#but then he comes crashing down she understands what she must do which is keep living get better that means take away Jimmy for good bc

[depvotee]

*cries* *pukes* *sobs* *wails* How Howard is Kim's Chuck

[sp0o0kylights]

Eddie led a weird life.

This was something he welcomed, given half the things people thought were “weird” was just his fashion sense or preference for table top games.

Small potatoes to the larger things in life, really. 

Of course, this was before he found out there was an evil version of Hawkins underneath him. 

Now Eddie did things that would previously sent his old self into a fucking coma. 

His friendship with Steve Harrington for example.

Dude saved his life and bridal-style carried him out of literal hell.

It’d have been rude not to be friendly with the guy after that, even if they weren’t both  members of a very exclusive and bloody club, with trauma and secrets that really only a select few people would ever understand.  

Sleeping over at Harrington’s half the week also made perfect sense, and Eddie will argue that to his very grave. 

It turns out nightmares suck, and waking up screaming all the time sucks even more.

Something everyone involved in this entire escapade (and all the ones prior) knew.

Because more bodies means more eyes to look out for you, and feeling safe means you might actually sleep for an hour, they all got used to showing up at each other's houses at odd hours of the night.

Pulled one another out of nightmares and got comfortable with the fact that they slept better, together.

Steve’s house in particular is typically void of both adults and annoying freshmen, which meant it's the most comfortable place for a lot of people to crash together. 

(Sometimes the annoying freshmen do show up and maybe Eddie is also a little weirdly overprotective of the whole Party now, and alright fine, he enjoys all their company, even Erica's--but who's keeping track? 

He isn’t. 

He’s busy arguing all this is perfectly normal.) 

Sleeping in Steve’s bed is where things get a little tricky. 

See, when it was more than just Robin and Eddie crashing at Casa De Harrington, they all sleep in the living room. 

Steve drags out some fancy blow up mattress (an air mattress what the fuck) and changes the couches around and long story short his fucking living room is more comfortable than Eddie’s own bed has ever been. 

But when it's just Eddie and Robin, they retire to Steve’s stupid huge bed, so large the damn thing takes up most of his equally massive room. 

(“This isn’t weird right?” He’d asked Robin once, hanging his head over the edge of the bed while Steve did--whatever it was he was doing to his hair in the bathroom. 

Robin, who was busy rifling through Steve’s drawers for a shirt to steal, stopped and looked at him, one eyebrow raised. 

“Not unless you make it weird, Munson.” She’d told him, and well, that was all the permission he needed.

They slept together in tight groups, where it was easiest to defend each other in case of Upside Down fucking monster attack.

Case closed.) 

Sleeping in Steve Harrington’s bed, without the buffer that was Robin Buckley, is where the lies started.

Because it was weird. 

It was incredibly weird, and did guys even do this solo?

Eddie hadn’t. If one of Hellfire or the band stayed over, it was a strictly floor/bed/couch situation unless there were more than three of them, and that was within Eddie’s small ass trailer. 

Sure they piled up if they had to, but it wasn't like it was with Steve. All tangled limbs and being right up in each others space, no pillow or blanket or anything as a buffer.

Hell, Eddie had woken up getting spooned or doing the spooning more than once, and no one said shit.

How Steve made it sound so genuinely normal was beyond him. 

Not that Eddie argued about it.

 Not the first time of the fifth or the twenty-fifth, and not even after Robin pointed out he was rooming with Harrington more than she was.

Because he just slept better, next to Steve.

(Steve apparently, felt the same.

Or must have given it kept happening.)

It wasn’t like Steve didn’t crash at Eddie’s trailer either--his parents had come right home upon hearing about the earthquake, and had been a bit more present after running into the joint forces of Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers in the hospital lobby. 

Add in Wayne’s own Disapproving Stare (TM) and the town being up each other’s ass to try and keep it together, and suddenly Mr. and Mrs. Harrington were hanging out in Hawkins that much more.

(Steve seemed to think it was more to save face rather than because they actually gave a shit, which Eddie felt was obvious but he wasn’t gonna say it. 

“They’re trying I think. They just--they’ve never encountered anything like this.” He’d said, a little frown line pinching his eyebrows together.

“Stevie, no one has faced anything like what we have. Your parents, on the other hand, are only dealing with what they think is the aftermath of an earthquake and plenty of people have seen those.”

Steve had sighed. Stared a little helplessly, like he knew he was making excuses but couldn’t help himself.

 “I know, Eds. I know.”) 

Them being home more meant Steve was at Eddie’s more--on grounds that Robin’s parents were fine with him hanging out but drew some kind of weird not--very--hippy line at him sleeping over.

Which was fine.

Great even, the Eddie and Steve had never slept better! Sucks to be Robin, who had to call up Nancy Wheeler if she wanted to share.

All this was, was trauma buddies being guy pals who were very comfortable with each other due to said fucking trauma. 

Steve used to help Eddie take a piss for fucks sake, and according to literally everyone else involved in the Vecna related mess, this was their fourth go round with supernatural shit.

Chances of it all happening a fifth time seemed kinda high, even if the gate was supposedly closed and the psychotic meat puppet madman six feet underground. 

Sharing was caring, and caring was not letting your new buddy you saved fight off monsters alone if they popped back up.

Plus he and Steve spent a huge amount of time together, almost as much time as Steve did with Robin.They were all in each other’s back pockets to the point that Eddie’s band was used to it, with Gareth even starting to make secret lover jokes about it all. 

(The dick.)

They were just really good friends dealing with the shit life had dealt them. That was it, that was the whole ass story.

Eddie’s growing gay crisis aside.

So no. It wasn't all the time with Harrington that sent Eddie over the edge. Nor was it the bed sharing, rapidly dropping boundaries, or even the fact that Steve knew where Eddie kept his condoms (An accident Eddie wouldn't ever live down, holy shit.)

No, what sent him into an absolute, hair tearin' meltdown, was the day Steve woke up, rolled over, kissed Eddie right on the lips and then went to make breakfast.

No good morning, no how ya doin.

Steve just left Eddie there, clutching onto the sheets for dear life and mildly terrified he’d just hallucinated the entire encounter.

(Hell, maybe the whole thing was hallucinated. 

Maybe he died in the Upside Down and this was some sort of sick version of the afterlife. 

Eddie pinched himself, and when that wasn’t enough, bit his own knuckle. Both hurt, which was unfortunate, because death seemed preferable to dealing with life right then.)  

Unfortunately for him, Steve did not run back into the room with a myriad of excuses, which meant Eddie had to experience the horrifying ordeal of getting out of bed, putting his clothes on and going into the trailer’s kitchen--because Steve hadn’t even had the decency to wreck Eddie’s life at his own house. 

‘What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck--’

Heart galloping, Eddie put on his big boy pants--metaphorically and physically--before stepping out into the kitchen and confront his friend.

Who was cooking shirtless, without a care in the world. 

It still took him a full thirty seconds to get his mouth to work.

“Hey Stevie? Do you want to tell me what that was about?” 

"Hmm?” Steve replied. His eyes were hooded, hair mussed in a way Eddie knew only a few select people had ever seen it.

He looked half asleep, and proved it a second later when he reached twice for the one of the two mugs on the counter and missed entirely.

Eddie swung in, grabbing one and offering it out for Steve to pour coffee into, before swapping it out for the other mug once Steve was done. 

Stayed in Steve’s space even as the former jock fussed with adding in milk and sugar and whatever else he was feeling, working up the courage to say something.

Anything. 

“Uh, the--just now?” Eddie squeaked. He coughed to clear his voice, trying desperately to act normal.

Look normal.

Like he hadn't just been kissed by the guy he had absolute worst crush on.

Steve, bless him, didn’t tease him. Just shoved one of the mugs into Eddie’s hands and kept the other for himself.

Took a nice, slow sip, adam's apple bobbing and Eddie quickly averted his gaze, staring firmly into his coffee. 

“What happened?” Steve asked a second later, sounding a touch more clear, and not at all like he was experiencing deep regret, or dodging the question, or even aware of what had happened. 

Eddie had two seconds to realize that hell, maybe Steve really didn’t know, before his mouth once betrayed him. 

“When you kissed me?” And motherfucker, for once, Eddie wished he would think before he fucking spoke.

(Wayne had always told him he'd come to regret it. He just hadn't thought it'd be like this!)

“Oh.” Steve said, very anticlimatically. “I didn’t realize I did that, sorry.” 

Eddie's entire body twitched.

One long shudder, like it was rejecting the very words coming out of Steve's mouth.

“You didn’t,” He tried, voice dry and cracking. He realized his hands were shaking and promptly put his mug down before he dropped it. “You just--what, did that on instinct?”

“...Kinda, yeah.” Steve said and why the hell did he sound entirely unphased!? 

Was this some kind of weird jock thing? Did the basketball team all wake up together and kiss each other on the mouth?! Did they think it was some sort of straight--guy haha joke, or fucking--Eddie didn’t even know what, because Eddie was too busy spiraling. 

“Steve I’m gay.” He blurted out, mouth now firmly ahead of his brain. 

He instantly wanted to take it back.

Grab the words with his hands, and cram it into his mouth.

Maybe Steve was only cool with it if he thought Eddie was straight.

Hell, maybe he fucking did it while sleep walking or something and Eddie was the one being weird about it, or he--fuck, really did imagine it and, and--!

“I know.” Steve told him, interrupting Eddie’s catastrophizing entirely. 

“You know?” Eddie stared at him, feeling like the world had fallen out from underneath his feet. “How do you know!?” 

He actually had a pretty good idea of how Steve knew, considering they were both friends with Robin, but while Robin was comfortably out to both of them, Eddie was not. 

Had not in fact, even confirmed that he was queer to Robin herself, though he’d hinted at it plenty and shared more than one inside joke.

Didn’t think Robin had outed him or anything, but more that, well…

Steve was smarter than the kids made him sound, that’s for damn sure. 

“Honestly dude? You’re not subtle.” Steve told him and at least he finally sounded serious.

Like this was a much needed conversation and not some weird tangent Eddie was on. 

“The handkerchief, that triangle pin that you and Robin both have, the fact that you once jumped in my pool to get away from Dustin asking about you're dating life."

He rolled one hand in an etc. all gesture, before adding;  “Also there was that time you and Robin got absolutely smashed on my dad’s whiskey and argued about who the hottest Rocky Horror actor was.” 

Eddie’s mouth sprang open to defend himself, but absolutely nothing came out. 

When had they even watched Rocky Horror together!? 

“You kept insisting the guy who played Brad was hotter than the one who played Rocky, remember? I thought Robin was going to strangle you because she like, adores Susan Sarandon.” Steve continued, like they were having one of their playful little spats and not--not discussing Steve kissing him!

“You guys asked me to tie-break,” He added slowly,  like he was trying to jog Eddie’s memory. “and I told you guys I thought both were hot.” 

Which--oh.

Oh.

“Okay so you’re…?” 

Not going to kill me is what Eddie intended to say, but Steve took it as another question entirely, and answered with a nod and a hum. 

Which--okay. 

Steve Harrington was bisexual, and also already thought he’d come out to Eddie. 

He could roll with that. 

That was not the problem, at all. 

The problem was; “That doesn’t explain the kiss though?!” 

Steve finally put his coffee down, huffing out exasperatedly. “I  wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t realize I did it, man. We share a bed a lot and I guess I wasn’t--I must have--” 

And now, finally, Steve was getting embarrassed. A red flush spread across his cheeks and down his neck, vivid even on his tan skin. 

He ran a hand through his hair, and Eddie knew purely from the sheer amount of time they spent together that it was a self-soothing action. 

“I guess I’m sorry?”

It came out less as a question and more as an accusation-- which Steve himself seemed to hear because he immediately corrected it with a far less sassy and much more sincere; “No I am--I’m sorry.” 

None of which answered why Steve had kissed him. 

“You didn’t think I was Nance, did you?” Eddie asked, because apparently he just couldn't stop while he was ahead.

Maybe he should have died. It'd be better for both of them, considering he was doing about as good as kicking Steve while he was down.

Steve, the guy who had saved Eddie's life and was now one of his best friends and here Eddie was, dragging this out of him like a moron.

“No.” Steve said immediately. Reflexively, almost, firm and sure. “I am very aware you’re not Nancy.”

‘Let it go Eddie. Don’t make it weird Eddie. Just laugh it off and say okay--’

“Then who did you think it was? I mean you said it was instincts and like, I'm not stupid. I know I can be confused for Nance in the low light, it's happened before but--"

Stupid, stupid, stupid! 

“I didn’t think. I knew it was you." Steve interrupted. "I knew I was kissing you, Eddie."

Oh god, just kill him now.

Hell he'd even take a Vecna death! With all the gross gore and the shitty villain monologue!

"This morning I was tired, and I was sleepy, and I apparently skipped the part in my head were I asked you out and we were dating.” Steve deadpanned at him.

Eddie gaped, mind shattered and rapidly reforming.

It was like the universe was recreating itself, only this time all the stars had aligned and his wish had come true and some Disney director had taken control of his life--

“But I get it if I’m not your type." Steve was saying, because Steve was perfect.

And Kind.

And wanted to date Eddie.

"I’m sorry if I made things uncomf-mmphhh!” 

‘Mmmph’ because Eddie had flung himself at Steve, face first, the second "I asked you out and we were dating" had finished processing.

(Which was alarming fast, considering he'd been struggling all morning.)  

‘D--ff--ing?” 

Steve laughed in his mouth as Eddie tried to talk while kissing, pulling away slightly and holding his chest back with a hand when Eddie tried to chase him anyway. 

“Yes, dating. As in, would you, Eddie Munson, like to go on a date with me, Steve Harrington?” 

“Yes.” Eddie’s mouth said. 

At least this time it and his brain were on the same wavelength. 

“Yes I very much would.” He put some weight into his lean, making it harder for Steve to hold him back. “I think you can tell, by the way I'm trying to kiss you. Which you are not doing."

He pouted, and refused to be embarrassed about his behavior.

Steve laughed, and he might have said something like “God you changed up fast” except he had given in and let Eddie close again, and his words were now being swallowed down.

Eddie's life was weird alright, and now it was weird even by his own standards, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

[misstycloud]

Yandere merman x reader x best friend

———————————————————————

Imagine a darling finding out she’s half-mermaid.

She lives in a small fishing village way out in he country. It’s the kind of town no one ever leaves. You’re born, grow up, and die there. Whole generations of families have lived there since long before.

Her parents are normal folks; father’s sailor and mother’s a stay-at-home wife. But since darlings family is so much like others’, she doesn’t understand why she’s so different. Her mother often jokes about how her first word was ‘sea’ and how she’d find her standing in her crib, staring out the window at the waves crashing into the cliffs.

Darling has been in a constant battle with herself her whole life. Since as long as she can remember she’s had a gripping fascination with the ocean. She can’t help it! Every night when everyone else laid sound-asleep in their beds, did she lie awake and fantasize about sneaking out and disappearing under the dark waves. No matter how hard she tried shutting these thoughts away, they always came back to haunt her.

While her mother thought is was cute and not a problem, it couldn’t be anything more. Her mother didn’t understand- as sweeet as she was. It probably stemmed from her being too busy with darlings younger siblings and doing chores, that she didn’t think of how the village spoke of her daughter. They call her strange and speak of what a waste of beauty on someone like her; she’s no good and you can’t marry her. Her mother didn’t know about how the rest of the kids teased darling. They pulled her her and pushed he on the ground. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence for her to find her school books wet with sea water, since she ‘likes it so much’. The teachers didn’t care either.

The only solace darling can find is in her best friend. He always defended her agaisnt her bullies- which was practically everyone- and stayed by her side, even when he could become affected too. Darling feels he’s too good to her. The times she felt so alone, he was there to comfort her when her confidence was at its lowest. He held her when she cried and patted her back, whispering into her ear about how sweet and beautiful she is.

Then, by chance one day, she meets a merman. She is surprised- merfolk only exists in stories after all! The merman is so inhumanly beautiful. With long hair cascading down his back and a long fish tail. His tail looked very strong, he was no doubt an excellent swimmer. At first she is scared of him, she runs away-ignoring his shouts for her to come back- and keeps to herself in her room. Her family is worried and wonders if something is wrong, but she tells them it’s nothing and that she’s just a little tired. In her room, darling thinks about the merman. How is it possible for him to exist? Was she hallucinating and perhaps he wasn’t real? Are there other mythological creatures out there? After overcoming her initial fear and hesitance, she decides to go back to the beach.

The merman was still there. She dares ask how he can talk and he responds with, “My people don’t speak the way you do, but I have taught myself the language of humans. That’s how I am communicating with you.”

She asks him more questions, all of which he answers truthfully. Or, well, she hoped he wasn’t trying to deceive her. Darling even gained the courage of asking whether the stories of merfolk feastin on human flesh is true, and when the merman confirms it’s indeed true, she backs up. When he notices her alarmed state, he hurriedly add that he would never eat her.

It’s then he hits her with the most shocking reveal of her life. Apparently, he senses mer- blood in her vains.

“….n-no, that can’t be. You must be sensing wrong- I’m human..!”

He sighs. “Merfolk are very intuitive. We always recognise our own kind.”

He reveals that he suspect her of being half- merfolk since the scent of mer is strong on her. Darling thinks it’s laughable, both her parents are perfectly human. It can’t be. Like, she’d notice if one of her parents was a mythological creature with a fish tail as a lower half.

The merman tells her of old stories among his people, of mers who reproduced with humans- whether its be willingly or the human had kidnapped them. The children would always be different. On the surface they appeared like any other human, but on the inside there would constantly be a longing to return to their orgins- the ocean. Darling is conflicted. On one hand she can’t believe what she’s hearing, however, the description of the half- bloods fit her too well.

That night she confronts her father while he’s getting off work. He breaks instantly. She is shocked to discover that her father had an affair with a mermaid whilst being married to her mother. He had discovered her while fishing in an unpopular area and took her with him. He sobs that he couldn’t help it, the mermaid was so enchanting he couldn’t control himself. When the mermaid fell pregnant, he was so scared of what his wife would say when she found out, but when the child came out human, he was puzzled but relieved at the same time. He brought the baby home and played it off as finding it abondoned by the docks.

Darling can’t believe it. Her father was practically a monster. She recalled the tales of kidnapped merfolk held against their will, by the merman. She couldn’t imagine what her birth mother must’ve gone through. Her father begs her not to tell her mother because it would destroy the happy family they’d built.

In the end, she chooses to keep the secret for the time being. The right thing was to tell her mother, but it was also true that it would ruin everything and she didn’t want her younger siblings to grow up in a broken family. The only thing she wanted was for her father to leave her alone and never speak to her unless absolutely necessary. He agreed.

She begins spending all her time by the beach, in the company of the merman. She wondered what his name was, and to her bewilderment, he shrugged and said he didn’t have one. So she decides to give him one herself, Aqualor. It seemed merfolk-y enough. Luckily, the merman didn’t object and smiled instead, accepting the name.

Her best friend is worried though. He can never seem to even catch a glimpse of the love of his life anymore. Where was she? Now that they’d both grown into adults, it became harder to see each other; he had to work to support himself(and her, in the future). He felt horrible about it, but in all honesty he was a little glad the rest of the village didn’t take to her. If they did, surely she would have been taken away from him. Even if she didn’t know it, she was incredibly beautiful. It was impossible for him not to be a little biased, but she truly was the most wonderful thing he’d laid his eyes on. He could only imagine how it’d be if people actually treated her like she looked.

While her best friend felt the separation anxiety, darling count be happier. Finally she had someone who understood her fully. There was someone to relate to when she explained the urge to dive deep beneath the waves and disappear, and how pleasant water felt on her skin. Aqualor understood everything perfectly.

Her best memory was of her first swim with Aqualor. She’d been somewhat sacred in he beginning. Despite her desperate longing for the ocean, she’d never been in it much. It was quite ironic. He’d been so patient with her, never pushing or getting annoyed. He waited until she was more comfortable venturing out in the openness. Now they swam together every day, laughing and playing. Of course, Aqualor was the superior swim more out of the two of them, but darling likes to think she isn’t so shabby herself.

This is how she thought the rest of her life would be like; she and Aqualor enjoying each others company from morning to evening, while she returns home to the village every night. She didn’t have a job- no one would hire her anyway- so why not have fun with your friend? It wouldn’t be the best life, but it’d be peaceful and easy.

However, the ‘easy’ disappeared when Aqualor asked if she’d like to join him in the sea permanently.

“What? What do you mean?” She tilted her head in confusion.

The merman flipped his tail in the shallow water- his upper body was on the sand while the rest of him remained in the water. “Would you not like to come with me? We already spend so much time together, so it would hardly be any different.”

“Yeah, but I can’t just leave. I have to stay with my family.” She glanced back up and could see the tiniest snippet of houses, the village.

