#and i just remember linking pinkies together and eventually holding hands and how my heart fluttered from that especially

[bellaireland1981]

New Beginnings: A Christmas at Disney

Summary:  Follow up to New Beginnings series- Andy and Briella head to Disney World with Jacob, Ava and Bri’s parents for Christmas. A little bit of Christmas magic mixed with a little bit of Disney magic and you never know what will happen! 

Characters: Andy Barber x Briella James (named reader), Ava James, Jacob Barber, and Briella’s parents. 

Warnings:  None- FLUFF and lots of sweetness 

Word count: 5k (it got away from me!)

**Read the series starting with Ch 1 HERE

A/N: I do not give permission to copy or post my work on any other website or platform. Reblogs are always welcome. Andy Barber and Jacob Barber are characters that do not belong to me. All other characters in this story are my own. Thank you @denisemarieangelina​ for reading and being my sounding board for all things Disney! 

“Slow down, Princess” Andy laughed as Ava all but dragged him towards the entrance to Magic Kingdom. “It’s not going anywhere.”

“Someone sure is excited to get to Disney!” Your mom laughed, walking behind with you, Jacob and your dad.

She wasn’t wrong. Ava had been a ball of excitement since you’d gotten on the plane to fly to Orlando. You were staying on property at the Contemporary Resort, so the Disney magic had started at the airport when you’d boarded the Disney bus to head to the hotel. Once you’d arrived, she’d discovered several gifts on her bed of the hotel, including a breakfast reservation with all of the princesses.

“I can’t be late to meet the princesses! Hurry!” She begged.

“We have plenty of time, Monkey” You assured her, “We have early entry to the park, and breakfast isn’t for another hour.”

That seemed to satisfy her some, as she slowed down at least. You all made your way into the park and started out on Main Street, looking in some of the shops. Soon, it was time to make your way over to breakfast at Cinderella’s Castle. Ava was beyond excited at this point. Jacob walked ahead with her, holding her hand so she didn’t get too far ahead of everyone.

“She’s in heaven.” Andy said, smiling at Ava as she interacted with all of the princesses. “I love seeing her so happy.”

“She’ll be on cloud nine for the rest of the day, and probably the trip.” You agreed.

“This just might be the highlight of her entire year.” Your dad laughed.

After breakfast, you moved through more of the park until lunch time. By then Ava was starting to get tired, so you and Andy took her back to the hotel to rest for a bit. Your parents stayed at the park with Jacob, continuing to explore the park.

Ava was already asleep when you got to the hotel. Andy carried her to the room and gently laid her on the bed.

“We’ll let her recharge her batteries and then we can head back for some more.” You said, “I know she won’t want to miss the parade or the fireworks later.”

While Ava slept, you and Andy ate a light lunch on the balcony of the room and enjoyed some quiet time together. Once Ava woke up, you got her some lunch and the three of you headed back into the park to meet up with Jacob and your parents.

You spend the afternoon going through the park,meeting all the characters, and riding as many rides as possible. By the time the parade begins, you’re convinced Ava and Jacob are both riding a permanent sugar high. You’ve never laughed so much as you did watching the two of them go through Disney together.

You snap lots of pictures of the various floats and characters as they go by. Being Christmastime, all of the floats and characters were decked out in holiday decorations. It made an already magical place, extra special.

“I love that Jake is having just as much fun as Ava, even though he’s a teenager.” Andy said, wrapping arms around you and resting his chin on your head. “I always wanted to bring him, but Laurie never seemed interested.”

“Well, we can make up for lost time now.” You promised, “We can make it our mission to visit during all of the holidays at least once. Or at least visit once in every season.”

“We may need to look at an annual pass,” Andy laughed, “But I’m sure Ava and Jacob would both like that plan.”

“I think you’re right.” You agreed, “They’ve both caught the Disney Magic, and I don’t think there’s a cure.”

“Mommy, when do the fireworks start?” Ava asked, turning to look at you from her perch on a nearby bench. Jacob was standing next to her, ensuring she didn’t fall.

“Soon, Monkey” You replied, “It’s after the light parade and when it gets just a little bit darker.”

“You’re going to love this Ava!” Jacob said, “I watched a YouTube video of it and I bet it’s even better in person!”

Jacob wasn’t wrong, the fireworks show was breathtaking. They were both mesmerized the entire show. You and Andy kept stealing glances at one another from over the tops of the kids’ heads. Once the show was over you started the trek back to the monorail to head back to the hotel. Jacob gave Ava a piggy back ride, as she was beyond exhausted while you and Andy walked behind them, and your parents walked in front of them.

Once back at the hotel, your parents went to their suite next to yours and the four of you headed into your suite. Ava was half asleep on Jacob’s back. Andy carefully lifted her off and carried her to one of the bedrooms.

“Do we need to wake her up to use the bathroom or change?” Andy asked you, gently laying her down on the bed and carefully pulling her shoes off.

“She should be ok as she is.” You replied, smiling at how loving and gentle he was with her.

“I’m going to crash too.” Jacob said, coming in and flopping down onto the other bed. “Thank you for bringing us. Today was a lot of fun.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Andy smiled at Jacob, “Sorry it took so long to get you here, Pal.”

“It’s better this way.” He replied, “It’ll only be good memories. Not tainted.”

“We love you, Jacob” You said gently, “There’s a lot more happy memories to be made, get some sleep sweetheart.”

You and Andy made your way out of their room, into the sitting area of the suite. He grabbed your hand and gently pulled you to the sofa, sitting down and pulling you into his lap.

“The past 3 months have been so amazing, I keep forgetting he’s still healing and coming to terms with everything that happened.” Andy sighed, wrapping his arms around your waist and resting his head against yours. You wound your arms around him, your fingers gently threading in this hair.

“I have no doubt that there’s still a long road to recovery for him, but I can assure you, he’s come so far the last few months.” You reassure him. “He’s resilient, strong, and has a huge heart. He also has an amazing dad in his corner. And now he has Ava and me who will always be there for him, and pseudo grandparents.”

“I love you, Sweetheart.” Andy said, his lips finding your own.

“I love you too, Andy.” You replied between kisses. You both stayed on the couch for a while, enjoying the stillness of the night and being in each other’s arms. Eventually you made your way to the second bedroom in the suite and fell into an exhausted sleep curled into each other.

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

The next morning was Christmas Eve. You’d all decided to order room service for breakfast before heading to Animal Kingdom for the day.

While waiting on breakfast to get delivered to the room, you and Ava go into the bathroom where you braid her hair for her in an Elsa style braid per her request. Once finished, she goes out to join Jacob to plan out what they want to see that day. You quickly finish getting ready and then join everyone in the common area of the suite.

After the food arrives, you help Andy get it all set up on the table for everyone. While setting the table you and Andy overhear Ava asking Jacob about Santa.

“Jakey,” Ava asked softly, “Will Santa be able to find me here at the hotel? And how will he get in? There’s no fireplace here… and we don’t have stockings or a tree!”

“He knows where we’re at, Kiddo.” He reassured her, “And he’s got magic, remember? He doesn’t need a fireplace to get in.”

“But what about the stockings and the tree?” She asked, not convinced, “Those are still at home.”

“We’re at Disney” He replied, “Between Disney magic and Santa’s magic, I think it’ll be covered.”

“Promise?” She asked, holding out her pinky to Jacob.

“Promise.” he said, linking his pinky with hers.

You looked at Andy, worried. You hadn’t thought about this aspect of being away for Christmas. Of course Ava would be worried about Santa not coming and being upset about not having the tree and stockings up.

“I’ll take care of it.” Andy whispered, reassuring you. He pulled you close and leaned in to kiss your forehead. “Trust me.”

“Always” You replied, smiling.

“Who’s ready for more Disney today?” Your dad said coming in through the suite door. “I hear Animal Kingdom is on tap for the day!”

“ME!” Ava said, jumping up and running over to hug him. “I can’t wait to see the animals and go on the safari! Jacob showed me a video!”

“I’ll bet it’s going to be another fun-filled day!” Your mom said. “And I heard one of the hotel workers say they’re preparing a giant batch of cookies for a certain someone who’ll be stopping by with presents tonight!”

“Really?” Ava asked, “Mommy! We need some of those cookies!”

“I’ll look into it Monkey.” You promised. “Let’s eat so we can get over to Animal Kingdom.”

Once everyone had finished eating you all headed down to the front of the hotel to catch the shuttle bus to Animal Kingdom.

Jacob and Ava wanted to do the safari first when you arrived so you headed over there.

“It’s kinda like when we first met at the zoo.” Jacob said, smiling at Ava. “Not a train, but still cool.”

“That was the best day EVER!” Ava exclaimed, “Mommy and I got  you and Andy that day!”

“You sure did, Princess.” Andy said, smiling lovingly at her. “You and your Mommy captured our hearts that day for sure.”

“Definitely the best day.” You said, wiping a stray tear from your eyes, smiling.

The safari was incredible. It was fun watching Jacob and Ava point out the animals and bonding over animals again.

“Those two have such an amazing bond.” Your mom said once you’d finished the safari. “They remind me of you and your brother when you were little.”

“They really do.” You agreed, “It makes my heart melt watching them together.”

“They’ve definitely already adopted one another.” Andy added. “I love getting to see Jake in a protective big brother role.”

“He’s got the role down pat for sure.” Your dad winked at Andy.

You headed to Pandora the world of Avatar next and spent a few hours there, before grabbing lunch and continuing on to the rest of the park.

You decided to head back to the hotel before dinner time, opting to eat at the hotel rather than Animal Kingdom.

While you headed to the pick up area to catch the bus, Andy nodded at Jacob who smiled and walked ahead with Ava a little bit in order to talk to her.

“It’s time, Kiddo.” He whispered, “Remember what dad wants you to say?”

“Yes!” She whispered back, excitedly. “I need to go to Cinderella’s wishing well and make a wish!”

“Good job.” He smiled at her, “Make sure to really sell it!”

They stopped at the bus pick up and waited for everyone to catch up. The trip back to the hotel didn’t take too long. When they arrived back and got off the bus, Andy winked at Ava over your shoulder.

“MOMMY!” Ava exclaimed, “We have to go back to the Magic Kingdom! I have to go to Cinderella’s wishing well!”

“Ok, Monkey” You said, amused, “We can go back tomorrow.”

“NO!” She insisted, “I have to go TONIGHT! It’s Christmas EVE and Jacob said that Disney magic AND Santa magic are EXTRA special. So I HAVE to make the wish tonight. Pleeeeeaaasssseee?”

“How about we take the monorail and go to the wishing well then just get dinner at the Magic Kingdom tonight?” Andy suggested, “It’s still early enough.”

“We can see if there is availability to eat at Cinderella’s Royal Table.” Your mom suggested, “I know our little Princess would love that.”

“Sounds like fun to me!” Jacob said, “We can see the fireworks show again!”

“Ok then,” You laughed, “I guess we’re not done with Disney today just yet.”

“YAY!” Ava yelled, happily. “Let’s go! Let’s go!” She tugged Jacob’s hand and started moving to the monorail.

“You know we can’t always give in though, right?” You asked Andy, laughing, “We’re creating a monster here.”

“I know, but it’s Christmas.” Andy shrugged, smiling, “And it’s Disney.”

“Wrapped around her little finger.” you laughed

“Possibly.” He agreed. “Come on, let’s go experience some more magic.”

You rode the monorail into the Magic Kingdom and immediately headed towards Cinderella’s wishing well for Ava.

“While we’re here did you want to go on any of the rides again or see anything else?” You asked the kids.

“Nope! Just the wishing well!” Ava said, “And what Nana said for dinner. I like that!”

“I’m good.” Jacob agreed, “We’re doing Epcot tomorrow for Christmas around the world”?

“Yup!” You confirmed, “We’ll do breakfast and presents in the morning and then head to Epcot later.”

“Cool.” he smiled. “There was a shop I kinda wanted to go back to on Main Street if that’s ok on our way out?”

“Of course!” You said, “We can stop after dinner. I may pick up some treats from the candy shop too.”

“Now who has whom wrapped around their finger?” Andy teased you, mimicking your earlier words.

“Hush” You laughed, “Not the same thing.”

“Uh huh.” He nodded, smirking.  “Your argument is weak, my love.”

Once you arrived at the wishing well your mom and dad walked up with Ava and Jacob giving them each coins to toss into the well.

“Andy and Bri, you make wishes too.” Your mom said smiling, her hand holding out two more coins. You and Andy reached over and took the coins.

“You have to hold the coin in your hand really tight” Ava told Jacob, “Squeeze your eyes close and think REALLY hard about what you want to wish for. If you think about it and wish hard enough, it’ll come true!”

Jacob followed her instructions and made his wish, tossing the coin into the well. Ava made her wish next, tossing her coin into the well.

“Your turn Mommy!” Ava said, “Make a wish! Close your eyes REALLY REALLY tight and wish SUPER hard!”

Andy smiled at her, winking. You laughed, then closed your eyes tightly and made a show about really thinking about your wish, wanting to make Ava happy. In reality, you already had everything you could wish for. You finally tossed your coin into the well, opening your eyes.

“Ok, Andy…” You said, turning around to face him, your words getting stuck when you saw him.

While you were making your wish, Andy pulled the ring he’d been holding onto out of his pocket and had dropped down to one knee.

“Everything I could possibly wish for is already right here with me, Bri.” He said, his voice full of emotion. “I never really believed in second chances or in happily ever after until I was lucky enough to meet you and Ava. I was determined to be the best dad I could to Jacob and make our own happiness. We moved here for a fresh start, and I was given that and so much more. You embraced Jacob and he immediately started healing, and finding himself again. I was probably already half in love with you when we met for that reason alone. I fell completely in love with you the day in the zoo. Watching you with Ava and Jacob, I knew that’s what a mother’s love was supposed to look like. My heart was also captured by a little Princess that day. Bri, I love you completely with everything that I am. I love Ava as if she were my own. I love our little family that we’ve created. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of our lives together, raising these two crazy kids, and any more that may come along.”

You wiped at the tears now steadily streaming down your face at his words. Your heart bursting with love for him.

“Briella James, will you marry me?” Andy asked, smiling up at you, his eyes brimming with love for you.

“YES!” You exclaimed happily through your tears. Andy slipped the ring on your finger and then stood up, pulling you to him and kissing you.

You could hear loud applause all around from your parents, Jacob and Ava, but also from many strangers who had witnessed the proposal.

“I love you too, Andy.” You said when you could regained your composure. “More than I can possibly put into words.”

“Congratulations you two!” Your mom and dad said, coming over to hug you. Ava bounded over and threw herself into Andy’s arms hugging him tightly.

“I’m really glad you said yes.” Jacob said hugging you, “I mean I figured you would, but I’m still really glad. I love you Bri.”

“I love you too, Jacob.” You replied, a fresh wave of tears springing to your eyes.

“My wish came true!” Ave laughed happily, “Jacob was right! Disney magic and Christmas magic together makes the wish more powerful!”

“We have reservations at Cinderella’s Royal Table in 20 minutes.” Your dad said, winking at you. “Let’s get some pictures and then we can head over.”

Your parents snapped pictures of you and Andy and then of you both with the kids before a very helpful cast member came over and offered to take a picture of everyone together. One you were done with pictures, you made your way to dinner.

Like the princess breakfast, Ava was enamored by everything at dinner. It was fun to see her so excited. You kept sneaking peeks at your left hand, smiling whenever you saw your ring. Andy saw you looking and smiled widely.

After dinner, you all went to the shops on Main Street for some last minute shopping. Once you were all done you decided to skip the fireworks show again and head back to the hotel. Ava was anxious to pick up cookies and place them out for Santa and it had been a very eventful day.

The trip back was quick as most people were staying until the park closed. When you entered the hotel you took Ava to go get some cookies while everyone else headed up to the rooms. You knew Andy had something planned for her, but he hadn’t let you in on exactly what the surprise was.

Once Ava picked out the perfect cookies for Santa you headed up to the suite. When you walked in you both let out surprised gasps. While you’d been gone today, your suite had been turned into a Christmas wonderland. It could almost rival the North Pole. In one corner of the common space, a large tree had been set up and decorated. Garland was strung around the suite, what looked like mistletoe was hung by the balcony doors and on one wall, stockings were hung. The stockings were all Disney themed and had everyone’s names embroidered on them.

“MOMMY!” Ava exclaimed, “It’s BEAUTIFUL!”

“It really is, Monkey.” You agreed, “It’s perfect.” You looked over at Andy, smiling. You walked over to him and wrapped your arms around him, pulling him down so you could kiss him.  “Thank you.” You whispered.

“Of course,” he replied, kissing you back. “Anything to put a smile on our Princess’ face.”

Jacob helped Ava get the cookies on a plate and placed a small carton of Milk next to it with a note. Ava had written the note to Santa earlier in the day and sealed it in a hotel envelope so we couldn’t see it. She insisted it was for Santa only.

“Alright, Princess,” Andy said, “Time to get ready for bed and head off to dreamland so Santa can come.”

“Ok!” She said, hopping up and heading into the bathroom to brush her teeth and change.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that willing to go to bed before.” You laughed.

Your parents said goodnight and headed to their room, and Jacob went and got ready for bed after Ava was finished.

When both kids were ready for bed you went in to tuck Ava into bed.

“Mommy, can Jacob read me a bedtime story first?” Ava asked.

“That’s up to him, Monkey.” You said, “But off to sleep you go after one story.”

“I’ll read to you, Kiddo.” Jacob agreed. “Goodnight Bri.”

“Goodnight Jacob,” You smiled, “You’re already such an amazing big brother.”

“She makes it easy.” He shrugged, smiling bashfully.

“Good night Mommy!” Ava said, “I love you!”

“Goodnight, Monkey.” You replied, “I love you too. And I love you, Jacob.”

“Love you too.” He said smiling and grabbing a book to read to Ava.

You backed out of their room, quietly closing the door, and headed to your room to change and help Andy get everything set up for Ava for morning from Santa.

“Just when I think I can’t possibly love you any more than I already do, you go and prove me wrong.” You said wrapping your arms around Andy’s waist from behind and dropping a kiss on his shoulder blade. He turned in your arms and cupped your face gently in his hands, leaning down to kiss you softly.

“I love you too, Sweetheart.” He replied, leaning in to capture your lips again.

“How did I get so lucky that I get forever with you, my incredible fiance?” You asked.

“The luck is all mine, my beautiful future wife.” He replied.

Smiling, you both set to work filling stockings and getting all the gifts and Santa gifts under the tree. When you were about done, you noticed Andy pulling a small box out of a Disney bag that you didn’t remember picking up.

“I wanted to ask you something.” Andy said, looking almost as nervous as when he proposed.

“I already said, ‘Yes’.” You teased him.

“And I’m really glad you did, or this would be super awkward” He laughed, letting out a breath he’d been holding and sitting down on the bed. “I saw this necklace the day that I found your ring, and immediately knew I was going to get it for Ava. I know that by getting married, we are both gaining another child. I love Ava as if she were already mine, and I wanted to ask you, before asking her, if once we’re married, if I could legally adopt her? I want her to officially be my daughter.”

“Andy, of course you can!” You said, wrapping your arms around his neck and kissing him. “I love that you love her and want to adopt her. And I know she’ll be ecstatic when you ask her. She already looks at you like her dad.”

“Think she’ll like the necklace?” He asked, opening the box to show you. Inside the box was a delicate silver chain with a locket and tiara charm. You carefully opened the locket and inside there was a tiny picture of the two of them that’d been taken at her birthday party on one side and on the other side it said ‘Daddy’s Princess’.

“She will love it.” You confirmed, “Almost as much as she already loves you.” You put the necklace back into the box and wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him down to kiss him. “You’re perfect, my love.”

“Far from perfect, but given a lifetime with you, I may get closer to it.” He replied.

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

The next morning you were woken up to Ava bounding into your room and jumping onto the bed.

“SANTA CAME!” She exclaimed, “WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT’S CHRISTMAS!”

“We’re awake, Princess.” Andy laughed, grabbing her and pulling her down between the two of you, tickling her. “Give us a minute and we’ll be right out to see what Santa left for you.”

“HURRY!” She ordered, laughing and running off into the common area.

“Guess that’s our wake up call.” You laughed, looking at the clock next to the bed. “At least she waited until 6:30. Last year she had me up at 5.”

“I have a feeling Jacob may have been keeping her contained for a bit.” Andy guessed.

“That would make more sense.” You agreed, “Let’s go before she comes back in.”

The two of you made your way out the other room. You stopped quickly to start coffee on your way.

“Ok, dig into the stockings” You said, “Everything else waits until Nana and Papa are over here.”

You all looked through your stockings, loving the variety of treats, and small gifts that filled each one. While you were all engaged in stockings your parents came over and joined you all.

“YAY!” Ava said happily, running over to hug her grandparents. “Nana and Papa are here so we can open ALL the presents!”

“To be young and have that much energy again.” Your dad laughed.

“You’re not wrong.” Andy agreed, “If we could bottle an ounce of her energy we could make millions.”

“I don’t know if I could even handle THAT much energy.” Your mom replied.

“Alright Monkey, we’ll do presents and then breakfast” You said.

Lots of paper and ribbons later, you were down to the last couple of gifts. Jacob handed you a package at the same time that Andy handed Ava the small box.

“This is for you Princess.” Andy said. He sat down next to hear while she tore the wrapping off and opened the box.

“It’s BEAUTIFUL!” She exclaimed, beaming at Andy. “Thank you so much!”

“Open it, Monkey.” You encouraged her, tears already filling your eyes. Knowing something big was about to happen, your mom had her cell phone out recording the moment.

Ava carefully opened up the locket and saw the picture of her and Andy from her party. She was still new with reading but was good at sounding things out, and could recognize words she was more familiar with, so you weren’t surprised when she was able to read the inside of the locket.

“Daddy’s Little Princess.” She read aloud, slowly and quietly. She paused for a moment, then looked up at Andy, then to you. You nodded to her encouragingly. “You… want to be my... Daddy?”

“I very much want to be your Daddy, Princess.” Andy said, his voice thick with  emotion, “If that’s OK with you?”

“YES!” She exclaimed, launching herself into his arms, her own winding around his neck tightly. “I love you, Daddy!”

“I love you too, Princess.” He replied, tears slipping down his cheeks. Your own were wet with tears, as well. Your heart was bursting with happiness. “Your mommy and I talked and she said that I could adopt you. That means officially you’ll be my daughter too, and as soon as Mommy and I are married, we can change both hers and your last name to Barber.”

“And Jacob will be my brother for REAL?” She asked happily.

“I’m already your brother for real Kiddo.” Jacob said coming over to hug her.

“Yes he is.” Andy confirmed.

“Bri, open yours next.” Jacob said.

You smiled, picking up the package again and carefully unwrapping it. You opened the box and moved the tissue paper aside. Nestled in the paper was a bracelet with several charms on it. You looked at the charms closely, tears once more springing to your eyes.  In the middle was a charm that said ‘Mom’, with the O being minnie mouse. On each side of that charm were birthstone charms. One for Ava and one for Jacob.

“Jacob…” you said, your voice horse from emotion, “this is so beautiful. Thank You!” You reach over and pull him into a hug.

“There’s more” he whispered as he hugged you back. He pulled away and you looked back down into the box. Tucked in with the bracelet was a folded up piece of paper. You took it out, carefully unfolding it. After the first few lines you read you realized what you were reading. Your head shot up and you caught Andy’s eye over Jacob’s head. He had tears still gathered in his eyes and he nodded slightly, letting you know he knew about the paper. You assumed Andy had been responsible for having the paper formally drafted, but it was a petition of adoption.

