#and I’m terrified of what they’ll do with lev

[abbysfrenchbraid]

I’m actually so devastated about the Abby casting choice… I’m sure the actress is great but having a tiny petite actress will change the character completely. The specific physique of the game is so important for Abby‘s character!! like this young girl lost her only family in this world and probably a lot of other people who were important to her, Joel decimated and ended the fireflies and she spent YEARS training and working and grinding for the tiniest sliver of a chance that she’d face him again so that if she did she would be ready! And not only was her being jacked important to her story but also to so many people who loved the character and who wanted a some representation of a big buff woman for a change.

[peach-pops]

Kuroo’s Secret Relationship

Request: hello👉🏻👈🏻 i had a vision and i cant tell if this is dumb or cute but IMAGINE kuroo and his karasuno manager gf at training camp but nobody knows theyre datin so they just keep it a secret so during the camp they try to find time to meet but if one of them is free the other one is busy. so during sleepy time she gets up to like poo or sumn and kuroo suprises her but she didnt know it was him so she punches him but then she feels bad and the next day everyone thinks he got in a fight I LOV U❤️

Author’s Note: Thank you for requesting!!! I am a total simp for Kuroo idk if you guys can tell. This is just a cute little scenario and honestly, I’d let Kuroo punch ME but that’s none of my business. ALSO requests are still open, I’ll close them once I reach a certain amount. 

Kuroo watched from afar as you talked amongst some of his teammates that were practically drooling at the pools of your feet. He knew he wasn’t being subtle at all as his eyes raked up your figure but he didn’t know how much more of this he could take. 

You two had been dating for a while but you both thought it would be important to keep your relationship a secret for the time being. Kuroo didn’t want to make it seem like he would be putting volleyball as a second priority to his team and you didn’t want it to look like you were fooling around with one of Karasuno’s “enemies”. 

It was fun sneaking off behind corners for private makeout sessions and sharing secret glances towards each other but as Kuroo watched you get blatantly hit on in front of him, he felt like he was losing his cool. 

The worst part was that since the training camp started, the two of you had no alone time and it was eating away at the both of you. You felt like you couldn’t even smile at Kuroo when he did really well against your own Karasuno without exposing your relationship and frankly, the two of you were both at your wits end. 

“ You’re making it obvious,” Kuroo turned around and looked down at Kenma, who’s attention was on his gaming console,” just go over there.”

Okay, Kuroo wasn’t supposed to tell anyone but Kenma was an exception. The two had been friends for so long and Kuroo trusted him with his life, plus Kenma was never the type to gossip. 

“ Are you seeing this? They’re practically undressing her with their eyes! I can tell from here that Lev is into her just from the way he’s standing,” Kuroo kept his gaze on you as you let out a laugh and even though Kuroo didn’t hear the joke, he knew your laugh wasn’t even genuine,” I might actually kill them, would you help me bury the body?”

Kenma sighed as he continued to keep his attention to his game,” You’re hopeless.”

“ We would need to dig a bigger hole, Lev has a pretty big head,” Kuroo mumbled as you excused yourself to step away. 

As soon as you turned away from the boys, your smile dropped and Kuroo could visibly see how annoyed you were with the conversation. 

It made Kuroo feel better that you didn’t like getting hit on but it wasn’t like you could stop them, they all thought you were single. If they would’ve known you were dating the captain of Nekoma, their advances would stop but that wasn’t an option at the moment. 

You looked over at Kuroo and your whole demeanor shifted. You gave him a big smile before you looked away and pulled out your phone to text him. 

Y/N: pls tell me you saw that- i couldn’t wait for that conversation to be over, lev and yamamoto are going to be the death of me 

Tetsuro: trust me, they’ll wish they were dead once im done with them

Tetsuro: r u free rn? I checked this morning and the janitors closet is unlocked maybe we can sneak off to have some alone time ;)

You looked up from your phone and up towards Kuroo who had the biggest smirk on his face. Before you could text back, Nekoma’s manager announced that Nekoma was next up to play for court two. 

Kuroo groaned out loud, of course the universe was against him. 

Tetsuro: im sorry baby, maybe later tonight then? 

Y/N: that’s fine - good luck!

You watched as Kuroo put his phone away and sent you a quick wink before heading over to the empty court. 

For the rest of the day, you two hardly even had the chance to share a glance between each other. Whenever he was playing on a court, Karasuno had their own match and whenever he was free, you had manager duties with the other girls. 

Even during dinner, you were so busy running around doing last-minute tasks before bed that Kuroo never got to say goodnight to you. By the time you finished, Kuroo was already in bed snoring away with his teammates. 

In the middle of the night, you woke up to Tanaka kicking you in his sleep and in retaliation, you grabbed your pillow and swung it over his face. 

Tanaka only grumbled and flipped to face the other way, still in deep sleep whereas you were now wide awake. You rubbed your tired eyes but as you tried to fall back asleep, all you could think about was how dry your mouth was. 

You contemplated on getting water before you sat up from your sleeping bag and walked out of the room silently, trying your best not to step on any of the sleeping boys. Once you shut the door behind you, you made your way down the hallway to the water fountain in a tired manner. 

You weren’t terrified of the dark but the thought of going down a dark hallway at a school you weren’t familiar with was unsettling to say the least and you wish you brought your phone for some light. 

When you reach the water fountain, you bent down and as you started to drink the water, you felt like something was off. Before you could turn around, you felt something touch your waist and every hair on the back of your neck stood up. 

You whipped around and when you saw a tall and dark figure, your first instinct was to scream and swing your arm out to defend yourself. You made contact with the figure and once you heard the groan, you knew exactly who it was. 

“ Tetsuro! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, you scared me! Are you okay!” You said as Kuroo held his cheek in pain. 

He couldn’t believe you had actually punched him but he was even more surprised you landed a good punch in the dark,” See baby, I told you taking those boxing lessons would pay off but damn, you punch hard.”

“ You know you can’t sneak up on me like that, I’m jumpy!” You sighed as you squinted to see Kuroo’s face in the dark,” what are you doing up this late?”

Kuroo kept one hand on his throbbing cheek as the other reached down to pull out his phone,” I texted you to meet me in front of the janitors closet cause I wanted to have some quality time with my beautiful, sweet, girlfriend who I thought would never hurt me but instead of kisses, I got socked in the face!” 

You knew Kuroo was only teasing you but you felt so guilty. You wrapped your arms around his large frame and pressed your face into his chest and apologized in a muffled tone,” I’m the worst girlfriend ever.” 

Kuroo let out a laugh as he weaved his fingers through your bedhead and planted a kiss on the top of your head,” Don’t say that. If it makes you feel any better, you could always just knock out guys who try to hit on you now.”

You smiled up at your boyfriend as he took the chance to lean down and kiss you softly, his hands wrapped around your waist to pull you closer to him. 

Kuroo smirked against your lips as you moved your hands up to lightly tug on his hair,” You know, the janitors closet locks from the inside.”

“ Are you suggesting we have sex in a dirty closet? What if someone walks by and hears us?”

“ Get your head out of the gutter, I never said anything about sex,” Kuroo acted shocked as he tucked a strand of hair before leaning down to whisper in your ear,” unless you think you can be quiet for me.” 

You rolled your eyes as you grabbed Kuroo’s hand and led him into the janitors closet right beside the restrooms,” Whatever, we both know you’re the loud one.” 

“ We’ll see about that kitten.” 

The next morning, Kuroo went to practice normally but not without weird murmurs from his teammates. At first, he thought his secret was out and maybe you had left hickeys across his neck but it was an entirely different mark that he had forgotten about. 

“ Woah, buddy, did you get into a fight? I’m pretty blind but I’m pretty sure you didn’t have that bruise at dinner yesterday,” Bokuto said in awe as he tried to touch the large bruise that was on Kuroo’s cheek,” that is a bruise! Akaashi, come look at this!”

Kuroo swatted his hand away and used his phone camera to get a better look at his face. Turns out, you had punched him way harder than he had initially thought. 

Kuroo couldn’t even think of a lie in time so he tried to reveal as little as possible,” Who am I going to fight around here?” 

“ I don’t know...has anyone seen Lev?” Akaashi asked right as Karasuno entered through the gym doors. 

“Kuroo! Did you kill Lev? You can be honest with me I wouldn’t tell a soul!” Bokuto shouted loudly as a few heads turned in their direction. 

Your ears perked up once you heard Kuroo’s name and as you turned to look over at the boys, your heart immediately dropped when you saw the bruise you had left Kuroo. 

Without thinking, you dug into one of the coolers and pulled out an icepack, even though it was a little too late to ice it down. 

You rushed over to Kuroo, not caring that some people had their attention on you as you pressed it against his face,” That looks really bad, I’m so- um what happened?” 

“ Kuroo killed Lev!” Bokuto teased as Akaashi gave him a stern look that quickly shut him up. 

You sighed as you looked up at Kuroo and bit the inside of your cheek before whispering  softly,” I think we should tell everyone before you get in trouble. You know Nekoma has a no-tolerance policy for fighting and I don’t want it to be a rumor that you got into a fight with someone.” 

“ I know, you’re right but can we wait until the rest of my teammates get here?” Kuroo asked as you gave him a confused look,” I want them to be jealous just for a bit.”

You shook your head with a smile as Kuroo placed his hand over yours that was holding up the icepack,” Okay, just for a bit.”

[marshieee]

✨Haikyuu boys as your brother series✨

Hospital shenanigans🤦‍♀️

Read broken bone pt.1 before reading this btw

A/N: so this kinda funny I don’t want some of my friends to know about what kind of things i post in tumblr but one of my friends requested that she wanted to read about this series of mine so like, I’m gonna make a twitter acc. So i can also post it there!.

Oikawa Tooru

He would immediately i mean mad run to the hospital.

While iwaizumi, mattsun, and maki obviously got there first since they took the bus.

Oikawa didn’t bother to listen to them and just run all the way to you shouting

“Y/N-CHAAAAAAAN BIG BROTHER IS COMINGGGGGGGGG”

“Shouldn’t we be stopping him?”

“Pfft”

“Nah” “Nah” “Nah”

He’s gonna keep on stuttering your name at the front desk as if you’re in a life and death situation.

“Oikawa y/n, y/n oikawa, y/n just y/n”

“Sir i need you to calm down and take a deep breath”

“Y/N where’s my sister?”

“She’s at the third floor room 507”

Instantly pulled his chaperones to the elevator.

Honestly you don’t know why do you even need a private room. Like come on it’s a waste of money.

As soon as your parents heard the news they also freaked out. They left whatever they’re doing and fly almost flew to the hospital.

And immediately asked for a private room. Since you need it to recover

“I swear to God my family is overdramatic”

Oikawa just came in and again dramatically went to you.

He almost shed a tear just seeing you sitting at the bed with your arm wrapped in many bandages.

“Y/N-CHAN ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!”

“As you can see yes I’m alright now please tone it down”

The whole time he would just sit beside you and hug you.......while you’re too busy talking to the boys.

Every 10 mins he’ll keep asking “are you ok?” “Am i crushing your arms?” “Should i move away?”

“Yes please do”

And when he hints your sarcasm he’ll even hug you tighter.

DRAMATIC BUT LOVING BIG BROTHER SUPREMACY

Tanaka ryuunosuke

Ok you broke your leg cuz ur dumb.

But that’s not the case.

You were just at your bed reading some magazine when you heard a nurse gasp.

You whipped your head there you saw.

In full glory....your brother....tanaka.

With bruises and black eye

You wince by just looking at him.

“SIR ARE YOU OK? LET’S PATCH YOU UP”

“No I’m fine thank you”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah I’m good”

As he walks into the room everybody was staring at him either terrified since maybe they took him as a gangsta.

Or just shooked.

He sits besides you and just kept quiet

“Nee-san really did you good huh”

“Yeah”

“I’m surprised you didn’t break a bone”

“I didn’t but nee-san did.....she break a nerve.....she snapped”

Tanaka shivered thinking about his sister’s reaction awhile ago. It was honestly a miracle he didn’t end up being at the hospital bed besides you right now.

“Here”

He’ll give you a banana as a peace offering. He pulled a piece and peeled it for you.

“I’m sorry”

“It’s fine have you learned your lesson tho?”

“I certainly did”

Lev haiba

Sitting comfortably—scratch that your arms are very uncomfortable right now.

You were alone in your room, for no reason you got a private room.

Alisa your sister already visited you but have to go as there are some business she has to attend to.

The door opened you saw a huge ass boy with silver hair smiling at you.

“Yo!”

He would laugh at your state and ask why are you even at a tree

“Well i wanted to just chill but i never thought i was too heavy and the branch wasn’t sturdy”

Patting your head “u wanted to look like those anime characters who just chills at the tree looking all cool don’t you?”

The way you got flustered was enough hint for him that he was right.

Lev knows everything about you, i mean ofc he would you’re his little sister.

And he knows what you want now.

“I brought snacks!!! And manga”

Aone takanobu

After school aone would go straight to a near supermarket to buy you comfort foods.

Ice cream, chips, juice, biscuits anything that comforts you.

Of course futakuchi said they’ll visit you after school which you told them with a big firm

“No”

“Too bad we will”

Of course he’ll just go tease you.

As soon as aone got to your room he’ll immediately frown.

He’ll scold you with a soft voice while slowly taking out the foods in the plastic bag.

“You should be more careful next time”

He open a bag of chips since you broke your arm and gave it to you.

You’ll just laugh at him, even tho he is clearly mad at your stupidness you can still see his soft side.

“Damn ur lover will be luckiest person if they ever get to marry you”

“Don’t flatter me”

Soon enough the room was filled with tall ass boys with alot of get well gifts.

“My gift is myself be happy Cuz I’m blessing you with my presence”

“I swear to God futakuchi-san i can break my other arm just to punch you”

“I’ll take that as a compliment”

[whorefordazai]

Rate your mutuals and your honest opinion on them, then let them do the same! (thought it'd be a fun ask game)

I have so many mutuals !!🤪👺 so I’ll do the people who I interact with the most <3

hua (@hanazou) - I think we have a love/hate/love relationship because we hype each other up but also she could drop kick me if I joke about Oda’s death or threaten to kidnap her non existent kids 🥰 but she’s a seggsy yandere one 😏!!

mich (@dazaicafe) - my seggsy wife, my sister from another mother, we are gilfzawa’s favorite kittens, no take backs 😏!! she’s a loyal mf to her dazai and she can’t drive but I imagine us taking a road to who knows where 🤪

tobi (@fashionablyfailing12) - aaHH my one and only bestoe 🤪 we bite each other’s toes off, that’s it. can definitely match the chaos energy I have 😏 I can always send her tiktoks and they’ll respond with inaudible words and keyboard spams 😍

lev (@f4ncyhat) - lev is just so relatable 🥲 if you ever need someone to help you with arson, they’re your person. i can’t explain it, there’s just something comforting about them ☺️ I really do enjoy the random bursts of energy and capitalization in the posts you post during ungodly hours of the night 🥰

nyx (@cross-crye) - likes writing angst and is really at it too 😭 we send each other tiktoks, which I think is a good sign of friendship 😏 but I swear if I get another one of those tiktoks with the terrifying emoji eyes, I’ll dox you bestie 🤪

sap (@slashingsaplins) - my fellow horny buddy and akutagawa simp 😏 absolutely love her, they’ll sometimes pop into my inbox to thirst about chuuya (which is very much appreciated cuz same 😝)

nimi (@bsdwhore) - url says it all, we are simply just whores together. no shame in it either 😶 we have similar bdsm test scores and neither of us wanna settle down and get married, what a win win 😳😏

I’m sorry I couldn’t do everyone, and sorry this took a while to do 😭 I love you guys so much 💗!!

[catwithangerissues]

Okay so for your weekly prompt, Fukunaga and I/Me/Myself by Will Wood please! Thank you! :))

I/Me/Myself by Will Wood - Fukunaga Shōhei

✨Hey! Before anyone says it, I’m fully aware that this song is about gender identity! But, I couldn’t do it justice to use it quite that way here, so I instead used the upbeat tune to make a cute ending :) Please give the song a listen, cause holy shit he’s one of my favorite artists now✨

“I’ve been feeling lightheaded since I lost enough weight to fit back in my skin

Flower petals and feathers tether me to the ground (pound for pound)

Take my tea with formaldehyde for my feminine side since the day that I died

While I whittle my bones until I’m brittle, am I pretty now?

For some reason I find myself lost in what you think of me

And too confused to choose who I should be

And now you’ve got me thinking”

“You’ve got to tell them at some point bro!” Yamamoto had been going on and on for what felt like hours, telling Fukunaga about how he needed to finally confess to you, but it always ended up the same way.

The black haired boy was too scared to tell you how he felt, for fear that you didn’t feel the same way. He was pretty insecure about himself, he thought you could do so much better than him and that there was no chance you’d ever feel the same as he did.

He had been quietly talking to the other second years about his problem, he thought that Tora would be helpful because he’d push him out of his comfort zone in the way he needed, and he thought Kenma would be the voice of reason in comparison to the teams ace.

What he didn’t expect, but probably should’ve, was for Tora and Kenma’s inevitable fighting and commotion to draw the attention of two of the third years, minus Kai who had been talking to Lev at the time.

“Come on, Kenma! You know just a-“

“Oi, what’s this about?!” The libero and resident mom of the team was becoming noticeably annoyed with all the noise.

