#chapter two is a fair chunk of smut but also a fair chunk of feels | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

andypantsx3 · 4 years ago

Text

statistically significant | 2 | bakugou/reader

length: 23,490 words | 7 chapters

summary: You’re the scientist who developed a neural net to model the value of assists. Now that your work is feeding into the hero rankings, pro hero Ground Zero has a bone to pick with your results.

tags: romance, enemies to lovers, sexual tension, reader-insert

warnings: aged up characters, eventual smut, m/f threats of violence, problematic behavior

note: I cannot overemphasize that this interpretation of Bakugou is based on season 1 Bakugou, which means he behaves very questionably at the beginning. Please heed the warnings!

Present day

Miruko’s agency was large, much larger than you had expected.

From the street, it had looked unobtrusive enough, a moderately-sized office building with a modern-looking glass front. You could see into a large reception area on the ground floor, and open workspaces on the next few floors, conjoined desks piled high with paperwork and slightly wilted-looking office plants. If not for Miruko’s name emblazoned over the entry in bold, metallic letters, you could have taken it for just another office building.

Once inside, however, the building became much more than that. After checking in at reception, you were led deep into the building, and gestured into an elevator that took you tens of floors down. When the doors opened, they let out into a cavernous space, stretching under what must have been the entire block. The floor was equipped with a gym, several reinforced training spaces the size of office buildings themselves, and what appeared to be a surveillance room where footage from the training spaces could be replayed.

Your mouth dropped open. Did all hero agencies hide deep underground like this? How many other underground floors were there? How big was Miruko Agency, really?

Your guide had enough tact to ignore your inelegant expression, instead leading you towards a training room. A huge, clear window tens of meters across looked into the space, but you would bet anything that it was made of some material much stronger than glass, which was especially evidenced by what you could see going on beyond the window.

Rubble littered the room, scattered in towering piles that gave the appearance of a post-doomsday cityscape. You didn’t know if the room had been set up this way, or if the rubble was the result of the battle going on within; there were two heroes that you could see darting around the space, both appearing to be causing maximum chaos.

Closest to you, a woman with wild pink curls was emitting a powerful stream of some cement-colored substance that ate away at anything it touched, causing it to smoke and hiss and crumble. She melted a huge hole in a pile of rubble, and a man with a shock of golden-yellow hair leapt away from what had probably been his hiding place, backpedaling wildly.

You perked up when you realized who they were--Ashido Mina, the number twenty-nine hero Pinky, and Kaminari Denki, the number thirty-three hero Chargebolt.

Kaminari threw out a hand, and a crackling wave of lightning struck out at Ashido. The lights flickered out briefly, and even behind the window, you could feel your hair stand on end. You blinked past the powerful flash that had temporarily blinded you, casting about for Ashido who had surely been struck down, only to choke on a laugh when you caught sight of her flashing Kaminari the middle finger, sliding away from a huge chunk of rubble she’d dislodged with her acid to use as a shield.

“They’re idiots,” a voice intoned from your side.

You nearly jumped out of your skin, turning to find Miruko herself standing next to you, powerful arms crossed over her chest. Despite her words, a little fond-looking smile flickered at the edges of her mouth.

You schooled your slack jawed expression into a smile. “I don’t know--their personalities are mostly why they’re so popular, so they must be doing something right. I did a little digging into everyone’s results before I got here, and they stood out among a lot of the rest.”

Miruko’s gaze flicked over you. She was short, maybe even shorter than you, but her keen red eyes and very lethal-looking biceps more than made up for her stature. She was intimidating in person, an air about her that told you she could snap and turn on you at any second. Despite the fact that she had asked you here herself, you felt like she might seize you and bodily throw you out of her agency.

“And that’s why they’re idiots. Their results are buoyed by their personalities,” Miruko sniffed. “They need work.”

You prickled a little, feeling like you should say something in their defense, but the truth of it was, you were here to help them work on things.

Some weeks ago, Miruko had contacted the Public Safety Hero Commission with interest in the ranking model. Your version had been in production for close to a year, and you had recently been making scholarly noises about feedback loops, asking for permission to provide pro heroes with individual results breakdowns. Miruko had caught wind of this and demanded on site assessments for her “team of frigging clowns” as she had so eloquently put it. And so you had been loaned out, with the idea of helping to direct the training for the heroes at Miruko Agency, providing them a real time comparison of their training footage to the generic hero ranking model results.

If this trial run was successful, if you could help any of the heroes measurably jump ranks, then the Commission had committed to providing individualized results for the thousands of heroes employed today. The Commission had also expressed interest in your idea of creating and packaging smaller models that took less technical skill to operate, for heroes to use to direct their own training. They had even seemed receptive to giving you a small team of research scientists and software engineers to build such a product, so you would be looking at a pretty sick promotion, not to mention.

Miruko made her way over to the surveillance room, beckoning you after her, and you watched as she leaned over a desk, pressing down a button with one gloved finger.

A crackling sound echoed overhead and her voice followed. “Alright, brats, recess is over. Anyone not heading out on patrol, meet in the surveillance room now.”

The flickering light from Kaminari’s lightning fizzled out, and the door to the training room opened not long after, Kaminari and Ashido spilling out in a chaotic whirlwind of limbs and petty squabbling. They were the first to arrive at the surveillance room, and Kaminari visibility perked up when he saw you.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, interrupting himself on a gasp when Ashido’s elbow caught him in the ribs. “What the fuck, Mina--! Why are your elbows so sharp? Can you just not--?” He grabbed her elbow. “Stop, look, it’s stats girl! From the Awards!”

