quickly dodge it and block it with the palm of your hand, and you follow through by sending his movement forward by using his momentum and landing a charged punch to his lower ribs, just where his liver will be. 

Madara chuckles and he flips himself away from you. 

“Brutal,” Madara comments breezily. “That can actually kill someone, but fortunately I’m not just anyone.”

You roll your eyes. “Yeah well, give me an A for effort.”

Madara falters and his eyes narrow at you. He knows as well as you do that you are slacking and there is a lot on your mind. “Is this about what Hashirama told you earlier?”

You meet his eyes and let out a sigh. “Wow, word travels fast.”

Madara starts to walk towards you and he gathers his hair to one side. “That was not fair of him. If you want, I can talk to him about that.” 

You watch Madara’s face, and a cloud passes overhead. You are almost tempted to say yes and cling to the wings that Madara has put you under to shelter you, but you are not that woman anymore. You are not a quitter. Besides, you need to have a purpose to pour your efforts in. If not, then what else could be in store for you? 

“It’s not like the Hokage asked me to cut off my hand, I will be fine, Madara,” you finally answer. “Really.”

Madara folds his arms and he presses his lips together. “If you ever need me to go beat him up then say the word.”

You cannot help the chuckle that escapes your mouth. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. There will be no need of beating.” You pause and a smirk forms on your face as an idea takes form in your mind. “However, you can help me get to know Tobirama.”

Madara scowls, knowing that you are pushing his buttons. “No, you are on your own,” he grits out. 

The air around your friend changes, and suddenly all the silliness in your demeanor fades away. Your eyes narrow warily, as his face darkens at you with disapproval. You know that he still holds a grudge on Tobirama, and it really is quite low of you to mention him so casually. 

 Madara narrows his eyes at you and shakes his head. "You have some guts." 

You point your chin towards him naughtily. "Everyone's fair game." You break out into a smile, even if Madara can decide right then and there to end your life. "You just can't take it."

Madara used to always intimidate you, and he furthered that feeling at times by showing you his sharingan, because you know, you know , what he is capable of doing with those eyes, but he never really did anything to you. It was more of the idea of what he can do to you, at any given time. 

 Madara stays silent for a few more moments. Then, he attempts to soften his voice. “What do you want to know?” 

You raise an eyebrow at this. “Uchiha Madara is finally giving in?” 

 Madara rolls his eyes and he lets out a small, tight-lipped smile. "Just this once, but you are paying for lunch.” 

 You gasp, taking offense at this. “You do know I am broke, right?” 

“Who’s fault was it for not taking my offer to live in the Uchiha compound?” Madara matches his footsteps with yours as the two of you head towards the village. 

“First of all, I am not an Uchiha, your people will oust me the moment I step foot, and second, I want to make a living for myself.” 

Madara rolls his eyes. “Yeah, but you’re all alone.”

 “Aren’t you?” You retort without thought.

 Madara falls into silence. “You know someday, you will get in trouble with that mouth of yours.” 

“You just can’t handle me.” 

 “The offer still stands,” Madara mutters, and he glances at you. “And it’s safe there. I will make sure no one even says a bad word about you. If you are with me, they won’t even look at you.” 

“That sounds like a lonely life, and you know that I have been mostly caged in my childhood.” You sigh and you bump your shoulder against his arm. “I appreciate everything you have done for me, but I have nothing, Madara. It’s time I do something for myself and invest in something bigger than me. I need that.” 

//

The Hokage mansion is huge inside, and since you do not visit this place often, you are not sure where the said library is. It could just be any room in here. Or, there is no such thing as the library in the Hokage mansion and Tobirama just said that because he wants to avoid you and send you on a goosechase away from him. You know that he is not thrilled to be put up on this project with you, based on his expressions yesterday, but you are kind of determined to change his mind now. 

 Besides, you are fun and cool, something he can take notes on as he seems prudish. 

  You sigh as you decide to just wait for Tobirama outside, instead of wandering inside the mansion. There are still some parts being built, and you do not want to cause any trouble to the workers there. 

You are quite early, hoping to beat Tobirama to the punch to solidify yourself in his good graces and show him that you are serious about this. However, due to your punctuality, the waiting time is becoming ridiculously long. Sometimes you are not big on the whole waiting patiently thing.

You sigh, and aimlessly walk around the whole building. 

  You hear people starting to mile about to start their day, and you hear children laughing and talking loudly among themselves, which brings a smile to your lips. You decide to stay near the entrance of the mansion so Tobirama will not have any trouble looking for you. 

Lost in your thoughts, you brandish your blade from its scabbard and you start to draw stick figures on the soil, and you add little details such as trees, kunais and shurikens. 

You are not sure how much Tobirama knows about you, but you have heard many things about him, mostly from his brother, both good and bad. You know that he is a great warrior and one of the most brilliant minds that his generation has seen. He is responsible for the complex system of the very village you reside in, and the Hokage’s trusted advisor, even more than Uchiha Madara, who you know is very close to Hashirama. You also know that he is a great sensei, according to his students, which you have no doubt about since he is very intelligent. 

Personality wise, he remains a mystery to you. Mostly because Hashirama glosses over that when talking about him. All you know is that Tobirama can be difficult at times, but you figure that it is how one should act when you are at the forefront of leading this village.

However, you are not in the least intimidated, even if he is a little older and has experienced more in life. Now that you are going to be working with him more, you are curious as to what the famed Senju Tobirama is really all about. 

“I hope I did not keep you waiting,” Tobirama’s rough voice interrupts the quiet that you have immersed yourself in. 

  You perk up, and put your sword back with a loud click. He glances down at the ground, where you have made silly stick figures of shinobis fighting. You attempt to erase them with your foot. 

“Not at all!” You lie, but Tobirama sees through that and he narrows his eyes suspiciously. 

His serious face does not change, and instead you think he grew even more serious. He nods and gestures towards the mansion. He clutches the books and the scrolls he has close to his body.

 “Shall we?” 

You follow Tobirama towards the entrance, trying to keep up with his long strides, though he seems to be speeding up on purpose. Finally, he unlocks the library doors and opens them wide. The two of you step in, and you cannot help but feel underwhelmed at the great reveal of the Hokage mansion’s library. 

It is bare, with a lone wooden table and three chairs situated next to the windows. 

 To the side are empty bookshelves, with the exception of one shelf, which is almost halfway filled. 

“This is a sorry library,” you comment under your breath. 

 Tobirama walks up to the table and puts down the materials he has been carrying. 

  “We are going to fill it, starting today,” Tobirama says. “And for the rest of the year.” 

You raise an eyebrow. “How? Write and publish our own books?” 

  Tobirama glances up at you, without irony. “Yes.”  

You feign a smile.  “Oh,” you deadpan. He does seem like the type of person to do that.

“We are also going to visit every clan in the village and ask if we could transcribe some of their writings,” Tobirama continues. “We can make our references through that, integrate their history and make a comprehensive one for Konoha. We also need to learn some of their jutsus and study them, among other things.” 

  You nod, understanding what he means. “Alright, where do we start? And how do we rewrite the Academy curriculum part?” 

“Well first, I will have to set a few rules,” Tobirama drones on, looking at you pointedly.  

You walk towards him so that you are standing on the other side of the table. “Alright, shoot,” you say. 

“I have written the deadlines of the parts that you will do. You must give them to me, on time ,” Tobirama sternly says, slipping one of the scrolls forward. “I have a vague plan of what the curriculum can look like, but you will also have the chance to express your ideas.” 

  You take the scroll and open it gingerly, and you look at the back to back due dates. 

“You must not talk to me aimlessly, unless it is about this project or if you need any clarification on the tasks you have to do,” Tobirama continues. “When we are working, I expect you to only work.”

You nod, thinking that these are easy, reasonable rules. 

  “You must be punctual.” 

  You are way too punctual, so you know that you are going to follow this rule perfectly. 

“Do not eat near me.” 

  At this, you almost roll your eyes, but you hold yourself back. 

  “Do not touch my things, unless I give them to you. I hope that you can call my title with respect,” Tobirama drones on and on, mostly about the little things he is apparently very particular about. “You will also be training with me and my students, and I expect you to always be on top of your game.” 

“Yes, of course.” You blink at all his so-called rules, and fight the urge to roll your eyes. It’s like he already has the impression that you won’t be as dedicated to your job as he is. 

  But you are dedicated. 

However, you cannot help but talk back. He probably made a rule for that, but it goes unheard by you. 

Tobirama nods. “Very well.” 

  “Did you stay up all night making this up?” You ask, unable to help yourself garner some reaction from him. 

Tobirama’s stare is stormy, and his eyes narrow strictly. “It is common sense that you abide by such unsaid rules.”

  “But you just, well forgive me, enumerated them. If they are common sense, then you would not have to re-tell it.” 

Tobirama lets out a stream of breath from his nose that sounds a tad bit impatient, and he rolls his eyes. 

  You smile, feeling a little triumphant at getting a reaction from him. He catches your expression and he schools his face to become serious once more.

The two of you sit in silence for a moment, and you wait for Tobirama to speak. 

  “I heard you teach at the Academy at times,” Tobirama suddenly brings up. “When did you start?” 

  Your eyes narrow slightly at this. Tobirama built the Academy, so he must be aware of the things happening there. “Almost a year ago.” 

  Tobirama taps a finger on the books that he set down. “And you teach when?” 

“Wednesdays and Fridays,” you reply. 

Tobirama nods. “I will be coming with you.” 

You pause at this. “Wait, why?” 

Tobirama looks at you as if it’s obvious. “To size up what the kids need to learn, observe which materials are appropriate for age groups until they graduate as genin, and so forth.”  

Of course, that makes sense. 

Tobirama pulls out the chair and he slides into it. “Then, let us begin. We have many things to research and read up on.” 

You look at him as he opens the books, and distributes some of them to you. 

  “Will you get around to telling me what your plan is, or are you just going to let me guess?” You ask as you flip to the first page of one of the books that he handed to you.

You slide on the chair across from him, taking care to move to the side so that you are giving him his space. 

“Silence, when I am working,” Tobirama states without looking up from what he is reading. “Do not talk to me aimlessly. You will get a chance to ask me questions later, I suggest you start listing them down.”

  “Alright, alright,” you mumble. 

You read the first paragraph of the book, already taking note of the main idea. After a few pages, however, you glance up at your book and to Tobirama, who has not moved an inch except to turn a page. You observe his pristine expression, your eyes going down the slope of his strong nose, his high cheekbones, and his lips that form into a pout, and then to the markings on his face and chin.

  He’s handsome, you’ll give him that. 

His eyes never waver, unlike you, and from this, you can tell that he always pours all his focus and efforts when he does something. 

“Work,” Tobirama reminds you. “And look at the due dates so you can think about how you can strategize your time.” 

You snap up and pretend to go back to your reading, but you glance at him one last time. Something about him piques your curiosity, and it makes you want to push his buttons just to see what the famed Senju Tobirama is all about. 

 You cannot help but let out a tiny smile and you raise the book to hide your face. 

Well, if he already has some sort of prejudice towards you, you might as well play that to your advantage. 

You smirk to yourself, finally looking forward to the time the two of you will spend together. 

.

.

.

[CHAPTER TWO >>>]

[thesmpisonfire]

HEYYYY

I needed to write them.

Its based on this

Enjoy!!

Fundy hated fishing.

Something about sitting still, eyes locked in one place, and how slow it was... It just keep up his nerves.

It didn't help that Fundy was also catching nothing.

Maybe it was because Fundy was unlucky as fuck.

Maybe it was because of the thunderstorm that was happening for around an hour.

Who knows?

The fox was sitting still, trembling slightly from the cold water soaking his fur and his clothes. His eyes were locked on the bopping white spot that was being tossed around by the angry waves. He waited, paws holding the fishing rod so tight he couldn't even feel them anymore.

How long has he been there? Fundy decided to fish in order to clean his mind from his problems, and only tripped into a rabbit hole of memories and loss.

Wilbur used to take him fishing, but they were so bad at it. Fundy was never patient, and Wilbur was always scaring the fish by moving his feet underwater.

They would come home with an empty basket, but they always had so much fun that it didn't even matter.

The water falling down from Fundy's face was just raindrops.

Philza and Fundy fishing during the day Eret should appear. The fox was so happy and hopeful, just to be heartbroken once more.

Phil was a good grandfather, but, when needed, dissapeared to be with Techno on the montains.

Fundy's shaking body was just because of the cold.

He was sitting on the edge of a pond, near his wedding venue. Fundy tried to run after Dream, but the blond was already gone. Dream left behind a broken heart, and didn't even look back to see whose heart was it.

Fundy moved his feet underwater, holding a self made rod and pretending he was catching something. Sometimes, he didn't even know how he could handle so much.

His grip on the rod only got stronger. He couldn't let it go. Even with his breakdown, crying pathetically in the rain, he couldn't handle fail something as simple as fishing.

Fundy sat on that pier trying to feel better, and he only managed to get even more miserable.

The sea was too aggressive and the rain was too loud, he didn't noticed the soft steps behind him, not until the rain stopped falling on him, and Fundy looked up to see Ranboo.

The enderman was holding a big umbrella, also wearing a black and white raincoat, long enough to cover all of of his legs and arms. The hoodie covered Ranboo's face in shadows and, if Fundy didn't know the dumbass that Ranboo was, looked like ready to kill the fox.

Ranboo crotched right next to Fundy, compressing himself under the umbrella in order to not get wet.

"What are you doing here?"

Fundy shrugged, not even trying to look better.

"Pitying myself and feeling like shit."

"Mood."

Both of them chuckled, eyes back on the sea.

"Why under the rain, tho? You can feel like that while cozy back into our house."

Since Eret finally managed to adopt both Fundy and Ranboo, the youngest called his house "their house", somewhere Fundy could stay while visiting from Dry Waters. Fundy tried to brush it off, because, you know, they also had the big as fuck castle where they could live. But Ranboo wasn't going to give up on his house, so now Fundy had 3 beds to sleep. It was nice.

"Yeeah... But I really wanna feel miserable, you know?" Fundy softly laughed again, grip strong again so he couldn't lose his rod.

"That's sad, Fundy." There was concern in Ranboo's voice. Lot's of it.

"Tell me about it, man..." Fundy smiled.

He liked to talk to Ranboo. It was a nice kid, mostly a yes-man, but with a really fast mind and so fuckin smart, it was almost unbelievable. Fundy also liked that Ranboo never actually judged him for his terrible choices, like smoking or fishing during a thunderstorm, but instead just tried to talk him out from it without being too harsh. It was a good kid.

"You know, Ranboo... The thing is..."

Fundy turned his face too fast, tail wiggling happily with the company, and water drops hit Ranboo's little spots of uncovered skin.

Hssss. Fundy's ears immediately perked up, worry in his face when he finally noticed that his stupid half enderman brother was standing in the middle of the pouring rain.

"RANBOO!" Fundy let the rod go, getting up surprisingly quickly. "Get up! We need to go!"

Ranboo kinda freezed, surprised with the sudden explosion of energy. He quickly obeyed Fundy, getting up and being immediately pushed in order to walk.

"Why are you so dumb? The sky is basically flooding everything!" Fundy was almost running, not noticing when Ranboo inclined in order to not let Fundy get even more wet. "Why?!" Ranboo just laughed at Fundy's voice crack, fixing his rain coat in order to get more safe from the water.

"I saw you standing there, so I went there trying to know what you were doing!"

"You are an idiot." Fundy groaned in annoyance, not believing that Ranboo was so careless like that. "Be normal and try not to fucking die!"

Ranboo laughed louder, opening the door and letting Fundy enter first. "Okay, I'll do my best"

"Grow some fuckin braincells!" Fundy said from the top floor, getting a towel and drying himself. Ranboo spied a little and saw Fundy shaking his body like a wet dog, his fur going all puffy and taking giggles from the half enderman. Fundy's fur was bigger due to the winter, and Ranboo knew that Fundy really cared for it.

"Leave your jacket up there, we can eat something down here" Ranboo said, smiling when Fundy plopped himself on the couch, stretching next to the fireplace. "Take of this stupid raincoat, its still wet." Fundy mumbled, lazily looking at Ranboo.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about my shiny armor to save you from the rain"

"Save me?? You were so fuckin stupid! Knights are not that stupid!!!" Fundy sat up, raising his voice and making Ranboo start laughing again.

"Dude, what happened?" They jumped on spot as Niki and Eret suddenly entered the house, both of them under the same umbrella, the other half enderman wearing a pastel yellow colored raincoat and Eret without his crown, sunglasses nowhere to be seen, making the white glow shine in the slightly dark room.

"We could hear Fundy from L'manburg's entrance." Niki chuckled, closing the umbrella and taking out her raincoat.

Fundy got up, looking annoyed as hell to an outsider, but his family could see the hidden smile in his face.

"Wanna know what happened? Ranboob, like an idiot...."

"Stop calling me that!"

"I'll call you how I want!"

"Boooooys, stop fighting!!" Niki tried to intervene, but just got softly pushed away to the couch when Fundy and Ranboo started a pillow fight.

Eret smiled at their kids, walking to the kitchen in order to make some hot chocolate.

Somewhere, at the sea, a fishing rod was being taken away by the waves.

[ask-rp-devra]

A few more days passed, the whole island was preparing to lose two staff members for a short while so ther was a handful of new Pokemon squads on patrols, and a lot of handing over of work to Professor Grey and Pari who were happy to stay behind for the time being. Seeing as the trip to the Crown Tundra area in Galar was looming, peach had put in special permission to bring along Valka, her age and subsequently monstrous skill made her usually unable to travel, trained to a fine point, putting her in a gym battle or a league seemed very unfair, but the locals seemed to think she’d fit the bill, Professor Magnolia had mentioned the abundance of legendary Pokemon in the area, so it would seem wise to take along a Pokemon that was able to hold its own.

With bags packed and bodies in seats the woman and her apprentice began the trip back to Galar, not only to collect more data on the new areas, but also to gather Devra’s team mates up to bring back to the island. The flight back was fine, Peach slept, drooling a bit, legs tucked up in the plane seat, her single Pokemon stashed for the journey, it felt uncomfortable having Valka in her pokeball, it didn’t happen often.

