#and the other time i was bullied into a pixie cut

[inkcurlsandknives]

At this point I'm convinced all cut and color hair salon services are a complete scam. There's not been 1 time in the last decade where I haven't thought I should've done this at home. Stylists don't listen, ignore what was agreed to, fry or hack off my hair and then try to charge hundreds. Most of the times I've had my hair professionally styled I leave in tears. I ended up doing my own hair for my wedding on account of how bad my last professional hair styling had gone.

At this point my partner handles my balayage and trims, I do my henna dye and his twists and braids (tho i do admit his old barber and braiders did good jobs except for the one time they gave him a receding hairline trying to square him up)

We save thousands quarterly.

[ornii]

Jealous? Me? No…

Illyana Rasputin X Male Reader

So I finally watched The New Mutants yesterday, and I gotta say, it wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either. An okay Marvel film in my opinion, however Anya Taylor-Joy absolutely killed the role as Magik. And the idea of a Reader who also had a relative in the X-Men and is believable, gave me an idea, and this was it.

The relationship you had with Illyana was particularly hard to define. You wouldn’t call her your girlfriend, but she is also more than a friend. You sensed a Kinship with her ever since your, outburst. It sounds small but it resulted in the deaths of a lot of people, I suppose that’s what happens when a Mutant tried to live a normal life. Having the same genetic system as The Wolverine, it gave you nearly all the same powers, including a deep primal rage that could erupt at any time. Thus, leading you to being hospitalized.

Dr Reyas had an interest in you particularly, it seems only one Successful clone of Wolverine exists; you. Or so they think, you know of one more, Laura. Keeping her secret, keeping her under the nose of the Government was of utmost importance. Everything with Illyana was fine, she was being her usual self, rude, condescending, and just an overall ass to you and everyone, but it didn’t bother you. Everything was fine, until Dani made her appearance. A new challenger enters Illyanas game, and she doesn’t like it.

You and Illyana were watching Dani sleep, granted you two were outside the room, watching though the faded glass. You couldn’t make out any physical differences in her. She looked like your average teenager, maybe her powers are more psionic. You rubbed your chin and Illyana spoke. “I bet Pocahontas will try to run the moment she wakes up.” She said, almost to get a rise out of you, to see your negative but passionate response but you were simply thinking, blocking her out. She noticed your lack of response and turned to you. All your attention wasn’t on her anymore, but on this new girl.

“(Y/n).” She said with that stern Russian accent, it snapped you out of your trance and you finally looked at Illyana, as much as she annoyed and overall pissed you off, her beauty was unmatched, blue Iris, long gorgeous blonde hair like a brick road to heaven, and an accent that commands respect but has such a alluring tone.

“What?” You say, “You gonna bully this one too?” You say, Illyana smirks, finally getting your attention. “Depends, you seem to be infatuated with Pocahontas.” She said, you finally responded to her obvious jab and shook your head.

“Real fucking funny.” You mutter. “A new girl winds up here and you’re already jealous?” You said, Illyana kept her smile, but deep down she was starting to get annoyed.

“I don’t get jealous.”

“Then you won’t mind me saying hello.” You reply, and reach for the door handle, and for a moment you saw a short glimpse of panic in her eyes, as you gripped the handle, the voice of God spoke to you.

“(Y/n), remove your hand from the door.” Dr Reyas said from the intercom, she was watching, always watching. You reluctantly removed your hand. “Please gather in the main foyer, our daily session begins in 10 minutes.” She says, you look at Illyana and shrug, putting your hands in your jacket, you walk off. You and Illyana enter the room to Roberto, Sam, and Rahne, the other tree stuck in this place. It seems that there were only two chairs left, oddly enough, both seats end up with you next to Illyana. Reyas sits before you all, and starts.

“Yesterday, I asked you to think about… the first time your mutation manifested. Would anyone like to share? (Y/n)? Sam? Illyana? Roberto? Rahne? Look, we can’t help each other unless we talk to each other. I’ve said this a hundred times. This program can’t help you if you refuse to participate. So, Rahne, why don’t you start?” She said, Rahne was a short girl, pixie cut and had a soft Scottish accent, she wasn’t as feminine as most girls, but she had her own charm.

“I…” she started, but Dani, the new girl walked in, sulking.

“Please join us, Dani. This is our new patient, Danielle Moonstar. Let’s do our best to make her feel at home. Go ahead, Rahne.” Reyas said, (Y/n) shrugs and stands up and takes another chair and places it further in the circle.

“Take a seat.” You say, and sit back down, Dani awkwardly sulks next to you, and Illyanas eyes dart from her Hand puppet to you.

“Right. I was 13. I remember running through the woods.” Rahne began.

“How did you feel?” Doctor Reyas asks.

“Free. Like, the most free I’d felt my whole life. But guilty, too.”

“Why feel guilty?” You ask, “You get a turn into a wolf, that’s fucking sick.”

“Because I knew it was bad. I went to Reverend Craig… to see if he could pray it out of me. He asked me to show him, so I changed.” Rahne continues..

“And what did Reverend Craig do?”

“Beat me about half to death. Said I was a witch… that I was going to hell.” Rahne looked so, hurt. You reluctantly sat up from your seat.

“Would anyone else like to share their first time?” Reyas asks, and Illyana decides to turn to heat up.

“New girl. How fucked up are you?” She said, turning the ire on Dani, you turned to the Girl.

“Illyana.” You said, a bit of a grumble.

“Drugs, I bet. Or a nympho, maybe..” she kept pestering. You then decided to raise your voice.

“Cut the shit okay?” You said, The Russian turned to you, seeing your face and found an odd sense of pleasure in it. Reyas takes hold of the situation.

“Keep behaving… exactly like you are right now… and we can all just spend the day in solitary. I want all of you to think very carefully… about how you’d like to use your time here. And how long you want that time to be. (Y/n), since you’re already up… why don’t you show Dani around?” Reyas orders. You stood up, still locking eyes with Illyana.

“Yeah, sure..” you said, and looked over to Dani. You offered your hand to help her up and she took it, she stood up and you began to walk around, showing the new Girl around, that was a mistake.

Night has crept up to you all much sooner than expected, you were preparing to turn in for the night, finishing up clothes duty, the sudden sound of a clank of metal caused you to put the towel down and then around, you half expected death, but it was much worse.. Illyana.

“Oh, it’s you… gonna keep bullying Dani for whatever reason?” You said, but she wasn’t her cocky, overbearing self. She pouted and folded her arms, and asked a single question.

“Do you like her?” She asks, the question blindsided you.

“What?” You responded, and Illyana slowly approached.

“Do you like her? You act like you do..”

“I .. I don’t get it why are you upset?” You said, which causes her to finally just spew her feelings. “You are so fucking dense! Do you not notice anything you big dumb cute plyushevyy mishka?!” She yells, it took you less than a minute to realize she’s pinned you to the wall. Her arm now armored and placed near your head, as she leaned in, her lips barely brush up against yours.

“YA lyublyu tebya, Rosomakha.” She said, your mind translated the words.. “I Love you, Wolverine.” Your hands almost instinctively wrapped around her waist, much to her shock. Your lips pressed firmly against hers and her powers almost activate due to a high sense of, emotion. And it seems you two fall together, to her happy place.

Jealousy, from what I heard it runs in the Family…

(This was just a short thing I wanted to write, Definitely want to make more New Mutant Content, we need more of it.)

[liquid-luck-00]

Marks of Magic

Day 1 Moon

Maribat Spooktober 2023

Next

I don’t know if this is going to be a stand alone or a short part story or if it will be the whole month.

Let’s see where it takes us.

I’m restarting my permanent taglist since I’ve been inactive for so long. Sorry!!!

Language and cursing is used

1500 words

~~~~~~~~~~

Three years.

THREE YEARS!!

she has dealt with this stupid Moth's reign of emotional terror. And she is done.

She is done with Chat's dumb jokes and worse, his unwanted advances. she is done with having no one she can trust. she tried giving second chances to Alya, Nino, and even Chloe. But each time she did they broke her trust again and again. She stopped calling on other holders.

She is done with fighting this war alone. She reached out to the Justice League but they laughed in her face. So she stopped asking for help.

The Akumas would target the non-holders group of heroes so often and defeat them or worse until the cure would be cast. that they either left the city or gave up.

she is done being alone and fighting this uphill battle alone.

She doesn't know when the change happened but it did. Her suit darkened and changed, to a point where most was a pitch black. Accents of red and black spots littered the suit, but it darkened.

She couldn’t stand it anymore, her hero life is suffering because she had no one to turn to. That leaked into her personal life as well, she couldn’t trust her friends, so as the guardian, she wiped their memories of ever being a holder, and in Alya’s case the fact she is Ladybug. On top of that Lila held on to her threat, and it came to pass, the class turned on her, as they iced her out of their lives she did the same. She focused herself into her brand and grew her client list.

•••

"Seriously Gurl!" she heard Alya starting to stomp up the steps towards her. Marinette didn't look up from the tablet she was currently reviewing before class started.

"You could at least look at me!" Her hands slammed down on the desk infront of her.

"Alya." She responded, making a note on the document. "What can I do for you?"

"Cut the Snark, Marinette, we all know what you did."

"Oh really." A smirk played on her lips. she looked up at her ex-friend. "Do tell, what did I do?"

"Lila can't even stand being in class since your here."

"And.."

"You really are a bully, Mari, how can you not even show remorse for what you did."

"Your right, I don't." Marinette stood up. "Granted you haven't told me what I did yet." she crossed her arms, watching the other girl get madder at her 'attitude'.

Alya was about to respond when in walked Lila, but with one big difference. Gone was her long hair and stupid sausage pigtails that framed her face. Now it was cut short, a Pixie cut that now showed off her high cheekbones and her eyes, that were Puffy and rimmed in red from what she assumes were tears. The girl looked at her quickly before averting her gaze and dove into her seat. Mari didn't say anything. It was shocking to see her this way, so much she almost dropped her defensive posture. Luckily she didn't say anything as Mdm. Bustier walked in to start the class.

Mari quickly sat down as Alya flew down the steps to console the Italian.

The class period seemed to stretch out longer than normal, but that only caused her mind to race more with every tick of the clock.

All to soon Mdm. Bustier clapped her hands, pulling her from her stupor. "I would like to congratulate Marinette for being our lucky winner to spend the next semester at our sister school, Gotham Academy."

Every one turned towards her, if she looked closely their smiles were forced, almost sneers.

She never applied for it.

Her eyes travelled to her ex-friend, Alya who looked triumphant.

But jokes on them. She was glad. Glad she wouldn't have to deal with them for almost six months now.

So she smiled.

Not one of her strained smiles that had become so common place, but a true genuine smile.

The rest of her day went by in almost a blur. Teachers and other classmates would congratulate her but it didn't register fully. A plan forming in her mind.

•••

She was glad that there was no akuma today. As soon as school let out she got to work.

Through the photos she took of the grimore she learned, during dire situations, the butterfly could embue its own holder as a champion. Gabriel Agreste, then came back into the forefront of her suspects.

She didn't suspect to act on it, but while outside she saw him. Gabriel moved to a subterranian green house, where she then saw a kwamii.

She didn't think and acted on pure instinct.

she dove through the window, Agreate turned and before he could say anything she charged at him.

The yoyo in her hands extended into a weighted bo staff. Agreste getting over his shock called on his transformation. The two of them danced circles around the other as their weapons clashed in the underground room.

"How?!?!" she heard him snarl at her, but she didn't answer.

She was tired of this bull shit.

Tired that this peice of crap of a man made her life a living hell for three years.

Until ...

A flash of light enveloped the room. There Gabriel Agreste knelt on a knee, his hands balled into fists as he glared up at her. The butterfly Miraculous clutched in her hand.

A spark eminated and from it out came the kwamii of transmission, Nooroo.

"Ladybug... I..." The kwamii tried and failed to speak.

"Please go and retrieve the Peacock and the Grimore." She said never taking her eyes off of Agreste.

When he returned she placed both Miraculi in her yo-yo and finally spoke again. "Why?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you." He practicaly spat.

"No you don't, but I want to know the reason before I deal out a verdict." she hummed.

"And why would you be doing something like that, Ladybug." He tried to stand but fell back, too tired or too hurt, she doesn't know. She lowered down to meet his eyes, but didn't say a word.

In that moment he was so defeated, he finally collapsed to the ground barely able to lift his head to speak. "No use telling you now. You’ve already won."

He attention pulled towards the large window, seeing the full moon overhead illuminating their conversation.

"I guess that’s true. But why wouldn't I want to know why. Why I fucking fought for three years against you for so long. I need to know why." She stared up at the moon not sparing the man a glance.

"For her." There was a silence but she didn’t look at him, not yet. "All she wanted was a child, but in order for him to grow, she had to..." He didn't finish his thought.

She looked back at Agreste, she took in his battered spirit and body before standing again. She looked around the room until her eyes landed on it, a cyro chamber with who she assumes is Emily Agreste. "No matter what, there’s always a price for a wish. to bring her back something else must be taken from you."

"Please. Please just do what you have to."

"No. You have to live with the fact that your decisions ensured she would never wake up. That she was wrong to place her faith and love in you." She pulled out her Yoyo and flew out of the room, back home. The moon's light guideing her.

She fell onto her bed dropping her transformation as she thumbed through the grimoire until it landed on a page of spells.

She doesn’t know if it’ll work or not, but it’s worth a shot.

"As the guardian of the miracle box I, Ladybug, call upon the powers of the Kwamii held in my protection."

She closed her eyes and continued to recite the word she’s read over and over for the past few months.

"For my conviction is absolute and I release the Kwamii from their jewels, never to be used again by mortal beings."

Several voices were heard in front of her now, all the Kwamii she’s met floated in front of her in between her self and the moon. She doesn’t know how but even Plagg was among the others.

"Is this truly your wish guardian?" Was spoken by both Tikki and Plagg.

"Yes." That’s single word rang resolute within the empty room.

One by one each kwamii approached her, said a goodbye and thanks before disappearing.

Plagg came towards her and was the first to place his miraculous in her hand.

"Your one hell of a kid, Pigtails. Be unappoligetic. If you ever need to." He held up a paw. "Just give me a shout."

"Plagg!" Tikki exclaimed.

"I said what I said." He cackled before dissapearing.

She heard Tikki sigh before hugging her cheek. "You've grown so much, my little bug. "She pressed a flipper to her earring." Plagg's right though. If you ever need to. Call upon our power and we will lend it to you."

"Thank you Tikki." she felt tears beginnig to sting her eyes. Tikki dissapeared. "Thank you. All of you."

