#every day i wake up & kami reminds me to keep it pushing

[sartorially]

oh, and... you should drink water! it's good for you. 🥄

I love drawing Kami. This is largely a bit of a "sillypost" for my own amusement, so. I am recovering from rapidfire illnesses, and this was my guiding star.

And a meme-ier version!

[miioouu]

2- Orgasm Denial: Denki Kaminari (GN! Reader) 

      It's one of those days when you wake up in a bad mood, and it seems like the universe has a plan to make it all worse. From assignments, paperworks, to burnt and oversalted lunch meals, the day keeps getting worse and worse. Thankfully though, you had someone to brighten it up. The sweet, overhyped, electrical boy, your lovely friend, Denki Kaminari. 

     The boy is simple, too naive for his own good. And while you wished you were a good person, you really were not. You have bad intentions when it comes to your best friend, but he really never complains, in fact, he seems to enjoy it just as much as you. Of course he enjoys it, seeing his loved ones happy, being the reason behind their happiness. So when you come up to him at the end of your terrible day, eyebrows furrowed together and a strict look in your eyes, he just has to help you.

     He looked so cute like that, hand covering his mouth and his cheek ablazed. He's looking down on you, eyes filled with nothing but pure devotion, and you can't help but relish in that, your blood boiling with lust. You're on your knees, you've been in that position for a bit now, but he's so adorable, you couldn’t care less about the ache in your knees. The way he sucks in his stomach and puffs chest out, his other hand comes down to rest in your hair, fingers twitching not knowing whether to push you away or pull you in. He’s so confused, he looks so stupid, his eyes crossed and your name being stuttered out in a frustrated tone. But of course he is, he has the full right to be; if you were the one being edged for hours, you would’ve done worse; you would’ve begged more, not caring about your pride.  

      Your tongue licked a long stripe from the under base all to the tip, making sure to apply small pressure when you felt his veins. And when his pre started oozing, your mouth watered, your desire begging you to just have a taste, and you weren’t one to deny your needs. Your wet muscle teasing at his slit, seeing him twitch awakening an even worse side of you. You took him in, for the millionth time this evening, slowly at first, provoking him by languidly circling your tongue around him, and once you finally took all of him in, your throat now relaxed and not irritated by his length, you hollow your cheeks, sucking him off properly this time, this time trying to reach a goal. The tip started hitting the back of your throat, your gaging echoing in the room, your fingernails digging into the soft skin of his thighs to remind him just who’s in control. And he listened, he was desperate to find release, so whatever you’d demand he would obey. And you were in a bad mood, so why shouldn’t you take advantage of that? You pulled away just for a second, his whining music to your ears “Kami, why don’t you be a good boy and jerk yourself off for me. Show me just how good I make you feel, and then maybe I’ll reward you.” At that, his eyes glistened with hope. Immediately, his hand flew to wrap around his shaft, his eyes still on you as he rubbed himself, making sure to rub his thumb against his slit, imitating you. His pace quickened, his eyes struggling to stay open,and his voice cracking with every other syllable of your names, of his pleasure. His hips bucking up, his gestures’ sloppy, all indicators that his orgasm is near, And when his legs started to shake, his worlds becoming bumbled and jumbled, you knew that was his moment, and you almost feel bad, almost feel an ounce of regret when you came to wrap your hand around his length and your thumb pressing on his opening stopping him from cumming “Aww, Denks, I feel like you could last a little bit more though…Start again.”

[imgoingtohellsofuckit]

Cocky Hero pt 2

I didn’t want to make this a series but I’m in love with Hawks soo here ya go

Hawks x Reader 

Warnings - alcohol use, mentions of abuse (mention no descriptions or anything and its very brief) 

Summary - Hawks can’t get you out of his head, lucky for him you can’t get him out of yours either

So there you are, waking up in the number two heroes bed. You're fancy gown from the party on the ground and makeup all smeared off. You look over to see Hawks holding onto you tightly. For someone so keen on hookups your surprised he's still holding onto you. Or even that you're still in his bed with him. You move pulling from his arms grabbing your clothes from the ground making your way through the room over to the bathroom.

"Oh man he really doesn't hold back," You say as you look at the deep purple marks along your neck. You sigh lightly. Deciding not to worry about it as you wipe away your makeup and pull your clothes from last night on.

"You want something more comfortable?" You hear from the door. You look to see Hawks smiling lightly as he watches you.

"Depends on what you're gonna put me in," You say.

"My clothes," He smirks. You roll your eyes deciding to look back to the mirror. "I'll grab you a hoodie at least."

"Fine," You say.

He moves pulling away from the door frame to his room. Returning a couple seconds later with a black hoodie.

"Thanks," You say as you pull it over you dress, "I'll call a cab. I've got to get to my house before I go into the office. I'll get this cleaned and mail it back-"

"Nah keep it," Hawks says, "you look better in it anyways."

"I can't keep your clothes Hawks," You say looking to him, "I'll just have an intern drop it off to your agency."

"You're not even gonna drop it off man thats cold," Hawks says.

"Did you get attached?" You say with a smirk.

"Attached? No more like I'm not used to not being the one in control," He says, "every other girl wants me to fly them home and to keep my clothes. Thinking it'll pull me back in ya know."

"I'm not like those girls Hawks," You say, "I have my own game. And I simply play it better than you."

"Do you now?" He asks.

"I guess that's for you to figure out," You say, "now if you'll excuse me I have to get ready for work." You grab your purse then instead of calling a taxi you just place your hand against the wall. Hawks watches carefully. Your quirk. It's portal something pretty cool. When he first heard about it the first time he met you he thought it was one of the neatest quirks he's seen. Making a portal you could move through going anywhere you need. He was surprised you never went into the hero career with a quirk like that. "Try not to miss me too much," You say looking back to Hawks.

"I have a feeling you should worry about your self," He says.

"Sure Hawks," You say before stepping through the portal. It closes leaving Hawks alone. He chuckles lightly.

"Shes... different," He says softly, "man I need to get ready."

So while Hawks was running around to get ready to meet up with Dabi and the League to work out that situation. You were getting ready at your own quick pace. Using that long distance portal exhausted your quirk meaning you wouldn't be able to use it to get to work. Which is fine you've travelled everyway to work so it won't be too much of a pain but still. You could push a bit and use your quirk... it's irresponsible but... it's better time management. You cave using a second portal to pop into her office.

"Wow you're here early," Impression says, "especially considering your company last night."

"Didn't I hear whispering that you went home with MT Lady?" You shoot back, "you have no room to talk." Impression chuckles.

"Sure I have no room to talk but I'm going to anyways," He says, "Hawks is such a man whore. I'm surprised you went home with him. I mean you had plenty of people all over you."

"Yeah but you didn't feel the energy between them," Kami says, "the sexual tension was suffocating. I thought I was gonna die."

You roll your eyes at the comment.

"Besides we all know that every single one of these events we've been invited to Hawks finds himself at her side," Kami says, "he either is in love with you or super attracted to you."

"Anyways," You say moving to your desk to pull out everything for today, "we have a lot of work to do... Kami you are missing about 13 accident reports, Impression you have been asked to speak at UA about hero etiquette to the first years. Have either of you seen Mimica? Because he misfiled a report and I had to track it down at the commission and redo the entire thing."

They knew it was time to work So the Hawks topic dropped and everyone focused on their own matters. Soon the day was over releasing them to their own lives. The others left but you remained back. As always you're gonna be the last to leave. Always needing to finish that last thing before you could go home. When you finally stepped outside onto the street in the thick dark of the night you regretted the extra portal this morning.

"Hey you need a ride?"

You turn to see blond locks and crimson wings. Hawks. But what is he doing here?

"No I was gonna take the train home," You share.

"Nah a pretty lady like you shouldn't be on the train," He says, "let me fly you home."

"I couldn't ask you to do that," You say, "seriously it's no big deal I ride the train all the time."

"I'm offering," He says, "come on what do you have to lose?"

You think for a second. What do you have to lose? You start to step towards him. But instead give him a smirk. Then you press your hand against the wall. A portal to your apartment pops up. You're definitely feeling the overuse but honestly to mess with this cocky bastard it's worth it.

"You're right I shouldn't use the train," You say, "well goodnight Hawks."

"Wait-"

You step inside before he can say anything else.

He looks back at the wall you just walked through.

"Man she's gone," He says, "thats a shame. I wanted to talk to her. Oh well."

Back at your house you collapse on your couch. Clearly exhausted. You see something on your couch and smile lightly. It's the hoodie Hawks lent you. You move grabbing it. It's super soft and it smells like his apartment. That woodsy scent that was all nice and piney.

My phone buzzes. I pull it from my pocket to see an unknown number.

Unknown- Impression gave me your number

                     It took a lot of convincing  

                    A lot

Y/n - Who is this?

Unknown - Oh guess I should of said that

                      It's Hawks

                     Number 2 hero

Y/n - Why do you have my number?

Unknown - Had to know if you go home safely

Y/n - You shouldn't worry about me I'm stronger than your giving me credit for

Unknown - Remind me not to underestimate you.

                     Pretty and talented.

                      What's it like being perfect?

Y/n - It's adorable that you think I'm perfect but even I have my flaws

Unknown - likww what/?

                      augh

                      ugh sorrry harsd to tyep whjike

                     caan io vcaall you;

Y/n - I'm a really busy gal I don't know if I have the time

Unknown -  :(

Y/n - You have five minutes" make it count

Unknown - :)

He doesn't hesitate. You move answering the call.

"Hello beautiful," He says. I can hear the smirk in his voice. "Miss me?"

"Not really," You answer.

"Wow brutal," He says, "is that how you handle all the trolls online? Or those bitchy reporters?"

"I take them down with more force," You reply, "swift, forceful."

"Mmm so you like fast and forceful?" He asks. You roll your eyes.

"Yeah you wish," You say, "can't last long enough can you?"

"Wanna test that?" He says, "I'm sure I'll make it worthwhile."

"You said that last time."

"And I kept my promise didn't I?" He asks.

"Sure," You reply, "if that's what you want to hear."

"Oh come on you seemed to like it last night~" He teases, "I mean come on I had you moaning so loud. It's a good thing I don't have any neighbors."

"You ever hear of faking it?"

"Don't mock me like that," He says, "you know I'm fragile."

"You are anything but fragile," You say, "by the way you have 3 minutes."

"Oh you're really timing me?" He asks, "you're brutal. How am I supposed to make you fall in love with me if you won't play along."

"Fall for you? Is that what you think is gonna happen?" You ask.

"Not if you don't play along," He pouts, "come on what is it that makes you not want to fall for me? I mean I'm hot. I'm good in bed. I admire the fact you are also hot and good in bed."

"Sorry Hawks but I don't fall in love like that," You shrug, "besides your not my type."

"What?" He asks, "how am I not your type. You slept with me. Aren't you like attracted to me."

"Physically," You cut him off, "but romantically you aren't the type I go for."

"What do you go for?"

"Mm hold that thought for another day Hawks... you are out of time," You smirk.

"What? No way!" He exclaims, "you're really gonna leave right now?"

"Sorry I'm a busy gal," You say, "try again another day~"

You end the call before you can say anything else. While you were entertained with your game deciding to move to your night time routine. Poor Hawks on the other hand was staring at your number clearly frustrated with you taking his chance from him. It's his game. He isn't the one who gets played. He's the player!

"She's so cheeky," He says softly, "well guess I have to just try harder."

And so his new mission is set.

"Impression I need those reports asap," You say looking firmly at the pro, "you're behind as it is and I need you to look at the kids from the sports festival. You know internships are important for rising heroes to bring attention to the agency so you want to bring in a few kids to work with."

"I hate to interrupt," Kami says approaching me, "but something came for you."  You look over at her to see her holding a bouquet full of flowers. Roses.

"You hookup with someone last night?" Impression asks, "because they seem to be a bit of a simp."

"Not a hookup just a parasite," You say taking the flowers from her. You look at the card and your suspicions are confirmed.

Hey beautiful, you aren't playing the game right  - Hawks

"Who's it from?" Impression asks. You show him the card and he just chuckles lightly. "Well now you'll know not to mess with guys like him." You sigh as you move to your desk. You place them carefully in the vase as the two heroes look at me.

"Is he just too attached or is it something?" Kami asks.

"He's trying to play my game," You say simply, "he wants me to fall for him. I want him to fall for me. He wants to be the player, I want to be the heart breaker."

"Two players hookup and now one of them has to finally lose," Kami says, "that's so fanfic. I love it."

"At least it makes my game more interesting," You say. You pull your phone out and send on message to the man.