“Fukunaga won’t confess to y/n because he’s scared they don’t feel the same way!” Tora shouted while trying to pry Kenma off of his torso, only for Kuroo to separate the two.

Fukunaga looked down at the floor, and a layer of silence dawned on the entire gym. His pale face flushed, and he began fiddling with his hands out of embarrassment and nervousness.

You see, basically everyone knew of your little crush on Sho, except for him. The entire team had been trying for months to get him to ask you out already, because they had long since come to the conclusion that you were too much of a scaredy cat to make the first move yourself.

“I- I just find it hard to believe that they w-would ever feel the same way..” Fukunaga timidly explained.

“Are you kidding!? Y/n has been going on about you for months dude! Just do it already!” The mohawked ace was quickly silenced by a loud back of the neck smack from the captain. “If you keep telling like that, they’ll hear you.”

After a quick exchange of discipline to the yelling boy, Yaku had made his way over to Fukunaga to comfort him, fearing he’d explode or melt from embarrassment at any second, now that the entire gymnasium had been made aware once again of his situation.

For the next several minutes, Sho had effectively poured his heart out to the much shorter upperclassman. He told him of his fear of you not feeling the same way, as well as informing him of all his insecurities both physical and otherwise. But it’s what slipped out of his own mouth during his rant of confessions that really stuck with Fukunaga.

“I think I’m in love with y/n and I’m terrified.”

“I wish I could be a girl, and that way you’d wish I could be your girlfriend, boyfriend

Am I pretty enough to lie to?

I wish I could be a girl, and that way you’d wish I could be your girlfriend, boyfriend

Just little old me in a big, big world

Little old me in a big world

I wish I were a girl”

Later that night, he laid in bed, hands behind his head and one leg over the other, staring at the ceiling, thinking of the words that slipped from his lips earlier that day. He didn’t know if he really knew what love was, let alone if he even felt it for anyone but his family.

But the words changed something in his brain, like a switch had gone off, and he couldn’t help but feel as though he was running out of time to tell you how he felt.

You both still had another year before graduation, so it couldn’t be that, at least he thought so. Maybe it was that you were the most gorgeous and kind human he’d ever met and he feared someone snatching his best friend away from him. Or maybe it was the ever present fear of one of his team mates, most likely the tall Russian puppy dog or the shark toothed ace, would slip up and tell you how he felt without him knowing.

He spent the rest of that night talking himself up to telling you, how he’d been head over heels for you for what felt like forever, tomorrow. He had to, he couldn’t let the love of his life slip through his fingers. “Wait, did I just think that?!”

“I’ve been feeling lighthearted since I gained enough weight back to cover my bones

I get dressed up in shadows one leg at a time – we’re so alike

But if the shoe fits, then I won’t try it on

You’ll be walking out early, but the show must go on

No, I know that I’m wrong

But I love how you’re on my side when I cross that line

It’s been a point of contention between myself and this body that they stuck me in

The privilege of being born to be a man

And now you got me thinking”

He met you in the usual spot. Your bright smile at his presence instantly making his cheeks heat up. You two had small talk for a few minutes, it eased his nerves slightly, but the voice in his head was screaming for him to just rip off the bandaid. If you were going to reject him he may as well get it over with, he thought.

“I told them I couldn’t beca-“

“Y/n.” The black haired boy interrupted you. Turning your head to meet his gaze, he looked tense and deep on thought, but at the same time more focused than you’d ever seen him before.

“Yes, Sho?” Your curiosity got the better of you, long forgetting the story you were previously telling the boy.

He was noticeably nervous, hands shaking and you could tell he was straining to keep eye contact with you. You felt concern wash through your entire body at the sight, fearing he may be ill or something worse.

“I- I need to tell you something, t-that’s been on my mind for a while.” His voice trailed quieter towards the end of his sentence, his voice slightly wobbly. Your hands came up to his cheeks, effectively forcing him to look you in the eye, and yes, he blushed profusely at the closeness.

“I wish I could be a girl, and that way you’d wish I could be your girlfriend, boyfriend

Am I pretty enough to lie to?

I wish I could be a girl, and that way you’d wish I could be your girlfriend, boyfriend

Just little old me in a big, big world

Little old me in a big world

I wish”

His confession had been a surprise to you, but you were overjoyed at the newfound information that the shy quiet boy had actually felt the same as you all along.

You couldn’t stop smiling for hours after it happened, and from the looks of it, neither could Fukunaga. He held your hand firmly but carefully in his as the two of you walked to the gym, routinely getting ready for you to drop him off for practice. Planting a small kiss on his cheek and exchanging your goodbyes, he turned to walk into the large familiar building.

He was greeted by the loud congratulations and praise of his teammates, noticing they’d been watching through the windows of the building, he couldn’t help but chuckle. He spent the next few minutes answering endless questions, and even if he was normally used to the provocative jokes that his teammates made, he couldn’t help but turn bright red when he heard, “remember to use protection” followed by laughter, as they dispersed to being warming up for practice.

“Eating your prosthetic meat/meet your anesthetic criteria, pathetic seeing you become acetic

Say my name like a slur, but I’ve been called worse

I’ve heard it all before, no this isn’t a first

Let me be the void you fill with taxidermy fingerprints, taxonomize our differences

I am quantum physics, my witness brings me into existence”

-Flash forward a few years into the future-

The loud, upbeat music played throughout the small space the two of you shared, it seemed as though the notes resonated off of the floor under your feet as you listened. With his right hand on your waist and his left hand clasping your right, the two of you spun around enthusiastically to the music. The tile floors of your shared apartment kitchen were as smooth as a dance floor for the two of you. With loud laughter, poor dueting, and pounding heart rates, you couldn’t find it in you- no matter how deep you thought- to feel anything but love at this moment.

With your partner of a few years now, stable jobs and schooling going well, in your first apartment together, dancing in the empty space- as you hadn’t bought any furniture yet. As the late afternoon, orange sun rays bled through the small kitchen window and onto the tiles, you two twirled and dipped to the beat, feet moving without thinking. You saw his bright smile as you spun, his arms catching you with ease. You wanted to burn this memory into your brain forever and never forget it. If you weren’t already certain of your love for the black haired boy, you definitely were now.

“I wish I could be a girl, and that way you’d wish I could be your girlfriend, boyfriend

Am I pretty enough to love back?

No, not yet

I wish I could be a girl, and really I’d prefer it if you would use I/Me/Myself

Am I pretty enough?

Am I pretty enough to fucking die?

Little old me in a big world

Well I would give you my whole world

Little old me in a big world

I wish”

-Flash forward again-

You were brought from your thoughts by the noises of your partner getting ready for the day. The two of you had woken up well over an hour ago, but neither of you wanted to leave the others warm embrace.

You laid in bed, watching as your partner got ready. It wasn’t that watching your now fiancé getting ready for the day was very exciting, he liked to keep his routine simple. But as you watched the way he moved around quietly so as to not disturb you, as he gave a glance over to your tired form to check up on you every few minutes, only to smile when he caught you staring again. As he routinely kissed your forehead after gently lifting your hair out of the way with his thumb, and as he told you he loved you and he’d be home soon to treat you to dinner and a movie tonight in a whisper.

You could almost cry at the sense of relief, happiness, and thankfulness that washed over you. In this moment, you were more grateful than ever for his old high school team of energetic boys that talked him into asking you out all those years ago.

✨Tag list: @almalckd @toworuu ✨

🌱This was fucking cute don’t @ me. Thank you for requesting! I love this song 😭 not super happy with the way this was written but oh well :)

[punkrockmads]

A New Friend

Summary: Lev meets a new friend in Avalon (This might be garbage lol)

A loud cry fills the apartment building, waking Abby up for the third time this week. She sits up quickly, the familiar scream startling her and probably everyone else on the floor. The kid. Abby decides to get up, turning on her bedroom light and walking out into the hallway. Lev has most likely already gone back to sleep, cuddling his tiny shark plush in the room next to Abby's.

Abby opens the door to the floor, looking to the room next door. A scouting team had found a girl around Lev's age trapped in a store in an abandoned mall. They rescued her and brought her back to the base. That was three days ago. Since then, she hasn't left her apartment or spoken to anyone. Other Fireflies leave food for her in front of her door but from what Abby can tell, she's only eaten a small bit. She's admittedly worried about the girl. She can't imagine how scared she must be all alone in a new place. Every night, the girl wakes up screaming because of nightmares, at least that's what everyone assumes.

People have tried to get the girl to speak to them, but she never says a word. Nobody's even found out her name. Abby can only imagine how afraid she must be. Lev was terrified when they first joined the Fireflies and he has Abby! This girl is alone! Abby thinks for a minute before deciding it's her turn to try and get through to the poor girl.

Later that morning, Abby and Lev walk to the girl's apartment with a tray of food. Abby thought maybe seeing another kid might be comforting for her. Abby knocks softly, hearing a small yelp from somewhere inside. She looks to Lev.

"Call out to her." She whispers down at the boy. Lev nods, understanding Abby's thought process.

"Hello?" Lev says, almost feeling like he's talking to nobody. "We brought you some food." He makes sure to keep his voice soft, hoping he hasn't startled the stranger inside. "I'm coming in, okay?" At this, Abby's eyes go wide. The plan was for the girl to open the door on her own! Regardless of Abby's silent protest, Lev reaches for the door handle, surprised to find it unlocked. He opens the door slowly, the light from the building flooding into the dark apartment. The curtains don't do much to hide the sun but it's still a little hard to see. The two look around, half expecting the girl to be hidden in one of the bedrooms or the bathroom. Abby blinks a few times before her eyes focus on a tiny figure crouched in the corner of the living room beside the window.

"Hi." Abby says shyly, offering the girl a small wave. "I'm Abby and this is Lev." She gestures to Lev and he nods at the girl with a warm smile.

"Is it okay if we turn a light on?" Lev asks, curious to meet this new kid. The girl stands up, bare feet padding against the wooden floor as she walks over to the bay window. She reaches for the big, dark blue curtain, opening it and letting in the daylight. That's when Abby and Lev are able to get a good look at her.

She's very thin, most likely from not eating much. She's dressed in an oversized shirt that falls just past her knees. What strikes Abby the most is how familiar she looks. Long black hair, dark brown eyes, lips curved into a tiny, scared frown. She's almost a spitting image of Yara! Even her face shape and skin tone are almost the exact same! Abby freezes for a moment, trying to figure out if she's seeing things. She can tell Lev's noticed it too but keeps quiet.

"You hungry?" Abby asks when she can form proper words. She holds the tray out towards the girl. The girl hesitates, taking a tiny step forward.

"It's okay." Lev assures. "Abby may look big and tough but she's a softie. I even beat her at arm wrestling all the time." His joking seems to lighten the mood, the thick atmosphere almost vanishing. The girl steps closer, taking small footsteps forward with cautious eyes. Abby sets the tray on the coffee table in front of her. "Would you feel a bit more comfortable if we had breakfast with you instead of watching you like creeps?" Lev asks. The girl doesn't nod but Abby notices her cautious eyes relax only for a moment when Lev mentions the idea.

"Okay, I'll be right back." Abby says. "You guys okay here for a few minutes?" Lev nods, offering an assuring smile. Abby leaves the apartment to get food for her and Lev.

"Can I sit?" Lev asks, gesturing to the couch. The girl nods slowly, standing on the opposite end. Lev sits down, giving the girl a kind smile. The girl sits on the other end of the couch, crossing her legs and facing Lev. She watches him with curiosity. His posture isn't threatening and he seems welcoming. It's the first time she's seen another kid in quite a while. "What's your name?" Lev asks. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me."

The girl thinks for a moment before deciding she's safe to tell him. "Avery." She mumbles quietly. Suddenly, she gains a small bit of boldness. She scoots closer, reaching out and touching the scar on Lev's left cheek. She looks at both of them, tracing the jagged pattern with shakey fingers. "How did you get hurt?" Avery asks innocently. She pulls her hand away, eyes still tracing the curious lines on Lev's face.

"A group of bad people did it to me." Lev explains. "But we're safe here. They'll never get to us here." Lev adds the last bit to assure Avery that she's safe on Catalina. "How old are you?" As Lev asks this, Abby returns with two more trays of food. Avery backs up to the other end of the couch again, watching Abby silently. "It's okay, Avery." Lev says.

"Ten." Avery squeaks out. Abby tries to hide her surprise at hearing the little girl speak. She sets down the trays, taking a seat in the arm chair beside the couch.

"I'm almost fourteen." Lev says. "And Abby's like fourty or something."

"Excuse me?!" Abby exclaims, pretending to be offended. "I'm twenty one!" The two laugh, and Abby's extremely happy when she sees Avery crack a tiny smile as she studies the young woman. She can tell Abby's a good person. She has a warm, welcoming energy surrounding her.

"Yeah but you act like you're eighty." Lev teases. "Yesterday you got up off the couch and your spine cracked in like twenty different places." The laughter continues, and this time, Avery giggles along with them, feeling safe for the first time in what could've been weeks or even months.

"Okay, goofballs." Abby rolls her eyes playfully. "Eat your food. I'll turn on a movie or something." Abby made it a point to take the day off in order to give her and Lev time to connect with Avery. Thankfully, that time would definitely not be wasted. There are still many questions left to answer and a lot of trust to be gained, but with a little time, Abby can tell Avery will start adjusting. She already knows she and Lev will become the best of friends.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Where He Is

CW: PTSD flashback and panic attack, includes some references to Danny’s captivities (both of them). Lev and Graham belong to @evermetnotforgotten and are used with permission.

Timeline: Post-Bad Arc, pre-Dad Fluff

I had a prompt for “panic attack” for Danny and owe Dotty something for the Fucked Up Support Group (it’s not owe, really, this is a fucking joy and I love writing them together)

Tagging Danny’s crew: @slytherynjolras, @whump-it, @bleeding-demon-teeth, @finder-of-rings, @burtlederp, @whumpywhumper, @18-toe-beans, @pumpkinthefangirl, @special-spicy-chicken, @whale-whumps, @swordkallya, 

Everything is dark and quiet and Danny can’t breathe. 

He got lost somewhere between the bathroom and his bedroom and he can’t find his way back, because he doesn’t know exactly where he is. The hallway was long, it felt so long, like it would never end. Somehow he’s staring towards a living room but he’s not in the cabin and he doesn’t know where he is.

Wake up, puppy, wake up

But he’s already awake. Isn’t he?

Is he?

All of this is the dream. I’m not really here. I’m going to wake up on the mat and it never ended and it was never better and I’m still there, still there, still there-

Danny’s gasping now, breathing in wheezes through the pinhole his throat has become. Somewhere Nate is sleeping but he can’t remember where or how to find him, because this is a dream and when he wakes up he’ll be in the bed with Abraham and tears are on his face but he can’t remember crying at all.

Maybe he’s crying for real, wherever he really is.

Maybe he’s not in Abraham’s bed, but in the cellar, closed up in the kennel, all alone inside his head in the dark and they’re reaching out for him, the things that move in the shadows, they want him and all the things inside him and-

“Help.”

Danny can’t speak above a whisper.

No one can hear him.

“He... help...”

His whisper is shaking, it’s not even human - and he tries to get up but his back twinges, a sudden flash of agony. The knife is still there, the knife, they never took the blade out of his back and he whimpers, dragging himself along the floor by his hands until he finds a couch, curling up on the floor next to it even though the mat is gone, there isn’t a mat. This isn’t a place where there’s a mat, but there will be, when he wakes up.

He misses his mat, misses the way it stuck to him when he slept and crinkled whenever he moved. He misses the simple certainty of it, because when he wakes up there’ll be a knife in his back and maybe he’s dying or dead and this is what hell feels like and he deserves to be in hell after everything Abraham Denner has done to him-

Danny sees a flat rectangle lying on a coffee table and his eyes catch.

A cell phone.

His cell phone.

He’d agreed to get one just to make Nate and Ryan feel better, and that feels like a real thing, a thing that actually happened. He owns a cell phone now. He texts people. He found some of his old gaming buddies, right?

Did that happen or is he imagining-

His breath catches again. Don’t think about it don’t think just get the phone. He has to get the phone and he doesn’t know why. His heart is pounding inside his chest, trying to break out, and there’s a pain that keeps coming and going alongside the pain in his back. Knives, blades everywhere, sharp flashing bits that will slice him apart for his sins, for what he’s done.

He has to drag himself along the floor, just like in the second house, with his fingernails digging into grooves in a hardwood floor to pull himself forward, blood pouring from his back. Nate will find the trail of blood, Nate will know to follow the blood and it’s okay, it’s okay, he’s already ruined but this way Ryan won’t be- it’s okay to be the one to take the knife- this way Ryan can get back up, even if he can’t... it’s okay... 

It’s okay. The words rattle around inside his head. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.

He doesn’t have to be the one who walks away. He knew that from the second Abraham Denner was inside him again. He won’t be the one who lives, Ryan will, and that’s okay. 

His fingers scrabble along the edge of the phone case, and he manages to drag it just far enough for it to fall with a soft clatter onto the ground. Danny’s back is an agony of pain, he can feel the blood running out of him, staining the floors so deeply they’ll demolish the house because the blood won’t come out, it won’t come out, he’s been scrubbing for days and the blood won’t out.

The phone lights up, briefly, when it hits the ground.

3:42 AM.

