#and instead of saying yeah sorry it's The Dread i was like oh shit i need to act happier

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

haven't had to make one of these for a while...

um okay anyways i'm not doing too hot mentally today!! so i'm gonna take a break for tonight and ask that you please send me Foul Legacy asks (or Arlecchino. honestly i'll take anything at this point) because lord knows i sort of need them

[wynnyfryd]

Trailer park Steve AU part 10

part 1 | part 9 | ao3

cw: recreational drinking

When they get to Eddie’s trailer, Steve’s mom is sitting on the couch, eyes unblinking as she watches the TV.

There’s just static on the screen.

“Steve?” she slurs when she finally realizes they’re there. Sways a little when she stands. There’s a dreamy quality to her voice, a blank look on her tired face: agreeable but distant, a smudge of campfire smoke curling far over the trees.

Double-dosed her pills again. Jesus Christ.

“Oh, Stevie, baby, it was just awful.” She reaches out for him, and he wishes he could find comfort in the way she cups his elbows with delicate hands. Wishes he could lean into her touch and offer comfort in return, but her tone is so dull and mild that bile rises in his throat. Chemical calm bullshit, and Steve has had enough.

“Ma, just…” he sighs, shrugging her off. Scrubs a hand over his face. Too young and too old for this. “Just go home, okay?” The street is quiet again, all the neighbors tucked back in their houses now that the show has run its course. He doesn’t think anyone will notice her stumbling across the road. “Get some rest. I’ll be over in a bit.”

“Sure, baby.” He leads her to the door, and she turns there on the threshold, eyes glassy and unfocused; looks through him like he’s a ghost. Then her gaze shifts around the room — the hats, the mugs, the clutter; the lived-in explosion of color that Steve’s annoyed he likes so much — like she’s just seeing it all for the first time, and absently, she murmurs, “This place is dreadful, isn’t it?”

“Mom.”

“Hmm?” she asks, but she’s already drifting out the door.

Steve’s face is on fire. He stands there for a moment, just staring dumbly out into the dark. What the hell is wrong with her??

Behind him, Eddie snorts. "Oh, she’s on the good shit, huh?”

Steve whips his head around. Eddie’s eyes are full of mirth, his dimple peeking out, and it startles a laugh out of Steve. He thinks maybe he’d take offense if he weren't so busy being mortified.

But also, like.

It is a little funny.

Or maybe it’s so unfunny that it circles back around.

“Jesus, man,” he huffs, “Sorry. I don’t— I don’t know why she…”

“S’fine,” Eddie says with a casual flick of his wrist. Seems like he means it. He rocks back on his heels, hands in his back pockets, just sort of eyeing Steve up. Assessing. Running his tongue over his lips. They're big, for a guy's. “…You want a beer?”

“Fuck.” That sounds so nice. “Yeah. Please.”

“Have a seat.”

Steve takes the offer when Eddie nods at the couch, too tired to do the whole song and dance of ‘oh heavens no, I couldn’t possibly impose.’ Who’s got the energy for that?

The couch is old. His skull thuds against the un-cushioned back when he sinks down into it, but he’s too tired to care. Worn out as the lumpy springs under his ass, the frayed fabric beneath his arm. A wave of exhaustion rattles his bones, reverberates in his teeth. He thinks he could sleep for sixteen years.

Eddie clears his throat when he comes back with the beers, a sudden cautiousness about him as he hands Steve an unopened can like Steve might claw him in return.

"Sit down," Steve rolls his eyes. "I'm not gonna bite."

Eddie makes a strangled noise. The springs bounce as he plops onto the seat beside Steve, sitting sideways with one leg up on the couch between them, his arm resting on the back. "So, ah...." He gives a wavering chuckle; pulls a lock of hair across his face to hide himself. "Is this the part where I formally apologize for trying to knife you?"

Ugh. No the fuck it isn't. Steve’s too drained for it, absolutely at capacity for more serious shit this evening, thanks; and besides that, it was...

Whatever. It's old news.

Instead of giving a real answer he reaches into his pocket, snicks his own knife open and pretends to brandish it at Eddie, asking, "Eye for an eye?"

Eddie's eyes go huge. "Dude, what the fuck??"

"Just fucking with you," Steve laughs, lifting the can up to his mouth. "But there; now we're even. Shoulda seen your face."

“Ah—!” Eddie’s jaw drops in offense. “Ex-cuse you!”

God, of course he’s more dramatic than all the kids combined.

Steve jabs the knife into his beer, pops the top and starts to chug, throat working as he gulps the whole thing down in four big sips. It tastes like frothy, bitter piss, but it's cold and it soothes the scratch in his throat.

Eddie lets out a low whistle. "Well, goddamn, Harrington."

"Is that supposed to impress me?" "You're not?"

Steve grins and wipes his mouth.

—

They get drunk pretty fast (Eddie refused to be upstaged in his own house, so one shot-gunned beer became two became four), and somewhere along the line the conversations get weird; hilarious and dumb. Saying shit just to say it, chipping away at the ice wall between them with bare fingernails.

Eddie hollers some shit like: "What are you even talking about?" and his arms fling out wide, almost spilling his beer. "The deep sea is so much scarier than the mountains!"

"Are you joking?" Steve throws back. "The mountains have, like, giant cats and shit! Birds of prey with wingspans the size of your van."

"Yeah, and the deep sea has eldritch monsters that live in volcano vents and hunt with no eyes and eat their young for fun or whatever the fuck. You ever heard of an anglerfish? Or a phantom anglerfish? Tell me that shit isn't right out of a Lovecraft story."

"A what story?"

"How am I the one who hasn’t graduated yet?"

Then later:

“Dude, Batman? Seriously?”

“He’s the world’s greatest detective!”

“He’s a greasy little weirdo. You only like him because of your whole…” Steve gestures at his tattoos.

“Whatever, Spiderfan.”

And later still:

"Okay, okay, okay. Fuck, marry, kill... Shit. Y’know this would really be easier in a town where so many people hadn’t died."

Steve grimaces at himself; expects Eddie to call him out. It’s too insensitive, too soon.

Eddie just cracks a grin and suggests, "Fuck, marry, revive?"

—

They talk for a long time. Eddie's kind of charming when he's not being a dick. A nice smile, deep laugh lines. Steve can almost see why the kids are so obsessed with him. He's never met someone so animated; feels like he's talking to a Saturday morning cartoon. The conversation mellows out after a while, and he doesn't realize he's dozed off until Eddie shakes him awake.

"Hey, man," he says, voice just above a whisper. "I'm going to bed. You're welcome to crash on the couch, but, uh,” he scratches the back of his neck, “I mean, your back is probably gonna hate you for it."

Steve rubs his fists against his eyelids and blinks himself awake. Feels jittery and weird, yanked out of the start of a bad dream. When he looks up he sees that he’s got his shoes up on the couch; and there’s dried drool on his chin, and all at once he feels embarrassed, off-balance and panicked like he missed the last step down a steep flight of stairs. Of course he's overstayed his welcome. He's being fucking rude. "My bad," he mutters as he jumps up off the couch. Stands up way too fast, makes his vision tilt and swirl. "I'll get out of your hair."

Eddie reaches for his arm. "Dude,” he says, “you're fine. You can stay if you want.”

Steve moves out of his hold. “Nah, get some sleep; I’ll see ya around.”

Eddie frowns at him, a little furrow between his brows, and somehow Steve feels like he’s in the wrong, like Eddie isn’t the one who just kicked him out.

Like maybe Steve’s just running away for a second time in one night. Always back and away, this guy.

Who's the fucking coward now?

—

part 11

y'all know the drill, tagging whoever commented on yesterday's installment provided your tumblr settings let me <;3 @thealwithnoname @violetsteve @manda-panda-monium @stuftzombie @bronwenmarie @aliea82 @slowandsteddie @acedorerryn @anne-bennett-cosplayer @ahsokatanoss @steveshairspray @hallucinatedjosten @estrellami-1 @ppunkpuppyy @stevesbipanic @silver-snaffles @yourmom-isgay @eddie-munsons-missing-nipple @zombiecreatures @im-a-disgrace-to-humanity @faery-god @hotluncheddie @runninriot @a-little-unsteddie @teatimeeverybody @newtstabber @pearynice @hellion-child @cuips-not-cute @steddieas-shegoes @steves-strapcollection @loguine-linguine @griefabyss69

[oh-no-its-bird]

Similar fic idea to One Step Three Steps, but instead of some random Hatake brat being zapped into modern Konoha from the very early days of the village, it was actually the at the time Hatake Clan Head.

I'm gonna go with the Hatake family tree I tossed into Chasing Shadows for fun, meaning a) the clan head is named Haruka, and b) she's Sakumo's mother (thus Kakashi's grandmother) and Tobirama's aunt

She died very shortly after Tobirama (like a week tops) and the rest of her clan was wiped out pretty soon after her.

(Sakumo was raised by the only other survivor of the clan, an old grandma with poor memory who hadn't been in any state to fight, and who later passed away when Sakumo was still pretty young— so he learned very little about their clan and their traditions, and then passed on even less to Kakashi before he died)

I have literally nothing else for her other than the above, so I guess we'll figure out her character together as we go along

With that said, this is gonna be a long one, so buckle in for

✨️ The Hatake clan head time travels from early to modern Konoha ✨️

Immediately, there's just so much potential pretty much anywhere you drop her into the timeline.

Lets take her from the very first years of Konoha, where they're still lowkey building the village and Madara is still around (bc I love the drama of the time traveler respecting Madara only for the future people to be like "oooo... ok, so bad news actually— Also, you legally aren't allowed to talk good about him for military dictatorship reasons, sorry :(" )

And then we're gonna drop her into kid Kakashi era, with Sakumo still being alive

Right off the bat -> That's Sakumo's fucking mom!!!! Holy shit you guys!!! The last time she saw him he was like a literal infant she JUST recovered from birthing AND NOW HES A WHOLE MAN!!!!

Shes grabbing him by the cheeks squishing him to death, there may be baby talk involved (he's a grown man let him go oh my god??)

If she comes before his mission gone wrong, her presence prevents him from going on it (disaster averted,,, for now) He's currently in the running for most likely to become next Hokage and she's so disgustingly proud holy shit. Her baby!!! Hokage!!!

Maybe have some talk about how that'd make either 3 or 2 Hatake's in office depending on if you count Hashirama as a Hatake (Haruka does not) and how that's kind of bad, right? Only Haruka doesn't give a SHIT about that (politicians hate her and shed hate them too if she didn't enjoy making them suffer so much)

"But Haruka, as clan head aren't you a politician too by default?"

"Haha yeah!! Isn't that awful? (For all of them)"

If she comes AFTER the dreaded mission gone wrong, Haruka is all about backing up his decision (the Hatake are a clan who emphasize loyalty like no other, which is also part of why they took to Konoha's mentality so well)

Shes telling Sakumo he did the right thing and fuck literally everyone who says otherwise. Trust your momma Sakumo, she knows best

Her being there averts Sakumo's death— either bc she manages to keep him going, or bc she interrupts him mid suicide

(I can see Sakumo trying to go through with it specifically bc he thinks at least Kakashi has Haruka now once he's gone)

Also oh my god SAKUMO YOU HAD A BABY??? SHE HAS A GRANDBABY???? AWWW CMERE LITTLE GUY LET GRANDMA GIVE YOU A SMOOCH— OHHH SAKUMO LOOK AT HOW HE STABBED ME OHH WHAT A GOOD BOY, WHAT A CUTE BABY BOY!! CMERE BABY— OHH SAKUMO LOOK HES BITING ME AWWW THATS SO CUTE!! WHOS A GOOD GRANDBABY?? WHOS A GOOD GRANDBABY?? (said like she's talking to a fucking dog)

Kakashi kind of hates her.

There's like a whole big bit about the Hatake clan bloodline limit, which is sort of general wolfy stuff, enhanced senses, some extra strength, etc. And my all-time favorite take, adaptation ✨️

Their white chakra is super flexible, able to adapt and change to fit pretty much any situation —or even other bloodline limits. (Which is why Kakashi not only survived the sharingan implant but came to arguably master it)

Anyways -> other than the white chakra (which neither Sakumo or Kakashi know the details of other than it's their family chakra and its,, white. Exciting, I know), their bloodline limit seems to have borderline dissapeared with Kakashi and Sakumo, due to basically them not knowing how to feed into it / activley supressing it to conform to polite society (unaware that certain impulses aren't actually just intrusive thoughts but actual instinct trying to get them to do things necessary to feed into and reawakened their bloodline limit)

Kakashi actually shows more hints of still having it bc of his age, while Sakumo is very well practiced in accidentally supressing it to conform with general society.

So obviously, Haruka is like "hey guys!! What the actual fuck is this!!" and immediatley (borderline desperatley) trying to get them back to her perceived normal

She's actually REALLY fucked up about all this. Her own son!! Her own grandbaby!! And they don't even eat enough MEAT!!!! This is an actual nightmare, this is like basic baby stuff all the Hatake's should know and she's getting nothing but blank looks and vuagley ashamed guilty stares from Sakumo as she asks if he even takes Kakashi on hunts (he didn't even know that was a thing he should be doing.)

Don't even get her started when she learns Sakumo isn't acting as clan head on the Konoha clan council, holy shit. The Hatake might be a clan of 2 now but they were among the first clans to come to Konoha— she doesn't give a shit how many of them are left, if the number is more than 1 then there better be a fucking representative of theirs on that goddamn council

Funny bit where Kakashi tries to bite someone and Sakumo is telling him to stop bc jesus christ child can you behave for 5 seconds oh god he's so sorry— and Haruka is like, why are you telling him to stop??? This is enrichment for him :)) if there's no blood it's fine, that's the official clan policy for dealing with kids

Haruka... isn't actually a very good choice to leave as your babysitter. If nothing is on fire and no one is dead she considers herself successful.

Sakumo will learn this. In time.

Mmmm bad ending where Sakumo goes through with the suicide. Could be very fun and fucked up n dramatic.

Kakashi doesn't find his father's body first bc Haruka does— or maybe he does but Haruka walks in right behind him and forces him to close his eyes before he can actually see the body.

Fun scene where Haruka is physically wrestling Kakashi away from his father's body, a hand over his eyes as he screams and claws at her, demanding that she let go and let him see his dad.

Can't she smell the blood!? Tou-san is hurt, he needs help! What are you doing!!? Let him go!! Tou-san, Tou-san, where are you? Why aren't you answering?!

He bites her hand in his struggles, so deep that it later scars (just another reminder of the day, oh boy !!)

Haruka getting hit by the fucking brick of reality, straight in the face. She got to meet her son, the only survivor of their clan from her era, just in time for him to die <3

The fic then takes a HARD turn from the silly fluffy fun times of Haruka goofing around telling people to suck her dick if they have a problem with her (which a lot of people definitely do)

-> Right into shinobi politics, political schemes and sabotaged missions and buried clan history galore territory. Haruka isn't ab to take this lying down and everyone's about to get their first look at a grieving Hatake mother in her prime who just lost her baby to the shinobi rumor mill

Before she was kind of keeping to herself just having fun in the clan compound, not reeeally getting involved with any politics or village shit, bc like, she's playing with her family!! This is like her vacation till the time travel is solved and she goes back home!!

But she's not doing that anymore.

Sakumo is gone and Haruka is more than willing to take the seat he chose to leave empty at the clan council. She's about to become EVERYONES problem.

In the bg, Kakashi VIOLENTLY swings between fucking hating Haruka ("You should have stopped him! You should have been there! You should have helped!") to being like, physically unable to be unatached from her (she's waking up in the middle of the night to find him suddenly burrowed into her blankets, holding on to her like he's scared she'll dissapear when he wakes up)

Small soft scene where he's sleeping on top of her and quietly whispers that he's sorry for biting her.