Y/n - I like daisies more

Kami leans over my shoulder to see the message and smirks lightly.

"Wow you really are just playing him like a violin," She says, "that's exciting."

"Exciting or not it's my personal life and we are still on the clock. So back to what I was saying and Kami this involves you. Pick out the kids you want extend offers to by tonight so I can call the schools to set everything up. Alright?"

"Yes Ma'am," Impression says, "I'll get right on that."

"Yep," Kami says.

As they move off I sit down at my desk to start on my reports. I get through about half when my phone starts to buzz against the desk. I look down to see Hawks messaged me back.

Hawks - Do I at least get points for trying?

Y/n - No

Hawks - boo

                ur making the game hard

Y/n - you don't have to play we could just return to our normal lives

Hawks - You don't want to play?

                  :(

Y/n - I'll admit that I'm enjoying this game. It's harder this way. Which makes it so much more fun...

Hawks - Then it's settled we have to finish the game.

Y/n - Sounds good to me

        I can't wait to win

Hawks - Well look who sounds cocky now

Y/n - I have to get back to work

        Besides I'm sure you have to as well

Hawks - boo

You decide to put your phone away and go back to the reports. At the end of your shift Kami waves you down to to invite you to a club. You accept. Walking closely with her and a couple of the sidekicks. It's a impromptu girls night apparently. She had gathered a bunch of the ladies in the office and dragged you all into a club to unwind.

You swirl the vodka and redbull mix as you look over at her.

"Do you want to settle down?" She asks me.

"Settle down?" You ask, "no I really don't. I want to enjoy my youth not worry about some girl or guy that's also trying to figure their life out."

"What about that Edgeshot?" She offers, "you've slept with him a bunch and you said you like him."

"I like him the same way you like that booty call you keep going back to," You correct, "it's physical but he's boring. I want someone who's fun and hot. Someone who can keep up with me."

"Who does that sound like?" She asks.

"No one," You chuckle, "if I met someone like that I'd eat them right up." I sip my drink as she glares lightly at me.

"Okay okay so you don't want to settle down," She says, "you want this picture perfect person first try. Do you think we live in a fairy tale?"

"No," You say honestly, "but I know I don't want to date anyone until I find someone who sticks out. Someone who sees me as more than a pretty face ya know? Like okay take the guys I hook up with. They are fun and attractive. But they don't want the emotional stuff. Which is fine cause they are hookups. But if I wanted something real. Something long term. I'd want this person to connect with me on a spiritual level. Match my fast life ya know."

"You're too picky," She slurs.

"You're too boring," You say, "okay- as fun as this girls night is... I'm bored. Soooo how about bow tie over there?"

"You gonna take him home?"

"If he'll have me," You smirk. You stand flipping your skirt up to make it just a bit shorter then ruffle your hair lighter. "Okay how do I look?"

"Hot," She says. You nod.

"Perfect now come dance with me," You say. You take her hand dragging her to the dance floor. As the fast pace song comes on the two of you moving dancing together. Doing pretty much everything to draw attention of the guys scouting for a hook up. Some guy moves offering to by Kami a drink leaving you dancing with one of the sidekicks. Suddenly you feel a finger tap on your shoulder. You turn to see a familiar face. But it's completely out of place. "Hawks? What are you doing here?"

"You texted me," He says, "'come to Veil I need someone to party with'"

"That sneaky bitch," You say softly.

"What?" He asks.

"My coworker texted you," You explain, "she loves to meddle you know."

"So I was pulled into something?" He asks, "I can't believe I'm being used. What a shame I was super excited to see you cave. And well to see you like this." You chuckle lightly.

"Well if you're already here... I guess it wouldn't hurt for you to buy me a drink," You suggest. He chuckles.

"Well I'm not opposed to spending time with you," He says, "come on."

You lead him to the bar. Each of you order your drink then he hands his card over.

"You party on weekdays often?" He asks me.

"Only when someone else suggests it," You answer, "I'm not going to be the one who leads the decision but I will gladly take advantage of the chance. Do you normally send roses to girls you hookup with?"

"I hate to admit it but you're the first," he says, "you're the only one playing the long game. You'll take a bit more work."

"Will I?" You ask, "mother always said I was high maintenance."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah I always had to have the best growing up," You tell him, "you know I attended UA? It was for General Studies sure but still. And I went to UA's college."

"Wow flashy school," He says.

"Yeah well I had to get in even if it wasn't to be a hero," You share, "it was the best. My mother wasn't a fan on the fancy private school price tho."

"I can imagine," He says, "what does your mother do?"

"She was a baker," You tell him, "she passed my last year of high school."

"I'm sorry for your loss," He says softly.

"It's in the past," You say, "what about you?"

"My parents they aren't around," He says.

"I'm sorry," You say.

"Don't be," He says, "sometimes thats better."

"I get what you mean," You tell him, "pops ran out on my mom and I when I was in middle school. He was the worst. Alcoholic who beat on my mom and I. He died last year. And somehow to me thats better than having him alive."

"Ah tragic origin stories," Hawks says, "they really bread some great people."

"I know," You say, "cheers to that." You both clink your drinks together. You chug as much as you can. Hawks is slightly taken back but quickly moves to keep up. You set down the empty class and look back to him. "Come dance with me."

"Of course beautiful," he says smirking. You move dragging him onto the dance floor. Dancing to the fast song. He's all smiles as he watches you move. He can't tell if its the alcohol or if you are just that care free. But watching you move like you were the only person in the room was hypnotic.

After a couple songs he can't hold it back anymore.

"I hate to break the mood but- you're really making it hard for me to hold back," He groans.

"My place is down the street," You tell him, "one portal and we can be there in a flash."

"I'd like that very much," He says. You move taking his hand and leading him towards the wall. You place your hand on the wall and the portal opens.

"Last chance to back out," You tell him.

"I don't back out," He says. You smirk.

"Good," You say pulling him through the portal to your home.

[hashtagartistlife]

Maybe fate was called fate because some things weren’t choices; some things were simply written into his DNA, woven into the very fabric of the universe. World orders. The sky is blue. The sun is hot. He is in love with Kuchiki Rukia.

Kuchiki Rukia is dying.  

Ten years after the defeat of Yhwach, it’s time Ichigo and Rukia started facing some truths— about the world, about themselves, and about each other. 

so, i haven’t written anything decent in over a year, but i AM sitting on literal tens of thousands of words of unfinished fic, and i figure, what the hell, there’s some good writing in here that deserves to see the light of day. so in that vein, here’s a couple chapters of my absolute favourite unfinished fic, the one i’m almost too scared to work on because i just want it to be that good. god give me the perseverance and skill to finish this one day because if i leave any legacy behind in the bleach fandom i want it to be this fic. 

the premise for this fic can be found here | this is chapter 1 | chapter 2

________________________________________________________________

F  r  a  y

 by hashtagartistlife

________________________________________________________________

It’s rotating

Rotating

Every time the sun and the moon touch each other

Constantly changing its appearance to something new

If there’s something that doesn’t change

It is my impotence

It’s rotating

If destiny is made of gears

And we are the sand in between that is torn apart

There’s nothing left to do but be powerless

If I cannot protect by just extending my hand

I want a blade so I can reach in front of her

The power to crush destiny

—looks like a blade that has been swung down

  One

.

.

.

12 years ago

Karakura Town

Rukia sleeps like the dead. The irony of this isn’t lost on Ichigo, as he glances out the corner of his eyes to see her out like a light against his covers, her homework splayed everywhere like she isn’t just going to make him do it for her at the last minute again. Her eyes are closed and she looks peaceful, even as her arms are twisted under her at an awkward angle. She was going to get cramps if she kept sleeping like that. He calls her name, softly and then a little louder, but she doesn’t budge an inch.

He sighs and gathers her up in his arms; she stirs a little, murmuring a sleepy protest that he ignores. He settles her in the closet and arranges the blankets, taking a moment to study the lines of her face.

“Idiot,” he mutters, “stop falling asleep on my bed. I’ll just push you onto the floor next time.”

It’s a lie. Rukia’s only reaction to this is to shift a little in her sleep, to curve her body in his direction like a plant tending towards the sun. He smiles a little at that, despite himself, and fights an inane urge to sweep her hair off her forehead and place a kiss there. 

“Sleep well, Rukia,” he whispers instead, and slides the closet door shut.

She does.

.

.

.

Present Day

Soul Society

Rukia never sleeps.

She wanders through the halls of Kuchiki Manor like a ghost, weaving in and out of lucidity; she’s never slept particularly well, even as a Rukon street rat, but this… this sleepwalking is new. Renji himself tended to be a light sleeper, a product of their shared childhood when uninterrupted sleep had been a luxury they couldn’t afford, but not to this extent. He silently watches the dark circles under her eyes grow bigger and deeper with every passing day, and worries.

In the beginning, the smallest things had woken her up. She often stirred beside him, restless and alert, till well into the small hours of the morning. When he’d brought it up, she’d brushed it off; she’s always had trouble sleeping, she said. He should know this by now, and it isn’t anything to worry about—she can take care of herself, Renji, didn’t he trust her? It had sounded an awful lot like a dismissal, a warning to drop it, so he had.

But then she’d had Ichika, and things changed.

The first time he catches her slipping out of bed, he assumes that she is going for a walk in the garden. It was a habit she was slipping into more nights than most, and he doesn’t think twice. But when he wakes up again in the pre-dawn, and discovers the futon beside him still empty, he panics. He finds her at the gate, a cold hand on the latch, as if to walk out; god knows how long she’s been there for. When he touches her on the shoulder, turns her around, she blinks like she’s surfacing from a trance. Her eyes haze, then refocus.

“Renji…?” she asks, in a voice so thready it’s barely audible, “What are you doing here?”

He swallows the same question rising in his throat and mutters something hasty about how she’s been too tired lately; she should take the day off. She looks surprised at that, and quietly follows him back to the manor. She does as he advises and stays home that day.

It doesn’t help. The very next night Renji catches her slipping out of bed again. He grabs her by a wrist, but then she turns to him and whispers, eyes clear—

“Ichigo?”

He freezes, and when she pulls her arm from his grip, he lets her slip through his fingers once more.

Ichigo?

His hands fist in the sheets of their shared bed; he hasn’t seen an expression like that on her in over a decade. Hopeful, young, happy—

A boy with bright orange hair, and a sword as long as his height.

Renji finds, once again, that he is at a loss for what to do next.

He thinks that maybe he didn’t have a clue from the start.

.

.

.

Present day

10:05 am

Karakura Town

 A beat of silence, then—

“Yo.”

“Hey!”

His face is familiar, but the carefully mild expression on it is not. Rukia finds that she dislikes it, but it isn’t her place to say anymore. She shoulders her way into the clinic, and ignores the way the heat of his body still radiates like it did ten years ago.  She scoffs a little, wracks her mind for an appropriate jab that might recapture their easy banter from once upon a time; but what leaves her lips makes little sense, considering the fact that this is her first time seeing him in ten years (let alone setting foot in the clinic). Thankfully, he rises to the bait.

“I see this little place is as empty as ever. And is that—yup, I think I even hear some crickets!”

“Shut up. This is an emergency clinic, so it’s a good thing it’s empty, isn’t it?”

He hasn’t lost his habit of grumbling under his breath about her insults. Rukia allows a small smile to touch her lips as she makes her way to the living room, confident with the layout of the place; she doubts renovation is a thought that crosses his mind with any frequency. She encounters the old Karakura gang, and the twins; they’d all grown so much. The twins, especially; she would have gathered them both into hugs and pat them on their heads, had they not both been grown women and far taller than her now. Orihime comes down to greet her, beaming, in an apron—there’s an edge of surrealism to all of this, almost. She looks well, and for that, Rukia is glad. Everyone looks well. Peacetime suits them.

There’s a small kerfuffle as Ichigo rejoins them, and he points out that her daughter is missing. Rukia starts, and finds it to be true. She and Renji split up to find her; Ichigo accompanies her, nagging all the while.

“—nbelievable, how do you lose your own daughter—“

“Hey, I don’t see your child hanging around the premises! Don’t you have a son, too?”

“Kazui’s—Kazui’s fine, Orihime’s keeping a watch on him—“

“Yeah, well, I’m telling you Ichika’s fine too, there’s nothing in the human world that could possibly hurt her—“

She stumbles; a wave of vertigo hits her and she loses her balance, careening towards the asphalt in front of his house. He’s there in an instant, arms strong around her waist; he pulls her back upright and doesn’t let her go. “Easy—“

She pulls away, only to sway again and grip onto his arm for support. Shit, not this today. She thought it had been getting better lately—Ichigo didn’t need to deal with this.

