#an agency meeting and graduate and move and fill out paperwork for my full time internship and fill out legal paperwork and- oh.

[zeb-eb-beb]

sometimes I listen to the brain demons and start being mean to myself about getting overwhelmed/stressed so easily and then I start listing the things I actually have to do and go...oh...maybe I am allowed this. maybe things are kinda bad and stressful and I should let myself feel bad and stressed about them and not be mad at myself for feeling those things. crazy concept.

[simp-for-mha-men]

𝕒 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕡𝕝𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕖𝕤 (𝕜𝕒𝕥𝕤𝕦𝕜𝕚 𝕓𝕒𝕜𝕦𝕘𝕠𝕦 𝕩 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣)

Request by @oneseharuxo: So, Can I request a bakugo x fem! Reader fluff where it's the reader's birthday? I really loved the Aizawa fluff! And you can take your time dw!

A/N: My first request! I was so incredibly soft while writing this. It’s the cutest little thing for our favorite explosive boy. I hope you all enjoy this little bit of Bakugou positivity to get you through the week! Also, I was listening to Ghibli soundtracks so it got super romantic. Enjoy!

Genre: some cute pro-hero!Bakugou and pro-hero!reader banter/fluffy times, a little bit of swearing, a dash of angst in the beginning about the reader feeling terrified of the future during past birthdays 💥❤️

Word count: 3.9k

♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥

Birthdays are awful. No matter how you celebrate them, they always bring on the negative and looming thoughts of the future. You’ve known this since you were quite young.

Your mother told you not to worry about your 6th birthday party. You didn’t care about the theme, cake, or favors because you were too caught up in the idea about starting kindergarten. It was terrifying. You were going to need to make new friends, meet new teachers, and start the beginning of a full education.

On your 12th birthday, you began to worry about becoming a teenager. Sure, it was a year away, but it still scared you. The fact that high school was just around the corner made you want to vomit. Middle school was already a big issue in your life, and high school was just going to make it all worse.

When you turned 16, you were already done with U.A. You began to get anxious about your future as a pro-hero. Who would you intern with? Who would you do a work studies with? Who would you be a sidekick for? When would you get your own agency? All of these questions brought on a lot of stress, causing you to want U.A. to invest in one thing: a counselor.

Your classmates were a big help during this period, considering they were all thinking the same things as you. You got close with a certain group of “hooligans,” as Mr. Aizawa put it. He told you to be wary of those individuals, but he was so wrong. The Bakusquad, comprised of Mina, Denki, Hanta, Eijiro, and Bakugou, brought you so much joy and made you forget about your thoughts temporarily. However, you weren’t as close with Bakugou as you were with the others. You were never even on a first name basis with him.

Now, you were older and still stressed yourself out about the littlest things. You had officially become a pro-hero, after graduating as a sidekick to Best Jeanist, and worked at Bakugou’s agency due to him “owing you a favor” from high school. You wanted to start your own agency, but you were currently tight on money due to some issues with your apartment. Of course, the entire plumbing system needed to be fixed right before your meeting the bankers to ask for a loan.

Bakugou was “kind” enough to let you work alongside him, but he treated you the same way he did in high school. He was distant enough to not ask you personal questions, yet he always showed up when you had a bad day and needed to rant to someone. Today, it was the latter.

“He was so idiotic and rude!” you yelled to your co-worker.

“Yeah, what an asshole,” he replied, crossing his arms and leaning against his desk.

You were currently in Bakugou’s personal office, looking out the window and whining about a man you encountered after your recent rescue. It was already close to 10 PM so the building was empty. It was always like this, especially with the week just beginning.

“After he told me to come over later,” you sighed, “he tried to get my number.”

“Wait, really?” Bakugou asked, walking over next to you.

“Yeah! I mean, come on! You don’t just say that to a pro-hero. I’m not even that good looking.”

Bakugou fell silent. He wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn’t get anything to come out. He thought you were so gorgeous. How was he supposed to tell you that, though. He had acted as if he hated you until you both were 3rd years. He always regretted that. Maybe he needed to learn how to just “be manly,” as Kirishima would say, and tell you his actual thoughts.

“Hey, dumbass,” you said, flicking his forehead.

He rolled his eyes dramatically before grabbing your hand and flinging it away as gently as possible. “Oh, please. You’re the dumbass, dumbass.”

You giggled at your friend’s response. It was a classic exchange between the two of you. He had always called you a dumbass, and you had grown accustomed to it. You thought it was endearing and sweet, despite it being an insult the first time he said it. At least he wasn’t calling you an extra anymore.

“Well,” you began again, “what kind of paperwork do you have tonight? Is it some major damage paperwork due to your inferiority complex?”

“Shut up,” he growled. “Today, I actually didn’t go out. I had a couple of meetings with the damn nerd and pink cheeks.”

Huh, you didn’t remember him telling you about seeing Izuku and Ochako. You two weren’t the closest, but you both knew each others’ schedules inside and out in case of an emergency. 

“Oh,” you replied, dramatically. “Let me guess, you couldn’t take your eyes off of Uravity.”

That earned you a hard punch in the shoulder. While you were wincing in pain, Bakugou was churning over what you had just said in his mind. Did you think he had a thing for pink cheeks? You had thought a while back about him and Kirishima dating, earning relentless teasing from Raccoon Eyes, until he denied it.

“You know for a fact I wasn’t,” the explosive hero commented, walking back to his desk.

“Yeah, yeah,” you groaned.

“You just love getting in my head, don’t ya?”

“Obviously.”

“You’ve been doing it more recently.”

Oh no. He’s noticed. You admit that your teasing has gotten a bit heavier since the beginning of the month. Why? You were trying to distract yourself from a certain day. Today, if you want to talk specifics.

“You wish,” you uttered quickly.

Bakugou chuckled and bore his vermillion eyes directly into yours. Smirking, he commented, “You totally have. What? Finally developed feelings for me or some shit?”

Well, great way to get caught twice in the span of 30 seconds. You were way too obvious for your own good. However, Bakugou was oblivious. You’ve liked him since 1st year. I mean, how long is it going to take this guy?

Trying to cover up your embarrassment, you howled with laughter before saying, “Absolutely not! How low do you think my standards are?”

He started chuckling. You turned back to face the window again and joined in the hilarity of his accusation. Although both of you wanted him to be right, neither of you wanted to admit it. With Bakugou’s pride and your fear, a confession was not in the near future.

Bakugou’s laughter subsided first, causing him to look down at the mahogany desk. A faint blush crept up on his cheeks from your sweet voice filling the air before fizzling out. Damn, he really thought he had you there. Apparently, he read the signs wrong.

“When are you leaving?” a tone of bitterness lining his voice that he wished wasn’t there.

You flinched at the sudden hostility and glanced at your watch. “Now, I guess. I mean, all I’m doing is going to my shabby apartment to freak out over my ever-growing age.”

“What?”

“What?”

Both of you were looking at each other. You just let slip your biggest flaw: your tendency to overthink your future. Also, it was your least favorite day: your birthday. The fact you admitted it in front of Bakugou, your only crush in history, was like being bound up my Hanta’s tape. 

You couldn’t move. You had always kept up a stronger guard around the blonde than with the others because you had another fear. You had never even let this slip to Mina, and that’s saying something. Your biggest fear besides the future was losing Bakugou.

Throughout your time at U.A., he constantly pushed you to do better. Whether you were doing a simple training exercise or working on getting stronger for the sports festival, he was always there to encourage you. Of course, his encouragement was telling you to get your ass in gear or face the consequences from him, but it was still sweet of him. 

Suddenly, the opening of desk drawers sounded through the room. You tilted your head to the side, wondering what your angry Pomeranian of a friend was doing. All you could hear was grunting for a couple of seconds.

Then, pens and pencils were thrown out. Next, pieces of paper went up in the air. Whether they were contracts for new sidekicks or just blank binder sheets, you ducked so you wouldn’t get in the crossfire of flying office supplies. After a couple of other things, like paper clips and sticky notes, were scattered across the office, Bakugou finally sighed.

You looked between your hands covering your face and noticed he held...a calendar? Since when was King Explosion Murder organized? You had known this man for years and understood his habits. You even understood why he went to bed so early in high school. This, however, was very different.

“Ugh, what the hell?” he muttered.

Just as you were about to ask him what was up, he grabbed his bag off the back of his chair. He jogged over to you, grabbed your hand and bag, and opened the door.

“You’re an idiot,” he said, shoving you into an elevator. “How long? How long have we known each other? You still never told me.”

Your brain couldn’t keep up. What was he talking about? Did you forget an important dinner meeting he had? No, he usually only scheduled those on Fridays. Then, what was going on.

Before you could ask him, you felt your whole body being yanked by the muscular man. He took you both down to the parking garage and walked straight to his BMW convertible. Letting go of your hand, he went to the trunk and dropped both of your bags in. He opened your door, practically shoving you in, and slammed it closed when all of your limbs were safely inside. Bakugou got in the driver’s seat, buckled his seatbelt, and started the car.

You felt very hazy. You know Bakugou can get...intense about certain topics, but he’s never dragged you into it. The calendar was weird. Him dragging you to his car was weird. The aura was weird. All of this was weird.

“Bakugou?” you asked.

“You’re such a dumbass,” he scoffed.

“Bakugou, please tell me wh--”

“Shut your damn mouth.”

He was acting strange. You weren’t phased by his attitude since you’ve known each other for ages. Deciding to give up, you sighed and looked out the window. The scenery passed by quickly, making your mind wander to the moment you realized you liked him.

It was a normal day at U.A., and exams were just around the corner. You were planning to study alone until Bakugou asked you to join Denki, Eijiro, and himself. You agreed and immediately regretted it. Bakugou was constantly yelling at your other two friends because they were being absolute idiots. In his defense, they were. Denki didn’t even know his body was made of cells, for crying out loud. Despite this, Bakugou indirectly complimented you on your notes. He even smirked a bit at your flustered response. You knew from the way your heart picked up its palpitations that you had fallen hard.

“Out,” Bakugou huffed, scaring you out of your flashback.

Opening the car door and getting out, you looked up and noticed his apartment complex. You heard from Eijiro that it was nice, but it was beautiful. It was made with a light gray cement, almost looking white in the light of the moon. The wood accents were all dark oak, and each apartment had a secluded balcony. You’d definitely have to hit Red Riot the next time you saw him for calling this complex “nice.”

Noticing Bakugou had already grabbed your bags and started up to the door, you began walking to catch up to him. You both got in the elevator, and he pressed the button to the top floor.

You turned your gaze to him. He was deep in thought. His eyes held a purpose, but they were a bit muddy. The reason he had dragged you here must’ve been important. Could it be a reconnaissance mission of some sort?

Soon enough, the ding in the elevator signified your arrival. Instead of a long hallway lined with apartments, there was only a single door. Bakugou slid his key in and turned the look. Holy mother of All Might...Bakugou owned a penthouse.

You were expecting minimal decorations from your friend, and you were right and oh so wrong at the same time. Everything in his apartment was classy and modern. From the wood floors to the paint color to the granite on the counters, his house looked like it had been done by a professional designer. You decided in that moment that you were never taking Bakugou to your apartment.

“Well,” he sighed softly, “go take a shower. The bathroom is down the right hallway over there. You can use one my shirts and a pair of shorts once you’re done. Just don’t waste all the hot water, got it?”

You blinked your eyes a couple of times before meekly nodding your head. Carefully walking over in the direction he pointed, you admired the living room from a new perspective. You also got a chance to see the paint color up close. It was a beautiful soft blue that held a lot of gray tones. It was perfect for a man of his caliber, despite his anger issues.

Once you got to the bathroom, the clothes were already there for you. Bakugou had either gained your former class president’s quirk or you were walking extremely slow. Either way, you smiled when you recognized the top: his iconic black skull t-shirt. He’s had it since high school. The fact he chose that one for you, or maybe just yanked it out of the depths of his closet, made your heart flutter.

The warm shower helped clear your senses. You had to figure out a way to make sure you kept your cool around Bakugou. You had no idea why your crush had acted so strangely before dragging you to his apartment. However, as strange as this whole thing still was to you, despite living in this reality for almost an hour, you couldn’t let him know anything.

After using up almost all of the hot water, you got out of the shower and put on his clothes. They felt so comfortable and reminded you of some of the craziest things you both had gone through. From the USJ attack to witnessing All Might’s fall, you two had seen a lot of crazy things. These thoughts helped give you courage. With that, you checked yourself in the mirror one last time and went to the living room.

Upon walking into the open space, you felt your heart stop. You had only been in the shower for 15 minutes, but Bakugou had done some work. The angry boy you had watched grow into a man had changed, but what you saw was completely beyond you.

On the coffee table, a little strawberry cake with fluffy white icy sat in all its beauty. Next to it were two forks, some napkins, and two cups of tea. There was a card with a picture of you and Bakugou messing with each other that Denki had somehow snapped after the concert had been executed perfectly in 1st year. The reason he had rushed you to his house wasn’t because of hero work. He knew it was--

“Happy birthday, dumbass,” he said, causing you to look up to him.

He held the softest expression you have ever seen. Bakugou’s eyes entranced you and held something similar to...adoration? He was holding some candles in his right hand, but his left hand was hidden behind his back.

“But,” you began, “how? How did you even remem--”

“We were in Yokohama at the hero conference a couple of years ago,” he stated. “Jeanist told me your birthday was coming up, and I asked him what specific day it was. After that, I marked it in my calendar.”

He sauntered over to the coffee table and sat down on the ground. He placed each of the candles meticulously onto the birthday treat. It was almost too perfect.

“I then tried to find you a gift,” Bakugou continued. “Of course, I suck at remembering what people like. I couldn’t get you anything. I did remember something, though.”

Once the candles were placed, he activated his quirk, barely creating a spark, and lit the candles. There were only 4, but it was even sweeter than him leaving out his shirt. 

“At U.A., you always distanced yourself around this time,” Bakugou said, looking up at you. “I thought you had a family thing happen to you or something, but Dunce Face explained it to me. This year, I wanted to change that for you.”

You were speechless. Never in your life did you expect such a gesture from your friend. At this point, it didn’t even feel like you two were friends. It felt as if you two had been together since the dawn of time.

Bakugou then slid on the floor and propped himself on one knee before you. He took his left hand from behind his back, revealing a black and orange box. When he slowly opened it, you gasped at what you saw. It was a Cartier simple black band adorned with emeralds and jaspers.