Devra had spent most of her free time packing for the trip, and the rest of it bonding with the two Pokémon she’d be bringing to the tundra. She had to make sure Aliza and her newest Pokémon Coal were strong enough to hold up in the tundra. Fiona helped her load with training her daughter, trusting her human to take care of Aliza but also wanting to make sure she’d be okay too. Now that they were on the plane Devra sat in the window seat, watching the clouds go buy. As they got closer to landing she gently nudged Peach. “Professor? We’re almost there.” She then looked out again, excited to see her mom again, as well as all of her other Pokémon.

Peach grunted, awoke with a jolt, and looked around, dazed and somewhat still very asleep, looking rather disheveled. Drool sticking hair to her face, squinty tired eyes, and a miserable headache. Water and pills as she waited to get the green light to get off the plane, and finally see her partner again, the ball sat in her pocket, in her hand, waiting patiently.

by the time they had disembarked, got their luggage and had caught a flying taxi towards Devra’s home, they had been able to finally take in the scenery, and enjoy the view as they made their way back to postwick, a quiet little town full of wooloo keepers and families.

“you must be happy to get home, see the family, you’re old Pokemon.”

Devra had given the corviknight a warm hello when they were picked up, being familiar with his taxi team. “I’m super excited. I told mom we were coming the other day. I think she’s going to have tea and cake waiting for us. I think you’ll be happy for the tea. She says my Pokémon have all been keeping an eye out for me. I have a feeling there’s going to be a mob when I get of the taxi.” She laughed as she saw her house come into view, here eyes bright and happy.

The pair thanked the taxi driver, and his delightful Pokemon, watching them fly off, leaving them outside a quaint little home, the front door swinging open in haste, a woman stepping out, presumably Devra’s mother? Peach smiled a bit, trying to come off as pleasant, and let Dev take the lead here. In her pocket she could feel the pokeball shake, Val trying to get out.

“not yet bud, let’s just get settled, not long now.” She murmured very quietly, not drawing any attention to herself.

Devra glanced over at Peach, her own poke balls in hand. “You can let her out now Peach. Most of my guys know to be polite around new visitors.” She let out Coal and Aliza, the young ponyta snorting as she was finally able to stretch out. Devra quickly explained things to them before a loud cry was heard from the side of the house. “Oh boy...give me a second.” She got up and quickly put some space between the little group and the hoard of Pokémon coming at her. She soon disappeared in a mass of excited cries, her laugher still being heard.

This was...expected. Peach had caught Devra chatting on her phone across videos to a lot of these Pokemon, all shapes and sizes, so she took a perch on the fence out of the way, and let the mob rush over and get their affection out of their systems. The poor girl within the crowd was far from unhappy about it all, they seemed like relatively well behaved Pokemon. While the ruckus went on, she release her darling fire type, who shook her whole body thoroughly, hating the feel of pokeballs, sending little embers out of her fine fur, before seeing the group, and scaling a tree to be as far out of the way as possible. Peach looked up to her, a small almost unnoticeable grin on her face. “you’re probably right to get some distance, never been one for socialising hey buddy.” She grumbled, folded her legs up under her and sat like a loaf in the tree.

As Devra made her rounds through the mob, four figures bounded over to the grumpy woman. Two of them were applin, both rolling around at her feet. Then a smaller than normal dreepy floating slightly behind the excited little ponyta that stood happily in front of peach.

The quad of new and quite familiar Pokemon approached, Peach for once had no snacks in her pockets, fresh from the airport with its restrictions, she rummaged to no avail.

“ah sorry guys, I normally have snacks on me, I’ll have to go shopping sometime soon.” Instead holding her hand out to see if they wanted to sniff. The applin had her attention in particular, her trip to Galar was cut short due to a medical emergency back at the labs, so she never had a chance to catch any or observe them. “you’re all certainly very strong looking aren’t you.” The ponyta reminded her of home, in a weird way, growing up with the species just being around, she became use to them from an early age, though this youngster was Galarian and very different in appearance.

Devra looked over at peach and grinned, seeing her with four particular Pokémon. She managed to make her way over to the little group, her Gardevoir holding onto her harm as she went. “Looks like you met your surprise.”

“my what?” She was a little dense at times, head empty. By this point they’d gotten a bit closer to her, she had been able to pet them all a little, besides the Dreepy who was a little more shy from the looks of it. Val stayed high up and observed quietly, she was use to sharing her human, this was not new to her.

“Your surprise! You were so excited when you saw the Pokedex entries for applin, and curious about Dreepy. So I thought I’d get you a gift for all the help you’ve given me. The ponyta is kind of a bonus. The dreepy has gotten kind of attached to him, so I don’t think it would be smart to split them up.” She laughed as she was hugged buy the gallede as well, the two obviously fond of their human.

“wow, that’s really thoughtful of you, you know you didn’t have to do all this right? But thank you regardless.” Peach didn’t think she’d be getting a few team mates so fast, some may have to go home for now, they’d be too young for battling in the Crown Tundra just yet. “‘what do you all think then? You want to see if we get along? Don’t have to stick with me if you gave it a try and don’t enjoy it, but it’d be nice to get to know you all a lot more for sure.” She directed her questions to the Pokemon before her, not focusing on the little ghost type too much to not freak them out. It would certainly be nice to have the company, and there was no other fox pokemon so Val wasn’t bothered by their presence at all. With so many around it really felt a bit more like home.

Devra laughed as the applin bounced happily. “Oh don’t you worry. They’ve been super excited to meet you. I’ve been telling all about you and what you do for Pokémon. The dreepy has been excited too, but he’s just a little shy.”

“oh! So you all knew me before I even knew you, well that explains why you all came over so quickly.” The woman laughed a bit, noticing Val descend from the tree behind them, sitting bout a meter back from the others, there was a shimmer you could almost not notice around her, she was putting up a barrier to give herself some space, but seemed rather calm and not at all in discomfort around these new faces. Peach shifted to the side a bit, gesturing to her beloved partner. “well then everyone, meet Valka, she’s...well, family. hopefully you’ll all get along and learn a lot from each other. If you’re worried or want some advice, please ask me or Val and we’ll try to help.” Her attention shifted to the Dreepy who was still hiding a bit behind the Ponyta.

“‘Ah, and don’t worry little guy-“ her eyes glanced about secretively, trying to be a little less scary with her expressions, softening as she whispered a little to him. “‘you and me can be shy together, I’m not great with big crowds or lots of eyes on me either. If you ever think it’s too much for you, you can hide behind me and I’ll scare off whoever’s bothering ya, I’ll be the brave one when you can’t.” She did laugh, this wasn’t the first shy Pokemon she’d had to handle, and they had a lot of love to give normally, just took time to get them comfortable. Her attention now off of him, she let Val so her usual thing, advance to the group, sit in her lap, and discuss with the others, get ting to know them a bit. One applin seemed happy to crawl up onto the professors shoulder, the other wiggling up next to her leg where she sat.

“‘honestly Dev they’re all darlings, I’m sure we’ll all get along great in time.”

She grinned happily as she watched Peach with the little group. “I’m really glad it worked out. I was a little nervous that they still might be too shy. Well, besides the dreepy. Oh!” She dug in her bag and pulled out an odd looking apple. “I almost forgot this! It’s a Sweet Apple. You can use it to evolve one of the applin into an appleton.” There was a happy rumble from behind her as her own Appleton stepped forward. “There’s another apple called a Tart apple that can get you a flapple like mine too. But I haven’t been able to find one yet.”

The mention of the specific fruits found in Galar caught the professors attention, also noticing the big rounded Pokemon approach upon seeing it. The Appleton was actually surprisingly small for a dragon type, shin height, and possibly the cutest looking thing peach had seen in a while. She accepted the fruit thankfully and had to look it over, sniffing it, and all too tempted to take a bite to figure out what it’d be best suited to, from the name, it’d be a really good eating apple, the tart one however would be a cooking sort no doubt.

“ill have to keep my eye out, I must have missed this all last time I was here, good thing you kept your eyes peeled for this.” She let everyone of the new youngsters around her have a chance at looking over the apple too, even Val took a sniff. It was always good to let them see as much of the world as possible, and all the items it contained.

“Maybe one of the pair will like the chance to evolve one day, they’ve probably had time while staying here to meet your pair of Pokemon who chose to evolve, so who knows.” She looked to the two Applin who she had become very fond of quite quickly, they had surprisingly big personalities for such small species, giving each other grief at any given opportunity, like bickering siblings. “they’ll figure it out when they are ready.”

She smiled as she glanced back at the house, waving to her mom as she came to meet them now that the chaos had settled down. “My moms name is Olivia by the way. Not sure if I told you that.”

“you did not.” She said matter of factly, and stood to greet the woman who looked very happy to see her daughter. The woman herself had a fair bit of resemblance to Devra, they shared a few mannerisms too peach noticed while offering a smile and a handshake, which did slightly throw Olivia, she had intended to go for a hug, but saw the social queue and changed it up.

“it’s really nice to meet you, you’re daughters been a real asset out in Johto, you should come and visit her some time perhaps, see what she gets up to.”

Olivia smiles warmly at Peach as she shook hands with her. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you as well Professor. Devra has told me so much about you and the island. I’ll have to make a trip out some time. I’ve been meaning to take a holiday for some time now.” She then turned to her daughter and gave her a massive hug, inviting both of them inside for a rest before they continued their trip.

[vanserraseris]

END OF PART VI - Lucien learned how to fish from his brother, idk, no one can convince me otherwise. Just a warning that there are mentions of abuse and it is also implied. The next few parts are a little shorter, so hopefully they’ll be edited a little faster. I hope you enjoy it!!!

ahhhh so excited legoo!

Prince of Ashes. Part VI. 

masterlist.

“I don’t like this,” Lucien mumbled as he stared into the waters of the river.

Rufus kicked water at him. 

“I don’t like you,” Lucien grumbled as he made to splash back, his hand in midair when Eris growled at them. 

Rufus kicked water at Eris. 

Eris closed his eyes, standing straight, droplets of water dripped along his face and back into the river. He let out a long-suffering sigh. Lucien’s laugh could be heard above the sound of the water.

“I’ll remind the both of you that I was not the one that suggested we spend our day doing this.” Eris made a vague hand gesture in front of him. He opened his eyes and raised a wet, auburn brow at Rufus. Rufus waved a hand dismissively, something he seemed to have picked up from Eris. How annoying, Eris thought, and considered that perhaps he should wave people off less often.

“You’ve been holed away in that study of yours for far too long, it can’t be healthy. Touch some grass, Eris, smell some roses. I’m sure it will do you much good.” 

Lucien smiled, his shoulder length hair tied back messily with a strap of leather, “Why don't we make it a game, then, that should make this exciting.” Now that Lucien had grown a bit, he looked a lot like Rufus. Eris supposed that meant Lucien looked like him as well, but there were more similarities to the two youngest brothers.

Both of them had easy grins and playful, russett eyes. The only small differences were their noses and the fact that Lucien’s skin was a light brown in comparison to the pale skin of the rest of his brothers. Eris couldn’t help but think they were all very fucking lucky that Lucien had the blood-red hair they’d all gotten from their mother. Sometimes, Eris wondered where in the fuck the Lady of Autumn had managed to find a secret lover from another court, but he wasn’t too keen on asking her.

“Hope you’re ready to lose, fox,” Rufus bared his teeth at Lucien, “Don’t expect me to go easy on you just because you’re little.” 

Lucien stuck out his tongue. “First one to catch a fish wins,” he said, getting into position. 

Eris smiled, something that was becoming quite rare, bending over with his hands hanging loosely in the water, “Prepare to learn from the best, I’m sure the couple centuries I have on you both should give me an advantage.”

“Doubtful,” Rufus snapped, “You’re shit at this kind of thing.” 

Not true, Eris thought, but didn’t bother responding. Eris had been the one to teach Rufus how to do this in the first place, having learned from Micah and Widge from his time in the war camps. Eris was pretty sure that as princes, he and his brothers were very much above wading around in rivers trying to catch fish, but it was nice to get outside.

“Are you sure there are fish in this river?” Lucien muttered. 

“There are fish in every river,” Rufus replied, moving closer to their youngest brother. 

Eris was no longer paying attention to the water, he merely glanced up to look at Lucien. Lucien was biting his lip, a look of determination on his face as he stared intently into the running water. Eris guessed that Lucien could probably do anything he set his mind to with that kind of perseverance.

Eris had been spending less and less time at the Forest House, not just because of his father’s many orders, but because he felt as though the less attention he gave Lucien, Beron did the same. Lucien didn’t really understand why Eris was avoiding him, but at least he still had Rufus. Eris hated to admit that he missed the little runt, and he couldn’t help feeling like he was missing out on Lucien’s life.

Cato had just been born when Eris was sent to the war camps that bordered the Autumn Court, Owain had been born right before the War, and Maddox right after it. Eris had been busy then. Worst was when Priam was born and Eris had been dutifully kicked out of The Forest House to rule over a territory far away from the capital city of Calchas. Not being there for his brothers was one of the few things he’d regretted when he’d been younger, but he didn’t spend too much time dwelling on that now.

He had been around much more for Rufus. His mother had had a difficult pregnancy and Eris had worried for her. He’d worried even more when Rufus was born such a small and sickly thing, but that had only meant that Beron paid him no mind. It was evident in the way Rufus acted, in his mannerisms and the patterns of his speech, that Eris had been a big part of his brother’s life. Eris supposed they differed a lot in personality, but he didn’t mind.

He’d rather Rufus be wild and playful than whatever the hells had happened to him. 

“Ha,” Rufus said, amusement glittering in his eyes, “Found one.” 

With a small yelp, Lucien crashed into the waters. 

“Cauldron, Rufus,” Eris snarled. Rufus had wrapped a hand around Lucien’s ankle, holding him so that he dangled upside down, water dripping into the river from Lucien’s soaked clothes and hair.

Lucien made a funny gasping sound, his mouth gaping as he sputtered water. Eris didn’t know why he had panicked so irrationally, he knew very well that nothing dangerous lurked in these rivers. Eris stood to his full height and watched as Rufus lifted Lucien so that they were almost facing each other. 

“The rare fox fish, quite the catch, brothers,” Rufus grinned, “I’m sure Old Sae will be thrilled with this remarkable find.”

“Eris,” his youngest brother whined, and Eris sighed, reaching for Lucien. 

“Honestly, Rufus,” he tried to send a reprimanding look to him, but Rufus just shrugged, a smile still gracing his face. Rufus liked this sort of thing - tricks and riddles and jokes. Lucien liked it as well, just when he wasn’t the one the tricks and jokes were directed at. Lucien wrapped his arms around Eris’s neck, leaning his head on Eris’s shoulder like he had done when he was much younger.

Eris could hardly believe that Lucien was already a decade old. Eris held onto Lucien with one hand, fixing the cuff of his pants so that it covered the gold tattoo on his ankle. His father still didn’t know he’d gotten one, probably would have cut off his foot if he ever found out, but it served as a reminder to Eris that Beron didn’t own him. 

“That’s why Eris is my favourite,” Lucien mumbled as Eris straightened.

Eris couldn’t help the triumphant smile he flashed in Rufus’s direction. Rufus scowled, “You hardly ever see Eris! He’s always gone, and you constantly come crying to me when father makes you upset, and Eris is your favourite?” 

“Yes.”

Eris spoke before they started arguing, something they had begun doing a lot. “I think we’re done enough fishing for today.” Eris took the leather strap out of Lucien’s hair and handed it to Rufus, warming his hands with some of his magic and raking his fingers through the wet strands of his brother’s damp hair. “I should be getting back.”

“Mother’s tits, next time you want something, Lucien, I’m going to tell you to bother Eris with it.” Rufus was smiling as he ruffled Lucien’s hair, so Eris guessed Rufus might not have been telling the truth. “If you can find him, that is.” 

“You never come home anymore.” Lucien observed, leaning back in Eris’s arms as he gently moved the hair that had fallen into Eris’s face. Eris frowned, thinking how Lucien’s softness was going to get him into a whole lot of trouble in a few years time.

“He’s gotten tired of us,” Rufus flicked water from his wet hands at Lucien. While Eris was pretty sure Rufus had meant that as a joke, he couldn’t help feeling as though perhaps Rufus was hiding some truth in his statement, some complaint he had of his oldest brother. 

Lucien looked to Rufus, scrunching his nose in annoyance, “I’m tired of you.” 

Rufus snorted, “I sincerely doubt that.” 

“I’m not tired of you,” Eris felt like he needed to reassure them both, “I’ve just been busy.”

Rufus seemed to recognize that Eris hadn’t liked what he’d said, so he threw his arm over Eris’s shoulders as they continued to walk along the cobblestone path. “I know, I know, you think we’re great fun.” Rufus grinned, “It’s everyone else you’re tired of.” Just as they walked up the stone steps of The Forest House, Owain threw open the large, carved doors. Eris wondered if he’d been sitting there the whole time, waiting for their return.

The guards stationed there didn’t flinch at the loud bang the doors made as they hit the walls. “Where the hells have you been?” He snarled, his teeth bared. The jewels in the hilt of his large sword glinted in the light of the setting sun. 

“Watch your tone, Owain, I’m not in the mood,” Eris snapped.

Owain stood in front of Eris so that he couldn’t walk any further, his broad hand grabbing Eris’s shoulder roughly. “Father has returned from his trip to Spring a little early and he’s looking for you.” 

“He’s not due back until next week.” Eris thought that he would have been able to spend time with Rufus and Lucien, and Beron wouldn’t have even gotten word that he’d been neglecting some of his duties for it.

“Well, there’s been a change of plans, and now he’s fucking pissed.” Owain ran his fingers through his short, messy hair, “He already beat Cato bloody, said it was for letting you leave the house when you have a million things to do.” Owain shook his head, “I told father I’d send you to him once you’d returned. Head to the throne room - immediately.” 

Eris was debating whether he should ask Owain where their mother was when Lucien was wrenched from his arms.

“Fucking hurry,” Owain spat, holding Lucien a bit awkwardly. 

