#he was yelling at me for no reason as if *I* had inconvenienced him by their flights being fucked up

[fanfictrashdump]

Me: *walks up to a different customer service desk after I've chilled from being so fucking mad*

Customer Service Rep Man (derogatory): Hello again...

Me, squinting at him: Again?

CSRM: Yes, I talked to you at ticketing.

Me: Oh, are you gonna listen to me now or should I give you another half hour?

CSRM: *swallows down retort because manager is next to him, through clenched teeth* happy to help

[redandbrown]

Cold

Hermione was shaking violently as Ron watched her cast yet another warming charm over her body. He knew she was wearing about three sweaters and two pairs of pants. It was cold out here, but not that cold.

She sneezed loudly and immediately stomped her foot, almost like she was highly inconvenienced by getting sick.

Ron smirked to himself. That’s exactly what she was thinking. Typical Hermione.

She was still furious with him about leaving, but had finally started speaking to him again two days ago. Even if only in short, one word sentences. He thought he would try to thaw her cold shoulder towards him a little more.

“That doesn’t seem to be working,” he quipped as he walked closer to her.

She looked up at him noticing him for the first time in a while.

“Wh-what do you kn-know about it?” She sneered as her teeth chattered.

“I know a warming spell won’t work on a cold,” Ron told her calmly as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

He saw her blink rapidly, and knew this was new information to her. Sometimes growing up in the wizarding world had its advantages.

“You have a fever,” he told her.

“I know that!” She snapped at him.

“Then why would you want to make your body warmer?” He reasoned with her.

Hermione stared at him, her nose red and irritated from sneezing. He could see the wheels turning behind those warm brown eyes as she rocked back and forth, trying in vain to dispel the chills racking her body.

“I- You’re right,” she reluctantly admitted. “Why didn’t I th-think of that? I’m so stupid. I j-just f-feel so c-cold. That’s all I can think about.”

“You’re not stupid, Hermione,” he told her as he pushed off the counter and stood in front of her. “You’re just sick. Take that jumper off.”

Her eyes became large at his closeness and she took a step back.

“Wh-what?” She looked like she couldn’t believe what he had just said. He noticed the blush creeping up her cheeks from her neck.

He had to play this calm if this was going to work. He rolled his eyes at her.

“I know you have two more under that one. C’mon get rid of it.”

She looked alarmed. “Well what am I supposed to do? I can’t brew anything for a cold! I don’t have the ingredients and I’m freezing. My teeth feel like they’re going to shake out of my head!”

“I’m trying to help you, ‘Mione. Would you just trust me?” He soothed.

“No!” She stomped her foot stubbornly. “And don’t call me that! I’ll figure it out on my own! I don’t need you!” She yelled over her shoulder as she ran to her beaded bag looking desperately for something to help.

Ron sighed and jumped back onto his bunk.

“Have it your way then. If you change your mind, I’m right here.”

Hermione gave a loud huff in response to his offer and continued calling various objects out of her bag for examination.

Ron heard a soft sobbing and sat bolt upright in his bed. He must have dozed off. His eyes landed on Hermione. She was sitting on the floor now wearing one of his jumpers as well, weeping quietly into her hands. Random objects were sprawled out around her in a large mess.

He looked towards the tent flap. It would be time for Harry to come in soon. Ron had had enough of this.

He jumped off his bunk and swung his wand in the air as he walked towards her. The objects started flying back into her beaded bag, and she looked up just in time to see him scoop her off the ground.

“Ron! What are you-

“Enough of this, Hermione!” He sat her on his bunk and now they were almost eye-level. “I know you’re angry with me, but I won’t have you hurt yourself over your ego. Sometimes you need help, Hermione, whether you like it or not!”

“You don’t tell me what- She started, but Ron cut her off by raising his wand and pointing it at her chest.

She looked down to see not one, but two, three, all four of her jumpers disappear, leaving her in only her camisole.

Her arms flew across her chest, even though nothing was technically exposed.

“How dare you-

“Shutup,” Ron cut her off. He pushed her back on the bed by her shoulders, and she was so weak she didn’t even put up a fight.

“What are you-

“Would you shut up for minute?”

Ron grabbed his blanket and covered her with it, tucking it in tightly and casting a warming charm on it.

“When you have a fever you have to cast the warning charm on a blanket, not yourself,” he explained to her as her features went from realization to relaxed. Hermione took a deep sigh of relief, keeping her eyes trained on Ron.

“But you still need to break that fever. We can’t do that right now, so we’ll just have lower your body temp,” he continued, conjuring a cold cloth and placing it on her forehead. He conjured two more and instructed her to place them on her neck and stomach. This time she didn’t question him. She did as he told her.

He watched as her body finally stopped shaking. Those big brown eyes were watching him with gratitude and- was that admiration? His stomach did a flip.

“I know it doesn’t make sense to be covered in a warming blanket and cold cloths at the same time, but trust me it works. This is how my mum treats a fever while her fever potion is brewing.”

To his surprise, Hermione smiled at him. “Remind me to thank your mum. And-and you. Thank you, Ron.”

She squeezed his hand.

“Hermione, what’s wrong?” Harry sounded concerned walking into the tent.

“I have a cold.”

“And a fever,” Ron added.

“And a fever,” she confirmed.

“What can I do to help?”

“Nothi-

“She needs to rest and then eat. Make sure she gets some food in her, yeah? I’m taking next shift.”

“No!” Hermione tried to yell. Ron had already headed towards the door, but turned around at her shout.

“It’s my turn. It’s not fair to you-

Ron walked back, and to her shock leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

“I’m taking next shift,” he repeated more firmly. “Rest. Eat. I’m right outside if you need me.”

Hermione was staring at him slack-jawed. All she could do was nod.

Ron didn’t dare look at Harry as he walked out the tent flap.

[password-door-lock]

Content warning: manipulation

Unknown has never been very big on giving comfort— or so he tells himself as you sob into his jacket. You’re grabbing fistfuls of leather, trying your hardest to pull him close, though of course, it doesn’t really do much— you’re not very strong. It wouldn’t take very much effort at all for Unknown to simply push you away. But he allows you to cling to him. With one hand, he returns your embrace, and with the other, he pets your hair.

Does that really make anything better? Unknown can’t imagine that it would. If he were in your position, he’d want to be alone. In fact, he’d be shoving people out of his way, yelling, screaming, and slamming doors just to get some peace and fucking quiet. He’d destroy the contents of whatever room he’d manage to lock himself in, and only then, only after all of that, only with no other options, would he allow himself to break down crying. He certainly wouldn’t do it in front of anybody else. 

“Shhh,” he hushes you. Unknown assures himself that he’s only doing this because he wants you to shut up, not because he cares about your feelings enough to actively soothe you. Why would he give a shit about your feelings? He only brought you here in the first place because he thought that it would hurt those liars, and your time in the apartment did not instill him with very much confidence in your ability to handle important tasks. 

You respond by nuzzling his chest and, in doing so, staining his jacket with salt. Unlike all those times when you attempted to initiate a text conversation with him, you don't seem to have very much to say. “Quiet. You did fine.” The comfort that he offers is stiff and unnatural, but that doesn’t seem to bother you as you gaze at him. 

If only he had something he could use to wipe your face. You’re such a mess, with snot and tears everywhere— seriously, he’s probably going to have to get a new jacket.  You blink the tears out of your eyes. “You don’t hate me?” 

This isn’t such a bad question. Theoretically speaking, Unknown has every reason to hate you— you did ruin his original plan, after all. You could at least have spoken to the RFA and emailed a couple of potential party guests— that would be enough to bring those people to paradise. Instead, you sat around doing nothing, waiting around  for somebody to tell you what to do. In that sense, Unknown supposes, it’s his own fault for not giving you clear instructions, and besides— it’s touching to think that you’re so torn up about causing a minor setback for him. You barely know him— you’ve been here less than a day— and already you’re loyal enough to shed tears over the idea of inconveniencing Unknown. 

But, then again, he’s been monitoring the RFA messenger, and actually, your disappearance has done a lot to disrupt the typical functioning of the organization. Thanks to you, he’ll be able to sway the RFA to his savior’s side, anyway, though it’ll take a bit longer than he initially planned. “Prince(ss),” he coos, patronizing you. It’s to keep you where he wants you, he assures himself, ignoring all the other reasons he could have to behave this way. He has no reason to care about your feelings, no reason to want to make you more comfortable, especially not if you’ve already bought into the doctrine of the Mint Eye. One little speech was all it took to get you to abandon everything you thought you knew about the RFA— but, then again, that speech was quite a lot longer than any conversation you’ve ever had with any of those liars. “If I hated you, I think you’d know it by now, hm?” 

“You’re not mad?” You try again, eyes shining as you gaze up at him. 

Unknown ruffles your hair. It actually feels good to know that he can make you feel better so easily. “No,” he informs you flatly. He supposes he can’t really blame you for not wanting to talk to the boring and selfish members of the RFA— though he doesn’t say that aloud. He doesn’t owe you his reasoning. Unknown does not owe a thing to anybody, with the notable exception of his savior. 

“Okay.” You continue to cling to him like a lifeline, as though your well being truly does depend on it. He supposes that if you really thought that way, you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong— after all, Unknown is the one who can decide what to do with you. “Thank you for saving me,” you breathe. This is music to his fucking ears.

Unknown continues petting your hair. Within the next few hours, he and his Savior will have a new and better plan. Within the next few days, if everything goes as he expects it to, Unknown will have his revenge. No thanks to you, he supposes, but still— even if you couldn’t handle working as his eyes, you’ll make fantastic bait. “You’re very welcome, prince(ss).” 

[acefaun]

Yandere Leon

Synopsis: He almost lost you before for reasons outside of his control. This time he’s losing you because of himself. But even if he has to go against the universe itself, nothing’s going to keep you away from him. 

✨Masterlist✨ Female goldfish! Warnings: language, violence, blood, manipulation, self-harm, suicide A/n: Told you Yan!Leo was going to be my first posted fic of the year! All just to spite him… heh... Leon was pretty interesting to write. I mean, he’s the most powerful god in the Heavens infatuated with a human. If you read his main story, I think you know what kind of chaos he’s capable of when it comes to you. Of course, there were a whole lot of options when it came to someone like Leon. But this is just one of my many ideas and theories on what a Yan!Leon could be like.

–Word Count: 13,764–

The atmosphere was previously calm, but the silence felt too thick and suffocating. The room was illuminated in a warm orange color, but the mood didn’t match the warmth of the setting sun.

I was shaking where I stood, consumed with too much worry that I’d get reprimanded for something out of my control. Getting corrected by Leon seemed like a regular occurrence lately. Getting treated like I was some sort of dog to be trained was getting old.

Leon used to be such a great guy—not that I would tell him otherwise. He was terrifying—and not terrifying in his usual all-powerful way, either. He had always been protective, caring, gentle, and understanding. So, when did he become so possessive—so controlling? When did things change? Was I too stupid a human to notice when things turned for the worst? 

“(Name).” 

I flinched, but I still bowed my head shyly when he addressed me—technically, it was in fear, but he could never tell the difference. He never asked. “Yes?”

Was he going to yell at me again? Did I do something wrong today? Maybe he didn’t like the way I was dressed. It wouldn’t be a first. The last time he caught me in something he didn’t like, he stripped me completely naked just to dress me in something of his choice. Luckily, we hadn’t been in public or around any of the other gods at the time.

So caught up in what he might be thinking, he caught me off guard when he said, “I want you to stay here tonight.”

My head snapped up at his request. He knew I had work the next day. Was he purposefully trying to inconvenience me? “Leo, I have work tomorrow.”

“It wasn’t a question.” 

Why was he being such a jerk? My lip trembled, and I was tempted to talk back. But I knew he would keep me as long as he wanted because there was no possibility of me leaving without his permission. 

Meekly, I grew the courage to at least try and get an argument out. “You know they need me. This is important-” I shut my mouth quickly when he raised his hand. I sunk my teeth into my lip in frustration. He had me trained like a dog.

I flinched when he snapped his fingers, only to find that nothing happened. Lounging across his bed, Leon tilted his head at my startled reaction, but he didn't otherwise comment on it. “Don’t talk back to me. When I tell you I want something, you give it to me. If something’s inconveniencing you, tell me, and I’ll get rid of it. There is no reason for you to tell me no for anything. Don’t do it again. Now, come here.”

“Sorry,” I apologized timidly, looking down as I joined him.

He pulled me against his torso, laying back on the bed. Though, his eyes wandered across my figure before asking, “Are you cold, goldfish?”

He couldn’t tell that my shaking was because I was terrified of him. He was easily triggered and harder to read now more than ever. Was he that dense, or was he simply acting ignorant to how I felt? Still, I wasn’t about to enlighten him. He would probably have the audacity to use it against me. 

If he knew how quickly my heart was racing, he would chalk it all up to me being excited by him. “I’m fine… thanks.”

“Are you sick?” My eyes widened as his face grew closer to mine. For a moment, I thought he was going to pin me to the bed, but I was grateful when a knock at the door interrupted us. Leon ignored the interruption for a moment, his eyes still scanning over me in that faux worry I knew he was capable of—or maybe he really was worried, but he had a strange way of showing it. His lips drew back in displeasure before ordering, “Stay here. You don’t look well.” Getting off the bed, he left me alone in the room as he followed Karno.

I was glad to see that Karno was there to distract Leon, at least for a moment. I was getting smothered by his overbearing presence. It didn’t help that I wasn’t allowed to speak to any of the other gods. 

Just the other day, he caught me greeting Tauxolouve as I entered the mansion. I hadn’t thought much of it until Leon reacted horribly and reprimanded his subordinate. For once, Tauxolouve hadn't even been flirting with me and Leon still swooped in and scared us both half to death.

I sighed, crawling out of his bed. I wasn’t sure how long Leon would be gone, but I was growing intolerant of the way he was treating both me and my friends. It was exhausting and emotionally taxing to feel like I had to look over my shoulder all the time.

I wondered if any of the other gods caught on to what was happening. Was this typical god behavior that I just wasn’t prepared for? Only a god would have the answer to that question.

Maybe Huedhaut could give me some insight into what was going on from his perspective. I needed to know if this was going to get worse or not. Maybe it was time for Leon and I to… part ways.

I carefully opened the door, checking up and down the hall before leaving the room. It had become a habit of mine to check my surroundings for any sign of Leon before leaving or entering a room. Though, Huedhaut was important to Leon, so even if I were to get caught… he wouldn’t overreact, right? I had to convince myself that the answer was no despite all the evidence that told me Leon would overreact for anything.

With my heart thumping anxiously, I hesitantly knocked on Huedhaut’s door. It took a moment for him to answer and I tried to remain calm and composed when he finally answered. However, my voice still came out shaky and timid as I greeted him, “Hi…”

“(Name)...” He addressed me slowly, taking in my slight fidgeting. His intelligent mind was already connecting the dots of my visit. “Did you need something?” He stepped aside from the entrance, gesturing me past him. 

I rubbed my arm, shifting my feet awkwardly as I debated on accepting his invitation inside. But there was no use for me to just stay outside like an idiot, so I shuffled past him and answered, “I was wondering if you noticed anything different about Leo. He’s been acting differently and… I’m not sure what to do, or if it’s my fault.”

Huedhaut sighed and gave a brief nod of acknowledgement. “He has been acting out of character—particularly around you. I’m… hesitant to assume this is connected to his increased power. Has he told you anything at all about this?” He took my confused expression as a no and continued explaining the current situation in the Heavens. “Leo’s preparing for his transition to King. It doesn't explain his recent behavior with you, so I can’t be certain if the two are connected.” 

“King?” I repeated, my eyes widened. Leon never mentioned anything relatively close to him being King. If he’d let me see the other gods, I was sure I would have heard of it by now, but it came as a shock. “I don’t feel like that has anything to do with this. Don’t you know how terrifying he is? He’s always tormenting me and controlling me and I don’t know what to do. He’s never acted like this before.” 

He hummed, as stumped as I was about what was causing Leon’s sudden change in behavior. “It’s certainly different. Karno’s been keeping tabs on him but strangely has never brought any of this up.”

“Then you all know,” I said, accusing the entire Wishes department. They all seemed to be aware of the progressing situation. Didn’t they learn anything useful in all this time? “Isn’t there any way to help him? I can’t do this alone. Help me,” I desperately pleaded with him.

Huedhaut finally let out a deep breath before pulling me into a hug. His chin rested on my head as he rubbed my back soothingly. “I’m sorry.” This was the first contact with anyone other than Leon that I’d had in weeks. Despite how comforting he was, his apology told me that this was the most he could offer. “I don’t think we can help him. This isn’t something we can snap our fingers and fix.” 

Could no one help Leon? I balled my hands into Huedhaut’s uniform, burying my face in his chest as I took in his offered comfort. The only option left was to break up with Leon, but he wouldn’t allow that. He was too controlling to let me off that easily. Looking back up at Huedhaut, I said, “I don’t know what else to do.” Tears of frustration built up in my eyes. When did I get backed into a corner? 

“I know,” he said as he patted my head. Still, he knew I was panicking and he had to solve this problem somehow. After a moment of silence, he said, “How about this? We can try talking to Leo for you. In fact Karno was the one who sought him out today. He listens to Karno, so there’s a chance-” The mansion shook violently and the gentle smile was wiped from his face, replaced with a grim frown. His eyes narrowed knowingly—that wasn’t an Earthquake. 

The door swung open, startling the both of us, but it was only Aigonorus who was looking rather relieved to have laid eyes on me. But his attention quickly shifted to Huedhaut and he said, “Leo got really mad when Karno addressed him about how things are going. I think we only ended up making things worse. But Zyglavis is still waiting. We can take her to the Department of Punishments.”

Though I didn’t understand exactly what was going on, Huedhaut did. With a nod, he took my shaking hand in his as he guided me down the hall, Aigonorus trailing behind us. I gathered enough information to register that Leon was currently angrier than usual—something that I assumed spelled bad news for me, and more than likely the other gods. I could only pray that things wouldn’t escalate out of control.

“(Name)?” My head shot up at my name being called. Peering around Huedhaut’s shoulder, I found Ichthys and Dui waiting down the hall. Dui’s eyes were wide as he warily asked, “You’re not the one who made Leon this mad, are you?” 

Holding his arms out to me, Ichthys encouraged, “Don’t worry! We’ll take you somewhere safe! Karno’s going to take care of Leon just like he always does.” 

Hearing the promise in his voice, I couldn’t help but accept his offered hug. I hadn’t been able to see the punishments gods in forever thanks to my restrictions from Leon. It almost cured my anxiety to be able to wrap my arms loosely around someone who wasn’t Leon. “I missed you guys.”

Dui smiled at how relaxed I looked compared to a moment ago. He rubbed my shoulder. “It’s been quiet without you around. But we’re going to be able to relax once we’re in the Heavens, okay?”

Before I could get another thankful word out, my whole body shivered at the yell that came from down the hall. “(NAME)!” I couldn’t mistake it for anyone but Leon’s voice—however… there was some kind of demonic, powerful undertone to his voice. I had only heard him use that tone once in my life… I never wanted to hear it again. 

I flinched, getting shoved behind Dui. I cowered behind the two Punishment gods as Leon slowly approached from down the hall in his divine form. I knew Dui and Ichthys couldn’t handle Leon—Huedhaut and Aigonorus were there but none of them could possibly match Leon’s power. I had to consider that Huedhaut mentioned that Leon was stronger since he was preparing to become King. Thinking about Leon’s power, I mumbled, “Leo… your powers interfere with Earth’s-”

“With all I’ve been doing for you,” he interrupted me with a scowl, “You’ve wished for them to take you away from me this whole time! You’re an ungrateful little thing—an undisciplined little goldfish!” I couldn’t do anything as he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. However, Dui and Ichthys also snapped their fingers to keep Leon from stealing me away and I ended up cringing in pain, falling onto my hands and knees, struggling to regain my breath. Being caught between the powers of opposing gods was no joke. Leon scoffed at our pathetic display of defying him. “Is this what you wanted? Do you prefer to suffer?”

I shut my eyes, refusing to look at him. It was his fault any of this was happening. Why was he acting like this was such a big surprise? I shouted, “I didn’t want any of this! If you would have just acted like a normal boyfriend, then this wouldn’t have happened!”

“A normal boyfriend?” He asked it as if it were the most ridiculous thing he’d heard all day. “You knew from the beginning that you were dating a god. In fact, it was before that, wasn’t it? When I first saved you from falling off of that building.” He stepped closer, his threatening aura growing. “You were mine ever since you asked me to save you that day! It’s you who didn’t comprehend what it means to belong to a god.”

“Stay back,” Ichthys said, immediately stepping forward to protect me while I was in such a vulnerable position. 

With the help of Dui, I was able to sit up without wincing, but we immediately regretted it as Leon snapped again. “Don’t touch my goldfish!”

Gales of wind tore through the hall, sufficiently taking my breath away. I shut my eyes, covering my head protectively as I curled into myself. Leon’s power was always finely attuned to nature, but this was so strong it made me feel like I was falling rather than crouching on the floor.

