#but youre still in the Joint Training arc

[evilkitten3]

Wanted to tell you that YES while all that happened bakugo is (even tho being held by multiple people) just laying on the ground for multiple chapters

it's incredibly funny to me bc like irl it's been. almost a year since that chapter came out. and he's been lying there the whole time. he's one of my favorite characters but tbh i really want the story to finally cut back to him and have edgeshot pop back out and go "yeah no there's nothing i can do he fuckin dead" bc it would be so freaking funny.

ofc it'd also be pretty bad writing but that's neither here nor there

[thyme-in-a-bubble]

Peter Parker x widow!reader

I'm just imaging Natasha little sister coming to live at Stark tower and Peter falling head over heels

He just strikes me as the type to have a badass girlfriend while he's a softie

a/n: feels an appropriate for this to do a classic flirty sparring fic, don't you think? ♡

word count: 618

∼ gentle reminder that feedback, but especially reblogs are the way you support writers on here ∽

masterlist | join my taglist 

“You’re strong, right?” you nonchalantly asked as you passed Peter in the hallway, not stopping in your stride to wait for his answer. 

Doing a double take, he sputtered, “w-what?”

“Come with me,” you kept your eyes fixed forward as you called back to him, “I need someone to train with.”

“Uh, okay,” you heard his footsteps catch up to yours. 

Readjusting the protective wraps your fists were already enveloped in, you soon rounded the corner into the gym, briefly giving each of your arms a good stretch to each side on your determined stride towards the wide mat in the centre of the room. 

“Alright,” you spun around, gesturing for him to step closer, joining you on the square pad, “no webs or anything,” you rolled your neck, a quiet crack resounding at the stretch, “just some good old fashion one on one, yeah?”

“I really don’t wanna hurt you,” he exhaled lowly as you raised your clenched fists.

“Well, that makes one of us,” you chuckled, not needing any longer before pouncing, landing a swift blow to the side of his jaw, “come on, hit me!”

A grimace briefly blooming from where you struck him, he groaned, “I can’t, I’m sorry, it just feels wrong to hit a girl.”

“Parker,” you rolled your eyes and vocalised the reason for your choice of sparring partner, “I wanted a challenge, so give me a fucking challenge.”

Your leg arced all the way up to his shoulder, though your foot barely even managed a tap him before he had somehow twisted you down onto the floor, overpowering you with his staggering strength. Thinking that was enough, a soft smile curled up on Peter’s lips as he hovered above you, waiting for you to tap out. 

Though when your palm reluctantly came down upon the mat and you both got back up, you quickly hissed, “again!” 

“You sure you don’t wanna just-,” his sentence crumbled as you cut him off with yet another punch.

“I said again!” you tightened your core and spun up onto his shoulders in an attempt to take him down. Smirking as you felt him begin to tumble, the celebration sadly didn’t last very long as you didn’t land on your feet as you usually did, his instincts haven kicked in and sent you rolling across the floor.

All the air in your lungs got knocked out as your body collided with one of the sporadic pillars in the room, an excruciating pain flaring up in your right shoulder at the impact. 

“Oh my god,” Peter rushed to your side as you slowly sat up, “I am so so sorry, I swear I didn’t mean to-”

“Peter,” you groaned to shut him up, peeking down at your dislocated joint, “I’m fine,” your laboured breaths filled the air, “just pop it back into place.”

“What?”

Squinting up at his horrified features, you carefully got back up on your feet and murmured, “fine, I’ll just do it myself then,” before turning to face the column and pressing your injured shoulder against it. 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Peter winched, “you could make it worse like that if you-” the loud snap as you rammed against the post, popping it back into place, effectively shut him up completely. 

“Sure, if you’re an idiot and don’t know how to do it,” you exhaled as the sharp stinging melted into a more bearable ache, “you have no idea how many times I've had it happen. Still remember the first time I had to figure out how to do it on my own. I was on an assignment in Düsseldorf, hiding in this closet and I couldn’t make a sound…”

© 2023 thyme-in-a-bubble 

[aromanticannibal]

Ojiro hate exists??????? Tf did that little guy do... He's just some guy...

I understand why people would think Ojirou dislikes Shinsou to be honest because until season 5 happened, Ojirou did look mad, or at least annoyed, at Shinsou for using him to win during the Sports Festival. The thing is that that doesn't make him evil, Shinsou was in fact in the wrong for not asking Ojirou normally and using his quirk on him without his consent. I don't think Shinsou is evil either, he's a desperate kid who looks like he's been rejected a lot, but he did a shitty thing and Ojirou would be right to dislike him as a result.

Thing is that Ojirou DOES NOT DISLIKE SHINSOU OH MY GOD. LIKE WOW HE LIKES HIM. We barely see them interact but everytime they do interact after the joint training arc (where Ojirou just looks surprised to see Shinsou) Ojirou is SO excited to see him.

Like come on. He's one of the characters smothering Shinsou when he makes his grand comeback before the war restarts, he's literally wagging his tail.

This official art is from chap. 146 which is still pretty early on and Ojirou is looking at Shinsou with a little smile and they're talking to each other. Like this is a nice interaction they r not arguing or giving each other the cold shoulder. And of course.

LITERALLY dying rn. Ojirou wants to be friends w/ Shinsou so bad it's adorable he's literally doing the tailman equivalent of wrapping your arm around someone if this was like Kirishima and Bakugou people would be going INSANE over this (rightfully so).

Anyways to answer your actual question I fear it's not that people hate Ojirou it's more that people need a villain for their story. I personally think it's often cheap to take a perfectly nice character and make them an asshole for the sake of conflict but a lot of people do it. In Ojirou's case it's especially out of character given he is a genuinely nice boy and does like Shinsou.

I do ship shinoji I'm sorry I fear it may have come through my rant

[dekusleftsock]

I JUST HAD THIS REALIZATION IN THE SHOWER WHY HAVE I NEVER. THOUGHT ABOUT KATSUKI LIKE THIS.

So this is going to kind of go into Izuku’s bullying from Katsuki but it’s mainly if not entirely about why Katsuki has always stood out as a person, regardless of quirk or even leadership.

What got me thinking about this was actually those “American meets K-Drama bullies” on tiktok, which I often feel has a hint of xenophobia, but I digress.

One of the main points as to WHY the American in those examples would “win” is because of the cultural differences between fighting back vs shutting up and taking the beating. The main reason most Americans believed they would win is because culturally, a K drama bully would never think that their victim would retaliate, much less try to beat their ass in the first place.

Japan and China have similar cultural standards, especially to bullying (which is why bullying is so so bad statistically in Japan, with a whopping 57% bullying rate), and this “sit down and take the beating” cultural standard often permits bullies to continue to retaliate within the school. (Fun fact I was actually researching divorce in Japan for this due to some misinformation I’d read a while ago, but apparently Japan doesn’t have joint custody?? Like period?? It comes from the idea that a family is a set unit, and that were a parent to want to leave that unit, they are fundamentally no longer apart of it. No marriage, no custody, no child. You simply don’t see your kid very often, or ever. Sometimes this is even a decision on the father’s part, thinking that it’s “too painful to see the child after separation”, and that parents don’t see the benefit in children having both parties in their lives)

So, thinking of this in mind, I first went to why Izuku wouldn’t necessarily speak out or try to fight back. He wants to, he definitely almost does, but ends up standing silently shaking instead. Yes, fighting back may feel good, but even to people who would sympathize with said struggles may still blame the victim in this situation for “causing trouble”, it’s why Izuku and Katsuki’s relationship is even more interesting; it’s not just Izuku gaining confidence as he goes into high school, but that after he was given a space TO fight back (the first hero training), he actually started his arc on “defying society” and “not pushing things under the rug”. Tearing that rug to shreds doesn’t just mean looking out for those who haven’t been looked for, but also for destroying the standards that fighting back is a fault of yourself.

Tbh we also have this in the west as well, even those Americans who like to make those TikTok’s shaming people in countries they have no contextual idea to understand, much less solve. Because it’s not that fighting back itself would be hard, but that the social backlash would cause you to be even more of a target. It’s a lose-lose situation, so yes, a student will choose the wisdom of their parents and their elders that tells them to pretend it isn’t there.

But, besides that, in America (and I honestly wouldn’t doubt that this is in Europe too) the subtlety of that shame IS STILL THERE. I can even account for this in my middle school, for lightly pushing my bullies who ganged up on me, I was the one blamed and threatened punishment. The idea of a fight at all in high school would cause immediate suspension on both parties records, regardless of why or who started it. My brother in middle school was expelled for threatening kids who were both physically and vocally harassing him, and instead of any sort of help from the school, they REFUSED footage that might have defended him and my brother was then ostracized by my neighborhood/school district and thought to be some kid about to shoot up a school, he wasn’t.

Violence isn’t always the answer, obviously, but this is mainly to point out the hypocrisy of putting the west on this pedestal for fighting injustice.

I wanted to put this in somewhere but didn’t know where so it’s going here, but I find this take even funnier given the fact that North America has a 1% higher bullying rate than Asia which is so fucking funny and ironic

BUT BACK TO THE MAIN POINT ON KATSUKI, IM GETTING THERE I PROMISE🙏🙏

I think there’s this perception online of Katsuki that he is considered so unbelievably cool and normal given the context of his middle and elementary school, but putting it into perspective? Fighting your bullies, especially ones a year older than you, is REALLY WEIRD. Like, he’s an odd ball. It actually makes so much more sense as to why Izuku admires Katsuki in the first place. Katsuki has NEVER simply sat down and took the beating IN HIS LIFE.

And when you really think about it? All of that direct language, how rude he talks in Japanese (as in what pronouns he even uses for people, to the point that even the “softer” or “more intimate” pronouns he uses are… also kind of rude), and yk, suddenly, it’s almost like all the people at the beginning of their first year making fun of him… makes sense. And not just in a “lets humble this guy” way, they have no reasons to think of him in any kind of way really, they’re simply reacting to Katsuki and his odd way of speech and forwardness. He IS weird here, not just an asshole.

But EVEN GIVEN the fact that people know and think Katsuki is weird, he still strides along anyway. In fact, the only person who has ever gotten under his skin has been Izuku, who never even implied that he thought any malice of him in the first place.

Even now Katsuki continues to be himself to such a visceral, outward degree. I saw this post recently that was saying Izuku was actually quite mature for his age, but I’d argue that it’s less maturity, and more that he has just abided by a certain cultural standard of being thankful for the opportunities he’s been given.

It’s almost like Horikoshi has used Katsuki as this… idk, societal commentary? He certainly stays a societal commentary here in the west and our standards, often portraying more nuanced ideas of forgiveness and change and humility, but it’s different now that I think about it.

Katsuki isn’t just a character made to be rude for the sake of being funny, he’s an honest to god, walking, talking, culmination of what Japanese culture stands to change. It’s why Katsuki keeping his “hardened” traits is so so SO important. And it’s even more interesting given that he’s popular, he’s powerful, and he’s still bold while he does so.

Katsuki didn’t try to be popular, he just happened to do so. Explaining why he’s so bizarrely different from everyone else suddenly makes everything about his character make sense to me. Like, ofc Izuku would admire him to an almost worshipping degree, ofc he would stay in his life regardless of his flaws, Katsuki is himself in the most unapologetic way possible and THATS what’s truly admirable about him. His quirk, his determination, they’re both beautiful, but he’s the hero in his life because heroes inherently juxtapose the society around them. And that is exactly what Katsuki is.

And Katsuki, for all his flaws, never changed himself for society. He was always, long before he went to UA, before he even had his quirk, before he’d probably even met Izuku—been a hero.

[scarecrowofthefields]

Kakashi Appearances in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

I couldn’t find a list of all the episodes where Kakashi made an appearance in Boruto: NNG so I decided to make my own. Not sure how many people still care about Boruto: NNG, hopefully it’ll save people the headache that I had scouring through 293 episodes just for this retired man

updated: October 24th 2024

Key:

episode number - episode title

no asterisks = one scene

** = two scenes or more

*** = kakashi-centric

13 - A Demon Beast Appears***

Kakashi's debut in Boruto! Not only that, he showcases a new Lightning Style: Purple Lightning in place of Chidori after he lost the Mangekyo Sharingan at the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War

18 - A Day in the Life of the Uzumaki Family**

It's Inauguration Day of the Seventh Hokage, Kakashi leads the ceremony and presents Naruto as the new Hokage Kakashi does a silly distressed laugh in "The Day Naruto Became Hokage" OVA

20 - The Boy with the Sharingan

He receives a phone call from Naruto while he's on holiday at a hot spring

35 - The Parent Teacher Conference! ***

Kakashi disguises himself as "Sukea" and interviews the students before they take their academy graduation exams

36 - The Graduation Exam Begins! ***

The students are faced with the practical exam and discover Kakashi as the test proctor

37 - A Shinobi's Resolve ***

Kakashi tests the student's motivation as future shinobi

55 - The Scientific Ninja Tool

He attends a private meeting with Naruto and Shikamaru about the purpose of the White Zetsu and Sasuke's reports about the Otsutsuki

62 - The Otsutsuki Invasion**

Kakshi's spotted watching the Chunnin Exam finals with Guy, Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, and Iruka. The stadium is attacked by the Otsutsuki clan, he helps to evacuate the arena

63 - Sasuke's Secret Weapon

He assures Sasuke he'll take care of everything (watching over Sarada) and wishes him the best in returning Naruto back alive

71 - The Hardest Rock in the World**

He has a delicate nature when it comes to things, like peeling an orange

72 - Mitsuki's Will**

Kakashi and other advisors discuss Mitsuki's disappearance

73 - The Other Side of the Moon

As the Council criticizes Naruto's reckless decision, Kakashi believes in him and reminds the Council they are there to guide the Hokage

87 - The Sensation of Living

Kakashi and Tsunade are sent to meet with the other Great Villages to gather support to engage in Iwagakure affairs

95 - Tactics for Getting Along with Your Daughter **

He tries to help Sasuke understand his daughter's feelings using Icha-Icha Tactics as a reference

106 - The Steam Ninja Scrolls: The S-Rank Mission ***

It's time for a well-earned vacation, Kakashi and Guy set off for the Land of Steam with Mirai as a bodyguard

107 - The Steam Ninja Scrolls: The Dog and Cat War! ***

In the Land of Steam, the group discovers there's an annual festival in town

108 - The Steam Ninja Scrolls: The Haunted Inn! ***

The group takes a stop at a haunted inn and runs into Tenten

109 - The Steam Ninja Scrolls: Potato Chips and the Giant Boulder! **

A giant boulder has crushed a popular local hot springs, putting a holt on their trip

111 - The Steam Ninja Scrolls: Mirai's King ***

Kakashi and Guy finds Mirai and the missing girls, they provide backup as Mirai goes after the follower of Jashin Episode 110 doesn't feature Kakashi but it's important to the story arc, ngl thought he was in it lol

115 - Team 25 ***

He disguises himself as "Sukea" once more to investigate the complaints Team 25 has been getting. We get to learn more about Houki who idolizes Kakashi

167 - Their Decision

He does a sneeze at the end of the episode. Please watch it

168 - Training Begins! ***

Reluctant at first, but he later oversees Boruto's training

169 - A Joint Mission with the Sand

Kakashi tells Boruto that he has reached the limit with his Wind Style: Rasengan

170 - A New Rasengan **

Seeing Boruto's training is coming along well, he calls in a favor

171 - The Results of Training **

He's impressed with the outcome of Boruto's training and tests it out using the most effective method

172 - A Signature of Fear

Kakashi greets Boruto in the hospital and orders him to not use Compressed Rasengan recklessly

176 - Blockade the A-Un Gate! **

He caught a fish!!

