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murderdaddymayhem · 5 years ago

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One Of The Clan - Otis Driftwood x Male Reader

Synopsis: Otis comes out to the Firefly Family and tells them you're his boyfriend.

(Because who cares that they're a gross murder family, they're also really sweet with each other and super supportive so this is totally a thing, thanks)

Wanted to write more Otis x Male Reader for all you guys out there so here you go!! A cute emotional support fluff piece!!!!! (Also be warned there's like one mild slur but no homophobia or anything cause this fic is happiness only zone)

"How are you feeling?" you ask Otis, squeezing his hand. He looks over to you, sulking.

"Like a million fuckin' bucks, thanks for asking."

You shove him playfully, which turns into a dunking match. You finally see a smile clear up Otis' face, but it quickly disappears when he remembers what he's about to do.

Otis met you about a year ago, at a bar somewhere outside town. He had quickly discovered that you were different from other people in the area, just like him, and instead of taking you back to the house to Chik-Fil-A you, he ended up kinda... sorta... liking you.

You two had talked for hours, and he had felt more and more attracted to not only your appearance, but your personality. Otis was very selective about who he gave his time to, and you just turned out to be his favorite person to be around. Otis had brought you around the house a few times, and after a good few months of walking in on some form of anarchy, you had been accepted as a good friend of the family's.

Of course there was one thing that presented itself as an obstacle (at least for Otis). He was adamant that guys just didn't do things like this around here, that if anybody saw you two together, god forbid in public, you'd be strung up on Dr. Satan's hanging tree. You had insisted you cared for him enough to brave all that, and he cared for you too, so you had kept your relationship under wraps.

Until now.

Otis had said something the other day to you on one of your long drives together in your pickup. (It was a favorite date activity of the two of you, other than coming along for a night of murder and mayhem, to drive for hours out into the Texan desert listening to old 70s music, philosophizing, and talking about life.)

"What if my family doesn't want me around anymore if I tell em?"

You had turned off the engine, and sat there in the middle of the dusty plain, Gerry Rafferty's Right Down The Line playing on your beat up old car radio.

"Tell them what?"

Otis had sat there for a long time. "Y'know, about... this whole thing." You had waited expectantly for him to elaborate, since your talk about using words. Otis had huffed, rolling his eyes. "Us, okay! The two of us."

"I'm fairly certain that your family, who regularly chases people around in bunny onesies and holds ceremonial funerals for fun, wouldn't much care who you date or fuck."

Otis throws his head back against the seat. "Yeah but shit, this is different! They let me in, gave me a name I'm proud of, gave me a home. My own biological father used to beat me, call me less than shit, and all for..." He gestured to you and him. "For bein' me, I guess."

"It's fucked up," you say softly, taking his hand.

"Yeah, you got that fuckin' right handsome." He had wiped his eyes. "And them back home... hell. It'd be close to testing their kindness to tell them I'm a queer at this point."

A silence enveloped you both as you switched the radio off.

"Why don't you try?"

"They don't gotta know," Otis snapped, then looked at you, apology clearly written in his eyes. You had just nodded, used to his hurried responses.

"What I mean is... if you're ready... you might feel better finding out if they really are there for you."

He had looked at you, and you took off your shirt, handing it to him to dry his eyes. He used it, and tossed it back to you in a ball. You had laughed, and he had climbed on top of you in the driver's seat, sticking his knife in the seat recliner to make it flop down.

"Mmf," you had complained, his lips smothering yours, "Thanks for breaking my seat."

"Ain't nothing but nothing."

"Bu--"

"RJ can fix it," he had replied, before reaching down to your jeans.

Now, four days after that night, he decided he was ready.

Mostly.

Somewhat.

"You know, you don't have to do it today if you're not ready," you reassure him, but he takes your hand, grasping it tightly.

"Damn it all to hell if I haven't spent all morning working myself up to this. I'm not lettin' that go to waste."

With his usual headstrong determination, he walks through the front door of the house, past Baby's burnt doll collection. He walks on into the living room, where Mama's on the couch watching some show with Baby, Spaulding is in the kitchen, and Tiny is carving a pumpkin at the table.

"Otis, I love you honey, but get the hell outta the way," Mama says sweetly, "Svengoolie's on."

"Fuck Svengoolie," Otis responds, and Tiny looks up from his work at the table, unsettled. Otis holds up a reassuring hand to him, and Baby finally looks away from the TV.

"Brought your friend?" She lets out a giggle, and waves to you. You haven't told Otis, but you're convinced Baby knows about you two already.

"I've... got an announcement to make." Otis shifts around from foot to foot, still holding your hand. Seeing that Otis is serious, (and that he's holding your hand) Mama turns off the TV.

"Who turned off the god damn television? I was watching that," Spaulding comes walking out of the kitchen, scratching his back with a wooden cooking spoon. "Oh. Hiya, you two." He scratches his head with the spoon, raising his painted clown eyebrows when he notices Otis has now got your hand in a deathgrip. "Somethin' we oughtta know, or can we keep watching the show?"

"Daddy, Otis is in love," Baby coos.

"Hush now, angel, let Otis have his moment," Mama hushes, "Go on now, hun, tell us." Otis gives Baby the finger angrily. Baby sticks her tongue out at him in turn, and you shake your head.

"(y/n) and I... are..." He clears his throat about five times, and RJ comes in the door, making a racket.

"RJ, shut the door, Otis wants to tell us something real interesting!" Baby says. RJ frowns, looking over, and Otis rolls his eyes, trying to get back on track.

"We're..." Everyone in the room is hanging on the edge of their seat in anticipation. Even Tiny is sitting forward expectantly. "We're...."

"You're what? Spit it out boy, haven't got all day to listen to you goin' 'we're... we're...' like some kinda yokel fuckin idiot," Spaulding calls.

"Yeah!" Baby yells. Tiny nods.

"We're together, you impatient assholes!!" Otis blurts, holding you close to him, "This guy here. And me. We're together."

"Well, we can see you're--" Mama starts, then she has an epiphany. "OH! Oh my goodness..."

Everyone is quiet for a moment. Spaulding takes a deep breath, and drops the spoon. "I, uh..." he murmurs, "I'll be in the shop." Everyone waits, listening to him peel out of the yard in his car, and Mama waves a hand his way. Then she starts clapping.

"Oh, honey!!"

"I knew you swung different ways, big bro," Baby grins, jumping up and prancing around him, "But it's real swell that ya opened up that big mouth of yours and told us!" Tiny comes over and nearly crushes you and Otis together in a hug. Otis coughs a few times, and swats at him. RJ walks over, smiles a little (the most you'd ever seen him do so) and slaps you both on the back so hard it sends you stumbling. Then he leaves out back, off to do whatever the fuck he does.

"You guys... don't mind?" Otis asks, and you smile his way.

"Mind?! What the hell've we gotta mind about, you two are in loooove!" Mama shrieks. She gives you a huge hug and pinches your cheek. "Love is a beautiful thing that must be celebrated, no matter who it is between."

"Hey you must be real talented off your feet to net this one, if you know what I mean sugar," Baby says to you, and you blush as Otis glares.

"Cut it out."

"You cut it out!"

"Fuck you!"

You clear your throat, and Otis takes his place beside you again.

"And... what about Cutter?" Your boyfriend's voice wavers a little, and he probably hates himself for it. Spaulding is like a dad to him, even if the two are rarely on speaking terms.

"Don't know why daddy left," Baby shrugs. "Seems fucking weird."

"Don't pay no nevermind to that old clown," Mama huffs, "Actually-- you know what? I say we eat the dinner he cooked, then go out and pay him a visit, see just where his head's at. That ain't like him to just up'n leave like that."

"No, I--"

"Come on y'all, we's having a banquet then we’s goin' to the gas station!"

So, after a very nice dinner, everyone piles into the family car. You have to sit on Otis' lap to fit, which is okay with you and okay with him. Once you get to the gas station, Mama stomps out, ready to tear Spaulding a new one... but instead, she gasps.

"Oh, it's so bea-utiful!"

"Jesus Christ, woman, I wasn't even done," Spaulding comes out, complaining. Your face lights up as Otis' jaw hangs open. Tiny grins, and Baby squeals as you all gather around the shop that now has rainbow flags adorning everything.

"Oh my god," you whisper, chuckling, and Otis turns around, face red. He walks right back to the car and goes to get in, but everyone drags him back out.

"What do ya think?" the clown beams, "I'd say I outdid myself." He pulls the string on his skull bowtie, and goes "yaiyaiyaiyai."

"It's amazing," you tell him, "Thanks, Cap." He puts a hand on your shoulder.

"This is an event, son! This is a cause for goddamn celebration, ain't no way I'm gonna miss it." He turns to Otis. "Now I called Charlie, he's gonna bring the girls and the good shit then we're all gonna have a big party tonight."

"Aw shitfire," Otis mutters. Spaulding's eyes widen.

"I dare you to complain! You got no idea how hard it was to reach the ass-backwards fucker, let alone find all this multi-coloured bullcrap in rural Texas to build a shrine for your homo ass!"

"You didn't fuckin' have to, Cutter, I didn't specifically request you throw me a big fuckin' gay bash!"

"You-- shut the fuck up. Charlie's comin'."

"I hate Charlie, that fuckin' nutsack."

"Well he hates you too, but that's just cause you're an asshole."

"Not wrong," Baby hisses, dodging Otis' swipe. You nudge him.

"Your family's happy for you. This is better than what you were imagining would happen," you whisper to him, and he sighs, giving you one of those deep looks you know so well that conveys everything he's feeling to you without words. He hates attention, but deep down you know he loves feeling appreciated-- you know that from your own relationship experience with him.

A cop car suddenly comes driving by, and the window rolls down. You always get worried when that happens, but the others are used to it. Otis takes a few steps in front of you, protectively, and holds your hand.

"Hi there, folks," Wydell says, tipping his hat, "Just asking people in the area if they've seen a missing g--"

"Sheriff Wydell, you miserable motherfucker, GUESS WHAT?! " Spaulding yells, "My son got himself a BOYFRIEND! The anti social one?! Roped in this one right here, ain't he a looker?!" Mama nods excitedly, waving one of the little rainbow flags and pointing at you. The Sheriff awkwardly frowns, and nods slowly, noticing all the rainbow paraphernalia around the station.

"That's... real nice. Y-You folks... have a nice day, then..."

"Holy shit," Otis whines, wishing he could crawl underground to the family catacombs, and you kiss him on the cheek happily.

"Here," Spaulding starts passing greasy paper bags around to everyone. "Tasty fried chicken for everyone to get this shindig going!"

"Alright, fuck yeah," Baby giggles, and goes to dig inside for some booze as well.

"Your chicken is fucking disgusting," Otis mutters, handing his extra bag to Tiny, though he can't help but smile a little. Spaulding gets right in his face with a pointed finger.

"Boy, I'mma let you get away with your ass today, cause you're finally OUT OF THE CLOSET!"

"Announce it to the whole state of Texas, why don't you old man?" Otis retorts, hiding deeper in his plaid sweater. You have to laugh. Tiny joins in, grabbing a rainbow party blower and deafening everyone. He then picks you up and puts you on his shoulders, and starts dancing, poking Otis to join in.

"Oh, I... okay, stoppit, all of you, I just... alright, enough! Tiny, stop!"

"Ohh, but this is so exciting, baby!" Mama grins, trailing her flowy dress around.

"Hell yeah!" Baby calls from inside, coming out with armfuls of beer, "My brother's got himself a pretty boy, let's get fucked up and do fucked up shit!"

Tiny plops a rainbow party hat on top of Otis' head, and your boyfriend sighs.

"You know at this point, I would've preferred you kicked me out of the family or something."

"We'd never do that to ya, big bro," Baby smiles, leaning on his shoulder, "You're one of us." She turns to you. "And now it looks like you are too, (y/n)."

Otis looks at you in irritation. "Lucky for you, babe."

"I actually think I am pretty lucky," you smile, and embrace a big Firefly Family hug.

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therainroguefanfiction · 4 years ago

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🔥 ℝise Ⱥbove I̾t ◈ Chapter 037 [Awards Ceremony]

📑 Table of Contents | ◂Backward

Word Count: 3,710

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

〈“I wanna go to the other side; they have a club where the legends never die. ‘Cause I want everyone to know my name, And I’m ready to do what it takes to live forever in the hall of fame.” Smash Into Pieces, “Hall of Fame”〉

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

I stifled a yawn as I returned to class A’s seating area. Katsuki was missing, thankfully, probably getting ready for his next match. To be honest, I don’t feel like listening to him bitch about how I was disqualified. I’m already kicking myself because I want to fight Todoroki now. I fell into his empty seat with a sigh. Tsu was beside me, followed by Mineta, Sero, and Sparky.

“W-Winchester,” Sparky shifted his weight, cheeks darkening a bit. “Bakugo was looking for you.”

I grunted, resting my cheek against my palm. “I know.” He shifted again, asking if Tsu would switch seats with him. She tilted her head, looking at me for confirmation and I shrugged. He settled down beside me but he kept looking at me and then snapping his gaze away. I tried to ignore it, but it was hella annoying. “What is your damn problem?”

“I thought you hated us,” he responded softly, running his hand over his pants. “But you defended me and… and the rest of the class. That really meant a lot to me… what you said. Thank you, Winchester.” He smiled brightly, eyes closed as he tilted his head to the side, blonde hair shifting from the movement.

Huh, that’s actually kinda cute. I smiled, ruffling his hair. “You’re welcome, Sparky.”

“My name isn’t Sparky,” he pouted. “It’s Denki Kaminari.”

I chuckled, pushing his head down a bit as my smile turned sadistic. “After all, only me and Katsuki are allowed to terrorize class A~!”

He sweatdropped, pulling away from my hand. “You can be really terrifying sometimes…”

“Welcome to the final battle at U.A. High School’s sports festival! In just a moment here, we’ll see which first-year comes out on top! Yes, it all comes down to this folks! From the hero course, Shoto Todoroki! Versus! His classmate, Katsuki Bakugo! Now… Begin!!”

Todoroki wasted no time sending a huge wave of ice toward Katsuki, but the blonde went into overdrive, exploding the ice at an incredible speed. Despite this, he was soon encased in an icy prison.

“Todoroki starts with a crazy ice blast! Bakugo seems to have been completely buried! Is it possible we’ve already got a winner down there?!”

“This isn’t like when he attacked Sero,” Zuku commented from in front of Mineta. “That ice just now was more controlled. He’s being cautious.”

“Can ya blame ’em?” I hummed as muffled explosions reached my ears. I grinned, leaning forward to rest my arms on my knees. Sorry, Todo, but that chihuahua ain’t that damn easy!

“What’s that terrifying sound?” Mineta cried out in fear, making me roll my eyes. Fuckin’ twat is scared of his own shadow.

“It’s gotta be Bakugo’s doing,” Tsu answered. Sure enough, the explosions became louder until the ice finally shattered, opening up a hole to reveal a pissed off looking blonde.

“He used his explosions to tunnel through the ice like some kind of mole man!” Sero exclaimed in surprise.

“These two are insane,” Kaminari muttered, leaning back in his chair.

The two boys rushed at each other and Bakugo used a small explosion to propel himself to the side, catching Todoroki off guard as he grabbed the top of his head and left shoulder.

“He dodged his right side with a blast!” Zuku said in awe.

“Awesome…” Ochaco added.

Hmm, he’s trying to make Todoroki use his fire like he did on Zuku, ain’t he? Pushing off the ground, Bakugo sent him flying across the arena with an explosion, but Todoroki used his ice to curve around the inside, sliding across the ice to remain in bounds.

“Todoroki surfs an ice wave to avoid going out of bounds! Looks like fun!”

For once, we agree, Mic. That does look like fun. This kid should be hired to entertain kids parties, he’d make a fucking killing.

Bakugo launched at him and Todoroki grabbed him with his left arm.

“Do it, Shoto!” Endeavor commanded.

I scowled, falling back into my seat. The sound of his voice ruined my mood and now all I can think about is punching dicks.

Todoroki refused the demand, throwing Bakugo away from him without using his fire.

“Stop screwing around!” Bakugo growled angrily. “What, do you think I’m not worthy of your fire?!”

“Bakugo timed his explosions to grab Todoroki’s left side on purpose,” Aizawa commentated. “He’s done his research. His aptitude for this becomes more apparent with every fight.”

“Interesting!”

“Todoroki’s doing well so far, but his attacks are too simple. It almost seems like he lost his spark after the match with Midoriya.”

Of course he fucking did. I ran my hand down my face in frustration before lowering my head. That damned chihuahua doesn’t care about why people do the things that they do. He’s smart as fuck, true, and he even heard Todoroki’s story, but he believes that it doesn’t matter, that it’s not important. He hasn’t stopped to think about why Todoroki is so damn reluctant to use those flames of his. All he cares about is that he used his flames on Izuku. Why, Katsuki? Why do you feel inferior next to Zuku?

“You bastard! I’ll tell you what’ll happen if you make a fool out of me! I’ll kill you!!” Bakugo cried angrily. “I don’t want there to be any doubt that I’m the best student at the festival! That’s only possible if you come at me as hard as you can! There’s no point if you don’t fight me with the same power you used against Deku! If you don’t want to win this, then why are you even here?! Show everyone that’s you’re trying to destroy me!”

Zuku shot up from his seat, approaching the railing. “Come on, Todoroki! Don’t give up! Do your best!”

I grinned at him and stood up, resting on the railing. “Oi~ Todoroki! If you win this, I’ll punch that flame fuck for you! Right in the nuts!”

“W-Winchester, you’re too brutal!” Kirishima cried, his hands over his lap.

I smirked at him over my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Kiri, you can harden your balls can’t cha? I doubt I could damage ’em.”

He sweatdropped, his cheeks darkening. “T-That’s not the point!”

Bakugo rushed him and Todoroki’s ice started to melt as his fire raged up. Crossing his arms and holding his palms out on either side of his body, Bakugo started to release an explosion from one palm then the other until his body started to spin like a goddamn ninja blender. Todoroki lifted his flaming arm, ready to depend, but then his power dropped and the flames died away. Meanwhile, Katsuki’s power is steadily fucking rising.

“Howitzer… IMPACT!!”

The ice shattered as Bakugo released a massive explosion, filling the arena with thick, black smoke.

“Wohoho! Bakugo combined speed and rotation with a huge blast like he used again Uraraka! He turned himself into a human missile! Todoroki didn’t fire off the flame attack that wowed us in his match against Midoriya! So what has become of our top two competitors?!”

My hands clenched around the railing as a bead of sweat rolled down my cheek. Katsuki is gonna be so~ fucking pissed that Todo didn’t use his fire.

The smoke finally started to clear.

Todoroki was out of bounds, his body unmoving against a huge chunk of cracked ice. Bakugo shakily got to his feet, taking a step forward. “Hey… Hey!” He suddenly rushed forward, grabbing the collar of Todoroki’s shirt and shaking him. “Stop messing around! This isn’t a real win for me unless you try harder! It can’t end this way! Now get up!”

Pink powder filled the arena as Midnight activated her quirk, putting Bakugo to sleep. She raised her arm. “Todoroki is out of bounds! That means… Bakugo is the winner!”