There’s a Skype notification, and Danny lets out a hoarse, half-broken sob when he sees the message preview from Lev.

Okay fine you win, Fabulous Killjoys is actually amazing

His heart burns, beats harder. He won’t get to meet Lev because this isn’t real, Lev isn’t real or if he is, he’s still trapped with his monster a whole world away. They’re both trapped with monsters who will get bored and kill them one day and he’ll never get to meet him, and he-

And he-

Danny whimpers, unlocking his phone, opening Skype up, all of it with shaking hands, fingers that miss his target again and again. He has to talk to Lev, has to tell him he’s so sorry they won’t get to meet each other in real life, that this is just a dream he’s having and it was such a good one, too, to come home and get married and meet Lev in person and the drunk kissing and all the other stuff was so good-

He makes the call, letting his sweaty forehead rest on the cool floor.

There’s blood soaking into the floor, and he can’t scrub it out. He can’t move to scrub it out because it’s his own blood and he’s the body, now, he’s the think that has to die. 

“I’m a body,” Danny whispers. “A-A body, my body is, belongs to Abraham-”

“Hullo? Danny?” Lev’s voice comes tinny through the phone’s speaker. “It’s got to be the middle of the night there, what’s up?”

“He... help me,” Danny whispers, and tears run to pool with the blood he can’t see, but he knows is there, on the floor beneath his body. “Help, please, help, I’m s-sorry, I’m so sorry-”

There’s a pause. 

“Danny? Are you safe?” Lev’s voice is slightly tight, questions he’s not asking, and Danny whines in his throat at the pain as he reaches his arm up, the agony races along the nerves from his wounded back-

How is it still like this, I went home, I was in the hospital forever it felt like, there were surgeries, they took the knife out - was none of that real, was none of it- am I will in the cabin- was there ever a second house at all Ryan please don’t stop looking we’re in the woods you have to look in the woods-

He manages to push the speaker button, just as Lev speaks again.

“Danny, please answer me now, please.” Lev’s voice is shaking, too, and Danny closes his eyes tightly. He’s having a dream and he’s worrying his friend in his dream, and he can tell Lev to talk to Ryan, to tell him to look in the woods. He takes a deep breath, shaking, trying to breathe around the pain in his chest that won’t quit, a vice grip around his heart.

“Help me,” He manages. “I don’t think I’m, I don’t know where I am-... I don’t think I’m real, I think-”

“Okay.” There’s a rush of something like relief in his friend’s voice, his accent a little thicker, less strained. There’s a shuffle of sound and Lev saying, muffled, I think he’s having a moment.

Can he wake up Nate?

I think he’s a bit too deep in it for that. Graham, you call Nate, I’ m going to talk Danny through this until he’s up, okay?

Yeah, love. I’m on it. The one night I leave my fuckin’ phone in the other room...

Then silence, and it stretches too long, and Danny sobs again. He made it up. He made it all up. He made everything up and nothing is real and he belongs to Abraham Denner-

“Danny, I’m right here.” Lev’s voice is low, but firm. “I’m right here with you, all right? I’m going to talk to you, yeah? Can you answer me?”

“Y-Yes.” His voice is  whimper. “M-my... my back hurts, Lev, none of it’s real, I don't know where I am...”

“You’re in your apartment. All right? Take a deep breath and look, what’s closest to you right now?”

“The, um, the-the coffee table is right there...”

“Okay. Reach out and touch it. I want you to feel that it’s real. Touch it and count to five.”

Danny nods, even though Lev can’t see him through the phone, and stretches out his arm. “H-hurts, there’s, there’s a knife in my back-”

“I know,” Lev soothes. His voice is soft, gentle, his accent singsong-sweet, and Danny takes the first deep breath he’s taken since he got lost in the hallway. His fingers touch cool wood and he runs them down the coffee table’s leg, feeling its hardness under his fingertips. “D’you have it?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Okay. Let’s count to five together.”

“Okay, okay... c’n, I can do that, I can do it...”

They count in unison, Danny’s voice a trembling, terrified whisper and Lev’s a calm, collected monotone. The coffee table doesn’t fade away or dissolve under his fingers. It stays solid. 

He takes another deep breath.

“There we go, I heard that,” Lev says, encouraging. His voice is like a hand on Danny’s forehead through the phone. “I heard you breathe, that’s good, that was a good breath. Okay. Let’s pick something else. What else is nearby?”

“Th-there’s a, a book, on the coffee table... Nate’s book, he bought it... oh god, Lev, I’m so sorry, I’m-... I made you up and I m-made you suffer just so I’d have someone like me-”

“No you didn’t. Honestly it’d be a relief if the world had some kind of order like that.” Lev’s voice is slightly dry, cutting through the white noise of panic that Danny can’t escape on his own. Behind him, he hears a phone ringing, distantly. Nate’s ringtone for everyone is an old rock song, and there are tinny, barely-audible guitar-sounds from down the hall. “Grab the book, Danny. Get it in your hands.”

He has to grab onto the coffee table and pull himself up onto his knees, groaning at the pain in his back, muscles seized up tight around the knife, the invasion. He grabs at it, pulling it close, then collapses back onto the floor. “H-hurts,” He whispers. “My back, it hurts, the knife-”

“I know, Danny. I know. I know it does. Tell me about the book.”

“It’s, um, it’s...” He lays his head on the floor, holding the book to his chest. The rough-edged cover feels more like fabric than cardboard, and he lets his fingers run back and forth, back and forth. “It’s a, uh, a book on... on something t’do with... literature, I don’t know, someone he went to college with published... it...”

“Good, good. Right, yeah, we’re gettin’ somewhere now. Okay. Keep talking to me, Danny, keep talking. Graham’s got your man on the phone, you’re going to be okay, yeah? You’re going to be okay. Keep talking.”

“I-I don’t know where I am,” Danny whispers. “I can’t remember what really happened and what didn’t. Did I make you up, Lev? Did I make you up to make it hurt less to be me?”

“No, Danny. No, I’m real as anything. Remember? Coming to visit me?”

“What if I didn’t?” Danny whispers.

“Then who the hell left his pants jammed in a ball under my bed? and left wearing my pants and with his t-shirt on backwards the next day?”

Danny lets out a breathy laugh.

“There it is. There you are, there’s Danny. Okay, there you go… there it is-”

A door opens and closes somewhere behind him. Hurried footsteps in the hall, the familiar scent of Nate’s cologne - and the man himself. A warm hand on his back.

“N-Nate, the blood-”

There isn’t any blood.

“Nate? You’re with him?” Lev’s voice sounds like he’s breathing out all at once, pure relief. 

“I’m h-here,” Nate says, gently, whether it’s to Danny or Lev or to them both he can’t tell. “I’m here. Graham c-c-called me.”

“Right. He’s having a flashback, I think.”

“I don’t know where I am,” Danny says, trying to help, to be helpful. Nate’s hand on his face is warm, and Nate bundles him up in his arms, pulling him tightly. The pain in his back is immense but it fades, a little, at the warmth of Nate’s hand slipping around to settle there, a gentle pressure against sparking nerves. “My body belongs to-”

“Your body belongs to you,” Nate murmurs. “We f-f-fought for that. Your b-body is yours. I can handle him from here, Lev. Th-thank you for t-t-talking him through this.”

“Anytime, Nate. You know that.” Lev’s voice goes soft, and sincere. “You’ve talked me through more’n one of these yourselves. You call me later, yeah? I want to talk to Danny later.”

“He’ll c-call,” Nate says. “Bye, L-Lev.” There’s a warm, deep affection in his voice, and Danny smiles at a vague memory of a drunken conversation and tangled limbs and Lev’s voice soft in his ear and Graham’s hands on his, Nate’s low laughter. “He’s s-s-smiling. We’re, I’ll c-call you. He’ll c-call you. Bye.”

Lev’s voice murmurs a farewell and Nate hangs up the call, getting his feet under himself and picking Danny up like he weighs nothing at all. 

Danny’s head lolls onto Nate’s shoulder - suddenly he’s exhausted, so weighed down he can barely think. His eyes slip shut, and his heart is still pounding but slower, slower. 

Finally, slower.

“I’m bleeding-”

“You’re n-not.”

“I don’t know wh-where I am-”

“You’re home.”

“What’s... what’s home?”

“California. We bought the house but it’s not ready yet, we can’t m-m-move for three months.”

He’s quiet, and then asks, in a small voice, “What’s my name?”

“Y-your name is Daniel Michaelson.”

“Who... who do I belong to?”

“Yourself.”

Nate carries him back to the bedroom, answering every question he asks along the way. 

[winterfang53]

Gajevy Week 2020 - Trials

Gajevy Week 2020 Trials!

Gajeel had never thought that their first pregnancy would be so hard.

In the beginning, Levy and Gajeel had kept their surprise a secret from the rest of the Guild, telling only Lily -- at the advice of Porlyusica.

“The first trimester is the most critical,” Porlyusica had explained, “if you’re going to have a miscarriage, it will happen then. You’re not far enough alone to get an ultrasound done, but your vitals look good so you’re fine for now. Just don’t overdo it!”

This had scared him. The thought that the little life the two of them created together could vanish on them was terrifying. While Levy felt fine and so far Porlyusica thought everything was going well, this didn’t stop Gajeel from monitoring Levy closely.

Which he’s forever grateful that he did.

About a month in, Levy developed a sudden and violent case of morning sickness. It was like one moment she felt fine and the next she had her head in the toilet throwing up everything she ate the past 24 hours. Gajeel did the best he could; making sure Levy ate and being there for her when she felt ill but there wasn’t much they could do. It was at this time that they had to tell Wendy about the baby, so she could help monitor Levy’s nutrients.

After almost a month of this -- 2 months in -- Porlyusica finally had an idea of what might be causing Levy to be so sick.

“We don’t have any records of Dragon Slayers having offspring,” she said during one of the Redfox’s appointments, “most women don’t get this sick and based at me and Wendy’s observations, I think the baby might be extracting an abnormally large amount of mineral -- particularly iron -- from Levy. This might indicate that Gajeel’s magic has somehow affected the baby. We’ll need to start you on supplements.”

And the supplements helped! Levy started feeling better, not 100%, but still better -- though not as much as Porlyusica would have liked. Gajeel really couldn’t understand why the supplements weren’t working as they should have, she was taking the right dosage but it was almost like she needed even more!

It started to make sense why near the 3-month mark when Levy suddenly grew a baby bump. It had literally happened overnight, shocking the Redfox family at the size.

“I’m only 3 months!” Levy exclaimed, “how am I already this big?”

Porlyusica, this time, had the answer. “You’re having twins,” she said in relief as she showed the couple the ultrasound screen, “this is why the supplements weren’t working as well as they should have -- you had 2 babies sucking you dry.”

There, on the black and white screen, were 2 tiny babies curled next together. Their little heartbeats fluttering fast as Gajeel rested his head on Levy’s stomach to listen. Gajeel had never felt so much love, for 2 little people he had never met before, in his life.

“Twins will bring their own complications,” Porlyusica explained, “even though you’re past your first trimester, you need to be extra careful. We might need to put you on bed rest in a couple of months.”

The sudden baby bump made it impossible to hide from the Guild any longer, though the looks on their faces when they learned that Gajeel and Levy were expecting twins of all things was pretty funny. 

“You’re having a baby!” wailed Jet and Droy, clutching each other as they cried.

“They’re having twins, you idiots!” Cana cheered, “lets party!”

The party had been short-lived, however, as they discovered that the smell of alcohol makes Levy nauseous, resulting in her almost projectile vomit across the Guildhall. Unfortunately, this prevented Levy from visiting the Guild as much as she would have liked, causing the stressed -- now very emotional -- mother-to-be to sob on a daily basis. 

“Lev, baby don’t cry!” Gajeel pleaded as he held her, stroking her hair gently, “you’ll be able to visit the guild soon! Porlyusica said most mothers get over their nauseousness in the 3rd trimester!” 

“B-but I wanna go today!” Levy wailed, clinging to him tightly, “I wanna see my friends!”

“They can just come here Sweetheart, now come on; you need to eat! You’re eating for 3 now, Lily’s making a big lunch!” Gajeel said trying to pacify her.

Levy looked up at him in horror, making Gajeel immediately regret his choice of words -- though not really understand why he did -- as a fresh batch of tears welled in her eyes. “You think I’m fat!!” Levy sobbed loudly, pushing Gajeel away to cry into her arms which emphasized her baby bump. 

Much to Gajeel’s chagrin, emotional Levy was here for the rest of the pregnancy, which Gajeel learned the hard way was very sensitive about her weight and how big she looked. The nauseousness vanished though at the 5-month mark, only to be replaced with bizarre food cravings that happened at any time.

“Gajeel, honey, wake up!” Levy whispered in his ear one night around 2 AM, “I need you!”

“Wha-” Gajeel awoke, half-dazed, “Wha-what happened? Are you ok?”

Levy shook her head, “no! I need Doritos with strawberry sauce!”

Gajeel could only look at his wife in disbelief, “...you want Doritos with strawberry sauce?” he asked, “at...2 AM Lev?”

Levy looked at him shyly, pulling the covers up to her nose. “I need them,” she said as if she too had no idea why.

Gajeel took a deep breath before swinging his feet out of bed, “what flavor Doritos Shrimp?”

“Cool Ranch!” Levy exclaimed cheerfully.

“Cool Ranch and strawberries…” Gajeel whispered to himself as he rummaged through the cabinets, “the very idea makes me wanna vomit myself.”

By the time they had reached 7 and a half months, Levy looked more baby then Levy. The swell of her stomach grew to a size that made Levy always uncomfortable, making it hard for her to sleep which brought a bought a new round of nausea. Gajeel couldn’t wait for the twins to be born, just so he could ground them for the rest of their lives for this.

“Not even born and they’re already trouble Lily,” Gajeel said one afternoon while Levy was taking a rare nap, “they’re not even here yet and I already feel outnumbered.”

“What did you expect Gajeel?” Lily teased, “they are your children after all.”

“Oi!”

 They didn’t have to wait long, however, because just a week after 8 months, in the middle of the Guildhall, Levy’s water broke; catapulting the Guild into a mass panic. Porlyusica had luckily enough had been at the Guild that day, allowing her and Wendy to take action. 

“She’s going to need a C-section,” Porlyusica had declared after examination, “you need to leave.”

“What!” Gajeel growled, “like Hell I am!”

With the help of Lily, Master, Natsu, and Laxus of all people, Gajeel had been dragged out of the room to wait in the hall. For 1 painstaking hour, Gajeel paced violently outside the clinic door, grumbling and glaring that the offensive wooden door that kept him from his Levy, when he froze stiff at the sudden sound of babies crying. Tears welled in his eyes, almost blurring out the form of Wendy who poked her head out from behind the door.

“Wanna come meet your babies Daddy?” she teased as Gajeel nodded dumbfoundedly.

As he tripped through the door and laid eyes on Levy for the first time, Gajeel couldn’t fight the tears from falling. There, bundled up and resting in her arms, were their babies! The two little bundles were fast asleep, their little head rising and falling with Levy’s breathes. Both of the babies had fine blue hair atop their pink bodies but the baby on the right had a bright pink headband: A boy and a girl!

“Gajeel, they’re perfect!” Levy cried as she held them close to her, the babies nuzzling into their mother’s chest for warmth.

“‘Course they are Lev,” Gajeel choked as he came near, placing his large hand on both the babies heads, stroking their fine blue hair gently, “They’re ours!”

Levy laughed, starling the babes resting slightly before they grumbled and resettled themselves. “Great,” Levy joked, “they have your attitude!”

“Oi! That just means they’ll be great!” Gajeel said, defending himself, “what are we gonna do Lev? A boy and a girl who are already trouble… I say we ground them for the past 8 months!”

This made Levy laugh again, actually waking the babies this time to open beady red eyes to glare at their father. “Oh Gajeel, I would do it all over again,” Levy sighed as she kissed the babies’ heads, “every crappy morning and sleepless night! Oh, I would go through all those trials again for them, I love them so much!”

Gajeel leaned over and kissed Levy, “me too Lev, me too. I’d go through anything for our little trials of love.”

[fragmentedink-archived]

Hell to Pay: Part Thirty-One

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, IX, IX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XVIIII, XXX

cowritten by @lux-scriptum

A/n: Trigger warning: Karma is a bitch. Careful what you wish for :3c

Death kinda sucked.

One moment everything hurt, and Lev was trying to talk. Cameron wanted him to talk, and he hated to let Cameron down. He clung to the sound of Cameron’s voice, to Nik’s in the front seat. Nik- Nik had come too, even after Lev had walked out.

And then it stopped. Everything stopped.

There was no way to control it, and he hated it, hated watching Amara and Nik yelling at each other, hated watching Ash try to pull him back. Guilt tore through Lev. This wasn’t the first time Ash had healed him- it wasn’t Ash’s fault he couldn’t save Lev. He should have held on longer.

This was all his fault.

He stumbled back, and found himself on the porch. He looked around desperately; there was nothing he could do, and so much was going on. He caught Nate’s eye, and froze. Could- could Nate see him?

“Help them,” he blurted, desperate. “I’m sorry. Help them. Please. I can’t.”

It was a terrifying relief to see Nate nod at him. So he could see Lev. Lev sank down on the porch steps, lowering his head in his hands. It was very strange to have a panic attack and not have a body to panic with.

