#go to prev chapter for that

[immoralimmortals]

A Song With Ten Names

Chapter 14: Community Gardens

Chapter 1 ☆ Next chapter

Summary of chapter: Roses are notorious for being difficult to care for when newly planted, needing nearly immaculate attention. One wrong move and it's all over. Takara's thorns are untrimmed, and gardeners' hands may be left bleeding. Will more wary fingers make for better blossoms, or will it simply quicken her (or their) demise?

Author's Note: The song for this chapter is Community Gardens by the scary jokes and Louie Zong. A short and sweet chapter to lead into more ideas I have for the zombie combo and the elemental pair (Itachi and Kisame, fire and water).

Do you remember that line in the Mitski song Nobody that's like…Venus, the planet of love, was destroyed by global warming because its people wanted too much? I think about that a lot. The otherwise abrupt tonal shift in the song lyrics I chose is how I interpret that bit.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Full disclosure, I am a monster

A creature of despair, not that that should be a cause for concern

If there's one thing I've learned in all my years here

It's that despair is less abundant in those who understand

How to plant their hearts in community gardens

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

It's a wonderful summer day. The sky is blue behind the backdrop of tall, tall trees. A bird the same color sits upon a block of wood hung up by rope, unable to make the swing work as intended with its small weight but still enjoying it all the same. The roses of the haunted mansion's garden are in full bloom; no attempt has been made yet to trim down their thorns. A shimmer of green passes between two sets of eyes, a dragonfly unable to make either Akatsuki flinch from their staring contest.

“Itachi,” Hidan coos, drawing out the last syllable like casting fishing wire with bait. Such tone is only on his tongue when he is trying to get something he wants, and the man he speaks to has that clocked. “Is it really that important? Can’t I just go in?”

The raven shakes his head, despite how helpfully Hidan gestures in a shoving motion, demonstrating the direction in which he should move his ass. She’s in a sensitive state, surely, to have not run out to greet them as she attempted before. Takara is to arrive on her own volition, he decided on the spot, rather than the zombies go in for a game of hide and seek. But he had already explained this to Hidan.

At the front door.

And then he tried to get in through the back.

There is no point in repeating himself.

The shirtless man makes a sound halfway between a hum and a growl. The scent of these damn flowers outside is starting to get unbearable, giving him a headache. “What’s the big deal? What, are ya hiding her?”

No budge. This is getting a bit fucking silly. Hidan swallows. Why is he nervous when his lord has done as promised, prevented her death until his reurn? It’s that much like the traveler, he’s had the problem of being excited first and having possibilities of the bad hit later. Such a self-confident man has no use for second guesses, though, and so he is simply left antsy and frustrated with these worthless feelings. One silver brow raises. Whats more, what the hell does the Uchiha think he’s doing?! Blood so easily boiled begins to simmer, and Hidan makes an accusation:

“Is she even here?!”

Itachi’s black eyes shift ever so slightly. “She is.”

“Eh? What are ya loo—” The reaper’s chin goes over his shoulder to follow the Uchiha's gaze only to choke on his own words. She is one of the only people that can make him speechless. However, his first comment is about who is escorting her down the aisle, since he’s what's unexpected:

“Tobi, you little—" he stammers in annoyance, "What the fuck are you doing here?!”

Unlike himself, the swirled man does not answer, and though the reaper groans, it also gives Hidan’s brain time to refocus. His eyes trail from a gloved hand to an ungloved one, trailing up the arm, to the dress strap on her shoulder, to her face. Ah, yes. There she is, frail and eyes red. Radiant, holy, much like when she was ready for his blades. Like a bride is presented to the groom, has been bestowed before him, emerging the veil of leaves in her pure white gown, long-wild roses framing her entrance. Doesn't matter that her hair has been caught and pulled in disaray by brambles, that scuffs of dirt powder her knees. All the same, all the same, Hidan recognizes her. The lamb's bottom lip quivers.

She’s crazy for wanting to see him again, right? All of a sudden the stranger remembers their introduction more sharply: the death, the yelling, the proselytizing to get her to murder in cold blood. Is this a mistake? It's too late to back out now.

She stares at him.

...

...

He stares at her. Why is she looking at him like that? His brow furrows while her expression remains fixed, unblinking eyes still stinging.

...

...

The girl that was named Takara is a fool, cursed with the wisdom of his care behind doors of a blood-drenched temple. He never hurt her, not once, not ever, and he never made her kill again, no matter how much he wanted her to. A beast he may be of many sins, but harming her is not one of them. Taking care of her when she had no one else has staked his claim as war-torn guardian angel. She mutters his name to remember the taste, just in case, to be sure if it remains sweet or bitter on the back of her tongue, and she feels with his two syllables butterflies in her chest. They flutter out her mouth and straight into his heart. Her voice is even prettier than he remembered.

