#but it was real fun to study n figure out! also just awesome seeing these guys move together some more

[suddenly-stickmin]

They're watching Dave fall down a flight of stairs.

[lavender-creame]

i guess this is probably really niche but would you be able to write even just something short about Ryan with a reader who's like almost the same size as him? im afab and a lot of fics cater to smaller bodies and it always makes me feel like Ry wouldn't be into me like at all

if not totally feel free to delete this!! no pressure!! I hope you're having an awesome day!

Thank you so much for the ask, I hope I didn't take too long to reply! I hope your holidays bring you joy as we're rolling up to late December! Also, this isn't niche, or at least it shouldn't be. You are beautiful and deserve to see yourself as such!

| Minors DNI | 18+ only | 1.3k words

Summary: You and Ryan are about to go out on a group date, but you're not so sure about your outfit. Ryan shows you that you mean the world to him regardless.

Warnings: smut, nsfw, cursing, oral (afab receiving)

a/n: Woah! 2 one-shots in a day? I know, right? I would have wrote this sooner, but unfortunately, I've been swamped with homework and studying. Anyways, I am confident that both Ryan and Matt love all body types, and I mean that genuinely. I try to write as non-specific as possible with body types because they are ‘x readers’ not ‘x oc’s’. This stands for my black and brown girls out there too- you are all beautiful and deserve inclusion for all skin, hair, and body types. Anyways here’s a small piece for my big, beautiful afabs out there <33 You can also find my stuff on a03 at lavender_creame

Once a month, Ryan and a few of his friends would all get together to do something fun, often taking the time to invite their significant others, as well. The late August air meant that it was the perfect season for some mini golfing and so when one of them found a popular course not too far away, everyone agreed that would be this month’s destination. 

Stepping out of the shower, you dried off before slipping on the outfit you had picked earlier, but when you saw yourself in the mirror with it on, you began to get a bit embarrassed. It was a casual outfit, just shorts and a crop top, and something that you figured most of the other girls would be wearing too, yet as you tugged at the hems to cover up more skin, the way your plush curves outlined the fabric made you second guess your choice of clothing.

Sighing, you stepped out of your's and Ryan’s shared bathroom to see him relaxing on the bed, probably scrolling through Twitter.

Hearing the door open, Ryan looked up, “Hey Babe, looking cute. If you're still wanting to get there early, we should probably leave soon if you're about ready.”

You blushed at his compliment before responding, “Thanks, Ryan. Yeah, I’m just grabbing a hoodie real quick."

He furrowed his eyebrows before responding, “Are you sure? It’s pretty hot outside.”

You nodded your head quickly, hoping that would convince him to drop the subject, “Yeah, I'm sure," you responded as you searched through your closet for a zip-up.

Suddenly, you felt arms wrap around you from behind and you felt soft kisses dot your neck, "This isn't about your body, is it sweetheart?" Ryan urged you, lovingly.

The way he said that word sent shivers down your spine, yet you weren't ready to just admit it yet, you knew how he felt about your curves- he loved them, but you just couldn't see it. "Ryan, what if I just want something to wear in case I get cold?" You mumbled as you continued searching for the hoodie you needed.

Ryan chuckled slightly, still kissing your neck, "Then I don't mind holding it for you until you need it."

Ryan knew you too well, this wasn't the first time you had tried to change right before leaving, but he wouldn't have it this time. He could tell when you were trying to hide something.

"It's really no big deal Ry," you muttered while pulling the hoodie over your head "Really, I'm fine."

Ryan didn't respond immediately, instead opting to turn you around, pulling you into a deep kiss, "Talk to me, Baby, let's figure this out," he insisted, gently stroking your cheek.

Knowing you wouldn't win, you sighed, finally giving in, "I can't explain it, but the way my body looks in these clothes makes me feel like I'm not enough. Every time I look at myself in the mirror, I feel like I don't belong," you confessed softly.

Ryan gave you a sad smile as he pulled you closer, resting his forehead against yours, "Y/N, I understand how you feel, I still feel that way sometimes too, but we'll get through it together, okay?" he murmured as he pressed a soft kiss on your forehead.

You smiled at his words, wrapping your arms around his waist, "Thank you for being here for me, Ry, but I'd still feel more comfortable with the hoodie."

After letting go of her for a moment, Ryan turned back to his phone and typed out a quick message, "I told the boys we might be a little late. I can't stop you from covering yourself up, but I can show you just how much I love your body," Ryan started kissing down your neck, unzipping the hoodie as he did so, "Okay?"

Your face heated, "Ryan! You've been looking forward to this for weeks!"

He smiled as he removed the rest of your clothes, "You're much more important to me than a few rounds of mini-golf, babe With that, he kissed you again as he stripped you down completely, making sure his lips stayed pressed to yours even after he finished undressing 

You melted in his arms, letting your eyes close in contentment. When you opened them once more, you felt Ryan's gaze on you, his hands caressing your sides slowly.

As Ryan stared down at you, his eyes glazed over with adoration. His lips forming a soft smile as he ran a hand through your hair, "You are truly beautiful, Y/N," Ryan admitted, leaning forward to press a gentle kiss to your nose.

You giggled as you blushed, reaching up to place a kiss on Ryan's lips. As the two of you pulled apart, Ryan moved to lay you down on the bed as he settled himself above. Reaching down, he trailed kisses along your collarbone until he reached your breasts, cupping them with one hand before moving his mouth down towards your abdomen and sucking softly. Your hips arched upwards instinctively, a soft moan escaping your lips. Ryan placed featherlight kisses along your stomach, teasingly running his tongue across the sensitive skin.

"All of this, I love all of this," he muttered. He continued to kiss and suck your stomach and hips, moving further down to trace the edges of your thighs.

His hands came to rest on either side of your hips, pushing you up slightly until your legs were wide open to him. Moving slowly, he began kissing his way up your inner thigh and between your folds. Before you could say anything, Ryan slipped his fingers inside you, causing you to let out a moan. With his other hand, he began gently massaging your clit with his fingertips, his mouth still kissing at your plush thighs.

When your back arched and your breath hitched, Ryan grinned against your skin as he continued to praise you, "Fuck, baby, you're so beautiful- especially like this. I wish you could see what I'm seeing right now, Sweetheart "

Unsure of how much longer you could last without coming, you moaned loudly, your fingers digging into the covers as you pushed your hips upwards, needing more friction.

Ryan's fingers sped up as he continued his ministrations, bringing you closer and closer to the e Ryan leaned forward to capture your lips, gently trailing down your chin and chest.  Your hips bucked, and your breathing grew heavy as you came undone beneath Ryan, a string of moans leaving your mouth.

"Come for me, Y/N," Ryan mumbled in your ear, "Come for me if you're the most beautiful person on Earth." 

Suddenly, you weren't sure you wanted to come, you weren't sure you believed him, but it was no use as your walls clenched tightly around Ryan's fingers. Ryan pulled his hand free of you, allowing you to catch your breath, before dipping his head in to place a chaste kiss on your stomach.

"Well, that settles it," Ryan chuckled, "We're all on the same page about that."

He stood up to grab a washcloth to wipe you down before helping you get dressed again, but he didn't leave the jacket on the floor.

"Y/N, I'm not going to make you wear anything you're uncomfortable in, I want you to have a good time above all else, so I'll bring the hoodie for you of course, but just know that I love you and your body regardless," Ryan said earnestly before placing one last kiss on your lips.

You smiled, thanking him before you checked your phone, "Ryan, oh my god, we're already 20 minutes late. We have to go, like right now."

Ryan chuckled and shrugged his shoulders as he took your hand in his, unfazed by the time, just happy that you were feeling a bit better.

[rancidpancakebatter]

Grip Tape-Chapter 5 [P.P.]

Pairings: Peter Parker x AFAB Reader

Summary: Peter offers to teach you how to skateboard and who are you to say no? This is a pre-bite fic so we get to enjoy Peter Parker in his full Dorky Display.

Word Count: 2.7k words

Content: MINORS DNI: 18+ Swearing, Marijana Use, Underage Drinking, Bullying

( Previous | Chapter List | Next )

Chapter Summary: Peter Meets your dad! There's flirting. There's some (Y/n) lore. There's an almost kiss. This chapter really has it all.

A/N: Your dad’s nickname is Pops bc my dad’s nickname is pops and I miss my pops. 

If you want to be added to the tag list please click the link in the chapter list post

After an hour you had made quite a lot of progress. Not only could you do a tic tac but you could do it in a circle, and also use it to make a turn, all without Peter’s help. He was such a good teacher, very encouraging. 

You decided to call it quits, Peter claiming you had made more than enough progress. You started back to your place and you felt elated. Today was a good day and you figured nothing could top it. Peter was grinning at you when he wasn’t looking at where he was going. You felt so happy knowing you were responsible for that smile. Peter was feeling a similar high when he saw yours. 

You unlocked the front door and hung up your coat and Peter did the same. You made your way to the kitchen to make another glass of water while Peter took a seat once again. You passed him the glass getting quickly distracted as you felt your phone buzz in your pocket. You pulled it out to see a message from your dad.

Pops: Hey Honey, that’s fine. I’ll be home in an hour or so…you know how it is. I hope you have fun with your friend!

(Kiddo): We had tons of fun! I learned a couple new tricks on my skateboard so that was cool

(Kiddo): Now we’re gonna do homework :((

Pops: That’s awesome kiddo!!! Happy to hear it! Is your friend staying for dinner? I was gonna get some pizza on the way home.

(Kiddo): Uhhhhh lemme ask real quick

You turned to Peter who was waiting patiently, playing with the glass. 

“My dad wants to know if you wanna stay for dinner. We’re getting pizza tonight so we’ll need your order.”

Peter looks up to you and then shakes his head, “No, no, I wouldn’t want to impose.”

You immediately told him that he would never be imposing and he eventually agreed saying, “I’ll just call my uncle and let him know.”

(Kiddo): Yeah they’re gonna stay

(Kiddo): They’re cool with whatever so just get the usge

Your dad sent you a thumbs up and you put your phone back up, knowing he was back to work. You made yourself a glass of water and it wasn’t long before Peter emerged again from the foyer. “Yeah, I promise, I promise I will…okay..sure thing…bye Uncle Ben…” 

He hung up and gave you a shy nod, “My uncle..he’s always got some little home repair project for me.” gesturing to his phone as if it were this Uncle Ben. You nodded your head in understanding before suggesting going up to your room to study.

You went back up and this time Peter could appreciate the decor. There were a lot of plants by the window. Some sitting on the sill and others hanging in front of it. Your bed was made and a few stuffed animals sat on the comforter. He made note of the posters on the wall, some from concerts others just cute and cool. (They were only cute because they were yours he thought). 

Your desk was a little cluttered but still neat. Actually, all of your surfaces were this way. Your nightstand, your bookshelf, your dresser. Any flat surface that could hold things was crowded with little trinkets. 

He saw a tin sitting on your bookshelf and was drawn to it. He popped it open, the sound alerting you, and saw all kinds of sentimental papers: movie stubs, tickets to the amusement park, candy wrappers, and at the bottom some printed photos. 

“It’s my memory box,” you told him meekly. You weren’t embarrassed by anything in there but some of the stuff you knew could be seen as trash. You wouldn’t mind going through the box with him and explaining each memory, but you didn’t know if he would want that. Or if he thought it was weird. 

Peter saw a couple of pictures of you with some other people, you were smiling, and you seemed happy. There were several like that, sometimes just the others, sometimes people from the group would be missing, sometimes you would be missing. He recognised some of them from school. He assumed they were your friends. You seemed like the kind of person to have a lot of friends in his mind. 

There were photos of you and your dad, there was one of your dad covered in butterflies and a look of shock on his face. It must have been taken at the gardens, he thinks he remembers seeing a ticket stub from there. 

You had decided to make yourself busy with setting up a way for you both to study. You grabbed a few blankets from the closet and laid them on the ground, grabbing the pillows from your bed. Peter didn’t notice you closing in around his shoulder to peak over it. 

“I love that picture” he hummed in agreement.

As he continues to flip through the photographs he found some baby photos. A lot of them were of you and your dad. He couldn’t help but think they were adorable, seeing you posed in sunglasses, you in matching bandanas, you smiling with ice cream all over your face, all with your dad. 

“You’re cute,” Peter said looking to you. You raised your head, surprise painting your features. He realised what he said and his face began to redden. 

“I mean…like in the pictures…I mean you are…but I was talking about the uh…” You couldn’t help but giggle. 

“You have quite a way with words, Peter.” At that, he closed his mouth but the blush was still there, as was the panicked expression. “I set up our study session.”

You both worked on your schoolwork, Peter worked through his very quickly, using his textbooks more as a desk than an actual reference. You wondered how smart he was, you knew he was smart of course you did, everyone did, but did he ever take an IQ test? He was furrowing his brows and scribbling in his notebook. You didn’t notice you were staring until he looked up at you. 

You quickly brought your eyes back to your calculus, Ms Peters didn’t feel gracious at all this weekend. You worked in mostly silence with some quiet music playing in the background. Your phone was plugged up to the little speaker docking station so you didn’t see your dad’s message telling you he was on his way home. 

You heard the keys in the door and got up on reflex. You always opened the door for your dad. He would unlock the deadbolt and you would get the handle. It always made him laugh, joking about doing a half-assed job of opening the door. 

You didn’t even realise that you had left Peter alone, and very quickly he might add. The door opened and you saw your Pops smiling widely at you. 

“Hey, sweetie!” You told him hi back as he stepped into the kitchen to set the pizzas down. He asked you how your day was and you started answering not even noticing Peter standing awkwardly at the stairs. You always told him your day block by block. You got to lunch and remembered Peter was there, you made some steps to retrieve him but instead waved him down when you saw him standing there.

“Dad,” He was busying himself getting plates and cups, He turned when you called to him. “This is Peter, I eat lunch with him, we have chem together, and he’s teaching me how to skateboard.” 

Your dad looked between the awkward boy and you a few times. There was a silent question in his eyes and you answered it by raising your eyebrows at him. He shrugged and made his way to Peter, who tried his best not to look terrified, and clapped him on the shoulder a few times.

“Well Peter, welcome to our home! There’s some pizza here, you’re welcome to anything here, there’s some soda in the fridge.” Peter mumbled out a thank you sir and your dad winked at you as he made his way back.

Dinner was spent laughing and chattering. Your dad talked about his day at work in the same structure you did (or as best he could because he didn’t have classes). You flicked the pizza table thing between you and your dad and Peter. Eventually, your father asked, “what time is Peter heading out?”

Peter being Peter took that as “leave now, I hate you, never come here again.”

Before he could give a panic response You spoke up, “Well we planned to finish our homework and skate but would it be okay if he hangs out and watches a movie or something?” Your father shrugged saying he didn’t care.

“I just don’t want your folks to get mad at me because I sent ya home too late.”

Peter quickly responded that his curfew was 11 and that could be flexible with a call.

Your dad then clapped his hands. “Great! You guys can do whatever, I’m probably going to head to bed at 8ish so if you could respect the ‘quiet hours’ that would be awesome. If you leave the house just let me know.” Your dad gave you and Peter a big smile before going to put the dishes in the dishwasher and offering Peter some leftover pizza to take home which he declined.

“Okay dad, we’re gonna go finish our homework, love ya!” You hopped off the barstool and gave him a kiss on the cheek and head back up the stairs. 

You started working on your homework again, you felt Peter’s gaze on you but tried not to focus on it. However, it lead you to making tons of little mistakes causing you to do several problems over again. You heard shuffling next to you to see Peter packing up his stuff.

“Are you done already?” he paused looking at you.

“Yeah, I didn’t have much. You still working?” You nodded your head going back at your notebook.

“I can help, whatcha working on?”

Peter moved over to lay down next to you. His shoulder pressed against yours. Peter could smell your shampoo from here: coconut, maybe strawberry too. 

He began to coach you through your differential equations, operating the calculator for you while you wrote down the math. He began typing in a lengthy equation and you started doodling in the margins of the pages.

Peter froze as he saw little hearts swarming your notebook. He felt his cheeks warm and his stomach swirl. He cleared his throat and gave you the answer. You wrote it down and began to sit up on your knees. Peter followed your lead, watching you close your books and put them in your backpack. 

“Do you always do your homework on Fridays?” You let out a puff of air from your nose not unlike a laugh.

“It gives me the whole weekend to relax or, god forbid, extra time to finish if I didn’t.” Peter is watching the side of your face as you continue packing away.

“That’s very wise of you.” At that, you do laugh. 

“I’m definitely not, just not as smart as you. Some of us need a little more time than you boy genius.” Peter ruffled your hair making you jerk your head and look at him.

“Nah, you’re plenty smart, probably smarter than me even.” You shook your head. 

“No way. No one’s as smart as you.” Peter was looking at you, really looking at you. You felt your very atoms vibrating under his gaze. He moved a strand of hair from your face and once again your senses were filled with him. 

“Well, maybe Gwen Stacey. She might be smarter than you.” At this, Peter threw his head back and laughed. You couldn’t help but laugh too and his hand was unmoving in your hair.

Peter was still looking at you, it made you feel warm. You were so close to him and you wanted to close the gap in any way you could. You dropped your hand placing it in between your legs, you could feel the warmth from Peter’s thigh. 

Peter considered taking your hand, he very much wanted to. Instead, he asked, “What are you doing tomorrow?”

You were searching his eyes, searching for any indication that he liked you. You were almost sure he did. He had called you cute and blushed around you. Moving your hair from your face. Then holding your face. Offering to do homework with you. He had to right? Were you crazy to think that?

Peter felt uneasy under your gaze, what were you looking for? Did you like him? He couldn’t tell. You were staring at him intently, your brows furrowed and your lips pulled together. You didn’t seem upset or confused. He wasn’t sure what that look meant. 

“I’m not doing anything,” You almost sounded unsure. Peter let out a breath, he didn’t realise he was holding. 

“Do you wanna hang out? We can go to my house, maybe skate some more.”

You smiled at him, “Yeah, I would like that.” 

Peter felt your breath on his face, You had leaned in while examining him but he doubted you noticed. He was right you hadn’t. You were leaning on the hand between both of you. You took notice of his freckles. There weren’t many but they were there nonetheless. 

Peter’s phone rang, you saw a picture of an older woman on his phone, the call coming from an Aunt May. He made no move to pick it up, still enamoured by you. 

“Peter,” you said softly suddenly realising your proximity. He closed his eyes, leaning forward a bit. 

“Your aunt is calling you.” He huffed and turned to get it. He kept eye contact with you as he spoke. 

“Hey, Aunt May…yeah I’m still with my friend…yeah we had pizza…no, no, no…do I have to?” He was whining and you hated to say it was cute. You brought your hand up to muffle your giggle and Peter gave you a light-hearted glare. 

“Aunt may come on it’s a Friday,” he pleaded. He was silent for a while before he brought his hand up to rub his face. “Okay, okay…milk and eggs, anything else?...okay, you got it.” 

Peter hung up looking back to you, “I gotta go.” He was frowning and you wanted to bring your hands to his face, to pull the corners up. 

“It’s okay,” you said, trying not to let too much of your own disappointment seep through your words. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” 

You began walking him to the door and he seemed hesitant to leave still. 

“Thank you for your help today.” Peter was fiddling with his hoodie zipper, avoiding eye contact, 

“The skateboarding and the homework and…” You let the sentence fall off but Peter’s expression made you continue. You let out a sigh. 

“And hanging out, it was fun.” You gave him a soft smile, one he returned. 

“Yeah, of course, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He opened the door and stepped out, giving you a small wave. You shut it after him and leaned against it. You really, really liked him. Your brain was replaying every glance and laugh and smile. Before you knew what you were doing you had opened the door and started chasing after him, “Peter!”

He whipped around looking a little concerned as you ran up to him. You stopped a few inches away from him, neither of you saying anything. You reached forward wrapping your arms around his torso and squeezing. It took Peter a moment to process but eventually, he wrapped his arms around your shoulders, resting his cheek on the top of your head. 

You pulled away but he didn’t drop his hands, still resting on your shoulders.

“I uh, I wanted to give you my number.” His eyes light up and he gives you a toothy grin. 

“So you can text me when you make it home. Oh, and so we can figure out tomorrow.” You hastily added on. 

He only let go of you then, to reach into his back pocket. You took the device and typed in your number and your name. You contemplated uploading a photo but you didn’t want to risk a bad selfie in this lighting. You passed it back to him and his fingers grazed yours once again. 

“See you tomorrow.”

Tag List: @andrews-lovr ilovemoonknight negasonic-teenage-asshole @preciousbabypeter @princesskittycatofmeowland 

[tommybaholland]

Hi! I love you blog. May I have a one shot where Todoroki has a huge crush on the reader and has no clue what to do. So he goes to the flirt of 1A Denki. And can it be fluffy with a hint of suggestive. Thanks! 💓

setting up shoto

featuring: todoroki

was inspired by the first ep of s5 and really ran with this idea so i hope it’s okay! this turned out pretty long so get comfy and enjoy the read! x 

todoroki had felt many intense emotions before, but none as intense as a romantic love. he didn’t know what he was feeling whenever he saw you. he felt as though it was just simple admiration, that you’re his friend and he is your friend. nothing more and nothing less. he wrote off the pang in his chest when he would suddenly see you as a surprise, like he felt when he watched you walk outside the grounds of the dorm building. however, he didn’t feel the same feeling when another voice appeared behind him. 

“hey, todoroki! whatcha doing? oh, spying on y/n i see. planning to make a move?” kaminari observed.

“i wasn’t spying, i was just passing by. and what do you mean? i am moving.”

“no, dude, like, tell them you like them.”

“why would i have to tell them that? they’re already my friend.”

“no, like, more than friends.”

“i’m not sure that it’s like that.”

“so you don’t like y/n? you just stare at them all the time on purpose?”

“i don’t stare. and of course, i like them. i just told you that they’re my friend.”

kaminari looked at him in disbelief. “you can be really dense sometimes, you know that? look, man, i have a sense for these things and you like them way more than a friend.”

todoroki never took the time to let his feelings marinate and process them properly. he didn’t need people to tell him how to feel but it could be difficult to compartmentalize when many years of your life were spent in spite and anger. he considered that kaminari could be right about this. if someone else could play witness, he feels as though he can’t be wrong in liking you more than a friend. 

“besides, i think if you tell them you like them, they can’t say no!”

“why?”

“because you’re like a babe magnet! and that’s coming from the guy with an electricity quirk.”

“why me?”

“i’m pretty sure most, if not all, of the girls secretly fawn over you. also, i’d be lying if kirishima and i hadn’t talked about who’s the best looking guy in the class, not including ourselves, of course.” 

he had heard this once before, but he couldn’t really care less about who’s the ‘best-looking’ in their class. not to mention that todoroki had absolutely no idea why they would pick him. he could say he is strong and has a pretty good handle on his quirk but other than that he’s pretty regular and nothing out of the ordinary. the fact that he’s hearing this from no one other than kaminari makes it even less credible. 

“look, man. i know you’ve been pining after them for three years now, ever since we all joined class A! i think it’s time you guys get together! and you came to just the right guy.”

“you came to me.” 

“so you’ll let me help you?”

“uh, sure?”

“yes! okay, you won’t regret this. actually, you’re probably going to be thanking me so you better practice now.”

“...thank you?”

“okay, come by my room later tonight. by then, i’ll have a plan that is sure to work for you.”

todoroki didn’t really see the point of this and he almost didn’t go but he said he would let his friend help him. so that’s how he found himself out front of kaminari’s dorm room, not knowing what to expect. 

he knocked politely on the door. there was some shuffling around and then he heard a voice through the door.

“password, please.”

“denki, it’s me.”

“i texted you the password.”

“yeah, but i don’t really want to say that--”

“just say what i texted you!”

“i don’t even know what it means.”

“it’s okay, you don’t have to know what it means! you just have to say it.”

todoroki sighed, preparing to humor his friend. “uh….big dong boys?”

“password accepted.” the door opened and as he entered the room, todoroki was greeted by another familiar face.

“hey, man!” 

“hope you don’t mind that i invited kirishima as well. he’s good support,” kaminari explained. 

“so todoroki,” kirishima began. “i heard about your crush on y/n.”

shoto liked these guys but sometimes he really didn’t know how to interact with them. 

“uh, sure?”

“that’s awesome, dude! i’m sure they’ll love to go out with you. kaminari and i have been brainstorming for a bit and we think we’ve come up with something good. you wanna explain?”

todoroki looked over to denki who nodded. “thank you. alright, so you and y/n are at the same work study, right?”

“yeah. it’s me, them, and camie.”

“okay, good-- wait, CAMIE?! that chick from shiketsu?”

todoroki blinked in his pause. “yeah.”

“why didn’t you say anything? that girl is so hot. oh my god, dude, you have to help me after this--”

“alright, man, can you just keep going with the plan?” kirishima chimed. todoroki appreciated that at least one other person didn’t want to completely waste his time. 

“right. right. so we were thinking that you and y/n could go on a mission together to ‘fight a villain’ or something dangerous like that.”

todoroki was perplexed by this seemingly simple solution. “but...we always go out on patrols together.”

“yeah, but this time, you guys will apprehend a villain and save people together and they’ll see how totally awesome and manly you are!” kirishima added. 

“i still don’t see how that’s any different from what we do normally.”

“hmm, yeah, now that i think about it, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of stakes here.” kaminari thought out loud. 

“hey, wait, remember that thing we read about earlier?” 

“oh, you mean that quiz about which haikyuu boy would hate you? i already told you, man, atsumu would definitely have beef with you. no question.”

“no, not that!” kirishima refuted. “although i do agree. he’d be pretty jealous of me.”

todoroki was rethinking about trusting these two with something like this. 

“but i’m talking about that thing we read about with the bridge?”

“oh, yeah...but can you explain it? i’m still a little lost by it,” kaminari admitted.

“okay, so earlier before you came in, we were doing some research on how to make someone more attracted to you and we found this study where they had people walk across a super tall bridge and rate photos of people. and they monitored their heart rate when they were on the bridge so they figured out that there’s, like, a connection between liking people and dangerous situations.”

todoroki grimaced while trying to work it out in his head. “so...you want to put y/n on a bridge and then they’ll...be attracted to me? i don’t get it.”