Lucien shifted in Owain’s arms so that he was facing his oldest brother, “Eris, you said you’d read me a story, you promised.” Eris frowned. He’d gotten very good at breaking his promises lately. 

“I’ll read you a story,” Rufus finally spoke, saving Eris from having to respond, “Maybe we can get Owain to join us, too.”

Eris didn’t think Owain had ever read to a child, but he couldn’t help but feel grateful to Owain as he shot Lucien a small smile before he said, “I suppose I could join you for a bit.” The tone of his voice was much softer than what Eris was used to hearing from him. As captain of the Royal Guard, Owain usually sounded like he was giving an order, snappish and abrupt.

Eris remembered a time when Owain was all smiles, and he often wondered what Owain would have become had Beron not been their father. “I’ll read to you another time.” Eris tugged once on a strand of Lucien’s hair, “Goodnight, fox.” Lucien’s russett eyes were wide as he looked at Eris, tears threatening to fall from them. With one last look at Rufus, who wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping the fear he so obviously felt off his face, Eris jogged down the hall towards the throne room.

He would have to stop spoiling Lucien, Eris thought. He was making things worse than they had to be. By the time Eris finally made it to the doors of the throne room, he’d decided that he’d be spending even less time with Lucien, since that was what it meant to protect him. Eris took a deep breath, running a hand through his unbound hair. Eris regretted that he hadn’t thought to bring his boots when they’d gone fishing, and he muttered a low curse as he stared at his bare feet.

He felt a bit ridiculous, but there was no point in stalling, so Eris took another deep breath before he pushed the doors to the throne room open. Beron was already standing, the Lady of Autumn behind him and off to the side. She was gripping the skirts of her dress so tightly her knuckles had turned white. 

“How many times do I have to tell you, boy,” Beron growled, his voice thick with rage. “How many fucking times?”

The ash-tipped whip in his father’s hand was familiar and Eris nearly flinched just looking at it. Beron shook his head when Eris didn’t respond, “Insolent,” he snarled. “The disrespect you show your High Lord cannot go unpunished, you understand that?” 

Eris watched as his mother took one small step forward. 

Eris widened his eyes in silent warning, but she spoke despite it. “Beron—”

“Be quiet,” his father hissed. “I don’t want to hear your voice.” Addressing Eris, Beron asked, “Where were you?” 

Despite being quite a bit taller than the High Lord of the Autumn Court, Eris usually felt very small in his presence. Eris lifted his chin, “Out.” He often found he sounded very young when his father questioned him - like a defiant child. Beron looked closely at his eldest son, eyes stopping on Eris’s bare feet.

“5 for disobedience and 5 because you should have known better.” It could have been so much worse, and Eris knew he should have been counting his blessings for such a simple punishment, counting his blessings that Rufus and Lucien weren’t there in his place, but he couldn’t help the feeling of hate that swelled in his chest. 

“Beron, please,” his mother begged. Eris didn’t know why she bothered, at this point, Eris’s back was so scarred it hardly mattered.

Beron turned to face her, flames in his eyes as the temperature in the room raised. “Speak again, and I’ll add another five.” 

Since Eris could remember, Beron had always been a High Lord before a father. As Eris undid the laces of his shirt, he vowed that he would be a father before a High Lord if he lived long enough to do both.

[sunflowers-and-mooncakes]

To Dream of an Angel

Part 2 of Dreams of Birds and Angels a series of two one shots written for @pawsitivelymiraculous for the Maribat Valentine’s Day Fic Exchange hosted by @eat0crow!

Ao3

Part 1 can be found here

***

Damian Al Ghul knew only the bare minimum about soulmates. He had been taught by his instructors in the League that they were a phenomenon that no one quite understood. To the members, they were a hindrance and should be terminated promptly. In respect to their targets, they were used as leverage to get information.

After the young boy turned 8 years of age, he dreamt of her. A small girl with wide blue eyes who would draw dresses in bright colors. The next night, his mother would explain in hushed tones what soulmates really meant. A soulmate is someone who is meant to compliment you perfectly, and once you met them you would never want to let them go. She would whisper to him about the man who helped create him, and how desperately she wished he had been the angel meant just for her.

Angel, he thought with a humorless laugh, what a fine name for the soulmate of the Heir to the Demon.

Every night when Damian would close his eyes, he would be greeted with the sight of his blue-eyed Angel. He would watch as she played with her friends. He would laugh in amusement as she spilled flour all over herself while working in a bakery. He would frown when she was pushed around by a blonde-haired bully.

The girl puzzled the young heir greatly. She was a bizarre sort; always smiling even when being knocked around. No matter how much abuse she took from that blonde trollop, his soulmate was always kind to others and give everything she could to help them, all the while asking nothing in return. It frustrated him to see someone so wholly selfless. Didn’t she know that she would be better off trying to profit from her interactions with others?

At the age of 10, Damian’s life rapidly changed. No longer was he revered as the Heir to the League of Assassins. Now, he was in his father’s home, fighting against his father’s wards for attention, and being told to relearn everything he had ever known to be true. It was frustrating, being so out of his element, but the longer he was Damian Wayne instead of Damian Al Ghul. He realized how skewed his world had once been.

While his mother had tried to soulmates explain differently from the Leagues teachings, he had always seen her words as foolish. It seemed futile to him, her longing for something she couldn’t have. However, living in Wayne Manor also allowed the now ex-assassin to see a different side of soulmates. Grayson would often talk about his dreams of his mate Starfire with a dopey grin on his face. Similarly, Drake would mention in passing how his dreams started at an older age due to the elder Superboy having not been created yet.

It was strange, living in a house of people who weren’t constantly ready to fight him. His new siblings were perplexing. Grayson was always trying to rope him into some strange “bonding” activity. With Todd’s return came his aggressive attitude, yet occasional helpfulness. Drake was usually passed out somewhere or so full of caffeine he couldn’t even hold a proper conversation. Cain was the most tolerable, having shared similar experiences and understanding the importance of silence.

The biggest influence on his new lifestyle, however, was Alfred Pennyworth.  His dedication and care for the family was to be admired. The Englishmen had a way with words and always knew just what to say to help Damian through his many sour moods. Most importantly, the butler’s selfless love for his charges helped the young Wayne to understand his soulmate’s behaviors.

As his world changed, so did his dreams of her. He would see her take her drawing from paper and bring them to life with fabric. He would look on as she made new friends. As well as enemies. If Damian had been able to, he would have fought that sly fox himself, but the smug smile on his face when Angel put her in her place.

What was most jarring to see, was her fighting villains in a red and black spotted suit. Magic had never been something he took kindly to; it having more than once put his and his family’s lives in danger. After watching countless battles in his visions, and later finding recordings of them online after much research. He could only conclude that the nature of her powers and villains were indeed magic.

It didn’t take Damian long to figure out that his soulmate was the Parisian heroine Ladybug. However, this still did not allow him to meet her. At the very beginning of her tenure, Ladybug and the government of Paris had barred all Justice League access to the city, keeping him from getting there using the cover of Robin.

His next plan was to go to Paris as a civilian. However, he could find no way under his family’s constant hovering to get there. He couldn’t use the private jet without getting caught, and him buying a plane ticket would be immediately suspicious. The last thing he wanted was for his family to find out about his blue-eyed soulmate and get involved. While he had come to care for them more than he ever imagined, in some manners they were simple too overbearing for him to deal with.

So, Damian, rather begrudgingly, chose to let fate take its course. After much thought, he realized that his Angel may not even want to meet him. She had spent the early years of their bond watching him act as a bloodthirsty killer. She was most likely appalled. Who would want a soulmate like him anyway?

Now 18, the black-haired boy spent most of his days the same. He would take Titus for walks in the park, help his father and Drake at Wayne Enterprises, and fight back the crime of Gotham in the dead of night.

Damian was on one such walk when Titus suddenly pulled his leash out of the boy’s grasp. The dog went racing down the path and out of sight with a loud bark.

“Titus!” he called, jogging forward to see the Great Dane stopped in front of a woman who had bent down to pet him.

“I apologize, miss,” he said, coming forward and lowering himself to be at the same level as Titus and her. He put his hand on the dog’s head to pet him as well, bumping the woman’s hand slightly.

“He usually doesn’t go running off towards strangers…” he looked from the dog to the woman and trailed off. His eyes widened as his heart skipped a beat. He tried hard to control his reaction. Now that he was up close, he recognized that face. It was the face of his Angel.

The woman, noticing his change in demeanor, looked up at him. When their eyes met, her expression quickly turned to surprise as well. Looking at her now. the blurry image of her that he had known before began to fill in.

He had always been attracted to his mate. Once he had assumed it was simply because the strange magic of soulmates dictated it so. But now, seeing her face to face, she was more beautiful than he had ever imagined. She had a small button-shaped nose. Her blue-black hair that had once been pulled into cute little pigtails was now in one long braid over her shoulder. What drew his attention most was her big round bluebell eyes that were so kind, yet held mysteries that even he, who had seen much of her life from afar, didn’t have the answers to.

Damian looked down at his dog who seemed quite smug, almost like he knew who he had brought his owner to. It was then that he noticed the marks. On the back of their hands flew a ladybug being followed by a red-breasted robin.

“Miss?” he called, looking back up at her.

“Yes?” she replied. He would never admit it, but his heart melted a bit at the sound of her voice like tinkling bells.

As they made eye contact once again, he made a small gesture towards where their hands sat atop Titus’ head. He swore her eyes couldn’t get any wider as she looked from the marks back up to him. “It appears we are soulmates,” he said plainly as he stood up from the ground, doing his best to appear less shaken than he was. She stood as well. “It appears so,” She gave him a nervous smile and held her hand out to him. “I’m Marinette,”

The boy hesitated for a moment, having a hard time believing the situation he found himself in was real and not a fantasy.

After a moment he took her hand and shook it. “My name is Damian,”

“Well, Damian,” she smiled brightly at him. “would you like to go on a walk and get to know each other?”

He gave her a soft look back. “I certainly would.”

[fairytsuk1]

sweet japan breeze | (f)

pairing: izuku midoriya x reader

genre: fluff

words: 3.2k

summary:

Midoriya grins as he traces the soft bridge of your nose, immediately looking away when you turn.

"Is there something on my face?"

"No! No, not at all."

Just the lack of a kiss, is all.

Sweat soaks through your white collared shirt and a string of curses towards the Department of Rare-Quirked Animals goes with it. Gracing you with a uniform more befitting of a tennis player, you grumble noisily. The net handle nearly slips out of your slick hands until you fumble and hold it with a grip that turns your palms white. You can see Midoriya’s green hair appear in your field of vision. He’s trying to act as if he isn’t squinting and analyzing your every behavior, but he is. The look makes you feel like you’re the rare-quirked animal.

“...What,” you squint back at him, squaring your shoulders to face him head on, “are you looking at?”

“What?! Sorry, were you concentrating? You just looked really stressed so I thought you might want a snack,” Midoriya whips his head left and right before sheepishly smiling at you, “I think we’re off trail anyways, my bad!”

You can’t find it in yourself to be annoyed with him, he’s been your partner since you first joined the DORQA. Your head aches at the thought of the insufferable acronym. If you had to see one more poster promoting their stupid monogram, you might need to be locked up.

But him. Your partner Izuku Midoriya...he always had a gleam in his emerald eyes no matter the job, and he always regarded you with a warm smile! He was the epitome of warmth and sunshine, your heart twinged at the thought of you ruining that with your sourpuss attitude.

Your hand brushes his as you take the protein bar, Midoriya’s face lighting up into beautiful shades of salmon. His back straightens and the apples of his cheeks lift. He’s so inexperienced that it’s funny to watch. He was also definitely a people-pleaser; normally you’d poke fun of him but you were too exhausted to do anything but munch on the almond-chocolate bar.

“I’m gonna radio back to headquarters so we can go back to our tent and get some dinner.”

He pulls his radio out and extends the antenna before turning away to call. A realization dawns on you whilst scanning the clear sky. It’s been four days and the white speckled fox was nowhere to be found. There hadn’t even been droppings or footprints; classifying it as extinct would make your life a lot easier but would lead to repercussions in Aizawa’s office. Aizawa...well, you didn’t want to know what would happen if you even dared to think about it.

There was absolutely no way you were going to let him call headquarters and let them know you’d failed on the excursion you begged to go on. It was just plain humiliating; the thought of Bakugou’s smug grin made you want to strangle someone. Bakugou wasn’t even here!

Midoriya had been moments away from speaking until a big fat finger slammed onto the hang-up button. Your foot beat on the ground, aura reeking of stubbornness. Midoriya cried out and turned to remedy the building lecture he was going to receive from Aizawa. You were quicker than him, swiping like a cat and jerking the phone from his grasp. The device cascaded into soft dirt and was nearly squashed under steel-toed boots.

“No way are we telling headquarters we haven’t found that damn fox yet, we’ll be here till we die as far as I’m concerned,”

“But I feel like we’re getting burnt out! Aizawa will understand!”

A loud sigh rings out as you press your palm to your forehead, squeezing your eyes shut as an attempt to calm down. “Understand my ass!” Retrieving his phone, you toss it to the boy and he lets out a sigh of relief.

“Let’s just go back to camp, okay? I can sway you with more food, can’t I?”

Your cheek twitches with the urge to smile as your eyes roll, settling on him dramatically. You cross your arms, he wasn’t going to win this battle.

“You think I’m gonna listen to you?”

“No, but I think I’m the more responsible one out of the two of us so I should at least try!”

Your shoulders drop as your jaw opens, a gasp of disbelief coming from your lips. If it had been anyone else, you would’ve screamed about the toxicity in the workplace as you stomped to Toshinori’s office. But in this moment, all you could feel was warmth washing over you. Embarrassment, you were responsible!

“I can be very responsible for your information, write that down in your little notebook!”

Picking up the forgotten net with a harrumph, you stomp your shoe to kick off dirt before walking away. Only two steps ahead, your body quickly turns around adorning the smile of someone who was losing their mind.

“You may be more responsible, but I’m more determined! I’m finding that fucking fox and you can come with me or not!”

You secretly pray he won’t report this, the termination letter left on your desk would be the final straw, your new life beginning by moving countries away and living within a secluded cabin. A strand of hair falls into your face and frustration explodes out of you with ascream. Shaking your hair out before tying it back up, Midoriya’s lips are strawberry and swollen at that point. With the way he’s biting them; they’ll turn into a pretty cherry red soon.

He shakes his head too, clearing the budding laugh in his lungs. He might’ve even looked a bit beautiful had he not been laughing at you.

He was such a nerd.

“Of course I’m coming, what kind of partner would I be if I didn’t? Besides, you need someone to keep you from losing your mind,” he settles his net on his back (firmly strapped in, he would never let you forget that important tip.) You find yourself looking away. Your eyes tug at the wants of your consciousness, desperate to admire the way his forearm flexed when adjusting his belt.

“Did you know this fox is patient and a hard-worker? Looks like you two are total opposites.”

You don’t miss the subtle dig and there’s a bruise to your ego with the way he smirks at you. Retaliation comes easy when your arms swing to capture his head in your net, a proud grin covering up the hearty laugh.

“Whoops! Looks like I caught a total dork in the wild, how’d that happen?”

His voice feels like the sunshine shining on your skin as he shakes his hair out, fluffy with his sweat gleaming under the rays. You only had a few hours left till you were blinded, only able to see his freckles in the shadow of an orange fire. The cool air that would breeze through as the two of you sat in silence, tension soon replacing the chilling wind. You slept in separate tents, professionalism was still a thing.

But you did wonder how it would feel to cuddle up under his arm and stare at the tent ceiling together. Maybe even the sky on a grassy patch in the summer. You envied your daydreams.

Every once in a while, Midoriya’s tracker beeped to remind you of where you are (well, not really, it was so you didn’t die out in the middle of nowhere) which knocks you completely out of your haze. There was no red, white, speckles, or fox anywhere. Anger courses through you at the thought of having to return back to camp empty-handed; your shoes stomping harder into mud. You rub your eyes before taking a deep breath, ready to zero in on the next nearby animal.

“We should probably go back soon, I think I might run out of water unless we find a stream but then…”

Your partner’s voice fades into obscurity when you see it, a flash of white in the corner of your eye. So fast you might have almost missed it if it weren’t for your keen senses. You could practically hear the crunching of leaves as it ran behind a bush.

In that moment it would’ve been much better to yell shhh and come at it with an element of your surprise. Your mind blanks, legs springing into action with a fierce jump. Your vocal chords could only make out one word.

“FOX!”

Both bodies soar through the air, Midoriya following your lead as you crash through the bush. Bramble sticks you in your side and your eyes shut to embrace the impact your elbows, your whole body really, were about to receive. Wind knocks out of you as you grin once you can feel yourself fully settled on the ground.

“I got you, you little…” your eyes open. You blink once, twice, you even squeeze them a bit, “...bastard.”

There is no fox, even the trees have gone silent. The pinecone with white sparkles on it sits perched perfectly on its bottom, it’s mocking you. Surely.

“That’s—”

“I know what it is, Midoriya.”

Shivers run across his skin at your cold throaty voice. Your head plunks into the ground, you lay there for a bit. It hurts so bad, if only the Earth could crack open and swallow you whole. Maybe falling into the Earth’s crust wasn’t so bad, burning to death must be colder than the shame that courses through your veins.

You can practically taste it in your saliva.

How was it possible to have made this...this rookie mistake?

“I want to die, Midoriya.”

He shushes you and lays a warm, large hand between your shoulder blades to comfort you. He winces when the shirt drags across your skin due to the moisture soaked through it.

Gross. He opts for patting your back lightly.

“It’s alright, we all make mistakes.”

“I’m considering quitting the field. How much do accountants make?”

You can hear the smile in his voice, “an actual accountant? Or is that a metaphor for something else?” He’s holding back his laugh, snorts coming out every few seconds.

Your head shoots up to give him an incredulous look, you didn’t even think he knew about that type of stuff. Let alone have the bravery to say it, your mouth opens and closes as you scramble to find something to say.

“You’re a pervert!”

His laugh echoes in your ears again like before, your own sounding out at the absolute ridiculousness of it all. Leaping towards a pinecone and now lying with a mud stain on your pristine white shirt. Things could not have gone any worse with this type of turn around. Maybe this was the good ending.

