#hi welcome to posting at ungodly hour hopefully tomorrow I will post at my usual time byeee

[imagineshuitsukieveryday]

Imagine Shu Itsuki going on public transport.

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

Written for @azulaweek​. Prompt - Night. (Image Source)

Summary: In which little Azula is very insistent, and Lu Ten can't say no to that face, even if it is an ungodly hour of night when all sensible Firebenders should be sleeping. 

~~~

Today we get FLUFF! I never write actual fluff so you’re welcome.

~~~

“Lu! Lu Lu Lu Lu Lu Lu Lu!”

“Ugh, what the - Zuli, kiddo, is that you - mmph!”

Azula had slammed her cousin’s bedchamber door open, run into the room, jumped onto his bed, and bellyflopped on top of the half-asleep teenager all in the space of about three seconds. “Lu!”

Lu Ten jerked the rest of the way awake, bolted upright in his bed, and reached out to grab the little girl and hold her up by the armpits. “Zuli? Are you okay? What’s wrong? Is there an assassin?” He looked around the dark room wildly, scanning for threats.

She giggled down at him. “No! There’s a thunderstorm!”

Right on cue, a massive rumble rolled through the sky. Now that Lu Ten was listening, he could hear the rain falling hard outside. “Oh,” he said, relaxing a bit and setting her down in his lap. “Is that all?”

“Come on,” she said, tugging his arm. “We have to watch!”

“Kiddo,” Lu Ten yawned, “it is...I don’t even know what time it is. Too dark for Firebenders to be up, that’s for sure. You need to go back to sleep.”

She pouted up at him. “But you promised! You said next time there was a thunderstorm we’d watch it together!”

He had indeed promised, as the last time he’d been in the palace during a thunderstorm he had literally been on his way out the door to boot camp and Azula had nearly thrown a fit when he told her he had to go. “I did,” he agreed, “but I was kinda thinking we’d be doing that during daylight - ”

She stared up at him, small and expectant and wide-eyed and trusting and a little brat who knew exactly how cute she was. He was being played. Lu Ten was completely aware that he was being played. He was eighteen and dealt with the Fire Court on a regular basis, he knew manipulation when he saw it.

That didn’t stop his heart from melting. Better to allow yourself to be manipulated by your adorable five-year-old cousin than some scheming politician.

And besides...he couldn’t not be there for his cousins. He was always willing to take the extra step, spend a little more time, be a little more patient. He wouldn’t say he was good with kids, exactly, but he was good with Zuko and Azula. He’d figured out how to be, because...well.

Aunt Ursa was the best, but Grandfather was too old to bother with children, and Father was often off on campaign, and Uncle Ozai was...not exactly parental material. He rarely involved himself in his children’s upbringing, and when he did, Lu Ten rather wished he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d be better at it in a few years - or a decade - when the kids were older and capable of holding something approximating adult conversation. Lu Ten wasn’t holding his breath, but he could give Uncle Ozai the benefit of the doubt. Grandpa had barely known what to do with Lu Ten until he’d been eleven, after all.

For now, though, Lu Ten was fully capable of blundering his way through every awkward, confusing, hilarious, and ridiculous situation he could with his cousins. At least they were old enough to use words now - that made interaction so much easier.

Except for the part where they could use words to craft a persuading and manipulative argument.

“You said,” Azula said in a very small voice that made Lu Ten’s heart crack clean in two.

He sighed. “You’re right, I did. And what kind of prince would I be if I didn’t keep my word, huh?” With great mental anguish, he tossed off his blankets, stood up, scooped Azula into his arms, and made his way to the window. There was a nice wide window seat, and he settled onto it, sinking back against the comfy cushions and pulling his legs up so he could lounge against the wall.

Azula slid down beside him and leaned so far over the window sill she almost fell out.

“Whoa, careful kiddo,” Lu Ten said, pulling her back, and then he added, “It’s fine, just us, back to your posts,” when a pair of guard-shaped shadows across the courtyard startled and moved forward. They complied silently, leaving Lu Ten and Azula as alone as royalty could ever truly be.

