#hello. i am back (official) (not clickbait)

[jjanguri]

photo time with haohao

lovely challenge, pouty version

[jomamaofficial]

You should have said something: Finale (Bakugou x fem!Reader)

A/N: HELLO BESTIES, IT'S YOUR *lmao I just realised I wrote sentimental here instead of CRUSTY here* CRUSTY TOE HERE. Now please, for the love of whoever's up there, PLEASE READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. I'm not going to dawdle along because this was the finale you all were waiting for, so enjoy. Social Media & LinkTree & Discord Server TW: Very gruesome descriptions of: Death, Burning, Heavy cursing, Blood, Abuse. Masterlist Taglist: @spicy-therapist-mom @speedmetalqueen @silentw-lkr @loki-an-idiot @clickbait-official @captainchrisstan @kamalymaly @idk-sam @runrabbitrun3 @power-house-fan12 @mrslawliet @memeingcheetah27 @lonleyweeb77 @midnight-storm Word Count: 1743

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Sirens flooded the scene, police cars blinding passerbys. Ambulances rushed to the location, paramedics pushing their way through the crowd of people, the heat travelling the smell of iron across the streets of Musutafu. Firefighters reached the estate, dragging people away from the hazard, eyes gawking at the uproar of fire. The house was engulfed in flames, crying voices piercing through the ears of those who looked on. Ashes here and ashes there, belongings erupting into soot and red embers.

A body was heaved onto the stretcher, blood staining the white cotton.

“The heart rate is lowering, I repeat the heart rate is lowering.”

The static noise from the walkie talkie was merely another addition to the tumultuous screams and orders.

Wind ran through his hair, panic stricken over the nurse's face who ran as fast as her environment could let her, the heavy but precious, bleeding body straining her arms and staining her hands.

The door was held open, commands being barked at her.

The reporters bombarded her, obstructing the nurse’s view. She shoved past them; her heart hammered in her chest inspecting the monitor, her movements speeding up as she reached her destination. The body was rushed into the ambulance, attached to pipes and machines.

It was the last thing the public saw before the door was shut and the sirens fled away.

Trending headlines and hashtags spread like wildfire.

Masaru switched on the TV, his wife finishing up her dinner in the other room.

“I am now live at the Bakugou-L/N estate. Word from our information team has come out and the fire has been going on for twenty minutes, however these twenty minutes were enough for Prohero Ground Zero to be sent to the emergency room after a local found him covered in burn marks and injuries inside his already smoking house. Prohero Y/HN is nowhere to be found and all forms of contacts have been shut off. I am now handing over to Tanaka-san who is live at the-”

Switched off. Masaru sat there glued to his seat with his fingers pressing on the power button.

-

Hope came crashing down and you could only stare at the broken screen of your phone, tiny glass particles spewed on the floor.

Your skin was boiling up but your blood ran cold. Your throat dried up but your tears were wet. You couldn’t feel anything but his nails, digging in through the layers of clothing you comforted yourself in.

If you could go back in time, you would have. If you could stop yourself from dialing Izuku’s number, you would have. Anything, anything would have been better than this.

Silence. And you still had the urge to cover your ears. There was nothing to look at apart from your only form of communication. Everything else was black. And the traitorous phone that gave you away was dissipating as well. It faded away from your sight, leaving you a wide smile on your face. Too wide. Stretching from one cheek to the other, your lips were quivering, forcing it to stop. But it didn’t stop. It was getting wider and wider and it was hurting but could you stop it? No.

You couldn’t stop anything. Not this marriage, not this moment, not your own body.

He pulled on your hair and you couldn’t even stop the pain. He crushed your face between his hands, searing pressure building up in your skull and you still couldn’t stop him. He shouted and he screamed and it was slowly seeping into your skull how loud he really was. Nothing would stop. You couldn’t stop it.

You were useless. Your shrieks were useless because he drowned them out with his own voice.

His words were barely comprehensible. You could either focus on the warm blood trickling down your hairline, or him.

But that took energy. And right now, trying to stay alive was sucking all of the energy out of you.

“YOU FUCKING BROKE RULE NUMBER THREE, YOU FUCKING WHORE.”

Rule number three spiked your interest. Not because you remembered what it was. It only drew your attention to him amidst all the repeated curses and the names and the agony, ‘rule number three’ was something new.

Why would you understand rule number three though, you couldn’t even understand why you were smiling, giggling underneath your breath.

“And out of all the people you could have gone to”, he sucked in a breath, squeezing your cheeks. He could feel your clenched teeth fighting against the strength of his hold.

“You fucking went to that useless cunt Deku”, Bakugou spat out, a crazed glint in his eyes as he felt your face shake and crumble under his grip.