His brow furrows, and he almost looks fifteen again. “Hey, Rukia, are you—“

“—I’m fine,” she cuts him off, struggling to sound nonchalant, but the hand fisted in his shirt is trembling. She’ll let go soon, when the world around her stops spinning. “I’m just a little tired—“

“Rukia,” he says quietly, and she ignores him, focusing on channelling strength back into her legs. For the love of everything holy, why couldn’t she stop shaking—

“Rukia,” he repeats, louder, and grips her shoulders. “Rukia, stop—“

“Stop what?” she asks weakly, then: “Oh.”

His hair and clothes are dusted white with snow; the tips of his fingers, where he’s touching her, are frosted over blue. Ice creeps over the street and telephone poles in tendrils. Rukia heaves an unsteady breath and closes her eyes, pulling the fraying edges of her reiatsu back within herself.

When she opens them again, he’s inches from her face.

“Kami—“ she jerks back, snatching her arm from his grasp. “Have you ever heard of personal space, Ichigo—“

“Like you ever respected mine?” he retorts, but straightens up; his hands rub the nape of his neck. “What was that, Rukia?”

“Nothing,” she snaps. She draws her arms around herself to still the trembling. “Like I said, I’m tired—“

“To this extent? How hard are they working you over at the Seireitei—“

“I can take care of myself!” the words come out too loud, echoing in the empty street. “Need I remind you, I’m centuries older than you are—“

“Well maybe if you weren’t such a midget I’d remember that once in a while—“

“Hey, Ichigo, Rukia! We found her!” Renji’s call interrupts their bickering, and they draw away from each other hastily; they’d been leaning in towards each other again. Rukia deliberately turns away from Ichigo.

“You found her? Where was she?”

“In Ichigo’s room. Well, Yuzu’s room, now, I suppose. She was with Kazui. I think we were worried for nothing, Rukia, they get along like a house on fire.”

“Oh—good. Good.” She’s still a little disoriented, so Renji’s words are taking some time to sink in; he eyes her face, paler than usual, and steps up to put an arm around her. Ordinarily, she would have been annoyed at him for that, but today she appreciates the support. She tries not to visibly sag as she leans against him.

Ichigo’s eyes burn holes into her all the way back to the clinic. 

.

.

.

9:46 pm

The rest of the day passes uneventfully. Rukia disguises the fatigue that has settled over her like a shroud by staying close to Renji and surreptitiously leaning against him whenever things get too hard. She puts on a bright façade for everyone else; she thinks she does a convincing job, too, but Ichigo’s eyes linger on her all the same. Orihime prattles on about how they hadn’t seen each other in ages and she’s so happy for the two of them and isn’t Ichika just a darling? They must be so proud—

She nods weakly, glad that Orihime is the kind of person who can hold up entire conversations on her own. She has missed them too, she has, how could she not—but the circumstances of their reunion are less than ideal, and she knows that she won’t be able to see them again for a long time after this. Even after ten years of stability, opening a doorway into the gensei is precarious business; missions in the world of the living are now all long-term, to minimise the number of passages being opened. Their own trip had been a very, very special extenuation, granted only because the reason the universe still stood as it did today was Ichigo.

A week was all they’d been given. After that, who knew when they could return? So, she is trying, she is trying—but her body is so, so heavy, and the pressure of keeping her wildly fluctuating reiatsu under wraps is taking its toll. She participates less and less in the conversation, hoping people won’t take notice.

Ichigo puts his foot down when she nods off for the fifth time in as many minutes; he cuts the party short and ushers everyone out, with the promise that they could all return tomorrow. She tries to protest when he directs them to the guest bedroom – ‘Urahara has a place for us, we shouldn’t intrude’—but it’s Orihime who tells them don’t be silly, Kazui and Ichika are such fast friends, it’d be a shame to split them up already. The children are excitedly building a pillow fort under the dining room table, and, too tired to argue, Rukia acquiesces.

As soon as Renji hits the bed, he falls straight asleep. He’s had a rough few nights, what with her tossing and turning keeping him awake, too, and Rukia feels a wave of guilt wash over her. She hopes tonight will be a little more restful for him. She stretches out gingerly on the double bed next to him, tucking the covers around her and closing her eyes.

The last thing she is conscious of before the suffocating embrace of sleep is the deep low hum of Ichigo’s reiatsu through the house.

.

.

.

2:57 am

Ichigo wakes to the sound of the clinic door opening.

Beside him, Orihime is still sound asleep; his wife had always been a deep sleeper, capable of ignoring storms, earthquakes, and anything else the Karakura night cared to throw at them. Ichigo, on the other hand, woke often; a holdover from nights spent hunting hollows, from sleep frequently interrupted by a hiss in his ear and a small hand slamming into his forehead. He sits up and shakes the last vestiges of his dreams –curiously unsettled tonight—from his mind, and shuffles outside to investigate.

It’s not the kids. They’re both fast asleep, holed up in their pillow fort; he tiptoes past them, careful not to wake either. He steps out onto the street, and his breath catches in his throat.

Rukia’s there. She’s ethereal in the moonlight, white skin almost glowing, that true-black hair swaying behind her with the wind. She’s looking up, up, up, to something he can’t see, and the curve of her neck and the delicate line of her wrists and ankles captivate him. Had she always been this fragile-looking?

“Rukia,” he rasps, voice still scratchy with sleep, “what are you doing?”

She turns her head to face him; her eyes are huge and dark like bruises in the pale moon of her face. Something about her gaze is both clear and dreamy; Ichigo has the feeling that she’s seeing right through him to something beyond, but also focusing on him with the kind of relentless intensity he only half-remembers from dreams of the past. She takes a tentative step in his direction. 

“Ichigo?” she asks, in a voice as intransient as smoke, and he does not back away.

“Yeah,” he whispers, “yeah, it’s me. I’m here.” 

She reaches for him and, instinctively, automatically, he mirrors her; he is expecting her to need support, to meet his hands with hers, but instead she goes straight past his open arms to place her hands on either side of his face.

Before he has time to react, she leans up and kisses him.

Everything in him short-circuits; the world slows and all he is aware of is the softness of her lips on his. They part slightly, and the breathy sigh she lets out electrifies all of his senses. Faster than his thoughts can catch up, his hands are gripping her shoulders and he thinks that maybe he meant to push her away, but finds he’s only clutching her closer, closer. His eyelids fall shut with a groan as her mouth opens under his — and then the kiss changes, dangerous and hot and wanting. 

He presses his face blindly into hers, and walks her backwards into the stone wall that surrounds his house. She lets out a tiny gasp as her back hits the rough surface, and he uses the distraction to sweep his tongue across hers. Her fingers curl viciously into his neck and he revels in the sensation; there’s nothing but her her her in this world, her taste in his mouth and her scent in his nose and the feel of her skin, fever-hot, against his own. His fingers move to tangle in her hair and she makes a noise at the back of her throat that destroys what little rationality he has left; he hitches her up against the wall and kisses her as though she’s about to dissolve into thin air.

They both draw back for air at the same time; their eyes meet across the infinitesimal space and then Rukia blinks, once, twice, before Ichigo sees something click back into those bruised-violet depths.

“Ichigo…?”

A realisation of his own slams into place; his eyes widen and he disentangles himself from her, stepping back frantically as though that will erase what has just transpired between them. He only barely resists the childish urge to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. Rukia slides down the wall without his weight holding her up; the dreamy glaze is gone completely from her eyes, and it’s replaced instead with a bone-deep weariness that sets Ichigo’s instincts on edge. Half of him wants to run far, far away from her, the other half wants to gather her into his arms and—

“Ichigo, what are you doing here?”

The tone of her voice, slightly irritated, so ridiculously normal, brings him back down to earth. He casts about in his jumbled mind for a suitable response and flings the first one he finds at her.

“Y—I could ask you the same thing—“

She seems to notice her surroundings then, looking side to side at the deserted street. An expression somewhere between horror and resignation crosses her face. “I—was I sleepwalking—?“

“Was that what it was?”  he retorts, the memory of the kiss burning in his mind. His face feels uncomfortably hot. “Rukia, what’s going on with you—“

“Nothing!” she snaps, but then she sways on the spot; in a flare of panic, Ichigo flash-steps beside her, and she falls into his chest. The spike of reiatsu through his body after not having called upon it for years makes his head spin, but he braces them both against a telephone pole and they manage to stay upright. Her jasmine-scented hair tickles his nose.

“Rukia—“ his voice is thick, choked, but she pushes him aside; impatient, indignant.

“I’m fine, Ichigo, you don’t have to treat me like a child—sleepwalking is hardly a medical emergency.”

She takes a deep breath, before standing on her own; her knees are a little wobbly, but she turns her back on him once more, just as she did that morning. “I’m going back to bed. You should, too.”

A pause. Then, softer; “Goodnight, Ichigo.”

The door to his clinic swings shut after her, and Ichigo slides down the telephone pole slowly.

His heartbeat thunders in his ears in a way that it hasn’t in ten years. 

[anchanted-library]

FFXIV Prompt. 06. Pathetic

Olivier eventually spoke up. "I've got one," he announced, pushing his blue-black hair out of his eyes. "But it's a sad one."

"Then why bring it up?" Alisaie objected, sour from having her spicy story silenced. 

"As a reminder that tragedies are just as important, for they have showed that we lived."

"Go on, then!" Thancred said, forestalling Alisaie's outburst, to which she glowered daggers at him. 

But he ignored her, his eyes instead meeting Y'Shtola, Urianger, Alphinaud, E'Nisse, and Erika's one by one. Since it was Olivier speaking, they had a fairly good idea of which story he would tell. But it was like he said, it was wrong to discount tragedies. And perhaps the little girl might better grasp Ryosen's present state of mind, and why some were reluctant to bring him into this.

"This exchange I witnessed not myself," Olivier said. "But heard from Papashan, once a Chief Paladin in service to the Sultana of Ul'dah."

Thancred saw Erika bite her tongue and understood why. That was not even close to the kindly Lalafell’s official title, but there was no need to bring that up right now

Yuyuhase Luluhase sat at a table belonging to one of the ale stalls lining the poorer markets in Ul'Dah. He was going through his third mug of cheap ale right now, and in the mood for a hundred more today, to celebrate how he had escaped Halatali by the skin of his teeth.

"Oi, Stocari!" he called the proprietor. "One more!"

"But sir, you're going through too many drinks at once!"

Yuyuhase stuffed a fistful of coins in his direction and screamed. "MORE! NOW!"

Someone approached him from the nearby gate and placed a bottle of brandy before him. "Here," the tall man said. "It's on me."

"Ahhhh, thank you!" Yuyuhase grinned at the bottle, not even looking at his newest, bestest drinking buddy. "You, sir, know how to make a Brave feel special!"

"Think nothing of it, sir."

"Oh but I cannot!" Yuyuhase cried, wasting no time pouring one for himself. He barked for another glass and filled that too, roughly pushing it towards the other. "You see, I cannot be paid enough to risk my life like I do. And I am barely getting paid at all these days!"

The other man made a sympathetic noise. "That's such a shame!"

"Oh, but you have no idea, good sir!"

"What did you fight this time?"

"The traitors, the Scions! They were illegally attempting to save an accomplice and fellow traitor, former Flame General Raubahn, from his execution!"

"No!"

"Indeed!" Yuyuhase agreed heartily. "They are devils, the lot of them! They fight like men and women possessed! I don't often find myself fighting so desperately, but this time, oh boy!" He downed the glass in one. "MMMMMH that's good!" he cried. "Thank you for the drink, my good fellow!" he looked at his companion almost for the first time and his heart stopped. "You!" he hissed. He reached for his sword. "YOU!"

A blur of motion, a moment of pain and confusion, and Yuyuhase was looking up at the man from the floor. His own sword stuck out of his chest.

"Me," the Samurai said as he walked away as screams broke out throughout the plaza.

*

Ilberd Feare, Captain of the Crystal Braves following their betrayal of the Scions, stood before the Monetarist Council and raved. He incoherently ranted about Scions, traitors, Monetarists, money, and Scions again. He occasionally threw in the Garleans and Ala Mihgo in his tirade, because why not?

Lolorito was growing tired. He held up his hand. "Stop, stop!" he sneered. "You are making even less sense than usual. Why is it you are even here? Weren't you kicking your heels in Halatali? Didn't you kidnap ex-Flame General Raubahn—against orders—and take him for summary execution? Was killing a starved, one-armed prisoner beyond your meager abilities?"

"Hold your tongue, Lord Lolorito! After all I have done for you!"