211 - The Chase ***

He teams up with new gen Team 10 in tracking down an intruder who broke into the archives

260 - Fireworks of Love ***

Kakashi goes on a "mission" with Boruto to solve a Tragedy of Love in order to obtain a first edition copy of Icha Icha

282 - Sasuke's Story: Infiltration **

He becomes a tutor to Nanara, a prince of the Land of Redaku who was sent to Nagare Village since he was too young to rule. Kakashi takes this opportunity to teach him how to read and write. In a later scene, he sneaks into the King's study in search of a book of the Sage of Six Paths

286 - Sasuke's Story: The Ring

Kakashi makes fun of Naruto for being "thankless" about the work he did in the Land of Redaku

In the background / No lines

78 - Everyone's Motives

178 - Our Fathers' Example

215 - Prepared

not even gonna bother writing a description for these. there's probably a few episodes that show Kakashi in the bg but I happened to stumble upon these ones by accident

[star-light-imagines]

Bakugo x quirkless reader that uses alot of support items to get by in the hero course. (Gender neutral)

Bakugo and the reader spar for the first time and the reader ends up beating him.

How would bakugo end up reacting to the loss?

┊ ┊ ⋆˚  Thank you for the request! I hope you enjoy it! This was my first time writing a battle scene so I got really excited.

┊ ┊ ⋆˚ The reader is part class 1-B and they end up sparing during the joint training arc, bakugo's team doesn't win this time around.

Notice Me.

⋆ ★ Included- katsuki bakugo x reader. class 1-A/class 1-B training arc. season 5 spoilers. battle scenes. eventual fluff. bonus content.

⋆ ☆ Warnings- gn! reader. katsuki bakugo cussing. !season 5 spoilers! tense battle scenes. blood. bakugo mildly hurt. reader mildly hurt.

⋆ ★ Word Count- 4,972

☆ ⌒ ★ ⌒ ☆ ⌒ ★ ⌒ ☆ ⌒ ★ ⌒ ☆

'You're quirkless.'

'Pick another dream kid.'

'Give up already.'

'Don't you get it? You will never be a hero.'

The memories coursed through your mind on repeat, throughout your whole life there has never been one person who truly thought you could become a hero, much less get accepted into the U.A. Hero Course. You had never let other people's opinions deter you, being a hero was your dream and you weren't going to give up no matter how hard you fought for it.

After you didn't develop a quirk at five years old your parents had taken you to the doctor, only for you to be diagnosed as quirkless. You had been devastated at first, but you never gave up hope that you could still become a hero and the major reason why you decided to keep going was Best Jeanist.

You've always looked up to Best Jeanist, even before you found out you were quirkless. He wasn't as flashy or strong as All Might but watching him made you feel that anything was possible as long as you worked for it. He became a goal for you to reach and eventually surpass someday, and you never looked back as you continued to fight and claw inch by inch towards that finish line.

After the U.A. Sports Festival, The number 4 hero had sent a request for you to intern with him and you had been over the moon for days. How could you not be? Your favorite hero noticed you and saw enough potential in you to take you into his agency and mentor you. The excitement did die down when you noticed Bakugo was there as well, you would watch him from afar. You had already realized how strong the explosive blonde was from the festival and was amazed at the sheer amount of strength he possessed.

Something about Katsuki Bakugo reminded you of all the people who would refuse to notice your determination, your strength towards becoming a hero and take it seriously. He never once looked at you during the festival or the internship, as if he didn't even realize you were there. While you would get on site training, he would be getting reformed. The image of any angry pomeranian at the groomers had you holding back laughter each time you saw him with combed hair.

Nevertheless, over the months you kept watching from the sidelines as he grew stronger and faced each challenge with ease. The sight stirred at your heart, he was motivating you to try even harder than you already were. The gap widened between you two, the sinking feeling in your heart as you raced to reach where he was but never quite getting there was gnawing at you.

If I could just get him to look at me...

Determination rushed through your veins as you prepared for your match. Bakugo was a fierce opponent when it came to strength , speed, and intellect. If your team was going to win, you would have to have a strategy. The team circled, mumbling in hushed voices over what the best course of action was.

"Do you really think this is going to work?" Togaru doubted.

"It has to." Setsuna assured him.

"I believe it will work, especially with y/n on the team." Kojiro boasted with praise.

"Thank you Kojiro, I won't let you down. I won't let any of you down. We will win for sure."

A stern look overtook your features, eyebrows furrowed and jaw clenched as you focused. A gentle hand on your shoulder broke you from your thoughts, Setsuna smiled warmly at you, her eyes softening upon meeting yours.

"You don't need to prove anything to us y/n, we know how strong you are. This plan won't work without you, so let's show class 1-A how much we've grown okay?!"

A bright smile formed on your lips as you all happily started to walk to the beginning position for the match in Ground Gamma.

Confidence started to take over the insecure thoughts that had once plagued your mind, you have worked just as hard as anyone else if not more. You had gotten stronger, found equipment that was more essential than before and honed in on your skills. This is your chance at proving without a doubt you deserved the spot you have the hero course.

Maybe if I can get him to notice me then...

If I could finally get him to acknowledge me...

･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　

The bitter winter wind buzzed around the students as the groups from Class 1-A and Class 1-B got into position. Bakugo's team was desperately still trying to come together with a plan in the last few moments before the match began.

"They have y/n, so it would be easiest to capture them first! However since they are the weakest link they might hide, Jiro could always use her quirk to locate them though." Sero contemplated deep in thought.

"I don't think y/n will be as easy to capture as you think, they are definitely stronger than back at the sports festival." Jiro breathed out.

The conversation finally caught Bakugo's attention from where he was standing, he gazed at the group before him and scoffed in annoyance.

"Heh! Who?"

"Jesus Bakugo, do you even remember anyone from class 1-B? Y/N the quirkless student who was using all the support items in the sports festival." Sero sighed in annoyance, then explained.

"You're worried about a quirkless wannabe? Are you kidding me?!"

He clicked his tongue with frustration , crimson red eyes glaring holes into his teammates before he continued.

"We leave them for last, they are obviously going to rely on their team for safety so we take it from them. Now listen up, this is what we are going to do."

Bakugo demanded their attention while laying out his plans for the match ahead, making sure everyone knew their roles in the team and that he would be the one to lead them to victory. Soon after he finished explaining, the siren blared through Ground Gamma causing both teams to rush into action.

He charges through the arena, deafening explosions shaking the ground as he goes. His eyes quickly darted over the area searching for the rival team as he moved further ahead from his group, he glanced over his shoulder to see them racing to keep up with his increasing speed. A large smirk formed on his lips, his ash blonde hair covering his eyes as he looked down for a moment with satisfaction at the team following his lead.

Movement from the corner of his eyes caught his attention, breaking his prideful thoughts and returning his attention to the battle ahead of them.

THERE!" Bakugo roared letting out a loud explosion from his palm as he placed himself on a pipe below his feet. "EARS!"

"It's Jiro!"

His eyes scanned the area as he waited for her to locate the whereabouts for their opponents, The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as the tension in the air grew thick through the silence. His hands crackled in anticipation of an attack at any moment, when Jiro's voice broke his concentration.

"SHE GOT ME!" She screamed eyes wide in frustration at the realization they were in a trap.

Bakugo grunted out a non verbal response before Setsuna voice appeared next to him, he quickly reacted throwing his arm defensively towards the voice only to see a mouth talking to him. Cackles echoed off the metal pipes as Setsuna laughed at bewilderment she had caused in the explosive blonde, noticing how his red eyes had gone wide at the use of her quirk.

"It's over now, I used Jiro's search ability against her." Setsuna snickered in glee.

Sero acted quickly, his tape zigzagged the structures surrounding them acting as a barricade and a form of protection from the other team. His pulse raced with adrenaline as his eyes searched the area, keeping a lookout for their blind spots when he noticed movement not too far away.

"Bakugo, over here!"

The blonde snarled out in annoyance at the trap his team had been led into, his brows knitted and his nostrils flared as he breathed out in frustration.

Kojiro had taken his opportunity to spread adhesive glue on Sero's tape and surrounding area, effectively trapping them in the confined space they occupied.

"Shoot, it backfired!" Sero bleated.

A sharp sound of metal scraping had attracted their attention towards Togaru who was heading towards the pipes directly over their heads. He sliced through the pipes effortlessly, sending them flying down towards the team. The pipes were ones specifically attached with Sero's tape and the adhesive glue, the realization hit them that if they were to be touched that would be the end of the match.

Sato, prepared to sacrifice himself in order for the others to get away, rushed in front of Sero and Jiro, hands raised in anticipation from the collision. Explosions blasted the sliced metal away with a resounding silence as the pipes crashed into the ground, scattered debris flying from the harsh impact. Sato's eyes widened as he turned to see Bakugo's hands still outstretched towards him while he dogged Setsuna's body parts.

"Bakugo!" They cheered in amazement.

"I'll start with Jiro!" Togaru advertised, as he rushed towards the girl.

Jiro gasped as the hard boot came into contact with her back pushing her out of the way of impact. Bakugo's palms crackled as he lined up his hand with the blade user, his voice thundered off the walls as he set off multiple rounds of explosions.

"I'VE GOTTEN EVEN STRONGER!"

The team recuperated for a moment while the other group stalled in their attacks, taking in the information they gained about Class 1-B from the brief capture attempt. Anger and determination etched into Bakugo's face as his pupils flared with rage, a muscle in his jaw clenched tightly as he spoke.

"I've decided. I will have complete victory in every fight"

"4-0, no injuries! That's how someone who's really strong wins!"

Motivation renewed among his teammates as they listened to his determination, they rushed forward into action once more. Bakugo explosions propelled him into the air as he maneuvered his way around the terrain, wild red eyes searching for his first victim. Sero watched in amazement while eyebrows furrowed in thought, his mind plaguing him that something about the situation at hand was wrong.

"Jiro, are you able to pinpoint y/n's location?" He questioned suddenly.

"Huh? Wait, no I don't hear them at all."

"I have a bad feeling about this. that sneak attack would have been the perfect moment for them to show up and assist the team, don't you think?"

"Maybe you were right in the beginning and they are safely hidden away?" She repeated his words from before the match as her shoulders lifted slightly.

"Hm." His eyes looked into the distance while his mind raced to piece together their strategy.

･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　

Bakugo chased after Kojiro blind with rage as sent explosions flying towards the glue hero who kept escaping narrowly. His explosive bursts of smoke had constricted his vision as he was led down a dark pathway, not paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should have been.

You were perched high on a steel 6ft staff that you placed in preparation between the two buildings. The area allowed enough darkness to block your figure from view if the opponent was moving fast enough to not look carefully, the black stealth bodysuit as your hero costume also aided in the ability to hide from searching eyes.

The explosions rumbled through Ground Gamma, the closer he got to your location the more the buildings shook from the force. You breathed in slightly, your movements still balanced on the staff as you concealed your presence to the oncoming threat. You watched from above as your gaze calmly landed on Bakugo, the fierce blonde being led right into your trap. Kojiro spun around on his heels, suddenly throwing Bakugo off guard as he escaped to the roof above.

"KEH! STOP RUNNING YOU COWARD!" Bakugo snarled nostrils flaring as he reached out his palm to the retreating figure in his view.

"I would be more worried about yourself." You whispered , your hands gripping the staff as you whirled your body around picking up momentum from the sudden movement before releasing your grip and hurling yourself towards him.

Your foot inched closer towards him as you posed for maximum impact, he narrowly dodged moments before your foot would have hit his spine. Your lightweight steel toe boots instead made contact with the wall behind him, the impact caused the cement to crack as the building rumbled at the force dust and debris filling the air around you.

His face contorted into a scowl hiding the brief moment of shock that rushed through his facial features. He hadn't noticed you and wasn't expecting the attack you had launched at him, the only thing that had saved him was his impressive response time to your movements. He eyed you through the smoke, your eyes were trained on him, calm and unnerving that caused his mind to race.

Who is this extra?!

Why wasn't I able to sense their presence until moments before the attack?

His eyes examined the damage to the wall and how there was now a crumbling hole where your foot had made impact, the ground still shaking from the force you had used.

Did you have a power type quirk?

He couldn't shake the feeling he was missing something as he analyzed the opponent before him, you seemed familiar in a way as he continued to stare at you in silence. Your h/c blowing around your face from the cold wind, causing your cheeks to turn a rosy hue just barely noticeable under the slim fabric of the mask covering the area around your e/c eyes and top of your cheekbones. You had seemed so oddly familiar but as he searched through his memories he couldn't quite place you, it irritated him further as he gritted his teeth sending rapid fire explosions your way.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

The steel staff had dislodged from its place between the buildings upon the quaking from the ongoing battle. It fell towards the ground collapsing into its condensed travel form, you maneuvered through the explosions as you retrieved the staff hitting the button on the side for it to extend back out. As the rod rushed out into the 6ft length once more it had hit the ground launching you to a safe distance away from the explosions. You took a quick breath before flipping your wrist and aiming towards a position behind Bakugo's line of vision, the Kevlar Wrist Shooter shot out a thin thread and dart at an incomprehensible speed. His eyes couldn't keep up with your movements as the strong thread swung you along, it barely being noticeable to the naked eye without light reflecting off the thread and with the darkness of the area it seemed almost invisible.