All of her is.

Tobi lets her go so the prophet and disciple may run to each other at once. Despite it being mutual, the cool and savage Hidan must feign surprise as she dares to hug first. Her face goes right in his bare chest; it feels like it always belonged there. The woman admits something unbelievable:

“I missed you.”

She did, huh? No, of course she did. He was her first: her first Akatsuki savior, her first real friend. Hidan has a long several days to think over how to skirt a thin line; he must seem like it doesn’t affect him so much, and yet not be too uninterested. He is not a pathetic man, not one that should buckle down just because he’s getting emotional, but now that the reunion is really happening, it’s so easy to be dragged down to her level. His anchor, she is, pulling him further and further into the depths of humanity. Oh Jashin, why did you task him with such a fragile little thing? You know that’s not what he’s good at! He “tsk”s in her ear, putting one hand on her back.

“Fuckin’ sentimental,” he murmurs, so grateful to have what he curses out loud. His eyes raise, meeting black ones in the corner. “What’re you staring at?” he challenges levelly. Itachi does not answer. Hidan swears in the back of his mouth.

Then he feels a pressure upon his back and sides.

“Tobi, get the fuck off of me RIGHT NOW, you little shit! Can’t you see we’re having a moment, here?!” The actor couldn’t help himself, going in to make it a group hug and diffuse a wee bit of anything too good. The orange mask whines like the baby he is, something about how he missed the priest too, doesn’t that matter?!

Goddammit.

This is going to be a long...however the hell long this is to be together, in this place. Tobi’s just the pissy bonus on a shit cake. Kisame being a self-righteous fuck who thinks he knows better...Itachi being a bossy prick...and even fucking Kakuzu…

He still hasn’t said a word since the meeting to Kakuzu. It may just stay that way.

But...but… His skin dries her tears. The symbol he prays to is now pressed between them, unifying them. She hasn’t let go. Part of him is assuaged that she really did have enough sense to want him back, after all.

It’s not like he doesn’t deserve her want or anything, though, he convinces himself.

Despite his own aching soul, what he will admit to, she will be worth the trouble. Whether it’s just them in the room or everyone alive in the fuckin’ place, it does not matter. She is here. She is here with him. He presses her into him just a bit tighter, tilting his chin down to nest in her hair. It’s still too damn soft.

“...Missed you too,” he mumbles, just for her dumb sake, just glad his prayers to Jashin for her safety were heard.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

You'll be fine, you honeycomb

Who could ever hurt you? Who could be so cold?

You'll be fine, oh, honey pie

Who could ever hurt you? Who could be so unkind?

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“Didn’t this place use to be...shittier?”

“Mm?” she turns around with the next step, the arch of the kitchen entrance by her side as they enter what used to simply be an abandoned hideout for the Akatsuki. He almost looks uncomfortable, the way Hidan’s eyes slide over the seamless ceiling, the dripless sink. The host has to mentally walk herself back to the times of prayer and nighttime gigs. “Oh. Yeah, it was. Kisame and Itachi have been helping me fix it up, since we gotta live here.”

“...Were we not livin’ here before?”

Oh. The juggling act begins so soon. The performer glances to the other that took her home, to whom she confessed her troubles to. “Uhh…” Tobi just shrugs. It’s with his whole body, shoulders and arms and hands included, but it’s still just a fucking shrug. No advice he can give for this one.

This is awkward. Shit.

In the woman’s silence, Hidan’s gaze goes over to the one man she named that’s present here. To her, Itachi is as chill as can be. To Hidan…to Hidan...—

She’s not sure, and she doesn’t want an opportunity to learn what negative trait Hidan could have assigned to his neutral expression. An explanation interrupts: “For longer term, I mean.”

...

The shirtless man now shrugs, too.

“Didn’t really need it, but if you want all the bells and whistles and frills, who am I to stop ya?” His shoulders lower, his lips pursing boredly. “Seems like ya to do that. Frilly shit.” But abruptly his eyes light up— and not necessarily in a good way. “Wait, you didn’t touch my room, did you?!”

