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amindofstone · 4 years ago

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Match up, No. 10

Anon said:

Hello! I would like the match up please I would like to have a Male character and here are stuff about me!

The thing I do mostly is like to care for others and help others, I mostly get tricked on very easily do to my kindness which will cause me to sometimes get very fiesty which not very but maybe like “ please just stop talking your being to loud.” In a annoyed tone, which is very rarely, I tend to like very many hobbies and I don’t judge people base on first glance I see what on the inside and not what on the outside, a weakness I have is my disability but I never allow it to stop me from my true goal in life! And I practically tend to like doing some boyish stuff like archery! I get a lot of compliments on my archery skill because a lot of people say I have the patients and the accuracy very good! My dislikes are I hate real cocky people who think there all good and don’t take stuff for granted I also hate people who look down on weak person as not a human but a animal. I hate peoples who take kindness for granted and use it for a selfish gain.

I stand at about 5’0 exact! I have long brown hair that gets a lot of attention because some people always say to me “ I die to have your hair:” I’m just a tiny bit chubby and have big blue ocean eye that gets a lot of compliments and a lot of people wanting it to. I very much get the attention for how smart I am and how kind I am! I also get some hate from boys when I prove them wrong that girls aren’t weak and I won’t back down from a fight if it means protecting myself, people or just anyone. I like to have some affection it doesn’t have to be a lot maybe just even a hand on the shoulder is fine! I also very do like to wear some baggy clothes and I do like wearing like summer dresses that are knee high. I also tend to get very excited from the smallest things. A lot of people think I’m a loner but when it comes to babies I’m all for them! My cousin even said “ she likes to be alone into babies comes in the picture and she all for them!” 💕I love children and my parents even told me “ your definitely going to be the house wife.” I don’t know if that a compliment or not but I’m taking it😂✌🏻 sorry if I shared so many!

a/n:

Hello there! How are you? I really enjoyed reading all those things about you. Believe it or not but the part in which you said that although you have a disability it is not holding you back to follow your dreams, was impressive. It truly made happy. I have two cousins that have a disability and get me sad every time I see them. But seeing them happy and keep doing whatever they want makes me always so damn happy. You seem to be such a sweet human. Someone bright and jolly. Please never ever change. You are such a strong and great human. Keep that attitude and make sure that even when you end up as a housewife don´t let anyone push you around or take you presence and work for granted. This world really needs more good humans like you. I am so happy you requested. When you mentioned housewife I instantly thought of Hinata (Narutos wife) and then thought about myself who is more of a mixture of Ino and Temari. That thought really made me laugh. LMAO!! Anyways I really hope you will like with what I came up with. If there is anything that bothers you or you don´t like, please tell me so I can change it. Other than that enjoy the little story I came up with. Happy reading!

Match up rules can be found HERE.

Warning(s): Maybe grammatical or spelling mistakes since English is my third language and I´m still improving in every aspect (Please have mercy on that.)

!!! Please do not steal my idea or work. Credit me if this is shared or published in any other platform or any other way. Please respect me as the writer and my work. Picture is not mine. Credits to: @/SK,Martins (Can be seen in the pic) (found on the internet) !!!

· Well my dear anon. Like I mentioned before I think that you are a sweet and lovely human being. On top of that also simply adorable, fun and pure! Therefore I´d like to match you up with the future pirate king Monkey D. Luffy

· I think that you two would get along so well. So, SO WELL! Now hear me out!

· The way you two got to know each other might sound a bit of cliché but that’s simply how you meet. There was no princess in danger or a knight in a shinny armor but a clueless guy who wondered why a woman in a dress would walk around with arrows and a bow when they weren´t cupid. A simple human?! HA! Definitely not!

· Anyways that’s how everything started….

· The strawhats were docked on the island you were living in. At first they were anxious and didn´t want to leave their ship alone but when a worker at the harbor told them that the civilians on the island had cero problems with pirates as long as they didn´t do anything stupid or harm them. The whole crew got happy and started roaming around the island.

· Luffy being Luffy, screamed for food the moment his feet were on the island. And Zoro…. That guy yelled after him saying that if he gets to have food he wanted Sake. So, Luffy, Zoro and Ussop searched for a restaurant. Why Ussop you wonder? Well Nami send him with the boys because they otherwise would end up on the other side of the island. And Ussop compared to the captain and the first mate knew he had an actual brain and also knew how to use it.

· While the pirates were walking around the island you were helping out as a waitress in your uncles restaurant

· Everything went smooth. You served the people and had little chats with some of them. Some gave you too much tip and some other had you sitting with them and eat with them

· The people of the island knew you well. They knew you and loved you. Your uncle once even said that the only reason why his business was doing so well was because of you. The people never came for the food but rather for you. But you always denied it and told him that it was him and his food that was liked so much.

· Bu today there was something a bit different. A group of men you hated from the bottom of your heart came again. They were simply rude and egoistic. They were people from the wealthier part of the city, that was called royal neighbor. The reason why that neighborhood was called royal had nothing to do with the people that lived there. The only reason it was called royal was because it had a lot of wellness centers, hotels, casinos and parks. While this neighborhood, you were living in was given the name of idyll because of the beautiful nature. Landscapes that could have been painted and not to forget the dreamy beaches. But these group of young men simply didn´t understand that and thought of it differently. In a way that even the mayor couldn´t do anything else than just shook his head in embarrassment. But what could that poor man do. They weren´t doing anything against the law. They simply were annoying, stupid and egoistic.

· The group of young man, not older than 25, would always come once a week and have lunch in your uncles restaurant

· They entered the restaurant followed by three men you never saw on the island. At first you thought of them as sailors until you saw the green haired man carry three swords.

· You were in a dilemma. You didn´t knew if you should take care of the men that could have been pirates or the annoying group of disgusting men that always came. You gave your coworker a look and made sure he understood what you wanted. You were about to walk up to him and tell him to take care of the annoying group of men when you heard a plate breaking. You stopped in your tracks and instantly turned around.

· “This is our table. We always sit here. Now move you pathetic poor human.”, said Dean, the head of the group. You were mad. You were extremely mad and it took you so much energy and patience to not walk up to him and cut of his throat. But you calmed down and thought rationally. You took a deep breath and took your little notebook you used for writing down the guests orders when you heard a glass shatter right after Dean grabbed the customer at his collar and made him stand up. And this was exactly the moment you slammed you notebook and pen on the floor and yelled from the top of your lungs.

· “Watch out what you’re doing, you spoiled brat!”

· You stomped towards him and took a knife from a table on your way to him. “If you do not put him down in a bit and apologize, I swear to god I will make you regret waking up today and leaving your fucking bed!”, Dean knew you were no one to joke around with but his pride as a man kept pushing him. He chuckled and looked at you up and down while his friends that followed him like dogs laughed at your words.

· “Don´t make me start counting you pathetic version of a human.”, with furious eyes you looked up at Dean who still held the customer at his collar. “Look at that tiny girl trying to threaten…”, one of his friends was giving a comment but couldn´t finish his sentence because of you throwing the knife in your hand at him and cutting a bit of his ear and hair. You threw the knife with such a precise and strong grip that it ended up hitting the wall that was three meters behind him. “Watch out what you say because I don´t hesitate to drop the sweet girl attitude.”

· Dean looked at you with pure anger and let go of the man he was holding. He looked at his shocked friend and then back at you. “Today’s point goes to you. But the next time we come and this table is not free you will regret hurting him.”, said the angry man. “Listen here you little dumb spoiled creature. This table won´t be free for you. This is our table. Our property. You have no right to come and throw such a tantrum. And guess what, come again and I will be paying your parents a little visit and make them pay for everything you did. And I am sure that they won´t be pleased by your behavior since they are good friends with my parents and the mayor. Right? Now if I ever see you come here again I will make you pay. After today we will not accept your unacceptable behavior anymore. Now get the FCK OUT!!”

· After they left everything was silent for a few seconds but that change after your uncle started to clap and every person in the restaurant joined him. Your eye widened and your started to blush with a huge grin on your face. But that little moment of clapping didn´t last long. One of the pirates that entered the restaurant spoke up. “You did a good job but I AM HUNGRY!!!! Please FEED ME!”, you were confused. You didn´t know how to react and stood there like a statue.

· “Alright Sir. No worries. We will take your order in a few.”, said your uncle and approached you with a huge smile your notebook and pen. He pats your head with a proud smile. “You are such a brave and strong woman. I am so glad to have you in my family and I think it´s enough for today. Please take care of these men and then go rest: You deserve it.”, you nodded and smiled back to him. You pulled yourself together and made your way to the table of the pirates while your uncle left to take care of the broken glasses and the customer who had to deal with those stupid men.

· “Hello gentlemen. I apologize for making you wait I ….”, “No worries I actually enjoyed the show. You’ve got a good and precise eye. BUT NOW MY ORDER! Get me everything on the second site please.”, you absolutely didn´t knew how to react. You were looking at the talking man with a straw hat and then to his friends with big shook eyes. “I know what you thinking but he always eats that much and manages to stay alive. No worries. And getting to my order I´d like to have number 17 and 22 on the menu.”, said the one with a unusual long nose. “I take the same as him but with three bottles of your best sake.”

· You nodded with a disbelieving look on the face wondering if the first one is really going to eat all of the stuff. But you gave yourself a light slap and made your way to the kitchen only to be confronted with overwhelmed and surprised faces of the cooks. You shrugged with your shoulder and went to get the pirates drinks.

· While you went to get their drinks you saw that more people sat down next to the three pirates what made sense since the table they were sitting on was a huge one that usually only families took. Taking the drinks you served the three and greeted the new costumers. At the table sat a beautiful woman with black hair that complimented you for your adorable and genuine smile. With a blush you gave the others a menu too and took their orders

· Slowly with time passing all of their meals were served and you said your farewells and left the restaurant earlier then thought because your uncle said that he will take care of the rest. Thanking him you left and made your way to your archery lesson although it would have been way too early.

· Every time you came your sensei’s face would glow with pride. But the malicious person he is he would then drag you inside and introduce you to another challenge he came up with.

Time skip because ya author is lazy for the first time in a while now. *apologizes in trilingual

· It was late in the evening. You were on your way back home and thought why not take the route that would lead you to walk across the beach. You were having a good time alone. The sound of the waves that crashed on the cliffs and rocks were beautifully calming. The feeling of the sand under you feet were relaxing. With a smile upon your lips you were lost in your thoughts when the same guy with the straw hat you saw in the restaurant looked at you while blinking a few times before he asked you if you were Cupid the god of love like Sanji told him.

· With confusion taking over your mind you stopped in your tracks. Who on earth was he and that Sanji guy and why did he call me cupid? You wondered.

· And there you were looking at him with pure confusion while he looked at you with huge impressed and curious eyes for good 2 minutes until you shook your head and asked him who he and that Sanji were. He smiled at you and let himself fall down to sit cross- legged in front of you on the soft, warm sand. Now how do you think he introduced himself? Exactly my dear.

· “I am Monkey D. Luffy the future pirate King.”, “Huh?”, “And Sanji is one of my crew mates and the cook on my ship. Now tell me are you Cupid or not.”

· “Why would I be cupid?”, “Well you are wearing a pink white dress and you have a bow and arrows. So I thought that you might be on your way to shoot some people with them to make them fall in love. So, are you Cupid?”,

· “Alright first of all Cupid is a mythological creature made up by humans. He or she doesn´t exists. Secondly you really don´t look like a pirate nor do the others in your crew beside that one green haired man with the swords if he is also part of your crew. Thirdly you want to become the pirate king? Why?”

· And this my dear was how you two started a conversation that was to 50 % about him telling you stories of his adventures, 25 % basically about nonsense. And the other 25 % were… well that was about you telling him that you weren´t cupid but a actual human with the name f/n l/n. But he actually never got it. Until now.

· Eight years after your first encounter with the weird men called Monkey D. Luffy you still were busy telling him that you weren´t Cupid. But by now you not only had to tell him that but also your son who rather called you Cupid instead of mama.

· Congratulations you have two idiots in your life you love to the moon and back and would actually fight Garp for.

Bonus:

· “Does he really think that your Cupid or is that supposed to be something like a cute name?”, asked Dragon, the leader of the revolutionary army

· “I stopped thinking about that long ago, Sir. I really don´t know how to answer that. But just to make it clear if that confused you too. My name is y/n not Cupid.”, you told you father in Law with a sweet smile.

· “Wait. Cupid is not your name?! That brat introduced you to me as Monkey D. Cupid!”, Garp looked at you and Dragon with disbelieve.