“You mean the father who has committed sins, a mother who doesn’t care for your feelings and siblings who forget your existence?” He harshly pointed out. His words stung.

“They’re far from perfect, I know that. But still, I can’t just vanish- I don’t even think I can survive out there!”

He grabbed her hand, his were wet and slightly webbed. It didn’t bother her though.

“Of course you can. Remember your heritage? Besides, I will be there and guide you through it. I will protect you, I will hunt for you. It will just be you and me, happy and content. Doesn’t it sound lovely?”

She went quiet and looked away, unsure.

He continued, “You alway tell me of how the humans treat you. They scorn you and say hateful words about you. That is because you are above them.” He smiled. “You do not belong here- you are mer! You should be with your people.”

“But even if I have mer-blood, I’m still human, look at me.” She stretched out her legs, flexing them and empathising their difference.

“You may have the appearance of a human, you soul, however, it is of a mermaid. You long to be free and to live the life you’ve always meant to live. They can’t keep you here in this…” his voice trailed off to disgust “cage.”

Darling sat and listened to Aqualor’s ramblings. Did he have a point? It’s not like anyone would miss her really. Her friend, yes, but he has so much else to live for. He’s not strange and everyone thinks well of him. He’ll be successful.

“So, what do you say, my coral? Will you join me?”

[iamjellyfish]

HOSHINA SOSHIRO | Chase after fate (idk what to name this fic) ❥A/n: I genuinely want to write angst, extra angst, and multiple angst tropes in one fic, so this one is to drabble up something angst so I got fed. ❥Summary: You, a ghost of his past, haunt him even if he is in an arranged marriage and thought he had moved on years ago. Who knows your fading and fluttering image held his heart hostage? Yet when he managed to hold you close, he found out you already forgot everything. ❥Trope: arrange marriage (Soshiro and someone else), you fall in love too soon - he realizes how much he loves you too late, you get in an accident and lose your memory. ❥Warning: THE ANGST DEMON HOLD MY HAND AND WRITE THIS, angst (a lot of angst), unclear ending, Soshiro underestimate his heart.

Sometimes when he looks at you, something about you resembles a butterfly, so beautiful yet can't see its own beauty... Sometimes he found himself recalling old memories... just something small like how you always prefer to sit near windows at the cafeteria or in a car, how even after months of training you still sometimes have small mistakes that usually only rookie had. Small and insignificant memories. At least he thinks so. He is now a married man with the responsibility he must bear. Even if it's a loveless marriage, he still needs to do his part because his wife has done her part which is to take care of the house while he is working. You probably can't handle being a housewife, you can't cook and get distracted by unimportant things.

You and him used to dating, yet deep down he knows that the moment he chose his work over you, he already lost you. It was 0:23 on a Friday, you and he were on a mission and you got injured. Yet, he has to chase down the honju while you wait for help, despite you being afraid and begging him to be there... He was gone. You knew he had an arranged marriage yet you were so in love with him, you two tried to stop it from happening but in the end, only you still trying to make things work. You know and understand for Soshiro but a girl could only take too much before she broke. Glasses were broken and your bandage hand was bleeding. At the time, Soshiro, wasn't serious about the relationship, in his heart, this is probably a doomed relationship from the start. You were the moth that flew into the flames but refused to be stopped by him. "Soshiro, do you think you love me?" You said, blood still dripping, Soshiro's hands reach out to help you yet you push him away. Of course, Soshiro loves you, but in his heart, he chose work over you, which means he had the accept the arranged marriage between clans. He was waiting for this ship to sink eventually yet he yearned to keep it afloat as long as he could. Even if it's just another moment. "Of course darling, I love you! Now please, let's fix your bleeding hand and clean the glasses okay?" You let him fix your bandages and just look down into the broken glasses, you wonder, if this is your fault. It's you that was the moth that flew into this dumpster fire, you know that he would choose work over you yet you chase after him. The days were you laughing at your friends for "I can fix him" come crashing down on you. Soshiro recall the days when you would get hurt in a mission and he would visit you in the hospital with your favorite foods and would lecture you about keeping yourself safe. "Y/n, I don't want you to get hurt, even if it's to protect me." He said, that day you jump into the kaiju's attack to shield him from it. He never told you but that day, your eyes looked really beautiful, they looked like they held stars in them. He found himself brushing your strands of hair out of the way for him to see your eyes more clearly. "It's fine, it's you that I would get hurt for! Every injury from protecting you is worth it!" You say that with a warm smile, it gave him butterflies yet he would push it down into the abyss of his heart because he was sure that this wouldn't work out, yet he can't tell you that. Eventually, his mind wanders to the memories of you breaking up with him on the day you quit being a soldier. He thinks your reason for quitting is something about your injury that requires you a long time to heal which affects your ability to fight. He didn't want to relive that memory again but he recalled that your hands were oddly cold that day, and your bandages were a bit off. He would fix it but you already leave. He was pulled back to the present when his wife, who is so different from you poked him. Soshiro treated her how he wasn't able to treat you, Soshiro made sure she wouldn't have to shoulder the doubts and the loneliness alone. Even if they're just friend now, he knows that she tried her best to keep things working out. "Soshiro, are you alright? Still thinking about that girl?"

She said, her fingers trailing down the lines in the book. She knows who you are, in fact, she met you, yet you were kind and understanding to her. She respected you, because even if fate is cruel to you, you still want to help her, Soshiro from this tragic event called "loveless marriage". She supports Soshiro in chasing you, yet she knows that Soshiro has insecurities that make him push away his feelings for you, and make him not understand his own feelings. And now you were a fluttering image haunting him, a beautiful illusion in his mind, and an unmovable calming ghost. In his dreams, you were always waiting for him, dancing so graciously while everything around you was dead calm. Your eyes held their sadness and blamed him, he doesn't mind, you should be blaming him. He always imagines you wearing a wedding dress that catches his eye one day, if he can, he would want to hold you your dream wedding. "...I'm sorry. I shouldn't." He said, looking at her, he felt guilty that he had to make her feel this way. Then he stood up after realizing what time is it. He recalls how you always told him about how you save money by buying stuff at certain hours for deals, he didn't understand much but seeing you talking about it made him happy. "Let me make up for you by buying the groceries alright?" She looks a bit disappointed and then smiles at him. She wanted him to go to you, to finally wife you up but the man seems to not understand all the hints she throwing these years. "I hope you will finally buy the courage to chase after the girl. The last time I saw her, she was still waiting for you." Soshiro just waved at that, pretending to not care yet deep down, those words surfaced feelings in him that he was not ready to face. Then he found himself wandering a little in the mall, wandering to shops that he thought you would like, Soshiro's eyes kept looking at clothes, and accessories that would fit you so well. And there you are, his bittersweet memories, you were here. But you don't acknowledge his presence, your beautiful eyes are looking around, those empty eyes. You look so lost, so out of place, just like in his dreams. "Y/n..." Soshiro's body betrayed him, and despite not wanting to talk to you, he still moved toward you. His heart beat fast and his hands yearn to hold you close. Yet you looked at him confused, you moved back a little, frowning at his calling. "I'm sorry... Do I know you?" You said, those words of yours froze him. Soshiro mind was racing, he thought you probably hated him and wanted to do nothing with him. The thought of you forgetting about him makes his heart clench. This is the moment he wishes it all was just a nightmare. "Don't you remember? I'm your vice-captain Hoshina!" He tried his best to do his signature grin, your eyes look into him and you clench a part of your jacket while frowning. Then you finally spoke. "Oh, I'm sorry, I just got into an accident and lost my memory, you were probably my friend. So... How are you doing?" You smile warmly at him but before he can reply, you are already dragged away by your friends because you wander off without telling them. He just stood there for a moment. While buying groceries and paying for them, his mind keeps replaying the conversation with you, he is deep in his thoughts thinking about a future with you, about how there might be a chance he can patch things up with you. "I hope you will finally buy the courage to chase after the girl. The last time I saw her, she was still waiting for you."

He recalls his wife saying that. When he goes home, Soshiro realizes today was a snowy day, on the way home, the memories of you playing in the snow happily without the care in the world replay in his mind. He found himself would die if he couldn't spend the rest of his life by your side.

Your fading images of playing with the snow had made him feel warm. He swore to himself that he would be chasing after that image even if this time, he was the moth flying into the flames. "Soshiro, I build a snowman that looks like you!"

[s-awturn]

Underworld Sun || LH44

summary: It only took an unpretentious visit to a local florist for all of Lewis's convictions to come crashing down, and finally the lord of the Underworld found what was missing in his lonely existence.

cw: dark content, slightly stalkerish behavior, nostalgia, pure smut, Lewis!dom x reader!sub, revelation, mention of magic, violence, outbursts of rage, (fake) naivety, devotion, deep love, soulmates, family interference, mention of kidnapping.

a/n: I know, I know it took me a while to post, I ended up getting distracted by short stories, but I'm not going to abandon Underworld Sun, I've already created an attachment to this story and I need to finish it (when? I have no idea) Anyway, forgive me for the delay and enjoy!

prologue | chapter one |

Everything was converging into chaos and Lewis was feeling on edge. He knew the walls of Tartarus were weakening, his powers were too and Lewis had no idea why. The twin gods looked at him, trying to understand what Lewis was thinking, but he remained with a stony expression, he gave no clue as to his thoughts.

"Are you going to talk to Zeus?" Fernando asked, seeing Lewis give him a death glare.

"Zeus does not need to know everything that happens in my domain, let that be clear" he retorted bitterly, no matter how much Zeus had changed in the last millennia, he was still Zeus, the arrogant king of the gods who thought he could stick his nose wherever he wanted. He definitely didn't need his brother giving his opinion on what was going on in the underworld.

He waved the twins away, ignoring their whispers.

He sank into the armchair, feeling like Atlas holding up the vault of heaven was something common for him. Lewis closed his eyes tightly, trying to give his body some serenity and calm, but it had been millennia since he had known what rest was.

A knock on the door brought him out of his self-pity session and he saw Tisiphone enters with a bouquet of flowers in a vase.

“Where do I leave it, sir?” she asked. In the vase, the bouquet of flowers looked bigger and more beautiful. Lewis indicated the sideboard behind his desk, which had a privileged view of London and the flowers there would make the view even more pleasant.

“Is Alecto back yet?” he asked, turning his chair to look at the bouquet, hoping the flowers would end his problems like a miracle.

“She is on her way, she was intercepted by Hermes, he seemed very interested in her itinerary” if Tisiphone wanted to know where her sister was, she didn't show it. That was one of the things he liked about the creatures who worked for him, there was no gossip, everyone was too focused on their work to want to interfere in other people's lives.

“I would like to understand why the Olympians are so excited to get involved in the interests of the Underworld. No one wanted to take the wheel when Zeus offered, but everyone wants to know what happens here.” He grumbled. “Bring the Fates here, Tisiphone, immediately and cancel all my appointments, I will be available only to Alecto.”

“Of course sir, excuse me” she left, leaving the echo of her heels spreading through the room. The soft scent of flowers emanated throughout the room, keeping the memory of the French florist alive, Lewis could still hear her voice and even feel the static from when he touched her. That girl shouldn't be on his mind, he shouldn't even know her name, but he sent Alecto after information about her. Lewis wanted to know everything, even how many vaccinations she must have had.

Before the knock even sounded, he waved his fingers so the door would open.

“The Fates, sir.” Tisifone said before closing the door, Lewis kept his back to the entrance, but he heard similar footsteps approaching his table, footsteps that followed the same rhythm, but so different.

“Boy, you wouldn't call us here to keep your backs to us,” he heard a drawn-out, tired voice scold him.

Lewis turned around and found three identical, yet completely different women. Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, the living personification of the destiny of men, gods and beasts. Even Zeus surrendered to the power of those women.

Clotho was young, her appearance hovered between fifteen and twenty years old, thick and wild brown hair, intense green eyes and an enigmatic smile, she loved to speak riddles. Clotho was the spinner of fate and together with Artemis and Ilithia, she cared for women in labor.

Lachesis was a mature woman, in her forties, with a few gray strands in her brown hair, wrinkles around her eyes and a deep voice. Lachesis decided the fate of creatures as she pulled and wound the thread of their lives. Lewis was usually with her, assisting in that duty along with Tyche and Moros.

Atropos was the last woman, a wise old woman. Her hair was completely gray and full of wrinkles, her body was tired and bent with the weight of age, her green eyes conveyed the wisdom of ages, Atropos carried ancient knowledge that he could not even imagine, she cut the thread of life, flanked by Thanatos and Moros.

Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos were the same woman at different stages of life, marking youth, adulthood and old age. The spinners of fate who kept the wheel of fortune turning forever and ever until the end of time.

“I don’t want to take up too much of your time, I know the wheel can’t stop,” he said, keeping his tone pleasant, Hades didn’t cultivate respect for many individuals. In fact, he hated most of them, gods and humans, he made no distinction. Gods for their arrogance, pride and cruelty, humans for mirroring the examples of divine beings so well. “I have just one question to ask”

“Is this about the little French girl from this morning? She’s adorable, a beautiful smile,” Láquesis said, despite the clear mockery in her voice, Lewis knew she was sincere.

“No, it’s not about her,” he waved his hand in the air, dismissing thoughts of her. “I need to know how to hold Tartarus, the world will not endure a second Titanomachy, Cronos cannot be released, ever.”

Not that he cared about humanity, but Tartarus was closely linked to the Underworld, and Hades had a hand in his father's downfall, Being very selfish, he already had enough problems to want to face family shock therapy, his contact with his brothers and nephews was already enough. He didn't need to include his father in this.

“You need to find what you lost, boy,” Clotho said, playing another one of his riddles.

“If Tartarus is falling apart, it’s because something in you is dying, you need to remake yourself to keep the Titans’ prison whole, boy,” Atropos said, raising her skeletal finger.

He frowned in confusion.

He didn't remember losing anything, everything was in its place, he waved his hand to make sure his invisibility helmet and fork were still in his hands. So what would he have lost?

“But how will I know?”

“Follow the flowers, boy, they always know,” the three said before disappearing. Lewis put his hands in his pockets and began to pace back and forth, the conversation that should have cleared up his doubts only fueled more questions. He prided himself on having a good memory, nothing went unnoticed by his mind.

He was getting ready to leave when Alecto showed up, he ordered Furiæ to come in, she was carrying a small yellow folder and looked a little angry.

“Sorry for the delay, sir, I was intercepted by Hermes on my way back,” she apologized as she closed the door, the only sign of her evident anger flaring in Erin’s fiery eyes. Alecto's whole appearance was the picture of calm, except for her eyes. “I got what you asked for, but it was a bit of work” She handed the folder to Hades, in fact there weren't many pages in there, which was strange, considering the girl must have been between nineteen and thirty years old. There was nothing in his life?

“Please give me some information in advance, Alecto,” he asked, pointing to one of the chairs, which she did immediately.

“Y/N Y/L/N is an orphan, sir, she was found on the steps of the convent in Paris, where she lived until she was eighteen, when she entered the faculty of biology in Lyon and moved to Avignon to work in a flower shop specializing in organic cultivation”

He opened the file, finding just over a dozen photos of her, Y/N as a girl, surrounded by other children in the convent's orphanage, another of her as a teenager, holding a huge sunflower vase and a first place trophy. Others of her in college. After that, no other photos.

"Social media?"

“She has a YouTube channel where she teaches how to grow plants, other than that, nothing.”

Lewis was even more intrigued, and left the file on the table. “Okay, that’s all Alecto, you can go, thanks.”

“It was nothing, sir... Excuse me.” She stood up to leave, but paused halfway. “May I have a word of advice, sir?”

“Sure, talk”

“Seek Hecate, she can help you find answers.” With that, Alecto left, leaving Lewis to his ramblings. He had many questions, but no answers. Apparently that was the day to mess with Hades' head, for Rhea's blood.

He read the document, Y/N had graduated with honors from the University of Lyon and had been part of a research group at the university for a year after graduation. She would soon graduate with a master's degree in botany from the University of Avignon. She was an intelligent girl, but shy and withdrawn, with a very small list of friends and only two emergency contacts: the mother superior of the convent in Paris and a friend in Lyon. There was a copy of her orphanage registration and her school records.

No information beyond that.

He turned on his laptop and opened the browser, searching for her YouTube channel, it was active and had a little over 150 thousand views on the entire channel. Y/N updated it every week, posting about the progress of plant growth, recommending plants for different places or just giving growing tips. Lewis watched the vast majority of the videos, Y/N was sweet when she spoke, she showed patience and loved what she did, even though gardening was not one of her interests, he noticed that she had a natural gift for captivating people's attention, no matter what she was talking about.

This only piqued his curiosity further and he decided to leave early, he would follow Alecto's advice and look for Hecate, the goddess of witches and lady of the crossroads would certainly have answers to your questions. When passing by Tisiphone, he reinforced the request to cancel all his commitments.

“What if they ask for you?” she asked wisely and Lewis smiled, putting on his sunglasses.

“To anyone who asks, tell them I’m dead.”

“You assured me she would stay hidden! Now everyone on Olympus knows Persephone is alive and it won’t be long before Hades finds her!”

“You are worrying for nothing, no one will find Persephone, if not even Apollo who sees everything and Athena with her magic mirror managed to find her, Hades will not be able to do so.”

“Are you sure about that?"

“As soon as the sun rises tomorrow, you are worrying for nothing, Hades will not find you, the walls of Tartarus will fall and you will have your revenge, I assure you”

“You better be right, Hades can’t find Persephone.”

“And he won’t, my lady, believe me.”

“When can we plant doubt in Zeus about the integrity of the Titans’ prison?”

“Soon, we will let the gods enjoy what remains of the calm before the storm.”

[whenrainhitsmyskin]

Five Times Bakugo Katsuki Fell in Love with You

pairing: bakugo katsuki x reader

word count: 7.2k

summary: He doesn’t really know when it first happened, the longing looks in your direction, holding doors open for you, or making sure he attended your shared groups movie nights when he knew you would be there, but he does remember the first day violent butterflies swarmed his gut and attacked him from the inside.

warnings: mentions of blood and injuries, talk about anxiety, hospitalization, emotional vulnerability, so much fluff it’s sickening.

The First Time

During the first semester of their second year at UA, Mr.Aizawa had begun instructing more hand-to-hand combat training exercises. It started with demonstrations from the pros and some lessons, and then finally the real deal, to put their learning into practice. 

Aizawa had put together partner rotations, first starting out with people around the same weight class or height, but as the lessons went on the partners became mismatched so the class could learn how to fight someone smaller and more nimble than them or taller with a longer arm reach.

Today, Bakugo was paired up with Mineta, the small fry of the class. Although he always was very serious and dedicated to hands-on hero training, he couldn’t help but take it easy for the day considering he was way out of his competition's caliber.

And he guesses this also caused him to be more distracted than usual as well, considering he usually never lost focus, but today must be an exception when he can’t keep his eyes away from you and your training partner Kirishima. He turns in your direction as soon as he hears you raise your voice at the red head.

“What the hell are you doing Kirishima?” You ask with your hands on your hips staring at Kirishima, who is sitting on the mat in front of you.

“What do you mean y/n? I’m not doing anything?” He asks.

“Why are you going so easy on me, huh?” You shout, lifting him by the collar of his gym uniform. It’s like watching a bad car crash and not being able to look away. By this time the whole class and Mr.Aizawa had stopped what they were doing to get an understanding of what was going down.

“I swear I'm not man!” Kirishima explains, he looks mildly scared even though he’s a few inches taller and his biceps are probably double the size of your own, “You just got the jump on me.”

“Bullshit Kirishima, hand-to-hand combat is basically your specialty considering your quirk is better in close range.” You let him go with a small push, Bakugo swears he can see steam coming out from your ears, “I saw you beat Midoriya multiple times the other day, and I didn’t win against him once last week, so stop going easy on me, it’s not doing either of us any good.”

He would laugh if he couldn’t see how fucking serious you were, calling out one of your closest friends on his bullshit in front of everyone, even though he’s the nicest person in the class. He’s impressed, although he would never admit that.

“She’s right, Kirishima.” Mr.Aizawa cuts in, “This training is supposed to help everyone improve, so fight her like you would a real opponent. Now everyone get back to work!”

That’s what gets Bakugo to finally snap out of his daze from you and back to sparring.

The Second Time

The class was sent away to different locations to complete the practical part of their midterm for their second year. The goal of the exercise is to retrieve the dummy “civilian” from the pro hero who is acting as the “villain”. Class 2A has been split up into several teams, which is why Bakugo just can’t seem to wrap his head around how he is stuck with the Dunce Face who never fails to irritate him, the Icy-Hot bastard that is constantly getting on his nerves with everything he does and then there's…you, the only one apart of this shitty team he can kind of tolerate.