“Jacob…” You said, “If you’re sure this is what you want, I would be honored to adopt you and be your mom. I love you, Sweetheart.”

“I’m sure.” He said firmly, “I love you too. You’ve been more of a mom to me in the last 5 months than my biological mother was in 14 years. I know what a mom is supposed to be since I met you.”

You hugged him tightly, as though you could put all his pieces back together again in that one hug. You knew it would take time, but you swore you’d help to undo the damage that Laurie had done to him.

“I think this has been the best Christmas in a long time.” Your dad said, voice breaking with emotion.

“There’s only the best yet to come.” Andy said, sitting next to you and Jacob with Ava on his lap.

“Papa is right!” Ava declared, “I wished on my birthday candles that we’d be a real family, and then I asked Santa this year to make Andy my Daddy and Jacob my big brother!”

“It looks like the birthday Fairy and Santa delivered then huh, Monkey?” You said, beaming at your daughter.

“Yup!” She agreed. “I think next, I’ll wish for a baby brother or sister!” Everyone burst out laughing. You and Andy looked at each other over her head, you’re sure your eyes were as big as saucers. He just winked and smiled.

 @nickysurfer28​ @jamielea81​ @fluffymisha97​ @waywardodysseys​ @thesecretlifeofdaydreamss​

[milktyama]

— ☕︎ IF BY CHANCE

a/n: here are the imagines that anon gave me and gave me permission to expand with my own accord!! thank you anon i love this idea (and also added the song to my playlist thank you for that) ALSO longest work ever done!

— heavy reference to if by chance by ruth b.

synopsis: "if by chance... could you forgive me?"

pairing: 3rd year/adult!kageyama tobio x reader

genre: fluff to angst, hurt little comfort, in spain w/o the s

wc: 2.3k

thank you @kohi-zeri @snoozless for beta-ing! <3

❥︎ two swear words, most obvious n smallest manga spoiler

People like to emphasize how high school will be the greatest and the wildest years of your life. And a major part of high school is exploring first loves and small infatuations. High school love is so innocent and light-hearted and sometimes awkward, but that is what makes it so charming.

That is exactly how it felt being with Kageyama Tobio after meeting him in your final year of high school. Shy confessions were exchanged on the daily, pinkies linked as the main source of public affection, anything more flustering both of your young selves. 

You always thought that meeting your high school sweetheart in your last year was a sign of bad luck. It was way too late for any deep love to actually develop. It would almost feel forced or fleeting, the connection not having enough time to harvest and bloom.

Though, being with him proved that wrong. 

Having him in your life was a blessing from the moment you first encountered him on a rainy spring evening during your way home. You would’ve never expected that that day to become as significant to you back then as it does now. 

A small irregularity of Kageyama Tobio forgetting his umbrella when the weather forecast had explicitly predicted a 90% chance of raining during the evening. That night, you thought to yourself that he was  counting on the 10% chance that it wouldn’t rain, when in reality it was simply the fact that he did not check the weather forecast daily. 

Pft. You would think that being a senior in high school would mean taking up a little more responsibility, but that wasn’t the case with him. His mind still ran on the adrenaline and excitement of volleyball and volleyball alone. 

You saw him attempting to take shelter under a cherry blossom tree in the nearby park. The droplets of the rain reflected the sunlight as they landed on the light pink petals of the tree, giving it a warm and peaceful glow. 

Kageyama’s hair and clothes were damp from the minimal protection he had against the pouring rain. If you had not approached him that night and offered to share your umbrella, nothing would have happened between the two of you. 

You two would have remained as casual classmates, having small insignificant encounters that could be easily looked over: being assigned clean up duty together, collecting tests from people in your row — simple things that no one would ever think twice about. This encounter alone could have easily been part of the list of insignificant encounters… it was just a classmate looking out for another classmate right? 

But the warm kindness you showed him on that cold, rainy night had somehow reached Kageyama’s heart. What he at first thought was a mere act of kindness towards a classmate had sprouted into something a little bit more.

After that night, Kageyama found himself looking in your direction more often. His bright blueberry eyes would wander towards your figure who sat a few desks in front of him. You never caught him staring during class, but his presence was more than enough to burn through the back of your head. 

It seemed his not-so-subtle glances have rubbed off onto you because you would find your eyes starting to linger on him as well. His tall and lean figure captivated you. His raven hair, his blue eyes, his indifferent voice, and infamous “resting bitch face” were triggers your brain could not miss.

The more the days pass with your attention captivated by this man, the more you realize your feelings towards him. It was a rocky but surprisingly short journey, with both parties who faced difficulties with expressing their feelings to the other, but everything eventually fell into place, leaving it up to fate to bring both of your yearning souls together. 

And oh boy did fate put a strong magnetism between the two of you.

You fell in love with Kageyama Tobio through and through. Sure, it was a little awkward at first, with stiff movements and a sprinkle of miscommunication, but after speaking your hearts out, it became clear: you were in love with him just as much as he was in love with you. 

At least that is how it seemed. 

Even after sharing light kisses under the cherry blossom tree where you met for the first time, your hands held in his rough ones, surrounded by the smell in his clothes that you borrowed from his closet. Or passing small notes to each other during class and sleepless nights when you tried to tutor him in classes he lacked on. Or shouting from the top of your lungs whenever you attended any of his games while sporting his spare jersey. 

All these memories seemingly came crashing down a week before your graduation. 

Your ears rang after he utters a short phrase that had enough power to crash your world, enough power to make you feel as if everything you’ve done the past year had been a waste, enough power to leave you on your knees, helplessly clutching your chest as the pain starts to spread throughout your body. 

“I’m sorry. But… I think I’m in love with someone else.”

He continued to ramble endlessly. Maybe it was more apologies, or maybe he was reasoning what he’d been doing with you this past year. Maybe he was word vomiting in order to make this impact on you less heavy. Whatever it had been, you couldn’t hear it. You lost your grasp of your senses the second those words had reached your ears.

How did you not notice this? How could you not see how his glances towards you became less frequent, how his kisses grew more reluctant, how he wouldn’t reach for your hand first, how his eyes didn’t sparkle for you? You only now realized that he fell out of love. Or maybe he loved someone else all along? Or maybe you were just a game to him? You didn’t even want to consider the latter.

Your sight was blurring with tears that you desperately tried to keep in, but they had already fallen helplessly down your face. You didn’t even notice that Kageyama was no longer in front of you. 

When you finally  composed yourself, you could see his retreating figure in the distance with someone else at his side. They weren’t hugging or holding hands or kissing or anything of that sort. But watching the person you thought you could love for the rest of your life walk away with someone else was just too much for your poor heart to bear. 

It has been exactly 4 years since. You  graduated from university and did some intern work during your summers to distract yourself. You truly believed that you have finally picked yourself up and moved one. It was only after seeing him on TV, seeing that he had achieved his dream of going pro, that all the emotions came rushing back. 

You still loved him. You always have and never stopped. Your love for him was so great, so powerful, so unconditional that it never left your system, even after being broken in one of the worst ways possible. 

Maybe if he had loved you then you would still be by his side, cheering him on.  

He reached out to you a few months after your break up. With your wound still fresh, you had truly believed he called to get back together, only to get your hopes crushed. Well, not completely, at least. He called  to apologize again, figuring that back in high school you — actually, both of you — had been too emotionally distressed to properly deal with the situation. 

It was a very short call, 5 minutes at most. His apology was simple and to the point, but that was how he was. He swore he was sorry for ending things the way they did, and ended the call with a promise. He promised to never hurt you again. 

Although his heart may or may not have not been occupied by someone else during your time together, he still found comfort and familiarity when he was with you. Before he could hang up, you too apologized for how you reacted and dealt with the situation, swearing the same promise.

But that promise proved  harder to keep than you had thought. 

You encountered Kageyama once again, but this time he was with someone else. He seemed happy. It was hard to believe that even after all these years, your heart still beat for Kageyama Tobio. It hurt your heart to see him smile for someone else, knowing those smiles used to be for you. It hurt your heart to know that you were no longer the reason for his smiles being so wide, so genuine. 

You wondered if  he still recalled the memories the two of you shared. If he still sang along to the song  you two spent weeks choosing and claimed as “your song” or if he skipped it. If he still reacted to advertisements that featured your favorite lip balm, the one he loved tasting on your lips whenever you kissed. If he remembered the future plans you talked about, where the two of you would live in a comfortable apartment and how the interior would be decorated; how you would spend nights dancing around the living room. 

Either way, you were no longer part of his life. He had found someone else to dedicate his heart to. As if to confirm the dilemma that has plagued you for so long, Kageyama leaned into a kiss to the forehead of his partner, smiling as he pulled away whilst leaning his head onto his partner. 

Tears brimmed in the corners of your eyes. You ran, allowing your body to take you wherever it pleased, hot tears falling helplessly from your eyes continuously. 

So much for keeping a promise. 

Your feet finally stopped, tired, your eyes worn out from crying. You slowly took in your surroundings as you felt the warm breeze of a spring evening, soft petals tickling your sensitive skin. It was quite obvious where your heart belonged. 

You found yourself under the tree where you first met him. Where you two would often sit and exchange fleeting kisses or a small treat, feeding each other with fond eyes. The wind blew past you as the petals from the cherry blossom tree slowly fell, surrounding you in a cozy ambiance that left a bittersweet taste in your mouth. 

As your legs finally gave up at the memory that came rushing into your head, you heard footsteps that sounded like they were approaching your way. A piece of light blue cloth neatly folded entered your line of vision. Your eyes shot up to the tall figure that was now towering over you. His body faced you, however his eyes did not meet yours. 

You hesitated before slowly reaching out for the handkerchief in his hand,  avoiding his eyes as well. 

“I’m sorry…” was all that came out from his lips. There was a moment of silence, disrupted every now and then by a couple of sniffles. Kageyama tried speaking again. 

“I’m sorry for hurting you again, even after I promised you I wouldn’t.” 

“It’s fine…” you managed to choke out, voice slightly cracking. You thought you sounded pathetic. You two broke up four years ago, for fuck’s sake! A lump formed in your throat again, a mix of the remains of old memories and your own consciousness trying to bring some sense into your pained heart. 

“If by chance… could you forgive me? For breaking the promise I mean,” Kageyama asked. His words were gentle and soft, maybe a little sweet like honey, attempting to cover up any harshness. It was clear he did not want to hurt you for any longer. His blueberry eyes that you missed so much had a small sparkle to them. You wondered what that sparkle meant. 

Was it because he still loved you? Did he miss you the way you missed him? Or maybe he only felt pity for you. Maybe he was hoping for something more. What could he be possibly hopeful for? Your forgiveness? It wasn’t like you were mad at him. Afterall, it was your own fault for falling so deeply in love with him. As painful and bitter as it was, you tried your best to pull your lips upwards.

It was the saddest smile he had ever seen. 

Voices in your head screamed at the pain you felt in your heart, but your head reasoned that this was not his fault. You had to let go, once and for all. 

“Of course I forgive you.” 

The words vibrated through your skull. Your head forgave him, your self-conscious told your heart to forgive him, but in the end, it wouldn’t succumb to logic so easily. You thought with your heart rather than your head, and you absolutely hated it. You broke too easily and gave in to the way your heart beated instead of the words that were trying to break through your thick skull. 

The sun sets, warm yellow tones of the fleeting rays of sunlight shone upon the pale pink petals of the cherry blossom tree. The petals turned into a light orange colour as they fell ever so elegantly from the branches above you, surrounding your figure on the ground.

You clutched your knees to your body as you watched his figure stray from you, slowly getting further and further away. Memories from the first time you met under this same tree flooded into your head as a single tear droplet slid down your right cheek.

You felt a lump at the back of your throat. It was an awfully bitter yet mildly sweet feeling. You didn’t mean to be selfish with your feelings towards Kageyama, but if by chance, things didn’t work out with his current partner, then maybe, just maybe, he could be part of your world again.

[kuroosweakness]

Lia, your Kuroo headcanon are literally the only thing keeping me sane right now. He’s such a comfort character of mine. Before I really got into Haikyuu and started it, I thought Kuroo was super cute. Then I saw his personality and he was the second character I fell in love with. Here’s some headcanons for your service :)

If you drink coffee or tea, he has the way you make it down to an art. He knows exactly how you like it, but somehow his is better. He’s doesn’t add or lessen anything, he claims it’s because it’s made with love (he’s so cheesy I swear)

I firmly believe he quotes pride and prejudice. He’ll recite the iconic love confession from the movie at the most random times. One time it was while you were in the bathroom, he has no shame

If he notices you’re listening to a certain song over and over, he’ll add it to his secret playlist named after you

I think he would coordinate outfits. Instead of matching, it’d be opposite. For example, you’re wearing green pants and a brown shirt, Kuroo has on brown pants and a green shirt (this also applies to attending parties post timeskip, he 100% subtly matches you)

He actually knows how to do laundry, and if you’re busy or out of your shared apartment he’ll clean, fold, and put away your clothes. It’s something simple that he enjoys doing, and he knows it’ll help

When you’re stressed over school/work, he always brings you hot tea (or your favorite drink, Kuroo prefers un-caffeinated drinks at night) and gives you a kiss on the temple. I’m talking, lips on your temple for a GOOD 5 seconds before he deems it good enough to step away. He’ll also drape a blanket across your shoulders, even if it isn’t cold

He steals your stuff, you steal his. It’s only fair.

Kenma bought Kuroo a rooster plushie as a joke, but it was actually super cute so he kept it. Kuroo then buys an animal plushie that reminded him of you. You keep the rooster, and he keeps your animal when you’re away. Yes, even as full grown married adults he brings the plushie to business trips

I feel like Kuroo would want to wear an engagement ring too, everyone would assume he’s married because men don’t typically wear them; he likes that it’s unconventional, but a good kind

Always touching you when you sleep. Canonly he sleeps with two pillows smooshing his head, but he’ll keep an arm extended that’s loosely around you. Or he’ll have your butts touching, or his leg against your leg etc. (personally, I like my sleeping headcanon of Kuroo because it incorporates how he legitimately sleeps. But if you need it, he’ll 100% hold you or cuddle you however you want)

I feel like he’d want to shower with you. After dating for a long time, he’ll be a little stiff but eventually he loves it. He’ll come up behind you, wraps his arms around you and put his chin on your shoulder. Sometimes he’ll play music, he’ll serenade you with the periodic table song and other love classics like “can’t take my eyes off you”

He reads to you, he’s sitting against the headboard with you laying between his legs. Back against his chest, lowly speaking into your ear. He also LOVES when you read to him. Depending on your sitting situation, the cuddling positions will differ. But he’s always in front of you

“Everybody talks” reminds me of him. This song was playing when I was in the car with my friend, windows down, sunny gorgeous day. You guys would dance and sing to this together, it’d play at your wedding

His love for you NEVER falters. No matter what age you started dating, his eyes are always filled to the brim and exploding with love and admiration

I WENT NUTS IM SO SORRY THEY JUST KEPT COMING. CAN YOU TELL IM IN LOVE WITH THIS MAN SO BADLY. ANWAYS HAVE A GREAT DAY/NIGHT I LOVE YOUR WRITING YOURE REALLY COOL :)

OMG !! LOOK AT ALL THESE HEADCANONS 😭 (i just know i’ll come back and reread while being all giddy :’D thank you so so much for sending and typing these out, ur my savior <33 

ahhhh i thought kuroo was an okay side-character at first but now here i am, making my whole blog dedicated around him lmaoo 

“made with love” HE WOULD BE THE CHEESIEST GUY EVER (not that anyone’s complaining, of course) 

omgg him quoting pride and prejudice??? lemme collective my heart jdkslfkjdf “in the bathroom” he has zero shame lmaoo 

him making a whole playlist dedicated to you :(( and when he hasn’t heard you listen to a song in a while, he’ll be like “remember when you used to listen to...” 

COORDINATED OUTFITS >>> 

YES YES YES 

him helping you out with chores :’ he’s so genuine and sweet i swear- 

make it more than 5 seconds pretty pls <33 (thanks for the scenario that’ll run in my head everytime i study now-) 

equality. sharing is caring. 

OMG THE PLUSHIE PART !!!!! 😫🥺 pls your headcanons are making me so happy yet sad at the same time- what are these strong emotions i’m feeling :’ 

him wearing his engagement ring >>>>>>>> (and so everytime he looks at his hand, it’s a small pleasant reminder of you) 

showers with him would be so light-hearted and intimate :’ IMAGINE HIM SHAMPOOING YOUR HAIR bye- 

yes, pls serenade us <3 

touching when asleep next to each other!!!!! pls he would lay his whole leg on you and not claim to be responsible when you wake up half numb- 

i love your headcanon too!!!! incorporating canon stuff into headcanons >>> you can link pinkies with him when sleeping <3 

him reading to you while cuddling D: words can’t describe how jealous i am of y/n 

OMG YES EVERYBODY TALKS DEFINITELY GIVES OFF KUROO VIBES pls he would dance and sing with you in front of the bathroom mirror for hours :’ 

IT’S YOUR HAPPY SONG! 

and now my heart feels really warm and fuzzy :’ i want to hop straight to bed for these scenarios to pop up in my dream. again, thank you so much for sending all these in, I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM (and am jealous of every single one of them) if you have more, pls pls send them in at ANY TIME of the day !! 

i hope you have the best day >:( and make sure to take care of yourself! <3 

[hopelesshawks]

History of Us Part 38- Elephant in the Room

Summary: Once upon a time Todoroki and (y/n) were best friends. Now they haven’t spoken in years. When (y/n) is forced to transfer to UA, will she and Shoto reconnect or will their troubled past keep them apart? A childhood friends to enemies to lovers hybrid fic.

If you don’t want to see History of Us content blacklist #hopelesshou

Masterlist Kofi

Having all of class A pile into your room is just as chaotic as you expected it would be and you love it. Shoto had insisted on keeping you wrapped up in his arms the entire time, being adorably protective of you as your rambunctious classmates shoved into the limited space of your hospital room. Denki had even managed to drag Shinso along with. You’d thrown him a wink when you noticed the way he’d been holding Shinso’s hand and Denki’s answering grin was so bright it had practically lit up the room. You understand why Yaomomo had been so concerned about overwhelming you though. Your classmates have a million well wishes and questions for you. They sing your praises, with Mina commenting how badass you looked fighting your father at least fifty times, but you can’t help but notice that their eyes keep lingering on the right side of your face a touch too long. Furthermore, despite their praise, not a single person has told you what happened during all the chaos in detail nor what had happened after your collapse that day.

“Not to kill the vibe but can we address the elephant in the room? Why do you all keep looking at my face like that?” you finally ask. The room goes quiet as everyone gets awkward. Sero’s the first to speak up. “Have you looked in a mirror recently?” he asks cautiously, scratching the back of his neck. “No? Is that a come on?” you ask. “Not this time angel, but maybe later,” he replies with a wink. “Sero,” Todoroki cuts in as he glares over your shoulder. You feel the bass of his warning through your back as it vibrates through his chest, but as Sero throws Shoto a sheepish grin and puts his hands up in surrender, you remind yourself to stay on task. “Seriously guys, why should I check a mirror?” you insist, drawing your classmates’ attention again. They exchange looks before Yaomomo finally sighs. She quickly makes you a small mirror and passes it to you. “You should probably see for yourself,” she explains. You hold the mirror up and suck in a breath. Your hair is still its natural half black-half white coloring but you expected as much. The more shocking reveal is the spider web of black veins extending out from your right eye. You gingerly reach up to touch it with one hand. “They were all over the right side of your body right after you collapsed so we just assumed it would get better as you did but...” Midoriya trails off. He doesn’t finish the sentence but you get the message: the veins probably won’t be fading any time soon; another reminder you’d keep of your connection to your father for the rest of your life. Just like your hair, you could maybe cover it up but it’s unavoidable. You’d never truly be rid of him would you?

Before you can spiral any further Shoto pulls you in closer, hooking his chin over your right shoulder so both of your faces are visible in the mirror. “It’s another way we match,” he says simply. You turn so you can look him in the eye, emotions welling up in your chest. It’s as if he had read your mind. “You sure you don’t have a third mind reading quirk Sho-chan?” you ask a little wetly, tearing up the slightest bit. “It’s just you I can read well,” he tells you, smile soft. Another way you and Shoto match. That’s something you can get behind. You’re about to lean in for another kiss when you’re interrupted by the sound of Hagakure, Uraraka, and Mina gushing “awwww,” at the blatant show of affection. The sound makes you jump, having momentarily forgotten it isn’t just you and Shoto in the room. “Shut up,” you groan, causing your friends to laugh at your expense. “Wait, wait but I have one more question,” you insist before your friends can move on, “what exactly happened after I collapsed? What happened to Dabi? My father? I mean, shit, what happened to me?”

The hush that falls over the room is concerning to say the least. Even Shoto is suddenly stiff as a board behind you. “Guys? You’re scaring me a little,” you say nervously as the room remains quiet, no one quite knowing how to start. “Did I... Did I kill my dad?” you ask quietly. The reaction to your question is immediate, your classmates’ heads snapping to yours in disbelief, but Bakugo is the first to reassure you. “No dumbass, that piece of shit is still breathing for some reason. Can’t use his quirk for shit anymore though and already rotting away in Tartarus,” he tells you, his brusque tone surprisingly soothing. “Dabi was brought in too thanks to Todoroki,” Kirishima adds. “Ok, then why did you all react like somebody died?” you huff. You’re not expecting Shoto to be the one to respond but his hands tighten around your waist, his face hidden in your shoulder as he replies, “Because you did.” “What?” “Hey I just remembered I totally forgot to grab this one thing I wanted to bring. Can you guys help me get it?” Mina asks suddenly. “Oh yea I could use some help too if the people who don’t go with Mina can come with me,” Midoriya adds, picking up on what Mina is trying to do. “But I-,” Denki starts to say but Shinso nudges him and gives him a look. “Ohhhh yea. Uh, right, totally can come help!” Denki amends before the rest of your class leaves the room to give you and Shoto some privacy.

You try to twist so you can look at Shoto properly but it only makes him tighten his grip around you even more. “Sho-chan let me look at you, c’mon,” you try to encourage but he stubbornly refuses to move, clearly wanting to minimize the amount of distance between the two of you. “Ok, how about we lay down and then I’ll turn to face you so I can stay close but we can have a proper conversation ok?” you ask. Shoto sighs as he seems to mull over the compromise before finally nodding. Even as the two of you adjust to the new position he doesn’t let you go too far. It takes a second but finally the two of you find a comfortable position that gives you space to talk but also satisfies Shoto’s desire to keep you close. “Sho-Chan what did you mean when you said I died?” you prompt gently. “Your heart stopped shortly after you collapsed,” he explains, “I got to you as soon as I had dealt with Dabi but you were just lying there so still and so much of your body was covered in those black veins and you wouldn’t wake up. Then... Then I checked your pulse and there was nothing.” Your heartbeat stutters in your chest. It hadn’t occurred to you, in all honesty, that doing what you did to stop your father could kill you. Nor did it occur to you who you’d be leaving behind. “I started doing CPR until the paramedics came but I... (y/n)-chan I lost it. Bakugo and Midoriya had to drag me away so the paramedics could work I-.” “Hey it’s ok, I’m right here,” you cut him off gently, reaching both hands up to caress his face. His eyes shine with unshed tears and there’s something desperate in their heterochromatic depths as he looks deeply into yours. “Promise me you’ll never do something like that again, I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Shoto confesses quietly. “I promise,” you reply without hesitation before leaning in to press a gentle kiss to his lips.