“And~ with that, the final match is officially over! The first-year champion of the U.A. sports festival is… Katsuki Bakugo from class 1-A!!”

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

I stepped into Gran’s temporary office, sliding the door closed behind me.

“Hello, deary.” She smiled. “What have you done now?”

I sweatdropped. “Have you no faith in me, Gran?”

She hummed, thoughtfully tapping her chin with her finger. “Let’s say that’s up for debate.”

I laughed. “I’m innocent this time, I promise. How’s Todoroki doing?”

“Only a few minor scrapes and bruises. I’ve healed him and he’s resting up.”

I nodded, grabbing a stool and setting it beside his bed. He looks so peaceful when he’s sleeping. I reached out, my fingertips brushing the two-tone bangs from his forehead. His eyes slowly slid open, looking up at me with confusion. “How ya feelin’, bro?”

“I’m… okay.” He responded, softly.

I ruffled his hair lightly, giving him a smile. “You did really good out there, I’m proud of you, Todo. Congrats on getting second place.”

His eyes widened a bit in surprise, his lips parting but no sound escaped him.

The door slid open roughly and Midnight waltzed into the room, her eyes landing on me. “Oh, Winchester, I was looking for you!”

I stared at her blankly. “I didn’t punch anyone else, leave me alone.”

She smirked, putting her hand on her hip and cocking a brow. “Oh? So you didn’t threaten to punch the number two hero in the dick in front of thousands of witnesses?”

“Woah woah woah,” I stood up, turning around to face her with a scowl. “First off, I threatened to punch him in the nuts, not the dick. Get your fuckin’ facts straight, Midnight. Plus, I said I would punch him if Todoroki won the match which I’m sure you are clearly aware, he did not. That makes the threat null and void.”

“That’s not how that works, Winchester. You’re such a pain!” She sighed dramatically, putting the back of her hand to her temple before smiling at me. “Officially, you and Tokoyami are tied for third place. We were considering having the two of you compete in a side game -”

“It’s not chess, is it? You know I ain’t smart enough to win in chess, Midnight, especially not against Tokoyami.”

She ignored me. “However, since you like to make questionable choices and give your teachers a constant migraine, you have forfeited the right to fight for third place and will settle for fourth place. Clear?”

“Oh right, I forgot about that.” I waved my hand. “Cool, does that mean I can go home now?”

“Of course,” she smiled, licking her lips. Even though she had a kind expression on her face, her eyes were burning with sadistic intent. “Not. We still have the award ceremony to do and you will be there. Plus, you need to apologize to Monoma and class B for your behavior.”

“I already did that, chief.”

“Do it again.”

“I don’t wanna.”

“Do it again or else.”

“You can’t just say ‘or else’, Midnight. You gotta follow through with a threat. No one is gonna take you seriously like that.”

Her eye twitched and she was about to yell at me, but she suddenly paused and slowly approached, an evil grin on her face. Her finger ran down my cheek, making me shudder in disgust. “Or else, I will have Shimatsu Tacos fined for using a student to advertise their business during a school event.”

My eyes narrowed. “You fuckin’ wouldn’t.”

She leaned in her closer, her eyes begging me to challenge her. “Oh please, Winchester, do test me.”

I shuddered again, shoving her face away. “Alright, fuck! Just keep yo ugly ass face out of my space, man.”

She humphed in triumph before turning to Todoroki, whose eyes were still wide as he watched us. “Can you stand, Todoroki? We need you there to start the ceremony.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed, slipping his shoes on before standing up. He hesitated, glancing over at me. I raised a brow and he seemed to think about it for a moment before shaking his head and following Midnight out of the room.

What a strange edgelord, he is.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

“The first-year students have completed all of the events for the U.A. sports festival!” Midnight announced as she stood in front of the gathered students. A group of reporters are gathered behind a barricade nearby so they can get pictures of the winners. “Now, it’s time to relax and enjoy the awards ceremony!”

Loud music started to blast through the stadium as fireworks exploded across the sky in a wide array of colors. I stifled a yawn as a stream of sparklers shot up behind Midnight, covering the area in smoke. The winner’s pedestal started to raise from the ground.

“Woah…”

“What the heck…”

“He’s been going nuts ever since he woke up,” Kirishima explained from beside me, giving me a look. Katsuki was quite literally chained up to the fucking slab of concrete, his hands bound so he couldn’t use his quirk and a metal mask over his mouth so he couldn’t speak. He’s growling and struggling against his bonds, clearly not happy about the outcome of his match. His eyes met mine and I smirked, making him struggle harder.

“Man, Bakugo, pull yourself together.” Kiri sighed, rubbing the back of his head. I patted his shoulder.

Midnight cleared her throat. “Jen Winchester and Fumikage Tokoyami were meant to battle it out for the third place, but because of a technicality that has arisen, she will automatically take fourth place.” She winked at the cameras, putting her finger to her glossy lip.

I felt eyes on me and glanced around, spotting Monoma staring at me. He was chewing on his lip, face blank and pale blue eyes looking conflicted. As soon as he realized I was looking at him, he turned his face away.

“Too bad Iida couldn’t be here,” Tsu commented. Now that she brought it up, where is that engine freak? I haven’t seen him since the spat after Zuku’s surgery. I had just assumed he was avoiding me.

“Yeah…” Zuku’s eyes were shining with worry and sadness as he turned his gaze to the ground. I scratched my cheek, not liking that expression on his face. Just what the fuck did I miss exactly?

“Now, let’s break out the hardware!” Midnight held out her arm with a smirk. “Of course, there’s only one person worthy of distributing the awards!”

A familiar laugh rang out across the stadium and the crowd went wild when All Might appeared, jumping toward the podium.

“Citizens, I am” ��All Might is the” “here!!” “number one hero!!”

I sweatdropped as his and Midnight’s voices overlapped one another. Clearly, they should have fucking rehearsed before trying that because that performance was total ass, bro.

“I ruined that, didn’t I?” Midnight put her hands together in apology before acting as if nothing had even happened. “So now that you’re here, All Might, why don’t you start the presentation?”

Toshi took the third-place medal and stepped up to Fumi. “Young Tokoyami, congratulations.” He placed the medal around his neck. “You showed great strength out there!”

“Your words humble me, sir.”

“However,” Toshi pulled him into a gentle hug, patting his back. “You’ve got more training to do if you’re going to be able to fight against different kinds of villains. You’re not going to be able to rely on your quirk in every battle you face.”

I started to laugh, earning a glare from Midnight and strange looks from my classmates. I couldn’t control it so I turned around and stuffed my face into Kiri’s shoulder. Bro, Fumi’s fucking beak is literally pressed into Toshi’s fucking armpit and I know from fucking experience that it smells like hopes and the laughter of children. Bro, someone fucking save him, please.

“Are you okay, Winchester?” Kiri asked with worry, patting my back as I laughed into his shoulder. “Midnight is really glaring at you… god, she’s terrifying.”

I pulled myself away and coughed a few times, slapping both of my cheeks at the same time to compose myself. I gave him a thumbs up and turned back around. Holy shit, Midnight looks like she’s about to fucking sprout snakes from her hair. I didn’t know laughing was a fucking crime, chief.

Toshi took the second place medal and stepped up to Todoroki, whose gaze remained lowered. “Young Todoroki, congratulations. I’m assuming there’s a reason you didn’t use your left side, though it cost you the final.”

“Midoriya opened my eyes during our match, but then I started to doubt myself. I think I now understand a little about why you’re so interested in him. I want to be the kind of hero you are, but my path… isn’t as clear as I thought it was. I have a lot to think about… and I still need to settle things with someone, very soon.”

I threw my arm around Zuku’s shoulder, careful of his injuries. “See what you did, kid? Todoroki was lost in a tunnel of darkness, and you shined the light that got him running in the right direction. Be proud of yourself.”

He nodded, sending me a bright smile as his eyes teared up. “Thank you, Jen…”

“If you keep this up, you’re gonna be called the crying hero, Zuku.”

“Sorry…”

Toshi continued, pulling the boy into his arms. “Hmm, I’ve never seen this sort of look on your face before. I won’t ask for details, but trust yourself. I’m sure you’ll work things out.”

“Right…”

“And now, young Bakugo.” Toshi took the first place medal and stepped up to him. “Huh, this is a little much. Well, you did what you said you’d do in the pledge.” He unlocked the metal mouth guard, tossing it back to Midnight, who held it up in disgust, spit dripping from the inside. “You’re true to your word!”

“All Might,” Katsuki growled angrily. “Winning first place this way… doesn’t prove that I’m the best one here!! Even if the world considers me the winner, I refuse to accept it like this!!”

Zuku sweatdropped. “Kacchan is so angry…”

“Yep,” I responded. “But that’s nothin’ new is it?”

He bit his lip. “No, but…”

“Worried that everyone will look at him poorly?”

He nodded.

“Probably, but that’s fine. Not everyone has to understand that idiot, as long as we do.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“I’m a woman, Zuku, I’m always right.” I grinned, ruffling his hair.

“In a world where we’re constantly being compared to one another, there are very few who can keep their eyes focused on the top spot,” Toshi spoke up, forcing his gaze back to the blonde, which he was clearly unnerved by. “You’re one of them. Please accept this medal, even if you have to think of it as a scar, something you’ll never forget.”

“I don’t want that piece of garbage!!”

“Come on, now.” Toshi tried to put it around his neck but he slammed his head back and the strap went over the bridge of his nose instead.

“Get that trash off of me, you idiot!!”

Toshi tugged it down hard and the strap fell between Katsuki’s teeth. “Here they are, the winners of this year’s sports festival! But listen closely,” he turned toward the crowd of students. “Any of you first-years could have ended up standing on these podiums! Think about what you’ve done today! You’ve challenged each other, learned, and climbed even closer to your goals of being pros! I think the next generation of heroes is proving to be our most promising one yet! So, I have one more thing to say – I want to hear everyone yell it with me!”

While that idiot screamed ‘thanks for your hard work!’, the crowd screamed, ‘plus ultra!’. A couple seconds of stunned silence passed before the crowd and students started to boo him, much to his displeasure.

“What?! That was the perfect time to say ‘plus ultra’, All Might!”

“Oh, well, yeah, I guess, but… everyone did such a good job!” He cried in protest.

What a complete fucking dork. Me and Zuku exchanged a look before we started laughing.

それ以上に上昇 ☆ Third Person

Felix grunted as he watched the awards ceremony taking place at U.A. High School. The camera panned across the first, second, and third place students, but the man had no interest in them. His knee bounced impatiently as he waited for the camera to pan toward the other students.

“Look, there she is.” Ryan pointed his finger, leaning forward. Two sets of lime green eyes stared at Jen Winchester as she had her arm around Izuku Midoriya, the two of them laughing together. And then the angle changed again, capturing the filled stadium as people cheered and laughed.

“A technicality,” Felix muttered under his breath, his large hand resting on his bearded chin. “What do you think it could be?”

Ryan tilted his head, orange-tipped bangs sliding across his eyes. “I’m not sure. Perhaps they didn’t want to bring too much attention to her given who her mother is.”

“That makes no sense!” He huffed, folding his arms over his broad chest. His Irish accent became more pronounced in his frustration. “If they didn’t want to display her, they shouldn’t have allowed her to compete!”

“It’s possible that they are punishing her for the sins of her mother,” Ryan hummed, crossing one leg over the other. “But that hardly seems like a thing U.A. would do.”

“There’s only one way to find out!” Felix jumped up, heading for the door. When Ryan didn’t move, he stopped and tilted his head expectantly. “Well, what are you waitin’ for, boyo?”

“Stall the ball for a minute, pops.” Ryan sighed, brushing his bangs aside before standing up and motioning toward the desk to his left. “You can’t just up and leave to another country. You are the number five hero of Ireland.”

The man’s eye twitched in annoyance, but he knew his young son was right. He was a pro hero and he had responsibilities to attend to before he could leave. “Fine!” He grinned brightly, rolling back the sleeves of his long-sleeved shirt. “Let’s get to work, then!”

Ryan chuckled, shaking his head at his father. He glanced back at the TV, now showing highlights from the festival. ‘We’ll see you soon… Jen Winchester.’

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

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emeraldwaves · 6 years ago

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Title: Dance With Me (It Won’t Kill Ya) The Competition Pairing: Kacchako (side Todomomo, side Kirimina) Dance/College AU Rating: E Word Count: 5,286 Read on Ao3 Summary: When Bakugou damages university property, he’s forced to take dance lessons with the best dance student at the school, Uraraka. There’s no way he’ll actually enjoy learning to dance though… right?

Absolutely not…

Thanks to @its-love-u-asshole for reading this!

Sweat rolled down his forehead, his breath echoing in his ear. He rocked back and forth on his feet, pressing his cleats into the ground. One try would put them ahead, just one, and Bakugou was ready to kick some fucking ass.

"You better be fucking ready Shitty hair," he growled to himself, glaring at Kirishima, who stood a bit in front of him.

This was the final tournament game of the morning, with barely 3 minutes left in the 2nd half. Bakugou never was affected by the pressure of the clock; if anything, he worked better when things got more intense, but his chest felt tight.

If they won this game, they would advance to the tournament the following weekend. During the earlier morning games, they'd performed well enough to be seeded out until the next tournament. Bakugou wanted more than anything to win this fuckin' thing. After being in and out all season, he owed this win to his team, and like hell he was going to settle for anything less.

Still, he glanced the clock, knowing he didn't have much time to spare.

He thought of her, standing in the middle of the dance floor, brown eyes shimmering as she waited for him. His damn distraction. He wasn't going to let her down. Hell, he wasn't going to let anyone down.

The play began and Kirishima sky rocketed down the field, and Bakugou charged after him, careful to stay behind him. Kirishima dodged between the players, his footwork strong, moving around two of the defense.

"Bakugou!" he yelled, and Bakugou curved behind him, dodging the idiot trying to block him. He stepped around him, ducking down as he let Kirishima toss the ball behind him.

Jumping forward, Bakugou caught the ball and immediately began to run the field. A guy rammed into him on the side and he stumbled, almost tripping forwards but he caught himself, pressing his feet against the grass to propel himself faster, despite the stumble. He charged towards the finish line and dove with the ball in his hands, leaping over the line as he pressed it into the a ground.

A goddamn try. It was enough to push them into the lead.

He grunted when a body fell on top of him, almost directly knocking him to the side. It didn't matter, they were going to win. With only a minute left in the game, there was no way the other team would be able to catch up.

Bakugou smirked, pushing the other guy off of him. Grabbing the ball he tossed it into the air, catching it when it came back down. "FUCK YES!" he cheered.

Kirishima was of course, one of the first ones to dash over to him. He barrelled into him, hugging him tight. "You did it man!" he yelled. "We fucking did it!"

Kaminari and Sero were close behind, the three idiots dancing around in a circle. They stood on their toes and hopped up and down. "We won, we won, we won!" Kaminari laughed, thrusting his fist into the air.

"Oi! We have a minute left!" Sero said, pointing to the clock.

"They're not gonna catch up," Kaminari said, waving his hand up and down.

Right. A minute left, and right now they were wasting time. Bakugou needed to run the clock. "Let's fucking go!" Bakugou called out, getting into formation to turn the ball over.

They made their way down the field, lining up for the drop kick. Sero held the ball in his hand, letting it fall forward as he kicked it to the other team. A blond boy caught it, immediately running for the goal, but they stopped him, Bakugou and Kirishima tackling him to the ground.

During their next play, the whistle blew for the final time, signifying the end of the game.

"Hell yes!" Kaminari cheered, giving a high five to Sero. "I knew we were gonna win."

"No shit idiot," Bakugou growled. "We knew after I scored!" he snapped.

"Aw, come on Bakugou!" Kaminari teased, wrapping his arm around his neck. "Let us have our damn fun!"

"Yeah, yeah," Bakugou snapped and folded his arms over his chest. Could he leave now? He glanced at the clock. He had just over 2 hours to get to the venue, change and be ready to go.

Fuck.

"Bro," Kirishima said, glancing to the clock himself. "You gotta get the hell out of here!"

"Yeah I know," he said. "Glad we fuckin' did it."

"Hey man," Kirishima smirked, giving him a thumbs up, "we couldn't have done it without you."

"'Course you couldn't have!" Bakugou said, grinning back.

"We can handle the rest. You gotta go win number one at your dance competition!" Kirishima teased. "If you don't, we're all gonna be pretty disappointed that you missed all this practice just to lose!"

"Shaddup! You know we're gonna fucking kick ass."

"Of course," Kirishima winked and Bakugou backed away from the guys, making his way to the side of the field where Coach Toshi stood.

"Young Bakugou! That was incredible to watch! Of course, I expect nothing less from my star player!" Toshi said, his laughter booming across the field. "I am quite proud of your ability to manage all your activities. I take it you will be leaving us for the evening to go to your second competition for the day?"

"Yeah..." Bakugou muttered, unsure of how to show the man he was thankful for letting him go.

"Good luck!" he said, patting his hand against his shoulder. "Now off you go, I would hate for you to keep the young lady waiting!"

He blushed at that, nodding quickly. "Right."

"And congrats on your win! I'll expect you to be at the top of your game this week at practice," Toshi smiled.

Bakugou scoffed as he walked away. He always put his damn all into it. He glanced at his friends dancing on the field like idiots. He put his damn all into everything, and he as about to put his all into dancing with his soon-to-be girlfriend.

"W-What if he doesn't though!?" Uraraka's heels clicked against the ground. She paced in the green room, her long flowing pink dress swishing around her legs. Her fingers slipped under the halter of her dress, adjusting where it sat on her neck.

"Ochako-chan," Momo said softly. She smoothed out the skirt of her red dress. "Bakugou isn't going to break this promise to you, you know that."

"It's not that I think he would break it on purpose!" she said. She rose her fingers to her hair, but immediately stopped when she remembered how long it had taken her to get her bun looking so smooth. "There are just so many factors! What if the game goes into overtime and he can't get away!? And he still has to get here, shower, change... and who knows if he can even put on the suit I gave him!?" she said.

"I can help," Todoroki said, pulling back from the mirror. The white side of his hair was pulled back, the red brushed gently to the side. Both he and Momo were completely decked out and ready to go. Momo's long hair was pulled into a high bun, wrapped tightly, though she did let a few pieces fall by her cheeks. She wore a gentle red lipstick, which still stuck out against her pale skin, but it matched her red dress perfectly. As always, her and Todoroki looked beautiful in their formal dress.

"Besides," Momo said. "The waltz event isn't done, Shouto and I's heat still has to go!"

"I know, I know... I'm just... I'm panicking."

"I know," Momo giggled, and gently took her friend's hand. "I know you're so nervous, but... you and Bakugou-san have been working hard on your routine... and he's still so new. You said it yourself you didn't expect to do well. Just have fun," she smiled. "You've been waiting for this for a long time."

Uraraka couldn't help but smile back. Of course she'd been waiting for this for a long while, but mostly she was nervous about the feelings which threatened to explode out of her.

Would she still be able to tell Bakugou everything she felt? She swallowed, glancing towards Momo. She was fixing Todoroki's bow tie, her hands gently touching the red ribbon. It worked out okay for them, didn't it? And it wasn't like... Bakugou didn't like her... Bakugou wouldn't have done all the things he did for her if he didn't...