Azula didn’t lean outside again, but she stayed pressed up against the sill, staring up at the storm. The window was wide enough to comfortably lounge in, stretching all the way up from the seat to the ceiling in beautifully carved teak wood edged with latticework. The intricate geometry and sharp angles were a direct contrast to the view they framed - the night sky was filled with round, roiling clouds that swirled haphazardly overhead, lit for an instant by a far-off streak of lightning. The thunder followed in a low rumble, distant.

“Whoa,” Azula breathed, still staring. “How far away is it?”

“Hm?” Lu Ten asked. “Oh, sorry, forgot to count. We’ll do the next one, okay?”

“Okay.”

It was raining buckets out there, Lu Ten saw. The raindrops hit the courtyard flagstones hard, bouncing back up again in little splashes before settling into puddles. It was the start of the rainy season, and the weather was starting with a bang.

Literally.

“Lu!” Azula said, pointing excitedly at the streak of lightning that flashed through the clouds.

“One one thousand,” Lu Ten counted, “two one thousand - ”

“ - three one thousand,” Azula counted with him, “four one thousand, five one thousand, six one thousand, seven one thousand, eight one thousand, nine one thousand - ”

Thunder clapped overhead, much closer than before.

“How far away?” Azula asked eagerly.

“Almost two miles.”

She bounced a little. “How does it work again?”

“Hm,” Lu Ten said. He reached around her, held up his hands in front of her. “How many fingers do I have?”

She snorted. “Ten.”

“Right. So. How many groups of five can you fit in my ten fingers?” He wiggled his fingers pointedly.

Her brow furrowed, and she stared at his hands. Her little fingers idly poked over his. “...Two?”

“Two groups of five,” he agreed. “It takes five seconds for the sound of lightning to travel one mile. So if it takes nine seconds to hear the thunder, that’s almost two miles.”

“Hm,” Azula said, processing that. She was distracted a moment later, when a fork of lightning came down in the distance. “One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand - ”

Thunder.

“How many groups of five fit in five?”

She snorted. “Just one.”

“One mile then,” Lu Ten said.

She was staring out at the spot of sky where the lightning had arched down from the heavens. “Do you think it hit anything?”

“Probably,” he yawned. “When it comes down like that it’s gotta hit something.”

“I wanna see something get hit by lightning.”

“Ask Grandpa for a demonstration tomorrow.”

“That’s not what I mean - ”

For an instant, the sky was cracked in two by a massive flash of light, so bright that in that split second the entire courtyard could be seen clear as day. Lu Ten saw Azula’s face, lit up in awe as she gaped upwards. Then it was over, and the world plunged back into the dark of night.

The thunderclap was immediate and deafening.

“Whoa,” Azula breathed when it was over.

“No time between that lightning and thunder,” Lu Ten laughed. “It’s right on top of us.”

“Do you think it’ll hit anything?” Azula asked, excited.

Lu Ten shrugged. “I hope not. That would be dangerous.”

“But we’re Firebenders.”

“And that’s wild lightning. You don’t go walking on lava for fun, do you?”

“No.”

“Exactly.”

Azula leaned back against him. “I want to make lightning.”

“I’m sure you will, someday,” Lu Ten said. Maybe sooner than usual, even. Azula had taken to firebending lessons like a turtleduck to water, and her instructors and family members alike were astonished at how quickly she learned. Prodigy, some people had started to whisper, with knowing looks towards Fire Lord Azulon. Grandpa was a prodigy himself, and Azula had been named for him. Perhaps it’d been precognition, or maybe Azula had been blessed by the spirits as a reward for the honor shown to her grandfather.

