#anyway analysis scheduled for tomorrow like last time
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tophats-tea · 10 days ago
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drawing fanart everyday for Danganronpa: A New Generation until the First Episode comes out
Day 372: twitter trend
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Check out the fangan!
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morningstarwrites · 8 months ago
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i’m caving despite my social terrors to tell you how WRECKED i am over this fic
1) i’ve had my tumblr account for exactly two days, and although i’ve wanted to have one for a while osas was the straw that broke my willpower so i could follow you for details and gorgeous fanart
2) your writing style is so MMMMM like i WANT TO EAT IT??? AND BIND IT AT THE SAME TIME???? like im not joking i am by no means anywhere near skilled in art but i genuinely want to be JUST so i can draw half decent fanart
3) i discovered osas at like 8 at night, with the intention of maintaining a normal sleep schedule, and then stayed up until four in the morning wide awake reading until i couldn’t anymore. then i woke up the next day with the intention of still having fic left to read on my 8 hour roadtrip, and then finished it the day before, so now tomorrow absolutely won’t come fast enough and this roadtrip is gonna kill me
4) YOUR FIRST FIC????? FOR REAL???? WHAT???????
5) i’d like you to know NONE of this is normal for me with fics, the last time i got this into a fic was a year ago and it got abandoned so i have SO MUCH TRUST IN YOU RIGHT NOW
6) i ADORE how you write luci and alastor like somehow they’re so sweet and cute while still being completely in character and that right there is witchcraft, sorcery, wizardry, biologically impossible, but somehow you portray it anyway??? and perfectly?????
to summarize, AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHOH MY LORD YOU ARE AMAZING <33
omg 😭😭 I'll respond to you point by point:
AWWW thank you! I super appreciate it!
I'm happy to receive any and all fanart, so no worries there, but I'm rly touched!
oh HAHA at least I'll update tmr, so you can read something! but i've totally binged a fic before so i get it
YES, I had to get my feelings out because radioapple has such an iron grip on me omfg, but i was super afraid of posting this story tbh
I am absolutely determined to finish the story! I'll upload even if it kills me
Thank you, I did the most ridiculous amount of analysis on them... god... but anyway I'm glad it paid off, haha!
Super love your message, thx so much for dropping by 🤩
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onyourstageleft · 1 year ago
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another update about my cat and her lumps since I've posted a few at this point
tw: animal sickness, cancer mention
the vet called back on Saturday and left a voicemail bc I was driving when they called, the results of the diagnostic labs were inconclusive so the spots could be a fatty mass, a soft tissue tumor, a cystic tumor, etc. they recommended surgical removal of the entire mass and sending it off to pathology and said they would send me an email with a quote for surgery costs, which I know are gonna be crazy expensive with them, just the biopsy and analysis was $485, but I never got an email and I tried calling them this morning and have gotten either hung up on after two rings on one of their phone numbers or a busy tone on the other number
SO I'm taking my friend's recommendation and going to a vet that's 45 minutes away tomorrow, he takes all of his cats to this place and has been for years, they were able to do a life saving urinary blockage procedure on one of his cats for 1.2k when a local place quoted him almost 4k for the same thing, and he swears by this vet office and their people. I called a few minutes ago and they were able to set me up to come in at 2pm tomorrow so they can take a look and put together a quote, the last thing I need to do is actually get hold of the current vet and get Peggy's records so I can bring them in with me, which may take just going up to their office in the morning and being like "yes hello can you email me her records so I can go to another vet pls" and I know I'm gonna feel bad and awkward doing that but uhh they're pricy af and didn't answer when I tried to call multiple times to discuss / schedule a surgery, so that's kinda on them at this point
anyway bonus picture of Peggy (she's white and grey) and my partner's cat Cheese lounging on the couch this morning
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I love my baby so much guys
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messers-moony · 4 years ago
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Comics 2 | A.G
Paring: Aidan Gallagher X Fem!Reader
Summary: Aidan meets an unusually pretty girl at a library while trying to find a textbook for school
Warnings: Cursing
Years later, Aidan and Y/n were now twenty-five. All these years and Aidan hadn’t seen her since he gifted her the comic book when they were just twenty. All these years later and he still loved her.
He left a bookmark in there on purpose, one with his number, but yet, she never called. It made his mind wander. Why wasn’t she calling? Maybe she wasn’t fond of calling, but even then, she never texted either.
A certain feeling of defeat lingered in his heart. Maybe she didn’t like him like that. Her words were stuck in his mind; they lagged in his head like a broken record every time he was to fall asleep.
“ Y/n L/n. Remember it. “
Why was he to remember it? She was a comic book artist, for Christ's sake, not an upcoming actress. As far as he knew, there would never be a significance to her name. A new Netflix show was in the making, another one based on comic books.
Of course, Aidan got the call. The call was a producer begging him to audition for the leading role. He would be perfect for this role, swore the producer. Aidan was hesitant but did it anyway.
Aidan wasn’t the only one in the audition room, of course, but he was only here because of the pleading the producer did. He auditioned, and that was that. Within a week's notice, they would notify him.
On his way home, he stopped by a library, the very same library he met the girl at. Sighing, he walked to the comic book section and picked up the series of comics. There were five in the series, and he bought all of them.
He walked home with a backpack filled with his belongings and now new comic books. Walking into his apartment, he unzipped his bag and took out the first comic. The male ignored who wrote and illustrated it. It didn’t really matter. Did it?
The brunette read through the first comic and was hooked almost immediately. He read through them relatively quickly, and when he finished, he was agitated. The books were completed on a cliffhanger, only leading him to assume there had to be a sixth book soon.
Three days went by, and Aidan couldn’t help but reread the comic books for a more thorough analysis. The more he read, the more he saw how similar he and the main character was.
Everything down to the hair, the dimples, the smile, and the eyes were the exact same. The mannerisms being almost identical scared him. But he realized why the producer begged him for this role. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said Aidan was the perfect candidate for it.
He finished the series a second time and stared at the cover. That’s when he realized it and then began to scold himself for how dense he could possibly be.
“ Written and Illustrated by Y/n L/n “
We’re the words written across the top of the book. That’s why the main character was so similar to him, because the girl who wrote it knew who he was. She was observant, hella observant.
Within a week's notice, as promised, Aidan got a call saying he got the role and they would fly him to New York to begin filming. He’d be leaving in a month, probably the least amount of notice he’s been given before filming a show.
Nonetheless, the month went by faster than you could blink, and he was on a plane to New York. The set was much bigger than he imagined and made his way to the producers.
“ Aidan, you came! How wonderful! “ The producer from the phone exclaimed happily, “ My names Alex. I’m so ecstatic you came. “
Alex put his hand out to shake, which Aidan accepted politely, “ I assume you’ve read the comics by now? “ A familiar voice queried.
“ I have, actually. “ Aidan replied, turning around to be met with the dyed-haired female, “ I told you, remembering my name would come in handy. “ Y/n winked.
Aidan snickered, “ Why make your main character almost exactly like me? “ Aidan questioned, fully serious, “ Because Gallagher, you’re intriguing. You also seem to attract the best audience. Not to mention you always put on a show. “ Y/n said with prominent confidence.
The way his last name rolled off her tongue almost made him faint. He adored her and wanted her to be his. Now that she was here, he’d do anything in his power to make her his.
“ So you’re using me to make your show popular? “ The male joked, “ No, don’t take it the wrong way. I used you because you’re hardworking, and you put everything into your role. You, my love, are perfect for this role. “ Y/n responded, and Aidan’s cheeks flushed at the pet name.
“ Now, I must be going. However, I will see you on set tomorrow, I presume? “ She questioned with a soft smile, “ Yeah. Definitely. “ Aidan breathed as she left.
A hand was laid upon his shoulder, “ You are completely head over heels for her, huh? “ A male voice spoke in his ear, making him jump, “ Jesus Christ Robert, where did you come from? Why are you here? “ Aidan heaved as his hand was on his heart.
“ I’ve actually earned myself a role as well as Elliot Page. I’ve never seen you so entranced. “ Robert commented, “ She's been stuck in my head for years. “ Aidan murmured.
Robert had a face of curiosity, “ We met like five years ago at a library, and I talked to her for only two hours, but by then, she had me completely wrapped around her finger. “ Aidan explained, and Robert raised an eyebrow, “ She moved the next week, and I hadn’t seen her since. “
“ Well. Better make your move soon. I’ve seen guys eyeing her up all day. “ Robert replied as he walked off.
Months later, Y/n was right. Aidan was absolutely perfect for the role without even trying. Granted, the character was practically him, but he excelled in making the role his own.
Y/n and Aidan had gotten quite close throughout those months. They seemed pretty fond of each other. She was confident, intelligent, and caring. He was thoughtful, kind, and sweet. The pair made a loving match.
However, the girl's heart was guarded, she had been let down so many times, and she didn’t want to ruin the friendship she had acquired with the famous male. Aidan, in his free time, had been working on an EP. The title and main song on it was held close to his heart.
After a couple of dates and a lot of convincing, she gave in. Aidan Gallagher had now achieved the girl of his dreams, Y/n L/n. She was everything he wanted and so much more. He was captivated by her and made sure he showed the world.
Every chance he got, he posted her everywhere. His fans absolutely adored her, possibly even more than he did. Saturday lives his fans spent begging to see the admirable female when she wasn’t present. It honestly made Aidan quite jealous.
Regardless it made Aidan’s heart feel unbelievably full that both he and his fans loved her as much as he desired. Mornings were spent holding each other with subtle morning kisses. Nights were spent eating take-out and playing the original Mario kart after many arguments that it was better than the newer versions.
Filming was almost complete, and Aidan’s stay in New York was coming to a very prominent close. A day neither lover was looking forward to. His home was in Los Angeles, and hers was in New York. There was no changing that.
“ Do you really have to go? “ Questioned the teary-eyed female, “ Unfortunately. “ Aidan sighed.
They both stood in JFK Airport as close as they could before having to depart. Aidan’s hands held her tear-stained cheeks, and she moved stray strands of hair from his forehead.
“ I promise, I will come back for you. “ Aidan pledged to, and she sniffled, nodding, “ I’ll move in with you if you want. “
Y/n looked up slightly guilty, “ I don’t want to be the reason you leave your hometown. You grew up there. Your entire family is there. I would feel awful taking you away from them. “ She admitted, “ I would be living here willingly. Plus, there’s more opportunities acting-wise here, believe it or not. Hollywood isn’t all it’s made out to be. The United Nations is also home to New York. It’d be closer to everything. “ Aidan explained.
“ If- If that’s what you want, then I wouldn’t hesitate. “ Y/n smiled softly.
Aidan pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, “ Then this isn’t really goodbye, is it? “ Aidan’s whisper left a hot breath lingering on her lips, “ No, it isn’t. “ Y/n replied.
“ Stop your crying then. I hate seeing you cry. I will come back. “ He muttered softly, wiping her tears and kissing her forehead, “ I love you. “
“ I love you too. Be safe, please. Text me when you get on and when you land, okay? “ She requested, “ Always. “ Aidan simpered.
Gently he let her go and walked away with a tiny wave. Now there were only two things left to do. Pack up all of his stuff and play one last show in Los Angeles before leaving his home.
The male pack quickly when he arrived home, way too excited to live with his new partner. His show was scheduled for that night. Tonight he’d be playing his brand new song, the main song on his latest EP, the one he held close to his heart.
Nerves ran through his body like no tomorrow as he stepped up on stage. Screams were heard throughout the entire venue, making him smile brightly.
“ Hello everyone. “ Aidan greeted, getting screams in response, “ As you all may know, I will not be living in LA for much longer. New York seems more like home now than it’s ever seemed, so after this show, I’ll be getting on a plane to my new home. “
“ While I’ll play your favorite’s such as songs like Blue Neon and Fourth of July, there’s a new song at the end I’d love for your feedback on. I hold this song very close to my heart, and I hope you all will as well. So let’s get this started. “ Aidan informed with a gleeful smile present on his lips.
Aidan began strumming the guitar and singing the all too familiar lyrics. Applause was given in between each song, only encouraging his love for music as he continued to sing— his fans sung along with him giving Aidan a sense of love and commitment.
Finally, the last song was due to play, “ I call this last one, Comics. “
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bubsthebee · 4 years ago
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Can’t Say It.
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Aizawa x Reader
Word Count: 3,541
A/N: Fluff, dragged out but it’s a happy ending. One shot. Age difference (9 years) Reader is 22 while Aizawa is 31. Mentions of alcohol.  
Reader is a young teacher at UA who has a unique relationship with Pro Hero and coworker Eraserhead. After a while of getting to know each other, will they realize their feelings? OR will they let self doubt get in the way. 
CHARACTER REPORT
Position: UA SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 
Job Description: Quirk Analysis and Evaluation Processing. 
Name: (L/N), (F/N)                Power: 2/5 D    Intelligence: 4/5 B
Birthday: (5/10)                     Speed: 2/5 B    Cooperativeness: 5/5 A
Age: 22                                 Technique: 5/5 S
Sex: Female (She/Her)
Quirk: Analysis 
-(Y/N) is able to instantly analyze a person and their abilities after observing them, familiarizing themselves with their qurik. This also includes evaluating/predicting situations with higher than average accuracy. With this ability, she can use this information with or against a subject. She can keep up to three peoples' worth of information perfectly memorized at a time. Anymore, her analysis starts to create more errors and her accuracy decreases. 
--
Ever since (y/n) started working at UA, everyone knew that Aizawa’s single streak was in danger. 
While the scruff chined 1-A homeroom teacher taught his bustling young hero course, she supported the admin staff! Specifically falling under processing and evaluating every student's quirk and how to help progress their potential. This means every homeroom teacher ran their notes and evaluations about their students through her every quarter, possibly more depending on how active and intense their training has been. She and her small team are a key to the school’s successful hero and support course. No matter how a quirk was used, they would find the best way to help them improve it. 
Classroom 1-A currently holds the record for most updates and changes to analysis (surprise). With an increase in updates, (y/n) has spent more sleepless nights making sure her work was perfect than she originally thought she was going to. Not that she minded of course! She was young, and found that it helped drive her to improve her passions and skill. Besides her administrative work, she also works as a substitute teacher for English, and Hero Strategy lessons twice a semester. If needed she is more than happy to help with summer lessons. 
Aizawa has had more than his fair share of interaction with the young lady, more than others if one was keeping track. After the hero noticed (y/n)’s sleepless nights because of his students, he offered to stay and bring her coffee. When (y/n) noticed extra heavy bags under his eyes, there would be a nicely wrapped lunch on his desk with a cute thank you note in return. 
Over time a unique relationship developed between the two that anyone looking in could clearly see. Including the students. 
“Mr Aizawa! Your lady friend left ya another lunch, you’re so LUCKY.” Denki and Mineta whined without hesitation. 
“Why don’t we get cute lunches made by cute girls?” 
“Shut up! That’s Ms. (L/n) you’re talking about, not some side chick you dumbos. I think it’s really sweet.” Mina cooed alongside some of the other girls. 
Their homeroom teacher could only sigh, carefully tucking away the lunch box into his work desk as he partially ignored their scattered comments. “Lucky or not, you all should have your notes out and study. Your test scores from  last week clearly tell me I haven’t given enough in class work time. Do I have to cut down on our outside training hours?” The instant shuffling of paper and pencils brought a small smirk to his face. Nothing got his students off his back faster than less training hours. As he took attendance and organized his schedule, the small peeks at the lunch box reminded him about his last encounter with his….coworker. 
--
“Midoriya is such a strange boy you know? I’m surprised his quirk doesn't instantly tear his body apart every time he uses it. I’m glad he’s getting a handle on it, I hated seeing him hurt himself so often.”  You were sat cross legged in your office chair, typing away at your laptop underneath a bright desk lamp. 
“I agree, he needs to learn how to use his body with his quirk.” 
“Exactly!- Well, it looks like his rate of injuries compared to training has decreased. Based off of Recovery Girls records, his quirk usage deteriorated his arm muscle effectiveness. This means he’s got to either limit his usage on his arms, or learn how to use the rest of his body to compensate.” Rubbing your eyes shifted your reading glasses off of your face, exposing the bags that were starting to grow underneath them. 
“You shouldn’t be getting such heavy bags under your eyes like that, you’re too young for those (L/n).” He always notices them, no matter how well hidden. 
“Ya, okay GRAMPS. You’re not that much older than me and YOUR eyes are just as bad, if not worse. And call me (y/n), we’re friends aren't we?” 
Rolling his eyes, Aizawa gets up with a huff to pour some coffee from the nearby coffee pot. “Midoriya is your last report tonight right? Go home, you’ve got Hero Strategy classes tomorrow.” as if on cue, he hands you the cup of warm coffee while you reach out for it with a quiet “Thank you”. 
The way you hold the cup in your hands and let the warm steam brush against your face leaves him staring at you with a soft look. 
“I guess I could leave a little earlier than I thought....” blowing cool air onto the coffee, you slowly take a sip of the warm beverage. Every time you see that look on his face, you can’t help but wonder what he’s feeling. 
After a short while, you both clean up and close the office up. It’s 1 AM and both of you are more than ready to get at least a few hours of sleep in. Like usual, he walks you halfway to your home before bidding his own goodbye. 
“Goodnight (L/n).” As Aizawa turns to walk away, he feels a small tug at his sleeve. 
“I uh-” Turning to look around, he sees you with pinker cheeks underneath a streetlight. How do you always look so...nice? No matter the light you always look nice. 
You slowly slid your hand down his arm to gently hold onto his hand. It was so soft, not just the hold but your skin. You couldn't even look at him but your voice was clear as day. 
“Thank you, for staying with me. I know how tired you must be too….so I feel honored that you decide to spend your important time with me- er, to help me. You’re a great teacher and man Aizawa. Good night.” Just as quick as the moment had started, your touch was gone and you made your way home. 
He was alone, yet he could still feel your touch on his skin. Aizawa stood there for minutes, looking at his hand in awe and strange curiosity. His coworkers and friends told him multiple times, “You two aren’t a thing?”, “It’s obvious that you fancy her Shouta.”, 
“She has to feel the same, you don’t see how she looks at you when you aren’t paying attention.” 
--
         The school bell alerting the start of their first class was what pulled Aizawa out of his mind, looking up to see (y/n) walk into the class with your information tablet. ‘Ah, right. Hero Strategy.’          “Good Morning class! Great to see you all again.” She was chipper as always, her makeup easily covering her endeavors from the night before. The young teacher wore simple black tights with her training sweat jacket, everyone murmured in excitement because this meant that there would be out of class training and demonstrations          Rubbing his exhaustion from his face, the black haired male stands up to go stand near (y/n). “You all have ten minuets to change and get to the field. Any longer and you’ll be stuck in cleaning duty for the week.”
         Iida is quick to stand and grab his fellow classmates attention. “Quickly but in order, please gather your things and head to the gym! No RUNNING!” As valiant as his efforts were, everyone rushed out of the class in fear of being put into the cleaning crew while it was out of their turn. 
         The small smile he saw on your face was sobering, calmly following behind you as you made your way to the gym. 
         Usually, Aizawa would sneak into his sleeping back and nap during other teachers' lessons. These ones were different for him. He would sit off to the side and observe how you worked with the kids.
 While some students could take simple suggestions and immediately apply them, others needed physical examples. You were more than happy to adapt to all their needs as they all trained with their new plans and teachers notes. While Tokoyami nodded and talked with Dark Shadow about your observations, Uraraka carefully mimicked your moves as you slowly countered her attacks explaining how they affected her opponent's momentum even more. 
         He knew you were a natural when it came to children and hero work. The obvious proof was right in front of him. That and he was nine years older than you, yet you both were doing almost the exact same job. That's where everything starts to blur for him. 
         After a quick practice round with Shoji, a rundown with Bakugo about his quirk usage along with Midoriya and the rest of the class, their first class of the day was over. 
         The rest of the day went normal, and (Y/n) left to finish the rest of her lessons while Aizawa did the same. 
 --
         After a long week, you were more than happy to have the weekend to yourself, or so you thought. 
Incoming Call: Keigo <(‘v’)> 
“Keigo?”
 “Hey tiny, sorry to bother but I felt like I should call in and see how you were doing.” 
 “I’m fine, just getting ready to watch some movies and order take in. Had a long week. You?” 
 “Gonna be heading out to an event soon! Glad to hear you're doing good. Any luck with your crush on the office grandpa?”
 You roll your eyes as you wiggle yourself into more blankets, clicking through the different documentaries you could find on YouTube.
  “I don’t have a crush on Aizawa, and even IF I did he is NOT a grandpa. He would probably want someone closer to his age anyway. The whole life experience gap and everything.” 
 “Yeah okay, whatever. Don't get mad at me when you realize I’m right and you're missing out on not being single anymore.” 
 “You’ll be the first person I call when you’re actually right. ” “Ouch-” 
 “Pfft, talk to you later Kei. I have an hour long video about the origin of heroes and it’s calling my name.” 
 “Bye bye!” 
-
         No matter how relaxed you were or how interesting the documentary was, you couldn't get you know who out of your mind. Could you have a crush on Aizawa Shouta? Silver Fox hero of the night? Grumpy man who likes taking naps in the middle of the day? You couldn’t lie, he was attractive and his personality was more than pleasant to you at least. It always felt like something was there between you two..between late night talks and having lunch together sometimes. It felt like there was a connection, and the only thing keeping you two from connecting was a waterfall of hesitation and doubt. 
 “Whatever…”
--
         “WoooOO! Staff Party, this is gonna be a blast Listeners! Present Mic here to keep your evening thrilling with an amazing music selection!” 
         Upbeat music with minimal words played through the old speakers of a rented out ballroom. It was the end of the first semester staff party, everyone was dressed semi formal with their hair done nicely and makeup to match. The decorations were nice, and tables were laid out with food, drinks and chairs to relax and chat. 
         Aizawa was one of the first to show up since he and Yamada came together like usual. Although he socialized with other teachers as they passed by, he stayed closer to the walls and talked with Kayama most of the time. He was dressed fairly well, a simple fitted dark g suit coat with normal slacks. The usually wild and wavy mess of locks was neatly tied back into a very clean half knot that showed off his handsome face. 
         “No date Shouta? I was sure that pretty young thing would be with you tonight. (L/n) Right, she’s such a lovely girl.” Kayama’s hair was curled beautifully around her, a long fitted dress with a deep V cut showing off her lovely charm. Aizawa only rolled his eyes, sipping on his Champaign class to avoid talking even if it was just for a second more. 
         “It would make more sense for her to come in with someone closer to her age or with a friend. She is the youngest person on staff you know.” 
         “Age this age that blah blah BLAH. I know love when I see it-” 
         “Not love, this isn’t some romance film Nemuri.” 
         With a small and understanding smile, Nemuri reaches out to gently pat her dear friend's shoulder. “Someday, you’re going to realize that the things that are holding you back are nothing but a reflection of your own worries. I know you’ll figure it out. You both will. Now try to have fun-” Her attention was stolen away for a moment, a glint of excitement in her eyes clear as day. “If you’re worried about how she feels and how she’s doing, why don't you go show her around and make sure she feels welcomed?” 
         Turning around, the first thing Aizawa see’s is you. A cheesy thing to say, but he almost feels his heart skip a bit.  
         You wore a black turtleneck underneath a midnight blue spaghetti strap dress that fit you just right. Knitted knee high socks and stylish black heel boots finished off your look along with a beautiful pearl pendant necklace. Your hair looked soft and styled in a way he had never seen it before. Your eyes were done up just enough in a way that made them shine even more than they usually do.