No.

Right now wasn't the time to be focusing on her feelings. Bakugou and her were about to dance in a competition for the first time. She was supposed to be the calm one... especially since Bakugou would most likely be nervous since this was his first time. Did he ever even get nervous?

"Well, we're up!" Momo smiled when they made an announcement for the waltz group.

"I'll come watch!" Uraraka said. It would be much easier to focus on them dancing than waiting for Bakugou.

She followed them out to the dance floor and stood by the tall rows of seats placed down for an audience to spectate.

Watching Momo and Todoroki dance was always such a treat. Their starting pose was stunning; Todoroki's hand placed on her back, his leg kicked out into a small lunge and Momo's long red dress covered her sparkly heels, her back arching.

The music began and Todoroki started in time, leading them across the dance floor. He avoided the other couples and managed to help Momo stand out, especially when he dipped her down. Her face looked so calm, beautiful and focused. The slightest smile pulled at her lips, especially when they would occasionally lock eyes. It was a craft the two of them had perfected.

It had been a little while since Uraraka had watched their waltz routine for this competition, and she felt a twinge of jealousy, staring at the way Todoroki helped Momo float across the floor.

They were perfect, and Uraraka didn't think that just because they were friends. They shone on the floor, like the spotlights from up above ignored the other dancers, focusing only on Todoroki and Momo.

There was no way they wouldn't claim first in this heat.

The music faded out, and Todoroki dipped Momo down, their eyes locked and filled with a gentle passion. Uraraka clapped, cheering for her two friends.

They took their bows, and immediately left the stage, allowing for the next heat to come in. They wouldn't find out their results until the end of the sets, but Uraraka didn't need to watch to know who the winners would be.

"You both are so talented," she sighed, the couple walking over to her.

"I-I don't know! I think my footwork was behind his!" Momo said, waving her hand in front of her face quickly.

"It didn't look like it to me," Uraraka said. "Also your ending dip was so stunning!"

"Thank you," Todoroki smirked, looking rather proud of himself.

"I know you both are going to place, there's no doubt in my mind!" she nodded, eagerly bouncing in her own heels.

"I hope so!" Momo smiled, looking as excited as Uraraka.

Uraraka didn't expect her and Bakugou to move on, not when he was such a novice, but she hoped it wouldn't deter him. She could imagine he would either say something like 'Fuck this dance bullshit' or 'Next time we're gonna be number one, Uraraka!' Just imagining his voice made her giggle.

"OI!"

It was like his sharp tone was echoing in her ear.

"I'm supposed to be in there you shit!"

No... that was actually him. She whipped her head around, gasping when she saw him angrily yelling at a man standing by the door.

"K-Katsuki!" she gasped. "You made it!" Immediately running to the door, she stepped in front of the man. "He's with me," she said, and reached for his hand, pulling him inside. It was just as she feared, still in his dirty rugby clothes and definitely sweaty.

"Oi! Cheeks! Why the hell do they have people guarding the door!?"

"I-I don't think he was a guard-"

"Fuck. I fucking got here as fast as I could-"

Uraraka couldn't help but laugh. His hair was a mess, dirt covering his cheek. He looked like an unruly sports player, someone who didn't belong here. "We should get you cleaned up before the tango heats start."

He froze and looked at her, immediately blushing. "W-What the hell are you wearing?!" he snapped.

She frowned, placing her hands on her hips. "It's my gown! You brought the suit right?!"

"'Course I did!"

"Alright, Bakugou, let's go," Todoroki sighed and began to walk towards the men's locker room. "I'll show you where you need to go."

"Oi!" he yelled. "I don't need you to tell me where the hell to go!" Still, even with all his protesting, Bakugou followed Todoroki to the locker room.

"See," Momo said, nudging her. "I told you he'd make it."

"You know, I don't think I ever really doubted him," she said, smiling as she watched him walk with Todoroki.

Bakugou shoved his bag down in the locker room and yanked a towel from it. "Don't you dare follow me to the shower!" he snapped, gesturing towards Todoroki angrily.

"You couldn't pay me to," Todoroki sighed, rolling his eyes. "Be sure when you finish to try and fix your hair," he said gesturing to his own.

"Yeah, yeah," Bakugou snorted, stepping into the shower.

Now that he was here, he actually felt calmer, or well, as calm as he could possibly be. He just needed to get ready and get in the suit so he could match her damn gown.

That she looked fucking stunning in.

He really hadn't had much time to process it, as he got by the door gremlin and then was whisked away by shitty Half and Half... but damn did she look good. The dress dipped down and gave a nice view of her cleavage. It hugged her hips and the flowed down around her legs and holy hell, how was he supposed to dance with her when she looked so cute?

Unfair.

Always a distraction.

He cleaned himself off and immediately pulled the suit and hair gel Uraraka had given him from his bag. The suit was long, had coattails and everything. He couldn't remember the last time he worse something so fucking fancy.

He buttoned up his shirt and left his bow tie untied while he squirted gel into his hands. He couldn't imagine this would actually work... or look good. He pushed the blond mess back as much as he could, his fingers running through his hair. Some strands lay flat, but some of it still stood out at the sides.

Fuck, it was good enough.

He sat down on the bench and slipped on his shoes, making his way back out.

Thankfully, Todoroki told him where Uraraka would be waiting. Even though the venue looked like some sort of fancy school gym, Bakugou found it difficult not to get lost.

He pushed opened the door to the green room, carrying his bag. Uraraka stood, gaze facing the floor as she stood on her tiptoes, stretching out her arms.

"Oi... Ochako," he said, dropping his bag next to hers.

"K-Katsuki!" she gasped, her eyes widening when she saw him. He saw her brown eyes gaze up and down at his body, fixated for a moment particularly on his hair.

"Shaddup!" he snapped. "I know it looks fucking stupid-"

"NO!" she said and rushed to him, her hand gently smoothing over his blond locks. "You... look really handsome."

Her eyes flicked to his lips and she stood on her toes once more, kissing him softly. He wrapped his arm around her waist. "Yeah well, you look fucking stunning in this stupid gown or whatever."

She giggled, her hand gently stroking over his cheek. "What a compliment!" Her fingers stopped at his jaw and she reached for his collar, gently tying up the bow tie. "You really do look.. great," she said.

"You do too, Cheeks," he said, pressed her hand to his lips. "I'm ready for this shit."

"Katsuki..." she whispered. Was it better to tell him now?! Or after?! If she said she loved him now and he didn't reciprocate, it could throw off the entire dance!

"Hm?" he asked, tilting his head towards her. She blushed at how clean his face looked, his jawline strong, his red eyes handsomely staring at her.

"If we don't come in first, don't be mad, okay?"

He rolled his eyes. "Why are you so fucking convinced we're going to lose!?"

"I-I just want to be realistic! A lot of people are like Todoroki and Momo-chan! They've been honing their craft for years-"

"Look, I don't... I don't fucking care. As long as I'm doing this shit with you, I'm fucking winning!" he said, stomping his foot down against the ground.

Her cheeks heated up, her eyes staring at his.

"We can do it a hundred times and still lose, but whatever... I'm dancing with you, so I won. Hah," he smirked.

"K-Katsuki..." she smiled, scraping her teeth over her lip. "Does this mean... you want to keep dancing after this?"

"What, you think I was just going to stop since this was over?"

She bit down on her lip, nodding fast.

"Idiot," he said, gently bopping her on her forehead.

"W-Well excuse me for thinking you didn't like this! You spent months acting like you hated it," she said, curling her lip out into a pout.

"Yeah, but we're fucking doing this shit together-"

"I know... it's just hard to believe you actually wanna do this kinda stuff," she said.

For her, he would've done fucking anything. "Yeah, yeah, Cheeks," he said. "Just pay attention to our routine, wouldn't want you to mess anything up."

She scoffed. "Oh yeah, it's going to be me for sure."

He was about to grab her hand when an announcement for the first heat of the tango set was announced. Uraraka gasped. "That's us!" she said, grabbing his hand as she pulled him out of the green room, heading towards the floor.

"We're in the first heat?" he said.

"Mhm! I signed up early on in case I found a partner. Guess it was fate, huh?" she winked. "Nervous?"

A smirk pulled across his lips. "Hell-fucking-no."

She pulled Bakugou towards the main gymnasium where they would finally be competing, performing her choreography in front of a crowd... being judged together.

"Break a leg, Ochako-chan!" Momo said, Todoroki nodding beside her. Uraraka wasn't surprised at all to see a golden medal dangling around both of their necks. She felt a little bad for missing their ceremony, but she had a feeling neither of them would mind.

She stopped for a brief moment when she hit the edge of the dance floor, stopping in her tracks. She was actually going to step onto the dance floor with a partner. Someone she had come to trust, someone she enjoyed dancing with, someone she loved.

It was a dream come true.

"Oi-"

"Katsuki..." she said, turning to face him before stepping up onto the slightly raised surface. "Thank you, for dancing with me."

His cheeks flushed. "Oi..." he said, shaking his head back and forth. "Thank me after we do the damn thing."

She squeezed his hand. "Mhm. I will."

Stepping onto the dance floor, she took their spot in the circle of dancers. Taking a deep breath, she lined up with him and took his hand. His starting position was shockingly good, even under pressure he seemed to remember many of the things Todoroki had given him pointers on.

She pulled her teeth across her lip, gently placing her fingers on his shoulder. His strong hand rest upon her back, and she couldn't help but smile. She was oddly proud of him for coming so far... she was grateful for how serious he was taking it, both now and when she was teaching him.

Things had started off so rocky... she would never have guessed this is where she would be standing; in love with Bakugou Katsuki, about to start a routine she had choreographed for just them.

"You ready, Cheeks?" he muttered, his red eyes looking at hers. She was certain he still wasn't sure why he was here either. Probably for her.

"'Course I am!" she said, giving his hand a confident squeeze.

The music began and Uraraka prayed Bakugou would find the beat amongst the loud noises of their own hearts beating so quickly. He began to lead her forward, the direction correct. She knew she couldn't look at his feet, she had to trust him and let him actually lead. The judges would notice if she was doing more work than she was supposed to.

As they came to the first pose, she felt Bakugou's hand slide down her back, a shiver rolling down her spine. She knew this wasn't the time to think about things escalating between them, but it only made her smile as she let her leg drag out, her hand draped around his shoulder as they locked the first pose.

She loved kissing him and the way he touched her. Even now, doing their dance, his movement was filled with such a fiery passion. Their foreheads almost touched and she was reluctant to pull herself out of it, but she felt his pull and she followed.

They weren't perfectly on time with the music, just slightly behind, but they weren't running into other dancers and Bakugou seemed to notice as he picked up his pace, his steps just a bit sloppy. She was certain everyone could tell he was a novice, and yet she didn't care for a moment. There was a smile on her face, her eyes intent on looking at him, following his lead.

He twirled her when they got to the end of the mat, an unexpected move, but she went for it. A small squeak did slip between her lips, but mostly because she was so thrilled he seemed to be having fun with it.

They would fix all these things as time went on.

Her heart fluttered as he pulled her into the second pose, her head dipping back, arm outstretched. She breathed deeply, trying not to be overwhelmed by the feelings flowing through her. Bakugou wanted to keep dancing with her. They were going to be partners.

He pulled her out of the pose a little fast, and he began to walk quicker across the floor, the pacing off. Maybe he was eager to get to the end of the song since it was fast approaching. They hadn't made any super glaring mistakes, though she knew they weren't as polished as some of the other dancers there. She was mostly glad they hadn't run into any of the other couples. Bakugou was oddly good at avoiding them, probably because he was good at dodging people when he played rugby. Not that she cared all that much about any of that.

The smile was ever present on her lips, happy to be there with him.

She felt like she was bursting with energy as she moved across the floor now. The emotions so close to spilling out of her. Before she was nervous, and now she couldn't wait to blurt out how much she loved him.

The music slowed and his hands trembled, gripping her waist. He leaned back, pulling her towards him as she wrapped her leg around his, holding their final pose.

Like this, they were so close, their lips almost touching. She knew it was inappropriate to kiss her partner at the end of a song, but she wanted to so bad. She wanted to feel him all over her.

She was probably smiling too much, the tango was more about a passionate intensity, but Uraraka had smiled throughout the whole goddamn thing.

The crowd erupted into a loud cheer, clapping just as much for them as they had for the waltz.

"W-We need to bow!" she gasped, watching the other couples pull away from each other, taking a bow.

Bakugou followed her lead, pulling away so they could take a bow together. Uraraka tried her best to pay attention to the amount of bows they took but, she couldn't seem to focus on anything other than the fact that...

...they did it.

It was over, and they survived. Bakugou did amazing actually. For only having a few weeks to learn a dance, Uraraka couldn't have been more impressed.

The two made their way off the dance floor, and just as she had been reluctant to step onto the mat, she paused before stepping down. She knew they would be back. This certainly wasn't going to be the last time they did something like this together but... it had given her such a lovely moment of joy today, she wanted to hold onto it forever. She never wanted this moment to end.

She took a deep breath, following him back off of the large mat.

Her hand shook in his as they stepped behind the large bleachers, making their way to the back hall by the green room.

"We did it..." she said softly. "You did it!! Katsuki, that was amazing!" she exclaimed, stopping in the hall.

He turned to look at her. "Oi, we both did it Cheeks!" he snorted. "It was your fucking dance."

"Yeah but... you brought it to life, you brought me to life. It was so... so much fun I..." Tears began to roll down her cheeks and she quickly tried to wipe her eyes with her free hand. "I-I'm sorry, Katsuki!" she said, sniffling.

"Oi, oi!" he said, and rushed towards her, cupping her cheeks. "What the hell is this about?!" he said.

"Y-You don't understand!" she exclaimed, a laughing slipping through her tears. "I've wanted this for so long," she whispered, staring up at him, wet droplets rolling down her cheeks, the tears hit his hand, pooling against his skin.

"Competing? Dancing?" he questioned, his eyes darting across her face, as though he was trying to map out the best possible solution to get her to stop crying. She did feel a little bad, but she was so overwhelmed with happiness, she couldn't help it.

"Dancing with someone," she breathed out. "I've been looking for the perfect partner for so long and..."

"Oi..." he chuckled. "You're such a weirdo." He pressed his lips against her forehead.

"I just... I always saw Momo-chan and all these other girls finding their perfect partner... people they actually worked well with and I feel like I finally have found that with you. I-I mean we still have plenty to work on but... today was amazing!" she said, sniffling as more tears flowed down her cheeks.

"Oi! There's no need to get so weepy on me," he said, tucking the small loose pair of stray hair behind her ear.

"Do you... really want to stay my partner?" she asked, her brown eyes looking at him so intently.

"Yeah, why the hell did you think I mentioned other dances and shit?" he snorted. "It would be pretty shitty if you danced with someone else after all this."

"I-It would!" she said, wiping her eye again. "You've been working so hard-"

"Damn straight I've been working hard to be your partner. I fucking love you, what else am I supposed to do?"

She froze, her cheeks slowly heating up to a bright red color. "Katsuki... did you just..."

"..." he paused, and glanced away from her. "Fuck."

She couldn't help the laugh that burst from her lips. "That... was so you I can't even believe it!" she sighed. "You ruined my plans! I was gonna be the one to blurt it out this time."

"Blurt what out?" he mumbled, knowing damn well what he said to her.

"...That I love you," she said, stepping towards him slowly. She wrapped her arms around his neck, standing up to brush her lips against his.

He immediately wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him as he deepened their kiss, pressing his lips against hers. He didn't care they were in the hallway, he would've let the whole world walk by them in that moment. He sighed, pulling away for a moment to rest his forehead against hers. "I… I... love you too… or whatever."

"You do?" she smiled.

"'Course I do, idiot," he spat out quickly. "Why the hell would I do all this shit?"

"True..." she said. "And here I thought you were starting to like dancing."

"It's alright. Not the worst thing," he said, rolling his eyes. "Kinda liked this competition bullshit. Showing everyone what you created for us or… whatever."

Her cheeks flushed again. "Good, glad you could admit it," she teased, pecking his lips again. She sighed, not wanting to let him go, but she knew they should get their stuff and meet up with Todoroki and Momo before they announced the results. "Okay..." she said, feeling like she was floating.

"Oi," he muttered, pulling back to still hold her hand, not letting her walk away from him. "There's one more thing."

"Eh?" she blinked, looking at his eyes and then their hands.

"Go on a date with me. A real fuckin' date."

Her eyes widened slowly. She had forgotten all about his promise to ask her on an official date after he danced with her in the competition. She smiled, and threw her arms around his neck. "Of course I'll go on a date with you!"

"Good, then I assume that means you want to be my girlfriend too," he muttered. "No other dates... just me."

"Katsuki," she snorted, "who else is there?!"

He glanced around, staring at the empty hall in every direction. "You can never be too careful at shit like this."

She giggled and gently touched at the back of his slicked up hair. "It's just you Bakugou Katsuki. I only want you."

He smirked, gripping her hips as he raised her up and twirled her, kissing her gently. "Good. I better be the only one. It's only you for me, Uraraka Ochako."

She smiled wide and kissed him, pressing their lips together for a final time. "I love you... so much," she breathed.

"Yeah... you too, Cheeks." he sighed, rubbed at his neck. "Alright let's tell your damn friends we won."

"Eh? Won?" she asked, stepping back from him. It was true she didn't want to keep Todoroki and Momo waiting. "But, Katsuki, they haven't given out awards yet." In all honesty, she had forgotten they soon would.

He smirked, "I get to take you on a real fucking date as my girlfriend. I definitely won."

She felt her cheeks flush as she grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the green room. "I think we both won."

He smirked. "I guess we could both win."

"In this case, it's only fair!" she laughed, swinging their hands together down the hall. She turned her eyes towards him, loving how focused his red eyes still were, even after the fact. They were focused, but kinder than she first remembered them being. When they danced, those red eyes looked at her as if nothing else mattered, like she was his entire world.

In her whole life, things had never felt so complete; they truly had won.

#kacchako #bakugou katsuki #uraraka ochako #BNHA #Boku no hero academia #dance AU #dance with me #side todomomo #wehhhh only one more chapter left!!!!!

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athina39 · 7 years ago

Text

Dead Apple Movie Report/Summary

as promised, here’s my reaction thread/summary/speculations/theories about the Dead Apple Movie!!! sorry it’s a day late orz

everything under the cut because IT’S LONG. the CR subs comparison is c/o Fayto-san!!!! i watched the movie in SE Asia, so it’s a different company who handled the subtitles/distribution (it’s ODEX).

here goes! (also a warning/enticement: i’m shamelessly biased towards chuuya and soukoku)

Extra Notes:

- we probably got ourselves perma-banned so many places yesterday (the restaurant where we had lunch, the coffeeshop we went to pre-movie, the foodcourt where we had our post-movie drink, the entire mall itself....) because we were..... quite wild haha

- we took up a whole row in the cinema and there was another group that had their own row behind us! they're chuuya fans too, which is always awesome. the girl behind me is educating her new-to-the-fandom friend to ship soukoku "even if dazai is an asshole", which is Big Mood.