· “If you ever wonder why you husband is so stupid just please now that, that stupidity comes from Garp. Not me. I swear.”

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fangirl-1523 · 4 years ago

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My Sworn Brothers [Luffy x Crossover!Sister!Reader x Ace x Sabo]

A/N: Hey, so I want to write a High School AU of the many, many anime I have watched/ read. Bleach, Blue Exorcist, Devil is a Part-Timer, Durarara, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, High School of the Dead, InuYasha, Kill La Kill, Magi, My Hero Academia, Noragami, One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, Pokemon, Saiki K, Sailor Moon, Seven Deadly Sins, Soul Eater, Sword Art Online, Vampire Knight, Your Lie in April, and Yu Gi-Oh. And I was wondering who would you like to be apart of your friend? And would you like to have a relation to any of the characters of the world.

Summary: [Y/N] is the oldest sworn sister to Luffy, Ace, and Sabo. And after finding Ace and Sabo aboard Luffy’s ship, the Thousand Sunny, she explains to them who she is, her other sworn brothers and sisters, embarrasses the three of them (a regular Tuesday for her), and threatens them with a chalkboard for interrupting her. Multiple times. In this story, most of the anime I am into is in the same world (Bleach, Blue Exorcist, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, InuYasha, Magi, My Hero Academia, Naruto, Noragami, Seven Deadly Sins, and Sword Art Online. I might do a part 2.

Warnings: spoilers for the above mangas and animes, also, even though this is along the timeline of after the time skip (at some point), I took the creative liberty to have Ace alive during this meeting for a quad family reunion, might be language

Word Count: 1, 668

“How the hell am I suppose to believe that my three idiotic brothers would be in the same place at the exact same time I’m trying to find them?” the girl with [H/C] hair, old enough to be Luffy’s age, maybe a year younger or a year older than him.

“[Y/N]!!” the rubber boy flung himself at her in a hug.

She fell down on her butt from the impact of the hug. She groaned before pushing the boy off of her and standing up, dusting herself off. “Geez, Lu. I was on a job, just finished, and I heard something about a Straw Hat, a Fire Fist, and a blonde with a top hat that put the mad hatter to shame. I just came to see if the rumors are true.”

“What job did you have, sis?” Sabo said as he sipped a smoothie created from Vinsmoke Sanji.

“Well, you see. In the ten years I’ve been gone, I’ve been busy. Both with being lazy and being diligent.” the girl explained. “I am a member of Fairy Tail. Dragon Slayer Magic, particularly fire, water, earth, air, and plant. Requip the Knight. Some space jumping there and vortex opening here.”

“You got the two mixed up, kid.” Ace said from his spot next to Sabo.

The girl grinned an evil grin. “Oh, did I, Ace of Clubs?”

The raven haired pirate groaned at the nickname while Luffy’s crew members wondered after the nickname. Ace kept giving her the don’t-tell-them-anything look with a cut-it-out motion. She, like most people she knew, did not listen to reason.

“Well, when we were younger, I attempted to teach the pour unfortunate souls that you call Luffy, Sabo, and Ace golf. And we played mini-gold. First hole we went to, the club flew out of Ace’s hand and crashed into the window where the pour lady working the club stand was clonked on the head and fell unconscious. Another fun fact: I’m overly competitive and therefore master of mini gold. Luffy on the other hand... beat my bowling high score of just a little over four hundred points.” [Y/N] explained.

“THAT’S NOT HOW YOU PLAY GOLF, YOU IDIOT!” Usopp shouted at his captain.

“Ace was a lot worse. However, on the eighteenth hole, got a hole in one. Although with team sports, I always sided with Luffy ‘cuz he was the baby of the family.” she explained.

“Never play Volleyball with her unless you’re Luffy.” Sabo warned the Straw Hat Pirates.

“Could you... possibly.... explain who you are?” asked Nami.

“That’s an easy and excellent question, m’lady. I am [Y/N] [L/N], the daughter of the Demon King from the Demon Clan, Niece of Solomon, adoptive daughter of the great dragon, The Curse of Depravity, a mage of S-Class ranking, the best older sister anyone can have, a Shinigami, and the Pirate Fairy.” [Y/N] said with her hands on her hips like wonder woman.

“You’re not wonder woman, dumbass.” Ace muttered.

She scowled at the boy (who was now physically older than her). “I know that, asshole.” Ace shrugged his shoulders at that. “Anyways, I should get going. I’m here with my teammates. And Salamander will have a cow if he finds out I’m on a Pirate Ship. Which may or may not include Natsu asking you all to fight him at once for his sister.” [Y/N] shrugged.

“SISTER?!” Luffy screeched.

“YOU ALREADY REPLACED US?!” Ace and Sabo said in unison.

“This is why I never took you to Amusement parks or sat next to you on a ride.” she clenched at her swollen ears. “No, I was merely saying that I have something called [Y/N]’s Council of Brothers. They’re basically a band of boys I feel need my protection, wisdom, and power to embarrass them until they’re six feet under and rotting.”

“She’s dark.” Nami said. “But can you explain this whole Council of Brothers thing. Because I’m not sure they,” the ginger pointed to the three brothers, “understand.”

“Alright! I will go over a lesson here!” and suddenly a white board appeared by her side with writing already on it.

“Where did you get the white board?” asked Luffy.

“That’s not important right now.” she scowled. “Yes, Sabo.”

“Was that Whiteboard always there and we just never noticed it?” the blonde asked.

“No. Ace if this is a question about the white board, I will smack you with the same gold club that flew through that window. All questions about the stupid whiteboard will be answered after I explained everything. Got it?”

The three brothers grumbled out a, “Yes.”

“Good. Anyways, to start it off I have two half-brothers. Meliodas and Zeldris.” she slapped a pointer stick against the whiteboard.

“Did she always have that?” Ace asked, whispering it to his two brothers.

“I don’t know. I’m just glad someone noticed it besides me.” Sabo murmured back.

“SILENCE, YOU INSOLENCE FOOLS!” and she threw a frying pan which hit Ace in the head.

Why does she have a frying pan in her requips? Sabo wondered in his head, not wanting to get hit in the head with anything else she might have to throw at them.

“Anyways, Meliodas and Zeldris are my half-brothers. Zeldris is the captain of the Demon Clan’s ten Commandments while Meliodas is the captain of Liones’s Seven Deadly Sins of which I am co-captain and the Phoenix Sin of Darkness. To be fair, I look more like my mother and I think the only thing me, Meliodas, and Zeldris share is our dumbassery we inherited from our father. Second off, my cousin is Magi Aladdin since my mother is his father, Solomon,’s sister. Now, that’s enough of my actual biological family. Now, I won’t go into detail about those three. Because you already seem well-acquainted with one another. Anyways, onto the next one. The next one on my list of brothers is a half-demon named Rin who is the son of Satan along with his younger brother, Yukio, but he doesn’t really need protection. next is Kazuto Kirigaya also known as Kirito. I prefer to call him that. He got stuck in a game where if you die there, you die in real life, but he defeated them. next, we have Satan himself, a king of demons, Sadou Maou. He works as a part-timer for a fast food chain which is sad to be honest. Next, we have Alibaba Saluja, a prince and a king’s candidate, also my cousin’s best friend. He wields the fire djinn, Amon. Also, he’s trying to be a gladiator while figuring out his feelings for Fanalis and former slave Morgiana. Next, we have actual God Yato who is a former god of calamity and a current god of war. I think. I’m not quite sure. But he and his two regalia, Yukine and a Nora named Kazuma, but also Kazune under Yato, must be protected by me at all cost. Then, we have Edward Elric, a alchemist missing both a leg and an arm because he wanted to see his mom’s smile again which kicks me in the heartstrings whenever I hear it. His brother, Alphonse, is an honorary member of the Council of Brothers. And he used to be entirely a soul attached to a suit of armor. No joke.”

“Does no one else notice that they are mostly raven haired or blonde?” Nico Robin commented.

The Straw Hat Pirates turned to the three sworn brothers who just shrugged their shoulders at that. “I admit I am guilty for that. But my actual brothers are raven headed and blonde, so that may be the reason. Anyways, off to the next people. Now, this person could make Luffy look like a genius. Sometimes. Natsu Dragneel, a salmon haired fire dragon slayer, is the brother of Zeref Dragneel, the black wizard, and also simultaneously END, the most powerful demon of the book of zeref which makes him one of the top fifteen most powerful demons. Next, we have strawberry boi, Ichigo Kurosaki, a shinigami who I’ve been helping train. He could see the dead and then he discovered his spiritual power, stole the shinigami powers of Rukia Kuchiki, and started to exorcist hollows and send souls to the soul society. Then, we have my favorite band of brothers since they could literally be in a band. Broccoli Boi, Izuku Midoriya, kinda has a power augmentation quirk, best way to describe it without giving too much away, Porcupine Katsuki Bakugo who can blow things up with help from his sweat. Zuko Wannabe Shoto Todoroki who can wield fire and ice. Also, his brother Touya may or may not be Dabi. Then, Pikachu Kaminari Denki who can utilize elctricity, but too much and he makes Luffy look like a genius. No joke. Well… maybe… I don’t really know. Anyways, then we have speedster Tenya Iida. Oh, there’s sharkboy Eijiro Kirishima. He can make himself go as hard as rock, but he has limitations. Then, we have spidertape Hanta Sero that can shoot tape out of his elbows. Then, half-demon InuYAsha who is the son of a dog demon and a mortal woman. There’s also Shippo who is an adorable little kitsune. And I think I got everyone.” the girl looked at her board before smacking it again as she noticed Luffy had begun to doze off while Ace had totally fallen asleep.

The action alerted the two boys to wake up at once and glare at their older sister. And then, a silver haired undead man with a flying blue cat landed on the floor of the ship. “Thank goodness we found you. C’mon. We got a mission and you and your ‘Team Natsu’ have a job request from the old man and a princess.”

“So Hisui and Bartra both agree to have us do something, but what is this so-called mission?” asked [Y/N].

Ban smirked. “We’re fighting slave-trading pirates.”

“I want in!” Luffy cheered.

#one piece #sabo #portgas_d_ace #portgas d. ace #luffy #monkey d luffy #fairy tail #seven deadly sins #anime #crossover #one piece x reader #asl #asl x sister reader

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thanksjro · 5 years ago

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More Than Meets the Eye #12- Gay Rights: the Movie

Finally finished with our franchise obligations! Let’s get back to the main story.

Those are some ominous ellipses. Almost like something bad is going to happen!

Let’s take a look at Cover A for this issue.

When this was released to the general public, alongside the synopsis that stated the Lost Lighters were going to run into a group of Decepticons, a lot of people thought we’d be seeing them meet the Scavengers. This isn’t the case, and that’s not Fulcrum. It’s some other K-Con, one that has purple in his color scheme.

Our story opens up with a narrative framing device:

Welcome to “Before & After”, one of the more ambitious issues of MTMTE in terms of storytelling. Roberts really likes bouncing between scenes and POVs, and he’s really indulging that here.

Rodimus and crew have loaded up on one of the Lost Light’s scouting ships to check in on a planet called Temptoria. Whirl’s leading all the guys in the front in a war cry that wouldn’t be out of place in Hollywood’s version of the Vietnam war, while Brawn demonstrates how to not properly handle a gun. Rodimus tries to explain what exactly they’ll be doing, but no one’s listening, feeding off of the chaotic energy. The back seat isn’t quite as rowdy.

Oh, Ambulon’s here? That’s got to be awkward. And Perceptor’s looking mighty cross about having to pick up a gun again. Isn’t he supposed to be retired from being a science sniper?

Rodimus finally gets everyone to settle down long enough to explain the situation, though not without a little jargon mixup.

Basically, Ultra Magnus went down to Temptoria while the “Shadowplay” story was being told, and found out that the organic populace had been enslaved by a group of Decepticons, and, more importantly, the sovereign agreement that the planet had with Cybertron’s been violated. Also, these guys might have been the one’s who kidnapped the Circle of Light. You remember those guys, right? The guys who were supposed to be in the 2012 Annual, but they weren’t, and Drift got really mad about it.

Rodimus wraps up the briefing with a “’Til all are one!” And we cut over to see what Swerve and Tailgate are up to. Tailgate seems to be a little nervous, not the type to enjoy waiting, but Swerve seems to be doing just fine. Why is that, exactly?

Even if Rung’s still a steamed side dish of a vegetable, he’s still here, in a way. And good on Swerve for not assuming Tailgate can visualize in the same way he can. Aphantasia is more common than one might think.

Escapism is an interesting way of dealing with your problems, but I don’t know enough about wartime psychiatry to know if this is something that would actually be considered a viable solution or not.

