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piecksz · 4 years ago

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forget me too. | (m)

pairing: modern punk!bakugo x fem!reader

warnings: nsfw, angst, cheating, oral sex, penetrative sex, angry sex, choking, fingering, exes with benefits, mentions of breeding, hair pulling, explicit language, toxic relationship, manipulation, reader just being a lovesick puppy but wouldn’t we all be if it came to bakugo

summary: it’s been a year since you broke up with bakugo after you found him cheating on you, and you swore you’d moved on from him, but when you run into him again at a record shop, you fall back into a dangerous cycle of love and hate

words: 9,800+

a/n: so i gave in and watched downfalls high, and i’m not gonna lie, it wasn’t the best piece of media i’ve ever consumed, but mgk’s feature track with halsey kind of ate (AND IT LITERALLY INSPIRED SO MANY ANGSTY IDEAS I WAS ITCHINGGG). therefore, this is said angsty idea. you can listen to the song forget me too by machine gun kelly (feat. halsey) while reading, that’s if you’re really daring. good luck lol

If there was one thing in the world you couldn’t fully understand, it was the type of girls who hated their ex-boyfriends, twirling their hair flirtatiously and giggling at all their pitiful punchlines one week, and the next, hatching bogus rumors to discourage other girls from seeking them out romantically, letting them know that their charm came at a price.

Until it was Bakugo.

You genuinely didn’t see it coming. You weren’t even able to recognize the severity of the situation until you were convulsing with the gravity of your sobs, shrieking at him in front of his apartment. Bakugo had called you earlier that evening to reschedule your previously-arranged dinner date since his friend Kirishima was in town, and he wanted to dedicate the rest of the night to catching up with his old schoolmate. You happily forfeited your own plans and instead opted to rendezvous with your boyfriend and his familiar later in the week, but as the night hauled on your favorite TV show no longer satiated your boredom.

Shuffling into the kitchen and scouring your cabinet for ingredients, you drew up the idea to bake some sweets for Bakugo and Kirishima because you figured it would be a nice surprise, however once you arrived at Bakugo’s place you deduced quickly that his friend wasn’t over. It should have been notably clear that something was unusual by the way he was hesitant to let you in.

He poked his head out from behind the privacy of his front door, definitely surprised to see you, but not in the way you had hoped.

“Y/N,” he greeted you with a tight-lipped expression, eyes dropping to the tub of sugar cookies in your hands. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call me to let me know you were coming over?”

You hummed after detecting a subtle edge in his voice. “I wanted to surprise you.” You rose to your toes to look past his head. “I thought you said your friend was coming over.”

Bakugo nodded, and once he extended his hand to accept your treats you could see that his torso was bare. “Idiot had to cancel at the last minute. School shit. He said he’ll be here tomorrow.”

Your grip tightened on the container.

If his friend couldn’t make it then why didn’t he let you know? The two of you still could have made it to your dinner reservations.

And in that moment, you swore your internal monologue was loud enough to hear, because you immediately received your answer when you heard a soft, feminine voice come from inside his apartment.

“Who the fuck is that?” you barked, trying to outbalance Bakugo’s weight on the door. “Bakugo you little fucking shit--let me in.” It was a moment-long game between the two of you until Bakugo gave in, accepting the reality that he’d already been caught. You stumbled into the door as it swung open, revealing his company.

She was petite with short blonde hair, wearing a panicked expression that matched Bakugo’s oversized flannel on her naked body almost impeccably. You stared at each other until you broke the tense silence with a quiet holy shit.

“Holy shit,” you repeated louder, blinking as fast as you could to hold back the salty tears that were beginning to cloud your vision. “You fucking dick!” You didn’t notice how forceful your voice had gotten until you were shouting at him, the immense pressure building in your chest making your voice crack. You hurled every vulgar name in the book at Bakugo who couldn’t even look you in the eye while you cried in front of him.

This couldn’t have been the same man you once saw your future playing out with. The hell unfolding in front of you was exactly what your friends, Momo and Ochako, had predicted once you disclosed your interest in Bakugo. They warned you that he had a record on campus, with multiple girls, and yet somehow when he wooed you with sweet words and thoughtful gifts, just like they said he would, you still thought you were different. The worst part of it all was that he wasn’t a terrible guy by any means. He was a little rough around the edges with a temper, but he was hilarious and passionate, all while being profound and smart.

In your fantasies the two of you were married, and then came babies with tufts of your tresses and the mischief of his ruby eyes. He would have been a winner, if he wasn’t so emotionally incompetent. Perhaps you were naive to assume what you and Bakugo had was love just because he said so.

Your quivering fingers worked unsteadily against the lid of the tupperware. You tossed it aside before dumping the container’s contents on the floor of his apartment and hurled the empty food saver at him.

“Come fucking on Y/N,” he said wearily. The fucking nerve he had to act tired.

“Enjoy your cookies,” you responded venomously, leaving quickly before another set of tears came surging.

The next several months were excruciating, and the pain you experienced was nothing compared to its onset. If you weren’t spending days cocooned in bed to sleep off the fatigue of your endless crying, then you were on your couch, staring unamused while Blair Waldorf waltzed across your TV screen.

At least she got her happy fucking ending. Good for her.

You couldn’t even find the energy to eat, and ice cream was not the cure-all for heartbreaks like everyone lied and said it was.

Every so often Momo and Ochako would pay you a visit. For the first few weeks they let you mourn, consoling you and cleaning up the litter of crumpled tissues around your apartment. After the first month, they suggested that maybe meeting someone new would be the best way to help you forget about your break up, but you didn’t want to meet someone new. You just wanted to know if Bakugo missed you too.

Once your grades started slipping, you used that as an excuse to turn to isolation and lose yourself in your schoolwork. The distraction left you with no leisure time to scroll through old photos of you and Bakugo in your phone, and within a couple months, you swore that you’d finally moved on from him.

But it seemed all of that was forgotten the moment you recognized his head of spiky blonde hair from the next aisle over in the record shop, and you silently cursed the universe’s cruel way of working, that all-knowing bitch.

You kept your head down, pretending to be overtly interested in the Kendrick Lamar vinyl you held in your hands, but you couldn’t stop peeking over the shelf to see if Bakugo had moved from his spot.

You could hear him shuffling, and every time you looked up, he was a step closer to the end of the aisle, meaning that your game plan was to move in the opposite direction, so you could slip past him without being detected.

You continued to move one step to the left every time Bakugo moved another step to the right, surely securing your elusive escape, but when you glanced up again, he had disappeared from your line of surveillance. Shit.

“Y/N?”

Shit!

Slowly, you pivoted in the direction of your name only to gawk, horrified, as your ex-boyfriend strolled up to you casually, like he had never ripped your heart out and trampled all over it.

Once he got closer, you realized how generous the year between your break up and now had been to him. His yellow flannel was useless tied around his waist when it should have been on his shoulders instead, covering the way his black Led Zeppelin shirt clung to the impressive build of his upper body.

“Holy fuck, it is you,” Bakugo said, incredulously. You swore he had grown taller now that he was standing in front of you because you couldn’t remember if he had always towered over you.

“Small world,” you said, distastefully.

“Not really,” Bakugo shrugged. “This is just where I come to slave away for minimum wage.”

You simply blinked at him with a placid expression, unable to decide which of your emotions was best considering the circumstances.

“I almost didn’t recognize you,” he chuckled. “Did you cut your hair?”

You raised an eyebrow plainly. “No.” If anything your hair had grown a few inches longer.

“Highlights?”

“No.”

“Shit seriously?” Bakugo cast his eyes downwards and then back up, sizing up your figure. “Well you look good.”

You could only offer up a dry laugh in response while shaking your head at the peculiarity of the situation.

“What is wrong with you?” you jeered.

You couldn’t believe the ease with which he approached you after not seeing you for twelve whole months, especially when six and a half of those months were spent bawling your eyes out over him and trying to repair the heart he broke carelessly.

Bakugo’s blithe expression withered. The look left behind was one of bashful remorse, as if he was embarrassed by the person he was a year ago.

You weren’t even sure if he had really changed since you’d gone out of your way to avoid hearing or seeing anything about him after you claimed to have gotten over him. The real reason was that you felt you couldn’t trust yourself. You feared that if you came across anything having to do with him, you’d descend into another self-destructive, heartache-driven spiral.

“I tried calling to apologize, but you blocked my number. And then blocked me on everything else,” Bakugo explained.

You shifted uncomfortably.

“I never saw you around campus, and when I showed up to your apartment you weren’t home. I felt like horse shit, seriously, but after a while I just gave up, I guess.”

You pursed your lips together at the mention of his attempts to remedy your breakup, specifically because this whole time you could have sworn he didn’t care to fix things with you.

Bakugo leaned in, and you surprised yourself by making no effort to create more distance between the both of you.

“I’m really fucking sorry, Y/N,” he said softly, for once without the gruffness of his usual tone.

If he made the effort to apologize even after a year, that must have meant that he still had some feelings left over for you, right? Did that mean he still loved you? The suspicion made your heart squeeze with expectation.

“Are you sorry that you hurt me, or are you sorry that you got caught?” You questioned.

“Both,” Bakugo snickered tactlessly.

You swore you could have punched his lights out then and there, but he must have noticed the way you tensed up because he looped his arm around you, pulling you in until you nestled into his larger frame.

“I fucking missed you, dumbass.”

Your stomach dropped at the very mention of the words you were longing to hear after your split, and you knew that you weren’t over him. Not even close. Even when you had caught another girl with her hands on him.

Your first mistake was unblocking Bakugo’s number that night, and your second was sending him a text. You stood in the bathroom, dumbfounded by your own actions while you clutched your phone nervously. Thank god he didn’t have his read receipts on. The last thing you needed to know was if he decided to leave you on read after you had just stroked his monumental ego.

You sat your phone aside and proceeded brushing your teeth until you were interrupted by a shrill ding from beside you. You grabbed your phone much too quickly and slid the screen up to be met with a reply from Bakugo.

9:32 PM

bakugo: so i’m still in your phone huh?

9:32 PM:

bakugo: lmao

9:33 PM:

bakugo: thinking about me even after bitching about how much you hate me?

9:34 PM:

bakugo: especially at night that’s hot

You scowled at the messages before putting your phone back down. Using the time it took you to finish brushing your teeth and washing your face, you recited your responses over and over again because as much as you wanted to, you knew it wouldn’t be smart to jump back into your relationship that fast. You still held negative sentiments about what he had done to you, but the pleasure of having him back was slowly beginning to outweigh your earlier feelings.

While shuffling into your bedroom, you kept your eyes glued to your phone screen, typing, deleting, and retyping messages, worried that they would sound too needy.

9:50 PM:

you: so i see you still have a head so big that it could block out the sun

9:53 PM:

bakugo: fuck off you little shit

9:53 PM:

bakugo: no classes tmrw and i’m off work at 12

9:54 PM:

you: ok? do i look like your fucking secretary?

10:00 PM:

bakugo: no im just letting you know in case you’re planning on stalking me again :^(

10:01 PM

bakugo: obviously i wanna see you tomorrow dipshit

Warmth spread across your cheeks until it deepened into a dangerous heat, and the happy memories of you and Bakugo a year ago resurfaced as deja vu. Everything was scarily reminiscent of the way he asked you out the first time, back when your opinions about him were much more straightforward.

You rolled over to the other side of your bed and squealed, flustered by how to-the-point he was about his desire to reconcile things with you.

“Get it together, honestly,” you reprimanded yourself, jabbing a finger against your temple in an effort to drill the mantra into your head.

You responded back to accept Bakugo’s invitation, being mindful not to sound too excited, but you couldn’t deny that you slept better than usual that night.

The next day when you met up with Bakugo after his shift at the record shop ended, the two of you settled on getting coffee from one of the restaurants on campus. Well, you got a coffee, but Bakugo went for an iced tea instead because he insisted that coffee tasted like “dog shit”.

Regardless of your staggering difference of opinion in beverages, you guys hit it off again, laughing and joking around like there had never been a rift between you two in the first place. You were taken aback by how comfortable you still felt around him and how much he still seemed to adore you.

Two weeks after your reunion, you and Bakugo were already falling back into the routine of going on dates like you’d done before, snickering in the back of crowded movie theaters and demolishing each other in multiple rounds of mini golf. You even kept the photo booth picture that was printed for you at the aquarium in your wallet, just so you could peek at it every now and then.

Three weeks after your reunion, you concluded that you were pretty much together. Bakugo had never made it official, and neither had you, but you trusted the way you felt, and it seemed clear that he felt the same way.

Your friends however, weren’t as happy to hear the news of you and Bakugo seeing each other again.

Momo’s eyes widened as she leaned over the table and thrusted her mechanical pencil in your direction.

“Y/N, please tell me you’re joking.” She turned to Ochako who looked at you with a troubled expression. “Uraraka, please tell me she’s joking.”

Ochako pressed her lips into a thin line, shaking her head in utter disbelief. She said nothing. Rather she looked to you for an answer, wanting you to explain the situation before she scolded you for being so forgiving toward someone who didn’t deserve it.

“He apologized okay? And it really seemed like he meant it, I’m not just saying that. You guys know I can’t hold grudges. I’m soft.”

Momo huffed.

“We started talking, and he told me that he tried to apologize but he never got the chance.”

Your friends were still quiet, waiting for the punchline, but once they realized that there was no hidden gag to the story, they leaned back in exhaustion, disappointed that you’d gotten yourself into another wearisome situation because of your thoughtlessness.

“And he said he missed me. After an entire year, he still misses me.”

“This wouldn’t have happened if we had found you someone else, you know. Someone nice. Better than Bakugo, so you don’t feel like you have to settle,” Momo countered.

“I didn’t need to date someone else,” you chided her. “I’m not one of those people that need to be in a relationship to feel fulfilled, plus I’ve been swamped with assignments.” You knew you were just trying to save face. You knew the real reason why you turned down all your prospective blind dates, and your friends knew it too. You couldn’t see yourself with anyone other than Bakugo, and you meant it when you said you didn’t need love to feel like you had purpose, but when it came to the blonde, it appeared that none of those principles applied.

“You’re lying,” Ochako sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear before clicking her pen and returning to her research paper.

“I’m not settling!” you declared, earning a few scattered glances from the other students in the library. You smiled at them ruefully, mouthing an apology, and ducked your head back into your college textbook.

You decided to drop the conversation, concluding that your friends just wouldn’t understand. They didn’t know your relationship with Bakugo like you did so how could they have understood?

Later that night however, you couldn’t help but chew over your friends’ reactions. There was clearly a reason why they felt the way they did, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to see their concern. You didn’t need to be chastised every time you did something they didn’t agree with, because you reminded yourself you were a grown ass woman. You treasured Momo and Ochako, but you were absolutely capable of looking out of yourself.

“Why do girls watch this shit?” Bakugo muttered from beside you, uninterested in the movie playing on the Macbook propped up in your lap. “It’s just dresses and sideburns, where the fuck are the fist fights?”

“It’s Pride and Prejudice, stupid. Not Deadpool,” you retorted, giggling slightly once Bakugo decided the skin of your neck was more interesting than Kiera Knightley. He released a throaty chuckle while attaching his lips to the base of your jaw and continued kissing until he stopped where your neck met your shoulders.

“Stop, I’m trying to watch the movie,” you complained tenderly with absolutely no intent to make Bakugo stop.

Bakugo sat up, grabbing your laptop off the sheets and closing it briskly. “Fuck the movie, I have a better idea,” he suggested. Your eyebrows furrowed, watching as he tossed the device onto the chair beside your closet.

“Hey, what are you doing, you dick?” you protested.

Within seconds Bakugo was on top of you with arms on either side of your head, effectively caging you in beneath him.

“Yeah?” he whispered provocatively, like he was making sure he had your permission first. He spoke under his breath, just loud enough for you to hear.

You didn’t know what sensation you registered first: the warmth now spreading quickly across your cheeks, down to your chest, or the pronounced throbbing between your thighs.

You nodded, softly responding with a “yeah” in return, and Bakugo didn’t waste a second before pressing his mouth to yours enthusiastically. You were surprised how quickly you re-familiarized yourself with the curve of his lips and the way they moved steadily against yours. Acting with fervor, he used his hand to grip your chin, forcing your mouth to open wider so he could slip his tongue past your teeth.

Bakugo used his free hand to grab your breast under your sweatshirt, and you relished in the feeling of his warm palm against your skin while he ran his fingertips against the silky fabric of your lace bra.

“Lace? You dirty bitch,” he teased, breaking contact. “There’s no way you could have known we were gonna fuck.”

You laughed, appreciating how seductive Bakugo looked. His sandy hair was tousled from your impatient hands in his locks, skin feverishly tinged with a dusty pink hue, and lips swollen from the force of his kiss.

“I didn’t know, but I was hoping we would,” you answered honestly. “I guess I got lucky.”

Bakugo snickered, clearly pleased with the response he received. His scarlet eyes flickered lustfully, and he hastily returned to working on your body. He pulled your sweatshirt up and off, tossing it over his shoulder before working swiftly against the clasp of your bra, which he skillfully managed to break with just one hand.

Must have had a lot of practice with that.

But your cynical thoughts were soon forgotten the moment Bakugo’s tongue curled around your nipple, enjoying the way his saliva made your skin glisten under the dim lamp light. He hummed loudly every time you jolted and whimpered, your back arching in tandem. He closed his lips around the delicate nub, sucking harshly while making no attempts to hide his sly smile. He was enjoying himself far too much.

He made sure he put his other hand to work, rolling your other nipple between his fingers, pinching roughly while tugging on it absentmindedly. Once he grew bored of your innocent mewls, he thirsted for something filthier.

Bakugo tantalizingly slid his hand down your stomach until his fingers curled around the waistband of your volleyball shorts. He stretched the Spandex material until when he released it, it snapped painfully against your skin, his cock throbbing at the exposure of your earthy groan.

He slipped off your shorts, and the sight before him was enough to elicit a long, drawn-out “Jesus fucking Christ”.

You didn’t realize you were so aroused that your underwear was soaking wet, your pussy now visible through the thin sheer fabric. Bakugo swallowed hard, palming himself to relieve some of the unbearable pressure he was feeling. He could feel his cock straining against his underwear, and he wanted to stick his dick inside you and fuck you until your eyes rolled back into your head, but the only thing he wanted more than that was to taste you.

“These are mine,” Bakugo insisted. He pulled your panties off, chuckling dryly at the wet stain on the fabric before tucking them into his pocket.

You tilted your head at him.

“What? I’m keeping them as a souvenir,” he replied.

But that’s not what you were concerned with. You were more humiliated than anything that this was your first time having sex with him in a year, and you’d been horny for him since you opened the door. You might as well have just written Bakugo’s Whore on your head in thick permanent marker, but you kept your suggestion to yourself knowing that Bakugo would have liked the idea way too much.

Bakugo reached down to pull his shirt over his head and threw it aside, unveiling his impressive physique. After you guys had broken up, he began finding himself in the gym more frequently, placating his regret and anger through physical exertion, and although he used weightlifting to cope, it left him with an incredible build.

Sweet lord, you thought, please fucking break me.

Bakugo wrapped his arms around your thighs, pulling you forcibly toward him. You propped yourself up on your elbows to get a good look as his face disappeared between your legs. You couldn’t see much past his hair, but you felt a long wet lick up your folds, and your arms immediately gave out, causing you to fall back onto the bed while your hips bucked upward.

You let out an obscene cry, but that only encouraged Bakugo more. He parted your lips with his tongue, licking another stripe up to your clit before sucking it into his mouth, all while peering up at you to see the way you writhed under his touch. You gripped the sheets, and your breathing grew increasingly labored as Bakugo swirled the tip of his tongue against the tender bud, slowly in one direction, and then the opposite. You continued to grind yourself against his mouth while your desire became insatiable. You felt like your hunger was completely justified, because you hadn’t been spoiled in a long fucking time.

You completely unraveled once you glanced down just in time to see Bakugo spit on your parted folds before using his fingers to coat your pussy in his saliva. His slick fingers rubbed your clit, taunting you for just a while longer, and then he dipped his fingers inside of you. He started with two fingers, slipping them in and out with ease until his spit mixed with your arousal created a vile lubricant.

With the way Bakugo’s lips were slightly parted and his eyebrows were knitted in the center, you could tell he was concentrating dangerously, observing how desperately you swallowed his fingers every time he pushed them in.