"You botched everything!" Lolorito informed him coldly. "The whole episode was messed up so royally it's no wonder we didn't crown you 'King Botch'! The Scions were supposed to be contained, but you allowed every one of them to escape your clutches! How many of our men—yours and mine—died to stop a handful of escapees? The damage they caused cost several fortunes to repair! If I had been willing to part with so much money, I'd have just bought a fleet of yachts or the Sultana's personal chambers, or something of that sort! The only thing you succeeded in was capturing Raubahn, and even that was because I offered to let him see his beloved Sultana's body if he stood down!"

Ilberd growled. He foamed at the mouth. "So what? Didn't you get what you wanted? You rule Ul'dah unopposed! In exchange for my support, you promised to march on Ala Mihgo. Quit stalling! I demand you deliver on your promise!"

"You make no demands of me, backstabber!" Lolorito barked. "You were willing to sell your own grandmother for a vague promise to free Ala Mihgo! You are lucky the one whose promise you ultimately believed was mine and not Teledji! I will keep my promises. When resources allow it. That is a guarantee."

"It's not like I can ask for my money back!" Ilberd screamed, face going red. Heavens he was about to start off on another rant! "The day I turned my blade on the Scions I made an incalculably strong statement, one I can never take back even if I wished. All I've gotten in return are words."

"Well too bad, because my guarantee is all you will get for now," Lolorito said, studying his fingernails disdainfully. "Remember that had I been false, I would have eliminated you and your treacherous brethren a few Braves at a time but you first. For you are all massively loose ends. Yet you live. I have openly kept you in my service. I have protected you from Admiral Merlwyb and Elderseer Kan-E Senna. I have allowed you and your men to resupply for free from our armories and our food stores. I have authorized buildup of stockpiles near Baelsar's Wall. I will not have you question my commitment to our bargain again."

"Then why didn't you allow us to kill Raubahn?"

"Because he is useful to me!" Lolorito hissed so acidly that the Ala Mhigan revolutionary bared his teeth at him. 

"I have had enough of your shite!" he grated. "When you wake up tomorrow, there will be no Braves to watch your back."

"The Braves will be where I pay them to be. You, on the other hand, are free to go. A free man. And bearing the equipment I paid for. In fact—" Lolorito hurled a bag of coins in his direction, the one he carried for his daily petty expenses. It was worth at least five year's pay for the average high ranking Officer in any army. "For your services. Don't spend it all in one place."

The man's features clouded with disbelief. He stood rooted to the spot for the next minute, but what he ultimately would have done, even he never found out.

*

What happened next would go down in legends.

The door exploded inwards with such force it knocked over the heavy council table. Several of the Monetarists screamed pitifully, and ducked, and fled to the far corners of the room.

*

"Isn't the room round?" Erika wondered, not able to take another wild inaccuracy.

"Shhh," Olivier shushed her. "I'm trying to tell a story here!"

"He is good at telling stories," E'nisse commented. "I can see why Lucia likes him."

"Please?"

"Of course."

*

"What is the meaning of this?" Lolorito demanded, having been the only one to hold his seat. 

"Ryosen, the Samurai," Ilberd spat. "The one called the'Sword Saint'."

"And you," the Sword Saint whispered, his eyes burning, "are the one called the 'Rabid turncoat'."

"Mister Ryosen," Lolorito challenged him. "How dare you brandish weapons in here? This is a hallowed hall!"

"Not so hallowed that you don't lie and cheat!" the Samurai grated. "Or betray the ones who have saved you and yours time and again! I think the Twelve will agree that a trouncing is long overdue. The Kami of my people certainly would." He raised his weapon, and everyone was startled to see it was a baton—no, a thick flute—not a sword. "Tell me where the Scions are, or no one leaves today alive!"

Some of the cowering merchant elites moaned and whimpered. Some prayed to a god they would have tried to cheat only hours before.

Ilberd stepped forward, a nasty smile splitting his face. "They are dead, all of them! I killed them with this very sword!" He unsheathed his magnificent scimitar, Lionshead and kissed it. "You have some guts coming at me with that flute! You don't even have a real sword, and you dare think to 'avenge' those traitors as you are?" He leered at the wooden Bokken at the Samurai's waist.

"On your guard, turncoat!"

The two men stood regarding each other for several long moments. It occured to Lolorito to look outside the hall. Hundreds of guards stood outside, looking on pathetically. Brass Blades, Immortal Flames, Crystal Braves, and even some of the elite, white-clad Sultansworn. Not a one of them had opposed the Samurai's explosive entry into the very heart of the city. What had happened? How had he managed to so utterly cow several armies?

Then the tense standoff ended. The Samurai became a blur, disappearing and reappearing behind his opponent, with several loud thwacks of wood on skin echoed through the room. 

Ilberd roared with pain and his sword clanged to the floor from nerveless fingers. A heartbeat after, he fell to one knee, gasping for breath. One hand, the left one, clutched at his chest, where the flute—the damned flute!—had evidently struck at his solar plexus.

For the first time, real fear entered Lolorito's chest. He wondered if moving against the Scions hadn't been the worst decision of his life.

"Let's try that again," Ryosen said, his soft voice oozing with the menace of a dozen Garlean superweapons. "Where are the Scions?"

Cursing and glaring, Ilberd did not respond. After some time, he reached for his sword again, then got back to his feet. The Samurai made no move to stop him. Nor did his dangerous expression shift.

The Captain of the Braves issued a battle cry that resonated in the tall Council Chamber and assaulted his opponent with such reckless abandon that one would have sworn that the Samurai was his most hated enemy.

Ilberd was a skilled swordsman, that had been proven several times over. It had been proven when he disarmed the legendary Raubahn—distracted though he might have been. It had been proven—though to a much smaller audience, when he had been single-handedly responsible for his inner circle's escape from Halatali, where he had fought the Leader of the Merry Suns Legion, the mighty Eikon slayer. It had been proven in the dozens of battles he had fought in the thickest parts of the actions, and survived.

But it was clear to all how badly outmatched he was.

For one thing, the Samurai was using a flute to ward off attacks from live darksteel.

For another, that Samurai was barely moving. Only his left hand appeared to be in motion, knocking aside blow after blow after blow with such bored ease that it appeared comical. He did not even take a single step in any direction, absorbing the momentum of Ilberd's charge like it was nothing.

But Ilberd fought ferociously. He tried to flank the Eastern swordsman, to attack from below or above or behind, only to be thwarted without Ryosen even keeping his eye on him. 

The divide between them only infuriated Ilberd further, and he took to ever more reckless tactics. He leapt into the air and slammed his blade down, only for the Samurai to actually catch the blade with his empty right hand. He clenched his fist, infusing his grip with the same demonic strength that kept his flute from breaking against a sword's cruel edge, crumpling the steel like it was wet plaster. He punched Ilberd in the jaw and sent him sprawling into the splintered table. But Ilberd wasn't done. With swords working to no avail, he took to words. "So you want the Scions? I'll tell you where they are!" He grinned again, broader and more evilly than ever before. "Dead. Buried under a hundred tons of rubble. Their bones are probably flatter than pancakes right now."

He tried to charge forward again, only to trip and fall on his face.

"Yda and Papalymo were cornered in the Royal Promenade. They fought well, of course, but it was only a matter of time. They collapsed the stairs. Quite messy!"

He suddenly stood again and closed in on Ryosen, swinging his broad blade faster than the eye could see. A sound of wood hitting metal, and another of wood striking flesh, and Ilberd was sprawled on the table again, one foot in an awkward angle.

"Y'Shtola and Thancred put up a fierce last stand in the tunnels underneath the city, but they too set off an explosion that caused a heavy avalanche. So heavy was the rockfall that it sunk sections of the wall. Nasty business!"

He stood again to his full height. This time, he advanced at a painfully slow pace.

"Some of the others escaped, of course—" and here his smile grew even more twisted. Before his next words were out of his mouth, Lolorito already knew that he was about to overstep.

"But Minfilia, precious Minfilia Warde, is missing! No one knows what could possibly have happened to her! Me? I think her bones rest in the sewers somewhere..."

What happened next, no one could tell. The flute had fallen from the Samurai's hand; he had unsheathed instead the wooden sword at his waist. He had, once again, gotten behind Ilberd in the blink of an eye, with only the cacophony of wood striking flesh, cloth, leather, and iron mail to hint at his ferocious attack.

"Eh?" Ilberd uttered before he fell onto the grounds as a dozen disconnected body parts. His expression was pure, soul crushing shock. Evidently the Samurai had sliced him up as easily with an edgeless, wooden blade as he would have with a sword. Why would the man even need one if he was so deadly?

Belatedly, the warning of the east-obsessed merchant Garumi Borofumi; "This man was introduced as ‘ Kensei ’—which roughly translates to ‘Sword-Saint’! It is a title far more illustrious and prestigious than all of us combined could ever accomplish! It is only given to the most gifted of swordsmen, with its bearers being considered to be of such skill far surpassing human ability! I don’t think there have been more than three bearing that title in the last six hundred years!" Time seemed to have stopped, but then it began to move again, and it came with the most curious sensations.

For a second, Lolorito fancied that he smelled some sweet flower—A cherry blossom?—But then the only smell filling his nostrils was Ilberd's blood and guts.

He thought he felt ice coating his skin, and the hairs on his moustache and beard; but it was just the cold grip of terror.

He imagined the sensation of moonlight falling on his outstretched limbs, but then he felt as if he had been tossed into the darkest hole on the face of the source, and far away from even the memory of light.

The Samurai now turned his attention fully to him. "Where... are... the Scions?"

*

Ryosen walked dejectedly out of the city of Ul'dah. No one tried to stop him. For better or worse, he had made his point. He walked up to the exit from the underground tunnels, the ones the surviving Scions had fled out from. His composure hung by a thread. 

He had been helping the Kobolds at dig 789 for over three months. They needed help toughening up, and he was glad of the task. Teaching was one of the expected pastimes of his title, and though he had no longer any claims to it, he appreciated the brief return to his oaths. 

He had found the Kobolds good students, eager to learn how to defend themselves. And he had a small something to look forward to upon his return to Mor Dhona—his official engagement to Minfilia. 

Every moment had been fun, but also agony. He wanted to be with her again, to share their dinners. He had often wondered if she remembered to sleep. And then one day, Admiral Merlwyb had issued forth from Limsa Lominsa herself to bring him the news. She had been appalled that he hadn't heard what had befallen his treasured comrades. Her words, spoken in a gentler tone than he'd ever suspected possible from her, had shattered his world.

He had fallen unconscious from the ensuing panic attack, with tremors racking his body and his nerves on edge for days afterwards.

Merlwyb had told him there were survivors, but his memory of that conversation had grown hazy. So, he decided to get his answers from Ul'dah instead, after which he would teach them what the wrath of a Kensei felt like. 

After that...

He hadn't planned that far ahead. Could not. His steps were faltering and pained. Pathetic. Too much so for one called the sword saint. 

Truly, he had mocked that hallowed title enough with each blasphemous breath he took. 

But what did that matter any more? Unlike most of the other Scions, there wasn't even a rumor of her survival. And in his heart, he already knew that he would not see her on this world again. 

He would walk into the caverns, he decided. And he would die there. He would find a spot that felt like Minfilia might have spent her last moments. And he would wait there for thirst and dust to end his own miserable life.

*

[eternal-love-song]

Sick Beds and Hospital Blues

Ochako gets hurts. Denki visits her in the hospital.

[Kaminari x Ochako] [Pre-relationship, hospital visits, crushes, developing relationships]

He could hear the beeping of machines before he'd even entered the room properly. Denki hesitated at the door, hand on the doorknob as he prepared himself for what he would see. This wasn't the first time one of his classmates had ended up the hospital, but it was the first time that that classmate was also the girl he had a crush on. He turned the door knob slowly, moving into the room cautiously as if afraid to make too much noise or move too quickly.

Ochako looked... bad. She was pale with dark circles under her eyes, there was an iv in her arm, an oxygen mask on her face, and the heart monitor beeping steadily. He closed the door behind him, not able to take his eyes off of her for a long moment.

"I'm back," he said softly. Denki wasn't expecting a response, but he couldn't stand how quiet it was room. The noise of the heart monitor only emphasized how silent it was and he was filled with the need to make it feel more alive.

"I brought you some flowers," he told her as he moved closer to the bed. "I wasn't sure what you would like, so I got a few different one. Maybe it will make this place look a little more cheerful." He placed the sunflowers in a vase on her bedside. He had a small collection of red, pink, and yellow flowers that he placed on a table on the other side of the room, wanting to spread out the splashes of color.