Oh, now that I’ve said it, I’ve got the research itch.

Later, later.

Anyway, Tailgate gives it a spin, and his happy place is surprisingly domestic for such a seasoned professional.

Pipes, it’s a clear glass, it’s not hiding anything from you.

Speaking of Pipes, he’s seated next to Hound, as they discuss what happened to Red Alert. Or, rather, the cover story that’s been fed to the rest of the crew by Rodimus, which is that the engine room pretty much attacked him. This is how ghost stories get started.

Trailcutter’s gotten some guns installed in his legs, because he’s a hypocrite.

Over with Chromedome and Rewind, there’s trouble in paradise, as they’re having a lovers’ spat. Chromedome’s giving Rewind the silent treatment, and Rewind’s having none of it. What exactly are they fighting about? We don’t get to know about that yet, but it’s digging up other issues, like Chromedome going back on his promise to stop injecting. The only thing keeping this from becoming a total meltdown is Whirl can-canning through the door to kidnap Rewind, so he can film Whirl getting in the zone before the fight. Whirl’s having a great time. This is probably the first time they’ve gotten to fight something since the Lost Light took off, and he’s all about it.

Rewind’s dragged away, and Chromedome just lets it happen, because he’s feeling cross. It’s good to take a moment to cool off, but I’m not quite sure this was the best time or way for it to happen.

Meanwhile, on the Temptorian surface, Blip the Decepticon, who is likely the dirtiest son of a gun we’ve run into so far, is asked to take a look at the monitor by a guy who sounds exactly like Megatron. It doesn’t particularly matter which Megatron, because comics are not an audio-based medium, so you can pick whichever one you like best. What’s on the monitor does not please Blip in the slightest.

I feel like maybe having guys who don’t turn into flying machines jump out of the bottom of the shuttlecraft isn’t the greatest tactical thinking, but I’m sure everything will be okay. Brawn’s got a gun, maybe he’ll figure out how to rocket-jump before he hits terminal velocity.

Then the narrative jumps to after the fight, as the ship flies away from the scene, and Chromedome isn’t happy. It’s for a different reason than earlier, though.

Man, Pipes just can’t win, can he?

Ambulon remembers that he is, in fact, a medical professional, and starts working on Rewind, while Chromedome tries to ask Swerve just what the hell happened. Swerve’s having his own issues, however.

I’d nearly forgotten they had skeletons.

On the production side of this issue, we’ve got two artists: there’s our usual guy, Alex Milne on the “Before” sections, and Brandon Cahill on the “After”. Cahill’s other Transformers work includes The Transformers (2009) and the sister series to MTMTE, Robots in Disguise. Outside of the franchise, he’s worked on several Marvel pieces, including writing Sable & Fortune and Legion of Monsters. Unlike a lot of the alternate artists we’ve seen for the series, Cahill won’t be a one-and-done; we’ll see his art again in Dark Cybertron, Season 2 of MTMTE, and even Lost Light.

Getting back to the story, we’ve jumped back to the point in the battle where everyone’s hit the ground and are just wailing on each other. Tailgate and Swerve watch the chaos unfold, as Ultra Magnus more or less takes on a platoon of Decepticons.

Drift’s having a great time, as he Naruto runs through the enemy, slashing as he goes with a big ol’ smile on his face. He stabs a guy in the back of the head who was trying to grapple with Rodimus, thus interrupting the little dialogue they had going on. Rodimus is vaguely upset that his moment was cut short.

In the “After”, the shuttle’s landed back on the Lost Light, and Chromedome rushes out with Rewind in his arms to find First Aid with a motorized stretcher. He was hoping for Ratchet- he wants only the best for his shnookums. As they run Rewind down to the medibay, Chromedome starts listing off his allergies- which include ultraviolet light, something we know reveals mnemosurgery scars. This is a holdover from a dropped plot point I’ll cover at a later time; as it stands in the canon narrative, Rewind’s just got an allergy to the friggin’ sun.

Back at the shuttle, Tailgate starts dragging Cyclonus down the gangplank. Oh, hell. You know it’s a bad situation when the guy who literally couldn’t die for six million years is out of commission.

Spoke and Lockstock are a bit of a gag- they always manage to get their asses kicked, but everyone on the ship really likes them. They will never be seen on-panel, and have no character designs.

Over in the medibay, history is being made.

Esteemed members of the jury, I present to you: canon gay robots. The first in a long line of them. This is the starting point of the queer community being handed the Transformers franchise on a silver platter.

Up to this point, Roberts hadn’t gotten any further than implied attraction and affection between robots, in either his fanworks or professional credits. Pretty heavy-handed implication in some cases-

-but implication nonetheless. Here is the first, honest-to-god direct confirmation of two male-coded robots in love.

In love and space-married and recognized by the authority in power, in a comic written in 2012, as a part of a major franchise owned by a massive American company, three years before same-sex marriage would be legalized on a federal level.

As part of the story, it’s great. Within the context of the time during which it was published, it’s a whole other level. This wasn’t just good writing, it was important.

Let me part the kimono a little here, with some personal backstory- I grew up in Buttfuck Nowhere, NC, and went to a high school that was so homogeneous, they were threatening to bus students in after I graduated. I didn’t know what a gay person even was until I was 12. “Lesbian” was used as an insult, and it was one I was subjected to because I had cut my hair short in middle school and wore cargo shorts on occasion. It was something I really pushed against, because that’s how a lot of people react to being forcibly given a label.

Not the best environment for a little queer kid, clearly.

It wasn’t until well after I’d gone to college that I really started understanding who I was. Hell, I’m still figuring some things out, but at least I’m getting somewhere.

I remember reading this for the first time in 2015- yes, I got into the comics sort of late- and then having to reread it. I needed a moment just to process what had happened. As a person who had only recently come to terms with their sexuality at the time, it was kind of mind-blowing to have that sort of representation, especially since I was also watching Transformers Prime at around the same time. Talk about the duality of man, am I right?

These days, there’s a lot more representation in many different forms of media. Things are getting better. Which, y’know, yay! I’m glad. I just can’t help but wonder if things would have been a little different if this sort of representation had been available earlier on.

Anyway, so yes, Chromedome’s got a difficult choice to make for Rewind- either let his body try to sort itself out, or let First Aid break out the clamps and try to jumpstart him. Rewind’s got a relatively rare spark type, but luckily Chromedome’s the same type. Looks like everything’s coming up roses for our boys!

Tailgate and Cyclonus aren’t getting nearly as good a break.

My god, he’s filled with grape soda!

Back in the “Before”, things are getting a little silly.

Chromedome, what POSSIBLE tactical advantage could you be gaining from riding the giant, fire-breathing robot dinosaur? This is why they threw you in Kimia, isn’t it? Because you’re a dumbass.

While this bullshit is happening, Rewind and Tailgate are stacked on top of each other to look through a window, because I guess that’s just how things turn out when the resident couple on the ship is upset with one another. Rewind’s found something, but it isn’t the Circle of Light. Rather, it seems the Decepticons are dabbling in Pink Alchemy- a rather inefficient process that allows organic creatures to be turned into energon for consumption.

The good guy thing to do would be to save all the organics, but there’s a bit of a problem- the door is wired to a massive bomb. Good thing Tailgate was in Bomb Disposal, and is just generally an impressive and well-established dude. He gets to work.

Getting back to a point I made during Chaos Theory, Whirl can’t make a fist. Punching himself in the face is probably more akin to slashing it.

Tailgate’s got a weird approach to bombs, taking the time to teach Rewind how to do it, by way of student-led learning. They decide to poke a hole in the bottom of the bomb to drain all the explosive fluid out, which Tailgate does with little robot tears streaming down his face. Fear is a great motivator.

Oof, not a “Domey” in sight. That’s how you know things are rough.

Outside of this little scene, Whirl and Cyclonus are handling Decepticons. Whirl’s got a hold on that guy who’s voiced by Frank Welker, and we get a nice shot of his sad cat face before Whirl turns his head into a memory.

Swerve- who is also here- asks Whirl to loan him a gun.

GODDAMMIT SWERVE.

Not a single one of you bastards know proper gun safety! Between all the severe depression and reckless weapon-handling, I genuinely have no idea how the hell are any of you are still alive.

In the “After”, Chromedome’s just finished jumpstarting Rewind, and it’ll take a bit to see if it worked, so he’s left alone with his thoughts.

Just kidding, Tailgate’s come over to check in. Seems like Cyclonus is gonna pull through, something Chromedome’s not terribly thrilled about. Chromedome’s still miffed about the whole Kimia thing.

We finally learn why Chromedome and Rewind were fighting; it was because Rewind, as a walking historical database, has been deemed too important to die, and can opt out of any fight he choose to, but he doesn’t, thereby putting himself in harm’s way unnecessarily. Maybe he just worries about you when you go out there on the battlefield alone, Chromedome, you ever think of that? Maybe he doesn’t want to wonder when his husband will return home from the war.

Tailgate asks about all the little vials that are scattered around Rewind’s hospital bed, and we get a little Cybertronian tradition thrown at us.

The vials are filled with innermost energon, the stuff that surrounds the spark casing and never changes, no matter how much you modify or upgrade your body. Leaving a little of the stuff for someone in an offering signifies that you care very much for that person. Chromedome can’t give Rewind any, because he was “born dry”, but I think being space-married to the guy more than makes up for it.

Tailgate asks how the two of them met, and unlike in issue #6, Chromedome is feeling vulnerable enough to indulge the question this time.

But first we need to establish that Chromedome is insanely insecure.

So, Rewind is fucking old. He’s older than the Cybertronian civil war, he’s older than the calendar system, and he’s old enough to have been affected by Functionist society’s categorization system. Due to being a memory stick- something that there were millions of back in the day- Ratioism dictated that Rewind as an individual was worth very little, and made him and his like into slaves. Because he was a slave, he needed a master, and that master was none other than Dominus Ambus, also known as Cybertron’s Mech of the Year for 40,000 consecutive years.

Even on Cybertron, there’s a weird stigma about breastfeeding.

Rewind and Dominus quickly became friends, because that’s just the sort of guy Rewind is, and it made Dominus realize that maybe these slaves Cybertron had been working to death were sentient creatures worthy of respect too. He even developed a test to prove that all the slave classes were on the same level of functionality as everyone else.

On their quest to find a cure for the horrible disease Cybercrosis, Rewind and Dominus fucked off into space, on a wild goose chase to try and find Luna 1, the Cybertronian moon that just disappeared one day. Weird, that. They didn’t find it, and by the time they’d come back home, the war was well underway. They immediately became Autobots, and that was it for a while.

Then we move on to how Chromedome and Rewind met, and boy is it a doozy.

Chromedome had decided he wanted to kill himself, so he moseyed on over to the nearest relinquishment clinic- they did assisted suicides instead of body-swaps at this point- to do the deed. He was sitting in the waiting room, when he heard someone screaming. He wandered into the back to find Rewind weeping over a coffin, and he thought to himself “Maybe I don’t need to die after all” as he offered his future conjunx a shoulder to cry on.

What a fucking dark start to a relationship.

Rewind wasn’t upset about anyone who was dead though, but rather missing- Dominus had disappeared into thin air months ago, and Rewind was getting desperate to find him, looking in more and more awful places in the hope of recovering what he’d lost.

As it turns out, he’s still doing that. The reason the two of them are on the Lost Light is because Rewind needs to find Dominus- alive or dead, it doesn’t seem to particularly matter at this point. That’s why he buys snuff films in dark alleys.

See, Tailgate gets it.

Guys, bad news.

Chromedome’s spark is too weak to jumpstart Rewind. Unless they find another compatible donor, Rewind’s gonna be in big trouble. There’s nothing to do but wait.

Later, in their room, Chromedome is sitting on the floor and very much not following doctor’s orders to get some sleep. Someone on the opposite side of the door he’s leaning up against starts talking to him. Chromedome doesn’t seem to want to hear any of it, until he does.

Given who the basement dweller is, this probably won’t turn out so hot.

Chromedome gets a call from the medibay, and fortunately the universe has decided to play nice this go around, because someone came forward as a match.

But it’s not like Whirl cares about anyone, right? Not in the slightest, nuh-uh, not him!

While Chromedome gives Whirl what is probably an uncomfortably long hug, and they both most likely ignore the fact that Chromedome would be actively suicidal without Rewind, Tailgate’s off in the corner, having taken his hand off and begun pouring cartoon toxic waste into a vial. It’s actually his innermost energon. Boy’s making an offering, but it isn’t to Rewind.

It’s to this ungrateful fuck.