Midoriya’s hand reaches to his pocket, digging out his tracker and standing from his squat.

“Ready to go eat some nice soup from a can?”

You snort and push yourself up, kicking the pinecone with the remnants of your anger before turning to him, “soup in a can?”

“It’s all we have…” he trails off and fiddles with his tracker, “soup. Soup is all we have…”

“Yeah, you said that. What’s up? Don’t tell me...did Aizawa find out I did that?! Did you leave your radio on?” you reach towards your pocket and pull your radio out, “did I?...”

The incessant beeping you were used to hearing was silent now. When Midoriya sheepishly looks at you, flashing the dark screen of his device you think you might try to find the nearest cliff.

“Oh wow, oh great. That’s just, it broke? Like just now, it decided to fucking break?”

Rapid nods in quick succession.

“Okay. This isn’t a joke or anything right?”

“No. It is broken and you left yours.”

You spend a few minutes screaming with a stick in your mouth at the sky, the makeshift gag effective at silencing you but the rage still swirls like a storm inside you as you pace incessantly. Midoriya sits on a log, trying to radio in or charge the tracker with sun power (“it doesn’t have that capability!”) but it’s a lost cause.

You’re stuck in the forest.

“Fuck! ”

It’s not long before you’ve given up hope. You’re going to die out here to some sort of animal that will eat the meat off your bones like a plate of ribs.

“Midoriya, I feel like we’re walking in circles. I’m also going to starve to death so we should call it quits.”

“I didn’t know you were so weak! I told you we should've gone back earlier, but you’re stubborn!”

He’s mildly irritated, you can tell by the way his jaw clenches while he looks rapidly for a familiar landmark. You feel bad, you didn’t mean to be so rude. He was way more put together than you were, you needed him.

Your eyes search the surroundings, looking for something to possibly cheer him up. “Berries!” Your hand leaves the back of his shirt and you miss his disappointed frown from the disappearance of your warmth.

“We can eat these, maybe there’s hope after all.”

These are poisonous, you learn this within the first few days. If there was one thing Midoriya liked, it was teaching. You were sure if he weren’t here, he’d be helping some little kid realize their dreams of working in the safari.

“Well, aren’t those like-the poisonous ones?! Don’t put anything in your mouth!” He grabs the bush branch and shakes it away from you, the berries falling with little thumps on the ground.

You grin.

“I must be going crazy, we have got to find a way home before I mistake you for a nice piece of broccoli.”

“Shush. Look, remember when I went to pee? I found a water source.”

You blink, a dead look in your face.

“Listen, I may think you’re attractive but I’m not drinking your pee.”

He scrambles for words and shakes his head with wide eyes.

“Attractive?! I was just-there was a stream so I took the time to purify it!”

“Oh! Well, I just thought you were taking a shit.”

“You’re being inappropriate!”

Had someone been listening in, all they would be able to hear were the pleads from a male and the wonderful laugh of his partner.

Midoriya always felt golden light flow through his chest when you were around. The trail you two were on continued downhill, a man-made path making itself known once the two of you kicked astrew leaves away, it was mutually agreed to head downhill as you (possibly) recalled going uphill to get where you were in the first place.

The stars were beginning to rear their pretty heads, speckling in and out of the sky and it left a heavy feeling in your chest. You didn’t want something to happen to either of you, unconsciously clinging to Midoriya harder, you sighed shakily.

“I was joking before, but I'm actually getting a little nervous.”

You admire his freckled jawline, illuminated by the lantern he’d broken out. He gives you a quick side glance, searching for a trick being placed before nodding.

“Me too. I’m really sorry about the tracker, I should’ve charged it!”

A huff escapes you from the way he was so utterly wrong, you were the one mistaking pinecones for foxes and being ridiculous.

“No way! I was the one being immature, I’m sorry about that one. We should’ve gone back like you said.”

His shoulders square a bit more, your frame shrinking in tandem. You two were like two animals, one protecting the other with its teeth bared and stance wide.

“You’re...You’re really the reason I’m here.”

“What?”

A beat of silence passes through the both of you, your lips ruby red from the way you gnawed on them with your anxiety chilling you.

“I just mean, you’re the reason I joined. You were so little, prattling on and on...It inspired me too. I probably wouldn’t have been able to get here if it wasn’t for you.”

He’s a bit shocked, half his face is lit and you can tell he doesn’t know what to say. His mouth opens and he can’t even resist the ear to ear grin making its way to imprint his feature.

“I-I mean...well! I’m glad,” he takes a deep breath, “I have to tell you something.”

Midoriya’s hands clench at his side, dripping with sweat as you look at him with big eyes, eagerly anticipating his anecdote.

You watch as if it’s slow motion, he takes a breath and the ghost of a word escapes him but the sound of a tiny scream beats him to the finish line. You’re sure he said something, but your eyes flit past his shoulder, lower, to stare dead in the eyes of a white speckled fox.

The two of you stare in a locked gaze as it’s tail swishes back and forth. You don’t even breath, blood rushing in your ears.

“You motherfucker.”

“Huh?”

You bound past Midoriya, heels digging so hard into the ground that dirt flies up in a cloud. It was like you nearly disappeared.

“The fox Midoriya, the fox!” you cry, “I need you!”

He wasn’t sure if it was the fact he’d confessed and your selective hearing had kicked in, or the fact that it was his job. He didn’t know what made him feel so happy, maybe it was the part of you saying you needed him.

A phrase so simple that struck him in the heart. His feet dashed behind you, lantern outstretched as he cried for you, “I’m coming!”

It was like life or death, but it wasn’t. Why did everything feel so emotionally charged? Your thighs ached and the threat of collapsing was gaining on you.

It hit you though, jumping from rock to rock, that red tailing practically swishing in your face.

“I like you. More than partners, like! I want us to, you know, date and stuff.”

It was totally jerky and awkward, but the words registered in your mind when the fox darted into its burrow. You pause, careful to not ruin it’s precious home. Midoriya comes barreling beside you, barely even panting while a stitch in your side wrecks your lungs.

“Did you get it?!”

“You like me?”

Midoriya gives you an incredulous look, “you’re asking that after we just ran all the way here?!”

“It has a family.”

He sighs a loud breath and squats, “yeah. It does.”

You stare at the opening and listen to the soft squeaks in the nighttime air.

“I like you too.”

His head snaps up, voice wavering while you two share an interlocked gaze.

“Really?”

A familiar smirk quirks up, “duh. What kind of a girl follows a boy into the same field if she doesn't like him?”

Oh! He supposed it should’ve been more obvious when it was worded like that. You plop down next to him, leaning fully against him.

“We can’t capture her. She is a mother.”

“I’m glad we agree.”

The stars shine the brightest at this moment, you can’t exactly see his freckles the way you could before but you know they’re still there.

“The moon looks beautiful tonight.”

“I’m glad I could share it with you.”

A soft nudge is given to your shoulder, “I didn’t know you were such a romantic.”

You snort and let your head hang. Midoriya resists the urge to kiss you right then and there.

“I don’t know, I guess foxes just do it for me.”

A wordless hum reverberates through his chest, shifting to wrap an arm around you. The moment’s sweet.

“So, how are we going to get back home?”

“I have no idea.”

[pheita]

Conversations

And I totally miscalculated how many parts the little short story collection has, so be prepared for daily posts now including the OC Kiss Week comin up.

Tagging @ashen-crest @adie-dee @cometkov @abalonetea @kainablue @vivian-is-writing @viskafrer @writingamongther0ses @contes-de-rheio @stormbrightwriter

Warning for: sexual topics

The combat training had been harder than they were used to, and so Miada, Fenor, and Bayeen just lay sprawled on the large seat cushions in their group's common room, still trying to muster enough energy for breathing. "You very much look like beginners after your first training," Sykova teased them from the doorway. The last few months had been marked by the fact that they had to learn even more, meet even harsher requirements in combat training, and if you asked Miada, actually had no free time left, even though the big exams weren't for another ten years. Even Vivalka had complained about how high the requirements had become, but there was also no sign of any conflicts that would justify it. With all the stress, Miada had almost forgotten what she had learned about Sykova and that it could also feel good to be close to him when you weren't in the middle of a training battle. All that came back to her mind as he stood there with his shoulder leaning against the door and only the fact that she was worn out from training kept her from pulling him towards her. Annoyed, she snorted. "What?", Sykova just laughed and joined the others with a few big steps and fell into the seat cushion next to Miada. "Not because of you." "You seem so tense lately," Bayeen commented, glancing at Miada. "If you're all freaking out too, are you surprised?" "I haven't done anything to make you tense," Fenor mused aloud. Miada just gave him an incredulous look. Bayeen also just grunted in an attempt not to laugh. When Miada looked back over at Sykova, his face was only a hand's width away from her, grinning at her. "You need to relax." "Why do I get the feeling you already have a plan there?"

He shrugged and moved a little closer. "Not a plan, but a list of possibilities. Starting with a long bath." "Sex is always good, too," Bayeen tossed in carelessly. Miada and Sykova looked at her simultaneously confused and questioning. "What?" asked Bayeen in surprise, "Now please don't tell me that fox demons really only have sex during the reproductive urge. That would be really dorky." "Um, well..." Somehow Miada tried to find an answer to that, but it didn't really work. Especially not when Sykova was about to laugh out loud. "Don't tell me you've never at least thought about it? We're 71, so if you're unlucky, you might have another ten years?" It was obvious by listening to Sykova that he was really trying not to laugh. "I have other things on my list. Besides, the people in my family tend to be late bloomers. I still have time." Miada had to suppress the urge to cross her arms in front of her chest. "Still, it wouldn't be bad if you started thinking about it. It's not that much time left, even if you're not due until you're a hundred," Fenor philosophized, looking up at the ceiling. "No wonder you all get on my nerves when all you think about is sex," Miada returned snottily. Fenor jerked himself to his feet and looked at her seriously. "It's perfectly natural at our age to worry about such things. We're almost adults. Unless, of course, you really can't feel comfortable with it. But then you should talk to a doctor you trust about how to control your fox nature in that regard." Beside her, Sykova dropped into his seat cushion and mumbled thoughtfully. "I have a theory, after all, that the urge to reproduce only arises because people see sex only as a means to procreate, and at some point the body simply forces you to have sex if you deny yourself it for too long. Which explains why some foxes have a weaker urge than others." Fenor just nodded in agreement. Annoyed, Miada stood up and walked to the door. "You guys keep philosophizing. I'm going to get something to eat and take a shower. Or take a shower first. Whatever." "Food sounds good," Bayeen muttered and got up as well. Silently, they both left the room and crept more than walked toward the kitchen. "Mis?" "Let it go. I know you didn't mean any harm," Miada finished before Bayeen apologized what felt like a million times. "That was a point too, but... you really haven't even given it a thought?" asked Bayeen incredulously. In thought, Miada asked the unfathomable darkness for patience. "No, and before you ask, Vivalka and I are my parents' only children. My grandmother is long dead, and my few aunts live in other corners of the world. I have no one to even ask there. And under no circumstances will I bother my grandfather about it." Bayeen's disgusted sound was enough to know she understood. "Still, I'm sorry. If you want to talk about it sometime, you're always welcome to come to me. I mean, with you and Sykova... I expected otherwise." At the comment, Miada stopped and looked at Bayeen in wonder. "Why with Sykova and me?" Now it was Bayeen who looked puzzled. "Wait... you're not together?" "Why the light would you think that?" Slowly, some sort of realization dawned on Bayeen and a silent "Oh" came before she began to giggle. "You guys have been sneaking around each other like a bear around a hive for at least a year. In the last few months, it seemed like you were closer than you've ever been. Constantly looking for each other in a room, seeking closeness, and so on." Miada closed her eyes and let her head fall back. "Unfathomable darkness, give me strength, I'm surrounded by idiots." "Hey!" objected Bayeen, "I can't help how you act." "You don't have to pick it apart either," Miada countered with a laugh. She stretched and stepped up beside Bayeen. "Come on, let's get to the kitchen before the boys come after us and get in the way." "That sounds like a plan." On the way, Miada kept her eyes on Bayeen. Even if she didn't want to admit it, Bayeen was right that something had changed when it came to how Miada acted around Sykova. But the light

would come for her before Miada would admit it.

[misora-msby]

花火 | chapter two : snow

花火 (fireworks) | chapter two : snow

themes / warnings : medieval japan au, supernatural au, fluff, angst, death, illness

pairing : kitsune!suna x fem!reader

word count : 11.7k

notes : please read part one before reading this one! it’ll be nicer i promise, even if it’s long <3 to those who already read it, thank you very much! as always, i did my best to research shintoism but i also did take a few creative liberties. and thank you very much to my dear friend and beta reader @myoyachi​ <3

part one can be found here

A cold winter wind blew, disturbing the otherwise peaceful landscape of snow. To many who had been tired of the many years of the war, winter was just another grievance. Food was scarce in these months with fewer crops, and the battles were always more painful when you were fighting off enemies, hunger, and hypothermia.

The four kitsunes at the shrine noticed the larger amount of people coming to pray too. Whether it was a farmer making his final prayers for his farm before hurrying and leaving it to his family, or a housewife praying for her unborn children to be healthy so they could help out from a young age, their days were filled with delivering prayers to Inari.

However, today was a quieter day. Fewer people were coming to the shrine due to the snow falling and making the stairs up to the shrine slippery. Hence, Rintarou could take a break sitting on the rooftop as he always did.

He wasn’t bothered by the freezing temperatures. After all, he was just a spirit and he could warm himself up whenever he wanted to. Not that he needed to. Despite that, he still wore a tanzen instead of his regular yukata or jinbei. It was just a little more comfortable in the winter, like wearing a thick blanket around him at all times.

As Rintarou laid on the rooftop, he closed his eyes and felt the tiny flakes fall upon his teenaged face before melting. He wondered how long it had been since he first came to the shrine considering he looked to be about 16 years old now. A small smirk came to his face as he thought about how he had grown to be taller than the other three over all the years.

While Shinsuke didn’t seem to mind, Atsumu and Osamu complained that they still had some time to go. Rintarou didn’t doubt it, but he would simply remind them that that meant he had time to grow too. 

Safe to say, the twins shut up after that.

Speaking of which, the silence around him had been interrupted. Rintarou could hear the shrine maidens putting on their sandals and walking around to the front of the shrine. He could also hear the sound of geta clicking their way up the stairs leading to the shrine.

“The maids must’ve seen someone coming up the mountainside to make their prayers.” He thought to himself and relaxed.

“Thank you for making the journey up!” The kannushi greeted. The kitsune wondered if it was someone important. There had been some important daimyos visiting before and he could sense a familiar presence and scent from them.

“It’s alright. We’re more grateful for you being willing to take her in,” an elderly woman spoke.

“We’re sure she will become a wonderful shrine maiden. She’s not of age yet but until then we shall teach her about what we do and take care of her,” one of the shrine maidens spoke. Rintarou frowned slightly at the weird feeling in his chest he was getting, and peeked over the edge of the roof. His breath caught in his throat at the sight.  

“What’s your name, dear?”

“L/N...Y/N.”

Rintarou felt his heart stop at the mention of your name. Could it really be you? After all, the spirits of the deceased were not reincarnated but went on to reside in another world. Or maybe you were an anomaly and allowed to reincarnate for whatever reason. He wasn’t sure but he didn’t want to question it too much. All that he knew was that you were here now. Or someone who resembled you strongly. 

“Rintarou,” a strong voice called from behind him. The kitsune turned quickly to sit up and face his senior standing with his arms crossed and his haori resting on his shoulders as usual.

“Yes, senpai?”

“She may not be who ya think she is. Don’t frighten her. And remember to be careful, she’s here to become a shrine maiden.” 

The younger kitsune nodded slowly though his gaze drifted to you. Even if he knew you probably wouldn’t remember him, he still wanted to talk to you and to be friends once again.

･゜ﾟ･:.｡..｡.:•:.｡. .｡.:･゜ﾟ･

Deep in the forest, Rintarou had been sitting on the old boulder and watching the moon, contemplating whether to talk to you or not. There was no way you could ever remember him anyways, so was there a point in trying to form a relationship with you again? You would probably be scared of him, right? He had nearly gotten over losing you anyways, so would it be worth it to start this all over again?

As he thought about it, drumming his long fingers against the rock, he heard a familiar sobbing in the distance.

Rintarou instinctively launched himself off of the boulder, his feet landing in the overgrown grass and snow without so much as a crunch before he took off running down the mountain to the shrine. The sobbing wasn’t loud at all, but it was easy for him to hear and he knew who it belonged to.

Right before he could reach the shrine, he came to an abrupt stop.

You were sitting on the engawa of the house where the priests and shrine maidens lived. Soft moonlight shone onto the snow piled around the shrine and gently illuminated your crying form which rubbed at your eyes with the sleeves of your old worn kimono. Rintarou took a step forward but stopped himself knowing that if you saw an older boy suddenly appear in front of you, you might scream. Any attention on himself was the last thing he wanted right now.

He took in a deep breath and a warm feeling spread through the kitsune as his body became smaller and dark fur grew on his skin. The transformation always gave him a weird sensation and a few moments getting used to, but not five seconds later he was a fox. A fox with a few tails, but he could hide that with a bit of illusionary magic.

With snow crunching softly under his little paws, Rintarou slowly walked over to you and sat right in front of you who hadn’t noticed him yet. 

When you removed your sleeves from your eyes, you looked down and jumped when you suddenly saw the predatory animal with glowing golden eyes right in front of you. “A-Ah… please don’t hurt me…”

Rintarou could feel a stinging pain in his heart, a feeling he hadn’t felt in years. To think you could be scared of him when you were once quick to hold his hand or hug him… But he knew he shouldn’t have been surprised and that he would have to rebuild the relationship from scratch. 

He hopped onto the engawa and sat beside you on his hindlegs, golden eyes staring at you before bowing his head lightly to show that he meant no harm. 

“Ah… You’re nice, aren’t you?” you mumbled and reached out a cold hand to carefully stroke his head. To your surprise, he didn’t flinch at all. In fact, he leaned into your hand with a little whine.