Haruka possibly tries to have Kakashi temporarily drop his training but it's a very hard battle to fight. Both bc Kakashi wants to fight and bc Konoha wants him to fight

Uhh first big scary Haruka politics scene when she puts her foot down and says something along the lines of, "are you telling me here and now that my word as Hatake clan head is not enough to stop Konoha from taking away my child?" And Sarutobi kind of has to back down bc that does NOT fly well with the other clans

Obito and Rin swing by and try to pry at why Kakashi can't fight and she just fucking stares at them and goes, "He's 6."

She goes home and puts her head in her fucking hands. She was promised Konoha was to keep the kids SAFE, that's the entire fucking reason the Hatake agreed to join!!! This is not safe Tobirama, you bitch!!!!! If they send out Kakashi to die, shes going to find your fucking ghost and grind your face into Kakashi's grave!!!!

Anyways, time for my favorite part: politics

Haruka is coming from the early days of Konoha, where the only reason the Hatake even joined the village was, "because my cute little nephew (Tobirama) asked us real nice"

In her mind, she and her clan are still allowed to back the fuck up out of the village whenever she so chooses. She likes it in Konoha, yeah, but they're still free reign nomads and while she'd like to stay and have her clan flourish (which they didn't exactly do and she can literally SEE the way the village destroyed them from the inside out) she and her clan retain the right to leave whenever they want. And if they do leave, other than losing the new friends, it won't exactly be hard on them to get back to the nomad life.

All of that is to say that Sarutobi isn't her Hokage and while she'll be nice and respectful bc she recognizes the position (and her position) when push comes to shove, there's literally nothing they can hold on her to make her bend or break.

Also the last time she saw Sarutobi he was one of her nephews little brat tag-alongs, and she's so fucking bad at treating people their age, doubly so if she knew them as a kid.

It's,,, kind of demeaning actually, she should stop. (She will not.)

Anyways: play into her not just being Tobirama's aunt but also Hashirama's (her sister was their mother) which becomes fun bc Kakashi is her fucking grandkid!! Meaning he's also their fucking cousin!! Politics!! Implications!!!

At least one person is making a "of fucking course the boy genius is related to one of them" joke but like in an angry way (it's probably Obito)

Anyways I started this off with basically nothing for Haruka other than her name and I think she accidentally turned into a real character along the way (inevitable tbh)

Shes a DEEPLY flawed person actually, which I kind of love. She has a habit of belittling people and not treating them their age (absoloutley calls everyone even slightly younger than her 'kid')

Her views of childcare are totally skewed and she should not be trusted with any children other than Kakashi (it's ok he's literally built different, she can provide proper enrichment for him)

Edit: I DIDNT FUCKING MEAN TO POST THIS YET IM GONNA KILL MYSELF I WAS STILL QRITING IM GONNA END IT ALL TUMBLR I HATE YOU I HATE YOU

Shes so fucking full of herself and about to make it EVERYONES problem

[taiyaki-o]

HI NEIGHBOR! pt. 2

read pt 1 here!

synopsis: you and Megumi grow even closer, and some new developments have your life changing for the better

tags: gojo x gn!reader, fluff, non curse au

A few days pass, and you’re making breakfast when you hear a knock at the door. You dust off your hands as you answer.

“Hm? Oh, Megumi! It’s you!” You smile as you spot the boy, and he’s clutching the stack of books. He looks away a bit bashful and attempts to hold out the stack.

“I finished them. You can have them back,” he mumbles. You chuckle and take the books out of his hands before he drops them all.

“Did you enjoy them? Which one was your favorite?”

“I liked the book on sea animals a lot.”

“That’s one of my favorites too! The diagrams are really interesting, don’t you think?”

He nods. You notice that his gaze lingers on said book a little wistfully.

“Do you…want to keep it?”

Your heart melts a bit at the way his eyes light up.

“Really?” He asks shyly.

“Of course! I haven’t touched it for some time anyway. I think it’ll be better off with you.” You smile and give the book back to him, and he hesitates, but then grabs the book with two hands and hugs it to his chest.

“…”

You let out a soft grunt as he softly tackles you in a hug, and you quickly lift the books that are still in your arms out of the way.

“Woah, easy there!” You laugh. You find a space to dump the books and bend down a bit to hug him back.

“Thank you,” He mumbles softly but earnestly. You smile softly.

“Anytime.”

He brings his head back suddenly, his nose wrinkling.

“What’s that smell?”

You look up to see smoke coming from what should be your breakfast.

“Hm? Oh shit-“

-

After you’ve fanned away the smoke and thrown out your now burnt breakfast, you invite Megumi to come inside instead of just stand outside your door.

“Sorry about that, kid. Forgot to turn the stove off, silly me,” you say as you put the pans in the sink. A smile ghosts across Megumi’s face as well, and he sits politely on the edge of your couch.

It’s then that you notice something else.

“Where’s Gojo? Does he know you’re here?” You ask.

Megumi shakes his head. “He went out to buy some food. He’s probably coming back soon, though.”

“Well, do you have his phone number or anything? I think I should let him know that you’re here in case he comes back to an empty house,” you laugh.

You sit down on the couch next to Megumi, shutting off your phone.

“Do you watch any TV? Or is it just books?” you ask.

“A couple,” Megumi replies. “But mostly books.”

“Which ones?”

You end up putting on a few episodes of Pokémon, and Megumi curls up on your couch as you two sit together in comfortable silence.

-

SMACK!

Gojo groans as he hits his head against the steering wheel of his car, an angry red welt already forming on his forehead.

“That goddamned brat-!” Gojo seethes. He stares forlornly at the red light in front of him, dreading the interaction to come. Not only had Megumi forced him to be in your *angelic, beautiful* presence again, but the kid had the audacity to give you his number?! The mere thought of it made his cheeks turn cherry red.

He taps his fingers against the wheel, and looks over at the takeout bag sitting in the passengers seat. He sighs, rubbing his temples. Getting a new job, taking care of Megumi, moving to a new apartment…it was starting to get to him. Being a single father definitely wasn’t in his life plan.

Ten minutes later, he stood in front of your door, steeling himself for what was going to come.

“…”

He wants to tear his hair out. Why was he so nervous? This wasn’t anything special. He would open the door, pick up the brat, and go home. That’s it. He takes a deep breath.

knock knock knock!

The door opens, and Gojo immediately feels all the air escape from his lungs.

“Hey! Good to see you again,” You smile up at him, and he thinks heart might burst from inside his chest.

“Yeah, I just went to grab some takeout. Is, uh-is Megumi still here?” He rubs the back of his neck.

Megumi pops out from behind your legs, and you chuckle.

“Um-the restaurant gave me way more food than I expected-do you want some?” Gojo asks nervously.

(This is a lie. The second he saw your message he turned his car around and ordered another portion of food in hopes that he’d have an excuse to talk to you.)

“Oh! Are you sure?” You ask. He nods earnestly. “Well, do you want to come inside then? We were just watching Pokémon.” You ruffle Megumi’s hair a bit with a chuckle.

“Digimon is way better.” Gojo blurts out without thinking. He mentally smacks himself upside the head.

Stop being a fucking nerd, Satoru! No one wants to hear your opinions on Digimon!

You scoff in fake indignation. “It is not! Digimon wishes it was half as iconic as Pokémon.”

“Digimon is so much cooler though.”

“Is not.”

“Is too.”

“Are you coming inside or not?” You laugh. He blushes again, but steps inside your apartment. He does his best to ignore the familiar scent of your perfume in the air.

You grab some plates as Gojo unpacks the food, and soon the smell of Chinese takeout fills your apartment. Megumi retreats to the couch again to continue watching while you and Gojo sit at the kitchen counter.

“The kid give you any trouble?” Gojo chuckles.

“Not at all. He’s been great.”

“I think he’s taken a liking to you. At least more so than me.”

“Come on, I’m sure you’re great company.”

“Ahh, not really. ‘Specially because it’s just us. I don’t know what goes through his head sometimes.”

You desperately want to ask about the nature of their relationship, but you bite your tongue. You barely know these people, after all. No matter how much you enjoy their presence, you’d never pry into their private lives like that.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you view it), Gojo notices and he chuckles.

“I know what you’re thinking. And no, the kids not mine. Not biologically speaking. His mom passed away and his dad…isn’t in a good enough place to take care of him.”

Gojo sighs, throwing a look over his shoulder at the boy. “I’m all he’s got.”

You swear you see a pained expression on his face, but by the time he turns back it’s gone. “Pretty shitty to get stuck with me, huh? I’d feel sorry for him if he wasn’t a little shit.”

“Watch your mouth, mister. I might have to call the cops for child abuse.” You snicker as you point your knife at him jokingly. You feel a pang of sadness, however, as you process the information.

“I’d imagine it’s tough for the both of you…” you sigh. “I mean, did you plan on having kids?”

“Not a damn bit,” Gojo confirms. “Kinda feels like my life’s done a complete one eighty overnight.”

“You guys just moved here too, right? Where’d you come from?”

“Kyoto. Got a new job as a teacher at some school nearby. The kid seemed to want a fresh start anyway.”

Your eyes widen. “No way! I’m a teacher too! I teach at a school nearby!”

“Well, would you look at that! You wanna trade tips later?” Gojo jokes. “Wow, that’s…that’s a really crazy coincidence. Where do you teach?”

“Tokyo Tech. Or Tokyo Metropolitan Technical School, if you have a stick up your ass.”

Now it’s Gojo’s turn to widen his eyes. “That’s where my new job is!”

The two of you sit in stunned silence for a moment, before bursting out into laughter.

“Small world, huh?” You say as you catch your breath.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Gojo says as an ecstatic smile stretches across his face.

“I take it you’re the new janitor?”

“Oh shut up, you.”

“Can you two please keep it down? I can’t hear the TV,” Megumi looks over at you and Gojo with a slight scowl on his face. Gojo sticks his tongue out at Megumi, who simply rolls his eyes and returns his attention to the screen.

You let out another one of your angelic laughs, and Gojo physically kicks himself under the table to keep himself sane. He’s barely been keeping it together since he realized you two would be coworkers. The blush that’s fighting to travel up his neck takes all his effort to control. The thought that you’d be his coworker, that he’d be seeing you every day…saying hi to you in the halls…grading papers together….growing closer….

“Hellooo? Earth to Gojo?” You wave a hand in front of his face.

“H-huh? Oh, sorry!” He snaps out of his mini trance. “Zoned out there for a second, haha…”

He shoves a spoonful of rice into his mouth to give himself time to think before he embarrasses himself.

I really am a mess…

a/n: part 2! didn’t expect this to turn into a series, but ig it’s happening lol

pt 3 here!

feel free to message me/leave a comment if you want to be added to the taglist!

taglist: @96jnie

[howlingday]

Jaune Arc Cannot Be Happy

Jaune: Pyrrha! What's happening?!

Pyrrha: (Fading into embers) I didn't want to believe it, but it's true! I'm a clone, Jaune!

Jaune: What?! B-But how?!

Pyrrha: There's no time to explain. I don't have much time left.

Jaune: No! No, no, no! This can't be real! This can't be happening!

Pyrrha: Don't be sad, Jaune... Who would want a fire clone as a wife anyways?

Jaune: ...

Jaune: That wouldn't be the worst thing actually.

Pyrrha: Jaune-

Jaune: Honestly, I think I could manage that.

Pyrrha: What- What are you saying right now?

Jaune: I'm saying that I'll take what I can get. Like, fire clone? Sure. Fuck it.

Pyrrha: But I'm not even the real Pyrrha Nikos! The woman you love!

Jaune: Look, if I can get past the obvious molecular differences and incompatibility of our states of matter, then I can get over something as small as the philosophical debate of identity.

Pyrrha: ...

Pyrrha: This isn't a side of you I'm used to.

Jaune: Well, neither am I with you drifting into embers. Speaking of which, does it hurt?

Pyrrha: Not really, no. It actually feels kind of nice once you get past the whole existential dread of the end of my life.

Jaune: Right.

Pyrrha: Face it, Jaune; I'm not going to be around for much longer. I'll just be ash in a matter of seconds. Let's not fight anymore. I want my final moments to be spent thinking about us-

Jaune: Wait, hang on a sec. I think I saw some kindling over there.

Pyrrha: JAUNE! COME ON!

Jaune: No, no! Seriously! It would probably take less than a minute!

Pyrrha: No! No! Stop it! You can't seriously be thinking about tossing kindling on me?!

Jaune: Hah... You're right...

Jaune: ...Maybe if I use a block of wood instead?

Pyrrha: JAUNE!

Jaune: Gosh, I'm so sorry, Pyrrha, it's just... I've been trying to get us together for years. And I've seen the other universes. Some have you leaving me for another guy, some where you and I break up, and there's even one where Salem breaks us up!

Pyrrha: Salem?!

Jaune: Yeah, we've already done this bit- But seriously! Look at this! Jaune Arc finally gets his happy ending! He gets the girl! And she fucking BLOWS AWAY?! FUCKING! BLOWN! AWAY?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THE WORLD HAS IT OUT FOR ME! AM I NOT ALLOWED TO BE HAPPY?!

Pyrrha: Jaune... Look... I know this is hard... Actually, no, there's no good way of putting it. Your life is shit.

Jaune: Thank you.

Pyrrha: I mean, I'd cry right now, but all it would do is just make my death come a lot faster.

Jaune: I-I appreciate the gesture.

Pyrrha: NGH!

Jaune: Pyrrha?!

Pyrrha: This... This is it, Jaune... I'm dying... Or maybe... I was... never alive... Where do you draw the line? Consciousness or- ARGH!

Jaune: Just hold on, Pyrrha!

Pyrrha: You'll find happiness someday, Jaune... She's out there... Somewhere... Or at least there's a competent writer. One of the two.

Jaune: I'll always love you...

Pyrrha: ...

Pyrrha: You're handling this really well.

Jaune: Loved one dying right in front of me because I'm too weak to stop it otherwise. Just another day ending in Y.

Pyrrha: Oh, and before I forget, you'll have to change back the insurance. (Disintegrates)

Jaune: (Screams in Roman Torchwick)

[cutielando]

why don’t we go there? | m.s.

synopsis: in which you help him believe in himself again

my masterlist

The clock in front of your eyes moved incredibly slow. As you inched closer and closer to the paddock, your heart began beating out of its chest.

Some time ago, coming to the paddock to watch the race was a dream come true. You enjoyed every moment of it, feeling like you were a dream and you never wanted to wake up.

But now, that dream turned into a nightmare.

You knew the risks you were taking when you began your relationship with Mick, seeing the other partners and what they had to go through just for being with a driver.

Ever since you announced your relationship to the public, the problems started creeping in.

Fights between the two of you, his fans dragging you through the mud, the media outlets tearing your relationship to shreds from the outside.

You felt like a stranger into your own relationship, like an outsides looking in as everything was going to shit right under their eyes.

It tore you apart. Every Grand Prix you attended represented another nail in the coffin of your relationship with Mick.

“Y/N?”

You blinked, hearing Mick’s voice calling out to you.

Looking out the window, you noticed that you were already in the paddock parking lot, Mick having already turned the car engine off.

“Sorry, I was just thinking” you forced a smile out of you, trying to mask how much you dreaded going into the paddock.

Mick eyed you suspiciously, but nodded nonetheless.

You thanked God that he couldn’t read through tour facade, not wanting to risk having another fight with him in such a public place.

After you got out of the car, Mick reached out and took your hand in his, trying to give you a sense of comfort. But even he knew that it was in vain.

“Why are you so tense?” he asked, scanning your passes and smiling at some photographers.

You smiled with him, not as naturally as you would’ve maybe liked.

“I’m not, I’m just a little tired. Didn’t sleep that well last night” you said, hoping he would buy it.

Of course, he wouldn’t even know how you slept last night. He came back to your hotel room late, opting to crash on the couch instead of your shared bed.

He nodded, not giving you a second thought as you approached the Mercedes garage.

