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drbtinglecannon · 6 years

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Be there or be square

Todoroki Fuyumi finally agrees to go on a date with Hawks on one condition; he doesn't show up late. Unfortunately for Hawks, the universe has different plans.

(Hilarity, a handful of villains, tardiness, candy, and awkward flirting ensues.) Read it here on Ao3!

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Months of joking, suggesting, and then flat out asking Todoroki Fuyumi on a date eventually paid off when she finally (begrudgingly) accepts. Hawks had greatly enjoyed her varying reactions, ranging from polite declines to eye rolls while sighing. “Fine.” She has her eyes closed with a poorly disguised look of annoyance on her face. “...wait what?” Her eyes stay closed as she adjusts her glasses. “I said 'fine’. I know this is all a game to you, but I'm tired of playing along. I figure if I finally agree, perhaps you'll lose interest and leave me alone.” Hawks opens and shuts his mouth a couple times. She's right, it did start as a game, mostly to annoy Endeavor cause that guy needed to fucking chill out. Over time though Hawks became genuinely excited to see Todoroki-san, tease her, and guess what her reaction would be that day. He never thought she'd say yes, but a guy can dream.

“Oh, uh. Ok, yeah great! I’ll make a reservation. Is Friday at 7pm alright?” “Fine.” She still had her eyes closed. After a beat of silence she opens them and pins him with a look. “However…” Hawks watches her face morph from disinterested to an almost evil looking smirk. He shivers, wandering if she used some of her quirk to freeze the air when making that face. “I’m leaving if you're even one minute late.” The silence that follows is palpable. Todoroki continues to sport her smirk, and Hawks regards her with a wary expression. Hawks prides himself on keeping his personal life very personal (which is easy when you have no life outside Hero-ing), but being ranked the Number 2 Hero means some of his habits will become common knowledge. Things like Endeavor's short temper, Best Jeanist’s obsession over appearance, Edgeshot’s need for disguise and keeping everything secret, All Might’s tendency to be really dorky, nothing that would take a genius to notice about these heros who are constantly in the limelight. Hawks’ biggest weakness that the entire world is aware of is punctuality. He can probably count on one hand the number of times he ever showed up on time for an event, and just forget about showing up early. It's the wings, he decided long ago; since he won't hit traffic if he flies, he always leaves late, which makes him get there late, which results in him just being late all the time. He also will always sidetrack if he notices villainy on his commute, which doesn't help his tardiness. Todoroki looks thoroughly pleased with herself. “I hope that isn't too difficult for the Number 2 Hero.” Tone sickeningly sweet as light gray eyes bore into him. He gulps then tries to put on a signature charming grin. “Not at all!” Her smirk widens a little, enough to show Hawks she wasn't falling for it. “As they say, ‘be there or be square’.” “You're lucky the saying doesn't mean literally becoming square, Hawks-san.” Ouch. She's lucky she's cute. He holds his index fingers and thumbs into a square shape over his face and winks. “Even if I were a square, I’d still be super handsome.” She rolls her eyes, Hawks’ favorite reaction to pull from her. She adjusts the purse straps on her shoulder, quickly glancing around the park to mentally count all her students were still where they needed to be. “Well, Hawks-san, you have my number already somehow…” He won’t tell her he snuck it from Endeavor's phone once while the hero was busy yelling at a server. He changed some of the contact names and put a selfie as the lock screen image; the fire hero’s reaction was priceless. “When you decide where to meet, please let me know. Until then, Hawks-san.” She nods politely before heading off towards the class, calling for their attention to let them know the short break was over. Hawks waves to some of the students who not so subtly point at him before he takes off. His mind wanders as his wings lead him through the air. How hard could being on time really be? --- Apparently it's super hard. Hawks wouldn't admit it out loud, but he's been stressing all week about the date. Sure, he's hooked up a handful of times during his Hero career, but the last real relationship he had was back in high school, and it wasn't terribly impressive. A huge downfall was his lack of time management. A major development was made last night in a case some big name heroes were brought in on, and he was out until 6 in the morning working on the wrap-up paperwork. He passed out face down on his bed still in his gear, and woke up sore and groggy a few hours later. He wakes up just in time for a police meeting most of the other top heroes were attending. It's the first of monthly meetings where they'll converse and draft up proposals for new laws surrounding quirk use and Hero-ing since All Might’s retirement. Hawks groans loudly as he gets up, the meeting starts in 6 minutes meaning he'll be late. He desperately wants to shower but couldn't spare the time, already being in his hero outfit he does a quick once over before running to the balcony of his flat and jumping off. He lands at the police office 7 minutes late. “How nice of you to join us, Hawks.” The Best Jeanist drawls. He's unafraid of calling people out on their shit, a trait Hawks respects, even though it means being nagged about tardiness every time they meet. Hawks shoots finger guns at Jeanist, who merely shakes his head in response. “You look like shit, you're supposed to be the Number 2 Hero.” A deep growl pulls Hawks’ attention towards Endeavor. “Really? Cause I feel like a million yen. And I thought looking like shit was the duty of the Number 2 Hero.” He winks as Endeavor’s eye twitches, clearly about to scream but is interrupted by the head of police continuing the meeting. The meeting drags for hours and Hawks struggles to stay awake, contributing very little to the conversation. Thankfully no one points it out, and when it finally ends he makes a quick escape. Ok, I have 4 hours to get home, shower, get ready, and get to the restaurant on time. Piece of cake. Hawks mentally tallies everything to do as he lands back on his balcony and crawls through the bedroom window. He looks at his bed longingly. I have enough time to nap. --- Almost three hours and a half hours later Hawks finally wakes up, looks at the clock, and makes a mad dash out of bed to the shower.