“no, i’m saying that there should be some kind of danger to them and then you save them or something--”

“and they’ll be like, ‘oh, todoroki, i love you! kiss me!’ mwah, mwah, mwah.”

kaminari made kissing noises at todoroki, very close to him, in fact. 

“okay, i think i see now,” he replied, pushing kaminari out of his face. “so do we just wait for a villain to show up or?”

“no, that’s part of the ruse!” kaminari clarified. “don’t worry, dude. we got it all sorted out. you just have to be your icyhot heroic self!”

“but you’re not actually going to hurt them or anything, right?”

“no, because you’ll be there to help them!” kirishima jumped in again. “i think we all know you’re pretty capable of handling anything.”

“i’d at least like to know what i’m up against.” 

“no, that’ll ruin the fun! then it’ll be more like a real fight,” kaminari justified. 

it was true that most villain encounters are a surprise and you never really know what you’re getting yourself into as a hero. in fact, that’s the majority of being a hero entailed: being ready for anything. however, todoroki could not escape the feeling of something going awry, despite this being planned out. but he figured that it could be worth it to try. 

“alright, let’s do it,” he agreed with the other two boys.

“yes! don’t you worry one bit, man. just leave it to me and kiri,” kaminari promised as kirishima nodded in agreement. 

they told him that they would shoot for two days’ time, after they got the villain or whoever set-up and it was during a shift at the agency. however, not even a day had passed until word got around the dorm of what was going to happen.

“todoroki,” yaoyorozu caught his attention one day in the common area of the dorm, while some of the class was eating dinner together. “is what kirishima and kaminari been talking about true?”

suddenly, almost everyone’s eyes were on him. luckily, you weren’t in the room but this conversation seemed to take place at an unfortunate time. 

“uh, what have you heard?”

“that you’re trying to woo y/n by saving them from a villain,” ashido interjected. “as if they couldn’t already save themselves!” 

“i know they’re capable and strong, but kirishima and kaminari said it would help,” he explained, recalling what he could of their conversation from the night prior.

“that sounds like something those idiots would come up with,” jiro pointed out.

todoroki shrugged. “they said it was based on science.”

“yeah, hold on a second, jiro,” called out the electric boy himself, who entered the room with mineta. “it’s backed by science, so it has to be legit!”

jiro only rolled her eyes while uraraka tried to de-escalate. “it just sounds really dangerous, that’s all.”

“gosh, it’s like you guys have no faith in him. i mean, this is todoroki we’re talking about!” kaminari refuted. “try telling me you guys wouldn’t want to be saved by him! that’s right, you can’t.”

“listen, it’s not that your plan won’t work, kaminari,” yaoyorozu reasoned. “it’s just that he might want to try something more practical and...sensible.”

“yeah, like take them out on an actual date!” ashido exclaimed. 

“but that’s so boring!” 

“guys, why don’t we ask todoroki what he wants to do since he is the one involved,” yaoyorozu offered. 

“okay, yeah. you have been pretty quiet. what do you think, todoroki?” kaminari questioned. 

todoroki blinked a few times, thinking lightly on his options. “i’m not sure. i agreed to let them help me but--”

“BUT,” kaminari interrupted, getting in his face again. 

todoroki pushed him out of the way before continuing. “yaoyorozu and the others do have a point.” 

“yay! now you can let the girls help you out!” ashido declared. 

“oh, yeah! we could set you and y/n up on a cute date,” uraraka chimed while the other girls nodded in agreement.

“okay.”

“what?! you’re just going to let them take over? ugh, fine. i guess it’ll be better this way. but don’t blame me if their plan gets completely messed up,” kaminari huffed. 

“yeah, but imagine if it does work, dude,” mineta spoke up. “it’d be so hot to watch them kiss and feel each other up.”

everyone ignored that comment and continued to help form a new plan for todoroki. while he appreciated the concern and help from his friends, the girls did ask a lot of questions. 

“what do you like about them?”

“should we tell them that you like them?”

“have you thought about tonguing them down yet? c’mon man, we need details!”

todoroki had half a mind to freeze the perverted grape. nevertheless, thoughts and feelings had crossed his mind many times. he had more time to think it through and at this point, his feelings cut through him deep. he tried to express everything he could about the subject at hand. 

“well, i feel different around them. different than i do around everyone here. even though they’re my friend just as much as any of you, my body feels...weird around them. there’s this pang in my chest when i see them and even when i know i’m going to see them, i feel these tingles throughout my body. sometimes i find myself not being able to speak around them and it’s harder when they’re looking right at me. i don’t know what it is, but their eyes just make me lose my words. my face gets warm whenever they smile or laugh or even when they talk, i feel different. despite that i feel like this, i never want them to be too far from me because i kinda enjoy the feeling they give me. i hope that all makes sense.”

everyone just stared at him with expressions of awe. there was no other way he knew how to say it.

“oh em gee,” ashido finally broke the silence. “you sound like you’re in love, todoroki!” 

“yeah, this is more serious than we thought,” kaminari added with everyone nodding in agreement. 

love? 

“are you sure? i thought i just had a lot of admiration for them,” he replied. 

“while a lot of admiration is one thing, having a physical reaction to their presence seems to be another,” yaoyorozu analyzed. “you seem to like them a great deal and that could be something comparable to love.” 

he had never considered the possibility of being in love with someone. sure, he had felt love from other people in his life like his mother, his siblings, and his friends. however, those were different kinds of love; familial and platonic. those were types that he was comfortable with or grew to be more comfortable. 

romantic love, though, was completely beyond him. there was a time when he barely had any friends, let alone romantic prospects. but now he has many friends and the fact that out of all his closest friends that you were the one he has immense feelings for, must mean it’s love. 

-

after replacing the fake villain ploy with a date idea, todoroki thought he might feel a little more at ease. but that was not the case. 

he had been trained his entire life to be the strongest, greatest hero of the new generation. although part of that had been an ulterior motive to spite his father, todoroki felt more natural in situations where he could put all that work into practice. he wanted to be a hero so that’s what he was meant to do. 

he never imagined he’d be sitting alone at a small side street restaurant waiting for you. the plan involved you meeting up with him for lunch after you finished getting a few extra work study hours at the agency. the girls urged him to ask you out and with a little more encouragement, it seemed to work out alright. although it was a little awkward, considering he decided to ask you right after you came from a shower.

“hey, y/n?”

“yes, todoroki?” you replied as you shifted your weight, standing in front of him in nothing but a towel, your hair damp and your shower kit held against your chest. 

“uh,” he tried his hardest not to stare at the idle droplets of water still resting on your shoulders and chest. “do you like noodles?”

“well, i like pho. you know that,” you smirked in response. 

“right. of course,” he shook his head, almost forgetting where he was going with this. “there’s this noodle bar place and it's kind of in a weird spot in town but they have really good soba and other types of noodles so...i was just wondering if you wanted to go or something? maybe tomorrow for lunch?”

“oh, um, yeah. i could do that. i have a small shift tomorrow at the agency. camie and i are doing some teamwork building type stuff but i can meet you there after that. is 4 too late? we should be done by then.”

even though he likes hearing your voice, he almost blacked out after you said, “yeah.” it wasn’t until he heard your voice again that he caught himself staring.

“todoroki?”

“oh, um, i’m sorry. what did you say?”

“it’s okay,” you let out a small laugh. “i asked you wanted to meet up at 4 after i’m done at the agency.” 

 “oh, of course. sounds perfect. i can text you the address.”

you nodded in response, turning slightly on your heels to leave. but he wanted a little more confirmation. 

“so i’ll see you tomorrow?” 

“yep! see you.” 

he had been texting you ever since then but your messages had slowed down due to what he assumed was your start of your shift at the agency. he checked the group chat that kaminari had made called ‘setting up shoto’ which included everyone who became involved in this whole thing. kaminari said it was where he could tell them the ‘deets’ after you and him had met up. he didn’t really think he would need to tell them but even if he did, there was nothing to report. he did show up thirty minutes before your agreed meeting time, but he wanted to make sure you didn’t show up early somehow, therefore making him the late one. he felt like he’d rather be safe than sorry. 

4pm came and went. soon fifteen, twenty, and now thirty minutes had gone by without a message from you or the others. he thought about texting you to ask if everything was alright, but knowing how strict the agency was with phone use, you probably wouldn’t answer right away. he figured everything was probably fine and that you were just running late. he couldn’t argue that there were several occasions in which you all had to stay a little later because things just happen sometimes. 

although, he admitted that he wished that you would show up soon so the hard part would be over or he would stop feeling so ‘lovesick’ as ashido would say. suddenly, his phone vibrated loudly against the steel table, making him jump in his seat. 

it was kaminari.

“hello?”

“DUDE!”

todoroki pulled the phone from his ear, wincing at his loud voice coming through the speaker. 

“ow. that hurt my ear, you know.”

kaminari seemed to ignore him as he frantically continued. “todoroki, you gotta get downtown. there’s a freaking huge, scary villain here and y/n is--”

todoroki sighed. “denki, i thought we agreed that we weren’t doing that anymore. i’m sitting here waiting for them to eat with me but they seem to be running late.”

“that’s because they’re here fighting this thing!”

he heard loud background noise that was comparable to screaming. 

“wait, are you serious?”

“yes, i’m serious! kirishima and i came out to make sure they were on their way to you but then we heard screaming-- wait, here i’ll show you. hang on.”

todoroki pulled the phone from his ear to watch the screen change from audio to video mode. kaminari’s face showed up for a second before flipping the camera to show the view of the street. they seemed to be hiding with several civilians behind a building as the camera creeped around the corner. todoroki watched and his eyes widened as he saw a huge, black, slimy-looking villain which was filling up the street and trapping people in its path. the quality wasn’t great but he could pick out what looked like you and camie trying to stop or distract it from causing any serious destruction. however, it seemed to only be provoking it more. todoroki stood up from his seat as he recognized where this was all happening.

“can you see him?”

“yeah. i--”

“you have to come help us, todoroki! i don’t have my support item and kirishima can’t land a good punch on him without getting stuck in this gross tar stuff. you have to hurry!”

“okay, i think i know where you are. just try to stall until i get there and get people to safety.”

he quickly hung up and focused on getting to the scene as soon as possible. he was still only a student, a hero-in-training. he’d probably get in serious trouble for taking matters into his own hands but he couldn’t sit back and watch his friends and you get hurt. he didn’t have his hero costume, support items, first-aid, nothing. he also didn’t have time to run back to campus to get his hero costume or any supplies. he’d have to make do with just his quirk alone. 

he arrived at the scene from the alley where kaminari and kirishima were gathering civilians to safety into an entrance on one of the sides of the buildings. kaminari and kirishima exclaimed simultaneously at his presence. 

“oh, thank god. you’re here!”

“alright, todoroki!”

todoroki tried to quickly assess the situation. “did you call the police or any pros?” 

“we reported it and the police should be here soon,” explained kirishima. “there are also several pros but this thing is really putting up a fight. even fat gum couldn’t handle him!” 

“looks like i’ll just have to freeze him--”

“wait, dude, no!” kaminari grabbed him. “that’s why this has been taking so long. he’s able to hold hostages easily!”

todoroki observed the scene in front of him. the sticky goo was everywhere and seemed to have no limit as to how far it could move. there were several civilians still trapped, along with you and camie at the center of it all. 

“trust me, i thought about electrifying it all but that wouldn’t be fun for the people who are, you know, trapped.” 

“we need to get everyone to safety before we do anything drastic!” kirishima reasoned. 

todoroki kept quiet as he tried to think it through. there wasn’t going to be enough time to try to save everyone and stop it from taking anyone else. 

“i think i have an idea but we’re going to have to be fast.”

maybe he couldn’t freeze all of it but his fire could be just as powerful as his ice. he started at the back, where the goo seemed to end and couldn’t move much further. he used his fire to put pressure back on it while freezing any parts that tried to attack him. kirishima and kaminari quickly collected the freed civilians and the pros that were there followed suit to help them out. camie was freed at the base of it with the rest of the hostages and helped to distract it from what todoroki was trying to accomplish. 

“wow, shoto. it’s like you have a sense for danger. so cool!” she complimented brightly. 

the thing was holding you up high, presumably to keep you from attacking, which made it more difficult to free you. todoroki decided it was time to freeze the rest of it so it could be stopped. he used ice that wouldn’t freeze you to death and stopped it so the ice wouldn’t completely cover you. 

the goo stopped moving and seemed to be fully imobile. you were safe but todoroki still had to free you. he sliced through the ice with his left hand, detaching you from the whole. he had kirishima catch you, as you were still caught in ice and goo. 

“i’m going to melt the ice away now,” he explained as he was back at your side again.

you nodded, too cold to speak, and he placed his left hand on top of the ice, melting it away quickly. unfortunately, the goo was still intact underneath and apparently could still move when detached from the source. it looked like it was expanding to cover your entire body, which made you begin to panic. 

“todoroki! what’s happening?”

“i, i don’t know but just relax, okay? we’re gonna get you out of this.” 

he looked around to see the top that was left exposed in the ice detached itself and moved over to where they were. 

“todo-- mph”

“y/n!” 

he looked down to see that the goo was slowly covering your face. he tried to pull it down but the sticky, thick substance was almost unmoveable. suddenly a deep, ominous voice appeared.

“release the rest of me or they die.”

todoroki gritted his teeth, an angry scowl on his face. “you have no room to make threats.”

“and you have no room to compromise. they’re going to suffocate if you don’t make a decision.”

he looked down to see that you stopped struggling, your eyes closing as the goo had almost covered your entire face. 

“fine. take it and leave,” he replied, angrily throwing a fireball at the ice. steam flew into the air as the body was released.

“much obliged,” the villain snickered before snaking into one of the sewer drains. 

the rest of the goo on you had moved up and off your limp body. 

“y/n?” 

-

you opened your eyes with a jolt, your brain fuzzy for a moment as you took in your surroundings. it looked like you were back at the dorm in your room. it was strange as you last remember seeing todoroki’s face. 

“are you awake?”

you gasped at the sudden voice. 

“todoroki!”

“sorry. i didn’t mean to scare you.”

you didn’t know what question you should ask first. “why-- where-- what happened?”

“well, you were unconscious so i brought you back here. i wanted to make sure you woke up so i waited,” he explained. “are you feeling alright?”

“um, yeah. i’m okay,” you replied as it was all coming back to you. it also explained why you were still in your hero costume. 

“what time is it?”

“it’s late. almost 11. are you hungry?”

“yeah, a little-- wait, we were supposed to go to that place, right? you and i?”

he grinned at your sudden thought. “yes.”

“i’m sorry i missed it! i really wanted to go but didn’t think we’d have to take care of a villain.”

“it’s okay. it happens, right?”

“yeah, that’s true. do you want to order something and eat now? i know a place that delivers late and i’m pretty sure they have soba,” you offered. 

he felt that pang in his heart when you grinned at him. 

“yeah. i’d like that.”

he ordered the food and remained in your room as you went to wash up and change out of your costume. when the food arrived you simply ate and talked. he was grateful that you did most of the talking, as he was a bit sleepy and he was normally in bed by this time. nevertheless, he enjoys listening to what you have to say even if he’s a little out of it.

“by the way, how did you know about the villain?”

“what?” he asked incredulously. 

“the villain, how did you know?”

“oh, um, well, i, um, kaminari told me.”

“oh, right. i remember him and kirishima being there too. what a coincidence, huh?”

“actually, it wasn’t,” he admitted, causing you to look confused.

“what do you mean?” 

“they were there because, um, because…”

“because?” 

“because i love you.” 

your expression kept him talking. his heart was talking. 

“i really admire you and kaminari and the others think that i’m in love. today was supposed to be part of a plan to get me to spend time with you. i don’t want you to blame yourself for what happened though because to be frank, i’m happy wherever you are. even sitting here while you were lying unconscious in bed. sorry if that’s weird. i practiced how i was going to tell you what i feel but it’s so complicated. now i am thinking that there’s only one way to say it. everyone was right. i’m in love.” 

todoroki had felt free only once before now. when midoriya told him to claim his power as his own. claiming his love for you felt the exact same. 

“i love you too.”

it was his turn to look shocked. 

“y- you do?” 

“yes. and i’m so glad you told me. i could never really gauge how you felt so i hid it for a long time and tried to enjoy just being as close as i already am with you.” 

his head was a mess upon hearing this but in a good way. he didn’t think he’d come this far or have this result. he’d admit that it was a bit overwhelming. 

“can i...can i hug you?” you asked, breaking the pregnant pause. 

“oh, um,” he stuttered. he really, really wanted to hug you. he’s held you before but that was different. that was when you were unconscious. this time would involve awareness.  something about the thought of touching you in a rather sensual way made him even more rattled. 

“it’s okay if it’s too much right now. you can let me know when you’re ready.” 

“i would like that. to hold you, i mean,” he answered. 

“okay,” you grinned before slowly moving over to him. 

you wrapped your arms around his shoulders to pull him against you. no matter how prepared he thought he could be for this, he wasn’t at all. he gasped softly at the impact of your body against him, part of his face slightly smooshing into your neck. his arms slowly came to wrap around your waist, his fingertips barely touching your back. soon enough you felt his arms tighten around you and his face nuzzling deeper into your neck. he gripped the back of your shirt lightly and the noises emitting from him sounded like he was crying. 

“are...you okay, todoroki?” you questioned, concerned that you were making him uncomfortable. you pulled back slightly, your eyes meeting with glossy, familiar ones. 

“yeah, i,” he chuckled to himself, wiping the stray tears. “i think i love you more than i thought.”

“me too,” you agreed. 

“can you say my name?”

“todoroki.”

“no, my first name.” 

“shoto.”

“i like that,” he mused, his eyes bright and cheeks red. his hands trailed up your back, pressing you back into him. 

“and i love you.”

“i love you too, sho.”

he planned on never letting you go. 

-

bonus:

“what a beautiful sight,” kaminari observed, watching the young couple hold hands as they walked in the distance. 

“yeah, they’re so cute,” agreed kirishima.“i can’t believe it’s already been almost a month since they started dating.”

“yeah,” kaminari concurred, wiping a fake tear from his eye. “our little shoto todoroki is growing up so fast! i’m still gonna credit myself for that, even though he hasn’t thanked us yet.”

“well, y/n did almost die, dude. i don’t think he’d be too happy to hear that we were behind it,” kirishima point out.

“maybe so...but like i said, he had it all under control!”

“i still can’t believe you went through with that, just to get to talk to camie.”

“that was not the only reason! i did it for todoroki and had complete faith in him. it only proved how much more he loves them, really,” kaminari justified.

“yeah, i guess i can’t argue with that.”

“and besides, i guess karma has come. camie already left me on read.”

“aw, that sucks dude.”

“but thanks for helping me set everything up with rappa. how did you repay him for getting the asphalt guy?”

“oh, i put in a good word for him at the reform program at fat gum’s agency and he seems to really like it.”

“that’s so cool! you know, i always believed that most villains could turn around. it’s like-- oh my god, dude! camie just texted me!”

“well, what a coincidence. maybe now you should be the one thanking todoroki and y/n.”

“yeah, yeah, yeah. whatever.”

last one for tonight’s bnha night! requests still welcome..

[headcans-oneshots-and-stuff]

Hogwarts No.1 Ship

Fandom: Harry Potter  Pairing: Draco Malfoy x reader Word count: 3.4k Summary: You - Rubeus Hagrid’s niece and a surprising slytherin - have a crush on the Slytherin prince himself, but you are sugar and he is spice and there is no world where the two of you would fit together...right? Warning: Swearwordsm concussion, broken bones, but mostly fluffffffffff Requested by the amazing and patient (I’m really sorry it took so long) @onlycherryblossom​: Hi! I love your work and I was wondering if you could right a Draco Malfoy x Reader. you know, the one we talked about. It'd be so awesome! i hope you have a good day/night! (I won’t put our chat in here so that I don’t spoiler anything)

Hogwarts had rarely ever known two students who were as opposite to each other as Draco Malfoy and Y/N Hagrid. Draco - who was the embodiment of how people imagined the stereotype of Slytherin to be - was (most of the time) a prideful, cold, unempathetic prick, while you were a selfless, positive thinking, kind and gentle soul that could‘ve been a descendant of Helga Huffelpuff herself. The two of you did have one thing in common though. Your house. The hat had made you both into Slytherins which was on Draco’s side not surprising at all, but quite a shock for everyone who had talked to you for even a minute. Probably the biggest shock was courtesy of Rubeus Hagris - Half-Giant and your adopted uncle (on his father’s side) - who insisted that the hat must have made a mistake, but was quickly shot down by Dumbledoor who assured that the hat didn‘t make any mistakes. After some initial tumbling though, Hagrid realized that the house didn‘t make the person and that it didn‘t matter in what house you were sorted into, you’d always be his little pumpkin. And he was quite right. Even after you had been a Slytherin for just about five years, you had only grown more kind and loving - having bonded with many people in the other houses and years, but not quite as many in your own house. You’d call Blaze and Millicent maybe something close to friends and Pansy tolerated you which is why you gave her the title of ‘good acquaintances‘, but other than that you didn‘t really have a lot of contact with them in your free time. The most complicated relationship you held though was the one to the aforementioned Draco Malfoy. In a weird twist of fate the two of you somehow became the main ship in Hogwarts (with Harry and Ginny or Harry and Hermione as close second) even though you couldn‘t remember more than two or three times that you had talked to the boy outside of a classroom or study environment. Sure, he had never bullied or teased you which already differentiated you from most of the students, but you simply explained it by the fact that you were a good student - especially in potions class - and behaved well enough to gain a number of house points which made you into a good asset to Slytherin and as such made you a less logical target. Now all in itself that would‘ve been more than fine with you, but for some stupid reason your heart decided to betray you against it‘s better judgement and fall for him. Somehow, even after years of seeing him kick others down and behave like a complete douchebag you couldn‘t help but blush slightly at the mention of his name and feel your heart flutter when you walked by him in the hall or in the common room. The worst part was in potions class where he sat right beside you after Snape deemed your former partner as way too unqualified for one of his best students and exchanged him for Draco. Working with him in and of itself was actually rather nice. He was a good student and did his work thoroughly and mindfully, but you found it hard to concentrate when his hand brushed yours as you read a passage in the book or when he poured ingredients in the coultron that you were stirring. You really tried to ignore your feelings and ban every thought of him, but it seemed like you weren‘t doing the best job at it since your uncle kept asking about what it was that was distracting you all the time. On a rainy October day fairly at the beginning of your fifth year you decided you had enough. You were sitting in your Uncles hut with a plate of more or less edible cookies in front of you and a cup of something that was surely supposed to be tea when you finally gathered the courage to say what you had been meaning to say for weeks now. “Uncle Rubeus, can I ask you something?” Hagrid turned to you with his usual smile as he patted fang who was drooling all over his lap where he had laid his head. “Course ya can pumpkin. What’s it about?” “Uhm...well… you know there is this boy that I-“ “Ohhh Ah see,” Hagrid quickly interrupted you before you could even ask the question, “Ya know, usually I’d be more than happy to help ya with every question you have but ah really don’t thin’ I’m the right person for this, I’m sorry.” A little bit disappointed but not really surprised you just sighed and shook your head, telling him that it was okay, before bidding your goodbyes and making your way back to the castle quietly mulling over what exactly your plan b should be now that plan a had failed and you still had no idea what to do with or how to get rid of your stupid crush on Draco.