- certain someones (lol) cough "walking dead show" whenever soda is onscreen;;;;; if only They Knew that was the actual theme of the show (more on that below)

- our group was the loudest in the squealing/shrieking ahahaha. and aside from the obvious chuuya and soukoku scenes, we were the loudest at: (1) ALL THE GIRLS (each time yosano/agatha/tsujimura/kyouka's mom appeared, there's guaranteed squealing; Kyouka is Best Girl); (2) akutagawa's Dynamic Entry & akutagawa's curl-up lol; (3) that scene in the OP with the pm dazai & ada dazai; (4) the backstab scene; (5) dazai's handcuff escape & pill swallow. we were also fairly loud at some of atsushi's scenes, but it was more out of laughter??? like.... tiger son, you're kinda unintentionally funny/narmy this movie;;;;

- the people behind us each time there's an atsukyou scene: "BUT. SHE'S. 14." / "she's cuuuute" / "but. she's. 14."

- drinking game: drink for (1) each time atsushi yells kyouka's name - you won't make it out alive within the first 30 mins. slightly easier version: drink for (2) each time there's an orphanage flashback. fast-paced version: drink for (3) each time the "CLAWSSSS" was repeated

Movie Itself:

- chuuya's dynamic entry is so cool, pink motorbike included. like 30% of movie budget probably went to the animation of that scene. it's also asdfghk;da that chuuya tooling/destroying buildings is like, part of his theme in this movie. also, it makes me excited to see a pm days!soukoku driving a car to a mission - they both drive like hell lol

- dazai's "hi, chuuya~" haunts me until now, like. stop sounding so sassy and flirty, gdI but then again, dazai's teasing voice when he talks to chuuya the entire time is sassy and flirty so. asdfhgla

- dazai's “It would have been interesting if Chuuya got struck with lightning instead.” made us shriek because pre-movie, we were discussing that the French term for lightning strike, "le coup de foudre" is associated with love at first sight

- dazai complaining that because chuuya arrived 5 mins late, dazai had to get hit 3 times & chuuya just rolling with that = old married couple vibe much;;;;

- on a more serious note - it's very interesting to see this side of chuuya - in his previous appearances, he was the type to immediately blow his fuse whenever dazai says something to infuriate him, but this time, while he still bickers with dazai, there's a serious edge to it? chuuya's about to deal with the cause of death of his sheep fa(r)m, after all.

- (also - wtf was that dude holding a gun to dazai's head doing??? he just allowed dazai, his hostage, to fucking talk in the communicator the entire time???? bro, you ok??? are you sure you're a villain??? it would be funny tho if the 3 smacks that dazai was talking was 1 smack per sentence that he said on the communicator - because he did say 3 hahaha)

- chuuya activating For The Tainted Sorrow wordlessly (come to think of it, he has never said anything to activate For The Tainted Sorrow? like, everyone else says their ability name....) and on a whole building range = fucking lit. i wonder how's the range/control for his ability... because he managed to knock every single one of the mooks (incl the Lightning User) on that building rooftop in like, 3 seconds. and he managed to do it *without* crushing his bike, which is also on the roof, so he's able to do fine-tune who can be affected.

- chuuya so very tsun-tsun and dishonest when he wants to "help"!!! like aside from destroying buildings, being married w/dazai and being beautiful - one of chuuya's themes in the movie is that.... he does things that others tell him to, in two ways. one is if it's an order/job - which he'll only take from his superior/boss. another is if it's a debt he has to repay.

- soukoku then meets shibusawa; dazai says that all the gems that shibu's throwing away are wasted and it would have made for a good gift to women. chuuya asks for shibu to return the sheep fa(r)m, but shibu says that the sheep won't return because they committed the (apple) suicide. (so the sheep are Ability users? at least these six?)

- in the crunchyroll ver, shibu calls chuuya (&dazai?) "boring guests", while in odex ver, he calls them "bored guests"

- upon hearing confirmation that sheep fa(r)m is deader than dead, chuuya activates corruption wordlessly and tells dazai to not stop him. dazai actually acquiesces to that order w/o mouthing off, so it's good to see that he actually acknowledges how important it is for chuuya to avenge the sheep fa(r)m, despite the events in 15...

- building with soukoku&shibu explodes....... and camera pans to dramatically billowing in the wind coat of fyodor as he watches the proceedings, and calls it great entertainment. (so fyodor has already seen corruption at work? hmmmmm)

- re: the ADA briefing re: shibusawa....... like. ranpo-san. if you already knew how everything will happen/end......can you like.......inform the rest of ADA too......

- the fog events where a fog appears then disappears after a *few minutes* leaving behind a corpse of an Ability user started 3 years ago. the info that they have on shibu is that he's 29, he's an ability user, he goes by "collector", and he's the person responsible for the fog events

- also laughing at how... the meeting kunikida & tanizaki went to, to meet with the Special Ops agent... so shady hahaha. though apparently, this is the first time that the "calling card" of a stabbed, juicy apple is left behind.

- tanizaki: "why an apple?" / kunikida: "how should i know?" asd;sfha;ds why is that your main concern tanizaki, there's a dead person there in front of you hahahaha

- (flashback to bar lupin - dazai asking soda if he knows about apple suicides & soda replying that it's cinderella..... and dazai saying that soda is really interesting because of that.....dazai, your definition of interesting.... is if people don't know cultural/literary references? and soda's an aspiring author at this point??? do you sure??? and dazai giving such motives to snow white ahahaha, the definition of overthinking....;;;)

- dazai gets ambushed by ango in front of bar lupin after dazai took the pill (that would supposedly eventually act as an antidote) (like.....how the fuck did dazai end up hiding that pill in his mouth for that long and he kept on talking a lot and it didn't slip or melt wHAT) & ango says that dazai's the one who brought shibu back to yokohama;;; dazai doesn't get captured by ango's team, bec that's when the fog appears

- (atsushi sleeps inside kyouka's closet???? like............why. i thought he had his own dorm room before??? and kyouka's apparently living (in the dorm???) that's quite far away from the agency itself, bec they had to walk a long way to reach the agency?? i was initially thinking it was like, just behind the office or just the next street over hahaha

- ADA budget apparently is spent on high-tech communicators (just use special satellite phones asdj;asd) and fancy gun storage. i'm a bit disappointed that there wasn't a flamethrower. also, the gun that kuni gave atsushi??? had so many fucking bullets.

- ango and his team is able to monitor the fog in yokohama so they're.... not in yokohama? do they have like an airship or something? the fog is apparently able to remove any non-ability users in the vicinity & separate the ability user from his gift. ango reveals that the HQ of the enemies is an abandoned tower called Mukurotoride in the middle of yokohama and i'm just.... did nobody ever think that an abandoned tower in the middle of a busy city isn't damn suspicious???? it's apparently been there for a long time ffs

- (atsushi has this one-track mind that because dazai saved him, then dazai must be good at all costs, which is. i'd love to say it's because he trusts dazai, but it's more like those fanatic belief, really. it would be great if the manga can explore this deeper - because atsushi's hypocrisy is a really interesting facet of his character. atsushi who doesn't even want to point his gun towards the enemy abilities in the beginning and who say that 'even if he's a villain, we don't know the type of person he is...' 'no matter how bad they are, there's no need to kill them', but when akutagawa says that bec dazai is an enemy now, he'll kill him, atsushi reflexively points a gun at aku...)

- ango's subordinates track chuuya (A5158) down and sends him a message to "pay his debt to professor glasses"

- bitch trio scene! shibusawa's theme of boredom bec he's apparently that much of a genius whose intellect can't be surpassed. dazai says that he's just like shibu before, bored beyond belief. when shibu asks dazai how he's surpassed it, dazai claims that he's going to show shibu and that shibu doesn't know what's dazai's true intentions. shibu shoots it down by saying that it's only dazai who thinks he's fushigi mystery. dazai says that shibu needs salvation.... by either an angel or a demon.

- and because call a demon and he'll appear, fyodor appears. who tells the two that they're the only ones who think they're being mysterious because they're pretty easy to read. (shibu then calls fyodor "Majin Fyodor-kun" ahhh). dazai claims that fyodor's the one most likely to betray shibu, which fyodor agrees with. shibu just says that there hasn't been anyone who surpassed his expectations, so he's looking forward to it.

- during the entire bitch trio scene, there's a focus on apples and a certain skull.

- aku telling kyouka that she now has the opportunity to kill him in an ability-less world asdfgh;lasd

- the PM apparently has made an emergency passage specially made to counteract ability user-attacks and can't be penetrated by the fog?? i wonder how they made it?? a nullifying ability from dazai??? hmm

- aku says that the fog is a "dragon's breath" & aku schooling atsushi on information gathering is asdfjg;asd (i wonder who gave the info to aku though....? probs mori haha)

- at this point, i'm gonna jump the explanations and go with - during this entire movie, shibusawa is already dead. he's a walking dead. except for That One Flashback, shibu is dead.

- shibu then welcomes the bitch trio to his collection room, Draconia. which is filled with crystallized abilities. the room has abilities that are bright red and dull red - apparently, all the ability users that is engulfed with the mist will have crystals in the room - once the ability user has been defeated by their ability, the ability will be crystallized and will become a bright red gem inside the collection room. the collected ability can then be taken and used by anyone who's holding the red gem.

- fyodor says that the collection is enough to make a devil jealous, while shibu says that fyodor sold him information about most of the ability users in his collection, which is how he was able to collect them. (remember in the Fyodor v A chapter - fyodor got himself captured so he can steal the notes/docs about Port Mafia members. *more on this below)

- Shibusawa: But how did you gather all that information? Fyodor: Every city is filled with rats. Dazai: Meow.

- that meow also haunts me hahahaha

- shibu then basically says that he's actually just looking for That One Special Ability to make the collection worthy

- akuatsukyou arrive at the end of the passage? but it's foggy, so either the fog is stronger, they're outside of the passage, or aku's lying about the passage being impenetrable by the fog asd;fasd

- Shibusawa: To me, people are nothing but machines of flesh, behaving in identifiable ways. But there is just one person I fail to comprehend. Myself. Dazai: Don't you have any friends? Shibusawa: I don't need friends. I understand everyone's mind, after all. I will surely go to the world beyond, between my lines, past the blank spaces. Dazai: You wouldn't be saying that if you actually had friends.

- this exchange is just so asdfgj'asds like pls you two

- akutagawa summarizes rashomon's ability as.... "to change a cloth to a blade and send it flying towards the enemy". i'm so proud of how aku's able to utilize that ability and create so many things (so demon armor is literally like a suit of blades??? damn son);;; (also, this brings to mind the saying "silk hiding steel" hahaha)

- aku defeating rashomon by slapping it towards the vat of lava..... damn son again;;;; aku going "just as planned", then rashomon apparently survives and aku changes it to "just as i expect from my own ability" ahahahaha.... and aku telling rashomon that he should quiet down and that he belongs in there (in his coat).... ahh bless him

- atsushi shattering the crystal on Byakko by shoving the blade inside its mouth.... is apparently Foreshadowing for something later

- chuuya complaining that he's being expected to go to ango's facility by one phone call.... but chuuya.... you still went..... ;;;;;

Chuuya: You've got some nerve, expecting me to answer your phone call like I'm on your beck and call. Ango: May we have some time alone? This is a government facility. You don't expect to get away doing something like this, do you? (referring to chuuya probs destroying a dozen doors in the process of him reaching ango's office) Chuuya: I'll be the one to decide if I do or not. Not you. Ango: You have a debt to me. Chuuya: No, you have a debt with me. Ango: What are you talking about? Chuuya: Don't act dumb. Do you think I'm stupid? It's about what happened six years ago. Ango: What do you mean? Chuuya: It was the government who sent Shibusawa into the Dragon Head Conflict. It was supposed to end the conflict that had engulfed all of Yokohama. But he never had any intention of maintaining peace. All you did was create more corpses. You sheltered him anyway, because he's a gifted that can help in protecting the nation. That's why, not only did you turn a blind eye to all the corpses he'd produced overseas, you covered it all up. Ango: All for the peace in this nation. Chuuya (grabbing Ango): Watch your mouth, professor glasses. If you hadn't sent him out, all six of my friends would be alive right now. Ango: Will you kill me? I wouldn't mind. I've been prepared ever since I'd decided to ask for your assistance. Chuuya (throwing Ango aside): It's a deal, then. I'll accept your job. And you'll pay with your life.

- back at the creepy beautiful castle:

- fyodor and dazai utter the "keikaku doori" line, which means shit is about to go down - apparently fyozai had made a team-up to sneak into the collection room w/o shibu knowing - dazai reveals that he worked to "guide" shibu in yokohama because shibu is someone that can't be touched because he has the protection of the government... which means that he'll just continue filling up his collection room with ability users and japanese gov't will just turn a blind eye to it, and therefore shibu must be stopped by other means - fyodor says that even w/o dazai meddling with shibu, shibu would create a fog in yokohama. - fyodor takes out 2 abilities. 1st ability can summon all ability users in the area and teleport them to a single place. 2nd can turn the abilities of the gifted who touch it into crystals. (was A a foreshadowing for this all along? A's ability is to change the lifespan of his subordinates to jewels....what is with fyodor and ability users re: gems hahah) - fyodor holds up the 2 gems so that dazai can touch it and nullify it

- (a side note: at this point, here are the characters who've been shown to still retain their abilities: Dazai, Chuuya, Fyodor*more on this later; Dazai because his nullification still works; Chuuya, because he still had that glowy red when he dealt with ango and cracked an entire office wall in the process)

- the logic is that, if dazai touches the 2 gem abilities... the crystals will be broken and the abilities will return to their "former state"*** (v important) and the ability to summon all ability users in one place (aka The Fog) will be cancelled and therefore fog will disappear

- fyodor offers the 2nd gem first... dazai touches it.... but instead of the abilities returning to their owners, the abilities escaped from the crystal shells inside the collection room and fused into one

- before dazai can work on dispelling the fog by touching the 1st gem, shibusawa stabs dazai in the back with a fruit knife. shibu says that he expected this, bec nothing surpasses his expectations. dazai just blandly says "i see... so this is where the betrayal happens", bec fyodor had supposedly locked the door to the collection room when they entered it, but woopsie, apparently not, because fyodor values entertainment

- dazai asks shibu what's his next step, but shibu says that his target is dazai anyway, so there's "no next"

- dazai says that he didn't expect a fruit knife to hurt this bad, so there must be poison in it

- shibu tells dazai that he can now taste the death he's longed for dearly

- in CR subs: dazai says: "How could you? This feels great" while in ODEX subs, dazai says: "What have you done? This doesn't feel great at all", which i think makes more sense

- fyodor says that "with the owner dead, the ability leaves him", and dazai "dies" and "no longer human" crystallizes

- (a side note: so it's confirmed that if ability user dies, ability leaves him.... but what happens to it next? is it transferred to a next person? how about its effects? the people that yosano healed... will their effects be gone and therefore the people will regain their wounds??)

- shibu holds NLH in his palms. shibu's very excited to see NLH crystallized because it very blue (as opposed to the red-gem abilities), the blue changes to red, gemblocking him.

- (presumably, NLH activates?? but.... fyodor held the two gems before and they didn't really activate.... but maybe they didn't because they were already active??)

- Fyodor: The merging ability (the 1st gem, aka: The Fog, aka Shibusawa's Ability) and the disabling ability (NLH). With the two contrary abilities becoming one, a singularity is born. Even with Dazai's special ability, what you really desire-- your lost memories-- will never come back.

- fyodor then says that he'll help shibu recover his memories, and slits his throat

- (joint orphanage flashback time!! c/o atsu and shibu as shibu regains his memories! shibu experiments on young atsushi by electrocuting him. shibu says that the president was mistaken about atsushi's ability, implying that atsushi's real ability isn't Beast Underneath the Moonlight. it's apparently a Very Special Ability, but atsushi's not able to use it properly because of his youth/inexperience. shibu says that even he isn't able to pull the ability out and collect it with his fog.

- in CR subs, shibu says that: "It's the only special ability that won the envy of all other gifted." // in ODEX subs, shibu says that: "It's a special ability that can grant the wishes of other ability users"

(a side note - if his real ability is an ability that can grant his wish, it's possible that atsushi probably read a picture book somewhere or got influenced into thinking that Tigers are Bad. his ability goes haywire, bec it was too strong and he was too young to control it, so atsushi's ability has formed into a tiger because atsushi needed something to blame. something beastly. something monstrous. he can't accept that he himself is the one who's hurting others, so he has formed his ability to turn to a tiger. the regeneration, the shounen power ups... they're not very "tiger-like" or it'd make for a very OP tiger, so his ability could be to make his wishes to reality, like "i want to heal!", "i want to be strong!" and the tiger is just the form that atsushi can deal with/can understand. you can even say..... that byakko is his fursona;;;; *gets kicked*)

(more side note: irl!atsushi wrote a story Tiger Poet, which features a man changing to a tiger....that is a poet... so he might have read that story and got an idea re: the tiger. there's a quote there, "We are all the trainers of wild beasts and the beasts in question are our own inner-selves.", which could be atsushi getting the idea of personifying his ability as a tiger so he can "tame it", aka control his ability)

- anyway, young atsushi didn't enjoy the electrocutions, the tiger takes over and claws shibusawa's face off, killing him

- shibu then says that the reason why he targeted atsushi to begin with is because he heard from a Russian named Fyodor that atsushi's ability is special (see the same contrast betw the CR and ODEX subs noted above)

- present time, fyodor then confirms that shibu died at that point. But. upon death, shibusawa apparently inherited a new ability - the ability to split himself (his soul? spirit?) away from his corpse. his body (aka, the skull that's been there the entire time) is the one who remembers death while his mind doesn't remember it and has retreated into a room (the Collection Room) to deal with his Feelings. (so it means that the shibu soukoku faced off in the beginning is walking dead shibu as well, because apparently shibu has gone for the gem collection quest after his death)

- a side note: so Shibusawa's Real/Original Ability is The Fog (1st ability can summon all ability users in the area and teleport them to a single place....and presumably "pull" the ability away from them). after dying, he got the ability to separate his mind from his corpse (redefining mind over matter), presumably given to him by fyodor?. he then gets the ability to turn abilities into crystals, presumably given to him by fyodor too?, then because he's basically a ghost wandering around earth, he tries to find a reason for "existing" to fulfill the void, which leads him to gathering abilities (*more on this later)

- the abilities continue fusing to each other, creating a huge mass. dazai's "dead" body is sucked into that mass.

- fyodor comments that dazia is quite greedy, because even in death, he intends to watch the city fall into destruction. fyodor then says that as congratulation for their anniversary of being friends (LOL; also - they've known each other for a year already? or is fyodor gigglesnorting here and considering that very same day as the start of their friendship?), he'll tell the dead dazai the reason why he managed to keep his ability in the fog.