“Where is he now huh?” he scoffed, a breathy laugh escaping from the depths of his body.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT PATHETIC BITCH NOW?” Screaming once again, he activated his quirk, missing you by a hair. The flames mocked you, free to move, free to grow.

“Is he gonna come and get you now? See your precious ‘Izu-kun’ anywhere?” he derided, smiling at the blackened area his palms left on your shoulders.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’M SORRY.”

Your tears said it enough, tears that were mixed in with the sweat and blood that dripped from your forehead. All you wanted was someone, someone who would hold you and stroke your head and clean you up. Someone who would take him away from you and let you live in a fantasy where you weren’t wrong anymore.

You apologized in the false anticipation that he would stop, and caress your face and pepper it in small kisses. You apologized in the false anticipation of thinking that’s what he needed all along. Just an apology.

So when he pushed you off of the sofa, your knees igniting in irritantance and bruises, you could only look at him. And when he crouched down in front of you, tilting your chin upwards, your heart almost fluttered at the thought that he would pull you into a kiss. A warm kiss where you would feel at home and feel loved.

The sad part was that you knew that you would forgive him if he kissed you once.

But the worst part was that you knew this would never happen. And it didn’t. But you were happy to live in your delusion. Because your delusion masked the sheer force at which he defiled your body.

The lethal blaze mirrored the lethal blaze that ignited his eyes. And this was the last time you’d ever see such hate, and animosity in them.

With your hands shielding you too late, all you saw was a blinding light shining through you, filling every crevice in your body with a scorching glow. But then it was extinguished by the darkness.

Alarms were going off in your head, telling you to breathe quickly and panic and scream and reach out and find something to see. And you did. And it entertained him.

So small and so vulnerable, scrambling around beneath him to try and escape. But he had you under his grip. And he wasn’t going to let you go until you remained lifeless under him.

Smoke infiltrated your lungs, forcing you to flail and writhe on all fours. You were heaving, trying oh so very hard to breathe in the oxygen that limitlessly surrounded you.

But you were useless. And you couldn’t breathe to save your life.

Coughing and slobbering, kneeling in front of him, you begged.

“Please, forgive me.”

“Please, I’m sorry.”

“Please, I didn’t mean to.”

“PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP. PLEASE JUST MAKE IT STOP.”

The fumes were stabbing at your throat, filling your head with fog.

And your world was running slowly. The noise was slowed, darker and deeper, slurred beyond understanding. The agony was slow; equally as painful, but slow. It gave you little breaks in between to piece everything together, bit by bit.

Growing up, your world was black and white: heroes were benevolent, there to serve the society and protect them whereas villains were malevolent, there to wreck the balance of society and harm them as they pleased.

Growing up, the first people you relied on were heroes. Even as the Number 3 Hero, Y/HN, you relied on your colleagues who worked day and night to ensure the safety of the country you served.

Maybe that was your downfall. Blindly trusting heroes as if they were some sort of untouchable deities who could never harm. Because here you were, taking the last few breaths with your world spinning around you and being snatched away from you.

And it wasn’t at the hands of a villain that you were dying. It was at the hands of your so-called superior, the Number 2 Hero: Ground Zero.

Ground Zero; the hero who everyone respected but feared. His snarl, his anger, his drive. The very hero who was found in every treacherous battlefield. He was the same hero who took on anything he found that threatened the life of the citizens he made his duty to protect from harm's way.

But who would take him on when he caused harm to you?

No one.

It wasn’t the smoke, or the burns, or the bleeding that caused you to take your last breath. It was the realization that no one would save you.

-

The pulse under Katsuki’s fingers diminished until it was nothing. And he cried. Veins standing out in livid ridges, his eyes seared in rage as they watered and dripped down his face, cooling his body in the circle of fire he put himself in.

If he wasn’t trained to suck his guilt up every time his hands were responsible for someone’s downfall, he would have been consumed in his own self loath…

But what was the point of feeling guilty when you deserved it?

It was because of you Eijiro broke up with him. And he internally promised himself he would always stand by this.

Blinking away his tears, he channeled all the remaining energy he had, letting his anger flow through out of his body.

His wrists were giving in but he swore it was the final time. Just one more blow. One more big blow.

Silencing his cries underneath the deafening roar of his explosions, he clenched his jaw, pressuring his body on and on.

No one would find you now. No one would know.

[kayoi1234]

Did Dream cheat his speed-run? (The answer is: We will never know.)

Disclaimer: I am not in all qualified in statistics – I was an HSC student who did 2 Units of Advanced Mathematics (and failed horribly). However, I did study both Legal Studies and Business Studies – two subjects where it was required to look at stats for related exams and topics. However, I am under qualified for this subject as a whole, so please read the following with a grain of salt.

This piece is only me trying to understand the statistics I have been given to form an opinion based on it, using the data provided by the speedrun.com’s mod team on the Minecraft Leader boards, Geosquare’s video and the posts made on Reddit as well as other sources for other statistical information. I am also basing it off the information on the official Minecraft wiki.