~~~~~~~~~~

Next

[softcarebears]

HOCO WEEK 9/21-9/28

monday 

41. ga tells me that he has a crush on this girl bow that i used to be bsfs w/ before she moved to the other side of cali

42. me and bbsf become close w/ bow 

43. ga tells ginger and bbsf that he likes bow

tuesday  (nothing happened)

wednesday 

44. me and pinkie go get our tickets for hoco 

45. pinkie gets bullied bc she’s (not to be rude to furries cuz idrc abt that do what u want, the context in which she does it makes it weird) wearing a hot pink hoodie w/ cat paws, giant REAL fox tail hanging from her belt and has a cat headband on and also wants to be called a japaneses name (she’s 100% white)

46. i find out that the only real reason i haven’t been over to pinkie’s house is bc she has a wall of real animal bones that she doesn’t properly clean that have bugs in them 

47. i leave pinkie to go w/ a and turtle bc they’re like my bsfs 

48. pinkie gets pissy and skips fourth block

thursday 

49. tutorial time, me and bbsf share my water, bbsf mentions that i’ve done his makeup before. i wouldn’t normally bring that up cuz it’s very common for us but this leads to turtle further trying to get us together 

friday 

50. hoco rally, i sit w/ cowgirl, pinkie, pinkie’s friend tootsie and my friend from dance and drama, ruby 

51. turtle and a sit behind us and i mainly talk to them and ruby the entire rally, pinkie is oddly nice abt it

52. i walk up to bbsf, bear and bow after 4th block ends and apparently pushed bbsf into to bushes and cut him the fuck up 

53. hoco game, band/colorguard get new uniforms (aka bbsf, five, berry, zim and no name)

54. me, pinkie, cowgirl and tootsie sit by band section to hangout w/ them

55. 8pm i have a breakdown bc that officially marks 2 years of my dad being dead

56. obvi all of my friends try to comfort me 

57. pinkie tries to make it about her for some reason

58. one of my friends wins hoco queen

saturday

59. me and pinkie go to a boba shop to take pics before hoco 

60. we run into bbsf who was across the street

61. we get to the school and i go get my friend diamond 

62. bbsf finally arrives

63. bbsf pulls me into a hug (and rejects pinkie’s hug after) 

64. me, diamond and our other friend fuego (can u tell i’ve run out of names) r all dancing when ga, ginger and a guy who i think i mentioned once like a year ago all come up to me and ask if i’ve seen bbsf 

65. like an hour goes bye and i find out the trio is planning on jumping bbsf

66. i send that voice message to bbsf 

67. i find bbsf and we have, the best way to describe it, a moment…

68. bbsf leaves early

69. bbsf’s older sister finds out abt the almost jumping and chews the trio out

70. a bunch of other shit happened bc i was bouncing around like 4 groups but this is called the bbsf saga so everything else will have to wait until the other sagas

HEY POOKIESTAR! sorry for letting that ask marinate...i was very busy (i was lazy bababooing BUT IM HEREE!!😔)

also miss gworl i'm in the middle of a cyclone class 3 rn hehe..but cyclone is not really cycloning...ITS MORE CYCLOWNING🤡

ohhh so ga basically was threatening to jump BBSF because he bbsf grew close to manic pixie dream bow girl BECAUSE HE GA HAD A CRUSH ON HER OHHH

so bow came back from other side of cali very demure...

PINKIE IS A FURRY WTF...she wears a tail and wants to be called a japanese name ITS GIVING ASIANFISHING

..um..chile anyways...hell naw...does make sense though she acts like a feral child...����#imapinkiehater100percent

"me and bbsf share my water"FIRST THE SLUSHIE NOW THIS?? JUST SAY YOU WANNA KISS HIM AND SHARE SALIVA U STOOPID biatch U ARE DOWN BAD IN SUPERLATIVE FORM SO THAT MEANS YOU ARE "DOWN WORST"

"bbsf mentions that i’ve done his makeup before." i have a theory about this particular part...ill say in the end but im hella delulu yknow so don't listen to my words 100 percent lmfao (you should actually listen to me)

everyone else's names:🎀🌈✨💎🌺🦌🧸

the others:

for number 55 oh noo pookie im sorry to hear that...fawk pinkie...CAN'T SHE JUST SHUT HER GOOFY FURRY ASS UP

HE REJECTED PINKIE'S HUG AND PULLED U IN A HUGGGGG BOMBOCLATTTTT HE A MAN OF CULTURE HE LIKES YOU GIRL JUST FUCKING DATE ALREADYYYYY HOW MANY SIGNS ARE U TRYNA LOOK FOR U BLIND ASS

Y'ALL HAD A MOMENT OH MAHHHH GAWDDDDDD and not u saving him...stawp!! its giving hero x damsel in distress trope; bbsf is the damsel in distress ofc🎀

haiya but why did he try to frolick in the meadow with bow though...tskk i feel like he is kinda a player my dakoko 🥥

anyways my theory about the makeup thing...because i am a whore in THEORY and not in practice (i am but secretly hehe at times dw...3-5 business days)

ok so when u do someone's makeup...YOUR FACE IS CLOSE TO THEIRS RIGHTTTTT....you get what i mean...there is so much proximity there is no distance at all...BABABOOI

similar to when you are about to kiss someone [coughs coughs]...so the fact that he "randomly" remembered AND SEEMINGLY POINTS THAT OUT OF THE BLUE shows that this particular and notably phenomenal romantic and very intimate moment that emerged from the planets and stars from the milky way galaxy aligning [pro poetic yapper] has marked him or left an impact on him yknow what i mean...LIKE HE MIGHT THINK OF THIS MOMENT EVERY NIGHT OR SO OFTEN THAT HIS TOES ARE TINGLING OR HE IS GIGGLING AND BLUSHING LIKE A MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRL IN HIS ROOM...like y'all were close to kissing...he definitely was examining your face perhaps HIGH CHANCE of him staring at your lips [cutely sips her pomegranate tea under the covers with plenty of passion🍵🔥that shit bussing btw]

also him mentioning that shows his interest in you also in all delulu interpretation that this particular mention to you evokes a sense that he may have been secretly inquiring about whether you remember that very intimate moment of high chance of smoochy smooch camouflaged by you doing his makeup...to see if you have feelings for him or have a romantic interest in him...VOILA!!🎀

bai bai

[ggomos-maribat]

4 | about the Paris Mademoiselle

Part 4 of Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Dead | Masterlist

After hearing out Adrien's suggestion on where to have a meal, Tim and Jason ended up in the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

Might as well check out where she lived, right? Tim looked around the homey place as the overhead bell chimed behind them. It was small, simple: glass cases enclosing an assortment of doughnuts, croissants, danishes, eclairs, cookies, pies, and even single-tiered cakes. There was a tip jar next to the register labeled with a cute scribble, positioned next to a statuette of the Eiffel. Warm scents wafted from the kitchen at the back, and Tim could even pick up the faint smell of caffeine from the coffee-making station.

He and Jason took their seats near the register, allowing Tim to peer at the picture frames hung up on the wall. Though most of the photos were mundane, one stood out at the center: a picture of Marinette standing behind the counter, dressed in an apron and a bright grin.

"You're still not allowed to drink coffee," Jason said suddenly.

"I wasn't going to." He rolled his eyes.

From looking around, there didn't seem to be too many 'hints' of Marinette around aside from the photos.  The place seemed moderately busy, with a short-haired woman—Sabine Cheng perhaps?—manning the register.

Tim lined up behind two women pointing at the pastries. The blonde one wearing a blue dress pointed at the glass. "Hey, those pink macarons! Weren't they her favorite?"

The other woman, cropped pixie cut, elbowed her companion, hissing, "Rory!"

Then, she turned to Sabine Cheng, "I'm really sorry, Mrs. Cheng."

"It's quite alright, dears." There was a fond sparkle on the eyes of the older woman. "You're right, those macarons were her favorite."

Tim and Jason shared a look. 'Her' . . . did that mean Marinette? Quickly, he took his phone out to make a quick profile search—the two customers turned out to be former students of Francois Dupont, but not part of Marinette's class: Mireille Caquet and Aurore Beauréal. Both were based outside of Paris but still within Europe, and seemed to be back in the city for a brief visit.

"We'll take those macarons, Mrs. Cheng." Aurore smiled apologetically. "And two coffees, please."

"Of course. It's on the house, girls."

Mireille paused from reaching for her wallet. "No, you don't have to!"

"I insist. You're only here for a few days, yes? Consider it a welcome back home."

After the girls politely extended their thanks, Tim ordered lunch for himself and Jason, whilst paying close attention to the macaron selection. Pink strawberry macarons, huh? He thought. That does suit her.

He lent Jason his phone for him to take a look at his brief research about the two women. "They knew her, I think." Tim stole a glance at the next table. "Not very close, but she helped them out during their reporter gigs."

"There's nothing out of place around here," Jason commented as he idly read over the profiles.

"One camera pointing at the front door, and one at the back door. There are barely any blind spots, but if she did slip past surveillance, the streets on the way to bridge should've caught her at least." Tim's expression twisted.

"Tampering?"

"Doubt it. It doesn't look edited." Tim shrugged. "I asked Babs to be sure and she says so."

He took out the small wrinkled list from his pocket and cleanly crossed out Adrien's name. Can we ask those two women? It didn't feel right interrogating them out of the blue, especially when they were in Marinette's family bakery, with her mother close by. Still, it was an opportunity for them.

Jason even looked like he was ready to ask.