You let him process for awhile longer, absorbing in his confession and the weight of his words. You reassure him that you’re here and ok and have no intentions of going anywhere. You can’t help but think it’s no wonder he refused to leave the hospital if this is how he’s been feeling. “From now on we’ll do it all together. Shoto and (y/n) versus the world, just like when we were kids. Deal?” you ask him eventually, offering up your pinky. “Deal,” he tells you with a soft smile as he links his pinky with yours. “Good, I’ll hold you to that,” you tell him. “I’d never violate a pinky promise,” Shoto deadpans, causing a fit of giggles to bubble up out of your chest. “You’re such a dork,” you grin before giving him a quick peck on the cheek. “Hey (y/n)?” Shoto asks suddenly. “Yea?” “I love you.” Your heart rockets into your throat at the words but somehow you still manage to return the sentiment: “I love you too.”

A/N: After they had a little more time to process and calm down, (y/n) texted the others to let them know they could come back. Shoto had genuinely thought they needed to go out and do something so he was confused why (y/n) had to give them permission to return until she spelled it out for him. In other news this will probably be the second to last chapter of history of us. Thank you all so much for going on this journey with me, I love and appreciate each and every one of you.

Taglist: @sorrythatspussynal @miss-bakugo-writes @pixelwisp @larkspyrr @sokkaandzukosimp @akkaso @sunaispretty @shot0stea @todoplusultra @oliviasslut @lapysllazuly @immah0e4fictionalmen @cinnamonruts @koifishq

[just--another--daydreamer]

Childhood dreams

» Hitoshi Shinso x male reader

» Fandom: My hero academia » Summary: Shinso tries to reconnect with you after a fight » Warnings: Small Season 5/Manga spoilers! language, anxiety, overthinking » Words: 2.1k

You can find a link to my Masterlist and additional info in my bio and pinned post

“We are going to become heroes together.”

That is the pinkie promise Shinso has been holding onto this whole time. The promise that has inspired him, that has given him hope, that has made him want to do is very best. But in the end, it did not work out. 

Every single time Shinso watches you walk down the halls among other students of class 1-A, your voice saying those words to him echoes in his head. He keeps his distance, since he does not want you to catch him staring at you, not after all the things he said to you.

Becoming heroes together was his and your childhood dream. Growing up, he and you watched the heroes on TV together, talked about the news, imagined yourselves as a duo of great heroes. You were one of the only kids in Shinso’s class who never shied away from replying to Shinso and he admired that about you. And whenever another child told him he would make a better villain, you always stepped in and reassured him.

However, the dream died quickly – at least for Shinso. He knew that there was no way for him to pass the entrance exam for the hero course at UA, but you seemed to hold onto that dream still. Long story short, Shinso ended up failing where you succeeded, leading to the very first serious fight in your friendship, that was also the last one.

Shinso does not remember anything as clearly as the words he said to you that day. When you told him you were sorry that he did not pass the exam and expressed your genuine sadness over that fact, he snapped at you.

“I can’t believe that you held onto this naïve dream all this time, that’s childish,” he told you. “I don’t need you to pity me, I don’t need you to look down on me like all the others do.” He can remember calling you childish, blaming you for the quirk you were born with that will make you a great hero, telling you that your promise was the reason why he was feeling so disappointed in himself after failing.

He still feels awful about it and he does not blame you for not talking to him again after that.

Shinso sometimes finds himself pitying himself for losing you. When he watches you in the hallways, he can feel his heart ache. He lost his best friend, his future sidekick – or according to you – the hero he would be the sidekick of. He lost an important part of his life. And that hurts. He misses you, he misses the days the two of you spent together, the way his heartbeat picked up in pace when you were around him and the way you never failed to cheer him up. There are things he never told you and now he regrets it.

He does not know if he would ever tell you any of this and the only thing that he knows for sure is that he wants you back. Though he is not sure about how to achieve that.

“Shinso! Watch out!” The voice of his teacher pulls Shinso back into reality but the wake-up call comes too late and he finds himself falling to the ground, tangled up in his capture weapon and unsure if he still has all of his limbs attached in the right places. “Ouch!” Shinso groans as he tries to untangle himself.

Instead of helping him, Mister Aizawa starts to lecture him. Having heard the same bullshit about him being very far behind class 1-A and thus having to train even harder, needing to concentrate and so on and so forth, Shinso decides to not pay too much attention to that. It takes him a few more seconds to finally free himself but he remains sitting on the ground, rubbing his hurting back.

“You are more distracted than usual, did something happen?” Shinso is surprised that his teacher would ever ask him something like that. “It’s nothing,” he replies dryly but that does not seem to satisfy Mister Aizawa. “I can’t help you train when you keep getting distracted, that’s a waste of time. So either you talk about what’s up and we continue training after you’ve got your mind clear, or you go home right now.”

Shinso takes a second to consider his teacher’s words. His eyes fall onto the capture weapon in his hands, his key to becoming a hero. And he needs to take this chance. He cannot waste any more time with distractions and dwelling in memories. This is his chance. His chance to finally tell you that you will indeed become heroes together, maybe he will make up with you. The thought of approaching you to tell you this both scares and excites him.

“There’s this guy in your class,” he starts. “Y/N. We wanted to become heroes together, but it didn’t work out. Said some pretty awful stuff to him. I’ve been thinking about how to tell him that our dream will come true after all.” His mentor looks a little irritated at that “Well, you are not in the hero course just yet, so you should do your best. Now get up again.”

Shinso groans once again bug gets up anyway. His legs are shaking a little from how much he has been straining his muscles, but he tries to ignore that.

“I encourage you to talk to Y/N and sort things out,” Aizawa continues after a pause. “He doesn’t seem like the kind of person to hold grudges, so it should be fine after you apologize.” It is not a lot of reassurance, but it is more than Shinso would have ever expected from his mentor, so he appreciates it. “I’ll try to talk to him soon,” he agrees. His mentor nods. “Now enough chitchat, let’s get back to work.”

___

Shinso stretches his arms out above his head, his muscles ache, and his joints crack. Everything in his body screams for him to go to his dorm and sleep, but he still has something to do. He checks his phone for the time once again. It is almost seven in the evening, he is a little too early, since he stopped in front of the 1-A Alliance right after his training and he did not even bother to bring his bag into his own dorm. Shinso is surprised that you agreed to meet him after all this time, and he is both thankful and relieved that you seem to be open to hear him out. That is what he needs right now, after all.

Even though he is usually calm and collected, Shinso feels his anxiety being on the rise. His heart is beating way too fast and he feels uneasy. He quickly wipes his sweaty palms on his pants. A few deep breaths. One, two, three. His mind spins. Four, five, six. All of the words Shinso has thought of disappear. Seven, eight-

“Hey, Shinso!” You close the door of the 1-A building behind you. You avoid his eyes as you walk toward him, hands in your pockets, shoulders tense. The fact that you called him by his last name hurts but Shinso quickly shakes his head. This is not what he should be thinking about now. “H- hey,” he greets you, trying his best to sound calm. “Do you mind if we walk for a while?”

There is an uncomfortable silence between the two of you and all Shinso can hear are his own and your footsteps on the gravel. You eventually sit down on a bench, a lot of space between you. Shinso stares at his balled fists in his lap, knuckles white and fingernails digging into his palm, trying to sort out his thoughts.

“Why do you want to talk to me?” you question after a while. Shinso sighs deeply. The phrases he has thought of and practiced in the mirror are not coming to his mind again. “I wanted to apologize,” he starts hesitantly, “for what I said to you after the entrance exam.” The scene replays in his mind once again and he shakes his head to push the pictures away. “I was in the wrong and I hurt you. I know that I’m extremely late with my apology, but I was so ashamed of myself for saying those things to you.” In the corner of his eye, Shinso sees you listen to him carefully, a thoughtful look on your face. “I don’t expect you to forgive me. I just wanted to get this off my chest. I’m sorry, Y/N.” There is so much more he wants to say, he just needs to remember it. It seems like you notice that he is struggling for words, so you wait patiently. So, this is not going terribly, right?

“I saw you at the sports festival,” Shinso finally continues. “And I saw how much you have improved. You will be a great hero, Y/N. I’m happy for you. I’m so, so happy for you.” Was that alright? Shinso has no idea. He finally opens his fists and stretches out his fingers, knuckles regaining colour, but he is sure that his nails left marks on his palms. “What I said was horrible. I’d understand if you’d want me to get lost. I just want you to know that I’m sorry.”

“I-” you sound unsure of what to say. “You are right, what you said hurt me a lot, you have no idea how much. But I appreciate that you apologized, Shinso, even though it’s late. And I want to accept your apology.” An incredible weight falls from Shinso’s shoulders. He breathes out deeply and lets the rest of his muscles relax. For a moment, Shinso waits for you to say something else. He does not want to be the first one to speak, and it seems like you do not want to be that person either.

The silence grows more and more uncomfortable. Around you, it is getting colder by the minute and at some point, the lantern above the bench turns on, attracting insects to its cold, dim light. You shiver and stuff your hands in your pockets, Shinso does the same.

“So where do we go from here?” You eventually ask and cause Shinso’s heart to skip a beat. Does that mean you still want him in your life? Does that mean that he can stay friends with you? “That’s up to you,” he answers while suppressing his excitement. “Hm,” you make a thoughtful face. “I definitely don’t want you to ‘get lost’. I would like to try to become friends again. How does that sound?” The softness in your voice almost makes Shinso tear up. “Yeah, I’d love that.” Even with only the dim light from above Shinso can see you smile, and his heart skips a beat. Unable to contain himself from smiling, he quickly turns away.

“I have something else to tell you,” Shinso admits. He grabs is bag and rests it in his lap before opening it. Your curious eyes are watching his every move and cause Shinso’s hands to tremble a little as he pulls his capture weapon and mask out of the bag. “After the sports festival Mister Aizawa reached out to me,” he explains. “I’ll take an exam to determine if I’ll be allowed to switch to the hero course.” Shinso watches as your eyes widen. “We’ll become heroes together after all.”

“Oh Shinso!” You let out a joyful laugh. “That’s amazing! I’m so proud of you!” A warm feeling spreads through Shinso’s body at your words. He missed your laugh and now that he hears it, it is even more amazing and heart-warming than he remembered it to be. “Thank you.”

You sit there for a while until Shinso notices the time. “We should go back. I don’t want to get my ass beaten by Aizawa.” You agree and walk next to Shinso back to the dorms. The atmosphere is a lot lighter this time. Instead of keeping quiet, you talk about being heroes, about what both of you have been up to in the meantime, and about how you want to rebuild your relationship.

The dorms are in sight and you stop again. You hold out your hand and extent your pinkie. “Promise me to pass the exam? So that we can become heroes together?” Shinso does not need to think about that twice. He links his pinkie with yours, just like he did when you were kids. “I promise.”

[five-rivers]

Long Night in the Valley chapter 12

The scene shifted the moment Tempest woke up. They were outside, on a street in the middle of the city.  Storm clouds circled overhead.  

Tempest stood in front of them, hands in her pockets, a bland expression on her face.  

“So,” she drawled.  “You’re Nine’s friends.”

“Uh,” said Ochako, taken aback.  Right after Four had said she wouldn’t talk to them, this was disconcerting.   “Yes?”

“I’m his teacher,” said Aizawa, stepping forward.

“Yeah?  You think you’re doing a good job raising up little child soldiers?”

“Excuse me?” said Aizawa.  

“You heard me.”  She shifted her gaze to Ochako, then to Todoroki and Iida.  “I bet Souma told you I wouldn’t be talking to you.”

“He did say something along those lines, yes,” said Iida, even as Ochako worked very hard to elbow him.

“I can follow why he’d think that,” Tempest said. “I spent most of my life fighting against the government.  Lord knows I wouldn’t have approved of him choosing a ‘pro hero’ to follow after him.”  She took her hands out of her pockets to make air quotes.  She was wearing brass knuckles.  “Whatever a pro hero is supposed to be.  Government lackeys.  Cops and war criminals with a different name.  I’m shocked he pulled a halfway decent person from the muck.”

“We’re not war criminals!” protested Iida.  

“Oh, yeah?  I forgot, the Geneva convention was nixed, wasn’t it?  They had this big meeting and decided none of it applied to metahumans, and then, bam!  Everyone’s a metahuman, so it doesn’t apply at all, huh?  Neat, right?”

“What we’re doing now might not be what you’re used to,” said Ochako, “but it’s the way society works, now.”

“And we’re not killing people, like you did,” said Iida.  Ochako winced at his combative addition.  

“I did what I had to, to get people out of the torture camps,” said Tempest.  “People like my little sister.  You know what they did to her?  They thought her power was just controlled by her voice.  So, they cut out her vocal cords.”

“They don’t do that anymore,” said Todoroki.  

“You think a government like that is just going to stop doing things?  Without people making them?  Without being forced?”  Tempest laughed and looked up at the swirling sky.  “Maybe you do.  You’re just kids, after all.  But tell me this, do you think they didn’t know exactly what was happening to your family, Todoroki Shouto?”

Aizawa cleared his throat.  “What’s your point, here?” he asked.  “What do you want from us?”

Tempest looked back at Aizawa.  The coldness in her brown eyes made Ochako shiver.  “We could have kept you out,” she said. “That Suzuki idiot, too.  Do you know why we didn’t?”

“Enlighten us,” said Aizawa.  

“Because the way we do it would cause irreparable brain damage.  We know, because we’ve done it before.  I thought it was worth it, but the others didn’t want to hurt ‘Nine’s friends.’”

“Are you implying that we aren’t Midoriya’s friends?” asked Todoroki, frowning.  

Tempest huffed and wind whipped down the road, making Ochako cover her face.  

“No.  To be honest, I’m not completely sold on Nine, either.  He wanted to part of the system so bad, and that’s not to mention—” she huffed again.  “At least he knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the equation.  You four, though… I’m stuck with Nine.  I don’t owe you anything and you’re causing all these problems.  What I want from you—”

Behind her, lightning snapped down from the sky.

“—is to prove to me you’re worth it.”

.

“Vlad, the police were able to find your car,” said Powerloader, holding his hand over the receiver of the staff room telephone.

“Oh, thank goodness,” said Vlad.  “I hate taking public transportation.”  He paused.  “I mean, uh, did they find Yagi?  Is he alright?”

“No, they didn’t find Yagi.”

“Great,” said Vlad.  “So, ask them when I can pick it up.  Why are you making that face?  Did Yagi total it?  I bet he did.  ‘Symbol of Peace,’ my—”

“No,” interrupted Powerloader.  “Yagi didn’t total it.  Or crash it.  It was parked in an alley near the Musutafu entertainment district.”

“Where Midoriya had that fight with Hawks,” said Vlad, putting his head in his hands.  “It got wrecked by one of them, didn’t it?”

“No,” said Powerloader.  “It was parked in an alley.  They found it on a security camera.  It isn’t there anymore.”

“They took it again?”

“The League of Villains took it.”

“You’re joking.”

“I wish I was.”

.

The bus felt empty with half the class missing. The remaining 1-A students (plus Shinso) were all huddled together at the front, mooching off of the teachers mobile hotspots.  

“Did my email go through yet, kero?” asked Tsuyu, leaning over her seat to look at Denki’s computer.  

“Not yet,” said Denki.  “I’ve got all the pictures you guys sent arranged, but I wish we had more video material.  Ashido was the one with the most…”  He sighed. “Ashido, gossip queen, when you wake up I will apologize for all my comments about your hobbies.”

“I have some videos of Midoriya.”

“Trust us, Mineta, no one want your videos,” said Yaoyorozu.

“Huh?  Why not?”

“Tell us this.  How many of your videos are actually of Midoriya and don’t just have him incidentally in the background while you try to film girls.”

“None of them,” said Mineta, obviously not seeing why this was wrong.  “Why would I film Midoriya?”

“Mic,” said Midnight, “please remind me to sign up the walking lawsuit for some sensitivity classes.  How did Eraser miss this?”

“Unfortunately, Shouta is about as sexual as the average rock, so…”

“Remind me to sign him up for some training, too, then.”

“Will do.”

“Walking lawsuit?” asked Mineta.  

Everyone else sighed.  Then Denki’s laptop pinged.

“Huh.  I just got an email from Principal Nezu.”

The adults, including Green Light, the bus driver, blanched.  Adults were bothered by the weirdest things.  In the end, Nezu was just a guy with a quirk, right?  A hero, even!  Principal Nezu, the Education Hero!

Okay, he’d scared Denki (Mr. Terrible Grades) a lot in elementary and middle school, but really.  

(Okay, the crane thing at the Final Exam had been high-key terrifying, but he was trying to get past that.)

“Huh,” repeated Denki, having read the email. “That’s interesting.”

“What is it, my electric friend?” asked Aoyama, drapping himself sideways across his seat.

“Aoyama-san,” said Midnight, “don’t put your feet on the windows.”

“Principal Nezu sent me a link to an ‘All Might adopt a kid’ fanfiction, and it’s by—”

“Midoriya writes fanfiction?” asked Shouji, evidently surprised into using his real mouth to speak.  

“That’s cute, kero,” said Tsuyu.  “It must have been before he met the real All Might, though.”

“No,” said Denki, “it was last updated just a couple of weeks ago, and, well… Midoriya didn’t write it.”

“So, who did?” asked Yaoyorozu.  

“Not Nezu, right?” asked Jiro, winding her earphone jack around her finger.  

“There’s no way, right, Kaminari-san?” asked Present Mic, nervously.  

“Uh, no, no, it’s, uh, it’s All Might. According to Nezu.”

A beat of silence.

“What?”

Denki inserted his pinky into his right ear, trying to clear it.  Man, if the Bakusquad had been here rather than the quiet half of the class…

“Yeah, it says here that this serves All Might right for working on this during school hours?”

More silence.  

“Green Light, the road!”  

“Oops, sorry!”

“Hey, guys, are we sure that All Might didn’t, you know, kidnap Midoriya rather than the other way around?  Guys?”

.

Gran Torino, also known as Torino Sorahiko, was an active hero.  That meant late nights and late mornings.  He was also an old man.  A very old man.  Late mornings often turned into noons and afternoons.  

Sometimes, during those noons and afternoons, he liked to ignore technology and the outside world for a good long while.  Maybe read the paper a little bit.  Or one of those terrible romance novels Nana had left him in her will.  

Still, he was a hero, one wrapped up in something best described as a two-hundred-year-long shadow war, so eventually he did turn on the news.  

Only to see Toshinori’s boy fighting Hawks on live television.  

Not to mention Toshinori hanging out in the background with a shaved head.  

And the ticker said UA student Midoriya Izuku kidnaps Symbol of Peace.

(Which was the dumbest thing he had ever heard, and under other circumstances, he would have been rolling on the floor laughing.)

Gran Torino was an old man, but, luckily, he only felt like he was simultaneously having a heart attack and a stroke.  His body was more than functional enough to place a not-at-all panicked phone call to one Tsukauchi Naomasa.  

.

Tsukauchi Naomasa was incredibly busy.  That busy-ness was divided mostly evenly between desperately trying to find his best friend (who had evidently decided to make a hopefully brief foray into kidnapping teenagers) and trying to figure out what the commission was taking, because it had to be illegal.  Oh, and putting together a complaint that the commission was infringing on police prerogatives.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure how much traction that last would get, since pro heroes had been steadily gaining more and more responsibilities even as the police were losing both them and the power that came with them.  Not to mention Midoriya’s stunt with Hawks… Which… Naomasa just wanted to know why?  What had the point of that been?  On either side?

(Sometimes he wished he were friends with normal people.  Like… he didn’t know… an accountant, maybe?)

(Not that he would give Toshinori up for the world. Just, some normalcy would be nice, too.)

He took a deep breath, remembered what he always told Toshinori about stress, and took a mouthful of room-temperature coffee.

In that thirty-second period, two more problems presented themselves to him.  

One, his cell phone began to ring, displaying the contact information for Gran Torino.  

Two, his email softly pinged, and a message from Principal Nezu asking for any images or videos Toshinori might have sent him slid into his inbox.  

Briefly, Naomasa considered ignoring both of them, but that wasn’t a realistic option and was irresponsible besides.  Contrary to his character.  

He picked the lesser of two evils and answered Gran Torino’s call.

.

Garaki was going to have a mental breakdown.  This was fitting because his car had broken down.  Midoriya Inko was asking him if he thought that his ‘friend’ might come pick them up, if it was safe.  If his ‘friend’ had a car.  

This last had almost sent him into hysterics. Gigantomachia in a car oh-ho!

Except it wasn’t funny at all, as this was almost certainly going to result in his death at the hands of All for One.  No matter that he considered the man his very dearest of friends, he was under no illusions about what All for One would do to him over this inexcusable error.

Perhaps he should just cut his losses and get one of the remote-activated noumu to come for them.  

Then, inexorably and inevitably, things managed to get even worse.

.

“Stop the car!” shouted Tomura.  

“But you said not to—”

“I know what I said!  Stop the car!”

Tomura twisted to see out the rear passenger window. Everyone else turned to follow his gaze, effectively blocking his view.  

“Get out of my way!” demanded Tomura.

There was some awkward, half-hearted shuffling.

“Does that look like anyone to you?” Tomura hissed.

“Yeah!  Like the doctor!” said Toga.  

“I’ve never seen him standing up, though,” said Spinner, dubiously.  “It seems out of character.”

“I didn’t know he owned a car,” mused Compress, rubbing the bottom edge of his mask.  

“Not him!” snapped Tomura.  “The woman!”  He pointed angrily at the rapidly approaching woman with green hair, narrowly avoiding dusting Mr. Compress’s top hat.  

“Eh?  What about her?” asked Spinner.  

“Doesn’t she look familiar to you?”

“To be honest, everyone without mutation quirks looks kind of the same to me.”

“Someone without face blindness.”

“Oh!  She looks like Izu-kun!  Do you think that’s his mom?”

The woman knocked on the window of the car.  Twice, unhelpfully rolled it down.  

“Thank you so much for stopping, we—Oh!”  She took a step back.

She apparently recognized them.  Joy.  He was going to unpack his feelings about this woman later.

“Hey, doc,” rasped Tomura, annoyed.  “What the hell have you been doing?”

“Ahem,” said Garaki, finally stepping out from behind the car.  “I didn’t expect to see you here, Shigaraki Tomura.”

“Because you blew us off and stranded us in the middle of Musutafu?”

“No,” said Garaki, in a way that absolutely meant ‘yes.’  “I knew you were resourceful enough to safely make it out of the city.”

“Oh, yeah?  Really?  You—”

Compress chose that moment to slam his face into the back of Tomura’s head.  Tomura steadied himself automatically on one of the car’s uprights, which cracked dangerously under his hand.  He pulled back as if burned.  

When he looked up, the gremlin’s mother was halfway to the tree line with – What was that in her hand?

He looked back over his shoulder.  

That was Twice’s goddamn mask.  

Compress, for some reason, was also missing his stupid mask (and covering his face like the dramatic weirdo he was), and Toga basically had hearts in her eyes.  Spinner was being Spinner, and therefore ninety percent useless.  He was lucky he was fun to play games with.

How to make her stop?

“Hey!” he shouted.  “We have your son!”

This was a lie, as far as he knew (unless Dabi had snatched him on his way back; it wasn’t impossible), but, he was a villain.

The green-haired woman stopped and turned back, allowing Tomura a full view of her expression.  

He decided that he regretted everything.

.