I wasn’t aware of my surroundings anymore and I found myself begging, “L- Leo, please, stop it!” I shouldn’t have yelled, I realized. It was hard enough to breathe without me uselessly trying to shout at him. 

As soon as the wind stopped, I gasped for air, relieved that it was over. But Leon wasn’t done as I warily watched him approach me. We were both still for a moment before he said, “Don’t make me do this again.” His eyes were narrowed down at me. “Get up.” 

With my heart racing erratically, I didn’t hesitate to stumble back to my feet. “Leo-”

“Quiet.” He pursed his lips, looking me up and down. “It’s time. But I’m not leaving you here.” 

“Time… Time for what?” I genuinely didn’t understand what it could have been time for, but he didn’t hesitate to lift me into his arms to take me with him. 

He huffed, not sparing me a glance as he muttered, “I don’t have time to explain this. I’ll wake you when it’s over.”

He was going to snap his fingers, but feeling my hands upon his chest, he paused, regarding me curiously. I weakly demanded, “I want to know what’s going on. Don’t- Don’t do this to me. Don’t force me asleep.” 

The corners of his lips drew upward and a little tut of laughter escaped. “You’re pretty audacious for someone who just tried to run away with other gods. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.” Pressing his lips against my forehead, my vision faded until I fell limp in his arms. It wasn’t fair, I thought as my head rested against his shoulder.

***

Logically, I knew I was asleep. I didn’t feel like I had a physical form, but I could hear perfectly fine. Though, what I was hearing didn’t make sense. It sounded like the other gods…

They sounded worried about… Leon? What was he doing to them? Better yet, where was he? 

I tried turning my non-physical head, but my movements felt slow and muddled and I couldn’t see anything. Instead, I tried to call for attention, “Karno? Can… you hear me?”

Zyglavis’s sigh was heavy enough for me to make out as he relented, “Talking didn’t accomplish anything besides rushing the process… It’s almost complete. I despise neglecting heavenly sins, but we need to ensure the safety of the Earth and the Heavens above one goldfish.”

Ichthys sounded panicked at Zyglavis final decision. “We’re just going to let Leon have her?! We’re not even going to try and help?” When Zyglavis made a decision there was no going back; Ichthys knew better than that.

Karno added, sounding much more hopeful than the others, “At this point, Leon’s the King of the Heavens. There isn’t much we can do besides support her. If things go well, this arrangement could calm Leon down.”

Huedhuat sighed, but agreed with Karno’s logical reasoning. “I agree. We can’t change him by force. Working with him is in her best interest. We all understand what Leon’s powers can do.”

“Hue…” My voice cracked. I knew they couldn’t help me—especially now that it was too late. Leon’s transformation to King was already complete. I was trapped with him… Nothing was going to change. My only hope was the two departments, but they sounded like they were going to neglect the situation. Desperately, I called to them, “You’re all going to leave me?”

“I’m not going to leave you,” a voice echoed in my mind, calling me to it. “And you’re not going to leave me either.” Steadily, I was growing some sensation back in my body, though I still felt light. My body felt as though it were rocking back and forth with arms wrapped under me. When my eyes finally opened, I found that I was being carried. Leon held me tight against his chest as he walked through the palace. He was flanked by Teorus, Tauxolouve, and a few other palace gods that I didn’t recognize. My eyes trailed up, and I looked at Leon’s expression. He didn’t appear upset, but he didn’t necessarily seem too happy. His gaze shifted downwards and met mine. A slight smirk caught his lips. “You’re finally awake.”

I knew he was already King based on what the other gods had told me, but seeing the different stars in his eyes was… strange. Still, everything about the palace seemed too quiet for me. “What happened?”

Now, he was full-on grinning as he explained what happened, “Your friends decided they were going to try and take you from me. But now that I’m the King of the Heavens, they’ve finally come to their senses. Why are you asking me to repeat something you’ve already heard? They’ve accepted that you belong to me.” 

My throat tightened at the overwhelming thoughts that plagued me. I thought Leon was a problem before. Now he was a King with infinite Heavenly powers. I didn’t want to imagine the atrocities he could commit. 

Regardless, if he was King… what did that mean for everyone else? Didn’t that mean his position as Minister was over? The other gods would have to fill in—unless, of course, Leon decided to do away with all of that. There was no telling what he would do. But the only way to know was to ask. I looked up at him, hesitating at seeing his powerful eyes. “Leo… What happened to the other gods?”

He sighed, but I never received an answer. Was he ignoring me? I pouted indignantly. He was a pretty lousy King—though… I suppose his attitude wasn’t anything different from the way he was before. I wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

A set of doors opened before us, and Leon carried me into the throne room where the rest of the Zodiac gods waited—that answered my question. No one said anything, though some of them had their worried eyes on me, making sure I was okay. 

Leon still said testingly, as if trying to gauge my reaction, “Do you understand yet? I’m the King of the Heavens. As such, the Heavens, the Earth, and everything in existence are mine.”

I didn’t like the way he staked his claim on the entire universe, but who was more powerful than him to say otherwise? This was just the beginning of things to come, but I knew it could only get worse. I recalled the words of the other gods: there was a slim chance things could get better. Still, I didn’t want to be Leon’s plaything while he was still trying to figure out his new position.

The gods seemed to know what was going through my mind, hence why they all avoided my pleading gaze. The only pair of eyes that met mine were Ichthys’, but he too was quick to look away. Of all the gods, I thought he—being one of my closest friends—would say something to help, but he only ignored me. “Ichthys,” I tried calling his name, but he didn’t respond. All he could do was lower his head as he stared at the floor. 

Leon glanced down at me with eyes that said he had done all he had set out to accomplish. “They take orders from me now, just like you. We won’t have a repeat of earlier.”

“I- I just-”

“Shut up.” He dropped me to my feet, barely allowing me to catch my footing. “I’ll deal with you later. Don’t think you’re getting away with what you tried to do.” He brushed past me, his cape skimming my shoulder as he moved to sit on his throne. 

But this was all too weird for me. The gods weren’t doing anything. Were they just going to stand there and accept this? A pit of fear welled up inside of me. Did he rewrite the universe like he wanted? “Leon… What did you do?” I had to know why no one was suddenly on my side. 

But Leon wasn’t answering me, and though the other gods weren’t about to help me or anything, Zyglavis had the decency to respond, “Leon was destined to be King from the moment he was brought into being. We may have neglected to inform you… but this transition of power has been occurring over the course of the past few weeks. Seated before you now is the new King of the Heavens, the God of Leo. As gods of the Zodiac, we are made to obey the word of our King.”

That was a whole lot of information that I mostly already knew. He wasn’t much help at all! I wanted to know what this was all supposed to mean for me. I wasn’t sure if I was more affected by being practically abandoned by my gods or being stuck with a tyrant like Leon, but my body shook, wanting to cry. “Why…” I didn’t know what question to ask. What could I ask without getting Leon angry? I really wanted to know why they chose to abandon me.

Leon tilted his head indifferently, and a few of the other gods glanced nervously at me. No one dared to ask the King why he does what he does… Just because they knew Leon, that didn’t mean they were going to start acting buddy-buddy with him as the new King—things were different now. 

But Leon seemed neither mad nor interested as he said, “You won’t understand that I did this because I love you more than anything this universe has to offer. You’ve been given to me in this world, and I plan on keeping you no matter what. Come here.” He was sitting upon his throne with his legs crossed, waiting for me to join him. However, his frown grew as seconds passed. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

“No,” I daringly denied him, making the gods flinch. “You… You can say whatever you want, but this isn’t love, Leon! This is some… sick obsession. This is cruel and twisted.” My words fell on deaf ears. All my efforts to teach what love was were wasted on this egotistical and cruel god. He could never understand—I was convinced he didn’t want to understand. 

Only the others seemed to hear me, but I was revolted by the simple scolding I received from Karno, “(Name), you should listen. This will be better-”

“Better?” I interrupted. “This isn’t whatever you think it is!” I glared at them before fixing my glare back on Leon. He was the reason my gods abandoned me… They willingly sacrificed my freedom to Leon just so everyone else could be happy! They willingly pretended like Leon actually loved me… My eyes coldly struck him. “You’re heartless.”

I flinched as Leon snapped his fingers, and I found myself enveloped in his arms, straddling his lap in quite a lewd position considering everyone in the room watching. 

Leon leaned closer to where his nose was almost touching mine. His cold eyes stared into my wide, frightened ones. His smile was unsettling as he whispered just for me to hear, “Heartless? Maybe. You did manage to steal mine. Perhaps I should punish you for wrapping such a powerful God around your finger. But above all else, I’ll destroy everything and everyone to keep you with me, and I want you to carry the guilt of everyone that gets hurt and everyone that will die by my hand because of you.”

He whispered the last part in my ear, and I punched him. My fist struck his jaw with all the strength I could manage, as I strove to pull away from him. His godly grip on my waist kept me firmly on his lap despite my struggles. The other gods stirred for just a moment, panicked at my defiance. 

But Leon wasn’t doing anything but sitting there with an unpleasant scowl on his face as he listened to my venomous words, “You’re nothing like the Leo I loved! You’re more like a demon lord than any king of the Heavens! Let go of-” A startled yelp left my lips as his loosened grip left me slipping off of his lap and onto the floor.

I couldn’t decipher his emotions, but a blazing fire was in his eyes. My instincts told me to go, but his vice-like grip around my wrist was painful. The other gods weren’t going to help—their eyes were mainly averted at this point, not wanting to see what Leon might do to punish me for my behavior.

Leon sneered down at me. “If you can act out in front of these gods, then you can be punished in front of these gods. You’ll see I’m doing this for your own good.” 

I collapsed beside his feet at the sudden onslaught of pleasure that he sent coursing through my body. He made sure I wasn’t getting up as his opposite leg crossed in front of me. I hated him. I didn’t want him touching me, let alone making my body feel this way. A whimper escaped my lips, and immediately, I wanted to cry from how pathetic I sounded.

Knowing that Leon could do much worse than he was already doing made it register in my head that I was really nothing more than a weak human. What chance did I ever have against a god like him? My words and actions were nothing in the grand scheme of it all. The only hope I had was with the other gods, but even they weren’t enough at this point. Leon was too out of control, and I was such a small sacrifice to be made for the sake of the Heavens and Earth. 

“Your highness, that’s enough. You’re hurting her. She won’t be able to handle your powers for much longer,” Zyglavis spoke up for me, drawing my attention to him. He knew Leon’s powers were different as King and knew that I wouldn’t be able to handle it as a human. But… wasn’t he going to help me? Were they going to let Leon keep this up? 

Little sounds of discomfort escaped between my panting breaths. My head was spinning and I was finding it increasingly harder to breathe. All I could do was pray for it to be over. 

Zyglavis furrowed his eyebrows before finally raising his hand in reaction to my silent prayers. My heart leapt at the sight. Was I finally going to get some reprieve? I thought I was saved from Leon’s humiliating torture, but Leon stopped him with a threat, “I wouldn’t do that. You’re only going to hurt her. You wouldn’t want to hurt my goldfish.”

Right, I couldn’t help but think, only he was allowed to hurt me.

I let out a pained gasp as tears trailed down my cheeks. The entire situation was beyond degrading. I couldn’t believe this was happening in front of everyone I once trusted so dearly and by the man I once adored. Zyglavis did try to help me at least, but there was nothing he could do. They were helpless to help me—I realized that too.

Leon was keeping me weak by bringing me close to an orgasm with his powers, but he had to stop. He wouldn’t listen to the other gods, but… someone had to say something—to do something. Would he listen to me if I just asked nicely? “Leo…” My broken voice drew a smirk on his face and I hesitated to make my request. “Please, st- stop.” 

I knew he was likely to deny me, hence why I screwed my eyes shut, unwilling to look at my merciless tormentor. Still, I listened as he spoke, “As much as I love to hear your begging… I don’t think you’ve learned your lesson yet. I want to show you how much I love you… but that’s going to have to come later. You’ve angered me, (Name). Do you know what that means?” He watched as I shook my head, internally pleading for this to not get any worse than it already was. So, he took the liberty of explaining it to me, “This means… that you’re going to be punished until I’m satisfied. I’m going to have you craving my love before I give you the affection you want.” He paused and tilted his head. “That is what you want, isn’t it?”

Want? That wasn’t even close to what I wanted! I already told him what I wanted! “I don’t want anything from yo-ou- ah-” I slammed my mouth shut, trying to keep back the moan that threatened to spill out. Shit… I felt like I was overheating from the inside out.

“I don’t like your attitude.” His usual self-assured smirk finally found its way to his face as he finally released my hand, letting me crumple by his feet like a limp noodle. As weak as I was, I couldn’t lift myself up; but even Leon seemed to note my intention of putting distance between us as he taunted, “Go on. Try and escape me, foolish goldfish. They can’t save you.”

He was right. I’d never felt so helpless in front of anyone before. Why did it have to be the man I loved? If this were any other god tormenting me, Leon would be the one to do anything to save me. But, no… Leon was the devil that was putting me through hell. I shook, quiet sobs escaping. “This is- isn’t fa-air.” Why did it have to be Leo? 

The only one who could have possibly had a chance at saving me was my Leo. My Leo would never let anyone do something like this to me. Where did he go?

Leon peered down at me with cold eyes. “Are you still trying to defy me?”

“Shit,” Scorpio cursed, drawing my weary eyes to him. He was tired of how I was so cruelly treated—and in front of all of them. “The hell is this, you stupid lion?! Do you want to break the goldfish?!”

My eyes were wide at Scorpio’s language, but I wasn’t the only one surprised. Zyglavis was concerned about what Leon would do to his Vice Minister for stepping out of line, but things were too quiet. 

The tense silence made me wonder if Leon would really stoop as low as killing another god. As far as I knew, he wouldn’t hesitate to take drastic measures. “Please,” I tried to beg quietly. If there was even a hint of my Leon still there, he would listen to me, wouldn’t he? “Please stop.” At the very least, I couldn’t let him hurt the only people willing to help me. 

Leon hummed, his lips curling up as an idea struck him. That expression made me feel unsettled by whatever was going through his head. “I see. You’re not very good at hiding your thoughts from me. Don’t worry; I’m not going to kill any of them. It seems they’re better off being used as examples if you step out of line.”

“You…” I whimpered, feeling too pathetic to look at the other gods. I trained my gaze on the floor in front of me. Would I be the reason everyone suffers? “Why would you do that to them? That… That isn’t fair.” I pushed myself up, struggling to get a sound footing as my limbs were still very much like jelly. 

Leon sighed, gesturing for Teorus to help. “Teo, make sure she doesn't fall on her face.” He didn’t bother to answer me—of course, the answer was obvious even without a response from him. This was all just a way of keeping me under his control. As long as I cared about the other gods then they could be used against me. Besides, it was apparent that they would obey their king regardless of how cruel he was.

But feeling Teorus wrap his arms around me, my heart stuttered. Leon was willing to let another man touch me? Was it because Teorus was a Wishes god? Something told me that the Wishes gods were going to be the last ones to cross Leon. This meant that I could have been in equal danger with any of them.

Still, with whatever hope I had left, I looked at Teorus, silently pleading for help. He would only listen and obey Leon, I knew, but I had to try. “Teo…?” He stayed silent under the harsh gaze of Leon. Broken hearted, I asked, “Aren’t you going to say anything?!”

Awkwardly, Teorus refused to answer, doing his best not to meet my gaze. Leon appreciated how the other gods weren’t actively trying to cooperate with me. It was in their best interests to keep their emotional distance. The last thing he wanted was for me to start getting my hopes up and trying to leave him again.

Still brooding over what had happened, Leon ordered, “I don’t have time to deal with this right now. Teorus, give her a bath for me and then take her to my room. Make sure she's ready for me by tonight. I want to play with her later.”  

Now he was just thinking out loud, but why was he treating me like a dog?! Was I suddenly nothing more than a pet to him or was this whole charade part of my punishment? I was tempted to say something, but I had half a mind to keep silent for the sake of the other gods. I didn’t want to be the reason any of them suffered at his hand…

“Of course, your highness,” Teorus chirped as if he weren’t talking to a King. Maybe some of Leon’s relationships with the gods were the same as they used to be. In that case, Leon also knew that all of these gods had my best interest at heart, which is why he trusted Teorus to take care of such a personal matter. 

As soon as Teorus was lifting me off of my feet to carry me out of the room, I heard Leon call, “Minister ponytail, you’re a stickler for rules.” I desperately wanted to know what Leon wanted Zyglavis for, but Teorus wasn’t hesitating to leave with me.

Zyglavis took a deep breath and responded slowly, wondering where this was going. “I suppose so, your highness.”

With his head tilted, Leon gave a command, “Go with her. From now on, I want you to watch her when I’m not around. Do you understand your position?”

Zyglavis wasn’t sure what to think of this new task. He was the Minister of the Department of Punishments; he didn’t have time to be fooling around with Leon’s human. Pursing his lips, he took the opportunity to ask, “What of my position in the Department of Punishments?”

Leon waved his hand as if the question posed no importance. “I have important business to take care of today as King. I’ll wipe those dark gods out before they can even think of posing a threat to my goldfish. Afterwards… we can look further into what the two departments need to be doing. For now, it’s none of your concern. I’ve already told you what you need to be worrying about. Go on and keep an eye on my goldfish.”

“As you wish, your highness.” Bowing his head, Zyglavis turned to resume after Teorus. In any case, this leeway Leon was giving them was a good opportunity for them to check up on me and protect me. He wasn’t sure what might happen if Leon succeeded in wiping out the forces of darkness, but that was something to worry about at a later date. He had a goldfish to attend to. How degrading for a god…

***

The warm water I sat in wasn’t enough to brighten up my spirits. I sniffled, still trying to get over what Leon did. Teorus was kneeling on the side of the large tub with towels in his hands. He was at least nice enough and was trying to make me feel better about everything. “I’m sorry, (Name). We didn’t want to leave you with Leo. It’s just that… you know how he can be.” He hummed, trying to think up an example while he wiped my face clean of tears with a warm towel. “You remember that time the Heavens were going to either kill you or extinguish him? Yeah, this is kind of like that. Except… he’s King now… and… well…”

I sighed, my gaze falling back on the bubbling water as I interrupted him, “It all comes back to saving me or saving everything else in the universe.” Not meeting his eyes, I said quietly, “It’s just going to be hard accepting everything. Um… Can you give me a minute alone? Just to wash myself?”

I flinched as the bathroom door opened without warning and Zyglavis stepped in. Evidently, he heard my question as he answered, “I’m afraid I must now be present with you at all times.” Though, he didn’t look very pleased that he would have to stay with me at all times. I knew at a time like this in the Heavens Zyglavis had more on his plate to worry about than me. 

Teorus added after that, “Leo also told me to get you cleaned up for him. If you aren't as clean as he wants you to be then…” He trailed off, but the implications were clear. We’d both be in a lot of trouble. Still, he tried to cheerfully encourage, “Don’t worry about me touching you where you don’t want though. I’m just going to use my powers.”

Still, the thought that any little thing could make Leon lash out at them made me feel guilty. I would do my best to protect them, but… at this point, even I couldn’t anticipate what Leon would do. My presence put the gods in a rather tough place. “I- I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

“(Name),” Zyglavis interrupted me, looking as serious as ever, if not a bit more. “This is new for all of us, but make no mistake that we are trying to consider your best interest as well as the rest of humanity and the Heavens.”

“I know you can’t do anything… and I don’t want to be the reason any of you get hurt or worse.” I looked down, not willing to meet their eyes as I fiddled nervously with the bubbles that floated in the water. I did blame them for abandoning me, but I knew they already risked so much for me. It was really a miracle that Leon was letting them remain close to me. I couldn’t ask any more of them. “Thank you for trying.”

Zyglavis’s eyes softened as he replied, “As long as you understand the conditions we’re all under… I suppose we can’t ask more of you. Now, we should move along. I don't think it would be wise to linger until Leon comes to find you.”

***

“Fine then. You can stay in here until you’ve learned who you belong to. I won’t tolerate your disrespect.”

How long ago did Leon say that? How long had I been alone in my room with Zyglavis as my only visitor to keep me alive? I suppose it didn’t matter. Leon made it difficult to try and stay on his good side when all he ever threw out were degrading comments and harsh words. 

I didn’t see why Leon didn’t just tire of me. I wished this horrible situation would end. I wanted to go home—or somewhere safe. Anywhere far from the Heavens would do. At this point, the Underrealm was starting to sound appealing—if Leon hadn’t destroyed that too…

I shut my eyes for the sixth time that night, unable to sleep. Leon used to be my safe haven… until he changed. It wasn’t a sudden change, but I had to wonder if he would ever come back to me. “Leo…”

“(Name).”

My head snapped up and I sat up on the bed. The voice at the door didn’t belong to Leon or Zyglavis. “Scorpio?” I wasn’t allowed any visitors aside from Zyglavis or the occasional Wishes god fulfilling Leon’s commands. Having Scorpio there set off warning bells in my head. They were planning something. Was tonight the night I was saved?