He moved a chair closer to the bed and sat down. He reached out, hesitated for a long moment, before taking one of her hands in both of his. Her hand felt cold and he cradled it carefully.

"You're cold," he told her. "You'd think they'd keep it warmer in here. You shouldn't have sick people catching colds." He laughed a little at his joke, but it was weak and forced and didn't last long. He stayed down at her hand between both of his. "I'd ask if you're doing okay in here, but I'm not sure you'd be able to answer me."

Her hand twitched and Denki's eyes rose immediately, studying her face. Her hand squeezed his weakly before her eyes slid open. "Kami..nari..."

"Hey." He moved closer to her, forcing a smile that was calmer than he felt. "How do you feel?"

"Tired," she answered.

He held her hand a little tighter. It was a relief to see her awake and speaking, even if it took visible effort for her to do so. "You can go back to sleep," he told her. "You need all the rest you can get."

She smiled at him, though it looked as weak as his own. "You didn't come all this way to watch me sleep."

"I came here to make sure you were okay," he told her. "Seeing you awake at all is enough for me."

"I didn't think you'd be so worried." The words caused something painful to clench around his heart. Something that wished they were closer, that she knew how he felt for her, but he swallowed the words before they could burst out of him.

"Of course I'm worried," he told her. "We're classmates."

"Yeah... we are." She closed her eyes, squeezing his hands again. 

Denki watched her, reaching out to stroke her hair out of her face. She leaned into his touch and he felt his heartbeat stutter and quicken in turn.

"Will you still be here when I wake up?" she asked him.

"I'll try to be," he told her. "And I'll come back every day to see you."

"Do you promise?" she opened her eyes as she asked him. 

"I promise," he answered.

Ochako closed her eyes again. "Thank you."

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

Denki kept his promise to her. He came to visit her every day, which went a long way to making her feel less lonely. Some of her other classmates came to visit her, of course, but there were days when it was too quiet, too still, too white and it began to grate on her. On those days, she couldn't have been more grateful to have Denki visiting her. 

Once a week he brought her flowers. All bright colors that he scattered around the room to remind her what color was like. She always thanked him, but she never mentioned how much she thought they saved her sanity. She would go crazy having to stare at the white walls all day. 

Ochako was a little embarrassed to realize how much she didn't know Denki at all. He was a chatterbox, that didn't surprise her, but he was also really thoughtful, easily embarrassed by compliments, and a really great story teller. He told her what she missed in class, funny moments between him, Sero, and Kirishima, and he even gossiped with her. She hadn't known that he was so fun and easy to talk to and it didn't take long for her to start looking forward to his visits.

It was honestly kind of sad for her when she was told that she could leave the hospital and go back to school soon. She was nervously playing with her fingers when Denki showed up again.

"Hey," he greeted her with his usual smile. She was still surprised by how perceptive he could be, because by the time he was sitting in the chair next to her, he looked worried. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," she told him. The words felt heavy on her tongue, almost like a lie. She pushed that thought away though. "Actually, I got good news."

"Oh yeah?" His smile was trying to come back, he was watching her so closely, so carefully. She blushed as she looked away from him.

She pushed down her nervous and made herself smile. "They say that I can get out of here tomorrow."

Denki lit up as bright as the sun and she found herself very abruptly pulled into a hug. "That's great!" Her face heated up immediately and he didn't seem to realize what he'd done until he pulled back, scratching the back of his head. "Um, sorry."

"No, it's alright!" She said too quickly. Her eyes went back to her hand and she couldn't help fidgeting. "Um... actually, I wanted to ask you something?"

"Anything."

Hesitantly, she looked up at him without raising her head. "Will... once I'm back at the dorms, can we still... hang out?"

The shock on his face surprised her. "You... you want to?"

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked. "You've been a life saver this whole time and..." she bit her tongue for a moment to forestall her words, but then decided to push them all out anyway in one rush. "I like you!"

"Really?" He asked, leaning closer to her. He took her hands in hers, looking down at her as she was. "Do you really mean it?"

"Yeah," she said softly.

She looked up to find him looking up at her too. "Me too," he told her. "I've liked you from the beginning."

"Wha? Really?" She knew her eyes must have been as wide as a  dinner plate, but she couldn't help it. She hadn't imagined that anyone would like her and especially not someone that she liked, too.

He chuckled and she could hear the self deprecation in it. "I never thought you'd like someone like me, so..." He shrugged.

She squeezed his hand still in hers. "Don't talk about yourself like that! You're great! You're super nice and funny and..." She blushed and her voice lost some of her volume as she continued. "I would really like spending more time with you."

He squeezed her hand back. His smile was back to being a million watts. "I would love to spend more time with you," he said.

The words made her feel warm and tingling, like the butterflies in her stomach were also on fire. But it was... nice. She liked feeling this way. She liked her hanging out with him. She couldn't wait to see where this led.

[beans-shadow]

looking for the truth (pt 10)

Fandom: Naruto

Relationship: Kakasaku

Characters: Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura

read on ao3: here

part one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen

Kakashi and Sakura finally figure out about the Mountain Stream's plan.

---

When Kakashi woke, he felt a strange weight pressing down on his bare chest. He tried to remain calm, keep his eyes closed, and scan out for what his aggressor was trying to do.

But there was a distinct lack of movement around him, and no foreign chakra signatures. Still motionless, from habit Kakashi opened only his right eye. He stilled when he saw Sakura’s arm draped over his body, her face pointing towards his shoulder, causing little winds of breath to brush on him. Somehow, during the night, they had shifted. Kakashi was baffled, as he typically never moved when he slept.

First, he sleeps through the night; now, he moved around in bed?

He started to sweat slightly, worried his revelation last night was the cause of this behavior. He’d thought with admitting his feelings, he could get over his attraction to Sakura, but it seemed his body had different ideas. His mind as well; all night, he dreamt they led a calm life, simply caring for dogs and herbal medicines, without having to worry about the call of their Hokage. It was blissful, and Kakashi longed for that feeling again.

He supposed he could enjoy her arm around him as a momentary replacement.

Trying not to be too creepy, Kakashi gazed lazily and happily at the sleepy-headed ninja. A small smile on her face, she snored through some captivating dream of her own. All the worry of impressing Tsunade as a protégé, living up to Naruto’s heroics, and moving past Sasuke’s antics were gone from her face in her peaceful sleep. Kakashi could see passed her all walls now: and there she was, the strong, fearsome, amazing Sakura. A world-renowned medic-nin, intelligent beyond belief, and with a well of chakra reserve that Kakashi envied. Hard to those she first meets, always trying to prove herself, but soft and caring to those she trusted. Her insecurities from childhood had not left her, but now she adapted them to her own uses, and she only came out more confident because of them.

Her arm pushed on his chest, and she wriggled ever so slightly closer to him. In a state of vulnerability, Kakashi brought free hand up to his face. Slowly, he tugged a finger underneath his mask – he was back to wearing his black one for the night – and started to pull it down. The brush of air on his upper lip was refreshing, and he desperately found himself wanting to expose his face to this pink-haired woman.

Then she snorted, sending a gust of air in Kakashi’s face from the pure force of her nose muscles alone. She twitched in the motion of one waking up, and Kakashi hastily shoved his mask back up. In her half-sleep, Sakura removed her arm from his chest, instead using it to rub her face harshly.

“Grmmph,” she grumbled, removing the sleep from her eyes. While shaking out her hair like a dog’s, Kakashi laughed.

She jumped in the bed, clutching her chest. “Great Kami, Kakashi, don’t scare me like that!”

“Scare you?” He asked, amused. “We’ve been sleeping the same bed for a few days now. Why did I scare you?”

“Hmm... I don’t know,” she replied, confused now. “Guess I’ve just gotten too used to it.” She flipped around, which Kakashi was happy about because it meant she couldn’t see the crinkles by his eyes from his smile at her words.

“What time is it?”

“Dunno,” Kakashi said, folding his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

“You don’t know?” Sakura turned back to him. “You, Kakashi, the man stuck up about being on time whenever we have missions, don’t know the time?”

“What do you mean, I was always late,” Kakashi said, scrunching his forehead. But when he looked at Sakura, he saw the jesting light in her eyes, and rolled his own. “Oh. I see what’s happening here.”

“Not that sharp this morning, are you?” She continued to tease him, punching him on the shoulder. Damn. Kakashi tried not to show how much it hurt when she did that. She really didn’t hold back her strength around other ninja. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Not sure,” Kakashi said, worried now she might go down a line of inquiry too dangerous to navigate. “Guess I figured it didn’t matter what we did, since we can’t do anything without Pakkun’s next report.”

Sakura could not voice her agreement, as with the mention of his name, with a poof the pug appeared at the foot of their bed.  

“Boss!” Pakkun shouted, his body taut with urgency, startling Kakashi. “I snuck in underground. The place is crawling with dirt, scientists, and laboratories. It’s not pretty. There was some shouting, like people were in pain or sorrow. I could smell fear and death down there too, but I had to leave before I was spotted.”

Kakashi let out a growl. “Darn. We won’t be able to infiltrate during any distracting celebration, if there are people in pain. We can’t sit around and wait. We’ll have to make a plan and execute as soon as possible, hopefully tonight. Let’s get ready for the day and start preparations.”

“We should pack up too,” Sakura added, already standing by her side of the bed. There was a dark, grim look on her face. “I have a feeling we won’t be staying the night.”

---

The next few hours went by in a blur. As Kakashi made the bed and packed their clothes, Sakura made shinobi food packets: small food pills with enormous amounts of calories that would last them days if they needed to flee quickly. Kakashi prayed it would not come to that; the pills always took a deep toll on his body after years of ANBU.

During their preparations, Pakkun returned to their inn room. In his mouth was a scroll with the Yamanaka seal.

Dropping it on the table where Kakashi was finishing up on the last backpack, Pakkun said “Found a Konoha messenger bird hiding outside. Assumed it was for you two.”

Sakura dropped her work in the kitchen to sprint over, ripping he scroll from Kakashi’s hand. Unfurling it, her eyes scanned quickly as she deciphered the basic ninja code.

“Well?” Kakashi prompted.

“They did a chemical analysis on the soil,” Sakura said, still reading. “The same as before, since they’ve always been thorough and checked each package upon initial import into the village. But this time, they’ve found traces of hallucinogens in the bacteria, but small levels.” She squinted. “Wait, she said they also reanalyzed after those samples came back, and found the density of the compounds was increasing significantly. After the third analysis, the chemical volume had doubled again.”

“Dammit!” Sakura snarled, throwing the scroll to the side. She crossed her arms. “Something has been activated in the soil being imported, I have no doubt about it.”

“Is that possible?” Kakashi asked, head cocked. “To do a remote biological activation?”

Sakura shook her head. “That’s not what I mean.” Gesturing in the air, she tried to explain. “It’s simply a matter of time. I’m sure this special bacteria Futoshi and the Daimyo can’t stop mentioning has a lifespan. At some point of maturity, bacteria can start releasing different chemicals. These ones probably happen to release some toxic chemical where our bodies respond to it as if it were a psychedelic or psychotic drug.”

Kakashi’s body went cold. “What exactly would it do to us, our village?”

Sakura shook her head again, eyes sorrowful. “We can’t know for sure, without seeing empirical evidence. There are so many compounds out there, with different signs, symptoms, as well as effect manifestation.”

“Empirical evidence?”

Now a look of desperation tossed Kakashi’s way. “As in, waiting to see it affect one of our citizens.”

Kakashi had had enough. “That’s it,” he announced. “We’re not waiting for nightfall. We leave now.”

---

As they ran through the shadows and rooftops, Kakashi’s mind grew darker and darker. From the beginning, this town had seemed almost harmless. Tsunade had mentioned chemical warfare, but Futoshi seemed to dull to think of anything sinister. The Daimyo, while a bad father figure, did not seem to have the capabilities of a direct attack on the most powerful village in the region.

Then Kakashi glanced at Sakura, headband back proudly on her forehead. Her eyes were slits as she concentrated.

She did not seem to have the capabilities of a great shinobi, and she’d proven him wrong.

Goodness knows how many devastating events have occurred due to Kakashi being wrong.

Readying to find something monstrous, Kakashi tightened his fists behind him. Anything was possible, and from what Pakkun described, it sounded awful.

The pug led them through winding pathways until they reached a specific manhole on the outskirts of town. Kakashi tossed the cover to the side, allowing Pakkun and Sakura to dive in before he covered up their disappearance.

The sewer system was pristine in terms of upkeep. There was no source of light, but the walls and pipes were in such good condition, Kakashi wondered where all the workers must be if they had to maintain this constantly.