You startled a little, shocked that he had remembered you. That had been almost a year ago, and you’d only exchanged a couple quick comments in the stairwell.

Ashido looked up from where she appeared to be attempting to crack one of his ribs, her expression shifting into something altogether too interested. You flushed when a sharp grin broke out over her pretty features.

“Oh my god, you’re stats girl? I have been waiting forever. It’s an absolute honor to meet you.” She held out a palm, waggling her rosy fingers expectantly.

A rising sense of horror grew within you. Did...did Kaminari remember you so clearly because he’d told people about the incident? What exactly had he mentioned to her? Who else had he spread the tale to?

“Um, yeah that’s me,” you managed, trying to tamp down your embarrassment.

Ashido grinned wider, leaning forward. “I was totally convinced Denki and Eijirou made you up, except that Katsuki wouldn’t stop plotting revenge out loud for months. You’re, like, a legend. Do you do autographs?”

You gaped at her, your mind sticking on the phrase Katsuki wouldn’t stop plotting revenge out loud for months. A nervous, hunted energy crept over you. Revenge...for months.

Miruko’s rabbit ears twitched and she turned to you, frowning. “I wasn’t aware you’d already met some of my circus monkeys. Is this going to be a problem?”

You dithered nervously, not actually sure if it would be. You’d known Bakugou worked at her agency, considering you had done a fair amount of pre-work collecting everyone's results. But you’d honestly put off thinking about this. Bakugou had been in quite the rage at the Hero Awards, but that had been almost a year ago. And Ashido had phrased his revenge plans in the past tense… Surely he didn’t still hold as much of a grudge now?

Miruko eyed you suspiciously for a moment, but she was distracted when the scuffle of boots indicated the approach of other heroes, and a pair of burly men with curling satyr horns rounded the corner, one of them leaning forward to speak to her. Ashido sent you a wink when Miruko turned her back, mouthing something that looked suspiciously like later.

In the next few minutes, a small group of heroes assembled, ranging from relatively well-known heroes like Ashido and Kaminari, to a couple of heroes who ranked deep in the hundreds--you only knew some of their faces because Miruko had provided you with a list of her employees for preparatory research purposes. They formed a small crescent around the surveillance area, chattering lowly to themselves and eyeing you with speculative curiosity.

To your eternal relief, her most famously explosive employee was conspicuously absent, and you felt yourself relax when it seemed like everyone had turned up who was going to.

When it seemed like the crowd size was finally large enough to please her, Miruko barked a loud “SHUT UP” at them. The din of low voices instantly died down.

“Alright brats. Over the next few months, Y/N will be working here at the agency with us. She has been invited on behalf of the commission, and will be analyzing your quirks, your methods, and your recent work,” Miruko said. “She has individualized results pulled from the current hero rankings that can inform you how to improve. I expect you to take full advantage of this opportunity.”

She gestured to you, giving you a meaningful look as if she expected you to introduce yourself. You gave a little wave, glancing at the heroes around you.

“Um, hi,” you said. “As Miruko-san said, I can give you a little advice based on your current results breakdown. I also plan to analyze video of your training in the coming weeks, and build parallel models to simulate future results given your performance. We can compare those to the current rankings for an idea of how much work you will have to put into particular skills for you to move up in the ranks.”

A small murmur went through the crowd at the prospect of moving up in the ranks. Some gazes sharpened in interest.

You continued, “This is also a good chance to work on specific growth areas -- I can train smaller models on subsets of videos so you can compare your skills more directly with each other or with other heroes from other agencies. Please let me know if there is anything special any of you would like to focus on.”

Miruko stepped back in front of you. “Y/N is going to set up in the surveillance room for the next few weeks. I’ve already established checkpoints for all of you to meet with her, but I encourage you to meet with her more often if you can.”

There were a couple of nods, and a few interested whispers from somewhere at the back of the crowd. Miruko took a breath like she was going to say more, but then--

“Hard pass,” a voice growled from your left. Your hackles instantly raised, and it took your brain a couple seconds to catch up with your instincts. You whipped around wildly when you realized you knew that voice, and you almost jumped a full foot in the air when you caught sight of those familiar blonde spikes over another hero’s shoulder.

You hadn’t noticed his approach, but Bakugou had clearly returned from a fight only minutes ago. His hair drooped a little with sweat, there was dirt streaking the points of his high cheekbones, and his costume was shredded by a thousand tiny tears, like he’d been thrown through a glass window. And...was that blood on his gauntlets? Was it his?

You were torn between immediate annoyance and something like concern at the sight of him so obviously roughed up.

“The meetings are not optional,” Miruko’s voice took on a hard edge.

“I already know what this fucking nerd has to say,” Bakugou drawled dismissively. “And I don’t give a shit. I don’t need assists if I’m the one busy saving the fucking day.”

Your mood edged cleanly into annoyance. It seemed he hadn’t changed any, then.

Miruko’s face darkened. “It wasn’t a suggestion.”

Bakugou bared his teeth. They gleamed almost blindingly white against the dark dirt on his face. “No.”

A wild look entered Miruko’s eye at the challenge. “Everyone is dismissed. Except Katsuki,” she uttered in a low, dangerous tone.

There was a small pause. The heroes around you looked at her askance, and her features darkened even further. “I said scram. NOW!”

The effect was immediate. It felt like no sooner had you blinked than the hall was suddenly clear. The sight of Kaminari and Ashido wheeling around the corner was all the proof you had that the team hadn’t suddenly vanished from existence.