This is an opinion piece. Please be kind to one another.

Did Dream cheat?

I’ve wanted to put my own two-cents into this discussion for a while. Dream’s speed-run was deemed illegitimate after two months, and I’ve just wanted to look into it for a while.

I’ve sat on this for a while. And whilst “innocent until proven guilty” can be shouted across rooftops, I can’t shake off “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” either. There is evidence to give credence that Dream has cheated in his speed-run for the Any%, RSG, and it is possible to prove it beyond reasonable doubt.

I’m not saying Dream has cheated in his speed-run, but the chances of him doing so are…high.

The maths makes my head hurt, so I won’t delve into it too much, but I just do want to say something that made it easier to make my head understand what the numbers presented to me is.

Dream had gotten very, very lucky with both his blaze rod drops and piglin barters. If the chances of what he had gotten are really a 1 out of 7,500,000,000,000 – a very large number already, then it’s either the planets had aligned that day or Dream had altered something to mess with the RNG of the game.

To compare, the base rate for catching a shiny Pokémon in Generation IV is 1 out of 8192.

(Side note: I know that comparing Pokémon shiny rates with Minecraft’s own RNG is not a great comparison, but I am disregarding a lot of modification factors here.

Then again, the chances of getting two same-spot Spinda (As a simplistic model) is 1 in 4,294,967,295.)

The problem is, we can’t really know for sure. The Mod team may have their bias against him, but they did it with the data skewing to Dream’s favour – not theirs.

We can’t dismiss the possibility of Dream cheating his run – you can do it on stream, it only takes a little bit of preparation before hand (I always found it strange that Dream couldn’t show his mods folder – you’d think he’d at least archive or screen shot it if this ever came up). We can’t dismiss that Dream didn’t cheat – we have to put all the options on the table and decide.

Here’s what I can say though: Do not be cruel to the mods. They are doing what they thought was right – the speed running community as a whole is a very fragile thing, and there is a lot that could be lost if Dream had cheated.

Is the investigation BS? I don’t know. Is Dream pulling a desperate attempt to save face? Most likely, but I don’t know.

But when you have an audience of 13 to 14 million people, how easy would it be that before you start your stream, you just changed a few numbers? It makes good content, it attracts people when you’ve ranked 5th in the world with the a sub 20 run.

Dream is acting irrationally – he wants the world to believe him, but there are people who will doubt him. If you begin by shouting about an injustice on Twitter, what do you think will happen next? It’s a natural cause and effect.

Geosquare’s video isn’t monetised, it’s just a Public Service Announcement designed to tell people “Hello, here’s something you need to be aware about, no matter how much you want to look away,” It’s not clickbait, and it’s not designed for clout or attention. It is designed to educate. Dream has every right to be angry, but that does not mean he needs to lash out at the Mods who, at the end of the day, are just doing their job.

So, we come back to the original question: Did Dream cheat?

Here’s my answer: I really don’t know, but it looks like he might have.

[crowdedimagines]

The Camera - David Dobrik

word count:1769

The camera. Everything between David and I was for the camera. It had to be right? There is no way that he actually could like me that way.

Once I became friends with the vlog squad, the fans were quick to push for dating rumors. It started out as me and Todd. Once he got in a public relationship they moved on to shipping me with Jeff. They soon realized that we weren’t the most compatible once they saw David and I together. They went crazy, sending me higher in fame.

David and I took advantage of what the fans wanted, flirting for the camera. It was fun and easy at first. Then, everything started to feel too real. I decided the fans were right, David and I would be great together.

“Isn’t that right, Y/n?” David asks, turning the camera towards me.

“What?” I ask, “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Were you thinking about me?” He grins, laying it on thick for the footage.

“You wish.” I smirk, shoving him away slightly.

David goes back to filming Ilya for his channel. I sit down on the couch next to Natalie, trying to get some space from David. It’s never going to work between the two of us, I should try to distance myself.

“You know, he doesn’t just do it for the camera.” Natalie comments, she nods her head in the direction of where David just disappeared outside.

“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.

“He actually cares about you, Y/n. In a more than friendly way.”

“What makes you say that? He’s only flirty when the camera is on.”

“That’s not true. He always wants do be around you. With or without the camera. He may just be a little extra while filming.”

“No, I’ve seen him flirt with other girls at parties with the camera off. I’m just clickbait to him. We’re just friends and I need to be okay with that. I’m never going to be real dating material to him.”

“How do you know that that is all that David wants? What makes you think he doesn’t want this just as much as you?”

I don’t know what to say to Natalie after that. We sit in silence while I try to let it sink in. I don’t think she’s right. He isn’t the same towards me off and on camera. David would have done something if he actually felt some way towards me.