         He’s trapped, and he is slowly realizing that he never wants to be set free. 
         When your eyes scan the room for anything familiar, they finally land on a set of eyes that are looking right back at you. You have to stop yourself from visibly gasping, why did his eyes feel so intense? What was he thinking as he made his way across the room to you. 
         Like Moses and the sea, everyone carefully parted to let you both have your moment. They all knew the chemistry between you too, and were more than happy to leave you  alone as they carried on with their conversations and laughter. 
         “You look beautiful.” His voice was low, and held a sense of hesitant tenderness even he was unsure of. You knew he meant it. 
         “And you look very handsome, you even shaved for the party.” With a small laugh you gently ran the back of your fingers across his shaved cheek. This wasn't new, you had done this exact touch multiple times before when you made fun of his stubble yet- it felt more intimate than it ever had before. Aizawa knew he didn't mind it. 
         Carefully sliding his hand into yours, he lifts it up to press a soft and long kiss to your knuckles. “It is a special occasion. Would you like to join me tonight?” He was never a man who cushioned his words, straight to the point and expressing just how he felt was never an issue. You were different. 
         Accepting his offer, you move to accept his offered arm. The night starts slow as you both walk around and chat with other faculty members you work with. With Aizawas help you were confident that you were able to make some new friends, maybe going to this party wasn't so bad after all.
         Everything else almost felt like a breeze. Laughs were shared, drinks were drank- and barriers were being broken down. You and Aizawa found yourselves slowly standing closer and closer together, close enough to where your fingers would brush against each other when one of you moved. All of Pro Hero Eraserhead’s friends could only watch with warm and excited smiles for him. 
         Like always, nights must always come to an end. 
         While some people left to retire for the night, others stayed longer to help clean or help more than drunk coworkers make it home safe. “I’m helping Nemuri make it home Sho! You gonna be okay making it back tonight?” Yamada had Nemuri balancing into his side, laughing as she drunkenly waved some of the others goodbye. “Oh! You all can head back home together if you’d like. I’m just helping clean a bit before I head back home.” you politely cut into their little chat, holding a medium sized black trash bag in your hands. 
         Taking a moment, Aizawa starts to shrug off his coat as he takes the garbage away from you. “I’ll stay behind to help clean. If you’re alright with it I can walk you home.” with wide eyes, the younger teacher could only nod before she turned away to hide her reddening cheeks to pick up more trash and plates. 
         “No worries, now get em TIGEr. RaaArW-” As Kayama tried to cheer her friend on, Yamada tugged her away with an amused laugh of his own. 
          Not even an hour later, everyone was out and the sky was as dark and it could be. The only stars you could see were the large ones as the light pollution shrouded out the smaller and weaker stars. 
         This time around, Aizawa's coat was wrapped around (y/n) shoulders, her head resting on him as they linked arms on the walk back to her house. Instead of splitting off halfway, he walks her all the way up to her front door. It was silent for a moment, the events from tonight silently washing over them. 
         “Thank you Aizawa, this...was a really nice night. I don't think it would have been as enjoyable as it was without you.” (y/n) broke the silence, turning to face and look up at the man she knew she would never look at the same again. Rubbing his mouth in thought, his eyes flicker between the young woman standing in front of him and the road. 
         “I want to thank you as well. I-.” He paused for a moment. 
         “I would like to kiss you, but I understand if you wouldn't. I think after tonight you know what my feelings are for you. I didn't even know about them fully until tonight. Kayama- Midnight was right. I was letting my worries hold me back when I should have been forward like I always am-”  
         Time freezes when he feels your hands pull down his face, your lips eagerly pressing into a kiss with such raw love and desperation. Instantly his arms move around to gently lift you up into him. One minute, two..three. You both only break apart for air and your warm breaths mingle against each other. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while now I think. My friend was right haha...maybe I do have a crush on you. I was just worried because I had no idea if you would even be interested in a relationship, let alone with someone as...young as me. I feel like a high schooler again haha.” 
         The fact that you were able to laugh the way you did and still hold him in your arms brought flutters to his chest. He knew now that he more than just saw you as a coworker or a close friend. He wants to be more. “I know what you mean. Who would want to be with someone as old as me? I would never want to make you feel like I was holding you back.” He would never admit it, but he felt like a young adult experiencing love for the first time...it was a bit embarrassing (in a good way.) 
         “You make me feel so helpless sometimes you know that?” pulling his head down again, (y/n) presses another soft kiss to Aizawa’s forehead. “What am I gonna do with you Aizawa?” 
         “Shouta.”
         “Huh?”
         “Shouta, call me Shouta if you want.” Thankful that it was dark out, he could feel himself heat up at the intimate suggestion. 
         With the way your eyes sparkled while you said his name, he knew he was hooked. There is no going back.          “What am I gonna do with you, Shouta?” 
         “You’ll figure it out eventually. I’ll help you along the way as long as you’ll help me too.” The shared silence was an unbroken promise to do the best you both can. 
         After sharing your final kiss good night, you watch Shouta walk down the street and out of view before returning into the comfort of your home. The jacket around your shoulders smelt strongly of the stoic man you now called yours. Enjoying the warmth and comfort his coat brought you, kicking off your boots you hop over your couch and settle into a comfortable position. 
 Calling: Keigo <(‘V’)>
 “WHY are you calling me at….2 in the MORNING. You gave me a damn heart attack-” 
 “You were right.” your voice was soft and held no regrets. 
 “Right? Right about what?” 
 “You were right, I did have feelings for Shouta. I said you would be the first person to call if you were right. And well, you were right.”          The next hour was spent catching your best friend up on everything that happened tonight. 
-
         On the other side of the story, Aizawa finally made it home and had no problem finding sleep that night. He felt as ease knowing that things weren't going to turn out as bad as he thought it originally was going to be. 
         He can't say it, not yet. 
         But he is in love. 
         And so are you.
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mitthsyndic · 4 years ago
Text
Here is my second attempt at writing Thrawn, much longer this time! Again if you have any criticisms or feedback then please feel free to share!
Read on AO3.
Summary: Lieutenant Thrawn meets the reader (gender neutral) at the Ascension Week celebrations on Coruscant, and she offers to show him around her art gallery. (Based roughly on the 2017 Thrawn book). 
Pairing: Thrawn x Reader (gender neutral, Thrawn is still a Lieutenant at this point).
Warnings: None.
Word Count: 1,715.
A Keen Eye
If you'd learned at least one thing from your meeting with Lieutenant Thrawn, it was that he was passionate about art. 
He wasn't simply an admirer or even a collector; he'd told you in detail about how he used an enemy's artwork in order to anticipate their tactics in battle, and ultimately defeat them. From what you could gather from his companions, this proved to be effective far more often than not. Your own companions scoffed dismissively at these claims, and not so politely ushered your group away from Thrawn towards more powerful, influential partygoers. 
However, you believed you could understand where Thrawn was coming from, and you felt compelled to see his analysis in action. After all, it wouldn’t exactly be an inconvenience to you, as he could simply meet you at your own art gallery here on Coruscant. Furthermore, it didn’t take a keen eye for art to notice Thrawn’s strikingly good looks; his dark blue skin and illuminating red eyes caused him to stand out among the other guests, and he was what drew you over here in the first place. If he didn’t appear to be interested in any romantic prospects, you figured you could at least have some fascinating discussions about the pieces in your gallery. 
"I had best follow my companions. However, Lieutenant Thrawn, I'd like to observe your analysis of artwork and the military conclusions you draw in person. Please, take my comm details and contact me to arrange a meeting at my gallery - that is, if you have any spare time." You smiled at him as you offered him your comlink.
His eyes flicked briefly between your face and the comlink, as though he was unsure how to proceed. You tried to read his face; it was unwavering and unreadable. Well, almost. You could have sworn you saw the corner of his mouth slightly upturn into a smile.
Taking your comlink and quickly inputting his details, he responded coolly, "That would be most pleasant. Allow me to check my schedule for my remaining days on Coruscant, and I shall respond with my availability." 
As he handed you back your comlink, your fingers brushed for a brief second. The fleeting contact was intoxicating, yet his expression remained unvarying. It was almost impossible to tell how he felt about the momentary brush of your hands, or if he could tell that your proposition was identical to that of a date. 
"Of course. It was delightful meeting the three of you, and I hope to see you again soon." Politely smiling at Ensign Vanto and Colonel Yularen, you reluctantly trailed after your friends, leaving you with the rest of the evening to reflect on your meeting with Lieutenant Thrawn.
**
It was late; with your thoughts consumed by your encounter with Thrawn, you had left the celebrations and gone to bed at your apartment on Coruscant. Awoken by the faint alert of your comlink, you drowsily sat up and picked it up, allowing the incoming transmission through. 
“Apologies if I woke you. This is Lieutenant Thrawn.” His smooth voice echoed out of the comlink. 
“No, not at all. And, please, there’s no need for titles when we’re alone.” You boldly suggested. From what you could gather, Thrawn was exceptionally good at reading body language and tone, so you tried to convey your desire for a more informal relationship, in case he hadn’t gathered the implications behind your invitation.
“Of course.” You were certain you could hear a smile behind his voice. “This may be of short notice, but I will only remain on Coruscant for another day. There is a lapse in my schedule tomorrow evening, and I leave the following morning. I would like to see the works in your gallery, and hopefully demonstrate my... abilities to you then.”
He was incredibly difficult to read -even more so when you couldn’t see him in person, but you were sure that you could detect a hint of flirtation in his tone.
“Tomorrow evening works for me. Allow me to send you its location. If you need any directions or your schedule suddenly changes, then feel free to contact me. I’ve got my comlink on me at all times.” 
“Thank you. I look forward to meeting you again soon.” Your comlink clicked off, and Thrawn was gone once again. 
You laid back down and allowed your mind to drift off to sleep, thoughts consumed by the mysterious Lieutenant Thrawn and your ‘date’ tomorrow. 
**
You’d spent all day debating on whether or not to close the gallery and give Thrawn a private tour, and, eventually, you decided against it. It was never busy at this time of night anyway, and you didn’t want to appear too forward if you had in fact misinterpreted his intentions, and he really was here to only demonstrate his analytical abilities. Then came the matter of your outfit; he’d provided a rough estimation of his time of arrival, so you couldn’t exactly run off and change into something more ‘date-worthy’ before he arrived, but if you dressed in your regular work clothes then Thrawn may believe that this meeting was strictly business. After much deliberation, you’d settled on an in between that appeared professional, yet a little flirtatious.
Once that was sorted, all you had to do was wait. Many admirers came and went, as did the occasional interested buyer, yet the minutes passed by slowly as you anxiously anticipated his arrival. Normally, you would consider yourself a fairly confident, collected individual, if somewhat an overthinker, but in comparison to Thrawn? You felt almost neurotic. 
Although he’d spent almost a full day now preoccupying your mind, all coherent thoughts dissipated out of your head once he finally stepped into your gallery. He was precisely on time, and wearing simple black garments that had presumably been issued to him by the Empire upon his admission into the academy. From what Colonel Yularen had said, Thrawn had been practically discovered by the Empire, as his home planet was not in a region familiar to you. He also hadn’t mentioned what species he was; at first guess he appeared to be Pantoran, yet his glowing red eyes suggested otherwise. You made a mental note to ask him at some point this evening. Furthermore, you realised he actually hadn’t told you his last name -or maybe he hadn’t told you his first name? As your lack of true knowledge about the man who stood in front of you became more and more apparent, it began to feel like an incredibly stupid idea to invite him here.
Though, it was too late to do anything about that now. I guess I’ll have to make sure I learn everything I didn’t think to ask, you thought as you approached him. His expression was indecipherable, as, you began to suspect, it always was.
“Welcome, Thrawn. May I call you that, or is that your surname? I didn’t think to ask yesterday.” You bit the bullet and chewed your way through the awkward question. 
“It is Mitth'raw'nuruodo. My native language is Cheunh, and Chiss is the name of my species.” He broke eye contact and looked around at the gallery, and you did the same. Currently, it was just the two of you in there. “May I ask how you came to acquire the gallery and its pieces?” 
Though, Thrawn didn’t appear to find it awkward at all. Your eyes locked, and that same small smile you identified the night before appeared on his face. “Yes, you may call me Thrawn. That is my core name, as Chiss names can be difficult for many species to pronounce.”
“Ah, I understand. May I hear it anyway? And, is Chiss the name of your language then?” You asked delicately, although Thrawn appeared unbothered by your questions. 
“Well, I’ve had a passion for art since I was very little, both painting and admiring it. I practiced as much as I could with every bit of free time I had, and I took any even remotely artistic jobs. If a neighbour wanted their walls painted, I’d do it for free and they’d let me keep any leftover paint afterwards. All of my money went towards buying canvases, sketchbooks, paint, brushes, even spray cans. Sometimes I’d even spray paint murals, though I think everyone else saw that as graffiti and vandalism rather than art.” You paused, and the two of you locked eyes again. He was listening intently, so you decided to continue on. “Anyway, as I got older I’d sell my paintings, but it didn’t provide enough money for me to live on, so I begged Zena, the old owner of the gallery, to give me a job here. I did small things at first, like sweeping floors and cleaning picture frames, but eventually I got to lead tours and meet with other artists. When she retired, she left the place to me, and here we are now.” 
Thrawn paused for a few moments, as though he was fully taking in and understanding your words. “How fascinating. Do you still paint now?” Thrawn began to walk slowly towards the closest painting on display.
“Yes, whenever I have any inspiration or time.” You followed close behind, intently watching his focused stare on the painting in front of him. 
He then turned back to you, and stopped just before the painting. “Is any on display? May I see it?” He questioned. 
“No, it’s all in the back in our studio. Plus, I’ve never fought any kind of battle in my life, so I doubt you’re going to be able to observe any military tactics from my paintings.” 
“Perhaps, perhaps not. Many do not realise exactly what their artwork can reveal about themselves or their culture as a whole. So, although you may have never fought before, I could look at your work and anticipate your possible movements and strategies if we were to engage in battle, whether that be in a ship or in hand to hand combat. I have demonstrated it in this particular way once previously with a friend.” 
He noticed the slightly apprehensive look on your face, and smiled. “Of course, we do not have to fight. That would not be very typical behaviour on a date, would it?”
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shihalyfie · 4 years ago
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Kizuna drama CD: Detail spotting and nuance analysis
02 involved displaying its group dynamic through mundane interactions and wacky hijinks, and the circumstances of an eight-year block of time between Kizuna and 02, plus the fact that Hikari and Takeru operate separately from the others due to the movie’s circumstances, mean that the drama CD centering around the group is actually our most reliable source of info regarding how they’re doing at this time and how their group dynamic is going. Much like 02 itself, getting a lot of this nuance requires reading between the lines, so let’s take a closer look!
Since this is a drama CD and not animated material, I’ll be going through this in bullet points instead of screenshots.
The fact that the drama CD itself deliberately uses the same format as a 02 episode carries a very strong implication that, unlike their seniors who are going through an existential crisis about how much of their childhood experiences they can bring with them into adulthood, the 02 group is still roughly able to recreate the same atmosphere they had eight years ago. Noticeably, the ending song chosen for this is the first ED (Tomorrow My Wind Will Blow), the more lighthearted one used for the first half, before a lot of really emotionally vicious things started happening to them.
The phrase “it’s been a while” and variants thereof come up between this group a lot within this drama CD (and once in the movie itself, from Hawkmon to the others). Look closely at the circumstances of this drama CD and how everyone seems to be very intimately aware of each other’s situations, and the fact that this story obviously takes place only a short time before the movie itself -- so it really hasn’t been a very long time at all, but apparently even that much is considered a “long time�� for them. (It also seems like they’re going out of their way to make sure they’re still keeping in regular contact even when they can’t actually meet up.)
Daisuke says, very clearly, that Iori was the one he intended to approach “first” because he was so busy -- but he’s shown walking in with Takeru, meaning that the two of them are on very good terms now and seem to have been hanging out independently.
Daisuke wanted his plan to be a “surprise” reveal to the others, and the actual practical purpose of his plan (it being a career study trip for him) seems to have been very low on the priority list to the point it takes the CD’s entire half-hour runtime for him to finally bring it up. Before then, he’d been cheerfully fantasizing about all the fun things he’d get to do with them, and it even says a lot that he’d also wanted to discuss this at a karaoke bar of all things, so, really, in his head, “hanging out with friends and having fun with them” is the actual priority (especially since there’s basically no reason he needs to have the others on his ramen research trip, he just wants them there because he does).
The fact that the boys have to sneak in the Digimon to avoid getting extra charges means that society will now recognize them as patrons to be regularly charged.
Daisuke is asked by Iori which people he intends to bring to his trip, which implies that the 02 group isn’t technically an exclusive club or anything...but then Daisuke proceeds to list off the 02 group by name, implying that this group does indeed have a particularly elevated level of importance to him.
Look carefully at the nuances surrounding whom Daisuke wants to invite to his trip: he wanted to invite the seniors as well, but resigned himself to the fact it’d probably be impossible because they were too busy...only for the others to point out that the rest of the 02 group is also busy, but everyone is confident that they’ll make it work, and Daisuke wants them there to the point of listing them by name. So in other words, Daisuke likes everyone and would like everyone around in the ideal situation, but when push comes to shove, the rest of the 02 group is whom he really wants to have around, and said group can be reliably counted on to do whatever it takes to make it work.
The way everyone casually describes each other's circumstances (and in specific detail, not just generally describing what they're up to) says a lot; Armadimon's still talking with Hawkmon about Miyako (meaning Miyako and Iori are still regularly in contact), Takeru's up-to-date with Ken's life to the point of knowing his upcoming schedule, Daisuke's fully aware of how busy Iori is, and, later, the one to affectionately greet Hawkmon is none other than Wormmon, who, back in 02, used to only really be close with Ken himself and V-mon. You can see that everyone’s still constantly involved in each other’s lives, including their own partners being up-to-date on each other (compare the more distant relationship their seniors are portrayed with in the movie itself, both with each other and with their partners), and you can also see that Ken and Wormmon have fully integrated themselves into the group to the point it’s a completely casual affair (Iori, the one who infamously had the longest and most drawn-out process in accepting Ken, is the one to personally ask him about his preferences).
That said, note that Takeru and Iori still seem to be on surname basis with Ken, even despite obviously being much closer with him than they were before; unfortunately, it seems that having been on surname basis with him so long in 02 became a habit, leaving Daisuke and Miyako as the only ones currently known to have switched to given name basis with him.
It’s interesting that Ken, not Daisuke, is the one explicitly stated to be keeping up with soccer to the point of having schedule commitments, whereas no mention of this whatsoever is made with Daisuke, and it’s entirely possible that Daisuke actually quit playing it in an organized fashion. This is, however, consistent with their personalities, in that Ken would likely want to keep up with organized extracurricular hobbies, whereas Daisuke may enjoy soccer as a hobby, but not enough to continue committing to a high-level team. (Remember that Daisuke took a while to get a regular position even back in elementary school; as much as he liked the sport, he also wasn’t particularly outstanding at it, and especially not in comparison to Taichi, Sora, or Ken.)
Miyako leaving for Spain seems to have been a recent thing, since it has to actively be brought up in conversation as a reminder (and Daisuke seemed to initially have not taken into account that she wouldn’t be easily able to join the trip in that case, since the issue of the D-3 hadn’t come up yet). When she shows up later in person, everyone’s shocked, as if it’s unnerving for her to be back in Japan already.
Daisuke still seems to have a thing for Hikari, but note that this doesn’t really go beyond “wanting to hang out with Hikari a lot”. Also, he says this in plain view of Takeru without bringing him up at all, and Takeru himself has nothing to say about it (not even awkward laughter), meaning that he really has no object in this whatsoever.
It’s interesting to see that Armadimon, who used to have to ask about how human society works quite often in 02, is now well-versed enough in Japanese culture to be really passionate about it.
As usual, Iori does not mince words (when it's about Nagoya specialty food, at least).
Also as usual, Ken is surprisingly academic about his interests and a huge nerd.
Note Takeru's awkward "I don't really want to insult you, but also, that's weird" reaction to Ken’s speech about the hot springs -- very classic Takeru, not quite being honest for the sake of keeping the peace and awkwardly trying to be nice about it -- in contrast to Daisuke, who just honestly goes straight for the commentary. That said, regardless of how unusual of a hobby everyone around him clearly finds it, note how they all still decide to accommodate it anyway and support his interest in it.
Hypocritically, V-mon calls Daisuke out for being “embarrassing” regarding his fixation on Hikari, only to suddenly get caught off-guard by Tailmon shortly after...
Hikari's behavior has the most clear-cut contrast from herself in 02, consisting of her very assertively stating what she wants, for herself -- very important because her problems in 02 revolved around her compulsively being unable to voice her own thoughts if it meant putting a burden on others. Here, Hikari gets argumentative about what she, personally, wants to do. Given that she doesn’t quite act like this in front of her seniors in the course of the movie, and is depicted as being particularly in-sync with Miyako here -- and given how Miyako was instrumental in reaching out to her during the events of 02 -- it’s pretty easy to see how Hikari became able to assert herself like this.
Similarly, much like how Tailmon was portrayed as lightening up a bit between Adventure and 02 thanks to her new, happier life, here, she seems to be exactly on the same page as Hikari in terms of wanting to fight people for something materialistic.
Hawkmon says that it's "only natural" for them to show up whenever this group is getting together, and, indeed, Miyako was technically uninvited because everyone thought she was busy in Spain -- but was clearly in contact with them (or at least Hikari) to know that this meeting was happening. (There’s probably a group chat.)
This is implied to be the first time the 02 group has seriously considered using D-3 gate exploitation to visit each other and to travel. The group had already made use of this exploitation during 02 itself (to have Palmon delivered to New York back in 02 episode 38 and to meet up in the Digital World), but it is true that they hadn’t been necessarily using it even when it arguably would be more convenient than Tokyo transportation and Imperialdramon. So in other words, for the last eight years, through all the meetups they seem to have been having with each other (and remember, Ken lived in Tamachi, not Odaiba, at the time of 02, and there’s no guarantee that nobody in the Odaiba neighborhood didn’t move at some point), they were perfectly fine with using the inconvenience of Tokyo transportation to meet each other, or to meet up in the Digital World instead -- but then Miyako found herself in another country, and decided that she wasn't going to stand for being separated from the others for too long.
As usual, Hawkmon still has to be Miyako’s concerned minder when she’s on the verge of going out of control.
Miyako had already been implied to be in Barcelona thanks to the scenery outside her window and the movie end credits, but her speech about Spain drives it in even further with the Gaudí references.
Despite Spain being possibly the one of the worst possible options for what's later revealed to be Daisuke's motive for this trip (ramen research), it seems that Miyako baiting him with mention of the soccer league was enough to get him momentarily distracted (and also indicates that Daisuke still clearly has an active interest in soccer even if he may not be regularly playing anymore).
Speaking of which, it’s pretty obvious that Miyako knew exactly what to bait Daisuke with in order to do this.
Takeru, the group's resident moderator, is of course the one to step in and prevent Tailmon and Armadimon from wreaking too much havoc (Daisuke is mostly just slightly intimidated) -- but you might also notice that he's otherwise not saying anything about the group's chaotic antics, and in fact is guilty of enabling them even further...
Daisuke continues to have his penchant for pointing out the elephant in the room -- he's exactly right, how is Wormmon supposed to put on skis?