You continued to stroke his soft fur. The warmth from the fox was warming your cold hands, making the action strangely therapeutic.

“This is really weird but…” You suddenly spoke, making Rintarou look up in surprise to hear your voice sounding almost exactly like it had years ago. “You make me feel better. I feel like I can talk to you.” A sad smile formed on your lips as tears began to well up again. 

The fox raised its paw, as if it wanted to wipe away your tears but quickly put down its leg and settled with just rubbing its head against your side. You had to smile a little more at that - this fox seemed to understand you. 

“If you don’t mind, I want to talk a bit,” you say, and the fox silently looks up at you again, “I didn’t want to come here. My family… my family is really far away. No, they were far away. We were craftsmen and merchants and it was okay. Then the daimyo asked all the men to fight his stupid war.

“Dad had to go… and then later nii-chan did. Mom, nee-chan, and my little brother were all left on the farm. One day, a man came to the house and mom started crying. I knew what happened to dad and nii-chan.”

Recounting the harsh memories caused little droplets to fall from your face, temporarily illuminated by the soft moonlight before dampening your kimono. Your breath was becoming a bit heavier and the way your chest jumped with nearly every breath told Rintarou how painful it was. 

“Mom… she was so sad. And then one day, I was out with granny to the forest to forage for some ingredients. Nee-chan couldn’t go because she had to help out in the shop. When we came back a week later, the village was burnt to the ground. It was so quiet.” 

You could recall the only sound being the howling wind blowing through the broken and burnt remains of the village. No pretty glass wind chimes, no laughter from the tavern, no children running freely. Just the wind and the sound of snow crunching under your feet. 

“B- But… obaa-san couldn’t take care of me. She’s getting old and wouldn’t live much longer. She said there’s a safe shrine and she used to be friends with a miko so she took me here. It was one week of walking and it was really painful but now I’m here. Then they said that I have to become a shrine maiden. My training hasn’t started yet but it will someday.”

The loose thread on your kimono sleeve had become longer as you fiddled with it while talking. “A-Anyways, I never really believed in the gods that much but I guess I have to start doing it now right?” You tried to laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood.

In reply, Rintarou pressed his forehead against your arm. A quiet way of saying he would stay with you.

He didn’t know if you wanted or even needed his protection, but he would give it to you. He knew that the training for becoming a shrine maiden was difficult, even painful at times. And he had already decided he wouldn’t let harm come to you anymore. Even if you didn’t know him anymore, or even if you weren’t the same soul, he would protect you.

The fox’s ears twitched as he heard footsteps pat their way on the wooden flooring of the house. Knowing it had to be one of the other shrine maidens, he quickly sprinted away from you. He didn’t need them to explicitly know of his existence.

“Y/N-chan, what are you doing out here? It’s cold and you must be hungry! Come sit inside by the fire. Ami-senpai made some matcha and we have some soba,” one of the shrine maidens insisted. 

“I was talk- I was looking at the moon.” You changed your answer upon realising it must be strange to say you were talking to a fox, though your gaze lingered on the little pawprints in the snow.

“The moon, huh?” The older girl looked at the sky and nodded, “Indeed. It’s beautiful, but it can wait unlike our soba!” 

She quickly ushered you inside, away from the cold and unintentionally from Rintarou’s gaze. 

He had transformed back to his human form, finding it more comfortable. His face remained neutral as he looked up at the moon, wondering what he could do for you. 

The next morning, you woke up and rubbed your eyes. The sunlight was shining through the paper doors and you noticed the other shrine maidens were still asleep. Perhaps it was because they had stayed up a little later than you did to wash the cutlery and clean around the fireplace. 

You pushed back the blanket and quietly folded your futon. Maybe you’d go sweep the front of the shrine and remove the snow. The maidens were nice and you knew they had plenty of duties so it would be good to help out at least a little. 

The air was cold from the night’s winter breeze but at least the sun was starting to melt the ice just a little. You breathed on your hands in an attempt to warm them up as you carefully slid open the paper doors separating the room and the open hallway. To your surprise, there was a little parcel right outside. 

On top of a piece of scrap cloth sat a little bundle of berries and a few small mikan fruits. You cocked your head, wondering where they could have come from until you saw a few strands of fur laying beside them. 

Dark brown, just like the fox from last night. 

And if you looked carefully, there were little paw prints leading to the forest beside the shrine. 

You wondered if he could’ve been a guardian spirit and smiled to yourself at the funny thought. Anything could happen these days. 

You then wrapped up the fruit, deciding to share it with the other girls for a sweet breakfast or for a snack later and reentered the room. 

Rintarou watched from atop a tree branch, his narrow eyes hoping you had noticed the little clues he had left for you. He couldn’t tell what you were thinking but your smile was enough to please him. It was certainly nicer than your tear stained face which he hoped he would never have to see again. 

With ever quiet footsteps, Rintarou hopped off the tree and began walking back to the den where the other foxes lived.

･゜ﾟ･:.｡..｡.:•:.｡. .｡.:･゜ﾟ･

Several moons had passed. 

Since that day, Rintarou could not gather the courage to speak to you. All he would do was lay on his regular spot on the rooftop and occasionally eavesdrop on the shrine staff if he felt like it to make sure you were alright. You seemed to be adjusting quickly, helping out with minor tasks and cleaning up around the shrine in order to get on the shrine maidens’ good side. It seemed to work, and he was relieved for you. 

On certain days when you were asked to go into the forest and pick flowers or fruit, he would subtly guide you in the direction of better fruit or block a path to poisonous berries. He would also scare off wild animals to keep you safe.

While doing this, Rintarou wished he could talk to you directly again, but he knew there was the risk that you would be scared and it would make your many years at the shrine hell-like.

“What do you think?” he asked Osamu one day while the rain of June fell outside their den - a little hut that Shinsuke had built a long time ago with the other kitsune who lived here before they moved away and before the three younger foxes had come about.

“What do I think? You kinda sound like a weirdo,” his fellow kitsune replied while taking a bite from his onigiri he had made for himself. Rintarou frowned and crossed his arms, silently asking “What do you mean?” 

Osamu finished up his rice ball and looked at his friend, “Yer always just watchin’ the poor girl. If you were a human you’d probably wanna protect her from yer weird self. Just talk to her. If she gets freaked, that sucks but it ain’t the end of the world.”

Rintarou drummed his fingers against his bicep, knowing his friend did have a point. “Yeah. I suppose so.”

Which was the reason why one month later he was standing by the torii watching you reach up in an awkward attempt to light the lanterns around the shrine. 

Tonight was the summer festival.

Although the war still raged on, knowing they could still hold the festival every year was a sort of blessing to the population. Being under one of the more powerful lords, their region lived in relative peace and prosperity. 

And to Rintarou, it brought both wonderful and painful memories.

He took in a deep breath and walked over to you who stood on your tiptoes in an attempt to light a lantern. He noticed that though you were taller, you were still a little short for now. As for him, he practically towered over you with how he had grown in his unfinished ‘adolescent years’.

“Let me help you.” He spoke in his quiet voice, making you jump and almost drop the candle you were holding. 

“H-Hold on, who are- s-sorry, could I ask who you may be?” you changed your speech to be more polite as you realised this mysterious man could be a visitor to the shrine. Your grandma had emphasised to you to be kind to strangers, and the shrine maidens made sure you knew of that rule even more when it came to shrine visitors.

Rintarou realised that he must have surprised you with the way his feet barely made a sound as he walked to you. 

“I’m Rintarou. Do you want me to help? You look like you’re having a little trouble,” he asked, holding out a hand for you to place the candle into. 

However, you just shrank away and shook your head, holding the candle as close to yourself as you would dare. “I’m not familiar with you. We’re still making preparations around the shrine for today’s festival so…” You furrowed your brow as you saw something swish behind the man. 

As discreetly as a curious young teen could, you took a glance at what was behind him and almost dropped your candle with a squeak upon seeing three long tails swaying. 

“N-No way, you’re a kitsune? You’re real?” Your face was pale with fear but your eyes were wide with amazement. Then you remembered the tales you had read about the spirits, both the good and bad.

“You’re not… you’re not going to play a trick on me are you? Oh wait, no, you must be one of Inari-sama’s servants! Oh gosh, I’m so sorry for treating you weirdly!” You were beginning to panic at the idea that you might have just been rude to a celestial being.

“Ah, I mean that’s true but I don’t really care about those things,” Rintarou shrugged, “Do you remember me though?” It was a long shot but worth a try.

“Remember?” You cocked your head in confusion. Was there something you were supposed to remember? 

The kitsune was somewhat disappointed that you could not remember him from long ago, but he was already preparing for that. It hurt, but it was a bearable pain.

Then he remembered, he had appeared to you on your first night as a fox. With a snap of his fingers and a puff of smoke, he felt his body become smaller. The transformation was never very enjoyable but once the smoke had cleared, you gasped upon seeing a little dark brown fox with golden eyes in front of you.

“You’re the fox from that night! When I first came! But you had one tail that time…” you crossed your arms, slightly unconvinced. What if this kitsune wasn’t a zenko but a yako? A mischievous spirit looking to cause harm?

Just as you blinked, two of his tails had suddenly disappeared. He was exactly like that fox from that winter night you arrived.

“Oh… It really was you.”

“Of course it was,” Rintarou spoke and with another puff of smoke returned to his human form. Tall and handsome in his black yukata with red accents and a red obi, though this time with his ears on display too. “I wouldn’t lie about that.”

“That implies you would lie about other things. Aren’t you supposed to be good since you work for Inari-sama?” You grinned cheekily at his words. 

Rintarou narrowed his eyes in reply before crossing his arms, “Well. You’re supposed to be working for him soon too.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You squinted at the older teenage boy.

“You’re not lighting the lanterns.”

“Oh! You’re right!” You ran to the next lantern and tiptoed to reach the paper lantern while wondering who on earth decided to hang all the paper lanterns for the festival so high. 

Rintarou watched from a few feet away, arms still crossed at your unsuccessful attempt to light the lantern. After about a minute of watching you jump around and almost dropping your candle about three times, he walked over, “Do you need help? This one’s taller than the rest.”

You looked up at him and his height before a bashful pink creeped up your cheeks. 

“Y-Yeah… And could you help with the others…”

With a little chuckle, the kitsune took the candle from your hand and began lighting the paper lanterns with ease. As you two walked around the shrine grounds to light the lanterns, you became curious of him.

“How long have you been a kitsune?” You asked.

“I think… two centuries? I don’t count these days,” Rintarou replied.

“Eh… What do you do as a zenko? Is it fun?”

“Mm… I deliver prayers and make sure no evil spirits come to the shrine. Also, I sleep a lot.”

“Wow… that sounds nice! I wish I could be a kitsune too!”

Rintarou’s breath stopped for a second. He had wished that for you too. If only you could have been a kitsune when you first met… you would have been with the four of them.

“Yeah… It’s nice. But it’s got its downsides,” he said and lit another lantern. 

He noticed the confused look on your face. After all, how could there be downsides to being practically immortal and to having magical powers?

There were too many things he wanted to say; from the way he had to witness too many horrible things in the history of this war torn land to the way the changing of seasons was no longer special to him - it was just another way to show time passed. 

But most of all, it was the fact that time passed ever so slowly for him. 

He couldn’t count how many times he had had to witness the coming and going of the animals and flowers in the forest, of the people at the shrine, and most importantly ‘your’ coming and going.

But how could he tell you all of this? He certainly didn’t want to ruin your night. 

“You just get bored after a while since everything’s a bit repetitive,” Rintarou shrugged while lighting a lantern. He returned the candle to your hand, expression ever unchanging. “We’re done with everything. Are you going to the festival after this?”

“Thanks, Rintarou-san!” The kitsune cringed at the way you called him ‘-san’ rather than with ‘-kun’ or ‘RinRin’ like Shinsuke or the twins would. It really had been a while since he talked to anyone else. “Mm, the shrine maiden onee-sans said I have to help out for three hours, then I get free time to go to the festival!” You grinned.

“Ah. That’s good.” He replied. 

A short silence followed, the two of you unsure what to say or do now. The cicada’s buzzing was getting louder and Rintarou’s expression remained calm as he stared at you with his narrow eyes. His stare was so intense that it felt like he was looking right into your soul.

“Rintarou-s”

“-kun. You don’t have to say ‘-san’.”

You cocked your head in confusion, “But you’re a zenko. If anything it should be with ‘-sama’,” you said.

“I’m okay with it. More importantly, I wanted to ask you if you want to spend that free time in the festival with me? There’s something I want to show you, I think you’d love it.”

You thought about it for a moment, “Sure, but what is it? I’m not gonna follow you to the spirit world if that’s what you wanna do.” 

Rintarou scrunched his nose at the thought. He went there all the time, it wasn’t special at all. And he knew you wouldn’t enjoy it much (it was more weird in his opinion than special.) “No, but it’s a surprise.”

You cocked your head, wondering what on earth he could be referring to. But you sensed no malice from him and he genuinely just seemed like he had good intentions, so you nodded, “Alright, I’ll see you at the back of the shrine in three hours then.” You flashed a toothy smile at him too and he smiled softly in return.  

“I’ll see you there.” 

Time seemed to pass in the smallest increments as Rintarou walked around the festival with the twins and Shinsuke. Not only was waiting for you taking an excruciatingly long time, but all the attention they were receiving was becoming tiring.

As they practically towered over everyone around them, they just stood out in the crowd too much. Even Shinsuke was taller than everyone. Though, Rintarou noticed that people were taller than the average height a hundred years ago and he wondered if the average height would continue to grow. He hoped that would happen so it wouldn’t be so troublesome in the future for them.

Because as flattering as receiving marriage offers from various women trying to find suitable son-in-laws was, it was getting a little annoying and Rintarou was not interested in marrying anyone. Atsumu cheekily accepted one or two but a quick knock on the head from Shinsuke reminded him to keep his mouth shut.

So when the three hours had passed and you were finally able to leave your duties taking care of selling charms at the shrine, you were somewhat surprised to see Rintarou looking almost eager to meet with you.

“How long were you waiting for?” You asked, having to crane your neck to look up at him.

“Not a long time,” He shrugged as if he didn’t come to the meeting spot almost twenty minutes ago. “Anyways, should we head to our destination? We don’t have much time.” 

You nodded and followed behind him into the forest. Even if it was strange to be following someone you barely knew, it was like there was something deep in you that said ‘You can trust him.’

Rintarou’s tails swished behind him as you two walked, almost tickling your nose with how close it was to you, though you knew to not touch it lest you wanted to cause an accident. You noticed how you could only clearly hear your footsteps - the kitsune’s were so gentle that they made no more than a light brushing against the grass. 

It really was strange, following a spirit into the forest.

A couple of minutes later, he stopped walking. “Here we are,” He stepped to the side and allowed you to take in the beautiful sight of a glade. It felt like a scene you could only see in a dream. In fact, it gave a strange feeling of deja vu, like you had seen this sight in an old dream. 

“What do you think?”

“It’s so pretty that my chest feels funny,” you replied, causing Rintarou to chuckle lightly. 

“This place makes my chest feel funny too,” He said and brushed off a wisteria petal that fell onto your head, “Come on, it gets even better.”

He then guided you to the boulder and helped you climb on top of it. As you sat with your knees hugged to your chest, staring up at the dark night sky, you smiled to yourself. It really was a nice place, and Rintarou really was a nice person.

A sudden flame shot up into the sky and burst, followed by a loud bang seconds later. Soon, more lights followed the initial one, exploding with their own timings while loud claps and bangs followed mere seconds after. The night sky was repeatedly illuminated with vibrant colours and you could only stare in awe. 

For many years, Rintarou had watched this sight alone, but now he had you again. Though your relationship was different and he didn’t even know if you were the same person, he didn’t care. Your company now was good enough for him. Filled with nostalgia, the teen couldn’t help but let out a sigh as he watched the last light fade away, leaving a trail of smoke in the air.

“The fireworks at my old village were never this pretty,” You spoke softly after a few moments of silence, “They were pretty of course, but never this beautiful.”

“Well this region has some pretty important shoguns so we’ve got a little more access to money for festivities these days,” Rintarou explained, though he personally felt it was prettier because he had a friend to watch the show with.

A friendship that possibly transcended a lifetime, huh…

“This place is really pretty in the sunset too. And the sunrise. And in the afternoon actually.” His words made you giggle.

“So, this place is pretty all day?” you asked. 

Rintarou realised how awkward his description was and nodded slowly. “Yeah… You should come see it. I’ll bring you so you don’t have to worry about getting lost and such.”

“Sure!” Your bright smile was illuminated by the remaining fireflies and yet it also illuminated the dark space around you two. Rintarou smiled back and ruffled your hair lightly. 

“I’ll look forward to it,” he started as you pouted and rearranged your hair, “There’s plenty of other nice places here too. I think you’d love them.”

･゜ﾟ･:.｡..｡.:•:.｡. .｡.:･゜ﾟ･

Months passed, and as the green leaves faded into shades of warm oranges, reds, and yellows, you two would spend the cooling autumn afternoons crossing creeks, eating juicy berries you would find, and sometimes just sitting in a quiet place to chat, eat, or read. Though the library in the shrine wasn’t massive, it held some interesting folktales and old journals. 

The shrine maidens did enquire once in a while but you figured they wouldn’t believe you if you said you went to spend time with a group of kitsune. You wondered if it was bad to lie and say that you liked reading in the forest and gathering the fruits of fall, but you did so anyways. It wasn’t a complete lie after all. 

You enjoyed the time you spent with Rintarou - he was fun to talk to and when Atsumu and Osamu would come to spend time with you two, the afternoon was always filled with laughter. Shinsuke was interesting to talk to too, he was knowledgeable about nearly anything and you were convinced at times that he was Inari themselves (though he was quick to tell you he was just another kitsune like the three).

The seasons seemed to pass too quickly though, for before you knew it the golden leaves began to fall and became buried under layers of snow and ice. You were no longer allowed to leave the shrine as often, seeing as it was dangerous and cold. Because of that, you couldn’t talk to the foxes as much as before, but you appreciated them trying to visit once in a while. 

