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mrs-takami-keigo · 4 years ago

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Summer Nights

For my second piece of work for the BNHArem collaboration I give you Summer Nights. Honestly this was so much fun to write. The theme was Summer, and summer to me means vacation and romance! You can find all the summer goodness with BNHA by other amazing and talented Authors here!

Pairing: Shouto x Fem!Reader

Description: You’ve always watched summer romances in movies and read them in books, but you never thought it in a million years it could happen to you.

Rating:SFW

Word count:6.0K

“Look! It’s the beach!” Ochaco beamed as she pulled on Tsui’s arm dragging her across the white sand. Soon Mina, Hagakure and Jiro followed behind them, giggling once the cool clear waters of the sea touched their feet.

‘Even at twenty-one they can’t control themselves.’

Shouto stepped out of the van putting on his black Ray Bans sunglasses, the summer sun beat down on the exposed skin his white v-neck didn't cover. Even with his dark sunglasses on, he could tell the hawaiian sky was a picturesque light blue. Vast beaches full of travelers and locals alike. The air was fresh and crisp with the smell of local restaurants mixing it to it. Tall palm trees rustling in the breeze, Shouto was sure he had never felt so calm in his life.

“Hey we should stay as a group to check in!!” Iida started after the group when Momo stepped in, placing her small hand on his shoulder.

“Oh let them have their fun. We’ve all been so busy these past three years with hero work, we deserve this vacation.” With a defeated sigh and mumbles of how irresponsible people could be, their old class rep turned around making his way to the entrance of the hotel.

“Okay boys! Me and Iida are going to go check in. Can you help unload the van and meet us inside!” Momo waved her hand as she passed the group of hotel staff, their mouth’s were slightly hung open admiring her stunning beauty.

“Man, why do the girls get to have fun and we gotta do the work? I thought this was a vacation?” shaking his head at his lightning powered friend's whine, Shouto reached into the back of the van to pick up his hard black suitcase.

“Shut up and just grab a damn bag, dumbass!” Bakugou snatched up his own suitcases before shoving past everyone stomping his way into the hotel. Shouto and the rest of the group followed behind the hot tempered blonde. The sliding glass doors opened for the group where they were greeted by hotel staff members who had genuine smiles gracing their features.

A woman walked up to Shouto,”Aloha, welcome to honolulu.” She reached up and placed a lei with beautiful purple and white orchids around his neck. Giving her a soft smile in return Shouto continued his journey into the massive hotel lobby.

Shouto had stopped in the middle of the semi-busy area, lifting his sunglasses to sit on top of his head pushing his hair back, so he could admire every detail of the building. The only word he could come up with was glamorous. The lobby had white and grey marble flooring, tall white pillars with intricate flower designs lined in gold wrapped around the cylinders holding up the extravagant ceiling. Gold moldings lined the high ceiling and a giant crystal chandelier hung in the middle of the room. Seeing as how it was summer people were all over, be it at the check-in/out desks, the concierge or even sitting on the wine colored couches and chairs that were placed strategically in the lobby.

“Wait, watch where you’re go-” Before he could react, Shouto felt someone bump into his back, forcing him to rock forward, sunglasses clattering to the floor. Looking over his right shoulder he caught a glimpse of your soft hair on top of your head before he felt like he had the wind knocked out of him. Feeling like everything turned into slow motion, you lifted your head, Shouto’s eyes widened.

‘Beautiful.’

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Your voice sounded like a sweet medley that calmed Shouto’s heart. “I didn’t hurt you did I?”

“No I’m fine, a-are you okay?” He turned his body so he could face you, now he was able to take in all of your beauty. What you wore was so simple but you made it look stunning. A white tank top with the word bridesmaid in black lettering, a pair of blue denim bermuda shorts and black platform sandals, that's all you had on but still managed to take his breath away. You went to pick up the sunglasses that fell when you bumped into him, that’s when he noticed one multi-colored and one pink and purple crystal bracelet on your wrist.

You reached out your hand offering his glasses back. “Yeah I’m fine!” Shouto slowly took his glasses back from you. “But um next time maybe don’t stop in the middle of the entrance, it’s a little dangerous.” Shouto swore he felt his heart stop when you smiled at him.

“Hey! Come on, everyone is waiting for you!” Both you and Shouto looked over at your group of friends, all of them wearing the same top as you except one, calling over to you.

“Looks like I gotta run, don't wanna upset the bride. Oh and sorry again.” You sent him one last smile before running towards your friends. Shouto watched as your friends kept making glances at him before you turned to look back at him. A smile graced your lips as you sent him a small wave of your hand. One of your friend’s, the bride he assumed because of her shirt, leaned over and whispered something in your ear. Her action caused you to have a shocked expression before turning away from him quickly. Shouto let out a small chuckle, wondering what your friends could have possibly said to have made you so flustered.

“Hey, did you forget something Todoroki?” Deku’s voice brought him back to reality. “Why are you just standing here?”

“It was nothing Midoriya, just looking at the interior.” Looking at his close friend he let a small smile pass his lips. “Let’s go join the others shall we?”

Making his way back to his group, Shouto passed one more look over his shoulder only to see you were already gone.

‘Who is she?’

It wasn’t till that next night at the luau did Shouto see you again. You and your group walked past his table, his observant eyes catching every smile you passed to your friends as you found your seats. The way your royal blue floral sundress that came down right below your knees blew in the night breeze. You had your hair tied up in a ponytail, a beautiful Hawaiian hibiscus was placed on the base of the ponytail. Shouto tried to make it not apparent that he was watching you but couldn’t help himself, the more he looked at you the more he noticed.

The tables for the luau were long wooden picnic tables enough for your group and his to fit together. Finally picking a spot on the bench, he had a perfect view of you, on the other side of the table slightly to the left closer to the stage.

“Those girls down there are beauties aren’t they?” Denki slung his arm over Shouto’s shoulders, taking a sip of his soda, Denki saw that Shouto had never stopped looking at you. Clearing his throat Denki decided to speak louder.

“Isn't that the girl you were talking about last night? The one that bumped into you and you said smelled like a beautiful garden of roses, daffodil’s, peony and a hint of dahlia?” Shouto tore his eyes away from you to glare at his so called friend, ready to freeze or burn that big mouth of his off, just wasn’t sure which.

You heard the blonde as he spoke to the man you ran into the day before. Watching as the embarrassed male slammed a hand over his blonde friend's mouth and saying something through his teeth, making the others eyes widen. You couldn't help but chuckle at the dynamic of the two, the blonde looked like he was a puppy that had just gotten scolded.

The sound of your chuckle caught Shouto’s attention, he looked at you with a horrified expression. He realized that you heard what Denki said, meaning you know what he said about you. A light blush formed on his cheeks before he turned his gaze down to his drink, playing with the little umbrella it had in it.

“I think he likes you.” Your friend nudged you in the ribs with her elbow a smirk formed on her lips.

“I don’t know. I only bumped into him and said less than ten words to him.” You kept your gaze on him. He kept fidgeting with that paper umbrella trying to look at anything but you. “Maybe he’s just embarrassed cause I told him it wasn't smart to just stop like that.” Those pesky butterflies were still in your stomach from when you first made eye contact with him. His face looked like it was sculpted by angel’s themselves. Then his eyes, god those eyes, you felt like if you had looked at them any longer you’d turn into a blubbering mess.

“Well I found out from some of the staff here that he and his whole group are actually pro-Heroes from japan. It’s kind of like a summer vacation/reunion for them.”

“Even on vacation your journalistic self can’t help but find out the latest scoop huh?” You stuffed a freshly baked roll in her mouth, earning a light slap on your shoulder.

You heard the start of drums starting to pound in a rhythmic beat signaling that the show was starting. You paid attention to the performance of the hula dancers as they told stories with their fluid movements, it was beautiful. The night carried on with more performances, food and fun moments between the performers and the audience. The show soon came to a close, leaving you wanting more. But ever so often you felt the gaze of a certain hero, your heart racing every time you felt it.

“Wasn’t that awesome?” Your friend had her arm intertwined with yours as you walked the torch lit pathway back to the small villas. You could only hum in agreement, not really paying attention to what she had been talking about. For some reason your mind was still jumping back to the red and white haired man. There was about him, something that made you want to know more about him.

Not watching where you were going you bumped shoulders with a woman who was passing you causing the room key that was tucked into your pocket to fall out. With a quick apology to the women you resumed your walk down the path never realizing the key fell out of your pocket.

“Excuse me!” You heard a man shout from behind you, making you and your friend stop. “I think you dropped this.” Turning around you saw the man that haunted your thoughts jog up to you holding the room key that had fallen. Stuffing your hand in your pockets where that key should be you had finally realized it had fallen. He was soon in front of you the key was being held in between his thumb and pointer finger, holding it out for you.

“I’ll meet you back at the villa.” Your friend sent you a sly smile wiggling her eyebrows as she pushed you a little forward towards the awaiting man.

“Oh um thank you. I can be such a clutz sometimes.” Reaching out a hand, your fingertips brushed against his, gently taking the plastic object back. It may sound cliche but you were sure there was a small rush of electricity that ran through you with just that slight contact.

“It was no problem.” He rubbed the back of his neck once the key was back in your hand. Now it was your turn to look at him like he did you. He was a decently taller than you by a few inches, his red and white hair framed showing off the impeccable structure of his face. The scar on his left side didn’t hinder his beauty in any way. His sharp eyes were just as mesmerizing as they were the other day. The white and turquoise striped short sleeved button down outlined his broad shoulders, the first few buttons open showing off the silver necklaces he wore. Black khaki shorts that seemed to go perfectly on his long legs, and black leather boat shoes. All in all he looked like the perfect man to you.

“What’s your name?” You're not sure what came over you ask that. You could have just walked away after saying thank you but for some reason you couldn’t.

“Shouto Todoroki. And yours?” You told him, only to have him repeat it back. The sound of your name rolling off his lips set your heart racing. “It’s a beautiful name.” Silence fell between you two. “This may sound a little forward but would you like to take a walk on the beach with me?” You can tell he was hesitant to ask you, but that only made you smile.

“I would like that Shouto.” He smiled back at you as he moved to the side so you could start walking back towards the beach. The walk for the most part was in silence, just the gentle sound of the summer’s night breeze dancing through the palm trees.

“So, I hear you’re a pro-hero in japan.” You decided to break the ice, hoping to get to know him better. “What’s that like?” By the time you decide to speak you two had made it to the end of the concrete pathway where the sand from the beach started. Stopping you bent down to take off your wedges, not wanting to walk in the sand with them. Looking next to you, you noticed Shouto doing the same. Once he got his own shoes off you both picked up the shoes and made your way down the beach.

“How did you find that out?”

“I have my sources.” You shrugged flashing a playful grin at the man accompanying you.

Shouto chuckled at your response. You could feel those butterflies fluttering again. “It’s hard work, but worth it. To be able to protect people is the main reason why I wanted to become a hero.” His voice was a little gruff at times but calming at the same time. “What do you do, are you a Pro as well?”

You had reached the shore, the sounds of crashing waves roared across the empty beach. The full moon high in the sky reflecting beautifully off the dark sea as if it were the moon's personal mirror. “No, unfortunately.” A wave crashed, making its way up the sand, the water tickling the tips of your toes. “I was born without a quirk.”

You turned your head to Shouto, his face showing expressions of being apologetic and of sheer panic, you were used to it by now. “But it doesn’t bother me. I may not have a quirk but I still have powers.” You wiggled your fingers like a witch would do in the cartoons you would watch on TV when you were younger.

Shouto tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“I have the power to let couples have their dream weddings.” You let out a laugh as the confusion became more apparent. “I’m a wedding planner. I may not be a well known one but one day I will be. That way I can do my part for people, it may not be as impactful as what you do but it’s still something.”

“I think that’s an amazing power you have. To be able to help people with their dreams isn’t a small feat. It's something very admirable actually.” The smile that graced his face was nothing short of breath taking. It was almost contagious how his smile made your own wider.

There was a silence that fell between you two again, but you were comfortable around him. Just what was it about him that made you feel like this around a stranger? Was it because he was a hero or was there something else to him? Something deeper? You wanted to find out.

“Can I ask you a question? And I’m sorry if it’s out of line but how did you get that scar?” You had turned to face him, stepping closer you got a better look at the imperfection on his skin.

“Oh this,” he raised his palm to it gently grazing the scar with his finger tips. “My mother poured boiling water on my left side because it reminded her of my father.”

An audible gasp left your lips as you stepped closer to him. Not sure what came over you but you raised your hand to cover his. “I’m so sorry, Shouto. I shouldn’t have asked.”

His body froze. You were so close to him, your scent encased him, pulling him further into your mysterious spell. What have you done to him, he felt like his heart was about to explode whenever you simply looked at him. But to have you this close and touching his hand he was sure he had seen the heavens open, and you were the angel greeting him.

He leaned slightly into your hand. “It’s fine, it happened so long ago. It’s a part of how I became the man I am today.” Taking your hand in his, he walked you both over to a set of lounge chairs.

He then explained his childhood to you. What his power is, who his father was, how Deku helped him make his fire his own, everything. As he told his story you felt water gather in your eyes. He had been through so much, and yet he was this kind, confident and all around beautiful man.

Shouto honestly couldn't explain why he opened up to you the way he did. It took his classmates, his closest friends, much longer to get this deep with him. You made him feel like he could open himself up, that he didn’t need to be ashamed of his past.

You two went well into the night, sharing stories of your past and dreams about your futures. It wasn’t until you saw the sky start to turn lighter did you realize that it was almost six in the morning. You’ve spent more than seven hours with a man you had just met. Shouto offered to walk you to your villa that you shared with your friends, in which you gladly accepted.

Shouto walked down the same path from before, glancing to his right to look at you. The blush of dawn illuminated your skin, shining brightly through your tresses. That serene smile on your lips made his heart do backflips. He was so caught up in watching you he didn’t realize that you were both standing in front of the villa.

“This is me.” You moved to stand on the stoop in front of the door, making you eye level with Shouto. “I really enjoyed tonight Shouto.”

“So did I.” His voice was soft like he didn't want to speak too loud in case it broke the spell you had on him.

“Well, I guess I’ll just see you around the hotel.” You gave him a short wave as you turned to open the door.

“Wait.” You were stopped by Shouto’s hand as he got a hold of yours. Looking down at your connected hands you felt like your body was on fire. “May I see you again?”

Raising your eyes from your hands, you met his gaze. He had a slight blush forming on his cheeks, his eyes searching yours for an answer. You couldn’t help it, no matter what he did you always felt a sense of happiness around him.

“I would really like that.” You watched as relief washed over him, his shoulders visibly relaxing, his brilliant smile came back.

“Tonight at nine, can you meet me at the beach again. If you’re not busy that is.”

“I think I can fit you in my schedule.” with hands still connected, Shouto raised your hand to his lips. Placing a gentle kiss in the back of it.

“Then I’ll see you tonight.” He released your hand, taking a few steps backwards, his eyes never leaving yours.

Turning around you unlocked the door, opening it. Stepping through the door you closed it and pressed your back against the wood. Taking the hand he held on to, you placed it above your racing heart.

“Shouto Todoroki , what have you done to me?” Still feeling like you were on cloud nine you made your way to your room, hoping to get some sleep before your friends decided to go sightseeing.

Over the next five days of your vacation, you met up with Shouto every night at nine on the beach. Tonight was no different. This was what you looked forward to each and every day, to see Shouto, to hear the stories of his days in highschool with his friends, to spend all hours of the night with him just talking.

Walking to the beach you noticed Shouto was already there. His dark jeans rolled up his calves as he stood in the water, face turned up to the sky. You could feel the air in your lungs be sucked out. The way the moonlight was reflecting off his porcelain skin, made him look like an unearthly being, highlighting the sharp features of his face. Silky strands of his two-toned hair flies in the wind, a smile plays on his lips. He was perfect.

Rolling up your jeans, you walked into the water to stand next to him. “It’s a beautiful night isn't it?” The cold water rolled over your feet coming up over your ankles. It was one of the chilliest nights you’ve had all summer. Thinking maybe you should have brought a light jacket with you, you rubbed your exposed arms trying to generate heat.

“It is, now that you’re here.” You could feel the heat in your cheeks start to rise. One thing you learned about Shouto over these nights was that he wasn’t one to beat around the bush. “Are you cold?” Shouto started to come closer to you, wrapping his left arm around your shoulders, his body touching yours. It was then you realized he was using his fire side to keep you warm.

“Thank you, Shouto.” His quirk had amazed you when he told you what it was. On the third night he had done a small demonstration, showing you how it works. You could still remember the excitement in his eyes when he made you a small ice figurine of the flower you had in your hair that first night.

Suddenly you thought back to what your friend asked ‘So what are you gonna do once we have to go back to reality?’. You only had two more nights to spend with Shouto, two more nights to live in this fantasy. What were you going to do, you didn’t live in japan and he did. You were just a wedding planner and he was a hero, you lived in two entirely different worlds.

“Hey Shouto, I wanted to give you something.” You broke apart from him, already missing the warmth he gave you, you faced him. “Remember when you asked me about my bracelets?” he nodded his head, watching as you reached in your back pocket. You pulled out a crystal bracelet much like your own, only this one had black and a light brown small round stones on it.

“I got you one, this is a protection bracelet.” You took hold of his wrist, sliding the elastic object over his large slightly calloused hand. “It’s made from black obsidian which is known as a grounding and protective stone and tiger eye; it's going to help bring you balance and help you release fear and anxiety, aiding you in making unclouded judgments and understanding. I thought that you could use this seeing as how you have a tough and dangerous job.” You played with the little polished stones now on his wrists. You wanted to give him something to remember these summer nights with you, because you knew this is all it would ever be, summer nights and a summer romance.

“I feel bad, I didn’t get you anything.” He tucked a piece of your hair behind your ear, letting his hand slide down to the ends playing with it between his fingers.

“You don’t have to, the memories of these past few nights are all I need.” his eyes stared into your own, like they were trying to say something to you but you couldn't figure it out.

You gasped as Shouto pulled you into a tight hug. His hand stroking the back of your head, long fingers running through your hair. “Sometimes memories aren't enough. Tomorrow night I promise, I’ll give you something you can always remember me by.”

That night you spent it like all the other nights, only difference was Shouto had held you for the better part of the whole night. Soon it was time to say goodnight, like every night. Once you closed your door Shouto headed back to the villa he shared with his friends, he looked at his wrist staring at the bracelet. He had to get you something just as meaningful in the morning. Letting out a sigh he looked back up at the star lit sky, tomorrow night he was going to ask you if you wanted to continue this romance once the vacation ended.

You had butterflies in your stomach all day long. Something about what Shouto said last night had you on your toes. Deciding you were going to dress up tonight you put on a black and daisy printed spaghetti strapped dress that came up to right above your knees. You made sure to spray your signature perfume, knowing that Shouto liked the smell of it just as much as you did. After talking with your friends about it, maybe it wasn't so bad to carry on with this romance after leaving Hawaii. So many people you know and even couples you planned weddings for had done the whole long distance thing. ‘This could work!’ You smiled as you picked up pace making your way to the beach.

Once you reached the beach you noticed Shouto wasn't there yet. It wasn’t like him to not be here before you. Shrugging it off you made your way to the lounge chairs you and Shouto declared as your spot. Pulling out your phone you decided to play a game or check your social media sites while you waited for him.

Five minutes turned into thirty, thirty turned into an hour and before you knew it you wanted on that beach for almost an hour and a half. You felt silly for never getting Shouto’s number, what if something happened to him and his friends. You were about to get up and make your way to the front desk to ask them to call his villa for you when you saw a hotel staff member run towards you.

“Excuse me are you,” He said your name, before handing you a beautifully wrapped box and a letter. “Mr.Todoroki asked me to give that to you.” without another word the man turned around and left.

Sitting back down you placed the box on your lap as you opened the letter.

‘To my Flower,

I’m so sorry to have left without a word but something came up back in japan and they needed all of us to come back immediately. These past few days seemed like a fantasy for me, YOU were like a fantasy for me. I was afraid that one day I would open my eyes and you would be gone, that you were only someone I imagined. You are a woman who must be too wonderful, too beautiful, too great to be true, it's odd to think that a man like me could catch your eye and possibly your heart.