The water is too cold but he was on a time crunch, quickly washing his face and body then hopping out. He brushes his teeth as he pulls up his pants, neglecting his hair since it'll get messed up flying anyway. There's no time to panic about what to wear, but thankfully they agreed on a more casual dining place. Black jeans, a dark blue button up, black loafers, and sunglasses for the trip over (it was annoying to fly without something covering his eyes). Not too shabby if say so myself. He grabs his bomber jacket, one of his few tops without holes for his wings specifically for use when he's trying to be discreet, and his dark green messenger bag before hurrying off the balcony once more. Hawks checks the time on his phone as he soars over building tops. Doing a swift once over of the area, he lands a touch-too-harshly in an alley a few stores down and removes the bright feathers from his wings until they're as small as possible, pulling the limbs tightly against his back. The feathers and shades are piled into the bag and he slides on his jacket while walking over to the restaurant. The winged hero stops in front of the entrance and is immensely proud of himself when he sees his phone read 6:53pm on the top of the screen. He ignores any passersby who stare when he does a small cheer. HA I can be punctual! Shit, I should tell Best Jeanist about this. Hawks strides inside when an alert beeps on his phone; there's a villain attack two blocks over and they're requesting backup. Most heroes keep their location on with the police app even when off-duty, which means whomever sent the alert knows the young hero is nearby and is logged in. Which further means he can't ignore it, not that he would anyway. A groan escapes his throat and Hawks wonders if the universe is conspiring against him. Now he has to rush over to this altercation but Fuyumi might not believe him if he sends her a text explaining the situation, after all he's very notorious for being late and getting sidetracked; it may just look like an excuse for not being there on time. He looks up to lock eyes with the polite hostess at the podium and an idea pops into his head. The hero smiles wide as he approached her. “Hello! Excuse me, but could you relay a message for me?” “Of course, sir. Are you supposed to be meeting with a 'female colleague’ and need to stay discreet? We can seat you in the back away from windows and let her know.” The woman nods sympathetically. Hawks drops his smile and confusion blankets his expression. “What? No. I have to do something for work, but could you tell a woman with white hair with red flecks in it that I'll be back as soon as I can be? The reservation is under ‘Takasu’.” The woman nods along to his message, making a small note to herself next to the reservation name. “Also, please be specific on the time I was here. Thank you!” Hawks gives her no time to respond before rushing out the door and running down the street towards the incident. He scrambles with removing his jacket from under his bag strap as he bolts down the block, maneuvering out of the way of people fleeing the area. Though he was much faster in the air, Hawks had very good cardio and could move fairly fast on the ground. He skids to a halt right at the end of the targeted location the same moment he successfully removed the jacket. “Hey there!” Hawks shouts at the one individual standing, given their position over a couple unconscious people he recognized as lower rank heroes it was safe to assume they were the evil-doer. The villain stands at a hulking size and snarls at him. “Mind if I cut in?!” He tosses the contents of the bag out and hundreds of crimson feathers fly out at the villain. They scream out as the quills surround and cut them while Hawks throws his jacket and bag on the ground against the wall, no time to spare thought on worrying if that'll dirty them. He's about to move closer when there's a distortion wave ebbing from the villain. They split apart into three distinctly different looking people, and all of them look pissed . “Well, that's an interesting quirk.” Hawks mumbles. “This is going to be more of a pain than I thought...” Two of the villains charge forward, one has claws flashing and the other has a murky looking fog pouring out of his hands. Hawks stands his ground until they get closer, waiting until the last second and... now! He jumps overhead just high enough to kick the one with claws in the face. With his wings at their reduced size he can't really fly but he can still gain some air. The clawed lady goes down easy, blood trickling down her face most likely from a broken nose. The man with the fog blasts a cloud at Hawks, who narrowly lands on his feet ducking out of the way. He dashes closer and punches the man square in the chest, knocking him off his feet. Hawks inhales as he rounds towards the third villain to see the large woman is… absorbing his feathers?? with a fiendish smile on her face. The mental connection with them becomes fuzzy, and he grimaces, realizing he can't really control them if they're protruding out of the woman's arms and torso by the power of her own quirk. “Hey! Give those back, I need them!” The winged hero knows it's pointless to complain, but dammit that was a dick move. The woman laughs with a husky voice before nodding behind him. He whips around just in time to see a cloud of smoke hit him right in the face. Hawks coughs into his fist a few times and takes a few steps back, but the cloud dissipates almost instantly. He cautiously eyes the man on the ground who looks completely out of breath before flicking over to the absorber woman. “Um?---” Hawks starts, but suddenly his ears ring harshly and his own voice felt far too loud. He clutches them and winces in pain. “How’da’ya like that, hero scum…” The man coughs out before dropping his head and arm back down, clearly not able to stand up yet since getting punched. The man’s voice booms and it hurts so damn much. In fact the noise is so loud Hawks is sure one could see the sound waves bouncing around the alley like whenever Present Mic uses his quirk. Or so he thinks if he could open his eyes; he tried but suddenly it's far too bright everywhere. His eardrums feel like he has his head pressed against speakers at a concert and his eyes feel like he's staring directly at the sun. What the hell? Why is everything so loud and bright?! Footsteps approach him, and the noise echoes unforgivingly around him. Hawks gasps and holds the sides of his head even tighter. The footsteps move past him, and there's a loud chiming in front of him where the man was lying. “We don't got time to deal with ya, youngster.” Hawks took offense to that jab, but not as much as his ears took to the volume it was said at. The footfall moves even further and then another chiming sounds off over by the claw woman. Hawks grits his teeth, trying in vain to pry his eyes open to watch where they were going. The hero curses mentally, he's supposed to be the Number 2 and he fell for such a rookie mistake. Focus, damnit, open your