Sakura was occupied with a different train of thought. “This reminds me of that hidden base of Orochimaru,” she said, rubbing her chin. “People only go to these lengths if they have something they really do not want discovered. Below ground also limits the exposure to sunlight, and keeps temperatures cool. Perfect experimentation climates.”

Kakashi nodded along with her insights. That all made sense, if the Land of Mountain Streams was indeed cooking up some evil bacteria.

“They obviously keep this place extraordinarily clean too,” she mentioned, touching the shining tile work that functioned as the sewer walls. “They must be disinfecting to prevent contamination, given the fact that if these waters were exposed, it would reach every nook and cranny of their village.”

Hmm, Kakashi thought. There was his answer.

Pakkun also agreed. “That’s also why it took me so long to find this place. I kept losing track of the scent. Everything being so hygienic or mixed with cleaning supply fragrances made me go in circles, or find those other vaults. But I finally found the way to what we are looking for.”

After around half an hour more of sewer wandering, Pakkun’s body grew stiff. “We’re close. Time to keep it down.” They become one with the shadows once more, drawing ever nearer to the gray wall Pakkun had described before. It was seamless with its surroundings; airtight, just as Pakkun had said. There was no doorknob visible, or an interface for admission.

The threesome found an indentation that covered their view as they waited for someone to pass through. They waited in absolute silence, barely even breathing, for fifteen more minutes. Then finally a man in a white cloak came down from above, dropping from a sewer ladder. He unsheathed a knife and a berry from his pocket, and stabbed the fruit. With the flick of his wrist, he sprayed the wall with the juice.

With a rumble, the wall started moving. It opened in the middle, mechanisms pulling each door into the walls of the sewer. The doors moved slowly, a mistake the Land of the Mountain streams would soon pay for, Kakashi hoped.

Once the scientist walked through the gate, Pakkun wagged his tail thrice – the signal to move in the count of three seconds.

One, two… Kakashi tapped on Sakura’s shoulder. Three. He ran after Pakkun, trusting Sakura to catch on.

All three swiftly made it to the other side, trusting that the rumbling of the door would cover up any noise they made.

Kakashi took a quick awareness of the room. It was cold and musty, with crawling tubes winding about glassware in some sinister-looking experiments.

On the walls, cabinets overflowed with files and notebooks full of observations. On the other side, tables of sample soils lined the wall, each with different color codes. In the center, clear boards with different chemical equations and mechanisms illustrated the goals of this facility. The scientist from before walked straight across the room into a separate chamber that required a card to be swiped.

Pakkun continued, turning into a separate room, not taking the chance that someone would turn around and find three newcomers. This one smelled of manure and compost, and even Kakashi gagged from under his mask. Barrels of dirt crawled with worms and other composting insects, producing fresh natural products.

At the end of this room, there was a door with a keypad. “This is as far as I got last time, but I know the how to get in.” Kakashi picked up Pakkun, allowing him to push in the code he’d seen someone else enter prior. With a hiss, the doors opened with a creak. Shouts and screams filled Kakashi’s ears..

In a series of clicks, lights above them turned on, making their way down the hallway. It lit up a passageway, blinding Kakashi as he eyes adjusted to the brightness.

Forcing his body to advance, Kakashi made his way forward to inspect the objects in the room.

There were humans trapped in these cages, which Kakashi presumed were one-way glass, as they did not even indicate they saw Kakashi, Sakura, and Pakkun watching them. In the middle were classical metal bars separating the two subjects. One woman was curled in the corner, crying to the other.

The other, man, had a dead look in their eyes, his face completely relaxed. But he groped through the bars, reaching for the other. He tried to rip off the bars, trying his hardest to break through, but nothing was working. It was not the attempt to reunite with his lover, friend, whatever they were. It was something dark and dangerous.

The small woman cried to him. “Please, stop! Snap out of it!” But the man seemed to not hear her at all, and just kept reaching for her.

Sakura tapped Kakashi on the shoulder, and he turned to look farther down the hallway. He stopped breathing.

For as long as he could see, these cells lined the walls. Some were empty, but most were occupied. The one next to the woman and man had three people – two fighting back against one who kept punching, kicking, and biting. They screamed in pain, pushing off the man, but he kept approaching them no matter how much damage he took.

Slam!

Kakashi flinched as someone rammed themselves against the glass in the adjacent cell. Blood remained where their head had made contact, but they did not seem to care. They kept running themselves into the walls, not reacting in the slightest.

Sakura and Kakashi kept walking down, Pakkun in toe, disgusted and repelled by every sight. In some cages, Kakashi also saw recently deceased collapsed on one another, their bodies still bleeding.

“Pakkun, it’s time for you to go,” Kakashi whispered. The pug nodded, and unsummoned himself.

It seemed that the Daimyo was having people fight each other, despite their previous relationships and affiliations. Although it did not appear to be by force, some unnatural aspect was at hand here.

It did not click until Kakashi saw someone sobbing over a mutilated body, asking for forgiveness.

“Why? Why did this happening?” The woman cried, caressing the face of another woman. “Dear sister, who did this to you?”

“The bacteria…” Kakashi said. Sakura’s head turned. “You said it was a hallucinogen?”

Sakura nodded. “Of a sort.”

“What if… it’s making people’s senses change? As in, affecting what they perceive as loved ones?”

Sakura watched the sister arch her back over her sister, whom she must have killed in self-defense. “That’s entirely possible. But horrific.”

The door opened on the other side of the sister’s cell, and she looked up in a panic, running to the wall with Sakura and Kakashi. She plastered herself against the glass, to no avail.

In walked the Daimyo himself, clapping. Three scientists clad in coats followed him, taking quick notes on their clipboards. “Well, you survived her attack. Thank you, this was our most successful experiments, and most informative.”

“What’s wrong with you?” The woman spat, breathing heavily. “Please, just let me go. I just want to go home.”

The Daimyo shook his head. “Well, that’s just unfortunate. Because you’ve been exposed as well.”

The woman shook her head. “No, I saw what you did to her! I never got injected!”

The Daimyo rubbed his head. “Oh, boy, am I really wrong?” He looked at his scientists innocently, who remained impassive in their stares back. “I, the Lord of the Mountain Streams, am wrong?”

He started walking towards the woman. The fear was evident in the her, as she cowered even more, visible tremors shaking her body. He brushed her hair to the side.

“You see, we’ve been treating you alright, haven’t we? Keeping you fed down here, giving you a nice place to sleep? In exchange of seeing your sister?”

Finding an ounce of courage, the woman slapped his hand away. “Just to pin her down and give her a dose of some weird shit, you animal!”

The Daimyo stared at his hand, and then tutted. “Well, I kept my word, didn’t I? You still got to see her.” He walked to the dead body, kicking it. “She reacted fast to the drug, but you… you’ve proven that all of our planning has worked. That our time is near, and my revenge will be coming soon.”

The woman clenched her fists. “Excuse me?”

The Daimyo snapped his fingers, and a scientist quickly scampered up to him and pointed to some data on his clipboard. “Well, from our calculations, you should be reacting to the same chemical in your food in just a few minutes.”

Kakashi’s blood went cold.

“See you,” the Daimyo fluttered his fingertips, and let the stunned woman come to terms with his words. He exited, the doors closing taking the last ounce of hope from the woman, who collapsed on the ground in tears.

Not being able to bear watching this any longer, Kakashi ran.

“Kakashi!” Sakura shouted after him. But he did not care. This man had to pay. Torture, human experiments, manipulation? It was disgusting. The cages all around him turned into blurs, mixing into one another. They conglomerated together into one massive pile of unrestrained, unintentional betrayal.

He slowed down until he finally reached the end of the massive hall, where a door waited Kakashi to tear down. As he was preparing his hand motions, he glanced to his side.

A knife in his hand, a man wept as he stood near the wall of his cell. Another man with countless scratches, cuts, and bruises picked himself up from the floor by the opposite wall. As before, the first man was pleading as he cried, to no avail. It was obvious this infection took away any self-control or awareness in the specimen. Pain receptors appeared to be blocked as well, as even as blood dripped around him, the man stood up with no problem and began lurching to the other in puppeteer motions.

“I’m sorry!” The man yelled, and in one quick thrust, stabbed the other man in the stomach with such force the knife protruded out of the man’s back. The lifeless figure fell limp on his arm, any sense of soul seeping away. They fell to the ground together, and the man clutched his cellmate in anguish.

With that, Kakashi’s mind went black.

The holding cells around him disappeared, fading into darkness. He was just a body, suspended in by some unknown force. Then his hand, by its own volition, brought itself in to the air. Shaking violently, sparks flashed around his palm, drifting into the abyss and eventually fading away. Light flickered around his fingertips, soon joined by the sharp chirping of birds. Eyes widening, Kakashi wondered how this jutsu could be summoned; he did not feel any expenditure of chakra.

In a flash, his hand disappeared as well. His arm was stuck in a black wall, sticky and wet all around. Every movement of his arm, elicited a groan of pain and despair, and Kakashi froze.

Fearing the worst, Kakashi bent his neck upward. Brown eyes full of desperation looked above at the darkened sky, filling with tears. Kakashi’s Sharingan pulsed as he came to terms with what just happened.

“Rin, no!” He fully extracted his arm from her chest, causing Rin to fall backwards with no grace. Crumbling to his knees, Kakashi clutched his face in his hands. “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean no! I’m so sorry! Rin!”

Shaking his head violently, Kakashi tried to remove the picture from his mind. But it persevered, and the more Kakashi fought it, the clearer it became. The Mist Ninja plot, the pain of losing Obito. It all came crashing down on Kakashi, magnified by his lingering guilt.

“I’m so sorry!” He cried. “Obito, Rin!”

“Kakashi!” A distant voice was yelling out for him, but Rin’s body still lay motionless in front of him, taunting his failure in keeping his promise to keep her safe. His body shook, the shock overtaking him. He couldn’t protect Obito, so and he couldn’t protect Rin when she’d needed him the most. Everyone close to him died eventually.

Minato, Obito, Jiraiya, Kushina, Asuma… the list went on and on. A legendary ninja, he wasn’t. He was a failure of a friend, a failure of a ninja, a failure of a person, a failure…

“Kakashi!”

Someone was shaking him, and relenting, Kakashi removed his hands from his eyes. A medic nin peered down at him, where he lay on the floor, curled up in a ball.

“Kakashi, what’s the matter with you? Who are Obito and Rin?” Hands attempted to uncurl him, but his muscles felt paralyzed and refused to move.

“Rin?” Kakashi asked. He reached out to the woman. “Is that you?”

“This isn’t good,” she muttered, looking around. Dragging Kakashi by the shirt behind her, she ripped open the door and stepped through the threshold. It was cold and damp in this room, and Kakashi leaned against the wall, still in anguish.

A soft, calming light glittered around his chest, his shoulders, his face. The person in front of him was still blurry, with the wall the only object in the room Kakashi could focus on. Under his breath, he kept whispering. “I’m sorry, I never meant to. I swear. I swear…”

Swearing to the side, the medic-nin turned off her healing chakra. Instead, she took his face in her hands, and tried to get him to look at her. His eyes felt heavy and lazy, jostling all around until he finally tied himself to her emerald beacons. Emerald. She wasn’t Rin. Rin didn’t have green eyes. These eyes were beautiful, some of the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. Only one person held these eyes.

“S…Sakura?”

Her eyes creased, tears clustering in the corners. “Kakashi,” she cried, and wrapped her arms around him. “I was so scared, I couldn’t find anything wrong with you, I thought you’d gotten infected too.”

Still semi-paralyzed against the wall, he simply nuzzled his nose into her shoulder. “No, no… I’m so sorry, that’s never happened to me before. I don’t even know what happened.”

She pulled away, and Kakashi missed her soft hair against his cheek. It was so calming.

“Kakashi, I think you just had a PTSD episode,” she said, turning on her medical-voice. “have you ever had one before?”

“PTSD?”

“Post-traumatic stress disorder. After a traumatic event, sometimes the body relives the memory after triggers, can also causes insomnia and nightmares. Has that ever happened to you?”

Silent, Kakashi moved his mouth. He did, but he figured it was just guilt plaguing him. “I–”

With a crash, a door on the opposite side of the room burst oopen. The Daimyo, full of glory and fury, stood there with his entourage.

A look of shock flashed on his face, but then he took in Kakashi’s Jonin uniform.

“Leaf ninja,” he spat.

Scrambling to her feet, Sakura placed herself in a fighting stance. Kakashi remained motionless on the ground, adrenaline from his episode draining away.