Either way, it made Uncle Ozai happy. The man practically preened whenever someone complimented Azula’s skills, already advanced past what was normal for a child her age. Lu Ten hoped Azula’s gift helped Uncle Ozai forge a connection with her, finally figure out how to relate to his own kid. The man was still hopelessly distant when it came to Zuko. How ironic, Lu Ten thought, that Ozai lived right here in the palace with his children and never seemed to know what to do with them, while Lu Ten’s father had spent much of Lu Ten’s childhood out on campaign and still managed to forge a tight-knit bond with his son.

“I’m gonna make the best lightning,” Azula declared. She was still staring up at the clouds, entranced, but her eyelids were drooping.

Lu Ten pulled her into his lap so he could tuck her up against his chest. “You’ll have to work very hard for that,” he said, “but I’m sure you can do it.”

“I’ll be the best Firebender ever,” she yawned.

Lu Ten smiled and wrapped his arms around her. “You’re gonna be the fiercest little general. You and Zuko both.”

“And we’ll help you win the war?”

There were only ten years until the comet returned. She would be fifteen, one year shy of legal adulthood. Hopefully the plans they were setting in motion around Ba Sing Se would win the war before that, but if the Fire Nation had to use the power of the comet to end it once and for all, and if everyone was needed to help strike the final blow...well. “Of course you will.” He ran a hand over the top of her head.

She smiled and sighed and watched the storm out the window, her eyes slowly closing. Lu Ten briefly considered moving them back to his bed, but...he was tired, he didn’t want to jolt her back to alertness, the window seat was comfortable enough, and now that he thought about it his eyes were already closed...

He didn’t bother getting up.