Bakugou snorted and propped himself lazily against a column, affecting a slouch, one pale eyebrow raised over his insouciant expression. It looked almost too perfectly arrogant, and you wondered if he practiced it in the mirror sometimes.

“I said the meetings are not optional, Katsuki,” Miruko hissed, taking a step closer to him. “You can ignore her suggestions all you want, but you will attend them.”

Close as they were, you could see she was almost a full head shorter than him, but the force of her anger seemed to make her larger somehow--she wasn’t towering over him, but she was certainly terrifying. Towering under, your mind supplied unhelpfully.

Bakugou, for his part, held his ground. His mouth curled disdainfully. “What’s the fucking point? The nerd’s just gonna tell me stupid shit. And I’m not going to listen.”

Your fingers twitched in irritation. Data wasn’t stupid shit -- it was mathmatical fact, almost as divorced from human bias as it was possible to be. How was it humanly possible that he hadn’t learned anything or grown even the littlest bit? How was it possible that he was just as infuriating as he was a year ago?

But fine. He could have things his way if that’s what he wanted.

Miruko’s face twisted in a scowl, and she took a deep breath like she was ready to start yelling. But you got there first.

“He has a point,” you said, giving him a hard look over the top of Miruko’s head. “I would hate to waste my time on someone who’s been stalled in the rankings for a year now. He wouldn’t know how to implement my advice even if I were to give it.”

You paused, letting an uncharacteristic smirk curl your mouth, trying your best to channel his disdainful energy. “Isn’t that right, Number Eight?”

Bakugou’s gaze sharpened over Miruko’s silver hair, twin pinpricks of red narrowing in on you. He abandoned his slouch, his body tensing like a hound that smelled blood. “What did you just say?”

You pushed down the petty satisfaction that rose within you at his reaction. He was so fucking prideful, so easy to bait.

“Hmm, cognitive delays,” you said, pretending to tap your chin thoughtfully. “Very worrying. Further evidence he wouldn’t be able to process the information, though. No, I think it’s best if we don’t meet.”

Bakugou pushed himself off the column, edging around Miruko as his mouth drew into a snarl. You were immediately reminded of the Hero Awards, that same overwhelming prickle of power edging over you as he stalked closer, the same scent like caramel and gunpowder.

Miruko’s eyes flicked between the two of you curiously, an eyebrow raised in interest. You hoped it meant she was interested enough in your data analysis to intervene if Bakugou tried to sauté you like an onion.

“If you melt through this blazer I really will sabotage the hero rankings and dip you all the way to number five hundred,” you threatened, edging away from Bakugou as he drew closer. “And also you owe me money for that dress.”

“I’m not gonna fucking give you shit,” he announced, looming over you when he’d decided he was close enough to intimidate. He was near enough that you could feel the heat of him, but he hadn’t put his hands to you yet. It seemed Miruko was enough of a deterrent to curb his bad behavior. “And I’m not gonna meet with you.”

“Good, then we agree,” you said, tipping your head back to look him in the eye. “You’re not good enough to do better anyways.”

Bakugou growled, the phrase clearly still enough to tick him off a year later. “Fuck you, I’m the best.”

“That’s not what your ranking tells me,” you clicked your tongue, feigning disinterest. With the dirt and scratches all over him he looked wilder than ever and you would be a fool to ignore it, but Miruko’s presence made you bold. And something else, some latent streak of frustration and pettiness told you to keep going, to keep pressing the buttons that were getting this reaction from him.

“Your ranking tells me you haven’t even improved the tiniest bit in an entire year. At this rate, you’ll never even hit the top three, never mind be the best. I don’t think you could improve even if you wanted to,” you said.

Bakugou looked like he wanted nothing more than to tear your head off with his teeth. “I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

You opened your mouth to reply but there was a sudden motion at the edge of your vision, something pink and blurry and wild. You glanced past Bakugou’s shoulder to find Ashido leaning around the wall, waving a hand frantically and mouthing something at you. You squinted, watching her lips shape themselves carefully: make a bet.

What? Make a bet?

She wanted you to make a bet?

You looked back up at Bakugou, taking in the oppositional expression, the angry curl of his mouth, the straight slope of his nose, and those keen, blood red eyes glaring down at you. This was certainly the face of a man who wouldn’t be told what to do, who couldn’t be told what to do.

But despite your words and your inherent distaste, there was no denying he was actually your best shot, the cleanest pathway to your promotion. Bakugou was smart, driven, and absolutely lethal. If anyone could turn around a rank at top speed it was him.

But he couldn’t be made to do it. He had to want to do it.

Ashido waved in the corner of your vision again, enunciating with exaggerated facial expressions. Make a bet.

Things clicked into place.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t be so sure,” you looked away from Ashido, inspecting your nails casually, like your focus would rather be anywhere than on this conversation. “In fact, I would bet almost anything that you wouldn’t know how to implement my suggestions, even if you tried.”

Bakugou froze, red eyes passing over you curiously. For one heart stopping moment, you thought he was on to you, but he just leaned down instead, putting his face close to yours.

“I’ll fucking take that bet.”

You tried to push down your sudden swell of excitement, fighting to keep your expression neutral. You knew he wouldn’t cooperate if he thought you were happy about this.

“Fine. You have two months to jump a rank,” you said. “Or I win. And you’ll pay me what you owe me for the dress.”

Bakugou smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. This had the effect of emphasizing both the tears in his shirt and the swell of his biceps.You quickly attached your eyes firmly to his face--that was so not what you needed to be focused on right now.

“I’ll do it in one,” he said. “And then I win, you smug fucking nerd.”