The “villain” his shitty group was up against is a holder of an animation quirk, who can bring inanimate objects to life. It’s already been proven to be a real pain in the ass considering every bush, rock and flower has been coming at them from every angle.

It’s around 1am and everyone is cold and exhausted, so the group decided to set up camp for the night. Himself, you and Todoroki were resting while Denki was meant to stay on watch, but he abandoned his post in favor of peeing somewhere deeper into the woods, which is when the villain decided to animate nearly every tree surrounding their camp site.

Bakugo woke up to the sounds of rustling and a violent scream from your mouth. The three of you start fighting back. How did nobody notice the trees were being animated? And where the hell is Dunce Face? 

He’s probably taken down about a fourth of them himself by the time he hears Sparky running back behind him.

“What the hell happened?” Denki screams, as he joins in on the fight.

“You weren’t doing your damn job Sparky, that’s what happened!” He berated him. Just before Bakugo was going to take down the next one, he noticed your quirk getting weaker, and you were taking longer to defeat the enemy than you should.

“Take this last one!” Bakugo commanded, in order to make this way over to you. 

“On it!” Denki said from a distance.

Bakugo quickly jumped in front of you and took down the last tree, Denki and Todoroki finished off their own as well.

“That one was mine, asshole.” You say, sounding winded. 

“Yeah, well it looks like ya needed the help.” He responds, and that’s when he finally gets a better look at your injury. 

The sight is absolutely gruesome, there’s a nasty gash in the middle of your thigh that’s definitely going to need stitches and recovery girls help, the blood is dripping down the span of your whole leg and onto the grass.

“Oh my god…” He says, not able to take his eyes off of it. You end up following his line of sight and look down. Your eyes widen when you finally see it.

“Oh shit.” You say, lowering yourself to the ground. He can see tears start to prick your eyes as Todoroki and Denki make their way over to you.

“Everything okay?” Todoroki asks, squatting down next to you, “That doesn’t look good.”

“Yeah, no shit moron!” Bakugo points out.

“Oh my god I can’t look!” Denki says, putting his hands over his mouth, “I’m gonna be sick.”

“Do it somewhere else.” Todoroki says, seemingly disgusted.

“You guys are the absolute worst!” Bakugo says in an aggravated tone, “This is all on you Sparky!”

“Everyone shut up!” You yell, Bakugo can see you trying to work something out in your head, a moment later you finally voice what you’ve come up with, “Denki get me your water bottle and-fuck, Bakugo, I need you to put pressure above the wound, lots of it and Todoroki rip off both of your sleeves.”

Bakugo thinks you seem pretty calm for someone that could potentially bleed out at any moment, given that a major artery could have been hit. He determines it is probably a mix of shock and the adrenaline from the fight.

He lowers himself to the ground and puts both hands above your upper thigh, using lots of pressure like you said to do.

“Fuck, we need to call off the mission and get you to a doctor y/n.” He says, his voice wavering, as Todoroki hands over the torn off sleeves and the water Denki retrieved, who is now standing a few feet away.

“Absolutely not, we are gonna carry on with the mission and pass this final.” You say sternly, grabbing the mask right off of Bakugos head and ripping it. You push his hands off of you and tie the mask tightly around where his hands once were.

“Don’t be so stubborn, we can’t-“ He begins.

“Well fucking deal with it!” You say as you begin pouring water on one of the sleeves, “I’m not going anywhere until we pass, I’ll be fine. Now I need you to clean this thing.”

He gives you a hard look and then does what you say. He pats the wound and tries to clean it out as much as he can. You hiss out in pain and fist the grass underneath your palms, he hears Denki gagging in the back.

“Okay-okay that’s good.” You say, he pulls the cloth away and watches you tie the dry sleeve around the wound, he supposed you must have learned more in that Health and Safety class than he did. 

“Well, what now?” Todoroki asks, awaiting your response.

“We go get that dummy, get the hell out of here and pass the exam.” You state with conviction, he can’t tell if you're trying to trick yourself into believing it, or if you are fully confident. You reach your hand out to Bakugos own, “Now help me up.” 

Bakugo grabs onto the hand you are holding up and swings your arm around his shoulder, trying to relieve you of some of the weight you would normally be using on that leg. The group starts heading to the location where the dummy is supposedly located. Denki and Todoroki are a few feet in front of the two of you, but he can make out the faint sound of their whispers and catches them glancing back a few times.

“Thanks.” You sigh, you sound tired and worn out and he thinks you look slightly pale, but he knows if he even attempts to call off the mission you would probably try strangling him to death.

“You did good.” He says, thoughts slipping out, “You stayed really calm in a high stress situation. It’s…impressive.” There’s a pause filled by only your silence, he’s worried he caught you off guard with such a direct compliment, considering he’s probably never given you one before.

“Yeah, well if I wasn’t going to help myself, who would?” You ask.

“Me, it obviously wouldn’t be either of those two idiots.” He doesn't think the two of you have ever talked this much without other people being involved. He guesses you’re just trying to keep your mind off of your injury, he reasons talking with you in favor of passing this exam.

“You got some of the worst scores in our medical training class because you claimed it wouldn’t be useful to you.” You chuckle, giving him a look, unfortunately for him, he looks back.

You’ve got a small smile gracing your lips, even though you’re probably in an immense amount of pain. But what he really can’t wrap his head around is the fact that you’re smiling at him. Why does he even care?

“Yeah well maybe I’ll brush up on it.” He says, his ears are burning, and his heart is beating faster than it probably should be, considering the fight ended over twenty minutes ago.

The Third Time:

When Mina asked him before dinner if he wanted to watch a movie tonight with their shared friend group, he wasn’t all that interested. He would much rather get to bed at a decent time, wake up early tomorrow and use their one day off to study for Monday's Hero History exam.

“No, I'm not watching another shitty movie.” He says, grabbing his plate of food and sitting down at the common room table, right across from you, a recent development in the class's seating arrangements.

“Oh, come on! They aren’t that bad.” She says, taking a seat next to you, “y/n, movie night, are you down?”

“Yeah of course!” You say, seemingly excited to spend the night with your friends, “As long as Sero doesn’t choose it this time. Are you gonna join us Bakugo?”

He pauses, he can’t remember a time where you directly invited him to something before. He thinks you look sincere, and your question makes it seem like you actually want him to be there. Why does he care if you want him there or not?

“Fine, whatever.” He begrudgingly agrees and continues eating his meal.

“Okay cool.” You say, he notices the smile on your face when you speak.

Meanwhile, Mina's jaw is on the floor when she stares between the two of you, but eventually it turns into a sly smirk.

About an hour after dinner everyone meets in the common room for movie night, he notices that most of the class is there, taking up nearly all the space on the couches, besides the one to the far right where Sero, Mina and Kirishima are sitting. Bakugo sits on the edge closest to the tv, leaving space between him and Mina.

He looks around the room. On the couch across from him is Denki, Jirou, Yaoyorozu, Ojiro and Shoji and on the center couch across the tv is Todoroki, Asui, Uraraka and Deku with an empty space next to him. He notices that you aren’t anywhere in the common room like you were supposed to be.

Almost as soon as Sero starts the movie, he sees you getting out of the elevator with Shinsou, the pair of you are laughing. He sees you’re wearing pajamas, frilly little shorts and a sweatshirt, he thinks it's kind of cute.

The two of you make your way into the common area, still talking and giggling, he doesn’t like it and he is unable to pinpoint why. Shinsou splits off and sits next to Deku and you slot yourself into the seat next to your best friend and him.

“Anything happened yet?” You ask, not really to anyone in particular, but he takes it upon himself to answer.

“No, just started.” He says, watching you grab a blanket from a nearby basket, “You’re late.”

“Yeah, I wanted to get ready for bed so I don’t have to after the movie.” You say. He just grunts in response and brings his attention to the screen. 

Once you get situated in your seat, he realizes just how crammed the small couch is, your legs are brushing against each other and he swears he can feel your breath, causing bumps to arise on his skin.

About halfway through the movie, which consists of sharks coming out of a tornado-seriously, who lets Sero pick the movie every time?-, he feels your body weight shifting on the couch to get comfortable, and your knee ends up hitting the top of his thigh.

“Oops, sorry.” You apologize to him in a whisper, he feels you trying to move away, but are unable to since Mina is right up against you.

“It’s alright.” He says, turning from the tv and looking at you instead, “Don’t mind.” He can see you start to get red in the face.

“Oh…” Is all you manage to let out in response, he gives you a hard look, your face exudes embarrassment, seeing as you are looking everywhere but his direction. He finds it within himself to turn his attention back to the movie, he wishes he could have seen the adorable expression on your face just a little bit longer.

With just a few minutes left of this god-awful movie, he feels your head hit his shoulder, he goes as stiff as a board and his stomach drops at the foreign feeling. He turns his head and see’s you knocked out by tiredness and unfortunately for him, he can also see Mina and Kirishima giggling, he mouths “shut up” to them.

When the movie credits finally start to roll, everyone begins making their way up to their respective rooms. Denki gives him a thumbs up as he walks away, making Bakugo unironically slap his forehead, not knowing what to do about you sleeping on him. 

After the common room is completely cleared out and he looks at the clock and sees how late it is, he finally builds up the courage to wake you up. He pokes you in the forehead to start. All you do is stir a little in your sleep but nestle into him further and get more comfortable. 

“Oh my god.” He says under his breath, “Time to get up.” He shakes his shoulder to move your head and then he tries nudging your own, but still no luck. He realizes you sleep like a fucking rock, and he is probably just going to have to carry you to your bed. He scoops you up in his arms and gets into the elevator. He arrives on the fourth floor where the both of you reside and if he remembers correctly, you are the last room on the girl’s side of the hallway.

He opens the door to your room, and it looks a lot different than what he would have expected. A lamp emits a soft light on the nightstand next to your unmade bed, which has gray sheets and a green blanket, an abundance of live plants sitting on the windowsill, your school books are piled up on your desk and a hanging black punching bag in the corner across from your closet, clothes and other items are hazardously thrown across the span of your floor. He’s surprised at how messy it is, considering how organized your thoughts and ideas are projected.

As soon as he lays you carefully down on your bed you stir awake. Of course, that’s the one thing that will wake you up.

“Bakugo?” You ask and look at your surroundings, “What are you doing in my room?”

“You fell asleep downstairs and nothing I did seemed to wake you, so I carried you.” He says, standing awkwardly at the side of your bed as you sit up and rub your eyes.

“Oh, well thanks.” You say, he takes a look at you, and he thinks you look kind of cute when you're all sleepy, and that's when he sees the long and jagged scar on your leg that was left on you as a result of last semester's final exam. When you finally open your eyes again, you catch him staring it at.

“Yeah, I know, it’s really ugly.” You state, with a pout on your face, you rub your thumb against it, like you're trying to erase the scar.

“Shit, I’m sorry.” He says with a confused look on his face when he sees tears form a glassy sheen over your eyes, “Didn’t mean to stare.”

“It’s fine.” You say in a tone colder than he has ever heard you use. He can’t wrap his head around on why you’re so upset about the once damaged skin that is now healing on you. Had he done something else to offend you? Did his staring make you insecure about your skin? He racks his brain, trying to come up with something, anything, that could possibly help make you feel better.

“It’s just skin.” He tells you how it is, he doesn't know why he felt the need and desire to say something, “All scars are just skin.” He finally looks at your face and you look like he just rewrote the stars for you, with just a few short words. You look back down at your leg, seemingly in a different light.

“Yeah, just skin.” You repeat him.

“Right. Goodnight y/n.” He says, before going to exit your room. He closes the door behind him and lets out a deep breath. He touches his pulse, its fucking racing, his skin feels like its buzzing.

The Fourth Time:

The third year at UA for the hero course students consists more of hands-on experience through their work studies, rather than being in the classroom. Because of this it’s rare for the class to be there all together, when everyone is out doing their own things for their respective agencies.

Today, Bakugo, Midoriya and Todoroki were called into Endeavours agency for a meeting on an upcoming mission. The first person Bakugo notices when he walks into the conference room is you, to his surprise, seated next to Miriko, who you do your work study with. After him, Deku and Todoroki walk in and the door closes behind him, you take a glance over your shoulder and your eyes meet his own. You give him a smile and a short wave.

His face feels hot, and his neck is sweating, he pulls at the constricting collar of his school uniform, in an attempt to keep it from sticking to him. How is it that even the smallest of friendly gestures you make towards him has him feeling this pathetic?

He sees Deku pulling out the chair next to you to sit down, but before he can, Todoroki grabs him by the shoulders and moves him to the next seat over, causing Bakugo to sit next to you. He thinks the act is strange, but Icy-Hot is one of the strangest people he has ever met, so it adds up.

When Bakugo sits down next to you, he can see you looking at him from the corner of his eye, he fidgets with his thumbs under the table, he blames it on nerves for the upcoming mission and not the attention you have on him.

The plans for tomorrow's mission are all drawn out and prepared to be executed. The Pro’s take their leave in a hurry due to their busy schedules and Deku and Todoroki booked it out of there suspiciously fast as well. He stands up from his seat and notices that you are also.

“I was surprised when Miriko told me we were meeting at Endeavors Agency today,” You say to him, “I never thought we would be paired up for a mission together.”

“It’s weird they have such an uneven ratio of pros to students, makes me think this is going to be an easy one.” He responds. He reaches the door handle and before he can even think about it, he holds it open for you to go through first. He mentally slaps his forehead, for such an obvious gesture by his standards.

“Yeah, I really hope so.” You say with a smile on your face.

The next day rolls around, and the mission is finally a-go. Bakugo and you have been stationed on the roof of another building to stake out the old manufacturing warehouse where there have been reports of illegal drug and weapon distribution. 

They haven't been given any details on how many villains there are or what kind of quirks they have, so the mission needs to be treated with caution, hence the stake out, that has been going on for nearly two hours to see when the van's leave. That time mainly consisted of small talk between the two of you and building a strategy.

The first sign of movement is the back door opening up, three people with cargo loading up three different vans. He eyes you touching your earpiece.

“Miriko, they are loading up the vans with the contraband, what's the move? Do we stop them from taking off?” You ask for command.

“Negative, let them get far enough away where they can’t receive backup, but not too far where they will reach a heavily populated area.” She responds, her voice is a little staticky, but just clear enough to make out.

The pair of you turn towards one another and give each other a nod. Once the vans depart the two of you are off, jumping from building to building, to keep up with them, Bakugo takes a second to look back and sees the other teams heading into the building.

“I’ll get the one in front and you take the last one, ready!” He pauses, “Now!”

The both of you land on two separate vans, Bakugo kicks the front windshield open and throws the villain out the car door, he grabs onto the wheel, slams on the brakes and puts it in park, causing the vehicle to come to an abrupt halt. He gets out, pins the villain to the ground and restrains him with quirk prohibiting handcuffs. 

He turns around and sees the van you were assigned to has been flipped over onto its side, and you are fighting the villain that was in the middle van, you’re putting up a good fight, but that doesn't discourage him from running over to assist you. The two of you start tag-teaming him, but its nearly fucking impossible to get a good hit because his body keeps disappearing and reappearing right before his eyes.

He hears the sound of metal being split in half behind the two of you, so he takes a look in the direction he hears it coming from. He sees a villain holding some type of hand-held machine pointed directly at you. The villain presses a button and all of a sudden, his feet are taking him in your direction, and he ends up on the other side of an extremely powerful blast of air. 

It has him skidding down the road a few meters, throwing his body against the concrete. His ears are ringing, and his vision is blurry, he feels like he can’t breathe. He can just barely make out the sound of your voice and your blurry figure taking down and detaining the other two villains. And then you're rushing over to him. You fall on the ground, press on your earpiece and scream to whoever may be listening on the other end of it, it sounds like he’s under water. 

“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Bakugo.” You put his head on your lap, you brush back his hair with one hand and put the other on the left side of his chest. You start crying, tears fall onto his skin, he feels your hands shaking, “You shouldn’t have done that for me, what-what were you thinking?”

He tries sitting up to get a better look at you, but his chest and ribs ache so bad he’s unable to, he hisses in pain and gives up. Instead, he says your name and covers the hand that’s on his chest with his own.

“It’s like holding a door open for ya, didn’t even have to give it a thought.” He says, and before you can even process his words or give him some words in return, exhaustion finally takes over him and everything fades out.

The next thing he knows, he’s stirring awake to an irritating beeping sound in the most uncomfortable bed he has ever had the displeasure of laying on. The air smells sterile and that’s how he concludes the beeping is probably coming from a heart monitor and he is currently laying in a hospital bed. The first thing he sees when he opens his eyes is Icy-Hot, who is standing at the foot of his bed and squinting at him.

“Guys he’s awake.” Todoroki alerts the others in the room. Bakugo tries finding his voice, but his throat is too dry and they won’t come out.

“Oh good!” Midoriya says, sitting up from the chair against the wall, “How are you feeling Kacchan?”

He points to the water bottle on the bedside table, Deku hands it to him, he takes a large sip, then two, then three and next thing he knows the whole thing is gone.

“M’fine, how did the rest of the mission play out?” He asks, more concerned for the villain's arrest than his own physical being.

“It went well, we arrested the villains inside of the warehouse and thanks to you and y/n, a good portion of the drugs and weapons never got distributed!” Midoriya chimes, and that's when he sees you over Todoroki’s left shoulder, looking out the window. Your eyes are a little red and your face is puffy, he wonders how long you had been crying for.

“Hey Midoriya, you and I should probably go find the doctor.” Todoroki says.

“Oh okay sure.” Deku responds. They make their exit out of the room and the door closes behind them. Bakugo sits up on the bed and leans against the frame. You still haven’t looked or said anything to him, which is weird because anytime one of your classmates gets injured you always rush to their aid and attempt to comfort them.

“Well, it seems like the mission went accordingly.” His pathetic attempt at making some kind of small talk with a little more substance. All you do is scoff at his words. “The mission is over, we won, what’s wrong with ya?” “Really, what’s wrong with me? The hell is your problem, Bakugo?” You ask, that’s all it takes for you to finally look his way, even though you are kind of half-yelling at him, that's all he really wanted.

“I am just fine y/n, you're the one that’s sulking right now.” He fights back because he thinks it’s what you need right now. The only way most people can get you to reveal your true feelings is by getting you fired up.

“I’m not sulking!” You move to the side of his bed and start talking with your hands like you always do when you’re passionate about something, “You’re the one that nearly got themself killed out in the field today.”

“What, so you're mad I took a hit? So, what, it happens all the time, get over it.” He says with a roll of his eyes.

“No-no, that's not, that's not what I’m talking about Bakugo.” You say, awaiting a response from him. All he does is shrug his shoulders, when you realize you aren't getting a proper response you continue, “You-you took the hit for me, why would you put yourself in danger like that?” He sees your eyes start to water, but no tears fall. They sit there at the brim of your waterline ready to release everything pent up inside. He supposes his heart sort of feels the same way. Ready to unleash every emotion that has been stored up inside for so long, yet there is still something holding it back. Maybe he’s embarrassed or thinks it’s unnecessary, which is probably how you are feeling about releasing your tears at this moment.

“Cause I didn’t want you to get hurt, dumbass. You wouldn’t have been able to brace for the impact, but I was because I knew it was gonna happen, it would have hurt you worse than me.” He says, but what he really means is that it was because he cares more about your comfort and safety than his own. He sees you mulling over his words, processing everyone individually and trying to interpret exactly what he means.

“Fine, I can accept that. I have a question for you though, what did you mean when you said-” You are abruptly cut off to the sound of the door opening. The doctor, Deku and Icy-Hot walk in, much to Bakugos displeasure.

“Glad to see you are up Bakugo!” The doctor says, flipping through his papers attached to the clipboard he’s holding, “Your parents are on their way, but before they get here, I want to run some additional testing. You three should probably head back to UA, Bakugo is likely to return by tomorrow morning if all is well.”

The doctor ushers the three of you to the door, he watches you cross the room and get ready to close the door behind you, but before you do, you give him a small smile, the tears at your waterline are gone.

The Fifth Time:

As a last hurrah before the school year comes to an end, class 3-A decided to go on a camping trip for a three-day getaway. The class started by loading all their supplies off the charter bus and completed their three-mile hike to the camping ground they rented out. Everyone stayed busy until the early afternoon setting up their tents, getting logs for the fire pit, finding the bathhouse and scoping out the nearby lake.

When everyone was just about to get settled in, Mr.Aizawa reminded everyone that UA was only able to grant this excursion because he promised the class would be doing some endurance training while they were there. So, the class was ordered to go on a run on one of the trails. Little did they know it was by far the longest one there and it took them until the sun was about to start setting to complete. 

“Good job everyone, now head to the showers you all reek,” Mr.Aizawa says, covering his nose slightly, “Once you're all done everyone will help with dinner preparations.” 