Cyclonus stalks away from Tailgate’s kindness, until he’s stopped by witnessing the power of love.

Everyone likes Rewind, and these displays of affection seems to have reminded Cyclonus that he’s horrifically lonely. Feeling some remorse over his actions- not that he’ll ever admit it out loud- he goes back to help Tailgate pick up the pieces of the vial he broke.

Wrapping up our story, we go back to the “Before”, right before the bomb is set to go off. Whirl and Cyclonus have more or less taken care of the Decepticons, Whirl suggests they set aside their differences and agree to stop trying to murder each other, in a surprising show of reason and, perhaps, self-preservation. Cyclonus doesn’t seem to agree with the idea.

I genuinely think that’s the most he’s said all series up to this point.

Rewind calls the two idiots over for help, because Tailgate’s about to pull a self-sacrifice to get this bomb emptied, and he just isn’t listening to reason. Cyclonus assists.

Once Tailgate’s been fastball-specialed out of the room, Whirl decides to get back to being a bastard, and locks Cyclonus and Rewind in with the bomb with 10 seconds left on the clock. Ah, so the donation was out of guilt, I see. Still a form of caring, in its own way.

With no way to escape, all Cyclonus can do is attempt to shield Rewind with his body as the bomb goes off.

That’s the end of the issue but it’s the middle of the story, and despite what Cyclonus says, dynamics are changing. Slowly, but surely, things are shifting. He’s headed for a lot of character development, and he’ll be kicking and screaming the whole way.

#transformers #jro #mtmte #issue 12 #maccadam #Hannzreads #text post #long post #overthinking about robots #incoming analysis #comic script writing

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firstpuffin · 5 years ago

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Defeating an overwhelming antagonist…again..:

A problem with any ongoing story is the need for escalation. Every conflict need to be greater than the previous and while there are a number of different ways to do this (I’m partial to an emotional element as opposed to greater risk), the easiest is simply to up-the-ante.

The Star Wars prequels went from a single planet to the entire galaxy; superheroes frequently go from the villain of the week to saving everything; romance such as Kimi ni Todoke (which I’ve written about previously) starts with the lead trying to talk make connections and ends on trying to keep their friends, partner and life goal.

Every genre will have different requirements. Heck, if pornography has ongoing stories then they’d have the same problem, although don’t count on me figuring out how to deal with it. More participants? Dunno.

I personally love a good action story and it can be dumb like Dragon Ball, goofy like Gintama or serious like Bleach, and I deliberately named manga as examples as that’s the area I’ve chosen to write about today. Why manga? Well in my experience the scale of escalation tends to be somewhat more extreme and far simpler.

I think I’d like to also write about escalation in other genres such as romance, slice-of-life and sure, comedy, and how they might, and often do, intermingle. But for now I’m gonna talk about the action genre’s Overwhelming Antagonist.

Again.

Sorry.

I’m going to provide three examples this time, all manga that I loved (at one time at least) and while I’ve only just finished one of them, another has recently had a confirmation for its finale being animated. Going from bad to good: Bleach, Naruto, and Gintama.

So we’re starting with Bleach. Hmm, what do you need to know to understand this? Well after writing this out once already I figured all you actually need to know is why the antagonist sucks.

The antagonist in question is- uhh, f*ck it. His name is “Yhwach”, but screw figuring out the pronunciation for that, I’m calling him Deus (even though this will influence the SEO of this article, but whatever). Deus is quite possibly the worst example I can think of for a bad antagonist. His unique superpower, The Almighty, is to know everything that will happen, that can happen, and to freakin’ overwrite any future he doesn’t like!

Like seriously! I can only think of one power that is harder to overcome and that’s the one that’s been floating around online about controlling probability. It’s the epitome of bullshit, and the overwriting-futures-he-doesn’t-like bit only comes out after he should have lost, and that’s what bothers me the most.

If he had lost right there, it would have been a very satisfying end brought about from the hero’s, Ichigo Kurosaki’s, efforts, working alongside allies and previous antagonists and with some actual tactics; satisfying despite the nonsense of literally everything else in the arc until that point (contradicting established lore and generally making no goddamn sense-). Instead he whips out this Diabolus ex Machina (the villainous Deus ex Machina) so that something the writer included earlier (but hadn’t really established) could finish him off instead.

This is all quite terrible, but what makes it so egregious is that Bleach had two, two, separate and very much ideal chances to end, but kept going. But basically Deus simply chose not to die, rewriting reality to do so, but couldn’t overwrite his actual loss? Care to explain that to us, upcoming anime?

SECOND! Naruto.

Naruto is also pretty interesting to me because I didn’t enjoy it at all for like, 50 episodes (and still watched it? why?) but it eventually became my favourite manga (for a time anyway). Me and my friends were worried about how well it was possible for a 15 year-long story to end, especially after that Bleach debacle, and we sort of didn’t want it to end just to avoid the inevitable tragedy.

But it was good!

I know that many people don’t like it, and for some of it I can understand why. The big bad was Madara Uchiha- scratch that (the author did), the antagonist is the up-until-now unknown Kaguya. Yeah, she hadn’t really been established, or even mentioned, up until she appeared and yeah, that was a problem. I think the reason why I gave it a pass was that her appearance was also connected to the origin of the culture of that world and was really quite fascinating, so I let it slide.

Oh, and I liked her design. That goes a long way.

Anyway, after a long and drawn out fight against the established (multiple times as-it-were) villain Madara, Kaguya is reincarnated through what can be summarised as the end result of Madara’s hubris and becomes the threat. She is an odd antagonist for an action manga, and not just because she’s a woman.

Kaguya isn’t strong in the same way as all the other characters, punching and shooting lighting and such, but instead she’s powerful like a deity. She drags the heroes through dimensions and such while still getting her bearings, and I’m pretty sure she is defeated while still half asleep.

Kaguya’s sudden appearance is the bad, so what’s the good?

The heroes, our titular Naruto Uzumaki and his best bud the brutal murderer Sasuke Uchiha were, through some situation, gifted a power that they were using to try and seal Madara away like an evil genie, but this sealing power works just as well for Kaguya (if I remember correctly then that’s why she needed to be reincarnated in the first place).

It all works on established lore and isn’t a stretch in any way.

And finally, Gintama.

I really would not have expected this from a manga filled with so many scatological jokes that any metaphor would just bring unwanted images to mind, and whose very title is a dick joke.

The antagonist here is Utsuro, an honest-to-god immortal. Over a thousand years old, heals from anything, dead inside (according to him “utsuro” means hollow), all Utsuro wants to do is destroy everything. I know, what a 2D character, right?

Actually no. Being immortal, Utsuro has gone through the whole loneliness thing that stories about immortals tend to include, only he’s also had to deal with persecution on top of that. He may heal but he still feels it when his village burns him alive, or stabs him, or locks him away in a prison where he starves until the lock rusts away… the author doesn’t give him the typical “oh woe is me” flashback, but gives us plenty of reason to empathise with him.

So fighting an immortal, and without the superpowers of the previous two entries, how does our hero Gintoki Sakata defeat him? That requires a bit of a history lesson; history in the manga.

How many of you know of the Life-stream from Final Fantasy 7? That seems like a solid analogy. It is mentioned a number of times that the planets (plural as Gintama is a sci-fi) have some energy called Altana and while its uses aren’t really explored, we do know that one effect of it is that some people are born of it (also not really explained; planet sex? virgin birth?) and that these people are immortal as long as they have access to this energy, and that right there is the crutch of things.

One of our leads is an alien whose mother was one of these immortals who left her planet and slowly died because the Altana of another planet won’t help. Utsuro is actually almost killed off of Earth and retreats back- oh, but if he’s only vulnerable away from the Altana then how else can he be beaten?

In the end it comes down to a couple of factors, both of which are established previously; the time he almost dies, it’s because someone rams a foreign Altana crystal into his chest and our heroes go into battle equipped with these. Secondly, using characters and lore set up and forgotten a long, long time ago, the flow of this Altana is regulated by a small group who, with great difficultly, are able to staunch the energy during the fight.

With small amounts of the harmful Altana being absorbed into his body through super-healing and no access to his literal life-force, Utsuro is able to be defeated and this is why Gintama is king. Gintama literally used what seemed like throwaway, not at all serious storylines and thoroughly established lore to exploit a weakness in this immortal.

Compare this with Deus from earlier who has no such weakness and the only thing that can apparently defeat him not only hasn’t been set up, but should have been foreseen and avoided because that’s his power! That’s literally what he does! But Utsuro has this flaw and time was taken to establish a way to take advantage of it.

#first puffin #opinion #writing #action #manga #anime #Kimi ni Todoke #Bleach #Naruto #Gintama #deus ex machina #thosetagswilldofornow

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stormears · 5 years ago

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AO3 Author Tag Meme

I’ve used FFN since 2005 and still do, but lately it’s almost entirely to update 1 Naruto story that’s also cross-posted on AO3. For this, I’m using my newer, more frequently used AO3 account, which has the Naruto story and a handful of others.

AO3 Name: UmbreonLy [Umbreon if it was an adverb?]

Fandoms & # of Fics: 4 Fandoms, 7 fics

Naruto (link) 3

Haikyuu (link): 2

My Hero Academia (link): 1

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (link): 1

Final Fantasy VII Remake (1 coming soon I swear to god)

★・・・・・★・・・・・★・・・・・★・・・・・★・・・・・★

Fic you spent the most time on: Chasm (Naruto, Sakura-centric, pretty dark) has technically been going since 2015, though I didn’t post it till 2018! I started it as a oneshot for MadaSaku week 2015 and it became far too big, which is my most common fanfic problem. I adore it though.

Longest Fic: Chasm. 4 chapters and about 75k words. Chapter 5 is in progress and has about 2k. Chasm has always had very long chapters which I love, but the disgustingly slow updates are making me consider chapters in the 6-8k range instead of 11-14k.

Shortest Fic: Dragoneyes. About 5k. I saw a MadaTobi aesthetic/moodboard post with dragons in it, made by a total stranger, and decided to write fic about it, because I love those characters and I love dragons. It felt fun to write something random, unconnected, barely structured...made me feel like one of those peeps who write 500 word prompts on a whim. Even though it took two weeks.

Most Hits: The Long Walk, about 7400 hits. Chapter 1 of an MHA fic I’ll never finish, where ABO is a worldwide epidemic that caused mass panic and destruction before people started to settle into the new ways. Pro hero and newly minted alpha Bakugou comes across quirkless(????) Izuku in a random danger zone, but quirkless Izuku acts deeply suspicious. Written because I hate PWP ABO, wanted to put a plot into that trope, and wanted a tense and evenly matched fight scene between an alpha and omega. The fic is mostly Bakugou and Midoriya stepping awkwardly around their bad past relationship and beating each other bloody with ABO trimmings, and I think people appreciate that mix.

Most Kudos: The Long Walk again. Every day I check my email eagerly for chapter updates on stories I like, replies to reviews I’ve written, reviews/comments on my own stories, but three out of every four AO3 emails I get is a kudos alert for this story.

Most Comment Threads: Probably Chasm.

Fave Fic you wrote: I love Chasm...but Darcia (Haikyuu fantasy AU) makes me proud in a way that feels unique and so worthwhile. I rewrote this thing 8 or 9 times across 6 months, struggling, succeeding, failing, hating my work, actually crying at least once because I felt so inadequate...and at the end came away with Chapter 1 of a story that read like a crown jewel to me. It has JUST the vibe and words I wanted. It’s a piece where the struggle was actually worth it.

Fic you want to write: Gonna write a FFVII Sefikura fanfic where legitimate SOLDIER Cloud Strife comes to Midgar and slowly, with trepidation and confusion, gets close to respected General Sephiroth, who, at the point of gaining Cloud’s trust and love, begins to drop larger and larger hints that he had evil machinations all along and will now possess and keep Cloud like a puppet.

Share a bit of a WIP or share a story idea you’re planning:

Excerpt from wip possibly titled “Day of the Navigator” , a Haikyuu horror/space AU. Iwaizumi Hajime is an astronaut, or “navigator”, who was preparing to help evacuate Earth from incoming predatory aliens when the aliens came early. He is forced to flee Earth alone but is soon followed by a party of different aliens who bear a strong resemblance to the Seijoh team and alien Oikawa is going to break in and fuck him.

Tried to write with a “distant, vague” POV because I thought it might help cover more events in less time/paragraphs. This was a good idea because at first this was a oneshot for IwaOi Horror Week. In October 2019. It’s still not done, goddamn me. I don’t love the writing of this scene but MEHH

They stalked him.