“Shut up,” he snapped, shutting the door behind him as he walked in. “They’ll hear you. We have a plan to help you, but you need to help us first.” I nodded my head, intent on listening to his plan. But my eyes widened as he brandished a dagger and placed it on the nightstand. “We didn't want to… but we knew we wouldn’t be able to stop him if it came down to this. This will kill him.”

My hands began to quiver as I imagined the different scenarios running through my mind. There were so many ways this could go wrong. “I can’t-”

Scorpio’s hand flew over my mouth in an instant to silence me. “I said quiet, idiot!” He pulled back slightly, but only after he was certain I wasn’t going to scream again. “This will kill him. It will leave behind a mortal man. He’ll be human. It’s a chance for you. Can you do it?”

I held my breath before nodding my head. “Yeah. If there’s a chance to get my Leo back…” This was it. This was the opportunity I’d been waiting for. There was a chance to get the man I loved back.

“Good,” Scorpio smiled as though it were supposed to make me feel comfortable. Truth be told, he was just as relieved as I was to finally see an end to all of the tension everyone had been under. “You should rest now. You’ll need all the energy you can save for tomorrow. I’ll help you get an audience with that bastard.”

***

“Teorus!” Scorpio shouted, getting the attention of the Wishes god. Really, if I had any idea that this was his plan, I might not have gone along with it so easily. My head was spinning and I wasn’t even moving under the thick covers of the bed. “The stupid goldfish got herself sick.”

“Huh? Don’t worry, I can fix it.” Teorus smiled his princely smile as he followed the Punishments Vice Minister to the room where Zyglavis was hovering over me with furrowed eyebrows. Teorus blinked as he watched me let out a squeaky sneeze, burrowing further under the covers. “Oh… You mean that kind of sick…”

Sick my ass, I couldn’t help but stew to myself. Scorpio did this to me just before stuffing me under a pile of blankets with a dagger—not that anyone else could tell.

I looked up to Teorus with watery eyes as I wrapped myself further in the blanket. “Leo… I want my Leo.” That’s what this whole plan was for… As long as I stabbed that bastard I’d have my boyfriend back. I cringed as I let out another soul-shaking sneeze.

Teorus pouted at my condition. This wasn’t good… “I really will have to take you to Leon. I would be sad if you died and Leon would be heartbroken if you left him.” He lifted me into his arms before leaving Scorpio and Zyglavis behind to deal with sanitizing the room for when I returned. Teorus carried me all the way to the throne room where he waited for the two gods present to leave before he announced anxiously, “Leo, (Name)’s really sick. She wanted to see you.”

I choked out a whimper, shutting my eyes as I burrowed further into my blanket. By all means, I couldn’t let this plan fail. Weakly, I called out, “Leo…”

Leon looked at me as his eyebrows furrowed. Holding his arms out for me, he grunted. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? Give her here.” I refrained from shaking too badly as I was pulled onto Leon’s lap, my head landing on his chest. Handling me as if I were fragile glass, his hand met my forehead. “You really are sick. Tiresome little goldfish. Is this your way of begging for my attention after I’ve neglected you?” He sighed. This wasn’t how he really wanted to see me. How pathetic… How worrisome.

I leaned closer to him, seeking his warmth, but also biding my time to stab him. I hated the thought… but I had to go through with it. The only problem was that whatever Scorpio managed to do to me was really taking a toll on my weak body. I found myself unconsciously drifting off in Leon’s warm arms. He was suddenly so… so very comfortable.

It was only the sound of voices that finally roused me from my slumber. Thankfully, being in Leon’s powerful presence, I was given some reprieve from my illness and my mind was mission-ready. It was time to kill him. Right. Ah! But the dagger was- Where was it?! I subtly felt around, panicking slightly before I found it. I cut my hand on the sharp blade, but I managed to grab the handle. Now… all I had to do was wait for that god to leave… Well, first, I had to keep myself from dozing off again.

It took quite the effort to keep myself awake while hearing that god drone on and on about stuff I was sure Leon didn’t care about. Even when he was just minister of wishes, I doubted he would have cared about what this man was saying.

“You’re finally awake,” I jolted as Leon suddenly addressed me. “Are you feeling better?” 

I shook my head without saying anything. I couldn’t feel better knowing that I was about to stab the man I loved. But Leo would be back. He would be human, just like me. I could live with that sacrifice. I only hoped he could forgive me. 

Leon shook his head, not glancing at me as he muttered, “Humans are so weak. I’ll make sure you never become ill again.”

“Thank you,” I praised him quietly. 

“Did you have something you wanted to tell me?”

I flinched. Did something trigger him to ask that? No, there was no way he knew about the Department of Punishment’s plan. I finally shook my head. Hopefully, he wouldn’t press it. But I felt myself being lifted up by another pair of arms. 

“Take her back to my room for now, Teorus.”

Wait. I panicked. I was going back to Zyglavis so soon? But I didn’t even get the chance to stab Leon yet! I frantically pulled out of Teorus’s arms, almost falling forward. 

“(Name)!” 

Leon was in front of me in no time to catch me from falling on my face. With Leon less than an arm’s width away, I took the single opportunity I had and wrapped my arms around his torso before plunging the blade into his side, receiving a hiss from him. 

But I didn’t need to see his face… I didn’t even need to be a god to know something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong. He was too still. My face was pressed into Leon’s shoulder but the room was doused in unforgiving silence and I finally timidly asked, “Leo…?”

Leon’s laughter suddenly rang out through the throne room, thoroughly sending fear shooting straight through me. Why did he sound so entertained? There was nothing funny about this! 

“You’re so predictable, goldfish,” he taunted. “You truly believed I wouldn’t find your little knife after you fell asleep on my lap? I switched the blades to see if you were really stupid enough to try and kill me. You’re so naive and, well, human.” He let out a breath, finally done with his amused laughter. “I told you they would pay the price for your disobedience. However, I’m growing tired of them putting filthy ideas of betrayal in your head. I think I’m going to simply have to put a stop to this altogether. So, which one was it? What foolish god tried to defy me?”

My eyes widened and I took a step back as he stepped forward. My unfortunate mistake was that I didn’t know what was behind me. I fell back, stumbling down a small staircase and onto the hard floor. His footsteps grew closer again and I begged, “Leo… Leo, please, we can talk about this. This is all getting out of hand-” 

“You, a goldfish, are trying to lecture me about how things are supposed to be? You’re mine, goldfish, and you will be mine until all life comes to an end.” I shook with precedented fear the nearer he got to me, but my terror didn’t deter him. In fact, my fear encouraged him to draw closer until he was on top of me. The look in his eyes frightened me as if he could see straight through me. Though, he was the King so I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually could. “It was that scorpion, wasn’t it? It’s fine if you don’t tell me. The entire Department of Punishments needs to be fixed. Come here.” He snapped his fingers, though nothing immediately happened. 

I didn’t have the time or the energy to back away, but I was left looking up at him as I could finally see just how terrifying the situation was. “Leo-” He grabbed my arm, his hands keeping me in a bruising hold. “Ah- W- Wait! That hurts!” 

“Shut up. I haven’t even begun to show you pain.” He paused, noticing his white uniform which was now red. His shoulders dropped. He may have been stabbed but it wasn’t fatal and he wasn’t bleeding. “Foolish goldfish… you hurt yourself.” 

What did he care? His attitude changed so quickly and his grip loosened around me. My eyes widened as he pulled me back to his throne and onto his lap, disregarding the sound of the door opening. 

The gentle way he was treating me… it was almost like Leon was normal again. His hands were gentle, unlike the way he was manhandling me just a minute ago. He pulled my hand up to his face and traced his tongue over the faintly bleeding cut. My face immediately turned hot in embarrassment. “L- Leo!” His eyes moved up to meet mine and a gentle smile spread across his face that made my heart pitter patter in a nostalgic beat.

However, we were interrupted by the clearing of someone’s throat. I paused and turned my head to find the Department of Punishments standing there, some of them had dark expressions—expressions that told me I’d never be forgiven for this. 

I looked away, too ashamed to face them after I’d failed something so simple a monkey could have done it. Surely they’d resent me… especially after Leon was done with them.

But glancing back to Leon to gauge his expression made my heart sink in fear. His expression was cold and deadly. There was no doubt that he was ready to kill any of them at a moment’s notice. However, I wasn’t expecting the next words to come out of his mouth, “My goldfish was injured.” Why was that important at a time like this? His anger didn’t seem relatively placed on me, so why was I suddenly the center of attention? I got my answer soon enough as Leon continued with his sour frown, “I told you that harming my goldfish was intolerable. Not only did you harm my (Name), but you also plotted to use her against me. You can imagine that I won’t take this particular betrayal lightly.”

His arm tightened around me to the point where I could hardly move against his chest. He seemed so fiercely protective of me. But this would come at a price. Was he going to do something horrible to the gods? Trying to ease their punishment, I said quietly, “Leo… they didn’t mean to… They were just trying to help you. They-”

“Shut up.” The low growl in my ear was enough to send shivers down my spine. “I didn’t ask you for excuses. I wonder what lies they could have told you to make you so compliant. Because in your right mind, I know you wouldn’t mean to stab me.” I pulled back slightly in confusion, but I couldn’t move far in his arms. “I’m your omnipotent god, after all. Just be good and sit still for me. You can apologize later.”

I was going to avoid punishment by simply having to apologize later, but nothing I could do or say would get the Department of Punishments out of Leon’s wrath. Glancing back at the gods, I met Dui’s gaze and heard his reassuring voice in my head, “(Name), don’t worry about us, please. We don’t blame you for this, you’re just a goldfish. Just go along with him and say we manipulated you while you can still get out of trouble.”

“What’s this?” My cheeks were squished together between Leon’s fingers as he dragged my gaze back to him. But his eyes were flickering between me and Dui knowingly. “Oh-ho… You’re awfully bold. Not only do you use my goldfish to try and kill me, but now… now you’re talking to her behind my back? Listen here, you split-personality freak, I’m entirely fed up with the Department of Punishments, but-” He inhaled sharply, his blue eyes were narrowed and wild. “But you’ve run my patience. What were you telling her? Were you telling her to run? Were you encouraging her to betray me again?”

The room was shrouded in tense silence and Dui refused to look up from the spot he was staring at on the floor. The only noise heard was my small voice, arguing against Leon’s words, “He wasn’t. He was… just telling me to listen to you. We messed up. Making me do that was a mistake.”

“Indeed it was,” he hissed, his head tilting up as he stared down at me. “One that will be paid for dearly.”

“Don’t kill them!” I shouted, startling everyone present. The punishment gods didn’t think I was so passionate about whether they lived or died. Leon, on the other hand, was annoyed that I had this much energy to spare for those traitors. “Please,” I added quietly.

He scoffed, his head tilting to the right as he displayed his disinterest. “I shouldn’t kill them? Did you have that same thought in your head when you were obediently stabbing me for them?”

“I- I wasn’t going to kill you,” I argued, my limbs shaking as I stared down at my hand that had dried blood smeared all over it. “I was fighting to get the person I love back…” 

Leon still wasn’t exactly sure what was going on in my head, but he didn’t have time for it. He had a punishment to get along. Still, the longer he looked at me with blood stains on my shirt, the more tense his chest felt. His fingers gently caressed my cheek as he called for Huedhaut to come. Gazing into my eyes, Leon whispered, “He’s here. Now… go. I have business to take care of.” Returning his attention to the approaching god of Aquarius, he gestured to me. “Hue, take her.”

Huedhaut gently took my arm, guiding me out of the room, but my attention was solely on the punishments department as they faced the temperamental Leon. “Wait,” I shouted, despite how Huedhaut refused to let me rush back to the throne. “Don’t kill them! Leon!” 

Leon sighed, glancing in my direction before snapping his fingers again. In an instant, Huedhaut and I were in Leon’s room. I was panicked at the sudden change in scenery, but Huedhaut was fine as he tried to calm me down by tracing his cold fingers over my forehead. “You’re going to be okay, (Name). Calm down for me. You’re going to worry Leon.”

“But what about Zyglavis and the others?!”

“Shh,” he hushed me, leading me to sit on Leon’s bed—not that I was any calmer sitting down. Though, my eagerness to return to the throne room only seemed to trigger him as well as he hissed, “What were you thinking, trying to kill a god?” He sighed, knowing he couldn’t truly blame me for what happened. “You’re a human. You shouldn’t have gotten dragged into this mess. We should be taking better care of you.”

“Huedhaut,” I repeated, trying to get a real answer out of him. “What’s he going to do to the other gods?” 

His hand rested gently on my cheek as he made me look at him. “Everything’s okay. No one’s going to die. Leon’s going to take better care of you and he’s not going to do anything to the gods. Okay?” I wasn’t sure that I could entirely trust his words… but at least I knew he wasn’t going to kill them. Reluctantly, I nodded my head and he gave me a smile. “Good. You should probably sleep after what you just went through. You need rest. He’ll probably come straight to see you when he’s ready.” 

Huedhaut took his time getting me ready for bed and was exceedingly careful when wrapping the cut that trailed across my palm. Things were quiet between us in Leon’s room and it only made my longing for my Leo grow stronger. 

Quietly, I divulged my feelings to Huedhaut, “Earlier—back when it was just me and him in the throne room—Leo… had a look in his eyes. He looked normal. He looked like my Leo.” Huedhaut turned his head to regard me curiously and I added in a whisper, “Those eyes were my Leo… I miss him.”

Huedhaut’s eyebrows furrowed together. He knew that either one of two things was happening. Either Leon was stabilizing to an almost normal state now that he had me to himself, or I was beginning to suffer from a human illness. But he couldn’t completely push aside the idea of Leon getting better out of his mind. He offered me an encouraging smile. “That’s good (Name). Maybe our efforts aren’t for nothing. Maybe one day we’ll have Leo back.”

Maybe one day I’d have Leo back. It was the only thing I could wish for. I wanted Leo. I wanted to hold him. I wanted to see that look in his eyes again. That thought flooded my mind as Huedhaut tucked me into bed and left me alone in the room to rest. 

One thing that swarmed in my head, however, was how I found that little piece of Leo in that Kingly bastard. My fingers rubbed across the bandages on my hand. Seeing me injured made him feel protective of me… but not his usual over-protectiveness that I’d become accustomed to. He was lovingly protective in that moment. How could I bring back that Leo without needing to get hurt? Or… was that the only option left to me?

***

Over the course of a month since the incident, I was growing accustomed to Leon being careful and catering to me. Of course, that didn’t stop him from being as egotistical and cocky as he had become since his ascension to King. I hated that Kingly side of him. Things would have been just fine if he had never come into possession of this new power. 

Things might’ve been fine if I hadn’t screwed up the simplest task from the Department of Punishments.

The difference between Leon as a King and Leon as my boyfriend was especially obvious. It was only exemplified by the fact that I was no longer permitted to see any of the other gods because of what they had tried to pull with me last time. Still, we had gotten so close to getting Leon back… I wasn’t going to give up.

Staring out of the window of my room, my gaze flickered to the scars that littered my arms with a depressed sigh. Any injuries or blood that came from me was the only thing that seemed to bring Leon back, even if only for a moment. I hated that this seemed to be the only nonpermanent solution to my problem. If anything, I was just creating a new problem entirely. 

Desperate for Leo’s return, however, the red lines that littered my arms and legs only seemed to grow in number the longer I waited—too anxious to do anything really useful.

Leon was supposed to visit me today, I remembered. He’d been seeing me more often since the incident where I stabbed him, but he wasn’t much better. That only put more resolve in my harmful solution…

Retreating back to the bathroom, I glanced at the counter where the dismantled razor sat. How much would I have to do to get him back? How far would this have to go? He hated when the Department of Punishments was the reason I ended up cutting myself with that dagger. This time… it was his fault and I would make sure he knew that. 

Frustrated, I grabbed the blade from the counter, hissing as it dug into my fingers. Droplets of blood beaded from the small injuries. But it was my only choice now… my only option to save Leon… 

Tears welled in my angry eyes as I brought the blade down to my damaged skin.

***

Ever since that moment where Leon saw my blood taint my hand and his jacket, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach. It wasn’t often he got bad feelings like this. After all, he usually had excellent control over most situations regarding me. Of course, he couldn’t always control the stupidity of a feeble-minded goldfish. But for the most part, he had everything under control.

So, why now? Why did he feel like he made a huge mistake? He was Leon. He was the King of the Heavens. He wasn’t capable of making mistakes. He couldn’t afford any mistakes—not when it came to me, anyway. 

But I was being incredibly stupid—more so than usual. He didn’t like the silence he was met with upon entering his room. It was far too quiet. I was far too quiet. No, worse than that… Where had I gone? 

Leon should have known something was amiss when he hadn’t immediately seen me upon entering his room. And maybe he did, but despite the way his heart sank, he tried to convince himself that I was fine, that I hadn’t completely and entirely f*cked up. 

His eyes lingered on the bathroom door and immediately, that was where he searched first. As expected, the heart-stopping, fearful feeling only grew more intense as he laid eyes on that same red color that he loathed to see.

He didn’t have time.

Leon didn’t pause or hesitate as he lifted his hand to snap his fingers.

***

Logically… this was intentional. By all means, I had done this myself in the hopes that resorting to self-harm would bring my Leo back, just as it had that one day. Why did I have to over-do it? All I did was screw up so majorly that trying to cover up the open wounds was an utter failure. Leon was horrified to see me bleeding out on the floor. 

But was it too late? 

I certainly thought so. I hadn’t been on the bathroom floor long before Leon showed up. But the blood was still just as horrendous to look at as if it had been there for several hours or days. 

So much time had passed that I was convinced I was going to die alone on the bathroom floor without being able to see Leo again. 

I was on the very cusp of losing consciousness when I heard a faint snap. It could have been my imagination acting up—some kind of false hope of thinking I might actually survive this accidental suicide that I’d gotten myself into. But hope faded quickly with my consciousness as I drifted off, convinced that these were going to be my last conscious thoughts. 

***

The sun… felt so warm. But, damn, it was so bright. 

I winced as my eyes flickered open, glancing around the quiet room. For the first time in months, I opened my eyes, my confused gaze flickering around Leon’s warmly-lit room. Leon had a short fuse when it came to me and my mouth, deciding it would be better for us to have separate rooms unless he wanted to see me. 

This situation was strange. While waking up in Leon’s room by itself wasn’t entirely strange, the fact that Leon wasn’t there at all was strange. Moments like these, I’d be alone in my room. 

This only made me come to the conclusion that I was probably locked in his room until he returned—something I probably deserved for what I had done. 

Glancing down at my arms, my eyes widened. That wasn’t normal… Usually they’d bandage or wrap whatever injuries I had. I wasn’t used to them completely healing me. Did they? I mean, there weren’t any scars leftover on my arms. That was the only logical conclusion I could jump to. 

But now that I was awake and well again, I was restless for answers. Otherwise, this gut feeling wouldn’t leave me alone.

Crawling out of the soft bed, I wandered over to the door, curiously testing the handle. Surprised that it wasn’t locked, I peered outside, being faced with Zyglavis who spoke, “You’re awake. Are you feeling hungry? You slept late today. How are you feeling?”

Passing my fingers through my bed-ruffled hair, I responded quietly, “I’m okay. Just… a little confused.”

Zyglavis sighed. “I see. Humans can be disoriented when they first wake. Please, take your time. Here, why don’t you return to your room? Partheno and Tauxolouve will be here shortly to help you get ready.” 

Despite how confused I was, I didn’t argue or fight as he ushered me back into Leon’s room. Well, he called it my room too. Did Leon change his mind about keeping us separated? I was feeling anxious about potentially seeing Leon again. I was scared of what he might say. 

Though, my fears and anxieties might have been a little unfounded. I was certain that one of the gods would lecture me, give me pitiful looks, anything to make me feel pathetic and guilty. But they didn’t. In fact, they never mentioned anything about the incident. 

Partheno and Tauxolouve completely glossed over the subject as they bathed me, putting me in an elegant dress that was very much in the style of the Heavens. No… it was probably Leon that picked this dress. There was no way he would allow for someone like the perverted Partheno or flirtatious Tauxolouve to pick an outfit for me to wear.

But without even having to see the whole pantheon of Zodiacs, I could tell they were different. My Zodiacs weren’t as energetic with me as usual. They were suspiciously calm and respectful as if I were royalty—just like they treated Leon. But they weren’t afraid of me like they were with Leon, and they weren’t angry with me for anything that happened. 

Looking up at Zyglavis as we walked through the hall, him leading me to where Leon was. He wasn’t looking at me either—a move reserved for how he used to treat the King, someone above him.

Or maybe this was different. Maybe they were treating me like this because of what I did. They were treating me like the fragile human that I was. I just wanted them to treat me like they used to and speak to me like they used to.

Things were tense and quiet as he led me to the throne room where Leon was, discussing matters with different gods. However, upon seeing me, he was quick to clear the room, leaving us alone.