"Jay, come on, we have to think this through."

"Dickie would ask if he were here."

"Dick's a smooth-talker. We're not."

Jason tilted his head. "We have Adrien's excuse."

"Er, hello? It's still bad timing."

"Fine. Let's just go over what we have then."

"She was bullied, even though the school records said otherwise; she was involved in multiple extracurriculars; and according to both her friend and parents, she wasn't acting odd before her death," Tim listed off from the top of his head.

"If she wanted to expose Lilia, then . . . isn't that a motive?"

How much of that conflict could've elevated into murder? Tim couldn't piece it together. He didn't want to rule out everything else just because Lilia Ross was so easy to accuse. "Tricky part is that Lilia actually has an alibi that time."

Jason's eyebrows raised. "What?"

"Two years ago, she was just starting things out with her brand and during the week Marinette died, she was on another part of France, having product meetings with her suppliers." And that alibi was airtight.

"Okay, fine, let's back up. The rest of the class was on Lila's side. Is it possible that it was any of them?" Jason suggested.

"They don't exactly have alibis, but I can't track down where exactly each of them were on that day either." Tim glanced at the other table, where Sabine Cheng served the girls their orders, plus free croissants as well. "And going back to the details of it, could they have pulled off something as—er—clean of evidence as that?"

"A lot of them are rich kids, you know."

"Fine, then say we suspect someone else in their class, do you really think any of them would have the heart to do . . . that to their classmate?"

"Who else could've had a vendetta against her?

One name occurred in Tim's mind, a flash of dark purple and gentle wings. He hesitated a little before saying, "Hawkmoth."

"Hawkmoth?"

"That's the only one I can think of, okay!" Tim shifted in his seat, and then lowered his voice. "Apart from Adrien, Marinette had been the only one to never have been akumatized in their class. That kind of strength to resist akumas is something Hawkmoth would prey on."

"I think you overlooked one problem here, Timbers." Jason looked unimpressed. "Hawkmoth was defeated five months before she died. Ladybug herself said that his Miraculous was taken from him."

"I don't know, maybe he's still a powerful person behind the mask. Or like, it was an accomplice."

It was tricky that Hawkmoth's real identity wasn't ever revealed despite his defeat. It caused quite an uproar within Paris, but Ladybug was set on that decision. As for the reason, all Tim could think of is that the heroes were trying to avoid backlash on whoever was close to the 'real' Hawkmoth.

"You're saying he was fixated on this one girl he can't akumatize?" asked Jason.

"Are you saying that your theory is more likely?" Tim retorted back.

"I'm saying we need so much more evidence to figure this thing out."

Tim sighed audibly. It was true that they were fully basing their guesses on speculations. If they could dig a little bit deeper, they should find a clue that leads to the truth.

"Monsieurs."

Tim stiffened all over in just a span of a second. Were we too loud? When he looked up, both Aurore and Mireille were standing by their table. He quickly checked if Sabine Cheng had heard anything, but she seemed preoccupied with the pastries, fortunately.

"Were you talking about . . ." Aurore whispered. "Marinette?"

"No," Tim lamely replied.

Mireille crossed her arms. "You were. We heard. What is going on?"

"There has been an anonymous request to reopen the investigation," Jason lied smoothly, eyes flickering over to the counter. "But you must understand that her parents are not to be involved."

"What is the reason for this 'reopening'?"

Before Tim or Jason could say anything, Aurore spoke: "Lila. It's Lilia Ross, isn't it?"

"We're not on her side, if that's what you're thinking," said Tim hastily. "Maybe there's something you know?"

Both girls looked at each other, as if sharing a silent conversation. Then, Mireille answered morosely, "We wish we knew more. We couldn't pry into it because she closed herself off from us—even Marc Anciel, one of our common friends."

"Did you know what Lilia Ross did to her?"

"We saw what she did," Aurore said bitterly. "Poor Mari couldn't even catch a break; she was never herself anymore."

"We could've done more," Mireille mumbled. "We tried looking for more information about her death but . . . there's nothing. We even asked Monsieur Raincomprix—that's the father of one of our schoolmates, he was part of the investigation team—and he never said a word."

Aurore nodded, "No one from the police disclosed it."

"Why did they leave the case?" Tim asked. "Did her parents ask . . .?"

Yet again, the two shared a look before Aurore said, "There was someone who asked for the investigation to be closed. Her parents had no choice but to consent to it."

"There was someone pulling the strings from behind?" Jason frowned.

Mireille pinched the bridge of her nose. "Looked like it. That's the only thing we know." She heaved out a sigh. "Actually . . . there is one person who might know or has the means to find out. We can't approach them because, well, it is simply too awkward but maybe the two of you will have more luck. She actually flew over from New York yesterday."

"Who?" Tim leaned in.

"The editor-in-chief of Paris Mademoiselle, Chloe Bourgeois."

***

"What's CEO Timothy Drake-Wayne doing investigating the death of a French teenager?"

Tim internally winced, not anticipating that Chloe Bourgeois had recognized him. The blonde had surprisingly let them into her office (which was also surprisingly extremely messy) next to Le Grand Paris Hotel. Their encounter reminded Tim of a principal's confrontation with students—Chloe's eyes were unwaveringly cold towards them.

"He's just tagging along for my case." Jason brandished a fake ID, naming himself as a private consultant. "We're here at an anonymous request to re-investigate the incident. We want to ask you about Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"Who requested it?"

"We can't say—"

"Was it Adrien?"

Jason shook his head calmly. "We can't disclose any details."

Chloe sighed in exasperation. Like with Adrien, the exhaustion behind her face but she hid it more loosely. Even deeper than that, Tim saw fatigue, restlessness, jetlag, a hint of sadness.

"She was my classmate," Chloe began. "Well, I think she should be more than that to me. I've known her since kindergarten. She was always top of the class, all smiles, kind to a fault, so much of a klutz, habitually late . . ." She paused. "I was just her bully."

She has that deep faraway gaze. If there was anyone who didn't bother to hide the hurt from losing Marinette, it was her. Chloe Bourgeois. "I've known her since kindergarten but we were never friends. It's my petty jealousy's fault, I don't know. Even if I mocked her so many times, she always fought back in some way. She had such a sharp tongue. She despised me as much as I despised her.

"Did you know she had a crush on Adrien? I bet you didn't. It was embarrassingly massive that she'd trip all over the place. I'd pick on her about it." She fiddled with a button on her blazer. "The crush mellowed out over time but—but everything about her mellowed out so much. I don't know why I did anything but I asked my Dad how she died. No matter how much I begged, he said 'his hands were tied'. Believe me, my father always gave anything I asked.

"You won't believe how devastated everyone was when she was gone. My dad cried. Hell, my mother shed a tear. Andre the ice cream man cried. Nadja Chamack broke down on live TV. Everyone outside our class cried. Her friends who abandoned her had the audacity to fucking cry. It was like the whole city was grieving. You know why? Because Hawkmoth was already gone at that time. Everyone thought it was finally our time to heal but nooo, they didn't see how much it took a toll on those who barely kept it together the whole time.

"Marinette was never akumatized. She's been targeted by so many akumas, had so much done to her but I never once saw her break. Not even close. Of course she wasn't fucking okay enduring all of that. Of course I had to be the idiot who never tried to apologize to her," Chloe spat out. "There. There's my statement."

Tim felt so pinned down by her gaze. The irony . . . it was Chloe who talked more about her than Adrien.

Jason cleared his throat. "There's one more thing. Lilia Ross—"

"Lila?" She sneered. "No, don't get me started on her. You should be smarter than believing that stupid act she puts on."

"Did her transfer . . . change Marinette somehow?"

"Uh, yeah! She practically lost all her friends," she scoffed. "I'd say everything was going downhill at about Quatriéme, but steeply when Lila showed up."

"Why? What was in Quatriéme?"

Chloe raised a judgmental eyebrow.

"When Hawkmoth first showed up," Tim mumbled. "Did you collect other evidence aside from asking your father? Didn't you ever want to know why?"

"It's useless. I have other things taking up my time right now." But in Chloe's eyes, Tim could clearly see that she wanted to know. Desperately.

"Besides," Chloe added, "My dad's not mayor anymore. I can't exactly pull any strings."

"Do you know anyone else we can ask?" Jason questioned.

"Not really." Her voice turned soft. "I'm not in close contact with anyone anymore. But there's something I've been wondering about myself, and maybe you can look into it."

Chloe reached up to rub her shoulder. "Those rumors online about Lila. They turned up out of the blue, didn't they? Now, who's exactly behind all of that?"

Taglist: @hammalammadamdam @toodaloo-kangaroo @missmadwoman @afanofmanyships @atomicherringpersonjudge-blog @wheredostarsgowhenyoudie

[paintbrushnebula]

Here's a buncha my personal Gwen Stacy Headcanons that no one asked for but I'm giving anyway :3 I wrote a Butt Ton and I hope y'all like really 'em 🐧

Gwen was a very tough, reckless kid growing up. She tripped and fell a LOT because she liked doing stunts and parkouring on literally everything, but she'd never cry. George was always scared of Gwen getting hurt from her stunts but he was impressed (if a little freaked) by how she'd get right back up afterward like it was nothing. Gwen was just a very naturally durable child. She'd always have at least one band-aid on her somewhere.

(My sister wrote this one): As a result of her absolutely Tasmanian devil type recklessness, George would cut her hair SUPER short as a child, like pixie hair type short to avoid having to always wash out the bugs and dirt and leaves and wood chips and literally anything she grabs and just goes "Savin this for later yo" in her hair. (She still stuck stuff in her hair and honestly liked the short hair better cuz she could run faster, but ey it reduced the expenses on baby shampoo SIGNIFICANTLY) n she wasn't allowed to grow her scruffy little spike head hair long again till she was like 8 poor georgie was struggling for ideas he's just a guy HES JUST A GUY MAN !!!!!

Gwen begged George for a penguin as a pet when she was 5 but was told that penguins can't be pets. She played club penguin almost every day until middle school. She starts playing it again after they defeat the Spot. Margo plays it with her all the time. Gwen was absolutely appalled when she discovered that Club Penguin is discontinued in Miles' universe.

Yeah she's 100% patching things up with Glory, Em Jay, and Betty after Beyond the Spiderverse. The Mary Janes become a successful niche band very quickly now that Gwen is fully committed and she even performs as lead vocalist every now and then. Gwen eventually starts writing and singing songs of her own for their shows. She also starts spending more time with them outside the band.

Gwen and Peter's favorite childhood activity was making home videos. Peter's videos emulate Bill Nye the Science Guy; he'd showcase all these experiments/prepared presentations and ramble on about them pretending he's this world renowned scientist. Gwen's videos are her doing crazy stunts on her skateboard, or inspecting exotic bugs/lizards with her bare heckin' hands and talking to them in funny voices. They'd each film the other's videos. They stopped making them when they reached middle school; life just got harder for the both of them due to increased bullying, Gwen becoming Spider-Woman, and Peter's mental health getting worse. Gwen still has their old video camera with all their videos still intact, but since Peter's death, she hasn't been able to bring herself to watch them again.

She loves saying "yell heah"/"yell hes"/"what the yell"/"aw yellll nahhh" a lot

Big fan of action/neo-noir/crime thriller movies: John Wick, Sicario, Baby Driver, Nightcrawler, Pulp Fiction, Batman, etc. Just any piece of fiction with Misunderstood Action Person who's always On The Run, hunted by the law but just trying to get by, struggling to survive in an unjust system. Toootallllyyy doesn't hit close to home for her.

PC gamer? Yell hes.

She's a surprisingly talented voice artist/impressionist with impressive range. She already figured out how to perfectly mimic Hobie's cockney British accent after like a week. She never forgets a voice and can do quickly do impressions of lots of famous fictional characters. She'll come up with all these funny voices to make Miles laugh or prank call people. She LOVES prank calling people.

Part of George's motivation for letting Gwen take up ballet was so that she could learn proper balance/coordination so she'd be more careful when performing all her stunts. I think that Gwen used to be naturally clumsy until ballet taught her proper agility. He thought that if she was gonna be a little daredevil, then she could at least be able to catch herself before her face is slamming into the pavement.