Once the class is dismissed and everyone takes turns cleaning up, Iida takes it upon himself to assign everyone jobs, so the preparations go smoothly.

“Shoji, Koda and Tokoyami you will be in charge of setting the tables, Sato, Tsu, Kirishima and Bakugo are on grilling duty and y/n, Hagakure, Todoroki and I will be doing food preparation!” Iida announces, Bakugo eyes Todoroki and him talking with one another, “Actually I'll have Todoroki and Bakugo switch places, in the name of efficiency! Everyone else is in charge of setting up the campfire.” Bakugo walks over to his assigned station and sees you and Hagakure unloading the groceries onto the pop-up table, he slots himself in the space to the left of you and takes an extra bag from your hands. He pulls out a few eggplants, zucchini and shishito peppers.

“Well, what do we start with?” He asks, not really to anyone in particular.

“I was thinking that Hagakure could rinse off the vegetables while I scrub them and then you can chop and then you hand them to Iida so he can season them.” You say.

“That sounds like a very efficient plan y/n.” Iida praises you; Bakugo can’t tell if you're blushing at Glasses, or if it's just the sun, he’s hoping it's the latter.

When the four of you begin, Hagakure, you and Iida begin easy conversation, he finds himself unable to partake in most of it because every time you pass him another vegetable your fingertips brush is own. It has his brain short-circuiting and he’s unable to comprehend what exactly is being talked about, which is proven to be problematic when you ask him a question that he doesn’t know the context to.

“Bakugo, are you gonna join?” You ask him, he can tell you’re looking at him, waiting for an answer, but he just keeps his focus on chopping.

“Join what?” He responds.

“We're all gonna hang out by the lake tomorrow!” Hagakure says excitedly, “Were you seriously not listening that whole time?” 

“Yeah whatever, I’ll be there.” He responds.

“Good, I'm glad.” He hears you say almost in a whisper. He pauses his movements and takes a look at you, your face is beat red, and he thinks your hands look a little shaky, but then he realizes his are too and he tightens his grip on the knife. 

Once dinner is done and the sun has fallen, everyone gathers around the campfire to roast marshmallows and hang out. By this point there’s multiple conversations happening and it’s all a little difficult to keep track of, besides the one he sees you and Shinsou having.

You’re leaning closer to him in your seat and then Shinsou says something you find particularly funny, it has your shoulders jolting, eyes watering and a big smile on your face. He hates it. Not because you are smiling, but the fact that it’s because of someone else and not him that he finds an issue with it. He needs it to stop, or he might go crazy, so he walks over to your seat.

“Come get more firewood with me.” Is all he says before he’s walking away, he hears you following behind him almost immediately, “You and Shinsou seem awfully close.”

“Uh yeah I guess so?” You sound estranged, “I mean we are friends.”

 All he does is grunt in response as he begins cutting some firewood. He can feel the jealousy radiating off himself, he hopes you can’t. When he hands you a piece of wood you speak up again.

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t care.”

“Well then why did you ask?”

“Why are you reading so far into this, huh?” He fights back, “I don’t care if you two are together, it was just a statement. Now get over it.”

He sees your entire demeanor has changed. Your shoulders have slumped, your face has fallen, and you have turned away from him. You look like he’s just killed your dog. He goes back to cutting firewood and once you have gathered all you can carry, you storm off, back to the fire pit he supposes. When he gets there a few minutes after you, he sees you aren’t there, and neither is Mina.

“Bakugo, what happened?” Todoroki asks him.

“Nothin’ happened; the hell are you talkin’ about.” He says back, with a little bite to his words. 

“She came back without you, so Mina asked where you were, and y/n just walked away. She looked pretty upset.” Todoroki responds. Bakugo’s heart drops to the pit of his stomach, did his words really affect you this much?

“Like I care.” His words betray his heart, “I’m going to bed.”

He unzips the tent and crawls into his sleeping bag. Unfortunately for him it’s a restless night, filled with tossing and turning, and feeling regretful for his heart fleeing so far.

The next afternoon, the entire class spends the day hanging out by the lake. Some of the class is playing beach volleyball, a few people are swimming, some others are tanning on the sand and then there's you, making a point of talking to every guy in the class besides him. 

He pretends not to notice the way you laugh at nearly everything Denki says to you, he ignores the fact that you asked Ojiro to help you get some more towels for the rest of the class, he tries to forget the hug you gave Sero after he scored the winning point in the volleyball match.

However, the one thing he cannot get over is that he knows you are doing all of this because of him, it’s his own fault, he thinks the torture is deserving. But what he doesn’t deserve is that you look so good hurting him. The sun brings out the color in your cheeks, the bikini top and shorts you are wearing compliments your skin and you look happy, being around everyone other than him. 

The rest of the day is spent in agony, and it follows him even when his head hits the pillow. He can't stop thinking, his thoughts are running rampant. So, he sneaks out of the tent, trying not to wake up Kirishima and walks over to the dock. He sits down and takes a deep breath. He looks at where the darkness of the sky and the lake meet. It isn’t hard to see because of the soft glow the moon is casting overhead.

He is left there, sitting with his thoughts, trying to find some sort of solace when he hears the creaking wooden floorboards behind him. He probably woke Kirishima in the process of leaving, and he knows the red head is too good of a friend to not go searching for him.

“Hey.” He hears, but it’s coming from a voice much to feminine to be Kirishimas, he sees you lowering yourself to sit next to him, your feet are dangling above the water, and you lean back on the palms of your hands, “What are you doing out here?” “Nothin’.” He sighs, he doesn’t have the heart to say why. All you do is hum in response and look out at the lake with him. Just for a second there’s a comforting silence between the two of you, but it is soon disrupted when his chest starts feeling tight and violent butterflies swarm his gut. 

His heart rate is picking up and he’s starting to sweat, but he knows the sun isn’t to blame this time. It's you. The only one capable of making him feel like this. It’s intense and anxiety inducing, and he can’t imagine there will ever be a day where this goes away. He needs to get rid of it, so he thinks a swift confession and quick rejection will be the remedy.

“y/n.” He starts with your name, easy and familiar, the sound draws your eyes to his own, “I’m gonna tell you something and-and it’s okay if you don’t say what I want to hear or if you have nothing to say at all.” 

Your eyes go wide, and he gives you a hard look, he lets out a deep breath and finally unravels is heart like he has been wanting to do for so long now

“I don’t know how or when it started, but every time I see you, I want to see you more. I like seeing you smile, but I really like it when it’s because of me. Your determined, smart and so fucking pretty that even a complete idiot could see it.” He lets out a deep breath and his eyes are covered with a glassy sheen, all you do is look at him, “And I know you don’t feel the same, but I needed to say it so you can put an end to this feeling that I have every time I'm around you.”

“Bakugo…” You say his name and the corners of your lips are turning up, “You actually feel that way about me? This isn’t a joke?”

“Why the hell would I joke about this?” He scoffs, turning away from you and back towards the lake.

“I don’t know. Maybe, maybe it's because I feel the same way and always thought it was unrequited.” You say, and that gets him to look at you again, he’s really hoping this isn’t some sick joke, “I think you're really nice. You always hold the door open for me, you took a hit for me on our mission, and you-you once told me something I really needed to hear, and it changed my perspective on so many things. You make me feel valued.”

He thinks of those examples, he remembers all of them so clearly. He never had to think about doing anything for you, it’s automatic, he likes making you happy. So, when he grabs your face with his hands and brings the pair of your lips together, he also hopes this makes you happy. 

Your lips are soft and plush, unmoving. He is testing out the waters between both of your feelings now, trying to mend them together with one simple act. He pulls away. Your face is still being held in his hands, and yours are on his wrists. He looks at your expression and you are fully smiling, all because of him, his heart swells in his chest.

The feeling he now describes as butterflies in his gut never ceases, but he learns to like it because he is with you, and he now knows you feel like that when you are with him as well. 

visit my: masterlist

a/n: I am so sorry for the delay on getting this fic released, I expected it to be a lot shorter and I got so busy I just couldn’t find the time for it. However, I hope you enjoyed this read ! 

sidenote: I also head cannon this to be an alternate universe to my fic Only Ones Who Know.

taglist:  @mysideeffectsofyou 

[xoxoavenger]

In a Frame on the Highest Shelf

pairing: Steve Harrington x SingleMom!Reader

summary: James is getting smarter and Steve and Y/N are getting more comfortable with each other

word count: 2557

warnings: some self deprecating thoughts but they are assuaged

notes: big thank you to @ilovegerardwayd34d for having the perfect idea for the next part

previous part series masterlist

birthday celebration main masterlist

Their relationship is interesting, to say the least, after the party.

They don't change their daily life, except now Steve sleeps in the bed with Y/N. She hadn't known that his back was hurting, had felt bad when he popped it the first night in bed with a deep sigh and mentioned how much more comfortable it was. She had begun to apologize, but he told her to stop talking and took her into his arms. They both slept better in the bed together, James in the crib next to them.

Y/N realizes she made the right decision when she wakes up in the middle of the night to Steve not in the bed, instead laying on the ground with an arm in James' crib. Y/N knows this well, that usually James can't go back to bed without some sort of physical contact, and usually takes James into her bed. She thinks maybe Steve was worried about co-sleeping, which is kind of endearing, and she grabs her camera as quietly as she can. The flash is bright, but Steve just takes a sharp breath and rolls a bit.

"Steve," Y/N whispers, putting the photo and the camera down. She reaches over to shake his shoulder, because she doesn't want his back hurting even more. "Come back to bed." She watches as he unravels himself from James, who squirms before going back to sleep. She watches him for a moment, makes sure everything's okay, and then helps Steve back up onto her bed - or their bed? Could she call it their bed now?

"James woke up." Steve mutters, and Y/N looks at the clock. It's early in the morning, but early enough to go back to sleep. The perfect time.

"You did great." Y/N told him, kissing his cheek before laying against his chest. It's her favorite pillow, and Steve doesn't mind because he likes her pillow more than the spare one.

"Mhm." He nods, pulling her closer and pressing his lips to her forehead in a loose version of a kiss.

This life is perfect.

Until it comes crashing down and suddenly Y/N is at her lowest, lower than when she first found out about being pregnant.

It starts with James crying, and Y/N realizes pretty quickly he has a fever. She calls out of work, not able to leave his side. Steve picks up on the house chores, which makes Y/N almost melt if she had the bandwidth to care about anything but her baby. He washes the dishes, takes out the trash, does the grocery shopping and makes food. She lets him feed her while she rocks James the few times he's actually asleep.

"Today is day three." Steve tells her, and she just nods. If she looked up, she'd notice he has dark circles under his eyes that almost match hers, but she is too busy watching the rise and fall of James' chest. His mouth is open, nose stuffed. 

She is terrified.

"I should take him to the hospital." She says, about to cry herself. She's so tired, and she would do anything to take this pain away from her baby. She doesn't understand what happened, because they hadn't been around anyone who was sick. She had always been so careful, never wanting to cause her baby harm. This had to be her fault. She must have missed something.  

"I can drive you. We can go now if you want." Steve offers, and nods, starting to stand. She'll go in these stained, old, gross clothes, and she hopes there's something quick that can be done to help James.

"Yeah, let's go," She stops talking because James is shaking in her arms, eyes rolled back. "Steve," She has no idea what do, and she knows Steve won't either but her mind can't think.

"Let's go to the hospital now, come on." Steve seems freaked out, scared like Y/N but able to keep himself calm.

"What's going on?" She starts crying, holding James as tight as possible. He stops shaking, but her heart doesn't calm down. She wants to throw up and scream and somehow trade places with James. She feels so helpless, holding her baby as he breathes deeply through his mouth.

"We're gonna be okay," Steve leads her out, both of them without shoes. Y/N doesn't even have socks, but she can't feel the dead grass under her feet, only her baby in her arms. Steve helps her into his car before he runs around to his side, sliding in and starting the car as quick as possible.

"I think he's okay now, I don't know what happened." Y/N can't tear her eyes away from James, who is crying now. She doesn't want to put him in his carseat, even as Steve speeds out of the trailer park and onto the road. He's safe in her arms.

Luckily, the hospital isn't that far, and they pull up in record time. Y/N hops out of the car, looking over at Steve.

"I'll go park the car. I'll find you. Go!" That's all she needs, shutting the door and running into the ER.

~

Y/N lays in the hospital bed, James laying next to her sleeping. They've given him medication, told Y/N the seizure was only because of his fever and that they'll give him medicine but he'll get better eventaully.

None of that made Y/N feel okay.

Steve sits in the chair in the corner of the room, arms crossed as he watched Y/N smooth James' hair. She felt guilty that he was here, for pulling him into this whole mess. She felt her throat begin to tighten.

"I'm sorry." She whispers, looking up and over at him. He furrows his brows as tears begin to fall down her cheeks. "You can go home if you want." She doesn't even know what her words are supposed to mean.

"Hey," He gets up off the chair and moves to the bed, resting his arms on it to be close to her. "It's okay. Everything is alright. James is okay, it was just a scare. We are okay." He grabs her hand, and it breaks her. She starts crying harder, and then Steve gets on the bed, holding her around James just like he did the night they first kissed. That night wasn't that long ago, but Y/N thinks it might as well have been years.

"This is all my fault." She says quietly, shaking as the sobs rack her body. "I'm a terrible mom and a terrible friend." She tells him, and she truly means it. What kind of mother lets her kid get this sick? 

"You're an amazing mother. The best I've ever seen. And a great friend. I'm not just saying that." Steve struggles to get out, not sure what to say. 

"But ever since I came into your life, all I've done is mess everything up." She whispers, sniffling and trying not to wake James up. "Your parents kicked you out, Steve. And I have a baby. You shouldn't have to take care of him when I can't." She cries softly. Her eyes are closed, and nothing happens for a moment.

Then Steve reaches out and wipes her tears.

His hands are soft against her cheeks, and she keeps her eyes closed so she doesn't ruin it. They breathe silently, and she sniffles back her tears until Steve has dried her face.

"I wanted to leave." He whispers, and she finally looks at him. His eyes look sad in a way she hasn't seen before, even though they've had the discussion of him leaving his parents house multiple times. "My dad was a terrible father. And my mom wasn't much better. Before recently I didn't understand how parents were supposed to be. But you've taught me what to do. I know today was scary. But you can't push me away now. I'm staying because I chose to, not because I don't have another option."

She wants to say she loves him, but it feels like it's too much, so she reaches over and kisses him, James in the middle, just like their first kiss. She thinks it may be her favorite way to kiss ever.

"When we get home, our home, I'll go get groceries and make dinner while you clean the house and James naps. We'll get our shit together." He rubs her back and kisses her forehead.

"Stit?" James grumbles, because of course he had woken up, and Y/N glares at Steve.

"I'll get ice cream on the way too."

~

"So, what are you doing for Steve's birthday?" Robin asks. It's been a couple weeks since James went to the hospital, and he's feeling much better now, so Y/N and Steve were both excited to finally see the rest of the group. The adults are all at Eddie's, the kids at Y/N's. The doors are open at both, and Y/N is standing on the porch watching to make sure James is alright even though Max assures Y/N she's watched babies younger than James.

Y/N told Max she's more worried about Dustin.

"Steve's birthday?" Y/N repeats, pulling her gin and tonic from her lips. She hadn't heard anything from Steve about his birthday, which made her realize she didn't know when Steve's birthday was.

Check in the bad girlfriend column. 

"Yeah?" Robin asks, sipping her drink with a smile. "It's next Monday. I thought you would have plans, since he hasn't told me any." Y/N's heart drops.

"Monday?" She whispers, turning to look at Steve. He's laughing with Eddie, beers in their hands. Y/N feels the need to smoke a cigarette.

"Did Steve not tell you his birthday?" Robin asks, and Y/N shakes her head, walking inside. Robin calls after her, but she pretends like she doesn't hear, downing her drink and setting the cup down on a table. She knows where Eddie keeps her cigarettes, so she walks past everyone and into the kitchen, grabbing a cigarette and walking out to the small porch.

Steve didn't tell her his birthday.

Why didn't he tell her? They've had a busy month, sure,  but his birthday is important. Not everything can be about her all the time. She feels like shit.

"What's goin' on?" Steve is suddenly behind her, hand on her back as he stands close to her. She looks over at him sadly, handing him the cigarette. Every time she's had one, she shares it with him when he's around. She lets him take a long drag, and then she turns to him. She feels his hand move from her beck to her hip, and she tries not to let it distract her.

"Why didn't you tell me your birthday is in a couple days?" She asks, not breaking eye contact. To his credit, Steve doesn't try and act like he doesn't know what she's talking about. He doesn't look around and try to figure out an excuse. He keeps staring, even as he sighs. 

"James was in the hospital a couple weeks ago and we just got back to normal. I didn't want to stress you out and I knew you would want to do something." He tells her, taking another drag from the cigarette.

"Because I care." She whispers, putting a hand on her on his chest. "We're all okay now, we can celebrate your birthday." She puts the other hand on his face, rubbing her thumb across his face.

"We don't have to." He tells her, putting the cigarette out and letting his other hand fall to her waist.

"Steve, come on. It's your birthday." She's sure his parents always belittled his birthday, so she wants to make sure he has an actual birthday party. "Tell me what you wanna do, and I'll take care of it." She leans against him, trying to get him to agree, but he shakes his head.

"I just want-" He doesn't tell her what he wants, because all the sudden the kids are all screaming. Y/N and Steve only make it half way across the grass when Dustin appears, holding two pictures in one hand and James in the other arm. Max and Lucas pop up on the other side, and they all clamber out of the trailer.

"What happened?" Y/N asks as she meets them, taking James into her own arms. Dustin lets her, but his face has a wide smile that matches the other kids, all of which who have started piling out. James seems to be fine, happy even with all the yelling.

"Watch this!" Lucas yells. Y/N expects James to startle, but he must be used to the noise because he squeals.

"We were trying to teach James our names, and then we were quizzing him on yours," Max starts, pointing at the pictures. The first is Y/N in the hospital with James right after she gave birth. A nurse had taken the picture, and it was the only one she had with both of them for months. She smiles at the picture. "Who's that?" Max points at Y/N, and James kicks his legs into Y/N.

"Mama!" He squeals, and Y/N kisses his forehead. He's been saying 'mama' for months, but it's still cute.

"Who's this, James?" Dustin asks as he moves the pictures to reveal the first picture of James and Steve; the one of James on Steve's chest. James looks so young Y/N wants to cry, even though it was just a couple months ago. She's studying the picture so closely she doesn't realize what James says.

"Dada!"

Everyone is quiet, heads snapping to Steve. Y/N's jaw drops as James continues to babble "dadada" and then wiggles to get out of her arms. She lets him down to the ground, her mind racing. Of course Steve being in James' life would be amazing, but she hasn't talked to Steve about this. They've been so busy, she's honestly forgotten about it. She watches as James toddles over to Steve, grabbing the leg of his pants.

"Dada?" He asks, and it breaks Y/N's heart. She can't ask Steve for this. She knows he said he chose this, but he can't say that he honestly chose an entire lifetime. She wants to know how James knew what that means, but clearly her son knows who it should be associated with.

"Steve," She starts, not sure if she should pick up James or not. She watches as Steve reaches down and grabs James up, turning so his back is to the kids and James can see them all. He's facing Y/N as the kids start to scream in happiness. Y/N watches as Steve clutches James, tears starting to leak from his eyes. She can see how much this means to him, and she doesn't want to take this moment from him. But he reaches a hand out blindly for her and she doesn't waste a second taking it. He pulls her in tightly, James in between them, just like it always is.

"I love you." She tells him, looking at him. She watches him blink some tears away, then kiss her softly.

"I love you both." He whispers, hanging on even tighter. She slots her head into his neck and keeps her arms around him. "So much."

Someone takes a picture, and Y/N knows it's going to be in a frame on the highest shelf for the rest of her life.

//

tags: @avada-kedavra-bitch-187  @one-sweet-gubler @sadbitchfangirl @gloryekaterina  @alexshaff2002 @m-rae23 @icequeen1371 @mcueveryday  @parkershoco @feelinglikeineedlotsofnaps @peculiarwren @kenzi-woycehoski @multifandom-boss-bitch @freezaz123 @mads-weasley @johnricharddeacy @sweetdreamsshifter @param8re @ashlynhasmanyhyperfixations @wish-upon-a-star-1310 @fangisms @alicetweven @damon-loves-pie @gaysludge @l0v3e1i  @luvrsbian  @zulpix-blog @scarletwitchwhore @taylortheyellowlobster  @ash5monster01 @nix-rose @param8re @loving-and-dreaming

[winniethewife]

Special day for a special girl (Blue Jones X F!reader)

A/N: For @ominoose Happy Birthday Mushi! Hope you enjoy!