It is, of course, only natural that Miyako would be sensitive to knowing about currency exchange and the use of American dollars in the Digital World, given that she presumably hasn't forgotten the Digitamamon incident from 02 episode 14.
For the first time in 19 real-life years, we finally learn what Daisuke’s original motive for wanting to get into ramen making was: in true Daisuke fashion, he himself has no idea (but he just really likes ramen).
Daisuke "credits" his friends for giving him insightful advice and helpful resources in thinking about his career and future plans, but, as it turns out, everyone else wasn't thinking nearly as much of it -- either they hardly remember it, or it wasn't actually supposed to mean anything insightful. It's obviously not to say that they're not fully supportive of him (the events of this drama CD blatantly indicate otherwise), but rather that Daisuke attributes everything important and helpful in his life to his friends to ridiculous degrees, even when it's something completely ordinary like a train ticket that anyone should know about.
As always, Daisuke is very realistically aware of his own limitations, admitting freely that he was actually lacking in experience and insight to follow his dream (especially since he took the "advice" from his friends very, very seriously).
Note how quickly everyone changes their tune and immediately decides to unequivocally support Daisuke the moment they realize there's actually a very important reason to him that he wants to go on this trip.
Also note that when Hikari compliments Daisuke, Daisuke is completely at a loss -- yet again, Daisuke's been so busy rolling around for Hikari's approval that he hasn't accounted for what to do when he actually gets it.
Daisuke picking New York, of all locations, as his stop to research ramen certainly explains why Ken has to ask "why ramen?" during the movie itself -- as this drama CD indicates, and as per the events of 02 episode 50, he absolutely knows why Daisuke would want to get ramen, but ramen in New York, which isn't exactly the cultural center of ramen making, is a different story.
The fact that this was a planned multi-day trip also explains why the group changes clothes and is in New York for multiple days over the course of the movie (because they probably had a hotel, too). It also further contextualizes the likely reason Miyako felt like dealing with Menoa’s request was too much work -- she wanted to be on this trip instead -- and says a lot about how she’ll dump a request on her seniors when it’s too much hassle for her, but accept that same request back if it’s something she gets to do with her friends.
Takeru and Hikari are explicitly stated to be scheduled to join the trip on the second day, meaning that them operating separately from the quartet during the events of the movie was sheer scheduling circumstance -- and since we find out in the movie that Takeru was the one to inform Yamato about Daisuke's whereabouts, this CD here clarifies that Takeru has this knowledge because he himself was set to be on this trip (and would have been, if the events of the movie hadn't gotten in the way).
Probably the most interesting take-home from this narrative is how absurdly close the 02 group is portrayed as, and in very, very stark contrast to their seniors in the movie itself -- who are said to be drifting apart as they all find their individual paths. Here, the 02 group is the opposite; while they do seem to have their own goals (Hikari and Daisuke are outright identified as having some of the clearest ones), it’s obvious that those goals are secondary to being able to hang out with and support each other (in other words, they still have those goals, but they’re much lower priorities for them). This is consistent with how these dynamics were portrayed back in 02, since the Adventure group had been portrayed as being prone to drifting apart as early as Our War Game!, whereas the 02 group was built from the ground up as needing each other’s mutual support much more deeply -- it’s just that, now that they’re all much older, this distinction in group dynamic is much more prominent.
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tipsylorie · 4 years ago
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Dream Project Pt. 2 {title in progress}
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
A/N: Hello guys! Here is the second part of the story I have been working on. My friend @w-h-i-t-e-mochi had read this already and she commented that it might feel a bit dragging. So, Im sorry about that but I just tried to emphasise on how Jayceon Stone acts as her assistant. This is not yet proof read tho so, sorry again. But I came to realisation on how Lee Da Hee would make a great Liviana and to be paired with Lee Jun Ho as Jayceon. Therefore, if you want, they can be your character reference. 
Word Count: 2,300
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Before Liviana got to her office, she was greeted by her employees with good mornings, and she greeted them all back with a smile and nod of acknowledgement. Once she arrived at her office, she was welcomed with the young man once again with a smile on his face. “Good morning Liv, I hope you had a goodnight sleep and your first schedule for today is supposedly with the Finance Department of the entertainment, but it seems like you should prioritise the meeting with your potential investor, Mr. Stone.”
Liv can’t help but chuckle with how blunt his assistant was as he immediately stated her schedule for today, so she just replies with, “Woah, what’s the rush Jer? Slowly. I agree on meeting with the investor first so maybe update them that after 45 minutes we are good to see each other at the Casa Royale Hotel. I just need to look through the contract again and see area for negotiation.”
Jayceon is a bit flustered with Liviana’s remark of him seems to be in a rush because this is the first time of him doing such job and he just copied what Dexter usually do as his assistant. So, his response went, “Sorry about that Liv. I just tried to be productive by not stalling any tasks that could’ve already been done. The contract is already sent to your email so just check that and I will call his assistant now. So please excuse me.” After saying the last line, Jayceon exited the office and sat on his desk just outside of it.
~30 minutes later~
“Would you like to come with me Jer?” Liv asked the young man as she exited her office.
“Sure, no problem. I already notified the Financial Department of the meeting being moved an hour later.” Jayceon replied with ease.
“Good job!” She said and high fived him. “Now let’s go.” She continued as she led the way to the parking lot where her driver and car awaits.
~At the Casa Royale Hotel~
“Over here Ms. Voss!” Dexter exclaimed as he waves Liv and Jayce to go to his direction. “Thank you for arranging this meeting Ms. Voss and please do have a seat.” Dexter said as he gestured to the seats vacant for the two and they sat as Dexter continues, “Unfortunately Mr. Stone won’t be able to be here as he is in a 1 week leave due to the transitioning of company rights. I hope that is okay as I am given the Power of Attorney as his proxy for today. He had trusted me that whatever agreements we will be having for today is as good to be his as well. So, no need to be concerned.”  He said the last line with a reassuring voice.
Liviana was taken back a little bit as she was expecting to meet the CEO himself, so she answers, “Oh, alright then. I can say by re-reading the contract before coming here is that it was really detailed and somehow stringent.” Liv’s remarks made the vibe feel tense as Jayceon starts to worry and his secretary noticed the faint change of his facial expression. Fortunately, the young woman who has no idea on what caused the sudden change of vibe smiles and continues to say, “But there is need to worry because I like it that way. It will help us keep things black and white and lessen misunderstandings so, I say we seal the deal right away!” She said the last line with enthusiasm and grabs a pen to sign the document. This made the young CEO relax his tense shoulders and gives a smile of recognition to his assistant that he is satisfied with how the meeting turned out.
The partnership was sealed with the final handshake between Liviana and Dexter. Then all of them bid their goodbyes with a last reminder from the older man that after a week, they will meet again to announce publicly about the merger. Liviana and Jayceon conclusively thanked Dexter and took their leave.
Once they arrived back the LV Entertainment building, Jayceon reminded Liviana of her meeting that will take place in 15 minutes.
“Thanks Jer, I will just grab the needed materials in my office. Oh, you can seat this one out because I don’t think I will need an assistant there. So, you can just grab an early lunch or Brunch if you still haven’t eaten your breakfast.” Liviana informed her assistant.
“But I can totally accompany you since it is my job, and maybe… I can give some inputs if you want.” Jayceon tried to reason because she can feel how Liv is being lenient towards him.
She can sense what her assistant is trying to do, and this made her smile, so she replies, “Do not worry Jer, I am not taking it easy towards you but I really don’t find the need to have you there. I can just message you when I need something or when there is something worth noting. But for now, you can just grab your lunch. Okay?”
Jayceon was satisfied with her reply, so he responded, “Sure Liv. Thanks. I will also just arrange the meetings for later to keep everything smooth sailing.”
This made Liviana say, “That would be amazing. Thank you.” She took her leave to proceed to the conference room.
**Jayceon’s Phone**
Message from Liviana: Check Break Even Analysis
Reply sent: Should I check it Liv, right now?
Liviana forgot to put her phone on mute so everyone in the room heard the chime of notification. This made her say, “Sorry guys, please continue.” Then she sent her assistant another message.
**Jayceon’s Phone**
Message from Liviana: No, I will just spam you of the things I need to do. So there’s no need for you to reply.
Reply sent: Oh, okay. Sorry.
Message from Liviana: I said, do not replyyy 😭
Message from Liviana: TLA each branch financial report last month in conjunction of the Entertainment
Message from Liviana: Bake some Choco Moist Cake for Julie
~After many messages later~
“Thank you so much everyone. We need to find solutions soon to add more income without jeopardising the operating expenses. So, I will be all open with suggestions in my email. Okay guys?” Liv informed her staff and all of them agreed then she ended the meeting.
~Back to her office~
“Why is there food on my table? I didn’t order anything.” Liv thought to herself when her secretary enters her office.
“I bought you some lunch in case you’re hungry. I am not sure what to but so I just bought sandwich and Iced Americano to play it safe. I hope it is fine.” Jayceon told her boss.
“It’s actually great! I totally forgot that I haven’t eaten my lunch yet. Thanks. This is actually my go-to food when I am having hard time to think what to eat. So really, thank you Jer.” Liviana told her secretary with genuinely.
Jayceon replies enthusiastically, “No problem, boss. Just doing my job!” He is about to leave then he suddenly remembers something, “May I ask something Liv?”
“Sure.” Live replied as she took a bite of her sandwich.
“With everything you sent me earlier, from the meeting’s notes to your friend’s cake, why did you still forget your own food?” Jayceon asked curiously.
“Yes, I think so. Are you planning on checking up the Academy’s different branches afterwards?” Jayceon asked his boss to confirm and inform that the schedule in the iPad seems incomplete.
It took a while for Liviana to think of an answer so she manages to say is, “Well, all I could think of once I get home is food, maybe that’s why.” She smiled to her assistant with face shows confusion with the lack of answer she replied so she just says, “It’s easier that way. Anyways, what’s next to our schedule?”
While Liviana is taking a sip of her Iced Americano, Jayceon enumerated the meetings that are lined up and this is followed by a question from Liv, “After all these meetings for today, does that end all of the Entertainment’s agendas for the week?”
“Yeah, why? Is there something wrong?” Liviana asked worriedly.
“It’s just that your ex-assistant seemed to forget to update the calendar since what I have now is relatively blank.” Jayceon stated as he looked through the tablet’s screen.
This made Liv ponder for a few minutes and came to a realisation, so she replies, “I believe it was purposely left that way since that is what I instructed her before she left. Hence, we can just leave it like that and have some sort of business trip tomorrow. I will message you the information once I got home because we need to go to the meeting now.”
Jayceon was relieved to know that there was no missing schedule, so he answered, “Sure, I’ll be right behind you Liv.”
After Liviana and Jayceon finished attending all the meetings for the day, she asked him to her office even though it was already passed his clock.
The young man took a seat adjacent to Liviana’s table and she remarks, “Hey, I think I will need your opinion about making the partnership with Stone Corp. public sooner instead of a week. Because I made some thinking the whole day and concluded that it would create traction for the Entertainment. I am not sure if you’ve already seen our latest financial reports that we are close to be in red – and barely breaking even.” Her face is contoured in full worries and anxiousness, she continues, “So I just want to know your opinion if I were to propose this to Mr. Stone, would it be alright or not?” She asked and nervously waiting for Jayceon’s reply.
“Honestly Liv, I don’t think you should rush this. Because one week is not a long time. The best advice I could give you is focus on the events that will happen, both in TLA and the Entertainment. Do not worry too much.” This response from Mr. Stone might come out quite manipulative but as Liv asked him with sincerity, this is the best answer he has based on his judgement with the overall situation.
The young woman took some time to weigh what her secretary just told her, and her reply goes, “Yes. Yeah, I think you’re right. I agree. Maybe let’s conclude for the day and meet tomorrow at the usual time here in the building to gather last minute things.” She informed her assistant, and both bid their goodbyes.
~At Liviana’s House~
“Let’s make the cake first and then eat dinner afterwards before checking all the reports for tomorrow’s trip.” Liv said as she tries to reason with herself.
Her closest friend Julie is having her 27th birthday tomorrow and she is currently supervising the branch of TLA where the Scholarship Audition Programme is going to be held, which is the Municipality of Paradigmia.  It is like the second main branch after the one in the City of Pneumarê. The main branch is the only one located in a city, however due to the development of the Tree of Life Academy the municipalities and provinces where other branches are located, it is becoming a progressive community which at a very near future can make them a city. If you are wondering on why the Final Audition is not going to take place in the city, well… It is because of how it was agreed upon on where annual inter-branch events will take place – and it is through spinning wheel where the names of the branches are written in random order. Therefore, she must make sure to visit Paradigmia at all costs tomorrow.
Going back to Liv’s closest friend, Julie Andews is also her longest friend who also supported her while she was busy integrating an Entertainment company to her family’s Academy. Ever since it was Anne who was more focused on handling the academics aspects, so it took quite a while for Julie to find a place where she truly suitable. Heck, she even attempted to do the financial aspect, but it took a toll on her. Then, one time strolling through the city’s academy branch, she saw the need to develop the extra-curricular activities not just for students who do it for grades but also those who wants to experience it. Especially when she realised that it would be vital for the integration of a Korean Entertainment Company. So, she drew up a proposal on how she plans to execute such developments and it was immediately approved by Liv. Liviana also doubled check it with her parents if such change would be okay and even though it took a week for them to agree, Julie was able to perform her plan without a hitch.
Okay, going back to the cake. After she baked the 3 layers of the heart-shaped cake for Julie she realised that she mixed a hell a lot of batter. So, she just took some of her leftover cupcake cups and make the rest of the red velvet mix into cupcakes. To Liv’s surprise she was still able to great 2 dozen of cupcakes, so she plans to give half of it to Anne as she also promised her a visit yesterday. Liviana successfully iced and decorated the cake and all the cupcakes after several hours, so she proceeds on putting it on her refrigerator to finally have her dinner.
Liviana freshen up before heading to her bed since it was a tedious work and cleaning earlier in the kitchen that made her sweat a lot. Before having her eyes closed, she remembers the reports she must re-evaluate this made her say, “For fuck’s sake.” After another 2 hours she finally got her sleep.
[End of Part 2]
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frogtanii · 4 years ago
Note
Wind anon has a test tomorrow so she is gonna be studying for a bit—but it should be okay! (Actually, seeing and reading not only the PF updates but also all the comments from fans give me energy and motivation. It’s really good at cheering me up, so I greatly appreciate how I was able to stumble upon such a community.) Anyway, might as well get to the reaction!
First, starting off with Iwaizumi... every time I see an Iwaizumi start I get a bit anxious like “oh no, it’s him again” type of feeling. Makes me all twisty. But I was like “hm? Why’s he asking where they all are? He drove them to the venue?” So I was like “aaaaa” but softly
And YN with Suga and Akaashi! Soft boys. Very very nice. Suga mentioned reading books as a suggestion to Bokuto before didn’t he? Book crew~ also, I like that there’s a bench by the restrooms of the place. Very conveniently placed, isn’t it? Though the mention that it’s secluded is very fitting with YN needing to recharge the social battery. Some days I need to recharge my battery myself, and I just completely lose the desire to talk once it’s low. I hope YN gets lots and lots of self care days where she doesn’t have to do anything but love being herself. She deserves it.
Kuroo being with Bokuto :D! I like how he’s still sticking by even when he has no clue what they are talking about. It’s wonderful.
And Kenma :0. Same restroom as the one where YN, Akaashi, and Suga are? Because then they all went together. Cute cute cute. A group of introverts.
Sakusa and Atsumu by the snack table. That’s good, that’s good, hope that they had some good food.
Osamu talking to a kid about how he cooks his ramen! Very nice very nice, I feel like there hasn’t been enough chances to show Osamu’s desire and love for food. I mean, there was that one time Meiko got him to cook food for her even when he was tired and I’m still a bit grumpy about that, but it’s nice that he’s getting a chance to socialize to people like this.
Daichi, starting off with saying he was indisposed—my immediate reaction was to zone in and be like “Meiko” but no. It wasn’t her this time. By this point I was like “but...where is she...?” But also, Daichi is being real polite with the way he’s talking. Curious, but not bad. Just interesting to me.
And here we see Iwaizumi doing the classic “I hold the power. I demand answers” I know that he’ll have his redemption arc but I am just very...at odds with him right now and wind anon disapproves. It’s upsetting to see him actually. I can only imagine how YN feels... (oh, I’ve been thinking of what’d it be like to take the place of Meiko. Not right now because that’s asking for wind anon to wake up to animosity and chaos—scary. But like, if wind anon was from the start... platonic cuddling with YN and no drama...)
But Daichi taking care of the wardrobe malfunction. That’s a cool choice. Though I suppose it makes sense. He’s the steady type. Less impulsive and emotion driven compared to Iwaizumi, but still able to get there. Though, considering the amount of stress Iwaizumi has been under, was it really not a thing to ask for help from one of the members, or to request another person from management? There’s...13 members altogether, so 12 people he’s trying to manage right now. I don’t think there would be much loss having 2 managers to care for 6 main members at a time. Might be more efficient, and they could always try a rotational schedule and collaborate if they want more full house content.
I like how Iwaizumi asked “who and where” and when Daichi replied with only The Who, everyone still moved on. Just shows how frazzled and frantic Iwaizumi is under that calm facade.
Iwaizumi commanding them to leave :0! I was really puzzled at this point. Like the rest of the members, I didn’t understand why he was so adamant considering he had made them go to the event to network. And him forgetting Oikawa...
But moving down to the part where Iwaizumi blows up and tells them to get in the limo (because wind anon doesn’t want her reaction to drag too long), it’s very much like Iwaizumi. First there is the message about “there will be another event where you get to pretend you’re relevant for a couple of hours” oh, wind anon is focusing on that line. Obviously, the fact that they are all preoccupied right now is not a concern to him—but this was very emotionally charged and blunt—he didn’t have the patience to frame his thoughts to something prettier and more logical—this is truly what he thinks. “There will be another event” shows that he believes that there definitely will be one—he’s not trying to cover his words so the fact he mentioned there’s another event means it’s not trying to placate them in a sense. I mean, if he’s trying to placate them, rage is not the way to go about it anyway so it would have been a fail even without this, but he specified the event when he could’ve not said a thing about a future event so, yeah. “Where you get to pretend to be relevant for a few hours” oh my gosh. How to go about analyzing this portion? The content, the emotion, the execution, it’s all so...vivid. (10/10 job as always fr0ggy) the fact that he says pretend to be relevant shows how he views the house. Obviously they like the content they create. They care about the content they create. And sure they may not all be big, but relevant? They’re definitely relevant in your career choice Iwaizumi. They got nominated for an award and it’s not as if they were around for a super long time. It’s impressive. You’ll get attention and more of a fan base. Their relevance will definitely grow. The words by themselves are an attack of sorts to the members, showing his belief that they are shallow and fake and trying to get famous and seem big. Makes him seem like he has an inferiority complex of sorts, the way he’s acting. Take everything I say with a grain of salt though. I’m not a doctor.
Okay, next. We have Daichi, who is more reliable and asks for logic! Thank the lords of the PF universe, I literally wouldn’t be able to take too much emotional charge. And then Meiko’s name pops up. The last time I was writing an ask, I was redesigning Meiko’s entire look, and purely the look. I wasn’t doing a character analysis and I didn’t put anything besides my opinions on a better dress but I saw this and the complete blankness my mind went was astonishing.
“She’s a grown woman Tsumu. I left her alone for a few hours, she can handle that.” Y’know, for a cook, he really didn’t realize that was a recipe for disaster. (B-dum tsss. I do like puns) but she’s been shown to not be able to take care of herself and also have a bad personality on top of that so it really was an explosion in the making. I’m the spectrum of not taking care of myself (skipping meals to do schoolwork...skipping meals to sleep...yeah, no) but I think my personality is decent. But Meiko? I actually thought she might be decent with networking. I mean, she picks up guys quite easily doesn’t she? So I was fascinated with what she could’ve possibly done.
Liquor :0 !! I was never interested in drinking liquor that much (though they are pretty a lot of the times...the colors and bottles and glasses are really nice art subjects). Seeing Meiko makes me want to avoid alcohol even more. She started drinking...gosh, she is...a hot mess. Not even kids would be as bad...
Her being “plastered”? Considering that one time where she started drinking a ton before going to a club and...forcing herself on Suga, and how she managed to leave the bathroom completely composed and such, I was mesmerized at the fact she actually managed to drink enough to get completely wasted. And champagne? She must’ve just stuck around and made a whole group of glasses where she was. Also, she didn’t try to get any guys? Wow. Wind anon is staring at her like she’s a particularly weird specimen. She is so...baffling. Confusing.
She insulted and slapped someone :0!!!!!! The amount of exclamation marks show how intense my reaction is. Violent, violent, and such an idiot Meiko is. I hope management steps in. I can’t stand looking at her. But I mean...once she wakes up, like the morning after, would anyone be willing to look and care for her? Such a mess...
I pity the people in management who would have to smooth this over. Gosh, they need a raise and a fruit basket. Like those fancy ones with the fruit cut into shapes on skewers and such. As well as a box of chocolates.
But yeah, I’ll end it here. Been a while since I have a long reaction. I’m pretty sure I got a bit of the analysis wrong and also rambled a bit too much at times, hmmm.
Okay, headcanon time... imagine YN making make up by breaking all of Meiko’s and she just names the mix “Meiko” because it’s a streaky mess. She packages it and gives it to fans for free. It would be fun :D. Only the eyeshadows and stuff though. I do not trust any thing that would directly touch Meiko...like her lipsticks. Bleh.
Sakusa, Akaashi, Suga, Tooru, and YN being eyeliner group. Just imagine Akaashi tilting your head up with the lightest fingers under your chin, while Sakusa braids your hair and folds in some dark silk flowers with pearl centers into it. YN smiling at them after she comes out, with pomegranate lip tint and a leather jacket. Be dangerous YN. Kill us all. YN supremacy <3.
YN and Atsumu would be the two to have the popsicles that you break apart.
Kenma wears red eyeliner once for a dare or a gift to fans or something and all of his fans decide to pass out.
Osamu and Bokuto doing stuff together to promote healthy living.
Okay, gonna end here. I very much appreciate all the support here. Much love towards those who favorite my asks and such too. I’m super glad you all like hearing from me. I mean, we’re all fans of PF and fr0ggy so I hope that everyone is enjoying all of this as much as I am. You all make me very very happy. Much appreciation to all the anons and ask senders and submissions because everyone is super cool.
Take care fr0ggy! Much hearts to you!
oh geez i hope ur test goes well!!!!!!! i don’t have much to say cs ur incredibly eloquent (as usual) but i rlly like the idea of bokuto n osamu promoting healthy living!!!! that rlly hits cs my family is VERY much into healthy living so that just made me happy hehe ILY I HOPE U HAVE A LOVELY DAY KITH KITH <3333
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polymetis-23 · 3 years ago
Text
Diary Entry Oct. 3rd, 2021
Day 1 - Superhero preparation
    I finally had a bit of a break today from classes and I'm all caught up on work (impossible, I know) so I was able to take a step back and plan my next moves. As previously mentioned my skirt was a bit of an issue, one I haven't figured out yet, (but I will) so for now I removed the skirt attachment on the leggings and added some padding to the sides of said leggings (no I haven't been falling). Next I moved on to the tools I would need when tracking down the Eye. Right now all I had was the semi-functioning wristbow, my goggles with the default camera analysis program, and my radio. All of these items were great, minus the currently uncodable goggles, but I also needed some sort of weapon to use in close quarters and I think I know just what it is … a bo staff!