Gwen is a big nickname-giver. She calls Miles "Bambi" (he looks like a baby deer to her), Margo is "Mars Bar", Peni is "Panini", and Pav is "Pavlova." She mostly nicknames people after food really.

She's not really a candy person but she is definitely a junk food person. M&Ms, Cool Ranch Doritos, Pringles, soft drinks (favors coke), Reese's, Cheez-its (her favorite), Oreos, and your typical fast foods.

After the Spot fiasco is over and she and Miles are months into their relationship, Gwen starts putting on a bit of weight. Not that much, but her form fills out enough to be noticeable. I like the idea that she becomes so happy with herself post-Beyond that she indulges herself a little, yknow? She takes an immediate liking to Rio's food and Rio is always giving her extra leftovers to take home or packs her something to eat during Spider-missions. She doesn't become aware of the extra weight until Miles' clothes start fitting her a little tighter than she remembers (he's very skinny after all). She's very happy with her new shape and chooses not to lose it (mostly because she refuses to have to eat less which honestly same)

Going back to the home video headcanon; Peter actually recorded one last video the night before the prom. In the video, he presents the vial containing the lizard serum to the viewer and explains his plan to drink the serum so he can get revenge on everyone who bullied him at the school. The way Peter enthusiastically presents his plan in the video is eerily similar to the old science videos he recorded as a child. At the end of the video, he rambles about how excited he is to become "special like her," but he doesn't elaborate further; anyone who isn't Gwen won't know who he's talking about. Since Gwen hasn't opened that video camera to this day, she has no idea the video exists (I don't know if she ever sees it).

I'll post the next part of that 'Gwen Stacy is Sick' comic tomorrow I promise XD

[illegally-blind-and-deaf]

GUYS GUYS I HAVE A HEADCANNON ON HOW TINTIN'S HAIR WORKS

OKAY

So he has his quiff, right? And obviously it naturally stands up because we see him get wet, then when it dries it's back sticking up all over the place.

But how???? Unless my man has ridiculous volume (which makes zero sense) then there must be something going on.

We're also going to ignore that he's a comic book character who gets about 70000 head injuries and has no brain damage, but anyway that's not the point.

Firstly: what is his haircut?

The movie honestly has the best answer for this:

Short on the sides, longer on top, then slightly shorter right at the front. That's important. Remember that.

This lines up with the general male haircut of the time (30s-50s with slight variation with each decade):

(Leftie even has a quiff too!)

So, the actual haircut makes sense, but the question of the quiff still remains. I've been thinking about this a lot, when I was at church and I noticed the 9-year-old boy in front of me had provided the perfect answer. On the back of our heads, we have the spirally bits called the crown. When the hair is cut too short there, it sticks up.

(This is obviously a fake man made one, but it demonstrates lind of what the hair does. If you've seen it before, you know what I mean.)

"But Bea," you say, "crowns are at the back of the head." To which you are very correct...

Unless you are me.

I have a very, VERY funky phenomenon called a double crown. That's rare, but the positioning of my crowns are even rarer. One is at the back of my head, and the other is right at the front of my head, say... where Tintin's quiff is. Can you see where I'm going?

For this, we shall take a plunge into my camera roll to when I had a pixie cut.

You can see that in the centre of my hairline, my hair sticks up before swooping back down. Part of that is curly hair, but my hair isn't curly any more and it still does that, so, I'm blaming it on the crown.

(Also I have a very similar hairline to Tintin's, though his has a bit more of a peak in the middle. So it's entirely possible that he doesn't jave a receding hairline and just has a big forehead, but that's another conversation I'm not going to get into because why do that when you can bully him amiright-)

So basically what I'm saying is that Tintin's hair sticks up because of a funky crown situation.

Now, how does he get it neatly sticking up and not everywhere?

...

*insert sketch of Tintin with a hair curler chilling in his hair because I can't draw*

Or a hair dryer.

Eventually your hair just sticks back to place, so it probably got to a point where he would wet his hair, stick it up in a little point and it would dry in place.

...

Yes I need help. I know. But hey! Food for thought.

:)

[pegasjosef]

Seeing stars-C.Sturniolo PART 1!

Songs that i recommend listening to while reading this series:

Where is my mind?-pixies

Runaway-lil peep

No more tears- Ozzy Osborne

Warnings:NSFW. If you are a minor or are uncomfortable with this topic DNI! Some angst? Fluff at the end! Lots of dialog. use of Y/n.

(NSFW IS THE OTHER PARTS)

Any disrespect and bullying towards me or my followers/readers will be BLOCKED!

English isn't my first language so I'm sorry in advance if my spelling+grammer isn't good!

no proofread!

words:1266

Key:

Y/n: Red

Chris: Orange

Nick: Purple

Matt: Blue

Olivia: Green

Others: Pink

Y/NS VIBE:

Summery: Y/n fall's in love with the schools biggest player, Chris Sturniolo. But what happens when he falls harder?

Chris's POV:

My phone rang for the 100th time today; Olivia's been bombarding me with questions about why I didn't go to her sweet 16. I open up one of her voice messages and I cringe as soon as I hear her high-pitched voice.

"Hey, bub. Why didn't you come to my birthday? I picked out an outfit just for you and you didn't come!"

God, that voice made me want to drive Matt's car off a bridge. I never understood why I chose Olivia. Hell, I could have any girl I want from our so-called "school" and I chose her. All the guys in my grade are drooling over her but oh, Jesus, they should run 1000 miles away from that woman.

I opened one message after another and they where all the same, some of them saying "you'll never find someone like me" and some "please come, I miss you, hun". Miss me my ass. The last time she missed me was when she was drunk at a club and she needed me to drive her back home.

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

y/n's POV:

School has never been on my list of favourite things. Its probably the opposite. I put on one of my old band shirts and some baggy shorts. I'm not poor but I'm not necessarily rich, My parents work aboard a lot so I get the apartment to myself for months on end.

There are multiple groups in my school, I'll name them out for you.

1: Band kids

2: The stanley obsessed kids

3: The lacrosse players

4: Goths

5: Academically smart people

Yeah, that cliché shit. I'm one of the "band kids". Our school doesn’t really have bullying but we have DRAMA. Lots and lots of it, actually, It's mostly the Stanley obsessed kids and the lacrosse players that start it. I think you can guess what type of drama it is:

"Oh my God, Elijah, you totally just ruined my stanley!"

"Alex, let me wear your jersey!"

Yep, We have THOSE types of girls. God they annoy the FUCK out of me. Especially Olivia, all she does is pop a tit and she get anything she wants from her boyfriend Chris. Ewewewew.

-

I walked into the school building and I could already smell the odor from the bathrooms and changing rooms, I took one whiff of the school air and I felt nauseous. My friends walked up to me and I already mentally prepared myself for some useless yapping about them breaking their guitar strings and the gig we have next week. I gazed across the hall and spotted none other then The Chris Sturniolo making out with his "girlfriend" Olivia. I wrinkled my nose and looked away, I really didn't need to see the person I loved the most making out with the person I loathed, especially at 7 in the morning. Bloody hell, they should get a room, Honestly, it's embarrassing.

"Yo, y/n, you going to the gig this weekend? We desperately need a lead guitarist since Griffin fell sick".

I turned around as soon as i heard that familiar voice. I looked up and saw my closest friend Jett, we've been friends since K-garden and we both have a love for music. That's basically how we bonded, we're both 17 and hate Olivia.

"yuh i'll be there. send me the adress-"

I get cut off by Olivia screaming at chris about something.

"YOUR REALLY GOING TO BREAK UP WITH ME?"

"well yeah, you've been annoying me all week and I'm sick of your bullshit, your a homophobic little bitch and I'm finished with your BS"

"WHAT ABOUT PROM? DON'T YOU FEEL ANYTHING AT THIS POINT? WHAT ABOUT ALL THE THINGS WE'VE DONE TOGETHER??"

"I'm not going with you Olivia, you've bullied my brother for being gay and thats unacceptable. I'm disgusted by how I've always sided with you and lost multiple friends because of you. we're over"

Chris glanced at me as he walked off and i gave him a small smile, knowing that i'll see i'm english again due to him not being with Olivia in the janitors closet during 2 and 3rd period. Me and Jett walked to homeroom in a comfortable silence as Olivia stormed off into the janitors closet to cry or to call her father to pick her up.

-

2:00pm.

an hour and a half until the next gig. I sit down next to Chris's seat in English while fiddling with my guitar pick, waiting for class to start. Suddenly, I hear the door open and Chris steps inside for the first time this semester. I look him up and down and smile to myself, knowing damn well he won't have a clue on what we're doing in class.

He sits down next to me and raises an eyebrow when i quickly look away.

"You've never had an attractive boy sit down next to you?"

Holy shit his cockiness is sickening.

"I've seen far more attractive boys at gigs. Sorry if that bruises your ego."

I mutter as I turn to page 25 of my book and start reading the page.

"Oh come on. I bet you haven’t seen much. I'm the most attractive guy at school. You gotta admit that I AM a bit attractive"

I scoff and put my headphones on. God he was so obnoxiously cute it was sickening, I couldn't help but smile as he pouted and opened his book. He had a mix of confusion and flipped through a few pages of the book "private peaceful" with the look of pure shock displayed on his face. He tapped on my shoulder and whined,

"hey pleaseee help me with this work. I don't know ANYTHING about this book and we have a whole book report to write about this book. I'll pay you back!"

I groaned and reluctantly put my headphones off, glancing at the book and then back at him.

"how much you talkin'?"

I raised an eyebrow as be pondered on the price of my "tutoring".

"I'll pay you fifty bucks if you tell me about the book and one hundred if you write the book report for me"

My eyes widened as I head the price, I looked up at him with a confused expression.

"A HUNDERED DOLLARS FOR TUTORING? HOW RICH ARE YOU??"

I suddenly slap my hand to my mouth, embarrassed that those words slipped out of my mouth. He turns a deep shade of red and i instantly feel stupid for asking him. Of course he was rich. He was a bloody lacrosse player.

"I'm so sorry I shouldn’t have said that. You don't have to reply."

God I was so embarrassing. His gaze softened and looked down at me, smiling at me he told me:

"I guess my parents make a lot of money. Don't worry, you're not embarrassing. I'll give you my number. Call me this evening. I'd like to get to know you."

I look at him with a expression of pure shock and type is number into my phone while the bell rings, signalling the end of class.

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

Chris's POV:

"I guess my parents make a lot of money. Don't worry, you're not embarrassing. I'll give you my number. Call me this evening. I'd like to get to know you."

I chuckle as she looks up at me with a shocked expression. I really liked her vibe. After Olivia created a whole situation with me breaking up with her, I wanted to find a new female friend. Y/n had the vibe i've been looking for all this time.

Yours truly, R.A.Y.Č.E.K☆🍓𖦹🍒𖦹☆

COMMENT IF YOU WANNA BE ON THE TAGLIST!

taglist: @tillies33ssss @bazooka-cazooka @christhopersturniolo

[strawberry-metal]

Made a Winx Concept for my Winx selfsona in this doll maker. She's an Earth fairy. Flower will probably be removed from her top in the end because I gotta leave room for charmix. This doll maker kinda make me feel upset about my hair to be honest. There's never any good options for wavy hair, especially shorter ones. My hair used to be straight and go to my waist, but I cut it and now it won't grow past the bottom of my shoulder blades, and for some reason my hair just decided to become wavy when I became an adult.

You can play the doll here: https://meiker.io/play/14245/online.html

I edited the freckles, eyelash, dark circles under eyes, black part of wings, nails, and top myself so you won't find those in the maker. The wings are meant to be a call back when my oc, Shanna, was originally a Fairy before she became a JoJo oc!