Warning: smut under the cut, Blue is his own warning, fingering, Cunnilingus

Words:705

She woke with a start. Blue looming over her with an unusually cheerful look on his face. She instantly felt on edge. Blue was usually unpredictable, and his mood was hard to understand. She sits up slowly, apprehensive,

“Good Morning pretty girl.” Blue smiled at her a twinkle in his eye. He takes her hand in his and kisses it softly. She looks at him with a slight tilt of her head. He must want something. And want it bad.

“What’s going on Blue? You’re never this nice…”  She tried to pull away but he holds on tight.

“Hey…Baby baby…I just want to make you’re special day special…” He sits down on the bed next to her as she curls her legs up to her chest, he’s still holding on to her hand. . She feels confused.

“Special day?” she asks, she had no idea what day it was anymore, every day at the club was pretty much the same day in day out… it was near impossible to keep track. Blue just smiles.

“Yes, it’s your birthday. A special day…all about you.” He purrs as he takes her chin in his hand lifting her face to look at his. “I want to give you something special… something special for my special girl…” He presses his lips to hers, which was also surprising. As he pulled her in closer, putting his arm around her, bringing her chest to his, she softly moans. This was unexpected, unusual, and… nice. She puts her hands on his chest, the fabric of his suit was surprisingly soft. He took this as a sign… he pushes her down onto the bed, not daring to remove his lips form hers as she clutches his clothes in surprise. Her eyes open wide as he gets on top of her, her heart starts to race. She pulls away and opens her mouth to say something, to ask a question, he puts a finger over her mouth. “Shhhh….Don’t worry, I’ll take care you, My pretty girl…” he croons, kissing her on the lips, then her cheek, her jaw, neck…His hands caressing her skin, as he makes his way lower and lower on her body, His hands gentle, his soft words sweet. She was surprised, Blue wasn’t usually so kind, but shed take anything. Blue looks up at her from between her legs. “I’m gonna take good care of you baby. Keep your eyes on me pretty girl. That’s it…” He says quietly as he pulls her underwear to the side, sliding his fingers through her folds, rubbing his thumb in circles around her clit.

“Blue…” She moans his name softly, her breathing heavy, her eyes locked on his as he leans in to her, sliding his finger into her. She lets out a soft gasp as she feels him inside her, the feeling familiar but different, gentle, loving, not at all like her  clients. Her soft whimpers fill the room, like music to Blues ears as he carefully slides in a second finger curling them up into her. She bucks her hips into him, eagerly seeking his touch.

“That’s it pretty girl, making you feel good right? Tell me, who makes you feel this good?” He eggs her on stilling his fingers waiting for her response.

“You do Blue, you make me feel good” She cries out. She needs him badly.

“Good girl.” He praised her as he leaned in kissing her clit, pushing his fingers in and out of her, his tempo increasing as he sucks on her wanting to bring her to her climax. He runs his tongue along her folds and moving his fingers faster as she clenches her walls around his fingers. “That’s it pretty girl. Cum on my fingers. Can you do that for me baby?” He says into her skin, before nipping lightly at her thigh. She yelps slightly at the sting, then as he moves to bite the other side she feels the hot wave of pleasure come crashing down on her. As she rides out her high Blue smiles, pulling out his fingers and slides them into his mouth to clean them off, a satisfied hum leaves his throat. “A special day, for a special girl...”

~

Masterlist

[undertale-fic-librarby]

Howdy! In honor of Let Papyrus Say Fuck Day, I've decided to put together a little collection of fics that should be more Papyrus focused!

What Are Friends For by IchikiWindGryphon (Teen And Up, Incomplete)

Undyne and Papyrus are the best of friends. But when Undyne learns Papyrus's greatest secret, it pushes their relationship to the brink. Things only get worse as she learns of the skeleton brothers' traumatic past, and the horrors of Dr. W.D. Gaster.

We Need to Talk by batter_sempai (General Audiences, Incomplete)

Something is bothering Frisk. Because of a deal they made in the past, a familiar voice keeps haunting them, telling them to murder those close to them and threatening to take over their body. For a while, only Flowey knows what is happening to them, but their struggle to keep in control is noticed by Papyrus, who offers to help them. All three of them soon find themselves isolated, as Papyrus attempts to communicate to the Fallen Child possessing Frisk, in order to protect his brother and to prevent another genocide run from occurring.

Flowey Is Not a Good Life Coach by unrestedjade (Mature, Complete)

Flowey gets bored and decides to change up one of his runs. Papyrus presents an interesting project, for the moment.

You Can't Make An Emotionally-Developed Papyrus Omelette Without Breaking A Few Limit-Eggs by KachiggaTHUNDER (Teen And Up, Complete)

Papyrus faces everything with a positive attitude, and never gives up once he's been asked to do something. As nice as that is in theory, it can lead to problems in practice. Problems such as strained friendships, personal doubts and damage to one's personal possessions. Still, no problem can make the Great Papyrus give up! ...Probably.

Two Sides of the Same Coin by AceFace98 (Teen And Up, Complete)

Papyrus lived his whole life in a single room, with only the “Mental Evaluation” days to look forward to (he called them “Long Boring Test” days, which was much more accurate). He never really minded his life, he didn’t know anything else. The doctors were all really nice to him, and he had everything he could possibly want. Expect, maybe, he wished he wasn’t so lonely. But when his wish comes true, everything else comes crashing down around him. Another skeleton child breaks into his room, carrying a backpack full of supplies and plans of escape. Papyrus tags along with him, mostly not to loose the closest thing he’s ever had to a friend, and he finds out quickly that he’s grossly unprepared for the outside world. But friends stick together, especially when they might be...brothers?

The Deep End Yessica (Teen And Up, Complete)

There must have been a mistake. He doesn’t belong here. Life is great. Monsters are free, the surface is wonderful and things couldn’t be better. So the fact that Papyrus still wants to die, isn’t really a problem, is it?

Blue Heart by Rogue_Mutt (Teen And Up, Incomplete)

In the Underfell Universe, Papyrus continues to uphold his duties as a member of the Royal Guard Militia alongside his brother Sans. When he accepts an assignment from Undyne to collect taxes from Snowdin, he is then ambushed before he can make the delivery. After being brutally attacked, he gains the respect from king Asgore Dreemurr himself, who offers Papyrus to become an official member of his grim guard. Papyrus will come to understand the rules of this Kill or be killed world as he comes to question exactly what he is willing to do to keep he and his brother alive and well.

Forgettable by Peepasaurus (Teen And Up, Complete)

After the world went dark, everyone lost a few memories. But some forgot more than others. Papyrus couldn't decipher what was real or an illusion. What was a nightmare or a memory. What it meant to keep hearing the words, 'I am here'.

Oh, Brother by peachyelixer (Teen And Up, Complete)

Papyrus had always seen himself as the stronger brother. Of course - why wouldn’t he when his lazy brother, Sans, spends 90% of the day sleeping in his room and the other 10% doing god-knows-what? But when the secrets of time-lines and what Sans has been keeping on his shoulders are revealed, Papyrus makes a promise both to himself and to his brother that Sans wouldn’t fight this battle on his own anymore. Papyrus was going to help his older brother, no matter what.

How To Be A Big Brother by kaliawai512 (General Audiences, Complete)

Frisk is upset. Papyrus doesn't know why. They're on the surface, everyone is safe and they all have a brand new life together. But Frisk has been sitting in the corner during the day and waking up screaming in the middle of the night. They are very, very upset, and Papyrus wants to help. He just doesn't know how. But he does know how someone helped him when he was young, and maybe, just maybe, he can do the same thing himself. Maybe he can be as great a big brother as his own was to him. (Secret Santa gift for Peanutable - happy holidays!!)

[rafedaddy01]

Rafe x reader ; there having a heated argument and she’s throwing things and breaking things at the tannyhill and ward tells rafe he’s met his match and leaves him there to deal with it and then once the calm is finally over rafe destroys her in doggy style to show he’s really the leader in the relationship (not true) cause he’s whipped for the reader and her outlandish behavior that makes him look somewat normal

A/n: Y’all are so creative with your ideas, I’m loving it. For sure got hot and bothered writing this, it’s a must for me. Keep up the requests

Warnings: smut, punishment, dark, hair pulling, argument, dominance, 18+

“Fuck you rafe” you said turning around to leave. “Where do you think your going? Were not done here” Rafe said pulling you by your hair backward into the room and tossing you onto the couch making your tits bounce which he took notice of. “Yes we are, your a dick. Just let me go home” you shouted standing up to push past him but he blocked the door way

“Your not going anywhere y/n” he chuckled. “Okay, fine” you said picking up a vase “you want me to stay, I’ll stay. But I’ll also destroy every fucking piece of item in this room” you said shattering the vase against the tile floor. Rafe shot you a warning look that you brushed off and reached for a statue that looked pretty expensive. You picked it up and shot Rafe a sarcastic smile before slamming it against the floor bits flying across the room. “What the hell is going on here?” Ward came in looking frantically around the broken glass. He looked up at Rafe who looked embarrassed, “son, looks like you met your match. Deal with this” he said pointing to the mess you made before answering a call and shutting the door behind him. You reached for a few pictures sitting on the piano in the room. “Y/n id be very careful with your next actions, don’t think I won’t punish you for this. I’m still in charge here” you flipped him off before throwing each frame at the wall with a loud crash. You looked around at your mess pretty proud of what you accomplished. You cleaned your hands off and grabbed your purse to exited out the door. Rafe gripped your wrists and pinned you back against the wall. “You wanna act like a brat I’ll fuck you like one” he said taking a pocket knife out of his pocket with his free hand and cut your skirt down the middle causing it to fall to the floor. He looked up at you as tears fell down your cheeks and you tried wiggling free. “Let me go Rafe I swear-“ you started. “You swear what? There’s nothing you could do to scare me y/n” he chuckled darkly placing the pointy part of the knife into your thigh and pushing slightly not enough to cause bleeding but enough to make you yelp. “Now… how about you keep this pretty mouth shut and let me remind you whose in charge in this relationship” Rafe said bringing the knife to your panties and cutting them off you. You nodded your head in defeat.

“Get on the couch on all fours” Rafe said putting the knife on the table and stripping of his clothes. You took your shirt off and did what he said, regretting being a brat. “You know the drill, don’t cum until your given permission” he said slapping your ass hard “understand?” He questioned yanking your head back by your hair when you didn’t answer him. “Y-yes Rafe, im sorry” you cried out. He laughed as he positioned himself behind you, erection pushing against your ass. “A little late for that doll” he thrusted into you harshly not giving you any time to adjust. “You better keep quiet, don’t need my dad coming back up here and seeing what happens to sluts who don’t listen” he grunted as he thrusted harder into your cervix. You always hated when hed fuck you from the back, it allowed him to get a better angle of fucking into you deeper it felt good when you came but the pain that came before was excruciating. “Rafe please slow down” you sobbed. “Aw is baby in pain? To bad. You wanted to act like a brat so you’ll get punished like one” he said leaving his hand print on your ass cheek. “I’m in charge in this relationship and don’t you forget it” he hissed as your walls clenched around his cock repeatedly. He slowed down his thrusts not letting you cum. “Rafe please let me cum, I need it. It hurts to hold it” you pouted turning your head to look at him hoping he’d give in seeing the look on your face. All he did was pull you up so your back pressed against his chest. “You want to cum so bad, fuck yourself on my cock” he whispered in your ear halting his movements inside you. You moaned as you started bouncing on his cock chasing the high you desperately needed. His hands reached around to pinch your nipple causing your eyes to shut from the pain and pleasure he was giving you. “Eyes open” he said wrapping one of his hands around your throat and squeezing. Rafe was close too and you could tell from how his cock twitched repeatedly. He stopped you from moving and flipped you over so that he was on top. “I wanna watch your face when I make you cum” he said inserting himself back into you. Your hands made way into his hair and tugged at the roots. Rafe moaned and came undone inside you thrusting a few sloppy thrusts as you came undone as well throwing your head back and arching your back.

[terresdebrume]

Readers I have to confess something: the reason I'm not writing these days is because the most comfortable way to do a 2nd draft for me is to use the overtype function in Microsoft Word. It's an absolute lifesaver when I need to rewrite my drafts in full, super great, much more efficient than other anti blank-page-panic tricks I've seen for me. HOWEVER, I currently do not own a laptop or a proper computer, which means that the only way for me to use this method is to bring the work laptop home and use it there and I keep trying but honestly? It kinda gives me hives xD So, yeah. Progress on stories is slow, and it is likely to stay slow for that reason.

You do, however, get to keep receiving typo-riddled snippets that may or may not make it into a proper fic someday, because I can easily type those on my phone or tablet x)

Anyway, this one features Edwin meeting [SPOILER], feeling like he handles it rather poorly, and being reassured by Charles. Enjoy x)

The first thing Edwin notices when he gets there is the screaming. High pitched, full lunged, quite audibly furious: the sort of sound that grates through his eardrums and to his soul, making him want to cover his ears immediately. Instead, he takes a deep breath, adjusts his grip on the bottle of wine and the book he brought, and rings the bell.

"Coming!" Charles yells from what must be his kitchen, the sound muffled by the front window.

Edwin stands at the main door, eyes idly gazing at the right hand side of the building and the delicate English roses growing there, until the screaming gets closer and the door opens up. Charles gives him a harried smile, a toddler whom Edwin assumes is his son Kai wailing like something is violently pulling at his entrails.

"So we're having a bit of an evening," Charles apologize while Kai wails even louder.

Edwin follows Charles' gesture and walks in, taking his shoes off at the entrance to Charles' half of the townhouse while Kai's screaming turns into words Edwin doesn't understand. Charles answers in the same language, patient and soft but obviously tired, and by the time they're back in the kitchen it seems to be all he can do to keep rocking his son.

"Dinner's a bit late," he says, nodding at the dish simmering on the stove. It smells hearty and full of vegetables, and Edwin's mouth fills with saliva in absolute record time.

"That's alright," he says. "I understand. I'm told I used to have regular meltdowns when I was a toddler."

"Yeah, he's usually pretty calm," Charles says, rocking Kai from side to side in his arms, "but Crystal and I thought his binky was in his room here, so now she's out for the night, he hasn't had a nap, and it's still too early to crash."

Edwin winces in sympathy, watching as Kai shoves his pointy little face into Charles' collarbone, still screaming his lungs out and so red even the pale brown of his skin doesn't hide the blush. Charles manages his dishes one handed, obviously practiced, and Edwin does his best to stay out of the way and hide the way Kai's screaming makes hime want to plug his ears and run away or worse, start crying.

Kai refuses to eat, so Edwin ends up sitting on his own for most of dinner, Charles in the living room to calm him down, until sheer exhaustion finally vanquishes the tears and Charles is able to put his son down to sleep. Edwin hears him putter out upstairs, hears water running for a second or two, and then Charles' stockinged feet reappear at the top of the stairs.

"Sorry about that," he says.

Edwin smiles as best as he can, because it's hardly Charles or Kai's fault that toddlers scream and Edwin reacts the way he does to strident noise. It mustn't be very convincing though, because Charles makes a comforting noise and engulfs him in a hug, and Edwin finds himself melting into it against all expectations. It's been almost eight years since the last time Charles hugged him, yet somehow the feeling of his arms around Edwin's shoulders is still comfortable. Quiet. Safe.

Edwin stays there, standing in Charles' kitchen, with his nose tucked into Charles' collar, for longer than he care to count. Longer than appropriate, probably. But stay there he does anyway, and Charles lets him, hugs him tight until his breathing slows down, and the buzz in his ears recedes, nothing more than an ache now.

"Forgive me," Edwin says, not quite daring to meet Charles' eyes, "I didn't mean—"

"It's fine," Charles reassures, his hands warm where they run against Edwin's shoulders. "I had a bit of a cry before I came back down, you know?"

Edwin frowns, surprised. Little children, from what he has seen, cry often and do almost everything loudly. This has never seemed to bother any of the adults in his family. His little cousins, he remembers distinctly, were forcibly put to bed when they got started on the screaming, and left alone until they calmed down, no matter how long or how piercingly they wailed. No one but Edwin ever seemed to wish for earplugs. No one seemed to cringe from it with their entire body.

That Charles, who didn't even cry when Edwin told him there would be no justice for them about the night they almost died, could spill tears over something as apparently simple as a child crying? Even at that volume, Edwin can barely believe it.

"Did you?" He asks, so puzzled he barely realizes his hands are no longer fists. "I wouldn't have known."

"I handle it better now," Charles says with a rueful smile, "but the first few months..."

Chase grimaces and looks away, cheeks brightly pink, as if even admitting there are things that can break through his smile were too much for him. It might be, for all Edwin knows. He has been realizing, in the weeks since they reunited, that while he is very familiar with some facets of Charles, there are others that are a complete mystery, a realization softened by the knowledge that he has both the will and the time to get to know these other parts of Charles.

"I think it is quite sweet," Edwin says, taking a step back when he realizes Charles' hands are still on his shoulders. "Much better than simply wishing to make it stop, at any rate."

"Oh I do think that too," Charles admits, one hand coming up to fiddle with the gold chain at his neck. "I just kinda push it out, you know."

Edwin smiles, oddly relieved. Charles didn't seem to physicaly recoil from the sound like Edwin did, but it's still good to know he's not entirely alone with his discomfort. It is, he must admit, even better to have Charles here now, free to sit down and start in on his cold dahl. Edwin sits across from him at the kitchen table, which Charles hastily set earlier, tries not to be too strange about how pleased he is to see Charles take care of himself.

"I rather admire you, you know. I don't know I would have handled this."

"Like a champ, probably," Charles replies, spoon halfway to his mouth.

"Mmh. You are assuming I wouldn't simply calp my hands over my ears and leave."

"Of course you wouldn't," Charles scoffs, rolling his eyes. "You're way too kind for that."

"But I would be thinking it," Edwin insists, and Charles shrugs, swallowing another mouthful od dahl before he says:

"It's fine to think it. You just don't do it." Edwin feels the skeptical expression etching itself on his features in real time, seconds before Charles registers it and sobers up, putting his spoon down.

"I get it," he says leaning back in his chair with a studiously relaxed air. "After I told Crystal I'd help raise him I--I had panic attacks. For weeks."

Charles glances up at Edwin, who nods immediately. Bad home situation. He remembers. Charles nods back, visibly relieved that he doesn't need to explain again, and he reaches a hand out to fiddle with his bright blue plastic cup as his eyes fall to the tabletop. "I had to uh. See someone about it. It was stressing Crystal out." From the way Charles says it, Edwin strongly suspect that factor weighed far more heavily in the decision than Charles' personal wellbeing. "One of the things she keeps telling me is like. It's basically fine if I feel like shouting at people. Even Kai. I just gotta...not do it. Or uh. apologize when I do."

Charles' eyes dart up to meet Edwin's and he tries to respond with the kindest smile he can manage. From experience, he does realize it isn't that great a comfort, but Charles knows him enough to guess at the intent behind it and smile back.

"My point is, it's okay if you don't like the sound. I don't like it either. And you don't know each other, so obviously you don't know what to do. But when you seem him at a better time, I know you'll do great."

Edwin looks down at his hands, the bright heat of a blush splashed across his cheeks.

"Thank you," he murmurs. "For your confidence."

Charles makes a scoffing sound that is surely meant to convey how easy it is for him to have faith in Edwin's capacity not to traumatize little Kai, when they met properly, but Edwin's blush stays firm. None of his cousins were ever entrusted to his care, for any length of time. People find him difficult, complicated, antisocial and haughty at the best of time. Charles' words, after a lifetime of being measured for his social skills and being found profoundly lacking, soothe a wound Edwin hadn't quite realized existed. It takes him a moment to recover, silent and looking down at his hands, the fists his parents admonished him so many times for, and Charles never.

All that time, Charles sits in front of him, waiting him out patiently when he could very well get up and get started on the dishes, or prepare the card game he wanted to introduce Edwin to. Charles may have trouble sitting still more than five minutes, at times, and there are large chunks of his life that are a complete mystery to Edwin still. But sitting here, in a narrow kitchen, with Charles' warm gaze on him, Edwin realizes that he knows more than enough about the man to be in very real danger of falling right back in love with him.