“You know what I would do if I were you?“ Ginny asked and pointed the end of her quill at you. The both of you were sitting in a corner of the library where you had planned to help her study for her upcoming potions exam, only for her to basically interrogate you until you admitted that you had an unlucky crush, even though she luckily hadn‘t pushed you to tell her who the guy you had a crush on was. “I‘d probably just tell them, I mean what do you have to lose. Either he‘ll say yes and you‘re happy or he says no and you just avoid him like he doesn‘t even exist - which would honestly be the appropriate reaction if he refuses a snack like you. See, no real downside to it.“ “Oh really? Hmmm, I wonder why you haven‘t told Harry how you feel yet then,��� you teased her and tapped your chin. Ginny‘s face immediately started to rival the colour of her hair and the way she crossed her arms in front of her chest and pouted reminded you of an overgrown toddler - but in a cute way. “I-I don‘t like Harry, okay? I mean I did when I was like ten because he was famous and I was a child,“ she tried to make sure you really knew how silly she wanted you to believe she thought it was by drawing out the word child for a good few seconds before rolling her eyes and looking to the side, “And anyway, it‘s not like he‘d date his best friend’s sister…“ “Oh Gin,“ you immediately felt bad and grabbed one of her hands with yours, “Have you looked at yourself? You‘re amazing and if Harry doesn‘t see that through his stupid invisible cloak and these glasses than he doesn‘t even deserve you.“ “Even though I admit that yes, I am amazing, this isn‘t the topic that we should be conversing about right now, remember? I think there‘s a certain blond Slytherin that you should be worried about more right now.“ Immediately blood shot right to your cheeks and you quickly looked around to make sure no one could‘ve heard her before leaning forward and hissing: “What? No? I don‘t like Draco? Why would you even think that? I never said that he is the one I have a crush on.“ Ginny just raised her eyebrows in an unimpressed manner, leaning back in her chair and picking the quill back up to play around with while she talked. “Listen honey, I‘m not judging you or anything. Don‘t get me wrong, I still and probably will always think Draco is a major asshole and doesn‘t even deserve to breath the same air as you-“ “He isn‘t that bad…“ “Yes he is, but anyways, no matter what I think of him I also know that you are a clever girl that knows how to protect herself and who knows, maybe you‘d even have a good influence on him.“ Images of you and Draco together with your friend group laughing and having fun crossed your mind and you could feel your heartbeat fasten involuntarily. “That‘s all great and good, but like I said, I don‘t have a crush on Draco,“ you gave the hope of getting out of this situation with the lie you‘ve been telling yourself for months still intact one last try, but Ginny didn‘t give it the time of day. “Oh please, I see the way you look at him in the dining hall and how your eyes are always on him when he‘s playing quidditch and just now you defended him even though the two of you aren‘t even friends. My love-radar is pinging like crazy around the two of you which is why I, Ginny Wealey also known as the love witch-“ “No one calls you that,“ you interrupted her only to be shushed by an evil glare. “I, Ginny Weasley, will help you in fulfilling your desire and getting together with Draco and I already have the perfect plan.“ “No no no no, please don‘t! Don‘t do this! Ginny no!“ you tried to make your point clear but she was already cleaning up her stuff and getting ready to leave. “Don‘t worry oh sweet Y/N, the next time we‘ll talk everything will be set in motion,“ she winked before dashing off leaving you standing in her figurative dust with your mouth agape for a few seconds before you let your head sink onto the table. This would definitely take an interesting turn…

After that you definitely started to actively avoid Draco which was - surprisingly enough - not as easy as you thought. Somehow he was almost always at least in your near vicinity. Besides the obvious factors of class (where you tried to focus on working and on praying whatever Ginny had planned wouldn‘t happen) and when you were eating in the great hall (where you had resorted to sitting at the very end of the table as far away from him as possible) he seemed to also be there in your free time. You were relaxing in the common room? He was there reading a book. You were outside with Harry and co.? Guess who’s coming their way to insult them (while not saying a single bad thing about you). By now there were just about three places where you were sure that he wouldn’t be able to pop up at any given moment. Your room, the bathroom and the potions classroom on Wednesday and Friday afternoon when class has already ended. After Snape had realized that he had some real potions-potential sitting in front of him he offered you extra credit as some sort of teaching assistant which basically meant that you helped him prepare lessons, helped him grade the first to third years tests and that you cleaned up and organized the potions classroom twice a week. Now usually, knowing that you were more than capable of handling the potions and ingredients standing around on your own after having seen you do it for a few months, you‘d be alone while you cleaned up except for the occasional visit of your professor to tell you which ingredients you should put on the students desks for the next class, but for some reason the next Friday - three days after Ginny had made her promise to you - the door already stood open and you could hear Professor Snape talking to someone. “I really expected better of you, your action is the reasons Slytherin has lost 50 housepoints and I hope you know that it is on you to gain them back, no matter your status,“ Snape‘s voice carried to where you stood and you wondered who the student was if Snape went so easy on them with his lecture. Usually you‘d be afraid for your life after losing even ten house points so getting such a calm reaction for 50 must‘ve really meant something. Your questions about the identity of the student were answered when you entered the dungeon room and immediately felt yourself freeze. Of course not even you (time dependent) sanctuary was safe anymore. Of course Draco just had to stand there and look at you without any identifiable emotion in his gaze. “Ah, Miss Hagrid, right on time as always,“ Snape nodded after he also noticed you and you felt slightly more at ease knowing that with him there nothing could really happen. “Should I come back later?” you asked politely, not sure if you had interrupted something. “No, you may stay. Mister Malfoy over here has got himself caught trying to sabotage McGonagall class, a childish act which I would’ve expected of the Weasleys but really not from you. As a punishment he will be the one to clean the potions classroom bi-weekly from now on until he has regained the house points lost. You’ll supervise him.” “I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure I understand.” “Malfoy will do all the cleaning but since he has no experience with it I can’t just leave him alone so, since you’d be here anyway, you can watch him and make sure that everything goes orderly.“ It wasn‘t really a question as much as a command, something that you were used to from Snape, so you just nodded and bid him goodbye as he went to his office, leaving you and Draco behind. By now you had seen through what was happening. This was Ginny‘s plan. Somehow she must‘ve managed to blame Malfoy for the prank on McGonagall - something rather extreme given the taken house points- hoping (or somehow knowing) that his punishment would force you to spend at least an hour with him alone in a dimmed room twice a week. Inwardly you cursed your friend, while outwardly you tried everything to avoid directly looking at Draco as you explained his tasks to him before you sat down at your usual place and pulled out a book really hoping you could get him to not talk to you that way. Either your plan was working great or Draco just really didn‘t care for you, because an hour later you still hadn‘t exchanged any words, instead he dutifully, but slightly pouting, had done his job while you shot him the occasional glance to make sure he was doing it correctly. “I think that was all, you should be good to go now,“ you told him with a small smile, relieved that you were finally free to leave the room and with that the tension that had built up inside you as a mix of nervousness and fear. Draco had opened his mouth to respond when a third year came rushing inside with at least twelve books in her arms that almost towered over her which she quickly placed on a table, slightly out of breath. “Professor Snape sent me. He said these have to be sorted and put away.” You could probably feel Draco’s sigh before he had made it and - not really fond of spending more time so frustratingly close to your crush and yet so far - you just nodded and told both of them that you’d take care of it and that they could leave, which both promptly did. You took the books and carried them to the back of the room where a sole, old bookshelf was standing - since the students mostly had their own books - and started putting them away when you heard a sickening crunch before suddenly the shelf including books came crashing down at you and before you could even think to pull out your wand, the world turned black.

“I’m so so so sorry, you were right I shouldn’t have interfered, if I’d just listened to you you wouldn‘t be lying here now,“ Ginny whined from beside your bed where she had been sitting for the past twenty minutes apologizing over and over again and blaming herself for the broken arm, leg and the concussion that had you unable to leave the infirmary for the next three days to a week. “Ginny, how often do I gotta tell you, it isn’t your fault! I would’ve sorted those books in anyways - no matter if you had pulled that prank or not - and it would’ve fallen anyways,” you tried to reassure her and gave her a soft smile. “But-“ “No but, okay? We can’t change the past anyways, and even if we could I wouldn’t because thanks to you, I don’t have to take that stupid DADA test.” Your attempt to lighten the mood seemed to work, because soon you and Ginny were back to your usual conversation-style and it relieved you immensely. It made you feel okay again. She was just telling you of a stung Harry had pulled in the Gryffindor Common room when she suddenly paused mid sentence and looked up. You followed her eyes to where they were placed firmly on a certain Platinum blond boy that looked simultaneously like he’d rather be everywhere else and like he was glad to be there, it was a sight to see. “I think I’ll leave for now, I’ll come back later with tons of sweets that Luna and I are going to steal from Harry’s personal stash,” Ginny said goodbye and gave you a wink as she walked away making you torn between wanting to roll your eyes and feeling yourself blush. Unsure of what to do next you motioned to the chair that Ginny had just occupied and Draco seemed to get the hint because he quickly sat down. “Hey-“ “Hi-“ “Sorry, you first.” “No it’s fine, you’re injured, you go first.” “Well, uhm-“ you took a deep breath to calm yourself down, “-I wanted to thank you, for bringing me here I mean, Madame Pomfrey told me you carried me all the way.” You looked away hoping that he wouldn’t see how nervous you were. “You don’t need to thank me, I couldn’t just let you lay there buried under books, your not Granger after all,” he said, seemingly trying to joke but immediately noticed that it was probably not the best thing to say given that you and Hermione were good friends. “Listen, what I came here for,” now it was Draco’s turn to take a deep breath, “I’ve been meaning to tell you something, but you were always with Potter or avoiding me or whatever, but after I saw you lying there… I guess I was just worried for you, I really don’t want you to get hurt.” Now that definitely caught your attention. For a second you played with the thought that this could possibly not be Malfoy but just someone else playing him with the help of polyjuice potion because he was definitely not acting like himself, but something in his word convinced you otherwise. “Thanks, I think, but would you mind me asking why? I mean...we’re not really the closest of friends,” you asked him, looking directly into his face to search signs of a possible answer. “Fuck it, I like you, okay? Happy?” You were completely stunned. Stunned, speechless, shocked. In all the time that you had been crushing on him you had never even really considered even the slightest possibility that he could reciprocate your feelings but now here he was telling you straight up. “You-You like me? Like like-like me?” You asked, just really wanting to be sure. There was a hint of nervousness and worry in his eyes, but he hid it behind a wall of annoyance. “You heard me, didn’t you? So, just get it over with, do you like me too or do you not, because if you don’t then I don’t want to waste my time any longer.” This definitely sounded more like the Draco you were used to and you had to giggle a little bit. “Yes, yes I like you too,” you confessed and like it was the most natural thing in the world you moved the uninjured hand over to where he laid on your bed and took it in yours. For the moment, you were caught in the shimmer of happiness and glee at having your crush there with you, definitely something more than your crush, and it would probably take a while until you‘d realize that there were some interesting things to follow, like telling your uncle about this for example...

[intheticklecloset]

It’s Just a Tail (My Hero Academia)

Primary Universe

@kwaiibb Took me a bit to figure out how to make this combo feasible, but I think I managed! Hope it’s to your liking! ^^

~

“Hey, Ojiro?” Deku’s voice broke the silence of the dorms. It was late Saturday afternoon and chilly outside, so most of their classmates were either napping, studying, or finding ways to entertain themselves.

Ojiro and Deku were the only ones in the living room at the moment. The former was trying to solve a Rubik’s cube. “Yeah?”

“Does your tail ever get tired of being in the same position all the time?”

That was random. Ojiro glanced at where Deku sat on the opposite couch, notebook and pencil in hand, his intense-focus face on. “Not really. It’s content to just be wherever. It doesn’t get tired like the rest of my limbs do.”

Deku scribbled in his notebook.

“Wow, you really are bored,” Ojiro murmured.

“Huh?” Deku glanced up at him, brow furrowing. “What do you mean?”

“You’re taking notes on me.”

“Oh! I-Is that okay?”

“Well, sure.” Ojiro gave him a rueful smile. “It’s something to pass the time, right?”

“I…I guess so.”

“Come on. We both know you wouldn’t be doing that if there was anything else to do instead.”

Deku frowned. “What? No, I’ve been taking notes on you since the day we met. I have notes for all of our classmates.”

Ojiro paused in his puzzle-solving to meet Deku’s gaze.

“Okay, so that sounds a little weird, I guess,” Deku said with a nervous smile. “But it’s true. I’m not just doing it because I’m bored. I almost never hang out with you alone so I thought it was good opportunity to expand my knowledge on your quirk.”

The blonde paused for a long moment, then hummed. “Huh. Didn’t think I was that interesting.”

“Why not?”

“I mean, compared to the rest of our classmates, how exciting is my quirk?” Ojiro shrugged. “It’s just a tail. Nothing flashy like your quirk or useful like Yayorozu’s or even kind of weird like Minetta’s.”

“Your quirk is awesome!” Deku cried, putting his notebook aside and leaning forward earnestly. “You can use it to swing through cityscapes and lift up heavy rubble and pull people out of harm’s way and—”

“Thanks, Midoriya,” Ojiro chuckled. “But it’s still nothing impressive.”

There was a long silence after that, during which Ojiro went back to work on the cube in his hand. Deku shifted slightly, then got to his feet. “One more question. How’s your tail’s defense?”

“Defense?”

“Like, if someone threw a brick at you, would your tail stop it even if you weren’t looking, or would you need to be aware of the danger to stop it yourself?”

“It doesn’t have a mind of its own, no. It’s not like Tokoyami’s Dark Shadow. I control my tail entirely.”

“Okay, so, if I were to do this…” Suddenly, in a flash of green, Deku was at Ojiro’s side. He plunged his fingers into his ribs. “Your tail wouldn’t protect you automatically?”

“Gah! Whahahahahat the—?!” Ojiro was shocked to find himself giggling out of nowhere, the Rubik’s cube dropping to the floor and twisting slightly, messing up his progress. “Midoriya! Whahahat are you dohohohohoing?!”

“Testing your defense!” Deku replied, grinning. “Looks like I have the advantage since your tail is pinned under you.”

Ojiro was thrown entirely off-guard. The last thing he’d expected was for Midoriya to start tickling him out of nowhere. Since when did he do that? He curled up and squirmed, giggling and batting at his hands to push him away. “Hehehehehehehehey!”

Deku stopped, seeming to realize what he’d done all at once, as he began blushing and stammering awkwardly. “Aha, s-sorry, I uh…I got kind of carried away, didn’t I?”

“You call that getting carried away?” Ojiro laughed on his own this time. He pushed himself into a seated position and tilted his head. “I’ve never seen you tickle anyone before. What possessed you to do that?”

Deku’s blush darkened. “W-Well, I’ve started t-tickling some people lately…it’s kind of new to me, but it’s also kind of fun, and you seemed so down just now it was the first thing I thought of to do and…” He groaned. “Ah, I’m sorry. That was really awkward, wasn’t it?”

“Awkward? No. Unexpected, but not awkward.” Ojiro grinned, reaching forward to tweak his friend’s side. “Good for you starting to fight back. Things are bound to get a lot more chaotic around here now if everyone who tickles you gets payback later.”

Deku giggled. “Y-Yeah, Iida said the same thing. But seriously…your quirk is cool, Ojiro. And taking notes on you is fun. I’m not just doing it because I’m bored.”

“I believe you.” Ojiro smiled. “And I appreciate it. I’m glad to know I’m at least somewhat interesting.” Then, feeling mischievous, he leapt up and tackled Deku onto the couch in his place, poking up and down his sides rapidly. “So what else do you have on me, Midoriya? Hmm? What other notes have you taken that I don’t know about?”

“Ehehehehehe! Hehehehehehey, no fahahahahair!” Deku giggled, twisting his way into an awkward position where he was half-falling off the couch. His shirt rode up to expose his stomach, which Ojiro then scribbled his fingers over instead. “Nohohohohohoho!”

“What intel do you have on me?” Ojiro insisted playfully, grinning widely now. “Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

“Ahahahahahahaha!” Deku squealed. Then, remembering his newfound reverse-card, he powered up just enough to throw Ojiro off of him and onto the floor, then hurried to straddle him and start tickling his ribs again. “I don’t think so! You’re the one who needs cheering up. You’ll get nothing out of me except tickles!”

“Gohohohohohohood mohohohove!” Ojiro complimented through a new string of giggles. He squirmed a little but not very much. “Buhuhuhuhuhut the johohohohoke’s on you, behehehecause I’m alreheheheady cheered up!”

“Nuh-uh. You’re just trying to get me to stop tickling you so you can fight back!”

“If I wahahahahanted you to stohohohop, I’d have sahahahaid so already.”

The comment surprised Deku. He blinked, watching his friend more closely. Now that he was paying attention, it was obvious the blonde wasn’t making any move to get away. He grinned. “Do you like it, too?”

“In mohohohohoderation, yeheheheah.”

“Awesome!” Deku beamed, scribbling his fingers down to Ojiro’s sides and stomach now. “All the more reason to keep going!”

“Gahahahahaha!” Ojiro’s giggles came out in long strings only broken up by gasps for breath, but his mirth was light and airy. It was different, but felt really good to Deku to coax out of his friend. “Cohohohohohome on, tihihihihickle mohohonster, you can dohohoho better than thahahat!”

Deku smirked. “Oh, yeah? How about here?” He plunged his fingers into Ojiro’s underarms, more than a little satisfied when the blonde shot his arms to his sides and threw his head back, bursting into loud laughter.

“ACK!! OKAHAHAHAHAY, I WAHAHAHAHALKED INTO THAHAHAHAT ONE!!”

“Yeah, you did!” Deku laughed with him.

Ojiro started squirming for real now, kicking his legs and trying to roll side to side as laughter poured out of him. “GAH!! S-STAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAGH!!”

“Oh? Was that a plea I just heard?”

“N-NOHOHOHOHO, I’M N-NOHOHOHOHOHOT--!!” Deku pressed in a little harder, and Ojiro squealed. “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NOHOHOHOHOHOHO!! OKAY STAHAHAHAHAP!! STAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAP!!”

Deku moved back down to Ojiro’s ribs to allow him to breathe a little easier. “Really stop? Or just in that spot?”

“Reheheheheally stohohop,” Ojiro giggled, pushing at Deku’s hands.

Deku ceased as asked, climbing off of the blonde. He smirked. “Bad spot, huh?”

“Yeah.” The blonde pushed himself up and leaned against the couch, catching his breath. “My underarms are kind of like your hips. I can’t take it there very long compared to other places.”

“That’s going in my notes.”

“Ha!” Ojiro took a deep breath and let it out slowly, still smiling. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I feel more energized now than I did a few minutes ago.”

“Me, too. Want to go outside and spar a little?”

“It’s cold out there.”

“It won’t be once we get going.”

Ojiro chuckled. “You’re right.”

“Plus, it will give me a chance to see more of your quirk in action so I can take more notes later!” Deku beamed, nudging the blonde playfully.

“Heh, thanks. Sometimes I forget there’s a reason I’m in Class 1-A, you know? Like, not just anyone can do what I had to do to get here. That’s got to be worth something, even if my quirk isn’t as flashy as some others.”

“Exactly.” Deku nodded emphatically. “Your quirk is just as cool and useful as the rest of ours. Never forget that. Otherwise I may have to tickle you again!”

Ojiro laughed, then turned to look at him. “Hey, speaking of your notes, do you have anything on Shinsou?”

“Of course. Not much, but I want to add more as we get to know him.”

“Good. Because as long as we’re on the subject of tickling, I happen to know a couple of things about him that you may find interesting…”

[leossmoonn]

chemistry part nine

part eight | part ten | masterlist

zuko x fem!reader

avatar: the last airbender

includes - you, zuko, suki, katara, toph, sokka, and aang

special appearances by - iroh and azula

————

“hey, y/n!” 

you looked up, smiling immediately once seeing zuko walking towards you. you gave him a small wave, not wanting to make lots of noise in the library. zuko walked over towards you and took a seat next to you.

“hi,” you smiled. “you didn’t have to come over here and uh, you know, do an un-scheduled tutoring session.”

“no, no it’s okay. plus, this is more like a, um, study date,” zuko said, putting more stress on the last word.

your eyes went a little wide, but your smile got bigger. “right, yeah, that’s cool.”

zuko smiled with you. “yeah... so uh, what’re you working on?”

“just some good ‘ol chem,” you said. 

“oh, nice. what else have you done?” he asked. 

“well, i did an hour of psych. two hours of AP lit and english, like 45 mins of history- history is easy, and now i’m doing chem. after them i’m gonna do math,” you explained. 

“wow, sounds like you’re set for almost everything,” zuko said. 

“yeah,” you sighed. “i’ve been here for like, 5 hours. i can not wait until christmas break!” you exclaimed. 

“me, neither. so, what are you working on for chem?” zuko asked. 

“just reviewing. i actually understand all this stuff, thanks to you,” you chuckled.

“it’s not a problem. i’m glad you understand more. makes me look like a good teacher,” zuko said. 

“trust me, you are,” you chuckled. 

“i brought some stuff for me to work on, too. i have this essay outline to do,” zuko said, pulling out his laptop. “oh, and i brought snacks.”

your eyes widened and you turned to him. “snacks? oh, my god. you are THE BEST. ugh, i love you.”

zuko went silent immediately. you looked at him with confusion, but soon realized that what you said was what made him quiet. you both started blushing profusely, avoiding eye contact with each other. you even went as far as to scoot your chair away from him a little. 

zuko had to bite back a smile after repeating your words in his head. he went to get the couple bags of chips and candy bars he brought and putting them onto the table. 

you both reached for a bag of Lays, both of you pulling your hands away. 

“sorry, go ahead,” you mumbled, grabbing a Snickers bar. 

“oh, are you sure?” zuko asked. 

“yeah,” you nodded, not wanting to look at him, knowing your face would just end up more red than it already was. 

“alright,” he said. 

you hummed, getting back to studying. you two studied in silence for about an hour before you let out a long, distressed sigh. 

“what’s wrong?” zuko asked. 

“i’m just really tired and hungry for real food. god, it’s already like, 6,” you groaned, putting your hand in your hair, pulling slightly.

“are you good at math?” zuko asked.

you looked at him for the first time since he got here. you had actually missed looking at him. he was so easy on the eyes.

“yeah, actually. why?” you asked. 

“well, why don’t we get dinner and go back to your place. you can rest for the day, then start back up tomorrow.” zuko suggested. 

you smiled and nodded, “yes! oh, that is a great idea!”

“great!” zuko smiled. “where do you want to go?” 

“um well, i don’t want fast food. maybe like, the middle ring?” you asked. 

“yeah, that sounds good,” zuko said. 

“awesome! well uh, i kind of walked here, so do you mind if you drive us?” you asked. 

“no problem,” zuko said. 

“great, thanks,” you said. you both packed your stuff, going out of the library and to zuko’s car. you set your things in the backseat, going to the passenger’s. you sat down, buckling yourself in.

“so, you walked here?” zuko asked, pulling out of the parking lot. 

“yeah. i like to go on walks in the mornings, when i can. the library is about a mile away from my apartment, so i take advantage of it a lot,” you answered. 

“nice. sounds fun. i like working out, too,” zuko said. 

“it is. i like the fresh air, especially with the crisp air that the morning brings. i wouldn’t call it working out, though,” you shrugged. 

“what would you call it then?” zuko looked at you, brows raised. 

“um... a relaxing time alone?” you giggled. “i guess it is working out.”

zuko smiled at your laugh, the sound making his heart flutter. 

“so, you said you like working out, too. what do you do?” you asked. your eyes couldn’t help but travel from his face to his bicep. he had a fair amount of muscle there, which led you to believe he worked out a lot, and to that he also probably had abs. it gave you butterflies just by thinking about it.

“uh, i go to the gym. run, lift weights, all that good stuff. i did track and basketball in high school, so i try to keep up the work and stuff,” zuko said.

“wow, you’re a real athlete, huh?’ you teased.

“kind of, i guess,” zuko blushed. 

you smiled shyly as you notice zuko’s cheeks glowing pink. he parked the car and you two got out of the car.

“table for two please,” zuko said to the waiter who came up to you after you entered the restaurant. 

the waiter nodded, leading you to your seats. you sat down, grabbing a menu that was on the table. 

“do you guys want to get started with drinks?” the waiter asked. 

“sure. i’ll take some tea, please,” you ordered. 

“alright. and for you, sir?” 

“i’ll take some tea, too,” zuko said. “alright, i’ll be back with your drinks,” the waiter said and walked off. 

“what are you thinking of getting?” zuko asked. 

“um, i was thinking some bean-curd puffs for an appetizer that we could share, and some dao bao dumplings and, oh! some egg custard tarts. ugh, they are so good!” you exclaimed. (a/n - no but fr egg custard tarts are *chef’s kiss* a delight)

zuko smiled at your enthusiasm. “i love egg custard tarts, too.”

“you have the best taste. so, what are you getting?” you asked. 

“um, i want some of noodle soup and unfried dough,” zuko said. 

“hm, yum. do you want to share the bean-curd puffs?” you asked. 

“yeah, sure,” zuko nodded. 

your waiter came back, setting your tea down. 

“do you guys know what you want?” he asked. 

“yep,” zuko nodded. “i’ll take the noodle soup and unfried dough, please.”

the waiter nodded and looked to you. “and for the pretty lady.”

zuko’s eyes widened as the waiter took your order. you didn’t notice, but zuko was glaring at the waiter, clenching his jaw. he didn’t like the thought of other guys calling you pretty. 

“alright, well, i’ll get your food out soon,” the waiter smiled at you. 

you smiled back and the waiter walked away. zuko glared at the waiter’s retreating figure. you did notice this time, smiling a little. 

“zuko?”

your voice made zuko look away from the waiter, and to you. 

“yeah?”

“why were you glaring at the waiter?” you asked. 

“oh. no reason,” zuko shrugged, looking down at his tea. 

you smiled, “you sure? you looked a little, uh, jealous.” you sipped your tea.

“i’m not jealous,” zuko muttered. 

“you sure?” you giggled. 

zuko looked at you, the tips of his ears going pink. “i... yeah, maybe i’m a little jealous,” he admitted. he sipped his tea to try and hide his embarrassment. 

“why?” you genuinely asked. 

“oh um... he called you pretty,” zuko shrugged. 

you smirked. “what do you mean? other guys can’t call me pretty?”

zuko’s eyes widened. “no! i, uh... well-”

“i’m kidding, zuko,” you chuckled. 

“oh,” zuko laughed a little. “well um, yes you are pretty, but...”

your eyes widened a little. you were taken quite aback. you opened your mouth to say something, but your throat went dry and your mind went blank. 

“what?” zuko asked. now it was his turn to tease. 

you swallowed hard, taking a sip of your tea. “i just um... you think i am?” you looked right at him, with big, innocent eyes. 

zuko looked back into your eyes, nodding slowly. “yeah, i do.”

your lips upturned into a smile quickly, grinning from ear-to-ear. you looked down shyly at the table, your eyes flicking up to zuko’s. 

zuko could’t help but admire you as you looked up at him through your lashes. you really were pretty. he thought you were the prettiest girl he’d ever seen, actually. 

“thank you,” you said, shifting in your seat. 

“you’re welcome,” he said, giving you a big smile.

the waiter came back with a huge tray of food. 

you did a little happy dance and clapped a little. zuko chuckled at your response, thinking it was cute. 

“enjoy your food. make sure to check your napkin,” the waiter winked at you. 

you furrowed your brows, lifting up the napkin that the waiter gave you. your eyes widened and you awkwardly chuckled. 

it read: My name is Hao. Here’s my number: ***-***-****

“i have a boyfriend,” you said, handing hao the napkin. 

“oh, who?” hao asked. 

you put your hand on zuko’s, who was gripping the table hard. you could see his knuckles turning white. you hoped your touch would relax him.

“this is my boyfriend, zuko,” you smiled. 

zuko’s hand relaxed instantly at your touch, to you delight, but also your words. he looked at you, slightly confused. you looked at him, silently begging him to play along. zuko got the hint and interlocked your fingers, smiling at hao. 

“yeah, i am. i’d appreciate it if you didn’t hit on my girlfriend,” zuko said sternly, smiling politely at hao. 

your heart fluttered as he called you his girlfriend. even though this was just for right now, you hoped that your relationship would eventually take a romantic turn. 

hao looked between you and zuko, taking the napkin from your hands. “sorry. enjoy your food.”

“thanks,” you smiled. once hao left, you turned to zuko, smiling. 

“thank you,” you said to zuko. 

“of course. that was smart.saying we were dating,” zuko said. 

“i know, i’m a fast-thinker,” you chuckled.

your eyes wandered to your hands, which were still interlocked. you pulled your hand away, but zuko grabbed your hand and pulled it back gently. 

your eyes snapped up to his, asking for an answer. 

“i just um... your hands fit with mine nicely,” zuko caught awkwardly. 

you grinned, “yeah, i agree.”

you two ate in silence, your hands staying interlocked the whole time. a different waiter gave you your bill, to which you pulled back your hand, taking out your wallet. 

“here, oh-” zuko cut himself off, seeing you with your credit card out, him doing the same. 

“oh, um. split the bill?” you asked. 

“no, no, let me pay. i was the one who suggested going out,” zuko said. 