"You've lost Bakugo. Give up now." you declared suddenly showing up at his side the steel staff raised defensively against his neck.

He scoffed. "Are you afraid you face me head on?! You keep fucking attacking when my back is turned!"

He side turned to face you amusement played on his lips before he grabbed the staff with one hand and sent a powerful explosion towards your face sending you flying backwards. The staff was ripped from your hands as he threw it far in the distance.

"AH! I KNOW NOW!" He jeered, eyes blazing widely in your direction as your head hit the ground.

"You must be the quirkless wannabe! HAHA!" He mocked with a laugh as he watched you lay on the ground, the explosion had ripped your mask in half revealing more of your face.

"I'm not going to go easy on you just because you are quirkless, prepare to die!" His voice boomed out as he moved towards you recklessly.

His movements stopped suddenly, the silence filling the air after his voice had died out. You looked up at him barely containing the happiness you were feeling in that moment, a smirk forming as you took in his confused expression when his movements were constricted.

"I wouldn't move too much! It's thin kevlar thread, the strongest thread available on the market, can't melt and it's basically unbreakable. Since it's so fine the more you struggle and force your way out the more harm you'll do to your body, so if you don't want to lose that arm stop struggling."

When you had first picked the spot of the trap, you had placed a few lines of kevlar in different areas to confine him from leaving easily once he got there, and once you had him trapped you had placed reinforcements all around him to suppress his movements even more. He just needed to get tangled in one in order for your plan to come into fruition, there wouldn't be much he could do after that.

"FUCK OFF!" He roared out in frustration, his wrist snapping against the thin thread he tangled himself into as he let out more rounds of explosions.

Blood trickled down from the cuts forming on his arms at the movement as he hissed in pain. You finally stood up recovering from the earlier blow to your head, you glanced his way and sighed in annoyance knowing he wouldn't make this easy.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" He screamed pulling the pin on his gauntlets letting out a powerful explosion.

He managed to escape from his unseen bindings during the explosion, shredding the sleeves of his costume in the process and destroying one of his gauntlets. He breathed heavily the stinging pain darting through his body not only from over using his quirk, but from the thin cuts the thread had caused over the length of his arms and legs.

His mouth twisted into rage as he took in the damage you had caused, pops crackled in his palms as his fingers twitched in anticipation.

A quirkless nobody had trapped him.

No, a quirkless nobody had managed to make him bleed!

The thought caused his blood to boil as anger flooded his thoughts, he raced towards you lifting his remaining gauntlet as he pulled the pin aimed in your direction. You had narrowly escaped the wild attempt at you before dozens of separate explosions went off around you, the sheer force of them sending you flying as the debris ripped at your skin and costume.

Blood trickled down a cut on your cheek, dirt and dust covering you head to toe as you coughed out viciously grasping onto air. Your body had been thrown into one of your own kevlar traps causing the threads to sting at your skin from the impact.

"You aren't the only one who knows how to set a trap! While you were busy maneuvering from my explosions to get your staff I placed grenade bombs around the area!" He boasted in pride.

Upon looking at your beat up figure he scoffed at the sight of your broken wrist shooters, he had purposely aimed for them in the last explosion after realizing how they worked.

"KEH! Without your equipment you have nothing, you are nothing!" He taunted as he walked closer.

"That's not true!" You bite back acidly.

"It is, you have no weapons left! You are just a useless excuse of a hero!"

The taunting echoed through your mind as you screamed in frustration, he was only a few steps away from you now lifting up his hand to pull the finishing move. The cuts on your arms bleed heavily as you ripped them from the tangled trap of thread they had been placed in, you will yourself to move through the piercing pain as you stomped your feet hard on the cement ground. Your boots buzzed as they let out a whoosh of air impact propelling you into the air as you aim your steel knuckle duster towards your target.

The momentum rushed towards Bakugo at an unexpected speed, he had no time to counteract as your fist made an impact with his face. The slim steel knuckle duster sending out a cracking sound before the impact of the punch caused the stun gun add on to react. Within seconds it released a bright light of electricity as it ran through Bakugo's body, his muscles contracted from the sudden onslaught of electricity coursing through his veins as he fell to the ground.

You had stumbled to your feet as the air lift your boots had given you ran out and your body started to grow unsteady at the blood loss. Hands defensively reached out in preparation for another attack from the explosive blonde only to be met with silence. Your eyes glanced towards the ground where he was groaning in pain trying to move his body.

"MY NAME IS Y/N AND I AM A HERO!" You shout with as much energy as you can muster as you lean against a wall for support.

His eyes darted towards your lazily as he faded in and out of consciousness, taking in your battered worn out form with the tired bright smile placed on your lips. He grunted in response frustrated as he tried to move his arms but they wouldn't listen to his desperate command.

"You notice me yet Bakugo!? I'm as much of a threat as Todoroki is for the number one spot, don't ever forget that!"

He faded out of consciousness at your proclamation, darkness over taking his thoughts with the last thing he saw being your face beat up but bubbled with laughter. The bright e/c eyes shining in the light as a few stray tears rolled down your cheeks in satisfaction of your achievement.

Notice you?

Of course he noticed you.

How could he ever not notice you?

How did he go so long without realizing your existence?

Not only were you quirkless but in the hero course, you were somehow stronger than him. Managing to bring him down with your strategic planning and willpower to succeed, even if you had to use support equipment to do it there were plenty of people he's fought with quirks and tools and they had still lost against him. However, you were different from them and did the impossible proving how strong you truly were.

Watching you throughout the battle motivated him, pushed him to keep going. He wanted to do better, prove to you he could throw back anything you threw at him, not hold back punches no matter how much of a monster he may look like against a quirkless student. He would have to rematch you eventually, and then he will show you just how much stronger he had gotten from this match.

His thoughts raced back to you and how you shined beautifully among the unsettled smoke, how your happy smile stirred something in his heart that he couldn't quite place in the darkness of his subconscious.

So beautiful.

You are so beautiful and powerful.

He hated losing, but maybe it wasn't so bad to lose to you.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　

｡･ﾟﾟ･ Bonus Scene:

Class 1-A and 1-B had decided to celebrate the hard work shown in the joint training session with a party. The dormitory was filled with laughter as the students mingled and gushed over each other's abilities they had shown hours before.

Bakugo watched you from afar as you laughed lightheartedly at something Setsuna had said, your cheeks still rosy from enduring the cold weather for so long outside. A jab at his side forced him to turn his gaze away from you and to the red haired intrusion now at his side.

"What do you want 'shitty hair'?" He barked his question out.

Kirishima laughed in response as he placed his arm over the blonde's shoulders, glancing at you from across the room before making eye contact with the red eyes glaring at him with annoyance.

"Geez lighten up! It's a party!"

Bakugo scoffed in response at the attempt.

"How about you go talk to y/n then instead of watching them from the corner like a stalker."

"How about you say that again and I'll make sure you can never walk again!"

The red haired boy laughed unbothered by his friends' harsh words, instead choosing to find the humor in them. He patted his shoulder as he moved away from him and took a few steps towards your direction causing the scowl Bakugo was sporting to falter a bit.

"Where are you going?" He asked cautiously.

"To meet y/n! I haven't gotten to actually introduce myself to them yet and they seem nice."

"No."

"No?" Kirishima questioned amused.

Bakugo rolled his eyes and stomped his feet as he walked towards you. He lifted his chin towards Kirishima as he passed him with annoyance clear on his face.

"I'll go talk to them, so you just leave us both alone."

"Of course!" He replied happily.

Setsuna's eyes had widened at the sight of Bakugo walking towards them, voice going silent in the middle of her sentence forcing you to look towards what had caught her attention. He was angrily stomping as he walked, crimson eyes making direct contact with yours causing your heart to flutter at the intense gaze.

He's actually noticing me now, not just oblivious to my existence like before.

He stopped a few steps from you, letting out an exasperated sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. His hand reached back out towards you, waiting for a handshake in return so you placed your hand in his as you shook hands on a truce.

A smile brightly lit up your face as the two of you started to go over tactics and strategies used in the match.

"You did good today." He said softly, looking away from your eyes as he spoke.

"Thank you! So did you!" Heat rushing to your cheeks at the unexpected words.

The two of you paused for a moment in awkward silence, neither knowing how to carry on the conversation from moments before.

"Your support items were well thought out, do you have more?" He asked, breaking the silence, eyes still trained on his other classmates away from you.

"Yes! I really have tons! The older ones or the ones that I don't find as useful stay in my room, but I like having a variety I can choose from for different situations." You rambled bubbly, excited at explaining your items clearly.

"Can I see them sometime?"

The breath got stuck in your throat as you gasped lightly not expecting him to ask that question so suddenly.

"Yes!" You eventually mumble out looking away from him as well in embarrassment.

Setsuna watched the awkward and clumsy exchange from the sidelines and not being able to take the tension anymore from the both of you she interjected with a swift topic change.

"You two must have learned a lot of Best Jeanist when you both were interns there."

Bakugo's eyes widened as his gaze darted back to you, meeting your flustered face and wide e/c eyes staring back at him.

"You were at Best Jeanist too?"

"Yes, you didn't exactly acknowledge me back then." You laugh shyly in response.

"I notice you now."

Extra Bonus Content:

The Support Items I thought of for the character, even though not all of them made an appearance these were in my mind for the character throughout the scene.

Pocket staff- Extends into a steel 6ft staff, its heavy & sturdy enough to be used for combat and stealth attacks. (Placing staff in high areas and waiting for the enemy to walk under in order to sneak attack.) Attaches to the belt loop in compact form as a keychain for easy access.

Steel Stun Gun Knuckle Dusters- Slim compact Knuckle dusters that go over your gloves, upon hard impact with surface or person it releases a stun voltage.

Kevlar Wrist Shooters- Two compact wrist shooters that have 50ft of fine kevlar thread and darts that will hook them to any surface. This makes a good capture weapon as well as a movement tool because you can essentially hook the thread to various buildings and swing.

Air Lift Boots- Lightweight ankle boots with steel toe that has the ability to lift the user with a large force of air gusting out from the heel upon stomping the heel with enough force. This helps with speed and movement and in a pinch can work as a double sided weapon / escape tool.

Mask with Night Vision Adaptation- Eye mask that has automatic adaption feature in the dark for night vision.

Utility pouch strapped to thigh- holds fog marbles, compact laser , and emergency aid

Fog Marbles- Marbles that once smashed create a dense fog for 3 minutes to either assist in sneak attack or escape method.

Compact Laser- A small flashlight looking laser that can cut through hard and soft surfaces. Very good for stealth missions where you have to enter an area without much noise.

☆ ⌒ ★ ⌒ ☆ ⌒ ★ ⌒ ☆ ⌒ ★ ⌒ ☆

⋆ ☆ A/N- I was definitely nervous writing the fighting scenes, I hope it turned out okay for everyone. Also, when I started this I wasn't sure which way I wanted to go with it but I'm pretty happy with how It turned out.

Feel free to send in requests, I have them open.

[pikahlua]

hello! i read your meta about “control your heart” and it has some interesting elements but i think the notion that “izuku controlling his heart means suppressing emotions and is bad” is not something that many bkdk’s have the opinion of.

we understand that he has to be able to control his anger and that it’s as good thing; our beliefs of this “control your heart” plotline as it relates to katsuki is us wanting izuku to explicitly acknowledge that katsuki is a trigger and why that is for him - some deku introspection if you will. katsuki knows it, AFO knows it (so much so he told katsuki to his face about it), deku possibly knows it as well but it is not acknowledged by him both on his own or in a talk with katsuki. is it some unspoken accepted thing? would there be further discussions on katsuki specifically being a trigger that makes him lose all control? will they talk about that?

But Izuku does acknowledge it on his own.

Unless you mean you want him to specifically acknowledge that his being mad at Monoma for Katsuki's sake is what caused Black Whip to go berserk. It then sounds like the thing you're focusing on is that conversation after the Joint Training Arc in which people seem to assume Izuku is "lying" or withholding information, to which all I can say again is "I don't think they were even talking about that." I explained what I think they're talking about.

Now, I don't fault anybody if what they want is Izuku to talk about his feelings for Katsuki working as a trigger out loud, but I'll be honest--I think the time for that has long since passed. I can't imagine a way he could say this now that would sound natural or meaningful. It's as you say; he and everyone around him and the readers all KNOW this is the case. His actions proved it. Katsuki's treatment of Izuku's rage since then proves he understands to some degree too. TomurAFO himself knows this is the case and he even says so lol. It's very much in the Japanese style to let actions inform everyone's understanding such that no one needs to talk about it, such that talking about it would be seen as clunky and crass.

A lot of MHA characters and especially Izuku are meant to be read on their actions rather than waiting for their words. I've seen this desire for a verbal acknowledgement manifest in ways that seem like people just want to be told explicitly what's going on rather than being shown, like for instance some people think Izuku still hasn't acknowledged Katsuki's apology. Izuku answered it pretty loudly if you ask me, by letting his guard down and apologizing back and thinking from Katsuki's point of view and accepting Katsuki's help via allowing Katsuki to catch him. If he were to stop the story just to talk about this with Katsuki, it would probably end up sounding like exposition and not really take us anywhere other than to destroy the pacing of the story.

What I want is to encourage people to trust their interpretations of the characters' actions. Just because a character doesn't talk about something doesn't mean the thing didn't happen, that the character didn't feel important things we as readers were supposed to pick up on.

So yeah, sure, you can want that sort of verbal acknowledgement, but be careful about expecting it. You cannot deny there are plenty of people who do expect it.

[dailydragon08]

The Best Thing That’s Ever Happened to Me

Pairing: Luke Skywalker x F!Jedi!Reader (both are older in this fic) Summary: Luke has to face his worst nightmare yet: losing you. A/N: "Remnants" is a series one  shots in no particular order about the budding relationship between you and Luke as he trains you in the ways of the Force. MAJOR ANGST and READER DEATH in this one (I hurt myself with my own writing). Based on a super sad dream I had last night, but I promise there’s a twist that gives it a fluffy ending, cuz I just couldn’t bare torturing Luke too much. Read here on AO3.