Your vision erupted into white heat when he bent down to take your clit back into his mouth while pumping in and out of you with an added finger. The symphony that filled the space of your room was absolutely foul. Your intense cries bounced off the walls, while Bakugo panted heavily at the messy sound of his fingers thrusting in and out of you. And neither of you cared if your neighbors could hear.

“Bakugo--,” you started, but your broken plea wasn’t nearly enough to get his attention.

“Bakugo,” you cried louder, your body beginning to shake with the onset of your orgasm.

“Are you gonna cum?” He asked, his voice slightly higher than you were used to, almost like he was whining.

You could only give a weak nod in response.

“Be a good little bitch and cum for me,” Bakugo coaxed, as you yielded to the intensity of your orgasm. He quickened his pace just to see you convulse as you reached your high, but then slowed down until he was ready to pull his fingers out of you.

The sight was enough to make Bakugo cum untouched. You were finger-fucked out, eyes shut as your chest heaved up and down while you tried to catch your breath. Your arousal was smeared on the inside of your thighs and your bedsheet was damp where you released.

Bakugo wanted to ask you if you were alright, but the aching pain in his pants took priority. He reached into his underwear, freeing his swollen cock from the confines of his boxers. He bit down on his bottom lip so hard he almost drew blood as he pumped himself gingerly, hissing at the feeling. His tip was raw and flushed, leaking precum in shameless amounts.

He hoisted your legs on either shoulder and positioned himself at your entrance, looking at you for confirmation, and you nodded feebly. He sunk his entire length into you, and you covered your mouth with your hand to stifle a shrill scream. Your walls were already sore, and the sting of Bakugo’s large cock inside of you was a painful bliss. Tears came quickly, and they rolled down your cheeks while Bakugo rocked his hips into you slowly. He was waiting for his aching to subside before speeding up his rhythm, and once it did he was taken over by an unappeasable greed.

“You’re so fucking tight,” he groaned, thrusting himself in and out of you. “If you keep squeezing me like that I’m gonna cum inside you and get you fucking pregnant.” Bakugo had one hand on your headboard, his grip so firm that his knuckles had turned white.

You sobbed underneath him, withstanding your own pain until it subdued into pleasure. You shifted your legs until they wrapped around Bakugo’s strong torso, unable to get enough of him.

Bakugo rammed into you, and your headboard hitting your wall furiously set the tempo until he fell into a staggered cadence.

“I’m gonna cum,” he choked out. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck--.” Your name was the last thing Bakugo could get out before he broke free of your hold, pulling himself out of you so he could release. He cummed on your stomach, generously shooting out hot spurts of white until he was soft and you were covered in his seed.

Bakugo leaned over and collapsed beside you, short of breath. He was drenched in sweat and his blonde hair stuck to his forehead with perspiration. He chuckled after a few silent minutes.

“What the fuck was that? Were you trying to get me to nut in you?” Bakugo asked, turning to face you.

You didn’t know what he was talking about until you remembered the way you wrapped him up in your legs while he was inside you.

You snorted, erupting into a fit of sheepish laughter. “Yeah.”

Bakugo raised an eyebrow, bewildered. “Crazy bitch.”

He pulled his sweatpants up and rolled out of your bed. “I’m not ready to be a dad yet,” he voiced, before shuffling lazily out of the room to find something he could clean you up with and smoke a cigarette on the fire escape.

The next morning you found yourself alone, Bakugo nowhere to be found despite you falling asleep with his arms around your waist. You raised a sleepy eyebrow at the empty space next to you that was still sunken from his weight. Okay good, so you didn’t hallucinate last night. You figured Bakugo had early duties to attend to, so you simply grumbled before turning over to get more sleep.

Following that day, every time Bakugo came over to your place, or you found yourself at his, the routine was simple: have breathtaking sex and then pass out.

You grew used to expecting it from him whenever the two of you spent any time alone, and the night before always consumed your thoughts the morning after. You’d squeeze your thighs together during your lecture hall while your professor yammered on about early psychology. The memory of Bakugo’s hand around your throat as he fucked you from behind prompted a surge of heat to your core.

Even when the two of you couldn’t see each other because neither of your schedules coincided, you found a way to make things work, whether it was over the phone, through text, or over Facetime.

Occasionally, you’d ring up Bakugo while he was closing up the shop to taunt him, touching yourself on the other line while he’d grow painfully hard and couldn’t relieve himself until he got home.

“You little fucking shit.” You loved the way his low growls sounded over the phone. “Let’s see how bold you are when I come over and turn your thighs into earmuffs.”

And occasionally, he’d send you videos of himself in bed while you were at the library late cramming for your exams the next morning, touching his cock with haste before cumming on his hands as he groaned your name loudly.

Not an ounce of passion was lost between you two, and if anything you’d only grown closer together from the time spent apart. You had your love back, and everything in your life was ideal.

Of course, that was all before the party.

The party at Sero’s house that you’d caught wind of once you joined Momo, Ochako, and your other friend Mina for lunch.

“You know I don’t like going to parties thrown by frats,” Ochako muttered, ripping off small bites of her chicken wrap.

“Why not? There’ll be plenty of guys there for you to talk to, your phone has been a little dry lately,” Mina responded, laughing silently.

Ochako squinted at her jest before playfully rolling her eyes herself. “That’s exactly why. You know what happened last time I went to a frat party. The hangover isn’t worth it.”

Mina exhaled heavily and turned to you with a hopeful look.

“Y/N, you’ll go with us right? Me and Momo?”

You squeezed your water bottle wearily. “I don’t know. I’m not a fan of frat parties either.” You didn’t know what answer to give her, she looked extremely optimistic, and you hated to rain on Mina’s Friday night plans, but you didn’t want to spend the rest of the evening crammed in a frat house with a crowd of strangers.

Mina stuck out her bottom lip and reached to grab your hand from across the table. “Please? Please? There’s no guarantee Momo won’t ditch me at the party for Todoroki.”

Momo murmured inaudibly beside her.

You sighed, however you relented, giving into the arrangements Mina had made for you, but you regretted your decision far too late.

You showed up to the gathering with Mina and Momo dressed modestly. Unlike your friends and many of the other girls there, you already had someone that you were seeing, and you wanted to look as reserved as you could so there was no confusion around whether or not you were off the market.

Bakugo was possessive, and he preferred to keep his possessions close. There was no telling what he would do or how he’d react if he learned of another man trying to make a move on you.

You took small sips out of your cup while you followed quietly behind Momo and Mina as they moved from person to person, greeting friends you were unfamiliar with. You feigned a cheery smile when you were introduced to them, but overall you were bored with the party scene. You weren’t really a frat party girl.

You yelled over to Momo that you needed another drink and shook your head when she asked you if you needed her to come with you. She looked far too engrossed in her conversation with Todoroki, and you didn’t want to just whisk her away while they were talking. In fact, you were the chairman of the Anti-Cockblock Committee.

You sauntered into the kitchen, sliding in next to the counter once the guests who were there first left. You started grabbing bottles to inspect the labels because to be honest, you weren’t sure what half of these brands were. As a broke college student, you bought your own drinks, which were mainly $20 cases of hard lemonade and cheap raspberry Smirnoff vodka from the liquor store. Clearly Sero had selective taste in high quality shit.

You poured yourself a small sip of Patron, tasting the clear liquid, and tried not to gag at the oaky taste as it burned your throat going down.

You felt someone ease in beside you. “Hey, bartender.”

You glanced at the guest next to you, their familiar visage coming into view. You recognized his distinctive green head of hair and innocent freckles peppered across his cheeks, it was the same face you saw every day in your sociology class.

What was his name? Ku--something. Zu…?

You remembered your professor referred to him by his nickname, Deku, and once you said his name as convincingly as you could, you gathered by his boyish grin that you were right.

“I’m surprised you remembered,” he laughed, and adjusted his circle-rimmed glasses while his emerald eyes swelled into crescents.

“I didn’t really take you for a partier,” you observed. Deku was incredibly smart from what you’d seen in class. He knew the answers before your professor could even finish their questions, and when you’d ask him if he could repeat what the teacher said for your notes, he explained the material even better than the person who was an expert in the subject for a living.

“I’m not,” he replied. “But you know, the college experience and all that.”

You scoffed and nodded, knowingly. “Melt your brain studying for 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, and then get shitfaced whenever you can. Yeah, that’s definitely the college experience,” you joked, pouring yourself a couple shots of vodka and mixed it with orange soda.

“I was meaning to ask you,” Deku started. “I mean--Yeah--I was meaning to ask you for your number in class earlier this week.”

You stirred your drink with a finger before stealing a taste. “Of course,” you agreed happily.

Deku’s face deepened into a rosy bloom once he took out his phone, typing in your contact while you recited the numbers.

“I’m not asking for a weird reason or anything like that. Just so we can help each other out with homework and stuff.”

You nodded, already acknowledging that Deku was a sweet kid, at least as far as you knew. You didn’t expect him to have any promiscuous intentions.

“Yeah, but I don’t think I’ll be as much help to you as you’ll be to me,” you teased, and Deku chuckled nervously still trying to shake the blush off his cheeks. “I’m free on Monday, I can meet up with you after class if you want.”

Deku buried his face into his cup, his shallow breathing causing his glasses to fog up. “Yeah, that sounds great,” he mumbled bashfully.

“Text me the deets,” you grinned, before wandering off back to your friends.

On the way back to the stairwell where Momo and Mina were still standing, your attention was drawn by a large crowd around the living room that erupted into jovial squeals and cheers every few seconds. You gravitated toward the mass of guests, standing on your toes to get a better look, but when that didn’t work you gently made your way through the throng of people, issuing soft “sorry, excuse me’s” and “thank you’s” to the people that didn’t mind letting you slip past them.

You had no knowledge that he was going to be here. He never told you what his plans for the night were, but this was the last place you were expecting Bakugo to be.

Here.

Playing a game of “Kiss and Blow” on a crowded couch with someone who wasn’t you. When it reached his turn, you could see his shallow inhale and how he put in no effort to keep the card against his mouth. It fell between the cushions, and the crowd erupted into another rally.

Bakugo grinned artfully and hooked his arm around the eager brunette before smothering her giggles with a deep tongue-filled kiss.

At first, the cogs in your brain couldn’t turn fast enough to register what was happening, and your thought process stuttered for a moment while your eyes took in more than you expected. Your body remained immobile, giving your thoughts a few seconds to catch up. Maybe for those few seconds, your anguish was suspended, and your shock was simply a cushion until you fell apart.

You couldn’t make your way out of the party fast enough, and you didn’t even think to let Momo and Mina know that you were leaving. Everything around you sounded warbled, like you were underwater, as your leaden legs carried you out, past the front lawn, and across the street until you were far away that you could no longer hear the music of the party. It was then that you pulled out your phone to text Mina claiming that you didn’t feel well and called an Uber to take you home.

The following morning you ignored all of Bakugo’s texts. He sent one at 10 AM, asking you if you were down to get breakfast, and then another at noon suggesting lunch since you didn’t respond to his text about breakfast. He texted you again, and again, and again, and you continued to disregard him.

You didn’t cry this time around. No. You were filled with a foreign anger. It was strange and new, and it burned nothing like the rage you’d felt in all your years of living. You didn’t know whether you were angry at him for putting you through this again or if you were angry at yourself for really believing that he’d changed. You really wanted to confront Bakugo in person, but you were afraid of your unpredictability. You didn’t know what you would do if you saw him--roundhouse kick him in the throat most likely.

Bakugo’s relentless attempts to get in contact with you didn’t let up, even late into the night. He sent another text threatening to show up at your apartment if you didn’t answer him, and then he called yet again.

Angrily, you reached out to answer your phone, but once you held it to your ear all the fury you’d been bearing throughout the day emerged.

“Can you fuck off?” You hissed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Bakugo responded, taken off guard by your greeting. “What the fuck?”

“If you were so hellbent on seeing me today, you should have thought about that before you decided to be a hypocritical little bastard! Again!” You shook with anger, unable to effectively piece together all the profane names you wanted to call him.

Bakugo was still while you put him on blast.

“Do you not have anything to say to me, you fuckwit?”

“No, because I don’t even know why you’re going full bitch right now!” Bakugo defended himself. You sat back at his reply, confused at why he was guarded. You knew that when Bakugo was aware he was in the wrong he always remained quiet and pensive.

“Last night?” you clarified. “Does last night not ring a bell to you?”

He let out a small grunt of recollection. “I was at a party last night, what are you talking about?”

“No shit, Bakugo! I saw you swallowing another girl whole!”

The other line erupted into laughter, and a large knot settled in your throat.

“Am I not allowed to kiss other girls now?” he asked.

Had he been hit by a semi-truck? Did he need a swift lobotomy?

“Why would you kiss another girl if you have a girlfriend?”

Bakugo muttered a quiet “what”, and then the lightbulb clicked.

“Holy shit, Y/N, did you think we were back together?”

Huh?

“When did we ever say that we were together?” he questioned lightly, finding your misunderstanding comical.

But--

“I thought we were just fucking around, you know? I never mentioned getting back together, and you didn’t either, so I just assumed we were just fucking.”

You didn’t say a word. As angry as you wanted to be and as angry as you already were, he was right. You had only assumed that you two were back together, but neither of you agreed on it explicitly.

“Our dates...” you countered listlessly.

“Two people hanging out together isn’t always a date.” Bakugo shifted on the other end and then grunted again to occupy the tense silence. “Shitting me, I didn’t know that’s what you were thinking.”

Realization of how foolish you made yourself look set in, and you hoped the awkwardness that hung in the air was fleeting. You swallow heavily, unable to digest defeat.

“Okay,” you murmured, before hanging up and flinging your phone aside.

You and Bakugo didn’t speak for the rest of the night into next morning, and by midday Monday when your study session with Deku rolled around, you were more than reluctant to go. You knew the frustration of someone cancelling last minute, but you were unsure whether you could bring a positive spirit to your meetup, and the last thing you wanted to do was put kind-hearted Deku through your bad mood.

As the time drew closer, you were considering texting him to rain check, letting him know you were feeling under the weather, when he sent you a picture at the coffee shop. Deku had ordered you lunch, mentioning that you must’ve been hungry after classes all day. He explained that he didn’t know what you liked so he just bought for you what he usually got for himself.

After that, you couldn’t have possibly turned him down, so you showed up anyway. Before you knew it, the clock already approached 9 PM, and the coffee shop was about to close for the night. Time had flown by while you were getting lost in upbeat conversation with Deku, and the two of you laughed and joked around more than you’d done your assignment, but you didn’t mind since it gave you another excuse to meet up with him. You didn’t expect him to be as naturally humorous as he was, nor did you guess you’d have as much in common with him as you did, but you’d forgotten about your own heartache during the time you spent in his company. Not to mention, he was very easy on the eyes, but that was just an additional plus.

However, when you finally returned home to your empty apartment that night, all your feelings came flooding back.

“Right,” you muttered to yourself, setting your backpack down by the door, and throwing your keys onto the kitchen counter. “Back to square one.”

Normally, you’d invite Bakugo over, but you had no desire to be anywhere within a three mile radius of him at the moment, so you quickly got ready for bed, figuring that the more time you spent asleep meant less time that you’d have to dwell over the all-too-familiar pain in your chest.

You continued to spend more and more time with Deku even though most of your plans were organized around schoolwork, even if it was studying for a test or just practicing terminology flashcards. Eventually, you’d gotten close enough that you didn’t mind inviting him over since your apartment was much quieter than the dorm he shared with his roommate, Kaminari.

You were both sat on your couch, and you took turns quizzing each other on general knowledge sociology questions. You flipped through the flashcards, Deku answering every question with impressive ease, until you had grown tired.

“Deku, this isn’t fun. You know every term,” you sighed, shuffling through the stack.

“Studying isn’t supposed to be fun, that’s why it’s called studying and not having fun,” he joked lamely, extending his hands to take his flashcards back.

You giggled silently at his flat humor and leaned back against the armrest to put your knees up. “Okay, well what do you like to do when you’re not studying?”

Deku slipped his flashcards into the pocket of his backpack. “Between classes, studying, and wrestling, I don’t really have much time for anything else.”

You gaped. “You wrestle? No fucking way.”

Deku raised an eyebrow at you, amused and unsure of the reason for your stupefaction. “Why do you think I’m a loser or something?”

“I don’t think you’re a loser,” you explained. “I just wouldn’t have guessed.” You took note of his lean stature. He did look like he worked out, but you never considered his pastime was something as brutish as wrestling. You figured his interests would explain the scars that decorated both of his hands.

“Okay then,” you began, hopping up and throwing the blanket you were wrapped in on the couch. “Teach me something.”

Deku stared at you, uncertain whether you were serious. “I don’t wanna hurt you,” he said, timidly.

“Oh man up, you baby,” you joked while wrapping your hands around his wrists, urging him to stand up. “Who’s to say I won’t hurt you?”

Deku chuckled nervously before following you over to the open space between your living room and kitchen. He stood for a second, thinking of the easiest moves to show you, and then he nodded, like he had fully decided.

“Okay, come here.”

You did as you were told, letting Deku guide you into the correct position. You cleared your throat, unnerved by the way his chest pressed up against your back, and his strong hands looped around your arms to lock them behind your head.

“This is a full nelson,” he instructed. “It’s a submission hold. It’s not allowed in our matches, but feel free to use it if you ever find some creep following you home.” You could feel his chest rumble with laughter between your shoulder blades.

You nodded, feeling flustered. “Mhm.”

The next demonstration had the two of you on the floor with your arm twisted at an uncomfortable angle while Deku’s arm was situated over your rib cage. You could feel his staggered breathing across the shell of your ear, and you looked over your shoulder expectantly, waiting for him to explain the move.

Deku must have realized how close your faces were to each other because he absolutely lost his cool. He began stammering, unable to get his words out. “And this one is called the--um...sorry it’s called the--,” he breathed. “I’m sorry, I’m--I just wanna kiss you so bad right now.” His body tensed with his confession, but you were the one who made the first move.

Once Deku’s hold loosened, you leaned into him, allowing your lips to collide with his. Your mouths moved against each other fervently, and the two of you rolled over until you were on top of him with your legs on either side of his waist. Ever since a few nights before you’d blown up on Bakugo, you hadn’t been touched. Not even by yourself. You tried, but your fingers came nothing close to competing with his. You were so incredibly needy that you had to forcefully stop yourself from gyrating your hips on Deku’s crotch. He was already red in the face, and you were afraid he might collapse if you worked your ass against the growing bulge in his jeans.

You broke your kiss to take Deku’s hands, and you rested them on your chest. With Bakugo, he would have immediately taken control, driving you into ecstasy, but with Deku it was different. It was as if he had never touched a pair of breasts before. His breathing grew even more shallow as his body became rigid.

You tilted your head, slightly irritated from the lack of action, but you were more concerned about Deku’s wellbeing.

“Are you okay?” you asked, tongue in cheek.

Deku nodded anxiously. “Yup, yup, yup, I’m great. I’m good.”

But something was off, and you knew you weren’t enjoying yourself like you typically would even with days of pent up libido. You closed your eyes tiredly and released an exasperated sigh, slowly pulling yourself off of him. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this right now--we shouldn’t--.”

Deku opened his mouth to contest, but you cut him off.

“It’s getting late, you should go. I’ll see you around.” You buried your face in your hands, embarrassed at your desperation. “I’m so sorry,” you apologized again.

Deku adjusted his glasses and murmured a small “It’s fine, Y/N.” He helped you up after he pulled himself off of the floor and gathered his belongings before heading out quickly, eager to flee the tension.

Fuck, you thought. How did things get so complicated? Deku was a sweet kid, genuinely pure at heart, and you knew he wanted you from the way his emerald eyes were glued to your frame, even while you were fully-clothed. Yet he wasn’t Bakugo. He didn’t know how to work you like Bakugo did, and you felt shamefaced for thinking about your ex-boyfriend again. You mulled it over and began to question why you were stopping yourself from having your cake and eating it too.

Bakugo didn’t intend on getting back together with you, but he enjoyed the phenomenal sex, and so did you. You held so much contempt for him now, but there was no reason why you couldn’t just agree to the terms of his compact.

Exes with benefits, only now with a few additions of your own.

No dates, no flirty chatter outside of your arrangements, nothing that could potentially steer you the wrong way towards forgiving him yet again, because like you told your friends: you were a pushover, and Bakugo was a sweet talker. That was a combination destined for hell.