When he looked up again, the yard was empty, save Amara, curled in the back seat, with- no. He wasn’t going to think about that. He turned around, trying to steady his nerves. Dead. He was dead. Why was he still here then. No one had told him he’d have to stay here, and watch this.

He didn’t even have to open the front door. He started to push on it, and slid right through it. After a moment of shock, he wandered deeper, following the source of his distress, one he couldn’t explain why it dragged him through the house like a fish hooked on a fishing line. He stopped in the kitchen doorway, watching Nik go at a bottle of alcohol like a man dying of thirst.

“Nik, no,” Lev said softly, dropping to his knees beside him. When he reached for the bottle, his fingers went right through Nik’s. He watched a shudder go through Nik, and withdrew, looking down at his hands. They looked the same, but he couldn’t touch anything.

Once again he stumbled away. If this was death, death was hell. He couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t help, and he felt more useless than when he was alive.

So, like he had earlier that day, he fled. He didn’t know where to go, but he couldn’t watch Nik drink himself into the floor when he couldn’t fucking help.

The world bent around him, blurring on the edges as he leaned against a wall, breathing hard. Why was he even breathing? Did he need to? What kind of hell had he found himself in?

By the time he calmed down enough his vision didn’t crinkle black, the house was eerily quiet. When he looked outside, the sky was dark. How much time had he lost to his panic? Nik wasn’t in the kitchen when he checked, and the halls were empty save the angel sentries, and they didn’t bat an eye when he walked past.

“Lev. Over here.”

Nate. That was Nate. Lev whipped around, blinking at Nate. Nate could see him, and Lev clung to that, appearing at Nate’s side in a second. He blinked again, surprised. There’d been no attempt to move on his part.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, taking a step back just to be polite.

“Come with me,” was all Nate said.

Anxiety thrummed through Lev, though once again he noted it was odd to have the feeling but none of the physical reactions to it. He followed after Nate silently, into a room full of art supplies. Nate settled on a stool next to an easel, swiveling enough to look at Lev again.

In a very somber voice, Nate said, “You can move on if you want to. They’ll be okay.”

Lev’s mind whirled. “Move- Move on?” He asked numbly. “What do you mean?”

“You don't have to stay here, watching them, in the in-between. You can move on.”

Lev wrapped his arms around himself, trying to process that. “But they need me,” he said. “They’re- Nik’s a mess. Mar- I want to help. I wasn’t supposed- This isn’t how it was supposed to go.”

“How can you help?” Nate asked gently.

“I don’t- I don’t know.” Lev ran his hands through his hair, trying not to panic again. “I don’t know. But they don’t know what they’re doing, and I- I was only supposed to be gone a day.”

Nate considered that. “They’re resilient. They can figure it out.” He paused. “If it matters, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry this happened to you. You didn’t deserve it. But you do deserve peace.”

It’s my fault, Lev thought. And he couldn’t even cry about it. “I shouldn’t have gone back to that house,” he said in a small voice. “But I should have been safe in angel territory. I- I didn’t say goodbye to Nik. When I left. He- I should have said goodbye, why didn’t I say goodbye?”

To his surprise, Nate pulled him into a hug. Lev was even more freaked out by that, for a moment at least. He didn’t understand how he could touch one person but not the others, but it was too much of a relief to be able to touch something period. “Nik will be okay,” Nate was promising.

“I don’t believe you,” Lev said thickly. “He’s not okay. I can feel it.”

“He will be okay. He’s not right now, but he will be. Grief takes a lot out of him.”

Lev could barely hear him over the roaring in his ears. None of this was right. None of this was okay.

Lev should never have left home.

---

Lev wasn’t sure how long it was before he was able to focus again, but when he did, sunlight was streaming through the window, and Nate was gone. Lev doubled over, hands on his knees, and tried to soothe the remaining pieces of panic floating through his mind.

By the time he felt okay, he realized he wasn’t alone. In the corner of the room, he caught a glimpse of a tall, slender man. The tan skin and dark wavy hair was secondary to the golden gaze that pinned Lev into place, but in the next moment, the man was gone.

Unnerved, Lev backed out of Nate’s studio, wandering quickly down the halls, damn near walking through a sentry as he went. He found Nate in the kitchen, and to his surprise, Eden was there too, in a high chair. She zeroed in on Lev, much to his surprise, and shrieked, banging her hands on the tray.

Nate turned around, giving Lev a sad smile. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Lev said faintly, scooting over to Eden’s side. “Hey bitty girl,” he added softly, just to be sure.

Eden shrieked again, reaching out with both hands. Lev made a small noise of distress when he realized he couldn’t touch her.

“I’m sorry bitty girl,” he said, wishing he could cry. “I can’t.”

Eden babbled angrily at him, which only made his heart break more.

“Do you want me to pick her up?” Nate offered.

“Please,” Lev said. He backed up to give Nate room, and found his gaze drawn around the room until it settled on the man he’d seen in Nate’s studio. This time he was sitting at the table, golden gaze on them, but he didn’t say a word to Lev.

“Nate,” Lev said hesitantly. “Can you see- can you see everyone who’s died?”

Nate hummed into Eden’s hair. “That’s Darius,” he said. “Cameron’s boyfriend.”

Darius gave a small wave. “I didn’t want to be rude.”

“O-oh.” Lev bit his lip. “Sorry.”

Darius shrugged a little.

Lev switched his attention back to Nate. “Can you though?” He asked. “Like- like my parents? Fax?”

Nate looked a little sad as he shook his head. “I saw Fax for a little bit, but then he moved on too.”

“Oh,” Lev said. He looked away, slowly sinking into a chair.

“If it helps,” Nate offered, “He was happy you found someone.”

Lev tried for a smile. “I’m glad he wasn’t stuck,” he finally said, rubbing his face. “I wish I’d known he was there.”

Darius said quietly, “I wish Cameron knew I was here too.”

“Why haven’t you let him know?” Lev asked, before closing his eyes. “Stupid question. He can't see us.”

“I mean, he did kill me. It might make it a little awkward,” Darius said.

Lev stilled. “He what?”

Darius shrugged. “He thought he was trying to protect me from Destris. I’m not too bitter about it.”

After thinking on that for a few moments, Lev folded in on himself. “Having met Destris... I think I understand a little now.”

“I think Cameron was trying to avoid making the same mistake with you,” Darius replied.

“Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t,” Lev mumbled. He rubbed his face again, and then looked up at Nate. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you.” He looked down. “And I’m sorry I keep freaking out.”

Nate smiled a bit. “You died, I think you’re okay. You’re safe.”

Lev snorted. “It’s not like anything worse can happen to me.”

“Watching your loved ones is a certain kind of hell,” Darius pointed out.

Lev looked up at him, meeting his golden gaze steadily. “I’d rather know what’s happening than have it haunt me in wherever I go after this.” He swallowed, and then added, “I want to go see them.”

Darius’ mouth ticked up. “I do too.”

“How- how do we go? That’s a very long walk.”

“We don't have to walk,” Darius said.

Lev blinked hard. “Ghosts can drive?”

Darius smiled a little, and Nate snorted as he bounced Eden to keep her happy, so Lev figured he had said something very, very dumb.

“There’s a ghost thing, isn’t there?” Lev mumbled.

“Yeah, there is a ghost thing,” Darius confirmed.

Lev nodded slowly. He looked to Nate. “Can other people see me? You can. Eden can.” Can Nik?

“Infants, animals, and anyone from my family,” Nate said. “Minus Nik.”

“Oh,” Lev said quietly. “So I can’t talk to them.”

Nate smiled at him sadly. “It’s probably for the best.”

“I need to tell him I’m sorry,” Lev said, trying to keep his voice from cracking. “He needs to know I didn’t leave him.”

That same sad smile never left Nate’s face. “I know you do.”

Lev’s mouth tightened involuntarily. He looked to Darius. “How do you do it? I want to see him.”

“Think about him. His scent. His touch. How he makes you feel,” Darius explained.

That wasn’t hard. Lev needed to see him, needed it so hard, if he could feel his body his chest would have been aching with it.

And then he was standing in the doorway to Cameron’s bedroom, watching Cameron haul a very drunk Nik to bed. A glance out the window told him it was dark. That didn’t- it didn’t make sense. His attention dragged back to the bed. Cameron had stripped Nik, and Lev could smell the booze from here, which was weird, because he didn’t have a body to smell with, really.

Nik grabbed Cameron’s hand as Cameron moved to pick up the clothes from his clean floor. “Don’t leave me too,” he said, face half in his pillow. “Please.”

Lev’s heart cracked. “I’m right here, Nik,” he whispered.

“Welcome back,” Darius said from behind him, startling Lev. He twisted, staring at Darius.

“What do you mean, welcome back?” he asked.

“You went away for a little bit,” Darius said gently.

“For a little bit?” Lev echoed. “How long is a little bit?”

“A couple of days, give or take.”

“Why do I keep losing chunks of time like that?” Lev asked, distressed.

“A lot of being a ghost is tied to emotions. You’re probably shutting down, when you get overwhelmed,” Darius said.

Lev gave a half hysterical laugh. “I’ve never been calm in my life. How do I make it stop?”

Darius grabbed his face. “Focus on my face. Focus on my eyes. And breathe.”

“We’re ghosts. We don’t need to breathe,” Lev said, his voice going up an octave. But he did grab onto Darius’ elbow, sucking in one useless breath after another until he felt more settled.

“We’re ghosts,” Darius said. “We don’t need to have anxiety either. It’s a mental thing.”

Lev nodded carefully, and pulled away, looking back at Nik, who was draping himself across Cameron. He slid over to the bed, crawling up beside Nik and brushing his hand through Nik’s hair. He damn near slid through Nik, who just pressed his face into Cameron’s chest and muttered, “Tis cold,” before passing out.

Lev pulled back, wrapping his arms around his knees. When he was able to tear his gaze from Nik, he realized Darius was staring at Cameron. He recognized that look of heartbreak as if he was looking in a mirror.

“Is it always like that?” he asked. “Am I making him cold?”

Darius nodded, not taking his eyes off Cameron. “You don’t have body heat. He does.”

Lev looked back down at Nik, before stretching out beside him, careful not to touch him. “I think I’m gonna stay here for a while,” he said quietly.

---

One moment Lev was watching Nik sleep, afte Cameron had gotten up to answer a call, and the next he was standing in Nate’s kitchen. “What-?”

He zeroed in on Nate when Nate spoke. “Baylor wanted to talk to you,” he said apologetically.

Lev frowned at Bay, who was sitting at the kitchen table, a tiny little infant in his arms. “You had the baby,” Lev blurted.

“We did,” Nate said.

“What, have the baby? Yeah, we did,” Bay said. He followed Nate’s gaze to approximately where Lev was, which told Lev he definitely couldn’t see him. Somehow that was a bit of a relief.

“What does Bay want to talk about?” Lev ventured hesitantly.

“He wants to know what you want to talk about,” Nate relayed.

“You are not to tell Nik that you are a ghost,” Bay said firmly. “You will not try to reach out to him. You need to let him grieve, and pick himself back up.”

“There’s a way to do that?” Lev blurted, startled.

“He didn’t know there was a way to contact Nik,” Nate said to Bay, before looking back to Lev. “Theoretically, yes. But it would be very difficult.”

“Do you think Nik is smart enough to not risk his own life to see you?” Bay said, drawing Lev’s attention. He looked exhausted.

Lev bit his lip, chewing on it anxiously. “No,” he finally admitted. “I just... I don’t know what to do, I guess.”

After Nate relayed that, Bay looked even more tired. “I can't tell you what to do. I don’t know if I’d be able to move on either. But you need to let Nik try to find peace.”

Lev looked down. Somehow, it still killed him he couldn’t cry about this. “I’m sorry I died on your front lawn,” he finally said.

This time Nate looked pained as he passed Lev’s message along.

“I’m sure I’ll get over it,” Bay said dryly.

Lev wasn’t sure how to respond to that. In the end he just said, “I didn’t just roll over. Not like with Remi.”

This time Nate was quiet when he passed on Lev’s words. To Lev’s surprise, Bay looked satisfied and vaguely proud. “I knew you were capable of it.”

“I didn’t want him to hurt Cameron. Or Nik, or Eden,” Lev said softly. “I'd rather me than any of them.”

Bay’s knowing look after Nate once again passed on Lev’s words left Lev uncomfortable. “We protect our own,” was all Bay said.

In the end, Lev just said, “Can I go home now?”

“He wants to go home,” Nate said to Bay.

“I want you to tell me you’re not going to tell Nik,” Bay said firmly. “That you’re going to leave Nik alone.”

Lev closed his eyes, swallowing. “I won't,” he promised.

“He won't,” Nate echoed.

“Good. You can go.”

Lev didn’t need any more encouragement to blink out.

---

Lev wasn’t sure how long he got lost, or how he dragged himself out of wherever he went. At least he reappeared at home. He looked around, but other than the sentries, the halls were still and quiet. He padded through them anyway, soaking in the familiar scents. It was habit to wander into Cameron’s bedroom. Lev missed sleep.

Darius was there, curled up a little on the bed, using one of Cameron’s pillows. Lev hesitated in the doorway. Darius’ eyes were closed, but he spoke anyway. “Sometimes I like laying here. Pretending he’s still my alpha.”

“Can I join you?” Lev asked, softly.

Darius nodded. “Nik’s side is all yours.”

Lev circled the bed, crawling up carefully, as if he could wrinkle the covers. “Technically the middle of the bed is- was Nik’s. After I joined them, anyway.” He still flopped down just close enough he could bury his face in Nik’s pillow, breathing deep. The faintest scent of alcohol was twined with it, but Lev was willing to ignore that for now.

Darius rolled over, golden gaze a little lost and a little sad. “Cameron wasn’t always like this,” he said.

Lev tucked his arm beneath his head, watching Darius. “What do you mean?” He asked, unsure how else to get Darius to keep talking.

Faintly, Darius said, “He was alive. Even when his life was hell, he was alive. Now he’s just a body with a heartbeat.”

“It’s hard to imagine Cameron any different than he is now,” Lev admitted. “What... What changed?”

“Killing your mate would do that to you, I imagine.”

“Oh.” Lev hesitated, and then reached out and touched Darius’ hand lightly. “Did you know... before he killed you?”

“Yeah,” Darius said, barely audible. “That’s why I let him.”

“I don’t know what it’s like to have a mate,” Lev eventually said. “Not like that, not a... a true mate. I can’t imagine what that was like for you.”

The silence that stretched between them was heavy, but Lev didn’t break it for a good long while.

“My Cameron was a thoughtful boy. He hadn’t even reached maturity yet before his family robbed him of everything.”

“He sounds... nice. I wish I could have met him then.” Lev rolled onto his back. “But I’m glad I met him at all. Him and Nik. I hadn’t been happy in a really long time.”

“He hadn’t either,” Darius replied quietly.

“I shouldn’t have left. I think I was a better person with them.”

He could feel Darius’ stare on him, and somehow the weight of it was comforting. “I think you made him a better person too.”

Lev snorted softly. “He didn’t listen to me very often.”

“He listened more than you think.”

Lev hummed softly, closing his eyes.

“Cameron is always listening, even when he’s not.”

Lev gave a soft, sad little laugh. “That sounds like him.” He rolled back over, sighing softly. “So. You’ve been here the whole time?” He paused. “Or is that rude to ask? You don’t have to answer.”

Darius rolled his eyes, and rolled on his back. “I’ve been here for the past five hundred and four years. Cameron was seventeen.”

Lev considered that. “He was younger than Nik is now,” he finally said. “And Nik’s still... very young.”

“Yes he was. And in some ways he still is. Sometimes I think he’s frozen in time.”

tagging: @idreamonpaper @incandescent-creativity @solangelo3088 @halstudies @alittleyellowdinosaur @mis-lil-red

[foofygoldfish]

All for Rosie and Abby 😌

mother fucker

apologies for the formatting but i am lazy slfdkj

Who is the most affectionate?

Rosie’s the most obviously affectionate, but Abby is pretty affectionate too

Big spoon/Little spoon?

rosie is 5′ and more than a foot shorter than her girlfriend - i don’t think she can be the big spoon 😂 anyways, she likes being held by abby. she’s warm and safe.

Most common argument?

besides anything that spawned from jackson? they have very different opinions on making the bed. abby thinks it should be, rosie doesn’t give a shit, she just wants caffeine. 

Favorite non-sexual activity?

even though they like very different genres, they love talking about books together! (lev tells them that they should write one together, but rosie’s not too sure...)

Who is most likely to carry the other?

i don’t think rosie physically can carry abby lol

What is their favorite feature of their partner’s?

rosie: abby’s arms. she won’t even lie. her eyes are very pretty, too.

abby: rosie’s hands are soft.

What’s the first thing that changes when they realize they have feelings for the other?

well. they’re already fucking. so now there’s like... extra emotions. also a lot of awkwardness, because neither of them intended on getting feelings.

Nicknames? & if so, how did they originate?

nicknames. yes. they have them. i am just terrible at coming up with nicknames lmao

Who worries the most?

rosie. she’s a worrier.

Who remembers what the other one always orders at a restaurant?

they both know what each others favorite things are in the cafeteria, but i don’t think they really have normal restaurants?

Who tops?

slkjdf 100% abby.

Who initiates kisses?

both, but rosie usually pulls abby into kisses on the lips.