eyes!! It is not pleasant forcing his eyes open slowly, but he clenches his jaw and deals. His vision is spotty but he can make out the silhouette of the oversized combined villain. Hawks tries to advance toward them, but sliding his foot forward makes his leg tremble and ache from the vibrations. Fuck I can't even move?? The villain must've noticed his suffering, and laughed a warped sound. “Nice try, kid, but ya senses are so sensitive, it's like ya’a baby chickie again!” He frowns deeply at that joke, but notices the sound didn't hurt quite as much that time, which must mean the effects are wearing off. Hawks figures to beat them they'll need to split again, but before he can do that he'll need to stall until he can properly move. The winged hero slowly steps closer, grinding his teeth together as the vibrations creep up his legs with such force he's surprised he hasn't collapsed. The laughing from the villain stops, and they grumble. “Back down, kid, or else…” The villain hisses, clearly annoyed he hasn't given up yet. Hawks sticks his tongue out, a petty act but it does it’s job. “Alrighty then, tried to warn ya, chickie…” They stomp towards him, the sound loud even without the added shockwaves the quirk caused. Hawks is violently grabbed by the collar and hoisted into the air, despite not getting hit yet he body protests in pain. He snaps his eyes closed, sharply inhaling in preparation for how badly the incoming hit will sting, when something tickles the back of his mind. He opens his eyes wide and blinks his vision into focus rapidly. The vibrant feathers stuck to the absorber woman are twitching ever-so-slightly. Hawks wastes no time and wills them forward back to his wings, and they shake so hard they distort the space around them. The villain quickly looks down and drops him onto the ground to throw both hands on the quills to keep them in place. The wind is knocked out of Hawks so hard when he lands on his back he thinks his lungs turned inside-out. Thankfully the quills keep moving, and suddenly the same warped distortion from when he first attacked duplicates resulting in the three people splitting again. The claw woman falls face first, still unconscious, the fog man falls onto his hands and knees, and the absorber woman falls backwards on her bottom. His feathers drift lazily to the ground around them all in a flurry of red. "The hell was that??!” Fog man coughs. The large woman groans trying to get up. “I had too much stuff, I wasn't expectin' all them feathers to move on their own!” Fog man crawls forward and puts his hand right in front of Hawks’ face. “Ya wanna play kid? Fine, I’ll make ya so sensitive you'll BEG for death when I'm done beatin’ ya!” “Aren't you..ngh...gonna buy me dinner first?” Hawks grumbles cheekily. The man yells an angry, ugly scream and is about to blast more fog when feathers fly directly into his face and throw him several feet away into a dumpster with such force he dents it. Finally. The absorber woman stumbles up and rushes to him, before rounding back and stomping on Hawks’ chest. The hero wonders if the quirk also made his skin and bones more delicate, because the sensations shooting through his body makes him think his entire rib cage was just crushed. The woman kicks and stamps him repeatedly in the sides, in the face, the legs, Hawks can't really keep track because the shock waves of agony racking his entire body feel absolutely torturous. He kind of wants to cry, but he can do that on his own time. The woman seems to tire easily and huffs and heaves as she stumbles away to collect her co-conspirators again. A loud buzzing stops her in her tracks and she locks eyes with Hawks. The look on her face says she knows more help is on the way. “You got a phone?? Shit! ” She turns so fast back towards the fog man she didn't notice she was rushing straight into another wall of red feathers. They dash past her with such force she falls backwards and --- Lands right on Hawks. Man, fuck today. He decides to lie there and wait for that back up, more so because he can't really move with the husky woman on top of him and his various injuries rather than because he wants to. A few short minutes later there are a handful of cops charging down the alley, securing the area, handcuffing and dragging the villains away, and helping Hawks and the other heroes up. He doesn't want to deal with statements, embarrassed he struggled so much with the situation but that's what he gets for charging in blindly on foot. The lead cop eyes Hawks warily as he pats some dust off his reformed wings. “Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital? We can call an ambulance?” “Nah, it's ok.” His voice is raspy and he really wants water. “I'm fine, promise.” He tries to smile reassuring but knows it falls short. Thankfully the cop just nods stiffly and lets him leave. Hawks goes to collect his things on his way out of the alley, sighing when he sees how grimy they got. He stuffs the jacket in the bag and slings the strap over his shoulder while walking sluggishly back towards the restaurant. His body is sore but compared to the overbearing suffering the weird fog quirk earlier caused he's feeling a lot more normal now. Physically anyway, mentally...Hawks is honestly afraid to check his phone and see how late he is. Sucking in a deep breath he keeps one eye open while clicking a button to light up the screen. It reads 8:23pm in the most mocking tone possible from a phone screen. The winged hero throws his head back and groans loudly. There's no way Todoroki-san’s still around. I can't blame her though, I didn't even send her a message myself. Maybe she never showed up...being stood up would be a little less worse than making her wait almost an hour and a half without a word. He continues down the street with a frown plastered on his face. It feels pointless to go all the way back, but he needs to see for himself she wasn't still waiting. Then he can fly home to shower and sulk in peace. “Oh my God, Hawks-san?!” A feminine voice exclaimed loudly with a gasp. He looks up and his breath catches in his throat. Standing in front of him is Todoroki Fuyumi, with her hair down long, in a comfortable red dress that stopped right above the knee, black flats, and a light gray cardigan with 3/4 sleeves. One of her hands is clenching her purse strap and the other is clasped over her mouth, wide eyes roaming over his body. She looks beautiful...I mean she always looks amazing but, wow. Despite his heart hammering and his face heating up, guilt coiled in his stomach over how badly this all turned out. He tries to smile but winces slightly. The action doesn't go unnoticed. “Hey, Todoroki-san…” His voice sounds hoarse and miserable. There's a brief pause, before she surges towards him, firmly grabs his wrist, and drags him behind her as she walks urgently towards the closest convenience store. Hawks’ wrist is freezing where she holds him, and he looks down to see a small dusting of frost on their skin. Fuyumi leads them down the aisles straight to the medicine, grabs