- a "2nd" fyodor appears, the personification of his ability. he looks exactly like him. they say the "I am crime. I am punishment. Did you know? Crime and punishment are close friends." line ahahaha

- fyodor merges with his ability

- the mass of abilities that sucked dazai in changes for to a dragon

- fyodor reveals that the dragon is the form of the chaos of special abilities. (remember that "original state of abilities" that fyodor said above? apparently, it's a dragon)

- the singularity anomaly readings are over 9000, more than the events 6 years ago (aka, the opening scene). ango checks on chuuya's location to see if he's on his way

Ango: Chuuya-kun... Dazai-kun is almost certainly eliminated by now.Do you understand what that means? (implying that if chuuya ends up using corruption, there's no dazai who'll nullify it, therefore he'll also die) Chuuya: I don't care. Ango: Are you sure? You haven't taken your reward... My life. Chuuya: Don't get cocky, asshole. You were a just lowly infiltrator six years ago. It's not like anyone would have listened to you if you had opposed their plan to use Shibusawa. (Chuuya lowkey implying that he actually doesn't blame Ango all that much, despite all his talk earlier) Chuuya: This is nothing but that idiot's plans. That Dazai is still inside there. No doubt about it. I need to give him a smack, or I'll never get over it. I'm hanging up.

(can i just say.... chuuya.... even though he has no proof of it whatsoever, he believes that dazai's still alive and waiting for him. ango, who can see the readings of the ability users, knows that dazai's dead. but chuuya----he doesn't need that kind of logic. unconditional trust is here, folks. also, the theories about chuuya actually being able to read dazai's plans/motives??? hell yes)

- chuuya's in a plane approaching the castle (so confirmed that ango's office really is floating over yokohama??? or at least not near it?)

Tsujimura: We're approaching the target. Chuuya: You're that chick from way back. Tsujimura: I'm Tsujimura. Are you really going? Chuuya: Yeah. Tsujimura: It's no use. No human can defeat it. That thing is a monster beyond human comprehension. Get overconfident and fight it, and you'll die. (lowkey spoilers about chuuya being beyond human, thanks bones) Chuuya: That's not a reason to chicken out and go home. Do you know when it's all right to chicken out and go home? Tsujimura: I do not. Chuuya (jumping off the plane): There is no such time.

(chuuya's badass way of removing his gloves and jumping off and his hat and coat flying off???? the whole cinema SCREAMED)

- chuuya chants the "grantors of dark disgrace" line and corruption activates

- chuuya lands on a building, breaks it down to chunks and launches them at the dragon (with dazai inside hahaha)

- extended battle scene with chuuya just battling a dragon, which is the force of a fuckton of ability users' abilities combined, and nailing it. like. just. think about it. the dragon is formed by the force of all the abilities. and there's like, more than 128 of them (as per the initial briefing with ADA). chuuya actually defeated the force of that many ability users. fuck.

- chuuya jumps down to a huge-ass building, floats it and uses it to beat up a dragon. a building is being used as a baseball bat to hit a dragon. the sheer scale and ridiculousness of how powerful he is??? amazing.

- chuuya ends up ramming the building to the dragon's mouth. that's how the fight ends. he makes the dragon choke on AN ENTIRE BUILDING.

- chuuya then yells "DAZAIIIIIIIIIIII" as the dragon explodes (while he's still in corruption mode)

- chuuya reaches dazai, who's inside the dragon, and chuuya (still in corruption mode) punches dazai in the face

- the punch is apparently the key needed for dazai to bite down on the pill, releasing the antidote to the poison (if only romeo and juliet knew about this method...)

- dazai lives. chuuya coughs out blood from using corruption for too long.

- they float in the air and dazai. just. softly touches chuuya's cheek, disabling corruption.

Dazai: You believed in me and used Corruption? I'm so touched I could cry. Chuuya: Yeah, I did. I believed in your disgusting craftiness and refusal to die.* Dazai: That was a somewhat violent way of waking Snow White. Chuuya: You're the one who planned it by hiding an antidote in your mouth, knowing I'd punch you.

...JUST.

dazai's voice.

chuuya. admitting that he believes in dazai. in ODEX subs, it was "i believed in the fact that you wouldn't die", which is extra doki in that ----- even though they've said "i'll kill you" to each other so many times (even in the beginning of the movie) and even though chuuya knows about dazai's double suicide longings.... he still believes that dazai wouldn't die.

and just. dazai implying that he's snow white. and chuuya just rolling with it????? dazai implying that chuuya's the prince who woke up snow white. and chuuya just rolling with it????????

this is high-level flirting i CANNOT

and chuuya KNOWING that him being here is part of dazai's plans and him being here anyways knowing that (even though he had mentioned about dazai's plans always toying with him---)--------------- i CANNOT

Chuuya: Let go, asshole. Dazai: (*dazai presses down on chuuya's head to prevent him from moving*) Don't move. The fog hasn't cleared. I don't want to have to protect you from your special ability in this situation. Chuuya: It's still not over? Dazai: No, it's just beginning. Chuuya: Shit. I can't even move a single finger. (Chuuya collapses into Dazai's thigh, his face/chin landing on Dazai's upper right thigh/hip) Dazai: I predicted things this far. But the rest is on them.

and of course. the lap scene. the scene that killed everyone in the cinema. just. there's no words that can bring it justice. the fuwafuwa atmosphere. the shoujo music background during the floating then the lap scene. the sound of dazai's hand patting chuuya's head. the body placements. the camera angles. that pic in the magazine???? oh boy the actual scene, the extended scene is 10000000000x gayer.

just think.

dazai. who shoved atsushi off when he fell on him.

dazai. who had chuuya fall on his crotch and legs and just. let him stay there. like yes, the point is that dazai has to keep on touching chuuya so he can nullify chuuya's ability and therefore not have his powerful ability have a separate form that can fight them. but they didn't have to stay in that position, did they? i mean, chuuya can't move but dazai could have shoved him off, right? he could have touched him using anything else but keeping him between his legs and patting his head/hair right.

.............BUT WAIT.

dazai.

before he "died".

he.

already nullified the ability to form abilities to crystals. the only ability left is shibusawa's fog, which can trap ability users in one place and extract the ability from them (and just that. the abilities shouldn't be trying to hunt down their "owners" anymore, because no more moon crystal power. right???)

so.

dazai........didn't really have to keep touching chuuya then?

.......is that so. huh.

.....i see.

sasuga dazai.

(i mean even that conjecture is incorrect - as in the Fog can also make abilities fight their owners, aside from just extracting them..... did dazai really have to touch chuuya like that????? .....he really did, huh. i see. sasuga dazai)

.........also. the ability, even if given form, only attacks the owner. (except for that lol-worthy case of rashomon and the tiger having different ideas and attacking each other). so if dazai, as he says, really hates chuuya and wants him to die...... he can..... just let the ability kill chuuya, right??? he doesn't *have* to protect chuuya from it, right? his keikaku that will allow him to use the antidote pill is done, right....? ....ah, but he has to protect chuuya... i see.... sasuga dazai) (unless dazai thinks that chuuya's ability would also hunt him down, in which case.......... dazai, you think yourself that important to chuuya that his ability will hunt you too, huh...... i see.... sasuga dazai)

....also.

dazai.

saying that this is within his predictions, while he's holding the collapsed chuuya to his thigh. still with his hands on chuuya's head. dazai....... why are you predicting that chuuya will end up in your lap. more importantly, why does your predictions END once you have chuuya in your lap. you're leaving the akuatsukyou children to fend for themselves and didn't predict the next parts because you got chuuya in your lap already. .....i see. sasuga dazai;;;;

(a sidenote. from above. fyodor sold the port mafia's information re: ability users to shibusawa. the ability users that shibu knows about will be in the collection room, their abilities getting taken from them. chuuya has his ability The Entire Movie. he didn't lose for the tainted sorrow, at all. so.

- chuuya's ability too strong and can't be extracted, just like atsushi - OR chuuya's ability not in port mafia records - OR chuuya's info is there, but incorrect/incomplete - OR chuuya's info is there, fyodor kept chuuya's ability's information and didn't sell it (a good theory for fyoya fans???) - OR collection room can only get abilities from humans?

(signs point to the first one....... but the other options are also hmmmmm)

- fyodor planting a broken crystal of shibusawa's original ability crystal on the skull's head (it looks like a goddamn horn) so that shibu becomes the "point of singularity" in lieu of the dragon bec dragon is dead. fog continues.

- shibusawa realizing that all his plot?? at collecting abilities? is just his way of trying to cope with the fact that his real thirst lies with atsushi. no really. he just really, really, really wants to see atsushi again.

- another sidenote: AGATHA IS A QUEEN. also, we're laughing about how Agatha is in command of EU. (no brexit in BSD world, apparently) (but also crying a bit because..... Verlaine and Rimbaud and the Trancendentals could be part of the clock tower order??? because there's 12 Transcendetals, there's 12 #s in a clock and they're from france, therefore europe, therefore part of EU therefore----)

- THAT FUKUMORI BACK TO BACK SCENE. MOTHER OF FUCK. mori having faith in dazai's keikaku..... but he's wrong.... because dazai's keikaku had already ended a few minutes ago, with chuuya in his lap. (but really. so mori can't 100% predict dazai, apparently. because mori thinks that it's still within dazai's plan, but dazai says it's not anymore, so.) also. mori being able to kill the ability-elise but not doing so because of the power of cute??? wow, just wow.

Mori: Fukuzawa-dono. Fukuzawa: What a coincidence, Mori-sensei. Mori: Are you having a problem? Fukuzawa: I've just had a glimpse of a solution. Mori: Excellent. Is it not at times like these that your daily actions speak? (They attack each other's abilities) Fukuzawa: I thought you only used your scalpel. I'll be careful from now on. Mori: No mercy, even for an endearing girl. The lone swordsman, Silver Wolf. You are indeed full of sin.* (CR: you are indeed guilty; ODEX: you are indeed, full of sin) Fukuzawa: That was nothing but a demon. Elise: Hey, Rintarou! What the heck are you doing, leaving me behind?! Mori: It's the real Elise-chan~ Fukuzawa: I think she's a demon either way.

- the akukyouatsu v shibu fight continues, with shibusawa basically saying, "ATSUSHI THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE" in repeat. the reference re: tiger v dragon is brought up. shibu says that he's not bored anymore bec atsushi's there.

- the tiger and the dragon are enemies. (more on that here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TigerVersusDragon) apparently, because the dragon represents all the abilities fused together, the tiger is the opposite (......so..... tiger = no abilities? hmmmmm. no wonder fyodor wants him. it's the fulfillment of his goal of a world without abilities, then?). shibu says that atsushi's ability is the opposite of all the abilities, the most special ability of all. atsushi's ability crystallizes, but before shibu can take it, atsushi grabs and says "that's not an ability, that's me!"

- (side note:

- i wasn't expecting that atsushi (whether it's the beast underneath the moonlight or the possibility that his is an ability that takes the form of his desires/wishes) would be the opposite of all the abilities. i would think it's more of dazai's or someone who can erase an ability, but. MC powers? - then again. all of shibusawa's info came from fyodor. so it's also highkey possible that this is all Fake News from fyodor)

Shibusawa: I understand everything, now. Why I'm here, why you appeared before me, and what his words mean... You... You must be the angel who saves me.

- shibu proving dazai right that "an angel" saved him, though technically a "demon" saved him "from death" before too....

- atsushi kills shibu for the second time by crushing his skull

- AGATHA. BEING DISAPPOINTED. THAT YOKOHAMA IS SAVED. because. "The scent of a burning nation goes well with tea." AGATHAAA

- at the end of fighting, chuuya's propped up against the wall of rubble (YOU KNOW THE ONE). his hat apparently landed a few feet away from him. (did dazai drag him there so he can be near his hat? did dazai look for the hat?? did the hat get magically pulled to where chuuya is??).

akutagawa appears.

chuuya asks what the hell is he doing here, then says that the idiot dazai is safe.

akutagawa..... bows to chuuya.

like damn.

akutagawa "DON'T YOU ORDER ME, YOU FOOL" ryuunosuke, bowing down to chuuya. a+++++++++

but then akutagawa starts to leave chuuya behind ahahahaha

and chuuya goes..... what, you're just gonna leave me here when you see i can't walk what. but seriously, his line is: "Oi. Lend me a shoulder."

(so.... dazai and chuuya were together till daybreak, in time for chuuya to wake up, for the spoonDI cover to be shot, for them to have matching bruises on their lips in that photo, huge smiles in their faces, for dazai to change clothes, for chuuya to be unable to walk.......... i don't to say they banged in the rubble, but they totally banged in the rubble.)

- dazai basically saying that, welp i did this keikaku and harmed so many things! - atsushi: but dazai is helping yokohama!!! - Dazai: Do I look like such a good person?

- atsushi.... i want to say it's your trust or that it's your naivete, but...... are you sure you have eyes lol

- dazai reveals that he hopes that shibu managed to fill his boredom and loneliness..... dazai, stop projecting your issues on others. stop helping others with your same issues achieve happiness.... do it to yourself first please.....

- as the ending song plays... we have this scene from ango:

Ango: Given the complexity of the three masterminds' motivations, we still don't have a full picture. Dazai-kun's the same as usual, and demon Fyodor's intentions are impossible to comprehend. But, beyond all the scheming and lying, the incident may fundamentally be very simple. How is a man like Shibusawa, so intelligent that others look like alien creatures to him, to act, to be destroyed, or to be saved? To be one of three aliens in the world, in isolation and loneliness... I can't even imagine it.

.....like, given the movie. it really is a good summary. all these genius aliens.... they actually have such simple thoughts.

- shibu did all of that, but he just really wanted to see atsushi again. - fyodor did all of that, but he just really wanted to be a bitch and have fun. (and maybe kill all ability users eventually) - dazai did all of that, but he just really wanted to try an apple suicide and be saved just like snow white.

.....one of it is not like the others, ahahaha;;;;;;

- chuuya looking beautiful in the ending scene, as he talks with mori

Chuuya: Were you aware of the trick, Boss? (*referring to dazai not really dying? and using that antidote pill?) Mori: Dazai-kun was acting on his own, and I expected he would need your help. As a forerunner. Chuuya: So I was an opening act? Mori: Dazai-kun decides the star. (in ODEX: Dazai-kun was the one who decided on the star.) Chuuya: And what do I get in return? Mori: The return of order in this city. Chuuya: The peace of this city, huh? Mori: Good work. Chuuya: You don't need to thank me. It was your order, so I'm just doing my job.

- asdfgj;asd - mori #1 soukoku shipper confirmed. like. even if he has that much faith in dazai's plans (see above), he also has a lot of belief that dazai's plans will work if chuuya's there to help.

and that "dazai decides the star"/"dazai decided (on you) being the star.... and chuuya....... just rolling with it. he's not ok with simply being an "opening act" ahhaahh. and mori knowing that dazai made the plan with chuuya having the starring role. and chuuya Knowing that too.

and here comes chuuya's concept of "reward" again.... does this boy get paid.......

chuuya's reward being yokohama's peace???? is he really part of the mafia??????????? a pure boy. someone give him the yokohama peace prize.

- second to the last scene is fyodor still creeping on them:

Fyodor: Everything is but entertainment. But in order to end this world, rife with crime and punishment, I really do need that book. The blank novel sleeping in this town.

(so Book's location is confirmed to be in Yokohama at this point)

- final scene with ADA doing business as usual and atsukyou going out for a mission? to buy crepes? to buy chazuke? idk

#dead apple #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs: dead apple #DA Spoilers #soukoku #nakahara chuuya

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owlespresso · 7 years ago

Text

Clarity #2

Also on my ao3. Commissions are open. Info is HERE. My ko-fi is also open for donations, HERE.

Every now and then, when you close your eyes, you see faint fragments of the past. Last night, on your way home, you saw the doctors smiling at you and congratulating you when you received your diagnosis as an omega. You were eleven. Or twelve. That was seven years ago, but it’s still pretty vivid in your head.

You don’t even remember what time it was, last night. You talked to the police about the assault that happened, went through some hysterics to convince them that you were only a witness, and asked about the kid that got attacked. You can’t really remember too much of what he looked like. But that doesn’t really matter to you.

What does matter is the vending machine that’s withholding your bag of chips from you. You really hate waking up in the morning and you hate taking the subway to your college, but they’re all necessary evils. Because life is pay-to-play and in order to get a well-paying job, you need to get an education. No matter how much it makes you feel like driving a stake through your skull. You hate the smog of scents that cloud you whenever you get into one of the cars. You hate a lot of things, really. So you try to make everything worth it by treating yourself every now and then.

The vending machine, nestled next to the entrance of one of the local high schools, doesn’t seem to think you deserve the snack you paid for with your hard-earned change. The crinkled plastic package is pressed up against the glass, taunting you. You’ve tapped it twice, now. You have ten minutes to get to class and it’s a five minute walk to campus. You reckon you can figure this out in a calm, orderly fashion.

But really, why would you?

You have feet that you can use for kicking. That in itself is reason enough to kick things. Maybe it’s your anger making you irrational or your unusual lust for the destruction of public property. Your feet kick against the machine, steel-toed boots leaving scratches and marks as passerby (likely students) give you weird looks. The sound of metal against metal rings out in the nearby street as you beat the machine to the best of your ability, causing it to shake.

Fuck you! Crappy fucking ass machine!! Give it to me!

It’s a pretty good way to get your anger out before class. Usually you settle for crying in the shower, but you woke up a little too late for that.

Fucking alarm clock! Fuck! Fuck!

A hand on your shoulder jolts you out of the red haze of anger that’s overtaken you. You jump, eyes wide as you whirl around to face a young man who’s wearing a pretty shocked expression. He looks pretty silly, with his wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

You’d poke a fun at him, but it’s pretty brave of him to march up to someone so destructive and angry. People are scared of what they don’t understand or don’t know, so you don’t often get approached when you pull stunts like this. You’re taking suppressants, but the scent of your anger is so potent that passerby can likely detect it. Maybe that’s why. Though, you’re pretty sure you’ve seen this guy before…

“Oh!” The realization hits you, “You’re that little guy that was getting mugged yesterday, right?” Looking at him now, “little guy” isn’t really the correct term to use. He’s not the tallest person around, but he towers over you nonetheless. Still, he looked pretty little when he was crouched on the ground, expression painted pale with fear. “You doing alright?” From the uniform, you guess he’s a student at the school the vending machine is next to.

“Yeah…” He doesn’t seem much for conversation. Not that you can blame him. You cross your arms and regard him with a sharp stare. As much as you’d like to stick around and play nice, you really can’t afford to waste time. “Thank you… for that. I hope you’re alright.” He’s cute, though? His hair is long, worn in a messily tied bun with some strands still hanging out. His widdle sweater vest is so cute, too!

“I’m fine. It’s not the first time I’ve had to use some elbow grease,” You declare, leaning up against the damaged machine. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He answers, and promptly goes quiet. You two stand there and stare at each other. You wonder why he isn’t walking away. That’s usually what people do after ending a conversation, but he doesn’t seem to be the most socially apt person. Does he want something else? “What are you... doing?”

“Huh?” You raise your eyebrows, expression irritated. It sounds like he’s challenging you, even though he’s been nothing but polite this entire conversation. All it takes is for him to gesture to the machine for you to realize what he means. “My chips wouldn’t come out. I got mad.” It doesn’t really justify the damage, but you’re too tired to properly reason.