Just like he always did.

“I’m gonna go talk to my engineer before practice. Find a place to sit and do your thing” he said, giving you a chaste kiss on your forehead before disappearing.

You sighed, looking around at the place your boyfriend had been calling home for years now. And yet, despite the many times that you had been inside that very garage, you felt more as an outsider than ever before.

Between the neglect you were suffering from Mick, the hate you were receiving from his fans, the way the media was painting you as a bad influence on Mick, you didn't feel you belonged anywhere in his world.

"Y/N?" you were shaken out of your thoughts once again, meeting George's worried eyes scanning you.

"Oh, hi George. Sorry, I'll be out of your way" you grabbed your purse tighter and went to leave and go to the hospitality, but he grabbed your arm to stop you from walking away.

"Are you okay? You were spaced out for a good while there" his expression was worried, which was exactly what you had wanted to avoid.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired. I'm gonna go hang out in hospitality, wish you guys luck with your practice" you nodded and left before George could say another word.

♡♡♡♡♡

Being alone in your hotel room while your boyfriend was out somewhere with his team allowed you time to contemplate.

You loved Mick, and you loved being with him. But lately, it seemed like you were the only one present in the relationship. He would barely touch you, look at you or speak to you when you would be alone together.

You had never thought that going public would cause your relationship to completely collapse. It broke your heart, and you didn't know what to do to fix it. If there was even anything left to fix.

The door opening grabbed your attention. "Y/N?" Mick called out, his footsteps growing louder as he came closer and closer to the bedroom.

You quickly tried to wipe your tears, hoping he wouldn't be able to tell you had been crying. But you weren't fast enough.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, his voice not sounding bothered at all.

"Nothing"

"I know something's wrong. Tell me what's going on with you"

Maybe it was his tone, or maybe it was his choice of words, or maybe simply the fact that you were so tired of holding everything in that prompted you to completely break down and let everything out.

"We're not doing okay, Mick. Ever since we went to the paddock together for the first time, nothing has been the same. We barely talk to each other, you barely touch me or look at me unless you have to, your fans and the media are tearing me to shreds, calling me a gold digger and saying I'm only with you for your money and your fame and you couldn't care less. I barely see you anymore, it seems like you're doing everything to make sure you're not around me. You're staying out late, I don't know where you are half of the time and you can't wait to ditch me whenever we go somewhere together. I'm tired of fighting for a relationship that I'm not sure is worth fighting for" and with that you started sobbing, curling up on the bed and hiding your face in your hands.

Mick was shocked beyond words.

He knew he had been in the wrong. He realized he had been doing exactly what you had said. He'd been neglecting you, and the worst part was the fact that he didn't have an answer as to why. He saw the hate that you had been getting, and he didn't think it was worth it to say something in your defense. Why? He didn't know.

But as he heard your sobs fill the room and saw your body shaking with the intensity of your crying, he realized how much of an asshole he had been towards you.

"Shhh" he enveloped you in his arms, hugging you tightly and squeezing you close.

This was the first time he had touched you in weeks, you had even forgotten what his embrace felt like. In your vulnerable state, you forgot about the last few weeks, the hate and everything, completely melting in the arms of your boyfriend.

"It's okay, I'm here, let it all out" he kept whispering in your ear, kissing the top of your head and petting your hair.

As you slowly started to calm down, you didn't make a move to pull away from him, having missed his touch too much.

"Can we talk now?" his voice was soft, in contrast with the icy tone he had had when he had come back to the room.

You nodded, clearing your throat and slowly pulling away from him.

"I know I've been a shitty boyfriend lately, and there's no excuse for how I've been acting. I've been under a lot of stress from the team and I've been taking it out on you, which you didn't deserve. I'm sorry for how I've been treating you, I'm sorry for not standing up for you to my fans and the internet and I'm sorry I haven't been around. I love you, and I promise that I'm gonna do better, I'm gonna be a better boyfriend and I'm never going to make you feel like this ever again" he was holding your face in his hands, his eyes tearing up.

You knew you shouldn't cave in so easily, make him work for it more than this. But you loved him, and you could never resist him.

"I love you too" you whispered, caressing his cheek and connecting your lips, sighing at the feeling you had been missing.

Despite your rough patch, you both knew you were going to be alright, as long as you had each other.

comments and re-blogs help us grow!

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REQUEST HERE

[the-kr8tor]

This is my first time doing this 👉👈 but can I please request a Hobie x reader fluff where reader and him went to the beach (probably using his boat lmao) and reader comes back all sun burnt. Sunburn + how much hobie likes physical touch cannot go well together I imagine lmao

Hi hun! Thank you for requesting ❤️ I love your prompt sm, it's so adorable 🥰 hope you like it!

Pairing: Hobie Brown x gn! Reader/ Spider-Punk x gn! Reader

Tags: No use of Y/N, No specific physical description of the reader, FLUFF.

ʕ⁠·⁠ᴥ⁠·⁠ʔ

"Ow ow" you hiss out, waddling back inside Hobie's houseboat. He's been gone for a bit, answering a distress call from his two-way radio, taking a pause on your little beach vacation, you hope he's okay.

Taking Hobie's houseboat to the beach was a spontaneous decision. You briefly mentioned to him that you haven't been to the seaside in a while, missing the cool breeze and the salty water.

So here you are, burnt to an almost crisp, from your face to your legs. You fell asleep on a lawn chair, waiting for Hobie to come back from being Spider-Man. Oh man how you deeply regret shutting your eyes, you swear it was only for a few minutes. You lift your left arm checking the time, you wince when your watch grazes your tender skin, deciding to just take the watch off, you see that it left a mark on your wrist, a huge difference to the rest of your skin.

"Fucckk!! nooo!" You screech out, already dreading what your skin would feel like in a few days, especially when it sheds. You stop in front of Hobie's fridge, littered with various magnets, concert flyers and your little doodles. You open it, carefully avoiding the door from touching your skin, the cold air helps, you try not to grab an ice cube and place it on your warm skin, but you know it does more harm than good.

You wish you brought your trusty aloe vera cream with you, instead, you settle with hydrating from the inside, gulping down a bottle of water, little droplets falling on your chin down to your chest.

Hobie whistles out, he's as tall as the door, arms easily resting on the top, nonchalantly leaning on the doorway "should've came back earlier, if you told me you're gonna put on a little show" he hasn't noticed your inflamed skin with the lights shut off.

Hobie runs towards you, arms stretched In Front of him, eager to hug you. Your eyes widen, he bounds towards you, it's too late to stop him, his arms embrace around your tender form, leather vest scraping on your warm skin.

"Wait! Hobie! Ow!" You yell out, pushing him off with your palms. You instantly feel guilty from pushing him.

He immediately lets go, thinking he might've poked you with the spikes on his suit "shit, you alright?" No ounce of malice in his voice.

"I'm sorry" you say meekly, flailing your arms so that the slight breeze calms your angry skin.

He notices the pain in your voice and your weird flailing, "don't be, what's wrong?" Hobie asks, concerned.

You close your eyes briefly, the pain slowly subsiding, but a dull pain still throbs on your skin.

Hobie reaches out to you, but you quickly move away from his touch, he retracts his hand, sadness creeping in, is it him? What did he do now?

As if you can read his thoughts, you quickly put a stop to his thinking "I'm sunburnt, Hobie" you press the nearby light switch, showing your inflamed skin.

He sighs, relief flooding his senses "well shit, lovey, what happened?"

"I fell asleep while you were gone?" You say it like a kid waiting to be scolded, because you did exactly what he told you not to do while he was away.

Hobie puts his hands on his hip, oh you're definitely gonna get a talking to. "On the chair outside, I bet?"

"Mm-hmm" you nod, face apologetic.

"Even though I practically bathed you in sunscreen?"

"Yeah"

Hobie guffaws, he can't help it, with your face looking like you broke his precious guitar, and the fact that you still got sunburnt despite lathering you a few hours ago with a lot of sunscreen.

"It's not funny" you say dejected, wincing when your frown pulls at your skin.

Hobie breathes out, calming his laughter "Alright, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" he reaches out again for a comforting hug like he's used to, but he brings back his arms when he remembers your aching skin.

He misses your touch already.

"You laughed at my misfortune" you pout, winching again when it tugs at your warm skin.

"Love, you're the cause for your own misfortune" He teases, mimicking your voice at the last word.

"But Hobie, it hurts" you try to tug at his heart strings. You stomp your foot, huffing out.

Hobie thinks you're so adorable right now, despite your little tantrum.

He chuckles, closing his smiling mouth immediately when you scowl at him.

Hobie closes the small distance, his hands hovering over your face, careful not to graze your sensitive skin.

"I'll take care of you, yeah?"

You look at him through your lashes, "you'll get my aloe vera cream from my flat for me?" Batting your eyelashes for extra effect.

"That and more" he wishes he could kiss you right now.

You notice him staring at your lips "I'll give you a hundred kisses when I'm better"

"Just a hundred?"

"A thousand and one then" you smile despite the pain.

"I'll take it" He can't wait for you to heal.

ʕ⁠·⁠ᴥ⁠·⁠ʔ

Thank you for reading! Please consider reblogging if you enjoyed it ❤️

[denaliwrites]

On the Brave Shit

Tenth Doctor x Genderfluid!Reader

Summary: Coming out is almost never easy, but with the Doctor everything is just a little bit easier.

Soundtrack: Bad Bitch by Tessa Violet

Requests: Open!

Warnings: Coming out. Some light anxiety. (I think it's light, anyway, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

"Did you know," the Doctor started carefully, leaning back against the TARDIS console and crossing his arms over his chest, "that Time Lords and Time Ladies regenerate?"

You closed the TARDIS door behind you, tilting your head as you paced up to join him at the console. "Okay?" you said as you reached him. There was a touch of fear in your voice, but mostly you were just confused.

"See, when Time Lords are hurt... hurt badly. When they die. Instead of dying, they -- we -- well, we sort of just. Don't."

You were trying so hard to follow him. You really were. "You... don't die?"

"We... we change. The old us dies, sort of. We keep all the old memories and all that, but our faces change. We become someone new." He scratched at the back of his head, before the same hand trailed over to rest over his mouth as he looked at you. Watched you.

"... Oh. So... you're not... you're not dying, right?" you asked in muted panic.

"What? Oh, no! No. Not for a long time yet, I should hope."

The sigh of relief you released was dramatic.

"See, the thing is... all that to say. Well. One of my friends in school. The Historian, we called him. Well, he got hurt one day. Very badly hurt. He would've died. Is the thing."

You stepped closer to him, taking his hand in yours comfortingly. "Oh, Doctor, I'm so sorry."

"No, no -- none of that! That's not the point." When he saw your stricken look, he softened. "Thank you, though," he said reassuringly, though you were still utterly confused by all this. "See, when Historian changed, he... was no longer a he."

Oh.

How the fuck did he figure that out?

"I... I, erm... Oh." You weren't exactly sure how to process what he'd said. How to proceed.

"Humans are different, obviously," he said casually, though you could feel his eyes watching you, gentle and caring. "But... I think it's probably the same principle, essentially."

"How did you..."

"Know? Oh, well.. I notice things, you know. That's -- that's what I do. Notice things."

You swallowed in dread. "Like what?"

"Well, for one, you spend an awfully long time in the TARDIS wardrobe," he said with a playfully annoyed sigh. "I didn't think much of it at first, but then I saw you dressing up in, well..."

Oh. Oh, no...

"Anyway. The point is. I think you're neat. As you are. Whatever that means."

You felt a tear streak down your cheek, and the Doctor gave your hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze. "Now that that's... you know. Erm. I've been calling you the one thing all this time. Is there anything else you wanna be called?"

You blanched, somehow not expecting him to A. be so chill with all this, and B. so willing to just go straight into it.

"Erm... yeah. I guess. Yeah. She, her, he, him... please."

"Applicable to presentation or regardless of?" he asked, and you felt another tear fall.

"Er... I think regardless of."

He nodded, pulling you to his chest in an impossibly gentle embrace. His lips pressed to the top of your head in a soft kiss, and his thumb wiped away your tears. "You're wonderful. And brilliant. And incredibly brave."

On your next adventure with the Doctor, you were pleased indeed when he effortlessly switched between pronouns, never missing a single beat, never faltering, never hesitating.

[rogueddie]

Buckingham, 1,760 words, for @thefreakandthehair’s Spicy Six Winter Challenge, with the prompt; snowball fight.

Winter, and Christmas especially, has always been Robins favorite time of year.

Or, more accurately, it used to be.

With the heavy snow, December of '85 is starting to become the worst month of Robins year. She can't even bring herself to enjoy the snow. Nothing her parents usually do to cheer her up works either.

"Until the roads are cleared, I've got to walk," Steve repeats. "I'm sorry, Robs. Maybe the snow will clear tomorrow."

"Maybe," she reluctantly agrees, ignoring the fact that he'd said the same thing yesterday... and the day before that... and the day before that. "At least we're on shift tonight, right?"

"Oh..."

Steve's tone only fills her with more dread.

"What?"

"Keith called me before you," Steve says. "Family Video is closed for the day. Something about the snow being too much and no one shopping in this weather anyway."

"So, hey, maybe school will be cancelled too," Robin tries, though they both know school won't cancel.

"I'll walk you home from school," Steve offers. "Or we can go back to my house. I still have that cake we made."

"Yeah, alright, whatever. I'll call you at lunch, yeah?"

"Ok. Missing you already, Robs."

"Love you too, Dingus."

Hanging up, she drops her head against the wall with a soft 'thud', grumbling complaints under her breath.

"No Steve today?" Her mother asks.

Robin turns, glaring when she sees the teasing smirk. "No, no Steve today. By the time he clears his driveway, I could have already walked to school and waiting... whatever. It's not a big deal."

"Mhm," her mom hums, chuckling. "Sure it isn't, sweetie."

"It isn't! It's not like we need to be together all the time. We can go one day."

"Your uncle and I used to use those same excuses, you know. We weren't any more convincing than you two. Now, come on, get ready. You'll be late if you don't leave soon."

Reluctant, and groaning, Robin takes the coat her mom holds out for her. She picks her bag up, sat by the door, and sitting on the stairs so she can pull on her boots.

"Don't rush, there's a lot of ice," her mom warns. "And keep your coat zipped up. And-"

"I know, I know. I love you, too. I'll see you later!"

"Bye sweetheart! Be careful!"

The air outside is freezing. It hits Robin like a brick wall when she steps out and, despite her mom's warning, the idea of spending longer is the cold than she needs to is horrifying.

She jogs, careful to avoid patches of roads and sidewalks that look icy.

She makes it most of the way with only a few stumbles before, inevitably, she slips over.

"Oh my god," someone yelps. "Are you ok?!"

Robin flushes, muttering curses, when she realises that, not only did someone see her fall over and eat shit- Chrissy Cunningham saw her fall over.

"I'm- yeah, fine, totally," she chokes out, forcing a laugh.

"Here," Chrissy pants a little, having ran over to her, offering a hand.

Robin takes her hand, a little surprised at how easily Chrissy pulls her up.

"Thanks," she says, trying to smile.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Chrissy frowns, looking her over. "We have a first aid kit if-"

"Oh, no, that's not... I am ok, really."

"if you're sure." Chrissy shifts, glancing back to the drive. "I'd over to drive you the rest of the way, but..."

Robin leans to look around her, wincing when she sees the drive.

The snow is piled high in the driveway and, despite how much has been cleared, there's no way that Chrissy is going to clear the rest in time.

"Why don't we walk together instead?" Robin suggests.

She almost takes it back, wincing at her own boldness, but Chrissy lights up.

"Yeah? I mean, yeah, let's! Lemme grab my bag, ok?"

"Ok, yeah, that's fine."

Robin wraps her arms around herself, starting to step side to side in an attempt to keep warm while she waits.