I will name this selfsona Nerium, after the Nerium Oleander, the most poisonous flower in the world. This is her regular, Magic Winx form! I do plan on splurging a bit to buy some bases so I can draw her next time. <3

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

An Earth Fairy with who carries alot of trauma and burdens on her shoulders. (Same traumas as me, abuse from narcissistic friend as a kid, bullying and being gr**med.) Nerium doesn't really feel like she belongs with the other fairies and always got along with witches better. Sometimes she feels like she should of been born a witch. Nerium comes from the planet, Linphea, where she trained to be in tune with nature and control her powers. Compared to Flora, she's highly destructive and will cause earthquakes, along with most of her vines having thorns in them to rip and tear the enemy, and her flower attacks are poisonous, sticking true to her name.

She's older than the other girls in her dorm but is in the same grade, she just started school a year late as a kid. She doesn't like smiling as she's self conscious about her age, and she HATES physical affection, don't touch her. The girls and her form their own Winx group, and Nerium is chosen to be the leader. Nerium also bonds with the Pixie of Wind, Arelia. She also has a pet boston terrier dog.

Nerium earns her charmix by being true to herself and admitting that she cares very much about the people around her, especially her friends and how much she loves them, and is determined to protect them from an attack by evil senior witches.

Nerium has a Sombria form. Due to carrying so much trauma and having so much difficulty fitting in with the other fairies, she easily gets taken advantage of and turned evil from a powerful dark spell. Her friends are the ones who are able to reach through to her and break her free of Sombria form.

Nerium earns her enchantix by sacrificing her life to protect the princess of Linphea, the enchantix reviving her. Her fairy dust is in the shape of a flower with thorny vines wrapped around it. She also finally starts smiling around the time she earns enchantix.

[littlechinesedoll]

Like a Prayer - Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruko fic

Like a Prayer Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/46367686.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: F/M

Fandom:Naruto

Relationship: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruko, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Uchiha Fugaku/Uchiha Mikoto, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke

Character: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Uzumaki Naruko, Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Mikoto, Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Itachi, Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Japanese High School, Bullying, Haruno Sakura Bashing, Haruno Sakura Being An Asshole, Good Parent Uchiha Fugaku, Angst, Love Confessions, Female Uzumaki Naruto, kakairu adopts naruko

Summary

   Naruko has long hair. Down to her waist. It used to be a messy boyish pixie cut when she started to grow it as a prayer, when one day during a day out hanging with him, Sasuke made an offhanded comment about how a woman with their back turned to them, had such beautiful long hair.

   She cuts it all off a week before graduation, when she saw a girl in their year with pink hair half as long as hers, latch onto Sasuke’s arm, and Sasuke didn’t push her off like he usually did with other girls.

Notes

   This was inspired by: https://twitter.com/pukun_p/status/1643638533276459009

See the end of the work for more notes

---

“What did you do to your hair!” Sasuke demands when he sees Naruko with a blunt bob down to the curve where her neck met her shoulders, and textured bangs. By her ear, that enamel fishcake pin Sasuke got when he went past an accessories store and thought of her. She’s never taken it off since Sasuke got it for her.

Sasuke hasn’t seen her in a week. They’ve been together every day since they were five (unless their parents had to take them somewhere), hand in hand and cheek to cheek when they were children, and shoulder to shoulder as they grew up, and this is the first time in their lives that Sasuke hasn’t heard from Naruko for a week. No note, no call, no text, no nothing, when she can never stop messaging Sasuke all kinds of random things.

Then she shows up on the last day of school, having cut all her hair off. Sasuke wonders what’s going on inside her head—what would prompt this drastic change? Sure, she looks great in this new haircut, but what was the point of growing it that long, and dragging Sasuke to her shopping trips looking for products to make sure her hair stayed soft, shiny, and volumized, only to just cut it all off?

Was it just… an impulse decision?

It’s graduation day. Sasuke would love nothing but to ask Naruko and her parents to join him and his parents to lunch out to celebrate, then spend the first day of summer vacation with her.

---

It’s graduation day. But Naruko would like things to be over so she can try and continue to compartmentalize and not break down in front of her best friend. The love of her life.

She wants the ceremony to be over because her full-time job starts at 11am and the ceremony will end at 10:45am, so she has to pedal as fast as she can to get to the coffee and bakery shop she’s been waiting at in the last week in attempt to avoid Sasuke. Besides, there was nothing to do at school anymore since she got all the credits she needed to pass and graduate.

“I cut it,” she says, “I got a full-time job, contractual though, and I thought the hair got in the way of being productive at work ,” it’s a lie. She could easily just put it up into pigtails, braid them, and wrap it around itself in a bun to keep it out of her face while she waited and bussed tables.

She cut it in the hopes of moving on. Letting go of this silly little crush. Of the silly hope that one day, Sasuke would look at her and tell her he liked her hair. That he’d ask to touch it or offer to comb it because he wanted to feel the softness between his fingers, and let the fresh floral scent fill his senses. That he’d tell her that he liked her back the way she liked him, and her prayer would be granted.

It was foolish of her to hold on to this stupid prayer. Because of course, Uchiha Sasuke, the most handsome, most popular, smartest boy in school, would pair up with the smartest, prettiest girl in their year, Haruno Sakura.

Because who would ever look at loud, obnoxious, tomboyish, scar cheeked, chubby, orphaned Naruko, who barely passes math, and picks fights, eats too much and has pudge, and wears a skirt below the knee unlike all the other girls because she hates that her thighs are too thick. Not cute is what she gets from their classmates all the time.

She tries not to compare herself to other girls, she does anyway.

Sakura is top of the class, the valedictorian. She’s on the math team, vice president of the literature club, and is student council president, and gets tons of chocolate on White Day because she’s pretty and all the boys like her. She got accepted to a good school and will become a doctor.

Sasuke is second next to her. Sasuke’s the captain of the baseball team, part of the kendo team, and gets tons of chocolate on Valentines’ Day because he’s handsome and all the girls like him. All his applications were accepted and he’s sure to follow in Itachi and their father’s steps to run their family business.

Then there’s Ino whose hair never really needs any combing, with her fair skin, scar-free face. She’s captain of the debate team and a member of the kyuudou team. And Hinata who’s the very definition of cute to every guy in their class: small, quiet, demure, small voice, who liked giving out sweets to anyone who’d take them. They get chocolate on White Day, too.

And Naruko. Naruko likes to eat ramen, make clay frogs, and joined the garden and flower arrangement club, and is always tanned—shades darker than every other girl, and always sweaty because she’s always under the sun in the garden. She’s never gotten chocolate on White Day from anyone in her life.

It’s not that she’s insecure, because hey everybody’s got something they hate about themselves, and she doesn’t have enough self-hatred to change anything. She just… knows she’s not pretty. Average, at best? At least she’s not completely ugly. Maybe. Skincare never got rid of the scars anyway and she wears enough sunscreen.  

“I wanted to work over the summer to get some sweet cash to spend on stupid shit and food before college!” she adds with a grin. “Besides, all those hair products were getting expensive,” she scrunches her nose. “I could use that extra cash in case I need anything else when I move to my new apartment closer to the school. I didn’t want to bother my dads. They’ve spent enough already. Time to pull my own weight I guess,”

That one isn’t a lie. But she actually doesn’t need cash. She’ll be getting a full salary for two months before she gets to move. She hasn’t really thought what she’s going to do with all of it. All she wanted was a distraction. Iruka and Kakashi look after her well, and Kakashi has good income as a lawyer, and she has a grandma who has more money than she knows what to do with and she always handed cash over when she asked nicely, but only if she helped over at her grandma’s clinic, sorting documents or cleaning up the place, or taking over the secretary when she can’t come in.

“Why didn’t you tell me you got a job?” Sasuke asks. Because usually, Naruko tells him everything and if there’s something Sasuke knows about his best friend, it’s that Naruko can’t lie to him even if she tried.

They even shared plans for when they go to college. They planned on living in the same complex halfway between the community college she decided to go to, and the university Sasuke got accepted to. But things didn’t go as planned since Naruko’s parents can’t find anything within budget where Sasuke wanted Naruko to rent so they could be close, so they went with a student apartment complex near the community college. Which is easier on Naruko if she wants to go home during the weekends since it’ll only take a short bus ride.  

Naruko actually wants to skip the ceremony right after she gets called on stage, so she can leave and not see the what the fuss is about when people gather around to watch Sasuke give Sakura the second button on his uniform jacket when she asks for it as they exchanged gifts. (1)

She doesn’t want to hear the cheers of the student body when the handsomest boy and the prettiest girl finally get together because it makes sense.

That doesn’t stop Naruko from having a gift for Sasuke though. She’ll try to be as casual as possible, keep it together, and last long enough for Iruka and Kakashi to get photos and then she can go back to work, cry in the locker for about five minutes, get her shit together, and probably hopefully be successful in avoiding Sasuke and as she tries work herself to death for the next two months before starting college in attempt to push aside these feelings.

A teacher’s voice comes from the campus speakers. Students are being told to gather at the ceremony area.

That’s Naruko’s cue to give Sasuke her gift, because she wants to avoid the awkwardness, and not give anybody the chance to assume that she’s confessing her feelings because she’s giving Sasuke a gift. Good thing it’s not chocolate, because Sasuke hates sweet things.

“Congratulations on graduating!” Naruko practically shoves the white gift bag into Sasuke’s hands.

In it is a small pack of the expensive, fancy green tea she bought with her first week’s salary, a coaster she made in the pottery seminar she went to in the shape of a cat’s head, and a small candle that smells like freshly laundered sheets.

“See you later!” she says.

It’s another lie. She runs over to where her class is, separate from Sasuke since he’s in the class with the achievers, and she’s in the class of not-so-achievers, and waits for the ceremony to start.

---

“Haruno Sakura, Class 3-A, Konoha School of Medicine,”

---

“Uchiha Sasuke, Class 3-A, University of Konoha,”

---

“Hatake Naruko, Class 3-C, Nishiba College,” (2)

Naruko climbs up the stairs to the stage, a grin on her face, genuinely elated she’s finally done with high school. She bows to the headmaster and accepts the fake rolled up diploma, then bows once again before going back to her seat. She doesn’t look for Sasuke in the audience.

---

When Iruka and Kakashi have gotten their fill of photos, of all of them together, one with each parent, and Naruko alone with the stage as the background, she tells them she’s about to be late for her job and rushes to the school quadrangle where her bicycle is parked, and where students are gathered giving each other congratulations and making plans for the summer as the last day of school ends.

She knew it, people are gathered around Sakura and Sasuke, and she doesn’t stay around long enough to watch Sasuke give Sakura the second button of his jacket and breaks into half a sprint to get to her bicycle.

---

Sasuke thanks Sakura for her gifts but gives her back the gift bag and doesn’t give her the second button when she asks for it. He leaves her there and doesn’t pay her any more attention as he looks around for Naruko. He doesn’t see her but sees Iruka and Kakashi. Iruka may stay a while longer because he’s a teacher and Kakashi may have to go back to the office if they weren’t able to take the whole day off for their daughter and the lunch they're supposed to go to.  

Whispers and silence blanket over the crowd as Sasuke leaves Sakura in the middle of the quadrangle, second button-less, headed for Iruka, gathered with other faulty near the school building entrance.

“Oh, she left!” says Iruka with a disappointed frown when Sasuke comes up to them to ask. “Late for her shift, she said. We were supposed to go to lunch with you! Please tell Mikoto-san we can’t make it. We can gather gain when Naruko-chan’s on her day off, okay?”

Sasuke didn’t even get to take a photo with her. Naruko always insisted they take photos together on the last day of school before summer. Today is their last “last day” together, and they have no photo for it.

“Sure. What time is she getting home?” Sasuke dares to ask.

“She usually gets in before midnight,” says Iruka with a sigh. “It’s concerning, our little girl out that late, but that’s the shift she agreed to,”

Midnight? Naruko shouldn’t be out that late without him if Sasuke has anything to do or say about it. Sure, she can handle herself and can throw a mean punch if she wants to, but still. He’ll even do whatever Itachi wants, even be his runner for work the entire summer, if it could mean he can borrow his car and pick her up—every night if he must—instead of Naruko riding her bicycle alone in the dark.

“Can I go pick her up?” he says without thinking.