“Oh.” You’re about to tell him to screw off and stop wasting your time, but he takes a broad step towards you. That alone has you bristling, eyes wide and expression curled into a snarl. His sudden closeness combined with the way he looms over you isn’t doing him any favors, either. You’d say he means no harm, but you’ve just met this kid and know not to judge a book by its cover. The sudden change in your scent makes him recoil. You certainly don’t like being an omega, but it has its perks. Alphas and betas always get a little shaken whenever you give a strong, distressed scent. It’s useful when you need to defend yourself. “Sorry. I was going to buy something.”

Oh. Well, now you feel a little silly for jumping to conclusions. Pride damaged, you shuffle out of the way and watch him slide a crisp bill into the machine, his nimble fingers pressing the buttons… He buys the exact same chips you wanted and you want to smite him for doing it right in front of you. It feels like he’s gloating, feels really damn smug of him. You ready a scathing remark (inwardly gloating about how you’re gonna verbally eviscerate this guy) as he bends down to grab the two bags of chips. But he turns to you and holds them out, rendering you silent. You blink, dumbfounded.

Oh. Now you feel even more silly. What the fuck.

“Thank you…?” People don’t do really nice things for you often, and that shows in your reply. He nods and turns to walk off, but you reach out and grab his sleeve, prompting him to look back at you, “What’s your name? Can I see you again?”

Not the smoothest way to start off. You’re not really interested in dating, but you want to get to know the kid (who is probably only a year younger than you are) and maybe become friends. Really. How are you supposed to phrase this kind of thing? Asking for contact information is always awkward and the awkwardness is stifling. It kills your vibes. Ruins your groove.

“Hey. I thought you were just a weird kid a few seconds ago, but I’m going to need your name and your phone number. Right now.” Is what you would say if you were being completely honest. But that just doesn’t work! Not at all!

“Sure. My name is Kozume Kenma…” He sifts through his pockets until he withdraws a sleek smartphone. Relief washes over you. At least he doesn’t think I’m a fucking weirdo. You fetch your own phone and hastily introduce yourself, realizing that you’ve spent four of your ten minutes talking to him. After exchanging numbers, you say a hurried goodbye and dash down the street, only hoping that no one called the cops on you for breaking the vending machine next to Nekoma Academy.

Kenma Kozume is a third year at Nekoma Academy, you soon find out. Much to your surprise, he sends the first text. You get it as you’re on the subway ride home.

Hi.

He’s not much of a talker. You don’t mind. You spent the next half-hour having a semi-active conversation with him, learning that he likes video games and plays on the volleyball team. He learns that you attend one of the colleges close to Nekoma, but doesn’t get much else out of you. You ask him if he wants to hang out tomorrow. He agrees.

It’s a week later and you’ve learned several more things about your new friend. You’ve hung out a few times and he’s gotten more talkative. He’s a low energy guy, but that works out pretty well for you. You don’t really like really energetic people. They’re draining to deal with.

You learn that he has a friend who attends the same college as you and is on the volleyball team. Kuroo Tetsurou. The name sounds familiar but you’ve never met him. You think it over as you sit on a bench outside of a fancy restaurant, waiting for Kenma to show up. It’ll probably be another trip to the arcade, but you don’t mind that.

You busy yourself with your phone, playing Neko Atsume and checking on various social apps. It’s rare of you to make friends so easily, even though you’re not sure if you can call Kenma a friend or not. But you don’t really hang out with people outside of school. Sure, you get along alright with classmates, but you don’t have anyone close to you. It’s kind of a downer. But you’re busy and you have things to do. It’s also difficult for you to really trust betas and alphas, given the assumptions people usually make about you because of your diagnosis.

You refer to being an omega as a diagnosis, because that’s all it is to you. A disease. Something that’s always dragged you down and held you back.

“Hey.” Kenma’s quiet voice breaks you from your negative thoughts.

“Hiya!” You pop up from your seat and give him a meager smile, “Ready to go? You wanted to head to one of the arcades, right?” He nods, and your destination is set. The arcade isn’t too far away. In fact, it’s pretty close to Nekoma. The walk is short, so it’s not too bad.

“So, did you see that new trailer for Super Smash Bros?” You inquire. It’s only been a week but you’ve learned that small talk doesn’t really get you anywhere.

The short walk to the arcade is spent talking about video gaming news and brief details about Kuroo Tetsurou. It’s not too much, but Kenma mentions him in brief instances pretty often. The streets aren’t too crowded, much to your relief. Bustling, metropolitan areas kind of suck when you’re trying to get somewhere fast.

The arcade is only a block away, but it’s come to be a familiar site to you. Kenma’s eyes light up as the two of you enter, and you think it’s kind of cute. He always gets so excited when he sees something he likes, no matter how many times he’s seen it before. This type of enthusiasm is rare from him, so you don’t remark on it, knowing he might get self-conscious.

Yeah, you’re pretty good at reading people.

“Oh. I should go to the ATM,” Most of the machines have coin slots. You’ve come prepared for that, but it appears Kenma hasn’t.

“I’ll wait over here. Take your time.” You assure him, and he scampers off, leaving you to your own devices.

You sweep your gaze across the dimmed area, roaming over the fluorescent screens and listening the beeps and artificial noises that the machines make. It’s a Friday afternoon, so it’s starting to get crowded. Students from various schools often come here after classes, because it’s so close and also pretty big.

“Hey, are you here alone?” A masculine voice rings out, prompting you to look up. There’s a tall guy in front of you, and you immediately don’t like the looks of him. He wears a smile that’s bordering on smug and is much too close to you, forcing you to take in his scent and acknowledge his presence.

“No.” Is all you say in response, hoping he’ll get the clue and leave you be.

“Really? What a shame,” He drawls. “Bet I could show you a better time than anyone else you’re here with, sweetheart.” Why do guys think that calling you demeaning petnames will help convince you? Great. You called me sweetheart. I’m totally into you, now. His languid remark is enough to piss you off. Your temper is usually pretty short when it comes to things like this.

“Leave me alone.” You don’t waste any time trying to debate it with him. His eyebrows furrow in an aggravated manner. Alphas usually get pretty pissed when you tell them that you’re not obligated to pay attention to them. It’s that gross sense of entitlement that really irritates you.

“C’mon, don’t be like that. We could have a good time,” It’s not like he’s said anything directly insulting to you, but he reaches out as he says that and you find that your patience has run out. Your hand snaps onto his wrist and you slip behind him with a nimble step, twisting his hand and arm back at a ridiculously uncomfortable angle, “What the hell!? C’mon, I was just talking to you! All you omegas are so sensitive—” Your grip tightens and you pull, letting him know that you can hurt him even more, “Ow! Ow! Okay, okay!” He snaps and you let him go. He stumbles backwards, regarding you with a venomous glare.

Now, there are eyes on you. Other passerby are watching the interaction with rapt attention. Multiple people have fixed their disapproving gazes on the alpha in front of you, letting you (and him) know that there will be consequences if he takes further action. You despise the stereotyping of omegas as weak, but you know that it’s a useful tool when in situations such as these. He skulks backwards, rubbing his wrist and muttering derogatory comments about you underneath his breath.

A faint murmur of your name draws your attention and you turn around to see Kenma. His hands are in his pockets and his gaze is stuck to the floor. His posture is stiff and his shoulders are rigid. He looks uncomfortable, likely having witnessed the entire exchange.

“Sorry.” He speaks before you get the chance to. “I should have stepped in.”

He’s a sweet kid, behind all that awkwardness. You shake your head with a small smile.

“It’s alright, Kenma. I don’t mind,” You soothe and his shoulders relax. You’re glad that he believes you when you try to comfort him. He’s reserved, but emotionally open in ways that you sealed off years ago, “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.” He probably has a natural urge to want to help you, one that’s wired into his DNA.

But humankind has come far from the backwards species they once were. They have a far way to go. But that doesn’t change the fact that you can handle yourself. You have pepper spray in your pockets and an iron pocket tucked into your jacket. The fact that you need to protect yourself to vigilantly is yet another sigh that mankind has a long way to go before they’re a perfect species.

Still, you’re allowed to take pride in yourself. Or the brief parts of yourself that you can actually stand.

You don’t need anyone to protect you. Or help you. You don’t need anyone.

You’ve only known Kenma for a week and you know that you’d be stricken with horrible grief if he was somehow taken away from you. (And that scares you more than anything)

But you don’t need anyone.

#Kenma Kozume #haikyuu!!#haikyuu fanfiction #hq!!#hq #haikyuu #oz write #clarity #fanfiction #omegaverse #abo

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ylla · 8 years ago

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This Must Be The Place

Series: JJBA Characters: Nijimura Okuyasu, Higashikata Josuke Pairing: Higashikata Josuke/Nijimura Okuyasu Tags: Modern AU, mental health issues, implied/referenced domestic violence, underage smoking/drinking Rating: M AO3 link

i got the jjba fever, and these boys have killed me. i used my own experiences as someone with PTSD/DV survivor, so hopefully this comes across as coherent and a decent charaterization. there’s a specific au that this fic comes from, but it’s a roleplay thing with my two BFFs, and would take too long to explain what we did soooo, i kept those references to a minimum. i will eventually write for this pairing again, PLEASE ENJOY THIS TRIP TO HELL (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

If anything could be said about Okuyasu Nijimura, aside from his unwavering dedication to being a punk (smoking, loud swearing in public, spitting on the sidewalk, driving his motorcycle at unheard of speeds in residential areas, cutting class, the list goes on), it would be that underneath that scowling veneer, there was an entirely too soft heart residing in the core of him. He cared too much about: animals, sometimes sad looking objects that looked like no one cared about when he was feeling real emotional, and people. Especially one person in particular. Who was named Josuke ‘Gets Owned at Smash Brothers Constantly like a Fuckin’ Nerd’ Higashikata.

Yeah, Okuyasu loved a lot of other people. His dad, his brother, Ms. Higashikata who treated him like he was her own, Koichi, Tonio, a bunch of others who had shown him compassion and love at some point since he came to Morioh, and even Stray Cat (how much someone can love a sentient cat plant is debatable, but Oku wasn’t one to think too hard about that kind of thing). But, it was clear that his feelings for Josuke were, well…something a little more. Which of course, Okuyasu was aware that he had caught the dreaded Feelings; he oscillated between flat denials to everyone who raised eyebrows at his gushing over Josuke to actively sweating over how to confess that he was truly, madly, deeply in love with his best friend.

The first time Josuke and Okuyasu met wasn’t exactly romantic. Rather, it was lucky that both of them came out the situation alive, let alone Best Fuckin’ Bros. When he was laying there, staring up at the sky as Josuke healed him, anger disappearing alongside his wounds, he was struck by just how pretty Josuke was. Not only did he owe him one, but Okuyasu found it hard to punch a guy who did made his stomach do weird things when he looked him directly in the face. His handsome face. With pouty lips and the prettiest blue eyes he’d ever seen, and—holy shit, Josuke had an ass on him. A booty that could kill a man, given what it was doing to Okuyasu.

Besides the fattest ass he had ever seen and lips that would look good wrapped around anything, Okuyasu was amazed by how good-hearted Josuke was. Risking himself for Koichi, trying to help the elder Nijimura, saving Okuyasu’s life despite having been punched in the face repeatedly and almost killed by him. Comforting him after his brother was murdered. Accepting him as a friend the very next day. It was kindness without condition. It was more than Okuyasu had ever experienced, and he felt that he didn’t deserve it.

If you asked Okuyasu later, after everything had settled, when he knew that he was enamored with Josuke ‘Saves a Man’s Life Minutes after Hitting Him in the Goods with a Flower Pot’ Higashikata, his response would have been a simple statement:

“There’s no reason he has to die.”

Ain’t that a kick in the dick?

Masculinity is a funny thing, really. Men do a lot of odd shit in order to preserve their ‘manhood’, a vague concept in the best of times. In their quest in being ‘the manliest man’, dudes repress emotions, burying them and deflecting them with humor or just surly nature. Okuyasu wasn’t like a lot of dudes. He knew this. Keicho had made it a point to drive home this fact every chance he got. Okuyasu wore his heart on his sleeve. He cried frequently. He was unflinchingly honest with how he felt and saw himself in the grand scheme of things or compared to his friends. It was refreshing in the best of times, heartbreaking at the worst.

Okuyasu was convinced he wasn’t worth a damn thing; dumb, worthless, incompetent, waste of space. It was like a mantra that had been pounded into his head since he could remember. Stupid stupid stupid. He was pretty secure in his convictions. Not worthy of anyone’s time or effort. Nothing redeeming about him. This was a something he had long since accepted.

But, meeting Josuke changed everything. Finally, there was a person in his life who built him up, rather than do their damnedest hurt him.

“You’re great, Okuyasu!”

“Dude, that’s fucking GENIUS.”

“You’re the funniest person I’ve ever met, no joke.”

His heart swelled so much when he heard Josuke pay him compliments, he was pretty sure it was gonna burst out of his chest. Okuyasu was fairly certain that Josuke didn’t really pay his own remarks any mind, but they meant so much to him. Deep down in his heart of hearts, Okuyasu Nijimura wanted nothing more than to be what Josuke saw.

If he was asked what the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him, Okuyasu would know that it would be a sleepy whisper he heard while sharing a bed with his best bro:

“I’m really glad I met you.”

Though feelings weren’t hard for Okuyasu to talk about, getting into a conversation about how he really felt about his Best Fuckin’ Bro or his psychological and physical scars wasn’t something he wanted to do, ever. He got the feeling that Josuke felt the same about his own shit, so they never really talked about their deep seated issues at length. Anything else was fair game; both boys enjoyed their late night deep conversations about anything, everything, and nothing all at once. It just never strayed into murky territory.

Then Kira blew that all to hell.

In all honesty, Okuyasu doesn’t remember much of that fight. There’s a big black space, punctuated with a sad dream about Keicho and decision-making, between meeting Kira in the street and finding Josuke collapsed in a puddle of his own blood, with wooden spikes pointing out of his body, making him look like the world’s saddest marionette. The rest is a blur, but he remembers clutching Josuke, trying to get his writhing, pompadoured friend to stay still until paramedics could get to him.

“You’re alive” Josuke croaked.

“Yeah buddy, I’m good, I’m golden.” Okuyasu was sitting on his knees with his arms around Josuke’s chest, holding him tightly without trying to hurt him further, “You need to stop moving, you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Josuke was trying to turn around, “I’m aces, let me touch you. You’re alive. You’re alive, thank god. Thank god” he kept whispering, shaking so hard his teeth was chattering. Okuyasu wasn’t sure why Josuke was shaking like that, or why he was so clammy, so he just kept ahold of him, brushing his thumbs against the uninjured parts of his friend’s face, a desperate attempt at comfort.

Later, after Josuke had been loaded into the ambulance and Jotaro ushered him into a car to follow, that he learned Josuke was going into shock. Okuyasu knew that that much blood loss and shock had a very good chance of being fatal. A numb feeling crept into him, the gravity of the situation not truly hitting him until he sat in the ICU lounge at the hospital. He felt like he should cry; instead he just trembled.

It wasn’t until Tomoko arrived, bearing fresh clothes not only for her son, but for Okuyasu as well, did the dam finally break. Horrible, ugly sobs broke out of him; Tomoko shushed him while wiping away his tears, “The nurses are okay with letting you use a shower. Go get cleaned up and changed. I’ll send someone to get you if you’re not back before he’s able to have visitors.” With a nod, he managed to swallow back his tears. Tomoko sighed, her brows knitted together. Clearly, she was concerned with the wellbeing of both her son and the boy in front of her. It shouldn’t have surprised him when he was pulled into her patent Mom-is-Here-to-Make-It-Better Hug, but the kindness made Okuyasu’s sobs break out with renewed vigor. She just held him; rubbing his back and whispering reassuring things. Besides looks, it was easy to see that Josuke inherited a lot more from his mother.

Okuyasu managed to get himself back under control before letting go, hightailing it to the bathroom before he could make a fool of himself any further. Panic attacks where something he was already used to experiencing, but it never made it any easier. “Everything will be okay,” he mumbled over and over to himself, rocking back and forth under the blistering hot water.

Even after his near-hour long shower, he emerged fairly calmer. Actually he wasn’t, but he was able to fool himself into thinking he was. Josuke was in recovery, no one was allowed to see him aside from Tomoko, per Jotaro. All he could say was okay before aimlessly pacing around the room. The lounge was empty, save for Okuyasu and Jotaro keeping watch. “Okuyasu,” Jotaro finally said after what felt like century of silence, “Sit down.” The teenager had been staring into the corridor leading down to the surgery wing; he looked over at Jotaro, who hadn’t even bothered to stop reading his book.

Okuyasu nodded, “Yeah, okay.” He forced himself to sit on a couch, leaning back to get somewhat comfortable. He was asleep within a matter of minutes.

A gentle hand shook him awake, “Oku, honey.” Terrified, he gasped sharply, The Hand materializing beside him to fuck up— it was Tomoko. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Josuke’s awake and begging for you.” He spared a glance over her shoulder at Jotaro, who was hovering in the background, wearing a look on his face that Okuyasu didn’t like. A look that asked the question, “What the fuck?” He wasn’t in the mood to answer.

Getting his bearings, he dismissed The Hand, “S’fine. I’m up.”

It was a small miracle that Josuke got himself a private room. As they walked, Tomoko warned Okuyasu, “His injuries weren’t as bad as they feared, so he’ll get to go home in a few days, baring no infection. He’s loopy from the medication, and thinks—“ she bit her lip and Okuyasu instinctively knew how she was about to finish that statement, “He thinks you were injured? Something about a hole in your chest? He’s…he’s very upset. I just wanted you to be prepared.”

She looked so worried and afraid. He’d never seen her that vulnerable looking; it broke Okuyasu’s fragile heart into a million little pieces. “I figured. I think what happened made me hit my head, go unconscious. He was pretty fu—I mean messed up when I came to. Kept muttering about how I was alive.” Jotaro had told Okuyasu on the way there that they were to refer to this incident as a gas leak, and nothing more. He resented the fact that Jotaro felt the need to tell him because no shit sherlock, but then he remembered he was a fucking idiot with a big mouth anyways, so it was probably for the best. They made it to the door of Josuke’s room. Oku felt compelled to comfort her. “Don’t worry ‘bout him Ms. H, he’s gonna be okay. He’s tough as sh—an old boot?”

Tomoko gave him a teary smile and patted his face affectionately. Okuyasu wanted to do nothing more than to time travel and punch Joseph Joestar right in the fucking face for hurting such a sweet woman. We can’t win them all.

The lights in Josuke’s room were dimmed, in the hopes it would get him to sleep. It didn’t work, because Josuke was sitting straight up, eyes wide and completely zoned out. His only movements were him chewing on his bottom lip. His hair was a complete, utter disaster. The entire scene was unsettling. For a split second, Tomoko looked like how Okuyasu felt, until Mom Mode kicked in. “Honey, I’m back,” she placed a hand on Josuke’s shoulder, “I brought Okuyasu with me.” Josuke flinched, brought back to reality. He focused on Tomoko for a few seconds before his eyes slid over to Okuyasu. They stared at each other for a few seconds, before Josuke started struggling to get out of bed.