Tears welled in your eyes as Bakugou extended his hand to you. You placed yours gently in his, allowing him to stand up and slide the ring onto your right hand. It was a perfect fit. Never in your life had you received such a perfect birthday gift. It was a sign from the universe, you thought. It was now or never.

“Baku--” you began, inhaling a sharp breath before starting over. “Katsuki, I can’t keep it from you anymore. I think I like you.”

“No,” Bakugou stated, trying to contain his laughter.

“Excuse me?”

“Try it again, (y/n). Tell me how you really feel.”

You were too infatuated with this man to get angry at him now. Screw your pride. This was your man standing in front of you. You had to say it. You had to say the words he and you both wanted to hear.

“I love you, Katsuki Bakugou,” you announced, causing warmth to flood to your cheeks.

He smiled and sighed. Rubbing a hand over his face, he groaned, “You know I suck at words so get your ass over here.”

Listening to his command, you stepped forward into his arms. He glanced at your lips before you both instinctively closed the gap. You had never felt more alive. It was as if you were both perfectly molded for each other. Whatever god or goddess had created you had also created the handsome specimen you were kissing. The genuine passion and love his kiss held spoke to your heart. It made you realize that the time you had spent waiting to confess to him was wasted time. He wanted you just as much as you wanted him. This was the moment you had been waiting for.

After pulling apart, you both stared into each other’s eyes. Every romance manga you had ever read could’ve never prepared you for what this man was about to say to you.

“Be mine?” Katsuki questioned.

“Absolutely,” you smiled, kissing him once again.

Your entire world changed in those two words. His entire world changed in the response you provided him with. It was meant to be. It was the best thing to ever happen to him. You, (y/n) (l/n), were the best thing to ever happen to him. It was because of you his anger subsided drastically in 3rd year. It’s because of your positive personality that he ended up deciding to take a social ethics class to be kinder to civilians. It’s because of your smile that he kept going, even through the events you both had been through.

Breaking off the kiss, you giggled before saying, “I should blow out those candles. Wouldn’t want your fancy place getting burned to a crisp.”

Playfully punching your shoulder, Katsuki sat down and held open his arms. You got on the ground and crawled into them, feeling peace and security enter your system. Leaning forward, you thought for a few seconds before blowing out your candles. You did make a wish, for the first time in your life, despite having everything you could’ve ever wanted holding you tightly to his chest.

“Wanna break the rules and tell me what you wished for?” he whispered in your ear.

“Sure,” you replied, turning your head to look into his eyes. “I wished for our new relationship to be even better than our friendship.”

Rolling his eyes, he leaned in and kissed your temple. “Now,” he said, grabbing the forks, “let’s dig in.”

You both sat together on the floor of Katsuki’s apartment for the next 3 hours, talking, laughing, and eating the strawberry cake. You both reminisced on how you met, gave your genuine first impressions of each other, and even talked about your first thoughts on the life threatening situations you guys had been in.

For the first time in your life, you weren’t worried about the future. You were actually excited by it. Why? You finally had your partner...no, soulmate. Katsuki was meant to be with you, and you with him. Everything had finally fallen into place. This was the best birthday you had ever had.

Together, you cleaned up the dishes at 3:22 AM, and Katsuki headed off to take his shower. During this time, you began to wander around the apartment again. There was a wall, secluded from the others, that caught your attention.

On it were multiple sleek, black picture frames holding many different photos. There were a couple from the sports festival in 2nd year, one of the first photos the Bakusquad took with you, a couple of Katsuki and Izuku when they were kids, and a single photo of you.

You recognized it. You were at the beach with Mina and Hanta because they begged you nonstop to go. You ended up having a lot of fun, and Mina captured this photo when you happened to look back at her with the biggest smile on your face. When did she give that to him?

“She gave it to me graduation day,” Katsuki stated, as if he was reading your mind. “It’s my favorite photo on this wall.”

“Of course it is,” you smirked. “Who wouldn’t love a photo of me on their wall?”

“That’s it.”

Suddenly, Katsuki charged you and threw you over his shoulder. Laughing like a maniac, you hit his back until he was laughing with you. After a couple minutes of this, he put you down and hugged you. He really did wonders through his actions. Who needed words when Katsuki’s hugs were the best in the world.

“We need to go to bed,” he said into your hair.

“I know,” you yawned.

He picked you up, much more gently, and led you to his room. He plopped you down on the bed and got under the covers. Quickly, you scrambled in next to him. He instinctively wrapped his arms around you. His warmth caused your heart rate to quickly slow and your eyelids to flutter shut. Before you completely fell asleep, you heard the one sentence that made you remember that this birthday was not a dream.

“I love you, (y/n).”

[thisisthehardestthing]

This Is The Hardest Thing

CHAPTER 1

Synopsis: A exchange student from the US in enrolled into UA when her father has to move to help with the increased crime rates in Japan. The final year of high school is a lot to handle, adding on top the class of 3-A and the trouble they get into will make for a wild ride.

Authors note: It’s been six years since I last wrote avidly. SO I am taking the plunge and posting chapter 1 (of idek) of this BNHA fic. @lookslikeleese​​ convinced me to just POST it and keep on practicing after I sent her an anon message, so this is basically what I am doing here. Quite nerve-wracking but, let’s just see where it goes? This is my first time writing it ‘x reader’ POV so I have a lot to learn :)

The title is still a WIP. I have named it as the above because it truly is the hardest thing to do lol

Pairing: I have a feeling this might turn into a Bakugo x Reader fic, but I am quite a slut and can’t make my mind up so who knows, maybe she’ll go through a few of the boys. They are all aged up to 18/19 and in their final year.

Triggers: ??? Not sure. This chapter is SFW. Let me know what I should tag here if anything.

Word count: 3.4k - felt like stopping it there. I have quite a few chapters already typed but I’ll drag it out.

link to chapter 2

This Is The Hardest Thing

Chapter 1

The gates of UA shined ahead of you as the car pulled up front, tires crunching over the gravel. The blue octagonal shape with bright gold letters were backlit by the early morning sun. A pink and orange sky reflected against the tall, glass buildings. It gave the world a sepia filter, one you wished to be true. The dark tinted windows cast a shadow in the car, shielding your face from the outside but did little to hide the nerves inside your stomach. Between your fingers, the dark green uniform skirt was bunched up and you took a deep breath, smoothing it out, trying to relax.

New school, new year.

Two figures were standing underneath the looming gates, hands clasped behind their backs and chatting to each other as they waited patiently for your arrival. One was extremely small, covered in white fur, and you squinted against the sun as you studied the figure. It was the Principal himself coming to greet you, along with a taller person that had messy black hair that partially covered his face, a thick scarf wrapped loosely around his neck.

The car stopped and you stepped out, a small black backpack in your hands that contained only a notebook, a few pencils and some other necessities. The Principal smiled and walked over to greet you hand raised in a wave, his short legs moving deftly.

“Welcome to UA!” He greeted, his voice was commanding and yet friendly. “I am Principal Nezu and this is your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta.” Aizawa lifted his hand slowly. He had a look on his face as though he had just woken up.

“Please to meet you.” You greeted and bowed slightly, your loose hair tumbled past your shoulders, the ends of your curls swaying in the cool morning breeze.

You hoped that the greeting was satisfactory. You had never lived in Japan before, being a transfer student from abroad. Your father, a top Hero in New York, was offered a job post back here in Japan and had seized the opportunity. He’d always wanted to bring you back to his home, where he’d grown up. It was your final year in a hero course and so it was frustrating to leave everything behind to move to an entirely new country. Being a Hero that helped everyone meant everything to him and you want to show your support. Besides, UA was one of the best schools in the world and you would never give up the opportunity to train with the kids that have been making waves all across the world.

The crime in Japan had increased exponentially over the past years, and any Hero worth his salt would jump at the chance to help. The request had come from the Number 1 Hero’s agency. Your family was in no way friends, but your father grew up in the same classes as Enji Todoroki, even graduating U.A. together all those years ago before taking the first job offer to move oversees. To be clear, Endeavor did not request your father himself. He was much too prideful to acknowledge he needed hep, but it was agreed by the city governors that a few more Hero’s were needed and so the simple letter came in the mail that changed everything.

“We hope you will enjoy your time here at U.A.” The Principal continued and you straightened back up. “It’s difficult to change schools in the final year, but we have no doubt that you will adjust quickly and be one of the top students.” You smiled at the remark.

“That sounds like it will be quite a challenge,” you replied, a small smile on your lips. “The class of 3-A has quite the reputation, even internationally, and I look forward to learning from them as well as the top-rated teachers here.” You bowed your head slightly again. This time it was overkill but you could never be too polite.

Aizawa’s eyes were trained on you, analyzing your words and the way you presented yourself. There was a shyness about you that confused him. He had read your file, knew who your father was, and yet you were being extremely modest. The Principal laughed, the scar on his right eye crinkling up.

“Yes, well, it’s true your classmates are a lively bunch. Let’s get you settled with signing the final paperwork. I have heard you did not bring much with you to move into the dorms, but that can be sorted out when the day is done.” They started walking away, and you slung the backpack that was in your hands over your shoulder as you followed, making polite small talk with the Principal all the way.

************

You had your class schedule in your hands as you made your way through the empty halls of the new school. The first bell of the day had already rung and your footsteps echoed against the tall ceilings. The glass windows let in the sunlight and it danced across the linoleum flooring. You were sure that every class was full of students and chatter, and yet you couldn’t hear a single thing.

The door of 3-A loomed above you, bright red, and you prepared yourself for the classmates on the other side of the door. They were infamous in your old school, first popping up two years ago during their sports festival when the boy called Izuku Midoriya went about breaking his bones while fighting the son of your fathers old school friend, and you let out a shaky exhale as your knuckles knocked. The door slid open and Aizawa stood there.

“Ah yes, right,” He mumbled, as if forgetting he was introduced to you just an hour earlier, walking back to the front of the class while you followed behind him. The class was lively, people all talking to each other, but as you stood in the front of the podium, they hushed down and wide eyes stared at you, taking you in.

“Everyone, we have a new student joining us today.” He gestured to you. “She has just transferred here from an academy in New York City, USA, and will be with us for your final year.”

You bowed for the third time today and introduced yourself. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” you knew you sounded robotic. Meeting new people and opening up was not a strength of yours, but you pushed through it, straightening back up and smiling.

You heard a scoff in the back and a boy with spiky blond hair leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. The consensus around the room was to ignore him and everyone started talking out loud again, welcoming you with smiles and enthusiasm.

“Yes, yes, welcome to UA and 3-A. You can continue this at lunch.” Aizawa shouted over the chatter. Everyone quieted down. “The first lesson of the day is general training to get your bodies moving after the summer holidays. Although, all of you had work and internships, so this should be a piece of cake.” He turned to face you. “There is an empty desk in front of Bakugo you can take later. Now everyone, get ready for your lesson and I’ll see you outside on the sports field.”

Aizawa handed you a metal briefcase with your gym kit in it. Your new classmates stood up and started filing out the door, whoops of excitement in the air. A pink-skinned girl with even pinker hair and thin horns came up to you and gave you a big hug. It took you by surprise, but you hugged back with one arm as your other held the briefcase.

“It’s so nice to meet you! Trust me when I say we are all happy to have another girl in the class.” She beamed, “My name is Mina Ashido!” Her eyes were filled in with black, and yet they shone with happiness.

“Hi, Ashido, I’m looking forward to studying with you,” you smiled back. She laughed in response and linked her elbow with yours to drag you out of the class.

“So formal. Let’s become friends, call me Mina.” With that, she dragged you out the door, following the crowd outside and into another building that house the gym and the changing rooms.

You dressed quickly, surprised that the suit was your size, and wondered what today’s class was going to be like. The girls in your class were all talking loudly, sharing stories of what happened to them during the holidays, and although they weren’t necessarily talking to you, you didn’t feel ignored. There was a large part of you that was hoping today was just regular sparring. You didn’t really want anyone to know what your quirk was right off the bat. It was something that you tried to down-play, instead focusing on hand-to-hand combat and honing your physical skills. The reflection of yourself in the tight suit made you smile. Your muscular thighs and arms were well-defined. Your hair tied up high in a pony-tail.

“You’re not wearing any shoes.” The statement came from Tsuyu Asui. She held up a long finger with rounded edge, placing it on her lips thoughtfully. As she looked down at your bare feet. You curled your toes under before flattening them back down again. You laughed, embarrassed, and rubbed the back of your neck.

“Yeah, I don’t like wearing them when exercising. I prefer to feel the ground.” It was also useful for your quirk as you could intensely feel the vibrations of everything through the soles of your feet and your hands if you needed to. Bare feet was something all your old classmates were already used to and it was just second nature to you. You had forgotten that people usually wore sneakers.

She gave a small nod and smiled.

“I can understand that, let’s go outside.” And you followed her onto the grassy field for the first class of the day, stretching your arms above your head.

Even though winter was around the corner, the sun was hot and there was no clouds in the sky. The cool breeze of this morning seemed to have died down, letting the sun warm everything up. Everyone was excitedly waiting for class to start. Basic training classes were always your favorite and it seemed like everyone was eager to show what they practiced during the summer.

“We will just start with some simple sparring, no quirks allowed, to get your bodies back into the swing of things. Everyone pair up.” Aizawa gestured to the field where white chalk was sprinkled in neat squares to mark the sparring boundaries.

“Hey, new girl. Let’s fight!” The boy called Bakugo shouted, he was frowning and his red eyes were glinting mischievously. His hair was seemed to be alive as he walked to one of the squares, not bothering to see if you had agreed. He was trouble and you knew that from when he won first placing the competition two years ago. You had snickered with your old friends when that picture circulated around the campus, whispering how crazy he looked. You shrugged and followed him, ready to move your body and see if he really was as good a fighter as he seemed to be.

Bakugo had his eye on you the second you walked into the class. He hated the fact that there was yet another person to beat out at the end of the year, even though he was not worried, just annoyed. He challenged you to make a point, show you that just because you were new, he would not take it easy on you.

Facing each other, you got into your fighting stances and for the first time in a long while, you were caught off guard. There wasn’t enough time to dodge and instead you blocked the high kick to your head with your forearms, grunting as your feet slid wide and digging into the grass with your heels to keep your self planted firmly. He smirked and jumped back.