“Oh, that’s sweet of you, Sasuke-kun!” Iruka breathes in relief. “Is it okay if we leave Naruko to you?”

“Of course!” Sasuke answers without missing a beat. Aside from her parents and his family, she wouldn’t be safer with anyone else but him. “Sensei,” he says because they’re on school grounds, “Kakashi-jisan, let’s all have lunch with mom, dad, and Itachi, to celebrate sometime soon?”

“Sure,” Kakashi nods. “Naruko’ll let you know when her off day is, okay?”

“Do you happen to know where the café she works at is?”

“It’s called Cream & Sugar if I recall correctly,” says Kakashi.

Sasuke nods, bids them goodbye, then returns to his parents and brother who are ready to take him out for a celebratory lunch. They’re disappointed Naruko isn’t coming with them.

---

“Sasuke, where are Naru-chan, Iruka-san, and Kakashi-san?” his mother asks as he gets in the backseat of the car, next to Itachi.

“Iruka-jisan said they’re sorry they can’t make it today since Naruko said she’s late for work. We can gather again on her day off,” he says as he straps himself in.

“Oh, that's a shame,” Mikoto tuts.

“Alright, fess up,” says Itachi as their father eases out of the parking lot. “What did you do?”

“What? Why’d you think I did something?”

Itachi raises a brow. “If there’s someone between the two of you with less self-awareness it’s you, Otouto. Besides, even if you did Naru-chan wrong, she can’t ever manage to stay away from you too long, ever,”

“Itachi-kun,” their mother sighs, “At least say with a little bit more grace,”

“Well, she hasn’t been at the house for a week,” remarks Fugaku. Naruko’s a noisy child but he’s learned to love her too, and that she’s good for Sasuke and Sasuke is good for her. “Better say sorry even though you don’t know what you’re sorry for, Sasuke,”

“Listen to your father, boys,” says his mother. “He’s right,”

“Oh, what a miracle, the blessed words right from your lips,” Fugaku chuckles, Itachi rolls his eyes at the flirting.

Sasuke ignores it and opens the gift bag from Naruko and stares at the variety of items. He loves every single one of them—Naruko always knew what he liked. He opens the card and sees her messy but still legible handwriting.

サスケてめへ Sasuke-teme he To Sasuke-teme,

おめでとうございます！できただってばよ！自分に気を付けてね！ Omedetou gozaimasu! Dekita datte ba yo! Jibun ni ki wo tsukete ne! Congratulations! We made it! Take care of yourself.

ナルコより Naruko yori From, Naruko.

What had he done? To deserve just a cold sounding card without a single emoji, and not a hug on one of the biggest days of their lives?

---

Naruko cries in the locker room when she gets there, replaying the small scene with Sasuke and Sakura in her head, over and over again, imagining Sasuke handing over the button to Sakura, them sharing a hug, and Sasuke inviting Sakura instead of her to a celebratory lunch like Mikoto-basan told her they’d go to after the ceremony.

You have no right to be hurt, she tells herself, sniffling as she pulls on her uniform, then ties up her apron at the back. You have no right. She can’t help but be hurt anyway, and she hates it.

But she must admit, though. A successful businessman and a doctor, that’s a power couple right there if she ever saw one.

Naruko wants to finish college just to say that she did—because it had always been Sasuke’s plan. She plans on taking something close to administration, even though she isn’t good with authority figures. The connections and skills someone gets from helping run a company might help in the mundanity of personal life. Maybe she’ll get into the firm Kakashi works at and work her way up to be a legal secretary or an administrative officer.  

She removes the fishcake pin from her hair and shoves it in her bag to make sure she doesn’t lose it, then pulls her hair up into a neat half-ponytail. Then she changes her mind about the pin, fishes it out of the bag, and uses it to pin her bangs to the side. She’s never taken this off since Sasuke gave it to her a year ago and she isn’t about to stop now.

Though she might, just to take her mind off it.

It isn’t fair, she thinks. She loved Sasuke for so long. Longer than anyone else, she’s sure, except maybe his parents and Itachi-niichan. Like how she knows the way he likes the cheap shirt she got him from Uniqlo that he’s worn so much it’s gone ratty and got holes already on the seam of the shoulder blade and near the neck hole. Mikoto-basan offered to sew it for him but he insists he likes it still.

She knows every inch of his room, the shampoo he uses, how he likes his eggs in the morning, what kind of tea he likes, what to get him at the café, or during sleepovers, where to get her futon from, and how he likes it when she blow dries his hair at night after a bath, or how he complains when Naruko shoves a headband on his head to free his face of hair and smears all that skincare on his cheeks and forehead but secretly likes it because it the scents are so light and fresh.

Now she can’t do it anymore. She must respect his girlfriend, even though she never respected Naruko. She misses Sasuke so much, but she has to stay away from him. She’s been on the wrong end of Sakura’s attention before, and it’s not something she wants a repeat of.

“Look, I know you think you two are best friends or whatever label you’re using to delude yourself. Because honestly, a stupid, scarred, class-C piggy like you? Can’t even tell you and a whole chashu roll apart! Sasuke-kun is too smart and has far too refined taste for you. You? He would never, ew,”

It’s a miracle the acetone she used to remove the superglue Sakura and Ino poured onto her hair didn’t burn her hair right off.

She didn’t tell Sasuke nor her parents.

Sasuke, out of anger, might make a scene and humiliate Sakura in front of the entire school, Iruka might bring this up to the headmaster and she might not graduate on time, and Kakashi would most definitely sue—he’s known for crushing the guilty accused and leaving them penniless.

That’s not something she wants to happen. It’d be a taint on Sasuke’s character, a stain on Sakura’s educational and legal background, and too much work on Kakashi. She’d rather stay away from Sakura to save her own sanity and self-respect. Naruko may be stubborn and too headstrong at times, but she knows when to stop, especially if she knows nothing will come of it.

So, she washes her face in the staff restroom, ices her eyes to depuff them, then faces the day’s customers with a smile and a bow. If working hard and long enough to tire herself out is the only thing she can do to avoid thinking about Sasuke and just sleep when she gets home, she’ll do it. Maybe if she does it long enough, she’ll forget about it.

Who knows, maybe Sasuke won’t even notice her gone with how much time he’s going to spend with his new girlfriend.

---

When her shift ends, she’s surprised to see Itachi’s SUV, a white Land Cruiser, waiting across the street from where she bolted her bicycle at a bicycle rack.

“There you are!”

She half gasps when she sees Sasuke step out of the driver’s side of the car.

“C’mon, I’ll put your bicycle in the back. I’ll take you home,” he calls out as he crosses the street toward her.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, watching him unlock the rope lock with the spare key she gave him years ago when she first got her bike. “How did you know where I work?”

“I asked your dads,” he answers, “Iruka-jisan said he was worried about you being out so late, so I offered to pick you up,”

What if one of Sakura’s friends were around and sees them? Just because they’ve graduated doesn’t mean Sakura doesn’t have the means to find her. Stay away from him, she reminds herself, stepping away from Sasuke to make sure there’s always enough space between them.

Which confuses Sasuke, because Naruko is always all over him. Not in an ecchi sort of way, since she can’t flirt to save her life, but always touching, latched onto him, always a tackle hug when she sees him for the first time that day, or when he surprises her, and she doesn’t expect him to be at the place she’s at. Pinching or poking whatever part of him, draping herself onto him whenever she pleases.

Why? Why all this… space. They’d been attached at the hip since they were kids. Now Sasuke’s had an entire week without any kind of physical contact with her. It’s not right. She’s supposed to run to him and tackle him in the middle of the street even though there’s a chance they can get run over despite not there being any cars at this hour. She’s supposed to be giggling and happy that he’s here, because she always is.

Quietly, Naruko nods and follows Sasuke to the car because she’s too tired and hurt to argue. He deposits the bicycle in the back, and she wordlessly gets in the front seat and buckles herself up. Sasuke gets in, clicks the belt on, starts the car, and the silent drive home is excruciating. Before, Naruko would eagerly plug her phone in and start playing whatever’s on her rotation or bother Sasuke as he drives and laughs when he tries his best not to crash.

Now, there’s… nothing.  

“Why are you still in your uniform?” is what Naruko settles for halfway through the ride.

“I didn’t… feel like changing out of it yet,”

He’s still in his white collared shirt, black pants, and his usual school sneakers. His jacket isn’t on. Naruko guesses the second button is missing now, held close by the pretty girl Sasuke likes.

“I liked your gifts, thank you,” Sasuke says when Naruko says nothing. “I’m still going to get a warmer for the candle though, so that I don’t have to light it and forget. Don’t wanna burn the house down,”

“I’m glad,” she says. She doesn’t sound like it.

When Naruko is happy, everybody knows it. Her smile is as bright as the sun, grinning like her full cheeks will burst. Her voice is big and boisterous and can cheer anyone up. This isn’t Naruko.

Sasuke pulls over a few streets away from Naruko’s house, puts the car in neutral, and activates the breaks. “What did I do?” he dares to ask instead of just following his father’s terrible advice.

“What?” Naruko looks at him for the first time since she got in the car. “What do you mean?”

“What did I do, Naruko?” he repeats the question. “There must’ve been something I’ve done for you to just… stop.”

“S…stop?”

“Yes!” Sasuke says in frustration. “You barely talked to me this week. Not a single message. You didn’t even tell me you got a job,”

Naruko shrugs. “You never reply anyway,”

“That’s because all you send me are memes!” he argues. “I’d reply if you sent something I could actually reply to,”

“I’m just… tired. Having a job is new, y’know?” she sighs. “I didn’t expect shifts to be that long, or the tasks to be that many, to be honest,”

“Then negotiate for shorter shifts!”

“Ah, but I like the long shifts, though,”

“What?”

“It’s ah… the long hours keep me busy and tired, so there’s no chance to think about things I don’t what to think about. Work, sleep, eat, repeat and all that,”

That’s not healthy at all. “Things you don’t want to think about… what do you mean?”

Naruko unbuckles her seatbelt then unlocks her door. “Thank you. I’ll walk the rest of the way,”

Sasuke quickly locks the car and grabs her wrist.

She gasps and pulls her arm from him. “Don’t touch me!”

Of course Naruko’s raised her voice around him. All the time. But never really at him and that’s what catches Sasuke off guard. Since when did she dislike Sasuke’s touch?

“What if she sees us!” says Naruko, “What if someone else she knows sees us? Then rats you out?”  

“What? Dobe, I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about right now. Who’s going to see us?”

“Sakura! Your girlfriend!” Naruko hisses. “Didn’t you give her your second button!”

She has to get out of here. She can’t cry here. She fumbles with the lock.

“Look, I’m not that smart but I know taken men aren’t supposed to be touching any girl other than their own, so stop it, Sasuke. I’ll stay away from you, so you don’t get into trouble with her, okay? I’ll just walk home,”

Once she finally manages to unlock the door, she hops out and slams the door shut. If she can hold it in until she gets to her room, gods favor her, even through the front door, that’d be great. She can’t stay here and be forced to confess feelings that will never be reciprocated. There’s no point. She has to keep it together, or she’ll look like some desperate girl, crying because she can’t get the attention of the boy she likes.

Sasuke hates girls who beg for his attention. She doesn’t want to be that girl. But she thinks to all the years they’ve spent together and realizes, what if she’s been that girl this entire time? Always invading Sasuke’s space, taking his things, putting herself in his personal space without ever having asked if that was okay.

So that’s what the movies were all talking about, Naruko thinks as she breaks into a jog, when they say to love is to let go. She loves Sasuke enough to preserve his new relationship.  

“Wait! Naruko, stop! That’s not—ugh! Listen!” the passenger door closes with a loud thud and Sasuke groans as he unbuckles his seatbelt, then grabs his uniform jacket from the backseat before stepping out of the car. “Wait!” he pulls it on as he runs after her. “Dobe, I said wait!”

“Hey! Ow!” Naruko exclaims when Sasuke gets a hold of her wrist and yanks her back.

“Listen to me!” Sasuke tells her. “That girl isn’t my girlfriend!” (2)

Naruko stops struggling.