The lightning flashes were far away now, the thunder distant rumbles, and the sound of the raindrops hitting the courtyard flagstones were a constant, steady patter that lulled both prince and princess to sleep.

~~~

Author’s Notes

Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are super appreciated!

One of my deep-rooted headcanons: Azula absolutely adored Lu Ten, and he adored her right back. (Maybe this isn't a radical take these days, but back in the 00s/early 10s I seem to remember the few fics that involved Lu Ten and Azula having it that Azula hated him and was cool with him dying. *shrugs*

This takes place just over a year before the siege of Ba Sing Se starts, for reference.

The lightning-thunder-counting is totally a thing and if you didn't know that then I apologize for your childhood and its lack of cool older cousins. Basically if you count the seconds between lightning and thunder and divide it by five, you get the number of miles away the lightning was cuz that's how long it took the sound of thunder to travel to your location.

I kinda figure there are no glass windows in the Fire Nation, just a thing I thought of while writing this cuz the image of rain on the windowpanes is so natural to me but then I was like "Wait..." There's no air conditioning in the Avatarverse and you really need that island breeze to be able to pass through easily to keep cool. Does this make things easier for assassins? Probably, and that's why you get guards stationed everywhere to relieve Azulon's paranoia, lol. RIP to the brave men and women who're keeping watch in a downpour.

Regarding Lu Ten's relationship with his cousins - listen, I do not mind children, I like to think I can handle children, however, I was a teenager by the time my first cousins were born, and after over a decade of my life wishing I had a bunch of cousins to play with like my friends, suddenly just having...babies around was kind of...underwhelming. They were FINE they were just...small and gurgly and had few ways for me to interact with them, and I'd already had three little sisters so I was kind of over the baby stage. SO imagine my SURPRISE AND DELIGHT when the kids finally started talking and having discernible personalities and interests and then one day I was suddenly holding a full-on conversation about Transformers with a five-year-old and we were both contributing to and invested in what we were talking about and I realized "Oh my god I love these children."

So that's kind of the personal life experience I pour into Lu Ten's relationship with his cousins in my headcanon - he loves them, spends time with them, doesn't quite know what to DO with them, and then suddenly they're talking and he's like OH THANK AGNI I CAN FINALLY GET TO KNOW YOU. XD

[thank-you-for-the-vampire-money]

CUDDLE BUDDY

Request by Anonymous: “Hi I would like to request a Bucky x reader where the reader is an avenger and is very touchy feely and hates sleeping alone so she ends up randomly sleeping in other team members beds and they'll just wake up and she'll be in their bed and they've all just accepted it. Buckys new and she ends up going to him and he wakes up with her in his bed and is all confused and has to go ask Steve about it and Bucky just ends up being all fluffy with the reader.”:

A/N: Thank you for the request!  Finally got my writing mojo back!  Hope you enjoy!

Bucky x reader

Word count: 1397 (yeesh, this turned out way longer than expected)

Summary: You are in need of constant physical touch, everyone on the team knows this.  But when Bucky joins the team and no one tells him about your craving for touch, things get a little awkward.

Warnings: none, I think

(GIF not mine)

Physical contact, it’s a basic human need.  From hugging to hand holding, to little kisses or high-fives, we all need a little physical affection every once in a while. But for (Y/N), that need was constant. Now, her craving for hugs and affection wasn’t obnoxious, no, not at all.  It was viewed more as an adorable quirk than an annoyance by the other Avengers.

(Y/N) would always be giving out hugs or holding someone’s hand, but one thing that she did that was somewhat peculiar, was sleep with other team members.  Not in a sexual way, she would just sleep in the same bed as other teammates. Everyone knew about this, and everyone accepted it.  And, it was kinda nice to have another body to cuddle up to every so often.  Not to mention it helped rapidly melt the leftover tensions between all the Avengers.

 Bucky was the new guy in the tower.  After what happened with whole Zemo mess, the least everyone could do for Bucky was give him a safe roof to live under and a warm bed to a sleep in.  But, he still felt as though he didn’t deserve any of it, not after all he’d done.

Steve was currently showing his best friend around the tower.  He had shown him the lab and all of Tony and Bruce’s cool gadgets, he had shown him the huge party/ living room, and the enormous kitchen with a giant refrigerator that Bucky would soon raid.  Bucky thought it was cool, living in Stark Tower and all, and he was very grateful to have a proper home, but he was still a little apprehensive about meeting everyone. Who would want to be friends with the former Winter Soldier?

“Buck, this is (Y/N),” Steve introduced, stepping from in between Bucky and (Y/N) so they could properly greet each other. “Hello,” (Y/N) smiled, cheerfully holding her hand out for Bucky to shake it.  Bucky averted his eyes, unwilling to make direct eye contact. (Y/N) was one of the few people on the team that didn’t choose a side during the infamous civil war between the Avengers, and Bucky didn’t want to corrupt her unbiasedness by getting involved in her life in any way.  "Hi…” Bucky muttered, hugging his arms to his chest and curling in on himself. (Y/N) awkwardly retracted her arm, “oh… well, uh, h-hope to see you ‘round…” she whimpered, displaying her disappointment at Bucky not greeting her before shuffling away timidly.