    Listen, some of my classes have mentioned mechanical advantage and I'm a little small so I figured the more advantage the better, let's get a long retractable staff that I can carry around with me. Luckily for me there are plenty of retractable options on the internet. I know, building one myself would be much cooler but come on I don't have the time. I have to start chasing down the Eye ASAP. Well not chasing down per say, it took so long last time to even get a glimpse of her while sitting on top of the roofs that I think I might need to set up a proper surveillance/alert system so I can still get my homework done until she shows her face again. The only question is how does one create such a system?
Day 2 - System Start
Gah, why can't coding be straightforward? Like I should be able to type "go hack the cameras" and the computer should know what to do. Isn't that what they say? Computers do exactly what you tell them to? Anyway I have a pretty rudimentary system set up, but it looks like I might have to take some more programming classes to actually create something efficient. Let me walk you through the set up:
I have my police radio scanning all frequencies and a computer audio to text program (from the internet) setup and auto transcribing what is said. I then collected those words and import them into my program (again from the internet) where I scan through looking for 'red lights' and 'eye' and if one of those phrases is said, a light in my goggles will flash (once again, thank you internet, you truly are a wonderful place to steal deal with stupid code. I will have to test run it tomorrow as it is already 11:59pm.
Day 3 - Homophones suck
    So I piloted my scanning system and for some reason the auto transcript program can't understand context so it keeps sending me alerts when someone says 'I' rather than 'eye'. Unfortunately this has caused me to have to remove that key phrase from the scanning list and I am therefore down to one phrase, ugh. I was listening to the context though as I was testing this and it seems that the police might have finally noticed that something is going on. They don't know who it is but I quote: "it is quite peculiar that there are so many of these red eyes popping up everywhere." Honestly, I can't believe they've let her get away with this for so long, they seem so incompetent.
    Sitting around listening to all this chatter has just been stressing me out. I need to get out and move, but I don't have a good way to bring the radio around cause it just bumps on my hip all the time. I think the best way to get one of those ear pieces that you always see superheroes have in the films. Just hold my hand to my ear all secretive and hear something no one around me knows. That would be so cool! Especially if I get my man in the chair, then I'll really be a superhero!!
Day 4 - Wireless earpiece
    Thankfully Wednesdays are a pretty chill day for me in terms of classes so I was able to wander around most of the city to find some components to add a wireless headset to the radio. I'm not quite sure how it works/what everything is but I'm just following an online tutorial (the internet really is amazing). Regardless it works great so I'm excited to try it out tomorrow! Unfortunately walking around town took most of my time today and I can't mess up my sleep schedule again so soon (I'm trying here, but it's really hard).
Day 5 - Visual Surveillance 
    I have my tools and my radio monitoring, now I just need to have a visual system set up. Well more of a visual system. I have the camera in my goggles, but I would like it to record what I see so I can turn the evidence of her wrong doing over to the police when I catch her. Once again I spent the whole day running around for electronic parts but I now have a little box attached to the side of my goggles to record my nightly activities. The Eye has no chance now!
Day 6 - System Boot (isn't that what it is called when you run a program or something?)
    Finally classes were over for the week so I could go out and test my new setup. I started everything up, the radio turned on, my recording light flashed in the corner of the goggle screen, and my bo staff extended and retracted with ease. The hunt was on!
    The radios were surprisingly silent for a Friday night, just police saying a bunch of numbers in relation to locations. Like seriously what is with the numbers? Can't they just use English, the number system for classes is confusing enough. I was running along the rooftops in the area where the radio people speculated was the base of operations for the Eye. Sure enough I saw plenty of red eyes painted everywhere with some rooms disturbed, some scenes with items broken and some where I had no idea what had happened. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Eye herself. I did however find a guy trying to break into a jewelry store. 
    I brought out my bo staff, spun it impressively a few times and whacked him on the head. And can you believe it? The bow staff just flew apart, like everywhere! Thankfully I had enough force to knock him out in the first hit but my staff was totally destroyed, the sections were just scattered all over the road. Guess I'm glad that I tested this before encountering the Eye but come on, I expected more of a 4.5 star rated item. Maybe this one was just a defect. Unfortunately it means I have to turn in for the night.
Day 7 - System pause
    Homework time. I hate it. Classes are so annoying when you're trying to save the city from an evil dark force.
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sleephyjhs · 5 years ago
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You Have First Trimester Sickness (REACTION)
[ requested by @sweetbtsboys / masterlist ]
possible tw :: pregnancy sickness
a/n :: it’s gonna be a long one guys, hope you’re strapped in
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KSJ
The excitement of learning you were expecting your first baby with Seokjin was soon followed by the dismal sickness caused by the surge of new hormones. You knew it was inevitable, however you never expected it to be as vile as you had experienced.
You had been sat in your en suite with your husband for the past hour, vomiting at irregular but frequent intervals. In the minute he had left to grab you a scrunchie for your hair, you’d somehow become more sick. As he sat back down and tied your hair for you, you questioned him as if he was supposed to know more than you.
“Is it normal to be this sick? One of these minutes I might just throw up my stomach.” You huffed, leaning back into his shoulders. Jin rubbed circles across your knuckles to comfort you, which any other time would have worked a lot better.
“Would you like to go and see a doctor? It’s always worth asking, jagi. Maybe they can give you something for it?” You tilted your red-tinted face to look him in the eyes. A few weeks prior, you had together agreed to do whatever was best for your growing baby. Maybe seeing a healthcare professional was best.
“Let me get myself together first. I can’t travel like this, Jin.”
“No worries, take your time.” He assured you, wrapping his long fingers around the hand he held so tightly.
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MYG
When you were younger, you often heard that most women experienced pregnancy sickness in the morning. Cut to 11pm, when your body’s contents threatened to exit through your mouth, you began to realise most pregnancy expectations were going to become lies.
As you presumed your partner Yoongi was fast asleep, you couldn’t resist letting a few burning tears slip down your cheek and onto the tile flooring. You were overjoyed at the bundle of joy growing inside of you, but the gruelling process of carrying them around was proving to be slightly overwhelming for you.
“Can I get you anything?” You snapped your head around to find Yoongi crouching in the doorframe. Although he looked tired, it was obvious his concern for you.
While thinking of an answer, you swept away your tears believing there was a possibility he hadn’t seen them. Your hoarse throat made it clear how sick you really were, “Can you just stay for a while?” All of your willpower couldn’t stop your bottom lip from quivering as you made your request.
“Let it out, honey. It’s okay.” Yoongi assured you, writhing his arm around your curled shoulders. Knowing it would make you feel even worse, you let your pent up emotions flood from your eyes, “We’re going to get through this. Although it might not feel like it right now, you are more than capable of doing this.”
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JHS
It seemed every 10 seconds you checked the time on your phone. Impatiently, you waited for your newly-wed husband, Hoseok, to finish his dance practice. Only 15 minutes remained, but you needed his help and comfort desperately.
You felt selfish that you needed Hoseok as much as you did, despite both him and the members telling you that you didn’t need to. He knew that you could become overwhelmed and panicked easily, and had told you it was never a problem for him to leave his schedule earlier to make sure you were okay and safe.
Rapidly, your sickness became unbearable. You felt as though a crossroads had been placed before you, and moving on from today’s sickness episode would be impossible. Although hesitating, you reached for your phone and dialled Hobi quicker than you ever had before.
By the time he had picked up, your heart had increased in speed, leading your hands to shake violently, “What’s up, angel?”
His chirpy response disheartened you, as you knew your low state would convert it into plain panic, “When will you be home? I need help clearing up and getting myself from the floor.”
You rushed your words into one breath, but before you could even finish, Hoseok had begun to reassure you, “Okay, don’t worry, I’m coming. Do you need anything on the way home? Stay on the phone with me, it’ll seem like I’ll get there sooner. You’re okay honey, you’re okay.”
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KNJ
“Okay, I think I’m alright for a while.” You told Namjoon. He offered you both of his hands to help you up from the bathroom floor where you had sat for a generous period of the morning. Although you were heading quickly for your second trimester of pregnancy, your morning sickness was still very much prevalent.
“You seem to be a lot better today.” Namjoon pointed out to you, rubbing your shoulders as you turned to wash your hands, “Maybe the twins are making your sickness last longer?”
You really hoped that wouldn’t be the case. Putting up with constant vomiting for 14 weeks was enough, you couldn’t bear the thought of a whole 9 months of it.
As you dried your hands on the towel, you heard Namjoon begin to stammer over his words, “Did you want any vanilla ice cream?”
You couldn’t help but furrow your brows. It was a confusing question at least, “It’s only 7am, Joonie.”
“I know, but it can help your throat burn a little less. It’s worth a try, I know how much you hate mornings like this.” In no time after you agreeing to the sweet treat, Namjoon had already grasped your hand and had begun leading you towards the kitchen.
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PJM
In less than half an hour, you and your husband, Jimin, were expected at the last apartment viewing you had booked. With your first baby arriving later that year, you had mutually agreed that more space would be needed. Where you lived now was just too small to raise a little kid.
Every morning that week, you had managed to avoid throwing up in the morning. Wrongly, you had convinced yourself your morning sickness had finally left. However as you applied your blush to the apples of your cheeks, the same doomed urge stormed through your stomach, and you had no choice than to retreat to the bathroom.
“Angel? Are you nearly ready? We should be leaving soon-“ Jimin’s reminders were cut short by a deep sigh. He bent down to your level and swept your falling hair back behind your ear, only to pin it to your head using his finger, “I thought we were past this?”
“So did I,” you replied, refusing to meet his eyes in case of an emergency, “Why did this have to happen today?”
“I can cancel it if you’re not up to it.” You refused before he had finished his sentence. You had to move soon, there was no choice around it, “Do you need some help clearing things up?”
You nodded, kneeling back onto your heels. Now you’d have to rush your makeup as well as tidy yourself up again. In a brief pause to glance at your appearance in the mirror, Jimin came to your side and lifted the blush brush you had dropped, “I know you precise you are with your makeup. I’ve got it covered.”
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KTH
It was your last day in Europe with Taehyung, and already you felt guilty it had to begin this way. Your vacation to Vienna would be the last as just a couple, as three months ago you learned you were expecting your first child with your husband, Taehyung.
Prior to your vacation, you believed you had avoided morning sickness altogether. It surprised you that you hadn’t experienced any ill feelings, but relieved you nonetheless. Taehyung had joked your body knew that your fun vacation was coming to an end and so was hurling the worst at you.
“Tae, I can’t board a plane like this. I get travel sickness anyway-“ You sobbed into his chest. At that point in time, leaving the bathroom was out of the question. Nothing could have prepared you for the vile feeling that was brought along with the sickness you felt.
“My love, we don’t really have the choice. It’s gonna be a rough journey but hey, we’ll be home before you know it. And then you’ll be able to get much more comfortable which is better for you and our baby, right?”
He was right, but even his encouraging words couldn’t make today appear any easier to you, “Just.. why today? It couldn’t have been tomorrow or any time in the near future, it had to be today.”
Taehyung thought for a moment while caressing your hand with his fingers, “The way I see it, little one is just letting you know how comfortable of a home you’re giving them. Perhaps not in the most gracious way, but they have to get the message to us somehow.” You couldn’t help but giggle at his interesting analysis of your baby’s signals to you, “You can get through this, for them and for me.”
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JJK
Winter sun filtered through a split in the curtains and onto the bed where you laid wrapped in your partner’s arms. You’d been awake for several minutes, but you couldn’t bring yourself to disturb Jungkook’s sleep on purpose. Comeback season always left him particularly exhausted.
However you also knew that it wouldn’t be long until your routine morning sickness would force you from your warm sheets.Although your symptoms were a lot less violent than they were a few weeks ago, you still dreaded the mornings. Before long, you couldn’t control the urge to vomit any longer and tried to leave Jungkook’s arms.
In a sleepy daze, thinking you were playing with him, Jungkook groaned playfully as he tightened his grip, “Kook, you have to let me go. I’m serious, I’m gonna throw up.” He sat up quickly as you rushed away into the bathroom, and were soon joined by a half-asleep husband.
He yawned swiftly before pulling your scrambled hair from your face, “You should’ve woken me up before, you sound even worse than before.”
A brief pause in vomiting allowed you to explain yourself to him. You knew well that he didn’t like when you hid your hardships from him, “You were out cold last night, it’s obvious you’re exhausted. I’m okay, this is normal.”
Jungkook’s eyes fell at your selfless reasoning. While still holding your hair in one hand, he moved to sit behind you and rested his chin on your shoulder, “Don’t worry about me. I can always go back to sleep. You’re the one carrying precious cargo.”
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^ thank you for your kind request! 💕
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currentfandomkick · 5 years ago
Text
Miraculous Team and the Batboys- Mundane Monday and Plot is Connecting Maybe
HEY so thank you all for waiting, puppy plus work being mobbed is hell, so this took forever to get brain power to write... oh well.
--
Marinette was on guard when she came into class. Her meeting of the “End Gabriel Agreste” Club with its core four members—herself, Chloe, Nino and Sabrina—went well. They were now 15% away from their goal.
Apparently Felix snatched up 3% on his own and gave it to MDC while she was away. Apparently it was his way of a peace offering… or a bribe not to kill him on sight. She wasn’t sure which… yet.
Properly awake and with her favorite drink (blend of dark roast, cream and a tiny bit of Energy Mayhem Special) she was good for the day. Everyone had their usual orders in their seats.
She raised an eyebrow when she noticed a text from Red Robin on her phone, currently a rose and bird emoji label.
RR: So, scale of one to ten, how bad is it if I accidently figured out your partner?
Marinette took a deep breath at that, checked the classroom (Nino was off with Kitty Section debating how to fix the ‘off’ bit of the rift in Rose’s latest song—something about it not ‘punching right’ and Luka being busy with his other band, Chloe and Sabrina were currently fighting Bustier in her office, Alya was conspiring with the Girl Squad on Lila’s end since she wasn’t in, Max and Kim were obviously eavesdropping on that conversation while Nathaniel was off in his own world). Damian still hadn’t come in, and Adrien wasn’t in yet… she wondered if her Chaton was going to sleep in for once.
LB: Please tell me you haven’t told your team
She kept her breathing steady, not letting panic overtake. That would alert people she didn’t want knowing, to looking, which leads to suspecting and rumors and theories and she’d like to avoid that entirely—especially since she still can’t really lie.
RR: I have a feeling you would kick us all out if I did, so I haven’t.
Marinette sighed, tension leaving her shoulders.
LB: Good. Keep it that way as long as you can, okay?
RR: They’re detectives, once they have the pieces they’ll put it together… also, why is your team so easy to figure out?
Marinette winced at that.
LB: Dumb Magic Rules.
Like the one that training a wielder young will prevent corrupting them to use it for personal gain. Like the one where a Guardian cannot be a True Guardian until they connect to the entire Box or Set of kwami. Like the one where Fu can’t give up being Guardian until she’s fully fledged… and that means until she can reclaim the Nooroo and Dusuu and heal Dusuu’s miraculous. That when she does—when she does Fu is gone.
She kept her breathing steady. nothing that they wouldn’t see as Typical Marinette Fretting Over Orders… not that they knew she had those cleared for the month.
“Good morning Dupain Cheng.”
She put her phone away easily, quick to keep up Typical Marinette (no plotting or superheroing here, just Typical Marinette, Baker’s Daughter and Keeper of Secret Drink Menu).
“Hi Damian, how was your weekend?”
“Annoying.” She winced at that. He didn’t exactly have friends here, and time differences are a horrible strain on them… Maybe Ladybug should keep an eye on him… just in case. “I hope yours was adequate.”
She was really wondering who taught him French today… he was being less him and more… stuffy than usual.
“I just needed some time away...” Honestly, she needed a lifetime away from Bustier and Hawkmoth… Lila was manageable (now).
“I am glad you were able to then.”
She was wondering where her deskmate went and why he wasn’t looking at her… Maybe she overdid it last week? She—no. She is stopping her analysis brain from going off and---
“Hello Marinette,” grinned obviously Not-Adrien. Seriously—how did they all fall for it back then? Body language, facial tics, accent—its all wrong.
She narrowed her eyes, not aware that Damian was doing the same beside her.
“Aw, didn’t you miss me?”
Nino came over then, scrunching up his nose as they both could tell Fake Adrien Agreste from the real one with ease now.
“What are you doing here,” Nino was definitely tired… He was not applying his sleep schedule quiz results at all. She was so lecturing him… lunch. She could pencil it in for lunch after wrecking Felix for taking Adrien’s place for the day.
“Oh, good to see I-Love-You Girl isn’t the only one that grew a brain since I last saw you all.” Felix raised an eyebrow at Damian, lingering. Plotting. “You’re new.”
“American Transfer, leave him out of whatever’s going on in that thing you call a brain.” Marinette was not going to deal with an akuma over this. Nope. She was not dealing with that again—or a series of Akuma… God she was going to kill Felix personally if he did. Chloe was untouchable as the Mayor’s daughter, but him? She could take him down again.
“And where’s my bro?”
“Your precious Ladybug,” He sneered, “didn’t cast whatever she did last time, and he’s home sick since his allergies are acting up. I figured it’d be as good a time as any to pull our old switcheroo to keep his Father-Farthest away.”
Marinette twitched at that. She knew she was forgetting something… She sent a quick text to Red Robin.
LB: Why didn’t you tell me it was Mr. Pigeon irl, not video!
RR: …you thought I figured it out from a video?
Marinette rolled her eyes openly at her phone, ignoring Nino as he threatened Felix with his own brand of Bro Shovel Speech.
LB: detectives, most of our battles are caught a decent amount on video, and most of Paris knows that Mr. Pigeon makes him sneeze. Really not a hard recon.
RR: I think you are overestimating my willingness to watch amateur video at length when I can outsource.
Marinette huffed at that.
LB: So you trusted them to not miss major clues when you were all working on different things and would miss key connections?
RR: we’re on the same page as a team. Plus, I get better info filtered with my apps
LB: Magic Fucks Things Up
RR: I’ve noticed.
She looked up to see Damian staring ahead, and wondered if she did something, or didn’t or—NO! Bad Marinette—no going down Rumination Ruin until its time to sleep. She needs daytime for Plotting, Nighttime for Anxiety and Regrets to run wild.
She kept her attention forward when class began, pointedly Not Talking To The Gremlin but not busting him either—she wasn’t going to get Adrien in trouble. Bustier may not notice the abuse signs, but a few other teachers had, and were given the ‘heads up’ by Nino and Chloe and Sabrina.
Lila was the only one unaware of the switch when she left during lunch to drop off a few deliveries her parents asked her to handle when the rush hit. Mostly to one elderly home, and one to her favorite Rescues Only center.
(if she was seen cooing at Lord Murder—yes she knows that’s a Bad Name but the giant kitty amputee was named that years ago before she was found and stubbornly refuses all other names. So, Lord Murder (Never Lady, she hisses at that) it was.)
She blinked when she saw Damian walk in on her checking the Lord Murder’s prosthetic.
“Hey Damian.”
“Dupain Cheng.”
Marinette nodded in acknowledgement and hoped he didn’t catch her calling Lord Murder “the lord and master of murder, the most deadly kitty in existence, and yes, clearly the most cunning of kitties to manage to scratch Mean ol’ Jean with the new paw when it doesn’t even have claws, because you are The Lord Murder, kitty of cuteness and wrath to all unwanted bath times.”
He was watching her then. “Lord likes you.”
Marinette raised an eyebrow, as yes, her favorite rescue (sorry Chat) likes her. She’s the one who argued them into letting them try out prosthetics and handled the funding (officially as MDC) and may have gone overboard on checking everything from the fits and materials and… yeah, okay, she could admit that the giant fluffy Norwegian Forest home in a millisecond if it wasn’t for the health code violation (soon… Gina mentioned she might stop renting out her old house soon as the current group was only a quick temp and she didn’t want someone else living there that wasn’t like family… and something about her Lost Son using it for the moment. Maybe she could convince Maman and Papa to let her do house sitting is she breaks out the Kitten Eyes.)
“Yes. Yes she does.”
Then Lord slow blinked at Damian. She wasn’t sure if she sould be offended or worry her favorite might be adopted by someone else, or glad that it was a serial pet adopter that actually took care of their pets and would be just as nuts as her about making sure Lord Murder was happy and healthy.
“I see she likes you too.”
She could feel Tikki dying in her bag… yes, she was being… awkward. She got it…
“Anyways, I should get going, still have a delivery to do and all so…”
She didn’t, she just really had no idea how to broach the Awkward that was Damian Greyson at the moment.
“See you tomorrow.”
That got him to pause. “Tomorrow?”
“Uh, gymnastics for the rest of the day, making up for what I missed so…”
“If you see the Other Grayson, tell him he is not to hug you.”
Marinette raised an eyebrow. “I…” Brother, father, maybe cousin or legal guardian or friend of his father’s. Too many possibilities, too much to spiral on that she can’t right now. SO.
“O. okay then.”
“Good.”
Marinette waited for him to leave the room, looking at a Too Amused Lord Murder.
“Don’t you start with me, I know I’m a mess on a good day. And no, I’m not overthinking this time Lord, I’m planning, there’s a difference… And no, its not an Alya Plot.”
Those went sideways too fast.
She left with ease and froze at the text from Red Robin.
RR: Can we meet up tonight? No traces that way.
She sent a time and place and –If no akumas happen.
--
THANK YOU ALL FOR WAITING. it has been a hellish time at work and extra shifts and war-zone lately on top of Precious Puppy Bonding and Care. As always, edits when I can get there and any comments or things you'd like to see expanded on more, leave a comment and I'll try to work it in if it flows.
As you can see, Plot Lines are converging soon.
Big Question though--what kind of Lila Exposed By Class do we want/are angling for? I can go legal or social backlash, blacklisting from Agreste brand, or some combo, or keep it a background element as I don't like how cannon Lila is written and the characters altered to make her bad lies work, so...
Other inquiry--do we want Dick to see Marinette take down someone (probably trying to rob her) on her way out of her gymnastics place on her way home using a few Obviously MIxed Gymnastics and Specific Brand of Martial Arts that feels oddly familiar to Nightwing who tells Red Robin and for him to groan as 'Coffee Angel, Why!' and then the next day its 'oh. Coffee Angel is also That Woman's Granddaughter. It all makes Sense now.' (as i hc Gina as probably busting a few drug, weapons, and human trafficking rings on occasion as how she met Jason back in the day) OR for him to only see the end as Nightwing and stare as she took them down and used her earbuds as 'makeshift handcuffs' while she's calling Sabrina as "I'm fine, no dodged their hits and yes i didn't get gassed this time... yes I'll let the medics look me over and no i'm not going to vanish before they get here unless Akuma, Yes if that happens i'll go to the hospital after--Look, i think i saw a shadow just move. I'm going on Akuma-mode now so... Thanks!" before running to meet up with Red Robin and have it take meeting Gina and looking between Gina and Marinette and how she responds to Jason trying to spar with her and then it clicks? I can go either way, but... Tim figures them out quick and straight up says at one point "I mean, Queen Bee after Style Queen, inverse colors... I've seen the multiverse, I had her pegged after seeing her in the bakery last week." All while Not Telling The Bats as Marinette's team doesn't even know and he has a feeling (correctly) she'll react Badly if she isn't the one to tell him before he comes clean, and ears her bolting as 'no support, team leader, and often absentee and likely disabled mentor, civilian life was a wreck for two years and her civilian safety net is only JUST reforming... hm. That's Famil--Oh.... well... wait until trust is there and let her move on that front, try not to set her off and offer help in what she'll allow--or risk pissing off the demi-goddess of creation and his Coffee Angel. Which he'd like to avoid, please and thank you.