I was going to use tonight to ask you if this could turn into something more than just a past memory, if this can become our reality. If you want to become MY reality. Inside the box is something you could cherish forever and my contact information. Hope to hear from you soon, my flower.

-Shouto

Folding the letter back up and placing it against your stomach, you switched your attention to the small box. The wrapping paper was a beautiful lilac and gold metallic marble pattern, with a mesh white ribbon wrapped around it, a perfect bow on top. You almost didn't want to open it, it was so beautiful.

Pulling the ribbon you gently untied it from around the box before pulling at the paper. The gift had a little weight to it, your mind wandered trying to come up with what could possibly be in there. Once you got rid of the paper, you were left with a small dark blue velvet box. Slowly you opened the lid. You nearly dropped it as a gasp passed your lips, hands shaking, water gathering in the corner of your eyes.

Inside was a Hawaiian Hibiscus hair pin made out of red sapphires, he remembered your favorite flower. You had mentioned it to him the first night and it was never brought up again. You ran your fingertips over the stunning stones, taking it out of its case you clipped it to the side of your hair. With it securely in place you looked back at the box hopping to find a small card with his phone number.

Confusion struck as you noticed there wasn't a card in the box, tilting your head you turned the object over shaking it hoping something was going to magically fall out. But nothing, going back to the letter you re-read the last line over again just to make sure you did read it right. Grabbing the envelope you ripped it open but once again, nothing.

Shouto forgot to leave his number for you, you had no way of contacting him. Was this fate's way of telling you this wouldn't have worked? Did fate save you from an impending heartbreak? You looked up to the stars as tears started to flow from your eyes. You and Shouto were never meant to walk down this path together, at least not in reality. Now you only had these summer nights to remember the man that set your heart on fire. With tears streaming down your face you held the letter to your heart.

“I’ll cherish these memories forever, Shouto.”

It’s been five years to the day and you haunted Shouto’s memories. Those nights were still fresh in his head, if he closed his eyes he could still feel that soft breeze on the beach, your scent wafting around him. The way your smile was somehow brighter than the sun, your laugh was like a lullaby in his head, he could remember it all. When he landed back home he had expected you to have sent him a text message but nothing, even days, weeks, months later there was nothing. He was devastated, he truly wanted to believe that you had felt for him the way he felt for you but he was mistaken.

“You're still thinking about that girl icy hot?” The sound of Bakugou’s rough voice brought him out of his reverie. He had been put on patrol with his old classmate, there was a big convention going on in town so they were put on duty to make sure nothing happens in the surrounding area.

“No I’m not.” Shouto continued to walk alongside his friend, as his hand played with the bracelet on his wrist.

“Tch don’t lie, every time the summer comes your head gets further in the clouds. It’s been five years man, let it go.”

He’s tried so many times but couldn’t, you were all he could think of. He tried looking for you but didn’t know where, he racked his brain thinking back to the conversations but you never said where you lived now. He was hoping that one day your paths would cross like they did in Hawaii on that beautiful summer day, and just hope he wasn't too late.

“Come in Ground Zero and Shouto!” The heroes could hear the dispatcher call for them in the hidden earpiece they had.

“Shouto and Ground Zero here, what’s going on?”

“Looks like some criminals decided to show up at the convention center. Other heroes are on their way but you two are the closest!” Looking at Bakugou, Shouto watched as he blasted himself in the air going towards the center.

“Time to get your head out of the past icy hot and focus on the present!!” Shouto was never one to take advice from the hot tempered hero, but maybe this time he would.

They arrived at the scene to see people running and screaming out of the convention center. police officers and EMT’s trying to get people to safety and taking those who were injured “Bakugou, you get the attention of the criminals, keep them busy until backup arrives, I’ll go in and try to evacuate as many people as I can.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” He took off into the building, one thing over the years hasn't changed and that was Bakugou’s anger.

Running to the back of the building Shouto found an entrance that seemed to have not been noticed by the criminals, Shouto figured he'd start the evacuation from the back working his way to the front making sure everyone was safe. Running into rooms, and halls he got out as many as he could making sure the coast was clear for the civilians to run to the exit.

He had gotten everyone out and was about to go aid Bakugou when he heard a woman screaming as she was being held back by the police. “My friend is in there! She’s still in there!” There was sheer panic and desperation in her voice .

“Do you know where she is?” Shouto was slightly out of breath having ran through the entire building.

“She was in the dressing room of the main hall!” Shouto nodded his head at her before running off back into the building. ‘How could I have missed her!’ Gritting his teeth Shouto pushed himself faster, he had to get to her and then go help Bakugou.

“Oi Todoroki where are you?” He could hear Bakugou over the earpiece.

“There is one more civilian in the dressing room, once I get her to safety I’ll head over to help you.”

“Help me?” Shouto heard a loud explosion followed by Bakugou laughing. “Who said I needed your help, just figured you'd want in on the action!”

Shouto was about to respond back when he heard the sound of someone screaming. Using his ice as a booster he slid down the escalators leading him to the main hall where the woman’s friend said she was. Slowing down and stopping right outside the door, Shouto heard the criminal speaking to the woman.

“Just come out and nobody gets hurt!” Shouto used that as his moment to freeze the criminal, surrounding him in ice. “What the-” The criminal tried to break free but couldn’t.

“It’s useless, you can't break my ice.” His voice was low and deadly sending shivers down the criminal’s spine. Shouto walked into the room, tables were flipped glass was broken but the woman’s friend was nowhere to be seen. “Miss, you can come out, it's safe now.” He walked closer to the stand up closet, figuring that’s the first place a person would hide. Shouto put his hand on the small door knob ready to open it when he got a whiff of it.

‘Roses, daffodil’s, peony and a hint of dahlia? It couldn’t be, there's no way’.

Nearly ripping the door off it hinges, Shouto’s eyes widened as he saw you. A mix of black mascara and tears streaming down your face. Your body shaking from fear hands clenched into fists on your side. You opened your eyes, meeting Shouto’s shocked ones. That’s when he saw it, that hair pin he gave you all those years ago, placed on the side of your head.

“Shouto?” Was the last thing you heard yourself say before everything went black.

#Shouto #shouto todoroki #shouto x reader #bnhabookclub #bnharem server collab #bnha x reader #bnha fluff #sfw #mha x reader #mha fluff #summer romance #shoto x reader #bnha #mha

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 5 years ago

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Humans are Space Orcs “Football”

Forgive me in advance for my complete lack of knowledge on the subject. I am not entirely sure if that works for me since Sunny doesn't know anything about it either, but I tried, for the sake of you who suggested it.

But be warned, I tried to look up a few things, but couldn’t even understand the explanations lol. Have fun, Hope it is at least entertaining even if it isn’t accurate.

Sunny lifted her head to the Earth’s Sun allowing the warmth to seep into her skin. Despite what Krill said, Earth was very nice, and it didn’t have so much ash in the air as her planet did. It was nice, and bright, and warm. It smelled nice too, mostly from the brightly colored flowers that made her mouth water. Adam looked at her a little funny every time she turned to quickly snack on one as she walked by, but she didn’t mind. It almost surprised her that the human didn’t eat them since they seemed to eat everything else.

Granted, she hadn’t taken to these walks simply to eat the earth flowers, but because she thought it would be good for Adam. It had been a month or two since the prison fiasco on Noctopolis, and he was slowly returning to himself. She had been reading up on the proper way to help a human heal mentally and determined that he needed sunlight, friends and something to do, so walks with her and Krill were the best option. Plus it had the added bonus of being something Krill liked, which was a miracle since, when it came to earth he often didn’t like anything.

They turned onto a road shaded under tall over-arching trees. To their right, the ground behind the trees was manicured grass with a playground covered in tiny humans, and a surrounding park dotted with blankets and other human lounging in the sun. It was a truly alien scene to her, and the atmosphere was like nothing she had experienced. They received some wide eyed open mouthed states as they walked past, especially from the children, who ran over to get a closer look trailed by their equally curious but somewhat worried parents.

Adam greeted them politely as they passed by the park, and onto the stretch next to a chain link fence behind that being a set of bleachers which looked out onto a diamond-shaped filed Adam said was used for baseball. After that was a soccer field covered in more human children, one group wearing bright green and the other wearing purple. Adult humans cheered their spawn from the perimeter of the field.

They passed beside another wide open field.

That’s when her attention was diverted by a sound. A human voice barking a sharp guttural call. SHe turned her head just in time to see a group of humans crouched in two parallel lines facing each other. As the call was given, the man in the middle front tossed the ball backwards to a teammate standing behind him. The rest of the human responded violently and quickly bellowing war cries and slamming into each other with violent force knocking each other to the ground when possible.

A human at the end of the line raced out behind their opponents ducking past a larger human barreling towards him. The human with the ball fell back and then lobbed the thing into the air brown highlighted against eggshell blue. It flew in a tight spiral before arching towards the ground. The running human reached out with both hands and leapt forward arms wide. He caught the ball, though sloppily, and cradled it against his chest just in time to be plowed into by a human from the opposing line. There was a sharp burst of blue around the man’s head and shoulders as the two men hit the ground, the rest of the human came to a grinding halt

“Jackson! What did I say about head shots.” The human without the ball staggered to his feet, “He has a force field, so it's not like it matters.”

“Just because he has a field doesn't mean a concussion isn’t possible.” The leader explained in annoyance.

Adam had come to a halt ahead realizing that Sunny wasn’t next to him anymore. She felt him rather than saw his as he came back to stand next to her watching as the humans returned to their lines once more, “Should have known you’d like it.” He muttered to himself a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Which human game is this one.” Sunny wondered.

“A dangerous one.” Krill determined wincing as the humans plowed into each other for a second time.”

Adam accompanied sunny onto the grass as she moved a little closer, “Football….. Or I guess American Football depending on who you ask. It was almost banned at one point once they realized repeated concussions were bad for the brain.”

“No shit.” Krill muttered.

He kept going, “But people couldn’t let it go, so instead they just made better protective technology.”

“So what you’re saying is this sport was killing people because of how violent it was?”

Adam shrugged, “Less killing people and more giving them degenerative brain damage, but I digress.”

Krill looked up at sunny with annoyance, “Tell Me I am wong, but the fact that it hurts people didn’t make you more excited…. Did it?”

Sunny shrugged.

Krill groaned.

There was a clattering as the human rammed into each other. One was violently plowed into the ground, and the group went silent as he didn’t get up. His friends knelt next to him, “You ok.”

The man gasped and through heavy breathing, “Shit…. I…. I think I pulled something.” With looks of concern, his friends pulled him off to the side to look him over.

Of course Krill being Krill couldn't help but wander up shadow darkening the humans who looked up and jerked back in surprise at the strange alien watching them. Then their eyes moved upwards to where Sunny stood sun glittering of her bright blue armor.

Adam approached with a smile, “Sorry, but my…. Friends were interested in your game.”

The humans blinked in surprise, “No…. apologies necessary.” one of them stammered craning his neck back to look up at Sunny.

Krill pointed to the downed human, “I am a doctor.” Eyes still wide the humans slowly moved to the side So Krill could get closer ordering the padding removed so he could get a better look.

The human leader walked up to Adam and Sunny. He was tall, taller than even Adam was making him only maybe five or six inches shorter than Sunny, “Shit…. You’re a Drev, right…. Damn your tall.”

She looked down at him with amusement, “On my planet, I am actually very very short, human. My brother is over nine feet tall.”

He blinked in shock and surprise then looked her over one more time noting the double set of arms and the built in padding, “Wow ... wouldn't mind having someone like you on my team. That extra set of arms would be nice.” Curiously, he reached out a hand and then paused, “You mind?” Hw wondered

Sunny shook her head, she knew how humans liked exploring things with their hands, and actually found it rather endearing. He knocked on her armor with a closed fist prodding at that which covered her shoulders and her chest with great interest, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were built for a game like this.”

Krill had stepped back from the downed man, “Just a pulled muscle, but you should stay off of it for a week or two.” The human sighed dejectedly, but didn’t argue.

Their leader frowned, “That leaves us two men down since Dave didn’t show up today.” He glanced towards Adam and Sunny, and Sunny leaned forward eagerly hoping he would ask.

“How about you two….. Would you want to hop in.” he glanced at Adam, “You ever played?”

He shrugged, “Backyard games with my brothers.”

The guy turned back to sunny, “What do you say?”

She nodded eagerly, ad the humans whooped enthusiastically. Adam was given the protective padding the other humans wore, and the two of them were talked through the rules as they dropped into line. Sunny found herself standing across from an absolutely massive human, maybe only an inch shorter than her. He had dark skin, dark eyes, a wide smile, and his shoulders were probably wider than hers.

She had never seen a human so big before.

He held out a hand, and she took it, “Never played against an alien before. Should be fun.” She chirped her agreement pleased with how personable these humans were. Looking around, she lowered herself into a crouch like the other humans. She didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but it was clear to her that her job was to protect her team from the opposite human, or to…. Make sure the ball didn’t get any further down her side of the field…. Or at least that’s what she thought.

She couldn’t be entirely sure.

From the sidelines Krill shook his head with annoyance standing next to the injured human.

Somewhere the human began speaking words Sunny didn’t understand. Then the order was given. She and her opponent charged forward at the same time, and before she knew it, she hit the ground hard, hard enough that it caused a slight tremor through the earth. She barely remembered what happened but was aware of a horrible throbbing in her chest, where the human had plowed into her shoulder first.

Another call went up, and the large human loomed over extending a hand down to help her up.

She groaned but took his hand, and he hauled her to her feet like she weighed nothing. It was a strange experience for sure. She had never felt like that around the humans

“You ok Sunny.” Adam laughed, “You look like you just got body checked by a train.

She wheezed, “This human is very large.”

The rest of the group laughed, the big human most of all. She vowed to give him a taste of his own medicine next time.

And she did too. She probably didn’t intend to do it so excessively catching him by the waist ducking and inadvertently causing him to do a full rotation over her shoulder before slamming into the ground. The blue forcefield erupted around his body, and despite her apologizes, he was good natured and gave her a few pointers. She soaked them up like a sponge chirping happily pleased to find a human nearly her equal in strength and greatly outranking her in skill. She Hadn't had a fight like that in a while.

Krill hated the game as expected, but Sunny loved it.

She especially loved watching when Adam, caught the ball, registered a moment of surprise and then was plowed into the ground from two directions. The look on his face was priceless. That was followed by a discussion about how fair it was Adam having a cybernetic leg that, he accidentally (according to him) used to flip over one of his opponents and go racing off down the field.

THey determined it was fair enough considering how many times he ended up knocked over or fumbling the ball when it was tossed to him. Adam good naturedly joked it was his depth perception with only one eye. The group laughed and said that was probably fair.

Krill decided it was a good time to lecture the humans on why they would play a game that was clearly so violent and aggressive after a particularly excessive play where one of the humans ended up squished to the ground under at least four other bodies. However they just laughed and kept playing.

Sunny learned pretty quickly that she wasn’t very good at throwing things, her arms just weren't built for that sort of thing, but she did enjoy running people over, so didn’t even bother with the ball most of the time.

She did bother plowing into other players as they tried to get to the ball, though, and found herself thrown to the ground on more than one occasion for going after an opposing player with the ball. She wasn’t entirely sure she was doing any of this right, but no one corrected her, and when they did it was generally just to tell her what she could be doing better rather than what she was doing wrong.

Not only that, but she was pleased to hear Adam laughing again, not that he hadn’t done it in the past month but because it seemed easier than it had been lately.

They played till the sun set, and the two of them were invited back if they were ever in the area. Her tall opponent approached her as the others were packing up and handed her the ball, “You play well.” Was all he said before returning to his team. Sunny hummed her pleasure honored that someone as good as that human would acknowledge her in that way.

Sunny like that game.

Though they were forced to endure a lecture on the way home from Krill bout how insane humans were. Where sunny saw a game of strategy and Skill, Krill saw a bunch of raging idiots using their bodies as battering rams to the detriment of their health. It was barbarous idiotic and a reason for the human to beat on each other in an acceptable manner.

They didn’t bother correcting him.

There was no arguing with krill when it came to his opinions.

Sunny spun the football in her hands thoughtfully. She would have to look into this game more. Perhaps get herself a team to root for.

She wondered if they carried jerseys in her size.

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #HUMANS ARE WEIRD #humans are insane #humans are spaceoddities #earth is a deathworld #Earth is space Ausralia

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essays-for-breakfast · 5 years ago

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Second Chances

Melizabeth Week Day 4: Journey/Home

Elizabeth’s heart beat faster as a gust of wind hurried past and brushed her face. To avoid the backwards push of the current, she drifted sideways with a minimal flap of her wings, into the fluffy banks of a cloud. The tiny drops of water tickled her arms, and the nerves connecting her four wings to her spine bristled with an energy she still learned to adjust to. The white feathers could carry her farther than she could have ever walked, and as long as there was magical energy inside of her, they would never tire.

The sun warmed her skin, and joy fastened her pace as she rose to higher spheres where the winds blew in her favor.

The sharp sound of larger wings beating air confirmed that Meliodas had caught up to her, and when Elizabeth rolled midair to look skywards, he faced her with a wide grin. “Didn’t you say back-flying was a stupid stunt only invented for the purpose of showing off?” he asked and placed his hands on his hips in the most indignant and amusing position he could perform.

“I’m only taking this risk because I know you will catch me if I lose focus,” Elizabeth said. “You’ve always been there to catch me. And it offers me the opportunity to watch you.”

“Well, that’s a very good excuse, you can learn from the best Demon sky artist in all of Britannia. Although gotta say, the competition has become sparse recently.”

Elizabeth laughed and returned to the facedown position she was more familiar with. Her back had tensed during the short-lived performance, and she waggled her wings to prevent a cramp as she used the fading edges of an upcurrent to glide alongside Meliodas.

“I’m so happy for Arthur for what he has accomplished in Camelot already,” Elizabeth said. The images of their visit filled her inner eye, and she couldn’t help but awe in silent at the splendor the capital of the south had displayed. “In such a short amount of time, he has brought wealth and peace to his kingdom. And the citizens were so happy… I think in a few years Camelot will overtake Liones as the most powerful kingdom in Britannia.”

“At this pace it won’t take longer than a couple months I’d say. Every low-class Holy Knight is already begging to become part of Arthur’s elite. But he’s a good kid, he earned this victory.”

Elizabeth smiled. “He looked so proud when he guided us through the streets. Like a king people want to follow, no matter where he leads them.”

“Of course he’s proud of Camelot, it’s his home. He rebuilt that place with nothing but the crazy powers Merlin handed to him when he was barely old enough to drink.” Despite Meliodas’ joking comment, he failed to ban the bitterness from his voice in its entirety. A few grim lines had formed around his mouth.

“Are you still angry with Merlin?” Elizabeth asked. The shift in his expression confirmed she had been dead right with her assumption.

“Yeah, I am, and if I stop showing it, her dense head won’t pick up on the fact that she made a mistake. She hurt you. Even risked killing you. She won’t get away with it that easily.”

Elizabeth slowed her pace to examine the hills and cliffs and ranges of fine weather clouds around them. Merlin was their friend, moreover, she belonged to some of Elizabeth’s earliest memories of a time burdened with hardship but also beautiful, tender moments. What Merlin did might have been selfish, but Elizabeth had long forgiven her. And if Meliodas did the same, maybe their friendship would return to the better shape of days past.

“Merlin is your comrade, our friend,” Elizabeth said. “The Seven Deadly Sins were like a family to me when I journeyed with you across the land. And I know you feel the same, all these people mean more to you than your own happiness. You can’t tear this bond apart because Merlin has found something she dedicated all her efforts to. We both saw how happy she was to stand next to Arthur as his advisor. I will not begrudge her of the joy she had been searching all her life.”

Meliodas looked at her with an adoration strong enough to outshine the sun in the heavens above. “It seems I’ll never stop learning from your kindness and your strength.”

They continued their flight in silence, a warm, welcoming silence that never felt uncomfortable. One with the wind and the clouds, the Demon and the Goddess glided northwards, sometimes racing each other through the white, fluffy towers, then drifting along with lazy movements, their fingers interlaced. The delight filling Elizabeth’s heart like the warmth of an open fire in Liones’ castle during the cold winter months could only be tainted by the tiredness of her muscles.