Your revelation was exactly how you ended up sleeping with Bakugo again. Your sex life was practically a Dr. Seuss book. The two of you would have sex in his car, in the bathroom at a bar, and you’d have sex here, there, and pretty much anywhere.

When you first called him up, he answered almost immediately, somewhat excited to see your contact after going without speaking to each other for nearly a week. After you acceded, he snorted, wondering if you were conspiring.

“Are you fucking scheming something? Cooking up some devious shit to get me alone so you can kill me? Suffocate me while I’m sleeping? You’re goddamn insane.”

You rolled your eyes aggravated. “No. Are you down, or do you wanna pussy out now?”

Bakugo agreed, and both of you managed to keep things fairly cordial. Well, as cordial as they could possibly be, given your shared history. You couldn’t care less about the differences and arguments you had when you guys were in bed. If anything, you preferred it when Bakugo was angry at you, pissed at something you had said or just releasing pent up stress that built up over the week. That only made the sex filthier.

Although Bakugo wasn’t yours, and you weren’t his, that didn’t mean he didn’t hold some affection for you, and perhaps still even vice versa. He was possessive over you regardless, even if it meant coming dangerously close to breaching the contract. Especially when he caught you one night with Deku at an on-campus movie screening in the park.

After the fiasco at your apartment with you and Deku, you apologized sincerely to him a couple of days later in class. Deku took no hard feelings to your blunder, and he nodded at the mild rejection when you clarified that things would be best if the two of you stayed friends. He reassured you that he was fine, and he was far too occupied for a relationship of any sort anyway.

But Bakugo wasn’t aware that you two had already tested the waters and decided it was sink rather than swim.

When he spotted you alone sitting on a blanket, he strolled over, wearing a sardonic grin. He struck up a superficial conversation that quickly dissipated once Deku returned with the snacks you two planned on sharing.

Your grin when Deku arrived didn’t compare to the indifferent smile you gave Bakugo when he approached you, and he noticed. His eyes narrowed at your green-haired friend as burning rage coursed through his veins.

“Deku, this is Bakugo,” you said, uninterested in Bakugo’s presence while you took the bag of sour candy Deku offered to you.

Deku smiled at Bakugo, extending his hand to exchange a handshake, but Bakugo simply slapped his hand away dismissively.

“Whatever,” Bakugo jeered, his jaw rooted, before he diverted his attention back to you. “See you later, dumbass.”

He left without a fight, but you knew he wouldn’t put the memory past him, and the following night, all of Bakugo’s anger came bubbling out. The way his brain operated was fascinating, especially since he knew that you two had no romantic commitments to each other, that’s what you agreed on, but finally seeing you over him with someone who he assumed was your new interest turned him crazed.

Bakugo held a painful fistful of your hair, pushing your face into the mattress while he wrecked you. He forced himself into you from behind, muffling your screams with the pillow while he rammed into you relentlessly. Every thrust was vicious, exhibiting the full height of his temper.

“You’re mine, do you understand that? You’re mine to touch, mine to ruin. If anyone else puts their hands on you, I swear I’ll beat them within an inch of their life.”

Bakugo hated to admit it, especially since he knew admitting it turned him into the hypocritical dick of the year, but he enjoyed having you chase after him like a lovelorn puppy. You clung to his side, and you were there at his beck and call. He’d always hated being emotionally tied down, hence his apprehension toward serious relationships, but the way you took advantage of the freedom to see other men made him livid.

“Maybe if I really did put a baby in you other people wouldn’t be such a fucking pain. What do you think?”

Bakugo’s pace didn’t let up as his grip on your hair tightened, and he pulled you upright until your head rested back on his shoulder.

“Answer me,” he demanded, dangerously.

All you could muster were broken sobs. You had never seen Bakugo like this, and you were willing to avow that after discounting your fear and pain, it was hot, and you were slightly intrigued.

Bakugo secured his hand around your neck, allowing his fingers to dig into the side of your throat, and you could feel his cock throbbing inside you which let you know he was close, but he wasn’t making any efforts to slow down any time soon.

“The thought of you with him makes me want to fucking vomit. You know he’ll never be able to make you feel like I do,” he snarled against your ear. “No one will.”

You choked out a meager “I know” while your vision grew blurrier from the lack of oxygen to your head.

You came first and then Bakugo came shortly after, claiming you by pumping you full with his hot seed until you collapsed on the bed from overexhaustion.

You realized then, through the cloudiness of your thoughts came a single conviction: that your relationship with Bakugo was an endless cycle. You’d taken every romantic risk for Bakugo while he risked nothing. That’s how you remained foolish for so long, so naive. You refused to learn over and over again, and you sacrificed yourself in the process.

Once Bakugo threw you modest praise and disappeared into the bathroom, you gave way to the enormity of your despair. Your tears were silent and persistent until your breathing turned ragged while humiliation and resentment burned just beneath your skin.

You were smitten with someone who was bad at romance. Your love was a fairytale, but not everyone believed in fairytales, meaning that was both the birth and death of your chronicle. Fairytales were only real if you believed they were.

Bakugo continued to give you reasons to leave and seek out the love you deserved, but you took momentary bliss as your excuse for staying, like a lovesick fool or like an addict dying from overdose. You wish he would at least give you something to hold onto, like false hope or a pretty lie, but you knew that’s all you’d ever be able to do: wish that things were different so you two could have grown into something beautiful.

565 notes · View notes

makeste · 4 years ago

Note

I’ve just realised it’s been over a year since you last listed your top 10 characters! Has anything changed since then?

a lot has changed! actually, every single ranking has changed from last time except for one (which you can probably guess, lol).

1. Bakugou (previous rank: 1)

yes, believe it or not, Bakugou is still my favorite. I’ll understand if you all need a moment to recuperate from the shock of this.

2. Deku (previous rank: 4)

hi, so. I really love Deku a lot. I think he is a great character and there’s a lot of subtlety and complexity to him that he doesn’t always get credit for. he is loving and kind, but he’s not a pushover. he has moments of deer-in-headlights anxiety when he’s in the spotlight or talking to celebrities (or girls), but then he’ll go and launch into a five-hour speech if someone mentions a topic he’s interested in. he’s very much aware of the huge burden that’s been placed on his shoulders, and is struggling to figure out how to become his own person (which is fucking hard, you guys; how many sixteen-year-olds do you know who have a solid, firm idea of who they are as a person and what it is about themselves that makes them unique individuals?) while still living up to All Might’s legacy. he’s smart and determined and capable of extraordinary things, but second-guesses himself and has a tendency to overthink everything he does. he is interesting!! and he doesn’t always get credit for being interesting! but he is! anyways Deku ilu.

3. Aizawa (previous rank: 2)

still the best. still so tired. the manga is tripling down lately on highlighting how awesome he is. childhood angst and guilt and trauma?? yes. kicking lots of ass?? hell yes. being outrageously sexy with his floating wavy hair and glowy red eyes and spending almost this entire arc in Eraser Mode while Horikoshi hopes to god no one remembers how he made it a Whole Thing after USJ that Aizawa supposedly couldn’t hold his quirk for long periods like that anymore?? oh, you bet. who is even gonna complain about it. you?? I sure am not. and last but not least, being the greatest dad in the world who’s willing to stab god in the face in order to stay alive to protect his children and continue to watch them grow?? fam. you goddamn know that is a YES WITH CAPITAL LETTERS. how can one character honestly be so great. how can he even contain it. he’s so powerful.

4. Todoroki (previous rank: 5/6)

Ochako slid all the way off my top ten list and I feel so bad about it. but she hasn’t had the spotlight for a long time, and meanwhile Shouto has had what feels like ARC AFTER ARC of being awesome and doing awesome things like becoming Bakugou’s Undisputed Best Friend, having the longest and purest canon romantic relationship in the series (I am of course talking about him/soba), and playing a key role in one of the most beautifully executed family arcs I have ever seen, with his conflicted feelings about his father that are so layered that THEIR LAYERS HAVE LAYERS. and meanwhile his quirk kicks as much ass as ever. remember that one time Shouto almost burned Tetsutetsu alive. remember that other time he fucking annihilated Ending (“GIVE ME BACK MY BROTHER”)?! and meanwhile he remains the goodest and purest child in the entire series, making sure Mt. Lady’s heart is okay, and offering his two friends internships without a second’s hesitation because THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS DO. it’s just what they do you guys.

5. Hawks (previous rank: n/a! welcome to the top ten kiddo.)

OH NO I LOVE A MURDERER WHAT A STUNNING INDICTMENT OF ME. send me off to jail. anyway so I have always liked Hawks, but the latest arc has sent him skyrocketing up through the ranks of my heart. not because of the murder thing, but... okay well but actually, it is because of the murder thing though. NOT BECAUSE I’M HAPPY HE KILLED A GUY WE ALL LOVED, jesus, but because of how well Horikoshi portrayed his struggle over it. he didn’t want to do it!! but he ended up having to in the end, and he paid one hell of a heavy price for it. and listen, but if you give me a character who is smart, who is compassionate, and who is one of the most mentally and physically capable characters we’ve seen in the series and yet simultaneously does not have even the slightest ounce of regard or self-preservation for his own mental health? a character who is tired, who is willing to make sacrifices up to and including the ultimate sacrifice for what he believes is the greater good? a character who is achingly alone and isolated in so much of what he has to go through, who doesn’t dare drop his guard ever, who’s not able or willing to share his burdens with anyone else? if you give me a character like that, and then ask me not to love him, it’s like. I am very sorry but I truly have no say in it at this point. he’s adopted. I’m sorry it’s the law.

6. Tomura (previous rank: n/a)

OH NO I LOVE TWO MURDERERS WHAT EVEN IS WRONG WITH ME. hahaha. so in between the time of now and when I last did a character ranking, Tomura had a flashback! and it was very traumatic! he was little and sweet and his dad was a dick and there was a lot of blood and gore and a dog died!! and then AFO was all “HELLO IT’S ME COME TO SWOOP IN AND ADOPT YOU AND ENCOURAGE YOU TO KILL STUFF AND ALSO HERE ARE YOUR DEAD FAMILY’S SEVERED BODY PARTS TO ADORN YOURSELF WITH SO YOU NEVER STOP FEELING MISERABLE.” and everyone sitting there reading was all, “well I’ll just come out and say it, I can sort of understand why he became a murderer now,” and we all agreed that yes, it did indeed make a great deal of sense, when you put it that way. anyway, so obviously you can’t not feel empathy toward the kid after all that, even if he is going around killing A WHOLE LOT MORE people now, and has basically gone batshit insane actually. I remain steadfast in my conviction that Tomura is not the actual final villain -- AFO is. and call me crazy, but in spite of everything, I still think this kid has a shot at redemption. it won’t be pretty, and it’ll be a long, long path, and he might not ever fully make it all the way, but he’s someone who’s been manipulated and used as a puppet his entire life, and I want him to have the chance to finally break free from that. hopefully he’ll get it.

7. Mirko (previous rank: n/a)

so previously this section just said “MIRKO!!!!!”, which I honestly think sums it up pretty well. I honestly can’t think of any other character who has come along and just slapped me straight across the face with their sheer awesomeness as much as her, though. every time she’s onscreen/on the page my face is just a huge grin the entire time. she is fearless. like, she’s the type of person who actually does laugh in the face of danger -- like that’s not just an expression, she will LITERALLY LAUGH. she is Peter Pan with a dagger to his throat, smiling and saying “to die would be an awfully big adventure.” she is someone who’s found her purpose in life and is thriving. Mirko has no time for your existential angst; she’s too busy kicking ass every minute of every hour of every day. I love her so, so much. thank you so much Horikoshi for being obsessed with her and making her the biggest badass in the whole series.

8. All Might (previous rank: 3)

I still adore him! he just has had next to nothing to do for what seems like forever, so the other characters who are still getting steady development are kind of just sneaking past him one by one. but he is still the absolute best. he cares so much. so, so, so, so much. he’s not always the most natural when it comes to being a teacher or a mentor, and he stumbles and makes mistakes, but he loves his kids. he cares about them so fiercely. and that’s far and away the most important thing, and it’s not even close. and he’s also just so endlessly self-sacrificing and constantly putting everyone else before himself, and it’s insane. he’s someone who is just constantly thinking, “how can I do more, how can I help more, what else can I do to try and make the world better” even as he stumbles along with half a lung, and struggles with his feelings of inadequacy and helplessness and feeling like it’s just still not enough. I want to give All Might the biggest hug in the world and tell him that it’s all right, that he did good, that the kids are going to be all right. when Aizawa told him “you being alive is enough” I almost had a breakdown tbh. anyway if I keep going I’m gonna talk myself into moving him back up the list and then I’ll have to rearrange this whole thing lol so suffice it to say, fuck yeah All Might.

9. Momo (previous rank: 7)

when is Momo gonna do more stuff, Horikoshi?? huh??! he does realize that whenever she does stuff it’s always amazing?? so why is she not just constantly doing amazing, awesome stuff all the time?? I don’t know, and frankly I’ve had just about enough of this. let Momo do stuff 2020. but I won’t talk about this anymore for now because I haven’t ready any chapter 278 spoilers and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

(ETA: I HAVE READ CHAPTER 278 NOW AND ALL I CAN SAY IS YESSSSS!!! MOMO!!!! also I swear to god I genuinely had not seen any spoilers when I was writing this post lol, it was a total coincidence. I’m glad the “let Momo do stuff 2020″ campaign was so immediately successful though.)

10. Kaminari (previous rank: 8)

last but not least, my five-and-a-half-year-old traitor son, Kaminari Denki. he is just such a shining beam of light and life and goodness and chaos. there is this amazingly buoyant energy whenever he’s on the page that just fills me with love for him. I constantly just want to ruffle his hair, just, all the damn time. he is everybody’s friend, he loves them all so much, and he fearlessly calls Bakugou “Kacchan” heedless of the repercussions (OF WHICH THERE WERE NONE!!), and he sincerely tells Jirou that he’s in awe of her musical talents, and he wrecked his fingers learning to play guitar for her but he was happy to do it, and he was afraid to fight in the big ALL THE VILLAINS VS ALL THE HEROES battle because DUH!?! but he still did it anyway because he had to protect his friends. and his quirk and its side effects are constantly used for comic relief and not taken seriously at all (even though it’s actually insanely powerful holy shit), but he doesn’t care because he’s happy to make his friends happy. he’ll willingly be the butt of the joke if it means he gets to see them laugh. he just has such a big heart, and in all seriousness, if you think he’s the traitor I just don’t even know what to say to you.

so that’s it! Tokoyami, Ochako, Shinsou, Iida, and Sero would probably be the next five, with Endeavor, Toga, Mina, Jirou, and Mirio rounding out the top twenty. maybe not in that exact order but it’s close enough. really there are only like three characters in the series I actually truly dislike, so I’m honestly glad “top ten” is the general standard otherwise I’d be here all night running through them all lol.

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lockefanfic · 4 years ago

Text

Business Trip: Pt 21 - Recovery

Yoo Jeongyeon wasn’t wearing pants.

That was the first thought that crossed your mind, and it was followed up very quickly by the realization that she probably had the most beautiful pair of legs you had ever seen.

Her entire lower body was perfectly sculpted, flaring nicely at hips that led to healthy, delicious looking thighs before leading to thin, slim knees and lower legs. She seemed to go on forever. That old cliche of having ‘legs for days’ came to mind, and as much as it disappointed you to have to use such a tired cliche, you could think of no other way to describe her. But instead of going on for days, Jeongyeon’s legs stretched out into weeks and months.

This was not to say that the rest of her, covered by the extremely short hem of her chauffeur’s jacket, was in any way unappealing. The jacket clung to her like a second skin, and did little to hide the modest but still healthy curves of her chest. The black driver’s cap topped a small face with features that could be beautifully demure one moment, and cute and sardonic the next.

Her features were currently covered in an adorable pink blush of embarrassment as she slowly appears from the bedroom hallway, taking small steps towards you as she nervously plays with her hands, her eyes glued to her fingers as though she had never seen them before. You rise from the sofa, trying in vain to pick up your jaw from the floor as you do so.

“The outfit didn’t have matching pants that fit me,” Jeongyeon says, as if to explain away the fact that, well, she wasn’t wearing pants at all.

Through the one way glass between the observation room and the interrogation room, you watch as, for the third time, Park Jihyo rises from her chair, a look of frustration clear on her face. Saying one last thing in Korean to Yoon Bora, she leaves the room, swinging open the door and slamming it behind her.

“She won’t say a goddamn word,” Jihyo says seconds later when she enters the observation room. You watch as Bora continues to wear the expressionless mask she has for the past two days, wondering just how someone so outwardly beautiful could be so inwardly ugly. She was so pleasant when you first met, so seemingly innocent and passionate about her dance studio that it was difficult to believe that girl and the one you were looking at were the same person.

“You’ve confirmed that she and Hyorin have connections to Irene?”

“Yes,” Jihyo answers, “we were able to confiscate their cell phones when we arrested them, and we raided their apartments and have their computers and other personal devices.”

“And? Anything that could lead us to Irene?”

“No,” Jihyo replies with a sigh, “there’s enough evidence and records to tie them to Irene but all their communications to her are on cloud-based servers. As you can see, Bora here isn’t exactly being forthcoming with her login information. Hacking their accounts would take some time and require a court warrant, and even if we do receive it Irene has likely deleted anything useful by now.”

You let a soft sigh escape your lips, the frustration of knowing that Irene has once again escaped your grasp quickly beginning to overwhelm you.

“So she gets away again?”

Jihyo frowns as she turns her attention to Bora, who has not moved an inch.

“We’ll break Bora. She’ll talk eventually, or maybe Hyorin will. We’ll get Irene soon.”

You turn your attention back to Bora and watch as she brushes away stray hairs back behind an ear. It’s the most she has done in the past hour, her eyes staring blankly ahead and her arms folded in front of her chest. She seemed like an almost completely different person.

“That sorry about her dance studio, that was all bullshit?”

Jihyo takes a moment to answer, and when she does her tone is slightly more empathetic towards the woman in the interrogation room.

“Yes and no. From what we’ve gathered from the data on her computer and cell phone, she really did have a dance studio on property that SM bought. I’ve done some digging and it seems she was really active in Seoul’s dance community. Some of my contacts have told me she and Jay were really passionate about teaching neighborhood kids to dance, and that she did it because she didn’t want them to fall in with the gangs operating in that area.”

“So what happened?”

“SM happened. They bought out her dance studio, and although their two partners wanted to keep the studio going, Bora and Hyorin bullied them into selling the studio to SM. Maybe they were temporarily blinded by greed; SM probably threw a lot of money at them. Irene probably recruited them then.”

“Hmm. She told me her partners were the ones that sold the studio. But wait, so that dance studio she took us too - that was all a front? Those students weren’t real?”

“No, they were. That was a real dance studio. To be honest, we didn’t know it existed. Maybe there’s still a part of her that is passionate about teaching dance. Maybe she used the money she received from selling their original dance studio to open her new one - maybe out of guilt.”

In the interrogation room, Bora glances towards the one way mirror, and though she cannot see you or Jihyo, she surely knew there was someone there watching her. The same blank look on her features, she turns away again - although this time her gaze falls downward, as though she is deep in thought.

“What about Jay?”

Jihyo’s mood turns dark, and you didn’t blame her. Jay had been Irene and SM’s mole in Seoul’s Police Department, and no one knew just how many cases he had impacted.

“He’ll survive, but he’s damn lucky our pointman didn’t give him two in the chest and one in the head. Like I said, he and Bora appeared to be genuinely interested in teaching kids to dance, but I think maybe he fell a little further than Bora did.”

You frown as you finally turn away from the one way glass, giving Bora one last look as you prepare to leave the room. The young dance instructor was gorgeous, almost breathtakingly so, and you found yourself wondering just what was going on beneath that expressionless mask she had on.

But then you remember the role she played in kidnapping two of your staff, and suddenly you are happy to let her rot in that interrogation room.

---

The next thing on your agenda after leaving the Seoul police department was to meet with Choa and Jeongyeon to ensure they were okay following their ordeal. Momo and Seolhyun insisted on accompanying you, and decided to stay with Choa and have lunch with her. Choa appeared to be her ever-cheerful self, and satisfied that your strong, confident executive assistant was okay, you went on to meet with Jeongyeon alone.