You coughed as the surrounding smoke filled your lungs. The Jedi academy on Yavin IV that you and Luke had worked so hard to build over the last few decades was burning and crumbling around you, the smoke turning the usually pretty twilight black. Most of your padawans were dead, and Luke and the son you shared were who knew where fighting for their lives. You could sense their fear and despair through the Force as you fought for your own.

“You don’t have to do this, Jacen!” you screamed as you blocked another blow from your nephew’s lightsaber. You had sensed him turning to the Dark Side a few years ago and although you and Luke had tried as hard as you could to help him, it was to no avail. He had fallen, slowly at first, then faster than you, Luke, or even his parents and sister could catch him. Then he’d just disappeared with a few other padawans, showing up yesterday with what could be considered a small army of Sith and battle droids to wreck what had become your peaceful little home. Although most of his lackeys lay destroyed around you, you still had him to contend with and he’d taken out nearly all of your current students.

Jacen didn’t reply, instead taking wild swings at you with his weapon. As you parried another blow, you could see his now yellow eyes glower at you, his teeth bared as if he wanted to reach out and bite. You could feel the hatred flowing through him and continued to defend yourself, having trouble summoning the courage to land a blow. You and Luke had tag-teamed to train him from the time he was seven and you had so many good memories: hand-drawn birthday cards, staying up all night making pastries with him when the nightmares became too much, taking breaks to play with him and Grogu, him hugging you tightly around you middle after giving him flying lessons with a heartfelt, “I love you, Y/N.”

“The Jedi,” Jacen panted, pushing your saber closer to your chest with his own, “need to fall.”

“We can help you—” You cried out as Jacen used the Force to launch you into an already crumbling wall. Your weight toppled what was left as you landed with a thud. You slowly sat up, the ache in your old joints a development in the last ten years that you weren’t a fan of. A brick landed hard on your head, making you fall back flat on your back.

Before you could register what was happening, Jacen Solo was on top of you. Searing pain exploded in your abdomen and you gasped, suddenly feeling like all the air had been sucked out of you, and lay there in shock. Jacen’s golden eyes suddenly turned sad, returning to the familiar brown you knew so well.

His lower lip trembled as he stared down at the saber arcing through your stomach. “I…I’m s-sorry.” He took a shuddery breath before turning off his saber and letting it fall to the ground, his hands hovering over your wound as you continued to gasp for air beneath him. “Wait…Wait, I didn’t mean—”

“Y/N!!!” Luke’s scream tore through the air and rippled through the Force in the distance. You felt the power roll off of him in waves and weren’t sure what he was doing, but it was apparently enough to scare the daylights out of your attackers.

A fellow Sith suddenly grabbed Jacen’s shoulders and yanked him out of your field of vision. “We have to go now!”

Unable to move, you heard the sound of several departing ships before seeing them race towards the planet’s atmosphere. All you were left with was the crackle of the flames. You closed your eyes for a minute, trying to take in a deep breath and failing, until you heard the sound of feet sprinting towards you.

You were lifted against a chest and registered your husband’s familiar smell. Your name came out on a shuddery exhale as his flesh hand lifted your face to look at his. He glanced down at your wound and tears filled his eyes. “Maker, no,” he breathed. His breath carried a welcome coolness to your overheated face and you ran a hand through his graying hair, still as soft as ever, before letting your fingers scratch at his beard. His blue eyes met yours, their spark unchanged by the years, but you could see the panic crawling behind them.

“Ben—” you breathed out.

“He’s safe with Grogu,” Luke answered, his voice cracking as he cradled you in his lap. He pressed his forehead to yours and you could feel him reaching deep into the Force for the healing power your little green padawan had taught you long ago. But you both knew it was too late as sounds around you started to fade and several white spots appeared in your vision.

“Don’t…” you took a shuddery breath in, feeling tears fill your own eyes as well, “don’t go to the Dark Side. Promise me.”

“Y/N—”

“Promise me.”

He stared at you for a moment, tears opening falling down his face and creating streaks in the dirt and sweat. “I promise.” He kissed you hard with salty lips before his shoulders began to shake and a strangled sob tore from his throat.

You brushed the tears away with weak, shaking fingers. “I love you so much, Luke.”

Luke kissed you again, pressing his forehead to yours. “I love you, too. You and Ben are the best things that ever happened to me.” He pressed you closer to his chest and you could feel his devastation through the Force. You reached for Ben and felt similar despair and could sense he and Grogu were running towards you as fast as they could, but were still so far away. I love you and am proud of you, you sent to all three of them through the Force. And I will always be with you.

“I’ll find you through the Force again,” you whispered against Luke’s lips.

He nodded. “We’ll be together again one day…” His breath shuddered out as he pulled back to look at you, tears streaming down his face like a waterfall. His blue eyes were bright were more to come as he began, “I’m sorry—”

“Shhh,” you said, rubbing your thumbs back and forth across his cheeks as his hand fisted in your hair. “It’s not your fault…Take care of Ben and Grogu for me—and don’t forget yourself…I love you, Luke.” The last thing you saw was your husband’s face crumbling in a wail and felt his keen through the Force as your vision went white and suddenly, you couldn’t feel anything at all.

Six months later, Luke left your favorite flowers at your grave, still feeling torn in two—

 A loud crash jerked Luke out of his slumber and he bolted upright in bed, panting. He looked around the dark room and recognized the bedroom he shared with you in the small, stone house on Yavin IV. He looked at his wrinkle-free hands and felt the smooth sides of his face before swinging his legs out of bed and bolting for the refresher. Flipping the light on, he sighed in relief at the shorter, brown hair staring back at him. He grabbed the edge of the sink and breathed a sigh of relief.

That relief was short-lived as he glanced over to the bed, expecting to see your sleeping form still curled up. You really could sleep through anything—except you weren’t there.

Panic gripped Luke’s chest and he could feel his breath becoming harder to reach. He rushed out of the bedroom and down the hall to where he heard movement from the kitchen. His chest slammed into yours as you also fled out the door to meet him halfway down the hall, letting out a muffled oof.

“Sorry,” you said just as he reached out to steady you so you wouldn’t fall. “Are you o—”

You let out another noise of surprise as Luke crushed you against his chest, burying his face in your neck. He took a deep breath, the first he felt he could take, as he inhaled the sweet scent of your skin, gathering your hair in his hands like coveted silk. “M-maker,” he stuttered out into your skin, holding you even tighter.

You held him equally as tight. “I can feel you panicking. What happened?”

Luke turned his head slightly so he could speak, forcing himself to register that you were alive, well, and warm in his arms. “A nightmare. I lost you and when I woke up and you weren’t there, I thought…” He forced himself to exhale, his breath blowing your hair.

“You’re shaking.” You rubbed your hands in gentle circles on the bare skin of his back. “I’m okay. You’re okay. Grogu’s okay.”

He frowned. “How do you know—”

“Your panic was strong. I saw some of the dream, but just the end.”

He finally pulled back to look at you, cradling your face reverently between his hands. “And the baby?”

“Ben’s asleep.” You glanced at his dark bedroom just a few doors down before turning back to your husband, cupping his wrists in your hands. “I just fed him. That’s why I was in the kitchen, putting the bottle away.”

Luke sighed and nodded, pressing a searing kiss to your lips, two more to each cheek, and one to your forehead before pulling you against his chest. He held you more gently this time, resting his cheek against your hair. “You don’t think I woke Grogu or the other students up, do you?”

You shook your head against him as his arms snaked around your middle, letting one of yours rest across his strong shoulders while the other traced the scars from the emperor’s Force lightning that littered his torso, arms, and lower neck. He sighed at the feeling. “I only know because I know you so well.” You paused, soaking in the feeling of being wrapped up in him. “I love you.”

“I love you, sweetheart, so much,” he breathed, letting the relief finally wash over him. He twisted to look at you and allowed himself a small smile before kissing your lips again, committing their taste to memory. Then, just in case he didn’t tell you enough, added, “You and Ben are the best things that have ever happened to me. I’m so glad you’re here with me.”

You smiled. “Me, too. But we should try to get some sleep before Ben wakes up again. He’ll probably get hungry again in a few hours.”

“You have bottles in the fridge?”

You nodded, closing your eyes as he pressed another kiss to your forehead. You two stayed in each other’s arms with your sides pressed together as you led him back to the bedroom, sending a strong wave of affection to him through the Force. It was reciprocated to you tenfold, along with a promise to protect and spend the rest of your long, hopefully Sith-free lives together.

[aussie-the-hedgehog]

My Hero Academia - Chapter 425 Thoughts (Spoilers)

I'm surprised I haven't done a post like this for the previous chapters. It's always healthy to get my thoughts out through posts, so I might look to do it more often! Obviously I left the spoiler tag here, so if you don't want to know what happens, don't click it! Peruse at your own risk.

I was not expecting this chapter to jump so quick back to the academia portion of the series. I was thinking we would get another hospital chapter or two. I guess when Horikoshi said after 424, "We're going back to the title," he really meant it. I'm honestly glad for it given what we got in this chapter. I dearly missed the school shenanigans and character interaction. It hasn't been since before My Villain Academia we've seen it.

It was cool to start with the graduation ceremony involving Mirio, Nejire, and Tamaki. It was delayed because of this war, so it makes sense for Horikoshi to start with this.

The boys of U.A. lamenting Nejire's graduation will never not be funny.

It's cool to see Nejire grow into a social butterfly from not having friends due to her quirk. I do wish more was done with her character. She screams like a Starfire clone and could have had an arc similar to the TT03 iteration.

I enjoyed Mirio's speech. It captures the essence of his character and shows what he desires to do as a pro hero. Honoring Sir Nighteye with his motivations sounds like a good wrap up to his character arc.

I liked seeing Mawata being an outspoken leader in this chapter. I hope we find out what her quirk is before the series ends. I wish she was more fleshed out earlier on in the narrative, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

It's so refreshing to see the kids in class together again (now as 2-A). Like I alluded to before, it's been a very long time since we've seen the "Academia" side to this series. I love how Horikoshi is dedicating a solid amount of time returning to class shenanigans before he ends it.

I love the ending for Aoyama's arc. I had a feeling Tsukauchi would grant him the ability to return to U.A., but the twinkling hero wants to redeem himself on his own terms. For that, I deeply respect him.

Aoyama giving Izuku cheese as a parting gift was too pure. It made me tear up.

Shinso will be Aoyama's replacement! Obviously we knew Shinso would come to the hero course at some point since the end of the joint training arc. We only didn't know which class he would join. It makes sense for him to join 2-A given Aizawa is his mentor. Speaking of that..

Aizawa remaining their homeroom teacher was a great choice. U.A. is still not at normalcy (and may not for a long time). so it makes sense for 2-A to remain under his tutelage.

Mawata makes it clear the upperclassmen of U.A. will play a major role in helping rebuild hero society. It is not a huge surprise given Endeavor lost an arm, Hawks is quirkless, Mirko has one limb left, Jeanist is working through legal trouble, and Edgeshot gave himself to save Bakugo (not sure about Edgeshot's fate atm). U.A. is a beacon of hope for hero society now, so it is up to them to carry the mantel.

Ochako still being flustered by any mention of her speech is adorable (and totally something I would do).

Many are calling out Ochako for hating Izuku's "haircut," but she recognized very quickly it had to be shaved because of the damage he suffered against Shigaraki / All for One. She hopes she sees him with a full head of hair again. I don't see it as teasing or hating on him. Ochako has always been one of the more blunt characters in the series.

Tokoyami's reaction to his new hairdo is amazing.

Izuku's concerned face next to Ochako's laughter screams seeing through her facade. They are best friends. He knows when she's struggling. He can see through that laughter.

Horikoshi is definitely using this as foreshadowing to a conversation where they unleash their feelings on the war. It's obvious from this chapter and the last that they are mentally struggling. I believe this eventual conversation will end in a resolve they will look to change hero society for the better and confess their love for each other.

The mystery character is quite interesting. Is it Tenko? Izuku's father? Someone totally different? We'll have to wait and see.

Shoto is not in a great place either. He looks so exhausted from the panels he's in. At the end we find out why.

Endeavor potentially sitting in front of where Touya is being contained. He has probably visited him every day since he was put in there. He provided Rei with flowers often while she was in the hospital. It doesn't feel too different.

It will be an agonizing wait to see what happens next, but I will patiently wait. I'm very excited to see what Horikoshi does next. My prediction is 426 shows us Touya's fate.

I'm hoping in the ensuing chapters after 426 we get an Izuku and Ochako talk. I've had my anxieties about it not happening. Yet, with the buildup we've had and Ochako confessing her love for him to Toga, I can't help but feel it would be bad writing if it doesn't happen.

Honestly, if I think about it, Ochako is probably intertwining her confession to Izuku with her failure to save Toga since she confessed her feelings to the villain. There is definitely lots of emotional tension there. We'll see what happens!

[karliahs]

For DVD commentary, can you do walk a mile? Starting from "He considers leaving the room altogether," and ending at "There are drawings too, every now and then, detailed ones that are better than anything Hitoshi could do."

ooh, an old one! interesting to look back on because the decisions i made in that fic were long enough ago now that it feels like someone else made them

fun fact: i wrote this fic on a train, or specifically on two trains and in a coffee shop, because i accidentally got on a train that went an hour in the wrong direction before it stopped. and then spent an hour waiting in a coffee shop for a train that would go back the right way, and then for a couple of hours on a train going back.

and so while i was doing all that waiting, i wrote this fic on my phone (insane to me now). i think i may have typed a bit of it on a laptop when i got home finally, and i also think i may have posted it that same day??? kind of wild looking back on how blasé i used to be about some stuff (i would never dream of posting something now without days of editing)

i was also writing shinsou exclusively from sports festival and fanon. joint training arc wasn't in the anime yet at that time, and i was anime-only back then. so i'd probably write him differently now, but also if i'm gonna say that i should put my money where my mouth is and actually do that!

anyway!!! the passage:

He considers leaving the room altogether, roaming some dream version of the dorms, but he's still not convinced things aren't about to disintegrate the way they so often do when he manages to sleep, familiar landscapes draining away like sand, floors he's walked a thousand times suddenly giving way, dark things rising up out of the shadows.  Those dreams are worst when they're in places he knows, leaving him uneasy for days afterwards in whatever place they've decided to ruin this time. Better to stay in his invented version of Midoriya's room, even if it makes him feel bitter, and then bitter at his own bitterness. He's your classmate now, Hitoshi reminds himself. The scales are still vastly unbalanced, but for once he's moving in the right direction. 