“i... no i insist. it was a lot of food, let me pay, too,” you said. 

“no, i insist,” zuko said. 

you looked at him, smiling and putting away your card. “alright. well, next time we go out, i’ll pay.”

zuko nodded and smiled, “deal.” he handed the waiter his credit card. the waiter scanned his card and had him sign the bill, then you two were good to go. 

you two left and went to his car. you checked the time. it was 8:30. 

“do you um... do you want to go to my place and hang out a little? or are you tired?” you asked. 

“i can hang out. if you want me too,” zuko said. 

you smiled, “yeah, sure. we can watch a movie or something.”

zuko nodded, “alright. let’s go to your place, then.”

“great,” you said. 

as zuko drove you to your apartment, you put your hand on his, which was resting on the gear gift. zuko smiled widely, liking how close you to have become. zuko arrived at your apartment. you two went inside, both stunned to see the rest of your friends. 

“hey, guys,” you said shyly.

they all looked up at you two with big smiles. 

“so, are you two dating yet?” sokka asked. 

your eyes widened. “sokka, shut up!”

“why don’t we give them some alone time, alright?” suki asked, standing up from the couch. 

“yeah, good idea,” katara smiled. 

katara and suki led their boyfriends to their rooms, leaving the living room to you and zuko. 

“um,” you laughed nervously. “make yourself at home.”

zuko nodded and took off his shoes. he went on the love seat that suki and sokka usually sat on. you went over and grabbed the remote, then sitting next to zuko. 

“what’re you in the mood for?” you asked, turning on the tv. 

“um, anything,” zuko shrugged. 

“alright. wanna watch Dumbo?” you asked. “sure,” zuko smiled. 

“can you get a blanket? i’m cold,” you said. zuko nodded, reaching over to the big couch and grabbing a blanket. he draped it over you two, cuddling up with you. 

you started the movie, putting your head on his shoulder and pressing yourself more against him. zuko silently put him arm around you, settling his hand on your thigh. your heart raced and your body started to get warm and sweat. you’d never been this close to him, but you couldn’t deny, you loved the close contact. 

halfway into the movie, you two had managed to fall asleep. you both were positioned to where you were basically in his lap, curled against his chest, and zuko had his arms around you, holding you close and his head resting on yours. 

luckily, katara and aang went outside her room to get some food, when they both noticed you. katara and aang squealed quietly. aang took out his phone quickly, taking a picture, while katara took out her phone and went onto twitter.

note - hehe i love to get you guys waiting :) hope you guys read and enjoy this as new parts are added! if you wanna be on the taglist, message me and/or reply to this post :))

taglist - @sorrythatspussynal @theblueslytherin @charlenasaxen @akiris @the-paintedlady @thatarthistorynerd @freckled-and-daydreaming @fi-chanwrites​

[penaltbox]

everything comes back to you - dylan holloway

a/n: aka the fic that took me forever to finish, or better yet, the one where dylan plays tour guide and you both get more than you bargained for

if you like it let me know! we love to get some feedback :)))

word count: 6.4k

__

“Where the heck is this place?” You wonder out loud, looking at the little campus map in your hands and turning in circles. You should be exactly where you were supposed to be, but for some reason you couldn’t find the right room. 

You were most likely transferring to Wisconsin after taking a gap year and going to the tour solo was something you thought you could handle. It was proving much more difficult than expected though. You swear under your breath and study the map again. 

“Hey, are you lost?” You hear a voice ask next to you. 

You jump a little but you’re met with a soft smiling blond who looks harmless despite how big he is. If a puppy could have a human form you were pretty sure this guy was it. You feel yourself smile back almost instantly. 

You hold the sheet up, feeling a little embarrassed, “yeah just a bit. I’m supposed to have this campus tour but I seriously cannot find the room for it.”

“Do you mind if I-?” He gestures to the paper, “I’m Dylan by the way. Not trying to be weird or anything.”

His cheeks start to turn red as soon as the words leave his mouth and you can’t help but think how ridiculously cute he looks. Maybe academics and campus life weren’t the only good reason to choose Madison. 

“Of course! Trust me, the help is appreciated,” you hand the paper over and bite your lip as he reads over the page. 

He frowns a little at the page and then turns to walk down the hall. He gets two steps before he freezes and looks over his shoulder, “come on. I think it’s right over here.”

You take a few quick strides to catch up with him and realize just how large he really is once you’re right next to him. You try to look him up and down quickly without getting caught, just to take him all in. He turns down a hallway you hadn’t even noticed before and stops in front of a door. 

“Uh oh,” he mumbles, looking at a sign placed on the door. 

“Uh oh what?” You ask, starting to panic a little. 

He points toward the paper sign. ‘All tours cancelled today. We apologize for any inconvenience.’ Your jaw drops and you stare for a minute, willing the sign to say something else. You were here for the next few days and now you suddenly had nothing to do? How could they just cancel like that?

Dylan winces next to you and awkwardly rubs the back of his neck, “did they send an email or anything? It seems weird that they would just cancel so randomly.”

You sigh and feel yourself deflate a little, “I don’t know but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now. My whole plan was to go on the tour today and then revisit a couple places I really liked tomorrow so I could be sure this was the place to go to.”

Dylan feels guilty for some reason that you’re being let down like this and he has this odd feeling in him that he needs to fix it somehow. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and sees a couple messages in the group chat that give him an idea. 

“How about this - what if my friends and I give you a tour? You’ll get a way more honest experience from us since we go here and then you’ll still get to see the campus?” He offers, the corner of his mouth starting to turn up. 

You glance up at him, weighing the pros and cons. He seems nice enough and he has been helpful so far. But he was also a boy and his friends might not be quite so nice. Worst case scenario, you could possibly get murdered, right? But best case… well he and his friends could be amazing and be the first people you meet at the school. You decide to go for it despite your worrywart side yelling at you to think twice. 

“You would do that? I don’t want to interrupt your day or anything.”

He smiles then, a big one that makes you gasp in a breath at how cute it is, “not at all! We didn’t have any plans. I just stopped over here to grab a couple things but I got a little sidetracked when you looked so lost. Let me call them.”

You nod quickly as he taps on his screen, lifting the phone to his ear. There’s a loud greeting on the other end that makes Dylan pull the phone back a little before he gives his pitch about needing help with showing this ‘poor girl who got lost’ around campus. You couldn’t help but laugh as you hear those words come out of his mouth. He offers a few ‘mhm’s’, ‘yep’s’, and finally a ‘cool, hurry up’, before he’s off the phone and smiling back at you. 

“I’m just gonna warn you now that whoever shows up will probably be way too loud and if they make you uncomfortable with how outgoing they are then just tell me. I’ll get them to back off,” he says, scratching the back of his neck again. It seemed to be a nervous tick for him. 

You’re not sure how a boy as physically intimidating as he is could be so endearing, but it works for him. It’s easy to reply to his mild warning with, “I think I’ll be able to handle it. I have a younger brother and he’s always been a handful.”

Dylan laughs at that and leads you back the way you’d originally come from. He walks outside and not two steps down the staircase does he hear his name shouted from a little ways over. A blond boy that seems to possibly be a bit taller than Dylan is headed your way and your eyebrows knit immediately. 

“Are all your friends giants like you?” You mumble, thinking he didn’t hear it, but you were very wrong. 

Dylan laughs and elbows you gently, “we’re not that big! You’re just short.”

Your face flushes immediately and you throw a playful smirk his way. It’s returned quickly enough that butterflies erupt in your stomach and you have to refocus on this new boy heading towards the both of you. He gives Dylan a quick fist bump before looking over at you with a big smile. 

“Hi, I’m Shay and I’ll be your tour guide today,” he says, a level of confidence rolling off him that you wouldn’t have expected from his goofy appearance, “has Dylan here been polite so far or do we need to kick him off the tour?”

You glance over at the boy next to you who already looks like he’s about ready to fight the one who just showed up, but he only shakes his head. 

“We’re fine, Shay. You’re just here for moral support, not to scare her away,” Dylan says with a roll of his eyes. 

Shay laughs and gives you a quick wink, “don’t be fooled. I’m the fun one in our group.”

You blush a little and nod, feeling a little nervous. Would these guys actually be nice and show you good things or should you have just figured things out on your own? You’re about to tell the boys to just forget it when Dylan pulls you back to the real world. 

“Did you have a degree in mind? We could show you the main building for whatever it is,” he says, his tone patient enough to make you sigh and relax. 

“Actually,” you smile, “I do. Biology.”

“Oh so you’re like smart smart,” Shay says, his eyebrows raising as he looks between you and Dylan, who lets out an annoyed sigh. 

“We’re not idiots, geez. Just come on,” Dylan shakes his head and starts heading down the sidewalk. 

You follow quickly, trying to keep up with his long strides and he seems to notice. He slows down half a step and gives you a little smile that makes you grin right back, but you look away just as fast, too.

“So your main building is probably this one right up here,” he points, still fighting off a little smile. 

You glance up and freeze in place, taking in the big building and how pretty it looks. What you don’t notice is Dylan watching you as you take in just one of the many spots on campus he wanted to show you. The awe on your face has him staring and he has to blink hard to get out of his own head. He just met you. He couldn’t be creepy and scare you off already. 

A quick glance over to Shay has him blushing as the older boy smirks at him before tapping away at his phone. Although Shay doesn’t say anything, Dylan knows he’d been caught in the act. He wants to move on quickly to hide himself from being embarrassed all over again. 

Dylan sets out on a mission after that: find every place in Madison that would get you to make that face again. He couldn’t help but think how pretty the look was on you and he’d do just about anything to see it over and over again.

You spend the whole day following these two giant dorks around and they make you laugh so much your stomach hurts by the end of it. You’re sitting on top of the half wall in front of the Kohl Center, looking around at everything when you take a deep breath and let out a big sigh. 

“Uh oh, is that a good thing?” Shay asks from your left, eating the last scoop of fro-yo from his cup. 

“It is,” you look over at him and smile, “I love it here. I don’t want to have to leave in two days.”

You turn your attention to Dylan on your right and find him looking at you already. You give him a once over and smile before looking down at the empty cup in your hand. 

“Do you want to do something tomorrow? I have a workout in the morning but I’m free around lunch,” he speaks up and you know he’s not talking about including Shay. 

Just as you guessed, the taller blond stands up with a quick clear of his throat, “it was super awesome to meet you. I hope you love Wisconsin as much as we do, and uh, I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you. Get home safe.”

You thank him and give him a hug before he gives Dylan a nod and starts to walk down the street. You can’t help but laugh and turn towards Dylan. 

“He’s a little odd, huh? Like super nice and friendly, but wow, that’s a personality,” you bring up, trying not to sound mean or anything. 

Dylan laughs with you, cancelling some of your nerves, “oh he’s something. We aren’t sure what to do with him most days, but we like him nonetheless.”

“Thank you by the way,” you say, your voice dropping lower as you notice the sun starting to set, “I really appreciate you guys going out of your way to show me around today.”

“No problem. Hopefully you got a good feel for everything, and that offer is still up for doing something tomorrow. If you want that is. You don’t have to if you don’t want or if you’re not comfortable with it or anything. I don’t want to overstep,” he rambles, his cheeks starting to dust a little more pink. 

You bite your lip, shocked that this cute boy was getting flustered around you of all people. You decide to save him some of the pain of whatever is scrambling through his head and you gently bump his shoulder with yours. 

“Hey,” you mumble, catching his attention, “I’d love to.”

His eyebrows shoot up and his smile makes your stomach flip a little, “yeah? There’s this cool spot close to the capitol with the best burgers in town if you like that kind of thing. It’s called Dlux if you’re a menu checker.”

“That sounds amazing,” you respond, your smile matching his, “I don’t know how I’ll repay you for this weekend. This town is unreal.”

He shrugs, looks happy as can be, as he tells you, “I think hanging out has been plenty of payment. Anyone that can give Shay a run for his money with witty responses is good in my book.”

He uses Shay as a reasoning but there’s a feeling in the pit of his stomach that says maybe it’s something else. There was something about watching you fall in love with where he lived, where you’d be living, that had him looking far more at you than at the city he’d been in for months. 

The two of you repeat the cycle the next day, getting burgers for lunch that are delicious and going all around town. Dylan watches you take pictures and answers as many questions as he can. He manages to find an open door for the main building your classes would probably be in and he has to take a deep breath and look away at one point when you’re just staring in awe at everything. He didn’t know what was going on with him. 

He can’t believe that he’d run into someone like you and had so quickly become enamored. He spilled to the boys that first night, due to some prodding from Shay, all about how cute you looked and how much you loved their everyday places and things. 

“Guys, I think I’m in love or something. Holy shit,” he mumbled, his mind racing after that second day with you. 

The boys give him a hard time, of course, but Dylan rolls with it. He wasn’t sure how you’d made your way into his life so quickly but he really hoped that weekend wasn’t the last of having you around him. 

Your days blur by and before you know it you’re packing up to head home. Dylan makes sure he has your phone number and snapchat before you leave, claiming that he’d need it in case he saw something he thought you might like. 

You swear the weekend had to be some kind of fever dream. This cute boy came out of nowhere and spent three days making you feel welcomed and at home in a place that had stolen your heart. How could it get better?

—

“Would you stop checking your phone?” Mike asks, glaring across the table at Dylan. 

He rolls his eyes in response but sets it back down, “why don’t you worry about yourself? You’re always checking on your girl, too.”

“Oh, so she’s your girl now?” Ryder asks, his tone immediately teasing. 

“No, come on. I met her once and we hung out a couple times. Knock it off,” Dylan defends, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Except I saw the way you looked at her. You’re in so deep,” Shay teases, reaching over to try and rub Dylan’s cheek, but he’s quick to smack his hand away. 

He has to laugh it off otherwise he thinks he might explode. Shay’s quick to pull out his phone and pass it around to the other guys, all of them laughing and picking on Dylan. Mike finally hands it over and he sees what they’d be looking at. 

It’s a picture of Dylan standing right next to you as you look up at the science building for the first time. Dylan has a soft smile on his face and anyone who looks at it can tell Dylan’s completely smitten in that moment. 

“I’m in trouble, huh?” Dylan asks, a little laugh spilling out. 

He runs his hand through his hair as he sits back and looks at the picture again. He knew he had it bad, he could tell, but he definitely wasn’t giving it up. Things were only getting better as time went on. 

—

“Dude, are you good?” Ryder asks, smacking Dylan’s arm as he walks with his nose shoved into his phone as they head to practice. 

Dylan smiles at him, completely oblivious, “what do you mean? Of course I’m good.”

“You are sick,” Ryder laughs, “are you guys still texting? Have you guys left each other alone at all?”

Dylan’s shrugs and finally pockets his phone, but stops when he sees an ice cream truck parked near the ice arenas. He grabs his phone again and sends you a snapchat that makes Ryder start howling with laughter when he realizes what’s going on. 

“You’ve still got it so bad, oh my god. I’m telling the whole team now. Enough of just our group knowing,” he says over his shoulder, continuing his path towards LaBahn. 

Dylan rolls his eyes, knowing anything he says to Ryder won’t stop him from running his mouth to the team. If Dylan was honest he didn’t really mind. He’d enjoyed his time with you and now you both were almost constantly sending each other snaps of things you thought the other would like and you’d even had some lengthy FaceTime calls. 

Dylan is met with a round of interrogation the second he steps into the locker room and all he can do is glare at Ryder. The boys want to know more about this mystery person that had Dylan so wrapped up but he’s not giving much info. He tells them your name and where you’re from, but that’s about all he’ll give them. He thinks he’s fine until Shay picks up his head with a smirk. 

“Is this her?” He asks, turning his phone and showing off your Instagram, though he knew exactly who you were.  

“Stop it!” Dylan snaps, hurrying over to the older boy and trying to steal his phone away. 

Shay can’t help but laugh as he turns to look at his brother, “you weren’t kidding, huh? Holloway, you’re fucked. Just ask her out already.” 

“Just relax, every single one of you!” He warns, but there's no threat behind his words by any means and it only makes the boys try and rile him up more. 

Dylan’s blushing furiously by then and he shuts off the screen on Shay’s phone, setting it above him in his locker stall. Dylan shuffles over to his own stall and pulls out his phone to send you a warning. 

‘If you get a bunch of followers on insta and they’re all my teammates then I’m so sorry’

‘Uh oh who spilled the beans? 😂’

‘Shay of course. Are we surprised?’

‘Not at all. Have fun at practice!’

Dylan finds himself smiling at the phone again and he can’t even help it. You remembered when his classes and practices were most of the time by now and he really liked that for some reason. 

“Let’s go, lover boy,” Ty yells across the room, “you can call her later but for now you’ve got hockey and the boys.”

Dylan tries his best to wipe the smile off his face but it’s not as easy as it sounds. The boys run him a little harder than they usually would but it doesn’t seem to break his mood at all. It starts to be contagious though, and the team ends up skating a couple extra laps for goofing around and having too much fun. 

It’s not until Dylan’s in his room that night, attempting to study, that you send him a snap of the sunset at your place. He decides he needs to FaceTime you again right that minute. 

“Hi,” you answer, not expecting the call, but not minding one bit. You hated to say you missed him but you kind of did. The thought alone gives you butterflies that you tried to ignore. 

Dylan smiles at the screen and leans back in his chair, “you can’t keep sending me cool pictures of places in your town if I’m not allowed to come visit.”

You hear the flirty tone he strikes up right away and smirk, “I never said you couldn’t come visit. I mean I am dying to come visit Madison again so we can trade a trip for a trip.”

“So let’s do it,” he says, plain and simple, “you could even stay here if you wanted to. Then you don’t have to pay for a hotel. I can sleep on the couch.”

“I’m not kicking you out of your own place. But I think I might have to visit before too long,” you shake your head. 

“Next time we have a little break I might have to head your way then. I already know at least one pretty thing in that town since you live there,” Dylan says, not even sure where the confidence was coming from. 

You blush, ducking your head a little before looking up to find him blushing a bit too, “you better watch what you say or you’ll get yourself into trouble.”

“Maybe I want some trouble if you’re involved.”

“You better be careful what you wish for,” you warn him, but the banter has you buzzing with excitement. 

“Think I already got what I wished for, so we need to get you yours next. Now get up here and visit,” he laughs, but he thinks it’s most likely just talk.

You were probably busy and as much as he wanted you to visit, he didn’t want to sound pushy or anything. He’d had a lot of fun with you and he thought you had fun with him, too. He remembers something that might even sweeten the deal some more. 

“Hey,” he says quickly, “you remember that coffee shop we went to when you were here last?”

You smile and nod quickly, “I was just thinking about that place yesterday. It was so good.”

Dylan can’t help but soften a little when he sees you smile like that, “they have a new drink out. It’s a seasonal thing but I tried it and it’s really good. I think you’d like it.”

“Let me look at my plans for the next few weeks and let you know, okay? I can probably squeeze in a visit. Maybe I’ll even get to see you play,” you mention, trying to play it off, but you really did want to see him play a game. 

“You want to come see me play?” Dylan asks, trying not to sound too overly excited, “that would be cool. I could get you a ticket.”

You nod quickly, having to press your hand to your cheek as you try anything to suppress the grin that always takes over your face when you talk to him, “I’d love to come see you play and see more of that city. I had a pretty damn good tour guide last time.”

He bites his lip and nods, thinking of a good response, “well they’re all private tours now. You’ll have to submit an application to get the same guide you had last time.”

You let out a laugh and shake your head, “you got it. Just tell me where to sign.”

Dylan steals your attention for a few more minutes, soaking in the time he gets. He knows you’re just as busy as he is, or at least pretty close to it, so he tries not to waste your time. You delay getting off the phone as long as you can, but your mom calls for you to come downstairs and even Dylan hears her beckon you. 

“I’ll see you soon?” He asks just before you disconnect the call. 

“Very soon hopefully,” you smile, knowing you couldn’t wait much longer to go see him. 

—

Your hands are shaking as you raise your fist and quickly knock on the big door in front of you. You’re well aware of what’s waiting on the other side and you’re so excited to see him again that you can hardly contain yourself. 

The door swings open and reveals a blond boy, but not the one you’d been wanting to see. Regardless you give him a big smile and hug him back when he leans in. 

“Shay, how have you been?” You ask, holding him at arm's length and eyeing him suspiciously. 

He laughs and pulls you inside, taking your bag for you, “I’m doing just fine. I think the real question is how are you? You look a little nervous.”

You feel your face flush and your eyes go wide, “stop, do I really? Oh gosh, I can’t do this.”

You don’t even get the chance to turn around before Shay locks an arm around your shoulders, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Why are you and Dylan so much alike? He’s nervous too, don’t worry.”

The confession doesn’t make you feel any less rattled but you’re quickly being walked through the only semi messy apartment towards a closed door off to one side. Shay wastes no time knocking and pushes the door open to reveal Dylan. He looks over, a shocked expression covering his face quickly, and he looks like he’d been pacing in the middle of the room. 

He sees you tucked under Shay’s arm though and doesn’t even consider yelling at the older boy for barging in. He smiles right away, a soft one that makes you realize the trip was worth it, and he heads your way. 

“Hi,” he says quietly, holding his arms out for a hug. 

You dip out from under Shay’s arms and put your own around Dylan’s neck, hugging him tight, “hi, I’m here.”

You hear Shay groan behind you followed by the thump of your bag hitting the floor. You can’t help but laugh as the door closes behind the two of you, giving you some alone time. You figure Dylan is ready to pull away, but instead squeezes a little tighter, burying his face in the crook of your neck. You can’t help but run your fingers through his hair, finally getting to see him in person rather than over the phone. 

“You are here. You’re coming to the game tonight, right?” He mumbles, still leaving himself practically attached to you. 

You have no complaints about it so you reassure his question, “of course I am. I can’t wait to see you and the boys play.”

Dylan finally stands up, pulling his phone from his pocket and checking the time, “ah shit, I need to get changed. We have to head to the rink soon.”

You fight the frown that tries to make its way onto your face over him leaving so soon. You had him for the next two days before you really had to say goodbye. He tells you to make yourself at home, putting your bag on his bed before heading to his closet. 

You sit on the unmade bed and look around, taking in all the little pieces that made it his room rather than just a plain four-walled-space. A couple pictures, a Wisconsin hockey banner, and a shoe collection that earned your envy all catch your attention. Dylan turns around, a dress shirt in one hand and a tie in the other. 

“Do these match?” He asks, holding the two things a little higher. 

You glance between them and nod, “yeah those look good. No tie might even look good.”

He considers it for a second and then turns to put the tie back, giving you a little smile, “okay, no tie it is. Ready to meet the monsters? I need to get changed.”

You laugh but follow him quickly to the door. You were honestly excited to meet his friends, especially if they were all as friendly as Shay was. As soon as Dylan steps out of his room he stops and you can seem him shaking his head at whatever he’s seeing. 

“You guys all just happen to be changed and out here ready to go at the same time?” He asks, leading you to believe everyone had crammed into their living room at once and you were guessing it wasn’t because they were ready at their usual times. 

“Some of us weren’t sucking face and actually got ready on time,” you hear one voice say loudly, but a smack quickly follows it. 

“Be nice,” Shay reprimands the person and you find yourself peeking out from behind Dylan. He stays in place, almost like he’s protecting you, but Shay sees you, too, quickly calling your name, “come say hi. I’ll introduce you while lover boy here gets his shit together.”

You look up and find Dylan’s cheeks have gone deep red and he gives you an apologetic look, mumbling, “I’ll be right back. I swear I’ll be fast.”

Suddenly he’s stepping away and heading for the bathroom, leaving you with four pairs of eyes on you. You know who they are but you hadn’t formally met them yet so you opt for a little wave. 

It doesn’t take long for them to get you to sit down, introducing themselves and then peppering you with questions. You thought Shay was loud before but then you realize the whole group of them together was even worse. They’re all funny though and make you feel comfortable so quickly that you don’t even mind the seemingly endless stream of questions as you sit on the arm of the chair Shay takes up. 

The group suddenly goes quiet and before you can ask why a hand presses onto your back, causing goosebumps to shoot up your spine. You smile up at Dylan and find him giving you one back. The boys start to whistle and jab at Dylan, calling him names until he gives them a leveling glare. Something about the look makes your stomach flip and you have to look away, taking a deep breath to steady yourself. 

“I’m ready when you guys are,” he says to the group, but barely takes his eyes off of you. 

The boys, including Dylan, get up slowly and start grabbing things to take with them, hats and AirPods all included, but Shay stays in his spot next to you before tapping your leg. You look down at him and smile, letting him know you were listening. 

“I need to show you something,” he says, causing your eyebrows to pinch in confusion, “I just think you might want to see this.”

You open your mouth to argue but he hands his phone to you, showing you the picture he’d taken the first day you all met. The one with Dylan standing next to you with that soft look on his face that told you everything. You can’t help but smile as you look it over. 

Shay clears his throat a little, “I’m just saying, I called it that day.”

You nod, sending the picture to yourself, “yeah on his end. You missed it on mine though.”

“Did I?” He asks, finally standing up and starting to walk away. 

You watch him walk off and you can’t help but wonder what he meant. You don’t have to wait long before your phone pops up with a notification. Shay must have noticed you send the first picture to yourself because he’s sent a second one. This time it’s one from when you’d first got there that day and Dylan had all but swallowed you into a hug. 

He’s behind you then, his arm coming around you as he pulls you back against him. He sets his chin down on your shoulder and looks at the screen with a laugh, “in case you haven’t noticed, Shay manages to document every part of people’s lives with pictures and videos. Guess you’re officially part of the group now.”

You can’t fight the smile or the blush that take over your face then. Dylan diverts both of your attention and hands you his apartment key, explaining how to get to the rink, where your ticket will be, and where to wait after. You take it all in, nervous to have to meet him somewhere you’d never been, but a quick kiss on the cheek before he leaves has you more flustered than anything else. 

You’re instructed to make yourself at home, though it’s quickly countered by Ryder with a joking ‘don’t go in my room’, so you stick to the living room until you need to get ready to leave. Dylan was right about getting to the rink though. It was an easy trip, just go down to the end of the block then hang a left and keep going until you see the big arena. You really couldn’t miss it. 

You have to explain to the ticket window that a player had left you a ticket and by this point you were pretty sure the redness on your cheeks was just going to be permanent when you were in Madison. The girl hands your ticket over with a tight smile, one you don’t miss because it’s accompanied by her giving your appearance a once over. 