Tracking her down was more difficult than you thought it would be, given that she didn’t answer her phone or your text messages after she sent you the address of your meeting place. Said meeting place provided an explanation as to why she wasn’t answering her phone, as it turned out to be a PC café in downtown Seoul. It being the middle of the day on weekday, the café was mostly empty.

After some searching amongst row after row of gaming desktops, you finally found her in a corner of the café, fully engrossed in whatever game she was playing. The large gaming headset she had on provided an explanation for all the calls and messages she was missing. It came a somewhat of a surprise to you that she was currently playing Starcraft – then again, it wasn’t really a surprise, given your location and her nationality.

“Oh, damn, sorry boss – I’ll be just a second,” she says as she realizes you had arrived. She doesn’t turn her attention away from the game, however, her hands working furiously on the keyboard and mouse as the Protoss Zealots and Immortals on her screen do battle with Terran marines and siege tanks. A few moments later those two magical letters – gg – flash in the game chat, and the official game announcement of her victory comes soon after.

Jeongyeon is dressed simply, in a simple light brown cardigan and skinny jeans. She removes her headset and the large round pair of glasses she is wearing (that apparently are just for show) and finally turns to face you, taking a moment to release her brown hair from her ponytail.

You didn’t have much of a relationship with Yoo Jeongyeon aside from seeing her occasionally in the hallways at work and the occasional mention from Choa, whom she was friends with. You knew she was a rising star in the IT department at JYP, but aside from that, you rarely, if ever, had any actual contact with her aside from the odd glance and awkward smile whenever you passed in the hallways.

That all changed when the conflict with Red Velvet and Irene came up, and the need for an experienced IT specialist came with it. Choa was quick to suggest Jeongyeon, and you were able to requisition her services from her manager. In planning meetings for the trip to Seoul you were quick to notice not only her immense technical expertise, but also her cute features and the allure of her tomboy, guy’s girl aura. The bright blue hair she sported at the time helped with that latter appeal, of course.

But lately she had let a little more of her feminine side show, growing her hair out, dyeing it in more natural colors and wearing more subdued clothing – not that you minded the punk rock esthetic she was so fond of previously. Her clothing changes and haircut revealed a new side of her, and it was a side that was made all the more attractive by the knowledge that it had always been there, hidden by her tough girl aura and dry, sarcastic wit.

And so you found yourself momentarily stricken with awe as her brown hair comes loose from her ponytail to fall in a chocolate waterfall down to her shoulders. She smiles at you – a shy, awkward smile, but one that still highlights her large, deep eyes and small, cute features.

“Sorry, boss, just had to kick some ass there for a second,” she says – it seems that geeky wit of hers didn’t change, even if her hair and clothing choices did.

“No worries, Jeongyeon. Gotta keep those Terran noobs in their place,” you agree as you take a seat in the booth next to hers.

“How can I help ya?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” you begin, “after what happened the other day. I know the doctors cleared you and Choa physically, but I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright. Y’know, mentally.”

“I’m fine, boss,” Jeongyeon answers, “truth be told it was kind of terrifying. But all is well that ends well, I guess. If anything, I’m just a little pissed off about the whole thing.”

“How so?”

“Irene literally hired people to kidnap Choa and I,” she answers, a little more passion in her voice, “and we were lucky that things turned out the way they did. Anything could have happened. They could have shot us, or something could have gone wrong when Jihyo’s SWAT team raided the place…”

“But nothing went wrong,” you quickly interrupt, eager to ensure that she didn’t start to walk down the dangerous path of asking what might have been, “you said it yourself – all’s well that ends well. The fact is, Jihyo’s team saved you guys and we have the people who did it. They’ll be in jail for a long time.”

“But we didn’t get all of them. Irene is still out there.”

“Yes, and we’ll find her. Soon. I promise.”

Jeongyeon seems only half satisfied by your declaration. There is a determination in her eyes that is bordering on anger – she really seemed fired up by what Irene did to her.

“I’ve been continuing my review of the data we retrieved from their servers,” she begins, turning back to her computer, “and I’ll let you know if I find anything. I want to make her pay for what she did to Choa and I.”

“Good. Because I’m going to request that you’re transferred to my team permanently.”

Jeongyeon turns back to you with a surprised look on her face.

“…Really?”

“Yes. It’s clear that we need someone with your skills on the team. Who better than you?”

The young IT specialist takes a moment to absorb your offer, and the small smile that appears on her lips tells you that was happy to receive it.

“Well, I would accept your offer, boss, but I feel like I’d be a little out of place in that little group of supermodels you’ve gathered around yourself.”

“…What?”

“Oh come on,” she starts exaggeratedly, “Tzuyu and Mina are walking pieces of art. Sana is cuter than any girl has any right to be. Seolhyun has more curves in her pinky finger than I do in my entire body. And Momo is pretty and beautiful and hot at the same time – it makes me angry just looking at her. They’re the Plastics from Mean Girls, except on top of being gorgeous they’re all also super smart and successful.”

The thought of Momo being compared to Rachel McAdams makes you smile a little bit.

“And what makes you think you don’t belong right up there with them?” you say, allowing a sly smile to appear on your lips.

Jeongyeon takes your flattery in stride, although the slight hint of blush and small smile that appear on her cheeks and lips as she returns her attention to her computer tells you that it didn’t go fully unaccepted. She lets out a snort of dismissal, but if her intention was to convince you she didn’t care, it failed at it.

“Besides,” you continue, “you’re attractive in a way none of those other girls is.”

“And what’s that?”

“You’re a giant fucking geek.”

Jeongyeon lets a genuine giggle escape her, and you are heartened by the way her face lights up when she laughs, her mouth opening up into a large smile and her eyes following suit.

“Flattery will get you nowhere. Only by defeating me on the field of battle will I join your team,” she says, motioning towards the open booth next to hers.

“Bring it. Name the game.”

“We’re in Korea at a PC café. What else would we play?”

On the screen in front of you, your last few Terran marines fight desperately in a last stand against the Zerg hordes, but their cause is lost, and you are forced to type those to magical letters – gg – into the game chat.

“Geez, boss,” Jeongyeon quips, “that took five minutes. I even told you what I was going to do. And I still won.”

It was true – she did say she was going to six-pool you before the game even started. Not that it mattered.

“Clearly I can’t beat you in the national sport of your country. Is there any other way to get you to join my team?”

Jeongyeon childishly swirls around in her chair, an adorable thinking face on her features as she taps her chin with one finger.

“I guess you can get additional chances to beat me at something,” she says, a brightness appearing on her features that wasn’t there when you had arrived. Gathering her things and putting her faux glasses back on, she grabs you by the wrist and leads you out of the café.

The “additional chances” turned out to be a variety of games at the nearby amusement centre in one of Seoul’s large malls. The chances were many – various arcade games, the batting cage, even a few games of chance in the amusement park section – but Jeongyeon won them all; or at least, did so after you let her.

“C’mon, you let me win in the batting cages,” she quips after the two of you leave the amusement centre after a long afternoon of gaming and begin to idly wander through the attached shopping mall. There is a happiness to her that wasn’t present at the start of the day, and you had to admit the spending time with her made you feel happy as well. It turned out that behind the dry, laconic wit and heavy layers of sarcasm was a sweet, gentle girl that was happy to have some fun after what could have been a traumatic life event. The brightness her smile brought to the room was hard to ignore, and her casual nature and occasional tomboyishness made her easy to get along with.

“Maybe, but only because you gave me a head start for the drum game,” you answer, referring to the arcade game that involved you drumming a large taiko drum to the beat of the music, “not that it kept you from beating me by the end of it anyway.”

“I was feeling merciful. Clearly you are rhythmically-challenged. Either way, I do believe that you have yet to beat me at anything, and thus I still won’t be joining your-“

Jeongyeon stops mid-sentence, her attention suddenly captured by something in one of the stores you are passing. It takes you a moment to realize she is staring into the window of what appeared to be a costume store. In the window is the object of her attention – a green chauffeur outfit, comprising of a green suit jacket and matching pants, with a black driver’s cap.

“That’s gorgeous,” she says out loud, although her tone and volume imply to you that perhaps she didn’t mean to say it out loud.

“A chauffeur’s costume?” you ask, not quite knowing why or how someone like Jeongyeon could be interested in such a niche costume. Halloween was months away, at least…

Jeongyeon is surprised by your comment – she looked like she had momentarily forgotten you were even there - and a look of embarrassment appears on her face.

“Um, yeah… nevermind, boss. Let’s keep going.”

“Wait, wait,” you say, catching her by the upper arm as she attempts to keep walking away, “what do you want a chauffeur’s costume for?”

“Nothing, let’s just-“

“Jeongyeon, we’re not moving until you tell me. Don’t make me tell everyone at work how you put your batting helmet on backwards because you didn’t know which way it went on your head.”

Jeongyeon smirks at your mention of her faux-pas in the batting cages. A sheepish, shy look appears on her face as she turns back to the costume in the window. She plays nervously with her hands as she continues to admire it.

“I um.. I wouldn’t wear it out in public.”

“So when would you wear it? Halloween?”

The girl stares at her feet as though she’d never seen them before. She crosses her legs and plays with her toes, scratching at an imaginary stain on the floor with the tip of her shoe. She continues to play with her fingers, pinching her nails and running her digits over each other.

“I…. I’m kind of… well, I’m kind of into roleplaying.”

Jeongyeon was a shameless geek and the idea of her being into roleplaying games or something like cosplay or even LARPing didn’t come as much of a surprise.

“You mean, like Dungeons and Dragons? I was totally into that too. In high school, at least. I remember-“

“No, not that kind of roleplay,” Jeongyeon interrupts, a bright red blush appearing on her cheeks now as she stares down at the floor and awkwardly fidgets with her hands.

“Oh?”

“The kind of roleplay… that you do… in the bedroom.”

It takes you a second to fully digest what Jeongyeon says, and it doesn’t help that she turns away from you, nervously fidgeting with the zipper of her black puffy jacket. You take one look at her, one look at the chauffeur costume and suddenly feel an intense jealousy towards her boyfriend.

“I… wow. I’m jealous of your boyfriend.”

Jeongyeon lets out a snort of disbelief, followed by a nervous giggle.

“Oh, there’s no boyfriend,” she begins, “in fact there hasn’t been one for awhile.”

“I find that ridiculously hard to believe. I don’t know if you’re aware, Jeongyeon, but you’re kind of the shiny Charizard of girls. Pretty and a giant nerd? C’mon.”

Jeongyeon keeps her eyes on the chauffeur costume, afraid or unable to make eye contact with you. But the small blush that was on her cheeks is evident now, along with a smile creeping into the corners of her soft lips.

“Whatever, let’s go,” she says, eager to move on, if anything because it would allow her to get over the intense nervousness overtaking her entire being, “I won’t be wearing that thing anytime soon, anyway.”

Jeongyeon turns and takes a few steps away from the window. In that time you thank whatever gods may be for the ridiculous run of luck you’ve been having with women. Satisfied that your thankful prayers are safely on their way to the deities they were sent to, you open your mouth and say something before she is too far away to hear.

“You could wear it for me. Like, soon.”

Jeongyeon turns around mid-step, her eyes initially locked on the floor between you. When she finally gathers her wits enough to raise her gaze to match yours, you are momentarily stunned by what you see - gone is the awkward, nerdy, sarcastic IT specialist; in her place was a sly, sultry young woman.

“Wait here,” she says in a tone so dripping with allure that you would have refused to believe it was Yoo Jeongyeon speaking those words had you heard them yesterday. Jeongyeon bites her lip, a thin smile on her lips as she heads into the costume store. You follow her orders, standing and waiting there in stunned silence.

---

The trip back to your hotel took longer than you thought it would, every second in the taxi ride filled with anticipation for what was about to come. Few words passed between you, but it wasn’t awkward; rather, it was a silence filled with intense anticipation, the both of you stealing loaded glances at each other, or smiling nervously when your hands grazed each other accidentally.

When you finally reach her hotel room, Jeongyeon steps into the living room before turning and facing you.

“Sit down,” she says, a sly smile on her lips as she watches you follow her orders before turning and sauntering towards the bedroom.

It felt a little like an eternity sitting there, waiting for her to emerge from the bedroom, but when she does come out, you realize it was worth every second.

Yoo Jeongyeon wasn’t wearing pants.

That was the first thought that crossed your mind, and it was followed up very quickly by the realization that she probably had the most beautiful pair of legs you had ever seen.

“The outfit didn’t have matching pants that fit me,” Jeongyeon says, as if to explain away the fact that, well, she wasn’t wearing pants at all.

“I’m not complaining,” you say, matter-of-factly.

“Good,” she replies, because your ride is ready, boss.”

The use that title took on new meaning now - earlier in the morning it was merely an informal nickname, but now it meant something a little more.

“Really? And where are we going, Jeongyeon?”

“Wherever you want, boss,” she replies, crossing her legs while standing in place, her long, naked limbs intensely attractive in the low light of the hotel room, “you should know, though, that there is a fee attached to my transportation services. I insist that you pay a deposit immediately, followed by the rest of the fee once we arrive at our destination.”

“And what might that deposit be?”

The girl is quiet for a moment, and you lose contact with her eyes for a moment beneath the brim of her hat as she lowers her head as though she were deep in thought. She is still playing nervously with her fingers, and she is fidgeting with her long, naked legs, rubbing her thighs together in a way that is sublimely arousing.

“You have to make me cum. Now. And when we arrive at the destination, you can pay the balance for the services rendered.”

There is a split second, only a split second, of silence - the moments before the storm of passion breaks - while you stare into her eyes and find only lust and desire there.

Your hand reaches up of its own free will and cups Jeongyeon’s cheek before you step forward and kiss her, softly at first but quickly becoming more passionate within moments. Your brain is alight with excitement at that first moment of intimacy with a new woman, and from the way Jeongyeon returns your kiss and wraps her arms around your neck and head you knew she felt similarly.

Your hands are not idle, and while most of your attention is focused on her lips you find the wherewithal to snake your own arms around her small torso, delighting in the feel of her slim body pressed against yours. Your kiss deepens further, and you press your tongue softly against her lips before Jeongyeon accepts it into her mouth, pressing her own against it as you explore each others’ mouths for the first time.

For a solid minute you are content to stand there and make out with the young woman, but soon you remember you had a price to pay for your travel.

Breaking the kiss, you slowly trace a path down her jaw, placing soft, light kisses on her perfect, soft skin until you bury your mouth in the crook of her neck, satisfied to hear a light gasp of surprise emit from Jeongyeon’s lips; the first sound of yearning you had ever heard from her. As you kiss and explore her neck you can feel her breathing quicken as she fully submits to the desires and passion quickly overtaking her senses.

You decide to take the next step, reaching your hands down her torso, pressing tightly against her tight, slim body until they reach and then eventually overtake the end of the short garment. You slide your hands up under her jacket until you are cupping both of her ass cheeks, relishing in the feel of her warm, full mounds of flesh beneath your palms.

Jeongyeon lets a loud gasp escape her lips, one that convinces you that what she said earlier about not having a boyfriend was probably true - the way she was reacting to your advances made you think that perhaps it had been awhile since she was last intimate with someone.

You caress her butt softly beneath the hem of her jacket, which was now hiked up around her waist. Your palms wander carefully around her ass, brushing up against what felt like a thin thong. You smile to yourself as you slowly slide your hands lower until they are mid thigh, before slowly and carefully picking her up.

Jeongyeon gasps in surprise as you lift her easily - she certainly wasn’t heavy, and so you lift and deposit her on the extended portion of the sofa with ease. You step between her legs, and you are satisfied to find that she opens them easily for you as you drop to your knees. You take another look into her lust-laden eyes before you kiss her again, your lips crashing against each other with a little more passion than before.

“I hope you don’t mind if I take off my uniform, boss?” she says, her voice low and full of lust, “It’s getting a little hot in here.”

With delicate fingers she undoes the buttons of her jacket, quickly sliding the green garment off her body once she has done so, leaving her in the white dress shirt and tie she wore beneath. There were few things sexier than a woman in a white dress shirt, but one of them was a woman in a white dress shirt that was undressing for you.

Jeongyeon begins by undoing the small green tie around her neck, tossing it away once it is undone. Then, painfully slowly, she undoes each button of the white dress shirt, her eyes locked on yours the whole while. She is biting her lip again, the small action so extremely sexy.

Her small hands reach for the top part of her shirt, playing with the thin fabric, her large, expressive eyes still holding your gaze. Satisfied that she held every ounce of your attention, she slowly pulls the garment open down her shoulders, the white fabric giving way to perfect, creamy vanilla skin as she reveals her chest to you. She doesn’t take the shirt completely off, allowing it instead just to fall down her back, her forearms still in its sleeves.

You could now add a bra to the list of things she wasn’t wearing.

Her breasts are small and humble, but perfectly shaped and in perfect scale with the rest of her slim, tight body. Her nipples are so enticing, so delicious, already erect with the promise of the pleasure that is to come. Her stomach is flat and slightly toned, but you found yourself unable to resist her breasts for much longer, and you find yourself staring lewdly at her naked chest, unable to move any further until she herself shakes you from your stupor. Jeongyeon leans back on the sofa until she is on her elbows, her long, slim torso laid out for you.

“I’m ready to accept your payment, boss.”

It’s your turn now to bite your lip, every word that leaves her mouth made so intensely erotic by the fact that you had no idea such a sexual, kinky creature was beneath the geeky, tomboyish exterior she displayed to the rest of the world. And here you were, standing between her spread legs as she sits on the desk in front of you with an open shirt, asking - pleading - to be devoured.

With a hungry, devilish smile on your face, you bend to give her a quick kiss on the lips before quickly moving to her upper chest, planting soft kisses on her newly exposed skin, your hunger and desire for the young woman quickly becoming intolerable, unbearable. You had to have her - there was something about the way she had kept all her intense sexuality hidden all this time that only heightened your desire to have her, taste her, make her cum - and eventually, be inside her.

Soon you reach her small, perfect breasts, and you waste no time in devouring her small, pink nipples, forgetting for a moment your earlier resolution to take your time given her likely inexperience. But you found yourself unable to resist the small mounds of flesh, savoring the taste of her hardened peaks in your mouth and the sharp, increasingly loud gasps and moans each lick and suck elicited from their owner.

Her hands are entwined in your hair now, pressing your head against her chest as though imploring you to take more of her. You are happy to oblige, switching breasts, latching onto her left breast now as your left hand ensures her right breast is not unattended, gently squeezing and cupping her soft flesh and saliva-lathered nipple.

It takes an extreme amount of discipline to tear yourself away from her chest, but you remind yourself of the task you had in front of you, and the “payment” you had yet to make. Regretfully - for both of you, if the moan of disappointment Jeongyeon lets out as you leave her breasts is any indication - you slowly begin to make your way downward, your lips leaving a trail of kisses on her flat stomach before you find yourself on your knees between her spread legs, the almost completely soaked thin cotton thong the only barrier between you and the delicious treat of her pussy.

You reach up with both hands, grasping the thin string of her thong at her hips before you pull the garment off her, Jeongyeon lifting her butt off the desk and bringing her legs together momentarily to allow you to remove the garment completely. Her pussy is perfect, her lower lips soft and inviting and glistening with her wetness.

Remembering for a moment your resolution to take things slowly, you turn and plant soft kisses on her spread thighs, the soft skin warm against your lips. In response Jeongyeon has closed her thighs around your head, her feet hanging over your shoulders and crossed somewhere on your back as she traps you between her legs; it was likely out of instinct, again likely because she was so inexperienced.

It is a wonderful feeling, to say the least, being sandwiched by her soft, warm thighs, but you knew you needed full access to her body, and your mobility was limited somewhat with her legs wrapped around your head. Reaching up with your hands, you place them on the inside of her soft thighs before pulling them apart, spreading her legs again, allowing you more room to work.

You look up for a moment, past the glistening lips of pink flesh in front of you, past her flat stomach and the heaving mounds of her breasts to her eyes, and you find a look full of lust, but also of yearning - the yearning to have you make her feel as good as you had always thought she looked - absolutely amazing.

Unwilling and unable to wait even a second later, you finally allow your mouth to descend between her spread thighs, extending your tongue and licking her pussy lightly from bottom to top, just barely grazing her moist, soft flesh. Jeongyeon lets the loudest moan of the day escape her lips at the new sensations beginning to flood her body, and you take that as permission to continue.

You continue to lick her most sensitive area, adding to the further build up of pleasure coursing through her veins, enjoying the sweet taste of her slick juices gathering on your tongue. Your hands, satisfied that she was going to keep her legs spread in their current position, move closer to your mouth, your left hand moving to the top of her mound and your right drifting downward toward her entrance.