As the exhaustion of her legs and arms pulled her downward below the clouds and allowed a glimpse at the landscape, Elizabeth’s heartbeat stumbled. Liones’ capital, with its uncounted houses of waddle and daub secluded by tall stone walls no human army had ever overcome, lay embedded into the hills of grass and bright yellow canola. An image of true beauty. They had almost reached their destination.

Elizabeth fell into a gentle dive to cross the remaining distance while Meliodas followed at her heels, ready to catch her if the long hours of travel claimed their toll on the last miles before the finish line. But Elizabeth was confident that she could make it, and as a metal finial caught the light between the treetops of a grove just outside the city, she steepened her flight path and hurried towards the beacon. The tented roof coming into view right after brought a smile to her face. The Boar Hat.

Home.

Over the course of 107 lifetimes, Elizabeth had lived in many houses, and for a while she might have called them home. The simple tent of Dusk Bison skin she had slept in during her time as a member of the savage tribe; the cabin of a trading vessel where each morning had been filled with the smell of salt and old wood; like a faint dream, the images of her first homeland, the massive alabaster towers of the Goddess Realm. The small house with the green door she had shared with Meliodas in Danafall had been especially dear to her. But all these could not compare to the tavern with its pointed rooftop and newly polished sign that identified the building as the ‘Boar Hat’.

When Elizabeth would one day breathe her last in this world, this place would be the one she would remember as her home Their home.

A few steps away from the porch, Elizabeth touched down on the ground with wobbling legs but with a joy in her heart so great it cramped her chest. Meliodas came to a hold beside her. But when he and Elizabeth entered the tavern room, they stopped dead in their tracks.

“SURPRISE!”

They had all gathered in the crowded space close to the entrance door, the Sins and company. Ban held out a massive apple-pie to the newcomers with a grin, Elaine clinging to his neck with a smile almost as wide. Gowther, dressed in the tavern uniform and covered with garlands of paper in more colors than Elizabeth could name, carried a tray stacked to the brim with mugs of ale while Hawk sniffed at his feet with a self-confident ‘pugoh’. Diane, who had been waiting at King’s side, rushed over to trap Elizabeth in a hearty embrace.

“Have you guys organized all this just for us?” Elizabeth asked once Diane had given her space to breathe.

“Sure,” Diane answered with a grin. “It’s been two months since we all got together like this, so we wanted to use the opportunity now that you have some time to lie low. You two are so hard to track down these days.”

“It was all master’s plan,” Ban said as he patted Meliodas’ unruly strands of hair, making full use of his height advantage. “He informed Gowther, who happened to be in town, about when ya’ll be back home. He’s the one to get the whole party running.”

Elizabeth dropped to her knees to give Hawk a hug. “Thank you, this is wonderful, Hawk.”

“I only did it to taste Ban’s scraps again,” he said to misdirect suspicion, but his eyes were leaking tears.

The group joked and laughed and sat together as though they had never been apart. Ban swayed dangerously in his chair after the third serving of ale, Diane and King talked about how well the merger between the Giant and Fairy Clan was coming together, and Hawk happily munched his way through an enormous bowl of Chicken Mantango scraps. After about an hour, they sent a toast to Escanor with a bottle of Castellio wine Gowther had obtained in a remote market place of an even more remote town for this special occasion. And while Elizabeth felt a knot in her throat when remembering the loss of their friend who had stood beside them throughout their journey, she had rarely been happier.

Because even though the Boar Hat was her and Meliodas’ home, the picture remained incomplete without their friends. These clay walls and coarse-crafted tables had been her favorite place for so long not because of the charm of its interior design, but because of the people she had shared this place with. And were it not for the two empty seats, Elizabeth could have pretended to return to these carefree days.

Elaine was about to hand Elizabeth a bottle with mild cider when a knocking came from the entrance. All heads turned and conversation died down, before King left his stool to open for the guest.

“You’re late,” he said with a tad of unease and shifted to allow Elizabeth a glimpse at the person entering the Boar Hat.

Merlin looked lost and remained at the door, emptyhanded and smaller than she actually was. She failed to meet the eyes of the gathering for long and lowered her gaze.

“I invited Merlin as well,” Gowther said in an attempt to bridge the silence hanging in the room like a physical weight. “I hope you don’t mind, Captain.”

Elizabeth spun in her chair in expectation of an angry growl or a question about why Merlin was standing in his house without permission ready to hurl at their heads, but no muscle twitched in Meliodas’ face. Without a word, he walked to the counter, reached for a wine bottle in the far corner of the shelf, and filled a wine glass with red liquor. If someone had placed a fork on their table, the sound would have echoed through the room like a cacophony; even Hawk had paused his meal. Meliodas’ feet on the stone floor sounded too loud in Elizabeth’s ears, despite his light step, as he crossed the final meters between himself and Merlin.

He handed her the wine glass with a smile, small but earnest. “Have a seat.”

Merlin stared at him in stunned silence, the glass shaking in her hands. “Thank you, Meliodas,” she said with a hoarse voice. Not since the Seven Deadly Sins had been founded had she addressed him by his name instead of his title as ‘Captain’.

Still a little uneasy, Merlin followed Meliodas to the large wooden table where the rest of the party had gathered and seated herself next to Gowther.

“Anyway, what I wan’ed to say’s that the Captain really messed up on our first mission,” Ban said. While he still sounded drunk, his eyes were clear and attentive. “Ya still remember how bad his motivation speech was? Merlin had to take over halfway through, isn’t that right Merlin?”

“I remember,” Merlin said with the tiniest of smiles when the memory resurfaced. “He was interrupted because you continued to challenge him to an arm-wrestling match and refused to take no for an answer.”

“That was the first time I won against him. Elaine, did I ever tell ya about the competition I have running with the Captain? You see, I…”

And like that, pleasant chatter returned to the table, and Merlin, despite sitting on her stool with a noticeable stiffness, had regained her place in the group if only for a little while. Elizabeth beamed at Meliodas and took his hand under the table.

“I’m so happy all of us can sit together like this. And that Merlin is with us too,” she whispered. “I believe she realizes how much she has hurt you, and if you give it some time, this matter will never again stand between you. All she needed was a second chance.”

“Just like I needed a second chance when I met you. I wouldn’t have been able to take a single step forward if it weren’t for you. Thank you, Elizabeth.”

Instead of an answer, Elizabeth gave Meliodas an encouraging squeeze of his hand and leaned her head against his shoulder. No matter what he did or what he would do, she would stand beside him to show kindness and forgive his mistakes when he could not forgive himself.

Always.

#melizabethweek #nnt fanfiction #nanatsu no taizai #seven deadly sins #meliodas #elizabeth #melizabeth #my writing #Did I abuse this to write about the issue with Merlin?#yes #I want Meliodas to forgive her #but not right away #Elizabeth wants everyone to be happy

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alien-rainbow · 4 years ago

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By Your Side Until My Death (6/?)

Chapter 6: The Run and Go

Available on AO3

Princess Artemis, the eldest daughter of the kingdom of Olympus is to be married to her childhood nightmare. In a land where anything remotely magical is banned, Zoë fears for her and Ladon's life but knows that she could never leave the princess's side if she tried. Magical beings, a forbidden romance, family secrets, and safety for magic all wait beyond the kingdom's borders.

- 3rd person, will be completed eventually, teen, not completed, Zartemis

Artemis stood in her room packing the last few things in a bag and pushing it under her bed. She had her nightgown on over a pair of trousers and a leather tunic. Her hair was tied in a tight braid down her back just like the others. Athena had oped to stay in her room tonight claiming that she wasn't feeling well and staying with Artemis would be best.

Athena stood on the balcony of her sister's room gazing around the castle grounds one last time. Her chocolate brown hair was also in a tight braid and wore as enable similar to her sisters. Both girls had a bag and clock tucked underneath the bed though they chose not to bring too much in the area of personal items.

Athena had a few books and a silver coin with an owl that Hermes had stolen for her birthday years ago, seating had become the boy's form of rebellion. Artemis had maps, books, though not as may as her sister. Though her most prized possession was a silver and gold circle that she, Apollo, and Hephaestus had made after the incident with Orion years ago.

Her brother never asked what had happened, only if she wanted help. Apollo had insisted that they put gold into the circlet. Artemis went along with it and had Hephaestus put a tint silver band a gold on the inside. It was small and really the only thing she would need.

None of the siblings were incredibly close but they all shared a comen care for the others, all beside Ares. Artemis was close to her brother and Athena. Then Hephaestus and Dyonisus, Artemis wished that she could leave some kind of explanation but that would only put more people in danger.

Her thoughts drifted to Annabeth, the girl who was imprisoned in the dungeon while Artemis was getting ready to escape. Zoë had yet to come back to the room with information and Artemis was on edge.

"What's wrong?" Athena asked walking over to her sister.

"Nothing..." Artemis said but after seeing the lock on her sister's face she realized that she would not take her lies. "Something feels wrong, Zoë should be back by now, she works quickly and we need to leave soon."

"I'm sure she will be alright," Athena said placing her hand gently on her sister's arm. They sat in silence as Artemis worked herself up.

"Somethings not right, I know it, get ready," With that, she left her younger sister's side and went to the beg pulling out her bag, a shart of arrows, and a bow. They were not an amazing quality and were not supposed to be taken with but something was terribly wrong.

Athena nodded and went to retrieve her bad and a few daggers that Artemis had stored in her room. They both slid out of their nightgowns and laced up their fur-lined leather boots and tossed on black cloaks. Just as they were about to leave the room Zoë burst though.

"Oh thank gods your ready, we need to leave, now. "

"What's wrong Zoë Artemis asked as she grabbed her sister's hand and followed the older girl out of the room."

"The girl is gone, she somehow escaped and the whole castle will know in minutes. We have to get out before it's too late. Thalia and Reyna have already left, we will meet up near Lando's cave," Zoë said as she walked quickly through the stone halls. Just as they were about to turn to walk towards the back door they heard the sound of running footsteps and the clang of armor.

They then turned and ran in the other direction having to change routes every time they heard guards. They ended up at the door to the courtyard, one of the worst places they could be, the huge open field offered no cove for the group.

Artemis turned as she felt her sister's hand being pulled from hers. She stood face to face with a tall tan boy with messy black hair and sea green eyes. He wore similar attire to Annabeth but he had fewer beads and no coral.

"Where is she?" The bot said pressing a long bronze sward into Athena's neck.

"Stop! Don't hurt her," Artemis said reaching forward for her sister only to be pulled back by Zoë.

"We don't know, we, just like her are trying to get out of here. Know please let her go, she's just a girl," Zoë said calmly as she held the elder princess back.

"Percy?" The blond girl came running from the same door and flew into the boy's arms. He called her name and dropped away from Athena and over to the girl. "What are you going here?"

"Rescuing you of course," the boy said giving the girl a lopsided smile.

"Just you? A one-man army?" the blond asked the taller boy.

"Naw, How do you think we would have got here?" The boy said then turned to the sky looking for something.

"What are you all doing here?" Annabeth asked finally addressing the small group.

"Leaving," Zoë said simply.

"Do you want a ride? We should have enough room. If out ride out is who I'm thinking of," Annabeth then turned to look at the boy who nodded his head.

"While, since the whole castle is up in arms and getting away unnoticed is almost impossible, a ride would be helpful," Zoë said calmly before her gazed darkened, her eyes sparkling with instantly. "But if you make another attempt to hurt the princess, you will not survive. I will not be caught off guard again." The boy nodded and took a step back mumbling about how scary girls can be. Wich made Artemis smile.

"We also were supposed to meet someone near the southern border, will we be able to be dropped off there to meet up with them?" The blond nodded and turned to scan the sky with the boy.

"There's our ride," The boy said pointing to the sky. Seconds later a large golden form landed in the courtyard. The large golden dragon let out a blast of fire that lit up the sky and the people on its back. From where she was Artemis could count three people.

"Come on," Annabeth said waving them forward. Zoë and Artemis took off running immediately, not scared of the dragon who dwarfed in comparison to Landon. Athena followed after her sister while trying not to gape at the giant beast in front of them.

The two climbed up its scales and seated themselves into the kinks in the armor on the top of the dragon's back. The three followed their lead and scrambled on as shouts started to ring through the yard as guards flooded the area.

"GO!" a few people shouted

"Go Festus!" Another yelled. With that, the dragon flapped its massive wings and they were rising into the air. Now on the dragon, Artemis could see there were not three but five people.

A skinny boy with bronze skin and messy curly hair seemed to be directing the dragon. A tall blond boy with glasses and blond hair was asking Percy and Annabeth if they were okay to which the two nodded their heads. Another blond boy sat next to him through his hair leaned more towards gold and his hair was curly. Both the boys had blue eyes and orange shirts on. Standing next to the curly blond was a short pale boy with black hair who seemed to melt into the night shadows. The last person was a short girl with thick dark curly hair and dark skin.

"Hello," she said once she noticed Artemis watching them. "I'm Hazle."

"Artemis"

"Nice to meet you," the curly blond said. "I'm Will, and this is Nico," he said gesturing to the small pale boy whose face was still neutral. "The skinny boy in the front is Leo, Jason is the one with glasses, and you already met Percy and Annabeth." The blond pointed to each person respectfully and smiled at them. He. seamed to radiate sunshine and warmth even in the dead of night. He reminded Artemis of her brother.

"You guys should get some sleep," Zoë said, "Even on a dragon it will be a few hours until we will be anywhere where we can land." The others looked surprised by this knowledge but didn't say anything. Artemis nodded then wrapped her arms around her sister like a human shield. The two fell asleep to the steady beat of wings and a cool breeze that smelled like true freedom.

#artemis #zartemis #zoë nightshade #fanfiction #fanfic #fantasy AU #fantasy #royalty au #feels #annabeth chase #percy jackson

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iturbide · 5 years ago

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Bantu's Arrival

"Excuse me..." The old man's voice called out as the smoke cleared, and the young girl's heart leaped with joy. "Have you met a young girl named Tik- oof!"

The old man in the red robe was interrupted by a rather curious projectile. A young girl in a pink dress and a red cloak tackling him and hugging his midriff tight.

"Ban-Ban!" She cried out happily. "Ban-Ban, it's you!"

"Wh- Lady Tiki?" The old man's eyes were wide With disbelief, but he slowly, hesitantly put his own arms around her. "Lady Tiki, is that you?" Happy laughter was his only answer, and Bantu's face lit up with a joyful, kind smile. He opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted once again.

"Look! It's Ban-Ban!" He blinked and looked up. That had sounded like another Tiki, if he wasn't mistaken... And he wasn't, as was evidenced by another two small bodies tackling him at high speed, bringing him down to the ground where the first young girl had failed.

"Lady Tiki? And... Lady Tiki?!" One was missing the red cloak, and the other had her wings out in a swimsuit, but there was no mistaking it. He was looking at three Lady Tikis!

"I... How is...?" He looked up in confusion at the young human in the white robes, who simply smiled and shrugged noncommittally at him.

"Just how things work around here," was all they said, before turning back to the altar Bantu had emerged from.

Bantu found that the answer satisfied him. He could see Lady Tiki again, and what's more, she looked happy beyond belief.

"Come on, Ban-Ban!" One said, getting off of him and tugging at his gnarled old hand. "You have to meet everyone!"

"Yeah!" "Yeah, come on, Ban-Ban!" The other two said, just as excited, hopping up to their feet and pulling at his hand to get him up. The old man could only laugh, amused at the excitement the young girls had.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" He chuckled, getting to his feet. "Let an old man get his walking stick!" The three girls giggled, and one of them handed him his staff, while the other two tugged at his sleeves to hurry him along. Bantu could only chuckle and let himself be swept along. Where they were going, he had no clue, but it obviously made them happy.

----------------------

Bantu was wide-eyed and open-mouthed at what he saw. The group of people in front of him was motley, to say the least, and yet they all looked... happy.

And Tiki (the Tikis) were all too excited to introduce him to everyone.

"Here's Myrrh! She's my best friend!" the one with the cloak said with a huge smile, introducing a young Manakete with purple hair in pigtails to him, her wings fully out. She bowed politely, a small smile on her face.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Ban-Ban!" She said, earning a small giggle from Tiki and a chuckle from Bantu.

"Here's Tak-Tak! And Spooky Tak-Tak!" another called, bringing Bantu's attention to a pair of young men who were identical but for the odd, flat gleam in one's eyes. Both smiled kindly at him.

"And here's Kanna and Kanna!" the third caught his attention, pointing at two children with silver hair and silver clothes. "They have the same name but you get used to it! Their mama and papa are around here somewhere."

"And here's Fae's Papa!" The cloaked Tiki called again, Making him turn around, almost dizzy with the new names and faces, and here Bantu stopped, suddenly a bit concerned at the sight of the tall, silver-haired man in front of him fairly radiating power. Far behind him, on a spire, a massive dragon stirred faintly. "He looks grumpy but he's really, really nice! He took care of us for a while!" The man looked at Bantu with crimson eyes for a moment... then smiled, and held out his hand.

"Hello. You must be Bantu. Pleased to meet you," he said pleasantly, and all of Bantu's fears melted away. "I am Grima. My other self is around here somewhere. She should appear soon enough."

"The pleasure is mine, Sir Grima," Bantu said, offering his own wrinkled hand to shake. If this man had taken care of Tiki, then he was a friend in Bantu's book.

"And here's Fae!" Tiki said, pointing to the very small, lilac-haired girl standing next to Grima. Bantu almost did a double-take. So concerned had he been with the man, he had completely missed the girl, even with her enormous smile and huge, friendly eyes.

"And that's Fae's Mama floating over there!" the one with no cloak called out, pointing to a massive, six-winged dragon, identical to the one perched on the castle spire. On its head could be seen a small figure, presumably Fae's Mama. He'd have to greet her later, Bantu noted.

Loud footsteps called his attention, and Bantu turned, and blanched as he came face to face with a figure he had known only from legend. Duma, the Kingshield. Once the protector of Naga herself, but exiled for his crimes against humanity. Few dragons could boast the raw strength that he held. Bantu shook a little, more intimidated that he'd felt in a while under the other's stony gaze. Then Duma's eyes flickered towards Tiki, and a tiny smile lit his face up, breaking the spell. Tiki's next words shocked Bantu.

"And here's my Papa!"

Now Bantu's eyes widened, and he looked at Duma, shocked, confused... Duma? Tiki's Papa? And as if to confirm this, he heard the pattering of tiny feet and the flapping of wings.

"Papa!" The Tikis called out, and launched themselves at him. Duma caught them in one arm, a slow chuckle rumbling in his chest. And Bantu noticed the bundle he held in his other arm, holding it close against his shoulder. A bundle wrapped in a red cloak, now stirring a bit. The hood fell back, revealing yet another Tiki, with sleepy, bleary red eyes.

"Papa...?" She asked, sleepily. "What's going...?" Her eyes fell on Bantu, and suddenly they were awake, wide with surprise and wonder, and her mouth fell open.

"Ban-Ban...?" She asked, almost disbelieving. Bantu could only nod, and felt tears prickling his eyes as the tiny child's expression morphed into one of unadulterated, uncontrolled joy.

"BAN-BAN!" She cried, leaping from Duma's loose hold and into Bantu's open arms. She felt lighter than the others, smaller, and yet... So much heavier. "Ban-Ban, you're here!"

"I certainly am, Lady Tiki," he chuckled. Still he glanced up at Duma. "I'm... a little confused. But I'm here." He cleared his throat.

"So, uh... Duma is... your Papa?" he asked, tentatively. Around him, he could hear the conversation quiet down a little bit. Bantu glanced around, nervous, almost expecting some hostility, but all that met him was a bit of warm amusement. He was surprised to see King Naga, of all people, standing some distance away, and smiling warmly, if a little sadly, at the sight of the one who should have been her most terrible enemy tenderly carrying her daughter (daughters).

Duma cleared his throat awkwardly, and set the two Tikis gently on the ground, next to their cloaked other self. He faced Bantu, and to the surprise of all present, bowed deeply at the waist.

"I greet you humbly, Bantu of the Salamanders. I understand I have much to thank you for." Bantu gaped. The Kingshield was bowing... to him. What WAS this place?! Papa Duma? A humble Kingshield on good terms with Naga?

"I'm... I'm confused..." He said softly.

"That's to be expected," a new voice cut in. Bantu looked up to see a young woman he'd never seen before, and yet... oddly familiar. She wore her green hair in a ponytail, a short red dress and a white cloak. And was smiling warmly at him. She stood in front of Bantu, and gestured at Duma.