“Welcome to U.A.” He stated, rolling his shoulders and jumping lightly on his toes as he got ready to attack again. You heard the murmurs from your new classmates about how Bakugo just ‘could not wait to start a fight’. You were ready the next time and both of you began to dance around each other. He sent a right hook, which you blocked, following with your own punch, which he dodged. It was a flurry of punches and kicks. He was getting angrier as it turned into a minute where he had yet to land a punch on you, and you could tell your new classmates were not used to this.

They had all stopped to watch. This caught your attention and you dropped your guard, not wanting to let everyone think you were a show off on your first day, and Bakugo sent his palm into your chest, making you fall back onto the ground. The wind was knocked out of you, but you quickly recovered and rolled away, missing the fist that had come towards your face by a second.

“Bakugo!” Iida shouted out, “Please be careful! It’s rude to attack our new classmate with such vigor.”

Katsuki ignored him though, straightening up and punching his fist into his palm.

“I just need to make sure this,” he gestured to your body that was now standing, breathing hard, “extra has what it takes to be in our class.” He was cocky, more so than you expected, and it irritated the shit out of you. You huffed and squared up. He wants to see what you have to offer? You’ll show it to him.

He rushed toward you again, throwing his infamous right hook, and you sidestepped, grabbing his muscular forearm and hurled him onto the ground over your shoulder. Jiu-Jitsu was one of your favorite martial arts and you followed him down, quickly mounting yourself onto his chest, still holding his arm. You were about to fall into an arm bar but he rolled to the same side you were about to lean back to. His sheer strength overcoming your legs that would’ve kept him pinned down. He ripped his arm away from your grip and had now flipped you so that his knee was on top of your chest, in the same place where his palm hit you previously, pressing down so that it was difficult to breath.

He had a wild look in his eyes, taken aback at the sudden improvement of your fighting and had his arm pulled back, smoke starting to leak out of his palm. Before he could bring it down, thick white ribbon wrapped itself around his wrist and pulled him back and off you, the grey whisps disappearing and the smell of burnt sugar lingered in the air. He thrashed against the fabric.

“Enough, Bakugo.” Aizawa boomed, his voice loud and commanding, “Go get a sip of water and calm down.”

You could see he was holding in insults, snarling out swear words under his breath as he tugged at the bandage tied tightly around his wrist. He had grown since his first year, calmed down a little, but his manners had not changed and it took a lot in him to hold back. Aizawa’s pinched the bridge of his nose as the scarf let him go and Bakugo gave one last glare in your direction before turning sharply on his heel and walking to the water dispenser against the wall.

It was for your safety that Aizawa had stopped the fight then, and you bit your tongue to keep in a retort that you could’ve handled it. A hand reached down to help you up. It was Uraraka. Her round face had a slight blush and her eyes closed as she smiled.

“Sorry about him, he gets defensive when there’s any kind of changes.” She explained, waving toward the figure that was now kicking the water dispenser, water flying everywhere. You took the hand, letting her pull you up.

“It’s okay. I kind of expected it.” Shrugging as you rubbed your chest with your palm, feeling a bruise forming where Bakugo’s knee had been pressing. There was dirt and leaves in your hair that you tried to pry out. During the sparring session your ponytail had come loose and your eyes dropped to the grass to look for the small hair-tie that you have no doubt lost to the grass God’s. You sighed and gave up working the grass out of your hair, instead tucking the messy locks behind your ears. The only thing that would help now was a shower.

You and Uraraka teamed up on the next round, playfully sparring and testing each other. You were surprised at just how good this girl could fight, which she explained was due to the internship in her first year. She was shorter than you, but that just made her quick. Soon, your five minutes were up and you switched partners. Within the two hour class, you were able to meet and get a feel of almost everyone.

The class was finished and you all headed back to the changing rooms to shower and get ready for the lunch break. Mina’s arms were slung across your shoulders as she asked where you studied before coming to U.A.

“I studied in NYC,” you started, opening the locker that had your school uniform hanging inside.

“Oh, then how come you speak Japanese?” Mina asked. She was already undressing.

“My father is Japanese, my mom is American.” You stripped the sweaty jumpsuit off and grabbed for the towel folded neatly. Mina and the girls all walked into the showers, and she continued her questioning over the roar of the water.

“That is so cool! Why did you move here?”

The warm water felt good against your aching muscles. The flight to Japan was long and you had only landed yesterday evening, barely giving you any time to see your father since he was already working late. He’d arrived a week before you. Lathering the soap between your hands, you scrubbed at the dirt on your arms, looking down at the purple bruise on your sternum with a frown.

“My dad got offered a spot at Endeavor’s agency to help weed out the rest of the League of Villains.” You replied. The water that ran into the drain was a light brown and you scrubbed the bottom of your feet before starting to tackle your hair once more. You winced when pulling out some more grass.

You heard a collective gasp in the shower room and the shower curtain next to you pulled back, the rings scraping against the metal. Mina’s head poked around, her pink head floating against the white curtain, and you screamed, turning towards the wall away and from her gaze. You weren’t normally shy but you couldn’t help your reaction.

“Your dad is Soil?” She asked. You winced. You hated his Hero name as it made you think of soiled underwear. But it was to-the-point seeing as he could manipulate the terrain and your father was a very straight-forward man. You nodded and she smiled wide, pulling her head back behind the curtain and you heard her go back into her own cubicle.

“Wow you’re so lucky. That man is HOT.” She exclaimed, there was a collective agreement echoing in the tiled room. You finished rinsing out your hair and turned the shower off before grabbing for your towel. As you stepped back into the main dressing area, you crossed your hands over your chest, a look of disgust on your face.

“Ew, that’s my dad you’re talking about.” Your mouth turned down and faked a gag. Mina rolled her eyes. You knew your dad was handsome. You had gotten your own good-looks, height and body stature from him. But you could not stand other people discussing it. Your mother had left him after enduring years of adultery and mental abuse of the way he jumped from women to women. If he wanted something, he went for it. She lifted her hands up as if in surrender and chuckled.

“Sorry, but it’s true.” You shook your head, getting dressed in your uniform.

“Lunch time!” Yaoyoruzu called out as the bell rang and you were glad you did not have to talk about it any longer.

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

a/n AGH so there it is. Hope you enjoyed it lol

I’m going to log off and sleep now as it’s 1 am and I have work in the morning

Night everyone x

[gh0stiegirlie]

Synopsis: You have been a pro-hero for the past three years, and a damn good one too (although, you don’t think so). When you and Ground Zero are assigned on a stakeout case together to capture a member of the Dark Akumu, which is currently Musutafu's most threatening Villian League, it changes the entire course of your career-- and your life.  

Length: 1.6k words

a/n: YOOOO the bitch is back better than ever after two years, and super into my hero academia. this is going to be a multiple parter series, so I hope this is a great lil pilot!

                                                                                                 pt. 2 -> 

The feeling of civilian eyes analyzing your every move is nothing new; You are a pro-hero, after all. However, the feeling of Ground Zero glaring daggers into you as you enter the sheriff’s office is a new-- and rather unsettling --experience. 

“Welcome, Ether.” Sheriff Chie greets and gestures for you to take a seat in her office’s beaten-down spinny chair. “I have a very special case for you tomorrow night.”

“I’m all ears,” you shift awkwardly in the chair, trying to get comfortable. The number of times you and other heroes have sat in this shitty chair and listened to the Sheriff explain a convoluted plan to capture a villain was innumerable. Although, you guess the number is in the hundreds. At least. 

“We’ve had a lesser-known pro-hero go undercover, and they were able to join the intermediate group of Dark Akumu. They’ve disclosed that during pro-agencies weekly wrap-ups with their heroes this Friday, they will be attacking several meetings. But, they can’t attack without supplies.” she continues pacing around her office, although she has nowhere to go. Her office is an inadequate size for the amount of time and effort she puts into her job, and every hero here knows she deserves a bigger space for her ideas of grandeur to fester-- and a raise in her salary, too. But since pro-heroes are the ones publicly capturing villains and doing the true “labor”, you’re the ones who receive the fame, glory, and money. Police officers no longer receive the credit they deserve, and some even believe they're no longer necessary. But Sheriff Chie is an example of why the police industry is still breathing within the tight confinements pro-heroes wrapped them in; they love representing and protecting the quirkless people of the world, and society needs that. Even if it doesn’t realize it. “Tomorrow night, the Dark Akumu will have their leader's right-hand man, Youkai, collect a shipment from a smaller underground group.” She slams her hands down on his desk with enthusiasm and points at you. “That’s when you and Ground Zero come in.”

You push yourself away from the desk in shock. “Katsuki Bakugou?” You exclaim, spinning around in your chair to face the door. You stare out the small window into the police department. “I haven’t spoken to him since high school…” you trail off, remembering his bitterly cold gaze from a few minutes ago. It looked like he was trying to ignite an explosion inside your intestines. After a few moments of reflecting, you turn to face Sheriff Chie. “Why us?”

“Your powers aid each other well,” she responds simply. “The two of you will stakeout until both parties arrive for the trade. The combination of your compatible powers with the element of surprise,” she grins, “you two will be unstoppable, and capture Youkai in a matter of seconds.”

“It’s a great plan, Chie, really. All your plans are.” you begin, “But I think you’re underestimating our foes here. Yeah, they only have one villain collecting the supplies, but still. This is currently Musutafu’s most threatening villain league. He's not going down without a fight. And by fight, I mean a full-on battle.”

The Sheriff scoffs. “You underestimate yourself, Ether. Ground Zero holds more confidence in you than you do,” she explains with a wink. You turn away once more, so she can’t see the pink blush encompassing your cheeks. 

“You know Bakuguh—uh—Ground Zero and I haven’t spoken since U.A. Even then, we scarcely interacted. Except for a brawl or two.” You twirl a piece of h/c hair that fell out of your high ponytail. “It’s true that our quirks complement each other. So how come we’ve never been paired up before? Why now?” You question. 

Chie simply replies with a shrug. “There’s never been a need for two of the most powerful modern heroes to pair up; Now there’s a demand for that exact role. And you two have been selected to fulfill it.” You shift in your chair uncomfortably and avoid Chie's imploring brown eyes. She puts a hand on your shoulder. “Cmon, Skylar. I understand you have a… difficult past with Ground Zero, but I’m asking you as a protector of people and as your friend to please try and look past that. At least for one night. The city needs you. ” Sheriff Chie pleads, and she’s right. You hang your head in your hands before running one through your hair. Then, you spin around with perfect posture and a humbling smile on your face. You respectfully nod your head at Sheriff Chie.

“I’m sorry, Sheriff. You’re right. I’m sure Ground Zero and I are old enough to move on from our past together and instead focus on our future. Thank you.” 

The Sheriff's proud grin is contagious, and you can’t help but smile in satisfaction with her plan. As you are about to leave the office, Chie stops you. “Before you go! I want to talk to you as your friend, not a sheriff.” You walk over to her desk and lean in close. “Hero Ground Zero was also somewhat… displeased, when he heard you were his partner. Just... Try not to fall... deeper, into his bad side. He'll lure you in, but you have to be smarter. And you are.”

“But... does he even have a good side?” You joke, and Chie chuckles.

“I know, right! With every passing second he spent in my office he looked more and more like an angry balloon ready to pop. I think his head just holds tons of hot air that he can only release by yelling at someone or punching something.” 

“It felt like he spent all of high school searching for a reason two do one of those things! Someone could walk by him the “wrong way” and he would get offended.” You laugh, holding tightly onto your aching sides.

These are the moments with Sheriff Chie you cherish; the one when you two aren’t head sheriff and pro-hero, but Chie and Skylar. Normal people, normal friends. 

After laughing over Ground Zero's unnecessarily aggressive attitude towards literally everything to the point of rolling around her modest office and bumping into shelves and knocking down paperwork, you decide it’s time to leave. You hug on the way out.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at three pm sharp. I’ll briefly explain the mission again, and you two will be on your way shortly after.” You nod, and as you walk away Chie calls out from her office, “Oh! And we’ll be providing some spicy food!! The least we can do for our favorite heroes.”

You giggle and shake your head, sending a quick wave in Chie's direction as you continue to the exit. Before you leave, you glance at the spot Ground Zero was sitting in earlier. All that remains of the hero is a minor burn from his butt, presumably after growing impatient from sitting down for too long. Surprisingly, you smile at the thought. Ground Zero must not have changed much since U.A. While part of you dreads working alongside that hothead of a hero, another half appears eager to see what he's like as a pro.

It has only been a few years since you graduated with Bakugou and the rest of class 3-A at the age of seventeen. You're only twenty one now, but you feel like you've lived through three lives since high school, not three years. While the school had prepared you well for the fighting villains part of pro-hero life, they hadn’t prepared you for the physical and emotional consequences. As mentioned, you're barely twenty-one, but you're a regular at the doctor and chiropractor. You bare a heavy burden of having to execute everything perfectly all the time; no room for casualties. Because of this stress on saving every person, along with all your brand deals and sponsorships, you hardly maintain a life outside of work. While you love what you do, you miss meeting with friends at a coffee shop in the morning only to shop at the mall until midnight. You miss cuddling up with your Midnight plushie at 10 o’clock and watching superhero documentaries till the crack of dawn. Now, you are the one protecting those friends lounging around in coffee shops and malls, and the hero starring in documentaries. You truly love it all; You love digging your nose deep into Chemistry books and studying chemicals to create new toxins. You love protecting essential workers from the terrors of those who use their quirks for evil, and consequently beating the shit out of those people. But sometimes, you wish you were another bystander.

As a kid, you watched in awe as the heroes fought tirelessly, day and night, to always flawlessly beat the villain. But actually doing that, especially without complaints, is more difficult than you ever comprehended.

You park your Toyota Supra outside one of your perks of being a top ten pro hero. Currently, you live in a 1286112000.00 yen mansion and recently bought a 5358800000.00 yen estate. You were to begin moving next week and considered holding a little gathering at your new home in Tokyo as an excuse to hang out with your pro-hero 3-A classmates.

When you lock the front door, that’s when the isolation consumes you. Vast linoleum halls and long vinyl walls form a repetitive, meandering maze in your home. The only company you have are the halls that are starting to fill with donation boxes. There is one similarity between you and this house you are preparing to abandon; You both are empty on the inside. 

You shuffle your way onto your velvet sofa and turn on the TV, ensuring to avoid the news. While mindless cartoons play in the background, you take out your phone and read every Google result for Ground Zero.

[singingcookie]

Drops of Jupiter Ch. 12 WIP

I’m a good chunk of the way into chapter 12 rn so I’m gonna go ahead and share the first 1k or so words of this chapter. I have a lot of conjecture going into this chapter so I’m more than nervous than I’d like to be but. I’m going to press through it anyways!!