Standing just below the stairs of his throne, I felt his eyes piercing into me. For a moment, it was way too long and way too tense.

 Pursing my lips, I wondered if maybe he was waiting for an apology for my mistake. But all I wanted to do was bring Leo back. I couldn’t even do that much. All I accomplished was nearly killing myself. If anything, I was sorry I couldn’t help him. Quietly, my voice broke the silence of the room, “I’m sorry for failing you, Leo…”

“You’re sorry for failing me?” Leon repeated. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “You might have slept in late, but since when is that something to worry about? I’ve never been one to throw a fit over how long you decide to sleep. I know you goldfish grow tired easily.”

Seeing him like this surprised me. This… This was more like the Leon that I remembered. Despite how I previously saw him talking down on the other gods just as I was walking in, as well as how he was still having Zyglavis and the other Zodiac gods tending to me, he was still far more considerate than before.

Still, I needed his reassurances that he wasn’t upset with me. I didn’t believe that he was okay with what happened. After all, I was sure he was the one who found me that night. He had to have been pretending that it was fine. “Are you sure…?” I timidly asked, “Everything’s just… okay?”

Tilting his head in question, he asked, “Is it not? Is there something else you require to be comfortable here?” My heart jumped as he approached me slowly. Staring up at him with wide eyes, he wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him as he reassured, “There’s nothing we can’t provide you, should you want it.” 

Confused, I nodded my head, suddenly flustered. “I- I think I’m okay. I’m sorry for worrying you.” 

“I’m your King, your God of Leo. It’s my job to worry over you,” he assured me with a smile as he gently reached up to caress my cheek. His fingers brushed tenderly against my skin as if I were the most precious thing in the universe to him. “As long as you’re okay. That’s all I’m worried about.” 

***

He was so soft, so gentle. 

Leon was being so… Leo. 

But truth be told, I was scared by how perfect everything was. Leon was being so catering and caring—especially regarding my human side. Well, all except allowing me to return to Earth. I had never dared to bring up the subject since before I had stabbed him. It was a taboo subject and I was afraid Leon might revert back to the way he was before if I mentioned it. 

After all, he had even begun to let me speak with the other gods again. The only depressing part was that all of the Zodiac gods treated me as though I were some kind of superior being—despite how they treated me like a fragile doll. 

Despite the delicate way the gods handled me and spoke with me, it was what I wanted. Wasn’t it? I had Leo back, as far as I was concerned. But… something this perfect couldn’t be real, could it? Usually the saying of “if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is” held water. I mean, sure I almost died, but did that really call for such an intense personality change between Leon and the other gods?

Or… I almost died.

What if I did die? This must’ve been my Heaven, wasn’t it? Having the person I love and adore be with me and having him love and care for me so genuinely in return. I was sure I must have died. 

Alone in Leon’s room, I was sure I was about to trigger an existential crisis if not for the door opening at the ideal moment. My eyes flickered to the door that shut behind Leon who had walked in, his eyes flickering to me in turn. 

“You’re still awake,” he commented, coming up behind me beside the window as his gaze flickered to the setting sun outside. “Were you waiting for me?”

With a slight shrug, I nodded uncertainty. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to have this conversation. How could I tell him that I was questioning reality and existence? Well, maybe it would make more sense to a god. Maybe he’d be able to make me feel better. After all, he’d been pretty good at that lately. 

“Leo,” I started, trying to be honest with him while we were in the privacy of our room. “I- I’m scared.”

“Is someone threatening you?” Leon immediately questioned, having his guard up as his eyes hardened. Gripping my shoulders as gently as he could manage in his tense state, he leaned back to look me in the eyes. Now he looked angry… just like a wrathful King of the Heavens. “Who is it? They won’t get away with it.” 

“That- That isn’t it,” I quickly argued, and my timid words glued his confused attention back to me. He didn’t understand why I was so scared. I could only imagine the assumptions jumping through his mind. 

He was probably assuming that I had a nightmare, or was just overthinking the way that anxious humans do when they’re isolated in silence with nothing to occupy their minds. Which, that could have been part of the problem. But regardless of that, I still had a problem that needed fixing. 

The uncertainty in my eyes screamed out at Leon and he reassuringly spoke, “Talk to me.” 

Pursing my lips, I wasn’t sure how to start without triggering him. So, I started with a different question, desperately needing to hear his answer, “Can I… talk to you about anything?”

“Anything, love,” he instantly agreed, pulling me beside him into his bed. His hands rested on my hips as he ushered me to lay atop his chest as he reclined in his bed. Without too many words, he was trying to make sure I was as comfortable as possible while I was going over something that was clearly emotionally taxing. 

So, with his gentle comfort and reassurances, I started slowly, “The other day when I woke up… I was confused. Everyone’s been acting differently from how I remember.” I paused, uncertain of how I wanted to phrase the next part of my explanation. “I don’t know if you did something to them to change them, but I’m different too.” 

Glancing up at him I noticed the way his eyebrows furrowed, making me think he was confused about what I was saying. My theory was only further validated as he mumbled to himself, “I see…”

Did he know what I was talking about at all? Or was he responsible? Taking a deep breath, I revealed the root of the problem, “I’m- I was supposed to wake up with scars all over my arms! My legs! I was- I was-” I faltered, almost exasperated. “Is this actually Heaven? Did I die?”

His gentle fingers padded through my hair. I fell quiet from my loud ranting as I waited for his answer. “Do you honestly think I would let you die so easily?” His question made my breath catch in my throat as his grip tightened around me, holding my waist closer to him. “But since you’re being so open with me… tell me,” he whispered, his voice almost too hoarse to hear, “Why would you have scars all over your arms? Why did you try to die?”

His phrasing confused me, but I answered to the best of my ability regardless. It was time I told him the full unadulterated truth about what was going on. “There was that fight we had… and I got hurt. When I got hurt, you started acting like you cared about me,” I tried to look up and gauge his expression, but he kept me held against his chest. “But, no- It wasn’t acting. You seemed like you genuinely cared about me. You were more like the Leo I loved. So… I thought that if I were so injured that you’d keep caring about me.” I lowered my gaze, almost as if I were guilty for what I had done. Almost… “You were just so cruel before! I just wanted you back, Leo! But now…” my voice cracked. “Everything’s different, and I don’t know what to think.” My eyes flickered back up as I tried to put some space between us, imploring his eyes for an answer. “Leo… do you think I died? You’ve been so kind. This world seems too good to be true.”

“You honestly think I’d have the gall to let you die? You belong to me, and I wouldn’t allow that to chance,” Leon answered with the barest hint of hesitation. He was fully prepared to give me this answer. His nose nuzzled into my hair as he whispered, “You didn’t die because I didn't let you. I told you I would change existence in a heartbeat if it meant staying forever with you. Regardless of what happens or what kind of stupid human trouble you cause… I’ll change the fabric of space and time to keep you by my side. I’ll restart the universe for you.” 

I stared down at his chest as he held me closer to him. I wasn’t sure what more to say to him; I was terrified. The one thing that I didn’t want actually came to fruition because I almost died—or maybe I did die, Leon just negated that event. No wonder this world was so perfect around the two of us; it was tailor made by yours truly. “Then…” I started slowly, “You did it… You did what they told you not to do.”

“Don’t get cold feet now. You’ve been so good for me this time. Was my honesty too much for you?” He could feel my trembling. He knew the answer was yes, but he knew that I was right back to being afraid of him.

“Leo-”

“Regardless of how many times I need to reset the universe for you, if you even think about trying to end your damn life with me… I’ll make you regret it next time. Or, since you’re feeling honest, let me know if you’re feeling suicidal so I can take care of it ahead of time.” He paused to listen, but getting no response, he whispered, “If you don’t say anything, I’ll have to take that as a yes. I can’t take any chances with you.” 

“I- I’m not,” I stuttered. Though, my stuttering made my assurance sound considerably weak. Thankfully, however, he looked like he believed me as I continued, “I’m not. I won’t-” I wanted to say that I wouldn’t kill myself, but that last time had been a mistake too. 

He grabbed my chin suddenly, pulling my face up to meet his. He liked the way those tears glistened in my eyes. “Promise.”

“I won’t leave. I promise. Please,” my voice cracked as my hands desperately wrapped around his wrist. “Please, just stay with me. I just wanted my Leo back. Just stay with me Leo. Please…”

My begging was enticing, and it was just what he was looking for. Still, he silenced me as his lips pressed hungrily against mine. “I’m not going anywhere that doesn’t have you. I won’t exist in a single world or single universe without you. I’ll have you for eternity.” And that was a promise from the King of the Heavens and beyond.

[ohmotherwhereartthou-if]

How would the ROs react if their MC is a very affectionate person and they suddenly stop ? Because someone told them that they are very annoying and this excess of affection can make ROS uncomfortable and even lose interest in them.

I am assuming this is at the relationship stage?

Cassandra: She would pick up on it immediately and be concerned it's because MC is unhappy or angry with her. Since she is a very direct person she will ask you upfront about it, if you say it's because you think your being annoying she will reassure you and chalk it up to MC’s usual issues flaring up. But if you tell her it's because someone made a comment, now she is mad. She low key sometimes seems mad at you when she is actually mad at someone else who isn't there because she yells at you. (Like a Latina mom; if you know, you know.)

"Are you kidding me? Why would you listen to what random stranger would have to say about OUR relationship? The hell do they know? If I had a problem about it don't you think, oh I don't know... That I would say something?!"

Once she calms down she will apologize to you for yelling.

Valeria: It would actually take a while for her to notice since she kinda enjoys some space to breathe and not be smothered. But she will think it's you giving her the usual space she needs when the physical affection becomes to much but it's the lack of verbal affection that will have her attention immediately.

“Uhh, hey? What’s up with you? Why you being weird?”

She will begin to pester you on why you have stopped giving her affection and when she finds out the reason why; she will pout and roll her eyes.. “Ok.. and? Like, I know I get fussy if you smoother me but we do a good job at managing that. But why does what somebody says about how they think our relationship works matter? Oh my Lord, was it one of my brothers? Which one. Tell me.”

Tomás: He will think it is because of something he did. He will look all guilty with the biggest puppy eyes and try to do some sweet things for you and if you don’t come around he will ask what is it that he did to make you mad at him. When you tell him it’s becuse of what someone said he will make a deadpan “Seriously?” face.

“Listen mí querido, if this was back when we were bearly together I might of agreed that reframing from heavy affection would of been best, out of respect for my comfort. But mí amour, we have worked through this and I have loved you all the more for it. You have been so patient with me and we have talked through our issues, heh, you were the one who thought me that… Do not worry querido, if something bothers me; I will tell you. Ignore what anyone else says.”

-

Ludovica: Also thinks it’s because of something she did. She leans on you and lightly tugs on your clothes when she wants affection, when she notices that it is not winning her any affection she gets depressed. When she feels like she did something wrong and/or your mad at her, she will distance from you to try to get out of your way and stop taking care of herself. Thinking that she is a burden and that she is inconveniencing you. When you try to comfort her but don’t do the ways that she is used to you doing she will still be depressed until you talk to her honestly on way you’ve changed.

Aurelio: Will annoy the ever loving shit out of you.

Not going to lie, Aurelio is not a sexist man, he is quite a progressive thinker actually, (honestly maybe the most progressive compared to the rest of the more traditional RO's and characters). But, if MC is a woman; he might honestly just consider this as a typical "Getting mad and ignoring him for no reason" kind of woman thing. It has happened often in his past relationships lol. If your a man he is sadly going to rope you into "acting like a woman" sort of thought.

On the bright side, he won't say any of that to your face and will just default to doing everything he knows how, just to annoy you.

Buys into the way of manly thinking that if your lady/man is ignoring you, is probably mad and you don't know why:

When in doubt, poke the bear until it shouts.

That way he will get straight to the root of the problem, when he finds out it's over something (in his mind) this dumb; he will laugh and kiss your face.

"Honestly, you had me this worried that I had made you mad and all the fuss was just about some idiota saying I wouldn't like all of your attention on me? Really? Baby, whenever have I not made it clear that I love being the bell of the ball and the absolute center of attention? I want all of you affection, always."

Elio: You would think that he wouldn't notice or care but if he is used to receiving you affection, he will notice it when that affection stops.

Will stare at you like a cat until you look at him and ask point blank, "No cuddles? :/"

Explain why and he will tell you that the person is stupid, now give him love.

[gatheringbones]

[“Ideally, empathy is the current that flows between two people in a close relationship, helping us to feel less alone, reassuring us that we are loved and understood. But sometimes, sad to say, empathy can be a trap, and never more so than in a gaslighting relationship. Your very ability to offer empathy—and your own need to receive it—can make you prone to the Gaslight Effect.

Katie, for example, was one of the most empathic people I had ever met. She seemed remarkably tuned in to what all her loved ones were feeling, able to imagine with remarkable accuracy how any given event might affect them. When she asked me to reschedule an appointment, she apologized for inconveniencing me in a way that showed me how aware she was of my needs as well as her own. I could see how this quality would make her an excellent friend and partner. But I also saw how Katie’s empathy made it hard for her to choose her own worldview over that of her boyfriend. “I can see how upset Brian gets when I chat with the guy at our deli,” she’d say. “It’s as though he’s afraid I’ll leave him and never come back. I feel so bad for him when I see how scared he is. I can’t stand it.”

Katie often got so caught up in her boyfriend’s fear that she forgot her own perceptions about what happened during that chat and what it meant. She was so compelled to see things from Brian’s point of view that she lost sight of her own perspective. Unfortunately, Brian didn’t extend the same empathy. He appreciated Katie’s response; her depth of understanding was part of the reason he was so attached to her. But he didn’t respond in kind. Rarely, if ever, did Brian think, “I see how pleased Katie is when someone smiles at her—it makes her feel happy and secure” or “I see how upset Katie gets when I yell at her—how unsafe she feels, how uncomfortable.” Most of the time, Brian was aware only of his own needs and feelings. Indeed, from his point of view, to focus on Katie’s feelings would be to give up his own. Acknowledging that she might feel differently than he did was like admitting that his feelings were invalid. He couldn’t empathize with her without feeling defeated, as though he had given up all hope of having his own point of view understood and respected.

Brian may have genuinely lacked the ability to imagine another person’s feelings. Or he may have feared his own capacity for empathy, seeing it as a quality that might defeat him. Indeed, when I saw them briefly in couples counseling, he said, “I don’t see why I have to see it her way all the time—it’s never my way! And every time I see it her way, I end up giving in.”

In this gaslighting dynamic, then, Katie’s empathy created a kind of trap. She wanted to see her boyfriend’s point of view, but he didn’t want to see hers. When they argued, she gave a lot of room to his side of the argument, while he never gave any ground to her. When they argued, she gave a lot of room to his side of the argument, while he never gave any ground to her.

Empathizing with Brian made Katie feel sensitive and loving. But when Brian was asked to empathize with Katie, he felt weak and defeated. Meanwhile, Katie’s compulsive empathy led her to disregard her own feelings and perceptions in her effort to see things as Brian saw them. Katie didn’t only give empathy, though; she desperately wanted to receive it—along with the approval she wanted so badly, after all, that approval was the only way she could prove to herself that she was a good, loyal girlfriend instead of the flirtatious, disloyal woman Brian had insisted she was. Her need for Brian’s empathy and approval was so great that it threatened to overwhelm her ability to think clearly.

Longing for Brian to see her point of view and to approve of her, she found it very difficult to tolerate their disagreement. For her, love meant total understanding and unconditional acceptance—nothing less—and without that love, Katie felt that she would be completely worthless, abandoned, and alone. This desperate need for approval, understanding, and love kept Katie continually open to Brian’s gaslighting.

I once asked Katie if she could accept the fact that her boyfriend would never be able to grasp why being friendly and open meant so much to her. Maybe he could stop insulting her, I suggested. But he might continue to think differently.

Katie’s jaw dropped. “But Brian loves me,” she protested. “He’d do anything for me.”

“Maybe so,” I responded. “But feelings and acts of love are not the same things as understanding. Sometimes we love people without being able to feel what they’re feeling. Sometimes we don’t approve of someone’s actions, decisions, or opinions, even within a loving relationship.”

Katie stared at me as though I were speaking Greek. “That’s not love,” she said finally. “If you love someone, you understand them; you feel what they feel. And you think they’re wonderful! And Brian does see me that way—just not all the time.” She went on to recount the time she came home from work exhausted and he gave her a foot rub—a story she had told me several times. “He knew just what I needed—and he gave it to me!” she would repeat with every retelling. “That was when I knew how much I meant to him—and how he would always take care of me.” That memory was so precious to Katie that she was willing to endure Brian’s insults and yelling in the hope of someday recapturing those few special moments when she was able to imagine that he “understood” her and would always be there for her.”]

robin stern, the gaslight effect

[mha-quotes-and-such]

Okay, the Pokémon AU is great and it deserves some more thoughts! So...

Which team do you think the League would be on? Team Rocket? Team Aqua? Team Magma? Team Plasma? Other? Are they actually from different teams and butt heads when they meet?

(And Bakugou as the protagonist would get SO PISSED when his quests got sidetracked by Team Whatever and their shenanigans)

The villain lover in me is LIVING for this ask. I’m so tempted to just say all of them as Team Star because they’re almost entirely young folks who hate the system and want a community who cares for them but I had to give it more thought than that

One of the ones I would put in Team Star would be Magne. Her entire reason for becoming a criminal was so that she could live her own life the way she wanted to, free of societal pressures. I think she’d really dig Star’s pro-community anti-society thing, especially where they have a heavy influence on accepting and lifting up outcasts. I think Toga and Twice would likely fit for similar reasons, since they both turned to crime/the league in part because they were outcasts. It’s obvious one of the things that they both want most is to be loved not in spite of their flaws but because of them, and I think Team Star would really appeal to them due to their sense of community and unconditional acceptance

Mr Compress I would put in the Aether Foundation. Theyre professional, a little flashy, and their goal is to help Pokemon, but they do it in a less-than-legal way. Both their appearance and goals align with Compress's, where he and his great-great grandfather aim to help the general population the Aether Foundation aim to help Pokemon. I considered making him Team Flare but I think their whole "blow up the planet" gig was a little too aggressive for Compress

Kurogiri is Macro Cosmo. I know their status as villains is super highly disputed and theyre typically not considered villains but hear me out. Most Macro Cosmo employees are just that. Employees. It can be assumed that they didnt exactly sign up for a villainous organization, they just ended up a part of it. Thats exactly what happened to Kurogiri; he never wanted to be a villain, but now its just a part of his job

Shigaraki and Dabi would both be Team Skull. Theyre similar to Magne, Twice, and Toga in the sense that society doesnt appeal to them, and theyre outcasts who wanted to rebel. The reason I went with Team Skull however is that Team Star feels a bit... too friendly? Theyre both pretty cold, and dont want much to do with a team. Team Skull feels a little less found family and a little more "group who support each other for a common goal" which I think would appeal to them more (not that they wouldnt just become a found family later on anyway)

Spinner is Team Yell because he too spends every waking moment stanning someone more well-known than him, to the point of being a criminal

Giran is Team Rocket because money defies all moral expectations

(Oh Bakugou would HATE these guys. He would either have to be completely inconvenienced (typical "you will die if you dont help" type shit) or be offered WILD compensation for his time. At some point it would become personal tho and he'd be annoyed with them and enjoy beating them for fun)

[yallemagne]

So, I was clued in by several references to Micheal Myers that the movie my brother was making me watch was a Halloween movie and, having never watched a single one, I went to the Wikipedia to catch up. I figured out through getting through all of the Wikipedia synopses that the film I was watching was the final one! Amazing.

Spoilers. Also, trigger warning: I hate slasher films. Not for moral reasons, so slasher nuts can put down their pitchforks. I just. Blech. But this film had a silver lining.

EDIT: I misspelt Allyson's name bc it was misspelt in the subtitles.

For a moment, at the beginning of the film, I thought maybe they were referencing Mikey as a horror movie icon, but that was not the case. I had been tricked-- HOODWINKED -- into watching a film from the Halloween series. But I couldn't walk away now!! I already sat down!!

I didn't care about the kid. Honestly the sheer amount of blood and also the weird way he fell took me out of the scene. I was half like "was this staged by the kid, too?"

Corey was already giving me vibes of an anxious teen who messed up in the past, and like this was the only chance he has to show he's a good guy, and like that was the reason he was panicking so hard in the attic? Anyway, whomp whomp. This is why you don't bully someone with anxiety in a horror film, kid.

Time skip, he gets bullied by some high schoolers and JAMIE LEE CURTIS appears to the rescue! The band kids are mean to her, so maybe they deserve-- just kidding lol. I'll call her Laurie from here on, she offers boyo a knife to fuck up the car. Wahoo.

His hand is messed up and Laurie's granddaughter is a nurse, what can go wrong? Introducing a young woman to a male main character in a horror film has neeeeeever led to predictable and blegh-y deaths ahahahah. But I was wrong in thinking she would be killed for making premarital eye contact, so that's neat.