You gazed at him steadily. “Agreed. Miruko’s number seven--you think you can beat your own boss with just a month of work? You’ll never.”

“You haven’t heard what I win yet,” he said.

You stared at him, eyebrows drawing together in confusion. “You go up in rank. That’s what you win.”

Bakugou’s handsome face shifted into an uneven smirk. “Oh no. This is twice now you’ve opened your little know-it-all mouth and acted like you know what the fuck you’re talking about. When I win, you’ll tell me I’m the best and I was right all along.”

You suppressed an eye roll. If he moved up a rank, the point would very obviously be that you were right all along. Was he really so unreasonably competitive and spiteful that he needed to be told he was right?

Then you remembered he’d quite literally dragged you into a stairwell and implied he'd fry you to a crisp when he found out he was number eight. Of course he was.

Well, a few throwaway words were worth nothing compared to the promotion you’d be getting. He could have his sense of self satisfaction when you were knee deep in software engineers and fat stacks of money.

You took a deep breath, holding out a hand. “Okay. If you win, which is a very big if, then I’ll admit it. Deal?”

Bakugou considered you for a long moment, red eyes watching you closely, before a calloused hand engulfed yours. “Deal," he growled, a crooked grin flickering at the edge of his mouth. "Get ready to eat shit, nerd.”

You suppressed another eye roll, hoping to god this was going to be worth it.

This was going to be the longest month of your life.

#bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki #bakugou katsuki x reader #bnha x reader #my hero academia #bnha #katsuki bakugou x reader #katsuki bakugou #tw threats #tw gendered violence

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ourloveisforthelovely · 5 years ago

Text

In the Light 2

Harry Potter

Characters Sirius Black x Reader

Link to Chapter 1

Rating: Mature for minor smut

______

“You’ll never see him again.”

Your eyes snapped open. The darkness of the room surrounded you leaving you almost gasping for air. For a moment, you couldn’t help wondering if the events of that day had been only a dream? A dark sense of despair filled you leaving you almost panicking.

You weren’t sure why the feeling bothered you so. This was a feeling that you awoke to plenty of times in the past years. It seemed anytime that you dreamed of Sirius in any form of romantic way a nightmare was always to follow. For whatever reason, you weren’t allowed to think of the man you loved in a romantic light anymore.

Maybe it wasn’t being allowed to dream romantically but your brain coming back to say…

“It was only a dream! You’ll never touch him again!”

You swallowed, wanting to fight back the impending panic attack. There had been too many nights spent rocking back and forth in sobs or looking at your wedding album as a sobbing.

A warm body moving beside you quickly pulled you from your thoughts. Instant relief flooded through you as the moment you realized Sirius was lying beside you. He lay with one arm behind his head. He still sleeps the same way , you thought with a smile. You blushed the moment Sirius’ dark eyes fluttered open. A smirk crossed his face as Sirius looked at you.

“Come over here and keep me warm.”

You didn’t need to be told twice before pouncing on top of Sirius. He quickly pulled you down into a soft kiss.

“This is the way that we meant to wake up.”

Sirius muttered before kissing a small path down your neck. Your eyes clenched shut as you enjoyed every small touch Sirius had to give you.

“Is it a dream?”

You whispered as Sirius rocked his hips against your body. Your eyes closed, savoring the feeling of impending intimacy.

“Then it's a good one.”

Sirius replied. He had no plans to let you get within two feet of him anytime soon. There were 15 years worth of lovemaking to catch up on and Sirius didn’t plan to waste a moment of time. He knew that he would have to get a grip on himself when Harry arrived but for now, he had you all to himself.

Has she been with anyone else?

The dark thought crept back into Sirius’s mind. He was internally furious with himself for wondering that thought alone. The snob in him didn’t want to admit that he spent a good chunk of time in prison wondering if you had moved on or not. What if you fell in love with someone else? Someone like...Snape. The mere thought of Snape putting his miserable hands on you made Sirius’ temper rage.

“Have you slept with anyone else while I was away?”

The question came out quicker than Sirius meant for it to. Your shocked face told Sirius all that he needed to know.

“What?”

You snapped before getting off of Sirius. The question shocked you to the core! Why would he even think something like that?

You scooted to the edge of the bed and stared angrily at the floor.

“What kind of question is that?”

You asked coldly. Sirius sighed and sat up. He lit a cigarette and pushed his hair out of his eyes.

“It's a fair one. I was locked away in prison. You were young and beautiful. It was completely possible for you to move on.”

You jumped up and quickly started searching for your missing clothes.

“That is a horrible question! I married you! No one else has touched me.”

Sirius groaned when he realized that you were angry. He quickly put out the cigarette and got out of bed.

“I’m sorry, love. Come here.”

You didn’t speak for a moment as Sirius wrapped his arm around you.

“Y/n, I’m sorry. That was on my mind for years.”

You were quiet for a moment before pulling Sirius back in bed with you. Sirius quickly wrapped the duvet around your bodies.

“Y/n?”

Your eyes rolled up to his. “Again, the answer is no. When you put this ring on my finger it meant that I was for you and you only.”

Sirius was relieved by the comment. The two of you lay in silence looking at the ceiling. Sirius’ long fingers stroked through your hair. After a few moments, Sirius chuckled.

“What?”

You asked. Sirius eased your leg over his hip.

“I never thought that we would be making love in my old bedroom.”

You couldn’t help but giggle at the thought too. If Sirius’ mother was alive and knew what the two of you were in here doing she would have died of a heart attack!

“Right under the pictures of your muggle models in bikinis.”