...it is very difficult to not mentally line-edit this as i'm reading it. anyway. that thing where dreams will ruin stuff is deeply annoying. it happens to me more often with people than with places, but it is so frustrating to be like well i feel weird talking to this person now because my brain decided to write a play where we had an argument or something. projecting my annoyance with that onto Probable Sleep Issues guy

i do think bitter about your own bitterness could be a fun thing to play with more. like, the very fact that you're envying someone reminds you how far apart you are, which just drives more envy and frustration. also the dramatic irony of shinsou not understanding that midoriya also feels so behind and like he has such a shaky claim to this world is delightful and frustrating to me in almost equal measure (i need. them to be friends)

He tries to distract himself by snooping, unsure who he’ll really be learning more about. Mostly he gets the impression of an overwhelming amount of stuff. Hitoshi knows his own attitude to possessions isn’t exactly typical. He’d moved so often growing up that he’d started to take a kind of spiteful satisfaction in adding more and more of his things to the ‘give away’ pile with each move, insisting his parents couldn’t make him pack anything he didn’t want, looking around at his sparse, personality-less room and feeling like one thing was within his control.  It was partly why he hadn’t wanted anyone in his UA dorm room - he had school supplies tucked away in drawers, the bare minimum of clothes secluded in closets, and that was mostly it. Even with books, which he loved, he’d gotten used to getting from libraries rather than keeping any. He had plain black sheets on the bed.  The thought of changing things, of adding more stuff, even when he was in theory going to be in the same place for the next two and half years, made him feel twitchy and strange.

this is fun to look back on, because i don't think back in 2020 i had really acknowledged the ways in which i am weird about Stuff. not in this way exactly - none of my living spaces could be described as minimalist - but i have a real hatred of clutter (it feels like it's sending my brain notifications all the time and i can't make it stop), and a weird guilt thing about having too many things or having to get rid of things (i got offered a free book the other week and was filled with a weird panic at the idea of bringing something into my space without having thought carefully about whether it has a place there. like the "now i gotta be responsible for this water bottle" tweet but with every possession in my home. makes me feel, one might say, twitchy and strange)

anyway, as usual this isn't so much a fixed headcanon for shinsou as a thing i felt like exploring. one of the ways people try to gain a sense of control, especially for children and teenagers who control so few things. shinsou as a book-lover is a pretty consistent fond headcanon of mine (i like the light novel bit where he's baffled by people doing anything but studying on the weekends. books are a good hobby for a studious little guy, plus escapism, plus the lonely kid tradition of hiding away with a book)

His imagined version of Midoriya’s room is the opposite extreme. Every wall is adorned with posters, every surface covered with mostly All Might themed memorabilia, but also books, lamps, trinkets. He inspects dream-Midoriya’s book collection, finding a surprising amount of nonfiction, and also an intriguing stack of worn notebooks, at least a dozen. He snags one from the pile at random and flips it open. It takes him a while to make out the small, messy handwriting, and even longer to start drawing meaning from the scribbled, lengthy notes, written in a way that suggests the writer wasn’t trying to make them comprehensible for anyone except his future self. For the most part, the notebook is full of narrative regarding current active pro heroes - descriptions of fights witnessed in person or from internet footage; analysis of techniques, costumes, approach to publicity and interviews, varying between the kinds of paragraphs that wouldn’t seem out of place in a school essay to more personal, over-excited commentary. There are drawings too, every now and then, detailed ones that are better than anything Hitoshi could do.

midoriya, on the other hand, strikes me much more as a primarily nonfic reader than a fiction one. frenzied researcher vibes

anyway, midoriya's notebooks my beloved <3 them being revealed to various people is a v common trope in bnha fic, often with people marveling at the quality of analysis in them. and i'm fond of that! i think he is very good at analysing situations and this was obvs a learned skill. love when people appreciate my boy. but i also think he's an excited little fanboy, and a young teenager who has no real access to the world he's writing about, and also is writing for himself with no expectation of it needing to be comprehensible to anyone else. so i more imagine them as a fun mishmash of analysis and excitement, like real fan spaces

and as is referenced in the parts of the fic that follow on from this, i'm kind of less interested in the notebooks' quality than in them as like...an artifact of long-term loneliness. not having friends at a formative age will fuck you up, because humans are fundamentally social creatures who develop a sense of their own identity through interactions with others. so when those interactions are absent are largely negative, people can end up with thoughts kind of stoppered up inside themselves with nowhere to go. and i thought about that a lot with izuku, who has no one to share his love of heroes with

okay that's a sad note to end on again, oops, but this was fun to look back on, ty!!

[quirkwizard]

Your revised Sport's Festival post caught my attention, the Bakugo vs Shiozaki the most! How would you envision that kind of fight going about, and who could you see winning? Sorry if this isn't the usual material you cover, I'm just curious because they have have an interesting dynamic, in my personal opinion.

Don't worry about it. I'm fine covering something like this and do encourage greater diversity of topics with asks. That aside, I totally agree that this would be an interesting dynamic. Not just in the fight, but in their personalities. It's the good Christian girl fighting the feral teenager and it would be hilarious to watch.

From the outset, Bakugou seems like a pretty obvious winner. His explosions offer him far greater offensive power, especially compared to Ibara, and some of his bigger blasts could clear up the vines. He can easily propel himself around the wide, open arena with his various blasts. And between the two, Bakugou has more practical experience and a better head for strategy. I would bring up the literal firepower he has as potentially being a factor, as it'd burn through the vines, but I'm not sure if that would matter. In spite of making giant fireballs, Bakugou's explosions don't seem to make much actual fire. The most fire damage we've seen is to lightly singeing people, if even that. He could still break through the vines, but it's not exactly the perfect counter. Surely, all this together would give him the win.

However, I don't think that's giving Ibara anywhere near enough credit. Because when you look at Ibara's own abilities and the circumstances of the fight, she has a fair chance. If we look at her feats, Ibara's vines are strong enough to crack through concrete, were quick enough to react to Denki's lighting attacks, and have a wide enough range to cover her team's area in the Joint Training Arc. And she can control each and every one of them on an individual level. That is going to be tough for pretty much anyone to beat. You pretty much have to fight through an entire forest to get close to Ibara, and all of it is constantly attacking you, threatening to tie you up, throw you around, and cut off all your movement options. It's like some of the worst parts of fighting Sero and Shoto wrapped into one person.

And all this works against Bakugou since he relies so much on getting close for his power to be effective. His bigger blasts can clear some of the vines, but they aren't going to clear all of them. This is especially the case in the context of the Sports Festival, where Bakugou only has so much space to move and Ibara doesn't need to fight him. She only needs to subdue him or push him out, both of which are easily achievable. She would either play keep away with the vines until Bakugou exhausted himself, get him pushed out of the arena through sheer volume, or get a lucky shot in with her vines. I know Bakugou would try to eat his way through the plants before he'd admit defeat, and he would put up a hard fight, but there is a lot working against him. So while this may be a controversial answer, I think I'm leaning towards Ibara for the win. She has a more reliable way to fight Bakugou with a more favorable environment.

[calciumcryptid]

lurker here, I just gotta ask, since ua is a point of extreme criticism in your bnha stories, what are your full opinions on both aizawa and nedzu (ik they're not the only 2, but their actions are a lot more influential at how ua runs things) since I believe those two are the reasons why ua is why it is in both canon and fanon stuff ive seen?

Isn't that a loaded question?

To get this out of the way I do not think Aizawa is a bad hero. He is shown to be a skilled combatant, has mastery over his quirk, and generally knows what he is doing on the field.

However, he is a dogshit teacher.

He routinely ignores his class in favor of sleep, he can't recognize signs of abuse and bullying among his students, he expels entire classrooms of students (more on that later), he shows at least an extent of favoritism because if we are to believe his expulsion record then why else is Bakugou and Mineta still enrolled, his logical ruses are pointless at best and cause trust issues at worth, and to be honest his teaching methods are shit judging by his admittance that Vlad King is a better teacher during the Joint-Training Arc.

Back to the expulsion point, is Aizawa aware that by his expulsion of entire classrooms of students he is effectively ruining their lives?

Japan places high values on education as both a country and a society. It is one of the most influential factors in a citizen's life as it affects both employment and socioeconomic growth.

Upon expelling a student, Aizawa has effectively left a black mark on their record. From a normal school, this could put them a minimum wage job for the rest of their life. From an elite hero school, this could make them jobless for the rest of their life. The idea that Aizawa expelled them only to re-enroll them later and for them to be grateful for it is either a disgustingly ignorant or intentionally malicious choice on Horikoshi's part.

While Aizawa may eventually remove that mark, he is still controlling students through fear by threatening them with essentially poverty.

That isn't even taking into account how many current or former students of him have mutant quirks, have darker skin, are LGBTQIA+ in some way, or other factors that would feed into societal discrimination.

Once again, he essentially threatens them with death for what? Not understanding what they're getting into when it comes to training to be a hero? No one knows what they are getting into becoming a hero or the sacrifices they'll have to make from physical strain, social exposure, and mental exhaustion.

He ultimately suffers from what most BNHA characters suffer from, misunderstanding what makes certain tropes work. He is supposed to be another closed off but secretly caring anime teacher, but what makes those characters work is the fact they aren't teaching in a classroom but rather outside of one in non-school circumstances.

As for Nezu, it is more complicated because we don't see as much as him or know as much about him as we do with Aizawa. What we do know is that he doesn't like humans and judging by UA and his actions as a principal he really seems hellbent on destroying the hero career and the humans within his care (the robots for the simulations and entrance exam, having teachers go all out for final exams, the crowding them all into dorms, the shit security towards the beginning). For him it is more a question of how he can be the principal.

[zoroara]

Drawing too much bel has made me notice something was up with his hands. See while you may occasionally see it in other characters it's not as common with other characters(I went and checked to make sure, not the whole manga of course but you know) Bel's hands are hyperflexible, most prominently in his thumbs that essentially are drawn looking similar to hitchhicker's thumb. Whether on accident or not it's a lot more common with him. The reason I noticed this, is because I myself have this. Meaning I can actually show you some pictures to compare here since unfortunately most shown images of it when you search it up are at their most pushed state so it looks extremely odd. (not that it doesn't look like i broke my thumb in some so be warned on the below, this is just how it naturally bends)

Rest fold here, though it should be noted bel's thumb points a little more down.(for the sake of both of us, ignore the mess on my desk.)

What it should look like when holding things. ignore that i pushed my wrist at a weird angle I'll explain that additional note later.

forgot to bend the other two fingers but you can see my upper two fingers also naturally bend backwards some[like if i hold them flat they can actually go about 45 degrees backwards without pushing. if i push them with my other hand they can go a whole 90] (Yes I have a shark collection. There is more than pictured.)

just some general closed hand here.

Now there's two I didn't get pictures of but know I could. One is this

and that's because i don't want to show my face, but you can definitely see the bend once you know what to look for.

The other is this:

hard to see, but the thumb is at the bottom, as you'll notice there's almost a perfect circle to the arm which doesn't normally happen.

Also some panels seem like he's purposely trying to hide this, like when he raises his hands to show he's not going to attack in varia arc his hand looks like it's pressed together, I copied it to the best of my ability while struggling to take a picture

even like this his thumb still comes out a bit as you can see.

I don't actually see many characters portrayed with this, but what I find really interesting is that while yes, there's people with this without them, it is tied to a few disorders. The most common of these 4, which I have is Hyper mobility syndrome. it means your joints for, whatever reason(there's a few potential underlying causes) are hypermobile to extreme flexibility(though your body to counteract this can end up making your joints and muscles extremely stiff.)

which uh, based on how bel in general fucking moves, yeah he sure god damn is huh.

While hypermobility like this can lead to chronic pain(I am unlucky enough to experience this with no exact fix) potential clumsiness(Not something I experience I'm actually the least likely to stumble and fall out of everyone) and common sprains and breaks(I only broke my ankle 1 time in my whole life and never had a sprain). As you can see not all symptoms are shared.

But also, a majority of these issues can be softened quite a bit through physical therapy(didn't work for me in particular but my body just wouldn't build more muscle). As the muscle built will actually reinforce the extremely flexible joints so that they don't injure themselves as much. Given Bel probably doesn't have much of a choice but to have a training routine in the varia he likely experiences very minimal problems due to actually having the muscle and physical activity that helps.

It should be noted it often causes fatigue, and outside of physical therapy there are some things you can do. You know, orthopedics, good-ish posture(it's honestly super hard because your body wants to actively fight this to find what's comfortable), don't go extreme ranges of motion(Bel is pretty good at this except when he goes into his blood driven mode where he doesn't have self preservation but like. I fuck up all the time when i want to go do something quick and he sure does too outside of this) and so on. What drives me most insane that while I was doing this. What I found out, was standing like this:

where your knees are slightly bent forward is actually a potential recommendation to combat the fact your legs kinda are fucky. and then i went and did this and it helped some. Also while re-looking at panels Bel also has the clear stance that when he stands straight his legs go back some, which is also part of hyper mobility. there's a notable angle.

and generally his legs bend in ways that no normal person would be able to manage even when he's not being chaos

like the calf there on his right is much closer to a straight line down that it should be.

anyway, while all of this could be accidental, I just thought it'd be interesting to share. Plus you get a bit more information about this stuff regardless! (It may even end up being useful to you because some people don't actually know much about it and assume this stuff is normal if they have it. <- also me)

[nyanko-sensei-tte-yonde]

After the joint training exercise, Hitoshi is desperate to catch up to the rest of the Hero course students in time for his transfer. He's having trouble finding people willing to let him use his Quirk on him, which is completely understandable, but it means he's not making the progress he needs. Both Togata and Monoma are willing to help him out, and he's so, so grateful, but when he unwittingly makes Monoma reveal what he really thinks of him, he fucks up so bad he doesn't think he can face him ever again.

[My first time writing fluff, and I still had to throw some angst in there lol. When I was watching season 7 and Shinsou showed back up, I was thinking about who he'd be training his Quirk on and the people who came to mind were Togata (bc he's so chill) and Monoma (bc he likes Shinsou so much). And Eri's there too because she's adorable.