“Mr. Hate and Ms. Haru,” the Daimyo continued. “I should have known. There was always something off about you two.”

“Something off about us?” Sakura asked, dumbfounded. “We aren’t the ones conducting illegal experiments!”

The Daimyo smirked. “That you know about, poor girl. Every village has its secrets.”

Arm quaking in effort, Kakashi lifted himself up to a crouch. Grimacing, he shouted at the Daimyo. “What is the meaning of all of this? I thought your people were peaceful, simply caring for your land. You lied to us, lied to everyone.” He pointed all around him, his voice growing louder with each word.

“When did I lie?” The Daimyo shouted back. “Us Mountain Stream people are the caretakers of special bacteria that enhances the soil here. But we also developed a way to take that bacteria that cultivated the land and turn it sour, contaminating the food and disrupting people’s cognitive abilities, making them recognize their loved ones as enemies.” He laughed. “That’s how we really issued our ultimatum to make Fire and Earth leave us alone. They could either perish, or leave us be.”

“But what’s the point now?” Emotion broke through in Kakashi’s voice. “If you wanted to be let be, why all of this torture, this planning, this experimentation? It’s inhumane!”

The Daimyo stepped forward, pointing accusatory at Kakashi. “Inhumane? Inhumane? You want to talk about what’s inhumane?” His eyes were seeing red. “How about your own village! You leaf ninja murdered my wife in cold blood, without reason. There was no retribution, or apologies. You are all heathens, living without care for the rest of the world! You do not think about the impact of who else you affect outside of your own precious village.”

What? Kakashi traced his memories, and one faded, muddled in alcohol broke through. Sakura had found out as much after her arm wrestling session.

Kakashi shook his head. That incident, he remembered learning about it, a long time ago.

Sarutobi sensei had called it a tragic accident; the leaf ninja’s target had been some high-profile politician seeking asylum in this land. Mistaking the Daimyo’s wife as the target, they’d killed her. They’d been rebuked, but Sarutobi could not bring anyone back to life, and left the incident as just that – a mistake that meant nothing to the Leaf.

It was just like Nagato’s situation. A small mistake from the Leaf was about to cost them their entire home.

It was true; Leaf Village, as the Daimyo said, was not the straightest arrow. But right now, Kakashi’s home was in danger, and he would protect the village with his life, as was his duty.

Shaking his head, Kakashi focused on the evil man. “The moral of a story often depends on the temper of the man telling it. You do not have all of the facts,” he spat at the Daimyo.

“I have all the facts that I think are necessary!” The Daimyo yelled. “And now everything you love will perish, as mine did.”

Kakashi felt a tug on his arm. Sakura jutted her head to the exit. “There’s no point in staying here any longer,” Sakura said, teeth tight. “The longer we stay, the deeper the infestation gets back in the village. We have to go.”

Knowing she was correct, Kakashi let her pull him towards the door.

“Oh, no you don’t!” The Daimyo shouted. Gesturing at his scientists, he commanded, “get them!”

Utterly confused at what they could do, the scientists looked at each other, and back at the ninja.

Rolling his eyes, Kakashi stepped through the doorframe. Then something caught his eye. Boxes labeled ready for export lined the room from floor to ceiling. They were in a storage room.

While Kakashi knew they should leave, he could not leave without doing something. Recalling the proper jutsu, Kakashi made the hand signs for the Uchiha’s fireball, releasing it around him. The spoil ignited, the fertilizer exploding in horrid smells. The scientists behind him crawled back through their door, screaming, as they ran away in fright. As the bacteria perished around him, flames lighting up his face, the Lord shook his head as he backed away.

“Good effort, but the damage is already done. I will have my revenge, and—”

In a pink flash, Sakura ran up to the Daimyo and clipped him on the side with a high kick. He fell over, landing in a pile of burning fertilizer.

Kakashi, aghast, gaped at her.

Emerald eyes cold and serious, she beckoned Kakashi. “We have no more time left to lose. Come on.”

When Sakura became this serious, Kakashi knew there was nothing he could do but follow orders, or feel the wrath of the mini Tsunade. With a nod, he followed the pink-haired shinobi, and together the two of them vanished back into the sewers, and out of the village, into the forest.

[rasenkaikyo]

At the Threshold

previously

with @onwesterlywinds​

Ashelia Riot comes up from the basement.

Hinako Daigo inhaled gently and looked around, seeing Ashelia approach.

Hinako Daigo smiles at Ashelia Riot.

Ashelia Riot: "Ah, hello!" She remembers having seen this woman before... but she's having trouble placing a name until she recalls something Edge mentioned to her earlier in the day about Yue...

Ashelia Riot: "It's Hinako, yes?"

Hinako Daigo: "Yes! I know there have been some few odd visits here, but a pleasure as always, Grand Steward."

Hinako Daigo performs an Eastern bow before Ashelia Riot.

Ashelia Riot nods to Hinako Daigo.

Ashelia Riot tries to replicate the Eastern bow and manages - albeit a little clumsily.

Ashelia Riot performs an Eastern bow before Hinako Daigo.

Ashelia Riot: "Welcome back. I'd heard you might be stopping by, but I'm afraid the details were neglected."

Hinako Daigo smiles, appreciative of the gesture.

Ashelia Riot: "Come in! I'd be happy to offer you something to drink."

Hinako Daigo: "Very well."

Hinako follows Ashe to the bar of the Sandsea, where heads for its stools while the steward peruses behind the counter.

Ashelia Riot: "Have you traveled far?" She readies the kettle for tea.

Hinako Daigo takes a seat like times before. "Not as far as you might think. Your friend Sylvan had a trick or two to cut travel time, as it were."

Hinako Daigo: "I did just come out of Doma, though."

Ashelia Riot’s eyes grow wide with awe upon seeing Hinako Daigo.

Ashelia Riot: "So you've seen Sylvan! I hope she's been well."

Hinako Daigo beams at Ashelia Riot.

Hinako Daigo: "Quite so! I am sure she has a story to tell."

Ashelia Riot: "As do you, I'm sure, if you've come here directly from Doma. Not a trip most are able to take, even with teleportation magicks."

Ashelia Riot: "Green tea, or black? Or something stronger?"

Hinako Daigo nods. "I would accept black, thank you."

Ashelia Riot pours out two cups of black tea and passes one over.

Hinako Daigo smiles to Ashelia as she takes up her cup. "Glad I did, though. That I might cross paths with both her and Yue under separately pretenses might be naught less than a sign of the kami."

Ashelia Riot nods to Hinako Daigo.

Ashelia Riot: "I should think so."

Ashelia Riot goes to sip at her tea, then thinks better of it due to the heat. "Might you remind me - you're a priestess in Doma, yes?”

Hinako Daigo inhales gently to take in the fragrant vapor of her tea. "Yes, miss, that's correct."

Ashelia Riot: "And how did you happen to meet Sylvan and Yue?"

Hinako Daigo: "In the wake of reclamation, Doma has been steadily restoring itself from its enclave outward, and I have been providing aid where I can - I understand that both Sylvan and Yue were there with similar goals. Of course, the land has seen no shortage of trauma at the expense of the Empire. Where malevolent energy is allowed to prosper unchecked, danger is sure to follow."

Ashelia Riot nods.

Ashelia Riot: "Ala Mhigo has seen much of the same. Especially in certain areas once marked as gravesites."

Hinako Daigo: "That is fair. And as tends to be the case it falls upon priests like myself to address one of said dangers. Auspicious as it was, the ensuing chaos in engaging what you would know as a Voidsent just so happened to draw the attention of Yue and Sylvan... consecutively."

Ashelia Riot’s eyes grow wide with awe upon seeing Hinako Daigo.

Ashelia Riot: "I assume they were both unharmed, or else we wouldn't be having this discussion so calmly."

Hinako Daigo: "Just so, in fact I would say the fiend stood little chance in laying even a scratch."

Ashelia Riot nods to Hinako Daigo.

Ashelia Riot: "Well! I'm glad they were both able to lend you their aid."

Hinako Daigo nods. "As am I, and you can see why I would see it as a sign. Of course, there has been word on the tongue of the odd Doman about the efforts of you and yours at Doma Castle, to which as ever I could not express my gratitude enough. I have had much to think about in the past suns, so when Yue offered her hand on her company's behalf, I was hoping it might lead me here."

Ashelia Riot: "Of course. And you are always welcome among us - be it in Eorzea or in the East."

Hinako Daigo smiles at Ashelia Riot.

Hinako Daigo: "I appreciate your grace, Lady Ashelia. That said, I have come first and foremost to make an inquiry, and in so doing I would also offer you my service."

Hinako Daigo sipped her tea as her gentle expression tensed a little bit.

Ashelia Riot: "Of course - ask away."

Hinako Daigo: "Well, I understand a little bit about your company's background. I know that you took your name from a high level group in Ala Mhigo, to assess notorious cases and enemies of the state. Does that still ring true any with Risk?"

Ashelia Riot hesitates, then nods.

Ashelia Riot: "Yes, and no."

Hinako Daigo: "Oh?"

Ashelia Riot: "We... that is to say, our first priority is ridding the world of imperial threats. Garlemald in particular."

Ashelia Riot: "But while we are affiliated with the Ala Mhigan government, and while I personally hold a seat in its new representative body-" She tenses noticeably at that mention. "-we are not strictly Ala Mhigan."

Hinako Daigo smiles weakly at Ashelia Riot.

Hinako Daigo: "That I understand, and I mean not to deter you from that path, nor infer you consider your hands tied. All the same I too would like to see the Empire's shadow continue to wane, but I'll get to that."

Hinako Daigo softly sets down her tea for the moment and starts to reach into her haori.

Hinako Daigo pulls out a partly folded, slightly frayed sheet of paper, Doman make. Upon closer look, it shows a carefully rendered sketch of a stern-looking man at its center, surrounded by dramatic swathes of ink in the Far Eastern script. A wanted poster.

Hinako Daigo hands over something to Ashelia Riot.

Ashelia Riot surveys the sheet with great care, as if memorizing every detail of the face. She's done this before with plenty of Garlean targets, but never with an Au Ra; she hopes she can commit herself to the same level of concentration.

Ashelia Riot: "Are you looking for him? Or is he looking for you?"

Hinako Daigo: "I'm looking for him. Fusatane Torioi, Hingan-born, last seen in Doma. Wanted for murder, treason and conspiracy. He's suspected of working with Imperial forces to nearly decimate his own clan, including his lord and father, and remains unaccounted for."

Ashelia Riot thinks she understands Hinako Daigo's connection to this murderer. Her eyes narrow, and she nods.

Ashelia Riot: "I see. In that case, we'll be certain to keep our eyes open."

Hinako Daigo nods firmly. "Word in the rumor mill is that he has been working on his own agency, picking up other stray traitors to the country. ...I have reason to suspect that he's plotting to take back the very clan he betrayed, and I would hope worse doesn't come for worse."

Hinako Daigo: "This is why after I crossed paths with your friends, I could imagine no one better to at least be of some aid on the matter."

Ashelia Riot heaves a deep sigh. "You've done much for us," she says. "And a man of his nature seeking to gather any sort of power in the new Doma cannot be abided." She wonders what a next step might possibly be, though - sending Edge, perhaps, though she is loath to part from him again.

Ashelia Riot: "Thank you for trusting me with this."

Hinako Daigo smiles at Ashelia.

Hinako Daigo: "Absolutely... And from the bottom of my heart and soul, I thank you." She bows her head gently.

Hinako Daigo she looks back to her tea. "And that brings me back to the rest of the reason I'm here."

Hinako Daigo tries hard to concentrate.

Hinako Daigo: "I knew I came to the right place... Personally, I do not feel I have done half as much as you have, and there is still much to do. With Doma and Ala Mhigo free, if there is anything I can offer to help you see the Empire pushed back even further, I would gladly give it."

Ashe nods deeply in a sort of half-bow, grateful for the acknowledgement but still humble.

Ashelia Riot: "I may take you up on that offer in the near future." She does not elaborate; she cannot, while the details of a potential campaign in Dalmasca are still being ironed out. "And I swear to you that we will devote whatever we can to finding more of this Fusatane's whereabouts, though it may take time."

Hinako Daigo: "That is fine... I would take anything I could get, in due time. I sense a hint of pressure, and I wouldn't expect you to take priority."

Ashelia Riot nods to Hinako Daigo.

Ashelia Riot: "But please know that you are welcome among us - gladly."

Ashelia Riot beam with delight at Hinako Daigo.

Hinako Daigo beams at Ashelia Riot.