You said with a smirk. Sirius rolled his eyes.

“Oh please! I put those up long before you agreed to be my girlfriend. You provided a lot better company than they did. You were such a tease in the beginning.”

It was your turn to roll your eyes!

“You are a fine one to talk about being a tease! You flirted with any girl that would look your way!”

Sirius shrugged.

“I couldn’t get the girl that I wanted to flirt with me no matter how shamelessly I tried...until that night on the Astronomy Tower. You had me under your spell and still haven’t let me go.”

“The things you say.”

You said, happily. The two of you lay in silence for a few moments. Sirius’ face went cold before looking down at you sadly.

“Remember the last time we were in this house?”

Your happy smile faded. Of course, you remembered! How could you forget the last time that you were here? You didn’t want to remember it but you couldn’t help thinking back on the memory.

It was two weeks after Sirius had proposed. The two of you sat in the study of Mr. and Mrs. Black’s living room. Had it been your way, the two of you would have never been here in the first place! Sirius was dead set on getting his grandmother’s engagement ring for you. It didn’t matter how many times you had tried to tell him that you didn’t need some grand ring to show his love for you; Sirius wouldn’t listen. You sat quietly at Sirius’ side as the two of you waiting for his mother to come into the room. Looking around the room, you couldn’t help but shiver. The house was so dark and cold! You glanced at your fiance and couldn’t help but wonder how horrible this had to be for Sirius? He hadn’t been home since he moved in with your family at 16.

His parents hadn’t written one letter to check on him! They didn’t care if their oldest son even had the things that he needed to survive! In fact, Regulus had let it slip to you in a conversation that Walburga blasted her son off of the family tapestry. Regulus had tried to reason with his mother briefly, however, once the possibility of losing grace in his mother’s eyes happened Regulus backed off.

You let your eyes glance back to Sirius. He didn’t look like the man that you had fallen in love with. Now he looked like the sullen boy that was in the Black family photos. He wasn’t the boy that always smiled and was full of jokes. His eyes didn’t deviate from the fire that was going in the fireplace. You wanted to tell him how handsome he looked in the dark suit that he was wearing but decided not to. Sirius didn’t seem like he was up for being told how handsome that he was at the moment.

Swallowing, you looked around the room again. The expensive black dress that you were wearing seemed suddenly hot. Sirius had bought it for you a week beforehand saying “it looked nice.” Reading between the lines, you decided it was to make the two of you look good upon visiting his parents. Sirius wanted to show his parents that he was making it just fine and was able to provide for his future wife without his family's money. That was only partially true though. If Sirius’ uncle had left him a very nice inheritance, the two of you would be like most new couples starting out. The two of you owed his uncle Alphard so much! Coincidentally, the two of you were most likely the reason that he was also blasted off of the family tapestry.

“What do you mean he is here?”

You felt Sirius tense when a shrill voice came from the other room. The sound of high heels clicking on the floor made your heart pound!

A moment longer Walburga stomped into the room with her husband at her heels. She was a beautiful woman but her beauty was all that she had! Orion, meanwhile, walked after his wife quickly. He looked as displeased to see his son as his wife did. It took all you had to swallow a fit of rage back You wanted nothing more than to tell Sirius’ family exactly what you thought of them. It wouldn’t matter though. As big headed as they were, it would probably roll right over their heads.

“What do you want?”

Walburga snapped in Sirius’ direction. Sirius gave his mother a brilliant smile and flipped his shoulder-length hair over his shoulder.

“Good to see you lot too. Don’t worry, this will not be a regular thing. I don’t expect invitations to Sunday tea or anything. I want grandmother Irma’s engagement ring. It was promised to me.”

Walburga and Orion looked at each other clearly thinking about their son’s request. Walburga was the first to speak. It wasn’t to Sirius but to you directly.

“I suppose you are the girl? Who are you?”

“She is Y/n Potter.”

Walburga scowled at Sirius.

“Can she talk or do you have to do that for her?”

“I can talk just fine, thank you.”

You replied coldly. Walburga raised one of her perfect eyebrows.

“Potter...hmm...I should have seen this coming. Your family is the reason that my son is no longer in our family.”

Sirius’ hand tightened on yours but you were not about to back down.

“Oh no ma’am, you have alienated your son yourself. My family has just taken him in and showed him the love that he clearly didn’t get from your lot. It must be truly dreadful being such a miserable egotistical old hag and would disown your own child for some pureblood nonsense! Shame on you...all of you!”

Walburga was stunned by your acidic tone. Clearly, no one had ever spoken to her in this tone. Regulus jumped up, hoping to diffuse the situation.

“At least she is a pureblood, eh?”

Walburga shook her head.

“That is why your family is the laughing stock of the pureblood families!”

Sirius jumped up, his handsome face twisted with rage.

“That’s it! Let’s go Y/n! I’ll buy you a much nicer ring that doesn’t have my family’s god awful reputation tied to it.”

You pulled yourself from the memory with a headshake. Sirius was looking up at the ceiling.

“Oh yes, I remember well. We were so young then.”

Sirius sat up as the sunlight began to pour into the room. He chuckled and looked back to you with a smile. “You sure showed that horrible old hag who was boss.”

You smiled, still proud of your comeback to Walburga.

“I would do it again too. I am going to go downstairs and help Molly with breakfast.”

Sirius gave you a pout.

“Harry will be here the day after tomorrow and I’ll have to be good!”

You slowly pulled on your abandoned dress.

“Yes, you will and we have all day today and all night. You’ll be just fine. Besides, you need to eat. You aren’t as young as you used to be.”