Once you feel she is ready - and the juices flowing freely from her body are a great indication - you take things to the next level, using your left hand to carefully spread apart the lips of her pussy, revealing the glistening pearl of her clit; simultaneously, you lightly penetrate her body with two fingertips of your right hand until you are two knuckles deep. Then, with utmost care, you give her clit a swipe with the tip of your tongue.

“Oh, fuck!” the young woman exclaims, her hands buried in your hair as you feel her lower legs wrap around your shoulders, keeping your face pressed against her. Satisfied that you were on the right path, you move on, placing more, faster licks on her clit while pushing further inside her with your fingers. Soon you are licking her with a steady, passionate pace, and your fingers are almost completely inside her, curling upwards and finding that rough patch at the front of her pussy.

Jeongyeon’s reaction to your first touches on her g-spot are ecstatic, and her hips rise off the surface of the table involuntarily, the young woman temporarily losing control of her body to the sparks of pleasure flaring out from her crotch. Her juices flow freely into your greedy tongue, and your fingers feel her slick, wet walls begin to tighten around them; she was getting close.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” she exclaims as if chanting, “oh god, I’m gonna cum!”

You want to tell her to cum, want to tell her to let go, but it was difficult to speak with your mouth full of her hot, wet flesh, and so you encourage her the only way you could - by increasing your pace ever so slightly with your tongue on her clit and your wet fingers thrusting in and out of her slick flesh.

The effect is immediate, and the orgasm that courses through Yoo Jeongyeon’s body is unmistakable, her long, slim legs wrapping themselves tightly around your head, trapping your face between her wet pussy and warm thighs. She convulses slightly, her limbs and hips quivering of their own accord. But most delicious of all is the feel of her pussy tightening so stiffly against your fingers, and the warm, sweet juices that flow freely onto your greedy, wanton tongue.

It takes awhile for her to recover, but when she finally does, and when she finally allows her legs to loosen their deathgrip on your head, she finds the strength to finally speak.

“Fuck.”

The single word causes you to giggle a little as you finally lift your face from between her thighs, licking your lips as you gather the oily juice on your tongue and savor its taste. Jeongyeon reaches down with her hand on your cheek and pulls you up, making you rise from your knees to kiss her, her tongue eagerly tasting her own nectar on yours.

From this position the bulge in your pants presses up against her crotch, and she breaks the kiss to glance down at where your pelvises are touching.

“Payment accepted. I think it’s time we get going - wouldn’t want you to be late to your destination.”

You both smile slyly as Jeongyeon rises from the sofa and takes a few steps towards the bedroom. With a look over her shoulder at you, she slides the white dress shirt off her arms, finally leaving her entirely naked - aside from the black chauffeur’s hat.

That such a downright gorgeous woman could have been near you for so long without you noticing was utterly mind boggling. Every square inch of her tall, slim body was dripping with sensuality, from those deep, dark eyes to her long, curvy legs. Her body was so unlike the other women you’d had recently, so tall and slim and seemingly going on forever.

She reaches over and takes your hand. With one more sexy, wanton look, she turns and begins to saunter over to the bedroom, those slender legs and wide hips making sure you watched every step she took.

“Looks like we’ve arrived, boss,” she says seconds later in the bedroom, “and I do believe you have to pay the balance of the transport fee.”

“Gladly, Jeongyeon.”

“Good,” she says, her voice all soft seduction, “then come fuck me.”

Your patience is not infinite; and going by the way Jeongyeon presses herself against you and kisses you deeply, neither is hers. Arms quickly work at your belt, and you take the moment to divest yourself of the sweater you are wearing - soon you are as naked as she is, aside of course for the chauffeur’s hat. Jeongyeon reaches up to her head to remove it, but you grasp her wrist and smile. She takes the hint and leaves it on.

Mouths still locked in a heated, passionate kiss, you slowly push her forward until you reach the edge of the bed, which thankfully is relatively elevated and thus perfect for what you had in mind. Jeongyeon hops onto the bed, those gorgeous legs spreading easily for you as you step between them. She reaches down with her left hand and wraps her thin fingers around your hard shaft, a sly smile appearing on her lips as she does so.

Jeongyeon lies down on the bed, her slim body laid out for you.

“Put it in me now, boss,” she says, every syllable dripping with arousal, as if her flushed skin and glistening, inviting pussy were not enough evidence of her desire.

You are not one to disappoint her, and, gripping your firm shaft with your right hand, you press it against her opening, delighting in the feel of her hot flesh against yours, gathering a healthy amount of her slick juices on the tip of your cock. Jeongyeon lets a soft moan escape her lips, and her hand darts out to grasp your wrist.

“Go slow,” she says, her tone suddenly different, as though she were breaking character for a moment, “it’s been awhile.”

“I will, Jeongyeon. We’ll only go as fast as you want.”

Her smile is all the reassurance you need, and you slowly press into her opening, her warm, hot flesh giving way slowly as you penetrate her for the first time, her body slowly giving way to your shaft as it spears into her pussy.

Jeongyeon grimaces slightly, but soon feels some relief when you enter her fully for the first time, her silky embrace wrapping tightly around your shaft as you fully embed yourself inside her. Wanting to reassure her, you bend over on the bed and kiss her softly. She returns the kiss and presses onto your chest with one of her palms, pushing you back to your upright position.

“Okay, I’m ready now, boss,” she says, “please… please fuck me.”

Moving slowly, you withdraw your cock, enjoying the the feel of her tight pussy grasping every inch of your shaft as though afraid to let it go. Jeongyeon’s tightness was on another level, and you absentmindedly wonder if it was because she hadn’t had sex in awhile.

Her hands grasp your forearms, her nails digging into your wrist, and for a moment you are afraid you are hurting her, but the small nod she gives you when you look at her with a look of concern convinces you that she is okay. The last few women you’d slept with were comfortable with their sexuality, and it was different to be with a woman who was a little more less experienced; not that it was a turn off, but quite the opposite - you wanted nothing more than to please her, make her feel the way you felt she deserved.

You continue to penetrate her at a consistent pace, your shaft fully lathered now with her juices, making each entry and exit easier and easier. Jeongyeon seems to settle into things, now letting soft gasps and moans escape her lips with each thrust into her body. Her legs, once spread hesitantly, now wrap themselves around your hips, and you relish the feel of her long limbs wrapped around your torso as you continue to fuck her.

“Oh god… god that feels so good. You feel so good inside me! Oh god!”

You increase your pace ever so slightly - ever mindful of her request that you go slow. You delight in the sight of her small breasts rocking up and down with each thrust, and the cute features of her face warped and twisted slightly in a pleasurable way that is beautiful in its own way. Your gaze travels the length of her slim, long torso, until finally it settles between those spread, long, perfect legs of hers, and the drenched, slick lips of her pussy, wrapped tightly around your shaft as it enters and exits her body.

“Faster, please,” she gasps, her words almost a demand, “please, boss. Please fuck me faster.”

You bend over the bed and drop your hands to the bed to stabilize yourself as you increase your pace slightly, focusing on the depth and length of your thrusts, ensuring she feels each thrust of your cock in and out of her body.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Jeongyeon gasps, “just like that! You’re gonna make me cum!”

You are surprised by how quickly she is nearing orgasm, and happy that yours is still some ways away - you want to savor every moment you are having with her, and want to make sure you last long enough to do so.

Jeongyeon cums soon after, her entire body shaking and quivering, her legs wrapping even tighter around your hips as she does so, her heels digging into your butt as she struggles to maintain her composure for a few moments until she loses it entirely and a long, loud gasp of sheer pleasure escapes her mouth. Her pussy tightens and convulses tightly around you, tight enough to send shocks of pleasure coursing through your body as well.

When her orgasm finally subsides, Jeongyeon is a writhing, quivering mess on the bed, a sheen sweat lending a glistening quality to her naked body. You let your eyes savor the sight of her there on the bed, and you wonder how the hell you overlooked this young woman for so long.

“Fuck,” she says again. It must be her post-orgasm word, you realize with a smile. She squirms a little on the bed, her hips moving slowly from side to side, creating delicious friction on your hard shaft, still fully embedded inside her.

Jeongyeon raises her torso from the bed until she is upright, her legs still wrapped around your hips. Your hands caress her thighs softly, enjoying the feel of her warm flesh beneath your palms.

“Thanks for paying the rest of the balance, boss,” she says, “although I think I owe you some change.”

Without letting you answer, Jeongyeon pushes forward on your chest with her right hand, until eventually your shaft slips out of her body. Hopping off the bed, she turns around so that her round, firm ass is facing you, her long legs lending her butt a delicious looking curve as she leans forward, resting her forearms back onto the bed.

“Fuck me, boss,” she says, turning around to lock eyes with you, “fuck me until you cum.”

You reach forward and caress her round cheeks with your hands, squeezing the firm flesh and delighting in the sight of her glistening pussy, just begging to be fucked. You are unable to resist the sight, and before you know it you are dragging the tip of your shaft up and down on her drenched pussy, gathering more and more of her juices on it.

If Jeongyeon was tight on her back, she was even tighter from behind. The way her walls embrace you as you enter her is almost enough to make you cum on the spot - it takes every ounce of self control not to fuck her as hard as you really wanted to. Instead you relish the feel of her tightness, of her wet, slick walls embracing every inch of your shaft as you begin to fuck her.

Jeongyeon quickly gets used to the feeling of you penetrating her from behind, if the gasps and moans that escape her lips in a steady stream is any indication.

“Oh god… oh god, you’re so big inside me,” she gasps, “it feels so good… please… please fuck me, boss! Fuck me! Make me yours!”

Jeongyeon turns, her eyes dripping with desire beneath the brim of the driver’s cap still on her head. What she lacked in experience she certainly made up for in sheer allure, that unmeasurable something that made her so sexy, so attractive, and so downright gorgeous. The other girls were downright sexy, or cute, but Jeongyeon had something special, something none of them had, and you had no idea what it was; but you wanted more than anything else to find out.

Your hands leave her butt to grip her hips, her words and her tight, slim body bringing you closer and closer to orgasm. You feel that build up, that approach towards the point of no return, quickly approaching, and you feel no need to delay it any longer.

“I’m gonna cum, Jeongyeon, fuck I’m gonna cum.”

“Wherever… wherever you want, boss! Cum for me… cum for me!”

Fucking her from behind was amazing, of course, but you wanted to watch those beautiful eyes, wanted to see them as you came, wanted them to watch as you spilled your cum on her body. And so you pull out of her grasping pussy, and turn her body around until she is lying on her back on the bed again, her legs spreading once more to allow you between them. Taking your slick shaft in your right palm, you jerk it quickly, and before you know it your orgasm is overtaking your senses.

You force your eyes open to watch as thick, hot semen shoots from the tip of your shaft to land on Jeongyeon’s long, slim torso, on her small breasts and flat stomach, in long, hot streaks. Jeongyeon gasps at the feeling of each stream of cum as it lands on her naked body, the sexiness of her voice and her beautiful eyes and every inch of her naked body lending further power to your orgasm.

When it finally ends and you stop pumping your shaft, you watch through half-lidded eyes as Jeongyeon’s chest heaves up and down, breathing heavily, stained with white streams of your hot semen. Her arms are splayed out carelessly on either side of her, completely drained of energy. The black driver’s cap has somehow managed to stay on her head this whole time.

“I guess I finally beat you at something. So you’ll join the team?” you ask, still breathing heavily. Your wet shaft has come to a rest in that wonderful crook where her crotch meets her thighs, juices, both yours and hers, dripping off it and onto her warm skin.

“Alright, I guess I can join up. But first I’m going to buy more costumes,” she says with a smile, “there was a schoolgirl one in that store I liked…”

---

You are in the elevator on your way to your own hotel room when you receive a text from JYP.

JYP says: Call me right now.

Not wasting any time, you go to your directory and press on his name, steeling yourself for whatever might come next. So much has happened, so many trials and tribulations and outright dangers that you were almost unsurprised that yet another thing needed your urgent attention.

But when you hang up the phone after a short conversation with your boss, there is nothing but a wide, genuinely happy smile on your face.

#kpop fanfiction #kpop fanfic #kpop smut #pov smut #Smut #male reader #twice #twice jeongyeon #yoo jeongyeon

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thegizka · 4 years ago

Text

Smile

Writer’s Month Day 1: Flower Shop AU

Hitsugaya takes particular notice of one of the flower shop's regular customers. It turns out she's taken notice of him as well.

Read it on Ao3.

Note: I do not own any aspect of Bleach.

The first time Hitsugaya saw her was his third day on the job. She came into the shop with her sister to pick up an order under the name Kurosaki--lilies and ferns and pink camellias with sprigs of baby’s breath. There was a note to cut them to fit a grave’s vase, so he snipped the stems and wrapped the tips in a damp paper towel before handing them over. The sisters paid and thanked him. He met her eyes briefly as she turned to go but thought nothing of it. She was just one of a sea of customers.

A few months later, the sisters returned to pick up another order. The blonde wandered around the shop for a bit, her sister trailing behind her. Hitsugaya was on the other side of the store inspecting some arrangements for wilting. He saw the blonde stop and smell a chrysanthemum before saying something to her sister who shrugged and said something in reply which caused her to frown. They picked up their order from Matsumoto and left.

In another few months, she came in by herself. She barely glanced around before heading to the counter.

“Pickup for Kurosaki please.”

“Sure, one moment.” Hitsugaya turned to the shelves of orders, scanning the names until he found Kurosaki. The bouquet included some zinnias instead of lilies this month.

“Do you need this trimmed?”

“Please.” She stood with her arms crossed, leaning her weight on one leg like someone who was used to moving, not waiting. She struck him as a person who didn’t fare well in idleness.

“You’re not with your sister today.” Hitsugaya wasn’t normally one for small talk, but Matsumoto kept telling him facilitating an enjoyable experience was part of customer services.

“She has to help our father with an emergency, so I’m running the errands today.”

“It’s not a serious emergency, I hope.”

“No, not really.” She exchanged payment for the bouquet. “Thanks,” she said and left.

A few weeks later, he saw her on his day off. Ever since he had moved away from Momo and Grandma (she wasn’t really his grandma, but he had nothing else to call her), he had taken to walking around Karakura Town on his own. He didn’t enjoy staying in his tiny apartment alone. It was too quiet.

Matsumoto had decided to take him under her wing, which was nice, but she was loud and bold where he was quiet and calculating. Sometimes her company was too much. Besides, they didn’t always have the same days off, which left him frequently alone with his thoughts and memories.

On those days, he’d wander Karakura Town, partially to get to know his new home and partially to distract himself. It was a strange new place. The town charaded as an average residence with a decently sized shopping district, a school, and a hospital on the outskirts. Hitsugaya was noticing a lot of quirks, though. The residents were pretty eccentric, and there was a higher than average amount of accidents. He couldn’t decide if there was something greater at work or this town just had bad luck.

He was walking along the river when he saw her. She was on the other side where the bank was wider. He’d seen kids playing on the swaths of grass and couples picnicking there. She wasn’t alone when he spotted her. Her sister was sitting further up the embankment watching while she and an older boy with orange hair kicked a soccer ball. Hitsugaya had never played soccer, but he could tell just by observing that she was good. She had control of the ball and excellent balance. The guy she was with had fast reflexes, but his movement indicated he didn’t usually use them for soccer. He was chasing after the ball more often than he was guiding it.

Hitsugaya stopped in his walk and watched them for a while. He found their interactions fascinating. Whenever her opponent missed, rather than be triumphant, she appeared to berate him as though he wasn’t taking it seriously enough for her. She always seemed so disinterested in the shop that this passion was intriguing. She was expressive and energetic. When she kicked the ball into the boy’s chest hard enough to make him stumble, she laughed. Her sister got up and went to the boy with concern, but she went after the soccer ball. When she rejoined the others, the boy ruffled her hair without a sign of anger or resentment. She pushed him away with long-suffering annoyance.

He found his thoughts turning to Momo. Their interactions had never been this natural or energetic. He wondered if that was because they weren’t blood-related. He could tell from the shape of their faces that the orange-haired guy was most likely their brother. As they gathered their things to leave the riverbank, the boy kept a careful eye on his sisters, walking half a step behind them to keep them in sight. Hitsugaya wondered if that was instinctual. He wondered if Momo had ever done the same with him.

For Hitsugaya, their interactions had always been distant and calculated. It was hard to pretend to trust after experiencing life alone for so long. He had never adjusted his walking pace to match Momo’s or felt any form of fondness when she called him Shiro-chan. But he couldn’t deny that he cared that she had been around for him. She had kept an eye on him even when he forgot to keep her in sight. He recognized that this gave him no right to consider her move away to college a betrayal, but the emptiness and regret he had felt had driven him to move away on his own. The maturity he had gained helped him see how foolish of a boy he had been.

The Kurosakis had long left the opposite bank, and Hitsugaya bade his feet continue walking. He redirected his thoughts to designing a new flower arrangement. It would feature peach blossoms and forget-me-nots.

The next time they met, she caught him off guard.

“Do you like working here?”

He paused in his trimming to look at her.

“Karin,” her sister scolded, “that’s rude!”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I’ve been in here a dozen times since you started working, and you’re never smiling. Why do you work here if you don’t like it?”

“Karin!”

“There are more important things than enjoying my work,” he replied, finishing the preparation of their bouquet.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Pleasure and responsibility aren’t mutually exclusive.”

“I take pride in my work.”

“You’re dodging my question.”

“Karin!” Her sister looked furious. “We have to go. I’m very sorry.” She bowed to him. “Thank you for the flowers.”

He watched them leave, whispering and bickering together. Why did she seem to care so much about his answer? Not smiling didn’t mean he hated it here. He rarely smiled at anything. He was a little surprised she had noticed.

Two days later, Karin came back to the shop. She wasn’t picking up an order; Hitsugaya noticed every time a bundle was set aside for Kurosaki, and there hadn’t been anything on the pickup shelf that morning. He was assembling a new arrangement at the work table near the back of the store. She wandered between displays, periodically pausing to inspect a flower, but she seemed disinterested and unsure. Matsumoto was busy helping another customer, so Hitsugaya approached her.

“Hi,” he greeted. “Can I help you find something?”

“Oh, hi.” She seemed started. “I was just looking for something for my sister.”

“Did she tell you what she wanted?”

“No,” she sighed. “She doesn’t know I’m here. I messed up, and Yuzu’s really mad at me, so I figured I’d get some flowers to apologize.”

“Ah.” He briefly wondered what rift between the sisters warranted flowers, but it wasn’t his business.

“She understands a lot more about this than I do,” Karin mumbled, twirling the stem of a lily gently before putting it back. “All I see are flowers, but she gets the meanings behind them and knows what care they need to last longer. It makes her extremely difficult to shop for.”

“Not many people know the language of flowers nowadays.”

“Do you?” She looked at him with genuine curiosity. For a moment, he had her full attention, and it sent a pleasant shiver down his spine.

“Sorry, dumb question,” she said, looking away quickly. “It’s probably a requirement for your job.”

“It’s not, but I did learn it.”

“Then do you know of any good apology flowers?”

“Sure.”

She looked at him with relief and expectation.

“Just get her flowers she likes.”

“Seriously? I thought you’d point to something and say ‘This means I’m sorry, please forgive me’ and I’d be good to go.”

“I’ve never come across a single flower that says all of that,” he replied, his bemusement bringing a slight grin to his face. Karin blinked before grinning herself.

“That’s because flowers don’t really speak, dummy.” She shook her head, possibly to hide the hint of color in her cheeks that accompanied her lame joke. “Get her flowers she likes? Hmm.”

She wandered the aisles, and Hitsugaya followed, offering suggestions and advice when she seemed unsure. They collected sunflowers and pink carnations, lilies of the valley and white daisies. He chose some foliage to fill out the bouquet and highlight the blossoms. She browsed the ribbons while he trimmed the stems and finalized the arrangement at the work table.

“Thank you,” Karin said, running a strip of ribbon between her fingers. “I was totally lost in here on my own.”

“You’re welcome.” He tied the yellow ribbon she had picked out around the stems, finishing it with a bow.

“Did you do this?” she asked, indicating the arrangement he had been working on when she entered.

“I did.”

“I like it.” She leaned down to sniff one of the flowers. “I recognize the daffodils, but what are these purple ones?”

“Salvia.”