Yeah, Tim is definitely going to Project on Marinette in this.
Also, I see Jason or Dick as Getting Marinette is InvolvedTM next... and Damian being the one to confirm the suspicions.
Prefer Jason Big Brothering or Dick "New Sister Mode Engaged" to suspect she's a temp hero? (Jason via Have You Seen Her in a Spar--and it's Gina's Granddaughter vs Dick 'Her Moves are Too Familiar, Maybe Ladybug uses her as a Body Double and trains her?' as the first Suspicion Arisen among the Bats.
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zukuthehero · 5 years ago
Text
Schedules and the Big Three
First Chapter || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || AO3
##  Doctor POV ##
I studied the readings on the project All for One requested.
It was a delight to get to work on such a difficult piece, the unique combination of quirks, plus its appearance demands. It’s extremely delicate still, but soon it will reach the time for the next stage.
I grinned, everything is still holding steady, looks like I can add the next quirk.
##  Aizawa POV ##
I groaned as I rearranged the papers in front of me.
Not only do I have to grade all the homework from last week, make up a full training schedule for my students, make sure they’re on top of their normal classes, and make sure they all get therapy, now I also have to be a quirk counselor for Midoriya, change his schedule around to fit the classes Nedzu was demanding for him, and deal with an obnoxious hero constantly popping in to make sure I’m no ‘overdoing it’.
This is so tedious.
Plus, I also still need to watch the press conference release, didn’t get the chance when I was in the hospital and certainly not since I got out.
I can turn it on while I finish changing Midoriya’s schedule.
Of course, that requires grabbing the remote.
I glared at the offending object, just out of reach.
Stupid bandages.
I could use my capture scarf…
I stiffened when I heard knocking on my door, turning slowly to glare at it.
Now I have to get up.
I grumbled and slowly moved over to the door, opening it and glaring more.
“Hello Aizawa-san, how are you? I brought you something to eat.” All Might in his shrunken form stood there, holding up a bag, presumably holding food.
It took all my self-control not to slam the door in his face.
“Yagi what do you want?”
“Just thought I’d check in, make sure you’re doing alright. I told Nedzu I’d help you with the grading.”
Damn it Nedzu.
I glared some more, “Fine, but we’re gonna talk about how you know Midoriya then.”
He blanched, and I hid a smirk, stepping aside to let him in.
“Ah, haha, uh, sure…” He moved inside, still stupidly tall.
I moved back to the couch, grabbing the remote and turning to the press conference (thank goodness Mic recorded it for me).
All Might awkwardly sat, pulling two bentos out of his bag.
They smell delicious damn it.
“So what are you doing right now?” All Might handed me one of the bentos as he studied the papers.
“Don’t try to change the subject.” I grumbled, taking the bento with as much grace as I could with my movements so stiff from the bandages.
I watched as the press conference started.
“Well uh,” He looked anywhere but at me.
“How do you know Midoriya?”
“Uh…”
Nedzu started speaking.
‘Today during the first practical course for Rescue training for Class 1-A villains attacked the USJ.’
“He’s… I… Well…”
I turned to glare at him again, “Don’t give me an excuse, just tell me how you know my student.”
‘-split up around the facility by the warp villain-‘
“I must ask you to keep this top secret Aizawa-san.”
My eyes narrowed, “Alright…”
‘-fought off the villains and headed back to the entrance to rendezvous-‘
“I’m-“
“Yes?”
“I’m his, uh, uncle! Yes, his uncle! Uh, but you must not tell anyone. It’s top secret and all.”
I stared, “His uncle?”
‘-creature had multiple quirks and managed to take down one teacher-‘
“Yes!”
I thought about Midoriya greeting him, seemed to stumble over it. Hmm.
“I see. You’d best not be giving him favoritism, are you related through his mom?”
“I would never do favoritism!”
Liar.
‘-the students came to aid All Might, though unnecessary it was very brave of them and helped-‘
“And no, it’s uh, through his dad! Yes, his dad and me are brothers. Hehe…”
He quickly started eating.
I hummed, turning back to the screen. I’d double check with my problem child but despite his nervousness I don’t think he’s lying. Just nervous about revealing it.
‘-and the creature known as Nomu was captured, along with the majority of the villains. Unfortunately due to the nature of his quirk the warp villain was able to get away with the leader of the villains-‘
The detective is a friend of All Might’s too, so makes sense that he would know Midoriya, even if they’d never met.
‘-the students had minimal injury, only one needing medical attention which he received from Recovery Girl-‘
I dug through the papers, looking for his file.
The vagueness surrounding his dad would make sense if the number one hero was trying to protect his family, guess that answers that question.
‘-escaped and we do warn the public to be aware of this. The police are trying-‘
“Well uh, anyways… how are you?”
I frowned, glancing back at him, “Fine.”
He nodded, “Uh, any grading I can help you with?”
‘-but the public should remember to be on guard as they are still at large-‘
“Those papers need grading,” I motioned to a pile at the edge of the table I’d been saving for later.
“I’ll just… do those then.” He murmured, picking up the papers.
‘-whether sports festival will still happen is uncertain at this time but we will make an announcement when it has been-‘
All Might started working on the papers while went back to Midoriya’s schedule, putting the bento aside.
Okay so Nedzu said to toss out his strategy class entirely and put him down for Private Lessons with Nedzu instead, lovely the world will burn.
That means that he’ll have Nedzu on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday… That’s way too much Nedzu in my opinion.
The class had their first strategy class yesterday, it would’ve been just opening up the subject though, they would’ve done that last Saturday, but they had the day off.
‘-promise that we will take care of the students mental health, a schedule is being made to speak with our on-site therapist-‘
I shuffled through to check his English grade, Nedzu recommended cutting that class out and using it for quirk counseling, since it’s one of my free periods. I teach Human Theory and Communications for the upper years, so I need to make sure the class switched out works, and unfortunately English does.
I’ll have to have Problem Child test out of English, at least first year English, or he’ll have to do self-study. But if Nedzu says he’ll be fine then he probably will.
‘-setting up new security measures to insure the safety of our students-‘
Right so, I checked again and raised an eyebrow. Have him test through Geometry and stick him in Pre-Calc? Really? If he continues Maths after that he’ll have to take them with the business classes…
I sighed, well, Nedzu says to so. I marked him down for that then shuffled through the stack, he’ll be taking it with Class 3-A it looks like. Joy.
‘-are there any questions?’
Okay so the schedule looks settled, it will take a bit to adjust, Midoriya will start with Pre-Calc tomorrow so it’ll be right off the bat. I’ll have to show him to his new class just to be safe.
“What are you working on?”
‘-if it happens again?”
I looked over at All Might, “What?”
“The papers, are you grading?” He was studying the mess of papers around me curiously.
“No, right now I’m finishing Midoriya’s schedule. Nedzu is having it changed up.”
‘-excellent question. We are implementing-‘
He frowned, “Why?”
“Because he doesn’t need some classes and does need others.”
He nodded, “I see.” He shifted, marking something on the page.
“Do you know about his quirk?”
All Might broke into a coughing fit, bringing his hand up to stop the blood from getting all over the papers.
‘-being done to compensate the family of the student that was-‘
“Wha-What?”
I stared, “You okay?”
“Fine, what did you say?” He wiped at his mouth.
“Do you know about his quirk? It just recently evolved apparently.”
‘-and furthermore there will be a memorial service held for him-‘
He coughed again, lighter this time, “Ah, yes, I do. I helped him train with it some. Helped him build up muscle and the like. It works a bit similar to my own so…”
I nodded, “What can you tell me about it?”
He coughed, “Uh well, I’m not certain that my advice will be much help, my quirk has never hurt me the same way so…”
I nodded, scowling. I’ll have my Problem Child give me an analysis of his own quirk, he seems pretty good at them.
Now to make a training schedule.
##  Izuku POV  ##
Aizawa-sensei just dropped me off at the pre-calc class after homeroom. How fun.
I swallowed, apparently I tested out, who knew?
I stood awkwardly to the side while Aizawa-sensei talked to Ectoplasm (who’s ability to create clones is apparently very useful since he’s also teaching Algebra for my class).
I was sent to a seat behind a blonde-haired kid with blue eyes, I swear I remember him from the sports festival I just need a minute to think about it, and beside a black haired who ducked his head.
I shifted nervously.
“Alright class, Midoriya Izuku has tested up to Pre-Calc, he’s from class 1-A. Please give him a warm welcome, he’ll be in our Pre-Calc class for the rest of the year.”
I offered a nervous smile to the class.
“I’m sure someone would be willing to catch him up on what he missed last week and on Monday. Now then, moving on.”
He started writing on the board, “Let the domain of a function be this set of values: A = {0, 1, 2, −2}”
The chalk moved across the board and I scrambled to start writing notes.
The class was stressful, I was missing some of what we’d learned, but I’d also done some of this before because Dad wanted me to. So at least I wasn’t totally behind.
Class passed almost in a blur, we had a mini quiz, but I was excused from it for this week, next week I’d have to start taking them though.
I stretched when the bell rang and started to pack things up.
“Hi!”
I nearly jumped out of my skin, the boy in front of me had turned around.
“Um, hi?”
“I’m Mirio Togata, it’s nice to meet you Midoriya-kouhai!”
“Um,” I tugged the first part off my pen, “Nice to meet you…”
“Mirio, too bright.”
“That’s Tamaki Amajiki.”
“Hi,” I whispered.
“Hello! Are you really from Class 1-A? What was it like getting attacked by villains? Is your hair naturally green? What’s your quirk?”
I shrunk away.
“Nejire! We’re not supposed to ask about the villain attack.”
“Oh yeah, oops,” She offered me a grin, “I’m Nejire Hado!
“Midoriya Izuku,” I mumbled
“So why are you in our class now?”
I shifted, remembering the story I made plus the test I had to take, “Well uh, I tested out of the lower level math’s, um, the Principal had me take some tests, uh, my quirk… I um learned something new about my quirk which is why I took the test so…”
“Cool! We’re happy to have you! Tamaki has the best notes too so if you need any don’t hesitate to ask him!”
“Oh, um, thanks,” I peered at them shyly, “If it’s not too much trouble…”
Tamaki nodded, hiding behind Mirio. “I’ll make copies and give them to you tomorrow,” he whispered.
I smiled brightly, “Thank you.”
He blinked before hiding his face in Mirio’s shoulder, “Too bright.”
I tilted my head confused.
Nejire laughed and hooked an arm with mine, “What’s your next class?”
I straightened, glancing at the clock, “Ah! I’ve got to go, or I’ll be late!”
“Well where is it? We’ll take you just to be safe, we have English next.” Nejire dragged me out the door and Mirio grabbed my bag with a laugh.
“I have Modern Art Hero History next.” I stumbled as Nejire dragged me down the hall.
“Oh, with Midnight! How fun. I remember that class, it was so fun learning about art and how it’s changed since heroes became a thing! What’s your favorite class? Is it math? I hate math, it’s so hard! I much prefer the language classes personally, one of the options for electives is a self-study language. They used to have an actual language class, but no one took it. Now we have to do it ourselves! Isn’t that crazy? I’m also taking business now as an elective, it’s hard but useful for when I graduate. Have you considered what kind of hero you want to be? It’s important to figure it out so that you can pick your courses based on it, or just take fun ones! Tamaki is taking the painting class cause it’s calming to him, except the deadlines. Aren’t deadlines annoying? I just want to be able to do it in my own time but nooo, we have deadlines! Its so- oh look we’re here!”
I blinked, was that what it was like to talk to me? Wow.
“Um, thanks for bringing me.” I quickly bowed, “I really appreciate it.”
“No problem!” She chirped.
“Here’s your bag, see you tomorrow!” Mirio handed me my bag and the three headed off.
I stared after them for a moment, wow.
I shook my head and focused back on the door, getting inside and to my seat just as the bell rang.
“Hey Deku!” Uraraka chirped, “How was your new class?”
Kacchan scoffed in front of me.
“Um, it was good, harder but it seems fun…”
“Really? That’s great! How-“
“Alright class!” Midnight stood at the front, “Time to get to work!”
With that class started and everything was a haze.
Lit was much the same, scrambling to take notes as we were assigned our reading, all the teachers were trying to catch us up after we got the end of last week off.
Computer Tech was fun, I’ve never really worked with computers except for research purposes, I’ll see if I can’t find more for it later.
Then came lunch.
“YOUNG MIDORIYA!” All Might skidded to a stop as I exited the room, “WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE LUNCH WITH ME?”
The other students stared, I flushed.
“Ah- sure.”
I followed him to the teacher’s lounge to eat, pausing in the cafeteria to grab lunch since I only brought snacks today (pop-tarts are delicious I’ve found).
We sat down and nibbled on our food quietly for a few minutes.
All Might cleared his throat.
“Ah, I must apologize to you young Midoriya. Aizawa was questioning me on how I knew you and I panicked and told him I’m your uncle.”
I froze with my food half-way to my mouth.
“… What?”
He coughed, “Ah, yes… I’m terribly sorry, if I’d known he’d corner me like that I would’ve discussed with you what cover you would be comfortable with, he hasn’t questioned you on it yet?”
I slowly shook my head.
All Might said… said he was my uncle.
All Might said he was my uncle.
ALL MIGHT SAID HE WAS MY UNCLE!!
“I’m sorry if this upsets you Young Midoriya, I should’ve spoken with you first-“
“NO! I mean,” I flushed, straightening my plate from where I’d knocked it aside, “it’s okay, I don’t mind. Um… what should I say if I’m asked about you? Should I use that as the cover too?”
He relaxed, “If you want. I told him I’m your uncle on your dad’s side, if you could just not disprove that, and maybe tell me a few things about him…”
“Oh yeah sure.” My dad, wow what to say, “Um, his quirk is fire breath, he calls it dragon’s breath said it sounded cooler. Let’s see, he works in a private company, I’m not supposed to talk about his job and I’m not supposed to know it either so…”
“That’s fine! Anything that you can’t share I wouldn’t be able to either, so you don’t have to tell me anything like that.”
I nodded, relaxing. “Okay um, he likes spicy food, he had a brother? He died a long time ago though, he doesn’t talk about him much.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“No, I never knew him, just knew that dad loved him a lot even though they apparently were fighting when he died.”
“Ah, well still.”
I nodded, “Right um, he likes analyzing quirks like me, his hair is white, he’s really smart… He hasn’t been home for a long time…. He doesn’t like corrupt heroes but I don’t think anyone does. He likes books a lot, sends me a bunch and uh, his shoe size 26 shoe size, his hand writing is really neat and I have all his old letters. He’s really good at getting rare comics. He’s busy a lot, doesn’t have a lot of time to call but he tries. I don’t know, it’s been a long time since he was home.”
All Might nodded, “Thank you my boy. That should be enough to let me cover for us.”
I nodded, “Should I call you anything different?”
All Might frowned, taking a bite, “Well, in front of people who we give the cover to I suppose calling me Uncle Yagi, at least in my shrunken form works. And if you want Uncle Might when I’m in my hero form.”
I nodded, “Right.”
He sighed, “I’m going to tell my friends about the cover, they’ll go along with it, they know you’re my successor. Or at least some of them do. The one’s that don’t I’ll be telling… I’m not sure.”
“You could say, if you’re trying to keep the story as close as possible for all of them if they aren’t in the know, that you didn’t tell them about me because I was previously diagnosed as quirkless and you worried that I might get targeted for it and now that I’m in UA and my quirk has evolved to the point that I can fight with it that you feel more secure in the knowledge that I can sorta defend myself and if not I’m surrounded by pros so it should be okay… Only if you wanted too of course!” I squeaked, waving my arms.
“That’s an excellent idea young Midoriya! Though what do you mean evolved?”
“Oh! That’s the cover I’ve come up with for One for All. I’ve named it Enhancement and I’m saying that it enhanced me mentally before and that’s why I was diagnosed as quirkless, it’s basically invisible. Then the stress from the villain attack plus all the training I did after caused my quirk to evolve to enhance me physically as well!”
He blinked, “That’s…. an excellent cover. I never thought of doing something like that. The previous quirk evolving is the normal cover for the previous holders I believe, but your explanation works a lot better than the one Nana-“ He coughed, “Right, well, that’s a good explanation.”
I peered at him, who’s Nana?
“Anyways, did you have any thoughts or questions Young Midoriya?”
I considered asking about Nana but… he seems to not want to talk about them.
“Um, if I’m supposed to call you Uncle Yagi around the others you should probably call me Izuku or something… er, if you want of courseyoudon’thavetoyoucanjustignoreme-“
“No that’s true, if you don’t mind me doing so?”
“It’s fine!” I squeaked, clutching my bowl as I stared down at the Katsudon.
“Alright then… Izuku… is that too impersonal? Do your parents have a nickname for you that I should use? Or is that too much? That’s probably-“
“Dad calls me little dragon sometimes, off of his quirks name… the only other nickname I’ve had is Deku, Kacchan calls me that.”
All Might nodded, “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind. Anyways, I did want to see how you’re doing after… everything.”
I shifted nervously, reaching to take a drink from my untouched water, “Well… It’s hard? I mean, I’m doing okay! But I couldn’t do much to help. I need to get stronger, improve this quirk you gave me. I need to make it mine and get strong enough to defend everyone.”
He nodded, “I think you’re doing well so far. There’s plenty of room for improvement, but for a beginner you’re not doing bad.”
I smiled shyly, I’m glad he thinks I’m doing better. But it’s not enough, I still have to improve a lot.
“I’m able to hold it in my hands now! So that’s that at least.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh!” I moved my bowl away, I was basically done anyways.
I focused for a moment, holding my hands out, and called the well of power up. I carefully scooped the little bit that I needed into my hand and grinned as the red lines wound over it and the green sparks brightened to a glow.
“See!”
I looked up to see All Might staring wide eyed.
“Young Mid- Izuku, that’s… very impressive. I’ve never seen the quirk do that before. How are you doing that?”
I frowned, “I’m just, reaching for the power and scooping it into my hands?”
He stared, “I’m sorry, I’ve never done it that way before. And… my predecessor had it mastered long before we met so I’m unsure if… they had a similar phenomenon.”
I blinked, peering at my glowing hands, “Oh, strange. I wonder why it does that? Maybe like you said it gets stronger each time and now it’s just too much to not have a visible change? Your eyes glow blue so maybe its something like that? Maybe my eyes will start to glow? Maybe it’s that my body can’t handle the full power, so the glow and sparks are the excess? Maybe it’s how I’m visualizing the power that causes that? Maybe-“
“Woah there Youn- Izuku. We can’t know right now but do take note of the event and see if you can make it… less flashy in time. But there’s not rush yet.”
I peered up at him, “Are you doing okay? After the USJ incident…”
He sighed, “Sudden subject change, but alright. My time limit has gone down, I can stay in my strong form for about an hour a day now. A little under really. That fight did damage.”
My stomach sank, “That’s not good!”
“No, but I still have enough time and strength to train you! And to teach the students. Though I have to be careful, I have two classes to teach a day and each is three hours. I’m having to have another teacher assist me, so I’m sorry if I’m not active in your classes as much.”
“No no, it’s okay. I understand. You should take care of yourself now, recover as best as you can. You can’t help anyone if you’re not healthy!”
He smiled, “Don’t worry Young Midoriya, I’m alright.”
I nodded, faltering when the door opened and Aizawa-sensei came in.
He paused, “Yagi, Midoriya.”
“Hi Aizawa-sensei,” I murmured.
“Hello Aizawa.” All Might coughed.
“I thought you said you weren’t showing favoritism Yagi?”
I flushed.
“I’m not! I’m just having lunch with- with Izuku.”
Aizawa eyed him, “Is that so, Problem child?” He turned to look at me.
“Yes! Um, yeah, I’m just having lunch with Un-Uncle Yagi.” That was strange to say. But it was nice.
“Right, well… Problem child I’ll need you to write me a report on your quirk, what you know about it and what you hope to accomplish while I help you with quirk counseling. Have it ready by tomorrow.”
RING
“Looks like class is about to start, you have Rescue Theory next, better head off.”
I nodded, scrambling to grab my things, “Yes Aizawa-sensei! Bye A-Uncle Yagi!”
I hurried to the door.
“Don’t forget you have lessons with Nedzu after Rescue Theory!”
“Yes sir!”
I closed the door.
“Lessons with Nedzu!?” I heard All Might cough.
I headed off to Rescue Theory.
18 notes · View notes
patchwork-panda · 5 years ago
Text
If A Moment Is All We Are (12/?)
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AO3 link: HERE
Note: play the 1st BSD ending when you get to the asterisk (*). Link HERE
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I finally had control of “The Story of Your Life.”
Well, sort of.
More like I used it on purpose for the first time since... middle school? At least I could say it didn’t activate the very instant I touched someone, unlike before, and the side effects were a lot more manageable than they used to be. For one, I hadn’t blacked out, despite the fact that I’d used my powers on two people within two minutes and additionally, it had taken more than one vision to actually make me sick. Maybe with time, I’d be able to learn how to shut off my Ability when I didn’t want to use it. In any case, I still had a long way to go before I could use my Ability as easily as Kunikida or the others could use theirs, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from doing everything I could to help solve the case.
While I had gone home right after the interview and spent the rest of the evening resting and recuperating, Kunikida had gone right back to the office, where he spent the rest of the night putting together a list of people we might be able to bring in. It wasn’t a very long list, but it was pretty good considering the information we had. And so, I came in the next morning to find my schedule completely packed with interviews.
I might not have gotten much out of my meeting with the Tanedas, but now that we had a better idea of how my Ability worked, perhaps we could use it to try to find the killer. The plan was simple: we’d serve tea during the interviews and while I handed someone a cup, I would make sure to do so in a way that meant I’d have to touch them. Even a brush of a fingertip would be enough. Once my Ability was active, I would use it to see several minutes of the person’s future while Kunikida waited beside me with a timer set on his phone. If the noise didn’t wake me, then he would, by tapping me on the shoulder, at which point, I would excuse myself and leave to draw or write down everything I had seen and felt as best as I could. Kunikida would then take over the rest of the interview for me and once the interviewees had left, we’d go over what we had and see if we could make any new connections between victims.
At first, it seemed to be working pretty well. For once, I was actually using my Ability—on purpose—and I was able to remember enough to write down some very detailed descriptions of the visions. However, after multiple interviews and some hours of analysis, we still weren’t able to piece together many similarities between visions. Furthermore, even though I was actively trying to look for faces, to see if there were any suspicious people that kept showing up, no potential suspects appeared. In the end, I got a pretty good idea of what the victims’ day-to-day lives might’ve been like before their disappearances but not much else.
I honestly wanted to keep going until we got something but as the day wore on, the side effects from using my Ability slowly began to worsen. At first it was just a mild headache, nowhere near as bad as it had been last night, and I thought if I just took breaks between interviews, I would “reset” and be ready to go by the time the next person came in. Unfortunately that was not the case. Repeated usage of my Ability seemed to compound the side effects, making them worse with each vision I saw. Eventually I ended up experiencing enough dizziness and disorientation that Dr. Yosano was called over to check if I really was anemic. Turns out, I was physically healthy(-ish), but I was looking so green after the sixth or seventh (I’d seriously lost track) set of interviews that I came back from the bathroom to find somebody waiting for me at my desk with a cup of hot ginger tea.