You’re quick to bolt away from the ticket window and head farther into the arena. It takes you a minute to find your seat but when you do you let yourself look around. It was a pretty impressive arena but you’re much more worried about watching the boys skate around on the ice. It only takes you a minute to find Dylan and you can’t take your eyes off of him after. 

The game goes by far more quickly than you wanted it to, but on the bright side you’d get to see Dylan finally. You wait in the lobby, constantly wringing your hands from nerves, watching as one group after another leaves the arena. You feel like you’re doing something wrong by waiting there but he’d specifically told you to wait inside until he got done after. 

You feel silly by the time the place is virtually empty, but none of the arena workers seem to be shooing you out. You’re about to turn around and leave when you catch sight of Dylan and Ryder heading your way. The smile on your face is quickly matched by Dylan and Ryder is quick to nudge him. He gives you a wave and heads outside while Dylan makes his way to you. 

He reaches for you right away, pulling you into another big hug that you knew you were going to get way too accustomed to over the short time there. You let yourself relax into him though, taking in the fresh smell of body wash that was coming from him. 

“How was the game?” He asks softly, barely pulling back so he can look down at you. You’re sure he doesn’t realize it but he’s gently rubbing one thumb up and down on your hip as he holds them and it gives you instant butterflies. 

You smile and nod as you respond, “it was really good. You guys are awesome to watch.”

“Do you maybe want to take a quick walk with me?” He asks suddenly, seemingly nervous about it. 

You’re curious what could be so urgent but you agree, trusting whatever crazy idea he’d come up with. You have to bite your lip to keep from grinning like a crazy person when he steps away and takes your hand, tugging you along behind him. 

It’s almost unreal how easy it is for the two of you to fall into step with one another and keep an easy conversation going. You feel comfortable around Dylan and he seems to relax around you in a way he didn’t before with the boys around. You’re not sure where he’s taking you but you go along anyways. 

“Is this the point where you take me to a weird part of campus and murder me?” You joke, looking up at him as you wander the streets of Madison at night. 

Dylan snorts and shakes his head, “no, I have no plans on ever letting you get hurt. If anything I’ll make sure you stay extra safe while you’re in town. It’s just a couple more minutes but I think you’ll want to see this. It’s a place I end up at a lot.”

Your heart hammers a little harder knowing he was taking you somewhere that meant a lot to him and you seem to pick your pace up a bit afterwards. You realize that he’s taking you closer to the water now, which had been blocked off mostly the last time you’d been there due to construction on the terrace. 

Your suspicions are right as he leads you to the end of Lake Street and hooks around a building, landing the both of you on a bench that looks out at Lake Mendota. It’s dark out but there’s still so many lights reflecting off the water. 

“I love it,” you mumble, very aware of Dylan putting his arm over your shoulders. You easily lean into his side before turning your attention back to him and smiling. 

He returns the expression, “I’m glad you came to visit. I was a little worried I might have been bugging you too much and you wouldn’t want to come.”

“No, I’m really glad I came. I think I finally got what I wished for,” you start off, referring back to the FaceTime that had convinced you to return to the city. 

“Oh you did? What is it?” 

You blush hard then, turning to look out at the water again, “I like being here. I don’t mind having you here with me either.”

Dylan tries hard to keep his cool but it’s harder than he thought, “I’m such a sucker.”

He laughs and it makes you laugh a little. You were both goners and you knew it all too well. He reaches over, gently grabbing your chin and making you look at him. You hear him mumble under his breath, ‘I can’t wait anymore’, and suddenly he’s kissing you softly. 

Your head spins a little and you lean into it, feeling like you can’t get enough of him. You finally need to catch your breath, pulling back, and leaning your forehead on his. You aren’t sure when you fell so fast for Dylan but you definitely did and he seemed to be feeling the same. 

“I can’t wait to see every inch of this city,” you whisper. 

“Well it’s a good thing you’ve got the best tour guide around,” he quips, leaning in for yet another kiss. 

[kotsuvi]

picnic dates with the hq boys [hc]

pairing: bokuto x reader, oikawa x reader, noya x reader, tsukki x reader (this is such a weird mix HAHA ikkk)

a/n: okay so like my requests aren’t actually open BUT perhaps i would consider just doing headcannons?? i like headcannons quite a bit ngl.

- bokuto

this mans would be excited all day

like really heckin excited

it was a surprise, but he wasn’t doing a very good job at being stealthy

you two studying in your break

well, you were studying. he was being a goof.

you noticed he was not sitting still. like at all.

“bo, why do you look like you’re going to shit your pants?”

“i- what?? i’m not suspicious at all!”

“i never said you looked suspicious.”

“i’m fine!!!”

you blinked at him

“...okay...”

he mysteriously disappeared at the end of the day, even though the two of you always walked back to your dorms together

you hung around outside the school, waiting

and waiting

and waiting

you were going to text him when he came hareing around the corner

he was fucking panting

“i didn’t know you had asthma.”

“you just take my breath away.”

“well played.”

he grabbed your arm, pulling you around the side of the building

“are you trying to yank my arm off???”

“cmon!!”

“where are we going???”

you were extremely confused, but it was bokuto, so you let him have his fun

but not too much fun

“bo, seriously, where are we-”

you stopped mid-sentence as you realized exactly what was up

just across the field, under a large tree sat a checkered blanket, clad with all kinds of snacks on top

“wha- bokuto.” hands on your hips. “did you do this for me??

“well who else y/n!!??”

he was beaming

like radiating sunshine

“this is sweet bokuto.”

you kissed him

“what kinda snacks do we have here?”

“oh, we’ve got uh some-“

your eyes widened. “are those strawberries?”

bokuto froze

“you don’t like strawberries?”

“bo, i’m allergic to strawberries.”

his face fell

it looked like you had crushed poor baby’s dreams

“i’m kidding.”

he groaned

“my life flashed before my eyes y/n.”

he collapsed down onto the blanket

you took a seat beside him and he rested his chin on his arms, looking up at you

he looked so cute

baby

“i planned out this nice thing, i got it alllllllllll ready for you, and then you betray me?”

“i couldn’t let you have all the fun.”

“you just let me have zero fun. zero. nothing. i actually thought you were allergic. i could’ve killed you.”

“i am actually allergic to something else though.”

pure panic

“WHAT?”

“you.”

“you’re a little shit.”

- oikawa

you and oikawa had been distant recently

you were busy with work and he was busy with volleyball

you were beginning to feel like he wasn’t making time for you though, even when you were always making time for him

you felt kinda neglected ngl

oikawa actually believe it or not had picked up on this

so the two of you were meant to hangout one afternoon

you thought you were just going to be watching a movie or something

“let’s go babe.”

huh?? what?? where were you going??

oikawa hadn’t really had time to take you places lately

“where are we going?”

“damn you’re impatient.”

“no, i’m just confused.”

“you’ll see. now cmon.”

you reluctantly followed him

eventually the two of you made it to a nearby park

it was a warm day, and you shed your jacket, only to have oikawa take it from you

“you like picnics, sweetheart?”

“hm? picnics?”

you were actually, honestly, very confused

oikawa just smirked and continued walking through the park

cheeky bastard

“wait-”

you frowned

just there ahead of you was a large blue blanket and two large pillows

also drinks and what appeared to be a basket of fruit

honestly you weren’t sure if he was just playing some trick on you or actually being genuine

“are you for real?”

he laughed

“y/n, i noticed i’ve been away from you a lot. it shouldn’t be like that.”

you were literally stunned

“tooru...”

you slowly wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug

you could hear his heartbeat

he pressed a soft kiss to the top of your head

“i’ll do better, i promise.”

“you’re doing amazing, don’t worry.”

he laughed

“i know i’m awesome.”

“don’t make me take that back.”

you knelt down on the blanket, and he fell beside you, hand on your thigh

“this was seriously such a sweet gesture, thank you again.”

“i know it was.”

again, cheeky bastard

“okay, that’s enough compliments for today. i’ve fueled your ego enough.”

“y/n,” oikawa whined. “love me. please.”

“nope.”

“right now.”

you sighed

“i love you.”

- tsukki

to be honest, you and tsukki literally never went on dates

like ever

you just hung around either of your houses

or sometimes an occasional lunch together at a casual restaurant

he never really went out of his way

but you still loved him

so he invited you over because he said that he wanted to show you some new album covers that he got printed

but when you showed up he was waiting for you at the door

which was odd because he was normally locked away in his room

“what’s up? you’re-”

“you look nice today y/n”

you were taken aback

like shocked

tsukki complitmented you, but it was occasional

like very occasional

you never felt like he didn’t appreciate or love you, but affection was more rare with him

“uh- thank you?”

“you’re welcome.”

“that was unexpected.”

he shrugged, then started around the side of his house

to the backyard??? what?

confused, you followed, grabbing his hand and interlacing your fingers.

you squeezed his palm

he squeezed back

“tsukki?”

“yes y/n?”

you didn’t reply when you spotted the blanket-

well actually, it looked more like a carpet or rug of some kind

on tiny plates sat all different kind of desserts

“a picnic???”

“yes y/n, a picnic.”

you could’ve sworn that tsukki blushed

“we don’t do many activities together. i know it’s just the yard, but i figured it gave us some privacy.”

you wiggled your brows

“privacy huh??”

“shut up. that’s not what i was implying”

“oh really?”

“be quiet.”

you giggled, sinking down onto the rug blanket

“did you make all this?”

the food absolutely looked store-bought

“of course i did y/n. everything. every single thing. i’m actually a pastry chef now.”

“very funny. i know you can’t bake to save your life. i’m surprised you actually even dared to bring this stuff outside.”

“and why is that?”

“dunno, you’re like some 7-foot vampire.”

he threatened to eat all the cake

you let him

- nishinoya

you and noya had both been busy with your own stuff lately

you hadn’t seen him in four days

which wasn’t even that long but to you it was forever

but noya would still swing by your house every spare minute that he had

you had just finished studying and you were going to hop in the shower

tap tap tap

you froze

it was literally 10:36pm

who the hell would be knocking on your door???

“y/n!” someone whisper-shouted from the other side. “open up!”

you were dumbfounded as you swung open the door to your very excited boyfriend

“noya, what the fuck?”

“you got something to do?”

“i was just about to get in the sh-”

“well not anymore! let’s go.”

you didn’t even have time to react before he was pulling you down the sidewalk

homeboy was HELLA determined

and you were HELLA confused

but because you loved him

and you knew he loved you

you followed him

“whatever you’re up to better be worth my time.”

“it most definitely won’t be, but i don’t care.”

he winked

you laughed

he pulled you down the street, then through an alleyway, and finally out onto a field

noya let go of your hand long enough to somersault onto the grass

you giggled, doing the same

you hadn’t even noticed until just then, but noya had on a large red backpack

he started pulling things out of it

chips

cookies

drinks

condoms

“is this a... late night picnic?” you questioned.

“not just any late night picnic.” noya smirked. “but the ultimate, super late, epic stargazing picnic.”

“only you would be the one to plan an epic late night stargazing picnic.”

“and that is why you love me.”

“whatever.”

he fell back on the grass, his arms outstreched

you looked at the sky

it was a beautiful night: cloudless and warm

noya patted his chest

“c’mon y/n, i don’t bite.”

“the marks on my chest say different.”

he smirked

“you want some more?”

[riddlegecko]

Hmm...

I think it would be interesting to flesh out Emma going to visit Jane (and see Tim, maybe for the first time if we’re staying in canon here) and learning that she’s gone. Maybe not terribly fluffy though, but fun dynamics with Tim and it could explain how she ended up staying with Tom and Tim for the borrowers AU?

In terms of fluff, sorry my brain doesn’t like fluff without some tinge of sadness, for HOHF, Emma and Paul fight [villain of your choice] and someone gets hurt and the aftermath of that. Alternatively, I’d love to know if Tim has the Nitro Gene and if so, if he joins his Aunt Emma and Uncle Paul in the field. That could be so cute! (Although, he could also join mission control or maybe make friends with another super if Hannah has powers as well? But that’s not Paulkins...) If you feel like picking up a family fluff piece, which is personally my favorite genre, lol, I’d love to see Paul and Emma as parents and if their child shows their powers early (since it’s not nitro gene specific from Paul, if it can be inherited, of course, and now I’m imaging Jack Jack from the incredible, lol) or for Harriet and Tex to come back and see their baby (oh that would be adorable because grandparent plants and you can imagine how proud they would be of Emma!) or to see how Slacky interacted with the baby. (I’m imagining a how a Golden Retriever interacts with babies now... 😂) Or, if you’d prefer to ignore children all together, Emma going back home and taking Paul to meet Harriet and Tex (meet the parents essentially). Well, I’m not sure if any of those ideas seem interesting, but if not, I hope they’re able to help get some fun ideas flowing. Have a lovely weekend! 😊

Okay, so... A lot of these are stuff that I want to explore in longer stories eventually, both the Borrowers AND the HoHF prompts. But you DID give me an idea for some HoHF family fluff between Emma and Tim!

"Here's that big project I was telling you about!"

Emma had been back in Hatchetfield for what, six, seven months now? And she'd long since made a name for herself as Wild Flower. She was respected, loved even, by the town that had once cast her aside. And what's more, she'd managed to connect with her nephew, who seemed to think she was cool despite her absence for most of his life! If it wasn't for the fact that Tim didn't know she was Wild Flower yet, she would've chalked it up to that.

After all, Tim loved superheroes. Understandable, considering his mother was one of the most revered supers in the country before she died. Being raised by someone like that was bound to give someone a deep respect for the career. And right now, Tim was showing Emma his most recent token of appreciation. A social studies project he'd done for school about superheroes around the world.

It was a large cardboard diagram, with a map of the world taped to it. Coming from a line pointing to each continent (barring Antarctica, because duh), was a photograph of a super that was native to said continent, accompanied by a short paragraph with information about them.

"Wooooow, you really know your supers, bud!" Emma mused as she scanned over the diagram, impressed.

Tim looked up at her with a bashful smile. "Thanks," he said, blushing. "Wanna hear more about each one?"

"Educate me!"

"Okay, so," Tim began excitedly, pointing to the super whose picture corresponded to Australia. A woman with long, blonde hair and a bright blue superhero getup. "That right there is Tidal Crash, she's an Australian super with the power to control water."

"Can she talk to sea creatures?" Emma asked, encouraging her nephew to continue.

"Yeah, telepathically," Tim replied. "She's like the cool version of Aquaman."

Emma snickered at Tim's snark. God, he was such a Perkins. He continued on, pointing to the picture next to Africa. A dark-skinned man with long dreadlocks and an award-winning smile, half his face covered by a deep purple mask.

"That's Radi ya Umeme," Tim continued to explain. "He's from Kenya, and his name is Swahili for 'Lightning Strike'. He can control the weather, but he's really good with lightning, hence the name. He's kinda like Madbolt in a way, only y'know, not evil."

Emma chuckled, remembering her most recent encounter with that old nutjob. Madbolt was a fascinating case, he'd been causing trouble for Hatchetfield since around the time Emma was born. Not even Jane had managed to land him behind bars. Tim continued, his finger landing on the South American picture. A man with dark, curly hair and deep brown eyes, clad in a black leather costume.

"That guy is Espalda con Púas, his name is Spanish for 'Spiked Back'," Tim said, talking as though he was still presenting the project to his teacher and classmates. "He's from Chile, and as his name would imply, he can grow spikes out of his back and sharpen his teeth and nails into fangs and claws!"

Emma nodded, urging him to continue. With an excited smile, Tim moved on to Asia, where a picture of a short-haired woman with a shining mask lay.

"That's Dá Quy, she's from South Vietnam," he continued. "Her name means 'Gemstone', and she can control different ores and minerals and stuff."

Tim moved on to Europe, where a picture of a woman with short brown hair and an elegant, but still practical costume lay.

"That's Lady Nighthawk, she's from England," he explained as Emma continued to listen intently. "She can talk to animals and harness their abilities to fight. She visits Hatchetfield once a year, too!"

"Right! I think I remember your mother telling me about meeting a 'Lady Nighthawk' before!" Emma exclaimed in recollection.

"Yeah, mom worked with a lot of supers," Tim mused fondly before moving on to the final picture, the one corresponding to North America. A grizzled man with long dirty-blonde hair and a decked-out suit. "And finally, there's Eagle Eye! He's an ex-military general who can shapeshift into a bald eagle! And he's got this awesome combat suit that he uses in human form! He's from Washington D.C., but just like Lady Nighthawk, he visits Hatchetfield sometimes!"

Emma smiled at the sight of the super who'd been acting as a mentor to her for the past week. During a rescue mission she'd nearly bungled, Eagle Eye- or John MacNamara as she'd learned his real name was, swooped in to lend a hand. He'd taken a shine to her, and offered to help coach her in the ways of being a superhero. Emma had been learning lots of valuable information off of John. But of course, there was no way Emma could tell Tim about-

"Speaking of, did you hear that he's been working with Wild Flower lately?"

Okay, nevermind! Emma froze, surprised by her nephew's casual mention of her alias. Was this a good time to tell him? Better test the waters to be sure...

"Oh yeah, Wild Flower!" she exclaimed, trying to play it cool. "I've, uh... been hearing lots about her lately!"

"Yeah, it's so weird!" Tim chuckled. "It's like she just came out of nowhere!"

Emma nervously drummed her fingers on the headboard of Tim's bed, where they'd been sitting for the past couple of minutes. Did he mean that in a good way or a bad way?

"She's awesome, though!" Tim continued, an excited sparkle in his eyes. Emma's heart began to race. "Her powers are so cool! I mean, she can summon that big flytrap thing! What was it's name again?"

"Slack-Jaw?" Emma replied, a barely-contained smile on her face.

"Right, Slack-Jaw!" Tim recalled. "And did you see her new costume? The green jacket with the cool logo on it?"

"Mhm!" Emma hummed in response, happily recalling the day she was presented that jacket at Town Hall. The mayor had recognized her feats of heroism, and had the jacket tailor-made for her to replace that ratty old, ill-fitting red leather jacket she'd bought from a Goodwill in a scrambled effort to make a good costume. It still needed some tweaks now, but the new jacket was an excellent start.

"And now that she's getting lessons from Eagle Eye, she's only gonna get better!" Tim gushed. "She's just so- Aunt Emma? What're you smiling so hard for?"

God, Emma couldn't keep this secret any longer. She had to tell him.

"I have a question for you, bud," she began, resisting the urge to just tell him outright. "Did your mom ever say anything about both her and me having the Nitro Gene?"

Tim's eyebrows shot up. "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed. "But she said that you didn't like talking about your powers, so she never told me what they were. I figured you still wouldn't wanna talk about them, so I never asked."

Emma's heart fluttered. What had she done to deserve such a considerate nephew? "You wanna take a guess?"

"O-okay, but why n-" Tim cut himself off, the gears clearly turning in his head. After a few moments, he turned to Emma with a look of awed realization on his face. "W-wait, Aunt Emma... Are you saying that you're...?"

"Wild Flower?" Emma finished, eyeing him cheekily. "You bet!"

A smile slowly blossomed onto Tim's face. "No way!" he exclaimed. "B-but mom always said you didn't wanna be a superhero!"

"Well, people change their minds sometimes!" Emma retorted. "And I decided to finally put my powers to good use once I came back home."

"Wow..." Tim gaped breathlessly.

"But I'm still your Aunt Emma, first and foremost!" Emma quickly clarified. "I'm still the same person, just y'know... with plant powers."

"O-of course!" Tim stammered, his mind looking certifiably blown. His face grew serious. "And don't worry, I won't tell anybody about your secret identity!"

Emma snickered, tousling her nephew's hair. "I appreciate it, bud," she said, pulling him into a hug. "...Want me to introduce you to Slack-Jaw?"

"...Maybe."

[alice-angel12x]

Azul X mermaid reader

A long time ago under the sea, the mermaid was wandering the great shipwreck zones. The sunken ship was littered all over the ground, all with some sort of hidden treasure. A young h/c haired mermaid about the age of 6, she had many frilly fins and a jellyfish cap that floated over her head. 

She wondered the grounds as she picked any interesting looking items and plants. As she wondered the dark are of the ocean she felt something stalking her. She turned to see a large scared up shark eyeing her down as it swam circles around the mermaid. 

Y/n's body tensed as she readied herself, and quickly dashed away. The shark quickly gave chase to its prey. Y/n swam with all her might as she made her way back to the kingdom. As she ran she saw a small opening in the side of a rock, just big enough for her to fit into. 

Without hesitation, she dove into the hole. She got inside up instead of hitting a solid was, she felt something squishy.

"OUCH!" Groaned a voice. "Who ARE YO-"

"SHHH!" Y/n said as she covers the person's mouth.

They sat in the dark for a while till they noticed a dark shadow covered the hole, as an eye started in the hole. Suddenly Y/n felt a pair of arms wrap around her as someone started to tremble. It felt like an eternity, but eventually, the preditor left. The two sat in the darkness for a good while till Y/n finally decided to poke her head out of the hole to check to see if it was safe. The coast was clear as Y/n wiggled her way out of the hole.

"Sorry for startling you like I did," Y/n apologized.

"It's...Fine," Said a shy voice.

"I'm y/n by the way. Thank you for letting me hide with you," Y/n smiled.

"Kay. I'm Azul," The voice said shyly.

"Are you gonna come out?" Y/n asked.

"N-no!" The voice stuttered.

"Eh, why not?" Y/n asked again.

"Cause you make fun of me," The voice said, almost in a sob.

"Why would I do that?" Y/n asked as she tilted her head.

"Cause everyone else does," The voice said with a small shout.

"Well... I'm not everyone else, no one likes me either. We can be outcasts together," Y/n said with a smile.

the voice sighed as an 8 legged figure crawled out of the hole, It was an Octopus boy. He looked sad as he came into the light and seemed to wait for some awful reaction. Y/n stared with an unreadable expression, when suddenly.

"AWWWW! You're SO CUTE!♥" Y/N gasped as she hugged the cubby Octopus boy.

(Azul.exe has stopped working)

Azul chubby cheeks were lobster red as he felt this girl drown him in affection. He's never experienced this much affection before, or ever. He just didn't know how to react.

"P-please let go?" Azul stuttered as his heart fluttered in his chest.

"Oh, sorry. Your just the cutest thing," Y/n gushed, with heart sin her eyes.

"Y-you think I'm cute?"Azul asked surprised.

"Yep, so cute and squishy," She sighed as she pinched his cheeks.

But he didn't care for the first time someone was smiling at him. Not a smile of malice, a real pure smile. Know that she was close he could see strange patterns on her cheeks and the Jellyfish cap over her head really would make her stand out. His eyes slowly trailed down to her F/c tail. She had long frilly fins, that must make it difficult to swim fast.

"So what are you doing al the way out here, you also out here to escape the meanies," Y/n asked as she finally let go of Azul's face.

"For the most part, I just hang out here to study and to perfect my magic! I'll show them just how impressive I can be!" Azul shouted determinedly.

"wow, you must be pretty smart and awesome with magic then. I wish I could say the same for myself," Y/n sighed.

"With magic or the studies?" Azul asked as he slowly slides back into his hiding hole.

"Magic, I have a hard time controlling my magic. I can't cast magic like everyone else. Just today my teacher said to never return after I made her age 40 years. It was just an accident, my magic just went wild," Y/n frowned as she laid down on the squishy sand.

Azul simply stared at Y/n, not knowing what to say to her. His heart went out to her. With a shaky breath, Azul poked his head out of his hiding hole.

"I-If you want help I-I can help," Azul offered as he quickly pulled his head back into the hole.

"You will, Thank you!" Y/n smiled.

Azul's cheeks turned a light red as he watched her swim off into the distance. She won't come, he thought to himself. But to his surprise, she did return the next day, just like the day after that, and after that.

----------

(Middle school years)

 Azul for the first time had a friend. She too was outcasted, to the other merpeople, she was just odd. She looked more like a jellyfish more than a mer, she was no good with magic and had the strangest markings on her face. So she would spend most of her time with Azul, watching him perfect his magic, and gathering Info on those who wronged him.

"I did it!" Azul said with pride.

"You finished it?" Y/n smiled as Azul showed off his golden scroll.

"Beautiful isn't it, If someone signs this than I can have anything I want from them," Azul smirked.

"Let's test it out!" Y/n said with excitement.

"Wait, what?!" Azul asked nervesly.

"I know the best practice subject," Y/n smiled as she grabbed Azul's hand.

-----------

"This is amazing, with this I could rule the world," Azul laughed.

"So I bet you going to start with Night Raven Academy," Y/n said.

The two were hanging out in Y/n's treasure cave, or junk cavern if you ask Azul.  Y/n was placing all her found treasures on the shelves when she felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"What happened?" Azul demanded as he inspected Y/n's back wounds.

"Oh some girls pushed me into a sea urchin, It's fine Azul. I'm used to it," Y/n smiled sadly as she continued to sort her treasure.

"This is not fine, tell me who they are. I can make them pay," Azul growled.

"What, Someone is hurting our jellyfish," Said a familiar voice.

"So who is it we need to hunt down?" asked jade as he and his brother slithered into the cavern.

"Don't know. I don't know their names," Y/n said simply as she slowly sank to the sand ground.

"Y/n just describe them to me, I can use my magic on them," Azul said as he held her scarred arms.

"It's the... three girls... The new leading singers in the school music club," Y/n sighed as she looked away from Azul.

"Why would the get physical with you?" Jade asked.

"I wanted to be apart of the singing group, they didn't want me competing so they... Did what they did," Y/n said as she slowly started to tear up.

"I never heard you sing before, When did this interest come about?" Jade asked with a smile.

"I always like to sing, but I had to be careful because that is the only I can activate my magic. But thanks to Azul, I have better control and now I can sing more freely," Y/n smiled as she tried to wipe away her tears.

"Oh. Why don't you sing for us, Jellyfish?" Floyd asked as Y/n's cheeks turned a light red.

With a sigh, Y/n cleared her throat and sang.

Azul could feel his heart flutter in his chest as he listened to Y/n's simple song. His fists tightened as he felt his anger towards those awful started to grow. When he rules the world, he'll rule with Y/n and the twins by his side, Azul promised himself.