“Okay,” said Izuku, multitasking by letting Two pick the lock on the League’s safe, “considering Gigantomachia’s ability to track by smell and the questionable running water, we can’t just sneak out.  He’ll find us.  So… I think our best play is getting him to attack Shigaraki, and then when they’re both distracted, we run for it.”

Toshinori nodded and sighed.  “If only we had a giant jug of perfume.  We could throw it at his face and disrupt his ability to smell us.”

“I mean, I found a whole bunch of garbage a way back.  That isn’t perfume, but it does stink.”

“No, no, your plan is superior.  We’d draw too much suspicion if we attacked him like that. Perfume could be written off.”

“Yeah, I can see that.  Because perfume is a ‘nice’ thing.”

“Indeed.”

“It isn’t actually very nice to have it all over you, though,” said Izuku.  

“No,” agreed Toshinori.  “It isn’t.”

The safe popped open.

“I won’t ask if you don’t.”

“Deal.”

“But, anyway, assuming we do get away, what then? Where do we go?  And—Wow.  The League of Villains is broke.  I almost feel bad.”

“I was going to say Deika, but that’s too far, now, and we don’t know if Gigantomachia will come after us,” said Toshinori.  “Drawing him to a place full of civilians would be irresponsible.”

“Yeah,” said Izuku.  He frowned, pulling his head from the safe, and glanced out the window. “What about the Wild Wild Pussycats?”

“What about them?” asked Toshinori.  

“They’re near here, aren’t they?  And they’ve got that whole complex, so, I mean…  I don’t know how they feel about us right now, but it wouldn’t be a terrible place to hide.  Would it?”

“I’d hate to bring all of this down on them as well,” said Toshinori.  “But… That being said, I don’t believe they’re actually there.  They were taking some time off because of what happened to Ragdoll.”

“That makes sense,” said Izuku.  “Should we take the risk?”

“I’m unsure if we have a choice, my boy.  We could try roughing it, but that puts us in a very vulnerable position.”

“And we can’t stay here, with the League.”

“No, we can’t.”

“Okay.”  Izuku sighed and started to thumb through the League’s collection of fake IDs, looking for something he could use.  “Wild Wild Pussycats it is.  We’ve got to convince Machia to attack Shigaraki, and… then we sneak out the back while they’re fighting.”  He shook his head.  “It sounds really unheroic when I put it that way.”

“Under these circumstances, I think heroic is the set of actions where no one dies.”

His mentor was right.  Izuku still felt weird about this, though.  (The pettiness was completely different.)

Not to mention…

He put the last of the fake IDs away and massaged his temples.  “They’re doing something weird in there,” he said.  “I’m going to check on them.  I might be out of it.”

“Don’t worry,” said Toshinori, patting Izuku on the shoulder.  “I’ll keep an eye on things out here.”

(Perhaps all of this could have gone unsaid, what with their connection, but saying things out loud made them easier to organize.)

.

“Hey!” shouted Izuku over the roaring wind. “Stop that!”

“Are you going to fight me, Nine?  All by yourself?”

“No,” said Izuku, somehow contriving to look down his nose at her despite the height difference and the fact that Tempest was floating several meters in the air.  “I won’t have to.  Because I have a secret weapon.”

Ochako could almost see Tempest roll her eyes.

“And,” shouted Izuku, “do you seriously think I just wanted to be part of the system?  Are you serious?  I wanted to help people.  People the system failed.  It isn’t like they’re responsible for the system either!”  He waved his hand to indicate Ochako, Iida, Todoroki, and Aizawa.

“I’d argue about your hobo teacher.  Is this your secret weapon?”

“No, this is, Great-Aunt Miranda.”

Tempest opened her mouth, then closed it again. The wind began to die down.  “I’m – I don’t know what the point of that was—"

“Neither do I!  What’s the point of this?”

“The point is determining whether or not you have people you can rely on, or a bunch of backstabbers who’ll hand you over to a government lab as soon as it’s convenient!”  She stabbed a finger at Ochako.  “She’s just in ‘heroics’ for the money!”  She pointed at Iida.  “He’s only here because it’s traditional for his family.”   She gestured at Todoroki with her other hand.  “He’s doing it mostly out of spite.  And who knows what your hobo teacher is doing this for!”

“There’s nothing wrong with any of that!” protested Ochako.  “You must have your own motivations, too!”

“She does!” shouted Izuku.  “Considering what they are, you have no room to be criticizing Iida!  Besides, you don’t even like me!”

“This isn’t about liking you or disliking!  You’re the—” Tempest visibly cut herself off, then took a deep breath.  She set herself down on the street.  “Knowing what we do now about certain things, a fourteen-year-old would not have been my first choice.”

“Excuse me!  We’re all sixteen!” said Iida.  

“You’re sixteen now, it’s – The fact of the matter is that you’re children.  Naïve children.”

“Oh my gosh, you were younger than I was when you—”

“I was kidnapped and tortured—”

“I know, but why are you taking it out on—”

“By the government that you are trying to lick the boot of—”

“Did you see what they did to Suzuki?”

Ochako felt like she was spectating a very passionate tennis match.  

“If it means anything,” said Aizawa, dragging himself out of the pile of rubble he’d been thrown into by the wind, “I’m just trying to keep my kids alive as long as possible.”

“Then expel them!  Stop them from becoming literal child soldiers!”

“I do,” said Aizawa.

“He does,” confirmed Ochako, who was well acquainted with Aizawa’s reputation.  

“He really does,” seconded Todoroki.  

“I used to see Tensei’s group chat, and every time he expelled someone…”  Iida shivered.  

“Huh,” said Todoroki.  “Is that why you’re so… insistent about rules?”

“Of course not!  Rules are important regardless of why so many students were expelled during the first month of school!”

“So, why didn’t you expel these ones?”

“If you honestly believe the problem child wouldn’t have flung himself at the first villain he saw after that and dove straight into vigilantism, you don’t know him very well.”  He sighed, standing, and brushed dust and pebbles out of his tracksuit. “That goes for these three as well. They’re insane and it’s not my fault.”

“Isn’t saving others what heroes do?” asked Izuku, walking closer to Tempest.  Ochako wanted to run out and grab him, but this whole ordeal had just shown how useless that would be.  “No matter what?”

“Not no matter what.  This is why I…”  She shook her head, sighing.  “Not no matter what.”  She leaned forward, her hands on her hips.  “Don’t die. You do realize what will happen if you die, right?  I don’t have to spell it out for you?”

“N-no,” said Izuku.  

“Besides which, I’m not a hero.”

“You saved people,” protested Izuku.  

“And, as your friends pointed out, I’ve killed, too.”

“I know,” said Izuku.  “But you aren’t a bad person.”

“Lots of people kill during wars,” said Ochako, going to stand by Izuku, “and that’s what you were fighting in, wasn’t it?  I mean, I don’t know a lot about that time, but…”

“You wouldn’t.  It’s been over a hundred years.”

Izuku nodded.  “This fight isn’t doing anything, though.  None of us want them here if the vault opens.”

“The what?” asked Iida.  “The vault.”

“Hopefully,” said Izuku, “you won’t have to worry about it.”

“The fight did do something, though,” said Tempest.

“What?” asked Izuku.  

“For one,” said Tempest, “it made you think. For the other…”  Her eyes flicked over Ochako and the others.  “Everyone you fight will have their own reasons. Remember that.”

.

As they walked down the street, storms still brewing overhead, Ochako kept catching glimpses of children in the alleyways and cross streets.  

“Who are they?” she asked, unable to help herself.

“My sister and I,” answered Tempest, brusquely. Ochako, watching the back of the woman’s head, saw her twitch slightly towards one of the alleys.  “About the time we were taken.”

“Taken by who?” asked Todoroki.  

Tempest laughed.  The sound was entirely humorless.  “That government you’re so eager to serve.  You’ve noticed, I hope, that my sister and I aren’t completely Japanese?”

“Yes?” said Todoroki.  “I’m not blind, after all.”

“Todoroki,” said Aizawa in a warning tone.

“Good for you.  Our mother was Japanese.  Dad was American.  We went back and forth to see the family.  Problem was, everyone on Mom’s side quirks.  We didn’t even realize it.  The government tracked the weather disturbances to our movements and raided our family reunion.  Never saw my parents again.  Never saw anyone, for that matter, except my sister and my aunt – Dad’s side – who tried to smuggle us out and got shot for it.  We spent four years in that hell before Ryuji rescued us.”

“You’re more open about this than I would have expected,” said Aizawa.

Tempest sneered.  “Why wouldn’t I be?  I’m a terrorist, and people only become terrorists if they want to make a statement. Which I did.  Trust me when I say this, Nine, if the hero commission took you into ‘custody,’” she spat the word like it was dirty, “you’d be in the same boat. What do you children think they do to all those high-profile criminals in Tartarus?  The ones that are held indefinitely in a private prison without even a show trial?”

“I know, Three,” said Izuku, far more calmly that Ochako would have been able to.  “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to be a hero.  It’s easier to change systems from the inside.”

“Not this system.”

“No,” said Izuku, “but then I had no idea this part of the system even existed.  They do a lot to hide it, after all.”

“Hm,” grunted Tempest, skeptically.

The buildings began to thin out, interspersed with wilderness.  The road rapidly graded narrowed into a one-lane road, then gravel.  

“Is this normal?” asked Ochako.  

“We have more control over our environments than the other ones.  You’ve noticed that only Eight and Nine had multiple versions of themselves running around and being confusing.”

“I didn’t do that on purpose,” said Izuku.  

“Exactly.  Any of us could send an army of ourselves against you.  Only those two don’t have a choice about it.  Amateurs.”

“Shouldn’t they have had the same amount of time as—” started Ochako.  She broke off as a series of concrete walls topped with barbed wire rose up in front of them, scraping at the surrounding trees, shedding clumps of dirt.  

The trees fell away, leaving a clear, baren space between the walls and the trees.  Slightly beyond the structure moonlight glinted off the surface of a lake.  

“Well.  Welcome to Jinoshi Lake Camp, kids.”  Tempest turned, putting her hands on her hips.  “This is where I met Ryuji.  And…” She glanced up at the walls.  “This is as far as I go.”

“You aren’t going to show us where to find this ‘Ryuji?’” asked Aizawa.  

“I promised myself I’d never go back there.” She jerked her head over her shoulder. “I’m not revisiting it for you.” She started walking away.  “Have fun.”

[shortkingzuko]

title: carving out a life together

relationship: bato/hakoda

warnings: mentions of canon injuries and death, non-graphic animal death

summary: Of course, it’s Katara who brings it up, ever the romantic that she is. It’s the evening, with the bulk of the day’s work done, the remainder being tomorrow’s problem, and Hakoda is sitting in front of the fire in his home, enjoying a pleasant conversation with his daughter while they wait for Bato to return from his work, when Katara, suddenly and without preamble asks, “So when are you and Bato getting married?”

(my late submission for the final day of @bakodafleetweek, prompt: wedding [but.. barely lmao])

read under the cut or on AO3 for the full list of tags + notes

After their many years of pining, silent affection, tentative touches, their eventual confessions, Hakoda and Bato found that they didn’t quite know where to go from here. In the two years since the war ended - an impossible fact that never lost its dreamlike quality when Hakoda thinks about it - the two men have fallen into an easy routine, characterized by early mornings and kisses softer than their battle-harden bodies ever thought possible, by meals shared in the comfort of their own home, and by long days coming to an end when they were able to wrap their arms around each other in bed.

Being with Bato, Hakoda often thinks, feels natural and right, like slipping into his favourite parka; it fits so perfectly that he barely thinks about it, until he contemplates wearing anything else, and then he appreciates its' comfort all the more.

He knows that Bato has harboured feelings for him since they were children, no older than Katara was now, and while he never expressed it freely, Hakoda had always known, in some way. The way that Bato would roll his eyes but still laugh at all his jokes early on, the way that Bato would drop everything whenever Hakoda asked, the way that Bato was dedicated, devoted, to him like no one else - bar Kya - gave it away. It wasn’t hard to accept that Bato loved him, as Hakoda knew that if Bato ever loved anyone else, he would feel a sense of loss and sadness, mixed with the joy of seeing his friend being happy and in love.

It had been harder to come to terms with his own feelings, even years after Kya’s death. Hakoda knew there would always be a piece of his heart dedicated just to her, a love that only she had, but as time went on, he (re)discovered his feelings for his friend, falling in love with his dry wit, his deep voice, the way that would smile whenever he caught Hakoda’s eyes.

During the war, it was easy to rationalize his growing desire to be near Bato at all times, to share a tent with him, to be close enough that at any point he could reach over and place a hand on the taller man’s arm. It was safety, Hakoda remembers telling himself before he finally got his shit together, it was for safety and because he wanted to make sure his friend was okay at all times. And yeah, maybe that was a small part of it, but mostly it was because he enjoyed being close to Bato, revelled in feeling his warmth against his side, in being able to hear the rumble from his chest as he spoke, and from being able to link pinkies with him at a moment’s notice.

Bato always seemed to know Hakoda better than he knew himself because he would just look at Hakoda whenever he initiated an unnecessary touch, and smile coyly, before looking away. He never commented on what Hakoda was doing, until one night in their tent he reached across their sleeping rolls, and placed a gentle hand on top of Hakoda’s. When he didn’t pull away, Bato shifted slightly, laced their fingers together, before whispering, “Goodnight, Koda.”

And they had fallen asleep like that, though Hakoda had spent what felt like hours just memorizing the warmth that he felt, the feeling of Bato’s rough skin behind his calloused fingers, how tenderly and gently Bato’s grip was, and how it loosened even more as he fell asleep. During the night, of course, they had both moved and their hands had separated, but the knowledge of the night before was enough for them, and they spent many more nights falling asleep like that. Eventually, under the gist of doing an impromptu patrol, Hakoda and taken Bato outside the camp, and under trees taller than they could have ever imagined, Hakoda reached for Bato's hand in the daylight. He laced their fingers together, before leaning up - and, to his slight embarrassment, Bato had to hunch down - and pressing a kiss against Bato's chapped lips. They had returned to camp soon after, and if they held hands at dinner, then no one mentioned it.

There were bumps that they hit, as one might expect, considering that they were in a war, that Bato was Hakoda’s second-in-command, and considering that Hakoda was entering the relationship as a widower with two children. Though Sokka and Katara both knew Bato well - the man had taken them ice dodging! - and loved him like an uncle, or even as a second dad, they were still confused, shocked, and a little bit hurt when Hakoda had finally sat them down after the comet, and with one hand on each of their knees, Bato sitting stiff as a board next to him, that he and Bato were dating.

In the two years that passed, any apprehension that his children carried has melted away to easy acceptance and happy neutrality at seeing their father sharing his life with a man that made him smile in a way that they hadn’t seen in years. They roll their eyes at the sight of Bato and Hakoda holding hands as they walk around their under-construction village, when they see their father leaning up to press a quick kiss to Bato’s chin, and when they see Bato sporting matching beads in his hair as Hakoda.

The two years since the end of the war seem to fly by, with Hakoda and Bato learning to readjust to life that isn’t constantly under threat. He’s happy to be with Bato, happy that for once, everything is simple and happy that he and his partner can just go with the flow for once.

Of course, it’s Katara who brings it up, ever the romantic that she is. It’s been about a month since Hakoda and Bato’s anniversary, a date which is vague at the best of times and which had no formal celebration, though the dinner that night was more fanciful than usual, that was due to Katara and Sokka’s friends visiting, saying farewell as Katara and Sokka were needed in the village for the upcoming winter months.  

It’s the evening, with the bulk of the day’s work done, the remainder being tomorrow’s problem, and Hakoda is sitting in front of the fire in his home, enjoying a pleasant conversation with his daughter while they wait for Bato to return from his work, when Katara, suddenly and without preamble asks, “So when are you and Bato getting married?”

If Hakoda had been drinking anything, he would have spat it out. Instead, he blinks a few times, before asking, “What?”

“When are you getting married?” She repeats. “You guys have been together for a few years now, right? Are you planning on getting married?”

“Uh,” Hakoda is still trying to gather himself from the whiplash that the conversation has given him. “We weren’t… we haven’t talked about it?”

Katara hums, and fiddles with her necklace. It’s not a move that goes unnoticed.

“Do you want us to get married?” Hakoda thinks for a moment then corrects himself. “Would you be okay if we got married? If  I  got married?”

Hakoda knows that in theory, his daughter wants him to be happy, she wants Bato to be happy. But, he knows Katara still has complicated emotions over Kya, still misses her deeply, and that her wanting them to be happy was different than her feeling comfortable with her dad marrying someone else.

Sokka, Hakoda knows, harbours somewhat similar feelings, though he leans more towards the opinion that Kya would have wanted her two best friends to be happy, would have wanted his dad to find love again, and if nothing else, Sokka has a few more years worth of memories of Bato being around and taking care of them.

Katara lets go of her necklace and sighs. “I don’t know.” She looks a bit surprised at her own honesty. “I guess? I want you to be happy, and I know now that you’ll always love mom and that Bato isn’t trying to replace her, but, it’s just…”

“Weird?” Hakoda offers.

Katara shrugs. “Yeah. It’s a little weird.”

They sit in a silence of understanding for a few moments before Hakoda clears his throat. “Well, as I said, Bato and I haven’t spoken about marriage yet, but if we do then I’ll check with you and Sokka first, okay?” Hakoda waits until Katara meets his gaze again. “I’m not going to do anything that hurts you.”

Katara smiles, a little watery, before leaning over and giving Hakoda a brief hug.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy because, after that conversation with Katara, the topic of marriage keeps appearing in his thoughts. Really, there’s nothing tangible that they can gain from getting married. There are no illusions of virtue that they need to maintain - after all, Hakoda has two children and no one has ever accused Bato of celibacy - and they already live together, Bato not even attempting to rebuild his previously destroyed igloo when they arrived home.

Hakoda thinks of his own engagement to Kya, how he had to humble himself in front of her parents to get their blessing, how he had worked so hard leading up to that point to prove that he would be a good husband, that he could provide for them and make her happy, how he spent so many nights carving designs into whalebone before Kanna eventually gave him her necklace to gift. It had been terrifying, anxiety-inducing and wonderful, the mixture of confidence and worry that he felt every time he looked at his half-finished carving and every time there was a moment with Kya where he thought, “ This is it!”

Bato doesn’t have parents anymore, nor does he have any other family members that Hakoda could ask to give him their blessing. If Bato was interested in marrying Hakoda, they already know that Kanna would give them her blessing easily, even casually. They have nothing to prove to one another; they’ve been to war together, have hunted together for years, and even with Bato’s scarred arm and the slight limp that Hakoda has gained, it’s clear to both of them that they can provide for one another.

Hakoda knows that they would have no issue getting the tribe to acknowledge their marriage, arguably the most important part of the wedding ceremony. Half the children in the village already refer to Bato as ‘Chief’, ignoring the slight smile and correction from Bato and their parents that  technically   that’s not his title. And considering that no one has even tried to set Bato up with one of the nice Northerners that blush when he makes eye contact with them, and the fact that   some  of the adults in the village - the ones that remember how long Bato’s been pining after Hakoda, the way that he used to go out of his way to spend time with him and his family, despite his self-proclaimed dislike of babies - have been asking if they’re going to be seeing any tall, dark-haired, strong-jawed children anytime soon, well, it’s pretty obvious that everyone has already written Bato and Hakoda off as a forever thing.

Hakoda is pretty sure that they’re right.

He knows that he should actually talk to Bato about this, instead of just bouncing the thought around in his head, weighing the pros and cons of marriage before he’s even found out if Bato  wants   to get married. They’re pretty happy as is, Hakoda thinks, as he braids Bato’s hair in the morning, making sure not to pull too tightly as he threads the strands through beads that match his own. Bato has never liked too much fuss, has always been a little more private and withdrawn than Hakoda; maybe he would think that a wedding would just be a waste of time, too many people getting involved in their private business. It’s always a balancing act with Bato, between him wanting to show that he’s in love, that he   is  loved by the man that he’s been pining after for years, the desire to show slight affection with him in public, and his discomfort of being so open, so obvious to the public eye. It’s a balance that Hakoda isn’t always perfect at maintaining - sometimes pushing Bato too far when he pulls his down to kiss him at the end of council meetings, or when he introduces Bato as ‘his partner’ first, instead of ‘second-in-command’ - but it’s a balance that he’s always ecstatic to try and perfect and maintain.

Finally, weeks after his talk with Katara, as he’s rubbing soothing balm into Bato’s shoulder, he asks, “Bato?”

Bato hums. “Yes, Koda?”

“Ever thought about getting married?”

Bato turns his head to look at Hakoda, eyebrows furrowed. “If this is you asking, this is a terrible proposal, so the answer is no.”

Hakoda laughs and shakes his head. “No, no, not a proposal, I’m just. Wondering, I guess, if you ever thought about marriage or…. Or kids? The future, I guess.”

Children are a touchy subject, he knows, but he might as well get all the awkward conversation out of the way now.

Bato’s answer is immediate. “We are not having any more kids, Sokka and Katara are  more  than enough and they’re not even mine.”

“You know that’s not  totally  true,” Hakoda mumbles. Bato smiles a bit at that, reaches across his chest to lay a hand on Hakoda’s forearm.

“Besides, I’m getting  old  , Hakoda, I don’t even think I could…   have  a kid,” He levels a look with Hakoda, trying to put the emphasis on the right words so that Hakoda knows what he’s trying to say. It works, and briefly, Hakoda remembers back to Bato’s youth, when his voice dropped, when he got his growth spurt, the way he was so proud when the tribe finally stopped shoving him with the women and let him learn how to hunt and fight. Bato has either ignored or changed so many of the functions that   would  allow them to have a biological child together for so long, and Hakoda understands his uncertainty. “Besides, the only kids I like are yours, and who knows if you can go three for three.”

“You seem to like Toph pretty good.”

“Toph doesn’t count,” Bato says defensively, but his tone has a slightly frustrated edge to it, showing he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. Hakoda rolls his eyes as they laugh for a moment.

“Okay, fine, she doesn’t count. But, how about marriage?”

Bato sighs. “You  know  that the only person I’ll ever want to marry is you.” He says it so casually, with such neutrality, as if it’s just a fact of life - like he was telling Hakoda that summer days were long and that the water that surrounded them was cold. It makes Hakoda’s heart feel like bursting, hearing Bato’s declaration of love, even if it's a few years later than Bato wanted it to be. Hakoda leans over from where he’s kneeling on their bed to kiss Bato’s cheek.

“You know, Katara asked me if we were going to get married.”

“Oh?” Bato says as he shifts away to pull on his nightshirt, now that they’ve thoroughly abandoned lotioning his scar.

“Yeah, she said that she would probably be okay with it. You know how much she misses Kya,” Hakoda adds hastily, feeling a bit guilty. Bato nods as he lays down in the furs, watching as Hakoda goes to put out of the candles that are illuminating the room. It’s almost winter, and as the lights flicker out, the room is soon sent into near pitch darkness. Hakoda leaves one candle lit, and when he lays down next to Bato he admires how the light and shadows dance around his face.

They lay in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds being the noise of shifting bodies as they intertwine limbs and get comfortable. Hakoda ends up face pressed against Bato’s strong chest, enjoying the warmth and softness of it as he lightly tosses his own arm across Bato’s waist. He nestles in when he feels the weight of Bato’s scarred arm fall across his shoulder, hand hanging loosely down Hakoda’s back. Bato nuzzles slightly into Hakoda's hair, though he'll never admit it. It’s comfortable and familiar, and Hakoda can’t believe that he gets to feel this safe, this warm, this  happy  after all the years of war and violence and suffering that they had to live through.