"This is Papa Duma," she said. "He's taken Tiki -ALL Tikis-" she said with an odd emphasis, and the four Tikis erupted into giggles for some reason, "under his wing. I'm sure you'll have a lot to speak of, but first..."

And suddenly she was hugging Bantu, squeezing him hard, as though afraid to let him go. She was shaking, too, and Bantu realized she was crying. Without fully understanding why, he put his arms around her as well.

"It's so good to see you again, Ban-Ban," she whispered, and Bantu's eyes widened in realization, before tears once again flowed from them.

Lady Tiki had lived. Bantu was more than satisfied.

#submission #norbah #dragon creche #bantu #tiki #duma #grima #i'm crying i love absolutely everything about this #i keep going back and reading it and tearing up all over again #the tikis reunited with ban-ban!#all of them!#even big!tiki #duma wholeheartedly embracing his role as tiki's papa!#naga looking on wistfully but still grateful her daughters are so happy #bantu getting dragged in as the first official creche grandpa!#that reunion with adult tiki gets me right in the heart okay #this is beautiful this is perfect i love everything you are my hero

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abthepoet · 5 years ago

Text

So Id like to mention that COVID19 has put a lot of things into perspective.

My industry of experiential marketing was literally one of the first to go about a week ago when stores began banning all live demonstrations. I work in the natural and organic food industry doing live events and cooking recipes on site to sample brands to customers at grocery retailers.And because sampling tables are good places to spread germs, my demos all immediately came to a stop. I'm also an in home, private Music Teacher to kids of various ages and needless to say if schools' on hold, so is teaching. and so is income. My Venmo is :ABBlas22

Which sucks, a lot because the majority of my work is independent contractor based. . . .and there's no health care, paid leave, unemployment, or sick time. Why do I still do it? Because I love the industry, the opportunities it affords me, and the pay is solid. Except come tax season. The Government likes to fuck you if you work for yourself. . . .even tho I pay for all my own equipment and car repairs to get me from job to job. My Venmo is ABBlas22

However, amid the panic, I havent felt this calm in years. The constant anxiety and pressure of having to make money and go to work and be on time and make my schedule and drive from this city to that city for this demo and that demo, has subsided. I finally wake up and I'm not staring at the clock counting down how long before I have to leave which triggers an anxiety fest about leaving my dogs home alone because my one dog has such severe separation anxiety she destroys her crate, escapes, and then ruins the house(we are actively working on it) . . .so I'm up early and nervous about, "ok I have three hours I have to walk the dogs for at least one of those hours, feed them, get dressed, brush teeth, try to eat, clean the house, stuff their Kongs, make sure I have everything I need, and then try to sneak out before the dog starts freaking out." followed by "did I book enough demos this week, if I have to execute 16 for the month where can I put another demo, should I give myself a day off? nah, i need the money, let me check my Google calendar for the 65th time this morning and stare at all the blank dates I should be booking demos instead of doing anything else because no matter how much I work, it is never enough. So I spend an hour worrying about plunging my family into financial ruin. . . . better get online and start digging thru emails and brand Ambassador groups to make sure I've got enough work. Oh what's that? the sound of my entire family and partner telling me to get a *regular* job even though the idea of punching a clock and working for someone else makes me physically sick. . but I go and do it anyway because its a W2 position so you think well maybe I'll get health benefits at least and then come to find out that this bullshit retail job doesn't give part timers benefits of any kind, but I keep the job anyway because everyone said a normal job was best, but it pays $6 less an hour than my demo gigs and is a total waste of my skills and professional experience and eventually is cutting into my income because its taking up so many weekly hours but pays significantly less that I start calling out to go do demos instead and then the same people who were like "get a regular job" turn around and go "no, not That job, try This job."

and I'm over here ready to fucking scream because I've Been very clear about wanting to be in business for myself. I have tried many things, including testing an extremely beta version of what eventually became Uber Eats. . . I could be a millionaire but my parents thought it was a stupid idea and once I used up my resources trying to drum up business, that was it.

also, this is the worst part about being a millennial. I went to college for music because they said be anything and follow your dreams . . .but then I graduated into recession (2006) and got the first job I could,at a deli, which . . . .isn't exactly a degree holding position. For years we said,"I'm just grateful I Have a Job right now." and we got bitter, broke, and depressed as a generation. We're in our 30's now and it's just as bleak an outlook for our generational future. At least until the boomers die out and free up some of that wealth, if they don't all leave it to the cat and state first just to spite us.

So yea, people are freaked out with COVID19 but for the first time, I dont feel pressure or anxiety to rush out the house or make money because everything got cancelled. All I want to do is work super hard on my own online store via Shopify and grow from there. I love to work and I love the discipline of hard work. I would rather spend 18 hours in a day working on my own business and hustling my ass off to make it work using over a decade of marketing and sales experience to promote my brand for once.

But that's hard to invest time and money when I live paycheck to paycheck and have a partner and fur babies who depend on me. Everytime I excitedly talk about dropshipping through shopify and all my plans for it, it's met with a nervous "I believe in you but dont fuck us financially." "I believe in you but doesn't that take time." "I believe in you but why don't you just work here, they pay decent."

I love that the #Coronavirus hit and suddenly human rights are easy to hand out. I love that Coronavirus got us to halt economies on a scale so massive that will actually help us fight climate change. Capitalism has destroyed our planet and our species.

I want to always remind everyone that we are a species first. Not countrymen, not race, not religion. . . we are all dancing flesh bags, given different corporeal conduits with which to experience life and then later compare notes with one another.

"What's life like in that short skin suit?"

"Not bad but I can't reach anything."

"Good thing I got one of these tall skin suits." *grabs top shelf items*

"Thanks!"

It's to help us come together, understand similarities thru differences and use them to gain new perspectives while helping our species and our planet thrive.

This insane notion that everyone needs to have a job needs to go. Our species was Not made to do slave labor all day long for an invented wage that keeps us stuck fighting for basic survival when we have the potential to completely alter our lives.

The Earth is a hostage who's not allowed to feed her own kids. They locked up every fruit bearing tree, enslaved every animal, poisoned the soil, polluted the water and then held your life at gunpoint and demand you hand over hours of your life to work that does a disservice to your potential for greatness just for a chance to get a taste of what should be your birthright.

Basic needs of survival that all humans will die without shouldn't be prizes for who can work themselves to death the fastest.

Im using this time as an opportunity and am taking what little resources I have to work on my online store and sell off and flip what I can to make start up money on Ebay. (I dont even have WiFi and my apartment complex has locked the business center for CoronaVirus) . Using my phone for everything is really fucking tedious, especially because I've had it for 4 years and it doesn't always cooperate, but I'm grateful I even have one to use. If you want to invest in me, even just $5 I will 100% be using it to get a business off the ground. I've got most of the basic work done and market research, but with no income I cant even afford the basic Shopify plan at $30 a month, I'm hoping they pass a moratorium on evictions because how do I pay rent with no job to go to!?

My Venmo is : ABBlas22 and I do reward!

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sinfulxlusts · 5 years ago

Note

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for every single one of our ships ( 5 for each )

For each “⭐️” I get, I’ll write a headcanon about our muses.

Evan&Lia

Evan actually met Lia through a friend of a friend originally, and she was just so tiny, and looked so innocent, that he had to corrupt her.

When Lia first told him about her marking kink, he was a bit ‘eeeeh you want me to what?’ before he ended up biting an E to her ass.

He has a collection of collars she’s free to wear whenever she’s visiting, all play colors with different names, colors or textures.

The easiest way for Lia to get Evan to cut his meetings short, is to just text him a nude and say she’s in his bed.

Evan gets awfully stressed with work at time, and Lia will often then just come stretch herself over his lap with a kitty tail in and be like “bitch pay attention to me”

Moira&Adrian

Adrian makes Moira tea with lemon, honey, and a sprinkle of edible sparkle whenever she gets really sad and upset and refuses to leave her nest.

Moira had a MASSIVE crush on Adrian when they were at high school that she still finds herself giggly about him having chosen her as his omega.

She is TERRIFIED of his family.

He charmed her mother so awfully bad the first time they met after they all grow up, that Moira’s mother keeps telling her to just have a mating ceremony already.

Adrian keeps “losing” his shirts. They’re really just hiding in her nest.

Adrian&Belle

The easiest way Adrian knows to cheer up Belle, is to pull her over his lap and spank her until she releases all the tension she’s been holding.

She has a tattoo of one of his song lyrics on her ribs on the left side. - Sugar verse

Whenever they fight, it gets loud and ugly and doors slam after. Isabelle has a habit of going for a long walk after before she returns home and gets the ice cream, then goes “okay let’s talk calmly.” with ice cream. Because it keeps her calm.

Whenever anyone tries to fuck with Isabelle, everyone expects Adrian to be the one to take the fight but she’s usually busy kicking the Alpha in the nuts before he can even realize just what happened - Omegaverse

Isabelle is terrified of the idea of marriage, and if he ever suggests it she might just break into tears and ask why he didn’t instead do something more logical, like a collaring ceremony instead.

Thomas & Agata

Thomas the moment he thinks Agata would allow him, is so going to adopt a couple cats at the shelter, and come home with them to surprise her.

There’s always plenty of flowers in Thomas’ apartment because Agata sneaks in with them before Thomas even gets home. What he hasn’t told her, is that he’s taking meds because he’s allergic to pollen but it makes her so happy when there’s flowers there.

He always sleeps better when she’s in bed with him, because he holds her like a teddy bear in his arms.

Whenever Agata cooks for them, he gets all soft and mushy and just holds her close and keeps snuggling her.

He’s terrified of hurting her because she’s so tiny and fragile and he’s so tall and big.

Nate&Elizabeth

They met at an event from the publishing event, where Elizabeth managed to keep complaining that the food was awful so they snuck away and got nuggets instead.

Neither is really interested in putting labels on what they have, but neither is really involved with anyone else.

Elizabeth’s sister once asked her if she could get his number for her. She ended up lying and saying Nate had a girlfriend because she got pissy.

Whenever she visits... It’s never just a few hours. It’s always a sleepover.

They never cook. They always order in.

Emma&Nate

Emma thinks Nate is the cutest in the world.

Emma has a habit of getting real sad if she thinks Nate has left bed for the day before she wakes up, so when he returns with a glass of chocolate milk and some breakfast, she becomes really happy even with tears in her eyes.

Despite Nate’s inability to tell Emma no, she tends to listen to his no’s really well. Which might be in part why she ‘forgot’ to talk with him before bringing home her chocolate cupcake.

Nate ended up banning Emma’s stuffies from bed during sex after he accidentally got cum on it and Emma sat in front of the washing machine for the whole cycle with a sad frown.

Whenever Nate is sick, or feeling a bit under the weather, Emma will make fresh homemade bread, soup, and serve it to him while trying to feed him because ‘but you’re the baby now! I have to take care of you’ though she never succeeds on actually feeding him. But it does make him laugh when she goes all mommy’ish.

Rosa&Mia&Alexia

THE TRIAD. Rosa is super happy about her little gay triad and gets super protective whenever anyone tries to insult them.

Mia and Alexia has a habit of each grabbing Rosa whenever anyone tries to insult either of her girlfriends, or them as a whole after that one time she slapped a guy and they all got thrown out of the club.

Alexia comes home a bit too often to Mia and Rosa emptying the fridge of whatever is tasty that doesn’t need to be cooked.

Alexia knows better than to trust Rosa to go grocery shopping alone, after she sent her to go get some veggies and Rosa came home with the veggies... But also 3 chocolates, another box of sugary cereal and a lack of fruits.

Rosa and Mia regularly exchange clothes, but they can’t borrow Alexia’s clothes because they don’t have quite as big boobs and it looks strange.

#thcblackrosc

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catgluue · 5 years ago

Text

What Happens in Xing

I recently hit 100 followers which was super exciting for me! I really appreciate everyone who follows me and/or takes the time to like, reblog, or comment on my writing. It’s a huge motivator and seriously boosts my writerly self-esteem, such as it is.

Anyway this work takes place in my Price of Life/Portrait of a Family AU and so while that context will add to the fic (particularly the last time) it can also be read on its own.

Read on A03

The royal palace in Xing’s capital city was nothing like Riza had ever seen. It was massive - at least the size of a city block, she thought upon first seeing it, but after walking the perimeter one humid afternoon she figured it would be big enough for the entirety of the small eastern town she grew up in to fit comfortably within its walls. Sections of the palace were clearly older, and at least one wing was walled off altogether, in need of repairs. When she’d asked their guide one day he told her that the palace had stood for at least a thousand years, although maybe not in its current form.

It didn’t escape her notice that she and General Mustang were given rooms several floors higher than the bulk of the Amestrian party; one floor higher even than Major General Kent, who was the other officer overseeing the diplomatic treatises and trade agreements they’d come here to discuss. Ling never came out and said as much, but she was certain that their rooms were some of the nicer ones in the gigantic palace: her room boasted a bed that could have fit three of her, a huge claw-footed tub, and a floor-to-ceiling window that gave her an impressive view of the city. She’d made a point, several times, to get up early and watch the sun rise over the sloping buildings so different from those at home.

To her immense surprise the official business had been wrapped up around four days into the weeklong trip, at which point General Kent and his men promptly packed up and took the next train out.

“I suppose we’ll be leaving tomorrow as well?” Riza asked General Mustang as they stood on one of the massive balconies that overlooked the city. Nights brought some relief from the wet heat of the day; a gentle breeze blew over the wide river and across the city, making the heavy woolen uniform seem less oppressive.

“Of course not, Captain,” he said mildly. “Our train doesn’t leave for days; it’s far too late to change it now. You might actually have to take some time for yourself and relax a little. I hope that won’t prove too much of an inconvenience.”

Riza didn’t think she’d had a moment to herself to sit and read a book for close to a year and a half now what with the business with the Homunculi, Ishval, and now the Xing excursion.

“Not at all, Sir,” she said crisply, but she was smiling as she met his gaze.

The next few days they drifted around as civilians, generally together as holiday or not she was still his bodyguard, but the amount of Xingese bodyguards lent to them by the Emperor meant that Riza felt comfortable occasionally acting as ships in the night. After all, the museum of alkahestry didn’t particularly appeal to her and the General was none too interested in seeing the wing devoted to the development of gunpowder. At one point Riza looked up from her book across the sunroom - a space with a glass roof to let light in, and a large fountain bubbling away in the middle that had quickly become one of her favorite haunts - to see Mustang in his shirtsleeves, heavily engrossed in something he’d borrowed from the Imperial library, a cup of tea in his hand. Occupying the same space as him and seeing him rested, at ease, living again was a gift she didn’t deserve but would value anyway. As though he felt her staring he’d looked up and offered a small smile. She blushed and ducked her head to go back to reading her book.

It was the morning of their last full day in the country: tomorrow they would be on the noon train heading back to Amestris. They were originally scheduled to go back yesterday- in fact the bulk of their accompanying military personnel had left - but she and the General, with a handful of soldiers, had stayed. She was standing straight-backed at Mustang’s right shoulder, thinking that if she’d been any worse a soldier she would have snuck a peek at her pocket watch already, when the reason for their delay finally entered the imperial throne room.

It was still strange seeing Alphonse Elric as a human and not as a suit of armor, but it was refreshing to see him looking robust and healthy, not like the frail wisp of a thing he’d been when they put him on the train, barely strong enough to walk on his own after The Promised Day. He and May Chang, now a young woman, made their way up the long carpeted entryway and bowed to the young emperor. Ling rose from his seat, inclined his head, and the ceremony seemed to be over.

“They certainly like processions,” the General murmured, soft enough that only she would be able to hear, while Ling and May said their informal hellos, which seemed to involve quite a lot of teasing, she noted with a smile. There was going to be a parade in a few hours, ostensibly as a homecoming for May, who had been traveling for the better part of a year, but realistically as an excuse for Ling to throw another lavish feast.

“I don’t see the harm,” she whispered back.

“Six feasts since we’ve been here, and this is the third parade,” he muttered. “It’s a little much.”

“Colonel - Oh sorry, it’s General now right? Brother mentioned in one of his letters,” Al said as he approached, offering a hand shyly but not looking at all upset when the older man pulled him into a hug instead. Not something he would have tried in-uniform but technically they were using vacation days for this last leg of the trip. With the exception of the parade later on they were dressing and acting like civilians.

“Hi Captain Hawkeye,” May said a little shyly, and Riza turned to smile at the younger woman.

“Hello May. You’ve gotten so tall,” she said. It was true; though still on the shorter side, May had grown half a foot since Riza had seen her last.

“And pretty,” Mustang added, ever the charmer. Al came over to wrap Riza in a hug and she was struck again by how much things had changed. He was taller than her, broad-shouldered and with a striking similarity to his brother, although even nearing twenty Alphonse’s face remained cherubic. She’d changed too, of course: there were lines by her eyes that hadn’t been there five years ago, and she’d cut her hair off and grown it out again, so that it now sat a little below her shoulders. Recently the heat had her thinking about cutting it as short as she’d had it when they first moved to East City all those years ago. The General was pulling something out of his pocket; a book wrapped in ribbon, and handing it to May. “I brought you something,” he said.

“Oh that wasn’t necessar- OH, General Mustang! Where did you get this?”

“You can call me Roy, and there’s certainly more where that came from, my connection is very reliable.”

“He’s talking like he got that book off the black market,” Riza said to Al, who just grinned.

“He might have; it was banned thirty years ago for the author’s, ah, unconventional ideas.” He wilted immediately under the look she gave him and put his hands up. “Nothing all that bad, promise, he was just before his time where some aspects of medical alchemy were concerned. His ideas are really interesting, if you-” Riza held a hand up.

“I’m afraid anything else is going to go over my head,” she admitted, still eyeing the book. The cover was roughened leather that still bore traces of gold leaf, and everything about this, from May’s reaction to Al’s explanation spoke to the book being very hard to get ahold of and also very expensive.

“How did you know?” May was squealing, arms clamped tightly around the General’s waist, her precious new book in her hands. Alphone grinned broadly as he pried her off of Mustang, standing with an arm casually slung over her shoulders as she turned the book over in her hands.

“I have my sources,” the alchemist revealed, with a wink at Al. “I do try to stay in touch, even though your brother and I have this game where he hangs up on me the first time and I have to wait for Winry to answer the phone and make him take the call.”

“But this must have been so… I mean, thank you very much,” May said. Riza knew enough about nonverbal communication to know that something in the look Al gave her told her to drop the subject. Her own sharp look at the General was met with careful avoidance. There was of course nothing wrong with bringing a gift to an eager young scholar, she reasoned, and let the matter go.

-x-

This was the third parade, but Riza was no less unsettled than she’d been at the first. Parades were liabilities, plain and simple; you might as well paint a target on the back of every person of interest who set foot within a hundred yards of the garish floats and ostentatious musical pavilions. She would have far preferred being a spectator; they milled around eating thornapples and skewered meats and waving miniature pinwheels. She realized suddenly that she hadn’t really been to an event in years that didn’t involve her acting as bodyguard.

“Stop dancing around me, Hawkeye,” the General muttered after the fourth time she switched from his right side to his left.

“We aren’t properly staffed, Sir,” she replied. “I want to be sure I’m able to spot any possible threats.” He waved a hand dismissively.

“We’re in the center of a platoon of soldiers.”

“And the only ones in Amestrian uniforms in this section of the procession,” she pointed out. “We’re sitting ducks.” Mustang ignored this, tugging at his collar.

“I wish we’d get a move on, it’s sweltering .”

She had to admit it was; wool uniforms and humid summer air didn’t mix particularly well. They’d been in Ishval earlier this year overseeing reconstruction plans but it had been spring and they only had to contend with the dry heat that was more typical of the desert. Here there was no escaping the damp summer air. At long last the parade started moving, snaking its way through the city. They would loop around the outskirts of town and then end up back at the palace. The whole thing would last over an hour.

They were situated at the front of the same float they’d adorned for the previous two parades; a burnished gold monstrosity that Riza supposed was supposed to be a fish. Only this time instead of their military escort they were standing with a handful of Ling’s soldiers, with May seated on an ornately decorated chair reminiscent of a throne that was situated on the dais and Al just below. May had looked slightly uncomfortable at first, but soon adjusted, smiling and waving to the crowd as they trundled along.