“I think I’m going to go home.” I stand up, grabbing my phone.

“Y/n, I don’t want to make you upset.” Natalie says with concern.

“No, no, you’re totally fine, Nat.” I smile to reassure her, “I just want to go home.”

I walk towards the door and almost make it to my car before David catches me. He grabs on to my upper arm.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Oh, I was just headed home.” I smile, reaching for my car door.

“And I wasn’t even going to get a goodbye?” He smirks, I look down. His camera must be inside because it’s not in his hand.

“Sorry, goodbye David.” I give him a tight lipped smile before opening my door.

“Hey, are we okay?” He wipes the smirk off his face, finally getting serious.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t we be?” I play along, trying my hardest to keep myself composed for a while longer.

“I don’t know, something feels off.” He shakes his head.

“We’re fine.” I pull him in for a fast hug to attempt to prove my point, but the look on his face in my rearview window seems to show that it doesn’t work.

The drive home is quiet, I don’t bother to put on any music. I let the silence fill the air around me while I think. Can I stay his friend after all of this? I just feel hurt constantly knowing the rejection I would face if I were to say how I truly feel.

I stay to myself for a few days. The longest I’ve been away from anyone in the vlog squad since I’ve met them. I’ve received a few messages from friends, but so far I’ve been ignoring them. I don’t even know what to say at this point. How can I explain how I feel?

There’s a knock at the door which is surprising for how late it is. I look through the peephole to see a familiar boy with a black shirt on and shaggy brown hair. I take a deep breath before swinging the door open.

“Hi, David.” I say quietly, trying to greet him as normally as possible.

David finally looks up at me. He has dark bags under his eyes, they’ve become red with a lack of sleep.

“Hi.” He whispers back in a broken voice.

“Are you okay?” I ask with concern, wrapping my blanket tighter around my body.

“I think I should be the one asking you that. I haven’t heard from you in days, you’ve been ignoring me. What’s going on, Y/n?” David asks.

I pull the door open wider and he takes the hint to come inside. Wordlessly, we both walk over to my couch where we have watched countless movies together.

“Why are you ignoring me?” David looks hurt, I don’t blame him. I have been ignoring him.

“David.” I close my eyes for a few seconds.

“No Y/n, I deserve to know what I did wrong.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong!” I sigh, “This is on me, it’s something that I need to work on. Something that I need to work past.”

“Natalie told me what the two of you talked about.” He finally admits.

“She what?”

“Don’t get mad at her, this was after days of radio silence from you and I was constantly grilling her.” He reaches out to press a hand to my arm, “I have been practically enchanted with you since I met you, Y/n. You are such an amazing person, and you bring such a light to my life. You are the one person in my life I can always to count on to cheer me up, to want me just for me.”

I look up to see that the emotional boy in front of me has tears in his eyes. I reach up and brush one away that had just started to glide down his cheek.

“I’m sorry I made you feel like you were just clickbait to me. Acting that way while we are filming was a way to make you notice me. Then we just kept doing it. It was like my dreams coming true of actually having you as mine. When Natalie told me you felt the same I was elated, but now I see how much I might have messed things up.”

“Wow, I really wished you had started with that all those months ago.” I smirk, thinking over his kind words.

“Me too.” He grins.

“You didn’t mess anything up. I really like you, David. If that wasn’t obvious enough.” I roll my eyes, leaning on his shoulder.

“So, what do you think?” He looks down at me, “Should we give us a shot?”

“I’m game.”

“No more secrets?”

“No more secrets.” I confirm.

“So, we’re dating?” He asks.

“We’re dating.” I say with approval.

Three months later.

David and I have happily been dating for three months as of today. It feels like so much more, hard to believe we were friends first at this point. Today is a special day because it’s the day we decided we would tell the fans that we are official. There has been speculations for months, but today we get to finally settle everything.

“Hello everybody, I am going to start off and say that this isn’t like my normal vlogs.” David grins at the camera.

“No shit.” I say off camera.

“Hey!” He laughs, reaching out of frame to lightly smack my leg.

“I have an announcement to make.” He smiles before clearing his throat, “Or should I say we have an announcement to make.”

David pulls my arm to yank me closer. I manage to fall onto his lap making both of us groan out in light pain.

“Ouch babe, a warning would have been nice.” I rub the now sore spots on my body.

“You just called me babe on camera.” David smirks, looking down at me.

“Oh yeah! We’re dating!” I cheer.

We both breakout in laughter and calm down to continue filming.

“We actually are dating. After all those months of everyone thinking we were and trying to find proof, yes, we are actually dating.” David explains.

“Today’s our three month anniversary!” I say with glee.

“Well when we film it it is, not the day it’s posted.”