Sirius gave you a scowl and started buttoning up his shirt.

“That may be true but I think we can both agree I haven’t changed that much.”

You rolled your eyes before pressing a kiss to his chin.

“You can prove it to me later.”

When you walked into the kitchen, Molly looked up from the frying pan. She gave you a kind smile.

“Feeling well?”

You nodded eagerly and took the cup of tea that she held out to you.

“Much better now.”

Molly giggled and went back to her cooking. You drank your tea quietly for a few moments before turning to find something to do.

“What would you like me to do?”

Molly glanced over her shoulder.

“I seem to remember that you make wonderful eggs. I was telling Arthur not long ago how much I would love some of the strawberry jam that you used to make.”

Smiling, you made a mental note to surprise Molly with a jar later.

“Hint taken.”

You said.

“Are things better between Sirius and yourself now, dear?”

You nodded.

“They are. I mean we have a lot that we are going to have to work through. We’ve been apart for many years. I am sure there are things that have changed about ourselves that we will have to work through. There are things about him that I can tell are different. Azkaban has changed him, as you can imagine. It changed both of us.”

Molly watched with you with that motherly expression of concern that she wore so well.

“I’m sure it has. Everything will work out, dear. The two of you can get your lives back on track to the way they were supposed to. The two of you will make some lovely children.”

You looked down sadly feeling like you had been punched in the stomach.

“That won’t happen.”

Molly turned.

“What do you mean?”

You looked up and rubbed your forearm.

“I can’t get pregnant. Sirius and I found out not long after we were married. That’s why taking care of Harry was so important to us.”

Molly put her hands over her mouth.

“Oh, darling! I am so sorry!”

You shook your head.

“It's fine! You didn’t know and I have come to accept it.”

Molly still looked unconvinced.

“Well, I am going to go round up everyone for breakfast. You know, I have a couple of kids that I can loan you.”

You smiled.

“That’s tempting.”

Molly turned and walked out of the room feeling rather embarrassed and heartbroken.

You, meanwhile, looked down at the cup of tea in your hand. That feeling of soul-sucking sadness rolled in like it usually did when someone mentioned the aspect of children. You hadn’t thought about the time that you were given the awful news in some time. For the first time in a long time, you decided to lose yourself in that memory…

“We can go home.”

You looked up at Sirius as he made the idle comment. The two of you stood on James and Lily’s front doorstep about to go in for dinner. You shook your head.

“No, Sirius. I want to go. Besides, if we go home we will be just miserable. I want to see Harry. Lily has just been home from the hospital for a few days.”

Sirius only nodded. You could tell that he was still upset too. The two of you hadn’t said much since leaving the doctor. Sirius stood a moment before pulling you into his arms.

“Everything will be fine. We don’t have to have children to be happy.”

A moment later, the door opened stopping further conversation. James stood on the other side with his happy smile.

“There you two are! We’ve been wondering where you’ve been!”

You walked inside before Sirius and heard him muttering something about doctors taking forever. James laughed.

“Tell me about it!”

He wrapped his arms around you in a quick hug.

“Are you feeling alright?”

You only nodded. James' gleeful smile faded as he immediately knew something was wrong.

“Y/n?”

You shook your head as Lily walked in holding a small bundle. The last thing that you wanted was to spoil this moment with your nephew. Lily smiled as she placed baby Harry in your arms.

“Oh Lily, he’s adorable!”

You said, happily. Harry didn’t seem to be the least bit bothered by being jostled around for the moment.

“So when can we expect the two of you to have a little one? Harry will need a playmate.”

You slowly looked up to see Sirius shaking his head at James who was questioning his best friend silently.

“I might as well tell you both. We won’t be having children. Apparently, I can’t get pregnant. It's not from lack of trying either. We have been trying since we got married.”

Lily’s hands immediately went to her mouth as James put a hand on Sirius’ back.

“Sweetheart, I am so sorry!”

Lily said, fighting the tears. James quickly came in.

“Maybe you should get a second opinion?”

Sirius shook his head.

“It's alright, mate. We’ll just spoil the hell out of your kids. Like you can lend them to us and we can send them back to you flying on high on sweets. You know, now that I say that out loud...that doesn’t sound very good.”

You were pulled from the memory when a hand closed on your wrist. Jumping back, you froze seeing Severus Snape looking at you coldly.

“Have you lost your hearing in addition to your mind?”

You frowned, knowing this conversation wouldn't go well. The last time that you had seen your ex-friend, he was offering to marry you since “your bastard husband” clearly couldn’t do the job.

“Excuse me but I wasn’t listening to you in the slightest.”

Snape’s frown intensified.

“I see you are back with Sirius. While I am not thrilled about it I am not surprised.”

You rolled your eyes.

“What did you expect, Severus? I am married to Sirius! I love him! I have a chance to make things work with him and get a second chance at life. You can bet all of the dark magic in the world that I am going to take it.”

Snape didn’t say anything for a moment. He was half expecting you to say something colder. “He’s ruined you, you know. You used to be such a kind woman. Now you are snarky and cold as the rest of the Black family.”

You were horrified at that comment! The last thing that you were was anything like Walburga, Bellatrix, or any of those other crazies!

“You don’t know me at all.”

“Clearly.”

Snape replied before continuing.

“The moment you began dating Sirius you changed. You’re big-headed brother and darling husband made my life hell and you did nothing. Just like Lily.”

You threw the teacup that you were holding down and started for your wand.

“And you were a death eater! I didn’t know you either because my friend wouldn't have done any of those horrible things!”