Who reaches for the other’s hand first?

rosie!

Who kisses the hardest?

....abby.

Who wakes up first?

it varies - they’re both morning people, so they both wake up around the same time.

Who wants to stay in bed just a little longer?

now getting out of bed is a different story - if abby hasn’t already gotten out of bed? rosie’s not going anywhere.

Who says I love you first?

i’m pretty sure hazel’s the one who tells both of them that they love each other (”god you’re so dumb”) but after that? abby, i think. this probably changes every time i answer this lmao

Who leaves little notes in the other’s one lunch? (Bonus: what does it usually say?)

uuuuuuh. rosie would be more likely to make a bag for abby? but i don’t know if either would leave a note.

Who tells their family/friends about their relationship first?

hazel knows about rosie and abby having a ~thing immediately, just because she occasionally needs to vacate the apartment lol. other than that - neither of them really tell anyone? not by the time of the game, at least - they haven’t officially been together long before they’re separated. 

What do their family/friends think of their relationship?

hazel is very supportive - she just wants her sister to settle. i feel like the seattle crew were a little more wary of rosie, though? 

Who is more likely to start dancing with the other?

....Rosie.

Who cooks more/who is better at cooking?

Neither of them cook often before getting to catalina, but after? they cook an equal amount, but lev is very open about the fact that he likes abby’s cooking more

Who comes up with cheesy pick up lines?

oh abby, 100%. emphasis on cheesy.

Who whispers inappropriate things in the other’s ear during inappropriate times?

rosie. mostly because nobody would expect it from her and abby would have a hard time explaining her reaction away lol

Who needs more assurance?

....rosie?

What would be their theme song?

oh please don’t make me ldksjf

Who would sing to their child back to sleep?

they both would read to the kid, but rosie’s more likely to sing (... unless hazel’s around, and then hazel is sent in)

What do they do when they’re away from each other?

in canon in the ~year and a half they’re apart? they yearn.  they deny it, 100%, but there is yearning. after they get to catalina? uh. their jobs? they’ll think about each other, but it takes a while for abby to be up for longer away missions, and even then, she makes sure she doesn’t go on the longer runs.

one headcanon about this OTP that breaks your heart

i mean, abby’s the one who decides that rosie isn’t going to go back to seattle with them - rosie’s not that badly injured, it’s something that’d slow them down but overall wouldn’t impact the group too much. she’s just - emotional. between rosie stopping her and seeing joel - a lot’s goin’ on. rosie - she gets why she was left. but she’s absolutely terrified of meeting abby again.

one headcanon about this OTP that mends it

why is it harder to think of fluff for them

anyways

their reunion, i guess lol: abby is more than a little shocked when the three bowers are there with ellie at the end, but god, is she relieved. 

also they adopt a ton of dogs

big fluffy ones that abby jokes rosie could ride into battle

[cannot-decide-on-a-fandom]

Haikyuu Team Headcanons

I just kind of wanted to make my own list as there's a lot of them. Honestly, I read all 360+ chapters in 3 weeks, so I can't remember every bit of information so some of these may actually be either confirmed or disprovable, so sorry.

KARASUNO

Noya is ALWAYS the first to wake up. Whenever the team have to sleep at the same place, they're tempted to smother him to shut him up in the mornings.

Speaking of mornings, Hinata can barely function before food. The only time you can undoubtedly catch him being grumpy is before breakfast.

Also, unless he's very wound up, Yamaguchi can sleep anywhere. Literally. That boy could fall asleep on a roller coaster if he's tired enough.

Suga is the best prankster on the team. Others like Tanaka do it more often, but they're always practical jokes and things, while everyone lives in fear of Suga. He doesn't do anything often, but he's devious as hell, so when he does, the only reassurance they have is that he wouldn't do anything that will leave lasting damage.

He also knows everything about every single team member. He's too nice to do anything nefarious with it, but if pushed, you can damn well bet he'd be able to hold it over their heads if he chose to.

Tsukishima is shockingly patient and nice to little kids. People only start to piss him off when they're around 10, and he only shows it when they're teenagers.

Ennoshita, being actually smart and responsible, only ever agrees to bets he is 1000% sure he'll win. Hasn't failed yet.

Kageyama is a surprisingly good dancer, he just doesn't care for it at all. He simply thinks if he ever has to do it for whatever reason, better to get it over with by doing it well.

Tanaka wanted to get piercings at one point because they look cool, until the entire team convinced him it's a bad idea considering how aggressively he plays volleyball. He'd forget to remove them first and rip them out.

Whenever Shoyo plays something with Natsu that involves running, he barely even jogs anymore. This is because he used to go really fast, but Natsu kept trying to keep up and hurt herself by falling so often.

Kinoshita may be reserved usually, but if he's in the zone, he'll try and annihilate anyone at anything. There's an agreement between Nekoma and Karasuno to never let him and Kenma be alone together because if Kinoshita is in the right mood, they'll compete with video games til 3 am. 

Tsukki actually really likes pop music but no one on the team (other than Suga and Yamaguchi) knows because he never let's anyone else listen and refuses to say what he listens to.

Tanaka claims he likes horror movies the most. Asahi likes them the least.

Actually, their favourite film genres are like this: Daichi - spy movies (I spent so long thinking about his, and I'm still not convinced myself. He's hard), Suga - drama comedies, Asahi - family and slice of life films (he really likes happy endings), Noya - canonically over the top action films, Tanaka - action too, Ennoshita - crime films and mysteries (he's practically the team's psychic already, he's great at solving mysteries himself), Kinoshita - disaster movies, Narita - parody films, Kageyama - doesn't have one, does not watch films enough to have one, Hinata - sport and really, really cliché comedies, Tsukishima - just Jurassic Park. That's a genre, right? Okay, kidding. He likes zombie movies, and he's the type of person who constantly points out how ridiculously stupid every action characters take in films are. Yamaguchi - nothing dark, he prefers lighter, happier things, but will happily watch anything like that, Yachi - anything animated, Kiyoko - documentaries, Ukai - war films, Takeda - musicals. Not sure why, just felt right.

***

NEKOMA

Let's discuss pranks with this team as well. A few people used to play them on Yaku a lot until they realised how vicious his comebacks are. Whereas Yamamoto always does very "only really happens in movies" pranks, like a pie to the face, Yaku's retaliation is always barely on the okay side of legal. Now the only time anyone does anything to him is if they're sure he won't be able to guess who is responsible.

In his second year, Kuroo invited every first year recruit at the start of their course to hang out. This was originally to help Kenma make friends (he'll never push him but he'll try and encourage him) but it simply helped everyone else acquaint with each other. Since he wants his team to generally work well together, he did it in his 3rd year with the new rookies too.

Shibayama accidentally got like half the team wrapped around his finger. This is because he's so sweet and never asks for anything, it worked counter intuitively and now most people would pretty much do anything to help him. The poor kid feels so awkward and guilty about it. Deserves love.

Kenma is naturally really talented at so many things but he never bothers with them. He even has a rather good singing voice but even he doesn't realise because he never uses it.

Kai learned to turn a blind eye to every argument that doesn't feel like it could end in the hospital because he spent 3 years with Kuroo and Yaku.

Fukunaga actually does like communicating with people, just not by talking. Because of that, no one notices when he's trying to, so he just listens instead.

Lev and Inuoka have no sense of privacy or oversharing. They would easily give away their deepest, darkest secrets if they weren't so pure that they didn't have any. They don't even consider shutting up as an option.

Whenever Yaku kicks/slaps/punches anyone, the rest of the team always make bets as to when he'll do it again.

Kenma told him this because it's so stupid.

Now, whenever Yaku manages to listen in, he always makes sure Lev loses.

The first time Akane and Alisa met, Yamamoto almost started a fist fight with Lev over who has the better sister, before realising how well they got on. Then he felt really bad because Alisa is actually very nice and kind.

Kuroo once turned off the WiFi at his house to get Kenma to practice with him. He hasn't tried it since because it turns out, he CAN get mad and is freaking terrifying when doing so.

Yamamoto is both the best and worst advice giver on the team. Either his suggestions are amazing and would turn out great, or no one should go near them with gardening gloves and a 10 foot pole. No in between.

***

I only have a couple for this team so I apologise

FUKURODANI

Akaashi is internally very amused by Bokuto whenever he gets riled up. It's frustrating in matches, but he finds it hilarious outside of them even if he doesn't show it. It's one of the reasons he always makes snide digs at him, because seeing someone who is one of the top aces in the country act like that is very entertaining to him.

However, whenever something happens that the team feels could genuinely upset him more than a little, every single person helps devise a method of keeping that information from reaching his ears.

The team is not allowed to play any party games, especially involving dares, because one half will take it too seriously, while the other will be left to make sure nobody dies.

What do you think? Just had some fun with these.

[hq-cuties]

hi, i luv ur writing, and i can't wait till u blowup. i wanted to ask, are you taking requests for just the prompts and nothing else? if not, could u pls write some angst that turns into fluff between kageyama and his (fem) s/o in a gangsta au?thank you so much! (you don't have to do the gangsta au if you don't want to, i'll still love it all the same)

 thank you so much! I’m accepting ALL requests right now, so I can definitely do this! I’m probably not going to do the whole “gangsta au” thing, though, because I’m not confident that I’d be able to write it without it being terrible. I’m sorry for that, but I hope you enjoy it otherwise!

—-

     The sound of his cries echo through the empty gym. He had been sitting there for at least thirty minutes, his face shoved into his sleeve and his hair disheveled. The sound of the volleyball hitting the empty court resonated in his mind, over and over and over again.

    All anyone did was leave him. His teammates, his friends- everyone. How could he have failed so terribly? He failed his team. He failed himself. Tears soak his jacket, and the emptiness of the gym he occupied was comforting and terrifying all at once.

     The harsh glares of his teammates as he sent his last toss are burnt in the back of his eyelids, the picture never leaving his brain. The scene plays over and over in his head, like a never ending loop of his failures. Everything around him seems to be against him, even his own self. He continues to cry into his jacket, curled up in the corner of the gym.

     “Tobio?” A voice calls out to him. No, your voice calls out. He looks up at you, his eyes bloodshot and puffy. You’ve never seen him this pathetic before. “Is everything okay? What happened?”

     He gives you a blank stare, almost as though he’s looking through you. “Obviously not,” his voice is rough and harsh as he puts his face back to his knees.

    “Is it about what happened during the game? Tobio it’s okay, you-”

     “How the hell do you know that it’s ‘okay’ huh?” His words defy his own mind, saying everything he wishes not to say to you. You look at him and put your hand on his, trying to get through to him.

    “I just mean it’s going to be okay. They’ll come around, you just have to keep working.” You make feeble attempts to reassure him, to make him feel even the slightest bit better. His glare only seems to grow harder at your words, and he swats your hand away.

     “You will never know what it’s like. You’ve always been so near-sighted, so immature. You never see when it’s just time to give up. So, I’ll tell you,” his voice rises to the point where he’s just about yelling, “Give. Up. Leave me alone and give up!”

     You watch his outburst as your heart seems to stop at his words. Tears prick your eyes, but you push them back. “Fine. Come see me when you’re done being an ass.” You respond sternly, picking up your bag. 

    The second the gym door closes behind you, you release everything you were holding back. Warm tears stream down your cheeks, the words he said to you punching you in the gut. He’s never spoken so cruelly to you, especially when you’re trying to help him.

    Kageyama ignores you for weeks, and you do the same. Every time you pass him in the hallway or see him during class, your heart thuds desperately against your chest. Your one wish is to be close with him again. Memories of your friendship flash through your mind, the reminders that once made you happy now turned into a lethal weapon. After every bright thought of you two, the flashes of his outburst in the gym lurked. It waited for you to miss the friendship you once had, then struck. Every word he said sticking to your brain.

     You want this to end. You feel hopeless, not knowing how to help him. There are times that you get yourself together and make a plan to talk to him, but each one turns out a failure. After the first step taken towards him, you back down, afraid that he will shut you out once again.

    The new school year starts, and you and Kageyama grow ever further apart. You choose Nekoma High, knowing that a few friends of yours would be joining you there. Kageyama becomes a simple memory of an old friend. A friend that you wish you had, and when you were still together, you wished you had more with.

     Nekoma, however, had chased away the dark memories of volleyball that Kageyama had placed within you. The team at your school was smart, exciting, and supportive. Kuroo, a friend you made in your first few days, convinced you to become manager of his team. After a lot of begging, you agreed, and ingrained yourself in the lives of the sweet volleyball boys.

     “Hey, (y/n), the bus is about to leave.” Kenma walks past you, pointing at the bus full of his teammates.

    “Oh, thank you Kenma. I’ll be right there.” You grab what the team labeled ‘the mom bag’, and climbed onto the bus. You were all headed towards the training camp, where the coach set up multiple practice games with other schools in the area.

     “(y/n), do you know who we’re up against first?” Kuroo peeks up from over his seat at you, leaning on your headrest. You flip through the schedule until you find what he was asking for.

     “Hmm.. It says here you’re with Karasuno tomorrow.” You read off the other schools in order, telling him the times and dates that you have each school. He nods, thanking you, and sits back down in his seat.

     You arrive at the camp late, and the couch yells at everyone to go to sleep. The practice game started quite early for the team’s liking, and they all sigh in annoyance. You head off to your own room, separate from the mass of boys, and get everything ready for the morning before going to sleep.

     The alarm on your phone goes off at 6:30, and you sit up groggily. You gather everything the boys need for practice, get dressed, eat something small, and head down to the gym. Your team gets there earlier than needed to allow time for practice and warm-ups. Everyone greets you, their faces tired and droopy, and you take a seat on the bench next to the coach.

     The doors of the gym open once again, and the sound of multiple voices overlapping fill the room. You stand with the coach, and go to meet their manager while he speaks with coach of Karasuno. The two of you converse for a while before you part ways, sitting back on your team’s side of the court.

     “Coach?” you turn your attention away from Lev practicing his receives and towards the man sitting beside you. He hums in response, waiting for you to continue. “I’m going to use the restroom before the game starts.” He nods, waving you away.

     You walk through the empty hallways of the building towards the bathrooms. Each footstep echoes off the walls, filling the room with sound. You use the restroom and wash your hands, wiping the water on your jacket. As you push open the door, something, or someone, rather, slams against it.

     “I’m so sorry! Are you okay? I didn’t know someone was-” You stop apologizing and stare down at the raven-haired boy below you. His face is turned down and his hand rubs his forehead slowly.

     “It’s fine, I should have been watching where I was going..” His face is turned downwards, and his hand slowly rubs at his forehead where the door had hit him. He stands and brushes off his pants before looking at you.

     His calm, soft expression twists into one of confusion and surprise. Redness tinges his cheeks, and he turns his eyes back to the floor. The silence hangs between the two of you, the air turning thicker with each passing second.

     He’s the first to break it, mumbling out a simple “I didn’t think I’d see you here..” You nod, agreeing with him, and every memory that you had pushed away came rushing back at you. The good ones from your friendship, the sad times you pushed through together, and the moment in the gym that ended it all. You remembered all the times you wanted so desperately to talk to him, and all the times that you failed at doing so. Flashbacks of passing him in the hallways and sitting next to him in class resonated in your mind.

      The silence returns as the both of you look at the floor. His head is spinning, thoughts race through his head a mile a minute, trying to think of something, anything to say. He wants to apologize, but not just that. He wants to do something much more than that, you deserve better than a simple ‘sorry’.

      He takes a deep breath, “I’m sorry,” he mumbles, his face pointed at his feet.

     “What?” you look at him, trying to understand what he was trying to say.

     “I said I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that, okay? I know it was a long time ago, and this is way way too late for me to expect forgiveness, but you need to hear it anyway. I’m so sorry, (y/n).” His breath is ragged, and his heart pounds against his ribs. 

      “I missed you.” your eyes tear up, and your cheeks grow pink as you think about everything he’s saying to you. You forgave him long ago, you just didn’t know how to tell him that. 

     He stares at you in disbelief, his eyes glossy. His thoughts continue to run wild, comprehending what you said. The three simple words you said in reply echo in his brain. That was the last thing he expected from you.

     Tears brim his eyes, and a smile graces his lips, “I missed you too- I missed you so much”

    You smile back at him, and embrace him tightly, “I wanted to talk to you sooner, but I never knew how,” you explain. He stays quiet, and simply hugs your tighter, “I’m so glad I saw you today, Tobio,” 

    He moves back and smiles at you again, “I’m glad I saw you too,” his voice is soft and quiet, and his breath grazes your face. Your faces grow closer, and his hand rests on your cheek. “May I?” he whispers, his eyes barely open.

    Your heart pounds as you close the gap between the two of you. Everything you ever wanted to do coming true in this one moment: outside of the women’s bathroom at a volleyball training facility.

    He pulls away from you, his cheeks burning red. You laugh at his expression, “We should head back, they’re probably about to start”

    “Oh, yeah,” his face returns to a (mostly) normal color, and he turns to walk down the hall again. You join him, side by side, but stop in front of the gym doors.

    “Good luck,” you smile up at him. He nods, and walks inside. The two of you join your respective teams again, your heavy hearts much lighter than before.

—-

   Okay, so I made this a lot longer than I was originally going to, so I’m very sorry for that. I had a lot of fun writing it though! Kageyama might be a little ooc, but I did my best!