“Whatever.” I roll my eyes, “Yeah, so everyone who thought that we have been dating a whole year, you’re wrong. It was only three months ago David got the balls to ask me out.”

“Hey! I do remember someone being a bit misleading with their feelings.” He bites back a smirk.

“Are we really getting into this on our first couple video?” I turn around to look at him.

“Fine, we’ll save it for another one.” David turns his attention back to the camera, “The rest of the vlog is going to be footage that I couldn’t show you guys before because we were a secret. I hope you guys like it!”

David hops up to turn his camera off and download the footage. He goes out to the living room and I follow him there. He sits down and I stand behind him, wrapping my arms around his shoulder with my head resting next to his.

“How do you think the fans will react?”

“I think they are going to be more excited than our friends were.” David laughs, thinking of everyone’s reaction to us finally getting together.

It doesn’t take long for David to edit the video, he already had the footage for the end ready.

“It’s ready to post.” David yells out to me.

“Do it!” I encourage with a yell from the kitchen while cooking supper.

It’s quiet for a while until David walks over and presses a kiss to my temple while he watches me stir things on the oven.

“It’s uploaded.��

“Congrats, babe.” I turn to give him an actual kiss.

“No more secrets? For real this time?” David asks laughing, referring to us having to somewhat hide it from fans for what felt like a long time.

“No more secrets.”

[lurafita]

Kitten Peter! ch. 2

Go here for the plot bunny that started it all: clickbait

Go here for the actual first chapter I wrote for the plot bunny: more clickbait

Go here for the Ao3 link: how can there be even more clickbait

Okay, let’s start this. As with all the other stories, EVERYONE that comments on any of the parts, get’s automatically put down in the tags. If you don’t want to be tagged for this or future parts, (but still want to comment, in which case: bless you), just write “no tag, please.” Or contact me via messaging here. I completely understand if you want to keep your notifications as clear as possible.

Despite the many, many promises that he was not about to have a mental breakdown because his ex was coming back, Pepper had herded Tony (and Peter) out of the lab and into his living room. Then the fiery redhead had made him something to eat. A very poor attempt at fried vegetables with rice, that the billionaire had forced down his throat through pure will power. The woman was a great friend, a fantastic assistant and a marvelous CEO, but she could barely boil water.

Not that Tony would ever tell her that.

As he chewed his way through the mushy rice and cotton like broccoli (how did you even get vegetables to take on this kind of texture?), he couldn't help but envy Peter. The little kitten was happily munching on his chef cooked, kitty appropriate, fish dinner.

It had taken another hour after that to make the woman believe that he really was okay, before Pepper had finally left for the night. With the sudden absence of someone inquiring if he really was alright, Tony found himself asking the very same question.

Was he okay?

The feeling of tiny claws digging into his pant leg diverted his attention momentarily to the tiny brown kitten scrambling up into his lap.

"You realize these pants cost 900$, right? And here you are, poking them full of tiny holes and spreading your hair all over my general wardrobe."

Contrary to his words, he immediately scratched Peter's head once the kitten had made his way up and into his favorite spot.

"We are going to get some visitors tomorrow, Petey. This tower was actually not always this empty, you know? I mean besides the business departments and all the other S.I. staff."

Peter was apparently not finished with climbing his human, and proceeded to scale up the inventor's shirt. Tony kept a careful hand underneath his kitten, content to let Peter climb up on his own, but ready to catch him should he slip.

"They used to live here, you know? The Avengers. Earth's mightiest heroes. I was one of them. AM one of them, but you know this. You have seen my suit. I'm Iron Man, and therefore the best, right?"

Peter had made it up to Tony's chin and was rubbing his little body affectionately along his beard and cheek. Tony smiled.

"Right. Anyway, the rest of the team has been away for some time... I think they left about two weeks before I found you, and they are coming back tomorrow and I... I don't know how I feel about that."

He sighed deeply, as if finally admitting that part to himself, after having spent the last few hours denying any negative thoughts to Pepper.

Peter settled himself on his right shoulder and rubbed his head against the skin on his neck, letting out a tiny mewl that sounded almost prompting.

"It's not that I don't want them to come back. They are my friends, and I actually like having them around. Even Barton, and that guy is a menace, I tell you. If he tries kidnapping you into the vents, you go ahead and scratch up his stupid face, got it?"

He ran his fingers over Peter's small back, and the kitten started purring. Tony relaxed.