This is set in the period between the Joint Training Arc and the Final War Arc.]

“Are you busy again today, Aizawa-sensei?”

His teacher was strapping on his boots at the door, so the answer was obviously yes. Aizawa looked up at Hitoshi, absently checking his watch. “Yeah, unfortunately. Don’t know when I’ll be back. You’re still trying to find people to train your Quirk on, aren’t you?”

Hitoshi nodded. He’d asked a couple of his classmates in Gen Ed, and while they’d gotten more friendly with him since the Sports Festival, they were, understandably, wary of being used for Brainwashing practice. He’d gotten one of them to agree but even a twenty-minute session had been too much for her and she’d had to quit. Hitoshi was grateful for even that, but it meant he’d gotten basically no practice in the couple weeks since the joint training exercise, especially since Aizawa had been busy with some sort of project at the hospital.

“If I’m going to be transferring to the Hero course next year, I really need to step up my abilities. But it’s been kind of hard to find anybody.”

Aizawa stood up, adjusting his binding cloth and considering for a moment. “Have you tried asking Togata and his friends? They’re around a lot to take care of Eri.”

Hitoshi rubbed his face. He’d interacted with Eri quite a bit since he’d been training with Aizawa, and since Togata was spending pretty much all of his time with her, he’d spoken with him, too. But he wasn’t exactly friendly with the third years and asking them to allow him to Brainwash them seemed like a huge ask. He didn’t have time to express this, though, as Aizawa was already halfway out the door.

“Well, you’ll figure it out. Make sure Eri eats— you can use my card if you order something.” And then the door shut and Hitoshi had no choice but to figure it out.

“Is Aizawa-sensei gone again?” Eri came to the door, clutching a chapter book to her chest.

“Yeah. Is that a book you’re reading?”

“Uh huh. I just finished it and I only needed Lemillion’s help three times! I wanted to show Aizawa-sensei but he’s already gone…”

“That’s okay! You can show him when he gets back.” Togata appeared behind Eri with a stack of books in his arms. “Did you want to start another one, or take a break? You want lunch?”

Eri thought for a moment before nodding.

“Sure thing! What do you wanna eat?”

“Hmm… hamburger steak!”

Hitoshi followed Eri and Togata into the kitchen. It was a Saturday, so Amajiki and Hadou were there, too. If he was going to ask, this was probably his chance.

“Um… I was wondering…”

Togata was bent over as he dug through the fridge, but instead of turning around, he bent further to look at Hitoshi through his legs. “Shinsou! What’s up?”

“Uh…” Maybe this was a bad idea. But he’d already started talking, so he had no choice but to continue. “I was wondering if the three of you might be willing to…help me with Quirk training.”

“Oh!” Togata straightened and whipped around, leaving Amajiki and Hadou to actually find the ingredients to cook with. “Your Quirk is Brainwashing, right? Sounds like fun!”

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I must refuse,” Amajiki said shakily, clutching an onion and a bell pepper to his chest. “The idea of not being in control of my own body… I think that’s too much for me.”

“Brainwashing? How does it work? What’s it like? What would you need us to do?” Hadou leaned over the kitchen island at Hitoshi with such enthusiasm he had to lean back.

“Well, if someone responds to me verbally while I have my Quirk active, I can control them until I turn it off or they get hit by some sort of impact.” Hitoshi wasn’t used to having people pay this much attention to him. He forced himself to keep his arms down so he didn’t cover his face. “I still can’t make people talk or��do things that require them to think. And that’s what I want to work on.”

“I see! Sure, use me for whatever you need!” Togata was chopping the onion somewhat unevenly. “After lunch?”

“Interesting! I’ll try it, too!” Hadou beamed at him and the force of it was so strong that Hitoshi had to look away. Were all Hero course students this energetic?

Hitoshi nodded. “Yeah. Um, thanks.”

The hamburger steak and accompanying sauce was made with minimal disaster and only a moderate amount of mess to clean up. Hadou volunteered to go first, practically bouncing in her seat.

“Alright… Do you cook much?”

“Not really!” Her face went blank as Hitoshi’s Quirk took hold.

Hitoshi looked at her, unsure of where to start. They’d moved to the couches and Togata was watching with interest as Eri chewed on an apple slice. Amajiki was staring at his friend with some consternation and waving a hand in front of her face.

“Can she see me?” he asked.

Hitoshi nodded. “Yeah, pretty much, but I’m not sure how much she’ll retain afterward.” Another thing to work on. Everyone in the joint training exercise had developed their Quirks so much… Hitoshi felt the gulf between himself and the Hero course students like a soreness. Now that he had a willing test subject in front of him, though, he couldn’t figure out what to have her say.

“Tell us a joke!” Togata said, peeling another apple without looking.

“Sure, tell us a joke,” Hitoshi repeated.

She was silent, staring at the space in front of her with a blank expression that was familiar enough that it didn’t really weird Hitoshi out anymore. Amajiki and Togata were watching with varied amounts of fascination. Togata cut his finger in his distraction, prompting Amajiki to take the apple and knife from him and take over apple-cutting duty.

“Maybe coming up with something’s too much to start with,” Togata said. “You could have try having her repeat something?”

“Okay… Say, ‘I’m a third year Hero course student at U.A.,’” he tried. He could feel the pull of his Quirk on her, trying to work the parts of her brain that would move her mouth and throat so she could talk. It felt sluggish and clumsy and all he managed was getting her to open her mouth and make a little vocalized ah.

“That was something!” Togata exclaimed.

“Not much, though,” Amajiki said quietly. Eri took an apple slice from him and munched it thoughtfully.

“You could try her name?”

“Good idea, Eri-chan.” It was only a few syllables and something Hadou would be used to saying. “Senpai, what’s your name?”

“Hadou…Neji…re…,” came the slow response. It was slurred and zombie-like but clearly discernible.

Hitoshi released his Quirk, happy for the progress but only now realizing how many steps there were between where he was at and where he was trying to get to.

“Whoa, that was weird!” Hadou said as soon as she had control over her own body. “It’s like I could see stuff but I couldn’t move but I didn’t know what I was doing but I don’t really remember anything! So how’d it go?”

“I was able to get you to say your name, but anything more than that didn’t really go anywhere,” Hitoshi said, rubbing his cheek. “And having you saying something you had to make up yourself didn’t work at all.”

“Hmm!” Hadou leaned back against the couch cushions, plucking an apple slice from Amajiki’s hands. “That’s so interesting! Are you gonna do Togata next?”

Togata sprang up from the couch and struck a pose. “Sure! Whaddya need?”

“I guess just, respond to what I say?”

“Okay!” Togata froze as the Brainwashing took hold. His face went blank, but he didn’t otherwise move, creating a bit of a weird effect with his arms in the air for whatever pose he was doing.

“Maybe…just stand normally to start with.”

Togata lowered his arms and straightened his legs so he was standing with his arms at his side. Less weird, but still a little bit weird, just because Hitoshi wasn’t used to the third year not moving animatedly with a wide smile on his face. Eri tilted her head and stared at him with a little furrow in her brow.

“Senpai, what’s your name?” Hitoshi decided to start with something he knew could work.

“Togata Mirio!” Togata answered, voice smooth and only slightly stiff. Hitoshi blinked. There seemed to be a little less resistance with Togata for some reason. Maybe it was the third year’s easygoing attitude. His optimism and cheer was sometimes a little off-putting sometimes, but in this case Hitoshi was just glad it made things easier.

“Who’s your homeroom teacher?”

After a pause, Togata said the name of a teacher Hitoshi didn’t recognize. It seemed to be correct, going off the looks on Amajiki’s and Hadou’s faces.

“Making progress already!” Hadou exclaimed. “Can you, like, feel his mouth moving when you make him talk?”

Hitoshi scratched his cheek. “Not really. There’s not much feedback besides how hard they’re resisting the Brainwashing.”

“I bet he’s not resisting very hard,” Amajiki said. Hitoshi smiled a little and shook his head, at which Amajiki shrunk back into the couch, muttering something about self-preservation instinct and mental fortitude.

“Can you make him move around?” Eri asked.

“Yeah, that’s easier. Anything you wanna see?”

“Make him do that All Might dance from that commercial!”

“That might be harder since he’d have to remember the dance.” Hitoshi wasn’t feeling particularly confident but seeing the eager glint in Eri’s eyes, he had to cave. “We can try it, though.”

Eri nodded eagerly, head bouncing like a bobblehead. Hitoshi suppressed a snort and turned back to Togata before she could snap her neck with the force of her enthusiasm.

Hitoshi didn’t quite remember the dance Eri had been referring to, but that shouldn’t matter as long as Togata knew the moves. He had to try really hard not to feel really stupid as he said, “Senpai, do the All Might dance.”

Togata raised his arms robotically and slowly, silently held them to his head to mimic All Might’s hair tufts. Eri giggled as Togata did the dance, jerky and awkward and completely off rhythm but recognizable. Hitoshi was just about to let himself feel hopeful about his progress when the front door burst open.

“Shinsou-kun! You get lunch yet…?” Monoma froze halfway through the door, plastic 7-11 bag in one hand and mouth dropping open in shock. Togata continued to do the All Might dance, on loop since Hitoshi hadn’t told him to stop, and Monoma dropped the bag and backed out the door, shutting it with a slam.

Eri’s laughter only grew louder as she rolled on the couch. Amajiki coughed and suggested that maybe Togata should stop now. Hitoshi released his Quirk while he ran a mental calculation on whether he should chase after Monoma to explain or go hole up in his dorm room and never come out.

Having been coaxed back inside and bribed with a reheated hamburger steak, Monoma sat at the table in the common area of the faculty dorm and looked around at the gathered third years. “Why didn’t you ask me, Shinsou-kun? I thought we were friends.” He was chewing on his fork as he turned his gaze to Hitoshi with a raised brow.

Hitoshi cleared his throat and hoped the warmth in his cheeks wasn’t visible. It hadn’t occurred to him to ask Monoma— he was a Hero course student and so one of the rivals he was trying to catch up to. And were they friends? Monoma had practically demanded Hitoshi’s number after the joint training exercise and they had been texting a little and had hung out a couple times but it wasn’t like they’d been speaking for that long. At this point he realized he was taking a little too long to answer so he groped for something to say. “Are you saying you’re okay with helping me?”

“I’d love to help you!” Monoma burst out, gesticulating wildly with his fork. Eri was watching its trajectory with wonderment. “We’re kindred spirits, you and I, and now that we’ve fought together we’ll always be comrades-in-arms! How better to stick it to those class A kids than to help you train so you’re better than any of them!”

Hitoshi wasn’t sure what to say to that and decided against mentioning that there was an even chance he’d end up in class A next year. “Oh. Um, thanks.”

“Think nothing of it! In fact, think of it as doing me a favor! This could be the beginning of a historic partnership! With your Brainwashing and my Copy, we’d take the world by storm!”

Hitoshi let himself zone out a little as Monoma continued to rant between bites of food, detailing their epic rise to the top of the Hero charts. He was just glad he’d been able to find people— multiple!— willing to help him train his Brainwashing. Monoma even seemed eager, and as he tuned back in to his speech, Hitoshi couldn’t help but feel a little warm.

* * *

Eri let out a shrill giggle as Monoma crashed into the coffee table. It was enough of an impact to knock him out of the Brainwashing and he dropped to the ground, rubbing his shin. They’d developed a bit of a routine over the last few weeks, Monoma coming by after class or on weekends when he didn’t have his work-study to help Hitoshi train with Togata. Hitoshi was finally starting to make real progress with his Brainwashing and he was able to make people answer simple questions. Things requiring more brainpower than that were still a struggle, and he still needed to really concentrate or he’d slip up and the person he was controlling would veer off and do something he hadn’t been going for.

“Ow, that’s gonna bruise! I didn’t agree to this so you could bodily injure me!”

“Sorry,” Hitoshi said, biting back his own laughter. “Maybe that was trying too many things at once.”

“I, for one, greatly appreciate your sacrifice,” Togata called from the couch. Eri had buried her face in his side, giggles exploding into guffaws at Monoma’s outraged expression. “No one can make Eri-chan laugh like you!”

“Why don’t you try something that doesn’t require me to move around?” Monoma stood up again and crossed his arms, shooting an exaggeratedly prim expression at Hitoshi. “Just have me talk, so I don’t have to risk life and limb for your Quirk training.”

“Er, yeah, okay.” Hitoshi rubbed his neck, in fact feeling a little guilty. He’d had Monoma walk around the room while describing things he saw. Simple, but maybe still a bit ambitious for where he was at. “Hey, Monoma.”

“Yeah?”

Hitoshi felt his Quirk take hold, the vague sensation of something catching on the edges of someone’s consciousness. He pulled at it a little as he spoke. “What’s two plus two?”

“Four,” Monoma answered, voice flat. It was still strange to hear him speak without his usual exaggerated affect.

Eri giggled again. “Even I know that!”

“Yes, you’re very good at math,” Togata agreed.

Hitoshi ignored the peanut gallery. “What’s the capital of France?”

“Paris.”

“Is general trivia really making him think?” Togata asked.

“Hmm, good point,” Hitoshi said. “Who wrote the Arsene Lupin stories?” Monoma had described this character to him once, one of the inspirations for his hero name. Hitoshi didn’t remember the answer himself, but he was trying to see if Monoma could recall it.

“Maurice Leblanc,” Monoma said, rolling the r with an impressive French flourish.

“What’s the plot of one of the novels?”

Monoma was silent. Damn. Was that level of information recall still too much?

“Close your eyes.”

He did so.

“Who else is in the room right now?”

“Shinsou-kun. Eri-chan. Togata-senpai.” The words came out slow, but they were correct.

“Who’s your favorite out of us?” Eri called from the couch.

Hitoshi looked back at her, raising a brow. Eri stared back at him, wide-eyed, nodding eagerly. “Fine. Monoma, who’s your favorite out of the people in this room?”

“Shinsou-kun,” Monoma answered quickly.

Eri burst out into more giggles and Hitoshi felt his face warm a little. “I guess since we were on the same team during the joint training exercise.”

“Aw, that’s really sweet,” Togata said. “I’m glad you two are such good friends!”