a basic looking first aid kit and regards him hastily before also grabbing wet wipes and painkillers. Hawks reaches over to carry the items and she just brushes his hand away. “At least let me pay for that stuff…” His voice sounds a little more whiny than he likes. She purses her lips before agreeing. “Fine, but I'm carrying them.” She reaches into a cooler to grab a bottle of water. They approach the counter where they get a well-deserved confused look from the clerk. Fuyumi awkwardly focuses her gaze down and Hawks gives a forced smile, fully aware of how terrible he must look. Thankfully the clerk doesn't say anything and bags the items. Right before they finished Hawks glanced at the various candies by the register, and tosses a small bag of Hi-chews on the counter with the various medical supplies. He pays and immediately Fuyumi is dragging him off again in the direction of the nearest bench outside. They sit and she wastes no time opening packages and offering him two tablets of the painkillers. He tosses them back with a swig of water. A few minutes go by before anything is said. Fuyumi is gently dabbing antiseptic on the few scraps and cuts on his cheek and hands while Hawks stays perfectly still, not even flinching from the slight burn it left behind. “You're a much better patient than my father or brothers are.” Fuyumi finally supplies. She peers up at him before focusing her attention back on wrapping up his bruised wrist. He opens his mouth to make a flirty joke, before deciding against it. “Yeah well, I look a lot worse than I feel.” Hawks shrugs instead. She gives him a flat look. “Honest! Don't get me wrong it hurt like a bitch at the time, but they really didn't hit that hard, it was just the effects of a quirk.” “A quirk did this??” Her eyebrows go up to her hairline in shock. Hawks gives a brief explanation about the event, trying not to go too into detail on a case with a civilian. “Sensory overload fog? That sounds... terrifying, and horrible.” He sighs a little. “Yeah, definitely on my top 5 of 'least favorite villain quirks’ I've dealt with.” There's a small lull in conversation as Fuyumi packs up the first aid kit. Hawks wipes excess filth off his face and arms with the wet wipes, furrowing his brow over how ineffective they are on his shirt. He clears his throat before finally asking the question that's been nagging at the back of his mind this entire time. “So, uh, you stayed even though I was more than a minute late?” Fuyumi doesn't reply at first, simply smoothing out her dress before placing her hands on her lap. “I got your message from the hostess, I assumed it was urgent and last minute if you couldn't send a text. She did include you were there before 7. Plus...I was worried.” “Sorry I didn't tell you directly…” Hawks rubs the back of his neck. “It's alright, I'm very used to how sporadic the Hero life can be...” He winces at her clipped tone, knowing it wasn't really directed at him but still feels crummy. “Sorry, that was a little harsher than I meant.” “No, no, I deserve it. I made you wait a long time, but…” Hawks attempts to maintain eye contact, yet shies away, instead closing his eyes with a wide grin. “I’m really happy you decided to stick around, thanks for your help.” The corners of her lips turn up softly. “I knew when I agreed to go on a date with you I was going to have to wait.” “WOW!” She laughs at his exclaim, but he can't bring himself to mind. “Well, I am very sorry about that.” “Don't be, surprisingly this isn't even the worst date I've been on.” Fuyumi adjusts her glasses with this self-deprecating emotion on her face. “One time I agreed to go on a blind date a friend set up, and the guy spent the entire time talking about his ex.” “What a jackass!” “I know!” She chuckles then leans closer to speak in a lowered voice. “Another guy I meet at a bookstore asked me on a coffee date, I agreed and he brought his wife with him.” Hawks’ jaw dropped at that one. “They wanted to ask me how I felt about threesomes...” “Well...how do you feel about them?” She shoves his shoulder. “I’m serious, it's important.” Hawks continues with a fake stern expression. “Is your wife asking you to find out?” “Just for my general knowledge.” Fuyumi rolls her eyes but can't quite hide the smile on her face. He laughs before cupping his hand around his mouth to whisper. “Honestly it might be a good thing we didn't go to that restaurant. When I asked the hostess to take that message I’m pretty sure she thought I was meeting my mistress and offered to cover for us.” She snorts loudly into her hand. “What? No! I heard such good things about that place!” They both laugh for a few moments longer. Hawks reaches into the shopping bag and pulls out the candy he bought, opening it and offering one to Fuyumi. “What is that?” He looks between her and the candy bag a couple times. “You’ve...never had a Hi-chew before?” She shakes her head slowly. “Do you eat candy?” “Junk food and snacks were never allowed in the house growing up… at this point I’m so used to it I've never really tried any on my own time.” She shrugs awkwardly. Hawks observes the candy in his hand for a moment before making up his mind. “Todoroki-san? If you'd give me a chance I'd like to try and salvage this date.” She cocks her head. “Well, I suppose...what exactly did you have in mind?” She yelps softly when Hawks hopped to his feet and pulled her up with him. “Hey, wait, where are--- back to the convenience store?” The winged hero marches them back over to the store heading right towards the candy aisle. He turns on his heel to face her with a grin. “Grab literally anything that looks interesting.” The young woman merely blinks a couple times. “Seriously, my treat! Do you like chocolate, or fruity flavors? Spicy?” He gestures at the rows of candy, seeing she was still confused he just starts grabbing stuff to hold up. “Have you ever had pocky?” She shakes her head. “You've never had pocky?? ” He whispers in awe as he grabs two boxes, before moving along and holding up other stuff. Soon she starts reading labels before timidly grabbing something, looking at him to make sure it was ok. He nods enthusiastically, and from there they both start to scour the aisle for a small collection of candy Hawks knows he likes and candy Fuyumi decided to try. He waltzes over to the coolers, looking over the drinks. “I’m assuming if candy and junk food weren't allowed sodas and energy drinks weren't either?” He looks over his shoulder to see her nod once. “Want to try one?” She purses her lips as she walks closer to also examine the options. Fuyumi points at one and looks at Hawks for his opinion. “Mitsuya cider? It's pretty good, like a blend of ginger ale and lemon-lime.” “Are those...good?” “I think you'll like it.” He opens the door and grabs a bottle as well as a bottle of melon soda. “If you don't, I'll finish it for you!” The hero flashes her a toothy smile and relishes in the slight flush it causes on her face. They head to the register and the same clerk from earlier is there with an even