And then someone makes premarital eye contact with Laurie and I'm like noooo oh he's gonna die too? seriously?? I don't even know this guy. But the writers did not hate me today.

Let's skip, so Corey gets thrown off a bridge because he called out someone's daddy issues and is pulled into some weird... sewer cave? I don't know what it is. I don't think Mikey did it, but I'll get to that. Corey wakes up and gets strangled by Mikey, but then he starts getting flashbacks to the worst day of his life, which I guess is symbolic of his mental break.

ONE LITTLE TANGENT. I hate how horror films villainize the mentally ill. And how apparently being mentally ill gives you superpowers. Maybe I should get evaluated just to see if I can raise a barn on my own. I know someone may scold me like "it's not black and white, there's no ableist messaging inherent to this genre, there is no war in Ba Sing Se", but you are wrong, bye.

Corey gets away but the homeless man I predicted would die jumps him and oh look. He's ~crazy~ too. But I guess he did not receive an official diagnosis because he does not come back to life after being killed. Also, I think maybe this guy is the one who dragged Corey into that place because of his obsession with Mikey, but that's minor.

Corey tells Allison he's a murderer. I was... pleasantly shocked they didn't start making out immediately. But she still stayed with him. And I wasn't fully paying attention because of my reading, but I seriously thought she knew he was doing even more murders, but apparently she... didn't? Even though they were people who inconvenienced her?

Corey meets Allison's ex and then lures him into Mikey's lair. Mikey gets knocked down and Corey yells at him to show him how to kill people. Mikey's like "okay shit" and stabs the guy a few more times than necessary just to make sure Corey understood. I was kinda cheering about boys night because that is exactly what this was.

The boys kill a doctor who was mean to Allison and the woman he's sleeping with, and I was like SERIOUSLY?? MOVIE??? I caught up in the Wikipedia and saw that apparently, the woman got a promotion because she was sleeping with him... but that's still killing a woman for having sex. Oh well. Also, the eye contact between the woman and Corey was weird, I thought, am I missing something here?? Eh.

Laurie confronts Corey, and she's so badass, and I love her so much. Tells him to back the fuck up. He refuses and tells her to go apeshit. OHHH DUDE. You do NOT WANT THAT. She literally vanished, and I was like "TOLD YOU SO BOY". I knew she wasn't gonna kill him right then, but I kept making *teleports behind you* jokes.

Since Corey is a wuss, he calls Allison up because he knows Laurie is gonna get his ass. Allison argues with Laurie that Corey isn't evil, and at this point, I genuinely thought she was gaslighting Laurie because HOW DOES SHE NOT KNOW??? But she truly didn't know that her boyfriend was JD.

Corey shows up at Mikey's hidey hole and they have a silly little tussle. It's so fucking funny. The boys are having a little wrestle! It's so silly. Corey steals Mikey's mask so he can be Mikey (his own mask wasn't cool enough) and kill a bunch of people. His stepdad is collateral damage, and I groaned so hard at his death. That man teleported into the bullet. Had to look away from the yucky ew because I don't trust my unconscious mind with gruesome imagery.

Laurie is amazing she is so cool. Corey tries to get her but she fuckin GETS HIM. She's so fucking badass I love her. Laurie is my bias.

Corey does the "if I can't have her, no one will" again and does a self-stabby to frame Laurie bc he knows he has his official diagnosis and he'll come back to life. In the meantime? Mikey has come to take his mask back. He permanently kills Corey by revoking his blessing (that's what I got from it at least) because no one kills his sister but him!!!

Laurie is fucking GREAT SHE FUCKING YES MAN. The foreshadowing of the exploding microwave and like boom man. I was cheering GET HIM LAURIE GET HIM. He tries to get rid of her hand, she says "no sir I like that hand". She gets his mask off, and he's like "nooo you know how insecure I feel without the mask >:((((". So many knives. I mean so many knives get put into this man. He can fit so many. One is in his hand and he RIPS HIS HAND IN HALF to choke her after she slit his throat. I don't know how effective choking would be with a hand that fucked up but oh well.

"Do it pussy," she says as she's getting flashbacks to every previous movie, and I'm so happy I watched none of them and just this one. It's all I need. Allison comes in and slits his wrist. I was groaning. "Come on, you think that will work? What next? Is the blood gonna start seeping back into his cuts?" But apparently bloodletting keeps him down for a while.

Cops show up, "Micheal" "He's dead" "Not dead enough", THANK YOU ALLISON I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

There's this big procession of cars, everyone's there. We cut to several faces that would be familiar if I watched anything else in this series. I was like "oh my god it's just like End Game. Everyone's here and I don't care"

BUT GUESS WHAT? THEY THREW MIKEY IN THE SHREDDER!!! No fake outs, no Mikey getting up and murdering an entire town, HE WAS SHREDDED!! YESSSSSSSSSS! BEST MOVIE!!

I was a little bit in doubt. It's a slasher film, after all.

Allison tells Laurie that she believes her that Corey was bad now bc she just watched Heathers and took some notes.

There was a knock on the door or a ring of the doorbell, I don't remember, and I'm like "better not fucking be Corey, he got his privileges revoked".

It wasn't, it was Laurie's boyfriend. Oh yay. That man didn't die.

Okay. My attitude towards death in slasher films? I just like when unimportant characters aren't killed for the sake of it. It pleases me because it subverts my expectations. With films like these, you can only really trust that a character will survive if they are a murderer, which bores me. I like innocent randos living against the odds.

They cut to every room in the house, and I know that it was to show "look at all these rooms that were destroyed, now they are back to normal" but... Laurie... please move. Also I was expecting Mikey in any one of those rooms, but there was only his mask kept as a trophy, I assume. WHAT THE FUCK SHRED THAT, TOO. The continued existence of the mask is sequel bait, I know it's literally called "The End" but I have trust issues.

So? Pros? Okay, loved Corey and Mikey's relationship, it was funny. Just a couple of rowdy boys tussling in the sewer cave. Laurie is my bias. THEY SHREDDED MIKEY!!!!! YESSSSS!!!! Cons? I CAN IGNORE THEM BC THEY SHREDDED MIKEY!!!!

[pocket-luv101]

Viridescent // Chapter 2

Fandom: Genshin Impact Ship: CynoNari

Summary: Tighnari is hesitant to enter a new relationship after a bad breakup. He decides to only focus on his vigilante work and raising Collei. His plan becomes complicated when a detective moves into his home to protect Collei. (Detective vs. Vigilante AU)

Ch.1 // (Ch.2) //

“Alhaitham, why did you tell a detective that he should move into my basement?” Tighnari’s sharp tone turned the question into an accusation. The moment Cyno left to pick up his luggage, Tighnari went to Alhaitham for answers. Alhaitham’s expression didn’t waver when faced with Tighnari’s anger and he continued to type on his laptop. Tighnari was tempted to slam the screen close on his fingers but he stopped himself.

As callous as Alhaitham could appear, Tighnari knew that he was a virtuous man. He wouldn’t have worked with him otherwise. He took a deep breath and then asked: “Is this a part of a plan to stop Dottore? I hope you thought this through. If Cyno discovers my identity, he’ll arrest you next. Why would you take such a risk?”

“Kaveh asked if Cyno could stay in our guest room. That would’ve inconvenienced me so I volunteered you. The arrangement will benefit everyone. You can find out what information Cyno has on Viridescent. I’m sure Kaveh went over the other benefits this arrangement would have for you as well. If there is nothing else you want to yell at me for, you should return home to Collei and Cyno before either of them get suspicious. Cyno is a detective and you need to be careful.”

“I don’t know how Kaveh tolerates your personality. You listed all those benefits but what about the risks? If he arrests me, Collei won’t have a stable home anymore. She’s only begun to live like a normal person. You have as much to lose as I do. It was difficult enough hiding who I am from her but now a detective is living in my basement! Why didn’t you talk to me about it at least?”

“You would’ve said no.”

“How can you understand people so much yet so little at the same time? It’s just my luck that your boyfriend is friends with the detective chasing me. I wish I knew that before I decided to work with you.” Tighnari rubbed his temple but it did little to ease his headache.

He knew Alhaitham since they were children so he trusted him with his plan to stop the Fatui. Together, they created Viridescent. Tighnari would steal from banks and hospitals connected to the organization. The Fatui would be forced to be more aggressive to stop him and draw the attention of the police. He was willing to risk the Fatui’s wrath as long as it’ll give his daughter a brighter future.

“Your work as a doctor should be enough of an explanation for why you’re gone most nights. You can also time our robberies for when we know he’ll be off duty. We can easily find that information if you ask Cyno to babysit Collei. Though, that could also make him suspicious if the vigilante starts stealing on only the nights he’s babysitting.”

“I am not going to use my daughter as a tool in your plan. Did you not listen to a word I said before?” Since it was pointless to continue arguing with Alhaitham, Tighnari changed the topic. He felt uneasy with the plan but he trusted that Alhaitham would’ve considered all other possibilities thoroughly. Alhaitham had his own reasons for challenging the Fatui, afterall. “I assume you want Cyno to live with me so I can monitor him and his investigation.”

“That would be ideal but far from easy. Cyno is very cautious and he doesn’t become close with people due to his work. For now, find a chance to read his notes on the investigation into Viridescent.” Alhaitham told him. “My plan is the best way to protect Collei and draw out the Fatui.”

Cyno woke early for work. This would be his first day living with Tighnari. Above him, he could hear footsteps from the floor above him and reasoned that Tighnari was already eating breakfast. He went over how he should start a conversation with the family. Due to his work as a prosecutor and detective, it was difficult for Cyno to become close with people quickly. He hoped to befriend Tighnari though.

The basement he rented was spacious and private. It had his own washroom, dining area and door to the driveway so he could’ve lived in the basement without interacting with Tighnari. His home was close to the police station and he could respond to emergencies quickly. Cyno wanted to befriend him for another reason. He recalled his last conversation with Alhaitham.

“I have information on the Viridescent Vigil. I will tell you what I’ve found in exchange for helping my friend. He is in danger but too stubborn to ask for help. You will move into his basement and protect him. You cannot tell him about this little arrangement.”

“That damn scribe should know extortion is a criminal offense and I’m a prosecutor.” Cyno muttered the title like a curse. A week ago, Alhaitham approached him with the outlandish exchange and Cyno didn’t know what to make of it. His request was vague at best because he didn’t tell him what he needed to protect Tighnari from. The only thing Cyno knew for certain was that Alhaitham wasn’t the type to lie about having such sensitive information like the identity of the Viridescent Vigil.

He agreed to live with Tighnari and keep his family safe. The Viridescent Vigil had slipped through his fingers each time he was close to capturing him. Before Cyno was a prosecutor, he was a detective. He returned to investigate the Viridescent’s case after his father told him the police were struggling. Now, Cyno understood why they haven’t been able to capture him yet. The smell of flowers and Viridescent’s sly grin from that night haunted him.

His thoughts shifted from Viridescent to Tighnari. His new roommate could be the key to capturing the vigilante. Alhaitham wasn’t the type to go out of his way to help someone. Cyno asked Kaveh for his opinion and he also insisted that he should move into Tighnari’s basement. Tighnari showed him an article about a doctor and it was clear that he was afraid of him. He warned him not to allow the doctor into the house or near Collei.

If only he could ask Tighnari about his situation directly but Alhaitham forbade him from doing so. Cyno checked his watch and he had an hour before he needed to leave for work. He could speak with the family and try to find what they know at least.

Cyno walked up the stairs and he stepped into the living room. He didn’t see Tighnari or Collei immediately but the warm smell of pancakes greeted him. He followed the faint sound of their voices to the kitchen. Before he could speak, Tighnari’s ear twitched and he turned towards him. “Good morning, Mr. Detective. I expected you to wake up earlier. Crime doesn’t sleep in.”

Tighnari chuckled softly but there was a sharp glint in his green eyes. Cyno had interrogated many people and he knew when someone was hiding something from him. It was clear that Tighnari didn’t trust him and he was building a wall between them. Despite that distrust, he rented his basement to him. The doctor was a mystery to Cyno and filled with contradictions.

Tighnari sliced a strawberry in half and added: “Though, Collei was hoping that would wake up a little later so she could surprise you with breakfast.”

“Amber said that I should make Cyno feel welcomed with a meal.” Collei looked up to Amber but Tighnari wished that she wouldn’t force herself to be like her hero. The cheerfulness in her voice was overshadowed by how she wavered with her next question. “I didn’t know what you would like so I made pancakes. Is that alright, Cyno?”

She nervously looked from the pancake batter to Cyno in the doorway. It was impossible to read his expression and she worried that she might have overstepped with her surprise. She wasn’t an extrovert like Amber so she struggled with awkward silence. Cyno crossed the room and stopped beside her. “Why do you have to watch what you say around egg whites? They can’t take a yolk.”

A long silence followed his joke. The police station was often stressful and he would tell jokes to help his co-workers. They laughed at his joke and he thought Collei would also find them amusing. Her brows knitted together and she tilted her head slightly.

“That was meant to be a pun. ‘Yolk’ sounds like ‘joke’. Eggs are a key ingredient in pancakes. It’s quite fitting in this scenario.” The more Cyno explained his joke, the more puzzled Collei’s expression became. In the end, he trailed off and smiled softly at her. “I can’t think of anyone who would complain about a thoughtful surprise. Thank you, Collei.”

Cyno reached out and patted her head. He meant it as a brotherly gesture but Collei inhaled sharply. Her face became pale and he took his hand back. He assumed that he made her uncomfortable and he started to apologize. He barely had a moment to speak before Collei instinctively lashed back at the small touch. She grabbed the knife on the counter and made a blind slash.

“Collei, stop!” Tighnari tried to stop her by pulling her away from Cyno. With Cyno standing beside her, he knew he couldn’t place a safe distance between them quickly enough. He grabbed her wrist and a sharp pain erupted in his palm. He accidentally gripped the blade of the knife in his haste to stop her. The cold steel felt like a burning flame due to the pain and Tighnari flinched back.

His back struck the wall and the thud pulled Collei out of her panicked haze. She dropped the knife and turned to him. Collei opened her mouth but the apology she wanted to make came out as uneven breaths. Her hands tightened into fists until her nails dug into her skin. “Dear Archons, I’m so sorry, Tighnari. I didn’t mean to.”

“I know. It’s okay.” Tighnari rushed to reassure him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop the hiss of pain that followed each breath. Her face was pale and the sight broke his heart. When he adopted Collei, he promised her that she would never feel scared again. He forced himself to smile and said: “I’ll be alright, Collei. Can you get the first-aid kit from under the sink?”

“I’m sorry.” Collei whispered before she ran out of the kitchen.

He started to follow her until Cyno gently placed his hand on his arm. His grip was firm yet it didn’t hurt. Tighnari threw a glare at him and the expression he was met with surprised him. Sympathy and understanding filled his red eyes. “I know this isn’t my place to say anything but I think you should give Collei a few minutes to calm down before you talk to her.”

Cyno dropped his hand from his arm only to cradle his hand. He pressed a towel against his bleeding palm. He held Tighnari’s fingers as if they were glass and that gentleness surprised Tighnari. He could never see this side of him with their conflicting identities. Tighnari wondered if Cyno would be as kind if he knew that he was a thief and vigilante. With that thought, he took the towel from him.

“Thank you for the concern. However, I’m a doctor and I can access my own health. The cut isn’t deep and there’s no need to go to the hospital for stitches. I have to tell Collei that or else she’ll blame herself.” Tighnari had worse injuries and Collei was his first concern.

“My sister told me that doctors make the worst patients. You should bandage your hand at least, Tighnari.” As much as it frustrated him, Tighnari knew that Cyno was right. The sight of blood on his hand could make the situation worse. Tighnari relented with a sigh and walked to the sink.

He carefully lifted the towel from his palm to check if the bleeding had stopped. The soft fabric felt like pins when it rubbed against the cut. At least the cut was shallow and the blood was already clotting. He went through the motions of cleaning the wound. Cyno must’ve noticed how he winced because he asked, “Do you want me to bandage your hand? I have a little training with first-aid.”

Tighnari allowed himself to accept Cyno’s help despite his own pride. It would take time to properly wrap the cut with only one hand. He was worried about Collei sitting alone with her guilt. He held out his hand to Cyno. “Thank you, Detective.”

“You can call me by my name.” Cyno began to wrap the cloth around his hand. Even though they were only inches apart from each other, he sensed the distance Tighnari placed between them. Tighnari cared for his daughter and helped him in the hospital so Cyno trusted that he was a good person. Alhaitham told him to protect the family and that could be the reason for his wariness. “I’m sorry that I ruined breakfast. We should clean the kitchen and try to start over.”

“It’s also my fault. I should’ve warned you that sudden movements and touch can scare Collei. She doesn’t like talking about her past and I wanted to respect that. Before I adopted Collei…” Frustration and anger rose in Tighnari. When he would’ve clenched his hand into a fist, Cyno gently rubbed his thumb over his fingers to stop him.

“Is it related to Dottore and the article you showed me?” Cyno whispered so only Tighnari could hear him. He didn’t answer but Cyno could guess the truth from how his viridescent eyes sharpened to become jade. “You don’t need to tell me the details and I won’t ask for them. I can understand her position. My life was… complicated before my father adopted me.”

“I didn’t know that. You mentioned that you have a sister. Did he adopt both of you?” He was curious about his family and the information could help him as the Viridescent Vigil.

“You’ll make a good detective with how many questions you’re asking me.” Cyno had mentioned his sister in passing but Tighnari remembered that detail. “Father, Lisa and I aren’t related by blood but they’ve always treated me like family. She teased me for being her little brother. I thought I could be a big brother to Collei but I’m not off to a good start.”

Tighnari thought back to when he watched Cyno playing Genius Invokation with Collei. He had never seen her warm up to someone so quickly. He raised Collei long enough to know that it was more than the card game. Cyno was patient and kind as he explained different card strategies with her.

“I know that I should be careful around Collei and arrest Dottore if he approaches her. Is there anything else?” Cyno finished bandaging his hand and looked up. Their eyes met and he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful he was. His skin was smooth and slightly flushed from the heat of the kitchen. Cyno reached up and brushed a flake of flour from his bangs. “I don’t want to scare Collei since I’ll be living here.”

Tighnari considered telling Cyno about his ex-boyfriend who didn’t want him to adopt Collei. If he knew how complicated his life was, it could dissuade him from renting his basement. That would be simpler for everyone. In the end, he said: “Collei wanted to make you feel welcomed. Don’t let her effort go to waste. She has a new deck that she wants to test against you.”

“I have a joke that might cheer her up. Why was Cinderella bad at soccer? She kept running away from the ball.” His joke was far from funny to Tighnari yet a small chuckle escaped him. Cyno stepped back from him and looked towards the door. “I do understand Collei’s struggles. She’ll feel too guilty to talk to right away. Can I talk to her first?”

“Collei is too hard on herself.” Tighnari looked down at his hand. He was protective of his daughter but he knew that Cyno wouldn’t hurt her. He came to know Cyno as the detective who chased the vigilante. No matter how chaotic their chase was, Cyno protected everyone around him. “I’ll clean the kitchen while you talk to her. If I hear her cry, I’m calling the police. I don’t care if you’re a detective.”

“I just want to tell her that things will become easier for her. It won’t disappear completely but she shouldn’t let that stop her from living her life.”

Cyno left the kitchen and Tighnari listened to his footsteps ascend the stairs. He trailed after him while being careful to not be noticed. At the bottom of the steps, he could hear their muffled conversation. Cyno spoke softly to Collei and told her a joke. The fragments of their conversation he heard reassured Tighnari that there was nothing to worry about but he didn’t return to the kitchen.

Tighnari leaned against the wall and looked down at his wrapped hand. Would Alhaitham’s plan work?

[misschimotosuwa-blog]

Dr Yun Yun at it Again

Genre: hurt/comfort

T/W: none

A/N: yeah idk where this fic went but it's ok I guess

That's why I'm stricter with you

Today – you made a mistake.

You were trying to do the right thing and make the best food you could – just like Yun taught you – but you took it too far.

You tasted raw ingredients to make sure when they were done cooking – they'd taste just right – bad idea

Later in the day you felt fatigued and heavy for some reason.

"Did I work too hard today?" You thought to yourself.

Then 

It dawned on you

The raw ingredients

The raw ingredients were making you feel heavy and out of sorts.

You did your best to hide it as you helped carry firewood back into camp.

But someone in the group knows you better than anyone – and can sense any change in behavior – that someone, is Yun.

As you headed back to camp carrying the firewood your arms felt heavier and heavier and your head grew fuzzy.  But you did your best to shake it and preservier! 

Little did you know

Someone was watching

"Sin ah – can you carry (Y/N)'s firewood back to camp?" 

Huh?

You looked back and to see who said that

Yun was staring at you with severity and concern

Sin ah took your portion of firewood and continued back to camp with Ao, while you and Yun stayed back and stood in the middle of a field.  