It was the clerk I’d seen before, the lady with the pink glasses. She was composed and intelligent-looking, with olive green eyes and short brown hair that curled just past her shoulders and she seemed to be only a few years older than me. From what I recalled from orientation, her name was Haruno Kirako and she was the lead clerk as well as President Fukuzawa’s acting personal assistant. Kirako held out the tea to me with a warm, friendly smile, which I took from her with a small, grateful bob of my head.
“Haruno-san...? Does the President need something from me?”
She shook her head.
“There’s been a small change to your afternoon schedule,” she said, looking slightly apologetic as she spoke. “Using your Ability seems to take more of a toll on you than expected, so Yosano-sensei and Kunikida-san asked me to take you to the clerk room to work with us for the rest of the day.”
“Huh?”
I looked back to Kunikida’s desk, which was now empty.
“But, what about the other interviews...?”
“Your last two interviews have been rescheduled for tomorrow,” Haruno said gently. “And if you’re looking for Kunikida-san, he went back to the police station to exchange some information with them. He’ll be back by the end of the day.”
“I see...”
I stared down into the cup of ginger tea, at my own glum expression.
I was really hoping to last the day too, especially after I’d embarrassed myself by throwing up in front of Kunikida last night. Now how was I going to redeem myself?
“Kusunoki-san?”
Haruno placed a hand on my shoulder and shot me a look.
“Before he left, I heard Kunikida-san say he was planning to (and I quote) work you to the bone tomorrow, especially if neither of you figures something out by the end of today,” she said, making a face. “I think you really should take the break, or you might just collapse from overwork later.”
Wait... Does that mean Kunikida still believes in me...?
“Really?” I exclaimed excitedly, “he said that?”
Looking disturbed by my apparent enthusiasm, Haruno nodded.
I still had a shot...! I could still turn this case around!
“Thank you so much, Haruno-san!”
I finished the rest of my tea in one gulp and turned to her with an enormous smile. Haruno shrank back a little.
“Lead the way!”
The ginger tea did the trick. In just a few minutes, my nausea was basically gone and I was doing so well that I was able to file papers and run small office errands with the other clerk girls while we chatted away. Then, with about an hour left on the clock, Tanizaki’s younger sister, Naomi, dropped by with bubble tea and productivity dropped to near zero as we clustered around Haruno’s workstation to take our share. Even Haruno stopped being able to focus and as she pulled out her phone to show us her cat, Mii-chan, Naomi plopped down next to me.
“Kyou-chan?”
Naomi scooted forward a little and I was once again struck by how pretty she was and how little of a resemblance she bore to her redheaded brother.
“Which do you like better? Cats or dogs?”
I had to think for a minute.
“Dogs,” I decided to a chorus of disappointed moans and a few excitable cheers. “They’re always so happy to see you and it’s easy to tell when they like you.”
“Hmm, is that so?” a familiar male voice mused behind me. “I don’t really like dogs that much but if that’s what you like about them...”
I turned around to see Dazai standing behind me, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he studied me.
“I can make it easier for you to tell how much I like you. After all, I’m always happy to see you—”
“Do you need something from me, Dazai-san?”
He looked disappointed.
“You have someone waiting to talk to you at the client booth,” he said, to my surprise.
“I thought my afternoon meetings were canceled?”
Dazai shrugged.
“She said she needed to talk to you no matter what. Mind coming with me for a moment?”
I bid the girls goodbye and followed Dazai back into the main office. As we crossed the room, Dazai shot me a furtive look over his shoulder.
“Hey, if I bring you bubble tea, will you let me call you Kyou-chan too?”
“No.”
“Aw, why not?”
“Because Naomi-chan and Kirako-san aren’t going to use it to entice me into a double suicide.”
Dazai chuckled.
“You got me there...”
We arrived at the interview booth and to my shock, the old manager from the convenience store was waiting for me inside.
“Obaa-san! What brings you here? Isn’t it work hours?”
At once, I gestured for her to sit down while I ran out to get her some tea. When I came back to the client booth, I noticed Dazai was still lingering in the corner of the room, watching us with his bandaged arms crossed and a thoughtful look in his clear brown eyes. Unfortunately, when I tried to shoo him away, he didn’t budge.
“I don’t mean to trouble you at work, dear,” the old woman said, “But I just wanted to come by and thank you for working so hard on Mei-chan’s behalf.”
“Of course...”
At the mention of her name, Mei’s image appeared in my mind’s eye. I could still see her walking around with a big smile on her face as she stacked a new shipment of snacks onto the highest shelf that no one else could reach...
The manager reached down into the plastic bag she’d brought with her.
“I know you liked the Kit-Kats so I thought I’d bring the office a small box, as thanks...”
As she brought the small box forward with her softly speckled hands, I knew what I had to do. I didn’t have time to prepare an alarm or anything else to wake myself up but I couldn’t pass this up. I reached out to take the box and in a flash, I was pulled in.
I squint up at the mid-day sun. It’s hot. I’m fanning myself with the paper fan and I’m walking along the river on the way to my convenience store.
That Mei girl better show up on time today. Summer meant more people trying to duck into the cool shade of the convenience store and with Mei heading the counter, we were sure to make a good amount in sales. She recovered rather quickly from her ordeal, although I suspect she’s been throwing herself into work and staying late to avoid walking home again, poor thing.
If only she had a boyfriend... I could introduce her to my neighbor. He seems to be doing well at work and it’s getting to be around that time he settles down anyway...
I walk towards the rec center just as Mei jogs down the street towards me from that building. Her hair is dyed with blond streaks and she’s still wearing that strange-looking scrunchy in her hair like on the night she disappeared—
The vision fades. I’m being pulled backwards out of a dark tunnel—no, the tunnel is collapsing around me. I see light...!!
I was yanked out of the darkness with a sharp gasp.
Someone’s hands were placed firmly over mine, long fingers gripping the edge of the box while the palms were still in contact with my skin. Warm breath floated over my cheek and I turned to see Dazai’s face right next to mine. He must have come up from behind and leaned over to grab the box before I could drop it—and by doing so, he’d disrupted the vision. As the cardboard began slipping out of my hands, Dazai’s hands passed smoothly over mine and he took the box from me.
“Careful,” he said gently, settling the box down on the table. “You almost dropped it.”
I smiled back at him, hoping my gratitude showed in my smile.
If he hadn’t pulled me out of that vision, who knows what would’ve happened?
“Thank you, Dazai-san. My apologies, Obaa-san. I have... narcolepsy.”
“Oh? Is that so?” the old woman asked as Dazai abruptly stifled a snicker from behind me. I shot him a glare but he just winked at me.
“Y-yeah. Thank you for the snacks. I’m sorry to leave you so abruptly but—”
I got to my feet.
“I have a lead I need to follow up on. Right now.”
And with that, I sprinted out of the client booth, leaving the shocked manager behind in my wake. I could hear Dazai calling after me as I ran for the door.
“Wait, Kusunoki—!”
“I gotta go!” I shouted as I ran, nearly colliding with Atsushi as I disappeared through the front door.
“I think I know where the kidnapper is!”
Thank God I’d worn sneakers today, I thought as I pelted down the hall. In hindsight, maybe it was actually a good thing that I’d gotten sick in front of Kunikida last night; he hadn’t complained when I came in to work this morning wearing track pants and a loose shirt. I dashed outside just as the bus arrived across the street and the pedestrian light turned green.
“Hold the door!”
I skidded to a halt inside the bus just before the doors closed, my head buzzing for the entirety of the short ride and as soon as I’d gotten to the right stop, I ran for the exit and rushed down the street.
I’d been focusing on the wrong thing this whole time—while I was looking at the faces in the visions, trying to see if there were any people that showed up over and over again, I’d completely ignored any similar locations—until now!
I sprinted past the convenience store and made a sharp left up the street towards the rec center I’d seen in the manager’s vision.
That rec center...! I’d seen it twice now in the future memories of those closest to the victims. Mr. Taneda would later walk past it as he threw that flower into the man-made river and that river had flowed past the rec center and into the canal where we’d found Mayu.
Why hadn’t I or any of the police put any of this together sooner? All of the missing were athletic. They may have come from different districts and this rec center may have been very out of the way but it was big—so big it had to have courts available for every kind of sport. Furthermore,  it was close to the train station by the convenience store and would’ve been ideal for meeting up with friends from across Yokohama. Mei, who lived nearby, only had to get on this bus and then take a quick jog along the river to get to that rec center.
And I had just seen this part of Mei’s jogging route through the eyes of the convenience store manager.
I raced along the river, towards the rec center. I’d never been there in my life but I had seen it through the eyes of others who had. I knew the way and if this worked, it should lead to a future where Mei, and perhaps the others, would still be alive in the summer.
Unfortunately, I’d overestimated the distance I could run; the rec center was a large building and so was much further than it actually looked. I could feel my legs starting to burn...
Gasping for air, I headed for a bench nearby and immediately collapsed on it.
In hindsight, I really hadn’t thought this through. I’d gone running the instant I’d made the connection between the rec center and the victims and I’d completely forgotten to tell anybody where I was going. Maybe Dazai had figured it out but should I be leaving it to him to brief Kunikida, who was probably back from the police station by now and furious at how I’d run off to look for a serial killer by myself?
Groaning a little, I pulled out my phone, which had miraculously not fallen out of my pocket, and swore when I saw the words “low battery” appearing on the screen.
Great.
I could probably send out a text but would my phone die if Kunikida called me? Guess there was only one thing to do. I pulled up the text app and started typing up a message that looked like it had been translated from Morse Code.
“Meet at rec center. Low battery. Do not call. I’ll explain later.”
“I really need to work out more...” I groaned as I shoved my phone back into my pocket.
I was so busy texting l that I didn’t see the man sitting on the other end of the bench with me.
“Not much of a runner, are you?” he asked and I practically fell off the bench in shock. He laughed quietly as I climbed back on the bench, my face still pink and my lungs still short of breath.
“Sorry to scare you,” he mumbled.
“N-no, it’s okay. I wasn’t paying attention,” I admitted.
His face was rather hard to see because of the long bangs that ended somewhere around his nose but he looked like he was probably in his thirties and that he hadn’t shaved in a few days. Like me, he was wearing track pants and sneakers but unlike me, he wasn’t all sweaty and gross; in fact, he didn’t look like he’d gotten up from this bench in some time. Maybe he was taking a rest.
“Were you jogging too?” I asked curiously.
“A little,” he said, looking out across the river. “I like to come here sometimes. It’s peaceful.”
I nodded as I sat up a little and examined my surroundings, trying to spot the rec center in the distance. I was pretty far away from the bus stop, so I had to be getting close enough to actually see the building soon, right...?
Noticing that I was looking around, the man spoke up again.
“Are you lost? Looking for something?”
“Not really?” I said slowly, choosing my words carefully. “I mean, I kind of know where I’m going...”
When he looked at me questioningly, I wiped my forehead and grinned awkwardly.
“Okay, I’m actually trying to get to the rec center. A friend of mine likes to play volleyball there and she said I should check it out if I ever wanted to join her.”
The man in the track pants nodded.
“I know the place. I actually go there a lot too. It should just be half a kilometer down that way, around the bend.”
As he lifted his arm up and pointed down the street to his left, I saw a flash of bright orange. There was a scrunchy on the man’s wrist, a bright orange one that was covered in colorful bows and pom-poms. Catching me staring, the man instantly stuffed his hand back into his pocket.
“Oh, this?” he chuckled feebly. “It actually belongs to my girlfriend but I carry it around when I’m missing her. I know, it’s silly isn’t it?”
“No, not at all!” I exclaimed, waving my hands.
I could feel a chill creeping into my blood as I looked at the man a little more closely. There was definitely something weird about this guy. Why was he sitting on this bench in track clothes when he clearly wasn’t out here for a run? Why not rest directly inside the rec center where there were sure to be lockers and showers and seating areas? And why was he sitting here, so close to the rec center, wearing a scrunchy that looked identical to Mei’s? Was he waiting for someone? Or worse... scanning the streets for a new victim?
The more I thought about it, the more I realized something was off about the way he was acting. He didn’t seem so strange at first but the moment I’d spotted the scrunchy, he’d gotten all shifty and wouldn’t look at me. Something told me he wasn’t dating one of Mei’s teammates and I had the horrible sinking feeling in my gut that the scrunchy on his wrist really was Mei’s.
I should talk to him so I could find out more...
“I...” I started. “I think it’s sweet that you’re so dedicated to your girlfriend.”
He twitched—noticeably—and I realized I might’ve been acting too friendly for a complete stranger. However, he hadn’t moved away from me, so I decided to push my luck and scoot down the bench, moving a little closer so I could try to get a better look at his face. Hopefully, Kunikida had gotten my short text from earlier and was already on his way...
“You do, huh?” the disheveled man mumbled, one dark eye peeking through the curtains of black, lanky hair to closely examine me.
“Yes, I really do,” said, hoping I sounded sincere. “My boyfriend works too much and he never has time for me any more..."
Hoping my facial expression didn’t give away the lie, I smiled a little and moved a tiny bit closer. He had cuts on his face, but not from a razor; there were a couple small scratches on his left cheek, looking like they were just a few days old. I glanced at his hands—too big to have made such scratches. That meant he’d gotten into a fight with someone who had smaller hands than he did...
Fighting off a shudder, I kept talking.
“Maybe I should give him one of my hair ties so he’ll think of me more...” I tried to laugh.
But the laugh died in my throat the instant I saw the look in the man’s eyes. Not even Akutagawa had looked at me with that level of hostility. There was no doubt about it—he was the one who killed Taneda Mayu. I swallowed and out of instinct, began shrinking away. I couldn’t tell if it was my phone buzzing in my pocket or if I had just started shaking.
“Your boyfriend doesn’t pay attention to you?” the man asked, his voice dropping low, the disgust evident in his tone. “If he doesn’t care about you, you should just break up with him. Find someone better.”
I felt a subtle vibration in my pocket—my phone was definitely buzzing but who was calling? Dazai? Kunikida? Was one of my mentors coming to help me? If they were, I needed to let them know what my current situation was—somehow.
I kept my face as neutral as I could and slowly reached for my device. If I answered it, someone’s voice might startle this man into running, and given the difference in our stride length, I was not going to be able to catch up if he escaped. Maybe I could press the right button at the right time, so that whoever was on the other end of the line would be able to hear us and figure out what was happening. Was there some way to get this man to shout...?
The phone buzzed more insistently in my pocket and I pushed “answer,” moving my cell so the receiver was sticking out of my pocket a little.
“B-break up?” I asked, making sure my voice sounded clear even as my pulse raced. I pulled my phone up even further out of my pocket.
Please don’t let my battery die...
“But I’ve never had a boyfriend before and it’s so hard to meet people these days...”
But as I trailed off at last, the man suddenly looked infuriated.
“Hard to meet people?!” he snapped, “With a face like yours?”
To my alarm, he got off the bench. He turned to me and started shouting.
“Pretty girls like you make me sick! You only see the good-looking guys, the ones everyone is already chasing! If girls like you only took a proper look around, you might see that there’s been someone who’s always been waiting for you, worshiping your every move—someone you’ve ignored for years.”
He started walking away and the moment he turned his back, I sprang to my feet. There wasn’t enough time for Dazai or Kunikida to get here.
I couldn’t let him get away!
I rushed forward and chased after him, reaching forward with my hand.
“—Why don’t you take a good look around you before you start complaining,” he snapped, flinging his hand out in an irritated gesture as I stretched out my fingers, “You entitled little—!”
My hand clamped around the man’s wrist, just beneath the scrunchy and at once, I felt the pull. The street started compressing around me into that now-familiar darkness that signaled the start of a vision and I felt the mouth of that darkened tunnel stretch open to swallow me up. I gritted my teeth and tried to force the tunnel away.
But while I was struggling to prevent my Ability from activating, the man noticed I was holding on to his arm.
“What the...?”
He tried to shake me off but I wouldn’t let go. In the struggle, my phone flew out of my pocket and hit the sidewalk with a clatter. A man’s voice came out of the speaker.
“Kusunoki?” it crackled from the other end. “Is that you? Hold—”
The phone abruptly died just as I put my other hand on the man’s wrist. My vision was fading to black and the man was trying to grab his wrist back again but I held on tight.
“Let go of me...!” he shouted.
I had to fight it—I had to suppress my Ability.
President Fukuzawa said I should have control of it by now. If I truly had control, then shouldn’t I be able to turn it off...?
I held on tighter, my fingers squeezing around the man’s wrist as I continued to fight my Ability. Backup was coming. All I had to do was keep him here until someone arrived and trust they would be here soon. Lives—maybe even my life—depended on it.
I gritted my teeth and continued to concentrate with all my might to stay in the moment and keep my Ability at bay, even as my dizziness threatened to overwhelm me and I saw the man ready a fist. He raised it above my head...
“I said let go, you little—”
CRACK.
The man’s wrist was wrenched out of my grasp and I opened my eyes to see a body in track pants go flying, propelled through the air by the force of a very solid roundhouse kick. As the dust settled and the man landed on the sidewalk a good distance away, I turned around to see who had saved me.
Standing right behind me, with one long leg still half-raised in the air, was Kunikida Doppo. He was panting with exertion and with his long blonde hair all mussed up and the red ribbon around his neck coming untied, he looked angrier than ever—but in that moment, I was so happy to see him that I wouldn’t have minded being kicked myself if it meant I could throw my arms around his neck.
“Kusunoki!!”
His sharp green eyes blazing with undisguised rage, Kunikida shoved his glasses back up his nose and stalked towards me. Behind him, a bright yellow taxi (the one he’d just taken) peeled away down the street.
“Why the hell didn’t you wait for me?! I ran into Dazai two minutes after you left—two!!—and he said you figured out where the killer would be and that you’d gone out to go and look for him—by yourself!”
He threw his arms into the air in disbelief.
“When I asked him why he didn’t go after you, that asshole said you wouldn’t answer any of his calls! What the hell were you thinking?!”
“Kunikida-san!”
I pointed down the street at the man in the tracksuit, who was slowly getting to his knees.
“It was him! He kidnapped Mei-chan! Her scrunchy is still tied around his wrist!”
And then I spotted a glint of silver on the ground. I rushed over to retrieve it as Kunikida called my name and yelled at me to come back.
“And this!! This belonged to Taneda Mayu-san!” I exclaimed as I scooped it up in my hands. “It was in the photo her parents showed us!!”
“That’s senpai’s...” the man on the ground rasped, clutching his broken, bloody nose as he rose to his feet. “Get your filthy hands off it...”
At once, Kunikida’s face darkened.
“Excuse me?” he growled, stepping forward.
I watched as Kunikida strode past me and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt.
“You have some nerve calling a member of the Armed Detective Agency filthy.”
As he lifted the man into the air, Kunikida gave him a good, hard look.
“Senpai, huh?” he said in an undertone. “Aren’t you a little old to be calling a twenty-eight year old ‘senpai?’”
***
The streets were bathed in red and blue from the flashing lights of the police cars. Under the light of the setting sun, the man in the track pants was yelling loud enough for all passersby to hear as the cops shoved him into the back of one of the police vehicles, yelling about the problems girls these days had (“those entitled bitches who don’t know what’s good for them—!”). I let out a sigh of relief as the cops slammed the door shut on his face and took him away for good and I went back to the bench, promptly collapsing on it in a heap.
As the sound of sirens slowly faded away, Kunikida approached me and sat down at my side on the bench, taking care to avoid the spot where I’d mentioned the kidnapper had been sitting.
“He made a full confession,” Kunikida said, tucking his hands into his pockets and crossing his legs. “In fact, with the way he was yelling, I wouldn’t be surprised if all of Yokohama heard what he’d done already.”
He sighed.
“You were right—he did kidnap Saeki and the others and in fact, he’s been hunting women at this rec center for months, specifically targeting those who reminded him of a girl he once loved. From the sound of it, she was a pretty upperclassman who rejected his advances all the way back in high school...”
I drew my knees up to my chest and stared out into the river.
“What a long time to hold a grudge,” I mumbled. “And taking it out on complete strangers too. How twisted...”
Kunikida nodded solemnly.
“The good news is, it seems Saeki and the others are still alive. It won’t be long before the Military Police arrive at his hideout and rescue them. Thanks to you, everyone should be able to go home to their families tonight.”
“Everyone except Taneda Mayu,” I whispered, letting my forehead rest against my knees. Mayu’s bracelet had been taken by the police as evidence and I knew that sooner or later, it would find its way to the shrine her parents had set up for her. If only she too, would return alive as the other victims would.
“How are the Tanedas doing?”
Kunikida grew quiet.
“As well as can be expected,” he said softly, looking out across the river with me. “At the very least, they’ll have closure now.”
I nodded.
For a moment, we just sat there next to each other on the bench, staring quietly at the water, each lost in our own thoughts. It had been at least a full thirty minutes since my confrontation with the murderer but the adrenaline had not yet faded from my system and I was still feeling weirdly dizzy and shaky—probably a side effect from suppressing my powers. I hugged my knees tighter to my chest as Kunikida slowly pulled out his notebook and started writing.
“The work day may be over,” he said, “but the office is still open. When you’re ready, we should head back. You’ll need to type up a report describing the arrest and how you came to identify this man and then give it to Haruno-san. She’ll make the redacted copy that we’ll be turning over to the Military Police tomorrow morning, striking out anything relevant to your visions so we can maintain the secret. And, speaking of your Ability...”
He closed the notebook and looked at me, his brows furrowing in concern.
“I know using it takes a toll on you. Are you alright?”
Turning to look at him, I offered him a shaky smile. The dizziness was fading rapidly but, not wanting to puke in front of him for the second day in a row, I didn’t lift my head from my knees.
“I’m fine. And it’s all thanks to you, Kunikida-san.”
My smile faltered.
“I... I’m sorry,” I mumbled, my voice cracking a little. “I’ve only just joined the Agency but I’ve put you through so much trouble already. I feel like you keep having to save me.”
I hid my face behind my knees again.
“I didn’t mean to run off without talking to you earlier. I just... I knew what I had to do and where I needed to go and I didn’t want to waste any more time. Not when there were lives that could be saved... Not when there was still a chance I could bring Mei-chan back to her friends and family...”
I sighed heavily as I heard the scratching of Kunikida’s pen against his notebook once again.
“You’re writing me up for this, aren’t you?”
There was a long pause. The pen stopped scratching. And then I heard Kunikida sigh as well.
“I’m not writing you up, Kusunoki-kun.”
Surprised, I lifted my head up off my knees and turned to look at Kunikida, who was sliding his notebook back into his vest with a pensive, almost guilty looking expression on his face.
“And despite what you might think, I’m not mad at you either,” he mumbled, rubbing his temples with one large hand. “But I can see why you think I am. I know what my coworkers think of me. What you must think of me after we’ve worked together so closely for the past several days.”
He ticked off a short, succinct list on his long fingers.
“I’m quick to anger, a stickler for the rules, a man far too rigid and unyielding for his own good who cares for nothing but doing right by his own ideals.”
He grimaced as he stared down at his own hand.
“I hate to admit it but you’re not completely wrong. However, I’m like this for a reason.”
He turned to me.
“Kusunoki-kun, do you know why I’ve been so harsh on you?”