Luckily, it doesn't take Chrissy long.

"Ok, I'm ready!" She smiles. She pulls the strap to her back a little further onto her shoulder, the polite smile faltering. "Oh, are you cold?"

"Uh, yeah, but I'm fine, really, it-"

"No, don't worry," Chrissy twists so she can root through her bag. "I've got a spare... aha!"

She pulls out a scarf that's mostly green and white. She wraps it around Robins neck before she can protest.

"You can give it back later," Chrissy easily dismisses, starting to walk down the street. She raises an eyebrow when she glances back at Robin. "Come on!"

Robin stumbles a little in her rush to catch up.

"Careful," Chrissy says, taking hold of Robins right arm and cradling it in both of hers. She glances down at her boots. "Do you have enough grip with those?"

"What? I mean, yeah, these are great, they're sturdy and build for ice- mom got them specifically because they have great grip. The problem is with me, I'm not good at running. Like, I have terrible co-ordination- Steve is always joking about how I run like a windmill and, yeah, I do, but he learnt to walk slower than I did so really, he's the weird one here- I mean, what type of baby tries to crawl backwards, right?"

Robin finally pauses for breath. She glances at Chrissy, who is struggling to stiffle her giggles.

"Steve Harrington?" Chrissy asks, when she finally realizes that Robin isn't going to continue.

"Uh... yeah... don't tell anyone I told you that."

"My lips are sealed."

"No, really, that's- I think he told me that in confidence or something, I shouldn't have told you that, I just can't stop rambling when I get nervous around- and you're- oh god. I'm shutting up now. No more conversations. We're just... having a nice- silent- walk to school together. Just... me and Chrissy Cunningham. Jesus."

"You say that like I'm scary."

"Well, I mean..."

That only makes Chrissy giggle harder. "You think I'm scary? Really?"

She leans heavily into Robins side, one of her hands curling up around Robins bicep. She's looking up at Robin with an expression that's painfully familiar.

It's the same expression she's seen girls pull out when they're hitting on Steve. The same moves too.

But what would Steve do? Robin thinks, panicking.

She's grown so used to old conversations with Steve repeating in her head, his bad jokes and questionable advice a constant and welcome companion.

But, now that she actually needs him, he's nowhere to be found.

After a few seconds of panicking, Robin is desperate to break the tension that is quickly turning from flirty to awkward.

She ducks down, grabbing a handfull of snow, and throwing it against Chrissys coat.

Robin jerks up, standing stiff upright, frozen and stunned at herself, whilst Chrissy is equally frozen, staring at Robin with her mouth agape.

It doesn't take long for the shock and confusion to vanish though, and soon Chrissys grin turns wicked, a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"I'm sorry?" Robin tries.

"Are you?"

'That means she's flirting, just... in a more playful way', Steve voice finally rings in her head. That day had been confusing for Robin- she hadn't known if the girl had been flirting with him or bullying him. 'I kinda prefer it. It's nice to know you can roughhouse a little with a girl, you know? It can be fun. Sexy'.

That had been one of his more successful dates, Robin remembers. He'd gushed about her for the entire week between their first and second date. She can't remember what went wrong, but he was confident that-

Chrissy ducks down, quick, scooping up a pile of snow with both hands.

Nope.

She takes off running, barely darting out of the way of the snowball in time.

"Hey!" Chrissy yells after her. "Get back here!"

But she's laughing as she says it.

So, almost tripping onto her face as she ducks down, she scoops up another ball of snow. She turns, aim going a little wild with how fast she keeps running.

She yelps, stumbling a little heavier when the snowball sent back in return smacks directly in the back of her head.

"Careful!" Chrissy yells.

"Then don't aim for my head!"

"It's not my fault it's an easy target!"

"Hey!"

Robin scoops more snow, turning and sliding to a stop. Chrissy doesn't have enough time to stop, but she does duck out of the way so it hits the side of her head instead of directly in her face.

She realizes her mistake a second too late.

Chrissy, unable to slow her momentum on the same patch of ice that Robin had slid across, slams straight into Robin.

Robin winces when her back slams into the ground, the snow doing nothing to cushion the fall. She feels lucky that her head didn't also slam into the ground.

"Oops?" Chrissy says, pushing herself up slightly but making no move to get off her.

"No, it's ok, that's on me."

"Yeah..." Chrissy trails off, voice weak- distracted.

Robin holds as still as she can, irrationally worried that if she moves then she'll startle Chrissy out of whatever moment she's having that has her looking down at Robins lips, cheeks flushing.

For a moment, Robin is sure that Chrissy is going to kiss her. Her eyes flutter, shifting up so her face is above Robins, tilting her head and starting lean down, to-

Someone wolf whistles, loud.

Chrissy jerks back, throwing herself off of Robin- but she is immediately glaring at the two boys, laughing and leering at them.

"Fuck off!" Chrissy yells. "Jerks!"

She ignores them when they try yelling back, instead focusing on Robin and helping her to her feet.

"Ignore them," Chrissy mumbles, grabbing hold of her hand and gently dragging her along, walking fast. She glances back, seeming to relax. "What assholes."

Robin glances back, relieved when she realizes that they're turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Yeah," she agrees, turning back to stare at Chrissy, awed. "You're so brave."

"What? Oh, no, I'm not."

"Yeah, you are! Scary, too."

"I am not!"

"Scared those two."

Chrissy huffs, leaning in so their shoulders bump together.

"You're something else," Robin continues, emboldened. "It's impressive. You're, like, actually cool. Not just popular kid cool, but... truly, really, awesome."

"Shut up." She's mumbling, but she's smiling. She's blushing. She's looking up at Robin through her eyelashes.

"Nope," Robin grins.

[thebigqueer]

"Permanence" - Percabeth - One-Shot

Summary: Percabeth's first "I love you." Word Count: 1755 Read on AO3

“Annabeth?” a voice calls, and she turns in her seat, her attention abruptly snatched from her laptop. “What are you doing up here so early?”

When she sees Percy leaning against the doorway to the mess hall, his lips quirked in amusement, Annabeth smiles. “Early?” she asks. “I’m pretty sure it’s noon.”  

Percy snorts and walks over to the supply of breakfast items on the table, which is endless, thanks to Leo’s genius. He picks up an apple, throws it in the air, and catches it again, all the while saying, “I mean you rarely come up here at this time. Feels like you barely come out of your little cocoon now.” 

His tone is still light, but there’s a slight jaggedness to it. She stares at the shape of Percy’s back for a moment as he keeps plucking away for things to eat, then stands and joins him. 

“Is there anything, like, unhealthy?” Percy asks when she sidles up to him. She looks up and fixes him with an exasperated smile, and he laughs. “What? Leo had eight months to prepare this ship, and for all the fancy shit he installed, he couldn’t even think of adding, like, a pizza dispenser?”

Annabeth rolls her eyes and hands him a candy bar sitting in the corner of the table. When his eyes catch sight of it, he grins and nudges her with his shoulder. “You’re the best.” 

“Yeah?” she asks, and now she faces him, raising her eyebrows. “Let’s go back to what you just said.” 

As he works on opening the wrapper, he glances at her. “What did I say?”

“Something about me being in a cocoon.” 

“Oh.” His eyes darken, but then immediately brighten up again as he takes a bite off the candy. “Oh, wow, this is so good.” Percy holds it out to her. “You should try it. Wow. Thank you, Leo.”

“You’re welcome,” warbles a voice from the speakers, and Percy flinches.

“Jeez,” he mutters, lowering his voice. “He’s like Big Brother or something.” 

Annabeth takes the bar from him but doesn’t taste it. She just keeps looking at him. “Percy, come on. What did you mean?”

Percy heaves a large, heavy sigh, then takes the candy bar back from her. When he doesn’t immediately go back to eating it — instead opting to play with the wrapper — her heart slows in dread. 

“Okay, I know you’ve been busy, so I didn’t really wanna say anything,” he says. “But it just feels like since we’ve found each other and been on this ship, we’ve just been so busy in all different directions. And when we’re not busy, you’re in your room, fiddling on your computer or something.” He stops playing with the wrapper and puts the half-eaten bar on the table, and now she knows he’s being serious. He doesn’t put his food down for anything.

“Percy…,” Annabeth says. 

Percy sighs again, and now he puts his full plate — filled to the brim with whatever he could find — on the table. Annabeth has to resist the urge to raise her eyebrows. “Eight months, Wise Girl. We haven’t been together in eight months, and the only moment we’ve had to ourselves was in the stables.” He tilts his head. “I just missed you. Miss you.” Then he huffs a humorless laugh and looks up at the ceiling, as if embarrassed. “I don’t really know why I’m getting so emotional about this. It’s just been a weird year.” 

“Yeah, I know,” she murmurs. She considers telling him about her year, too — how she’d tossed and turned in bed, waiting for some sign that he was even just okay. How she’d go to his apartment every week just to meet his mother and convince the two of them he was still fighting somewhere. How she had to convince Mr. D with everything she had to keep sending scouts for him, all the while losing hope herself that he even was out there. But she figures he wouldn’t want to know that, not now, at least. So instead, she just leans her head against his shoulder. “I’ve missed you, too, Seaweed Brain. I’m sorry.” 

A beat of silence passes, and then he brushes his hand against hers, pulls her fingers into his. She lifts her head to look up at him. “I’m sorry, too,” he murmurs. “I know you have a lot going on. And if anything, I’m just glad you’re okay. That’s all that matters.” He squeezes her hand. “But can you promise me something?”

“What?”

“Don’t push me out, Wise Girl. You don’t need to handle this whole… daughter of Athena mission thing on your own. I know that’s kinda ironic, coming from me, who went missing for eight months and basically left you alone” — he smiles nervously — “but I’m serious. I wasn’t there for you then, but I’m here for you now. And if I had any say in the past eight months, I would’ve been with you every moment.”

Annabeth wants to say something, but all her thoughts tangle up in her brain and her words form a knot at the back of her throat, too large to tumble out. And a part of her feels guilty, but in all honesty, all she can feel is a subtle warmth at the core of her heart. The way he’s talking to her, his voice oozing with genuine eagerness to spend time with her… it makes a warm flame burst to life in her chest, thawing the ice that had grown inside of her the past year.

She spent so long waiting for someone permanent, and each time she thought she found someone, they inevitably left her. Luke, Dad, Thalia, and even Percy for a while. But now, staring at him, letting his existence embrace her skin, she realizes something. Maybe she and Percy won’t be together every moment. Maybe she’ll be the one to go away next, whisked away on some petty quest for the gods where she may not even be able to see him for months. Maybe their futures hold completely different fates for them. But she knows now — completely, utterly, truthfully knows — that it doesn’t matter if they get whisked away to different ends of the world again. Because right here, in this moment, she knows he’s really with her every step of the way. He’s subtly eroded his way into her heart, has permanently carved his smile into her mind. He’s left something eternal, even if he isn't. And that’s good enough for her. 

“I’m sorry,” she finally manages to push out. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way, Percy. I’m so sorry for shutting you out. I didn’t even know I was doing it.” 

“It’s okay,” he promises, and he tugs on one of her curls. “I believe you. Just keep me in the loop as much as you’re comfortable with. And promise me we’ll tell each other when things are getting weird.” He squeezes her hand again. “If these eight months have taught me anything, it’s that it’s important to keep the people you care about the closest.”

Something burns around the edges of Annabeth’s eyes, and she realizes with a start it’s tears. Of all the things she'd been through the past few months, just a few pretty words from Percy are enough to make her want to cry. “I promise,” she breathes. 

Percy smiles. “Good. Now I can enjoy my food in peace.” He picks up his plate again, and then his candy bar. “By the way, the invitation to enjoy this is expired. Only for me now.” 

Annabeth laughs, and she expects Percy to move to take a seat at the table, but he doesn’t. He just keeps standing in front of her, smiling elatedly, and she realizes with a start that he’s waiting for her. 

And she’s not sure she can remember the last time someone did that for her. Which is maybe why she blurts the next words: “I love you.” 

For a second, Percy doesn’t react. Then his eyebrows rise, and his mouth slowly opens, and his eyes shimmer with surprise, but Annnabeth is pretty sure no one is more shocked than her. 

“What?” Percy asks, slowly setting his food down again. 

“Nothing.” But Annabeth is trying to hide her face.

He laughs and punches her arm playfully. “You got something to say to me, Wise Girl?” But if the sparkle in his eyes or the grin on his face have to say anything, he’s bullshitting her. 

“Say what?”

“Nooo,” he groans. “Come on, Annabeth.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Please. I’ll let you have my candy bar if you say it.” And she still doesn’t relent, but when he wraps his arms around her shoulders and leans in, his eyes close enough to shatter her resolve, his irises blades of green piercing through her shields, he says, “I love the way you say it.”

So she relents. And she says it again. 

And again. 

It’s only three words, but they ring in her head a million times, and the taste of them — like candy, like sugar, like clouds — bounces over her tongue a billion more. 

Percy keeps smiling, but it’s not a joking grin anymore — there’s something deeper, more soulful in it, his skin glowing with a warm undertone. “I love you, too, Wise Girl,” he whispers. 

And with those words ringing in her ears, echoing all the way down to her heart, making her blood glow, she doesn’t know if she has the ability to say anything else. She doesn’t even know what she’s supposed to say next. 

The silence begins to stretch on, cools the room around them. Suddenly the air around them feels too gooey, too heavy, too sweet, as if someone had spilled a whole bottle of rose perfume in the room, and Annabeth aches for their familiar banter, if only to calm the growing uneasiness in her. 

She runs her fingers up his hand.“You know what else I love?” she murmurs, trying to rein control of the moment.

“Me again?”

“Wrong.” She rubs Percy’s knuckles, then snatches the candy bar from his hand. “It’s making things hard for you.” 

“Hey! Give it back!” Percy cries, snapping his arm out to catch her, but she’s already out the entrance, onto the mast, waiting for Percy to come after her.

And he does. He follows her every step. 

It isn’t until later that evening that she realizes she left her laptop in the mess hall.

[aprettyweirgirl]

Izumi gets out of a stressful meeting to find Lin has arrived for a week’s stay.

"That is all, gentlemen. Thank you for your time." The Fire Lord dismissed from her throne, taking off her glasses, with a heavy sight. Spirits knew she hated these meetings, three hours to discuss spendings.

How dreadful.

"You look like shit." her daughter chuckled next to her, once everyone left the room, Izumi didn't respond... with words, instead she looked at her daughter unamused as she stood up from her seat "I mean it, when was the last time you slept?"

"Ursa–"

"Mom is arriving today, right? Take the day off or something."

"There's too much to do."

knock knock

"Sorry to interrupt, Chief Beifong has arrived."

"Well luckily you have an amazing daughter that can do all that." The princess said smugly as she left the room.

***

There it was, that warm feeling in her chest as she walked to see her wife. It's had been around a month since last time they saw each other and oh how she missed her, but there she was finally, in her casual clothes with a loving smile in her face.

Lin left her bags on the floor to wrap her arms around her lover's waist to kiss her.

"Hi, Zumi."

"Hello, dear" Izumi hugged the chief, slightly leaning on her as she relaxed for the first time in weeks

"You look exhausted"

"Why does everyone keep saying that? Can't I just look like this?"

"Yeah... let's take you to bed."

No one saw the Fire Lord for the next four hours until dinner.

[nehswritesstuffs]

ghosts speak in whispers and lies; can’t know what’s real ‘til you’re the one who’s died - Part Two

All I can say about this thing right now is holy shit.

The Hearts welcome the only other trusted crew into their midst, while Law is sucked further into the lie. [6687 words]

Luckily, the Thousand Sunny was not too terribly far from where the Polar Tang had landed and was able to make the trip over in a relatively short amount of time, arriving just before dinner. It was all the Straw Hats could do to stop Luffy from breaking down the door to the submarine, the teen absolutely panicked about the state their friend was now in. They had elected to not move him from the table in the mess hall, instead putting a blanket over him and his bunched-up hooded sweatshirt under his head as a pillow for the time being.