more confused look. Fuyumi looks down again and Hawks grins largely. “Hello again!” The clerk smiles back apprehensively before scanning the various snacks and piling them into a bag. Hawks pays for this trip as well, and they two leave the store again. “Hm… I have a suggestion, but I'm not sure you'll like it.” “That depends what it is.” “I could fly us to the destination, but…” They both look over his clothes which have a decent amount of dirt on them. “...I wouldn't want to ruin your outfit, you look rather lovely.” Fuyumi’s cheeks redden slightly. “I'm sure you looked better before you got beat up.” “I did not get beat up, I won, thank you very much.” She giggled behind a hand, clearly not believing him. “Well...I don't mind my clothes getting dirty, after all I can always wash them later.” She shyly tucks her hair behind her ear and Hawks is so damn smitten he momentarily forgets to reply. “However...are you well enough to fly carrying another person? I might be too heavy…” Hawks wonders if his ears suffered permanent damage from earlier. “Pfft, no, no way you are not too heavy for me to carry. Don't worry, I said before it looks worse than it feels! I can very easily fly with you and a bag of candy in my arms.” The young hero flutters his brilliantly colored wings and flexes his arm with a wink, highly enjoying the blush it causes on his companion’s face. Fuyumi eyes him warily for a second, before mumbling, “ok…” She takes the bag of candy and bag of medical supplies, then squeaks when Hawks scoops her off the ground into his arms and collects wind under his wings before lifting off the ground. Hawks bites his tongue, trying so hard not to tease her especially since he can feel the young woman’s eyes glaring holes into him. The temptation really is too great. “Did you squeak?” “Shut.Up.” Fuyumi grits out. He spares a glance down and sees her entire face is cherry red. He only laughs a little as he flies them to their destination, and she patiently waits until he lands on a rooftop before smacking his arm. Doing a quick once over, Hawks is happy he hardly dirtied her outfit at all, even if she insisted earlier it would be fine. He takes the bags from her before moving a few steps ahead. “Over here, Todoroki-san.” He waves her over while moving to sit on the ledge of the building. Fuyumi cautiously approaches and gasps at the view. They're high up on some business building right over the heart of Musutafu’s downtown shopping district. With the sun set, you can clearly see all the neon lights of the night life flashing from below. “Wow...it's amazing.” “I like to come up here and people watch sometimes. It's also a good spot to scout when I'm bored at night and want to keep an eye out for any incidents.” Hawks pats the spot next to him for her to sit. Fuyumi sits down but keeps her feet on the roof instead of dangling off the edge like Hawks. “It's a nice view.” He watches her as her eyes scan the different scenes down below, gray eyes filled with wonder. Yeah it is. “Anyway, I was thinking we could sit up here, chat, and enjoy the view for a bit someplace far away from your dad so you can eat candy in peace.” He scratches the back of his head nervously. “I know it's kind of lame and a spur of the moment decision, so if you're not interested ---” “No, I would like that very much.” Fuyumi interrupts with a bashful smile and pink cheeks. Hawks briefly forgets how to breathe so instead he nods quickly. The hero grabs the bag of candy and places it between them, encouraging Fuyumi to try this and that and tell him her opinions. Overall the candy haul was a success; Fuyumi really likes chocolate but doesn't like sour chews too much. They talk about random topics such as things they notice happening down below, their careers, food, and other miscellaneous subjects. Fuyumi pulls another matcha dipped pocky out of the box. “This is the last one, did you want it?” “Nah, it's ok.” Hawks answers easily after knocking back the rest of his soda. “Are you sure? You seemed to like this flavor and I ate most of the chocolate ones...” She looks a little hesitant to take it, probably feeling guilty eating so much sugar. Hawks puts the bottle back into the bag to recycle later and jokes, “We could always play the pocky game.” “'Pocky game’?” Hawks tenses when he realizes he said that out loud, and that he'll definitely have to explain what it is. Fuyumi has proven to be quite stubborn, a trait he imagines is commonplace in the Todoroki household. “Um.” He awkwardly starts. “Um?” Fuyumi leans a little closer. “I think there must be more to this game than 'um’.” The winged hero dares to make eye contact and regrets it quickly, coming face-to-face with a devilish smirk, the same one Fuyumi wore earlier in the week when she gave her ultimatum for this date. Hawks would much prefer an eye roll right now, he's an expert on Todoroki Fuyumi eye rolls. Evil smirks though? Not so much. “It's uh, y’know, just a stupid middle school game.” He chokes out, trying to think of a way to change the subject. “Is it? Because you look uncomfortable all of a sudden. I'm curious how innocent this suggestion of yours really is...” Fuyumi tilts her face down just enough so she can peer up at Hawks from under her white lashes. This is another expression Hawks has no expertise on. He considers just grabbing the offending biscuit stick and chucking it off the roof, but that would just open a new line of questioning. Hawks decides there's no escape and clears his throat. “One person puts one end of the pocky in their mouth and another person puts the other end in their mouth, and you try to be the last person to back away. It uh, usually results in a kiss.” His face feels very warm, even all the way up on the rooftop with the chilly night breeze. “Think 'Lady and the Tramp’ dinner scene.” Fuyumi looks down, white and red flecked hair covering her face. “Oh...I see.” “Mhm.” Hawks hums in response. Well I blew it...and it felt like I was doing so well fixing this too. “...I suppose if you bring a box of chocolate pocky to our next date, I'll consider playing this game.” She lifts her head and takes a bite of the matcha flavored stick she’s holding, keeping her tone playful despite how pink her cheeks are turning. Hawks’ eyes widen. “...wait, next date?? ” “If you want I mean ---” “Yes!” He interrupts too excitedly but he doesn't care. He still doesn't care when she laughs at his eagerness. “On one condition…” She narrows her eyes and points the biscuit in his face. “I will actually leave if you show up late, appropriate excuse or not.” The winged hero searches her eyes to see she means it. He licks his lips before launching forward to take a bite of the pocky before Fuyumi can pull it away. She mock gasps at the chunk he took, but giggles too hard to be convincing that it really annoyed her. “Deal.” Hawks winks. “‘Be there or be square’, right?” “You are a square.” The patented Todoroki Fuyumi eye roll. “But you better be there this time.” Hawks definitely plans to be there, potential hero crises be damned.