"You will like them. There is Rhodey, who is my best friend, actually. I met him in college and he... well, he has been looking out for me ever since. He is also an Air Force Colonel and probably the most level headed of all of us. He has a suit that is almost as cool as mine, but he buckled under the peer pressure and gave himself the moniker of Iron Patriot, which isn't even a fraction as cool as his previous 'War Machine'. Then there is Bruce, my science bro. He is the strongest Avenger and he might even be smarter than me, but we are not gonna tell him that. He also turns into a tall, green rage monster on occasion, but he is really just a big ol' marshmallow on the inside. Clint is our modern day version of Robin Hood, just without the stealing from the rich and giving to the poor thing. ... On second thought, scratch that. He always stole my fucking coffee and then drank it himself. As if he wasn't perfectly capable of brewing his own. So, yeah. Modern day Robin Hood with less altruistic intentions and only marginally better fashion sense. I'm not sure if Thor is on earth right now, so he might not make an appearance tomorrow. If he does, try not to climb him, okay? I know he is easily confused with a tree, and his stupid cape is probably a very big temptation for your little claws. But you just never know when that big lug decides to twirl his glorified hammer and light up like it's the fourth of July. And if Thor electrocutes my little Petey-Pie, I'm gonna blast his head off, Asgardian royalty or not. So we better avoid that and don't go climbing up any aliens, okay? Trust me, it's not worth it. His beard doesn't hold a candle to mine."

On cue, Peter rubbed his head against the billionaire's bearded chin, letting out a contented mewl.

"Natasha is a bit more difficult to describe. I'm pretty sure if Fury ever manages to clone her, he will jsut retire every other superhero and agent on the planet and fill all his mission teams with Black Widow clones and take over the world. ... Come to think of it, that's a very scary thought. Friday, remind me to hack into Shield later and see if they have any kind of cloning research in the works."

"Of course, boss."

Peter didn't startle anymore when Friday's disembodied voice sounded throughout the tower, but he had started batting his paw in the air whenever she spoke. Like he was waving hello. Tony thought it was precious.

"Anyway, Natasha is pretty badass, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. Just hit her with the eyes and she is gonna be a goner for sure."

He could actually picture Natasha stopping in the middle of kicking Clint's ass, just to give Peter a tummy rub. He would have to be vigilant from now on. He wouldn't put it past Barton and Romanoff to try and kidnap (catnap?) his little Petey. He was going to write an anti-kitty-napping code into Friday's mainframe.

"And that brings us to... to Steve."

His mood took a nose dive. There was the crux of the matter. Steve.

Peter, clever little kitty that he was, noticed the change in his human immediately, and bumped his head against Tony's cheek with a questioning meow.

"It's... complicated. Steve and I, we used to be in a relationship. Shoot, I haven't given you that particular talk yet, have I? So, when one mature cat really likes another mature cat, and they decide to have a bunch of little kittens together... wait, that's called a litter, right? Okay, so if these two cats really like each other, and are both of a consenting age, they might decide to have a litter of adorable little kittens together, you know, if one was in heat and it's like mating season... do cats have mating seasons? Actually, this comparison doesn't really work, because neither Steve nor I were trying to get each other pregnant... You know what? You are way too young for this kinda talk, mister."

He carefully took Peter into his hand and held the kitten in front of his face, so he could look directly into the big, round eyes.

"I do not want you getting any ideas of running off with any mangy, ruffian tom cat, or some little pussy hussy, that tries to lay their dirty, perverted paws on you, got it?"

Peter leaned over the rim of Tony's hand and licked him on the nose. Tony grinned.

"Okay. But we will be having a 'stranger, danger' talk later."

He then cradled the kitten in both hands and cuddled him into his chest.

"So, back to the Steve issue. We were together. As, in a relationship. All official like, with going on dates and pet names and everything. The media even had a ship name for us: Stony; which, not very original, but no one has ever accused mass media of originality, so what can you do. Anyway, Steve and I were a 'thing', and I thought we were a 'good thing', you know? I mean, we hadn't dropped the L-word yet, but we had been going steady for a pretty long time, and that was kinda a first for me, and... I liked it. Him. Us. Being an 'us' with Steve. And it was good. Comfortable. And then Barnes came back."

His hand stopped petting Peter at the memory, and the kitten softly tapped his paw against Tony's thumb. When Tony looked down, he once again couldn't stop the thought that Peter must somehow understand him, because right then, the little kitten was looking up at him with an almost too human expression of worry and sympathy. He smiled at him and resumed his petting.

"Long story short, Steve slept with Barnes and broke up with me. And, look, it's not like I don't have sympathy for the guy. The things Hydra did to him and made him do... Suddenly being free of all that and having your best friend there with you...  And I understand Steve's side of things as well. Kinda. Those feelings he has for Barnes, they probably weren't anything new. But back in his time, same sex relationships weren't simply frowned upon, but downright illegal. Then there was the war and the serum and everything else... They probably never really had the time or opportunity to realize exactly what they felt for each other. And then suddenly Steve wakes up decades in the future; and everything is different and he gets put on this team of super idiots and there is fighting and aliens and more fighting and in the midst of all of this, there is the cultural shock of having just skipped like two whole generations..."