“Hmm… I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like this,” Chopper frowned. It filled the Heart Pirates with dread—it wasn’t good when the reindeer looked puzzled, let alone admitted it. He had been briefed on everything that had happened and still it seemed like he had no answers. “I’ll have to cross-reference his collection and my own when it comes to parasites. Jean Bart?”

“Yes, Doctor Chopper?”

“How did the device work that took these things off the slaves in Mary Geoise?”

“It went between the person and the creature and seemed to forcibly rip it off—many people were injured when going through the process because of how it holds on the face.” He grew quiet, unnerved by the situation. “What do you suggest for now?”

“Well, we need to get him out of the mess hall for one,” Chopper decided. “I’m glad you didn’t move him until I made my preliminary assessment. He needs to get into the medbay with at least a sodium lactate drip. When was the last time he ate?”

“Last we’re aware: lunch yesterday,” Shachi noted. The reindeer’s eyes bugged and he shrugged guiltily. “Getting him to eat is sometimes an issue. You know how it is.”

“No, I don’t.” Chopper gestured to Luffy, who was crying in worry for his friend while still double-fisting slabs of meat that he was hoovering up like a menace. Oh, yeah, that was definitely a completely different sort of problem. “Do you have any TPN prepped?” Crickets. “You know: total parenteral nutrition? To make sure he’s getting regular nutrients while his esophagus is blocked?”

“You make it sound like there’s more doctors on the ship than just the captain,” Clione stated. Chopper groaned and transformed into Heavy Point, gingerly picking up Law. “We can help, but none of us are… you know…” Chopper tried to not roll his eyes—expecting too much medically out of Law’s crew was tantamount to expecting medical assistance out of the Straw Hats, which was anywhere from adequate to… lacking, to say the least.

“I’m going to get him set up—Robin, could you please get some TPN bags from the fridge in the Sunny? Everyone else, I’m going to need some space in order to take care of him properly. He’s allowed two visitors at a time, okay?”

“Torao…get better soon!” Luffy demanded as Zoro carried him out of the mess hall, still attempting to eat. Bepo and Jean Bart led Chopper to the medbay, where the younger doctor placed his colleague on the bed.

“Where does he keep his medical volumes?” Chopper asked.

“They’re in his room—I can bring you there once we’re sure he’s stable,” Bepo said. Jean Bart looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Sorry, but I think the captain will understand.”

“I’m sure he will,” Jean Bart nodded. The pair helped Chopper get acclimated to their medbay and watched as he hooked up Law to a couple monitors and put the IV in his forearm, the sodium lactate drip going almost as soon as Robin arrived.

“Here you are, Chopper,” she said, using her Devil Fruit ability to hold three bags in three separate hands. “I got more than one since I don’t think this is going to be solved within a day.”

“Thanks; you can put the others in the fridge there,” Chopper said, taking one of the bags and gesturing towards the wall. Robin put the spare bags in the refrigerator and watched in silence as Chopper connected the bag to the IV line. Jean Bart noticed her stare and things clicked into place.

“I’m going to make sure that everyone is keeping a cool head,” he decided out loud. “Both our crews are fond of the captain for good reason. Have Bepo fetch me if I’m needed.”

“Thanks!” Chopper seemed genuinely thankful, which put the man at-ease. Once he had left, Robin moved into the space he had occupied. She stared at Law contemplatively and it caught the attention of the Mink.

“Are you okay, Miss Robin?” Bepo wondered. She nodded.

“He looks… wrong.”

“Don’t worry—the captain’s strong like you wouldn’t believe,” the bear assured. He placed his paw on her shoulder in solace, though the one who reacted was Chopper.

“What’s going on?” he wondered. “Is something wrong?”

“Torao and I… worked closely together while we were headed to Zou and Wano… while you were going to rescue Sanji,” Robin stated. Chopper didn’t know much about Humans and their emotions, but he was getting better at reading between the lines: something romantic happened at the very least, though to what degree he was unsure. Robin was working through something, though what he didn’t want to know unless she specifically opened up about it, and considering she used the voice she did when she didn’t want to reveal everything at once… well…

“Oh, I understand,” Chopper nodded. He hummed quietly and made a few notes on his chart. “Bepo? Can you show me Torao’s library is kept? I should get to work on figuring out what this is; Robin’s watched over patients for me before.”

The bear quickly obliged, leading Chopper out of the medbay and down the hall. Robin sat quietly with the steady beeping of the monitors; if she concentrated, she could almost hear Law’s breathing. She gently picked up his hand in hers and began to lightly trace the blackwork tattoos, glad that Chopper put the IV in his inner forearm to avoid the ink.

“I know you likely can’t hear me,” she said, “but I want to at least say that Chopper is doing everything in his power to make sure this weird creature doesn’t melt your brain or eat your innards.” He continued to lay there, immobile and unresponsive. The only comforts she had was that his hand was still warm and the monitors doing their job. “I still don’t regret going with Luffy, you know. Maybe next time you’ll think before you get into trouble. You of all people know how terrible it is to be left behind.”

Law still did not answer.

“If you don’t wake up soon, Luffy’s going to try to do something about it.”

Again, nothing; if anything was to work if he was somehow faking, it would be invoking Luffy. His silence confirmed leagues of information for Robin, though the most troubling fact was something to do with her and nothing else. She hated to see him like this and she had to wonder how deep it truly went. With any luck, she wouldn’t have to find out the hard way.

She did not know if she could be left behind again.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Alcohol flowed freely on the Going Luffy-senpai as the newly formed Straw Hat Fleet partied to celebrate having escaped Dressrosa and the certain death that would have welcomed them had they stayed a moment longer. It was a wonderful party, one that easily presented many opportunities to slip away from the main proceedings.

Below deck, Law walked out of the bathroom and looked up and down the corridor to see if there was anyone there—he was alone. That worked in his favor, honestly, as it allowed him to find a bit of peace and quiet to recharge himself with minimal pressure. After having been with the Straw Hats for what felt like ages, plus the varied others who came with them, he needed some time alone before he screamed.

Opening a door, he found that he had only stumbled upon Nico Robin as she studied the contents of the map room. He raised an eyebrow—it looked like she was stealing the only semi-navigable maps the ship possessed.

“I thought it was your crewmate who’s a cat burglar,” he quipped. She simply smiled.

“Who do you think these are going to once we arrive at Zou?” she replied. Fuck—she had him there. Actually, he wasn’t entirely sure if it was the booze or something else, but Nico Robin… she wasn’t bad to have around. “Are you doing alright, Torao? You look a bit pale.”

“Haven’t had that much alcohol in a while,” he admitted. “I’m not normally a lightweight, but that idiot with a hard-on for your captain has some strong stuff in his stores.”

“Yes, I do give him that.” She watched as he closed the door behind him, making it only the two of them in the small room. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll beat you up?”

“No,” he mumbled, avoiding eye contact. His face felt hot from both booze and blush; she was either good at masking being drunk as well, or her tolerance was far beyond his. “I wanted to… uh…” He swallowed hard. “Nico-ya, can I kiss you?”

“An interesting question,” she noted. “Might I ask why?”

“I remember seeing your bounty poster as a child, not long after it came out,” he said. Fuck, words would not stop spilling out of his mouth, Nika help him, and it was complicating things even more. “The sisters at the school used it to warn us about being naughty, that we’d get a bounty just like you. It terrified my classmates into behaving all the way to the end.”

“…and what did the young Torao believe?” she asked, moving closer to him. She placed her hands on his shoulders, then cradled his face, making him look directly at her. He began to tremble and his voice grew raspy.

“I thought that was the coolest shit ever.”

In half a moment, Robin popped up on her toes and leaned in to kiss Law. She materialized an arm out of his back so she could hold his head in place as she ran three hands’ worth of fingers in his hair. Two additional false arms pulled him in closer, all while he struggled to figure out how to both kiss back and find an appropriate place for his hands. Their hesitation melted away as they kissed, the pair breathlessly breaking apart only when they realized that they were getting dizzy.

“Here I was afraid you were with Cyborg-ya,” he chuckled incredulously. She shook her head.

“Franky? He’s just a friend. A very odd friend.”

“Then I guess he won’t mind if I kiss you again?”

“He doesn’t even need to know.”

Law took that as his cue and kissed her again, becoming intoxicated from more than just their host’s choice in alcohol. He walked Robin back into the wall next to the door, pausing just long enough for her to protest, only to find that she instead pulled him even closer. She slid one of her legs between his and felt his growing erection throb against her, chuckling at her find. “Do you have the necessary equipment to take care of this?”

His brain stalled; the what…? Oh…

“I wasn’t even certain that I’d get a kiss. Besides, I…!”

“MISS ROBIN?!” The pair froze at the sound of Bartolomeo’s booming voice in the corridor. “MISS ROBIN?! WE’RE ABOUT’TA TELL STORIES DETAILING YOUR VICTORY AT ENIES LOBBY! DIDJA WANNA COME?!”

Robin pressed a finger to Law’s lips and suddenly he could hear her voice out in the corridor, leading Bartolomeo away from the map room. Once it sounded like they were out of danger, the pair leaned into one another and giggled quietly. He hesitated before burying his face in her neck, not entirely believing his luck.

“Do you know a place where we’re more likely to… be alone…?”

“Why Torao, I thought you’d never ask.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was lunchtime when Law finally got to sit down and relax, even if it was only for a short time. Penguin, Shachi, and Bepo had joined him in their favorite corner of the cafeteria, the four lazily eating their lunch over a shared break.

“Sooo… the big day’s coming up soon, isn’t it?” Penguin asked. Law shrugged.

“It’s just dinner.”

“Yeah, but you’re having Robin meet your family—that’s kind of a big deal,” Penguin replied. “It’s actually a pretty huge step if you ask me.”

“Why are you afraid of what my family is going to think of my girlfriend?” Law questioned. “I’d say it doesn’t concern you.”

“Except it does concern us,” Shachi said, “because ever since you and Robin started seeing one another, it’s like you’ve been a completely different person. In a good way.”

“Yeah, you’re living proof that getting kinky pussy on the regular changes a man,” Penguin added. “You’re not nearly as cranky as before.”

“You know, I’d prefer it if we didn’t talk about my sex life within potential earshot of people I’ve known since childhood,” Law grumbled. His brain went overtime into thinking about how many of the other hospital staff members there had known him as his parents’ son long before he even gained awareness of his surroundings. “You’re just jealous I even have one.”

“Pffft, nah,” Penguin scoffed, shrugging off the accusation.

“We’re proud that you have yourself a girlfriend, what do you mean?” Shachi added.

“They’re both extremely jealous and wonder what you did to score Robin,” Bepo deadpanned through his food. Ah! Fucking traitor! “Very specifically they wonder whose dick you had to suck.”

“You two are the worst,” Law groaned. Both Penguin and Shachi turned beet red at that, piss completely taken out.

“Hey, come on,” Shachi whined. “It’s just… like… you’re fucking perfect and it’s rough on us normies’ self-esteem some days.”

“Yeah,” Penguin added. “You’re smart, handsome, tall, got that deep voice and talented hands—no wonder Robin’s agreeing to meet your family.”

“…and how would you know I’ve got the kind of ‘talented hands’ she’d enjoy?”

“Dude, it’s completely and totally normal to notice the fact that you’ve got long fingers when you start twirling a pen or are pointing to incisions on patients,” Penguin defended. “Besides, you’re only a surgeon because you’re good with your hands.”

“It’s more than that, but thanks for the vote of confidence,” Law replied sarcastically. “I’m just lucky that Robin doesn’t hate Sora.”

“Yeah! Not even that she doesn’t hate it! She doesn’t think still being a fan at our age is weird!” Penguin stabbed the air with a fry for emphasis. “Smoking hot, tolerant of hobbies, and smarter than you too! We couldn’t get that even in a million years!”

“You’re being ridiculous,” Law scolded. “You’re making it sound like we’re some sort of power couple.”

“Peng, he’s gonna have the smartest, most gorgeous children in all the Cardinal Blues, and he doesn’t even realize it,” Shachi whined. “Fuck, I wonder what it’s like to be that oblivious.”

“I’m not oblivious…”

“Dude, you’re fucking oblivious,” Penguin replied, backing up Shachi. “Tell ‘im, Bep.”

“You’re all oblivious,” Bepo said, hitting all three friends’ egos with laser-precision. “Law’s so stupidly in love that he can’t think straight, but he’s not the only one. Penguin, don’t tell me that you haven’t noticed the blond at the gym, and Shachi’s had his eye on the lady in the gift shop for a while now.”

“You’re cruel,” Shachi mumbled, absolutely devastated. “To be honest, I don’t know who’s worse.”

“I think after the Captain and Miss Robin get married, I’m gonna go home for a bit,” Bepo grumbled. “I wanna meet a cute bear and there’s no bears here, let alone any other Minks.”

“If you opened up your horizons, there would be plenty in the dating pool,” Penguin noted.

“I’m not attracted to Humans and you know that,” Bepo whined. He began to argue with Penguin and Shachi, with Law slowly ignoring their words. None of them knew what it was like, and how could they? The goobers only knew lust and Bepo went through puberty far from anyone even capable of catching his eye. He thought of Robin coming back from her conference and how lonely it must have been for her—if only because he knew how lonely it was for himself—and what he might do to welcome her back. He only snapped back to the conversation at-hand when Shachi waved a hand in front of his face and caught his attention.

“Yo, Captain, stop thinking of your other meals and start concentrating on this one,” he joked. Law scowled at him—it wasn’t funny. “Now, are you going to tell us what the schedule looks like for the outgoing month? I want to see if we can get in a crew camping trip before the snows fly.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Chopper had called a joint meeting of the Straw Hat and Heart Pirates to discuss the situation Law was in. Everyone crammed into the Polar Tang’s mess hall, with crews interspersed amongst each other. Although he acknowledged right off the bat that patient privacy was essential under normal conditions, the extenuating circumstances of the situation made this a bit different than usual.

“The thing that’s attached to Torao’s face is a very rare type of shell-less mollusk that is most-often seen being created via a Devil Fruit,” the young doctor said. He placed a book on the table, open to a page with a drawing of another specimen, presumably latched onto the face of a slave. “The good news is that we have the ability to save him; the bad news is that it’s very tricky.”

“What do you mean tricky?” Sanji wondered. “If it’s a mollusk it can be killed and eaten, right? Just throw some salt on it and it shrivels.”

“It’s not that simple,” Chopper explained. “I’ve corroborated Jean Bart’s first-hand accounts with multiple sources of written documentation—this thing does not give up its prey easily and attempts at doing so can be lethal.”

“Prey?!” the Heart Pirates panicked.

“Yes—what’s happening to Torao is normally a mechanism by which they kill their food, by slowly starving them to death without them even realizing.” Chopper brought out another diagram, which was a cross-section of the creature. “While in this form, it’s just a parasite, feeding off the nutrients in his bloodstream. It has even grown since I began my observation. By continuing the intravenous care, we can keep both it and Torao alive for as long as we see fit, but that’s just it… it’s both of them.”

“…but what happens if you stop the treatment?” Clione wondered. “It’s not like we can keep doing this forever.”

“If we stop the treatment, then Torao will slowly die, and when he does, the parasite becomes a scavenger and will feed on his internal organs and use his corpse as a nest,” Chopper replied frankly. Everyone in the room went pale—what the fuck? “It’s likely used by Celestial Dragons to torture their slaves because of the toxin that it emits while keeping the victim incapacitated. What better way to break someone’s spirit but to show them how good their life could be, only to remind them that they’re still a slave?”

“That’s sick,” Nami frowned. “My question is: how did it get on Torao?”