“If the kids are okay with it,” Bato’s chest rumbles as he speaks, tickling Hakoda’s cheek. “Of course I would like to marry you.”

Hakoda smiles into Bato’s chest, feeling giddy like he’s a teenager again. “Okay. We can think about it and talk later.”

Later comes soon than either of them expected, when Hakoda and Sokka end up hiking up a mountain to hunt a polar bear that chased some of the Northern Water Tribe members. Hakoda doesn’t really want to kill it - if the creature wanted the Northerners dead, then they wouldn’t be complaining about the ‘dangerous wilderness’ to Hakoda - but he knows that if the animal ever ends attacking one of the members for real, then he’ll have a crisis on his hands. They take a sled and begin the long trek up the mountain. They’re partway up the mountain when they find one of the caves that mine for engagement stones in, and they decide to take a rest. Hakoda sits down, watching as his son leans his spear against the wall walks deeper into the cave, unsheathing his sword as he goes.

“Don’t go too far, Sokka, we’re not stopping for long.”

“Ugh, I know, dad, I’ll be fine,” Sokka calls back noncommittally. Hakoda sighs and lets him be. He hears some clanging a few minutes later but decides that Sokka is old enough to waste time and energy if he wants. Once he's done resting, Hakoda stands up and is about to call out for Sokka when he comes scurrying back to the entrance. He dashes to one of the cloth bags that sit on the sled, shoves something in it, before going to collect his weapon. Hakoda raises an eyebrow at him and gets a sheepish smile in response.

They find the polar bear a little further up, and after taking it down, load its body onto the sled. They catch a few gopher-hares and collect the few edible plants that have survived so far into the season as they make their way back down. It’s hours later when they finally arrive back in the village, with Sokka needing to run ahead to get more help the lug the bear and the sled across the vast, flat plain of ice that stretched between their village and the base of the mountain. Despite his displeasure in having to hunt the bear, Hakoda looks at it and thinks about how proud he is of his son, how much of an accomplished hunter and provider he’s become, and how this catch will be nice padding for the village’s winter food stock. The fur will make some excellent clothes, and Hakoda is sure that a few of the animal’s claws and teeth will appear on someone’s wrist or neck as jewelry. It’s after they’ve pushed the sled into the village, and various people descend on it and the various bags filled with plants and other animals, that Sokka calls out, “Hey, there’s carving stones in one of those bags, someone give them back to us when you’re done!”

Someone makes an affirmative sound as they prepare to butcher the animal, and Sokka nods and turns to walk away. Hakoda follows him and looks at him strangely. “Why did take carving stones?”

“So you have something to carve for Bato,” Sokka says it as a statement, but looks confused at his father’s asking. “I thought you and Katara talked about you guys getting married?”

Hakoda sputters. “Yeah but we weren’t planning on getting married  now .”

Sokka shrugs. “That’s why you gotta plan in the carving time, dad! Carving takes a long time! It takes like three weeks if you don’t chip or crack the stone.”

Hakoda can’t bring himself to agree vocally, so he stares ahead for a few seconds until he realizes, “Wait, how do you know how long carving a necklace takes?”

Sokka flushes and starts walking faster.

“Sokka- Sokka, you are  WAY  too young to be marrying the Firelord! Sokka, get back here!”

In the end, Kallik, one of the younger men that Hakoda led in the war, brings four rocks, all shades of dark blue to grey, already cleaned of dirt and blood and wrapped in leather, a few days later, smiling slyly as he passes the lumpy package over. “Good luck, Chief!”

Hakoda mumbles a thank you, and hastily tucks the parcel under his arm and puts them in his and Bato’s room. He tells himself it’s not technically hiding if a blanket just  happens  to fall on top of the container that he’s placed them in, and the container happens to be under a shelf that Bato never looks in. He doesn’t care if Bato finds them, he tells himself, as he pushes them box further into the wall.

He knows that he’ll have to talk to Katara and Bato about this more, will have to make sure everyone is fine with it, and then plan the ceremony, all of which will take a while.

But  , he tells himself as he fishes out one of the stones, hiding it in one of his pockets before setting out on his canoe to ‘check the traps’,   all of that can happen once I’m closer to finishing this carving .

The first step of necklace carving, Hakoda remembers, is to shape the stone down to a circle-ish shape, breaking off any protrusions off and then shaving pieces off, little by little, until it’s the right shape to actually carve. Hakoda cracks the stone on his first attempt - not unlike he did twenty years ago when he was carving Kya’s. Hakoda checks the traps and hauls a couple of urchin-crabs back to the village. He drops the broken rock into the sea.

The next week Hakoda goes out to check the guide rope that surrounds the outer wall of the village. One of the children of the village said that the rope had broke in the last wind storm but couldn’t remember where since they had been going out to find otter penguins and had got distracted, and as tedious as it is to walk the entire perimeter of the continuously expanding city, everyone knows that if the rope is broken, then there’s a chance someone could get lost in a blizzard. Hakoda volunteers, since everyone else is so busy. Bato offers to come with him, but Hakoda waves him off.

“Your arm has been hurting you,” Hakoda says in the doorway to their igloo. Bato rolls his eyes.

“Doesn’t stop me from walking.”

“Just stay here, love.” Hakoda stretches up, Bato leans down automatically, and Hakoda places a kiss on his lips. “I’ll be back soon.”

He finds the break in the rope just a few minutes past the entrance, ties the pieces together, and continues walking around the perimeter, fishing a new stone out of his pocket.

The second step to necklace carving, once the stone is the correct shape and dimensions, is planning. Each necklace is meant to be unique, meant to represent the recipient and the shared love of the couple. But, the design also depends on the stone, on what the medium will allow. Hakoda is trying to gouge out a tall, deep line in the rock, meant to represent the tall trees of the earth kingdom that surrounded them, that Bato was so impressed by, and under which they first admitted their feelings for each other. He presses either too hard or at the wrong angle, and it splinters, a piece of it chipping off. Hakoda sighs and tosses the broken mineral in one of the tiny ice fishing holes that they use to teach children how to dig through the ice. There are no other breaks in the rope.

Bato goes off to help repair some boats - even with an arm that occasionally seizes up, he’s still one of the best boatsmen in the tribe - and once all of Hakoda’s meetings are done for the day, he’s left with an empty igloo and a few more hours until Bato is likely to return. Hakoda pulls out the second to last stone that he has and starts to carve.

The third step in carving a necklace is to create the eye that either the metal or leather bail will go through to connect it to the choker. It’s not particularly hard, but it’s time-consuming, twisting a blade or tool in circles for hours until it breeches the other side.

The fourth step is connecting it to the leather choker. The fifth step is presenting it.

Hakoda finishes step three, looks at his carving and hates it. The tall lines of what is meant to be a forest seem crooked and nonsensical, the swirls at the bottom barely register as waves, and there are knife marks around the eye look intentional instead of accidental and confuse the setting. It looks sloppy and bad, and even if Bato will accept it happily, Hakoda's stomach turns at the thought of presenting something so poorly crafted to him. He groans and throws it to the side of the room.

He doesn’t know if carving Kya’s necklace was easier or if he just repressed how hard it was from his memories. It all seems silly, all the stress when he and Bato are perfectly happy as is. He wonders if he should just forget it, just give it up, let good things stay as they are. Except.

Except he knows that underneath his reasonable tone, and understanding air, Bato wants to marry him. Hakoda doesn’t know what he did in a past life, what spirit he worshiped or what king he saved, but he must have done something because in his life he’s had two great loves and both of them wanted to marry him.

  You know the only person I’ll ever want to marry is you.

Bato wants and asks for so little. He wants Hakoda to lay next to him as they sleep, he wants Hakoda to help him rub his shoulder, he wants Hakoda to go fishing with him, he wants Hakoda to not ask about kids or his body or his medication, he wants Hakoda to kiss him in the privacy of their home and hold his hand for a few minutes when they walk outside. Bato wants Hakoda to marry him, and like all the other open secrets about himself, he’ll never tell Hakoda outright, leaving him to put together the clues together until he can find out how to make Bato happy.

Hakoda is pretty sure that’s all he wants, really; to make Bato happy. He deserves it.

He hears Bato stomping the snow off his boots as he walks into their home. Hakoda sighs, and gets up, collects the rock he threw and slips it into his pocket. He goes to greet his lover, wrapping his arms around the taller man’s torso under the gist of ‘warming him up’, even though his parka was plenty warm, and thinks about how he has one more stone left.

He swears that he’s not trying to put it off, but Hakoda figures he should talk to his family before he moves forward. He talks to Katara to make sure she’s still ‘okay’ with the prospect of him marrying Bato. She gives somewhat the same answer, though she concedes, “You guys are pretty much married already, so…”

Sokka is already enthusiastic about it, though Hakoda is pretty sure that’s just because a wedding ceremony is an as good excuse as any to invite all their friends back. Privately, Sokka finally admits to Hakoda that he thinks mom would have wanted her two best friends to be happy, even, or maybe especially if it’s with each other.

He talks to Kanna, even if traditionally that’s meant to be Bato’s job. Hakoda figures Kanna is the closest thing Bato has left to a mother. As expected, Kanna is fine with it, thinks it’s a bit silly that Hakoda seems to stress about what’s clearly a sure thing. Hakoda doesn’t know how to explain to his mom that even if it’s a sure thing, even if Bato will say yes if Hakoda hands him a piece of clay attached to a string, he wants it to be right. He wants Bato to look back at their engagement and feel satisfied and fulfilled.

Hakoda is still nervous about carving but the unbearable pressing of anxiety has lifted some. The last stone left is a dark grey-blue, less glossy than the other prospective stones, and more opaque. Hakoda begins to carve it during the dead of winter when everyone in the village only spends a few hours a day outside, and they only step foot outside the village if completely necessary. This means that much of his secrecy of the matter is gone, but whether Bato is intentionally staying out in the main area of their igloo during the day, or if he’s there because the fire there is warmer than their bedroom, Hakoda doesn’t know. He sits on their bed of furs, trying to keep his swears quiet as he chips and carves away at the stone. The sounds of Bato just a room over, speaking to Katara and Sokka, laughing at their jokes, and going about his day seems to calm Hakoda's nerves and steady his hands.

It takes him less time than his previous attempts. He’s limited the lines of the trees to just two vertical ones, one slightly taller than the other. The waves at the bottom now have mirrored swirls at the top, land sandwiched between sea and sky. Hakoda is more carful carving out the eye of the pendant and is surprised when he actually adores it when it’s finished. He carves some designs into some whale teeth and polar bear claws, knowing that even though the addition of bone will make the necklace more noticeable overall, it’ll draw some of the attention away from the pendant, and he suspects that Bato will appreciate the small amount of privacy and intimacy that will afford him.

Hakoda knows that Bato knows what he’s doing. The way he smiles when he sees Hakoda retreat into their bedroom after he’s done working for the day, the way he sees the new callouses and cuts on Hakoda’s fingers and doesn’t ask where they came from, only presses small kisses onto them because he knows it’ll make Hakoda smile. If Hakoda wasn’t certain before, when he finds a piece of spare leather - raggedy and unusable - but cut to a specific and familiar length, just casually laying on Hakoda’s desk, it’s confirmation.

He gets a new leather band, of course, one that’s just slightly thicker than traditional, soft on the inside and tanned a deep, dark blue. He punches the holes for the bones with Bato leaning over his shoulder, telling him where he wants a tooth and where he wants a claw. Neither of them mentions how the centre of the leather is left blank for now.

Their engagement is nothing like Hakoda and Kya’s was. Hakoda proposed to Kya in the spring and they got married in the summer; he had asked while they were outside, basking in the sun, and with some of Kya’s friends peering around igloos to watch as the scene unfolded. Hakoda had stuttered, had proclaimed his love for Kya, had made her laugh as he helped her place Kanna’s necklace around her neck.

In contrast, winter has only just started to end, the sky only just barely brightening for about an hour or so each day, before it plunges back into darkness. All of their friends are either dead, in the Northern Water tribe, or busy with their own families. Hakoda doesn’t even ask Bato, not really, he just slides the finished necklace across the table, ignoring the way Sokka and Katara gape at it. Bato looks at it and smiles, gingerly picks it up and ties the leather around his neck. He asks Katara to make sure the knot is secure, and Hakoda’s heart soars when she readily gets up, moves Bato’s hair to the side and readjusts it. The necklace sits at the base of his neck, the teeth and claws sprawl across his collarbones in the most delectable way, and the pendant sits flat on his chest, looking so natural and casual, that Hakoda can trick himself into thinking it’s always been there.

Bato looks happy wearing his necklace, he looks comfortable when his hand gets finding its way to the pendant, nails finding all the groves and uneven surfaces that Hakoda couldn’t smooth away.

There are few opportunities for anyone else to see it, with as cold and dark as it is. Even inside some of the newly build halls and offices, most people still wear an outer coat, to fight off any chill that passes through the complex halls, designed to keep the wind from blowing straight in. But the few who do see it get a sly grin on their face, wiggle their eyebrows and give Bato a playful nudge.

“Finally making an honest man out of Hakoda, huh?” Some people joke and even Hakoda can’t help but laugh.

“More honest than you, at least.” Bato sometimes fires back, earning a gasp of fake insult.

They’re busy, Hakoda and Bato, the village, their children, the whole world, and weddings take time. Hakoda asks Sokka and Katara if they have a preference for when the wedding is. They hem and haw for a while, before tentatively asking if it can wait until spring.

“Zuko won’t be able to visit for long if there’s not enough sun,” Sokka mentions shyly. Hakoda shoots him a look that he hopes reads as  We Will Be Speaking About You Dating This Firebender Soon But Not Right Now.  Sokka dutifully looks away.

Later as Bato is laying down next to Hakoda in bed, Hakoda asks, “Are you okay if we wait until spring?”

Bato shrugs. “I’ve waited for decades, I can wait two more months.”

When they sleep, Hakoda can feel the cool press of bone and stone against his cheek. It’s more comforting than he ever thought it could be.

The sun has returned, and with it brings new chores to do, new game to hunt, new responsibilities, and various children that were born during the winter months. There’s plenty to do, and every second of light brings them one second closer to the winter once again. There are boats to build and repair, there are walls that were damaged by wind and snow, there are stocks that need replenishing, and children that need hunting, singing, dancing, fighting, and history lessons.

Hakoda is pretty sure that everyone should be anxiously anticipating the start of all their work.

Instead, everyone is gathered in the new village square - complete with archways and fountains around the sides, columns that hold up a domed roof, and a ground that doesn’t shift when people walk over the same place too many times - throwing decorations on any available surface. The columns have been covered in swathes of fabric and dyed ropes, various beadwork decor has been hung from the ceiling and archways, carved bones have been placed around the area for luck, and good tidings, and just to make the place look interesting. Hakoda isn’t sure if it’s because no one has been out long enough for their clothes to get overly messy, but he’s pretty sure that everyone is dressed up in their more formal coats and boots.

It throws him off guard. Weddings in the Southern Water tribe truly aren’t that grand of an affair, but he assumes that the influx of Northerners has resulted in their more festive approach gaining some traction.

“Or maybe, they’re excited that their chief is getting married.” Bato offers, smiling at Hakoda when he presents his theory. Hakoda smiles back.

“I think I saw some men weeping when they realized they officially lost their shot with you.”

Bato rolls his eyes. “They never had a chance with me.” It’s a joke, and Hakoda wants to laugh, but Bato places a gentle hand on his shoulder, and Hakoda reads between the lines.

He doesn’t tease Sokka about running off with Zuko - the Firelord bundled up in more red and blue fabric that Hakoda has ever seen on him at once - the minute he steps off his ship. He doesn’t tease Katara about the way she shyly kisses Aang when he slides off Appa, before going to help Toph navigate her way across the ice. Bato is excited to see the young earth bender and starts an easy conversation with her and Suki and he leads them around the village, letting Katara go off to hold hands with Aang away from her father’s watchful eye.

They marry a few hours later, with nearly the whole village pressed against each other to watch as the two of them kneel in front of one of the elders, the old woman standing tall and proud in her furs despite the slight hunch she has in her spine.

She asks Bato if Hakoda has presented him with a betrothal necklace.

“Yes,” He says, voice deep and happy, and so soothing, even as dozens of eyes - including Hakoda’s children and their friends - stare at them. He digs the leather and pendant out from under his clothes, allowing the elder to see the design. The elder nods and smiles.

“Do you have a gift to present to your betrothed?” She asks Bato. He nods and pulls out a cloth gift. He hands it to Hakoda, who has to restrain himself from thanking him as he unwraps the fabric. A small gasp escapes him, when he sees the ivory of carved walrus tusk, carved and sharpened into a knife, the leather around the handle soft and worn but well cared for. It was Bato’s father and had been passed down in his family for generations. For a second, Hakoda almost turns to asks if Bato is certain if he wants to give it to him, before realizing that Bato wants it to be Hakoda’s so that it can go to Sokka. Bato wants to pass his family heirloom onto Hakoda’s children, because, and Hakoda’s heart skips a beat when the realization finally hits him, they’ll be the same family.

“Thank you,” Hakoda says a little watery. The woman in front of them takes that as acceptance of the gift.

“And do both of you intend to provide for each other and your family? Will you work together in the light of the summer, collecting what the Spirits give you, and in the darkness of winter, when only Tui smiles upon us?”

Both of them nod, and they hear an excited titter go through the crowd.

“Do either of you have any qualms or objections to your union.” They both shake their heads hastily and Bato’s necklace clicks and clacks as he moves his head. The excitement in the crowd grows as the elder clears her throat and calls, “And does the tribe accept this marriage?”

The crowd erupts with excitement, Hakoda can just filter out his own children cheering, Aang’s ‘whooping’ and Toph’s cackling at the sound. People clap and shout, and he and Bato can’t help but look at each other and laugh at the commotion. The Northerners have definitely spread their own modified traditions throughout the village. The elder in front of them works to control her own smile as she waits for the noise to settle.

“The tribe has acknowledged this union. Chief Hakoda, Bato, you are now wed.”

The cheering starts up again and Hakoda and Bato stand up, holding each other’s hand tightly. Hakoda surges up and presses a kiss to Bato’s lips, earning more cheers and a few whistles, and an exaggerated gag from Sokka, and grins when Bato blushes and pushes him lightly.

Hakoda can already tell that they’ll have to just write this day off, judging by excited energy that comes and goes through the crowd like waves. Hakoda wouldn’t be surprised if he found some people passing around fermented wine. He barely cares though, when he looks up to Bato and sees him smiling wider than Hakoda has ever seen him before.

He’s still gripping Hakoda’s hand, still blushing from the kiss and all the attention, and Hakoda can’t stop himself from leaning up and kissing him again. Bato doesn’t push him away this time, even though his flush gets darker.

“Worth the wait?” Hakoda asks.

Bato nods. “Yeah. It was pretty worth it.”

[darling-i-read-it]

Forever And A Day

Will Graham x reader

Word Count: 800

Warnings: sadness, worry 

Author’s Note: I’m sad about the end of Hannibal and I had a whole christmas will fic planned to write then I got sad so here is this.

I love him. I really do. 

Summary: Will wants to know if you’ll always love him 

Genre: angsty fluff that came from me watching the finale of hannibal 

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director 

(not my gif)

“Y/N?” 

You turned around to see Will. He had been there before of course but you had only just started to pay attention to him. You instantly noticed his unhappy demenor. He was sad. Something about him was desperately sad.

“Will?” 

You walked over to him and put your hands on his upper arms, looking into his eyes. He looked at you like he was defeated, tired. 

“Do you love me?” he asked. You couldn’t believe he even had to ask truthfully. You had loved Will since the moment you saw him and everyone knew it. You had been smitten with his mind and his face for as far back as you could remember.

“Always.”

“You’ll always love me?” 

It was an odd line of questioning that he was putting up and you weren’t sure of his intent but you wanted to make him feel better, whatever it was. 

“Forever and always,” you promised, a small smile on your face. You grabbed his hand in your and took out his pinky from his fist. You linked your pinkies together in a sign of promise, just in case he didn’t believe you.

Will was worried that you were going to leave him once you understood him. He knew you understood him more than anybody except Hannibal and he had to watch how far you were going to get. He was scared. He loved you more than anything in the world and the fear that you were going to bolt was deafening. 

Especially because he knew how dangerous this Red Dragon guy was. He knew that that man would hunt Will down until he was dead. Until his wounds left him to bleed out.

Will unfortunately was willing to take a bet that he was more likely to die beside Hannibal than he was beside you and that hurt his heart. He wanted to be there for you.

But more than that he wanted to make sure you’d love him past his death. Past his end.

“Why?” you whispered.

He wasn’t willing to answer that question with an actual answer so he just grabbed you and put his arms around you tightly like it was the last time he was ever going to hold you in his arms. Will thought about the way your hands felt against his back and he felt about the way your hair smelled when it was freshly washed like this. He memorized each groove in your wrinkly old shirt he was pretty sure was once his and he thought about your face. The face his heart melted at everytime he saw it.

“Will you’re scaring me love,” you said quietly. He pulled away and shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his face.

“Don’t you want to know if I’ll love you forever?” he asked, wiping his eyes in case any stray tears had made their way to his face. You laughed nervously and nodded solemnly. 

“Alright. Will you love me forever Will Graham?” 

He gave you a proud smile and nodded curtly. He took his hand in yours and locked your pinkies again.

“Forever and a day.”

“What about forever and the day after the day after?” you teased. 

“Even that day,” he promised. 

You were nervous at him talking like that but you wrapped your arms around him again just in case. 

You weren’t sure what was going through his head at the moment but you did know you wanted to make sure he knew you were there. You pressed your head against his shoulder and inhaled his scent. You moved away enough to kiss him and boy did you kiss him.

Your hands in his curls and his in your hair. 

“I,” you pulled away, “love,” you kissed him again, “you.” 

He pulled away further to stop you.

“What was that?”

“I love you.”

“Sorry, I’m hard of hearing all of the sudden,” he joked. You laughed but gave in eventually. 

“I. Love. You.” 

He smiled, content.

“I love you too.”

“What was that?” 

“Oh shut up.” 

[ironharvests]

♡ + kawogi, kimigaa, utagura, this was the hardest decision in my entire life

SEND ME ♡ + A SHIP AND I’LL TELL YOU…

kawogi.

Who is the most affectionate?

kawaki, for sure. ryogi is affectionate in his own way, but it's lots of teasing touches, linked pinkies while walking, and resting his head on your shoulder in private. kawaki, on the other hand, will straight up pick ryogi up and haul him to the couch so he can have some human contact.

Who initiates the handholding?

hmmmmm. the first time they hold hands i think ryogi brushes fingers with kawaki a bunch until he finally just takes kawaki's hand, because kawaki is too uncertain to cross that barrier without explicit permission. but after that, kawaki will seek out ryogi's hand when wanted.

Who worries more for the other?

ryogi. he isn't a goddamn alien-karma-infused super soldier or whatever. he's just a guy being a dude, damn it. he worries a lot when kawaki's off doing who knows what.

Who is more likely to ask for help?

[laughs in bitch] ryogi asking for help he actually needs instead of something superficial? please. kawaki asks, but he can be grumpy (read: embarassed) about it until ryogi says it's fine.

Who is the one always losing the keys?

kawaki. ryogi's neat in the "i keep everything on my person so i can escape at any time" way. kawaki puts things down in one place and then walks away. it's a little maddening for ryogi.