I bit the inside of my cheek and looked away.
“Because if you didn’t whip me into shape, I’d let people die—”
“That’s not it.”
I froze.
He sounded... frustrated? And not in the usual way.
Unsure of what I was hearing, I slowly turned to look at him. There was something different about Kunikida in this moment—something I’d never seen before. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I was seeing something like affection in the depths of his eyes. But that couldn’t be right... could it?
“It’s because I know what you’re capable of,” Kunikida said quietly. “I saw what happened earlier. You suppressed your Ability, didn’t you?”
I was taken aback.
“You noticed?” I asked, as Kunikida nodded.
“Do you know why I vouched for you in the first place and asked the President to give you the test?”
I shook my head.
“It was your ideal,” Kunikida stated plainly. “When you told me that you not only wanted to save people, but follow through and see their salvation to the very end, I was moved. ‘To completely save a person...’ What did that mean? I thought about it for a long time after you left. I thought about a lot of things after you left.”
He lowered his eyes and stared into the river.
“I thought about how you’d rushed back into the gallery to save me when you were the one who was supposed to be saved. And then, during your Exam, when we were putting your convictions to the test, I watched from the sidelines as you finally stopped running and turned around to face your challenges head-on. I knew then that you were a capable person who could make the Agency proud—who could go on to do great things someday, so long as you believe in yourself. And today...”
Kunikida slowly turned towards me. His expression seemed to soften in the pleasant, orange light of the setting sun and his sage-colored eyes glowed with a subtle, tender warmth as he firmly held my gaze.
Kunikida smiled.
“Today, you proved me right,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder. “I’m proud of you... Kusunoki-kun.”
Upon hearing his words, I felt my heart stutter in my chest. I suddenly wanted to reach up and place my hand over his.
Had I ever seen him smile like this before...?
“Kunikida-san...”
Checking his watch, Kunikida took his hand off my shoulder and stood to go, leaving my shoulder warm and tingling in the wake of his touch.
“You did well today,” he said, looking back down at me from his considerable height, “but make sure to keep working to improve yourself and your Ability. The cases will only get more difficult from here on out and I expect to see you rise to the challenge.”
He adjusted his glasses and began walking away.
“Now, come on. We’re heading back.”
* As I got up and began following him back up the street, I suddenly found myself unable to walk too closely beside him, all too conscious of his broad shoulders and tall stature. My shoulder still burned where he’d touched me and when Kunikida looked back at me, to make sure I was still following along, I couldn’t help but flush the moment his eyes met mine. There was a strange, budding warmth in my chest and the more I looked at my mentor, the more I couldn’t help wondering why I’d never noticed how handsome he was...
It couldn’t be...
Was I falling for him?
10 notes · View notes
stephissalty · 5 years ago
Text
clumsy with your heart
Pairing: Iwaoi
Rating: T
Warnings: Language
Words: 6600
Summary: Oikawa Tooru is fine. Okay, maybe not really. He's running on empty, his work is literal hell, he hardly sleeps or eats, and he could very well collapse at any given second. But! For all intents and purposes, Oikawa Tooru is fine.
Except, he's not, and Oikawa is hurting his best friend by hurting himself, but he doesn't see the damage he's causing. And Iwaizumi's rope is running just as thin as Oikawa's.
AO3
clumsy with your heart
He probably got a little bit greedy. Yeah, that was probably it. He’s always been too greedy, too pompous, and it bit him in the ass when he got too close to the sun and fell back to earth, leaving a path of pain in his wake. Flew too close to the sun, picked up too many responsibilities, played with a few too many hearts. Looking back, that’s probably what ended him up here. He tried to play god, tried to split his own heart in too many directions when it could really only go one. He pushed the one person who would go to the end of the earth for him too far.
That’s how everything went wrong and how he lost his best friend.
God, he hated himself.
The other deserved better than him.
Fuck.
-
Oikawa Tooru is fine. 
“Oikawa, we need you to stay late tonight.” He agrees even though it’s the third night this week.
It’s fine.
“Tooru, you haven’t called in weeks.” He���s been busy, he says. It’s the truth, but his energy is running on empty.
It’s fine.
“Oikawa, come out tonight; you need fun.” He says no, quoting something about being tired.
It’s fine.
He’s fine. 
-
“Tooru, you haven’t left your bed in two days.” Iwaizumi pokes his head into Oikawa’s room, where he’s made himself a nest of blankets to make the best of his long weekend. Even though he’s “relaxing,” he still has his laptop and is doing his homework for the upcoming week so he doesn’t need to worry about it. “Please come out.”
“I’m recharging for another week from hell,” he responds. Iwaizumi is the only person who’s ever seen him like this. Weak. 
“We can watch that American crime show you’ve been wanting to watch,” Iwaizumi offers. Not for the first time, fondness blooms in Oikawa’s chest for his best friend at how hard he’s trying. He’s the only person who hasn’t given up on Oikawa.
Oikawa considers the offer and cocks his head. “Okay.”
He slowly peels back his layers of blankets, very aware of Iwaizumi’s concerned gaze from the doorway. Carefully, he stands and makes his way to his friend, who has a soft smile on his face as he wraps an arm around Oikawa’s waist. Together, they walk over to the couch and settle into their usual position. Oikawa lays his head on Iwaizumi’s lap as Iwaizumi runs his hand through the other’s soft hair.
“Thank you, Iwa-chan,” he whispers part way through the show.
He draws one of Oikawa’s hands up to his mouth and presses a gentle kiss to the backs of his fingers. “Anything for you.”
His heart flutters slightly as he directs his attention back to the television. Iwaizumi shifts to reach for a blanket, which he drapes over Oikawa. Oikawa grabs onto his left hand - the hand that isn’t petting him - and doesn’t let go. 
-
“Oikawa, nice serve!”
He serves the ball and the volley begins, bouncing back and forth between both teams until Iwaizumi spikes it down in the other team’s court. 
Today’s practice is fairly standard, if not tedious. They’ve been doing practice games a lot recently, which he supposes is better than laps of diving drills, but his head is starting to hurt from the constant court analysis. Regular practice drills wouldn’t be a bad change of pace, he thinks, and then cringes at the thought of some of the especially miserable drills.
“Nice practice, wrap up! See you guys tomorrow morning!” the captain shouts. Right now it is nearing ten o’clock, and morning practice starts at five tomorrow. Barely seven hours. 
“Hey, I’m going to run some serve drills if that’s alright,” Oikawa calls over to him. He can feel Iwaizumi’s eyes on him, but he doesn’t say anything.
Once all of his teammates have left, he hits ball after ball over the net, most of them staying in bounds, but still not as powerful or as controlled as he wants. Iwaizumi is standing by the ball basket, drinking water as he carefully regards Oikawa’s energy state. 
After a particularly poor serve, he swears, “Fuck.”
“Tooru.”
“I’m not done, Iwa-chan.”
“It’s midnight. You’ve been at it for two hours. Your knee is going to give out. We need to go home and you need to ice your knee.”
“No, it’s not good enough,” he argues, feeling his voice catch slightly.
“Tooru.” 
He goes to pick up another ball but discovers that the basket is empty - he’s already emptied three so far. Oikawa doesn’t allow his annoyance to show on his face as he makes to duck under the net to pick up a few of the balls on the other side of the court, but there’s a harsh pull at his collar.
“You’re done. Stretch, asshole,” Iwaizumi demands. He starts picking up all of the balls around the gym.
“Iwa-chan, I’m fine. You really don’t need to worry about me so much.”
Iwaizumi looks back at him. His undereyes are slightly darkened, but Oikawa figures it’s because it’s getting late. “Don’t I, though? C’mon, we’ve gotta get home.”
When they get back to their apartment, Iwaizumi pitches an ice pack at his face with a towel wrap, demanding that he ice his knee. Oikawa reluctantly agrees.
He struggles to sleep that night and instead tosses and turns until it’s close enough to the time when he’d have to wake up for morning practice anyways. Iwaizumi notices, of course.
-
05 December, 11:13
To: Oikawa Tooru
From: Kindaichi Yuutarou
Subject: Recommendation Letter
Hi Oikawa-san,
I hope you’re doing well. I was wondering if, when you get a chance, you’d be willing to write a recommendation letter for me? I’m looking at applying for some internships and co-ops, and I think that a recommendation letter from you would benefit me greatly.
Thanks,
Kindaichi
05 December, 12:39
To: Kindaichi Yuutarou
From: Oikawa Tooru
Subject: Re: Recommendation Letter
Kindaichi-kun,
Absolutely. Attached is the letter. Feel free to save it and use it as you need. If there is anything you’d like added to the letter, I can do that. Good luck in your future endeavours.
Best,
Oikawa Tooru
Marketing Supervisor, Social Division
-
Received, 17:00: Yo are you coming out tonight?
Delivered: 17:31: no i’m staying late at work and then i’m gonna workout
Delivered, 17:31: thanks for the invite tho
Received, 17:34: Okay, you’re always welcome to join
Delivered, 17:48: thanks
Delivered, 17:48: miss you and mattsun
Received, 17:50: We miss you too
-
19 December, 15:09
To: Oikawa Tooru
From: Social Division Management
Subject: Activity Report
Good afternoon,
Can you draw up a report of your division’s activity for the last eight months? Include all new hires, reports written, complaints filled, write-ups, articles, successful marketing schemes launched, unsuccessful marketing schemes launched, and schemes in progress in addition to anything else you see fit. We need this by tomorrow morning.
Social Division Management
19 December, 16:55
To: Social Division Management
From: Oikawa Tooru
Subject: Re: Activity Report
Good evening,
Attached is the report. I’ve put it in an Excel file format, but I can convert it to a PDF or different document format if that would better suit your needs. If there is any missing information, please let me know and I’ll be happy to fix it.
Oikawa Tooru
Marketing Supervisor, Social Division
-
Received, 14:03: hey oikawa, have you finished the assignment for class
Delivered, 14:15: [Photo Attached]
Delivered, 14:15: there you go
-
22 December, 15:32
To: Oikawa Tooru, Volleyball Team
From: Team Captain
Cc: Coach
Subject: New Year’s Tournament
Team,
We have an upcoming tournament on 01 January. Please clear your schedules for 31 December and 01 January and allow for more practice time leading up to this tournament.
Captain
-
[Time Request Off]
31 December
01 January
- REQUEST DENIED -
-
23 December, 10:39
To: HR Management
From: Oikawa Tooru
Subject: Time Off
Hello,
I recently submitted a time off request for 31 December and 1 January, but it was denied. My volleyball team is travelling for a New Year’s tournament, and it is vital that I attend the tournament. I am asking that you reconsider the time off denial.
Thank you, Oikawa Tooru
Marketing Supervisor, Social Division
23 December, 15:24
To: Oikawa Tooru
From: HR Management
Subject: Re: Time Off
Oikawa,
You will be granted the time, but you must be on call at all times on those days. We will not make another exception like this in the future.
HR Management
-
[Time Request Off]
31 December
01 January
- UPDATE: REQUEST PARTIALLY APPROVED, SEE NOTE -
Note: On call 31 Dec and 01 Jan
-
23 December, 16:02
To: HR Management
From: Oikawa Tooru
Subject: Re: Re: Time Off
Hello,
Thank you for granting me the time off I requested. I appreciate it.
Oikawa Tooru
Marketing Supervisor, Social Division
-
Delivered, 17:45: hey i’m gonna be late getting home tonight
Delivered, 17:46: more things have come up
Delivered, 17:46: i should be out in time for practice, not sure tho
Received, 17:50: What can I do to help you?
Received, 17:50: Do you want me to bring you dinner or anything?
Delivered, 17:55: that’d be great
Delivered, 17:55: thank you hajime
Received, 17:56: Always
Oikawa meets Iwaizumi in the lobby of his office building. Iwaizumi is holding two bags of takeout and smiles sadly.
“Are you coming up?”
“Can I?”
“Of course.”
It’s nearly seven now, and Oikawa is one of the last people in his office left. Iwaizumi steals a chair from the cube next to Oikawa’s and wheels over. He looks up and down at Oikawa, taking in his rough appearance, hunched shoulders, dark undereyes, and sunken cheeks. Oikawa knows he looks bad.
“I’m going to text the captain and tell him we won’t be in,” Iwaizumi says quietly after a moment of deliberation. It leaves no room for argument.
“Are you going to go?”
“No, I’m going to take you home,” he responds. He sounds sad, a voice in Oikawa’s head says. “Please stop pushing yourself like this.”
Oikawa whips his head up at that. “What?”
“You heard me.” Iwaizumi doesn’t look up from his untouched food.
“I’m fine, Iwa-chan.”
“You’re really not, Tooru!” Iwaizumi exclaims, slapping his leg in frustration. “Your boss says run and you run. No matter what it is, you don’t say no to anyone but yourself! You’re killing yourself! You had to beg just to get two days off. When’s the last time you were home before five? I hate seeing you hurting yourself.” His voice sounds thick, and his eyes are wet, Oikawa realizes.
What’s wrong with Iwa-chan?
“It’s just the name of the game,” he mumbles and averts his eyes. Anywhere but at Iwaizumi. “It’s fine, really. I’m a big boy.”
“You’re starting your day at fucking five in the morning at practice, going to classes, coming here, and then either working out or going to practice again! You’re barely eating,” Iwaizumi cries. “I’m your roommate, your best friend, and I never see you anymore. Goddammit, I miss Tooru, okay?”
“I’m sorry, Hajime. I can’t just quit my job for you, though.”
“You don’t even like your job. It’s barely even related to your major.” That is true. Oikawa had changed majors several times - at one point he was a marketing major, but for his master’s he was going for communications. And, of course, Iwaizumi is right. He doesn’t like his job. It just paid well for a job with a fresh non-STEM bachelor’s degree.
Oikawa just shrugs.
Iwaizumi rolls closer to him, invading his personal space, and fiddles with the mouse on his computer. It’s open to a document, so he saves it and shuts down the computer. “We’re going home. And your laptop is staying here. You’re taking tomorrow off. We both are.”
“I can’t do that.”
“I don’t give a fuck. If your manager has a problem with it, they can deal with your very angry best friend,” Iwaizumi declares. His eyes are bright and angry as he stuffs his trash in his takeout bag. “Home. Let’s go.” He extends a hand.
“Bossy Iwa-chan,” Oikawa pouts, but there’s no malice behind it. 
There’s no energy for him to have any malice.
-
They make their way home not long after, and Iwaizumi forces Oikawa into bed, quoting something about “self-induced sleep deprivation” and “taking poor care of himself” and “going to collapse any second now.” To be one hundred percent fair, Iwaizumi is correct on all fronts, Oikawa admits. However, he’s fine. He’s dealt with way worse than this before.
Usually they watch shows out on the couch in the living room, but tonight Iwaizumi joins Oikawa in his bed, hip laptop resting on their thighs. Oikawa’s eyes are glazed over and he’s not really paying attention to the show that they’re watching, but Iwaizumi is warm under him and supports his weight on his shoulder.
As Oikawa’s eyelids start to droop around nine o’clock - the earliest he’s gotten to sleep in probably months - Iwaizumi pauses the episode they’re on and sets his laptop aside.
“Stay,” Oikawa murmurs. His sleep addled brain isn’t thinking, but he’s not willing to give up the warmth Iwaizumi is exuding, and that’s all he’s thinking about.
Iwaizumi is quiet for a moment, and Oikawa thinks he hears his heart rate increase. “...Okay. Let me get up and get changed quickly though, okay? I’ll come back.”
“Come back, Iwa-chan,” he mumbles as Iwaizumi man-handles him and moves out of the bed.
“I always do.”
-
Oikawa feels safe when he wakes.
His head is resting on Iwaizumi’s bare chest, and Iwaizumi’s arm is curled around him. Fondness blooms in his chest - he hadn’t expected him to stay the entire night, but he is still here, his face soft and content. After a glance at the clock on his bedside table, Oikawa sees that it’s just past nine in the morning. Twelve hours. That’s the most sleep I’ve gotten in half a year. 
He reaches for his phone, careful not to jostle Iwaizumi too much. Of course, he finds that he has several texts and emails. The first is from his supervisor.
Received, 08:15: Where are you?
Received, 08:19: Oikawa
Nervous, he quickly types out an apologetic response. He’s usually in the office by seven fifty.
Delivered, 08:57: i will not be in today
Delivered, 08:57: my best friend is forcing me to take a day off. i’ll make up all of my work tomorrow.
Received, 09:01: Please put in a time off request next time. 
Delivered, 09:02: yes sir
That’s one down. He sifts through the four emails waiting for him. Two of them are wanting project updates, one of them is out of network requesting info, and one of them is a morning update from an intern. He responds to the intern, thanking her for her work and telling her that he’ll be back tomorrow, and flags the project update requests to work on later. There are a few texts from some of his coworkers asking about him - he hasn’t missed a day of work in over a year - and one text from his mother asking how he is.
Received, 23:19: Hi Tooru, how are you? Iwaizumi-san said you’re working yourself really hard. Please take care of yourself and come visit soon. We miss you.
Delivered, 09:06: hajime is making me take the day off today. i’ll be okay.
Delivered, 09:06: i’ll try to come home soon
He’s about to answer one of the texts from his coworkers asking about a project when Iwaizumi sleepily plucks the phone out of his hand. 
“Mine.”
“Hajime,” he whines softly. “Can I have my phone back?”
“You’ve already been doing work this morning, haven’t you?” he yawns.
“Maybe.”
“Then the phone is mine.” Iwaizumi stretches and ruffles Oikawa’s hair. “Let’s make breakfast, okay?”
“You’re being so sweet to me, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa teases. “How cute!”
Iwaizumi freezes for a nearly imperceivable moment and flushes slightly. “I just care about my best friend’s health, alright?”
“Aww, Iwa-chan does care!” Oikawa’s running on false energy and fake bravado that he doesn’t usually use around Iwaizumi, but he doesn’t do anything to stop it.
“Of course I do,” he replies quietly, but his voice sounds sad. Oikawa’s heart clenches. Iwaizumi walks out of Oikawa’s room wearing only a pair of sweatpants and makes his way to the kitchen, expecting Oikawa to follow.
Oikawa hops onto the counter as Iwaizumi gathers the ingredients for pancakes. “What are we doing today?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Iwaizumi responds as he measures out some flour. “You’re going to rest your mind and body because fuck knows you need it.”
“We could invite over Makki and Mattsun,” Oikawa suggests.
“They’re both working,” Iwaizumi says, not looking up from the ingredients he’s whisking together. “Today is about you, not Makki and Mattsun.”
“Okay.”
Oikawa’s head feels weird, kinda fuzzy around the edges, like it might burst at any second. He considers that this might be the first time in a long while that he’s had more than a second to just sit and be alone with his thoughts. He tilts his head side to side and thinks to himself that he feels a little bit like a bobble head. That’s probably not good. But if he tells Iwaizumi, then that’ll lead to a lot of fussing, and -
“What are you thinking about?”
“My head feels weird?” It comes out as a question.
“Weird full or weird dizzy or weird sad or?” Iwaizumi looks up from where he’s pouring the batter in the pan.
“I think all three,” he admits. “It’s just a lot.” The honesty in that statement hits him like a sucker punch, and he wants to take it back, now Iwaiz -
“How can I help?”
“You’re already doing more than enough,” he says with a weak smile.
Iwaizumi walks over to where Oikawa is perched on the counter and gets into his personal space, looking deep into his eyes.
“H-Hajime -”
“Don’t hide things from me, Tooru,” he says lowly, eyes big and searching.
“What if I don’t know what I’m hiding?” Oikawa’s breathing is harsh, but he tries to conceal how his heart is hammering in his chest. What the fuck? It’s just Iwaizumi.
“Then tell me when you figure it out.” He pulls away and returns to the pan. 
Oikawa thinks he sees a light blush on Iwaizumi’s cheeks.
-
Later on in the day, they’re piled together on the couch as they play MarioKart. Oikawa is leaning most of his weight on Iwaizumi, and their legs are tangled together on the coffee table. A nearly-empty bottle of white wine and two glasses are sitting on the table. The visual scene is actually fairly serene, and both of them stay quite relaxed while playing. However - 
“You fucking shit!” 
“I’ve been betrayed, Iwa-chan!”
“You motherfucker!”
“HA! I won, Iwa-chan lost again!” 
Iwaizumi drops his controller on his lap and rubs his knuckles into Oikawa’s hair a little rougher than is necessary. “Yeah, Tooru, you did. What track next?”
“Rainbow Road?”
“No, I hate Rainbow Road,” Iwaizumi complains but navigates the cursor to it anyways.
“You just hate it because you can’t win,” Oikawa laughs. “Anyways, the track itself is pretty.”
“Of course you care about the aesthetics.”
Oikawa scoffs. “Rainbow Road is for the gays, Iwa-chan!”
Shit.
That had slipped out by accident. Oikawa’s heart rate increases and his eyes go big as he meets Iwaizumi’s equally wide gaze. “I mean -”
“You’re -” Iwaizumi starts. “Are you gay?” Iwaizumi asks, a cautious note to his voice.
Oikawa averts his eyes. This isn’t how he wanted this to go. Shit. Fuck. FUCK. “Uh -” he stammers. “Y-yeah.” He looks away in shame and sets his controller on the table, ready to leave and hide in his room for the rest of the day. 
“That’s fine,” Iwaizumi says simply. 
“You… you don’t think it’s weird?”
Iwaizumi scrunches up his face. “Nah. I’m bisexual, so it’s fine. I’d… uh, actually been wondering recently.”
“About what?”
“Your... preferences.”
“Oh.”
The silence is tense, as both men are scared to breathe, as if the moment will shatter.
“Can we play the game?”
“Gay Road, coming up,” Iwaizumi jokes, hoping to break the tension as he passes Oikawa his controller. 
Oikawa laughs, loud and full, hiding his face on Iwaizumi's shoulder. This feels right, he thinks.
Oikawa wins that race, as expected. Iwaizumi wins the two rounds after - Delfino Square and then Toad’s Factory. Oikawa whines about losing two in a row, so Iwaizumi picks Oikawa’s favorite track, DK Summit, which Oikawa then wins. 
They trade on and off with picking tracks for a while, each winning roughly the same amount. Oikawa makes some commentary about some of the tracks, his tongue loosened by the alcohol and after coming out.
Daisy Circuit: “It’s a lesbian undercover hookup.” “Explain?” “All the Luigi shit is a lie to distract from what’s really going on. Don’t be thick, Iwa-chan. Daisy is a lesbian and this track is about the race to a secret hookup with her lover.” “Of course it is.”
Moo Moo Meadows: “The cows are homophobic.” “Huh?” “I’m gay and they’re being mean to me. Thus, homophobic. Honestly, not that difficult of a concept. A fucking cow just dropped me four places!” “The audacity.” “Right?”
Mushroom Gorge: “Do you think Goombas are allies?” “Considering they’re working against us, no?” “Fucking assholes.”
Peach Gardens: “The continued saga of the lesbian hookup!” “How on earth?” “Look at all the traps Peach has put out for anyone who isn’t her lover! Only her lover is meant to get through, and fuck knows no Italian plumber is gonna be able to do that shit.” “You’re right, that’s exactly the story here.” “Glad you can see reason, Iwa-chan!”