--------

(5 years later)

I've noticed that Y/n has been spending more and more at the surface, which I find more and more concerning. What if she gets caught by humans or worse. She may be slightly faster than me, but that's still not enough to getaway. She should just day down here where it's safer.

"Y/n is late again," Jade sighed.

"I'm here! I'm Here!" Called out a voice.

In the distance Y/n quickly as she could, swam over to us.

"Your late again. You know I could not help you with the finals," I sighed in annoyance as Iset down the study material.

"And that's why your the best Senpai," Y/n smiled as she wraps her arms around my neck in a hug.

I can feel my cheeks heat up as I looked away bashfully.

"Okay, that's enough," I said as I tried to compose myself.

"What got you distracted this time, Jellyfish?" Floyd asked.

"I saw another strange-looking ship today, and it was playing the most beautiful music," Y/n sighed as she started to hum the melody.

Why does she go the surface so much, It's so dangerous up there. I could feel my heart squeeze and twist.

"Anyways we need to get studying," I said trying to get her mind out of the clouds.

"Okay," all three of them said.

They lasted only one hour until they demanded to take a 30-minute break. I simply sat on the side as I watched them play catch with a small clam they found. They simply tossed it to each other Floyd flung it to high it nearly went to the surface, but Y/n managed to catch it. 

"I caught it," Y/n said proudly.

They slowly started to play higher and higher to the surface. I think it was about rime fir them to stop. I tried to call out to them, but they were too far away. So with a sigh, I had to swim up to them and tell them to get back to studying, but suddenly a school of Fish started dash past us. It became too hard to see what was happening, but I managed to get out of the school with Jade and Floyd. 

-------

"What was's Y/n-!" 

"AAHH!" a scream cut Azul off.

They looked above to see Y/n was caught up in the net that was about to be pulled up out of the water. 

"Y/n!" Azul cried out as he swam up.

The gapes between the ropes were too small for even Y/n's small hands to fit through.  Y/n tugged and pulled at the ropes, trying with all of her strength to maybe rip them. She didn't care that the ropes were cutting her hands. The ropes wouldn't break, and she slowly began to give up, when suddenly three pairs of hands grabbed at the ropes.

"Y/n! Just hold on!" Azul said as he tried his luck at the ropes.

The net started to breach the surface and the friends started to panic as they pulled at the rope with even more vigor. Floyd managed to bit through one, but that only made enough space to fit her arm through. Azul quickly held her wrist tightly as the continued to pull at the tough rope. Y/n looked up to see that 90% of the net was already above the water, Hope quickly left her eyes as she gave one last sad smile at her friends.

"I guess this is it," Y/n laughed sadly as she surrendered to her fate.

"Y/n Don't say things like that?!" Azul cried out.

"Jade, Floyd, don't get into too much trouble okay. And Azul, thank you for being my friend," Y/n smiled.

"Y/N!" The called out.

Y/n released Azul's arm as she slipped from his grasp as she was pulled above the surface. Befor they could follow a palace guard quickly grabbed the young teens and pulled them back to the safety of Atlantice.

"hey Azul, are you kay?" Jade asked.

"Gone... She's...Y/n is gone," Azul repeated over and over

And just like that she was gone, the twins looked down at the octo-mer, who was just sitting and staring at his hands with misty eyes. Atlatics was in lock down till the boats left, and by then The humans that took Y/n were long gone.

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

(3 years later)

What is this? Why is it so dark? What happened to my clothes? I'm wearing robes. W-why Is it so Hot in here!? Suddenly blue light filled my vision as a plain looking boy came into my line of sight as he offered me a hand. I quickly grabbed his hand, and he pulled me up to see I was in a room full of mirrors, coffins, and blue fire.

"Let's get out of here," He said as he dragged me out of the room.

Where am I and How did I get here.

"Umm, Who are you?" I asked the boy.

"My name is Yuu, what about you?" Yuu asked.

"I-I am Y/n," I said with a nerves smile.

___

Part 2??

[x0401x]

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun: After-School Radio #0

I have seen bits of the Hanako-kun radio show translated here and there, but never the entire episodes, so here’s to the people who wanted to know how the rest of them goes down. The whole thing is ridiculously funny.

Raw || Index || Next →

Ogata: Everyone... happy... New Year.

[Quiet chuckes]

Ogata: I’m the one who voices Hanako-kun from “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”, Ogata Megumi.

Akarin: *giggles*

Ogata: I was—

Yuu-kun: What’d you say?

Everyone: *laughs*

Yuu-kun: Sorry, what’d you say??

Chikape: Cut it out, Handsome.

Ogata: You’re such a clown, huh! I’m sorry! I’m really sorry! I was put under a spell that took away my voice for today.

Akarin: A supernatural! A supernatural! It was a supernatural!

Ogata: I’ll leave the progress of things to Yashiro from now. Here. Counting on you, Yashiro!

Akarin: Yes!

Everyone: *laughs*

Akarin: Ah! Ogata-san has stood up from her seat. *laughs*

ChibaShou: If it was a supernatural’s fault, there’s just no helping it!

Akarin: It was a supernatural’s fault.

Yuu-kun: Hey, hey, go on!

Akarin: Yes! Anyway! Hello, all!

Everyone: Hello!

Akarin: I voice Yashiro Nene from “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”. My name is Kitou Akari! Also, happy New Year! Cheers!

[Applause]

Akarin: Eh, the very popular original work by AidaIro-sensei, serialized in G Fantasy, “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”, will finally have the first episode of its much-awaited anime adaptation broadcasting from next week onward, on January 9! For those who can’t wait for it to air, today, I, Kitou Akari, who play the role of Yashiro Nene, am intruding into the studio in the middle of the recording, to ask everyone in the cast about their passion for it! Yaaay!

[Cheering]

Akarin: It’s already clear that it’s pretty lively here, though!

Yuu-kun: Thanks!

Akarin: *laughs*

Staff: Aren’t you the same?

Akarin: True. That’s right. I’m the same. *laughs* Talki—Talking like that to your Senpai— *laughs* That’s true. It’s a bit—

Ogata: *whispers* Yashiro, take it seriously!

Akarin: *laughs*

Yuu-kun: She ain’t taking it seriously!

Satou: She is! Come on!

ChibaShou: It’s a supernatural! A supernatural just came by!

Satou: A supernatural is doing this!

Akarin: A supernatural passed us just now. *laughs* Okay, anyway. Well, let’s get right to it. Eh, then, first... I want to ask about the enthusiasm of Kou’s voice actor—

ChibaShou: YES!!!

Chikape: Whoa! He’s so eager!

Akarin: *laughs* Chiba Shouya-san!

ChibaShou: Yes!

Akarin: Chiba-san, how about it?

ChibaShou: Please stop playing around like I’m so cool when we’re at a stage where I haven’t said a single line yet!

Akarin: *laughs*

ChibaShou: That’s a pretty good retort! Hum—

Ogata: The one who played around was Mizushima Takahiro!

Akarin/ChibaShou: *laugh*

ChibaShou: That’s right. It was Mizushima-san. Hum, speaking of Mizushima-san, I’m Chiba Shouya!

Akarin: *laughs harder*

ChibaShou: Hum, I voice Minamoto Kou. My name is Chiba Shouya. Everyone, happy New Year!

Akarin: Cheers!

ChibaShou: Cheers. Man, seriously. This was such a long-awaited anime adaptation.

Akarin: Hm-hm!

ChibaShou: Ever since this work was announced, as expected, each of the viewers were like, “Ah! That thing’s gonna get animated!”, so it seems this series is truly loved by people of many age groups.

Akarin: Right?

ChibaShou: Anyhow, the more you read it, the more you become a captive of it! Hum, for me, this year is coming after a bad one...

Akari: Oh!

ChibaShou: Erm, things are going horribly...

Akari: “Horribly”... *giggles* Huh? That’s awful.

ChibaShou: Kou-kun has really been exorcising all of it this whole time.

Akari: Oooh.

ChibaShou: Because he says in the PV, “Hanako, I’ll exorcise you”.

Akarin: Hehe, true.

ChibaShou: So maybe he’s exorcising my bad year too.

Akarin: Whoa!

ChibaShou: That’s what I think.

Akarin: You said something kinda smart. *laughs*

Yuu-kun: *laughs* Aaaah...

Akarin: You said something smart.

Yuu-kun: He said something good.

Akarin: *giggles*

ChibaShou: Hum, I’m the first, so I’m just contemplating. Being the first in turn and all.

Akarin: *laughs*

ChibaShou: Hum, but anyway, for real, I want a lot of people to watch it.

Akarin: Yep!

ChibaShou: And we’re very... how should I put it? We’re recording a fun series with a fun atmosphere.

Akarin: Yep, yep!

ChibaShou: That’s why I kinda guess it’ll be a fun start of 2020 for the people watching. So please do look forward to the broadcast every week together with us! We’ll be in your care.

Akarin: All right!

ChibaShou: That’s it.

Akarin: Thank you very muuuch!

[Applause]

Akarin: Okay! Anyway! Then, next is... Uchida-saaan!

Yuu-kun: Yeees! Heeere! Hellooo!

Akarin: Welcooome! Hellooo!

Yuu-kun: ‘Ello, thanks!

Everyone: *laughs*

Yuu-kun: Ever since this thing started, my “little brother” has been kinda—my “little brother” has been kinda—

Akarin: *laughs*

Chikape: You’re stammering!

Yuu-kun: *laughs*

Chikape: Sorry!

Yuu-kun: Now the older brother—the older brother is here!

Akarin: Oh! Onii-chan!

Yuu-kun: Hello. I voice Minamoto Teru. My name is Uchida Yuuma.

Chikape: Onii-chaaan!

Akarin: Counting on you.

Yuu-kun: Yeees, I’m in your care~. There’s an (illustration of the) Onii-chan right behind me too~.

Daichuu: So handsome!

Akarin: Handsome!

Yuu-kun: Of course you’d bring that up!

Everyone: *laughs*

ChibaShou: We’d already been saying it since earlier!

Yuu-kun: Of course you’d bring that up! What kind of malice is this?

Akarin: It’s because the Onii-chan is indeed handsome!

Yuu-kun: Oh, yeah, yeah. The Onii-chan is really handsome.

Akarin: That’s right!

Yuu-kun: You see, in the Minamoto family, Kou is still quite a lively kid and he’s all over the place.

Akarin: Hm-hm!

Yuu-kun: So the brother watches over him gently, kind of as if cherishing him, and by God, he’s also student council president and can manage his studies well.

Akarin: Hm! He’s brilliant.

Chikape: Wow!

Yuu-kun: What a brilliant Onii-chan he is.

Daichuu: He’s gotta be popular!

Akarin: *laughs*

Yuu-kun: “Popular”! *wheezes* My bad!

Akarin: He’s definitely popular.

Yuu-kun: *villain voice* M-My bad!

Everyone: *laughs*

Yuu-kun: My bad, Kou! *evil laughter* Well, he’s not that kind of character, though! But, that’s right, he has quite some popularity amongst all the fans, so I keep thinking that it’ll be great if I can perform Teru-kun well. The pop-like and cute worldview of the series really does unravel in the anime too, so it’d make me happy if people could look forward to it! That’s what I think.

Akarin: Hm-hm!

Yuu-kun: Yes, I hope everyone will look forward to “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”~~~!

Akarin: All right~.

Yuu-kun: Thank you very much!

Akarin: Thank you very much. *claps*

ChibaShou: *Kou voice* Onii-chan just said something nice!

Yuu-kun: That’s right! *rough voice* Praise me, praise me!

Akarin: *laughs*

ChibaShou: Awesome!

Yuu-kun: See ya! Bye!

ChibaShou: “Farewell” seems better!

Yuu-kun: Farewell!

Akarin: “Farewell”! *laughs* Farewell. Then, next is Satou-san!

Satou: Yes!

Akarin: Come over, come over!

[General cheering]

Satou: I’m in your care~.

Akarin: Please!

Satou: Yes. Erm, I play Akane Aoi-chan. My name is Satou Minako.

Akarin: It’s a pleasure!

Satou: Pleasure is mine.

Chikape: Eeeh, she’s so cute!

Akarin: Cute! *laughs*

Satou: Eh, hum—

Everyone: *laughs*

ChibaShou: Radio! It’s your first time on the radio, right?

Satou: Yeah, it’s my first time in a radio show—

Akarin: Ah!

Chikape: Ah! Eeeh!? Waaah! Yaaay!

Akarin: Amazing!

Satou: Yes! It’s amazing. My first!

[Commontion in the background]

Akarin: That’s so rare! Having your first time on the radio with a scene like this!

Satou: Yes. I’m super nervous!

Akarin: It’s not a sight you get to see everywhere.

Satou: Yes! I’m incredibly nervous.

Akarin: Hm!

Satou: Erm, “Hanako-kun” is my first participation in an anime—

Akarin: Oh!

Yuu-kun: Eeh??

Akarin: Waah!

Satou: Yes! I didn’t know left or right at the beginning, and even now—

Daichuu: You still don’t know?

Satou: I don’t! I don’t know where right or left is!

Akarin: Right is... Right is that way~.

ChibaShou: There’s only the right side in here!

Everyone: *laughs*

Satou: I get nervous even now, but I keep challenging the recordings while being helped by these Senpais and the people behind the production every time.

Akarin: Hm-hm!

Satou: The one I play, Akane Aoi-chan is the most super popular girl in the academy.

Akarin: She’s cute!

Satou: Very. And I—

Akarin: Both so popular!

Everyone: *laughs*

Satou: There’s both a popular girl and popular guy here. And she’s quite different from me, but—

Akarin: No, no!

Satou: —I want to do my best from now on too, so that I can keep performing Ao-chan with all my might!

Akarin: All right!

Satou: I’ll be in your care.

Akarin: Counting on you!

[Applause]

Akarin: Thank you so much! Then, next is Anzai-san!

Chikape: Yes!

Akarin: Please!

Daichuu: Ah. Cute.

Chikape: I voice Nanamine Sakur—you liar!

Akarin: “Cute”! *laughs*

Chikape: You liar! That was such a monotone!

ChibaShou: Hey, beauty!

Chikape: Liar!

Ogata: There are only supernaturals in this studio!

Everyone: *laughs*

Ogata: Only “supernaturals”!

T/N: This is a pun with the similar pronounciation of the words “supernatural” (kaii) and “cute” (kawaii).

Akarin: “Supernatural”~.

Yuu-kun: They called her a “supernatural”~.

Chikape: It’s full of “supernaturals” here~. I voice Nanamine Sakura. My name is Anzai~! Yay~!

[Cheering]

Akarin: Counting on you!

Chikape: Hum, today, Mizushima-san and I were revealed as part of the cast.

Akarin: Ah! That’s right.

Daichuu: Yeah.

Yuu-kun: Hm-hm!

Chikape: Right. Well, we can’t talk much about what kind of roles they will be. *chuckles*

Akarin: Hmmm, true.

Chikape: That’s right. We’re in charge of two mysterious figures!

Akarin: Yes! *laughs*

Chikape: I want to keep this up mysteriously!

Everyone: *laughs*

Akarin: That’s just like them!

ChibaShou: Can’t tell what’s on the inside!

Chikape: But really, she’s kind of occasionally here and there all of a sudden, and it just makes you go, “Uh, could she be...?”

Akarin: That’s true.

Chikape: So I hope people will eventually become a bit interested in her.

Akarin: Hm-hm.

Chikape: The recordings are fun. *laughs*

Akarin: *laughs* Right~?

Chikape: It’s fun. We always do it like this, don’t we? *laughs*

Akarin: Right~? *laughs*

Chikape: Is it enough yet?

Everyone: *laughs*

Akarin: Nothing else to say about your enthusiasm?

Chikape: None at all, none at all!

Akarin: “None at all”?

Chikape: From now on—

ChibaShou: What kind of year do you want this year to be?

Chikape: What kind of year I want this year to be? An olympic...

Everyone: *laughs*

Chikape: An olympic year??

T/N: This has to be the most ironic thing I’ve ever translated, omg.

ChibaShou: That’s got nothing to do with the series!

Chikape: Ah, the series? For the series, let’s see...

Daichuu: May it become a series worthy of a gold medal.

Chikape: Ah, that’s right!

Akarin: Aaah!

Chikape: *claps* As expected of you~~~!

Akarin: *claps* As expected of you!

Chikape: I hope we can convey this joy right now to everybody through the anime.

Akarin: That’s right!

Chikape: We’ll be in your care. Look forward to it! Wey!

Akarin: Thank you very muuuch!

[Applause]

Akarin: Now, Mizushima-san!

Chikape: Yay, yay!

Daichuu: Yes!

Akarin: Daichuu-san, counting on you!

Daichuu: I’ll be in your care. Haah~!

Chikape: Whoo! So cool!

Everyone: Cool~~~!

ChibaShou: Coo-coo!

Daichuu: For real?

Everyone: *laughs*

Daichuu: Do you think that from the bottom of your hearts? Do you?

ChibaShou: He seems pretty happy.

Daichuu: Then I am.

Akarin: Yes.

Everyone: *laughs*

Daichuu: Okay, eeeeeh... I play Hyuuga Natsuhiko. My name is Mizushima Takahiro!

Akarin: All right, counting on you!

Daichuu: Okaaay!

ChibaShou: Yay~!

Chikape: Whee~!

Daichuu: Man, it makes your heart race, doesn’t it? That the show will soon be running.

Akarin: Hm-hm!

Daichuu: And also the fact that we’re now here—we’re now here, in a situation like this.

Akarin: “In a situation like this”?! *laughs*

Daichuu: My heart’s racing right now.

Chikape: This isn’t some matchmaking date!

Daichuu: Eh, it’s not? I think this whole thing about being interviewed by Kitou-chan...

Akarin: *laughs*

Daichuu: ...is kind of... really nice.

Akarin: Ah, really?

Daichuu: Hm.

Akarin: What are your hobbies?

Daichuu: My hobby is—

Ogata: To create an air of misunderstandings.

Everyone: *laughs*

Daichuu: My hobby is Akari Kitou, I guess.

Akarin: Uh? Your hobby is me?

Chikape: Shouya, run.

Akarin: *laughs*

Chikape: Hurry and run away~.

Daichuu: No, this is my role! My role! I’m incorporating my role!

Akarin: “Incorporating your role”?

ChibaShou: Your role is already showing!

Akarin: Ah, you’re in your role?

Daichuu: Yeah, I incorporated it a bit too hard.

Akarin: You’re in your role, huh. I see.

Satou: We’re in a recording site, after all!

Daichuu: Erm, might kinda happen when I get in front of a microphone.

Akarin: Indeed.

Ogata: *whispers* Liar!

Daichuu: It’s part of me—

Akarin: “Liar”, she says!

Satou: “Liar”!?

ChibaShou: *laughs*

Akarin: Ogata-san is calling you a liar!

Ogata: *whispers lower* Liar!

Yuu-kun: *laughs*

Daichuu: Eh, Ogata-san, what was that?

Ogata: *gets close to the mic* Liaaaaaar!

Everyone: *laughs and claps*

Daichuu: Please just re—

Akarin: Daichuu-san.

Daichuu: Please—please rest. Please go rest.

Akarin: Please let her rest. *laughs*

Daichuu: That’s right. Okay, anyway. Well, the recordings are really like this—I mean, they’re not that messy, but they’re extremely fun.

Akarin: Hm-Hm!

Daichuu: And it’s almost like it leaks from the series. So the serious part of it is hoping that people will enjoy it like this, I guess.

Akarin: Hm-hm.

Daichuu: Also... what was it again? I’m... what again?

Akarin: *giggles*

Yuu-kun: You’re what?

Daichuu: Eeeh, anywaaay...

Akarin: What is it?

Daichuu: Anyway, I’m... thinking of chopping Chiba to shreds.

Chikape: What do you mean?!

Akarin: *laughs*

Daichuu: In a cool way.

ChibaShou: I’m gonna be chopped up!

Daichuu: I’m gonna chop you up.

Akarin: *laughing* “Chop you up”...

T/N: This is a joke with Chiba Shouya’s name and the term “chop up” (“chibachiba”).

Daichuu: *laughs* Really, none of the things I’m saying have substance!

Akarin/ChibaShou: *laugh*

Daichuu: But this is how it is! This is it.

Akarin: This is it!

Daichuu: Yes!

Chikape: We won’t lose!

Daichuu: That’s right!

Akarin: That’s true, indeed.

Daichuu: Story-wise, we’re still not there, I really want people to look forward to us.

Akarin: Hm-hm.

Daichuu: That’s how I want to conclude it.

Akarin: *laughs*

Daichuu: Anyway, I’ll... I’ll be gone.

Akarin: “I’ll”... *laughs*

Daichuu: Thank you very much!

Akarin: Ah, you’re leaving?

Chikape: Please don’t create a misunderstanding.

Daichuu: Yes! Well, we’ll be in your care~~~!

Akarin: So we will!

[Applause]

Staff: Now, the last is... Kitou-san.

Akarin: Ah! Is that okay?

Staff: Yes.

Ogata: Yashiro!

Akarin: Ah!

Ogata: Go, Yashiro!

Akarin: “Yashiro”...! Can Yashiro... Can Yashiro also speak? *laughs*

Staff: Please proceed straight to the point.

Akarin: *laughs* Okay. Well, I, Kitou Akari, want to talk about my excitement—

Daichuu: Waaah. Cute.

Akarin: *laughs*

Chikape: Sooo cute.

ChibaShou: AWESOME!!

Akarin: “Awesome”?

Chikape: That sense of transparency is extremely good.

Akarin: No, no!

ChibaShou: It’s like she’s the heroine!

Yuu-kun: So cute~!

Akarin: No, hum, I am, in a sense, playing the role of the heroine, Nene-chan. *laughs*

Daichuu: Behind you! Behind you!

Akarin: Ah, Ogata-san is behind me... *laughs*

Daichuu: You just can’t relax looking at that!

Everyone: *laughs*

Akarin: Well, about the anime “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”, the staff transmits even to us when we’re recording that they made it with a lot of enthusiasm, and all of us, the actors, are performing with our very souls, so I think it’ll become a truly wonderful series when it broadcasts. Thus, I would be happy if everyone could watch and stick with it until the very end! We’ll be in your care!

[Applause]

Akarin: All right! Thank you very much! So, lastly, is it okay to have Ogata-san, who voices Hanako-kun, talk about her excitement with a bit of whisper voice?

Ogata: *whispers* It’s all right.

Everyone: *chuckles*

Akarin: “All right”, you say?

Ogata: Because everyone is doing this properly.

Akarin: *giggles*

Ogata: I think it will turn out to be a series that will stick to the viewer’s backs like this.

Akarin: *laughs*

Ogata: What an unpleasant series that would be!

Akarin: *laughs harder*

Ogata: All right, that being said, please support us. That’s it.

Akarin: Okay! Thank you very much!

[Applause]

Yuu-kun: Her attitude was incredible when she sat there.

Akarin: When she sat there?

Daichuu: It was a different atmosphere.

Akarin: *laughs* Okay, anyhow. *laughs* I think Ogata-san will soon be able to carry out this show in a better condition.

Daichuu: If not, I’ll do it.

Akarin: Ah, then, do that.

Ogata: I ain’t letting you! Buzz off!

ChibaShou: That’s the only thing she’ll do whatever it takes for!

Akarin: Okay, we’ll be in everyone’s care. Now, here’s some news! Chiba-kun, please!

ChibaShou: Ah, yes! I’ll do it!

Chikape: Choppily!

ChibaShou: “Choppily”?

Akarin: Choppily! Please do it choppily!

ChibaShou: Eh, let’s see. “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” has... This isn’t working. Forget the “choppy” part, seriously.

Everyone: *laughs*

ChibaShou: The comic version of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”, from volume 1 to 12, plus volume 0, the artbook and the official spin-off comic, “Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun” are all on sale.

Akarin: Hm-hm!

ChibaShou: Eh, it turned into a end-of-year sale. Everyone, did you buy them? I did. Eh, please try reading them during New Years break!

Akarin: Please!

ChibaShou: Now, information about the TV anime. It starts airing on TBS, a Thursday, at 25:58 on January 9! And other than TBS, it airs on Friday, January 10, at 24:03 on Sun TV. On January 11, Saturday, at 26:03 on BS-TBS. On January 15, Wednesday, at 26:03 on CBC. It’ll be aired in sequence. Please look forward to it and wait for the broadcast!

Akarin: All right!

ChibaShou: Gonna be aired in lots of places, huh?

Akarin: Hm-hm!

ChibaShou: Also, “Hanako-kun” can be watched in the streaming sites of each. For the people who can’t watch it in real time, please check the official home page!

Akarin: Okay! Moreover, we—

ChibaShou: *sighs* I ended up talking seriously like normal.

Akarin: *laughs*

Daichuu: What the—Why are you saying that now?

Satou: He’s regretting it.

Akarin: He regretted it! He regretted it. Also, we have happy news from this After-School Radio too!

Chikape: What is it?

Akarin: From the next episode onward, guess what!

Chikape: “Guess what” what?

Akarin: We’ll stream it live~~~!

Chikape: Eeeeeh??

Daichuu: What the...!

[Applause]

Akarin: Amazing!

ChibaShou: Awesome!!

Akarin: Live!

ChibaShou: Live streaming!

Akarin: My, my!

Daichuu: We’ll be on live.

Akarin: So, the scheduled date for the next streaming is January 17, Friday!

Daichuu: That’s when it’ll stream?

Akarin: It’s the day just after the second episode.

Chikape: Oh! Amazing.

Akarin: People will get to hear everyone’s voices live, immediately after the anime’s broadcast!

Chikape: Amazing!

ChibaShou: Amazing!

[Applause]

Akarin: Whee, hooray!

Chikape: Amazing, amazing!

Daichuu: That’s so awesome...

Akarin: Yes! The details of the streaming will be publishd in the anime’s official Twitter, so please look forward and wait for the news flash!

[Background music starts playing]

Akarin: We’ve promoted the “Hanako-kun” anime right before the broadcast here in the radio! Everyone, let’s enjoy both the radio and the anime together!

Everyone: *laughs*

Ogata: Whether or not we managed to promote “Hanako-kun” will depend on each of the fans when it airs.

Akarin: *laughs*

Ogata: Soon enough, I want to be delivering more of our excitement to everyone live.

Akarin: Hm!

Ogata: Look forward to it~!