With less people there was more surface area and therefore more blinding gold to contend with. Riza resisted the urge to shield her face with her hand as the sun danced across the multifaceted surface. The General looked to be concentrating deeply on something, but as she followed his gaze she didn’t see anything amiss.

“Cenz for your thoughts, Sir?” she asked and he seemed surprised.

“I’m thinking that the second we get back to the palace I’m getting a pitcher of iced wine and sitting next to one of those massive indoor fountains,” he said, and flashed her a grin. “You’re welcome to join me of course.”

She opened her mouth to say that actually they had some reports they could stand to go over and should probably pack as well when there was a sudden flash of movement overhead, and something hot and bright burst inside their float. Instinctively Riza flung her body sideways, into the General, forcing him to the floor and shielding his body with her own. For a few harsh moments she was far away, both in time and place, in a different desert, with a different threat, following the same man. Her breath caught in her throat as she willed herself back to the present, to Xing and the Parade. A few moments of relative silence passed, and she hesitantly looked up to see Alphonse and May also climbing to their feet, May’s ornate chair merrily burning under the ruins of a massive Xingese firework. There was a snort beneath her and she looked down to find that she was nose to nose with Mustang.

“A rogue firework,” he said, regarding the object. She couldn’t tell what exactly he did but a second later the flame was snuffed out, starved of oxygen.

She got to a sitting position, looking around at the crowd, but everyone seemed to be carrying on as usual, the spectacle over. With the sheer amount of explosives Xing boasted this can’t have been the first untimely detonation they’d ever seen. May was standing at the front of the float waving as though nothing had happened, Al at her side.

“You can probably let me up now,” he remarked dryly and Riza looked down to find she was still straddling his midsection. She got to her feet and offered a hand to help him up and he smoothed his uniform down. Was it the heat of the uniforms, or were his cheeks tinged pink? Hers felt hot too and she looked away towards the crowd. How many times had she pushed him aside, or covered his body with her own in times of danger, and yet she had never been as thrown off-kilter by the feeling of their bodies pressed against each other. Even through two sets of uniforms it was a sensation that made her breath catch somewhere behind her sternum.

Stoically she moved a half-step behind him, and the parade went on.

-x-

After a very long and very convoluted feast, they walked back to their rooms in a comfortable silence.

“You know Captain, I’ve got a bottle of nice Xingese wine and a balcony, if you’d like to watch the fireworks,” he offered. She considered a moment; as the senior officer, his room was nicer. Hers was next door and had a nice large window, but no balcony to speak of.

“All right,” she said, surprising him as well as herself. “Let me change out of my uniform and I’ll be right over.”

She stopped in her room long enough to change into a soft knee-length skirt and hesitated before putting on a lightweight sleeveless shirt she would normally only wear to sleep in, because the top of her tattoo could be seen peeking out of the top. Her hair covered it, however, and the night was warm enough that she’d be glad to wear less fabric. She padded to the connecting door and knocked lightly.

He’d also changed, into a button down and slacks, and handed her a glass of deep purple-red wine as she walked in, which she sniffed at before sipping; they were fond of fortified wine here and so the vintage was peppery with a hint of berries and nutmeg that burned pleasantly on the way down.

“I think they’re about to start-” Mustang was saying, but was interrupted by a loud pop , and a bright display of color and crackling out over the city. Mesmerized, Riza drifted through the room and out the open glass doors to what was admittedly a very nice patio. It was large, with a iron-wrought table and chairs near the doors, a few potted plants, and an actual sofa towards the other end. Bypassing the furniture entirely, she walked to the rail and settled her elbows on it to wait for the next eruption.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she breathed, as Roy came to stand next to her, elbow barely brushing hers.

“I have,” he replied. “Not for years - they used to set off fireworks in Central every year on New Year’s Eve. But they stopped around the time I went to learn under your father.”

“No wonder you weren’t impressed by the sparklers we got from the village,” she mused, lips quirking upward in a smile. He had the grace to look embarrassed.

“I really was quite the insufferable city boy, huh?”

Two more glasses of the heady Xingese wine and they sat on the couch, her leaning up against the pillows with her legs bent over his lap, him sitting upright, absently tracing a finger around the bruising on her knee that had appeared after the scuffle at the parade.

“That was close, earlier,” he said finally, and she looked up.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been attacked by a firework before,” she said dryly. “They’re very loud up close.” A warm feeling had settled somewhere in her stomach, courtesy of the wine, the fireworks, and the General’s proximity. The General’s proximity which was… entirely too near, now she stopped to think about it. She made to swing her legs off the couch so they wouldn’t be so entwined, but the weight of his arm across the bend in her legs stopped her.

“Don’t, please. Just… don’t. Let’s enjoy this.”

Normally she would protest out of some sense of country and duty but the wine and the warm summer air had affected her in equal measure, so she sat back against the pillows without another word. His hand that was tracing her bruises drifted up her thighs to trace the end of her skirt, however, and she cleared her throat.

“That was nice of you, to get that book for May. What made you think of it?” she asked, believing that to be an innocent, diffusing question. Diffusing of what, she didn’t quite know, she just had a vague sense of something needing to be doused. He chuckled, and the warm burning in her belly intensified.

“You’ll think I’m being sentimental but I kind of feel like I owe her one.” At her puzzled look he shrugged. “On The Promised Day, if she hadn’t jumped in to heal you when she did… she saved your life.”

“So shouldn’t I be the one giving her presents?” Riza asked, amused. His eyes were oddly intense, and her smile quickly vanished.

“I almost lost you,” he said seriously, and he reached out, seemingly without meaning to, and caught a strand of her hair between his fingers, and it occurred to her how close they were sitting. “So no, it’s me who owes May Chang a debt I can never really repay.” a firework went up, and popped into the inky black night, illuminating them and for a moment time stood still.

“I’ve always been ready to die in pursuit of our goals,” she breathed, not knowing what else to say, unable to tear her eyes away from his.

“And if that’s what it takes to reach the top, I don’t want it,” he told her firmly. His hand was now resting gently on her chin, and she was surprised to find her own fingering his collar. She wasn’t sure if he was leaning in or if she was, but their noses lightly bumped together and he froze. “Tell me not to,” he said softly, like a prayer.

This was an order she couldn’t obey. She closed the distance between them and pressed her lips to his, just as another firework crackled overhead. This was dangerous, she thought as she slid down on the cushion, using her hands on his collar to pull him down with her, something he was all too eager to comply with, sliding a hand behind her knee to hitch it over his hip. His body was a comforting weight on hers, and made this moment seem weighty and real, a culmination of what she had come to accept as pointless longing for something that needed to remain forever out of reach.

She ran her hand up through the back of his hair, tugging lightly as she kissed him hungrily. He ground his hips against hers and she gasped at the contact, hand resting lightly on the side of his face as he pulled gently away. For a moment they just looked at each other, and she found she was able to read the question in his eyes as easily as ever. Her lip quirked and at her silent response, he bent to trail kisses down her throat.

She wasn’t sure how they’d managed to make their way back into the room, stumbling into door frames, shucking off clothes as they went. How strange that she’d known him for so many years, through so many triumphs and failures, but yet there was apparently still so much to learn. There was a particular sound he made when she grazed his neck with her teeth that was new, and so enticing she half-laughed as she brought her lips once more to his. Her naked back hit the cool silk of the sheets on his bed and she sighed as he kissed his way down her body.

The light from the fireworks lit the room through the open patio doors, but they hardly noticed, engrossed in each other with the heady desperation of people who were seizing an opportunity that may never come again.

-x-

Riza’s first thought upon waking was that she’d had too many glasses of strong Xingese wine. Her second was that there was an arm securely wrapped around her waist. Her third was that she was completely naked. She made to sit upright but the arm was utterly unyielding, so she settled for covering her face with her hands.

“Oh no,” she said out loud, and the body behind her snorted slightly, shifting under the thin topsheet that covered them.

“Wh- Hawkeye?” for there could be no mistaking her for anyone else he might have taken to his bed; he was face to face with her scarred back. She winced, thinking about the rude awakening that must be.

“Good morning, Sir,” she said tightly. The most embarrassing thing was that they hadn’t had all that much wine. Yes they’d been tipsy and she now felt like she needed to drink a whole pitcher of water, but she remembered everything. Oh how she remembered. She felt heat rush to her face as she rolled over, his arm still around her waist, to look at him.

“Good morning,” he said, eyes meeting hers and then drifting lower. She cleared her throat, studiously avoiding looking anywhere but his face.

“So this was a colossal fuck-up,” she said. “Sir.” He sat up on one elbow, leaning over her as he swept her bangs out of her eyes and leaned in to brush his lips to her neck.

“Mmph,” he said, and she took that as assent. The arm that had been situated across her hips withdrew, and his fingers ghosted over her hips, around to her stomach, and dipped lower, brushing between her thighs. She caught his wrist delicately and pulled his hand upward.

“We can’t,”

“We most certainly can,” he told her, kissing her hotly below her ear, “and have.” She sighed. Well the damage was done, it seemed early enough, and the way he was nibbling her earlobe was causing a familiar warmth to pool behind her navel. Using her legs and the element of surprise she rolled him over onto his back. He ran his hands up her thighs to her hips, grinning up at her wolfishly.

“Once more couldn’t hurt, I suppose,” she acquiesced, and bent to hiss him.

After, as she lay in his arms, both of them covered in a fine sheen of sweat, the panic really began to set in. He cleared his throat, apparently, and as usual, thinking along the same lines she was.

“What now?” he asked, seeming to echo her thoughts. “Do - should we figure out how to continue this when we’re back in Central?” She sat up on one elbow and regarded him seriously, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Do you want to?” she asked. He turned pink and avoided her eyes.

“More than anything in the world, but -”

“Not more than anything,” she finished for him. “I’m glad we agree. We’ve come too far; we’ve lived through too much to risk it.”

“Riza,” he said, and her name on his lips was both foreign and so familiar it made her chest ache and for a moment she couldn’t meet his eyes. “You have to know that I-” she leaned down and kissed him soundly, her hair falling in a curtain as though to hide this brief moment of weakness on both of their parts from the world.

“Please don’t say it,” she said softly. “It’s going to make it so much harder to forget this.”

“But you know,” he breathed, and she nodded, blinking hard.

“I do. And… me too.”

-x-

Six weeks later Riza stood up from the bathroom floor, wiping her mouth, feeling as though a cold bucket of water had been upended onto her as she thought hard, counting weeks and sinking further and further into a certainty tinged with wild panic. This wasn’t the first time she’d been sick lately, and she had a suspicion it wouldn’t be the last.

She washed her hands robotically, thinking hard.

They had been so concerned with bureaucracy following their… indiscretion, that she hadn’t even stopped to consider biology. That there could be ramifications beyond losing their jobs. Since returning to Amestris they’d been particularly careful not to spend time alone, and a touch formal, and sometimes he looked at her in a way that made her face heat up, but everything had gone back to more-or-less normal. She had thought - they had both thought - that they’d gotten away with it, and they could put it behind them with nothing but a pleasant memory to remember it by.

She pressed a hand to her still-flat lower stomach. What would people say?

Well of course they’d say the obvious. She hadn’t caught wind of rumors regarding her and her commanding officer in years, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t there, simmering gently despite no evidence. They had been very careful never to act improperly towards each other. She would have to come up with a plausible story, and furthermore she would need to make sure that the General reacted in a way that spoke of his innocence in the matter.

Riza eyed herself in the mirror; a hard-eyed soldier stared back at her. As much as it made her feel like a hand was clenching around her heart, this child wouldn’t be able to know its father. Riza would do this alone because she had no other choice. She needed to protect him. She needed to protect them both.

-x-

“Hawkeye you have to talk to me.”

It was four days after her in-office revelation, something she had done specifically not to arouse any suspicion, and yet here he was, on her doorstep in the middle of the night, and she had a strong hunch that he’d been at his aunt’s newly reestablished bar. Riza wasn’t sure what she had expected but he hadn’t been taking the news well, she could see it in the lines beneath his eyes in the office today, in the flat quality to his voice when he spoke to her. She opened the door further and waved him inside to avoid making a scene where people might see.

“You’ve been avoiding being alone with me for days, please,” he said, standing in the middle of her living room and looking utterly lost, dark eyes wide and hair mussed.

“I haven’t…” she trailed off - denial was no good, not with him. “I haven’t known what to say to you. It’s a setback, to be certain.”

“A setback , try a disaster! I can’t BELIEVE we didn’t- That I didn’t - ”

“There’s no use blaming yourself. We can’t exactly take it back now” she said quietly, and brushed past him to put the kettle on. When she turned back around he’d sunk down onto her couch and was running a hand through his hair.

“What do we do now? Do we run away to Xing? We could, you know,” he said, looking up but not at anything in particular. “Ling would find a place for us, you could be his bodyguard and I could be Royal Alchemist or Official Firework-Starter, or-”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We stay, and we work, and I… I’m going to raise the child of a random Xingese courtier who shall remain nameless.” A knot had settled somewhere deep in her chest and she doubted it would come undone anytime soon. “And if the rumors get to be too much and they threaten your career, I’ll disappear.”

“With my child? Like hell you will,” he said, voice rough. This gave her pause. The clock on her mantle had never sounded so impossibly loud in the stillness of her apartment Slowly, she walked to the couch and reached out, not quite touching, fingertips grazing the fabric at his shoulder.

“You realize it can never be your child,” she told him softly. He put his head in his hands.

“I’m aware.”

She sat next to him and hesitated, before wrapping her arms firmly around his shoulders. He leaned into her, and she let her head fall to gently rest against his. For a while all they did was breathe together, in and out, soothing each other by sheer virtue of being present. A heaviness settled over them and Riza doubted they would have another moment together like this again. She turned her face into his shoulder; she would not cry, not now, not in front of him. There would be time for that weakness later.

“This is going to be a nightmare,” he said after a moment.

“We can make the most of it.”

“Can I just ask you for one thing?” he looked up at her. “It might be a bad idea under the circumstances but the baby… if it’s a boy, can we name him after Hughes?” This was a bad idea, she thought. It would be the obvious choice for a child of Roy’s. But she had known and loved the man as well, and it couldn’t be seen as that unusual that she would choose to honor a fallen comrade when naming her firstborn. She nodded, running a hand down his arm and lacing her fingers through his.

“I think we can do that.”

It was a girl, but they named her after Maes anyway.

#royai #michelle writes #fmab #roy mustang #riza hawkeye #fluff #and angst #flangst #my favorite flavor of angst

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lynnearlington · 6 years ago

Note

Supercorp: Kara has to report on the industry of college football and drags Lena along cause she’s never been to something like this

I took some liberties with this one. Shocking to no one, I’m sure.

Lena doesn’t care much for football - or for sport in general. She’d much prefer to spend her Saturdays getting work done in the library or in the engineering labs in the hopes that she can spend her Sunday not worrying about it.

Even as classes begin and the student body descends into a fixation over the school football team, Lena steadfastly stays out of the entire ordeal.

It works for her first two years of college. She manages to attend none of the games and falls easily into a routine of Saturday work and Sunday relaxing while her classmates are recovering from hangovers.

In the spring of her sophomore year she meets Kara Danvers through a friend of a friend, and they become loose acquaintances. She sees Kara around campus, they grab lunch a few times. Over the summer, Kara randomly texts her and they strike up a conversation that begins to sprawl outward in scope and they become something like real friends.

Kara changes her life, in the end. In thousands of good ways - none of them at all predictable to her in the fall of her junior year.

One of the ways that Kara’s intent on changing Lena’s life becomes apparent nearly as soon as they first see each other that fall, when Kara mentions the first game of the season on the way to lunch, diving into a discussion on their quarterback situation as though Lena knows anything about “QBR” or whoever Elias and Nate are.

“You’re a football fan?” Lena asks as they stroll across campus towards the student center. It’s still warm enough outside that it doesn’t really feel like fall yet, but campus is bustling with new students - freshmen scurrying around looking lost and upper classmen greeting friends they haven’t seen in months. Kara looks like she’s had a good summer, tall, blonde, and still a little bit tan. Lena had always thought she was cute, but knowing her has made a difference in her attraction.

“Duh,” Kara says, kicking a rock under her feet idly before turning quizzical eyes to Lena. “Are you not?”

It’s clear there’s a right and wrong answer there - Lena’s adept enough at reading situations to tell that much. But she’s not going to lie. Not to the honest blue eyes looking her way. “It’s never really been my thing,” she admits. “I’ve always been too busy to go to the games.”

And maybe the last bit is a slight lie, but incredulity is starting to spread over Kara’s features and Lena just reacts to it.

“Lena, it’s football!” Kara exclaims, clearly appalled.

“Is that supposed to mean something?” Lena jokes which is the wrong thing to say because Kara’s eyes seem to get even wider.

“You’re coming to a game with me this season,” Kara states as if it’s been decided. The thought of going anywhere with Kara tinges her chest with warmth but the thought of piling into the massive stadium on campus with a bunch of drunk college students screaming all sorts of insane chants and not being able to sit down at all sounds awful.

Lena makes a bit of a scoffing noise, but swallows it at the determined look in Kara’s eyes. They’ve reached the student center and Kara moves forward to open the door for her.

“I have a very busy semester,” Lena tells her softly, warming at the way Kara jumps ahead of her as they walk through the first set of doors to open the second.

“We’ll see,” is all Kara says and it’s ominous sounding enough that Lena has to laugh.

–

The Fighting Bulldogs open up against the Gotham University Nighthawks. Lena finds the naming conventions of sports teams to be nothing short of ridiculous, but she can’t deny it’s a bit cute when Kara shows her a series of selfies she’d taken at the pep rally of the Bulldogs mascot - a fat English Bulldog named Handsome Dan.

“Are you excited for the game this Saturday?” Kara asks, abandoning her phone to pick her fork up and start to stab at the plate of pasta in front of her. Lena tries to ignore how Kara’s got her legs kicked out, feet resting just short of Lena’s ankles.

Lena blinks. It’s definitely Monday and Lena’s barely thought about her classes on Tuesday much less a football game five days from now. “I suppose,” she answers neutrally, turning the page over in the student newspaper she has sitting next to her tray.

“Are you reading my article?” Kara asks, lifting a curious eye toward the paper as she twirls her fork.

“I don’t think I need to read your op-ed about which campus coffee shop serves the best latte when I’ve already heard you tell me about it in detail,” Lena says. Kara makes a humming noise, poking again at her plate. Lena gets through three lines of an article about a malfunctioning fire alarm in the theatre building that someone is certain is a ghost when Kara sighs loudly.

“I hate the Nighthawks,” Kara intones, twisting noodles around her fork.

The tone is surprising. She’s unused to Kara saying anything negative about anyone, but the vitriol is palpable in Kara’s voice as she continues, “They’re seriously the worst and their stupid mascot should be banned from our stadium. It’s this awful tree. I don’t know why it’s tree, even. They’re the Nighthawks.”

Lena makes a sound of agreement, a bit bemused at the frown on her friend’s face and having nothing else to offer other than support. “What time is the game?”

Kara makes a face like Lena should very well know what time the game is, but answers regardless. “Two,” she says. “Are you going? Will you come with me?”

“I have a lot of work I’d like to get done,” she says and Kara’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t seem keen on pushing Lena. She does, however, sigh heavily.

“Sundays are for homework, Lena, not Saturdays.”

“Says the girl that spent all last Sunday watching reruns of The Golden Girls,” Lena points out, laughing at the attractive flush that creeps into Kara’s cheeks.

“Shut up,” Kara tells her around a mouthful of pasta, her foot kicking softly against Lena’s shin under the table.

–

The leaves start to change and a fall chill rolls onto campus. It means classes start to ramp up on the slide into midterms and campus starts to settle into rhythm.

It also means something Lena hadn’t thought to prepare for - Kara Danvers in jeans and sweaters bringing her pumpkin spice lattes every other morning before their shared philosophy elective.

Lena’s crush is something she’s tried to fight as much as she can for the sake of their friendship, but it’s hard when Kara’s smiling at her on the sidewalk outside her dorm and there’s a warm color to her cheeks from the chill and her blonde hair is curling down around a rust colored sweater.

The latte is far more sugary than anything Lena’d normally drink, but Kara hands it over with a happy grin and she had look so delighted when she’d informed Lena PSLs are back! that Lena doesn’t say anything other than a quiet, “Thanks.”