Still, the cold wind and frost threatening to freeze your fingertips and cheeks brought back terrible memories and their limited visits weren’t always enough to keep you warm all the time. 

At times in the middle of the winter nights, you would suddenly wake up from the sound of a particularly strong wind blowing, rattling the shutters and rustling the crackling branches of the trees nearby. No matter how you hugged the blanket to yourself, you never felt completely fine until you’d quietly exit the room and sit on the engawa just like you had roughly a year ago, watching the moon.

“Can’t sleep?” The familiar voice spoke with a little chuckle. You looked to your side and saw Rintarou sitting beside you.

“When did you get there?” You asked, hugging your knees to your chest and looking at the nearly spotless layer of snow before you. 

“Doesn’t matter. You don’t seem too good though,” he said, looking at your smaller form.

“Yeah. I don’t feel too great,” you mumbled, “I just remember… that day a lot these days. And… the shrine maidens told me something.” You rested your chin on your knees.

Rintarou noticed the way your fingers dug into the thick cloth of your kimono, as if you were trying to endure an invisible pain. He cocked his head, “What did they tell you?”

“I have to start training to become a miko once spring comes. And it’s really scary… I mean, I think you’ve seen it before. All the onee-sans are always really tired and they have to do these terrifying rituals and sometimes… I’m not dumb. I know what happens in the spare room with visitors. It’s one of the only ways we get money anymore.” You could feel a lump welling up in your throat. 

Rintarou noticed it too. The way your breath became shakier the more you thought about it, thinking about the times you overheard the older miko talking to each other about their past experiences, and the way your sniffles were not because of the cold air but because you were trying to hold back tears. 

“I read the old journals and I don’t want to become a miko. I’m scared, Rintarou.” You cried softly and held onto his sleeve, trying to hold your breath to prevent your wails from escaping your throat. But you began hiccupping and panicking even more, worried that the others would hear you.

Rintarou was quick to pull you close to himself, large hands carefully stroking your hair in an attempt to calm you. 

He had no idea what to say. The thought terrified him too, to think that you didn’t get to choose this path yet you were stuck on it. The only thing that could come to mind for him to say was,

“I’ll protect you.”

Your hiccupping stopped as you looked up at him. 

“Huh?”

“I won’t let you get hurt by evil spirits or allow harm to come to you. Officially, I’m just a messenger but I think my powers exceed just that,” Rintarou looked into your teary eyes as he spoke, a small smile on his lips as he continued to stroke your hair, “You don’t doubt me, do you?”

“No, I don’t…” Your choked voice replied, though it and your body were both noticeably calmer.

“Yeah. So don’t worry. I’m still here and I’ll always be here for you.”

You look into his golden eyes for a minute, searching for any deception you doubted he would hold towards you. Your grip tightened on his clothes and you finally let your head fall against his chest. “I trust you.”

･゜ﾟ･:.｡..｡.:•:.｡. .｡.:･゜ﾟ･

As the years went by, Rintarou kept his promise. Every time he knew a spirit would come to possess you, he would warn it to not cause harm. Whenever your training involved the cold, he would help warm you up with his fire. And whenever you felt like it was getting too difficult, he would come to your side and encourage you to continue.

He was proud to know that your skill in talking to spirits (with some of his help) made you recognised as one of the best miko at the shrine.

But today, Rintarou finds himself seated upon the roof once again. It was a special day today - you would perform the kagura dance on this fine afternoon among the falling cherry blossoms to show off the cultivation of your years of effort. 

On his left sat Shinsuke, and to the left of the older kitsune sat the twins. All four of them were eager to see the culmination of your efforts, and were curious to see how Inari would take it. They would be coming down today after all, and possibly entering your form.

The four watched as you carefully took your position on the platform in your pure white robes. If he wasn’t mistaken, you looked up at him for a moment before your powdered face returned to its calm and emotionless state. You then picked up the kagura suzu, a wand with bells for the ceremony, and held it firmly yet carefully. It jingled quietly with your subtle movement, though it became louder as you rattled it and signalled for your fellow miko to begin playing their instruments. 

Rintarou narrowed his eyes as he watched the way your feet took little steps, slowly moving around the platform just as you practiced. Though it wasn’t the first time he had seen it, for some reason he thought you looked absolutely amazing today. 

Your hair was done beautifully and the movements your body made were simple yet stunning. The look of serenity on your face was something else too. Though it was funny to hear coming from a celestial being such as him, he thought you looked ethereal.

Suddenly, his eyes widened. What was he thinking? He shouldn’t be falling for a human, much less a shrine maiden. 

A cold breeze blew through the shrine grounds and your body tensed up midway through your dance. 

Inari had descended. 

Instinctively, Rintarou stood to his feet to protect you and calm you, but Shinsuke grabbed his wrist roughly. “She knows what she’s doing. You’ve watched her practice. Inari-sama won’t harm her,” he said, and the brunet sat back down.

Your once gentle movements had become wild and loud, as you leaped about the platform possessed by Inari. Though this was a special moment for you, Rintarou could only feel a strange feeling in his chest. 

Was it worry? Jealousy? But it felt stronger than that. He couldn’t understand it and could only continue to watch your performance in silence but also with a warm feeling in his heart. 

That night, you decided to sit out on the engawa and watch the moon once again. It felt like a good night as the ceremony in the morning was a success and the current weather was not too warm yet not too cold. Of course, you never watched the moon alone, though you didn’t even have to ask if your regular partner would care to sit with you because when you slid open the door, Rintarou was already there.

“You did well today,” he spoke up and shifted slightly to make space for you on the engawa. 

“Thank you. The other maidens said the same,” you replied quietly as you sat beside him, “And I saw you four sitting on the roof today. Do kitsune find the kagura entertaining too?” Though the ceremony was originally intended to be entertainment for the gods, no one could deny that in recent years, many people found it interesting themselves. 

“We’ve seen many kagura performances in our many years of living so… it’s not particularly entertaining anymore,” Rintarou shrugged. 

“Then…” you narrowed your eyes and leaned in close, “My performance was boring?”

The kitsune realised what he had said and his eyes widened. “No, nothing like that. It was good,” he quickly spoke.

“Good, but boring?”

“It wasn’t boring… I enjoyed watching it and I thought you looked-”

“I’m just teasing you, Rin. You always tease me so I thought I should do the same to you someday.” You giggled and averted your gaze up to the moon. Rintarou looked down at you in surprise but smiled softly.

Moments like these were frequent - the two of you would sit on the engawa at night and watch the clouds drift by, occasionally concealing the moon before allowing it to shine once more. But tonight, the kitsune didn’t feel like looking at it. Instead, he felt like it was outshone by your beauty. 

“It’s pretty tonight, isn’t it?” You suddenly spoke up, smiling at the sky. “I wish we could sit here forever to watch it.”

Rintarou glanced towards the sky for a moment but his gaze returned to you within the second. “Yeah. That would be nice. It’s really pretty,” he said before mumbling under his breath, “You’re really pretty.”

･゜ﾟ･:.｡..｡.:•:.｡. .｡.:･゜ﾟ･

The following summer, Rintarou waited in the forest as he usually did. Though it wasn’t too deep in, it was far enough that one couldn’t find him easily without knowing the correct path to take, weaving between trees and crossing over large roots. Of course, it was a path you knew all too well. 

Hearing the sound of leaves and dirt crunching alongside laboured breaths, Rintarou looked up to see you smiling at him tiredly. 

“Working as a shrine maiden ain’t all that fun is it?” He asked with a light chuckle as he passed you a still warm taiyaki wrapped in a small handkerchief, “Here, eat up.”

You nodded and took the taiyaki before following the spirit up the mountain as you always did. It became quieter the further you two walked into the forest, though it was a strange quiet. Unlike the silences you two often shared, today’s one felt different. Like you were waiting for something.

Perhaps it was the fact that this was your first proper break in a long time - your new position as a shrine maiden did take up a lot of time. Or the anticipation of this year’s fireworks, which were supposed to be bigger than ever due to the shogun finally winning the battle against his biggest enemy. You weren’t sure, but it felt like your heart was beating stronger than it usually did.

So far deep in your thoughts and snack, you didn’t realise a new root had grown on the path in the time you hadn’t visited the glade. 

With a squeak, you found yourself bracing for the impact you would surely feel once you hit the ground but- it didn’t come. Instead you felt a cool but warm body.

“Don’t go getting injured on me,” Rintarou warned and helped you stand up properly.

“Oh, you know that’s not my intention.” You laughed and took a bite of your taiyaki. “Plus, you’d nurse me back to health right? Just like that one time?”

“I feel like I’m cheating,” you admitted one day while laying in your futon. Rintarou sat beside you, flipping through an old folklore book left behind by a visitor. 

“Hm? Why’s that?” he asks as he put down the book to look at you. He carefully poured out a cup of hot tea for you and helped you sit up to drink it. This was one of the rare times you got to spend a lot of time alone and though you were unwell during it, he would use every second of this time to be with you.

“The other miko don’t have a spirit helping them. When they get sick from training they have to take care of themselves. And when they have to speak with spirits for training, no one can give them tips or frighten off the bad spirits,” you mumble, your voice slightly muffled by the thick blanket which was pulled up to the tip of your nose.

“If you want, I can ask Atsumu or Osamu to take care of them. They wouldn’t mind for sure.”

“Oh… no, don’t bother them.” You coughed and rolled onto your side to look at Rintarou, “They’ve probably got a lot of duties already.”

“But it’s no different from me helping you out, is it?” He pointed out. 

“But you chose to do this… If you wanna stop, you can too, ya know. It’s fine with me.” You sighed quietly and furrowed your brow. Even though you had just suggested it, you felt sad at the thought of your best friend leaving your side. It wouldn’t be like you’d never see him again, you’d just see him less. 

And yet… the thought of that hurt.

“You don’t actually want that. I can tell,” Rintarou chuckled and helped push away a few sweaty strands of hair from your forehead, “And neither do I.”

You pouted under the blanket, knowing he was right. And he knew he was right too. “Still…” you mumble, “You don’t have to take care of me to this extent.” 

Rintarou shook his head and leaned close to you. He could practically feel the heat emanating from your forehead but he ignored it along with the way you shrank further into the futon. “You can’t stop me from doing what I wanna do,” he said and pressed his lips to your forehead. 

It’s only a small act of affection, a show of protection from a spirit to a human. Yet you suddenly felt like your temperature had increased a couple degrees and a strange feeling had erupted in your chest. It was such a frustrating yet loving feeling, you wanted to experience it more and yet you wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.

When Rintarou pulled away and sat up straight again with his legs crossed, he rested his head in his palm, elbow propped up in his lap, and looked down at you with a sort of endearing yet sneaky smile. “So let me take care of you, Y/N.” His gentle voice spoke.

You nodded quietly and closed your eyes to return to sleep, though just before you did, you mumbled a small, “Thank you, Rin.” 

“I don’t recall.” He shrugged as he pushed back a wisteria branch and waited for you to pass. Just thinking about how he was trying to be cool by giving you a forehead kiss was enough to fill his body with the overwhelming need to hide under a rock for the next century. Thankfully, you were extremely drowsy while sick so you probably didn’t remember...

“You liar! You were giving me tea and putting the towel on my head and- there was a forehead kiss!” 

Looks like you didn’t forget and Rintarou would have to find a giant boulder very soon. 

“Who knew a zenko serving Inari-sama would believe in kisses to help heal sickness?!” You teased and reached up to poke his forehead, though he easily dodged it and you only laughed more.

“You’re annoying.” He sighed as you two waded your way through the tall grass of the glade. 

“But you still haven’t left me.” You giggled as you awkwardly climbed up the rock before sitting on top of it.

He had to admit you did have a point. Throughout the years, he never left your side. And thinking about it, you never left his either. Even though decades had passed, longer than you could even remember, you always returned to his side. 

The thought had him smiling softly before he nodded, “I suppose you have a point there. Now come, the fireworks should start soon. I heard they have a new one, created by some craftsmen from the north.” 

You gasped in reply, “Really? I can’t wait to-”

A light flew into the sky, bursting into a bright yellow flower before a loud BOOM sounded a second later.

“It’s starting! We really made it just in time, huh?” You grinned at the brunet before looking up at the sky once again. 

Even if you saw the sight every year, sometimes more than once a year, it was still beautiful. But what made it truly beautiful was the kitsune beside you.

No words had to be exchanged, yet his mere presence was enough to fill your heart with a warm feeling.

“Rintarou…” You called his name quietly while the fireworks continued to burst their way into the sky. 

The kitsune looked over at you, wondering what you would say. 

“I want to spend every year like this with you. Every summer festival, let’s watch the fireworks together. And every Tanabata, let’s make the same wish. Oh and every New Year’s, I’d like to eat mochi with you,” the words spilled from your mouth without you thinking.

Rintarou blinked owlishly at you for a second before he began laughing, his arms folded over his stomach in a bad attempt to make himself stop before he broke his cool too far.

“H-Hey! What’s so funny?” You whine, hitting his arm lightly.

“N-Nothing, it just…” He took a deep breath and leaned back slightly, though he still looked at you with a small smirk on his face. “It just sounds like a marriage proposal.” 

Upon hearing that, your eyes widened and your cheeks turned red. A marriage proposal? That sort of thing could never come from you! With your duties to Inari, there was no way that you could ever get married, especially not to a spirit like him!

“Y-You’re imagining things! I just said I like spending time with you!” You insisted, tearing your gaze away from the spirit sitting beside you. Though… you had to admit, there was more than one occasion where you wondered if the two of you could have gotten married in another life. 

In a different life, where you two were free to meet and fall in love, to court and engage in the beautiful ceremony of marriage… You both knew you would have chosen each other.

“Even if it was a proposal- and an accidental one at that, it’s not like we could get married. We’re both busy with our duties and you could probably find a more beautiful wife. The yuki onna that lives on the mountain in the winter is a good choice.” You joked, though it hurt a little to think of Rintarou choosing her.

“That woman? She’s still around? I thought Shin-senpai chased her off the mountain three years ago for causing violence on the grounds,” he frowned.

“Um… well she… or another one came back last winter, though she left already,” you tried to recall.

“Good riddance. Anyways, I wouldn’t choose her as a wife. Even if we were both human,” he shrugged before turning to you, “After all, why would I when I already have someone I want to marry right in front of me?”

The moment your eyes locked, a loud explosion burst and echoed in the silence that followed. The sky was reduced to its dark colours, any stars dotting it blanketed by the smoke.

“You’re just saying that,” you mumbled and quickly turned away, “it’s not good to joke about such important matters.” 

Rintarou frowned and scooted a little closer to you to ask, “Why do you think I’m joking?”

Your gaze stayed fixed on the grass surrounding the boulder, “Because we can’t get married. You’re a kitsune and I’m a human. Not to mention we have our own duties.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m not serious when I say I want to marry you.” He gently cupped your face with his cool hand and brought it to look at his. 

As your eyes met, you wondered if the gold in his eyes always looked so beautiful. The sharpness of his features were more mesmerizing than ever, and you were so badly tempted to just lean in and-

“Can I kiss you?” His voice was more alluring than ever. 

“What if Inari-sama gets mad at you for defiling one of their shrine maidens?” you asked with a little grin on your face, making Rintarou playfully roll his eyes. 

“I’ll deal with that later,” he says and leans forward, taking your lips with his own. 

The moment you made contact, the sky was lit once again with bright colours. Though for once, both of you didn’t look at it. Instead, your eyelids slowly shut as you leaned into Rintaoru’s kiss. 

Though his skin was cool, the kiss felt hot. Too hot to handle - like a strange fire was spreading throughout your entire being starting from your heart and lips, and even burning the tips of your fingers and toes. You had never read about it before, let alone experienced it, but you liked it and wanted more of it. 

Was this what being in love was supposed to be like? 

As the two of you kissed, the fireworks continued to colour the night sky, unnoticed by you. To the two of you, nothing else existed right now. 

･゜ﾟ･:.｡..｡.:•:.｡. .｡.:･゜ﾟ･

Many more summers passed. Every year upon completing your shrine duties on the summer festival, you would don a wooden kitsune mask and run into the forest to find your lover waiting for you with a matching mask and a small packet of food to share. 

“Don’t you find it weird to have matching masks?” you asked with a giggle one winter night as you hiked hand in hand up the winding mountain trail. 

“Perhaps. But it’d be worse if someone saw the beloved seer and shrine maiden running into the forest with a man, wouldn’t it?” Rintarou asked.

“I suppose so. Would be horrible for business, wouldn’t it?” you replied with a laugh. 

“Exactly,” he ruffled your hair. 

Though the summer festival was always the highlight of the year for you, it wasn’t as if you two didn’t meet at other times. 

Spring was spent watching the blooming cherry blossoms together while eating small snacks, autumn was spent collecting fruits and sewing new kimonos to wear, and winter was spent drinking hot barley tea by the fire with the other kitsune. When the other shrine maidens asked where you would disappear off to for hours, you would simply smile and say, “I’m just checking in on the spirits around the mountain.”

Tonight as you walked hand-in-hand with Rintarou to the glade once again, he noticed the way you were walking a little slower than usual. He realised it wasn’t the first time either - these days he found himself slowing himself down to match your pace more and more often. 

“Did something happen recently?” he asked, removing his mask and hanging it on his hip as he knew you were both out of view and earshot of any humans. He then carefully took your mask as well. 

You shook your head. “Nothing’s really happened lately, why do you ask?” 

Rintarou furrowed his brow but nodded. “I was just wondering, that’s all.” 

“You’re making a funny face,” you giggled, “But no, nothing special’s been happening these days. Oh, I was offered a position of priestess but I said I’d rather stay as a shrine maiden.”

“Is that so? Congratulations, though. The offer alone is good, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is! But at the same time, I don’t feel like taking it. I’m happy with how things are, and I think Kiyoko-senpai at the shrine is way more suited to becoming the priestess than I am,” you smiled, “I just like helping around where I can and then going to see you when I can.”

Rintarou blinked in surprise but a small smile came to his face as he leaned forward and gave you a soft kiss. “I love seeing you too,” he hummed when he pulled away, hands moving to gently cup your face which looked small in his large hands, “And I’m glad that I can be here for the rest of your life too.”