Who leaves little love notes for the other?

ryogi! he enjoys leaving physical reminders of his feelings to be remembered when they're apart, which is a lot.

Who can’t sleep unless the other is there?

kawaki. ryogi's used to sleeping on his own, and is very comfortable doing so. kawaki gets attached to sleeping in the same bed with ryog, so when he's gone he struggles.

Who is more likely to propose to the other?

probably kawaki? ryogi isn't a traditional relationship guy, and i think kawaki might have some anxiety about that -- or he just likes the idea of tying the knot and making their relationship feel concrete. kawaki also feels like he "owes" something to people he dates, and for ryogi that means some form of stability.

Who introduced the other to their family first?

i think you mean the uzumakis introduced themselves to ryogi lol.

Who is more likely to play with the other’s hair?

ryogi plays with kawaki's. it's so weird and fun to touch.

Who makes sure the other has meals/stays hydrated?

ryogi. food is his ultimate love language.

Who is more likely to stand up to anyone for the other?

if you look at ryogi wrong kawaki will bury you alive.

Who is the most likely to prepare a surprise for the other?

ryogi. he's into surprises and there's always something special going on when he visits.

Who makes the other pinky promise not to do certain things?

kawaki. he takes them seriously. ryogi humors him initially (then went off and did dangerous stuff anyways), but eventually he stops and abides by the sacred pinkie promise treaty.

Who puts a blanket over the other when they fall asleep on the couch?

ryogi. kawaki conks out on the couch and ryogi covers him up and sits beside him on the couch for awhile while he reads.

kimigaa.

Who is the most affectionate?

oh boy. kimimaro? but only in freak ways, like staring at gaara for 30 minutes while only blinking with his second pair of clear vertical eyelids, or washing gaara's hair for him despite his insistence on doing it himself. things like that. kimimaro's affection looks a lot like service and care-taking. they're working on it.

Who initiates the handholding?

gaara. kimimaro would never touch gaara unless given explicit permission, and even then it's something he does the way a miko would cleanse a shrine.

Who worries more for the other?

in battle? neither of them worries about the other. they're bad as hell and they know it. otherwise, gaara worries about kimimaro's health. it can abruptly decline and there's nothing they can do but wait it out. at least kimimaro is good about stating when he isn't feeling well, although it's often in the form of "i am experiencing cardiac palpitations" before collapsing.

Who is more likely to ask for help?

kimimaro. he knows his limitations and isn't ashamed.

Who is the one always losing the keys?

neither of them.

Who leaves little love notes for the other?

neither. kimimaro doesn't write super well, understandably, so writing isn't his thing. gaara is more likely to find strange gifts on his desk, like a piece of antler, or a glowing frog in a jar.

Who can’t sleep unless the other is there?

gaara. he can't sleep most of the time, but kimimaro has learned to, uh, put his ass to sleep.

Who is more likely to propose to the other?

neither. marriage who? the council probably wouldn't be down with gaara marrying the guy who helped kill rasa and worked with orochimaru. kimimaro doesn't care about marriage anyways; he belongs to gaara in his heart(s), and that's what counts.

Who introduced the other to their family first?

kimimaro was caught in the kazekage's home and arrested by temari on sight until gaara explained. does that count?

Who is more likely to play with the other’s hair?

hm. both. gaara touches kimimaro's hair when he's sleepy, and kimimaro likes to smell gaara's hair when gaara's asleep.

Who makes sure the other has meals/stays hydrated?

neither. you think they eat like normal people?

Who is more likely to stand up to anyone for the other?

kimimaro has literally stabbed people for raising their voice to the kazekage. so. there's that.

Who is the most likely to prepare a surprise for the other?

hm. hmm. hmmm. i don't think kimimaro would prepare a suprise, he's more of a "i brought you something insane and set it at your feet like a giant kitty cat." so it's either gaara, or, more realistically, gaara's assistant, who schedules all of gaara's everything.

Who makes the other pinky promise not to do certain things?

neither. they don't say things they don't mean. their word is their bond.

Who puts a blanket over the other when they fall asleep on the couch?

kimimaro picks gaara up and tucks him into bed, then sits in front of the door for six hours.

utagura.

Who is the most affectionate?

physically it's utakata, although it's more teasing than straight up affectionate. yagura is the one who drops L-bombs and what not because utakata's too much of a pussy to use his words for the first year or two they're together.

Who initiates the handholding?

utakata. he watches yagura rile himself up about something totally unimportant, then tangles their fingers together and watches the knot in yagura's neck unfurl.

Who worries more for the other?

yagura. utakata is a walking, talking Very Special Episode on substance abuse, and every time he walks out the door yagura's 85% sure he's going to wind up dead in a ditch.

Who is more likely to ask for help?

neither. they don't Do That unless it's dire, at which point yagura will ask before utakata. utakata gets help for things that don't matter, like getting housewives to cover his dinner tab.

Who is the one always losing the keys?

utakata. he's a poet, scholar, and blunt smoker, man. his brain is not in the building most days.

Who lives little love notes for the other?

utakata. he leaves little poems tucked in places for yagura to find when he's going to be gone for long trips, or, honestly, just because. saying how he feels aloud has been beaten out of utakata, so it's easier to write a poem at 3 am and tuck it in yagura's underwear drawer than to shake him awake and tell him he's the only reason utakata's still alive, sooooooooo.

Who can’t sleep unless the other is there?

both. utakata has bad insomnia and hallucinations sometimes, and yagura has genjutsu trauma. sleeping together is an anchor tethering them to the one reality that is finally good to them.

Who is more likely to propose to the other?

utakata, surprisingly, because he knows how much it would mean to yagura.

Who introduced the other to their family first?

[strained laughter for 45 minutes] they work very hard to forget each other's families, thank you.

Who is more likely to play with the other’s hair?

yagura. when utakata is feeling overstimulated and can't handle touch but yagura needs some creature comfort, hair is a good alternative.

Who makes sure the other has meals/stays hydrated?

yagura. utakata would filter feed on pond water if he could just perfect the jutsu. he's one of those freaks who think eating is a waste of time/inconvenience.

Who is more likely to stand up to anyone for the other?

both. they will both stand up for each other, because they won't stand up for themselves when it matters.

Who is the most likely to prepare a surprise for the other?

hmmmm. on a daily basis, yagura. small surprises and whatnot. on a macroscale, utakata. he knows these things matter to yagura, and he applies every ounce of his brilliance to crafting signature, special moments just for yagura, including private fireworks displays, a picnic under the ocean, and creating and naming jutsus for and after his beloved awabi.

Who makes the other pinky promise not to do certain things?

as children, it was yagura. they might have some holdover as adults.

Who puts a blanket over the other when they fall asleep on the couch?

utakata. yagura works himself into a frenzy then poops out on the couch, and it's up to utakata to cover him up or carry him to bed; usually the latter.

[chwesangel]

My sunshine ☼ Felix

Lee Felix x Reader

Neutral reader + Fluff + Non Idol AU

Words: 1.8k+

As the weather grew hotter, your feelings for your best friend grew too. Felix has been the light in your life since the moment you met in middle school but recently your feelings had turned more romantic than platonic.

—

5 years ago

"Can I sit here?"

You looked up toward the voice and met eyes with a soft looking boy who's cheeks were dusted with freckles and a light blush.

You smiled and nodded, giggling when you saw him fumble with his backpack as he moved into the seat next to you. "I'm Y/N." You said, holding out your hand for him to shake.

"I'm Felix." He responded and took your hand.

'Oh my gosh... Tiny...' you thought to yourself, looking down at his hand. "New here?" You questioned.

He nodded and before he could say anything else your teacher started class.

3 years ago

Ever since the afternoon Felix sat next to you, you guys were practically attached at the hip. Today the two of you were sitting on his couch playing Mario Kart and after what felt like the 20th round he put the controller down and looked over to you.

"Ready for school tomorrow?" He asked.

You shook your head. "No, not really. What if we don't have any classes together? Who else am I supposed to talk to?"

He laughed. "I'll still see you at lunch and between classes and after school and literally every second we're not in class."

"Promise you won't replace me with someone else though? And especially not a girlfriend or boyfriend. I come first." You joked

He laughed and held out his pinky. "I swear on my gaming skills"

You gasped and linked your fingers. "Woah that's a big risk, sunshine."

Sunshine. You had started calling that one night you guys had stayed up later than usual and we're sitting on your roof.

4 years ago

"Are you okay?" he asked, laying a hand on your shoulder.

You nodded. "It's just been hard I guess. School stresses me out, friends are too much drama anymore."

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

"Just you being here with me is helping. You make my days easier and my life brighter. Like my own personal sunshine."

He smiled at that. "Your own personal sunshine, huh?"

"My sunshine." You laughed and poked his cheek.

1 year ago

You sure hoped Felix's gaming skills reflected his broken promise. Near the end of the school year he had started dating one of your mutual friends, Melody. Now don't get me wrong you were happy for him but he completely brushed you to the side.

Every time you wanted to hang out there would be something else taking his attention. "Sorry I can't, me and Mel have a date tonight." or "Not tonight, I have to help Mel study. Summer school, you know?" and your least favorites were the "I have to cancel tonight, Y/N Im sorry. Mel asked me to come over."

You were glad they got along so well and that he was so happy but you hadn't hung out all summer. Them constantly being together would be fine if he hadn't straight up canceled plans to hang out with her without a second thought.

By the end of the summer they had broken up and you got your best friend back. You spent the next two weeks taking care of him and doing anything you could to make him feel better. Deep down you were almost happy about the breakup which killed you. You felt guilty but then again, could anyone blame you for being happy that Felix was spending time with you again?

—

Now it was the last week before summer began. The last week before you were finally done with school. The last week before you and Felix would be adults and have responsibilities that took up most of your time.

You guys agreed that you'd be roommates once you moved out of your parents houses. You agreed that you'd help each other with anything and everything. You agreed that regardless of what happened, you'd support each other endlessly.

As the final day of school came to an end, you and Felix walked out of the building with a cheer, the air filled with laughed and excitement for summer.

"Soooooo Y/N," He started as you guys got into his car. "You thinking beach bonfire or drive-in movie to kick off the start of our adult lives?"

You chuckled and thought for a moment. "Bonfire, then we climb up to my roof like we used to and just talk, yeah?"

He nodded "Sounds perfect." He said with a smile.

—

The sun had started to set and you were in Felix's car again, driving down to the beach. He had the radio loud and the two of you sang along to whatever overplayed song came on. Everything felt perfect in that moment and you silently prayed that it would never end.

Once you had reached your destination, you guys grabbed whatever you would need and made your way out to the beach. The blanket had been laid out and he got the fire started, Felix took a seat next to you.

"I don't think I'm ready to grow up, Y/N." He whispered.

You laid your hand on his back and rubbed slow circles. "Me either but we're going to be here for each other through everything, right?"

He nodded. "I know that I kinda sorta broke the promise last time we did this but can we promise each other something?" He said whole holding out his pinky.

You took it in yours. "Of course we can."

"We'll still be there to support each other even if someone else comes into the picture? Even if we get married and start a family with someone other than each other?"

Other than each other... You didn't want to start a life with anyone other than him. You wanted him to keep being your own personal sunshine. You didn't want to have to share. But you couldn't tell him that.

"I promise, sunshine." You said with a smile.

The night carried on slowly, but you wouldn't want it to go any faster. At some point you had ended up in his arms, laying against his chest. You could hear his every heat beat, every embarrassed noise he made when you brought up an old story, and everything bright laugh as you two reminisced about all the times you had spent together while growing up.

You two grew up together. He was there for every heartbreak when your crush didn't like you back, he was there to comfort you every time your parents fought, he was there to help you study for every test and there to take you out for ice cream to make you feel better if you failed, he was there for every big moment of your life.

Just as he was there for you, you were there for him. You saw the good, the bad, the scared, everything. If someone had asked what your world was like before him you probably couldn't answer.

Because over time he had become your whole world.

Every time you looked at him your heart was filled with so much joy you felt like it could burst. It wasn't until recently you had realized how beautiful his laugh sounded, or how dull the world seemed when he wasn't by your side.

You had fallen completely in love with the boy who you had relied on since the first day you met. You could only hope that maybe he felt the same.

"We should probably get going so we can actually sit on your roof to stargaze while the stars are still out." Felix laughed and shifted to get up.

You stood up and stretched before staring to gather your things and Felix put out the fire. Once you were back at his car you put everything in the trunk and before you could get in Felix stopped you.

"I love you, Y/N. I really don't know where I'd be without you." He whispered while pulling you into a hug.

You hugged him back as tightly as you could and held onto him like your life depended on it. "I love you too, Lix. More than anything."

You two stayed like that for a minute before he pulled away with a sigh. A smile was plastered on his face as he walked to the drivers side and got in.

The drive was silent except the gentle music that came from the speakers and Felix humming along to it. He pulled into your driveway and the two of you walked over to the side of your house and climbed up onto your roof.

—

You guys had sat for awhile, talking about plans for the future, how you felt about school being over, summer plan, anything and everything you could.

Eventually the topic had moved to love, family, once again your guys' future. You felt nervous as you debated telling him about your feelings. Once you had decided you would you went to open your mouth to say something but he spoke up first.

"Y/N, I can't imagine a future that isn't with you. You're all I can see. I'm so in love with you... I just wish I had told you earlier. I understand if you don't feel the same I just... I wanted you to know..." He said while taking your hand in his.

"You mean that?" You whispered back to him.

He nodded. "With all my heart."

"I love you too. I have for awhile now. I love you a lot more than I knew I could actually." You said.

He smiled and leaned in to kiss you. When the two of you pulled away he smirked at you and said "Who needs to look up when I can see the stars in your eyes right now."

You rolled your eyes at his cheesy line and tapped the tip of his nose. "Yeah well I can find at least three constellations in your freckles right now. You're even prettier than the night sky, you know that sunshine?"

"That's ironic." He laughed and kissed you again.

—

Years had passed and you and Felix were together now. Despite the occasional arguments that all couples had, everything was perfect. You were happier than you knew was possible with him and he felt the same. Living in a small apartment in the city with your soulmate made each day feel like heaven on earth. He was your heaven on earth.

With your hands interlocked, you guys walked along the same beach you had gone to the night you confessed to each other. At some point he stopped and when you turned to look at him he was down on one knee pulling something out from his pocket.

"Y/N, remember when I said I couldn't imagine a future that wasn't with you? Well I wanna make that a reality. You are my future. So will you marry me?" He said with a worried smile on his face.

You laughed excitedly and nodded while he got up to kiss you. "Of course I'll marry you, sunshine." you whispered with a smile as big as possible.

(Admin Angel ☀️)

[yxlenas]

Allison/Isaac + tugging on the bottom of someone’s shirt

Post 3x23 fix it because it’s been like 7 years and I’m still bitter. 

Allison doesn’t remember much after saving Isaac’s life. Her dad says that’s probably a good thing but she thinks it’s frustrating, especially because of the way Isaac looks at her when he thinks she’s not paying attention. Allison is already tired of being treated like she’s fragile, and she’s only been home from the hospital for two days.

She grunts as her eyes open and pain shoots through her abdomen, blinking until she realizes where she is. Isaac’s hand is brushing through her hair where her head rests on his thigh. The TV is on, she can hear quiet voices and weird music.

“Hey,” Isaac murmurs, cupping her cheek, “I thought I heard your breathing change. How you feeling?”

She shrugs and then grimaces when it tugs at the raw hamburger her abdomen has become. Isaac’s face shifts and the hand on her cheek comes down to rest on the back of her neck. Allison watches as black veins trail up his arms, feeling the pain lessen and relief wash over her. Isaac’s face contorts and he takes a deep, shuddering breath before letting go.

“You don’t have to do that, you know,” she says, holding up her arms for support to sit up. It takes a lot of energy out of her, and she slumps against Isaac’s chest and the arm of the couch, pressing her face to the space between his shoulder and neck. Isaac rests his chin on her hair, one of his arms wrapping around her hips.

“I want to,” he says, “works better than those painkillers they sent you home with. Those things are shit.”

“You just don’t like how they make my heart rate weird,” she says into his shirt, “what are we watching?”

“You have to go back to school eventually,” she tells him a few days later as he laces their fingers, curled together on her mattress. Isaac shrugs and starts to draw her pain away. Allison reaches out and traces the black as it runs up his arm with the end of one cracked nail. She needs to cut them but she’s so tired.

“I will when you do,” Isaac mumbles, “The pain isn’t that bad today?”

“Not terrible,” she says back, “Isaac, I will be fine here with just my dad for the 8 hours you’re at school.”

Isaac’s eyes take on a glazed panic and his grip on her hand tightens. Allison squeezes back and drops it.

He starts screaming for her in the middle of the night, thrashing in the sleeping bag on her floor because he won’t sleep in her bed with her because he’s so worried about hurting her. Allison moves as fast as she can, which isn’t that fast, setting her feet gingerly on the floor.

“DAD!” she yells, lowering herself down next to Isaac’s head. She won’t be able to get back up without someone pulling her up but she takes Isaac’s thrashing head into her lap and starts carding her hands through his hair.

“Shhhhh,” she soothes, tugging on his curls, “Come on, Isaac. Wake up for me.”

“Allison,” he gasps, and then he’s scrambling away from her, getting tangled in the sleeping bag as her dad comes in.

“Isaac, hey,” her dad says, and to her surprise Isaac flings himself at him. Chris curls his arms around him as Isaac gasps for breath against his sleep shirt. His eyes are golden when she gets a good look at them, and she can see his claws poking out. She scoots closer on her bottom, one hand wrapped around her middle, and takes one of his hands. She traces the fine lines in his palm as he shakes in her dad’s arms.

“You’re alright,” Chris says in his ear, “You’re doing just fine. Just breathe, Isaac.”

He doesn’t say anything as he settles down, just droops further and further into her dad’s arms with soft whimpers. Allison convinces him gently to sleep with her instead of on the floor and Isaac is too tired to argue, pressing his nose into her collarbone. Allison rubs his back until they both drift off.

It’s her first day of school when she realizes it’s become a pattern. She tugs on Isaac’s sweater absently in English when the scar tissue knotting her abdomen starts to ache, and Isaac laces their fingers together. She watches as his veins go a dark grey, and feels the pain recede. It’s dull enough now that it barely phases him. He brings her hand up to his mouth and kisses her knuckles before turning back to the text questions they’re working on.

“Thanks,” she murmurs, not letting go of his hand.

Lydia takes her out shopping a few days later, just to Target. Allison is still pretty wiped, and her stomach hurts a lot. The doctors said that scar tissue often stays painful for a while, especially after an injury that almost killed her, but it’s getting extremely frustrating. Lydia links their pinkies as they look at nail polish.

“So,” she says, “Isaac.”

“What about him,” Allison says back, picking up an electric blue polish with glitter and putting it in their shared basket.

“Is he doing okay?” Lydia asks. Allison sighs, because that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it.

“I don’t know, honestly. He says he is but he’s so clearly lying to me. He barely sleeps, I don’t think I saw him eat yesterday, and he’s so jumpy.”

“He’s traumatized,” Lydia says, adding a neon pink to the basket and leading Allison out of beauty products.

“Yeah, no shit,” Allison says, “But I can’t help him if he won’t talk to me. I asked Scott if Isaac had told him anything but he’s giving Scott the same stuff about being fine.”

She picks up a bag of M&Ms from a side display and adds them to the basket.

“Can’t Scott just give him the glowing eyes and gently bully him into telling the truth?”

Allison snorts, grimacing when a stab of pain shoots through her middle. She reaches out for Isaac, to tug on his shirt and tell him she needs his hand, but then realizes he isn’t there and stops herself. Lydia raises an eyebrow and doesn’t say anything, just tosses some gummy worms in the basket.

“Come on,” Lydia says, “Let’s grab some more junk food and head home.”

Isaac is asleep on the couch when she and Lydia get back to the apartment, on his belly with his face smushed into the cushions. Her dad is sitting in the armchair next to the bookshelf and holds a finger to his lips when he sees them, cutting his eyes to Isaac. He trails them into the kitchen and helps them put away the snacks.

“He had a panic attack,” he says quietly, “I couldn’t tell what the trigger was, but he exhausted himself. Just be quiet, I think it’s the most restful I’ve seen him in weeks.”

She and Lydia settle in on the loveseat with a bag of chocolate dipped pretzels, changing the channel on the TV. Isaac starts whimpering a few hours later, startling himself awake with a sobbing cry for her. Allison is up and over to him in seconds, cradling his face between her hands and stroking his cheekbones.

“Allison,” he gasps, and she gets on the couch and lets him curl into her.

“Lydia’s here,” she murmurs, scratching the base of his skull.

“Hi, hon,” Lydia calls from the loveseat, “We got you a bag of sour gummy worms.”

Isaac laughs weakly into Allison’s shirt, and when he goes to pull away she doesn’t let him, dropping a kiss to his head.

“Let us take care of you, okay? You’ve been taking care of me for months.”

Isaac takes a deep, measured breath, and nods into her shirt. Allison tilts his head up and presses their lips together.

[xserpentlife]

Home

Requested: kinda but really No 

A/N hope you guys love this as much as I do

Warnings: family fights

Word Count: 4625

You knew what was going to happen when you told him.

“We have plans tomorrow”

“Oh where baby?”

“Uhm, my mom invited us over for dinner”

“I’m sorry, did I hear that right, your mom did what?”

You married Sweet Pea, and god you loved that man. The problem was you married him in a town where last names and where you were raised matters more than the person themselves. Sweets were hardworking, he cared for you and your child. But Sweet Pea’s name didn’t hold any weight in the town of Riverdale like yours did. But you cared nothing about that, you wore his last name with pride. Sweet Pea shouldn’t have been your future though, and you shouldn’t have married him. With your name, with your status being the high ups on the Northside, you could have married anyone of your choosing. You could have married a socialite, someone who was rich and popular, someone who could have bought you a giant house on the Northside. You weren’t one to embrace the name like your sister and brothers did. You hated your maiden name, you despised it, even so much so as trying for years to degrade and taint it. You were the disappointment in your family's eyes, your fathers to be specific. But like most children do they follow in daddy’s footsteps and most of them hated you too.

The biggest disappointment to him though was not that you got in trouble, not that you didn’t do absolutely fantastic in school like your siblings, not that you didn’t want in on the family business, no the biggest disappointment happens when you were 17. When you were seventeen you caused the biggest “disappointment” in his life, it was when you met a mechanic from the Southside, Sweet Pea, and eventually then your child you made with him.

“We haven’t been invited to your house in years baby”

You remember bringing Sweet Pea home like it was yesterday, a memory you wish you could almost forget but one that was buried deep into your mind. Your family, especially your dad thought it was a joke when he walked into the house. Your dad thought it was just another stage like all the others you had, but you knew very well it wasn’t. You vividly remember your father saying “Y/N I hope to heavens this is a joke, bringing this washed up nobody into our home”. He hadn’t even given Sweet Pea a chance. You broke it to him that you did instantly, telling him that you really cared for the man that was holding your hand squeezing it to keep you comfortable knowing how much you hated standing in front of your father, but your father had none of it. That first day Sweet Pea came over was also the day that your father banned him from your household and all family functions. You didn’t mean that meant forever at the time. You didn’t know it meant they wouldn’t come to your wedding, and you sure as hell didn’t know that it meant after your marriage, even after you had Harley, that you still would not be allowed into the house.