“They work nicely together. You have a good eye.”

He wanted to tell her it was just part of his job, but his usual blunt reply died on his lips.

“Thanks.”

They looked at each other for an indecipherable moment before he thrust the bouquet at her.

“Thank you again,” she said as she handed him payment. “I think Yuzu will like these.”

“Is it enough for her to forgive you?”

“Oh yeah. She doesn’t stay mad for very long. And if she’s not satisfied, I’ll just come back and buy some more.”

“I’ll brainstorm some other combinations just in case.”

“Thanks for your confidence in me,” she snorted, but there was a grin on her face. “See you later.”

Hitsugaya watched her leave. A little part of him hoped he’d see her again soon.

#writersmonth2020 #day 1 #flower shop au #hitsukarin #hitsugaya toshiro #kurosaki karin #kurosaki yuzu #kurosaki ichigo #matsumoto rangiku #hinamori momo #bleach #I'm not really satisfied with this but I'm already two days behind #fanfiction #my words

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almost-correct-bnha-quotes · 5 years ago

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Thank you| Soft Spot part 2| Bakugou×Reader

Requested: NOPE

Warnings: idk

A/N: I really wanted to write a part 2. Why? I needed to write the date. Expect a part 3, too.

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

You lied if you said that you weren't excited. Yet, you'd be an even bigger liar if you said you weren't nervous. You were going on your first date. That was a valid reason to feel a certain wave of emotions. But something that made your heart beat even faster was that you were going out with Bakugou. Bakugou Katsuki.

You were very much aware of his rather low social status and bully-like behaviours to certain people. You disliked it and you hoped to see if you could change anything. Deku never did anything to give you the impression that he deserved the harsh comments, so you currently found yourself with the questions of why Bakugou would act the way he did towards the green-haired boy, and other people as well.

That Saturday, after both of you finished all your chores, you found yourself in your bedroom, and Bakugou in his. It was twenty minutes until six, and you felt a certain stress flowing through you like never before. You didn't regret accepting his invite of going out, but... would it turn out well?

You took a deep breath. Y/N, it's just a movie. There can't be anything that might go wrong. You'll go there and see that movie with him, have a great time, and then come back to the dorms. No big deal.

You couldn't say you were a particular fan of strident makeup, but a little bit of make-up couldn't do no harm, would it? You found some make up in one of your drawers, make up that you saved for special occasions. You applied some foundation and a couple shades that highlighted your best facial features while keeping it natural. Just as you were finished with taking on the clothes you had chosen for the evening-nothing special, just some jeans and a hoodie that looked decent-, you heard a knock on your door.

'Yeah, I'll be there in a minute!' You called out while hurrying to take on a pair of a comfortable shoes.

You opened your door, ready to look up to the boy (you couldn't help it, he was taller than you), only to find yourself facing one of your closest friends staring at you in confusion.

'Oh, Momo!' You laughed, awkardly, 'I didn't expect you to be here. What is it?'

Momo frowned for a moment, before a smirk appeared on her face.

'Y/N, where you are you going?' She asked, with a playful tone of amusement in her voice.

'Oh, I was just, um... I was going to buy something for that project for homeroom.'

'So late? And with make-up on? And well-dressed?'

You laughed lightly. Before you could say anything, light footsteps could be heard down the hallway, towards you two. As Momo looked at who might be, you closed you eyes in discomfort, knowing very well who it would be.

'Bakugou?' Momo frowned, 'What are you...?'

Realisation hit her in that moment, as she let out a gasp. Bakugou froze in his spot with a frown as both him and you waited for a reaction from Momo. For the next few moments, however, Momo didn’t do anything but to look to both of you in an awed silence.

‘Don’t... What are you going to do?’ You asked, stress flowing through your veins.

It wasn’t that you didn’t want people to know that you were going out with him- it wasn’t any kind of secret you wanted to keep. The thing that stressed you out was their first reaction. It would most likely be shock that would take a form into words in various ways. You were scared of what those ways ould be and how it would affect you and your relationship with Bakugou, whichever form that it would have. Even so, Momo was your closest friend. You formed a certain trust level with her that allowed her to read you easily. She wouldn’t give you out like that, would she?

‘I-’ Momo paused as she analysed you, ‘I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want to. You know that.’

You exhaled lightly in relief, as the tensity in the air lessened. For a second, you shot a look at Bakugou who seemed to be just as relieved as you were. You looked at Momo and smiled. ‘Thank you. It means a lot.’

Your comment seemed to amuse Momo terribly, as she began laughing as soon as she heard you say it.

‘What’s so funny?’ Bakugou asked in his usual irritated tone.

‘Nothing, I’m so sorry,’ Momo apologised, as she did her best to calm down, 'it's just... really unexpected.'

After that, Momo promised, yet again, not to tell anyone before making an excuse to leave. Being honest with herself, she wasn't completely surprised at this turn of events. Bakugou was softer towards you. It was just a matter of time until something happened between you two.

After Momo left, Bakugou laughed almost sarcastically as he leaned onto the wall. 'I bet she'll tell everyone. I wonder how long will her promise last.'

You snorted.

'I don't know. I'm sure she won't tell anyone,' you paused as you entered your room to take your jacket, 'yet.'

You took your jacket on and left your dorm room, closing the door behind you. On weekdays, you had to be on school grounds by six p.m., but on weekends, especially during autumn and spring when the day lasted longer, the curfew was lengthened to 8 p.m. You had more than enough time to see that movie and go back.

The two of you walked down the dorm hallways, passing by some of your classmates, many of which didn't pay a specific attention to you two. The ones who did, though, didn't question it much. When you exited the school grounds, you felt how Bakugou released himself from any tensity he might've felt while on campus.

'I love your outfit,' he said as he looked at you, 'It really fits you.'

The compliment was unexpected. There were many things you expected, but a compliment coming from him wasn't something you foresaw anytime soon. You felt your cheeks heaten up in surprise.

'Thank you. Your outfit is really good, too. Especially your jacket.'

A smirk grew on Bakugou's face as he looked ahead of himself. Ever since he's asked you out and you accepted, you two began being nicer to each other. Now, as you got the chance to talk with each other more freely, without the pressure of your peers, you both found yourselves enjoying each other's company a lot more. When listening Bakugou talk about things he was passionate about or interested in except for defeating All Might, he was a surprisingly... normal person. His tone held no anger, but a calmness and amusement you've never expected in him.

As for him, he was surprised about how nice you actually were. He was weirded out about how open he was with you. He held no hesitations on what to say and what not to say, and he felt vulnerable. Yet, he wanted to feel that vulnerable a little more. Just this evening. Just for you.

Eventually, you two arrived at the cinema just a few minutes before the movie started, a period of time that allowed you to buy your drinks and a larger box of popcorn -the deal was cheaper that way- and to go to the room in which the movie would play. As the you made yourself comfortable on your chairs, you looked at Bakugou.

'I'm glad to be here with you,' you said, 'Thanks for inviting me.'

If the room wasn't so dark and the ad that was currently playing on the big screen wasn't in red, you could've easily noticed how, in his fluster, Bakugou's cheeks gained a rather red tone. He gulped as he shook his head.

'Of course. My pleasure.' He mumbled.

Outside of the school, you were surprised to see how easy he was to be flustered by positivity. You didn't need a blush to tell that. Even on your walk to the cinema, he was a different person.

Throughout the movie, you both found yourself enjoying yourselves more than either of you expected. Bakugou cracked some jokes that were genuinely funny, movie-related or things he was reminded of throughout the movie. His persona was something you were glad to come across.

As the two of you walked out of the cinema, you felt how all your worries were momentarily out of your life. You were laughing so hard, negativity just couldn’t reach you.

‘And at that scene where he tripped-’ Bakugou wheezed.

‘I know!’

This only resulted in you two having another laugh attack. This didn’t stop a single bit on your way to the dorms. People looked at you as if you were insane, but you honestly couldn’t care less. Your faces were red and neither of you didn’t calm down until you were a few streets away from U.A..

You entered your school and went to 1-A’s dorms. Luckily, no one was in the hallways at the moment. As you reached your bedroom -Bakugou’s bedroom was on another floor and he needed to walk down that hallway-, you two stopped for a few moments.

‘Thanks for inviting me, Bakugou,’ you said with a large smile, ‘I really enjoyed going out with you.’

He smiled back, much more relaxed now, leaning on to the wall with his shoulder. ‘I really liked it, too.’

‘We should go out again some other time,’ you paused as you realised what you said, before adding quickly, ‘If you want to, of course.’

He chuckled as he looked down for a moment. ‘It would be great. See you tommorrow, then?’

‘See you tommorrow.’

He stood up and took a few steps back, waving lightly. ‘Well, goodnight. See ya.’

‘Goodnight.’

You smiled once more before entering your bedroom. This time, you couldn’t help but laugh a little. It went so much better than you expected. You were definitely eager to go out with someone like that. On Bakugou’s side, he held a proud smile as he walked to his bedroom. This was definitely a good evening.

#bnha #bnha fanfiction #bnha x reader #bnha x y/n #bnha x you #katsuki bakugou #bakugou katsuki #bakugou #bnha bakugo katsuki #bnha bakugou #bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #bakugou x y/n

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spicyfloaty · 4 years ago

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Give & Take | Chapter 1

pairing: kacchako

genre: slowburn/fluff

words: 1.5k

summary: Ochako's grades are slipping. Bakugo is dangerously nearing suspension, or worse, expulsion. A certain twist of fate pairs them together for tutoring sessions. He teaches her math. She keeps him from getting suspended. A simple exchange, but what if this only brings them closer than necessary?

note: i accidentally deleted my tumblr account and now im gonna post these all over again god fucking dammit sdkjfhkjhkfd

header credits: @alexbenedetto

[READ ON AO3]

Chapter One: Hesitation and Acceptance

“I don’t think you need anyone telling you what you most likely already know, but you’re failing almost all of your classes, Uraraka.”

Ochako already had an inkling as to what this sudden meeting was for, but the news still hits her as hard as it would if she were hearing it the first time. She was aware of how fast her grades had been slipping these past few weeks, but she couldn’t really do much about it since she already had her part time job to worry about, let alone the extra training she had been doing to make up for the classes she had been missing because of said part time job. She barely even had any more time to visit her parents to give them the paycheck she just got that month, how is she going to find the time, hell, the energy, to cram 2 weeks-worth of homework in one night?

Her eyes drop to her feet, “I know, Mr. Aizawa, it’s just that I can hardly fit anything into my schedule anymore.” She knows this wasn’t an excuse her professor would accept that easily, she just knows. She grips the fabric of her skirt as her guts sinks lower and lower, shame and disappointment weighing on her like a ton of bricks. A few seconds pass and she hears Aizawa sigh. She looks up to see a piece of paper being slid across the table, “I heard about your father’s injury. Balancing your responsibilities here at UA and the responsibilities you have at home isn’t an easy thing to do, but I thought of a schedule that might lighten the load.”

Ochako scans the schedule her teacher had made for her, tears threatening to spill from her eyes upon realizing that he was right, it did lighten the load. Her attention then zeroes in on the text written beside Thursday and Friday, Tutoring Session, but what catches her off guard was the name directly below it.

Bakugo Katsuki.

“I see you already noticed the cost that comes with this proposition,” Ochako didn’t even realize her mouth was open until Mr. Aizawa pointed his pen at it. Bakugo? Is he seriously going to have Bakugo Katsuki, the boy with the fuse as short as the width of a hair, the boy whose every waking moment was dedicated to being angry at absolutely nothing, tutor her, someone he’s barely spoken more than 10 words to, most of all someone who’s friends with the apparent center of all his rage. Well, the friends part was still debatable.

“You’re joking—” It was only until her palm flew straight to her mouth when she realized that she already spoke her mind.

“Does it look like I’m joking?” Mr. Aizawa asks pointedly. “I already made arrangements with the rest of your teachers to accommodate for the time you will be spending on your part time job, you will be having at least 4 hours of tutoring a week with Bakugo on Thursdays and Fridays to make up for it.”

Ochako was still staring at her new schedule, as if looking at it any longer would change anything about it. Her thoughts began to race, desperately thinking of some kind of alternative she could offer, “What about Momo?” She looks up at Aizawa only to find his gaze locked on his computer screen. He clicks a few keys, “She already has her hands full with Kaminari, Mina, and Jirou.”

Ochako takes a deep breath and thinks harder, “Iida?” Aizawa presses a few more keys and takes a sip out of his coffee mug, “He’s already helping Momo out with those three.”

She looks away, eyes darting to anywhere but the god forsaken schedule in front of her hoping for another idea to fly by her mind before it’s too late. Another name pops in her head, she wouldn’t even think about considering being alone with him again given their history and the awkwardness that followed it, but these were desperate times and it called for desperate measures.

”What about…Midoriya?” This time, Aizawa faces her, a part of her hoped that it was because she had given him an option he hasn’t considered yet, but to her dismay, she was wrong.

“Yes, Midoriya was my first choice while putting all of this together, but after checking with All Might, he said that it would “interfere” with Midoriya’s schedule.” Aizawa explains with a hint of annoyance. Ochako should have known this, she should know more than anyone else that Deku’s time had been spent more and more with training lately.

Ochako felt defeated, she couldn’t think of anything else to say to try and convince her teacher that she would do anything else except being taught by Bakugo. It’s not like she was scared of him or anything, sure, she didn’t want to have a one on one session with someone who would flip the table if she forgot to carry the one, but the truth is that she admired him almost as much as she did Deku. It was a no-brainer to anyone that as hot headed as Bakugo might be (is), he is consistently one of Class 2A’s, if not UA’s, top performing students. The main reason she was against this unfortunate match up was because she's a hundred percent certain that Bakugo wouldn’t consent to it.

“Is Bakugo okay with this?” She asks, Aizawa’s gaze shifts to the back of the office, she follows and instantly gets her answer. She didn’t notice it when she first came in, but there were prominent scorch marks splashed across the wall with soot dusting the floor beneath it. If someone were to just pass by without giving it a second glance, it would almost look like shadows. Judging by how fresh it looked, she assumed that Bakugo’s talk with Aizawa wasn’t long before hers. It’s either that or her professor was simply too lazy to clean it off.

“He obviously had more…opinions regarding this, but after further…discussion, it was mutually decided that this would be the best option that would benefit the both of you.”

Both of us? Just how could Bakugo possibly benefit from tutoring her?

“No one gets to stay at UA with above average marks alone.” Aizawa adds. Turns out Bakugo was dangerously nearing suspension because of his recent behavior, sending 2 2C students to the infirmary would be the highlight of said behavior, Ochako still remembered that day as if it were yesterday. How could she not? She was the first one from their class to walk by and see the altercation, obscured by a growing crowd egging on the fight. She never found out what it is Bakugo was yelling about, but she knew enough cuss words to decode part of a sentence or two, but it wasn't what he was saying that stuck with her though, it was the way he looked. She had always seen him angry on a daily basis to know what he looked like upset, but as he was being dragged away, she could have sworn that for a split second, she saw his expression slip from one of anger to that of sadness.

"Simply put, Bakugo's conduct, despite his grades being top notch, could very much end up being the cause of his expulsion."

Aizawa offered Bakugo a way to somehow salvage his conduct grade by pairing him with a struggling classmate in order to show the Administration Board that he was displaying compassion and camaraderie. Aizawa saw this as an opportunity to hit two birds with one stone.

If only one of the birds didn’t know how to hit back, harder.

After explaining, he asks her once more, not like she had much of a choice, if she was on board with the plan. Her mind drifts to an image of Bakugo suspended, spending the week alone in the dorms while everyone else spends it in their classes. Ochako wasn’t blind for her to not notice the expression Bakugo wore, almost the same kind as the one she remembered from the fight, whenever she saw him during the mornings when he and Deku were placed under house arrest last year. They haven’t spoken to each other that much, if you can count tch and outta the way, round face as conversations, but she knew that if there was anyone who genuinely wanted to be in class, as much as he doesn’t care to make it obvious, it was Bakugo. Her heart ached at the thought of Bakugo missing out on classes and training when the first thing about him was his unrelenting drive to be the best in all of them.

With terrible timing, another idea floats inside her head, but Ochako already knew what her answer was. She knew that she can easily offer to take supplementary classes with one of their teachers instead, but she realized that maybe Bakugo needed this more than she did.

Which is why she agrees.

#kacchako #kacchako fic #kacchako fanfiction #kacchako fluff #kacchako slowburn #ao3 #ao3 kacchako #bakuraka #kacchako week #bakuraka week #kacchako week 2020 #bakugou katsuki #katsuki bakugo #bakugo x uraraka #mha ochako #urakara ochako #bnha #mha #bnha fanfiction

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teaplease1717 · 5 years ago

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Ashes of Love and War - chapter 4

Title: Ashes of Love and War

Chapter 4: We Can (Not) Trust

Pairing: Todoroki Shouto / Yaoyorozu Momo

Rated: M (Mature for violence)

Thank you my betas C’s Melody and @flourchildwrites!! You two are the best!

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638800/chapters/52276756

Story is posted to the @bokunoaubang collection. Art that will appear next chapter is by: @evieebun125 (Check out their work!)

XXXXX

Chapter 4: We Can (Not) Trust

XXXXXX

Momo washed the blood off of her hands, scrubbing her arms and between her fingers ritualistically. The golden hues of the setting sun cascaded through the house's single window and highlighted the water in the basin as the liquid turned a deep cooper. In the distance, the sound of a lute started, accompanied by the muffled singing of the Greeks as they began their celebratory feasts. In the air, Momo could detect the faint scent of roasting lamb over the smell of decaying bodies and smoldering smoke.

It made her stomach churn.

She bit her lip and looked over her shoulder at Tokoyami. The temple guardian was still unconscious. The human parts of his body, sticking out from under a wool blanket, were pale and covered in sweat.

The operation had taken the whole day. The wound on Tokoyami's stomach had been severe, but the more concerning problem had been the amount of blood he had lost by the time she had been able to treat him. It was a miracle that he’d survived at all, and the foul stench of the Styx River still sat thickly on her tongue like molding bread.

Momo looked back at the darkening water and paused as her chest tightened and her breathing grew fainter. The terror and anxiety that she had carefully sealed away during the procedure began to slowly leak through the cracks of her control. And Momo was helpless to stop her thoughts as all the possible scenarios began to flicker through her mind, reminding her of how precarious Tokoyami’s situation was.

Closing her eyes, she swallowed nervously over a dry throat, clamping down on her thoughts.

She wasn’t going to panic.

She had been the Temple’s top healer, known for her calm demeanor under pressure and extensive knowledge of medicine. She had stitched hundreds of injuries before, some worse than Tokoyami’s wound. There was no reason for her to get emotional now.

Momo took a deep breath and returned to rinsing her hands furiously. Tokoyami would pull through. He had to. He was the closest thing to family she had left. He would never abandon her.

She didn’t know if she could be alone again.

A stabbing pain shot through her wrist, pulling her from her thoughts. Momo stopped and frowned, touching her hand. She had neglected to treat her wrist before beginning the operation, and the constant movement and precision needed to sew Tokoyami's wound had only aggravated the sprain. With the amount of strain she had put on it, it wouldn't be surprising if it swelled up, and she’d be unable to use it for a couple of weeks. It would hinder her from protecting Tokoyami, but it had been a risk she had knowingly taken.

Momo pulled a towel from the back of a chair, her gaze sliding to the side to discreetly look at Shouto Todoroki as she dried her hands. He had watched her the entire day, barely moving from his spot leaning against the opposite wall, except for when he had wordlessly left to change clothes or the few times he had replaced the water she’d used during the operation.

Momo diverted her attention as he looked up and his gray eyes caught her stare.

Until Tokoyami could protect himself, she'd have to be careful. There were plenty of men who wouldn’t hesitate to use the temple guardian as leverage to bend her to their will. She doubted Todoroki would be any different. She was just another person for him to conquer. Even if he had helped her more than what their agreement had stipulated, he would most likely ask more from her in return.

Her stomach curled. Momo frowned. She’d have to stay on her guard around him. She'd already shown too many of her weaknesses; it was just a matter of time until he used them against her.

Momo picked up the water basin and emptied it outside. She turned sharply back towards Tokoyami, and black spots danced across her vision. Momo stumbled, catching herself on a warm arm that suddenly wrapped around her waist, pulling her into a hard chest and steadying her body. Momo stilled at the contact.