He tracked them by their body heat and by the vibrations they emitted. They floated around the solar panels like eels through coral. Their claws tapped along the hull, their heads butted it. When they came too close or when a careful maneuver of the controls was possible, the navigator pushed back. With drills, hammers or projectiles, he punished them for their bullheaded pestering by mauling them.

Once their bodies were torn, they floated limply away—for a while. Even when he shot wires into their flesh and electrocuted them till their flesh started to cook, they returned. Once two of them drifted into range of extraneous thrusters that burned them till they cooked entirely. Their crisp bodies floated end-over-end into space. Two more of them whirled frantically about them as they floated away.

Godspeed, cunts. Hope you die.

They never did.

Each part of the body crushed or torn returned, even if it took weeks. Even bodies ripped in half grew back or stitched together again. And after one period of many weeks, he could not put off a walk to the water filtration tank any longer.

He kissed Tory the tyrannosaurus and set him on an elliptical to wait for him. Iwaizumi would find him happily in the gym once he was done. He suited up for a spacewalk from the midpoint of the ship to the aft end.

The airlock door opened. There was nothing around but a drifting comet in the far distance, silent and white. He was safely alone in the infinite dark.

The journey was quick, unfettered. Past the soldier-like battalions of solar panels, past the engine block and heavy storage armor. Three-quarters down the ship by the aft was the main water filter. Its panel came unlocked easily, dispensed easily, took a replacement receptor easily. From this view, the ship’s many dents and scars were visible. Nothing had ever come close to rupturing, but there were dozens of minor dents from impacts with debris and—and predators. His skin crawled under his suit.

A sudden alarm in the helmet told him to run for his life. The predators were coming.

Iwaizumi followed the route faster than ever before: hand over hand on the handholds, nearly requiring the air jets to realign himself when he missed one and nearly floated off. None of the creatures were in sight yet.

Take me to victory, Ushijima had said, so he did not stop.

Iwaizumi instead took himself off the usual route to a different airlock entrance than usual. It was closer, but with a longer code required for entry. While he punched digits into the panel, the alarm in his suit sounded quadruple signals of four unique heat signatures.

He foolishly spared a glanced up. One of them was crawling between the forest of solar panels above. Atop its head was brunette-colored hair. It was the outcast attacking first, pupils shrunk to nothing.

The airlock opened and Iwaizumi pushed inside with a helpless cry that fogged his helmet.

Over his head there was metallic clattering and bumping as the being crawled down the hull to him—no, two of them did. One of them grabbed at his suit as the door automatically closed.

Iwaizumi’s mind quit all efforts, longed to faint. It left him to protocol instead of thought—he twisted in the thing’s grip, executed a lean maneuver to flip and kick the attacker in the chest. There was a harsh vibration pulsing into him like an indignant scream near his head.

He rocketed into the airlock foyer, unable to breathe. He struck a wall. The door closed and sealed but he still wasn’t breathing.

Air was evacuating the suit through a horizontal tear in the arm. Pressure was returning to the chamber at the same time, beating on his ears and throat. Iwaizumi collapsed to the floor. The helmet fell off and hit the tiles with an undignified clank-clank-CLANK.

Outside the little window in the door, a man’s face looked in: the red-mouthed outcast, now with narrowed brown eyes and an open, conniving mouth with lips. It was a face he’d seen as a boy many a time when he had time for play, when he cared about sports. It was the face of a rotten bastard looking at him through a net, who’d almost seen a cheating plan to fruition. And it was the knowing smile of a man plotting. Finally the navigator, too, became knowing.

How foolish to label this one an inept outcast. How shortsighted, to not see that it danced with danger first and most often, received the most wounds and that it led its pack in these hunting parties in pursuit of him. It had followed him and brought the others to follow him. It knew how to smile. It was truly intelligent life, almost human in its persistence. Its humanity made the animal nearly able to capture and destroy him.

Take me to victory was such a fucking stupid thing to say when he had nearly been pulled away from his escape and into an open mouth. The smiling thing twitched its fingers by the round window to catch his attention. Its hand briefly seemed to be inside the glass.

Iwaizumi squinted his eyes and recognized that he was beginning to hallucinate, that his heartrate was lightning-fast and nauseating. His arms and legs shook so hard he could not control them. He gritted his teeth and tried to move them anyway, watched by the leader of the hunting pack. He rose by grabbing the nearby staircase railing and pulling forward. With it, he began a stiff, horrible walk up the short metal stair steps to the hall beyond.

The walk was short and then the railing was gone and then he could no longer stand. After turning the corner, he fell onto his knees. He sat just out of sight of that window, shaking for hours and then days.

#self #fanfiction #IwaOi #MadaSaku #Nobody tagged me for this I do what I want

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nmnostalgiadrabbles · 6 years ago

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Parallels - KakaSaku

sort of? do with this what you will

maybe kakashi's a little ooc but? I struggled writing him this time I don't know :/

(post war but I still haven't actually finished naruto so don't expect canon continuity; this is a sasuke-free zone)

Sakura had been personally requested (and Tsunade had actually agreed) to stay with a newborn in the intensive care unit; she hadn’t given it another thought – of course she’d stay. She couldn’t have predicted that if she had instead gone with the second squad dispatched with Ino’s that she could have saved Ino’s life. Or at least she could have tried, and she wouldn’t have had to hear about it from Choji.

(Choji had never been the emotionally well-put together one – that was Shikamaru. But not this time. Only at the reminder that their sensei had asked him to help care for and protect his child did Shikamaru finally stop sleeping by her grave and eat something for the first time in three days.)

Sakura was another story.

(Sakura and Shikamaru weren’t particularly close – they’d never had a reason to be, really. But now, at the foot of her stone they held each other so there was no distance between them. Neither of them said it was because they were trying to feel what connected them – her – but they both knew it.)

After Shikamaru left, Naruto came to be with her. He probably would have stayed until they’d both starved, but after another two days, Kakashi came. He’d been a neglectful sensei too much of his career, and even though his students were all adults now, he was still needed, and so he came.

She wouldn’t say no to him when he asked her to please come with him; she didn’t want him to think she was being childish. But how could she think something like that – think only of herself at a time like this? She cursed herself for being more concerned with embarrassment than her best friend. Still, she took his hand after he offered it.

In the days, weeks, months that followed, she transitioned slowly from mostly hospital work to more and more field work – missions. It was then that he saw in her the same hurry to die that he’d once been in.

Once again, Naruto tried his best to be there for her, and he certainly was a positive influence, but Kakashi could see that she was still slipping.

She stopped cooking for herself and ate only instant ramen – like another of his students had when he was just a genin – when she did remember to eat. It was almost unreal to him, to watch her neglect herself like that. She’d never in all their years, even when Sasuke first left to find Orochimaru, forgotten basic self-care. She’d stopped blow-drying and styling her hair long ago, but this was on another level. He had to step in; it was his duty to step in; he wanted to step in.

He spoke with Tsunade and they agreed he’d replace one of the members of the team she’d be leaving with the following morning. That had been the easy part. The other involved Kakashi trying his hand at homemade protein balls.

To be fair, he explained their first night while making camp. I don’t normally cook this kind of thing.

“Really,” she continued the conversation. That was good. She hadn’t spoken more than a few words outside of mission specifics since they’d left just before dawn. But still, he could tell it was just small talk. She wasn’t invested (though, it wasn’t like it was the most invigorating topic in the world); did she know of his concerns? Was she trying to convince him she didn’t need them? Or was she so far retreated into herself that this was the most she could offer? Perhaps this was taking all the effort in the world.

In their time as one half of team seven, she’d never concealed her emotions in front of him; neither could remember how many times she’d cried in his presence. Despite that it broke a shinobi rule, she was comfortable and safe with him, both emotionally and physically; she never doubted that if Naruto or Sasuke couldn’t protect her, he would. He’d made that promise to them in the land of Waves so long ago.

What had Ino thought in the moments before her death? Did she think that someone was coming? Someone with unmatchable strength and legendary medical abilities and pink hair? God if she kept thinking like that Kakashi would never leave her alone. What were they talking about? Oh, she was chewing what rivaled her own as the most awful tasting protein ball in history.

“I may not be one to talk, but your powder ratio is off. That’s why they’re chalky.”

“That’s why,” he nodded, accepting, and threw another bundle of twigs on the campfire. They spoke quietly; their other teammate was sleeping on the other side of it.

The next morning they’d only just set out when they encountered the enemy. Since the war, and even before it to a degree, Sakura had always been smart when fighting. She didn’t waste energy on showy moves like Naruto or Sasuke (or himself), but now, she masked the brutality with efficiency. As a medic, she knew precisely where to strike for a single blow to be fatal, and she’d aim just there. Kakashi found that he – and the other member – were hardly needed, at least as far as manpower was concerned. That’s how it seemed at first.

As the hours and days went on, they crept farther and farther into enemy territory, and the number of opponents per person increased accordingly. Sakura did not slow down. Her attacks became less hyper-focused; they’d still kill the opponent, but it wouldn’t be immediate. It might take a few minutes, during which they could signal others or even execute a counter of sorts. Sakura had to know this, and she had to notice that her other two teammates were spending more and more of their time finishing the job. They were falling behind.

“Sakura!”

She looked back at him, and he almost wished she hadn’t. He swallowed and willed his body to move faster.

He caught up with her three miles down the forest path. His nose could tell that it was mostly the enemies’ blood, but the visual was still stocking. It smeared her skin pink and stained every bit of her uniform. He didn’t know exactly how many missions she’d been on since Ino’s death, but he wondered how many times they’d ended like this; how many times she’d felt the crippling, unrelenting loneliness.

“Kakashi,” she breathed, standing over the last opponent’s corpse. “Stop worrying about me. Can’t you see I’m perfectly capable of carrying out my missions?”

Kakashi gave their surroundings a final once over and then stepped into the small clearing where she stood. God, he’d thought the very same thing when Gai voiced his concerns for him back then.

“Sakura, it was never a question of that.”

She shook her head and went on, but still didn’t face him. “I’ve lost a little weight,”

A little? But he didn’t say that.

“You know I’ve studied the mind nearly as much as the body. It’s common when people grieve. Can’t I without everyone breathing down my neck?”

“I know you’re grieving, and you’re right, it is common –”

“Don’t patronize me,”

“But hurting yourself won’t bring her back.”

Sakura whipped around, angry hot tears brimming in her eyes. He should have known what to say to ease her pain but –

“Sakura.” By now, he had stepped closer and taken her by the shoulders. She looked up at him with gritted teeth. “I know – I know that you don’t want to hear it and I know that everything hurts. It still hurts for me, too.”

“If I – I had just been there instead of in that God-damned hospital – if I had just trained her better she could have healed herself –” She dropped to her knees and took fistfuls of dirt and squeezed.

“Nothing has changed! I’m still worthless when it matters most! What good is any of it if I still let this happen!”

It was tragic just how much she was mirroring his younger self. For the second time he wished he could shoulder this burden. He stooped to her eye level and held her face.

“Sakura,” Suddenly the mask covering his was constricting and ridiculous because it was interfering with their conversation, their connection – and he pulled it down without hesitation and continued, “You don’t have to internalize it all; you don’t have to face this alone. That isn’t strength. Letting people in – letting Naruto in,” and then, slightly softer, but not purposefully, “Letting me in – that takes strength.”

She broke his gaze. “I don’t care about that. I just want to be left alone.” She sounded so defeated. She must have felt even worse.

“I wanted that too, but, at the risk of embodying Gai, I can’t let you. For both our sakes I won’t.”

First and foremost he was saying it all for her own good, but secondly, and he acknowledged it was selfish, for himself, because he couldn’t lose another person he cared about.

“Kakashi, how did you do it?” Her cheeks were as tear-stained as he’d ever seen them.

It was so out of character for him – but so was talking this much about something emotion-related – but he kissed her forehead and said, “With time.”

Back at the village, they wordlessly began living together. It had been several months since her death, but Sakura was still floundering. Kakashi didn’t expect anything else; he’d had years to deal with the loss of his friends and mentors, and she’d only had a few months. He would not rush her.

Instead, he cooked for her, and then eventually, she started coming in to give him tips and suggestions and then she was flipping the pancakes and dicing the tomatoes with him. One afternoon Naruto popped by and the three ate together, and Sakura felt alive for the first time in a long, long while. But by the end of the meal, she’d thought of Shikamaru and Choji.

The next day she – she went out to the fields past the training grounds where they’d learned to pick flowers that complimented each other before they were genin. The Yamanaka flower shop was open, but not for her, not yet. If ever. She gathered two bouquets’ worth.