[realisticallycynical]

Ace

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6 (you are here), part 7, part 8, part 9, based on @skygemspeaks​‘s prompt

Lev has been practically vibrating with excitement all day, and he knows the rest of the team has picked up on it. Yaku-san has been yelling at him for his terrible receives for a while now, and even the captain has said something about how Lev seems less present than usual. He can’t help it; worlds just finished, and his whole family is flying back in tonight. If he’s lucky, they’ll be home before he goes to sleep.

It’s been months since he’s seen his parents and sister in person. And as proud as he is of Alisa for working so hard and actually getting her first gold, he misses them.

He’s jolted out of his thoughts by a smack to the head. That’s the third ball he hasn’t dodged today, and it’s beginning to hurt a little. He grins sheepishly when Yaku-san scolds him for not paying attention.

Lev very vocally hates receiving drills, much to Yaku-san’s irritation. He can’t help it; he’s not used to being so close to the floor, and diving for the ball like this is mildly terrifying. It’s a massive relief when Coach Nekomata blows the whistle, calling it quits for the day.

Before they change though, Lev takes a chance. Their setter has been in a fairly good mood today, so…

“Kenma-san!”

Half the team groans, since they know what's coming, but Lev continues anyway because he's excited.

“Toss for me?” Lev knows better than to expect anything in particular, but generally Kenma-san will deny his request. Occasionally he’ll say yes, but more often than not (especially at the end of practice) he’s denied.

To his infinite surprise, and apparently everyone else’s too, Kenma-san shrugs. “Sure. I’m not too tired today.”

He can’t help his loud whoop, which makes Kenma-san scowl and the captain laugh. Still, Kenma-san doesn’t go back on his offer and tosses to Lev for a while. One by one, the team leaves to go home until it’s just Lev, Yaku-san (who’s still seething about Lev’s complaints but secretly cares and Lev knows it), Kenma-san, and by default the captain, since there’s rarely one without the other.

Lev hasn’t been allowed to do much spiking practice for weeks, since the captain let Yaku-san take over his receiving training. It’s great to finally let loose and do what he’s good at for a while, at least until Uncle Yuri gets here to pick him up.

The captain will occasionally call out advice for the two of them.

“Kenma, that was too high even for Lev, tone it down a bit,” he says once.

Another time it's “Lev, you're jumping too early for Kenma to get the ball to you. It's throwing off your timing as a team.”

There are a few mostly-playful jabs at his form as well, but that's to be expected considering that he hasn't done much practicing in weeks.

His aim is improving by leaps and bounds even without constant practice though, Lev is noticing. He’s making more and more powerful spikes and actually keeping them within the boundaries of the court, which is leaps and bounds better than he was a few weeks ago, when the semester began.

It seems like Kenma-san is tiring a bit; his set-ups are getting a little sloppier than usual. It took longer than Lev thought it would. Most of the time, Kenma-san tires of setting for Lev fairly quickly, since he has to send the ball up higher. Still, he keeps giving Lev tosses, so he’s not going to question it.

One particularly good set up lets Lev spike the ball hard, directly at the back of the court. Lev looks at the still-bouncing ball as it rolls under the bleachers, then down at his hand in wonder.

Someone claps once, a cheery sound. Then, “Wow! Amazing!”

Lev whirls around so fast he nearly falls over. Everyone else’s head whips around too, but Lev is stunned into stillness. “Dad?”

His dad-- cousin, technically, but Victor Nikiforov is his dad no matter what his DNA says --waves at him with his signature heart-shaped grin. “Hi~!”

“Whoa, Lev, that’s your dad?” the captain sounds surprised, even as Kenma-san trots up to him holding the ball with both hands. “You two look exactly the same, what the he-- heck?”

Lev ignores him and turns to Dad. “I thought you weren’t going to be home until later! Where are Papa and Alisa?”

He notices his father tense just barely at the mention of Papa, the way he always does when he doesn't know how people will react. He relaxes almost instantly and Lev wonders if he's just now noticing the captain and Kenma-san.   

“They’re fine, completely fine. They’re at home! I just wanted to surprise you!” Dad turns to the captain, Kenma-san, and Yaku-san. “I’’m Victor! Are you all on the team?”

Lev notices Kenma-san nudge the captain discreetly to get him to close his mouth. The captain clears his throat. “I-- yeah. Yes. My name is Kuroo Tetsurou, I’m the captain. This is Ken-- Kozume Kenma, our setter, and Yaku Morisuke, our libero. How long were you standing there, sir?”

Dad hums, tapping his finger against his chin thoughtfully. “Mmm… Since practice ended, I think. Everyone was leaving and staring at my car, then Lev, you didn’t come out so I came to find you.” He turns to Lev and grins. “You looked so focused, I wasn’t going to stop you.”

“We're… Kenma-san and I are finding our rhythm,” Lev manages to stay on topic for a moment before tackling his dad in a hug. “You're home early,” he mutters in wonder.

Dad nearly topples over (Lev is half a head taller than him now, he forgot) but keeps his balance and hugs him back. “Yep! We wanted to surprise you.”

The captain coos quietly to Kenma-san and Lev remembers the others.

“I uh, I should go home,” he tells them, disattaching himself from the hug. “It's past six anyway.”

He gets a nod and a grin from the captain, who still has his arm around Kenma-san. “We should get going too, I have to make dinner since my parents are out.”

“Me too.” Yaku-san nods in agreement and Lev remembers that he lives alone. He looks thoughtful for a moment, muttering something about stopping at the grocery store on his way home.

Apparently, Dad isn't done surprising Lev (which, now that he thinks about it, makes sense; that's just how Dad is), because he grins at the other three. “Really? Then why don't you all just come have dinner with us? We'd love to get to know Lev’s new friends!”

Lev beams when the upperclassmen awkwardly agree (and is even happier when none of them deny being friends with him; he worries sometimes, especially with Kenma-san and Yaku-san).

The glint in his father's eye when the four of them pile into his bright pink convertible tells him that this was the plan all along.

[ravenqueensspecialboi]

Fright Night

For @asliverofhope-the-fangirl as a part of the Fic Writer Halloween Exchange Rating: T Ship: BoKuroo Summary: Bokuto Koutarou and Kuroo Tetsurou meet at a haunted house. Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12516356

Fic under the cut!  Happy Halloween!

Kuroo Tetsurou eyed the building in front of him.  It was one of the old libraries, the one that was mostly used for office space and events rather than media collection.  The library—with its darkened windows and somewhat decrepit observation towers—reminded Kuroo of all the places in horror films that housed humanity's worst nightmares.  It gave him the creeps.  Kuroo shook his head as he walked up the steps.  He tugged on the door handle, and the door swung open to reveal an empty hallway.  Kuroo stepped inside, closing the door behind him.  Standing in complete darkness, Kuroo pulled up the flashlight on his phone to use the weak light to search for a light switch.

"It's to your left," came a soft, apathetic-sounding voice from the darkness.

Kuroo would have been lying if he said he didn't jump about a foot in the air at the sudden comment.  Luckily, he had managed to hold in the scream that had bubbled up in his throat.  Kuroo took a moment in the dark to mourn the loss of his dignity, then reached to his left.  He blinked a few times to adjust to the light, then glared at the person standing before him.  In the center of the hallway was Kozume Kenma, Kuroo's roommate and current target of ire.

"You're late," Kenma said, turning away from Kuroo.

"I'm aware.  You could have told me when you were leaving," Kuroo pointed out.   "I would have come with you."

"I was meeting with Shouyou and Tora for dinner first, and you were sound asleep," Kenma said as he started walking.  "Come on, Yaku's waiting."

It was an event that the university did every year—a haunted house hosted by the theater department.  They would find a building on campus, set up shop for a couple of nights, and scare the students who ventured inside.  In past years, they had done "test of courage"—type events, where they would send two students into a darkened building together.  Members of the theater department would hide in various locations, making ominous sounds and waiting to scare whoever was walking by.  When Kuroo volunteered to participate last year with Kenma, the department decided to create a haunted house based on Dracula.  The result had been less than stellar.  Daishou had shown up, there had been teasing, then an argument, then a fight that almost destroyed several important props.  Kuroo had almost been banned from volunteering after that.

This year, the department was doing an Ax Murder haunted house.  Participants would be led through the haunted house by a tour guide.  The guide would explain that a series of ax murders had taken place in the building, at which point, a volunteer dressed as an ax murderer would attack the group.  The guide would lead the group away, running into more and more ax murderers until finally getting picked off at the end of the route.  Kuroo had hoped that he would get to participate as an ax murderer, but due to last year's incident, he was regulated to a less savory job.  Kuroo's job was to be a plant.  Kuroo would join each group as a lone student whose friends chickened out at the last moment.  He would make friends, blending in seamlessly with the people in the group until someone dragged him kicking and screaming down a hallway.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  For the next two days.  Kuroo wasn't sure if he was going to hate this or not.

Pushing open the door to a study room, Kenma and Kuroo joined the group gathered around the table.  Kuroo nodded at a couple of familiar faces before taking a seat.

"Ah, Kuroo, thanks for joining us," Yaku said from his spot near the chalkboard.  Judging by the tone of his voice, he was not happy.

Yaku Morisuke was a third year in the theater department.  He had taken over the haunted house project the year previous, and—after Kuroo's little showdown with Daishou—was by no means Kuroo's biggest fan.

Kuroo flashed Yaku a grin.  "I took a nap and overslept, you know how it goes."

"Sure," Yaku muttered.  He took a deep breath, "Alright, since we're all here, let's go over tonight's plan real quick.  We're gonna have three tour guides tonight.  Kai, Inuoka, Lev, you three remember the route?"

"Yup!  We got it!" Inuoka said as Lev nodded enthusiastically.

"Glad to hear it," Yaku replied.  "Make sure you stick to script."

Yaku had leveled a stare at Lev as he said this, but the first year chose that moment to stare at an interesting coffee stain on the table.  Sighing, Yaku continued, "As for murderers, we have Yamamoto, Fukunaga, Tanaka, and Azumane.  Tanaka, you're the first murderer.  Azumane, you're the second.  Then Yamamoto.  Yamamoto, you kill off your victim, then grab whoever the plant of the group is.  Hopefully, they'll be standing close enough to your hiding spot that you can just grab and drag.  Fukunaga, you're the last one.  You kill off the tour guide at the end, then chase the group outside."

The four nodded, Tanaka and Yamamoto sharing a quick fist bump before Yaku continued.

"For victims, we have Sawamura, Ennoshita, Sugawara, and Noya.  Your parts are pretty easy, just scream and die, essentially.  Make it as convincing as you can.  As for plants, we have Shibayama, Kenma, and Kuroo.  All you guys have to do is pretend to be there by yourself, and make sure you're in the right spot to be grabbed.  The only thing I ask is that you pretend to be scared when appropriate, and don't all hang out in the same spot.  We want people to think you're by yourselves.  I'll be assigning groups to tour guides as they go. 

"Don't touch the guests, like, at all, and watch for flying fists and elbows.  We want this to be scary, fun, and safe.  Everyone should grab a walkie before they go.  That way we can keep in touch in case anything goes wrong.  Keep chatter to a minimum so we don't break the illusion.  That's all I got.  Does anyone have any questions?"

There was a resounding chorus of , "No, Yaku-san" from around the table. 

Satisfied, Yaku clapped his hands together.  "Great, I love it when a plan comes together.  Let's get everyone into costumes and makeup.  Try not to drip the fake blood onto the carpet too much. 

"Oh, and Kuroo?" Yaku added, turning to stare down the taller man.

"Yes, dear?" Kuroo asked, batting his eyelashes.

Yaku's eyebrow gave the slightest twitch.  "We're keeping it professional this year," Yaku warned.

Before Kuroo could respond, Yaku left the room.  As everyone got up to follow, Kuroo turned to Kenma.  "He's aware that what happened last year wasn't my fault, right?  I wasn't planning on fighting anyone, but Daishou made fun of my acting.  And my cape, I might add."

"And your fangs, and your hair.  We've been over this Kuroo," Kenma said.  "Yaku doesn't want a repeat of last year, that's why he's singling you out.  Besides, your acting sucked.  You're a chemistry major, not theater major."

"Excuse you, my acting is fantastic," Kuroo grumbled.

Kenma stood up, giving Kuroo a dismissive wave.  "Come on, let's get this over with.  It's gonna be a long night."

***

Of all the places Bokuto Koutarou wanted to be on a Friday night, a haunted house was definitely not on the list.  In fact, Bokuto had suggested that he and his friends go to the Halloween themed comedy show downtown, but no.  They all wanted to go to the haunted house.  Because it was free, or whatever.  So here he was, walking behind his friends as they climbed the stairs towards what was certainly going to be Bokuto's doom.  And they were laughing.

"Akaaaaaaaaashiiiiii," Bokuto whined as he tugged at his friend's sleeve, "why are we going to a haunted house again?"

He knew he was grating on Akaashi's nerves, given the way his shoulders tensed at Bokuto's whining, but Bokuto couldn't help it.  He really, really didn't want to be doing this.

"Because we took a vote, and the majority of us wanted to go to the haunted house, Bokuto-san," Akaashi explained for the umpteenth time that night.

"How come Washio got to skip out?" Bokuto pressed.

"Because he has a test coming up."

"What if I have a test I need to study for?  You still dragged me out here."

Akaashi shot Bokuto a look over his shoulder.  "That's a hypothetical situation if I ever heard one."

"Akaashi-" Bokuto groused.

"Come on, Bo, it's not going to be that bad," Komi insisted, dropping back to clap Bokuto on the shoulder. 

Bokuto dropped Akaashi's sleeve, and the other visibly relaxed.

"It's a student-run haunted house, it's not going to be that scary," Yukie said, smiling at Bokuto's pout.

"If it bothers you that much, you can keep your eyes closed the whole time, and you can hold Sarukui's hand," Konoha teased as he held the door open for the group.  "Right, Sarukui?"

"Of course he can," Sarukui agreed.  "As long as he knows that I will give him shit for it for at least a month."

"You're all objectively the worst," Bokuto grumbled as Komi and Yukie pushed him through the door.  He shot a glare at Konoha, who held up his hands in a heart shape in return.

Bokuto had never really been inside the old library, but he didn’t need to have been to know that the entire space had been transformed.  Doors marked off with police tape, outlines of bodies on the floor, rugs with what Bokuto suspected were bloodstains, bookshelves blocked off to form hallways, and what appeared to be an ax buried in a wall.  Bokuto had to admit that he was impressed; the theater department really knew how to build a convincing set.

The group made their way to a marked room at the end of the hall.  Another group was leaving as they entered.  Bokuto recognized two first years from one of his lectures—Tsukishima and Hinata, he remembered—but he didn't recognize the rest.  Hinata was talking loudly to someone with blond hair and an oversized hoodie, while a taller boy with brown hair and freckles was comforting a much smaller, terrified blond girl.  Bokuto sympathized with her, she must have been dragged to there too.  Tsukishima and the other first year, some kid with black hair, were standing slightly apart from the others.  Bokuto caught Tsukishima's eye and gave him a wave.  He got a curt nod in return before the group vanished through the door, a tall boy with silver hair in the lead.  They were left alone with two people, Yaku (who Bokuto remembered from a class), and a man with a shaved head.

"Hey, welcome!" Yaku said.  "We're gonna give the other group a few minutes before we send you through.  This is Kai, and he'll be your tour guide tonight."

Kai nodded at the group and smiled, "Welcome guys!"

The sound of footsteps outside attracted Bokuto's attention.  He turned in time to watch someone walk through the doorway.  The new arrival was tall, and had the unruliest bed head Bokuto had ever seen.  He looked around, his eyes stopping momentarily on Bokuto.  Bokuto felt his face flush and his heart rate quicken; this guy was hot.

"Hey, am I too late to go through?" the newcomer asked, walking over to Yaku.

"If that was your friend group that just went through, then yeah," Yaku replied.

Hot Guy sighed, "Damn, guess I'll head home then."

Bokuto found himself speaking before he even thought about it, "It's okay, he can come with us."

Bokuto's friends, Yaku, and Hot Guy turned to look at Bokuto.  Bokuto thought he heard Konoha mutter something along the lines of, "I know what’s going on here".  Ignoring Konoha, he flashed a wide smile at the pair, and congratulated himself when Hot Guy's cheeks turned the faintest shade of pink.

"You sure, Bokuto?" Yaku asked.

Bokuto nodded.  "Yeah!  The more the merrier!  He turned to stare at his friends.  "Right team?"

There was a murmur of agreement from his friends.  Bokuto turned back to Yaku and made a "told you so" gesture.  With a shrug, Hot Guy crossed the room to their group.  Bokuto tried not to stare too much.

"Thanks for letting me come with your group," Hot Guy said, standing next to Bokuto.

"Not at all," Bokuto replied, hoping that his voice didn't crack as he spoke.  "My name's Bokuto Koutarou.  What's your name?"

"Kuroo Tetsurou.  Nice to meet you."

The rest of the group introduced themselves to Kuroo, making small talk until Yaku checked his watch and clapped.  "I think that's enough time for the other group.  I'm gonna pass you guys off to Kai, and I hope you all have fun!  Kai?"

"Alrighty, before we go through, just a few rules," Kai said, stepping forward.  "First, please keep your reflexes in check.  Second, if at any point you need out, please let me know.  There is no shame in needing to be led to a safe place.  Third, please watch your step as we go through, and don't run. It's gonna be dark in there, and we don't want anyone to trip.  Fourth, have fun!  Now, if you'll follow me."