Hitoshi cleared his throat, trying to find something else to ask Monoma. “God, this is stupid… What are you thinking about right now?” By this point, he was able to keep the person under his Quirk somewhat conscious, but they’d still often forget what they’d been doing while under the Brainwashing. Maybe with more practice, he could control how much they remembered, but that was probably pretty far off.

“I want you to kiss me,” Monoma said.

Hitoshi released the Brainwashing without meaning to. Behind him, he heard Eri gasp and then protest as she was picked up by Togata.

“Uuh, Eri-chan, why don’t we go for a walk? I’ll buy you a candy apple!”

“Hmm… okay!”

The door closed before Hitoshi finally worked up the courage to say something.

“Sorry about that.”

“About what?” Monoma looked around the room. “Where’d Togata-senpai and Eri-chan go?”

“They left because, um…” Two sides of Hitoshi’s brain warred over what to say. Lie or tell the truth? Brainwash Monoma to forget he’d ever met him? Probably not within the scope of his abilities, not to mention morally objectionable. “They had to go.” Neither side won.

Monoma was making a face at him and Hitoshi sorely wished, not for the first time in his life but for the first time in a while, that he had any Quirk except the one he had, preferably one that could dig him a nice hole to hide in. “Did you make me do something stupid?”

“N-no.” It’d been Hitoshi who’d asked something stupid. “It was nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Shinsou-kun.” Monoma closed the distance between them and grabbed Hitoshi by the wrist as if worried he was going to run away. Hitoshi had been considering it, but only vaguely, and now it was too late to act on the impulse. “What was it?” His voice was gentle but probing.

Now that Monoma had touched him, there was a chance he’d Copied Hitoshi’s Brainwashing and could use it to force Hitoshi to tell him, or do something embarrassing until he did. They’d tried that a few times, and thanks to that Hitoshi knew how it felt to be under his Quirk and had even been able to use that to speed up his progress. He didn’t think Monoma would Copy and use his Quirk without asking but the threat of it was enough to make him still, though he continued to look anywhere but at him. “Eri-chan wanted to know who you liked the most out of the three of us,” Hitoshi said. His wrist felt hot where Monoma’s hand was clasped around it. He was probably sweating. “And you said me.”

Monoma snorted. “Well, sure, I talk to you the most. Why would that make them leave?”

“Then I asked what you were thinking about and you said…” Hitoshi glanced at Monoma’s face. He’d stepped even closer and Hitoshi’s vision was filled with the blue-gray of his eyes. Hitoshi couldn’t stop his gaze from flickering down to Monoma’s lips and he felt his face burn as he forced the words out. “You said you wanted me to kiss you.”

Monoma’s eyes went wide and Hitoshi saw a twinge of recollection in his face. “Shinsou-kun—”

“Sorry, I think I should go.” Hitoshi shook himself free and rushed to the door, ducking his head to avoid eye contact.

“Hey, wait!”

“Don’t follow me!” Hitoshi couldn’t suppress a flinch as his Quirk took hold of Monoma. He hadn’t meant to do that, but it gave him the opportunity to get out of there, so he took it. For the first time, he felt Monoma struggling against the Brainwashing. Hitoshi picked up his pace and felt the connection fall away about halfway across the lawn in front of the faculty dorm. He saw Togata and Eri returning down the sidewalk, Eri happily munching on her promised candy apple, and ran in the direction of the Gen Ed dorms, hoping they hadn’t seen him. He didn’t stop until he’d locked the door of his dorm room behind him and then sat down against the door.

That had gone incredibly shittily, for a number of reasons. He’d used his Quirk against his friend, someone who’d been trying to help him get into the Hero course, against his will. Monoma had made himself open to what were essentially psychic attacks and Hitoshi had not only violated that trust but also forced Monoma to divulge something private and probably really embarrassing. Some hero student Hitoshi was turning out to be.

Monoma definitely wouldn’t want Hitoshi to kiss him now, if he even wanted to see him again. Hitoshi couldn’t blame him if he didn’t. He felt the bile rise up in his throat, familiar and sour after years of reckless, defiant resolve to prove everyone wrong. Indulging an impulse he hadn’t since middle school, he put his forehead against his knees and let the self-loathing wash over him.

Maybe ten seconds later his phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket to see Monoma had texted him an ominous ‘Shinshou-kun.’ Hitoshi stared at it for a few minutes, too scared to open it and send a read receipt. Monoma sent one more ‘Heyyy!!!’ After several minutes there were no more messages. Hitoshi let out the breath he’d been holding and put a hand over his face. He wasn’t sure if the tightness in his chest was disappointment or relief.

* * *

Hitoshi hadn’t gone back to the faculty dorm in a week. Aizawa-sensei wasn’t around much these days but he was able to train with his binding cloths by himself on school grounds, though he was pretty much just going through the motions at this point. He’d hoped doing some familiar drills would keep his mind off things, help him focus, but swinging around the trees before class and trying to remember to keep his wrists loose did little to occupy his thoughts. If anything, it was only making him feel worse.

Hitoshi landed softly on the grass (falling had been the first thing Aizawa had drilled into him) and looked down at the new callouses forming on his hands. Was there even a point to this? He’d spent weeks, months at this point carving out space for himself, training and sweating and getting his ass kicked by Aizawa-sensei so he could finally have his dream within his grasp. But if last week was anything to go by, he’d only proved that everyone had been right all along, and all his powers were good for was villainy.

Hitoshi checked the time before coiling up the binding cloth. The carbon fibers glinted a little in the light. He flexed his fingers against the fabric, feeling the scratchy texture of the weave. He hadn’t texted Monoma, or even really seen him. Monoma hadn’t texted him since the incident, either, which confirmed the theory that he didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. In the normal course of the school year Hitoshi didn’t really get opportunities to interact with the Hero course kids, so he might not see him again for the rest of the semester. That was probably for the best.

Hitoshi frowned. Staring at his hands wasn’t going to help him get a handle on his feelings, it’d only make him late so he tucked the cloth into his bag and headed to class.

He was antsy the whole morning, barely able to pay attention to the lectures. There was a pop quiz in math he’d definitely bombed. Working to get into the Hero course hadn’t distracted him so much before; he’d only stubbornly thrown himself into his training while keeping his grades up with sheer force of will and sleep deprivation. Hitoshi heaved a sigh as the bell rang for lunch. He saw a couple of his classmates staring at him, but mercifully they didn’t try to ask him about it. He’d been using lunch periods to train more, so they went ahead without him.

He wasn’t feeling up to training right then, though, so he pushed himself up from his desk and followed the rest of the class to the cafeteria. In the hallway, he saw a familiar swoop of blond hair and Togata was upon him before he could formulate an escape plan.

“Shinsou, it’s been a minute! How you been?”

“Alright,” Hitoshi said, avoiding eye contact. He hoped the terse response would get Togata to leave, but he wasn’t so lucky.

“Eri-chan’s been a little sad not to see you. Is something going on?” Togata’s voice was cheerful and airy as always, but Hitoshi still had the feeling of being cross-examined.

“You know, exams and stuff,” Hitoshi said to the floor. He kept his hands in his pockets so they wouldn’t be tempted to fidget and give him away. “Can’t let my grades slip or they might pull my transfer.”

“Oh, I thought your grades were really good,” Togata said, voice filled with thoughtful surprise. “Did you still need someone to train your Quirk with? I’m always happy to help. Heck, I can tutor you if you’re worried about your grades.”

Togata was being weirdly, characteristically nice, which was just making Hitoshi uncomfortable. Hitoshi cleared his throat. “No, I think I’m good. Thanks.”

“Hmm,” was Togata’s response. He eyed Hitoshi for a moment and opened his mouth to say something. As Hitoshi steeled himself, he seemed to think better of it and grinned at him. “Well, let me know if there’s anything you need.”

Hitoshi just nodded mutely. Another third year turned the corner and took Togata’s attention, so he was spared from having to verbalize a reply. Togata hadn’t said anything about Monoma, but Hitoshi found himself unable to push the thought of him from his mind as he reached the cafeteria. Togata and Eri had gotten back to the faculty dorm right after Hitoshi had made his exit. They would have found Monoma there, after Hitoshi had done something terrible and then run away on top of that. What had Monoma said to them? Whatever it’d been, it’d probably been nicer than he deserved.

The cafeteria was already crowded as Hitoshi entered. He started to make his way to the back of the line, looking at the clock over the door and trying to calculate if he’d even get his food in time to eat. He was feeling a little nauseous, probably from the lack of sleep, so maybe it’d be better to just grab a seat and try to take a nap at a table.

All the introspection meant he wasn’t looking where he was going, and he bumped into another student. Damn, he had to get his shit together. “Sorry,” he muttered, registering who he’d bumped into too late.

“Shinsou-kun!”

Hitoshi froze as he looked up and locked eyes with Monoma. “Fuck.” He found himself unable to escape as Monoma grabbed his wrist and got up in his face. He looked everywhere except at Monoma.

“Is that all you have to say for yourself?” Monoma hissed, lacking his usual drama and exuberance.

“Can we not…do this here?” Hitoshi continued to stare at the floor, trying to get his brain to start going again. Here they were, the consequences of his actions. Monoma definitely hated him and was going to let him have it.

“What, are you gonna Brainwash me and run away again?”

Hitoshi couldn’t suppress a flinch. He felt the absurd urge to laugh, like a toddler caught doing something wrong, and that made him feel like even more of a piece of shit. He tamped it down. “…No.”

Monoma huffed a sigh, but his grip on Hitoshi’s arm didn’t loosen. “You know what, just, come here.” He started to drag Hitoshi toward the doors. For someone smaller than him and not particularly muscular, Monoma was surprisingly strong. Hitoshi didn’t fight him, only glancing over his shoulder on the way out to see the orange-haired girl from 1-B staring at them from over her noodles.

Monoma pulled them into an unused classroom and pushed Hitoshi further inside until they were out of view from the door. He blocked in Hitoshi between the desks, cutting off an easy exit. He was also entirely too close and Hitoshi found his gaze going to Monoma’s mouth again.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“It’s not like we get a lot of chances to see each other, since we’re in different courses.”

“Then you’ve stopped going out of your way to see me.”

“I guess, yeah.” Hitoshi ducked his head. It took two seconds of fighting with his mouth to finally blurt out, “I’m really sorry! You trusted me enough to let me use my Quirk on you, and I Brainwashed you without your permission. And I made you say something private in front of people… If you never want to see me again, I understand. I know I should’ve… apologized sooner.” He forced himself to look at Monoma, afraid of his disgust but also needing to know what kind of face he was making.

Monoma was scowling, looking just to the right of Hitoshi’s jaw. After several seconds, he finally said, “Yeah, that wasn’t very nice of you to just run off.”

Hitoshi’s insides were cold mush. He could see Monoma trying to disguise his hurt with his usual blithe smile, but it was unsteady. Hitoshi let out a shaky breath. “Maybe I am just a villain,” he muttered.

“Excuse me? What are you talking about?”

It’d been directed at himself, but since Hitoshi had said it out loud, of course Monoma had heard. Hitoshi once more wished for a hole to hide in, not that one was likely to open in up the floor of the classroom, but he deserved to take his lumps, even if it was making him feel like he was being skinned alive. “Cause I… I violated your trust. And after you called me your friend… I was terrible.”

Monoma’s scowl morphed into a frown, but not the kind Hitoshi had been expecting. “What are you, stupid?”

“What?”

“We were training! Yeah, your Quirk lets you dig around in my head a little, but that’s a risk I willingly took on when I agreed to train with you. I mean, you know how many concussions I’ve gotten from my classmates in training exercises?”

“But—”

“Look, you’re not a bad person, okay? Your Quirk isn’t evil and you’re not a villain! It’s not like you made me hurt someone! You didn’t hurt me.”

“Doesn’t me Brainwashing you at all hurt you?” Hitoshi could feel himself losing a logical battle he hadn’t been prepared for.

“No! And even if it did, I agreed to it! At some point you have to respect the fact that I make my own choices.”

Hitoshi didn’t have a response for that. Monoma was the sort of person who could talk circles around anyone, but Hitoshi couldn’t help but still feel deeply guilty.

“Also… if you were that bothered about me wanting to kiss you, you could’ve just… said that. You didn’t have to avoid me over it…”

Hitoshi’s cheeks heated and his head whipped up to look at Monoma, who’d bowed his head and was avoiding eye contact. “What? No, that didn’t bother me.”

“Isn’t that why you ran off and stopped talking to me? I mean, I get it, if you don’t…like me, just, tell me you’re not interested, okay?”

The shape of Hitoshi’s fuckup suddenly became very clear. He shook his head emphatically, a hand coming up to cover his face. “N-no, that wasn’t it at all! I was just… I was surprised, okay? I didn’t know what to do!” He stumbled backwards a step and felt the back of his thigh hit a desk. “I’d just never… thought about it before…”

“So you didn’t hate the idea?” Monoma’s voice was quiet as Hitoshi lowered his hand.

“I just figured… you wouldn’t want to anymore… since you probably hated me…”

Monoma snorted. “I don’t lose interest in someone so easily.” His gaze was on the floor and Hitoshi’s hand hovered awkwardly in the air between them, torn between going back to his side or reaching out and…

Their eyes met and Monoma reached up to tangle his fingers in Hitoshi’s hair. Hitoshi let out a yelp as he was pulled forward and then Monoma’s lips were on his and his eyes went wide in shock. Monoma’s eyes were closed, blond lashes ticking Hitoshi’s face. Hitoshi realized he should probably close his eyes too, and maybe kiss him back and then his only thoughts were that Monoma’s lips were soft and he’d been stupid for not talking to him sooner. His hands traveled up to the sides of Monoma’s face to pull him closer, pushing himself forward. He breathed out a sigh and pushed his tongue into Monoma’s mouth because all he wanted was to taste him.

Monoma broke off the kiss, grinning a little as Hitoshi dumbly tried to chase his mouth. “So? I didn’t… ruin everything?”

“No! Of course not!” Hitoshi cleared his throat. “I hope… I didn’t ruin things, either.”

“No.” Monoma chuckled. “For the sort of guy who says ‘I’m not here to make friends’, you really get bothered by this kind of thing.” He started fiddling with Hitoshi’s collar. “We’re still friends. I still like you. I’ll keep training with you, if you still want that.”

“If I still want— Do you? Isn’t getting Brainwashed kind of awful?”