Akarin: Look forward to it!

Ogata: These have been Hanako-kun and everyone that will make an appearance in “Hanako-kun”~!

Akarin: *giggles* Bye-bye~!

Everyone: Bye-bye!

Chikape: Look forward to it!

Akarin: Look forward to it!

ChibaShou: Look forward to it. We’ll be in your care.

Akarin: We will!

[beanie-beebo-writes]

It follows

Series Summary: Reader is running from financial problems and his/her studies, will they catch up with him/her? Charlie's close friends (none other than Sam and Dean) go to check up on the reader due to Charlie becoming worried for him/her. Trouble pursues, as the reader wants to keep silent about his/her struggles.

Warnings: None

Masterlist

Chapter 15

Dean tossed the impala keys onto the small side table and instantly called dibs on a laptop. Sam shook his head and smirked, knowing well that his brother didn't want to be stuck with a load of large books. You chuckled with amusement and stifled a yawn.

"So I assume we are hitting the lore again?" You asked, still unsure of how hunting worked in the real world.

Sam looked at you, slightly puzzled. "Uh.. yeah. Unless you know a way to kill a Kumiho."

"Not in the slightest, this one is a new one for me." You said.

It was Dean's turn to look at you, as Sam was getting settled.

"You seem pretty chill about monsters.. How is that?" Dean asked.

You quickly pondered; telling them about the books would probably be a bit intrusive, especially if they didn't know. Even if they weren't a hundred percent accurate, having something written about you without your knowledge is a little upsetting.

"I mean, I've always had an interest for the supernatural," you internally cringed at that comment, "so I guess I don't scare too easy?"

"Makes sense." Dean shrugged, returning to his research.

"Hey (Y/N), you can continue on the computer from earlier, I think I'll hit the solid lore." Sam offered.

"No, actually, I think I should try to get some rest. I haven't had a lot of it lately, and... I actually feel pretty safe with you guys." You admitted with a yawn.

Sam briefly looked over to Dean with a wide smile on his face. "Oh, okay. I can use both the other laptop and the books then, awesome; more coverage."

You mustered a small smile back and headed to your small bag of belongings. Even though you rarely missed the past, you couldn't help but long for comfort. You never really bothered packing pjs or lounge clothes when you bolted from college, since it would be more to carry. You had figured the few pair of clothes you threw together would suffice at the time, not thinking you would ever feel comfy anywhere again.

"Hey, um, do you want to borrow some clothes? I normally don't offer, but, I mean, it seems like you're kind of low on options." Dean said.

"Could I have a pair of sweats, maybe? If not, I'll just sleep in what I have on." You replied.

"Lucky for you, I always carry around a pair, just in case I want some extra comfort." Dean said with a wink.

Your face burned slightly from embarrassment, but you accepted his offer gratefully. You were so caught up in your emotions, you missed the small exchange of facial expressions the brothers were throwing at each other.

"We'll be right here if you need anything else, (Y/N)." Sam said.

"Thanks guys, seriously." You said, snuggling into the covers.

The brothers replied with short affirmations as you slowly drifted off to a long awaited, sound sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sam and Dean both smiled to themselves as you blissfully slept, occasionally checking your sleeping form, just to make sure all was well. For a while, all that filled the room was the sounds of pages turning, and the occasional click of a mouse. Serenity was never really something the Winchesters had much experience with, so they tended to make the most of small moments like this. Although, this felt different. They were protecting someone practically around the clock, someone other than each other. They never really had the opportunity to see someone living their life easier because of them, not in action at least. This was a whole new awakening; one that made them realize that maybe their job was worth all of the pain.

"I'm really proud of you, you know." Sam said, not looking up from his laptop screen.

Dean looked up in sheer confusion. "For what?" He asked.

"You completely opened up to (Y/N). I know housing and protecting someone other than me isn't really on your to-do list, and it really means a lot." Sam explained.

"I know." Dean said with a smirk.

And then, it suddenly dawned him. The eldest Winchester was starting to feel something he hadn't truly felt in a while, remorse.

"Hey Sam," Dean started awkwardly, "you know… I do care. I just... hate having more things on my plate than.. I already have."

"I know." Sam said, being sure to make eye contact with his brother.

A couple hours flew by, and the Winchesters strangely couldn't find anything on how to kill the creature. It was beginning to take a toll on Dean, who already disliked research as it was.

"Ugh, I think I'm gonna call Bobby." Dean grumbled.

Despite the visible exhaustion, his brother still clicked away on the computer.

"Good idea, because I've got nothing over here." Sam said.

Dean rang the older hunter, turning down the volume after he put it on speaker. After several rings, a voice mumbled groggily on the other end.

"Hey, Bobby. Um, sorry to wake ya.. But we're digging into a stone well over here, think you could help us out?"

Bobby sighed into the phone and audibly shuffled out of bed. "What is it this time?" He asked.

"We believe it's a Kumiho, some sort of fox-like creature from Japan. We've been researching for hours, but we haven't struck anything." Sam said.

"A Kumiho, huh? That's a new one. What do you need me to help you figure out?" Bobby asked.

"A way to kill it. It doesn't seem to have any visible weaknesses, at least from what we've come across." Dean said.

"Alright, give me a while to wake up here, and I'll get back to you whether I find something or not. Sound good?" He said.

"Sure," Sam said, "we can catch a couple hours of rest in the meantime."

"Sleep well boys."

"Thanks Bobby."

Dean closed his flip phone and stretched his stiff limbs; Sam followed suit. They both glanced at your peaceful form, which had stilled hours ago. The sight alone made Sam smile.

"You know, it doesn't just mean a lot to (him/her), it means a lot to me too." Sam said.

"What." Dean said.

"Supporting (him/her)."

Dean smirked, patted his brother's back, and headed into the bathroom with his duffle. As Sam waited for him to finish his nightly routine, he watched over you, finally understanding the feeling his brother felt his whole life.

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

You were startled awake to the shrills of a cell phone. You rubbed your eyes, feeling disoriented. You had no idea how long you had been out, but it was the best you had felt in ages. It made you feel... warm.

"Yeah, here, I'll put you on speaker." Dean said, making you shift your attention to the current situation.

"Turns out there isn't really a known way to kill it, but you can trap it, I think." A gruff voice said through the cell phone.

"You can't kill it, of course. Tell us what you found out about it then?" Sam asked groggily.

"The lore says it's a creature that came about from great longevity or a long accumulation of energy. The Kumiho can only lose its form and turn human with enough will, which makes this hard. Supposedly there are two ways you can 'end' the kumiho. You can obtain a jewel called a chintamani, and make sure the Kumiho sees the full moon monthly.Or you can take an easier route, which involves the creature not killing or eating meat for a thousand days." The man explained.

"And the second option is easier how exactly?" Dean asked.

"It says the chintamani is a single stone, which is kind of  hard to get. You have to go to the dragon-king of the sea, who is also known as Makara. Since we have two options here, I say you go for the one that is more obtainable first." He said.

"This is going to be loads of fun." You mumbled.

A tense silence followed, causing you to instantly regret speaking.

"Is there someone else there with you two? I could have sworn I heard another voice." The voice asked.

"Oh. Yeah, we were going to bring it up eventually. We kind of took in another helper, (his/her) name is (Y/N)." Dean said.

"You what?" He yelled.

"Hold on a second Bobby, I'll explain everything." Sam said, looking at Dean.

Dean gladly handed the angry man over to Sam and stayed silent until his brother was outside of the room. You looked at Dean questionably as he went to sit on the bed.

"Who was that?" You asked.

"That was a hunter friend of ours, Bobby. Well, actually, he's more like a father figure to us. He means well." Dean said.

"He didn't really seem too happy to hear about me." You mumbled.

Dean cautiously put a hand on your thigh and looked into your glimmering eyes.

"(Y/N), we will work all of this out, okay? We aren't getting rid of you, not any time soon." Dean reassured.

"Even if he doesn't approve of me?"

"I'm pretty sure he will approve of you, (Y/N). He just needs to get warmed up to you, that's all. And even if he doesn't, we still approve."

You gave him a watery smile and almost ended up hugging him again. Dean must have seen the hesitation, because he carefully brought you into his arms. You could easily get used to it, the smell of cheap soap and deodorant, with a hint of gunpowder and whiskey. It surprised you; he was warmer than you ever thought he would be, at least for a hunter. He felt like home, he felt safe. Dean briefly rubbed your back and broke away before it could probably feel too awkward.

"You good?" He asked.

"Yeah, I think so." You said with a smile.

"Okay good, because I'm not very good with these chick flick moments." He replied.

"That seemed pretty good to me." You said.

Before the tension could thicken, Sam closed the motel door behind him and gave Dean back his phone.

"I settled it out with Bobby, everything's good, at least I think." Sam said. "He said he wants to stop by in the morning, just so we can pair up evenly."

"I'm surprised he isn't headed here now, knowing him." Dean commented.

"He probably is, but he actually did sound like he could use some rest. I'll take him for his word this time." Sam said.

"I say we get some more sleep then, because we'll probably be out hunting this thing all evening. Unless if something else comes up, with our luck." Dean said.

You yawned in response and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

For once, you all slept until the sun rose the next morning, completely undisturbed.

[irene-sadler]

Sir Reynard and the Red Knight

(aka 'The Tournament')

special notes:

the vibe i chose for this imaginary fair/holiday is a mashup of pieces from medieval christmas and new year's eve celebrations. ofc as I mentioned before most of those were Christianity-based, but some of them had a distintly pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon pagan flavor. now my source material here is from 1827, but the author makes sure to let us know which traditions (he thinks) are older than Christianity. the book (books actually, there's 3 of them total) itself is also kind of a fun read, it's sort of a combo of an almanac/calendar/reference guide/gossip column.

a n y w a y, so, specifically i want to mention (b/c i stole them for this story and i don't want to do that without letting ppl know these are or were real traditions that real people observed) serving a boars' head on christmas day (Essex, England, observed "from time immemorial"), the wassail bowl/toast (a new year custom very definitely from before Christianity and apparently present in various parts of Europe altho I don't have the specific expertise to explain why), and an interesting/weird/gruesome Christmas parade (Kent) which the book describes: "A party of young people procure the head of a dead horse, which is affixed to a pole about four feet in length, a string is tied to the lower jaw, a horse cloth is then attached to the whole, under which one of the party gets, and by frequently pulling the string keeps up a loud snapping noise." This is called a Hodening and whether or not ppl still do it I don't know but, uh, i hope so b/c awesome.

also theres only 1 chapter left if u stuck with it this whole time or, idk, it's 2024 and u read the whole thing at once thanks for bothering love u

----

9.

     “Yes, hello,” Gascon said, pretending not to notice Meve’s displeasure. “Good afternoon, ladies,” he added, as the Baroness and Giselle turned to look curiously down at where he stood in the shadows. The Baroness frowned and pursed her lips judiciously; Giselle considered him and glanced uncertainly at the older women.

    “Anyway,” he continued, an edge of urgency buried in his easy tone, “Do you have a minute to spare?”

    “No,” the Queen said stiffly, turning back toward the empty lists. “I’m busy; whatever it is will have to wait until later.”

    “Oh,” he replied, growing very faintly annoyed, “Because it’s about that thing you wanted last night; just thought you’d be interested t’ know I’ve done it.”

    She hesitated, ignoring the Baroness’s raised eyebrow and Giselle’s uncomfortable confusion, struggled momentarily between curiosity and base pettiness, and finally said, “Yes, fine; I have a few minutes, I suppose.”

    “Fifteen minutes,” the Baroness said, pointedly.

    “No time to waste, then,” said Gascon; he winked at Giselle, who took her cue from the Baroness and frowned disapprovingly back at him, and they hurried off.

    “So, what is it, then?” Meve asked bluntly, as they turned into the town’s streets at a rapid stroll. “I assume you’ve caught the saboteur, else you wouldn’t have bothered me.”

    “Well, I caught Gaheris; he may be the saboteur, or may not,” Gascon said, disregarding her tone. “Gaspar thinks he is, though, and he’s th’ only one who saw th’ intruder close up last night, so odds are good he’s your man.”

    “Really?” She abandoned her moodiness in favor of mild surprise, and then asked, “When did this happen?”

    “Oh, only about an hour ago. Less, even. Seemed like there was no real need for a public scene, so I just had him snatched off the street and, you know - stashed somewhere convenient,” Gascon explained, leading the way down an alley and into a butcher. The owner nodded and smiled to him as he passed through the door and headed toward the back, spotted the Queen, and instantly looked away at nothing in particular. Pug and Gaspar waited in the yard behind the shop, standing guard over a man with a bag on his head and a bandage around his left ankle. Gascon nodded at Pug and she yanked the bag away; Gaheris squinted in the light and surveyed his surroundings - two large, brightly interested pigs in a pen, his sinister pair of captors, and, finally, Meve and Gascon. He sighed.

    “Got ‘im in one piece, as you wanted,” Pug announced in her gruff voice; a dubious claim, as Gaheris had a black eye and a split lip, but Gascon nodded approvingly and jerked his thumb over his shoulder, toward the shop.

    “Wait inside for a bit,” he said; Pug and Gaspar departed, leaving their captive to his deserved fate.

    “Now, sir,” Meve said briskly to Gaheris; if she had any doubts about his culpability, she kept them firmly to herself. “Let’s not waste time with falsehoods or denials.”        

    “No,” he said, resignedly, “Doesn’t seem to be much point in trying.”

    “Quite. So, explain what it is you’ve been up to, then.”

    “Start with last night,” Gascon added, as the squire took a few too many seconds to think it over. “Hurry up.”

    “Ah, well. I was trying to get hold of a piece of equipment I knew was among Sir Odo’s things in the barn,” he said. “The girth from a saddle.”

    “Continue,” the Queen said, as he paused, clearly thinking the question answered.

    “Well, obviously I didn’t get it, since that - that thug sliced my ankle t’ the bone when I tried. Seems the girth held up, though, regardless, through today; probably because Sir Odo don’t take many hits, luckily for him.”

    “No, it’s because I found it last night and changed it out for a new one,” Gascon said, angrily. “You’re the one who cut it, are you?”

    Gaheris nodded.

    “I knew it,” the Duke muttered; Meve waved his self-congratulatory comment away, scowling.

    “When did you do it?”

    “Oh, a month ago, or more,” he said. “Just before the duel against Sir Holt.”

    “Why?”

    He blinked at the question and said, as if it was obvious, “Because Sir Holt told me to, in hopes he’d win.”

    “You did a bad job, then,” Gascon snapped; Gaheris looked mildly offended.

    “No,” he said. “No, I didn’t. The girth held, did it not? Sir Odo won - or, well he could have, if he’d wanted to.”

    He looked at his interrogators’ baffled stares, and then explained, patiently, “Look - I cut through the leather, left just enough to hold a strain for a good while, glued it so it’d look like nothing, and told Holt I’d done what he wanted. Simple. I just didn’t have the chance to get it back, after the fight; too many people hanging around who might’ve seen me. If I had done, nobody would have been the wiser.”

    Meve stared at him, torn between confusion and anger, opened her mouth, and closed it again as an echo of distant horns bounced off the buildings.

    “Damn,” she said. “I have to go. Gascon, find Sir Holt.”

    “What should I do with him?” he asked, as she turned to leave; she hesitated, considered her options, and came to a hasty decision.

    “Just keep tabs on him, don’t let him leave town, and - and we’ll sort this mess out, later.”

    “You’ll find him in the tavern, no doubt,” Gaheris said wearily to Gascon, as she quickly departed.

      She nearly ran back through the streets, but she was still late; she returned to the lists to find the Baroness had started the final round without her. However, she she was in time to see Nolda avoid an immediate defeat by the same method she had used on Sir Eres, but Reynard survived her trick, when his fellow knight hadn’t. She nodded in satisfaction at the display.

    “Your man is a quick study, as he’s always been,” said the Baroness, as if Meve had never been away. The next pass involved no deceptions from either side, nor any displays of brilliance; Nolda blocked an ordinary sort of attack on her shield, and never touched Sir Odo.

    “He’s testing the waters,” Meve said, slightly bored with her favorite’s typically cautious tactics. “How long have they been at it?”

    “You only missed one pass; the foreigner’s better at this than I expected.”

    “She’s tricky,” Giselle noted, appreciatively. “What’s the Count doing, there?”

    There was a short pause; Meve glanced downfield and answered, “Oh, he wants a different lance, I imagine.”

    The delay took a full half minute, due to some confusion on Ethan’s part; the Baroness mumbled a displeased remark about the squire’s ineptitude, and then the combat began again.

    “He wants to make up for Nolda’s left-handedness,” the Baroness explained, louder, “That’s what the long spear is for. Most people don’t learn to fight the way she does -”

    She broke off; Reynard’s change of weapon had answered, and he had dealt a strike that had nearly unseated his opponent; she managed to stay in the saddle by luck or skill and they lined up again.

    “He has her figured out; this’ll be th’ end of it,” said Meve. The Baroness nodded agreement. Giselle looked unconvinced, but, in the end, Reynard landed a direct attack to his opponent’s helm and Nolda crashed to earth at long last.

    “A devilishly difficult play,” the Baroness said, in the silence that followed. “Dangerous, too.”

    Reynard had turned to look behind himself, before his horse had even reached the end of the barricade; Nolda lay still on the ground for a few moments, and then, as her husband vaulted the fence and came running toward her, stirred and sat up. She waved an irritated hand at Bohault and Reynard, who had trotted back and dropped from his horse as soon as he was rid of his lance, but neither paid attention to her gestures or her repeated insistence that she was perfectly fine. The crowd’s general din returned, drowning out their conversation; Meve breathed a relieved sigh and reluctantly turned her thoughts back to Gaheris and Sir Holt, and then - she frowned slightly - Gascon’s mysterious absence during the day.

    “Pity you can’t make her a knight,” Giselle said, of Nolda, interrupting her consideration; Meve’s frown grew thoughtful.

    “A knight,” she repeated to herself, under her breath, watching the muddle on the field break up - Reynard back to his horse, Bohault and Nolda to hers - a vague connection, or suspicion, growing in the back of her mind. She turned abruptly to the Baroness, interrupted an ongoing reminisce on the handful of times she’d seen another knight employ a tactic similar to Reynard’s winning strike, and said, “Listen, Hilde - the black knight; do you know who he is?”

    The Baroness hesitated, slightly confused, and replied, choosing her words carefully, “I believe so, but - wasn’t that what you and the Duke spoke about?”

    “No,” the Queen said, disgruntled. “No, it wasn’t.”      

    “Ah,” she said, looking away toward the approaching victors, “Well, perhaps you should. Count Odo, congratulations on another victory; well fought, Nolda. My lord, you’ve won quite a fine horse, I believe, and you, madam, a sword. They’ll be bringing them along shortly.”

      Any personal urgency she felt to finally sort out her ongoing affairs was wasted; the prizes took very little time to hand out, but a number of unrelated problems were brought to her individual attention as soon as the victors rode away. She sent Giselle back to her tavern with genuine gratitude for her service, dealt out various solutions, and then at last she and the Baroness set off toward the castle. The streets of the city were packed, twilight was setting in, and there was no way to hurry their progress no matter how their guard tried. A wagon that had lost a wheel blocked the way, first, and then a succession of other disruptions: a traveling comedic play about a sorcerer and some maidens, some cows wandering loose in the street, a troupe of drunken minstrels playing festive tunes, a strange procession led by a solemn youth holding a freshly cut horse’s head mounted on a pole as a banner, a group of offended clerics in its wake, handcarts selling buns and ale, and, finally, on the bridge over the castle moat, an armored knight still on his charger, who would not be shifted by man or beast until Meve stepped out of the torchlit crowd and threatened to remove him herself.

    Then there was yet another feast, this time held in the hall and attended by more of the usual crowd - but, of course, with the horde of knights and sundry that had participated in the jousts, somewhat more of them than normal. There were the typical, expected customs - a boar’s head served, bowls of spiced ale passed around, a number of favors and pardons bestowed, gifts received (and given; Count Odo, for one, courteously gave the warhorse he’d won earlier in the day to Nolda, who accepted it in a fiercely embarrassed but otherwise gracious fashion) - and various other ancient rituals observed.

    “I would’ve asked if you thought giving her the horse was a good idea,” Reynard said privately to the Queen, during the Mayor’s inevitable remarks, “But I didn’t catch you in time. If I’m honest it’s less a gift and more a bribe, of a sort; Ethan’s left-handed, same as her, and I thought it might make it easier to convince her to teach him.”

    “There were some delays getting back,” she replied, also in an undertone, her eyes resolutely fixed on the speaker as he recited a hopeful list of future developments for the upcoming year. “This whole afternoon’s been nothing but delays, in fact.”

    “I’ll tell you about it later,” she added, quickly, as the speech ended, aimed a quick but pointed glance at the distant Gascon, who immediately slipped out a side door, and then dismissed the court in the exact words she’d recited for ten years, and, before her, her late husband, and his father, and their distant grandfathers, for all of remembered history.

      Finally getting rid of her guests took much longer than the traditional close to the winter solstice did. As a result, it was past midnight before she made the solitary climb up the stairs to her office, looking forward to finally having a quiet minute to think. However, Reynard and Gascon - and Gaheris - were within, despite the late hour; the squire stopped in the middle of a sentence and all three men automatically turned her way when she stepped through the door. She waved an impatient hand at him to continue and leaned against her own desk, hiding her weariness behind a cold stare. Gaheris returned to repeating his confession; Reynard listened in silence, his expression drifting subtly between offense and genuine confusion. At the end, he frowned and asked, “You - pretended to sabotage my equipment? Why? Why not do it properly, I mean?”

    The squire shrugged.

    “It’s - listen; before I go on, you should know Holt’s an ass, and a stubborn one at that. Yes, I see you’ve all noticed. Well, I couldn’t dissuade him when th’ idea came into his fool head, but I’d no wish t’ see him win a fight by such a trick, against such an obviously superior opponent. It’s not right, and, also, would be easily seen through. What I did seemed the simplest solution.”

    “You could have refused,” Reynard pointed out; Gaheris smiled pityingly at him and shook his head. His response drew an exasperated comment from Meve.

    “You could have done nothing at all, and told him otherwise.”

    He frowned, again mildly offended.

    “I’m no liar,” he said. “If I can find any other solution, I mean. They say a half-truth’s better than a lie, don’t they?”

     Reynard blinked, considered, and then shook his head. Gascon shrugged his shoulders, grudgingly.

    “You’re clearly a capable man,” Meve said. “Why do you serve someone you know isn’t?”

    Gaheris shook his head again, helplessly.

    “Holt’s always been like this,” he explained, “Ever since he was a boy. He’s a decent fighter, but he’s too competitive for his own good, and he’s still not learned t’ pick his battles. However, he is my little brother - well, half-brother; my mother married Sir Ulrich after my father died. He was a stonemason,” he explained, seeing the Queen raise a questioning eyebrow, a gleam of challenge in his dark eyes. “His name was Gors.”

    When she failed to react to his admission, he continued:

    “Anyway, she wanted me t’ look after Holt, best I can. He isn’t a bad person, really, he just -”

    He shrugged.

    “He can’t help how he is, when he’s in a mood, and when he isn’t he’s not the worst of men, or the worst of nobles, for that matter. He’s never struck a knight who’s yielded, for one, and he’s not one to steal or run villainous among th’ yeomen. And, he’s all the family I got left,” he finally finished. Meve nodded and said nothing for a long moment; she noticed that he couldn’t have been any older than herself, but he briefly appeared gray and worn down. She was, to her mild irritation, somewhat sympathetic to his troubles. Gascon glanced from her icy frown to Gaheris’s tired stare, curiously. Reynard watched her carefully.

    “Keep him under guard,” she said to Gascon. “I’m not sure what to do with him or his brother, just yet. Wait - leave him on the landing; the guards there will look after him for the moment. I’ve another matter to discuss, before you go.”

      “He’s the black knight,” she said to Reynard, as Gascon stepped back in without his captive. “Did you know?”

    “No, of course not,” the Count said, frowning slightly. “Although, in truth, th’ idea has crossed my mind, but I found it - unlikely.”

    Gascon hesitated, then shrugged, grinned broadly, and said, “You caught me at last, m’lady; how’d you figure it?”

    “The Baroness it was that discovered you, not me,” Meve said, crossing her arms stubbornly; she attempted to appear angry, but in the end managed only mild, slightly amused, annoyance. “Also, she appears to have found me out, as well, incidentally. In fact, there seems to be very little she doesn’t know.”

    “She’s uncommonly sharp, no doubt about it,” Gascon agreed, readily.

    “So,” she continued, “Is there anything at all to be gained by asking you what you were doing, today?”

    “Won’t tell you unless you first promise not t’ bite my head off,” he said promptly.

    “Yes, very well, as it’s the solstice, but don’t expect any more favors from me before the summer, at earliest. I mean it, Gascon.”

    Reynard sat down, shaking his head at them; Gascon nodded and said, “Fair’s fair. Well, then, it’s a short tale: I won that fight against Sir Holt, then I saw Gaheris come limping ‘round to scrape him up off the turf, and it all came together clear as mud, so I decided it was time t’ stop playing at knights for the day and do some real work.”

    “You could have appeared in the joust as yourself,” Reynard remarked, almost idly, “And not as -”

    “As me,” Meve interrupted, a hint of her previous ire returning.

    “Yes, well - the black knight’s more interesting than I am,” he explained, with a broad shrug. “People have heard of his prowess, or what have you; the dangerous reputation’s an advantage, of sorts.”

    “Yes, we’ve heard, in fact,” Meve said, coldly. “Slew a werewolf, did you?”

    “Sure did,” Gascon replied. “Or, I helped, anyhow. There was a witcher involved. Like Gaheris said: half a truth’s better than a lie, so I let the former take precedence.”

    “That’s not the saying, as you know perfectly well. It’s worse,” Reynard said, rolling his eyes. “Half a truth is worse than a lie.”

    Gascon shrugged at him, grinning slightly. Meve interrupted their tangent, impatiently.

    “And you killed a dragon, they say?”

    “Not I,” the Duke said, quickly, eyeing the Queen’s scowl. “Th’ only dragonslayer here is yourself - although, I did kill a pretty big snake in a roadside inn. The landlady was most impressed. So was some minstrel who happened t’ be around, it appears; he has, uh, embellished th’ incident, somewhat.”