“Big game tomorrow,” Kara says one Friday morning as they walk to class. Lena takes careful sips of her drink and hovers close to Kara’s warmth.

“Oh?” Lena asks, having absolutely zero idea what qualifies for a big game considering it’s what Kara says nearly every Friday before a game weekend with a serious gaze on her face.

Kara makes an affirmative sound, scrolls through something on her phone as they walk down the sidewalk. From what Lena can see, it’s a table of college football teams. Their school is highlighted at around seventh place. “Vandermeer,” she says, referring to a small school somewhere in the middle of the country. Lena couldn’t name their mascot with a gun to her head.

“Well…bully up?” Lena says tentatively, trying out the chant she’d been hearing around campus for the past two years.

Kara laughs, a happy little sound as she pockets her phone and slings an arm over Lena’s shoulders. “There’s hope for you yet.”

The rest of the conversation gets lost to Lena. Kara keeps their bodies tucked against each other and the heat of her seeps through Lena’s light autumn jacket. That’s all she can really focus on the entire rest of the way to class.

–

Six games into the season and the Fighting Bulldogs have yet to be defeated. Apparently it’s a big deal.

Kara gives her the breakdown over lunch one day after the rest of their small friends group has abandoned them for classes and Lena elects to wait while Kara finishes the rest of her massive tray of food.

“I saw one projection that had us finishing top five for sure if we can close out the season,” Kara says, looking wide eyed and infectiously excited at the prospect.

“That’s great,” Lena says, not entirely knowing what that really means other than something positive by context.

“It means playoffs,” Kara tells her and Lena just nods, laughs at the massive grin on Kara’s face. That thrumming urge to kiss her friend buzzes so acutely over her skin that Lena has to spread out the fingers of her hands to resist the impulse.

–

The excitement over the recent success of the teams seems to be campus wide, not just contained to the bubbly enthusiasm of her best friend. It’s almost something tangible everywhere Lena goes.

The majority of the student body can be seen sporting a football jersey in the middle of the week or breaking out into spontaneous chants as the game creeps closer.

Lena doesn’t attend, despite Kara’s efforts to cajole her into it. Per usual, she spends her Saturday in the basement of the engineering building working out the kinks in a project due the following Wednesday.

But, uncharacteristically, her mind starts to wander to what Kara’s doing, how the game is going. It itches at her enough that she finds a livefeed of the game on her laptop and puts it on mute as she works.

The game still means nothing to her - the scoring conventions seem a bit contrived and inconsistent and though she picks up some of it by context, she really has very little idea of what’s actually going on.

At least she knows enough that when the game clock ticks to zero and the score is 39-37 in favor of the Bulldogs, it’s a good thing. From the looks of it, the stadium goes crazy, the student section rushing onto the field and the players jumping up and down, throwing their helmets in the air.

It makes Lena smile a bit and she watches the revelry for a few minutes before clicking out of the stream. Before turning back to her project she sends Kara a quick text - good win!

The reply comes much later in the form of a phone call and Kara sounds out of breath and overjoyed when she answers. “What are you doing?”

“I’m working on a project,” Lena tells her.

“You saw the game?” Kara asks, the happy sound of her voice stretching a smile across Lena’s.

“I caught the end of it,” Lena admits and Kara lets out a whooping sound that has Lena laughing.

“We’re going to a party at Winn and James’s place,” Kara says. “You wanna come?”

Lena eyes the work in front of her, hesitant for a moment. “I’m not -”

“Come on, Lena,” Kara entreats. “It’ll be fun, I promise. Bully up! Bulldogs are undefeated!”

“Well, can’t argue with that,” Lena replies dryly, but she’s already packing up her stuff and Kara’s laugh in her ear makes her chest feel fluttery.

–

The off campus house that Winn and James share is packed when Lena gets there, people spilling out onto the front porch and the loud booming sound of music emanating a block away as Lena walks there.

Tugging her jacket tighter over her shoulders, Lena sidesteps a couple stumbling down the long walk up to the house and carefully avoids a pile of empty beer cans. She pulls her phone out of her jacket pocket and pulls up her thread with Kara to text a simple I’m here.

Not even a minute later, Kara’s throwing the front door open and scanning the front yard to find Lena, beaming when their eyes connect and all but skipping down the steps to wrap Lena into a tight hug.

Kara’s just a few inches taller than her, but considerably stronger and it does nothing to calm the dance of nerves in her stomach when Kara picks up her up a bit off the ground as she hugs her, her face colliding with Kara’s neck.

“We won, we won, we won, we won, we won,” Kara chants in her ear, bouncing Lena around into the hug until Lena has to hold onto the back of Kara’s jersey and laugh.

“Congratulations,” Lena says as Kara sets her back down.

There’s a soft detachment in Kara’s gaze that fairly easily conveys how behind Lena is in the drinking portion of the evening, but her smile is the kind of genuine that always makes Lena have to take a deep breath of air in reaction.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” Kara says, reaching out to tangle her fingers with Lena’s and tug her towards the front door. “Let’s get drinks.”

Lena easily follows the tug, sees the virtue in finding a drink as quickly as possible if only to give her mouth something to do that isn’t kiss the life out of Kara Danvers.

–

The excitement of victory is palpable throughout the party. Nearly all of the party goers look as if they’ve come straight from the game - still wearing jerseys and face paint. Kara pulls them both deep into the house towards the kitchen where a smattering of their friends are congregated around a table there.

They all seem surprised but happy to see her as Kara goes about mixing a drink on the counter with the wide range of alcohol there. She thinks to pay attention to whatever Kara is doing - sometimes letting Kara mix the drinks can be dangerous - but she gets distracted by Winn who offers her an overly exuberant high five upon seeing her as well as a recap of the last few minutes of the game.

“It was unreal,” he’s gushing, face red and hair in a disarray. There’s blue and gold streaks of paint across his cheeks and what looks like glitter poking out of the neck of his blue jersey. “Boomer is the only man in the whole world who matters to me now.”

Kara comes back to her side, hands her a red plastic cup that Lena inspects a second before taking a hesitant sip. It’s as fruity as she expects it to be, but not completely offensive and just on the side of strong that’s tolerable.

“Boomer Suthfield, best kicker in the game,” Kara exclaims as she catches Winn’s conversation. Winn reacts to it with a low exclamation of agreement and the two of them bump fists. “We won on a last second field goal. Amazing.”

“That’s exciting,” Lena comments, unsure what to do with the all the unbridled energy she can feel in the room, but feeling herself get swept up in it nonetheless.

“Bully up! Beat Quakers!” Kara yells, wrapping an arm around Lena’s shoulders like she’s been apt to do these days. The whole room yells in appreciation, starting to chant BULLY UP with the distinctive syncopated clapping pattern. It’s absurd that a bunch of drunk people can do it with perfect rhythm and performance. Nearly cultish.

Lena lets out a careful breath, but doesn’t fight the pull of warmth from Kara’s side pressing against her own. Winn starts to go off on what Lena realizes from context is the Bulldogs’s next opponent, and she drowns the conversation out in place of leaning into Kara’s body and sipping at her drink.

“Lena, you’ve got to get to a game, I can’t believe you don’t go,” Winn says eventually, pulling Lena’s attention back more fully to what’s being said.

She shrugs, takes another pointed sip of her drink and flushes at Kara’s loud laugh next to her. “I’m usually pretty busy on Saturdays,” she answers.

“It’s just wrong,” Winn says, shaking his head at her, eyes solemn, but his lips in a teasing smile.

“I’ve tried,” Kara tells him, tugging Lena tighter into her side companionably. “Trust me.”

“Well if you can’t get her to go, she’s hopeless,” Winn says, putting his hands up in resignation.

Kara laughs again, looks down at Lena with a grin that has Lena clearing her throat out. The hat on her head is turned backwards, her cheeks red from alcohol and the warmth of the room. She looks gorgeous. “We’ll see.”

Though Lena rolls her eyes, her cheeks grow warmer and she has to hide her face in the rim of her cup lest Kara catch on.

–

The party seems to only get bigger after Lena gets there. More and more people arrive - from where Lena’s not sure - but the house stays packed late into the night. Random chants of BULLY UP break out every few minutes. There’s even a reenactment of the last play of the game staged in the front yard to the joy of not only their house but those of the surrounding neighbors.

Lena hovers close to Kara, and Kara stays close to her, but engages with the rest of their friends. She and Winn take on James and Lucy in a spectacular game of beer pong - the games close enough that Lena starts to feel a significant buzz by the time she and Winn come out on top.

After that they play a series of drinking games around the kitchen table. Mike pulls out a deck of cards for a round of Kings Cup and later Kara loses a game of Never Have I Ever in dramatic fashion.

It’s a good party. Energy is high off the earlier victory and Lena starts to feel it creeping into her own system, the infectious way Kara keeps leading their friends into a chorus of the fight song doing its part to make Lena laugh.

Eventually, sometime after James talks Mike into doing a keg stand but before Winn takes his shirt off, Lena finds her way out to the back porch of the house. It’s blissfully devoid of anyone else and a chill contrast to the heat of the kitchen. She presses her hands to the warmth of her cheeks and breathes out into the crisp fall air.

The sound of the door swinging open indicates Kara’s arrival, and her friend paces across the back deck to Lena’s side, sitting next to her on the steps there. “Hey, whatcha doing?”

“Hot in the kitchen,” Lena answers, just drunk enough to lean over against Kara’s shoulder and take a deep inhale of Kara’s presence.

“Mmm,” Kara agrees in a low hum, shifting closer to Lena’s body and looking out across the dark backyard.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Lena answers, feeling inexplicably sleepy all of a sudden, but unwilling to let go of this quiet moment with Kara. She sits up to avoid falling asleep and smiles at her friend.

Kara smiles back, her eyes holding Lena’s in a short still moment. “I’m really glad you came out tonight,” Kara says in a quiet tumble of words that pull against Lena’s chest in a way that starts to feel inevitable.

Lena blinks, licks out against dry lips and knows her usual resistance to this all consuming crush she has is vulnerable right now. “Me too,” she replies, her eyes unable to stop from straying to Kara’s mouth.

The moment feels like it stills, the muted sound of the party the only sound around them. Kara takes a deep breath and Lena wishes she had a drink in her hands if only to have something to do with them that wasn’t wrapping into the fabric of Kara’s jersey.

“Can I do something?” Kara asks quietly, her cheeks flushed - whether from alcohol or from the cool night air, Lena’s unsure. “It might be crazy.”

“Crazy?” It’s unclear what Kara’s talking about and Lena thinks that might have a lot to do with how they’ve shifted closer and she can’t stop her brain from spiraling down thoughts of what it might be like if she just gave into temptation and pressed her lips against Kara’s.

“Good crazy,” Kara says quickly and Lena laughs noiselessly.

“Well then by all means,” she says, but she barely gets the last word out before Kara pushes forward, their noses bumping softly on the way until suddenly they’re kissing and Lena feels her breath get sucked out of her chest.

It happens quickly, so fast that Lena’s brain barely registers it even though her lips respond, slant against Kara’s and her fingers come up to play at Kara’s chin, pulling her in closer.

And then it’s over.

The back door to the porch bursts open in a loud thud and Mike is stumbling across the deck in loud drunken footsteps until he’s all but falling into the yard and puking his guts up into the grass.

Winn comes jogging behind him, hunched over and patting his back as Mike continues to hurl.

Lena gags at the sight of it as they both jump up from where they’d been sitting and Kara moves down the steps towards the two boys.

“Go back inside,” Kara tells her over her shoulder, laughing a little at the disgusted face Lena’s making.

Lena doesn’t argue, is already turned that direction anyway. It isn’t until she’s back in the kitchen that she fully realizes what’s just occurred. Her lips feeling tingly and her throat dry and her chest expansive and oh god she should go.

Without so much as a goodbye to anyone, she makes her way through the house and out the front door, past a group of people tossing the Bulldogs’s mascot’s head in the air across the yard and back towards campus.

–

Late Sunday morning, Lena gets a text from Kara. I’m outside your dorm.

And so she is. Standing at the bottom of the front steps in a navy v-neck sweater and light wash jeans, holding two cups of coffee that Lena knows instinctively are pumpkin spice lattes.

“Hi,” Lena greets, feeling shy and uncertain as she takes one of the cups from Kara. She’s dressed in the sweatpants she slept in and a long sweater against the chill morning. Her head feels a bit thick from the drinking the previous night but the look on Kara’s face is wiping her fatigue away.

“Hi,” Kara parrots, pocketing one of her hands and shifting on her feet in an adorably hesitant movement. Her hair is pulled back, but a few wisps have escaped at the sides and Lena wraps her hands around her coffee to avoid reaching out and tucking them back behind her ear.

Everything feels like it’s tilting precariously on the events of the night before, and Lena’s not sure which way they’re going to fall.

That is, until Kara looks away, her lips twisting in what looks like a smile trying to burst across her face. “So, I totally kissed you last night,” she says in a quick sequence of words that makes Lena laugh. “You totally did,” she agrees, the memory of it flushing across her skin.

“And then Mike puked.”

“Yes.

“And then you ran away.”

“It was gross,” Lena says defensively and Kara’s lips thin.

“The kiss?”

Lena steps forward in reaction. “The puking,” she says definitively and Kara’s lips creep into a smug looking smile.

“So the kiss was good?”

“Crazy,” Lena says, echoing Kara’s words from the night before.

“Good crazy though,” Kara says, her smile hiding behind the rim of her white coffee cup.

“Good crazy,” Lena agrees softly, feeling her chest is stretching out and up into her throat. “Why did you do it?”

Kara shrugs, eyes a bright blue against the overcast sky above them. “I’d been wanting to,” she answers quietly. “And I figured if Boomer could make a forty-eight yard field goal against the wind to win the game, I could probably kiss my best friend that I’d been crushing on for months.”

It beats warmly up Lena’s throat as she laughs, her cheeks flushing. “Bully up,” she replies between chuckles and Kara joins her in the sound before stepping forward and cutting it off with a swift kiss.

–

It doesn’t change much other than Kara seems to take their new relationship status as a free pass to talk even more about football. As if now that they’re dating Lena wants to hear about rushing yard averages and ranking systems.

She doesn’t.

But that doesn’t stop Kara who continues to try and get Lena to the games or game watch parties every Saturday and feels it necessarily to fill her in on all football related news over meals or late at night when they’re lazing about Lena’s little dorm room. The only good thing about it is that Kara looks cute when she talks about it all, her hands waving around and her eyes excited.

The Bulldogs go undefeated. Become the undisputed number one team in the nation. A fact that Kara’s been reminding Lena nearly every day since it was announced, as though Lena has no access to the news or doesn’t live on campus with thousands of other people who are also obsessed with the Bulldogs.

They head into a playoff system which puts them in a win-or-go-home game to make it into the National Championship.

“I got press passes to the game,” Kara tells her one night, as they’re sitting on Lena’s couch and Kara’s watching ESPN. “We’d be on the sideline.”

“How did you get press passes?” Lena asks, quirking a brow and pressing her foot into Kara’s thigh to get her to keep massaging it. Kara grabs her foot without looking away from Lena’s face, her eyes intent.

“I write for the school paper,” Kara reminds her and Lena shoots her a pointed look.

“You write an editorial column, not the sports section.”

Kara shrugs, feigns a look of innocence. “So?”

It makes Lena laugh. “I don’t want to know.”

“Just say you’ll come,” Kara entreats. “It’s the playoffs and you’d have one of the best seats in the house. Who knows when you’ll get that kind of opportunity again.”

It’s been months of Kara trying to convince her to come to a game and maybe it’s the way Kara’s lips have that just kissed look about them and her hair is a little tangled from Lena’s fingers, but there’s something about the moment and the way Kara’s thumb is running up the arch of Lena’s foot that makes her finally say, “Okay, fine.”

The way Kara’s eyes light up in excitement makes Lena sink into a feeling of contentment and crawl across the couch until they’re kissing again.

–

The play-in game is on the first Saturday back from winter break.

The atmosphere around game feels combustible.

It’s at a neutral site, but the stadium it’s held at is only a few hours away from their campus, so she and Kara take the drive down way too early under the guise of Kara needing to interview people - when it’s apparent that Kara just wants to soak in as much of the atmosphere as possible.

Kara buys her a blue jersey with the number 10 across the chest in large white letters because she insists Lena can’t show up to the game without proper attire. It’s big enough that it fits over a thick sweater and she steals one of Kara’s many winter hats with the school logo on the front. When Lena comes out of her dorm with it on, Kara gets out of the car to kiss her for five minutes against the car door.

It’s deep enough into fall that it’s practically the beginning of winter and the air is cold by the time the game kicks off, the stadium rocking.

With press badges slung around their neck, they make their way onto the field and take their place among the crowd of people watching the game from the small press area in the corner of the endzone.

The energy in the building is undeniably electric. Loud music is pumping through the speakers and the crowd is engaged in a series of chants between the home and away fans. Lena can see how easy it would be to get swept up into something like this.

It helps that Kara can’t contain her own excitement. She’s practically bouncing in a mix of nerves and enthusiasm. It doesn’t get better as the game goes on. Kara’s body moves with every play the team makes as if her phantom throws and kicks will somehow translate to the game and make the ball or player move the way she wants them to.

Lena stands beside her and takes it all in, her arms crossed over her chest against the cold air. Eventually, Kara seems to notice and wraps Lena up in her arms in an offer of body heat.

Lena’s grateful for the warmth, sinks into Kara’s hold and enjoys the way Kara now whispers her commentary into Lena’s ear. It certainly makes the game far more interesting than before and though Lena’s distracted by the way Kara’s body feels pressed up against her, she actually pays attention enough to feel invested in the result.

When the Bulldogs win with a last minute touchdown right in the endzone they’re standing next to, Lena screams in reaction, a burst of sound she can’t quell the moment she’s realized what’s happened. The crowd goes wild along with her and Kara’s arms tighten abruptly around her waist, lifting her quickly into the air with an exuberant whoop. The player who’s scored jogs right past them, waving up at the fans and doing an absurd dance as his teammates start to swarm him.

Kara does actually end up doing some reporting, taking Lena into the press conference room and scribbling down notes. She holds Lena’s hand the whole way home and only plays the school fight song three times on the drive.

–

Winn and James host the watch party for the National Championship. Apparently Kara couldn’t quite con her editor into getting press passes for a trip to Texas.

She spends the whole week looking squirrely, taking every moment as some sort of omen for the game on Saturday. On Tuesday, Lena has to talk Kara off the ledge after the poor student union worker tells her they’ve run out of Froot Loops. On Friday, Lena comes over to Kara’s dorm and is treated to a full hour detailing her ideal gameplan, complete with plays she’s drawn up on one of her video games. Saturday morning, she’s woken up at six by someone sprinting down the hall of her dorm screaming BULLY UP and hitting every door along the way. Kara is then incapable of falling back asleep, and therefore Lena is awake too.

By the game comes around, Lena’s grateful if only to get Kara’s ridiculous train of superstitions to come to a halt.

The house is crowded with their friends - there’s a very strict invitation policy: Bulldog fans only. How Kara convinced them to allow Lena there, she’s not sure, but she imagines it has something to do with Kara’s continuing insistence that Lena’s good luck for the Bulldogs. We went undefeated after we became friends.

There are jello shots in the school colors, but only Mike and Lucy seem interested in them. Winn sits about two feet in front of the massive television and nurses the same beer for the entirety of the first quarter. James spends most of the game pacing back and forth behind the couch and murmuring commentary. Kara won’t even touch the massive array of food on the table in front of them - a telling thing if anything. Instead she sits on the couch next to Lena and leans forward, hands pressed to her face. Lena spends most of her time running her fingers up and down Kara’s back in what has to be a futile attempt to calm her.

The Bulldogs do okay, but not great for the first three quarters. The game stays close, the other team staying in one score territory. Right before the start of the fourth, the opposing team scores to tie it and Kara looks like she may fall to her knees and start crying. Her hands scrub so forcefully over her face that Lena grabs one of them to get her to stop.

But then Elias Newsome, the starting quarterback who had been chosen in week four (after great campuswide debate that Lena had heard too much about from her girlfriend), takes over. Watching it happen is like a bomb going off, the energy rippling through the whole team. One minute, the Bulldogs are struggling against a tough defense, the next, Kara is standing on the couch and screaming at the top of her lungs as their star running back sprints down the field for a 98 yard touchdown.