#fuyumi x hawks #huwumi #first date #minor blood and injuries #swearing #pocky game #fluffy #rating: t #tinglecannon

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raptorginger · 6 years

Text

Chemistry & Conservation: Chapter 15 - Dark, or So Long and Goodnight

The Chem Lab had been mercifully empty when she punched in around 11:00PM. In fact, the only other soul she’d seen in the building was a member of the custodial staff. Rey didn’t recognize him, she felt like she’d remember the janitor with a missing ear, but the guy had been in a jumpsuit and was crawling into an air duct near the lab. She could hear him clambering about in the ductwork, going about his business while she went about hers. Her tests went smoothly, and she made sure to save everything on her personal flashdrive as well as the University servers, just in case. The janitor was gone by the time she was done.

It was almost 2:00AM by the time Rey got back to her brownstone. She didn’t see Ben’s car parked on the road, so she guessed he decided to spend the night on his own. They did that sometimes. It was just as well; Rey had a lot on her mind. She set her flashdrive with her chemical test results on her kitchen table and sat, staring at it, as if willing it to speak.

Rey already knew what it would tell her. Snoke was a fraud, at least, his lineage was, and in all likelihood, he was the one that had manipulated the document. While some of the ink samples did indeed date to the tenth century, the ones from the area in question definitely did not. They were modern, and chemical analysis confirmed that the ink composition was not one that would have been found in the tenth century. In fact, the ink contained a compound that had only been developed in the last few years. Snoke had to have been the one that made the change.

Pushing away from the table and heading to her bathroom, Rey had to ponder Snoke’s thought process. Why had he bothered to alter the document in the first place, much less donate it to the University? Was he really that proud, so sure in his position that it hadn’t even occurred to him that someone would find something off about the charter? Or if someone did, they’d overlook it, out of deference or fear of him?

Maybe Snoke was just insane, Rey thought as she turned on the taps and tugged the shower pull. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Shedding her clothes, she stepped into the hot spray. Rey hoped the water would help wash away her worry, but it wasn’t working. She rubbed her face, pulling her hands down her cheeks. Rey wrapped her arms around her middle, wishing Ren was there. Despite the hot water, she was cold. She was scared.

As if on cue, she heard the rat-a-tat-tat on the bathroom door that meant Ren was there. It was a signal they used if either of them entered the other’s home and they were occupied, so they didn’t freak out. Rey relaxed and started washing.

“Mmm, why bother getting clean when I’m just going to get you all dirty?” Ren purred as he stepped into the shower behind her, settling his large hands on Rey’s hips and pulling her back to him.

Rey sighed with a smile and leaned back into him, feeling his hardness press against her. One of his hands drifted up to stroke her breast as the other drifted lower, stroking her mound gently. Rey’s lips parted and she let out a soft moan as she felt Ren’s warm mouth at the sensitive juncture of her neck and shoulder.

“I missed you today,” he murmured against her skin, the fingers of one hand pinching and kneading the delicate skin of her nipple and the fingers of the other parting her flesh already slick with her want. Ren’s fingers teased her entrance while his thumb made circles around her clit. Rey’s moans grew into desperate cries as one of her hands grabbed at his hair, holding him to her shoulder while her other clutched at the hand on her breast.

Rey felt her knees weaken when he slipped one finger inside her then another, and they just about gave out when he started stroking her, feeling for that one spot that drove her to climax. He knew her body so well, she marvelled. She came quickly; apparently she missed him, too.

Ren held her close as she came, carefully working her body back down. Her bathtub was the antique clawfoot style, not conducive to shower sex. They didn’t make a habit of keeping condoms in the bathroom anyway. So, he patiently helped her finish washing, and then let her wash him. Rey paid extra attention to his throbbing cock, giving him a few languid strokes, teasing him until he growled at her to get out of the damn tub.

After they were dried off, Ren practically lunged at her, scooping her up quickly, carrying her into the adjoining bedroom, and throwing her on the bed. He opened the drawer in the bedside table, reached for the box he kept there, and reached in, finding it empty.

“Fuck!” he swore.

“What?” Rey asked, leaning up on one elbow.

“Damn box is empty. I forgot to bring more,” Ren growled, pulling at his hair. “God-fucking-dammit.”

“Ren…” Rey started. She bit her lip.

Ren looked at her. He couldn’t look at her. He turned and sat on the edge of the bed, hands braced on his knees. God, he was such an idiot. And he couldn’t ask her to let him… That was almost too intimate.

“Come inside me, Ren. Please,” she said quietly.

He turned his head, looking at her over his shoulder, a desperate look on his face. “Rey, that’s not...we don’t have to...Goddammit.” He held his head in his hand.

Rey got off the bed and stood in front of him, placing her hand under his chin. Urging him to look at her, she said firmly, “I want you to. I trust you, Ren. Besides, we’re both clean and I’m on birth control. You know that.”

Ren wrapped his arms around her middle, pulling her between his legs. He looked up at her like the goddess she was as she stroked the side of his face. Rey straddled him carefully as his hands firmly grasped her ass, holding her secure. Bracing her hands on his broad shoulders, Rey carefully raised herself and brought herself back down, grinding on his cock as she did so. She gasped at the pleasure of rubbing herself on him and sped up her pace.

“Oh God, Rey, you’re so wet. You feel so good. Sweetheart, please,” Ren begged.

Rey blushed lightly at the endearment, and it wasn’t often she got him to beg. “Please what?” she whispered in his ear.

“Please let me come inside you,” Ren cried as is fingers dug in to the skin of her backside.

In response, Rey raised herself up a little higher and slowly lowered herself onto him. They both cried out at the sensation. He felt so good inside her like this. She dropped her head to his shoulder as she felt her inner muscles adjust around him. She felt Ren’s hands running up her back, pressing her closer. She arched her back, which repositioned him inside her so he was hitting her g-spot. Rey cried out and began grinding her hips. Ren took one of her nipples in his mouth and began to nip and lick as she rode him.