Kai turned and walked through the door.  Bokuto and Kuroo let the others go first before bringing up the rear.

"If you get scared, you're more than welcome to hold my hand," Bokuto whispered to Kuroo.

Kuroo snorted, "Are all of your lines that smooth?"

Bokuto grinned.  "Hey, it was worth a shot," he said.

Kuroo shook his head in amusement.  He held the door open with one hand, bowed, and gestured Bokuto forward with a sweep of his arm.  Bokuto curtsied at Kuroo, grabbing his outstretched hand as he walked by and pulling Kuroo forward.  Plunged into darkness, Bokuto had to admit to himself, this night had gotten a whole lot better.

***

Kuroo had no idea how this Bokuto guy and his friends had managed it, but for the first time that night, Kuroo was having fun.  The first few groups he had gone with had been—putting it as nicely as possible—boring.  They all had begrudgingly allowed Kuroo to come along, and none of them had really talked to him along the way.  Adding insult to injury, none of them had really been that surprised when he had been dragged off.  Well, that could have been due to his bad acting skills, but still.  The least that they could have done was freak out a little. 

 Bokuto and his group were different.  They made an effort to include Kuroo.  They listened to Kai as he detailed the made up history of the "Ax Murder Mansion"—Kuroo had made a mental note to give Yaku shit about that one later—and they cracked jokes without malice.  Within minutes, there had been at least three variations of the phrase "ax a question."  They weren't taking things too seriously, but they were having fun and being respectful. 

Kuroo especially liked that Bokuto was sticking close to him.  Their hands had bumped once or twice as they walked, and each time they did, Bokuto would smile that toothy grin at Kuroo.  It was nice to get a little attention.

"Alright folks, we're coming up on the first murder room," Kai announced, doing his best impression of a campus tour guide as they paused outside a study room.  "A few decades ago, a student was found murdered in this very room.  There was no sign of the killer, other than an abandoned, bloodstained ax."

"I feel that I must 'ax' a question, but I'll save it for later," Bokuto muttered to Kuroo.

Kuroo snorted.  Really, he shouldn't have.  That brought the tally up to four, but he didn't care.  Bokuto was trying to be funny, and Kuroo thought it was cute.

As Kai reached for the door handle, something heavy crashed into the other side.  At least one person in the group—Kuroo wasn't sure who—yelped as the door rattled on its hinges.  Through the darkened window, they could make out the outline of a man with short hair.  Blood was running from a cut on his forehead, his eyes were wide with panic.  They could make out barely coherent cries for help as the man pounded on the door.

Kai grabbed the door handle and twisted, but nothing happened.  "It's locked!" Kai shouted.

At that moment, a shadow loomed over the trapped man.  He turned around as the shadow took a swing at him.  A splatter of blood hit the window, the man dropped.  No one moved as the door unlocked and swung forward.  There was a body lying on the floor, and towering above him was a man with a bloodied ax and a murderous gleam in his eyes.

"Ah.  Right," Akaashi muttered.

"Nope.  Nope.  Time to go," Bokuto said, his voice strangely level.

"I'm with you on that one," Kai agreed.  "Follow me, let's go!"

The group ran down the hallway as the ax murderer took a step out of the room.  Well, they weren't running so much as power walking, but getting away from the murderer was more important than the speed at which they did it.  Yukie seemed to be the least scared in the group.  She kept nudging Bokuto with her elbow as they moved, joking about leaving him behind if he didn't go faster.

Despite being in on the jump scares, Kuroo had in fact been scared with the rest of the group; he hadn't expected Sawamura to slam into the door that hard.  He had to hand it to Sawamura and Tanaka, they didn't half-ass anything, and that would set the tone for the rest of the tour.  Next up was Sugawara, and lord only knew what he would do.

As they rounded another corner, they ran smack into Sugawara.  Like Sawamura, Sugawara had blood running down his face, but from his mouth instead of his temple.  He was also had a blood stain on his abdomen, and was clutching his arm.  Blood seeping from between his fingers.  Kuroo was impressed, Sugawara looked like he had been through hell.

"You…. You have to help me!" Sugawara panted.  "I lost him for… for now, but he can't be that far behind.  He's trying to kill me!  He's trying to-"

Sugawara was cut off as Azumane burst from a nearby room.  Before Sugawara could run, Azumane lunged, wrapping an arm around his throat, and dragging him back towards the classroom.  Sugawara clawed at Azumane's arm, screaming for help as his heels dug into the carpet.  Azumane tossed Sugawara into the classroom before turning back to the group.  He raised his own axe and growled in the most menacing voice Kuroo had ever heard him use, "You're next."

The door slammed shut.  There was an ear-piercing scream, and then silence.  Kuroo jumped as a vice-like grip curled around his arm.  He whipped around to find Bokuto staring at him.  His wide-eyed stare vaguely reminded Kuroo of an owl.

"Kuroo, c'mon!  We gotta go!  The group took off already, but you were just standing there.  C'mon!"

Kuroo nodded and let Bokuto lead him down the hallway by the hand.  In any other instance, Kuroo would have appreciated holding hands with a hunk like Bokuto, but he couldn't without feeling bad.  Bokuto seemed to be pretty affected by what was going on.  Kuroo wasn't sure if it was because Bokuto was scared of blood, or what, but the man was not having a good time.  It wasn't going to help that Kuroo was about to make it worse.

They caught up with the rest of the group soon after.  Konoha, Sarukui, and Komi were breathing heavily.  Akaashi looked frazzled.  Even Kai looked a little spooked.  Yukie, on the other hand, looked positively delighted.  Well, Kuroo was glad that someone was having a blast.

Kai let out a sigh of relief at the sight of them.  "I'm glad you guys are okay.  We gotta find a way out of here."

"Do we have to?" Yukie whined under her breath.  "I wanna see more murders."

"I think I know a safe way out of here," Kai said.  "Stay close, we're gonna be moving fast."

Kai led them past a series of offices, then made a left turn.  Kuroo knew that Yamamoto and Nishinoya would be coming up at one of the next intersection of aisles.  He needed to prepare himself for what was coming next, but Bokuto still hadn't let go of him.  After a moment's hesitation, Kuroo slipped his hand from Bokuto's.  Bokuto turned back to look at him, one eyebrow quirked.

"Sorry, my hands were getting clammy," he muttered as he wiped his hand on his pant leg.

"Do you guys hear that?" Komi asked.

There was a pounding of footsteps, then someone skid into view.  The group came to a halt just in front of the newcomer.  Kuroo took a few steps forward to get into place, and to gave Nishinoya's makeup a onceover.  Much like the other two victims, Nishinoya was wide-eyed, frantic, and covered in blood.  Unlike the others, he never got the chance to plead for help.  Yamamoto sprung from the shadows and slammed his fake ax into Nishinoya's back.  A spray of blood left Nishinoya's mouth, hitting Kai and Kuroo in the face as Noya staggered forward, backwards, then collapsed.  That time, Kuroo knew Bokuto was the one who screamed.  Kuroo couldn't blame him; what Noya just did was disgusting, and totally unplanned.  Some of it had gotten into his mouth.

"Not enough," Yamamoto growled from behind his mask.  "Need another…"  Yamamoto surveyed the group, his gaze landing on Kuroo.  "You!"

Kuroo tensed.  He took a step back as Yamamoto lurched forward.  This was it.  What Kuroo hadn't been expecting was the wild card known as Bokuto Koutarou.  Just as Yamamoto reached for Kuroo, a pair of strong arms wrapped around his waist.  Kuroo let out the most undignified screech of his life as Bokuto lifted him up and backwards.  The rest of the group looked on with a mixture of alarm and bemusement as Bokuto readjusted his grip on Kuroo and slung him over his shoulder.

Bokuto took off down the hallway, screaming, "Not today, Ax Man!"

"Bokuto-san!" Akaashi called.

As they rounded the corner, Kuroo could hear Yamamoto shout, "What the hell?  Get back here, man!"

"Bokuto, what the fuck!?" Kuroo hissed, squirming in the other man's grip.  "Not cool, dude!  Put me down!"

"Hey, I saved your life!" Bokuto retorted.  "That ax murderer guy was about to get you!"

'Is this guy for real?' Kuroo thought.  'Everything about this is fake!'

"Listen, Prince Charming," Kuroo snapped, "not that I don't appreciate your very heroic rescue attempt, but this is a school sponsored event.  There's no way in hell I was gonna die."

Bokuto slowed to a walk, then to a stop.  "…Right."

"Now that we have that figured out, put me down, please.  I feel a little nauseous."

Bokuto set Kuroo down gently.  Kuroo did his best to ignore the fact that Bokuto kept his hands on Kuroo's shoulders, and the feeling of butterflies in his stomach that accompanied that knowledge.  Instead, he focused on how they had gone the completely wrong way.  They were way off route now.  Well, at least they weren't going to run into Fukunaga.

"Okay, question," Bokuto said.  "Why'd the ax guy grab at you?  There were other people in the group."

Kuroo sighed, "Dude, I'm a volunteer for this thing."

Realization and embarrassment dawned on Bokuto's face.  He covered his beet-red face with his hands and groaned, "You're staged.  It's your job to get dragged off by the ax guy."

"Yeah, it is," Kuroo confirmed, scratching the back of his neck absently.

Bokuto deflated even more.  "I'm so sorry," came the muffled reply.  "I don't do well with horror stuff to begin with, and I got a little overwhelmed.  For a second there, I really thought that you were gonna die.  Oh God, they probably had to stop all the other groups from coming through.  And they're gonna have to send someone to find us."  He shook his head, "I feel dumb now."

After a moment, Kuroo spoke, "You're not dumb.  Jumpy as hell, yes.  But not dumb.  If it makes you feel better, you did pretty well up until that point.  You managed to not scream until Yamamoto jumped out and attacked Nishinoya."

"No, I screamed when the first guy got axed too," Bokuto confessed.  With a sigh, he lowered his hands.  "Look, I really am sorry, I wanted to make sure you were safe.  You're too cute to die."

Kuroo smiled.  "You think I'm—"

"Kuroo, where are you guys?" came Yaku's voice from over the walkie.  "Are you okay?"

"Ah fuck," Kuroo grumbled.  He reached for the walkie and held down the talk button.  "Hey Yaku.  Did Yamamoto fill you in on what happened?"

"Yeah, he did.  He said that you got dragged off by the wrong person."

"I did.  Bokuto got a little jumpy after Noya sprayed Kai and I with fake blood," Kuroo gave the increasingly dejected-looking Bokuto a sympathetic grin.  "From his mouth, I might add."

"Gross."

"That's what I thought too.  Anyway, we're off route, but I think I know where we are.  Has Bokuto's group left already?"

"Yamamoto, Kai and Noya led them to the exit.  I think they're waiting for you guys."

"Alright, we'll be there soon."

Kuroo clipped the walkie back to his belt, covering it with his shirt.  Kuroo motioned for Bokuto to follow him.  They walked to the exit in silence.  Bokuto was obviously embarrassed, and Kuroo didn't want to make it worse by following up on the "too cute to die" comment.  However, it made the walk uncomfortable, and that, in Kuroo's opinion, sucked.  Before long, they reached the back door.  Kuroo pushed it open, revealing Bokuto's friends.

"There you two are!" Konoha called.  "Bokuto, what the fuck was that?"

"I told you guys that I don't do well in haunted houses!" Bokuto snapped back.  "You knew I was going to freak out!"

Akaashi rested his hand on Konoha's shoulder before addressing Bokuto.  "It's fine, Bokuto-san.  You told us that you didn't want to do this.  You're right, we should have known something was going to happen."

"Thank you, Akaashi," Bokuto sniffed.  "I'm glad that at least someone understands why I freaked out."

"We're sorry, Bo," Komi chimed in.  "We didn't think you were going to freak out that bad."

"We talked to Yaku-san," Yukie said.  "He's not mad either.  He does want Kuroo to go get washed up , though."

"I'll get right on that," Kuroo said.  "But first, can you guys give us a minute?"

The group nodded.  Kuroo led Bokuto a short distance away.  He gave Bokuto a quick hug, careful not to smear any fake blood on Bokuto.

"Seriously, don't beat yourself up over this," Kuroo said.  "It's happens sometimes.  I'm not mad, and neither is anyone else."

"I'll try not to," Bokuto replied.  "It was kind of funny wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was," Kuroo agreed.  He held out his hand, "Here, give me your phone real quick.  I wanna give you my number."

Bokuto all but threw his phone at Kuroo.  Kuroo laughed at his enthusiasm.  He programmed his number into Bokuto's phone, then sent a text to himself.

"There we go, now we can keep in touch," Kuroo said.

"You want to keep in touch?" Bokuto asked.

"Of course I do.  It's not every day I get swept off my feet like that."

If he hadn't had fake blood on his face, Kuroo would have kissed the blush off of Bokuto's cheeks.  Unfortunately, fate was cruel, and Kuroo was not into the idea of bloodstained kisses in the slightest.  With a promise to text Bokuto, he wandered back into the haunted house, leaving Bokuto with his friends.

"Hey Bokuto!  Let's go, it's cold out here," Sarukui called.

Bokuto nodded, his gaze lingering on the haunted house before he turned to regroup with his friends.  As they walked, Bokuto's phone let out a small chime.  He read the message preview, and stopped in his tracks.

"Bokuto?" Yukie asked, turning back to him.

Bokuto held up a finger so his friends would wait; his eyes were glued to his screen.

From: [Kuroo Tetsurou]: Thanks again for saving me from the murderer. Can I repay you with lunch tomorrow?

Bokuto let out a loud, triumphant screech, startling Akaashi and the others.  Ignoring his friends' glares, he fired back a quick reply, and all but skipped ahead of the group.  They shouted for him to stop, then raced after him.

"What's got you so smiley?" Konoha asked when he caught up to Bokuto.

"I've got a date tomorrow," Bokuto announced.

Konoha stared at Bokuto with disbelief, shaking his head.  "Seriously?  You have a date with Kuroo already? You have the strangest luck, I swear."

"You're just jealous because I've got a date."

They teased each other all the way back to Bokuto's apartment.  And when he went to bed that night, Bokuto couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, haunted houses weren't so bad after all.

***

The Following Year

As he raised his cup of coffee to his lips, Kuroo's phone chimed once—an incoming text message.  He set his cup back down on the table and pulled his phone from his pocket.

"What's up?" Bokuto asked from across the table.

"Message from Yaku about tonight," Kuroo said.  "I'm pretty sure he sent one to you too."

Bokuto flashed Kuroo a smile, "It was nice of him to let me participate this year.  I'll have a lot more fun scaring people than actually going through it."

Kuroo hummed in acknowledgement as he read the text.  "I think they let you because you can actually lift me.  Yamamoto can't."

Bokuto flexed, one eyebrow raised with a shit-eating grin plastered to his face.  "What can I say?  These are muscles are built for lifting Tetsus."

"This is a very specific callout," Kuroo said, obviously ignoring his boyfriend's cheesy line.

"What's it say?"

"It says, 'Please note that I will be checking zombie makeup periodically over the course of the night.  If I see ANY vaguely lip-shaped smudges, there will be hell to pay.'"

"I mean, to be fair, there is an increase in couples who volunteered this year," Bokuto pointed out.

"True, but you know he means us," Kuroo replied as he shoved his phone into his pocket.

"Well then, we'll just have to be careful not to smudge my makeup.  Won't we?"

Bokuto wiggled his eyebrows at Kuroo before making kissy noises at him.  Laughing, Kuroo reached across the table and took Bokuto's hand in his own.  They laced their fingers together, and Kuroo let out a contented sigh.

"I like the way you think."

[kacydeneen]

'I Don't Feel Safe': Synagogue Shooting Victims Include 8-Year-Old Survivor

A long-time member of the Chabad of Poway synagogue, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, died from her injuries after a gunman opened fire during services to celebrate the end of Passover.

Her rabbi, 57-year-old Yisroel Goldstein lost his index finger when he put his hand up as the gunman approached him. He later wrapped his wounds in a prayer shawl and told his congregants, "we are a Jewish nation that will stand tall." 

Almog Peretz, 34, was declared a hero after he was shot in the leg while shuffling out a group of school-aged children, a group that included one of his nieces, 8-year-old Noya Dahan, who was hit by shrapnel and who described the shooting in an interview with NBC News.  

Here are their stories: 

Lori Gilbert-Kaye: "Jewel of Our Community" As a gunman unloaded bullets inside the synagogue filled with about 100 worshipers, Kaye performed what her friends and Rabbi Goldstein called a last act of heroism when she protected the rabbi from gunfire.

"In my own interpretation, Lori took the bullet for all of us," Goldstein said outside the synagogue a day after the deadly shooting. "She didn’t deserve to die right in front of my eyes." 

The word "giving" was used repeatedly by friends to describe the 60-year-old woman, who has lived her entire life in San Diego. She leaves behind a husband and a 22-year-old daughter. 

"When you ask me, 'Why’d she put herself in front of the rabbi,' it’s like, anyone who knows her, that’s what she would do," her friend Roneet Lev said.

Both Lev and another friend of Kaye's, Audrey Jacobs, said that as the rabbi was being wheeled into surgery, he said, "Let everyone know Lori Kaye saved me."