“Look at my jacket, Naruko. I didn’t give her anything!”

He’s right. Naruko looks at the shiny gold buttons on Sasuke’s black jacket. It’s all there. Not one’s missing.

“I saw you…” she lowers her head, not wanting to look at him. “She was all over you, and you didn’t do anything. And after the ceremony… everyone was watching you and her,”

Sasuke thinks back to the day she’s talking about. “I didn’t push her off because Kurenai-sensei was there, and I didn’t want to get into trouble. This morning, she did ask me for the button,” he says, “But I didn’t give it to her,”

He’d been much crueler to Sakura than he intended though, but she wouldn’t take a hint and he’d had enough. “Why would I give you a button at all? I don’t like you,” he’d told her as he rejected her gifts before rushing toward Iruka.

Sasuke reaches for the second button, pops it off, turns her wrist around to open Naruko’s hand, and places it in her palm, then lets her wrist go. “I would never have given the second button to anyone else but you,”

Naruko thinks the amount of crying she’s been doing the last few days can last someone else a lifetime, but Sasuke’s gesture moves her to tears still, and then she finally gives in to the need to throw herself at him.

Sasuke welcomes Naruko into his arms and hugs her like he’s never hugged her before. She cries and cries into his jacket.

“I missed you!” Naruko sobs. “I thought you had a girlfriend and that I couldn’t see you anymore!”

She’s not even mad about him getting some other girl because Sasuke doesn’t owe her his feelings just because they’ve been together so long. She’s just sad and hurt there was a chance she couldn’t see him anymore had his girlfriend been a type of person who’d forbid him to see other girls even as a friend—forbidden to see her.

The boy presses hips lips against his best girl’s temple.

“I’m sorry,” he says finally.

“Why are you saying sorry?” Naruko pulls away from him as she sniffles. “You have nothing to be sorry for,”

“I still hurt you though,”

Naruko shakes her head. “I hurt myself. I hurt you. I’m the one who’s sorry,” she opens her hand, “You… like me?”

Sasuke hums. He doesn’t even know when he started liking Naruko. He just… woke up one day and realized he can’t live without her. Doesn’t want to live without her. Doesn’t want a future without her. He wants this button to be the start of the forever Sasuke wants with Naruko.

“Because… I kinda like you, too,” Naruko gives him a wet, embarrassed smile. “Like, a lot. For the longest time,”

The dorkiness of Naruko’s confession is what makes the moment close to Sasuke’s heart. He chuckles. “What a coincidence, I like you, too,”

Naruko pouts and pokes at Sasuke’s chest. “You’re making fun of me,”

Sasuke pulls her back into an embrace and kisses her hair. “C’mon, I’ll take you home. Then I can walk with you to work tomorrow,”

The button digs into the skin of her palm with how tight she’s holding onto it. She has Sasuke back. She’ll be sure to keep him forever.

“And oh,” he says, and Naruko looks up at him. “I like your hair,” he runs his fingers through the soft, short locks. “Looks good,”

She grins at him, swollen eyes and all. She doesn’t have to grow her hair out again. Her prayer’s already been answered.

---

End Notes

   (1) On graduation day at junior high or high schools, a male graduate may give the second button on his school jacket to a female student. It is usual for a female junior or classmate to ask the senior male student she likes for his button. If the male student likes her too, he may give her his button. Some popular male students may receive many requests from female students, but he will give his second button to the girl he likes the most, and the other buttons to the other girls. The significance of the second button is that it is located closest to one’s heart.

   (2) I planned on putting here the fictional made up Nishiba Senmon Gakkō, Westleaf College/Community College. Just played around with some kanji. West because I like it, and leaf because Hidden in the Leaves. 「Nishi・にし・西」 for west; 「ha・は・葉 」for leaf. Ha becomes ba when read together with nishi. Nishiba. 西葉.

   The University of Konoha I ripped off The University of Tokyo, and Konoha School of Medicine I ripped off Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, because there aren’t really any fancy-named universities in Japan. 😅

   Also, in Japan I don’t think they actually announce the schools the graduating students got into. They did at my school, though! (I didn’t live or study in Japan). I just wanted to emphasize the divide Naruko and Sakura had with their educational goals.

   (3) Um, the level of “brashness/rudeness” of Sasuke’s speech and the casualness/closeness of his relationship with Naruko I imagine for this sentence doesn’t come through in English lol. I think in Japanese this would have been “Ano onna wa ore no kanojo janee yo!” ・「あの女は俺の彼女じゃねよ！」・「あのおんなはおれのかのじょじゃねえよ！」

   “Usually” (with quote unquote!! don’t take my word for it!!) ‘that something/someone’ or ‘ano hito/koto/mono’ or 「あの一人・こと・もの」sounds… rude? In a sense? Sort of like Sasuke isn’t willing to say ‘that person’s’ name, or ‘that’ said with disgust, or he thinks it’s not worth his breath saying her name, as opposed to it being a filler when ‘forgetting’ that person’s name.

   I also imagine that the Japanese Sasuke uses with Naruko is very casual, that’s why he uses 「ore・おれ・俺」 a rude/arrogant version of I, because he’s close to her, and why he uses 「negative/is not・janee・じゃねえ」 which is even ruder/casual than 「janai・じゃない」, which is already a rude/casual from of 「ja arimasen・じゃありません」. Maybe for people he doesn’t know he uses 「boku ・ ぼく・僕 」which is the polite version of I for boys.

   Had Sasuke been politer or had he been speaking to his parents or an authority figure he respected, it would’ve been「Ano onna wa boku no kanojo janai!」・「あの女は僕の彼女じゃない！」・「あのおんなはぼくのかのじょじゃない！」there’s an even politer version of this sentence but I doubt Sasuke would use that on anyone.

   There’s something so cool about rude Japanese, don’t you think? I would one day LOVE to learn how to speak or write in the politest version of Japanese, kinda like how an assistant would speak to their superior, or a butler to his master. Anyways I’m not that good at the implications of chosen words or tone in both English and Japanese so there’s that. But I enjoy learning both languages (English isn’t my native language).

   This fic was inspired by: https://twitter.com/pukun_p/status/1643638533276459009

   Thank you for reading!!

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[kaylaaphernelia]

his manic depressive pixie dream girl ex girlfriend

At the beginning of my relationship, I was so understanding or tried to be about the fact that you just came out of a 4 year-long relationship I understand if you want to keep in contact as friends because you were a big part of each other's lives 

I'm the cool chill gf never be the cool chill gf 

doing this made me sacrifice my boundaries it taught him right off the bat that he can get what he wants from me you can stay friends as long as you're open and honest with me about it and treat it as a friendship 

he lied about the fact that they talked, he lied about the contents of their conversations he lied about everything but he always had a justification that I always fell for maybe that is why he did it because he know it wouldn't matter he continued this and I went from giving him all my love to putting a wall up to protect myself from him over time he noticed I pulled back and doesn't fail to tell me it's my fault that the relationship is going in the direction it was going 

it's my fault because I don't communicate it's my fault because I put a wall between us 

it's my fault

  5 months in, it's my birthday weekend I'm spending it with him and my best friend and I get a text from his ex-girlfriend telling me that he had pretty much confessed his love to her and told her not to say anything to me because it's my birthday, he assaulted my best friend and single-handedly ruined my birthday he told his ex he wanted to be with her on my birthday weekend knowing that and drinking sent me into a spiral   I have never had my trust betrayed so intensely I didnt know how to process these emotions I wanted to die 

it hurt so fucking much I hated him 

that weekend ended my friendship with my best friend \ Despite all that I ended up back together with him I'm weak, this is no longer love this is a toxic attachment a karmic bond we stayed together for about 6 more months he still lies to me about his ex he still hides in the bathroom to talk to her he still hurts me knowing how it makes me feel so I shut down completely I no longer have hobbies, friends, interests I sleep, cry and go to work I developed a binge-eating disorder I shave all my hair I'm a shell of the person I was I hate myself he stole everything from me for his gain I have lost my self respect for fighting him for his respect I started getting extremely insecure about this ex so I started looking at his phone he had made a new account to stalk his ex from he had phone conversations with them he flirts with them over text and that was the last time I wanted to hear about this person involving herself in my life has never going to change so I blocked him on everything, i completely cut him out and instead of taking the hint he hunted me down so he could fight me and get the last word, he called me names, he bullied me, he was hitting himself in front of me, he was getting dangerous he barged into my home looking for his old too small shoes, i feel like it was to prove a point

  he is an angry insecure man-child boyfriend and I'm so happy for myself that I've escaped his chokehold on me

[help-help-i-need-an-adult]

I was a queer kid in the 90’s/early 00’s. Here’s some shit I dealt with when I got a haircut that made the kids and adults around me decide I wasn’t performing my gender correctly anymore.

A friend and I were hanging out in her front yard, minding our own business, when older girls walked by and started harassing us for being lesbians because I had a pixie haircut.

I was 9.

My friend was 7.

We had been riding our bikes up and down her driveway.

Neither of us knew what a lesbian was at the time. We still understood that they meant us psychological and physical harm.

Her mom stepped in, thank goodness and brought it up to their adult.

It made me mad that they had thrown things at us and were just getting scolded, so I went home. I was later lectured that my “silence and leaving” was the wrong move. I was expected to stay there and wait for their insincere apology.

On a separate occasion from the same year, different older girls tried to stop me from entering a changing room (and were violent about it) at a public pool. Also because of the haircut. Again, an adult intervened before it got to bad, but it happened. They continued to make me uncomfortable in the changing room once I’d gotten access. I’ve posted about this one before.

Also that year, a girl in my class, who had been my friend, turned into a bully overnight. When I confronted her about it, she told me it was because I got the haircut. She didn’t care why I got the haircut. I decided that was a dumb reason to suddenly be mean to someone you’d previously gotten along with and wrote her off as a bad person actually.

This same year, I weaponized the “misgendering” (turns out it wasn’t but I didn’t know that much less anyone else at the time) to convince my mom that she needed to let me get my ears pierced so that the misgendering would stop. I reinforced this by wearing my brother’s old clothes exclusively from my hand-me-down wardrobe. Sure enough, strangers “misgendered” me left and right and it drove her nuts.

Imagine the increase of vitriol I got from classmates and other kids who knew my name and assigned gender. It wasn’t pleasant.

She finally agreed to let me pierce my ears. I went back to wearing whatever clothes, masculine or feminine in nature. Random adults stopped misgendering me to my mother. Kids did not stop taunting and bullying me.

(None of the previous stories occurred during the “boys clothes only” era. I had been wearing clearly feminine clothing designed for 9 year olds in the other examples of homophobia in the 90’s/early 00’s.)

About a year or so later, I decide to grow my hair back out. I was still bullied relentlessly during that time, but suddenly it was because I liked to sing and didn’t have access to TV at home instead of my hair and not presenting my gender correctly. Wild.

Later in my childhood, I went back to a pixie cut without issue, but I had also beaten up several kids twice my size and gotten them expelled for it without being in trouble myself, so idk if it’s because kids realized messing with me REALLY want worth it anymore or if attitudes towards haircuts had loosened a little.

By then, I’d also realized I was at least one type of queer and was friends with all the other queer kids. I broke a few hands and teeth of bullies on their behalf as well.

The teasing didn’t stop for a lot of them, but it significantly dropped for all of us.

Again, don’t know if that’s because I stopped taking shit or if life had gotten a bit better.

Doesn’t change how homophobic kids had been to me in elementary school.