You never understood why your family, why your father never gave the man you loved a chance. You never could understand why family names had to determine everything. Sweets always showed respect to them. Never once did he say a thing that could have possibly offended them, he was a gentleman to the fullest extent.  You never understood why he hated Sweet Pea like it was his job. Nothing Sweet Pea ever did mattered to him. Not how he dressed in the nicest clothes he had, even taking his Serpent jacket off like he never did, not when he came over when you were under the weather and made you food, not even when you called him saying your dads' car broke down and he came over fixing it instantly.

They didn’t come to your wedding, which hurt. What hurt worse though was when they didn’t come for the birth of your child. That killed you, it killed you cause you called and invited everyone to the hospital, but no one but your Mother showed up. Which you later found out was without the knowledge of your father. The only other person to have met Harley after that was your brother, who you would have contact with once in a while, who had kids of his own. You didn’t get invited to Christmas, Thanksgiving, or even birthdays so you barely understood why your mother was inviting you over to her house, and Sweet Pea had the same questions.

“I don’t get it”

“What do you mean babe”

“Why is your mother inviting us over for dinner? What’s with the sudden change in her heart”

“I don’t know Pea but I wanna go”

“I don’t get it, why are we even going? Why put yourself through that? Why put Harley through that?” You just wanted love from your family, and yeah Pea gave you enough, but something felt different when your brother called and asked you to come over. You didn’t like being an outcast from your family, all you wanted was to be accepted by them, at least accepted enough to have cared about even a little. But yeah, after all the shit your parents more so your father ended up putting your family through it made sense that Sweet Pea was surprised they invited you over at all.  

“Mom called me personally Sweets, called and asked for us, all of us specifically to come. I just, I wanna go please even if it’s for a little, and when you say we can leave, just please” He rolled his eyes looking at you like you were insane. You knew it was out of protection, safety, wanting you and your daughter to feel loved not forgotten.

“Fine, but if they say one word about you or Harley we are out of there, got it” You nodded your head slowly as he came over giving you a hug and a kiss on the head. “I love you, I gotta get to the shop, and then I gotta go on a run this afternoon, but I’ll be home by 4:30 so we can make sure we get there on time, okay?”

“Thank you Pea”

“I love you, I'll see you later” He walked over to your daughter giving her a kiss before exiting the front door of your home.

You were nervous all day waiting for the arrival for Sweet Pea to come home, all the small things going wrong making you increasingly nervous for the night ahead. It felt to you like every time you moved you had another memory of a time when your parents didn’t show up for you. You were scared, fucking terrified of the night to say the least, but you knew you had to hold it together, you knew even more so for yourself, at least for Harley because she deserved to know her family.

You were already getting ready for the third time when Pea came home looking around the bedroom before seeing you sitting on the floor, fully dressed.

“Baby, you okay?”

“Oh, uh didn’t know you were home” You got up grabbing his clothes handing it to them before grabbing his shoes. He placed everything on the bed grabbing your hands in his.

“Stop”

“Huh”

“Baby I see it, you're scared shitless”

“I’m fine”

“Baby I’ve known you long enough, I know when you're not okay, talk to me”

“I’m freaking out” He pulled you into his chest, the faint scent of oil mixing with the leather of his jacket, the vanilla soap that he stole from you most likely, and the faintest hint of smoke layered over his body, the scent you’ve grown so accustomed to relaxing into. He calmed you instantly.

“We don’t have to go”

“We do pea”

“Why?” “Harley deserves it, I want to go for whatever reason, I don’t know”

“What do you mean she deserves it?”

“To know them, Pea, she deserves to be given that chance”

“She has us, does she really need them”

“Babe it isn’t the same and you know it, you were so close with your grandma remember, I want her to have that chance too”

“She deserves that baby, but do they”

“I don’t know babe”

“Look we’re gonna go like you wanted to okay? If you wanna leave you give me a sign and we will walk out the door okay?”

“Okay” He started your signature handshake something that you did since you met him, a handshake, a spin, the link of your pinkies and a kiss to the hand and then, of course, he always ended it with a kiss to your forehead.

“We got this babe, together”

“Together”

“Daddy! Do you like my dress!!”

“I love it baby girl you look like a princess, did you pick it out”

“No silly mommy did, she pick yours out to?”

“Of course she did, you think I can dress myself?”

“No daddy definitely not remember that time you chose green and pink, not a good look”

“Okay miss sassy pants go get your shoes on and we will be down in just a minute” You threw your shoes and then began pacing once again as Sweet Pea came back into the room. His hands grabbed yours and his forehead pressed to your own.

“Baby you need to listen. We can do this, everything will go fine. We will be in and out okay? But for us to have a good time, you need to take a breath, you need to calm down just a bit okay. Hey, We got this” He places a kiss to your head before retreating down the stairs you following down directly after.

The car ride was quiet too silent to even register how close you had gotten to your parents home. You’d think that you would have been hyperfocused on that, but no you were focused on all the things that could go wrong, all the things that could happen. It knocked you out of your thoughts when the gate started opening in front of you. It felt like you couldn’t breathe felt like all the pressure of the planet was pushing down onto you.

“Hey, I got you… Are you ready to go in baby?”

“Yeah, let’s do this”

You unbuckled your seat slowly as Sweet Pea grabbed Harley from the back of the car. You were so nervous you almost fell until you were caught by Sweet Pea’s arm who dawned your daughter in the other.

“Thanks”

“I told you, I got you”

“I know Pea, I know. Let’s do this”

You walked slowly to the door, at a pace that felt like a step per minute but with Sweet Pea’s hand guiding you, you felt a surge of confidence as you put a hard knock on the door. The door opened fast your mother standing in the entryway and before you knew it, you were being pulled into a tight hug.

“I am so glad you guys are here, oh my god Sweet Pea thank you for coming. And is that my grandbaby”

“Yeah mom that is Harley”

“Hi Mrs. Y/L/N, how are you doing?”

“I’m great Sweet Pea thank you, so glad the three of you could come” Your mom instantly pulled Harley out of Sweet Pea's arm his stance going slightly more hard as he watched her with your daughter. She gave more kisses than you could count before Harley was reaching for Sweet Pea once again, but honestly, it is all you could have hoped for. “Well come in, come in your brothers and sisters and the kids are in the living room” You were surprised how well everything was going, considering the last time. But you smiled at Sweet Pea as you both stepped through the door, and walked into the living room that had all your siblings.

The conversation went quiet when you walked through the door, your sister Beth staring at you with a dead cold look in her eye. “Oh, won’t you look at that she’s alive, she’s alive” You knew that it was a joke but hearing it from Shawn gave you a cold feeling. I mean they all knew you were alive and well they just didn’t have the balls to stray from what your father said. Luckily before anything happened your brother Jake stepped up, see Jake was the one who at least talked to you, the one that supported from the sidelines. “Hey Har why don’t we go play with cousin Jacob and cousin Jessica”. You were so happy that he showed you and your child. You nodded his way as he grabbed Harley from Sweet Pea’s arms.

You turned back towards the group as Sweet Pea grabbed your hand. “Hi, Beth, Shawn how are you both?” Of course, their wife and husband did not even so much so as to nod in your direction.

Of course, Beth was instantly on you. “What makes you think you can waltz in here like you’re here everyday Y/N. And with them, how dare you”

“Who my family? Just so you know by the way Mom called and invited me”

“Well, no one wanted you here sis?” Of course, Shawn had to pick too. You could tell the anger radiating out of Sweet Pea at that point.

Jake luckily came back at that point standing up for you instantly “Look both of you need to shut up, mom called her, them here so clearly mom wanted them here. You shouldn’t be the ones having a problem with that.

“No Jake I actually can’t she disrespected dad which means she disrespected us, her and her trailer trash and their children shouldn’t even be here. You stood up to Beth at that point. “Don’t you dare Beth, you know my whole life it was always you pushing me down and I'm sick of it, but you know what keep doing it to me that's fine but don’t you ever, ever think that you can say a word about my husband and my child without me kicking your ass you got that” You were in her face when your mother called everyone to the table, Sweet Pea taking your hand and dragging you behind him.

The night was going great, well aside from your sister and her remark. But an emphasis on the was because you walked into the dining room to see none other than your father sitting at the head of the table. He was the one man you didn’t want to see but you can’t deny that deep down you were wondering where he had been, wondering why he wasn't in the living room in the first place. It was odd, you knew that instantly.

In the quietest whisper you could have a short “Dad, hi” came out. Sweet Pea next to you nodding as Harley came up grabbing his leg as he picked her up instantly.

“Y/N. Nice to see” Came out with almost gritted teeth, and a disgusting look towards you. His eyes followed next to you as he nodded to Sweet Pea, a hi sir coming out of him before Harley waved next to him. Your father didn’t even so much so as to nod back to her.

“Well let’s get this wonderful meal started” Your mother probably noticed the tension in the air as everyone sat down at the table. Your father at one head your mother at the other. Everything was going smoothly, food was being passed and eaten. The children were all behaving well. You were proud of Harley, she was doing exceptionally well for barely knowing these people at all. But of course right when something goes well something else has to go wrong, and it comes in the form of a B, no not a bitch, a Beth.

“So still work at that mechanic shop Sweet Pea? Or did someone else finally offer a better opportunity than that dump?”

“What? The shop that I now own?” Everyone who wasn’t paying attention instantly did, something that shouldn’t be so important seeming like the most important thing that had been said all night.

“What you bought that shithole?”

“Beth, language”, at least your mother still had a small amount of decency.

“Yeah I did, I run the business. The guy who owned it before was a good man, a great one at that was like a father to me almost. He uh, he passed a few months ago and left the shop to me. But yeah I own it, and I run it” It felt like years now and the way Sweet Pea said it put it into perspective. Harley was turning 3 which meant you haven’t seen your family in 3 years basically. Sweet Pea had a lot of shit on him, things he did that were wrong, especially as a teenager but now as an adult, he was proud of himself. He ran a business that could provide what he needed for his family a family. He had a business he took pride in, one he was damn proud of.

But of course, Pea showing how proud he was no match with what of course your father had to say. “The business? Ha, that is not a business, does this so-called business even provide for you? For your family?” You couldn’t let Sweet Pea get shit on, not when he did everything for you. Not when you trusted in him and the business he had created.

“What are you even talking about dad? If you must know which by the way is none of your business by any means, yes the shop brings home enough money for us, for our family. That business pays our bills and then some, so yes dad it is a business, and it is a successful one just like yours, now can we quit and have a nice dinner like mom wanted? Please?”

“No we may not, don’t you ever dare compare my business to that hole in the ground your husband owns”

“Dad don’t you dare, I am proud of my husband, and his business may not be the same as yours but it provides just the same. Dad, stop. Pea provides enough for us, he provided me the life I wanted, the life I want my daughter to live” Sweet Pea was fuming for so many reasons.

“The difference Y/N is that I built my business, I worked hard for it. My business was not built by some side of the road Southside Trash, understand. So don’t you ever dare compare my business to his”

Your mother and Jake had had enough, your mothers head shaking and Jakes fist balled. “Honey stop, your daughter and her husband have done nothing wrong but come here and try to have a nice and respectful dinner. I think you just need to calm down a bit”

“Calm down, you want me to calm down!! I am perfectly calm to have you know but what is wrong is that I am pissed. What in your right mind made you think to invite her here? what made you think that was a good idea, you have to be stupid for that. I want her out now! I want her husband out now and I certainly want their daughter out of my home. Now Analisse I mean it get them out”

“Dad stop, you need to learn she is a part of this family. She has done nothing wrong but come here and try to have a good dinner with you” You nodded to Jake, thanking him in a  way for the things he said, the way he defended you not afraid of what your father could do.

“Oh so now you're disrespecting me. First of all, Y/N has done everything wrong. I gave her endless opportunities, I gave her everything, Everything!!! For what? For her to go and marry that southside scum. For her to have a trash baby too”

Your body shocked stood still, he wasn’t just targeting you, or your husband like you were used to, he was now targeting your daughter too.Tears rolled down your cheeks, but you quickly wiped them away with your sweater. You walked over picking your daughter up from the seat next to your husband. “Bye mom, bye Jake” About to reach the doorway Harley grabbed onto your dress pulling it. “What’s up, baby?”

“Why don’t they want us here mommy? Why don’t they love us?” That broke you, you were close enough to the table for everyone to hear seeing as it was dead silent now. Pea stood shocked as you quickly exited your parents home.

“Baby I don’t know but we're gonna go home and have a good time with our little family remember me and daddy love you so so much okay” Pea stood shocked as you quickly exited your parents home.

See Pea was a serpent, a badass someone who never held his tongue, but with your family he always did, never wanting to cause an issue. But when someone disrespected his family, his child or his wife, he changed completely no matter who you were you never ever talked about his wife and his child.

“Sir you need to stop, do you not understand how messed up this is?”

“Excuse me!”

“You, your fucking messed up. Calling your wife stupid, Calling your daughter trash, barely recognizing the presence of your grandchild, it’s bullshit if you ask me. You know it’s bullshit, hating your daughter for falling in love, hating your grandchild because she came from that love. I don’t get it. You know Y/N follows all of you just so she can stay up to date on your lives, she loves you all to no fault. But you can’t so much as look in her direction without a sliver of hate and that I just don’t understand. See I could bet my life's worth that you never even think about her and that sir is messed up because your daughter loves you so much even after all the crap you put her through. You know, I know she loves you because of the number of times I have walked in on her telling Harley stories upon stories of her grandparents, her aunts, uncles, and siblings. I couldn’t even count it, on one hand, the times I've seen her showing pictures to her as well, how do you think Harley knew all of you at least a little bit”

“Swe…”

“Don’t, I'm not finished, sir. None of you have even tried to be in our lives, or you know I don’t care if you're not in ours, but you haven’t even tried to be in Harleys, and that sucks. Because for a three-year-old to ask her mommy why no one in this house loves her, it’s sick. You know when I first met you, sir, the first time I came here, you told me to get out, told me I didn’t deserve your daughter, and you know what you are right. The number of times I tried to leave because I didn’t think I was good enough would probably astound you, but you know what she slowly realized the term “deserves” isn’t based on money, it’s based on the love you give, and god I love your daughter and I love our child. But you know what I don’t deserve her because she is fucking beautiful and incredible in every way I can imagine, but that doesn’t even matter. Because I work my ass off to give her and our child the life they deserve to live. And no, we may not have all the money or property in the world like you do, but we are happy. We are so happy because in our home is a family that loves each other. So now if you’ll excuse me I need to get outside so I can take my wife and daughter, my family out for ice cream to try to at least mend a small sliver of the hearts that you broke sitting at this table tonight”

Sweet Pea came out to you twenty minutes later to you crying in the car but trying to keep it together for Harley who was slowly drifting to sleep. You got scared when he opened the door and sat down with his head in his hands, afraid that maybe he had gotten hurt somehow in the house you won’t even call home anymore.

“Babe…  did they hurt you? Please god, tell me they... ”

“God no baby, but they hurt you and that hurts me enough. You don’t deserve to cry, Harley doesn’t deserve that you deserve a family, a family that loves you”

“I have it”

“But”

“No buts anymore, they had their chance, they had more than their fair share of chances Pea. I love them even though I shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean I am going to wait around till they accept our life and our family. I have a family with you and Harley I don’t need them for love. I have you”

Harley coughed in the back of the car your attention going directly to. “Daddy, are you crying?”

“No baby, you know why?”

“Why daddy?”

“Becuase we are about to go and get… icecream!! And what’s the rule”

“You can’t cry when your eating ice cream”

“You got it, baby, so what do ya say we go and buy 3 ice cream cones, one for you, mommy and me?”

“Yes daddy, yes I want two flavors?” He smiled over to you but you looked down to your hands instantly. A secret you were hoping to share at dinner, but of course, that didn’t work out. 

“Baby, are you okay?”

“No cause… I hate to break it to you Pea, but we need four ice cream cones cause it isn’t just the three of us anymore”

“Huh? We getting a dog or something?”

“Oh we are most definitely getting a dog but no…”

“Mommy has a Pea growing in her belly daddy!!!” he turned to your daughter quickly, so quick you felt like you could feel the wind as his head whipped around.

“What do you mean baby!!”

“Oops sorry mommy”

“It’s okay baby you can tell him give him the box too” He reached back grabbing the box from her. As he listened to her talk he began to open it

“Mommy told me to keep it a secret but a little baby pea is growing inside her tummy and soon she’s going to have it and it’s going to turn into a baby version of me daddy. I don’t know though... is she going to poop it out like a chicken poops its eggs?” He turned to you then.

“Your so cheesy but I love it, a new pea to the pod?” Tears streaming down his eyes.

“Yeah babe, a baby Pea”

“Oh my god”

“So like I said I think we have enough love in our little family, I realize now I don’t need them to be loved all I need is this right here. I love you so much Pea, now can we go home please”

“Yeah we can go, home baby, I love you too”

“First Ice cream mommy!!”

“Yes, yes we can’t forget the ice cream, step on it Pea”

“Yeah daddy step on it”

“I love you girls and you unknown baby pea, now let’s get that ice creaaaaammmmm!!!”

[peter-parkourwrites]

Searching For Forever ~ Teaser (Peter Parker x Stark!FemReader)

Warnings: Swearing?? Eventually, I think. Mediocre writing lol,,

Summary: When everything seems almost too perfect, your family is starting to fall to pieces. Your father chooses his path and Steve chooses the opposite, and you're in the middle of it all. Only confiding in your best friend who just so happens to be everyone's favorite Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man, and the one you fall for. 

A/N: Hi hello okay so, this is the very first series I will be doing and I’m excited to share it with you all. I don’t know when the first part will be uploaded because I’m busy with college applications and volunteering. But I will try and update as often as I can. I will alter some details, and such within the storyline. Also, the mood board above is my own and I love love love it !!! AnyWAyS, I haven’t seen Civil War in forever so plz forgive me any of this is wrong. Love you all, xx Devyn, <3 

Part 1 is here

Civil War Part 1 - 

“Miss Stark?” FRIDAY’s voice rang through your ears. You lay disheveled on your floor. Hair up in a messy bun, and stains covering your clothes of chemicals, food, and water. 

“Yes, Friday?” You called back as you jotted down another equation into your notebook for later solving. The school was most certainly your least favorite thing, well, that and your dad being mad at you. Your father, Tony Stark a world-famous billionaire and genius, and he loved to add onto that with ‘playboy and philanthropist.’ While the last part was true he had now had a steady relationship going with Pepper Potts. When you were dropped off at your father’s house at the age of three, by your mother, Pepper had been the one to whip Tony into shape and made him realize he had a responsibility now. You. 

“Your father is asking if you could join him for something to eat.”

“Eat? It’s only three…”

“Miss, it’s seven o’clock. He said dinner is ready and he needs to discuss some things with you.” You pushed yourself up off the floor and closed the notebook, making sure to mark your place with a pencil.

“I swear if this is about me stealing all of Caps sweatshirts again…” You grumbled and walked out of your room after putting on a clean shirt. You feet collided with the cool marble flooring, a soft pitter-patter echoing off the walls of the tower. As the elevator whirred and took you down to the dining area, you picked at your cubicles, a nervous tick you had picked up since you had found out your dad was Iron Man. You had snuck into his lab one night when you were seven. Trouble sleeping and lack of comfort from him led you to where you were standing in the lab. Your jaw hits the floor, the teddy bear in your hand, -who you ironically named snuffles because really what kid didn’t have a weird name for their stuffed bears- had hit the floor with a gentle thud. Right in front of your eyes was your father testing out his new suit, DUM-E right by his side holding up a fire extinguisher. 

“YOURE IRON MAN?!” Your voice filled the lab, and Tony jumped slightly, one of his arms getting knocked loose from the suit.

“(Y/N)!” He hissed, “What the hell-heck are you doing in here! You should be asleep!” Tony yelled, his face turning red from anger or embarrassment, you couldn’t really tell. You bent down and picked up snuffles drawing him into your chest as you held him close.

“I-I couldn’t s-sleep and Miss Potts isn’t here so…” You shrugged and Tony sighed, a greasy hand running through his hair as he climbed out of the suit. He sat down on a stool and motioned for you to walk over. A small smile graced your features as you happily walked up towards him, hair bobbing around as you jumped with every step. Tony let out a small chuckle as he wiped his hands with a rag and reached out for you. He lifted you up and sat you on his knee. 

“Listen pumpkin, you can’t tell anyone about this. This is our little secret… okay?”

“Okay!” You cheered nodding at him and holding up your pinkie. He laughed and linked his with yours.

“You can’t tell anyone, not Miss Potts, Happy, your uncle Rhodey… no one. This is dangerous and I don’t want anyone to know.”

“But why not?” You asked moving your attention from the bear in your arms up to his face. Your big (y/e/c) doe eyes made his heart warm at the sight. 

“Because pumpkin, you could all get hurt. And I can’t let that happen. Especially not to you.”

“I’ll be fine daddy, you’re iron man!” You giggled and he shook his head a small laugh escaping past his lips. You were so young and had yet to figure out the dangers of this world. Tony wanted to keep it from you for as long as possible, he was going to protect you no matter the cost. His hand cupped the back of your small head as he gently pulled you closer to his chest.

“I love you.” He whispered and placed a gentle kiss to the top of your head. You smiled warmly and looked up at him.

“I love you too Papa.” You hummed and rested your head against his chest again, your eyes scanning the room around you as you asked, “Does this mean I get my own suit now?”

“No.” He stated, before laughing softly. “You’re too young, and-”

“Then can I try on your suit?!” You cried out, raising your head from his chest and giving him a goofy grin. He let out a defeated sigh and shook his head. 

“Not tonight pumpkin, it’s time for bed.”

“(Y/n)!” Your father’s cheery voice filled your ears as the elevator doors slid open.

“Hey Old Man, Miss Potts.” You greeted the pair as you walked up to the kitchen island and climbed up onto one of the obnoxiously high stools.

“(y/n/n), sweetie how many times have I told you to call me Pepper?” Pepper said, looking over at you with a teasing smile. You chuckled nervously and shrugged. 

“Heh, sorry force of habit I guess… Anyways uh what’s for dinner?”

“Cheeseburgers and I made them.” Tony grinned and you sighed shaking your head.

“Well, Pepper guess we had better start apartment searching.” You said nudging the blonde woman's arm. She laughed and nodded in agreement.

“I’ll call the relators now.” 

“No no no! There is no need for that. I didn’t even burn the kitchen down!”

“Yeah, this time! Besides for all we know this could be an illusion Old Man.”

“Oh can it. I know what I’m doing.” He grumbled turning away from the both of you and grabbing the plates. He handed them out before sitting down across from you. You looked down at the burger and fries sitting beside it. You tossed a fry into your mouth and chewed, before picking up the burger. Your eyes flickered from the burger, to Pepper who was looking over at you as well. A soft sigh escaped your lips as you bite into it. 

You placed it down again and nodded, your eyes meeting the cheerful face of your father. 

“It’s… really good. Nice job Dad.” You said with a smile as he gave you a goofy grin and cheered. 

“I knew it! Now next time you underestimate my cooking you’ll be eating rats.”

“Dad!” you screeched, “Tony!” Pepper and you called at the same time making you chuckle a bit.

“Oh whatever anyways, what I needed to talk about uhm…” Tony cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “So you remember a few days ago your Uncle Steve and crew went to Lagos.”

“Yeah…”

“Well, Wanda… she uh. She basically contained the blast but she threw it upward near a building, which was full of Wakandan humanitarian workers.”

“Wait wait so, Rumlow the guy I told you looked like a bad guy, tried to steal that staff thing or whatever it was, and then blew himself up, causing Wanda to hurt Wakandans?”