As soon as she can answer, uh, no, at least she hasn’t, but maybe Kisame— Hidan is off, hopping over the stair rail to go upstairs as quickly and directly as possible. The traveler takes half a step to join him, hand to her chest, but then stops and sighs. There’s another to attend to, that she shouldn’t leave waiting any longer. Silently, her eyes meet black ones. Itachi nods, and it is understood. While one Uchiha will ensure Hidan won’t destroy any remodeling, it’s up to another to escort her to the final man.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The culmination of man's mistakes came the day

The sun ran so hot, it turned the desert to glass

If there's something to be learned from all these losers

It's that the price that you pay

For arrogance and a false sense of immunity

Is to face the wrath of a dying star

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Almost like it’s a gut instinct, the traveler wanders to the front door. The entrance is open, but the two tallest guys she’s met are at the threshold, barring entry and exit alike. Kakuzu is arguing- as reasonably as he can— with Kisame.

“I can...understand your hesitation,” he draws out, deep and careful as such a precarious bargain requires. “But it’s been long enough to wait for her. She’s not coming down.”

Cloakless, muscled arms are folded and their shoulders tense. The shark is trying just as hard to meet in the middle, but an attachment both hold— ironically what this is about— is causing an uncrossible barrier. The treaty is wavering, and it hardly even started. It’s a difficult balance that both Akatsuki have artificial sympathy for another, for her sake, as Kisame needs to temper down after Takara’s explanation, and Kakuzu now has to reprove he is safe enough for her to be around.

Just for her sake, they’re trying. God they’re trying. But it still isn’t good.

“We’ll hang out here, then.” Yeah, Itachi’s idea for her to come at her own pace is mostly because of that other one, but...the one that bruised her may initiate alarm as well, even if she so earnestly pushed it aside. He second guesses himself again, as he did with her upon his bed. Him? Kakuzu really cared about someone? Anyone?!

Sizzling annoyance and anger is under Kakuzu’s skin and stewing in the back of his throat, and the fact it is still there instead of expressed outward in his fists is proof. Yes, he does care. So he must have patience. Patience.

And finally, patience is rewarded.

Kakuzu freezes as soon as he sees her, tilting her head to appear from behind Kisame’s large, protective figure. She smiles. So softly, she smiles. The bounty hunter must keep his gaze unmoved, lest he emote in such a way it could alarm the delicate creature. To Kisame he succeeds, but her this is the kindest he’s ever looked back, and so he fails the task utterly.

And what does he feel, those eyes widening? Is he afraid, she wonders? Afraid again like as he clenched her shoulder?

And of her to him...does she hate him? Is that pain on her face, he asks? She looks like she’s been crying. Is that why she hesitated to come down? For a calculated man, his thoughts rush so much faster than hers. Are those tears for him? Does she fear him after what he did? He wouldn’t blame her. Not at all.

Kisame and Tobi wait, one with worry staring down to where she hides behind his arm, and the other with distant interest like that of a scientist. What will they do?

But she does not fear him. Not even after how it was supposed to end, in tragedy. Kakuzu gave her a name, and though she does not know its meaning, it is still a treasure grander than any wealth that glitters like gold. His hopes for her from their beginning shine through. She will succeed, always succeed and never be without, not again in the state she was found. But he never wished for her success to be wrapping him around her finger, for her to never be without the steel hunter’s best intentions...yet here they are.

"Hi," she says.

God damn you, girl, for falling into his lap not once but twice to look up at him with those starry eyes.

Kakuzu dares not move even as she does, as the queen steps around her blue shield and approaches. Her regality astounds him, something he never noticed until it was gone. The smoothness of every motion, from the way she hoods her eyes to the way her chin keeps so level even as she walks; it is all so precise, so accidentally commanding with how simultaneously demure and unconfident it seems. It impresses him. Perhaps, unconsciously after all those nights of observing her talents, it always has.

The guard, in turn, watches with caution as his ward raises her arms around the dragon that once captured her like she was a hoard of riches, holds him with all she has in her poor forgiving soul with a love better reserved for saints than sinners as he.

Just as Hidan did a month ago, Kakuzu’s hand raises, bends fingers that don’t know what to do. She trusts him. Why does she trust him?

Palm goes flat.

It lands on top of her head as lightly as humanly possible, perhaps even lighter.

The fool has forgiven him, the treasurer must accept. How terrible. How terrible for them both. It’s a shame Kakuzu has nothing to pray to, as that would mean he could be absolved of his harm. But at least she has been kept alive. At least, at least. No matter how conflicted he is— why should he care? He meant to leave her be in the end, after all-— Kakuzu still has a gratitude in how blind fate ended up in her favor.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” Words he should be saying come instead from her. Kakuzu can’t even grunt to that, voice trapped behind his mask.

Kisame quietly marvels at this confirmation— yes, even the coldest five hearts can reserve some form of affection— though he also makes a disturbing note. Two violent, ruthless people have crawled to her for comfort, like wild animals finding the warmth of shelter. But she is only so big, the depths of kindness must only go so deep. It is only so long until sharp claws try to dig deeper, try to make more space where the is none to give. Two criminals who only know how to hurt other people. Two murderers with nothing but pride left to lose.