“I don’t know if that’s the question we should be asking at this point since it takes away from the fact his life is in danger,” Ikkaku said. She grunted as she stared at the anatomical drawing of the creature—it looked nasty as hell. “Jean Bart said he knows these things can come off on their own. Do you know how to do it so we don’t hurt him?”

“The creature’s toxin can be overcome by the victim under certain circumstances,” Chopper said. “They’re sensitive to their victim’s brainwaves and will detach when it seems like its in danger of regaining awareness. That would surely mean getting hurt, since the victim would most likely try to pry it off and hurt the creature in the process. Hurt it while it’s still attached to him and we don’t know what kind of damage we’d do to Torao’s psyche, let alone if it will just try to hide inside him.”

“So Torao just needs to tell it to let him go?” Luffy asked, head cocked to the side as he thought. “I thought he would have done that by now.”

“It’s not that simple,” Chopper said. “According to sources, doing that involves the victim realizing that the dream they are experiencing is not real and using that as a jumping point to shatter that reality. Without that, Torao will keep dreaming until he dies.”

“He hasn’t been sleeping lately because of dreams,” Shachi offered. “The captain’s not exactly brimming with warm and fuzzy memories. Whatever has him in there has his ass good.”

“What kind of a life is better than this one?” Luffy wondered. Penguin sighed at that; Law was going to kill them all when he woke up.

“It’s not really our place to say, especially since I don’t know what he’s told all of you, but his hometown kind of went through two different genocide events and he’s possibly the only survivor. Something tells me that whatever that thing is having the captain see, it’s related to that stuff turning out different.”

“…but that would mean no Polar Tang! No Heart Pirates!” Uni huffed. “What kind of a life is that?!”

“A normal one,” Bepo said sadly. Everyone looked over at him and saw that he was picking at his paws as he stared at a spot on the floor. “Captain’s always wanted to be a doctor… maybe he’s dreaming about being a successful surgeon after never meeting us…” He sucked in a sniffle—the thought was almost too much to bear.

“Is there anything in your research about what we can do?” Jean Bart asked. Chopper grimaced.

“Yes and no,” he replied. “There is some thought to the idea that a victim who is aware of what’s going on from the beginning can have an easier time defeating it, but not a lot of research has been done in that regard. I highly doubt Torao knew any of it going in, and getting data on it is risky. The ethics alone surrounding using a control group in an experiment like that is dubious at-best…”

“…but, we might be able to help Torao,” Luffy said. “That is what you said, right Chopper?”

“Possibly…? I’m not entirely sure how though…”

“Let me go in.” The room went quiet as Robin stepped forward. “I can go into Torao’s dream with full knowledge of the parasite and help him escape. If the parasite is showing him what I think it is, then I know what he’s feeling—I can help.”

“…but Miss Robin,” Shachi frowned, “we don’t even know why this thing is on the captain.”

“You called us for help, correct? The let me help.”

“I dunno…” Chopper mused. “This is not a well-tested method. How do you know that you would be accessing Torao’s dream and not get sucked into your own?”

“You said it yourself: the creature is growing,” she replied. “If it latches onto both of us, it might be able to let me access Torao’s dream since it would have to sync our brainwaves in order to handle us both. Wouldn’t that make sense?”

“Well, yeah, if we were in a science fiction or fantasy novel…”

“…and if I don’t find him, then I escape my dream as quick as I can,” she assured.

“It’s a better plan than nothing,” Penguin said.

“You can’t, Robin,” Nami scowled. “That thing is killing Torao—if you allow it to touch you, it’ll be like signing up for the exact same fate.”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Robin replied. “It’s a risk I’m sure many of us would take considering how Torao has helped us. Whomever goes in has to know what they’re doing.”

“Robin did pretend she was a bad guy for a long time before we came around,” Luffy noted aloud. He then nodded in approval. “But you better come back, okay?”

“It’s a promise, Captain,” Robin smiled. Luffy smiled back, his grin as wide and brilliant as ever.

“Alright! Now, who’s up for some lunch? Sanji! I’m hungry!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Family Dinner Night, was—as it often was—awkward.

It wasn’t as though Law did not enjoy spending time with his parents and sister—that wasn’t the case. There was simply plenty more he could have been doing, could have been reading, could have been seeing without his family there making conversation as they shared a meal. Three times a week. It was almost too much for him to stomach.

“You should have seen Law-nii!” Lami said excitedly. She was explaining her afternoon to her parents, the pair amused at her enthusiasm. “Any time he had a complication, he used his Devil Fruit and bap! They were stabilized again!”

“I wonder when bap became a technical term,” her mother chuckled.

“I dunno, but it’s probably around the time our children got old enough for med school,” her father teased. He noted that Law was very quiet, picking at his potatoes almost sullenly. “Speaking of med school, I haven’t seen that face since before you were enrolled. What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing,” Law lied. He shoveled up some veg and stuffed it in his mouth. “Just a little lost in thought, I guess.”

“He misses Robin and his hand doesn’t cut it anymore,” Lami quipped. Law sat up straight and kicked his sister in the shin angrily—what the fuck?!

“Nika save us—kids, what have I told you?!” the mother hissed. “You’re both adults for seas’ sake!”

“Angela, they’re siblings. That’s what siblings do.”

“I know that, Lars, but they are both in their twenties! They should have cut this out a whole decade ago!”

“Relax—just let them be.”

“Yeah; it’s not my fault that she’s jealous I even have someone,” Law sniped. Now it was Lami’s turn to kick him under the table, which only served to irritate their mother further.

“That’s it,” she hissed. “Oath or not, I will end both of you if you don’t straighten up! It’ll be a miracle if either of you don’t mess it up at this rate.”

“Moer…”

“Don’t moer me, young man.” Law flinched slightly at how sharp his mother’s voice was, instead deciding it was worth spearing a bit of potato and shoving it in his mouth. She let out a breath and shook her head. “Don’t make me the bad guy. I don’t like being the bad guy.”

Law swallowed his food and mumbled, “Sorry I kicked you and reminded everyone you’re alone.”

Lami shifted in her chair. “Sorry I kicked you and made it clear I can hear you through the walls in the middle of the night.”

“I don’t know if that’s better, but you know what? I’m going to take it.” Their mother groaned in frustration before taking a long drink of her water. “Whoever said parenting adult children is easier was lying through their teeth.”

“That would be your cousin who, yes, lies through her teeth.” Law and Lami exchanged a glance; their father was treading on dangerous territory. Again. Instead of continuing, however, he cleared his throat and picked up his own water glass. “So, kids, any thoughts on the new provost the college is importing? I hear she’s going to be a rough one when it comes to academics?”

Yeah, maybe that was going to be a safer topic.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was after dinner and Law was helping clean up the dishes. His mother and Lami were in the sitting room going over her observation notes from the surgery, while Law and his father were in the kitchen washing dishes. It was usually safer to keep the siblings separated after a spat at dinner and their parents kept to that despite the fact everyone in the house was now an adult. They worked in practiced silence until the sound of Lami’s groaning made them both smirk.

“If Lami didn’t insist on kicking and screaming and pouting the entire way, she’d already be a medical professional and your moer would be off her back,” his father chuckled. Law shook his head.

“I doubt,” he replied. Law picked up another dish from the soapy water and scrubbed the crocheted washcloth over it before putting it in the rinse water. “Hey, uh, Vaor?”

“Yes?

“Have you heard anything lately about dream studies from anyone over in neurology?”

His father continued taking dishes out of the rinse water and placing them in the drying rack. “The same-old: no one knows how they originate and interpretation is based on conjecture and bias. Why do you ask? Got someone on your floor insisting otherwise?”

“No… just…” He paused, wondering if he should lie or not. “I’ve been having some… intense dreams lately.”

“How intense are you talking about?” His father paused to allow him room to elaborate, yet he didn’t, causing the older man to lean in a bit closer and drop his voice. “If it’s sex dreams about your girlfriend, that’s normal even if you’re an adult.”

“I wish it was that,” Law scoffed. He took his hands out of the dishwater and leaned against the counter. Fuck… this was so weird. “It’s… have you ever had a dream that took place over a long period of time?”

“Like, a recurring dream…?”

“No, like, you go to sleep and just… live. I recently had a dream where I lived an entirely different life and I don’t know what to make of it.”

“Mmm. I take it that it’s not a pleasant life.”

“No.” Law could feel himself tremble as he swallowed hard. “I dreamt… I dreamt what would have happened if you and Moer hadn’t found the treatment for Amber Lead in time. Everyone was just… gone.”

“Gone? You mean, dead? Come on, Law… even all the worst-case scenarios would have left Flevance with a population mostly comprised of first-and-second-generation immigrants. You’ve seen the data.”

“I know, but…” Fuck, this was awkward to the point he wished it was just a sex dream. “In this dream, no one else outside of Flevance believed it was a heavy metal poisoning. They thought it was infectious instead and… and… between the fires and the bullets I was the only one who made it out alive.” He turned towards his father, who was looking at him curiously. “Am I going nuts?”

“No, I don’t think so,” the older man said. He dried his hands on a dishrag before patting his son on the back. The pair were echoes of one another separated by thirty-two years and at that point they really felt it. “Maybe… maybe you’re just nervous about Robin coming over once she’s back from that conference. It could be that your subconscious is seeing the prospect of settling down and is coming up with different ways your life could have gone. I think it’s just going a little overboard because you don’t exactly have an ex to wonder about.”

“Yeah…?”

“Yeah.” Law couldn’t help but feel like a child as his father drew him into a hug despite the need to crouch slightly into it. “It’s scary to consider that kind of commitment, even if you feel ready.” His father then held him at arm’s length and smirked knowingly at him. “Did you pick the ring up yet?”

“Yeah, it’s in my room.” His face flushed hot as he thought of the piece of jewelry—because that’s all it really was—and how it was going to change everything… for better or worse. “How did you propose to Moer?”

“I was too chicken to do it directly and slipped the ring in her purse while we were doing clinicals together; took her almost three weeks to find.”

“That’s kind of pathetic.”

“Yeah, but the point is that you can’t possibly do it worse than me if you’re coming at her face-to-face.” His father ruffled his hair and chuckled. “Don’t overthink it.”

“All I can do is overthink, what, with the weird dreams and all.”

“You’ll be fine—you’ll see.” Law’s father then gestured back to the sink. “Let’s finish these up before the water gets cold, hmm? I think doing something with your hands will help.”

“Yeah, something that won’t risk traumatizing the neighborhood kids,” Lami snarked, standing just outside the kitchen. It was clear that she had just slid into the conversation, so Law took pity on her and when he opened a Room, all he did was switch the dishcloth with a speck of dust over her head and not an entire soapy dish. Who ever said he wasn’t charitable?

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Twilight had long given way to the dim darkness of the city as Law made his way down the maze of streets that was Flevance, finding his way towards a street settled on either side of a moonlit canal. The night chill made him pull the collar of his coat tighter as he tried to not look like he was suspiciously hurrying. He found a specific door and used the key to enter, then another key at the top of the staircase that led into the flat. The moment he was over the threshold a sort of calm overtook him as it usually did; it was difficult to be on-edge in Robin’s place.

Not wanting to fail his original purpose for going, Law shucked off his coat and grabbed the watering can, getting to work on caring for Robin’s multitude of plants that were scattered around the studio flat. Could she have left it to one of the downstairs neighbors? Of course she could have, but that would have given him less of an excuse to leave his parents’ house… to be in the space that was very, very her. He put down the watering can and picked up one of his hooded sweatshirts from its perch on the battered sofa—one deep breath and he could smell her perfume still on it.

Okay, so he had been planning on jerking it in the flat before his sister mentioned his relationship at dinner, but now the entire idea tasted sour. He put the sweatshirt back down and continued to water the plants, eventually heading back to the sink for a refill once the watering can emptied.

“I missed you,” he said aloud, trying to imagine what he would say to Robin next time he saw her. No… that wasn’t right. “How was the conference? Did they like your presentation? I missed you.” No, that wasn’t right either…

Law put the watering can down on the dining area table and looked around. Their lives were already beginning to meld as his things began to lay about abandoned, often in preparation for them to have sex. Both of their book collections sat on the shelves and in piles everywhere, evidence of many a night they spent together studying and working. Little things here and there made the place their own little haven, and it was something he didn’t entirely want to let go.

“Robin, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and…” He trailed off, unsure how to continue. “Robin, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and do you want to make this permanent? No… that’s fucking stupid.” He scratched at his scalp and began to pace, wondering how he was going to do this.

Should he wait a while or ask her right after she returned from her conference? In the flat? At the park? No, nowhere public—he knew better. Should he go down on one knee or hide it in the flat so he could take it out after they had sex? If he hid it, would he keep it within an arm’s reach, or would Scrambling it into his hand be enough? Law took the ring box out of his coat pocket and felt its weight in his hand. It was not a heavy box by any means, but it was enough to feel a difference, which was honestly enough.

“Nico Robin, will you do me the hono—no, not that. Robin, will you—no, shit. Do you want to make this permanent? Because I want to make this permanent.” He grimaced. “Trafalgar D. Water Law, you are a fucking idiot.” He allowed his feet to take him to the bed and he flopped into it, the unmade linens rumpled and askew underneath him, looking up through the skylight at the city-dimmed stars.

“If you know any pointers, I’d like to know,” he said to no one in particular. Law kicked off his boots and pulled his legs up into the bed, curling up in the space he was well-acquainted with sharing. It smelled like her soap, the books she was always absorbed in, the coffee that was a staple during their late nights… it was so comforting that he felt like he could sleep there.

“We shouldn’t have to be punished for wanting to learn history!”

Law inhaled sharply as his dream came back to him, the words weighing down on his chest. He had said those words, but only in the auspices of his highly-realistic dream… but why? Most Flevench citizens worth their weight in the Amber Lead extracted from their bodies distrusted the central government nearly by default, but in the dream he had been saying it to an Emperor of the Sea as he and some metalhead from the South Blue readied to take her down. Why was he telling a Yonkou that? What knowledge was she keeping under lock and key? The dream was becoming hazy—as all dream did—but that did not mean it wasn’t still bothering him.

“Robin,” he whispered, “I never want this to end. Can we get married so that it doesn’t have to?”

The silence that met him was more assuring than it had any right to be.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Robin flexed her arm as she looked at the IV hookup that was already placed in her forearm as a precaution. Chopper, Bepo, and Jean Bart were in the process of transferring Law to a larger bed, placing him on his side, positioned carefully so that his windpipe remained clear. They were the only ones on the entire Polar Tang, as everyone else had to be sequestered to the Thousand Sunny so that work could get done. It had been less than two days since the Straw Hats had gotten the call and yet they knew that time was extremely important to making sure that not only Law lived, but now Robin as well.

“It looks like everything’s set,” Chopper said with a nod. He watched as Robin sat down on the edge of the mattress, mentally preparing herself for what was to come. “Last chance: are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yeah—I can still go in and get the Captain,” Bepo offered. “He’s been my best friend for years.”

“Thank you; I think having someone as a backup will be important,” she replied. Robin shifted in order to lay down, placing her forehead close to where Law’s was underneath the parasite. The creature clicked and purred, reaching out tentatively towards Robin with one of the tentacles on its back. She watched it as it inched closer to her without losing its grip on Law.

‘None of it is real,’ she thought to herself. ‘None of it is real. None of it is real. Everything this thing shows me will not be real…’ She took hold of Law’s inked hand in hers, hoping it would help ground her.

Nico Robin gasped and the world went dark.

[theguardiansseries]

From the Beginning - Chapter Five: Dani Realizes She Might Be Getting Super Powers (And That She’s Actually Not Fine)

A/N: Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain! I hope you guys are enjoying this story and that you will enjoy this chapter!

–

Rating: Teen Audiences

Summary:

Dani Fenton (who is sometimes starting to go by Danny Fenton) is a fifteen-year-old almost sophmore who was just going about her normal life when she figured out she sort of liked being seen as a boy. Oh, then he (he had definitely been a he at the time) got shocked by a machine his parents built to view into another world that they believed contained a world of ‘ecotplasmic entities.’