(Wh… why… why did he make Sin ah take my firewood… why is he staring at me like this)

Yun just stood there with his arms crossed with a furrowed brow.

(Aw jeez… he's onto me isn't he)

Yun took a deep sigh – vocal enough that you heard it loud and clear at your distance.

"(Y/N)... I've told you time and time again to watch your health!  What did you do this time?"

"Urp… you mean .. you could tell?  That I'm unwell?"

"Idiot!  Of course I'd notice!" Yun yelled at your face then turned his head and grew red. "I …". Yun cut off what he wanted to say and grabbed your hand leading you towards camp in a hurried pace.

You passed Yona and Hak – they tried to say hi but you were instantly pulled into Yun's tent. 

"Lay down"

"Ah… ok…"

You laid down feeling so nervous that you had inconvenienced him and gone against what he had advised.

A gentle hand grazed your forehead as your eyes met with his.

"I knew it… a fever…" he sighed "how did this happen (Y/N)?"

"I.. well…" you looked away nervously "I just wanted… to be a good cook like you!"

"Eh?"

"I… tasted raw food.."

"...idiot!"

You shuttered at his use of language as you noticed his eyes water.

"Yun I… it's really not that bad… I'm just… fatigued is all…"

"You don't get it!" Yun's voice cracked a little as he shouted. He grabbed your hand and buried his face in your stomach "I.. can't… I… don't want anything to happen to you.  I don't want to lose you.  That's why…"

"..why?.."

"Why I'm stricter with you!"

Your tummy ached as you looked up at him with hazy vision.  You rested your hand on his cheek and smiled. "Hey… it's ok… I'm not planning on leaving anytime soon ~"

Yun cleared his throat and looked away

"R-right well anyways!  I'll get to treating you now" he said flusteredly.

You smiled gently through your hazed expression as you watched the sweet boy prepare medicines and such.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Spy/Soldier - Hidden Sides

Summary: could i request a fic where soldier shows that he's much more gentle than he lets on, and everyone finds out and they're like "what the 😦"??

[A/N]: I decided to focus this mostly on Spy because I really like Freedom Fries.

~

“It’s not my fault, honest,” Scout said. “How was I supposed to know she’d run off like that?”

“Because I told you she would.” Spy had made it pretty damn clear that if his bedroom door was left open, Bijou would get out. Which was yet another reason why he didn’t want anyone in there when he wasn’t around. Not that that ever stopped Scout who seemed to take every locked door as a challenge to pick it.

“I just wanted to pet her. You can’t just keep a cat in your room and expect me not to sneak in to see her.”

“So you left the door open.”

“On accident! And I tried to catch before she got too far but that only made her run away faster. I’m fast and all, fastest man alive and all that but she’s small and can fit in places I can’t so she’s got away. But I came and told you about it as soon as I realized I’d lost her. I think I should get some credit for that because I didn’t have to, you know? I could’ve just let you find out she’s missing all by yourself.”

He had a point. Owning up to his mistakes wasn’t something Scout did often. If Spy weren’t mad at him he probably would’ve been proud.

“Fine. Help me find her. And if anything bad happens to her, I’m holding you responsible.” The area around the base was dangerous for a cat and even if she stayed inside, she posed a threat to Medic’s birds which put her in danger if Medic caught her acting on that threat. Not to mention all the various dangerous chemicals she could get into in Demo or Medic’s lab or she might get her tail or paw caught in one of the machines in Engie’s workshop. Or who knows what else? There was a reason Spy had been keeping her in his room, only letting her out under his supervision.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. We’ll find her in no time, I’m sure.”

~

They didn’t find her in ‘no time.’ Despite searching high and low and eventually getting most of the rest of the team in on the search there was no sign of Bijou anywhere. She was simply gone. Spy was just about to head outside to look for her out there in hopes of her still being nearby when…

“Yo, we found her.”

Spy turned to face Scout. “Where?”

“The shooting range with Soldier.”

Given Soldier’s proclivity for yelling and violence, as well as the fact it was the shooting range where he would be actively firing explosive rockets, Spy didn’t like the sound of that. So without further ado, he turned and started that way, Scout falling in step with him.

Upon reaching it, the rest of the team was inside already, gathered around presumably Soldier.

“… not allowed to move,” Soldier was just finishing up saying.

“You know,” Engie said, “I wouldn’t have thought you of all folk would be the type to who’d be so against the idea of mildly inconveniencing an animal.”

“It is not a mild inconvenience. She is sleeping. It would be un-American to wake her.” Soldier even spoke quieter than usual.

Spy quickly sidled into the group, forcing his way to the front to see what was going on. Soldier sat in the chair next to the table meant to lay out one’s ammo and guns. His rocket launcher was on it as were some rockets. He didn’t seem to be paying attention to using it though as on his lap was Bijou, curled up and asleep.

“Has she been here this whole time?” Spy asked in lieu of letting out a sigh of relief. As odd was it was to find her cuddling with Solider of all people, at least she was safe and not in danger of getting hunted by coyotes.

“Yes. She showed up as I was about to start my target practice. I sat down to pet her but then she jumped up on my lap and fell asleep. I have been here ever since.”

“Thank you very much for keeping her safe.” Spy approached, intending to pick her up. Before he could touch her though, Solider lifted the hand that had been stroking her to block him.

“She is sleeping. Do not move her.”

Spy didn’t like to disturb her when unnecessary either but there were limits. “You are aware she’s a cat, right? Cats can sit and sleep for hours at a time. You can not intend to sit there for that long.”

“If that is how long she wishes to stay, that is how long I will sit here for. Unless an emergency happens like if the enemy attacks.”

“Wow,” Scout said from somewhere behind Spy, “and here everyone was thinking you were just dumb and violent. Turns out you also like cats but I guess who doesn’t like cats.”

“Cats are nice,” Soldier said as he lowered his hand to stat petting Bijou again, very gently and lovingly.

Scout had a point though, everyone including Spy, had discounted Solider as just ‘dumb and violent’. Everyone had sides, Spy knew that well and delighted in sneakily finding the sides people liked to hide away. He hadn’t given much thought to attempting to do so with Soldier though, thinking it’d be a waste of time. Perhaps he should start paying more attention though and finding out what other kinds of depths Soldier has within him. For now though…

“Very well, I will leave her in your care for now. If you would kindly return her to my room after she wakes up and moves herself, that would be much appreciated.”

“Yes, sir. I promise she will be safe with me until then.” He even saluted. How… endearing.

[sirthisisa-wendys]

One Wall Over: Geto Suguru x Fem!Reader

synopsis: you’re new in the neighborhood, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get a warm welcome from your duplex buddy. 

wc: 3k

tw: nsfw, smut, annoying noises at five am, the works 

a/n: ahhhhhhhhh! I am so excited to be taking part in this collab with @suna-reversed reversed for a super sexy jjk collab! Please check out the masterlist for the collab here and the other authors! SO EXCITED TO READ THE OTHERS! (The other title I had for this work is “First of All, How Dare You” because that’s literally me every time I see my hubby Suguru, but anywho!).

Moving in was a bitch. 

For the first time ever, you have no roommates, no parents, and no pets - just you and your meager belongings moving into the little, two-story duplex a friend allowed you to sublet. As you stare out of the window facing the sparse front lawn, you wonder what your neighbor is like. They hadn’t come to welcome you to the home, but you knew they existed by the sound of the bass through your shared wall at five am every morning. 

You assume they’re male or a couple, but you’ve never gotten a chance to see them with your own two eyes.  So you kept a lookout day after day. At exactly four p.m., you would sit across from the window with a book and keep watch, the sun streaming in and illuminating your figure and crossed legs anchored on the window sill. But day after day, you wouldn’t see anything. The neighbor’s car wouldn’t even move an inch from the previous day. Everything would remain the same until the next day when you took your perch by the window. 

It isn’t until you’re out on your front lawn, slaving over the flowers you maintained for a whole month - a new record - that the sleek Range Rover drives up to the garage on your neighbor’s side of the house. At first, you don’t notice it, your eyes firmly planted on the soil at the root of your orchid tree. But then you hear a car door slam, and you look up, watching for the person who would be exiting the vehicle. 

A tall, black haired man slides out of the truck and slams the door shut, his locks tucked into a half bun and a white towel resting around his rippling shoulders. He slides his keys into his gym shorts and turns to walk into the house, barely noticing you on the front lawn in an ill-fitting t-shirt and dirty yoga pants. 

He’s halfway to his front door when you find your voice and yell out, “Hey, neighbor!” You wave your hand at him in hopes that he would return the gesture, but you’re sorely disappointed when he only looks your way with disinterest and walks into the house without speaking. You frown at the encounter, hoping that he would return a little while later and explain his lack of manners, but he doesn’t, and you retreat into the house once more. 

______________________________________________________________________

“Unzzz, unzz, unzzzz…” Both eyes fly open at the sound of the bass on the other side of your bedroom wall, the sudden noise jarring you from your sleep. 

“Ugh…” Your eyes slide to the white numbers on the clock face, which politely remind you that it’s five-fifteen AM. Don’t confront him, don’t confront him. You wrap the pillow around your ears, hoping the gentle cushion would block out the sound. But for some reason, it gets even louder, and a groan escapes your lips. There were only two more hours for you to rest, but at this rate, you’d be up until it was time for you to wake and get ready for work. That just wouldn’t do. 

The grey sweatpants deposited on the floor the night before are quickly jerked on, and you pad to the front door, not caring about your appearance as you walk the length of the porch over to his front door. Inhaling, you find the will to bring your fist up and pound on the door, hoping the sound would be angrier than you actually felt. Fear ate at your nerves while you waited. A few agonizing moments later, the door is yanked open, music floods outside, and your neighbor stands before you in just a pair of black sweatpants. Nothing else. 

“What?” he gripes, sweat rolling down his forehead. As your eyes take in the full sight of him, you wonder what kind of sculpted god you had for a neighbor. You could even faintly see the v that would culminate in the bulge near the crotch area of the pants, which apparently is quite--

“Uh…” You had entirely forgotten what you had come over to his side of the house for, but as he leans on the doorframe and gives you a withering stare, you suddenly remember your complaint. “Your wall is next to my bedroom. Can you turn your music down?” You place a hand on your hip, trying to seem more inconvenienced than you actually were in that moment. 

“Yeah, sure.” He shuts the door in your face, and you trudge back over to your side of the house, hoping the music would soften. 

But for some reason, you swear he turns it up even louder. 

_______________________________________________________________________

“Why don’t you just call the landlord and make a noise complaint?” your friend wonders over the phone, the sound of a frying pan in the background slightly overshadowing her voice.

“But you said you didn’t have any problems with him, Mariela.” 

“Yeah, Geto was nice enough and didn’t bother me much. Not sure why he’s being such an ass now.” You hear an oh, shit on the other end, and Mariela hisses into the receiver, “Hey, y/n, I have to go; the risotto is burning. Call me back if you have any other issues, okay?” 

“Okay.” You hang up and toss your phone on your desk, trying to focus on the words in front of you but failing as the sound of the bass filters through the other side of the wall again. For the fourth day in a row, you’ve been subjected to the sound of pure noise coming through the other side. Tonight was absolutely not the night, mostly because you had a presentation that took you all night to finish, and the clamor was interrupting your prep work for the bright and early eight o’clock meeting. You feel like Squidward, subjecting yourself to the endless noises from the grunting to the bass to the sound of weights clanking back into place. 

It’s the sound of Geto’s groaning that sets you on edge the most. If it weren’t for the added noise of weights, you’d be convinced he was fucking someone. There was no way he could make so much noise and not know that he was disturbing your peace. Hadn’t he ever heard of headphones? 

You snatch up your set of earbuds on your desk, place them in your ears, and try to turn up lofi music as loud as it will go. But that doesn’t work. Even relocating to the living room didn’t seem to fare you well, and you wonder if he truly had cranked up the music higher than before just to annoy the hell out of you. Finally, you toss your earbuds down and slam your computer on your coffee table. 

You’d had enough. 

Stomping over to the front door, you fling it open and bang on Geto’s door, hoping he would answer it in a rage so you could let out your frustrations. But when the door flies open, he’s dressed in only a pair of gym shorts, this time the outline of his dick even more apparent. But you’re not focused on that. You point a finger at him and inhale to begin your tirade; sick and utterly over his shit.

“Hey! Can you fucking turn it down?” Geto stretches out a hand, and for a minute you think he’s going to grab you by the shirt, but he pulls you inside by the wrist, crushing you against his chest. “What the hell?” You push away from his sweaty chest, backing into the closed door harshly. 

“Lower your damn voice; the neighbors will hear,” he chastises, and turns away from you to grab the water bottle on the counter. The muscled man takes a long swig, then wipes his face with the towel right next to it. 

“I don’t know what the fuck your problem is, but I’ve never been so disrespected in my li--” As you talk, he’s advancing on you, pushing back his long black hair back behind his ears and getting too close for comfort. Once he’s right up on you, you gulp hard, fully intimidated by his size and stature. The music suddenly stops, and you’re left in silence. 

“I’m listening,” he mutters, staring down at you. “Please, continue.” 

“I was saying…” your throat dries up. “What I meant was…” Your eyes travel from his chest to his navel, and then to the hand pressed against the doorframe.

“Uh huh…” He nods, squinting his black eyes at you. “You said you’ve ‘never been more disrespected in your’… life, right?” You don’t reply. Rather, you can’t reply. All of the words you could have ever said are now gone from your skull. “I highly doubt that, y/n.” 

“H-how…” 

“You’re Mariela’s friend. I’ve seen you quite a few times before you moved in here. Never thought I’d be living so close to you, though. Mariela’s subletting, isn’t she?” 

All of these questions. And you can’t reply to a single one because he’s practically squeezing you between the door and his rock-hard abs. Or are you pressing yourself against the door to get away from the heat emitting from his body - oh, fuck; you don’t know. 

“But I had to get your attention somehow.” The admission startles you so bad that you accidentally knock the back of your head against the door, touching the point of contact in pain and hissing slightly. Geto hums at your blunder, then pushes off of the wall to turn away from you. As he rotates, you catch a glimpse of his erection, now fully apparent in the atrocity that is his shorts. “The yard work wasn’t effective, the trips to the gym and back barely worked; shit, by now I would’ve thought you would throw yourself at me the first chance you got. I guess I had to make you mad enough to confront me.” 

“You literally looked at me and said nothing the first time I saw you!” you retort, throwing your hands up in the air. “Then you almost bit my head off the first time I came over to tell you the music was too loud.” 

“I didn’t expect you to come over the first time. Besides, I couldn’t figure out anything smooth enough in that short amount of time.” Geto shrugs, his shoulder muscles moving like water in the dim lighting of the living room. You look around at the furnishings, noting his impeccable taste in wood and red suede in conjunction with his minimal exercise equipment. “Coffee? You look like you’ve been up for a while.” He leans over a coffee-maker - one of those fancy ones that you’ve seen on TV - and slides a plain coffee cup into the holder. 

“Uh, no thanks.” You turn to the door and begin to open it, but Geto clicks his tongue thrice. 

“You’re just going to leave without getting what you came for?”

You pause for a moment, then turn back to look him over once. “Don’t you mean what you brought me over here for?” A lazy smile spreads across his face, and that’s when you realize that he’s charming, but not necessarily as suave as you first imagined. You shut the door and walk over to him, examining his physique as if you hadn’t just helped yourself to his tall, statuesque figure already. He allows you to look him over, eyes dedicatedly following you.

“Like what you see, doll?” You don’t get a chance to answer as he pulls you into his chest with a smooth movement, then presses his lips against yours. You instantly open your mouth so he can slide his tongue inside, and he does so without hesitation. Hands grasp at your flimsy night shirt, pulling it over your shoulders as he backs you up against the wall, hiking one leg up and wrapping the other around his waist. 

As both of your hands tangle in hair, fabric, sweat, you wonder how long - just how long - he’s wanted to do this. But your train of thought is rudely interrupted by his lips trailing kiss down your neck and to your collarbone, where he pauses for a second, catching his breath. Fingers dance through his locks and he peers up at you for a second, drinking in your flushed expression and breathy exhales. 

“Geto, please, I--” You’re silenced again by his lips, his thick fingers rolling past the waistband of your night shorts and right to your core, where he nestles them into your heat with ease. 

“Goddamn…” The rumbling of his voice vibrates against your chest, and you gasp, feeling every stroke of his fingers inside of you. “So fucking wet… just for me.” Your vision narrows in on the black eyes watching your every move, the angle of your face, the way you tilt your chin to the side and shakily exhale. Everything is perfect. Maybe even better than he imagined at first. But you don’t know that, and you really don’t care to know. All you want is release and for that release to be at Geto’s hands. When he removes his fingers and hoists you onto the suede couch, your first reaction is to cry out in shock. 

His hands roll your shorts down to your knees and then press your legs open, spreading you for him to examine. 

“You’re a mess down there… perhaps I should help you clean up.” 

“Huh?” The double entendre is completely lost on you in the heat of the moment. You watch as he leans down, then moves to lick your core with a flat tongue, stroking up before he goes down again and repeats his action twice. Your head finds the soft cushion of the pillow in ecstasy, and you let out a breath you didn’t realize you had been holding. 

Geto hums down below, fully appreciating your taste before sucking on your clit, hard. You yelp, shooting up, but his hand presses you back down, eyes still closed. Fingers make their way up to your breasts, tugging at your nipples leisurely before tightening and pulling with more tension. “Oh, god, please…” Your hands find his head, and at the sudden application of pressure, he grunts again. And you’re left there in agonizing pleasure, dangling between an orgasm and a build-up of pressure, one stroke away from tumbling into the cavern of blissful unawareness. 

Geto stops without warning, pulling back to watch you as he still tweaks your nipples with varying degrees of firmness. You tug at his shorts in a silent plea for him to discard them, and he waits a minute before sliding them off wordlessly. His length is impressive, you note, his cock springing free from his shorts and angled upwards a little. A condom is produced just as quickly, and he rolls it over himself before spreading you a little wider to accommodate his length. When he nudges his cock at your slit, you realise he’s a little breathless and shaking, but that all goes to the back of your mind when he slides inside of you with little resistance. 

“Fuck, doll, that’s--” He groans just as you moan, both of you relishing the expanding feeling. “God, that’s perfect.” You whimper at his praise and bring your hands to his shoulders, holding on for dear life as he begins to pump into you. Geto’s lips find your neck and he sucks a hickey on your left side, placing another one neatly below it while his hands cup your ass. 

“Does that feel good?” He whispers and you nod, completely at a loss for words. But soon, it’s not enough, and your fingers dig into his back. He’s fucking you slowly… too slowly. 

“M-more,” you whine, and he delivers his thrusts faster, pumping into you and moaning loudly. Your fingers find his face and angles it towards your raised head so you can kiss him on the lips. He offers you that mercy - a deep, languid kiss - while he plows into you with abandon. Pleasure is the only thing on your minds - you just so happen to have found it in each other’s arms - and your orgasm is just within reach.

“Geto, I’m close…” His response to your words is to lift your left leg a little higher so it practically hung off the couch and in the air, deeping his strokes until they settled against your cervix, like someone tapping a soft rhythm into your stomach. “Shit, like that.” 

“Yeah?” he exhales, looking at your face with a blissed-out expression, his cheeks reddening. You raise your hips to meet his with each thrust, hoping your orgasm would arrive before Geto came. There isn’t much you can do though, besides writhe beneath him and pull him closer to you, thereby making you and him almost inseparable. He’s merely rocking into your hips now, cock barely rolling out of you as before. And you can’t deny that it feels like heaven, not when you’ve been so frustrated for so long. 

“I’m gonna cum,” Geto hisses into your mouth, and you nod, constricting a little to urge him on. What you fail to realize is that the constriction was just what you need to tumble over into the abyss of thoughtlessness, and your mouth opens to let loose a guttural moan as Geto fucks you faster and faster, chasing his own orgasm on the heels of yours. “Oh, shit,” Your neighbor sinks into you one final time, shooting his cum into the condom, but pumping in stuttered strokes as if he were really letting loose inside of you. 

When you both fall from the heights of your sex-induced high, shoulders and heads are draped where there is comfort and space, little exhales from his mouth fanning across your breasts. Geto lifts off of your sweaty chest and looks you in the eyes before breathing: 

“Maybe I should start my days with this instead of a workout.”

[autistic-lalli]

Hi! I've been really curious about a specific section of the first adventure. I'm not sure if it's been covered already, but do you remember the part where Lalli overextended himself and had to rest for several days? The crew was really worried about him but when Lalli woke up nobody paid him any mind. He even had a little dream sequence showing how subconsciously Lalli wanted them to show concern. Would you please analyze that, I think it would be really interesting and I'd super appreciate it! Thank you

Oh my sweet anon, I would love to analyze this scene for you. It’s very long, so the rest is under the cut.

I have no idea how long this post is going to be as I write this, so we’re going to just go through this whole sequence of action from the beginning. I'm also going to try something new of citing page numbers! Probably because I have a deep destructive craving to be in school again.