They score 21 unanswered points and Kara cries through the whole trophy presentation, her head in her hands.

–

Lena thinks maybe winning a National Championship might temper some of Kara’s fanaticism about football. Why she ever thought this, she’s not entirely sure, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

At the start of their senior year, Kara spends the majority of the preseason talking at length about Nate Groblan taking the reins of the team now that Elias has graduated and been drafted. It’s in the middle of such a one-sided conversation when she pauses for a second, her head in Lena’s lap. It’s chilly, the first signs of fall starting to appear around campus. PSLs have arrived even earlier this year and Kara’s happiness is of the sort that bleeds across Lena’s chest.

“I love you,” Kara says. It’s not the first time she’s said it, nor will it be the last. But it still warms Lena up, her fingers tracing through the blonde curls stretched across her legs.

“I love you, too,” Lena says.

“More than I love the Bulldogs,” Kara says, very seriously. It’s concerning to Lena that the statement really means a lot.

“I feel so lucky,” Lena says drily. Kara laughs, reaching up to tug at the sweatshirt Lena had liberated from Kara’s collection last winter. BULLY UP is proudly written across it.

“You’re my lucky charm, that’s for sure,” Kara says. Her face turns serious. “You know that you’re never allowed to miss a Bulldogs game for the rest of our lives, right?”

“For the rest of our lives, huh?” Lena says, poking at Kara’s side. But she doesn’t look embarrassed.

“For the rest of our lives. For the Bulldogs,” Kara says, half-sitting up. Lena meets her halfway, pressing their lips together.

“Well, bully up,” Lena murmurs. She ends up forced into a very loud stadium the next Saturday, her girlfriend urging her though complicated chants and shotgunning beers afterwards, when Nate throws five touchdowns in his debut. Mike throws up, Winn takes his shirt off. Kara holds her hand.

It’s not so bad.

FALL PROMPTS | KO-FI

#fall prompts #prompt fill #writing fall prompts #this tag is for fic #supercorp fic #Anonymous #college au

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 6 years ago

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The Thief and the Samurai OCs [More Six Shot OCs, kind of]

Episode list here

In the world of Six Shots there is a TV show that is a joint animation project between British animators and Japanese animators. That show is The Thief and the Samurai, which tells the story of a young, blind wandering samurai girl and her unlikely friendship with a scarred, eyepatch-wearing middle aged thief. Together the two wander a bizarre Earth with elements of fantasy and science fiction thrown in, fighting evil and finding treasure as well as learning a great many things along the way.

Currently there are four seasons of 26 episodes each. Every other season is divided into two separate arcs, with seasons 1 and 3 being fully devoted to their stories while seasons 2 and 4 have two seperate storylines of 13 episodes each that come together for a grand conclusion.

The show is basically the equivalent of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure mixed with Samurai Jack in-universe, as neither show exists.

The show is filled with elements that would piss off the British regime, including positive portrayals of homosexuality and the Irish.

The time the show is set is very ambiguous, but it is similar to worlds such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI in that there is technology such as guns and robots alongside more magical elements such as demons and witches.

The arcs are as follows:

Season 1 – The Adventure Begins

Season 2A – Strange Eons

Season 2B – Wrath of the Demon King

Season 3 – Sakura and Michelle’s World Tour

Season 4A – Ghosts of the Past

Season 4B – My Master’s Keeper (currently airing)

THE SHOW

Seasons 1, 2A, and 3 are the most popular seasons of the show so far.

Season 2B is the most reviled arc, as many fans found Camazotz to be a far inferior villain to Doboro and they did not find the demons who went after Sakura and Michelle to be particularly entertaining, with the exception of Thot. Doboro’s return in the finale of season 2 was met with great praise.

Season 4A was not well-received until season 4B began to air, as season 4B has so far provided more context for Jet’s actions in the first half of season 4.

While very popular in Japan, season 3 has more mixed reception in other parts of the world, as it is very monster-of-the-week. However, despite this it still manages to consistently progress the plot, so many are more forgiving.

The show is most popular in America, Japan, Ireland, and Portugal.

The show is banned entirely in Britain.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Sakura Miror

The daughter of the British pirate queen Rhiannon Miror and the ninja Hiro Hayabusa, Sakura was fascinated from a young age by stories her father would tell her of brave samurai warriors. At the age of eight she was blinded in a freak accident aboard her mother’s ship, and fell into a depression, until her powers developed. After that, she found a teacher and trained for years so she could become a great samurai and travel forth to protect the innocent.

Sakura has abilities very similar to Daredevil, in that she has a sort of radar sense. Her remaining senses are also enhanced.

She is 21 years old, six feet tall, and has red hair. All of these are traits she gets from her mother.

She wears sunglasses all of the time.

Michelle Kitt

A mysterious thief who saved Sakurra’s life during an ambush. She is completely covered in scars and has an eyepatch from some accident she can’t recall; all she knows is that said accident cost her the life of her husband and child, and since then she has turned to a life of plundering and picking pockets. However, since meeting Sakura she has tried to turn over a new leaf, and has more actively tried to help people.

She is 41 years old, five foot six, has dark hair, and has an eyepatch over her right eye.

She prefers to be called a “treasure hunter” than a thief.

She doesn’t have any superhuman capabilities like Sakura; she is just really incredible at stealing, picking pockets, and breaking locks. She could steal a wallet right out of your pocket while looking right at her and you wouldn’t notice until later.

She feels a bit insecure about her looks as she feels her scars make her ugly.

Rhiannon Miror

Rhiannon “The Red” Miror was one of the most feared pirate queens to ever sail the seven seas, known for her ruthlessness towards her enemies as much as for her kindness and graciousness to those she considered a friend. She fell in love with Hiro Hayabusa after a failed assassination attempt, and together the two produced a child: Sakura. She became semi-retired due to a freak accident on her boat blinding her daughter; racked with guilt over it, she decided to retire from piracy for the time being.

She is six feet and six inches tall.

Hiro Hayabusa

Sakura’s father. A renowned ninja, the only failed assassination in his career was when he failed to kill Rhiannon, instead impressing her so much that she took him as a husband. He is a kind, noble, and soft spoken man who very much loves his daughter and feels nothing but pride for her.

He is five foot six inches tall.

ALLIES

Brother Moon

A mysterious priest who runs a church in the British countryside. He may or may not be an alien. He first appeared during the “Wrath of the Demon King” arc of season 2.

Lady Kali

A four-armed woman from India who is seen as a holy figure there, Lady Kali is a super-strong master of hand-to-hand combat who dedicated her life to protecting her people from evil spirits. She first appeared in season 2, before getting a major part in the India section of season 3.

Master Ishida

Sakura’s master, who trained her as a child. He appeared early in season 1 and had scant appearances until his major role in season 4, which featured him heavily and greatly expanded his backstory, revealing many other students he had taught over the years.

Kurtwood Armstrong

An American tavern owner with insane physical strength. He is incredibly loud, brash, and patriotic, and does not take well to insensitive and cruel people. Michelle and Sakura aided him in freeing his town from the wiles of Cyrus Lovelace in season 3.

Kristopher Kross

A gay German man with the power of magnetism who Sakura and Michelle helped escort through a perilous mountain pass during the German portion of season 3.

Lesedi

An African villager with the ability to shoot blasts of light. Sakura and Michelle aided her in saving her village from the wicked powers of Morrigan Maro.

Talia Ishtar

A young Egyptian woman with the power to make sand duplicates of herself. Sakura and Michelle helped her plunder an ancient tomb and fight off an undead pharaoh while searching for information on Orochi Overlong during season 3.

Vinny Pagliacchi

An Italian man with dwarfism and a bad temper who has the power to phase through objects. He enlisted Sakura and Michelle to help him take out some criminals during season 3.

MAJOR ANTAGONISTS

Lord Horatio Blackmore

An evil British inventor and criminal mastermind, Horatio Blackmore sought revenge against Michelle for stealing from him. While he has no powers to speak of, he has a brilliant mind and a massive airship which he uses to travel the world.

He has an eyepatch and a monocle. He used to wear glasses before he lost his eye.

He is a snappy dresser and also has a curly mustache.

He is a redhead.

He has several specially made canes, though he favors his cane sword and cane rifle most of all.

He was the villain of season 1. While he was defeated, he was not killed and has appeared several more times in the series.

The Triad

Three mysterious women named Faith, Hope, and Serenity. They seek Michelle, and serve the Man in Black.

Serenity is very ditzy and is a brunette. Hope is short, blonde, and irritable. Faith is extremely tall and strong, and has dark hair; she also is rarely seen with her eyes open and without a smile on her face.

The three seem to have a wide array of powers, from incredible strength, speed, and stamina. As the end of season 1 reveals, this is because they are supernatural beings who serve the Man in Black.

They are not outwardly malevolent, and ease up towards the heroes at the end of season 1. Since then, they have even occasionally aided them, though their work requires they never stick around long.

The Man in Black

A mysterious man who seeks out Michelle for one reason or another. At the end of season 1, it is revealed he is Death himself, and he was seeking Michelle out because he believed she cheated him; as it turns out, she beat him fair and square, and her family’s killer used some power to distort the truth. He forgave Michelle and allowed her to live to seek vengeance on her family’s killer.

He dresses in an all-black cowboy getup and resembles an older gentleman.

Camazotz

A demon king who resembles a giant, monstrous vampire bat. He was accidentally summoned forth in Professor Doboro’s attempts to awaken the Old Ones, and when he was banished before he could fully materialize by Sakura and Michelle, he vowed vengeance upon them, sending demonic forces to attack them. He is the villain of season 2B.

Hojo Doboro

A mad scientist who was kicked out of the university he once taught at due to his illegal experiments on the dead. He vanished for years, eventually coming back with an army of reanimated dead to seek the five keystones so he could summon forth ancient beings known as the Old Ones to re-write reality as he saw fit. He was the main villain of season 2A.

He supposedly stole a lot of his best ideas from other researchers. However, he is still incredibly brilliant.

He is heavily based on Herbert West and the Cthulhu Mythos. He also gets his name from one of the antagonists of the game Final Fantasy VII.

Orochi Overlong

A strange, lizard-like man who is also a powerful sorcerer. As is revealed towards the end of the season, he is actually the Yamata no Orochi trapped in a physical, human-like form, and his ultimate goal is to reclaim his original form so that he may rule over Japan once again. Using his considerably powerful magic, he blasts Sakura and Michelle halfway across the world and makes them travel across the planet to get back to him, with them only having 44 days to return to Japan before his plans are realized. He is the main villain of season 3, and the leader behind all the villains they end up encountering on their journey.

Jet

A former love interest of Samus from when she was a teenage student of master Ishida, he seemingly died when he fell off of a cliff during an assassin attack on the monastery. However, in season 4 he returned, and he returned seeking revenge against Master Ishida for failing him. He was apparently trained by a master known as “The Black Phoenix,” and with his newfound dark strength Jet seeks to destroy Master Ishida and all who stand in his way.

Akuma Kokuho

The Black Phoenix, an evil martial artist who was said to have made pacts with ancient demons so that he could be unstoppable and unkillable. He is the main antagonist of season 4. particularly part 4B where the full extent of his plans became revealed as well as his connection to Master Ishida: he was a former pupil who was rejected for his inability to reign in his violent tendencies, and became a disgrace to his family, who abandoned him. It was revealed that much of the mythology surrounding Akuma was nothing more than urban legend, but as it turned out he did have the ability to enhance his strength with dark fire and he also had a knack for coming back from supposed death.

MINOR ANTAGONISTS

Gemini

A creation of Professor Doboro, she was created when he stitched the halves of two twins killed by a serial killer together and brought them back to life. She serves as his bodyguard for much of his arc, though she ends up turning on him at the end.

Their original names were Sunny and Luna. Sunny was a platinum blonde, while Luna had black hair.

There is a line of stitches going directly down the middle of her body, from her forehead down.

Her stitches bleed if she becomes too stressed out. They are incredibly durable otherwise.

She has the powers of both sisters due to having both of their brains, or parts of them at least. From Sunny, she has fire powers; from Luna, she has ice powers.

Freya Darke

A young French woman who was turned into a steampunk cyborg by Horatio Blackmore. She acts as his bodyguard and the muscle for him for much of season 1. She abandons him after his airship crashes and goes off on her own; she has appeared antagonizing and helping out the heroes in equal numbers since then.

Morrigan Maro

A cannibal witch from the heart of Africa. She was tormenting a village with her black magic during the events of season 3. Sakura and Michelle were able to take her out with help from Lesedi.

She had the ability to absorb the power from anyone she has consumed. She had amassed quite a lot of power over the years.

Thot

A horny incubus and one of the many demons sent by Camazotz to kill Sakura and Michelle. He acted more as a minor nuisance than anything, and was easily dispatched almost every time he appeared on his own. By the end of the season, he had become smitten with Michelle and vowed to make her love him. He has appeared on a few more occasions to be a nuisance.

Kirk the Killer

An assassin with regenerative abilities from Romania. In his home country he is considered incredibly deadly, but he seems to frequently be on the end of absurd levels of abuse whenever hee appears. Debuting late in season 1, him getting comically slaughtered became a running gag in each of his appearances, save for his starring role in the Romanian episodes of season 3.

Cyrus Lovelace

A racist, homophobic preacher from the South who appeared in season 3. He had the power of a compelling voice, and could command people to do his bidding even against their will. He was a short, fat, mustachioed man.

Rika Ainia

A young warrior woman who was cursed by a witch whose husband she accidentally killed while sparring. The curse causes her to need to fight to the death with an opponent or else she will have to harm herself to ease the pain a bit; as her innate ability causes her to enter into a berserker rage when fighting, she more often than not would emerge victorious, having ended an innocent life. She ended up running afoul of Sakura and Michelle during season 4; however, as of the current episode her role has not entirely been revealed.

Giorgio Fuso, Dee Comporre, and Mr. Viticcio

The three deadly criminals who Sakura and Michelle helped Vinny take down. Fuso had the ability to generate magma; Comporre had the ability to shoot corrosive acid out of her mouth; and Mr. Vitticio could transform his arms into extending, flexible tentacles. All three were extremely dangerous foes.

Chicken Wire

An odd, cowardly man who appeared alongside Jet in season 4. Apparently Jet saved the strange man from dying; he gets his name because his mouth is wired shut as well as due to his cowardly nature. He seems to have some degree of control over wires wrapped around his body, but to what extent is unknown. To all the world he seems rather unassming and buffoonish.

#My writing #My OCs #Six Shots #The Thief and the Samurai

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courtorderedcake · 6 years ago

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@captainswanbigbang & @captxinswans present:

RIPTIDE by @courtorderedcake Beta’d by the wonderful @ultraluckycatnd

An Enchanted Forest AU where the dark one was never released into the world in a vessel, thus causing a massive shift in timelines. The ogre wars have ravaged kingdoms, untold destruction spanning continents, rulers displaced. Even as the wars sputter to ash, the safest place to be is at sea, and that’s not very safe at all - as Emma and Killian find out, fates intertwined against all odds.

Rated: E/X - heavy content : warnings of assault, rape, noncon, just everything, I feel like the rating says enough. It’s something.

WARNING: READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Read on Ao3 HERE .

Chapter XIII : Spyglass; An Epilogue

Thomas Harriot is known to have turned a spyglass on the Moon, though with only three powers, he was unable to correctly discern neither crater nor mountain. Such a feat would require five to six powers, or higher.

-The History of the Spyglass

Time passes and tongues wag to fill quiet spaces.

The captain of the Gilded Wing, in his wisdom, decided piracy was not for him. With his bonny bride and an assortment of ex-privateers, they become a well respected merchant vessel and tradeship. Some said it was his charming and silver tongued demeanor, while others swore he was the gruffest man they ever traded with. Either way, his coffers were that of a king. If anyone asked about the haggard blonde and dark haired man with one hand juggling two wide eyed babes, they received no answers. Silence was a deafening warning.

The Jolly Roger is rumored to have sank in a battle with the Gilded Wing, the reckless captain duo of pirate lovers, Hook and Swan, finally finding a watery grave; together even in death.

Sightings of a glowing ship flying their flag are whispered among slave ships and crooked pirates who deal in innocent blood. It appears out of a dense fog, a ghostly enchantress with blonde hair whipping in the wind with her eternal love at her side, coat flapping and hook raised. Demons who leave no survivors except those bound in chains or held in a brig. Ghosts who steal back treasure that was taken wrongfully.

Or, as Emma calls it, 'date night’.

More children join the twins on the timbers of The Wing. Snow unexpectedly going into labor with her son Leo six months after the twins are born. Luckily, Whale and Tink had decided to stay on. David loses his mind with worry at not being prepared, but Snow breezes through the delivery right into motherhood.

“I didn't even get morning sickness, and I really didn't gain much weight. I'm lucky I didn't do anything crazy, or my labor might have been earlier and rougher,” Snow confides in Emma, as they nursed together in the sunshine of the deck. Leo latches easily, Snow smiling serenely. Emma has a foot in her face and both of her beloved children have fistfuls of her hair.

“Well, aren't you special,” Emma grumbled.

Maggie watches their twins with joy, bouncing them on her knees and singing to them while letting them eat as much pie as their small hands can grab. She quilts them beautiful blankets and knitted toys. Her shy husband even makes wooden toys for them, and does small magic tricks. Emma realizes that the shy bearded man is the tallest dwarf she’s ever seen slightly too late, and he laughs it off without worry. “i used to get grumpy about that sort of thing, but up here? I’m dreamy,” Leroy tells her, and he comes out of his shell completely.

Some of the crew leaves, as is expected when things change. They say goodbye to Rory and Phillip first, as the call comes that they can return for the throne of their homeland. Rory starts to send letters to them with her full name, Aurora, detailing palace life and asking for advice on policy. Emma finds it dreadfully boring, but David, Killian and Snow have vigorous debates on the shaping of the country.

Graham and Ruby leave to start a pack in unclaimed territory of the Enchanted Forest, gathering lone wolves and setting up rules that soon become a permanent structure. While there is still an ogre problem, the pack is strong and faces the danger head on.

Mal and Z return to the dragon lands together, slipping away quietly and without much notice. Killian can only laugh as he watches two dragons on the horizon disappear into the sunset.

Graham and Ruby return to say hello now and then when The Wing docks in The Enchanted Forest. Eventually, they rejoin the crew, the risk of Ogre attack while Ruby raises their litter of three beautiful boys deemed too dangerous by Graham. Hunter, Willow, and Forrest all have the same dark brown shock of hair, heavily taking after their father. To Graham, his small pack is everything, and Ruby feels the same; they'll forego the change to raise their young with no regrets. Emma happily brews them a Lunar Stasis draught, and they fall into the routine easily, Ruby complaining about constantly having a babe to her breast while the other women nod and bounce her other triplets.

Mal and Z do not visit. Instead, they extend an invite to show off their egg. The entire crew doesn't know what will be inside, until they get a bans stating, ‘It’s a girl! (Dragon, but currently unable to transform). Please welcome Lily.’

Snow notes the design is lovely, irregardless of the strangeness of the message.

Regina and Robin welcome a beautiful dark haired girl around the time the twins see eighteen months, and a once hardened Regina softens completely. They name her for a powerful enchantress in another realm, Lucinda, or Lucy for short.

Snow and David welcome a blonde tufted girl to the world soon after Regina’s daughter is born and Leo turns one, David immediately finding himself wrapped around his daughter's finger. They name her Ruth after his and Emma's mother. Leo is insanely jealous, but makes do by going through a shrieking stage.

Merida and Fa finally get married, the ceremony a complete hodgepodge of both of their cultures that somehow not only works, but works well. Plaid tartan and silk floral prints drape a verdant forest glade, a bamboo archway placed where they exchange vows. There's a tea ceremony followed by knotting their hands in a complex golden rope. The reception is visited by Merida’s estranged brothers, who finally accept she is not after their claim to the throne.

Emma dreams, or more appropriately, has nightmares of a dark castle that crumbles and rots. Something slithers and its claws click and scrape on the moss covered stones. A man calls out, his eyes burning behind brown irises, blood on his hands as he feeds a golden monstrosity. Willing herself to wake up, they look at her and she swears the scaled creature smiles, not a man but a beast, next to another pretender of a lost boy in the guise of a man and warlock. The warlock looks at her hungrily, a predatory gleam in his eyes as he surveys her body. The creature only glares. Together they are a golden eyed man who chases her in the recurrent night terror. Somehow she knows they are a portent of doom, but the dreams fade fast as she wakes up thrashing, soothed by Killian.