Moonview Highway: “Who the fuck put eighteen wheelers on this track?” “Uh… the designers, I think.” “Not the point! I’m gay, I can’t drive! That’s why I play MarioKart, but these fucking trucks are making it too real! What the fuck!” “Maybe drunk gays shouldn’t drive, then. I’ll be happy to take the win.” “Not a chance, Iwa-chan! And I’m not drunk, I’m just well tipsy!” (Oikawa was a terrible real driver, so Iwaizumi always drove them everywhere)
Mario Circuit: “I -” “This is a classic, what could you possibly have to say about this track?” “Mario is a jealous, possessive fuck. Look at all these billboards.” “You’re one to talk.” “You love meeeeeee!” “Mhmm, I do.” 
They’re two-thirds finished with the second bottle of wine when Iwaizumi cuts them off with a laugh. “I think we’re done for tonight. We’re both playing terribly.”
Oikawa drapes himself over Iwaizumi dramatically. “But doesn’t that make it more fun?” He flashes a dazzling smile. Iwaizumi’s own soft smile falters for just a second, but then it’s back.
“Not when we’re both doing this badly. Let’s go to bed, Shittykawa.” 
“Will you sleep with me again?” Oikawa asks without thinking.
Iwaizumi freezes. “Okay.”
-
A few days later, Oikawa arrives back at the apartment after work around six o’clock - damn near a record, he thinks - but the apartment is empty. There’s no volleyball practice tonight, and Iwaizumi should have gotten out of work over an hour ago, so Oikawa is understandably concerned.
He tries to put his concern aside and attempts to make dinner for them. 
Iwaizumi walks through the door around eight o’clock, after the sun has set. “Hey.”
“Where were you?” he asks, offering a plate of food that’s now cold.
Iwaizumi accepts the food and goes to microwave it. He hesitates before answering. “I had some stuff on my mind, so I went for a drive.”
That sets off some red flags - Iwaizumi hasn’t gone driving in a long time, and he usually only goes driving when he’s feeling upset or overwhelmed.
“You want to talk about it?”
“I’ll be fine. I’m a big boy,” he jokes weakly. Oikawa notices that Iwaizumi’s dark circles have gotten worse, and his shoulders are hunched. To most people he’d probably look fine, but Oikawa can tell he’s a step away from being on the verge of tears.
“Please, Hajime, talk to me,” he begs. 
Iwaizumi ignores the beeping microwave in favor of petting Oikawa’s hair gently. “I’m not okay, but I’ll figure it out, okay?”
“Let me make it okay.”
Iwaizumi laughs weakly and moves to get his food. “You can’t do that. Trust me. This is all on me.”
“Do you want to sleep in my bed with me tonight? You seem to sleep better there,” Oikawa offers, a strange fluttering feeling in his chest.
“No,” Iwaizumi responds, a bit too quickly. “I - I’ll be fine. But thank you, Tooru. You’re the best friend I could ask for.” He takes a bite of the food and tries to hide a grimace. “But I’ll keep cooking. Thank you for dinner, though.”
Oikawa doesn’t push it any further. Iwaizumi goes to bed right after he finishes eating, leaving no room for any further conversation. 
Oikawa lays in bed for a while thinking about Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi has always told him whenever he’d be home late; he’s never just not sent him a text and come home that late. That was usually Oikawa’s move. And Iwaizumi had gone for a drive for all that time, which was another red flag. It’s been a few years since the last time Iwaizumi went driving, but Oikawa knows why he does. Iwaizumi had explained it at one time.
He’d said , “I dunno, I just find driving really relaxing. When I feel like everything in my life is really overwhelming and out of my control, when I’m driving, I’m in control of everything that happens to the car. It’s a bad thought, but I’m in control of whether or not I live or die when I’m behind the wheel. And when life’s getting to be overwhelming, I need to regain the control, I guess. There’s also the kind of melancholic euphoria is what I’d call it. It’s the feeling I get when I’m driving twenty-five above the speed limit on the freeway with the windows down, music loud, when I’m alone and sad and scared. Like, I’m going just fast enough to just barely scare myself into paying attention, and the wind and music are fun, and there’s a kind of melancholic overarching aura to the whole thing because I’m alone and sad in the first place. I don’t think it makes sense, but that’s why I drive when I’m overwhelmed and need to escape. I guess it’s self care.”
He thinks about the words and how they can apply to Iwaizumi now, but Iwaizumi hasn’t told him about anything going wrong or overwhelming him right now. Eventually, he gives up and succumbs to sleep.
Around midnight, just as Oikawa is on the verge of sleep, he hears Iwaizumi talking in his room. Confused, Oikawa pushes his covers back and treads over to the wall that separates their walls, and, indeed, Iwaizumi is talking, whether to himself or someone else. The words are muffled.
“Foolish… he’s not… And what if he thinks… Makki, I can’t… He doesn’t know. You know how… Yeah, uh huh. He’s been like this… it hurts. Hate seeing that… I don’t know how long I can do this… Running himself into… No, I… He’s too busy… just another burden on him… bullshit feelings… Fucking nine years, Makki, he doesn’t know… I’m hopeless… hurts… Whatever. Goodnight.”
Oikawa is still standing by the wall nearly three minutes later, trying to decipher what he’d heard, but none of the words are making sense together. Someone is hurting Iwaizumi, someone that means a lot to him, by the way Iwaizumi was talking. Iwaizumi hasn’t told him about anyone new, which means that he’s lying to Oikawa, a thought that makes his chest clench.
Whoever’s hurting Iwaizumi is going to regret the day they were born.
-
Oikawa regrets the day he was born.
Okay, maybe not that far back. Maybe just when he accepted his job from hell. That’s a bit better.
The following weeks pass in a blur of paperwork, emails, and assignments. He stops going to volleyball practice, which greatly upsets Iwaizumi and his coach, but he’s falling behind on both his work and his school work, so volleyball just doesn’t have a place in his life. Work has been getting worse as his supervisor adds more and more to his plate.
It’s the third night Oikawa spends overnight at the office that Iwaizumi demands he stand up to his supervisor and have some of his responsibilities taken off. Of course, Oikawa doesn’t, because he’s a loyal, dedicated corporate employee.
Iwaizumi has been a saint, and Oikawa thinks he probably couldn’t survive without his best friend. He makes sure that Oikawa eats at least one meal per day - a struggle, to say the least - and checks up on him multiple times per day to make sure he’s okay. Most nights, he’s still waiting up for him on the couch in the living room to ask how Oikawa’s day at work went, even if he doesn’t get home until eleven (usually Oikawa’s answer is “shitty but it’s whatever”). On Sundays - now Oikawa’s only “day off”, but he’s still on call - they usually stay in the apartment and watch movies together. Or, Oikawa naps on Iwaizumi’s lap while he watches a movie Oikawa chose.
As the weeks pass, Oikawa notices Iwaizumi’s energy depleting but doesn’t think much of it. 
They obviously haven’t had much time to talk, but Oikawa knows that Iwaizumi’s been taking more hours at his own job. Iwaizumi isn’t going for his masters like Oikawa, so he’s at an entry level position at an architectural firm.  Iwaizumi hasn’t talked about his own job in nearly a month, but last Oikawa heard, he enjoys it well enough. 
He can’t think of any reason why Iwaizumi might be getting tired. 
At least, not until he gets more information he probably wasn’t meant to have (it was an honest mistake, promise).
Oikawa gets home early one night, but the apartment is quiet. There’s a note on the kitchen table in Iwaizumi’s handwriting.
“If you get home before I get back, I’m out for a drive. I don’t have my phone on me. I’ll be home in a few hours. There’s some leftovers in the fridge. -Hajime” 
The line that keeps repeating in his mind is “I don’t have my phone.” 
Something’s very, very wrong with Iwa-chan. 
The last time Iwaizumi went on a drive without his phone was during their first year of university, and it was probably the darkest time of his entire life. He only does that when he feels so out of control that he just wants to scare himself and disappear.
What’s happened that he’s not telling me? 
Oikawa’s heart races and his breathing quickens as he dials picks a contact in his phone and presses call. Pick up pick up pick up. 
“Yo.”
“Makki,” he all but croaks.
Hanamaki falters on the other end of the line, clearly picking up on Oikawa’s distress. “O-okay, uh, what’s up, Oikawa?”
“What’s wrong with Iwa-chan?”
“What do you mean?” there’s a certain tone to Makki’s voice that Oikawa picks up on. He knows something.
“He’s been driving again, Makki. He hasn’t done that in years. And I got home early, and he went out without his phone,” Oikawa says quickly. He feels like he’s overreacting, but, if he knows his best friend, Iwaizumi doesn’t get upset easily. This has been building for a long time. “He hasn’t done that in years. What happened?”
“I…” Makki pauses. “Fuck, Iwaizumi,” he swears to himself. “I can’t tell you.”
“Why not?” Oikawa screeches.
“First, ouch, mind your voice. Second, I made a promise not to tell you,” he says. The emphasis is clear. “I won’t betray Iwaizumi’s trust, but I’m worried about him. It’s been eating him up.”
“Why me specifically?”
“It’s about you, Oikawa.”
And his world comes crashing down.
“What… what do you mean?” he asks weakly. His voice is faint and his throat feels like it’s closing up as he backs up and falls onto the couch before his legs give way.
Makki sighs. “You don’t realize how much that man cares for you. It’s going to kill him. He might’ve reached his breaking point. He’s been watching you tear yourself apart and it’s hurting him.”
“What?” 
“Honestly, can you not say anything else?” Makki jokes. “I’m not going to say more, though. You need to talk to him about it.”
“I… I don’t understand,” Oikawa whispers, voice cracking.
“Shit,” he swears. “Don’t cry okay? He’ll be home soon enough, and you guys can talk about it.”
“Fuck, Makki,” he rasps. 
At that moment, he hears a key in the door lock, prompting him to hang up the phone without even saying goodbye. He doesn’t even wipe away the tear tracks on his cheeks. The door swings open carefully, revealing a very dejected-looking Iwaizumi.
Oikawa supposes that this is what all these weeks have been leading up to. Iwaizumi’s back is hunched, his eye bags are abysmal, his spiky hair is even messier than usual, and his facial expression is barely holding it together. He’s wearing sweatpants and an old practice t-shirt. Iwaizumi doesn’t acknowledge Oikawa as he drags his feet into the kitchen and drops his keys. He crumples up the note he’d left and sighs deeply before running a hand through his hair.
Something is very, very wrong with Iwa-chan. 
“Hajime?” he says quietly.
“Fuck!” Iwaizumi jumps violently and whips towards where Oikawa is sitting on the couch. “How long have you been there?”
“I’ve been home for like half an hour.”
Their eyes lock and realization dawns in Iwaizumi’s eyes. “I -”
“Hajime, we need to talk,” he says and nods towards the seat next to him.
“Uh - yeah,” Iwaizumi agrees, albeit somewhat reluctantly. “Have you been crying?”
“We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you,” Oikawa says, haphazardly wiping at his cheeks. “Something’s wrong. What is it?”
“I’ll be fi -”
“Don’t pull that bullshit with me. You haven’t gone driving without your phone since the last time you were suicidal. Cut the shit, Hajime, and talk,” he snaps, eyes fiery. “You’ve never kept anything from me,” he continues, voice softer. “So why now?”
Iwaizumi pointedly doesn’t look at Oikawa, but thankfully doesn’t dance around the topic. He sighs. “I care a lot about you, Tooru.”
“Mhmm.”
“Like, it might kill me, how much I care about you,” he says cautiously. “And recently, you’ve been working yourself so hard, it’s been hurting you. And seeing you in such bad shape and knowing there’s nothing I can do to help except try to make sure you don’t die of starvation… It’s been killing me. I can’t stand to see you hurting.”
“But I haven’t been hurting,” Oikawa argues.
“Have you looked in a mirror lately?”
“Point taken, but I don’t understand why it’s so bad.”
“Fucking idiot, I’m in love with you,” Iwaizumi growls, but there’s no true bite. “Have been for like nine years or some bullshit. You own my heart, Tooru. You could throw it fucking whereever, and that’s where it would go, whether you’re aware of it or not. So, I mean, it’s bad enough to watch your best friend work himself into the ground and not be able to help it. But I’ve been trying my damndest to not let this goddamn crush get in the way of our friendship for so fucking long while still taking care of you because fuck knows you need it. You’re a fucking piece of work, you know that, right? But I can’t bear to lose you, Tooru, and you’ve never implied you want anything more, and we’ve always been friends, so… Uh secrets it is for me, I guess.”
Oikawa meets his eyes. “Fuck, Hajime. Fuck.” 
Conflicted doesn’t begin to describe Oikawa at this moment in time. He’d be lying if he said he’d never thought about Iwaizumi in a romantic context before - on the contrary, it actually came to the forefront of his mind mildly frequently. Like, for example, how much he likes waking up in Iwaizumi’s arms, or how much he likes cuddling while they watch movies or while he naps on Sundays. Or, how they go out on what could be considered dates already. Before Oikawa’s job got insane, they’d go to dinner just the two of them at least once a week and spent tons of time together. An outsider would probably think they were boyfriends, he supposes. But on the flip side, dating friends is a double-edged sword. The possibility of ruining the friendship is very, very real, and is very, very, very scary. However -
“Jesus, Tooru, please say or do something else before I combust,” Iwaizumi begs, balling his fists in the hem of his t-shirt.
“How about this?” Oikawa asks before leaning in and pressing their lips together gently. Oh, and it is wonderful. Iwaizumi inhales sharply and kisses back more firmly, reaching up to cup Oikawa’s face with one hand. He tugs lightly on soft brown curls and runs his tongue along Oikawa’s lower lip, a small noise escaping his throat when Oikawa’s lips open for his tongue to slip through. The movements aren’t rushed or feverish. Everything is slow and sweet, just an exploration, as they pull each other closer, Oikawa eventually ending up on Iwaizumi’s lap.
Iwaizumi pulls back wetly. “Uh -” he starts. “Y-yeah, that works.”
“Iwa-chan, will you be my boyfriend?” Oikawa asks, heart pounding.
“Of course.”
-
Delivered, 21:33: hey makki it kinda worked out
Received, 21:34: Good. Deal with your own shit.
Received, 21:34: Happy for you guys
-
15 March, 15:45
To: Social Division Management
From: Oikawa Tooru
Subject: Project Division
Hello,
In light of some changes in my personal life and reasonable workload, I’m putting in a formal request to lessen my workload. Over the past six or so months, I’ve been putting in a massive number of hours in order to compensate for the workload for which I have been assigned. This was possible for a short term, but is no longer a possibility for me. In addition, it is not in my job description to be working overnight, over 40 hours, or past eight PM for general duties. My request is to either lessen my personal load or to have 3+ more interns assigned to my department exclusively. 
Thank you, 
Oikawa Tooru
Marketing Supervisor, Social Division
16 March, 10:13
To: Oikawa Tooru
From: Social Division Management
Subject: Re: Project Division
Oikawa,
We will work with upper management on finding a solution.
Social Division Management
-
[Time Request Off]
21 March
22 March
23 March
24 March
25 March
- APPROVED, SEE NOTE -
Note: Approved
-
“This is the first true vacation you’ve had since you started this job?”
“Yeah,” Oikawa replies, leaning into his boyfriend. The train rumbles underfoot. “Thank you for everything.”
“Thank you,” Iwaizumi whispers, punctuating each word with a gentle kiss to the tip of Oikawa’s nose.
“Dork,” Oikawa laughs, burying his head in Iwaizumi’s shoulder.
“A dork you love though, right?” Iwaizumi teases as he drops his head on top of Oikawa.
“Always.”
17 notes · View notes
bi-ologistofthehills · 4 years ago
Text
Jurassic World + My oc
@mcnicholas1172
Here you go.
My Jurassic World story, just with my oc (canon compliant)
My friend’s oc does appear in here, but she’s not on any social media. Besides, she’s kinda my editor/beta reader...
         Emily Grant, daughter of Alan Grant and survivor of Jurassic Park, sat down on her couch with a contented sigh. She took a sip of her coffee and switched on her TV. The local news station was in Spanish, but she wasn’t intending to watch it. The paleontologist simply wanted background noise.
The 32-year-old kicked her feet up on the coffee table and reached for her book, intending to get some reading in before she went to work. Unfortunately, her phone chose that moment to ring. Sighing, she lowered her feet to the ground and answered it.
“Dr. Emily Grant speaking. How may I help you?”
         “Dr. Grant, this is Claire Dearing.”
         “Claire! Nice to hear from you,” Emily Grant set down the cup of coffee she’d been sipping and switched off her clunky little TV.
         “Yes, well, Mr. Masrani has a request that I’d like to pass along. We’re planning a series of public speeches for next week and would like you to give one on Friday.”
         “Uh, one moment. Let me check my schedule,” The paleontologist reached across her coffee table and pulled her calendar toward her, flipping it open to the correct day, “What time do you have in mind?”
         “Sometime that morning preferably, since we have other speeches later that day.”
         Emily frowned, “Can I get back to you later today? I’ve got a couple things I’ve got to sort out.”
         “Certainly. You’ll be getting an email about it too, I believe.”
         “Thanks Claire.”
         “No problem.”
         Emily hung up and set her phone down on the table with a sigh. Ever since she’d been hired as a consulting paleontologist for Jurassic World in 2013, she’d been living in her little one bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow on Isla Nublar. Recently, with the sharp increase in the species of dinosaurs on the island, she’d been extra busy.
         Her job involved checking up on the dinosaur’s well-being, ensuring they were happy in their environments and ensuring those environments were accurate and met all the needs of the dinosaurs. Supposedly, the park had recently hired paleo-veterinarian to assist her with the first part of her job, but she had yet to meet the man.
         With yet another sigh, Emily got off her couch, coffee cup in hand once more, and crossed the living room to her bedroom door. Once inside, she set down her coffee and peeled off the sweater she’d worn to bed the previous night. She swiftly exchanged it for a gray tank top and dark blue flannel, which was probably completely unnecessary, given that it almost always ended up around her waist by the end of the day. A pair of jean shorts, tallish socks, her usual pair of hiking boots and the classic Grant fedora were added to complete her look.
         A quick stop in the kitchen to put her coffee in a travel mug and another stop at the coffee table for her phone, calendar and customary messenger bag had her shutting the front door behind her.
         Emily swiftly went down her front steps and made a beeline for her jeep, which was a dark green, and park issued.
         “Emily!” The paleontologist glanced around, her blue eyes landing on her neighbor, Elizabeth Greene.
         “Lizzy! What can I do for you?” Emily tossed her bag on the passenger seat and jammed her mug in the cupholder. Shutting the door, she turned to face her friend of two years. They’d met when Emily had first moved in and though Lizzy had been a bit of a fangirl, the two women had quickly warmed to each other and struck up a friendship.
         “Today’s not a paddock day, right?” For the past year, Emily had been dividing her time between the researching at the raptor paddock and working with other dinosaurs. It had been a bit of a struggle to be so near the animals that had traumatized her so much, but Emily had worked around it, and it wasn’t as bad anymore.
         “No, I’m on brachiosaur duty today. And I gotta say, the jungle they’ve got there is horrid for walking through.”
         Lizzy laughed, “Alright, you’re stopping by tomorrow though right?”
         “Of course. I might be a bit late, depending on if my groceries come tomorrow or Wednesday.”
         “Sounds good. I’ll let Owen know,” with that, the raptor trainer jogged back across the gravel driveway that they parked their jeeps in and vanished into her bungalow.
         Emily hopped into her driver’s seat, turned the key in the ignition and drove off to the brachiosaur paddock.
        =================================================
         Emily peered over some type of fern, Ellie could likely tell her the exact species, and jotted down yet another thing in her small notepad. The brachiosaurs were recovering from a bout of Bracken Fern Poisoning, and it was her job to check on how they were doing. Emily was then supposed to report her data to the lab for analysis. So far, nearly two thirds of the herd had recovered, and all appeared to be doing well.
         She flipped her notepad closed. If she hurried, she’d have time to work her way around to the other side of the herd before noon. And Emily was starving, so lunch break was sounding better and better by the minute. She quickly finished up and started to trek back through the jungle. After a few minutes, she reached the admittance gate and one of the handlers let her through.
         “How do they look?” the handler was a middle aged, enthusiastic woman by the name of Mary-Anne. Emily didn’t know her very well, but always found her to be a pleasant woman.
         “Wonderful. I can email you my notes once I’ve got them organized,” Emily opened the door of her jeep, which she’d parked nearby, and set her bag and notebook inside.
         “That would be lovely! Did you get a chance to all of them?”
         “Yes, it looks like some of them are still recovering, but the rest look perfectly healthy. And I didn’t spot any more Bracken Fern.”
         “Lovely! Thanks again dear!”
         “It’s a pleasure Mary.” Emily hopped into her jeep and headed for Main Street, intent upon getting some lunch and starting the process of organizing her notes into something comprehensible. A short while later, she was parking her jeep in the employee parking and making her way down the street, dodging tourists as she went.
         The only benefit of having been only 9 during the horrifying ordeal in 1993 was that hardly anybody recognized Emily as an adult. Most of the world knew her as a small, bandaged and terrified child, hiding from the press behind her father, or clinging to Ellie. And Emily was perfectly happy to keep it that way.
         In the next ten minutes, Emily had grabbed a cheeseburger from Dairy Queen and found a secluded, air-conditioned spot to go through her notes. She took a sip of her pop and began transferring her notes to a larger notepad, organizing as she went. In about half an hour, she’d finished her lunch and finished about a third of her notes.
         Satisfied for the moment, Emily began packing her stuff up, only to stop when someone called her name. Looking around her eyes finally landed on a young, Hispanic man in a suit jacket and dress pants with tousled black hair and tanned skin.
         It took her a moment to realize why he looked familiar, “Sam?”
         “I thought I recognized you!”
         In college, Emily had done an English project with Sam, and though they’d been friends all through college, they’d fallen out of touch afterwards. Though she’d never admit it to anyone, she might have had a small crush on him.
         Smiling, she stood to shake his hand.
         He returned the gesture, “What on Earth possessed you to come back here?”
         Emily laughed, “A job offer.”
         “Well, that’s the same reason I’m here. What job did they rope you into?”
         “Consulting paleontologist. I thought you couldn’t decide on your major?”
         “Well, I finally did. As of last week, I’m officially a consulting              paleo-veterinarian,” he puffed up a little, obviously teasing Emily.
“So you’re the person who’s supposed to be helping me!” She shook her head in mock exasperation, “Much help you’ve been though!”
“I’ll have to get started then. It’s been kind of hard to track you down though.”
“I’m a busy woman. I’ll be at Paddock Ten at about eight o’clock tomorrow morning.”
“Hmmm… eight’s a bit early for me, but I’ll try to make it. What sort of dinosaurs they got at paddock ten?” Sam sat down on the bench.
“Raptors,” Emily resumed her packing.
“What?!” he sat forward, his jaw hanging open in disbelief, “You seriously… I can’t believe you’d work with them after what happened!”
Emily sighed, “It wasn’t easy, but they’ve got this fascinating relationship with their handlers and-”
Sam cut her off, “You couldn’t keep your nose out of it?”
“Well,” Emily laughed, “Yeah, I couldn’t keep my nose out of it.”
Sam was grinning as he said, “Well, I’ll leave you to what looks like a pile of notes. I’ve got to pick up my groceries anyway.”
“Alright. It was nice to see you. Do you still have my number?” Emily wasn’t quite sure what prompted her question.
“Yeah, somewhere in the depths of my contacts. I’ll see you around Grant,” With one final smile, Sam stood up and walked down the hallway. As Emily finished her packing and strode quickly in the opposite direction, she found that she could barely contain her grin.
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