He pressed his cool forehead to yours and you giggled at the feeling. Just like that night over fifteen years ago, you felt his coolness and a warmth. He was just wonderful. Your arms moved to wrap around his neck and pulled him closer for another kiss. Though the cold wind of winter blew around you, and the falling snow threatened to pile up on your feet, the kiss still felt incredibly hot. Perhaps it was partially due to Rintarou warming you with his own magic, but you felt like you could stay like this forever with him.

Eventually, he pulled away with a little cloud of vapour leaving both your lips. His nose crinkled just a little as he chuckled at the sight of your flushed face. “You look absolutely adorable,” he said and pushed a lock of hair behind your ear before noticing something he wished he hadn’t.

“As much as I’d love to get more kisses from you, Rin, I’d rather we get to your den and sit at the fire that Shinsuke has definitely prepared already,” you teased. 

“Right, right.” He nodded and took your hand once again, leading you to the den even if you had known the path from visiting hundreds, if not thousands, of times.

As the two of you walked, muscle memory leading the way, Rintarou thought about the thing he noticed - the fact that your hair had changed colour.

It wasn’t something he had never seen before, he had seen plenty of the priests, priestesses, and shrine maidens grow old before. Yet somehow it became so much heavier when he realised the same thing was happening to you. Your steps were slower, he could find grey strands, and when you smiled, the creases by your eyes seemed deeper than before. 

He knew about this. He once watched you grow up before his very eyes and get married to another man while he still lived in the body of a child. He anticipated the fact that someday, you would leave the earth and him, but he didn’t think it would hit so suddenly and painfully. 

With his free hand, Rintarou gently touched the soft skin of his face and took in a deep breath, realising that it was happening.

“Rintarou, did something happen?” you asked, noticing he had something on his mind. 

The kitsune turned to you and shook his head before kissing your forehead. “No, nothing’s wrong, Y/N.” He smiled.

･゜ﾟ･:.｡..｡.:•:.｡. .｡.:･゜ﾟ･

“Y/N, you have to let me heal you.”

“For the last time, Rintarou, I said no!” you cried and pushed him away with what strength you could muster. Though you had gained a lot working for the shrine for so many years, your old age was finally catching up to you. 

A cold wind blew and though the doors to the shrine were closed, a small draft sent a shiver through your old bones. With bony hands, you pulled the futon’s blanket higher on you and laid down. “Please… just don’t.”

It was such a painful sight, to see you slowly succumbing to nature’s will. No matter how many times Rintarou insisted on using his healing to keep you healthy enough to live a long life, you always refused it. 

“Please, just give me some time,” you spoke quietly.

The kitsune bit his lip before nodding. As much as he wanted to spend whatever time he could with you, he respected your wishes and left the room to work on his own duties. 

As you laid in the futon, you stared up at the ceiling. It wasn’t hard to tell you didn’t have much time left. At the moment, you couldn’t remember how long you had lived for but if your greying head, wrinkles, and frail body were anything to go by, it was a long time.

“Isn’t it so funny… to see Rintarou in love with an old hag like me?” you asked quietly.

“Not particularly.” A certain voice spoke. You turned your head to see Shinsuke had entered the room and took a seat by you. “We’ve gotten used to you over the many years, ya know?”

“He keeps insisting to take away my sickness and make me younger. I don’t even know if his magic can do that.” You sighed.

“I’m not really sure about it either but in the end it’s yer choice. He can’t force ya to accept any treatment and neither do I think he would,” he shrugged, “But I’ve noticed you’ve been pushin’ him away a lot recently. The boy- the guy comes back all moody and stuff almost everyday.” He still had a little habit of calling him a boy ever since meeting the three foxes.

“Hah… is that so?” you laughed quietly before coughing loudly, “I just don’t want him to be sad when I… you know. Because I know I have to go soon. And this illness in the winter doesn’t help.”

Shinsuke stayed quiet. 

“I wonder if he knows how much I love him. I wonder if he’ll begin to hate me these days. In the end of my years I was always just a trouble to him,” you smile sadly, “He had to carry me to visit you guys, and helped me with so many chores. When we went to watch the fireworks every year, he would also have to pause for me on our walk up, and we even missed it once because I walked so slowly! The following years he would carry me up though.” You couldn’t help but laugh at that memory despite the tears forming in your eyes.

“I wonder if Rin found me a burden,” you continued, “I wanted to do so much for him. Make him snacks or give him books or… I don’t know, just put a smile on his face. But he was always the one doing things for me.”

By the end of your short monologue, your pillow had become soaked with tears. Your body shook slightly, both from the cold and from your sobs.

“I think…” Shinsuke started, “Rintarou loved you just as much. He always came back with a small smile on his face. Whether it was the summer festival nights, or simply sharing a cup of matcha with you in the winter, I believe he thoroughly enjoyed it all.”

“R-Really?” You looked up at the kitsune with puffy eyes.

“I would not lie.” He smiled in reply.

You smiled back softly, relieved to know your ‘husband’ felt that way about you. “Thank you for telling me, Shinsuke. I would- oh!” you exclaimed as you remembered something, “On that table there. There are five books. Can you bring them?” 

Shinsuke reached over to the table and placed five red leather-bound books next to you. “Are these the ones?”

“Yep. They’re my diaries,” you grinned, “The next time Rintarou comes here, I’ll give these to him as my final gift. And if I live on after that… well it’ll be embarrassing if he’s read how I feel about him.”

“Ya say that as if you two ain’t been in a relationship for decades now.”

“Shinsuke! How rude…”

You two shared a small laugh in the winter night. 

･゜ﾟ･:.｡..｡.:•:.｡. .｡.:･゜ﾟ･

A few nights passed and Rintarou shot out of his sleep as he felt something was wrong. Something was terribly, terribly wrong. 

These past nights, instead of sleeping in the den with the other kitsunes as usual, he had been sleeping on the shrine’s roof. He felt that the closer he was to you, the more at ease he could be. But alas, every night his heart still felt heavy and worried. It didn’t help that the two of you hadn’t talked since the night you asked him to leave you alone. 

But tonight he knew he had to see you. 

Rintarou jumped off the roof and hurried to your room before sliding open the door quickly yet silently. 

“Y/N,” he spoke before gasping as he saw you curled up and shivering under the blanket at the sudden draft of cold air.

“R-Rin? What are you doing-”

Without a word, he quickly shut the door and fell to his knees to hold you close in an attempt to warm you up. Though he could feel your body warming slightly, all he could think about was how cold you were.

“You’re so warm…” You mumbled and buried your face into the crook of his neck.

“Yeah?” He asked with a nervous chuckle. 

“Mmhm.” You leaned into his chest as your frail fingers trailed their way up his warm body. “So… so warm.”

“I’m using my magic, you know? I’m supposed to be the colder one here.” Rintarou brushed away a few strands of hair in front of your face.

“Hm… I guessed so,” you hummed and gently stroked his soft face. Not that you could really feel it anymore - your fingertips could barely feel anything. “Rin-kun, can I give you something?”

“You should focus on resting. I can get that later when you’ve recovered.” The kitsune insisted. Though he knew he was just saying that in reassurance. Whether that was to you or to himself, he didn’t know.

“Rintarou, we both know I might not live for much longer.” You coughed dryly as you spoke. Slowly, you removed your head from his neck and looked up at him with tired eyes. “Please, just let me do what I want to do.”

Rintarou bit his cheek, staring into your dull eyes with his own golden ones. Sure, he had the powers to heal you, but you kept insisting he let you pass like a normal human would, and neither did he possess the power to bring you back. This truly was a final request from you. 

He nodded and helped you sit up properly, eyes following your hands as they reached for a small stack of books sitting beside you. There were four, no, five books, labelled ‘one’ through to ‘five’. 

“I wrote these. It’s a bit embarrassing to say… but I wrote about my time at the shrine and about you so I wouldn’t ever forget them,” You smiled weakly at your memories of writing in the books almost every night, “I think, in total… my memories with you take up about four of these books.”

Rintarou couldn’t speak. All he could do was let the books rest in his hands, unable to even find the strength to hold them properly. 

“I doubt I kept everything in there. There’s a lot, you know? I forget things and I don’t remember a lot of what I wrote. But I know I wrote about my favourite things like when… when we went fishing and those twins fell in the lake. And the summer festival where it rained so he had to have an extra day for fireworks. And when we held our own marriage ceremony in the forest with Shinsuke as our priest. Do you remember that?”

“Y-Yeah… I remember.” Rintarou’s voice cracked as he remembered the bright sunny day where you held his hand in the glade and shared sake with him. It was funny, thinking that a few decades had passed since that day yet he could remember it like it was yesterday. Yet it was likely already distant for you. 

You looked over and laughed quietly upon seeing him holding back his tears. “I haven’t seen you like this since the wedding.” He chuckled lightly until you began to cough loudly. As always, Rintarou was quick to knock on your back until the coughing stopped and he helped you lie down on your side.

Instinctively, he got under the blanket with you.

“Hm… I’m glad I get to experience my husband holding me one last time,” you say softly and bury your face in his warm chest, “You’ll stay here, right? Until the very end?”

“Of course.” Rintarou mumbled and rested his chin on the top of your greying head. “I’ll always be here.”

“Wouldn’t it be so embarrassing if I woke up the next morning all okay?”

“I wouldn’t laugh.”

“You would in a few days.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that.”

“I don’t think it’s happening though.”

“Neither do I.” 

The kitsune stroked your back softly. It was always nice for you, but for him it was calming. He figured that he didn’t want your last memory of him to be of him sobbing uncontrollably. 

“If it were to end like this, I’d be happy though.” Your muffled voice spoke into his chest. It was nice, he thought, the feeling of his chest vibrating as you spoke into it. 

“I’d be happy for you too.” Rintarou mumbled, glad that you couldn’t see his face and the way he was pursing his lips harshly in an attempt to not cry. 

A few more moments of silence passed before he heard your quiet sobbing.

“Actually, I think I don’t want to die. I wish I could live with you forever, Rintarou. I wish that I could kiss you every morning and every night, and I want to watch the fireworks with you every summer festival.” Your tears were soaking his clothes as you sobbed. “I wish… I wish so many things. I’m so happy with what I’ve done in this tiny life with you but I just wish… I wish more could’ve happened.”

It took all of his own power for Rintarou to stay strong, to not weep and make your final memories horribly sad. Alas, a tear escaped from the corner of his eye, and soon more followed, disappearing into the pillow on which his head rested.

He knew he had to say something. 

Taking in a deep breath, he called your name softly and cupped your cheek. The flow of your tears had slowed and you managed to tilt your head up to face your husband.

“I will always, always love you. And someday, whether we exist as ourselves or not, we will love each other again. I promise.”

With his words, you could only begin to cry again, though this time with a smile on your face.

“I’ll hold you to that.” Your voice was tinged with both sadness and playfulness. 

The kitsune smiled weakly at your words and allowed you to lean closer to him, capturing his lips with yours. The kiss was weak, tired, and sad. Yet at the same time it was powerful and blissful. He noticed the grip your hands had on his arm weakened and by the time you pulled away from him, it was gone.

You took in a shaky breath and smiled softly.

“I love you, Rintarou.”

And with that, your eyelids shut and the last of your tears fell. 

With that, Rintarou’s body began to shake as he sobbed into your body. Crying, coughing, wailing in the pain of your loss. 

He held you until your body had become as cold as the snow falling outside the door, and by then he knew he had to leave. The other shrine maidens would come to check on you soon anyways. 

“Goodbye, Y/N.” He mumbled softly and placed a final kiss to your forehead before leaving the room with heavy but silent footsteps.

And as he walked through the snowy forest, he realised how dark it was. Looking up at the sky, he realised only the stars shone without the brilliant moon to accompany them. 

“How fitting,” Rintarou mumbled and turned his gaze back to the snow-covered ground.

[desthesleepdeprivedwriter]

Fishing in the rain

Fundy hated fishing.

Something about sitting still, eyes locked in one place, and how slow it was… It just keep up his nerves.

It didn’t help that Fundy was also catching nothing.

Maybe it was because Fundy was unlucky as fuck.

Maybe it was because of the thunderstorm that was happening for around an hour.

Who knows?

The fox was sitting still, trembling slightly from the cold water soaking his fur and his clothes. His eyes were locked on the bopping white spot that was being tossed around by the angry waves. He waited, paws holding the fishing rod so tight he couldn’t even feel them anymore.

How long has he been there? Fundy decided to fish in order to clean his mind from his problems, and only tripped into a rabbit hole of memories and loss.

Wilbur used to take him fishing, but they were so bad at it. Fundy was never patient, and Wilbur was always scaring the fish by moving his feet underwater.

They would come home with an empty basket, but they always had so much fun that it didn’t even matter.

The water falling down from Fundy’s face was just raindrops.

Philza and Fundy fishing during the day Eret should appear. The fox was so happy and hopeful, just to be heartbroken once more.

Phil was a good grandfather, but, when needed, dissapeared to be with Techno on the montains.

Fundy’s shaking body was just because of the cold.

He was sitting on the edge of a pond, near his wedding venue. Fundy tried to run after Dream, but the blond was already gone. Dream left behind a broken heart, and didn’t even look back to see whose heart was it.

Fundy moved his feet underwater, holding a self made rod and pretending he was catching something. Sometimes, he didn’t even know how he could handle so much.

His grip on the rod only got stronger. He couldn’t let it go. Even with his breakdown, crying pathetically in the rain, he couldn’t handle fail something as simple as fishing.

Fundy sat on that pier trying to feel better, and he only managed to get even more miserable.

The sea was too aggressive and the rain was too loud, he didn’t noticed the soft steps behind him, not until the rain stopped falling on him, and Fundy looked up to see Ranboo.

The enderman was holding a big umbrella, also wearing a black and white raincoat, long enough to cover all of of his legs and arms. The hoodie covered Ranboo’s face in shadows and, if Fundy didn’t know the dumbass that Ranboo was, looked like ready to kill the fox.

Ranboo crotched right next to Fundy, compressing himself under the umbrella in order to not get wet.

“What are you doing here?”

Fundy shrugged, not even trying to look better.

“Pitying myself and feeling like shit.”

“Mood.”

Both of them chuckled, eyes back on the sea.

“Why under the rain, tho? You can feel like that while cozy back into our house.”

Since Eret finally managed to adopt both Fundy and Ranboo, the youngest called his house “their house”, somewhere Fundy could stay while visiting from Dry Waters. Fundy tried to brush it off, because, you know, they also had the big as fuck castle where they could live. But Ranboo wasn’t going to give up on his house, so now Fundy had 3 beds to sleep. It was nice.

“Yeeah… But I really wanna feel miserable, you know?” Fundy softly laughed again, grip strong again so he couldn’t lose his rod.

“That’s sad, Fundy.” There was concern in Ranboo’s voice. Lot’s of it.

“Tell me about it, man…” Fundy smiled.

He liked to talk to Ranboo. It was a nice kid, mostly a yes-man, but with a really fast mind and so fuckin smart, it was almost unbelievable. Fundy also liked that Ranboo never actually judged him for his terrible choices, like smoking or fishing during a thunderstorm, but instead just tried to talk him out from it without being too harsh. It was a good kid.

“You know, Ranboo… The thing is…”

Fundy turned his face too fast, tail wiggling happily with the company, and water drops hit Ranboo’s little spots of uncovered skin.

Hssss. Fundy’s ears immediately perked up, worry in his face when he finally noticed that his stupid half enderman brother was standing in the middle of the pouring rain.

“RANBOO!” Fundy let the rod go, getting up surprisingly quickly. “Get up! We need to go!”

Ranboo kinda freezed, surprised with the sudden explosion of energy. He quickly obeyed Fundy, getting up and being immediately pushed in order to walk.

“Why are you so dumb? The sky is basically flooding everything!” Fundy was almost running, not noticing when Ranboo inclined in order to not let Fundy get even more wet. “Why?!” Ranboo just laughed at Fundy’s voice crack, fixing his rain coat in order to get more safe from the water.

“I saw you standing there, so I went there trying to know what you were doing!”

“You are an idiot.” Fundy groaned in annoyance, not believing that Ranboo was so careless like that. “Be normal and try not to fucking die!”

Ranboo laughed louder, opening the door and letting Fundy enter first. “Okay, I’ll do my best”

“Grow some fuckin braincells!” Fundy said from the top floor, getting a towel and drying himself. Ranboo spied a little and saw Fundy shaking his body like a wet dog, his fur going all puffy and taking giggles from the half enderman. Fundy’s fur was bigger due to the winter, and Ranboo knew that Fundy really cared for it.

“Leave your jacket up there, we can eat something down here” Ranboo said, smiling when Fundy plopped himself on the couch, stretching next to the fireplace. “Take of this stupid raincoat, its still wet.” Fundy mumbled, lazily looking at Ranboo.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about my shiny armor to save you from the rain”

“Save me?? You were so fuckin stupid! Knights are not that stupid!!!” Fundy sat up, raising his voice and making Ranboo start laughing again.

“Dude, what happened?” They jumped on spot as Niki and Eret suddenly entered the house, both of them under the same umbrella, the other half enderman wearing a pastel yellow colored raincoat and Eret without his crown, sunglasses nowhere to be seen, making the white glow shine in the slightly dark room.

“We could hear Fundy from L'manburg’s entrance.” Niki chuckled, closing the umbrella and taking out her raincoat.

Fundy got up, looking annoyed as hell to an outsider, but his family could see the hidden smile in his face.

“Wanna know what happened? Ranboob, like an idiot….”

“Stop calling me that!”

“I’ll call you how I want!”

“Boooooys, stop fighting!!” Niki tried to intervene, but just got softly pushed away to the couch when Fundy and Ranboo started a pillow fight.

Eret smiled at their kids, walking to the kitchen in order to make some hot chocolate.

Somewhere, at the sea, a fishing rod was being taken away by the waves.

Support/Commission me here!

[jhoudiey]

Introducing Ash!

Trying to write the next installment of Loru is hard, so it's about time I introduce Ash! I haven't talked much about him cause he's the same age as Midori and they don't meet until NRC so haven't gotten that far in the story, but ANYWAYS.