Smee's lap is a source of argument amongst the rowdy lot of toddlers, especially as he reads stories aloud. He always has a knack for getting a hold of rare items - and by rare items, he means sugary sweets that have been the bane of his old captain’s existence. Luckily, these days, the Captain is a dear friend and his Missus is in on Smee's trade. The Twins lead the pack at two years old, Emma and Killian no longer running ragged but instead, thriving in a new sort of chaos.

Killian still hooks yarn together, darning socks and making less lumpy blankets for anyone who needs them, and constantly making socks for little feet. With a little finesse, he’s able to make a few rudimentary stuffed toys, until suddenly he has made an assortment of soft toys. Esper is fond of a jellyfish the color of lilacs, while Ian chooses a shark, making roaring noises that rattle the timbers of the deck. Leo chooses a lion, his father beaming, Ruth clinging to a plush ginger kitten. Lucy chooses a frog with a giggle, Killian’s handiwork clear as the frog has a curled tongue in its mouth. It becomes a tradition for him to make something for new crew, and he frequently gets requests.

Jefferson and August finally decide to be more than just an occasional fling that happens more than just occasionally. They depart after the space becomes crowded and August expresses interest in traveling down many different rabbit holes. They are only seen on big holidays, bringing the most ridiculous gifts from their travels. Killian eventually bans any gift that makes ‘extravagant and unnecessary noise’ after a teapot given to Esper keeps singing off tune and nonsensical nursery songs at all hours.

After a particularly intense night of freeing slaves, Fa finds a small wide eyed girl clinging to her belts. Merida is immediately in love with the ginger haired child with stormy gray eyes, and no one bats an eye when suddenly, a young, wild haired girl is leading the pack of children across the decks. Not given a name, Fa coaxes her to choose one whenever she is ready, her quiet voice soothing as she stroked the girl's hair. Fa tells her stories, and Merida tells her tall tales and myths. She eventually chooses the name Rowan for its strength, just like her mothers.

Rory and Phillip send word from their kingdom that they have a daughter, naming her Rose. The crew attends the announcement ceremony, happily greeting their long time friends: Jasmine and Aladdin, now rulers of Agrabah; Tiana and Naveen, happily avoiding royalty in their restaurant; the vibrant ex-mermaid Ariel and an ecstatic Eric. Esperanza takes to Ariel, who despite being in what Emma refers to as 'the 200 months pregnant stage’, keeps her two and a half year daughter entertained. Ian, like his father or mother (depending on the day and who you asked), made trouble by slipping a tray of pastries under a skirted table, sharing his loot with his cousins, and inducing a glorious sugar crash.

In the brief moment of peace, Emma and Killian disappeared into one of the quieter roped off parts of the palace.

“We have to -” Killian's mouth met hers, demanding and hungry, intimacy not in short supply but not frequent either, always having to be carefully planned. Spontaneous escapes like this were rare if not unheard of. “Be quick,” Emma moaned as he nipped at her collar bone, hiking up her skirts.

“Bloody hell, I don't want to be quick,” he murmured against her throat, licking a trail to her ear. “I'd love to taste you, mark you -”

“For now.” She palmed him through his trousers and he hissed. “This. I need to feel you inside me.”

Another crash of their lips, her hands finding his belt as he pushed her against a wall, fingers pumping inside her wetness until he was freed. Moaning into his mouth as he thrust into her in a smooth motion, Killian grabbed her leg to pin her tightly between the wall and his body.

While it was fast and hard, it was also passionate. Emma clawed at him and they moaned together, savoring the heat that sparked every time they connected. They came together, each other's names sweet in their mouths. Sneaking back to their seats, only David narrowed his eyes with a shake of his head. Killian gave him a cocky nod and a wink.

Will and Belle had almost given up trying, but finally welcomed a tiny baby girl into the world. They named her Victoria, and Will finally got his comeuppance for teasing his fellows about crying when their children were born. He sobbed, holding his baby for the first time, her small hands making his look so large. Belle lay sick after they birth for several weeks, Will reading to her and rocking their babe as the crew took care of her, the day she wa finally able to come up on the sunshine of the deck with her small baby girl celebrated.

Whale gave in to Tink’s demands, accepting a steady stipend paid for him to stay on board to provide care for the children he delivered and their mothers. His bedside manner did not improve but deckside, Uncle Vic was a delight to as many children he could chase as they pretended he was a monster.

The Gilded Wing was alive with activity and noise from dawn until dusk, tired parents staying up when they had the energy to make conversation or nodding at each other in shifts as they groggily bounced or rocked children back to sleep in time with the ocean’s sway.

Emma found herself on deck more often than not. Esperanza was still a sickly child who needed the fresh night air. The Twins were almost three, talking non-stop and inquisitively taking in the world. It was exhausting. Luckily, Ian slept like the dead, his wild running throughout the day leading to a blessedly quiet wind down. Esper fought sleep, longing for starlight and the moon, Emma whispering constellations gently in her dark hair until Killian joined them on deck or she joined him in their bed.

Laying a finally sleeping Esper down in her bunk above Ian's, Emma made her way through the quiet corridor, slipping into bed and her waiting husband's arms.

“I love you,” he murmured in her ear, and when her answer didn't come in return, he cracked open an eye. “Love?”

“When was the last time I bled?” she whispered, facing away from him.

“I figured two weeks ago; you were moodier than usual and I let you be.” Killian replied drowsily. Her hand guided his to her stomach, a familiar swell against his palm jerking him awake. “Emma?”

“I didn't put the pieces together until a week ago. I should be just about four months along or so, maybe five. That’d be Rose's announcement ceremony. I haven't felt kicking yet -” Rolling her towards him, he captured her lips in his, grinning.

“You are a marvel, Swan. A bloody marvel. I love you so much. How do you feel? You're so small, I wouldn't have guessed...” Kissing her breathless, she pulled back laughing.

“Thank the Gods above and below, I believe there's only one this time. I'm fine. Tired, but fine.” Killian pressed a kiss to her forehead, blue eyes dancing as he looked down at her.

“Are you sure you can't make it two or three? David's lot is catching up to us, and if we get a nice lead -”

“Oh, shut up.” Smacking his chest and ignoring the salacious eyebrow wiggle he gives her, she doesn't ignore the steady beating of his heart as it lulls her to sleep.

Emma's second labor is easy, a chubby girl who is absolutely determined to prove her lungs work well. The name is long planned in advance; his mother’s name. Alice. She is fair haired and light eyed, a lighter shade of blue than Killian's own when they finally finish their change.

Liam's eyes, Killian tells Emma in the quiet still of the night. A reminder that even in all of this love, there are still scars and quiet pain they all share. Her arms around his neck is a soothing balm; each of them having a source of relief from old nightmares. Emma finally relents, and they spend some time in the small cabin on the cliffs he owns. She finds it’s not as terrible as she imagined and enjoys the quiet, or swinging on the creaky porch watching their children play. Not enough to give up the sea, or the ship, but enough to take reprieve when things get to be too much.

Killian reminds her that they’re old, but not that old. He reminds her frequently, until she tells him that she has suspicions that his reminders have ended in a well intentioned accident. Emma feels the movements earlier this time, hasn’t been as sick as her first pregnancy, but it’s still rough. Killian sits through a delivery that feels so much like when he almost lost her, so much strain and struggle, but Emma beams at him when it’s done.

“William?” she whispers softly, tucked into Killian’s side. He’s holding their last child and crying with her, arms wrapped around them both in the quiet before the rest of their children wake.

“William,” Killian agrees, pressing kisses on her sweaty forehead, making Emma chuckle. “Liam for short.” Her head lolls, exhaustion setting in although she fights it and the pain she's in with a grimace. When she shifts in the bed, Killian watches her with an ache in his chest as she swallows back whimpers and curses.

There’s no question about how close to leaving him she came again as her screams echo in his head, but Killian changes bloody sheets, and tells her after he’s sent their children off to play on deck that he loves her more than anything - That the thought of not having her sends him reeling. Pressing soft kisses to her pallid forehead, he cried into her hair, holding her tightly. Regina visits later with a potion that ends any worry for them, which thrills Killian even if it means his wild oats have ended their run.

Their children grow, and Piracy loses its appeal all together as raising them turns out to be much more terrifying and complicated than anticipated. Emma and Killian barely survive, the world around them changing rapidly, threats rising and danger around every corner.

Why wouldn’t it change, when someone finally let in a golden crocodile to their soul with open arms?

But that’s a story for a different time.

#Riptide #Finale #CSBB #CSBB 2018 #captain swan #captain swan fanfiction #Courtorderedcake

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ffirekissed · 6 years ago

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♔ 「 kristofer hivju , male , he/him , heterosexual 」 → we proudly present TORMUND GIANTSBANE , the KING BEYOND THE WALL. they are FORTY years old and can often be described as JOVIAL and DETERMINED. but whispers betray that they’re also VIOLENT and FIERCE. many know that their allegiance lies with THE FREE FOLK , however , when their songs sing of NEVER ENDING FRIGID SNOWS and HAIR KISSED BY FIRE. fate has currently placed them in kings landing due to THE THREAT BEYOND THE WALL. will they win their game? or die trying? ( kyoto , she/her , 21 , est )

tormund is quite tall , has a broad chest and a full head of hair and a thick beard. on his massive arms he wears golden bans engraved with ruins of the first men , which have been passed down by his forefathers. tormund is also armored with heavy ringmail taken from a dead ranger.

he’s often jovial , enjoys food and drink , especially ale , mead , and fermented goats milk. he is named tall-talker , horn-blower , breaker of ice , husband to bears , the mead-king of ruddy hall , speaker to gods , and father of hosts. the former king-beyond-the-wall , mance rayder , named him horn-blower for the power of his lungs. it’s also said that tormund can laugh the snow off of mountaintops. he knows the common tongue and the old tongue , but doesn’t know how to read.

tormunds early life isn’t known widely. even less so when he tells friends of his unlikely encounters. among his favourite stories is the one where he’s claimed to have slain a giant at the age of ten and suckled at her breast for several months , and where he claims to have drunkenly slept with a bear.

however , he’s a trusted leader in his own right. he rose through the ranks due to his strength and led a large warband of free folk in his late twenties. he’s scaled the wall half a hundred times to lead his men on raiding trips south of the wall. tormund is also married and has a few children. toregg the tall , torwynd the tame who died from the cold and rose as wight , dryn , dormund who was cut down during the battle within castle black , and lastly , munda who is happily married to longspear ryk.

he joined his forces with those of the king-beyond-the-wall’s , mance raydar , against the others and became mance’s most trusted lieutenant. he’s also a proven and dangerous fighter. he killed the lord of bones in an instant during a disagreement and thrived in the battle of castle black where he proved a better fighter than ser allister thorne. he’s also extremely loyal to those on the same side as him.

tormund first meets jon snow when the lord of bones and ygritte bring him to mance rayder’s tent. as the free folk army marches away from the frostfangs , they see a spiral of bodies of dead nights watch members at the first of the first men , left behind by the white walkers. mance then commands tormund to climb the wall. their plan was to attack from the south as mance attacked from the north. in short , it failed because jon was playing double agent and got away to warn the night’s watch about the attack.

though the attack still happens , the free folk fail and tormund is captured by the crows. he’s injured , but lives. mance rayder, however , is executed and leadership falls onto him. a tense alliance forms between the free folk and the night’s watch. the new lord crow has seen the threat that lies beyond the wall and offers lands on the other side of the wall for them. many don’t like the idea , but with the white walkers slowly picking them off , there’s little choice.

word is sent north about the alliance and for any free folk that wishes to live to head to the castles along the wall. tormund and a few hundred of his followers go with jon south to convince the lords of westeros to rally their troops.

on the way , they fight in the battle of the bastards , helping jon and the starks regain their home. the battle is glorious and allows the free folk to find some camaraderie with the northern troops.

the way south is terrible. it’s too hot and tormund’s already passed out from heatstroke a handful of times. it is fascinating however, the way people live down here all squished together. he hates it. tormund’s not in kings landing to keel to the dragon king , but to help convince him to lend the realm’s soldiers against the army of the dead.

#intro.dhq

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tcsnextgen · 6 years ago

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What would a meeting between London and Vic look like, hypothetically ?

(Warning: It’s a bit rambl-ey and I’m drifting off at some point but that’s only because this is such a cool question and I had to use it at a prompt, lol! :D)

Fun thing is that London and Vic will actually meet, soooo that meeting ain’t even hypthetical. :D

I feel that London will be the driving force when it comes to Rory “breaking up” with Vic. Not because she’s jealous but because she sees things he doesn’t see. Even after some years in the streets, she’s still a woman believing in love and affection after all.

Right at this point, I see Rory and Vic being quite in the “middle” of their thing. One, maybe two weeks into it. They might be in one of the pubs around (read as: one of the few pubs Rory and his crew aren’t banned from yet, lol... and EVERYONE needs a fave pub in my universe), and suddenly there’s this tiny woman, clad in laque and lace, very obviously one of those girls, at their table.

“You look like a man in need of special service!” the lady grins cheekily and now makes herself comfy next to Rory, just like that.

Vic is appalled. Gasping for air a little, she gives her a look that says “Uhm, Lady, excuse us...?”, absolutely ready to kill both of them with looks because Rory just smiles at the intruder now and gives her a kiss to the corner of her mouth, which she returns.

“Where have you been for the past three weeks?” he asks cheerfully but instead of giving him an answer, the lady takes a glance at Vic now.

“Ah, I’d love to tell you but I’m a little scared to speak ‘cause Blondie here apparently wants me dead in a ditch.”

Rory now looks at Vic, suddenly realising how disconcerting the moment must be to her. “Oh. OH. Uhm, you- you can stop lookin’ at her like that, she’s just an old friend-”

“What? I’m far more than that.” his ‘old friend’ interrupts him.

“-and the most annoying person in the world.” Rory concludes with a nod.

“There you go. I am London. And please, please stop looking at me like you want to murder me, he’s all yours, really, I can’t stand him anyway.”

Still a bit irritated but slowly realising that... London apparently didn’t mean any harm, Vic relaxes a bit.

“Can I call you ‘Blondie’?” London now asks quite cheerfully.

The irritation instantly comes back and Vic draws her eyebrows together. “What? No, you can’t!”

“’Barbie’, then?”

“What- no!”

She must be the most annoying person in the world indeed.

“Just tell her yer name or she’ll never shut up.” Rory now yawns and he takes another sip from his beer.

“It’s Vic. My name’s Vic.” Vic lets out a sigh.

“Oh, short for ‘Victoria’?”

“Quite obviously.”

“That’s a beautiful name. Look, Vic, I really didn’t mean to piss you off. I haven’t seen this bugger here for a while but if you want we can do the catching up another time.”

Both her and Rory now look at her, apparently expecting an answer.

Vic really wishes for London to leave but she doesn’t want to appear catty either. As much as she liked him, her and Rory haven’t defined what their thing is about so far and she feels she can’t just send an ‘old friend’ of his away like that.

She suppresses a sigh.

“No, it’s okay. Stay. I bet you two have a lot of stuff to talk about.” She forces a smile and checks her phone. “Actually, I should head back to my hostel anyway.”

“Naw, c’mon Vic, it’s not even nine.” Rory protests.

“Yeah, stay with us, it’s gonna be fun!” London agrees.

“No, no it’s alright. It’s fine. Charlie picks me up tomorrow at ten. Shopping marathon. Girl talk. I need every bit of energy for that.” Forcing another smile, Vic gets up and picks up her bag.

“You sure?” Rory asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sure.”

“If that’s what you want?” He bites his lip. “See you around, then?”

“Sure.” Vic gives him a last smile and puts some money on the table for her drink. “Bye. Have fun.” she mumbles before she eventually leaves the pub.

Both Rory and London look after her. Once Vic is out of sight, London turns to her friend.

“Really? I leave you alone for three weeks and you’re fucking Barbie now? Now that’s an upgrade.”

Rory smiles at her. “I missed you, too.”

“How tall is she even? Man, I’d kill to have tits like hers. Have you seen her tits? Why, stupid me, of course you have. Up close, I’d guess. ”

“You done?”

“How’d you find her anyway?”

“‘t was the other way round, more or less.” Rory answered truthfully.

“Where’s she from? She’s hardly from here. Sounded like a yank to me.”

“Boston.”

“And what would she want from you? I mean, she looks like cute little birds help her get dressed in the morning, if you catch my drift.”

“So many fuckin’ questions.” Rory moans.

“And what is it with you two? Oh boy, she really did want to murder me for a second, wow. Does the infamous Rory Jameson have a girlfriend now?”

Rory gives London a look, one that says “Will you finally stop talking?”, but London doesn’t even think about doing that.

“You know I won’t leave you alone until you tell me at least something.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Rory groans and rolls his eyes. “She’s an extended friend of my family and she’s on... what the fuck ever they call that shit over the pond. Summer Break or so.”

“How high school!” London beams.

“College.” Rory corrects her.

“Oh, phew, that would make her at least eighteen. Seriously, Rory, what the hell? What do you want with an American college kid as a girlfriend?”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Does she know that as well?”

“Of course she knows.” Rory snaps at her. “She ain’t fuckin’ stupid.”

London gives him a weird smile but she nods and apparently accepts his answer. The two now sit in silence for a few moments. Rory holds his glass in both of his hands now, lost in his thoughts, until London speaks up again. “I’ll leave you alone now. I’ll come by tomorrow, alright? I missed you.”

The two of them say goodbye and I think that Vic and London will see each other for about two or three more times, and Vic will be slightly irritated but London eventually “wins her over” with some occasional “girl talk”. She also tones her manners down a bit - pissing of Rory and his friends might be fun every once in a while but the girls gotta stick together after all.

London always pays close attention to Vic and she sees what Rory simply fails to see. She sees the looks she gives him. She sees how she tries to be casual about everything but London knows that Vic must already be daydreaming of the moment when she has to go home again. About Rory seeing her off last minute at the airport, assuring her he can be a better person, for her and only for her, promising her that they will stay in touch until they will have the chance to see each other again and figure things out.

At some point, she will tell him exactly that. They are on their way back from town, late at night, and hey sit on a railing at an old and abandoned playground, sharing a joint.

Rory brushes the sentiment off. “She knows it ain’t for eternity. She’s having fun, for fuck’s sake, Lon, let her have some fun, she ain’t no baby.”

“It’s so fucking embarrassing how little you know about women.” London scoffs. “The gal has massive heart eyes for you. I know those looks. I have given many of those looks myself and never realised that I was led on the entire time.”

“I am not leading her on!” Rory cuts her off, his voice harsh and with a warning undertone.

“I’m not sayin’ you are, sweetie, but I know that girls like her- oh man. Rory. Girls that age have hopes and dreams, no matter how much they pretend otherwise. Trust me, she’s already pickin’ her damn wedding dress in mind.”

Rory takes another drag and he ponders what London just said.

“She doesn’t deserve this, Rory.” London’s voice is soft now.

“It was her who started it. I never did anything she didn’t want-”

“Of course you didn’t. That’s the problem. You’re such a brooding gentleman, those adventure-seeking college girls are bound to fall for you.”

“You never fell for me.” Rory now laughs and gives London a little nudge and she chimes in laughing.

“I was never like her. My hopes and dreams got shattered a long time ago. Besides, you’re too short anyway.”

“So what am I supposed to do, according to you?” he asks after a while.

“Set her free. Give her a chance. It’s almost over anyway, she’ll be gone in a few days. She’s strong and smart, she’ll heal.”

And that’s when Rory realises that there’s something he has to do. Very soon. He has never meant for any of these things to happen, he merely leaned back and enjoyed the ride but now that he gives the whole situation another thought, he figures that his friend is right. Jeez, she’s always right about these things. If she could only see how smart she actually is. He’s going to do it the next time Vic seeks him out. Every word of his feels like a stab to Vic’s heart until it finally tears apart, he is going to see it in her eyes.

It’s fascinating. After ten years in the streets and knowing all kinds of people at that point, he still has to learn some things. Lesson learned today: Girls have hopes and dreams. Destroy them and you might destroy a life.

He will think of it the next time a pretty young lass makes eyes at him. He will stay with his kind from now on. It really is for the better.

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