[justanotherblogger]

My theory is that Mimzy was once Alastor’s best friend, he maybe even thought he might have been in love with her at one point, in that manner aroace people who don’t know they’re aroace often do, that she was then sacrificed by this cult, and that Alastor had them infiltrated and taken down every member of that cult over decades, losing more and more of himself each time as those he killed grew less and less directly connected to the crime, “sorry you just got in my way, maybe I enjoy it just a little bit does that make me insane”, but that in the act of doing so, that contradiction of righteous intent and pure depravity, along with whatever ritual for power the cult had initially started upon, let’s say in honour of Roo (the root of all evil in the Hellaverse, a character yet to be introduced), and that on Alastor’s eventual death, he then found himself in Hell all-powerful, and set about bringing down those Overlords beneath his power continuing this moral code, until he hit a wall, finding himself having ended all Overlords less powerful than him / otherwise came to his senses on meeting Mimzy again and finding her to have gone to hell, recognising that “weren’t you an old pal of mine” and really nothing more and deciding mere power, entertainment is all he now desires. But that still, out of obligation, that he must kill Lucifer, the Devil, for a sense of completion, while still being allowed to exist himself afterward. Which leads to whatever deal he ended up trapped in seven years before the events of the series, and him getting Charlie to make a deal with him to “harm no one” at a certain point in the future: to ensure that when the time comes that he will be able to kill Lucifer, and the one person able to stop him won’t be able to. To really make Alastor a true Exterminator, more measured, the embodiment of how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Huh, interesting take! I didn't think the Insane song was canon, but maybe I was just misinformed. I've never really thought of Alastor having his path of vengence and righteousness leading him towards hell, but I can see a lot of potential with it!

How Alastor had been barely keeping it together in his life already, and the one person he really cares about gets killed by a freaky cult? Yeah, I'd understand his murder spree now.

Maybe the cult ate Mimzy's body for the ritual, and Alastor returned the favor, starting his cannibalistic tendencies. But I'm not sure because Mimzy didn't have any indication of that on her sinner form from what we've seen.

I also saw a similar theory with the exterminator Alastor part, where he might've originally been in heaven, but when forced through the exterminator program, let his violent tendencies take over.

I do like the cult part. Maybe this caused what Alastor was referring to when he had his interlude in the finale song, with red eyes (that I just noticed after a rewatch) following him from his crash sight to the radio tower.

Those eyes look very similar to Roo's concept art. Maybe Roo found him because he killed a lot of her followers and made a contract with him to keep him under her thumb in the long run, making sure he doesn't interrupt her plans again.

[logically-asexual]

I’m losing by his side

summary:

Nathalie meets Betterfly! they have a long conversation and she deals with some conflicting emotions.

Title from I Bet on Losing Dogs by Mitski

word count: 4,510

Read on AO3

Nathalie wasn’t asleep yet, but she was still annoyed by the noise of her phone ringing. Whatever Gabriel wanted at this time of the night, or rather, morning, could wait until after the sun had come out, or he could forget about it. She hung up before resuming her reading. At least she tried to do so, but as much as she stared at the text on the pages, she couldn’t process any meaning from it.

Her last hope for enjoying the last few hours of the night by herself was soon vanished by the man himself barging into her bedroom. It was true that she wasn’t in the mood to see Gabriel, but the fact that it was Monarch standing now in her room wasn’t at all better. He must have been enraged to stomp through the house without even reversing the transformation. At least he didn’t forget to close the door of her bedroom and forced her to get up and stumble over there to do it herself. Hopefully Adrien didn’t see anything.

He interrupted before she could voice any question or complaint, demanding to know why she hadn’t answered his calls. So keeping this form was intentional, Nathalie thought. He wanted to scare her. Unfortunately for him she had never fallen for that, and now wouldn’t be any different.

“Sir, it’s the middle of the night. Why can’t you just let me rest?”

She knew he had been down with Emilie since earlier, after Nathalie had arrived home from the train and came upstairs. He had said he would see if he could get something useful out of the kwamis, but she could guess now by his apparent frustration that he didn’t.

“This is important, Nathalie. Some miraculous holders from a parallel universe crossed a portal here and they—“

Nathalie was convinced he was losing his mind. “I don’t want to hear about it, Gabriel!”

“Well you could at least answer your phone so I know you’re alive!”

Oh, so now he was pretending it was just concern for her health, but she knew the truth. She knew that if he really cared about her he would have fixed everything when he had the chance.

“I already told you I’m fine. I don’t need your help and I’m not helping you with this either.” She ignored the irony of her saying that while still reclined on the bed, too weak to stand up so she could at least face him closer to eye level.

“Nathalie, you have to understand—“

“No, you’re wrong. You betrayed me, Gabriel, you betrayed Emilie and all for—“

“How dare you.” Gone was the bargaining phase as rage overtook his expression again. “You know everything I’ve done is for her, you’ll take that back.”

“No.”

“No?” He raised an eyebrow and dropped the pitch of his voice even further. The calm but threatening tone admittedly made Nathalie more nervous than his explosive anger before, but she stayed firm.

“I said no.”

“It seems you have forgotten your place, Ms Sancoeur. I tell you what to do,” he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to him, forcing her to keep eye contact, “and then you do it.” With his free hand, he slammed his fist into her bedside table, which caused the lamp and a vase to fall and shatter on the floor. “Do you understand?” he yelled.

The noise made her flinch, but she looked up again when another crash came from her window. A superhero she hadn’t seen before was standing in her room. He was dressed in a light purple suit with a matching cape and mask.

“Let go of her!” the man ordered and pointed at Monarch with his cane.

“I don’t have time for this,” Monarch groaned, but he pulled away. He turned his head at the door with the restlessness that characterized the recognition of a negative emotion somewhere.

Before Monarch could call the transformation for any of the other kwamis or otherwise make a move, the superhero moved quickly to kick him in the stomach. Then, while he gasped for air, the man took Nathalie in his arms and jumped with her back out the window.

Everything happened so fast, she was barely beginning to process it when he was helping her sit down on a bench. There was something familiar in the position of his hands around her and in the way he knelt in front of her afterwards.

“Sorry,” he said, “I was in the middle of something else when I heard a crash and I had to step in when I saw it was a villain. Are you ok?”

Nathalie heard the question, but her focus was elsewhere. “You have the butterfly miraculous.”

He seemed a little surprised that that was what had her attention. “I do.”

“But— But that’s impossible.”

“I should introduce myself,” his voice was impossibly calm, compared to her own uneasiness. “I am Betterfly. I am the holder of the butterfly miraculous in a different universe than yours. It’s a pleasure.”

He smiled at her, then he took Nathalie’s hand and kissed it the same way Gabriel did when he met a woman he respected. She felt embarrassed at the action, since she certainly didn’t consider herself on the same rank as them.

“I came here through a portal to seek help from your Ladybug and Cat Noir. We’re currently trying to track their iterations from my universe, who followed me here, but we seem to have lost them.”

He looked around, as if searching for clues, but the city was dead quiet. They were in a park, she only now noticed, and the only sound came from the leaves shifting with the wind.

Nathalie took a moment to take it all in. Apparently Monarch had been right about the parallel universe. After everything they had been through the past year, she guessed this wasn’t that unbelievable.

She looked closely at Betterfly. The resemblance to Hawk Moth’s costume was clear, but every edge was rounder and every color lighter. The smaller mask letting strands of silver hair move freely with the breeze also added to the gentleness of his appearance. And his eyes… Nathalie couldn’t hold his gaze for long because the look in them was just… overwhelming.

“You’re one of them? The heroes?” was all she could come up with.

Now he was the one who looked embarrassed. “I guess you could say that. I’m just one man trying to do what I think is best.” He smiled again.

She knew that smile, but she had never seen it so often. Not since Emilie… was gone.

If they were parallel universes, this one and wherever he came from, and both butterfly holders were already opposite in their roles, could they be similar in other ways?

Examining his face, she let her curiosity win and asked, “Gabriel?”

Betterfly’s eyes widened slightly before he turned away. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten off topic. Are you sure you’re alright? Is there anything I can do?”

His reaction was confirmation enough that Nathalie was right, yet this just opened so many more questions.

“I’m fine,” she answered. “I just have some… communication issues.”

He moved to sit down on the bench next to her. She was thankful for that, but it still gave her the impression of some sort of therapy session starting.

“Was that Gabriel Agreste’s house, the designer?”

She would indulge his pretense that the disguise was still working, if it made conversing easier for him. She nodded and clarified that she was his executive assistant.

“And you live there?”

The arrangement looked weird to outsiders, she was aware of that, but it was necessary for her to be able to do everything her job involved, including the parts of it that weren’t public, which only made it sound worse. At least now she could blame it on her disability, that her life was easier without a daily commute. She should move out soon, now that she could walk by herself with the help of the device, but she couldn’t leave Adrien and, well, most of the memories of her adult life behind just like that.

“I do,” she simply stated. “Mr. Agreste’s workplace is there so that’s where I work as well.” Eager to shift the attention away from her living situation, she asked, “Is that not my job in your world?”

Betterfly looked down at the ground with what Nathalie could identify as remorse. “From what I can tell, Gabriel and you don’t really… talk much.”

Nathalie wondered what the story behind that could be. Had he also hurt Nathalie but at least had the decency to regret it? Her Gabriel only felt guilty about one thing, and he would probably betray her trust in him a hundred times over if he had to.

Her expression might have given away some of her anger, because the superhero now also seemed curious about her relationship with her boss.

“Do you, um…”

Before he could figure out how to formulate the question, she interrupted him. “We don’t talk much anymore either.”

A slight disappointment in his face somehow felt like a heavy weight pressing against her lungs. The way his open eyes were like invitations for her to look deep into his mind made her uncomfortable. She had gotten used to reading Gabriel’s thoughts through the subtlest movement of his wrinkles, not to have them exposed for anyone to see. It was a skill she had developed through the years, and yet her boss kept surprising her.

What if her own Gabriel did share this one’s emotions, and just didn’t show it? Was that too hopeful to think? It probably was. Either way it was clear that he was hurting now worse than ever before and still wished she could help him.

“Mr. Agreste has just been going through a lot since… well, ever since his wife…”

“Passed.”

“Disappeared,” she automatically corrected.

Now he was the one with a knowing look, trying to express that he could see through her denial.

Maybe he was right to accept it. During that phone call earlier, when Gabriel told her he lost the pocket watch, it felt not only like losing Emilie all over again, but like this time she was gone for real. It would be harder to keep up the pretense after that, no matter what Gabriel would say. However, Nathalie wasn’t sure she was ready to grieve, not all alone like this.

As she thought about Emilie the heavy sensation on her chest expanded upwards, now forming a knot on her throat. Liquid was also starting to gather in the corners of her eyes. Betterfly took a handkerchief out from his suit and offered it to her. She took it, but kept it in her fist while she tried to pull herself back together.

“What about Monarch?” Betterfly kindly attempted to change the topic. “Do you know him? I know that the holder of my miraculous here doesn’t have the best intentions. Are you sure you’re not in any kind of danger?”

Probably not any more than the fact that her days were already counted, but she didn’t want to worry this poor guy with that.

Normally Nathalie would be defensive with an interrogation like this, but after seeing what he saw, she understood that he could be concerned. It must be a shock to find that the same power that you wield could be used for completely different purposes, especially if they go against your own values.

Or maybe they didn’t. Nathalie didn’t know this Gabriel well yet, but were the same person, after all, only… shaped by different circumstances.

The question then pricked her brain. Did he know they were the same person? He had no reason to know, unless he assumed that was the case the same way Nathalie did. Would he even want to know?

“Monarch…” she sighed. “Like I said, he’s going through a lot.”

Her admission was clear enough, going by the way his eyes widened and his sharp intake of air. The reaction didn’t go further than that, and considering how expressive this man had been until now, she assumed his surprise wasn’t too strong. Maybe he had suspected it and just needed confirmation.

Nathalie didn’t want to get into Gabriel’s criminal actions and his motivations, or her own as his partner, so before Betterfly could ask any questions she spoke.

“You seem happy, though.”

He definitely smiles more. Still, earlier he couldn’t have just guessed Emilie was dead here out of nowhere. He must have known because she died there, too. If so, how were the circumstances different in order to produce such different results?

A shadow forming over his eyes contradicted her. “Not everything is great where I come from. In fact, I find your world to be quite lovely. Your heroes are strong and kind, and they have the support of the people. From what Ladybug told me, before they were stolen, the miraculous’ power was shared with others and used for the greater good!”

Very different results, indeed.

“Back home,” he continued, “there’s an entity that hoards all the power of the miraculous, which is kept secret from most of the population. I’m trying the best I can to stop him, but I’m all alone. I’ve also made a lot of mistakes which I’m not proud of, but I find peace knowing that I’m fighting for what I believe is right. All I have is the hope that we can build a better world for everyone. I have to hold on to it.”

“I wish I was strong enough to do the same,” she confessed. “It’s tough to maintain hope when all seems lost.”

“I didn’t say it was easy. I struggled a lot at first. I felt like I was drowning and nothing could bring me to the surface. Trying to swim would only make it worse. Then I realized that the only way out was through, and that if I wasn’t the one to step up then… no one else would.”

Ladybug and Cat Noir were already fighting Monarch. It was their job, not Nathalie’s, but… Despite not having yet lost their miraculous, they also hadn’t defeated Monarch. Recently Nathalie wondered sometimes if she should do something, if she would be the one to make a difference. But she couldn’t bring herself to do anything. She didn’t want Adrien to lose his father and a part of her didn’t want to lose Gabriel, either.

Besides, her lack of success with Hawk Moth showed that any attempt from her at supporting the other party would definitely end in disappointment.

“What if it’s not that simple? What if you just keep failing?”

“You know… It’s been a while but the Nathalie I knew never gave up. No task ever seemed impossible in her hands.”

Her cheeks felt suddenly too warm against the cold night air. His expression lightened back up at her blush. She would have liked to mirror him, but she still didn’t feel well enough.

“What if the task is fighting against the fabric of the universe?”

“Well, then… maybe it’s just as brave to know when to change targets.” He put his hand on top of hers, which was resting on her lap. “After losing my wife I realized that my motivation couldn’t be a desire for revenge or to bring her back. I needed to focus on what I really needed, and what would ultimately do good.”

Nathalie had thought at the beginning that what they were doing was for the best. Emilie was good for her family, for the world. She was kind and loving. She was an inspiration, not only for Nathalie and Gabriel but for anyone who met her. It would certainly have been good for Adrien if they had been able to stop the illness before… before it killed her.

“How can you know for sure what that is?”

“I can’t, but I know it’s not what The Supreme is doing; hoarding the miraculous, hiding them from the world, enslaving the kwamis, and forcing innocent people into a battle that isn’t theirs. People who do know about his abuse are too afraid to face him, but I have faith that with my power I can change their minds, so we can all build a better world together.”

Everything seemed a lot more intense in the other universe. Monarch did hoard miraculous and terrorize a city but it had started with a simple goal. The wish wasn’t supposed to directly affect anyone’s lives except from avoiding the ruin of his and his son’s. Now his goal was even more inconsequential, ridiculous even, since he was obsessed with a vendetta against two random teenagers. Of course stopping this whole fiasco would be good, but in the end all Nathalie wanted was to have a normal life again.

“I don’t have such big aspirations.” She had never been an outstanding person, after all. “I guess all I want is to be able to help the people around me be happy again, even if it’s not the most heroic thing to do.”

“I disagree.”

His hand above her tightened a little, reminding her of its presence. Hesitantly, she turned her hand around, so they could hold each other.

“I wish I was better at that.” His eyes were overcome by that sadness that Nathalie knew well enough. “While I do all this, I know I’ve been missing out on my son’s life. I mean, I do try to get close to him but I just don’t know how to. I can tell he’s struggling and I’m sure after all this is over things will be better for him. But in the meantime…”

He trailed off. Nathalie didn’t know how to fill the space, but she couldn’t stand to see him in pain. Adrien seemed to trust her, but she couldn’t figure out why. She had never been good with kids, not even when she was their age.

The only advice she could offer was, “Perhaps all he needs is to be sure that you’re there for him, that he can rely on your support whenever he needs it. If you make that clear then he’ll come to you on his own.”

His eyebrows lifted up along with his head and he said “You’re right!” in a way that was so identical to Adrien whenever she offered him her input that it was almost funny to watch. “It’s always nice to know there’s someone you can rely on.” Then, a little quieter, he added, “I assume that’s how Gabriel feels about you. I hope he knows how to appreciate it.”

Her face dropped again. “I don’t know. I’ve been wondering if it’s all really worth it. I didn’t mind helping him at first but now that he’s so… focused on his goal, he—“

The tears she thought had been gone returned to flood her eyes as she struggled with her words. He had hurt Nathalie. He lifted her hopes up only to then let her fall to greater depths. He accepted her affection only to push her away afterwards. He looked at her like she was the world and then pretended she was invisible. She had thought the contradictions were only due to the fact that she was her and not Emilie, which she could understand. But now he had betrayed Emilie, too. What did it all mean then? What was all this for? Most importantly, why did it still hurt?

Her hand was moved towards him, now enveloped in both of his. The soothing motion of his thumb over her skin didn’t distract her enough. In fact, it only seemed to encourage the need to cry further.

“I can understand that,” he said. “Sometimes we hold on to people or ideas too strongly for our own good, and we lose sight of other chances.”

“Other chances?”

“Right.”

“Like what?”

She hadn’t realized that there were now tracks of tears on her face, until his gloved hand came up to wipe them away. As he did so, his face also moved closer to hers. While the unreserved affection in his eyes was still overwhelming, this close she found herself captured by it, unable to look away.

“Like what is right in front of you,” he whispered.

Almost unconsciously she was also leaning in, enjoying the warmth she could begin to feel coming from him. Their foreheads touched, and she closed her eyes to savor the moment.

Just as she felt ready to cross the remaining distance, the sudden ringing of her phone made both of them jump apart.

She blinked a couple times as she came back to herself, taking in her surroundings and trying to perceive more than just the drumming of her heart. She finally pulled the phone out of her pocket.

It was Gabriel.

Without thinking, she hung up, then put the device away again.

As she stared towards the trees, the significance of what just happened downed on her like a bucket of cold water being dropped over her head.

Nathalie was the one losing her mind, actually. She leaned down and hid her face between her hands. “What am I doing?” she muttered to herself, “This is a dream, or a hallucination. Emilie never mentioned those but they must be a symptom, or I’m simply losing it, I—“

The other Gabriel began reaching for her but she quickly stood up. The rush of adrenaline that allowed her to do so wouldn’t be enough to let her walk back to the house, though. But she would find a way.

“I have to go.”

“Wait.” He stood, too, and she took a step back away from him.

“I have to make sure Monarch doesn’t do anything stupid.” If she remembered the start of all this correctly, Monarch had to be out there not only with Ladybug and Cat Noir, but with the versions of the heroes from the other universe, too.

“You don’t have to go yet,” Betterfly insisted. “You don’t have to help Monarch, either.”

“No, I have to.”

The look on his face made Nathalie feel guilty about leaving him, but she had no choice. She had to remind herself that he wasn’t her boss. She had only just met him.

He and Gabriel had Emilie’s death in common, but according to what he had expressed Nathalie wasn’t in the other’s life. What if that had been what made the difference? What if this had all been Nathalie’s fault?

She offered her help to track the miraculous of creation and destruction as soon as they figured that the wish was Emilie’s only hope. She enabled Gabriel’s decisions even when she disagreed with them, even when she knew Emilie would disagree with them. She promised she would make Gabriel happy again, but now she had failed both of them. If she let Gabriel get caught or if she didn’t stop him from falling into madness, either way she would be failing them, and Adrien, too.

She couldn’t continue being an accomplice, but she still had to do something, if anything, to make up for all her mistakes.

“I owe it to him. I have part of the blame and I can’t just abandon him, I—“

Her hands tightened around the handkerchief and she noticed how Betterfly’s worried expression softened into some kind of understanding.

“You love him,” he completed for her.

Her body suddenly felt weak again, too weak to hold back the sobs she had been trying to avoid since the moment Gabriel had told her he lost the time miraculous, ever since the moment Emilie had said goodbye.

She didn’t even think of wiping off her makeup before letting herself be pulled into Betterfly’s arms. It was a magical suit, surely the stains wouldn’t be a problem.

His embrace protected her from the cold outside. His hands comforted her on her back and her head, their easing motions working against her shaking.

Despite everything, she still loved Gabriel Agreste. Her Gabriel Agreste, the one she had gone through everything with, the one who struggled to express his gratitude for her but still found ways to do it. The man who could both control chaos in a runway’s backstage as well as unleash it across Paris with the snap of his fingers, the one who had built an entire empire for his family and who would tear it down piece by piece for them, too.

He was misguided, he was in over his head, but he was still the man she owed everything to, the man she promised to stick with until the very end. That didn’t have to mean doing everything he wanted for him; she would find a way to bring him back to the right track.

After all, the owner of the shoulder she was weeping into was living proof that it was possible.

Still sniffling, she pulled away from him to look at his face, to seal it in her mind and convince herself that it was real. Even if she didn’t necessarily want her own Gabriel to become this one, she wanted to know that he could genuinely smile again.

“Nathalie.” He hadn’t let go of her yet, “you have to have hope. A better world is possible.”

She nodded, she believed him.

The ground shaking and the sound of an explosion brought their attention back to their surroundings.

“I should go,” the hero said.

Nathalie nodded again. She also had to make sure that Gabriel was alright, and that Monarch wouldn’t do anything too stupid. From a distance, of course.