Name: Kit

Preferred name: Ash

Age: 16 (well the same age as Midori)

Birthday: Sept 9

Hometown: Nisegami , a small village in the northern mountains of Pyroxene

Race: Kitsune beastman

Dorm: Savanaclaw

Appearance: White hair, with grey on the tips of his ears and tail

Personality: Quiet, shy, unsure of himself.

Unique Magic: "Hide and Seek" - Can make himself invisible and untraceable via sight and smell.

Family: Mother, 5 older sisters, father (deceased)

History: Was raised as a servant to his sisters, and as such never had a chance to explore his own hobbies or interests. He developed his UM as a way to escape from them when they were especially brutal. When the carriage from NRC arrived he happily went along to escape his family, but found himself completely out of his element once he arrived. He's sorted into Savanaclaw and is almost immediately harassed by Midori who thinks his tail looks fuzzy and wanted to touch it. When she learns that his name is "kit" and that he's not an only child to make it funny, she asks what he wants to be called and that's the first time he says his preferred name out loud and is from then on called Ash by everyone except his family.

I'm going to get more into this, but will put it under a cut cause there's a lot going on and i'm sure I'm going to ramble too much. If you have any questions you wanna ask for Ash please send em along!

So basically the village they live in was a regular northern village where the residents weren't super good at magic, so when his ancestors landed and claimed that they could bring prosperity and fortune to their land if they were worshiped the villagers agreed. Due to the families affinity at foresight and elemental magic the village did indeed prosper and was renamed for their new Gods.

The women of the family rose higher in the familial ranks due to their wit and beauty, the men falling to the position of servant to support them. Ash's father was enamored by his mother and was treated like a king until they had Ash, where he was immediately shunted to servant due to his inability to continue providing female children. Ash is the youngest of 6 siblings and once he learned to walk he was tasked with looking after all his sisters every whims. Due to the status change, Ash's father commits suicide when Ash is 5 years old as he no longer wants to be treated like a slave and death is better than servitude, leaving Ash to care for his sisters on his own. Ash is named Kit since he's just a lowly fox and doesn't deserve the honor of a name like his sisters. He hates it a lot.

This is Ash's oldest sister, Hinako her unique magic is foresight and with a persons DNA can see snippets of their future. Often throws hair into a bonfire to make a spectacle out of it to wow the villagers and keep up the illusion that they're doing something more godlike than magic.

His second oldest sister Fuyuko her unique magic is ability to make it snow!

Third oldest sister Haruko she can make it rain!

Fourth older sister Natsuko her unique magic is heat.

Fifth oldest sister, Akiko her unique magic is control of wind!

Basically all of his sisters are shitty assholes who love being doted on and refuse to do anything difficult for themselves instead making their 'pets' do it. They call anyone romantically interested in them pet and reap the rewards of being pretty and untouchable. They're the worst.

Ash himself when he arrives at NRC just quietly lurks around Savanaclaw cause he doesn't know how to integrate himself into conversation with the other rowdy folks. Midori finds him spying on her group of loud ass first years and is like HEY FOX DUDE and pets his tail while telling him that his tail looked fuzzy and she wanted to touch it. She asks for permission to touch his ears with a handful of tail (because the goober didn't ask permission for that).

When he tells her that his name is Kit she laughs and is like AHA THAT'S FUNNY ARE YOU AN ONLY CHILD TOO thinking it's hilarious she met another person with a name that just describes them. When he admits he's got 5 older sisters with pretty names she decides his name is dumb, no longer funny, and asks what he wants to be called. After that she drags her new friend Ash around introducing him to all the other first years, and decides she'll help him find things he likes doing since he's never had a chance before and HELL YEA THAT SOUNDS LIKE FUN. He is both terrified and entranced by her feral energy cause she's completely different from the women he was raised with and they soon become inseparable.

He goes home with Mido over christmas in their second year, and Floyd and Yoru basically adopt him on the spot when they hear about what sort of bullshit his family pulled with him. Later in their third year when Midori goes to his family shrine over spring break it gets dicey, she slam dunks his sisters into the side of the mountain, parents get called, but because Yoru and Floyd are also feral, they end up burning the shrine down before leaving for good. Ash stays with them for every other school break until he and Mido get a place of their own.

[meltwonu]

| caffeine |     [chapter 6]

pairing; fratboy!wonwoo x female!reader

this chapter’s notes; hair pulling, squirting, forced orgasm, overstimulation, degradation/dumbification, name calling, cockwarming????, face fucking, cum eating, sir kink, minor daddy kink, BUT SOME MINOR AFTERCARE BAYBEEEEEE🤣💕😭 kdjfhks this is more smut than it is plot which is rly the concept of this series but i really did get lost in the sauce on this one, so enjoy!💕💕

chapters; 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - x - x - x - x

“H--Hello?”

“Are you fucking Wonwoo?” Your sleepy eyes try to adjust to the morning sunlight seeping through your bedroom curtains as Mingyu’s eerily calm voice filters through the receiver. “Hello? Can you hear me? I asked you a question??” You can almost register the eye roll that’s surely on his face right about now.

“Wh--what? Wait, I--”

“I’m just asking if you’re fucking Wonwoo, it’s really a yes or no question.” How the fuck did he even know?

“I--I, how--but--” There’s a scoff on the other end as you sit up, checking the clock as it reads 8:51AM. Why was Mingyu even awake?

“I literally live with the guy and for the record, Seokmin’s a fuckin’ chatterbox. You don’t think his big ass mouth wasn’t spillin’ the beans last night? He practically threw himself at me last night after you left to tell me about your little rendezvous in the hallway restroom. Which I had to disinfect, by the way.” Fuckin’ Seokmin. It’s quiet on the other end as you sit and try to wake yourself up a little more before you reply.

“Well?”

“Mingyu, give me a fuckin’ second.” He laughs, a groan heard through the phone before you hear his bedsheets rustling. “Also for the record, I’m not mad or anything. We’re friends and I just want to know what’s going on with you. Wonwoo’s an interesting choice for someone like you though.” Someone like you?

“What does that even mean, Mingyu?”

“Oh, y’know, Wonwoo’s one of the quieter ones around here. He acts like a dad sometimes and keeps everyone in order. I dunno, that never seemed like your type to me. Unless that is your type? But hey, I’m not mad at it. Are you two dating or somethin’?” Haha.

“No.”

Something about your conversation with Mingyu makes you feel a little weird and you can’t shake the feelings even when you step past the doorframe of the campus library. Wonwoo catches your eye at the receptionist table, silently willing you to walk over to him when his eyes meet yours.

“Hi, Wonwoo.” You take in his features, watching as his jaw clenches slightly. He peers around the room, making sure everyone is out of earshot before he whispers over the table.

“Meet me in the empty study room at the end of the long hall. The very last room. 10 minutes.” There’s a blush on your cheeks as you turn away from him, weaving through the various bookshelves as if you were browsing. Something about his demeanor seemed off but you didn’t know what. Maybe he was upset that Seokmin had basically told everyone his business? Regardless, you knew the study room that was at the end of the hall was completely abandoned. The few times he had cornered you were in other study rooms that hadn’t been that far into the library, so you were curious and a little nervous as to why he’d ask you to meet him there in particular.

But you listen, watching other various students pass by as you slowly make your way through the aisles until you’re near the designated room where Wonwoo had asked you to go to; stopping periodically to sift through the books on the shelves, uninterestedly grabbing a few to make it look like you had an actual purpose to be there other than seeing the fox eyed male. Eventually, it draws closer to the 10 minute mark so you look in both directions before you put your hand on the doorknob and twist.

The light flickers on once you enter the said room, setting your things down onto the table that’s seemingly been cleaned prior to you showing up. Wonwoo is still nowhere in sight so you take a seat, getting comfortable as you pop open one of the books you picked off the shelf.

A couple minutes pass in silence before the doorknob rattles behind you; quietly closing the book as you turn in your chair to face the bespectacled male standing in the doorway.

“On your knees.”

Wonwoo is mad, that’s for sure. Or upset? All you knew at this point was that he was surely over his break time by now.

He didn’t really explain anything.

But the way his hands pull on your hair hard enough to make you cry has you theorizing what could’ve happened.

Thankfully he’s kind enough to let you touch yourself; your lower half completely bare as your fingers drag across your wet folds, slowly inserting in a finger. You relax your throat at the same time, letting Wonwoo let out whatever frustrations he’s got by fucking your throat open.

“Fuuuuuck, your mouth feels incredible around me.” There’s a growl at the end of Wonwoo’s words and you can’t deny the way it sends a thrum of arousal through your body as you whimper around him. You try to look up at him through bleary eyes, cheeks already stained with drying tears. “Mmmph?” He chuckles lowly, thrusting his cock into your mouth until your lips meet the base of it. You swallow around him by reflex, fresh hot tears springing to your eyes when he holds you there.

“My dumb little slut wants me to fuck her ‘lil wet pussy, hmm? I can see how wet you are from here, princess.” He pulls you off of his cock; the air flooding your lungs as you sputter. “Get up from the floor, you cumslut. I want you bent over the table.”

You get up on shaky legs, sniffling and wiping at your tears with the back of your hand as you position yourself over the table.

“Let me see how wet you are, princess.” You reach behind you, spreading your folds open to let Wonwoo see how wet your pussy was. “Think your slutty pussy is wet enough for my cock?”

“Yuh--Yes, s-sir…” Wonwoo takes your word, positioning himself at your entrance before he bottoms out in one thrust, a loud moan cutting through the air as you clench around him.

“Ah, W-Won--Wonwoo…”

Your nails dig into the table underneath you as he starts an unrelenting pace, your eyes rolling back when he slams into your g-spot. “Fuh---fuck, s-sir!! Please, right t-there!!” He brings a hand down onto your ass, slapping the skin until it blooms into a pretty red.

“Does my cock feel good inside your tight pussy? Hmm? You dumb little slut, all you know how to do is take my cock.” You can hear his cruel laugh; drool dripping onto the table as your head starts to feel fuzzy.

“C-can I cu--cum, please?”

“No. And if you do, you’ll be sorry.” You whimper, trying to stave off the pleasure building up inside. And when Wonwoo feels you getting tighter around him, he pulls out, letting you catch your breath as he effectively edges you. You can feel a trickle of sweat down the side of your face, thankful that you’d at least stripped off some of your clothes. But you turn your head to the side, noticing Wonwoo’s still mostly dressed except for the stupid sweater vest he decided was too precious to get dirty.

You watch as he strokes his cock, his mouth open slightly as he lets out quiet moans.

“Mm, Won---s-sir, please put your cock i-inside of me…”

“Did you finally calm down?”

“Yes, sir…” The pleasure inside of you is still building when Wonwoo re-enters you, starting his quick pace again. The room fills with the sounds of your moans and skin slapping, the air feeling thick around you. He edges you 3 more times; pulling out when he feels you about to cum.

And after a few minutes, you can’t help but sob, knowing full well there wasn’t a chance you could stop your orgasm this time; legs shaking as you bite your lip hard enough to draw blood.

There’s a moment where you feel your body go slack, static going through your mind as you cum. You can barely register Wonwoo growling behind you, his thrusts becoming inconsistent as he fucks you through your orgasm. You feel your body twitching, feeling his cum filling up your pussy as you clench around him, milking his cock.

“Fuck, did you just squirt?”

“H-huh?”

“Filthy ‘lil thing, you got my work pants all dirty. How do you think I’m going to explain this one?”

Wonwoo slips his cock from inside of you, his cum trickling down your thighs as you whimper against the table underneath you. “I’m, mmh, s-sorry I--I didn’t r-realize I--”

“Sorry? I don’t think ‘sorry’ is going to cut it, princess. I’m going to have to punish you. But you’ll be good and take it, won’t you?”

“Y-yes, sir…”

Wonwoo slaps your ass once, watching as a drop of cum hits the floor. “Get up on the table and spread your legs.”

“B--But I’m--”

“Do I need to repeat myself?”

You find it in your best interest to listen to Wonwoo, urging your tired legs to work as you turn around so you can sit on the table somehow. And your eyes catch the wet droplets all over his work chinos; thankfully not super visible due to them being black.

Once you manage to get your tired body onto the table, you spread your legs wide, holding them open with whatever strength you have left.

Wonwoo drops to his knees in front of you, licking the stripes of cum off of your thighs as a blush grows on your face. Something about him licking his own cum off of you was undeniably… hot. And he continues this, kissing and licking at your skin until it’s clean, his tongue lapping at your folds.

“Push my cum out.”

You whimper, body already exceedingly sensitive as he laps at your pussy, catching the cum that spills out of you on his tongue. And when he’s had enough, he stands, tangling a hand into your hair as he tilts your head up to meet his in a sloppy kiss.

His tongue licks at the seam of your lips, your mouth opening in a moan at the feeling. Wonwoo pushes his cum into your mouth, smirking against your lips after he’s pushed all the sticky substance inside as he silently waits for you to swallow it; only pulling away when he knows you have.

“You’re such a good little slut for me. But we’re not done here yet.” He lets go of your hair, adjusting his glasses a second later before he wraps a hand around his cock. You were surprised he was still hard even after cumming once, but you also couldn’t deny how much you still wanted him to fuck you more.

The two of you were clearly having a bit of an off morning, so you were honestly thankful Wonwoo was in a bit of a mood.

“Ready for my cock again, princess?”

“Y--yes, sir…”

“Spit on my cock then, cumslut.” The angle is a bit awkward but you manage; a glob of spit and remnants of his cum landing on his shaft before he smears it all over his cock. And he doesn’t wait another second, thrusting into you in one swift motion as he bottoms out.

“I want you to be a good little slut and cum on my cock just like this.” Shit. You mewl, wiggling your hips slightly. “But--But…”

“What’s wrong? My dumb ‘lil princess can’t cum unless I’m fucking your cunt? Just having my cock inside you isn’t enough?” You clench your jaw, clenching around his cock. A few minutes pass like that, small whimpers leaving you the entire time Wonwoo watches you.

10 minutes pass, feeling like it’s been 30, when you can’t take it anymore. The head of Wonwoo’s cock is snug against your g-spot and if he just moved a little bit, you were sure you could cum. But he gives you a harsh glare, daring you to disobey him.

“S--sir, can y-you please touch my--my clit?”

“If you wanna cum, you can do it yourself.”

You nod shakily, keeping one hand on your leg and trailing the other towards your swollen nub, drawing circles around it as you cry out. “I---I---Mmh!”

Your thighs tremble as you cum, Wonwoo’s hand batting yours away as he rubs your clit harshly, milking your orgasm as your walls flutter around him.

“See? I knew you could cum just from my cock inside of you, princess.” The cocky lilt in Wonwoo’s voice has you mewling, small cries of his name leaving your mouth as the oversensitivity really sets in. He lets you catch your breath for a second before he pulls all the way out, only keeping the head of his cock inside before he thrusts all the way in, slamming into your cervix.

“Such a greedy little slut. Squirting all over me and cumming three times? I fuckin’ spoil you and your fuckin’ pussy don’t I, princess?”

“Mmh…yuh---yes, daddy...” A smirk graces Wonwoo’s lips, his hands gripping your thighs as he pulls you towards him. “Daddy, huh?” He scoffs, digging his nails into your skin as he grinds into you.

“D--daddy, I, ngh, I--ca--can’t…”

“You will. Your ‘lil pussy is still so tight around me, princess.” You feel breathless and like your brain has turned to mush. But he wasn’t wrong. Despite how tired you already were, you could already feel another orgasm building up inside of you.

“Da--daddy!”

“C’mon, princess. Cum on my cock. Isn’t that what you know best? Getting daddy’s cock wet?” You nod feverishly, letting your back meet the table as the tiredness takes over. Wonwoo keeps your legs spread open, watching his cock disappearing into your pussy.

“Dumb little cockslut. Letting me fill your slutty ‘lil pussy with my cum. So good for me, princess.”

Hot tears spring to your eyes as you feel your third orgasm come to a head; the tension in your body snapping as your back arches off of the table. Wonwoo fucks you through your orgasm again, unloading his cum inside of you for the second time with a groan.

You momentarily black out, garbled noises leaving your lips and body going weak as Wonwoo slips his cock from your body.

When you come to after a few minutes, Wonwoo’s got you laying down on the floor cleaned and dressed; his book bag underneath your head as a pillow.

“Fuck, I thought I fucked you into a coma.”

“Ugh…”

“Are you okay? Drink some of this water, sweetheart.” He helps you sit up, bringing a water bottle to your mouth. You hadn’t realized how raw and sore your throat was, the cool liquid soothing you almost immediately. “Maybe we should’ve had a safe word.”

You clear half the water bottle, a satisfied sigh on your lips afterwards. “S’okay… I wanted you to be rough with me… But I do have a question?” Wonwoo nods, tucking a stray hair behind your ear. “Shoot.”

“What got you so… upset? I, um, I mean Mingyu called me this morning to ask about u-us and it kind of put me in a weird mood so…”

“Oh, no, princess I’m not mad about that. They were going to find out eventually, it was only a matter of time.”

“Oh.” He chuckles, sitting on the floor next to you. “Actually, I signed up to go on an excavation trip with one of my archeology professors and I was rejected. He told me before I applied that I was overqualified so I was a sure fire choice to be included and I wasn’t. He didn’t really have an explanation for me either.”

“Wonwoo, I’m sorry…” You place a hand on his forearm, squeezing it in comfort.

“It’s whatever, I’m the one that should be sorry, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you like that. Guess I was angrier about it than I thought.”

“It’s okay… I think we’ve both had a weird day.. Oh my god! Wait, shouldn’t you be working!?” The panic is clear in your voice as you attempt to stand up, shaky legs folding underneath you as your butt hits the carpeted floor.

“I told Joshua I was leaving early, nobody even knows we’re back here.” He adjusts his glasses, running a hand through his silver locks. You settle back down, playing with the hem of your shirt as the two of you settle into silence.

“Um, I’m--I’m glad your pants are dry?” He scoffs jokingly, eyes glancing downward at the now drying material.

“Yeah, you’re lucky I decided to wear my black chinos to work today or else you would’ve really been in some shit.”