Danny really isn’t sure how to tell them that they were right and that he was in the machine when it turned on and that maybe he isn’t so human anymore. (He might also not be a girl anymore, but that one was a little more difficult to explain than the fact that he ((she?)) might be half-ghost.)

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54944266/chapters/153697906

Chapters: <<First>> <Prev || Next>

***

“Danny! What are you doing?! What is she doing- Get out of there! Run! Dan-”

The screams of her friends faded, instead replaced with the sound an MRI machine would make; loud and heartstopping and terrifying. 

Rings of bright white light shone from the small gaps between the metal floor, walls, and ceiling, spreading across the Portal similar to a row of lights in a movie theater. 

The thought of running couldn’t seem to connect with her body, which was rigid straight and locked into place with all her weight still on the button under her palm. 

Opening her mouth and not sure whether she had been trying to scream or gasp, Dani instead did neither as she felt a hand pressed against her back, the touch gentle and sure and steady. “I’m sorry for how much this will hurt.” The voice was hardly louder than a whisper, and everything about him sounded… sad. “Both now and later. If I could change the outcome…” 

The storm gathered around her, angry and loud and rejecting everything that she was. Fear and dread chained her in place and the only thing that felt real was the hand on her back and the gentle, soft whisper of, “Take a deep breath, child.” 

She took a deep breath.

The storm hit. 

Dani was aware of two things when she realized she was awake in her bed. The first was that she felt like shit. The second was that her forehead stung. Considering she was sitting up in bed and Tucker was clutching his own forehead with teary eyes, Dani could sort of guess what had just happened. 

“I told you not to do that,” she finally said, grunting as she found herself wrapped up in a hug by Sam a second later, which, alright. That was a little affection heavy for Sam. “Uh, not that I’m not loving the hug and all that, but why?”

Sam clutched her tighter, Dani returning the hug cautiously as she looked at Tucker, who didn’t even seem upset that Dani must have slammed their foreheads together when Tucker was, likely, trying to wake her up from… a nightmare? A dream? “Dude, do you even remember what just happened?” Oh. Oh, no. That meant something bad had happened. Like, bad bad.

“Well, I-” Dani snapped her mouth shut as the memories of what she hoped was only a couple of hours ago slammed into her. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” Tucker said, finally taking a seat on the bed, and, alright, they were just all crammed on there now, huh? Annoyingly, Dani couldn’t even bring herself to pretend to be upset with how nice the affection and touch was. “You’ve been asleep for days-”

Before Dani could have a heart attack, Sam was reaching out to slap Tucker’s arm with a sharp, “Don’t say that shit, she might believe it.” 

“Shit, sorry.” Tucker actually looked contrite, reaching out to grab Dani’s hand and give it a light squeeze. “The humor defense kicked in before I could stop it. It’s only been a couple of hours, promise. School’s definitely over, though.”

“Early weekend,” Dani said, trying to make it sound like a joke and not sure if she quite managed. “Alright, I- I remember the whole. You know.” They had been attacked by a ghost. “But why do I feel like I was just used like some sort of massive battery? I’m- Shit, guys, I’m exhausted.” Even now, she felt like she could barely keep her eyes open.

“Okay.” Sam pulled back only enough to be able to sit beside Dani fully, keeping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. “Alright. First off, what all do you remember exactly? Not to doubt your memory, but you did pass out on us.” 

Yeah. Okay. That was fair. “We just finished lunch and I felt… really anxious.” That had been the first part that had stuck out about the whole thing. Before they had even seen a ghost, Dani had already known something was wrong. ��Then we heard something fall over in the kitchen and walked into the start of a horror movie.” 

“Either that or the first five minutes of a Supernatural episode,” Tucker grumbled and complained, standing up to grab a bottle of water from Sam’s bag before he was right back on the bed and shoving the bottle into Dani’s hands after cracking the seal for her. Dani refused to cry from how much she loved her friends.

“You kidding? Definitely not,” Dani managed to say with a steady voice, taking a few sips of the water and damn, that did help. “No one died.” The twin snorts of laughter from both her friends had her smiling a little. “No, but, I remember us seeing that lunch lady ghost from, like, the fifties, and then I remember us running and getting the hell out of there.” 

“We ran for a classroom,” Sam said, sounding relieved that so far it seemed like Dani was remembering everything just fine. Dani was kind of glad of that, too, and that her friends all had the same memories. It made it less likely that everything was a stress hallucination or her body giving out on her. “Do you… remember what happened in the classroom?”

“I mean, my phone died on me when I tried to call Mom and tell her I was right. After that the ghost showed up again-” Dani paused, turning to look at Tucker. “You said something about the desk. I had shoved Sam out of the way when the desk was thrown at us, and you said…” Tucker said the desk had gone through her. 

“It didn’t just ‘nearly miss you,’” Tucker said, his whole face pale and serious as he nervously patted at her blanket covered legs. “It looked- Shit, Dani, it looked like suddenly everything about you was see-through for a second and the desk flew straight through you. Like- Like you weren’t even there.” 

“That wasn’t the only weird thing.” Sam’s grip tightened on her, Dani nervously sipping her water because a part of her knew what was coming next. She remembered what came next. “When that ghost had grabbed you and then dropped you, you… Dani, it looked like you suddenly just froze right before you hit the ground. Like gravity just stopped for you.” 

Yeah. She remembered falling, of thinking about swings and trampolines and what came after the fall, and then she remembered… She wasn’t sure how to explain what she remembered, but the closest she could ever come was that she no longer felt like she had been falling, but like she had been suspended in that moment at the peak of the jump — the single second before gravity kicked in when everything still felt like freedom. 

“I think-” Sam stopped, swallowing nervously and looking to Tucker, who shook his head and then shrugged helplessly. 

“I know I joked about the whole superpowers thing, but, uh… I think it’s possible that portal did more to you than just give you some heart and breathing problems.” 

“Like what?” Dani blurted out, refusing to even consider what Tucker had just said about- Nope! Not thinking about it! “Guys, you saw what it did. It stopped my heart and basically shredded it, it fucked with my lungs so bad I can barely walk from one end of the block to the other- Hell, most of my doctors are shocked that I can even walk, and now- Now you’re acting like it- Like it-!”

Overwhelmed, upset, and angry, Dani didn’t even think before she was giving a short scream and throwing the water bottle she had been holding against her wall with as much force as she could. It didn’t so much as spill and somehow that, more than anything else, was what had Dani crying between her two best friends. 

“I don’t- I don’t want this.” Her body was trashed, she kept having nightmares and panic attacks, now she was hearing voices and feeling things and now- Now-! “Whatever’s happening, I don’t want it!” 

Later, maybe, Dani would feel bad about sobbing her heart out as her friends held her between them like it could actually keep her safe. (Probably not, though. Those two had already seen the worst of her, just like she had seen the worst of them.) 

As it was, Dani wasn’t sure how much time passed before she started calming down, Sam reaching her an insane amount of tissues and Tucker crawling off her bed to get her another water and then one of her old stuffed animals off the dresser. She was grateful neither of them mentioned how hard she squeezed it when it was set in her lap. 

“Okay.” Dani winced at her voice, taking a few gulps of water to get rid of the rasp. She was thankful all over again for her friends when they only waited quietly for her to continue. “Okay. What happened after all that? I remember using some of the tech my parents made, and that Tucker stole, to… get rid of it?” 

“I think it was more like you trapped it?” Tucker sounded half like he was explaining and half like he was asking. “It looked like something out of Ghostbusters, man. But, uh, that was about when you collapsed.”

“It was also around the time your parents showed up,” Sam said, giving her a squeeze. “We’re not really sure if we managed to really explain everything well, though. We were a little panicked.”

“Sam was crying,” Tucker said, signing his death warrant. “But I mean, I was too, so I probably didn’t do much better.” Ah, but at least he was honest.

“We did give that thing, whatever it was, to your parents after we kind of explained what was happening. The four of us managed to get you back here and your parents have been down in their lab since then, so I guess whatever was in there was…”

“Real,” Tucker finished, the word sounding so heavy and serious considering what all had been said before it. “We haven’t called Jazz yet, either.”

“Oh, thank God,” Dani sighed in relief, clutching her stuffed owl tighter. (It was a weighted toy that was made with a bunch of galaxy print material. Jazz had made it for her a few years ago and it was, so far, the best thing she had ever been given for her birthday. Although she still refused to tell Jazz she had secretly named it Athena.) “That gives me time to make it seem like it wasn’t that bad.” Because it wasn’t like her parents would tell Jazz anything of what happened, likely because they wouldn’t even think too. 

“I mean, it kind of was that bad,” Tucker pointed out, frowning at her and nudging the water bottle back into her hands until she took a few more sips. It was kind of funny how much of a mother hen he was when she or Sam were hurt or sick. “Like, that was traumatizing. I’d be saying we probably need therapy if we’d ever be able to find a therapist that would believe us- Hey, when will Jazz be licensed?” 

“It’s gonna be a bit,” Dani snorted, shaking her head. “And yeah, it was- Yeah. That was bad, but also I don’t-” The desk had gone through her. Her body had stopped and floated a few inches off the ground. A ghost had attacked them. “I’m not. Sure, yet. What to do with all of… that.” 

“I don’t think any of us are,” Sam finally said, moving only enough that she could meet Dani’s eyes. “But I don’t think it’s going away, either.” 

No. 

Dani didn’t think it was something that would go away, either.

⁂

Finally certain that her entire household was safely asleep, Dani kept herself as quiet as possible as she made her way towards the basement — towards the lab — that was now finally empty. 

She might have tried to sneak in sooner, but in the end it had taken about four hours before Sam and Tucker felt comfortable leaving her for the night, both of them promising that they would be back to check on her tomorrow. 

She had been right, too, that her parents hadn’t told Jazz anything of what happened at school. She had to assume, at least, since Jazz hadn’t said anything and had acted normal during dinner. (Then again, her parents had skipped out on dinner, so it could have been they didn’t tell Jazz because they just didn’t see her. It had also been another reason it had taken Dani so long to sneak out down to the lab.) 

Either way, everyone in her house was finally asleep and there was no one to stop her from standing right in front of the Portal. (She didn’t care if her parents gave it some fancy name and acronym. It had almost killed her and so she got to call it whatever the hell she wanted.)

“So you actually work, huh?” It was her first time being back down in the lab since her accident and the Portal, instead of a bunch of soldered metal and wires built with desperation and looking like an empty tunnel, glowed. It was the only word she had for it. Like something out of a science fiction novel or, hell, even Doctor Who, the front of the portal no longer showed an empty metal tunnel, but- Hell, how did she even describe it? 

The best she had was that it was like a bunch of fog had been captured and put inside before it had been turned a radioactive green with the use of some high-powered lights. It was also like there was some sheen or film over the fog that kept it from escaping the tunnel, instead swirling around and moving like it would seep out and fill the whole place if given half a chance. 

Taking a few steps closer, Dani was surprised at how angry she suddenly felt. It wasn’t like she could be blamed, though! Thanks to it she was looking at irreparable damage for the rest of her life, and that wasn’t even mentioning… everything else. 

“What did you do to me?” She hadn’t been aware she had even asked the question until she heard it echoing in the empty lab. The helpless, quiet way the words echoed back to her did nothing but make her angrier. “What did you do to me?” 

If this was before, then Dani would have given up and gone back to bed and dealt with whatever shitty hand she had been dealt. But she wasn’t just Dani, anymore. She was Danny, too, and Danny wanted some fucking answers. 

“I’m not going to just- To just sit back and wait until my whole entire life starts falling apart!” Because he had fought a ghost that day and he had- He had done things that he shouldn’t have been able to do. “This isn’t some comic book or- Or TV show! This is my life!” It was his life. It was his life, any yet somehow he felt as if he had been turned into some kind of- Shit, he didn’t even know! He was just so- So-! 

“This isn’t fair!” Screaming the words because when had someone ever actually listened to him in his house, Danny didn’t realize his hand had smacked into something until he saw a familiar metal cylinder that looked like a thermos falling towards the ground. There was no time to catch it before it hit, strips of light around the edges flashing from green to red as he heard something inside it click. 

There was a sudden flash of light, as if a high-beam flashlight had suddenly been flicked on and then turned right back off, before a glowing figure was floating a couple of inches off the ground. It took a delayed second for Danny to not only blink the spots out of his eyes, but to realize he was staring at the lunch lady ghost from earlier who was staring right back at him. 

Before he could so much as open his mouth, the actual real life ghost in front of him suddenly flew towards the Portal and right into the swirling green fog. Danny was running after her before he could take the time to think what he would do if he even could catch her, but stopped inches away from the Portal itself. 

Slowly, carefully, he raised a hand and held it an inch or two away from whatever it was that was swirling around inside. A part of him wanted to plunge his hand in and see what happened, but… He didn’t know what would happen. All he knew was that the ghost he had seen and fought had not only been real, but she had gone into the Portal. 

Did that mean there were more ghosts on the other side of wherever it led? Were there more ghosts over there that could do all the things that lunch lady ghost could? Except whatever was over there- They weren’t just ghosts. She had been able to talk to them and understand them and get angry and- Shit. She had been flying, and going through things, and levitating objects as big as a desk, and she had been able to touch him. She had been able to lift him. 

He… He had been inside when the Portal turned on. With his hand inches away from something that could lead him into a whole other world, he was really realizing, for the first time, that he had been inside there when the energy ripped through him. He had been inside a forming portal between his world and one where a bunch of ‘ectoplasmic entities’ lived — resided? Formed? 

Whatever anger he had from earlier was gone, nothing left except for Dani standing there and feeling lost and helpless as she whispered, “What did you do to me?” 

The only answer she got was silence and a sense of dread that whatever changes had started happening to her… 

They weren’t over.

—

If you enjoyed this story then check out my Writing Commissions either here on Tumblr or at my personal Website.

…or, if you prefer, you can just buy me a ko-fi! ☕  …or, if you have a nice allowance, support me on Patreon! 🪶

[kitthepurplepotato]

New to the story? Start here! -> PART 1

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Chapter 4 - “Dynadick” and the case of the heartbroken Chargebolt.

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Warnings: Swear words, Bakugou being an asshole as always.

Summary: Bakugou does not appreciate flirting. Bakugou is also not fond of listening to the heartbroken Denki’s nonsense.

Special thank you to @sozainturpal for the lovely message, it made me so happy I “accidentally” wrote a full chapter after reading it 💜

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This absolute shithead.

Screaming nonsense in the middle of the morning, ruining your precious coffee time.

And did he just call you a… dingbat? Who the actual fuck uses that word anyway?

What is a dingbat?! Is it a bat that… dings?

What is “dinging”?

Can a bat ding?

Holly shit, you definitely haven’t had enough coffee for this conversation. You are also a foreigner. You have no idea how offended you should be right now.

To be fair, we are talking about Dynamight here. This word sounds like a praise from his filthy mouth.

“So, this is the updated database.” You sigh into the silence and sit down by your laptop. Your place is in the far corner of Bakugou’s office, almost opposite his own fancy-pants desk.

As you concentrate on signing in, you can feel Bakugo’s breath on your neck. Can he not bring his bloody chair over and sit down next to you?!

“While in different circumstances I would be more than happy to have you so close to my face, I find your closeness quite unpleasant and slightly inappropriate right now, boss.”

Well… you shouldn’t have said that.

“What the fuck is your problem?!” Says the now tomato red faced explosive hero, clearly not having as much fun as you are right now. Fuck the coffee, making Bakugou uncomfortable is your new favorite part of your morning routine. “Do you have a crush on me or something?!”

“I mean, you actually look quite handsome when you like, shut up. But as that never happens, the answer is no, I do not have a crush on you, I’m afraid.”