Tony had been thinking a lot about it, actually. He wasn't always honest with himself, and he wasn't always good with his emotions. It was something Rhodey had said to him a long time ago. That sometimes, in order to understand our own feelings, we had to understand the feelings of those around us.

And with Peter's calming influence, he had been thinking a lot about Barnes and Steve and himself and their relationships.

At first, fresh after the break up, Tony had just been angry. Hurt, too, but that was so much harder to face than the anger had been, and so he had settled on that instead.

After the team had left for the compound (and Tony understood that his personal relationship drama could not stand in the way of the Avengers availability for missions and their need to keep up their training regimen.), he had locked himself in his lab for three days, trying to tinker his anger and hurt away. Then Pepper had lost her patience with him and hauled the genius out of there and made him see a therapist and sleep and eat (not in that order, though).

Any protestations that he didn't need to see a shrink just because his boyfriend broke up with him, were waved away by the woman ("Someone taking care of your mental health has been long overdue.")

It hadn't helped. The therapist and the food and the sleep, non of it had helped and Tony just got angrier and angrier at his own inability to let it all fucking go. (He had missed his Iron Man suit, and being an active Avengers, but even Tony, as much as he hated to admit it, knew that he hadn't been in the right frame of mind for it)

But then had come that fateful night, where Tony had taken his therapists advice to take a peaceful, relaxing stroll around some neighborhood. It hadn't been peaceful, and it hadn't been relaxing, and Tony had been pissed all the more for it. And then he almost got shot by some two bit thug. But he didn't regret it one bit, because those were the circumstances that brought Peter into his life.

Ever since the little kitten had launched himself at Tony's almost murderer and saved the billionaire's life, things had started getting better. Having a tiny, fluffy creature to take care of and adore, had left Tony no time to dwell on his anger. Watching as the kitten explored his new home with too much enthusiasm and too little coordination, had made the man smile and laugh more in those first few days, than he had in weeks (months?).

Cuddling up with Peter anywhere and having the little fluffball purr up a storm, never failed to relax Tony and often lulled him into a deep, and thankfully dreamless, sleep. He quit going to his therapist and started taking Peter with him wherever he went. Pepper wasn't impressed the first time he showed up to a board meeting, with the kitten neatly tucked into his shirt's breast pocket. But she had quickly given in when she saw that Tony actually paid attention during the meeting, and was much more open to listening to the boards suggestions, while he was playing with Peter.

He talked to Peter all the time, about everything. S.I. business, new projects, what he thought about any particular book or movie, his robots, his suit, absolutely anything that came to mind. Aside from the Avengers. Until now.

"So, really, I get it. Those two are probably some kind of star-crossed, destined to be, once in a lifetime, lovers. And I don't even begrudge them finally being together. I just... I hate how it happened. I hate that Steve all but ignored me when Barnes came back from the dead. I hate that he slept with him while we were still an item. I hate that it made me feel like I had been a stand-in for Barnes all along. I hate that I have hardly talked to any of the team since they relocated to the compound. I hate-" He sighed. "I hate that I don't hate him. I kind of want to. I feel like that would be easier, you know?"

Peter just looked at him with his big, adorable eyes and laid his little paw on Tony's chest, right where the genius' heart was beating. Really, sometimes it felt like the kitten understood every word.

"I miss him, but not in the way one misses a significant other. I miss arguing about reading the newspaper on my tablet versus reading it on paper. I miss confusing him with pop culture references he doesn't know about. And I miss him getting on my case about spending too much time in the lab. But I'm not too hung up about all the couples' stuff. Not saying I didn't enjoy the se-  wait, this isn't appropriate for young kitty ears. It's not like I didn't like our 'intimacy', but looking back on it now, I think Steve and I, we were always more of a 'friends with benefits' type of relationship, with more weight placed on the 'friends' part of the deal. Don't get me wrong, I'm still angry about Steve cheating on me like that, and how it all went down, but I think I can forgive him. I mean, obviously we will need to have it out, first. We didn't really get to the 'break up talk' before I pretty much kicked everyone out, and I guess that's partly on me. But, I want to forgive him. So, if Steve and I manage to clear the air between us, and all that sentimental stuff, ... yeah."

Peter had climbed back up to Tony's shoulder and lovingly rubbed his head against every part of his human's face he could reach. Tony laughed.

"Love you, too, Petey. You are the best kitten in the world, you know that? I will tell Vincent to make you something extra special for breakfast tomorrow."