    “Yes, that much is obvious,” Reynard noted, “But how’d he know it was the black knight who did the deed and not merely one Gascon Brossard?”

    At last, Gascon turned uncomfortably self-conscious and clammed up; Meve watched him squirm for a long moment and decided, after a glance at the amused gleam in Reynard’s eye, to not to press the issue further.

    “And you gave poor Sir Orlac a dunking,” she remarked, finally; Gascon looked relieved and seized on the change in subject.

    “Yes, that story’s true,” he admitted. “He’s not a bad fighter, at all, thought he don’t seem to enjoy it much. It took some convincing t’ even get him to go against me, actually, but it was worth the time, in th’ end, to get th’ extra practice.”

    “You have improved, somewhat,” Reynard observed, casually. He shot a quick look at Meve; she spotted it and broke off her intended response, frowning. Gascon either missed or ignored their exchange and said, brightly, “Why thank you, sir.”

    “Although,” the knight continued, “It remains to be seen if you can beat me just yet; Meve, of course, has already unhorsed you once, so no there’s burning question to be answered on that account.”

    “By a trick,” Gascon said, and then, as Reynard shrugged unconcernedly, added, “Look, I only really wanted t’ fight Sir Holt and beat him, again, to prove I could, like. I had no notion of much else.”

    “Yes, very likely,” Meve muttered, rolling her eyes; Reynard continued, despite her:

    “Not afraid to lose, are you?”

    “Of course not; it happens all the time,” Gascon said, mildly indignant.

    “Well, then, tomorrow, if you’ve no other plans, let’s see how good you’ve really become, shall we? Without your intimidating disguise, I mean.”

    “Well, all right,” the Duke said, doubtfully, clearly wary about what exactly he was agreeing to. “I suppose I’m not busy, but - “

    “Good. I’ll see you first thing in the morning, then,” Reynard said, a suggestion of finality in his voice; Gascon still looked uncertain, but nodded and then made a tactical retreat to “see to those other matters.”

    “What the devil are you at, Reynard?” Meve asked, the instant he was gone. He stood up, strode across the room with a self-satisfied smile, and wrapped his arms around her.

    “You’ve had a long day,” he said, “Let me worry about it.”

    “Ugh. Fine, then; do what you want,” she said, ingraciously, leaned her forehead against his chest, and continued with a muffled sigh, “What do you think I should do with Holt? I can’t very well banish him for trying to cheat in a duel, much as I’d like to - he is the sole legal heir to Sir Ulrich, who has been a relatively loyal supporter of the crown - nor can I demote him, since he isn’t one of my own knights.”

    “Just ban him from your tournaments, and the rest of the realm will follow,” he said, as if it was obvious, “It’s the worst thing that could happen to a young knight.”

    “You’d know better than I,” she remarked, unfolded her arms, slid them around his waist, and added, “What about Gaheris?”

    “I don’t know,” Reynard said, “He’s not so easy to deal with.”

    “The trouble is,” Meve said, darkly, “- the trouble is that, in his circumstances, he’s done nothing worse than you or I have in the past, which makes me feel something of a hypocrite if I consider having him arrested for treason - as I certainly could, given your indispensable position and high rank.”

    “Yes, a - a similar thought crossed my own mind, to be honest.”

    “Well, it’s true,” she said, raising her head and frowning up at him. “Isn’t it? Reginald -”

    “He wasn’t quite so bad as Holt.”

    “Because he was older, and the King, and no other reason. Well, and he had you around to clean up after his worst decisions. And, his sons - my sons - are the same, or worse, than Sir Holt. Or were, I mean. Anseis certainly is, in any case.”

    “Perhaps,” Reynard said, thoughtfully, “There’s no need to do anything to Gaheris, at all.”

    “As you’re th’ one he wronged, in th’ end I think what happens to him should really be your decision,” Meve said, shrugging.

    “Well, then, speaking from experience, the man’s trials in keeping control of his brother are worse than anything you might think up.”

    “Yes, I know what you mean. I’ve no wish to see him hang or rot in prison, but banishment would be no curse to him, and we’d have to contend with Holt still, regardless, but without a convenient manager. What a waste; were he noble-born, I’d have some use for a man of his talents, and I could more easily secure his future loyalty. A shame, to have Holt be th’ one who inherits old Ulrich’s lands and titles, and Gaheris remain a squire still.”

    “I agree,” Reynard said. “However, that problem only you can solve.”

    She looked into his eyes, thoughtfully, and nodded.

[country-club]

Games #4

#1/#2/#3

*Gif not mine* Wordcount: 2.456 (oops) Warnings: drinking

> In which you go swimming with the Pogues

It has been a couple of days since you’ve been out, either with Rafe or Sarah. You had been focusing on picking the right college, you had been accepted in a few colleges in North Carolina. The plan was for you to go to Yale next year. Connecticut wouldn’t have been such a long drive from your hometown. However, it is a 10-hour drive from Outer Banks. And that means living on campus. You hadn’t yet received a letter from Yale. Maybe it got lost in the mail or sent to your old address? Could be. You weren’t sure where you wanted to go, but Yale was not your main focus, it was your stepdad’s plan and your mom agreed that it would be great. Even if it meant barely seeing you and probably paying double to study out of state. You had already written rejection letters to almost every college you got into so far, except for Duke University, just in case you didn’t get into Yale. Duke was a 4-hour drive, but at least you didn’t have to move to another state.

“Y/n?” You heard a girl’s voice, along with a knock on your door.

“Yes?” The door opened and Sarah stepped inside. You greeted her.

“Your dad let me in.” Sarah took a look around your room. “I like your room.”

You thanked her and got up. “What can I do for you?” Sarah grinned at you.

“The Pogues are going for a swim, want to accompany me?”

“Let me put on some proper swimwear.” It was nice outside, the sky is clear and the sun is hot. You put on a swimsuit, a dress and slippers. “All right, let’s a go.” Sarah and you biked to the cut, where the boys and Kiara were already waiting on you on John B’s boat. You parked your bikes and sprinted over to the boys.

“Good to see you again, y/n.” JJ smiled as he reached you his hand to help you on the boat.

“Ditto!” You took his hand and got in. Sarah hopped in as well. Everybody sattled down and John B started the boat.

“How have you been?” Pope asked you.

“I’m alright. My stepdad’s trying to get me to look for a dorm room.”

“Moving out already?” JJ asked, sounding somewhat disappointed.

“If there’s any chance I’m getting into Yale, but I doubt it.” You kicked your feet around. “I don’t even want to go to Connecticut.”

“Impressive, Yale is definitely a Kook place.” Pope laughed at you. “Did you skip a grade or something?” You nodded.

“4th grade, plus I’m almost 17 so-“

“So you’re gonna throw a huge party to celebrate?” John B looked proudly, stopping the boat in the middle of nowhere.

“Perhaps.” You kind of wanted to change the subject. “Anyways, it’s summer so no time to think about school.” You laughed, taking of your dress, kicking off your slippers and jumping into the water. Very spontaneous.

“Damn right.” Kiara followed your lead and jumped in as well. The rest followed, while John B threw out the anchor.

The six of you dicked around in the water. The water was cold to your skin. After a while you climbed back onto the boat, tying your wet hair out of your face. You wrapped your towel around your shoulders, sitting down in the boat. You watched as Sarah wrapped her legs around John B’s waist, who struggled not to drown. The boat started hanging to one side, startling you. JJ climbed up the boat, his wet abs looking glorious with the sunlight reflecting on them.

“Y/n! Stop drooling!” Kiara yelled, holding on to the side of the boat. You reached out for her hand and helped her inside.

“I was not.” Kiara winked at you, knowing fully well you were checking JJ out. You rolled your eyes at her, though you must admit; you had fun with JJ a couple of nights ago.

John B, Pope and Sarah climbed on the boat and sat down. You felt a tap on your shoulder and looked over to see JJ offer you a beer, which you took. You thanked him and opened the can. Sarah put on some music. Kiara stood up, pulling John B up with her to dance. The other boys got up as well and soon Sarah followed, dragging you on your feet as well. The boat was swaying around, and beer was spilling. Sarah took your hands and spun you around, which led to you bumping into JJ. You apologized to the boy, who just laughed it off and tried to dance with you. You must admit, he looked really handsome.

“You’re doing it again, Y/n.” Sarah whispered. “You know you can just talk to him, JJ doesn’t bite.” You shook your head and sat down.

“Guys I’m feeling like food.” JJ announced.

“You’re hungry, JJ.” Pope looked disappointed at the blonde boy. However, everybody agreed with his statement and John B started the boat again, heading back to the cut. You picked up some pizza and more booze, as you were running short on beer. You spent the evening at John B’s place, eating pizza in hammocks and getting to know more about the Pogues. Pope told you about his future plans and wanting to go to college, so you had that in common. After a couple of drinks, Pope also told you he’s got a thing for Kiara. You acted like you wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t told you. You knew.

It’s 10pm, seeing how it’s Friday and it is summer, you figured your parents wouldn’t mind you staying out. You texted your mom to let you know just in case.

JJ came up with the idea of playing truth or drink. Which turned into truth or dare and drink. You had to start. So just to be save and out of interest, you asked Sarah what the last movie is she watched. She looked at John B, who whisperd something in her ear.

“Right, The Edge of Seventeen.” She says. “I would hate to be in her shoes and having your best friend dating your brother.” Sarah eyed Kiara.

“As if I would ever want to be with your brother!” She exclaimed. They’re talking about Rafe. You somehow could imagine yourself being with Rafe.

“Hmm, JJ, who’s the last girl you slept with?” Sarah asked. That went from 0 to 100 real quick. JJ grabbed a bottle and opened the cap.

“You know he doesn’t remember that shit.” John B laughed at his friend. You were confused, but before you could ask, JJ opened his mouth.

“That, or, I just respect Tourons enough not to brag about them to my friends.” Everybody burst into laughter. “Yeah, no, I was out of it.” JJ started laughing as well. You were looking at him, but immediately stared back to the ground once he made eye contact.

“So, JB, have you done it on the boat yet?” JJ playfully asked his friend. John B looked at Sarah and took the bottle from JJ.

“Kie, fuck, marry, kiss, the Pogues.” John B said after swallowing the shot. Sarah shot her boy a look.

Kiara rolled her eyes and sighed. “I guess I’ll fuck JJ, marry Pope and kill you.”

“Hey I said kiss, not kill.” John B said, offended.

“I know.” Kiara looked very pleased. She then turned to face you. “What was your first kiss like, Y/n?”

You felt the redness on your cheeks. It was very embarrassing. You reached for the bottle and got booed by JJ. You looked up at him, took a shot and opened you mouth. “I was very much under the influence of alcohol and luckily don’t remember much of the embarrassment that is called my first kiss.” It was quiet for a second. “Anyhow, Pope; what is the biggest lie you have ever told your parents?” You managed to change the subject.

Truth or drink only lasted for a couple of rounds. Things escalated as time went by and you were laying in the hammock with Sarah and Kiara, watching the boys show off. You joined Sarah and Kiara, who were talking about the hatching of the turtles. Sarah asked if you would join them once they would hatch. Of course you would. You were interrupted by John B, who had a fabulous idea to continue your game of truth or whatever you were currently playing.

“So, everybody has to stand on one leg and the person who loses first has to do 5 shots, the next 4, the one after that 3 and so on.”

And on that note, you were all standing in a circle on one leg like a bunch of flamingos. With you all being very tipsy and wobbly, the game didn’t last long. Pope was first to drop, you were next. The two of you shared the bottle and played jury. Kiara and Sarah were the last left standing, opposite of each other. They were desperately trying to get the other to drop. Sarah tried blowing Kiara’s way, which made everyone laugh and Kiara drop. You handed the bottle over to JJ.

“What’d I win?” Sarah asked happily.

“Me.” John B said, before lifting Sarah up off the ground and placing his lips on her.

“Get a room!” JJ yelled at the couple.

“We will once you fuck off.” John B replied. JJ laughed it off. Sarah struggled to get out of John B’s grip and walked over to you once she did.

“Hey, y/n, I think I’m going to stay at John B’s tonight, will you be okay on your own?” You nodded, reassured her you’ll be alright and told her to have fun.

“Can we at least finish this bottle?” JJ asked, taking another shot. John B waved to JJ, before heading inside. Kiara decided to head home, rejecting Pope’s offer to walk with her. The three of you hang around for a while. It was mainly you and JJ who emptied the bottle. The alcohol really started to kick in and everything felt 10 times more funny than usual. You weren’t usually a clingy drunk, but JJ’s shoulders were very inviting. So, you rest your head on them. Pope got up, needing to take a piss. JJ looked over his shoulder to make sure Pope was out of sight.

“I got another truth for you.” Your eyes met. “Do you want to kiss me?” You must have had too much to drink. Who asks such a thing?

“I’ll drink.” You decided. You wanted to but you barely knew him and didn’t want to ruin your awesome summer.

JJ held the bottle upside down. “You’ve already had a couple.”

You bit your lip and looked away. You felt JJ’s finger under your chin and turned you head back. “I, I really –“ You were cut off by Pope, asking you if you were ready to head home. You told him you were coming. “I would really like to hang out with you sometime.” You said, standing up. JJ pulled himself up as well.

“Sounds good.” He smiled. You pulled him in for a hug and kissed his cheek. Drunk kissing isn’t really your thing. It’s sloppy, tastes disgusting and you barely have control over what you’re doing.

Pope’s place was on your way home. He was riding your bike, you on the back. “Sure you don’t want me to tag along?” He offered.

“You’re too nice Pope. I’ll see you around.” You gave him a hug and went on your way.

You were swinging over the road and didn’t see that sharp anymore. Suddenly your shadow became very long and dark. You heard a car from behind you and decided to scoot over to the side. The car slowed down and drove next to you. Maybe you should have asked Pope to drop you off. This is why you don’t go out alone at night because some creep-

“Y/n? Why are you alone?” Rafe rolled his window down. You stopped biking and stepped of.

“Nice to see you too.” You leaned against the car, trying not to trip over your own legs. You were dizzy and tired.

“This feels familiar. Get in, I’ll drop you off.” You tried to refuse at first, but you were longing for a bed and were a bit lost. Rafe put the backseats down and placed your bike in the car. He helped you with your seatbelt and sat down. “I’m guessing Sarah isn’t coming home for the night?”

“Nope.” You started playing with the radio. “Why are you so nice to me?”

Rafe was quiet. “Did you have fun?” You nodded, rolling down the window to stick your head out of it like a dog. “Dude you’re gonna get flies in your face.” Rafe tried not to yell at you.

You turned to face him. “Why are you out alone at night, you were stalking me weren’t you?”

“I was not, in fact, I was just picking up something from a friend.”

“Alone at night at the cut?”

“Yes.”

And it was quiet again. You didn’t understand this tall, broad, beautiful blue-eyed boy. There was this weird feeling in your stomach. You were hoping it wasn’t the alcohol acting crazy. Though butterflies didn’t sound great either. “Hey Rafe,”

“Yes, Y/n?” You noticed he was driving quite slowly. As if he wanted the conversation to last longer.

“what was your first kiss like?”

“It was fun, I guess.” You must have given him puppy eyes. He sighed and continued. “It was my first year of Kook academy and there was this girl who liked me, so we hung out, kissed and then she told everyone we were a thing. I didn’t really mind, I also wasn’t really into her.” He said. He sounded so pure and honest. Something you wouldn’t expect from someone like Rafe. Who is someone like Rafe? Kiara wouldn’t want anything to do with him and the Pogues said some bad words over the evening about him. Your eyes felt heavy.

Rafe must have been too focused on telling you the story, he didn’t notice you almost falling asleep. “Y/n? Can you get to bed yourself?” He asked as he pulled up on your driveway. “Y/n?”

You mumbled something that sounded like a ‘yes’, but he didn’t believe you. Instead he drove the car back to his place. “C’mon kid, let’s get you to a bed.” He helped you out of the car and inside his house. You enjoyed holding his arm and walked with him upstairs.

The last thing you remember is Rafe shushing you, you falling down on a bed and cocaine?

#5

Hey guys, thanks for reading and liking my stuff, means a lot to me. I also get extremely happy when you ask me to tag you so feel free to :3 Hope you dont mind this being a Rafe X reader / JJ x reader fic ~Taglist~ @emmalvei-blog @sunwardsss @julialucena5​ @popesscholarship​

[lilikags]

Maybe Homework Isn’t So Bad After All (Hinata Shoyo x reader)

Contrary to popular opinion, homework can actually have a positive effect. Sometimes. 

Pairing: Hinata Shoyo x Kageyama’s sister reader Type: fluff Before you read notes: ... can I just say fried rice? 

"Woah! Kageyama, your house's so cool!" Hinata's eyes beamed, seeing the Kageyama's front door. It was a bit more modern, though smaller than his own.

"It's a normal house...." Tobio looked at Hinata, feeling done with him and his energetic energy. You heard the noise and peeked through the door.

"Oh, you brought home a friend? You should tell me these things; the house's a mess. I guess the least I could do is put together some snacks." You looked at Hinata. "Oh, you're the Hinata Tobio keeps talking about, right? Sorry about the house, it's a mess."

"It's awesome!" Hinata jumped and hit his head, apparently trying to express how cool the house was.

"Oh, you okay? I'll get some ice if you need-"

"He's fine." Tobio answered. "He's hit his head before, no big deal."

"What if it's-"

"I'm okay!" Hinata flashed a bright smile. You guided them to the living room- that was the part of the house you would lead guests to whenever they came over. You sat down, next to your brother.

"Uh, so you're here to hang out? Study?" you tried to start a conversation.

"Kageyama and I don't have good grades... and we need to pass all of our classes to go to the training camp..." Hinata's smile dropped.

"Well, I'm sure you can figure it out! If you need help, you can ask me, but don't expect me to be as good as your teacher. Good luck! Call me if you need any help." you waved to them and went back to your room. You had some homework left to do, so you decided that you would finish that before playing some games.

You have always loved video games. Tobio has always loved volleyball. It seemed like he inherited all of the physical talent while you inherited all of  smarts. You weren't that smart, but you were somewhat at the top of your class. You were also in advanced math, meaning that you were taking Algebra 2 in 10th grade. It wasn't that hard, since you had time to study and actually paid attention in class, unlike your brother. Though, you couldn't really blame him. He always, in your opinion, got back too late at night and was exhausted from practice. Of course, he would be tired the next day as well.

You set to work, putting all of your focus on your homework so that you could play some games. You did have a test next week, but you could totally study tomorrow. It's not like it's hard anyways; you could probably take a couple of  hours to study for it and you'd be just fine. You knew you were procrastinating, and you did believe you were too good at it, but you saw no reason to stop. After all, if everything ended up okay, it's all good.

The homework was surprisingly easy; you got through it in half an hour and you set on to your games. You unplugged your phone, which was now at full battery. You put in the password and opened up (favorite game). You were getting into it, remembering all of your plans and strategies you had in mind. After all, a strategy is absolutely necessary to climb the ranks.

You decided to start off with some pvp, to get your adrenaline up. Pvp was always exciting for you; real-time strategy and the randomness of debuff landings (that sometimes did not land) always made it more fun. Real-Time Arena was your favorite; countdowns limited the amount of time you could think about your next move and that was exhilarating.

Unfortunately, you were interrupted by the two boys knocking on your bedroom door. "(f/n)-san!" You turned around and opened the door, "You need help?" They both nodded and you asked what they needed help with.

"(f/n)-san, we don't understand how commas work." Ah, commas. You were always good at English grammar, and it actually came as easily to you as Japanese. Maybe learning languages was what you were good at.

So, you sat down between them so that they could more easily see what you were writing, and you answered their questions as you explained it. You even stayed around to make sure they would remember it for the test.

By the time you were done, it was close to midnight. Since today was a Friday, there was no school the next day. That meant you could play games. You stood up to stretch, pulling your arms over your head and touching your toes.

"(f/n)-san, thanks a lot!" Hinata flashed a bright smile. You never really smiled like that anymore. You used to, as a young child, but nothing could ever make you smile like that these days. You softly smiled back and quietly closed the door, returning to your room.

You started to decide what game you were going to play, but you were interrupted by the doorbell. You wondered who it was; who would ring the doorbell so late at night? You looked through the window, and found your best friend, (b/f/n), standing in front of the door and holding a bag of your favorite snack, [favorite snack].

"What's up?" you greeted (b/f/n).

"Let's play [favorite mobile game] together." (b/f/n) explained, and you understood what was happening immediately. (b/f/n)'s parents always went out on a romantic vacation around this time, and she would always come over to play mobile games when that happened.

You welcomed her into the house, and the two of you headed towards your room. You passed by the living room, where Tobio and Hinata were. You checked on them, making sure they were okay, and they were talking about the practice match they recently had against Aoba Johsai.

Suddenly, as you were about to leave them along, (b/f/n) blurted out, "Do you guys wanna play [favorite mobile game together]?"

"Huh? But (b/f/n), they don't play games like that-" She cut you off, "The more the merrier, right? It doesn't hurt to play!" You looked at your brother and Hinata.

"Sure! I'd love to play!" Hinata pulled out his phone. Tobio tried to object, but he gave in and soon enough, everyone was playing [favorite mobile game] in the living room. Hinata somehow was good at it, and it surprised you how much he was progressing in just a few hours. Tobio was the slowest out of the two of them, and you giggled at that.

You didn't think teaching the two boys how to play would be fun, but it was plenty enjoyable. The four of you played all night, not a single one of you regretting hanging out all night one bit. All of you were exhausted, and Tobio and (b/f/n) had fallen asleep earlier, and it was just you and Hinata. The both of you were tired from staying up all night, and you finally gave in to fatigue and closed your eyes.

♡~ᴛɪᴍᴇꜱᴋɪᴘ ʙʀᴏᴜɢʜᴛ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʙʏ ɴᴏʏᴀ~♡

Your eyes fluttered open to a sunset. You looked at the clock, and it read "1:23 PM". You lifted your head, which had been resting on something, something warm. You looked to your right, and you saw Hinata there. Upon realizing you had slept on Hinata's shoulder, you blushed.

"Oh my god, I just slept on his shoulder, (b/f/n)'s gonna make fun of me when she wakes up, Tobio's going to yell at both of us, accuse him of doing something, oh my god, there's going to be chaos..." you freaked out, your thoughts going wild. You attempted to reorganize yourself, "Okay, calm down. You're getting nowhere with this. Let's just get up and make some food. I'm sure everyone's hungry."

You got up, and you heard Hinata stir. You hoped you didn't bother him and walked to the kitchen, grabbing an apron and getting some ingredients for the fried rice you were going to cook. You were never great at cooking, but you've always loved fried rice.

Fried rice was the first dish you ever learned how to make. After years of perfecting your own recipe, it was what you considered part of your pride. You always poured your heart into this dish when making it, and this time was no exception.

You hummed while cooking, enjoying it. Whenever Tobio wasn't home and you had the house all to yourself, you would sometimes cook, especially when you were stressed. You were lost in your own thoughts, when you heard someone move a chair. You turned around, surprised.

"Oh, Hinata-kun! Good morning, or I guess it's afternoon now. Are you hungry?" you asked, transferring the fried rice from a pan to a large bowl.

"Yeah, a bit. Actually, that fried rice smells great! Do you mind if I have some?" Hinata asked, excitement showing on his expression.

"Uh, sure. I made it for everyone anyways; I figured we'd all be hungry when I woke up," you replied, scooping a portion into a bowl and handing it to him. You hand him some chopsticks and you hear him thank you for the meal. You smiled as you saw him eat the fried rice; it looked like he was enjoying it.

"(f/n)-san! This is really good!" Hinata exclaimed. "I could eat this every day! How do you make it?" You were taken by surprise. You never thought someone outside of your own family would compliment you. "Oh, thanks. Well, uh-" You were cut off by your brother, who had just woken up. "Oi, Hinata! Why are you yelling so loud in the morning?!"

"It's already the afternoon! Anyways, (f/n)-san's fried rice is really good!" Hinata yelled back.

"Ah, so that's what the smell was. Did you make any for me?" he turned to you. You nodded and handed him a bowl and his chopsticks.

Soon enough, (b/f/n) woke up and you gave her the last bowl of fried rice you had prepared. When you were all done, you washed the plates, and Hinata offered to help. You declined at first, but he insisted. You gave up and let him help you. (b/f/n) and Tobio went to continue playing that game; they were both really into it.

"Ring ring ring" Hinata's phone rang. He picked it up, and you could hear a woman from the other side. You assumed it was his mom; no one thought to call his family that he was staying here. You could hear Hinata apologizing, and you handed over the phone to you.

"Uh, hello? I'm Kageyama (f/n). Sorry for not letting you know Hinata-kun was staying over here; I should have called to make sure it was okay with you-" Hinata's mom cut you off, "No, no, it's okay. I'm sorry you had to put up with Shoyo, he must have been troublesome to take care of."

"No, no! We all played games last night; it was more fun with him around." you spoke with his mom a bit longer, and when you hung up, you handed his phone back to him.

"My mom didn't scold you, did she?" he asked.

"No, no. She's really nice!" you shook your head. His mom had asked him to go home, so he left soon later.

"Hey, (f/n)-chan, you like Hinata-kun, don't you?" (b/f/n) sneaked up from behind you.

"Ah!" you turned around. "No, I don't!"

"Then, why fried rice taste so good?"

"I must have improved."

"No way! Not that much in such little time! It has to be love!"

"No, it's not..." you looked down in embarrassment.

♡~𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒑 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒚 𝑯𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒂'𝒔 𝒃𝒊𝒌𝒆~♡

Hinata ended coming to your house to play [favorite mobile game] with you, Tobio, and sometimes (b/f/n) pretty often. The four of you became pretty close, especially you and Hinata.

You and Hinata, who you now called Shoyo, were the last ones awake. The four of you had played games all night, and of course, (b/f/n) and Tobio fell asleep first. After all, they were prone to that.

"Hey, (f/n)." Shoyo turned to you.

"Hm?" you turned to him.

"Maybe homework isn't so bad after all. It's what brought the four of us together..."

~END~

2015 words! I didn't imagine it would be this long. Anyways, how'd you like it? I'm thinking of making a part 2, should I? Thanks for reading! Love, Lili Kags♡♡♡

Edited: 10/13/20

Credits: header image is from unsplash