First of all, Lalli’s autism is pretty important to understanding his perspective here (it always is, but, you know.) So check out my 30daysofautisticlalli tag if you haven’t already.

Lalli scouts a route for the tank, then promptly goes to sleep in the front of the tank (at Tuuri’s insistence.) He’s been working all night, he just wants to go to sleep, and now Tuuri’s trying to talk to him and making him sleep where he’s not comfortable. And, oh! Now he's motion sick as well (374).

Then, he gets woken up to find out there was something wrong with his path he scouted (381). This is important for two reasons:

One, Lalli made a mistake.

Two, something changed unexpectedly.

On the first point, Lalli relies on his competence. (If you’re into enneagram, thinking of a 5w4 will be useful here.) Lalli is good at what he does. He is independent. When you’re good, you survive. When you’re independent, you don’t need people, and you don’t get hurt. When you’re good, you stay under the radar. Lalli and Onni feed into one another in this way—Onni wants Lalli to be good so that Lalli can be safe from the world, and Lalli wants to be good to at least keep Onni off his back, if not to impress him.

And here he is, facing down a mistake.

He’s tired. He’s cold. He’s failed. And now Tuuri is yelling at him, and everyone is staring (382).

(We’ll come back to this.)

The unexpected change also plays into this. Change, even expected change, can be difficult for autistic individuals. For me, it feels like a massive turning of a ship—a huge movement that takes a long time and a lot of effort. So when Lalli is faced with the snowdrift, it’s a huge shift in his mental direction. His day doesn’t consist of sleeping and occasionally clarifying directions. And now he has to figure out what he should expect.

But, before he can figure it out—

He’s tired. He’s cold. He’s failed. There’s been sudden change. And Tuuri is yelling at him while everyone stares.

Lalli has a meltdown/shutdown.

I explain it more in this post, so I won’t go into detail here.

The rest of the crew is mildly distressed, I would say, disappointed perhaps. Moderately inconvenienced. But this situation is not as upsetting to them as it is to Lalli.

Notably, Sigrun comments that “We just have to accept today as a failure” (383). And how does Lalli respond?

He speaks directly to Sigrun and says, “I don’t fail.” He recognized one word in Norwegian, and it was failure (384).

He doesn’t fail. He’s not done. He’s not done working. This isn’t the end.

Failure means putting people in danger. Failure means drawing extra attention. Failure means not being good enough.

Lalli doesn’t fail.

When Lalli decides to go out scouting again, Tuuri knows he’s putting himself in unnecessary danger. She snapped at him, but she backs off pretty quick as soon as he decides to go (384).

Sigrun fully supports him going. On the one hand, this seems like poor leadership on Sigrun’s part. Lalli has absolutely overworked himself, and pressing on in adverse weather on top of that doesn’t seem wise. On the other hand, I suspect that this is a testament to her trust in Lalli—she knows he knows how to do his job well. If he couldn’t do his job well, she expects him to say something.

We get Lalli’s flashback now. And this really solidifies why Lalli is so determined to not fail.

“We’re not allowed to make mistakes, not under any circumstances! Grandma made one mistake, and see where that got us.” (390)

Failure brings catastrophe.

Failure brings grief.

Failure kills people.

Lalli likely would have already carried these lessons from his childhood, but Onni’s well-intentioned harshness only solidified Lalli’s cockeyed perfectionism. Even though Lalli and Onni spend very little time interacting directly on-screen, it’s behaviors like these that reveal how much Lalli wants Onni’s approval.

And this brings us to Lalli’s luonto stunt (396-399). This moment is culmination of all these things—Lalli is desperate to prove to himself and to everyone else that he is competent, that he doesn’t fail, that he’s dependable and reliable.

(Small digression:

There’s an interesting parallel and line of growth when you compare this instance and the giant encounter with Emil. Both are moments when Lalli pushes himself beyond his capabilities. Here, Lalli does it for largely selfish reasons—it’s about his image, how the others perceive him, and how he tries to live with himself. Arguably this also leaves the crew at a disadvantage when the ghosts attack. If Lalli had shown more restraint, that situation could have been drastically different, which would have then changed the course of the entire expedition. Lalli choosing to push himself is a quiet turning point with far-spreading implications.

But! The incident with Emil and the giant is very different. Lalli saves Emil in the eleventh hour. We know it’s for Lalli, in a way, as he clearly has romantic interest in Emil by this point, but it’s also distinctly not a selfish action. And the narrative supports this selflessness—Lalli ends up in Emil’s mind, which allows Lalli to continue to protect Emil even while incapacitated, unlike the isolation of the previous encounter.)

I think it’s also important to talk about sisu here too. If you’re not familiar, sisu is a Finnish word and concept, untranslatable to English, that broadly means a sort of cold determinism in the face of crisis. It’s way more complicated than that and I do not feel equipped to elaborate further, as I am not Finnish and have no formal education in Finnish culture, but Lalli’s use of his luonto is clearly an example of sisu. In fact, I’d argue that this is what makes Lalli more of a protagonist than Onni; Onni is the more powerful mage, but Lalli? Lalli has sisu Onni couldn’t dream of.

Everything is quiet on Lalli’s front for the next while. The crew is preoccupied with staying alive and finding vaccines. Emil is the only one who displays significant concern over Lalli’s state, and he stays by Lalli’s side whenever possible.

Why doesn’t anyone else show much concern? I’m not actually totally sure, but I suspect it’s a combination of factors. First of all, Tuuri isn’t concerned because she’s seen this before. She knows Lalli will wake up, they won’t talk about it, and everything will be fine (: Presumably Sigrun is following Tuuri’s lead here. It���s inconvenient to her to have Lalli out of commission, but it’s not inconvenient yet, so he gets a pass—besides, he deserves the rest. Reynir likely doesn’t know what’s going on (and is admittedly preoccupied with visions.) Mikkel is likewise preoccupied with keeping the rest of the crew in one piece.

Quite frankly, once Lalli passes out, things simply don’t stop happening.

When the ghosts come, Lalli is clearly terrified (473). They’re something new and something dangerous, and he doesn’t know the extent of the damage they could—or are—causing. He fights them off as best he can, and the dust settles.

(Worth noting as well that I don't think Lalli knows Onni came to the rescue. We saw that happen through Reynir's eyes, not Lalli's.)

And now, Lalli “wakes up.”

What does he dream of? What does he want?

First of all, he’s able to verbally communicate with everyone else. No one is unintelligible (512).

Emil is there, Emil has been worried, and Emil is happy to see him awake. If you pay attention, even Emil’s physicality towards Lalli is different here.

In fact, everyone has been worried. And everyone is happy to see him awake.

Sigrun congratulates Lalli and voices her appreciation. She adheres to his physical boundaries and congratulates him with a pat and not a punch (513).

Mikkel is going to make lots of food. Reynir is going to cut his hair (a boy can dream, I guess.)

And in our final moment, Tuuri “translates” for Lalli. He answers he doesn’t need it. Lalli is independent of Tuuri, able to function in the group outside of her.

And then he wakes up, alone (514).

This is the first time we really see how incredibly lonely Lalli is.

There’s a double edge sword to this situation: firstly, Lalli did push himself too hard, and he would like recognition for his efforts. He made a big sacrifice for the crew and justifiably wants to be thanked for that.

However, he didn’t just do it for the crew, remember?

He was trying to prove something.

And now, as the crew is fawning over Kitty, he’s faced with the fact that he didn’t succeed. He didn’t prove himself to them.

Lalli stops trying to get their attention. The food is still bad. No one besides Mikkel has noticed him.

Unfortunately for them both, Emil is excited to see Lalli awake, he just didn’t notice him right away. He even goes on to express his worry... but it’s too late. The damage has been done. Lalli’s feelings have been deeply hurt, and the infamous Soup Incident occurs.

When you’re independent, you don’t get hurt, right?

When Tuuri approaches Lalli we catch another layer: more unexpected change. Not only did nothing go how Lalli wanted when he woke up, they aren’t even at the camp he scouted!

“Oh that! It was good, but got overrun by ghosts and we had to move on. So we drove for a bit and ended up here. You know, finding a safe camping spot turned out to be rally easy.” (520)

Tuuri has a nice habit of accidentally saying the worst possible thing.

Lalli failed.

He was just trying to recover from his previous mistakes, and he failed at that, too. And not only that, but Tuuri thinks she can do his job just as well.

And so the question becomes: Do they need him? Do they care?

While it wasn’t a picnic for anyone else, Lalli has undergone a great deal of emotional distress in the last couple of days, and that—that’s what no one notices or does anything about.

With Lalli, it always comes back to the language barrier, magic, and neurodivergence. They’re all layers and metaphors and experiences that feed into each other. Lalli in inherently the most isolated person in the crew. Even Reynir, who wasn’t supposed to be there, has a better connection to the others. No one experiences the expedition (or the world!) like Lalli, and the only person he’s capable of putting it in words to is Tuuri, who, quite frankly, doesn’t put in the effort to understand. He almost experiences a different reality than the rest of the crew, and even those who know that don’t realize the gravity and impact of that difference.

And likewise, Lalli knows everyone else sees the world differently than him. So not only is the void between himself and others there, but he’s also aware of it. Which makes it that much harder to try and bridge.

So Lalli goes back in his personal box. Safely isolated further, but on purpose. Because at least then it’s his choice.

(And that’s why Emil’s personality and persistence are so so so important, but that’s a different essay. That I’m happy to write. Just send another ask. I love doing these.)

[bloody-bee-tea]

Beetober 2021 Day 19 - Sandpaper

Nie Mingjue groans when he comes to. His body feels heavy, he’s uncomfortable all around, and when he opens his eyes they scrape together like sandpaper. Every blink hurts, and he decides that this can wait.

There’s no reason to see the world right now anyway, he’s sure of that.

Instead of looking around and putting more strain on himself, he tries to figure out where he is by using his other senses. The bed he is in doesn’t feel like his own, that’s his first—well, second if he takes into account how beat up he feels—clue that something is wrong.

Additionally to that he can hear the murmur of water in the distance and the disciples running around are much lighter on their feed than the Qinghe Nie disciples usually are.

So he’s not at home.

He carefully moves his arms, checking if he’s being restrained right now, but it doesn’t seem like it.

“You’re in Lotus Pier,” someone suddenly says and despite how it feels, Nie Mingjue opens his eyes.

“Wanyin,” he breathes out, when his gaze falls onto the younger Sect Leader and Jiang Cheng raises an eyebrow at him.

“So this is what it takes for you to call me by my name,” he muses and Nie Mingjue feels compelled to correct his mistake.

There’s a reason why he doesn’t normally allow himself that sort of intimacy with the other man.

“Sect Leader Jiang, I apologize, I clearly must have inconvenienced you,” Nie Mingjue says, to Jiang Cheng’s apparent dislike, and he tries to sit up.

“You will stay flat on your back or so help me,” Jiang Cheng says, without actually moving a muscle but Nie Mingjue stops with his efforts immediately.

“What happened?” he dares to ask and Jiang Cheng comes closer to sit on a chair next to his bed.

Nie Mingjue wonders if Jiang Cheng has spend a lot of time in that chair but he pushes that thought away before it can further develop.

“So you don’t remember,” Jiang Cheng says, playing with Zidian on his finger and Nie Mingjue has watched him enough to know that it’s a sign of him being agitated.

“I don’t,” Nie Mingjue admits after giving it some thought but the last thing he remembers is sitting down for dinner with Nie Huaisang.

He doesn’t understand how that ended up with him being in Lotus Pier and feeling like shit, but he’s sure that Jiang Cheng is going to tell him.

“You had a qi deviation,” Jiang Cheng says, and Nie Mingjue closes his eyes at that, sighing in defeat.

“I see,” he whispers.

They have gotten more violent over the last couple of months; they happened more often and lasted longer and Nie Mingjue knows that his time is coming to an end.

“Do you remember what you said when you came here?” Jiang Cheng asks and Nie Mingjue tries his hardest not to frown at him.

“I just said I don’t even remember how I ended up here and now you’re asking me about what I said?” he still snaps out, his temper getting the better of him and he takes a few deliberately deep breaths.

He shouldn’t snap this soon after a qi deviation. It’s not good for him, he knows that.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t seem put off by his temper though and steadily holds his gaze.

“You flew in here, yelling at me that this is the reason why we couldn’t be. I thought you were drunk at first,” Jiang Cheng tells him and Nie Mingjue’s stomach sinks. “Then you started bleeding.”

He never wanted Jiang Cheng to know about his qi deviations, or his feelings for him, but it seems like he failed spectacularly on both accounts.

“I’m guessing this is why you shut down any and all friendly correspondence,” Jiang Cheng says before his mouth twists. “I guess this is why you threw my courtship proposal back into my face.”

“I didn’t mean to—” Nie Mingjue starts but he can’t even finish that sentence.

Yes, he meant to. He did it in a way that would ensure that Jiang Cheng would never try again; would think that Nie Mingjue tolerated him for their Sect’s sake and nothing else.

Nie Mingjue can’t bear the thought to hurt Jiang Cheng with his death if he doesn’t have to, so he tried his best to keep him at a distance, no matter his own feelings on the subject.

“You’re the worst fucking idiot I have ever met,” Jiang Cheng hotly says. “Has it never occurred to you that people might be able to help, if only you would let them?”

Nie Mingjue moves his jaw to swallow his first instinctive response to that.

“I asked for help,” he then tells Jiang Cheng, trying to keep himself composed. “Xichen is playing for me. It doesn’t help.”

“And the cultivational world only consists of Qinghe Nie and Gusu Lan,” Jiang Cheng mocks him. “So clearly you exhausted your resources already.”

“What do you want me to do, exactly?” Nie Mingjue asks, his temper finally getting the better of him. “This has been going on for generations!”

“And how many of your ancestors asked for help? How many of them thought to seek help beyond their own city boarders?” Jiang Cheng shoots back and Nie Mingjue is now agitated enough to push himself up.

“And who is going to help another Sect leader? You?” he asks, refusing to admit that he’s panting from just that little bit of movement, and he glares at Jiang Cheng, daring him to lie straight to his face.

“Of fucking course, you idiot,” Jiang Cheng snaps back. “I thought with Wen Ruohan’s death we got past this ‘every Sect for themselves’ bullshit.”

“What could you even do?” Nie Mingjue asks, mostly out of curiosity, but he keeps his mean undertone, just so that Jiang Cheng doesn’t get any wrong ideas. “The Jiang’s aren’t healers.”

“No, they are not,” Jiang Cheng readily agrees. “But the Yu’s specialise in poisons. And do you know what you also have to specialise in if you choose poison as your main weapn? Antidotes. Healing. As far as I understand it, your qi is poisoning your body. There must be an antidote for it.”

“You make it sound so fucking easy,” Nie Mingjue grumbles. “It’s not as easy as that. Our cultivation—I’m not going to give it up.”

“I don’t see how your cultivation has anything to do with this, but here’s the deal: you tell me about it, I contact my grandmother to see what ideas she has and then you finally let me court you, you idiot!”

Nie Mingjue blinks at Jiang Cheng at that, processing his words, but in the end he shakes his head.

“No. I will not let you court me if I could still die of qi poisoning.”

“You stubborn, stubborn man,” Jiang Cheng hisses. “Fine. I’ll heal you. I’ll find a way to heal you. See what excuse you can come up with then,” he snaps out and leaves the room with billowing robes.

Nie Mingjue can only stare after him and wonder what he just unleashed unto the world.

~*~*~

It turns out that, first and foremost, something got unleashed unto Nie Mingjue. Grandma Yu—as everyone seems to be calling her—is a force to reckon with and almost makes both Nie Mingjue’s and Jiang Cheng’s temper pale in comparison.

“So you’re the man little Wanyin has his heart set on,” she greets him with the first time they meet and Nie Mingjue can’t get over how she just called Jiang Cheng ‘little Wanyin’.

He’s already too scared to not answer her, though.

“It seems so,” he admits and flinches under her glare.

“And it seems like you’re a bumbling fool, because you didn’t agree yet. We’ll see if you are actually worthy of him,” she goes on, and then simply grabs his arm. “Mh, even more of a fool. A full-blown idiot even, going after that cultivational style without proper counter measures.”

“There are no counter measures,” he tells her and then pales when she glares at him.

“Let’s hope you at least manage to get back your status of fool, otherwise you will not be allowed to marry my little Wanyin,” she tells him and then seals his mouth shut with the Lan spell.

Nie Mingjue is too scared to even dare to ask her where she learned that from, even once the spell wears off and he’s honestly glad when she leaves him be.

“How did it go?” Jiang Cheng asks as he steps into the room and Nie Mingjue stares with wide eyes at him.

“I’m scared of her,” he admits and Jiang Cheng nods.

“Good choice,” he tells him. “We call her Grandma Yu, but I think she’s actually immortal. You would do well to be scared.”

“She knows the silencing spell of the Lans.”

“She can also melt your core, so I’d be careful not to upset her too much,” Jiang Cheng flippantly gives back and then leaves Nie Mingjue to his thoughts.

He didn’t know one old lady could be this scary.

~*~*~

“There’s an easy solution to your little problem,” Grandma Yu announces three days later. “You have to stop cultivating the saber.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Nie Mingjue shoots back, because he’ll do a lot, but he will not give up that.

“I thought so,” she grumbles under her breath. “Idiots, the lot of them. Men, honestly, so stupid in everything they do. Can’t even come up with another cultivational style. Fumbling baboons, all of them.”

Nie Mingjue doesn’t dare to object, but he watches how Jiang Cheng has to bite back a laugh and it makes the insults a little bit easier to bear.

“Is there another solution?” he dares to ask once she falls silent and he shrinks back when Grandma Yu glares at him.

“Of course there’s another solution. There is no problem in this world that only has one viable solution. Who even allowed you to be Sect Leader?”

“Wen Ruohan, when he killed my father,” Nie Mingjue shoots back and that at least makes Grandma Yu pause for a bit.

“Ah, yes, I remember the child,” she agrees and Nie Mingjue shares a concerned glance with Jiang Cheng.

No one remembers Wen Ruohan as a child; he was approaching at least his second or third century when they managed to kill him.

“Always too ambitious for his own good,” she goes on and then slaps a vial into Nie Mingjue’s hand.

“You put one drop of that onto your saber every day and polish it in. You will manage at least that, right?”

“That—of course,” Nie Mingjue agrees. “But that’s it?”

“The problem comes from your cultivational style, right? There’s no use to look for the problem in you; it’s your saber that’s causing you pain so the solution is this. Use it or die.”

“I will use it, of course, thank you!” Nie Mingjue is quick to answer but Grandma Yu shakes her head.

“Honestly, little Wanyin, you couldn’t have found someone better? Someone more intelligent? This one will make your kids stupid.”

“Sorry, Grandma Yu, but I set my heart on him,” Jiang Cheng says with a smile and leans obediently down so that she can pet his cheek.

“Fine, if the heart is set, there’s nothing one can do. If he doesn’t treat you well, you tell me.”

“I will,” Jiang Cheng promises. “You want to come for the wedding?”

“Hey!” Nie Mingjue objects because he didn’t agree to anything yet.

“You agreed to let me court you if I find a solution. My solution was Grandma Yu. A deal is a deal, Mingjue,” Jiang Cheng tells him.

“I’m not—we have to try it first,” he says and rushes to go on when Grandma Yu glares at him. “Not that I don’t trust that it won’t work, but I don’t feel too good and we need to try it out first, right?”

“Excuses, nothing but excuses,” she mutters. “If this doesn’t work, I will drop dead on the spot. You—” she points at Nie Mingjue “—never contact me again unless it is to tell me you decide you want kids with little Wanyin. And you—” she turns to Jiang Cheng “—will write to me more often,” she says, suddenly softer than before and Jiang Cheng agrees with a smile.

“I will, I promise.”

“Good. Now go court your idiot, before he manages to find another way to kill himself,” she tells him and leaves without a look back.

“There will be no more ways,” Jiang Cheng decides and steps close.

Nie Mingjue is still loosely holding the vial in his hand and Jiang Cheng gently closes his fingers around it.

“I found a solution. Now it’s your turn to uphold your end of the deal.”

“I didn’t refuse you because I don’t love you, or to be contrary,” Nie Mingjue manages to say. “I was going to die. Soon. I didn’t want to hurt either of us like that.”

“Understood,” Jiang Cheng softly tells him. “But things are different now. So what do you say?”

“Jiang Wanyin, will you let me court you?” Nie Mingjue asks and his heart flutters at the wicked look Jiang Cheng throws him.

“Mh, yes, I think it’s time for you to put in some work,” he agrees and bends down to steal a kiss. “I’m looking forward to your first courtship gift.”

With that he leaves a dazed and stunned Nie Mingjue behind and he wonders just what he got himself into now.

Not that he’s complaining.