 Bedtime.  When all of the tower fell silent in a state of stillness and peace… unless you were James Buchanan Barnes.  Night time was absolute hell for Bucky.  He’d either go to sleep and endure horrific nightmares and wake up in a cold sweat or spend the whole night awake and aware of everything his weary mind had to scream at him.  It was a lose-lose situation when it came to bedtime.  But, nonetheless, Bucky would get ready for bed and make an attempt at getting a few hours... minutes of sleep.

Bucky stood in front of the mirror, wearing nothing but some flannel pajama bottoms and a navy t-shirt.  He lazily brushed his teeth as he contemplated whether or not going to sleep was a really good idea.  On one hand, you’ve got mentally and emotionally scarring nightmares that will haunt your dreams forever, but in the other, you’ve got depressive and anxiety-filled screams of agony contained inside your overly-awake mind.  At least in the former Bucky got to recharge himself in some sense.

Bucky pulled his hair into a tight ponytail before settling in under the cool temperature of his puffy duvet.  He gently lay his head on his cold pillow and closed his eyes, expecting to fall asleep, only wake up in an hour screaming bloody murder.

 But he didn't.  He didn’t wake up at an ungodly hour of the unholy morning, screeching like a banshee.  No, he actually slept through the whole night.  Not only that, but he made it the whole night with no bad dreams whatsoever. It was a very rare occurrence for Bucky to sleep through the night, he couldn't help wonder why or how he'd done it.

 Bucky’s eyes gently flickered open.  His pupils dilating as they adjusted to the bright light of the early morning sun's warm welcome.  A wide, close-mouthed smile spread across Bucky's lips as he realized what that joyful sunlight meant; he had gotten a full night’s sleep for the first time in months.

With a long stretch and a dramatic yawn, Bucky’s well-rested body slowly stirred awake.  But he immediately tensed as he detected another body sleeping next to him. It was (Y/N).  Bucky nearly jumped out of his skin as (Y/N) stirred and turned over to face him, “mmm… mornin’…” (Y/N) murmured, still half asleep.  What should he do?!  Bucky hadn’t been this close to someone like this in ages.  Why was she even in his room in the first place? Maybe she was the reason the nightmares never came...

Not knowing how to react, Bucky panicked, cautiously rolling out of his bed and quickly backing out of his room.

Throughout the whole day, Bucky avoided (Y/N) like the plague.  Dodging her in hallways, avoiding all eye-contact, randomly dropping out of conversations just because she so happened to join one he was in.  It wasn’t because he was angry or afraid, it was because he was confused.  First, why was she even in his bed anyway?  Second, he was wondering if the fact that this was the first night in months that he was able to sleep all the way through with no interruptions and that this was the first time he had been so close to another human being in years, were more than just coincidences.

 “Steve?” Bucky called, catching up to his best friend in the hallway, “can I ask you something?” “shoot,” Steve responded, slowing down and turning to face his friend.  Bucky hesitated for a moment before asking his question.  Would it be weird to ask Steve about what happened with (Y/N)?  Was it inappropriate?  would Steve even have an answer?  “I uh... found (Y/N) in my bed this morning-” Bucky started to explain, but Steve interrupted him with an amused chuckle, “oh!  Ha, yeah, (Y/N) is a big cuddler,” Steve snickered, placing his hands on his hips.  Bucky was very puzzled at this statement.  “(Y/N) finds it very difficult to sleep on her own, so she’ll usually join someone else in their bed,” Steve elaborated, “she’s not trying to sleep with you or anything, she just wanted a cuddle buddy for the night,”. Bucky paused for a moment.  Was (Y/N) lonely?  Is that why she needed to sleep with someone?  Was she just touchy-feely?  Whatever the reason, he understood the basic need for human contact.

 (Y/N) didn’t mean to startle him, she just needed someone to sleep with.  Hopefully, she didn’t scare Bucky off too much.  Even if she hadn’t, it seemed best to give Bucky some space, she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.  So, she would return her stuff to her room and find another teammate to bunk with for the night.   “Uh, (Y/N)?” Bucky breathed from his slightly open bedroom door.  (Y/N) turned her head away as she continued picking up her blankets and pillows, “what are you doing?”.  Bucky sounded almost disappointed at her packing up her things. “I’m uh… moving my stuff back into my room.  I figured you’d want your personal space back,” (Y/N) answered simply, grabbing her water bottle off the nightstand.  Bucky stepped into the room far enough so he was standing at the foot of his bed, “ya know… you could just sleep here… i-if you wanted to…” he stammered, rubbing the nape of his neck, "I don't mind if you stay...".  (Y/N) smiled at the brunet super soldier. Guess she didn't scare him off. Setting her stuff back down on the bed, (Y/N) grinned and said, “I’d love to,”.

A/N: Please excuse my poor writing skills, I had to stay up til 2am last night doing work and I had to get up early today, so I’m very tired.  I’ll probably edit this tomorrow and fix any grammar mistakes and such that I missed.  Keep sending requests!  I love to hear from you guys!  Thanks to those who have sent requests!  I have one other one that I will work on and (possibly) post tomorrow!