“You’re exhausted,” Todoroki’s deep voice rumbled. The sound seemed to travel through her back and down her spine.

She pushed down a shiver and forced herself to look at him. Todoroki’s face was tense and his expressionless eyes steely. He had cleaned the blood off and changed into a regular blue chiton. Up close, she could catch the faint smell of olives. The muscles under her fingers rippled.

Momo pushed herself up. “I'm fine. I just tripped,” she said, taking a step back and out of his arms.

Todoroki let her go without any resistance, but his eyes seemed to narrow. He looked her up and down. Momo was uncomfortably reminded that she was still in her torn chiton as his cold, gray eyes examined her. In the back of her mind, she wished she hadn't taken off his cape, no matter how impractical it would have been to perform surgery with it on.

She forced herself not to shift under his stare. This was a game — cat and mouse. The best defense she had against him right now was to hide her fear; it would only be used against her.

Todoroki’s gaze returned to her face.

“Go clean up. You're done for tonight,” he said after a moment.

Momo’s lips thinned; she pulled her shoulders back and turned away from him with all the grace she could manage. "I’m not tired,” she said, making her way back towards Tokoyami. “I’ve had longer days than this. Besides, I still need to make more medicine and clean Tokoyami’s other wounds. I’ll rest once I’m done.” She placed the water basin back under the window and turned back around. Todoroki was right behind her.

Momo swallowed.

She hadn’t heard him move.

His eyes glittered as he loomed over her. “Do it tomorrow. You haven't eaten or rested all day. You're going to get sick.” He glanced over at Tokoyami lying on the wooden table. “It will be fine for another day.”

Something twisted inside of her, and then a fit of anger that she didn't realize she possessed roared through her. Momo clenched her hands into fists; her eyes narrowed. “No, I won’t!” she said harshly. “The first twenty-four hours are the most critical for a patient's recovery. I need to monitor his condition carefully to ensure his body doesn’t reject the sutures, or he doesn’t come down with a fever," she explained, trying to keep her voice from trembling with rage.

Todoroki’s face hardened. And Momo felt her anger disappear as fast as it had come; her heart stalled. She had overstepped. She could feel his mounting frustration beating off of him like waves onto rocks, and she braced herself. She still knew next to nothing about the Spartan, and Momo had seen women battered for smaller offenses. If he grew serious, she wouldn’t stand a chance against him, especially with her injury.

Todoroki rolled his jaw. “That's fine and all, but don't forget that you promised yourself to me.” His tone had an edge to it. He reached forward and wrapped his fingers around her left wrist. Momo hissed and flinched at the unexpected contact. Todoroki released her, and his eyes widened as she pulled back.

“You're hurt.” He sounded genuinely surprised.

Momo brought her hand up to cradle it against her chest. Her wrist ached slightly. He hadn’t grabbed her roughly, but it had been enough to aggravate her already wounded hand. “It's just a sprain," she said, looking away. "I fell. It's nothing serious.”

“You were working this whole time without treating it?” he asked in a low voice.

Momo’s lips thinned. “I'll wrap it properly after I finish.”

Todoroki was silent for a moment. “Is that creature really that important that you'd neglect your own health just to heal it?” he asked coldly.

Momo looked up sharply and glared at Todoroki. “He is not an ‘it’! Tokoyami is the most important person to me. He's all I have left...If anything...if anything...” Her voice trailed off as her vision blurred, and she felt wetness start to accumulate on her lashes.

Thinking about Tokoyami made it hard to breathe, and the additional emotional whiplash from the day was making her head hurt. She bit her lip as she struggled to tamp down on her anger and terror but it was too late. Her body had betrayed her. Momo closed her eyes in horror as she felt the first couple teardrops slip over her cheeks and patter onto the wood floor.

She heard Todoroki step closer. “Go to bed.”

“No!” Momo’s eyes snapped open; she shook her head as more tears flowed down her cheeks. She was drawing in short, rapid breaths as she tried to calm herself. Her chest hurt. He reached out to touch her and she flinched.

Todoroki sighed. Then, in one swift motion, he leaned down and swept her up into his arms.

Momo’s stomach twisted. A strangled sob tore itself from her.

“No! You promised!” She gasped as he cradled her in his arms and turned around. “You promised.”

Todoroki ignored her, and Momo's eyes widened as he carried her to the bed. Her chest constricted like it had been snared in a steel net. With every step forward, it clenched tighter.

He had no intention of letting her finish healing Tokoyami, she realized. And with Tokoyami barely hanging onto life and her own injury, she couldn't fight him. She was trapped.

Fear seized her; Momo squeezed her eyes shut as Todoroki laid her down on the bed. She sank into the straw mattress, shaking so hard that the bed frame rattled.

She had thought she had prepared herself for this moment, when Todoroki would extract his payment for allowing her to save Tokoyami, but she wasn’t. She was terrified.

Momo tried to grab for that strong resolution that had steeled her nerves when she had first stood in front of Todoroki, but it was gone as if it had dried up like grapes left out in the hot, summer sun.

The tears kept flowing down her cheeks. Momo bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood as she fought to keep from hyperventilating. It would all be over soon. She just had to keep her eyes closed and think about something else, anything else, until it was over, and then she could go back and finish tending to Tokoyami.

The bed shifted, and Momo clenched her hands into tight fists on top of her chest. Something warm cupped her face. Momo started; her eyes snapped open and her heart stilled.

“Don’t,” Todoroki said softly. He was pale and his eyes were flashing as he looked at her. His thumb brushed across her cheek, wiping away the tears with unexpected gentleness. “I promise that I won't let anything happen to you or...him. You're mine now. I'll keep you safe, just let me wrap your wrist. I'm not going to let you continue unless you let me treat you.”

Todoroki didn't wait for her to respond. He pulled back and strode across the room to grab the extra bandages she had thrown haphazardly onto a chair and returned to the bed, sitting down next to her. He reached out, drawing her hurt hand towards him and slowly began to wrap her wrist.

Three times around her wrist.

His fingers were rough and calloused.

Then, around the thumb to protect the thumb joint.

But his grip was gentle.

Then, around her wrist again.

Momo dragged in a deep breath as she stared at him, astonished as he continued to wrap her hand. It didn’t make sense.

He wasn’t supposed to feel.

Shouto Todoroki was supposed to be cruel and unyielding, and yet he had done nothing but treat her kindly, as if she were something precious. Like she mattered to him.

It made her head hurt. And another small sob tore itself from her throat.

Todoroki froze at the sound. "What's wrong? Did I hurt you? Are you hurt anywhere else?" he asked, looking her over critically.

Momo shook her head. "It's...it’s nothing."

"Are you feeling sick? I told you that you'd get sick if you work yourself so hard," he said sternly, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"It's not that...It's just...nothing. Thank you,” she stammered so softly she could barely hear her own words.

Todoroki paused for a moment and looked down as he returned to wrapping her wrist. His indolent mask settling firmly back in place.

Momo’s heart slowly stopped pounding as she watched him. There was irony in the fact that the infamous Shouto Todoroki — who had killed so many Trojan citizens — was the one taking care of her. By every right, as a conquering warrior or as a master, he could have taken her, and she wouldn't have been able to refuse.

It left her confused, and she hated it. Momo was logical by nature. Her mind needed answers and Todoroki wasn't providing them. His actions spoke of a protective and caring man. And a part of her was desperate to believe it, but it didn’t make sense. The feeling that she was overlooking a key piece of information swirled through her mind, but she was too tired to grasp it.

“Why do you care so much about him?” Todoroki asked, pulling Momo from her thoughts.

She opened her mouth, the truth on the tip of her tongue, before pausing. The day had taken an emotional toll on her, and she needed to be careful not to instinctively trust the gut instinct to divulge her heart to him, not when she was still picking up the pieces of her life. She glanced up at him from under her lashes; staring at him for several seconds, her gaze following the soft plains of his face that were almost too beautiful to be human as she weighed the decision to tell him the truth. Alternate scenarios flitted through Momo's mind, but she was too tired to ponder how he could use the information against her. She was exhausted from crying, and for all her worries, she couldn’t think of any benefit to withholding the truth.

Momo sighed and looked down at her hand as Todoroki tied the bandage into place. He already knew how to hurt her if he chose. “Tokoyami is the only one that I have left,” she said softly. "Everyone else was taken by one god or another."

Todoroki paused his movements and looked at her; his face was indecipherable as he studied her. He opened his mouth to say something more, but the front door slammed open with a loud bang.

Momo jumped and looked up sharply.

“Yo! Todoroki!” A youth with a high pitched voice slurred drunkenly. She instantly recognized the short boy with grape like hair who served Prince Bakugou. “You’ve been holed up with those glorious boobs all day! It’s a sin against the gods not to share...” He looked at her and his eyes glittered.

A shiver coursed down Momo's spine; Todoroki had no intention of keeping his promise of protecting her and Tokoyami. Suddenly, all the fears and terror that had begun to subside with Todoroki’s gentle words rushed back, cold and heavy. Momo jerked her hand out of his and stood up abruptly. She glared down at him with all the ferocious anger that curled in her chest.

How dare he.

He had played her, and she had been so desperate for kindness that she had believed him. Momo shook with rage.

Todoroki’s eyes widened, and he stood up slowly, reaching for her. Momo stumbled back, away from his touch, and her back hit the wall. She pressed herself into the wood as Todoroki's face hardened.

The small boy moved closer, his eyes shining. Another soldier moved into the doorway.

It all made sense now. Todoroki had tricked her. He had pretended that he was different, that he was gentle and kind, but it had all been a rouse. He had been waiting for her to drop her guard so that he and his friends could catch her unaware.

The air around them seemed to grow colder, reflecting her growing anger and terror.

Momo's eyes darted around the room, landing on the scissors she had been using earlier when operating on Tokoyami. They still lay on the table. She curled her hands into fists. They were too far to reach. She'd have to rely on her own strength.

Tears began to prick at the side of her eyes again, and her heartbeat quickened. Momo's mind spun with all the possible scenarios.

The men moved closer and the thick stench of ouzo permeated the air. Their footsteps pounding in her ears.

It made her sick. She braced herself for the inevitable as Todoroki shifted closer, blocking her from escaping. She didn’t know what to do. If she fought, Tokoyami would die. If she ran, Tokoyami would die. All she could do was let them rape her.

Momo squeezed her eyes shut. Despair curled within her. She felt so cold and her body was so tense she was trembling. She dragged in a rasping sob between her teeth.

Suddenly there was a thundering sound so abrupt that the house shook.

Momo’s entire body stilled. She stopped breathing, as her eyes snapped open. The air had frozen; ice covered the floor. The smaller boy had jumped to the side, barely missing the frozen fury, but the second man wasn’t fast enough as the ice twisted and encased him. He stood frozen in the doorway, as if he were emerging from a marble statue.

For a moment, there was no sound, just the strong smell of licorice that permeated the house from the alcohol the small boy had dropped. Then, the boy with grape-like hair fell to the floor with a thud as he quaked in fear, and time started again.

Momo glanced shakily at Todoroki. He had stepped in front of her and was facing the two men. She couldn’t see his face, but his breathing was slightly ragged. She could see it mist out with his every breath.

“Don’t…don’t you think that is a little much?” the flat-faced man asked, his body shivering loud enough that Momo could hear his teeth chattering.

Todoroki flexed his right hand; ice that had accumulated on his fingers like white crystals crackled as they fell to the floor. He strode across the room and lifted his opposite hand. Red and orange magic bloomed in his palm, and he laid it against the man’s chest. "Sorry,” he said, lowering his head so that his red and white bangs fell into his face, covering his eyes. “I was angry.”

The ice began to melt like candle wax, dripping onto the floor in large puddles as steam puffed up and filled the room like Chimera's breath.

Momo stared transfixed at Todoroki's back as he silently melted what he had made. She didn’t understand what was going on. What had made him attack his own comrades? It had almost seemed like he was trying to protect her.

But that couldn't be right.

Momo's heartbeat quickened.

None of it made sense. He couldn’t possibly care about her — his helot, his slave. And yet, all the evidence pointed to that. It was nonsensical, but in the back of her mind, Momo began to wonder if maybe her original assessment of Todoroki was wrong.

Notes:

I know, I know! Some of you are probably sooo angry at me right now, but I couldn’t see a scenario in which Momo wouldn’t start breaking down. It’s been over twenty-four hours since she last slept or ate and, with Tokoyami hanging onto life by a thread, Momo’s emotions are unstable. Adding in Todoroki and the silent threat she sees him as, and she ends up breaking because how would she know that Todoroki doesn’t mean to hurt her? As sad as it is, war is not pretty. Rape is not a possibility, it’s a certainty in Momo’s mind, so when Todoroki offers kindness instead of pain it throws her off and she wonders if she truly understands who the demigod Shouto Todoroki is.

Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone!! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Did Momo's fear resonate? Was the chapter too fast? Too slow? All thoughts welcome!

Notes: Helots - Slave Styx River - In Greek mythology, Styx is a deity and a river that forms the boundary between Earth and the Underworld Chimera - a fire-breathing female monster resembling a lion in the forepart, a goat in the middle, and a dragon behind.

#ashes of love and war #todomomo #boku no hero academia #todoroki shouto #Yaoyorozu Momo #todoroki x yaoyorozu #my writing

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phoebenavarro · 5 years ago

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My Doctor Sleep Review

Here’s the short version:

If I like The Shining movie but haven’t read the book or Doctor Sleep, will I like this? YES. It pays homage to the film beautifully but doesn’t rely on it too much, and it creates a beautiful story of it’s own.

If I’ve read both books, will I like this? Well, here’s where things get complicated. It’s definitely still worth your time for how beautifully Ewan McGregor and Kyliegh Curran bring Dan and Abra to life, but you will also probably find yourself incredibly frustrated with the third act.

My more complicated thoughts are under the cut. (Spoilers, obviously!)

Overall, the film does a wonderful job blending the differences between the movie and the book, although overall it felt to me like they were privileging the film and mostly just giving nods to the book, so that book fans could be happy. And as much as that frustrates me as a book fan, it worked! I can absolutely believe that in a world where the Overlook didn’t explode at the end of The Shining, that this would be what happened.

I guess my biggest issue was that I wanted them to mostly ignore the movie. They could keep the Overlook standing, sure, that was just fine with me, but I wished they’d followed both books’ canon basically to a T. And for the first two acts that is pretty much exactly what they did! It was almost beat for beat the book. And the things that they did change in the first two acts, I loved. I loved their take on Billy as a character!

And well, let’s talk about the good for a second, shall we?

Every actor gave a STELLAR performance and was perfectly cast. I knew I was gonna love Ewan McGregor and he went above anything I ever imagined. Abra was amazing too! She really captured Abra, her rage, and her love for her family. Rose was great, the only thing that kept catching me off guard was that she kept changing her accent and I’m not sure if it was intentional? Like there were some scenes where she sounded Irish to me, and other scenes where she sounded completely American. It could’ve been that she was Irish with the Knot and American around rubes, but it didn’t seem purposeful enough. Minor characters that really stood out were Billy and Crow Daddy, especially Crow. He never struck me as particularly interesting in the book, but he was very engaging in the film. The little boy who played Danny killed it as well. He merged the catatonic Danny from the film and the talkative Danny from the book in a way I didn’t think was possible.

Also Azzie the cat was perfect and I’ve never been so happy to see a cat in a movie in my LIFE.

The scene where Dan fell into his role as Doctor Sleep for the first time was really wonderful, and that was the first time I cried during the movie. His speech at the AA meeting, about Jack, absolutely WRECKED me. I was straight up sobbing. Because it was the first (and only) time in the movie (or the Shining movie) where you see how much Dan loved his dad, and how he’s been struggling his whole life with continuing to love a man who hurt him and his mom, tried to kill them, and that’s just as much why he drank as trying to drown out his shine. THAT’S Dan Torrance right there, and a hint towards the Jack Torrance from the novel, the one who loved and died for his family. THAT is why the Shining is a tragedy, that’s why I cried for an hour after I finished reading Doctor Sleep for the first time. It showed that Dan was finally moving on, he’d found friends and community, he broke the cycle of abuse and alcoholism.

And from there, we go into another scene of Dan helping someone pass as doctor sleep. It’s such a stark contrast to the first time. He’s comfortable with it instead of horrified by it, he’s HAPPY to help these people, to comfort them in their final moments, because he knows what that fear feels like. He’s been trying to escape that fear since the Overlook. So he sings with him, he’s not afraid to use his shine to look into his mind to make it easier for the man. For the first time in his life his shine brings him something other than pain. And I loved it.

The scene with the baseball boy was WAY more brutal than I expected it to be. Like I was genuinely surprised that they really showed the Knot torturing him like that, and all the blood. It was harrowing, and it worked so well, because before that the Knot was pretty likable. Sure, they killed kids, but we didn’t SEE it, and they’re cooky and fun! And then there’s THAT, and we see that they are monsters. I loved Abra making murder appear on Dan’s wall, and him seeing REDRUM in the mirror. Dan’s face was CHILLING.

We also GOTTA talk about Dick Hallorann. He was really perfect, and I loved how excited Dan was to see him the last time they talk. And well, I heard him tell Dan “ka is a wheel” which FLOORED me. The last thing I was expecting was a Dark Tower reference! I’m not 100 percent sure he said it, I might have misheard it, but it works. I mean, in the book, King describes many things as a wheel, and that’s a running theme in his work, so it makes sense. And that’s really what this story is about, the wheel of ka turning and the mentee becoming the mentor.

This is a scene I have slightly complicated feelings about, but I mostly liked it, and that is Dan’s conversation with Jack’s ghost at the bar. I loved how they paralleled Dan to Jack but also highlighted how Dan is his own person, and in many ways succeeded where his dad failed. I gasped incredibly loudly when Jack referred to the whiskey as medicine, and called Dan a pup, cause that is something from the book that (correct me if I’m wrong, it’s been a while) he never says in the movie. And ohhhhh god, the way Dan cried. The way he got mad and said “Don’t you want to know what happened to your family?” and how Jack finally broke character. It fucked me UP. But it was Jack from the movie basically saying fuck you to Jack from the book, which like, I GET it. It would feel really weird if Nicholson!Torrance showed ANY warmth or love to Dan in any way, but still. I mourn book!Jack Torrance every day of my life. (But would Nicholson have been able to pull it off? Probably not. So maybe it’s for the better. Steven Webber, on the other hand, from the miniseries, is MY Jack Torrance.)

And here’s where we start to get to the bad, or the things I have very complicated feelings towards.

Well first of all, there was genuinely no fucking reason to kill off Billy OR Dave. They don’t die in the book! And it’s not a great look that they killed off the two men of color who are on the good guys’ side. It’s as stupid and pointless as killing Dick Hallorann in the Shining. But I guess we gotta continue that legacy right? /s If they wanted to get Billy and Dave out of the way for the final confrontation, there were other ways for them to do it, like they did with Abra’s mom! Crow could’ve just drugged Dave. He still could’ve told Abra that her dad was dead, to manipulate and fuck with her. And hell, Dan could’ve made Billy stay behind, to take care of Dave, or to wait for Abra’s mom to get back and fill her in on what’s happening. They definitely didn’t need to fucking DIE, Mike! You don’t need them to die to raise the stakes, nothing raises the stakes like watching a child be tortured and murdered.

And well, in concept I really like Dan and Abra having their showdown with Rose in the Overlook. And uh, “waking it up.” It makes sense, I mean, he already uses the Overlook ghosts against the Knot in the book, so why not? And I liked that part. I think Dan walking around the hotel went on a little too long, like they just wanted to show off that they rebuilt the overlook set. I liked the continued parallels between Jack and Dan, but again, it highlighted how Dan was different. Like when Dan is on the stairs holding the hatchet, he’s actually playing Wendy’s role, while Rose is Jack in that instance, walking up to him with her arms out, falsely trying to placate him. She has the power in that moment. And her toying with Dan? MM. I liked that a lot. I’m a sucker for whump. And her finally getting destroyed by the Overlook ghosts was SO SATISFYING.

I had kind of thought that Dan would find a way to harness Jack’s spirit and sick her on Rose, and that would be able to be Jack’s redemption, and then Jack would be able to finally move on. It would’ve made sense, since in the book he uses Abra’s momo, but in the movie she’s not really important. Tbh I think that would’ve been the best way to let Dan finally find peace with Jack, to give us something like that moment in the book where Dan sees Jack at the end and Jack blows him a kiss. But whatever, it’s fine. I think the conflict between Dan and Rose as it was was pretty great.