“It’s not awful! I kind of… like it.” His voice trailed off at the end until Hitoshi could barely hear it.

Hitoshi coughed. “I can’t believe you’d say something like that.” He couldn’t believe anyone would say something like that. His face was hot and he wanted to hide again, just because he was so overwhelmed. “Is that… something you’re into?”

“You little!” Monoma smacked Hitoshi’s arm, taking Hitoshi’s genuine question as teasing. “Don’t make me Copy your Quirk! Maybe I’ll give you a taste of your own medicine!”

Hitoshi bit back a laugh. The weight that’d been in his chest for the past week was suddenly gone, replaced with blooming warmth. “Yeah? What kind of horrendous things would you make me do?”

“Shut up, for one thing!”

“I really want to kiss you again.” Hitoshi’s voice was hoarse and his face burned as he said it.

Monoma held up his arms defensively and looked away, cheeks hot pink. “Jeez! I told you to shut it, not say something embarrassing!”

“I’m not embarrassed.” Not entirely true, but seeing Monoma flustered for once was rare enough he wasn’t going to squander it. “Are you?” He reached out and put his hand around Monoma’s arm. His skin was soft and warm under his fingers.

“No! Why would I be?” Monoma didn’t pull away, but stared at Hitoshi’s hand like he couldn’t figure out its geometry on his arm.

“You’re, like, bright red.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “So, can I?”

“Do whatever you want.”

Hitoshi leaned forward, suddenly, absurdly, nervous as he pressed his lips against Monoma’s again. He laughed a little and pulled back to try again. An ecstatic little rush went through him as he felt Monoma sigh against his mouth and melt into him. Hitoshi heard a click as the door opened. He opened one eye to peek over Monoma’s shoulder and saw his friend from before standing in the doorway in open-mouthed shock. After a good eight seconds of silence, she saluted before shutting the door gently.

Monoma laughed into Hitoshi’s mouth and pulled back just far enough to say, “Oh no, did we get caught?” His lips ghosting against Hitoshi’s felt like heaven.

Hitoshi nodded. He pulled Monoma back to him and let his eyes fall shut again. “I guess you have some explaining to do to your friend.” He smiled against Monoma’s groan. “But in a few minutes.”

[epickiya722]

What's your favorite friend dynamic in class 1-A/B, what are your hcs for them?

I HAVE MANY, HOW CAN I CHOOSE?!

But! You know what, I wanna talk about 1B first since they don't get as much love and I adore 1B (y'all will never guess who is my favorite from that class).

As a whole, I love the class interactions. Even in smaller units, they work well, to me at least, as a bigger, easy functional one. Even with the little screentime, they still show they do care for each other and have each other's backs.

If I had to choose one of my favorite friend dynamic in Class B, I'm choosing Rin and Shishida. Especially, after their time as a team during the Joint Training Arc. They were a pair during the Cavalry Battle in the Sports Festival, too.

I'll admit I'm a sucker for how big of the difference in their heights is. You got the tiny guy and the big guy team-up! It's adorable!

Headcanons...

Okay, Rin hates cold weather so I can see Shishida giving him a bunch of sweaters to stay warm so he doesn't always have to carry a blanket and often times the others will see Rin just walking through the dormitory in a sweater that practically swallows him and think nothing of it. Like "oh, yep, he's cold".

For Shishida, he often takes naps so whenever Rin isn't using a blanket and he sees him on the couch, he's quick to cover him and warn everyone to not wake him up unless Shishida already told someone to beforehand.

I can also see them often pairing up whenever they can during training. After the JT Arc, they work on communicating without the need to speak and sometimes this goes into when the class is relaxing. It would be a normal afternoon and Rin is in the kitchen and then Shishida comes in without saying anything, but Rin is already passing him a sandwich and tossing him a juice box from the fridge and the others are just like "how did he know???"

I gotta write more fics for these two. WHY HAVEN'T I ALREADY, THAT MUST CHANGE!

For Class A, again, I love them as a whole! I just... they have my heart!

To choose, you know what because they don't get as much love, at least platonically (I like them as a romantic pair, too), I gotta go with Ojiro and Hagakure on this one. I adore both characters so much.

One of my favorite details about them is if you need to find Hagakure, look for Ojiro. Most of the time, she is right there beside him.

Their interactions come off as they've known each other forever even though this is the first year they've been in the same class.

Headcanons I have for them?

They can easily confide in each other. I can see them going to the other for comfort whenever they need to talk to someone.

Another I have is Hagakure has seen Ojiro do at least one or two things that are "not normal", but she's just more amused than "Oh my gosh, I've been deceived".

They would definitely be best friends even after high school. Lunch dates, yoga and everything.

I also see them as the type of friends where they play constant petty, but harmless pranks on each other. Right now in my "Class Antics" series, Hagakure has a grunge against Ojiro for eating her pudding and in turn, he now has a small collection of cropped tops.

For now, that's all I have!!

[literallyjustanerd]

At Sunset In Summer - II

Omega is ready to join The Rebellion. Hunter is not.

Next Previous

Chapter Two - Winter

Hunter is ashamed to admit that part of him had dreaded Echo’s visit. Not to say that he hadn't wanted to see him, or that he isn’t relieved to have his brother safe, have him home. But the thought of what Echo represents, all he has been doing out there, and all that his stories have instilled in Omega, however unintentionally… 

The axe swings down over his head harder than he'd meant it, splintering the log on its stand. A stupid outburst, and one he regrets immediately: the cold is not kind on his joints, not anymore, and his shoulders groan in protest when he bends to gather the wood. He huffs out a breath, one that lingers as a soft mist in the air, and he laments his ageing body, his stubborn mind. When he stands with the armful of logs, he bites back the grunt of effort, even though Omega isn’t around this time to laugh at his ‘old man noises.’ 

The house is lit brightly against the slate-grey sky, a beacon of life among the barren trees and sodden earth. He hears laughter from inside, and looks through the window to see Wrecker filling Echo’s cup with the good plum wine, the one they’d been saving. Echo’s arms move in broad, sweeping arcs, deep in another tale of his exploits with Rex and the Rebels. Across the table, Omega is enthralled.

They have avoided the topic in the months since Omega first brought it up. Or, Hunter has. Hiding like a coward, changing the subject, fleeing to some inane distraction. Anything to stave it off. But as the days grow short and cold, and the ashen sky closes in from above, he has felt a creeping dread that he won’t be able to run for much longer. 

The door creaks when he opens it, scraping the floor. It's an old house, and the cold and damp buckle the wood after heavy rain.

“Hunter!” Omega cheers when he enters. “Do you remember the prison break on Bracca we heard about last month? That was Echo’s crew!” The years have changed Omega in ways Hunter cannot deny, stretched her tall, hardened her features. But whenever she gets this excited, Hunter can see nothing in her smile but the little girl she once was. The little girl who marvelled at the feel of grass beneath her feet, the smell of dirt in the air. The thought clashes with the reality he’s trying to process — as well as with the sight of Wrecker filling her cup with wine. Before he can make an unwise comment, though, Crosshair has pushed his chair back to help with the firewood. He takes half the stack, shooting Hunter a pointed glower as he does. Hunter holds his tongue, feeling sheepish that he has to be kept in check.

“Keeping busy, then,” he says to Echo, dropping the logs in the wood chest and stripping off his coat. There’s a bitter tang to the words he had not intended. Echo shrugs, a detached smile on his face.

“Doing what we can,” he corrects.

When they’d met Echo on the landing pad that afternoon, it had been in a ship that looked held together by bits of duratape and prayer. A patchwork, much like the man himself. Omega had tackled him in a hug, and he hadn’t stumbled at all with the force.

“How you been, kid? Keeping up your training?”

Like that was a normal greeting. Like he hadn’t just kicked the sleeping rancor Hunter had been tiptoeing around for months. Had they been speaking behind his back? Omega had laughed sheepishly and joked about her marksmanship being rusty. Something Echo had promptly promised to fix while he was around. 

“We’ll have you whipped into shape in no time, Havoc 5.”

After dinner, Hunter builds up the fire in the living room hearth. Behind him, Crosshair settles in an armchair, while Wrecker deals cards for a game of sabacc. Echo is still in the kitchen, tending the stove: he had promised uj’alayi for dessert. Caught in between, Omega lingers, leaning against the doorway. Dark liquid swirls in her cup, ominous as the darkening storm clouds outside.

“Echo,” she ventures, prompting a distracted ‘hm?’ from the kitchen. She pauses, filling her lungs with too much breath. Hunter freezes.

“You’re taking some of the other clones with you when you go, right?” she says. 

Echo nods, still facing away. Hunter watches from the corner of his eye. The heat of the fire pricks at his face.

“That’s right. Been talking to a few who want to join up.”

“And you still need pilots?”

There’s a weight on Hunter’s chest. His ribs are closing in on him. A chill wind rolls over the island, seeping through the gap in the crooked door.

“Always. Rebellion’s not exactly the GAR,” Echo laments. “We’re hard-up for anyone with real skill.”

A single beat of silence.

“Do you think…?”

Echo sets down the wooden spoon he’s been using and turns to face Omega. Though his smile is soft and warm, it only hardens the ice in Hunter’s veins. Chewed fingernails dig hard through his thinning trousers.

“There’s a place waiting for you, kid,” Echo says. Like it’s a welcome home and not a death sentence. “Always has been.”

Hunter breaks.

"That's why you’re here, then?” he spits into the fire. “Recruiting, are you?”

Echo blinks down at him, expression blank, unreadable. His lack of reaction is infuriating. He must have expected this from the start.

“Is there a problem?”

Hunter shoves another log into the fire. A shower of sparks spews from the hearth.

“Don’t give me that, you know damn well what I mean,” he snarls. Before he knows it, he has risen from the ground, on a warpath for the kitchen. “Just how long have you been in her ear, huh? She’s not your soldier, Echo, she can’t–”

“Can’t what?”

Omega steps between them, catching Hunter’s shoulder with her own. When had she gotten so tall? 

“Go on,” she presses, the words jagged and raw. “What were you going to say? Since you’re so eager to speak for me these days.”

Branches creak overhead, bowing in the gale outside. The fire cracks and sputters, its flames bright in Omega’s eyes. 

“He’s talking like–”

“He’s talking like he’s listening to me,” she snaps. “Which is more than you’ve been doing lately!”

Shame rears up against Hunter’s anger, and two of them clash like thunder, rattling his bones. He can feel the weight of his brothers’ eyes on him, and suddenly the thought of any of them stepping in to mediate is unbearable. “It’s my fault, then?” he says quickly, depriving them of the chance. “For protecting you? For keeping you safe all these years? You don’t belong out there, Omega!”

“You all fought for years during the war! What makes this any different? Why can’t I fight, too?”

Over Omega’s shoulder, Echo watches carefully for his reply. Hunter refuses to look.

“You think we did that by choice?” he growls, leaning hard into the anger. “We fought our war. We lost our own. And we did it to protect you. If you think for a second that I’m going to let you waste that sacrifice–”

A hand on his shoulder breaks his attack. Wrecker is there when he whirls around, giving him a look he had only seen once before. Years ago. When it had been just the two of them, desperate and alone, searching for Omega. Only once he’s stopped his tirade does he turn back to Omega and see what he’s done. There are tears shining in her fiery eyes, her fists shaking at her sides. She opens her mouth, pauses, closes it again. Then, she’s gone, pushing past Hunter and Wrecker and moving swiftly for her room. To Hunter’s dismay, Wrecker and Crosshair exchange a glance before following behind her, in some unspoken agreement. He’s left alone. Shrinking under Echo’s steady, unflinching gaze. Hunter lets out a heavy sigh, collapsing into a seat at the kitchen table. The silence is a knife in his side, twisting deeper the longer it stretches on.

“You know I don’t think less of you for staying,” Echo says finally. Hunter buries his face in his hands, squeezing his eyes shut against the weight of his mistake.

“I just want her safe,” he says. “I know she wants to help. Kriff, I love that about her. But the thought of her out there on her own? Without us to protect her?”

“We were about her age when we were shipped off to war,” Echo sighs, turning back to the pot on the stove. “Least she gets to choose what she’s fighting for.”

“Promise me,” Hunter says, fighting to say it aloud. “Promise me, if she tries to run off with you tonight, you won't let her.” The sound Echo gives in response, Hunter could swear, is almost a laugh. 

“She won’t leave until she knows you’re okay with it,” he says. “She still needs you, you know.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Hunter mumbles into a closed fist. If the words are loud enough for Echo to hear, he says nothing of it. Instead, he turns the stove off and moves to pour the batter into a pan. It’s thick, though, sticking stubbornly to the pot. Echo turns over his shoulder, the barest hint of a smirk on his face.

“Give me a hand here?”

Hunter rolls his eyes.

“You’re not funny when you do that.”

Nonetheless, he rises from the table and takes up the spoon, scraping the mixture into the pan while Echo holds the pot. The smell hangs heavy in the air, warm and rich and heavily spiced. The gale outside has ebbed, leaving only a low, constant rustling through the last stubborn leaves. Hunter rinses the pot while Echo sets the cake in the hypersonic to bake.

“You know I…” Hunter sighs. “What I said to you wasn’t fair.”

“Talk to Omega,” Echo says simply, clearing empty glasses from the table. “And say what you mean, this time. Gets you pretty far, in my experience.”

He’s gone by the next morning. Needed by Rex for another mission. He leaves only a note, and a plate of uj’alayi on a clean kitchen table. Omega is halfway through a slice when Hunter rises, one knee drawn up on her chair and her eyes out the window. It takes longer than Hunter would have liked before he can speak.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “For yelling.”

“Me, too,” Omega replies softly. “Kinda ruined the night, huh?” She offers a plate to Hunter. “Cake’s good, at least.”

He takes the peace offering, and fills his lungs with enough breath for a real apology. An explanation. A confession. But the words don’t form. They’re stubborn, thick, sticking to the inside of his mind. Omega already knows how he feels, doesn’t she? She knows he only wants to see her safe and happy. She doesn’t need to hear him say it out loud. She watches Hunter carefully from behind her mug of caf, until he buckles under the pressure and turns his attention to the dishes in the sink.

“Might go to the market this afternoon,” he says. “See if I can get something to fix the door.”

Omega lets go of a breath.

“Sounds good,” she replies, unenthused.

The sky outside is dark, and Hunter’s shoulder aches.