She stopped by Shikamaru’s first, and found that Choji was with him. They were laying atop the roof staring at the clouds.

“Shikamaru, Choji,” she said quietly and sat with her legs hanging over the roof’s edge and the bouquets on either side.

“Is it okay for me to be here?” she asked. What she meant was do I bring the pain back? Or rather, do I worsen it?

Choji answered. “Of course, Sakura, why wouldn’t it?”

She smiled, mostly for politeness’ sake.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been around,”

Shikamaru lit a cigarette and stood to lean over the metal railing. “You’ve been on a lot of missions, lately. There’s no need to apologize.” The last line he said a bit differently, and she realized he wasn’t talking about her absence from the village or their presences.

“Thank you.”

#naruto #sakura #kakashi #kakasaku #ino #shikamaru #choji

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tired-biscuit · 2 years ago

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Haha, I love that the amount of horny Kiba asks you get has skyrocketed

So of course I have to continue to contribute to that ✨️

I absolutely loved your horny thoughts post where you explored the more animalistic/in heat kibz! Ah biscuit, you get me every time!

God, poor Naruto he's such an idiot so of course he has no idea why Kiba would get mad at him out of nowhere

Imagine having a friends with benefits relationship with both Kiba and Naruto

And both of them start catching feelings

And honestly you are too, and you don't want to do anything about it because you can't bring yourself to pick between them

And Kiba knows that it's supposed to stay feelings free, but whenever he is spending time with you and smells his scent on you

He starts making a point of marking you up more, he gets so rough whenever he thinks he has to claim you, and afterwards he offers to shower with you "to look at your beautiful body" but really it's just so that the scent of Naruto is gone from you, and so that afterwards he can cuddle up with you to make you smell like him

Naruto also knows its supposed to be feelings free, but whenever he sees the marks that Kiba has left on you he gets so irritated.

It gets to the point where Kiba is jealous enough that he confronts Naruto and they both get into a huge argument about who can fuck you better

So you're sitting on your couch at home when the both of them burst in through your door demanding to know who gives it to you better

And you cannot stop blushing because you never thought you would have them both here, and also you can't really decide between the two of them

"Come on babe, you know he can't fuck you like I do, right?"

"No way! I'm sure I make you cum way more than he can"

And you're a blushing, aroused mess when you manage to squeak out "why don't you put it to the test right now?"

Getting absolutely destroyed between the two of them

And when they are done and ask you who was better again, you're too fucked out to really answer, practically panting trying to catch your breath.

So they both help with the aftercare, and end up snuggling up to you on either side.

I love these men

fr!! i have no clue what i did to get people to start sending me kiba thirsts, but i wanna say thank you for 'em cos they make me happy. i appreciate them, sweet anon and all the others who have sent their share!! makes me wanna kiss you all.

feral!kiba will probably become a future one-shot, though i understand that it might not be for everyone because it'll explore some darker sexual themes which can be triggering for some.

the warnings will be there ofc, but i kinda wanna unleash some frustration, write this big, bad, bold dom!kiba and really focus on the cnc aspect and the predator/prey kink. it's gonna be a bit different than what i usually put out, but i'm still thinking of a sweet ending when he calms down, tho for the rest of the story he'll be rough and tough. i'm talking zero respect... it's just my preference when it comes to him, i suppose, lol.

also, i kinda wanna write him grabbing naruto by the collar cos he touched you and shoving him away with surprising strength, all enraged, nearly going berserk, like: "don't touch my fucking girl." while naruto is just over there like "what da fawk did i even do? kiba? kiba, this ain't you. 😦" before it clicks that his friend is in heat and he's like "ohhhh.", lmfaooo.

and as for the prompt you've just sent me... GAWDAMN!!! what i wouldn't give to be sandwiched between those two hunks, fr. i wanna sweat as they'd tear me apart cos of how competitive they are, istg. ughhhh. like yes sir and daddy, lemme die underneath your hands. 🥺😭

i wanna say polyamorous relationship would be a good solution, but i doubt it'd work because they wouldn't get along as soon as they'd have to share you during dates and other mushy stuff. they don't love each other in that kind of way, they just love you. so they'd definitely fight. and it'd definitely get physical sometimes because they're both idiots who lack patience.

however, i do see threesomes happening way more often after that specific time, because they'd still keep trying to one up one another, hehe. all of a sudden they're both constantly hanging out at your apartment - literally exhausting you to the point where one of them has to carry you to bed and the other has to carry you out of it cos you wouldn't be able to walk.

like they're both so big, bulky, strong, have so much stamina... byeeee, they'd murder your pussy. straight up obliterate it 🤩

and yeah same, i love 'em both so much. they're both so handsome and complete opposites visually, but are literally the same person personality-wise [well, kiba is a bit moodier and snarkier and naruto is a bit more naive and goofy, but we can't all be perfect, eh?]

truly my two fave himbo kings 💛

#✨ anon

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jouissezduprintemps · 7 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Naruto Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jiraiya/Tsunade (Naruto) Characters: Jiraiya (Naruto), Tsunade (Naruto), Orochimaru (Naruto) Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, young sannin, Alcohol, A date that's not a date, Writer's Block Summary:

Jiraiya has recently returned from Ame, and he's scheduled a book deal with his publisher for his newly-titled Icha Icha series. A bout of writer's block has him stuck before a deadline, and he hopes that spending a night on the town will bring his creativity back. Tsunade does her best to help him write a better story, giving him a little more inspiration than she had planned.

Follow Link or Read Under the Cut

With a precise, deliberate move of his fingers, Orochimaru released a drop from the pipette onto a glass slide, which he slid underneath the microscope. He fiddled with the lenses to bring the sample into focus. “I’m busy,” he stated, looking away from the specimen long enough to scribble some notes in the book to his right. “I don’t have time.”

“Come on,” Jiraiya prompted. He held a jar in his hands, examining the human eye suspended in liquid. With a grimace, he set it back on the shelf, unsettled when he swore it looked at him. “You’ve been in here for days. Have you even eaten? You’ll die if you don’t eat.”

“That’s why I have Anko,” Orochimaru reminded his teammate. “Lab assistants do more than sanitize the workspace.” She hadn’t been working for him very long, but she showed significant promise. Regrettably, he had sent her home for the night without thinking to have her bring him dinner from a nearby restaurant. At least he had some food pills tucked away, somewhere.

“I need my wingman! It’s a Saturday night, I’m back, and we should celebrate.”

“I can’t stop in the middle of an experiment.” He knew he had told him this a hundred times before. “I can’t leave and come back to it later. The process will continue with or without me, and if I’m not here to record my findings, I’ll have to start from scratch.” He turned away from the microscope, sorting through various dyes he had organized on a nearby table. “Can’t you ask Tsunade?”

“What?” Jiraiya laughed. “You think she’d come out with me as my wingwoman? She’d scare any girls off! None of them would come near me if I was with her. Besides, she’d never agree to that.”

Orochimaru shook the bottle of blue dye between his fingers before carrying it back to his station. “You know as well as I do that she’d do just about anything if you pick up her bar tab.” He paused while he wrote something down. “I won’t be done here for at least another three hours. You’re welcome to stay, if you like, but you’ll have to be quiet, so I can focus.”

Jiraiya huffed exaggeratedly. Three hours wasn’t terrible. That would put them at midnight. They would still have a few hours to hit the town. Well, he might as well entertain himself. He walked to the far side of the room, where a large, cylindrical tank bubbled as oxygen enriched the water supply. It appeared empty, but he couldn’t be sure. He gave three sharp raps on the glass with the knuckle of his index finger.

“If you can’t keep yourself from touching the equipment, you need to leave,” Orochimaru hissed, eyes still focused through the lenses of the microscope.

“Alright, alright. I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

“You’re a terrible liar, and you’re a distraction. You need to go.”

“But-”

“Out.”

“You suck,” Jiraiya grumbled, crossing his arms as he walked to the door. “You know, you have to hang out with us sometime. You’re pale enough as-is. Get some sunlight, have a drink.”

“I will, when you manage not to interrupt my process.”

“Fuck your process,” Jiraiya grumbled.

“Out.” Orochimaru pointed at the door, lowering his hand only when he heard the door to his lab click shut.

Jiraiya exited the building and looked up, trying to guess the time. It was only about nine. He hadn’t heard from Tsunade, so she was either out gambling or at her apartment. It was a death sentence for his wallet if he found her in the gambling den, so he played it safe by deciding to check her residence first. With any luck, she’d be there, and willing to entertain him for a few hours. He’d had writer’s block for almost a week now, and he had to do something to get him writing again. He had three more chapters to write before his next deadline.

He didn’t have to think about where to go; his feet carried him through the familiar streets. God, it was good to be home. As much as he cared for those kids, it had been a long couple of years out there, alone. Well, not alone, but without anyone older than half his age. He’d missed the smell of Konoha, the people, and, most of all, the sun. He’d have killed for just one day of sunlight in Ame. He did his best to push Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato from his mind; the night he had planned for himself in no way involved children.

It involved alcohol, a good time, and, if he was lucky, some company.

He stopped in front of a familiar door and knocked three times in a rhythm. He waited for a minute before he knocked again, this time calling, “Princess! I know you’re there!” He didn’t, but it was worth a try all the same.

With no response, he began to knock on the door rapidly. She couldn’t stand when he did that. If she was home, he’d earn her ire, but she would inevitably open the door. As expected, Tsunade jerked the front door back, taking away his instrument. She was dressed in sweat pants and a tank top, and her hair was down. He looked up at her face, and she was angry. Oh, fuck, she was pissed.

“What do you want?” she snapped, crossing her arms below her chest.

He had to play his cards carefully. If he could make the right moves, maybe he could get out unharmed and convince her to join him. Starting the verbal dance, he began, “Can I come in? You’re not going to make me stand on your porch, are you?”

Her lips drew into a thin line as she looked up at him, studying his face. Apparently, he passed her test. She stepped back into her apartment, turning her back on him as she walked into the kitchen. Jiraiya let himself in and shut the door. So far, so good. He followed her, surprised to see her digging through her almost-empty cabinets.

“Everything I buy goes bad before I get to eat it,” she complained aloud. “I’m just going to stop buying food.” She tossed an unopened box into the trash for emphasis.

“You sound like Orochimaru.”

“You take that back.” She looked at him over her shoulder. “Why are you here?”

“I was hoping you’d want to get a drink with me. It’s a Saturday night, and it’s been years since we went out.”

“Whose fault is that?” Tsunade grumbled, flipping over a pack of noodles to check the expiration date. It joined the box in the trash. “I planned on finding dinner, watching a movie, and going to bed early before my shift at the hospital. Why should I go out with you?”

Jiraiya continued to watch her, smirking when he realized her predicament. How did he not figure it out sooner? “You lost all your money again,” he stated his conclusion.

She wheeled around and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t make fun of me,” she snapped, gesturing at him with an unopened granola bar.

He ran a hand over his face, doing his best not to laugh. “What am I going to do with you?” He shook his head and started to walk down the hallway.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded, stalking after him. “Hey!” She threw the granola bar at his head, and he dodged the attack. “I’m talking to you.”

Jiraiya opened the door to her bedroom and began rifling through her dresser drawers. He tossed various articles of clothing at her, stating, “What I mean is that I’m taking you to dinner, Princess. You need to eat, and I need the company. Now get dressed.”

Tsunade looked down at the clothes in her arms, weighing her options. She had to set her pride against her stomach, and her stomach won. “Fine,” she relented. “Get out.”

“Do I have to?” As soon as the playful words left his mouth, he knew he’d gone a step too far. He slipped out the door before she could reprimand him, escaping her wrath. He walked back into the kitchen and took up the task of sorting through the cabinets, getting rid of almost everything. The woman was worse than he was. It was remarkable that neither of his teammates had died of starvation while he was gone.

“Let’s go,” Tsunade suggested as she reappeared, tying a ribbon around her hair to keep it in place. “Where are we going, exactly?” she added, realizing that she had no idea what she was getting herself into. The bribe of food took precedence over the rest at first.

“Where do you want to go?”

“Don’t do that to me.”

“Do what?”

“Offer to buy me dinner and then ask me to choose where we go.”

“Most women would be happy about that, you know.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch. Have a little faith in me, Princess.”

“You know this isn’t a date.”

“I know.”

She eyed him warily. He seemed genuine enough. “Sushi?”

“Yeah, I can do sushi.” He grinned down at her. It wasn’t their usual haunt, but the change of pace might be nice. He wouldn’t have much of a chance of meeting women at a sushi bar, but there was plenty of time for that as the night went on. “Shall we?” He offered her his arm dramatically. Used to his behavior, she swatted him lightly on the bicep before taking it, aware that he wouldn’t relent until she did.