“Yes, now we have some of it under control. We are getting word to Wakanda and they will be handling everything with the families but, Secretary Ross-”

“I hate that guy…” You grumbled taking another bite of food.

“So do I pumpkin, but he informed all of us that we need to have a meeting about what happened. So the rest of the team is coming back soon, and we will have a meeting tomorrow night.” Tony said as he took the last bite of his burger and sighed. “So just be prepared for anything to happen.”

“Already am Dad.” You said with a reassuring smile as you stood up and put your plate in the sink. “Besides you guys will work it out and come up with a solution together, you always do.” You said walking back over to him and placing a small kiss to his cheek. He smiled and hugged you before standing up. “I’m gonna get back to work… I’ll see you two in the morning, night Pepper, night Dad.”

“Goodnight (y/n), sleep well,” Pepper said as she poured herself a cup of tea. You smiled at her and waved before walking over to the elevator.

“Night Pumpkin!” Tony called off as you walked into the elevator. A small smile curled on your lips as the doors slid shut. You hit the button for your floor and up went the elevator with a quiet whir.

taglist: @inmydefenseyouletmedoit ♡ ,, comment if you’d like to be added or go to my inbox and let me know 💞

[ikesenhell]

Decorate Time

You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTES: I realized when @angstprincessnaga mentioned it that I haven’t written anything significant for Sasuke in QUITE SOME TIME. Have this as penance. 

He liked music. He liked music just fine, honestly, though he couldn’t say that the brief time he’d spent in band class had done much more than provide him hours of daydreams for what he could do with a bit of force, a tuba, and various objects. Lab work never was the right space for it. Certainly, they had a small bluetooth speaker that they’d cobbled together a protective shield for, but he’d certainly never used it. There was serenity in the silence.

In that sense, the Sengoku wasn’t so unnerving (though sometimes everything was too silent--he’d never realized how accustomed he was to elevator music). Wind and the bubbling streams and the echo in mountain passes didn't bother him. Quiet was a friend of his.

Sasuke embraced it.

Four years of that sort of stillness, and she interrupted it in the way that only she could: on accident. They’d stolen a moment together in Azuchi when she turned and grinned at him.

“Guess what I’ve got.”

Sasuke couldn’t guess, so he didn't. “Tell me.”

Triumphant, she wriggled an iPod from her purse and wriggled it at him. “It still has battery.”

He blinked. After all these years of its absence, his brain struggled to reacclimate to the idea that, yes, Apple as a company existed. “Does it? What do you have on there?”

She laughed and shook her head, rubbing her thumb across its screen. “Honestly, I’d wiped it and was going to upload a bunch of new music when I moved here. I only really had stuff to listen to on the plane--relaxing music, that kind of thing.”

“You don’t like heights,” he noted aloud, more monotone than he meant. “I suppose that makes sense.”

“I miss just listening to things,” she said, wrapping her fingers around the screen. Sometimes, Sasuke was very glad he’d never taken anatomy. Now was one of those times. The way her body moved made him believe in magic and design. “But I don’t wanna just play it for no reason.”

“No?”

“Nah. I’m gonna save it for something. I don’t know what yet, but it’ll be good.”

He watched her store the device safely back in her purse, sunlight dappling over her hair, brushing the back of her neck with solar fingers. The sight alone had him quoting half-remembered Shakespeare to himself: As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright, that birds would sing and think it were not night...

She was staring at him.

“You good?” She asked.

“Perfectly,” he responded, and wondered if he always heard music around other people. That would be an interesting investigation.

---

Some nights, he snuck out of Kasugayama and Kenshin’s reach to sit alone on the battlements. No one bothered him there. Few saw him. Four years he’d spent doing it, thinking all manner of things--charting the movement of the stars, marveling at the planets, conducting minor investigations or writing notations from the day.

Now he thought a lot about geography and music.

Once he’d heard it said that art decorated space, but music decorated time. And time! He’d learned so much about it and nothing at all in one. Where the scientist in him fell away and he was left with just himself, just Sasuke, he just sat in awe of its expanse--and the way it separated him from her. That was what lay between them, after all. Distance and time. Azuchi was many miles away, and while the landscape was art enough, the wind wasn’t nearly enough to waste the relentless hours necessary to get to her.

It wasn’t enough. There were so, so, so few and limited hours in a lifetime, moments he could never retrieve or retrace or remake, and here he was, wishing away some of them just to be closer faster.

Sometimes he thought about that iPod. He wondered what she listened to on it, what she considered worthy of spending the valuable minutes of her life enjoying. Was it classical? Did she listen to Mozart, Debussy, Chopin? Was it lo-fi? Sasuke shut his eyes and imagined her humming along. The cool wind swept over his cheek, and he imagined it was her sighing softly against the background of Clair De Lune, or Jeux D’eau, or The Girl With the Flaxen Hair.

He was humming it too.

Somewhere behind him in Kasugayama, a great shout went up from the party he was missing. Sasuke folded his legs together and tuned them out, holding onto a memory of Debussy’s Arabesque and envisioning her under the stars with him.

---

“I want to take you somewhere.”

She peered up from her sewing, the candlelight fluttering low over her cheeks. “Oh? Where?”

He just shook his head and held out his hand. “Do you trust me enough to come anyway? It’s a surprise.”

“Of course!”

In a bundle of hissed laughter and soft feet, they snuck from Azuchi and down through the township--past the cherry blossoms and the shuttered market, past Yuki’s room in the tavern and all the Warlord’s houses, past the walls to the city and toward the lake. Its glassy surface reflected the stars so perfectly that, when they sat on the shore, the line between sky and earth all but disappeared. A silver moon hung over them like a lantern.

But her smile. Oh, that smile put it all to shame. She shivered, and without thinking, Sasuke stripped off his haori and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“Thank you.”

O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art as glorious to this night, being o'er my head, as is a winged messenger of heaven-- He offered her a small smile and patted the ground. “Shall we?”

Together, they sat in silence. The heavens rotated slowly above them. Sasuke pointed out planets and constellations in whispers, their fingers brushing against one another as they lay, knuckle-to-knuckle on the grass. When she teased her pinky finger out toward him, he linked his without a word. Not that she needed to secure it--he’d been wrapped around her little finger for longer than he liked to admit. Even so it set his soul on fire.

“Oh,” she sighed eventually. “I wish I’d brought the iPod.”

Sasuke blinked and shoved his glasses back up. “Should I sing?”

She blinked right back. “Can you sing?”

“No,” he admitted. “I can’t.”

She belted a laugh. To his heart, it sounded like Gymnopedie no. 1. “It’s okay. I’ve a better thought.”

“What’s that?”

He held his breath as she sat up in the grass, up until her knees nested with his and her chin was level with his and her fingers entwined with his. How could he risk ruining it, especially when he could still hear the soft strains of piano by her will and life alone? Moonlight glanced silver over her mouth.

Sasuke heard himself swallow.

Then her hand was on his cheek, her fingertips against his lips, and he kissed her thumb without meaning to--if only to experiment and discover what she tasted like before it went away. Repeat study is always better, he thought, and as if she heard him, she dipped forward--ah.

Ah, she tasted like music.

Now this--this was how to decorate time.

They parted. Every inch of him craved more--and grace of graces, she tilted back in and sent shivers like shockwaves to his heart. He wasn’t a musical man, but hell, her mouth made him one. When at last she pulled away again, he reached out and dragged his hand over her shoulder as if to affirm she was real in the first place.

“Do you think the iPod might’ve made that better?” He deadpanned.

She giggled. “Not really.”

“Oh,” Sasuke commented, ignoring the desperate urge to fist pump in victory, “Just thought I’d ask.”

Her hair parted forgivingly around his fingers; he carded a hand through and pulled her back in, willing the music of her never to stop.

[thirteen-beaxhes]

Our Last Words - Chapter 5

Summary:  In a universe where the last words your soulmate speaks to you are printed, Cyrus Goodman wants nothing more than to never meet them. And he definitely doesn’t want it to be the blonde-haired boy in his class.

ALL LINKS IN REBLOG

~~~~

Mystery of Love - Sufjan Stevens

It was starting to become stupid, obsessive even.

Cyrus had to slightly modify his regular routine to account for his new behaviour. Earlier, he would wait for TJ at the gates after school from where they would either head to the Spoon with the rest of the group, or on days when TJ had work, Cyrus would accompany him to the gym and stay till his shift ended. Now, as soon as the bell rang for the end of the day, Cyrus would gather his things with lightning speed and rush home, steering clear of TJ’s locker, unless he ran into him on the way. On those occasions, they would walk in awkward silence till the gate. TJ at first would desperately try to make conversation, but eventually just stopped trying. Cyrus would use any momentary distraction to turn in the other direction and walk away. It still took every ounce of willpower to not look back at him.

On those rare occasions when they did meet before Cyrus could make his escape, the unsaid words between them settled uneasily as if both of them wished to reach out and say something, but for some reason, none could find the right words.

Finally, one day, TJ couldn’t handle it anymore. As soon as the bell rang, he ran to Cyrus’ locker and grabbed him by the elbow, startling Cyrus out of his thoughts.

“Can we please talk?” he asked, his voice shaky. He wasn’t looking Cyrus in the eye, afraid of seeing hatred, or worse, apathy in them.

Cyrus forced himself to look up from his shoes at TJ. Instantly, he noticed the difference in his demeanour. Where earlier there was a snarky confident boy, was now one who’s form screamed worry and hesitation. And sadness. And Cyrus was probably the reason. Sighing, knowing he couldn’t run forever (though he tried damn hard), he simply nodded.

They walked down to the swings, but neither of them sat down. They stood around, the silence between them getting louder and louder. Cyrus shifted his weight from foot to foot, unsure of what to say. But before he could find something, TJ spoke up.

“Look, Cyrus. I’m sorry, okay?” he said, his eyes trained to the ground.

Cyrus looked at him in confusion. Well that was unexpected. “Sorry for what?”

“At your house. For almost kissing you. It was in the heat of the moment, and I know I shouldn’t have done anything. But, I just didn’t think of what would happen after. And now look. I pushed our friendship too far. And I’ve ruined it, haven’t I? You can’t even bear to talk to me anymore. Like I said, classic TJ. Anything good I gotta ruin it.”

TJ’s voice seemed shaky, as if he was desperately trying to hold in tears. Cyrus wanted to say something, but he just stood there transfixed.

“I know you probably hate me. Which sucks, because I like you. God, I like you so much, Cyrus and you have no clue. I’ve liked you since the time I heard you sing that adorable song right here at these swings. You’re one of the most important people in my life. And now I’ve blown it.”

With that, TJ turned to leave, wiping away some stray tears. But as he started to walk away, he heard Cyrus say something.

“TJ.” It was soft, barely louder than a whisper.

Cyrus steadied his breath walking up to the other boy, turning him so that they faced each other. TJ still kept his gaze trained to the ground, still avoiding Cyrus’ eyes so Cyrus just grabbed his face and made him look at him.

TJ looked so scared and small, like he was too scared and ashamed to look Cyrus in the eye. The only other time he had ever seen him look like that was when Cyrus was walking away from him and his friends after Reed pulled out a gun. He hated when TJ looked like that, he didn’t deserve it.

Cyrus looked up at TJ and said softly, “I don’t hate you, TJ. How could I? I just, I can’t believe it. It’s never really happened before.”

TJ furrowed his eyebrows. “What has never happened before?”

Cyrus gave him a small smile. “That I guy I like has liked me back.”

It took him a few seconds to completely register what Cyrus had just said, but when he did TJ eyes widened, making Cyrus giggle.

“You, I, what?”

Cyrus, wrapped his hands around TJ’s neck, a smile on his face. “I like you too, TJ.”

As he said those words, TJ’s face lit up in a smile brighter than the sun in summer. He chuckled, wrapping his hands around Cyrus’ waist, pulling him closer into a hug.

“Well, you could have given a guy a warning! I spent all this time thinking you hated me!”

“I’m sorry. I was just going through something. But I’m here now.”

“I’m glad you are.”

They smiled, completely content in that moment. After some time, they sat down on the swings, neither really swinging, but just swaying, occasionally sneaking glances at each other. In the middle, their pinkies were linked together.

“So, what was it, Underdog?” TJ asked, breaking the now-comfortable silence.

“What was what, Teej?”

“What made you fall for me? Was it my handsome face or my impeccable athletic abilities?”

“Well, it definitely wasn’t your taste in fashion.”

“Ouch,” TJ said, miming the impact of a bullet. “You wound me, Muffin.”

“Muffin, huh?” Cyrus teased, his voice light and playful.

“Yeah, seemed appropriate. Wow, I have so many great nicknames for you. How many do you have?”

“Well, I’ll have you know,” Cyrus started, glancing down at his watch. He froze.

5:59.

No no no no.

“Um, hey, on second thoughts, can I do a raincheck? It’s just, I have to go. Homework. Errands. I uh, just have to go,” Cyrus said, fumbling over his words as he attempted to gather his things in a hurry.

“Wait, Cyrus,” TJ tried to say, in an attempt to catch hold of Cyrus’ hand. But Cyrus was surprisingly fast, running in the direction of his house at record speed. Wow, Coach would be proud.

That was close.

*

Cyrus spent a good half an hour recovering from his impromptu sprint from the park. His body was not built for exercise, and it made no qualms in reminding him of that fact. After the room stopped spinning and his stomach no longer felt like an underground rave, he reached for his phone to see texts from TJ.

Teej: hey, u ok?

Teej: im kinda worried cy

Teej: call?

Cyrus hesitated a bit before he pressed the ‘Call’ button, unsure of how he was going to explain himself to the other boy. But he reassured himself. TJ would understand if you didn’t want to say anything. Of course he would.

“Hey,” TJ picked up, his voice laced with concern.

“Hey, Teej. Sorry for ‘Cinderella-ing’ it out of there. I just remembered that I had, uh a thing that I needed to help my mom with. I’m really sorry, I was just worried about being late” Cyrus explained, trying his best to seem convincing.

TJ laughed at his description of how he left, instantly lifting Cyrus’ mood. “It’s okay, Underdog. You seem busy around 6-ish anyway these days. Don’t worry, I have work around 5:45 now, so we can hang out at other times, okay?”

Cyrus smiled to himself, knowing exactly what was happening. TJ knew there was something going on, but he wasn’t pushing. He never did, if Cyrus made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it just then. He was making adjustments, understanding what Cyrus needed without him having to even say a word about it. God, he liked that doof so much. Damn.

“Thank you, TJ.”

“Hey, no need for that.”

They sat in silence again, a common but not unwelcome occurrence. Until TJ broke it.

“Hey, Muffin?”

That new nickname still caught Cyrus by surprise, making his heart skip ten beats. “Yeah?”

“You can tell me anything, okay? But if you don’t want to, I’ll still like you, okay?”

“Okay,” Cyrus said, imagining the other boy also lying in bed, probably playing with that stupid toy basketball of his that he still kept from 5th Grade.

“Sooooo,” TJ said, his voice taking a flirty tone.

“Yes?” Cyrus replied, his voice equally teasing.

“Does this mean that you, the one and only Cyrus Goodman, would do me the honour of gracing me with a date?”

“It certainly does.”

~~~~

Why did i hate this lol i’m sorry if it isn’t as good i’ve been getting headaches all day today sorryyy

[pleasantlyparker]

meant to be- p.p (1)

summary: you go to a party to get close to peter parker, only to meet spider-man. what happens when you two hit it off after he takes you home?

author’s note: hi!! this is my first writing piece, i usually write poetry cause i’m not rly good this, but i’ve had the idea for forever, and i want to make it into a series. hope you enjoy!! also, i would love feedback.

warnings: mentions of panic attacks, grammar, crappy writing :))

word count: 1.7k

  Parties weren’t usually your scene, but when your friend begged you to go to Liz Allen’s party, you only agreed because you knew Peter Parker was going to be there. You had hoped that you would finally get an opportunity to talk to the boy you’d been hopelessly in love with for the past six years. However, all of this was starting to backfire, as your friend abandoned you to hang with some senior, leaving you alone with no sign of Peter. You knew that he had to be wherever Liz was though. He had had a crush on her since freshman year, and it was kind of twisted that you’d liked him way before puberty gave him muscles.

 You waited around by the drinks, hoping that he would turn up, but eventually, the loud noises and the crowded room were too much for you, so you opted to head outside for a breath of fresh air. You grabbed a bottle of water and weaved your way through the crowd. You began to think about how stupid it was to come to a party to try to talk a guy you knew liked someone else.

 As you stepped outside, you were instantly relaxed by the lack of Flash’s loud voice, and the smell of high school boys who didn’t know what deodorant was. All you wanted to do was curl into a ball and disappear; you settled for leaning against one of the lawn chairs in Liz’s backyard. “Hey, are you alright?” a voice spoke from behind you. You looked up only to come face to face with Queen’s notorious crime fighting superhero. You internally groaned.

 “Ye-Yeah” you tried to mask the nervousness in your voice with a chuckle. Only you would run into your favorite superhero in the midst of a panic attack. ”just needed a break from the party, that’s all.” He nodded letting you know that he understood. “Oh yeah, I feel you” He said as he sat down beside you. “You don’t look like much of a party-er, so what brings you here?” He voice sounded familiar, but you chalked it up to all the YouTube videos you had watched.

 “Well,” you sighed, “My friend wanted me to come with her, and I agreed to, but only because I thought I was finally gonna have an opportunity to talk to this guy I like,but he’s into someone else, anyway, so I’m beginning to think it was a waste of time.” You rambled on as you realized that you were probably oversharing, but Spider-Man didn’t seem to mind, though, he seemed to be interested in your rant.

  “What brings you to this party?” You asked wanting to take the attention off of you. “Well, I’m friends with Peter Parker, and he wanted me to come.” He explained.You laughed at your luck. You knew about Peter’s Stark Internship, but you didn’t know that he knew Spider-Man. “Do you know Peter?” he asked. “Yep,” You nodded. “not really well, though, even though we’ve had classes together since forever, and I’ve been crushing on him since he beat Flash in the science fair in fifth grade.” The memory of a small, scrawny Peter blushing profusely as they gave him the first place ribbon made your heart skip a beat. You had to remind yourself that none of this was healthy behavior.

 “Why don’t you just talk to him? I mean you’ve had classes with him since the fifth grade.” he suggested as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Oh come on,” You gave him an incredulous glance as you watched the mask’s eyes grow bigger. “You’re friends with him. You have to know that all he talks about is Liz. He stares at her like a lovesick puppy all the time, and, well, I don’t blame him Liz is a literal angel, and I’m just average. Peter probably doesn’t even know my name.” You began fiddling with the label on your bottle of water. “Come on,” Spider-Man nudged your knee.”You never know, unless you try. I doubt Peter could ever forget a girl as pretty as you.” You sighed. “I do know that he has a thing for Liz, and I’m not going to make a fool of myself by trying to flirt with him.” “I still think you should try to talk to him. Don’t sell yourself short.” Spider-Man encouraged. You and the vigilante fell into  comfortable silence.

  You groaned as you read a message from your friend that you’d come to the party with.“My friend went off with some senior, and it’s late, so I have to walk home alone.” You stood up. “It was nice talking to you, Spider-Man.” You held out your hand for him to shake.

  “Wait a minute,” he stopped you. “You’re not walking home by yourself, are you crazy? New York City is dangerous at night.” He rambled on. You rolled your eyes.“ I can handle myself, Spidey, and besides it’s not like I have any other option.” Spider-Man rose to his feet and dusted off non-existent grass. “I’m literally an avenger.” He deadpanned. “I can walk you home.” He offered. You thought about it for a minute, you didn’t know who was behind this mask and you were a little worried, but like he said, he was a superhero, so that had to count for something . “Ok let’s go.” You grabbed his hand and began leading him around the house to avoid causing a commotion. “Woah, woah, woah. Where are you going?” He stopped you. “Get on my back” he bent down, waiting for you to climb on. You gave him a skeptical look.

 “Why?” You asked. “I’m Spider-Man.” you rolled your eyes at him. “I do the “thwip” thing.” he mimicked his signature move. “Absolutely not. I do not feel like dying tonight.” You objected. You could practically feel the masked hero roll his eyes at you. “Hey,” You placed your hand on your hip defiantly. “In my defense, I just met you like an hour ago.” He sighed. “It’s not like I’m gonna drop you.” You still weren’t buying it.“I have super strength remember, I stopped a bus with my bare hands.” He argued. “You know, in life or death situations, humans can lift up to 10 times their weight, due to high levels of adrenaline.” You stated as a matter-of-factly. “Look just get on my back, and if I drop you I promise I’ll take you to the hospital.” He joked.

   “Pinky promise?”  You held out your pinky for him to take. He laughed as he linked your pinkies together. “Pinky promise. Now hop on, and hold on tight.” You obliged and told him the name of your apartment building. “Cool.” He said. “I live a few blocks away from there.”  You hooked your arms around his neck, and prayed that he didn’t drop you.

 The “ride” to your apartment complex was like riding a roller coaster, and you kind of enjoyed it, although you wouldn’t dare admit it to the hero. “Well this is my stop.” you said as he climbed the fire escape outside of your bedroom. He bent down as he let you off of his back. He lifted his mask halfway off his face, so that he could breathe properly. The soft glow from the streetlights down below illuminated your face, as you heard soft jazz music coming from the apartment above you. A gentle breeze blew through the night carrying the sounds of the city to you. You hugged your sweater closer to your body. The masked hero lingered, not wanting to end the night, leaning against the railing with his arms crossed.

    “We should dance.” The words, induced by some spur of the moment need to make this feel like a fairy-tale, flew out of your mouth before you could stop them. He seemed taken aback by your suggestion. “I mean there’s music already, and what better way to end a night?” You chuckled nervously. He gave you a breathtaking smile that you wished you could photograph for later. He took your hands and wrapped them around his neck. As he placed his hands on your hips, you began to sway to the soft sounds of the saxophone. For the first time tonight, you weren’t regretting going to that stupid party. You leaned into Spider-Man’s chest and smiled. Everything about what was happening just felt so surreal, just a few hours ago you were moping around because you liked a guy that didn’t like you back, and now here you were, dancing with your favorite superhero, on your fire escape, at almost one in the morning.“You know you’re kind of like Cinderella, right.” You teased. He thought about it for a moment. “I guess that makes you Prince Charming.” He whispered in your ear. You let out a delighted laugh as he spun you around.

  “That means you’d have to leave behind a glass slipper for me to be able to have to find you again.” You hummed as you breathed him in, wanting to savor every second of this interaction. You looked up at him only to find him already looking at you.You felt the blood rush to your face as he dipped you. “I guess I will then, huh?�� And in an instant, Spider-Man had his hands on your waist and was kissing you. He tasted like the gummy worms from Delmar's and mint gum. To say the least, you were absolutely infatuated with the web-slinging hero. Breathlessly, you two pulled away, and you smiled at him. “I guess I’ll see you around?” You hadn’t planned for it to come out as a question, but all you could focus on at the moment was the fact that you’d just kissed Spider-Man. “Hopefully,” He smiled at you. “Sooner than you think, y/n.”  You waved goodbye as he jumped to the other building and turned around to climb through your window.

 As you climbed into bed, you replayed the events of the night over in your head. Smiling as you remembered swaying with Spider-Man to jazz music, and the last thing he’d said to you. At the time, you’d been so captivated by his boyish scent, and impeccable dance skills that you hadn’t noticed something huge. Something that really did mean you’d be seeing the superhero sooner than you thought. Spider-Man knew your name, and you were pretty sure you hadn’t told him.