Her knees buckled when she tried to take a step, but Betterfly caught her before she could fall. He looked at her with concern.

“It’s a long story, but I’ll be fine.”

He seemed to accept her lie. Without thinking twice he lifted her up once again and jumped across the city, until they were back in her bedroom. He entered through —and shattered— a second window, then helped her sit down at the end of her bed and stayed crouching to be at eye level.

“Goodbye, Gabriel,” she said.

He brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. “Goodbye, Nathalie.”

The Gabriel she knew inopportunely slammed her doors open for the second time tonight. “Nathalie! You’re back.”

He locked eyes with Betterfly for a second, before the latter flew out of the house.

Gabriel rushed to occupy the same position his twin had been in. “Who was that? Are you alright? Did he hurt you?”

Maybe Nathalie was still shaken by her encounter, but as Gabriel looked at her with worry, she could spot a faint, though distinct, softness in his gaze. Through it she could see a future content version of him, one that had finally found peace.

It had to be possible, she had to have hope that it was. Eventually, she told herself, she would figure it out.

[astyrial]

knight in shining armor kiyoko shimizu x gn!reader (meet cute) synopsis: she helps you after a bike crash word count: 1k warnings: college au, minor injuries masterlist | requests are open

    every morning, without fail, you see the same woman on your bike path. her long black hair, her etched-into-your-mind smile. the dozens of times you've biked by her apartment results in the dozens of times she's given you a short wave. 

  even her waves are graceful. the way her hand moves through the wind as she carries on with her activities. sometimes it'll be her watering the flowers outside her window, or her listening to a song loud enough that you can just barely hear it. and it makes her so irritatingly irresistible. 

  you find yourself looking towards where her apartment sits when you pass. and then your mind wonders what makes her so interesting to you. the answer of her perfect music taste, well polished flowers, and cat tower that sits right by the window, rings through your mind. 

  yet you know nothing about her. sure you know snippets of her life, but you can't possibly understand what her life is like. she lives near campus, meaning she's likely a college student. but what's her degree? what's her wants for after college? is she already seeing someone?

  and honestly you never thought your answers would be answered, but make plans and watch fate happen...

  "i'm literally biking to school right now, no, i'm serious! i'm like five minutes out," you try to explain to kuroo on the other end of the phone, his disbelief very visibly evident. 

  you groan as he continues to make jokes about how you're always running late. normally, you try to bike with attention to what's in front of you. but for some reason, mocking and laughing over the phone caught your attention, taking your eyes off of the sidewalk in front of you. 

  "kuroo, i will slap you if you keep distracting me! i told you, i'm so close to the school, i will be in class on time," with an instinctual shake of the head, your eyes barely catch something along your bike path. 

  just a few houses down, the mystery woman is walking towards the sidewalk, her headphones covering her ears. you give a small shout, attempting to slow your bike down as quickly as you can. the worst thing you think you can do right now is hit the woman who makes you so intrigued. probably break one of her bones or something and live embarrassed for the rest of your life.

  kuroo quickly asks what's happening while you drive yourself towards the grass. however, the building that houses the prettiest lady you've ever seen, has a row of bricks. your front wheel runs straight into one of them, which sends you forward. 

  with a low groan, you hit against the grass, your foot caught on the handle. you stay laying there for a moment, hoping to forget everything that just happened and hope that you didn't sprain your ankle. "are you okay?" a voice, certainly not kuroo's, echos through your already pounding head.

  "i will be," you squint your eyes open, her well known smile coming into focus. 

  "well, eventually, but you really took a fall there. where does it hurt?" she holds out her hands a little, her hair tucked behind her ears. quickly, you realize you must accept your fate of never talking to her again.

  your eyes meet her's, the sun creating a halo effect behind her head. her head tilts a little, waiting for you to finally answer her question. "uh my pride?" it was cheesy, you knew it as soon as it felt your mouth. but the small shake of her head and roll of her eyes made it absolutely worth it. 

  "really, though, my head does. my ankle feels awful, my side will probably bruise if i'm being honest," a small, completely forced smile rests on your face. 

  "can you move your foot? and then tell me your name and the year?" she raises her eyebrows, her eyes darting towards your foot as you move it a little. a sigh of relief helps relax the situation a little. 

  as she helps you lower your (luckily not broken foot) onto the grass you recite what she asked for, "l/n y/n, 2023. do you need my phone number too, or is that too much?"

  maybe it's the delirium talking, because even mentally, you were wondering why you're acting so forward. so ridiculously forward. she laughs it off, her hands moving around your ankle some to ensure that nothing is seriously damaged, "how about, for now, you can call me shimizu. maybe even someday kiyoko."

  "someday? so this conversation will surpass your wonderful doctor skills?" you sit up, your side still hurting a little from the impact. 

  shimizu hangs her head, biting her lip with a somewhat annoyed expression, "possibly.. if you cooperate with me here. luckily, it feels like you're ankle will be fine. might want to check a doctor out though. and take some ibuprofen, you could have a concussion."

  "my knight is shining armor, thank you. i'm very late for class right now, but this isn't too bad of a substitute," the bright morning sky creates the perfect background as you give shimizu a much wider smile. 

  she purses her lips, her fingers wrapping around yours as she attempts to help you up. her hands on warm, not clammy warm, but a gentle warm that battles the spring wind. "let's say i'm more of a maiden who's working on a degree in physical therapy," shimizu's fingers linger with yours as you use your free hand to grab the bike's handle. 

  you shrug, "i still like knight in shining armor.. but i should really get going. it was nice to officially meet you, shimizu," with a small, make pretend bow, side hurting and all, you get onto your bike.

  "it was nice to meet you too," she gives you a short wave, watching as you make your way to the school. 

  you look back for a second, noticing her arms crossed in front of her chest, a smile on her face. and her unforgettable smile is what almost makes you forget that the experience ever occurred. that you never completely embarrassed yourself by crashing to the yard.

  "what just happened?" kuroo's voice echoes through the phone, "and since when did you just flirt with people? can't believe i've missed this side of you." shit.

[ghost-proofbaby]

Aruna hadn’t been described as dangerous before, but Nettie was right to use the word. 

summary: aruna's foolishness leads to her finally getting a glimpse into the chasm that resides inside her chest. what she discovers should change something, if not everything.

wc: 4.2k+

warnings: further descriptions of being poisoned, game-adjacent violence (rip nettie), recovery of some memories, mentions of vampiric behavior (careful, he bites), vague mentions/allusions of a parental death, physical description of aruna (her eyes, ears, and hair specifically)

a/n: how much lore can i fit into one chapter? yes.

ao3 | masterlist | previous chapter | next chapter

Aruna is a godsdamned idiot. A fool, just as Astarion had called her. She had been too trusting, and finally, it had gotten her into trouble.

Real trouble. Life-or-death trouble. 

She should react, should move, should follow Astarion’s lead of the defense. She’s clearly been poisoned, for gods’ sakes. But her feet stay planted and her hand stays clutched as her eyes only stare at the scene before her, not even daring to blink for so long that she can feel the burn of reactive tears beginning to gather. She knows she looks pathetic, can feel the shame creeping up right along with the panic, a contract of chills and heat that trace right up her spine. That’s the only explanation for the way Astarion looks at her.

The furrow of his brows is out of disgust. There’s not a single chance that it’s because he’s sharing her fear, that he’s shouldering any of the terrified waves crashing down over her. Even the tadpole connection has finally retreated from her brain. 

“You poisoned me,” she breathes out, voice trembling. She finally blinks – once, twice for good measure – as her eyes divert to the healer caught in Astarion’s hold, “You poisoned me.” 

“I’m sorry, but-” Nettie’s voice is lost as Astarion digs his blade in deeper. Not yet breaking skin, but an unspoken threat. 

He was right. She’s a fucking fool. 

It’s the only possible explanation as she snaps her gaze to him, and with all the breath she can manage to gather, she sternly says, “Let her go.”

“I- What?” he hisses, face twisting, “Why in the sweet Hells would I let her go? She poisoned you-”

“I’m well aware, now let her go.” 

There’s an internal battle that rages like no other in Astarion as he contemplates her demand. She can see his initial reaction clear as day; he wants to defy her, to deliver a killing blow instead of releasing Nettie. Aruna doesn’t need a tadpole connection to know that’s what his hands twitch to do. 

But, then, the look of defiance does the unthinkable – it passes. 

With the same speed in which he’d locked his arms around Nettie, Astarion lets them fall away, staying poised with his weapons as he takes a few steps back. Aruna’s hope is for Nettie to come to her senses, for her to have a reasonable conversation and for there to somehow be a cure to whatever she’s just stabbed the confused girl with. Her heart is still racing, pushing that poison through her system, and her palm feels as though she’s holding it right above an open flame. Searing, blistering, shooting pains. It’s getting harder for Aruna to keep an impassive expression, to hide away all that pain in hopes of maintaining some sort of respectable front. 

Aruna realizes that maybe, just maybe, she needs to come to her senses regarding all her hopes and dreams of kindness. 

“I am truly sorry,” the woman says slowly, one hand still holding the branch as her other begins a slow crawl to her hip, “But you must understand, you are dangerous. I don’t have a cure. All I can do is stop you, before you hurt anyone.” 

Dangerous. It’s the first time Aruna has ever been described as such, as of recently of course. She’s been described as a fool, as clumsy, as heroic – but never dangerous.

The girl who cannot even properly wield her blades certainly cannot be dangerous, can she? 

Nettie’s words betray her as she doesn’t focus on Aruna, though. She’s quick to spin around as she unsheathes the blade that neither Aruna nor Astarion had noticed, lunging straight for the only dangerous one in the room. Astarion. 

He can handle his own. He’s proven that he can; he’s capable of defending himself by easily outmaneuvering Nettie. But there are words seared into Aruna’s every waking breath, and they are all she can hear as the healer attempts to catch Aruna’s companion off guard. 

NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, ABOVE ALL ELSE, SAVE ASTARION. 

Aruna hadn’t been described as dangerous before, but Nettie was right to use the word. 

Nettie’s blade never makes it near Astarion. Not because of his own quick blades or steady footing, but because of Aruna. The air of the room crackles immediately, a thunder rumbling somewhere deep inside of Aruna’s chest as she lifts a hand and simply channels all the rage she feels sparking awake at the prospect of Astarion’s life being in danger. 

A chain of lighting. Beginning at Aruna’s palms, and ending at Nettie’s back. 

No matter what I do. 

Save Astarion. 

Something frenzied within Aruna, the animal that recognizes the elf that has been more of a nuisance towards her than something of importance, fuels the magic. Her magic. 

The magic of a sorcerer with one singular goal in mind. To save a life – a life that is certainly not Nettie’s anymore. 

The blast sends Nettie flying into her stone desk of equipment, a painful snap sounding as she attempts to break the crash with her arm. And the resulting waves of magic show no mercy as their pulsating send Astarion stumbling on his feet, pushing him back and farther out of reach of Nettie.

The only thing left behind in the room is the smell of burning flesh, the ragged and pained breaths of a miraculously still-alive Nettie, and Aruna’s voice. 

No longer trembling, she speaks words that feel as though they don’t even belong to her. At least, not this version of her. They come from deep within, echoing out of that lonely chasm within her that she can’t uncloak from the darkness, “You will know just see how dangerous I truly am if you so much as look at him once more.” 

Astarion, tadpole connection and all, stays silent. 

Aruna doesn’t know how she conjured the strength for the spell she’s used. She doesn’t even know which spell she’s just used. She hadn’t uttered a single cantation as the lighting had escaped her uninjured palm, hadn’t even thought of one. It had come to her as naturally as breathing; even more naturally than breathing, really, given her current state. 

And all that strength is quickly draining from her. Her legs are growing weaker, just as Nettie had predicted, and there’s a twist in her gut that nearly forces her to keel over. But she can’t. Nettie is still alive, and very much a threat. If not to Aruna, then to Astarion. 

Even with a back burnt to a crisp, charred skin peeking through her ravaged clothing, Nettie finds a way to stand up once again. Aruna’s hands fly to her daggers, not even bothering to glance and see if Astarion is in any shape to provide backup. The spell shouldn’t have hit nor affected him. And somewhere in that chasm in Aruna’s chest, she simply knows that he’s unharmed.

If he were, she would feel it in an instant. She has no doubt about it. And that has nothing to do with their current tadpole affliction. 

Move, don’t think. 

It’s Astarion’s voice, but not through the tadpole connection. It’s too muted, too faraway. Like a distant memory that Aruna can’t grasp her fist around. 

She listens to it. Whether she’s only imagining it to be his command out of need for comfort as the poison spreads or not, it’s good advice. 

Her daggers let out a ring from how ferociously she releases them from her scabbards at her hips, a heavy hilt marked with a moon in her left hand, and one marked with a star in her right hand. 

Steady your feet. Keep one arm close to you at all times to protect your torso. Use gravity to your advantage. 

Each set of instructions rings out as if traveling through water, back to back, as Aruna’s feet follow. Her stature is similar to that of Astarion’s, barely bent at the waist as she prowls up to Nettie, a look of determination set on her face. 

One arm poised to strike, one arm defensively staying close to her waist. She swears she can feel the ghost of palms steadying her along the way, correcting her form, as she goes in for a brutal swinging of her left arm.  

Her palm screams out against the leather of the dagger as her blade hits its mark. No hesitation, the metal has dug into Nettie’s chest just as the woman had been prepared for a second attack. Not a mere surface scratch – a proper slashing, one that begins to bleed profusely immediately. 

Do not let your guard down after your first attack. Remember self-preservation; if you’ve managed to weaken them, go in for the kill, Aruna. 

Go in for the kill, she does. 

What’s left of her strength, of her self-preservation, is exhausted entirely on the killing strike. Astarion hasn’t had to move a muscle as Nettie’s body drops to the ground with a thud, Aruna being the one holding a bloodied blade with further evidence splattered across her cheeks. 

Her stomach churns. Her knees finally give out, screaming out in pain as they connect with the rough ground. She swears it’s the weight of her actions and not the poison that has forced her down, but her rattling chest says otherwise. 

She’s just killed someone. 

It’s no longer just her palm that burns ferociously. Her entire body is alight, agonizingly blazing as she curls into herself. Her vision blackens at the edges, her hearing completely fades from her. 

Nettie’s blood is on her hands, and if she were in better shape, she’d have more devastation to spare. 

She doesn’t hear her own scream of agony, nor Astarion’s yell of her name. The last thing she can see, can remember, is the lifeless eyes of Nettie as she succumbs to darkness. 

—

Flashes of memories.

A shadow creeping his way along the edge of the camp, retreating into the forest, unaware of a restless Aruna still awake in the dead of night. 

A drained boar along a dirt path, left carelessly in the center. An irritated pale elf, insisting that investigating the carrion is a waste of time. 

A whisper of fangs against Aruna’s neck in the dead of a night in which sleep would not come easily to her. Wide, red eyes and a mouth slack to fully expose dangerous fangs. 

“Shit.”

A groveling of ‘just a taste’, a promise of strength, a gesture of trust. The piercing, numbing, cold stab of fangs piercing skin. The slow drain, the weightlessness, the gentle coax of ‘that’s enough’. 

His mania. His saunter. His revitalization. 

Her gift he won’t forget. 

As the flashes slow, Aruna makes out a clear image of the night sky that she’s gazing up at. Dazzling freckles of starlight across a stark onyx sheet, a full moon glowing as if brushed with specks of sterling silver. 

It’s captivating, comforting, homely. 

For a moment, she doesn’t understand the familiarity. The sheer importance of the moon hangs on her consciousness, regarding it as a guiding light as she relaxes, but she doesn’t understand. Not until she turns her head ever so slightly, and she catches sight of the familiar tufts of white hair at her side. 

It all clicks into place. 

All the dark holes in her psyche that haunt her during her waking hours have been filled in for just a moment within this dream – within this memory. She isn’t recalling them in vivid flashes as she was before, but there is a simple knowing, a simple fullness where vacancy once resided. She knows exactly where she is, exactly who she is, and she knows the man who rests at her side. She hadn’t even noticed the cold body at first, his thigh perfectly flushed with hers without an ounce of uncertainty in sight; it was natural for them. Here, in this memory, this was the normal. 

She’s sitting on the boulder with a clear outlook of camp, with Astarion at her side, whispering into the late night just as they always do. 

“You know,” he starts, as if she’s entered this consciousness in the middle of a simple conversation between friends, “I swear I’ve heard more horror stories about drow than I have vampires.” 

There are no choices for Aruna to make here. This script has already been written, already played out. She can only experience it. 

“Really?” she snorts, shaking her head. Her dark hair is pushed into the edges of her vision by the breeze, underhues of ashen purple visible in the moonlight, “Pulling that card, are we?” 

He’s wearing a sly yet easy smile. None of the tension Aruna had witnessed from him in her own journey so far is visible. This is the Astarion that that animal knows. That piece of her that resides so restlessly – it’s in control now, because it is the one that has lived this moment before. Soft, trusting eyes. Somehow, she’s aware that his guard has been let down since the night she allowed him to feed on her.

Somehow, she knows that there was a night in which she allowed him to feed on her. 

He’s a vampire. New information, but for some reason, it doesn’t startle her in the slightest. She simply knows. 

“Are you denying that drows aren’t a part of the shadows that go bump in the night?” he teases. He’s close enough that with every one of Aruna’s breaths, their shoulders are brushing. She doesn’t recoil from it; it’s something to lean into. 

She knows him, she trusts him. 

She shrugs and leans forward, and he follows. The camp is a bit different from that of Aruna’s waking hours. There’s a tent at the edge of her small cliff she’s come to love, the top clearly in sight. Deep, deep burgundy. It’s Astarion’s tent. He’d set it up there, acting almost as a guard for her small sanctuary she’s acquired in their homey camp. There’s another tent, too, that Aruna shouldn’t recognize. One off to the left, close to the campfire that’s been doused for the night. The occupant is just out of sight, but whoever resides inside, she knows she cares for. 

A friend. One she hasn’t met yet. Only in this dream, in this memory, does she know whatever force of nature that claims both that physical space and one within her heart. 

“Oh, no, they certainly are,” her voice is so sure, Aruna almost mourns that this version of her is not the one always in control, “You know me. Quarter drow, far more ferocious than you and those toothpicks you call fangs.” 

“Darling, I’m hurt. Must we pit ourselves against each other? Would our enemies not cower more if we joined our horrific forces?” 

Quarter drow. 

Aruna hasn’t even seen her reflection. Not the version of her riddled with holes and lacking in memories. She had no idea – she really shouldn’t even know what a drow is, but the knowledge comes easily to her. 

A dark elf. Images of red eyes far more vicious than Astarion’s glare at her judgmentally, cut through by a different pair. Vivid purple. Caring, loving, motherly. And oh so familiar, because she’s aware that when she does finally glance into a reflective surface, she is going to see a carbon copy of those eyes staring right back at her. Generational jewels, a ghost of a reminder of the woman who has long since taken her last breath. 

Aruna mourns her. But the memory she’s experiencing now has its restrictions, and as much as she chases after those motherly eyes, she’s not quite able to place them. Only know that she shares them. She knows that she will never see them again before her, only in mirrors and rivers. 

“I think my mother would have quite liked you, you know?” she breathes out carelessly, looking at Astarion with impossible warmth. She knows him – she trusts him, “She may have had quite a bit to say about me befriending a vampire, but you’d still grow on her.” 

He throws his head back in a bark of laughter that has Aruna shushing him instinctively, “Would she? I never have been the type that most would introduce to their mothers.” 

“Well, most are fools. I’ll have to introduce you to mine once we’ve returned to the city.” 

Astarion is completely unaware that the only thing that waits in the city is a crumbling stone, grown over with vines, nearly forgotten in the corner of a small graveyard. He will only be meeting the carvings of a mournful child left behind, determined to keep the memory of her mother alive. He has no idea – they aren’t quite there yet. 

“It would be an honor,” he nods surely, looking at her with unwavering eyes. They are alight with the same joy that consumes him every time Aruna indulges his antics. It’s beautiful – he’s beautiful. 

Something hauntingly, devastatingly gorgeous. Something broken, but Aruna has never shied away from a kindred soul. 

After all, how could one broken soul not call to another in the dead of night? 

His hand reaches up, and something inside of Aruna prepares to flinch, but she resists. It’s with a gentle touch that he’s tucking her wild hair behind her ear, fingers lingering as they coyly trace the shape of her ears. She swears, they outline a point. Not as obvious as his own, still a bit rounded and subtle, but it’s there. 

They’re quiet for a few seconds. Snores from across the camp can be heard, albeit a bit muted, and there’s a distant buzz of insects from the forest at their backs. This moment is only theirs. Come morning, their time belongs to others. There are people to help (even begrudgingly), there are other companions to entertain, there are adventures to be had. But for now, it doesn’t really matter. A bubble of safety, an escape of friendship. 