Snape stepped back. The last thing that he was about to do was get into a full-fledged duel with you in the middle of a house. It didn’t matter if he liked you or not now, he still didn’t want to physically harm you.

“You don’t know what I would do because you were too busy playing house with Black! You had a pureblood husband and was busy making a name for yourself. After he was locked up, I wanted to care for you!”

You shook your head.

“I didn’t want you! I was married to whom I wanted!”

Snape laughed bitterly.

“It looks like you have what you wanted again. The two of you make the perfect little overachiever couple! It will be funny when you fall pregnant and have a child with a convict. The child will have a father that can’t leave the house. It will be amusing to watch.”

You had begun to tremble with rage by this point.

“You son of a bitch!”

“That’s enough!”

Both Snape and yourself turned to see Sirius standing in the doorway. His face was angry. The expression alone let you know that he had heard the whole conversation.

“Well well, Sirius. How kind the two of you are for coming out in public.”

Sirius glared at Snape. He wanted nothing more than to punch the other man in the face! Cursing him sounded like a better idea!

“You’re not to talk to her again. Maybe you forgot the hell that I made your life in school and I will be happy to do it again. Y/n, come on.”

Sirius’ hand locked around your wrist before pulling you from the room leaving Snape to his brooding...

______

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@summer-novak

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@shaylybaby2032

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#harry potter #Sirius Black #sirius x reader #reader x sirius #remus lupin #molly weasley #arthur weasley #james potter #lily evans potter #walburga black #orion black #regulus black #ron weasley #hermione granger #harry potter fan fiction #severus snape #Ben Barnes as Sirius Black #in the light #In the Light Chapter 2

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mary-nesbitt-larking · 5 years ago

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Why I moved from Choices to Lovestruck (and you should too)

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me well that I was a BIG Choices stan. I ran three Choices blogs (begging-for-kamilah, ask-kamilah sayeed and ask-priya-lacroix) for a long time, fulfilling fanfiction requests and interacting with many wonderful people. During my time in the fandom, I made some beautiful friends and created brilliant memories that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Unfortunately, as time passed, I started to notice a decline in the quality of content that Pixelberry were providing, and after a lot of hesitation, I decided to remove the app and leave the fandom. I was very lucky in that a very good friend introduced me to a different app with a similar style. Lovestruck was something that I’d heard about on the grapevine but had no idea what it was or if it could possibly compare to the fun that Choices had given me over the years. After a lot of resisting and stubborn behaviour on my part, I finally gave it a chance and have never looked back since. Here are just some of the many reasons why you should too:

There are no forced love interests in Lovestruck. That’s right. You read that correctly. You choose your love interest BEFORE you start the story so there will never be any frustrating interactions with characters that you’re not interested in. Remember in Bloodbound Book 2 when you go to Paris with Adrian and Jax (leaving the only two female love interests at home) and you were forced to hold hands with one of them (until Pixelberry later apologised and altered the scene)? There is definitely none of that to worry about in Lovestruck. The person you’re interested in is the only character who will show interest in you, and the entire story will be centred around him/her/them.

Speaking of which, it’s time to talk about the fantastic level of LGBTQ representation in Lovestruck. Non binary characters aren’t just side characters. They actually have their own routes, as well as a huge array of adorable side characters. There are also demisexual characters, asexuals and of course, plenty of lesbians and bisexuals. Voltage (creators of Lovestruck) also very proudly celebrate pride month by releasing incredible LGBTQ content.

On the topic of representation, something that has to be applauded is the racial and religious representation in Lovestruck. You can romance Jewish characters, black characters, south American characters, Asian characters and I’m sure the list goes on. Choices fans might be sad to find that you don’t have the option to customise any love interests or MCs, but I think that this is a blessing.

Something that I find very cool about Lovestruck is that there are different stories for every love interest. For example, if you romance one person from a certain book, romancing another from the same book will get you a completely different story with a totally different route. It’s a stark contrast to Choices, in which Pixelberry- quite literally- copy and paste the same lines for all the available love interests.

And along the same lines of copying and pasting, it’s very refreshing to see that Lovestruck doesn’t reuse faces. I always found it terribly off putting when you’d be playing a Choices book and a love interest from another book would be your waiter or waitress.

One brilliant thing about Lovestruck is the way that they present the MC. Every MC has their own unique personality and backstory. Whilst that does mean “less choice”, it’s really refreshing having an MC with parents. With siblings. With a job. A life. An actual story outside their love interest. There’s one MC who discusses her experiences as a woman of colour, and I think that’s exceptionally important for the player.

On a superficial note, Lovestruck has GORGEOUS art. I did love the art in Choices too, but I don’t think it has anything on Lovestruck. The backgrounds are stunning, but it’s the characters who are gorgeous. Not to mention, we get absolutely beautiful CGs. This is something Choices sorely lacks. In the later books, the LIs and MCs even blink and move which I find gives it a more engaging feel. There are also MANY more facial expressions for every character in Lovestruck. Blushing faces, a neutral face, smiles, angry faces, sad faces, shocked faces, anxious faces... It’s not just the same standard five like in Choices.

Another superficial- but very cool aspect- of Lovestruck is that almost every outfit is 100% free. The MCs and LIs will change their clothes whenever appropriate and you don’t have to pay a penny. The only time when outfits will ever cost any in-game currency is if it will mean you gain a CG out of it, but in my personal experience, I’ve only ever seen this being the case for two books.

This is just a side note but something I love in Lovestruck is that adorable animals aren’t paywalled. They’re just there. Your love interest might have a cat- or a bear in one book- and you don’t have to pay to love up on them. They’re just another part of the story.