I still have a good chunk of the story to get through but hopefully writing it goes fast enough during my free time. Please enjoy!

______________________________________

It’s been about ten minutes since their baffling stranger bounded away, leaving the two girls alone in the lobby. For the first couple of minutes they were racking their brains to try and remember if they had an inkling of a Pro or sidekick that looked similar to the man they had met. Unfortunately, they ended up coming up empty and thus resorted to sitting for the rest of their wait for someone to come down and begin their orientation.

Of course, Ochako herself is still left stewing over this conundrum. If he worked for the Pussycats, that should mean he’s more rescue-based. And that should mean that he should be more than recognizable to her. She put so much research into rescue work, it’s hard for her to believe someone slipped through the cracks.

That’s when the light bulb goes off in her head that she does know of someone who might know better than her in this regard. She pulls out her phone and opens her messages with Deku. She’s about to just start in with her question when she remembers how anxious he seemed this morning and thinks better of immediately asking for his encyclopedic knowledge of Heroes, typing out a kinder message instead.

Hey, I’m sure you’re busy since Endeavor Hero Agency is wayyyyy closer than the Pussycats’ but hope you managed to calm down on your train ride!  You’ll do great you know. And when you do have a sec I have a question for you. No rush though

She reads it over a couple of times before she sends it, reminding herself that he probably is busy. And her own phone is muted, so she probably won’t here anything back until later. Especially since it would make a terrible impression if she spent the duration of her time with the Pussycats checking her phone. She absolutely can’t have that!

Ochako tucks her phone away again, before placing her hands in her lap, tapping out a sort of rhythm as she takes a more in depth look at the lobby. She noticed the interior when she had first arrived but she had been so focused on their “escort” that she hardly paid it much mind at all.

It’s cozier than she would have thought. The chairs in the lobby weren’t the stiff and uncomfortable sort, surprisingly plush. The floor was the sort of linoleum she’s used to seeing in the few agencies she’s visited, but rather than the stereotypical black or white, the colors in this room are all incredibly warm and inviting. And—while she’s hardly about to get up and look to know for sure—it seems as though some of the cat pictures she’s noticed around the walls actually have the Pussycats themselves in them.

If that’s the case, do all of the employees have pictures like this? Or is it to match their namesake? Wait, is that a dog in that picture behind the front desk where their secretary is shuffling her papers? Are they pictures of the employees and their pets? That’s so cute…!

She’s actually contemplating standing up to go look for herself when there’s a smooth voice that runs through her head. Her hand instinctively flies to her hair as the words reverberate, Welcome in, you two! So sorry for the delay!

When Ochako looks up, she sees Mandalay approaching them from the walkway that the man had disappeared into not too long ago. She’s not donning her Hero costume, but instead wearing casual wear that reminds her of the few times she and the other Pussycats had visited the dorms, usually accompanied by her nephew. She has a muted smile on her face as she approaches, speaking aloud this time, “We were having a last minute meeting, so it took a bit longer to come down than I would have liked.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble,” Kendou replies instantly as the two of them stand up. “It’s pretty nice down here anyways.”

“Thank you.” Her brown eyes scan the room while one of her hands reaches up to rest on her short hair, saying, “Pixie-bob’s always been particular about making sure the agency’s kept as homey as possible. She feels like it makes everyone feel welcome, so I’m sure she’ll appreciate that.”

“Speaking of…” Ochako pauses to look toward where Mandalay appeared from. She’s mildly surprised not to see three heads peeking around the corner. “Where’re the others? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of you on your own before.”

Mandalay explains that with her and a couple of the others needing to stay at the agency for their orientation, Pixie-Bob and Tiger are picking up the slack to go out on patrol. It was part of what they covered during their brief meeting. “As for Ragdoll, you’ll see her once we head upstairs. She’s getting all of your paperwork ready to fill out.”

Ah yes...paperwork. Always the largest bane of starting a new internship and work study.

The first couple of times were easy: a simple stamp of approval on a document to return to the school. Over time though, especially with internships starting to last for longer time frames, the paperwork graduated from one page to three. She expects with this internship—being that it’s supposed to last to graduation and potentially further—it will have exploded into a full blown packet. Probably chock full of rules, waivers, and other such things in preparation for what’s to come.

Kendou hums in thought before she speaks again, “I would’ve figured that Pixie-Bob would be the go-to for new interns. She’s so energetic…”

“She’s good for students new to interning—winding them up and getting them excited for patrols.” Mandalay closes her eyes in the grin she gives thereafter, her hand settling upon her opposite arm as she muses, “But it’s not very helpful during the more serious orientations.”

Considering it like that, Ochako has to agree that the logic definitely makes sense. The juxtaposition of Pixie-Bob’s energy with the dull chore of filling out paperwork—she could hardly imagine the woman toning herself down enough for that following an over the top greeting.

“Anyway, shall we?” Mandalay moves to gesture from where she came from before, entreating them to join her as she begins to lead the way. She explains the itinerary of how their day will go as they make their way inward toward the building’s elevators.

[starkatana]

Ageless

It’s been a few years since you’ve seen your best friend, Touya Todoroki. You are a paramedic and he is a pro-hero, just both living busy lives. There’s been an incident and you have been called to the scene. There you see Touya has been injured, but you still have a job that needs to be done.

Angst and Fluff

Touya Todoroki/Dabi x Reader

AU:

Dabi is a Todoroki.

Touya never became a villain Dabi, but is a pro-hero.

Happy Todoroki Family.

You also have a healing quirk.

Based off the Song: Ageless - The Home Team

You and a team of paramedics were ordered to work on the field at a devastation site scene. Some Pro-Heroes and Villains were in a fight, ruining buildings and getting civilians caught in the crossfire. Your orders, create first aid stations, help those in need, and help where you can.

You were in charge. Arriving at the scene there were police officers, firefighters, and volunteers, cleaning and helping civilians out. You immediately start directing paramedics where to go. While you and a few others set up first aid stations.

It was at that moment, between the chaos of people demanding your help, wondering where to go, or what they can do to help. It was a free second, where you just so happened to turn around and saw him on a gurney. The sirens and the yelling around you went mute as your brain hyper-focused on him and the paramedics around him.

“Pro-Hero Dabi. Name-”

“Touya Todoroki.” You instinctively run up to their side. And trying to quickly look him over, you tell them everything you know about him. “Quirk: Cremation. Blood type: B negative. Age: 25. Affiliation: Endeavor Hero Agency. His suit helps regulate his body temperature and is compression material. Without it, his body is incompatible to his fire quirk.”

“You know each other?”

“Too well.” Touya managed. “Long time no see, y/n.”

You cry as you run alongside the gurney. “Too long, but please don’t talk and try not to move.”

“If I die. I’m haunting you first.”

The floodgates opened. “Shut up. You’re gonna live.” You smile through the tears.

Touya gives you a weak smile and goes for your hand. You give it a small squeeze.

You arrive at the ambulance and instinctively you try to get on.

“Y/n, you have to step away now.” Another paramedic ordered.

You stop in your tracks and nod. Both knowing full well, you are too involved to be on his case. You let them load him into the ambulance without you.

He tries to sit up to see you, but the paramedics tell him to lie back down.

“Y/n!”

“You’ll be fine, Touya!” you cried, “I’ll see you soon.”

And the ambulance shut their doors and drove off. You knew you couldn’t work on his case. You knew this is what you had to do. If you had gone your feelings would have gotten in the way.

After high school, you guys stayed in touch all throughout your college years, while he focused on becoming a hero. It was after all of that when you guys were unable to see each other. You were working at the hospital. He was doing hero things, being famous, and making guest appearances. Your schedules just couldn’t line up to meet with each other. Then when you had plans to meet with each other, one of you had an emergency to deal with.

Until now that is.

You pushed Touya out of your mind. You also had a job to do. It was a long day out in the field as you healed people, bandaged them up, did check-ups, and filled out paperwork. By the end of it all, everything you could do with what you had and the time given was done. You and your team picked up your stations and made your way back to the hospital.

Once you were there, you sent everyone home, you filled out some paperwork, and before calling it a night you had to find out if Touya was here. You changed out of your work uniform you went to the front desk.

“Hey, Celia.”

“Hey, how was the field?”

“Just another exciting day on the job.”

“Well go home and get some rest. We both know you earned it.”

“I will I just need to know, did we get a patient under the name of Todoroki today?”

“Y/n?”

You turn around and immediately Rei Todoroki wraps you in a hug.

“It’s been so long.” She hugs you. “C’mon, Touya can’t wait to see you.”

You smile. You wish Celia a good night as you follow Rei to Touya’s room.

“How have you been?”

“Lovely dear,” Rei responds. “I’d be lovelier if I heard from you more.”

“I’m sorry.” You let out a defeated sigh. “Time has been getting the better of me.”

“Well there’s no need to apologize, we just have to make up for lost time.” She puts your arm around you and gives you a side squeeze. “I’m so happy you seem to be doing so well. Everyone’s going to be so excited to see you.”

Walking into the hospital room, the entire Todoroki family was there. And your eyes lit up, it had been so long since you had last seen them all.

“Yumi! Sho! Nats!” you hug each of them in that order.

“It’s so good to see you, y/n.” Enji greeted giving you a hug as well.

“Please continue to ignore the injured person in bed.”

“How are you Touya?”

“We all miss seeing y/n around dear.”

You smile at Rei, “I’m sorry I don’t visit more often.”

“I’m just giving Touya some grief dear.”

“Besides my emotional abuse from my own mother, I just have a broken rib and some bruising.”

“Ah, so no hero work for at least a month.” You pointed out.

“Yeah gives Touya some time to learn how to do paperwork.” Enji laughed.

“He still can’t do paperwork?”

“He doesn’t do much.”

Touya rolls his eyes, “Oh haha.”

“Okay everyone, enough about me catch me up what's going on? Shoto you’re so big what the heck happened.”

The last time you saw the Todorokis was at your college graduation. Shoto was 12. Now he is 15 and is a freshman at UA. He’s in the hero course and preparing for the sports festival coming up.

“Natsuo you haven’t changed at all if anything your hair just keeps getting spikier.”

Natsuo is now 19 and a freshman in college. You had really inspired him as a kid with your healing quirk. Right now he’s studying medical welfare in school. And thanks to all of your tutoring, he learned a lot of good habits on how to push him to learn more.

“And Yumi, I saw on Face Page, congrats on getting engaged to bird boy!”

“Thanks, y/n.”

“Let’s see the ring!”

You and Fuyumi have always been close like sisters. Fuyumi is a school teacher now and her fiancé bird boy, Hawks, is working with Touya and Enji at the Endeavor Hero Agency. You’ll never forget the time Fuyumi was scared about dating him and now look at where they are.

“Man I’m the worst. I’m so sorry that I haven’t seen you guys in ages.”

“You can make it up to me by going to the sports festival.” Sho beamed.

“It’s a deal.”

“We still love you, y/n.” Rei said, “You’re always welcome over.”

“But as much as I love catching up, we still have class tomorrow,” Fuyumi said gesturing at Shoto and Natsuo.

“We also have to go to work tomorrow, Rei.”

Rei sighed, “we’re going to get so much paperwork and fan mail for Touya.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Just feel better soon dear.”

“Well, the next time we see each other will be soon and definitely at the UA sports festival.”

Everyone agrees, say their good-byes, and eventually makes there way out leaving you alone with Touya. You sit next to his bed while the TV plays in the background.

“How do your arms feel?”

“Sore, but they’ll heal in a few days.”

“Here.”

You take a seat next to him in bed and taking one arm and you slowly rub your hands up and down his arm to heal his skin. Followed by the other arm. Just like you used to back in high school when you were quirk training.

“How does this feel?”

“Much better.”

You smile at him and with one hand on each arm; you follow his arms up, activating your healing quirk, going along his shoulders and then at the top of his chest, where all of his dark spots are.

“You treat all your patients like his?”

“Only my favorite ones.” You wink.

He lifts his face to meet yours. His piercing turquoise eyes staring into your soul. Even though it’s only been two years, it felt like so much time to change. Yet he was still your Touya. He still dyes his white hair red. His ears were still pierced in all sorts of places. There’s a scar on his right nostril from the time he got his nose pierced to get a reaction besides love from his parents. They loved it because they loved him; he quickly got rid of it when he accidentally pulled it out while in the shower.

Your heart skips a beat. You hold his face in your hands continually using your quirk to take away any of his pain caused by his fire quirk. He looks at you with those half-lid eyes. He holds your hand in place on his cheek and brings up his other hand to hold your cheek. Your face flares up.

“I don’t want to lose you again.”

“Touya.”

“I don’t want the next time we meet again is because I’m injured. I missed you and I’m sorry I should’ve done this sooner.” And slowly but gently goes in for a kiss and you return the passion.

The kiss was long and filled all of your senses. His kiss was so soft and filled you with a warmth you couldn’t describe. He took your breath away. You didn’t want the kiss to end, but it couldn’t last forever. He continued to rest his hand on your cheek but placed his forehead against yours.

“I’ve always been yours.” He sighs. “I’ve been thinking about you so much and how much I don’t want to be away from you anymore.”

“Toys.” You purse your lips as tears welled in your eyes.

“You've been nothing but the best thing on my mind.” He smiles at you. “You can’t mistake attraction. You’re everything I’ve been missing, y/n. I love you.”

“Goddammit, Touya.” You face the ceiling to stop yourself from crying but the tears fall out anyway. “I’ve cried too much today.”

He wipes your tears away, “I’m sorry.”

You shake your head. “Don’t be because I love you too.”

He pulls you in for a hug. “We’re fools.”

“Yes, but what matters now is that we can decide what happens next in our lives.”

“I don’t care as long as you’re always in mine.”

“Always.”

You pull out of the hug to look at him again. You have no words, but you’re overflowing with happiness and smiles.

“You must be tired,” he tries to scoot over, “you can sleep next to me if you want.”

“Touya, you’re a patient in the hospital I work at. I’m not going to be caught in bed with a patient.”

“Stupid rules.”

“I will sit next to you though.”

“I guess I’ll take what I can get.”

You take a seat in the chair next to his bed, hold his hand, and feel your body relax.

“Hey, y/n?”

“Hm?” you answer trying not to fall asleep.

“Do you still only date guys that you’ve at least been on a date with?”

You shift so you face Touya and not the TV.

“Why?”