The pair went in search of their late dinner, weaving through the crowded, main streets as they entered the middle of the village. Tsunade stopped in front of a restaurant, but Jiraiya’s hold on her arm took her with him, despite her protests.

“What’s wrong with you? We agreed on sushi!”

“If we’re going to have sushi, we’re going to have good sushi. You’re no fun when you’re sick, and I’m not taking that risk.”

“Jiraiya!”

“Indulge me.”

She bristled, but she did as she was told. They walked down several more streets before Jiraiya found what he was looking for. They entered the small restaurant and seated themselves at the bar, needing no time to decide what they wanted.

“I’ll take the tuna,” Jiraiya ordered.

“The squid, and a bottle of sake.” Tsunade smiled at their chef.

Holding up two fingers, Jiraiya corrected, “Two.”

Tsunade filled her saucer and took a sip before speaking. “I know you didn’t come to my apartment to buy me a pity dinner. What’s really going on?”

“I wanted to see if you had plans, and if you wanted to go to the bar. The whole food thing was secondary, but I’m glad I stopped by. I had to throw almost everything out.” He frowned, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. “How’d you lose it this time?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled.

“Princess…”

She sighed. “I was winning. Really! But, you know, I got cocky…”

Jiraiya bit back a chuckle by finishing his saucer, enjoying the burn down his throat as he filled it again. “And the fact that you were winning didn’t tip you off?”

“Hey, I can win every now and again.”

“Really?” He snorted in amusement.

She broke apart her chopsticks and snapped them near his nose.

The chef placed their plates in front of them before turning back to his work, preparing the next orders for the other guests. Tsunade picked up a piece and put it in her mouth. “Mmm.” It had been so long since she’d last had a satisfying meal like this.

“Good, right?” Jiraiya asked with a grin. “And you wanted to go to that chain restaurant.”

“Alright, I was wrong. I admit it.” She waved her hand dismissively before drinking more of her sake. “Now, be honest with me. You’re spoiling me, and I want to know why. I already told you that this isn’t a date.”

He shrugged, more than willing to admit the truth. “I missed you. I missed this. Is that so bad?”

She was flattered, although she refused to show it. All she allowed herself to say was, “It’s good to have you back.”

He grinned. “You missed me.”

She scoffed. “Right. Whatever you need to tell yourself.”

He lifted his saucer to his lips and took a drink. “Yeah, you definitely missed me.”

They both knew he wasn’t wrong. Trying to change the subject, Tsunade asked, “So, those kids. How did that go?”

Jiraiya thought back on the last few years of his life, summarizing, “It was interesting, to say the least. Not what I thought I was signing up for. They’re good kids, though. I’m sure they’ll do fine on their own, now.”

“Orochimaru and I thought you were out of your mind.”

He clicked his tongue. “Yeah, well, there were a couple of times you wouldn’t’ve been wrong.” He shook his head. “But I don’t want to talk about Ame. Tell me what’s been going on here.”

“Not much, to be honest. Oro’s spending all his time in the lab. He’s taken on an apprentice, you know. Weird little girl…” Tsunade shrugged. “It’s just been more of the same. Shifts at the hospital, missions, that sort of thing. Sensei’s kid just made chunnin.”

“Good for him.” Jiraiya upended the last of his sake into his saucer. “And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Anything I need to be updated on?”

“I’m not half as interesting as you think I am,” she complained. “Trust me, there’s nothing exciting happening in my life other than my shifts in intensive care.”

“I found a publisher,” Jiraiya informed her. “My book, the one I wrote in Ame, is going to come out sometime next year. They’ve already slotted me for a second one.”

“A sequel?”

“Not exactly. I pitched a new series, and they bought it right away. But, now, I have to work on a schedule. I’m really bad at that; I need three more chapters by next week, and I’ve been stuck for days.”

“Can I help?”

Surprised by her offer, Jiraiya had to gather his thoughts before telling her, “Not really. I just need to get creative again. I sit down to write, and, just… nothing.”

“Come on, what inspires you? What makes you want to write? What helped you write in Ame?”

“The first book was completely different. I had all the material I needed, and the kids kept me so busy that when I sat down to write, it just worked. But the new series…” He drew random shapes in the air with his chopsticks as he tried to think. “It’s not the same. I can’t rely as much on personal experience. It needs a little more… finesse.”

“That’s how I’m going to pay you back for dinner,” Tsunade decided. “Let’s pay and get out of here. I’m going to make you write those chapters if it kills us.”

Jiraiya didn’t argue; having someone make him sit down and write, to keep him focused, was probably what he needed. He threw some bills on the counter to cover their tab, leaving the change for the chef. As they stepped out into the night, he asked, “Just go easy on me, okay? It’s not as easy as it looks.”

“Trust me, I know. I can’t write to save my life, and that’s just counting memos and letters. You and your books… not even close to my wheelhouse.” Tsunade smiled at him, and he soaked in her compliment. He didn’t get very many. “I can provide sake, some company, and maybe a little motivation.”

“That’s more than I could ask.” He hadn’t had someone sit in on his writing process before. The material of his book was, say, sensitive, but if there was anyone he could trust to give him honest feedback, it was Tsunade. She might crack a few jokes, but she wouldn’t change her opinion of him just because he was trying to write a romance novel.

He flicked on the lights to her apartment, and she opened the cabinet above the refrigerator, bringing down a bottle of sake. He snorted, quipping “At least alcohol takes a while to go out of date.”

“I could just not give you any.” She narrowed her brown eyes, like she was staring through his soul.

“I’m sorry.”

“Mm-hm.” She grabbed two glasses and walked into the living room, throwing herself down on the couch. She uncapped the bottle and handed Jiraiya his glass when he sat down on the opposite end. “So, let’s hear it. What do you have at this point? Where are you stuck?”

He pulled a notebook out of his pocket, hesitating before he opened it. “You have to swear that you won’t tell anyone. Not Oro, not sensei.”

Tsunade put her hand over her heart. “I swear. Now tell me!”

“Don’t laugh, okay? I pitched it as a romance series. You know, guy-gets-the-girl. But it’s from the guy’s point of view, you know? Something different that isn’t really done in the genre.”

“I like that,” Tsunade told him, her voice genuine. His ability to think of these things was what made her believe he had a career in writing. Those little nuances could make or break a book. She would have never thought of something so simple, but revolutionary. “That makes it different.”

“Exactly. But I can’t let that alienate the audience. Guys aren’t my only demographic, here. At least, I don’t want them to be. So, that’s where things have gotten a little tricky. Let me think of how to put this… I need the guy to go after this hard-to-get girl without looking like a total asshole.”

“So, don’t make him an asshole.”

“See, you say that like it’s easy. But us guys, if we like a girl, and she isn’t interested, we look creepy if we keep trying. There’s no sweep-you-of-your-feet moment for us; we have to do the sweeping. So, it can be really hit or miss.”

“Well, does she like him?”

“He doesn’t know yet.”

“Okay, but you should. You’re the author. You need to know what you’re working with here. Is she interested? Is she annoyed by him? And do you want him to grow on her? You have to get inside her head.”

Jiraiya tapped his pen against the notebook. How had he not thought of that? “She gets annoyed sometimes, and that’s genuine, because he can be a little forward. But, other times, she thinks it’s endearing. I think that’s what keeps him guessing? He can’t figure out the pattern. What do you think?”

Tsunade tucked her feet underneath her and turned to sit sideways on the couch, facing him. “Well, that’s not much to go on, but if I had to guess, I’d say she likes him. I don’t know that she loves him, at least not yet, because it’s early in the book. But if a woman does that, it’s usually a sign that she’s into someone. Maybe he’s someone she doesn’t want to like, or thinks is relationship material?”

“So, you’re saying that she might be into the main character, but either doesn’t know it or doesn’t want to admit it?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm.” He wrote down several lines in the notebook as he took this in. “I think I’ll go with doesn’t know it, and then move on to doesn’t want to admit it.”

“Sounds about right. So, here’s the big question: does he get her?”

“I don’t know.” He faltered. “I hadn’t decided.”

“No wonder you’re stuck!” She threw a decorative pillow at him, which he caught before it hit his face. “Idiot. You can’t write a book if you don’t know how it’ll end or what your characters are thinking!”

“Okay, okay!” Jiraiya drained his glass and held it out for her to refill. “I get it. I jumped in too quickly.”

“You can work with this, though. You could have your character trying to figure out what you’re asking me. Does she like him? Why does she get annoyed? You know, that type of thing.”

“That could add to the conflict. I was thinking about having her be in love with another man.”

She reached out and smacked him on the chest. “Don’t you dare pull that cliché shit. A woman can be uninterested if she’s single. If you have him win her away from another man, I will personally take your book and put it where the sun doesn’t shine.” There was a bit of fear in his eyes. Good. Fear was healthy. “We’re not all fragile creatures. Sure, she could have had her heart broken, or pine after someone else, but there are plenty of reasons a woman might not want to be with a man.”

“Like?” he asked, genuinely trying to get answers.

“She’s trying to figure herself out. She doesn’t want to be tied down. She’s not looking for a relationship. She lost someone. She doesn’t trust people.” Tsunade ticked off each point on her fingers, listing just a few. “But,” she raised her index finger, “that doesn’t mean that she isn’t interested in something simple. She could be looking for friendship, or even just sex. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Women aren’t as hard to figure out as you think, if you know what to look for.”

Jiraiya’s pen scratched across the paper, writing down everything she said. She was incredibly helpful, and he thought that she might have pulled him out of the rut he was in. “Give me a second,” he told her, flipping the page and continuing to write. She moved to the middle of the couch so that she could look to see what he was writing down.

“I can’t read your handwriting,” she complained, her brow furrowing.

“You don’t need to. This isn’t even a rough draft at this point.”

“So? Read it to me.”

“Keep it in your pants,” he grumbled, continuing to write so that he didn’t lose the words. He’d filled another two pages before he stopped, a smile on his face. Maybe his block was finally gone. “Okay, tell me how this sounds:

He placed a hand on her hip and cradled the back of her head with the other. With a strong pull, she fell against him, and he captured her lips in a passionate kiss. Despite her protests, he held her there until she melted into the sensation.”

“That sounds like a terrific way to get your ass kicked.”

“What?”

“That has to be the first time he kisses her, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Any woman in her right mind would slap him and walk off. It doesn’t matter if they’ve been flirting, or if there’s tension. Unless she’s drunk off her ass, which it doesn’t sound like she is, there’s no way she’d let him get away with that.”

“Okay, Miss Expert. What would you have him do?”

“He’s got to come in slowly. Just… here, let me show you. So, he should take his hand like this,” she took Jiraiya’s hand, movements mimicking her words, “and put it against her cheek. He could brush her hair back or stroke her cheek, something to get some contact going. Now, if she likes it, she’s going to smile or lean into it. Make her seem relaxed. If she’s fighting, she doesn’t want it, and that’s not somewhere you want to go.” She waited for him to nod in understanding. “Good. Now, what he does here can vary, but you can keep his hand on her hip if you want. I’d say he should move it to her lower back. See? Flat palm, enough to guide, but without physically grabbing her. You don’t want to make her feel trapped.”

His mouth felt dry as he looked straight at her, his brain doing its best to function in the current situation. His hands were on her. It wasn’t like he’d never touched her before; they’d sparred, and they’d leaned on one another after many a night with too much to drink. But this was different. Even if it was a demonstration, she’d put his hands on her. She was letting him. He didn’t realize she was speaking to him until she shouted.

“Jiraiya!”

“Huh?”

“I’m trying to help you, here. The least you could do is listen.”

“Right. Yeah. Okay.”

“Like I was saying, if he wants to pull her to him, have him apply a bit of pressure to her lower back. Draw her in, don’t pull her. Go on.”

He followed her prompting, subconsciously holding his breath when she was pressed against him. Sitting on the couch, their height difference wasn’t as pronounced. He was only a few inches above her.

“See the difference? There’s nothing wrong with getting a little rough, but that’s a big no for the first kiss. If he wants to get another chance at it, he needs to come in with a peck, linger for just a second, and then kiss her again. No tongue unless she starts it.” She grabbed his notebook and pen off the arm of the couch, moving her face from his hand so that she could write. “Let me put this down for you so that you don’t forget. I’ll be pissed if I read it and you use that shitty line in the final copy.”

“You want to read my book?” He didn’t conceal his surprise.

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I?” She snapped the notebook shut. “You’re talented, and you know it.”

“I’m just surprised that you’d be interested in a romance novel written by me, of all people.”