Still on the more superficial side of things is the music. I will totally admit, I LOVE the music in Choices and have a fair bit of it downloaded to my iTunes. But for anyone hesitant to move over to Lovestruck for the sake of the music, don’t panic! The music is just as brilliant, just as catchy and just as heartfelt.

One of the things that always stressed me about Choices was the in-game currency. Diamonds were expensive and unfortunately, every single chapter would involve multiple diamond scenes. In many books, the diamond scenes were so important to the story that to go without them would mean that huge chunks of plot were missed. The amazing thing about Lovestruck is that if you choose not to do the premium scenes (the currency is hearts) then it does absolutely nothing to the story whatsoever. The heart scenes are purely there to give you a little bonus but whether you choose to do them or not, nothing about the story or your relationship with your love interest will change.

And whilst we’re on the topic of heart scenes, it’s important to note that whilst Choices usually has 3-4 diamond scenes PER chapter, heart scenes only pop up around 9 out of every 12 chapters, and you will VERY rarely find anything that costs more than 30 hearts.

The system to earn these hearts is totally different to Choices. Whilst you could watch ads to earn diamonds a few times per day, plus playing chapters would gain you two diamonds, Lovestruck gives you “quests”. Every few hours, the quests refresh and all you have to do is read a certain amount of chapters of a specified love interest, and you get the hearts. It’s a win/win situation because the more you play, the more you get.

Not to mention, every day you get to earn a puzzle piece and when you complete a puzzle, you win a certain amount of hearts. It seems tedious at first but they add up fast!

And it’s not just hearts you earn, either! In Choices, you would use “keys” to read a chapter. In Lovestruck, you use “tickets”. Some quests mean that if you read a certain amount of chapters, you get given 2, 3 or even 5 tickets so you can just keep on reading!

Since I’ve addressed some of the Lovestruck mechanics, I just want to talk about how much I love that you can fast forward, rewind, autoplay (it plays hands free and there are three different speeds to choose from) and even choose the chapter you’d like to play. This is amazingly refreshing because when it comes to Choices, you have to start the entire book again if you want to get to a specific chapter, AND you have to click through it fast because you can’t fast forward.

Oh, and when you’ve played a chapter, a little heart symbol will appear next to it if it has a premium scene so you know whether or not you need to save your hearts!

I really want to address the smut scenes. I know that sounds like another more superficial topic but I think it’s pretty important. I think there’s something more “mature” about Lovestruck and smut. The sex scenes are tasteful yet somehow sexier. They’re not rushed at all. And Voltage aren’t afraid to include actual kinky moments.

More importantly, though, is that Lovestruck addresses virginity and handles it incredibly tastefully. It’s done in a realistic fashion, too. Sometimes, characters don’t really feel like having sex with their partner. Sometimes they want to at first but then feel anxiety. Sometimes they’re scared. Sometimes they want to stop half way through. Sometimes they have trouble reaching orgasm. All very real scenarios that are addressed tactfully and beautifully. The virgins (be they the MC or LI) in Lovestruck are realistic. They don’t just dive into bed. It’s a process. There’s fear along with excitement. There are moments of panic. It’s not just smut for the sake of smut. It deals with adult situations, something that I always thought Choices struggled with.

Actually, it’s not just sex. These character get anxiety, depression and genuine mental health problems. And it’s dealt with so perfectly, yet so realistically. They’re anxious when it’s appropriate.

I don’t want to bash Choices too badly, as I don’t think Pixelberry are an evil company, but some of the things they did- particularly towards the end- were unforgivable.

Hana Lee’s infertility and the way that it was merely glossed over was appalling. As someone who is also infertile, I can tell you that you don’t just “get over it”, even if your partner is carrying your child.

I’ll also never quite get over the fact that when you’re almost raped in Red Carpet Diaries 2, you have to pay 30 diamonds if you want someone to stay and comfort you. As a sexual abuse victim, I think that’s grotesque, and a glorification of rape.

I can safely say, there is NOTHING like that in Lovestruck, and just to reiterate, all the important plot points are FREE.

To bring this mood back up a little bit, something I think is really cute is that when you’re choosing the love interest you’d like to romance in Lovestruck, you can see sweet little facts about them, including their birthdays, their height and their personality traits.

Sometimes the stories cross over, too, and love interests will appear in each other’s stories. And the cute thing is, if you’re romancing an LGBTQ character, it will be canonical that whichever love interest crosses over will be in an LGBTQ relationship with MC.

There are also fun little side stories that you can play, and to really make things interesting, you can often play the same book but from the point of view of your love interest! These do usually cost hearts but not many at all. 15 hearts can get you things like 4 chapters, for example!

I just want to talk about how wonderful Voltage are as a company, too. You can tell this isn’t about money for them. They just want the best for their players and it shows. They are often asking the community what they want and bringing out polls, and they will always let us have our say.

There are also no false promises of stories being “in the works”. If a story is abandoned, they won’t lie about it. There are no “politician’s answers” from them. Just pure transparency.

The last thing I want to talk about is the writing style. Lovestruck’s style is worlds apart from Choices. To describe it for you, Choices feels like playing a fun app with cool stories. Lovestruck feels like reading a book, immersing yourself in a novel. And the style is unbeatable.

TLDR; it’s time to cut the apron strings and move on from Choices. Lovestruck awaits! Tagging @lovestruckvoltage because I love you and appreciate you.

#choices stories you play #playchoices #lovestruck #voltage inc #lovestruckvoltage

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