“I think you know why.” He pushes your hair out of your face. And gives you a soft smile.

“I just want to hear you say it.”

“Well, I want to know if you want to go on a date with me? Or if I can just ask you out without being rejected. I want to do this right.”

“Yes.”

“Which?”

“Whichever you want.”

“Both.”

“Yes.” You hum contently.

“Good night, y/n.”

“Sleep tight.”

You wake up the next morning before Touya. You go freshen up in the bathroom when Fuyumi and Hawks come into the room.

“Hey, guys.”

“Hey y/n.” she gives you a hug, “you remember hawks.”

“Bird boy!” you give him a hug too, “it’s good to see you again.”

He gives you a big grin, “you too.”

“So,” Fuyumi begins, “Are you guys dating yet?”

You don’t say anything you just smile and feel your face go red.

“Let me just say, it’s about time you guys.”

[ironemrys]

The Mission

Pairing: Tom Holland x OC

Word Count: 5.1k (I’m sorry it’s long again)

Tags: #OC x Tom Holland, #Secret Agent AU, #loosely based on Taken, #tom holland fanfiction, #there’s also characters from different fandoms, #and other artists that I used as characters, #you’ll know them when you read ‘em, #Tom Holland, #Alternate Universe, #again

A/N: Hello. I’m back with a secret agent AU. not like my other work is finished but meh... I like this one so hi. Oh and I used canva for the poster thing.

Warning: There’s a lot of cursing. Possible lemon. Violence and drug use. This is just a story so please treat it as such.

Summary: Tom Holland is careful in everything that he does. He's patient and organized and in order for him to be the best at his job he always follows the rules, always thinks of a plan and always prepares a backup plan.

Tom works for a secret government agency known as SHIELD, he usually works alone but is not one to shy away from any assistance offered by whosoever is willing.

When a Class S mission arises, he is suddenly forced to work with another agent named Catherine Silverton who is his exact opposite. Catherine is a reckless hot head who uses most of her gut feeling when dealing with unimaginable situations. She's not one to plan, she doesn’t like waiting around and she hates working long term with other people. 

With the lives of many at stake, will they be able to put aside their differences and learn to work together?

Chapters: 2 | 3 

 In an old storage house near a loading dock, a group of armed men were busy hauling crates onto a ship that is set to leave after midnight.

"How much longer?" A tall, balding man asked as he walked towards the ship. He wore a thick long sleeve covered by a bulletproof vest. His boots and pants were dirty with mud, sand and blood. His one good eye looked towards the ship and then at the men who continued on their work.

"We're almost done boss. After this batch, we'll be ready to move the weapons to Siberia." A young man answered. He wore a plain shirt and black cargo pants, his gloved hand held a black mask and in the other he held a gun.

"Excellent. These weapons will secure our position in the black market. Make sure everything is in place." The tall man said and walked away to the storage house. Inside, there were a more of the armed men, storing the different kinds of weapons carefully in crates and then covering them up with straw.

"Boss. Mr. Stone, sir." Once the name was spoken, all of them stopped what they were doing and gave a salute to the man in charge.

“At ease.” Stone replied and the men continued on their work. Once he and his men were done here, they would move to Siberia and sell to the highest bidder the weapons of war they acquired by infiltrating different military bases around the continent.

"Storage this is the perimeter, we found an unconscious body near the west entrance of the loading dock.” One of the men’s radios suddenly started.

“Perimeter, investigate the matter quickly and dispose of whoever is responsible.” Stone said after grabbing a radio off of one of his men.

“Copy that.”

Stone walked over to a table full of unpacked weapons and he grabbed one in his hand.

“Stay sharp. Kill on sight.” He ordered and the men nodded before taking their own guns. Suddenly, gunshot after gunshot was heard right outside the storage house. The men inside formed a barrier to protect their boss and their trade. They all pointed their guns at the closed entrance, waiting for whoever was behind the commotion.

"What the hell is going on out there?" One asked when something suddenly struck his neck and he fell forward unconscious.

“Hey! Jason!” His ally nudged him with a foot and but there was no response. The armed men looked around the place and pointed their guns here and there.

“It’s become quiet outside.” One then said and looked to two of his peers. They nodded at each other and slowly walked towards the entrance. The first of them opened the door and pointed his gun but he felt something hit him in the forehead and he fell unconscious just like the other one.

“Shit!” The other two jumped away from the door and on cue two small grenades came rolling in and filled the place with smoke.

“What the fuck!” The remaining men cried out and covered their eyes while coughing violently because of the smoke.

Suddenly, a shadow moved in quickly between the smoke and the armed men, knocking them out and taking away their guns.  After a few blind punches and curses, Stone was the only one left standing in the middle.

"Bastard! SHOW YOURSELF!" Stone yelled in the air, his gun pointing in a meaningless direction.

"Baron Stone." A voice perked up and Stone saw a dark shadow standing in the smoke. He aimed his gun and fired all the bullets towards the unknown presence. The fog died down but there was no body found on the ground where he shot at.

"You are under arrest for the larceny of military owned weapons, murder, aggravated assault, arms trafficking and shall I go on?" The voice asked but the person speaking still cannot be seen.

"Show yourself!" Stone demanded again and looked around the storage house when someone grabbed his gun and quickly disarmed him. Stone tried to aim for a punch but it was skillfully blocked and a strong blow came in contact with his chest and he dropped to his knees before losing consciousness.

"Capture: Complete." The young man pressed on his earpiece and sirens of police cars were heard closing in on the location. A team of armed men all wearing special police uniforms came walking in to take the suspects in custody.

"Great work Tom. You’ve done it again. I thought with this many men under Stone's you'd have trouble in dealing with them." A tall man with brown hair wearing a police vest over his red and black long sleeve snickered. He held a sniper gun to his side and he reached his other hand towards the agent for a handshake.

“I couldn’t have done it without your help Harrison.” Tom nodded.

“Nah. I’m pretty sure you could’ve done better on your own.” Harrison laughed and gave Tom a pat on the back.

"Maybe. But like I always say: Two heads are better than one." Tom replied with a smile.

"Right. Anyway, we’ll finish up here, you get back to base. I heard there’s another mission waiting for you." Harrison answered and Tom gave him a nod before walking outside to his car and driving back to SHIELD.

Tom Holland is careful in everything that he does. He's patient and organized and in order for him to be the best at his job he always follows the rules, always thinks of a plan and always prepares a backup plan.

At the age of twenty-four, Tom has accomplished missions more than those older than him. The thing about him is that he has dozens of plans up his sleeve. Whenever there is a situation that is hard to handle, he quickly thinks of a way in detail before putting it to action. He's young but he’s very professional. Tom started working for SHIELD right after he graduated from the police academy and he’s been there for six years. He started first with a partner; Agent Harrison, but now that he’s good enough to go on his own, he does. But Tom isn’t one to shy away from any assistance offered by whosoever is willing so whenever Harrison doesn’t have a mission of his own, he and Tom usually do cases together.

"Oh hey Tom. I see you're back from the Stone Mission, good work." Ethan Hunt; the commanding officer in charge of SHIELD’s England Base, looks up from his desk as Tom walks in his office.

"Yeah Mr. Hunt, it was quickly dealt with thanks to Harrison’s help.” Tom replies and looks around Ethan’s office. It was full of papers and unfinished cups of coffee. “Harrison says you have another mission for me?" He then asks after a moment of silence.

“I do. But rest first for a while and I'll see you back in the meeting room after six." Ethan replied and got back to his paperwork.

Tom made his way to the agency's shower room and decided to freshen up. As usual, it was empty and quiet since no one uses the shower room at three in the morning. But it was normal now for Tom to have such late missions and he didn’t mind. Crime never sleeps and it was part of his job to adjust.

After cleaning up, Tom walked out wearing a set of casual clothes; a black hoodie and jeans. He fixed his now blow dried hair and walked to the agency's gadget room which was found at the lower levels of the building.

"Hey Holland! Welcome back!" The short and blonde gadget expert named Benji, greeted Tom once he stepped foot inside.

"What's up?" Tom asked while walking over to Benji's work table.

"I'm making a new item. Jacob over there is helping me." Benji replied and nudged his head to where a young man about Tom’s age was shooting arrows from a crossbow across a firing range.

"A crossbow?" Tom asked and raised his eyebrow in curiosity.

"Yep. But I'm making it to be automatic, so you won't have to add bows for every fifty shots. And then you refill it with this, so it’s kinda like a gun. It’s supposed to be lighter than a gun and with a few more modifications I can induce sleeping serums inside the bows." Benji replied as he showed what looked like a bullet magazine, except it was filled with tiny bows.

"I see. How's it going so far?" Tom asked again while examining the weapon.

"Pretty good. It's almost done." Jacob answered as he walked away from the firing range. He and Tom gave each other a high five followed by a very elaborate handshake.

“You kids are weird.” Benji said while tinkering with the crossbow.

“We’re literally twenty-four.” Jacob responded to the remark while rolling his eyes.

“Like I said, kids.” Benji snickered earning a laugh from Tom. It was true though, Harrison, him and Jacob were the youngest agents in the England Base and the three of them started at the same time in SHIELD after graduating together from the academy.

"Hey, you know what I heard?" Jacob suddenly said so Tom and Benji turned to him.

"I heard that this next mission of yours is pretty big."He added and Tom raised a brow.

“How do you mean?” He asked.

"Yeah. All of Tom's missions are big. I mean, there’s nothing new about that." Benji retorted but Jacob shook his head.

"I know that but I heard Ethan talking to Colin, you know? The head of the New York Base? So I'm guessing you'll be leaving England for a while again." Jacob said and this got Tom more interested in his next mission since he's been in and out of England lots of times and he enjoyed going on missions in places he's not really familiar with. 

"Well, whatever it is, I'll deal with it like how I always do." Tom replied and the other two nodded in response.

"So this mission, where am I going exactly?" It was eight o’clock in the morning and Ethan had just finished debriefing Tom on his new mission.

"You'll be going to Las Vegas to meet the agent sent by Colin. You two will work together as a team and finish this mission with extreme vigilance. Colin will add more to what I have laid for you, he has the complete story on this mission.” Ethan answered and Tom nodded.

“This agent, do you have a file on him? I’d like to know someone before I work with them.” Tom said and Ethan handed him a folder.

“This is Agent Silverton. She’s about your age and she’s been in the agency for four years. Also an academy graduate.” Ethan started and Tom opened the folder to view the file.

"Your plane leaves in sixteen hours so I suggest you get ready and get some rest." Harrison said since he too was inside the meeting room.

Tom gave them a nod and left to set his affairs in order. Once he was sure he didn’t forget anything, he started to read the file on Agent Silverton until he fell asleep.

Meanwhile, in an underground cellar, a deal was being made between two parties.

"It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Jones." A large dark haired man surrounded by equally large men with firearms shook hands with a sharply dressed lanky fellow.

“Likewise Mr. Brown.” Jones replied before exchanging a duffle bag for a sealed briefcase. The duffle bag contained illegal drugs and the two parties are well known dealers but are also skilled assassins that are hunted by the local police.

Suddenly, gunshots and shouts were heard from outside their trading room. Brown’s men held on their guns and ran out to see the commotion.

"The fuck is going on out there?!" Jones asked and took out his own gun.

"SHIELD followed us in! All men at the gate are down!" Someone from the outside ran towards them.

“How many agents?" Brown asked through gritted teeth. They were so careful not be caught but it seems that SHIELD has picked up their trail.

Before the man could answer, the sound of a gun going off echoed in the cellar and the man was shot down.

"Well, well... Jones and Brown. Finally." A voice spoke and the leaders looked up to see a single agent standing on the doorway. Brown aimed his gun and quickly shot fire but missed the agent who hid behind a pillar.

"LET'S GO!!" He shouted at Jones and they ran to the back door. They scrambled outside the building and got in a parked van. The agent then came out of the building but Jones shot fire and the agent ducked down to avoid the bullet. Screams from people within the area scattered as they ran for cover.

"DRIVE!" Jones ordered and they sped off.

"Well fuck. This is just great." The agent sighed and ran to the street before seeing a man in a motorcycle.

"Hey!" The man stopped abruptly before the figure standing on the street to block his way.

"Yeah, hi, I need to borrow your motor for a while." The agent said before flashing a badge. The man quickly got out and was about to hand over his helmet but the agent had already driven off.

"Catherine. Where are you? We're at the site. It’s a fucking mess back here, the fuck did you do?" A voice perked up from the agent's earpiece.

"I’m in pursuit. And shut up Bradley they shot at me first.” Catherine replied before taking a sharp left. “Oh and, you might wanna buy a new motorcycle for this guy. I’m pretty sure you can still find him right outside the building." she added with a grin that was followed by an exasperated grunt.

"God damn it woman! That's the fourth bike you took this month!" Bradley yelled.

"What? Not my fault those guys made a run for it..." Catherine answered so the latter just sighed.

"Just make sure you don’t do too much damage this time like what you did in the tower. That was hard to cover up." Bradley reminded and Catherine chuckled.

"Yeah, sure thing." She replied before speeding up upon seeing the van where Jones and Brown were.

"Gotcha." She whispered and turned to the right for a shortcut in order to cut them off.

She passed by a small street and noticed a bunch of street vendors and their stalls set up with onlookers shopping here and there but since she can't stop, she knew what she had to do in order to pass.

“Outta the way people! Good guy chasing a villain here!” She yelled and honked the motor horn. The people around shouted in panic as she passed with her speeding motor, they jumped and scrambled away from the small street, causing them to tumble over the kiosks.

"SORRY!!" She yelled but kept on going.

"Colin’s gonna kill me." She mumbled before taking a left turn and saw the van right in front of her. The cars honked but she didn’t mind and followed the van behind, she sped up a little and once she was closer to the van, she reached for the door and slid it open before jumping inside.

"WHAT THE!?" Jones yelled and turned around only to be kicked in the face and knocked out.

"Shit!" Brown shouted and pointed his gun at Catherine who wrestled with him for the wheel.

“Hey come on man! You wanna add reckless driving to your list of crimes?” She quipped and disarmed him before punching him in the face. Brown was out cold and Catherine tried to catch the steering wheel and maneuver the truck but the briefcase that fell with all the commotion pushed down the gas pedal and the truck came crashing to a fountain in the middle of the street.

Catherine was able to save herself with the airbag and she stumbled out of the van with just a few scratches. She then saw the people running away from the chaos and destruction while others were too scared to move from their spots. Police sirens suddenly filled the place and a team of agents and officers stepped out of their vehicles.