It’s more than Aruna knowing and trusting Astarion. He knows her, too. He’s beginning to trust her. 

He has to, because he lets her relax into him, her head falling slowly so that her temple rests against his shoulder. He tenses still, but he doesn’t push her away. If anything, he only leans into her. 

“Speaking of Baldur’s Gate,” Aruna murmurs, eyes still looking up at the moon as she speaks, “What awaits you back in the city, Astarion?” 

His voice is cool, even more so than his skin against hers, as he replies, “Nothing good.”

For a second, Aruna accepts the answer. She knows better than to push him, and she knows now that he means it when he says as much. But then– the memory taints.

It’s painful.

It’s not a part of the original script. This is not how the moment is meant to go. Something stains it, something makes that animalistic piece of her howl. 

Aruna sees it clearly, now, that her soul has been cleaved in half. It’s not an animal clawing at her insides; it is the half of her soul that knows him and knows their story. And it had gotten lost in the memory, recalling simple and sweet times before devastation had struck. Because the taint spreads, the poison consumes, and his words are nothing more than a bitter reminder. This Aruna, this Astarion – they do not know. But the half of Aruna’s soul that held this memory near and dear does, and the words ‘nothing good’ seems to function as knives that drive into it. It knows, it knows, it knows. 

Nothing good is an understatement as pain sears through Aruna. Wholly, fully. 

Not just an ache. Not just a chasm. Something inside of her has been torn apart and bloodied by the reminder of what’s to come. Aruna can’t remember. The split inside of her is not even, not a 50/50 division. It’s why she can’t remember, and all she can hear is the sobs from the part of her that is forever cursed to. 

Save Astarion, save Astarion, save Astarion. 

The memory is gone. All that remains is the dark, and the sobs. The dreadful, defeated sobs. 

—

When Aruna wakes back up, she’s covered in a cold sweat. With a gasp, she starts to sit up. Those sobs still echo, threatening to spill out of her throat now as a hand is suddenly on her shoulder, urging her to lay back down on an unfamiliar bed roll. 

“No!” a frenzied voice scolds, “No, do not get up. If you undo all my healing, I swear-”

“She has been poisoned. Show her some grace.” 

Astarion. She should be more focused on Shadowheart’s voice and instruction, but she can only cling to his voice defending her. 

Why is he defending her? Why isn’t she dead? 

“She doesn’t need grace,” Shadowheart spits back as Aruna’s eyes flutter about her surroundings, refusing to lay back down as she ignores Shadowheart’s hand, “She needs rest.” 

She’s inside a tent. The afternoon sunlight casted upon it from above turns the ceiling nearly transparent, the shades of purple and delicate lacing visible. 

Shadowheart’s tent. 

“Since when are those two things exclusive?” Astarion stands in the doorway of the tent, taking no steps towards the two women, eyes trained on Aruna. 

She flinches when the pressure of his tadpole caresses her, and he’s in her mind, breaking through far too easily. 

I would lay back down if I were you, his voice begins to coo within her head. The cleric has been feeling rather feisty-

His words cut off as all of Aruna’s racing thoughts pour down the connection. She has no control of it, still reeling from her dream, still remembering the Astarion from her slumber rather than the one in front of her. Still remembering those wretched damn sobs. They aren’t new ones from the part of her that remembers. They’re a memory in themselves. Ones that had poured out of Aruna at some point, ones that were born of pure heartbreak. She can’t place why, she can’t place when – she only knows the broken tone of her own misery. 

For a fleeting second, they flash to him before the connection slam shuts. Neither of them had even been aware that it was possible, but it clearly is, even if Aruna has no idea how she’s done it. It feels as though that cleaved half of her soul has taken full control. Instinctually taking the reins and effectively shoving Astarion back to an arm’s length away as she remembers. 

He mustn't know. 

She almost tries to pry the connection back open in order to spare an apology his way, but Aruna has no choice but to trust herself. If it says that Astarion can’t know, then he can’t. Simple as that.

It still aches when he staggers from the force of the connection being cut, finding his footing farther from her than he originally was. The distance is torture. But it is necessary. 

“A mirror,” she croaks out, softer than she’d tried to force the request. Her chest is rising and falling at an unmanageable rate, hysteria threatening to take over, “I need a mirror.” 

It was just a dream. It had to be.

But something about the urgency in Aruna’s tone has Shadowheart scrambling to obey her command, reaching about her belongings until she produces a small mirror. It’s passed into Aruna’s quivering palms with care before her knuckles turn white from how harshly she grabs onto the reflective surface, not yet bringing it up to eye level. 

She can still see it, clear as day. Her mind feels as though it’s being ripped apart by the images. They feel real. Astarion at her side, her head on his shoulder, the moon smiling down on them. The quiet exchange of histories, that flame of kinship she had felt from the moment she’d even entered his vicinity. The sense of deja vu that had ignited before she’d ever even started to exchange proper words with him. 

“I really do need you to lay back down. You still need rest yet, and-”

Shadowheart’s fussing is cut off as Aruna whispers, “It wasn’t a dream.” 

For the first time since this all began at the Nautiloid crash, Aruna sees her own reflection. She looks worse for wear, lips cracking pitifully and heavy bags beneath her eyes, but those are the least of her problems. 

Vivid violet stares back at her. 

When her shaking hand lifts to brush her unruly hair back, she finds the not-quite-pointed ears hidden beneath. 

Part drow. 

It wasn’t a dream. 

The only issue, of course, is that when Aruna looks up to Astarion, she is faced with a terrible truth. If the dream had truly been a memory, if it had been true that drow blood runs through her veins, then it means that someone else’s true identity was also true. 

His mouth is agape still, the stun of her pushing him out of her mind lingering, and she can see the shine of his canines from behind his lips. 

Not canines. Fangs. 

Astarion is a vampire. 

“Aruna, please-” Shadowheart tries to say.

Astarion is a vampire. 

“I need to speak to Astarion,” her eyes lock on his. Amethysts meet rubies. Precious gems belonging to the night. “Alone.” 

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[sea-creature-things]

Grimwalker Things

Chapter 1: Fangs

Alternative title: all the times Hunter could've told his friends he's a Grimwalker and then didn't.

Hi! I'm starting my first multi-chapter fanfic. It's basically a collection of Grimwalker headcanons. The stories take place in the human realm, in the time skip of Thanks to Them. The chapters are loosely connected and (mostly) wholesome. This first one is definitely light-hearted! :)

You can read here under the cut or on AO3. Link here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53015821/chapters/134123059

It's been only two weeks since the witches crash landed in the human realm. Luz had led them towards her house in the pouring rain, which didn't hurt them... It was a strange sensation. The human realm by itself was very strange. Willow had not expected that they would adapt so quickly.

Luz's mom had opened the door, getting the scare of her life. Her daughter had finally come home, but she was covered in wounds and bruises. On top of that, she'd bring 4 witches with her in the same condition. But Camila is a saint, she welcomed everyone into her home.

That night, Luz had introduced them to a basilisk named Vee. She had sought out refuge, just like them, months earlier. Then Camila and Vee had helped them patch up. They had explained everything that happened. But if she were honest, Willow had felt incredibly numb that night. She couldn't do much, Amity had been a much bigger help. Being able to explain most things very calmly.

Luz was assisting her, knowing exactly what her mom wouldn't understand. Hunter had been completely focused on Gus, sometimes looking around the room suspiciously. Willow remembered he looked smaller than normal, Gus too. His experience of the human realm was tainted, the one thing he had dreamed off for years was ruined. It was a horrible night, but at least now they were safe, warm and healthy. Well, getting there at least.

However, to Willow's personal surprise, they all got used to their new living arrangements very quickly. At the end of the first week, they had already established a routine. They had learned all sorts of human things. They even had a few fun outings. (Mainly to the grocery store, which Gus was over the moon about.) Hopes were high.

They also worked on a way back home. They were planning to get the portal door working again. Somehow. But before that they would have to clean the old house a bit. Fix it up. Though, they mainly tried to distract themselves.

One thing the squad did to keep their spirits up, was play games. Gus had even come up with one himself: Whoever made Hunter laugh would win. What would they win? Nothing really, the sound itself was prize enough.

Willow and Gus had noticed how he rarely ever laughed. The first time they heard his genuine laugh was 6 days into their stay. The sound was amazing and contagious. So, the Emerald duo made it their mission to hear it again.

Dark humor seemed to do surprisingly well. But so did puns, which wasn’t surprising at all. Flapjack was the current record holder, but he's totally cheating.

Through this game Willow realise something. Hunter would always cover his mouth when laughing. Then she noticed he'd do the same thing when he yawned. It was kind of cute, in a weird way. She thought he must just be insecure about his tooth gap.

One morning Hunter sat down in the living room where everyone else had already gathered. The morning-people were watching tv, while the not-morning-people were grumpily trying to wake up.

He spotted Willow on the couch, so he sat down next to her. She was one of the grumpy ones. Sprawled out lazily, her feet far away, her arms slack and her spine looking miserable. Hunter didn't want to say anything about posture though. Not again.

It was Sunday. Miss Camila didn't have to work, so she slept in. Breakfast would be approximately an hour and a half later than normal. But Hunter still woke up at six.

He told the others it was just habits. Which was technically true, but he really wanted to do chores while everyone else was sleeping. That way he wouldn't have to 'have a talk' about it.

This morning, he had tidied the living room, swept the floors, cleaned the downstairs bathroom, and set the table. Breakfast was still half an hour away. The other kids had slowly been waking up and trickled into the living room. Hunter then made coffee before joining them.

He put his coffee mug down on the little table in front. Avoiding Vee who was sprawled out, similarly to Willow, next to (and over) the table. She was also one of the grumpy ones. Gus was in front of the table, looking at the tv with wide eyes. Absentmindedly trying to find the straw of his orange juice with his tongue, and failing.

"Morning." Willow's drowsy voice came from beside him. She lazily turned towards him and smiled sweetly, closing her eyes like she would fall asleep again.

"Good morning." Hunter said a lot more cheery. He couldn't help but smile at her antics. He felt his cheeks getting hot, which had become a regular occurrence lately. It was very strange for him.

"You're a big fan of coffee huh?" Willow said with a tired smile. Trying to come up with a pun to make him laugh. But she couldn't thing of anything, it was too early! So, Flapjack would retain his leaderboard position. For now.

“Yup! I love me some dirty bean water in the morning.” Hunter grinned with an eye on Luz, who was cuddled up with Amity on the big chair. Both of them were morning people, but still slow and tired.

Luz cringed loudly at his sentence, like he had hoped, and Hunter smile grew even wide.

"Ugh! Whyyyyy!" She whined.

“HA!” He laughed like this was his personal victory. Some of that Golden Guard snarkiness shining through.

Willow noticed something in that moment. His mouth was wide open and his tooth gap was in full display, but there was something else…

His incisors were sharp. Like really sharp. Like really, really sharp. Like Eda-sharp.

“Whoa! Hunter, do you have fangs?”

Gus spit out his orange juice. Hunter immediately covered his mouth and looked at Willow bewildered.

“No.” His voice was muffled.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Amity was now wide awake, trying to look into his mouth from where she sat.

“What?! Let me see!” Luz raced over to the couch.

“No! I don’t have-“

“Come on~ show them to us!” Willow was now extremely close to his face. He tried to back away but Luz was on the other side.

“Y-Yeah Hunter, show us!” Gus looked just as excited, but his voice wasn’t like the others. There was a trace of… something in there. Whatever it was didn't stop him from joining Luz's side.

“Fang twinsies!!” Vee gasped loudly. She had apparently also woken up, turning around as fast as demon-ly possible.

Suddenly Hunter was surrounded by everyone trying to look into his mouth. It all happened so fast, it felt like switch had flipped. Everyone was wide awake now, the room was full of energy. He was stammering and trying to find anywhere to focus on. But everywhere were eyes, and expecting smiles. He blinked rapidly and felt his breathing getting a little irregular.

“I don’t have fangs!!” He yelled and jumped over the back of the couch. Running to the basement. He felt incredibly embarrassed. His face probably reflected that too, looking like a blond tomato. All he wanted to do was run and hide.

Upstairs all the kids saw their oldest run for his life. Wide eyes and gaping mouths. Most of them too stunned to speak.

"He totally has fangs." Amity smirks.

"Amity!" Willow slaps her shoulder lightly. Guilt was already clawing at her heart.

"What?" The pink haired witch didn't seem to understand it yet. "You're the one who brought it up."

Willow pouted. This was not helping her rising feelings. Gus patted her head, he understood. Luz did the same with Amity to calm her down. It worked like a charm, it always did.

"I think we messed up there." Luz laughed nervously. Willow nodded, looking at the hallway.

"Yeah... we kinda swarmed him." Vee said with the same expression. "I mean, he jumped over the couch."

"Oh..." It finally clicked in Amity's head. "Right. You're right. We should go apologise."

"Or at least check up on him first?" Gus offered. "Should we all go?"

"I'll go." Luz said as she stood up. "He's probably fine, we just embarrassed him."

The room filled with a few 'yeah's and 'totally's as she walked out. Vee began to joke with Amity about the incredible leap they witnessed. Gus assured Willow the whole thing wasn't that bad.

"So... what did they look like?"

"Gus!"

"I didn't get to see 'em!"

Luz descended the stairs. She found Hunter sitting crosslegged on his makeshift bed. He was holding Flapjack on one hand and scratching him under the chin with the other. The bird and his owner were laughing and cooing at each other. The little palisman had clearly calmed him down successfully.

"Hey buddy." Luz called out when she got to the bottom of the stairs. He didn't startle, so she figured he'd already heard her come down. Hunter didn't turn towards her though.

"Hey..." He kept his attention on Flap. His ears turning a soft pink again.

"We kinda overwhelmed you there, huh?" She asked coming closer to him. This time he turned his head to her direction and nodded. Maybe he was still a little affected.

"I'm sorry about that." She offered. "We all are."

"No, no, it's okay!" Hunter finally said. "I'm sorry."

"What?" Luz sat down next to him, hugging her knees. The human gave Flapjack some scritches too. "Why are you sorry?"

Hunter didn't say anything for a while. He just looked around the room for a bit. And continued to pet Flap, who then chirped at him.

"I don't know." He admitted softly.

"Is it a Grimwalker thing?" Luz whispered. She was just as paranoid as Hunter that someone would somehow hear them, anytime they talked about it.

"Probably." Hunter sighed. Luz bumped her shoulder against his and he returned the gesture with a smile.

He really didn't want to talk about this, but he had no choice right now. Flapjack chirped some soft reassurance. He hopped from his hands to Luz's knee, cuddling against her face. Then he settled in his witch's hair.

"Can you help me with a story for the others?" Hunter asked her. Luz looked at him surprised, then became excited. That was a rare sight lately.

"Of course!" She sprang up. "What if, after years of gruelling training, your teeth adapted to an aggressive lifestyle?"

"Uh-"

"OR, or! What if, you sharpened them to make yourself look more menacing?" She held her hands like claws in front of her. Hunter laughed and stood up next to her.

"I was thinking something a little simpler?"

"Oh..." Luz smiled awkwardly. "They can't be fake, you can't take them out."

"Mmmh." Hunter ruffled her hair. "Got any more creative ideas?"

"Ah stop that!" Luz swatted at his hands. He could even see a little sparkle in her eyes now. "Okay. What if, you have them instead of a bilesac?"

Hunter tilted his head at her, encouraging her to continue.

"Like, you don't have organic magic, but you do have other traits. Like fangs!" she said it like it was an amazing accomplishment.

"That could work... maybe." Hunter held his chin and thought about it.

"Yeah! And-"

"Kids! Breakfast is ready!" Camila's voice came from the top of the stairs.

"We're coming mom!" Luz shouted back. Completely forgetting the sentence she was just about to say.

"We'll just have to go with it." Hunter looked at her worried. She touched his shoulder with a sweet smile.

"Don't worry Hunter." She said reassuringly. "It'll be okay."

Hunter sighed, throwing the tension from his shoulders. He ruffled her hair again. Then she barrelled into him for a hug. It felt weird at first, he still wasn't used to this. But he soon relaxed and it actually felt rather nice. Luz squeezed tight before letting go, and let him towards the kitchen with Flap flying in between them.

The duo stood in the doorway and everyone turned to them. The room was filled with apprehension and awkwardness.

"What happened?" Camila looked between them. Vee and the witches had helped her make a big Sunday breakfast. With waffles, eggs and a tiny bit of bacon. Yes, it was more expensive then simple toast, but this was important to her. And to these poor kids.

Luz slapped Hunter's back hard. The tension that had climbed back onto his shoulders fell off again.

"We overwhelmed Hunter a little, but he's okay." She said cheery.

The room relaxed, relief on everyone's face.

Luz walked over to her mom to help her with the last waffles. Explaining everything in whispers.

Hunter followed a few steps so he'd be insides the kitchen. Gus bounced to him and they did their secret handshake. It was his way of checking if his buddy was actually okay. Gus lit up afterwards. Then he punched him awkwardly in the shoulder.

"Sorry for swarming you back there."

Amity, Vee and Willow chimed in with 'yeah's and 'sorry's of their own.

"Nah it's okay." Hunter punched him the same way back. "I was just a little embarrassed about the... well, t-the uh... you know."

He gestured to his mouth, blushing a little. He refused to say fangs.

"Can I see them?" Gus pumped his fists, looking up with stars in his eyes.

"I wanna see them too!" Vee climbed over the kitchen island and joined Gus's side with the same pose.

"Wait wait wait! Me too!" Luz ran over to make the duo a trio.

Hunter looked at each of their excited faces bewildered. He couldn't believe this. Amity sighed with her hand pinching between her eyes. Willow shook her head, looking amused.

"They don't learn, do they?" She whispered to her friend.

Hunter wasn't completely surrounded, so the urge to escape was less strong. But still!

"Pleeeeaaaase?" The trio pleaded. Three sets of puppy-eyes staring at him.

Hunter looked at the girls for help. But he was met with smirks. He would not be rescued today. He sighed and scrunched his nose. Looked down at their stupid little faces one more time. Then pulled his upper lip in a way that they could see his teeth.

Luz and Gus squealed. Making his embarrassment ten times worse.

"Fang twinsies!" Vee gasped again.

"They're not fangs." He muttered stubbornly.

"Alright kids, settle down." Camila called, secretly also curious about theses supposed fangs. "Breakfast is served."

Hunter couldn't be more grateful about the save. And the table full of delicious food. They all quickly took their seats and happily devoured everything.

Breakfast was peaceful and fun. Afterwards Amity raised her hand.

"Can I ask now?"

"Sure." Hunter sighed

"Why do you have fangs?" Everyone was curious, but Amity was a girl who needed answers. Hunter appreciated that about her... most of the time.

He looked at Luz for support, who gave him discrete thumbs up. But now all eyes were on him and he's never been good at lying.

"It-it's because um... I'm only half a witch." He laughed awkwardly. "Can't draw spell circles, but I get sharp teeth!"

"Don't call yourself that." Willow scrunched her nose.

"Ah no. I didn't mean it like that, I'm just..." Hunter pleaded inwardly with the Titan to make him better at improv. "I'm different in those things. Just those two things."

Luz tried not to facepalm. Hunter wasn't doing great. Vee looked at her sister knowingly, who sent her a begging look. Discretely of course.

"That makes sense." The little basilisk offered, like a guardian angel. She was way better at lying.

"Yeah, it's very interesting." Amity looked convinced.

"Don't worry bro." Gus patted his shoulder. "We love you just the way you are."

"Uh thanks." Hunter laughed awkwardly again. Finally able to breath once more.

"Just don't call yourself that again." Willow said, her voice sweet but threatening. Hunter nodded fiercely.

"Yes. I mean no! Um, I promise."

A few mornings later when Hunter entered the kitchen, Luz ran over.

“Show me them fangs!”

Hunter looked away, not really wanting to comply. It was just them and Camila. The rest wasn't awake yet, but they'd be here soon.

“Show. Me. Them. Fangs!”

Luz punched his stomach with every word. Not hard or anything, it felt more like tickling. Hunter was glad that she seemed to love his teeth so much. But he refused to admit he had fangs. It made him feel weird.

“Come on! Please!!”

Apparently fangs were a big deal to her. Willow seemed to be impressed with them as well, Amity didn't really care and Vee was happy. Gus was just happy he had something to tease him about.

Hunter was glad that the gang hadn’t asked too many questions. They'd accepted his lame excuse very easily.

“Fiiiiiine.” He sighed, raised his upper lip and opened his mouth.

“Yehes!”

He was never living this down.

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Hi! Thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun planning and writing this. I want to post the second chapter on Friday next week. It's about the very popular Grimwalker headcanon surrounding Palisman. I'm very excited :))