Tony brought his hand up to massage his fingers into the soft fur, while Peter burrowed himself into the man's neck and purred until they both fell asleep.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

tbc

Okay, let me first say, I understand if people might be a bit confused over Tony's seemingly easy forgiveness here, but I hope I managed to portray that in this story, Tony and Steve's previous relationship isn't meant to be the main plot point. It's actually not even meant to be a particularly important plot point. The story's main plot is the relationship between Tony and Peter, and Peter being an adorable little ball of fluff. :-)

Also, I didn't want Tony to be completely broken up because things with Steve went south. Matter of fact is, romantic relationships sometimes don't last. They sometimes don't work out. And sometimes someone messes up. Steve cheated on Tony. That was a douche move, no question. But I didn't want to just bash his character. Steve didn't cheat on Tony because he didn't value him, or because he is just is a super asshole. These are very special circumstances, and things didn't go great, and Steve isn't perfect, and he messed up. But he didn't do it with malicious intent, and he is still a good guy, and he will try his best to repair the trust between him and Tony.

Tony is gonna get a bit of funny, petty revenge on Steve, though. With Peter's help, of course. ;-)

Sidenote: I would really like to know your opinion about Tony's aborted efforts to have 'The Talk', with kitty Peter. :-) :-) :-) I hope it was as funny to read, as it was to write!

Please tell me if tagging didn’t work, or if I forgot anyone!

TAGGING: @ theonemetorulethemalll  @ sapphire-of-shield  @ plueschpop  @ deliciousflapbanditfarm  @alanaaw88

[fairielust]

i have a date w my tc

um

ok so i may have clickbaited a lil AHAHAHAHAHA sorry sorry but i technically like to consider it something okAy ! next monday ! period 2 which is my study period, w wisteria, in one of the private rooms in the library.

n before you start thinking other things unfortunately i am not doing anything of the sort, instead chances are i might cry bc we’re doing extra speaking practice n i’m kinda nervous ?? (also bc i have a bio exam the next period n should probs be studying but unfortunately for bio i love my jpn teacher n would like to work on my speaking more than i’d like to write about blood smh)

in other news class was fun today ~ we got to sit on the tatami mats like the cute asf class we are ~ i’d like to think i’m trying but honestly when it gets to the point where wisteria has to reassure me that i just have to answer the question with a simple answer instead of taking a thousand years for a complex one kills me bc i feel so stupid n i just want to impress her ok idk how 2 speak smh

i’m officially a fangirler w wisteria over terrace house, this japanese reality series she got me obsessed w n now we talk about it every lesson ahhh what a concept come true !!!

other than that the rest of the day was pretty average. in art i was quietly working on my major bc my teacher was away so we had subs but i had my earphones in right ? the bell goes for the second half of the double n my friend taps me on my shoulder n i look up and i’m stARING RIGHT INTO WISTERIA’S EYES ??? SHE WAS OUR GOD DAMN SUB FOR THAT SECOND LESSON N I JUST,,,

she looked at me n started speaking in japanese n of course everyone had had no bloody clue what she was saying but i was still caught up in the fact that she was actually here that i had no idea what she was saying either n was mumbling random shit like ‘what tf are you doing here i had you earlier wtf’ (turns out she was saying ‘shitsurei’ which is like,, rude lmAo she was joking tho)

couldn’t even work on my thing anymore like not only did my hand hurt from working extensively on the first half i just couldn’t sit still knowing wisteria was in the same room sitting across from me i was just so,,, uGh™

when we were praying the angelus our eyes met n she gave me that look i’m oh-so-familiar with n i just couldn’t help but smile omg

@ the end we were kinda just standing around while everyone else was packing up n i took out my food bc i was hungry n of course it was hello pandas, this biscuit thing. it’s vanilla n i swear i have them every day it’s weird. n wisteria sees them n she laughs n points out in japanese that i have them every day n i said ‘well duh ! they’re good ! do you want one ?’ n she thought about it before thanking me n politely declining so i shrugged n said more for me lmao

n then she said ‘jaa ne’ to me before saying ‘see you girls’ 2 everyone else when the bell rang n sped off lmao she probably doesn’t go anywhere but the japanese classrooms in the school lololol

but i happened to stay back for a bit bc my friend was putting her pot away 2 hear moRE BITCHING ABOUT WISTERIA ??? this one girl who i don’t really like said she had her in year 8 for maths n like she hated her n i’m like,,, bitch,,, she’s a japanese teacher. but she’s also really good @ maths bc if you KNEW her you’d know her previous job was that of that important person who does international trade (ok so i’m contradicting myself but i know she did a job 4 the government which is like,,, kinda big deal ? only bc she spoke japanese so she could work w the japanese government n do foreign affairs which i’m pretty sure needs maths n shit SoooooOoo) eiTHER WAY I WAS PISSED AGAIN >:(((

i love her sm wtf this is so unfair i should not be this defensive for her but i am smh !!!

i have a lesson w her this thursday where it’ll just be me n two of the other girls in my class who i can actually relate w bc they’re not bilingual so we struggle together lol i can’t wait (but i guess that means more speaking practice ahhhhhhh smh)