If it ended with that, I would’ve been VERY happy. Maybe there could’ve been a bit of a scare with the hotel trying to possess Dan and Dan being able to fight it off, and Abra and Dan leaving, letting the boiler explode. And then maybe Dan could’ve collapsed from blood loss outside the hotel, giving the audience a bit of anxiety over whether Dan will survive or not. But it didn’t end there.

I take issue with the very premise that the ghosts would be able to possess Dan like they did Jack. Jack had so many weaknesses, more than just the alcoholism. Jack was insecure about everything in his life, his career, his role in his family, his talent of an artist, but Dan doesn’t share those insecurities, just the alcoholism. ALSO Dan’s been sober A LOT longer than Jack ever was. He’s much more skilled at resisting that temptation. Maybe back before Dan hit rock bottom and started fixing his life, I would buy it, but not Dan at this point in his life. ESPECIALLY since they couldn’t get him when he was a kid, when his shining was so much stronger. Why would they be able to get him now? Dan has a lot of similarities to his dad, but he is his own person.

But whatever. Let’s assume that it’s possible for the hotel to possess Dan. I loved that they played out some of the scenes from the Shining novel, because the climax of the Shining has my favorite moments from the whole novel. I gasped when Abra said “You’re not my Uncle Dan. You’re just a mask.” And I ALSO gasped when he said “let’s unmask then,” (or something to that effect) because I thought they were gonna do MY FAVORITE moment from the Shining, when the hotel bashes Jack’s face in with the mallet and we see a different ghost after each hit. As cool as seeing that would’ve been, I’m glad it didn’t happen, cause Dan would’ve been gone after that. And oh god, the hug between Dan and Abra. It hurt. And Abra remembering the boiler, knowing it’s gonna blow.

And well, finally seeing the Overlook burn was VERY satisfying. In a lot of ways this film was both a love letter to Kubrick and a “fuck you” to Kubrick simultaneously. I wish they’d leaned into the “fuck you” side more because honestly, WHY should we keep celebrating him or his films? Especially with the Shining. The pure disrespect he showed to the source material, and to Stephen King, and of course, the way he tortured Shelly Duvall on set.

I think my feelings of betrayal come down to this: I was COMPLETELY blindsided by Dan’s death. I TRULY did not expect Dan to die. I thought that would be departing from the book too much, and honestly I didn’t think King would’ve gone for that. Like, I started to get worried when he got hit in the femoral artery, but, perhaps foolishly, I kept holding out hope that he would be okay. And I know the whole point of the end is that yes, he’s dead, but he’s good, but he deserved to LIVE and die of old age. The Overlook should not have been given the satisfaction of getting him, even if it was destroyed in the process.

I did like that as he died Wendy was there with him, since in the movie she’s the one who actually loved him. But mostly I was in a state of mixed rage and sadness, because Ewan SOLD that performance. He was perfect. He IS Dan Torrance. But I did not come to the theater to watch Dan suffer Jack’s fate. I came to see Dan finally move on from his trauma and embrace his shine!!

Ultimately, It feels like the movie undermined it’s own climax. The whole film was building to Rose’s defeat, which is then COMPLETELY overshadowed by the hotel trying to use Dan to get Abra. It focused too much on the Shining, and forgot that Doctor Sleep is DIFFERENT. Dan is not Jack. Abra is not Dan. There are parallels, of course, but they are different. And why undermine your more interesting villain? The ghosts of the Overlook PALE in comparison to how interesting and engaging Rose is. It was a great nod to fans of the book, and as a book fan I enjoyed it, but I think it made the film weaker.

If Flanagan wanted to do the ending scenes of the Shining, he should’ve just remade the Shining, for God’s sake! And actually, I would’ve liked that very much, Ewan McGregor could make a VERY good Jack, as shown in the scenes when he’s possessed by the hotel. I actually would love to see adaptations of The Shining and Doctor Sleep where the same actor plays Jack and Dan. I think that would produce fantastic performances and really force the actor to highlight the differences between the characters. And anyway, we need a new version of the Shining. Steven Weber and Rebecca Du Mornay are PERFECT in the miniseries but it’s just that, a network television miniseries, and it’s aged pretty poorly. A new Shining remake is gonna happen eventually, if Kubrick’s estate ever gives up those rights.

And finally! They ignored the BEST PLOT TWIST in the book!!!!! That Dan is literally Abra’s uncle! They kinda set it up, too, which is extra frustrating. I wonder if it was present in an earlier version of the script and got cut? I had a sinking feeling that they weren’t gonna do it when Dave was killed, but like, without that reveal, the audience is gonna be left with a lot of questions. Namely, WHY was Abra drawn to Dan? And of course, it’s because he’s her uncle, but in the movie we never find that out. I wouldn’t be surprised if it shows up on Cinema Sins or whatever for being a plot hole, which is frustrating, because it’s NOT. It’s just a lazy oversight in the film. I also wished we got to see more of Abra’s parents, and Dan meeting Abra’s mom! But I guess they couldn’t include any of that in the movie since they basically cut Momo out completely. Still, that in itself is frustrating. Abra’s momo is so important to Abra in the book. In general it kinda felt like they elected to focus more on Dan and his relationship to Jack than Abra and her family, when in the book they’re pretty evenly balanced!

It’s frustrating, because the first two acts of the film are nearly perfect. And the third act has a lot going for it too, but it is just not the way to handle the ending, in my opinion.

My final feelings are: Dan Torrance is not Jack. That is the whole POINT of Doctor Sleep. And he did not deserve to burn in that hotel. He deserved to finally live out his life in happiness and with the family he’s built for himself. And that will always upset me.

#doctor sleep #the shining #king posting #long post #jesus this got fucking LONG #maybe I can sleep now that i've gotten all this out of my system #review

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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The Wedding of Marielle Clarac

By Haruka Momo and Maro. Released in Japan as “Marielle Clarac no Kekkon” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Philip Reuben.

Those who have been waiting patiently will be happy to hear that we do get the wedding of Marielle and Simeon in this book. That said, if you’re expecting a book filled with wedding prep and relaxation, think again – even with Marielle trying her best not to get involved in any incidents, she still gets abducted two days before her wedding. Which should not be a surprise – readers of this series are here for the detective thriller part of it just as much as the romantic back and forth, and so not only want Marielle in a wedding dress saying “I do”, but also Marielle escaping her captors in a boat and headed down a very fast river with no real strength to row her way out of it. That said, worry not, romance fans, as there are some delightful moments of that here as well, as the Duke who has been a thorn in their side for some time decides to make a last-minute effort to break them up… mostly as he’s bored.

With two days to go until the wedding, all Marielle and Simeon have to do is pick up the wedding rings, their “wedding eyeglasses”, and enjoy a nice afternoon at the fantasy equivalent of the local Marks and Spencer. Unfortunately various things happen, and for once they’re not really Marielle’s fault. She’s mistaken for someone else and her handbag is stolen, then she ends up involved in a jeweler’s efforts to try to stop the theft of a super-expensive ring… that is being made for the Duke. Then she’s kidnapped. In the second half of the book, after both the expensive ring AND her wedding rings are lost in the river, she and Simeon are forced to play a game as captives of the Duke and his wife… and if they lose, they have to call the wedding off. Even if, by then, the wedding is less than 18 hours away.

I admit it, I was rather surprised, when the wedding rings ended up in the drink halfway through the book, that we did not get them back by some weird coincidence at the end. That said, it does lead to a very sweet and very in character replacement. Marielle and Simeon are in fine form here, with her being the usual mix of level-headed straightforwardness and fangirlish squeeing and Simeon being… well, look, there’s a spoiler I won’t reveal here, but let’s just say it’s the highlight of the entire book and also leaves Simeon feeling as if he’s shamed himself forever. You will laugh a lot. There are also some old favorites who show up here… I’d say it’s a spoiler as well, but come on, of course Lutin is going to try to get in the way of everything again. We even get a nice epilogue from his po9int of view, showing a bit of the genuine feelings he has for Marielle… and how he has no plans of giving up just because they’re married.

Theoretically they should finally be able to consummate their marriage now (and Marielle, though naive, certainly seems eager to do so), but I’ve a suspicion that they may have to wait a bit. Till then, please enjoy another in a series of amusing romantic thrillers starring a young woman who claims to be plain and unassuming but is anything but.

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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ladyloveandjustice · 7 years ago

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Summer 2017 Anime Overview: My Hero Academia Season 2 and KiraKira Precure a la Mode

We return to our look at the summer 2017 anime. I’ve been reviewing the seven anime I watched from worst to best. Previously I talked about the two weakest anime I watched and an anime that was kind of mixed and middling. Now we’re going to talk about too anime I watched that I consider to be Very Good and would overall recommend (with some warnings and caveats regarding some stuff for one of them). Let’s dig in!

My Hero Academia Season 2

I found the first season of My Hero Academia to be pretty good but nothing to get excited about- but damn, this season officially sucked me in. I am now a Fan. Very unwillingly, I might add, but the show wrestled my doubting heart into submission with its endearing characters. fight-y fun and surprisingly good handling of growth and relationships (for the most part).

The basic concept behind My Hero Academia is that in a world where most people have some form of superpower, superheroism is considered a legit profession. Nerdy teenager Izuku Midoriya really wants to be a hero, but he’s one of the few people born without superpowers. However, when he encounters his idol, the number one hero All Might, everything changes and he soon finds himself enrolled in the top-ranked superhero academy.

MHA sparked my interest by being a superhero show (I’m a huge comics nerd) and kept me interested by having a legit adorable and sympathetic protagonist (Midoriya is very earnest and also cries a lot, both things I find intensely cute and relatable), good animation and generally solid fights and storytelling. But it wasn’t really until this season that it came into it’s own as an impressive ensemble show. It subverted quite a few expectations I had, in a really good way and delivered on some pretty incredible character work and interesting world building. Also, it has a great soundtrack.

The season opened with a tournament arc, and I usually find those pretty boring in shonen (though still good, they were easily my least fave parts of HXH, for instance) but this one really mixed things up by weaving in some really good emotional hooks for the one-on-one fights and actually *gasp* developing characters and rivalries that WEREN’T focused on the protagonist.

Rather than going the safe and expected route of having a big match-up be between Midoriya and his intimidating, violent explosion-happy rival, the series showed us a fight between explosion dude and the adorable, sweet main female character (whose superpowers were NOT well-suited for fighting his explosions) and used it to showcase her determination even against incredible odds and further her story along.

It also explored her motive for being a hero- her family isn’t well off and she wants to make some serious cash so they can live in comfort. She worried this motive was “unheroic” but was reassured it was admirable, which was nice to see, especially considering how female characters are generally discouraged from being ambitious.

But the biggest highlight of the arc was the exploration of one character’s trauma and abuse. An arc revolved around a characrer (Todoroki Shouto) having difficulty using the powers he inherited from his abusive father. The story was heartbreaking and well-done and addressed in a very moving way with a very emotional “you are not your parents, it’s your power and body, not theirs” core- but what really impressed me was that the arc’s acknowledgement that this kid’s recovery would not be instantaneous and it was going to be a long and difficult process involving many other steps.

In most shows, once Todoroki had gotten his weird therapy session courtesy of the protagonist, Midoriya, and had been able to use his powers once, it would have been over, done, he’s fixed and he can totally use them now. But instead, the show acknowledged that being able to overcome his trauma enough to use them for a few minutes didn’t mean he’s now so recovered he can just use them whenever he wants. Todoroki realized that he had a lot of unresolved issues he needed to work through and a lot of steps he needed to take before he could recover enough to be truly comfortable with using his powers all the time. “It’s not that I’ve accepted anything, it’s just that, for a moment, I was able to forget about [my dad]”, as he put it. And the show showed us that it had every intention of following him through that recovery process.

Seeing this over-the-top show about superpowers and fights where people suffer ridiculous injuries actually approach trauma recovery in a realistic and nuanced way really shocked me and also majorly tugged by heartstrings. The whole conflict also added some depth to the show’s world building- Todoroki’s scumbag dad is one of the top superheroes out there, despite being a totally horrible person. When being a superhero is a competitive profession rather than a calling you get people who aren’t necessarily “good” or into “saving people” as much as they are in it to make a profit and show off their powers. Which went nicely with the themes of the arc that followed the tournament arc.

The way the show plays around with typical shonen tropes is also great- the show has the highly gifted, arrogant once-upon-a-time-they-were-friends rival for our main character, but he doesn’t become insufferable like most of those characters because the show makes fun of him constantly. None of the other characters put up with his bullshit or take him seriously, he’s constantly called out and made fun of for his asshole attitude and the main character finds him genuinely unpleasant to be around and tried to avoid him socially. This allows his ANGRY EDGELORD nature to be funny rather than annoying, because the show’s in on it too.

And while Todoroki also could have also been a brooding asshole rival character, he’s pretty quickly to be revealed as a nice, kinda dorky guy who’s just quiet, awkward and introverted due to trauma and lack of social interaction. The show’s really self aware in how if plays with these character archetypes for the most part, and that makes it a pleasure to watch.

The show continued its solid character work, punctuated by dramatic and well done fight scenes, through the next arc. Almost every single kid on the show got a moment to shine this season, and you got to know them as characters and heroes and I came to realize- hey, I REALLY LIKE most of these characters.They’re being developed in a fun and interesting way, and they have lives and motivations that don’t just revolve around the main character. And the relationships and dynamics between the various characters are fun and heartwarming too.

And this includes the girls, who, while definitely outnumbered by the boys and underutilized compared to them, are really competent, interesting and have some great moments and arcs going. I especially enjoyed the mini-arc where one of the girls lost confidence in her ability to lead and thought a dude would be better at it, only for him to assure her she’s way better suited for it than him. Always nice to see ladies in command being respected by the dudes with them.

But that does bring us to the fact that while it has some good female characters, the show also has some pretty big sexism issues. All the older female heroes we’ve seen so far are basically walking sex jokes/fanservice dispensers and even some of the younger female characters are uncomfortably sexualized (Momo’s got the classic “oh she has to wear a ridiculously impractical costume because her powers require it” aka “I gave this teenage female character these powers specifically so I could sexualize her”). The fanservice gets to the point of distracting from the plot at times.

There’s a huge absence of female mentors so far (I hear that gets better later) and out of the entire teaching staff of the school, only one is a woman (and her character boils down to “bondage joke”) What’s more, while the girls are good fighters, their powers tend to be less offensive and "powerful” than the boys (this is especially obvs if you look at their official stats). Oh and there’s this fucker:

...who routinely sexually harasses and assaults his female classmates and it’s supposed to be funny and harmless. Every single time this asshole comes on screen u have to put up with a deluge of gross-ass comments and seeing the female characters repeatedly be objectified and have their space invaded. And no, them hitting him or other characters saying it’s gross does not make it okay. It’s still allowed, it’s still clearly there to be “funny” and “titillating” and it still uses girls being abused as a “fun” interlude. That’s NOT okay. It’s not funny. He adds nothing to the show, he just grinds everything to a halt and makes everything uncomfortable. It’s jarring, and takes you out of an otherwise well done story. I really want him and this type of “humor” to be ejected from the show.

But yeah, with those major issues in mind (and god I wish they weren’t there), I still really enjoyed MHA and can’t wait until the next season. The plot’s ramping up and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

KiraKira Precure a la Mode

Kira Kira Precura a La Mode follows a group of magical girls with superpowers based on both sweets and animals. They run a pastry shop together and protect their city from monsters who want to suck the energy of people who are happily enjoying their favorite confections.

Okay, this is still ongoing, but I think it’s safe for me to say at this point that KiraKira is well on its way to being one of my favorite Precure shows, which considering how I’m a pretty big Precure fan, says a lot.

The writing is solid, the characters are fun and well-developed and the animation and art design is well-done and adorable.

This season added a few fun new touches to the Precure formula, including having two older girls on the team- a pair of 17 year olds hanging with the 14 yr olds (14 is the typical age for Precure protagonists). This pair is a butch and femme couple pretty clearly patterned after Haruka and Michiru- and yes, that also means they are fairly blatantly a lesbian couple.

There is in fact an entire episode revolving around Yukari (femme cat magical girl) trying to make Akira (butch dog magical girl) jealous by threatening to marry a prince and making Akira compete with him for her love. All the while, Akira struggles with whether she should share her true feelings with Yukari. This culminates in a big love confession scene that added ten years to my life. Seeing the younger girls aggressively encourage and support their relationship is great too.

So yeah, about as blatant as S-season Haruka and Michiru- which, if you understand that reference, means there ARE some scenes that try to cast ambiguity on the relationship. This one, for instance, where Akira acts flustered in response to the prince’s suppositions about her relationship with Yukari (and his incorrect assumption about her gender), makes sense in the context of a just forming relationship, but also didn’t add much to show and was likely included so the show could make it seem ambiguous if Yukari and Akira will truly enter a relationship.

However, it has been a long time since we’ve gotten lesbians this blatant in a magical girl show aimed at young girls. Ever since the days of Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon, gay subtext and text in magical girl shows has been much lighter (and heck, even fanservicey aimed-at-guys magical girl shows don’t seem to have the guts to have girls kiss).

So the fact Precure is now deliberately homaging and emulating Haruka and Michiru and doing blatant love triangle/confession scenes IS a big deal and a step in the right direction. It’s sad we haven’t progressed since the days of Sailor Moon, but it’s good we’re at least not regressing anymore. And while Akira and Yukari haven’t gotten the word of god “Yes they are lesbians” confirmation Naoko Takeuchi gave Haruka and Michiru, (at least, not any we’ve heard of in the West), I wouldn’t say it’s outside the realm of possibility that could happen. (I really doubt the “lol we’re having sex” lines similar to what we got in Sailor Moon Stars will happen though, just because Precure doesn’t do sexual innuendo).

And it’s worth mentioning, we do have an official duet song for Yukari and Akira that’s VERY blatantly romantic. “Koi” is even in the title.

Yukari and Akira are a censored relationship for sure, and it’s obnoxious and wrong those censors are still in place (though not surprising, considering this is a big corporate studio running Precure). They should be able to kiss, they should be openly dating. However, they are obvious enough that if they were a straight couple, we’d be calling them canon at this point, so I’m gonna. Also, I have to shout out that they’ve poured on Utena references GALORE with these two, and I’m super into that.

It should also be noted that Akira is allowed to maintain her butchness even after transforming into a magical girl- she gets a frilly PRINCE outfit. That’s a first for a magical girl show aimed at girls (unless you count Utena, which I don’t for various reasons). She’s never derided for her lack of femininity either (in fact she’s considered cool and attractive) which is a very good affirming message for young girls. There’s also another episode that frames rebellion against enforced traditional femininity as a good thing and has women standing up for and supporting other women who don’t follow gender roles.

To state the obvious, Precure is a show that exists in a capitalist society. So it’s focused on selling toys to little girls and those toys are often stereotypically hyper-feminine. However, it’s still valuable and positive that this show is casting non-gender conforming heroes in a positive light- if a little girl wants to play as Akira, she might have a pink compact, but she can use it to become a dashing butch prince. The lines are blurring in a good way.

Yukari is also notable as a great character- she’s not the genki girl archetype, but messy, petty and a bit cynical. She’s complex. The episodes where she struggles with whether she’s a “good girl” are pretty inspiring and carry the message girls can be heroes even if they’re not all sunshine and daisies.

In fact, all the characters in the season are ALL pretty solid. Their relationships are fleshed out and so are their arcs. The dynamic the whole team has is great. The villains redemption arcs are strong as well. And as always, it’s cute as heck and bursting with lady friendship feels.

My biggest problem with this show would be pacing- it suffers from being two rushed a lot of the time, and often tries to cram way too much in one episode rather than giving conflicts and arcs room to breathe. But that’s my only big issue.

It’s possible KiraPre could have a disappointing finale, but I at least feel confident it won’t end in total disaster. It shows none of the warning signs shows like Hachepre did- there’ve been no love triangles, bland male love interests or anything of the sort shoehorned in, so I don’t feel I have to worry about the worst happening (the “worst” being “the finale revolves around soothing a dude’s wounded ego, with the bond between the magical girls and their power being sidelined for the sake of really uncomfortable and contrived het romance”, if you haven’t seen HachaPre).

Let’s hope KiraPre’s finish is as strong as the rest of it has been!

#my hero academia #kirakira precure a la mode #kira kira precure a la mode #anime overview #summer 2017 anime

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