Lev said Kaye was a pillar of San Diego's Jewish community and was known by people across the globe for her acts of kindness. Jacobs described Kaye as a "jewel of our community." 

Kaye was attending Saturday's service to pay tribute to her late mother with a traditional prayer for the dead. She was a member of the synagogue since its founding. According to the rabbi, Kaye helped secure funding that helped open the Chabad of Poway in 1986. 

Kaye's husband, a doctor, rushed to the shooting scene to help and while performing CPR on a victim fainted when he realized it was his wife, Lev told The Los Angeles Times. 

Lev said that despite the tragedy, the Jewish community will continue to "make this world a better place." 

"She did not die in vain, Lev said. "Her death must bring goodness to the world. If anybody does some good act, whatever it is – calling a friend, saying hello, anything kind – would bring a blessing to Lori’s memory and keep her memory alive."

Noya Dahan: "Too Scary to Not Cry" Eight-year-old Noya Dahan remembers she was playing with the other children her age before the service started on Saturday when she heard loud noises as she entered the doorway to the synagogue. 

Dahan described the chaos to NBC News, detailing the moment her uncle, Peretz, scooped up more than a half-dozen kids and rushed them away from the shooter.

"I was one of them and the person was aiming right at [Peretz] and he was holding me so it hit him and the second one hit me," she said. 

Meanwhile, her dad was screaming, "Everyone run! Run! Run! Someone's shooting," she recalled. 

The 8-year-old said the whole incident happened so quickly it seemed like movie. "It was like too scary to not cry," she said. 

What she does remember, though, was the feeling of getting hit.

"Yes, I definitely remember when it was coming straight at my head like, I'm like 'what's happening"' and then I realized that something hit me and didn't go out so I was really afraid," Dahan said.

Dahan said her family has been the target of anti-Semitism in the past. Five years ago, swastikas were etched into their home and someone tried to light it on fire, she said. 

"I'm still worried, like I still picture things in my head and I still picture the sounds and noise stuff and it's just scary," Dahan said. "But, um I don't really feel safe here. This is not the first and definitely not the last time this happened."

Dahan's family moved to the U.S. a few years ago from Sderot, Israel, which has been the target of rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. 

"We came from fire to fire," Noya's father, Israel Dahan, was quoted as having told Israeli radio. "We left Sderot after our house was hit a few times. My mother's house was hit. I was wounded."

Noya Dahan was released from the hospital Saturday night.

Almog Peretz Peretz is also from Sderot, Israel, and came to visit his family for Passover, according to Jacobs.

When he first heard the gunshots, he immediately gathered the children and lead them to safety, Jacobs said.

He scooped up Noya, his niece, and rushed the rest toward the exit, attempting to dodge bullets along the way. He was hit in the leg, but did not feel it.

He continued his mission to shield and protect the children of the synagogue. He said he couldn't think about his bullet wound because he was nervous.

After leading a large group of kids to a safe place, he paused and noticed that he was missing one, his other niece, so he ran back in.

Terrified, but not immobilized by her fear, she locked herself in the bathroom and sheltered. The shooter was gone by the time Peretz got to her, and that's when congregants pointed out that he was bleeding.

When asked what led him to run back inside, Peretz said simply, "My niece."

"I don't care," he said, responding to a question about whether or not he was scared. "She was alone."

"Because the kids, they stand in shock," he continued. "They're like frozen, they stand. I'm scared they'll run the wrong way. I tell them, 'No, this way, this way!' And I scream."

In the moments that followed, the congregation was beginning to realize what had just happened. Peretz said there was a sense of disbelief that they all shared.

Peretz saw medics trying to resuscitate Kaye. He also passed by the rabbi and saw he was missing his finger.

"You know, I want to forget," Peretz said. "I want to forget. I hope I forget that, but it's coming all the time."

Peretz said he hasn't been able to get the terrifying image -- the shooter standing there with his weapon raised, sight at his eye, firing rounds -- out of his mind.

He didn't eat or sleep that night.

"This is sad, but I am originally from Sderot so we know a bit about running from the Qassam rockets," Peretz told Israel’s Channel 12 from his hospital bed, according to The Times of Israel.

Peretz is recovering from shrapnel wounds and a gunshot to the leg. He has since been released from the hospital.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein said he heard a “large bang” as he walked into the banquet hall before services at the synagogue, then immediately found himself in the line of fire.

"A young man standing with a rifle, staring right at me, he had sunglasses on," Goldstein said. "I couldn’t see his eyes, I couldn’t see his soul."

Within seconds, bullets were fired in his direction. All he could do was put his hands up to protect himself, he said. 

"I turned around and I’m face to face with this murderer -- terrorist -- who was holding a rifle and looking straight at me, and then as soon as he saw me, he started to shoot toward me, and that’s when I put my hands up and then my fingers got blown away," Goldstein told NBC's TODAY show in an exclusive interview Sunday morning.

He was struck in both of his index fingers. As he fled from the shooter he spotted a group of children, his grandchild among them, and he gathered them together and rushed them outside all the while not knowing his right index finger had been severed from his hand.

"My granddaughter -- four-and-a-half years old -- sees her grandpa with a bleeding hand and she sees me screaming and shouting, ‘Get out! Get out!’ She didn’t deserve to see her grandfather like this,” Goldstein said.

In the midst of his life-saving dash, he wrapped his hand in a prayer shawl.

After the shooter fled the property, synagogue congregants sheltered in an outdoor area waiting for authorities to arrive. Goldstein saw an opportunity to speak from his heart and remind his people of their resiliency.

“I got up there, and I just spoke from my heart and giving everyone the courage to know -- you know, it was just 70 years ago during the Holocaust, we were gunned down like this. And I just want to let our fellow Americans know, we’re not going to let this happen here -- not here in San Diego, not here in Poway, not here in the United States of America,” Goldstein said.

At a Sunday press conference, the rabbi said that President Donald Trump called him and spoke with him for about 15 minutes. He said President Trump offered his condolences on behalf of the U.S. and was very comforting.

"I’m really grateful for our president for really taking the time," Goldstein said.

Goldstein, a rabbi at Chabad of Poway since he co-founded it in 1986, wondered how the suspected shooter could arrive at a point where he would want to inflict this kind of pain.

"How does a 19-year-old, a teenager, have the audacity, the sickness, the hatred?” he said. "How does he come to our house of worship and do what he did?"

Goldstein called Kaye a dear friend that he's known for 33 years. He said she died to protect everyone in the synagogue, and said her legacy will continue.

Photo Credit: NBC News/Roneet Lev This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. 'I Don't Feel Safe': Synagogue Shooting Victims Include 8-Year-Old Survivor published first on Miami News

[asterdeer]

in some other world lev and loreleaf become a thing. they stay on earth safely tucked away, at first living with the d’arvilles until they get the hang of their brave new world and then lev goes out and gets her own apartment. the day she leaves - not far away, not the lightyears and centuries away from loreleaf that they were scared of, just about twenty minutes away on the other side of town - that’s when they kiss for real, for the first time, her hands cupping his face as he presses as close as he can get because, and they both know she’ll come back for him as soon as he’s ready

he’s terrified of even this smallish, sleepy southern town and for a long time she has to walk its streets with him, gripping his hand tight, until he settles down. strangers make him shy away and cars scrape his nerves raw. lev is totally at home - she knows cities, she knows towns, she knows people and civilization and this quiet place even sets her at ease. she’s happy to guide him into it, to let him stay at home even as her grasp of english and ease at assimilation lets her find a job - manual labor, but it pays pretty well. her apartment is not fancy but she makes it work. and the first time she takes him to see it, they fall asleep that night curled up on the sofa with their hands locked together. it’s their apartment at this point and it doesn’t take long for him to move in completely

they both have wildly differing views of marriage. for lev, it’s a legal thing - getting married is about getting stuff, perks, exemptions - marriage, in her mind, is something far more fluid and utilitarian than it seems to be in this town. for loreleaf, it’s more deeply crucial and inherently religious than it is even for the town’s inhabitants - it’s about souls and the afterlife more than it is about bodies and feelings. (lev is a little weirded out by the fact that the closest word for the bond between loreleaf and brightsword is “marriage” but then the torkans have several types of “marriage” as there are frequently several words for different types of “love”. it’d be different, loreleaf says, before hesitating and finishing, for different people, even though lev hears for us)

the point is that it’s not something that lev considers, not for a long time. she knows something is bothering him after a few months in the apartment, after they’ve fallen into a routine that feels disconcertingly but comfortingly like domesticity. (they make out a lot. a lot. loreleaf, she finds out, likes being touched, and she does too, and it’s great, even if he’s not comfortable going farther. she’d be a lot more than okay with it if he was but, ultimately, she doesn’t mind.) finally it comes out when she finds loreleaf in their bedroom with a few english dictionaries, struggling over the definitions of “marriage,” and he tries to explain the torkan marriages, that idea. it’s nothing he wants to rush into, he emphasize. but i’m thinking about it. it’s cute, and flattering, and lev tries to give the suggestion all the gravity that he does, even though it’s just not something that she can culturally understand

it’s about a year later - they’re settled, loreleaf doesn’t scare at cars that much anymore (unless they honk) and he has a part time job at a nursery where he’s able to save up money and where he doesn’t have to talk much, and lev has a few friends from work and she’s experienced to know what she likes at the local coffee shop. she comes home from work one evening to find..... the apartment littered in plants. not flowers, not decorative succulents, but plants - fruit tree saplings, vegetables plants, vines, a fricking tomato plant already heavy with growing tomatoes. loreleaf is waiting, nervous and dirty from work. it’s the closest i could make, he tells her. i understand if you want to say no. i know you don’t understand or really care. but i wanted to ask if we could marry now. 

lev agrees. how could she not? it matters to him; for all she cares, they’re pretty well knit together anyway. there are little rites and ceremonies he goes through every day for the next nineteen days - the moon here is different than the one he knows, so he tries to work out the days manually - and lev takes part in them as best as she can. they’re simple, brief, and it’s worth it to see the seriousness with which he goes about them, like he’s studying for a test or performing life-saving surgery. the tomato plant, he tells her, is the final rite - they eat the first full-grown piece of fruit they grow together, and that’s it. they’ll be together.

he gets more and more nervous as it goes on. he doesn’t touch her as much, is hesitant with his kisses, like he’s scared that he’s pressuring her or assuming too much. lev tugs him closer every time he pulls away, trying to strike a balance between patronizing him - he’s an adult, his feelings are natural, just because his misgivings seem minimal to her doesn’t mean she should find them humorous - and expressing that his fears are unfounded, even ridiculous. if i have to tell you i love you on the hour, she says, i will, but i wish you’d believe me in the morning and take it from there. 

he says he’ll try. a little bit of fear leaves his eyes, but it’s there again a few hours later.

she comes home on the last day of his ceremonies to find him nursing a bloody hand. it’s terrifying at first - she’s counted the scars on his arms more times than she could recite - but he waves her off, explaining that he cut himself trying to cut their tomato. his hands were shaking too much. kissing his forehead, she takes the tomato from him and slices it, giving a wedge to him and taking one for herself. he watches her as she takes her first bite, only then shoving his whole wedge in his mouth. she laughs, and he smiles past the mouthful. it’s casual. it’s quiet. they’re married, to him - and that’s enough for her, too.

+

there’s a baby happening three years later.

i don’t mind trying, loreleaf had said softly, his hands not trembling, his voice steady as he looked up at her, if you want to.

lev had promised to be careful, to stop if he wanted to at any point, that she wanted them both to feel good (but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t planning on enjoying this)

he hadn’t minded. not totally. she could tell he was disconnected from it in some way that she wasn’t, but most of his aversion to the idea of it sprang from distrust. and, apparently (she thought about this all night, long after he’d fallen asleep) he trusted her (she thought about it all night as she held him close, his body tucked against hers, her finger strumming over the scarred skin over his ribs)

they didn’t do it often but it seemed that one of those times had been enough.

loreleaf is terrified. he acts like he’s hurt her, like he’s infected her with a disease, all against her will. lev is scared too - of course she is - but she does wish he would stop feeling so guilty, looking so hangdog whenever she gets sick in the morning, when he finds her eating odd things in the kitchen at odd hours. 

(she wishes sixes was around. she knows he wishes brightsword were here. they make do with advice from the d’arvilles, from sammy lightness, from mrs. t, and especially from velvet.)

it’s not, she believes, that he thinks of the baby as a curse; he just thinks that she resents him for it. she’s never thought about wanting a baby, not really, but the more she thinks about it... hell, why not? she has the calm, non-murdery life she used to want, back at the Days. it’s a little strange - it’s not normal - there is literally no other person on this planet who speaks her native language, and that’s the least of her worries as someone who’s who-knows-how-many years in what she still subconsciously thinks of as the ancient past - but this is her life. and she likes it. she has friends, a home, a way to support herself, and gods help her, she has what amounts to a husband.

bring on the baby. she has enough love and strength for ten babies (but one will do).

one night, she and loreleaf fight. he’s tired out by fear and work and nightmares that have been happening more and more frequently. he snaps - makes one too many frustrated, well-night passive-aggressive comments about her relatively cheerful mood. she snaps back, tired of the tiptoeing the two of them have been doing around each other. he slips into torkan, agitated, and she’s angry enough to demand what he’s saying “in english, not your forest hick language” 

I’M SCARED THIS IS GOING TO BREAK, he shouts, his voice cracking. I’M SCARED I AM GOING TO BREAK IT.

oh, she says, as if that’s news to her. but, apparently, it was news to him.

they talk the rest of the night. he wants the baby, too - maybe even a little more than she does - but he’s so scared. he’s always so scared. lev can’t remember what feeling fear - real fear - even feels like. it’s so much better here that she can’t imagine anything interrupting this. but loreleaf...

it’ll be fine, she says. it’s going to be amazing.

when she makes him put a hand against her belly - that’s when the tears start. he cries and she pulls him to her - he buries his face in her neck and murmurs something in torkan, over and over - and she might cry a little bit too. they’re having a child, the two of them are

he tells her that he was largely raised, after his parents were killed, by his village’s healer, and he picked up a few things for pregnant women. unfortunately most of the actual treatments his healer-sister used aren’t available on this planet, but some of the tips he gives her actually do help. he tends to her when she comes home like she’s a queen. even before lev has never had this - she’s never wanted it, not really, but it’s hard to deny that it’s nice. it’s really nice to come home, food warm and the house clean and the air smelling like their plants (still alive) and the incense that he makes himself. it’s not that pregnancy is fun - but the perks, she decides, are nice

the baby comes as all babies seem to come, amidst chaos and nerves and yelling and the pain is definitely not like anything even lev has ever felt and all of her happy feelings towards the baby are utterly obliterated in those hours in the hospital. throughout the birth she hears loreleaf’s voice constantly - either clearly or as background noise to her own yelling and cussing - and it sounds like he’s praying to someone, tears thickening his voice as they all wait it out. she all but passes out when it’s done.

when she’s recovered enough to be conscious of her surroundings, she sees him next to her, the baby cradled in his arms, softly crying, his head bent over it, his hair shielding its face from her sight. she says his name and he looks up, his eyes full and his smile fragile and brilliant. it’s a girl he says, and if she were awake enough, she’d cry, but she’s not, so she just smiles at him and keeps smiling until he comes to sit on her bed, letting her see their daughter - a tiny, mumbling thing, with wispy dark hair and soft, reddish-brown skin closer to her father’s than her mother’s. 

what do we name her? lev asks, because between the two of them, they have only names that probably won’t fly where they live now. loreleaf shrugs. some names are also plant names, right? is tomato one of those names that goes for both? lev doesn’t think so but she decides to ask judah. (judah laughs way too much at this. it’s kind laughter, but still.)

when loreleaf suggests lavender, lev almost cries again. it sounds like yours, he says, and no child could ask for a better mother to be named for. she wants to protest but she can’t, there’s no reason to protest when it sounds so right. not because it sounds like her name, no, but because... it is right. a beautiful flower, strong and good and lovely. no child could ask for a better name, period. lev kisses her daughter and kisses her husband and when she does start to cry - who could have ever looked at her eighteen-year-old self huddled in her bedroom in greenrow, nursing her scars and tending to her boys and struggling against death every day, letting herself be used as a murder weapon just to stay alive herself, and predicted that she would become a woman who’d stepped from that world into one like this, a place where her strength and urge to protect would be channeled into a quiet life, nurturing her friends and loreleaf and now this small, beautiful speck of life? - when she starts to cry from gratitude, from thanksgiving, loreleaf is right there, softly weeping too, soothing her dreadlocks and kissing the tears on her face, murmuring over and over i love you, i love you, i love you so much, i love you both so much

there are many kinds of happiness and lev had been able to say she’d known must of them in her life - the happiness of simply being alive, the savage joy of successfully protecting her boys, the ecstasy over the prospect of a new life, the bone-deep relief at having a home to come to at the end of the day, the simple contentment of a job well done, the handful of unique thrills that come with fulfilled romantic love. 

she can’t imagine any more kinds of happiness after this. it’s not that this is better than those other kinds; it’s just that, finally, she has her own personal version of the full set. 

loreleaf falls asleep next to her; lavender sleeps in the crib near the hospital bed. it takes a while for lev to drift off, her mind consumed with what comes next. she’s looking forward to feeling those happinesses all over again - along with everything that comes with them, makes them worth something, too.