"Damn it Catherine, I thought I said don’t make such a mess! Colin will kill you." Bradley; a tall man with short blond hair wearing a bulletproof vest over his red polo shirt approached her and hit her on the head.

"Ow! Fuck you Bradley, I barely got out of that speeding van and you greet me with a hit on the head?! I swear I'll shoot you, you ass." Catherine glared.

"Oh shut up. Me and the others need to clean up every damage you did – again.” Bradley replied sourly.

"Both suspects are unconscious; we'll be taking them in." An officer then interrupted their banter and drove off while the others stayed and took photos of the damage that needed to be repaired.

"Come on slick. I wanna see your face once Colin finds out about all this." Bradley teased before ducking away to avoid a strong kick.

"Fifteen street stalls, one civilian motorcycle, one giant fountain and one six storey building." A tall man with short black hair glared at the pictures and then at the agent in front of him.

"Sorry..." Catherine whispered.

"I understand the stalls and the motor but the fountain and the building? Really?" Colin; Catherine and Bradley's boss, the head of SHIELD in New York said with a raised brow.

"Well, the building was old. And because of the shootout earlier, the collapse was unavoidable." Catherine replied while air quoting her last remark.

"Your improvisations always make the cleaners' works harder." Bradley sighed.

"Oh shut up. You're a cleaner for a reason." Catherine shot back.

"Knock it off. Catherine get some rest, but I need you in the main room after dinner. We need to discuss something." Colin said and Catherine nodded before leaving the room with Bradley.

Catherine Silverton is a reckless hot head who uses most of her gut feeling when dealing with unimaginable situations. She's not one to plan, she doesn’t like waiting around and she hates working long term with other people. But despite all this, she’s the best at what she does and no one has ever said otherwise.

For a twenty-three year old, she has accomplished missions that are harder than those given to her seniors. The thing about Catherine is that she comes up with plans on the fly and she loves to improvise. Whenever there are missions that trap her in a pinch, she sees the easiest way out and acts on it, what happens right after her actions will then determine her next move.

That is why most of the time, her missions always lead to a shootout or a car chase, but despite those do or die situations, Catherine always manages to get away and capture the bad guys.

She may not be much of a professional since she has no plans except for one and no backup plan right after, she still manages to finish a mission completely. Catherine's been working in SHIELD for four years and her plans aren't always full proof, but whatever tough situation she gets herself into, she can get out without thinking that much and just improvising her way through.

"Vegas?" Catherine asked once Colin debriefed her on her new mission.

"Yes. You will meet another agent and you will work together to accomplish this mission." Colin said and Catherine shook her head and stood up from her eat.

“No. No way. I do this mission alone, Colin.” She insisted but Colin gave her a look.

“This is a Class S mission, Catherine, we need to keep this on the down low since there would be panic and chaos if this situation ever gets out.” He replied and Catherine slammed her hands on the table.

“Then find someone else to do it. I’m not partnering with anyone, never again.” She grumbled and Colin sighed before pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Catherine, there is no one else. Everyone has their own missions and I need you on this.” He said and Catherine was silent. She then took a breath and snatched the documents from Colin’s hands.

“Fine. But this other agent better not piss me off or I’m gonna shoot him where he stands.”

 SHIELD; Las Vegas Base. 7 PM.

"Welcome. You must be Tom." Colin greeted as the agent walked in.

"Yes, pleasure to meet you Mr. Morgan." Tom replied and offered his hand to shake.

"Please, just Colin will be fine. I trust your flight was pleasant?” He asked and Tom nodded before taking a seat at a round glass table.

“Yes. I read the files on my way over here but Mr. Hunt said there was more that I needed to hear.” Tom replied and Colin gave him a quick nod.

“Yes. There’s a lot more about this mission that I’ll discuss once Catherine gets here.” He said.

“Agent Silverton.” Tom added when on cue, the automatic sliding doors opened and in walked Catherine who was followed by Bradley.

“Agent Holland, this is Agent Silverton.” Colin introduced and Tom stood up before offering his hand but Catherine gave him a look and just nodded and took a seat that was well away from him. Tom wondered why he was turned down so quickly but dismissed it and sat back down, he saw Colin sigh before turning towards the big screen inside the room.

“As you both know, we have called you here since you are the best agents in your respective agencies and we need your help in accomplishing this task." Colin started.

The screen flashed pictures of girls, about thirty of them and then followed by pictures of a man getting in a black van.

"We have received word that girls from different countries are missing. Parents are worried that when contacting their children, they get nothing from the hotels they are supposed to be staying in. We believe the girls have been abducted, for what purpose, we don’t know. That is until one of our agents who was previously on the job managed to pinpoint a location. He found out the girls were being sold for prostitution." He continued and the images changed to what looked like a tall building where the girls are in a line, surrounded by men with guns.

"Unfortunately, right after he had sent us the information. Our agent went MIA. We think he's been captured or he's been killed. We need to finish this monstrosity before it gets bigger and the situation, worse." Colin finished and the big screen turned off.

"So these girls… where were they last seen?" Tom asked.

"At the airport according to our agent. Specifically, the airport here. Our agent also managed to narrow down a bar where he believes the girls are taken." Colin answered. He then handed them both a picture of the bar.

"This guy in the van was the same guy our agent saw inside the building." He pointed out to another photograph.

"So, let me guess, we need to infiltrate the bar and see where the girls are and rescue them." Catherine said and Colin nodded.

“That seems simple enough. Why can’t you just send the cavalry on this guy?” Catherine asked and pointed at the man in the van.

“It’s not that simple. If they have the girls, who knows what they’ll do to them once they found out they’ve been compromised?” Colin replied.

“They could kill them, or hold them hostage, making it harder for us to rescue them.” Tom added and Colin nodded in response.

“I need you guys to be careful, find out where the girls are and call for back up once you’ve secured their location. But we need to this mission discreetly, we don’t want the public to panic.” Colin added and turned to Catherine.

“The hell are you looking at me for?” She snapped.

“There’s a reason.” Bradley grinned so Catherine punched him in the arm.

"Whatever. Let's get going, Mr. Holland, bars open at around this time right?" She said before standing up.

“Just Tom would be fine.” Tom said softly and stood up as well. "But we need to think of a plan first, like how do we get in without getting too much attention? How do we get the girls out? What if they're too many of them? There's only two of us. We should have a backup plan in case - ”

"We're gonna waste time if we plan now. How about we go to the bar, then you can plan while we watch the premises. It's a bar and casino, we can go in and out whenever we want to, this is Vegas." Catherine replied as-a-matter-of-factly and Tom just looked at her.

"Well? Are we going or not?” She asked getting impatient.

“Right. Yes." Tom replied still bewildered at how Catherine shot him down twice now.

"The car is downstairs. You can take it." Colin said and tossed the keys to Catherine.

“Gotcha. We’ll make contact when we’re there. Come on Mr. Planner.” Catherine grinned and left the room. Tom was glued to where he was but he shook his head and put his agent mode on before following the latter.

"It's been ten minutes since we started driving and you still haven't said anything." Tom then said as he and Catherine drove quickly towards the casino they're supposed to infiltrate.

"Should I be saying anything?" Catherine asked.

"Well no but you and I are gonna be stuck for quite a while with this mission so might as well get to know each other." Tom replied and Catherine turned the car to stop on the side of the street.

“Okay listen here, Tom.” She started with a glare and Tom actually felt a little intimidated.

“You and I are gonna get along just fine if you stop asking questions and just do your job as an agent. I don’t like working with other people but I have to grin and bear it because Colin asked me too. If you have a problem with that, take that up to him because I don’t have time to get to know you and I don’t want to either. Got it?” She said and when Tom was rendered speechless, she continued on to drive.

"We're here." Catherine said before stopping on the side of the road right across the casino.

“Anyone familiar?” Tom asked as they both looked at the people coming and going in the vicinity.

“No. I’m going in.” Catherine said and proceeded to take her seatbelt off but Tom stopped her.

"No, wait. Not until we see the guy they tracked down to this place. It'll be easier to follow him from then on." Tom replied and she was about to retaliate when she remembered what Colin said to her before leaving so she stayed put much to Tom’s surprise.

Thirty minutes had passed and there was still no sign of the guy the base has tracked down.

“Can I ask you something?” Tom finally said after moments of silence.

“What now?” Catherine asked.

“I’ve read before that people usually shut themselves out because of an experience they were traumatized with before, they refuse to let others in their lives and establish a relationship in fear that they will end up hurt by the same thing that has happened to them before.” Tom started.

“And your point is?” She replied and turned to him with an eyebrow raised.

“Uhm… I guess what I’m trying to say is we’re both working for the same cause here and you and I have to learn to trust each other if we’re going to make it work.” He replied which made Catherine chuckle.

“Trust? The only people that I trust are Colin and Bradley. You better be a damn saint before I even begin to trust you. But fine, since your annoying little self is persistent I’ll give you a chance.” She smirked and Tom smiled.

Just then, a black van stopped right in front of the casino and out came a man in a black leather jacket, jeans and combat boots.

"That’s him!" Catherine said before looking down at her phone to see the photo once again.

Tom and Catherine watched as the man opened the van, only to have girls in lingerie and masks pile out.

“Do you think those are the girls?" Tom asked and Catherine shrugged.

 “Really can’t tell with those masks their wearing.” She replied.

The man led the girls inside casino and Catherine knew she had to follow them quickly. She looked around and saw a stall that was selling masks, hats, shoes and different articles of clothing so she grinned and got out of the car much to Tom's surprise.

"Hey where are you going!?" Tom asked but Catherine was already at the stall. She bought a pair of heels and a black and white mask with feathers and glitters all over. She got back in the car and started to strip off her pants.

"WHAT… WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Tom turned bright red and proceeded to look away.

"Oh please, don’t flatter yourself." Catherine scoffed as she took off her pants and threw them at the back. She undid the first two buttons on her polo and removed her jacket before putting the mask and shoes on.

"Put this in your ear and I'll guide you once I get inside." Catherine said, shoved a small earpiece in Tom’s hand and opened the car door.

"Wait. WHAT?! GET BACK HERE!" Tom yelled after her but it was too late, Catherine already made her way to the line of girls and casually made her way inside.

"Fuck." Tom cursed as he helplessly watched the entrance of the casino close.

tagging: @silverofthunder I did it again... I wrote... Hahaha

[lisabelkin-yahoonews]

‘We promised to help them’: One congregation’s struggle to bring a Syrian family to America

On the night when the nearly 200 volunteers from the Holy Trinity Catholic Church should have been greeting their family of refugees at the airport, they were at a candlelight vigil instead, praying for the two parents and their six young children, whose flight to a new life had been canceled by a presidential executive order.

The next day, when the volunteers had planned to settle the displaced Syrians into a home filled with furniture they’d collected over months of scrounging, and offering food they’d cooked that would be familiar and comforting, they were walking the halls of Congress instead, pleading their case to anyone in the House or Senate who would listen.

And in the coming days, instead of enrolling the children in school, and helping the father find work, and explaining how to navigate the bus system, enroll in English lessons and find a local mosque, they will be following statements by federal lawyers and judges and White House officials, hoping the legal door stays open long enough for them to get the strangers they all call “our family” onto another plane.

Despite all the talk of refugees since the Trump administration order freezing entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries, little attention has been paid to the Americans who are waiting to welcome them. By law, no refugee can be admitted to the United States without a volunteer organization to sponsor them and nurture them toward self-sufficiency.

When the president’s executive order blocked the arrival of all Syrian refugees indefinitely, canceling the family’s flight, the parish held a prayer vigil at the moment they would have been landing. (Photo: Lisa Belkin/Yahoo News)

At Holy Trinity, a Jesuit parish in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, that group is more than ready, like adoptive parents pacing outside the fully stocked nursery for the child they have never met but already love.

“These are our people, they are our family,” they repeated over and over from one congressional office to the next this week, as well as to each other, almost like a prayer. “We made a promise to help them. Help us keep that promise.”

—–

It all began with that photo — the one taken in late August of 2015, of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, in his red shirt, blue shirt and tiny sneakers, face down in the surf on a Turkish beach, after the rubber raft carrying his fleeing family flipped in the waves.

Twenty-five-year-old Chris Crawford saw that photo and decided he had to do something. He was already embarked on a life of service, active in pro-life marches and helping to run a youth ministry at Holy Trinity, which he’d joined soon after college graduation, when he was considering becoming a Jesuit priest himself. After meeting his girlfriend at the church he chose not to enter the priesthood, but he remains committed to Pope Francis’ declarations that being pro-life means protecting all life, particularly and specifically including refugees.

Lauren Ray saw the same photo and was also moved to help. “This breaks my heart,” she told her husband over breakfast that morning. “We need to do something, something real. What can we do?” The couple, both raised and schooled at a Jesuit parish in Seattle, joined Holy Trinity when they moved to Washington in 2008, hoping to raise their five daughters in the same tradition. That afternoon she called Kate Tromble, the pastoral associate for social justice at Holy Trinity, and offered her basement as a new home for any refugee who might need it.

Eighteen months later, Crawford, Ray and Tromble are the coordinators of the Refugee Welcome Project at Holy Trinity, and the first thing they learned was that it’s not as simple as offering your basement. There are nine national voluntary agencies authorized by joint agreement of the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to resettle refugees in the United States. Anyone entering the country as a refugee must go through one of the nine: the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA, the Ethiopian Community Development Council, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the International Rescue Committee, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, and the World Relief and Corporation of National Association of Evangelicals.

A Turkish paramilitary police officer carries the lifeless body of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi from the seashore, near the beach resort of Bodrum, Turkey, Sept. 2, 2015. (Photo: Nilufer Demir /AFP/Getty Images)

The groups prefer to settle refugees in neighborhoods where the cost of living is low enough to give a newcomer a good chance at becoming self-sufficient. The greatest number of Holy Trinity’s congregants live in the Virginia suburbs outside of D.C., where rents are more expensive than in much of the rest of the country, but lower than other parts of the area. Tromble called around and learned that the only refugee group working there was Lutheran Social Services (LSS), an affiliate of the LIRS, which settles about 600 refugees in the area every year. So the LSS became their designated partner in this effort.

The next step was to decide what level of commitment the congregation was looking for. There are four, ranging from three months of involvement that mostly includes collecting home furnishings and conducting food drives before arrival, to a full year of involvement, which involves everything from finding and funding housing to offering friendship and help adapting to a new culture.