“If you keep coming up with crap like this, I’ll make you add me on as a co-author. You’re going to need my help to write this book. Of course, I want to read it when it’s done.”

He crinkled his nose. “I guess I’m not as smooth as I thought.”

Tsunade did her best to fight back her laughter, but she failed. He was insulted, yet she couldn’t stop. She waved her hand, excusing herself before wiping the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She downed the rest of her glass to compose herself. “No, no, you’re not.”

“Don’t make fun of me,” he protested. “I’ll have you know, I have no trouble getting women.”

“You ‘get’ women because you’re hot and you buy them alcohol until they stop listening to you.” She snorted as she raised her glass to her lips. “Trust me, you don’t exactly have a silver tongue.”

“You think I’m hot.”

“Hm?”

“You just told me I’m hot.” He grinned widely at her, and she rolled her eyes.

“Please. It’s an objective observation. Don’t let it go to your head. I could have said the same thing about Oro.”

“Nah. See, Oro’s pretty; remember, we agreed on that word for him before I left. But you just said I’m hot. There’s a big difference.”

“Just take the compliment, Jiraiya.”

“Oh, I am. See, I know I’m hot. It’s just a fact. But you said it.” He poked her playfully in the shoulder, laughing at the annoyance on her face.

“You know what? This is your problem. You push. You just can’t leave well enough alone, can you?”

He leaned back and picked up his glass. “Some people would call that settling.”

She shook the empty bottle from side to side, frowning to herself. She peeled herself off the couch and sauntered back into the kitchen, where she threw the bottle into the trash. On her toes, she reached into the cabinet above the refrigerator, groping where she couldn’t see. “Little help here?” she asked over her shoulder.

Jiraiya remained seated, watching her with a quirked eyebrow. “Only if you admit it.”

“Fuck you,” she grumbled, turning back to the task at hand. She improvised by climbing up onto her countertop, clinging to the top of the cupboard for balance. The way she had to contort her arm was far from comfortable, but she succeeded in reaching the bottle at the back of the cabinet. In victory, she withdrew it, moving a little too quickly for her inebriated state to pace. She slipped, but she fell for less than a second before she was steadied.

“Easy there, Princess.” Jiraiya lifted her off the counter and set her back on the ground with infuriating ease. “I think you’ve had enough.” He took the bottle from her hand and sat it on top of the fridge.

“I’m not drunk.” She crossed her arms.

“I know. Believe me. But that doesn’t mean I should enable you.” He placed a hand on her shoulder and maneuvered her back into the living room. “I can’t have my writing partner wasted. We still have two more chapters to get through. You promised, remember?”

“Why did I do that?” she asked herself ruefully.

“Doesn’t matter; you’re locked in, now.” He sat back down on the couch and patted the cushion beside him.

“Fine, but I’m laying down.” She stretched across the sofa, her knees hanging over the arm and her head against Jiraiya’s thigh. By the way he looked down at her, she knew he was amused, but she couldn’t care less. “So, you have the guy kiss the girl. Then what?”

He settled back against the cushion, draping his arms over the back of the couch as he thought. Absentmindedly, his fingers traced lazy circles and swirls on her thigh, just above her knee; it surprised her that she didn’t swat him away. His chin was tilted up as he looked at the ceiling. “I guess he’ll figure out that he needs to be patient to win her over. She’ll probably keep rejecting him, but he’ll keep trying.”

“That isn’t romantic. Are you sure you’re writing for the right genre?”

He grinned down at her. “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. I’m writing realistic romance. That dime-store crap old ladies read has nothing on my work. That’s all fantasy. I want mine to be life. The ups and the downs, with everything in between. It’s never that easy. People fight, they get jealous, they get rejected. But, they keep trying. That’s what I’m going for.”

She nodded thoughtfully. It may have been the alcohol talking, but she agreed, “I see what you mean. Well, if you want to talk about a fucked-up love life, you don’t have to look further than our team.” Her laugh was bitter.

“What’s Orochimaru been up to that I don’t know about?” he asked, more than a little concerned by the thought. “Oh, my god, Tsunade. Please tell me that you and Oro didn’t…”

“No!” She reached up and put a hand on his forehead, forcing his head back up. “Pervert.”

“I had to ask.”

“No, you really didn’t. God. He’s like my brother.” She shuddered at the thought. Orochimaru was dear to her, and she loved him, but she certainly wasn’t in love with him. He was a friend, a reassuring presence, and a shoulder to lean on. “And if you want to know what he’s been up to, ask him, not me. You know how private he is. I have to respect that.”

“Now I’m really curious.”

“Too bad.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Anything I missed while I was away?” he asked. “No new beaus I have to fight off?”

With a glint in her eye, Tsunade sat up and turned to face him. “You heard that the feudal lord died, right? Well, his son thinks he wants to marry me.”

“His son?”

“Yeah. Something about my Senju blood, and all that crap. But, you have to see this. Hold on a sec.” She jumped up and rushed down the hall, returning a moment later with a cardboard box, a square foot large. “He,” she said as she sat back down, crossing one leg beneath her, “has been sending me useless little trinkets for ages, now. I kept sending them back, but he’d return them. I pawn most of it.” She laughed, taking delight in how her admirer was unknowingly funding her gambling habit. “But, but, he sends these little haikus with them. I was saving them so you could look at them when you got back.” With glee, she handed Jiraiya a folded piece of paper.

He smoothed the paper out and read aloud:

“Tsunade Senju Won’t you please accept my love And this sake set?”

Jiraiya cackled, but Tsunade waved her hand to silence him as she read off another piece of paper.

“I have seen your face Only in a photograph You have nice cheekbones.”

“You’re fucking with me.” He took the piece of paper from her and read it himself. “He’s gotta be on something. I mean, he has to know how bad this is, right? No one’s that self-absorbed.”

“Oh, but he is. I have a year and a half’s worth of these things. And you want to know the best part? I’ve never replied. Not once. But these things just keep coming in the mail!”

He gave a low whistle. “Damn. He has it bad.”

“Thank you! God, no one else thinks it’s funny. Sensei wants me to write him and tell him one way or the other. Oro just doesn’t care. A year and a half of these things, and I finally get to laugh with you about it!”

“So, I take it you’re not interested.”

She snorted. “I’d rather die than be a politician’s wife. Hell, I don’t think I want to be anyone’s wife. Not for a long while, anyway. Sure as hell not to someone I don’t even know. It’s a stupid construct, anyway.”

Jiraiya bit his tongue before he reminded her that she didn’t always feel that way. Bringing up Dan was probably the worst thing he could do. Instead, he added his own opinion. “I think it might be nice in, what, twenty years? You know, when I’m retired, and all this bullshit is behind me. No war, no missions, just me and my books. When I’m not just living day by day. By then, I should have enough from my royalties to get myself a nice place, maybe with a view. Enjoy myself. Maybe then, I’ll settle down. But, for right now, we don’t get to be that lucky. We’re ninja.”

“Exactly,” Tsunade agreed.

“You know what? What do you say if, in twenty years, we’re both alive and very much alone, we tie the knot and get the hell out of here. Just say ‘fuck it’ and find somewhere away from this village and all this ninja bullshit.”

“Only if you’re rich enough to support my drinking and gambling.”

“Princess, no one could ever have that much money.” He deserved the punch he received on the arm. “Come on, yes or no?”

“I don’t know. What if you get old and ugly? Or if there’s no spark? I don’t want to promise you something I don’t want to keep.”

“Okay, first of all, I will never be ugly, and the fact that you would even think so is insulting. As for our compatibility, I think we’ve got that covered.”

“Making out in a cave eight years ago doesn’t count. We were in a war; nothing counts when you’re fighting a war.”

“Fair enough,” he had to admit. She was right, and he knew it. Even when he was eighteen, he knew that they’d pretend it never happened. It was one of the biggest disappointments of his life. “Damned shame, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“It not counting. I was using all my best moves, too. I mean, looking back, they weren’t great, but it was what I had.” He grinned at the thought. “You punched me in the jaw because I grabbed your ass. It was worth it.”

“I forgot about that…”

“Well, I sure as hell didn’t!” He laughed.

It was completely on impulse that she caught him by the collar and pulled him down, silencing him when she pressed her lips against his. She tried to keep him there, but he pulled back, looking down at her in confusion. “Whoa, there,” he stammered, eyes wide. His hands loosened hers from his collar and moved them away. “Tsunade, look at me. How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Two, jackass,” she snapped. “I’m not drunk. I’m lucid. If you want to be a prick about it-” The rest of her sentence died when he leaned back in, closing what little distance remained. She fought not to laugh when he placed his hand on her lower back; at least he learned quickly. When she deepened the kiss, she realized that this was the first time she’d allowed anyone to get close to her in this way since Dan. The thought didn’t bring heartache with it this time, which was a pleasant twist, but one that still stung.

But this was Jiraiya, for god’s sake. It wasn’t like she was replacing Dan. She hadn’t moved on, so she refused to feel guilty for her actions. This wasn’t about Dan, or filling the void he left. There was already a place for Jiraiya in her heart when Dan worked his way in; she didn’t have to reduce his space to make room. They had no secrets from one another. He knew that Jiraiya loved her, about the incident in the cave, about everything. But he was never jealous; he wasn’t that type of man.

When she knotted her fingers in Jiraiya’s hair, when he fell with her, on top of her, to lie on the couch, it was entirely different. What she had with Dan was light, almost spiritual. He was her one. Sometimes, she wondered if he even belonged on earth. He was the high she didn’t want to lose.

With Jiraiya, it felt more like she was sinking, being pulled down to a rock bottom she didn’t want to climb out of. He knew her deeply, intimately, so much so that she couldn’t wear her mask. He knew every scar and every mark because he’d witnessed them form.

She realized she hadn’t been breathing when she broke away, gasping for air. His lips grazed down the side of her neck, and she shifted beneath him. Immediately, he lifted himself up by placing his hands on either side of her head. He searched her face for any negative expression as he asked, “Too far?”

“No.”

“If you’re uncomfortable, all you have to do is tell me. I get it.”

“Stop being a good guy and get back down here.”

“Because if this has something to do with Dan, I don’t want you to do anything you might regret. I don’t want to be that guy.”

She groaned and ran a hand over her face. He’d taken the moment out back and killed it, so she might as well clarify. “No, this has nothing to do with Dan. I’m not repressing or escaping. I would have broken down by now if I was. Now, stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m going to break. I’m not. You can either accept that this is a completely lucid, consensual situation, or don’t, but you need to decide.”

“I need you to swear it to me. That this isn’t going to hurt you, or us.”

She wished she could take away the look in his eyes. He was being cautious, and she couldn’t blame him. When he’d left, she’d been far from okay. She placed her hands on his cheeks and pulled his head down, resting his forehead against her own. “I swear.”

Satisfied with her answer, he kissed her with fervor, holding himself up with one forearm, leaving the other free to roam down her side. She threw her arms around his neck to keep him close. Calloused fingertips brushed beneath her shirt, against her abdomen, and her hips bucked involuntarily in response. She could feel his self-satisfied smirk and bit his lower lip in retaliation. Her fingers worked against the knot in his belt, trying to loosen the fabric. Of course, he couldn’t just tie a simple knot. She should have known better.

“Why are you such a pain in the ass?” she murmured against his lips, trying to focus. She grinned at her victory when she finally released the strings of fabric. Her hands pushed his jacket off his shoulders, and he moved his hand away to reach over his back, grabbing the hem and pulling the article up and off his body, shifting his weight to free his other arm.

“There’s no way we can stay on this couch,” he complained as he tossed his jacket to the floor. “It might work for you, but I’m going to fall off.”

“Then get up,” she prompted, pushing against his shoulders. He stood up, and she followed suit, walking off down the hallway. For a moment, he stood in place, dumbfounded and confused. “Are you coming?” she called, tossing something down the hallway. He bent over and picked it up, realizing with a start that it was her shirt.

It took his body a moment to catch up with his mind. It was only when she said his name that he jumped into action.

“Jiraiya?”

Nearly tripping over his own feet, he stumbled down the hall, clumsily pulling his own shirt over his head as he went. He bumped against the wall hard enough that he’d probably end up with a bruise, but at least he knew he wasn’t dreaming. It had taken six years to get her to kiss him, and another six to get this far. He’d rather die than miss this chance, and, hopefully, he wouldn’t have to wait six more years before he could have her to himself again. In fact, he would make sure that it wouldn’t be that long.

#jiratsu #naruto #naruto shippuden #naruto fanfiction #fanfiction #jiraiya #orochimaru #tsunade

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