[bcyoureallthatmakessense]

✨️bitching and moaning✨️ under the cut

sigh I just saw a reel that's making me spiral about how little me should have been listened to and advocated for and believed in and how much all of the adults in my life failed me

bcs wdym when I found out about my diagnoses the adults in my life said "oh yeah that makes sense" and moved on like the diagnoses don't explain my entire fucking life and like theyre not lowkey devastating diagnoses to have

wdym "that makes sense" is what comes out of their mouths, and not "oh i never would have thought" bcs if it makes sense WHY didn't yall advocate for me. why didn't yall BELIEVE me. i cannot remember a time in my life where I wasn't being told that I'm overdramatic, a hypochondriac, complaining for attention, needing to suck it up, get over it, control myself

its the biggest thing i keep coming back to in therapy lately because... who the fuck looks at a five year old sobbing in pain AFTER medications and says "youre being dramatic its just growing pains". who the fuck looks at a 14 year old pale, shaking, lying on a cold bathroom floor, vomit in the toilet and says "you just want to get out of school" (i literally hated missing school). who the fuck looks at a kid having an actual panic attack bcs shes MANIC and says "you need to get over it"

and like that's just having to do with my diagnoses, not about the fucking bullying i endured, about the teachers that were shitty to me, about how my step mom and step sister, PLUS the other step sisters were fucking awful.

clearly remembering being told to suck it up, being gaslighted, being called a liar bcs i was the kid and "the oldest" so yk. step mom couldn't have possibly done that. i shouldn't stoop to their level bcs im the oldest.

OH AND lets get into the fact that at 12, I started my period, gained a step mom, and not one, not two, but THREE step sisters (one from the new step mom and two from the current) within like fucking three months of eachother and... like overnight lmao

but yk it was fine bcs i finally got to get my ears repierced and grow out the horrible pixie cit that made me look like a mushroom head

like god willing may i NEVER be that fucking parent.

i get so angry because

why was i not important enough

[yes-17-15]

I made a silly Genderfluid Robin Buckley fic. Truly devastated by how few words there are, but it's okay because I enjoyed writing it. (Please check it out on Ao3, kudos and comments can really make an author's day <3)

Robin Buckley has a secret;

She doesn't always feel like a girl.

If anything, she usually doesn't feel like a girl. But she tells herself that she doesn't inherently want to be a boy, but that's just not true. She doesn't feel like a boy specifically or all the time, nor a girl all the time. Sometimes she feels somewhere in the middle. Other times she doesn't really feel any gender. At times she does feel like a girl, and sometimes she feels like a boy.

Despite this, Robin doesn't tell anyone this. She keeps it to herself. She continues to present as a girl, no matter what gender she's really feeling that day (though a lot of the time it makes her uncomfortable).

Something that gives her a sense of euphoria is when Steve calls her "Rob" or "Robbie", especially on her masculine days. Steve never really seems to notice, which is typical of Steve. At first, Robin did enjoy having a guy best friend, it made her feel just like another one of the guys. But eventually, people started to think she was some sort of slut for being around Steve so much. It pisses her off to indescribable levels. She doesn't understand why girls can't just have male friends without people being weird about it.

Robin never had a huge problem with presenting feminine. It makes her life easier (though zero times ten is still zero). But one time, while working at Scoops Ahoy, an older man approached Robin and started flirting with her. She immediately told him to fuck off and Steve said something similar, but this was the moment she realized how different she felt from the "other" girls.

Obviously, Robin has always been "different". Different from everybody else. Not just girls. Even in her band friend group, she always just feels different. Ever since Kindergarten, Robin has been bullied for being abnormal. Kids always make fun of her for everything they possibly can. Her hair, her eyes, her intelligence, her parents. Everything. She never understood why this was, and still doesn't, but she tries not to let it get to her (disclaimer; it does).

In 3rd grade, Robin begged her parents to let her get her hair cut short. After some convincing, they agreed to let her get her haircut. She wanted a buzzcut but they gave her a pixie cut instead, which she wasn't happy about at all. Everyone thought it was because she missed her long hair, and Robin too tried to convince herself that, but deep down she knew it was because she wanted a more masculine haircut.

Now, as she's gotten older and gender is more than who has cooties and who doesn't, Robin has a hard time conforming to the "rules" women are supposed to follow. She doesn't understand why women have to be formal and nice while men are seemingly just allowed to be immature and rude. She doesn't understand why she is expected to wear dresses and makeup when she doesn't want to, and god, she doesn't understand why women can't be allowed to like women.

She doesn't like having to wear feminine work uniforms. She doesn't like having to wear the "Ms." pin at Family Video. She doesn't like everything being gendered. She doesn't understand it.

Sometimes Robin wishes she was born a boy, just like Steve was and like Tommy H. was. Then other times she wishes she was just born a normal girl who doesn't question things like social constructs and gender (which, in her opinion, isa social construct), like Nancy Wheeler and Carol Perkins.

No matter if Robin feels like a girl or a boy, neither or both, people will think she is weird. But Robin knows that. So maybe, Robin thinks, I should just embrace it.

Robin smiles at the thought. He knows things will be rough, but when are they not for him?

[biandanxious18]

When I was a kid, I had really long, hip-long hair, I remember. Then when I was 6 I decided I wanted it cut really short - boy-short -, not for any specific reason other than I thought it was pretty, I think I had seen it on women at the time, on TV too, and I thought it looked cute. It wasn’t about being rebellious or gender-non-conforming. I was 6. I thought it was cute. The length that in english you’d call pixie-cut, I guess, but in Brasil we call it “joãozinho”, which means “little john”.

My parents got me and all of my friends together on my birthday, we took a trip to my grandparents’ at the beach. My mom tied my hair in a braid and cut it for me. I went to the mirror and said I wanted it shorter. She cut it shorter. My mom always cut my hair when I was a kid. She cut and dyed her own hair too.

Anyways, in retrospect I think that was pretty badass of me. Little 6yo going “shorter”. I liked pink. I liked princesses. I had a phase where I refused to wear anything that wasn’t a dress. I just thought it’d be cute, I think. Or no, actually I just wanted to do it. I have no idea how my dad felt about it. He didn’t like to let my brother do overly feminine things, but I think he was mostly scared he’d be bullied for it. I don’t know. My dad is a feminist. He cries. He’s a bit sexist and a bit homophobic at times but he doesn’t want to be. He’s trying.

My mom is also a feminist, even though she says she enjoyed the attention of being cat-called by creepy, old men in the street. “It’s a compliment”. She says she misses it, made her feel young, pretty and thin, I guess. My mom is beautiful. I don’t know why I felt the need to say that.

She always cut my hair when I was a kid, but around my pre-teens I started to go to hairdressers. I’d always go through a somewhat yearly cycle of letting my hair grow, wanting it long, getting tired of it, wanting it short, getting it cut, loving it, wanting it long. Except when I didn’t love it, of course. I remember back in 2018 I got a haircut and it looked awful. I went home, crawled in bed with my mom and cried, I hated it so much. In retrospect, I don’t know why I didn’t do anything about it, didn’t re-cut it or something, I just grew it out.

I started dying my hair red in 2016. First time I did it at the hairdresser too. Expensive as shit. I didn’t like it. I said I did. To the lady, and whoever asked, and even myself. But I didn’t, it didn’t look how I wanted it to. Next time I did it at home. My mom dyed it for me because she knew how to. To get the roots and the back and all. I really liked it. I loved it. I never dyed my hair at the hairdresser again.

After that terrible 2018 cut I grew it out. Didn’t feel the urge to cut it the following year - or fought it off, I don’t know. When 2020 came around, my hair was the longest and most beautiful it had been in I don’t even know how long. The red really suited me too. People - my friends - couldn’t even imagine me without it, and when I would think of shaving the side of my head, for instance, I actually imagined it growing back red. It was part of me, even though it was fake.

Anyways, a month into the pandemic I shaved it all off. Clean zero, no mercy, didn’t spare a centimetre. Shaved it off. To be fair, it felt like it had been way more than a month by that point. It felt like it had been forever. I think I wanted something fresh, something new, something different and bold and radical and mine. And if it looked awful nobody would see it anyways. Once in a lifetime opportunity - hopefully.

I loved shaving my head. I had my friends on a video call. My mom helped with the back that time too. I have the whole thing recorded, took about 10 minutes. I loved it. It was cold in my scalp though. It was fun.

I wonder what my grandma thought of it. Or my grandpa. My dad liked it. Said I looked like an orthodox jewish woman a bit. I could see that.

But I remember this one time. Not too many months later, a couple maybe, we went to visit my grandparents at the beach. And by that point I wasn’t going outside much, but the beach was such a wide, open space, we could social distance to a safe measure. So I went. And at some point I decided to take a walk along the shore and I just remember having the oddest feeling. Just feeling like… Feeling the absence of the male gaze on me, really. And I had never realised it was there before in the first place. But now it was gone. Like without my long, beautiful hair I wasn’t as attractive - as desirable - as before. And it felt… bad.

And it was weird, but I had never realised the validation I felt from being gazed at. How affirming it was. I guess this is what my mom was talking about. Maybe she was just more honest about it than me.

And don’t get me wrong because I don’t want to submit to gender conformity and whatever that feeling was about. And I had so many different hairs during the pandemic, just having shaved it really gave me some freedom to do whatever, because if all went to shit and it looked terrible I’d just shave it again. And I explored gender and gender-non-conformity and I look at the pictures from when I had really short hair a couple years ago and I think it looks so... I miss it.

I’m kind of growing it out now, though. I don’t know, I just wasn’t really doing anything about it and it was just growing, then last year I cut it but I didn’t really love how it turned out. Made me think longer hair suits me more. I look prettier, I guess. I hate how gender conforming I am nowadays. I don’t know if it’s because I moved countries and it made me feel more secure. Sometimes I’m not, though. [Gender conforming, I mean]. I’ve been thinking about it. I feel like when I was an antisocial kid I cared much less about how others perceive me. I remember once working on a group scene where everyone was sharing hurdles they went through to try and achieve beauty standards. I didn’t really have much to share. I didn’t diet, I didn’t put myself through things that hurt. It’s different now. I often think the more social I became along the years, the more I fell into that.

I liked a boy in my class when I was 6. A few years later - and I had changed schools at this point - one of my friends from that class told me he had liked me too, but not anymore after I cut my hair. I don’t know if that’s true.

[b4rredteeth]

BOLD what applies.

PERSONAL ; homeless | poor | middle class | comfortable | rich | single (and not ready to mingle) | relationship | it's complicated | dating | engaged | married | divorced | widowed | parent | only child | middle child | youngest child | oldest child | glasses/contacts | hearing aid | braces | wheel chair | cane | service dog | cis-man | cis-woman | trans-man | trans-woman | non-binary | agender | homosexual | heterosexual | bisexual | pansexual | asexual (closeted) | blind/visually impaired | mute | deaf | depression | anxiety (un-diagnosed) | autism | PTSD (un-diagnosed) or ASD | psychopathy | sociopathy | personality disorder | panic disorder | OCD

BELONGINGS ; car | bike | scooter | motorcycle | truck | mansion | house | apartment | RV | trailer | phone | desktop | television | watch | business | life insurance | land | video camera

PETS ; cat | dog | rodent | bird | reptile | other

APPEARANCE ; hair - wavy like in the gif (i have no idea how to describe it) | crew cut | pixie cut | bob | shoulder length | elbow length | hip length or longer | black | dark brown | brown | light brown | auburn | red | ginger | strawberry blonde | dirty blonde | blonde | platinum | gray | silver | white | facial hair . eyes - brown | hazel | amber | blue | green | gray . body type - muscular | athletic | average | scrawny | curvy | fat | chubby | piercing | tattoo

TYPE OF DRUNK ; happy | sad | risk-taker | angry | philosophical | doesn’t get drunk | doesn’t drink (will tell you that it's for religious reasons but they just don't like to loose control)

VICES ; smoking | drinking | illicit drugs | prescription drugs

OTHER ; broken a bone | gotten stitches | had a serious illness | had a near-death experience | killed someone | tried and failed to kill someone | had an unrequited crush | had sex and regretted it | had a one-night stand | experimented with their sexuality | ran away from home | learned an instrument | gotten a noticeable scar | been bullied | bullied someone | saved someone’s life | cheated on someone | been cheated on | been betrayed | taken the fall to protect someone (their younger sibling, many times) | been arrested | been wanted by police (mostly for pretending to be a student) | goes by a nickname | been blackmailed | had an attempt on their life | gotten away with a crime (technically being an illegal immigrant is a crime ;-;) | gone on a road trip