Hinako Daigo: "Full glad I am to hear it, Lady Ashelia, and I thank you for hearing me out. Maybe I can present the extent of my appreciation soon."

Ashelia Riot finishes the rest of her tea in a single swig.

Hinako Daigo sees this, pauses and follows suit.

Ashelia Riot: "There's no need for that. In the meantime, I would be happy to show you to a place where you can rest. Short journey or no, you must be tired."

Hinako Daigo: "Ah, certainly... it has been quite busy."

Ashelia Riot: "I would give you a full tour of the manse, but you've seen most of it by now!"

Ashelia Riot is so grateful she doesn't have to give a tour.

Hinako Daigo scoffs at Ashelia Riot.

Hinako Daigo: "Of course!"

Ashelia leads Hinako to the door to the rest of the manse’s quarters.

Ashelia Riot: "Through here - there are showers downstairs as well."

Ashelia Riot: "Should you need me, my office is the first door on the left."

Hinako Daigo nods and smiles warmly. "Thank you kindly", then bows once more.

Ashelia Riot bows again, a bit more fluidly this time.

Ashelia Riot performs an Eastern bow before Hinako Daigo.

Hinako Daigo nods to Ashelia Riot.

Ashelia Riot: "Rest well. And welcome to the Riskbreakers."

[raendown]

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Chapter: 7/18 Word count: 1675 Summary: When Tobirama is exiled from the Senju clan without warning, without even the chance to plead his case, it feels like his life is over. What does he have to live for now without his older brother to believe in him? Captured by the Uchiha in his moment of weakness, Tobirama slowly learns to live again with the last people on earth he would have ever expected to care for - or to fall in love with.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI in the blog header!

Chapter 7

Tobirama woke to the sound of metal crashing against hardwood, the hallow thang of an empty pot hitting what must have been the kitchen floor. A glance at the window showed him that the afternoon had passed him by as he slept and evening was falling rapidly. It was dinner hour.

He was late for his duties.

So far his captors had yet to find a reason to punish him for anything. He completed every task given to him with minimal complaints and he did them all correctly the first time, not seeing a need to make things harder for himself. Bare feet rushed across the carpet as he scrambled for the door and hurried towards the other end of the house where the kitchen and the dining area had been built as one large room. If it hadn’t happened yet then he certainly didn’t want to give them a reason to start doling out punishments now.

Upon entering the room, however, he was flabbergasted to see Izuna brandishing a dripping ladle at his older brother, hunched protectively over their biggest stew pot. All the dishes were still dirty in the sink and more had been piled on top of them from chopping and preparing whatever had been dropped in to the stew – which, he realized now that he was standing still, was giving off an absolutely heavenly scent.

Madara was the one to notice him first when he turned away from the stove with a pout.

“Oh good, I was just about to come wake you. Dinner’s ready.”

“Aren’t I supposed to be the one who makes dinner?” Tobirama asked hesitantly, edging in to the room with a certain amount of caution. What was the point of a worker who didn’t do their work? Madara shrugged carelessly and passed him a bowl.

“Izuna likes to cook when he’s stressed.”

Too taken aback to respond, Tobirama accepted the bowl and then stood there like a simpleton just watching the two of them dish out some very hearty looking stew. Far be it from him to complain about someone else doing his work for him but he wasn’t sure if he was suspicious or just bewildered about what just happened. His role here amounted to little more than a slave even if the work wasn’t really all that hard and it struck him as very odd for one of the men keeping him to do any task they should have asked him to do instead. In his mind that couldn’t spell anything good.

When the siblings finally noticed that he was still hovering in the same spot with a glazed look on his face they both chuckled and Madara stepped around to push him gently towards the stove, ladling a generous portion of food in to his bowl and then steering him over to the table. Usually he ate alone after cleaning up from cooking dinner and washing the dishes they left behind. He’d never even tried to join them at the table before, naturally assuming he wouldn’t be allowed.

It was nothing less than surreal to chew on a bit of carrot and listen to Izuna yammer on about some other member of their clan who was being particularly difficult lately, constantly bothering him with questions he had already answered several times. Tobirama was so lost in the strangeness of it all that he didn’t even realize he was speaking out loud until the other two men paused to look over at him.

“Hashirama does the same thing. It’s incredibly annoying.”

Both of them stared for a moment until Madara burst out laughing.

“Sounds like him,” he agreed. “But I bet he at least gives up eventually. Not Tetsuo!” Izuna groaned and let his shoulders slump, exhausted just by the reminder of what he had suffered all day.

“I’m tempted to just tell him what he wants to hear and watch him go make a fool of himself with the wrong information.”

“Please, please do it. And let me watch.” Madara grinned, an echo of the manic grin he often wore when he was enjoying a particularly thrilling battle.

“The twilight zone,” Tobirama murmured under his breath. “I’ve entered the twilight zone. I’m going to wake up to a foot in my stomach and a list of more chores to do.” That sounded much more likely than what these two would have him accept as reality.

Either they didn’t hear him or they thought it would be funnier to pretend they hadn’t. They chatted as easily as though they weren’t sitting next to anyone who had the capability and motive to stab one of them with any of the sharp objects that lay within arm’s reach. He tried but he couldn’t think of a single thing that would be any weirder than this. Eventually the tension in his shoulders grew to the point where he was forced to speak up even though he realized it was a supremely bad idea, looking a gift horse in the mouth like he was about to.

“Is it normal for you to eat calmly at the same table as your prisoners?” Confusion shaded his words and softened them until he sounded less upset and more like a whining child. He watched Izuna and Madara share a long look before the elder turned to him with – of all things – a smile.

“You fell asleep across the room from me and slept away half the day like a little kid. Do you really have room to talk?”

Tobirama frowned, his insides squirming. “If I am tired then it is your fault.”

“For what? Asking you to do light housework? Geez, would you loosen up a little? We can’t all be as uptight as you are all the time; some of us like to relax when we’re at home.”

“Well some of us can’t go home so excuse me for not being able to enjoy myself.” His eyes narrowed but Madara only rolled his own.

“So make a new home somewhere else. If they’re being stupid then let them.”

“It’s hardly that simple!”

Deeply offended by the marginalization of his plight, Tobirama shoved his chair back and snatched up his empty bowl, deliberately not taking theirs. He brought his to the sink and dropped it in with a loud clatter of ceramic then stormed off through the house until he was banging through the back door. Very likely he would pay later for having such attitude but at the moment he didn’t care, at the moment he was full of a special kind of fury that in no way tasted like anger.

Soft grass crushed underfoot as he paced circles around the circumference of the backyard, restless and agitated and unsure why beyond the fact that Madara’s words had scraped at a wound he’d thought was finally beginning to scab over. He didn’t want to make a new home somewhere else, he wanted to go back to the home he’d always known and loved. He wanted to be welcome in his own house by his own brother. Not to start again kami only knew where.

And who the hell was he supposed to call family if all of his kin were snug and safe back in the Senju compound where he could never return to?

Eventually he realized that pacing circles was only making himself worse and he came to rest by flopping down at the edge of the koi pond with no actual koi fish in it. He was fairly certain Madara only kept the pond as a place to dunk Izuna’s head whenever they started bickering over something and it didn’t look like he would get an easy win. It was a good solution for someone who couldn’t use a suiton jutsu unless they copied it with their Sharingan. And even then Madara’s suiton jutsu tended to be much weaker than the ones that aligned with his natural affinity.

Since he was bare foot anyway, his sandals still neatly piled by the front door, Tobirama dipped his toes in to the water and let his own element sooth him. He would have loved to slip his body in to the pond and just float for hours on end, let the water fill his ears and muffle the world around him, drift in weightless suspension until nothing existed but the cool waves lapping over his skin. When he wasn’t so worked up he would have to ask if he might be allowed to swim here in his off hours – if he was still allowed off hours after showing such blatant disrespect.

Leaning back on his palms, Tobirama tilted his head back to look up at the rising moon.

“It’s not so bad here, Anija,” he spoke softly to the empty yard. “It’s almost nice actually. But…I don’t want it to be.”

And therein lay the problem. With each day that passed he grew more and more comfortable here but he didn’t want to; he wanted to be comfortable in his real home. Sitting here now with his feet in Madara’s pond and two shouldn’t-be-so familiar chakra signatures burning calmly a couple dozen feet away, he realized that he was eventually going to have to come to terms with the fact that he couldn’t have what he wanted. The world was going to keep turning even if he wasn’t ready. In all other facets of life he had always been able to pick himself up and keep going no matter what and he was going to have to do the same now.

On the other hand he wasn’t sure it was a good idea to get too comfortable where he was now. He was a prisoner, a captive put to work. At a moment’s notice he could be turned out of the compound or thrown back in his cell. Unless the Uchiha brothers suddenly experienced dual aneurysms and invited him to live with them out of the goodness of their hearts it probably wasn’t smart to get too attached to anything here.

[this-is-what-grace-feels-like]

Anyway, here's a thank you letter.

Definitely much chipper than my last post, I really wanted to thank the people who were with me for my 19th birthday.

My last post were all my sentiments on the previous events that greatly affected my feelings towards my birthday.

So now, I wanted to appreciate the people who made it extra special! ♡♡♡

I'm gonna start with my ate. Thank you ate for all the gifts!! Hahaha! But most importantly I wanna thank you for making my day special even though u have lots of things in mind. Thank you for arranging our celebration dinner at Victorino's and making sure I felt special on my day. I know I don't tell you much and i'm always masungit, but I appreciate you and I love you so much. I cannot imagine life without you. I'm with you every step of the way.

To my kuya who surprised me on my special day. I know you so much that even without a gift (he gave me my gift 2 days after), just you being there was enough. I know that you hate waiting, you're kind of impatient pero reasonable naman, and you don't talk much. Kaya maman when u asked me what time I was going home and told me "sabay tayo", I really appreciated it. You waited for 2 hrs, with no internet (which u always need!!), and missed your COD kasi you wanted to celebrate with me. Even if it means going home (bulacan) then going back to work (Manila) just for dinner. Thank you so much, kuya. I love you and I look up to you. Sa inyong dalawa ni ate. I love you!

To mama and papa, who I adore and look up to, thank you. Not only for spending so much (hahahaha) but for loving me unconditionally for 19 years. Sa lahat ng klase ng pagkakataon, nandyan kayo parehas. You both keep me sane. Thank you mama and papa for understanding and handling all my breakdowns, outburts, and certain moods, with love and care. Mama, thank you for always giving me the pep talk I need when I'm down. Hindi ka nauubusan ng encouragement. Thank you for praying for me. Palagi. And thank you dahil ikaw na rin ang thesis partner ko. Hahaha! To papa, thank you for believing in me. For giving me attention and appreciating what I do, taking time to ask me how I am and always greeting me with a smile when I wake up kahit madalas ako nakasibangot. Papa, I love you so much and I wanna thank you dahil kahit sobrang busy mo, kami parin iniisip mo and priority mo. Mama and papa, I love you both! Thank you!! Mahal ko kayo parehas ng sobra sobraaaa.

To my cousins, papi & mama len, maraming maraming salamat!!! Mahal na mahal ko kayooo. Kahit I rarely see all of you, thank you for making time for us and sa pagmamahal!!

To my nanay, and sisters sa cod: I love you all!! Thank you ate Nice and everyone for setting up a surprise! Grabe surprise talaga. Thank you for a wonderful year! Madalas man ako m.i.a., saka walang imik sa groupchat, but I appreciate everyone!! Thank you for reminding me of the gift of fellowship. Mahal na mahal ko kayo! ♡♡♡

To Ambie & Jhonlee, special mentionz!!! Thank you so much. Sobra sobra!! Sa dalawang oras halos na magkasama tayong apat, I can't help but to thank the Lord for your lives. Sobrang unexpected eh. Kaya maraming salamat!!! More dates to come!! Mahal ko kayo parehas!! ♡

Now, I want to thank Maki for holding my hand. Its been a year. :---) Your excitement for my birthday, even though I'm mostly sad and hopeless about things made me excited too. Thank you for pushing me to go further, to run the extra mile. But when things go bad, you're also the one who'll tell me "Stop. Okay na, pahinga ka na muna." Maraming salamat sa lahat ng oras. :---) Thank you Maki for making my birthday extra special! ♡

Lord, maraming salamat. For all these people. For making them a part of my life, and for the privilege to be also a part of their lives. Salamat Lord sa 19 years that you have been extremely faithful. Nakakaiyak. Lord thank you for the grace. It has been such a tiring journey. I sometimes don't want to open eyes, bur then I wake up, live out the day,

And there was never a time that I did not feel your love and received grace. ♡

Thank you!!

- A.