The Holy Trinity group quickly decided they were in at the highest level. It was “clear pretty early on that accompaniment, walking side by side with a family, was what people felt called to do,” Tromble says. Word spread, and soon they were signing up the first of an eventual 200 volunteers and raising a sum that would reach $60,000, several times the minimum required by the LSS.

Next the congregation had to prove itself capable of meeting the needs of a family that would arrive with next to nothing — a process that included a legal contract signed on behalf of the Archdiocese of Washington, and an orientation and security screening for all congregants who would come into contact with the newcomers. They were taught the philosophical underpinnings of the program — to make a family self-sufficient, able to pay their own bills and pay back within a year the loan the U.S. government provides upon entry. And they were taught practical matters as well: not to collect a lot of clothes in advance, allowing the family to dress in keeping with their own tastes, traditions and sizes, but to have coats ready at the airport for refugees arriving in winter from warm climates.

Once they were accepted as a co-sponsor, the Holy Trinity team ramped up. The volunteers were divided into committees for housing, transportation, education and food. Arabic speakers appeared from within the congregation, many of them former Foreign Service workers or current language students, who offered to serve as translators. Furniture donations poured in: a law firm that was remodeling its conference room offered what could serve as a large dining table with chairs; a congregant selling a condo provided three cars’ worth of bookcases, desks and rugs; there were bunk beds, and futons, and chests of drawers crammed into congregants’ storage units, basements and garages. An Amazon Wish List, with such items as garbage bags, garbage pails and laundry detergent, was bought out almost as soon as it was posted.

All this preparing took place against the backdrop of the 2016 presidential campaign, as Republican nominee Donald Trump began to speak out against refugees with increasing volume and venom.

“We don’t know anything about them,” he said regularly on the stump. “We don’t know where they come from, who they are. There’s no documentation. Lock your doors, folks!”

The talk worried Crawford. He describes himself as a “single-issue pro-life voter”; he organized for John McCain in 2008 (before he was even old enough to vote) and Mitt Romney in 2012, and he attended the March for Life in Washington every year. But Trump’s statements on immigration, he says, made him realize he could not vote Republican that year.

A message on the wall of the multi-purpose room in the rectory, where the parishioners prepared to lobby for their family on Capitol Hill. (Photo: Lisa Belkin/Yahoo News)

“He kept promising ‘extreme vetting,’ but I knew all the levels of scrutiny these families were going through, and it was already extreme,” Crawford says. “Only a small percentage meet the existing standards, they have to produce paperwork and documentation and spend years passing interviews and tests,” he says. “I am pro-life, but the pope makes it clear that means all of life. Welcoming the most vulnerable is pro-life.”

It was one thing to decide not to vote Republican, and another to back a candidate who supported the right to abortion. “I went back and forth for weeks,” he said. “Do I vote for Clinton, or do I not vote at all?” Crawford wrote two essays, one defending each option, and sent them to friends whose opinions he respected to debate the merits. In the end, he voted Democratic.

—–

On November 14, six days after the election, the call came. Their case manager at the LSS had news — Holy Trinity had been matched with a specific family. And it was not just any family.

“They said, ‘it’s big, two parents and six children, and the father has a disability and uses a wheelchair,’” Tromble recalls. “Some congregations wouldn’t have the resources to support this large a group, but they thought we could do it. They wanted to know if we were up for it.”

It was as if a prospective adoptive couple got the call that it was twins, or triplets. “We took a deep breath and then decided, ‘Yes, we were called to do this,’” Crawford says.

So now their family had names (which they have asked Yahoo News not to share, to protect their privacy) and ages (the children were 9 months through 12 years when the call came) and the outlines of a life story. They were Kurds who fled to Iraq from Syria in 2014 and registered as refugees with the United Nations. Their application had been in process for more than two years.

“We added them by name to our prayers,” Crawford says. “Until then we had just prayed for ‘our future refugee family.’”

“We started looking for bunk beds, diapers and a crib,” Ray says. “And a wheelchair-accessible home.”

On January 23, three days after the inauguration, the LSS let Tromble know that the family had airline tickets in hand and would be arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport in exactly two weeks. The planning became granular. Who among the group’s members would be part of the welcoming committee at the airport? What foods should be cooked for their first dinner? And there was still the challenge of a home, big enough for eight people and accessible to a wheelchair, that could be rented for $2,500 a month. They had a few possibilities, but each had a flaw; they had not signed a lease yet.

But, four days after that call, the president signed his executive order that severely restricted the entry of passport holders from seven predominantly Muslim countries, stopped all refugee admission for 120 days, and specifically barred the admission of Syrian refugees “indefinitely.”

A sign in front of the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, a Jesuit congregation, which has been working for more than a year to bring a Syrian refugee family to the U.S. (Photo: Lisa Belkin/Yahoo News)

On an emotional call with their case manager, the Holy Trinity group learned that the family’s tickets had been canceled completely. Since the congregants had made all these preparations, they were asked, might they consider taking another family instead?

“It was like a punch in the gut, a loss, almost like a death,” Tromble says. “We didn’t want another family — we wanted our family.”

“If there was anyone who didn’t think they were ‘ours’ back when we found out who they were,” Crawford says, “the executive order solidified it.”

The day the order was issued, Crawford attended the March for Life on the National Mall, holding a sign that said, “I stand with people who are: unborn, undocumented, unemployed, undereducated, unhoused.” The next day he rented a car and drove to Dulles airport to join in the protests. He held a sign there too, which read, “No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor” in Spanish, English and Arabic.

Then he went back to his community and joined the rest of the group in fighting for their family.

Among the requirements for a refugee visa is a connection to someone in the United States. The father in this family had a friend in Arlington, Va. Through that friend Tromble found a cell phone number for the family, now in Iraq, and called it, finally talking directly to the man who until then had been just a name on a paper and a symbol of faith.

The father explained how he had given up the place where he had been living, taken his children out of school and sold everything the family could not carry, all in preparation for their departure for America. He did not know where he might live or how he might survive, now that Syrian refugees were barred “indefinitely.”

“We expected death,” he told Tromble of his journey from Syria. “We didn’t expect this.”

—–

On Feb. 3 a federal judge in Seattle issued a stay against the executive order, which means that had the family arrived on their originally planned date of Feb. 6, they would have been permitted to enter. But because their tickets had been canceled on the ground in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, as soon as the executive order was issued, they had to wait for the next available flight, which, they were told, was not until Feb. 16.

So at 7 p.m. on Monday the 6th, at the time the original flight was to land, the parish held a candlelight vigil, where an overflow crowd prayed for the family’s safety.

And the next day a group of 20 congregants walked several miles back and forth between the House and the Senate, meeting with aides in six different congressional offices. From Sen. John McCain to Rep. Barbara Comstock to Sen. Patrick Leahy to Sen. Richard Burr, they asked specifically for help in getting the family an earlier flight and more generally that the door be kept open to these refugees and others.

A group of two dozen representatives of the Holy Trinity Church visited John McCain’s office, among others, during an all day visit to Capitol Hill. (Photo: Lisa Belkin/Yahoo News)

They polished their appeal from one meeting to the next, telling the family’s tale, stressing that they had passed every conceivable barrier and test, including the extra layers already added for Syrian nationals — like retinal scans to insure that the applicant who has been vetted is actually the person getting on the plane.

Linda Weissler-Hughes, a congregant who retired from intelligence work after 33 years, the last part of which was spent in antiterrorism and antiradicalization work, stressed that no American has been killed in a terrorist attack by any refugee from any of the banned countries.

“Refugees can be our best friends. They are our best way of knowing what is happening in the Muslin community, our best eyes and ears,” she said. “They are also our best ambassadors,” she added. “They spread the word back to their countries that America is a welcoming place.”

And Annemarie Harthun, a lawyer who stepped away from practice to raise her children, stressed that by not being allowed “to care for the most vulnerable,” she and others like her were being “denied the freedom to practice our religion.” After the photo of Aylan Kurdi made its way around the world, Pope Francis urged every parish to shelter a refugee family, and he himself brought a dozen Syrian refugees back on his plane with him after a visit to Lesbos, Greece. “Resettling refugees is how we demonstrate our faith — that is what we are called to do,” Harthun said.

The last stop for the group of 20 was the office of Sen. Tim Kaine. If a rental could be found in Virginia — at this point they had still not found the right home — it would be in Kaine’s state, and the congregants were particularly looking forward to this visit.

They were standing in the hallway before the appointment when the senator himself walked up and said hello. He listened to their story. He agreed that the ban was “outrageous,” and the disruption it was causing was “heartbreaking,” and he promised that his staff would help in any they could.

“We’re Catholics,” he told them. “To call refugees the enemy when you won’t even hold a floor debate on whether ISIL is the enemy, but to call those fleeing for their lives from ISIL the enemy, that is just wrong,” he said. Then he posed for a photo with everyone.

As Kaine had promised, his staff offered to contact the American Consulate in Erbil to try and secure an earlier travel date for the family, but given that there were eight of them, and flights were few, Kaine’s staff was not optimistic.

“Is there anything else we can do to help you help them?” one of the Holy Trinity group asked as hands were shaken and goodbyes were said at the end.

“Pray,” came the reply.

The group bumped into Sen. Tim Kaine in a hallway, and told him the story of their family of Syrian refugees who had been blocked from entry to the U.S. by executive order. (Photo: Lisa Belkin/Yahoo News)

—–

Crawford was up much of the night Wednesday, fielding some emails to prepare for the scheduled arrival of the family the following week, and other emails fretting that a ruling by a court between now and then might upend the plan yet again.

He was so tired at work on Thursday that he left early for home, where he sprawled, exhausted, on his sofa. There were details to be tended to in his inbox — most urgently the fact that a lease had not yet been signed — and a Plan B was forming to use hotels or Airbnb rentals should the family arrive before a more permanent place could be found.

At 6:15 his phone began to buzz with news that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in San Francisco, had denied the government’s appeal to reinstate the ban. So Crawford stood himself up and got back to work on his computer, newly energized.

“This is a good development, but it’s not over yet,” he said. “I’m not going to exhale until they land next week.” Then he corrected himself. “I’m not going to exhale until we leave the airport and bring them home.”

—–

Read more from Yahoo News:

Hillary taunts Trump after court rules on immigration ban

Exclusive: Assad claims torture reports are “fake news”

Overnight, the threat of deportation becomes reality for Arizona mother

[clitorista]