“Shit, baby you feel so good,” Ren moaned against her heated skin.

“You...too…” Rey cried out between thrusts. She was getting so close. Her nails dug into his shoulders as she rode him faster, feeling her muscles begin to tense.

“Come for me, Rey. I need to feel you come around my cock.”

Rey whimpered when her orgasm hit her, and she felt herself clamp down around him. The sensation of her muscles working to take him deeper brought Ren to his own climax soon after. Letting out a low groan, he felt himself release inside her, his fluid coating her inner walls. Rey fell limp against him, and he held her closer.

Ren could feel their combined fluids flowing out of her and onto him, and he carefully lifted her off of him. He grabbed some tissues from the box beside the bed and gently cleaned her up before he cleaned himself. Rey was breathing heavily on his shoulder, and with some difficulty, he managed to get her under the covers before crawling in next to her. She was asleep before he switched off the lamp and pulled her into his arms.

***

Ren was at the Lab early the next morning and on his third Venti coffee. He cursed whoever was running a test that made a beep sound every thirty seconds. He checked the Lab logs like he did every morning to see if anyone had been here last night. He pulled out his phone.

Ren: <What were you doing in the Lab at 11:07PM until 1:47AM last night?>

Rey: <Snoke accosted me at my Lab yesterday. I panicked and ran my tests last night when no one was around.>

Ren: <Holy shit! What’d they say?>

Rey: <I don’t want to have this convo over text, Ren>

<Maz’s for lunch?>

God that beeping was really annoying. He looked around the room to see where it was coming from, but couldn’t pinpoint it. His team had their heads bent over computer screens and lab equipment. He frowned. Weird.

Ren: <Well, yeah, definitely now>

Rey: <Umm, what?>

Ren: <That’s the only other person who keyed into the building last night. She’s a custodian, remember, the one who leaves cookies?>

Rey: <No, she wasn’t here. She must have let another guy use her code or something>

Ren: <Umm, okay. And Rey, they hire people from outside to come do that stuff>

Rey: <Well, he was definitely there, crawling into the ductwork by the Lab>

Ren: <At night. By himself>

Rey: <Yeah…>

A sickening feeling crept into the pit of Ren’s stomach. The beeping was coming faster now. He looked up towards the climate controlled room. Snoke had gone to see Rey yesterday. Ren knew Hux had had a meeting with him earlier that day too. Had he mentioned Rey’s work in the Con Lab? Hux couldn’t see past his own nose, but Snoke wasn’t an idiot.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Everyone out now!” Ren screamed as a bright flash and a loud roar engulfed them all.

#reylo #reylo fanfic #fanfiction #modern au #reylo modern au #rey #bensolo #ben x rey #university au #professor/professor #fluff #smut #multipart #chem & con #the secret's in the telling

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ds4design · 8 years

Text

Router assimilated into the Borg, sends 3TB in 24 hours

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"Well, fuck."

Harsh language was appropriate under the circumstances. My router had just been hacked.

Setting up a reliable home network has always been a challenge for me. I live in a cramped three-story house and I don't like running cables. So my router's position is determined by the fiber modem. In a corner on the bottom floor. Not long after we moved in, I realized that our old Airport Extreme was not delivering much signal to the attic, where two game-obsessed occupants fought for bandwidth.

I tried all sorts of things. I extended the network. I used ethernet-over-powerline connectors to deliver network access. I made a mystic circle and danced naked under the full moon. We lost neighbors, but we didn't gain signal.

Eventually, I gave in to the inevitable. After some research, I purchased a router that, I was told, would probably deliver useable signal to the outer reaches of the solar system. And it worked. The Netgear R6400 left only one place in the house with little-to-no reception. But, crucially, my wife and son were happy gamers upstairs, <Netflix flixxed, and Youtube tubed. Life was sweet.

Then, sometime in January, I came home to find my boy Adrian with his face in a book. Adrian reads a lot, but there is a time and place for everything, and this was gaming time and gaming place. "How's it going, Adrian?"

"Oh, good. I gave up gaming. I kept getting kicked. Even downstairs."

I attributed that to a busy server somewhere. My connection seemed good, and no one else was complaining. A few days later, my daughter Jennifer was home from school sick. She sent me a message saying that her laptop couldn't connect to the network. I talked her through a bit of trouble shooting, and, after restarting the router, all seemed to be right again.

I was troubled, though. Adrian had basically given up on gaming, but Netflix worked, and no one else seemed to be having problems.

I looked at the router settings, and they seemed OK. The router showed no interference from competing networks, but the amount of traffic it logged was suspiciously high. Or was it? I'd never tracked my household traffic before, so I couldn't be sure that what I was looking at wasn't the normal combined Youtube and Netflix usage of five people plus regular visitors.

In fact, interpreting the data use was more difficult than it should have been. My computer was confused about how numbers should be displayed. Applications that pay proper attention to the system settings use a point as the decimal place and a comma for separating thousands, millions, etc. Applications that only pay attention to my location use a comma for a decimal point and dot to separate thousands and millions. (This discrepancy can probably be attributed to me being a New Zealander living in the Netherlands.) So either the router had logged terabytes of traffic in the last period, or it had logged almost nothing.

I knew I would have to investigate. But I travel a lot for work, so finding time was difficult.

Suddenly, connecting to the network in the attic was impossible again. I couldn't figure out why. Then I noticed that my phone was randomly connecting and disconnecting from the network. A few days later, I got a message from T-Mobile saying that I'd used all my mobile data for the month. For the remainder of the lunar cycle, I would be reduced to data delivered by drunken sloths. This had happened before, but I'd been traveling a lot then, and I had been careful when traveling ever since—the sloths had caused fellow passengers to complain. In any case, I knew it was time to pull finger and do somethingTM.