For your surprise, he does not lash out on you. Instead, he rolls his eyes and squats next to you to give you some personal space. What have you done? Is Bakugo broken again? Will he play the fake dead card and hide from his embarrassment as he did the last time? Is this how he copes with things?

Where did you leave your coffee?!

“Yeah, I heard that line before.” He sighs and waits for you to start your demonstration, but fuck that, you are really curious right now.

Is he… self conscious about this? Is Bakugo actually capable of human feelings? Did you just tear open a barely mended wound from the past?

You might be the second biggest asshole after Katsuki, but even you can feel ashamed of your own words sometimes.

“Who… said that to you?”

And now you are stuttering. Great.

“Someone in High School. I haven’t shut up ever since.” Grins the blonde and you can’t help but roll your eyes. He was faking it. Of course he was. You were about to say sorry yet here he is, grinning like a wild animal, all calm and collected, like he wasn’t about to die of embarrassment 30 seconds ago. He won this fight and he got you good.

“You are such a dick.”

“Yep, that’s me. Get used to it.”

Haha. Dynadick.

Jesus, where is your coffee again?

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“Haha. Dynadick.”

Loud laughter fills the room as Mr. Katsuki rolls on floor, hyperventilating.

The menace might be a pain in the ass, but her red face when she realized she said this out loud was worth waking up for.

“I didn’t mean to say this out loud, goddamit.” The menace squeaks and oh boy, Mr. Katsuki is having the time of his life.

The loud commotion made Kirishima appear in the door as well, and Katsuki can’t get over the pure dread on the Menace’s face so he decides to push it until there’s nothing left but pure mortification.

“She called me Dynadick, Eiji. Dynadick.” Whines the hero on the floor with tears in his eyes. Kirishima is puzzled, he clearly has no idea if he should laugh with his best friend or try his best to save his poor new colleague from her misery; she clearly spoke out loud again, just how she did on her interview.

Is there a way to do both? He kinda wants to laugh.

“I can’t be close to her face because it’s inappropriate but she can call me, her boss, Dynadick. She’s such a hypocrite.”

“IT WAS A FUCKING ACCIDENT, GODDAMMIT!”Stands up the Menace (what was her real name again? Mr. Katsuki has no idea and he definitely does not care enough to ask) and slams her tiny arms on the top of the desk. As the desk slowly shakes and breaks in half, she points at the laptop in the middle of the rumble on the floor. Well, at least the laptop will not need replacing. That can’t be said about the poor table. Rest in peace, brother. What a way to go. “GO AND CHECK THE DATABASE ALONE YOU MISERABLE FUCK, I’M GOING TO A PUB!”

“It’s 7:30, darling. AM.”

Oh, poor Kirishima.

“No shit, Sherlock!” Barks back the Menace and leaves the building, leaving poor Kirishima with a mentally unstable Bakugou who’s still laughing on the floor like a maniac.

“Can you guys at least try to not break something every day? Our budget might be big, but we will eventually run out of money.”

“It was so fucking worth it.” Cries the blonde, with no remorse in his trembling voice.

This will be a long day. Kirishima hopes Y/N will be back by the afternoon so he can make sure she’s fine and not resigning on her second day.

Bakugo has the same hopes, but for different reasons; he’s already plotting his next mischief, and a drunk Menace sounds like the perfect target to get his daily entertainment.

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Later that day…

The whole office jumps in unison when the main door slams shut after you. You definitely owe Kirishima an apology and you certainly hope you still have a job and you won’t be asked to leave - you did run away without a warning and you did go to a pub; in broad daylight, in the middle of your shift. On a positive note tho, you already sobered up.

“Y/N! Are you okay? Do you want to talk?”

Of course he is all over you the moment you walk in. Of course HE feels bad while the main culprit is happily sitting in his office, probably drinking YOUR chai tea latte. Nevermind.

“I’m sorry. I’m really really sorry, boss. I just needed a breather. I’m fine. I’m back. I won’t cause any more trouble… well… today.” You blush and look away to the other direction. You might have hundreds of quirks under your sleeve, but somehow, non of them could cure your inability to lie.

Kirishima only snickers on your response and gives you a tiny hug. He’s so precious, goddamit!

“I appreciate your honestly and please, don’t worry about it. It will get easier as the time goes. I’m just happy you are still here and willing to take the responsibility for your actions.” With a tap on your shoulders he lets you make your way to your office.

You can hear chatter coming from the other side of the door. Is someone… crying? Well, it’s definitely not Dynamight as you can hear him grumbling aggressively in the background, clearly not happy about the sudden outburst of this man. Who’s stupid enough to go to Dynamight with his problems? This guy definitely has a death wish or he is an absolute idiot.

As you open the door to take a little look, you see a blondish-yellow haired guy in a leather jacket.

Oh.

He is indeed an absolute idiot, but in a really nice way.

You heard all about him from your bestie.

“Are you listening, BakuBro?! She dumped me! Again! How many times do I need to have my heart broken? What have I done to deserve this?” Cries the man, ignoring your now obvious presence in the room.

“First of all, I would dump you 100 times too if I would be forced to live with your annoying ass. Second of all, why the fuck do I need to listen to your nonsense? Don’t you have friends?!” Shouts the blonde, making the other blonde cry even more.

“You are my friend…”

Okay, you can’t listen to this shit anymore.

“Well, I’m sorry for eavesdropping on you two, but… Mr. Dynamight, you are an absolute asshole. This man is clearly depressed and heartbroken, can you at least listen to him?! He might be here because he has no one else to go to, did you think about that?! Don’t kick someone who’s already on the floor!” There is an almost silent “oh fuck off” coming Bakugou but you respectfully ignore it and you sit down next to the crying man on the sofa. “My name is Y/N darling, I’m the asshole’s new assistant. Please, don’t listen to him. You are always welcome in this office in the time of need. I can listen to you. What happened?” This is clearly a cry for help, bless his little broken heart. This poor yellow haired man just makes you want to protect him and talk to him about the magical powers of a silver shampoo.

Because this guy needs it.

So much.

Soooo so much.

Okay, that’s not important now.

“Hi, I’m Kaminari Denki.” Sniffles the guy. “I got dumped by my girlfriend Jirou for the twentieth time. I did nothing. Is my existence such a bother to everyone?”

“Yes, it is, now leave.” Comments the asshole of the century, and nope, you can’t do this anymore.

“If you say a single fucking word while I talk to this man, I’ll hang your virgin balls on the nearest lamp post and I’ll blow them up so well, not even the best cleaning brigade in Japan can get rid of them.” You give Bakugou a threatening look and start focusing on the now shaking man on the sofa.

“You are a lovely human being. You might be a bit louder than most, you might annoy some people, but you have all the rights to exist. You just need to find the right people to be with. Also, sometimes people don’t appreciate what they have until they loose it, so what I would do if I were you, I would go home, tell my girl that I’m okay with her decision and I would leave for a few days or weeks to give her some space. Trust me, if she loves you, she will come back to you. If not, there will be someone better who will appreciate you as you are. Don’t underestimate yourself, just because you are different. If Dynamight can exist, so can you.”

Needless to say, you managed to break this man with your words, but that’s fine. Sometimes, you need to completely fall apart to be able to put yourself together in the right way.

As this man you just met smears all his saliva and other disgusting bodily fluids all over your shirt, you sigh into the void. Your life is an absolute joke but if this little conversation did something to help another person, then you don’t mind it that much. At least you made a new friend today, a quite useful one at that. He might come in handy when your phone is out of fuel.

“That last part was unnecessary.” Scoffs your boss, but he can’t deny that even he was a bit moved by your kind words.

“I had to prove my point somehow.” You smile cheekily and stroke Kaminari’s hair to entertain yourself for the time being. “Well, this is definitely enough drama for one day, let’s bury the hatchet for today, Mr. Bakugou. I also told Kirishima I won’t cause any more problems today.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, weirdo.” Bakugou rolls his eyes but he indeed stays quiet for the rest of the day.

You might just be a bit sensitive after all this love drama, but you swear you can feel the change in the air around you two.

Will it stay this way? Probably not; but you can’t help but think back on your words from the morning; Bakugou is indeed quite handsome when he shuts the hell up.

-> Next Chapter!

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Anyone remembers who said that line to Bakugo in high school? :P

Wow, this chapter is a bit different than usual, but I really wanted to give the story a bit of a push. And don’t worry; you guys still hate each other, we are really far from the end game! :D

Also, no pigeons in this chapter. I’m heartbroken.

Have a lovely weekend, guys 💜

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Taglist:

(feel free to ask me to add you if you like this story btw 💜)

@ibkg @chuugarettes @lilmaimai @nonomesupposedto @sozainturpal

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[jjsstars]

thiamweek 2023: day 1, Liam’s parents

|| for @thiamappreciationweek event

|| tags : theo meeting liam’s parents for the first time, background mason/corey, liam’s step dad knows about the supernatural but I can’t remember if that’s canon or not — this is lowkey a crack fic —

“And you’re… Theo?” Raeken gives a shaky smile as he nods, hand gripped in Liam’s step dad’s a little too tight. It’s not like Theo’s never met peoples parents before, there were plenty of “relationships” he was in to get leverage for the dread doctors— but this is the first time first impressions really do matter, and he’s trying to be genuine.

“He seems tense.” Mrs Dunbar murmurs to her husband and he hums along, finally dropping Theo’s hand.

“We should eat.” Suddenly Theo’s wrist is caught by Liam’s hand and he’s being dragged over to the dining room table where Corey and Mason already sit, they’re here as a buffer for the new couple. Theo seriously debated kissing Mason and Corey when he found out they’d be there to keep things less tension filled.

“It smells delicious ma’am.” It doesn’t make Liam’s mom smile like Theo was hoping for, instead she gives a short nod that almost looks annoyed. What the hell is he doing wrong? It’s been ten minutes.

“Oh my dad cooked.” Ah.

“Well it smells great sir.” That gets him more a nice reaction, a smile and a nod. Liam said that his step dad might be more friendly than his mother, apparently she’s not a people person and how she ended up with someone as extroverted as Liam’s step dad is “totally insane” according to both Liam and Mason.

“Thank you Theo, it’s nice to be appreciated around here.” That’s all it takes for the rest of the group to loosen up, Liam throwing out a whine that he always says thank you at dinner, Mason saying he doesn’t and he just eats like a wild animal which makes Corey snort and share a look with Theo— it gets easier, thank god.

And soon enough dinner is cleared as is dessert and Theo’s able to settle down in front of the couch on a mound of blankets with Liam at his side. They agreed to watch a movie with his parents and while Theo has no idea why the hell they did that, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be horrible. Liam’s step father is busy popping popcorn with Mason and Corey at his side, Theo can hear the three of them bickering about what candy should be mixed with the popcorn. Liam has his head on Theo’s collarbone, he doesn’t smell as anxious as he did earlier which is nice.

But- Theo can feel Liam’s mother’s eyes boring into the back of his head. He repeats in his head that this is fine, it’s just motherly behavior, he thinks? He can’t be sure considering the whole ‘raised in the sewers’ thing. It’s unnerving even if it is normal. He doesn’t know what he did to tick this woman off- she’s not the one that knows about the supernatural, that’s Liam’s step dad and he’s been cheery all night long, so whatever Theo did is beyond him.

“Babe you okay?” He’s brought from his thoughts by Liam’s gentle voice, which is definitely a cover as he’s staring at Theo like he can see right through him.

“Yeah, perfect.” Dunbar’s lip twitches and he turns around enough to look at his mother- ah shit.

“Mom can you stop staring? It’s freaking us out.” Jesus Christ why is he talking to his mother like that? Does he have a deathwish? Even Theo knows that’s unacceptable-

“Sorry honey it’s just nice to see you with a partner.” Well that sounded far too genuine for someone with such a blank expression.

“It’s fine just- maybe not so hard?” She hums to her son and leans back on the couch, eyes drifting to the Tv as Theo tries not to choke on air. What the fuck was that?!

“Relax, she’s just bad at showing emotion.” All Theo can do is nod and blink a few times, he swears this relationship is going to send him into cardiac arrest at some point.

“Got it.”

[yoongisleftearring]

part twenty-one: how I knew

D O N ’ T T E L L !

pairing: Oni!Seungmin x Werewolf!reader x Siren!Hyunjin

-> in which after witnessing something you shouldn’t have, a particularly intimidating Oni forces you to keep his secret only to tangle you up in their mess

word count: 0.6k + texts

a/n: let's all collectively ignore my extended break, okay?

no warnings, operation sexy dynamite Hwang is in full swing

previous < masterlist > next

Taglist:@channieboyo@randomness7198@tangerminie@rubberduckieyourtheone@sugarrush-blush@tfkp0p@putmetogetheragain13@imtoooyoungforthisshit@zoe8stay@slut-for-dabi@moon-gyus@wondering-out-loud@lonewolfjinji@midsoulz @simeonswhore @icouldntcareless22 @smollquokka

"Oh god," you muttered as you came face to face with a smiling Hyunjin. You hastily begin to pack your stuff away in your bag, but as you go to pick up your magical history book, a hand slams down on the cover. "What?" you groan. Hyunjin squints his eyes at you, raising one of his perfectly plucked eyebrows. Of course she was here.

"Don't what me when you're sitting in the library in your usual seat at your usual time," Hyunjin huffed as he took a seat next to you. This was it. Operation 'sexy dynamite Hwang' was their last chance.

"Please don't do this. I'm embarrassed enough as it is."

"Y/n, do you really think I'm here to rub it in your face?" He deadpanned.

You hesitated.

"No?" you say slowly, and Hyunjin chuckles at your unsure tone.

"You need more time to think about that?" he laughs. Your face was slowly growing red as the conversation continued.

"Well, why wouldn't you?" you muttered. "I'm a weird creepy weirdo."

"Well, weird creepy weirdos happen to be right up my alley," he smiles, his dimples showing and his eyes sparkling in the warm lights of the library. 

"Now I know you're making fun of me," you mumbled.

"I'm not," he assures. "But, I do think we should talk about it." Shit. Those dreaded words were so much harder to avoid when said face to face instead of over text.

"Did Seungmin tell you that I'm sorry?" you asked, looking up at him to see if there were any malice or mocking on his face, but only a comforting smile lay upon his lips.

"He did," he nodded. "But I should probably thank you."

"Thank me," you hesitated. "For what?"

"Did you mean what you said?"

"What?"

"What you said about me being good?" he spoke softly, almost as if he was scared of your answer. "About them being wrong about me?" Hyunjin stared into your eyes, and you could see then the effect their words really had. What did they do to him? 

"Hyunjin, I may have tweeted a lot of dumb shit, but I was always honest about that," you replied. "You want to know how I knew?"

He nodded.

"Our first day, back in first grade. Before we were even put into the school of bad, I saw you." you smiled as you recalled how nervous you were on your first day in this vast magical school. "We were getting a tour from one of the third graders, walking through the gardens. I saw you picking a bunch of flowers," you continued, and Hyunjin smiled fondly. "Someone asked you why you were ruining the garden, and you told them 'they're for a friend I'm planning on making." Hyunjin could barely recall that interaction; it seemed so long ago, and he was shocked that you could remember it so vividly. "You gave them to him. Later, at dinner."

"Seungmin," Hyunjin nodded. You hummed.

"It was small things like that that I noticed that let me know. I never really understood why you were put in bad," you remarked.

"Those years were really hard for me. I would have liked to know that you were in my corner," Hyunjin told.

You hummed in agreement.

"Probably would have saved me some embarrassment if we had been friends this whole time," you chuckled.

"Yeah," he laughed. "My dumb boyfriend wouldn't have compiled a blackmail file." 

A short laugh, then silence.

"Will you talk to him?" he asked, eyes full of hope. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it'd be worth it." You stared at him for a moment, unsure. 

But, if this were the last time you would speak to Seungmin, hearing his side of things probably wouldn't be the worst idea.