So I met this really strong witch Sarah when I was a teenager, through one of the most awful, horrible, abusive people I’ve ever known. He met her while he was away at college, and he was my best friend at the time and had yet to show his full crazy. I was 16 and he was 19, and she was 19 and I was absolutely enamored of her. She was wonderful, she didn’t judge, she seemed very Light and Kind, and I stayed as in contact with her as I could over the years.  We only checked in off and on throughout the years after she fell out of touch with Rowan, and he had been growing more and more controlling and abusive over the years towards me, so I wasn’t /allowed/ to talk to people he didn’t like or it escalated his behavior. In 2013 when I was 26 I finally broke free of him because he went to prison for assaulting a toddler. [Long story there, might be kinda tangentially related to my long streak of negative luck, actually. He was a powerful witch, too] When Harmony and I moved out together into our own apartment in 2015, things were hard. They were my PCA, and that was the only income we had besides my SSI, because they were in grad school and finishing it up. They were commuting an hour one way to school each day, spending $400 a month on a commuter rail pass, and our rent was half of our income, our car payment was another $300 a month, and then utilities, and groceries, and the money they had to spend on things FOR school... It was a fucking mess. About two months after we moved into that apartment, Sarah contacted me. She wanted to come by and see how I was doing, and show me some new makeup stuff she had. She was a Mary Kay consultant, and I had [out of kindness, not because I supported Mary Kay, or liked makeup] given a part for her a few years before. She wanted to see about following up with that, and honestly that party she had held for me the few years before had kickstarted my obsession with makeup. I’d already outpacecd the Mary Kay quality stuff, but I wanted to be kind to a friend I’d had so long, and so I let her come and bring all of her goods. We had a little extra money because it was in between both of our birthdays, so we bought some stuff from her and figured that would be it. But then she asked me to join her team. I told her I wasn’t interested, because I wasn’t able to travel to do parties, being a wheelchair user would make it impossible for me to access most people’s houses. She insisted, and talked me into it, telling me I could hold parties at my house, and all of my ordering could be done through my company website. I wouldn’t have to hold any product stock, and I’d be able to /make extra money/ that we so desperately needed. I tried for about a month, and wasn’t bringing in any orders, so she devised a plan. I would be her personal assistant and help her run /her/ Mary Kay business, and she would make orders in my name to keep me active, and then would pay me $300 a month under the table for us to be able to afford groceries because we /weren’t/ at the time, and I kept getting denied SNAP benefits.  This seemed like a sure fire thing, so I agreed to try it out. Within the month, she had started shirking her duties of on boarding people, and I was running the facebook launches, and teaching people all of the stuff they needed to know to run their businesses. She kept going to Mary Kay seminars, and I had to transcribe her notes, both from her private notebooks, and from her audio notes. It was fine, because I type quickly and accurately and I’m actually really quite good at that. The problem with everything was, she kept getting more and more erratic. She’s a very powerful Christian Witch who works with the Archangels, and that was fine to us while we were on her good side... She bought us witchy gifts, she helped Harmony hone their craft and bring me back to my practice that I’d let lapse.  She slowly stopped going out to do in person launch parties. She would just completely abandon the girls whose parties were supposed to happen the day of them, and leave me to tell them how to run them and to field any texts that came from them, or any vox messages. Her marriage was falling apart, she couldn’t keep a job.... Which was unlike her, and unusual for her. She grew up in a very wealthy family, went to school and got a ton of tech certs, and had always had a 6 figure job. She stopped going to work. She lost at least two jobs in the three months everything spanned over.  In those three months, she paid me $100, once. I’ve obviously got serious mental illnesses, and am physically disabled and just couldn’t keep up with running a business, let alone one that was not benefiting me at all. I told her that I couldn’t do it anymore, because it wasn’t working for me and it was driving me into the ground, and she did not take it well. She got incredibly angry, and said some really derogatory things about how poor Harmony and I are, and she got some of her stuff from our house but never came back for others. We thought we had gotten rid of all of it in the immediate aftermath.  FFW a little adn Harmony has graduated grad school with a degree in Clinical Psychology. They get hired at a very well acclaimed youth counseling program, and they start working right away. We move into a fancy new apartment that’s huge, and on the top floor of an 8 story building. It’s late June when we move in, and the central air is apparently not working. They tell us to keep our windows open, and fans going because it’s an unbelievably hot outside, even for that time of year. We do so, not knowing our windowscreens are breakaway and our boy cat, who is only a year old at this time, falls out of the window. He broke his pelvis/hip and ended up in kitty ICU for a week, and having a pin put in his hip.  He survived, and is just fine now.  Harmony and I have always had chronic health issues we’ve tried to be taken seriously about by doctors, and always had them brushed off. In 2016 they start worsening, rapidly. Well, mine didn’t get so bad so quickly, but Harmony’s fucking bottomed out all at once. In 2016/2017 I was 29-30, and Harmony was 24-25 so it was weird /how/ bad it got, how quickly. They were working their high stress job, that was focused very minutely on productivity, and they kept asking for accommodations for their disabilities and being hand waved off. They had been FINE and then all of a sudden were very NOT FINE. They scheduled meeting after meeting with their supervisors and they were told to just find ways to manage, and they did their best to keep up with their unrealistic productivity expectations. People were quitting the company left and right because they were working their people into the ground, but we couldn’t afford for Harmony to quit because I can’t work, and our bills are too much. In 2018 they were finally fired for their disabilities, which their company completely openly admitted.  Their last year working there, after Trump changed the tax laws, their job didn’t withhold enough, and they ended up owing $3000 dollars to the government that year. They applied for unemployment, and were told they were entitiled to it. The unemployment agency did /not/ walk them through the paper work the right way, and when they filled it out there was no option given for them to list their part time job as my PCA. They collected unemployment for about six months, and at the end of the six months started looking for another job. Nowhere was hiring, and they took the only job that accepted them, a fee-for-service clinician job. It promised that they were going to have a full caseload of 25 clients within 6 months, and that then they would be salaried. That never happened. They’re still working with a partial caseload, and making barely any money.  In the past 4 years, a /ton/ of other fucked up shit has happened to us besides both of our health. [Mine ended up rapidly deteriorating in the past year and a half, btw.. worse than it was before. Even worse in the past six months.]. Our brakes went twice on our car that we’ve only owned for four years as of this month. We hit a pothole so hard and deep that it broke our wheel, and completely fucked up our alignment. Our battery randomly died, more than once, and then finally completely shit the bed January 2019 on the coldest day of the year. Our radiator started leaking antifreeze due to loose hoses.  Harmony has had a bunch of weird, wild, fucked up shit happen to their mouth. They’ve broken both of the crowns they got in 2016, they broke a tooth and had to have it extracted. Dental phobia is like their biggest phobia, and they literally can’t even talk about dental procedures.  We just kept running into emergency after emergency that cost $500+, with no way to pay for them ourselves. We also ran up our credit cards to completely maxed out, and defaulted on them because we had no other option and needed to use them for groceries and gas and living essentials. This job they’re still currently at [ but leaving at the end of apri ] has never paid more than $500 takehome for two weeks of work. They were getting paid $30 an hour before the past few months when a raise of $2.50 happened. The thing is, as a fee-for-service clinician, they only get paid if they HAVE sessions. They get paid nothing for paperwork, they get paid $17 an hour for collateral work, and for their supervision. We’ve had to fundraise a ton of different times through mutual aid groups, and take money from my parents to make ends meet.  There was just a lot of little stuff that went wrong, as well, and a huuuuuge falling out between Harmony and their parents over our Christmas vacation and they haven’t spoken since because of some really passive aggressive ass letters their parents wrote them.  We’ve both had a lot of negative interactions with doctors, a lot of health problems, doctors telling us we’re just fat and that’s where all of our problems are stemming from... Obviously that’s bullshit, and we’ve both tested for there being ACTUAL THINGS WRONG but still aren’t getting taken seriously. It got so bad, and we were struggling so hard no matter what we did, we came to the conclusion we had /definitely/ been hexed/cursed. I tried mirror charms, to reflect it back, I tried shielding stuff. I tried some banishing stuff. None of it worked. For the past year Sarah has been sending me emails that have no info in their body, and their subject line is always “Is this still you, Nikki?” And I accidentally opened the first one without realizing it was “empty”, and haven’t opened any since, and have them directly deflected to my spam folder now.  On Valentines I was presented with the PERFECT opportunity for some NAME MAGICK. San Antonio Zoo was offering this fundraising effort “Name a cockroach and we’ll feed it to our animals for $5. You can name a mouse for more, and we’ll feed it to our snakes.”  I named a fucking cockroach after Sarah, with her last name attached, and things MAGICKALLY started getting better. Just before Valentines is when we found out they weren’t renewing our lease, after Valentines we started looking for somewhere new to live and had a hard time finding somewhere that met our requirements, but as soon as we did and applied with my mum cosigning [because our credit scores suck from tanking them being jobless], we got accepted. Harmony found a new job too, after having been applying to them for months. It’s not a GREAT job, it’s a call center job at Spectrum cable, but it will be stable pay, with the same hours every week, and the same pay every paycheck. Which is what we need the most so we can keep our budget on board.  Some random problems have obviously come up with these situations, being that their current day job is basically non-existent because even their boss isn’t answering their calls for their sessions/supervision. They got one session in in their first week of work from home, and their boss didn’t answer their supervision call. We haven’t received our lease to sign yet, despite the fact we’re moving on the 4th, and found out today it’s because they didn’t have some paperwork from my Mum that they didn’t tell us they needed until today, after I asked them about why we hadn’t gotten it yet... We’ve fixed that, and they’ll have them all on Tuesday.  But there was a literal air of Negative Anxiety for the past 4 years, we sniped at each other a lot and had to learn a lot of really good communications skills. Now it feels a lot lighter, and more positive, and we’re arguing less even though we’ve been in the house together for 22 days straight. We’re getting along really well, and still being really supportive of one another with all of our anxieties, and traumas. We’ve been so good together, and putting all of the work of the past four years into this month, and it’s working so well. And things are finally looking up.  My Tarot and runes keep telling me I’ve got financial stability, material gain, wealth, romantic love, and life stability, home and hearth, and family. It’s fucking w i l d and I don’t know what to make of any of it. It’s also pointing towards the love coming from someone already close to me, which I definitely realized I’m in love with one of our best friends recently, so there’s that.

[thebravetheboldandthebeautiful]

Change by Jordana Levine

When most people look back on their lives, out of the thousands of days spent on this earth, they tend to remember graduating high school, going to college, getting married, having kids, and retiring. What is most vivid in their memory is the times they made a life-changing decision, one that was either self motivated, motivated by somebody else, or forced upon them by the universe. But most of the time, change happens when people take it upon themselves to change themselves or change the game. I thought the decisions that the following individuals made were quite life changing.

Debbie Glessner and Ivy Fischer, two women in a civil union, made the decision to adopt two baby girls from China and to start a family. Debbie and Ivy are now 59 years old and live in Montclair, New Jersey  with their two daughters, Annie and Charlotte. Annie is 19 years old and Charlotte is 16 years old. They have a long-time babysitter, named Carmen, who helps out three days a week, and a rescue dog named Cliff. Debbie works for the New York City law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher as the Director of Library Services. She has worked there since 1991. Since they adopted Charlotte, Debbie has worked only three days a week. Ivy has been with the HUB International Group Northeast, a large insurance brokerage, for over 20 years and is the Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Counsel.

While studying at the University of Pittsburgh, where the two met, Ivy chose the right of gay women and men to adopt as the topic for a public speaking class. Then when Debbie and Ivy were both in their mid 30’s, Ivy told Debbie about her desire to start a family. Unlike Ivy, Debbie was hesitant to start a family of her own when she was still taking care of her immediate family. Her parents were divorced and her mom had a long-term illness, multiple sclerosis, and was bedridden and partially blind. Her brother lived with their mom, which was a great help. But Debbie still was very involved in watching after her and she feared that adding a child into the mix would be too much to handle.

Attending college and thinking about his future, Herb Glaser was majoring in biology with the intention of becoming a dentist. Unfortunately, Herb did not get into dental school right away. So during that time, he worked part-time at his family’s bakery, Glaser’s Bake Shop. The bakery was opened by Herb’s grandparents, John and Justine Glaser, in 1902. It is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in a neighborhood known as Yorkville. The business was passed down to Herb’s father and was eventually turned over to Herb and his brother, John. Herb became pretty good at his job, having grown up with the bakery. His family lived right above the bakery and, as a kid, Herb was pretty popular because of it. At the time, there were a lot of small businesses in the neighborhood. However, over time, the number of small family-run businesses declined. What kept Glaser’s Bake Shop alive was that Herb’s grandfather, John, bought the building. Herb and his partner, Lawrence Levine, still live in the building today. In fact, Herb has never lived in a home that his family hadn’t lived in previously.

Staying close to home is a common theme. Gina Shaw, currently 64 years old, lived at home during college due to her dad becoming a bigger part of her life. Gina attended Queens College and now works as a freelance children's book editor and author. Her parents divorced when she was in the seventh grade. She and her sister only saw their dad twice a week and every other weekend, and even less after he moved to Manhattan. Unexpectedly, her dad came back to live with her family  during her senior year of high school. In fact, Gina explained, “Everything happened so fast -- the fact that my mom took him back was astounding for me, my sister, and my dad.” A common wish by most young adults who are looking at colleges is to go as far away as possible from home and that’s exactly what Gina planned to do. But life happens and things do not  always go exactly as planned. Gina’s dad said that he felt as if he had lost so much time with his daughters, even though he lived in Manhattan, not too far from where Gina resided growing up, in Bayside, Queens. To help convince her and make up for the downside of not being able to go away, recalls Gina, “He said he would buy me a car to make the commute easier for me. I could never say no to my dad about anything. I stayed home and went to Queens College.”

Change in environment is huge and so is change in marital status. Stephanie Serino and David Jared had a secret international marriage. They met in 1990 while David, an Englishman, was traveling to California to visit friends. Stephanie lived in New Jersey and David was making a stop to New York before his final destination. This was the first time the couple met. As David recalls, “I visited New York the next year and when Stephanie came to England in August of 1991, we decided to get married. Rather than try to plan a transatlantic wedding we decided to marry immediately, without telling friends or family.” Now the next question was their living situation. At the time, David lived in  the southwest of England in a place called Milborne Port, working for an engineering company. Stephanie had been working at The New York Times. The two of them felt living in the United States was the best choice for them. David was glad to move to the States. It was an opportunity to start a new life, which is an opportunity many can only dream of.

Opportunities like David’s don’t come around that often. And when you’re gay and the government is against what you want, opportunities may not come around at all. Debbie explained to me how, “There was potential for my application [to adopt] to be derailed because of both the US and Chinese governments’ positions on gay adoption.” Backtracking a bit, Ivy knew for sure that she wanted a family while Debbie was still struggling with supporting her own. In addition while growing up, Debbie was really close with her dad, a “daddy’s girl” she recalls. So she felt strongly about having a father’s presence in her future children’s lives. Debbie also feared that homophobia could lead to ostracism and an unsafe environment for her children. The conversation of adoption continued on for several years.

What convinced Debbie was a 1993 article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine entitled, ‘Unwanted and Abandoned, Baby Girls have Become the Newest Chinese Export.’ It was about the author, Bruce Porter’s, experience adopting from China. After reading the article, Debbie finally wanted to adopt. Debbie calls what happens next a coincidence, but I call it fate. She saw a notice about an adoption agency called the World Association for Children (WACAP) offering an information seminar on international adoptions. Of course, Debbie attended and told her neighbor, Sherry Long Abeson, all about it since she and her husband, Tony, had decided to adopt from China. Sherry recommended the adoption agency LaVida in Pennsylvania after checking to see if it would be willing to work with Debbie and Ivy. They were able to help Debbie as a single woman, so Debbie started submitting the paperwork in January 1996.

After a stressful home study to see if the home was fit for adoption and waiting for a referral, finally in October 1996, they received a picture of their future daughter, Annie, and her health information.  Then in January 1997, they flew to China to meet their daughter. Debbie described it as, “a fairytale time in China.” Fortunately for Debbie and Ivy, they had a very easy time becoming parents and a welcoming community. The two of them knew they wanted to adopt another girl, so this time Ivy filled out the papers as a single woman. Unfortunately, Ivy’s mom passed away, so the adoption process was put on hold. But in August of 2000, Ivy, her dad, and two sisters flew to China to adopt Charlotte, named after her mother,  while Annie and Debbie awaited their arrival at home to unite as a family.

Uniting as a family is not always that easy. Gina’s mom was a registered nurse and by Gina’s junior year of high school, her mom realized she could no longer work. She had serious mental problems and was unstable, so Gina’s dad had to step in. Gina’s mom would constantly tell Gina that her sister, “‘was more like my mom and I was more like my dad’” and suggested that Gina could move in with her dad instead. Gina never did because she wanted to be there for her sister. In addition, Gina wanted to be there for her dad when he came back into the house, so she made the decision to stay.

Staying home turned out to be beneficial to the relationship Gina had with her dad. They bonded over her college courses, especially the English classes, since Gina’s dad was a writer and editor and Gina was an English major. Overall, Gina felt staying home, “was worth it because of the amount of quality time I got to spend with my dad and because things seemed to ease up for awhile for my mom.” Gina had some regrets because she feels that going away would have allowed her to learn more about herself and become more independent, but she credits her dad for encouraging her to travel on her own. She went away during breaks to Europe, California, and Canada. During the four years at home, their already strong bond grew even stronger. Gina described how they, “cemented a bond so strong that it lasted my entire life.” Her dad passed away in 1986 but Gina still has thought, “about him every day since he died. I can still hear his voice, know what he would say to me, know the advice he would give me.”

Clearly parents have been strong influences in many individual’s lives. Herb was named after his dad and just like him, Herb decided he, “really liked the work, and the whole idea of a small business.” This led him to stay with the bakery and since then he has, “been working full time at the bakery for over 40 years.” Herb, now 63 years old, has never regretted the decision and still loves what he does.

Unlike Herb, David, also 63 years old, has been retired for three years. Looking back he too never regretted the decision of moving to the United States and getting married. He and his wife, Stephanie, had no doubts, and David explains, “Sometimes in life, you just sort of know something is right.” When David moved to the States, he sold most of his possessions. David and Stephanie got remarried with Stephanie’s friends and family in the bandstand of their local park. Later on, David applied for a ‘Green Card’ and received it early in 1992. David and Stephanie are still happily married and living in Hoboken, New Jersey.