“Don’t—Damnit Josuke, don’t get up,” Okuyasu strode over to him, “you’ll bust your stitches.” Carefully stepping over all the bullshit wires attached to Josuke, Oku sat on the edge of his hospital bed. The roles were reversed for once; Josuke clung to him, sobbing wildly, while a slightly uncomfortable Okuyasu rubbed his back and did his best to comfort him.

“I thought you were dead.” He was slightly slurring.

“I’m fine Josuke, don’t cry. It’s okay. I’m okay. Everyone is okay.”

Reassurances meant jack shit when Josuke was clearly convinced that he had died, but it was all Oku had.

After a few more minutes of trying to calm Josuke down, the doctor walked in, his timing terrible. Tomoko got up and ushered him out of the room, knowing how her son felt about people seeing him cry. It was just the two bros left alone. At that point, Josuke managed to get his crying under control. He leaned back, putting his hand on the right side of Okuyasu’s chest, looking directly into his eyes, “You had a hole. Right here. From Kira’s explosion. I fixed it, but—“ his voice broke, “You were deadweight. You weren’t breathing. You had to be dead. There’s nothing else you could’ve been. I pretended it wasn’t true, but it was.”

The look on his best friend’s face was the most heartbreaking thing he had ever seen. Tentatively, Okuyasu wiped away Josuke’s tears, “You saved me, dude. Fixed me up, and I’m as good as new…so don’t cry okay? I’m okay.” Josuke closed his eyes and pressed his face into Oku’s touch. Thank god Tomoko was out of the room, or she would have seen Okuyasu blush so hard, he looked like he was seconds away from having a stroke.

Tell him! His inner voice screeched. Tell him you’re in love with him!!! Tell him now!!! Stop being a baby-backed bitch!!!

No, don’t! Another part of his conscience warned, Josuke’s emotionally vulnerable right now. He would feel obligated to return your feelings. Don’t put him through that. He’s suffered enough.

“Come on, lay back down. You’re gonna regret moving around this much when the morphine wears off.”

“Only if you promise you’re gonna stay right here with me.”

“M’not going anywhere, I promise.” Okuyasu had no idea if he was allowed to stay or not, but he would do his damnedest to keep his word.

Mercifully, Josuke calmed down enough to let his head hit the pillow with a groan. Then he remembered his hair existed. His hands flew up to the greasy, rat’s nest that his pomp had become. “Oh godDAMNIT” Josuke looked like he was about to cry again.

Panicking a little bit, Okuyasu stroked his face, “Hey, hey, it’s okay. Do you want me to French braid it?”

Josuke was distracted from his despair, “You know how to French braid?”

The next few hours were dedicated to fixing Josuke’s fucked up hair. The actual braiding normally doesn’t take that long, but Okuyasu was continuously interrupted from his task by what felt like literally the entire hospital. It was his own damn fault, insisting that it would be easier to do two braids since Josuke had so much hair, not admitting that it would take longer and therefore, give him more time to play with his bro’s hair. Had to find a comb and hair ties (thank God Tomoko had the sense to pack both in an overnight bag), then spent a while gently brushing out all of the product Josuke liked to use. Doctors and nurses were in and out. Koichi, accompanied by a scowling Rohan, stopped in briefly to check on the hero of the day; they left shortly afterwards, with Koichi giving Okuyasu a promise that he would check on his dad for him. Josuke had to eat and use the bathroom. Jotaro also popped in, but he mostly stayed outside in the hallway, reading. A nurse tried to get him to go back to the lounge, but Jotaro’s menacing aura and cold-as-death stare deterred the young man from continuing his train of thought. The marine biologist wasn’t bothered after that.

It was clear to Okuyasu that Tomoko knew Josuke better than anyone, seemingly able to anticipate his needs before anyone else, including Josuke himself. In all honesty, didn’t take a genius to see that her son was mostly calm only when Oku was in touching distance. So when the evening was winding down, and visiting hours were over, Tomoko shouted down the nurses who tried to get Okuyasu to leave. It was unknown to the teenager if she got her way using ironclad determination or if Jotaro’s menacing over her shoulder helped. Probably a little from column A and column B.

Okuyasu had started four hours ago, and was just now beginning on Josuke’s second braid. Tomoko had left the room to make some phone calls; presumably to work, Koichi’s mother, other relatives that Okuyasu had never met, and very possibly the Speedwagon Foundation (Jotaro had given her the number, simply stating “They’ll take care of everything” before throwing a hand up in goodbye and leaving). Josuke had managed, with a medium amount of effort, to sit with his back facing the edge of his bed. Okuyasu stood behind him, taking his time weaving Josuke’s hair. A comfortable silence had fallen on them until Josuke broke it, “Can I ask you something?”

This was typically how their deep conversations started. Okuyasu was already uneasy, “Go ahead.”

“When did you learn how to French braid?” At least Josuke was no longer slurring.

It was expected that the question would come up. Didn’t make him feel any better about the direction this conversation was heading. Okuyasu answered, “Keicho taught me.”

Josuke made the same noise in his throat that he always did when Keicho was brought up. Okuyasu grimaced. He was very aware of Josuke’s feelings regarding his big brother. A minute or two passed before Josuke spoke again, “Why did he teach you? Like, how the hell did he know?”

He was already in this deep, might as well share the story. “When mom was in the hospital, she taught ‘em how to do it. Keicho told me that she said it made her feel like an actual person again.” He paused for a minute, taking a slow, measured breath. “Big bro grew his hair out after she died. Taught me how to braid like that. I mostly did it when we were kids, but he’d ask me once in a blue moon when we got older.” Okuyasu paused again because his hands started shaking. He waited until it passed before he continued with his work.

Silence fell on them again for a bit. “When was the last time you did it?” Josuke asked.

Oku shifted from foot to foot, “…Dunno, maybe like, eight months ago? Nine months? Before we moved to Morioh. We had our stands for at least a year before…” At this point, Okuyasu was just talking, “Keicho had been out all day and it was late that night when he got back.”

“What was he doing?”

“Stand user hunting I guess? He’d get really pissed off if I ever questioned it.” Okuyasu shrugged. “A lot of times he’d just come home in some shitty mood and yell me or dad for whatever reason, but that night he was just. Tired. He showered, then kinda hovered in the doorway to my room until he asked me to braid his hair like I used to. So I did.” Okuyasu sighed, feeling weary down to the bone himself, “We didn’t talk when I did it, but after I finished, he said that he was going to bed and that he loved me…Probably last time I ever heard ‘em say that…”

Josuke wasn’t saying anything. The silence stretched on for minutes, and Oku started babbling, “I—I know he did a lot of awful shit, and I ain’t defending it—“ Before he could say anything else, the braid was finally finished; Okuyasu tied it off, grateful that he could move on from the subject. “I—I finally finished your hair. Now let’s get you laid back down, I’ve kept ya sitting up long enough.” He put a hand on Josuke’s back and the other on his shoulder to help him turn—

“Oku.”

“Y-yeah?”

Josuke was still facing forward, his voice soft, “You can braid my hair anytime you want to,” taking his non-IV’d hand and squeezed one resting on his shoulder.

Even as he flew high on morphine, riddled with holes and broken ribs, Josuke Higashikata was comforting his best bro. Tears stung the backs of Okuyas’s eyes. Goddamnit, why was he so good to him when he never fucking deserved it in the first place. He was the one in the fucking hospital, but the only thing on Josuke’s mind was his feelings. “Thanks bro. I’ll hold you to that” he said thickly.

Josuke patted his hand before allowing Okuyasu to help him lay down, “You’re gonna stay right?”

“Yeah. I think your mom scared the shit out of the doctors, so they’re, uh, gonna make an exception for me.”

“Good…good…”

Josuke was finally settled down in bed, looking pitiful. “Did mom bring a mirror? I wanna check out your handiwork.”

There was in fact a handheld mirror in the overnight bag Tomoko brought. She really did know her son. Okuyasu, suddenly feeling very self-conscious, held up the mirror for him, “If you don’t like it, I can take your hair down—“

A critical eye appraised the twin braids on his head. Agonizing seconds pass before Josuke spoke again, “Dude, it looks really good…”Josuke ran a hand over them, making an appreciative noise. He looked back up at his friend, “I can say that I now officially trust you with my hair. Promise you’ll do it again?” A smile, albeit a weary, tired one, was on his face.

If the Earth had opened up and swallowed Okuyasu whole, he would have just accepted it, knowing that he just got paid the highest compliment Josuke ‘I’ll Whoop Your Fuckin’ Ass if You Insult or Touch My Hair’ Higashikata could ever give another person. And if his face got any redder, he would probably pass out. I’m in love with you, you heartbreakingly beautiful bastard is what he wanted to say. Instead, he turned around, busying himself by pulling an extra armchair Jotaro may or may not have jacked from another room as close as he could to Josuke’s bed, desperately trying not look like a fucking fool. “That’s some high fuckin’ praise coming from you…I promise dude, you’re in good hands” he said, amazed at how even he had managed to make his voice sound.

Okuyasu managed to kick his shoes off and sit down, wrapping himself in a blanket that Jotaro also may have stolen. Immediately, he felt sleep almost overwhelm him. Before he would let it, Okuyasu glanced over at Josuke, who was intently staring at him. To his credit, Oku didn’t flinch, “You good, man? Morphine still killing the pain?” Josuke kept staring at him, and instead of actually answering, he spoke in a voice that was too small to come from him, “Will you hold my hand?”

Tears threatened again, but he nodded, “Yeah, man. I got you.” It wasn’t as awkward Okuyasu thought it would be, angling arms enough to where they would both be comfortable. Josuke’s hand was icy in his, and Oku rubbed his thumb in gentle circles over the back of his hand, trying to warm it up.

Josuke was asleep and Okuyasu was on the verge when he heard Tomoko quietly slip back in. The still lucid part of his brain was hollering about how she could clearly see him holding hands with her son, but the tired part was stronger and kept pulling him closer to sleep. She said nothing, merely walking over to Okuyasu and adjusting his blanket to cover him better, before planting a motherly kiss on the side of Oku’s head. He wanted to just weep forever. Tomoko gave Josuke the same treatment before settling down herself.

If you asked Okuyasu when he knew that his relationship with Josuke ‘Hold My Hand and Don’t Leave My Side, Bro’ Higashikata changed, his answer would be not when he was asked to hold his hand, or when Josuke was concerned about dumb shit with Keicho while recovering from horrible injuries, but when he was handed the key’s to his bro’s bread and butter: his precious hair. Most people would say that’s fucking stupid, but those people also got a kiss from Okuyasu’s fist, so who’s the real idiot here?

“Dude, it couldn’t have been that bad.”

“It was a complete waste of my damn time is what it was.”

Roughly six weeks had passed since Josuke had been released from the hospital. His physical injuries were mostly healed thanks to a (reluctant) visit to Tonio’s, but it was becoming increasingly apparent that the whole fight with Kira had taken a great toll on Josuke’s mental wellbeing. So apparent, that Tomoko had finally convinced her son to see a psychiatrist.

Okuyasu frowned at the top of Josuke’s head; he was once again French braiding his undone hair. Josuke had pulled out his pompadour in frustration earlier. “What was so bad about it? If you don’t mind me asking or—“

Josuke sighed irritably, and Oku flinched. He tried to remind himself that Josuke wasn’t mad at him, but at everything that was going on with him. “It’s just—“ Josuke began, “Being told you’re fucked up isn’t something you wanna hear.” Papers were being shuffled; Josuke was riffling through a plain manila folder again. Over his shoulder, Oku could see the title of a packet in big bold letters: PTSD: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment. “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly known as PTSD, blah blah blah,” he read aloud, “Symptoms include—I’m just gonna read the ones that doctor highlighted—Insomnia, irritability, social isolation—sorry Koichi, nightmares, avoidance, lack of self-care, severe anxiety—look at that, that one’s underlined—“

Pretending that a lot of that didn’t apply to himself, Okuyasu interjected, “So, he pegged what’s wrong with you—“

“Clearly.” The last words came out harshly, and Oku flinched. He just kept braiding, unsure what to say back. The doctor had hit the nail on the head. Josuke didn’t sleep much anymore. He went days without showering or changing his clothes (he had in fact showered and done his hair today, but it had been the first one in 6 days. Okuyasu mentally kept count). Refused to see anyone save for his mother, Koichi on rare occasions, and Okuyasu. Actually, Josuke panicked when Okuyasu was outside of his line of sight. So, he stayed with Josuke as much as he could, but his other responsibilities called him. Okuyasu felt such immense guilt when he had to leave. He wanted to do more for Josuke, but he didn’t even know where to begin.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Josuke cleared his throat, “Hey, uhm…” Josuke shifted uncomfortably, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. It’s not your fault, and I’m not mad at you.” He sounded so tired. It hurt Okuyasu’s heart.

“S’fine dude, don’t worry—“

“No it’s not! It’s not fine! None of this is fine!” Josuke flailed upwards, out of Oku’s grip. He started pacing, “What the fuck is wrong with me?? Kira’s fucking dead, and you’re—“ He stopped short, opting to rub his face hard instead, “Why am I like this?? Why am I so scared and sick all the time?? I’m a goddamn monster, look at how I’ve been treating people!” Josuke gestured to the empty room, to Oku. “I get so pissed off, for no damn reason, and I take it out on you or mom, and neither of you deserve that. You don’t deserve my stupid bullshit.”

If Okuyasu’s heart could break anymore, it would. Not knowing what else to do, he got up and pulled his bro into the tightest bear hug he could manage, “Dude—“

Josuke didn’t break down into gut-wreching sobs as he had been prone to do lately, instead just laid his head on his bro’s shoulder, speaking in a broken, small voice, “Just wanna be okay again, Oku.”

“I know,” Okuyasu whispered, “I know. You will be, it’s just gonna take a while to get there.”

Josuke heaved a watery sigh, “Not trying to be ‘that’ guy, but you don’t know that.”

It was Oku’s turn to snap, “Dude, yes I do!” He pulled away from Josuke, and grabbed him by the shoulders, the most stupid, serious look on his face. “I didn’t have the exact same thing happen to me, but I get it. All these symptoms?” Okuyasu bent over and picked up the folder, shaking it for emphasis, “I feel these every fucking day of my life, dude. Literally every day.”

“Oku—“

His voice fraught with emotion, Oku continued, “Yeah, you don’t really ever get 100% better. You’ll have a good day, but then you have a truly awful fucked up day the next, for no reason other than you just woke up. But, you can learn how to cope. And function. It’s really hard, but it’s possible.”

He was so heated. He had no reason to be, it’s not like he ever told Josuke all this. He’d never told anyone this. Okuyasu never considered him a victim, but goddamn did he know the structure of his own psychology. Filled with a sudden sense of shame over being upset, he turned around, unable to look at his friend, “You’re not a monster. You’re just a guy who went through some awful shit, and now needs help to get through it. And that’s okay.”

Okuyasu rubbed his face, what a mess. The room was deafeningly silent. Josuke hugged him from behind, wet face pressed into the shorter kid’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I should’ve—“

“No, don’t. Don’t be sorry. S’not like I advertise it.” Okuyasu squeezed his bro’s arm, “My point is, I’m like. Here for you, dude. To listen, or hangout, or whatever you need. You’re not alone.” Josuke said nothing, only nodding into his shoulder. “Also, I’m not done with your hair yet, sit back down so I can finish.” Okuyasu tugged on him; Josuke let go and sat back on the floor.

Sitting in silence while Oku worked gave him an opportunity to gather his thoughts. He was gonna help, even if it killed him.

Josuke brought him out of his thoughts again, “So. What do I need to do? To stop feeling like this.”

The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to just figuring out where to start.

“How do you like, deal with the bad shit in a not terrible way?” Josuke queried, pen in his mouth.

Oku tied off the first braid and moved on to the second, “It’s different for every person. I think Keicho dealt with shit by—“

“Yeah, don’t give a shit what he did. What do you do?”

“Depends. If I’m not thinking straight, I write shit out. If I have a nightmare, I go take a walk around the neighborhood to burn off steam. If I’m feeling itchy or panicking, I take a hot shower.”

Josuke nodded, writing down ideas on the back of the PTSD packet he was given. He seemed genuinely receptive to what Okuyasu was saying. When he finished Josuke’s hair, they both ended up laying in his bed, still spit balling.

“It’s also important to learn what might like, trigger all the bad feelings and shit.”

Josuke scratched his cheek “Feels like everything does.”

“Is there anything that makes you feel super bad? Or dredges up nasty thoughts?”

He took him a moment to answer, “…Remember how we watched Transformers the other day? All those explosions made me feel nauseous.”

Oku snapped his fingers, “There’s a start. So we start by limiting how much you see of that for awhile.”

“I think I’m good with like, cartoony explosions? Where it doesn’t involve shit that looks real?” Josuke’s brows furrowed, “That make sense?”

“Yeah, yeah I get you. So like, Looney Tunes shit or when Captain Falcon does The Knee of Justice in Smash—“

“Don’t worry, you can still use your main. I think I’ll be okay. If I’m not, I promise I’ll tell you.”

“Anything else you can name off of the top of your head?”

With a sigh, Josuke rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling. He was quiet for a long time, before speaking in a low voice, “If I don’t see you with my own two eyes, I get really anxious. Like, bad anxious. Gonna puke anxious. Can’t exactly see you at every given moment in the day, can I?”

Okuyasu chewed on his lip, trying to come up with an answer when the alarm on his phone rang. It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon; time to feed his dad again. The cogs in his brain started turning, “I got an idea. Gimme your phone.” Josuke acquiesced, unlocking it before handing it over. The wallpaper made Oku snort. It was a selfie of him, Josuke, and Koichi making drunken stupid faces. It had be the one time Koichi had ever gotten shitfaced with them. Oku pulled up his clock app and set a timer for 60 minutes.

“Okay, I’m gonna go over to my house for an hour. You can’t come with me, so what you’re gonna do is try some of these out.” He gestured at the back of the paper, “Maybe you’ll even come up with something we didn’t think of.”

Josuke shifted uncomfortably, already anxious-looking, “I dunno if I like this idea.”

“It’ll be good practice,” Oku said, while getting up, “Plus, if you need me, you can just text me.”

Josuke frowned at the ceiling, “I always need you.”

Both boys froze upon realizing what Josuke had just said.

Okuyasu stuttered, “I—I’m gonna go c-check on dad. Be b-back in bit.” He stumbled out of the room in a slight panic and was halfway down the stairs when he remembered to holler, “START THAT COUNTDOWN.”

“OKAY!” came the affirmative.

You could have fried an egg on Okuyasu’s face. He pounded down the street to his house, trying to run away from his feelings but, goddamnit, they were still there, following him. Since that first night in the hospital, his relationship with Josuke had become charged with an undercurrent that he couldn’t quite figure out. It was very obvious something had changed between them. They lingered when giving each other hugs, sometimes held hands whenever Josuke needed it, and basically cuddled when they slept in the same bed. It would need to be addressed at some point, but not when things were too shaky. Confessions can come later.