Events intervened, and I was forced to delay doing anything useful. But everyone in the house was getting increasingly frustrated with the network. Then, on my way home from work one Friday, Donna told me that absolutely nothing in the house could connect to the network. And now she couldn't do her work. Deadlines were being crossed, and it wasn't her that was going to be dead. I got the message.

I arrived home that Friday night to find a house full of disconnected family members. Then, bizarrely, upon my arrival, everything connected. I ran a speed test from my computer and Donna's phone at the same time. On average, we obtained 150 percent of our maximum-rated upload and download speed. I declared there to be no problem right now. We decided to watch a show on Netflix while I kept an eye on networking performance.

To do this, I installed Peakhour. It found the router and started displaying traffic. It didn't look like much. Netflix started streaming, which caused a small bump in traffic. But traffic swiftly flattened out to background value. As I watched an old Star Trek episode and the network traffic, I contacted the Orbiting HQ for advice on how to figure out if my router (or anything else) had been hacked.

"When the police arrest your for distributing child porn" was the helpful response.

In the meantime, the total amount of data that I'd transmitted crept up, and Netflix choked on a particularly painful Wesley Crusher moment. That's when the first useful suggestion came from the collective Ars brain: a stranger had probably managed to connect to our wifi.

I know our neighbors, and I didn't think that was likely. But a huge number of devices were connected to the router, so I couldn't be sure. We turned off everything that could be turned off and slept everything that could be slept. That left a couple of unknown devices, which I kicked off the network.

Nothing changed. In the first half hour or so that I'd been monitoring, I'd transmitted 25GB of data. By the time everything else had been disconnected from the router and I'd checked that the TV software was up to date, I'd logged 188GB of data (up and down combined).

Meanwhile, Eric, our managing editor, had dug up an article from December disclosing a vulnerability in my router. The command that was supposed to kill the problem... didn't. Later, I discovered that if the command didn't work, you were already patched. Not only that, the only way to distribute the hack was for someone on our internal network to visit a dodgy website.

Lee suggested that I install DD-WRT. A quick search of DD-WRT's online database suggested that my router wasn't supported.

Also, there had been a firmware update since the hack was reported, and I'd conscientiously installed it. An Internet search didn't provide any hint of any other problems. The collective wisdom dictated that restoring factory settings might solve the problem, and it was about the only thing I could do in any case.

Fast forward another 45 minutes. The router was reset, and the network was set up again. By the time I was done messing around, Peakhour had my traffic clocked at 470GB. But I'd gotten rid of the problem (or so I thought). The next morning, before I left for the weekend, I checked: the total traffic was at around 500GB. Maybe I'd defeated the hackers.

That night, I heard from Donna. She'd been monitoring traffic, which was now over 3TB. And, just to make sure we had no doubt, devices were dropping off the network again.

The factory reset had not worked.

When I got home, I put the Airport Express back in place. And, in the following four days, a whole 12GB of traffic was recorded. Of course, wifi coverage upstairs was terrible. Discontent filled the air.

I examined the router logs of the R6400 and discovered that it had been contacting an NTP server just about as fast as it could. Evidently, my router was being used to DDOS someone (sorry, whoever you are). This, as far as I can tell, has not been reported anywhere. I don't have the skills to analyze the hack properly. And, to be frank, I just wanted my router back, which I still wasn't ready to give up on.

After some searching, I discovered that the DD-WRT database isn't very good, and a firmware update was available for my router model. I downloaded it, read the instructions, and followed them. Half an hour later, I had my router back on line and was monitoring traffic: silence. When my computer was idle, the router logged almost no traffic. I kept a close eye for another 30 minutes before deciding that the router was off the botnet. I could set up my home network again.

DD-WRT is not the friendliest bit of software, but I managed to fumble my way through to get everything up and running. Except for the 5GHz radio, which remained stubbornly off. I went back to the DD-WRT stock of firmware and discovered that I could update to a new version. Unfortunately, this time I did not read the instructions as carefully...

And then I had a brick. Admittedly, it is a brick that is no longer part of a botnet, but it is also not very useful either. After more searching, I discovered that I could, apparently, fix the problem by connecting to the router through the JTAG port on the router's motherboard. By this time, though, I would have just as soon stabbed myself in the eyeball with a fork. It would save time and hurt less.

So the Airport Extreme is back in position, the R6400 is in the garage with all the other bricks, and the attic is a (nearly) wifi-free zone again. Next time I'll just run cable.

I admit that I'm annoyed at myself, DD-WRT, and Netgear. I could have been more careful and not ended up with a brick. DD-WRT could have a simpler upgrade procedure. And Netgear could provide a secure router. I also discovered during this tribulation that I am not the only one who has experienced similar problems. Although there seems to be very little on the Internet, I discovered that other people in our neighborhood had had a similar experience. They, too, had been unable to remove their router from the botnet by using factory resets and manufacturer-provided firmware. They ended up replacing their routers.

Now, two experiences don't provide us with any statistics to rely on. But if my experience is common, then maybe manufacturers need to start producing a more extensive range of tools to recover hacked routers.

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jccamus · 8 years

Text

Router assimilated into the Borg, sends 3TB in 24 hours

reader comments 0

"Well, fuck."

Harsh language was appropriate under the circumstances. My router had just been hacked.

"Oh, good. I gave up gaming. I kept getting kicked. Even downstairs."

I was troubled, though. Adrian had basically given up on gaming, but Netflix worked, and no one else seemed to be having problems.

I knew I would have to investigate. But I travel a lot for work, so finding time was difficult.

"When the police arrest your for distributing child porn" was the helpful response.

Lee suggested that I install DD-WRT. A quick search of DD-WRT's online database suggested that my router wasn't supported.

That night, I heard from Donna. She'd been monitoring traffic, which was now over 3TB. And, just to make sure we had no doubt, devices were dropping off the network again.

The factory reset had not worked.

So the Airport Extreme is back in position, the R6400 is in the garage with all the other bricks, and the attic is a (nearly) wifi-free zone again. Next time I'll just run cable.

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