...Hidan not even included in that count.

She plants her care in each of their gardens, the orange spiral notes, and they have returned the favor, no matter how hesitantly. It may not be long before the hearts they plant in her own patch of earth that is her soul begin to crowd, tangle and choke till fertile soil crumbles to dust.

“...You too,” the stitched man finally answers. Her cheek rests deeper into his sunset cloak, and while he does not pull her in, neither does he deny this affection.

The gardener performs her duty diligently, Obito thinks, with sweet hums and dirtied bare hands that unknot the roots of all evils.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The years have been hard on this lonely heart

If you wanna know the truth

There's no more community gardens

So I guess I'll have to settle for you

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[uncleardyn]

hi. managed to start writing something for that gravity falls/alan wake crossover. feel free to read it.

[every-sanji]

[linddzz]

I absolutely adore your take on Dream as an Eldritch Weirdo with very "off" understandings on social interactions. I'm looking forward to more Oyster Nightmare type revelations and Hob just absolutely falling more and more in love with Dream but I have to say one of your first descriptions of Dream as a handy, many eyes, sparkly void of darkness just nomming and roaming possesively over an unperturbed Hob still lives in my mind.

Clapping my hands and cackling reading this anon!!! SO!! The reason that the Rescue ficlet, the one with Dream being a needy Eldritch Slutty Problem who makes himself extra hands just to get more of them on Hob and makes weird "fuck me" cicada noises at the slightest, mildest hint of Hob being even a teensy possessive over him, is just in ficlet form and not cleaned up and expanded off Tumblr yet

is that it's a sort of sequel ficlet to Audacity in Human Form and that is absolutely the same Dream and the same Hob.

And the reason Dream has been coming across stiff and held back (and harder to WRITE ugh) in those first two chapters of his pov is he is making (bad and short lived) tries at keeping a tight leash on All That. So if you like that Weird Insanely Horny Dream then be assured that the upcoming chapter is when that leash starts to slip :3

[the-l-spacer]

THIS CANT KEEP HAPPENING

[icicleteeth]

This is a WIP but mostly done, in reference to tags in the last art :')

[vodid]

i'm trying to inch my way towards a balanced pov in my blitzbee fic so its not always bee-centric/bee's pov when he meets w blitzy but gah damn is it hard. its so much more fascinating to explore blitzwing from an outside perspective (aka bee's pov) bc i'm not even sure he understands what hes thinking in that noggin of his. its hard to write that lol

also a lot of the meets tend to be actively initiated by bumblebee's actions so it makes it hard to get the context in if its in blitzwing's pov. and i don't like doing double povs like chapter 3 and 4, where the scene kind of repeats in both povs for said context. i only let that one slide bc it was a couple lines of dialogue that would repeat

i feel bad about it sometimes because i know we could use more blitzwing centric fics, but i'm trying to let the fic do what feels right for the pov and it just so happens to skew towards bee more. blitzwing's pov is more about him processing things, while bee is more about doing things. i can only hope as the fic progresses, itll figure itself out

[boyybites]

god ive missed you sm

[blabla3419]

Anybody else feel like the more recent jjk chapters keep feeling like they are skipping key moments like… is this on purpose

[insomnicbypasser]

Bsd spoilers under the cut yall stay safe <3

So yall

More chuuya talk because im delusional

I fully believe that chuuya going to punch dazai before pulling the gun was him FULLY dropping character he was dead ass about to expose himself to fyodor and had to be verbally reminded not to

AND HE TOTALLY WOULD HAVE DECKED DAZAI AT THE EXPENSE OF THE PLAN NO SHOT

[kjhmyg]

just a little preference survey; would you prefer i upload the next chapter of rough edges in all it's 26k glory, or should i separate it into two 13k worded posts each?

ultimately, the decision will be made based on how i want the story to be presented etc, but at the same time i do also want your opinion as re lovers and readers!! <3 please vote ily

[hauntingofhouses]

what if i uhhhh post the next chapter of my fic now. is it too soon. plus it's a monday idk if people will read it. IDK

[dancedance-resolution]

um bitches not to jinx myself but um i think this saturday i will be finally updating all along after one and a half (1.5) years??? FHSDKJFHSDJK

[the-kipsabian]

2k words total for chapter 3, im going to bed :)

[dipreblogs]

it’s only for dialogue. Think of writing as a (dnd?) class. Dialogue is a subclass that usually follows the general rules of the class, but also has exceptions and it’s own subclass rules.

“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

[cheswirls]

alright, okay, i will give liden props.... the emma episode was good