Oku got home and immediately set to work; feeding his dad and Stray Cat, packing some clothes so he’d have something to change into in the morning. He was about 15 minutes into his chores when his text alert chirped:

J☮♡: I’m struggling

J☮♡: I can’t empty my stupid head long enough to thing about literally anything else

You: youre doing good though

You: do something thats mindless, like a game. U got 40 mins left, u got this

J☮♡: I’ll try.

He did his best to be encouraging, and hoped that it would be enough for now. Finished with slinging clean clothes into a duffel bag, Oku dug through a shopping bag that had been laying by his shitty desk. Writing really did help him sort his brain out, so he was a frequent purchaser of notebook packs. There was one that Josuke would love: purple with gold polka dots, his aesthetic. But when that bad lad was cracked open, Okuyasu saw that the first page was adorned with hearts containing his and Josuke’s initials. He let out a ‘REEEEEEEEE’ before throwing it away from him as hard as he could.

Perhaps Josuke would prefer the cerulean with mint colored triangles on the front instead.

He went fishing in the bag again, this time finding a cute star keychain. Before Kira sent everything to hell, Okuyasu had every intention to give Josuke his other set of house keys, in case anything were to ever happen to him. Oku stared at the little star. He bought it because Josuke was his star and—oh god maybe now is not the time to think about how gay you are for your best friend—before clipping it onto the spare set he had laying on his desk. Better late than never.

With a few minutes to spare, he returned to Josuke’s house. “I’m baaack, Josuke!” A walrus groan from the family room answered him. He found a white-knuckled, pale Josuke sitting on the floor playing Animal Crossing: City Folk. Back when Josuke first bought it, Okuyasu teased him mercilessly before getting sucked into how damn chill it was. “Did you make a new town?”

Josuke visible relaxed when Okuyasu plopped down beside him, “Nah, don’t worry about your little dude. Deleted my villager and made a new one.”

Okuyasu stretched out on his stomach, propped his head up with a pilfered pillow from the couch. “Was it helping?” he yawned.

It took Josuke a few seconds to answer; a fish was refusing to be caught and it was taking his concentration, “Hm? Oh, uh, yeah actually. It was working before ya ugly mug showed back up.”

“Shut up, we both know I’m the sexy one in this friendship. I got bitches swarming my dick. Gotta beat ‘em off.” A bold faced lie if there ever was one.

Josuke snorted, “Phrasing.” He playfully knocked into Oku’s shoulder, “You are pretty sexy, dude.” Okuyasu pretended his face wasn’t the same red as the roof of Josuke’s Animal Crossing house.

They bantered back and forth for a while; Josuke offered up control of the Wiimote, but Oku enjoyed watching him play. “Oh yeah, before I forget,” Okuyasu dug into his duffel bag, pulling out the notebook and keys, “Here.” Josuke took them, an eyebrow arched. Oku felt self-conscious, but he soldiered on, “When I got something pretty to write in, it makes it easier for me to do it. That’s stupid, I know.”

“It’s not stupid.” Josuke flipped the notebook front and back, “This is cute, I’ll definitely have to use it. You got good taste.”

“Hell yeah I do.” You don’t even know the half of it. He cleared his throat, time for the embarrassing part, “And those keys are my spare set. You know I could sleep through a hurricane, so if ya ever have a nightmare, you can come wake my dumb ass up and we’ll go take a walk, or something. No matter how late. I was gonna give ‘em to ya before…W-well now seems like a good time anyways.” He wanted his dumb mouth fuck off for good.

Josuke traced a finger over the star keychain before choking out, “Thanks dude. I appreciate it.”

Okuyasu gripped him in a strong one-armed hug, “S’no problem. What I’m here for. Now that’s outta the way, lemme beat your ass in Smash before dinner.”

They played a couple rounds of Smash. Josuke did okay, which he seemed relieved about. He was also boastful, because he managed to beat Oku a few times. Okuyasu was just glad they were playing. After dinner, they ended up watching some dumbass movies before stumping back up to Josuke’s room to pass out. Josuke was already settled into bed, half-asleep when Oku came back from the shower. Unsure if Josuke wanted him in the bed with him, Okuyasu tried to quietly move around the room to pick up his faithful childhood friend, a stuffed cat named Mr. Whiskers (Josuke never teased him for it, which he thanked God for every day). While he was facing the wall, Josuke reached behind him and patted the bed. It was a gesture to let Okuyasu know he was welcome. Oku turned off the lamp beside the bed, and crawled under the covers. Josuke’s full-sized bed groaned underneath him as he settled down. “G’night bro.” He got a grunt in response.

Maybe thirty minutes passed, “Hey Oku.” Josuke whispered, voice drowsy.

“Hm?”

“Thanks for everything. You’re a lot smarter than you give yourself credit. I’m lucky to have you.”

Okuyasu had never been so thankful for darkness in all his life. It did a good job of hiding the tears streaming down his face. Josuke really did do his damnedest to shine a light on his dark feelings. He managed to reply, a lump in his throat, “Don’t mention it. Now get some sleep. You’ll wake me up if you have a nightmare, right?”

“Mm.”

“Promise?”

“Mm.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Mm.”

“Night, bro.”

He didn’t even get a response to the last one. Sleep took him a few minutes later too.

Josuke did end up having a nightmare that night, but kept his word and woke up Oku. They ended up sneaking out and walking around the neighborhood at 2 o’clock in the morning, chainsmoking. Okuyasu had an arrangement with the night clerk at the gas station, he got cigarettes and cheap beer if he slid some extra cash across the counter.

They ended up on the roof of Josuke’s house, sharing a six-pack, and stayed up there until dawn. It would have been the most romantic thing that had ever happened to Oku, if the circumstances were different.

If you asked Okuyasu, if he had to pick between sunrises and sunsets which he would choose, he would remember that morning, as he held Josuke’s hand while watching the sun peak up over the horizon.

Josuke had that intractable Joestar will. He never backed down once he had his mind set on something, no matter how big or small. Sometimes to his detriment, but mostly it worked out for him. It used to blow Okuyasu’s mind how dedicated and goddamn stubborn his friend could be.

He needed that attitude.

Progress was very slow. In the beginning, Josuke had more bad days than good. After a couple of weeks, with the start of school looming over them, he was impatient.

“I thought this was supposed to fix it??” Josuke stubbed out the remnants of his cigarette and paced around on Okuyasu’s back porch. It faced away from Josuke’s house and had trees blocking the view in the back, so they hung out back there when they were smoking and drinking like the rebellious teens they were.

Okuyasu tutted at him from in behind his cigarette; he took a drag, held it for a few seconds then blew it out, “I told you, it wouldn’t be overnight. It takes a lot of time and patience. You just have to keep at it and give it time.” He flicked the ash off the end, then frowned as he brushed more ash off of his shorts.

Josuke groaned, “I know, it just sucks.” He plucked another cigarette out of the box, and held it out for Oku to light it. He wasn’t fond of fire near his face anymore. Okuyasu obliged, and Josuke held up his cigarette in thanks before taking a puff. “By the way, I texted Koichi this morning and asked if he wanted to hang, which he does. So we’re doing that today, if you’re down.”

“Fuck yeah I am, but you gonna be good for it?”

“I’m gonna try.”

That’s all anyone could ask for. Hanging out with Koichi went well. The little man seemed immensely relieved that he got to see his best buds, “I’ve been swamped with summer classes, but I’ve missed you guys! We should hangout more before school starts back up for real.”

Okuyasu gave Koichi a noogie while Josuke snorted, “Missed you too dude. Come on, let’s get ice cream.”

They did get some hangout time in before classes started up again. Okuyasu had been nervous for Josuke, hoping that he was ready for the routine of school. But, things were only moderately rocky. He didn’t have much to fear, but god, did he still worry like a mother hen.

With a lot of work, Josuke got used to being separated from Oku. It started at an hour, but slowly built up over time. Two hours every day for a week, three the next, four, five, on and on until they hit about 12 hours. Now Okuyasu could sleep in his house again, though he still spent the night four days out of the week at Josuke’s.

Over time, they figured out more things that would trigger Josuke. The sight of blood made him ill. He couldn’t watch fireworks unless he was far enough away that he didn’t hear the noise. Thunderstorms too, which was figured out the hard way.

During the first thunderstorm since the Kira shit, Okuyasu was sleeping in his room and woke up in the middle of the night to find a sopping wet Josuke standing over him, face pale and eyes wide. It scared the shit out of him; Oku fell out of bed with a shriek, naked as the day he was born, “DUDE, WHAT THE FUCK!” Josuke opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Oku scrambled for his sweatpants, rolling around trying to get them on. The Hand hovered beside him. He wanted to throw up, if he hadn’t been too surprised to properly react, Josuke would be dead.

He took a few deep breaths while lying on the ground, focusing on how cold the wood felt on his back, and willed The Hand away. When he got his bearings, Okuyasu stood up and clicked on the lamp on his nightstand, still shaky.

Josuke looked at him with tears in his eyes, “S-sorry.”

“It’s fine, you just—I just freak a little when I get surprised awake sometimes,” he was willing to talk about that, just not at the moment, “Come on, let’s get you changed.” Josuke stripped down to his boxer briefs; Okuyasu handed him a pair of basketball shorts and tank top that Josuke had left there before, staring at a particularly interesting stain on his hardwood floor.

Josuke sat on the edge of the bed while Oku kneeled in behind him, quickly braiding his hair before tapping him on the shoulder to get him to lay down. Josuke did as he was directed, Oku leaned over to turn off the light before plopping beside Josuke. Every time it thundered and lighting streaked across the sky, he flinched and made a horrible choking sound; Oku rubbed his back and wiped his tears away. They laid there quietly for hours, until the rumblings of thunder were far away. “Sorry,” Josuke croaked.

“S’fine. Did you tell your mom you’re here?”

“…Shit” he sniffed.

Oku groped for his phone, then shot off a text to Tomoko:

You: lettin u kno that josuke is at my house

You: please dont get mad

He placed his phone back on the nightstand. Josuke had his face pressed into Oku’s bare shoulder, eyes closed. The teen was unsure if he was out, so he just adjusted the covers over them and let himself sleep.

Josuke said he felt like an utter dick when they woke up the next morning. Oku waved him down, it was fine. No need to be upset. They laid in the bed, sunlight streaming through the blinds.

Josuke was chewing on his bottom lip, “Hey, can I ask you something?”

Immediately, Okuyasu started getting that sick, creeping feeling, “Shoot.”

“Last night, you—you summoned The Hand when I woke you up. Why?”

Oh god, this conversation. Okuyasu steeled himself, “It was unconscious. I…okay sometimes when I get scared awake, I’m ready to start kicking ass.”

Josuke raised an eyebrow; Oku went red in the face, embarrassed, “I mean, like. Defend myself? That’s probably a better way to put it.”

“I’ve never seen you do that.”

“Because I make it a point to wake up before you do,” Okuyasu pointed out, “When have you ever had to wake me up?”

Josuke considered this carefully before responding, “That’s true. I don’t think I ever have…So why do you feel like that? Like you gotta defend yourself from someone shaking you awake?”

This was happening. Okuyasu rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, “Dad used to wake us up in the middle of the night to smack us around.” Okuyasu shrugged, “It’s been about 10 years, but I still feel like I’m gonna wake up to a fist.”

He glanced over at Josuke, nervous. His friend looked sick, and pulled Oku into his arms, “You didn’t deserve that, and I’m so fucking sorry.” Yep, there came the tears. It was so tender, it made Oku’s stomach roil. He would allow himself to be comforted this one time.

After that, the conversations stopped being just about Josuke, but also about Okuyasu.

Inventory of his scars was taken:

The ones on his back? Some were from the time he fell ass-backwards onto some broken glass after he and Keicho broke into some store. It had been Keicho’s idea, he made sure to stress. Others were from the time he fell off a cliff and into a briar patch while riding a bike at the age of 8. Keicho was picking out thorns for hours afterwards.

Scar on the left side of his rib cage? He got shanked during a fight when he was 14.

The scars on his hands and legs? Also from fights, and being a damn fool as a child.

The weird collection of bumps on his right pec? A mixture of chicken pox scars and that one time he cooked bacon while shirtless. The scars from grease were only a year old.

The puncture looking one on his left foot? Stepped on a nail in their old house before moving to Morioh.

The ones on his face? Bad Company. Two paratroopers had cut his face while repelling out of a helicopter. Keicho did it so Okuyasu would summon The Hand in order to defend himself. The blood loss freaked Keicho out enough to drag him to their neighbor’s house, who had been a mob doctor. He stitched Okuyasu up as best as he could; Keicho never used his stand on him again until the arrival of Josuke.

Okuyasu talked about how he missed who Keicho used to be, before he became obsessed with the arrow and so angry; when he would read Oku stories and help him with homework. About how he had forgiven his father and was able to take care of him, despite everything that fucking bastard put him through. How he missed his mother, a woman he vaguely remembered only when looking at pictures.

He talked about how he felt safe.

Days stretched into weeks. Weeks became months. Holidays and birthdays came and went; both boys were now 17. Before they realized it, a year had passed and summer came again. At the end of the summer break, they would be quickly approaching their final year of high school.

Josuke had more good days than bad now. He was back to hanging out with Koichi, doing his pomp, staying on top of his homework. He still saw the psychiatrist, it actually did help a little bit. “Living is still a work in process, but hey, I’m functioning today. That’s a win right?” he’d say with confidence. Okuyasu was elated to the point of weeping (which he did, when he wasn’t in Josuke’s presence).

Storms still were Josuke’s wild card trigger, since you could never really prevent that. One night, there was a particularly nasty thunderstorm. Josuke was staying over; Tomoko had a hot date that night (“GET IT, MS. H!” Okuyasu had hollered when she waved goodbye. Josuke looked like he wanted to die). They had managed to move from sitting on Oku’s bed to sitting on the back porch, watching the rain pour. The power had been knocked out, but they had their traditional six-pack and box of cigarettes between them, so things were mostly gravy.

To his credit, Josuke merely flinched and scrabbled for Oku’s hand when lightning shot across the sky followed by a rumble of thunder.

“If you need a break, we can go inside.”

“Nah, I’m okay…just hold my hand.”

They drank and laughed, curled up in blankets. Pleasantly warm from each other’s company and the shitty beer Okuyasu managed to get his hands on.

Around 1 in the morning, the rain petered out, the clouds moving on to piss all over somewhere else.

“How you doing?” Okuyasu asked.

“I’m golden, my dude.” Josuke squeezed his hand, ”Hey, look, you can see all the stars.”

It was true, all the lights being kaput cleared up the night sky. Okuyasu could see the Milky Way.

“S’beautiful.”

“Yeah…” Josuke seemed to be deep in thought.

“Got something on your mind dude?” Oku asked after awhile, taking a sip from his beer.

Josuke seemed to be choosing his words carefully, “Can I be honest about something?”

“Go for it.”

His friend was squirming uncomfortably. Oh no. “So like,” Josuke began “There’s still something I haven’t told you.”

Oh no. “What is it?” Oku was starting to get heart palpitations.

“I’m in love with someone.”

To his surprise, Oku managed to choke out, “Oh, who is it?” He felt like he was on the verge of tears, but kept it together. He knew in his heart of hearts it wasn’t him.

It took Josuke a few minutes to answer, “You know him—“

“Oh goddamnit, tell me it’s not Koichi—“

“No! What??”

“Mikitaka??”

“No!! Let me fin—“

“OR ROHAN, THAT WOULD BE THE LITERAL WORST THING EVER—“

“For god’s sake!!! No!! I’d rather die!!! Just. Let me finish.” Josuke sounded peeved. Okuyasu forced himself to go quiet. With a sigh, and a soft clink, he sat his beer can down, “You know him, but maybe not as well as you think you do.”

“Josuke,” Okuyasu’s voice was strained, “You just gotta come out and say it. I’m too stupid for this. You gotta tell me.” He was heartbroken, but he did his best to keep it out of his voice. He failed. “You just gotta get it over with.”

Josuke said nothing for a moment. Instead, he got up on his knees, leaned over to Okuyasu, and kissed him square on the lips. It was soft and tender, and—oh god, there’s the tears.

Feeling his wet tears, Josuke started panicking, pulling away, “Oh shit dude, are you okay? Did I upset you??” Hesitantly, he wiped Oku’s tears away.

Okuyasu shook his head, “No, I’m okay….can you kiss me again? Please?” Josuke nodded, giving him sweet, chaste kisses on lips, cheeks, forehead, and chin.

It took some effort, but Oku calmed down enough to ask, “Why me?”

“Whaddya mean ‘why me’? How could it not be you?” Josuke sounded genuinely confused.

“You’re literally the hottest guy in Morioh! You could have literally anyone else, so why choose the stupid looking fucko who’s dumb as a bag of hammers?”

Josuke held Oku’s face in his hands, “Because you are none of those. You’ve been here with me for the roughest fucking parts of my life. You are so much smarter than you give yourself credit for. Not to mention, you’re the funniest person I’ve ever met. Every time you hug me, or hold my hand, I just wanna kiss you all over. Dude,” Josuke squeezed his cheeks gently for emphasis, “Your smile is like the sun, and all I wanna do is bask in it like a dumb ass sunflower.”

The tears started up again, but Okuyasu got himself under control enough to kiss Josuke on the mouth, “I love you too. I’ve been after you like some lovestarved idiot forever.”

“Why not tell me??”

“Same reasons you never told me, I guess.”

Josuke brushed the tears off Oku’s face, “So, you wanna be my boyfriend.” For his trouble, he got tackled to the ground, and sloppy, inexperienced kisses all over his face. “Agh! I guess that’s yes?”

Oku buried his bright red face into Josuke’s neck, “You fuckin’ know it is.”

They cuddled for real that night, getting used to kissing each other. The next day was rather comical, as no one was surprised at this development.

“What do you MEAN you’re not surprised by us??” Josuke howled, shaking his and Okuyasu’s clasped hands for emphasis. They were sitting in front of the ice cream parlor; Koichi was counting a fat stack of yen from the apparent bets that everyone from school made on their relationship.

“Josuke,” Koichi said seriously, “Literally everyone knew. You were only oblivious to each other.” He patted Josuke’s shoulder, “I am happy for you guys though, you finally figured it out. Ice cream’s on me.”

Everyone else’s reaction was more or less the same. Yuuya was the only one remotely shocked, “Thought you guys had been together from the get-go.”

Tomoko was happy, kissing both boys on the cheek, “Finally, one of you had the sense to say something. It was driving me up the wall.”

“Thanks mom.” Josuke grumbled.

That evening, they were back on Josuke’s roof, watching the sunset.

“Hey,” Okuyasu said, pulling Josuke’s face close, “I love you jerkass.”

Josuke gave him a smooch, “Love you too dickhead.”

“Asshole”

“Shitweasel”

If you asked Okuyasu when he knew he’d want to spend the rest of his life with Josuke ‘Sexy Ass Looking Rat Bastard’ Higashikata, his answer would be when they sat on his roof, trading insults in between kisses until Tomoko hollered at them to get down, please.

If Okuyasu was the Sun, then Josuke was the Moon, the Stars and everything in between. Finally, Okuyasu felt like he truly mattered to someone. All it took was meeting the love of his life by punching him in the face.

But that’s how it goes sometimes.

#jjba #josuyasu #josuke higashikata #okuyasu nijimura #josuke x okuyasu

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