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

[datawyrms]

snap

It is The Day I post my Invisobang fic! it was a wild ride to write everything and not post. This is actually the second fic I did, as the first fell into my pit of ‘i hate it now’ and will sit in limbo for the rest of eternity. I teamed up with Spirit ( @ghostportals ), who has done some accompanying art! That, and Red @redead-red saved my bacon by doing some betaing last moment, so tell em they’re great too. Hope you’re all enjoying the flood of finished fics and art this week! Only the first chapter is here, the rest is posted on my Ao3 and complete. hope you enjoy!

One careless fall changed Danny's life forever. He was kind of hoping one fall like that was enough for any lifetime. Clearly fate disagreed.

It's fine though! He's got this. He's fine. He can totally explain why he ran off with his own body to mom and dad.

The stairs had always been a little too steep, a titch too narrow, but he was used to them. Jazz worried too much- the whole Fenton family knew how to take them two steps at a time. He wasn’t going to admit she might have a point just because he’d slipped one time. He wished there was a railing to catch himself with- it would have spared him some of the pain of his head knocking on the stair.

It didn’t hurt that much. Plenty of ghosts hit harder, and far more frequently.

“Took a bit of a spill eh, Danno?”

Great, dad saw him slip like he was three again. He wanted to speak, wave his behemoth of a father off before he got tangled up in some long lecture about whatever they were working on down here. Just had to sit up.

He was a little stunned or something. All those late nights made his limbs rebel when he wanted them to hurry up. Come on, before he tries to help and accidentally shaves his hair off with some anti-ghost stepladder or something.

His arms stubbornly rejected his internal horror story. His attempt to say ‘I’m fine’ was more a gurgle than anything. Way to go, Fenton. Do everything to get dad to worry! Really using those genius genes. Jazz probably stole his anyway, or they got fried in the accident. Come on! A bit of self berating should have him sitting bolt upright by now. Maybe his arm twitched. He felt something move, anyway. More like a muscle spasm.

“Danny? You okay?” The large man came closer, his usual jog slowed.

Of course he’s fine. He could see dad, sort of. He totally moved his eyes to see him better, even. Stupid ghost powers were just acting up.  It’s okay,  just give me a second to stand up. You’re worrying over nothing.

 Jack had already made it over, crouching to get a better look at his fallen son. Like he was trying to look smaller or something with how carefully he was moving. Where was all that slow, ginger movement when he was driving? Or trying to tell them about some new invention that might burn off your eyebrows?

 I’m fine, dad. He couldn’t get the words to come out, but he was just fine. He really didn’t like the strange look on his father’s face. After all, ‘Jack Fenton doesn’t know the meaning of the word fear’ or whatever random thing he felt like shouting when chasing after entities from another dimension. Come on dad, stop looking like that. It was creeping him out. Moving should be easy, a snap, but part of him didn’t feel like doing it. Apparently an important part? He could visualize exactly what to do, but he wasn’t sitting up. He swore he could feel his muscles clenching but not finishing the movement. Maybe they were testing something down here that just made all the ectoplasm hiding inside him take a nap. His ectoplasm was so fired after this.

 “Can you look at me kiddo?”

 Coaxing him. This was weird. Why wasn’t he just hauling him off the floor and laughing about how clumsy he was at his age too? Looking at him was easy. Pretty hard to miss him, with all the bright orange.

 “Maddie? Can you come over here?” His question was strangely stilted, not much of a bellow.

 Dad was going to get the wrong idea because his body didn’t want to cooperate. Great. Fantastic. He could feel the warmth in his chest, the sign his heart was still going. He was just fine, just a bit inconvenienced at the moment. Why couldn’t dad just be  dad  and do something dumb like pick him up with one hand while sounding way too excited about some new tool that he built?

 “What’s wrong?” His mom said, her footsteps doing the same thing dad’s had. Speed that suddenly cut down to almost nothing. “Danny, did you hit your head?”

 “I think he might have, he’s not responding. I didn’t want to try to move him-“

 “You did great Jack, it’s okay.”

 Gross. He hoped they didn’t get caught up in one of their lovey dovey circles while he was stuck trying to get his stupid legs to remember how to do things. He was responding! He groaned, and he definitely twitched a bit. Weren’t they paying attention? He tried again, a bit more forcefully and ignoring the pang in his neck. More of a jolt from someone with too much static cling than actual pain, really.

 “Should I call 911? He isn’t moving! He just stayed there- didn’t even act all tough for his old man!”

 Jack was panicking.  Dad was panicking. Over nothing! Why wasn’t mom distracting him with fudge or some random study? No one was being normal today. Danny shuddered, he knew he did, it went with the pulse under his skin.

 “That’d be great sweetie, just stay close.”

 “In case you need my big strong arms to help carry him, right?”

 “Just in case.” She wasn’t wearing the hood of her jumpsuit, at least.

 It didn’t make it more comfortable when she crouched down, biting her lip and staring at him. Like this was concerning. It was the opposite of that, he was a klutz, a gangly teenager, it was normal for him to be a bit banged up. This shouldn’t concern her, or anyone. The only reason it bugged him was the not being able to move right now nonsense.

 “You aware in there sweetie?” she said, rather loudly and clapping near his ear.

  Yes I am, but I can’t tell you. Maybe he could focus on taking a breath and it would kick off whatever turned off his mind to body connection. Had he done anything strange before coming down here? Not really. He could absolutely feel her digging her nails into his earlobe though, ow! More motivation to move, but something wasn’t getting across. Maybe he was getting a bit freaked out about it too. Only because of his parents being weird. He was fine, he had to be fine. It was nothing, less than nothing.

 “I’m just going to make sure he’s still breathing Jack, do you have anyone on the line yet?”

 A loud response, but not to her question. “No it’s not a ghost emergency! It’s a human emergency!”

 Of course he was breathing. He couldn’t look that bad from such a small fall. Just breathe out the words ‘Hey mom, personal space’ and they’d laugh and it’d be nothing. All this fussing was making his skin crawl but of course he had to have ‘special ghost freezing up’. Was it his ice powers? Like he could get his powers being snarky like that, appreciated it in a twisted sort of way- but it would be better around people who wouldn’t assume the worst? Like anyone else. Even Dash.

 “Tell the operator he isn’t breathing.” Maddie’s voice was cold and controlled, even as she went back to biting her lip right after.

 He was totally breathing. He could feel the air that ran in and out of his lungs, the swell and fall that other ghosts knew as a weak point, a way to slow him down. He knew what being doubled over, air shoved right out of him from a harsh blow felt like, how it felt like the portal again. Throat twitching, body heaving and trying to regain what it lost. The darkness that bit at the edges of his vision as every nerve went screaming  You’re Dying . Hated that feeling, shook the ghosts who did that hard once they were in a thermos. This was nothing like that.

 “He isn’t breathing, you need to hurry! My wife knows CPR- just tell them to hurry this is my  son , please”

 Yelling to hide the quaver in his voice. Like a kicked puppy yelping. It sounded so wrong. This was going to be so awkward after. They’d just...pretend this never happened, right? That’d be for the best. No, he was going to get grounded forever for some ‘dumb prank’, since he was fine and worried them so much. Which didn’t seem too bad if it stopped all of...this.

 He moved a little. A toe, he was pretty sure. More notably was his mother, carefully getting him off the uneven stair to be flat on his back. Trying to keep his head from moving, and she couldn’t see he was looking at her? When she was this close? Too busy trying to be calm. Who could be busy enough to think he wasn’t breathing or tracking with his eyes? Another twitch, another inward curse that he couldn’t get back in control.

 “Just hold on, help is coming.” She said, but the half ghost couldn’t tell who she meant, exactly. Him, dad or herself? Either way the quiet remark did not prepare him for the sheer force slammed into his crest. Like she wanted to slam right through him! Was it so much to ask that his parents stop nearly killing him by trying to help? Just try moving again and everything will be fine.

 He couldn’t keep the mental mantra up when he heard- when he felt his ribs crack from the pointless force. She was killing him, he didn’t need help breathing, he had to get it through to them no matter how much his body buzzed and resisted his need to move. He had to focus and push through it, ignoring how cold and wrong it felt, how it seemed like he was squirming free of something that didn’t want him to go.

 Her bone crushing assault stopped once he got his arm up, not even needing to touch her before she froze. The fear was wrong, out of place so he redoubled his efforts, twisting and struggling against himself, the sticky mass that wasn’t letting him act or speak to calm them down.

 The phone hit the floor. He heard it. So why didn’t dad say anything? Danny twisted, wanting to make sure he was okay. Still stuck. At least he had a hand free and most of an arm, the edges of his fingers tracing the tiles of the floor. He could brace himself that way, pushing down hard to try and jar his shoulder loose. He could hear air moving, like a harsh breath out. Good- breathing was good. Even when it sounded so harsh and low. 

 “Jack- are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Maddie moved back, giving him the space he wanted ever since she’d cracked his ribs. They still stung under his skin, hissing at him to keep his parents away before he managed to get even more injuries over something so silly.

 “I’m not sure what we’re seeing.” The phone remained on the floor.

 That didn’t seem right. He’d sat up, mostly. Half sat up, propped up with an arm. Still mostly stuck and uncomfortable, the snapping and crackling sensation still clinging to his free shoulder. Really, he felt worse than how he started. at least there wasn’t pain in ‘hah my body is playing freeze tag without me’ land. The pulling sensation made his head ache and vision swim to the point he wasn’t actually sure if he was still looking at the ceiling or not. He couldn’t go back to just being frozen though, that’d suck. So just convince the rest of himself to get up. No problem!

Were lies in his head always this unconvincing? It felt like yanking himself free of a too sticky slime, strands clinging and tugging back until they finally snapped, parts still stuck but free of the main mass. At least ectoplasm had the decency not to stretch when you got drenched in it most of the time.  Come on, focus and keep it together.  He let out a wheeze as the last stubborn strands snapped, ignoring how loud it sounded to properly reorient himself.

 Sitting up, properly, good! Parents staring with weird, half horrified expressions: bad. Very, very bad. 

“I’m okay, I just fell.” Danny spoke, he could speak properly again. So why? “Sorry for scaring you guys?” He tried again, trying to ignore the first thought across his mind.

 They kept staring. Maddie seemed to be recovering, shoulders starting to relax, but she seemed to be reaching for her belt.

 He didn’t sound right. No, that wasn’t quite right, he just sounded wrong for Danny  Fenton. Who he should be right now, he hadn’t been able to talk, let alone go ghost. This probably looked really, really bad. How had he switched, anyway?

Mom was reaching for a gun, wasn’t she? Crud. Now he regretted talking at all, how was he going to explain why Danny Phantom was treating two ghost hunters like his parents? Or how he managed to look like their kid. Maybe he could change back and convince them they were seeing things?

Yeah no, that was way too dumb.

 “Wait.” Jack rested a hand on his wife’s shoulder, causing her to stop pulling the weapon. He wasn’t looking at the ghost at all, just her. Maddie remained stiff, not able to ignore the glowing kid on her floor.

 Okay...dad was usually the gung ho one. Maybe he could get away with this? Danny tried to get a better grip on the situation. Felt a new pain, sharp and cold in his throat. Deep green scars clashed against his white gloves and ran all across his jumpsuit,  glow intensifying as the panic choked him into silence. Fresh and angry like back- back before he managed to stumble out of the portal when he died when the accident happened.

With his human arms just as scared below them, still against the tile. The damage looked old, half scabbed over with only a dull glow deep in the death marks wounds. His arms attached to the rest of his body- that he was half out of. 

 Why? How was his body still and silent while he was sitting and looking at it. He’s cold. His body is cold. It isn’t  breathing  there isn’t some other facet of his personality sitting behind the dull blue eyes. This isn’t how it works! If he splits, it’s just temporary, he can fix it but his other half- corpse is wrong.

The pulling and clinging at his legs doesn’t feel like slime anymore. Rotting flesh that wants to drag him back, smother him in a cloying warmth that will only remind him why it burned, how it hurt. He had to move, he couldn’t stay half like this, it would get better once it wasn’t like this.

It didn’t want to let go as he tried to pull away, ectoplasm getting snagged on every nerve and muscle fiber, each pause a reminder of the shock and pain of his end that day.

He knew he screamed when he pulled free and slammed into the wall, furious green scars still marring his jumpsuit where there should be none.

 What would Mom and Dad think?

 No no no no no. He spotted movement from them and acted. He couldn’t let his mom break his body more, or look at it too closely. Dad couldn’t see what happened! This was fine, he could fix this!

 He grabbed his corpse and fled through the wall.

[icedthoma]

caught in the act

Requested by @edensxgarden

--A scenario in which Todoroki introduces his s/o to his class for the first time when they catch her visiting him in the dorms 🥰 and everyone is so shook, because todo?? is dating?? and she’s SO COOL AND CUTE!!! just indulge me please 🥴👉🏻👈🏻💖

Pairing: Todoroki Shouto x Reader

Notes: This gif makes me so happy 

You were way past having second thoughts. By now you were on your fourth or fifth round of is this a good idea? Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this after all...

But Todoroki was actually the one who had suggested it, which came as a surprise to you, who was generally the most likely out of the two of you to suggest such an impulsive, rash, spontaneous idea. 

“Shouto, I don’t know,” you hissed into your phone, pacing back and forth from where you were at the foot of 1A’s dorm entrance stairs. The front door was right there, and all you had to do was step up and go through. “What if I get caught? You could get in serious trouble!”

“Is it wrong for me to want to see my girlfriend on a weekday?” he responded, a defensive tone lacing his words that would have had you snorting if not for the stress you were currently under. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too, babe, but I’d rather not get you in trouble with your teachers! Besides, um, I also don’t want to intrude on your other classmates! They don’t know we’re dating, and that would be a big hassle for them to find out from me sneaking in here to see you, you know? I'd hate to inconvenience anyone.” You were sitting on the stairs now, occasionally scuffing your feet in the dirt and scanning the road every few seconds for any passerby. There was a bush a foot to your right you could dive into if need be. 

The thing was, you had never met any of his friends personally from UA, only heard Shouto’s detailed stories of whatever nonsense they got up to in the dorms. You were happy that Todoroki had found people other than you and his family who accepted and supported him the way he was, but also worried you wouldn’t be able to live up to their...craziness? That was part of the reason you had accepted Todoroki’s suggestion that you sneak into Heights Alliance, but also there was that part of you that thought you wouldn’t fit in well with his classmates. What if they didn’t like you? Or worse, thought he could do so much better than you, someone who wasn’t even studying to be a hero? It was like meeting his family for the first time all over again. 

“Well, you’d be inconveniencing me.”

You groaned. “Shouto...”

“Also, how long are you going to stare at that bush?”

“Huh? How did you--” Twisting around, you stared at where Todoroki was leaning against the door frame of the now open Heights Alliance doors, ending your call on his phone and shoving his phone into his pocket. He walked over and offered his hand. 

“Come on.”

“What if someone sees us?” you whispered, allowing yourself to be tugged into his dorm for the first time. A small "woah” of amazement escaped you as you took in the spacious common room and a room farther down that you thought was the dining hall. So cool!

Todoroki shook his head, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Don’t worry. They’re all on the third floor right now. I’m on the fifth,” he added before you could ask. 

You allowed yourself to relax and allowed yourself to truly enjoy the feel of Shouto’s hand holding tightly to yours, breath coming quick as you ran over to the elevators. Now that you were sure you would be able to make it to his room with no incident, the adrenaline rush was finally hitting you, and all concerns about possibly getting in trouble were thrown out the window. You would worry about those later. 

“This is your room?” you asked once his door was shut and locked behind you. “It’s so...”

“Japanese?” he offered. 

“...like your house.”

“Oh.”

“Didn’t you only get one day to move in? How did you do all of this by yourself?”

He shrugged. “Hard work.”

You were aware of his gaze on you as you flitted around his room, checking out his desk and peeking in his closet to snatch out a hoodie. “What?” you asked in response to his skeptical look. “It’s cold in here.”

Then you discovered he had a balcony.

“You have a balcony?” you yelled, throwing open the double doors to stare in awe at the view of the ground below, UA itself visible from a distance. “Wow, you’re really living the life.” You hated how your voice dropped in tone at the end despite your attempts to stop it. After all, you didn’t want to kill the nice vibes the two of you had going just because you were maybe jealous over the fact that he got to live with all his friends. And have his own dining hall. And a balcony. 

Of course, being the intuitive guy he was, Shouto immediately caught on and wrapped his arms around you from where you were resting your elbows on the edge of his balcony, leaning his chin on the top of your head. “Is something bothering you?”

“What? Nah,” you said, reaching one hand up to pat Todoroki’s cheek affectionately. “I’m glad you get to see your friends all the time. You deserve it.”

“It’s not the same without you, you know,” he sighed, squeezing you tighter for a moment and pressing his lips to your hair. “Mmm. Your hair smells different. Did you change shampoos?”

“Yeah! I’m surprised you could tell.” Smiling now, you shifted around so you were now facing him, the soft fabric of his hoodie providing ample warmth against the cool breeze drifting by. His arms were still encircling you, and you slid your hands up his chest to settle on his shoulders, looking at him endearingly. “And I’m not bothered at all. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters.”

Smiling, Todoroki lowered his lips to yours in a sweet kiss that turned any remaining strength in your knees to jelly. If it wasn’t for the railing supporting you from behind, you were sure you would have toppled over from the moment he kissed you. “I’m so glad you came, you know,” he mumbled against your mouth.

A pleasant warmth was spreading in your chest that tickled you all the way to your toes. You always felt this way around him, his very presence enough to energize you to get through any obstacle. “Yeah, me too.”

After an hour of the two of you vibing in Todoroki’s dorm room which mainly consisted of you swapping stories and cuddling, it was about time you headed home. 

“Don’t leave...” Shouto groaned, pressing his face into your back as you sat on his floor attempting to stand. “You should stay here forever.”

“I wish,” you said, still trying to get up despite your boyfriend clinging all over you. “But I really should be going home before it gets too dark.”

With that, he finally relented and opened the door to his room, checking both ways to make sure the coast was clear. “Let’s go.” Todoroki took your hand in his and led you down the hall back to the elevators. 

“This was really fun,” you laughed, shoving your hands into the pockets of his hoodie you hadn’t taken off yet. “I’m glad we weren’t...” You trailed off in horror as you exited the elevator only to be met with several pairs of wide eyes staring at the two of you from the common room. “...caught?”

“Hey, Todoroki,” a pink girl called from the other side of the room...Mina, if you remembered from his stories correctly. “Wait, uh, who’s that?”

Was it too late to run back inside the elevator? 

A small ding! answered for you as you heard the doors shut behind you. 

“Um, hey, 1A,” you sheepishly greeted, blushing up a storm at the fact that their gazes were glued to you and your interlocked hands with Todoroki. “Nice to finally meet you?”

Shouto sighed. “This is Y/n. My girlfriend.”

"You didn’t tell us you were dating someone!” Kaminari shouted, twisting around on his seat to get a better look at the two of you. “Oh, and she’s cute--”

Todoroki’s eyes narrowed, and you watched in amusement as his hold on your hand tightened by a fraction at his friend’s quip. Meanwhile, the girls present in the common room all ran over to you, and you were pleased to note you were able to guess which face belonged to the names you had been hearing from Shouto all this time. 

“How did you know our names?” Uraraka beamed, hands pressed to her cheeks. 

You blushed under all this attention, rubbing the back of your neck with the sleeve of Todoroki’s hoodie that was a bit too long for you. “Shouto talks about you all a lot.”

“Really? Aww!”

“Oh my gosh, you’re wearing his hoodie!” Ashido squealed, grabbing your hand and shaking it enthusiastically. “Ah, It’s so nice to meet you even though we didn’t even know you were coming! You two are so adorable!”

“So that’s why you said you didn’t want to participate in Kaminari’s invitation,” Midoriya was saying from over on Todoroki’s side, where most of the boys were lightly teasing him. 

“Where do you go to school?” Jirou asked. “Oh, that’s kind of far...” she said once you had answered, not mentioning once how it wasn’t a school focused on heroism. 

“Yeah, I usually only get to see Shouto on the weekends,” you said with a small laugh. “But I guess we both couldn’t wait this time around.”

“CUTE.”

“Mina, you need to chill.”

“Chill? I am chill.” 

“Y/n needs to go home now,” Todoroki suddenly announced, pulling you away from the rest of 1A protectively.

“Aww, is someone jealous?”

“Please come visit soon! I swear we won’t snitch,” Ochaco exclaimed, wrapping you in a quick hug that you eagerly reciprocated. “I can’t wait to get to know you better!”

“Me too! After all,” a small smirk worked its way on your face, “I have to return this, don’t I?” You pinched the sleeve of your--well, Todoroki’s--hoodie. 

“You better,” Shouto murmured as he walked with you to the door, the rest of 1A waving you off happily. “Sorry you had to deal with all that.”

You didn’t know why you had been worrying so much about meeting his friends in the first place. “I love all of them already.” You grinned, kissing his cheek before stepping fully out of the Heights Alliance dorms. “And you bet I’ll be visiting more often with the help of your friends.”

He smiled. “I can’t wait.”